Deliriously happy

Got my latest batch of tailoring orders from Joanne and am really pleased with the outcome.

Yay, I have some new dresses and tops! Most of the materials in this batch were from JB and Spotlight and I told Joanne that whenever there was leftover material to make me smocked tube tops. For some of the smaller material scraps, I made little tote bags instead.

Out of this batch, I really love the blue dotted blouse, the B&W tube dress and the two floral bias-cut dresses. Once again, the fitting is perfect, no alterations needed, although I could afford to lose some weight! As you can tell, I like my prints!

Noel's baptism

Yesterday was the private baptism of Noel Gomez, Kevin's nephew from his brother Gavin.

Gavin, his wife Esther and baby Noel live in Myanmar and came down for the baptism which was celebrated by Father Joe Nathan. Because Kevin's mom works at Our Lady of Lourdes church, the ceremony was held there, followed by dinner. Even though it was a private baptism, there was still a bit of crowd because most of Gavin's relatives had not met Noel.

Before the ceremony started, we took lots of pictures outside. Noel is only about 5 weeks older than Nuttty but so much bigger, his birth date was 31 Dec 2007. Nutty was still relatively sociable despite her blocked nose and cough. Yes, my darling daughter is sick, having come down with a cold, and yesterday morning we brought her to the paediatrician before heading to work. She's much better now though, the Vicks rubbed on her feet seems to have worked wonders!

Dinner was catered from Sakunthala's...mmm, masala chicken, pepper mutton and deep friend bindi. Swana ordered a cake from Cedele too, sugee-flavoured and it was one of the best sugee cakes I've had. Moist and nutty with melt in your mouth icing. Can't wait to eat that again!

Return to Mimolette

Had brunch with the cousins at Mimolette yesterday but since it was raining, we sat indoors. I don't know what made me order a cod brandade omelette, maybe it was the influence of the yummy cod I had the night before, plus the fact that it came with mashed potatoes but the dish was a disappointment. It tasted a little fishy and the mashed potatoes were extremely salty.

Nick had the corn beef hash like the last time, and Kavi and Kaelash joined him. Swana had the croque madame, and Kevin the steak and eggs, while Jeanette had the egg saumon. For dessert we ordered the crepes with nutella and bananas, blueberry pancakes and a scone. The crepes were yummy, can't go wrong with bananas and chocolate I say.

There wasn't much conversation, we were all so hungry by the time we got there that as soon as the food arrived, we stuffed our faces! In between of course we were entertained by Nat and Riley, and after brunch we took a walk down to the stables to see some horsies. But not before we changed Nat's diaper, my darling daughter chose to poop right when we were having dessert. Thankfully she waited till we were almost done and the backseat of Pedro doubled as a changing table!

Closet cleanout

I've been on a wardrobe purging mission of late, trying on all my clothes and getting rid of the ones that don't fit or I don't fancy anymore. I couldn't do this when we first moved in because I had just cleared the first trimester and was putting on weight.

Now that Nat is out, and it's been over 4 months, I think my body is pretty much not going to change for a while so it's out with the old and in with the new. I started off the the pink, purples and red tops followed by blues and greens. I'm now done with all the tops, pants and skirts and left with the dresses and bags. The plan is to sell them off at a home garage sale when Joanne comes to town, she gets to raid the goodies first though.

Anyway, it's been quite a depressing exercise, practically half the clothes don't fit, even those from a year ago. I wonder if my hips have permanently expanded after childbirth for a majority of my pants could not be zipped. Ok, I know I haven't exactly put in any effort to lose the pregnancy weight and am still thick around the middle...but this is too much I say!

Oh well, at least I have a valid excuse to shop for new clothes since nothing fits...already did some damage at the Mango sale, can't wait for Zara's!

Hannah & Ellis' wedding

Last night was the wedding dinner of Nick's cousin Hannah, to her longtime boyfriend Ellis whom we had not met before. It was held at the Mandarin Oriental and we brought Nutty along since she wouldn't take up much space plus some of Nick's uncles and aunts had not seen her.

In fact, one of his aunts didn't even know we had a baby...think she felt slighted that she was not informed earlier. But then again, he's not close to his uncles and their wives and we don't get updated on any of their children's lives. Very stark contrast to my family, where everybody knows what everyone is doing, and the cousins actually hang out together all the time.

Anyways, as expected, Mildred and her sisters all readily volunteered to look after Nutty while we ate...another reason why we brought her, because we knew there would be no shortage of babysitters. I wore a new silk maxi dress from Zara but regretted it as soon as we stepped out the door. Not only did I keep stepping on the hem, I was so concerned about getting drool on it. Plus everytime I stood up or sat down, it kept getting caught underneath my chair legs or Nutty's stroller wheels. Not good!

Hannah's gown was very simple but she looked stunning in it. It was a white strapless ballgown with black lace and beading at the bodice and waist. Later on she changed into a puffy maroon evening gown. The pre-requisite introductory montage was done slightly different. No childhood pictures, just a music video of them at their favourite activities and re-enactments of dates and the proposal. It was quite cool. The wedding favour was cool too, customised purple and grey M&Ms with "Just Married" and 'Ellis & Hannah" printed on it.

After the champagne popping, the groom had a surprise for his new wife by serenading her with 'Dream a little dream', accompanied by the live band. It was more warbling than crooning but he did apologize in advance because he had never sung before!

The highlight of the evening for me was the food. Each course was really lovely in terms of taste, and presentation to an extent, and I kept snapping away pictures of the food. Let me see if I can recall everything... The first course was a lobster, prawn and melon salad, followed by a double-boiled shark's fin soup with chicken. Next was deep fried pork ribs with honey glaze, and a stewed duck with five treasures. This was followed by pan fried cod that was done to perfection, and abalone with sea cucumber. Next was yam 'pears' with scallop and asparagus, then mantou with chili crab sauce followed by a dessert of passion fruit cream. I can't wait for the next wedding at Oriental but there aren't any on the horizon!

There was a slight mishap midway through dinner when a waiter dropped a tray of soft drinks right behind Ben, who was not spared. Ice cold Coke got poured on his back and some got onto Nick's suit as well. The banquet director was most apologetic and asked how he could make it up. He offered to launder Ben's clothes but since there was no permanent stain, Ben declined though joked that a bottle of wine would be nice.

Nick joined in and said he didn't need a bottle of wine but wouldn't mind if the hotel could dry clean his suit. The banquet guy graciously obliged and even offered to collect the suit from our house and deliver it back when ready. And later on he swung by our table to give Ben and Nick a bottle of wine each...now that's service!

Smiley Riley

Kaelash and Jeanette popped in on Monday evening along with Riley-Jean, on a mission to borrow a boobie pump. Riley was sooo cute, her hair is still standing like Kramer's.

The 2 cousins played on our bed and Riley smacked Nat a couple of times. Don't think she meant to, just that she wanted to play and was probably trying to get Nat's attention. We tried putting her in the Bumbo chair but she didn't like it since she couldn't get out of it. Her parents were pretty amused though, since for once, she had to be still.

Can't believe she'll be one next month, in no time it will be Natalie's turn!

Nick's first Father's Day

Anjali came over on Saturday, bringing with her an Old Navy top she helped me buy from a recent visit to the States. Just as she was about to leave, Germaine popped in, bearing gifts and bubbly. Nat was happy to have visitors and Germaine refused to let her nap even when my poor child started yawning and rubbing her eyes!

That lucky woman is going to Greece this weekend and kept rubbing in she was going before me. Bloody swine, ha ha. I'll get there someday!

In the evening, Nick and me ventured to bring the munchkin for sunset mass at St Teresa's. Nat was pretty quiet till about halfway through when she started babbling and me and Nick took turns to bring her out. After that, we made our way to Seletar Springs for dinner hosted by Colin and Debra. Glenn & Daphne and Jerome & Sylvia were there too, along with their kiddies. Nat was the only girl among 6 boys!

Debra prepared a fancy dinner - angel hair pasta tossed with scallops and clams, puff pastry with sauteed mushrooms, smoked salmon on blinis, home made meatballs and baked prawns. Am not a salmon person, but other than that, everything was yums and I had several rounds!

Glenn brought along the Bumbo chair he was lending us and Nat seemed pretty comfortable in it, she has her very own mini armchair! At least she can sit upright in it and is secure.

When we got home, I quickly wrapped Nick's Father's Day pressie from Natalie. Bought a floral shirt from JB for him recently, and I knew he would probably hate it, but I didn't care, I liked the print. So I figured the only way to make him wear it was to say it was from Nat! I threw in an Old Navy polo tee just to even things out a bit.

Placed the floral shirt in an organza bag and put it between Nat's arms as she was sleeping, along with a tag thanking her Daddy for all the night feeds! Then I called Nick into our room on the pretext of seeing Nat's new 'bolster', he was secretly touched I think.

The actual Father's Day on Sunday was not very eventful though. I had made reservations at Mimolette but after doing the night shift that day, Nick was a little sleepy so we decided to postpone it and just went to United Square in search of lunch. Ended up at the Jalan Kaya Prata Cafe, prata was alright but the accompanying gravies sucked.

We met Swana and Kevin at Baby Avenue in Balestier after, where they perused the strollers and cots. Things were quite expensive, though the guy showing us around knew his stuff. At some point the conversation turned to the limited edition Maclarens and I mentioned I bought my Lulu Guinness one online. He said I was probably the only one here with that model as they do not have the license to distribute that, plus the Kate Spade and Lacoste ones.

After that, we tapau-ed tea to Spottiswoode to say hello to Pops and wish him as well. His present this year was a new water heater!