Baby Jogger City Select Stroller

This is totally drool worthy.  Just saw this stroller yesterday and I can't stop thinking how clever it is!!  I love how the back seat is higher than the front!  The best part, the infant car seat can fit on it too so I can push both boys around at the same time :)  Seems cheaper on US websites, but don't think they ship here.  The store I saw it at sold it for a very steep price.  Sigh...will probably just end up drooling, that's all :(

Check out the specs here, and esp the review about how much can fit into that basket below!!  Shocking!

Once Upon A Milkshake

Jon brought me to try this fairly new milkshake place called Once Upon A Milkshake at Maxwell Chambers.  He had heard lots of good reviews about it, and since he knows I like milkshakes, brought me there on Deepavali.

We headed there after lunch at a nearby Japanese-style Korean restaurant called Bukang Tuna which sells the strangest looking fish I've ever seen, the Flatfish.  Honestly, it looks like the entire species have some kind of deformity, but that's just how they are.  Look at how the fish develops! 

And as it turns out, many so-called food fish are a kind of Flatfish too, like flounder, plaice, halibut, and sole.  Find out more from wiki!

Anyhow, the fish must be the specialty of the restaurant cos they had lots and lots of Flatfish in the fish tanks.  None of them were moving at all though, which made me wonder how they swim given one fin is on top (facing the sky) and one below (facing the bottom of the tank).

We didn't try the Flatfish that day, but the lunch sets we
had were good and value for money.  The service is good too.  They even on their own initiative brought a small bowl of beef porridge for Asher.  Gratis!  Definitely scored points with me on that count.

But anyway back to the milkshake.

It's a simple setting with the decor du jour of mismatched chairs.  Not quite so ecclectic since the chairs were mass-produced pieces rather than unique one-of-a-kind ones.  But again, I digress.

The shakes were good!  I am absolutely of the opinion that milkshakes must be thick, otherwise it's just milk.  Milkshake that's thin in consistency is a waste of time.  So far the closest to a proper milkshake has been good ol' McDonald's.  It's thick, it doesn't melt too quickly, and cheap haha.

The milkshakes sold here are of a thick consistency as well, but are much smoother than the McDonald's ones.  Mac's shakes can sometimes be too powdery/grainy.  There's a wider range of flavours to choose from too.  I had Cerious Maple which was exactly what I was looking for that day - something simple with a twist.  It's essentially vanilla with some maple syrup and sprinkled with crunchy maple cereal flakes.  Jon had the Vanilla Pot, which was basic vanilla - a good way to test the quality of a shake. 

Their other flavours sound quite exciting too and there are a few I'm already eyeing for our next visit there, such as Chocolate Truffle Castle, Litchi Otokonoko, Grumbling Raisins..er...actually, I think I most of their flavours sound quite good, and would suit different moods/weathers. 

Cerious Maple

Enjoying big gulps of our shakes before nodding off contentedly for his nap

Hill Billies

Went to the Botanic Gardens with Jane & the boys again.  He lately seems to be more interested in feeding the birds rather than the fish, maybe cos he can get closer to them.  This time he had Kaizer as an ally to lure the birds nearer (partly cos they don't really fling the bread that far :) ).

I think the part that I thought was the sweetest was when the two older boys were running up and down the hill together.  Initially it was just Kaizer, then Asher followed suit.  Later, they even held hands to run up and down - which also means when one falls, both fall :)  But that's what little boys do...tumble :)

One of the more gentle falls

Think I also mentioned that Asher's been quite picky about his eating lately.  But guess what?  Kaizer offered him some pandan bread, and he happily munched on it!  Kaizer was super generous and even gave him another two buns when we were leaving, and those Asher munched on too.  As a result he didn't eat much dinner, but doesn't matter, at least I know he ate something!!

But the next day, Asher didn't want to have any more pandan bread and hasn't had any since.  Oh well, one hit wonder better than no hit at all!

Birthday Magic

Popped by the Mok's place to celebrate Joe's birthday.  Been a really long time since we saw Jo Claire, so it was great that the two kiddos got to play together for a while.  Discovered that though they haven't met recently, she's very familiar with Asher cos she hears about him almost everyday.  Her grandma reads to her a storybook which has a picture showing a set of parents, two sets of grandparents, and two children - one male one female.  So her grandma would say that the little girl is Jo Claire, and for lack of another boy, that Asher is the little boy :)  So she was more than familiar with his name, and just needed to match the face to it.  By the end of the night, ask her who Asher was and she could point him out :)

Was super happy that Asher ate well there too!  He's been going through a phase where he doesn't want to eat much of anything.  All the food he normally likes to eat he'll shun.  The only things he eats kind-of regularly are fruit and some veg (carrots esp).  Even then, it's not a given that he will eat the fruit/veg offered to him.  He's been losing weight, and has lost his little paunch.  And it can be very frustrating and worrying for me.

But by some miracle, Asher asked to eat 2 bananas, and happily gobbled down some briyani ("colourful rice") and white rice, and slurped up some of the soup that Jo Claire was also drinking, which was a power-packed bowl of veg, dried scallops, soy beans, and ikan bilis.  What a vast improvement from the day before where he only had 2 biscuits for breakfast, about 1 tablespoon of bee hoon for lunch, and a handful (his hand, not mine) of blueberries which garnished his Grandpa's birthday cake.  He had also refused to drink his pre-bedtime cup of milk.  Oh, the joy of seeing him eat!

Hanging out in the play area

Being a cheeky boy and making a soft-toy dolphin dive onto Jo Claire's head again, and again and again :/  She was very sweet about the whole thing and didn't banish him from her play area.

Where's Asher?? 

Taking a kangaroo's hat to wear during the cake-cutting :)



Artichoke

To celebrate my father-in-law's birthday we went to a fairly new establishment called Artichoke at Sculpture Square along Middle Road.  The place is immediately inviting, and the smells emanating from the kitchen are mouth-watering.  The place serves my kind of food - Moroccan & Middle-Eastern influenced with fresh ingredients.  We ordered way too much, but what fun to try the many dishes!  The menu there changes frequently to keep things interesting, and often the best dishes are written on the wall.  Loved the lamb short ribs cooked with chermoula spices - so well cooked the meat just comes off the bone; the hummus and babaganoush with bread were what they are meant to be - flavourful and comforting; the beef stew was excellent - robust, rich, extremely tender, but not stodgey; the moussaka was lovely - light with a lingering flavour; the leg of lamb served with seven veg couscous was perfectly done; and the popcorn chicken was a fried food indulgence that lived up to it's name - it really comes with popcorn :)

One of the few pics I had a chance to snap.  Beetroot with feta and a sprinkling of nuts.

Their offering reminded me very much of Mecca Bah in Melbourne, and I was quite pleased to have a place to go to in Singapore for something similar.  I would have taken pictures of everything if my hands weren't so tied up with Asher - he was fussing and not wanting to eat even though ordinarily, he'd eat everything on that table!  In the end I only took pics of the first dishes that arrived.

Anyway, the place serves brunch too, so might pop by there another day to try it.  But we'll definitely be coming back again some time!

 Drawing for the first 1 min of the meal.  

There was essentially no meal for him since he didn't eat dinner per se...

He only had some fruit garnishing Grandpa's cake

Alexandra Firestation

We were all finally out of our feverish phase after hibernating indoors for about 2 weeks collectively.  So decided we deserved a little family outing.  Trotted down to Alexandra Firestation for a station visit so that Asher could get a chance to see fire engines upclose.  It was a simple visit, but fun and fulfilled its intention.  We got to see and sit in most of the vehicles - several types of large fire engines, firefly 2-seater, red rhinos, paramedic motorcycle, etc.  Asher got to help out spraying some trees with the fire hose too :) 

Some little things we learnt were that ambulances and paramedic bikes are also co-located at firestations for quick response, and when the siren sounds the firemen/paramedic team have to leave the station within 1 minute!  It happened that we and several other families were sitting in one of the fire trucks when the siren went off, so we were hurriedly asked to come off while the firemen pulled on their firesuits.  We quickly exchanged places, and they were off in a jiffy!  Quite exciting :)  Asher was particularly pleased when he saw the fire engine come back and park in its original spot.  There was also an ambulance which responded to a call while we were there.  Apparently on average they get about 3-4 calls a day, so we were quite lucky to see the men in action :) 

But that also meant that some of the manpower was tied up, so we didn't get to ride on their rescue cherry-picker, which they sometimes let the public try.  Maybe next time!  I'd love to do that! :) 

The visit is fun for kids, and free!  All SCDF firestations are open to the public every Saturday from 9-11am (except Jurong Island).  Find out more here.  The next one we might check out is the Hill Street Central Firestation, cos that one has a museum with several old-style fire engines that Asher (and us heh heh) can climb into :)  As you can see, I think I'm as much or more of a monkey than my little boy, even with a bulging belly! :O)

Showing us the equipment in the truck

Their latest recruit getting comfy behind the wheel

Responding to a call.  That's the same truck we were just sitting in!

On to the bikes.  This paramedic bike is for quick response, and mainly to provide initial medical care and psychological aid to affected people while waiting for the bigger vehicles to arrive.  Especially useful if there's a high traffic situation. 

A team of 3 kid fire fighters!  Asher, Otto & Bruno :)

Playing with the hose.  The jet is really quite powerful, and at one point the kids pulled the lever too much and the guy had difficulty holding the hose :)

The fireman looks like he's having as much fun as the kids :)

Asher and his new friend Otto

There are actually a few other pics like Asher in the firemen's hat, but I was too lazy to upload everything :) 

Baking Up A Storm

It's been a while since we did some baking, and thought it'd be a nice way to occupy him at home one afternoon.  The last time we baked was about a month-and-a-half ago where we made blueberry muffins.  This time around, I was gonna bake some banana bread together with him.

There was a funny moment when he stirred too vigourously and flicked some batter onto his arm, the table, and the floor.  And he proceeded to melt into a gush of giggles :)  It was sweet that he wanted to help me clean up after, and tried to wipe up the specks of flour and dough that he had flicked onto the floor.  I say tried, cos he was essentially pushing all the flour and dough around on the floor :)  But it's the thought that counts heh.

I think this was the first time that he was really able to do most of the stuff himself.  I basically just helped with measuring and maybe the final stir to check that the flour was mixed in properly.  But he did the rest of the pouring and mixing on his own.  So I told him that "Mummy helped Asher", instead of "Asher helped Mummy".  

It was also nice to have the kitchen to ourselves.  I enjoy the freedom of not being 'watched' (for lack of a better word) in my own home, which was something I often felt when our helper was around.  Left the real cleaning till after his bedtime so that I could just spend the entire afternoon with him.  

Dinner was a muffin, and breakfast the next morning too :)

Creaming the butter and sugar

Beating the eggs

Looking at the speck of batter on his arm

Giggling away

Scooping the batter into the muffin tray

Going, "WHOA!" each time he dumped a scoop of batter into the loaf tin

Cleaning under his chair :)

 Ta da!

 Eating & giggling while remembering how he flicked the batter around :)

Brekkie the next day

Being silly and squashing his face with the container cover :)