our second family trip : singapore!

yey!! finally we are going to singapore!! we had bought the plane ticket long before idul fitri.. so i was a little worry when i found out that my residency's schedule would be faster than it was supposed to be. but turned out that everything was okay. i only skipped a few class. fiuh..

#1 departure date
i was worried that my son will be having trouble in his eating again, like back in idul fitri. in the morning he ate his oatmeal as usual, and then his fruit as usual. but then i bought chicken porridge for his lunch. he has eaten the same chicken porridge before, so i thought he would eat it. but turned out he refused to eat. only eat 3-4 spoonful. then i made him another oatmeal. he also refused it. only ate half of it, but i was relieved, at least he had something in his stomach. on the way to airport, he was asleep so he could drink his milk, another food for him. but he was awake at the airport, while we were going to eat at AW. since the chicken was too hard for him, i only gave him rice and chicken skin, at least he ate something more. this was his first trip by plane, so i was worry that he would be uncomfortable during take-off and landing. my parents told me to give him something to chew or his milk if he was asleep. when it was time for take-off, he was not asleep, so i gave him his biscuit to eat. take-off was fine, fiuh.. he was a bit afraid when he saw that we were flying above the ground, but then everything was okay. and then he was asleep for the entire flight, so no fuss during flight. he was awake when landing, since it was very noisy. he refused to drink or eat during landing, but fortunately, he was okay. he held on to me so tight during landing, but he was okay.
at the airport, i gave him some biscuit and milk again, while my husband ate burger. he asked for the fries which he refused back at home. surprise..surprise.. but i let him, since we tried to let him eat everything. he was soooo excited at the airport, so he was doing funny things that made people at the airport laugh at him. hahahaa.. adorable son..

the hotel was okay, i could work to bath him and stuff in the bathroom hotel. and his portable high chair fit perfectly. fiuh. everything that we've prepared paid off. after taking a bath, we went to dinner. another trouble. he only ate a quarter of the rice porridge, but i wasn't worried. he ate his fries, and some of our ramen. ah well.. maybe he was excited trying something new. and he was happy seeing my sisters. hehehe..

#2. zoo time!
breakfast : oatmeal as usual. done. and then his snack. all done without any trouble. then we were off to the zoo. he wore his hat for a quarter journey around the zoo, but when it was hot, he threw the hat off. hahaha.. he was excited watching the giraffe, zebra, dolphin and stuff. he ran everywhere every time he could. he was excited when my sister told him that he could ride a pony, but the officer said that he was too young to ride a pony. *sigh* the weather was so hot so we decided to stop to eat ice cream. what a nice treat before we headed back to have our lunch. trouble came at lunch. he refused to eat anything. he ate some but threw it out later. i gave him his banana, he ate it alright, but soon he threw out everything. and then i decided i had to cook his own porridge, since the consistency was inconsistent.  luckily he was asleep in the taxi, so i could give him his milk. and he slept for almost 2 hours. and the first try-out for my homemade porridge paid off. he ate it. well, not all of it, but most of it, so i was relieved. my nightmare was him being sick on our holiday, that's why i had to do everything to make him eat. and then we were heading to the mall. he was running around, he was so excited watching something new, but the mall was crowded so we had to carry him to move around quicker. and then we ate at another ramen restaurant. at the restaurant, he ate his porridge with some dumplings, while watching hi-5 on my ipad. and there was this funny thing. he watched the same songs again, and suddenly he danced along the song! it was funny. he did it spontaneously. and the resto owner was surprised. he gave my son a candy, probably because he was too cute, with his dancing and stuff, hahaha.. oh we tried some singapore best ten ramen, but i will write about it in another blog post.

#3. S.E.A aquarium
morning routine went out fine. and off we go to sentosa island. i was planning to go there with the express train, but my husband said that we should try the cable car. it was my son's first cable car ride. i was worry that he might be frightened when we were above the ground, but turned out he was frightened, but still consolable so we could arrive at the sentosa safe and sound. he was afraid to look down and around on the cable car, and every time i moved around inside the cable car, he was holding tight to me. hehehee..  and then we still waited for the bus. another officer smitten by his cuteness. but unfortunately, he couldn't make the bus came faster, so we still had to wait. then we arrived at the resort world close to his lunch time, so we ate first. again, when he was eating plus watching hi-5, he danced again, and amazed some japanese tourist on our next table, hahahaa....and then the aquarium. we saw a lot of fish. the cute thing was, matthew was asking about penguin, since at the zoo, the penguin also inside the seeing glass, like in the aquarium. hahhaha.. he thought penguin was some kind of fish. he was super excited, watching all of those fish, most bigger than him, hahaha.. he ran around in front of the viewing glass. before we even reached the exit door, he fell asleep.. hahaa. too bad, since he was asleep, we couldn't see the merlion and headed back to the hotel. in the afternoon, we tried italian food. this time it was harder for him to eat since there were no soup beside his porridge. so, we fed him pasta and pizza too. and everyone in the restaurant were attracted to him. there was this one waiter, she even teased my son by giving her phone number, but only two numbers at a time. hahahaa.. when we were leaving, she said "i love you" and was hoping that my son would say the same since most kids echoed what we said, hehehehe.. pretty funny actually. everyone loved matthew and his cuteness. hihihi..

#4. going back home
yep. our holiday was over. we went back home. we managed to arrive at the airport early to eat brunch. matthew ate porridge in the morning and his banana for his snack. but when we ate, he wanted some, so i fed him some noodles and soup. and then my husband found this playground at the airport. he was excited..running around like crazy, but it wasn't designed for toddlers under 2 years, so matthew had a hard time. he couldn't reach the slide since it was pretty difficult for him. but he managed to have fun. and then when it was time to wait, he was running around along the way to the waiting room. by the time we was inside the waiting room and boarding time, it was also near his lunch. so he screamed, wanted to eat my burger. i planned his meal on board, but since he was asking for food, i tried to give him some of my burger. but turned out he was starving and kept asking for more. by the time for take-off, he was asleep even before it was the safe time to unfasten the seat belt. fiuh.. i was worried that he might had trouble on the second take-off. he slept for the whole flight again, and woke up right on time for landing. and this time i was a little bit confidence  that he would be fine even though he didn't eat or drink during landing. thank God everything was okay.. he could eat and drink, slept as usual, and had fun. fiuhh... we were excited for more trips to come. but first i have to graduate. *sigh*

food review : alessandro

last sunday, we were going out for dinner at PTC. at first, we intended to eat chinese food, but then we came across this new eating place named alessandro. it was supposed to serve italian food, but they had other food in their menu, like chinese and indonesian food. so we were hooked.

the restaurant was a regular restaurant, no special thing in their interior design. and yes, they are kids-friendly (read: they had baby chair). we tried the pizza (it was supposed to be their star) and lasagna. my husband tried their tom yum soup and chicken terriyaki fried rice. my nanny tried their asem2 iga or like they said "kiyer-kiyer soup". both the chinese and indonesian food turned out great. and pizza was okay. it was similar to pisa's. thin crust pizza with fresh (tasted fresh) tomato sauce. but the lasagna was a little bit disappointed for me. i compared it to pizza hut's. i was hoping for a decent pasta with beef fillings with fresh tomato sauce. they had the beef with fresh tomato sauce, they even had some tomato slices on the side. but the pasta was thin and slippery, made it difficult to cut the lasagna. and the beef was not satisfying.

well, overall it was worth to try. the price? i could accept it, since the food was delicious. go ahead and try it if you wanted to try italian food but your special someone or other people didn't like italian food and prefer chinese or indonesian food instead.

food review : sushi tei

yep.. another japanese food. this time, it's a high-end stuff. sushi tei is pricier than other japanese restaurants i've reviewed before. you can find them mostly inside the shopping mall, TP, galaxy mall, and ciputra world. they all have similar interior arrangement. in the middle there's a space for their chefs to prepare the sushi. and there's a walking belt surrounding that space that served some sushi and salads. you can pick one that you like directly or order it from the waiters/waitresses. they used different color for their plates to differentiate the price. so you must be careful in case you didn't want to pay a lot!

i don't want to talk about the restaurant ambiance since all three places have similar ambiance. even similar interior design too. let's talk about the menu! most of it are sushis and sashimis. mostly raw sushi. i can't remember which cooked sushi that delicious.. huuuuu... didn't like raw food? you can order tempura, ramen, or bento. their ramen was okay.. some of our med rep had tried it and they said it was okay. i didn't know for sure since i always eat their sushi. but i do have one recommendation for beverage : sushi tee sunset something.. hahaha.. i can't remember the exact name, but if you said that clue to the waiter, i'm sure they'll understand which one.

their sushi was okay, but i like their raw sushi better. unfortunately, their servings are small. mostly 2 sushis in one plate. the cooked one usually only 6 pieces. while in sushi hana or peco-peco they could serve 6-8 pieces per plate. and they charged more for smaller portion compared to sushi hana and peco-peco. *sigh* that's why i seldom eat here. but.. if you wanted to splurge, indulge yourself in good food.. then you couldn't miss this one if you are japanese food lover.

update: i ate there yesterday, and i tried their fuji roll (cooked) and ebi tempura maki (cooked). i als ordered salmon don (raw). both sushi were okay, but i couldn't eat fuji roll much since the sauce was spicy. the salmon don was so-so, i liked the one in new zealand better.

https://foursquare.com/v/sushi-tei/4b9f140bf964a520be1237e3 (sushi tei galaxy mall)
https://foursquare.com/v/sushi-tei/4c0a52c2bbc676b0449349d5 (sushi tei tunjungan plaza)

food review: hachi-hachi bistro

another japanese food review! i loovveedd japanese food. okay, there were 2 kinds of hachi-hachi. hachi-hachi bistro and the other hachi-hachi. hachi-hachi bistro was on citraland and TP. and the other hachi-hachi was on Supermall. the only difference was the menu. the bistro one had more complete menu.

what to order? i recommended their sushi. when i was craving for sushi, i went there and sushi hana. i had 3 class of sushi, the high-end one (sushi tee), middle class (sushi hana and hachi-hachi), and lower end (peco-peco). all of them was good for their sushi. what's the difference beside the price? the portion. here in hachi-hachi bistro, they had 8 pieces for their sushi, while sushi tee sometimes only 2-4 and sushi hana ranged between 4-6-8 pieces. if you wanted to eat sushi in big portion with friends, then this was a good choice.

and place. citraland gwalk was well known foodish heaven. though it was almost secluded in west surabaya, but it was worth trying. hanging out with friends and family.. it was nice. the bistro had a good vibe too. you could choose indoor or outdoor. and they were children friendly too. they had baby chair and even toys for them to play! the bistro in TP was located on TP3 (i forgot which floor, but it was the food level, the upper one. it was across penang house).

menu: sushi, like i told you before. for salmon, right now my choice was their club salmon roll. and the other was their dragon roll. they provided other dish like ramen, udon, bento and steak. my husband loved their spicy seafood ramen/udon, but it was SPICY! other dishes i didn't know. i noticed there were difference in the menu from the first time i ate there and yesterday. i'll inform you guys again when i was sure about the other menu. what not to order: my husband once ordered their seafood something, and it was blah...

food review : la rucola

yeyy.. finally i got to eat here! this was supposed to be our 2nd anniversary, but since our schedule were unpredictable, my husband suddenly asked me out this afternoon! well.. without no further ado, let's talked about it!

from the parking lot, you could see what kind of people eating here. my car was the cheapest one (compared to others..). even the parking officer wasn't sure when i gave sign, whether i was going to eat there or taking left turn. well, inside it was quite hot, giving they had air conditioner inside. i was wondering how they separated the non smoking with smoking room since everywhere was the same, no different air circulation. blah. but luckily, no one was smoking, well, there was one, but we've already finished by the time he was smoking.

menu. everything was italian cuisine. no other dishes, not like cafe pisa which still gave other option. so, if you planned to bring you nanny or other helper, you have to make sure that they could eat pizza at least. the menu was differentiated into 4 groups, like italian tradition. the appetizer (oh, and there were carpaccio too.. ), first course, second course and dessert. the main courses were pastas, steaks, and pizzas. i've read online that their pizza was good, so i had to try them.

my husband arrived late so i got the chance to look at the menu quite long enough to make up my mind. we would order one pizza, and then if he was having a steak, then i'll order a pasta. and we had it that way. we ordered a ham and mushroom pizza, my husband ordered a beef steak with mushroom sauce, and i ordered fetuccini but i forgot how they cooked the meat, but i remembered it was beef, rosemary, parsley and creamy sauce.

the pizza was okay, it was thin and crusty, unlike pizza hut's pizza. but the tomato sauce was refreshing. overall, it was a nice pizza, but not too satisfying so we could still eat our main courses. the steak was juicy and tender. the sauce was a little bit salty, but i liked it. very similar to beef gourmet's and stevan's. but the salad was blah. we agreed that twitzel's was way better than that. and my pasta, the fetuccini was cooked al dente, but i forgot to tell the waitress that i didn't like too much pepper, and the meat was too hot for me. and it wasn't creamy enough for me. and i thought it was pretty weird, since they didn't have alfredo pasta in their menu. did they worth the money? i thought cafe pisa was a better choice for me. but if the liquor that made you eat there, then probably la rucola won, since they had so many choices of liquor, from beer to wine.

ham & mushroom pizza

beef steak with mushroom sauce and salad

beef fetuccini, with rosemary in creamy sauce

food review : sushi hana/ sushi mori

warning: this is just for sushi lover. they had dishes other than sushi, but i loved their sushi, so i didn't know about the other dish.

first, why i put sushi hana and sushi mori on the title because at first, they were the same, and then probably the owner separated and decided to change the name a little bit. so far, i knew sushi hana was on ruko darmo permai (near papaya), sutos, east cost food festival, while sushi mori was on ruko at dr soetomo. i've tried them all, and i could say they tasted nearly the same.

they had appetizer, sushi and sashimi, ramen and soba, and bento or dinner. my husband once tried their beef teriyaki dinner, and he liked it. he said it was sweet like he wanted it to be. but my mum once tried their ramen and she didn't like it. she liked tong-tong's better. and the appetizer, we've tried the fried soft shell crab, tempura, and i forgot what else, but we liked them.

about the sushi.. there were many choices to pick. from raw to cooked sushi. but i liked them all. all time favorit? probably spider roll, rock n roll, and caterpillar roll. oh, and i loved their baked salmon, but i didn't like the baked scallop. check out for yourself..!

for moms to be

i just found out that one of my good friends is expecting! yay! but turned out that she had a lot to think, even though she had 2 sisters to talk to. i remembered when i was expecting myself, i got only me and my husband, and he let me decide almost everything. and i had no sister to talk to since they were in singapore and had no idea about motherhood. and my mom gave up too.. she said, today was way much different from her old days. so i guess, i wanted to share something to help moms to be out there..

how to pick an OG doctor:
personally, i was not picky about the doctor. as long as i knew he/she was okay (referring to my med school days), i had no problem. i didn't pick a female doctor, because some of them were quite new and people said female og usually more strict than males og. but if you didn't comfortable being examined by male doctor, then you should find female one. i guessed these days female og's were getting bigger in number, so i wouldn't be difficult to find them.
other factor that i considered in choosing the doctor : could he/she practiced in the hospital that i chose to give birth at. since i picked RKZ the place to give birth, i had to make sure that my doctor could practice there. and last factor: did he/she practice in hospital? this was pretty important for me, since i didn't want to wait a hell long time just to get my antenatal care. for your information, practice time in hospital were limited so there won't be a long line like in private practice. i would bored my husband to death if he had to accompany me to the private practice.
based on that criteria, i picked doctor pudjo, first since i knew him back in my med school days (he was my teacher), and he practiced in RS Premier which was close to my husband's office so we could eat outside after the check up, hehehe.. and since dr pudjo was a consultant, he could practice in RKZ too.. oh and the way to give birth. i chose natural delivery, so if dr pudjo couldn't make it, the midwives could help, but if you had to do a caesarean, you would probably pick more than one doctor, in case your doctor couldn't make it on the day you were supposed to give birth.

how to pick a pediatrician:
fyi, i separated my pediatrician in two, one for checking the baby after being delivered, and one for permanent check up, vaccination, and stuff. since i didn't know RKZ pediatrician and i forgot which mitra pediatrician who also practiced there, so i decided to just pick a RKZ pediatrician. since i believed there wouldn't be any problem with my baby. then i would pick another pediatrician, closer to my home for check up, vaccination, and stuff. i picked mitra doctors since i knew them well, and i also believed that my baby would be just fine. and turned out, so far he only needed his vaccination. he only got flu twice so far. so, if you wanted to pick only one doctor, you had to find out, where did he practice, could he also help in the hospital when you were giving birth (especially for those who had to do caesarean), and how he dealt with baby illnesses (did he give antibiotics so easily? did he believe in breastfeeding exclusively? and most importantly could you have a comfortable communication with him?).

about the hospital:
my criteria for hospital was the baby room's nurse quality. i believed the RKZ nurses were more capable in handling babies than mitra's. and i needed them to teach me how to take care of my baby. fyi, i was alone after giving birth. my mom had some business in the church, my mom in law was away, and i didn't have babysitter yet. so i had to understand how to take care of my baby from the very first day. and i doubted that mitra's nurses would dare to teach me. another criteria was whether the hospital offered "rawat gabung" or not. it was pretty important, especially if you wanted to breastfed exclusively. and also location. even though i picked a hospital farther than RKZ, i wouldn't give birth en route, but i had to think about my husband and family and friend who wanted to visit me. that's why RKZ was an ideal choice. it wasn't that far from my house, and my family, but it was also not far from our friends. and the price was okay for us.

another thing to think for now: breastfeeding.
i only prepared myself for breastfeeding just only for the first few month, and i just read from the internet, and it wasn't enough. i freaked out when i found out that my breastmilk didn't come out at the first day, but the nurse assured me that it was okay. if only i knew about those organization that helped new moms who were clueless about breastfeeding, i would be more relaxed than i were. for you who wonder about breastfeeding, just find AIMI in twitter. they even had private consultation at your home!

hopefully, this post will help you..