These days, I rarely sling buttery soft leather bags I used to grow a collection of.

Instead, my ‘IT bag’ is a machine-washable ju-ju-be diaper bag (gifted from the SIL) which doubles up as my everyday bag simply because it’s so lightweight, functional and combos up well with babies’ (psst: no needing to be upset that little fella’s splatter from lunch might permanently stain the bag since a wipe is all it takes to get it back to stain-free status).

I get nagged by the Bo whenever he volunteers to help me pack the bag on some weekends. On how messy I am. On how many nonsensical, unnecessary stuff is in there. But really, take a look..it’s not THAT bad, ain’t it?

In random order:

1. Ju-ju-be Be All messenger diaper bag + diaper changing pad

2. Owl printed wet bag to contain diapers, diaper cream, a hanky, extra clothes for the little fella

3. Socks for the impromptu visits to indoor playgrounds/play gyms which happens ever so often

4. Pacifier clip & cover – with a missing pacifier. I’ve trying to wean him off these days (to no success yet) and so I just couldn’t be bothered to remove these items out.

5. iPhone

6. 7-yr old Coach keypouch. Love how it can contain a bunch of keys nicely without bulging.

7. Pack of tissue. Not for choping seats of course. But good to have, just in case you suddenly noticed that the toilet roll holder next to you in a public toilet is…empty.

8. Container of the little man’s snacks. A must-have.

9. Breath spray, so that I can indulge in my garlicky chicken rice whenever I like without worrying that the person I talk to next is going to faint from holding his/her’s breath.

10. Burt’s Bee lip balm for my easily chapped lips.

11. Ezlink card for public transportation needs

12. YSL card holder gift from the Bo for my ever-growing stash of membership cards since becoming a mom. Why can’t retailers just tag our memberships to our mobile or ID numbers instead.

13. BabyGanics Foaming Hand Sanitizier, because other moms would give me cold stares if I didn’t sanitize my hands each time before carrying baby. Okay, I’m joking. This was one of the products that was highly recommended and it was really cheap buying in bulk at iHerb.com (I still have my stash from my previous purchase during 2nd trimester).

14. A BV Spring edition wallet which was a wedding anniversary gift from the Bo 4 years ago.

linking up with

After 10 years, 4 of which I’ve been hinting, nagging, asking, hinting again until I didn’t need to do anything no more when a part of it decided to snap…we decided to trade a resort teak style bed for a modern, storage, hotel-esque one. The spur of the purchase was further catalyzed by the idea of spring cleaning (out with the old, in with the new self-assurance logic) and so we told the salesperson that we would only confirm the deal if it could be delivered before CNY.

It arrived today. And woah, it sure was huge. I don’t recall needing to have to heave myself onto the bed when we were bed sampling at the recent home & design fair but oh do I forget, that the platforms at those exhibitions? They do not exist here.

So yes, I will need to use more effort to get on bed for a good night’s rest from now on. My mom even joked and asked me not to roll off the bed while sleeping lest I get a bigger injury. But I’m happy that I’m finally sleeping on a brand new bed that feels like I’m perpetually on vacation. Which may be a good idea since I don’t foresee a holiday anytime soon. But probably a bad thing (the bed) since getting out of bed in the mornings is already an achilles’ heel. And can I add in the random tidbit where I no longer have the cobweb thought that some girlfriend in that early party of the decade got to roll around the bed before I did. Petty, I know!

***

A friend of the husband recently contacted me to inform that the school her daughter’s currently attending is starting to open for pre-registration for YOB 2012 babies. Being the lazy ass mom that I’ve been told, I didn’t think to action on anything for the son till her little nudge. And so I decided to write to the school to enquire about the process of registering one’s kid into a pre-school. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply some hours later that there was availability at the new campus which was practically across the road from the existing campus which would also have availability next year. Now, being the greedy…I could wait it out and potentially end with no play schools for Chungkin to socialize in. Or I could say yes, jump on it (will have to do the school visit and FAQ, vet through curriculum & all that), and then scurry to plan ahead for Q3, I don’t know…perhaps consider a permanent part-time work arrangement if anyone’d have me, or put that free time to some good use. BUT just thinking about it makes me so undecided! Here I am, wanting my son to share his coming-of-terrible-twos with his other terrible-twos mates for at least half the day before sharing the rest with me. I can already picture myself telling the Bo that I’m working to mainly finance this school thing and also to have my own socializing while the little man has his. Yet on the other, I could still continue what we’re doing now – parent accompanied classes whenever he feels like it. Learn things together, do an extension of it back home.I’d probably have to find a way to be a little more firm though and not let him twiddle me around just by flashing those pearlies.

Experienced and been there done that moms, do share your experiences! Play school or not? Worth the sanity? What on your preschool’s checklist?

What I do know now is that I absolutely dislike how the “system” here flows and how it is inadvertently turning into one heck of a momzilla. It’s probably what’s expected out of kindy & primary school kids these days that’s sounding all alarm bells and chuck aside all plans to just do the learn through play, explore through environment type of thing.

I’m sitting in front of the comp, trying to soak myself in some me-time since the Bo is having some to himself with a bottle of sake downstairs.

I scroll through FB to see what everyone on my friend list has been/is up to, and I’m greeting my photos of compression shape wear in albums of sorts from various online shops – shops I’ve liked, shops my friends like, shops I’ve not even heard of (which I’ve no idea how it lands onto my newsfeed).

And I’m tempted. By the allure of having a seemingly slim silhouette simply just by clicking on “add to cart” followed by “confirm order” in just under 1 minute.

The online shops definitely know how to get me thinking about a purchase. “Just in time for CNY”, the words shout out big & bold. “Look slimmer by 2 sizes”, another promised. Gaaah, I’ve headed down this road before. I got myself a compression abdominal wear just weeks after the delivery in a bid to compress ‘em post partum fats and I think my roadblock was needing to be diligent in wearing it consecutively. I gave up on the compression shapewear faster than my jamu post natal slimming wrap. And even the latter lasted for 8 hours and 1 min. Indeed I kept to my promise to the lovely masseur that I had worn the nicely woven cloth wrap for more than 8 hours without spilling the details.

***

It’s the last Sunday of Jan and it’s unbelievable how the 1st 31-day month of the year is almost coming to an end. I feel somewhat unproductive yet pleased with the ideology that the feeling of time fleeting by could be a possible indication of how occupied I’ve been (you’ve all been through “slow months” before, so I’m sure you know what I’m talking about).

***

I went out last Friday and bought a “budget book” for myself. While I knew I could have saved the money and track expenses on a spreadsheet I guess I just wanted to make myself pay for something cute enough to look at and a reason to start jotting every penny in. I would like to save more in 2013 and God Willing, be able to realize the big birthday trip project that we’ve been planning since 2 years ago in 2014!

***

Lastly, saying a prayer for speedy recovery & lots of positivity to surround a dear friend and her mom. I take a lot of things in life for granted and it’s unfortunate how it’s only when something hits close to heart that we start to realize & appreciate the littlest things in life.

***

2 days ago in a tiny lift in a tiny mall, I had a serendipitous moment.

I was squishing, pram + baby + me, with another mom (pram + baby + toddler + her), having a chat with her toddler of a son on why the lift continued to go down instead of up despite pressing the buttons that were meant to have go up when we first entered the lift. (note to self: will probably need to have smarty pants answers ready for little man next time too).

The cute family soon got off the 2nd floor when another mom wheeled her baby into the lift. Seconds later, we burst out laughing. There we were, having prams of a similar make & model side by side, in the same shade of tangerine, and having a little mom-nection (mom + connection).

We collected our calm for a bit when the mom then commented “wow, even our babies are using the same brand of NUK pacifiers!”. And we laughed even harder.

It was such an amazing camaraderie moment. I mean, you don’t see men laughing over driving the same make & model & color of cars and having a bro-nection over that right?

But motherhood? It’s a-maz-ing I tell ya.

The YMs were doing our usual chitter chatter on WA earlier when one of them shared a random nugget about having sent 32,000 WA messages since Apr 2012.

That nugget soon curiously spurred me to look at my usage, and lo & behold:

Oh how different life or pregnancy or motherhood might have been without WhatsApp!

Someone on Facebook recently shared this article which got me & the Bo discussing over brunch today…how much information is deemed too much to be sharing out in the open?

Coincidentally he & his colleague had a similar discussion over lunch last week citing how there were con artists out there who easily preyed on unsuspecting victims by reading about & obtaining one’s information from the internet.

In a digital era of a technology savvy society, is it even plausible to not leave any digital trial? Take the Bo for example, known as the tech whiz among his social circle yet the only one who has refused an account in household social network sites so far. And despite the effort to maintain status quo, others still managed to get nuggets of updates on his life via the internet. :p

Perhaps 2013 should be the year to challenge myself to write with more anonymity to protect the privacy of my loved ones while still be able to document lovely details to capture that memory.

#perhapsiamjustturningintoaparanoidandoverprotectivemom.

#sigh.

I don’t quite know how to label today.

It was undoubtedly a fabulous day for the Enchanted Christmas Party with morning-mid noon showers cooling the weather down for a lovely afternoon coupled with cool breeze. The kids had their share of snow play in the outdoor with good weather (amen!), and it was such a delight seeing the kids laugh so heartily and enjoying themselves.

We finally did it! After weeks of insane rushing about, really late nights and working with wonderful sponsors – our first ever pop-up party was a success. We had some really appreciative parents who feedback how much their kids enjoyed themselves, and it was so encouraging to recieve these praises personally. Made our dark eye circles so worth the while.

I’m soo looking forward to finally clocking in some normal sleep hours,  spending more time with Liam and getting started on more Christmas presents shopping yet all that hyped up energy is not dissipating as quickly as I thought it would. My mind is still quite wound up!

Half of December has gone just like that and are we really only 2 weeks shy of another new year?

Today was the first time I left the little man entirely into the care of his papa (after 8.5 months since his birth), and I hear that father & son had a really fulfilling day together too. Looks like the Bo can handle the little man alone after all!

I had a rather dismal start earlier today just hours leading up to the party over a silly silly silly oversight on my part and as with all boo-boos, I got quite affected by it. Didn’t know how I was going to make it through the party but strangely I did…till after the event. Gah, it still eats into me at the thought of it but I guess with 2012 drawing to a close, I just got to learn to let this one go too and quit mulling over it as I do with a lot of things.

Meanwhile, I got to wear some pretty heels, carry a clutch and drink some alcohol at a wedding dinner last night sans the bub! :p

I know some of you have been itching to and asking me what is this all about?!

What’s with the date on the FB status?

What’s with the question?

What’s with the suspense (don’t we all enjoy some of it but yet crave to know all about it at the same time).

Details to be revealed really soon! I promise!

Watch this space :)

You know what you want. And what you love. You love building brands. You love digital media. You’d love to work for a leading digital media company that has audacious growth plans in this region. But you also want time for yourself, your family and friends. You’d really want to work 3 days per week.
You positively enjoy collaborating with people. You simply love to be inspired and inspiring. Add that to the fact that you have a natural interest in metrics-driven performance monitoring and you might well be just the person we’re after.

Ever so often whenever I decline job interviews that come my way including those that I would have jumped at in a heartbeat pre-Liam (how often is it that an industry you’re unfamiliar with is willing to give you a shot and still maintain a similar pay scale as per last drawn), the busybody in me will still click on job listings (I used to subscribe to every single job search giant out there!) just to suss out if there was ever a possibility of really liking anything enough to give it a go and get the work-life balance I yearn for. We all know how insane the first few months at a new job can get, least being able to gain the understanding of colleagues on why you leaving on time to spend time with your kid would be more important than theirs.

So when I saw the above-mentioned job description last evening. I had to take a second read. Okay, maybe a third. It seemed so fitting – digital media being right up my alley, and woah a 3 days work week? Time for myself, family and friends? Was that even possible considering how I’ve hardly time to myself and friends being the SAHM that I currently am. Enjoy collaboration with people? Just what I’ve been busying myself with of late trying to be boss.

Truly, the idea and sound of it is such sweet nectar. Too good to be true, or simply too true. Gaah. Torn, torn, torn.

I’ve abruptly rediscovered my skills in speed proposal-ing (which is different from bs-ing :p).

Perhaps the last 8 years in media have been a splendid training ground after all. All that tough grueling, late nights, crazy rush to submit tender documents, last minute  amendments to pitch presentations have finally paid off. I can actually give birth to a marketing plan at the touch of the keyboard – especially so if it’s on a nice one if I may add. And as I furiously typed away the ideas, strategies, conjured sales tactics, craft and delivered my final summation in (my first ever) record time, a sense of satisfaction & pride enveloped me.

It may not have been a masterpiece but it met every bit of the brief and more.

Who knows, I might have a promising future in being a cheap and decent labour after all…though yes it’s nothing to be proud of (that ego still exists beneath all that muddlehood). But if it pays for some hi-tea adventures with the little boy and the occasional indulgence of new togs to go with the new plus size, it might be too tempting to resist while I figure things out.

Tonight was one of them. A night when I didn’t have to stay up till the wee hours. A night when the little one, sttn as he might, not fuss a wee bit. A night when the husband actually knackered out at 11.20pm instead of waiting for me to climb in bed after my night expressing (of milk) to watch our regular dose of GG6 and HWIMY8. A night when the milk supply decided to increase (whee..made my night somewhat). A night I had time to myself without compromising on my required sleep-in-order-to-be-attentive-to-little-boy’s-needs in the day.

And I choose to blog. Not quite – but after scanning through my regular online haunts for steals, checking through emails, getting update on the latest celebrity gossip, realizing that my whatsapp chat group khakis were fast asleep judging by the lack of incoming and snooping on my Facebook friends status, I figured that I could fit in one last activity, you know …make good use of it. And thanks to mac’s backlit keyboard – I decide to jot an entry in bed.

Some time last week, I told the husband that I was aspiring to be a WAHM (not much of a ambitionist, i know). But with the little one growing up too quickly and me making that casual agreement that I’d start considering taking up one of ‘em job offers that keeps getting thrown my way after the boy turns 1 and a bit… I figured that it was about time I started giving it a shot.

Well, the husband laughed and then challenged me saying “Will it actually work out? prove me wrong”. Supportive much? But I knew where he was coming from. Just 2 years ago, I was running an online clothing store part-time with my ex-colleagues and even that fizzled out a year later after 1) I ran out of clothes to sell, 2) I got pregnant which meant I couldn’t source for stock to be replenished 3) I was exhausted from doing so much work for such little profit (which I only realized after 7 months into the business). Granted that we had a steady steam of customers who would buy from us regularly & send compliments our way, I knew that if I couldn’t provide them with the service I wanted as a customer myself, there was no way to keep it running. It was either all or nothing. Nothing 50-50.

So while revisiting the idea of being my own boss aka. WAHM some days later, I chanced upon this inspiring poster from mummy moo. I thought it was so apt that she had a post on dreams (no not the REM kind) as well and too much of a coincidence that it just when I was searching for affirmation on whether to give this whole project-WAHM thing a try.

But what a motivational catalyst it was. I was spurred, inspired, recharged and almost instantaneously all sort of ideas on how I could leverage on my work experience as a media professional came to mind.

And I realized that if I really imagined it, I could achieve it.

I’ve recently helped someone draft a business proposal complete with marketing strategy. It felt good to be able to put my work skills to use again. And while the monetary benefits (I accept lunch and starbucks as barter atm) may not be much or anything like I used to get working full time, the personal satisfaction level is up a 1000 notches. And of course, I’d have to work a little harder than that to get the Bo a decent birthday gift without dipping into our savings. Babysitting services, anyone? :)