From Bumps to Babes

Time really passes so quickly. 1 year ago around this time, I found out I was pregnant and was so sick that I was almost bed-ridden every day. Fast forward to now, I feel like so much has changed with a baby and one of it is the joy of motherhood.

It is a beautiful coincidence that in this group of gal pals, the 3 of us were pregnant at the same time and had our babies in the same year.




Our little ones were projected to be about 2 months apart -- due in Feb, April and June. However in the end, bestie Cyn delivered slightly earlier than her due date in February. I delivered 1 day before my due date in April. Char delivered at week 37 in the month of May, way before her due date which was supposed to be June. Hence, our babies are no longer 2 months apart from one another.




Another coincidence was that we were all having baby girls. And the last coincidence was that we were all Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) sufferers, or should I say survivors!

While we were suffering during our 1st and 2nd trimester, our WhatsApp group chat became our support group. We ranted and we whined and we "reported" our daily suffering on that thread. Most importantly, we encouraged one another to hang in there.




When we realised we were all pregnant, we made a pact to take a bump shot together or it would never happen again. LOL! Why never happen again? Cyn has 4 kids, Char has 2 kids and they decided they would stop at that.

As we were all so sick during the same phase of our pregnancy, it meant that by the time Char was well, Cyn might have popped. It was such an opportune time to meet up a few days before Cyn popped and sealed memories of our bump shots with so many photos.




Our photographer for that day was my Godson Jase. At 14 years old this year, Jase has grown from a sensible and well-behaved boy into a fine young man. When he was a pre-teen, I kept telling him that no matter how old he is, I would still want to hug him like always. I hope he won't be embarrassed by such a Godma. >_<




I said to him, "Why are you growing taller every day? The last time I saw you during H's baby shower, you were my height and suddenly you are so much taller today!"

So proud of Jase to have gotten into a good school after having missed quite a bit of the Singapore education system when he was over in the UK. I pray that he would do as well academically as he does in other areas of life.




Cyn is so fortunate to have such a filial son. I wish that Baby Ash would grow up to be a filial daughter too. For those who have been reading my blog since Charmaine's (my goddaughter) cancer days, you would know what a sensible boy Jase has always been!




Jase was so patient with us, having to take so many photos till we (more like I) were satisfied. And of course we 3 bimbotic ladies simply had to take a picture WITH him before we let him off to meet his friends.




Cyn said Jase is "trained" well by me coz he has such an eye for detail. After this photo, I told him to change his position to capture us at the right angle. He caught onto the flow and was a natural at instructing us to pose.




For example, could you tell the difference between the next 2 photos?




It was Char's left leg! Jase instructed Char to place her left leg out at a similar angle as what Cyn and I were doing. And that resulted in our favourite picture and the best one to feature on my Instagram.




Our personal favourite was this (even if Cyn's hubz remarked that we looked like we had stiff necks) as we were trying to recreate the pose we did about 8 years ago when we were in NYC.




Not this...




This! Coz we look cuter here.




If Cyn's hubz were to caption this collage, it would be "Still having stiff necks from 2009 to 2018."
-_-|||





~*~*~*~


After our bump shots and after we were more settled down with life, we agreed we should recreate one holding our babies in place of our bumps.




It was so difficult to recreate the exact same pose with the exact same slightly angled position with fidgety babies. Check out how many shots we took in the anigif below! Spot the photobomber while you're at it.




Mums and babes.





In the series of non full length shots, I really couldn't decide which to feature. The adults all had the same expression while the babes looked so comical! I really love the process of how Baby K went from sleeping to frowning with a cute pout and how Baby H was figuring out what Baby K was doing.




The 3 babes all affecting each other to cry.




And then Mia wanted a shot with the babes and she won everyone hands down in posing.




I'm always thankful for being blessed with so many supportive and true girl friends in my life. Also how blessed to have friends sharing the ups and downs of pregnancy, knowledge of motherhood and parenting.




Other than this group of gal pals, I have a couple of people around me (families and good friends) who also became parents all within months of one another which strongly makes me feel that everything happened for a reason and at the right time.

Christmas 2015: Christmas Over To New Year Part 2

My copy and paste disclaimer warning as usual:

IMAGE HEAVY
Loooooooong picture-ful post. Go get your drinks and popcorn while waiting for the images to load. You could even savour your main dish in front of your computer. Those viewing this on your smartphones and other hand held devices, I suggest you skip reading this post till you get home or you might risk jamming your device and cursing at my blog in public. I know my turtle friend did that once minus the cursing in public. =P


~*The One On Christmas Eve*~


Christmas eve was spent with my department at one of our colleague's place. We really love inviting ourselves to any colleague's new home to visit new-born babies, wanting to gain home decor ideas and plain kaypoh-ness.




We spent the bulk of our time savouring local takeaway breakfast delights from JS's neighbourhood.




Everyone loved the house tour conducted by JS, our host for the day.




Anyone who needed cool air-condition comfort would adjourn to this room which became a makeshift playroom for the kids.




We ended the Christmas party with a gift exchange that involved guessing, snatching or keeping. Everyone got gifts including the kids who were really thrilled by their Kinder Surprise. Thank you host JS for opening your lovely home to us and Kat for being an awesome party planner!




I got a really practical gag gift for the gift exchange. Practical gag gift? What an oxymoron but yeah, I got Poo-Pourri for 2 separate gift exchange last Christmas. Friends who have used Poo-Pourri or heard of it raved about the product so much that I'm almost impatient to buy it for my new home. I love all the scatological humour in this product. Check out the poem which I copied from the website and view the hilarious YouTube video here.




I added a fluffy pink dust cloth and a Totoro desk calendar, and put them all in a stationery holder. Remember my catalogue which I took pages from for gift wrapping? I chose a radical looking page from the catalogue and there you go. Who could guess what was inside? *evil laughter* Hope the recipient like the gift as much as the rest of the world who likes Poo-Pourri.







~*The One On Christmas Day*~


On Christmas day, the hubz and I had steak at Bistecca and watched our very first Gold Class movie at Suntec City. I don't know if Singaporeans are getting more affluent or are more willing to spend on movie experience or have lots of Gold Class movie vouchers but I do know of many people around me, kids too, who have already watched Gold Class (and not just once). *rolls eyes*




We did some last minute Christmas shopping before our dinner and got so hungry that we popped by Serenity Spanish Bar and Restaurant for some tapas. While I was editing these food pictures, I told kh that he should be glad that I don't order food according to how instagram worthy they are. So anyway, all these brown dishes are grilled Spanish octopus, sautéed mixed mushrooms and grilled beef with foie gras. I had no idea why the hubz ordered beef when we were going to have steak for dinner after that.




For the few days prior to our Bistecca dinner, kh kept talking about how he craved steak cooked in classic Florentine style and so Bistecca we would go. I was already in love with the design of their website. Reminds me a little of Mark Ryden's work without the morbidity.




While waiting for our food, Kh had nothing better to do than to insist that he looks like Andy Lau and attempted to find a picture of Andy to imitate. *cough cough*




Bread served with Chicken Liver Pâté and Aged Balsamic.
We always love to waste stomach space on bread. You could tell a lot about a restaurant just from the bread they serve.  I've always loved eating bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and that was the first time I had bread with chicken liver pate. Yummilicious!




Cheers!




Ostriche -- Freshly shucked Pacific oyster with mignonette. Such a refreshing briny taste!




I usually cannot eat a lot of oyster due to the generally rich metallic taste but these oysters were really light!




The various sauces to go with the steak.




Traditional Tuscan Sharing Steak for two
Bistecca’s exclusive Signature Wagyu-Holstein beef, thick cut in the traditional manner. Prepared in classic Tuscan style over a high temperature wood-fired grill to produce a traditional charred crust steak. Finished simply with extra-virgin olive oil and salt.




If you name your restaurant after a dish, you had better serve a damn good dish. I wasn't blown away by the steak but Kh sure loved the steak and thought that I had weird taste.




We could not get indoor seating. You can't tell from this photo that I've got tonnes of mosquito bites and was suffering from mild vertigo from the bright spotlight shining on our table.




House classic tiramisu served with coffee custard.




Nothing... just chilling with my empty wine glass and blatantly advertising for Bistecca.




The stairs behind our table provided a decent backdrop for OOTD shots.




Kh's OOTD. Yeah, he should have worn darker brown shoes but he didn't have a replacement since his last pair wore out.




After a while, he decided he should dictate his own fashion and folded his pants up so that his shoes did not look like they blend in with his pants as one.




My first and only bauble reflection shot with the hubz for as long as we've been together.

What better movie to experience Gold Class but Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Both hubz and I are not fans of Star Wars but it was really the best movie to experience Gold Class.




I have never watched a single episode of Star Wars but this movie made me read up more on the different episodes and linkages, and also enticed me to watch the other episodes.




Reclining and cozying up in our seats.




Black and gold from head to toe.






We ordered a Root Beer float and Coke float. After that kh felt like some cheese so we ordered the cheese platter too. It was a little difficult to eat in the dark but the cheese was manageable. I cannot imagine eating main courses in the dark theatre.




It was a black, gold and purple theme OOTD.




Kh would be thrilled whenever I pull out my Chanel Classic Flap from my wardrobe to use. I bought it before the price hike a few years back, used it twice and then into the box it went. My friends often ask me why I don't use it more often. The Chanel Classic Flap had been my dream bag since I was schooling. I did not even know it was a designer bag then. I liked it for the quilted look, the black and gold chain and the double c lock. When I had enough money to buy it, I was simply satisfied with being able to own one at long last. I soon realise that this bag isn't practical for my weekend usage as I could not really pack all my usual stuff into it.




So anyway, I digress. Fashion bloggers have OOTD detail shots listing down their apparels... but I'm no fashion blogger and I'm too lazy to list them down.




Also, many beauty bloggers have FOTD listing all the make up products they used. I'm no beauty blogger and my complexion looks flawless here because of filters from 美图秀秀 (mei tu xiu xiu beauty app). So now you know I'm a fake and lazy blogger.







~*The One With My Other Family*~


Cyn and her kids are reunited as a family when Papa P was back in Singapore for Christmas. How I missed my godkids! For all the times I met up with Cyn, the kids weren't around. I haven't seen them for almost a year since Chinese New Year 2015.




We met up for dinner at The Tuckshop which is a rather charming place with a casual and relaxed environment. Just the perfect set up for gathering with friends.


[Image Credit: greatnewplaces.com]

Bimbotic Cyn hurriedly rubbed the Kitty's tummy once she got her gift.
Jase posed with his magic tricks with a smile though he really preferred Mia's owl blankie.
Mia was totally amused by the hand warmer portion of the owl.




Cyn's gift to me was wrapped so simply and beautifully...




... whereas mine looked like crap. I'm really never good at wrapping and you would laugh when you saw how I wrapped Mia's owl blankie.

Cheeky looking gal!




Monkey faces.




Remember the eye candy hair brush from my previous post? It was put to good use immediately after opening. Mia's hair was totally tangled from a whole day of water adventure and good big brother Jase decided he would help detangle her hair. He looked just like a professional stylist in this collage!




Once again when I do not have photos of the menu and cannot find the menu online, I would forget what we ordered.

Some cheesy thingy which is most likely quesadillas. Yummy!




Beef and mushroom pasta was yummy but spicy! Portion was quite small though.




This tasted like a very blah version of chicken satay.




I never really liked pork slider burger but these were pretty good.




LOL




Mia has an endearing smile that simply melts people's hearts.




Even though I've not seen Mia for so long, she readily stuck to me and kept hugging me. Even as she played Tag with Jase and hugged him, she would run towards me to hug my legs and hips. I asked Cyn if she usually behaves like that to all people and Cyn shook her head. Awww...

Watch a short 15 sec instagram video here of Mia playing Tag.




Jase is growing so fast. Very soon he would be taller than me and he wouldn't hug me any more! Boo hoo hoo!




Cheeky monkeys.




Back at home, we were trying so hard to take a group photo with the phone on self timer mode. Paddy, Cyn, Jase and I were eagerly putting on the props and readying ourselves on the sofa but Mia loved walking to the phone to look at herself in the screen a lot more than to sit with us. We always had to drag her back to the scene and place a Christmas prop on her.




After many many shots...




What went on behind the scene of the wacky Christmas props photo..



We ended the night by playing Jenga. I love how Cyn played Jenga like a smooth criminal.




I will miss all of you and I dread the day you all would be leaving Singapore. T_T







~*The One On The Last Work Day of 2015*~


We had a mini department lunch at Watami Singapore with whoever was left in the office on the last work day of 2015.




It was sort of a post Christmas, pre new year lunch.








After lunch, a few of us went to sing K. It was so much fun singing, dancing and making a complete fool of ourselves. There were some videos but those are for private viewing.




Dinner was Japanese food again Tonkatsu at Tonkichi, this time with the hubz.







As promised, Part 2 did not take that long right? Part 3 would conclude with all the Christmas gatherings from new year's eve all the way till February. Till then...