a year older, she’s used to holding her bottle while drinking milk. although she is still on breast milk, we are slowing weaning her off. she tends to look for her mom every night for her fix.

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i have what you can call ‘birthday party fatigue’, but sheer maternal obligation drove me to do something for the little one’s first birthday, even though it was terribly last minute, and the planning was not half as anal as it was when i held aniq’s first party three years ago.

i’ve had the theme at the back of my mind, well, actually around the time when those beautiful (and rather mysterious) rainbows kept appearing in our skies early this year. rainbows, care bears, these were the limits of girly-ness i could tolerate. (yes, pink princesses are still not in the cards, for now.)

her daddy said one day she’ll look at these pictures and cringe in embarrassment at what mummy made her wear. lol. well, it’s better than dressing her up as a leprechaun, right?

she’s an outdoorsy and outgoing baby toddler, happy to be running around with just about anyone.

i guess i’m guilty of not keeping track of her developments as much as i did with the firstborn. you can call it a kind of ‘fatigue’ too, but so much is happening at the same time with both kids, there’s barely room for me to reflect or internalise, much less journal it down.

there are little surprises now and then, and we’re still trying to figure her out. all we know is, her hair has barely grown 2 inches since she came out, she always wants our food, she crinkles her nose when she grins, she can be very cheeky like her brother, she’s a pretty tough cookie. no princess here.

we think she’d have been a cute boy. lol.

i think i remember looking at photos of myself as a toddler and thinking how ungirly i look, with my barely there hair and the same expression in this picture. everyone says she looks like her daddy, but i kinda think she looks like me when i was small.

well, ok maybe not as colourful. :p

happy first, little girl. may your life be full of hope, surprises, miracles, and beauty. like rainbows.

(if you find pots of gold along the way, that’d be nice too.)

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a year ago, a tiny bundle of joy came into our lives. the day turned out to be a new chapter in our lives.
no longer just the 3 of us

auni haniz, the new addition to our family. she’s different from her brother.
she’s unpredictable, she’s stubborn, she’s strange in her own ways, she’s electric….

Auni, the journey so far… from izadnhana on Vimeo.

happy 1st birthday auni! hope you don’t bully the boys and make them cry

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we were at is’s place a couple of weeks back for a family gathering when she served us homemade burgers. and boy, do they taste really good! so good that i asked for the recipe and tried it out last weekend. basically its from jamie oliver’s burger recipe but he uses steak meat which is definitely fresher than your minced beef meat that you get from the supermarket. and where in singapore can you get free range chicken eggs?

anyway, if you must follow his recipe religiously, you can check out the recipe here

so i did try to follow the recipe as instructed.

i fried some chopped onions

pounded the cumin and coriander seeds together. add the black pepper and salt for taste.

added the ingredients together which included the breadcrumbs, grated parmesan cheese, egg and english mustard.

mix well, if its too sticky, add more breadcrumbs.

shaped ‘em into err, burgers and sprinkle more breadcrumbs. leave in fridge for around an hour.

fry them in olive oil.

all done, enjoy!!

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just a few highlights from the brother-in-law’s wedding.

i) the beautiful setting at pias plaza, pasir ris park. don’t bother googling it, it’s so new, the place isn’t even on the map. it’s this open hall amidst a background of greenery, perfect for that garden wedding we wished we’d had in our days.

ii) as you can see, this was my favourite spot of the day. and obviously, aniq’s.

for me, it wasn’t so much the spread of candies and chocs, which obviously was the draw for aniq and all his little friends. it was the innovative concept, the loving attention to details, and the pretty, pretty colours – i think we’ve established that i’m a sucker for such things.

iii) as i had my hands full running after the little girl who was going berserk with all that grass to trod and trample on, i didn’t get to witness the little feeding ritual of milk and banana between the bride and groom. we thought it was a quaint and interesting tradition, but never got to find out its cultural significance.

iv) the best thing about the juahir family’s weddings, i must say, is the food! the nasi padang and satay alone are worth going to their weddings for. so now you know where izad gets his love for traditional food from – yes, his family. and to top it off, there was an unending flow of piping hot pisang goreng which i stuffed myself with throughout the day. but, er, please don’t tell anyone that.

v) the popcorn machine which i’d love to have kept for myself, if i knew how to work the thing. then again, izad’s other brothers and cousins were all professional popcorn makers by the end of the day, so i could hire them to do the work for minimum wage.

vi) the kids who thoroughly enjoyed themselves over the two days. mainly, the band of four sticky, smelly, sweaty boys. thanks is, for sponsoring their colour-coordinated shirts.

vii) the wedding croquembouche, sponsored by the groom’s generous eldest sibling, ie. izad, and by proxy, hana. we were exceedingly pleased that the colours turned out exactly right, thanks to the brilliant people at the patissier.

am now seriously considering getting a mini version for auni’s first birthday, just because i didn’t get enough of it at the wedding, dang.

viii) and last, but not least, the gorgeous couple. of course.

everlasting love to you, emi+hajar.

so now, i am officially… The Da Jie!

(ps: is there a manual somewhere on How To Be A Da Jie that i can refer to, you think?)

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