There's a bun in the oven ;)

After months of trying, we're finally pregnant. Alhamdulillah :)


Before making the test, I had the usual soreness of breasts, shortness of breath and an elevated heart rate. But, I thought I am in THAT time of the month. So, when the period didn't came, I got myself checked and the result is as you can see above. After months of single line, finally we've got ourselves a double line. Yeay!

I am ecstatic, up to a point where I almost forgot that pregnancy for me comes in its full "glory". Now, I'm at 8 weeks and boy oh boy...I have to eat constantly (every two hours) or I get bloated and sick. Getting sick and running to the toilet is almost an everyday occurrence, but this time the nausea attack is on the evening. I guess I have an evening sickness :)

I am soooo lethargic all the time, its a miracle I am able to drag myself to work everyday. I think that my boss and colleague are starting to hate me a little bit, but I can't help it. I am completely useless during my first trimester (hmm, that may apply throughout my pregnancy, if truth be told ;p) I sincerely thought that I would be able to control myself better this time (hormones or not, most of the time, its mind over matter) BUT, I'm just too lazy? tired?

Although it has only been two months, my tummy is starting to show. Haha, from food, not from the teeny baby I have inside ;p I haven't got myself scanned yet (will be doing that sometime next week) but I'm hoping everything will be okay. If the baby decides to pop out on the expected due date, baby and mummy may be sharing birthdays :)

* on a side note, so far, I am still able to take orders for RVC and cupcakes.

Wordless Wednesday

Random updates

Since I am now unable to actually compose a decent post about Sara developments, I'll just jot down whatever I remembered. This is not in sequence and may happen around last two months and this month (yeah, sue me...I am a bad and a very forgetful mummy)

1. She's so imaginative and likes to create dialogues; for example : "Mummy,mummy...got cat ot-shide (outside). Cat call Yaya, yaya..nak food. Cat hung-ghee (hungry). Pity cat. Mummy come. Ya nak gif food. Mummy take" or when she hears another toddler crying, she'd say "Mummy, kakak kai (cry). Pity kakak. Kakak nak food." It seems funny that she associates crying with not enough food. Hehe, I see similarities with me there. But, hey, I fed her enough, ok. She's already 15kgs at the age of two ;p

2. Right now, she's in the phase whereby whe wants to sleep in Nenek's room. Every night. I don't really have a problem with that, its just that I pity my mom. She'd go screaming in the middle of the night "Yaya nak cip in Nenek's yuum" and cry like there's no tomorrow. Once, I let her cry her heart out, she woke up with a puffy eyes. I felt so guilty after that and succumbed to her demands to cip (sleep) in Nenek's yuum (room).

3. She's also is at the stage where she copies everything that we do. And if we didn't notice that she is imitating what we do, she'd say "Mummy, Yaya copycat mummy". Note to self : No more saying bad words in front of her ;p

4. I went for a short course last month and when I came back, she was waiting to pick me up. The first thing that she asked me to do was "Mummy, help Yaya. Big nose chit. Babah non know (Babah don't know)" Hehe, can you guess? After 1 week of separation, the thing she misses most is me picking her nose. ;p Anyway, I happily obliged, as always.

5. Oh, she now knows all our names. And if she calls us several times but we didn't answer, she'll start calling our names; for example when she called her babah to come eat and her babah didn't reply, she'll scream "EDIE, COME EAT". Once in Ikea, she called for hubby but he didn't answer, so when she caught a glimpse of him, she screams "EDIE! WAIT FOR YAYA!" :)

6. Its getting harder to feed her nowadays. You know why? Because she'll demand to go to the "shop" and buy "fish, chicken or ta-to (potato) and ne-yert (carrot)" and she also insisted on "cook-cook-cook" all the groceries she bought. My mum will have to follow her to her imaginary shop (which could be anywhere in the house, sometimes its behind the sofa, sometimes near the door), all the while carrying her bag with actual money inside. Then, she'll want to cut-cut-cut her fish/chicken/tato/neyert and cook-cook-cook them. And, yes, she tripled the words to show that she means business.

7. She has a new teddy bear. She started calling it "tay-bee bear" but I quickly name it Molly. (Its not a very cool name, but that was the first name that popped to my head *defensive* ;p). We're thinking that Mama may have to go play somewhere else because Sara's got a new friend.


8. She sings. She can actually sing. I went outstation for two weeks, and when I got back, Nenk prompted her, "Sara, sing to mummy." I'd expected the usual "Na-na-na...ni..nu..." but I had the shock of my life when she perfectly sings "Ibu...ibu...engkaulah ratu hatiku". I almost teared (but had to control, wouldn't want to appear so soppy in front of my mom. Heh) I have a video of it (her singing) but for some reason, it can't be uploaded here.

Just to get me back in the mood...

After almost two months (gasp!) of not updating, I really need a good kick on the b*tt to get me back to blogging.

So, I present to you, my maiden attempt at making character cupcake. Haha, really bad and sloppy buttercream work, I know, but hey...at least the customer recognizes the character.

From top row, it should be Mario, Spongebob, (the birthday boy's name), Mickey Mouse and Ben10.

eenie meenie myni moe

If it were up to you..


Would you rather someone who make promises but sometimes falls short,
Or someone who promises but keeping it, no they will not.

Would you rather someone who pretends to be something they are not,
Only to realize they are not as good as we thought.

Would you be so eager to change, thinking that the current is so impaired,
but whose to say that the change is for the better when the current is the best we had.

Would you rather stake your fate in the hands of an accuser,
or in the hands of the unfortunate accused?
because in accusing, you can't help but to do what you accuse the other person of doing.

We can complaint all we want,
but until we are in the shoes of people we are complaining about,
only then we will understand that they are actually doing their best,
and we would have done the same.

Eenie meenie myni moe,
Catch the liar by the toe,
If he hollers, let him be,
My mother says pick the best one,
Eenie meenie myni moe.
If it was really as simple as that :)

Change? Are you sure the so-called change is gonna be better?
Nah, I think I'm good. For now.

Putrajaya Treasure Hunt 2011

Oohh...so many things to record but yet so little time to do it...

I haven't share about Sara's birthday yet, her developments and soo much more but have to save that for another day. Right now, I'm in the mood of updating about our latest adventure. Me, hubby and my sister joined the Putrajaya Treasure Hunt 2011!! Our achievement, well, ehem, we were beginners!! Hehe, nampak sangat performance memang tak best.

The day began early, we were already at the Perbadanan Putrajaya at 7.15am. We were team 131 and our group name is Ya-ya (creative, right? *rolls eyes*). I have lots of things to share about the hunt but as I've said before, too much things to do and too little time :(

Anyway, the MVP of our team for that day is my dear sister, Yanie. She ate these: (it was part of the challenge)

Pic credit to here

Now I know who to team with if I ever join Explorace or The Amazing Race. Sorry Cashu, you're out :)

Chocolate chip rolls

I have been itching to try this recipe for quite a while but the resulting amount is seven pans! So, when I found out that majority of my mum's side of family is coming for aidiladha, its a perfect opportunity for me to try out the recipe. The recipe I got was from the famous pioneer woman. Her pictures and step-by-step instruction was enough to make my mouth water. However, I reduced the amount of sugar and I didn't do the glazing because I think the chocolate chip rolls is just nice without them. The ingredients are:

• 4 cups Fresh Milk
• 3/4 cup Fine Granulated Sugar
• 1 cup Canola Oil
• 9 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 packages Mauri-Pan instant active dry yeast
  
• 1 Tablespoon (scant) Salt
• 1 teaspoon (scant) Soda Bicarbonate
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup Butter
  
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1½ cup Hersheys Milk Chocolate Chips
  
• 1 cup Almond Flakes

Her recipe is really simple and I especially love the no-kneading method (I suck at kneading things ;p). To prove to you how simple the method is, I'll explain it in 7 steps (only seven, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. Now go make some. You will not regret this)

Step No 1:
Heat the milk, sugar and oil until near boiling point in a large pot. Let warm (lukewarm, like your baby's bath water)

Step No 2:
Sprinkle yeast to the mixture. Wait two minutes. Put 8 cups of flour and stir until combined. Close the pot, put it in draft-free place for at least one hour. As an added precaution, I sometimes put a warm towel on top of the pot (if I'm using my mom's Corningware set)

Step No 3:
Sorry for the lack of pics until this point, but you should get a very fluffy dough, triple the original dough you had one hour earlier. Put the extra one cup of flour, salt, soda and baking powder and stir away :) (I use a large wood spoon). I usually do this at night, before going to sleep. I put the dough in a large airtight container and store them in the fridge to be used the next day. Note: It is easier to handle the dough once its frozen

Step No 4:
Next day, I take the dough out from the fridge and readied my workplace. In one bowl, melt the butter and add the vanilla to the butter. In another bowl, mix the brown sugar and salt. Next, butter the pans in which you're going to bake the rolls. I use two round pans and four square pans for the whole recipe.

Step No 5:
Flour the workplace and roll the dough to a relatively rectangular shape. Pour the melted butter on the dough, sprinkle the sugar-salt mixture, almond flakes and chocolate chips. Now, starting from the far end of your rectangle, roll the dough towards you. And, luckily I have picture to demonstrate the method. Note: Pinch the end to stick the rolls together

Step No 6:
Next, cut the rolls and arrange them in the buttered pans. Cover with a thick towel and wait for 20-30 minutes. Oh, and heat your oven to 175 celcius.

Step No 7:
Bake them for 15 minutes or until they turn golden brown, like this:



This is just perfect for tea time, isn't it?



These rolls are only good when served hot/warm. So, just put in microwave for a bit before serving if they got cold.

And I kid you not when I say this can be done in seven simple steps. So, what are you waiting for? Let's make our own sweet rolls :) .

Note : The filling of the rolls are entirely up to your creativity. See the aforementioned pioneer woman's blog for ideas. Hers is much nicer and complete with step-by-step photo :)