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
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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. 🎉

Breakfast Inspirations

We used to do a lot of cafes before kids. These days, we just do the good old hawker centres or coffeeshops since we cannot enjoy the food and appreciate the coffee with the boys around anyway, haha. After all, all of us just need food, good food to kick-start the day!

What do you usually eat for breakfast?

I used to eat simple for weekday breakfasts, probably anything I can find at home (bread, cakes) and a cup of hot drink. As my dad will be around on weekends, we will feast on prata or whatever he buys from the market that day!

After marriage, the definition of breakfast changed as the hub eats differently. I have been doing hearty breakfasts ever since, I don't love it nor detest it, but there are days when I just wanted a simple kueh and the hub will ask if I'm feeling unwell, duh.

Just to name some of the food centres that we frequent, Telok Blangah Food Centre, Tiong Bahru Food Centre & Bt Merah View (Henderson) Food Centre and they have got some really good food!

This is what I have for breakfast today, what's yours?

It's October!

I know I write about this every year, time flies. Not surprisingly, we are in the last quarter of the year. 14 sleeps to Halloween and 70 sleeps to Christmas!

It is no wonder people says the days are long but the years are short. Indeed!

Again, I have been thinking about this space and wanting to document my stay-at-home-working mom life of 2 boys. It will be good memories in time to come right? But you know, procrastination is a killer and it is really shitty being a stay at home mum, I'm serious (yes the boys are really cute and they melt my heart with their laughters and smiles, still it is real shitty being a sahm). So, I treasure any spare time I have very much, ha.

Why the sudden enthusiasm?

A friend replied to my IG story this morning and said, you should start a blog. Actually, I HAVE and since I'm using an android phone now, might as well try my luck at installing blogger on my phone. (I couldn't do it or prob I don't know how to do it previously when I was on A**le) Wala, here we are!

I finally got this flamingo watering can, I love it to bits and Isaac loves it too, so much that he cannot stand that this is mine and not his, so much that he tried to give me a dollar for it and was upset that I told him his dollar is not enough, haha. Pinky flamingo is going to stay on the planter balcony of the new place!

Speaking of which, renovation is starting real soon. Even busier days ahead! 

Tim Ho Wan

Tim Ho Wan was opened here in 2013 and it was only until yesterday that both the hub and I went to try it. the queues when it first landed in singapore was no joke, though the first outlet at PS was so near our office. 

we went to the outlet at Aperia mall yesterday, yays no more snaking queues! the staffs were friendly and very accommodating to us too (we have a stroller, groans), two thumbs up!

 our usual orders of egg tarts, har gaos, deep-fried prawn dumplings (ming xia jiao), porridge and of course, the famous baked buns with bbq pork! everything we have ordered were really tasty, and were of good dim sum quality and we will be back with #1 for more!

i love their bite size tarts and i think #1 will love it too! 

the crusts are the non-flaky type and the egg filling is really smooth too, both just melt in the mouth and yet, one is able to taste the different flavour of the crust and filling. :)

the deep-fried dumplings are soooo crispy that you could hear the crackling sound upon each bite and the hub liked it that the prawn filling is so crunchy!

this is my all time favourite, the texture of the buns won me over, soft yet chewy and the bbq pork was really yummy too! i can have all 3 on my own, seriously!

the har gaos would have been good if we had ate this first instead of the deep-fried wasabi prawn dumplings. the har gaos were succulent but the prawn dumplings were so crunchy and they overpowered the texture of the har gaos.

lastly, they have an on-going promotion for senior citizens! 20% off for dine-in at all outlets, from 2-5pm every weekdays, time to bring our folks there! 

cant wait for our next visit!

the 7-hours experience at solo-parenting

happy children's day! #1 had no sch today but unfortunately, the hub had a day packed with meetings. hence, i had a chance at solo-parenting the 2 boys and yes, i survived.

it was a great deal to me; handling a needy 8 weeks old infant and an equally needy 32 months old toddler (read terrible 2 going 3) ALONE was NO easy-peasy.

the first thoughts were:
1. activity
2. meals
3. naps

if only i can execute them smoothly, it should not be too tough right?

activity
right, so what activity should i do with #1? i have many options; playdoh, stickers play, colouring, painting, craft works, glass deco sets, etc. i have all the above materials at home. BUT i also have a needy infant who is still adjusting to this new world and fixing his daily routine, SO playdoh, crafts, painting and activities requiring my full or at least 95%, attention are out.

who am i kidding? my first task was to make sure he finished his breakfast!

in the end, disney junior saved my life. he finished his breakfast and started his 'activity' of watching lion guard. of cos, i did not manage to stop at lion guard, #1 went on to some random time filler cartoons before Blaze and Paw Patrol.

All because #2 could not sleep. 
check out his stomach, i bet he's already very full and still didnt want to sleep.

my headaches boys.

meals
i was prepared to call for delivery but gave up after checking out ubereats and honest bee. i quickly head to the freezer and grab 2 pcs of salmon fillet while thinking about what other things to cook so that #1 and myself can have a nutritious meal.

when #2 finally slept, i made use of the little pockets of time that i had to marinate the salmon with salt & pepper, sliced the onion, boiled 2 eggs & threw the brown rice into the cooker.

and checking on the 2 boys when things get quiet.

thankful that i had baby spinach in the fridge, yays we have veg! 

so, i cooked lunch, super proud! 

#2 was still sleeping when lunch was ready, that gave #1 and me some bonding and feeding time! 

naps
i must be crazy to even think of this. i thought i could put both boys in the same room so that i could attend to #1 while feeding #2 and patting him to sleep. it didnt work, not at all.

in the end, the rationale thing was to make #2 sleep first then tend to #1! failed the first attempt and succeeded at the second round, and it was PEACE at 1440hrs.

and the next thing was to pack up the house, clean up the kitchen and such.

not too shabby isnt it? ha

the view when i needed a breather, a break, a rest, my sanity.

while i hope that i had some help, the fact that i did parenting ALONE boost my confidence to handle and deal with both a toddler and infant at the same time. 

the hub got back at 3ish in the afternoon and i finally had time to wash my face and change out of my pyjamas...

august

a month of celebrations on our little red dot, to celebrate the independence on this lil island that we call home.

this year, august injects a new meaning to us as we welcome our second-born. we are officially a family of 4! i guess a part of us did hope that he will pop on the 9th but the lil one had his own preference and decided to come to us 2 days later on a friday, same as his elder brother. 

our lil man 2, also known as baby tan 2, also known as L, is a smiley baby too. we took some pictures with and of L while waiting to be transferred to the ward. seriously, my hair is in a mess (#messyhairdontcare) but considering i just pushed a 3.58kg baby out, i think i'm excused. after-all, i'm just a normal civilian, not a celebrity nor influencer.

our first family pic after babytan 1, also know as I, was off from sch!

 can you make out who is who? both are photos of I & L when they were just born!

the birth stories of both baby tans were nothing unusual, just that i took a relatively short time (thankfully) to deliver both my boys. 

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this is going to be a long post

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my elder boy was induced at about 3pm in my gynae's clinic, 2cm dilation. why induce? 

1. my waterbag had burst at around 130pm

2. i didn't feel any contractions 

3. i was diagnosed with GBS

then, we happily went for our late lunch before checking ourselves into the delivery suite, thinking that it will be a long battle ahead, so we better get some food first! but at 325pm, when im halfway eating my expensive chicken rice from gleneagles foodcourt, i could feel some pain kicking in, so that's what contractions were about! i thought to myself, let me just finished up and i'll head up. 

after 2 more mouthfuls, i reckoned that i should just gobble up the chicken and leave the rice alone. the hub was just walking back to the table with his coffee when i blurted out "i cannot stay here anymore, i need to head up, you just come up when you are done with your food and coffee" and i began to walk out, the pain was seriously wtf. so i walked over to the conceirge which was fortunately less than 100m away and told the officer i need to head up immediately. the officer offered me a wheelchair which i politely refused because i thought that walking was a better idea to distract the pain. and i thought i had a high threshold for pain!

i didn't know how fast the hub finished up his stuffs because he was right behind me before the lift came. the nurse guided us into one of the delivery suites, had me changed out and started their barang barangs. (even now after number 2, i still have no idea what equipment they strapped me up to). by then, i was all curled up on the bed and breaking out in cold sweat, the pain was intense. since it's going to be a long battle, i shouted out to the hub, give me the epidural NOW! 

both the nurse and hub went "are you sure? so fast?"

obviously right. i thought i might just die if i had to endure this level of pain for another 10 hours, better to get the epidural and rest first, think of the big picture! so the nurse instructed me to empty my system and just threw me the laughing gas and said, try to relieve some pain from this first while we get the doc here. i bet she was laughing at me, really. my anesthetist, dr yvonne lim (supposedly very chio) reached shortly after (I think). i was seriously in a lot of pain and i didnt know what was happening and had totally lost track of time. 

so she came in, i couldnt even see her face. all i could figure was her slim and well-decked silhouette, heard her nice voice and that's all. the hub had to stay out, so he didnt know what happened too. i swear everything was a blur and the administration of epidural came and went without me feeling anything (that's how much pain i was already in, haha) just as i thought it was finally time to message my gfs that i'm already in the delivery suite, the urge to poop came. (i didnt think it was necessary to inform anyone first until check in, except my folks that my waterbag has burst and heading to the hosp after bathing.)

the same nurse gave me a half-hearted reply and said, push a bit if you want to and checked my dilation at the same time. i was 10cm, everyone was shocked. more nurses came in, i could hear them preparing the equipment and what not and my gynae arrived. after a few pushes and halts, baby tan 1 has popped! the time was 445pm. 

with babytan2, my waterbag didn't burst. 

in fact, i was already 5cm dilated when i went for my routine check at 38w6d. it was my 'first' time being checked for dilation, first time under normal circumstances, it's pretty uncomfortable but i was sure my gynae was quite gentle about it so it wasnt that bad. so what's the plan?

plan 1: manually burst the water-bag, go ahead and give birth that day

plan 2: wait it out and come back again when the contractions kicked in

after some deliberation, both the hub and i decided to go home to sort out a few things eg. I's bag in case he has to sleepover at my folks and instructing my brothers to pick I up from sch, me to bathe and do some final checks on household stuffs before we went back to the hospital again. my gynae told us to reach after lunch and she will burst my waterbag manually to kick-start the birthing process. Again, i heard horror stories from gfs about manually bursting the waterbag. While the thought was scary, the process was nothing much, really. 

we checked in at 1250pm after an uninterrupted lunch and my gynae done the deed before she went out for lunch at 115pm. i was still at 5cm. some sensations began to kick in after that and i thought so that's what normal contractions are, nothing major, everything was still under control. the hub and i were watching tv while waiting for things to happen. 

i told the hub that i want to deliver without epidural this time. since i might not need to wait long hours to give birth, maybe i can endure and deliver au natural, like what our mums went through during their times. it could also be the last time i'm giving birth, so i thought let's go all out. i have also voiced my intentions to both my gynae and the staff nurse attending to us and they were both encouraging. 

somehow somewhat, the contractions started to get more intense. initially, it was still bearable until i started to sweat (again). when the nurse told me that i was still at 5cm, probably going to 6cm, i asked if i should just give up and go for the epidural. i checked the time, it was about 150pm, almost half an hour after i had the waterbag burst and the progression was barely 1cm. that's it, i had better not take the risk just in case i couldnt do epidural later. 

BUT the staff nurse was extremely encouraging and she told me she endured 14 hours without epidural, only using the laughing gas, for her first born. oh man, not the laughing gas please, it doesn't work! between enduring the pain and trying to listen to the nurse's instructions and the hub encouragement, i tried to follow the nurse's direction to use the laughing gas and amazingly, it worked! the pain was still not bearable but at least i survived. so waves after waves of contractions, the pain only got more intense and i felt like dying again. this time, she suggested i should just sucked in more of the gas and made myself high, at least the pain would be manageable since i was still not at 10cm. so again, under her gentle voice and firm instructions, i breathed in 10 or 15 times continuously and yes, damn high, i already lost it. i wondered at the moment how my mum did it, 3 times without the damn epidural nor laughing gas. 

then, the urge to poop come. so i told the hub and the nurse, the feeling had come, should i push? she checked again and i was only at 7cm and asked me to endure the urge as she was concerned about something about swollen cervix if i pushed too early. i only caught the words, 'no, cannot push, endure, swollen cervix', so it was laughing gas to the rescue again. actually, the mask never went off, i was on it ever since i started, breathing hard in and out while the hub was counting. 

finally, i heard "ok, i will call your gynae now. you are ready". so, another nurse came in to help with the equipment and i heard my gynae voice again, yays! all these while, my eyes were closed. the difference between childbirth 1 and 2 was that i could feel EVERYTHING for childbirth 2, like how baby tan 2 was trying to gush out from down there, it's like someone banging on the door and yet, no matter how hard i pushed, the door did not open. i'm not going to go into details but fortunately, babytan 2 came out after a few pushes too, done deal. the time was 245pm, good job, another 1.5 hours record. apparently, i had an episiotomy and bled a lot more this time round AND i survived without the damn epidural! 

i was extremely thankful to the staff nurse, if not for her, i would have disappointed myself and went ahead with the epidural instead. she is really really really helpful! :) the stay at gleneagles was better than 2 years back too, the nurses were more experienced and everyone of them was very good at the bf positioning, or probably it was also my second time, so everything was smooth!

these are pretty much my birth experiences, period.

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some of our happy photos! L is a guzzler and growing up well, drink lots, pee lots and poo lots.

our 2 boys!

that's all folks! i'm finally done with this entry after 3 days of write, stop, write, stop. off to do some work while the lil one is sleeping. :)

our first dinner out

the hub and i plucked up the courage and brought both our lil man out for dinner for the FIRST time.

it wasn't disastrous but it wasn't easy.

alright, this link doesnt work here. 

we did our IKEA usual; i would buy the food while the hub looked after the lil one just that this time, we have 2 lil ones. the 5.5 weeks started crying after i left while the 2.5 years chattered away, the hub wasn't flustered but was pretty helpless till i got back to the table.

throughout the dinner, i'm just performing my cow duties while the hub fed I(babytan 1), me and himself and we agreed that we should just grab what we wanted to buy and hurry home after payment.

5pm - school pickup for I
530pm - IKEA & dinner
730pm - we were home (L, babytan 2 was wailing all the way home. luckily our place is only 10-15min away!)

that was quite an experience and the hub was pretty traumatised, ha.

Confinement

Confinement breakfast. 

My mum has been pretty insistent that I eat only hot food even for breakfast during the 28 days, no bread, no biscuits. I wonder what most ladies eat. 

After almost a week of meesua, my nanny decided to change to udon instead! Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? 🤷🏻‍♀️

The waiting game.

At 38 weeks & 3 days, the waiting game has begun.

Somewhat, time passes real fast for the second pregnancy and we lost count of the weeks except for the scheduled gynae visits to remind us how fast baby tan #2 is growing! I guess it sort of 'helped' since we had to also manage a toddler going through his terrible two at home.   

We hope baby tan #2 comes real soon though, the hub and I are pretty much bored of waiting already and wish that things can get going, haha.

I'm back!

I discovered that all my previous attempts to blog were still in my drafts and unpublished, and I forgot about them subsequently. Oh well, I kind of miss this space and here I am, attempting to restart my blogging engine.

and so, we are in Q4 of 2016!

I'm back to work too now that the lil man has started school and I'm already looking forward to the next vacation in 80 days!

motherhood.

time flies and baby tan is almost 13 weeks! motherhood has been a total different experience and i can't quite pin-point how it is like or what to feel about it as yet.

it is amazing seeing the little one growing bit by bit, learning and doing new things everyday; seeing him smile and grin puts a smile on my face as well. it is also amazing how much the little guy can drink and breast-milk is actually quite nutritious (judging from the number of folds on his arms and legs); motherhood makes one feel like a cow, that's for sure. lastly, motherhood fills my life with shit, yes real shit. the lil one poos after almost every feed and most of the time, his is the explosive type. so here you go, a really short one before the little guy wakes up for his tea-break!

a glimpse of my lil tan!