Together with you - Ansel is 1 month old!

I know, it's been wayyyy too long since I did a growing up video of any of the kids. I had initially planned to do videos for them till they are all grown up but because each video takes me weeks, if not months, to compile and given how little free time I have, I am seriously lagging behind and wondering if I will ever be able to finish what I had set out to do.

The thing is, the kids love watching these videos so much and now that we have baby Ansel, it wouldn't be fair if he doesn't get such videos like how his siblings did in the first few years of their lives, right? So even if I have to sacrifice precious sleep and rest time (wait, what rest is there when you have a newborn and three other kids to care for, haha) , I will nonetheless find a way to do up his videos. When there's a will, there's a way, and I hope I can keep finding different ways to accomplish this dream of mine.

Here's the first one for dearest Ansel and a heartfelt letter to his precious darling of mine.

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Dear Ansel,

Welcome to this beautiful world! You are my brave little fighter and even though you came out five weeks earlier than your EDD, you are a healthy and strong baby. I can't even describe how happy and relieved I felt the moment I laid eyes on you and knew that you were safe and sound. You are my darling, my gem, my miracle and I love you so, so much.

It must have been tough on you having to fight jaundice for so long and having to undergo phototherapy too. I missed you so much whenever the nurses took you away from me in the hospital and after we got discharged, they required you to go back again because your jaundice level was still high. I bawled my eyes out when they said there was no bed available for me and I had to leave you at the nursery. Thankfully, we found a way out by renting the phototherapy machine and doing it ourselves at home. You were so good and obedient and stayed inside for over 20 hours in total, only whining when you wanted me to carry you, when you pooped or when you wanted milk.

Talking about milk, we had trouble initially because you couldn't latch well, remember? You had a tongue tie at birth and I'm not sure if that was the cause but we did bring you to do the snipping when you were two weeks old. It was traumatic seeing you bleed from the mouth and hearing your loud wails, and I wish there was something I could do for you other than hold you close and tell you I love you. The good thing is you love drinking from the bottle and would drink till the very last drop, even if it's more than what you need. That gives me the motivation to keep pumping because at the very least, I know you love drinking my milk. Hehe. Hopefully, you will soon master your latching so we can enjoy this beautiful breastfeeding journey together, okay? For now, your siblings are just too happy to take turns to feed you using the bottle.

Oh yeah, siblings, you have not one, not two but three of them! Your elder sisters and brother love you to the moon and back and they dote on you so, so much. You are like the most precious thing to them these days and they just want to hold you, kiss you, hug you and be close to you. It's nice having them around to help me look after you too because you don't like to be lonely and would be happier if you are in their arms.

For your full month celebration, we had a popiah party and invited our family members over. Yes, you are very loved by all of them and everyone couldn't wait to carry you. Papa even bought a cake for you so we could sing "Happy Full Month" to you, haha. See the video when you are older, yeah? These are such precious memories that I hold close to my heart. I also made a collage to remember your first 30 days too because I know you are going to grow up faster than I realise and this newborn phase is something I treasure very much.

Although it's only been a month since you came, it seems like this was meant to be and you have been a part of us for a long time. I am so thankful that you are here by my side now and with every beat of my heart, I feel blessed to have you in my life. Thank you for being who you are and for making our lives messier but merrier, busier but better, more hectic but a hundred times happier too. I love you so much, my dear.

Love,
Mama

Creativity 521 #125 - A Unique Full Month Celebration

In the blink of an eye, baby Ansel has turned one month old. That is a huge milestone and a celebratory moment, especially since he is my lastborn. I still vividly remember how we celebrated the full month of each of the kids and it was always in the company of close family and friends. Alas, in view of the pandemic, it was not possible to hold a big party for him like what we did for the siblings.

When the hubby and I were discussing about what we could do to celebrate his first month, we had conflicting views about it. I suggested getting gift boxes containing cakes, tarts, ang ku kuehs and red eggs and delivering them to our friends and family in return for their kind blessings. He deemed it as boring and unoriginal and threw in ideas such as curating our own gift box by going around the island to hand-pick the yummiest food and package it ourselves. Well, I didn't think it was practical to pack food ourselves, not to mention unhygienic and risky, which is a big no-no in times like this.

While we were still at odds about that, something he said did make sense to me and that was his suggestion of doing a personalised Thank You card, something made with love and one-of-a-kind. That is just so me, right? I liked that idea and when he said I could do a March holiday craft project with the kids and let them help out, I started to brainstorm for the design and got excited about it. After all, I was still in confinement and it was a great way to pass time by getting crafty with the kids for a meaningful, joyous purpose.

In this Creativity 521 post, I will share with you on how our card design came about, what other surprise gift we included, Ansel's 30-day collage which was a gift from me to him, and how we went about doing everything for days and weeks.

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Thank You Card

When it comes to showing your sincerity, nothing beats a handmade card. The girls were very excited when I told them that we were going to make cards and mass produce them together. What I loved most about this project was that it was a family effort and all of us were involved in one way or another. Okay, the hubby gave the idea but didn't manage to help us with the execution but at least I had three pairs of hands who were more than willing to chip in and help out in every possible way. Here's what they did.

Guess who wrote and designed this? Well, not me, my handwriting is not that nice, I admit. Haha. This was done by Angel and I think she did such a good job with it, from the thank you banner and decorations to the word 'Joy' and the message with all our names. Some of our friends thought it was printed with a computer and were truly surprised when they knew it was handwritten by her. Great job, Angel, and keep up your love for calligraphy!

This adorable baby who is wrapped in a blanket, wears a green bow and has a streak of brown hair was drawn by Ariel. She took a few tries before she was satisfied with the final drawing and I think it was really cute. Thank you for the effort, my baby girl!

What I did was to scan Ariel's drawings and Angel's wordings, followed by mass printing them out in colour before cutting them into the shapes we wanted. To make it more special, I also added Ansel's date of birth as well as his height and weight at birth onto the baby.

As for Asher, he might not have helped in the designing but he was the one who helped with all the peeling of the double sided tape and foam tape, which amounted to hundreds of them. I was truly surprised by his patience and willingness to sit there with me and I thought it would be hard for his little fingers but he kept trying and soon got more proficient at it. Well done, my boy!

We all played a part in the cutting although I did most of it because some of the shapes were tricky to cut. The big girl helped to cut out the 'Thank you' banner while the younger ones cut out the 'Baby'. We spent hours just cutting non-stop and getting everything ready before we could begin to put them together. Craft is such a great way to train up patience, don't you agree?

Finally, the cutting was completed and we could start making the cards, woohoo!

Our cards were done by cutting blue A4 paper into half and pasting a background design - which I had printed onto white paper - onto it. Yup, we can truly say everything was done from scratch.

Next, we tied a piece of blue (blue for boy!) ribbon around the card, followed by sticking each of the cutouts in place. To make them look 3-dimensional, we used foam tape instead of the normal double sided tape. This made it much stickier and harder to handle so I had to help them to cut the tape while they peeled off the back before sticking onto the card.

Thanks to our newborn photoshoot with Ashley Low Photography (review coming up soon!), I was able to print out some cute pictures of Ansel to add to the card. I decided to cut them out in circles because round shapes are one of the easiest to cut and I thought it looked nice to put three different pictures overlapping each other on every card.

We also used foam stickers, which are thick, to create a pop-up effect for every of the photos too. We made a total of 32 cards which meant we had to cut out 96 pictures and attach 4 form stickers on each of them, amounting to a total of 384. If you add in the rest of the cutouts which each had at least 4-6 tapes on each of them and some even had two layers as I wanted it to pop up even more, it's not an exaggeration to say we cut and stuck thousands of pieces of tape. Haha. I couldn't have done it so quickly if not for the help of the two younger ones who are now experts at peeling off the back of tapes.

Viola, and this is how the final card looks like! Do you like it? I think it is beautiful because it contains our love for the little one and our heartfelt gratitude to friends and family who share our joy.

This was surely a memorable family craft project that we will remember for a long time to come. It turns out that small celebrations and simple cards can go a long way and bring big smiles too. We received so many compliments and thank you messages from our friends who were pleasantly surprised to get this in their mailbox and were amazed that we found time to do this amidst confinement and looking after a newborn without help. Well, when there's a will, there's a way, right? I am just glad we finished what we started and enjoyed the making process too!

Magnet

Besides a card, which I reckon does not serve much use to most people, I wanted to add in something that might come in more handy. It has to be flat so we can send it out in an envelope, light so it does not cost too much, personalised because that is what I emphasise on, and something that we can make ourselves. 

I eventually decided on a magnet so that the recipients can easily stick them onto their refrigerators or any metallic surface in the house. Initially, I proposed doing a calendar but the hubby said it would then serve no purpose when 2021 is over. So I brainstormed a bit more and decided to do a to-do list so that people could just jot down what they needed to do that day.

Of course, it needs to be reusable so my plan was to laminate the magnets one by one so they could be written on with a whiteboard marker and erased easily. This took much time and effort and to jazz things up a little, I came up with a total of EIGHT different magnet designs, woohoo! Each of them had a photo of Ansel and a quote that says "Today is a good day to be happy". Yup, this quote is typical coming from A Happy Mum and both the quote and picture were made rather subtle as I wanted our friends and family to be able to use the magnet without our names plastered all over it, you know what I mean.

We came up with designs which were more kiddy and cute and others which were more sophisticated, some featured blooms while others had animals. These were in order to suit different age groups and preferences, which we put into consideration when deciding which magnet to give away to whom. I really hope they brought a smile to those who received them.

Vouchers 

Lastly, we included vouchers for our friends and family to thank them for all the blessings they bestowed on Ansel and me. Yup, instead of sending 'real' food, we decided on gifting vouchers so our friends and family could use it to have an afternoon tea at the restaurants or take away something they like.

This was the first time I bought Foodline vouchers and I like that the voucher can be redeemed from 65 different brands with over 118 outlets in Singapore, including TCC, Emicakes, Glace, Eatzi Gourmet Bakery. River Ash Bakery and so on. Hopefully this gives our friends and family a wider range of options on where they can go to redeem the voucher and be able to enjoy a little treat from us.

30-Day Collage - A Special Gift from Me to You

Remember the 30-day collage I did and shared previously in my Creativity 521 post many years ago? This was my special gift for each of my children and I am so happy that to have kept up with tradition and made my fourth one. Haha. Yup, this was specially meant for baby Ansel but it also gave the rest of us an opportunity to see how he has grown and be thankful for how he came into our lives and joined our humble family.

I actually did the background, the border, the wordings and headers before he was even born. Angel was saying "Mama, Ansel is not even here and you did the board already"! It might have been foresight but I was so glad to have done it because within a couple of weeks, he had arrived and I was sooooo busy from then on.

Nonetheless, I still made time (and sacrificed sleep!) in order to choose and edit the photos, adding in funny captions, brightening the colours, making the sizes consistent, adding a outline before printing each of them one by one - from Day 1 to Day 30.

This became the main display during his full month party - which was held when he was 27 days old - and all our guests were fascinated by the collage and took time to read them one by one. Awww, thank you! See, even Ansel likes it too, haha. This is surely a precious keepsake for my preemie, who is also my lastborn, and I am thankful that everything happened the way it did.

It's been long since I did so much craft but I am glad I did all of this for my baby and even had the help of the older ones, which made everything so much more fun and memorable. To more sharing of fun projects in my next Creativity 521 post, I earnestly hope we can find time to do some art and craft every now and then!

Why confinement food catering is a lifesaver {Review of Tian Wei Signature}

If I knew that there was such a thing called confinement food catering when I first gave birth in 2009, I would definitely have taken it up. However, that was a time when we were living in Sweden and with the culture being so vastly different over there, confinement was an unfamiliar concept. From what I saw, many mums were out and about with their newborns shortly after giving birth, which explains why I am also an active mum who doesn't like to stay indoor much.

In spite of that, I do believe that it is very important for us to control our diet and eat well during this period. Even though my first confinement was done overseas in the midst of winter, as much as I could, I stayed off snacks and cold stuff, ate nutritious food and maintained a healthy diet. I honestly feel that eating the right food would help to accelerate my postpartum recovery process and give me the strength I needed to care for the baby, which was important since I was usually on my own.

While I never had a confinement lady before -- it's the same as why we don't have a helper, I just prefer to do it on my own instead of asking others to look after my kids - I did have my mother-in-law come over to cook for me during my past confinements. This was something I deeply appreciated yet I also felt bad for making her go through the hassle. For instance, when we were in Sweden, she had to hunt high and low for the food ingredients, like red dates, old ginger and pig's liver, which were rare and hard to find in most cases, and with the need to cook every day, things could get tiring for her. 

Now that years have passed and age has caught up, I surprised our friends and family members by boldly having a fourth baby. Yup, and so the cycle begins all over again. Given that I am older and more experienced now, I decided I didn't want to trouble anyone - well, except for the hubby - to help for my confinement but instead settle everything on my own.

Thanks to Tian Wei Signature, all my meals were settled for the entire month which allowed me to focus on resting and caring for the baby, woohoo! This was so important for me as he was born prematurely and I wanted to make sure he was doing well and properly looked after. Having confinement meals delivered to my doorstep was a feeling that I loved, because it meant I didn't have to depend on others to cook for me yet I also did not have to slog in the kitchen at a time when I was supposed to be recuperating. I tried out their most extensive package, which is the 28-Day Double, including both Lunch and Dinner, and it was something that I truly enjoyed and looked forward to each day.

In this post, I'll share with you more on why I totally think that confinement food catering is a lifesaver, at least for me, and will showcase more of the dishes I've tried and which I loved best. I also have a giveaway ongoing on my IG so hop over if you wish to try out these yummy confinement meals too.

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INTRODUCTION

What is confinement? 

Confinement, which originates from Asian culture and beliefs, refers to a period for mothers to recuperate and recover from childbirth. It is said to be a important time where they should maintain a specific regime, including eating a nutritious diet, staying indoor and avoiding physical activities in order to regain health, restore strength and prevent future ailments. Depending on individual beliefs or preferences, a typical confinement can last between 28 to 40 days. 

What is confinement food?

Confinement food consists of meals which are specially prepared using nourishing ingredients for mothers to boost recovery and improve postpartum well-being. Traditional Chinese confinement food is infused with ‘heating’ ingredients such as ginger, sesame oil, black vinegar and Chinese herbs. This special diet is said to perform specific functions such as dispel “wind” from the body, improve blood circulation, stimulate "qi" and revitalise strength, as well as help in lactation by boosting milk supply.

About Tian Wei Signature

Tian Wei Signature was founded with an aim to create appetising meals for mums and provide the necessary ingredients to help boost their recovery during confinement. With over 16 years of experience under his belt, head chef Eugene is skilled and professional in whipping up healthy and tasty confinement meals. In the kitchen, the chefs observe a strict rule of using only the freshest and healthiest ingredients without the use of any MSG or artificial flavouring. What makes Tian Wei stand out is how it gives a modern twist to some of the traditional dishes by incorporating Mediterranean and Japanese flavours. The result is a fusion mix of diverse, unique dishes that make confinement more exciting without compromising on food quality and nutritional value.

REASONS WHY I LOVE TIAN WEI SIGNATURE

1) Convenient and fuss-free

Having my lunch and dinner delivered to my doorstep every afternoon and evening, well, it can't get more convenient than that, right? I guess that is why people love tingkat though I've not personally tried it before. I was very impressed by how my food was delivered in a thermal bag punctually every day! If I was out fetching the kids, it would be waiting for me on my shoe rack without fail.

 

For every meal, I would receive two thermal flasks, one filled with longan red date tea and the other with a soup or dessert. I was very surprised when I first opened them up because unlike what I expected, the tea and soup were still very hot when served, yippee! I was thankful to see that thermal flasks are used and the fact that they get washed and reused every time means we were not harming the evnvironment too. Apart from the reusable thermal bag and flasks, in its effort to be eco-friendly, Tian Wei Signature packs the food into biodegradable containers and also provides a set of stainless steel straws for every customer.

 

I usually pour the soup into a bowl, eat the food directly from the containers and drink the tea from the lid. That means other than washing the bowl, my cutlery and the flasks, there is nothing left to wash. Yup, that means not only do I skip all the cooking, the washing part is kept to a minimum too, which is good news since confinement mums are supposed to stay away from cold water.

2) Boosts recovery

 

When we first knew that I was pregnant, the hubby and I contemplated the thought of cooking our own confinement meals. After all, he is a very good chef and is always coming up with creative ways of cooking. The thing is, we realised we had no idea of how to go about cooking it or what ingredients to include and what to omit. We did know that you need a lot of ginger and dishes like pig trotters in black vinegar, sesame oil chicken and steamed fish are good but that's about all. We also didn't know what kind of herbs were beneficial or what functions each of them performs. While my mother-in-law is the most knowledgeable one, there are also things that she doesn't know, like how to cook 生化汤 and what ingredients it includes.

 

That is why it is good to leave it to the experts! With so many years of experience, the culinary chefs at Tian Wei Signature know way better than us about what is good for postpartum recovery and how best to nourish confinement mums. The meals are prepared according to Traditional Chinese Medicine methods and beliefs, which include using ginger, black fungus and herbs which are designed to boost "qi" and aid in recovery. Did you know? Tian Wei offers 28 different types of herbal soup, including Ginseng Nourishing Soup, Dispel Blood Herbal Tonic Soup and Polygonum Multiflorum Black Chicken Soup, which not only help to strengthen the body, nourish blood and replenish energy but also build up immunity and increase breast milk too.

 

On my second and third day, I received a bowl of 生化汤 which is a classic Chinese herbal decoction that relieves the pain of uterine contractions and stimulate blood flow which helps in the discharge of lochia - the postpartum bleeding that includes blood, mucus, and uterine tissue. I have to say not all of the herbal soups are easy to drink as some of them are really strong in taste and smell. That said, I can hereby tell you I drank every bowl to the last drop because all I needed was to tell myself "This is for my own good!" and it would motivate me to finish all.

3) Tasty, nutritious and well-balanced

 

The meals usually come with a staple, a meat dish, a vegetable dish, a soup and longan red date tea. Yup, that means other than fruit, I have everything I ask for in a well-balanced, wholesome meal. As mentioned, Tian Wei Signature uses all 100% natural flavourings with no MSG. That is why I allowed my kids, who were always requesting if they could try this and nibble that when my delivery came, to share the food with me too. 

 

If you wish to know how the taste of the food, you might be surprised to know that even my kids love it, especially the meat and soup dishes like Marmite Marinated Pork Chop, Baked Fillet Fish, Lotus Roots and Red Date Chicken Soup and Corn Millet Soup. Angel gave her thumbs up for all the broccoli dishes and she was the only one of the three who was not only able to take the strong herbal soups but loved all of them too. As for me, I think it is fair to say that I preferred some dishes over others and not all of them appealed to me. However, overall, I do think these were hearty meals which I enjoyed and they tasted better than I expected too.

 

4) Wide variety and minimal repetition

 

With 16 staples, 17 desserts, 42 vegetable dishes, 44 soups and 49 meat dishes lined up in its menu, Tian Wei Signature provides a wide variety of food with minimal repetition, meaning you get to eat something different almost every day! That is what keeps things exciting and makes confinement so much more interesting, don't you agree?

 

I remember I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the box and found spaghetti - something that I never got to enjoy during my past few confinements. I totally embrace and applaud how Tian Wei tries to come up with unique dishes and infuses Japanese and Mediterranean styles into their way of cooking. If you are more of the traditional type and prefer to opt out of the fusion food, you can always let the them know in advance so they can make the necessary arrangement.

 

I would personally advise you to try it out though because the fusion food was what brightened up my day and made me temporarily forget that I was on confinement, haha. In fact, I looked forward to mealtimes so much and they were always one of the highlights of my day. 

 

5) Excellent service

 

I called Tian Wei to activate my package only to get informed shortly that I had to stay back in the hospital as the baby had to undergo phototherapy. So I rang Tian Wei back to ask them to delay it for a day and they did. Yup, the good thing is as long as you call them in time, usually by 3pm, you can make changes for the next day. For instance, you can skip a meal or two if you are out or change your meal preference if needed. 

 

What surprised me most was that a staff called me back within a short while and said "Hi, we understand that your baby is having jaundice. In this case, should we leave out the ginger and reduce the herbs used in your meals?" Wow. That was not just efficient but very thoughtful too, and I truly appreciated that gesture. The staff would also ring me up to inform me whenever the food was ready for collection outside my door and asked me for feedback from time to time too. 

 

As for the delivery personnel, they usually wore a big smile on their faces and would greet me and my kids too. A friendly uncle was even worried if Asher could carry the whole bag into the house and watched him just to make sure he did it safely before giving him the thumbs up and saying he was a good boy.

MY FAVOURITE DISHES

There were many dishes that I enjoyed and most of the taste and quality was better than I expected. If I had to pick a list of which dishes I enjoyed the most, this would be it. Take a look at what I've picked out and if you get a chance to try them out, see if you like them too!

Staple

Spaghetti Pomodoro And Caponata

Stir Fried Pork Liver with Beehoon and Kailan

Meat

Fortune Herbal Chicken

Tian Wei Signature COQ Au Win

Sweet and Sour Salmon 

Vegetable

Stir Fried Shanghai Green with Conpoy

Silky Egg With Amaranth in Superior Broth

Soup

Fenugreek Green Papaya Fish Soup 

Dessert

Sweet Potato Longan Ginger Soup 

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, right? So instead of merely telling you what dishes I like, I made an extra effort to take more pictures than required so that I could create a mini photo gallery here to show you. These were some of the meals that stood out to me and I enjoyed all of them. Oh, there is also a video below too which is my best effort to showcase the food and share them with you. As for the smell and taste, you just have to try it for yourself next time!

PACKAGE LIST

Here is the list of the different packages offered by Tian Wei Signature. You can book a trial meal before deciding if you want to take it up for a longer period of time, for instance 7 Days with both lunch and dinner, or 14, 20, 21 or 28 days with an option of taking either Single or Double. My recommendation is to go for the 28-Days Double because it is the most value for money and since it covers the whole of your confinement month upon discharge, assuming that you spend the first two days in hospital, you will have all your meals settled and that takes a huge load off your mind. Don't forget to book in advance to enjoy the Early Bird Discount.

MENU

I didn't realise this previously but you can visit Tian Wei Signature's website to find out the daily menu, which clearly indicates all the dishes you will get to enjoy for every lunch and dinner. The thing is, it didn't really matter to me as I love the element of surprise in not knowing what was in store for me each day. However, if you prefer to know what you will be getting, go HERE and enter your estimated date of delivery to see the full menu (the weeks are shown on the left, so click on each of them to see the details). If you don't like any of the dishes or have any dietary preferences, just give them a ring and they will make the necessary changes for you too.

CONCLUSION

Many people thought that I would be extremely busy and overwhelmed during this confinement since I had a newborn and three other kids to take care of - not to mention that my firstborn is in her PSLE year. While that is true to a certain extent, I also felt that I was well-rested and at ease this time round. It might have come from years of experience or an ability to close one eye as a fourth time mum, but I also give much of the credit to Tian Wei Signature for it allowed me to eat nutritiously and aided in my recovery process too. Knowing that I didn't have to worry about meals made me feel more relaxed and I felt assured that I was in good hands.

While I might not get to experience confinement again (four is enough, thank you very much), I am thankful for how mine went this time round. I would definitely recommend expectant mums to take up confinement food catering service too, especially those who would like to care for their baby on their own instead of engaging help. I truly hope you will enjoy your confinement as much as I did!

P.S. This confinement meal above was my last one, which explains why the drink and soup were in plastic cups instead of thermal flasks. I actually felt a little emotional halfway through the meal because while I was glad that my confinement was ending, I also realised I might miss it when I look back in future, especially the food. Awwww. Thank you, Tian Wei Signature, for making my confinement journey a smooth and happy one!

 

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Here's a video for you to take a closer look at some of the dishes I tried. Enjoy watching!

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A post shared by Summer ☀ | 快乐妈咪 (@ahappymum)

Tian Wei Signature

81 Tagore Lane, TAG A, #01-11
Singapore 787502
Phone: +65 6727 5599
Email: sales@tianweisignature.com

Website: https://www.tianweisignature.com/

 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored collaboration between A Happy Mum and Tian Wei Signature. All opinions are solely my own.

Thirty Eight

This year has been a year of change for me in more ways than one.

Well, although the pandemic has had an impact on all of us in the past year, forcing us to stay home, be unable to travel and made changes to our lifestyle, I think I am still dealing well with staying home and I am truly thankful that we are well-protected and well looked-after in our island.

The BIGGEST change of all, for me, has to be having the new addition to the family and how I have been promoted to a mum of 4 just before I turn 38.

Did I expect to give birth at this age when I was younger? Well, I don't think I did but then again, much of my life is not planned, like how I didn't expect myself to become a stay-at-home mum and has remained so for the past 12 years. Oh, and I will probably still be one for at least the next 12 years to come. Then I would be 50 already which means I will be unlikely to find work at that age with near zilch experience in the workforce. Haha. Still, no regrets. Never. Not even a tinge.

 

Being able to stay home with these four kiddos is still the best thing that has happened to me, even if they make me pull my hair or drive me up the wall every now and then. Haha. Really, I am not contradicting myself, I still love my 'job' to bits and I know I am super lucky and blessed to be where I am today.

Anyway, maybe age has caught up, my perception has changed or the pandemic has shifted the way things work. I wasn't planning on or looking forward to a grand celebration and didn't make plans to go for birthday meals with friends too. All I wanted to do was keep it simple and be with my loved ones.

Now that we are a big family of six, it means we can't dine outside with all of our parents because that would make 10 of us which will be against the rule of having a maximum of eight. So we had a simple celebration with my parents who treated us to a nice zi char dinner at the kopitiam.

When they asked if wanted a cake, I wasn't shy to be honest and said "Yes!" and the hubby went to a nearby cake shop to get a cheap chocolate sponge cake which turned out to be really yummy. It wasn't so much about being childish but more of wanting to let the kids blow out the candles and for myself to make a birthday wish, in the hope that it would come true. After all, birthdays only happen once a year, right?

According to the hubby, the cake shop auntie was only willing to give one candle despite him asking for more and it was probably because the cake was cheap. Anyway, he spent three dollars more to get a packet of candles that spelt "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" and decided to line them up all around the cake before lighting all of them.

With so many candles on a relatively small cake, I was quite sure this was the cake with the biggest flames we've had so far and even the side of the cake started to burn when we were halfway through the song. Haha, how memorable!

Some of my jiemeis came over to visit baby Ansel a couple of days before my birthday but they decided to spring a surprise by bringing a yummy Cedele chocolate cake! It's been a while since I celebrated my birthday with them so I was really thankful and glad it happened. It's also nice knowing that some of us gave birth at around the same time (Hello baby Jasper, you are an April baby too!) so we have lots of common topics to talk about when it comes to motherhood and parenting.

Our friendship journey began since we were in Secondary 1 so that means we have stayed as buddies for, erm, over 25 years? Haha. Hope we can always find time to meet up, no matter how busy life gets!

As for my actual day, it didn't start off on a happy note for some personal reasons which I won't elaborate here but I was still looking forward to spending a good time with the kids when they came back from school. Yup, it was going to be a solo parenting day, something which I've gotten used to, but I guess I still felt special in a way knowing that it was my hatch day.

I wanna give thanks to all the friends who were so kind as to send goodies and gifts over, including coconut jellies and a fruit tart from Angeline and David, frozen yoghurt from Serene, Ting and Estella, flowers and cookies from Sisi and Willie, as well as a beautiful balloon with rainbow baby breath from Nat, Mabel and Lin Ying.

The kids also made me feel extra loved by giving me their handmade cards in the cutest way ever - they put all of them into a picnic basket and presented it to me (scroll to my IG post below and swipe to watch the video).

My love language has never been gifts and I never needed the hubby or anyone to pamper me with anything lavish. But a handmade card filled with effort and love, I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart and will keep every card with me for as long as I live. So thank you so much for all the beautifully written cards and pretty origami, my dears. Love you all to the moon and back!

At night, I decided to be more adventurous so I brought the younger ones to cycle in our neighbourhood while the firstborn and I pushed the baby along and had a nice mother-and-daughter chat. I had a bowl of laksa (I love laksa!) to reward myself while the kids had pasta and burger, woohoo!

I have to say I'm slowly but surely getting used to bringing four kids out on my own and we've also managed to take the public transport a few times too. Yay! It's all about practice makes perfect and the first thing to do is to believe in myself that I can do it, right? So I gotta have faith and be positive about it, even if some days are tougher than the rest.

No matter how social media makes everything seem so easy and smooth for me or for anyone else, we have to always remember that what is portrayed is merely a small glimpse of our lives, and the story behind everything is usually far longer, harder and more complicated. Yup, I hope you will always remember that too. 

Nothing comes without struggles and the smiles are usually accompanied by some tears along the way too. It's the same for me in raising my kids, in keeping my marriage going, in being my happy positive self - there are always the good and bad days. It's about how we overcome the bad by picking ourselves up and how we make the good even better by embracing, cherishing and making the most of every moment.

We were reunited as a family over the weekend and the hubby made up for it by treating us to a nice dinner at Hawkerman in Seletar Mall followed by a family movie night, woohoo! It was Ansel's first visit to the cinema which made it extra memorable for all of us. He was such a gem to sleep after drinking his milk so I could still watch the movie and enjoy most of it.

We watched Godzilla vs Kong and it was better than we expected because we thought Kong made everything more engaging and exciting. Perhaps it didn't matter what show we chose too; all we needed was the company of each other and knowing that we were together as a family.

So I guess it wasn't so bad to celebrate my birthday in Phase 3 in the company of just a few loved ones, the ones who truly matter to me. It was a day that made me ponder over my 38 years of life which, like everyone's else, has been filled with ups and down. But my conclusion is I am thankful for everything that has led up to this day, I am where I wanna be at this very moment, and I am truly blessed to be a happy mum. 是的，我是幸福的！

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P.S. Till my next birthday where my baby will be one year old! Woohoo! Exciting times ahead! Thanks for reading and to everyone who sent over birthday wishes one way or another, I appreciate everything and every one of you. Stay happy always, people!