Our First Halloween

It was Isaac's first. Ours as well. Back home in Malaysia Halloween is not a big day to be celebrated. We have Ching Ming. We go to our ancestors grave site to clean up, offer food, hang around and basically have a small reunion with relatives. Until today I have yet to discover the real meaning of Halloween. All I know it has something to do with 3Cs : costumes * cosmetics * candies. Because we live in an apartment trick or treating isn't that feasible. God knows which unit is occupied and not, rite? In addition to that we are not going to bleed our fists out cos Five West has no doorbell in all units. Talk about 21st century design. So we made plans to celebrate our first in the neighbourhood of hubby's colleague, Jenny. We dressed our lil boy up as a mousey mouse reason being that's the only costume available in his size that was on Sale in Old Navy that day. It costs us $10. Yes, isn't that great? Not forgetting he is also a Rat (born in 2008). We had great fun. Weather was kind. Candies were many.

How Men Feel

I managed to steal some reading time after putting Isaac to bed with much struggle. I only read for 5mins and consider that a luxury. Phew. In that 5mins I read the following which to me is so interesting that it's worth revisiting.

Top Ten Things Your Husband Really Wants To Tell You (During A Scorekeeping Argument)

1. "I really don't enjoy playing with the baby for more than ten minutes.
2. "It's not fair that after a full day at the office, you expect me to hit the door at sixty miles per hour"
3. "You can't have your cake and eat it, too. Being Super Provider and Super Dad isn't easy."
4. "I just want a little free time without being made to feel guilty. I'll be a lot happier if you let me off the leash for a couple of hours on the weekend."
5. "I'm not stopping you - it's not my fault you haven't been to the gym in three months."
6. "Doing every last thing "as a couple" or "as a family" is emasculating."
7. "Stop micromanaging my relationship with the kid."
8. "Tell me what you want me to do! Make me a list and I will do it!
9. "Why is it you see only the stuff I didn't do...what about everything I did do?
10. "What happened to me old life? I feel trapped in the trenches of domesticity."
    

Does any of the above sound familiar to you? I wonder if every men thinks and feels the same. If yes then I would be comforted that all of us women/mom could use one common startegy to tackle this challenge. I am sure the women has their say as well. We'll have to wait for my next stolen reading time. Till then.

Bestest Buy

We were shopping in Chinook on Saturday and I wanted to use my 20% GAP voucher on something for Isaac. Who else? So I got him a pair of wooly winter mittens. I also found a tee I like from the boys dept. Yes I can fit into their XL & XXL. It was on Sale for $4.97. Cool so I thought. As I was getting ready to pay for my loot, I saw some tiny holes on the tee and told the cashier not to include it in my purchase. He then said something almost unbelievable....

"This tee is now $0.98 but because of some defects I'm gonna give you another 40% off the ticketed price which will come up to $0.59, so are you sure you don't wanna get it and wear it at home?"

My reply was simple "Oh??...what the heck!!"

So that's the cheapest GAP tee shirt I've ever seen and the cheapest tee shirt I've ever bought. Way to go girl ! :-)

Yummiest Siew Mai in Calgary

Restaurant : U & Me

Location : Chinatown

Operating Hours : Dunno what time until 4am daily

Review : Best Siew Mai even for a non-Siew Mai fan..as I'm writing my saliva is........(yes, that GOOD!)

ExerSaucer

A better alternative to walkers. Canada has yet again ban the mummy friendly walker for toddlers. Does not promote safety it seems. Canada will ban anything that post the slightest threat to safety and health. Period. God knows what's next. So walkers are not available here. How do we get Isaac to play or wander around on his own so Mummy can at least go to the toilet? To Toys"R"Us we went. Our initial plan was to get a jumper but found something more interesting. We put Isaac in it to "test the water" and voila he loves it! So Daddy went ahead with the ever-fantabulous creation from Evenflo - the ExerSaucer. Not only toddlers can exercise, they can even play and have some fun and not bother Mummy !! Genius isn't it? We'll see how long Isaac stays interested. So far his longest playing moment is 15mins. Is that too long for a baby?

Foot Fetish

Two things : Handbags & Shoes. I have babbled about handbags and now it's time for the latter. Every woman loves shoes and I'm not spared. Who can say no to them? Stilettos, Mary Jane, Kitten heel, Pumps, Court, Slingbacks, Sneakers, designer slip-ons...the list goes on. Since Calgary is such a cold place I seldom get to wear a variety of shoes. Therefore my love for shoes has extended to baby shoes. I just love baby GAP shoes, reason being they are cheap and cool looking. My boy has so many pairs waiting for him and yet his lil feet are not growing fast enough to accommodate them. So once a while I will bring out my collection of baby shoes and admire them. Am I crazy or what ? Isaac has outgrown 1 pair of infant jogger which my mum bought for him for his full moon dinner. Now he is wearing another pair sized 9-12 months. I wonder when he can fit into the cool pair of Adidas his KY-Neacail got him.....We can only wait for that day to come by as we see him grow day by day....

Best Before ??

Hubby wanna have bread with ice-cream after dinner. But I remembered the bread was purchased in Edmonton and should be expired by now. Am wondering why they are still on my kitchen top..?? So I told him to check. This is our converstaion:-

Me : So how? Still edible?
Hubby : Best before 18 Oct. So it should be better by now.
Me : ?????????????

And so he ate the bread with ice-cream. Let's hope tomorrow he doesn't clog up the toilet.

Cleaning at its Best

I am not of Housewife quality ~ my hubby can testify to that. I have never been helpful around the house since young ~ my mum will nod in agreement. When I was made, not by choice, a SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mum) upon landing in Calgary, I very much needed aid of some sort. Maid is out of the question due to budget constraint. So I better figure out a way to juggle between being a mum and a maid. In this sense I love Canada. There are tonnes of funny items here that were created to our advantage. To top the list, I have these two super-duper extraordinary cleaning products to help make my life easier, faster and fun-filled :P

Thanksgiving in Edmonton

To say I'm upset is an understatement. As I was gayly writing my new post on our Thanksgiving trip to Edmonton, the unthinkable happened. With just one click of dunno which button, all my paragraphs just vanished into thin air. Sigh.................................

In a nutshell, here it is :

Edmonton ~ 3 hrs drive, 3D/2N Holiday Inn Express Hotel 2 king bed + 10 pillows. West Edmonton Mall house a Casino, Water Park, Fantasyland Hotel, Sea Lion Show, Treasure Island Decor, Chinatown, Europa Boulevard, Bourbon Street and hundreds of retail shops. Probably take 3 - 4 days to finish walking the entire mall. 

Hubby is a happy man. His favourite brand Abercrombie & Fitch is in WEM. So he came out with 2 shirts and 2 polo tees. I am a happy mom. The Children's Place is on Sale. So I bought kiddo 2 tees (one of which glows in the dark) and a track bottom as he has outgrown most of his one piece jammies. I am a happy wife. I went to Coach twice until some boutique assistants could recognise me. The design I wanted is out. The leather one is too plain for my liking. So I settled for Graphic Op Art Sabrina Fall/Winter 2008 as my birthday gift from hubby. Thanksgiving indeed..!!

Madison Sabrina

My birthday is fast approaching. It's exactly 7 days from today. Oh btw, today is hubby's birthday and he is in total denial about his "new age". He told the whole world through Facebook that he won't be celebrating his birthday this year thus his age remains but appreciate all the well-wishes....hmmmm do you call this mid-life crisis? In contrary to his idea of his big day, we (me & some of his colleagues) will have a small get-together dinner and surprise him with a cake.

Ok back to my birthday...my lovely hubby has decided to get me a Coach handbag for my birthday...yahooooo!! After much to and fro msn chats with Priscilla & Chermaine, I have more or less shortlisted these two latest Coach Madison Sabrina Fall/Winter 08 designs. We will be spending our long Thanksgiving weekend in Edmonton and will check out these bags in the Coach store at the well acclaimed West Edmonton Mall. Hopefully they carry both the models I like. Keeping both my fingers and toes crossed :P

Picture of the year

We brought Isaac to snap 2 sets of pix when he was 7 weeks old. One set for his Canadian passport and the other for his Malaysian birth cert. We dressed him up in jeans and a colourful hawaii shirt (I tot it will make his pix looks sharper) and head to Chinatown for the most expensive infant photo shoot ever !!! It costs us CAN$30+ = MYR100+ for 2 sets G*O*S*H !!
He was asleep and we had to wake him up. So one can imagine the dreamy state he was in at that time. It was a rather challenging task trying to hold an infant straight, hide our hands and make sure he looks at the camera and not at us as we were busy making noises and calling him. So after a few struggles and many tries later...ta-dah...hope u like it as much as we do and we had a good laugh looking at the pix the next day. He looked like Aunty Janet rather than baby Isaac...especially his wig-looking mane. Hmmmm......I wonder if the Canadian Immigration/Passport Dept officer laughed....