And So The World Cup Starts

FIFA World Cup started this morning.

Call it a coincidence but both my kiddos are born in the same year that the every-4-years Cup is held. This translates into more sleeping time for Mummy as Papa Yeow will juggle a milk bottle in one hand and Baby in the other while his eyes are glued to the TV screen at hours that no woman, man or child should be awake.

Zzzzzz...

Awfully Chocolate

Back in the days when we were dating, my dear husband once bought an Awfully Chocolate cake to celebrate my twentish birthday (oh how distant that number is now...).

At that time, Awfully Choc was a pretty exclusive shop operating somewhere in Katong and not as easily accessible as it it now. Anyway, I fell in love at first bite cos it was pure chocolate heaven. Mmmmmm...

To clarify: this blog is not a plug for the brand - it's for reminiscing certain memories that stood out from when YSY and I were dating. I'm recalling this cos I have a really really strong craving for quality chocolate something during my confinement and as it happens, a dacadent Awfully Choc cupcake landed in my fridge by way of the Husband. Naturally, the cupcake didn't stay very long there.

Not quite sure where I'm going with this blog but I suppose the chocolatey memory is but one of the happy recollections from when we were not bogged down by everyday worries about children, house matters etc. Having moved on to a different stage in life, it is nice sometimes to pull out old memories just to relive those moments. Or maybe it is just the boredom from confinement. Hee...

Baby Carrots & French Beans

When T was born, I had nurtured dreams of sending him for piano lessons.  Kinda like a younger version of Yanni if u will, minus the maggi mee mope of hair and moustache.. (completely irrelevant note: I do wonder how many bottles of shampoo he goes through each month just to wash those hair follicles...)

Anyway, I digress. From a practical perspective, he will have an extra life skill to fall back on if his day job as a doctor/lawyer/accountant doesn't work out. Personal cultivation-wise, it seemed like a good way to quieten his wilder side down and add a dose of culture. Anyway, it didn't work out in the end because of his baby carrot fingers - short, fat and stumpy. Now, I pen down this description of his fingers with a great deal of affection cos I loved looking at them when T was a baby and to feel those 'baby carrots' curling ard my fingers. It didn't work out cos the stereotype for pianist fingers are long and slender, a complete opposite of the appendages that my firstborn had been endowed with. And so the pianist dreams were shelved...

5 years later and along came K, who was completely different from her big brother: petite (at the time of publication), feisty and *happy dance* blessed with long slender fingers and toes. For lack of a comparable veggie (of which I have a rather limited knowledge of), I liken them to french beans. It's early days yet and I do cherish hopes of sending K for piano lessons for reasons very much different from those for T. But if she is going to sprout a hairstyle like Yanni's, she's footing her own shampoo bill...

Baby Carrots

French Beans

The Maestro with the hor chew and shampoo-ad hair

Waiting....

"A woman's body is a temple."

A quote that I came across long long ago when reading novels was a given, not a luxury. And this quote is still floating about online today when I did some research on materials for this blog entry.

If all women's bodies were structural buildings, mine will probably be a luxury condo. For the simple reason that it's been 37 weeks of 'fun filled' pregnancy symptoms but Baby Girl shows no sign of wanting to leave the comfort of my womb and making an appearance on Mother Earth. No engagement/lightening, no nothing.

After countless nights of fake peeing, gallons of half-digested food down the toilet bowl, edema-ridden extremities (read: feet) and waddling around like a penguin-elephant hybrid, I am more than ready to say hi to Kylie in the flesh. She's not cooperating much though. Bummer...

Work In Progress

12-day old kang kong

 

Core Strength

35 weeks and counting down.

I am taking today's entry as a chance to whine. Specifically, to whine about how I feel like a big, fat elephant.

Sometime back around 32-34 weeks, the tummy that I had so many grievances about took on a life of its own and pong into one which looked relatively more like a pregnant tummy. Now I should be happy that I finally look pregnant instead of bloated right? Wrong! What I did not realise or know is that the pong-ing of the tummy is accompanied by a loss of core body strength and an ability to lumber heavily. Cases in point below:

1. Everyday Walking

Where I used to take 5 minutes to walk from destination A to destination B, it now takes 10-15 min to get to the same destination. I can't walk any faster; it's almost as if I am a moving car with the handbrake on. Heaven forbid I should try to walk any faster than 5cm/per hour cos that will just result in 2 hours of panting while I try to give my lungs a run for their money.

2. Flipper

By nature, I am a restless sleeper - flip left, flip right, repeat motions about 30 times each night before the un-pregnant me drifts off to sleep each night. Now, I can't flip more than 2 times to save my life every night cos it just takes that more straining of core body strength just to flip onto my back and then again to the other side. Again, heaven forbid I should try to flip the second time to the other side at one go. With my new bed partner, I take comfort in the fact that I at least have a bolster at my disposal whichever way I turn. Before u ask: Yes, it does take that much effort to flip without adding in the complication of giving my bolster the Scissor-Leg treatment.

3. Walks in the Park

In the earlier stages of pregnancy, I used to enjoy walking home with T from the nanny's house. Along the way, we made it a game to Spot the Creature as there will be mice, snails and cats coming out to play after dark. Unfortunately, swollen feet and breathlessness has made it difficult for me to waddle home with a overly talkative boy. Right now, we have resorted to taking the bus which T is enjoying very much as well as he gets to press the bell for alighting and I can teach him some basic road recognition as well.

4. All Rise

An action which most people take for granted has became somewhat of a task for the past few weeks - getting up from my seat. Where I used to be able to just jump up, it has became a 5 minute task: 1 minute to grab the nearest handle and cling on to it for dear life, 2 minutes to slowly lift my butt out of the chair and another 2 to get onto my feet. Kinda like a slow-motion movie really, just with a lot more groaning and bones creaking.

End of whine cos it's time to get out of my Reserved Seat and waddle the 500 metres home. Ciao!

KKK

T went on a class excursion some weeks back and came back excitedly touting a Grow-Your-Own-Kang-Kong kit.

For a resolute non-veggie lover, my first thought was: " What am I supposed to do with the *insert grimace* kang kong after they sprout up? Assuming that my decidedly non green fingers or overly curious dog doesn't kill them first?"

Anyway, T has been hustling me to let him hv a go at the kit so we had some kang kong-ish 'fun' this morning at the void deck of our block. A safer choice of venue really, considering that we are dealing with peat moss, toddler hands and a woman who hates cleaning up.

Exciting gloop of nothingness for the next 20-25 days