Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Baby's over the one month mark! He's getting more interested in talking to people and wanting people to talk to him, and I've started reading his books to him. But I think he's more interested in the pictures than the content haha. The past two days or so his eating patterns have changed again, there was one period of time which was amazing for me, breastfeeding reduced to about 15 to 30 minutes per session instead of the initial one hour or so. And then it reverted back to the old pattern! Less sleep again :( But on the good side of things, I think my breast milk is stabilising. Though sometimes when Junior gets too impatient he doesn't want to latch on properly and that isn't good for either one of us. Have started using the ring sling! I decided to ask Sis Nurhidayati for recommendations since she has loads of advice on breastfeeding and all things baby. I got the gauze double layer ring sling after much consideration (mostly of the colours haha). Black +

Taken yesterday, at three weeks young. We tried making him hold his own bottle :) Didn't last long, of course. Hahaha.

Am at my mum's house now, have been staying here while Husband is in NY for a work trip. Yes! A work trip when baby is only over two weeks?! Sadness. Even the mother of the baby is extra sad :( Can I blame it on post-natal hormones? Haha. He flew last Sunday night, and for the whole day, Junior refused to sleep, only wanting to be cuddled and given attention especially by daddy dearest. It's like he knows daddy dearest is flying off. Heart wrenching. But since Sunday, Junior's been a good boy behaving himself. But sometimes he still wants attention and to be cradled. I guess that's normal for newborns. Five more days till Other Half is home! :) I miss him. Somehow I'm reminded of days of London, cos he's very very far away. If he were to go, say, Brunei, it won't be as bad. New York is just so, scary. Watching too much crime dramas like CSI New York and my favourite Bones makes US sound dangerous with their small, dark alleys and guns!! Guns! Is it real

I am zombified. Sleep deprived. Headache from sleep deprevation. Yesterday we set a new record: baby was awake for four hours and like three and a half of it was spent on breastfeeding. I could feel my breasts empty and much lighter! Plus, before that he was already waking up for feeds like every hour. I do hope it's because of a growth spurt! Have tried my best to avoid formula milk, but when he refuses to sleep after almost an hour and a half of breastfeeding at night and I doze off while breastfeeding at the edge of the bed, formula milk is sooo tempting to quench his never-ending thirst. Puts him to sleep quickly and lasts a little bit longer. Plus it's dangerous too what if I accidentally lost grip of Junior. Today Junior is 15 days old. I can't really believe it, two weeks and eleven hours ago, I was pushing with all my might to get this darling out. Felt like its been ages though! And I kinda miss the feeling of being pregnant. I was heavily pregnant yet energ

It's Day 11 with Junior, but it feels like we've had him for a few weeks! Haha. My mum's been a fantastic help around the house coming almost daily to cook and help with household chores. Best mum ever :) Her mum did that for her too when she gave birth to me, and I think she's just passing it on. And it's a huge advantage having your parents live near you! Junior was born on 30 June 2011, at a little past 11pm, and weighs a whopping 4 kilos! By normal birth mind you. A total of 44 hours of labour, though the contractions at the beginning weren't that bad cos I could still walk around the hospital. We went to the hospital on 29th, two hours earlier than our induce appointment because I already had "show". We thought, Junior's very punctual! First sign of labour on his EDD! But dilation took longer than expected, plus there weren't enough beds for non-emergency cases like me so I had to wait till 30th afternoon before they could burst my water

...because Junior is out! :) Have loads to tell, but I don't know where to start. I'm loving Junior more and more each day, and I thank God for this blessed child. He just gets more adorable by the day, and it's amazing to see what he can learn. I do hope we can be the best parents to this little angel. Amin.

Today is the first day of maternity leave. Baby still show no signs of moving out yet. I hope tomorrow all goes well! Have some time to kill, and I would love some cookies or cake in my kitchen when I get back from the hospital, so I decided to make the long overdue German Cookies. Ingredients 250g butter 80g icing sugar, sifted (5 heaps tbsp) 250g potato starch 160g flour (I used cake flour) Sift the icing sugar and flour and mix with the butter. Add in the potato starch and mix them altogether. I mixed them using my hand! Heehee Once consistent, roll into small balls with diameter of 1-2cm, and press down using a fork. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius, for 15 minutes. This recipe is pretty popular, and actually I doubled the recipe because I have 250g butter. And that only made 100 pieces only! Even with double the recipe, I don't think it's enough! I can't help but pop them into my mouth! This cookie can definitely be a Hari Raya kuih, but I would have to make

Today I is a bit eager to cook, lunch was pizza and dinner was chicken curry with soy sauce vege stir fry, and I decided to make chocolate lava cake for dessert after clearing up dinner. And with all that work, I now have enormous elephant-like legs. Hahahaha. Chocolate Lava Cake 170g butter 170g chocolate (I used Van Houten baking chocolate) 4 eggs 5 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp flour pinch of vanilla powder pinch of bicarbonate soda Melt the butter and chocolate together using double boil. Mix flour, sugar, vanilla powder and bicarbonate soda together. Add an egg each time and beat till consistent before adding another egg. Add the butter-chocolate mix. Fill the muffin pan till 3/4 full, bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 6 minutes. The first batch I baked at 230 degrees Celsius, for 8 minutes and they turned out to be cake-like, no lava centre! See? No oozy sink-in centre. Bummer. But with each trial and error comes a brilliant find. For I have found! A brownie recipe! HAHA.

Home alone lunch before check up! Decided to make mini pizzas because I have leftover capsicum and bread. This time round I added a little sauce to the minced meat. Simple but yummy! The minced meat is sweet and tasty! Ingredients 3 slices of bread 1/2 capsicum Cheddar cheese & pizza cheese Chilli sauce & tomato sauce for the base Minced meat: 150g minced meat (rough estimation) 1 tbsp light soy sauce 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp chilli sauce Yummy yumyum pizza before adding the cheese. Baked at 180 deg Celsius for about 20 min. My first time baking pizza using normal bread, and it turned out surprisingly crunchy and toasted! Love it! I have one piece leftover. Anyone wants one? :)

Baby's still not out yet! I have a feeling Junior's gonna be overdue. Hahahaha. The Husband really can't wait for baby to be out. It's like so near but so far. Check up went well, Junior is of healthy weight -- or maybe TOO healthy since he's on the heavier side! Haha! And my health is all well and fine, so there's no need to induce. We did a major clean up of the house last Saturday, even cleaned the ceiling fan! One of our frames was broken in the process, when it's not even hung up on the wall yet! So wasted. We bought a pair of bamboo floor lamps and the pair of Moroccan-ish lanterns that we wanted so much, but when we brought them home, honestly we didn't know what to do with them. Haha! We literally sat at the sofa and stared at them for quite some time. Maybe our TV wall is just too big and whatever we do is kinda weird. I am very much in a holiday mood already. I am BORED here. I wanna bake. Can I go home and bake? I wanna make butter cake an

This must be the healthiest lunch I've ever made! Vege soup never tasted so good!! Sometimes sambal and curry and all that heavy gravy stuff can get boring.

Please please let me get well soon. It was only a few weeks ago I was plagued by cough, and now I'm having slight fever and a bit of flu. I have to be in tip top shape! Gonna use a lot of energy soon! Was very reluctant to come to work today, felt like sleeping and sleeping and the weather's perfect for that too. But then I thought of outstanding laundry and cooking and I thought, ah well I'll just leave those and go to work hahaha. Or maybe I shall go back in the afternoon. Yesterday I felt these weird constipation-contraction-like compresses coupled with backaches for about one and a half hours. I'm seriously not sure what it was, could be false alarm cos I walked a lot right before getting those, and when we got home I felt much better. Have to start monitoring such pains. Baby don't come out so soon! I have yet to stock up my fridge, and iron as many clothes as I can, and go Ikea! :)

I have 3 bananas and sour cream that are about to go bad/expire, so I went to Google sour cream banana cake, and came across this ! So there IS a recipe for sour cream banana cake haha! Made some adjustments, but sadly I should've increased the amount of sugar instead. And bananas too if I have them. Sadly the banana taste wasn't much, but the cake is really moist! Especially after you leave it after a day. Soft, moist and the taste of banana and butter becomes more distinct! Ingredients 180g salted butter (honestly I don't know how much I used but it's sort of more than half a pack of 250g butter) 3/4 cup caster sugar 3 eggs 2 1/4 cups cake flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate soda 250 light sour cream 3 mashed bananas Generous doze of chocolate chips! Mix everything! Then bake using a 10 inch round pan, 180°C for 40 minutes. Recipe called for 60 minutes but since the cake was already done and oh so sweet smelling, I took it out impatiently! Ma

So I ended up not baking anything over the weekend. Was planning to do cheesecake and/or German cookies but none done. I was so certain I bought potato starch already but I couldn't find it anywhere! I also have a tub of sour cream to use before it hits expiry date i.e. in two days' time! Luckily I found some banana sour cream cake recipes that looks easy and have great reviews. Hope to try it out today! I have been feeling lazy and sleepy a lot lately, especially during the weekend. Shopping trips have to be cut short cos I feel my legs are too tired, tummy too heavy. Eyelids become easily heavy too, haha. And besides, I can't buy clothes yet! Not even shoes! Emergency grab bag already packed, and we've pretty much cleared Junior's room, washed his clothes and put up his wall sticker, all set for his arrival! My mum says he has too many clothes. Haha. But thinking that Junior will need to change clothes a few times a day, and I bought sizes of up to 9 months,

So on the way back to office, I beat the red light at that unnecessary traffic light near MacRitchie specially installed for all these rich buggers who play golf at the posh country club nearby. Other times I beat or choose not to beat (hey, I'm not always a reckless driver haha) the red light, I make decisions swiftly. But not just now! This is not good. I saw the light change, and I braked. Not once, but twice. But it wasn't enough to stop the car in time, so I stepped on the accelerator instead. Why in the world did I brake when I know I couldn't make it!! Darn. I do hope the cameras didn't catch me. Or else I'd have to say I thought I was going into labour and I needed to rush to the hospital. Hahaha. Bought a whole tiramisu cake, hopefully it'll stay intact. Can't find a fridge big enough to accommodate it. My sister thought that tiramisu has coconut milk. Wonder where she got that idea from. And!! My dear sister-in-law bought this for Junior! H

In a couple of weeks or so, I'll be having a baby. I can't imagine it happening! I can't imagine myself going through labour! But holding our little bundle of joy in my arms would erase the pain I suppose. Speaking of which! Junior is kicking me non-stop. Hahahha. I can't believe it! A baby! Our baby. Our very huge responsibility. Have been looking around for educational books. And my my these books especially those in series aren't cheap! I tried looking for second hands, but there's not much of a market for them. We'll have to get creative and find ways to stimulate Junior's brain! I do hope we'll be able to educate him well, and bring him up in the best possible manner. Maybe I should get my craft materials out again and make some DIY cards and toys! Makes it more worthwhile and get myself involved in the whole process. I have some ideas already in mind, I hope I'll find the time to make them for Junior! :) Oh and I would love to do so

French toast for Other Half's breakfast this morning! He requested for it yesterday. I was feeling sleepy and tired, was supposed to wake up half an hour earlier to make them, but I woke up at the usual time I do without alarm. Thank goodness I didn't take long. Haha! Decided to add a bit of milk, added about 1 tsp evaporated milk (because I have half a tinful not used yet) and a pinch of salt to one beaten egg. I have a tendency of cooking extra and I end up eating the leftovers, so this time round I limited myself to one egg. And it's perfect too! Just enough to coat three pieces of bread. I think they tasted awesome! One of my better tries of french toast :) I should make breakfast more often haha.

Baked egg tarts (or so I thought) last Saturday. It was a nice, couple time Saturday. Sometimes our weekends can get so packed, there's no couple time. But on the bright side we're living on our own, and that gives us more opportunities for couple time. I love our own little space :) I happened to come across egg tart recipes, and this particular one from Chow Times which didn't need to use a crust. Perfect since I couldn't find instant crusts at the NTUC near my house. All I need is a greased muffin tray and I'm good to go! Adapted the recipe a little bit for some experimentation. My Ingredients 1 cup mix of white and brown sugar 3 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted 2 eggs 1 cup flour 1 can 388ml condensed milk 2 cups milk 1 tsp vanilla powder Mix the ingredients together to form a smooth mixture, and transfer to the muffin trays. I baked at 200°C for 15 minutes, and then 160°C for 18 minutes. Tarts in the oven!! Look at them rise so high! And yet no

I've subscribed to the daily English papers for my home! So exciting! Reading the actual papers isn't the same as reading the online version. There seems to be less news online too. Reading the papers used to be a chore. It is one of those things that your parents force you to do when you were younger, and you hated it, but later on in life you'll finally see that they're doing you a favour. Now, I check with the CNA website or TV channel almost everyday, and we listen to 93.8 Live on the radio to work without fail. I used to think who would listen to such a boring music-less channel, but look at what I'm doing now! Haha! And I'm going to introduce Junior to the newspapers as well, even though he won't be able to read yet. Never mind that he'll mess up the papers and dirty his hands and looks intensely at the news but not understanding anything (oh won't it be sooo cute! Haha), as long as he familiarises himself with them. Oh yes! Now that I&#

Yay! New sandals! My second pair of Papillios, the first one was like at least five years ago? That pair went long distances, took me to many faraway places! This pair? We'll see where they'll bring me :)