Happy 1st Birthday My Boy!

This is a belated post. 1 year just flew past like that. My son is 1 year old now. I still clearly remember the day of going to hospital, going through labour and the moment he was born. I guess this is the reminiscing part that every mum goes through when their baby turn 1. My assumption.

Before showing his playground birthday party, let's do a recap of all his first!

First second on earth

First smile - 6 day old

Actually I am not sure if this is his first smile, let's assume so.

First car ride

First month baby shower 

First cheeky look

First ferry ride to Gozo 

First winter

First Christmas Party

First swim

First "Girlfriend"

First flight

First Chinese New Year in Singapore

First touch of snow & First time in Sicily

First time in Oslo

First summer

First gym class

First time on a swing

First time "driving"

First time in London

First time in an outdoor pool

First time in Barcelona

First birthday

Happy birthday my beloved son! Daddy and Mummy wish you happy and healthy forever! We love you!

Kyven at Tumbletots Malta

I signed Kyven up for spring Tumbletots class as he was 7 months old. (Minimum age is 6 months old or being able to sit independently). Elson kept reminding me that I'm crazy to send him to class at such young age. Oh well, real reason is for him to socialize as we do not have families and friends with babies here. Another reason is for this mum to get out and have some fun! Ok, I am a mum but I am still playful!

My perception of such group classes for babies are such that it is filled with activities, both stimulating and calming for the entire 40minutes. Or rather, due to my background as a Kindermusik educator and Music n Movement teacher, that was our weekly lesson plan. 

The much anticipated first class started on 2 May. Elson took half day off to join us, secretly I am guessing he is checking if his money is well spent. Haha. Kyven really enjoyed his first class. He was happily checking out the different stations/gym tools. He made his first friend too! The class structure is 5 minutes of circle time to kick start, follow by 30 minutes or so of your own time own target of moving around different stations where facilitators go around guiding, lastly end with another circle/sticker time. Parents need to use some creative juice here to make use of the tools, or you could ask the facilitator for some guide and follow through. 

Kyven being the youngest there, and the only on who is not crawling yet, has quite limited stations to go to. However, it was nice to see him interacting with other babies. That was my intention. I am waiting to see if he crawls before the term ends. (We are at 4th lesson now)

Pregnancy and Delivery in Malta

It has been a long time since I update the blog. So many changes since the last update. We have a little baby boy, who is 5 months and a week now. Our lives change so much with his arrival.

I found out I was pregnant when I was back home in Singapore for home visit last January. We stuck to our schedule, and came back to Malta for the rest of my pregnancy, with 1 holiday trip to London in April. We were recommended a gynaecologist at St James Hospital, and never regretted our choice. Professor Isabel Stabile made every visit to her such a joy to look forward to. She did all the necessary checks and answer all our queries in humor.

I had a smooth pregnancy with no morning sickness or craving or rejection of any kind of food or smell. Just a little small hiccups where I had UTI and ezcema on my legs during the last trimester. Overall, I didn't felt like I was pregnant except for the growing tummy.

Towards the last 3 weeks were the most exciting and torturing time when I started to count down. Tummy got heavier and sleeping was a torture. That made me so look forward to the delivery. We made the choice of deliverying at St James instead of Mater Dei as we were more comfortable with the facilities and my gynaecologist will be there.

For information sake, you are not allowed to choose gynaecologist at Mater Dei should you need one for c section or any emergency case. Most natural delivery will be handled my midwives there.

My midwife at St James, Carmen, was a gem. 3 days before my due date, I got a call from her checking with me on my status. Any contractions, bleeding, basically any signs as my date is near. Next thing I know, she called me in for a check up by her. To my surprise, she told me baby is ready to come out, and asked me if I want to use some help by bursting the water bag. I was more than happy to do so. I can't wait to get rid of my big tummy!! So I was asked to go home get a good rest and report at 7am next morning.

7am. Here we go! I was late though, we just couldn't wake up. By 815am, my water bag was burst. 9am, first contraction start. Carmen constantly came and check on my contraction and ultimately told me I will have my baby by noon time. Before I knew what was going to happen, I was ready for pushing at 11am. Baby was born at 1215pm. How accurate can Carmen be!!! She timed everything so perfectly that my gynaecologist came in just before my final pushes for the baby to be out.

What a pleasant experience! I know it is not normal to say that about delivery but I think I had a pleasant experience excluding the pain.

Post delivery care at the hospital was fantastic. My husband get to stay in, Carmen checked on me regularly and make sure I ate the right food. Good knowledge gaining time.

I am so thankful for my smooth pregnancy and delivery. 

Hello baby Kyven

Weighing 3.54kg

Getting dressed for the first time

With my midwife Carmen

Our cheeky little boy now

How time flies....

Strawberry Festival 2013

The once a year Strawberry Festival was here again! It was so crowded, and of course, everything was about STRAWBERRY! It was so fresh and sweet. Let the picture do the talking then.

Till next year...

What to eat at Malta Airport?

Whenever we go to the airport for a flight, we will definitely have a meal there. Not that there is superb food, it is just a habit. Apart from this place that I am going to share here, there are KFC and Burger King at the airport for quick meal too.

Fat Harry's look like a bar but they do serve decent food too. Do take into consideration the amount of time you have while waiting for boarding, as food takes time to be cooked there.

Today we tried the steak and Guinness beef stew.

The Guinness Beef Stew was awesome. It was thick with a hint of the Guinness taste. Beef cooked to ultimate tenderness. I love it.

As for the medium done steak, I find that it was too dry. There wasn't any sauce to go with, except the sautéed mushroom. I think a little sauce will be better. The sautéed mushroom was good though, but not good enough for me to order this again.

Do share with me your experience there too.

Ir-Rokna - Had your pizza already?

It looked neither posh nor special, but the food was really good! Located in Portomaso, a restaurant I passed by more than a dozen times but did not enter until this day. A friend took me there, telling me their pizza is a must try.

Walking into the restaurant, the setting were typical type, nothing special. As I walked a few more steps, I saw the see through kitchen where the wood fired pizza oven is. There were limited tables on the first floor, but I think there are more upstairs as I saw a stairs near the entrance.

It was just a casual lunch, so we only ordered a calamari to share and a main course each.

Calamari

 
Calamari was decent, nothing fantastic or special. I love seafood so I will definitely order again next time.

Seafood pasta

 

Seafood pasta was nice. This is the starter portion though, which is already a lot to me. They were rather generous in their seafood, which makes me want to go back more. I am already drooling now writing about it.

Carbonara

This carbonara was rather creamy. Do try it if you love cream based pasta. It tasted really good. The flavour was just right. Personally, I will share this with someone if I am ordering it again, as I find it too rich for me.

Patrizio pizza

The pizza was good, way better than the one I last tried at Mama Mia. The dough texture was really good, not dry or too hard. The dough tasted different from the few I tried before. It was thin in the middle and slightly thicker at the edge. It was stated in the menu to be more salty and spicy, but I found it just right. In fact, I did not taste any spiciness as all. As for saltiness, it was understood as it had salami and pepperonias part of the toppings. The cheese was nicely melted that even after 10 minutes of eating, I was still pulling the cheese. I am not a cheese appreciator, so I can't really tell what cheese they are using.


Overall, it was a great meal with great company. We skipped dessert there, and went over to cafe Portomaso for some ice cream instead.

I am definitely going again with Elson.