A New Milestones for 2.5 Years Old

Every child is unique. Gracelle hits a NEW milestones!

Last week, she has finally managed to do thumbs up!

Gone are the days, where she will show us her index finger when we say, good!

Last week, she closed her fist and with the help of another hand, tried to extend her thumb upward. And, YES! She did it! She was proud to show me the sign of thumbs up! Now, when I say good, she will show me this hand gesture.

A simple hand gesture but a new milestone and achievement for her.

Do record your children's milestones, as they serve to remind us how far and fast our children has grown.

How to make red glutinous rice wine 红糟酒

Red glutinous rice wine, 红糟酒, has its origin from Fuzhou, China (alternatively pronounced as Foochow or Hock Chew). My dad is a Foochow, my mom is a Fuqing; both of them were born in Sitiawan, Perak, Malaysia. Do you know that foochow heritage has been prominently identified with Sitiwan? And one of the unique tradition is mee suah with red glutinous rice wine.

In preparation for my confinement, I took the interest to learn how to make red glutinous rice wine. This is my greatest late grandmother recipe passed down to my mum, and now to me.

Why bother?

You may be wondering, why bother to make when it is easily available in chinese medical hall? Well, I think one good reason is I want to learn and master the tradition. This is a disappearing knowledge or call it an "art" or tradition in the modern Singapore.

There's only 3 ingredients to red glutinous rice wine: glutinous rice 糯米, red rice yeast 红曲米, wine yeast 酒饼 (aka jiu bing). So it can't be that difficult, right? Wrong! This is like a science. You will not know if is succesful until 30days later; if it turn out to be sour or mouldy - failed. Keep my finger crossed X

Steps:

1. Cook the glutinous rice in a rice cooker with a bit more water than usual. 
2. When the rice is cooked, spread the rice in a large tray and leave it aside until the rice is completely cool. Note: I cooked the rice in the morning, and started the wine making process in the evening.
3. Pound the red rice yeast and wine yeast together till powdery form.
4. Mix the powdery red rice yeast and wine yeast with glutinous rice with a clean spoon.
5. Transfer the mixture into a glass jar, close the lid loosely and keep in a cool, dry place. Note: The fermenting process may produces a lot of gas, do not fill the mixture (#4) to the top of the glass jar or close the lid too tight, or else it may "explode" (overflow).

Question? You can easily get these ingredients from chinese medical hall 药材店. You must be wondering about the exact measurement, how many grams? The older generation often "agak-agak" (meaning approximate). Due to the limitation of my glass jar, I cooked only 3 cups of glutinous rice, used 1 handful of red rice yeast and half wine yeast.

I hope this will enable you to start working towards the traditional red glutinous rice wine. This is a picture of my red glutinous rice wine on the 3rd day. Looking good!

Luring the stork

With reference to the article, Luring the stork: Government announces review marriage and parenthood policies published on Today on 29 June 2012. We welcome and appreciate the incentives from the government.

I voiced my view on the above mentioned article through Voices, read my comments here, and had the privileged being published and shared my view. While, I only touch on the problem on amenities and facilities; another reader, Jo-Anne Lee had pointed out on important issue, lack of support. Read her article on Work-life balance needs recognition. Truly, we are in need of a paradigm shift, a mindset change. Without having the right mindset, there will be no transformation.

It is reported that the Marriage and Parenthood Package has benefited many and that a household with two children and an income of S$8,000 receives the equivalent of about S$142,000 -- through Baby Bonus cash and co-savings, infant care subsidies and other measures -- until both children seven. A "visible" cash on hand, which includes but not limited to the Children Development Co-Savings (CDAC) of S$12,000 and Baby Bonus of S$4,000 can easily be wiped up in two years considering average childcare fees of S$600 per month.

To me, enouraging or boosting low birth rate is not all about incentive and one sided effort from the government, like the comic stripes (taken from cartoonstock.com). What's your view?