Oatmeal with Fruits for Breakfast

Tao always has oatmeal with fruits for her breakfast after she turns one year old.

Since her older sister, Tian goes to pre-school in the morning, I will cook for both of them. Tian does not like her oatmeal as much as Tao and I think this is due to she has got use to all those oil and monosodium glutamate laden breakfast like tossed noodles, fried vermicelli etc that hubby and my parents-in-law eat every morning.

Oatmeal with fruits is easy to prepare.

Oatmeal with organic raisins

Oatmeal with mashed apples

Ingredients.
3 tbsp organic instant oatmeal
1/2 cup water

Choices of fruits.
1) 1/2 small apple, peeled and diced
2) 1/2 small pear, peeled and diced
3) 1/2 tbsp organic raisins, cut into smaller pieces due to choking hazard
4) 1/2 tbsp organic dried blackcurrants
5) 1/3 ripe avocado, diced
6) 1 banana, diced


Step 1.
Add oats and water into pot and bring to boil. Simmer and stir from time to time (to prevent oats from sticking to pot) for 3-5 minutes. Off the stove and cover the pot for 5 minutes.


Step 2.
If using choices of fruits no. 1 and 2., add together with oats and water.
If using choices of fruits no. 3 and 4., add after water is boiled.
If using choices of fruits no. 5 and 6., add before serving.

Step 3.

If your toddler is not able to chew effectively yet, apples and pears need to be removed from oatmeal and mashed before mixing with oats.

*Choices of fruits are not limited to above. I intend to add more varieties like mangoes, grapes, blueberries, dried cranberries, dried apricots etc.

Stir Fried Cabbage & Tomatoes with Chicken & Silverfish Stock

I tried some variation in Tao's meal today. I add tomatoes after her first birthday as tomatoes cause some allergic reactions in babies. She likes this flavour and finishes her portion without much coaxing.

Ingredients:

For Stir-Fry:

1 big leave of cabbage, cut into small pieces

1/2 medium tomato, diced

1 tsp 100% organic virgin coconut oil

1/2 tsp Bragg Liquid Aminos

For stock:

1 x 2 inches chicken breast, sliced and blanched

1 tsp silver fish (can be replaced with anchovies)

Others:

1 tbsp millet

1 1/2 tbsp rice

Step 1.

Soak millet and rice in 1/2 bowl of water for 30 minutes and steam in a pot for 30 minutes.

Step 2.

Boil 1/2 cup of water in a pan, add chicken and silver fish. Simmer under low heat as you continue with Step 3.

Step 3.

Heat a non-stick pan and add coconut oil. Add garlic and fry until fragrant. Add cabbage and tomatoes and fry until cooked. Add liquid aminos.

Step 4.

Add fried cabbage and tomatoes into stock. Add steamed rice and mix well. When the stock has almost fully absorbed into rice and vegetables, scoop the portion needed for your toddler.

Stir Fried Zuchinni & Pumpkin with Salmon

Tao has come to a stage where she enjoys more textures in her food. On some days, I will stir fry vegetables for her. When I am frying her vegetables, I will stew some fish/ chicken meat/ pork or silver bait for some stock. I will then steam her rice (a mix of rice, millet and quinoa) or cook Organic Wholegrain Ramen/ Fine Vermicelli separately. I will scoop required amount of rice/ noodles/ vermicelli to mix with the veges and stock, heat up in a pot for a few minutes to ensure the food are tender enough for her.


This morning, I have prepared stir fry zuchinni with pumpkin with salmon stock to go with her rice.

Ingredients:
For Stir Fry:
1/4 zuchinni, diced - smaller pieces if your toddler is not able to chew yet
2 x 2 inches pumpkin, diced
1 tsp organic coconut oil
1 small clover of garlic, slivered
1/2 tsp liquid aminos, optional


Others:
1 x 2 inch salmon, sliced
1 1/2 tbsp rice (The scoop for Mamil formula milk powder equals to 1 tbsp)
3/4 tbsp millet
1/4 tbsp quinoa (I use lesser quinoa as it is coarser and Tao does not like too much of it)


Step 1.


Soak rice, millet & quinoa with 1/2 bowl of water for half an hour and steam in a pot until cooked (around 1/2 hour).


Step 2.


Boil 1/2 cup water, add salmon and simmer for 10 minutes. (Do not simmer if you intend to feed this salmon to your toddler as it will become tasteless)


Step 3.
Add coconut oil into non-stick pan (more oil required for normal pan) and fry garlic until fragrant. Add zuchinni and pumpkin into pan and fry for 7-10 minutes. Add liquid aminos and some water and simmer to desired consistency.


Step 4.
Add steamed rice and fried zuchinni & pumpkin into stock and stir. Keep the heat on until the stock has been fully absorbed into rice and vegetables. Now it is ready to be served.

Ler Tao's 1 year old milestones

I brought Tao for her 1 year old vaccination 2 days ago and below are her milestones.
Height: 74cm
Weight: 8kgs (the growth chart reflects that she is not growing enough and we were advised to give her more solids and healthy snacks). I think this is due to her falling sick before and also our 'war' of weaning her and she drinks only 2oz of milk each milk feeding time a few weeks ago....guilty, guilty
Teeth: 4 at the top and 2 at bottom with another 2 erupting at the bottom

Language:
1) Calls her grandma 'Ah Ma' (much to her grandma' s delight) and calls me either 'Ah Ma' or 'Ma Ma'.
2) Calls her sister 'Ah Jie'
3 Recognizes her dad and grandpa by pointing but not able to pronounce yet
4) Will point and say 'bird' and 'ball' when she sees one
5) Imitates what adults say in two syllabus eg. he4 shui3 (drink water), sshh sshh (refers to hot), huai4 dan4 (referring to her when she misbehaves)
6) She will pass things that she is holding to us when we say 'gei3' (give)
7) When she does not want her grandpa/ dad to carry her, once they say 'chi4 kong1 yuan2' (go to the park), she will agree to be carried.
8) Understand and wil follow our command like shake her head, wave goodbye, gong xi and clap hands.

Temparament:
1) Will cry pitifully when left alone or when she sees people going outside/ upstairs without bringing her along
2) When we refuse her something (food or toy), she will lie on the floor, roll about and cry. At the same time, she will see if we are looking at her or not
3) When she sees adults tending to her sister, she will be jealous and go to the adult for attention too
4) When she cries for us to tend to her, she will stay at where she is and refuse to come to us. Instead, she will cry until we go to her.

Meals:
1) Her milk feeding problem is solved once we realize that she does not like formula. So I am mixing Organic Phytomilk with lesser formula for her (as mentioned in my previous post)
2) As she rejects eating her porridge, I have also started to use Multigrain Ramen from organic shop, 'mee sua' (fine vermicelli) or steamed rice. I will prepare some soup based dish (chicken/ pork and silver bait) with vegetables and/or fish and lastly, add noodles, vermicelli or rice and stew until very tender due to Tao does not have molar for proper chewing yet. She seems to like the variety that I have prepared for her so far.
3) Snacks on fruits (like avocados, bananas. apples, organic raisins and blackcurrants), rusk biscuits and bread.

Physical Coordination:
1) Crawls on all fours most of the time
2) Likes to climb onto furnitures. She will push stools to the side of coffee table, climb and sit on it
3) Able to stand without support when she is unaware like when we pass toys to her but once she realizes, she will quickly hold for support or sit down
4) Unwilling to walk yet. We try to hold her arms and let her take some steps but she will just stretch her legs to the front to sit down

Weaning Unsuccessful Yet

I have been planning to wean Tao when she is 1 year old. Nowadays, I express milk only once in the afternoon and plan to cut off her before sleep feeding and mid-night feeding these few weeks.

I dare not cut off BF completely yet because she has been rejecting formula milk. Tao does not like formula milk. Last few days when I tried to feed her more formula instead of expressed BM, she dranks only 2 oz each feeding. Then I tried Tian's Mamil Step 3, she also refused to drink. Since she is already one, I let her try Organic Phytomilk (consists of Organic Oats, Soy protein and millets with 10 types of other grains) that I usually add to Tian's milk and Tao finished 4 oz and cried for more. Since then, I will put mainly Organic Phytomilk plus only half a scoop of her Wyeth formula.

I think she prefers Phytomilk because she has got used to breastmilk which is light and sweet whereas formula milk tastes sweet but with a hint of oiliness and too creamy for her sensitive tastebuds.

The Organic Phyomilk that I bought before was at discounted price (2 cans for RM78). Normal price for 1 can is RM52. The lady boss mentioned that we can actually feed her only phytomilk and supplement with another DHA enriched soy powder. However, I do not want to feed Tao with too much soy due to some articles mentioning negative effects of too much isoflavones (plant hormones similar to female hormone 'estrogen') . So to be on the safe side, I supplement her DHA from formula milk. I also worry if there is any side effects from consuming only plant based milk powder as substitute to formula although most vegetarians and organic food lover would certainly disagree with me.

Tao is still not able to sleep through the night yet and most people would say this is due to breastfeeding that she is not full enough to sleep through the night. I think this is due to different temparament of babies.

Her feeding schedule is as below at the moment:
6:00-7:00am: Wakes up and drinks milk (either phytomilk with fomula or breastfeed)
8:30-9:00am: Organic oatmeal with fruits (choices between avocado, apple, pear, organic raisins, organic dried blackcurrants)
10:00am: Has milk before napping
12:00pm: Porridge*/ Organic noodles with a mix of vegatables with either fish or chicken
2:00-2:30pm: Has milk before napping
4:00-5:00pm: Has milk again
6:00-6:30pm: Same meal cooked for lunch
8:15-8:30pm: Has milk and gets ready to sleep
8:45-9:00pm: Breastfeeds before sleeping (I am trying to wean her off this)
She will wake up one time between 12:00-4:00am for breastfeed (I am trying to wean her off this as well)
Wish me luck!!

*Tao's porridge consists of 50% of normal rice, 30% of organic millet and 20% of organic quinoa

Tian's 3rd Birthday!!

Yesterday, we celebrated Tian's birthday a few days after Tao's first birthday so it was made simpler. We invited hubby's eldest brother who works in Singapore to stay overnight at our place. As we were planning a BBQ, we thought more people would make it merrier. Furthermore, Tian likes her uncles a lot.

We bought her a cake with cartoon and flavour of her choice

Presents from us: I bought her a book on animals and a recorder (which she refers as 'magic flute' as influenced by Dora the Explorer), my MIL bought her a bike, angpows from my mum and hubby's eldest brother.

Bike from her doting grandma

I feel that she grows up very fast especially after the birth of her sister. Sometimes we are more impatient in disciplining with her as we have a younger toddler to deal with (guilty!) but we love her all the same.....

Ler Tao's 1st Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Ler Tao's first birthday two days ago following Chinese Calendar date.

We did not do anything fancy. I bought a birthday cake, invited hubby's brother and my MIL came from hometown bringing traditional food that they had paid respect to ancestors like 'Ang Ku Kueh' (glutinous dessert containing either green bean paste, peanuts or coconut flakes), eggs (dyed red), roasted chicken, glutinous rice cooked with dried oyster, beancurd and shitake mushroom. I ordered curry fish head just to add some variety.

We let Tao stepped onto the 'Ang Ku Kueh' and it was believed to bring luck to her that she will have food to eat wherever she goes.
We let her choose a few items placed on the floor just for the fun of it. There were calculator, pencil, ruler, thread, book and chicken drumstick. That greedy little girl crawled to reach for chicken drumstick and started to munch away. I would prefer her to pick either pencil or book though :)
We bought 'nest and stack' cups for her (reason not to buy expensive toys was that it would end up to be her sister's toy). My MIL gave her a gold necklace with a pendant engraved with cow cartoon and my mum gave her a big ang pow (red packet), a set of dress, anklet and shoes.
Tao had just recovered from flu and she was on her suprisingly good behaviour that evening.

We will be celebrating Ler Tian's birthday this Saturday. She has been looking forward her birthday (she had even chosen the cartoon for her birthday cake) and we are planning to have BBQ.