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!

Turning 34 - my epic children-free day off!

The older you get, the simpler and smaller your birthday celebrations become.

I'm a December baby and every year, December is always a stressful month. There's Christmas presents to be bought, photo calendars to be done, Christmas cards to be written and last year one top of everything else, I had to make 3 photobooks by the end of November.

Needless to say, by the time December came around, I was so uninspired to sort out photos that I was toying around with the idea of not doing a photo calendar for 2017.

However, with the encouragement of my in-laws, I decided to persevere with my photo calendar tradition because its such a great way to remember the best moments of 2016.

Bottom line was, I knew that I didn't want to throw a fancy schmancy birthday party for myself because it will be more work and stress than anything else.

I decided to go for something more fun and simpler - A day out to Strasbourg with my hubby and 2 of my closest couple friends!

It was the BEST.THING.EVER!

We had such a perfect day! One full day without children. No stroller. No diaper bag. No looking out for children who disappear among the masses. No feeding someone else before myself. No additional job other than to take care of my own needs.

Heaven!

The only thing was that we had to plan our outing way in advance. We informed our friends and locked in the date a month in advance.

Having 3 kids make the logistics of having a babysitter way harder than with 2 kids. We knew we didn't want to trouble my in-laws for the entire day and evening. So we decided that my in-laws would take care of the kids during the day while my neighbour D. would take over in the evening.

Closer to the date, we hoped and pray none of the children or babysitter would fall sick. Our friend, D. broke her finger one day before my Strasbourg day! She actually had to babysit with her finger in a cast!

Sushi! (What else?)

I was the birthday girl so I decided on the dining venue! We went straight for my favourite sushi restaurant where I could satisfy my grilled yakitori and sushi craving! YUM!

See all our happy faces! No kids = Freedom!

Sushi boat!

Christmas market

After lunch, we headed straight for the Christmas market. Strasbourg has such a gorgeous Christmas market and oh boy! Was it jam-packed! I was so thankful that we didn't have our children with us! The terror alert in France is still on high, so there was armed police all around and they cordoned off the Christmas market. We could could enter and exit by going through police check-points.

I think this is actually a very good precautionary measure seeing what happened in the Christmas market in Berlin. We really do live in precarious times these days!

Absolutely love this shot!

Drinking mulled wine (Glühwine) in the cold

Finally a couple shot again!

After about 2 hours of walking around in sub-zero temperatures, we headed straight for the mall to thaw ourselves. I didn't dress myself warmly enough, so my toes felt they were going to fall off!

There's this superbly yummilicious chocolate waffles in the main shopping mall in Strasbourg, Riverie. This is INCREDIBLE! My friends were getting so hungry that they wanted to go for crepes at the Christmas market but I told them to wait for the chocolate waffles.

And it was SO. worth the wait! I dream about this waffle until today! They really should open an outlet in Stuttgart!

I didn't share my waffle with my hub!

We shopped for about an hour, during which of course we bought a winter jacket for Samuel. What else right? Well, to be fair, that boy needs a warmer winter jacket. His previous one didn't make the cut and I always felt so sorry for that boy.

We didn't have any dinner reservations. Somehow we thought that it would be no problem to find somewhere to dine since we don't have kids right? - Wrong!

All the restaurants were packed to the brim! The French are world-renowed for their culinary skills so you can imagine that the last weekend before Christmas was filled with people wanting to eat out!

Thank God really that after about 30 minutes of looking for a parking space and restaurant, we did find somewhere that had space for all 6 of us.

We ordered sparkling wine and everybody just had a jolly good time! I can't remember the last time I had hours of undisturbed conversation with adults! No, "Mummy, xx did this. XX did that". I could actually talk in peace!

That was epic! From the time we got into the car, to the time we got home, we were all just talking and enjoying each others' company.

I'm so so so grateful for this group of friends that we have. These people are also our childrens' Godparents and they would go out of their way to help us. We can really count on them to go above and beyond the call of duty to be there for us. We're so grateful! They are actually friends we got to know from our cell group! Thank God for kingdom friendships!

My dessert on the left: Chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice-cream (seriously the best!)
Hubby had the good old favourite, Creme Brulee

My routine with 3 boys - 5 years, 3 years, almost 8 months old

Most recent photo of all my boys. It's obvious to see who dislikes having his photo taken

I thought I should write a short post on what my life looks like now. If anything, it'd be a great way for me to document my life so that I can look back in the future and remember what it was like to be taking care of 3 young kids.

Samuel and Gabriel go to kindergarten from Monday to Friday. Hubby usually brings them there around 8.30am, depending on what time the children wake up. He packs their snack boxes for them and they usually stay in Kindi until 1.30pm.

Mondays:

I sometimes go for English playgroups with Liam in the morning. It's from 10-12noon and the group of ladies are the best to hang out with. But I don't go there often because depending on what our weekend was like, I'm either exhausted or there's much clearing up to be done in our house.

Sam's and Gabriel's kindergarten does not have lunch, so after I pick them up, I bring them to this place called the "Family centre". This is my little refuge where we get freshly-cooked healthy food for a meagre price of 3.50€. I usually order two portions and split the 2nd portion between two plates. While the boys are eating, I would feed myself and the baby.

Liam has started having babyfood for lunch. So far, he has tried pumpkins, potatoes, rice, carrots, bananas, melons, bread and bits and pieces of what we eat.

After they finish eating, they would play at the Family Centre for a bit before we head home. Usually when its not raining or snowing, I would get the balancing bike for Gabriel and the scooter for Samuel. We would make our way to their favourite playground where all three boys go on their favourite swing and swing forever. Liam is always laughing the entire time.

Sometimes I meet some other Moms at the playground, sometimes I don't. Gabriel has a fear of dogs (long story), so I got to be careful that no dogs get too close to him. We get home and I prepare dinner.

Because of the fact that I don't have to cook lunch, I have the motivation to cook dinner and I only have to cook once a day.

Tuesdays:

I signed myself up for Zumba course from 9.30am to 10.30am. There is free babysitting service for Liam so I bring him along. We haven't been very consistent because I haven't been able to get out of the house early enough, but we're working on that.

The usual happens at 1.30pm when I pick the kids up and we go for lunch at the Family Centre.

At 2pm, there is usually craft time at the centre, so I help the children with their craft. Samuel is pretty independent so he doesn't need much help. I get to focus on Gabriel, but this can be a bit of a hassle too if Liam is not napping or if he's cranky.

Depending on the weather, we either hang outside with the children on their bicycles or we head home.

At 5.15pm, Samuel and Gabriel have their childrens' gym so I bring them there. It takes about one hour, during which I either go for a walk with Liam in his stroller or I get home and try to put something in the oven / prepare dinner.

I pick the kids up at 6.15pm, walk home and try to get dinner ready / children bathed and the whole she-bang before the hub hopefully comes home around 7-7.30pm.

Wednesdays: 

I do pilates course from 10.45-11.45am. I bring Liam along and he just plays on the playmat while I do my core exercises.

Usually the grandparents come over to either hang out with the boys on Wednesdays or the grandfather picks up the older ones and brings them to their house.

Assuming that the older boys are taken care of, I tend to do stuff for myself in town on this day. I either meet up with a fellow Mum for lunch at a nice restaurant or I just go to town to run errands, hang out.

Winter being winter though, the grandparents have been sick / people have been sick so my me-and-Liam time on Wednesdays has been far and few between.

Last Wednesday I decided to brave the cold and brought all 3 boys to town for lunch while meeting up with a fellow Mom and her baby. I think it was really brave cool of her to agree to meet up with me and my 3 boys in town.

My best shot of 3 boys at the Christmas market

It turned out to be such a great time though! The boys cooperated relatively well (ie. no tantrums that we couldn't deal with) and they were SO amazed at all the Christmas decorations! The Stuttgart Christmas market has started and its so beautiful. I got the 10x ticket card for the steam train and the ferris-wheel so the kids have something to look forward to.

When my friend went home, I brought the kids to a shoe store to look for some shoes for Samuel. There's a TV with kids' cartoon there, so I could look for shoes relaxedly. The boys even followed me to an Asian grocery store to get some stuff and they were so well-behaved that we could even hang out in town for some sushi for dinner.

Hub took the opportunity to work later and came home around 8pm since we were out and about. I think it was such a successful time in town that we'll probably do it again sometime next week.

Thursdays: 

Thursday mornings are my only free mornings. I take the opportunity to sleep in for as long as Liam allows me to. The good thing about Liam still boobing through the night?

He doesn't wake up early! YAY! Hahah. If I keep offering him the boob in the morning, that boy would cat-nap until noon. Ok, I'm exaggerating there. But he's definitely not an early riser.

Thursday afternoons we have English playgroup from 3-5pm. The kids enjoy this routine since I've been bringing them to this playgroup since Sam was one. We have a singing session - which is the only time they get to sing English songs in a group. The other songs they learn in kindergarten are obviously only German. We have some craft, snack and story time. Great afternoon every Thursday.

I drive the kids home by 5.30pm and go for my cell group from 6.30-8.30/9pm.

Hubby takes the kids so that I can have some me time with the ladies, worshipping the Lord and reading our Bibles. Can you tell Thursday is one of my favourite days of the week?

Fridays:

My cleaning lady comes in the morning from 10am-1pm. While she cleans, I pack up and organise the house. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way my house looks at 1pm on Fridays.

The kids come home from kindergarten around 1.30pm and 10 mins later, the house looks like the cleaning lady hasn't been there.

I cook lunch on Fridays because the Family Centre does fish meals on Fridays and honestly, the fish portions are too little. I can understand that 3.50€ is not much and fish is expensive so they can't give much. So I would rather cook lunch on Fridays.

I usually cook fish for lunch on Fridays though. The drawback of having the cleaning lady there on Fridays mean that I can usually only cook when the kids come home. I try to make something fast / already do the preparation work while the cleaning lady is still there.

We have lunch and try to figure out what to do. I try not to plan a program for everyday since I believe children need some down time too.

Hub sometimes comes home earlier on Fridays (6pm) so we try to be at home when he's there. Once a fortnight he has cellgroup at 8pm, so bedtime routine is on me on Fridays.

Saturdays:

The children are learning how to swim, so we bring them to the pool by 11am. Gabriel has his swim course first, followed by Sam's one at 12pm - 1pm. We try not to plan much social activities on Saturdays since the children tend to be tired after swimming.

Once we tried to go to Ikea after swimming and it was a badddd decision. Gabriel got so cranky until he fell asleep in the Ikea stroller - an hour after we were inside.

Sundays:

We go to church usually at 4pm. We have a leisurely breakfast in the morning, hang out and go to church in the afternoon.

....................................

If you have read until here, great for you! I found it so therapeutic to write about my life!

I tell my hub that I sometimes feel my SAHM life gets so boring / monotonous. But writing about it reminds me that it's the little things that count. And actually I do love being a SAHM.

The activities might be the same but the days are definitely so different because these 3 human beings will always behave differently one day from the next. And it's not what I do, but WHO I get to do my SAHM life with.

Just today, Gabriel happily decided that he wanted to play with chilli flakes! Those very fine and VERY spicy chilli flakes! I didn't even know he was playing with the chilli until I heard him sneezing and I saw him rubbing his eyes immediately afterwards! I could not shout "STOP!" fast enough, so my poor baby was screaming his lungs out.

I tried to wash his eyes until running water (fail), put cold water bag on his cheeks (big fail) before going for my last resort of putting him in the bath tub for a full-body shower. He was crying and screaming the entire time! OH boy!

That was truly a painful lesson learnt! All that time, I had no idea if I should laugh or cry cos his face and even his ears (!!!) turned bright red!

Yeah, there's never a dull moment as a Mom.

So cherish this life I will. Enjoy these days I will. And document it I should do so more often!

How's your life with your children? I would love to hear about your life too!

How I survived 3 weeks with 3 kids under one roof

I've come to the end of having 3 kids at home for 3 weeks.

PHEW!

Feels like I just ran a marathon and have finally seen the finishing line.

The boys' kindergarten closed for the summer break and as much as I would have wanted to go for a holiday with the family, it didn't make financial sense since August was the peak period for holidays. Everywhere we searched, prices for accomodation was jacked up at least 3 times!

So we decided to go away for a week to Italy in September and take advantage of the last time when we can travel outside the school holidays.

I won't mince words. The first week with 3 kids at home was tough!

I'm spoilt by a husband who brings the two older ones to kindergarten every morning. This translates to me being able to "sleep in" as long as the baby allows me to. This baby, as much as he's my most chilled-out baby, still does not sleep through the night at almost 5 months - not that I'm expecting him to.

But this also means that I've only had broken sleep ever since he was born. I'm not stressed about this though, cos having the benefit of hindsight means that I know that its a matter of time when he would STTN and I would have to breastfeed him less, and he would eat more solids.

Liam might very well be our last baby, so I'm in no hurry to get him through the milestones. He's usually just contented lying on the floor without even attempting to turn! Seriously, that guy will laugh to himself, just staring at the ceiling. I kid you not.

Every once in a while, I do find him on his front cos he just turned on his own and he's very capable of holding up his head. But most of the time, he usually oscillates on an axis such that he's lying in a different direction.

With my first child, I was so keen to practise tummy time with him, cos of doctor's recommendations and I would even encourage him to turn. With my second child, I was more laid back about it but Gabriel couldn't wait to be more mobile like his older brother.

With Liam, I sing the tune of "as slow as possible my darling. I don't want you growing up so fast".

I rarely do tummy time with him and even when I see him attempting to turn, I don't complete the turning cycle for him. He's going to learn his milestones in his timing. I'm just savouring every single moment.

I digress. So back to how my life has been with all 3 kids at home.

I did miss my quiet mornings with Liam. Every morning, I would wake up to "Mummy! Ge Ge took this". Or "Argh argh!" - That's Gabe's favourite grump word at this moment. He seriously goes "Argh" and Sam repeats after him with his own "Argh". And before you know it, both of them are going "Argh argh" again and again. And this is even before they have breakfast!

And me not being a morning person, I go batshit crazy when I hear all that grumbling!

By the time the second week rolled in, I had all my playdates fixed up. We would do something outdoors every.single.day! And thank God for awesome weather because that meant lots of swimming, playground, cycling, outdoor time.

I signed the kids up for a summer swim course 3 times a week. My father-in-law would help me out with Liam on one day, while the hub would work from home the other day so I can bring the two older boys with me. The third day fell on a Saturday so we could all go to the pool together.

It was great to be outdoors BUT there was one big drawback. Liam is a serial cat-napper when we are out and about. His longest nap would be 15 mins! This boy, no matter how tired he is, would never nap longer than 15 mins. So he would manage 3 x 15 mins nap every time we're out. In comparison, he would nap about 1-2 hours at home, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Well, you have to die one death. So I would rather deal with a 5-month old who is constantly awake, than 2 toddlers who play the snap-snap game ever too often!

Oh and have I mentioned that Sam did the sweetest thing this morning? Gabriel came to our room in the middle of the night and I actually prefer that because that meant that he wouldn't wake up with his brother and start squabbling before my day even began.

But this morning, I woke up to realize that my bedroom door was closed and so was Sam's bedroom door -- even though he was already awake! Apparently, when he got up, he went to our room and closed our door, went back to his bedroom, closed his door and played on his own! Ever so silently!

I went over to greet him "Good morning", to which he came over to hug me, said, "Good Morning, Mummy!" And when I asked him why he closed my bedroom door, he said, "So that you can sleep better".

My heart melted into 10,000 pieces there and then. Moments like this make all the craziness of motherhood so worth it!

Oh and have I mentioned that this boy can fix his own breakfast when he wakes up earlier than the rest of the family? He can get the milk out from the fridge and fix his own breakfast cereals with milk. If his brother wakes up with him, he would fix a portion for the younger one too.

Seriously these two boys can take over the world. IF they don't end up killing each other first.

Sometime into the second week, I decided that if we didn't have any morning plans, I would make us all an omelette breakfast with fresh croissants from the bakery downstairs. I even tried sending Samuel for his first errand - to buy croissants from the bakery.

I would watch him from the bedroom window as he entered the bakery out of sight. And he would march out with that small paper bag of crossiants and grinning the widest grin, like this boy just conquered Mount Everest.

I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't sure if he was ready, but seeing how well he managed to get the crossiants twice, and how proud he was of himself, I knew that this boy is growing up much too fast for me.

It's such a bittersweet feeling knowing that these babies of yours are only going to spread their wings and fly one day. And you can just hope and pray that they would learn all the right values in your family before they start up their own families one day.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but as much as I'm longing for my peaceful mornings again, I'm going to miss sitting on the balcony and having a leisurely breakfast with omelette with my two monsters babies. I guess I'll just have to turn it into a weekend tradition then.

This post has turned out wayyy too long. Its such verbal diarrhea. I always think that I got nothing to write, or I'm too tired to write, or who's interested in what I write anyway, but then once I start writing, I realized that this is such a therapeutic way of journaling my life.

Oh and have I mentioned that I'm probably going to turn parts of my blog into a book? Like compiling all the Dear Sammy / Dear Gabriel letters into a book each and giving it to them? There's even a website for it these days!

If you've read until here, clap clap to you!!!! May you have a lovely rest of the summer ahead! May the good Lord bless and watch over you!

My 3 little monkeys

What the hub gave me to encourage my heart!

Life with 3 kids - The real stuff

People have been asking me how life as a Mom to 3 kids has been. I find it hard to sort out my thoughts to answer honestly and yet I find it very superficial to just say "Oh yeah, it's been fine". So in the confines of my blog, I shall attempt to paint a picture of what life has been like for the past 4.5 weeks.

To sum it up, life has been hectic and I'm feeling very much out of my comfort zone.

Transiting from 0 to 1 kid was life-changing. Nothing prepares you really for the arrival of your firstborn. You can read all the books you want, listen to all the advice from other parents, but your experience with your kid will never be the same as what someone else experienced with his/her kid.

Transiting from 1 to 2 kids was much easier for us compared to 0 to 1. Sam and Gabriel are pretty close in age (22months), so I was still in the changing diapers / strollers / playgroups stage. As such, I didn't have to alter my lifestyle much to welcome Gabriel into our family. 2 hands for 2 kids. Easy-peasy right?

Introducing a 3rd kid to our family is the first time we are outnumbered.

Even when the hub is home, we are still a ratio of 2 adults to 3 kids. Alone, I'm at a 1 to 3 ratio. As I said, out of my comfort zone.

The good thing though, is that Sam and Gabe are very much able to occupy themselves when I'm busy with Liam. I no longer have the worry that the one kid is too "bored" or needs to meet up with fellow toddlers because these 2 brothers have each other for play and company.

They have also been providing very good company to Liam. Sam would often be the first to attend to a crying Liam and that in itself would buy me a good 10-15 more minutes. I would often lay Liam on the sofa during dinner and sometimes after dinner, Sam would bring his blanket to the sofa and lay next to Liam. Gabriel would follow suit and they would have their little sleepover on the sofa.

SO cute right? I can't even begin to say how my heart swells with pride!

Mealtimes are still tough.

Hub came home at 8pm today so I had to settle the kids for dinner. My in-laws help me out on Monday afternoons with the 2 older ones and today, they brought them to the playground since the weather was awesome.

Dinner was almost ready when Liam started crying. Obviously I couldn't attend to him immediately since I had to set the table, distribute the food and start the boys with the food before I could tend to the little one.

I have this bobby nursing pillow which I put on my lap to nurse the baby so that I can eat my meal at the same time as well as feed Gabriel. Both boys are very much capable of feeding themselves but as what every Mom would know, children can be picky about what they eat. Left to their own devices, Gabriel would eat nothing but rice and Sam eggs.

Last Thursday, I managed to bring them to playgroup for the first time since giving birth 4 weeks ago. We were 30 minutes late (surprisingly not because of the newborn but because the 2 older ones had to do their business just before we left the house).

That meant that my boys only got seats at opposite sides of the table. It was quite impossible for me to help both of them with craft. I was shuffling between the two boys, trying to help them with their "Mother's Day" cards (yeah, I made my own Mother's Day card). And all this time, I had to keep an eye on the infant in the carseat to see if he was still asleep or not.

After playgroup, when the kids were playing on the field outside, I had to use two eyes to keep an eye on 3 kids. Liam is still immobile, so that's one less kid to keep a look out for in terms of prospensity to danger.

I've mastered the skill of maintaining a conversation with a fellow Mom, while keeping my eyes on 2 children who dart around the vicinity. But at one point in time, Liam started crying and in my bid to quieten him down, I wasn't able to maintain visual with my other 2 children. That's when I realized Gabriel was wandering off to our car which was parked at the side of the street. I had to yell at him to stop!

It's true that the more kids you have, the more you know you have to depend on God. I can't be at all places at the same time, nor be 100% attentive at all times. I need to be more consistent in praying for the safety of my kids especially at this fearless toddler stage.

It's pretty much a balancing act, but at least I know from experience, things can only get better when baby grows older and we are more adjusted to having a 3rd baby in the household. 

I so do love being a Mom. There are so many moments in my daily life that I know I will cherish and ponder in my heart. My parenting skills may be far from perfect and I know I'll make many mistakes, but I also know God's grace is more than sufficient for my flaws.

Hub is also such a great Dad. Compared to with Sam, the hub is also so much more relaxed with Liam. It's so heart-warming to watch the man of your dreams grow to become the Dad of your dreams. We are so blessed with him and am so thankful at how he held the fort post-Liam's birth.

The hub was at home for about 4 weeks, while working in between for a couple of days. He makes us wonderful omelettes and I actually have a proper breakfast complete with a butter crossiant and latte macchiato when he's at home.

And don't ask me why, but hub seem to have an ability to make Liam take his pacifier. Somehow his success rates are way higher than me. I blame it on the fact that I breastfeed and the second Liam smells me, he refuses to take anything except the boob.

Yup, that's my life in a nutshell. Wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I'm reminded of this verse and am so grateful to the Lord for blessing our family.

"Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." Psalm 16: 5-6

This pix pretty much depicts my life now

 

Pregnancy #3 - (almost) 38 weeks!

Baby is officially past full-term! So he won't be considered premature if he came any day from now onwards.

I got a feeling this baby is going to stay put for a while though! I'm really hoping he will make his appearance betweeen 39-40 weeks but hopefully not beyond 40 weeks because that means I'm going to be induced!

16 more days and guess what? We only washed our first batch of newborn clothes today!

I think that's the difference between having a third child and first child. The great thing about having our 3rd boy is that we seriously haven't bought anything new for this kid. There's simply no need to, cos we're bursting with clothes left over from his 2 older brothers.

Right now I feel like a huge, big, almost-bursting ball! I have braxton hicks contractions almost everyday and sometimes all day! It's been so uncomfortable.

Thank God we have a long weekend for Good Friday and Easter Sunday coming up. We aren't going to travel anywhere, cos I'm simply too exhausted and out of breath to do anything other than the very basic necessities.

I wake up 3-4 times a night to empty my bladder and it ain't a joke to get a whale out of bed!

I was so exhausted today that I didn't want to get out of bed but my little one kept going, "Mummy, wake up! Mummy, wake up!" I simply couldn't persuade him to stay in bed anymore.

My Chinese neighbour, whom I'm quite close to, went back to China for 6 months today. I've been feeling a bit down cos it's just nice to have a fellow Mummy around the corner, whom you can simply text to ask if she's keen to come over for a playdate, or we just meet downstairs at the playground and the kids hang out.

So with no plans today, the kids and I actually had lunch, had some tea (I baked some N.Y. cheeesecake) and Sam brought out book after book for me to read to them!

I was SO amazed at their attention span! They actually sat through 5 books! - 3 English and 2 Chinese books! Like wow! My eyelids were threatening to close by the end of our reading marathon, such that I had to put them in the bathtub and ask the hub to come home a bit earlier to help me out.

He ended up coming home at 6pm instead of his usual 7pm. And oh boy, what a difference that made! We had dinner by 7pm (some leftovers from yesterday) and the kids were in bed by 8pm instead of the usual 8.30-9pm. And I'm actually writing this at 9.30pm!

I so wish hub could come home earlier..... a girl can dream!

Sam is so over-the-moon excited about the upcoming arrival of his 2nd brother, while Gabriel seems to be having a love-hate relationship with my baby belly. Today, when I came home after a midwife appointment, he actually smacked my belly with so much force I was so shocked! I ended up smacking the hand that did the deed and giving him a long time out!

He apologized quite immediately after realizing what he did, but I simply couldn't allow an act of "violence" go unpunished. Especially not one that was directed at baby!

Having said that, sometimes Gabriel can be so sweet and would just kiss my belly on his own accord. I guess time will tell to see how he adjusts to being a middle child and being an older brother. Praying that he will ease into his new role easily!

Oh, haven't announced it here yet here, but Gabriel got a spot in Sammy's kindergarten and he will start after he turns 3 in September! We are very overjoyed and thankful that God held his space open cos spots for 3-year olds in kindergartens are so limited these days!

We hardly have any scan photos of this baby except for one that's too private to show - uh hum.

It's weird being in this waiting game for labour to start again! I know baby will show his face when the time is right. I'm just feeling like I'm sitting on coals cos of the impending induction date. Do pray with us that baby will come naturally before his due date!

Haven't posted many photos of the kids later, so here's some random pictures / videos! Enjoy!

Perfect playmates for each other

Caught in the air!

Gabe was so exhausted, he fell asleep right on the sofa!

 Gabe wanted to do exactly what his older brother did, but realized later that it wasn't his cup of tea!

The story of THE breakfast

You know how they say that after you get married, things get dull?

Ok, to be fair, things don't get dull. They get .... repetitive. And when you have kids, things get routine.

Now that the kids are 3.5 years and almost 2 years, hubby and I have sorta settled into a very well-adjusted family life of 4. It's a very comfortable feeling.

But then again, you read news of people doing special things for other people on Facebook. Like on Mother's Day. Or Father's Day. Or birthdays. Or anniversaries.

And you think, "Oh, that's so nice and sweet..."

And you try to stop yourself in mid-thought before you go into the, "I wish my husband ..... " Cos you know you shouldn't compare.

And Facebook is so crazily distorted anyways. Nobody is going to post a photo of the laundry done. Or the cleaning of the house. Or the regular "my hubby came home from work today after working 10 hours to provide for our family".

But that's real life! But who cares about real life right? It's mundane and usual.

People care about the extraordinary. The crazy. The out of this world. The "WOW!!!" factor.

Hubby and I don't really celebrate special days like Mother's or Father's Day. We don't even buy presents for each other on Christmas. Or birthdays for that matter.

I think we're more practical people. We buy what we need / want whenever we need / want to, so we don't usually need / want anything by the time our birthdays come. Makes sense? And why spend money on something just because it's a birthday right? We'd rather go for a massage or a nice dinner together.

So anyways, that's why I was sooo surprised and even somewhat shocked when hubby gave me a huge surprise over the weekend!

He made this!

My own hotel-styled breakfast served in bed! Notice the yakult?

To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement!

I was over the moon! It was so romantic! And totally what you see in the movies! 

The omelette tasted perfect! There were bits of mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and cheese inside! So yummy I refused to share it with any of kids clamoring for my food (they had already eaten).

It was his way of commemorating Mother's Day - one week later.

Thing is, hubby is one of those special babies who was born on Mother's Day. Great Mother's Day gift but that also meant that my Mother-in-law has spent most Mother's Days celebrating the birthday of her son instead of getting pampered by her children and/or husband.

And now that I'm a Mom myself, I'm also in the same "predicament".

So when I saw this breakfast made with love, it totally touched my heart!

To be honest, it wasn't a real surprise because truth be told, a postman had to ring on our door on a Saturday morning! I was still lying in bed and wondering why my hubby had not opened the door. When the bell kept ringing, I realized that hubby was probably not at home so I jumped out of bed in my PJs, ran straight to the door and pressed the button to get  my parcel.

Totally puzzled at my hubby's absence, I asked Sammy where Daddy was. He replied, "Daddy went to the car to get you something nice to eat!"

I was like, "Car? What car?"

And Sammy was like, "I told you! Daddy went to the car to get you something nice to eat!"

2 minutes later, hubby comes back through the main door carrying some groceries. Turns out, he had gone to "Ede-ka" (therefore the word "car") to get some groceries to prepare me my breakfast! Edeka is the name of a supermarket just downstairs from our house.

The hub was so upset that his surprise was ruined! So he told me to just go back to bed and pretend to sleep! hahaha. I sat in bed and played on my phone while waiting for my surprise breakfast to be made.

It was totally worth the wait! It was sooo good! He totally exceeded my expectations! And you know how they said home-cooked food is the best? It really is! It felt sooo good being on the receiving end of great service!

The "sad" thing is that I had to rush through my breakfast, because:-

My kids couldn't wait to help me to eat it! My yakult was gone in seconds (but hubby brought me another one), my grapes were devoured by the baby, Sammy kept asking me for the yoghurt so he ended up eating it and best of all......

I was SOOO worried the kids would end up dropping food all over MY bed!

In short, I REALLY, totally enjoyed the experience of having breakfast in bed. But in reality, I realized it would have been MUCH better had the kids been locked out of my room so that I could have my breakfast in peace.

Love you hubby! And so you know, I could get used to having breakfast in bed sans kids every weekend!!!! Hahah.

Breakfast in reality - sharing it with kids (in the background)

Ludwigsburg Castle

We had some visitors from Singapore recently.

My best friend's sister, Jamie and her husband, K. visited us over a period of 2 days!

We love having guests over and now that we have a 3rd bedroom, we actually have more space to do so!

I must say that I was quite impressed by my two young men. You could tell that they were very overjoyed to have visitors! They were so hospitable and always looked forward to playing with Jamie and K. and showing them their toys.

Either that or they are so deprived of visitors, that they go crazy on those who stay overnight at our place! LOL. 

Sammy even went to their bedroom when he first woke up before realizing that they were still sleeping!

The poor hub was down with a terrible virus during their visit, so I brought the kids out with me and we spent the day at the castle in Ludwigsburg and on the garden grounds.

The kids were pretty good troopers and even though they didn't nap much, they were pretty well-behaved during the 1.5-hour tour of the castle.

Ahem, by "well-behaved" I mean they didn't break any of the artefacts or do anything forbidden. For the most part of the first hour, they walked through the castle just like anybody else. But for the last 30 minutes, they were running up and down the hallways like boys litted up.

The Ludwigsburg garden grounds is beautiful! There's a fairytale - themed park with interactive figurines of Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and other characters from the Grimm brothers' stories. Sammy absolutely loves pressing the buttons and listening to the figurines "talk".

It's a pity that the stories are in German with no English language option, otherwise this garden would be very suitable for international visitors too.

There's even a little boat ride which is safe enough for kids to go onboard with their parents. Very relaxing! We went on a mini steam train which costs extra. But was an absolute hit with the kids.

The children were so mesmerized by all the things they could do! And as we parents would know,

Happy kids = Happy parents 

There's cafés aplenty so we stopped for some french fries and German sausages. The weather was superb on that day. Perfect summer temperatures in April! It was simply the perfect day to be out and about.

I asked my friends if they felt weird surrounded by so many kids in the park and was relieved when they said that they themselves have gone to Legoland in Malaysia so they are quite used to be surrounded by kids.

It was such a pleasant visit! Thanks for blessing us with goodies from Singapore! Please come back and visit us again! :)

Sam took this shot all by himself! My little budding photographer!

He took this shot too, but I had to photoshop it

Playing in the haystack

A mini scarecrow

Gabe couldn't be bothered to pose for the camera!

There are various exhibitions throughout the year and this was a farm exhibition. All made from straw!

Funny babies!

On the mini boat ride!

Look at how they loved hanging out with Jamie and K!

Singapore 2015 - Botanical Gardens

While I'm still on the topic of what I did in Singapore, I want to mention that Botanical Gardens is not just superb for Jacob Ballas.

The rest of the gardens, which span 74 hectare, is a haven for kids because one can play ball, feed fish and do all sorts of outdoor activities for free! In a very well-kept garden.

Sam is born only a couple of months apart from some of his friends from church in Singapore. Naturally, each time we're back, we had to make it a point to meet up and catch up!

So, with 5 kids and 3 Moms, we managed to go on an epic playdate! To botanics no less.

It was so fun! And so chaotic and stressful at the same time!

But fun nevertheless! And memorable!

To give you a glimpse of how chaotic it can be go out with 5 kids, one of the kids even vomitted on the cab ride on the way to the gardens!

I think she had some motion sickness cos she wasn't sick otherwise.

But you can imagine what it was like for 2 moms to get out of the cab and try desperately to clean up all that puke, change her and clean up the cab a bit!

That was thankfully the only unexpected event of the day.

The kids had a whale of a time playing ball, roaming the gardens and just do things that kids do!

We ended the day at a very kids-friendly restaurant called "Food for thought". It's on the opposite end of Botanical Gardens from Jacob Ballas. So do not make the mistake of thinking that you can go to Jacob Ballas and walk to the restaurant. It'd take you 1.5 hours (I think).

This restaurant is pretty much the only restaurant in Botanics and it comes well-equipped with children utensils, kids' menu and even has a small playground on the outside where the kids can play while the Mummies eat.

I ordered a pasta dish - which left much to be desired, but I heard that their burgers are pretty good but they were already sold out by the time we had dinner there.

Would highly-recommend this restaurant to end off playdates at the garden!

This is more of a photo blog entry because I simply had to share these shots with you.

Looking at them makes me sigh with contentment and happiness. We are blessed with such great friends - both Mummy and kiddo friends! And even though we live halfway across the world from each other, we'll still be able to cheer each other on in our journey of motherhood together! 

All excited just before embarking on their little outing

We were feeding the ducks!

Swans and the black mass which were actually catfish

Tranquility

 All the birds tried to snatch some of the breadcrumbs! The kids got quite afraid of them!

 Gabe trying his hand (or should I say "foot")at football with his first female fan

He was genuinely interested in the name of the flower!

My friend, V told her son, "You gotta run for the ball! Sam is German, he's not gonna give you face!" LOL!

Love how Sam crossed his arms like a big boy!

Sam and S. born a few months apart

Gabe started crying cos he didn't want to have his photo taken!

I think the Mummies looked forward to dinner more than the kids! No photos of food cos we were famished!

Everyone busy calling for a cab home!

Food for Thought

 http://www.foodforthought.com.sg/