Thanksgiving

It’s always a treat to be able to stay till Thanksgiving on our annual visit to the US. This year was special as it was Spock’s first Thanksgiving. Other than loving the attention from his two sets of grandparents on this side of the world, he was also thrilled with his debut slice of pumpkin pie.

On the road

We are currently on our annual sojourn to the United States to visit with my husband’s family. Needless to say, we are enjoying the cold weather here – a radical change to the 100% humidity and 90 plus degrees we typically experience back home. Other highlights include catching up on favorites like Mexican food, heart-clogging American cheeseburgers and Monday night football.

Perspective

T3 at 0530

A few moons back, I found myself waiting to board an early morning flight at Terminal 3 of Singapore’s Changi Airport. Even though it was only 5:30am, I hardly expected an international airport like T3 to be this quiet.

Blocks of yummy for little tummies

I do a lot of cooking nowadays – but mostly for my almost 8-month old son. While I love some of the food jars from the store (especially the ones by Healthy Times), they can be pretty costly over time now that my son is on solids three meals a day. So, I have been slaving in the kitchen concocting various recipes for the little tummy and freezing them using ice-cube makers. A lot of moms I know would make fresh porridge for their tykes daily but I find making them in advance and freezing them works just as well. As I freeze them as soon as they cool down, their nutritional value is retained. And the convenience! When it’s mealtime, I just thaw out the right number of cubes and we are set.

I have not been offering any juice to the little one so far as most baby books would recommend against that until they turn one. However, a few days ago I read from a book by Annabel Karmel that Vitamin C would help the absorption of iron especially vegetable-based iron. Her book also recommends that a little juice be served along with lunch and dinner. Hence, I have been giving a little juice with the main meals of the day. But store-bought juice comes in a jar that is too much to finish within 24 hours (the duration opened store-bought jars are to be kept in the fridge). I always end up having to toss at least half of the juice away until…

It occurred to me that I could freeze the juice just like I freeze the other food! You may think, “Duh, yeah!” But I do not know why I never thought of it before! Freezing them in cubes also makes it a zip for me to use them when I am making purees. Brilliant! Armed with this new idea, I went out to the store to stock up on various juices for  my little boy.

Less is more

It has been more than six months since I had my baby and I have finally resolved that there will be clothes, especially pants and jeans that I will never get back into ever again. While I have no issue with my post-baby physique,  I hated the fact that I have to give up some of my clothes – some of which I have only worn for a few months before I got pregnant last year.

Nonetheless, I’m not planning on letting wishful thinking (that one day I’ll be able to wear size 4 again) take up storage space which is a premium for us. Presently, we are using some of the shelf space in my son’s room to make up for lack of wardrobe space in our bedroom. However, with the little boy growing up fast, he is beginning to need more  room for his books, toys and clothes.

Hence, the last few days I’ve been clearing out items that no longer fit. As always, it is surprisingly therapeutic to declutter once you grit your teeth against sentimentality. So far, I have gathered up two huge bags of preloved clothes to be given away. Note to self when I go shopping next: Quality over quantity!

The short stack of jeans I now own:

Pictures from the week

Soups, spoons and bowls

Always a treat to lunch out! With tyke in tow, we lunched at a favorite cafe which serves up the best soups in town.

Retro

My mother calls me a pack rat. But I beg to differ. A survey to what is highly demanded on Craigslist and a visit to the Apartment Therapy site will prove that my reluctance to throw away things old will eventually pay off. I suspect that my object-sentimental trait comes from my late maternal grandmother. That is why when she passed away over eight months ago, I pleaded with my mother to not throw anything of hers away until I have gone through them. (You see, my mother is the type who would not hesitate to throw anything out if it no longer serves a purpose around the house)

True enough, I found things that I could fetch a sum on Craigslist for their Retro-value. Unfortunately, due to transportation challenges, I am not able to move much of what I found to our place. But I was able to bring some small items which may not be worth any on the antique market but surely evoke great nostalgia in me. Take for instance, two sets of cup and saucer which are almost 40 years old. I know how old they are as they were redeemed from Dumex, a baby formula brand, when I was feeding on it!

I also found a china bowl and a fine bone china tea cup set that were part of my grandmother’s wedding gift when she was married almost 65 years ago. Oh, how the years go by…

Oxymoron: Declutter and baby

When I was pregnant, a good friend warned us that once the baby arrives, he, or rather his stuff, will take over our apartment. At that time, I thought to myself, well, that’s not going to happen to us as we know how to draw boundaries and our son will have to learn where his are.

Yeah, sure! My friend was right! Our son is barely seven months old and his sprawling playmat has taken over our living area with his toy bins incorporated into our (what I’d like to believe) clean-lined decor. Then there are the playgym and activity centre…

When our little boy was almost two months old, his Nana bought him a swing which bore the hope of helping him nap better. But alas, the swing did none of what was expected of it. Worse, our tyke never quite took to it. On a good day, he will tolerate being in it for a few minutes but otherwise, he would fuss and squirm so much that we would immediately pick him up from it lest he falls off it. Since a month ago, we have even stopped thinking about trying to get our money’s worth from the swing. For five months the white elephant stood in our living area but finally it got moved into the boy’s room. Next stop – a listing on Craigslist, perhaps?

The baby swing is not the only item we regret purchasing. The long list of items that never got much use or even got used at all includes a Medela supplementary feeding system, front-facing infant stroller, boxes of milk bags, various carriers, bottles of Chinese medicated oil (for wind and colic), breastfeeding pillow, baby bean bag, etc.

The swing sitting lonely:

Since we have limited living and storage space, holding on to items which we no longer have use for is foolish. Hence the need to declutter. Thankfully we have a couple friend who is expecting and we have been able to pass most of the clothes and other items that our son has outgrown to them (even though they will be having a little girl, our friend is chic about baby blue for her). This has taken a load, literally, off of us but with a fast-growing baby and the smarts of marketers in selling their products to parents, it seems almost impossible to lead a simple clean life.

While my husband and I have decided that we will splurge on books and music for our boy, I know of mothers who will buy a “special” blender to puree food for when their babies start solids! And, oh, the kinds of toys we need to buy our kids – the Jumperoo, the exersaucer, the walker, the bouncer, and so on and so forth. And, oh, the guilt to think that we are bad parents and that our kids would grow up stupid and unloved if we do not buy these for them! O Lord help me resist such untruth!

Hence I was grateful and hopefulto find a camaderie in the author of this blog: Unclutterer

The kind of music that gets heard around the house also sounds different nowadays – it may still be Ella Fitzgerald and  Lionel Hampton but all we hear Ella lament about nowadays is her missing yellow basket! But that is discussion for another post.