Spot the difference?

As much as based on memory they both look exactly the same during bb time, but when I try to search their pics, they can be quite different..Jared is way more skinny than meimei at the same time frame.

But they hv similar features below eye onwards

The little helper

Jared could help to feed meimei milk now!..hehe..Kinda scary..cos when he wanna carry meimei, he must get it, else he will shout loud..luckily 99% of time Jared is not interested on meimei..hee

1st Family Pic

This is our 1st family pic..with 4 of us in it!

Being a 2nd time parent, we are much more lazy..We don't snap bb pic everyday..During Jared time, daddy insist on take Jared's pic everyday since day 1 to full month..He said wanna capture the changes of him everyday..and we also more lazy at night to check out how many feed she actually drink..hehe..Last time Jared time, I remembered on 1st few day, we would standby at the bb cot to wait for him to wake up to drink milk in the middle of nite..Now meimei hek hek whole nite also we continue sleep hehe..Till she cry out loud then we respond..hehe..

Jared with Kaylen in his stroller. He is so stingy of the stroller, everytime we mentioned wanna put meimei in the stroller, he will climb up and occupy the it. He refused to let meimei sit in it, but is fine to carry her in there..hehe..

Meimei is now about 2.97kg..What a relieved to see her put on some weight!..But she wore long sleeve and long pants there the other day, it helps to make her weight higher hehe..

We got surprised that the clinic suddenly say she already 18days old no point doing SB test, must do liver functional test..and see PD as well, aiyo..But finally the result turn out liver is ok, jaundice is 10.7...Everything is well..So glad!

Kaylen @ 2 Weeks +

Hmmm..Still small..and look yellowish..and tomorrow due for Jaundice checking again..wonder how will she do? Haiz..

Aren't they cute?

Jared just got his hair cut after 3months wait..The last he cut was just before we left for vacation in US. He loves carrying meimei, but didn't like waipo and daddy carry meimei. When he saw them doing so, he will request them to put her down, or carry both like below pic. hehe

Hmm, he is definitely showing sign of siblings rivalry already.....

1 wk old Kaylen

Day 7 13 Sept Daddy look so shag everyday being torture by Jared..hehe..He need to send Jared to school, pick him up, feed him lunch and dinner...play with him, make him nap etc..by finally he refuse to sleep in same room as us at night..Hmmm..pek chek. We think he was being frighten off by meimei's cry before, so don't like to sleep at nite in the same room as her.

Day 7, Finally she is clear of pimples on face...and only daddy can wrap her up so nicely like a coccoon..hehe

Jared saw meimei pong pong, he said meimei用你的bathtub leh

We used to thk Jared is like a baby, small size..but ever since meimei's arrival, he look like so big compare to her..hehe..

Jared also become a hard nut to crack lately, refused to cut his fingernails, hair and even getting him to pong pong also difficult...aiyo..

Meimei sleep so soundly

The siblings!

After much discussions, argument..we finally finalize meimei's name..Jared and meimei has got same initial TSY.

The siblings... Jared 祥毅 (J TSY) & Kaylen 祥颖 (K TSY)

Tue, 9Sept Day 4 when we discharged from hospital. Jared requested to carry his meimei. He hardly cares about any kids around, dun even bother to look at them, strangely he loves his meimei..very gentle towards her..

Ah mah bath meimei

Day 6 12 Sept, going back to PD for follow up checking of her jaundice level. Cham me still a lot of weight to lose...haiz

Back from hospital, surprisingly she pass her jaundice test marginally @ 13.7 (>15 fail)..So glad she do not require phototheraphy..cos based on our experience, bb will be very tan at least for half a yr! hehe...

Then again, her weight drop again to 2.5kg..Pd say might have something to do with my breastfeeding..Make me worry..

She really look exactly like Jared when bb time..

I like her socks very much

Ah gal has arrived!!

Our 2nd baby has arrived on the 06-09-08, Sat, 1.20pm at 35wk 5 days. Sign of labour is exact same as Jared, water bag leaking from Thurs 4 Sept...It was totally unexpected, and took me a while to convince gynae to delay the delivery for another 2 days for daddy to come home..

A group photo before I being sent off to the slaughter room..I knew I look very ugly in this pic, hehe...but I was having contraction already at that time...simply hv no mood to care about how I look hehe.

Jared encouraged me with his Mummy 加油! before he left.. I was so touched..

My c-section is scheduled at 12.30pm, approx 12pm the nurses came to help me change, and move me to operation bed and sent me down to level 1 the ops theatre..Waited almost 1 hour outside the op theatre, dunno for what, I guess is for the anaestic to arrive...and it made daddy so kam cheong thought they have forgotten to ask him in.

Finally I was pushed into the op theatre..and I transfer me to another op bed, the bed is so cramp..and I had to ask the nurse, why is the bed so small?? After that Dr Wong, the anaestic got me to curve up and injected the epidural on my back..I didn't realise it was this painful during Jared time..

In a short while, gynae reached, told me my hb is outside...not to worry. He said after he draw a line, will get my hb in. So in less than 1 min, daddy is in..and he got daddy to sit on stool beside me..and started pry open my tummy!...and again, in less than 1 min, baby is out! I heard the baby's first cry!..Everything just happened so fast! *But I must say this round, they pry open my tummy with bigger motion, I almost got lifted up...the last round during Jared time, I only felt abit of pulling sensation*

After that, my eyes were locked on bb and heck care whatever gynae is doing...hehe..

Daddy who touched down Sg at 1am on 6Sept..started taking his flight on 4Sept from SLC...Reached hospital about 8am+ after breakfast and help me pack hospital bag... to help me get bath and got me changed to a 1 bedded room. That morning Jared called him kor kor, couldn't recognise him after only 1 mth separation..hehe..Of cos he realised his mistake immediately after that..hehe..

Ah gal come out...Gynae shouted..Wah, cord is 2 round on the neck, See how much time we wasted! (referring to how I insisted to wait for daddy to come home)

Cleaning up..The nurses call her chilli padi..

The nurse placed baby on my chest, felt so good to look at her, the trauma and suffering before this were all worth while..Oops..that's when I noticed our gal got big mouth...and started to ask daddy, is her mouth big? hehehe

The anaestic Dr Wong help to take a family for us.

A small baby at 2.68kg only,..Very similar size to Jared (Jared was 2.66kg)..

She also got my signature chin..Jared has it as well...

Jared first time see his meimei

Gift exchange..Jared got a mater mega block from meimei

She doesn't look as chubby as in the op theatre anymore..but become carbon copy of Jared..almost exact same except face is rounder & more hair.

Jared loves to send meimei back to nursery..

Day 2...My first time latching the baby..Even though I've 1 yr breastfeeding experience with Jared...but to bf a newborn is a total new challenge..seems so difficult!

Meimei with her pressie from Jared, everytime Jared sees his meimei, he would want the pressie to be placed on her bassinet.

Day 2 evening, bf for 3rd time, Jared requested to touch meimei..Oops pardon my messie hair, need a rebonding asap..hehe

See how loving he is..

Proud Daddy with ah gal

They are my pride!

Overall, it's a wonderful experience..Thanks to all the encouragement, sms you all sent me..I'm recovering well..baby is also doing well.

Bbq at Downtown East Chalet

Back home..and the little grown up boy!

First thing when we reached Whampoa is to measure Jared's weight..To our surprise he now weighed 14.1kg...For soooo many months he is stucked between 12.5 to 12.9kg. Everytime when his weight slowly crawling up to 12.9kg, he would fall sick, and his weight drop drastically again.

He has also grown much taller..most obviously is he's able to open the door on his own. I used to threaten him for a kiss on my tummy everytime he asked me to open the room door for him..now he could do it on his own liao!


See his recent pic..


Jared with his new bike, got them just before daddy left for US again..


Look at his cheek and tummy..hehe..Everyone noticed he has grown up ...including the teachers, neighbours..Teachers like to touch his cheek...I didn't felt he grows during the time in states..he just suddenly looked much bigger after we woke up from the sleep on Sun Morning..(We reached on Sun midnight 2am+)

I thought he just look different..see some old pics we took in the states on the last few weekends during our stay.

His favourite hang out place, he called it Oopsy, Choo choo Train @ Toy-r-us

Beautiful park at Thanksgiving point, but weather is really too hot to enjoy the park..so we just fast go and fast left..hehe..

At K-Mart with their special design trolley..

Aug 1 Fri- The end of Our vacation, Going Back to Sg!

Very sad to end the vacation, especially we had the best of our time..a rare chance to stay overseas for so long period, the courage to let a preggie me taking care of an active tod on my own and a nice bonding time with daddy after a long 4 month separation.

Most of all, the thought of going back to work really scared me off, especially when my job is those changing at super high speed type..2mths not around, would make me totally ignorant of what happen..

But Jared seemed to be quite looking forward to go back to SG, when I told him we're going back soon..he started to ask me, which toy to bring back to Whampoa? And happy that he's gonna see his tow truck again when back in Sg.

I did not go for any gynae check up for the 2mth stay..as advice by my gynae which is not necessary if I could feel baby movement. Thankfully, meimei was really active and hardly lets me worry...She like to dance in my tummy, I could felt her making waves, bend her knees/arms...unlike Jared who only hiccup, and punch me only..

Getting ready to leave for airport

Domestic flight from Salt Lake City to Portland. Jared loves the peanuts given out in the domestic flight, everytime sure to eat a lot.. He like to eat and jump a lot, and finally vomitted in the flight..

Arriving at Portland airport, he insisted of pulling the luggage on his own.

Having lunch with home cooked porridge, egg and Wendy's mandarin orange...While daddy and me share a small combo of fries, coke and burger

Overall, he took the return journey much better than the go-to journey we had. He followed US time of eating, nap and night sleep. And he watched Cars and daddy playing Jewels game..so it was not too bad..3 of us manage to get some sleep together in the flight.

The last home cooked meal for our summer vacation

This is the last full 3 course dinner I cooked during our stay in the states...Guess what?? I ate too much junk in the afternoon, and didn't have any appetite to eat during dinner..hehe.

The steam tofu with minced pork is daddy and Jared's favourite. And like I said before drumstick is the cheapest chicken part in US, so my herbal soup is cook with drumstick...This soup is use more herbs, so taste slightly different from the rest of soup like winter melon, peanut+lotus root...We quite like it..

Agar agar with fruit cocktail and mandarin orange

Look at how nice my agar agar are...hehe..Spent sometime to arrange the mandarin orange and cut them up nicely...


Jared loves the cherry from fruit cocktail can food. He could never tahan till its made into agar agar before eat..So I always scoop up the cherry for him first..Its also my favourite from so many diff type of fruit in the cocktail.

As for the mandarin orange, it came from canfood too, we really like the taste..Jared had more than 10 pieces at one go.

Going home in 2 days time!

Time pass so fast, just as if we were here, step into the house, checking around everything we've seen from webcam and comparing the real thing...and now it's time to go home!

Things which I wanted to note down..

Weather

• Only the first 2 wks of June we could felt cold weather here, and after that everyday is nightmare if we have to stay outdoor!..Temperature goes up to 36-37degree, super hot till even evening 7-8pm...even 9pm after the sunsets, it is still hotter than SG. Luckily we stay at home most of time on weekdays, only go out on weekend...With the aircon on 24hours, it felt really shiock!...hehehe..More shiock is we don't need to worry about the bills.

People

• Utah is famous of Mormons..You should know or seen these ppl even if you have not heard about Mormons..they are those angmoh wearing white shirt and black tie with name tag on the MRT, and sometimes may come to you to talk about religion. Young boys in Mormons family are required to serve 2yr overseas like our NS to spread the religion..

• And being at a conservative place, this place is really safe and nice to stay. Ppl greet us when we walked pass by..The last place I go where ppl actually greet me was NZ 10yrs ago..for so long I've never been to a place where the ppl are so nice..

Cooking

• From not able, not required to cook at all when back at SG, now I can almost do anything if we have the ingredients and recipe..hehe..Well, except deep frying which I scared of scalding me..the rest are fine..When I say I'm not cooking in Sg, I really don't cook not even fry egg...For the past 2yrs+ ever since Jared borned, I only cook Jared's food and pasta occasionally when we were sick of outside food..Neither I know cooking was so easy unlike baking which requires precision..hehe

• Daddy said my claypot chicken rice, steam pai ku with beans, and steamed tofu with minced meat is the best of all..But he had also lowered his standard so much that he think simple dish are nice hehe..

• As for Jared, some of his food already have seasoning..especially when I do minced meat ball, I had to add soya sauce to marinate the meat. Then for dinner, I always cook soup and scoop out his share, but he will take some of our dish with seasoning. His favourite is kon loh mee, when daddy made him that sure to put a lot of seasoning like black soya sauce, oyster sauce etc.

Grocery shopping

• Certain things here are super duper cheap, Pringles @ USD1, a big stack of slice cheese USD3, Ben&Jerry/Hagen Daaz ice cream USD3, and my favourite avocado 50cents most of time..

• But at Walmart there's only few vege available, like celery, lettuce, cabbage, carrot, potato..for the first 6 wks of our stay here, we've been eating these few vege repeatedly till scared...
• Finally I gave up, and started to buy greens from Super China, the only chinese grocery store here, about 40mins drive...then I felt so good to eat chai sim, xiao bai chai, and kai lan etc again..hehe..Initially I don't like buying greens from Super China, cos it came in big pack and the price seemed so much more ex than greens from Walmart..

• Another funny thing here is, chicken breast more ex than chicken thigh and drumstick. Even at KFC too, they charge meal with thigh/drumstick cheaper than breast..

• Here do not have fresh fish supply, everything is frozen. I will get sliced Tilapia, salmon from Walmart and cook for Jared..but the quality are definitely lousier than in Sg, so he has been taking very little fish since here..Back in Sg, he take very fresh cod fish, salmon and had lots of them until my mother become poor..hehe..then here, I got conned at Super China for getting a super stinky cod fish at USD15...till now cannot finish, and need to throw away...so heart pain..

Shopping

• Oh I can only say I hate Coach! This coach make me felt sad many many time..hehee..

• I dun buy a lot of branded stuff, but my last trip to the states I bought a Coach handbag as a souvenier, so I thought it would be good to get another 1 as souvenier..(Dun want to be so stupid like last time go Europe never come back with LV as souvenier liao)

• Over in SLC there's no Coach boutique, only at Dillard shopping and outlet. When I first go, there were no discount, a big bag and medium bag cost 298 and 268. 2nd time I visited Dillard, there was 25% discount on the medium bag, so I grab immediately. 3rd time I go again, the big bag was having 40% discount...I got sadden immediately cost now it only cost 178 loh...

• Pai seh I could remember to price so well, cos if I had gotten the big bag at my first visit, I now rugi USD120...

• And that was not all, last weekend we went outlet, my medium bag was there with 30% discount..immediately no mood again and left the shop hehehe..

• Other than that, when they were having sales, price can really go down very low...had a crazy time at Gap last weekend shopping for Jared's clothes due to Presidential day sales...most of them are like 1.99-3.99 only. So we bought up to age 4..hehe..

• For myself, I didn't shop a lot, becos of my size now..hehe..but daddy has been very active in shopping loh, he has got himself 2 pair of shoes, few jeans, and many polo and t shirts...become more active when I come hehe..

Claypot Chicken Rice Using Rice Cooker

Made claypot chicken rice using rice cooker..my 2nd attempt..Did once when I just reached here using Lily's Wai Sek Hong recipe but I think the rice she used is not Thai rice, so the amount of water is not correct, ended the rice was too soggy. This round I cook the rice as per normal...and fry ginger and the salted fish...and the claypot chic rice turned out to be perfect!

It's for daddy's lunch tomorrow, cos tonight we having wan ton mee gathering for Jared and me's farewell :((, prepared by the housemate...But the gathering ppl was invited by the housemate, and I dun really know them..nevermind we just eat..hehe..Actually I dun really like this type of gathering, being the wife who stay hm, ppl expect the wife to prepare something...and everytime got this type of gathering I stressed! hehe...Anyway today I made agar agar with the last packet I brought over from SG.

Recipe for my own reference in future.. I modified the recipe to below based on what's available at home..

Ingredients: (Served 1)

3/4 cups rice, washed and drained

1 chicken drumsticks cut into pieces (bone in chicken pieces can also be used)

3 Chinese mushrooms, soaked, cut into sliced

1 cm thick salted fish, sliced thinly, fried till crispy

Shredded ginger

Marinade:

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (accidently put 1 tbsp this round, so rice turned out quite dark)

½tbsp sesame oil

dashed of pepper

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tbsp corn flour

Garnishing:Spring onion chopped

Method:

1. Mix chicken, mushrooms with marinade, season for 30 minutes.

2. Heat up oil to fry ginger, and salted fish, then mushroom and chicken

3. Scoop up the ingredients, pour in rice to stir fry a while in pan

4. Cook the rice normally with a dash of maggi chicken stock cube

5. When the rice is almost cook, pour in the salted fish, mushroom and chicken

Ta da!...you get a fragrant claypot chicken rice...served with lettuce for a balance meal.

What's cooking?

Have been trying new dishes from recipe were extracted from Kitchen Caper by Gina.

We bought 1kg of kuey teow from Super China and half them to cook char kuey teow and hor fun.

Hawker Style Char Kuey Teow




Ingredients:
1 kg kway teow(white, flat noodles)
300 g bean sprouts
200 g chicken fillet(parboiled in hot water, shredded) –not added
2 stalks of spring onions, chopped(white part only)
2 tbsp Sweet Black Sauce
1 tbsp Fish sauce(or Light Soya Sauce)
1 tbsp Dark Soya sauce
5 tbsp corn oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
200 g fresh cockles(optional, if unavailable in your country)



Method:
1. In a wok, heat 1 tbsp corn oil and add garlic to stir fry.
2. add noodles, and all the sauces(Sweet Black Sauce, Fish Sauce and Dark Soya sauce) and stir well to mix.
3. Add remaining 4 tbsp of corn oil to stir.
4. Add prawns and chicken, bean sprouts
5. Add 20 ml water and spring onions.
6. Stir to mix. Lastly, add fresh cockles and briefly stir for about 2 mins.
8. Turn off fire. Serve hot!

Comment: Daddy did all the cooking, despite only have beansprout, no meat, it tasted really like hawker style after we add in a beaten egg...


Hor fun



Ingredients:

1 kg ipoh hor fun noodles(kway teow)
300 chicken fillet(cooked, shredded) -not added, replaced with pork and some meat from drumstick, marinated with a little soya sauce and corn starch
400 g Chye Sim(or other green leafy vegetables)
500ml chicken stock(from cooking the chicken fillet) - Use 1/2 maggi chicken cube
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp salt and pepper
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1.5 tbsp corn starch, 3 tbsp water

Method:
1. in a wok, add 2 tbsp of cooking oil to stir fry garlic.
2. add noodles and 1 tbsp of Dark soya sauce.
3. Stir fry noodles till its well mixed with sauce and non-sticky.
4. Remove and set aside in a large casserole dish.
5. using the same wok(do not wash), add 1 tbsp cooking oil and stir fry meat
6. Add cut veg, to fry till cook.
7. Add chicken stock, and rest of seasonings. and cook till boiling.
8. Add cornstarch mixture to thicken the gravy
9. Then slowly pour in egg mixture..do not stir.
10. Turn off heat after 2 mins. Pour over noodles.

Comment: I did the cooking, pek chek, the gravy being soaked out by the noodles...so it didn't look as nice...

Fried Bee Hoon



Ingredients:
1 packet of bee hoon

Seasoning A:
3 tbsp Dark Soya sauce
3 tbsp Light Soya sauce
3 tbsp Sesame oil

Seasoning B:
3 tbsp Fish Sauce
2 tbsp Sweet Black sauce
400 g bean sprouts - replaced with shreded cabbage and carrot
40 ml cooking oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic

Method:
1. Use a large pot, add water.
2. Add Seasoning A to the water to mix.
3. Put whole pack of beehoon to soak for 1 hour(till soft).
4. Heat up wok with cooking oil.
5. Add chopped garlic to stir fry till fragant.
6. Add beehoon, 200 ml of black water(the liquid) and Seasoning B to stir fry.
7. When beehoon is well coated, add bean sprouts to stir fry for 5 mins.

Comment: We tried this once few weeks ago to bring to a bbq party..it turned out not as nice and needed to add a lot of water from Seasoning A, and a lot more soya sauce before it has taste. all Garlic were used to stir fry cabbage and carrot, no more garlic for beehoon, too little oil for beehoon too.

2nd round, I followed then recipe closer with the of oil, it turned out much fragrant and very nice.

Pack for lunch for daddy the next day together with egg and hot dog, doesn't it look like economical beehoon back home? hehe..