My weekend off

After 3 months of hardwork this year, 6 days every week, i decided to give myself the weekend off to spend some time with the family. Clients expect you to work 7 days, when i tell them we are closed this saturday, some will ask why? *rolls eyes* To some of the more annoying ones i will reply, "Oh because we've earned enough for this month already!" hehehe

We were supposed to bring Kayden for his first movie on Saturday but after the bicycle ride at Punggol Park (he rode a whole kilometre!), he was quite poofed so that didn't happen.



I dunno what was wrong with him that day, while on his bicycle he refused to let me take any pictures of him, anytime i pointed the camera in his direction he will squeal and whine :s it was as though i was some annoying papparazzi. Here are his feet running away from me!











this photo below if you take a look at the reflections in his sunglasses, you will see the mummy papparazzi on one side and daddy on the other side :p






Then today, i tried making Nigella's Strawberries and Meringue Cream after seeing her do it on Nigella Express.



It was my first time using balsamic vinegar in a recipe and i love it!
The recipe called for a packet of meringue nests which i have no idea where to get, so i baked some from scratch with an old pavlova recipe.



The result as you can see was quite heavenly. The cruch and chewiness of the meringue pieces in the cream together with the sweet and sour strawberries were delicious :) Try making this! It's easy!





Strawberries and Meringue Cream

INGREDIENTS
500g strawberries
2 teaspoons caster or vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
500ml whipping cream
1 packet of individual meringue nests

HOW TO MAKE
Hull and finely chop the strawberries and put into a bowl. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and leave to macerate for about 10 minutes.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until thick but still soft. Roughly crumble in 4 of the meringues nests – you will need chunks for texture and fine dust.

Take out about half a cupful of the chopped strawberries for the garnish later, and fold the cream and rest of the fruit mixture together.

Arrange on 4 serving plates in a mound, and top each one with some of the remaining macerated strawberries.

Serves 4

You know you have pregnant boobies when

1. your most comfortable sleep bra turns into a boa constrictor at night
2. your toddler starts using your cleavage as a "road" for his toy cars, sometimes parking 2 there at a go
3. men on the mrt stares at you below your face level

#2 - The final trimester

This is my first post on baby #2! Although the bump is getting more obvious with each passing day (just 85 days to go!), the excitement is not growing yet. I think it's a case of been there done that. However i am sure that i will get more anxious towards the final weeks. Already i am wondering what he will look like, from the 2nd ultrasound scan (see above), this upside down baby looks like he has Kayden's forehead, mummy's big tummy and daddy's long legs hahaha :D Most mothers will tell you that they don't care how their unborn child looks "as long healthy can already la!". What a lie! Then why are they going for the 3D or 4D scans huh? ;) I on the other hand will tell you truthfully that i wish my second son will not inherit my big nose or my temper (Kayden inherited both!) and hopefully he will look like Daddy but be more sociable than him :)

Most of you already know, Kayden was my obstetrician's record breaking heaviest baby delivered at a whopping 4.475kg (almost 10pounds) and 54cm long. I am hoping #2 (sorry he doesn't have a name yet, Daddy and i are still undecided) will not be as big but at the last appointment last friday, he seems to be "on the big side". No surprise! Doctor Eunice said that if anyone can break Kayden's record, it will be this fella haha!

Anyway little one, enjoy your last trimester in Mummy's tummy. Your big brother has been kissing you from the outside everyday now and he is calling you baby instead of didi now! We can't wait to meet you and meantime, do hold back on your parties in there! :p



thanks to aunty Candida for helping me take the shots today at the Loft.

Happy Birthday Baby! (the big one)

When we were dating, through marriage and our first pregnancy, Erwin was still my "baby" and i was his "girl". That's what we would call each other la. Then Kayden came along and overnight i became "mummy" and he, "daddy". The transition was so seamless that only today when i saw my phone reminder that it was "Baby's Birthday!" that i thought back to the old days when we were just a couple :) how things have progressed since!

Today my big baby turns 36! kekeke, so old right? I still remember calling him "old man" when we were pak-tor-ing :p Those were some really good times and i miss them. Our relationship has taken a downturn lately and we finally agreed today to see a councillor. I feel very sad when we shout at each other and our innocent child looks at us wondering what's going on. It's very bad to say the least. After we were done, Kayden came up to me and say, "Daddy cry." Then he looked at me and say, "Mummy cry." :'( Even us showing affection to each other is something new to him (shows how much we have been fighting!), like this morning when i gave Erwin a birthday kiss, Kayden exclaimed excitedly, "Mummy kiss Daddy!"

Anyway baby if you are reading, i know i have not been a very good wife but i am trying my best now to improve and be one that you will love and cherish. Hoping we can have in the near future those days of old again.

I love you and happy birthday :)

(Dug out some of our wedding photos, don't we look young and somebody has more hair? haha, just kidding!)

the 9 endearing ways of my firstborn

1. at night when we are all on the bed and i happen to close my eyes before he does, he will pat Mummy to sleep like how i would pat him to sleep as a baby :p

2. time to pnong pnong Kayden! he will correct me and say "shower" :s then he will recite these 3 sentences, "Take out shirt, take out shorts, take out pam pams (pampers)."

3. he will say hello and bye bye to everything, eg. Hello Plant! Bye Bye Plant! grandparents who keep calling are not spared, he will say hello then bye bye immediately to cut them short kekeke

4. he’s a walking TVC jingle jukebox, currently his favourite jingle is the Sony Bravia tvc where the colourful threads are thrown down a mountain.

5. after singing the Happy Birthday song, he will pretend to blow out a candle (his finger) and then proceed to feed you imaginery cake to which you must pretend to gobble down with gusto!

6. when i come out from the shower, he will bring me my pajamas and spectacles.

7. on cold nights, he will sleep curled up like a fat prawn, too cute :D

8. he dances each time he hears music with beats, the sort of dance those big african american ladies from Louisiana are famous for (sort of like a fat bottomed turkey bobbing up and down hahaha)

9. he MUST hold mummy’s hand in one hand and daddy’s hand in the other before going into the lift, sometimes the 3 of us get stucked at the door this way :s

Chubby babies are cute!

Ling was a Bloom client whom to date, have come to The Studio Loft 4 times already for portrait sessions of herself when pregnant with #3 and the other sessions were with her 3 children. Her youngest was my motivation to have another child! She's so chubby and adorable its irresistable! To all of you out there contemplating another child, think no more! Below are the reasons why ;)



















and this was Ling when pregnant with the chubby one, look how huge her tummy was!

The two faces of the client

It's been an up and down week to say the least. Just looking at The Studio Loft's business thread on the Singapore Motherhood Forum and you will know what i'm talking about. I've been getting flak from a couple of clients and even from some people on the forum who are not my clients! On the other hand, i have received posts by happy clients thanking me for my work and making it an enjoyable experience for them. The two faces of the client makes me realise how difficult it is to balance the roles of business owner, photographer and customer service personel.

To top off the bad part of the week, a client cancelled her shoot this morning because i was 15mins late. i apologised sincerely but she would have none of it. What can i do ya? Sigh. But later that day i had 3 other shoots which went well and made me feel better :) i even got an sms from one of them to say they were glad they came for the shoot and from the other client, she wrote an encouraging post on the business thread and that made my day better.

i know the main problem is that i suck at customer service but i can't help it, i am a very frank person who does not mince her words and sometimes i come off as rude and opinionated. Friends will tell you that my temper has mellowed over the years but i guess it is still not good enough to garner me a GEMS award :p i will try harder to improve in this area as i go along but do cut me some slack as i am just a mum trying to make a living out of my hobby and at the same time give my clients beautiful photos they can cherish.

Le Petit Portrait @ The Pond

Slightly more than a week ago i mentioned that i was bringing Kayden and myself to The Pond for a portrait session with local portrait photographer, Tan Ngiap Heng. i came to know of him when my good friend Yvonne hired him for her wedding day photography. In 2006, i attended a studio lighting course conducted by Heng at Objectifs. He did a daylight shoot for us and here are two of the photos i chose for printing :)





the other photos can be viewed on my Facebook.

Mr Vocabulary

Last week my son farted and it stinked terribly so i asked him, "Kayden, did you poot poot?". He replied, "Mummy, i want to pass motion."! Wow! i was shocked and surprised at his reply! So clever, he must have learnt it in school. i was in for more surprises throughout the week as his vocab extends and his verbal communicating skills improve by leaps and bounds :)

We were having dinner at Mac's and he was having a fun time dipping the fries into the ketchup before feeding Daddy with them. i was seated across the table from the both of them and asked if Mummy can have a fry too? He happily obliged and dipped a new fry into the ketchup and tried to feed me across the table but his little arm was too short. He said to me, "Cannot reach!". Both Erwin and me looked at each other in astonishment as this was the first time he used these words and phrase them together in a sentence! ok ok, it's not really a sentence but still we were impressed :D

While watching the last episode of House, i was tearing from a touching scene when Kayden walked out of the room and saw me. He remarked, "Oh, Mummy crying." Then he corrected himself as i wiped the tears from my eyes, "Mummy's eyes cry." Haha! Aiyoh my son is super cute :p

I was eating a tuna bun for breakfast when he came up to me and i guess i must have fishy breath. He looked at me with that cherubic face and said matter of factly: "Mummy eat fish bread."

There've been many instances of him mimicking us recently so we try to watch our language around him. One of the cuter imitations is him saying, "Momo lai loh!". i always say this when my cat Momo is about to walk into the bedroom which is out of bounds to him. So now whenever Momo approaches the bedroom door, Kayden will mimic my phrase and tone and announce loudly Momo lai loh!!!

He will also put the word "favourite" in front of everything he likes now. Eg, favourite cow shirt, favourite blue shorts, favourite book etc.

Kayden's speak:
chaklat - chocolate
ahnagh ahnagh nah nah - to sleep
ehderphant - elephant
du want - don't want
VVD - DVD
pretti patah - roti prata
cow car - his cow tricycle toy
wei wee bird - ladybird
bar bah fly - butterfly
orange rice/noodles - nasi goreng/mee goreng
copter - helicopter
hole bread - donut
tebby bear - teddy bear
fiss - fish