japan trip

i've been neglected this blog, mostly because i don't have anything to write about. my life is pretty boring right now. i don't work anymore, and mostly i spend my time with my kids with all their naughtiness. even my husband can get bored with that sometimes. and now, even before i could shop new clothes and wear my old high heels, i'm already pregnant with kid no 3, and it's even faster.. i've just known it halfway. how stupid of me. i guess me and contraception pills are not meant to be. okay.. let's fast forward and skip this pregnancy news. anyway, before i found out that i'm pregnant, we're already planning to go to melbourne on my brother's graduation day and on idul fitri. both overseas. i'm excited for both trip, but i'm more excited to go to japan. i've heard that it's a good place for shopping. okay, so long story short, i want to make this trip efficiently, and i planned this trip carefully, along with a long shopping list. hahaha..  oh, and i went to japan with my husband and both our kids, with me 6 months pregnant. actually my in-laws went together with us, but we rarely went out together, so basically other than sleeping at the same hotel, we got nothing to do with them. it's just me and my husband mostly.

day 1: we arrived late night at haneda airport so i let the kids overslept for awhile. and after having breakfast, we strolled around at the airport. i'm quite surprise. haneda airport was nice. it has shops and restaurants, and overview decks. kids loved it. they could see the airplanes from the decks. and for you nursing mother, it's easy to find nursing room there. even if you gave your kids formula, you could get hot water for your kids in the nursing room. and there were strollers at the airport, so since we only brought one with us, it was a breeze since my first one was tired from long flight. there were small shops of donki and haruhinkan, so i was excited even before going to midtown tokyo. hahaha..
after moving to our shiodome hotel, we took a rest and then head to ginza. we were supposed to eat at tonkatsu wako, but we were wrong, and head to upper level instead. we didn't know that tonkatsu were at basement floor, where other cheaper restaurants were. the upper level was for high-end restaurants. oh well, i forgot the name of the restaurant, but fortunately they had high-chair for baby, and there was kids menu as well. the adult menu was so-so, kinda overprice for me for that taste. it was ordinary pork katsu with several side dishes. next time we will double google-checked everything.
after that, we head to haruhinkan toy store. beware if you had kids, you'd better set the boundaries before stepping in the store since it was 7 stories toys, ranging from gundam, cards, stuffed animals and much more. i told my boy that he could only buy one toy, and he decided to buy a transformer robot, the one that can change from car to robot. i also got my daughter a stuffed animals that can move and make sound. even if you're adult, you will be happy in that store. oh, and they had duty-free option too, so don't forget to bring your passport.
next we headed to don quijote shops. since it was already late, we just bought several stuff, and i still couldn't check everything on my list, so i was hoping we could go back there. luckily, the donki was near our hotel, so definitely will go back there if we had the chance.

haneda airport

wishes tree at the airport

my boy with his toy at hakuhinkan toy store

day 2: we decided to go to tokyo skytree. thank God the weather was nice so we could see the view clearly. there were two options, go to the ordinary observation deck or go higher. we didn't go higher. there were a lot of people, and we couldn't take any proper photo there. my firstborn was grumpy all the time because he wanted to play with his robot, but we didn't assembly it the other night, so he was hoping to get back to hotel as quickly as possible. there were also glass floor where you could see the view down below, but the one in shanghai tower was bigger and more terrifying. the one in tokyo skytree was small. after that we had lunch at the skytree mall. there was a food court there, high chair available. plus surprisingly, they had ippudo express. hahaha.. we accidentally tried ippudo for the first time. and then since it was too early to go back to the hotel, we decided to stop by the uniqlo at ginza to shop. actually we were supposed to do that the night before, but it was already late so we skipped the clothes shopping. then we were back at the hotel to take some rest. it was raining in the afternoon so we decided to stroll around near the hotel. my firstborn decided to stay back at the hotel to play with his robot, luckily my in laws also decided to rest at the hotel, so we left him with my in laws. we went back to don quijote again, and this time, we had longer time to shop, so mostly items in my shopping list were checked. seriously, if you saw something interesting, you have to buy it straight-away since you might not find it again. each stores had different stocks, so just buy it instantly!

failed attempt to take pic there since my boy was grumpy and he kept grabbing the phone

tokyo view from the skydeck

day 3: it was cloudy and windy, but not raining so it was a perfect to stroll around to akihabara. but we arrived early there. most of the stores haven't opened yet, so we headed to nearby donut stores and had snacks first. i forgot the store's name but the donut was okay.. it was fluffy and soft, and warm.. perfect for windy weather. hubby then headed to his favorite store to buy his wish list. actually there were a few dining options there including the famous gundam cafe and maid cafe, but we opted something nearby, McD.. hahaha..
after buying things that we need, we headed back to hotel to rest. in the afternoon, it was still raining, but only light shower, so we still headed to odaiba. originally, we planned to eat dinner at aqua city mall, then walked to gundam statue and headed to daikanrasha. and if we still had time, we would head back to aqua city to stroll around at baby r us/toys r us. but, since we took a while to figure out where to eat (the mall's website was confusing.. they listed the name of the restaurants even if they haven't opened yet) so we decided to cancelled the other plan and just strolled at aqua city. plus it was still raining outside, and my son didn't want ride the daikanrasha, so it was a good backup plan. if the weather was nicer, i will take a stroll to gundam statue and daikanrasha, even when we didn't ride it. anyway, if you want to spend your entire day at odaiba, that's also do-able.my in laws spent their entire day there. they took pictures at aqua city, then headed to venus fort and toyota mega web, and they had great time there. so obviously a must visit.

akihabara

odaiba illumination in front of aqua city mall

liberty statue imitation

day 4: this is our last day at shiodome area so actually i had high hope that we could go to shinjuku or shibuya. but turned out we couldn't. in the morning we headed to asakusa as planned to visit sensoji temple. and then had early lunch at ichiran ramen. if you had kids or brought kids with you and wanted to try ichiran, try the asakusa branch. they had table with chairs and high-chairs. not the private booth like the other branch. and for you who live abroad and wanted to brag about ichiran, they also provided instant ramen there. yes, we bought some for ourselves and for souvenirs too, but we haven't tried it yet, so i didn't know if it had the same taste.
and my daughter decided to have her teeth grow that day. so the night before she had fever and that day she was a little bit crankier than usual, so we decided to just eat dinner outside and went back to hotel to get early rest. there goes my shibuya/harajuku trip... now i wish we could go back to japan to visit the other area that we didn't get to visit.

sensoji temple

street market on the way to the temple

day 5: we spent the entire morning packing to move to disneyland resorts, so we just ate and strolled around the hotel. and then after we moved to the new hotel, we went straight to disneyland to start enjoying the park. we had the 3 days pass, so the first day we went to disneyland, the second day we went to disneysea and planned to go back to disneyland before going home. actually, the park opened at 9, but the parade and most of the shows were in the afternoon, so it was a perfect time to hit the park. we watched all the parade and just rode jungle life boat, mark twain boat, small small world and goofy paint house. my son didn't quite like rides, although my daughter was eager to try but she was still couldn't sit still, so she couldn't ride many rides. plus i was pregnant, so i couldn't accompany her, and my husband couldn't take two kids at once. so we decided to just enjoy walking around and watched the parade. another reason to wish that we could go back there.. with our little one that hasn't been born yet. oh, and made sure that you stayed late until the firework parade. actually, for me the best parade was the one with all the lights.. it was spectacular. though my hubby said the fireworks was great, but turned out it wasn't that great. hubby said it was supposed to be fireworks on both sides, but that night only the right side of the castle that had fireworks. i didn't know what happened.. oh well, it was a day well spent.. luckily it was sunny...

happiest place on earth.. disneyland!

pic from the parade

day 6: it was sunny as well, but we were going to take it slow since hubby had to accompany his brother back to akihabara. we only watched the first parade. let me warn you though.. you have to wear raincoat to enjoy the parade since they will splash you with water. lots of it. funny though, people there seems didn't mind. they enjoyed being splashed with water, even they danced and sang along. quite funny. while us.. only few clothes left, decided to stay safe and stay away from the water. the song was quite addictive though... it was exciting and entertaining to watch people sang along during the parade. we had early lunch and then strolled around for a bit before headed back to the hotel to get some rest. in the afternoon, we headed to ikspiari mall first to eat dinner. actually there was ippudo, but we thought we shouldn't waste our time to wait in the line, so we decided to eat at the food court. again, the food court was kids friendly, high chair available too. however, if you brought your stroller, the corridor in front of the stall was a bit narrow, so i decided to sit at the table while my husband ordered food for us. the ramen at the food court was okay, the grill meat was okay too. not bad for a food court.. after all, who wouldn't like a warm meal? after that we headed back to disneysea and watched the diner table show and then a parade after that. the parade was okay, but unfortunately, since the schedule between both shows were so close, we didn't get better spot to watch the parade, so we couldn't see some of it. anyway, if you had small kids, perhaps disneyland is better for them. most of the rides in disneysea were quite fast and had height restriction. ah well, the more reasons to get back there, right?

disneysea!

disneysea at night

day 7: after two sunny days in a row, our last day got poured with rain all day long. we had our last breakfast at the hotel and then headed to ikspiari since we couldn't play in the playground due to the rain. we had early lunch at ippudo. we were lucky, the line was short, and they allowed kids too. they even provided high chair, but if you opted to bring your stroller, you could do it too, but only for compact strollers since the aisles were narrow. hubby prefer ippudo better than ichiran. another good news was they sold instant ippudo ramen too. unfortunately, when hubby tried to cook it, he just threw everything in and then turned out it was weird. he didn't like the seaweed paste. okay.. let's get back to our last day.. ah, i forgot to tell you that we found out that there's BAKE outlet at ikspiari. the night before the line was crazy, but that day after eating at ippudo, the line wasn't, so hubby told me to get in the line and bought some. and turned out it was ddeeeellliiiiciiioouuuss.. hahaha.. the cheese cream was light and fluffy, it's not too cheesy, not too sweet either. oh well, we have tried it even before my sisters who live in singapore. hahaha..
and then we thought the rain was going to stop so we headed back to disneyland, but turned out the rain was still pouring, but we had nothing else to do, so we bought raincoats and umbrella since we've packed ours at the hotel. disneyland was still crowded that day even though it was raining all day. even the parade was still going on. actually, that day, there was a new show, but since we weren't planning to watch it, we only got to see it from behind. it was a great show actually, but somehow it was similar to one in disneysea, the one with all the water splashes everywhere. too bad though it was raining, otherwise it will be great on sunny day. and then it was still raining hard and my son was whining to get back to the hotel, so we decided to get back to hotel and just rest there before heading to airport. and that was the end of our holiday in japan...

again, japan is a great destination even if you bring your kids along.. this time we decided to just visit tokyo, but usually the tour destination is tokyo-kyoto-osaka. just plan your trip according to your condition. anyway, if you bring your kids along, i've read that diapers are quite hard to find. the biggest place to get it is toys r us. but some said the price are higher. i don't know since we decided to bring enough diapers along. also if your kids are formula-feed, better bring more since the formula there is very different. baby food is also different. even the fresh milk there only have plain and strawberry version. both my kids like chocolate so it was devastating to find chocolate milk there. *sigh* fortunately we managed to distract them with snacks and other food like bread and hotdog. other than that, japan is a very friendly place to visit with your kids. oh, and another thing, if you're planning to go around using the subway, check the elevator, since usually not all exits have elevator. especially the one in asakusa. if you're heading to sensoji temple, they will direct you to go to A3 exit, but the one that has elevator is A2 exit. it was quite a distance to walk, but you have to consider, carrying your stroller with kids climbing those tiring ladders or walking the extra miles but with your kids inside their stroller.

so, with high hope that we could go back there.. i wish you all happy holiday and have fun wherever you go..

my second battle on breastfeeding

i was thinking about writing about breastfeeding topics for some time now.. but i always hesitate about it. moreover, few weeks ago is breastfeeding weeks. many people talk about it, argue about it, even have different opinion about it. oh, and i must say this post not only on breastfeeding, but also on every aspect, working mom, stay at home mom, breastfeeding mom and formula feeding mom. i can say about it all since i've been through them all.

let's start about the working mom. i have no plan about having kid when i'm married, so when i found out that i was pregnant, i panicked. i didn't like the idea of staying at home alone with the baby. but i couldn't find any helper at that moment, and i had to go back to school for my graduate school. if i wasn't at school, i had to be an intern for the rest of the week. well, i was working most of the time from my son was born until he's about 2 years old. it was hard. 6 months i had to take care of him alone with the help of my mom and my husband's aunt since i had to go to school. and when i'm home it's me and him mostly since my husband was at work. after my son is sleeping, i had to wake up again and finish my task or study. i had to admit, it was hard. time is essence. i had to be healthy since i had to work and take care of my baby. and i had to have good focus. if i was at school or at my internship place, i had to focus on my study or job. and if i was home, i had to concentrate fully in taking care of my son. dividing the time is even harder. i had to plan everything meticulously. so for those working moms out there, i knew your struggle. you want to do best for yourself and for your baby. you want to be more than just a mom, and you want your baby to see it. it's okay.. as long as you can divide the time and focus so it won't affect each other. and please.. don't judge the SAHM as a lazy person. a non achieving person.

and then with my second kid, i decided to be stay at home mom. i have finished my study and i only had another month to finish my working contract. but mostly i'm at home. i found out that having two kids, i can't divide my time and focus anymore. plus i found out that my 2 yo son needs more attention for me now since he's having a little sister. i don't want him to feel abandoned, it was work before and now it's his sister. so i decided to stay at home now. well, as i said before, i'm no stay-at-home mom material. i want to work.. i need to work.. meet people, get my adrenaline pumped. but it's my decision. so i have to face it. for me, when i'm a working mom, it's physically tiring. but as stay at home mom, it's more emotionally tiring. i have to face two kids 24 hours. though i still have my previous helper for my 2 yo, but 2:2 is not a good ratio, not if you're having a very active toddler and a house that can't be kidproof. the baby needs my attention, i had to breastfeed her every two hours. and my son needs my attention. and then he might attempt me.. acting out and stuff, and there's discipline issues. i had to set certain standard so he might follow it. with the helper, mostly the helper will give in just so she can get everything's done. she won't care if the kid isn't independent. in fact, she will be happy if the kid is cling to her. but that's not what we want. we want our kid to be independent so when he grows up, he can face the outrageous world out there. so mostly emotional. i had to make a 2 yo kid to understand certain guideline. about politeness. about independency. about sharing. about everything. so it's stressful. and not forget about their basic care too. i can't cook.. so i have to give credit for moms who cook. cleaning the house, cooking everyday and taking care of kids is HARDWORK. i only taking care for the kid with the helper. baking sometimes. but not cleaning and cooking. and it's hard for me. so for those stay at home moms, you are amazing. you can do that most women can't do. you're selfless. you put your family as priority number one. and though people see you as useless in community, let me tell you, you are the foundation setter in the family, the smallest community in life. so it's not easy. in fact, you're the one that keep your family in balance. you are AMAZING. don't let anyone tell you otherwise. and don't feel under pressure when you see a working mom.

so.. either working mom or stay at home mom have their own battle. please be considerate to each other.

now let's move on to more sensitive topic, breastfeeding mom vs formula feeding mom.
i know lately there's a huge movement in promoting breastfeeding. i think it's good and every women should know and understand that they are capable of breastfeeding, no matter size and shape of your breast. but i also know that each one has their own battle, so please respect each other. i can say that because i've been both.

with my first kid, i was planning to give exclusive breastfeeding. but i was more into painless labour that i forgot to read and find out about breastfeeding. i think it will come naturally. every woman should breastfeed. and i think i can too. but fact was, my breastmilk didn't come out, not until the third day i guess. well, on second day a little came out, but it wasn't enough. my baby's already jaundice and had gone under the uv light. and then he had to take antibiotic since my water was green. okay.. long story short, i had to work my ass to figure out how to massage my engorged breast, and no baby at my side since we left him at the hospital. and no breast pump and i didn't know how to hand massage. let me tell you, engorge is pain. so i had to read a lot. and when i got my baby back at my side, i became reckless again. i didn't pump as many as i could, as often as i could. and i went on vacation without him and ended regretting it. i had to pump every 2 hours, in weird places (inside cars, on the plane, at the airport), and we had to pack it through all the way. figuring out if each airport allowed breastmilk to be carried onboard. well, it was hell. so for breastfeeding mom, don't ever ever.. go without your baby. okay.. back to me. since i was reckless and not diligent enough to pump, the result is i got little milk saved up. and those savings went puff.. very fast. everyday my baby had 2 bags of my milk and 2 bottle of formula since i couldn't fulfill his daily need. and i couldn't pump at the same time, and i was stressed with school and internship and it affected my production badly. i found out that food had nothing to do with my milk supply. the only thing that affect my milk supply is my milk condition. so, before going on, me and my husband already agreed that i will breastfeed him only until he's one. apparently, at the same time, i had to go abroad again for school duty. so i think it's an opportunity to wean him. it was insane. but we had to. and it's heartbreaking watching him cry for milk for 3 days and he refused his bottle. he skipped his midnight milk and then he didn't want to drink his bottle before sleep too. so his milk intake was decreasing rapidly. later he only wanted his milk together with biscuit, eaten, not drunk. so until now, he didn't like milk that much. and he's skinny. my mom blamed my breastmilk for being thin.. watery.. not enough nutrition that he became that skinny.
so, did i regret to give him formula? yes. i thought i could give him full breastmilk if i knew things about breastfeeding more back then. but did i regret me choosing give him formula back then? no, it was our decision. me and my husband. we decided to give him the best i could, the breastmilk. and the formula was just supplementing. so i didn't regret that much. i just regretted i didn't search about breastfeeding more before giving birth. so for formula feeding mom, if you had problems with your breastmilk or your surrounding (yes, it's very important. with my first son, i didn't have supporting surrounding, so i kinda accepted that i couldn't give him exclusive breastmilk) and you had no choice other than give your kid formula, then do it. don't regret it. you do your best and formula is best for your kid at that time. don't feel terrible since you can't breastfeeding. bonding with your kid doesn't mean it has to be during breastfeeding time. giving your kid formula also give you time to bond. but if you give your kid formula since you're lazy or don't want to breastfeed, then read again. ask around. ask yourself, don't you want to give the best for your kid?

with my second kid, i knew better. i searched and read everything about breastfeeding. i told my husband i wanted to give this one full breastmilk. no formula whatsoever. i asked him to support me, remind me when i wanted to give up, cheer for me when i'm down. and he agreed. like before, i didn't have supporting surrounding. my mom kept telling me that i don't have enough breastmilk, that the quality is poor so i'm starving my kid. moreover, we were sent home only after a day, and for the next two days there were no sunlight so i couldn't give her proper sunbath. the result is predicted, she was jaundice and slightly feverish and had to sent back to hospital. then the guilt came. what did i do wrong? with my first son, i accepted that i couldn't do it. but with my daughter, i had a friend. she supported my, lent me a book about breastfeeding and even gave me a glass bottle to relieve the engorgement before pumping. and when my daughter sent back to hospital, she said it's okay to give her formula for awhile, since there's a jaundice that can be helped with formula. and since i haven't started pumping at that time, there's a shortage for sure. so we filled it with formula. but i pumped as fast as i could, as often as i could and sent it to hospital. if she was awake, i would breastfeed her directly. this time i won't give up. and when she was okay to bring back home, she gulped 60 cc of milk. while i only pumped 30 cc per pumping session. so i had to catch up. i read about power pumping and found out that it worked for me. i drank a lot of fluid, ate a lot of vegetables, even daun katuk, oatmeal cookies but nothing helped. i even drank supplement to boost breastmilk production but it didn't give satisfying result. so i did power pumping at midnight for almost a week and then my milk production started to increase. at this time, we're still supplementing her with formula, once a day. but when she was two weeks old, i ditched the formula and already gave her full breastmilk. i even had some reserved in the fridge. since i had to go back to work, i wanted to save as much as i could, as early as i could.

i felt victorious.. two months and no formula. i had supply at home too. but there's another problem. she refused her bottle only a week before i'm starting working again. oh crap. my mom blamed me again for not giving her bottle regularly. but i read everywhere, there are kids who refused bottle even though they've been introduced to bottle before. so i had to find another way. for almost a month we struggled. i tried spoon feeding and syringe feeding. the syringe feeding gave her the milk faster but she would cry her heart out. my helper didn't want to give her via glass since she had confidence that she wasn't mature enough. she couldn't hold her head well at that time. but when i had to give her milk, i trained her using cup. when she was 4 and a half month, she could drink with spout cup, the hard one. somehow she liked hard stuff. she dislike her teething toy and chewed her hard rattles instead. *sigh*

so, with formula feeding, i had to face judgement. i breastfed him openly so people often asked why i couldn't pump as much? i didn't know what to say at that time since i didn't read much. but now i knew better. i also felt guilty every time people asked me that. and every time they commented my breastmilk quality, i always felt inferior. and then i had to wean him quicker than the recommendation. and the questions came again. but this time i can answer since it's our decision, me and my husband. i want to breastfeed him, but i feel only comfortable doing it for a year. and i don't regret it. with fully breastfeeding, i faced another judgement. since i decided to stay at home due this breastfeeding problem and another problem which i can't say here, many people thought that i chose to stay at home because of breastfeeding. well, it's not true. there's a lot of working mom that fully breastfeed her baby. but it's my decision. i chose to stay at home. and many people also judged that it limited my time allocation. i couldn't go to seminars, get massage and stuff, but it's my choice. although i can leave her for an hour or two, but i chose not to.

so both decision faced judgement. i think people here love to judge everyone else. so why bother. i just didn't listen to them. the important thing is my husband and i are agreed to let me fully breastfeed my baby and stay at home. as for the second battle, i had to face lack of sleep and also time management between pumping and breastfeeding and playing with my son. and it's not easy. i felt like zombie the first month and then i became insomnia since i had to pump at midnight (my baby skipped her midnight meal since a month old). i believe breastfeeding is best for my baby and me, that's why i fight for it. soooo for breastfeeding moms.. you can do it! make sure you have agreement with your husband, he's your 100% supporter who always be around you. it's better to make your mom and mom in law understand too. but if you can't, or if they're not living with you, then don't take everything they say if they accuse you. i know, hormonal might play with your ratio, but be strong! i'm also easily break into tears each time they accuse me of making my baby hungry, but my husband always assures me that my breastmilk is the best for her. and if you can, find other support. from your fellow breastfeeding friend.. from a breastfeeding community.. from a breastfeeding counselor.. just find a support. you can fight this fight alone.. trust me..

for information: if you're living in surabaya, you can come and contact aimi asi jatim (they have twitter and email and contact number i believe, just google it) or you can go to RSIA kendangsari (there's a pediatrician/lactation consultant there). and don't forget #menyusuidengankeraskepala.

anyway... the big point is, you are the BEST mom for your children, no matter what type you are. working mom or stay at home mom, breastfeeding mom or formula feeding mom.. you are the BEST.

food review: pipe and barrel

welcoming february! i'm officially on my maternal leave. the baby will arrive any time soon.. hopefully this weekend.. and today i get the chance to go out to do some errand (administration stuff with the government.. yukss..) and my husband turned out to be my personal chauffeur for the day. double yey! and we decided to get early lunch at pipe and barrel.

if you're living in surabaya, then you'll probably know that there are a lot of new cafes and coffee shops opening in surabaya. one of them is pipe and barrel, which is owned by masterchef ken. yep.. the baldy chef from masterchef indonesia.. since we're nearby and i saw that the menu was edible for my husband, we decided to try it.

the location: it's located in dr.soetomo road, just across the st.louis high school. probably you'll want to drop by outside normal meal time to avoid the crowd. the place isn't that big.. and the parking lot isn't that big either.. so i guess try your luck if you want to eat there.

the appointment: no appointment needed, you can just walk in. but since it's not that big, if you wanted to eat with large group or celebrate special occasion, then i suggest to do reservation.

the menu and the food: it's on the wall just like the other cafe and coffee shops. and you have to order at the cashier, pay in front and then they will give you your table number and then you can wait for your food. the menu has more variety than the other cafes and coffee shops. for beverages, they have selections of coffee, tea, blended, sodas and alcoholic beverages. for food, they have appetizer, main course and desserts. but unfortunately, they only have panna cotta and gelato for desserts.. bummer..  as for the main course, not all the menu are western food. i ordered the barrel beef burger (you can choose the doneness level of the meat) and my husband ordered the honey chicken rice. for me, the beef burger is delicious. but it's strange since they put pickles inside the burger.. an indonesian translation for burger, eh? pretty weird.. so i set aside the pickles. the sauce has some smokiness flavour in it, like combination of mayonnaise and barbeque sauce, just like my husband liking. but the honey chicken rice is another story.. it's too sweet for my husband. we thought it would be sweet spicy, but turned out it was just sweet. and they also serve it with pickles.. the one just like mine. pretty weird. hahaa..

as for beverages, we pick oreo blend and salisbury chocolate.. the oreo is just too sweet again.. meanwhile the salisbury chocolate is supposed to be chocolate milkshake, but somehow it has some bitterness inside it, a hint like coffee, which is weird.

thr price: i might say, you get what you've paid for. not too overpriced. the portion is decent too.

overall, it's a nice place to hang out with friend, but not kid friendly. i don't spot any high chairs. the interior also not kid-friendly. they have indoor and outdoor setting. but when it's full, it's too noisy.. just like monopole.. too noisy for our taste. oh well, this is just a coincidence moment.. for me to enjoy while the baby hasn't been born yet.. soooooo.. if you ask me, probably i won't be back with my husband. but if i'm nearby alone or with friends or with my sisters, probably i'll drop by again.

honey chicken rice

barrel beef burger

my second pregnancy

hi guys.. i know it's been too long since i wrote a post. i've been taking care of my other blogs plus i have no idea what to write on this blog, and i'm still not in the mood to finish my new zealand's trip review.. so i stopped writing here for awhile. while i'm gone, i've been finishing my graduate school, thankfully on time, well..  a little bit late, but it's on time, since i've discovered that i'm pregnant with my second child on my way to thesis exam.

i've told no one about my pregnancy, so i was a bit surprised when i was asked if i'm healthy on my exam. i thought my examiner talked about my pregnancy, but then i realized that it's all about my general well being. hahaa... silly me.. anyway, when it's time for my convocation, i was 5 month pregnant. luckily, my bump is not that big so i can still wear a loose kebaya. hahaha..

soo.. i want to talk about my second pregnancy. since i have no problem with my first pregnancy, i thought that this one will be the same. i even could work until few days before the delivery. i have no complaints besides some fatigue, nausea and backache at the beginning of my first pregnancy. but my second pregnancy is another whole story. at first, no complaints since i was busy preparing my thesis. i thought the fatigue, flu and nausea is caused by stress. but then after finding out that i was pregnant, i believed it was caused by the pregnancy. but then i kept doing my activity as usual. but i noticed that my feet got swollen easily if i was sitting or standing for too long. and then i also got dizziness and even almost blackout when standing for a long time. which is weird for me. my sisters both are the blackouts type.. but not me. during school days, i never passed out. but somehow now i'm very easy to get dizzy. and the nausea. well, luckily i just lost my appetite, not with vomiting.. but i love to eat. so somehow it tortured me.

and talking about appetite, suddenly i experienced different kind of appetite. with my first pregnancy, i kept eating the food that i like before pregnant, and dislike food that i dislike before pregnant. but now, somehow i'm fond into instant food, sushi and snacks. like burgers, chips, cafe menu.. and lately bubble tea. most of them i dislike before being pregnant, but my husband loved instant food, so i guess probably the baby's taking his father appetite. and i experienced cravings now, which is something that i didn't experience with my first pregnancy. and i'm especially crazy toward makeup and all those beauty-related things.

since i have difficulty in eating, i didn't gain weight as much as my first pregnancy. for my first trimester i even lost a kilo. i had difficulty gaining weight on my first pregnancy. with crazy eating, i only managed to gain a kilo a month. but now... no weight gain for first trimester, and still a kilo a month after 4 month pregnancy. but in the last trimester, somehow my bump grew larger instantly. hahaha.. pretty weird, and it gave me a lot of pain. back pain, ligament pain. ohhh... and don't forget the reflux. it came early this time. with my first pregnancy, i didn't experience heartburn up until last trimester, but now, even at 5 month, i've already experienced heartburn. bummer...

and talking about those pains, i do exercise regularly now. at my first pregnancy, i do my pregnancy pilates or yoga when i remembered. but now, since i've realized it's pretty important to keep active, i do it more regularly, but somehow the pain kept coming and it made me lazy to exercise. ha! quite contrary. and sleep is getting harder these days. i know that pregnancy can cause difficulty in sleeping, but on my first pregnancy, i didn't experience any trouble in sleeping, so i was quite surprised when i couldn't sleep up until 1 am in the morning.. and my bump is not that big! so i was wondering why. so i guess no pregnancy is the same. oh and if you've been curious, we're having a girl this time.. lucky me! yey! soooo.. with only a few weeks to go, i hope everything will go smoothly with all the preparation, and the delivery will be as smooth as the first one, and both mom and baby are healthy. until then...

historica coffee and pastry

i'm on my teacher's presents hunt the other day and i persuaded my friend to have brunch before sending me home, since my son's about to have his afternoon nap and he will be nagging me so i can't have lunch at home, so better eat first.and he agreed. so we headed to historica since it was nearby. haha.. pretty nice coincidence right?

actually, historica is in a complex which also have 1903, the fine dining place. and supposedly one more place but i can't see it. funny thing is, the parking space is very limited just like domicile which is nearby, but they have valet service at the complex, so even though it wasn't busy, we had to give the key to be parked by the valet officer. 

okay, now stepping inside the coffee shop, it was quite spacious compared to libby and monopole. just like libby, the menu is on the wall, but they also provide an ipad with menu inside. beside the cashier there's a display for cakes and juices (sorry... i've forgotten). the menu was not extensive, just like the other coffee shop, but compared to libby and monopole which have several "heavy dish" menu, historica has the lightest menu. and they don't have many choices on non coffee beverage.. so i ended up ordering oreo frappe and egg benedict while my friend tried the green tea frappe and yogurt muesli.

i have to say in terms of ambience and comfort rating, historica wins over libby and monopole. libby is comfy, but it's not that spacious. monopole is the worst. it's cramped and too busy and too noisy inside.. though probably when i went there it wasn't peak hour, but judging by the placement of the sofa and other seatings, even though it's busy, it won't be as cramped as monopole. in terms of service, i might say that all of them are average. average on the service given by the waiter and the time of service.

the oreo frappe is average. it's sweet but i can still taste a hint of coffee inside. though my friend said that he didn't taste the coffee when he ordered it.. but still, being not a coffee lover or drinker, probably makes me more sensitive to coffee than him. but it's okay.. it didn't make me palpitate. the egg benedict is a standard egg benedict, and it has the original hollandaise sauce (yayyy!!) but i forgot to tell them that i'm pregnant and the poached egg is very runny, runnier than libby's which means it's almost raw.. but hopefully nothing bad will happen. but it's just an ordinary egg benedict, nothing special about it. my friend told me that the yogurt muesli was a waste. you can make it yourself at home..  the green tea.. well, it's green tea.. no special thing about it.

will i go back there? probably if i'm nearby.. but if i'm not, there's no reason to go there just to eat..

oreo frappe

egg benedict

food review: monopole coffee lab

yep.. i'm in the mood of trying new cafes. since i'm not that attracted to full main dish, and more attracted to various blended beverage in a cup, so i decided to drag my husband to try another cafe again. this time it's monopole coffee lab. unfortunately it didn't open early in the morning, so i had difficulty to find the right time to go there. but thankfully, i got afternoon shift and my husband picked me up, and the place wasn't full, so we ended up there.

the place had very limited parking space. fortunately, the restaurant across the street was closed, and they had plenty of parking space, so i guess some of the visitor parked there. and the seating arrangement was pretty crampy. i don't know if they had their second floor open for public, but we were seated in the first floor and it was crowded. and the space between each table was not that spacey.

monopole is quite famous for their coffee. but being pregnant and not a coffee lover at all, i can't say anything about it. thankfully, they have non cafein beverages, so my husband ordered the red velvet (which was not similar to red velvet cake) and i ordered cookies and cream blend. there were also not so many food in the menu. i tried their egg benedict, but this one was not using hollandaise sauce, but mornay sauce. i read nothing in the menu that would indicate the egg benedict would be spicy, but when it came out, it has chili flakes on top of the poached egg. at first i thought the chili flakes wouldn't be that spicy, but turned out it was very spicy for me.. since i don't like spicy food. and it was pretty weird for my taste. i prefer the hollandaise sauce better i guess. both the beverages were sweet, mine was sweeter than my husband's.

the food was okay, but will i come back there? i don't think so...

cookies and cream blend. it's very sweet

red velvet blend. it's not as sweet as the cookies and cream

food review: libby cafe

i know.. i supposed to finish my new zealand trip review, but somehow i lost my interest in writing about them. so i guess i will stop pushing myself to write about it and try to write something else. okay.. so if i haven't mentioned it before, right now i'm pregnant with my second child. and somehow this pregnancy is different. in my first trimester i didn't feel that nausea, but i lost my appetite. even the smell of some food made me want to vomit. plus when i realized i was pregnant, i was preparing for my thesis exam, so i was pretty stress at that moment. no wonder i couldn't gain any weight, even lost a kilo. but after that, it wasn't much difference. but now, almost a month now, i could feel my appetite is back. but strangely, i wasn't that attracted to rice, but i was drooling over snacks and sweets and lately beverages in plastic or paper cup with big straws. yepp.. that kind that you will find in starbucks or coffee shop. soooo.. i've been drooling to try some new cafes around my house, and i managed to persuade my husband. so the first one we tried was libby cafe.

i've been there before, but not dine there. it was a small cafe and limited parking space too. luckily it was open quite early, so after dropping my kid at school, we can go there and eat and then back to school to pick him up again. when we went there, they had this breakfast package promotion, and i tried their egg benedict breakfast package. it was egg benedict plus ice/hot chocolate. while my husband strangely still ordered the chicken wing plus tried the new brownies blended or something like that. after he saw other bloggers recommended the beef stew toast, he ordered that one.

the cafe was small, and half of the cafe was a showroom for the cookies (yep.. libby used to sell brownies and cookies). but it was comfortable. we chose to sit at the back so we can observe the whole cafe. hahaha.. oh, and you have to order at the cashier, and the menu is up on the wall. i guess this becomes new habit of new popping cafes in surabaya. okay, for my ice chocolate, it was standard. but the brownies blend it was okay. a bit sweet but i prefer it than mine. for my egg benedict, usually they used english muffin, but here in libby they used brioche. i had no complain about the egg benedict, maybe more sauce and not too acid on the poached egg. but other than that, it was a satisfying second breakfast (yep, we've already eaten our breakfast before, hahaha..). i didn't try the chicken wing, so i have no saying about that. but i guess it wasn't that good since my husband took it home and never touched it again. the beef stew toast was okay, but not enough sauce for my husband. the beef stew was pretty much to cover the brioche toast, probably more than the other bloggers have eaten. maybe they added the portion lately. the taste according to my husband it was okay, but he prefer the beef to be cut bigger, not chopped like in stew or semur. hahahaa...

overall, i was happy to visit this cafe and hopefully i can persuade my husband to be back there again. i wanted to try the pasta, but since they said the portion is big enough, probably not as second breakfast. hehehe..

egg benedict

beef stew toast (i forgot the exact name)

brownies blended