THINGS I LOVE TO DO FOR NADA

I completed another gorgeous dress for Nada. Unlike my first self-made dress for her, this one was quite a bit of intricate to do even though the finished dress looks just as simple. The preparation of polar was helped by my mami and she had earlier warned me, the dress would not be that easy to do. There would be a lot pre-hand stitches if I want the complete product to be nice and neat particularly for the neckline. Briefly, my mami explained to me the areas that she thought I needed help with a piece of old newspaper.

…. In her soft way ….. “Adik ambik kain ni ‘manje gak, Adik letok tepi beloh. Pah gak jahik haluuuuuuh…. Pah balik kok ni. Pah tindih bui kemah. Pah jahik haluh kok tepi ni……..” Her hands treating the old newspaper like a piece of cloth. And me… I also got pening, I knew I’ve got to somehow further figure out by myself.

Any free time I had, I did a lot of thinking on how to execute the dress. During my bathing, in the car during traveling to and from work (good that I don’t have to drive myself) or when my boss starts with his grandmother’s story and I don’t feel concentrating to what he says even though my facial expression might show the opposite. (Sorry, boss!)

Despite the thinking and planning, I still made a mistake for the cloth first cut that I had to re-do. Skill does not come in a day and my mami always told me, if I want to see good end product, I should be patience enough to try until I get it. I am fine with that. Further more I was doing something I love for someone I love so much.

Nada during the dress fitting

Nada wore the dress for first time for an outing dinner with Mentibang’s family. Harris commented, even though the dress’s Sunday is intended to be longer than the Monday ….. somehow it looked to much longer than it was supposed to be.
My eyes too, sense it was not there yet.

Nada was posing in the new dress before dinner.

Indeed, the Monday WAS too long!

I made an alteration in shortening the length of dress lining so that the frills fits just right to be seen. Also, after considering few alternatives in accentuating the look of the dress, I decided for some simple thread embroidery at middle part of the dress.

This finished product – I love it!

I love crafts works, ……MORE than that, just LOVE to make dresses for Nada.

It is a norm event for us to dine out that I can admit our ‘eats’ do take quite a fraction of our monthly expenditure budget. Be it at warungs, restaurants, clubs, hotels where ever. But thus far, I hardly feed Nada any other than homemade food. Fear for suitability, cleanliness, MSG, salt and sugar – I guess.
So, even if we eat at a hotel restaurant, I still pack for her the homemade food.

Small percentage of Nada’s diet would be baby food from supermarket rack like jar food, biscuits, baby yogurts, baby cereals and stuffs. When I started introducing solids for her I did depend on ready baby cereals for about one and a half months, in her 7th plus. Not long, I feel sad for her ….. even though there are so many choices of baby cereals. I do not want to use ‘no time’ as an excuse. So, I followed the advices and suggestions in Baby Food books that I have, by storing homemade puree in the freezer.

All the while, I never thought to take the photographs of all these frozen purees, but Harris…. Semua benda nak ambik gambar!

I am glad I did take the effort. It was an easy-peasy. I just need to thaw the puree in refrigerator overnight. Or… in the morning, make some rice porridge before adding the varieties of puree in. Sometimes, it could be pasta – macaroni or spaghetti. If my morning is early, I freshly cook porridges for her.

3 numbers of Nada’s front teeth had erupted in last 3 weeks and her appetite gets bigger! Usually, I supplied biscuits / ready baby cereal for breakfast and home made porridge for lunch and dinner topped with 3 times 7oz ratio of formula milk to her Nanny’s.

I observed Nada wants to snack quite a lot lately, so I decided…. Before going to work, to also make some breakfast apart from cooking her lunch and dinner to bring to her Nanny’s and leave biscuits for her snacks.

I think I am not that good with cooking but I do love to cook for my girl. Nada is like daddy, she has no rejection for whatever new recipe I tried thus far. It seems…. Semua sedap to her! She used to detest carrot but now I have got no problem with carrots anymore.

Last week I experimented a new recipe for breakfast I got from googling the Toddler Food sites.

MINI MACARONI CHEESE for 8-18 month babies
1. 1/4 cups milk1 bay leaf
2. 4 oz. macaroni or small pasta shapes
3. 1 oz. unsalted butter or margarine4 tablespoons flour

4. 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

a.Heat the milk with the bay leaf until almost boiling. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse.

b.Cook the macaroni.

c. Melt the butter in a clean pan, remove from the heat and stir in the flour. Gradually stir the milk into the pan.

d. Stir the sauce over a medium heat until thickened. Simmer for 3 minutes and then stir in half the cheese and all the macaroni.
e. Spoon into four small baking pans or heatproof dishes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over each and cook under the broiler until golden.

Chill out…. Who wants to get bay leaves and just use one! I didn’t even try to look for it and replaced with McCormic mixed herbs instead, which I already have it in my kitchen. I do not have an oven, so I steamed the dish using the normal rice cooker.
It turned out well. Nada’s Nanny asked me if I could bring extra because the others liked it too. (She has 3 in her care including Nada). Well, whatever I cooked …. I always reserve for others too. But any extra than that….. with cheese… expensive unsalted butter…. Alamak, I’ll try my best la Cik Nanny.

Nada dines at restaurant, Nada dines on her high chair, Nada savouring every single feed, Nada shouts for more food!

As much as I love to try new recipe for Harris, I love doing the same for Nada too.

Never that I feel so excited when it comes to possessing a gold jewelry… not until I made one for Nada. I have already received the phone call from Habib that her name pendant is ready for collection. Working weekdays seems impossible for us to drop by at the franchise, so I guess we will wait for the coming weekend to pay the visit. I really hope it’s gonna be a beautiful one. OW..

can't wait!

Of all, I hope I will not develop this love to do for Nada into an obsessed.

The US economy must be really bad.... I've been trying to call my share agent in Wall Street and Nikkei, no one pick up my call. Hallo ! Hallo !

THAT'S MY GIRL....