January

I have always loved the month of January for these obvious reasons.

1. It's the beginning of a new year
2. It's our anniversary month
3. It's my birthday month

However my January has been pretty hectic. Looking at my court diary is enough to give me headache. But thank God there are just so many holidays in January. Ok not really holidays but long weekends. For example, the first week of January itself was a pretty short week because New Year fell on Tuesday so work only started on Wednesday. And then there was last weekend. Last Thursday was Maulidur Rasul and Sunday was Thapusam. Boss was kind enough to close office on Friday too. So we got a 5-day weekend. That was a long weekend all right! And this weekend will be another long weekend with Friday being Hari Wilayah.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is the last day of my favourite month. Gosh time flies ever so fast these days. Or maybe I got too occupied with stuffs that I don't realize it huh?

We are Two!

Two years ago we tied the knot and officially became husband and wife after being in a relationship for about a year. Some people might think that we barely know each other, so how can we get married? I believe when everything feels right, it is meant to be. Alhamdulillah the relatively short period of relationship was enough for us to know that we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives.

Two years and one baby down the road, we couldn't be happier for this blessing from Allah. Of  course there were trying times, there were ups and downs, there were times when we feel like killing each other (not literally, btw) but we survived, yeay!!

To my ever dearest husband, thank you for a wonderful two years of marriage and thank you for being ever so patient in dealing with my everyday antics, mood swings, craziness, crankiness, laziness, tardiness, and nagging. You are indeed the calm and patient one between the two of us. I love you so much and I pray that our marriage is blessed by Allah swt and together we will strive for a better life and be better in every aspect of our lives. We have a very long journey ahead of us but I believe with the love, patience, strength and perseverance that we have, we can go through all odds, come what may, Insyaallah. *hugs and kisses*

weekend projects part 29 & 30

This is a combined post as it was done in two weekends. OK the second one is not a weekend but it's a holiday so it counts as a weekend project.

When I go back to my parents' house, my mum would request me to bake a cake. She loves freshly baked cakes and I love baking them so it's a win-win situation. Sometimes I am just too lazy to bake but how can I say No to my mum, right? She likes plain butter cakes but I like to take it up to another level because to me butter cake is, well, plain. 

For the first project, she actually requested for orange cake because there were oranges in the fridge. I'm all for baking as long as all the ingredients are available. I left my scrap book at home so I had to Google for a recipe and I found this recipe.

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/easy-orange-cake-with-orange-icing-L1097.html

The cake was yummy but I made the icing a bit too runny and a bit too sweet. But you can definitely taste the orange in the cake as well as the icing. Surprisingly Dad enjoyed the cake too. He's not much of a cake lover, let alone sweet cakes like this but he had more than one slice. 

The second project was made on the last day of 2012. Again, Mum wanted a cake for tea so i thought, a marble cake would be nice for a change. I Googled and found this recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/marble-cake-i/

I am all for a recipe that requires minimal ingredients and easy to follow. I also prefer recipes which uses cups as measuring tool because I hated using the weighing scale as I always fear that I won't get an accurate reading.

The marble cake is yummy but it's a bit dry and crumbly. Not something that I am proud of. Not sure if it's the recipe or my mistake. Next time I shall try a different recipe.

fun day with my Babycakes

Last Friday, I took leave to take Babycakes for her 15month check up. Hubby was away in Miri for work since Christmas so it was just Mummy and Babycakes. I must say that without hubby around, it was quite challenging especially that Babycakes is very mobile and active now. If hubby were around, I can easily ask her to 'go to Daddy' when I'm doing something or shout for hubby to take her. Let's just say that during the period, she was called Irene Dalia more than Babycakes hahaha. Anyway her check up went well, alhamdulillah. My baby is a happy and healthy baby and she did cry for a while after the jab. I guess she got it from Mummy. Man I really hated being jabbed so I totally understand the pain she went through. :P

We were done by 12ish and it would be boring to just go back home so I took Babycakes to Tropicana City Mall and had lunch with her at Papa John's. It was the only place that has very few people so it's perfect. I don't want to be dealing with a restless toddler in a noisy restaurant, even though I so wanted to eat at Nando's. The thing about highchairs at restaurants, I notice that most restaurants use the IKEA highchair. However, most, if not all highchairs at the restaurants have no safety belt. GRRRR. Where the hell did the safety belt go to? They come together with the chair, don't they? It's very dangerous without one. I can't really enjoy my food as I needed to keep Babycakes in her seat and also get her to eat her pizza. I think I should write to IKEA.

The main reason why I went to Tropicana City Mall was to go to Jkids Playground. I've always wanted to bring Babycakes there but I don't think going on a weekend is a good idea as I'm sure the place would be packed. So Friday was a perfect day for us. After paying at the counter, Babycakes ran into the playground and got so excited while I was still storing our bags in the locker and also putting my socks on.

 

She was so happy to be there especially looking at the big purple teddy bear. Her expression when she saw the stuffed animals was priceless. She was so excited that she just wanted to go everywhere. Good thing there were only 3 other kids at that time so we literally had the place all to ourselves.

 I had mini heart attacks when she goes down the slide like this. -_-

 

I thought she was the adventurous kind, unlike Mummy but then I guess she is Mummy's girl after all because she seems gayat when she walks on the bridge. Heheh. But then again, it could be that she's just unfamiliar with the place, thus the hesitation.

We spent about 2 hours+ in the playground and of course she just went on and on while I got so tired of chasing after her. I could just let her play but I have to monitor her so that she won't fall or knock her head.

 

After 2 hours+ of playtime, she finally mellowed down and I gave her milk. She wanted to continue playing but I know she was already tired. When I put her in her stroller, she almost had a meltdown. Phew. After a nappy change and some biscuits, she fell asleep in her stroller while I had a nice time drinking coffee and eating my pastries at Delifrance. We went back at 7ish and it was such a fun filled day with my Babycakes. A perfect way to end the year by spending quality time with her.

Happy New Year everyone! Let's strive to be better this year and together we shall pray for a better and brighter year ahead, Insyaallah.