The House Elves

This is a story about two house elves, Sanju and Jeev. Although 1.5 years apart, they always get mistaken for twins. Probably in a year or two, they would look like absolute twins. The two house elves are very helpful in fixing and attending to chores around the house. Although there are times when they like to fix things that are not broken, clean things that are not dirty, and arrange things that are not messed. You get the idea.

They are very aggressive when it comes to installation works and very meticulous and precise with measurements.

One such major project accomplished by these house elves is setting up the Buddha wood work from Bangkok. While the Sanju got working with the tools, Jeev was busy solving the mysterious jigsaw puzzle. Notice how carefully Jeev puts the pieces together, while Sanju handles the tools like a pro, all under close supervision.

 

Other than installation works, the house elf Sanju also specialises in doing load test for the vacuum system for domestic usage. This might look like the cycle thingy from MIB:3, but believe me, this is way more complicated than that and undecipherable to us average people.

Jeev prides himself with his rechargable motorbike that he got on his first birthday. However, so far his usage on it is limited to posing for photographs for numerous paparazzis (read grandparents, uncles, aunties, etc).

Sanju does not mind getting down and dirty with his house elf duty, climbing up any parts of the house, for many tasks, is no big deal for him. However we wish he would wear more clothes doing these unimaginable tasks, as per the Working At Height procedures.

And when anything gets broken, instead of fixed, he flees away with Jeev's motorbike, cos he knows where the accelerator is.

These house elves are not working for cash but purely on credit cards. They are not getting paid right away, but they will demand their share of buying their worldly goodies and tools, mostly toys from their house owners, aka father and mother. Credit card information is purely confidential.

In a parenting world where us parents are eternal employees (slaves) to our kids who are our employers and absolute BOSS of the highest ranking, this little concept is a nice escape for a short laugh. Now, let me get back attending to the fussy, crying and hungry bosses.

Whats Cooking?

Throughout my time as SAHM so far, the one thing that I have enjoyed the most is cooking daily, since Jeev is more independant and I get some 45 minutes in the kitchen every evening. And thanks to Food Network I always have something new in my mind to whip up for the tired hubby back from a busy day at work. Here are some of the things that I have been cooking which I managed to capture in very poor quality photos.

Buttered Creamy Prawns

Aglio Olio with Bread Cubes

Grilled Chicken with vegetables

Black Bean Bittergourd

Grilled Chicken ala Tandoori for Chicken Biryani

Oven Poppers ala Cucur

Its been a great delight cooking and experimenting something new daily, but every once in a while it occurs to me that it is time we get on serious diet, or maybe experiment some healthier food.

The Birthday

Yes baby Jeev turned ONE last week! It's like OMG I can't believe we are finally here at this milestone. Can't believe we completed one year being parents for 2 active boys. I have been eagerly waiting for Jeev to turn one so that he and Sanju can share the same milk and food, I won't have to cook 2 different places for both of them. Best of all, I can even feed them the same time. When you are a SAHM, shortcuts are a lifesaver!

Hubby and I stayed up painting this little masterpiece

Birthday cake and cupcakes

I can't believe what changes we have brought to our lives after the arrival of Jeev. Being the parents to Sanju alone was a big achievement, and Jeev's addition to our family portrait was really beyond our thinkable ability.

It is a universal practice to celebrate birthdays with cake and a number of candles for the age celebrated. Past week I have been so philosophical and emotional over this birthday concept that I can't help wondering there are so many significances of a birthday that often goes ignored.

This birthday marks the completion of a year for us as second time parents, nurturing and loving our baby to the present day, and continue for many more days to come. This birthday is the memory of the day I had the labour signs, called hubby down almost 400km down south. This birthday is the exact day the baby was brought into this world, greeted by the hubby and then me, and not to mention our doctor and midwife. This birthday is the exact day when hubby distributed chocolates to the whole maternity center who already remember him as the guy who gave lots of goodies during Sanju's birth. I must admit we gave them good business 2 years in a row. Serious time to stop our contribution to the maternity center there.

The completion of one year tenure as parents is the most satisfying because Jeev has been a very demanding baby and with Sanju in tow, there were so many adjustments to be made. It took a great deal of cooperation and understanding from Sanju to be able to pull through without getting crazy, although there were (a large number of) days that I want to pull my already dropping hair out.

Birthdays are more than just the anniversary of the person's existence in the world. Birthdays mark the accomplishments of the parents of reaching the annual milestone for the kids. There is nothing more worthwhile than witnessing the fruit of our hardwork getting busy over the birthday cake while the song is sang for them. Happy Birthday Jeev! Mummy let you have some of the chocolate cake this time round, but don't make it a habit.

Here is Jeev riding backwards on his new bike. The bike is currently on lease to big brother Sanju till Jeev is big enough to ride it on his own.
 

 

In return, Sanju will be Jeev's bodyguard and save him from the tiger. Inspired from Shah Rukh Khan's Mind It!

We always say that a kid's first birthday leaves no memory or enjoyment on the kid himself. But I realise why many parents like us still insist on having a cute celebration with loved ones, it is to tell the world, 'Hey, we survived one year and we are celebrating it!'.  

Chocolate Overdose

Life was a party for the last one week with Jeev's birthday celebration on his real birthday and on the weekend with a larger team. As the tradition goes, every celebration was accompanied with cake, and in this case, chocolate cakes.

On the real birthday we had chocolate indulgence from Secret Recipe, which was initially planned to be a homemade butter cake. My sister was ever so willing buy a cake instead and so I decided to see the short cut, because any way I had a large feast to cook with my mom. Of course we all know we can never get wrong with Secret Recipe cakes.

On the weekend birthday event we had American chocolate cake with fondant icing made my by lovely neighbour. To stay it was deliciously super yummy is an understatement. It is beyond description. Everyone loved it so much that it was gone on that day itself.

After the gastronomical exhaustion I decided that it was time to detox and eat simple for this week. But fate had other plans. There were three combs of homegrown bananas that my dad brought from JB riping away for which the kids and I were not fast enough in eating them. My idle fingers did a google and found an excellent recipe at this blog for the best combination ever, chocolate and banana!

 

The chocolate cream cheese frosting dripping away somewhat depicts onlookers salivating on the mere view of the yummy-ness! To compensate for breaking the healthy diet week, we ate the cake with lots of fruits. Its not daily that I have strawberries and kiwis in the fridge. I am an ardent supporter of local fruits (read cheapo) and do not buy imported fruits unless they are a good deal at the hypermart. I guess it was just fated.