The offspring(s)

Truth to be told, my husband and I did not intend on having kids immediately after we got married, but ahh, accidents do happen. J But we took the news of an additional family member with much delight, as I am absolutely crazy about babies and hubby loves little girls, hence why our niece is so spoilt with countless number of presents – not on her birthday. Unfortunately, our very first bundle of joy didn’t make it through – the Dr couldn’t detect any growth after eight weeks, and so we (I) cried our hearts out, said our prayers and goodbyes, and moved on. Alhamdulillah, six months after, we were pregnant again (this time, intentionally..hehe). Exactly 40 weeks later; I met the new love of my life.

The mommies and the nanny(ies)

After I came back from my maternity leave, I had a ‘new’ network of friends. It was nice in the sense that I cld connect more with the ladies at the office, outside my dept that is. We cld talk abt our adorable babies, milky-stuff, not-so-fun maid problems, nurseries, diapers – and no, before you make a judgment, it’s not ALL we mothers talk abt, and yes, we still do gossip abt Angelina Jolie, complain of fuel prices, chat about Terengganu’s line of Mercedes Benz(s) and Barrack Obama’s world tour as well, and etc. But really, it’s very cool to have an avenue to share the ups and downs of motherhood and ‘survival’ tips as working mothers.

I notice however, the recurring theme that keeps surfacing in many of our conversations – childcare troubles. Each of us, to some degree, has had nanny (read: person taking care of child while at work) issues. There were/are maids who ran away to find their happi-er ending, have Hepatitis B, syphilis, affairs with the neighbor’s husband; nurseries which don’t change diapers as often as they shld; babysitters who wld leave toddlers alone in the apartment to do something apparently more important; grandparents who had to drive 40 mins daily to help take care of their grandchild (or who’d like to go off to tour Europe for two and a half weeks J), yada yada yada..

Let’s face it. Childcare for working parents is a headache.

The ‘lifestyle’

After a long hard day’s work, my husband and I reach home around 8pm (that is, after dashing out of the office at 6-ish, surviving traffic on Jalan Ampang + Jalan Sultan Ismail, picking up Dina fr the nursery, and finding decent but inexpensive food for dinner). We then have our meal while watching either Chandler or Ross do or say something funny for our daily dose of laughter while Dina plays (by herself) in her swing. Afterwards, we continue with house chores, trying as best as we can, to keep the house clean especially for Dina’s sake. Once, I found hubby vacuuming at 9.15pm on a weekday – he couldn’t stand whatever it was on the carpet where we put Dina’s play mattress. But normally we try to do the minimum, so we can spend more time playing with Dina. Then of course, we play with Dina. About an hour after all that, we, all three of us, can be found knocked out in our bed, off to dreamland, IF we don’t have to continue with work.

On weekends, we spring-clean, do the laundry, visit my in-laws, or my extended relatives, or do our groceries at TESCO, or go to OU to get some of Dina’s stuff, or The Curve for a change, IF we are fortunate enough not to have to complete an assignment or two or even go to the office.

The stove

I barely cook at home, not as much as I’d like to anyway. With the hours we keep, there’d be no point cooking. Putting exhaustion aside, I’d be starting to peel and chop onions around 8.30, and have a one-to-two dish meal ready hopefully in 30-45 mins (yes, I am a total amateur), provided that the microwave does an excellent job at defrosting. 9.15 is simply too late to have dinner – especially still BF-ing, I’d be horrendously famished by then. Best I can do on weekdays is cook(?) rice and buy some lauk(s) from the warongs.

But then, I should be able to cook during weekends, right? Errr…not exactly. The thing is, we’d spend a good rm60-100 buying groceries, only to use them for two or three meals max, as the fresh food items would have gone bad by the time next weekend comes about. Plus, we go back to Bangi every other weekend. So really, food items would have to stay fresh for two weeks (which is unlikely) for cooking to be economical for us, even during weekends.

The sad thing is, I know how much hubby enjoys home-cooked meals as I notice how much he looks forward to going back to his mom’s over the weekend, because his meals are ‘taken care of’, with a complete set of five or six dishes at each meal. (MIL is superb that way J)

So then, I only cook once in a blue moon, during a day off or on a magical day when I manage to arrive home before 6.30. The stove is occasionally used to fry a burger, telur dadar, or boil Maggi. J I am thankful however that hubby NEVER complains.

The other life

I remember my first day of work at Travelers in Hartford, CT, my MD said..“work hard blablabla, target blablablabla, double market share blablablabla….but, remember, at the end of the day, it’s JUST INSURANCE. We want you to have a life outside of work, and not make work your life. So if on a Friday you don’t feel like coming in on Monday, just let us know, and we will accommodate that; of course, provided you don’t have anything urgent to send in on Monday..”

Back then, I’d arrive home from work at 5.30, COOK dinner (which also happens to be my lunch for the next day), go to the gym for a run or for a swim, and after dinner, still have ample time for a good book or a shopping outing with Eliza. We would have our girls’ night on Wednesdays and take turns hosting/cooking while we of course, b*tch abt work, gossip about who’s dating who in the office, and argue about which Idol we should vote for that week.

Weekends would be spent in leisure at one of the kakaks’ place in West Haven, watching DVDs on gi-normous screens, or in the pool in K.Zef’s backyard, or helping K.Shiela out at Warong Selera. If I didn’t feel like driving for an hour to see the kakaks (and their families), I’d be in Westfarms Mall or Buckland Hills Drive or even the brands outlets, which are abt 45 mins drive from my apartment. I am not exactly brand-conscious; I am price-and-quality-conscious as I’m sure many of us are. J But there, the I’ve-never-heard-of brands would equally cost 20-30 bucks, so I might as well reach out for that gorgeous Nine West wedges, right?! (Confession: The black Aigner I bought for Ma in Houston last year only cost hubby US$29.99 – at TJMaxx).  

Sigh. Why did I leave again?

p/s: I REALLY miss the instant eggo choc chip waffles..nyum nyum. I saw them at Cold Storage the other day; the sticker price was RM22!!