First Home-cooked Meal in the New House

Last Sunday, Juan Or woke up from sleep twice and ended up in a cranky state and crying spell. He didn't even finish his morning milk - only drank 2-3 oz and after that vomitted everything out together with some slimy stuff with saliva, probably due to his excessive crying earlier. After that, Mommy rocked him to sleep in the spring cot and Mommy continued with ironing clothes. Since it was already quite late in the morning (morning is the usual time we go for family outing) and Juan Or was already back to sleep, we decided not to go for any outings and that Papa would go out alone to buy things while Mommy stayed at home with Juan Or.

It was during this nap-taking time that Mommy had the chance to do some household chores. Mommy managed to finish up the rest of the ironing and proceed with opening up packages of kitchen utensils and washing them since they have never been used before. There were many things to wash - ladles of all shapes and sizes, chopsticks, wok stand, kitchen knives and cleaver, various containers and bottles for storing salt, sugar, MSG and pepper, oil pot, rice cooker's pot, 40-cm wok and the cover, measuring cups and spoons, garlic crusher, peeler, pestel and mortar- you name it! Just when Mommy had done about half of those washing, Juan Or woke up after sleeping for about 2-and-a-half hours. Mommy fed him the remaining milk that he didn't finish that morning and by then it was already 11.45am. How time flies!

Later on, Papa came back home with the things he bought and McDonalds for lunch. Mommy stopped all the housework temporarily to eat. Juan Or joined in to eat, but he was more keen on the French fries and Coke only.  After eating and clearing up the dining table, Mommy continued with wiping those utensils dry and keeping them in their proper places. Next came the step to fill up those containers with cooking oil, salt, sugar, MSG, all-in-one seasoning, cornflour and pepper. And finally, Mommy opened the cooking gas tank seal for the first time and attached it to the hose, then tested the new gas stove. Mommy was glad everything went well despite having some feelings of anxiety because Mommy has never done this before!

That evening, Mommy decided to cook dinner for the first time in the new house. Mommy cooked rice, hot assam prawns and stir-fried Beijing cabbage for dinner. The preparation involved for the hot assam prawns was the longest compared to other things Mommy did for the day. The prawn dish's gravy made use of bird's eye chillies, fresh turmeric, garlic and powdered turmeric being pounded together. And these were the yields for dinner!

And since this was our first time having a humble home-cooked meal for dinner in our new house, Mommy got Papa and Juan Or to pose in front of the food as well! ^ ^

Here's Juan Or having his dinner. He prefers to scoop himself and insisted on eating rice only and refused to eat the prawn and vegetable. On seeing his rice so plain, Mommy secretly added a bit of the cabbage gravy to his scoop of rice. The moment he ate it, he gave Mommy the signal that he wanted to spit it out! Later on, Mommy added a bit of the prawn's hot assam gravy to his rice and he kept on eating!

This day (Sunday, 18th April 2010) marks the day we ate our first home-cooked meal together as a family in our new home.

New Home, New Life (Part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1 where Mommy last mentioned about how Juan Or cried and cried and cried asking to sleep in the spring cot to which Mommy didn't allow, then later Papa came over to scold him and he stopped crying and finally dozed off after gazing outside through the window.

After sleeping for about 3 hours (it was 3 am by then), Mommy was awaken by the soft crying sound of Juan Or. Turned out, Juan Or was vomitting (on the bed!). Mommy quickly put a hand under his mouth to collect whatever vomit that came out. Luckily, the vomit did not contain food particles, only saliva, but the vomit was very, very slimy - perhaps had phlegm in it. Mommy immediately recognized this pattern of vomitting. The last time Juan Or had this kind of vomit was when he cried excessively after falling down his kiddy ride car and hurting his lips and mouth. And this kind of vomit would only happen about 3-4 hours after the nonstop crying episode. After vomitting, Mommy wiped his mouth and he went back to sleep without fuss. Later, within half an hour to an hour's time, Juan Or woke up again to vomit out the same slimy thing. This vomitting episode went on for a regular interval of about 5 times. Every time after the vomit, Mommy offered him water to drink but he refused. Thankfully, by 5.30 am, the vomitting episode ended and Juan Or was sleeping soundly. But Mommy didn't sleep well at all because Mommy had to wake up whenever he woke up to vomit.

It was a working day for Mommy again and Mommy had to leave the house early to avoid traffic jam, so Mommy woke him up at 6.20 am, sent him straight to the babysitter's house and then headed to office. By then, Mommy was very sleepy, so Mommy stole some sleep in the office (it was still not 8 am yet).

By night time, when all three of us were back in the new house, things went on as usual and Juan Or was still just as playful. He had big appetite too - wallop two pieces of cheese slices and even asked to eat Honey Stars and Coco Balls (which he called as "Cocops") cereal. Then it was time to sleep. Thankfully, this time he didn't ask to sleep in the spring cot, but he did insist on going downstairs first (don't know for what?). So Mommy told him that Mommy would only allow to go downstairs for a while and after which he must go upstairs again to sleep. Thankfully too, he complied and went upstairs again without fussing. Everything went well, he played with his toys for a while, Mommy read with him and he settled himself to sleep in no time at all. Mommy is very happy that everything went well for the 3rd day of moving in.

Here's a happy Juan Or, posing for Mommy moments before going to bed.

New Home, New Life - (Part 1)

The day before yesterday (i.e., Sunday, 4th April 2010) was the first day we moved into our new house. That morning, Juan Or was still sleeping soundly in the spring cot (in his paternal grandparents' house) while Papa and Mommy packed some more things (or rather 'rubbish') into our cars to be brought there. Papa drove to the new house first because his car was already full. Mommy would only get moving later because Mommy had to wait for Juan Or to wake up and drink milk first.

Finally at 10.20am, Juan Or woke up but he refused to drink milk, so Mommy fed him with banana. Mommy still had some 'rubbish' to pack into the car, plus some real rubbish to clear from our soon-to-be ex-bedroom. After making a mental checklist, finally Juan Or and Mommy set off to the new house at around 11.30am. On the way, Mommy stopped by at a stall to buy chicken rice  for lunch.

Upon reaching the new house, Mommy unloaded the 'rubbish' from the car while Papa watched over Juan Or. Unloading 'rubbish' from the car was just the beginning of the effort. The rest of it laid in unpacking them and deciding where to put or keep them or even to find a place to keep them. Along the way, Juan Or took his afternoon nap which was very surprising to Mommy because from Mommy's experience, Juan Or wouldn't want to sleep when he's at a new place - only wants to play and play and play.

Later on, Papa went out to buy economy rice for dinner because Juan Or was still asleep and Mommy still has lots of 'rubbish' to unpack. Actually Mommy already planned to go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, but too bad, the timing just wasn't right simply because Juan Or was still asleep and the evening was getting late, so is prone to being fretful and a cry-baby.

The unpacking of 'rubbish' more or less stopped by night time because Juan Or seriously wanted Mommy to pay attention to him playing and reading and all the what-nots. Of course, along the way, Mommy did other things that were not to do with unpacking such as boiling water and soaking dirty laundry to be washed the next day. By the way,  Mommy was very anxious to try out the new washing machine for the first time - more of a trial run of sorts - and even got Papa to install the washing machine's water hose socket which looks rather complicated to Mommy.

Juan Or's playfulness went on till around 1.10am when finally, Mommy told him that playtime's over and that it was time to go to bed. By the way, Mommy is determined to wean Juan Or off the habit of sleeping through the night in the spring cot - a habit that Juan Or developed because of interference from his paternal grandmother. Because of this habit, the hall (in the in-laws' house) became like Mommy's 'bedroom' whereby Mommy would sleep in the hall every night to accompany Juan Or sleeping in the spring cot (which is located downstairs). Ok, back to the story where playtime's over. So Mommy asked Juan Or to sleep on his bed (Papa and Mommy bought him a queen-sized bed to last him till adulthood) and much to Mommy's surprise, Juan Or willingly climbed onto the bed and laid down. It was like he seems to know this is a new place, new room and new bed for him! Then Mommy switched off the light, turned on the air-cond and laid down next to him. Mommy pretended to sleep but actually was watching how he settled himself down to sleep. In the darkness, Juan Or played with his fingers, flapped his arms and legs, lifted up his legs to play with his toes, spreaded his legs opena and close repeatedly and then did the same with his arms. Just within 15 minutes of restlessness, Juan Or became quiet. Mommy peeped over and found his eyes already closed - sleeping already! Good!

Juan Or behaved very well that night. He slept through the night without waking up - so very much unlike the time when he was still sleeping in the spring cot in in-laws' house. Mommy woke up at 7.10am (Mommy took a day's leave from work), Juan Or was still sound asleep, so Mommy quickly went to wash clothes. After scrubbing and throwing the clothes into the machine, Mommy went up to check on him, turned out he was still sound asleep! So Mommy continued with unpacking some of Juan Or's 'rubbish'. Later somewhere around 8.30am to almost 9am, Mommy was greeted with the babyish voice of Juan Or calling "Mama". Mommy turned around and Juan Or gave Mommy the most lovable and cutest smile! Indeed Juan Or is very happy to be waking up in his own new room!

Sleeping so peacefully! Papa has arranged his bed in such as way that one side is surrounded by the corners of the wall to minimize the chances of him falling out while Mommy slept on the open side of the bed.

A closer view of the sleeping 'B'.

Mommy put a pillow against the wall to prevent him from 'lodging' into the narrow gap between the wall and the bed.

Juan Or's bedroom.

Ha, that's what the pillow is for too! To prevent him from turning and knocking onto the wall!

Mommy then took him downstairs and  fed him milk to which he drank almost the whole bottle (only 1 oz left) although he was a little hesitant to drink at first. Nevertheless, Mommy was very happy with his progress! After drinking milk, Juan Or continued with watching his favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while Mommy hanged the laundry to dry. After the laundry, Mommy fetched Juan Or to the babysitter's house while Mommy went to run errands (servicing the car which was a week overdue, buying a little groceries and baby necessities). After running all errands, it was time to pick Juan Or up, bought economy rice for dinner and headed back to the new house.

Once back home, Juan Or was very playful and by bedtime (it was 11pm), Mommy switched off the light and told him to settle to sleep. This time round, Juan Or was very much the opposite. He refused to lie down in bed, instead wanted to go downstairs. Mommy didn't entertain his request, so he cried and cried and cried and then started asking for the spring cot! Mommy didn't give in and he still continued crying. Later, Papa came over to scold him to which he immediately ceased crying (he seems to be more afraid of Papa when Papa is angry!). After Papa left, Mommy explained to him why he should settle himself down to sleep and that new house comes with new rules - no longer like how it was at his paternal grandparents' house. Juan Or was trying hard to hold back his tears but he did it successfully - no more crying. Then, in the darkness of the room, but with curtains opened, Juan Or asked to see outside through the window. It was a beautiful sight - though not of natural scene but very serene and peaceful. Even Mommy enjoyed gazing outside through the window. So both of us sat on the bed in the darkness of the room watching the lights from the lamp post shining onto the houses. Mommy continued explaining to him about how things and rules have changed - no longer the old ways like in paternal grandparents' house. He seemed to understand, even nodded his head. After all the explaining, Mommy asked Juan Or where was the moon, stars, clouds and birds. His answers were,"Moon tau loh (Hainan dialect for 'gone already'), stars tau loh, birds tau loh" except for clouds which were clearly there. Juan Or continued gazing outside, Mommy was already feeling very sleepy and finally dozed off. Moments later, Mommy woke up shortly to find that Juan Or had also dozed off but still in sitting position!

So there goes out first two days of our new home, new life.