21 Dec 2011 (Wed) - Updates

I have just came back from Loyang Point.. Had cravings for MacNuggets and so we went to buy some before 3pm.. Haha.. You guess right.. It's cheaper to have it before 3pm.. Kinda silly promotion to have on a long term basis. Super love the weather today.. Cloudy and windy.. The perfect weather to go for long walks. The last time when we had such good weather, I remembered that I brought Lucas on a long walk to Loyang temple. My baby is turning 15 months soon and in 3 months' time, he will be ready to try out childcare.

The past few days were packed with activities for us. We went to check out the new mall, I12Katong (I want to Katong) on Sat. It was a relatively small mall and some of the shops were still under renovation. I find that there was not many shops selling fashion apparels.. However, there was quite a number of restaurants.. And more importantly a cinema.. Shall try catching a movie there some time.

And on Sunday, we went to Vivocity to shop before checking in to Hard Rock Hotel. Desmond got us 2 rooms there for a night. It was very crowded at Vivo.. There was lots n lots of people everywhere. I guessed everyone was doing last minute X'mas shopping.. Sorry friends and family, no presents for you this X'mas.. Wait for me to go back to work first.

After shopping, we checked in and stayed in the hotel room as Desmond brought his Xbox zombie game for us to try.. I'm sure my siblings will disagree but still.. I think that I'm very good at killing zombies! Lucas was so adorable.. He was screaming along when I was attacked by the zombie..

It was supposed to be a really fun day.. With a buffet dinner planned at Starz Restaurant.. But I fell sick right before dinner. It started with a headache and I thought that I was just hungry so I had some snacks and a panadol. But it got worse right before dinner and after my first plate at the buffet.. I felt nausea and my stomach turned queasy.. I threw up and I thought that I would feel better after resting for awhile.. There was so much food that I wanted to try at the buffet line.. Drunken prawns.. They used huge live prawns ok!.. Ham n log cake.. Laksa... But I just couldn't keep any food down and threw up 4 times that night. I thought I was going to die.. I felt hungry one minute.. And when I try to eat or drink something, I felt sick all over again. There was so much wind in my gastric. And not to mention the headache.. My head was pounding so badly that I don't think I would feel any pain if you hit it with a hammer. Yes, it was that bad. Lucky my mum and sis were there to help me with Lucas.. And I did mange to sleep after drinking some warm water.

Yesterday, we brought Lucas to catch Cars 2 at Plaza Sing. It was a movie session specially for mums and babies.. Jeslyn and Serena joined us with their hubbies and kids as well. I should have planned for a lunch together because we ended up having lunch separately. Sorry sisters.. Will do a better job the next time round.

We went Birdpark after the movie which turned out to be a wrong choice. It was too wet to walk around after the rain.. Not to mention the mosquitoes that were aiming Lucas.. And most of the bird shows were cancelled due to the rain.. I don't think we will go there again in a long long time...

Before I go.. Here is a gross picture of a huge-ass lizard that Melvin caught at home on the night that I was staying over at Hard Rock...



Lizard has got to be one of the ugliest creatures on earth.. Infact, I can't think of anything uglier than a disgusting lizard at this moment. Melvin was so brave lah.. I would never dare to catch one myself.. Or to take a photo of it some more.. To all dumb lizards, don't think you can come play in my room while I'm out ok!.. You will get it when we are back!

12 Dec 2011 (Mon) - Lucas went movie..

I first brought Lucas to catch a movie about 2 months ago.. It was very random, last minute decision.. We went shopping at Eastpoint and got bored.. So we took the train to Tampines.. But by then I was tired with carrying him so I plucked up the courage and bought a movie ticket for Johnny English Reborn.. I was thinking to myself that if he makes too much noise in there, I will just bring him out.. It would only costed me $7 to try and surprisingly, he was quite cooperative and took a nap in the cinema after settling down.

And last Sunday, I wanted to catch a movie again and this time round, Melvin went with us and we watched Happy Feet 2 at Vivocity. Im happy that we could engage our baby in more of the activities that we used to do before we had him.. Travel, go movies.. It's fun!

And I brought him to Orchard by bus on last Friday.. It was the 3rd time I brought him to town all by myself.. Although the bus journey was very long.. Close to 1.5hrs.. He behaved quite well on the bus.. Napped as usual!

So far I have brought him to quite a few shopping malls on weekdays.. We frequent Tampines Mall, Whitesand, Nex.. And we went Chinatown, Orchard, Daimaru, Bugis Junction, Compass Point a couple of times too..

I used to think that it was impossible for me to bring him out.. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to manage him on the public transport or how am I going to have my meals or use the washroom while carrying him.. But I guess if there is a will, there is a way.

We are going back to the Universal Studio this Sunday.. Followed by a night stay at one of the hotels there. Hopefully the weather will be cool and breezy.. The weather has been real hot for the past 1 week.. Hate the sun.

08 Dec 2011 (Thu) - Macaroni Soup

Usually I eat out or pack something home as cooking takes up too much time and effort. Lucas always want my attention whenever he is awake so it is especially tough to find the time to cook - have to go buy the ingredients I need.. wash and prepare them.. cook and finally cleaning up after that. Long process. I try to do the preparation and cooking when he is napping, but sometimes, he wakes up after half an hour of nap and I have to stop mid-way.

But those who often settle their meals outside will agree that eating out can be so boring and unhealthy after awhile. I realised that it's difficult to have sufficient intake of vegetables when eating out.. and it's boring because sometimes, I will walk around the coffeeshops/ foodcourts several time as nothing seems to appeal to me.

Although cooking is troublesome.. I love it and I am making an effort to cook more frequently these days. I try to make simple one-dish-meal to cut down on the time needed... e.g. Braised soya sauce chicken with mushroom, fried rice, seafood soup, fried beehoon.. and I will make enough for lunch and dinner so that I don't have to cook twice (a day).

Today I made Macaroni Soup for Lucas and myself. It is very easy to make and I'm sure most of you would have cook it before.. but this is my version:

*Follow my steps to minimise the pots/ utensils needed = less washing to do
**I won't specify the quantity of each ingredient unless critical to the taste. You can use according to your own preference.

Macaroni
1) Start with boiling the macaroni in a medium size pot for 8 - 10min. Drain the water away and keep the macaroni in a bowl for later use. Keep the pot for cooking the soup (no need to wash lah).

Soup Base (Sliced Carrot, Minced Pork & Tomato Cubes)
2) I marinated the minced pork with a little salt & cornstarch prior to cooking. Start with frying the minced pork with a little oil. I was slicing the vege while cooking, so that I could just throw them in the pot and save on the number of bowls used. Add water, salt and let it boil for ~15min.

You can use ikan bilis or off-the-shelf stock cubes instead of minced pork. Sames goes for the vege.. you can choose to add potatoes and sweet corn like what I have done previously.

Main Ingredients (Fishballs, Fish Dumplings and Baby Bok Choy)
3) I only add in the macaroni, fishballs, fish dumplings and baby bok choy to the soup when I'm ready to serve/ eat. Don't over-cook them. You can also put in whatever stuff that you fancy.. e.g. fish slices, prawns, broccoli, cai xin.

I love corriander & pepper so I added some when serving.. and this is the final product!

This is a very nutritious and yummy dish (if you like soupy stuff).. and this photo doesn't do any justice to it. I will try to take better pictures next time.

05 Dec 2011 (Mon) - Season of Giving... maybe Receiving!

I love the month of December... A.L.O.T.

With the Christmas and New Year holidays around the corner plus the cool, comfortable weather, what is there not to like about this time of the year! Christmas means presents (more on this later).. and nevermind the rain because it makes our warm, humid climate alot more bearable. In the past years, I also got to clear long period of annual leaves in December.. so this month officially becomes the time for travel too! Only had to work for half the month and 'rest & relax' for the 2nd half.

And My Christmas sorta came early this year... because... Santa gave me this...

The bag which I have been longing for awhile.. the top item on my wish list.. so I am a very contented woman now! Thank you Santa M.!

And since I am in such a good mood, I took the effort to takes pictures of the other gifts as well...

Yan Dao went to Japan recently and although we asked him not to buy us any gifts.. but we were actually waiting for him to buy us something. And we got a little worried that he might actually come back empty-handed so we kept dropping hints to him via whatapps.. 

Lovely presents - Yukata for baby Lucas.. pretty hair bow & coin pouch for me!

Ah fat is really a fortunate baby because he always get gifts from friends and relatives loh.. my auntie (his grandaunt) bought him this train toy last week...

Compared the life of the kids nowadays to the kids of my time (talking mainly about me and my siblings).. it is really one is "Tian" (heaven) and one is "Di (earth).

And his Ah Gong and Daddy also got him some clothes over the weekend too...

Actually, I also shop and bought lots of stuff last week.. because Melvin went Phuket for their annual sales meeting & get-away for 4 days.. and since I had the car.. I went on a mini-holiday in SG too.. shopping and eating!

Our Itinerary (Sally and mum joined too)

Day 1 - Shopping at IMM and got a little lost on the way back and since we were in Balestier, we decided to stop by Whampoa hawker centre to get dinner.

Day 2 - Lunch at Marina Square before going to Marina Bay Sands as Sally wanted to get shoes at Pazzion there. Followed by more shopping at City Square Mall.

Day 3 - Brought Lucas to Jeslyn's house to play with Ethan. Had no idea where to go after that so we drove around and went to North Point (Yishun) in the end. As Sally needs to meet her friends for dinner, so I bought dinner before going home.. prawn mee soup and fried wuxiang.. super yummy!

Day 4 - Went Tiong Bahru market in the morning to buy fresh veggies and fish for Lucas. Then we got delicious curry rice at Beo Cresent for lunch. Shop at Tampines in the afternoon before heading to airport to fetch Melvin home.

It was fun.. eating & shopping for a good 4 days.. but the aftermath of it was a Big Hole in my pocket.

Before I end the post.. I want to be the first person to wish you Merry Christmas!

03 Dec 2011 (Sat) - Updates on Lucas (14 mth)

My ah fat baby turned 14th month on last Monday.. and last week was a very special period for us because he finally took his first step without any support! I'm so proud to see that he finally found the courage to walk without holding on to us or the walls at long last... It seems to be a very fruitful week because he also learned to drink from a straw... and baby talk many simple words such as "ah ma" (granny) and "ta ta" (beat). I know there are many babies who learn to walk or talk at an earlier age.. but he is my precious baby so everything that he does is ultra special to me!

He seems to know even more words but haven't learn to say them yet... for example, he will go fetch his chair when I ask him to.. signal to me when he see doggies on the TV... imitate me applying lotion on my arms. Such a joy!.. But as he grows smarter, he too pick up bad behaviour along the way.. like screaming loudly and stomping his feet when he is not given what he wants.. he is responsive in good and bad ways.

Managed to bring him over to Jeslyn's house on last Wed to play with Ethan.. Ethan is one year older than Lucas and both of them all born in the month of Sep..

Lucas is not shy one.. made himself at home and checked out Ethan's wide collection of toys right away ...

There he is.. pretending to play with cups.. but tried to hit Ethan on his head when he got the chance to.. rough ah fat baby!

I didn't know that he loves hats.. cause he was all smiley when I put the fireman hat on him.

Got to go get ready now as we are planning to go shop in town today.. Bye!!