meet our new cook ;-)

Quite young eh? In fact, she just turned 13months old a few days ago. Yes, months! Coz the young cook in the pic above is our lil Iya! :-) Our baby girl first expressed interest in housework when she was 11months old. Iya would accompany my mom in doing laundry + washing the dishes, having some water fun while doing 'work' :-) As the days progressed, Iya took to watching us prepare and cook food. She would smell the ginisà, taste the stew, and watch the fish fry.

Finally, last night, I let Iya prepare dinner- not on the stove but on our sofa ok? Hehe! She shredded some wheat bread, put it in the pot, added meat and stirred the entire 'mess' :-) In the pic above, she is transfering meat (right) to the pot- the bulalo meat was actually our dinner last night, hehe!Ü Well done chef Iya! Next time we will bake yummy cookies :-)

pregnancy and sleepiness :p

For some reason, I’m always in the mood to nap during mid-mornings these days. It’s funny coz when I was young, I would thwart all the adults’ attempts to have me take my daily nap. I prefer to play all day long, rest not needed, lol! However, I noticed lately that I’m growing fond of sleeping during mornings which led me to sleeping late in the evening (or very early in the morning). I’m not sure why my sleeping habits changed — maybe its coz our lovely bed is very comfy and I just want to lie in it forever! Hehe! Or that the second trimester energy boost is gone and I'm now feeling the third trimester lethargy, ughh!

Today, I’m planning to work online whole morning and have my nap in the afternoon ;-) I’ll probably have a good 2-3 hours sleep before I need to cook dinner. I’ll wait for my hubby to arrive then we’ll eat then we’ll watch TV, talk a bit, and basically bond. Then it’s sleeping time again for me! Hehe! Sleeping in our comfy bed (even if its not one of our must-have dream leather beds) makes my day every night ^_^ However, with me being 8 months pregnant and all, having an electric adjustable bed will even be better. Yes, the ones used as hospital beds – it’s now going mainstream and is available to home owners! If only we could afford it.. :p The additional offender groans.

yes, I'm a SAHM! =)

SAHM means “stay at home mom” and though I’m not a “real” mom yet (3 more months!), I have been in mommy mode since my 2 younger male siblings were born. I am the eldest and the only girl, and so it’s just natural that I’m my mom’s right-hand gal =) Anyway, last October 2008, I got married and chose to be a stay at home wife instead of practicing my medical profession. Most of the people I knew (especially my parents) didn’t understand why I would waste my time staying at home instead of earning moolah being a doctor. My female friends asked me don’t I get bored staying at home day in and day out?

Firstly, being in mommy mode most of my life “trained” me not to get bored spending 24/7 at home. Even during my hectic days in medical school I still did some cooking, cleaning, taking care of our dogs, and doing other household stuff. And when I took a 1 year hiatus after graduating from med school (and before I took my Physician Licensure exam), I further honed my housewife skills. My parents were not living with us due to my dad’s work, and I had a 5-room home, 10 dogs and 1 spoiled brother to take care of. Taking care of our finances and housework was easy-peasy for me. While most “modern” women don’t like cleaning and cooking, I adore it! =)

And then I got married. I now have 2 guys to take care of :p Hubby and I initially planned that I’ll spend the first year of our marriage at home and take specialty training after October 2009. But then I got pregnant around July! We had no plans to have kids until after 3-5 years of marriage so we can really save up for our kid, and now this. Our best-laid plans just got awry! Since I was pregnant, I had to say goodbye to specialty training. I could do it but I don’t wanna stress myself and our sweet baby =) That’s why, until now, I’m still a SAHM! Needless to say, homebody me is loving it!

baby-proof your home!

It will be six months before we’ll have a baby in our house and another 6 months before s/he will be actively wandering but it’s never too early to start baby-proofing our home! As per the usual, I searched online for tips about this and these are the easy to implement baby-proofing techniques that I found over at WebMD:

- Bedding: Put baby on his back to sleep; avoid soft bedding that might suffocate him. Crib slats should be 2-3/8 inches apart or less so head can’t get trapped.

- Floors: USE carpets to prevent slipping. Also check floors constantly for small objects that a baby might swallow like buttons and coins.

- Furniture: Cushion hard edges and sharp corners. If possible, move sharp-edged pieces away from high traffic areas. Anchor down unsteady pieces of furniture, such as bookcases.

- Bathroom: Never leave your child unattended in a bathtub or bath ring. Install no-slip strips on the bottom of the tub. Install lid locks on all toilets and keep the lid closed to prevent drowning and to keep the lid from slamming on your baby’s head or hands.

- Food: Avoid heating baby bottles in microwave ovens. The liquid heats unevenly, leaving pockets of milk potentially hot enough to scald your baby’s mouth.

got our dream home!

Yeah, a treehouse! LOL! And in a virtual game no less! Hahaha! ^_^ Previously I wrote about being addicted to Restaurant City and now, I’m so into YoVille. It’s like The Sims but much simpler and can only be played online. Labsie (my hubby) and I have been saving to buy the Treehouse with enough leftover money to buy furnishings. And finally, after nearly 2 weeks of religiously “working” in Yoville’s Widget Factory, we finally got enough money to buy the Treehouse! =) I’m currently decorating it and so far I’m done with the living room and the 2 bedrooms. I still have to furnish the kitchen, workshop, reading room and bathroom. Which means we need more money! Hehe!

what's the perfect Mothers Day gift?

The celebration is less than a month away and I still don't know what to get my mom. I've given her perfumes, health books, travel bags, money (LOL), personalized photos and picture frames, various trinkets, and what-nots in the past AND now I'm frankly out of ideas. My mother isn't into technology so no fancy gadgets for her. She's into house and home stuff but we differ on design sensibilities so what I like or think she might like, she may not like. Tsk! What we both like though are rustic furniture to put in our vacation home. Unfortunately, I can't afford them. LOL!

Now isn't the log bed lovely? Even if I can't afford them, I can point my mom to the right direction where to buy it. Is that enough to be considered a gift? LOL! Anyway, I found this magnificent rustic bed in ScenicFurniture.com -- a company that makes bedroom furniture (log beds and sets) and western furniture. They use woods ranging from oak to cedar to hickory. The set featured above is the "Eastern Red Cedar Bedroom" -- lovely! I'm sure my mom would love it too. ^_^