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!