madmoneymonkey

...I've been so quiet because I've been so so so busy!

I've been juggling the launch of Cookyn with Mervyn, to doing the slideshow for Bev's wedding, to work, to taking care of Ellie, to researching for my bridesmaid dress, to everything else far and between. Was very thankful for the weekend in KL where we just slept and did nothing, went for walks, did some shopping and celebrated Merv's birthday with a long overdue Transformers movie date in KL.

Still, amidst the madness, I am taking a moment to document this - Merv's first article! Thanks to some kind souls that have been watching out for us, Merv landed a small writing job which he is enjoying.

Presenting a cook's guide to beef: http://www.insing.com/food-drink/features/listings/article/e8/d4/00/00/Cooks-Guide-To-Beef which comes with 2 recipes!

Hope you enjoy it and pls do give any feedback you might have!!

After a weekend of great self-control and eating as healthily as I possibly could in KL (the land of Mdm Kwan nasi lemaks), I went to spoil it all by joining in the tasting for Japanese wagyu beef at office today.

Oh boy. The meat is the fattiest I've ever eaten. It was SO. GOOD, creamy and delicious but I feel like my heart is about to stop from all that fat gathering in my arteries. Maybe that's why they banned Japanese beef for 8 years. LOL.

I need a cup of good strong tea and maybe a yoga class to make me feel better now. Ooooof.

My little boy looks not-so-little anymore! Looking at his pics taken in Grandmama's house, with his mega-watt smile. I love him so much!!


Y'think this cap suits me?



He's growing up too quickly!!

These few days of poor Ellie being sick have been tiring. I've had to wash his poopy bum countless times, force-feed him medicine, wake up hourly (YAWN!) at night to carry him so his stuffy nose gets unblocked and generally have a live-in koala on my hip.

But thank God for grandparents who willingly take over some duties! My MIL even came to stay with us last night so I could get a good night's rest. And Merv and I managed to take a night stroll to the 24-hour supermarket, something we haven't done in a long time!

But life still goes on, sick or not. When the going gets tough, the tough...take pictures!


Grandmama takes Ellie for a pretend carousel ride (just sat there only)

( Never too sick to camwhore! )

Because Ellie was all ill last night, we decided to eat at home and cook something healthy that we could all eat together. So Merv bought some fresh Ling fish and cooked up a really yummy grilled fish dish with lemon white wine sauce (none of that for Ellie!) and paired it with a garlic mashed potato (I'm sure lots of you know how to make that, haha!)


 
Yum yum yum! I love fresh fish and this one was lovely and firm. Texture was like tuna but it was a white fish. Mmmm.


And for dessert, I was inspired by PF's blueberry ice lollies for K, so I went out to NTUC and bought a punnet of blueberries ($2.75), a punnet of strawberries ($2.65) and a box of apple juice (100% juice, no sugar added) ($2.15) and we made a berry boost! 3 lovely cups of berry super-goodness for just $7.55! And poor little sick Ellie needed as much vitamins and antioxidants he could get.

( Berry Boooooooost! )

Poor Ellie is rather ill.

It started off with diahorrea last week and since then, he has gotten well, then got a fever, then got well and then fever and diahorrea again, got well and now has got a flu!! Dunno why he seems to be so badly hit this time.

My normally very easygoing baby has become incredibly clingy. He has to be glued to me and constantly needs to be carried. He screams when he loses sight of me and I can't even put him on the ground just opposite me, he will scramble into my lap frantically and won't calm down until he has his side touching mine. While I'm thankful that at least I can calm him down, it is also incredibly tiring!

And from sleeping through the night, he gets up twice through the night now crying for milk because we've had to dilute his milk to curb the diahorrea so he gets hungry much faster. Groan. So not used to getting up in the middle of the night anymore.

My poor lil bub. I really hope he gets well soon!!

If you see this, please pray for Ellie. He is having diahorrea and has done soft smelly poopies 3 times this evening. Sigh. He is upset (can't blame him!) and cries angrily. But thank God he is not running a fever.

Haiyah, after my frivolous post on his hair previously, I feel so dumb. Who cares what hair he has? I just want my happy cheerful and healthy baby back!

My MIL gave Ellie a new haircut!

My mum came to pick me up from work and had Ellie with her. I still remember I got in the car, looked at him and almost didn't recognise him!!!!

( The new haircut )

I'm praying so hard that there will be a weekly special on Bali next on the SQ website.

Their weekly specials have been phenomenal. HK - weekly special at $298NETT per person return?? UNBELIEVABLE.

Bali, Bali, Bali...*sends subliminal messages to the brains of the SQ management*

Today is the last day to pay your taxes, people!!!

*kaching!*

Today I went to buy coffee from the coffeeshop near the office.

The uncle was brewing tea with both hands and speaking on his handphone at the same time with it pinned between his cheek and shoulder. So I thought, don't mind waiting a while until he gets a little less busy.

So I stood around for about 2 minutes, looking around at the headlines of the newspapers in the stack, looking at the ugly pics on the cigarette packs, looking at the assortment of drinks, just waiting for my order to be taken.

Then the uncle (without even looking at me) said 'eh girl, you want to order then just order ok? Don't stand there and don't say anything.'

Wah lao eh. There I was, trying to be patient. Silly. Next time, I'll march up and start belting out my orders, handphone or not.

Bev sent me an old photo today and when I opened it, my first thought was 'is that Elliot??' I didn't realise he looked so much like me! It reminded me of when Bev first saw Ellie. She said 'I've never seen a baby that looked so much like both parents. Top half like Merv and lower half like you!'

I think no one can dispute the fact that Ellie's eyes are photocopied off Merv's face. But lower halves of faces are easy to overlook unless you have a strong jaw or something. But putting our baby faces side-by-side, you can CLEARLY see everything from nose downwards is mine!!

( Photo evidence that Elliot is my son )

I went to dig up some more pictures because Elliot's e-por told me 'don't be lazy, post more pictures of Elliot!' ROFL. Ok, here is a set I took when we went to the Cold Storage at Great World City a few weeks back. We LOVE Cold Storage and can spend hours and hours in there - Merv in the meats and fresh food section and me in the biscuits and chocolates section. Lately though, I always head to the baby section first, praying Ellie's milk powder might be on sale (expensive stuff!!!) and if it is not, then just oogling over all the fun purees and biscuits and juices and yummy things for babies.

Now that Elliot can sit up in the trolley quite steadily, it's even more fun! We pull down things for him to touch, let him smell spices, fruits and cheese, point out colors to him, so fun! Supermarkets can cause serious sensory overload!!


Watching as daddy shops

( More of a baby in a trolley )

Just got back from dinner with the LJ ladies at Summer Pavillion at Ritz and the food was really really good, everything was DELISH! I cannot wait to go back there again!! Thank you for hosting us Candice!!!

After dinner, we did a cherry delivery. We got hold of some really delicious Bing cherries from the US of A which we offered to Cookyn-with-Mervyn members, so we did some deliveries tonight. It felt like a little fruit van going around town, dropping off little bites of happiness. Cherries are LOVE!!!

Now Merv is poring through a utensils catalogue. He is besotted and completely ignoring me. So here I am lar, typing and eating cherries. Off to bed soon, another night of aircon!! Yaaaay!

Life is good.

Merv is quite silly. We picked up some new bowls and assorted stuff from a friend that used to run a restaurant - 5 boxes worth of stuff! We couldn't put it in the backseat of the car because I had to sit there with Ellie so everything was loaded into the front seat. Because the boxes were stacked very precariously high, he had to have his arm on it while driving.

Halfway through the drive, he turned around with his arm still on the boxes and said 'meet my new wife'. Silliness!!


Merv's 'new wife'


We met up with our friends for a quick dinner and some yummy soft traditional bread and tehpeng. Yum! Ellie had fun sitting on Daddy's shoulders and he would chuckle at being so tall. We were all MOST amused because since Merv's hair was gelled up, it would tickle Ellie's eyes and nose so he would squint in anticipation of the hair tickling his face. TOO funny!!!


Totally loving sitting on Daddy's shoulders!

For Wenz jiejie, here are some pictures we took of Ellie over the weekend. He is really too cute, I want to hug and kiss him all the time (crazy mummy!). Haha.


My cheerful boy!



My boys in the lift - Ellie wearing the onesie courtesy of his new friend Arthur and Aunty TL.



"One more pic Ellie!" Oops too late, he's distracted by the lights!

I go dig for more pics. Haha.

Sigh.

Elliot's top 2 teeth have emerged and ack! he inherited the gap between the 2 front teeth from Mum and Grandpa!!! Of ALL the traits he could have inherited, he looks like a photocopy of his daddy with his mummy's front teeth gap. ACK!!!

No pictures yet because he keeps biting down on anything in his mouth and my fingers will be in peril!

Fathers' Day is 21st June this year. I keep thinking it's 14th!!

I HATE housework!! It's such a chore, literally!!

When I have no choice but to do housework, I try to make it a game that I play with myself, just to make it a little less boring.

One of the things I like is to wash things with so much soap that the bubbles rise up and emerge from the overflow vent (not sure what those are called!). As I wash, I wait for these bubbles to come up and that takes my mind off the washing a little. Strange I know!!

And everytime Merv walks by as I am doing the dishes or washing Ellie's bottles, he always looks at the sink and goes 'wah, foam party ah?!?!' It's so stupid but it cracks me up everytime.

Someone build me a housework robot!!

Sqweeee! We decided to turn on the aircon in the bedroom tonight and bring Ellie in to sleep in our bed.

I keep imagining that he is so pleased to be sleeping in Dad and Mum's bed but I actually think he prefers sleeping in his own cot and it's ME that's more excited about the sleeping arrangement.

But ah whatever, off to bed now to look at my little sweetie pie and doze off in some cool aircon comfort...zzzzz!