And then, we are moving onto dessert...

We are expecting our third child. It is exactly ten weeks old today.

Hello there!

What has this got to do with the heading? You may ask. Well... When we were expecting Anya, we announced to everyone that we have a bun in my oven and christened her 'little bun'. Then when Arielle are along, we carried on with the whole bun-in-oven thingy and nicknamed her 'mini bun'.
With this one, we decided to go with 'dessert bun' because... Well... we wish and prefer that it shall be the last one that shall be served out of my oven. Yep. We imagine that anything more than three is beyond what we can manage, given the quality of life and care that we will like to have for our offsprings.

Third time around, this pregnancy is a remarkable improvement as compared to the first two - not because my body is responding better this time round, but rather, because we found some effective ways of managing hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) during the last pregnancy and we were quick to respond this time round instead of waiting till my body cries out in surrender. Some day, I might sit down and pen down in details about my experience with HG as I have noticed that information about excessive morning sickness are practically non-existent in Singapore. In fact, before the darling Duchess of Cambridge was found to be pregnant and with this condition, there was little that I could find online as well.

As for the girls, how are they responding to my growing belly? (Yes, there is already a unmistakeable bump!) Well, Arielle is still oblivious. She does not seem to register much of what we tell her so far. But hey, it's still early days! Meanwhile, we are starting to watch more and more Discovery Home and Health once again.

Anya, on the other hand, has been a sweet and sensitive big sister. These days, she is careful not to press against my belly when we cuddle or hug. Every now and then, she would stroke and kiss my belly, introducing herself to baby. And not a day goes by without her asking if it is Christmas tomorrow because we told her that baby will arrive before Christmas.

Oh, may I lament about one particular downside of having three pregnancies within a short span of four years: All those hormonal changes are doing drastic things to my hair! Close friends will know that I am especially vain when it comes to my hair. I dislike and hardly spend money on manicures, facials and massages but I do 'invest' considerably in my hair. I always have normal scalp, not oily, nor too dry. Since post-pregnancy first time round, my scalp has become oily. And it got worse with every new pregnancies. Up till the last three weeks, things got  messier. My scalp was at its most oily (think shiny scalp even right after a wash) while my ends are mostly dry and tangled. My conditioners can no longer do magic in smoothing out those frizz and tangles. Hence,  I decided that long hair should go.

So, to a particular old friend who saw my new look on social media and was asking why the radical change, now you know why.. ;)

Tough love

Before I became a mother, I had this one big fear.

I feared that if I do become one, I may not be up to the job. I feared that my parenting skills will suck, resulting in wayward children who will subsequently become dregs of the society. And then, when I fell pregnant with Anya, my hormones probably went into overdrive, turning my heart into marshmallow filled with fluffy melt-in-your mouth gooey love for my unborn child. Hence, my fear was all forgotten.

Actually, no. The fear was not forgotten. Rather, my confidence was boosted by the strength of God, the knowledge gained from church's parenting class, the teamwork from the Husband and the support as well as encouragement from loved ones, friends and church leaders. With that, my fear diminished significantly. Of course, babies being babies, being all so cuddly and endearing does not send one any signals of possibilities of being wayward much later in life, helped too.

But. All that fluffy soft love that has being floating around the Husband and I has taken some transformation since.

Anya is turning 3 next week. Cuddly helpless baby no longer describes her. Even Arielle, who is 16 months old now, does not come close to that description. In replacement, what I have now is a child (Anya, not Arielle) who is capable of her own speech, thoughts and behavior.

You know how some men always say that women are the most complex creature on earth? I beg to differ. I'd say children are the most complex ones. Well, at least for my own, I will say so: One day, she is that pure and simple bundle of joy whom i know like the back of my hand; in the blink of an eye, she turned into this complex being who demands her every right, question everything that I do and defy every boundary that I have set. She has her quiet wistful moments where I can't quite grasp what is on her mind. On the other end of the spectrum, she also has her loud boisterous moments where every threat that I mete out does nothing to quieten her down.

And when I find that the old tricks that I have learned from our parenting class (infant stage; we failed to find time to attend the toddler and beyond stages) no longer worked; that was when the fear started looming bigger again. This time round, the fear is sharpened with an aching knowing how deeply you love your child to not wanting her to turn out wayward.

In recent months, I have been asking around for advice on issues and topics relating to discipline. I have picked up a few books that have proven to be God-send help as their methods appeared to be in line with the Word and there have been little improvements (hurray!) since. That said, I am not letting down my guard! Children grow really fast, and as I have realized, so must my spiritual walk and my equipping as a parent.

With that, I have another little revelation: while the girls are sensing more tough love from Daddy and Mommy hereon; Daddy and Mommy are agonizing over how tough it is to love and raise children.

Now, back to the transformation of the fluffy love. So at this point, this love has taken on dual personalities. Some times, it is tough going, trying, requiring loads of self-control and treading with caution. Other times, it still is fluffy, cuddly, warm and fuzzy - all soft and heart-fluttering. Now, before some of you go saying, "That is why should not have children.", may I beg to differ.

Trying as it may be - being parents, I do not regret becoming one nor allow my fear swallow me whole because I am certain that only parenthood can allow one to experience many more different dimensions of love that one do not get to experience in other forms of relationship.

And so, tough love it is, and I am thankful for every bit of it.

My conversational little woman

I love the surprises and amusements that I get on a daily basis just by holding conversations with Anya. Very often, I find myself marveling at what goes through her little head from the stuff she expresses to us verbally.

Here is an anecdote of an exchange between Anya and I at the zoo a couple of weeks ago. Was explaining to her the differences in the appearance between a lion and a lioness.

Me: Look! There are two lions in there and the one over there with big hair is the boy lion whereas this one here is the girl. The boy is called a lion and the girl is called, lioness.

Anya, having used to see both adults and their young in most of the other enclosures, she asked:
Oh.. Where is the baby?

Me (after a quick scan around the entire enclosure and spot no other cats): You know what? Maybe there two lions do not have babies of their own yet. I do not see any baby lions here.

Anya: Oh! (Then adopting a know-it-all tone) I know.. Because they are not married yet right? When they are married, then they can have babies right? (Nods her head emphatically at the same time to draw affirmation from me.)

That immediately drew a chuckle from me. Interesting, isn't it? - how a statement from a child can depict both their childlike-ness as well as theirs gaining worldly knowledge.

My soft cuddly hugging baby

Gonna do some gushing here by dedicating the upcoming entries on the things I love about the girls at present. You see, i am hoping that it will ease off my guilt in the lack of entries in this cyber warehouse of parenting memories. I shall start off with the baby of the family.

I love that Arielle always hugs her plush rabbits to sleep. And it amazes me that she always gets them correctly upright with the rabbits' heads facing her rather than rabbity butts sticking into her face.

Lately, her sleeping pattern seems to stabilized. It occur to me that the rabbits might have some credit to take in helping her to sleep better. I suppose all that cuddling helps her to be more relaxed and comforts her whenever she rouses from her sleep in the middle of the night.


Other than plush rabbits, this little girl has also been doling out free hugs to her mommy here by the truckload. Well, more like she asks for cuddles and hugs rather than giving to me, but hey, I'm not complaining! Especially when she is so soft and chubby at this moment. Oh so huggable.

Yep, am loving every moment of those long cuddles where her fat little arms wind themselves tightly around my neck while she rests her head contentedly on my shoulder.

Greetings! (Finally)

Hello! First of all, happy Lunar New Year!

Us at our new humble abode on the first morning of CNY

Sorry I took a longer break from this space for longer than expected.I needed the rest. The whole house-moving-before-lunar-new-year project took a lot out of me. Post-CNY (okay, technically it's still CNY), I'm now doing a major reshuffling of the girls' routine while taking the rest of the stuff easy.

Other than that, I'm itching to use my new kitchen. The first new recipe that I have tried out is a marinade for baked chicken wings. I short listed a few recipes from the Web and finally zero in on a particular one that has more Asian taste (think light soy sauce & five spice powder) and yet not spicy which is great for the girls. Served it up yesterday and the Husband gave them thumbs up. I shall share my modified version at the end of this post (sorry, i forgot to take pictures of them though). :)

Thought I will do a short update about the two girls' progress in the last couple of months here too.

Arielle has started walking at exactly 12 months old. These days, she zips around the house and gave us a couple of scares by attempting to climb up the stairs on her own. In addition, she has also started to talk a bit. I cannot remember exactly when she started. In the recent two months, I believe. Here's a list of her current vocabulary (I'm sure I will have left out some) and its mighty cute, hearing her talk.

Daddy (da-di)
Mommy (mama or ma-meh)
Jiejie - meaning big sister (teh-teh)
Bubbles (bubba)
Ball (bah)
Amen (a-meh)
Dog
Cat (tat)
抱抱 - meaning to carry (baobao)
Pompom - meaning to take a bath
Ah gong - meaning her paternal grandfather
Ah ma - meaning her paternal grandmother
大伯 - meaning oldest uncle (da per)
婆婆 - meaning maternal grandmother (Porpor)
Gorgor - meaning elder brother
壳壳 Kéké - meaning the name of a stuffed turtle we have (ke-ke)
Bus (bah)
Motorcycle (vroom-vroom)
Chicken (ti-kern)
Egg
Potato (ta-poh-toe)
Pororo

And more...

And for Anya. She is pretty much a child now. She has started pre-nursery since the beginning of this year. She talks (on and on), she reasons (too much at times), and screams. She walks, she runs and jumps around a lot. She dances, and sings a lot these days we have lost count of the number of songs she knows how to sing. She is finally open to eating meat though still very selective and she has grew 5-8 cm in the last couple of months (I swear it happened overnight). Very soon, she will have to pay a fare for taking public transport.

Last but not least, she has become much more independent. Just earlier on, she was taking her nap when I heard her room door opened. That usually meant she is done with her nap. She announced that she needed to pee as I sprinted upstairs. And so I quickly ushered her into the bathroom.

While helping her get undressed, I remarked, "Wow, Anya is done with your nap. You slept a good one & a half hours!". To which she cried, "I don't want..! I still want to sleep..!".

I did not quite believe as I know my little girl to take little naps typically but in order not for her whining escalate into a major boohoohoo, I quickly agreed. "Okay, you want to sleep some more? Sure."

After she was done using the bathroom, I waited to see what she would do next.

"I'm going to lie down," she said and walked back into her room. She lay down on the king-size mattress on the floor (her current bed co-shared with Arielle), turned towards the entrance where I'm standing, slightly stunned and said, "close the door." With that, she reached for her favourite hankie and rolled to her side with her back facing me. "Okay, byebye." I croaked and gingerly closed the door.

Wow.

Anyways, here's the recipe of the chicken marinade. It originated here and I have tweaked here and there to my own liking.

Ingredients:
9 fresh chicken wings
3 tablespoons light soy sauce (I actually used 1/4 cup in accordance to the original recipe but I found it to be too salty and hence will reduce it to 3 tbsp hereon)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
3 tablespoons honey (I increased the honey because the marinade was less sticky than I was hoping for)
2 tablespoons chilli sauce
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

Method:

Remove tips from chicken wings and discard. Cut wings in half at the joint. Place in a large zip-lock bag. Combine marinade in a bowl and stir to mix well. Pour into the ziplock bag, seal and shake to ensure all chickens are coated with marinade. Store for at least 2 hours or overnight, if time permits. For me, I prefer to make large quantity (in this case, 9 pieces of 3-joint wings) and freeze them up and a few ziplock bags. Then I will use two bags as a side dish for dinner/lunch, a small bag where I cut up the meat into bit-sizes to use in baked rice or wrap.

Preheat oven to 160°C. Place chicken and marinade in a greased roasting pan (i used a corning ware casserole pan which worked just as well, save the scrubbing after that). Set the oven to bake for 40 minutes. 20 minutes later, up the temperature to 180°C and turn the wings over. Another 10 minutes later, turn them back again and up the temperature further to 220°C. Serve.

Note: By upping the temperature gradually, it lowers the meat to be juicer on the inside while browned on the outside - that is my own personal take. Hope you will like it. :)