it was about time i got hold of this.

pretty, no?

i thought it’d bloom so fast and so big that it’d jump right out of the large-sized corningware pot i’d plonked it in, but disappointingly, it didn’t. it still looks pretty smallish, so i guess i still have a bit of waiting to do before the wriggly-person-inside-me makes her debut appearance.

am procrastinating on actually drinking the stuff, though, so no, happy hours have not begun yet. next month, for sure.

the procrastination bit has extended to all other things related to wriggly-person-inside-me. her room has unofficially turned into Whims & Fancies’ HQ, her cot has turned into W&F’s product showcase mantle, little clothes that should belong to her are still not bought, one of the brand new tights i’d gotten has been ‘sacrificed’ for a W&F order (lol!), and i think the only cute little thing i did buy (and will NOT sacrifice) are a pair of the sweetest green mothercare shoes that was on sale while shopping for W&F supplies and i couldn’t help myself despite my no-shoes-before-walking rule that i’d imposed on her brother. (see? more rules out of the window. sigh.)

physical-wise, am getting s-l-o-w-e-r and s–l–o–w–e–r at walking. i don’t know how many times i’d told the spouse he was walking too fast, even though i know he’s trudging away at his normal slack speed. just today, i was moaning in woe about my body and its decelerated functions, in hope of a scrap of sympathy (like an “alah, kesiaaaan my wife”, or something to that effect, perhaps). i even suggested he carry me up the steps of the carpark. well, fat hope, coz all i got was an exaggerated slow-motion waddle in imitation of his un-kesian-able wife, and a snigger.

and don’t get me started on the toddler, who’s virtually a running machine. that, i’d never catch up with. the trick is, to have him hold my hand while we walk and NOT LET GO, EVER. he actually doesn’t mind this, but it means keeping a steady stream of running commentary and conversation for the whole distance. he generally doesn’t stray much when i’m alone with him, though. well, that is, until he spots a cat from a 100 miles away, then it’s running machine all the way to the unsuspecting feline, which would invariably run for cover, just as its instincts tell it to. except for little kittens who don’t know any better – he’d pick them up, yes with his bare hands, and carry it around for a walk. nevermind if they occasionally try to nip him with their tiny teeth. a mini siegfried & roy, he is.

ok, i think i’ve sat on my butt long enough. all this weight’s cutting off the blood circulating to my legs, you know. (did i tell you i have bruised-looking veins and broken capillaries camping out at the back of my legs? well, they have. maybe that’s why i’m walking soooo sloooowly now. i need a stroller. i need to learn how to teleport.)

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yet another ‘slumber party’ for us, getting our orders done for the weekend. we’re relishing the challenges thrown at us, especially with big orders like the one our little elf-in-training’s holding here.

what we mean by ‘challenge’ is, each cake is like a game of of problem-solving for us. like piecing together a huge puzzle or building up lego blocks, but with more ‘complicated’ materials – towels, blankets, ribbons… every item is obsessively put together by two, well, obsessive people. and it’s great having a partner, who not only offers a finger to tie knots, but also to take over when one is stuck with a particularly uncooperative bow or a difficult nip/tuck manouevre. and somehow, the problem’s always solved, in a way that we’re both happy with. as they say, two heads are better than one, and well, four hands are apparently more useful than two too.

anyway, our ‘slumber party’ was made even more lively this time with our elf-in-training. oh, and she’s offering our ‘trade secrets’ for a sum of money, by the way, ha ha.

and here’s two more flavourful ‘confections’ to add to the list:

Mango Coral Cheesecake, Dolly Lollipop Cake

heh, we couldn’t help it with the Dolly the Sheep thing. it also brought about a (bimbotic) discussion on the difference between sheep and lamb. and how we almost ‘gay-ified’ the sheep with a butterfly on its head, then realise it’s beyond ‘gay-ified’ on account of its fleece being pink.

and yes, this is the kind of inane talk that fills up our many hours of working together and, err, ‘stirs’ up our creative juices. :p

one of the results of that, our creme de la creme… (so far!)

Strawberry Dream Fairycake

i realise it’s been some time since i’ve veged out on the couch and watched, really watched, tv, so i think i should reclaim some couch time tomorrow while the two fellas in da house go for that airshow everyone’s talking about (even aniq, who exclaims “eh-pen!” every few minutes a plane roared in the sky outside our balcony today). me time, finally!

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i guess it had to happen some time, but it’s okay. i think we’ll just have to add it up to a lesson learnt in “business”. you know, the whole customer-confirms-then-pulls-out-of-a-transaction thing, despite enthusiastic ideas thrown around and items all sourced out, because of another “offer”?

oh well. c’est la vie… we’ll reserve it for a more deserving customer. but you can betcha it’d have been a killer cake.

aaanyway, rin was over at my place last night to complete our grandest project yet, and redeemed ourselves by pouring our heart and soul into this one, despite (or maybe because of) that slight setback.

i must say, babies these days are so blessed with sooo many BEAUTIFUL things – i fell in love with these ballerina shoes and simply HAD to have them, nevermind if they were for a customer’s diaper cake and not for my own babe. and whaddaya know, they matched the theme perfectly.

i know, i know – MORE pink! ahh, you just can’t help it, can you? hehe.

will take more decent pics when we see sunlight at home. (yes, we’re practically vampires nowadays, spending more time awake at night with our projects. but hey, they’re all worth it – go Team Whims & Fancies, lol!)

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aniq’s new cousin! i’ve always had a soft spot for little boys, probably coz my firstborn’s a boy. just one of those mother’s bias hehe.

about ten hours after being induced, he was squeezed out, all 3.92kg of him, with epidural administered at one minute apart. =O

and it seems that the lil fella didn’t have much space or he liked a particular position inside his nine-month home, coz his feet are curled inwards. i’d never noticed baby’s feet like that, so i was quite fascinated. in any case, i hope my lil one inside has more than enough room to move and kick about (i KNOW she moves and kicks about – a lot – especially at two in the morning, grrr), so maybe a huge tummy/womb may serve a good purpose after all. and i’m also hoping that the ‘lowness’ of my tummy will help the baby come out faster/easier, since it’s already, err, so near the ‘exit sign’. you think? :S

ok, shan’t think of that for now. there’s no way we can predict what will happen in the delivery room anyway.

let’s focus on the present! here are the two energetic monkeys at, as the littler one would say, “oma aus” (oma’s house). yes, he speaks germanish hehe.

other than chase each other around the house, they also make up their own games, like the “big-small” game (of which the origin and rules escape me), hold conversations (with bursts of gun-shooting sound effects in between), make a mega mess out of lego bits, fight for their oma’s attention (and make her sing ‘buai laju-laju’ while she lies down and swings them on her legs – free exercise regime, no need for gyms!) oh, and she also kicks balls around with them, and when aniq says “oma, ek-sais!”, she obliges by leading them in stretching exercises. i swear.

my mum must be going mad at home. i think i would, hehe. :p

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a lotta exciting things have been happening to many, many people over the weekend.

congrats to the need-i-mention-gorgeous-couple nurul & sofian…

and congrats to the mummies of the new babies who just popped out!

namely ogy (baby aqil), an ol’ tkg friend herda (baby adlynn – darn, there goes another A name i can’t use now, hehe), and…

MY NEW NEPHEW, WHOSE NAME I DON’T EVEN KNOW YET!! (but should start with A too, to follow his older brother, adam.)

he came out right on the dot on the day he’s supposed to. and he’s a hefty one, weighing in at 3.92kg. (can i say “OH. MY. GAWD!”?) nevermind, another cousin for aniq to wrestle with!

so, when will this baby A come out, then?? *looks down at heeyuuuuge tummy hanging down almost to my ankles.*

the makciks at the wedding just now were staring SO HARD at it already. not just the makciks, but also the nyonyas, wherever i go. “wow, look at that circus freak,” they’re saying (i think). gah!

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orange marmalade, anyone?

more yummy concoctions coming up!

email us if you’d like one: sales.whimsnfancies@gmail.com.

thanks for the support so far! we may not be the first in this, or the best, that’s for sure – but we do this with lotsa heart, sincerity, and a dash of personal gratification. and we’re simply glad for all the gracious ‘rezeki’ that comes our way.

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waited for about an hour in the morning at changi beach to catch the airplanes rehearsing their moves for the upcoming singapore airshow next week. we were waiting for the black knights to show off their moves but were disappointed that they decided to cancel their rehearsal.

but at least we got some snaps of the royal australian air force’s roulettes, the f-18 hornet and also the airbus. more pictures here.

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because more baby girls came out of the oven and said “gimme something sweet!”

*****

and speaking of babies, i bought myself a measuring tape earlier today, and o.m.g.

the girth of my tummy is already EXACTLY 100 CM!

which is madness coz i measured at 100cm when i was nine months with aniq!!

:O

and yes, i look like a fat, juicy boysenberry jam pie myself in my purple baju butterfly makcik-makcik, which i finally unearthed from the inner belly of my cupboard.

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hey, do we still have hooters in singapore…? :p

***

ouhh, if you haven’t watched Juno, you MUST. wait, is it out in the theatres yet? coz izad d/l it to his PSP from, hmm… somewhere, plugged it to the tv, and insisted i watch it with him.

gladly enough, i did. killer script and soundtrack! quirky and indie and smart – a winning combination.

and i think ellen page is the next It girl.

speaking of teenage pregnancies, we were discussing how easy it is for sixteen-year-olds to get pregnant, and BE pregnant. like, their bodies are meant to go through the whole childbearing process effortlessly.

i mean, all those stories we hear in our local news about secretly getting through nine months hiding their bellies underneath their school uniforms and giving birth to babies in toilets – a thirty-year-old can’t get away with that, surely! (lemme go find my old tkg uniform and see if i can fit in it now, ok?) how do they do that, get away with nary a waddle, with not even a whiff of suspicion from their parents or teachers, and then give birth alone in a toilet, flush it down, get up and go. free delivery, so to speak.

ok. i think that’s depressing enough.

but go watch the show! it’s not depressing at all. in fact, it’s all vair heartwarming (nevermind the moral implications). and vair cool (once again, nevermind that it would probably inspire even more sixteen-year-olds to get knocked up).

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met up with my shutterbuddy, jeremy for a hiking cum photography session last sunday. our intention was to hike from the bukit timah ktm transit station to the hidden tunnel up to the abandoned bridge. But alas, our plan was thwarted by the malaysian watchman/guard at the bukit timah station. maybe after he saw us with our big-a$% dslr cameras, told us that we cannot proceed. oh well, rather than being charged for trespassing and have him confiscate our cameras, we wisely left the place. but all was not lost, we took another route and still managed to locate the lost tracks.

check out our weekend adventure here.

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i realise that i’ve been letting myself do a lot of “wrong” things for this pregnancy. i’m not sure whether it’s subconscious, or whether there could actually be a rebellious, defiant streak running through my hormones this time round.

now let me count the ways:

1) a weakness for – tea! top of the list being iced lemon tea. or plain ol’ hot tea, with or without milk, depending on where i’m having it. i know know know that caffeine is bad, evil, wicked, etc, especially during pregnancy. and when other (bad, evil, wicked, etc) people tell me that it’s ok to have just one cup a day, i take their word for it. this hardly happened the last time. i was religious with my daily HL milk, soya bean and watermelon juice, all that good stuff. i do try too now as well, but for a good number of months, my tastebuds refused to cooperate and those just weren’t my cuppa tea (so to speak).

2) highlighted my hair. ok, ok, so it was more like highlights and colour. but i DID tell the hairdresser to keep AWAY from my roots and scalp, AND he used foil, if that’s any consolation. and i tried not to inhale the peroxide fumes too much (which, by the way, is doable enough coz these new hair dyes hardly smell at all). i know that doctors would say hair dye is not harmful to the baby, and scientists would say the risk is negligible (i was already well into my second trimester after all, and in serious need of a pick-me-up, having just turned thirty and all), but two years ago, it’d be unthinkable for me to mess around with chemicals while carrying another human being in my body. “how irresponsible!”, i would say. but now, i guess, erm, perspectives… change?

3) *achtung: bimbo alert* – slacked on mascara application. (go ahead, LOL or roll your eyes, or do both now!) see, i have this theory that my daily mascara use during the first pregnancy was the ONLY reason why my firstborn came to have such long, luscious, curled-up lashes where his parents seriously lack in that department. i mean, we couldn’t have skipped a generation of blessed eyelash genes, could we? in any case, i don’t have the time to primp my lashes these days, and i can’t seem to find the right mascara anymore. (although i must say, i DO have an inexplicable obsession with eyeshadow this time round… hmm, what does this mean…?)

4) “forget” to take the daily cocktail mix of folicacid-obimin-calcium-DHA-etc on some days. oh well. let’s blame it on those “forgetful” pregnant women hormones, shall we?

5) did more unthinkable – became another kind of drug junkie. ingested various cough syrups, popped flu pills, begged for antibiotics… and this coming from someone who can barely stand panadol (being allergic to painkillers) and who avoids drugs, refusing to depend on pfizer et al whenever possible. but my immune system seems to be shot to hell this time round, getting sick more often than usual, and i just want it to go away quickly so i could deal with the more pressing issue of getting myself comfortable with this growing uterus and all, thus the non-resistance to drugs and drug-induced wooziness (which i really, really hate).

6) have negative thoughts. this i can’t elaborate much, but they just seem to sneak up and threaten to devour me like hungry, vicious, venomous serpents… ok, that was a tad overdramatic! i think perhaps i haven’t been as mentally prepared to have another little person in my life as i thought i would be. different from the first pregnancy, when i was more active, had more energy and higher spirits, more independence and freedom. though not to say that i’m not thankful for being blessed with a girl to complete the yin to my yang, of course! (yes, note to self: must keep up with similarly positive thoughts. ohmmm…)

7) neglect eating properly. well yeah, i’ve always had a problem with this, pregnant or otherwise, but things are a little screwy on the actual act of eating itself – i’m just too lazy to look for food! sure, i can eat rice just fine this time (nasi padang is comforting, for the strangest reason), where during the previous pregnancy, the smell of rice turned me off big time. and where i had my fix of fries almost daily the last time, some fries taste like cardboard to me now. see, told you it’s all screwy. food. bah! i givap!

8 ) raided the husband’s wardrobe and pilfered his drabbest tshirts and shorts to sleep in. ok, so this is not “wrong” per se – just very unglam and unsexy. unthinkable indeed! but all my sleepwear are deemed hopelessly uncomfortable at this point, and i’m too cheapskate to buy new ones, so thank god for husbands and their big tshirts and shorts.

9) have not bought or prepared anything for the impending bundle of joy, and we have only two more months left. well, except for those three pairs of baby tights. how essential, right? ha ha.

10) totally forsaken cocoa butter and other forms of stretchmark-prevention. yup, i’ve lost it. my body is no longer a sacred temple. i care not for the threatening silvery lines about to be forever etched onto my skin, just like a tattoo… i’ll always have you – eh wait, isn’t that a song…? anyway, i figure, who cares? we SHOULD be proud of our stretchmarks, dammit! they’re real battle scars, ok! even the bravest warriors and gladiators never held such honour of being pregnant and going through labour, alright!

so there. i can’t believe i came up with ten things. i thought maybe five, six at most. i am now officially a depraved mother.

the good news though: my hair and skin are very well-behaved. so those rebellious, defiant hormones must be doing some good after all.

***

ok, this picture is totally unrelated, but i just like it very muchly, so i’m putting it here because i HAVE to put at least one picture to balance off an unnecessarily verbose post such as the one above. (and as a reminder that perhaps there is hope after all in my rocky world of motherhood.)

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because we love details.

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as you can see, we’ve been busy these few days…

Cherry Cream Truffle, Apple Cotton Candy, Strawberry & Grape Jelly, Blueberry Fudge Cake

Whims & Fancies are true-blue perfectionists who obsess over the tiny details, so rest assured that every project of ours is a back-breaking labour of love (and this pregnant woman means this in every sense of the word)!

more babies are popping out (or have popped out)… so what are you waiting for? order leh!

email: sales.whimsnfancies@gmail.com

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the first thing i checked with the doc yesterday during my monthly check up was whether it’s STILL a girl.

the good news is: it still is. heh.

the bad news is: my low tummy is likely due to my laziness at exercising after the first baby, hah! weak muscles = flabby womb, you know. so, first-time mummies, let this be a lesson! but ugh, the thought of tummy crunches turns me off, so nevermind, another reason for me to stop at two. or i foresee my tummy hanging down to my knees the next time round. eew.

at this point, the scans of the baby aren’t too exciting coz the baby’s grown too large to be seen in full on the screen, so the doc could only show us parts of the blurry images which i, after two babies, still am very bad at deciphering what is what. ok, the head is easy enough, being round and all.

baby is now almost 1.4 kg, mummy has gained all of 7 kg, EDD stands at 17 april. well, give or take two weeks.

the doc offered me ventolin nebuliser for my phlegmy chest, and so, seeing that the clinic was TOTALLY empty that morning (a miracle, i tell ya!), i had my feet on the sofa and breathed in the damn thing for twenty minutes. i also wanted to know what was it about the nebuliser that kids absolutely hate, and the aftermath, as i find out, was a palpitating heart, shaky hands, and plain jittery-ness. the phlegm was still there, but i guess with all the other meds, i slept somewhat better at night.

aaaaanyway, the highlight of the day was aniq’s first trip to the dentist. i’d psyched him up by telling him over the past few days that we’re bringing him to a doctor who is going to brush his teeth, and we got him to practice opening his mouth when instructed, hehe. so by that day, he knew that he was going to the “entist” to “ush teef”.

the dentist discussed with us about his daily diet and brushing habits, showed us the proper way to brush his baby teeth, and warmed him up with a teeth model for him to brush…

then it was on to the dentist’s chair with daddy! he had his teeth counted (17 in all for now, including one erupted molar), brushed properly (without any biting or chewing, like he does with his own toothbrush at home), and some stains scraped off (due to the iron-rich spinach he eats). and all throughout, he simply kept his mouth opened compliantly like a good patient, and kept very still, allowing the dentist to do his thang. kinda like when he has his haircuts, actually. i think he’s a funny little boy like that, always taking in new experiences in a curious, adult way.

you know how dentists, like in movies, tend to give kids a lollipop at the end of their visit? i always thought it strange and disturbing that they do that, or it could be a conspiracy to keep the kids’ parents coming back to give them more business. but thankfully, no candies were in sight, only a toy as a reward. phew!

and as our reward to him, we brought him to the botanic garden nearby to run around and feed the fishies.

check out my teeth!

i must add that i myself like going to the dentist, never having a bad experience before – well, except that the pocket hurts most during visits. (why are dental checkups so expensive?!)

i remember my mum used to be very insistent in reminding us to brush our teeth every night since i was small, so i know dental hygiene is important, and i guess it’s subconsciously passed down to me now that i’m a mother myself. so yeah, call it the kiasu-mother-syndrome or whatever, but i think it’s an investment coz… do you know just how freaking expensive braces and extractions cost?? (i’ve never needed them, but i’ve heard!)

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