A couple of evenings back, after K had her shower, she wondered out to the living room to bring her daddy into the room. She always asks for him to come into the room and then her daddy will end up falling asleep before her. (!!) 

Anyway, the hubs was watching some infotainment on tv about milk and decided to let K see where milk actually comes from. Before the cows came on, the hubs asked K and her reply was 'From the bottle.' It was funny hearing the straight answer with such innocence.

And I digress. K always asks to lie on mummy's lap whenever it's her milk time. Sometimes I get called up while in the middle of washing dishes or something I want to finish first and so I tell her to start first but she'll whine. And I get irritated and walk myself over with my mobile and while she's lying on my lap, I surf impatiently. I know, I'm so mean. Anyhow, that's not the point. I just want to say it's so amazing that babies and even now, that K is now a toddler, she can drink from her milk bottle non-stop! 

Meaning to say the teat does not leave the mouth at all for whatever amount of milk that she is drinking. Her milk intake is 200ml and she finishes it in less than 5 minutes! Isn't that amazing? I think I take twice that time just to finish my mug of milk. Lol...

Beautiful bunch of flowers that the eldest SIL bought for K, as she said, when they came over for dinner on Saturday. A reprieve from the haze and hot weather creeping up despite us being in November!

Where's my nice, lovely, cool year end weather that usually makes it's round this time of the year?

We invited Jeremy and Jerry's family over for dinner on Saturday evening and it started early when Jeremy and Ivy arrived at 4ish. The 3rd SIL arrived later with the 3 kids as Jerry had to work. While K had fun playing with Esther and Gideon, I was busy in the kitchen.

I prepared chicken stew earlier and then left it in the thermal cooker so when it was about 5ish, I started on the Salmon Fish Head curry and Stir-fried Mix Vegetables. The hubs' 'contribution' of the oven baked nuggets was the much needed addition to the 3 dishes. I was so busy that I forgot to take pictures of the food! *bummer*

Jeremy commented that it's been a long while since they've had my cooking and went on to say that it's been a long while since I cooked! Which of course, I needed to correct him and I can tell he was impressed. Lol. Anyhow, I was so tired when they left that I did not bother to mop the house! 

And yesterday, when we came back home from church, I took a short nap with K before I mopped the house. And in the evening, we invited Zul over for dinner with the hubs cooking this time but it was a much scaled down affair as we had chicken stew and the curry from the night before. 

A nice change to be staying at home, but just as tiring, especially with the haze level threatening to go up again. :(

Tonight's dinner: Fried Kailan & Steam Seabass, which has been blanketed by tomatos. Oops...

I've been confirmed in my role with the company. On the whole, I am happy here. And my Manager is generally happy with me too. :)

On the whole, I'm glad I've prayed for a nicer boss to work with and she is definitely more understanding and is so much more objective. The company provides flexi working time too although it's more consistent in it's policy for flexi-hours, compared with the previous company. As my Manager comes to work really early, she leaves earlier too and when I'm done for the day, I can just go off. Work life balance is a big thing for the vikings, I think. Lol.

Being able to get home to prepare dinner, ensuring the loved ones are provided with home goodness makes me very contented. Yes, the happiness I get is to be able to get home on time, prep my food and cook dinner everyday without fail. When we don't have plans on Saturdays, I cook too. Of course life is made easier with the help of the thermal pot, from which I make soup that can last us 2 days.

Happiness is all about the simple things in life. And I hope you find yours too. :)

We spent the evening at the hubs' aunt's place for the yearly Nepali Bhai Pooja. They stay just a train station away from us and so we took the stroller and walked there. K tends to want us to carry her after awhile and it's no joke carrying a 13kg weight so we've decided that she should sit in the stroller instead. Having not sat in her stroller for some time, she gleefully sat in it as soon as the hubs unfolded the stroller at our doorstep. Lol...

Having K is a good distraction for me, from the MIL's oft stupid comments and remarks. So she doesn't really bother me anymore in that sense. This year, we didn't have the youngest BIL join us as unfortunately he has been admitted back to the hospital due to the incessant headaches which  they finally found is due a viral infection after drawing fluid from his spine, for the 2nd time.

If I have mentioned it before, I am mentioning it again that the whole family has been admitted to the hospital this year. No surprises for the MIL of course. In fact, it'll be a surprise if she doesn't get admitted to the hospital. The FIL was second, the the hubs, who I must say was a scheduled surgery, and the same day the 2nd SIL had a miscarriage, followed by the youngest BIL on the onset of the terrible headaches then the 2nd BIL due to the accident. It's strange and hopefully, this is it.

The youngest BIL and family were supposed to to go on a holiday to Australia end October but he was re-admitted only a few days back and now has to be hospitalised and be on medication for 10 days, which means they will have to miss this holiday. The BIL had asked if the hubs and I would like to take over the tickets but unfortunately, I do not have 2 weeks of leave to spare. I'm sure the youngest SIL and nephew in law are upset but well, it's not a choice anyone would like to make. Hopefully, he gets well soon.

I'm kind of liking having public holidays fall on Wednesdays. It's almost akin to a 4 day work week. Work 2 days, rest, then work for another 2 days followed by the weekend. 

This morning, I suggested going to the Botanic Gardens for a walk. So after the laundry was done, the 3 of us headed out. Although I have been telling the hubs to park the car nearer to Bukit Timah, where the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden is, he stubbornly drove into the main carpark. Either he was stubborn or wasn't listening. It was so crowded and I was so frustrated with his attitude, I left him to decide what he wanted to do. He ended up exiting the car park as there were no empty lots and going to where I had mentioned from the beginning.

The children's garden is situated away from the main garden and we were lucky to find parking lots available. However, we managed to only spend all of 30 minutes due to the rain. The next time we go, I will be better prepared with K's swim gear as there is a water play area and she kept asking to play there. Thankfully, we were able to distract her with the many other play areas at the garden. Today is really just a recce trip, which was decided impromptu. Next time, we'll bring along her gear, some snacks and spend more time there. 

And because it rained, we drove off for lunch and by the time we reached home, it was about 1 pm, K's naptime in school. She had a good nap for slightly more than 2 hours, something which she hardly does when she's at home now. So that meant good rest for the daddy and mummy as well.

In the evening, we proceeded to the Pannu's house for a Deepavali dinner invite. Mavi and the hubs are childhood friends who grew up in the same neighbourhood. Their daughter is just 2 months older than K and attends the same childcare centre so the 2 had fun playing together although there wasn't much communication between them. It's funny just to see how they can play together without talking.

The 2 girls had their dinner separately, played together quietly and then not so quietly and when we left, K announced that she enjoyed herself! The Pannus even gifted K with a beautiful punjabi suit which Shareen has outgrown. Yes, she is a lot bigger than K although K is not exactly petite. On the whole, the hubs and I enjoyed ourselves too, ending the night with playing sparklers and party poppers that the good host provided.