Travel with a Baby

Baby with the portable "high chair"

You've never realized how many gadgets and accessories you have for your baby until you're traveling!

I always try to minimize purchase for baby. But when it comes to travel, sometimes, some accessories are more helpful than you thought they are. And this "portable high chair" is one of them!

If you're renting a car, you could rent a baby car seat. But there's no way you could rent a high chair. And let's admit it, you do encounter places with no high chair. When baby is younger, it's not too much a trouble to have him on my lap while I eat. But now that he's much bigger, taller, heavier, and love my food too, I'd rather have him on his own seat.

And this portable high chair comes to rescue!

It's easy to use, as long as you have got a chair with back support, you can easily "lock" the baby to the chair. It's definitely not as safe as a high chair, especially your chair doesn't come with the arm rest. So you still need to keep an eye on your baby while he's in it. But really, this is better than nothing for me!

I've not used it since we're back to Singapore. But I've used it couple of times during our NZ trip. Either in the youth hostel we stayed, or some restaurants.

I've bought mine from here, instructions on how to use can be found in the link too.

I am not earning anything from sharing this information. Just like to share with this the traveling parents!

我以为我会失去你

躺在病床上，是多么的无助

看孩子生病，是件很痛苦的事。送孩子入院，是很心痛的事。

但是，比这一切还要可怕的是，就是没有人能够告诉你，在医院里睡了两天，昏昏沉沉不能醒来的孩子会没事的。没有人会肯定的告诉你，“Everything will be okay”。

这种等他醒来才能做决定的等待，是煎熬的。

入院的那晚我完全没睡，深怕睡着了会发生什么事。

躺在病床边，护士体贴地给我准备了三张椅子（好让我可以躺下），被单和枕头。这样的小举动，我也竟然感动得想哭。当下的我，情绪是多么的不稳定。

我躺着，望着机器，听着他的心跳。我拿起笔记，想写些什么，但没写下多少。写完以后，看一下自己的字迹，发现我的每一行字都往下倾。

让我想起了小时候玩的一个心理测验。在空白的纸上写字，如果字体往上，那你是开心的。如果字体往下，那你是伤心的。以前，我的字体都是往上飞的。

我为了证明这是错的，抑或是证明我是快乐的，我更努力的写更多，但是不管我写了几面，它们都不由自主的往下滑。

原来，这个测验还不是100％的笨。原来，是真的。

Fast forward四个晚上，孩子逐渐清醒。老土的说，心里的那块石头真的有几千几万吨重。他醒来的那个晚上，总算轻了一些。就连医生脸上也终于挂上了放心的微笑。

不瞒你说，我几乎以为我会失去他。那种撕心裂肺的感觉，只能够铭记于心。

跟自己说，以后不管孩子发生什么事，只要不是离开我，就可以了。

祝，身体健康。

Fourth Week into 5:2 Diet

I have to make some adjustments. 

And it's ok, life is about making adjustments to suit ourselves.

6-9 months after my pregnancy, I lost most of my baby weight, in fact, I was lighter than my pre-pregnancy self. I fit into most of my old clothes but not skinny jeans and super fitting dress. Fats are accumulating around my tummy and thighs specifically. With my almost non-existence exercise regime, I know weight is not the number I should be focusing on. Fats are much lighter than muscles. Weight just doesn't reflect how much muffin top I've accumulated.

After life got into a more normal routine, I go back to yoga once a week when I can. Some running here and there but not regular at all. Muscles still do not tone up but a bit better after a year. And I still do not fit in skinny jeans. I gave up.

However, home trips after home trips, Christmas party, New Year party, Chinese New Year, friends and family gathering etc., fats are building up. After my Taiwan trip, even the looser shorts and pants are getting tighter! 

RED ALERT!

This is the reason I jumped into the 5:2 diet ship with The Man.

Three weeks after the diet, I lost almost 1kg, and the tightness in shorts and pants are loosing up. That's great! But something not so great happened too.

I realized my skin looks dull. My face looks aged. 

O.M.G.

I have no idea whether it's related to this 5:2 diet, but for this period of time, this has been the only big change in my life. So I suspected it.

Therefore, on my fourth week, I make a little adjustments on my diet. I still try the intermittent fasting diet but no longer stick to 500 calories. I discard the idea of calories, just eat lesser than normal.

Yesterday was my fast day, and the menu goes like this:

Breakfast: Overnight oat with blueberries and walnuts, and a cup of black coffee

Lunch: Quinoa with Halloumi cheese, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach and mushroom

Dinner: Salad (Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled egg with sesame sauce)

I've always wanted to try quinoa but never did until my friend told me she's been cooking it. So I asked her how she cooks it, and I too got into this "health buff".

Quinoa with halloumi cheese, cherry tomatoes, mushroom and baby spinach

This is easy to cook, and I'm totally in love with halloumi cheese! :P

Ingredients:

1. Quinoa
2. Cherry tomatoes, halved
3. Mushrooms, sliced
4. Baby spinach
5. Halloumi cheese, cubed
6. Garlic, minced
7. Salt and pepper 

Method:

1. Wash the quinoa under running tap water. Boil it for 15-20 minutes. Quinoa absorb a lot of water, so make sure you drain them well after cooking.
2. On the frying pan while quinoa is cooking, pan fry the halloumi until they're golden brown and set them aside.
3. Sauteed the mushrooms, until they're brown and no more liquid coming out, add garlic and cherry tomatoes. And followed by baby spinach for the last as they cook very fast, you do not want to over cook them. 
4. Drain your quinoa, and add them into the pan together with halloumi cheese.
5. Give them a bit of stir, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve.

My target for 5:2 Diet is only until next week. After that, I'll be off for holiday with my family, that's when any diet is useless :P

Let's see how it goes from here. 

Feed The Mommy——Baked Egg and Caprese-Style Portobello Brekkie

Breakfast is my favourite time of the day, because I'll be awake but not my son! Haha! Don't get me wrong, I love my son, he's cute and cuddly. But mommies like alone time too!

I usually try my best to wake up earlier than the two of them to whip up a good breakfast for The Man and I. But sometimes the gravity in the bed is stronger than anywhere else (like today) and I have my breakfast alone after The Man left the house to work.

Baked egg, caprese-style portobello, kiwi and coffee 

Baked Egg

You can use any ingredients you like, but for me there are always the two same versions (because I'm too lazy). It's either mushrooms or spinach and cherry tomatoes.

For mushrooms, I usually use button mushrooms, cut them into thin slices and sauteed them with butter on pan. Once they're pretty and brown, lay them in the bake dish, season with pepper and salt if you like, some herbs too, cheese (I use a mix of cheddar and mozarella) and lay the egg on top of the mushroom.

Easy peasy.

For spinach and cherry tomatoes, wilt the spinach over hot water, and dry them. Half the cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and add cheese (For this I use feta). Lay the egg on top of the spinach and cherry tomatoes.

Place the bake dish in a hot water bath. Bake them in the oven at 180 Degrees for 11-15 minutes depending how cooked you want the egg to be. I like it runny so I always bake it at 12 minutes.

Caprese Style Portobello

This is super simple. Remove the stem on the mushroom. Half the cherry tomatoes and season it with salt, pepper and basil. Coat the portobello with some cooking oil, lay cherry tomatoes in the mushrooms, add mozarella cheese.

Place them on top of aluminum foil as the liquid from portobello will dirty your pan if you don't. It's for easy cleaning afterwards.

Bake this at 180 Degrees until the cheese is brown and pretty. It's about 11-12 minutes.

I got this recipe from here.

I love my breakfast!

Bon Appetit!

Third Week of 5:2 Diet

I'm too lazy and busy to record every meal of my 5:2 diet.

This is what I had for today's breakfast and lunch. I'm probably eating oat again for dinner. I'm just too lazy to think.

Breakfast:

Rolled oat cooked in milk, with chia seeds, blueberries and walnuts 

Lunch:

Salad (Butterhead lettue, cherry tomatoes, egg) in Japanese sesame sauce, with additional white sesame toppings and a cup of black coffee

According to the app my friend recommended to me (Lifesum), the calories intake are estimated as below:

Breakfast: 122 calories

Lunch: 147 calories

But I believe what I had is somewhat higher than the estimation, so I think I've intake 300 for today. 

Feed The Mommy——Tuna Cakes with Lemon Dijon Sauce

Ever since I embarked in the 5:2 Diet journey, I hardly have to cook. Besides, my son is on a strike, instead of eating like a toddler, he went back to eat baby food like puree and cereal. It kind of makes my life easier really, I hardly do any cooking anymore. And groceries last me for a longer time!

Such a bliss!

Anyway, I still browse easy recipes every now and then. Recipes for one, recipes that is baby friendly (and edible for adults), recipes for lazy person, quick recipes etc. And my recent favourite is Mediterranean diet, they seem to be healthy and quick to prepare!

And I tried tuna cakes yesterday! And I love it so much I'm going to make more next week!

Tuna cakes in lettuce bed with lemon dijon sauce

I happened to see this recipe on Pinterest, and thought to myself, "This is simple enough for me!".

I do not measure everything accurately, I just made some estimation based on the recipe. And because it's my first trial, I made it with one can of tuna instead of two.

Things that I will like to change for my next trial:
1. Add more Dijon in the sauce
2. Crush in some garlic
3. I might want to add one egg for a can of tuna
4. Eat this with burger bun
5. Add a lot more chives! Chives is brilliant :P

If you are using tuna in olive oil, keep the oil aside after draining and use it for frying the tuna cakes.

Lemon Dijon sauce on tuna cake

The lemon Dijon sauce is the soul of this dish, so make sure you fine tune the taste of the sauce to your likings before serving.

Definitely a recipe to keep :)