I have not been writing as regularly. My calligraphy teacher reprimanded me for my sloppily done homework. I did not bring the Yauyau downstairs everyday for her daily walk. I have parked her in front of the TV to watch her Baby Einstein shows for more then one hour to prevent her from disturbing me. And I even summoned Indar to come to my place earlier to bring her back to my father’s place. All due to my obsession with playing the World of Warcraft I have mentioned earlier on.

I have to regain my self control or risk becoming a neglecting bad mama. I didn’t touch the computer last night but played with the girl, read to her, sang to her and kept her company until she fell asleep. I didn’t load the game this morning too, but brought her downstairs and then entertained her again. When she was taking her morning nap, I didn’t grab the chance to play too. Got to successfully purge the posion and find better time for gaming. Perhaps, I will wake up earlier, like at 6am, enjoy myself for two hours until 8am and continue my day as what I did in the past.

It is my wish that the kid will learn to swim. Not because I own a swimming pool or big pond and I fear her drowning, but because I enjoy sea sports a lot and wanted to introduce her to it one day. Thanks to Phoebe, I have gotten a copy of “How To Teach Your Baby to Swim”, by Claire Timmermans.

Like what Timmermans emphasis is: prevent drowning, the book doesn’t really cover how to teach the baby to swim. The little lessons are designed to teach babies to be water confident, from earlier lesson like learning how to go under water, to floating on their back at the latter part. Nothing like how to swim breast stroke or free style.

The lessons are really broken into little small activities with details on how to go about teaching the baby. They look simple enough for parents to follow. Now the challenge is whether I am able to carry out them with the kid successfully. And the next biggest challenge is to overcome my laziness and get my butt down to the pool regularly.

Can’t wait to set sail again one day, this time with the kid.

As I was searching for information on baby cereal, I came across this site from Baby Milk Action that is campaigning a boycott on Nestle products, because Nestle ” aggressively markets baby foods, breaking World Health Assembly marketing requirements and contributing to the death and suffering of infants around the world.”

Looking at the list of Nestle products or related companies’ product, it seems quite impossible for me to boycott Nestle even if I would like to. Things like Ski yogurts, After Eights, Kit Kat , Polo, Rowntrees Fruit Gums, Smarties, Milo, and Cheerios are things we are used to eating. I never knew Nestle is so BIG.

There is also an article by Tessa Martyn about soy milk - Artificial baby milks: how safe is soya?, which address potential health risks of soya abased artificial baby milks.

I started the kid with Gerber babana cereal at around her 3rd month. Gerber=baby food, so it was the obvious choice for me. She took it quite well too. Of all the flavoured cereal I have tried, Gerber’s has least milky taste. The fish and chicken ones taste rather savoury, and for the fruity ones, you can find fruits’ “flakes” in them. I don’t like things like “banana powder” or “chicken powder”, so I switched brand after a few boxes.

I am sorry, Dumex, but their cereal is the number one on my dislike list. I have tried their milk based, apple flavour, banana flavour cereal, and none of them taste right to me. The milky smell and taste is overpowering, I dumped the whole bowl right after I mixed it up. And it dissolves badly too, with lumps all over the place like coagulated milk.

My favourite is Frisocrem and I have stayed with it faithfully. Not too sure why it cost more, but its taste appeal to me. The cereal dissolves well and makes a very creamy texture. It has a nice milky smell which is not overwhelming, and tastes a little sweet though, which is a minus point. I can usually get it quite easily at NTUC, but the supermarket seems to have a problem replenishing the shelves with Frisocrem when it runs out of stock, which can take days!

No more Frisocrem at home, and no signs of new stock, I decided to try Honey-Joy from Nestle. It dissolves quite well too, and has an interesting texture since there are corn flakes added. True to its name, this cereal seems to be very generous with honey (or sugar?), extra sweet! There are a lot of ingredients listed on the labels, which I don’t like.

I have also tried the Nestle rice cereal (plain). The mixture changes into a strange greyish colour after mixing with water. Weird, but tastes alright after adding some fruits to it.

When I have run out of everything or when I am less lazy, it will be Quaker Oatmeal for Yauyau. It seems to be a very wholesome meal after adding fruits into it.

Out of convenience, I am still giving baby cereal to the kid as breakfast. But I am considering reducing or stopping it in near future. Maybe could start her on things like bread or muffin, but definitely not porridge. Not so hardworking to wake up early and cook porridge.

I have received some information regarding cheese from Dory some time ago. Our kids seem to enjoy eating cheese, and we are the typical moms concerned about too much sodium found in cheese. She has been giving her boy Monterey Jack, which she said is unsalted.

The usual cheese we eat like Cheddar actually has quite a high content in sodium. Just need to eat some to know the salty taste. According to cheese.com, “Salt plays a substantial role in cheese making. Salting serves a number of functions; it speeds up the drying process, heightens the cheese’s flavour, helps the rind to form and slows down the proliferation of micro-organisms. Each type of cheese has a specified salt content.”

I have tried searching for information on some of the more common cheese found locally, like Feta, Camembert, Cottage Cheese, Cream Cheese, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Ricotta, Romano and so on. It is frustrating to find that different sites give different information. One site described feta as a “pickled” cheese, while another one give indicated that it has no salt. The same differing facts I get for Parmesan as well. Perhaps there are different varieties within each kind of cheese. So the safest way to find out is to read the labels before getting it for the kid.

I have been feeding the kid medicine for the past week like giving her routine meals. Children don’t like medicine, even though they come in all kind of fruity flavours. She kicks up a fuss and struggles each time. I think she dislikes the way we give her the medicine. We hold her down and force the syringe into her mouth. That’s the only way I could get the medicine into her mouth, otherwise she would just shut her mouth or spit them out.

I was taught a very useful tip by my mother-in-law. After dumping the medicine into her mouth, pinch her nose. While trying to gulp for air using her mouth, the syrup will go down her throat. It works perfectly and there hasn’t been any messy spills or spits ever since. And no, she wasn’t traumatise at all.

Besides being caught up changing diaper, washing the kid’s backside and taking temperature diligently, I was really busy with another task for the past week. Both the father and I were getting a bit obsessed with playing computer game.

We finally got the World of Warcraft and started our quest. It is super addictive and sometime I wish someone could help me take care of the kid, or that Yauyau would nap longer so I could solve a few more quests. Sigh, such horrid parents! Though both of us are badly absorbed by the game, and cursed Blizzard for sucking money from the monthly subscription, I must also credit this expensive subscription from preventing us getting multiple copies and go online at the same time. I am sure the kid would be badly neglected by us if that happens. At least one of us could entertain her while the other one got carried away by the game.

We are not entirely neglecting parents; I even tried to create a character that resembles Yauyau. Can’t help but laugh and amaze by the way our Gnome mage runs. Short, slightly hunch back, swaying from side to side, exactly like Yauyau when she tries to walk fast fast.

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It was like eight times on Thursday, four times on Friday, and down to only twice yesterday. From the half life pattern, she should be fine today. Phew!

The poor girl was having diarrhea for the past few days. Don’t really know why, but the doctor said she probably touched something outside and put it (or her hand) into her mouth, which is very common among little children. I guess this kind of detox programme will take place sooner or later, and hopefully it helps to build a stronger stomach after the ordeal.

Everybody at home said she lost weight. Maybe, since she has not been in good condition this week and mostly refuses to eat her meals. With output much much greater then her input, those limited chubby fats must have been compensated. She was also not too interested in the very bland and watery porridge we made for her these few days. The doctor said rice water is best for diarrhea baby, and we took the suggestion seriously.

It was like back to her newborn days on Thursday, changing soiled diaper again and again. And they really stink! Remember not to let her take fish if it happens again, the fishy smell can kill. One funny thing about her lao sai episode is that she took on a new position while doing her big business. She will squat down or goes on all four, just like a giant toad. Putting on a quiet and somewhat twisted face, there she goes again.

She is still running a low grade fever. Probably teething again? Hopefully that will go away soon.