Monthly Archives: June 2012

THAT Baby

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Have you ever been in a place where there’s always this one kid who screams the house down? Where you stare icily at the mother thinking, “Control your child, woman!” Well, last Saturday that kid was Little B. 

She and I attended our first La Leche League meeting. We were the first ones there, aside from the 2 moderators. Women trickled in – some alone and some with their husbands, but always with their child in tow. The meeting started and Little B sat quietly on my lap, picking rice puffs from my hand. I peeked into the container – uh oh. Just a few pieces left! Thinking that maybe she would keep quiet longer, I gave her everything in it. A few minutes later, when she realized nothing more was coming, she began to squirm. Started to grunt and wriggle. Let out a couple of ear-piercing shrieks. So I put her on the floor. She crawled this way and that, trying to go under the chair. I kept picking her up to keep her close to me but she protested quite loudly. I gave her a water bottle to play with. Big mistake. She spied the water bottle of the woman sitting to my right, and went straight for that. I picked her up and she screamed. Oh lordy. This went on the entire time. Thank god the meeting was just an hour! I couldn’t keep track of what the group was discussing, as I was busy trying to keep Little B from crawling between the legs of other people. 
I couldn’t help noticing how the other babies were well-behaved and quiet. I suppose maybe because she was the oldest of the bunch (well, there was one who was older but her dad whisked her away) and the others were less than 6 months old. The woman sitting next to my right had her daughter, who was a month younger than Little B, with her. I was pretty happy that Little B was finally able to interact with another baby. I gave her a spoon to chew on and she would promptly hand it over to the other baby. Then the mother would take it from her and give it back to me, and I would give it back to Little B to play with. Then the whole pass-the-spoon thing would start all over again. I got the impression that maybe the woman might have been a bit wary about cleanliness because Little B had been crawling on the floor and put the spoon in her mouth.
I guess I won’t be attending another meeting any time soon, not unless Little B learns how to behave in public!

Sewing Skillz

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Little B ran through her cloth diaper supply this afternoon. I bring about 5 extra inserts and diapers from home, and she used them all up by 3pm. To top it off, she soiled her last remaining change of clothes. So what was a Mama to do? Thank goodness I work in my parents’ house, so I still have a bunch of clothes in my old room. I grabbed an old shirt and cut it Little B size.

Using a pen, I outlined the shirt for Little B. I cut on the lines and cut off about 4 inches from the hem. Then using the sewing techniques I learned in high school (14 years ago!), I sewed up the sides, making sure not to sew up the armholes.
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You’ll see the stitches are nothing great, and terribly loose, but they seem to have done the job.

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Here’s the finished product, as modeled by Little B herself:

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Not bad, eh? Of course the neckline is way too loose but I didn’t know how to make it smaller. I’ll try and fix up the stitches – maybe use a sewing machine this time.

Sunday Afternoon Baking

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After working on Little B’s bookshelves, I had my head in the refrigerator looking for something to munch on. Nothing. In the pantry? No such luck. J asked me to bake cookies over the weekend but I didn’t have the time yesterday (okay, fine, I was too lazy to move). I decided I’d hit two birds with one stone – bake him the cookies and make something for me to eat as well.

Enter slutty brownies. I’ve made it once before (I got the recipe from The Londoner) and J pronounced it to be the best brownies he’s ever had. It’s extremely easy to make, as the recipe calls for chocolate chip cookie mix and brownie mix. I’m sure one can make the chocolate chip cookies and brownies from scratch but I couldn’t be bothered.

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Slutty Brownies
One package chocolate chip cookie mix
One package brownie mix
1-1/2 packs Double Stuf Oreos (you can use the regular Oreos but these are much better!)
Preheat your over to 180 degrees Celsius/360 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 4. Grease a 8×8 pan. Make the chocolate chip cookie dough and brownie batter as directed.
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Spread the cookie dough on the bottom of the pan. Make sure the pan is greased, so the cookie layer doesn’t stick!
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Slightly press the Oreos into the cookie dough, then pour the brownie batter over it.
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Bake for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. It’s going to take lot of willpower but let it cool before cutting into it and taking a piece out! I had to watch Little B and do some other things so the wait was bearable.
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Doesn’t that look like something you’d want to sink your teeth into?

Babyproofing Fail

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It’s about time J and I start babyproofing the house. Little B is constantly in motion which, I must admit, is quite entertaining. She crawls quite fast now and has started to explore beyond the rubber mats we set up for her.

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Her go-to place now is the kitchen cabinet. She’s learned how to open and close the cabinet doors and can sit in front of it, quite contentedly swinging it open and shut. I’m worried she’ll get her tiny fingers caught in it so J and I bought a cabinet lock. There were a few for us to choose from but I chose this because it looked nicer.

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I should have chosen better because it’s too short to hook around both knobs! J hooked it on one knob, unscrewed the other, and voila! It worked. But it’s going to be such a hassle unscrewing that knob every time I want to open the cabinets!

DIY Stress

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I have always wanted to be a DIY-er. DIY pins on Pinterest are saved in my bookmarks folder, for when I have the time to finally get started. The cabinet and bookcase are done, and there’s loads of wood left over. I figured, now is as good a time as any. I pulled up a DIY link that I thought would be a good first project.
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Image taken from Shanty 2 Chic
It sure seemed easy enough. $20 shelves ANYONE can build. Actually, I started this last weekend.  I ran out of nails so had to buy more and I thought, maybe I can use wood moulding. It took me a while to find a nice-looking one and was only able to finish today. To be fair, I couldn’t continue it during the week as I had to be at work.
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As it turns out, I’m not anyone. The shelves didn’t turn out the way I thought they would. Originally, I wood-stained them but they didn’t look too good (or maybe I didn’t stain it properly) so I decided to spray paint them white. I’m just waiting for them to dry before I add the hanging mechanism and install them as bookshelves in my daughter’s room. I made another project, to hang behind the bathroom door. J has been wanting to replace the hooks we have there now but we haven’t been able to find what we’re looking for. I thought I might as well make it too!
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Still didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. I wonder what I can do to jazz it up a bit?  It just might be better for me to give up my illusions of DIY-ing.

Woodworks

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Several months ago, J and I had agreed to hire some carpenters to custom-make a bookcase for the space under our stairs so I removed the desk that was there and put everything on it away neatly. I guess J was getting a bit impatient and disturbed by the clutter because he asked me when the carpenters were supposed to start. Confession: honestly, I hadn’t really thought about it. Finally, I got around to asking a couple of carpenters to work on it. The perks of having a dad in the development business! 
A couple of nights before they were going to start, I decided I wanted to have a cabinet built in our bedroom – my present closet is in another room and frankly I was tired of having to leave our room just to get a change of clothes. So I printed out a photo of a bookcase and a photo of a cabinet, the styles of which I wanted the carpenters to copy. When I showed the photos to them the next day, they said they’d need to make a few changes because of the layout of our room and of our staircase. Fine, I said. We went over the size of each and one of them asked me, why not make the cabinet 6 feet wide, to maximize the sheets of plywood? I said fine again. 
Little did I know how much space that darn cabinet was actually going to take up! I was at work and my husband sent me a photo of the cabinet shell, and texted me that it was huge. Oh my god. I was at a loss for words but I had to say I needed it and would share it with him if he liked. 
It’s been a week and the carpenters are nearly done with the project. We had to sleep at my in-laws’ last night (and will sleep over a couple more nights) because of the smell of paint. We didn’t want Little B to inhale the fumes, and the smell was dizzying! I am happy with the way the bookcase turned out, but am still a little unsure about the cabinet.

Cereal for Breakfast

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I feel like I hardly slept last night. We all went to bed at close to midnight and Little B wanted to nurse what seemed like every hour. I set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. but we (really meaning “I”) finally rolled out of bed at 6:40 a.m. I remember mumbling to my husband, “Cereal for breakfast.” Little B slept on, oblivious to the state her mother was in.