Happy belated Mother’s Day to all you mommy’s out there! I hope you enjoyed your special day with your little ones. We definitely did. Although we didn’t do anything special, just being able to be with Baby A, play with him, cuddle with him, love him and be there for him, is more than I could ever ask for. I was reminded of the importance of appreciating every single moment in life when I read this heart-breaking story about Alice Hansen, who died last week due to complications after giving birth to her 3rd baby (you can read more and donate to her fund here). Life can be so shockingly unexpected. So on this mother’s day, I’m grateful for being a mother and for having a healthy baby that I can be a mother to. I take nothing for granted.

On a lighter note, Brandsfever is having a sale of breathable crib bumpers by BreathableBaby. I don’t think this is the exact same brand that we have but it’s pretty much the exact same thing (except that ours is plain white). Basically it’s a crib bumper made of a breathable soft mesh so your baby is still protected against bumps and keeps his legs and hands inside the crib but without the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Even if your baby rolls over and presses his face against the bumper, he can easily breathe through it, reducing the risk of suffocation. It’s a bit pricey ($60 after discount, the one we got cost about the same but wasn’t on discount), but this is one product I would definitely recommend. The sale ends around 12 noon today (Monday, 14 May). If you haven’t signed up for Brandsfever yet you can do so using my invitation link: Brandsfever.

Did you do anything special on Mother’s Day? I’d love to hear about it!

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend. Ours was very exciting… Baby A has gone from taking careful little steps to walking across the whole living room pretty much overnight! I love seeing him walk and love seeing the enjoyment he gets out of it. Now that he’s walking it’s time for me to take out the shoes I got him a while ago. Actually I got them 4 months ago because they were on sale online. Good quality baby leather shoes can cost anywhere from $40-$80 depending on the brand. The ones I liked that I once saw in Kiddy Palace were over $70 a pair! I don’t even buy myself shoes for $70 and this guy is going to grow out of them in a few weeks! So I was really happy when I saw them on sale online. I got 3 pairs of Little Blue Lamb shoes (all leather) all in different sizes so he can grow into them. The smallest pair is soft soled, which is perfect for babies just starting to walk. All 3 pairs cost me around $90.

I haven’t seen the Little Blue Lamb on sale online since, but Brandsfever currently has a sale of baby shoes by Pediped. At up to 60% off it’s definitely worth checking out if you need shoes for your baby. If you’re not a member of Brandsfever, you can use my invitation link to join (it’s free): Brandsfever. (This is not meant to be an advertisement of any kind, just spreading the word.)

Have a great week ahead!

I hope your weekend was better than ours. We had to take one of our cats to the vet and were told that he has an advanced stage of kidney failure. According to the vet, we’ll probably loose him sometime this year. This cat was our “baby” before “Baby A” arrived, so S and I are devastated. There’s been lots of tears, but also a lot of determination to be strong and make him as happy and comfortable for as long as he’ll be with us.

Anyway, before I get too emotional again, here’s the long promised tutorial on making DIY party decorations for a baby’s party.

I had big plans for Baby A’s first birthday party, but not enough time unfortunately, so I was only able to make a fraction of what I wanted and even that got done to my in-laws’ help (big, big thanks!). Baby A’s theme was ‘giraffe’ because that’s the first stuffed animal I got him, long long before he was born. I couldn’t find an image of a giraffe online that I liked but there was a giraffe I really liked on one of his Carter’s suits. So I scanned it, edited it in Photoshop and used that!

I wanted to make cupcake toppers, bunting, food labels, plastic cup labels, invitations and garlands. Oh, and a center piece for one of the tables. In the end we were only able to make the garlands and the center piece. *sigh* But the garlands really transformed the place so in the end I was glad we made those instead of the other things.

DIY Garland how-to:

1. Find an image you like online, or make a design you like and make one big square and one small square (I initially wanted circles but they took AGES to cut out, so then made squares).


2. I printed it in black & white on two different colored papers. That way you can save colored ink but still keep it colorful.

3. Get a piece of string and glue two squares onto it, alternating between big and small. (The picture below will make it easier to understand.)

4. Cut the string at varying lengths and secure to the ceiling with blutac.

Here’s how it looked, it was a bit difficult to get a good picture of it but the photographer did a good job.

 I’ll let you know more about some other stuff we had for the party in another post. Hope you’ve had a good weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Few things cheer me up more than getting packages in the mail. Especially when it’s something I wasn’t expecting. So I was really happy when I received this month’s Bellabox.

It was the perfect surprise to brighten up my sleep-deprived, rough week (you can read more about that HERE). Of course I knew that my Bellabox would arrive eventually, I’m subscribed to it after all, but I didn’t know when it’d be delivered and, as always, had no clue what would be inside.

This month’s box was an especially great mix of skin care. LOVE it! If you’ve never heard of Bellabox, you can read about it HERE. I’m not affiliated to them in any way, just spreading the word about something I truly enjoy. Here’s what was in this month’s Bellabox:

• Rose Absolute Shower Gel -with pure rose oil, jojoba oil, aloe vera & green tea extracts (sulphate free, paraben free, never tested on animals)
• AHAVA – essential day moisturizer (active deadsea minerals)
• Black Tea Quench Mask – “the ultimate hydration haven for thirsty and dehydrated skins” (free from parabens, SLES, mineral oil, animal testing & allergenic fragrances)
• Hello Flawless Brightening Makeup – oil free, SPF 25+++
• 2x Kinohimitsu J’pan Beauty Drink – “tasty collagen drink that helps to plump up skin and restore its youthful vitality” (no additives)

Doesn’t it all sound great? I can’t wait to try it out this weekend!

What cheers you up when you’re down and blue?

I had great plans for you this past weekend. Great plans for a great post. A post with a tutorial about making DIY decorations for a baby’s birthday party. But life interfered, as it sometimes does, and the great post I’ve been planning has remained what it has been all this time… a plan, an intention, an item on my to-do-list (right at the top, I promise you).

I must have eaten something that triggered Baby A’s tummy pains again (I’m still breastfeeding and can’t eat any of the stuff he’s intolerant/allergic to), which resulted in him waking up EVERY 30-45 MINUTES!! It’s been a few nights now and I’m ready to pull my hair out in frustration and cry. Or cry and pull my hair out. Or both at the same time. I now completely understand why sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique! But hopefully it’ll go away soon and we’ll both get some sleep. And then I promise to finally put up the planned post. And strike it off my to-do-list. And get some sleep.

Hope you’re getting more sleep than me!

Baby A is still getting over his cold, and since we’re on the topic, I thought I’d share with you the thermometer we use. It was recommended to me by our pediatrician when Baby A got his booster vaccines at 1-month old. There was a chance he’d get a fever in response to the vaccine and I wanted to make sure I could monitor it. The thermometer is ridiculously expensive in my opinion (it was around S$120), but it was definitely worth it, money well spent and I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.

It’s a digital ear thermometer (Braun Thermoscan), very fast and accurate. We got it at Guardian, but I also saw it at Kiddy Palace (and I’m sure many other places have it too). The benefit of ear thermometers is that they measure the temperature of the ear drum, which gives you an accurate reading of the core body temperature. Check out this article on “Why all mums needs a baby ear thermometer”.

My advice to anyone would be to buy a thermometer BEFORE you need it. You’ll need it eventually, one day, and it’s always good to know how bad a fever is if you think your baby has one.

Here’s to healthy babies! I hope you’ve had a great weekend. Thanks for reading.

Baby A and I have come down with a cold again. I hate seeing him sick and miserable so we’re just taking things easy, sharing lots of cuddles and reading lots of books.

For anyone out there who may need this (although I’m hoping you won’t), here is a phone number that I keep stored in my phone. It’s the number for KK hospital’s “Ask-a-nurse Hotline”. Anytime Baby A is sick and I can’t decide whether I should take him to a doctor, I call this number and ask. But it’s not only for babies and kids. Here’s a description from the KK Hospital website: “Managed by our team of experienced nurses, the hotline provides reliable health advice on pregnancy, gynaecological care, and children’s health issues.”

Ask-a-nurse Hotline: 1900-556-8773

The line is open every day (including Sunday and Public Holidays) from 8am to 12 midnight and is charged at S$0.80 per minute.

I hope you’ll never need it, but it’s good to keep it handy… just in case.

Thanks for stopping by!

There are some great baby-related online sales going on that I want to share with you. But before that, please allow me to complain a bit…

Okay, so I have accepted the fact that Baby A started saying the word for “daddy” before “mommy”. That’s fine. I’ve heard it’s quite common, and I was ready for it. But now he commonly calls out to his daddy AND calls both our cats by name… and STILL no “mama”.

And did I mention he took his first steps the other day? So exciting! Except I didn’t actually see it, because I had just gone to pee. Yup… I am with him 24/7 but he took his first steps in the 10 seconds that I was peeing. *sigh* Well, at least daddy witnessed it, which makes it all the more special since he doesn’t get to spend as much time with Baby A as I do.

Oh the occasional irony of mommy-hood. :-p

Anyway, here are a few baby-related sales I thought you might be interested in. This is in no way meant to entice you to spend on something you don’t need. This is just a friendly announcement that in case you need something like this, or could use it as a gift for someone, it’s on sale!

Both Brandsfever and Singsale are members-only sites, but you can use my invitation links here and here to sign up, it’s easy and free.

On Brandsfever:

On Singsale:

I got this offer from VoucherWOW today in my e-mail and just had to share it. It’s an offer for a set of five reusable Babykicks Organic Cotton and Hemp Wipes for only $11.95 (regular price: $29.95) with free shipping. That’s really worth it, if you ask me. I’m so so tempted to get them, but we really do have everything we need for Baby A. So I’m just spreading the word in case anyone else is interested.

Another cool part of the deal is that you get a $10 cash voucher to use for any purchase of Babykicks inserts or washies on the www.zerzula.com website. Apart from reusable wipes, Zerzula also has cloth diapers, burp clothes, liners and reusable breast pads made from hemp jersey ($19.95 for 6).

You can use my invitation link to sign up for VoucherWOW, it’s free: Join VoucherWOW

I spent the whole week stressing about Baby A’s first birthday cake. With all his food allergies, I needed to make a cake that was gluten-, dairy- and soy-free and contained no rice or corn. I knew he probably wouldn’t want to eat it (he’s not very adventurous with food), but I still wanted to make it. I ended up using this Simple Vanilla Cake recipe and substituted Bob’s Red Mill All-purpose flour (which is gluten-free and contains no rice flour, corn flour or corn starch) for the all-purpose flour. I also replaced the eggs with apple sauce. And since Baby A can’t have any dairy or soy, I covered the cake with  raspberry “icing” I made using pure raspberry puree boiled with a bit of sugar and potato starch to thicken it. The cake didn’t rise at all so it was just a flat round disk covered in raspberry icing. So much for any creative impact. *sigh* But Baby A enjoyed putting his hands in the raspberry icing and getting messy with it. Isn’t that the best part of any baby’s first birthday cake anyway, the icing-all-over-the-face shots? We definitely got those.

Delcie’s allergen-free birthday cakes

For an alternative to baking your baby’s allergen-free cake yourself, you can try Delcie’s Desserts and Cakes. Delcie’s is a special bakery making organic, egg-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free. According to their website, they can even make baby cakes that are soy-, nut-, rice- and corn-free. Unfortunately their website is not that user friendly and I missed this information the first time I looked at it. If I had known that they can make their cakes rice- and corn-free when I was planning Baby A’s party, I would have definitely given them a try. I’m not affiliated to Delcie’s in any way and haven’t tried any of their cakes. Just spreading the word in case it helps anyone else in our situation.

Have any of you tried Delcie’s cakes? I’d love to hear about what they’re like!

Next post I’ll show you how we made a center piece for one of our food tables. Thanks for stopping by.