Dumpling's Lilypie

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Baby Zee's Lilypie

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Building Blocks: The Lego Story

The most famous brick in the world is celebrating its 80th birthday! 

Check out the video below and be inspired by its humble beginnings...




Thank you, Lego, for 80 years of inspiring curiosity and imagination!



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Some Bunny Loves You!


Nighty-night from my baby girl and her long-eared friend!


Photo by Stork Studio. Bunny from Spinkie.


My Favorite Kimpura is at 50% OFF!

If I could eat in one place everyday for the rest of my life, it would be in Kimpura! My family has been eating there since I was a little girl. My ultimate favorite is the Mixed Fried Rice. My little boy loves it, too!


Man, I would love to learn how to make this! So yum!
Other staple orders include Salmon Sashimi, Ebi Tempura, Gindara, Chicken Teppanyaki and Yaki Udon. For dessert, I always get a Gelatin a la Mode. 

Below are more photos to make your tummy grumble:



Lapu Lapu Fillet Teppanyaki

Ebi Tempura (Dumpling loves this, too!)

Kobachi Tofu


Yaki Udon

Dumpling enjoying Yaki Udon! He loves this, too!

Did the food pics whet your appetite? Well, I have some fabulous news for you! Kimpura is at 50% OFF until Sept 29, 2012 if you are a Metrobank Platinum or World cardholder. Even drinks are included in the discount! Aaah, I might just eat here everyday!!!

The promo is offered daily except Saturday nights and Sundays.




Kimpura has three branches: Trinoma, Greenhills and Greenbelt 5.
This promotion is also offered in Peking Garden, by the way, because Kimpura and Peking Garden have the same owners (a little bit of trivia for ya!) 

So whip out those cards and haul your hungry tums to Kimpura!

Friday, September 7, 2012

I've Got My Eye on You

One of the first things I bought for Baby Zee's arrival was a baby monitor. With Dumpling, we were able to manage without one. But now that they are two, well, it will be harder to keep a close watch on both of them at the same time.

I went through a lot of baby monitors: Chicco, Baby First, Avent, Summer... before I decided on a Motorola MBP36 Baby Monitor. It was a risk since I bought it off Amazon so I couldn't test the unit first. But I figured since I was buying an electronic gadget, I would go for a brand trusted in that field rather than a baby brand. Well, my risk paid off because I am super happy with this product! 


Why it rocks:

1) It has a large screen - 3.5" color screen LCD plus infrared night vision so I can see my baby even if it's pitch black in the room


Love the huge screen!


2) Audio quality is very good - I can hear every hiccup and fart
3) It has a remote pan, tilt and zoom function so I can change the view from the parent unit
4) It functions as an intercom - I can talk to the kids or the nanny without going to the other room. This feature freaks out dumpling because he doesn't know where my voice is coming from :)
5) The room temperature is seen on-screen so you'll know if the baby's room is too hot or too cold
6) I also love the sleek design of this product. Some of the baby monitors I saw were too pa-cute which I didn't care for that much.
7) They programmed 5 lulllabies in the unit! So if your baby is crying, you can play her a lullaby through the camera and help soothe her back to sleep. I've never used this function though but it's kinda cool they thought of it.
8) You can add more cameras and hook it up with your existing parent unit. Perfect for parents who have lots of kids! You can surf through different rooms with just a press of a button!

What they could have done better:

I only have one complaint - when the parent unit is not plugged in, the video shuts off after awhile. This is the automatic power saver feature forced upon the user. You can't disable this function. To wake up the screen, you just have to press any button. Audio is still on, though. Still a bit of a hassle that's why I just leave it plugged in.

Here's a video review on this product:





This baby monitor was especially useful to me when Dumpling and I were sick and Baby Zee was quarantined in the nursery. I was able to monitor her the entire time. My husband would put her near the camera and I would talk to her through the intercom. 


Sleeping Zee on night vision


Having this also prevents the nanny from doing something naughty since she knows she's being watched ALL.THE.TIME.



I'm watching you.



Thursday, September 6, 2012

That crazy bug!

Just when my little guy and I are almost recovered from the flu, the damn bug bites my little princess! 

This virus is a real bugger. Out of 9 kids in my son's class, 5 are sick. Even dumpling's nanny caught the sniffles. I just came back from the pediatrician and most of the patients they've had for the past couple of weeks have the same symptoms: fever, cough and a cold. And now, my little girl has it, too! So heartbreaking to hear my 2-month old baby coughing in her little voice and snorting because of clogged up snot.

There's no rest for this weary mum! 

Monday, September 3, 2012

On a blogging maternity break

It's been a little over two months since I gave birth to Baby Zee... and also two months since my last blog post. There are so many things I want to write about  but I've been having a challenging recovery from pregnancy...

Baby Zee is 10 weeks old, and I've been sick (we're talking 40-degree fevers, joint pains, headaches) 7 times already - which means I've been sick almost every week! I've been to 3 doctors then on my 7th fever, I heard about Dr. Patricia Kho, who is an internationally-certified lactation consultant. Turns out, I have a recurring case of mastitis. Mastitis is a breast infection that causes swelling and plugs the milk ducts. It's still safe to breastfeed (in fact, it is encouraged) but momma suffers a LOT. It is really, really painful. I had to undergo an uncomfortable breast ultrasound to make sure that the lumps are not something more serious than clumped up milk. Then Dr. Kho gave me antibiotics to fight the recurring infection. 

Then a few days after recovering from my fever, my little dumpling gets sick. He caught a flu bug in school and we are now nursing a 39-degree fever, a cough and a cold. And to make matters worse, I caught his virus, too! Baby Zee is now under isolation in her room while Dumpling and I are fighting this bug. I miss holding my baby girl! We can't go near her because the doctor said what we have is very contagious. The only good thing about this is Dumpling and I get to spend a lot of quality time. But still, it's quite a challenge to take care of a sick, feisty toddler when you're sick yourself.

So please pray for me and my little boy that we get better soon! I promise to write again as soon as we are both back to fighting form - I have so much to tell you!

In the meantime, I'd like to share with you this video clip from the movie "Love Affair". I love, love, love this song. I used to sing this to K when he was Z's age. And now that he's on sick bay, I've been singing this to him again to help him sleep and help him forget about his clogged nose and persistent cough...



Just a quick note to my co-parents: Please, please, please keep your children at home when they are sick, even if it's just a mild cold. Putting other kids at risk is totally not cool. Let's spread love, not germs :)

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Baby Zee!

Baby Zee is finally here! She came to this world via C-section last June 16. 






She was already screaming at the top of her lungs as the doctor was pulling her out of me! Ain't she a cutie?










Dumpling gives his little sis a ride!


Our lives now revolve around nappy changes, breastfeeding and more nappy changes! Plus, I still have an energetic 2-year old to take care of! Life is just CRAZY... CRAZY GOOD :)