Our second home.

We have officially shifted in last sat and we are still unpacking, lots more to do.

Save meeeee!

A new beginning.

It seemed like yesterday that we have decided to sell our first home and now, we have started on the renovation of our second home!

For memory sake, our sequence of events -- the hub and I had been deliberating to shift out of telok blangah for the sole reason of the boys' primary school education. Being a potential kiasu tiger mum, I have a choiced school for the boys and we have to plan to get there. Anyway, this is an entire different entry, if I am to talk about it!

So after months of non serious yet serious discussion about moving or renting or buying, we chanced upon a unit that the hub was willing to go for a viewing and we offered after the 1st viewing. We were lucky to get that unit after much drama and we listed our first home (very unwilling hub) in the market a day after we got the new place. We sold our home the very same week. A lot of admin needed to be done, the mortgage eligibility, paperwork after paperwork and what not, and also because we were flying off for our Europe holidays the week after. Thinking back, it was amazing we pulled through in such a short period, with the help of our amazing housing agents and loan specialist and our families, of course! 

We shifted out of our first home in mid July though handover for new place was scheduled only on end Oct. It was bittersweet. But as the days passed and we started to prepare for the new reno, it was kind of comforting that things are finally moving, yays!

It is goodbye for now, our first home - a space where we put in our heart and soul to make it ours, a space which contains our joy and laughter and sees us through our quarrels and difficult times, a space which we enjoy hosting parties for family and friends, and most importantly, a space both our boys grow up in. Thank you #12, maybe someday, we will meet again! 

Habitat by Honest Bee

A first in the community where technology operates the 60,000sqft space to combine dining and supermarketing with just an app!

We checked out Habitat by Honest Bee 2 days straight. It was WOAH! The space, deco and the beautiful blooms that greeted us at the entrance wowed me. Of course, the selections of groceries was pretty amazing too! We went in for a quick in and out on DAY 1.

We decided to head back for breakfast the following day. The use of natural lighting was amazing and we love the use of wood in the dining space. Breakfast at the lazy loaf was rather chaotic, but given that it was the 3rd day of operation, they probably need a lil more time to streamline the delivery of breakfast.

Our breakfast sets of toast, kaya, butter, eggs and coffee was a tap and scan of 24 bucks. The toast was really good and so were the consistency of the sous vide eggs ha. But 24 bucks for 2 sets of lazy breakfasts with coffee, I say we are just paying for the ambience and hype. For this morning, the boys were cooperative, aircon was good, service was good, so 24 bucks was fair. I probably can't say so otherwise.

We did a quick purchase of a pack of starfruits after breakfast and the shopping experience was amazing!

All I had to do was to scan my item via the scanner in the app, go back to the cart, choose my payment (cashless of course), checkout and ta-dah, no queues whatsoever, easy peasy!

Bring along your own bags and you don't even need any of the plastic bags they provide. Save the earth!

Pick your item, scan, put them in your bag, checkout your cart in the app, DONE!

One drawback of the location is parking. Prob we got the lots incorrect but there weren't first 3 hours free parking and apparently, we weren't the only ones with the parking woes.

Nevertheless, we will be back again! Need to pick up the Halloween treats and a closer look at the selections of ice cream and snacks!!!

Life of a Mom

The husband has work this morning, so it is solo parenting again after breakfast.

10am the hub dropped us off at Nylon

1035am walk the elder boy to his make up class at Berries (and pushing the lil one in his stroller)

1045am walk back with the lil one and hoping that he will sleep. He DID NOT sleep 😭 and I have to entertain the terror and I forced him to sleep, ignoring his cries

1145pm PEACE

12pm decided to pen it all down and I'm going to walk over to Berries again in 5min
........................................................................
the hub is still at work.

Of car seats & strollers.

I was tasked to research for car seats and strollers while I was pregnant with Isaac. It was quite an uphill task considering how NOT technical a person I am.

Comparing specifications is something that I loathed doing, I love it when I am told what to get and what not to get, save my brain cells please!

Then, I was in love with the Bugaboo Bee but I couldn't convince the hub of its functionality vs the price and he knew I chose that purely for aesthetics pleasure. Oh well, things did not go my way of course.

Choosing a car seat and stroller was a totally new category of search and even my best friend Google was confused as I could not narrow my search. So, I was given some key words from the hub, one action closing, light weight, iso-fixed(what is that?!?), weight limit for baby, safety - eh so helpful right? Shrugs.

Thinking back, my old neighbours turned girlfriends did recommend me the Combi strollers but they just don't look good to me and there were so many different models to look at, so it was a no-go.

Somehow and with luck, I chanced upon the Britax B-Agile online and fell in love with the red, the 3-wheels outlook and it even comes with the car seat/bassinet (travel system)! That's when I also discover the Baby Jogger City as they look really similar! The deciding factor was the travel system/ bassinet - the Britax stroller is conveniently build with their bassinet and all the adapters are included but it was not the case for the baby jogger back in 2014 haha. Updates: I see that they have the travel system now too!

When I introduced the Britax to the hub, he further discovered more technical stuffs like the impressive safety standards (which was really important) and Mercedes car seats are Britax seats too, so of course, britax for the baby!

Some key considerations for a stroller will be
1. light weight - though a baby sounds really light and almost weightless, they weigh a ton as they grow, imagine carrying a 10kg stroller (one bag of rice) and another 5kg baby (another bag of rice), that's a whopping 15kg!

2. easy to manoeuvre around - with a child, shit always happen and the stroller is supposed to help and not get in the way!

3. one action closing - in case our hands are full and you need to also carry the baby (ie. Shit happens)

4. mummy friendly - means the mum can handle both stroller and baby by herself when the hub is not around to help. I once see a mum rolling down with the stroller on a carpark down slope as the stroller with the baby is too heavy for her to handle

5. additional accessories like cup holders will be a plus but we did without for many years so it is not an issue for us.

Looking back, will I still have gotten a Britax? Maybe yes, maybe no because I have discovered the goodness of a Babyzen Yoyo! It is super lightweight and more manageable than a britax and it is cabin friendly for travelling too. The only thing I have got to find is the car seat for infant, haha.

Anyway, both my boys have unlocked a new milestone and we have ditched the infant bassinet, YAYS! One to a toddler child seat and the other to a children seat. 🎉