Dolly

Beanie and I were at the H&M recently and at the Kid's section, I came across this little cloth doll. It was on sale and only cost a grand total of 7 bucks! So I bought it for Beanie and we named her "Dolly"

The cool part about Dolly is that you can undress her totally (yes, you can even remove her underwear) and dress her in other outfits! I remembered that I really love to design and make clothes for my dolls when I was younger and I couldn't wait to make some clothes for Dolly!

So, Project Runway begins! I'm going to make a blouse and a skirt for Dolly.

I used an old dress to set a blouse for Dolly.

And I used an old sock for Dolly's skirt. Originally, I wanted to sew the ribbon as trimming for the skirt but I changed my mind when I realized that it would take me too much time to do so.

Above was Dolly's original outfit.

Ta-dah! Dolly's new outfit! 

And what was Beanie while I was sewing Dolly's clothes? She didn't give 2 hoot about Dolly and her new clothes at all... ...

O well, I think Beanie has to grow up a little more to appreciate our Project Runway Sessions for Dolly. 

Teochew Brasied Duck

I'm a Teochew and one of my all time favorite Teochew dishes is the Teochew Braised Duck.  I've bought this recipe book: Chinese Heritage Cooking last year but I only recently started to cook some of the heritage dishes and so far, the recipes had turned out really well.

Above was my first attempt at the braised duck and I was really pleased with how the duck turned out. Actually that was half a duck as I wasn't confident to braised one whole duck, so for my next attempt, I will definitely buy a whole of duck.

With this recipe, I don't have to buy overpriced braised duck during Chinese New Year anymore! I can braised my own duck. Whippee!

Pig's trotters in black vinegar

Inspired by Petunia's post on pig's trotters in black vinegar, I decided to cook my very own as well! It has been a long time since I had pig's trotters in black vinegar. I used 2 front trotters, some "muscle meat" for my hubby who prefers lean meat, black fungus and eggs.

Pig's trotters in black vinegar is a classic confinement dish and it is my all time favorite confinement food. I can eat this every week, I swear. Thankfully Hubby and my in-laws are huge fan of pig's trotters in black vinegar too, so that big pot was finished to the very last drop in one setting. No left overs at all!

Looking at Petunia's recipe, she used 2 types of black vinegar: sweet rice vinegar and black rice vinegar. For me, I only used 1 type: the Bull Dog Brand Black Rice Vinegar.

It comes in "single strength" or "double strength" where "double strength" is about 1.5X the price of the "single strength". I have previously only used "double strength" since that was what my mom and my confinement lady used as well.

But this time round, I've decided to give "single strength" a try, to test whether is there any difference. The verdict: no significant difference. However, the "single strength" wasn't as sweet as the "double strength", so I had to add a lot more black sugar, in order to have the same sweetness.

Another interesting fact that I have learnt about this Bull Dog Brand Black Rice Vinegar: it is manufactured in Singapore. Wow... our very own local brand!

Yummy. Looking forward to cook another pot in a month's time! ;)

Beanie's first visit to a farm (and mine too!)

Little Beanie took her feeding duties very seriously and insisted on carrying the feeding bucket.

The little wallaby was SO CUTE! It was a gentle little thing and was very patient with Beanie.

But Little Wallaby was simply too greedy so it went straight for the bucket.

Beanie: "Nah, bread for you!" 

During the Margaret river trip, we visited a petting zoo / farm: The Sunflower Farm. It wasn't really a real farm but more of a touristy petting farm. Nonetheless, it was an eye-opening for me, who have never been to an Angmoh farm or a petting farm.

First, we bottled-fed 2 cute little lambs. OMG, they were so cute and their wool was so soft! And the best part: they weren't smelly at all!

Then the baby wallaby came along and stole my heart. It was such a gentle little creature! It followed Beanie around since Beanie was the one carrying the feeding bucket. And Beanie was very intrigued by her furry friend. They hanged out for a while until... well, the feeding bucket got kind of empty.

Then we saw geese, limas, many different breeds of chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, sheep, a horse and a pony... etc (strangely, no cows) and most important of all, pigs.

I have never knew that pigs can be so BIG. I mean, HUGE. In my mind, I thought pigs are the size of big dogs, but fatter and smellier. But apparently, pigs that are reared for meat are really big animals! They are twice the length of me... Geez!

I stared at the pigs and lambs for the longest time and started to feel bad that I actually eat them. Sigh, maybe I should become a vegetarian but the foodie in me refused to even entertain the thought.

As for Beanie, she had a blast at the farm. She happily carried the feeding bucket, fed the animals, she was not afraid of them (not even the pigs?!) and was constantly interacting with the animals. I was rather proud of her, my little trouper. ;)

I'm now looking forward to visit other farms in other countries and maybe a farm stay too!

Margaret River Trip

Vineyard at Grayln Estate. Fantastic Sweet wines, Love it!

Feeding rabbits at Sunflower Farm. I had so much fun at the farm. More so than Beanie!

 Having Tea at Leeuwin Lighthouse.

Beanie tried on the swing at Cape Mentelle Winery.

Little Beanie trying to follow her Daddy.

At Watershed Winery, trying to take a mother-&-daughter picture.

It has been a long time since I updated my blog!

Sorry for the missing in action. I was rather busy with work and then was away to Margaret River for a week. 

Anyway back to the trip, the vacation was great! As you could see from the pictures, Beanie had loads of fun and it was simply refreshing to breathe in the fresh, crisp air; and to enjoy the wide open space.

We went with our neighbors and thankfully for them, we had the ratio of 4 adults to 1 Beanie. That gave me more room to breathe instead of being driven up the wall by a relentless toddler.

I should nominate my neighbors for the Good Neighbour Award!

I must say that the family trip turned out much better than I thought. Beanie was quite well-behaved on the plane rides (5 hours flight one-way) and the road trip (3 hours ride one-way). I had thought that I would have to deal with a screaming kid, strapped to a car seat.

Surprisingly, Beanie was very thrilled to be in her car seat! She took it as her "special" seat and would INSIST to sit in the car seat, even though it would be a less than 5 mins ride. And throughout the trip, I only had to fish out the iPad at the return leg of the plane ride for about 30 mins. Not bad at all, I must say.

So much so that, Hub and I are thinking about taking Beanie to Japan. A skiing holiday, maybe?

Losing No. 2

This will be a sad post, I'm afraid.

I was supposed to be 8 weeks pregnant when I started to spot brown. However, since I also had some forms of spotting and bleeding when I was carrying Beanie, I wasn't too worried about the spotting for this second pregnancy.

Unfortunately, after 3 days of light spotting, the bleeding started to get heavier and I noticed red blood bleeding and that was when I called my Gynae to book an emergency consultation. During the ultrasound, it seemed that the embryo had stopped developing since it was 5-6 weeks. In fact, we could see the amniotic sac but no fetus or heartbeat. It was a case of Blighted Ovum.

The doctor wanted to play safe and scheduled another scan in a week's time to ensure that there was indeed no development of the embryo, but he cautioned that my body might expelled the failed embryo naturally and I might suffer from a natural miscarriage. As long as I am not in severe pain or bleeding excessively, I should just let nature takes in course.

And true enough, I miscarried naturally later on the very same day, later in the evening.

The cramps and the backache started, it was as if I was going through a mini-labour. It was very similar to the same discomfort that I went through during the early stages of labour when I had Beanie. The bleeding intensified with many clots and then, suddenly I felt something passed out of me.

It was a small placenta, almost the size of a small kiwi fruit and the attached  amniotic sac, which looked like a deflated white balloon. Inside the sac, there was a very small, almost worm-like looking creature. I believe that the little worm was my little No. 2. My first instinct was to flush it away, and I did. But now on hindsight, I should have kept it in a box and buried it under my Frangipani Tree. It would have help me to move on.... and now, I have the guilt that I actually flushed my No.2 down the toilet chute!

Sigh. I know that miscarriages are very common and I have quite a few friends who went through at least 1 failed pregnancy but continued to have 2 or 3 perfectly healthy children anyway.

But it was still very sad for me to know that the little worm could have grown to be Beanie's little brother or sister. Yet, at the same time, I am also very thankful that my first-born, Beanie is now a healthy almost-2-year-old girl and this miscarriage makes me appreciate my Little Beanie so much more.

No woman will ever forget a miscarriage, every miscarriage was like a child lost.

Mommy will always remember you, my little no. 2.

Mother's Day at Gardens by the Bay

After the Mother's day lunch with my brothers, Mother and Grandma, we thought that it would be a good idea to bring my grandma, mom and Beanie to Gardens by the Bay: Tulipmania to enjoy some air-con in the temperature-controlled dome and to admire some beautiful flowers and tulips.

Well, apparently the whole of Singapore thought so too.

Gardens by the bay was totally packed yesterday!

Geez, I saw more people than flowers and due to the crowd, the dome was rather stuffy. Hmmm, they should really consider installing some fans to create some artificial breeze.

Nonetheless, my grandma and mom totally enjoyed the trip. It hits me once again that old folks are generally really easy to please. I could tell that my grandma was really pleased that we took her out for lunch and the trip to Gardens by the Bay was the icing on the cake. She is 86 years old this year, but still very healthy and feisty. She could walk around the dome on her own (with the help of her trusted umbrella) and was very intrigued by the various species of plants and flowers that she has never seen before.

My mom, being the gardener and Mrs green-fingers, was totally excited and went around on a photo spree. Hmmm, that sets me thinking that I should plan a trip with her to Japan during Spring to either see the sakura or to Hokkaido during the Spring festival.

As for Beanie, she was rather co-operative. Thankfully she did not pluck or destroy any plants and seemed to understand when I told her that she wasn't allowed to pluck the flowers and could only touch them gently. *phew*

This is my 2nd Mother's Day with Beanie, and everyday, I am very thankful that I am blessed with a healthy, spirited, cute and sometimes-she-drives-me-crazy daughter.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

How we survive without a car

Today's Straits Times had an article about how some families make do without a car. Some of these families have 2 young children and yet, are able to do without a car even if they can afford one.

We do not have a car too, although Hub used to drive his family car before he went to London for his studies; and I used to drive my mom's car when I first started working. Yes, many many many years ago.

And both of us decided that owning a car in Singapore simply does not make sense. Especially if our offices are in the CBD area where the monthly ERP and season parking charges can pay for a short getaway for 2 adults every month.

Now that we have Beanie, we still do not own a car and do not foresee a need to get one. At least not for the near future.

So, I'm here to share some tips on how we survive without a car.

Tip 1: Join a Car-share program. There are quite a few of them in the market and most them charge reasonable prices on an hourly basis. We use Car Club and as long as we plan our weekends in advance, we can just book the car for a day and whizz around. The advantages of car-shares: petrol is included in the hourly charges (ie: topping up of petrol is "free"), no maintenance, no road tax, no car insurance. Heck... you do not even need to wash or clean the car!

Tip 2:  Book a cab via the App or SMS. You can  easily book a cab via an App or SMS. No more being put on hold while calling for a cab. In fact, you can even track the location of your booked taxi via the App.
Some people reckon that during peak hours, there will be difficulty in getting a taxi. Yes, that's true and that's part and parcel of life. So, do a little planning to avoid peak hours.

Tip 3: Stay close to your parents, parents-in-law. When we were looking for an apartment, we ensured that the intended apartment, be it HDB or condo had to be near-by to our parents. We foresee that we would need a lot of family support when our kids come along. So although as a young couple, we dreamed about staying at Robertson Quay, Tiong Bahru or Tanjong Rhu, we eventually decided to be practical and chose a multi-generation HDB flat in Bishan instead. So now, my parents-in-law are just walking distance away and it is very convenient for them to come over to take care of Beanie when I need to be away.

Tip 4: MRT and public buses aren't so bad during off-peak hours. Ok, I work flexi-hours, so I can schedule to bring Beanie out during non-peak hours. And Beanie loves taking the MRT and buses, in fact, she is so much more cooperative and well-behaved whenever she takes public transport. She will usually make faces at fellow commuters (at times, they are the ones making faces at her!)and there are just so much for her to see and observe!

In all honesty, I think being a semi-work-from-home-mom gives us some leeway for not owning a car. But the main motivation is the amount of money that we can save. Especially now that we are on a single income.

So, it is possible to survive without a car, even with young children in tow. ;)

Jewel Cafe at 129 Rangoon Road

Beanie and I checked out Jewel Cafe at 129 Rangoon Road yesterday. There are so many of these artisan cafes nowadays that they are bringing such a vibrant cafe buzz to Singapore. I love it!

In fact, for the past few weeks, we have been to a few establishments, e.g.: The Coastal Settlements at Changi Village, Piccotin at Turf City, The Orange Thimble and Tiong Bahru Bakery at Tiong Bahru, Omakase Burger at Turf City, Da Paolo at Rochester ... etc.

And so far, my favorite: Jewel Cafe at Rangoon Road.

This cafe serves really GOOD coffee. I must say that I have not had such a good cup of cappuccino for a very long time. Food was very decent for a cafe too, and not too pricey.

So for good, solid coffee, Jewel Cafe will definitely satisfy the inner coffee connoisseur in you.

As for Beanie, she was busy acting cute in front of the camera. My friend, M was totally smitten by Beanie that she was kind enough to babysit Beanie while I was sipping my coffee. Ahhh... bliss for 5 mins.

Beanie is at a very "enjoyable" age now, I can usually just let her loose in a cafe and she will then go around socialize with fellow patrons and leave me alone to drink my coffee or eat my breakfast. However, not everyone is into kids, so if i detect a frown somewhere or at times, Beanie can simply be overbearing, then I will cull Beanie over and strap her to a baby chair.

Thankfully, most of the times, Beanie can get away by acting cute and I can get away by pretending that Beanie is not my child and I'll go hide in one corner to drink my coffee in peace. ;)

A piece of sad news

Just gotta know about a piece of sad news. Someone I know, had passed away.

He committed suicide, leaving his beautiful wife and 3 young children.

Not that we are close friends, in fact, we had only met once when I went to France about 3 years ago. He and his pretty wife hosted us, we hanged out, we visited vineyards; we had dinners and lunches. They were great hosts and I had loads of fun.

The lovely couple brought their eldest son along on one of the outings, I remembered he was about 7 years old. Very cute and because the couple was half french and half Japanese, the little boy was so handsome!

Why would a man choose to end his life? Was he depressed? Was there absolutely no hope for him to hang on to? Was there no love or support from his family?

What could have happen within 3 years to drive a man to take his own life? He was at the prime of his life, only in his 30s. He was good-looking, he had a pretty wife, 3 beautiful kids, a thriving business. What had gone wrong?

Sigh.

This piece of news left me in a pensive mood for the whole day.

Death on its own, is not scary. It is the void and emptiness that the living has to endure, is scary.

I pray for peace and closure for his family. I sincerely hope for the best for the little ones.

A day at East Coast Park

And we brought Beanie to East Coast park for a short bicycle ride and some sand play on last Sunday. She actually cried for a full 5 minutes when I forced her to sit on the bicycle. She was pulling my shirt and screaming her head off when I placed her in the child back-seat of the bike.

It was as if I was bringing her to the slaughter house.

Anyway, I simply ignored her and started paddling and soon enough, she settled down and eventually enjoyed the joy ride. We paddled for about an hour and Beanie did enjoy herself as a back-seat passenger despite of her teary protests earlier on.

After that, we had some sand play with her playmate, Kylie. Both Beanie and Kylie are born on the very same day and on the very same year. Yeah... what are the chances right?

At Beanie's age, she still doesn't know how to interact-play with Kylie. So both of them just spent time digging furiously at the sand side-by-side and occasionally, snatched toys and shovels. That was their idea of "interactive play" --> by snatching each other's toys.

After that, we went to this really children-friendly restaurant, Brussels Sprouts at Playground@Big Splash. The restuarant has cute little outdoor slides and rocking horses for the children to play. It even invited a Balloon Sculptor to craft balloons for the little ones for free!

I was so impressed! And as you can see from the picture above, Beanie was totally smitten by the Balloon Sculptor too!

All in all, it was a really enjoyable family outing. ;)

And now, I have to think about what to do and where to go tomorrow, on Easter holiday!

Beanie meets Singa

Remember Singa? The Courtesy Lion? He was such an icon during my era. He was EVERYWHERE when I was a kid in primary school. I remembered that there was a little song about Singa, the lion where the lyrics went something like "it is so nicccccce to be courteous... .... lah lah lah" In fact, it was deem as "cool" to be nice and courteous so that we could all be like Singa!

And then for some reason, Singa disappeared.

Where did Singa go?

Apparently he has been residing at the building of Ministry of Communications and Information (you know, the one with many colorful windows opposite clarke quay.) In fact, Singa has been very busy because Beanie and I found out that Singa is now a proud father of 5 little singas! Very productive, if only every Singaporean follows Singa's footsteps and we will not have a problem with our ever-declining TFR and the hotly debated 6.9 million figure in our recent white paper.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time that Singa steps out of his super-early retirement and gets back to work. Singaporeans have been rather angsty lately due to the over-crowding in our MRTs and buses, that's assuming that the MRTs and buses are running punctually and without any glitches. All these jostling and pushing are not helping anyone. We can really do with some courtesy and niceness...

WE NEED YOU, SINGA! *wail*

Ok, enough of the drama.

Back to our little excursion with Beanie and the little Singas. So, we chanced upon Singa and his brood and as you can see, Beanie was really excited. She checked out all the little Singas and made friends with them. The little Singas seemed excited too because we were the ONLY people in "Singa, the Courtesy Lion" exhibit.

I was very excited too. It was like I bumped into a childhood friend and had so much to catch up! You know, chatting about our kids and how Singapore was like in the 1980s (so different from today!) and why is Singa a stay-at-home-dad now? Why isn't Singa making his rounds in primary schools like he used to?

Singa lamented that courtesy is not in vogue anymore. Schools are too concerned with PSLE and rankings to bother about courtesy and niceness. But I told him a piece of good news that primary schools are re-introducing "Good Citizens", so there is a fighting chance that Singa will have his job back!

Haha... it was really nice to catch up with Singa. I really do hope more people will check out his exhibit!

A picnic at Botanical Gardens

This post is a bit dated since we actually had the picnic before the Chinese New Year but I only have the time to blog about it now.

Before I have Beanie, I had fantasized about having a picnic at the Botanical Gardens where my beautiful kid(s) will run around freely and I would chill and relax with a glass of champagne while enjoying the live music from the performing orchestra.

Ahhhh... what bliss.

Well, my fantasy did come true! Hrm... minus the champagne part though.

Beanie, being the active little girl, was RUNNING ALL OVER THE FIELD. Although by nature, I am a really chill mom and I don't mind my kid running around freely, but Beanie was trampling other people's picnic mats and raiding other people's picnic baskets!

When Beanie was let loose for 15 minutes, she brought back 2 bananas, packets of biscuits, 1 ball and almost a dog! Luckily the leash of the dog wasn't long enough. So I had to follow Beanie around to ensure that she wasn't grabbing another kid's toy, snatching food or stealing someone's pet dog.

And little Beanie was rather fearless, she did not care whether I was following her or not; she simply ran after whatever item that caught her eye. Be it a dog, leaves, other kids or bubbles. After a while, I gave up and let her be. Every 5 minutes or so, I would just look around to ensure that the little bit of pink with white pokka dots was within my sight radar.

It was a beautiful day for a picnic. The weather was sunny yet breezy and the performance was fantastic. Can't wait for another picnic again!

Beanie, our little Helper

Beanie is now my little Helper... well, most of the time.

When she accidentally spills any water or milk, she will demand for a cleaning cloth and will clean up the mess. And most of the time, she actually does quite a good job in cleaning up.

She also enjoys dry-mopping the floor and she is rather meticulous, I must say. She also rearranges our shoes in the morning to ensure that our shoes are neatly arranged along the corridor.

At 18 months, I must say she is currently at HER CUTEST! Arggh, it is soooo cute to see her mopping around the house!

Beanie's 2nd Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year ! 

Beanie at 5 months old in the last CNY

When I looked at Beanie's photos taken during the last Chinese New Year, I got a shock. I couldn't believe that she was so small and tiny then!

Thankfully Beanie has more hair now. But her eyes seem to have shrunk. Not as big as when she was a baby.

Beanie has had lots of fun this CNY, she is so much more interactive now, able to run around and play with other children. Her favourite CNY snack is Mini Papadam. Every morning, she will point to the Snack Corner and shout "more! more! more!" That is her indication of wanting to eat the mini papadam.

I will usually humor her by giving her 2 pieces and as usual, she will shout "more! more! more!" and I will have to say "No more biscuits" and hide the container.

Then she will then usually proceed to throw a tantrum and have a melt down, which by now, I am totally immune and will just ignore her.

This little skit happens EVERY MORNING.

Im deciding how to end this vicious cycle by:

1. Finish the papadam with Beanie once and for all. We will stuff our faces silly with mini papadam and share a special mother-&-daughter bonding session. I will worry about the sore throats later.

2. Finish the papadam myself since it is MY favorite snack too! And pray that Beanie will soon forget about the papadam.

3. Eat as much of the papadam myself and leave a few pieces for Beanie. Let Beanie have the illusion that she has finished the papadam.

The rational mother in me indicates that Option 3 is the best but I am so keen to do Option 1 instead!

Potty Training Part 1

So I have officially started potty training on Beanie about 2 weeks ago, when she was about 17 months. Actually I have tried to start potty training even earlier, at about 1 year old. I wanted her to sit on the potty, just so that she would be comfortable with the idea of sitting on a potty.

At 1 year old, I thought she she was too young to understand the concept of pooping and peeing into a potty, so my training was ad-hoc and haphazard. I wasn't consistent and after while, for some reason, Beanie started to resist the potty. She refused to sit on the potty and would scream bloody murder whenever I took out the potty.

Ok, fine. Since I thought she was too young to understand, I let her be and we took a break from potty training.

Then I read a few parenting books and most (if not all, except for the book featured in the picture above) indicated that toddlers "have to be ready mentally and biologically" before they can start potty training. The books advise that toddlers at age 18-24 months will be mentally and biologically developed enough to grasp the concept of potty training and if you were to start younger, you are only wasting your time and causing undue stress to the babies or toddlers.

I totally DISAGREE with that.

I noticed that Beanie has understood the concept of peeing and pooping into the potty when she was at about 12-14 months, but because she is so used to pooping in her diapers while in a standing position, she rejects the potty by choice.

So, if a baby has started potty training early and has gotten used to the idea of peeing and pooping into the potty from a really young age, the baby should be diaper-free (during the day time) by 20 months or so.

Instead, now I have to break Beanie's habit of pooping in her diaper although she is clearly aware of the existence of the potty but chooses NOT to use it.

I personally find the book: Diaper-Free Before 3 by Dr Jill M.Lekovic to be very useful and I'm using her tips to potty train Beanie now.

As of now, Beanie is willing to sit in her potty willingly although I do need to use my Iphone to entice her. It is the only time where she gets to play with my phone, so she associates sitting on a potty to "happy time with the iPhone". She has also peed in the potty a few times but still refusing to poop in the potty.

Meanwhile, Beanie is also back to wearing cloth diapers and training pants at home, so that she gets to feel the wetness of her pants whenever she wets herself and hopefully, that will prompt her to signal her desire to pee before she actually wets herself.

And to my visitors for the coming Chinese New Year, I will strongly advise you NOT to sit on my carpet since Beanie has peed there a few times already! ;)

A stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom

Little Beanie was running all over the cafe. Thankfully the cafe was empty and she wasn't a nuisance to anyone.

I met up with some of of blog friends for tea recently at this really nice cafe, which was in this really swanky hotel.

"Wahhhhhh... so tai-tai!" Some of my friends claimed. They are envious that I can "play with my daughter the whole day", "drink tea at 3 pm in the afternoon with fellow Tai-Tai friends", and for those without children, they think that I am chilling at home with a glass of Lychee Martini while surfing the net all day.

Among all my friends, I am the only one who quit a full-time job to be a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-Mom.

To my friends who are full-time working moms, they think that I am lucky because I get to spend quality time with my daughter and now that I have a helper, I do not have to do housework anymore, and thus I am now a "tai-tai".

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tai-Tai... I am certainty NOT!

First and foremost, I am self-employed. Yes, I work from home most of the time but I do work. I do go for trainings, meet up with clients, clear admin work, think of ways to get more clients and prospects and I work when Beanie is asleep.

I face with the pressure of not meeting my sales target, not bringing a meaningful second income to my household, not contributing to my CPF and according to my mother, I am wasting my degree and CFA away by being a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom.

And because I am half a stay-at-home-mom, I also face the guilt of not doing enough of home-schooling for Beanie. I try to read to her as much as I can, I try to do art-and-craft work when I have the time, I take out my violin and play some simple songs to create my own "music lessons", I bring her out for a swim or a little romp at the playground whenever the weather permits.

But all these are ad-hoc and too free-style. Compared to some of the moms who blog about their organized learning activities with the flash cards and sensory toys, I seem to be doing Beanie a huge injustice.

And then there will be days when I would worry about the family's finances. What if my husband loses his job? How can we start to plan for our retirement with only 1 income? Can I afford to send Beanie to a good pre-school? (the answer is "no")

Sigh! The perils of being a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom!

And I cried buckets at Les Miserables

Can any girl watch Les Miserables without shedding a tear?

She must be one very tough lady.

When I watched Les Mis recently at the movies, I was pretty sure that all females left the theatre with wet tissues in their hands. As for me, I was a total disgrace, I basically started bawling my eyes out at the moment Fantine sang I Dreamed A Dream until to the end of the movie.

And the movie was my third time watching Les Mis.

Les Miserables was my very first musical in my life. I remembered I was in secondary 3 when I watched the Australian cast at Kallang Theater. It was a school trip and I caught it with my classmates on a matinee. All of us were so excited and even though our seats were so very far away from the stage, we were totally spellbound by the moving storyline, the wonderful score and the fantastic stage setup . Les Mis had set the bar high. To date, it has remained to be my all time favorite musical at all time.

I remembered that I did not fully understand the storyline and at times, I was confused with the various characters. Well... some of them did look the same when I was like 5 km away from the stage. And it didn't help that there wasn't any subtitles, so half the time, I didn't understand what the performers were singing about.

Nonetheless, I still cried buckets when everyone died in the end. Well... almost everyone except for lucky Corsette and Marius.

At 15 years old, I told myself that I MUST watch Les Miserables again and I would pay for the best seats that I could afford.

And I did.

I watched Les Mis again in 2001 when I visited Hub in London. And this time round, I paid a grand total of 50 pounds (which was a lot of money as I was still a poor student and the exchange rate was S$3 to a Pound) for a matinee show. But I had a really good seat, I was seated on the 5th row from the stage and I could see the expressions of the actors/actresses, I could feel the live music in my ears and felt as if I was acting in the musical!

And for the second time, I cried buckets while watching the show. The funniest thing was that I watched the musical alone and there was this another young lady (most likely a tourist) who also came alone. So the both of us were sharing tissues, snorting loudly and basically bawling our eyes out. It was as if we knew Fantine or Eponie personally or something. When the curtain finally closed and after all the encores, my "crying partner" turned to me and gave me a little hug. "What a musical!" she said. And all I could do was to nod my head.

And so, at the recent movie, my third time watching Les Mis, I was still very moved by the sad story and songs. The singings could be better but most of the casts were Hollywood actors and actresses, and for that, it was very good effort already.

Ahh... if I had the chance, I would definitely catch Les Miserables Live once again!

Wedding in the family

One of my younger brothers, KB got married recently. Geez... it sure felt weird to see my little brother getting married.

I could still remember how we used to fight over EVERYTHING. And I was the mean older sister who always bullied my 2 younger brothers then. KB is the second kid, and before my youngest brother came along, KB and I were the best of playmates. Despite the fact that I bullied him all the time, he would still tug along his smelly bolster and followed me wherever I went.

I went to the playground, he followed. I went to the coffee shop to buy breakfast, he followed. I went to the neighbour's house to play, he followed. He was the pesty little brother whom I couldn't get rid of!

He even wanted to follow me to kindergarten. I remembered how he would cry whenever I got on the school bus and he was too young to follow me to school.

And now, my little annoying brother will be entering a new chapter in his life. *cue: a little boy carrying his smelly bolster flashed before me*

Nonetheless, I sincerely wish for eternal bliss and happiness to the newly wedded couple and hopefully they will provide a playmate for Beanie soon. ;)

Beanie, being the only niece was supposed to serve tea to the new couple. But she was too young to hold the fragile teacup, so a packet of Peach Tea was served instead. Haha...

Congratulations to KB and PS once again!

What a X'mas dinner!



Little Beanie also joined us in the X'mas feasting!



Home-cured salmon with poached quail eggs and caviar 



Choco lava cake, absolutely YUMMZ!



Cheers to Chef Han for the very delicious X'mas dinner!



Wines for the night. These people sure can drink!

 For the past few years, Hub and I have been organizing charity Christmas dinners where we would provide the food and wine, and the guests would donate accordingly. We would then choose a charity organization to donate the pooled money that we had raised during the charity dinner.

This year, we will be donating to Lions Home for the Elders.

And I must say that this year, we had the best X'mas dinner ever!

First, we had the best fortune to have Chef Han, a promising up and coming chef, who is looking to open a restaurant next year, to prepare and cook for us. For the very first time, I wasn't slaving away in the kitchen and could actually sit down and enjoy the food and wine. ;)

Secondly, the food prepared by Chef Han was like a hundred times better than mine. It was RESTAURANT standard with restaurant presentation. We had 5 courses and everything was exquisite yet home-made by Chef Han. Even the cured salmon! It was the best "private kitchen" dinning experience ever.

Beanie had a lot of fun too, mingling with everyone and raising her water bottle to "cheers" with the guests. Very very cute!

All in all, it was a wonderful X'mas dinner. We can't wait to throw another one next year. However, by then Chef Han will most probably have opened his own restaurant, so I doubt he can be our guest chef anymore...

Nonetheless, it was a wonderful evening to have my hubba, Beanie and good friends with me on Christmas's eve. What a X'mas dinner, a perfect close to 2012!