i'm done, let's go home...

We finally made it to Singapore. 2 adults, a 2yr old, a 2month old, 6 checked in luggage, 1 diaper bag, 2 surface, 2 itouch, 1 laptop. Man.... it was tough... Well technically we only had 2 luggage, and the other 4 are toys for the nephews...

Let's talk about Jonathan, the 2 month old.
He did pretty well and slept a lot. Only issue was he had so much spit outs and explosions that we ran out of his clothes in the diaper bag. I was carrying a poopy baby while derrick tries to collect all the luggage from the conveyor. And had to stop all eager folks from hugging or carrying him, since the pooopy boy had poop leaking out staining his clothes.

Emily, Emily, Emily... where should I even start? 
At seattle airport security check, she was winning folks' smiles with her duper cute elmo sunglasses. But she burst into loud wails of "MY GLASSES!!!!", when we grabbed her sunglasses to put onto the conveyor for the security check.

Later, she had fun at the airport playground, but turned into a wailing mess when we gate checked her stroller.

After the plane took off, she went on her crazy mode. By then, it's 1am, way past her 10pm night time. She proclaimed loudly "I'm done, let's go home" The 2 of us can't helped but laughed at her. I definitely sensed folks sitting around us also smiled at her statement. It's cute and darn honest statement a 2 yr old can give you, makes you want to hug them hard and make everything right for them.

Finally, let's just say her fleece pink pajamas is a shade grey by the time we arrived in Singapore and that she pretty much did lots some rolling amidst her crying at various places in that 24hr.

The 2 superhumans also known as parents
We been up since 7am to do all the packing and by 1am when we board the flight, we were exhausted already. And to think we had to last another 24hrs. It' definitely been a challenge trying to pack while taking care of 2 kiddos.

Will we do it again?
Most definitely! This is home to us. We been away for 2 years and I haven't seen my family for that 2years. It' really hard.

Derrick definitely teared up  when he was eating chicken rice for lunch. Grandparents playing with the kids, kids were happy, the 2 tired parents get to eat chicken rice that's cheap and bought. Yeah, back in Seattle, having chicken rice is a lot of work, since we had to prep, cook and wash.

ah................................

Right now...

Sorry i been away for so long, and let me explain myself.

Personal time?
You got to be kidding right? Being a parent is a 24hour lifetime chore. My husband was just begging for 5mins of time to play online game, and i chewed him off. Cloth diapers? He doesn't like wet/ dirty diapers, and we find ourselves having to wash the pile of cloth diapers every 2 days. Emily on the other hand, didn't care about wet/ dirty diaper and could sleep with it. And we used to be able to last 3-4 days on the same pile of cloth diapers for Emily. Anyway, we are switching to disposable for him next week onwards since we are going Singapore for a long trip, and he's starting daycare once we are back.

Laundry?
We are now almost doing a load of laundry daily, since baby Jonathan (aka babyton) contributes the most. We have to do his cloth diapers every 2 days, and on top of that, he pukes/ pees/ accident a lot. Fold clothes? There's 2 loads of laundry that's been sitting in my room for the past X days waiting to be folded and put away. Someone needs to invent a autofold+putaway machine.

Mess?
Our 2 year active toddler has the work cut out for us. It's a losing battle to pack up after her. The only way to win this battle, is to pack up the toys when she is sleeping or when she's in daycare.

Kitchen?
I'm glad we haven't lost our ground in that area yet. Right now there's no dirty dishes sitting in the sink. Sleep? Sleep is a luxury and i'm soooo looking forward to getting more.

Milk machine?
Babyton is still breastfed every 3-4 hours. I almost cave in to switch his night feedings to formula. Guilt took charge and i strive to breastfeed him the rest of his first year.


So here i am, ranting away to the whole world. Still surviving.. Oh, wish us luck in our long flight back to Singapore with the 2 kids. Will find time to update all.

Jonathan Yijie Soon birth story

Like everyone says, every baby is different, and this is particular true for my second pregnancy. Maybe it's because we have a budding 2 year old on hand to deal with, the initial stages of the pregnancy just flew by. Later at the 28th week of the pregnancy, i found out that i had gestational diabetes, and this meant diet control and insulin use along with regular blood checks at every meal. Boy, it became a much tougher pregnancy to deal with.

Everyone says second birth will come earlier. That ended up being not true. Emily was born early at 37.5 weeks. Time ticked by and still no sight of Jonathan making his grand entrance to the world. And since i have gestational diabetes, the docs weren't going to let me carry him to 40th week, if he doesn't arrive on his own by 39th week, i was to be induced. And till the last min, we were still hanging onto the hope that he will arrive on his own without intervention. We had our friends on standby call in case baby arrives, and my father-in-law was to fly in from Singapore on the last possible date - ie. the date before 39th week. And it all worked out that baby decides to stay in my tummy until the intervention.

I was scheduled to book into the hospital at 4am to be induced, but when we called the hospital, they are packed and since i'm a non-emergency case, i was postponed until a bed opens up. So back to sleep we went and i was still hanging to the hope he choose to arrive on his own.  At 9am, they called to tell us to check ourselves into the hospital at 10am. From 10am onwards, i was on a drip to induce labor. Surfed black friday ads and watched korean drama to kill time in the meanwhile. And at 4pm, since there wasn't much progression, the nurse assured us that Derrick can go pick Emily up from daycare and that we should be good for the next 3 hr.

Guess what? Baby decided that he wanted all the action to happen while daddy is gone. My water bag broke, and the contraction pain hit me hard after that. I decide to cave in and ask for epidural. But i went into active labor and there was no time for epidural. The nurses called Derrick to check how far he is from hospital, and he said 30mins. They didn't tell him that he's not going to make it, and that it's likely that the baby will arrive in 15mins.

When Derrick returned, he was shocked to see i'm already pushing and baby was born less than 30mins later. The entire labor process took around 1hr this time compared to 3 hrs for the first pregnancy. Jonathan Yijie Soon is a healthy 8 pounds baby, yep he's big... The gestation diabetes condition i had, resulted in him being a big baby. I'm glad i stuck to the strict diet and the insulin use, and that he's all healthy.

I made pandan waffles

I tried making pandan waffles previously before and wasn't too successful. And this time round, i followed the recipe on site and it turned out really good.


The green mixture smells soooo good already.


It's definitely as good as the ones you find in the bakeries in Singapore. To think that they charge so much for a pandan waffle


It's so fragrant and yummy. The only issue with this is, i'm on low carb diet control, and just eating 1 block of the waffle spiked my glucose numbers. Guess i definitely need to refrain from sugar, coconut milk and flour..

Microsoft Company Meeting 2012

It's the annual Microsoft company meeting again.


Goodbye Safeco field, this year's event is held at KeyArena instead. We must be one of those few companies that are big enough to hold their company meeting in such big venues.


The Halo car. Too bad we didn't join the line to get our pictures taken.


Isn't it awesome? Yep, the meeting looks like some concert. But it's actually a great way to reflect on the past year and get excited about the upcoming.
 

I love this company!!!

33 weeks and 5 days

BACKIE .....

Where have i disappeared to? 

Yep, forgive me for my disappearance from the web. Been busy with work, the little one and feeling all too preggy. Yep. I'm now 33 weeks and 5 days pregnant if you haven't heard the news yet.

Ezell fried chicken

We had to try fried chicken, since it was voted the "Most life-changing chicken" and is Oprah's favorite. The magazine result at http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/ezells-fried-chicken-winner-071112

So on saturday, since we were in Seattle, we decided to buy some fried chicken to try.


The chicken looks a little overfried and a little too spicy for me.


I guess i still prefer New Orleans Brother Mart Fried chicken followed by Popeye Chicken followed by KFC in Singapore 

Team event at Vasa Resort

I had a team event that was held at Vasa Resort for members and their family, and since we haven't been there before, plus the weather was great, we decided to go and have some fun. There's free food, bouncing castles, jet skis, etc... A little pity we were ill prepared and didn't plan to get ourselves wet, although we did bring spare clothes for Emily.


Did i tell you Emily really loves bubbles? She plays bubbles almost every day in our parking lot.


I couldn't pass up on the balloons, and i think i lined up for almost an hour just to get Emily a balloon.


It was all worth it. She loves the flower balloon.


Well, since we figured we ain't going to get ourselves dirty, we headed to the beach to check it out. Emily sees a spade.


Next thing you know, she's playing with the other kids at the beach.


It's interesting how kids just play along although they don't know each other.


There's me keeping a close eye on Emily and the other kids, in case they venture too far out into the water.


Despite the filth, Emily really enjoyed herself playing on the sand and water. I think we spent the most time on the beach. And Derrick says we should buy her some sand toys and bring her to the water again while the weather is still good.

Backdated: Rice dumpling

You know i'm up to something when the kitchen countertops is full of stuff. I'm going to make rice dumplings.


Well, i helped my mom back in singapore wrap these pyramid shaped rice dumplings since i was a teenager, so i say i'm pretty good at wrapping it. Only issue is, i never had to prep or cook them. All i had to do was, wrap them and my mom handles everything else. Since my mom thinks i do a better wrapping than her. Oh well, there's always a first time for everything..


I'm going to make Nonya rice dumpling simply because my husband likes this. Well, my mom never made Nonya rice dumpling, so this is me following some receipe i found online. This receipe calls for the 50% of the rice to be soak in pandan essence overnight. Which explains the green color. 


Here's the wrapped rice dumplings for boiling.

After 2 hours, the dumplings are done. Let's just say the green colored rice was a little odd, i should have more meat to rice ratio, and also drop the peanuts altogether. Otherwise it tasted ok. Guess i'm going to try it at least a few more times before i give it 100% score.

Yippee! There's a walmart now in Bellevue

Oh yes, for a long time. The walmart nearest to us is a 30min drive, and most of my friends doesn't like that walmart. Well, let's just say that walmart is kinda in the rural area and not exactly the safest place. So we are all delighted when a walmart finally opens in our area. For a long time, residents in this area have been resisting Walmart, because of the cheap labor, etc... I for one, likes it since it's cheaper.

And this walmart is even better. It's 5-10mins drive away. It's new, shiny, clean. Well i guess that's the walmart you get in a more affluent area.

Jamba juice!!!

What better way to chill in the hot summer other than fresh juice from Jamba juice! Also, we found a new favourite - Orange Dream Machine that reminds us of orange yakult drink. Yummzz.. hmm, i wonder if it replaces our favourite - Mango-A-Go-Go...

Where have i been?

Been busy with work, housework and the little one. So forgive me that i been away from this blog for a while. But i do promise to get back to blogging.

Here's a picture of me and Emily. We were at Lake Wenatchee camping last weekend, and our pudding's all grown up. Playing with the rocks by the lake and she was having a lot of fun at this camping trip.

Mama and apple came visiting

Where have we been? Busy? Well, we had Emily's grandmother and grandaunt visiting us from Singapore. And the little girl simply adores the 2 of them. I guess she's really missing out on family love. Just this thought alone, makes us feel like moving back to Singapore, so that she can be with family.

Here's Emily calling mama for grandma and yi po for grandmother, although we all think it sounds like Apple.

New dishwashing liquid

We hand wash our dishes at our house and one of the rules my husband sets on me, is that no cheap dishwashing liquid that doesn't remove pasta stains or oil stains. Well, there was that 1 time, i bought a cheap house brand dishwashing liquid and after several washes, the stains still remain. Hence the rule of dishwashing liquid was set.

Anyway, I received this bottle of Palmolive Fresh Sponge dishwashing liquid as a trial. And i was delighted. It smells good, and really removes stains well. On top of that, it removes any odors from your scrub sponge. woohoo. love it.

It's finally warm enough

You know it's finally warm when we can sit outside and have fun with bubbles with the little one.

My 5th year in USA

Time flies and Free cone day at Ben & Jerry marks my 5th year anniversary in the USA. It's our 6th time participating in this event, and it's the first time it rained.

I kind of make it a point to go for this event every year, not because it's free ice cream. More importantly to me, it's an anniversary to me, of me being in USA. And to think time flew by so fast, and i'm coming onto my 6th year here.


Derrick and Emily enjoying the icecream in the cold rain.


Yup, the rain finally looks like it's going to stop.

This was us in 2007
http://rex-oink.blogspot.com/2007/04/free-cone-day-from-ben-jerry.html

Emily loving Macdonald's hashbrown

It's rare that we have breakfast at Macdonald's and for some reason, Emily decided she doesn't want pancakes or muffin. Luckily she found that she liked hashbrown now, and that she could talk her way to get daddy to feed her instead of feeding herself with the hashbrown.

Mother and daughter

This is a typical weekend. Me trying to catch some time on the laptop while the little one sneak up to you, determined to steal the laptop away from you and have all your full attention.

Isn't it odd to snow in March?

Valentine 2012

first off, back when we were still dating, we 2 decided not to spend $ on outrageous valentine menu. Most restaurants will charge more for valentine day's menu on 2/14.

So what did we do this year?

Derrick took me for lunch at Seastar restaurant. Well, that also means just the 2 of us without the little one



Happy Valentine!