Showing posts with label 1 year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1 year. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Family affair: Joan's 1st Birthday party.

Andy's cousin's daughter is turning one!
Love attending parties with loads of children. They make every party livelier and happier with all that noise and coordinated mess.
 









While playing in the ball pit, Adam hurt a cousin's eye. Intentional or not (he said it was accidental), I punished him and made him apologise to Donovan. I later on explained to him the reason why I was mad and scolded/ beat him in front of Donovan and his guardian was because I love and care about him that's why I get upset if other children and their parents are angry with him.
I then banned him from playing at the party and we left (thankfully it was time to leave otherwise I would hate to leave the party prematurely).

Adam's at an age which requires lots of reasoning and that is honestly tiring as hell.
I wish children came with instruction manuals. Sigh.

MIL and birthday girl Joan

Outfit of the day:
Quilt grey blouse: Love Bonito
Red shorts: H&M
Bag: Hermes Lindy 34
Shoes: Charlotte Olympia Clever Kitty flats

Adoring my new shoes from www.net-a-porter.com. They were offering free international shipping so I ordered 2 pairs of shoes from them. So comfy too! No blisters for the entire 4 hours of wearing them.

the Ngs! Darren (Andy's cousin) and Suzanne with their three kids.


Blessed birthday Joan!!!
You're gonna grow up to be so spoilt and protected by your brothers I'm sure!


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Bringing the kids to a Baby Shower...alone!

Last Sunday, my maid had the day off, and the husband went to Rompin to fish.
The last thing I wanted was to be stuck at home the entire day with two rowdy boys, so I brought them to a friend's baby shower.. all by myself!
At first, Hubby was worried how I was gonna handle the kids by myself since we almost always have my helper or him or my MIL (the village that helps to raise my kids).
 
Anyway, I bit the bullet and went.

Gift favours for the guests - customised hand towels and a box of assorted cakes. So generous!

Baby Hebe. Love the frilly hat! :)



Luckily I had the help of my friend Jan and Ingrid's helper (Hebe's mum's helper) to watch the kids periodically if I needed to change Ashton's diaper or excuse myself for toilet break.


Bubble time!!! My boys' tees are kindly sponsored by Vaby.
Like Vaby on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vabysg






Here are my reflections on bringing the children out alone without any help:
- The tricky parts are gathering them - getting them to put on shoes/ get out of the house in harmony/ getting into the car, and then after the party, herding them together and leaving cooperatively.

- I can handle both kids, no problem. From a scale of 0-10, 0 being easy peasy and 10 being murderous, I rate today's experience 2/10.
2 because I had to feed both kids on my own and then supervise the kids playing at the playground. My friend's daughter, Kate, was younger than Adam and Adam being a boy, isn't very good at playing with girls. Too rough. I had to step in a couple of times to warn him not to be too rough.

- I will not tell my husband how happy I am today with just myself because I can survive. I don't want him to think that he can slack on his fathering duties.

- Lastly and importantly, Young Living oils work. I rubbed the boys with oils right after their baths, about 30min before leaving the house.
I used Valor for Ashton to give him confidence. He's the shy and quiet one among the two, and while there's nothing wrong with that, he tends to cling to me in presence of strangers and want me to carry him. That would make it difficult for me to eat or have my hands free.
For Adam, I applied Peace & Calming because he is the super spirited and hyper type, always raring to go.

So far so good I say!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

[Media invite] Baby's Day out at Promontory@Marina Bay.

Hello hello! We attended our first Baby's Day Out today, thanks to fellow Mummy-blogger Mabel from Amazingly Still and the very wonderful event coordinator Nicole from CROWD Media.
 
Where it's at: The Promontory@Marina Bay
 
Where to park:
We parked at One Raffles Quay because it has the cheapest parking rate and many lots available, but parking is also available at the following places -
 
NTUC Centre
Marina Bay Financial Centre
The Sail @ Marina Bay
Open-air URA Bayfront Avenue carpark
 

The weather was breezy and wasn't hot at all! Everybody had a fabulous time picnicking and I can see they've come prepared with lots of finger food and drinks.

There was a mobile food van selling pasta and burgers but the wait was long and that's probably the only food you can buy there.
I suggest in subsequent years, you can bring a picnic basket with your own food.







Guest-of-honour Minister Lim Swee Say.




We ended the night with spectacular fireworks blooming in the sky.

The kids were awestruck and with the loud music blasting, Adam was running around and having a good time.








Happy 49th Birthday to Singapore! Not everybody may agree with her politically, but she is my country and my home! Makes me proud to see many ang-mohs and other nationalities present at the event too.  
 
Thank you Mabel, Nicole and your lovely team of ladies from CROWD Media for the invite.
Very honoured to be able to attend this event, being a first for the kids :)
 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Tsukada Nojo - Collagen beauty hotpot at Westgate Mall.

A friend told me she recently went for dinner at the famous 美人锅 Tsukada Nojo at Plaza Singapura.
That got me curious to try their Collagen hotpot which has so many queuing 1.5 hours for.

We decided to go to the outlet at Westgate Mall, just beside Jurong East MRT, because it is newer and bigger than the outlets at Plaza Singapura and Chinatown Point.
Also because my aunts stay in the West...

They do not do reservations so all you can do is to go there and queue.
 
Reached at 5pm and there were many empty tables in the non-aircon seating but the air-conditioned section is already full.

In the end, we didn't want to queue so we accepted the non-aircon table. They have fans and air-cooler but as things start getting steamy, so do our sweat glands.

The famous Collagen soup curds shipped from Japan. I just went for my IPL facial laser 2 weeks ago so definitely MUST try!

Once the curds melt, they form a thicky, oily and creamy soup.



"JITOKKO" is a very valuable brand chicken in Japan. This chicken is raised in an organic way with thorough quality control further than the government's stringent standards. This chicken is shipped only by limited number of farmers.
That is why this is called "rare chicken".

Oishi!

三 大 美 人 吃 美 人 锅 (3 Big Beauties eat Beauty hotpot) :P



Waiting time:
Waited about an hour for air-conditioned seating but alas there were no adjacent tables available so we ended up taking the outdoor seats where 6 adults and 2 kids could all sit together.
Once you secure a table, the food comes very fast though.



Food:
I find the soup tasty and very filling (didn't even eat that much) but Hubby finds it too oily.
The chicken meat was not very tender, in fact a little bit tough, giving me a feeling that it hasn't been cooked long enough.
Or maybe it could be because it's organic chicken and not farm-bred, I'm not sure.

 
Service:
Impeccable service provided by the waitress who was assigned to help us cook and teach us about the famous soup base.
She was also very quick in assisting my fussy boys for their drinks and children cutlery.


Price:
In total, 6 adults and 2 children paid a total of $187 only. I find it very cheap considering it is a famous hot pot. Way cheaper than Hai Di Lao.
However, they lost 1 star because I ordered 1 plate of fried rice for my helper (she cannot eat pork) which cost a whopping $12.
 
 
 
After the kids finished their share, my helper brought them upstairs to the rooftop playground called Westgate Wonderland - a HUGE outdoor playground with water play and tree-top play.





Thanks for dropping by to read about our Beauty hot pot experience :)
One tip is, if you don't want to wait too long for it, reach early at about 4:30pm - 5:00pm.
They open at 5pm but there was already a queue at 4.30pm because everybody wanted the air-conditioned seats.
However, the max seating capacity per table indoors is only 4pax, therefore bigger groups will have to be seated at the non-aircon section.