Happy Mother's Day!

We took a spontaneous trip to Strasbourg, France last Saturday.

I was complaining to the hub that I was so bored out of my mind! Stuttgart is a small city and the foodie in me was so "sian" (bored) of the restaurant options here. The rainy and unpredictable weather has had us stuck at home way too often and I simply needed a change in scenery.

Seeing that it was my hub's birthday on the 9th of May and Mother's Day the next day, we decided to just whinge it and lug 3 kids with us for a daytrip to France!

And oh boy! Were we SO happy we did it! Our maiden road trip as a family of 5! It turned out much better than we had feared. 3 out of 5 of us slept on the way there, so the journey felt much shorter!

We managed to make it for our usual salmon sashimi and grilled yakitori lunch, walk around the old city centre, indulge in the ever-famous Gelato ice-cream aaaaannnd.....

I did some retail therapy at NAF NAF!

Honestly guys, my eyes almost popped out of its sockets when I entered that store! I felt like Alice in Wonderland! All those spring colours! All those floral dresses! All that French fashion! Gosh!

Even Gabriel asked me, "Wow Mummy, are you a Princess?"

I felt bad making my 4 guys wait for me while I tried on dress after dress and outfit after outfit! But, I so needed it!

I think it's an occupational hazard when you have 3 boys. You end up shopping only for boys' clothes. And as a woman, its hard for your eyes to only shop for guys' clothes. I felt starved of beautiful fashion, you know what I mean? I won't consider myself fashion-conscious but I didn't realize how much I missed women fashion until I started shopping for myself again!

There is just sooo much more variety! And ohhhh the colours! And all those floral prints that you'd never see on boys' clothes.

Funnily-enough, as if to make me feel better, the heavens opened and it poured like crazy while we were at Naf Naf. I kid you not. It rained cats and dogs! So we were stuck at the store anyway!

I could actually shop in peace without feeling too guilty! The baby was pretty cooperative too. The poor hub had to carry the baby for the most part of the hour during which I was in that store shopping.

I was actually the last one to leave the store when it closed at 7pm! We rushed to the huge shopping mall where we grabbed the famous chocolate waffle from the Waffle Factory, I stocked up on French madeleines and fresh shrimps! Don't ask me why, but even French shrimps taste better. haha.

The two older kids fell asleep ín the car after only having the chocolate waffle for dinner. I was feeding the baby some home-cooked spaghetti bolognaise in the car when I told the hub, "Wow, I think we had a pretty successful day."

Immediately after that, the baby puked all over himself! He was coughing and somehow couldn't get rid of his blocked throat and we had spaghetti spewed all over the carseat. Yikes! We had to pull over, change him, clean him up before continuing on our journey.

Still, it was such a nice breath of fresh air to do something out of the ordinary. I feel that whenever you have a new addition to the family, it always feel like its hard to get out of the house or even go on longer trips.

But spontaneity and doing something just because its FUN, is sooo necessary for a healthy family / couple life! It injects fire into your daily life! And it gives you the confidence that yes, even with yet another baby, you can continue to live life the way you want to live. The kids love it. The baby loved it. And we loved it most of all!

Was it tiring? You bet it was
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!

Happy Mother's Day all you lovely ladies!

Yummy Japanese food!

Meeting Charlie Chaplin! Sam was quite scared!

 The lovely sights in Strasbourg

Patiently waiting for their Gelato!

Look! My floral Gelato! Trust the Italians to even know how to decorate an ice-cream cone!

Couldn't wait to tuck into our chocolate waffles! This was SO good!

Christmas 2013

We celebrated our first Christmas as a family of 4!

Oh wow. Time does fly! We got 2 little boys now! Our Christmases simply get bigger with kiddos!

As per our usual Christmas tradition, we had the newly-weds Belinda and Kian over from London. It was good seeing old friends again! Every time we see each other, we are reminded at how another year has passed!

What can I say. We went to Strasbourg, France with them to check out the amazing Christmas market! There was a distinct difference between the Christmas market in France and those in Germany. The decorations are out of the world, with hanging teddy bears from houses! Their shops are also different.

And this time, instead of going crazy with Christmas shopping, we each had a budget of 20€ to spend on each person. I found this more meaningful because that meant that we could buy presents which we thought were appropriate for the other person. In the past, we would sorta be exchanging gift vouchers, which while practical, seemed to me more like exchanging money at the end of the day.

Sammy has more than enough toys (which he doesn't even play with independently!). Hence, I decided to order English board books from Amazon.uk and got them dispatched to Belinda's address in London. She then brought them over to Germany for me, so I could save on shipping costs. Reason behind this was that Amazon.de does not have as wide a range of selection of English children books as Amazon.uk. does.

We celebrated Christmas eve at our place for the first time, so that the kids could go to bed. Gabriel went to bed pretty early, before dinner started at 8pm. That meant that I had both hands free to enjoy our raclette! Sammy on the other hand, partied with the adults until late at night. He had fun though, unwrapping his presents, although I don't think he has quite grasped the idea of getting presents on Christmas yet.

We did make it a point to read him the Christmas story on the days leading up to Christmas and Sammy watched the nativity play at church too.

Since we were hosting the dinner, we went crazy with seafood! On top of the usual cheese and cold cuts, we had scallops, giant shrimps, mushrooms, beef and pork to grill on the hot stone / iron grill. The Singaporeans were over the moon with the yummy BBQed food!!!

It was a very fun-packed and busy Christmas but we loved it! The kids got lots of time to spend with their Singaporean aunt and uncle, so much so that a couple of days after they left, Sammy woke up one day and said "Linda", "Kian" out of the blue! 

Thanks for visiting us and all the lovely presents you got us! Belinda, it's been so amazing being able to walk through our "overseas" years together. Thoroughly enjoyed catching up, reflecting on God's goodness in our lives and praying together before you left. We're very happy for both of you, B&K and know that God will continue to guide your paths as you walk with Him.

Strasbourg, France - That's what I meant with the hanging bears from a building

 The majestic cathedral set aflame in the setting sun

HUGE balls!

That incredibly huge Christmas tree right in the middle of the city centre

Best.ever.waffles that I've ever tasted. They make them fresh from a dough for you. In the basement of Rivieria mall

 Gabe got a personalized teddy bear from Bel

Look at all that seafood! Yummy!

 

 

Love love love their matching GAP pullovers! Thanks Bel!

Presents galore! We opted not to get a tree this year so the presents were relegated to the couch instead!

 Gabriel's first Christmas!

Our Christmas was pretty warm actually! Hence the shades!

Bel made this collage and I absolutely love it!

This too!

Out of the rut

My younger one is almost 3 months old and my older one is 2 years old.

My life consists of endless days of changing diapers, cooking meals, feeding / persuading my older one to eat his food (he's going through a phase when he rejects greens / anything he doesn't like), cleaning my home (my cleaning lady has done a disappearing act), tidying up, washing, hanging, folding and ironing laundry loads..... the list never stops, does it?

I wish I could say that being a SAHM is all about cuddly moments of smiley, cute babies who can't wait to get their pictures taken so that Mummy can post them on Facebook. BUT, reality is a whole lot of different.

I realize too that social media could create a very warped image of parenthood, in that one only sees happy, gurgling babies and never really the frazzled, wanna-pull-out-my-hair-so-help-me-God-to-keep-my-sanity moments.

Gabriel does have a lot of stamina when he cries. He doesn't usually cry for no reason but when he does, I sometimes have to let him cry it out because nothing I do can calm him down, save for carrying him. I'm not a fan of baby carriers cos I tend to get backache from that, so Gabriel doesn't have the luxury of being carried by Mummy 24/7. Sammy is usually pretty independent, but there are also moments when he cries when Gabriel cries. And you're like, "What's happening?!?!"

And of course there are the moments when you can't wait to get out of the house because of that planned playdate and the older one decides that he wants to drink something and proceeds to pour the water on the floor on purpose! Oh and I haven't mentioned how many times one or both decides to poo right at the moment when you're about to march out that front door. I can't remember how many times I've had to unstrap Gabriel from his carseat because he pooes a minute after he's been strapped in.

Haven't had the time nor energy to blog about any meaningful posts, but I figured that I want to write about my life at this very point. That perhaps in a month / year's time, when I take a look back at my blog, I'd think, "Oh man, how did I get through that period? It must have been the hand of God".

Everybody tells me that the first year of having 2 kids close in age is the hardest. But after that, it becomes somewhat easier. I know that every phase of a kid's life brings about it own challenges but I really think that the first year is probably the one filled with the most challenges.

I just have to take a look at Sammy's life. After he turned one, it became a breeze to take him out. Dressing him took a fraction of the time it used to take when he was an infant. He eats what we eat. And he no longer has to feed every 3-4 hours. Even his clothes can be worn for a longer time. He walks, so I no longer have to lug that crazily-heavy carseat around with me.

We went to Strasbourg, France last weekend as a result of me wanting to do something out of home and out of Stuttgart. I just needed a different environment and have a bit of a holiday feel, since the only holiday we've had this year was our whirlwind 2.5 week holiday to Singapore.

In fact, I was so desperate for a mini break that I even planned our Strasbourg trip into my calendar at least one month in advance!

I remember waking up at 8.30am on Saturday with such a spring in my step. I happily took both kids out of the room while hubby slept a little longer. Changed and dressed both of them, gave the older one breakfast, packed up the bag including snacks for the 2-hour car journey, all this while thinking "I can't believe we're actually going on a mini holiday!"

Little Gabe all set and ready to go

The car journey turned out better than I had expected. Both kids slept most of the journey and I spend the majority of the time just Facebooking on my iPhone, arranging playdates for the next 2 weeks and just having uninterrupted "me-time".

I couldn't even believe that 2 hours had passed when we crossed the borders to France! 

We managed to indulge in sushi at our usual Japanese restaurant, buy our madeleines, restock on some Sephora facial moisturizing cream and got some too cute clothes for the kids at GAP.

It was such a breath of fresh air for me. I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about with my family of 4. There were stressful moments when Sammy suddenly decides he wants to play catch-me-if-you-can in a store or when Gabriel wants to come out of the stroller so one only has one hand to keep Sammy out of mischief.


But on the whole, I'm glad that we more than survived our first road trip with 2 little kiddos. Here's to many more to come! :) :) :)

We indulged in sushi at our favourite sushi restaurant

Yummy ice-cream at our fave ice-cream parlor

Sam's a whole bunch of fun when he doesn't have his "toddler moments"

Our little sunshine

Sam insisted on wearing the shades!

Where we went for sushi (Highly-recommended): Sushi-do
Where we went for ice-cream (Highly-recommended): Amorino
Places to shop: Naf Naf, GAP, Sefora

Strasbourg & photo galore

It's no secret that Strasbourg is one of our favourite hangouts. We've been to Strasbourg so often that whenever I suggest Strasbourg for a day trip, I can almost hear hubby's audible sigh of exasperation.

Don't get me wrong. Hubby likes Strasbourg too. It's just that he feels that we go there often enough such that we no longer visit other nearby German cities like Ulm anymore.

My justification would then go in the lines of, "But Ulm is part of Germany. And the whole point of going to Strasbourg means that one gets to shop in French stores like Naf Naf that are not found in Germany."

And with this the "discussion" is won.

I like the fact that France is only a 1.5hr-drive away and I can have a mini holiday without the hassle of booking accomodation / flight for one.

Truth be told, we usually go to Strasbourg to satisfy our Japanese food craving. Jap food in Stuttgart simply just does not make the cut. Sushi is either ridiculously expensive or / and mediocre. Food in Strasbourg, on the other hand, is a couple of notches higher. Alsatian food tastes incredible and Japanese food there is awesome.

I have to admit though. This time round we both came down with food poisoning! Ok, I don't want to be so quick to point fingers, but I'm quite sure that I got sick from the sushi at our regular Japanese restaurant. However, we've been there umpteen times and this is the first time that I got sick from eating raw fish, so I'm putting the blame on the extremely hot weather. I'm guessing that the fish might have gone bad cos it wasn't stored properly.

Besides eating, we usually stock up on French madeleines - extremely yummy, walk along the river and do some window shopping.  It doesn't matter that I don't speak a word of French. One can easily get by with English and / or German, since Strasbourg is located in Alsace, which essentially makes it part German.

We took so many photos there, so this will be pretty much a photo blog entry. :)

This is one of about 20 family shots that we took!

Hey Ma! I can stand on my own!

The flexible prince sucking his toes with the toy ring around his leg

It was so hot we removed his shirt under the rompers

Trying to distract ourselves from the heat by goofing around while snapping photos.

Incredible blue skies

Hubby melting in the heat

Patisserie - delicieux!

 Found Helixir at this huge shopping mall where one large fruit smoothie cost 5.20€. But oh boy, did it taste heavenly! They make every smoothie from scratch and only from fresh fruits. I would say, totally worth the money!

The famous Cathedral on the left

You gotta love the French for their English. I usually stock up on their superb madeleines when I'm there

I love my man

In German, the word for "husband" is the same as "man". So when one introduces one's hubby, one literally says, "This is my man".

The same goes for the word "wife". One says, "This is my woman".

How sweet is that right?

So, I love my man ie, hubby.

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary at Strasbourg, France in February this year. It was quite surreal to have a little one who tagged along with us while we indulged in Japanese food at our favourite restaurant.

When I think back of the past 6 years together, I'm amazed at how much we have gone through together.

For those who don't know the story, we met on student exchange in Canada, while I was studying in Singapore and he in Germany. I still remember my late mother telling me not to go to Canada and come home with an "Ang Mo" boyfriend.

"Ang Mo" is a term that's frequently used in Singapore to describe a westerner. It literally means "red-haired one". So yeah, against my mother's wishes (who later on came to realize that not all "Ang Mos" are bad) I did come back with an "Ang Mo" guy, except that he didn't go back to Singapore with me but we had a long-distance relationship for 3 years before deciding to tie the knot in 2006.

Before meeting him I never thought that I would ever live in a foreign-speaking country. But God knows better than me and even though I avoided choosing Europe as destination for my student exchange program, here I am, having lived in Germany for almost 6 years already!

I must say that even though I still don't speak the language like a native, I feel pretty much at home here. I have my close friends, my church, my daily activities and now I even have a half-German baby. Ok, theoretically he's 100% German cos I haven't applied for Singapore citizenship for him yet.

But this post isn't about Sammy, but about my hubby.

You know how they say "sweeter as the years go by"? It really is! When I think about how little I knew my hubby 6 years ago, I think "Oh wow, I know this treasure so much more now!"

I'm so proud of him. He's a real responsible young man who puts the needs of his wife and child before his.

Whenever Sammy poos, he will rush to change his diaper...... NOT!

Hah, but Stephan is a very hands-on dad. He doesn't shy away from dirty diapers although there are better things he'd rather do. And I have no problem with leaving Sammy alone with him. He's more than capable of calming Sammy down even when he has one of his crying fits.

One thing that impressed me about my hubby is also how he loves what he does - job-wise. He always had a dream to be self-employed in the tax consultancy business and we are slowing realizing that dream. It's gonna be an untrodded path, but we know that God is with us and He has opened doors which we had never dreamed of a few years ago.

And oh boy, I'm sooo happy that after all these years we can still laugh together. Our time together is less now that Sammy boy is born, but its been so enriching. Seeing how Stephan embraced his role as father and now sole-provider to the family really makes me love him even more!

He's totally supportive of me being a stay-home mom and I'm really thankful for this opportunity to do so. There may be others who could look after my son, but I am his mother and he only has one mom, so he will have to make do....haha! 

Jokes aside, I wouldn't exchange this task of looking after Sammy for anything in the world. It's like looking after yourself! Sammy is my flesh and blood and its such a joy to watch him grow.

Yup, here's cheers to my hubby-bubby (that's what I call him) and may God continue to bless our lives together.

 The scrumptious spread. We were spolit for choice!

 The two men in my family

 And myself

 The little bugger looking all cheeky in his bag

 Sammy's too young to hold a camera, so for now it'd have to be self-taken shots

 Daddy and son photos

 Sammy having his first hair-cut in Singapore

As I said, a hands-on Daddy