sofia ep 5: sofia eats!

assalamualaikum

sudah setahun berlalu sofia mula makan solid food dan tak bergantung nutrien pada susu ibu semata mata. so i feel like after a year of experimenting with food for sofia, i wanna document it down (and also because i haven't posted anything for half a year now lol).

okay so first things first, it's a rule that you can only start solid foods feeding your little ones when they reached six months, so that's what we did. however, if your paediatrician advised otherwise, please follow and refer to them. since sofia hit six months in june of last year, i started to get anxious since april. tak tau mana nak cari sumber untuk mula bagi makanan solid pada anak. my point for references were instagram of irissukamakan, feedinglittles and solidstarts. then i juga ada join group ibu ibu menyusu jadi kat situ pun semua mommies sangat pemurah share idea menu yang boleh digunakan untuk clueless moms like me. 

  

    

    

    

please note that these are my references only and i'm not claiming that it's the best way to introduce solids into your kid's meals. you might be able to get better advice or meal plans.

jadi bermula dari usia sofia 6 bulan, i buat la menu first week tu. but i skip snacks sebab tak sempat nak prepare. cumanya, i tak pakai beras sumo. i pakai beras biasa, froze em up and blend them before packing it up for school. i also rasa i tak titis susu ibu dalam makanan and sofia was able to take it up just fine. awal awal tu, accompanying makanan solid, i masih hantar sofia ke sekolah dengan bekal 5-6 botol susu in case dia tolak makan dekat sekolah and perlukan susu untuk kenyang.

bahagian bawah beg autumnz tu letak susu and makanan

kemudian, days 5 through 16, i mula blend nasi bersama sayur and labu (although labu and carrot might be carbs also, not too sure) tapi i focus untuk bagi sofia mula rasa perasa alami makanan. i selalu akan blend everything into puree untuk bawa pergi sekolah supaya senang cikgu nak suap dia makan while kat rumah i cuba untuk bagi dia pegang dan main dengan makanan by turning the foods into rice balls atau just cutting the veges into strips that she can pinch.

kalau kat rumah, cuba untuk potong sayur supaya dia boleh pegang dan main. tak banyak pun masuk mulut. lepas dia letak ke pinggan, i akan sua ke mulut dia balik.

sometimes i guna kentang or labu as main carbs instead of nasi and tambah sayur lagi. 

freeze, kukus dan blend semuanya sampai jadi puree untuk bawa pergi sekolah

masuk minggu ketiga, dah mula introduce dia dengan protein. i buat satu satu, each protein i bagi dia makan for 3 days straight untuk detect allergies. so far alhamdulillah sofia boleh ambil semua makanan and tak ada allergy lagi kecuali maybe kekacang sebab belum cuba.

antara protein yang i bagi sofia cuba ialah dada ayam, daging topside, ikan tenggiri dan telur. i campurkan sekali dengan nasi dan sayur. arrangement yang sama, blend untuk bawa pergi sekolah dan bentukkan makanan besar besar bila makan dekat rumah. 

cara potong makanan i refer dkt instagram solidstarts untuk avoid chocking

cukup sebulan bagi dia suai kenal dengan makanan, i dah mula prepare dan masak guna mirepoix, serbuk ikan bilis dan serbuk ayam. kira macam dah guna flavor enhancer dalam makanan dia. 

i selalu buat stock mirepoix dan bekukan untuk masak later. senang je nak buat, perlukan bawang holland, lobak merah dan saderi dalam nisbah 2:1:1. kemudian i akan masak sampai lembut, naik bau dan bekukan macam biasa.

mula dari sofia 7 bulan juga i start 'masak' makanan dia ikut recipe. antara yang i cuba macam masak lemak labu, paprik, tomyam putih. semua ikut recipe baby yang i jumpa dekat tiktok. bila i jumpa recipe, i akan buat due diligence, 1. recipe ni tak patut ada garam, gula, msg. 2. bahan yang digunakan tak panas or pedas. i check makanan ni semua juga dkt website solid starts. 

buat rencah sendiri. air fry ayam dan ikan bilis, blend jadi serbuk

tomyam putih untuk sofia

masak lemak labu

i juga ada introduce snacks macam pancakes, omelette etc untuk bagi dia rasa more texture, shape and flavors. antaranya i pernah buat dia pancake dragonfruit. dia suka sangat!

nak bagi anak makan ni cabaran dia di samping nak cari masa untuk prep mirepoix la apa la is to get them to actually eat. i am ambitious, awal2 i memang plan nak dia blw every weekends and so on sebab i dimomokkan dgn ketakutan yang kalau i tak start bagi dia blw, dia akan lambat pandai makan sendiri. tapi i penat so lama lama process mengajar sofia makan jadi chore untuk i rather than something that i wanted both of us to enjoy. jadi i ubah sikit style, i still cut and prep some food untuk dia pegang dan suap sendiri, tapi i also prep something on the side yang i boleh suap in case dia cuma bermain dan tak makan. alhamdulillah, by the age of 1 year tu sofia dah tau proses pegang makanan dan suap ke mulut pakai tangan and sometimes pakai sudu baby tu. so i think macam, of course i encourage you to follow all these advanced techniques untuk bagi anak cepat pickup skills but maybe don't push your limits sampai u rasa stress nak buat benda tu. apa guna spend 2-3 jam blw and rumah bersepah tapi anak tak makan. boleh buat blw, pastikan anak makan, and ibu bapa tak stress.

contoh macam mana i susun jadual makan sofia for the first few months

then i guess what i wanted to say also is kita semua as a whole, have different mindsets. and being woman and mother sometimes kita mudah tersentuh dan sensitif kalau orang pertikai anak kita or cara kita jaga anak kita. of course dalam proses nak ajar sofia makan, ada orang yang cakap i too restrictive sebab hanya suap benda yang i masak sahaja dekat sofia. ada yang cakap i tak blw enough and concern kalau sofia lambat pandai suap makanan sendiri. ada juga yang suggest bagi nestum sajalah etc. awal awal benda mcm ni did affect my emotions sikit tapi i just buat je. i mean, there's nothing wrong with what people say to me cuma i rasa i nak cuba cara i so i jalan depan saja. i memang selective pasal makanan sofia sbb i memang takut kalau dia sakit, especially if it's in my power to prevent it. once i rasa dia dah ready nak take on more adult foods, i bagi dia rasa sikit2. masa dia reached 1 year old, i bagi dia rasa birthday cake dia secubit dua, rasa 1-2 biji nasi beriani and stuff like that. i guess what i'm trying to say is, you're a mother and you should believe in yourself yang u dah buat terbaik untuk jaga anak u. so apa orang cakap, so long u dah berusaha ke arah terbaik, u abaikan saja dan terus saja jaga anak cara u. of course jangan la tak ambil nasihat lansung. nasihat is nasihat but you will know how to differentiate between nasihat and cynic criticisms. 

at this point of writing this entry, sofia is a big eater. dia makan semua benda. i still tak letak gula garam dalam masakan harian dia untuk pergi sekolah tapi kalau keluar i bagi dia rasa fries, fried chicken etc dalam kadar sederhana. dia sangat suka makan dan makan semua benda. alhamdulillah sayang, you're very cute when you're round <3

Thank you for reading this entry :D

hi dina, kalau interview programmer dia tanya apa ek?

assalamualaikum

i sudah berkerja sebagai seorang programmer selama 3 tahun dan sudah bertukar tempat kerja sebanyak 2 kali. so proses pertukaran kerja ni cam biasa la mesti lah ada proses interview kan. so mari sini i kupas and share sikit pengalaman and what to expect, what to prep for interviews as programmer la ye. i mahu mulakan tahun baru dengan post yang berilmiah cehhh hahaha.

sebelum tu, disclaimer sikit yang pengalaman i is based on my role as a full stack web developer. mungkin some programmer roles mcm devops, app dev etc might have different styles of interview so mcm biasa la refer saja, this is not the ultimate source of truth.

okay so bila kita mencari kerja ni yang pertama mestilah update CV dan send application kerja. jika ada rezeki, i might be discovered by a recruiter from a recruiting company. they usually will call me first, ask about my expected salary, other compensation packages, benefits, revisit my experiences at the current/previous company and then they will let me know that they're scheduling an interview. the invitation will be sent via email.

so my first interviews in my experience were with head of departments, technical leads, senior managing partners and senior software architect. and say out of 15 interviews that i attended, only 1/5 will ask deep technical knowledge. the rest prefers to let me ramble about my past experiences, give me some possible scenarios to see how i propose to solve them and ask questions based on my past projects.

so let's break stuffs down:

  part 1 - verbal technical interviews  

i pernah melalui around 15 technical interviews dengan style yang berbeza beza. tapi yang semua company mesti bagi i adalah theory questions. sometimes relax relax, sometimes drilling, back to back punya style. so i always prep myself the night before utk cari cheatsheets mcm "Angular interview questions", "NodeJS interview questions". i will go through the notes and match with my experience. honestly, jangan terlalu rely on the internet answers sbb sometimes interviewer akan tanya, "how do you apply this in your code, where do you use this in your code" bla bla so mcm kena tau juga sedikit sebanyak.

if they really are drilling your technical knowledge, they would ask stuffs like (in angular terms), "explain how you utilise angular lifecycle hooks", "when to choose to use reactive or template-driven forms", "tell me all the ways you know to center a div".

if they are more chill, they might just ask your experience. for example, i have experience developing a searchable directory for car workshops nearby to customers on the road. so they would ask how i utilise Google Maps API, how do i handle fuzzy search, how do i insert myself in UI/UX design process, how hard was the project for me as a beginner. so the interview became more like a chatting session.

my honest tip would be to just say you don't know if you really don't know. i got away with it most of the times. i will lace my lack of knowledge by saying "i'm not really sure about this, but i'll make sure to educate myself before i join in." etc. 

  part 2 - "tell me about yourself"  

be charming when you are given a room to tell your interviewers about your skills. be humble and honest that what you are saying is of course, to dazzle them. assure them that your confidence in delivering these information is on par with your technical abilities. try to use reactions to show them how challenging your tasks were, how happy you are when you were able to solve the problems. let them know all the good words and praises your superiors have given you. let them know how much you volunteered to do something you haven't tried before. 

be enthusiastic. show how much you are willing to learn on the job. assure them how independent and resourceful you can be if given tasks out of your comfort zone. let them know all your soft-skills that doesn't really apply to your job, but you can do. let them know that you are comfortable working in teams. tell them that you understand that no job is easier than the other but you are up to every challenge.

be truthful about your expectations. let them know if you are a family person and if you would love some balance in work. let them know if you are concerned about schedule of deployments, your responsibilities, the organization of the project. let them know if you might need support and ask if you will have a buddy to help you go thru understanding the project. and of course, if their answers don't satisfy you, let them know your concerns, but say that you will try your best to accommodate. 

be expressive when you are given the audience.

  part 3 - technical assessment  

so sekiranya mereka berpuas hati dengan verbal technical interview i, i selalunya akan tanya, "will there be a technical assessment?". kalau tak ada memang bersyukur alhamdulillah hahaha. tapi kalau ada pun tak apa.

so some of the assessments that i have been given were:

#1 project-based assessment: 

this is my favorite type of assessment. background is, they will for sure ask you to code something in language that they have described in the JD (thus ensure you apply for jobs that fits the skills you have) or you can also just swing with what knowledge you have but ensure that you can guarantee them that you know how to map from a syntax to another.

as a web developer, my assessments are always the same. to create an app with CRUD operations. it can be either a product inventory or user management system. any theme could be so long as you can create an entry, read (display the entry on the UI), update the entry's data and delete them whenever you required. you have to do it in the most optimized way possible which means that if you want to demonstrate an update operation, you may want to know if the app requires you to allow autosave or save in bulk on submit etc. 

understand your assignment. if you are applying for a front-end position, focus more on the look and feel. optimize your input textboxes, scrollbars, responsiveness, colour, fonts. make use of fake back-end or ready made APIs you can find online. if you're applying for back-end position, maybe demonstrate caching, clean structure of classes and functions, best iteration methods etc. if you're applying for a full-stack, meet in the middle. don't do everything for every end. minimize on the aesthetics of the UI and also minimize on any extra back-end tools like you don't have to build a swagger for your assignment.

#2 algorithm assessment

this would be my least favourite assessment of all. but i do know some websites for algorithmic practices/challenges (hackkerank, codewars, leetcode). these kind of assessments relies on your knowledge on the binary trees la, which i don't practice lol. they will just send an email to you with a link to the assessment and it's going to be timed and usually they will give you around 2-3 hours to solve a set of questions. and usually these kind of assessments also allows you to pick whatever language that you are comfortable with because they just wanna assess your problem-solving skills.

#3 live coding

honestly, i was surprised to ever be tested to code live. my experience was to do it on stackblitz and lasts around 15 mins because i think they want to test your ability to think fast and critical thinking. my experience was they just know that there would be more than 1 way to do solve a problem, but which one will you choose and if you are able to think fast in a critical situation. masa i kena live coding ni, memang betul betul spontan sebab it was right after my verbal interview.

my advise for live coding is to not let your sweat stains be shown haha. relax your muscles, and google if it's permitted. because as a programmer, you can always look up for stuffs on the internet and it will never be exactly as what the assignment requires so usually the interviewer just want to assess your understanding of how coding works and if you can apply a solution to your problem. 

  part 4 - what to ask your interviewers?  

here are some of the questions that are in my prerogative, are important to ask and be clear off and will definitely help you decide if the work suits you or not. some answers might accommodate you so always revisit if you can take it or if it's a big factor that will make your job hard to accomplish.

1. how many people will be in my team? - i usually will not go for small teams where only 1 person is responsible wholly on a stack. for example, i cannot be the only front-end developer in a team because i may need to take a break some time and i wouldn't want to be disturbed during it. a comfortable scrum team for me will have around 6-7 developers, a balance between back and front end developers. if your role is a full stack, try to probe which stack are you going to be more focused on.

2. what is the working arrangement? - i prefer max of 3 days wfo but this is very personal to your own preference. you can ask how flexible if you need extra days to work from home or if it's possible to always have a seat if you prefer to come to office everyday.

3. will a laptop be provided? - i will always try to avoid working on a personal laptop since i don't want to be liable if any code or documentation is released from my laptop. i will also usually ask if they can provide me a mac because i am more accustomed to work on mac. but not getting a mac is not a deal breaker for me so long as it is a high-powered machine suitable for programming and if the process of replacing my laptop if it has technical issues is short and easy.

4. what is the nature of the project? is it public facing or used internally? what is the deployment cycle? which tool are you using for code versioning? do we have proper documentation to learn about the project?

5. what is the project management tool that the company/project uses? - i have a personal preference towards projects that practices agile. i will also ask some follow up questions about how development tickets or bugs are being handled, how much will we work hand in hand with our product owner, what tool is used to track the progress of ticket development, how do you measure the complexity of the ticket etc

6. how would you describe the work culture in the company? - do you have team building events? do you offer pair programming or buddies for people who's starting up? do you have a learning or certifications platforms to upskill? what is the relationship between the department and the HR? 

7. how appraisal works? - how is my performance going to be rated? what is the measurement? how often is the checkpoint session? 

8. how can i dazzle you in 6 months? - what are the expected outcome of me joining the company? is there a target that i can hit to ensure that my performance is above average. let the employers tell you what they expect to see with you as a part of the team.

  part 5 - wow the interviewers really bought my presentation. now the HR calls me?!  

congratulations. if the HR reached you back, it's highly likely that your interviewer really likes you and is assigning the HR to set a deal with you. for me, i have a set of questions that i will also ask the HR and this will helps me in deciding if the job works for me.

1. is this a permanent role? - if not, how is a contract employee going to be assessed to be qualified to convert the role to a permanent position?

2. how long is the probationary period?

3. what is the offered salary? what are the perks that comes with it? how about the medical coverage? how about my dependents? what are the extra perks that i can enjoy as an employee?

4. what is the average bonus percentage? when is the payout? 

5. what is the average percentage for salary increment? when is the new salary effective?

6. what is the job grade that i'm joining? - what is the expected deliverables for my grade?

  part 6 - signing the deal  

if you are satisfied with all the answers provided in the HR round, it's time to verbally confirm to them of your acceptance and readiness to review your offer letter. 

i know that all these questions might seem overwhelming and of course it is. that is a lot of questions coming from an interviewee to an interviewer so i don't always ask ALL the questions. i pick and choose depending on the situation. sometimes, i just reworded some stuffs so it doesn't sound like i'm asking a lot. treat this as a guide to probe as much information upfront as possible to avoid a lot of shocks when joining. remember that work is work, it should not affect your mental health so it's important to really know the nature of the job before jumping into it.

the questions to the HR are as important. you wouldn't want to fall sick and know that your company doesn't actually offer medical benefits and don't allocate any medical leaves for you, or you missed out on 5 months of public transport costs that you can claim because HR never told you until your colleague showed you. the key is to probe as much fact as you need.

however, remember that there is a thin line between being too cocky when asking too much, might make you sound too demanding so pick and choose your priority questions and do word them correctly. take notes of every answer for your questions. let the interviewer do most of the talking after every question so that you don't ask questions that they are already covering. show them respect.

sekian, my tips. all the best for your job hunts and interviews for the new year!!!

Thank you for reading this entry :D

oh my god i don't have any photos in this post lol