Thursday, January 22, 2009

I. Am. So. Freakin'. Tired.

God... what a week it's been. Is it just me or has the traffic jams in the KV gotten way out of hand? We've taken to leaving the house earlier and earlier every day (does that make sense?). Even Eez gets confused sometimes when we get in the car: "Mom? It's morning?" since the sky is still black (his definition of night). Kesian jugak to them, have to leave their warm beds so early but we have no choice if we want to make it to work on time and get parking spaces within a reasonable distance from our offices.

Coming home pun is another round of jams. Worse if it rains. A few days ago I drove 1-and-a-quarter hours to a clinic in SJ from my office straight after work in the pouring rain to give a urine sample for a medical check-up required by my house insurance provider, which everyone knows, takes you like ten seconds to pee in a cup. Then another hour or so back to KJ to pick up the kids... luckily it had stopped raining by the time we were heading back (again) to our house. So the trip took just 20 minutes including queuing time at the traffic lights. So in total it took me 1.25 + 1 + .... *&$#$(@*#... well, a journey way too long just to pee. Sheesh.

Ray hasn't been feeling well of late. He's been having a persistent cough an entire bottle of cough medicine wasn't able to banish. He wakes up in the night coughing and crying so I have to tepuk2 him back to sleep. It's easier for him to sleep in our bed terus so I don't have to get up too much. So we took a trip to our GP (it was late, paeds closed, GP will have to do) who prescribed Ventolin expectorant 'cos he suspected it might be early signs of asthma. Oh my poor baby! Thankfully he's been responding well to the new meds and doesn't wake up at night anymore.

Then Eez started having night terrors pulak... I suspect it's as a result of too much Ben 1o or Power Rangers or whatever 'cos the other day he told me he's scared of monsters. I told him the monsters were more scared of him and his trusty Friend, and that Friend would protect him. Otherwise his Papa or Mom would "puk" the monsters for bothering him. Haha... He's woken up twice in the middle of the night, not crying, more like snuffling and walking across the hall to our room. So we made room for him in our bed as well. That's four of us in one bed... luckily the little one didn't say roll over or else Papa would fall out!

So of course poor old Mom, with two toddlers on either side of her who refuse to get under the blankets and prefer to snuggle up under her armpits instead and is forced to lie straight and unmoving in case she accidentally smothers one of them, hasn't had a decent nights sleep in... four years!!! And she still has to wake up at the crack of dawn the next day to drag herself to work. But that's just what being a Mom is all about. 8 hours sleep... but that's for babies! Jam-free roads.. only during school holidays!

Thank God for the super-long weekend coming up this CNY. I'm reserving one day exclusively for me. I'm packing the kids off to my mother's house (my kakak will be here.. yay!!) , install hubs in front of the TV with food and remote control, and I'm going to go lie down in my nice cool empty bed alone and SLEEP!!!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Baby Time

I hosted a baby shower for my oldest and dearest friend, Ms M earlier today. It was held here, and was attended by a nice, eclectic mix of 11 of Ms M's friends from various stages in her life. There friends from primary school right up to uni, newer mommy friends and two of her SILs. I didn't get to throw one for her first baby since I was busy preparing for my wedding then, so I decided to throw one now and also to sort of get to celebrate her upcoming birthday at the same time.

Since I am working full-time, I needed help so I roped in some friends to help me with the preparations. I provided the party favors, Farah provided the cake and Mrika got a keepsake book for each guest to write a page in. As an added touch, I ordered balloons from here, the cheapest I've found so far. Hubs offered to collect the balloons this morning immediately after the store opened so I wouldn't have to rush to Hartamas and back to the party venue (thanks, luv u!).

For my gift, I decided to make Ms M a diaper cake. I took the day off yesterday especially to make the diaper cake and party favors (made hubs send the kids to my mom's so I could fully concentrate :-P). For the diaper cake, I used P*reen Dry 5's in a size S since I was worried the newborn size might be too small and Ms M might not be able to finish them in time before the baby out-grew them. Have u seen these diapers? They're multi-coloured and puffy yet super-absorbent and are great for newborn babies who wet/soil themselves every 10 minutes. Most hospitals use this brand, too. I rolled up the diapers with rubber bands and constructed a 2-layer cake with an empty kitchen roll as the support. Some people like to use a baby bottle or a bottle of baby shampoo or lotion as the support, but I figured they'd be too heavy and hard to tape in place on the cardboard cake base. To cover up the colourful diapers, I used a yellow bath towel for the first layer and a blue blanket for the 2nd layer. Konon-konon the blue blanket was water, which I topped off with cute little bath toys. For a finishing touch, I "garnished" the whole cake with ribbons. Here's the finished result:




For the party favors, I ordered these cookies from here. Aren't they the cutest?




I put the cookies in a mug filled with shredded colour paper and added a little scented candle inside. On average, I'd say each favor cost about RM8 each. Value for money, yes? It just goes to show that you don't have to spend a fortune to get quality stuff. A good thing in today's shaky economic environment! Farah's little placards were the perfect finishing touch to the favors, making it personal and extra special:


I totally forgot to bring my camera to the party (doh!!), so I didn't get to take a picture of Farah's lovely cake ordered from Aunty Abrina. We all had great fun and practically stuffed ourselves silly. I did, anyway. Balik terus rasa nak tidur but I managed to stop myself.. haha.

Thanks for coming to "memeriahkan" the party, girls. Who's next?