Dinner preparation

I cleaned the fridge today and found lots of left-over vegetables!
They looked so colourful chopped up ready to be cooked in a pasta bake tongight.



ps pasta bake was a success with the help of some sauce in a jar.

My Friday

I was going to go into work this Friday, but got a phone call on Thursday afternoon that work was delayed. Suddenly I felt like there was an extra day in the week!

Things are usually a little rushed when I get Lara changed, dressed and breakfasted and myself ready for work in the morning. I'd like to take things slower and not rush Lara on Friday. On this Friday morning, I got Lara to day care just before 9am. I had breakfast and tea when I came home, did my timesheet, soaked Lara's clothes and turned the washing machine on before I left again. I was on a mission. I wanted to get "In the night garden" dvd and buy myself a swimming costume today.

There was great joy in my heart when I arrived at the shops just before 10am. The thought of how happy Lara would be watching this dvd made me very happy too. And by 11.30am I had the dvd, swimming gear and 3 bags of vegetables in hand ready to go home. The day was warm so there was no execuse for me not to go swimming straight away. I hung the clothes out, had a banana, did some tidying around the house then set off to the swimming pool.

I still felt a little achy after 20 laps in the pool. But not having exercised regularly for over 6 months, I don't expect to feel better after half an hour of swimming. For the rest of this Friday, I also went to the bank, the library, made some phone calls and cooked food for Lara before I picked her up at 4.30pm.

I plan to fit in a short swim on Friday whenever I can. I enjoy Fridays - the only day in the week that I don't have to satisfy anyone but ME!!

Grandma's wisdom

Tiny toast bits

For a while, Lara didn't like toast at home as breakfast. It puzzled me - Lara loved toasts in day care. The answer to my question came one day after Grandma looked after Lara when I had some work to do (must be when Lara was on antibiotics). When I got home, Mother-in-law described her and Lara's day to me and how Lara loved toasts with different toppings. I found out that Lara ate more when the toast was cut into very small 1cmx1cm cube. I had been cutting her toast into four like day care did. Anyway, now I cut her toast into tiny bits like Grandma does. Lara has toast most morning and loves it too.

Plastic bib


It was not something I would have bought to be honest, but the amount of food it had saved from being wasted on the floor or on clothes (more work to soak/wash later) is amazing. Works especially well for running food like yoghurt or custard. Because of this bib, I feel more at ease to let Lara eat by herself.


I came back from the kitchen and saw that Lara not only scooped up all the yummy yoghurt caught in the bib, but also found a new use for the bib - a handy spoon holder!

I am glad that there's someone around who I can consult with and shows me ways to try for different things. Thanks Grandma!

Third time lucky

Hubbie was called for jury duty again. This latest notice was received on his birthday at the beginning of this month. Hubbie had managed to get pardoned twice in the last 2 months, but couldn't get excused this time. The trail could last for 8 weeks. They don't care that Hubbie suffers from migraine. They don't care how losing the primary income will affect us unless we are in financial hardship (ie financial irresponsible). If you are chosen, you have to turn up and perform your 'duty'. If you are a doctor, a fireperson or in the legal profession, you don't have to go. But if you work as a computer programmer, then your job is not important enough that you can give it up for the duration required and get paid $100 a day by becoming a juror! I don’t know if $100 a day is over the minimum wage, but that is how much the legal system thinks the jury is worth!

This dark cloud of possible jury duty loomed over our heads for the past month. Added to it we are both sick again after Lara got over another cold last week. This cold is the worst we have this year with non-stop coughing and Hubbie had to lie down in bed for half a day. It was a miserable week in our household.

Husband attended court yesterday. To cut a long story short, after filling in an application to be excused then fighting to get himself back in, two panels of possible jurors were dismissed and Hubbie is a free man!! He is a very happy free man! He will not be called for jury duty in the next 12 months and after that has the same chance as anyone else to be called again.

"I can see clearly now the rain has gone" feels appropriate at the moment.
A very happy video

Day care diary

(Lara likes to sit on her soft ball)

28/May
Lara was sick during the weekend but is feeling better today except having a running nose. I arrived at day care late (after 8:35) and the older kids were elsewhere (probably outside). The room felt so much quieter. Lucy was looking after the kidlings. Most of them have running noses or are sneezing. Lara looked the least sick there.... sign... no wonder she gets sick all the time. Is it the day care I wonder?

10/July
Yesterday was Lara's first day at day care after 2 weeks of absence. She was a little clingy at first, but happily ran over to the drawing table when the teacher called her. She didn't even notice when I left. We got to day care before toasts were serverd today (8am), the teachers were just putting the chairs down. Lara ran to the first available chair, sat down before anyone else and waited for her toast. She didn't care if I was there or not. Hayley told me Lara is very food-oriented. She whinges when she doesn't get her lunch first, afraid she will miss out!

23/July
I was told Lara hasn't been sleeping long at nap time. (She only has one sleep at home now, sometimes less than one hour). I glanced at the whiteboard when I picked her up toady, and it said Lara went to sleep just before 2 pm. When I enquired, Hayley told me all the babies (under 2s) had a "sleep party" today. They talked and played in their individual cots for ages. Lara apparently "started" the party and she was the last one to fall asleep. Hayley also said the kiddies started to talk a lot in bed. They talked to one another (it can be heard through the baby monitor) and all laughed at the same time as if they knew what others were saying. When Hayley knocked on the door or went inside, they all lain down quickly pretending they were sleeping! That's funny! I guess not so funny when you want them to go to sleep!

Four

Number of times I woke up by Lara's cry and got up on Monday morning
to check on her, comfort her or to give her milk, water and Panadol: Four
At 1am, 3am, 5am and 6am.

Number of appointments we had that day (Monday): Four
At 11am, 2.30pm, 3.30pm and 4.45pm.

It was a tiring day!

[1year 6 months] Mine

(Lara picking "apple" )

One of Lara's new words this month is "mine". She certainly seemed to understand what it meant, because she hugged the object that is "hers" and refused to give it up. She also says "mine" when she tries to have something you are holding. She understands many words and talks all the time! A work colleague reminded me to speak more Chinese to her, now is the perfect time!

Lara also starts to say "eyes", "hair" and "up". "baa-dgy" is bath. It also means swimming pool and beach. Bib is "bi bi", Orange is either "apple" or "ball". "a-ba a-ba" is frog. She also practice saying "umbrella", "shoes", "socks", "black sheep" (from ba ba black sheep). If you say "makka pakka" or "iggle piggle" (characters from "In the Night Garden"), Lara would point to the TV and want you to turn it on. Guiltily, I introduced "YouTube" to her the other day to cheer her up (I played the dance in "In the Night Garden"). Now when she passes my laptop, she wants to sit in front of it, whether it is turned on or not.

Other notable moments :

* During one of our supermarket visits, Lara said "haro" (hello) to everyone in the shop. She stalked one guy with hellos in front of us in the queue until he eventually turned around and said hello back.

* Lara loves to roll around in bed. When she hears the word "funny", she does a fake laugh.


(Happiest in the garden)

*Lara constantly challenges my authority. For example, she knows she's not allowed to open the second drawer in the kitchen (where all the sharp objects are). She will sometimes open the drawer slower and looks at me to see if I will stop her. Lara does not come into the kitchen at all when Hubbie is around (because she knows she gets 'removed sharply' the instance she comes in). She roams around the kitchen however when I am around.

*Lara came back from day care one day last week and started to hit her head on the floor when we stopped her from doing certain things!! She must have seen some other kids doing it and wanted to try that one on us!! I always walked away quickly and pretended I didn't see what happened. Hopefully these kind of behaviours won't continue!

* Height: 83cm Weight:12.9kg on the 23rd of June 2008.

* We had our first dental visit just recently. Early childhood centre nurse referred us to a dentist because we noticed and tried in vain to remove stain on two of Lara's bottom teeth. We try our best to brush her teeth every day. It's no easy task while we fight to open her mouth and push the tongue away. Luckily dentist didn't seem to worry about it.

* Had another hair cut. (thanks Grandma!)


(Lara pushing lawn mower)

His and Her dinners

This was my dinner a few nights ago.


And husband's dinner, on the same night.


We don't usually have different meals. I was going to do beef fillet steak with potato and veges that night. However, after I baked the pecan & oat bread (see below), I thought it would be nice to have freshly made bread while it was warm. I decided to turn the steak into beef salad instead. Hubbie objected - "That's rabbit food" he said. So he ended up having steak as is with left-over potato gratin and a small amount of salad while I had beef salad with bread.

I also experimented some new recipes recently:

Pecan & oat bread (yeast-free)

A caked bread. No yeast and no kneading and made with flour, oats, butter milk, honey and pecan. I probably baked it for too long as it was a little hard. It required a little "chewing" but I like the taste of it. Not sure if I will make this again because Hubbie didn't like it.

Sauerkraut

Apparently introduced to the English-speaking world by Captain Cook and saved many sailors from dying of scurvy, it has to be good for you! I had been looking for ways to use up the huge cabbage that came with my vegetable box and didn't want to have coleslaw any more! This was made with the frying method (not the salt in a jar method). As you can see, I made a huge amount of it. We just finished it. Not something to server when having guests around because of the undesirable side-effect (gas).

Lagoon Restaurant

We spent a nice and relaxing afternoon at Lagoon Seafood Restaurant in North Wollongong with Parents-in-law on the weekend. The restaurant is located at the grounds of Stuart Park with access to beach and water/lagoon view. Our plan was to entertain Lara on the beach between courses, but the day, though sunny, was too windy to be outdoors. Lara wasn't too bad and managed to sit until the end of main meals. We were all too full to have desserts so we took turns taking Lara for a walk around the restaurant lounge while drinking our coffee.


(I love this photo of Grandma and Lara sharing a drink of water - we were waiting for our entrees and garlic bread to arrive)

My entree of crab and ricotta ravioli was delicious! Husband decides he will have this dish as a main next time we come. Lara loved it too. The other entrees of ginger and shallot scallops and smoked salmon terrine were nice too I was told. All seafood was fresh and nice-tasting.

Here are photos of the mains we had (mainly for me to drool over when I'm hungry later:)

MIL's king island chicken.


FIL's lemon sole.


My John Dory and Scampi.


Si's tempura seafood

In the garden

Lara and I spent lots of fine afternoons in the garden during the two weeks she was sick.


We watched the birds chirping away in and out of the tree branches and followed Zebadee around the garden while soaking in the warmth of the winter sun. Lara even invented a couple of games to amuse herself - scattering cloth pegs all over the grass or sitting in the garden bed and rearranging the newly-laid mulch. Zeb was happy to have some company for a change.



On a different note about a garden, Lara loved to watch "In the night garden" after breakfast every morning (while she was at home). In fact, the only time during the day that I could have 30 minutes free time (besides nap time) was when "In the night garden" was on between 9-9:25am.

Something about this program just made her glued to the TV!

Birthday meals

Si celebrated a significant birhday this week.

(wagu beef was tender and nice just not enough)


We had dinner at Yoshii Japanese restaurant in The Rocks on Friday. It wasn't a meal worth $250. Besides food, mood, service, and surroundings also each play an important part in how good an eating experience is. We should probably cancel the dinner reservation as we both still had the cold then. The first impression wasn't great either when we asked to have the sushi omasake menu but was told we had to sit at the sushi bar for that. The setting was ordinary, plus it was the wrong style of restaurant to dine on a hungry Friday night. Food came out very slowly and the portion very small. Degustation didn't really suit us that night. Over half way through the meal, we were still very hungry. Hubbie saw that his next course had soba noodles. He was pleased that he would at last have some real food. We were looking for the soba noodles when the dish came out. Ha ha it was a couple of noodles chopped up and hidden inside 2 small scallops. It was the funniest part of the night. We wanted simple, tasty food on the night but we both found the food, though nice-tasting, to be too pretentious. I would prefer a smaller crab claw as a course than a spoonful of liquidised crab soup. It was decidedly very disappointing and we couldn't work out why it was a two-hatted restaurant. Sushi-e (a one-hatted restaurant) in our opinion is way superior. It might be different if we had the sushi menu, but unfortunately we won't be coming back to try that. We had nicer degustation meals and Japanese elsewhere.

(Sushi at the end (almost 3 hours into the meal) was nice and satisfied our hunger a little)


On the actual birthday night, Mother-in-law cooked a rolled pork fillet roast. It was delicious!! A nice satisfying winter meal. Thanks to them too for looking after Lara so we could go out.

First homemade pasta (last year!)

I accidently found this in a draft form today. I never got around to post it maybe because it was unfinished. Or maybe I was waiting for a second attempt from Husband. Without seeing this, I almost forgot it ever happened. Anyway here it is unmodified. Ummm.... I feel like pasta tonight!

-----------------------------

After the delicious pizzas he made the other night, Husband woke up the following morning and claimed that he wanted to do homemade pasta for dinner. "The cook and the chef" on ABC TV the night before had handmade pasta (with truffles by the way), and it didn't look too hard so it inspired Husband even more.


We don't have a pasta machine so everything, including rolling out the pastry, was done by hand. Husband also made a bacon, mushroom cabonara sauce.

In some strange sort of coincidence, the day Husband made the first-ever handmade pasta was also the day Parvoroti died. We were enjoying the pasta with a glass of red when we heard the news on TV.

Home for 2 weeks

I am/will be home looking after Lara for 2 weeks. Yes you guessed it, Lara is not well again. Mother-in-law offered to babysit for a couple of days next week so I can do some work.

Lara had a temperature from Monday night. I thought it to be the swimming class we went to that morning. But doctor diagnosed it to be a throat infection and said Lara would have caught it a few days earlier. She's on antibiotics again (her third course of antibiotics in three months!). This antibiotics (Abbocillin V) needs to be given four times a day (as supposed to Amoxil 3 times only), on empty stomach for 10 days. I'm constantly looking at the clock planning when to give food and antibiotics. Medicine seems to be working. Lara's not too bad at the moment - not happy only after waking up from a day sleep. The throat infection does put her off food.

As an example, for breakfast, she had two bites from a toast and didn't want it (I finished it off). I tried some cereal next, no luck either (so I ate that again). She spat the banana out, didn't even like watermelon. Lunch and dinner was a repeat of breakfast. So that was our day, trying and spiting different food out. I ended up finishing most of the uneaten food! She did have some instant noodles at the end. I realised I should have given her softer food because of her sore throat. The day goes faster than when I am at work, but very little to show for at the end of the day.

Husband, Parents-in-law and I all have a running nose and sore throat now. This cold was definitely worse than the last one we had. We are building up our patience and our skills to deal with cold/infection while Lara continues to build up her immune system.

[Jan -June 2007] Books & movies

Books I read some time ago:
The robber bride by Margaret Atwood.
Longitude by Dava Sobel (just finished)

Movies (DVD) we watched some time ago:
Evening
The night listener (Husband watched it and didn't like it)
No reservation (nothing special)
Potters (enjoyable)

Movies (DVD) we watched recently:
The Jane Austen Book Club
I am Legend (I only watched parts of it. Good but very bleak Husband says)

The robber bride by Margaret Atwood
This is my first book of Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed it. The story is about a woman called Zenia, her relationships with 3 female friends, who all had bad encounters with her and wished her dead at one time or another. The story is divided into three parts. The first part or a prologue was set at a cafe, where Zenia was seen by the 3 friends who attended her funeral a few years before (This part was outlined at the back cover, so I'm not giving the plot away). I was curious to find out what happened, and why everyone hated her. The second part was broken into different sections, where the stories of how each friend knew Zenia 20 years ago were told. This part was the longest and the most interesting. The story then jumped back to the present, the cafe scene to conclude. Margaret Atwood is a very competent writer. I rather she doesn't play with words so much. If I have to pick anything, the ending is a little weak. I'm interested to read more of Atwood's books.

Longitude by Dava Sobel
A very well-written book. The author writes beautifully and she makes a dull history lesson appears quite interesting. It did take me some time to read this book I have to admit, history being one of my worst subjects in school. Many of the facts and people mentioned in the book also sounded interesting. It will be good to read it in depth and go over the parts I don't get later. It'll also be a fun book to read with Lara when she's a little older. It really touched me to read about people devoting their whole lives to a single cause (for example, observing the movements of the moon for 40 years) that they believe in. It's sad to read about how human weakness (or conflict of interests) sometimes make us go backwards (we are our own worst enemies sometimes!). This is a very uplifting book. It makes me realise how small and insignificant we are in the whole scheme of things but every little effort makes a difference.

I didn't enjoy "Evening" the movie. I think the director is trying too hard and over complicate the story. Clair Danes was good but Toni Collette's character is totally unconvincing. Not recommended.
"The Jane Austen Book Club" is great. A definite chick movie but even Husband enjoyed it. I realised I have actually read the book (about 3-4 years ago) half an hour into the movie. The book didn't make any impact (otherwise I would remember I read it), the movie did though. All parts are well-acted and I love the chemistry between Jocelyn (Maria Bello) and Grigg (Hugh Dancy-looks super cute in the movie!). I will be buying the dvd to keep with my other favorite chick movies:)

Lara's cot quilt

My mother-in-law bought some nice material last year to do a cot quilt for Lara. She put the whole thing together very quickly then handed it to me to hand-quilted the top. I started in November before the hot of summer and I remembered thinking yeah easy I'll surely have it completed well before winter is here.

Well ... I just finished it (thank god it's still winter!) and it's on Lara's cot! Even though Lara's too young to stay underneath it, it should at least provide some warmth in those cold winter mornings.

[1y 5m] Climbing

Lara is nearly 18 months! Highlights this months:

* Know what she wants - cried in protest when I broke a biscuit into half and gave her the smaller one - she wanted the bigger half!

* Used the word "more" for every situation. The easiest one to figure out is when she points to her empty food bowl and says "more". When she holds her hands up and says "more", this could mean either her hands are dirty (she wants them wiped) or she wants water to drink. "More" sometimes also means blanket, go out and read a book or other object she wants me to get.

* Really into climbing. Climbs on chairs, boxes, coughes and high chair. Lara can climb the barrier we put up in front of the kitchen entrance quicker than I can turn around.

* Fussy with food at the beginning of the month. Eats better after I reduced her formula feed. I think I simply gave her too much milk that she was too full for anything else.
* Able to feed herself and get most of the food (80%?) into her mouth (yeah!).
* Hold a spoon (& scribble) with either hand with equal competence. No preference with either hand.

* Everything round (including our lemons and oranges in the garden) is an "apple". Lara says "cars" (pointing to one), "sit " (sounds more like 'shit') and really tries to copy things we say. "da da" is the guy in "Play School", the author of one of her story books and a few other people on TV.

* Kisses, feeds and pats her "baby".


* Favorite cartoon is "In the night garden" (not my favorite).
* Favorite fruits are mandarin and oranges. Loves watermelon too. Prefers a youghurt dip I made on bread rather than vegemite on toast. Wants to drink everything we drink (white wine, tea, yukult and fresh carrot/celery/cabbabe juice)

* Likes to take tissues out of tissue box.
* Scream in delight when she sees animals/birds on TV.
* Loves and tries to sing "Ba Ba Black Sheep"
* Covers her mouth when others are coughting. (we taught her to cover her mouth when she coughs).

* Obviously loves to clean (see below)

Beautiful quilts at 2008 Craft show

I spent a enjoyable day at the Craft show in Darling Harbour with Gabs today. We started at 10am and by 3pm, we were both exhausted! I didn't really buy anything nor did I want to buy anything - I've got enough unfinished craft projects to do! I just felt like a day out to see what was there and hopefully get inspired. It is one of my resolutions to make my own patchwork quilt(s) one day. Hopefully I'm getting closer to that goal.

This is one of my favorite quilts at the show. Looks like the judges liked it too.


This quilt was made by a 7-year old. It also won a prize in the junior quilter category. What a clever seven year old!! This picture encouraged me to make a start soon.


I like the colour of this one, a clever design too.


This looked stunning from afar. I think I should start with a simple square one that doesn't require complicated maneuvers of a sawing machine. I actually saw a quilt at the show that could be my first project. I didn't buy the kit ($150) as it would only fit on top of a single bed. Am I being too ambitious to want to do a quilt for our king-size bed as a first quilt project?

Night cooking

In order to have a decent meal at night, I resorted to a lot of night cooking. I would start cooking after we had dinner for the following night. So far this works well for dishes like stews, pasta sauces etc that require a long cooking time.

I have also stocked the fridge with bread rolls and garlic bread. More soups next week?

Lara's new trick

I don't remember how it first started, but the night Lara found out what she could do, she went around this little 'circuit' many times! Where did she get her energy from after a long day at day care?

This behaviour is now strongly discouraged as it usually ends up in crying - Lara fell or slipped and hurt herself in some way. Besides, we don't really want her doing this while we are not looking. The little side table will have to go soon!

Appreciate life

Life is hectic at least 3 mornings a week when I get Lara ready for daycare (a great deal of patience is required to try to feed breakfast quickly to a kid who is not particularly interested in eating at that hour), and myself ready for work. I honestly don't have time or don't even remember to brush my hair some mornings.

The half-an-hour drive to work is my "me-time" when I think about the day ahead and contemplate life. I was particularly busy, and there were work problems I didn't know how to solve yet. I reminded myself that it is my JOB to solve these problems - if things are always OK, I would not be required at work. However, it didn't do a lot to help me feel less stressed.

One day two weeks ago, while I was thinking about things in the car, I caught myself wishing that time would pass faster and all my little work problems would go away. Then it suddenly hit me. THIS IS LIFE!! Good or bad, I only live this life once! I shouldn’t "wish my life away". I should appreciate life and all it has to offer!! Be grateful that I'm doing exactly what I wanted working 3 days a week!

This feels especially true, two weeks later, after hearing some sad news about a friend's current health situation. It was very sad and unfortunate that this had to happen at all. But looking from a different angle, it was also very lucky that the problem was discovered now rather than later. I have you in my thoughts and hope you get better soon PY.

p.s. I found when I had "gratitude" in my heart, all the little work problems seemed less important and somehow they were all solved magically as the day progressed.