Two months

The requirement for yet another photograph of a different size for Spud's visa had sent me to a photo-studio again this morning. I dread the thought of having Spud's photograph taken at any photo-studio ever since our last 1 hour photo experience. I fear the same episode we had previously will repeat itself, and I shudder of having to do it without having Silver Bullet around.

Nevertheless, I decided to just give it a go, expecting the worst.

Alarm bells started ringing in my head when we got to the intended venue. It would be a bad mistake to wake her up as Spud (surprise, surprise!) was still fast asleep. That was enough to send me pacing up and down the shop, trying to strategise the best way of waking her up without causing a scene. Then it dawned on me that at home, she would almost immediately wake up the moment I lay her down in her cot. Most of the time, that would immediately sent her wailing. Other times, she tolerated it.

I immediately looked around for a flat surface to lay her down. Just as I suspected, she woke up. To my delight, she remained calm. She even co-operated and within seconds, we got her a mugshot. No fussing, no crying. In fact, she was cooing away and started "chatting" incoherently as she stared right into my face. For that, I thanked my lucky stars and gave her a big huge kiss on her big fat cheeks when it was all over. I could not have been more relieved!

Quite a funny picture for a visa requirement, I'd say. I had to laugh when they showed it to me and she looked all puffy and very well-rounded.  I was then reminded that she turned 2 months today.

What a picture to show for it and not at all flattering! Those baby fats are starting to show up real nice.

1-year old to carry ID

Thailand has recently proposed a bill for all ONE YEAR OLD infant to carry an ID as reported in this article here.

I think it's insane and completely unnecessary. I would think the MPs here would have better things to do than come up with such useless policies. Where and how would a one-year old child keep the ID on him/her if ever stopped by the coppers?

If they do approve the bill, I certainly do hope it will be applicable to Thais only and that they don't expect the foreigners to be carrying an ID for their one-year old child all the time. One wonders if the infants are also required to complete the registration-forms themselves...

So comical. Only in Thailand!

Meatballs Arrabiata

Cooking and baking are something I miss doing of late. It has been at least 2 months since I baked or experiment with new recipes to cook for dinner. Having the time to cook is such luxury nowadays. And, at the moment, I can’t really spare any time for baking as yet…which is a bummer!

With what little time I had for a home-cooked meal, I decided to whip up a Spaghetti Arrabiata with meatballs. Takes all but 20 minutes of my time. Just perfect!

Here's the recipe, of which I have modified a little:

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoon chopped basil
• 3 teaspoon crushed red pepper powder
• 1 small can tomato puree
• 1 can peeled and diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoon oregano
• 2 tablespoon parsley

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat.
2. Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil. Add in meatballs then simmer uncovered about 15 minutes.
4. Ladle over the hot cooked pasta of your choice.

Buon Appetito!

Chick Magnet

I have a confession to make.

I have a thing for men who carry their babies in those cool baby-carriers. Okay, well...I don't mean the men per se. It's not like I'm gonna stalk every men out there that fit my description and have their wives hating me for being a husband snatcher, thank you very much! But rather, I meant the image of Dads who walk around wearing their babies so proudly on their backs or attached to their chest

Me-thinks there certainly is something about that image.Very endearing. Sexy even. I truly heart the sight of men who wear their babies!

Here's Silver Bullet wearing my Mei-Tai; which essentially is just another type of baby-carrier. Ain't that just the most endearing sight!

For some reason though, we managed to pull in a lot of stares and a small crowd formed (mostly females) as they intently watched us while I was helping Silver Bullet don on the Mei-Tai for Spud. As soon as Silver Bullet was done, these girls just melted away and broke a few smiles and giggles.

Ahhh! I guess my husband just became a chick magnet. :D

Just peachy

Father and daughter bonding. I could not help but laugh when I saw the image of both Spud and Dad sprawled on the floor when I came out of the kitchen. Made for a perfect candid shot!

When the cat rules

There is this one almost perpetually messy spot on our TV cabinet where miscellaneous daily essentials are placed. (We do try to keep it neat every once in a while). It also happens to be a spot where Andy likes to throw her weight around. Literally.

Most times, she pushes some of those things out of her way to create some space for herself. Sometimes, she just plonks herself on top of everything. One wonders how that could be comfortable with things poking from underneath. Try retrieving the stuff you need from underneath where she is, and risk being bitten. You then know you have just caused such great inconvenience to her siesta hour and you have annoyed a cat.

Long days

Gone are the days when we can choose to sleep-in over the weekends. These days, we wake up so early in the weekends that by the time the morning rituals are sorted (I.e Spud’s), we STILL have a few hours to wait for the shopping malls to be opened!

Our days have indeed become longer with Spud waking us up before or by 6 am on a daily basis. There has been no need for an alarm clock anymore to wake us up. On good days, we may have up to 6.45 am…but that has been far and between. There has been certain days where she has chosen to start waking herself up at 5am and with her fussing away, that dragged on till about after 6.30 am. When that happens, bye-bye sleep! No matter how hard we tried to adjust her feeding times, and no matter what time of the night she feeds, she will always be bright-eyed-bushy-tailed by 6.30am. Without fail. There is suddenly no more 5 minutes snooze. So far, this happens every.single.day.

As groggy and dog-tired as we are in the early hours of the morning, by the time both Silver Bullet and me divide and conquer to attend to Spud, we both will be very wide awake. By the time we end the morning rituals, if we are lucky, Spud would take a short nap. But by then, both of us are so wide awake that it is just impossible to nap along. If we try, chances are Spud will, as if on cue, starts to wail away within the minute we lay our heads down to rest.

Spud’s a chronic cat-napper. She just refuses to sleep during the day, and if she does, the longest she’ll go is about 15 minutes.

Having a nap in the day these days is just pure luxury. How I miss my sleep-ins.

If only Spud could grace us just a few hours of her daylight savings...