Date with Brandon

Pictures -

Din Tai Fung's steamed pork dumplings

Marche - A usual morning stop

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

This morning Brandon slept until 7:15 am. Yay! Lately, he has been getting up around 6 or 6:30. So early! :) Steven asked me the other morning why Brandon doesn't like to sleep in on the weekends. We both just laughed!

I decided that we would still walk Steven to the train this morning. Brandon definitely wanted to go out, and it's not too long of a walk to the train. After we parted ways with Steven, I decided to try something new for breakfast. Ya Kun Kaya Toast is a chain restaurant which sells kaya toast, a favorite snack here in Singapore. Kaya is a green spread/jam made of eggs, sugar, and coconut milk and flavored with pandan. It is spread on toast, often with butter. Pretty good! The spread was sweet, but light. I also didn't think that the coconut overpowered the flavor too much. I'll eat coconut, but I'm not a huge coconut fan. Not sure I could really even taste the coconut. I'll definitely have some kaya toast again.

As it was still early and not unbearably hot, Brandon and I walked to Mt. Elizabeth Hospital for his follow-up appointment with Dr. Chiang. It was just a ten minute walk from the train station.

I really like Dr. Chiang so far. He checked Brandon and said that his lungs sound much better. He wants us to continue the breathing treatments and cold and cough medicines for one week, and he asked that we come back in one week for another follow-up. It sounds like Brandon had a cold, as well as some allergies, asthma, and/or bronchitis.

Brandon weighs about 10 kg still, which is just over 22 pounds. He was 77 cm long at the appointment today, which is just under 30 1/2 inches. His temperature was normal today (36.8 degrees Celsius under the arm. 37 degrees Celsius is normal.)

Dr. Chiang told me that he went to medical school in Singapore, but he studied in England for one year, as well. His son went to medical school at Duke University in the States. (I specify where because I think there is a branch of Duke University Medical School here in Singapore.) His daughter is an attorney here in Singapore. Dr. Chiang has three grandchildren. He had many pictures of them in his office. It is good to feel that your child's pediatrician really does love children and his profession. Makes me trust his decisions even more.

Next week, when we go back to Dr. Chiang, he will run labs on Brandon's bloodwork. Not looking forward to that. But, we need to see if Brandon's iron is up since we started giving iron supplements at 12 months when he was classified as anemic. Also, I am anxious to check that all of his labs look good.

Since it was still a good hour before Brandon's nap, I decided to go into the Paragon before heading home. The hospital is located just behind the mall, and I thought that Brandon would enjoy a nice play at the playground on Level 5. He was so happy when I got him out of the stroller to play!

After Brandon played for a while, we were both hungry for lunch. Rather than trying to get him home and make him something to eat, I decided that we would have lunch together at Din Tai Fung. I was craving xiao long bao (steamed pork dumplings)! We have been to Din Tai Fung before. Supposedly, Din Tai Fung, Taiwanese cuisine, was ranked as one of the world's Top Ten Best Restaurants by The New York Times. Delicious!!! I don't know that I've ever taken Brandon to a sit down restaurant by myself before. Luckily, he was in a good mood, hungry, and the food came quickly. He loved the pork dumplings and the pork and egg fried rice. I was so happy that Brandon ate the egg. He hasn't wanted egg before! Not that I needed the caffeine, but I also enjoyed the hot jasmine tea that was served with lunch. Mmmmmm...

After our nice lunch date, Brandon and I took a cab home. The Paragon isn't far at all from our apartment, but I just didn't want to overdo it. The cab ride was fast, cheap, and cool. The best decision.

After Brandon's nap, Jo, Jessie, and Jake stopped by, and then we all headed down to the pool. Brandon wasn't really in the mood to swim today. He just wanted to walk around the pool, and then he wanted to go to the tennis courts. I didn't want to let Brandon run around on the courts today though. I figured that he would run around too much which could bother his chest congestion. Also, there are so many trees around the courts that I was worried about any allergies that would complicate his breathing. So, as the pool wasn't as exciting today, we headed back inside.

I've been having a little trouble getting Brandon to eat vegetables. So, today I thought I would try giving Brandon a jar of baby food vegetables. He ate the whole thing! It's not something I'll do all of the time, but I was just so happy that he ate the vegetables. Maybe I'll start mushing up his vegetables...???

After eating and changing out of our wet swimsuits, we headed down to Jo's for a while. Jo had said that Jessie was having a little trouble with her math, and I volunteered to help Jessie with her assignment that is due tomorrow. Jessie is in 3rd grade, and her homework involved her finding the perimeter and area of figures. She also had a couple of questions about the number of faces, vertices, and edges in some 3D figures. And, I was impressed to see a problem that involved the net drawing of a cube. I'm looking forward to getting into a school or two here for some observations. Really hope I can find a time to do this!

Mum's Day Celebration

Pictures -

Singapore desserts - I didn't take this picture. I pulled it from the internet. However, these are some of the desserts that we were served at our Mum's Day celebration

Baby Bites - aka Mum Mums in the U.S. Notice that these are Chicken with Vegetable Flavor! Don't have this kind in the U.S.!

Baby cereal - Heinz in one of the main brands I've seen for baby food here in Singapore. I wonder why Heinz doesn't market and sell baby food back home?

This morning Brandon seemed to be doing much better. I was so relieved! I could still tell that he had some chest congestion, and his nose was very runny in the morning. However, he wasn't weezing, and it didn't sounds like his chest was rattling. His breathing had definitely slowed down too.

I wanted Brandon to take it easier today. Since he was itching to get out of the apartment a couple of hours after waking, I took him down to the pool. It was definitely hot outside already (at 10:30 am), but there was some shade over the pool. Also, the pool water was cool, and it was so refreshing. I think I even felt a nice breeze a few times! :) Jo, Jake, and Jessie came down to the pool for a bit, which helped entertain Brandon and me. He doesn't really enjoy the pool if there are no other people down there. I also walked Brandon over to the tennis courts where some older boys were playing. Brandon was so intrigued. He watched them hit the ball back and forth. I'll be very surprised if Brandon isn't interested in sports when he is older.

While Brandon was napping, Mommy was able to go down to the pool by herself! First time since we've been here! Steven was working from home, so I enjoyed a nice thirty minutes actually swimming and lounging down at the pool. A vacation!

At 3 pm, Steven spent some time playing with Brandon, so I could go down to the Mother's Day celebration that our apartment manager had organized. It was wonderful! There were probably 10 - 15 other moms from our building there. We each received a hot pink carnation with a hot pink ribbon which had our name painted on it. We were served tea and desserts. Yum! Some of the desserts were local desserts that are served at high teas here. For example, I had dadar gulung, an Indonesian pandan pancake with coconut filling. (In the dessert picture above, these are at the far left - the green rolls) Pandan is a tree that grows in Asia, and the leaves from the tree are sweet. The leaves are used to make a pandan paste that flavors desserts.

There was also had a huge chocolate cake for us. So yummy! I didn't have my camera with me, but we did take a group picture of all of us mums. I will have to get a copy e-mailed to me and post it later.

We were treated in style today! I had a nice manicure down by the pool before heading back up to see Steven and Brandon. So thankful for Mum's Day, one week early! :)

This evening, we went to Tanglin Mall for dinner and grocery shopping. We enjoyed food at Chili's. A nice taste of home...