Bath or shower?

Back home, having a bath tub is a luxury. A bath tub takes up lots of space and is just not as practical as the good old shower. After all, most people still take a shower after soaking in the bath. Being the sort of person who loves a bath, I used to look forward to staying in hotels during holidays just so I can use the bath tub. On such holidays, the whole "soaking in a bubble bath and relaxing whilst reading a book" type of fantasy can become reality. When we first went house hunting in London, I noticed that most of the bathrooms here comes with a bath and thought to myself, "How nice...bubble bath everyday!"

Reality - I have only used the bath once since I got here. Waiting for the tub to be filled up with water is a pain and the agony of cleaning a bath tub is no joke. Most importantly, the bath tub has now turned into a mini fun-pool for Josiah. Last week, S and I decided to blow up his inflatable tub (gift from my ex-colleagues in StandChart Bank)for babies who are still too small to use the big tub. We also put up stickers, courtesy of my friend, C who bought it all the way from Singapore. S was just saying that the tub does not look romantic anymore...

Well, lets see, romantic tub (not a daily affair!) versus baby pool (everyday fun time!) - baby wins. I guess if I used a LOT of bubbles, it could hide the stickers and the tub could still be somewhat romantic??

Then again, who needs a bath when all you need is a shower,right?

Shower away folks.....

Look at the satisfied customer, of course mummy and daddy will give up the tub for you!

Another pic for all to enjoy.

Multi tasking - God's gift to mummies

I have always wondered how I will cope with a baby and managing myself ie shower, eat, poo...

Well, I have the answer now and it is the ever useful skill of multi-tasking. I thought it is only good for the office but in home life, it is a life saver.

Here are examples of how I survived these past 4 months alone with a 'sticky' baby.

- Brush teeth, wash faces, put on lenses whilst baby is crawling on toilet floor. He is happy because he gets to play with the nappy cream, diapers, face cream...etc

- Use above methods for poo and pee as well.

- Cook baby's lunch & dinner whilst he is still happy in the morning, at the same time, eat breakfast in between chopping carrots, potatoes. On a good day, baby is still happy after all that chopping meaning that I would get to actually sit and eat breakfast and on even better days -read the newspaper!

- When baby is taking morning nap, it is a time bomb to get as much done before he wakes. To do this, requires even more multitasking. Shower whilst boiling water, mop floor whilst lunch is cooking, check emails and blog whilst eating lunch...get the picture.

Of course there are downside to multitasking especially when one has lack of sleep. Namely, something will get burnt on the stove or you'd forget that you have put in the clothes in for washing and only realise when it has that awful "left too long in washing machine smell" and have to rewash it again. I have also been unable to eat slowly anymore - all food goes into my mouth and my tummy in a snap! I have to tell myself to chew, chew, slow down, stop gobbling....

Today is one of those days I feel like the domestic goddess - baby is happy and having a nice nap, baby food has been pureed and ready for eating, floors are clean, toilets are clean, mummy is clean, dinner is halfway done (bak kut teh) and mummy is blogging! Wow...and it is only 12pm. On such days as this, I thank God over and over again, of course, also asking for another one more fantastic day.

Was just telling my sister that I am getting retribution for the lack of housework I have had to do the past 29 years. I couldn't help it, really. I have had a maid up until I left for Uni, thereafter, a maid who does toilets, ironing,mopping come in twice a week. My mum did the cooking and cleaning, washing. Thanks Mum! Then I got married and moved in with my in-laws who at any one time had at least 2 maids sometimes even 3!! So not much to do there :p Thanks Mum-in-Law too! So people, here is how life will get back at you. Am now 29 years old, with a young baby - am a newbie at cleaning, washing, cooking and ironing with absolutely no maid in sight!! I have to manage it all even when I have never done it before especially ironing (which will explain why there is a mountain worth of clothes taunting me everyday!)

S has asked me to take up a course which his company will pay for and looking at my situation, honestly, do they have a course on Home Management Level 1? The main motivation for taking this course would be seeing Josiah crawling happily then pick him up and see that his clothes are black from dust and hair (mostly mine because I am balding. Sniff.)

Such is life, so to all young 'un out there complaining about housework and all - be thankful for the housework when young, maybe, you would never have to do housework when you get older. As for me, am checking for Home Management courses :p

Look at my lovely boy - looking miserable in his nice outfit

17 September 2007

Autumn is here

Woke up to a cloudy 15C. Looks like the sun has gone for good. Luckily we had fine weather last weekend. It was quite a full weekend, on Saturday, S had to go tracting for our upcoming gospel series in Hope Hall, Kilburn, London. All are invited! (Detail will be given later) After that we were to have a nice picnic at Hampstead Heath with a few of our friends. Seeing that I have never been there and that Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts had been there in the movie Nottinghill, I was quite excited. It was a fantastic autumn day, sun was shining and all the babies were well behaved. Our friend N even packed some leftover 'nasi lemak' for us. Thank you! It was really yummy, I cannot believe how much I missed it. Back in Malaysia, would not even have thought to order that when we go out. Yes, I am still homesick. Obviously.

Due to the lack of a proper nap in the day, Josiah was knocked out from 8pm till 8am on Sunday! WOW, WOW, and WOW....I have not slept that late for months now. With all that extra energy, I decided to make 'char siew' for dinner - it was better than the first attempt but still far from "the best char siew in the world". According to my cousin, M who is stuffing his face with the actual best 'char siew' in Malaysia right at this moment, to make a good 'char siew' one would need really fatty pork. Apparently not easily available in health conscious countries like UK and Australia.

On Sunday, we went to church as usual but Josiah was awake for the full meeting. He was really quite active in participating. He wanted to sing hymns and talked loudly. After that we had to do the mundane weekly grocery shopping - HRH Josiah decides to act up as soon as we step into Tesco (no surprises there) - but S was upset too because I decided to nip over to H&M to grab some final reduction sale items for Josiah. Come on....it's another 50% off the already half price original. I loaded up on couple of pants, tops, raincoat and even a bath suit - each costing no more than 2 pounds! I think it's definately worth the whining from both my man, don't you think?? Being a mum now, nothing beats the feeling of shopping for stuff for your baby. It will cure everything from tiredness due to lack of sleep, depression, loneliness, anger and even homesickness! So my advice to all new mummies - shop, shop, shop away it would do you wonders.... Too bad I am stuck with a baby who is allergic to shopping. Sniff. Must be the genes from his Daddy. Sniff. Any cure would be appreciated.

I sit here in front of my laptop - nervous, yet excited. My own blog - yay, am no longer a techno bimbo (I wish...haha...recently just got a friend to help me use my iPod! Duh...)
Before we proceed, let's start this slowly as too many things have happened to me in the last year that I want to capture it all down before I lose it to more important things like, "Am I out of wet wipes? Oops, forgot to change his nappy"
We shall from the beginning.........

15 May 2006

Life before...

Had just returned home from a fantastic trip to Sydney and Melbourne. My hubby, S and I had a great relaxing holiday. Good food, good company, free lodging (thanks Max!), good weather...
So why were we both sitting apprehensively at the women's clinic?
Here's my comment to S few days before - "Babes, I'm late, I think this time it is the real thing". His non-chalant reply was, "Oh..it's probably just the change in weather" - RIGHTO!
On the doctor's bed, with the cold gel on my flabby tummy - Dr Kim said, congrats, the baby can be seen here...Before I could even react, her face changed suddenly and asked for S to come in.
Just above the foetus was a dark blob which is a giant cyst measuring about 10cm in diameter!
No wonder I had a flabby tummy! Anyway, we were told that with the baby growing we can only monitor both the baby and cyst until about 3-4 month into the pregnancy before we can think about an operation. My first reaction was to get a second opinion and namely to get another doctor who would be willing to do the operation. At that point, I did not have any feelings for this little human growing inside me yet and don't want to be in a situation when I HAVE bonded with my baby then lose it to some cyst.
S thought that I was acting crazy. We went home to tell our parents. No big reaction from my in-law side but my mum was flabbergasted, "What HAPPENED?? I thought you didn’t want a baby so soon!!" Mind you at that point I was just as shocked and unprepared. She went on to lecture me about how a baby will change your life and I’ll have a lifetime of misery...etc. Funny how my mum is now the best granny to Josiah!

6th September 2007
Going on a date (yippee!)

Josiah gave us a nice morning call at 6.30am today. Thank goodness for my new supply of Ipoh Coffee. The day went smoothly enough. Josiah went for a early nap and we went to visit his girlfriend, Emma in the afternoon. He was so happy to see her again and did his best to show it by hitting her and trying to poke her face. The both of them are so cute together. Emma has grown taller and more hair whilst Josiah has lost his hair due to a bad haircut and grown fatter especially around his tummy and face!

In the evening, I marinated the pork chops, put the potatoes and cauliflower to boil and waited for the my brother and S to come home. At 5.30pm, Josiah woke up from his nap – good, I thought because that would mean that he can go to bed at 8.30pm and we can go out whilst my brother stay at home. S will be going to Surrey next week and brother is going home. I see my only chance of going out at night slipping away....Things started to go wrong at about 8pm, my roast is not looking good, the potatoes are still sitting and waiting to be mashed, S cannot be contacted and Josiah is already looking tired. But the moment S came back, Josiah suddenly had his back-up battery switched on. Sigh...Daddy’s little boy. I was still determined that I could make it. During his last feed, I was thinking about where we can go and as his eyes closed I was super excited. Putting him gently on his cot, he looked up at me and laughed. Oh, mummy....I know all about your plans...!! He proceeded with a long squeal and continued chatting to himself until 9.30pm. Darn, darn, darn....looks like it is not going to happen. My only consolation was that I am currently reading my first proper book since I had Josiah – Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella. S wanted to watch a movie and we spent the next 2 hours with Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.0. All in all, a pretty good day.

7th September 2007
TGIF?

Don’t you just hate it when you think that you have gotten everything correct then you start to jinx yourself and everything reverts back again. Am rambling here due to the 3am, 4am and 5.30am crying episode. We have just been able to tell people in this past few weeks that our baby is sleeping through (finally, after all he has hit his 8 month birthday). It feels so good to be able to sleep without having to boil water, wash bottles, scoop milk and prepare a tray to bring everything in our bedroom. But last night, is a nice reminder by our beloved Josiah that we are not allowed to slack and must always prepare in case His Royal Highness decides that he would like a cuppa milka at 5am just for fun.
I could not sleep last night because was thinking about ‘Ampang Yong Tau Foo’ – mmm....can just taste it and want it quite badly that I was considering doing some myself. Of course that was before HRH Josiah’s crying episode bringing me back to reality of pasta,roast and mash potatoes. Bye-bye ‘yong tau foo’ – don’t know when we will see each other again.
On the upside, Josiah was quite exhausted from his drama and actually slept until 8am. So I am not as trashed as I normally would be. In fact, I was brave enough to continue the day WITHOUT the caffeine and opted to load my system with Krispy Kreme donuts courtesy to my brother. I even left Josiah chatting to himself whilst I savoured my donuts...mmm.... Since Fridays are my unofficial off-day (means that I don’t cook for Josiah!) I thought it would be nice to go out to High St Kensington for lunch. HRH Josiah was all nice and sweet even when I made a stop to look at all the flowers and dedications to Princess Diana outside Kensington Palace. Maintaining his hate for shopping, he made sure that everyone else in the shop also knows that. So much for shopping, I continued walking and looking enviously at other mummy’s going in with their ‘I love shopping’ babies. Looks like I have to stick to internet shopping or be contented with just window shopping.
Lunch at Mark & Spencers (again) – it is a baby friendly place full of nice old ladies and other yummy mummies like myself (wink). Too bad for Josiah as he prefer his girls younger and better looking. Honest. He wouldn’t give a second look to the old ladies but would try to make eye contact with any younger girl/women/teenager. Good thing that he was sleeping then.

12 September 2007

Panda mama

Josiah woke up screaming at 3am this morning and could not be calmed down. Looks like he has a tummy ache. He could not sleep until 4am and I was so regretting that I told S I could manage just before I went to bed! Anyhow, my brother is leaving today and life would be just the two of us again. On the upside, Josiah is crawling properly now. He is all over the living room, thank you S for re-arranging the furniture before you went. Kiss. Josiah has gone on strike since Monday for solids. He just would not have anything more than a few spoonfuls. Even his favourite meal of the day – breakfast of cereals and fruit. Am at wits end. Don’t know if him waking up is due to wind in the tummy because he is hungry. But I have tried everything. Sigh.

Did I mention that he is also clapping on verbal cue now. So he definitely understands what we are saying. All that baby signing is also going nowhere – he still does not respond to “milk” sign although I have done it since he was 4 months old. Those website had babies who respond even at 5 months. Oh well, I don't mind as long as he starts talking soon (hahaha...crazy kiasu mummy!)