December’s fruit- playing housewife

I spent the last week of December playing housewife. Post HFMD, things got better.
My life as a ‘freelance’ housewife (with my blackberry within reach)- cooking, washing, caring, housekeeping, playing, art & craft and some time-off in the afternoon to watch a few episodes of  TVB series when S takes a nap. It is almost a replica of my maternity leave. 
My favourite part is planning the daily menu and see S’s appetite increase tremendously.  One evening, she looked at me and shouted: “Mommy! Thank you for cooking!” and that’s my reward!  The thought of being a stay-at-home-mom is luring if it means I can make her eat more?? It’s just a thought.  In any case, I thank God for letting me ‘experience’ how it is like to be a stay-at-home-mom (with no help). I’m not sure if I really love it but knowing that it’s short-lived and ending soon makes me cherish every bit of it.
It has been a perfect week to end this unceasing fruitful 2012.

The return of HFMD

We celebrated Christmas this year fighting HFMD. This is S's second encounter with this pesky disease (she had it once when she was eight months old). However this time is worse with ulcers in the mouth and crankiness index hit all time high as she couldn't eat nor drink. It also affected her sleep. Ice cream, yoghurt, Popsicle, cold soba, 100 plus - all the things that I hear would help to numb the pain didn't work. It broke my heart to see her yearning for food yet not able to eat... The funny thing was she kept smelling food,"mommy, I smell fried chicken.", " mommy, I smell like watermelon", hallucination perhaps.

It was made worse as we just sent our help back to Philippines for Christmas holidays! Round the clock care almost drove me up the wall. Daddy M was slightly spared because S just wanted ME!
Thank God for a phone call from SI (whom had recently encountered HFMD with her kid) at the point of me breaking down. I felt almost like having post-natal blue. Yes it was that serious and helpless... With that, I have accepted that I am a spoilt brat who can't run the household without help.
Thank God too that it's December and I am able to stay home...
It's day 5 and I think we have bottomed out..



Sent from my iPad

Blastful December

The month of December is like my bonus for the year. It beats any amount of $$ I can get. My mind automatically shut down when the clock struck 00:01 on 1 December. No more deadlines. No more urgent reports. Usually December is all about Christmas shopping. This year, it has been a blast! There were fruits to celebrate almost every single day!

Meeting Chef of the century, Joel Robuchon himself left me breathless for a few minutes.

Having the whole family in town for a week with 10 adults and 5 children in the house was like celebrating CNY in advanced!

The tree decorating experience was warmer than usual with me surrounded by my niece and nephews !

Bouncy castle and balls pool were the major hits for S’s birthday, not forgetting the yummy home-cooked buffet spread that mom and I whipped up for 28 adults and 13 kids!

S’s debut as a flower girl!

Family+friends+Christmas+lull period at work = Bliss.

November's fruits- friends

November was all about friends and catch-ups.

I managed to squeeze in some time during my work trip to meet an old friend, Naids in Boston, whom I've not met for 12 years. It was great to catch up on marriage, work, kids and we're almost up to speed on each other's life in a short duration of 90 minutes in the airport!  

November is also usually the busiest month for me in terms of birthday celebrations. We had several fantastic girls night-out with four birthdays of people dear to me - Sher, SY, YL and Gek.   Oh my, when girls gather, we can really talk...There's always something new to catch up on. There're always things for us to laugh so hard 'til our stomachs hurt. Sometimes we would just walk down the memory lane and revive our juicy past/ reckless youth. Most of the time, we have so much to talk about that we would be the last group to leave the restaurant!!!   

I'm truly truly blessed.