It’s easy to neglect this space

when life is as hectic as now

And the more I neglect

the harder it is to return

It’s like losing the momentum

It’s like becoming foreign

It’s like tipping the balance

a balance I consciously hold

But days passed and weeks passed

And there were more that were left out along the way

And I do miss this space

a place where I could connect, retreat, record and reflect

yet,  I have to relinquish

If, and only if,

I could bear to peel myself off them

It has been a crazy week
My husband is out of town and I am left with the kids
I could have gotten some help from my mum but it was a bad time to seek help as every year this time, my mum is busy preparing for Chinese New Year
And somehow despite all the disapproval she got from me over the years for making such a big hoo haa over Chinese New Year, I AM EVERY BIT LIKE HER
I FOLLOW her Chinese New Year ritual
It’s scary

I woke up one morning and decided that I NEED to clean the house, not because I feel energetic but BECAUSE Chinese New Year is nearing

I changed the sheets, cushion covers, bean bag cover, dining chair covers, basically all removable sheets and tops you can find in the house
I dusted the furniture
I mopped the floor the old fashion way
I scrubbed every inconspicuous corner in the kitchen and I traced every single ants and bugs to where they reside

I set up ants baits
I called in the furniture guy and demanded for a refund because I found BUGS crawling on them when they were barely 6 months old !
I settled for a one to one exchange instead

Then there were my few suitcases of pre-pregnancy clothes still sitting in the storage room
I can finally have them back in my wardrobe now that I have lose most of my pregnancy weight but I NEED SPACE and I can’t have them until my maternity clothes make way

Then I received this very timely email from Maternity Exchange, a unique retail concept where mums-to-be have the flexibility of buying or renting from an extensive maternity wardrobe.

MX will be launching a new program called the ‘Buy My Love’ this Chinese New Year, a sellback scheme which allows mummies to sell their preloved maternity and nursing wear back to them

Ms Deborah Ng, Director of Exchange Concept Pte Ltd, the company behind MX gave all the credit to their loyal customers for this very innovative program as many have been asking whether they could sell their hardly worn maternity pieces back to them.

Somehow I find this recycling concept rather ‘environmental friendly’ and with this brilliant program, the annual spring cleaning this year might actually get you some ang pow money.

MX will be offering attractive prices ranging from SGD $15 to SGD $70 depending on the brand of the piece
You can find out more about this program at FAQ section of their website

Do email them at buymylove[at]maternityexchange[dot]sg or call them up at +65 68419142 if you like to find out more about their program

[Giveaway to readers for this site]
Quote 4malmal or MalMal Our Inspiration when you visit MX flagship store at Marina Square #03-108 to get a S$10 MX voucher
Do take note that this voucher is only valid from the next visit onwards till April 2010

[this is a sponsored post]

is cooing at my hanging mobile

One of the most challenging part after having the new baby was when it comes to preparation of meals.

We usually eat out on weekends. On weekdays, apart from breakfast, I usually have to prepare dinner for the family and occasionally lunch for myself as Malcolm takes his lunch in school everyday.

Before the baby, I usually take about an hour to cook dinner. This includes preparation, cooking and washing up. With the baby, I realized that having an hour of uninterrupted cooking time is close to impossible. I now aim to finish cooking within 1/2 of the time.

Each meal is limit to one stir fry dish, usually a meat dish and vegetable is usually served in the soup to reduce the amount of time I have to spend in the kitchen.

I am now a sucker for hassle free recipes. Recipes that are easy to follow, little wash up and meet our needs for meat and vegetables.

Today, we had Vegetables in Chicken Broth and Stir Fry Beef with Mushrooms and Asparagus.

The soup was prepared earlier while the baby was napping. The beef was done after my husband returned from work, just before dinner was served. We served the dish directly from the utensils to reduce the washing

Life is certainly busier with the new baby but I like the fact that we are now finding new ways to make our lives easier.

New challenges thus spur us to become better and in our case, better managers for our lives.

We came back from a swim this morning and look what we found crouching outside the bathroom door

A gorgeous looking grasshopper !

Its beautiful coat of bright luminous green with a faint tint of yellow

Never realized how pretty this creepy crawler looks closeup

We suspect he might have hitched a ride on the baby’s stroller when we left it near the pool this morning

Malcolm got really excited especially when I agreed to let him keep this little guy

I cringed while I watched him stroked his little pet

We found him an old longkang fish container

threw in some leafy greens from the fridge

and he is as happy as our new baby

he E.A.T.S

he P.O.O.S

Sadly, we found out that the average life span of an adult grasshopper is only 30 days or less

Let’s hope that there won’t be another beetle episode

To fit into my old jeans !

It doesn’t matter if I have close to 4 more kg to shed

as most of the bulge was hanging above my hipster jeans

nicely concealed by a top, which was improvised from a dress

one which has lost its appeal since I lost my pregnancy hormones

Still, I must admit

that vanity has a part to play for this post

Then again,

sometime it can be just a fine line between vainity and achievement

p/s : picture taken before heading out for some twosome time with my husband

The last time I visited Singapore Zoo was when Malcolm was somewhere around 18 months and for my husband, he hasn’t been there since he was a kid.

Even within a short span of 5 years, I find that the place has changed drastically and I think it was a massive improvement.  Sure, it was teeming with tourists, overseas and local. It was bristling with energy and the sights were genuinely interesting.  Even the rain did not get us down. We love the lush green rainforest which really remind us of the wild though the animals were all in captivity and far from being wild and free.

For those who are as new to the zoo as us, here is the plus. Pay $180 for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids (above 3), and you get free entry and even parking anytime for 1 year.  If you really like peeking at animals at night, the zoo + night safari package is $320.  If you can’t decide, take the zoo first.  You can upgrade to the more expensive package at the same cost.  The only downside about the “Friends of the Zoo” program is that you don’t get to enjoy the tram and boat rides on weekend.  They must have had a bad experience of long weekend queues and did away with that privilege.

If you have not been there for as long as my husband, then you may ask,”What tram? What boat?”.  Yes, there is indeed a tram that goes around the zoo in circles and a boat that brings you to the other side of the zoo through Seletar reservoir.  We haven’t tried those so I can’t tell you if they are any good.  One minor detail that you might want to take note of is that neither starts at the entrance of the zoo.  You got to walk and navigate a little bit before hitting the tram/boat stations.  Then you are already almost half way to the other side and you miss all the animals.

If you are like a typical Japanese tourist, you could do the place in double quick time, finishing all the highlights in half a day and taking more photos than you and I have combined in our computers. This would include a traditional breakfast with the orangutans. Like all commercial activities aimed at tourists, Ah Meng Kopi charges 50% more than Killiney cafe..

Besides, I understand that Ah Meng is no longer there so I am not sure if it is still worth it.  All that is left of Ah Meng is apparently this…

With the Friends of the Zoo program,  we can now take our time to explore the area. The program has succeeded, making it more economical and attractive for locals like us to visit the zoo for as many times as we wished within a year. And seeing how efficient and progressive the zoo management is, we might have trouble keeping up with the changes they make there.  No pun intended.  Sincere.  Honest.  They did a good job.  And we felt like we have found a pirate’s secret treasure chest.

Here is the real treasure for Malcolm.  We have heard and read so much about the water park and having finally seen the real thing, we think it is comparable to the one at Legoland in California.  We went prepared for Malcolm.  Bathing suits, towel, change of clothes etc. But it would be even better if we had brought our bathing suits. Great way to keep cool under the blistering sun.

Instead of pictures of a bunch of giraffes munching leaves, these pictures sum up our zoo experience.

Have you been to the zoo lately?  We have, twice, over a weekend.

Baby Marcus is 2 months old

At 2 months, he weighs about 6 kg and is almost double his birth weight

He is still very much on his 2 hours feeding schedule

however, he is able to stretch his feeding time to 4 hours if he is in deep sleep

This usually happens if he is

- in his car seat in the car and the car is moving

- in his car seat in the stroller and the stroller is moving

- in the night

So far, he drinks from the bottle and from me

We let him try formula just so that he won’t end up like his brother who drinks NOTHING but breastmilk

He rejects the pacifier and has discovered his fist

We were hoping that he will eventually learn to soothe himself by feasting on his fist

Marcus makes all sorts of noise when trying to poo

We suspect he is as colicky as his brother

Because he is breastfed, he poos a lot and I mean A LOT, many times we end up having to bath him because the diaper leaked !

He is happiest in the morning

Usually cranky in the afternoon and evening

He is still unable to sleep through the night but he seem to be able to differentiate between day and night

He wakes up once or twice for his feed at night but is able to go back to sleep faster than in the day

He has rather strong neck muscle for a newborn

We suspect it is due to the amount of beef I consumed when I was pregnant with him

At less than a week old, he was able to push his head up and turn it when he was put on his tummy

One of his favourite sleeping position is tummy down position and because of his strong neck muscle we are quite comfortable putting him in this position

He loves to kick and locks his knee when you hold him upright, as if trying to stand

He loves to bath and the sound of splashing water calms him down

Unlike his elder brother, Marcus likes to smile

He likes to be near people

He smiles when you look into his eyes and talk to him

He smiles when he gets a diaper change

This little chap has kept our family busy lately

Before I had him, I couldn’t imagine life with another baby who looks like Malcolm

Now, I realized that no matter how much he may resemble his elder brother

He is every bit himself

Specially Uniquely Him

and he is just sooo adorably cute

and I can’t imagine life without him

For consecutive 3 years now

my family had it the same way

It was started probably because we were away for the past years

thus making reunion especially precious

We had it most fun in the open space

when we could hear, see and smell the real thing

But with a new baby it is impossible to beat the crowd

Last year being away

we had to resort to this

This year we lugged our 2 months old along

tucked him under luxurious sheets

and bunked in long enough to catch the display

It was sensational

It was spectacular

It was breathtaking

The same old people

with zhi cha packed from a typical kopi tiam

make the celebration especially heartwarming

It can never be quite the same for us anywhere else in the world

It took us a long while to decide whether to pay a few hundred bucks, leave the kids behind and relived our wedding day (I could already imagine my mum looking all stressed out caring for the baby day and night)
OR take the risk and pack the kids with us.

We chose the latter, we brought our 7 weeks old baby along.

Nah, it wasn’t anywhere far. We just drove across the little channel to this island called Sentosa for a little getaway, the exact location where we took our wedding vow many years back, this time, back with 2 kids, not as romantic as before.

The island has changed drastically. No longer quite as idyllic nor quiet, with all sorts of entertainment centers sprouting out all over the island.  There are nightly fireworks at the Songs of the Sea.  There are pubs everywhere.  There is an artificial surf center for those who really wants to surf but didn’t have the time to fly down to Bali. There are people tempting fate doing the flying fox down the hill which I thought this might be more interesting to them.

Add the up and coming IR, and all the other interesting attractions, I can already imagine the Sentosa of tomorrow - crawling with tourists, local and otherwise, big jam on the narrow causeway, double digit inflation, and lack of space on the beach which I am so not looking forward to.

The entertainment centers now breathes more life into the island.  Gets rid of outdated and loss making parks.  Dolphin lagoon appears to be closed.  So much for the pink dolphins which I thought was a far cry from being world class.  I am not too sad about Dolphin Lagoon closing after hearing that dolphins elsewhere such as at San Diego Sea World were treated better.

Mal was contented staying in the resort, feeding the peacocks, playing with the water slide, taking pictures with cool christmas trees made from recycled materials. Here’s one made from 250ml drinking bottles.

and here’s one with him playing the slide. He could do this the WHOLE DAY!

We woke up each morning, looking forward to our sumptuous buffet breakfast at the resort’s cafeteria
We stuffed ourselves crazy with food and ate like pigs
At night after putting the baby to sleep, we ordered room service and had our dinner at the balcony, occasionally catching the fireworks from the musical afar.

We went on the beach tram to explore the beach area, a large part now lined with shops and pubs. So much has changed and there is even a food court which makes it even more convenient for family with kids to visit the island

Before the trip, we worried that the baby will keep everyone awake at night
We worried that we will end up spending money to get ourselves stressed out

After the trip, we realized that being away from the daily mundane chores is by itself a natural stress reliever.
Nursing the baby under the stars with Pulau Bukom greeting us made waking up in the middle of the night less painful

When we were out and about, I chose slinging the baby over our heavily invested jogger
Going up and down the tram with the baby in the sling was a breeze
I was able to nurse the baby discreetly
Most importantly, I could have both my hands free while carrying the baby.
I am selling these slings here.

This trip has definitely made us more confident in handling baby Marcus and we are now thinking of going further for our next holiday with him along.

It has been a while since we baked. In fact, it has been 6 months, since our return from Paris. So when I suggested doing some baking for his little friends who are coming over for BBQ, Malcolm got really excited.

‘It’s going to be fun !’ was his exact words

His excitement lasted long enough to get his hands dirtied and his shirt soiled. His extra pair of hands came in handy when I needed someone to help sieve the flour while I stir the mix.

We made christmas cookies using this old butter cookie recipe we love.

With a new baby, things get a little bit tricky. Instead of 3 hours, we took 3 days to do our bake.

We mix and knead the dough on day 1, cut and bake the cookie on day 2 and decorate them on day 3. Pack them in clear cellophane bags, tie them with gold ribbons and we yield a basket full of yummy bake. The kids love them !

Here’s the recipe we used. Hope it’s not too late for your christmas bake.

Ingredients

170 g butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp of milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl

2. Mix in vanilla essence, milk and egg

3. Mix in baking powder

4. Stir in flour one cup at a time

5. Knead into a dough, separate into 2 balls and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour

6. Leave the dough 15 minutes in room temperature before rolling

7. Roll and cut cookie

8. Bake for about 10 minutes at 200 deg celsius

For Icing

1/4 cup of powder sugar

1/2 tsp milk

Mix to get desired consistency

It seem to take forever for the tree to be up this year

I thought of getting the fresh fir tree from Ikea
at SGD 69 I thought it was a good deal
save the hassle of storing the tree
and we LOVE the smell of fresh pine

Then we passed by Carrefour
they were having clearance
The deal seem too good to be missed
and we bought the tree at 1/2 price
some ornaments at 80% discount

I have this grand plan of making our own ornaments
and I totally miss the fact that with a 6 weeks old baby
doing craft with my 5 year old will be a totally new challenge

Here’s how the baby looks while we were busy

and we finally completed our ONLY piece of art for the tree

He was warned that he needs to be careful

9, 11, 12, 72
His favourite channels
He wasn’t happy that now he needs to fight with grandpa and grandma for the remote control
So instead, he was given permission to watch them on youtube

He never get bored staring at the screen playing black and white scenes
listening to the old folks rambling on with their theories or recounting their glorious days
With his glass of honey drink sitting right next to where his eyes were glued
It was a setup
Accident waiting to happen

A spillage cut off the power light in less than a minute
put the machine to sleep
We tried everything
But nothing works
The 2 year old machine was declared dead

It was almost a reflex losing my cool
not so much because I cannot tolerate accident
more because I took it as a warning unheed
but he was right
It was an accident
And accident can happen anytime and anywhere

As if to help me simmer down
I turned away
grabbed some papers
and asked him to write

With 2 pages of this
He managed to appease his Dad
It was a good reason for Dad to splurge on his dream machine afterall

and as I sit here blogging in front of this new gigantic cutting edge machine
I realise I have my 5 year old to thank

P/s : my old laptop miraculously resurrected after a week of inactivity.
We end up burning a hole in our pocket for nothing

I get to catch the first golden streak

that lit up the sky and warms the earth

ALL BECAUSE
…
….
…..

I was up at unearthly hour

nursing, burping and changing the baby

It is a Chinese tradition for women to go through 30 days of confinement after child birth. During this period, she needs to follow a certain lifestyle and diet which is believed to not only help her recuperate but also rid her body of any prior illnesses. It is a belief that she will then emerge with a stronger and healthier body after the 30 days.

If you ask my mum, she will probably ramble on about how disobedient I was for not following the confinement rules. To be frank, for both confinements, I did try my best to stick to the rules, BUT, failed miserably. I figured out that to adhere to the stringent lifestyle and diet requires more than just plain perseverance and determination. Without some kind of faith and belief, it is impossible for me to stick with the practice of NOT bathing, NOT drinking water, NOT leaving the house, NOT washing my hair. I can’t imagine the physical discomfort that one has to go through without bathing and washing hair for a month and I think it may just aggravate any post natal depression.

But because my mum is a strong believer in the benefits of doing confinement, I was served like a empress during this 30 days period. I was spared the washing, the cooking, the cleaning. She even helped to bath the baby because I should not touch water.

You can read more about confinement practices and confinement myths busted

It was good to have help during this period when I was sleep deprived and when the wound from the operation still hurts. And when my husband volunteered to help with the cooking during the first week, both my mum and I got a little worried as we knew that it was his virgin attempt in cooking confinement food. But thanks to the internet, he managed to find some really good recipes and served some really authentic traditional confinement food.

So for 1 week, he cooked 6 meals a day, with each meal nicely planned out and written in his diary. I was impressed with how well organized he was and I even thought that he would fare better as a househusband if  and only if he could keep this enthusiasm going, continuing his effort 24/7.

Apart from the usual Red Dates and Longan confinement tea, he tried something called the Fried Ginger Rice Tea which is really simple to make and reminds me of Sikhye, a traditional sweet Korean rice beverage usually served as a dessert. I totally love it !

With my 30 days of confinement coming to an end, on one hand, I may not feel any sense of achievement or triumph for having completed the stringent regime, on the other hand, I no longer feel guilty about flouting all the rules. Perhaps like what my mum said, I will be stricken with rheumatism and a thousand other maladies when I hit 50 years old.

Meanwhile, enjoy this refreshing tea recipe.

Fried Ginger Rice Tea

Ingredients:
300g white grain rice
150g fresh ginger shredded
Sugar to taste

Method:
1) Stir-fry the rice and shredded ginger until dry and golden brown.
2) Remove and keep in a bottle
3) Soak 1tbsp in a cup of boiling water. Cover for 30 minutes.
4) Add sugar to taste
Serve hot.