Elcerdo's KL - Romantic Lunch For 3

This was a very historical and important day for us indeed. It was the eve of our 2nd wedding anniversary, and also the day Sanju's first signs of being the Obnoxious-One. We had been planning for a trip to Elcerdo's in KL for a while after Lisa's very tempting suggestion for their dishes.

Hubby was all excited to get porked up, and the fact that this was our 2nd wedding anniversay, that too with Sanju in tow, added to the excitement. We made bookings on the eve of Valentine's Day for a romantic lunch for 3. Thats right, when you have kids, you tend to arrange romantic meals differently. Looking at the bright side, most of these restaurants offer free meals for kids, so I don't have to pack like we are going for a picnic trip.

For appetizers (as if we needed to be any more appetized), we had the Spanish Ham Platter, that came with yellow and green buah-kana like fruits, which on one bite turned out to be olives, absolute yum! The hams went well with the bread basket that came before the meals... yeah, we eat our food the Indian way, bread (capati) and veggies/meat LOL!

We decided to pass the suckling pig, as there were just the 2 of us eating, and the 3rd was gonna be a huge distraction. Sure enough, Sanju started his menacing ways. He was just about to learn walking, and loved holding our finger to walk, and so he decided papa was going to give him a tour of the restaurant!

Back to food, our main dishes were German Mini Sausages and Smoked ribs. The ribs were just too fine, I wished we had a bottomless plate of that, seriously!

For a quick end to the (romantic) meal, we had a quick taste of the Andreas Special "A Dream In Chocolate". Hubby the chocoholic, was not impressed, mainly due to Sanju's tantrums, but heck, I loved it all the way.

I must also add that the waiters there were very pleasant in helping us to provide toys and other distractions for Sanju, but when you are 1, you are just uncontrollable. I bet my mom would say the same about me if I asked her.

On the downside, we felt the food portion was rather small, this is coming from the people who whack 3 huge dishes at american diners, and hey, the nice waitresses could have at least offered to babysit my Obnoxious-1, ok just kidding.

This is How I Store My Cloth Diapers (I WANT TO WIN JOLI DIAPERS!)

Cloth diapers are my life saviour when I was a new mom, juggling baby care together with the heaps of laundry that babies came with. I wish someone had told me that earlier, or maybe they did, but maybe I did not see the magnitude of the effect then.

The convenience of using the cloth diapers works well when coupled with convenient storage of cloth diapers. You know how babies can be, diaper change needs to be done in a flash otherwise they'd be screaming on the top of their lungs, and if the baby has started moving or turning, you can expect some very intense wrestling session with your little one, gently of course.

I store my cloth diapers and daily used baby clothes in a hamper basket, as the picture below. The hamper is placed right in the living room, where all the nappy change is done during the messiest and busiest of the times. With a light mattress on the floor right beside the hamper, diaper change never got easier.

Apart from that, the hamper also gives me the flexibility of carrying and moving it to anywhere in the house. Also, if we are travelling back to hometown, all we need to do it to place the hamper in the front seat of the car, and we are good to go. If there is a need of diaper change while on the road, it is easily accessible for me, while hubby is concentrating on the driving.

This giveaway is a part of the giveaway by the Cloth Diaper Malaysia sponsored by my personal favourite cloth diaper seller LovelyGoody *secretly hoping to win win win!*

Cloth Diapering For Beginners

I have received a few queries lately on getting started to cloth diaper for baby. I am glad that my experience and informations in writing has helped to inspire other mamas to try cloth diapering their babies.

There are 4 types of Cloth Diapers in the market:

1. Pocket
Diaper with a stay dry inner fabric, waterproof outer fabric, with a pocket opening to insert the soaker/insert. This type of diaper is very popular and easy to use for newbie CD mamas, and generally dry faster as you separate the cover & inserts. Example: Bamboolite, Bumgenius

2. All-In-One(AI0)
Diaper with a waterproof outer layer and an absorbent inner layer. It might also come with extra piece of soaker to lay on, which can be separated for washing and drying. Example: Bottombumpers AIO

3. All-In-2 (AI2)
Diaper with a waterproof outer later and stay dry inner fabric. Lay on absorbant soaker is placed on the inner fabric. This diaper gives the convenience of just changing the soakers and use the same outer shell with a clean soaker, if not soiled with baby poo. Air drying the shell is required for better hygiene. Example: Itti Bitti, BlingBumz, Bamboolite AI2

4. Fitted
Diaper with a full absorbing body. To waterproof the diaper, a PUL or wool cover is required. The full absorbing body provides a larger area for pee soaking, generally can be used longer, and better for night and heavy wetter use.

For more cloth diapering terms, refer here.
Each of this type comes with its own pros and cons, which I will discuss on my blog next. Hope this helps!

But before you step into the cloth diapering world, let me warn you. Whilst cloth diapering my baby for convenience, cost saving and doing good to the mother earth, I kinda got hooked to the whole pretty diaper world out there, so be careful and be wise!

Bamboolite Printed AI2 Diapers

Yes, they are here, in my hands. I managed to get it through a group buy with a price tag to die for (about 20% discount) and I can't be more excited. If you did not know already, Bamboolite's spanking new offering is the Bamboolite Printed AI2 diapers.

Whats so great about it? Firstly, is it printed in lovely cute and yummylicious prints, and it is the all-in-two type. This means you can just change the soakers, instead of changing the whole diaper. There are 2 types of soakers, Lite and Premium. As the name goes, Lite is suitable for medium wetters and day use while Premium serves best for heavy wetters and night use. The best thing is that the soakers are designed in such way that once taken apart, it is light and quick drying. Couldn't get enough, I ordered one of each type.

Although I am yet to prep wash and use it on my toddler (I am kinda planning to keep it for now), from the outside, I can see some lovely new features that I love in the new Bamboolite Printed AI2. They are:

1. Lovely prints (needless to say)
2. Trimmer crotch (as compared to Bamboolite PUL or older version)
3. Better soaker designs for fitting and drying
4. Love the suedecloth topped bamboo soaker as the top soaker, guaranteed super-dryness!

The Great Cloth Diaper Change KL - Setting A World Record

In conjunction with Earth Day on 23rd April 2011, cloth diaper mothers in Malaysia are getting together to set a world record for the most cloth diapers ever changed at one time. Yes, you read it right, it is a new WORLD record, as the event is held simultaneously worldwide!

Get more details on Cloth Diaper Malaysia The Great Cloth Diaper Change KL and register to be a part of this historic and Earth loving event. Do your bit in promoting environmental awareness, what better than a baby step with your precious baby?

Little Doodlez Pants

I love giveaways, especially if the giveaway is giving away cloth diapers. This time it was a photo contest giveaway organized by Cloth Diaper Malaysia and Tini of Little Doodlez on Facebook, giving away Little Doodlez pants.

It is slightly different from the conventional cloth diapers. It is a pull up CD. Very suitable for the very active toddler to refuses to get on his back for diaper change. As the name goes, you can just pull up the CD onto your toddler. Plus it can also be used as training pants, during potty training. Love the dual coloured diaper body and elastics, my suggestion is for them to come up with printed dipes, I am sure CD mothers like me will be running over each other to get one for our toddlers!

Apart from running away from diaper changes, this toddler even runs away from the camera, or at least refuses to stay still for the camera. Here's a photo of him in his prized Little Doodlez while he was sleeping.

The Smartphone Liberation

After being back to basics with my old Walkman phone, I am liberated, smartphone-wise, yet again. Yes my HTC Wildfire is back from the medical (service) center, and after a software resurrection and upgrade, it is alive and kicking!

I must admit, that I really really missed it. Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of the touchphone part, but I missed my applications and the convenience! At first my keypad walkman phone felt like such a relief with the close-your-eyes-and-type-away kind of thing, but truth is, I missed the greater techie things in life. What I missed, lets see.. I can make a list of it (with due respects to my Walkman phone, it served me well, although even the handphone shop guy commented how 'ancient' it is now):

1) The photos in my SD card, missed admiring Sanju's pics at times of boredom and frustration
2) The Wifi convenience, it is so easy to catch any wifi (at home or outside) and get online to get the little information you suddenly need!
3) My one touch power/silence applications... call me finger-lazy but these come in hand when you have a toddler whining to get sleep and you need your phone to shut-up right away
4) My blogger application, I can type away on the blogger any time anywhere, even boring meetings
5) The camera, that allows me to take photo of every small detail for my blog or FB
6) Handcent SMS application, I like the conversation bubble-like sms display, makes life easier in tracking smses
6) The slimness and the sleekness of the Wildfire

The only bad thing now is that I can't sms while driving, ok so it is a good thing, but hey, I have my games back on track to keep me occupied during the peak hour traffic!

The Fat Momma and Baby Flannel Wipes

I am a fat mama alright. Going into week 15 now and have successfully put on 4-5kgs. The good news is, my baby bump is not showing yet, unless you see me before bedtime all stuffed with nice dinner and cow's milk. The bad news is, I am growing, sideways!

People seeing me daily might be thinking I am putting on weight like no tomorrow. And the person in the next cube must be noticing how super-duper hungry and greedy I am all the time, and I eat like almost all the time. He might be thinking I am just one hungry woman. Truth is I am not hungry (yeah rite), but just want to make sure I dont starve myself, and my little one in me. I could do with skipping whole meal those days, now even 2 hours before some snack is impossible.

Whatever it is, I guess I am going to have my own gala time eating while it lasts, but this weight better better come off once it is all over, otherwise... I will miss all my clothes!

Speaking of gala time, it is yet another happy time for shopping. I kicked off the newborn shopping with a recent WAHM-made baby flannel cloth wipes. I got them from Maybel's Closet, she even does pretty diapers! They come in very cute colours and prints. I can see Sanju getting jealous already, but hey, big brother will get to share the new wipes with his baby sibling later.
Picture from Maybel's Closet blog shop.

Dilemma of a CD mama

Sanju has been having mild diarrhea for the past 1 week, and I have resorted to disposable diapers to help with the mess and lighten my burden from the already fussy purging baby. It has been great to be relieved off the laundry duties for a while, since I can just wash his clothes in regular detergent with the rest of the laundry. But I can't help feeling guilty of enjoying the moment (talk about true CD mama at heart, LOL). Everything good comes with a downside though, I noticed that Sanju is developing rashes almost every other day, this is something I never saw with cloth diapers, even with the messiest of the messy poo-ed diapers!

Sanju has been fully cloth diapered for almost 1 year now, with occasional sposies for rainy days (literally), so its been a while that I have been using sposies full time. From my recent exprience, here's my list of pros and cons of using dispos.

Pros:
1) No laundry to rinse and wash
2) No poo mess to deal with, just throw and use a new one
3) Convenient when travelling with a poo-ing baby

Cons:
1) $$$ expensive! I have already spent abt RM60 on DD in the past one week, and mind you, I only buy cheaper brands such as Hey Baby & Fitti. I could have bought me (Sanju) a brand new Bamboolite printed diaper and it would be usable! (OK, I did order 2 pieces of the new BL printed dipes, a CD mama can never resist)
2) My waste bin fills up ever so fast with very bad smell (landfills & smell pollution)
3) Rashes on baby's bottoms, isn't the super soaking silica gel in the DD supposed to keep the bums dry?
4) White and light printed DD don't look nice on my gorgeous Sanju's bum-bum, I miss his bright printed dipes, plus laundry folding is so unexciting

The verdict, I don't mind resorting to DD for emergencies times such as diarrhea baby, but CDs are definitely my choice for daily & long term use.

Aisha Movie Review

Q: What do you do when you are having a girly nail polish time with your little sister?
A: Get the slumber party on, while watching Aisha on the thumb drive lying around (for ages).

Aisha is about this super rich good-hearted luxury-snob who sees nothing beyond anything high class, and she can very well afford to. Sonam Kapoor plays Aisha, who is some sort of a cross between Sex and The City's Carrie (in her quintessential fashion sense) and Cher from Clueless (in her adorable snobbishness). She's into social services such as protecting animal rights, appreciating and creating arts, and not to forget her newly found talent, match making.

Teamed with her best friend Pinky, Aisha tries to match make a plain-Haryana-Jane (named Shefali) with her friend Randhir, whom she thinks is perfect for Shefali, but Randhir in fact is in love with Aisha herself. Her only obstacle is Arjun (Abhay Deol), or so she thinks.

In a nut shell, Aisha is a feel good movie, with cute and lovely characters, who each leave their mark with their roles and acting, although I felt Abhay Deol was shortchanged for the amount of potential he has. Amrita Puri (Shefali) in my opinion is the best one to watch out for. Sonam is also very lovable in the snobbish role of a high society snob whom we'd love to hate.

One downside of the movie is that I felt the movie was really pretentious with the amount of super high flying luxurious life shown, especially with the polo match and unreal river rafting getaway in a well-equipped camp house for the vain people. On a positive note, the movie was some very light hearted moments, even makes a what seems serious love declaration at the wedding function into a light comedy moment. You can't help loving Aisha!

Band Baaja Baarat Movie Review

Q: What do you do when you are on medical leave, with toddler under babysitter's care for the day?

A: Watch the movie rotting away in the thumb drive given by your sister ages back.


Finally a YRF movie that is getting good reviews, and made me really curious to watch and check out what is the deal all about. Lead actors are debutant Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma, who has already had a box office hit with her debut film with SRK.

The movie is fully set and shot in Delhi, and all characters speak with authentic Delhi-ite accent, it almost becomes difficult understanding after being so used to the Mumbaiya accent in all the other films. Shruti (Anushka) aspires to open her own wedding planner business while Bitto (Ranveer) is finding a way to escape his father's plans to taking him back to village to help in the sugar cane business. They get together and start their wedding planning company, named Shaadi Mubarak, with strict policy of never involving emotions or love in between them. Business goes successfully for them, and predictably, emotions come in between, causing a conflict in running the business together.

The love conflict is not new, but the treatment given on the subject, and the whole execution of the movie is fresh and commendable. Also, the movie has a fairly fast pace where there is no dull moment. However, I wish the ending would have been handled a different way, but I guess the director did not want to opt for cliched ways.

Anushka is very pleasant to watch, and she is looking very good in her simple girl-next-door getups, some scenes even with minimal makeup. Ranveer does his role well too, but seeing his interview on Koffee With Karan, it almost feels like he acted as himself.

Highly recommended rom-com!