Things that I will miss most about this house...

Everything. I don't think there is a single thing that I will not miss about this house. Even the naughty neighborhood cats that always pee at the porch which I always complain about, I will miss. This is the first house I moved into after getting married that I love completely. The first housing area that I love completely, too. Even though sometimes we complain that we don't know where to eat (bored of the same stuff), but I do still love our usual food places. I really do hope one day we can move back here. The neighborhood is good, the schools are good. The house is good. This is a good house. It's like the house smiled on us the very first day we set eyes on it, and it has been smiling down on us, day in and day out, without fail. A really good house. Even the plumbing issues aren't that big a deal; it's still a good house.

It's a handsome house. From the outside, its black and white facade make it the cutest house on the block. And I mean it. I think our house is so cute. The space can be a bit tight, but it's so roomy. Have you ever felt that before? We managed to make the house feel roomy even though the square footage is smaller than our previous house. I hope to be able to achieve the same feat with our new house (or houses).

I will always remember this house. We don't have that many photos of this house. Most of them are of Salma playing in her wading pool in the front garden. I really should take more photos of this house.

How do you tell a house "I love you, thank you and good-bye"? It's like I should leave a portable radio behind on moving day and have it play MC Mong's "I Love U Oh Thank U" on repeat until the batteries run out. In my younger days, I would have done it, to be poetic and nostalgic. But now that I'm older (I have moved houses countless of times since the age of 2), I think of how the new tenants would think it's scary or silly to come in hearing a song playing in an empty room. They'd think it was creepy right? Plus the lyrics are in Korean, and they wouldn't understand a thing. (Unlike me, who has read the translation).

I will really miss this house.

MU link to download the song.

Musings

Isn't it weird that while I was cheering feverishly for the South Korean team during World Cup 2010 during all their live games, LSG was too? There we were, two excited football fans cheering on their favorite team at the same time but at two different parts of the world, totally oblivious to the other? Back then, I wasn't even a fan of LSG. But we probably cursed at the screen at the same time during game upset moments... isn't that weird (but cool)?

Pangs of guilt

Don't you wish sometimes you could take a break from being a mom? And you know just be yourself for awhile, without having to chase after some small running thing, or feed an open mouth or pick up toys off the floor one after another? And no more of Playhouse Disney and Elmo dvds and Dibo dvds? *Sigh... when will that day come?

I asked Salma to play with her musical schoolbus, and instead of playing with it by herself, she brings it to me. Aiyo. How in the world do you teach kids to play by themselves? I don't remember playing this much with my mom when growing up. I think I never even played with my mom. Seriously. I think I started playing by myself straight away.

I just need some space. I feel so drained. I'm going to have some alone time tonight (keep my fingers crossed) with a girl's night out. A reunion dinner with some friends. I hope no one calls me during the dinner to tell me that little poppet is crying. That just ruins my outing. I will feel like I shouldn't be there enjoying myself (after having devoted my attention to the little poppet for soooo many months). So please little poppet, watch tv quietly with daddy or just go to sleep. Please let me have a good night out with my friends by myself.

The Non-Diaper Bag (Designer Diaper Bags Part 2)

I am becoming a newborn mom again, which means taking a second look at the Diaper Bag. I stopped using a diaper bag more than a year ago, when my daughter stopped drinking milk from the bottle. When going out, I'd just stuff one spare diaper and wet wipes into my handbag. But now that I'll be a mom to a new baby soon (in about 4-5 months time), I think it's time for me to shop around for a new fashionable diaper bag.

Off again I go to visit Gin & Jacqie's online shop. (Check out my first post on Gin & Jacqie two years ago here: http://red-pineapple.blogspot.com/2009/01/designer-diaper-bags.html).

Some pics of diaper bags available for sale at Gin & Jacqie:
To view the inside of the bag, please visit Gin & Jacqie's online shop (http://www.ginjacqie.com/my/)

Colorful Suzanna

Birdie Casual

Stevie Baby Bag (for dads)

Nathalie Baby Bag Set

After some browsing, I feel that I have gone off the allure of the floral print bag, so I don't think I'm going to go for an all-out diaper bag. I love the big handbag that I have now (I'm into chunky bags). Now the thing that's great about Gin & Jacqie is that they provide a solution for moms like me who love their designer hand bags (non-diaper bag)... because Gin & Jackie makes handbag "organizers". 

Organizers (like the one pictured above) are pocketed bags that you place inside your existing handbag to provide extra pockets and compartments for stuff that you need segregated and organized (such as diapers, feeding bottles, formula, keys, etc).  The one I like is "Organize Jo". For a fraction of the cost of a full-on diaper bag, you can create a diaper bag with the existing designer (or non-designer) bag that you currently use. And if you are one of those women who use a number of different bags to go with different outfits, then this is a good solution for you, too. Because you won't have to reorganize your bag each time you go out, you'll just pull out the Organizer Bag from one handbag and just pop it into the other handbag. :)  Isn't that nifty?

Pretty Mom

Something that's been bugging me for awhile now is how do I get back into shape after delivery. I haven't been able to do that after my first child was born, but I am determined to do it after my second child is born. And what I mean by "get back into shape" is going back to my pre-marriage days. Ya ya. I think maybe my ideal weight was when I first started working. I need to get back to that, if that is even possible. The first thing that I want to do once confinement and everything else is completed (jamu, urut, etc) is to get laser treatment and laser off all my pregnancy stretchmarks. Back in my first pregnancy, I only began applying the cocoa butter lotion on my belly after the itching started, and so it did not help to prevent stretch marks from appearing. This time I started applying the lotion in my 2nd month of pregnancy, so now that the skin on my tummy is really stretching (I'm at 5 months), it doesn't itch as much. I remember back when I was pregnant with Salma, the itchiness was so bad that I scratched all the time. We are not supposed to do this, because scratching will further inflame the skin and cause scars. Which lead to stretch marks. As a result of my folly, I have like literally hundreds of stretch marks on my tummy. My daughter plays with them sometimes... she runs her hand over them like it's a harp.

So that's my first plan, to get laser treatment. Hopefully the price will not go up by the time I am ready to do it. I've already done my research and know just the place to do it. If there is too much excess skin, maybe I will get a tummy tuck (if I can afford it). If not, then urut or massage to get rid of it. I don't even think that's possible though. But maybe it is.

Go to regular facials is my other plan. As we get older, we need more help to maintain good skin, so I need to go to facials more. I stopped going during this pregnancy, but I really should continue. My skin is terrible right now, so dry.

Then the final part of the plan is just continuous regular exercise. Maybe also focusing on upper body strength. Which I have zero of. I literally have zero upper body strength. I wouldn't be able to pull myself up over a wall, for example. During the team building event my former company had when I first joined back in 2005 I think it was, we went to this place in Kuching, and all of us had to climb over a wall. I couldn't do it, and my boss had to throw me over the wall. Yes, really. There were two guys seated at the top of the wall that had to catch me and pull me up. I remember the episode clearly because he did it without warning me. I was just suddenly propelled into the air and caught by 2 of my colleagues and just tossed over. It really happened that way. Thank God I didn't weigh all that much back then... or else it would've been too embarrassing.

Oh and the very last thing after delivering my second child is that I need to improve my make-up skills. I've stopped wearing make up during pregnancy because for some reason it makes my skin itchy. But I feel like I really need to learn how to apply all the facial stuff properly to maintain good skin. It's not enough to just wash it off with facial wash, I think. I don't want to clog my pores and stuff, and I have to really learn how to do it right.

The thing that I admire most about Korean girl groups (right now they are really big in Asia, more popular than J-pop girl bands) is not their slim figure and overall prettiness, but their eye make-up. Their eye make-up really makes their eyes pop out.

Still shots taken from KARA's music video for "Jumping".
I wanted to put up "before and after" pics but suddenly got too lazy.

I've seen pics of a few of them when they have no make up on, and they just look like regular Koreans (not necessarily having big eyes, the usual mata sepet la). Then when they have their eye make-up on, suddenly, their eyes are bigger and more sparkly... and as if they didn't have mata sepet. Ya ya, I don't have mata sepet, but just the fact that good eye make-up can make your eyes look gorgeous is fascinating to me. I want to try and copy it. Not that I would want to put on fake eyelashes to go to work every morning, but maybe just for fun when going out or something like that.

And that's my plan for becoming a pretty mom...