More Garden Things

As of a week and a half after planting, my vegetables now look like this:

As a reminder, the left side is Schultz, and the right is Miracle Gro.

The beans in the Miracle Gro look slightly better, but that might also be because some of the leaves of the beans that were in Schultz were bad looking last week. I don't remember how they looked when I started - should have taken better pictures. Anyway the difference is enough to be marginal in my opinion.

The broccoli however, looks very different. The ones in the Schultz (even the random 2 in pots) look noticeably better than the ones in the Miracle Gro.

Miracle Gro:

Schultz:

Anyway, we'll see if this difference remains the same throughout, or changes as the broccoli continues to grow.

As a side note, today I went to the Home Depot at Brentwood after E and I had a playdate with C and her son S. The plants there definitely were more varied and nicer looking than what I remember of the Home Depot at Overland that Jon and I visited last weekend, but nothing really called to me except some watermelon starters that I sadly have no space for (BOO!), so I didn't get any plants. I did however, get some no melt suet and a suet feeder on a whim, plus a small watering can. Total bill was less than $6 with tax.

After the acquisition of the suet feeder, my bird feeding set up now looks like this:

Last week we actually made a trip to Florissant, because we thought that was where the closet Wild Birds Unlimited store was to us (for some reason, the Warson Woods location didn't show up). At the store we bought a squirrel proof bird feeder that is much more sturdier than the simple plastic one we had (that already showed remarkable chew marks from squirrel teeth). The 'squirrel proof' feature is a result of it having a spring at the top, and if a squirrel climbs on it, its weight closes the hole of the feeder. It was fun earlier this week watching the squirrels try to game the new feeder, but they evidently have been largely unsuccessful given how much bird seed there is remaining this week. 

The weird green patch on top of the mulch is right at the bottom of where the old bird feeder was, and where the old bird seed fell and sprouted. I even watered the patch a few times after they sprouted. That's another unplanned experiment I've got going on, to observe and see what happens to that bird seed patch.

Vegetable Starters

 

Last week when I was at Menards with E, I bought a bag of Schultz brand Garden Soil, because it was cheaper and I wondered how it would compare to Miracle Gro, the usual leading brand (and the only one I see around my Mother-In-Law's house). I decided to do a little experiment, putting the beans and broccoli starters I had on the left side in Schultz, and putting the beans and broccoli starters on the right in Miracle Gro (the 2 broccoli starters in the random pots are in Schultz, because I had extra soil + 1 lost kalanchoe that I just repotted yesterday after seeing it suffer for a while). 

So far to my dismay, the Miracle Gro beans look a little better, but they also did have the head start of about a day in a planter vs a starter tray. The broccoli however looks a little bit too similar for me to determine anything at this point (planted them on Wednesday last week), and I realise now that you can barely see them at all in this picture.

Anyway I am having fun, and enjoying checking up on my plants a lot.

634

 It's been about a week and a half since we have moved in to our new place at 634, and I suppose I'm now used to things around here, and have been able to form some sort of a routine with E. What is new about this place, besides having no kitchen (until the 27 of Aug! URGH), is the fact that it comes with a garden and lawn. 

Now I don't really care for lawns especially because I remember reading they're not really good for the environment because they require a lot of water and don't contribute to the environment (e.g. no shelter for animals, no pollen for bees, etc.). But having a lawn still means somewhat taking care of it, even though I don't need to bother with cutting the grass because we hired a company to do it. So yesterday, the day after a Derecho wreaked havoc all throughout the Midwest, I spent something like 1hr+ picking up all the fallen branches and twigs off the lawn, because I had seen the neighbour opposite do it and assumed it was a thing people do. 

The fun part however, is the rest of the garden, and I am now obsessed with my new hobby even though it makes me hot and sweaty - gardening. As a correlated activity, we also bought a bird feeder, though it's been attacked non-stop by squirrels, and so my next task is to swap it out and get a squirrel-proof bird feeder:

I planted some beans a few days ago in some cedar planters that we got from Menards using starters that we purchased from Hartke Nursery:

And yesterday I planted this shrub that I purchased from Dauster Greenhouse:

It's called a Proud Berry plant, and I chose it over others because I saw that it was labelled as a native plant, though I now realise that there's another more stringent category of native plants, those are are specifically native to Missouri. The more you learn I guess. 

My goal is to eventually have a nice garden that helps support the wildlife in the area, and to cover up the weird bare patch you see in the picture above, so people can't stare into our living room. I'd also like to grow some vegetables from seed one day, though I have just purchased some broccoli starters from the O.K. Hatchery and Feed Store today. Fingers crossed that all of this works out, unlike the 10,000x other plants I've killed before when living in Singapore.

Cooking in Bulk

The kitchen at the new house we are moving to is not yet ready, and won't be for the next 3 weeks (delays in the counter top delivery), so for the past few days I've been cooking up a storm and freezing as much food as I can. The meals I've made are:

1) Spaghetti Bolognese

2) White Bean Chicken Chili

3) Red Beans and Rice

4) Mac and Cheese with Broccoli 

5) Cottage Pie

And for snacking/dessert, chocolate chip cookies. 

I am utterly exhausted and spent now. Today alone, in between all the cooking, I went grocery shopping, loaded the car, drove to the new house and unloaded the car while dealing with Elizabeth. I really hope I can sleep tonight, and not spend another night worrying and stressing out about the move.

7553

I have a headache today, and feel a little dizzy. This could be because I didn't finish my tea today (something I just discovered when I got up to put the cup in the kitchen), because I got distracted playing with E. This could also be because I didn't sleep enough, and E woke me up at 3am crying for milk. Either way, I have a headache and don't feel great, and feel sensitive to sound. 

Just my luck then, that today of all days the new dog in the apartment building + an older dog decide to have a hallway 'conversation'. I kept hearing the howling barks ('wok woooowoooowoooowoooowoooo') going on and on and followed the noise upstairs (not hard in a 3 story apartment with 12 apartments only I suppose), and realised the new dog in 3A was howling away at the dog in 3D, with the 3D dog responding now and then. Now I've never heard the dog in 3D before, even though I knew it was there, so this is definitely the 3A dog's doing. I guess it must be the same dog I saw a few days ago, some shaggy looking medium sized thing of a breed I definitely did not recognise. It's new owners were trying to coax him up and down the stairs. Anyway I guess the tenants of 3A aren't home even though the lights were switched on inside, and so the dog was doing its howling thing. 

This is definitely one of the quirks of living in an apartment building, hearing all the noise around. I usually find it comforting though, hearing signs of life outside, and running into neighbours and making conversation. In New York there was Eric, who lived upstairs with his 2 (and then 1) dogs, and Steve and Alexandra opposite us. Here in this apartment there's Mike, Chastity, and Julie.

I've lived in apartments for most of my adult life, starting with when I lived in London. On Thursday however, we will finally be moving into our new house. I am simultaneously stressed out by the move as well as looking forward to a new chapter in my life. Meanwhile, the work to prep for it has been seemingly endless, and the the stressors many. It will definitely be an interesting change.

New Stamps

I went to the Clayton post office today after several months to mail off some packages and buy some stamps. I don't know if you know this, but I am a huge sucker for nice designs on stamps. If there is a nice and cute version, why would I want to boring pre-printed ones from those machines, or a pharmacy? So I usually wait until I go to a post office to buy a whole bunch of stamps at one go, thus ensuring we have a supply of nice stamps at home. These stamps were from my latest visit today, and apparently the fruit and vegetables ones just came out. The state and country fairs one however, is really cool and is actually a series of 4 stamps that forms 1 larger image:

So anyway, very cool. 

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For the last 4 days, I have been out everyday. Part necessary errands, part cross stitching and embroidering mania. I feel a little bad that I have been out so much in a pandemic, but as Jon pointed out it's also probably from feeling pent up at being home throughout the pandemic, and now feeling more comfortable with driving as we have a 2nd car. 

This phase kind of started last week Tuesday after I got a huge surge of anxiety from dealing with (and driving to) the new house. Now I am actively trying to tamp down this somewhat manic stage, because as I mentioned, I feel bad and irresponsible even though I take all the necessary precautions like mask wearing and carrying E inwards in a carrier. Though now given that I think I have finally finished all my errands, and have practically bought something like 50% of the entire DMC thread collection, I think I will be staying home for the next week, unless I need to do grocery shopping. 

This has been a list of all the places I have been since last Wednesday to today:

14 July - New House, Schnucks

15 July - Target, JoAnn Fabric

16 July (with Jon, as he had the day off) - Target, Hobby Lobby, Once Upon a Child (last 2 in the same strip mall)

18 July - JoAnn Fabric, Marshalls, Buy Buy Baby, Ross Dress For Less (all in the same strip mall)

20 July - JoAnn Fabric, Marshalls, Buy Buy Baby, Dollar Tree, Aldi (first 3 in the same strip mall)

21 July - Michaels, Walgreens

22 July - Hobby Lobby, Burlington Coat Factory, Aldi (all in same strip mall), Walgreens

23 July - Post Office, Target, UPS Store, Schnucks

DMC Threads

For the month of June, I read zero books. This was because I started cross-stitching again, and finally completed a kit that I had purchased and first started way back in 2014. In the interim, I've 1) finished two MAs, 2) gotten married, 3) had a child, 4) moved across the country, and lastly 5) purchased a house, so let's just say a lot has been happening since I first started this cross stitch, to when I finally completed it 6 years later.

Anyway I have since moved on to try my hand at embroidery, which to the dismay of my hands involves a needle that is a lot sharper. I have since managed to poke out chunks of skin, which really stings when I do housework. Bodily damage aside, this has also meant that as I move away from kits that come with prepared colour threads, I now need to purchase threads.

Enter the DMC embroidery shelf. Since I have started (or re-started) this particular type of craftwork, I have spent close to 15 minutes in front the DMC shelves at Michaels and (today especially), Joann Fabric. I am starting to think that E is close to developing a huge aversion to the sight of the DMC shelf, because I invariably end up spending far more time there than her toddler mind can appreciate. The DMC shelf means I will stand still there, bending forwards and backwards and shuffling too and fro as I pick the 'perfect' colours, all while she is just stuck to me in a backwards facing front baby carrier (safest way to bring her around in the era of COVID). It means I will not be moving from aisle to aisle, giving her new things to look at. For this ill-behaviour on my part, I will be subjected to 1) mask pulling, 2) face slapping, 3) audible complaining and some shrieking, 4) weird stretches and flinging about.

All this parental abuse is worth it I suppose, as I sit here in front of the computer admiring my new hoard. At 60 cents a skein of thread, it's a relatively cheap hobby to go wild on, though I feel the skin on my hands is already tingling in imagined punishment.

Snapshot

I was originally intending to write something a lot more in depth, now that things have opened up here a bit, but I am exhausted after cleaning. E and I have gone on a total of 2 playdates with our old buddies (old as in, knew before quarantine, lol) C and S, and met a new Mom and her kiddo, J and A, at Tilles Park.

E celebrated her 1st birthday last weekend, and Jon and I had a zoom party with her and our families. I baked a three tier carrot cake - the first carrot cake I've ever made, and also the first three tiered cake I've ever made - and had a freak out last Friday evening when I realised there was no way to put the cake into the fridge without it drying out, as we had no container. In the end, Jon went to Schnuck's last minute and bought two big aluminum trays meant for roasting turkeys, and taped them together, lol. Cheapest and most simple cake container ever. It's crazy to think that E is already 1 year old, and I am very glad. A year ago, it felt like I wouldn't make it as a Mum, but I guess I must have.

This week was a huge ball of stress trying to arrange things for the new house, while also taking care of this apartment and baby. I am glad that most of the pressing things have been dealt with, and that the end of the week has finally arrived.

Change in Tastes

In Spring 2019, when I was pregnant with E and bored in NYC, I used to go baby clothes shopping at the various Burlington Coat Factories nearby. Sometimes if I really liked a particular outfit, but it didn't match the right size and type for the season (e.g. no short sleeved dresses for Winter), I'd keep the style in mind and doggedly look for it in the other stores. A few times I was successful, a few times I would fail.

The above outfit is one example of an outfit that I fell in love with, and went around searching other branches for, until I got the right size. I remember thinking it was the cutest, cheeriest thing I had ever seen. I brought it home and showed it to Jon, and I still remember him saying it was "very yellow".

Well anyway, flash forward a year+ and E can finally fit in this outfit, but I am no longer in love with it. In fact, looking at it makes me wonder what I was thinking when I was pregnant. The pants are OK and still cute, but the top is very yellow, and of course yellow looks terrible with East Asian skin tones. And the print is awfully loud (though since E is loud I guess it matches?).

So far, E has only worn this outfit once. That being said however, she has played with the top and bottom a lot as I left them on the sofa and forgot about them after taking this picture a few days ago. She tugs at the clothes like she is trying to tear them apart, and plays some form of peek-a-boo behind them. At least she is getting some sort of use out of them.

St. Louis June 2020 Protests

Last night I sat in front of the computer, cross stitching, while watching a Facebook live stream of the protests in downtown St. Louis. I watched from the beginning of the confrontation, when the protesters first reached the city police HQ on Olive, to the police coming out in riot gear, to the peaceful protesters dispersing... and then all hell breaking loose. First it started with the protesters shooting fireworks, and then the police started firing tear gas in response. Finally, and it seemed like everyone ran away. Then the 7/11 got looted, and suddenly it was on fire, and then more fires were set. Meanwhile I sat there cross stitching, in the safety of my home, reading all the real time comments from other viewers. It was a moment to think about how social media has changed the way news is disseminated - but that's a musing for another time.

I went to bed after that, and woke up today to the news that more people were killed, and the police shot at. More stores looted and set on fire.

Jon and I don't live anywhere near the downtown St. Louis area, so it's not a sense of real anxiety that I feel right now, but more of a worry about the general high tensions and how it negatively affects the community. Of a sadness at seeing the places that we have passed by destroyed. Of a frustration that things have come to this; that a police officer in Minnesota thought that kneeling for 8 minutes on a black man's neck was appropriate use of force despite all the other past police brutality cases. Of confusion that I am being told by some on my more left-leaning friends on Facebook that condemning the looting is racist because black people should be allowed to perpetuate the same violence and inequality that they have experienced for the past 400 years (...on other black owned stores in their community?!? I don't get it.) Of another type of confusion - where do I stand in all of this as an Asian immigrant? I feel like a temporary visitor, this is not my country, and I should not intervene, but of course I support the Black Lives Matter movement.

There are a multitude of thoughts and emotions I have surrounding this, and no clear solution to any of the negativity. It's just a lot after weeks of economic depression from coronavirus shut downs. 

French Alphabet Blocks

This weekend was the first time I have purchased anything from Facebook Marketplace. Before, I was vaguely aware it existed, but used only Craigslist when I was purchasing 2nd hand furniture for the apartment I shared with Marina in 2015, and then 2nd hand wedding decor in 2017. Now one of my habits is to just go on Facebook Marketplace and look at the random baby things for sale near me.

Last Saturday however, I happened to go on and see that someone nearby had listed these blocks for $15. I had seen them online before (retails around $45), they come in a variety of languages, and thought they looked cool, but wasn't sure if they were worth the money. At $15 however, and in French (side note: Jon reads to Elizabeth in French, somehow his French is better than his Tagalog or Mandarin, lol), they were a steal.

Today I finally got round to cleaning then with a mixture of vinegar and water, and then I laid them all out on newspaper to dry and counted 32 blocks, which I thought was a little unusual. Then I went online to check the item on the official website and it says it comes in sets of 28. So I thought maybe more blocks were included by accident and flipped them all onto the animal side - but no, they were all in French too.

I am confused. What a weird mystery.

Baby Board Books List

E has a ton of books. Even before she was born, Jon and I already had some children's books in our possession, typically purchased by Jon because he liked the illustrations. I was also no stranger to the children's books, having started venturing into that section ever since K, my niece was born and I started babysitting R in late 2017/early 2018. Anyway, with this in mind, and how much I personally value books and reading, it should come as no surprise that E has quite a lot of books. She has maybe 50 board books, if not more. When I started writing this, she was doing her usual practice of taking some of her board books out of her wooden crate, flipping through them, and throwing a bunch around.

E just turned 11 months old a few days ago, and with this in mind, I want to create a list of her books that I like the most. Factors like quirkiness, and ease of reading helped me compile this list.

1. Indestructibles series of books

Books from these series are the ones I give to any one about to become a parent. I came across them in the Barnes and Noble at Union Square, and found the concept very interesting. These books are not very heavy on content, but the pages cannot be torn, either by a saliva soaking or use of force. They also don't fly very well when they are thrown, because they're very light lol. My sister in law told me they're good for distracting my niece in situations where they might get dirty, like during meal times, because they can also be easily wiped.

2. Nina Laden - Peek A Who?

Very short, easy to read, and contains a cute mirror in the last page for the baby to look at themselves. The little cut outs in the middle also make it easy for the child to flip the pages.

3. Curious George - I Love You

This book also contains mirrored pages, which are great. I bought this as a 'Valentine's Day' present for E after seeing it at the Barnes and Noble in Ladue, and it has genuinely become one of my favourite books because it's just so sweet. It has lines like, "I love you when you're cranky" and "I love you when you're messy", plus the illustrations are very cute.

4. Eric Carle - Colors (Bilingual)

I don't know how to even quantify how ironic it is that even though my second language is Mandarin, I feel more comfortable reading Spanish books to E (maybe it shows how much Chinese baby board books suck?). Anyway I like this book because the sentences are short and simple, the illustrations cute, and there's a little panel for the words in both languages that you can move, e.g. red/rojo.

5. Eric Carle - Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?

A beloved classic, I actually put off buying this book for a long time because I figured I could get it on sale or something since it was so ubiquitous. Eventually I bought it 2nd hand from Half Price Books on Delmar. It is a very silly book, which starts out normal seeming, and quickly devolves into the absurd - blue horses and purple cats anyone? Before becoming strangely meta and breaking the 4th wall. Also very easy and a quick read.

6. Sandra Boynton - Moo, Baa, La La La!

As a rule of thumb, all Sandra Boynton books are great. I would read Dinosaur Dance to E when I was still pregnant (apparently babies can hear and recognise the books they heard while in the womb? I don't know. I tried), but out of all of them, Moo, Baa, La La La! is definitely my favourite. It is short and silly, and became one of the books I ended up memorising early on really fast (Cows go Moo, Sheep go Baa, Three singing pigs go La La La!...)

7. Sandra Boynton - Happy Hippo, Angry Duck

This is another great book by Sandra Boynton. It teaches kids about moods, relating them to animals. At the end, it helps reiterate that bad moods are only temporary, and that the child is loved no matter what. A great book for helping teach emotional intelligence, especially when the child becomes older and starts throwing tantrums.

8. Emily Gravett - Orange Pear Apple Bear

One afternoon when I was still working at with my internship, I had to pass a document to another staff member at Grand Central Station in NYC outside of my working days. She was running late, so Jon and I ducked into a store inside to kill time, which turned out to sell kid's toys and books. That was when I first came across this book, and was so taken by it that I went home and saved it to an Amazon list. It was early 2016, and there were no young children anywhere near me, but that just shows how great this book is. Beautifully illustrated, very simple to read, and incredibly silly, this book features the same 4 words, orange, apple, pear, bear (well, and 1 'there!') in a variety of combinations and accompanying pictures like, "orange bear".

9. Lucy Freegard - Elephant

A purchase from an atas baby store in Ladue one Saturday morning, when Jon and I were waiting for a table at the Original Pancake House (their Dutch Baby Pancakes are to die for), this might possible be the most expensive board book that E owns at roughly $15. Most baby board books tend to hover under the $10 mark. Still, I had really liked the parts that I had seen when I flipped through the book at the store, and I fell more in love with it when I came home. It basically tells the story of a parent elephant and a baby elephant in rhyme and their time together. The last page however, tugs at my heart strings, "And when I am older and wrinkly and wise/I will remember just how quickly time flies. Each day striving to learn something new/making more memories to share with you." A great reminder how I should treasure my time with E, despite all the times she drives me crazy.

10. Jan Brett - The Mitten

Another old school favourite, this one is a little bit of a longer read (I'm lazy and impatient, OK?), but the silly story and illustrations make it all worth it. It tells the story of a lost mitten, and of how all the animals try to squeeze into it because it is comfy. It is an absurd tale, and the illustrations on the margins (marginalia anyone?) on each page are full of little jokes too, like on the large page when you see the grandmother puzzling over how stretched out the now-found mitten has become.

Honourable Mentions
11. Dr Seuss - Hop On Pop

No kid's library is complete without a Dr. Seuss book or two. E has quite a few of them, like Fox in Socks, but I prefer Hop on Pop more. Sometimes I feel lazy though, and don't want to spend the effort to read everything out. Come to think of it, I've not read this book to E in a few months precisely because of that reason, whoops. 

12. Martha Day Zschock - Hello St. Louis!

Stumbled upon this in Left Bank Books in Central West End one day, and could not resist purchasing it on the spot. Published just this year, this book details all the sights in St Louis like the Magic House and Lafayette Square in a cute and simply rhyming way. I definitely prefer this book to the only other St Louis-esque book we have, What's That Arch?

Circus Monkeys

Today for the first time, I thought of the phrase, "Not my circus, not my monkeys" in reference to a situation. I think it is a very good and apt saying, and I am pleased with it.

County Roads

The 2020 Covid-19 stay at home order/lockdown in St Louis city and county began on 23 March. Now, they're tentatively setting the reopening date for 18 May. I don't really know what to say about my feelings and thoughts at this point, because a significant amount of time has passed and I've gone through the whole gamut of emotions and thoughts at this point, with the main one lately being a sense of restlessness and boredom.

Anyway since this whole thing has begun, Jon and I began taking long meandering drives around the area, just to get out of the house. So far we have randomly driven to Eureka, Imperial, Arnold, Chesterfield and Ballwin. We have also driven the length of some major East-West roads in the area like Big Bend Road (which really does start with a big bend in Ballwin), Ladue Road, and Clayton Road.

Amidst all of this, E has also learned how to cruise (walk while holding onto things) really well, and has sprouted her top two middle teeth. It also looks like she has 2 more top teeth imminent too.

I don't really know how to feel about St Louis reopening again, because I don't really know what it will entail, and how our day to day lives will change, besides Jon being back at the hospital 24/7. 

Daylight Savings

Yesterday daylight savings started again and we 'lost' an hour of time. So if it's 11:12am now, it means that on Saturday 48 hours ago, it was actually 10:12am. Having lived in the West for a good number of years now, the whole daylight savings thing is not new to me at all, but for some reason this year it feels exceptionally disorienting. 

On Sunday, yesterday, the first day of daylight savings, Jon and I went out to run a bunch of errands and have lunch. Even though I knew there was daylight savings, it wasn't something I had thoroughly absorbed into my consciousness, and I was confused as to why I wasn't even feeling the least bit peckish at 11:45am, even though I had had a very light breakfast of cereal with milk. The same thing followed with dinner, which we had at 7pm, close to 8pm. 

Today however, a Monday, Jon is back to work and I am home with the baby as normal, and I feel even more befuddled. Of course baby has zero idea what daylight savings or even what 'time' is, but I feel thoroughly confused even though our normal sort of loose schedule of feed, play, feed, nap should remain the same. It doesn't help that the weather today is a weird dreary sort of cloudy grey, so it feels like I don't even have the outside sun as a guide to figure out if it's 8am or 1pm. In short, my internal clock feels completely confounded, and I'm sure this in in huge part of spending my day with creature(s) - can't forget Saffron too - that have no idea what daylight savings is but run their own internal clocks anyway. 

This whole daylight savings thing is really, really daft.

Another Baby Food Anecdote

Seems like one of the major topics I put effort into writing about nowadays is baby food. I have no idea why, but go along with the whim anyway.

Today I made blueberry, banana, and tofu puree. And while it tastes OK, I must state that it unequivocally looks like puke, more so than any other baby food that I have made before. And that I am 100% disgusted and feel slightly nauseous looking at it. I think this will be the last time I make this particular food combination for baby.

Baby Fish Porridge

A traditional baby food dish in Singapore is fish rice porridge. My Dad told me an anecdote about the cry room in the sanctuary of the church they attend in Singapore - that around a certain time all the babies/kids start getting hungry at the same time and the whole room turns into a disgusting and nauseating miasma of ang gor li fish and porridge. My Dad and Mum pointed out that they made that same dish for me to eat all the time, and like all other babies, I loved it too.

Anyway since I have become a Mum, my parents ask me every so often what I am making for baby to eat. And they keep suggesting the fish porridge idea. One qualm I've had about it was that I wasn't sure what kind of fish was suitable, and then in what proportions. Good luck trying to ask a fishmonger for ang go li here. But finally Jon got onto the bandwagon too, and wanted to make fish porridge for baby as well, as he's currently on a she's not getting enough protein sort of anxiety binge.

So finally today, I have attempted to make fish porridge. I put in half a cup of jasmine rice to boil, and about half of a fillet of swai fish (what is swai even called in Singapore?). After boiling for a while, I realised the rice had swelled up into a ridiculously large amount, to the extent that the amount of fish seemed too little. So, like any caring Mum, I ended up taking out spoonfuls of just plain rice porridge, so the proportion of liao to porridge would be higher. Then I mixed in some quasi-pureed peas that I had prepared yesterday, so that there would at least be something familiar tasting/fibre in the dish. I then ate the plain rice porridge, with a little bit of soy sauce, so it wouldn't go to waste.

Hopefully baby will like this dish, when I feed it to her later.

Classic Rock

When I drive, the only radio station I listen to is 103.3, the Classic Rock station. Or as Jon calls it, the Dad Rock station, with "Dad" referring not to him, but to my Dad. Specializing in 60's, 70's and 80's music, it plays exactly the kind of music I listen to at home anyway, minus a few bands like Stars, Metric, Muse, Linkin Park (my guilty pleasure) and The Arcade Fire. Jon laments my close-mindedness about music all the time, but usually goes along with it.

Anyway one thing I noticed about 103.3 is that they like to play music in spurts and clusters. For example in December, they kept playing ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man and Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. For a while it was The Car's Just What I Needed. Now however it seems to be the Steve Miller Band's The Joker - and I really really loathe this song. Another favourite for now also seems to be Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl, which I don't like but at least can tolerate. The sheer number of times some of these songs were played were such that close to every single time I drove (maybe for a total of 1h a day?) I would hear one of them, and they became running jokes between me and Jon. Except The Joker of course, because every time it comes on I just rage inside.

The reason why I'm writing about 103.3 however, is that one day they started playing Green Day's the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and it took me by surprise because of all things, Boulevard of Broken Dreams could hardly be considered Classic Rock, one reason being that it came out in the mid 2000s and I remember hearing it everywhere when I was in Secondary School. That, by some people's regard, Boulevard of Broken Dreams can be considered Classic Rock, makes me suddenly feel very very old. Says the almost 30 year old with a 7 and a half month old baby.

And that is all I have to say.

Deer Creek Shopping Center

Months ago before I had even arrived in St Louis with baby, my in-laws were first in town with Jon to help him set up the apartment. They visited one of the nearest Dollar Tree stores in our area at the Deer Creek Shopping Center, and my mother-in-law, upon seeing the other stores they had, wryly observed that it would be one of my most favourite spots... and she wasn't wrong haha.

Today was the first time I decided to take the car and baby out without a clear goal. Since my Mum has left, I have only been taking the car on Fridays, when baby has her swimming class. And then I try to bundle all the grocery shopping for the week on the same day, so there's no need to take the car on any other days. This has meant we have become huge homebodies, with the net effect of driving each of us slowly nuts because baby is very social and likes other people, while I start feeling cabin fever-ish because I also like novelty.

The main difficulty now that my Mum has left is that I need to bring baby along with me in the mornings and the evenings when I drive to send/pick up Jon, which on the surface sounded easy when I thought about it months ago. Reality has shown that it is more difficult however as because Jon goes to work relatively early, this means needing to wake baby up, which disrupts her sleep cycle and makes her very tired and cranky, feed and change her. Then when we get home, I am usually tired too from waking up a little earlier than usual, and I still need to contend with a cranky baby and make sure I time her naps. Baby waking me up in the middle of the night, and Saffron meowing up a storm at 4 am do nothing to improve the situation too.

So anyway, that today I finally decided to take the car on a day that I didn't have to, felt like an achievement. Baby and I finally left the house around 11:30 am, and our first stop was Aldi as we had run out of apples at home. Then we drove to Deer Creek Shopping Center, where I went to, in order: 1) McAlister's Deli for lunch 2) Ross Dress for Less, where I bought a whole bunch of baby stuff including reduced price Tommee Tippee sippy cups 3) Dollar Tree, where I also met a random middle aged lady who was telling me a little about how St Louis fell into decline as a city [highways, public transport, public school system, split into city/counties] 4) Marshalls, where I bought a reduced priced Stonewall Kitchen Lime Cilantro Aioli, and finally 5) Buy Buy Baby, where I had to return to the counter a second time because I finally found my 20% off one item coupon, and got back $2.60 in cash.

Now we are finally home, and baby is napping away after some protest. Going to have to wake her up soon, so we can go pick up Jon. Quite a nice and full day, coupled with good weather. I feel happy and accomplished.

Lessons from Beets as Baby Food

The day right after Jon, baby, and I came back from New York City, we went to Soulard Farmer's Market. It was the second time we were there - the first time we had gone was when my Mum was still around - and we wanted to stock up on fresh and cheap produce (emphasis mostly on the cheap). Beets were selling for about 99 cents a pound, and I recalled seeing some pre-made baby food in stores containing beets, so I decided to buy one to try it out.

I learnt several things from making beets as baby food, and some of those things are reasons why I will not be trying it again any time soon. 

1. Beet juice makes everything red.

Beet juice stains everything red. The first time I really noticed it was when I was peeling and cutting it for steaming. I thought it was amusing and it came off easily when I washed my hands. What I didn't count on however, was that because the beet juice also stayed on baby's face and clothes longer than the time an adult takes to prepare beetroot. That meant that baby's face was stained in beet splotches, and her clothes had to be rinse and soaked multiple times in order to get the beet juice out, and there were still lingering stains. Oy.

Also, baby still spits up a lot. Nothing is more alarming than seeing red spit up. For a nanosecond I thought she had some internal bleed, but no. It was just beet juice dyed spit up. Additionally, did I also mention that her poo was a disconcerting dark blackish colour? Almost like she had internal intestinal bleeding. Again, beet juice. But what was even more fun was that this poo, also dyed her backside. Because again, beet juice. So my baby had red stained splotches all over her arse for a short while. Charming.

2. Beets are a laxative.  

This meant that baby pooed. A lot. While I suppose this might be a good thing, I did not like having to clean it up. It also meant that I decided to forgo using the reusable diapers entirely last week in favour of disposables, because I really didn't want to be washing off poo every time I changed baby's diaper. 

3. Steaming beets makes the whole house smell like borscht.

I think this is mainly a good thing, except for the fact that there is actually no borscht. And I like borscht. So being able to smell borscht while not being able to eat it is incredibly disappointing. I also do not know where to find good borscht in St. Louis, as there definitely is no Veselka here.

And so here ends the list of things I have learnt while making and feeding my baby beets.