Fever!!

It has been a week that I did not have time to log on to my blog to post anything, Skyler had fever last Sunday and I have been busy for almost the whole week just to take care of this fussy boy. It was a low grade fever right around 101 to 102, not sure what cause it, I kept him at home Monday and he went back to daycare on Tuesday. No more fever after Tuesday but he has been very fussy and been whining about everything this last few days, I mean... everything! Hopefully the fever will not return.

I got nervous now whenever Skyler had fever because he had a seizure at about 15 months old, that scared me to death, it is one of the bad experience that any parents does not want to go through.  Of course we end up by calling 911 before we knew what was wrong with him, our house was full of paramedics and firemen while front door full of police cars and fire trucks! Paramedic told us he had fever of 103 at the time when they arrived, I said no, I just took his temperatures and it showed 99. Lesson learned... getting the right thermometer is very important, one or two degree of the wrong reading will lead to mistreatment. Doctor said since he had a seizure in the past, he has higher risk of getting it again whenever he has fever, so I need to make sure his temperature does not raise or drop rapidly to prevent a seizure from happening again. Well, that means I need a thermometer that gives me the accurate reading.

A expensive thermometer does not mean a accurate reading, we were using a temporal scan thermometer, one that comes with a transducer that rolls across the forehead, it is a infrared thermometer plus you just roll it across the forehead so it is much easier to take Skyler temperatures especially when he is sleeping. Been using it for a while until the paramedic told me that I have the wrong reading, and it was about 4 degree of the difference! After some research, I have decided to try the tympanic thermometer, it is also a infrared thermometer, it read temperatures by scanning the heat through the ear canal...hmm...those that stick into the ear. :) I try to make comparison from the two, and the temporal scan thermometer is usually about 2 degree less than the tympanic thermometer... wow... what a surprise to see this! Will never use my temporal scan thermometer anymore.

So, just to share my bad experience...please check and make sure the thermometer that you using now gives you the accurate reading.

Temporal Scan Thermometer

Tympanic  Thermometer

Skyler with fever at 9 months old!

Never share utensils with your baby!!!

I know expert always tells us.. do not share spoon or fork... do not sip from the same straw...with your baby, in short, our saliva can't never pass to our kid.. what's the big deal?  Most people will not take it seriously as it is your baby and you know your body better that you don't have any disease that will pass along to you kid anyway. right?

Well, I kinda follow what the experts said, there are maybe only a couple times that I have to use my fork and knife to cut Skyler meat while dining out, just so my bacteria will not pass to Skyler... ok, sometimes I myself wondered too, what bacteria? what's the big deal? My teeth are just doing fine plus I have routine dentist check up as well, so i did break the rules a few times.

Went to a new dentist today, the new technology being used in the clinic was just amazing... the procedure was so different than my previous dentist, they took about two hours to finish my initial teeth evaluation visit. One of the procedure was to scoop the saliva underneath my gum just to see what kind of bacteria I have and to check my bacteria count. They placed it under a microscope that transferred the image to the TV that is right on top of my head. I looked up and yelled "what is that? eww.." All different kind of "sperm" looking type little thing were moving all around in that screen. "It's the bacteria" she said. She then showed me all different type of the bacteria that are "swimming" there, "here is your white blood cell, your body is fighting back with these bacteria."... Oh my god!  She then said "look at this bigger one that is not quite moving.... it's not bacteria, it is under an animal category"... Huh??? I have animal in my mouth? What the heck? It is supposed to be just a simple teeth cleaning dentist visit.. I just can't believed what I am looking at, will never imagine this without seeing it with my own eye.

So, glad to finally meet all these bacteria friends in my mouth, a real eye opening experience to me.. ya, a scary one. conclusion.... I will NEVER EVER pass my saliva to Skyler, will never share spoon, will never eat of a same plate...I just don't want those nasty little monster being passed along to him.

Please, please do the same. Do not ever share any utensil with your kids!

Personal Mushroom Pizza

This will be another great snack or side dish that is easy to make. Happy cooking!

Personal Mushroom Pizza

Ingredients:

Mushroom or large portabella mushroom caps

2 tsp Olive oil

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1clove garlic minced

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cooking Instructions:

-          - Preheat oven to 400F, line baking pan with foil, brush lightly with olive oil, place the mushroom cap stem down and brush with olive oil and baked for 10 min.

-          - Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together tomato sauce, garlic and the Italian seasoning. Drain off liquid from mushrooms, turn mushroom stem side up. Spoon sauce into mushroom caps and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 minute or until the cheese melt.

What type of milk is your baby drinking?

What is the best milk for Skyler? This question has always been my number one concern, and up till today, I would still look up more information to ensure my decision of Almond Milk from time to time. Come to find out that there are many moms out there like me that have the same question... not sure about you, the Malaysian moms? I am thinking you probably don't have to worry too much since most babies and toddlers in Malaysia are drinking formula of either soy or cow milk? Am I right?  I said this because dairy milk selection in Malaysia is very limited, I did not see much variety of dairy milk being sold in Malaysia, I was not able to find any fresh dairy Almond milk in Malaysia for Skyler during my last trip, the closest almond milk that I could ever found is from "Cold Storage" in Mid Valley, and it taste awful. So, even you have the same concern as me, you probably not going to have much choice but to go back... just to soy or cow milk, unless you know any store in Malaysia that sell variety of fresh dairy milk, if you do, pleaseeeeee let me know.

Ok, what a long opening. So, there are many different types of milk out there that parents use to feed their kids, oh my! you'll be surprised to see this:

Cow milk
Raw Milk
Soy milk
Almond milk
Coconut milk
Rice milk
Goat milk
Hemp milk
and more

Each of the above milk has its own pros and cons, you should considered each milk nutrition with its pros and cons, then go with the one that best match your baby needs. For me, personally.. I will not go with cow milk, there are just too many articles out there that against cow milk, just Google it, below are just some examples.

http://www.waoy.org/9.html
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/linda_folden_palmer.html

Soy milk is another common substitution of cow milk, we all drink soy milk since we were little, but I am a little skeptical with its substance that can cause problem on hormone and thyroid function:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/224425-the-pros-cons-of-soy-milk-for-children/
http://www.healthychild.com/soy-alert

Well, it will be too much if I post the pros and cons of each milk, you might fall to sleep... below is a little information about almond milk. From my own experience: Skyler always has nose congestion, feel like he just born with it... I saw immediate improvement on his symptom about two weeks after I switched him from cow milk to almond milk:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/almond-milk-nutrition-facts.html

There are probably over 10 millions opinions out there from different experts, everybody is saying different thing, it makes my brain hurts sometimes after too much reading. :) In short, you need to find one milk that best matches your baby needs, generally speaking... the 4 most common milks are cow, soy, almond and goat milk. conclusion that I have from all these reading are as below:

Goat milk over cow milk
Almond milk over soy milk

So, what types of milk is your baby drinking?

Baked Butternut Squash

Baked butternut Squash, it could be a side dish or it could be added into any dish, for example: butternut squash congee, butternut squash pancake, butternut squash oatmeal or butternut squash mac n cheese. Just be creative, it blends well into almost anything! 

Again, it is one of the most nutritious vegetables that kid must eat, High in Vitamins and Calcium plus it is  smooth and delicious! It is also one of the wonderful baby first solid food, it can be given to baby as young as 4 to 6 months old, I puree a lot of this for Skyler when he was a few months old. 

Nutrition Facts for 1 cup cooked-baked, butternut cubes) 
Univ. of IL - Watch Your Garden

Calories - 79.95
Protein - 1.82 grams
Carbohydrate - 17.94 grams
Dietary Fiber - 5.74 grams
Calcium - 28.7 mg
Iron - 0.67 mg
Potassium - 895.85 mg
Folate - 57.40 mcg
Vitamin A - 1144 IU

Here is how butternut squash looks like for those of you that don't cook :)

a light tan color, elongated pear or bell-shaped. 

I prefer to bake it and froze it up to one month in a small plastic cube, freeze it in small portion so that I can use it in any portion that I like.. one cube , two cube or maybe 3 at a time. Oh, don't forget to date it too.

The best way to cook butternut squash for baby food recipes is to bake or roast the squash. You retain the most nutrients while bringing out the most flavor. Roasting or baking winter squash is also easier because you won't spend forever and a day tying to peel and cube the squash for steaming or boiling. So, if you don't have an oven at home, you probably have to go with steaming it, just need an extra steps of cutting it into smaller cube and peel off the skin.

Cooking instruction:

Wash the butternut squash

Cut into smaller pieces

Scoop out the seeds from the round end of the cut butternut squash ,
I keep this one for too long, already growing bean :)

Lay butternut squash "face" or meat-side down in a baking
dish with about 1-2 inched of water.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes or until shell/skin looks
puckery and turns a darker tan.

Scoop the "meat" out with a spoon

Mash it

Below is picture of butternut squash oatmeal for breakfast, while cooking oatmeal, just throw one cube of the frozen butternut squash.

Look at the fiber

Or, you can add the mash butternut Squash into congee, add a lot of flavor to it, a touch of sweetness. 

I cooked this when Skyler is a few months old, chopped everything into
very small pieces, so the mashed butternut squash is definitely the right
ingredient at that time, just blend into the congee

Moving up to higher level class again?

Got a notice from Skyler daycare yesterday about how much progress Skyler made and they will move him up to next older class... what?? again? They just moved him within two months and he is ready to go to next bigger class again? I don't care if Skyler can fly now... but I think it is way tooooo fast to move him up in new classes like that, He got scrapes and bleed every other day when he first got into this current class, things getting better now after meeting with the principal, so Skyler is just now got use to the current class, but they are moving him again...

To me, there are only two possibilities, first, school accepted too many new students and pushing kids that are not ready to go to the older class. Second, Skyler is actually making progress and ready to go, school just push kids to make progress like a superman. The current class Skyler in is for age 18 to 24 months. He is only 20 months now, 4 months can make big different t

Yes, I have to give compliment to the school that within this last months into the new class, Skyler being trained well as far as eating by himself with spoon and drinking straight from a cup, he is really independent now and he refused spoon feeding from me. Anyway, I need to have another talk with the school again, I will have to find out how big are the kids and what is the class different in this new class. I guess this Asian mom just cannot keep up with the American system.

Lunch time at school. view from CCTV from my cracked ipad.

Branded Baby Girls Swimwear

Paul Frank Baby Girls Crop Top 2 Piece Swimwear

• 92% polyester / 8% spanax
• 2 piece swim
• Machine washable. Imported.

Paul Frank Baby Girls Crop Top 2PC Swimwear

Size: 3T

Style #: PFGCT2PC-001 (3T)

Price: RM 49 ONLY

Baby Girls Flower 1 Piece Swimwear

• 84% nylon / 16% spanax
• 1 piece swim
• Machine washable. Imported.

Size: 3T

Style #: BGF1P-001 (3T)

Price: RM 39 ONLY

Cater's Boy Two Piece Set

Toddler Boy's Polo and Shorts Set- Navy Blue

Knit Polo with Carter's logo on the left. The coordinating plaid shorts have an easy-to-pull-on elastic waist, it is soft and sturdy, these cargo shorts will be his favorites as the weather warms!

- Includes polo shirt and shorts

- Taped neck seam for comfort

- Hemmed short sleeves

- Straight bottom hem

- Shorts with elastic back waist and front snap closure

- Imported

- Machine washable

Size: 3T

Style #: TBPSS-001 (NBlue) 3T

Price: RM 69 only

 

Branded Baby Girl and Boy Bodysuits

Calvin Klein Baby Girl Bodysuits- Pink
Envelope sleeves begin a cozy cotton bodysuit crafted with snaps between the legs so diaper checks and changes can be quick and easy.
- Set of 5
- 100% Cotton; machine wash. 
- By Calvin Klein; imported.

Size: 3/6M
Style #: CKBGB-001 (Pink) SOLD !!
Price: RM 79 ONLY

Kenneth Cole Reaction Baby Boy bodysuit- Grey

Envelope Sleeves. Adorable detailing updates a cozy cotton bodysuit styled with snaps between the legs so diaper checks and changes can be quick and easy.
- 100% Cotton; machine wash. 
- By Kenneth Cole; imported. 
Size: 3-6 months
Style #: KCRBB-001 (Grey) SOLD !!
Price: RM 29 ONLY

Ralph Lauren Short-Sleeved Plaid Blake

Short-Sleeved Plaid Blake- Green Multi 

An iconic plaid gives a timeless look to the short-sleeved Blake shirt in soft brushed twill.

• Tailored in the comfortable, classic-fitting Blake silhouette.
• Button-down collar, applied button placket. Sewn cuffs, shirttail hem.
• Split back yoke with box pleat for a smooth silhouette.
• Embroidered pony accents the chest.
• 100% cotton. Machine washable. Imported.

Size: 3/3T

Style #: SSPB-001 (GreenM) 3/3T  SOLD !!

Price: RM 89 ONLY

Polo Ralph Lauren Classic Boy Mesh

Polo Ralph Lauren Classic Boy Mesh

Rendered in lightweight, breathable cotton mesh, this classic polo design features signature pony embroidery at the chest.

• Ribbed polo collar. Two-button placket.
• Embroidered pony at the left chest.
• Short sleeves with ribbed armbands.
• Uneven side vented hem.
• 100% cotton. Machine washable. Imported.

Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Red  
Size: 3/3T
Style #: RLCPBM-001 (Red) 3/3T SOLD !!
Price: RM79 ONLY

Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Pandora Red  
Size: 3/3T
Style #: RLCPBM-002 (PRed) 3/3T
Price: RM79 ONLY

Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Navy Blue

Size: 3/3T
Style #: RLCPBM-003 (NBlue) 3/3T
Price: RM79 ONLY


Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Grey 2 size available!!
Size: 3/3T
Style #: RLCPBM-005 (Grey) 3/3T
Price: RM79 ONLY

Size: 4/4T 
Style #: RLCPBM-005 (Grey) 4/4T
Price: RM79 ONLY



Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Lime Green
Size: 4/4T
Style #: RLCPBM-006 (LGreen) 4/4T
Price: RM79 ONLY



Ralph Lauren Classic Polo Boys Mesh- Dark Green 
Size: 4/4T 
Style #: RLCPBM-007 (DGreen) 4/4T
Price: RM79 ONLY

Chicago Cubs Adidas Kids Bodysuit/Creeper Set - MLB

Chicago Cubs Adidas Kids 3 Pack Bodysuit - MLB

Your little fan can show team loyalty with this cotton MLB Infant 3-Pack bodysuit from Adidas. A great gift idea this set includes 3 different cotton bodysuit featuring screen printed team graphics on the front. Each has snap closure at bottom for easy dressing and changing. 

• Graphic and adidas logo on front/side.
• Snap bottom closure.
• Short sleeves
• 100% cotton. Machine washable. Imported.
• Grey, White, Team Color

Chicago Cubs Adidas Infant 3 Pack Bodysuit - MLB

Size: fits 24M

Style #: MLBABS-001 (24M)

Price: RM59 ONLY

Chicago Cubs Adidas Infant 3 Pack Bodysuit - MLB

Size: 24M

Style #: MLBABS-002 (24M)

Price: RM49 ONLY

Chicago Cubs Adidas Kids 3 Pack Creeper Set - MLB

A great gift idea this set includes CREEPER, BOOTIES, and REVERSIBLE BIB. 

• Graphic and adidas logo on front/side.
• Snap bottom closure.
• Short sleeves
• 100% cotton. Machine washable. Imported.

Chicago Cubs Adidas Kids 3 Pack Creeper Set

Size: 24M

Style #: MLBABS-003 (24M)

Price: RM39 ONLY

DKNY Girl Dress

DKNY Navy Blue Girl Dress- Size 4T,

For age around 4-5 years old. Simple yet elegant one piece dress with multiple layer ruffled hem.

Very light and soft jean-looks-alike fabric.

Size #: 4 - 5 years old
Style #: DKNYGD - 001(NBlue) 4T

Price: RM 99 ONLY