To be on our own

I had two florets of broccoli in the past week. Two. Florets.

Recall my bento lunches in Evanston? Example:



There must be some 12 florets in there! All for me! In one meal!

Actually, broccoli isn't the only thing I'm missing about Evanston. Another significant thing to add to the list is independence.

Just realised that we spent most of our married life so far in Evanston. And honestly, it's sometimes a little difficult bringing that life back here, I guess mostly because of the new addition to our family.

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if we were to remain overseas in Chicago instead of Singapore. The first thing that comes to mind is that instead of eating out every lunch and dinner, I would have to cook for myself cos it's more expensive to eat out there. I was finding it a real challenge cooking in the beginning due to ZK's demands. But if we were overseas, well, I must do it somehow, and there's a way when there's a will or simply no other way!

Anyway, recently, he is able to play on his own. At this moment, he is actually taking his morning nap in his bed instead of on me! With an old tee of mine from yesterday next to him - for luck :p Took 90 min to get him to sleep though.. Let's hope it gets better..

Digression: Four minutes into his nap, he let out a little scream! But he went back to sleep, thankfully.. My dear ZK, did you have a nightmare so soon? Don't worry, Mama is only five steps away :)

So I'm harbouring hopes of cooking again. I really like cooking, and I want paninis and pasta to complement my daily cai fan! Oh yes, I like to have cai fan for at least one meal a day - it's the only thing that gives me two big servings of real vege by which I mean dark green leaves, not angmoh salad. Unfortunately, broccoli is not to be found in the cai fan stall downstairs... But if I cook, I can have any amount of broccoli!! Undoubtedly my fave vege, simply blanched... And if I cook one meal, I can have relatively vege-less stuff like yummy fishball noodles for my other meal!

So far, I've cooked twice since ZK entered our life, not counting the hardboiled eggs. The first time was a pasta lunch with frozen ingredients and the second time was instant noodles also with frozen ingredients just this Monday night after he had fallen asleep. I think I can't run away from frozen ingredients as I'm cooking for one and I may not cook every day. But I can at least fare better than sotong balls, crabsticks and dumplings..

Digression: Ok, ZK woke after only 30min! He first stirred, then stretched, looked and smiled at (I guess!) me a couple of times, and went back to sleep for a couple of minutes before finally waking up..

*lunch etc later*

Did foot reflexology after lunch! And I bought some frozen vege - it's as good as fresh but longer lasting! Also got some sausages to freeze. Next time, I'll get some meat that I can freeze in single portions, like minced beef - love to freeze bolognese sauce to stir into pasta :)

Anyway, cooking is just one thing. Living overseas without family support and the convenience of Singapore just means I need to do more on my own. Question is, is it possible? Of course! The angmohs have been doing it for generations! Just need to plan each day properly and man, I love planning! :p It's only here that we're lucky (?) enough to get help from family.

But well, family can be meddling too. Just the other day, Mother called and told me to use oil and brush on ZK's cradle cap. Hello, I did that already! That's not the first or only unsolicited advice. You can't keep pushing things and ideas on me even though you've had more kids than I do! What do I say? The collective knowledge of the internet has already taken over.

Family help in the form of an extra pair of hands is more useful but it's also very stressful if we do things differently. From the forums, this is very common and a source of conflict in the family! No good at all. I'd rather people just play with ZK and leave the upbringing to the parents. I actually like people to play with ZK so he can be more sociable - I just have to watch out for over-stimulation, especially nearer his bed time.

I guess if we were overseas, we can take care of ZK on our own but he will have fewer exposure to other people since our friends and family are in Singapore.

So, pros and cons. And some grass - like the grass of independence - always seems greener on the other side.. And it's not limited to what I've mentioned above too. I'm trying to plant some of that grass here and some are indeed thriving.. So no, I'm not going to be full of complaints about coming back here - I still prefer to be back in Singapore, although I'll be open to relocating if the destination doesn't snow :p

Anyway, life is good here!! I've got my calendar filled for the next two weeks, woohoo! Perhaps I should also get down to planning my meals too, like what I used to do back in Evanston :) We even had a meal calendar on google calendar!!