Counting blessings 2013

Taking some time to reflect on this year before we usher in 2014. Here's a thankful post to count up the blessings in my life in 2013.

The many opportunities to potter in the kitchen, trying out new recipes in the kitchen and fine tuning existing ones. Cooking and baking are therapeutic to me and have helped lifted my spirits many a times during stressful and moody times. 

The good health of those who are closest and dearest to me. 

The smooth transition as we renovated and then moved into our new flat. We have settled in quickly,  and have fostered some friendly ties with the neighbors. The girls have even made several friends around the new estate since. 

The opportunities to make ourselves available to friends who need us in times of need, be it a listening ear or a helping hand. We have received a lot of help during our foundation years of married life and starting a family and are thankful of the opportunities to pay it forward.

The stream of support, help and advice that I constantly receive from friends (you all know who you are), church cell group and my family. 

The Helper who has indeed being a great help. In retrospect, I realized I was hormonal during my pregnancy days which made me not an easy person to live with and the Helper has bored it well. During the weeks that I lay bedridden while the Husband went to work, the Helper was the one who took care of the girls, made sure they are fed, bathed and entertained. I am especially thankful for her obedience and strong ability to follow instruction and yet exert her own initiatives as and when needed. 

My two little girls (and then now - plus a little boy) who mean the whole world to the Husband and I. While parenthood is trying at times; children have an amazing way of multiplying love. Let's just say that.. If a romantic love can fill one's cup till it overflows; having children can yield one multiple cups full of love. 

God's covering over me and baby through another complicated pregnancy. I recently read an article where research was done on pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum which stated that half of these pregnancies were terminated given how difficult the nine months can be for these women. While drugs can reduce my frequency of vomiting, it doesn't take away the overall feeling of sickness, nausea and the whole bunch of other symptoms and complications that come with managing HG. Hence, I am always especially thankful to emerge from another pregnancy relatively unscathed. 

To have a wonderful OBGYN, Dr. T, who took great care of me. He is always assuring and took measures to ensure that I was as comfortable as can be given my conditions. 

A safe delivery despite a much longer labour with some complications. In addition, while I was in much pain and was in a constant state of grogginess in the first few days post-delivery; I am thankful that I am truly well recovered since.

God's fulfillment of a 5-year-old promise to us in the form of a beautiful baby boy. 

The Husband, who is second to God as my strongest pillar of support. 

Wow.. Seeing how much I've typed out for this thankful post, I am overwhelmed. God has been good to me in 2013. 

Recipes: Savoury Pork Stew

In view of Joash's arrival, I anticipate that we will be going through a season of buzz and perhaps even mayhem as we resettle ourselves with a new baby. Hence, I've been psyched to check out one-dish meals that will work on days that may get a little wee too harassing for us to make proper full meals.

I must have browsed through at least 50 different recipes (pastas, soups, stews) before I decide to try out this particular one - Savoury pork stew. You see, with two kids comes two varying sets of pickiness in their choice of food. Therefore, the odds of having a ONE dish meal that will suit both their palate as well as the adults' is stacked high against me. 

And the verdict? Anya hates it. Too herby? Arielle approved it during tasting but rejected it at dinner time. :( The adults, however, loved it. All of us polished off two helpings of it, together with hot crusty  oats loaf  from Cedele slathered with cold butter. Right, my stomach is churning in a good way just at the thought of it. 

All in all, this is one hearty meal that is especially welcoming on a cold, wet evening that makes you go "Mmmmmmm...." while rubbing your satisfied belly at the end of the meal. Plus, it's really easy to make! The recipe you see below is an adaptation of what I took off here. As you will see,I actually changed a few of the items and proportions in order to suit the taste of my family members. Also, note that I opted to caramelize the onions and boil it with the wet ingredients before putting them into the slow cooker as I felt that the dish would be more fragrant that way. Lastly, given the stuff that I put in, I already filled my normal family-size slow cooker to the brim, so do consider going easy on the ingredients if you are cooking for a smaller clan. 

Yields: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil

500g cubed pork stew meat (what is known as pork butt / shoulder in NTUC)

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Granulated / powdered garlic to taste (I'm sure fresh chopped garlic works well too)

1 tablespoon of corn starch

5 red potatoes, cut into mouthful chunks

1 carrot, peeled and cut into mouthful chunks 

1 pepper, roughly diced (the recipe actually called for 2 different color peppers while I only used one since the girls and the husband are not fans of it)

1 cup of frozen / canned corn kennels (I personally prefer frozen ones, specifically the super sweet Watties!)

2/3 can of Hunt's diced tomatoes (recipe asks for stewed but I used diced as I was afraid that stewed one will cause the dish to be too tart - the Husband dislike tomatoes in general)

2/3 can of cream of mushroom soup (I used Campbell)

1 1/2 cup of fresh milk

1 1/2 cup of chicken broth (we are not big on beef, hence opted for chicken broth instead)

1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning / herb (seasoning or herb; they mean the same thing)

Method:

1. Marinate pork with salt, pepper, garlic and cornstarch. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Place pork in skillet and cook until lightly browned but not done. Do not wash skillet. 

2. Transfer pork, potatoes, carrots, pepper into slow cooker pot. 

3. Add abit more oil into skillet in low-medium heat. Put in onions, fry till fragrant and slightly translucent. Add in Italian seasoning, fry abit. Add in canned tomatoes, cream of mushroom, milk and chicken broth. Turn up heat and ensure ingredients well-mixed. When boiled, transfer everything into sow cooker and stir to ensure its well mixed with the meat and vegetables. 

4. Cook on high heat for 2 hours then add in corn kernel (corn may be added in earlier with the other vegetables. I only add now because I prefer more crunch to them.). Cook on low heat for another 2 hours. Serve together with heated up bread and butter.

Getting 'Y' to stand upright out from Anya

I have a little problem.

A few months ago, I tried teaching Anya how to write her name. I thought, "hey, she is learning ABCs in school, she recognizes her own written name (and Arielle's, for that matter), we are always finding things to do in the afternoons anyway, why not?".

And so, we got down to it. Almost everyday for the next one week, whenever we doodled on paper or at the easel, I would invariably start writing her name, encourage her to follow me and then, I would guide her along. Getting her to write 'A' was a breeze. She was learning it in school, though not writing yet, I believe. And thankfully, 2 letters out of 4 in her name was 'A' so it's half the job done. Seemed easy peasy!

Next was 'N'. The tricky part about 'N' as we all know is that a learning child may be confused whether the centre joining stroke should go from top-left to bottom-right or bottom-rigt to top-left. It took her several tries over a span of a few days to get it right consistently. Eventually, she got it. 

Now, here comes the problematic alphabet - 'Y'. While I anticipated the possible mistake that one may have in learning to write 'N', it was not the case for 'Y'. Strangely enough, Anya recognizes a 'Y' as the way it rightfully should be and yet when when asked to write one out, hers will be upside down. 

I tried showing her the difference, tried doing YMCA dance for better visualization, tried holding her hand and writing it with her but she would still get it wrong on her own. I suppose she will get it right on her own in time to come, but then we are opened to try out any innovate ideas if it comes our way. :)

All for the sake of a good night's rest

What does one do in order to enjoy a good night's sleep around here (read: my little household)?

Here's what:

1. Minimize, or better yet, absolutely refrain from boisterous play with the girls, especially Arielle, by dinner time.  

2. Preferably cease all outdoor or social activities by 8-ish in the evening. 

3. Change into PJs and start the girls' bedtime routine at 9pm.

4. Steer clear of any possible situations that may result in meltdowns or fights. 

5. Talk in soft gentle tones if you must verbalized something, giggle lightly if you must laugh and perform bedtime routine in soft dim lighting and gentle soothing music. 

6. Try to stay out of sight while the girls try to fall asleep. However, Arielle is still having separation anxiety, so this part is especially tricky.  note to self: require much honing still.

Are the above achievable?

Honestly? We've been trying for 2-3 months now, and still have more nights waking up than none. We actually had a few weeks of success, managing to sleep through the night pretty much night after night. But then, we went on a Phuket trip where Arielle slept in our bed. Then the whole nightmare started all over again. 

And then there is the adhering to the specific points. 

Let's do a bit of analysis over point 2: Unless we stop having a social life, cut off ties with extended families and live like hermits, it is unlikely that we can cease all social activities by 8-ish every night. Are we being unrealistic or perfectionist? - some might ask. Unfortunately, the answer is no. You see, given our experience, Arielle tend to get sucked into that over-stimulated mode quite badly. Generally-speaking, a night of social outing say till 9-ish hence disrupting her sleep routine is likely to result in her waking her and crying inconsolably 2-5 times a night - for an average of the next 4 nights. As much as we love to spend more time devoting to cell group meetings, church activities, family and social gatherings, we cannot help but have to take into consideration the repercussions for the upcoming nights. 

Plus, of course, points such as refraining from boisterous play and avoid meltdowns and fights are no-guarantees given I have not 1 but 2 small children, and children being children: they play, they fight, and scream more often than not. 

Say we managed to satisfy all the above 6 points. Is the promise of good night's sleep guaranteed?

Presently? No. As mentioned briefly earlier on, since post-Phuket trip, Arielle had some serious regressions. She would wake up to cry - most of the times to sleep with us or have us within her sight while she falls back asleep in her own bed, occasionally for milk and random items that she grew attached to (a particular book, a stuff toy etc), because she is too hot / too cold / disrupted by noise / itch etc etc, and sometimes, for no apparent reason. 

Then why not just shelve this whole sleep-training for now?

Ulikely. Again, our experience with her tells us that we need to be firm and very consistent, and preserver. In the past, we tried giving in to her. Wanna come over to sleep in our bed? Okay. Want to drink milk, in a bottle what's more? Sure! Pat her bum and rub her back? Bring it on. 

BUT, eventually, we find ourselves coming to the same worst-case scenario where we give in to every of her requests and just when you thought sh is fully satisfied and nothing can stop he from having a good sleep; she ended up waking up and crying for no reason, inconsolably, and for hours. 

Moreover, we do note progresses and improvements in little ways. And we constantly claim these little victories and pray against regressions. 

So you see, we can and must only trudge on this uphill battle (although I hate to call it battle but it does seems that way) of sleeptraining our 'lil Miss. Mushroom Head and pray for His wisdom and grace to be upon us. 

If you are going through or had experience similar challenges with your little one(s), feel free to share and exchange pointers / encouragement here. We love to hear from you.

Parent-Child Quality Time with Kinderhands' Book Box!

Hello all! Last month, I had the privilege of receiving a book box from Kinderhands to try out with Anya.

Eh.. what box are we talking about here? 

Well, Kinderhands is a new online establishment that promotes creativity, learning and play for children aged 3-7 through thematic craft projects that are sent to your doorsteps in a box. Each project box has 2-3 projects, all of the same theme, that are curated, prepped and packed nicely together by the folks of Kinderhands. On top of that, one may opt for a book box which is really the same as the project box, except that there will also be a storybook of the same theme. One has the flexibility of purchasing a one-time off box or a monthly subscription making crafting sessions a regular activity with your little ones!

Pretty cool idea, I thought!

Now, how did we fare with the box? 

The theme of the box that we received was 'Stars'. Execution-wise, it all went quite well lest for a couple of hiccups. 

We started off with the book, "How to catch a star" by Oliver Jeffers. The storyline was charming, the illustrations were beautiful and the ending was brilliant! Anya was so immersed in the book that as we went along the pages, she suddenly stood up and proceeded to stretch her arms and jumped as high as she could, asking "Mommy, is this high enough to catch a star?". It was a promising start to our own book box as Anya got so hyped up by the story and was looking forward to do the craft projects. 

The first project we did was named "Starry night on Canvas". Each project has been packed neatly with a large ziplock bag and comes with an instruction card. On the instruction card are (a) a checklist of materials that are already provided for; b) a checklist of items that I will need to gather myself (which are only a couple and are items that are easily found in our homes e.g. Old newspapers); (c) clear and easy-to-understand step-by-step pictorial instructions; & (d) additional remarks that parents / guardians will find useful in order to aid the child in completing the project. I read through the instruction card together with Anya, then with a fair bit of excitement in the air, we proceeded to get down and dirty onto the project. 

Anya was able to follow through the instructions very well for this project, managing through 80% of it on her own. I had to intervene for the last 20% which predominantly involved putting on the alphabetical stickers onto the canvas and then painting over it. As it turned out, the alphabet stickers could not stick very well and came off easily. Hence, painting over that part became extra delicate and certainly would not be well-executed by a 3.5 year-old. This, I have feed-backed to the nice folks of Kinderhands, and they promptly replied that they would source for  better stickers.  Other than that, I noted that all the other materials are all good quality, safe and non-toxic.

The second project, "My Star Board Game", was a bit trickier for Anya. I suppose it was because she has yet been exposed to any board games and hence, had a difficult time comprehending the end objective of this project. With that, came a certain lack of exuberance. For the board game to be functional, we are to mold our own dice and game pieces using the clay provided for. On top of that, the child was to decorate the board with her coloring, drawings etc. 

Upon realizing that the clay works similarly to her favourite homemade play dough, Anya requested to do that part of the project first. Unfortunately, her patience soon wore off as her 3.5 year-old hands are not as nimble yet to produce the same end product that she saw on the instruction card. Sensing that I was losing my audience quickly, I encouraged her to decorate the board itself. To my relief, she perked up significantly. Armed with her color pencils, crayons and the leftover star stickers from the last project, she happily got down to it while I work alongside her on the clay. 

Two days after we completed the board game project, I tried getting Anya in playing with me. Not very successful, admittedly. Once more, I attribute this to her age. Never mind, I'll try getting her interested again in a couple of months' time. 

How does the lil' missy feel about the book box?

Overall, she enjoys it. While the final project had its hits and misses; she could finish up the project with some help from me. No complaints there. :) And she definitely had loads of fun going through the book and doing the first project. Following through an engaging story, peeling and putting on stickers, painting, molding and coloring - these are all the activities that she especially likes at this age. The sense of achievement that she had was written all over her face when I placed the finished canvas on a chest of drawers as display. She was chuffed when her father seemed suitably impressed by her work of art. 

Lastly, how does Mommy feel about the book box?

For this mommy who aspires to do craft work or hands-on projects with my kiddos but not sure of how or where to begin most of the times; this is a worthwhile investment! 

In the past, I've tried sourcing for craftwork to do with Anya. When Anya was an only child, i had plenty of time to trawl through the Internet, finding that one suitable project. But when i find one that I like, there is always the issue of availability of materials. Some of the required materials are not necessarily available in our regular Popular bookstore nor heartland malls. Or if they do, there will inevitably be a matter of wastage where you find yourself only needing a fraction of an entire packet of whatever material that you paid for. All these challenges and that was I have two kiddos and soon, three. These days, I hardly even have time for myself. Much as I still adore spending quality time with my children doing craftwork and projects, the thought of requiring to spend hours finding a suitable project and then sourcing for the materials on my own already killed my enthusiasm. Therefore, this new concept is like a dream come true and packed into a box for me.

Plus the projects that were curated by the folks of Kinderhands all look exciting, fun, meaningful and educational. After completing our 'Stars' box, I showed Anya the other theme boxes available on Kinderhands' website. After oohing and aahing for a bit, she pointed at the Monsters box and asked, "Mommy, can I do this?". Yep, I think we just had our craft activities lined up for the coming month. 

Personally, I favour the idea of tying in a book to a few projects of the same theme together. I feel that with a storyline, it is more meaningful and memorable for the child this way and whatever that their little spongy brains absorbed has a much more lasting effect. I also liked that a lot of thought and effort were put in to prepare the instruction cards. As mentioned earlier on, I have done a handful of craft projects that I sourced on my own with Anya in the past. More often than not, both she and I met with frustrations while executing the projects mainly due to communication breakdowns in letting her comprehend what she needs to do. Here, from what I read to her and the step-by-step picture guide; she could understand fairly well what she was expected to do. Oh, plus bonus points added for training the child to be task-oriented and goal-oriented through competing the projects.

No doubt that there were some misses executing the second project. But as I mentioned earlier on, I believe Anya's lack of interest was due to her young age. After all, these boxes were curated with children aged 3-7 in mind - Anya, being 3.5 years old falls in the lower age group of their target audience.

All in all, I find that I really like the concept of the book box. I am a strong advocate that young children should learn through fun and to me, this is what all these creative boxes are all about. Learning in disguise as fun. Oh, and good old bonding time with Mom and Dad! 

Joash

Back in year 2008 - 2009 when we first started trying for a child, the Lord impressed upon me that we will have a son. Specifically, He impressed upon me the name, Joash, when we prayed for a child. Twice, He showed me, in two consecutive days. Then, we took quite a while trying to conceive. So, when God showed me the signs, I claimed it, believing we would have a child, a son, in matter of time. Therefore, when we were finally expecting in the 3rd quarter of 2009, I was convinced that it will be a boy.

Which was why I woke up in cold sweats one night early in my pregnancy then because I dreamt that I was in disbelief and denial after delivering a baby girl. I was confused. I recalled saying a prayer and telling the unborn child in my womb then that I do not reject it, no matter boy or girl. As it turned out, the gender scan at 16th& 20th week revealed that it was a baby girl. Therefore, the thought about Joash was pushed to the back of my mind. 

Fast forward to 2010. We started trying for our second child and was expecting very quickly. While I remembered the Lord promise to me, i was secretly hoping for a girl. Reason being: having Anya was such a joy to us and we could not imagine it otherwise if it was a boy. Illogical, i know, but i couldnot help feeling that way. and then, Arielle came along and i was overjoyed. 

Now, the Husband and I always wanted three children. However, after having suffered two hyperemesis gravidarum pregnancies, the Husband was convinced that it was enough hardships for me. He could not bear seeing me go through another round of sliding all the way down to the bottom pits and to some extent, I had to agree with him. It was very difficult, having to go through what I went through. In any case, we were partial to the idea of adoption and we thought if ever, years down the road, should we feel up to having a third one, we could always adopt. And that was the end of our child-bearing discussions. 

Until we found ourselves expecting earlier the year. Yep, in case you have not realized; it was a surprise. Given the circumstances, we felt so certain that this one will be Joash. I mean, we are really very sure (and will be very careful to ensure) that three is the final number. More importantly, we had peace about the gender this time round. No secretly wishing it was a girl, no guilt feeling, nothing. Just a peaceful, certain thought that this will be a boy. 

And so, with the 20th week scan done just earlier today. Ladies and gentlemen, may we announce that we are expecting a boy into our brood! :)

Mini feature of our new abode.

Have we moved in to our new place for coming to six months already? How time flies! I actually wanted to do this much earlier but then my interior designer decided to engage his photographer to take some photos of our place. Hence, I thought why not feature my place in the best light - through the eyes of a professional photographer?

So, I received the soft copies of the photographs a few weeks ago but just could not get myself to sit in front of my laptop, transfer the photos and do a proper entry. (The past entries were all typed up using our handy iPad.) Now, finally, I have energy, and am psyche to do this.

Here is a little background about our new place:
We bought a HDB Executive Maisonette in the same heartland of where we used to stay. The reason why we did not move out of the same heartland was because we did not think the in-laws (whom we used to stay in the same HDB block) could bear the distance. Why maisonette? We love the idea of duplex living but did not want to inject astronomical amount of funds and borrowings for our matrimonial home. Hence, landed and private properties were ruled out.

Between the Husband and I, we have already set our hearts on the design theme of our next home. Our first matrimonial home was pop retro style (well, at least for the living room and kitchen..) which was bright, colorful and cheerful. This time round, possibly has to do with mellowing with age, we decided that we are done with burst of colors. Instead, we wanted a black and white colonial theme with hints of greens, think our heritage black and white houses?

So, for this flat, we engaged our old interior designer again. We have worked with him on many occasions (most of them pleasant). Okay, I'll be forthright here. They were all pleasant until the Husband used him for one of his office's renovation a couple of years ago and he somehow became a totally different person. In the midst of the project, he was often un-contactable, to the point the Husband actually chided him for his lack of professionalism. This was a far cry from what we had established over the years. He was always patient, professional, hands-on, observant, and very easy to talk to. My only complaint about him in the past was he could be a little forgetful occasionally. Morever, his rates had always been very reasonable, and we have actually lost count of the number of contacts we referred to him along the way.

Anyway, when we were embarking on the road of searching for a new ID for our new place, the Husband suggested including him at giving us a quote. Reason being: I was going to be the one mainly in charge of the renovation work this time round and the Husband knew I had an enjoyable working relationship with him during our last house. However, we voiced our apprehension to him and our ID acknowledged our misgivings and promised us that during the course of giving us a quote, he would do his best in terms of his responsiveness, and hopefully, would win our trust again.

And boy he did. Of course, not to also mention the other quotes almost gave me heart attacks on the spot. I was glad we went back to him for many reasons. One: we could bury finally bury the hatchet. It is always good to gain back another friend right? Two: our dear ID outdone himself in terms of his service. I felt that he was as patient as ever, responsive, and may i also add, less forgetful than before. Three: As always, he gave me wonderful sound advice and suggestions along the way. One of which was to use black cement grouting instead of usual white ones for some of our kitchen and toilets tile works. Four: his team of workers have improved tremendously over the years. I will rate the tiling and carpentry works as 'okay' for our first house. This time round, they were superb! Especially the tile works which involved the workers cutting up some of the tiles into pretend subway tiles as I could not find suitable subway tiles.

Despite having a designer, I am really quite hands-on. I actually spent many nights drawing up pictures of cabinets (exact number of doors, exact compartments, where they should be, measurements etc), wardrobes and even layouts of the rooms. The ID was actually suitably impressed by some of my drawings. Okay, did I say I was hands-on? Maybe more like anal.. So you see, the ID was really more of a value-adding contractor but I am not complaining as his rates are comparable to most contractors.

Right, enough of my blah-blah-ing. I shall let the pictures do the talking. Though may I explain that there are only pictures of our lower floor. Given that the upper floor which consisted of three bedrooms that were the playing, reading, changing, storage and sleeping quarters for five of us (soon to be six), they are really cramped and not quite picture-worthy . The photographer did not bother to venture upstairs, neither will I with my camera.

Living room.

Actually we house our dining table next to the island but the photographer moved it away as it was not part of our ID's work.

The original kitchen was half of its current size. We knocked down the only room in the lower floor to make room for this open kitchen cum dining area.

Okay. Bad lighting. Toys all over. This was taken by me. This cabinet at the entrance house our footwear, jackets, bags and brollies.

Taken by me too. Guest washroom downstairs.

Hello, second trimester!

I am currently in my second trimester and am feeling the oh-so-goodness of it. It called for a celebration and, together with celebrating early Fathers' day, the Husband and I went for a long overdue dinner date two nights ago.

At 14 weeks, sickness has finally safely cleared off on most days although it is still with help from  Ondesetron & Primperan (anti-emetic drugs)  I gather I will slowly try easing myself off these drugs in the next 1-2 weeks. My energy is finally back although I still need my two hours of nap every time I down one Primperan but hey, who can complain about sleeping more? Just this morning, I managed to have a baking session with the little ones (a first for Arielle!) and we managed to churn out a batch of delish sticky chewy chocolate chips cookies! Not to mentioned also, we had a blast weighing out the ingredients, doing all the mixing and, for the girls, licking the batter..

Oh, the best news of all? This is by far one of my biggest pregnancy-related victory - I have cleared my first trimester without any hospitalization nor Zofran (anti-emetic drug) / cocktail drips! Woots! You see, my first two pregnancies saw me ending up for hospital stays at some point in the first trimester. No thanks to HG, I had constipation and hemorrhoids complications and had to down all those yucky stools softener, put on drips to get my fluid, salts back and to let those Zofran run right into my bloodstream to prevent further hurling. 

To me, admission to hospital for drips has become sort of a rite of ritual of pregnancy and you won't believe what a great sense of achievement I feel to come this far. This time round, there is a sense of empowerment that I never used to have. I was proactively doing things to help myself: I made appointment with my gynaecologist the moment we found that we were pregnant so as to get started on anti-emetic drugs before the real deal of sickness kicked in, the Husband and I prepped ourselves and the Helper mentally and physically that the moment should i feel any slightest nausea during this period, I will drop whatever I'm doing  (kids, housework, whatsoever) and lie down. Whoever around will take oer automatically. You see, the moment I start throwing up, chances are that for the rest of the day, it will happen again and again. So the best method is prevention. That way, we lower the risk of going through that horrible downward spiral. I also tried alternative treatment in the form of homeopathy. Unfortunately, that did not work out for me, but still, at least I tried. 

Between the Husband and I, we agreed that we ought to keep counting the little victories to keep our joy. And we give thanks for all the victories - big or small, no matter. And as we did so, I find myself in the light more and more often than being in the darkness. So one truth I got to experience for myself here: "Giving thanks unto the Father. .. who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son." Colossians 1:12,13

 So, with things seemingly looking up for me, it seems like Anya's June holiday has finally really started.  And we have lined up some pretty neat programmes for the kiddos in the upcoming two weeks. Looking forward to them! 

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. :)

WIP: Celebrations & renovation

Hello, finally! I'm gonna cleared all my backlog of pictures. Today is Anya first day of school (will leave the details on another post) and she just went down for her nap. Arielle has gone to the In-laws' place for some grandparents loving so its all peace and quiet right now. Woots!

In the past one month, all my little pockets of times such as this were eaten up by doing planning / conceptualizing and whatnots related to renovations. While we have a ID helping us but I happen to be quite particular about how the layout of the place should be, how my cabinets should look like, right down to the nitty-gritties of exactly how many drawers, what sizes and where they should be. Actually, I even drew up 2-D pictures of our walk-in wardrobes, TV cabinets and shoe cabinets. Got our ID saying in jest that he ought to frame them up.

Anyways... it's more like MIP (month in pictures) than WIP so this is gonna be a long long post. And here goes:

First, we celebrated Arielle turning one. Its was a small and cosy affair involving our two families over dim sum. We got a client of the Husband to bake a pretty cake themed.. Rabbit. It's was all pink and pretty with a sugar version of rabbit sitting on top. We thought Joanne did a wonderful job replicating Arielle's favourite plush toy. What's a bonus is her prices are really reasonable as compared to a few of her competitors that we checked out.

Rabbit & Rabbit

First taste of cake.

And then, Anya had a date with her cousin, SK, at United Square to catch Barney & friends. Her first of such mascots show.

Transported into Barney's world.

Finally... ...

The keys for our new place came.

In between the last two months, we spent copious amount of time taking walks and going to playgrounds. These days, Little Miss. Mushroom gets to have some action of her own at playgrounds too.

Loves the slide; hates the swing.

Met up with the dear girlfriends. Had a wonderful relaxing two hours catching up with them.

Another nuptial celebration!

This time, its the best friend tying the knot with my JC mate. So so happy for you both!

Renovation has started immediately after we got the keys and is still ongoing...

Every week or other, we hold a meeting with the ID to discuss details on various areas that are going to be done. Occasionally, Anya comes along. Here's how we occupy her...

When the workers saw me taking out my iPad for Anya, they rustled up a little chair for her using cardboard and a toolbox.

Self- feeding has started for Arielle. Like Anya, she suddenly refused to eat at around the time she turned one - their way of demanding more independence at the dining table.

And so, once again, I am going through the phase where I try hard not to cringe as she makes a mess of her radius of one metre during mealtimes.

This night, Anya announced that she wanted to sleep with Arielle. She insisted her way, she got her way. And she has not slept in her own bed at night since.

A substantial amount of our couple / family outings `are spent trawling furniture malls, lighting and fixtures shops etc and lugging home cartons of stuff.

Thankfully, we still managed to squeeze out some time for strolls around our sunny island.

Other than the little strike she put up for a week or two, she really loves her food.

 

And ours.

Christmas came upon us in a jiffy this year. On Christmas eve, we went for a gathering with the Husband's colleagues in the afternoon. With no prior planning, we decided to drop by Epicurious @ Rail Mall near home for a simple quiet dinner.

By 11pm of Christmas eve, the entire household were already sound asleep. Except for me who spent the night reading my novel and doing a bit of QT.

Christmas morning was a joyous one with cheers and shrieks as little girls open up their presents.

There were a quite a bit of wearable gears among baby girl's Christmas presents this last year.

All in all, we had a busy but wonderful and memorable holiday season before wrapping up 2012. Hope you all had an enjoyable time too. Wishing y'all a blessed 2013!