Early Riser.

I am waking up at 3am again. Why? I dunno. I just cannot fall asleep. I have a lot of things in my mind. One of them is money management. Hahaha… “My part-time business is managing and investing my money and creating passive income streams.” This is one of the verses in “Attitude of Wealth” from T.Harv Eker. I got this “Attitude of Wealth” verses stuck on my wardrobe. I will read them on and off.

I am wondering if it’s due to the coffee that I drank yesterday afternoon. That’s my very first cup of coffee after years, ever since my detox before I got pregnant with Aloysius! I am still fully breastfeeding though. Some how, I am craving for coffee lately. Why? I dunno. Maybe stress. Maybe my body is acidic. Yesterday, my maid fell sick. She had a headache when she woke up in the morning. So I asked her to drink lots of water and have some rest. I settled my ABC on my own. And guess what… I almost forgot to shower Aloysius in the morning! Hahaha… I showered him just before we went out for his Julia Gabriel playclub class. Luckily, after resting for the morning, she’s fine already. Thank God for that. Else I dunno how to bring Aloysius for class.

It has been some time ago that I write about Aloysius’ diet.

He’s now 2 years old already. I have successfully 100% keep him out of food with sugar and salt for 2 years! That’s a challenge in a family of chefs. I had constant nagging and reasoning why we need salt and sugar. You will be surprised at the reasons the older generations can come up with. Even deep fried food is also needed by our body cos we need the oil, while it’s widely promoted by the health promotion board throughout the world that deep fried food are no good for health. What a contradiction!

Well, when I talk about “sugar”, I am referring to refined sugar. Do you know that sugar is not supposed to be white? How come it’s white? I also kept him off from the “hidden sugar” in food like bread, cakes, etc. I believe in getting the “sugar” we need from fruits. There’s lots of it. Aloysius loves fruits a lot. Nowadays, he loves dragonfruit and kiwi.

A very strong belief that my mum has about salt is “no salt, so tasteless, how to eat?” Well, for us adults who has been eating lots of food that are laden with salt and sugar, of course, we cannot swallow plain food. Tastebuds are cultivated, but my mum just does not understand this. Hmm… I am worried when she’s the chef behind Aloysius food. I told her strictly no salt and strictly no sugar at all. Sometimes, she will tell me “a little bit”. Well, her “little bit” can be a lot, and it’s not measured in grams. I am a researcher, you see. Everything gotta be quantified for a fair comparison. But she does not understand too. You know, I have been drinking soup without adding any salt and sugar. When my mum boils soup, it’s very tasty. She told me only “a little bit” of salt. Sometimes it gets a bit salty, even to my taste. It could be too salty for Aloysius. Most and utmost importantly, there’s no MSG. She used to put Knorr chicken stock into the food to make it more “delicious”. And chicken stock has “no MSG”, according to her. Duh… Well, my aunt also says that those commercial powdered chicken stock does not have MSG, cos without it, the food does not taste good. She gotta accept my disagreement ultimately and listen to me, but with some nagging and reasoning here and there.

I make sure my kitchen has sea salt and unrefined sugar only. For me, I will use sea salt on my vegetables. For my soup, there will be no salt added too. I will put in lots of ingredients to make it tasty. But it’s still tasteless to my sisters and parents. Aloysius is also into eating what I eat too. Hence I gotta use the more healthy seasoning. Sometimes, I use miso paste. When I buy miso paste, I will read the labels to make sure there’s no benito and other preservatives.

Aloysius tasted the first piece of cake at his friend’s, Damien’s, birthday party. It’s a week before he turns two. He was eyeing on the cake and kept wanting the cake. But after giving him one small slice, after he had finished it, he did not want more. Hmm… Probably it’s because the cake is sweet and he’s not used to sweet food. Good rite? That’s what I want to cultivate. A few of my friends who are strict with their children’s diet also feedback that their children, will take sweets, but only a little and will not finish them. Aloysius had his birthday cake too. On his birthday, when I was busy, Aloysius was fed with his own cake when he already had enough. He was chased around to be fed the cake. Haiz… You see… When you tell the old folks that he can eat a little… A little can be a lot… and they make sure he eats. I am tempted to say “no” cake at all. Then, I will continue to have nagging and reasonings.

Having blog all these, I am very thankful that my kids have very concern grandparents, and I am thankful for their unconditional love they showered on Aloysius, Bernice and Charlene. And also their willingness and eagerness to help in looking after them. It’s really a joy to see them growing up happy and being loved by so many people :)

Aloysius will eat my vegetables too. He loves broccoli and cauliflower now. His lunch will either be noodles or rice, plus soup and some of my vegetables. His soup will not have added salt and sugar, but with lots of ingredients – minimum 5 types of vegetables. I found noodles without salt finally. His dinner will be rice, soup and vegetables. Sometimes, he will have cod fish for dinner. Perhaps once or twice a month. Hahaha… plus lots of Vplus to get rid of the heavy metals from his body, if there’s any.

Oh yes, do you know the power of the radio and television? Recently, there are talks and shows about diet for babies and toddlers and children. My parents seem to agree with whatever information listened from the radio and shown on TV! They will tell me some of the things that I have been doing and they had disagreed on. I just wonder why they do not believe me. I am a researcher and I do my research, be sure before I execute.

Even for the flashcards, I had lots of disagreement when I started with Aloysius. After the TV shows showing the abilities of young kids through learning from flashcards, my sisters and parents keep asking if I do flashcards for Bernice and Charlene. I still do flashcards for Aloysius and he loves them. When I told him “it’s flashcards time”, he will arrange my chair in front of the sofa for me, and he will sit on the sofa and wait for me to get the cards. He will always ask for “more cards, more cards”. When I am done with two packs of cards, I will tell him “tomorrow morning”. Nowadays, I just need to say “no more cards”, and he will continue with “tomorrow morning”. Hahaha… Cute rite? There are lots of other outputs from him. I am not supposed to “test” him, but at least I know my efforts are not wasted. He knows parts of the body and can count 1-10 in Malay. He can certainly count 1-20 in English and Mandarin. I am trying to get him to count till 30 by the end of the month. I think it’s already an accomplishment for a 2 year old. He knows many verses of “san zi jing”. The limitation is on mommy who needs to catch up. I need the book to read! He knows “cheng yu”. I just tell him the first 3 words and he will complete the last word for me. He knows “species of butterflies”. A few days ago, when I was surfing the web for species of butterflies to find out how to create flashcards on the life cycle of butterflies, he pointed to me “peacock”. Yes, that particular species of butterfly is called “peacock”. I wonder if he knows Japanese, French, German too. He said a few words here and there when he was listening to the foreign languages songs. It’s mommy here who do not understand these languages. Oops… I better stop here. Next time, when you see Aloysius, do not test him and praise him too much ok? Not suppose to do that… This is the road to arrogance, according to Prof. Shichida. I only want him to have the abilities to be a leader in future, and he has the abilities to pick up things very fast. I am exposing him to many languages now even though I do not speak them. The aim is to give him a headstart in these languages, and be able to pick up the languages he needs in future in whatever he does. I think this will be an invaluable gift we are giving him. These, must thank my hubby for the financial investment in the classes and materials. Oh yes, Aloysius’ classmate at Shichida class can spell! She’s 4 months older than Aloysius and she can spell already. Give her a word with the letters jumbled up, and she can tell you the word. Wow! Super smart, indeed! The mother, a teacher, also used flashcards to teach spelling. The mother will spend 2 hours daily to teach her since she was a baby.

Let’s talk about Aloysius’ social skills development. His teacher at Julia Gabriel, Rueben, commented that he has improved leaps this term. He’s now more aware of his surroundings. He’s no longer engrossed in his own world. 2 days ago, when we were at the polyclinic, he saw another toddler. He went to her, danced and sang in front of her, trying to make her laugh. Hahaha… It was pretty funny cos it’s the first time he’s aware of other kids around him.

Another thing to share before I go off to bed again, 2 years old is the memory genius phase. To nurture superb memory, gotta be NOW, according to Prof. Shichida. It’s making me quite “kan cheong” cos Aloysius does not like linking memory game. Part of the reason is mommy does not like it too, and did not spend much time in looking for memory materials. Gotta buck up in that…

Wah… So much about Aloysius already. Just a little about Bernice and Charlene. Charlene can crawl out of the mattress already. Yesterday, she crawled out of the mattress and her face touched the cold, hard floor. When she sleeps, she’s rotating 360 degree. Bernice is getting there too. Bernice and Charlene are 6.2kg and 7.15kg respectively, as of 9 July 2008 (3.5 months old). They are fully breastfed for 3.5 months already. Time flies…