Budan's Brew Coffeebar

Little quaint cafes have been mushrooming all over Georgetown lately, and last Saturday, we decided to go and check out this place tucked away in a corner of Argus Lane. My sister-in-law had been there some time ago and so we decided to go and try it out for ourselves. It's quite secluded so unless you know where it is, it may be quite difficult to find.

The interior is nice and cosy, with an air-conditioned area at the back. Order at the counter and they will bring your food and drinks to you.

I asked if the cakes were all home-made and they informed me that they were, except for the brownies which came from America and the breakfast muffins which came from Australia.

It opens early, at 8.30 am everyday, so we went for breakfast. We had pastries and the usual breakfast food, eggs, sausage, etc. Food was okay-tasting and reasonably priced. I really liked the salad dressing which they put on the salad. I must ask what type of dressing is that if I go again. We didn't try their cakes, but they looked good from the counter.

They had cute little deco like this on the walls:

And the three girls enjoyed themselves too! It's a family friendly place and we saw lots of other people bringing their kids there too.

1. 
   
2. Budan's Brew Coffeebar
3. Address: Lorong Argus, Georgetown, 10200 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

   Phone:+60 4-261 3930

   Hours: Open daily· 8:30 am – 11:00 pm
   

Cultivating a healthy lifestyle

Now that Hubby is in practice on his own, his time is flexible, so a few afternoons a week he takes Hannah and Heidi for some outdoor activity, usually for jogging or to the playground.

A few weeks ago, they went to Botanical Gardens. We usually don't like to go there because of the monkeys, but after so long, the girls wanted to go and have a run around the place. Look at the happy excited faces in car while on the way there.

The girls had a great time running around, and when they got tired they walked hand in hand. I though this was such a sweet picture of the two of them.

And these too:

Selfie/groupfie/wefie making funny faces:

The landscaping has improved tremendously from several years ago, so it's now a very pleasant place to have an evening jog, despite the monkeys. Now they go at least once a week, so the girls look forward very much to their evening exercise activities. Hopefully we can cultivate a active healthy lifestyle in our girls!

Half a year old

Helene is approaching her half year birthday on Thursday. She has started solids (porridge) and is still on breastmilk. So it looks like I have achieved my goal of breastfeeding her until 6 months old (yay me!)

We took her to Gurney Paragon with my parents the other day and I got this lovely picture of her with my dad. We don't normally develop photos since they are all in our smartphones, but this one is definitely frame-worthy.

I only realised later that they were wearing almost matching outfits - red t-shirt and blue jeans. I got her shirt from Baby Zara (RM19.90) and the pants from H&M (RM10.00 down from RM29.90). Cute outfits for bargain prices always make me happy :)

She is also now very alert of her surroundings and has developed stranger anxiety towards people and places. Interestingly enough, however, she doesn't have anxiety when we are out jalan-jalan or at shopping malls!

Nevertheless, she is still as smiley as ever and she was even smiling away at the little stuffed animals hanging from her bouncer.

I was on leave last Friday so we took the two younger ones to McDonald's for breakfast after sending Hannah to kindy. McD's has got to be the second happiest place on earth (after Disneyland!). The happy faces say it all :)

Mom's time out

There is this show on Lifetime Asia (Astro Channel 709) which is called Mom's Time Out in which the moms in the family go off on a vacation while leaving the kids and household for the dads to be in charge.

Well, I had somewhat of a time out last weekend when my firm organised the Regional Senior Associates Training (RSATS) in Boulevard Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It definitely wasn't a vacation, but it was certainly a time out of sorts, considering that I would be leaving Helene for the first time since she was born. I was half looking forward to going, and half not wanting to go at all, because I definitely knew I would miss my family, and Helene has never slept with anyone but me. But since it was compulsory, I packed my bags and went, and Hubby assured me that he would be able to handle everything while I was gone for 3 nights. So I made sure there was enough frozen breastmilk in the freezer, and packed my pump so I could pump when I was in KL.

It was quite a hectic 2 and a half days training, but for the first time, I had undisturbed sleep, even though it was only 6 hours on certain nights. But 6 hours undisturbed sleep is way better compared to 8 hours collective sleep (with having to wake up middle of the night). My roommate was a colleague of mine who is also a breastfeeding mummy, so both of us got our much-deserved rest.

On the last night, the firm arranged for a gala dinner for us at Sage Restaurant & Wine Bar, at The Gardens. It was a fine dining restaurant, so most people did dress up for the dinner. We had a choice of fish, chicken or lamb, and I chose fish (it was cod), besides the appetiser, soup and dessert.

The ambience at Sage:

Some pictures taken with my colleagues. We all came from different offices in Malaysia (KL, Penang, JB, KB, Kuching) as well as regional offices in Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

On the final day, we also took a group photos in our T-shirts specially made for the training.

We were told that this is going to be held twice a year, so the next one will be in February next year. All in all, I did enjoy myself, and the fact that we were so close to Mid Valley made it even better! :) Most of the things I bought were for the girls though, and not for myself! But as much as I enjoyed spending time with my friends and colleagues, I was glad to be home with my hubby and 3 girls. He did a fantastic job with them and the house didn't collapse when I got home!

All in pink!

Hubby's cousin sent us these photos of Helene the other day, and I thought these were the cutest, most adorable photos of her I've ever seen (or maybe it's just parental bias lol).

The hat and socks were given by her nanny and Hubby's aunt, and the outfit by my aunt.

I must say she has the most pinchable cheeks, and cutest little dimples! Happy little Helene!

5 months old today

I just realised that my last blog post was about Helene at 4 months, and today she is already 5 months old! You can read about when Hannah was 5 months old here and when Heidi was 5 months old here. Incidentally, lots of people say that Helene now looks like Heidi, even though we initially thought that she looks like Hannah. But looking back at the photos, indeed she looks more like Heidi.

At her 5 months checkup last Friday, she weighed a solid 7.6 kg. Apparently the doctor said that the minimum weight for a 1 year old child is 8 kg, so she's well on her way there! However since she is fully on breastmilk still, it's all good. And I have a weakness for those chubby wrists lol.

She quite enjoys tummy time now and she will lift up her head and look around.

She has not started solid food yet, but I have tried her with some mashed up really soft potatoes and some kiwi fruit. She seems to enjoy eating, and doesn't spit up or push the food out. Usually babies only start solids at 6 months, but the doctor said that if she seems keen, we can slowly start introducing her to some solids. I think she is very keen, because the other day when we were all sitting down having lunch at the dining table, she was looking at us eat and her mouth was moving up and down!

She's still a very happy baby, but she can be very loud when she wants to be fed, put to bed or carried! It will be a minor protest at first, before becoming a full-blown shouting session!

As for me, I'm getting used to the waking up in the middle of the night to feed/pump. Seeing her growing up happy and healthy on the best food I can give to her is indeed very rewarding. Happy 5 months old to our little bundle of sunshine!

Helene @ 4 months

Little Helene is turning out to be a very smiley baby - she has a combination of Hannah and Heidi's looks and Heidi's cheery disposition! Hannah never smiled until she was 6 months old lol.

Now at 4 months, she possesses amazing acrobatic skills - don't ask me how she got her body in this position - she was trying to twist and turn while asking to be carried.

She can also flip over now, but it's definitely not her favourite past time. This was when she was initially learning to flip, so when she got stuck, it sure made her frustrated. Nowadays she can do it like a pro, but she still doesn't like being on her tummy, so we have to flip her back the other way.

My parents are back, and as usual with lots of biscuits, chocolates and sweets from Oz Land. However, this was something quite unusual - a gigantic lemon. We put it next to Helene and it was almost as big as her head. She's still cuter than the lemon though haha.

Helene, like Heidi before her, is also a thumb-sucker. No artificial pacifiers for her. So she will soothe herself to sleep, It is definitely way more convenient, but also like Heidi, we hope she will break the habit on her own when she's older.

A special dress Part 2

Back when Heidi was born, I blogged about how my mother had saved one of my dresses from when I was a baby, and Heidi was wearing it. You can read about it here.

Now that we have Helene, I wore the dress for her as well :)

So this is me:

 Heidi:

Helene:

One dress, 3 babies :)