Pregnancy-related news - I am going to hit week 27 on Sunday. Alhamdulillah. So far, everything has been good. The duck waddle has started. So inelegant, my walk. My cravings are terrible. Last night, I wwoke up at 1.30am and stayed up for 3 hours thinking of parmesan-oregano bread - the kind that Subway serves. It's almost ridiculous how the need to consume something just completely overwhelms me! Since no one was going to JB to get the halal version (and in any case, they dont just sell the bread), I contemplated making my own.
Yes, I decided to bake my own bread. I spent a good part of the afternoon kneading the dough, let it rest, kneading again and the effect? Unfortunately, it was a bit too dense. I should have let it risen a while more. It was nice eating it fresh from the oven but I know that tomorrow, it will be as hard as rock. I may feed them to the pigeons.
Now this baking frenzy has been fuelled by the recent purchase of a big fat oven. I will definitely try to bake this bread again or perhaps make dinner rolls. One of my colleagues has been most encouraging in my baking pursuits and I will need to consult her about the aforementioned dinner rolls.
Another craving that I have is 2 roti prata kosong, mandi, bungkus. That, is prata-man-speak for wanting your 2 prata kosong doused in gravy and wrapped in brown paper to be eaten at home. So far, there are two places that are capable of fulfilling this need - one, a prata place near my workplace (hooooray!) and another, at Woodlands Central.
This craving business is all new to me because I had no cravings in my previous pregnancies. But if it helps to put on weight, that's all the better!
And, just to confirm - there is no issue with gestational diabetes. Alhamdulillah! I can eat everything and anything. Strangely, however, my need for chocolates was completely gone after the test.
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Huda News
She had her 8th year check-up with her neonatologist yesterday. Along with it, she had to be assessed by a psychologist for something that was like an IQ test, to ensure that there were no issues before she was discharged. The assessment showed that all was okay but verbal reasoning was not somewhat lower than average. The psychologist assured us that this was common among Asian, bilingual kids because the test was designed by Americans for kids who speak English from birth.
That made me wonder about bilingualism. How do I make my kids be effective at both languages? It's so difficult. As I had long stated, she used to be a very proficient speaker of Malay until she went to nursery and picked up Singlish from her classmates. TheHusband and my ears were in too much pain and that was when we switched our home language to English. While we avoid code-switching in speech, we occasionally go back to Malay from time to time. And we tend to chide the children all the time for their Singlish use, for eg - "So pain!"; "I never do this eh."; "Have something over there." and the list can go on til just about forever.
I find that my children's command of Malay is extremely lousy. While some may say that this is a common issue facing kids in Singapore, I do wonder if this is really necessary. Isn't there some kind of magic formula to ensure effective bilingualism? Some suggest that each parent speaks exclusively in one language to the children. But, such a suggestion assumes that parents are robots and are highly disciplined. I am in neither category.
Okay. Now, I promised the kids that I would bake some chocolate chip cookies. Dough is in the fridge. Just have to bake them. So, must go now.
Tell me if you find that magic formula for bilingualism, okay?
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