I took over the wheel after spending some time with baby K last night. But I never complete the drive. Lol. I always make the hubs take over when we reach the entrance of our multi-storey carpark. While he gets out of the car, I'll just cross over to the front passenger seat. While I have no problems driving down the carpark, driving up is another story altogether. And also, I don't want to sit through his criticisms should I be parking the car.

The husband made a few comments last night about my turns not being smooth and trying to show me how I did it but failing. There was once, long time back, when I was driving with a friend in the back and they both got out while I parked. The husband was gesturing and getting impatient with my parking while, get this, trying to guide me to park! Little wonder why I have so much resistance to driving right? Before I took over the wheel a few Sundays back, I reminded him not to criticize or show me impatience and he agreed. But as I'm beginning to drive back home from Tampines more often, he has let his guard down and very soon, I'm going to stop wanting to drive altogether.

But I really need to get used to this and learn how to park so that I can confidently bring baby K out if the hubs is not in town in future.

I finally sold another of baby K's item today. Although I emailed the item to the FB group a few times, the photo somehow did not get uploaded. Well, they are inconsistent like that but anyway, they are doing it for free so one can't expect much. And,yes, there's quite a bit of luck going on here when you have your items published and sold!

Even with the previous item, I think I managed to clear it fast was because the photo which I had uploaded showed that it was in it's original packaging and yes, I sold it almost like it was brand new. The were a few other sellers selling the same milk bottle warmer bags and they are still available. And I'm glad to find another buyer for baby K's electric milk warmer! Yes, she doesn't need it anymore.

It used to be quite common for her to not finish her milk and we have to pop the remainder into the electric milk warmer so that the milk can remain warm by the time she was ready to drink it again. And not forgetting the refrigerated expressed breasts milk that needed to be heated up when it was baby's K feeding time when she was still an infant and when I was still expressing then. Thankfully, she always finishes her milk at 1 go now. All 200ml of it. 

So yes, I found the next buyer in a colleague whose baby is now about 3 months. She had mentioned to me that she mixes bottled drinking water to the formula milk, without heating it up. (!!!) Room temperature milk for babies is almost unheard of for the Chinese. And she goes on to tell me that her baby has been fussing and has quite a bit of air. So I advised her to rub yuyi oil on her baby's tummy as well as the soles of her feet and of course, advised her to warm up baby's milk. And then came in my electric milk bottle warmer. Lol....

The trusty milk bottle warmer. :)

The childcare centre that baby K will soon be joining called me to invite us to their mid-autumn festival celebrations. Being a Friday, the hubs picked baby K back from Jeremy's as usual but this time, we had a guest with us. Tim asked if he could stay the night at our home as he had just started a part-time job with an English centre, nearer to our home compared to Tampines, while doing his law degree.

So with the modus operandi every Friday, the hubs washed and sterilise baby K's milk bottles and pacifiers and gave her dinner. And when all was done, the 3 of us together with Tim drove to the childcare centre. 

I had bought for baby K a simple printed paper lantern, a design that has been around ever since I was a child. While they are still young, they get excited easily over simple things. It's the parents who tend to spend too much on their kids. Anyway, she had a fun time bringing the lantern out with the other children around the estate. 

When the hubs and I were out on Monday and saw a stand selling all sorts of lanterns at the atrium of Vivo, he hemmed and hawed and ended up not buying any although I had really wanted to. He went on to say he'll buy a lantern on his own but as usual, did not. I had to make a trip to a nearby mall on Thursday so baby K will not be the only one without a lantern and that will be very sad.....to see her friends displaying their lanterns and she is without. But anyhow, the childcare centre had prepared for situations like this and even offered paper lanterns to the parents!

And today, we had another invite to Hannah's 7th birthday. The Victor's rented a bouncing castle and baby K had quite a time bouncing and bobbing in it. And then there was the passing the parcel game which the older sister organised, and I sat in with baby K, as well as neon sticks that she had fun playing with especially when the sky became dark. I hope when she's old enough, she doesn't demand all these stuff for her birthday! Lol. 

The only thing I have in mind for her, is to hold her birthday party at Macdonald's when she is older. Yes. This is something I've always wanted for myself. :)

The hubs and I have been eating out ever since I returned to work when my maternity leave ended. After my confinement I did not want M to cook anything heavy in the kitchen anymore. When she was staying with Jerry, they had a maid who will clean up after her but I do not have that luxury and it irks me a lot when I see stains left on the kitchen counter or worst, having to step on a sticky floor. And we all know the rest of the house will end up feeling sticky wherever our feet leads us.

Throughout my 1 month's confinement, I think the kitchen floor was only mopped thoroughly that 1 time I had a part-time lady come in. And seeing my kitchen taken over, especially with so much mess, was every bit frustrating while having a baby latch on me almost the whole day. And when I enforced a no cooking but steaming, cooking porridge allowed rule, M wasn't very happy at all, to say the least. I ended up not doing any cooking myself until it was time for baby K to embark on solid food, which thankfully, consists a lot of soupy stuff.

Lately, I find my mind filling up with a lot of questions on what to prepare for baby K's dinner when she comes home with us in January. The hubs told M that we have confirmed a place at a childcare centre for baby K last Saturday, during which, he also gave M the impression that she will be doing the cooking for her by then. Not what I had in mind! Totally NOT! I gave the hubs a piece of my mind after he said that to M.

And I think I've found a solution to this. I shall include her as an authorised guardian to pick baby K up from the childcare centre and have her fetch baby K from the centre everyday. That will give me time to be alone to do some cooking. And since I'll have to cook for baby K, I might as well cook for the rest of us. 

Now, it's back to the mind boggling questions on what can I cook for her and the rest of the family without the food tasting too bland for the adults and too savoury for the little one.

I have 16 days of leave left for the year and after deducting the 5 days which I can carry forward to 2014, I will need to clear 11 days of annual leave. I also have another 2 days of childcare leave left to be consumed by year end. That means I will need to take at least 3 days of leave every month from now till December.

I hardly take leave unless it's for holidays or for baby K's scheduled immunisation at the polyclinic. And other than the 3 days of leave that Ivy requested from me when her sis was in town, she never asked to take any leave just to rest. Her rest days are really just on Saturdays and probably 3/4 of Sundays as we send baby K to their home by 7pm usually. But then again we have church on Sundays and Ivy teaches the children Sunday school so technically she is only 'well-rested' on Saturdays.

Not wanting to take advantage of Ivy's kindness and knowing fully well that taking care of an active toddler is very energy zapping, I have decided to take 2 days of leave every month from now till December. Having a generous leave policy helps too of course.

Sometimes the husband makes unfair comments when he sees baby K with insect bites or rashes on her body after picking her up from Jeremy's and last night on our way home after spending time with baby K, I reminded him that Ivy is still the best choice for baby K. Not once has she asked for any leave days other than the time her sis flew back for a holiday. Although we are looking forward to January when we will have baby K home with us, we also have to give up our couple time and the luxury of meeting up after work to watch a movie or go window shopping.

And I'm sure Jeremy, Ivy, Tim & Bev will miss baby K very much the moment we stop the current arrangement. :(

It was with much hesitation that I decided to create a blogspot account to continue with my habit of updating friends on what has been happening in my life.

I've been updating my previous blog religiously but I have not been able to gain access to my own account and on Pauline's  encouragement, I decided to create this. The hesitation was because of the many entries that I had and now I may lose them. But on another note, that blog was started during a different phase of my life. And as I enter a new phase, read: matured, it's timely that I change the name of my blog to reveal a more 'earthly' me. Lol.

So sit back, relax and join me as I go through life as a mummy, wife and friend.