The tooth fairy visits

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a tiny baby named Lukie Lucas.  One night, the tooth fairy came and sprinkled some teething dust on the sweet sleeping baby.  When he awoke, imagine mummy's surprise when she saw the tips of 2 pearly whites!

The end

Ps. Lukie Lucas is eating rather well now.  He loves his avocado and sweet potato mash. And just for the record, it's the bottom incissors.

Alexander is 2.5 years old while the tiny tyke, Lukie, is 6 months, 1 week +1 day

Oh Fuck

Recently when Lucas spit up a little milk on the floor, Alexander pointed to it and said, "oh fuck". A moment of silence and disbelief ensued. Then he said it again. And there was no mistake what he had said ;) Today it happened again. Lucas spit up some milk in the kitchen and Alexander ran over, pointed at the offensive puddle and exclaimed, "oh fuck". We think we know who he picked it up from...

But let's not get too hung up over that one word. It's not socially polite but I think it's hilarious when he said "dumb fuck" for "dump truck".

Alexander is 2.5 years old while the tiny tyke, Lukie, is 6 months +1 day

Say Ummm!

Precisely a week ago Lucas had his first taste of rice porridge. It was a messy and frustrating affair. He didn't know to open his mouth and whatever little porridge I could put into his mouth, out it came again. 4 days on, he could open his mouth and receive the spoon - what a breakthrough! And I believe he did swallow a little as well even if I used several pieces of paper to mop up drool and flying porridge that the little rascal had razzed all over. Today, I swear he did lunge at the spoon because that poor little thing was starving. Bad idea to have him so hungry. He threw a royal fit and the feed was over. Next on the agenda is to have him cooperate by leaning back in his chair so that I can at least see where my spoon is heading!

By contrast, Alexander's first 'bite' into the exciting world of real food was a breeze. Of course he stained a couple of bibs but I didn't remember having to wrestle with him - my left hand holding Lucas' head against the chair and my right holding the spoon trying to avoid his flapping arms. (We think Lucas has my Southern-Chinese highly-excitable temperament while Alexander has the calm Finnish outlook.) I'm hoping that Lucas will master the eating technique soon so that I can increase both the portion size and variety. Who would think that eating can be such a learning milestone? That the tongue has to learn not to push the food out but instead bring it to the back of the throat and then swallowing it? Baby steps....

Boiling & thawing frozen baby food

I read this from a forum for mums. This post is about freezing and thawing of baby food in ice cubes.

"When i heat the frozen puree, do i have to heat till it boils but b4 that we need to thaw first right?"

Are some folks really that dumb to ask a stupid question like that? I was going to say something about stupid questions and stupid people but I think I'll hold my tongue on that. To answer the question above, it merely requires common sense (which also goes to show common sense isn't so 'common' after all).

Obviously, it's a matter of preference. Previously cooked puree doesn't require boiling a second time as I'd assume that the act of boiling is to kill off bacteria. The underlying assumption is that the food cube had been prepared in a hyigenic manner to begin with. In fact, submitting a food item to high heat may reduce its Vitamin C. Secondly, if you've got a wailing baby crying murder, heating a food until it boils means a longer waiting time for the food to be cooled again = more wailing from the said baby.

And as for thawing, it's also logical to say that the act of boiling would mean that at some point in time the food is thawed before its temperature rises until its boiling point. Again, if you've got a wailing baby and the frozen cube is taken directly from the freezer and put into the microwave, it would also mean that the cube is thawed then subsequently reheated, if the definition of 'thaw' is that it's no longer in a frozen state.

Now, if you take 'thaw' to mean the act of putting the frozen cube in the fridge to thaw for a couple of hours before consumption, likewise, yes, the food will be thawed before it finally reaches the mouth of your baby. But that isn't a necessary step. And I should just say this because common sense is obviously lacking in some - if you choose to nuke the food, it must be mixed up well so that there isn't a hot spot that might burn a baby. Gosh, some people just need all the dots to be so close together.