Happy Birthday to me

Birthday pressies from the Hubby and dearest son :)

Present from Kai and Hubz: my boys shared $$ to buy this for me. Kai used his angpao $$. I am extremely touched!
As you might know, I had a bumpy start to 2011 (battling with Bronchitis and giving away my diva dog), so it's time to charm it up!


Clockwise from top: Clover leaf for Luck, Peace sign, Pram to symbolise my journey into Motherhood and for being Adam's Mom, Sagittarius for Hubz, Red heel for me. I love it!

Another arm-candy in a lovely distressed Anthracite for me to use as a baby bag.

Nicole Richie hearts Bal-bag. So do I :)




Another DSLR to add on to my collection - EOS 550D. It's an expensive hobby, but I've been a good girl and Andy's been very enabling :)

My cam family:


**********

And also..... I'm going on an expenses-paid holiday to HK with my parents & my dearest baby boy, on my Birthday weekend! *jumps in joy*
My big boy is unable to come due to his never-ending work, but oh..... he's letting me get away with shopping... all charged to him of course. HEHEHEHEHE



Tory Burch had better stock up on Charmaine's and my sizes ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
V.

CNY lunch with my Sisters

Met up with my girls today noon for a intimate lunch date - just the 5 of us: Chris, Charmaine, Clare, Meena & I. (and 2 little boys Vetrin and Noah)
I dropped Adam at school and went to the market to buy fruits/whip cream for our lunch and whip cream dessert.

It isn't always that we have the luxury to sit down in a group and eat, chat, eat, chat.
Nothing beats the privacy and familiarity of your own home or a friend's home.
And did I tell you food is best eaten shared? :)

Our Jap miso-soup steamboat with the Chinese ingredients for CNY.


A nice cozy dining corner for us ladies.

My besties! 4 of us, missing 1 - Chris. She had to leave early to teach her maid and to fetch Nat from school. Clare (1st from left) is going to take up Nursing. I feel excited for her and asked the inevitable - "Are you afraid of dead people?" and she gave me a bochup look and replied "Just do it". Way to go! Another healthcare personnel to add to the circle. Charmaine says she will gag and vomit and pinch her nose at the sight of shit. -______-

Our polarioids (mis)adventures :D

Now cheeky Vetrin is at the age where he's learning to walk and sweeping things off the table. Very soon, Meena!! HAHAHAHHA

Nonchalant Noah. Without a care in the world. Propped up in his carseat to enjoy the company. I love babies this age! Easy peasy.

I love my girls. Best friends are people who've seen the best and worst of you but still accept and love you for who you are. You may disagree and you may fight, but at the bottom of your heart you know these people are here to stay.

The next person to be promoted to a Mother must be Charmaine. I can't wait for her to have a Poop Machine of her own! Her wedding is a good 8 mths away but I'm already planning Adam's outfit. I'm going to dress him in a Tuxedo and let him be the page boy. So excited!

Love,
Veron.

Why choose Organic

I get asked this alot - "Why choose Organic?"
My answer is very simple - Children are born in the purest state and we should continue this purity into weaning and the foods they eat.
This is a subjective topic and you don't necessarily have to agree with my views.

I started my organic craze even before I got pregnant but was more into skincare and shampoo back then. When I was pregnant and when Adam started solids, I was all the more into eating organic food.

Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, ToufuI try to choose and buy only certified organic produce as much as possible.
This means they conform to the stringent checks and standards required to be organic. They are not only free from pesticides, they are also free of hormones, genetic modification, antibiotics etc. They also need to be grown/harvested in an organic-appropriate environment, ie. Cows feed on organically grown grass that are fertilised naturally by animal waste and they produce organic milk. Therefore, it is a complete healthy cycle.

Meats
I buy normal fresh meat from the markets because organic meat is not available fresh at where I'm staying. However, you can choose the healthier options like free-range kampong chicken instead of farm chickens; fish from the sea instead of farm-reared fish.
I buy more fish like salmon and cod and lesser of other meats because I try to stick to the Blood-group Diets. Our entire family is blood-type A, so we need to eat more greens than meat. I substitute most meat with fish to get DHA and protein.

Milk
After I stopped breastfeeding Adam, I put him on Bellamy's Organic milk.
Since he turned 1 year old, I give him a mix of Bellamy and fresh milk.
I choose Meiji and Pura after doing a nutrition-label comparison at the supermarkets (compare the Protein, Fat, Energy levels). Pura is expensive because the milk is from grass-fed cows from Australia. Most other brands use cows that are grains and animal-feed fed.
On top of that, he drinks Bellamy Organic formula milk when we need to be out and about (due to feasibility).
We are always told by our Obstetricians and Paediatricians to eat healthily/avoid alcohol when we breastfeed because what we eat eventually goes to the BM that we feed our babies.
It is only logical to continue giving the purest and best milk when we stop breastfeeding and start weaning.
I'm not a fan of commercial FM which has alot of additives and high sugar content like Sucrose and corn syrup/starch.


It is impossible to go entirely organic and the occasional junk food is unavoidable. It is also expensive to feed organic food.
I get people tell me eating Organic will lower one's immune system because the body is not exposed to "germs and harmful food" to build up the resistance to them.
I want to tell these people, "You are what you eat". When I know what steroids and drugs have been injected into crops to achieve greater yield, or what GM does to make tomatoes look more red, I can't help but to steer away from them.
Even as adults, our bodies generate and replace new cells all the time. Your diet is going to determine how your body metabolises and "uses" those food.
We adults eat to sustain lives but our precious little ones eat to grow.
Every morsel of food they consume eventually goes into creating the bodies they are gonna have for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, the choice is yours.

Disclaimer: Author is a practicing nurse in the largest maternal and children hospital in Singapore and as a Mom has keen interest in children's health and development. However, she does not represent the views of any organization or affiliation, and is in no way related to the retailers of organic products in Singapore.

Day 4 of CNY: Playdate at Aunty Sharon's

My darling son insists that he is a baby and wants to sit inside the walker. He said to me "Baby 坐坐" *points to walker*

Think that's about all from our super long weekend of CNY, because Day 5 onwards, Mommy is going back to work! Boo hooooooo

CNY Day 3: At Aunty Lucy's

Andy is having such luck at gambling, he's winning $$ whatever he plays - MJ or Poker. Huat ah!!

初二: Visiting and more feasting, more angpaos

Greetings from the Tans again!

On the 2nd day of New Year my Prince is spotting the same hairstyle as his Daddy!
He's going to my aunt's house to play with his gf Emily that's why :D

Check out his Beckham hairstyle!


For dinner, we went to one of the Chinese restaurants at Vivo City with Hubby's parents.
Kai wearing his spiffy new shirt from Tommy Hilfiger which I bought together with Aunty Sharon for her Dylan (in another color).

on 大年初一 (1st day of Lunar NY)

小牛去拜年 collect angpaos!!

My chauffeur.... like real!

初一 lou hei dinner at Azur

Prosperous Rabbit Year!

It's been a busy but happy Chinese New Year period for all of us in the family.
With so many children fallen sick, I'm frankly grateful enough to have a unsick child to go visiting and collecting angpaos with!

Kai on the eve. He's gotten very good at mimicking the adults' behaviours and throwing in some exageration for the extra punch!


This is the 2nd year that Andy & I are giving out angpaos. We gave out so many for the past year that we decided to make our personalised name stamp this year.

"Xi" = Happiness

Okays I'm in desperate need of my beauty sleep. It's gonna be a long weekend ahead and we need to do more visiting tomorrow and the days that follow.
Happy Chinese New Year all!

Fat Boy's Burger

I'm not sure why, but it always rains cats & dogs a few days before CNY, which means we're mostly indoors-bound.
I've been pestering Andy to bring me to a burger joint but we just never made it and hence when we had nowhere better to go, it presented us the perfect opportunity to pig out at Fat Boy's.

Even Adam was mighty excited!

I relented and let him share our sinful indulgence. A little bit of everything wont hurt.


I love seafood chowder with lots of bits & pieces of fish/crab/clams, don't you?

Oooooh look at the thick patties & melted cheese! Crisp and non-oily fries to go along.

This is the first time in my life eating a tall American style burger, I kid you not!
I am always tempted to order one whenever I go to Swenson's, but no, I want mine at a burger place that's famous for burgers only! Exactly like how some only eat Bak Kut Teh from Balestier and not from food courts.
There are many things in life you wanna try at least once and claim credit for having been there, done that. For me, eating a tall burger is one of them :)

Wishing Everyone.....

more lomo

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lives

a stinky lassie


the wise border collie


the overindulged Prince


and the sybaritical Queen

Now, where is the King of kings!

Trying out LomoLomo

Trying out the photography on my new phone.

First thing in the mornings, coming into our room to terrorise his sleepy parents.
"Rise & shine!"

I love you baby! :)
Mommy.

Surprise present

Playdate with Adam's baby friend Morgan at the Twiss' home was arranged by Paul and my beloved Hubby.



Can you spot the Little Men's shoes at the corner?

Breathtaking pool view.

We then had dinner at nearby mall and after that, Adam pestered me to let him go on rides again.

I easily spent $20 on rides in 2 days. What happened to those 20-cent rides during our childhood? Now every ride is $1 or $2.
Time to teach our future generation a new word called "Inflation" I guess.

But really, the real purpose of today's playdate was because Hubby had purchased my surprise Birthday present and together with Paul, the guys arranged for the gift to be delivered to Paul's home so that I wouldnt suspect a thing.

Ta dah...


The ubiquitous phone. My husband wants me to snap out of my kuku-ness and join the 99% iPhone-crazed population.
Hubby thinks it's high time to replace my trashed up Nokia E71 which is falling apart at the "seams" because of over-throwing by a certain baby culprit *cough*, though I must clarify, I've never been one to be crazy over gadgets because of my technophobic nature.
As a matter of fact, I'm pretty contented with my trashed up phone (I drive to work and back so whats the use of a touch-screen phone as long as I have a phone which I can SMS and answer/make calls when needed right?) until my sis Charmaine commanded me to quickly get one. "Go and get an iPhone so we can gossip on Watsapp!" she ordered.
Ok, point taken.

Planning and ganging up with the Twiss to plant me a suprise birthday present 1 mth in advance is a very sweet move.
It doesn't matter what he gives me for my Birthday because I have everything a girl could possibly ask for - a doting husband, a happy baby, a complete family with loving parents and in-laws, friends who love me and whom I love just as much, food on my table, clothes on my back, and a nice car for my Push present as the icing on my already huge cake.
And new friends who go through the trouble to gang up with my husband on a weekday even though they don't know me well and didn't have to go through the hassle just to make my day.

Thank you Hubby. You're the best!
I'm a lucky girl :)