You know when you are a mom (Part 1) when...

2 months 5 days old

1. Your bag has at least 2 diapers/toys/picture books/nappy cloth/change of clothes/wet wipes/bibs for any just-in-case situations.
2. Your dress/top is always spotted with a huge wet patch on the shoulder area (from drool or milk puke haha).
3. Your arms develop biceps from weight lifting (last check, the weights used is 6kg).
4. You are seen at the diapers section of supermarkets/motherhood fair/baby expo comparing prices n wondering if you should buy more to store even though there are extra mumy poko diapers in your currently bursting storeroom.
5. You smile so widely n are so proud when you see your little one reach a new milestone (like being able to slowly flip with some assistance/is finally seen to be able to concentrate on looking at a page of a picture book for 5min).
6. Your photo albums in both ur iPhone n iPad are filled with 1000+ photos n videos of your little one in different clothes or with different expressions and you are always seen looking at them or showing them to your husband.

2 months 20 days old

7. You instinctively check the video monitor or go to the little one's room when u wake up in the middle of the night to make sure he is safe n sleeping well.
8. You now take at least 30min to get ready (5min for yourself+ at least 25min for the little one; feed him, pump milk, burp him, change his diapers, change him, prepare diaper bag, check bag n then repeat changing diapers n changing him cos he poo/pee again) before u can (finally) leave the house.
9. You check the label for the country of origin of the things you are buying for the little one to make sure that it is made from/manufactured from a reputable place.
10.  Your prayers at night would always start with praying for your little one's safety n health n for wisdom on how to be a good steward of the little one.

The birth process... A moment of awe and ouch

Hey sweetie Azel,

You are currently sleeping very cutely and soundly and mummy too had a very good and long rest at night:) You slept from 10.30 pm til 3.30am for milk! Which is an amazing 5 hours, an achievement indeed! Am hoping that you will be a little more awake these days to look around, be curious about things around you and interact with mummy, more than the occasional cooing :):):) Can't wait for you to smile and sing along with mummy during playtime!

Today mummy will be sharing with you about how you came into this world...:) Sit up (haha I know you can't for now, just pretend) and pay attention:)

It all started on 16 Feb (Sat) at around 2am, when mummy was awaken by pretty intense Braxton Hicks (tightening of the womb) which lasted for 1+min. It it became more regular from around 2-4am. Mummy was kept awake by the Braxton Hicks which occurred for 4-5 times each hour. Mummy became a little anxious so she went online to search for answers, keying in "Braxton Hicks" at 38 weeks. Hoping to find comfort that the "tightening of the womb" are normal and usual for preggies at week 38. The forums and websites showed various results, some say it may be false labour, others say depends on the frequency of the Braxton Hicks so mummy decided to time the "contractions" from 4am onwards: 4.04am (2min), 4.20am (1.5min), 4.32am (2min), 4.48am (2.4min), 4.58am (1.5min), 5.04am (1.5min), 5.12am (2min), 5.20am (2min), 5.25am (1.5min). By 5am, daddy was awaken by mummy's constant fidgeting and was asking mummy what happened. I told him about the Braxton Hicks that I felt since 2am. Daddy wondered sleepily if it could be an false alarm and asked if we should go to the hospital to check it out. Mummy said wait first then went toilet (for the 3rd time in the night) to relieve herself. After peeing, mummy noticed a bit of a bloody discharge and alarms went off in her! She recognised that this is probably a bloody show! (tell tale signs of true labour, not a horror movie haha...) so hurriedly told daddy that we should go to the hospital soon! Daddy quickly got out of bed and with eyes half closed, went to pack the charges while impatient mummy sat and waited for him to be ready while hugging on to womb womb with little you inside:)

On the way to the hospital, daddy contemplated going to pump the petrol first but mummy was like, no dear, think we need to hurry to the hospital cos womb is feeling uncomfortable. Daddy then drove at a faster pace to the hospital. Upon reaching Thomson Medical at 6.30am, we were shown the way to the observation rooms since ours was natural birth. When we entered, the first person we saw was...*surprise surprise*... Dr Adrain Woodworth! Haha the first thought in mummy's mind was, wha! how does he know that I am in labour and why is he here so fast??!! Questions afloat while mummy was rushed to the toilet to change into the gown while daddy went to register me. Later at the observation room, two nurses came in to check on me and said will be checking my dilation. To all of our surprise, the nurse said that I was 5cm dilated already! The nurses asked me if I was in pain and was shocked that I could still wake and talk to them normally! In record speed, I was wheeled to the delivery suite, Dr Adrain was called and anesthetist informed that I wanted epidural.

In the delivery suite, the next 15 minutes was a blur to mummy. The anesthetist came with a nurse and said that he would be administering the epidural now. Hearing that there would be a needle and blood involved, mummy started shaking and feeling very nervous. Daddy was not able to be inside the delivery suite with mummy while epidural was being administered :(:(:( Mummy remembered praying and asking for God's protection while they were preparing for the injection. When the anesthetist came with the needle, mummy was shivering and moving uncontrollably. He had to get 4 nurses to hold me down, one to hold my hand, one to sing to me, one to hold my spine, the other to grab my legs! Gosh...Come to think of it, mummy really want to thank the nurses for being patient with mummy and for tolerating with my nonsense (like asking song to be sung while epidural being done). With epidural done, daddy can finally come in to be with mummy:):) I remembered that when daddy came in, the first thing he was while stroking mummy's head is; "I am so proud of you dear." :):):) *smiles*... Was by this time, very sleepy and tired so was drifting in and out of sleep while daddy watched cartoon and played with his iPad. Time was about 7.45 am.

Azel at 1 min after birth

Around 9.15am, 3 nurses suddenly rushed into the room and was frantically checking the monitors. We  were told that your (precious Azel) heartbeat was dropping rapidly so have to deliver soon. Upon checking mummy's dilation, the nurses reported that I was 8-9cm dilated so the body was about ready to deliver you! While your heartbeat dropped, mummy's heartbeat increased! They got mummy in position to push and the 2 nurses were starting me off with pushing while waiting for Dr Adrain to come in. Mummy was super nervous, palms sweaty, legs shaking (not sure if its due to fear/epidural/cold or what). Daddy too was very seen to be very nervous, he held on tight to mummy's sweaty palms and prayed softly beside mummy's ears, all the while smiling and saying that mummy is very brave. Mummy pushed hard when asked to and relaxed to conserve energy when no contractions came. Because of the epidural, mummy really could't feel anything so just listened to the nurses' instructions on when to push and when to relax. Pushed like crazy when asked to but nurses said that mummy was pushing wrongly (hmmm didn't know that there is a wrong and correct push :P) In the end, when Dr Adrain came, he straight away did the episiotomy and asked me to push some more. After a few more wrong pushes, Dr Adrain asked daddy if he could use forceps to pull you out, daddy said yes, whatever it takes for the baby to come out please. Dr Adrain did so and mummy could only feel a strong pressure and jerking from the force. Finally, Dr Adrain placed you (still bloody, mucus filled and looking like golum) on mummy's body! Daddy was all smiles!!!! :):):):) Mummy was so proud of you!!!! Thank God for a fast, smooth and (almost) painless delivery :):):)

Azel at Day 1

Easy claypot rice and apple with pork ribs soup :)

Today is another recipe day:) Since I knock off work early enough, I decided to make claypot rice (cheater version using rice cooker) and apple with pork ribs soup. It turned out delicious :) Kansei loved the claypot rice as usual...:) In his words, "Very nice darling!" The soup he finds it a little sweet but it's really purely due to the apples haha.. I kinda like the refreshing soup, a nice change from vegetables soup. The natural sweetness of the apples in the broth is deliciously good in my opinion!

Claypot rice done cheater's style i.e. using a rice cooker

Recipe for Claypot Rice (cheater style)

Prep time: 20 min                                             Cook time: 45 min (rice cooker timing)

Ingredients (serves 3 to 4 persons): 

- 2 cups of rice (jasmine white rice)

- 350 grams of boneless chicken fillet or breast (cut into bite sized pieces)

- marinate for the chicken fillet/breast (1 tspn light soy sauce, 1 tspn sesame oil, 2 tspn oyster sauce and a dash of pepper) 

- 1 chinese sausage (with wax covering removed)

- spring onion (to be used as garnish)

Step (1) (prep step) Marinate the chicken fillet with 1 tspn light soy sauce, 1 tspn sesame oil, 2 tspn oyster sauce and a dash of pepper. For convenience, I use a glove to mix and massage the chicken, making sure every piece is coated with the goodness. After mixing, cover the bowl with cling wrap and send it to fridge, keep it in there for at least an hour so that chicken can soak up the sauce. 

Marinated chicken fillet with all the goodness

Step (2) (prep step) Slice the chinese sausage, preferably in a diagonal fashion. Today, I sliced it normally as I found the chinese sausage slippery to hold and didn't want to risk cutting my fingers. 

Sliced chinese sausage

Step (3) (prep step) Wash 2 cups of rice, usually I wash 3 rinses or until the water runs clear. Add 2 cups and a little bit more water to the pot. Leave the water on pot to soak the rice until ready to cook. Usually for at least 1 hour. I found the soaking to help the rice bloat and aids in absorbing all the marinate and fragrance of the rice. The soaking also ensures that the rice is separated from each grain :):):) 

Panasonic rice cooker that serves me well

Step (4) (cook step) Pour the marinated chicken and chinese sausage into the soaked rice, top up with a little more water and stir around to ensure that the rice is mixed well with the ingredients. Set the rice to cook. Takes around 45 min on my Panasonic rice cooker as shown, when set at White Rice setting. 

Using the keep warm function to steam the rice for 20 min

Step (5) (cook step) After the rice cooker sounds, open the cover and stir the rice around. Amazingly, the rice cooks perfectly and the no rice will be stuck at the bottom of the pot! After stirring, let the rice steam for about 20 min more to ensure that the rice becomes dryer, less sticky and that the chicken and chinese sausage is cooked through. 

Step (6) (garnish) Serve claypot rice with chopped spring onions as garnish and chili padi with soy sauce. Enjoy! 

Delicious claypot rice best served warm. 

Recipe for Apple Pork Ribs Soup 

Prep time: 10 min                                                     Cook time: 90 min 

Ingredients (serves 3 to 4 persons): 

- 4 apples (dad in law suggested 2 apples instead so that soup won't be so sweet but I like the refreshing sweetness of this soup. So maybe compromise at 3 apples? haha...)
- 1000ml of water (2 soup bowls of water)
- 250 grams of spare ribs
- 1 large onion, peeled and cut into chunks
- 10 small red dates
- a handful of scallops (love this in my soups, is optional though)
- salt to taste

Step (1) Cut apples. I love them cut to bite-sized so that can easily pop into mouth to eat. If not cooking immediately, soak in salt water so that apples do not oxidize to brown.

Apples cut to bite-sized

Step (2) Cut onions into chunks. Take out a handful of dried scallop.

A handful of small red dates (about 10) 

Step (3) Blanch the pork ribs for about 10 min to rid the pork ribs of the smell and to ensure that the soup is clear and not cloudy. Put the blanched pork ribs, onions, apples, red dates and dried scallops into a large pot, pour in 1000ml of water and bring to boil. Let it boil for 10 min then simmer for 1.5 hours to ensure that the apples softens, pork is cooked and essence is in the soup :) 

Add all ingredients in pot, bring to boil then simmer. 

Step (4) Season with salt before serving the refreshing soup :):) Enjoy!

Apple Pork Ribs soup! Delicious :):):) 

Festive Cheer

Christmas brings about joy, laughter, memories and reminder of His love. Chinese New year brings about family, togetherness, fun and gluttony haha... With our first chinese new year in our new house, we decided have a display of decorated pussy willows to bring out the festive cheer.

Festive cheer

Decided to get down to make some DIY decorations to hang on the pussy willows as those that are sold are sometimes of quality that are less desirable :P So made 2 kinds, the first being the cut out word Chun1 and the second being the fish.

Easy to cut and pretty to look at. 

Instructions to make the chinese word chun:
(1) Cut out a square piece of ang pao packet. Choose a red packet with gold wordings on red and pink/orange background for best effect.
(2) Fold and press flat the diagonals and halves.
(3) Fold the square into an isosceles triangle
(4) Fold the isosceles triangle such that all four corners are together
(5) Using a sharp scissors, cut out the wordings as per chun1
(6) Open and staple the bottom to keep it tight
(7) Needle through a red thread for hanging
(8) Admire your masterpiece

Fish decoration on pussy willow 

Enjoy your chinese new year! May this year bring about much love and togetherness in your family!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

My love for baking started when I moved into this new place with a wonderful oven :) Kansei was very much for the idea when I told him that I really wanted a good built in oven in our new house to do baking and more cooking haha... Guess he really likes my food (I hope to think)! We got an Italian oven with analogue timer, silvered and mirrored in front, it matches my red-white-black kitchen concept  very well :) Loves!!!! <3

My very first baking attempt was with ready made muffin mix from Cold Storage, the kind that was already pre-mixed and all I had to do was put in water and then prepare the muffin cups. If I didn't remember wrongly, it was blueberry muffins. It turned out great for a first timer haha, the texture was alright and the colour looks good and overall it was edible. But taste-wise, it was nothing close to what I wanted muffins to be- moist, full of fresh bursting blueberries and slightly browned round top.

Fast forward 1 year from when I first shifted into this place, I can hardly boast of amazing baking or cooking skills but I can humbly say that I am capable of whipping up a few decent dishes that are tasty and can bake some pretty good stuff hee...*cue applause*...

Dishes that I can cook (with reference to Noobcook.com, the bestest of the bestest website to refer to for noobcooks!)
- Pineapple rice using rice cooker
- Chicken rice using rice cooker
- Claypot rice using rice cooker (Kansei's all time fav! He is easy to please)
- Salmon rice using rice cooker
- Cabbage soup with pork ribs
- Watercress soup with pork ribs
- Pear with white fungus soup
- Pasta bolognese
- Baked pasta
- Pizza
- Egg drop soup
- Roasted Coke chicken with asparagus and cherry tomatoes
...etc

As for baking, well I really adore the amazing smell that emits from the oven when something is baking inside. It really is addictive to bake and is pure joy when people around me enjoy the food that I bake. Just some of things that I can bake...
- Cheesecake (haha this is no bake cheesecake)
- Blueberry muffins
- Chocolate chip muffins
- Soy bean bean (haha eh this one no need to bake too, just refrigerate)
- Banana bread
- Lavender bread (my personal fav)
...etc

So this post will be about how to make chocolate chip cookies!!!

Serves: makes 12 to 14 cookies (using ice cream scoop)        Prep: 20 min         Cook: 15 min

I love it that the cookies turn out crispy on the outside and moist and chewy in the inside because of the brown sugar added in same ratio as white sugar. A easy recipe, fast to prepare, quick to cook and convenient to clean up :)

Ingredients:
- 125 grams of salted butter (left in open for 1.5 hrs to soften)
- 75 grams caster or super fine sugar
- 75 grams brown sugar
- 1 egg (left at room temperature)
- 150 grams plain flour
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 150 grams chocolate chips





Instructions:
- Using electric whisk or mixer set at speed 1, beat the butter, sugar and egg together until smooth, which should take around 5 min
- Slowly pour into the mixture the flour and baking soda and at speed 1, whisk the mixture together until mixed
- Fold in the chocolate chips and ensure that the mixture is even
- Line tray with baking paper (I ran out of this so had to use aluminium foil)
- Using the ice cream scoop (I love the wind screen metal kind, will ensure that the mixture detaches itself from scoop), scoop cookie mixture onto tray leaving some space in between to allow cookie mixture to spread
- Bake in preheated oven of 180 degrees for 15 min. To open oven and check that the sides are not burnt at 12 min.
- Cool cookies on wire rack.

Enjoy your cute little masterpieces!!! It goes deliciously well with Meiji milk :) For tea, for breakfast, for snacks or for those little cravings at anytime :):):)

Snowflakes in the sand

This blog is named Snowflakes in the sand as it will be about random thoughts that are in my mind. Snowflakes to mean the little things that happened, in the sand to mean in my life. Recently felt a strong desire for an outlet to share my thoughts, joys and fears.

   

32 weeks 5 days preggy with the little one the size of a honeydew. Count down 7 weeks 2 days to seeing his little face.

The things people say when they see me; "Hey Snowflakes, how are you feeling...? Your stomach don't look too big for 7 months! Must eat yogurt, will make the baby skin smooth and fair. Do you need newborn baby diapers? Mummies in the last month of pregnancy must drink coconut juice to cool body down! "

All the little talk about the baby and pregnancy makes it all so real... I wake up in the middle of the night often (yes, when you are preggy, you get up n tends to infinity times, going to the toilet to release that 5 drops of pee) thinking, whao I have a little creature growing and feeding through the umbilical cord gosh that is a miracle!!! I thank God for this miracle, for this chance to feel the little one's hiccups and many kicks.

As of now...
- Womb getting bigger, shorts bursting at the seams
- Backache when sitting or standing with bad posture
- Limited wardrobe, less choice for working wear
+ Radiant and glowing face (i hope to think)
+ Gaining weight (7kg as of now)
+ Eating tons :)