Celebrating hubby's birthday- 2011

We celebrated hubby's birthday recently, and we invited a handful of dear friends from our old bible study group over to our place. We got ready some simple fare (mainly bought)- egg mayo sandwiches, KFC, yong tau foo, yam cake, and dearest mum-in-law cooked some fried noodles.

We had a really good time; it was great to be able to catch up with friends whom we had not seen for quite a while.

Hubby's birthday cake was ordered from Fatboy- a DELICIOUS durian cake aptly named Aroma Therapy.

"Layers of lightly flavoured durian sponge sandwiching layers of durian cream lightened by a hint of whipping cream" (as described by Fatboy himself). Check out his website for more cakes!

Just thinking about this makes my mouth water... yum...

Happy birthday dear- I hope you have a great year ahead and may all your wishes come true! Love you loads.. *hug*

Experience Italy at Favola, Le Meridien

Thanks to the heads-up we got from CP and CE (I call them the 'buffet hunters'.. haha) we heard about this lovely dining experience at Le Meridien hotel. We managed to make time to give it a try; my mum kindly agreed to watch the kids for us while we took some time off to enjoy lunch (in celebration of hubby's birthday).

The selection was not extensive, but the food was really delicious. Aside from the cold starters and the dessert, everything else was served to our table. We placed our orders from the menu, and they arrived freshly made and piping hot!

White Bean and Mushroom Ragout with Pan Seared Scallops

The scallops were incredibly delicious; plump, fresh and sweet. They went really well with the mushrooms and even though I thought the white beans would make the dish too 'heavy', it somehow gave a nice balance to the scallops. The dish came drizzled with a really tasty sauce on the side; I could not tell what it was- something containing balsamic vinegar maybe?

The next dish that I absolutely loved was the clams. The broth... oh... the broth- thinking about it just makes my mouth water. Yum. It was so delicious I was literally drinking it- oil and all! I dipped pieces of bread into the broth, and enjoyed every last bite. I would have ordered another helping, but hubby probably could not help me with it so I decided against that and saved space for something else.

Clams and Crab Cooked Vongole style with Garlic and Italian Parsley

Chicken and Spinach Crespelle with Smoked Tomato Coulis

The crespelle was really nice too. It looked like a single lasagna sheet, rolled up and stuffed with chicken and spinach. Simple and delicious.

Next up was pasta; we chose only to try the non-vegetarian ones, and this one came with smoked chicken pepperoni, giving the pasta a nice, distinct flavour.

The next dish was not great, despite the yummy-licious name. The fillings did not stand out- a shame considering it was supposed to be prawn and lobster. The edges of the ravioli were a little too thick for my liking as well.

As for dessert, there were only a few choices. The tiramisu wasn't memorable; the same went for the tiramisu-flavoured gelato. The other gelati flavours available were straciatella and rum & raisin, which were delicious, fortunately. The fresh fruit compote was light and refreshing, and the bread and fruits pudding was quite nice as well.

Spaghetti Pizzaiola

Homemade Prawn and Lobster Ravioli in Spiced Crustacean Cream

All in all, a spectacular meal! And at 98++ for two (thanks to my Starwood Privilege Card), it was a real steal!

Dinosaurs at the National Science Centre!

I'm a HUGE fan of dinosaurs. When we found out that there was a dinosaur exhibition at the National Science Centre, we decided to bring the kids there to have a look. Apparently some of the exhibits could move, so it certainly sounded very promising!

We went there around lunchtime and the place was packed! Not surprising, due to the school holidays.

The resident T-Rex; it moves and roars! Cool...

No.1 seemed only mildly interested in the dinosaurs- he wasn't as excited as I hoped he would be. I was a bit worried that he would be frightened by the scary-looking beasts, as well as their roars, but he wasn't disturbed at all.

Rather disturbing exhibit of a Megalosaurus devouring its prey

The infamous Velociraptor- star of the Jurassic Park movie

The T-Rex and the Apatosaurus

The exhibit is on until May 2011, I think. Do check it out if you can!

Christmas Decorations at MidValley

It's the time of the year where malls are decked to the nines with all things 'Christmas-sy'. I wonder if there is some kind of competition going on each year, considering how much effort is put into the whole affair.

The decorations in MidValley are usually very nice; and this year's was just superb. The entire Centre Court was transformed into a magical toyland- with HUGE teddy bears, toy soldiers, a carousel, jacks-in-the-box and other cute stuff!

We made a trip there for the children, and took the opportunity to take some photos. It wasn't easy- with 2 strollers, trying to pose, handle the camera and run after No.1. Thankfully we went really early and left before the crowd came pouring in. Would have been impossible otherwise. At the end of all that photo-taking, both of us were exhausted and sweating!

Well worth it though- No.1 really seemed to enjoy himself....

Notes on No.2

No.2 is growing very well indeed. 6.25 kg at the 2-month mark! Amazing. Our cute little fat girl with her triple chin, haha!

A couple of things to pen down:

• When I feed her direct, she likes to keep one eye open and the other one closed, which is quite funny.
• She makes a whole array of funny noises when she sleeps- including some that make her sound like a trumpeting baby elephant! Hilarious. Sometimes it feels like we’re sleeping in some sort of zoo…
• She loves to be carried, especially when we’re seated in the rocking sofa. Good buy; that piece of furniture…
• She has the habit of crying / whining with her eyes still closed; we gathered she’s struggling to fully wake up from her sleep.
• She can follow objects with her eyes very well, and can turn towards the source of sound that she hears.
• She’s recently learnt to put her little hands into her month, which leaves her with very damp mittens! Yuck.
• When she’s in the car, she whimpers/cries when the car is stationary, and stops crying when the car starts moving again. The start-and-stop crying makes us laugh everytime. :)
• Oh, and she just learnt to suck her thumb; which is so fun to watch!

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Hubby and I managed to take an afternoon off away from the children to have a quiet lunch and catch a movie. I can't remember the last time we went to the cinema or had a proper meal, so this was a really nice break.

We had a nice buffet lunch at 'The Living Room' in The Westin Hotel, where I finally got to eat sashimi after a loooong time! It was incredibly yummy; I must have had about 7 slices or so. Should have had some more; darn. Haha :p The buffet spread wasn't really THAT spectacular, but then again, one can't really eat much for lunch...

We then made our way to catch the latest Harry Potter movie; something that I was dying to do for ages. Overall, I found the book much better than the movie; parts of the latter seemed a bit slow. Plus, the exciting bits in the book were not given enough screen time. Also, somehow those felt a whole lot more exciting in the book!

Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to Part 2 of the movie, especially the final battle scene. That was seriously heart-stopping in the book; wonder how that will turn out in the movie.... Guess we'll find out next year!

Going nuts!

I knew having 2 young children would not be easy; but frankly speaking, this is really really hard. Maybe it's my hormones, but I am really finding it exceptionally difficult to cope. No.2 seems to be always feeding, feeding, and feeding; leaving me so incredibly exhausted and having no time or energy to spend time with No.1. At least I have some help (my mum/hubby, etc) with the older boy, but I do feel sad that the situation seems to have resulted in him distancing himself from me (not that he was really close to me in the first place). Sigh.

The past few weeks have been hard; filled with tears and screams. It's tough being a mum; and I really do think I'm hopeless at it. My capacity for patience is really low, and admittedly, I don't do so well at keeping my temper in check.

Dear God, please help me to do better...

Words, words, words!

It's been really fun watching our little boy learn to 'talk'. He's got quite a decent vocabulary now; in fact for the 2 days when we were away (in the hospital, delivering No.2), it seemed like he added a lot more words to his word bank!

He's progressed from his favourite word- 'Star' to also include 'Moon', heh.

Other random words:

• Up, Down (he says 'Up' and raises his arms when he asks to be carried)
• More (e.g. if he wants more biscuits), Gone, No More
• Don't Want
• One, Two, Three
• Hair, Knee, Toes
• Elmo, Einstein (as in his Baby Einstein DVDs)
• Clock, Pear, Hole, Cut, Book, Hot, Cold, Wet, etc
• Spoil (we use this since he isn't exactly gentle with his toys.. :p)
• Por (maternal grandma), Kong (maternal grandpa), Mama (paternal grandma). But he can't say Mummy! He uses 'Mama' for both me and his paternal grandma. He can manage 'Papa' or 'Daddy' fine though. Hmmph.

These are what I can recall at the moment.. it's so fun to see him learn and grow! :)

One of my favourites- he can answer to A is for 'Apple', B is for 'Boy'/'Ball', C is for 'Car' / 'Cow'; and for D? His answer- 'wowow' (i.e. dog barking). Simply precious.

Also, he's really into tennis! We can see the tennis court from our unit, and he loves watching people play. Hubby got him a small plastic tennis racquet, and he loves swinging it to and fro, or hitting some small balls- going 'pok', 'pok' (that's the sound a tennis ball makes when it hits the ground). He's nuts about 'pok', 'pok' alright...

No.2 is here!

Our little darling arrived on 7th October 2010!

After an examination on the 6th, the doctor remarked that the baby's head was so so so low that I could probably feel it myself. Yikes. And so she suggested that I check myself in the next morning, get induced and get things going, in order to better manage the labour.

I was only at 2 cm the next morning, and the epidural was administered soon after. Strangely, the epidural administration seemed rather traumatic for me; maybe it was because I was wide awake and not drowsy like the last time. I was very concerned that the nasty side-effects that I had the last time would occur again; thank God it was much more manageable this time round. I only threw up a couple of times- no fever nor shivering; praise the Lord!

I was hopeful that the labour would not be long, but I was still stuck in the bed for almost 12 hours. Nothing 'exciting' really happened until about 4 pm or so; up till then nothing much was going on and the contractions were not really that strong. It felt like a really loooong day and I kept looking at the clock, hoping that time would go by faster...

My doctor helped to 'manually' speed things up by increasing the dilation, and soon it was time to push. Yikes. I did better this time round, and the baby came out after what seemed like an eternity of pushing. The part where she was actually coming out was a tad scary for me; I could see and feel (a bit, despite the epidural) it as she emerged, and I remember letting out a scream!

Overall, I really thank the Lord that the delivery went smoothly. The post-delivery healing seems to be taking a bit longer, but apparently that happens- it gets harder every pregnancy. Hmmm.

Wow- it's so amazing to say that we have children (instead of a child) now. What blessings from God indeed!

Waiting for No.2 to arrive...

I rushed to see the doctor last Thursday (30th Sept) because I was feeling a bit weird. Contractions were quite strong and I was unusually short of breath. A brief examination showed that the baby's head is very low; and I should expect her to arrive early to mid this week.

There were a few instances when I thought the time to go to the labour ward was near; but those instances came and went. And now it's already Wednesday....

My little darling- can you tell Mummy when you would like to come out and see us? :)