Happy Chinese New Year!!

The first CNY celebration away from our friends and family... but we had a wonderful dinner gathering with our friends here!! Not much of a new year mood on the Chinatown street except some lanterns hanging here and there. But most Chinese restaurants were packed so we were glad that we made our booking 3 weeks in advance, so we did have a great meal! Kayden was quietly enjoying the company of aunties and uncles until he fell asleep. He must be wondering what is this all about.

Muahaha... new phone

My old mobile has finally given up working so I subscribed to a phone plan here and got myself a Sony Ericsson C902.

It is an excellent camera phone! No regrets for a first time parent like me! It means I can take Kayden's photos or capture his cute face into video without the need to pull out my camera, or much better, I can leave my camera at home and just bring this phone out!

Below are some shots that I took in a park nearby with this phone:

Everything was frosted

It happened a few days ago.

Everything was white. What an astonishing view for a person who grew up in a warm country.

So we took some photos. Check them out!

Happy 2009!!

Greetings everyone!

This is my first year of celebrating new year in the Netherlands and what a different experience compared to in KL.

I rushed to the supermarket in the morning to stock up food because it is public holiday in the next few days, and at night, we had a dinner gathering with some friends.

When the clock strikes at 12am, we were greeted with lots and lots and lots of fireworks! It had been years that I have not hear the sound of fireworks because they are banned in Malaysia. Little Kayden slept through the blasts in our neighbourhood totally unaffected while hubby was busy snoring away. Me, being wide awake, decided to write something here.

Happy 2009! May God bless you in everything that you do and most importantly, enjoy every single moment of it.

It's all quiet now...

My in-laws and my mum have been staying with us since one month ago. My in-laws went back earlier by cutting short their 2 weeks vacation into 10 days, and my mum decided to go back earlier by shortening her 2 months holiday into 3 weeks.... ALL due to the cold weather!!

After all the hoo haa, coo and angooo with baby Kayden, the house is left with just 3 of us and 2 bunnies now. It suddenly feels a bit lonely and quiet. So, we might decide to find a city closeby to visit, or we might just stay at home.

Kayden has grown a lot! He puts on approximately 1kg since one and a half month ago and now he has passed his 4kg mark! Of course he is getting heavier and I can feel the extra weight when I nurse him! He is such a wonderful darling to have. Thank God for bringing such a joy into our lives. I can't believe that he is already 2-month old by now!

2009 is definitely a year to look forward to!

Welcome baby!

As some of you might have guessed... the long silence means something must have delivered :)

Welcome baby Kayden into this world!

He arrives surprisingly early on the 21 Oct 2008!

Doesn't he look like a king?

We are blessed with a small little gem who is calm and easy to care for. The kraamzorg helps tremendously for the first week and hubby has been busy taking care of me by buying last minute supplies, shopping for groceries and cooking food, not to mention taking care of the 2 rabbits. What else can I ask for from a man?

Japanese Garden, Clingendael

The Japanese Garden in The Hague was reopened for only 2 days last week, and we managed to visit it. It is the oldest Japanese garden in Europe and it only opens for 6 months every year, spring and summer. However, this 2 days was special because there was an Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) exhibition on display.

The Japanese garden itself is situated within the Clingendael park. It is so close to our place that we decided to just cycled over. The garden is very beautifully designed. You can immediately detect its uniqueness through the use of bamboos, bridge, tea house and small walking path. It's a calm and serene garden, definitely worth a visit next year for those who have never been there before.

You can see more of the Japanese Garden photos by clicking here

Don't forget the Clingendael park. This park is a very popular park in The Hague. It's extremely huge and a very comfortable hang out spot. You will see dog owners, cyclists, book lovers, couples, families in the park, enjoying good sunlight (when there is) and each other's company. I'll definitely bring my baby there for a walk every week!

Oven

Oven is not a common kitchen appliance in most Asian kitchens. I didn't discover how much fun it is to use an oven until I moved over to the Netherlands.

The oven at our place has recently come alive because we managed to find time to clean it up and started using it more often. It is a very old model and I have to specially request its user manual from the manufacturer and then translate the manual from Dutch to English using Google translator to understand what it is all about.

I know you'll laugh: but the truth is, it is only by now I discovered that there are many pre-made pastry and frozen food packages available in the supermarket that I can just buy and bake it, and the food can be ready in a very short period of time! I especially like those croissants, they are so delicious to eat with my favourite strawberry jam and butter!

What a life saver discovery especially when the little one is coming! Plus, there are so many food baking recipes available and as long as I can marinate the ingredients before hand, I'll be able to have dinner/lunch ready in a very short time.

PL introduced me to Nigella Lawson, and oh boy, it is the first time I actually studied western cookbook and try those recipes! I never really enjoy pasta or steak as part of my daily meals, but after seeing how easy these recipes are, I am willing to give it a go, and they do turned out well :D

Now, one mission that I've after the whole pregnancy thing is to learn to cook Japanese food... I think that is a good goal to aim for since recently hubby has developed this liking of Japanese dragon sushi roll :P

Oh great....

Today is the 36th week and we had our midwife appointment at night. Bronovo hospital started night-time appointment service, which is great because now hubby can join me for the checkup.

The midwife checked the baby's heart rate... fine. She also went through a checklist about when we need to call the hospital and what to watch out for when labour starts. Basically, bits and pieces of what we have all learned from the childbirth class. Both of us were just nodding our head. After awhile, I sensed that she thinks she doesn't need to explain any further... Thank God we took the class together!

However, after she did a position check, she suspects that the baby's head has not turned yet! So, I'll be off for another round of ultrasound (ouch) within the next 2 days so that they can decide whether to continue to take me under the midwife department or send me off to a gynae's care. I guess I'll be spending some time reading up on c-section tonight, just... in.... case... the baby decides to have some fun.

I have one last jewelry-making workshop to run and that's it, I'll be sitting at home not going anywhere. Weather is not good either, I hope hubby do not need to push me to the hospital with a wheelchair under a heavy rain. He is starting to feel anxious. I'm showing him around the hospital (like where to buy food and drink, where is the emergency entrance, how to get to the hospital from our place etc...), and also typing out instructions on what number to call and when to call, especially for the kraamzorg service.

One good news is that I've put on another 2kg! Finally, I'm approaching the normal weight gain range. Trust me, this is the one and only time that a woman will feel happy putting on weight than not.

Superb weather! Sigh...

One great topic in this Dutchy land is the weather.

And well, the weather suddenly dipped from 18 celsius to 10 in just 2 days. We are all hit by this cold, lousy, windy, cloudy, no-sun weather. My winter jacket is out, after putting it in the cupboard for more than half a year!

Leaves are turning yellow, more rains and less people on the street. I'm not so sure that I welcome autumn that much now, eventhough I like to see golden hue parks and beautiful yellow leaves dropping from the sky.

In any case, I'm under the weather too, juggling between running nose and sore throat. The only place I want to be is under the blanket.

Baby stroller

Woohoo!! Our baby stroller has finally arrived!

It took us great faith to buy this model, without even touching it! We bought it based on the reviews that we read and video that we watched. Considered silly or dumb, I don't know, but it is really a great buy, knowing that it will last us through the next 3 years! Hubby's colleagues help us to bring it over from US. We really appreciate their help!!!

The first thing that I tried out is the collapsing mechanism of the stroller. Man, I've to give it 10 thumbs up! It is SUPERB easy! By applying a bit of pressure and a little twist, the stroller just collapsed into one unit, not to mention that it's lighter than any other standard strollers that were on our shopping list. Surprisingly, opening up the stroller is amazingly easy too. Basically, the collapsing and opening of the stroller can be done with one-hand.

I still remember the time when we spent trying out different strollers at Baby Park in Gouda and it was frustrating because most of the big brands out there promised the sky, but it took us dozen of trials and errors to open and close the stroller, not to mention that they hurt my fingers!! On top of that, they are bulky and heavy (even without a baby sitting on it), which I couldn't handle it at all due to my size. Considering how many times we need to take tram or bus, or maybe later have a car, to unload and load a stroller in and out is going to be a major part of our lives, and we want that part to be stress-free and enjoyable, for us and the baby!

Overall, we are very impressed with the smoothness of the mechanism and how user-friendly the design is.

Of course, there are other reasons why we wanted this stroller :D
The stroller is high, so baby can be sitting at the same level as adult. Yes, we are cheated by 'the higher is better' concept from Stokke. The stroller is light, the stroller is ergonomically designed, big wheels so that baby can sleep and sit comfortably, the stroller's seat can turn 360 degree, comfortable padding, it gives higher value with the price that we paid than buying those that we tried and didn't like them etc...

Ok enough... the company isn't paying me anything to do the marketing for them. We are very happy that we made a good choice :D Now we are just waiting for the baby to test run it.

Yuki is a big girl now...

Yuki is getting more used to us nowadays. When she first arrived, she will always avoid us getting close to her. Instinctively, she will hop away and hide behind her husbun. She will only allow us to pet her, unless we first pet Kenji.

However, things have changed.

I managed to play with her on my lap for quite a long time last night. She easily settled on my lap and while I petted her with one hand, she was busy eating her favourite food from the other hand. After that I gave her a nose rub and body massage. She enjoyed it thoroughly!

She has definitely grown so much bigger! She is almost the size of Kenji now. And boy, she is fat!

Ultrasound Updates

My ultrasound result turned out to be normal. Obviously they compared my size to the Dutch's average baby size and because of that, my baby's growth is 3 weeks behind their average growth, but still falls within the normal range on the chart. Most Asian mothers faced the same problem here. So I'm not surprised to find myself doing this episode to REALLY make sure that everything is alright.

However, the baby has not turned yet. According to books, the baby is supposed to turn to the head-down position by week 33th for the first pregnancy. I'm in week 33th now, and his buttock is still at the bottom. So, now I'm sleeping on my left most of the time to give him the optimal position for him to turn. Other tips that I read that can encourage the baby to turn is to sit upright with the knee position always lower than the hip.

I've also bought my kraampakket and now going through the final checklist to make sure everything is in place. I also need to start packing my hospital bag...

The baby's Chinese name seems to be progressing well, with more idea coming through, at least, we have got names that both of us like and happy with, and now we just need to decide on which one.

Back to Dutchy land

The London trip was FANTASTIC! We enjoyed such wonderful time with PL and her hubby, and with little baby Matt. It also gives me a brief overview on how having a five-month old baby feels like after the first 3 months of hoo-haa, fire fighting situation. As what our childbirth class teacher said in our class last night, it's a 24/7 job, at least for the first few months... It didn't really scare me though, I'm looking forward towards this brand new experience more than anything else.

I'm entering my week 33th now. My checkup with midwife this morning brought her to think that it is necessary to send me for another ultrasound scan just to make sure that everything is alright. Baby is small (compared to Dutch's size, and I don't know about Asian size), and the midwife can't feel the head either (hmm... I wonder where did it go?). It seems that baby has not turned yet. It is not bothering me yet since there is still a few more weeks to go for him to make the turn. He is kicking vigorously throughout the night and my belly is growing. I felt my skin is so stretched now that I just want to sit at home and watch Animal Planet.

And autumn is here. This makes me feel lazy.

Black Glutinous Rice dessert 黑糯米

I've tried making this dessert about 3 weeks ago and it turned out to be unsatisfactory. Not giving up, I gave it a go last week and hooray! It tasted sooo much better. I have to confess that I'm getting lazier in preparing good food for my hubby, so he started 'complaining' last week... oops. :D So I decided to do something special.


I can't believe that this dessert is so easy to prepare. Getting a pack of black glutinous rice is extremely easy in Den Hague. I've also added red dates and longan into the dessert. These are optional. If you want to try this recipe out (enough for 2 person to have 2 big bowls), here is what I've done:


1) Soak a bowl full of black glutinous rice to soften it (size of a normal rice bowl will do). I soaked it for about 20 hours.

2) Wash the rice and pour the soaked rice into my cooking pot, together with approx 3 bowls of water

3) Then cook the ingredients with high heat till it boils and then switch to low heat.

4) I add in red dates, longan, and rock sugars (add and taste. Adjust the amount to your liking)

5) Continue to cook them for about 1 hour.

6) After 1 hour, switch off your cooker and leave the pot for another 1 hour. Do not open the cover of the pot. You want the heat of the pot to continue to warm the ingredient to get a smokey taste. In mandarin we call it 焗.

7) Impatiently, I waited for 1 hour and tada! It turned out so much better than my first attempt. The rice is thick and have the texture that I wanted for the dessert.

8) I did add a bit of coconut milk. Yum yum, I love it!

Sunflowers!

Sunflower is my favourite flower. Now you can see them everywhere in the florists. It is a happy flower for me. So hubby bought me a few of them last weekend while we went out shopping. I was smiling back home all the way! 5 for Eur 3.50 only!!!!! I remember I paid a lot more back in KL!

Just a tip: To make sure that the flowers last longer, the easiest way of doing it is to squeeze 2 slices of lemon juice into the water (approx 1 litre) so that it kills off the bacteria. I did that for my daisies and they lasted for 2 weeks (changed water once a week)! If it's not because I went off to Colmar over the weekend, they should be able to last for another week, if I had remembered to change the water...

Can't leave them out!

You might now have noticed that I've slowly moving my rabbit blog entry into this blog. Both me and hubby have been bun lovers since 2 years ago. I find it difficult to maintain another blog when both of them are so close to us.

[give them drum rolls]

Introducing our elder bun, Kenji and...



his newly wed, Yuki!

Both of them are our sweetest companions! We can't imagine not having them around. Your heart just melt especially when they give you the food begging look...

After years of no TV

People always look at us weird when we told them that we don't watch TV programmes.
It was a habit that was formed for years. In fact, we seldom watch movies nowadays. Yeah, we are probably one of those bunch who don't subscribe to the idea that you need to gain general knowledge by keeping ourselves updated with what is happening around the world. I feel that those news channels have too much of negativity going on that I feel happier by not listening to them.

However, hubby now thinks that it is a good idea to have one TV back in our house because we have guests later this year and we don't want them to feel bored. And, he is afraid that I'll get too bored after giving birth. One thing that I like most, if I have TV at home, is that I get to watch Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic again! Plus these channels are in English. This is the good practice that the Dutch has about foreign TV programmes because they leave them as it is and add in Dutch subtitles, so I get to listen to the original audio and learn Dutch along the way!

So we went around looking for a second-hand TV and bought ourselves one! A 10-year old Sony Trinitron 26". We love it!

Childbirth Class

Finally, the childbirth class is here.
I've been looking forward to attend this class. Not only because I get to learn more about childbirth through a teacher (not books), it's also because it is time to get hubby to learn more!
Err... it is not true that he is not learning. He did read up books like Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy, Happiest Baby on the Block etc... It's just that there are not many books that are catered for father-to-be and he has been asking me to teach him more. But I don't know what to teach. So, a childbirth class is perfect to fill in the necessary gaps.

Initially I thought it will be conducted in a classroom environment. But to my surprise, when we arrived, it is a living hall environment! There are nice couch and comfortable pillows everywhere! Perfect for expecting mothers! Plus, coffee and tea free flow with delicious chocholate cookies! Yum yum.... :)

The first session kicked off well. There are about 8 couples in the room. All of them are either foreigners staying in The Hague, or they have a partner who is not Dutch. This first session is an overview session. We introduced ourselves, and raised our concerns and worries (if there is any) through group discussion.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I can see that hubby enjoyed himself too!

More Photos...

This is our kitchen. I can't remember, but I think I took it on the day before we officially moved in. Noticed the sandwiches that I packed in the paper bag and the Nescafe bottle? It was also the day when the Ikea guys came and moved our purchases to the first floor.

Ikea charged extra for moving the stuff to the first floor. The most basic delivery charge is the one where they come and leave everything next to the street, and we have to carry them up. Since we ordered so many and we won't be able to carry them all upstairs, we decided to pay them to do the job.

Next is our laundry area. Huge! Compared to what we used to have in the serviced apartment. So I decided to put the iron board here as well. As usual the washer and dryer are all in Dutch and the user manuals have most languages except English. The models are so old that I couldn't find any downloaded manual on Siemens's website. The door in this laundry area is opened to our third balcony. Yes, we have three balconies in this apartment.

So as you can see all the Ikea stuff are everywhere in the apartment. This is our dining area.
After hubby started disassembling the chairs and table, we got something more proper to sit and put things around.



Not bad for a 2 hour work :)