Baby Rayden, 6 Month-Old

I've always wanted to do an update entry of Rayden but I don't know where to start? Or even which photos to use because man, the amount of photos of that fellar in my phone's camera roll is equivalent to photos of myself in 10 years, I think!

How you doin'? 

Phew~! What a super star he is!!!

So I'm just going to be very random in picking some photos of him to share here, with most of them quite recently taken.

I know right, the position of my hand on the table looks so odd, but that's because Rayden was trying to kick the table down!!! 

Just few days back as Deardo and I celebrated our anniversary, he also turned 6 months old. So far, he...

#1 can flip and turn in seconds, and is practicing to sit up already.

There goes, there goes...

#2 he is a very active boy, lay him down somewhere or even carry him up and he will start kicking, flipping hands, turning here and there.

Trust me, he was enjoying it so much when these happened... ==|||

#3 doesn't cry as much.

Yup, no crying even if he bang his head on his bed...

#4 still cry at night before going to sleep, as though he knows it's the end of the day and he doesn't want the day to end yet (making us very restless almost every night).

I'm sexay and I know it~!!!

#5 hence, he is definitely a very very very playful boy (and I can't decide whether is that a good or bad thing. LOL).

Cheeky little fellar!!! 

#6 smiles almost all the time but giggles only when he feels like it (superstar mah, must have some attitude there ahem...).

#thatsmilethough #futureheartbreaker

#7 fell sick for the first time, well not really sick la, just got red-eyed and nose-blocked possibly because of the haze. Bloody haze... #%@#$%#&@*

#8 is growing into a very long/tall boy, weighing a normal 8.5kg plus right now. :D

Yo yo~ Who said hip hop is so yesterday? Who???

#9 is now an easier baby to go out with. He sits in his stroller and can fall asleep in it too, quite easily. The only problem though, is that he hates sitting in his car seat... Gahhhhhhh...

Yay! It's 'gai gai' time again, isn't it?

Zzzzzz...

#10 eating solid now and he really is fussy about his food, e.g. he prefers the expensive cereal and prefers ikan bilis in his porridge. This fellar ah, has good taste!

Yes? You mean there is something on my face?

#11 ba ba ba ba bu bu bu bu a lot now and it's really funny cos sometimes he sounds like he is speaking Korean or something! Ooooopaaaa~~~

Date nights mean 3 pax now.

#12 most importantly, he changes people. Mamo being so eager to come to KL and doesn't mind doing a lot of extra work is just of them. People suddenly love to come visit us Rayden and can be totally ignorant about us. the parent. #truestory because I'm only manager to my superstar son. LOL.

Kim Po came visit, all the way from Singapore yaw~!

Meeting Mikhail for the first time and they look damn cute like this... Like totally confused!!! 

And holding hands already with Baby Wilfred? Wah, very fast ah...

That's all I can think of, for now.

Thanks for watching, on behalf of Baby Rayden. :p

So Creative-Lah @ Flingstones Cafe, SS15 Subang Jaya

Hey guys, my apologies for not updating much. Work is getting busier and there is zero chance of me blogging at home now with a baby around so yah... Life as a working mum that is!

While I'm getting used to being a mum, I'm slowly catching up on my cafe-hopping activities so early last month we checked into Flingstones Cafe, a non-halal cafe located just opposite Taylor's College in SS15, Subang.

The cafe looks not less like any hipster cafes in town, very rugged with some vintagy settings.
What's more interesting is their very cool names for their food, drinks and cakes! So freaking cute! The menu is quite full-on with some very creative use of pork in their dishes. So we picked our choices!

Green Pea Soup, RM10.

Chu Yao Char Angel Hair, RM18.

B.E.L.T, RM15.

The Big Bang Breakfast, RM25.

Let's start with the very hearty Green Pea Soup, very light but got its flavour up with some awesome bacon bits - super yummy! The Chu Yao Char Angel Hair (so literal lol) was pretty nice although I think it would taste nicer with a thicker type of pasta and a little more liquid but the use of the thick Chu Yao Cha and bacon bits win big time for the dish. Big love for the B.E.L.T too - nicely fried bacon plus a nice fried egg and the yummy side salad, so satisfying! Their Big Bang Breakfast (love that name though) was quite decent, although not fantastic. Personally think the scrambled egg can be better.

Cappuccino, RM10.

Earl Grey Lavender, RM9.

The coffee was a bit too bland to our liking. So yes, we did enjoy the food more than the coffee.

Our beautiful brunch spread!

We paid RM87 for that big fat brunch and I think that's pretty affordable considering the amount of food we loaded into our tummy!

Look who was with us at brunch the other day!

So nice ambiance and hot food, shall be back for more food and cakes with cute names! :)

Flingstones Cafe,
24, SS15/8,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor.
Tel: 03-5879 9468

Mamo, the Ah Ma a.k.a Confinement Lady (and Her Cooking)

You may or may not know, Mamo was my confinement lady after delivering baby Rayden. 

The reasons I made Mamo my confinement lady were 1) we are not use to having a stranger (confinement lady) in our house, 2) I prefer Mamo's cooking and if I doesn't like it I can tell her or if I prefer certain type of food I can tell her too. But asking her to stay in KL, worst, to be confined at home for a month is kinda tough because of the fact that in Taiping she goes out every single day and enjoys her freedom hanging out with friends and running errands on a daily basis. 

You know they are in love with each other... LOL!

But she came anyway. No Astro to follow her Hokkien shows, no morning walk in lake garden (only morning walk downstairs at my condo), no driving out, no husband (Papo was here for a few days only), no friends (well she made friends here and you can't beat that), no normal I-wanna-nap-I-nap time and she cooks everyday for me, which she doesn't even do at home!

She was only a part-time confinement lady though, meaning by night baby is with Deardo and I so unlike many of you who have the privilege of a confinement lady taking care of your baby at midnight and you could have your sweet sleep, we took care of Rayden ourselves. No regret though, Deardo and I pretty much enjoyed the bonding we have built with him and Deardo is all proud about it that as a father, he has done so much during baby's first month itself. I couldn't agree more, really. Compared to many dads out there who probably take his wife's confinement month as opportunity to leave everything at home to the confinement lady and spend more time outside rather than with his newborn, my husband is in fact, 'a class above'. Ah hemm... *thick skin~*

At Rayden's Full Moon Luncheon! Ah Ma feeling heavy already to leave the little boy...

Anyway, this post isn't about Deardo lah, it's about Mamo and her grandmother-hood. I don't think Mamo regret it either. Grandmother-hood has totally changed her. In stead of being paiseh and refuses to express her true feelings, she shows how much she enjoys playing with Rayden, and told us she will miss him before she left for Taiping after that one month. She was back to KL again after just two weeks time and that's 'whoa' to a lot of people cos if it's the Mamo we know, to ask her to visit us in KL means you better just kill her. LOL.

And zooop... She is back after two weeks! Look at how much the boy has grown!

So that's the story of the Ah Ma and her grandson. As for the mother and her daughter, I am truly thankful of her taking care of me for one whole month, although she isn't a professional confinement lady and at times I had to do a lot of stuff myself. I still however, enjoy her company and am very happy the experience changes her. 

I told ya Mamo is addicted to Rayden! :p

It changes me as well. Last time I never thought much about my parent whenever you talk about migrating or working overseas cos I know at times they also hope for the best for me and that if I can earn more overseas they will be quite happy too. But now with Rayden around, I want to make sure we are in Malaysia so Ah Gong and Ah Ma (even Ye Ye and Ma Ma) can spend some time with him because the truth is they aren't getting any younger and the odds are they might not have too many years left with their grandson. Gosh talking about this always make me emo...

On a happier note, let me share with you just some of the awesome cooking Mamo has done for me during my confinement month! Only sharing those that are more interesting of course. 

The rice and dishes...

Cuz my mum can make awesome Pig Stomach Pepper Soup!

And she makes very awesome black pepper pork chops topped with fried ginger too! 

Oh, MIL contributed the turmeric base for this turmeric chicken! Very nice!!!

Mamo also makes awesome pork kidneys that is my favourite! Of course, she learned how to make the Black Vinegar Trotter from MIL and aced it I guess! Haha, I'm not a big fan of that dish la... :p Love the Papaya and Peanuts Soup too!

Highlight here is the spinach in red wine, egg and ginger. Love it!

This one with yellow wine and Goji berry!

My favourite turmeric chicken again and a small portion of Spring Onion Ginger Sliced Pork too!

My Special request - Steamed Egg with Minced Pork and Sesame Oil Chicken! Yumzzz...

I believe this was when Papo and my two sisters were around for dinner too where Mamo steamed some awesome chicken and make butter chicken rice to go with. Also in my confinement menu was the Lemongrass and Baby Onion Soup which I've fall in love with!

The noodle soup...

Mee Suah in Red Wine Soup with additional pork kidney topped with a fried egg! 

On lazy days, I'm ok with just Mee Suah in any soup of the day.

Like Pat Chan soup also we put Mee Suah and vegetables in it to make a meal!

And my Pat Chan has pig stomach in it, you can't beat that, can't you? Kekekeke,,,

Another Red Wine Soup Mee Suah, this time with a hard boiled egg!

The fried noodles, fried rice or one-pot-done dish...

The story here was that I bought the Hor Fun to make Cantonese Fried Hor Fun (Wat Dan Hor) without knowing I was going to pop! So I asked Mamo to use the Hor Fun and she made this pretty delicious Sesame Oil Fried Hor Fun with Pork Kidney!

Wanted something different so told Mamo to fried rice with Red Wine with some Edamame (rumour has it that they are milk booster) too!  

Fried Spaghetti with Sesame Oil, Minced Pork, Egg, Black Fungus and Edamame, another creative twist I asked Mamo to do and she simply aced it! Doesn't look like any other boring confinement month food isn't it? *wink~*

Simple fried bihun here but of course done with a lot of ingredients that are confinement-month friendly.

And when Red Wine Soup and Red Wine Fried Rice are too mainstream, here comes Red Wine Pasta yo~!

Or or... Red Wine One-Pot Chicken, Chinese Sausage, Shiitake Mushrooms and Black Fungus Rice.

Another awesome-looking red wine fried rice with whole loads of stuff.

So, how's that for some inspirations to you mothers out there who are going to be confinement ladies to your daughters? :p