mama series

Hello! Week 10 of motherhood here. Kiko is getting chunkier by the day, and people tell me that they are surprised that she is only 2 and a half months old, since she is so chubby!  I love dressing her up on Sundays to go to church, and seeing her look like a cross dresser. She looks like an old man dressing like a woman, with her bald, perfectly round head. I also enjoy insulting my daughter since she doesn’t talk back…at least yet. I do the same for Andy, but he always talk back to me, which is not as fun!

We went to my parents’ house for the first half of this week, so Kiko got a lot of attention from her grandparents. She is the first grandchild for both my parents’ and Andy’s, so everyone is thrilled to have her around.

I am continuing to breast feed the baby. Breast feeding got much easier over time. In fact, I find it easier than using the bottle  because with the breast I don’t have to boil water, put formula in the bottle and cool the milk all while the baby is crying for food. When I look for clothes or make clothes for myself now, I tend to think, “how easy can I take out my breasts to feed my baby?”. I’m wearing more button down dresses or shirts, and loose tops. I am working on an exciting project right now where I incorporate nursing friendly element to a handmade clothes..more details coming soon! For inspiration for nursing friendly clothes, I was browsing through some Japanese online shopping sites, and found these…(image via Akasugu)

Japanese nursing clothes are so clever! I love the idea of having pleats in the front top, where you can open up one of the pleats to nurse. Another clever idea I found was to install a zipper on both sides, instead of installing a zipper in center back or one side of a dress, so you can easily zip down to nurse. I also found a top, that  consisted of two layers: one with wide neckline and the other beneath the wide neckline layer that cuts short (right below the under bust line) so you can lift up the short top layer to make a space/hole for easy nursing.

What kind of clothes do you find it easy to nurse? Any idea that I should incorporate to make nursing friendly clothes?

Last Sunday was Andy’s first Father’s Day! Since Kiko is incapable of doing anything besides eating, peeing, pooping, throwing up and sleeping, I helped her out with the Father’s Day celebration.

Andy and I both LOVE breakfast. We wish every meal were breakfast! We love American style breakfast with cereal, eggs, french toast, eggs Benedict, sausage or bacon.  We also have a soft spot for the traditional Japanese style breakfast with rice, miso soup, salmon and natto (sticky beans). I asked (on Kiko’s behalf) what Andy wanted for his Father’s Day breakfast, and to my delight he requested Thai style fruit buffet. Whenever we go to Thailand (which is at least once a year), we indulge on huge  breakfast meals filled with different fruits, such as papaya, mango, water melon etc. Now I doubt that it is a traditional breakfast that Thai locals eat, but at almost every hotel they have a glorious life alteringly good breakfast buffet.  So Andy and I have come to remember this life changing spread as the “Thailand breakfast”.  So we, Kiko and I tried although not perfectly, to replicate this.  We were somewhat limited because the tropical fruits supply is limited at the local super market but nonetheless we made Andy a  Thailand style breakfast.

As to the Father’s Day present, I made two simple T-shirts for Andy. Unlike Novita from Very Purple Person, who makes all kinds of stylish items for her husband, my husband is a rather unfashionable, boring man. Everyday, he would wear the same white T-shirt with a hole in it if I didn’t secretly throw them out from time to time and replace them with new white T-shirts. So, this Father’s day I decided to update his closet so he won’t look like a homeless person. I had salmon pink and brown jersey fabrics unused in my stash, so I used them to make….some more T-shirts (You can’t make a leopard change his spots). I traced the pattern from one of his old dirty T-shirts to make these new VV versions. Very simple and easy:)

I’m wearing the dress I made for Casey from Elegant Musing‘s 1940’s Swing Dress Sew-Along! I made this back in April, but it took me a few months to return to size and be able to fit in the dress. I’m so happy that the waist fits now:) The dress is great for nursing as well, as I can take out my breasts pretty easily with cross over front. Although the dress fits, I’m still far from going back to my original weight…which makes me sad, since beach season is coming so soon. I will leave this topic for another week to discuss!