::FAMILY:: Christmas Dinner

There's nothing more I treasure than family time, so once in a while we have the family over for a meal at our place. Christmas dinner this time round was a 5 (+2)-courser mix of east and west ;p

Readily available from our freezer - junk food to hold off hunger pangs

Extra mashed potato from shepherd's pie

Spicy tuna wontan

Kong ba bao in Korean sauce

The Sherpherd's Pie

Salted egg yolk French beans

 

Scallops with shitake and spinach in cream sauce

 

I must say my dad was pretty impressed with the spread he asked where I picked up my culinary skills from?! It's not from motherhood, dad, it's a natural talent not displayed when I was staying with you and the kitchen belonged to mummy ;p

:::SPAIN SHOPPING::: Chanel Classic

  

Something I have always lusted after for a loooong time now! Let's just say the husband dragged me into the boutique 2 days before his birthday and made a wise choice for his bdae present! Makes my 3rd bag for the year and probably no more for mannnnny years to come!

  

It cost an arm and a leg but the amount of savings in Europe was substantial enough for us to decide to break the bank ;)

 

I got it in lambskin because there was no other choice available :(

Barely a month of owning it and I really want to pull my hairs out from caring for it!

::COOKING:: Salted Egg Yolk French Beans

2nd attempt at this dish after the failed attempt several years ago.

This time round I googled for a recipe before actually embarking on my little kitchen adventure :)

Was sooo excited putting everything together that I denied N access to my kitchen (to help out)because this, was MY RECIPE that was going to succeed.

I must say we nailed the taste and the chemistry between the foods this time round. Previously, I didn't know how to 'stick' the egg yolk to the French bean ;p

 

It was good to have it as the calorie buster to our simple (and healthy) macaroni soup on a weeknight. Sometimes I really wonder how the other working mums without live in help do it. Hopefully practice makes perfect and we can have more home-cooked meals soon!

 

Ingredients:
French beans, 1 packet

Cooked salted egg yolk, 2 eggs, mashed

Garlic

Sugar

Oil, 2-3 tbsp

Curry leaves

Chilli

 

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok
2. Sautee Garlic, curry leaves and chilli (I didn't add the last 2 this time round)
3. Add in the salted egg yolk and fry until creamy
4. Add in the French beans and fry until soft
5. Sprinkle sugar and stir to combine
6. SERVE!

And watch your calories! :)

::BABY:: Where is my mummy?

I don't have the habit of getting my hair trimmed regularly. But once in a while, whenever I do get to my salon, I let my hairstylist make decisions for my hair. This time round was no exception, EXCEPT I didn't realise I now have a little boss to 'report' to.

 

This was before I had a haircut

 

Ivy suggested I go for the bangs look, and then pretty much went on to decide for me on the cut.

Since cut + wash + dye + blow would take too much time (I always stay past opening hours whenever I dyed my hair previously), she suggested I make another appointment to dye my hair since this time round I also want to bleach it (for a funkier color ;p)

 

But here's what Part 1 of my visit to the hair salon resulted in:

 

Major perplexed/confused baby who stared at me and then broke into a cry when I started speaking to him. Poor baby must have been so confused at this motherly figure who looked so much like but yet not exactly like his mummy!

Thursday evening: My mum had to help put him to sleep that night..

Friday: His face cringed when he saw me the next morning, only giving me a slight smile when I lifted up my fringe and thereafter ran into the safety of his gong gong's arms.

Sat: I was out on Friday night and he was already sleeping when I got home. He didn't get to see me until Saturday morning. Well, he did see me when he woke up for night feeds, but he's usually half awake during those feeds. But somehow, I guess he was still preoccupied with the weird mummy figure, he didn't sleep well that night. Some time in the night, he came and peer over the me lying down (hair difference not obvious) and smiled at me. And then lie down in contentment beside me. It was hot, he flipped and flipped and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up to close the windows and on the aircon. That was it. He didn't see his mummy get up to close the windows. He saw the weird mummy and proceeded to crawl towards and sleep nearer to papa N -_-"

 

In the morning, he wasn't afraid of me anymore. He gave me a death stare and wouldn't let me touch him!

 

Took me a while to reintroduce myself to my baby!

Here's to our successful reunion!

Now, should I go ahead and dye my hair purple??!!

I AM WORKIN' IT!

So I have started myself on another journey with fitness.

A lot of research was done this time round to check out exercises that work for me.

And as most fitspo sites would have it, diet actually makes up 70% of your fitness regime.

Exercise makes up the other 30%.

 

I would die first if I had to eat like them.

Diet was never in any part of my fitness equation. Never before, that is.

Because I do not know else how to flatten back a stomach that had previously been stretched until like that. -_-"

So this month, I have started to make baby steps in changing part of our diet.

BABY steps ;p

 

1) CUTTING DOWN THE SUGAR

This is easy! I was never a dessert person until my pregnancy. The extra weights must have come from my daily dessert treats and cokes I indulged D with for 9 full months! These are things that were never a huge part of my diet and I am pretty sure my body didn't know how to deal with them :D Now the only sugary stuff I take daily is just from that cuppa coffee - cant be as bad right?

 

 

2) DRINKING AT LEAST 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY

This one is easy! I drink 1.5 - 2 litres each day!

 

3) EATING CLEAN

Here comes the toughest part of diet.

I wish I could post clean foods like the below and hashtag them on instagram everyday. And become part of the fitspo community.

Monday's lunch

Friday's lunch

 

Not too bad. Eh?

Reason why I do not try to become part of the fitspo community is because we have had a 'cheat meal' too many!

This is the dinner N&I had the night before.

Buffet, no less. So imagine this on a repeat mode!

It's mainly a protein buffet, though :D That made us slightly happier.

 

The fitspo people call them cheat meals and you are supposed to have it only once a week! But cheat meals are so inherent in our lifestyle that I don't wish to rule them out! I still prefer to have my fried beehoon, roti prata, lor mee and barchormee for breakfast. These over granola and fruits and yoghurts everyday.

 

So for the time being, I am just gonna work with changing out a few meals to 'cleaner' option.

 

It's hard work.

::ME:: Thursday's Threads

Coming to terms with my upsize, many pairs of pants this month!

 

In the slightly funkier one today (just got them last evening!) since its Mid Autumn and that calls for a celebration!

 

It goes better with pumps but this pair of Gabby wedge is fast becoming my favourite shoe to date of parenting. It has all aspects of what I find in a good shoe and it allows me to feel comfortable with a 10kg add on PLUS run in them!

 

We are gonna carry lanterns tonight!

 

What's with all the lanterns in the market these days?! They don't even play cute kiddie songs any more! D's minion (we weren't the ones who bought it) sings an irritating tune of techno song that got us very tickled and annoyed! So N went about disconnecting the audio connection. And yesterday, I overheard a lantern that sings 我从山中来, 带着兰花草。。。And a mama was paying for that lantern! o_O"

 

OMGWTF.

Made in China.

::QUICK FIX:: Thin Crust Pizza

We had some Gardenia Wraps lying around in the house one day. We have been using them to make wraps for dinners.. but we have had a wrap too many that week and the remaining ones were fast expiring...I read the packaging and saw that it could also be used as a pizza base!

 

So this has become our quick fix dinner solution for the working mum! And it's really yummy!

 

Base

Gardenia wraps (pack of 5 pieces)

 

Toppings

Minced meat, marinated with BBQ sauce

Capsicum

Prego tomato paste/pasta sauce

Cheese - we used cheese slices because those are readily stocked up in our fridge

 

Choice of toppings to suit your own tastes!

 

Preparation

1. Spread tomato paste/pasta sauce over wraps

2. Sprinkle toppings

3. Sprinkle cheese

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degree celcius

::BABY:: Milestone!

This week we celebrated D's birthday. I am talking about his first OFFICIAL birthday, not one of those half birthdays or quarter birthdays that papa and mommy threw on their whim and fancy just for the sake of celebrating. :D

 

I made these and sent them out through FB and whatsapp.

 

 

ONE

How did that happen so fast?!

We were just grasping around in our new roles and playing along with the parenting part. We've had our tears and laughter, agreements and disagreements, the good times and the bad times.

But each month, we look forward to the new surprises that unfold before us as D grows older. He keeps our endorphins level high with his new-found tricks!

So our days easily became months and those months just turned into a year!

 

Happy ONE YEAR OLD baby!

::KITCHEN GODDESS:: The Need to Bake

Once in a blue moon, the heart feels a dire need to let out something creative - to create love, bliss or beauty. I find these sudden bursts of needs being addressed best in the form of shopping or in the kitchen, and in the past it used to be on the nails.

This was my proudest creation Cake pops. I was actually planning to do another batch in minion forms this week, but didn't get down to buying all the ingredients. The last time we did this, we scouted many places in order to get them.

I was very inspired to do a pumpkin bread last week after tasting one some time back. Having a kiddo makes you appreciate and take note of all these healthy little treats! I googled for a recipe. However, a Japanese green pumpkin was hard to get in a neighbourhood supermarket. Since I was already in a baking mood that weekend, I found an easier recipe in the same blog Cosybake: Butter cakes! (Original recipe from Littleteochew ) Just nice! D didn't quite like the twiggies I bought for him earlier (cos I think they were too sweet!)

So using the recipe from there, I further cut the sugar to 150gm (and still found it too sweet! Will cut by half again next time).

Since I had some of these cupcake cases in stock, I decided to make them into cupcake sizes. Recipe makes about 15 cases.

 

I had D at my MIL for a few hours so I could make these in peace!

Imagine the amount of mummy-guilt laiden time off I need to take if I were to create + hit my classes every weekend! The woes of being mummy!

Sometimes, I wonder how the other mamas cope!

::CONFESSION:: Finding Time to Stay Active

I will come clean about this.

I have weight issues. Never expected myself to have to say this, since I am not one who puts on weight that easily. But the last bit of the pregnancy weight just refused to go off!

I attribute it to many factors post birth.

#1 was the highly nutritious and big meals I had consecutively for 30 days while I did my confinement. Each meal consisted of a fish, a meat, a veg, a soup (usually with meat too!) and rice. And each day, I take at least 2 naps because I was just sooooo tired and super in need of a recharge for milk production! I am pretty sure that continuous bingeing and laid-back lifestyle contributed to some stubborn excess deposits.

 

#2 was the lack of exercise I desperately needed to kick off some metabolism during the initial few months because I was nursing a bloody stitch somewhere O_o

 

#3 was the lack of exercise thereafter because I was the primary caregiver to D, plus I was still nursing and it felt odd to let my baby drink milk that might contain lactic acid. And it was a waste to throw away my very precious output!

 

#4 was the lack of time for exercise thereafter when D started to get really clingy, and as we try to settle ourselves into some sort of after work routine that leaves no time for an evening run. And plus some personal inertia la.

 

So basically, I didn't have many chance to GET ACTIVE! I never believed in dieting or diet pills. But as a last resort, I tried to get my doctor to give me some pills to kick start the whole weight loss process. Yet she refused and told me to give myself some time and try to do some exercise! So for a month after I went to her, I worked hard. I hit the gym 2x a week during lunchtime. Then we went BKK. And we hit the gym + pool daily. I went back to her a month later for fats analysis and was very happy that they went down by 5% point! BUT the weight still remained the same! :(

 

Sometime in August, girlfriends wanted to go on the trail. I felt a bit guilty about leaving D behind while I went out on my own. But I did it anyway. I need to manage these mummy-guilt if I want to start getting active! 

 Those extra 4kgs. Seen. Right. Here!

 

My gym membership is expiring this week.

And after much consideration, I think I will extend it again just so I can still get some workouts done during lunchtime. It doesn't work out economically now that I cant attend classes and am just using the machines for that hour slot. But at least it gets something going for the body. I am looking at some form of child deposit so I can attend a class or 2 over the weekend.

 

Here is that 4 kg in a more compact situation (posture la). It actually doesn't look so bad if I stand properly... But so far 3 colleagues have asked if I am expecting #2 -_-"

Please let my belly fats grow into the ass.

Let's hope I can show some transformation pics sooooooooooon!

MINIONS

With all that hype about the minions wave that hit SG a while ago, I really regret not stocking up on these banana items when we were in LA Universal Studio earlier this year!

And they had so many baby merchandise!!

I blame it that the wave didnt hit SG sooner and that nobody told me D looks like a minion (read - no hair) sooner.

Look at all the cute bananas behind us!

I really like this photo

D was playing peekaboo with the dining napkin over at a friend's wedding

::BABY MILESTONES:: Tamper tantrums

We didnt know what we signed up for when we went into a Joint Venture.

Each month, a surprise or surprises unfold themselves in front of us in the form of this little human being, which make us laugh and cry all at the same time. Oh! The wonders of parenting!  

Thankfully there's google on hand to equip ourselves with the latest information on what to expect during each month's developmental milestones! And hey! It is actually not so bad!!! Not so bad when you understand what you have just experienced, how long you are gonna experience it and that your baby's behavior falls under the the normal category according to general statistics!!

This month, we got the TEMPER TANTRUM!

Or maybe it was our little drama king at work -_-"

Nonetheless, we did get some form of ugly screaming, wailing, flailing, stiffening and kicking.

When that happened, we tried ignoring him and sitting farrrrrr farrrr away from all the drama. Ended up getting a baby who ended his drama..............and who then crawled over to our legs and begin his drama! lol! I didnt know to laugh or to cry! That's papa, sitting calmly in the background of all that drama, and mummy taking snapshots instead of pacifying him. I even got the act on face time to show the gramps! That's how we chose to deal with it - IGNORE. We want him to learn that throwing a tantrum doesnt get him anything!

 Here's what a parenting site has to say! 

Eleventh Month Baby Milestones: Communication

Eleven-month-olds realize that they’re unique people. They have a strong sense of their likes and dislikes, and they’ve learned to use their emotions to get what they want -- like throwing a temper tantrum when you try to take away a favorite toy. Your baby may already have discovered the word “no.” If so, you’ll probably be hearing it a lot.

Communication begins to take on a more mature rhythm at 11 months. Babies at this age can engage in a regular back-and-forth conversation. When you ask a question, you’ll get a response, although you probably won’t understand most of that response. When you name something -- like the family dog -- your baby can point at it. You’ll also probably notice that your baby has a longer attention span and can focus on you or a game for more than a few seconds at a time.

Source from: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/baby-development-11-month-old

That's exactly what we experienced during the 11th month! :)

::BABY:: Sunburnt

I would have considered myself as an experienced mummy after being one for almost a year. I see to most of D's needs personally to make sure he is cleaned, bathed, groomed and fed. They may not always be on schedule, like how we would let a sandy D nap on our bed before he gets a bath or how we would let him scratch his face before we decide it was time for a nail trim. But thing is, they get done. Medically, we have even upgraded ourselves with enough knowledge to not have to run to the PD whenever.

 

But last weekend, we let our son become THIS.

 

I actually only found out hours later when I got him ready for a bath when I saw 2 shades of skin tone on him -_-" Talk about being an experienced mother! heh! Luckily he is still quite a happy baby under that painful lobster exterior. He didn't even fuss a bit! I just applied aloe vera gel very liberally over the night and the sun burnt miraculously disappear the next day!

 

It actually started as a happy occasion in the morning, where we brought our 2 babies to ECP to meet the other furbabies. 

 

There were a total of 4 furbabies, D and a 5yo. We got busy attending to the babies' needs, and chasing tails because every few minutes or so one of them would go wander off from the pack that, no one noticed our alfresco dining table was getting hot with the mid-day sun.

 

The doggles were smart and were already hiding under the table most of the time.

 

I remembered borrowing G's portable fan to cool D down, wiping off beads of sweat from his head on top of trying to feed him, hydrate him and picking up his minion which he dropped so many, MANY times.

 

Here he is being caught red handed trying to throw the minion (which we just picked up) back onto the floor again!!

And I also remembered looking under the table and having mild panic attacks when I did not see this baby several times! 

 

So at the end of the day, we had 2 very tired babies - Good thing being under the sun tire them out!

They KO for good amount of time that day!

 

And now we also know to keep a cap and the baby sunscreen handy at all times!

::BABY:: The Scary Green Monster!

When the only thing between him and mummy was the scary green monster that sucks things through its long black nose >.<

 

 

He crawled and paused several times in front of the monster.

And then plucked up enough courage to get past it! 

But when he decided to give it a go to get to his favourite person on Earth right now, it was a ZOOOMERANG and he went past the thing without stopping!!

 

That's my boy!!

So cute and hilarious watching him grow up like that!

 

Development Milestone:  Developing fears! ;p

::BABY:: Matchy Zebra Outfit

It's always harder to dress up the male specimen.

Boys' clothes usually just occupy a smaller area in the shop and I always find myself 'accidentally' browsing into the girly racks, only to have to retract back to my tiny shopping space.

 

But I figured since I am already deprived of the endless possibilities of dressing up a real life Barbie, I might as well milk the best out of what I have.

 

So besides the usual rompers, tshirts, jeans, shorts and jumpers, we have actually increased D's wardrobe to include superhero outfits (that's mostly male exclusive! err, yay!!), and recently, some animal outfits ;p

 

Before he gets too old to object having a dog cling on to his ankle, like this:

 

 

Or having a ridiculous animal tail on his butt, like this:

 

Outfit from Chatuchak market

Soft toy from Mothercare

 

AND COINCIDENTALLY,

Almost squealed when I realised how mitchy matchy we were!

Never thought you could do a mitchy matchy with a son right?!