It has been a privilege working with you

Dato' Seri CCH, x-MP of Alor Setar. 
Can you guess which one is me? This time no blue square on the face.

His last message to everybody in MHLG (I served MHLG before).

Typical view in the house

Levitating kid.

Exclusive.

Almost 20 people (including you, you and YOU ;p) asked me, "Ni dah start kerja ni, mesti dah campur, kan?" this week. For moms out there, you know what they're talking about.

This is my answer : Exclusive breastfeeding. 

Trying my best to complete EBF until Nazmi reaches 2 years old (or whenever he decided to wean off).  iA. Same goes to my other sons. I EBF anywhere (while walking at the mall, while eating at the restaurant, at wedding reception, etc) and I express the milk whenever I have time. I am using manual and battery-operated pumps so it is not that complicated. I keep it handy in my handbag and it can be assembled in 10 seconds. 

EBF is the best. But I know some people might have constraints in EBF-ing their babies. So for those BF fanatic out there, dont look down on them. 

(EDITED)
After publishing this post, one reader emailed me asking about how many oz I manage to express at the office. Here :

I BF Nazmi before I went to the office. Pumped around 4oz (sometimes I skipped this).
Lunch hour - 6oz
After office hour - 6oz
Before going to bed - Another 6oz

All together maximum of 22oz per day. Around 650ml.
But bare in mind that it will be different next month. And the month after that. And the month after because the supply will increase as the baby grows. This is the amount for the 3rd month.  Thank you.

(Almost) All bloggers will blog about this today.

I've done my part for PRU13.

Nazreen too.

Organise 101 : Dealing with toys

If you have children, you will definitely have toys in the house. Toys are cute. They are colourful and they produce cute sounds too. But they MIGRATE. They move from the kid's room to our bedroom, to the living room, then to the kitchen, outside - basically anywhere your children go.

O R G A N I S E  1 0 1   |  t o y s

by garlicandbutter

As far as I can remember, I rarely buy any toys for my children (once or twice). There are already a lot of hand-me-downs from my nephew and my cousin, free toys from the Golden Arch and birthday presents. And they ended up in FOUR HUGE containers in our house. Not one, not two, but four. That was when I decided to do a major toy clean out.

Ask these questions before you embark in the MAJOR TOY CLEAN OUT DAY. Taken from Absolute Organized by Debbie Lillard.

Where are you going to keep the toys?

Kids bedroom? Playroom? Family hall? In the closet? Half here-half there?

Me : Hobby area

What are you going to use to keep them organised?

Toy box? Clear container with wheel? Toy shelves? Basket? Soft toys hammock? Boxes with lid? Plastic bag?

Me : Clear container with lid and wheel

This is the first step to get the toys back to the right place after their migration.

Then comes the major toy clean out day. Go through the toys with your children so they know what toys are still in their possession and which will not. 

This is our exciting day cleaning out the toys.

I have prepared two laundry baskets for toys that they want to keep (NAK) and another one is to be donated to our less fortunate neighbour (DERMA). I also prepare two boxes for the broken ones (BUANG).

Nabil was the only one who helped me sorting out the toys....

...because his brothers suddenly decided to play. A good thing about toy clean out is they found toys that they forgot they had and it is as good as getting new toys.

After a while, Nabil decided to play together with his brothers. Kids... I asked them whenever I want to put something in DERMA pile or toss something into BUANG box. 

Along the process, I found my old toys. I keep these since I was 7 or 8 years old (And this year Nabil will turns 8 - how time flies).

At the end of the day, we have a good condition toys in one pile.

Ruined and broken toys with sharp edges to be thrown away.

I washed each pieces with soapy water, rinse and wipe it dry.

I threw these into the washing machine and they came out clean and happy. The blue elephant is mine.

Later that afternoon, I put everything into a huge transparent container and surprisingly, from four containers of toys, we ended up with ONE. It has wheels - easy for the kids to move it around.

After the clean out, I remind the kids to put the toys into the container after they done playing. I will pick up any toys lying on the floor and throw it away (actually I hide it in my room). Just to teach them a lesson. So far it worked.

Organise 101 - A debut

I was determine to write about the art of organising looooong time ago (ok, 3 months back) but I was too busy with the newborn and sitting in front of the computer is the last thing I want to do during confinement period. But, after having lunch today with my colleague, Ms Zarina, and talked about organised life, I am more determine to publish at least ONE ENTRY today on organising. A debut, perhaps. The rest of draft entries on organising will follow (waiting for the photos).

O R G A N I S E  1 0 1

by garlicandbutter

I have a couple of books on organising which all moms should read. I am focusing on moms here because they need to work, keep the house tidy, cook, take care of their husband and kids and pets (but others are also welcome to read). Some moms I knew need help in organising department not because they are lazy. It is because they are busy. Some others are very hard on themselves.

Quoting Ms Lillard, a professional organiser, "There is no right or wrong way to organize. There is only what works and what doesnt work". 

I will share some pointers on how to deal with paper pile, toys, clothes, meal, never enough closets/storage and the rest of the odds and ends, through my own experience / books I've read. Then you will decide what work and what doesnt work with you. With Organise 101, I hope you will be able to find a place for everything. 

Baby in black

Not a fan of the club. Just a fan of the colour.

Name on the bottle

Whenever we bought a bottled (drinking/mineral) water for the kids, I will make sure I stick their names on each bottle so I will know who let the bottle lying around the house, who didnt emptied their bottle or who didnt put it in the recycle bin. 

We usually give the recyclables to the scavenger once a month. My mom did that since I was a kid and now I feel obligated to do the same. She taught me well in preserving the environment through recycling.

Colours for my MIL

My MIL's birthday was on 1 May. 

I gave her colourful kitchenware. I hope she likes it. As far as I can remember, I gave her three (or was it four?) frying pans of various sizes before. She already have two. I JUST CANT SAY NO to these colourful frying pans this time. I hope I will not come across any cute pans in the future or else my MIL's house will turn into frying pan museum.

Seriously, who need more than one frying pan of the same size in the kitchen?

ME.

OUR Birthday celebration

My birthday was on 30 April. My cousins' were on 25 and 29 April. The celebration was held on 1 May. As usual, there were a lot of food and laughter, and the kids were having fun with the balloons.

The food.

I bake a marshmallow brownies and I made honey mustard dipping sauce for french fries.

The best part - as usual - would be the birthday presents :)

haha. macam budak-budak.

Early in the morning, my dad woke me up and said he bought me a deep freezer (he didnt said it is FOR MY BIRTHDAY. He usually bought stuff for my house, for my kids (TV, refrigerator, etc), but since he bought it a day after my birthday, so I just ASSUME it is my birthday present) Surprising, indeed. Me and my husband stared at the huge box on the lorry for a couple of minutes. Really? A deep freezer? wow. 

I am so thankful because there's no space left in our existing freezer to store Nazmi's milk supply. The timing is right. 

My brother gave me this set. From THE shop. Love it very much. 

My sister gave me a WHITE coffee mug. Love it! I even gave her a name. I called her Puteh. I brought Puteh to the office today. I made hot chocolate in the morning. Right now, I filled it with hot water and pretending like I am sipping hot coffee - it gave me a psychological edge to stay awake until 5.30 pm (oi, mengantuk sangat). I dont drink coffee during exclusive breastfeeding. 

My cousins gave me an umbrella - because I told them I want an umbrella for my birthday. A cool transparent umbrella with WHITE handle. 

My mom gave me LOVE.

THANK YOU ALL.

BACK TO WORK

I am back to work today after 3 months maternity leave. Last night, I gather stuff to be brought to the office. Believe me, I bring a huge bag to the office today and another bag for my packed breakfast, lunch and water bottle.

I sleep at 2.00 am and woke up at 5.30 am. Extremely excited to go to work.

I manage to make scramble egg for my family for breakfast. I also made beef fried rice with BBQ chicken for my packed lunch (they ate it during breakfast too). I have to bring lunch everyday since I need to pump during lunch hour. 

Project 200 : The day

Majlis Doa Selamat and aqiqah at my in-law's house. 

Baby Nazmi and Papa.

Project 200 : Day 05 - Pipe it

On Day 05, I bake another batch of cupcake early in the morning. It took me one hour to mix and bake around 50pcs of cupcake. Day 05 is the last day for preparation because the next day is THE day. I cant decide whether to top the cupcakes with chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting, so I made both.

I pipe the buttercream frosting in circle on top of the cupcake and I fill the void in the middle with chocolate ganache. I purposely made the ganache a bit bitter to balance the sweet buttercream frosting. The first batch of the frosting came out great. The second one...well...I could actually feel the sugar granules. It doesnt fully dissolved and I was only informed after I've pipe over 100pcs cupcakes *sigh*.

I stop half way and went to my office for a farewell makan-makan. I brought 25 extra cupcakes and cookies for my colleagues. I hope they liked it. I always made extra for everybody in the house.

That night, my mom and the kids helped me to pack 200 goodie bags. Then I sent them to my in-law's house. Phew. The end of five intensive baking days. The end of Project 200. Or should I call it Project 200+200?

Project 200 : Day 04 - Mix and bake the lost recipe

On Day 04, I mix and bake over 200pcs of moist chocolate cupcake. I cant find my recipe book so I meditated for a few hours in a very dark, silent room (yeah, right), trying my best to recall the exact measurement for all ingredients (which I actually did in about two minutes). I dont want to google for a new recipe because it might not turned out as what I've expected. It might be dry. Or not as chocolate-y as my signature [cup]cake. Other recipe might require a mixer while mine doesnt.

One thing about my recipe is it went through a few experiments - on temperature, different cooking time (for steam/waterbath or oven-bake), type of tray (silicone or aluminum), size of the cup (2oz, 4oz, etc) or tray (if I wanted to bake the whole cake) and the measurement for each ingredient (dont make me start on this) - before I ended up with the right taste and texture of the cake. Well, at least right for me.

For the first batch, I only mix half of the measurement and bake a few pieces just to make sure that I am on the right track. I was right. and for the next 5 batches, they turned out great. 

Project 200 : Day 02 & 03 - Mix and bake

On Day 02 and 03, I mixed and baked over 200pcs huge chocolate chip cookies in between diaper changing, feeding the baby and picking up kids from the school. So far, everything  went according to the plan (the plan was - to complete baking 200 cookies on Day 03). 

Project 200 : Day 01 - Buy, sift and roast

Project 200 is a baking project for a Majlis Doa Selamat and my son's aqiqah which was held at my in-law's house. I planned to bake 200pcs chocolate chip cookies and 200pcs moist chocolate cupcakes for the guests. 

On Day 01, I picked up my cousin Cuna at her house and went to the bakery supplies shop. It would be difficult for me to do it alone since I need to buy 10kg of flour, 10kg of sugars (castor, brown, icing), A LOT of butter, a few kg of cocoa powder, chocolate chips, almond slivers and other ingredients - with a 2 months old baby in a sling. We manage to do it in less than one hour because I need to pick up the kids from school and she needs to pick her dad up at the LRT station.

In the evening, after the kids went to their sekolah agama, I went out with my mom (and of course, baby Nazmi) to search for cookie bags and goodie bags for the guests. At night, after the kids went to bed, I sifted all flour and cocoa powder, and roasted almond slivers. The whole process ended at 3am.

Nabil Art Class : Printmaking 02

Nabil learned about printmaking last week (this post). The art teacher told the student to lay their artwork outside and let it dry under the sun. After a while, when Nabil went out to collect his dried masterpiece, it went missing. So he need to produce another one over the weekend.

We produce another pattern using cookie cutters. We have cookie cutter in many other interesting shapes but for this project, symmetry shape is the best. I pressed the cutter halfway inside the potato and Nabil carved out the area outside the cutter.

 Then, I carved a hole in the middle of each flower to make it nicer :p

Watch and learn

Baby Nazmi loves watching me perform my solat.

Nabil & Nazmi watching cartoon

Best of friend.

Evening tea

I made some wantans today. 

Nabil & Nazmi

Always together.

Nabil Art Class : Printmaking

Yesterday, Nabil learn about printmaking art in his art class. I didnt prepare the the banana leaf stalk and potato ahead of time because they will be browned overnight.

I made these while they were having breakfast yesterday morning. Luckily we have a lot of wood carving tools in the house, to carve the potato. First, I did a very simple pattern in 3 minutes. Then Nabil asked me whether I can do a CAR. Of course :)

Banana leaf stalk. I gave him extra so he can distribute them to his friends. In case someone forgot to bring it to the school or didnt manage to find a banana tree the day before.

Tunic and blouse - RM20 each

Related post (here).

@ the beach chic tunic. It is actually a beach wear, but you can wear it on top of an inner and pair it with jeans or a skirt. Be creative!! It is so cute. It fits size S to slightly L.

This blouse was bought in London. The top part is knitted which make it looks uber cool. I am sure if I steam-ironed the bottom part before taking this photo, it will look much better :) Fits size M.

Clearing my wardrobe - Beach tunic RM20

I am now busy clearing out our wardrobe. We have TOO MUCH clothes.

I just started with mine. I will keep some of them. This evening, I plan to invite my teenager neighbours to grab some cool blouses and dresses (above) and the rest will go to charity. 

I found a few new clothes as well and I decided to sell them. This is one of it. I only have TWO of them. So, first come, first serve. You can wear it on top of an inner and pair it with jeans or a skirt. It is so cute. It fits size S to slightly L.

Stay tune for more.

APRIL 2013

It is APRIL already.

You know my birthday is on 30 April.

You can give me books, cheap handbag or hijab.

And you can start looking for gifts for Teacher's Day & Mother's Day in May, and Father's Day in June. I know some people opposed the idea of celebrating these Days and said we have to show our love & appreciation to them everyday. Trust me, I did that. I am a good daughter ;p BUT I need a special day, an occasion, to give them the extra special presents.