The Kam Family

Why the move (house)?

2012-01-18T02:27:00.000+08:00

Many have known, either through this blog or through FB that we have moved to a new place. Many have asked why we wanted to move.

Finally I have time to write a long post as because I am currently on business trip, so it's totally free at night, well, actually not very free as I want to do 1001 things these few nights - making a photobook, tidying/arranging photos for the past few months, writing blog posts, reading blog posts of my fellow bloggers, syncing my iPhone to iTune (figuring how to export and import contacts), exploring my new Galaxy Note, and of course not forgetting accessing FB. Glad that this time I didn't bring any book. Very busy, occupying every single minute and till late hour and wake up early morning, but it's different type of busy (with kids) which I get to "enjoy" once in a while, haha!

Righto. Here's why.....

First, after living at our previous place for 3 years, we decided that it's not a good place for our children to grow up with. It's a very convenient location, about 3 minutes’ walk to the MRT station (albeit it’s far away from the city center), we could have everything we need within a few minutes’ walk as there is a shopping mall (albeit a small one) just next to our block, where we can get food (restaurants, food courts, fast food), groceries (a NTUC Fairprice, two 7-11 shops), other stuff like hair salons, ATMs, wet market, and also many neighborhood shops. McDonalds is just downstairs and it’s a 24 hours shop (not that we eat McD). But, there is always but…… Because we were so near to all these actions, there are constant noises, loud ones, not so loud ones, annoying ones, not so annoying ones, all sort. It’s okay on normal days, but from time to time, there will be tent set up for all sort of celebrations, shows, performance, talks, etc. The worst we had was the coffee shop downstairs was having a free karaoke session. They tuned the volume to the loudest I bet, and so we suffered from the out of tune’s songs sang by old uncles and old aunties for a few hours, seriously, I almost went crazy. And when there was pasar malam, which was literally just downstairs, we had to pray the stall selling DVDs would not be near us, else it’s a few weeks of disruption.

So we reckoned we have had enough of it. We reckoned we can let go all these conveniences. We reckoned we should try something different. We were all for a quieter place.

At first, we just wanted to try out if we could sell our HDB with a good price. Obviously we could! There were only 2 viewings to our flat and both potential buyers offered quite a good amount of COV (cash over valuation, a very unique thing in Singapore public housing property market) right away. Our property agent advised us to close the deal if we were serious to move on quick. So we did. We closed the deal even before our valuation report was ready. It must be one of the easiest sales she has, only need to do 2 viewings and not much negotiation needed.

So we were off to look for a place. We decided that it’s more worthwhile to invest in a private property than a HDB. Because COV for HDB was still very high, though we got a high COV for our HDB, but if we were to buy another HDB, we also need to pay a high COV. We rather invested that money to a private property and because our main aim is to provide a better environment for the children. We couldn’t afford landed property, so we only left with condominiums. Even with condominiums, we couldn’t afford those near or nearer to the city or those at prime areas. We didn’t want to sacrifice space for location, with the budget we have. So, we targeted the areas with cheaper property prices, which were at the north / north-west, and upper bukit timah areas.

Another factor was that my company will be moving to the north, so for convenient sake (thinking ahead of a few years later when the kids start primary school, I might need to fetch them from school, work part time etc), we nailed down to looking for a property in the north, at Yishun in particular, as it suits our requirement – cheaper properties, and near to my future workplace.

Then, another main factor that making us chose the house we are living in is the primary school. We have been contemplating for the longest time if we should or should not move to a primary school of our choice. With a bit of research of the web (lots of info available, particularly from kiasuparents.com), to my delight, there is a primary school in Yishun which puts more emphasis on Chinese! It makes to the “leaderboard” of all sorts, never made to the top in any of the lists, but within top 10 in almost all the lists found from the web. All rounded approach, maybe. Which is just perfect for us – we want the children to have good Chinese, we don’t want the most famous/branded school, but reasonably good/reputable. So this is just perfect for us (as what we have read so far). Since we have decided to move, then why not move to a school of our choice, and to solve this primary 1 admission issue once and for all!

Next thing was, viewed 2 units in the condominium of our choice and selected one, which is obviously the one we are living now – high floor, move in condition (meaning no major renovation needed), reasonably spacious, pool facing, etc. Made our offer and that’s it. The next thing we knew, we were at the lawyer office and HDB office signing off all documents already. And we have physically moved in to the new house already. All these happened within a short 2-3 months!

So far it has been great! We are very glad that we made the decision to move. We have never regretted on the move. It’s definitely a much better environment. The kids get to enjoy the facilities, the space, the quietness, etc. We are getting used to not having all the conveniences just downstairs, but it’s easy to adjust to, just a matter of time to getting used to. The house is still not perfect yet (doubt it ever would with young kids around), we are still trying to make small adjustments/improvements here and there, main thing is to have the home feel!

That’s the “story”. Finally. Here you have the complete answers for those who have been asking J

(p/s: no house-warming party will be arranged. But you are all welcome to drop by to visit us, or to let the kids play in the pool! Anytime, just give me a ring or send me a message J)

First post from my new Galaxy Note!

2012-01-12T01:27:00.004+08:00

Just got my new phone last night. Installed an apps for blogger and using it now to test out. Hopefully with this new Note, I will be able to blog more often (short posts on the go). Let's see......

So far happy with this phone. Quite easy to use (not too difficult to adapt to for an ex-iPhone user). Photos taken seem to be of great quality, with default photo editor. So hopefully able to share more photos.

First up.

Hao Re's second attempt on his new jigsaw puzzles - a 150 pieces Disney cartoons. A very special and beautiful set. I love it very much!

He managed to build the circular frame in just 5 minutes (not able to do so yesterday). Then he went off to play with something else, I took over and built about 50% of it (not easy), then he wanted to take over and finish it off.

The next time he plays with this puzzles set, he should be more confident to complete it.

Photos taken with Galaxy Note :-)

He has a break in between, even went for his bath time, then changed to pyjamas, and continued on.

Ta-laa! Finished product. Very colourful with popular Disney characters!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

All about their new childcare centre

2012-01-11T00:02:00.000+08:00

If you have been following my blog for 2 years or more, you may recall how ugly my relationship with the first childcare Hao Re attended became, all because of a blog post that I wrote. They didn't like what I wrote and didn't accept what I wrote, about them. Ended up very badly.

So for the last childcare, I was very careful. I didn't mention the name of the childcare at all in this blog. And I have been blogging very minimally about this childcare. Only to the touch-and-go stage, never described anything in details about this childcare. Because of the bad experience with the first one.

Now they moved on to their 3rd childcare (2nd for Xi Yu). I told the principle about me being a blogger mum, and asked her if I can write blog posts about what happens in the childcare. She said they adopt a very open policy, they welcome all comments, good and bad, in any forms, be it e-mail, facebook, face to face, blogging. They would take all comments seriously. That's good. But after some consideration, I think I still do not want to say openly which childcare they are going to. But I hope to write something about the kids in the childcare, afterall, they spend 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, here. Certainly lots of things to note down.

Go back to the 2 posts I wrote about childcare search - post 1 and post 2, which in total, I have visited 8 childcare centres. I didn't mention here which childcare we have chosen, though I mentioned in my personal Facebook. It's the last childcare, childcare centre #8 that the kids are attending now.

They started attending this new school on the 3rd January 2012, when the school reopened after the New Year break. I couldn't take any leave to accompany them as I took urgent leave the week before to care for my dad who was hospitalised. Both cried pretty badly when we dropped them off at the childcare. I left work earlier so they were happy to see me when they were playing at the outdoor space. Teachers commented Hao Re took longer to settle down than Xi Yu on the first day :-)

The second day I got some surprise, for good. On the first day, I realised they only used 1 piece of diaper. On the second day, they didn't use any diaper! Meaning Xi Yu is officially diaperless for day time!! I told her teacher she had been toilet trained long ago by her nanny, but for the past few months when she was at her previous childcare, they didn't try to let her go diaperless, and I mentioned they could try a few weeks later when she is more settled. But they are very hard working, they tried on the second day and no accident or whatsoever. Everything is history!

Very impressed. Give them a big plus point because of this.

Then things only got better. The thing that I feared the most about this childcare, as I wrote in my previous post was the lack of outdoor activities. But apparently they have scheduled a morning and an evening outdoor play! Really great for this. I reached the childcare when they were having their outdoor play, children look happy, teachers look alert enough with the kids but no shouting and not too overly controlled of what they are doing. All good.

Based on the interaction with the teachers, they all sound good! Caring and patient, and work well with kids. The school seems to be pretty organised. With proper health check in the morning, enough manpower in the early morning and late evening. Confirmed no TV in the evening time. Nothing that sores my eyes so far.

Xi Yu didn't cry anymore on the 4th day, she just walked into the school after giving me a big hug and a kiss, and didn't look back. Her teacher commented she is very independent, she settled in very well, participates in the classroom and is very vocal, talks a lot in the class.

Hao Re, on the other hand, takes longer time to settle down. Only today, he didn't cry anymore. That's because his teacher promised to give him a chocolate biscuit if he didn't cry in the morning and I promised an ice-cream for the same. It worked! Let's see how it goes tomorrow. Other than the crying in the morning, her teachers commented that he is very reserved, he didn't talk much, he pays full attention during class but doesn't participate much. They also commented he has very good attention span. Think he needs more time to adjust himself. No hurry, boy, whenever you are ready. He seems to like his teacher, which is a very good thing. But I think he misses his old classmates dearly as until today he still mentioned about them.

So, yup, it's all good. The thing is also because I didn't sit in to observe. The lesser I see or know, the better it is, hehe. I will just have to trust their teachers and talk to the kids often to understand how they feel about the school, teachers and friends.

Hope everything goes well and they would start enjoy their school time soon!

The little communication book. Hao Re is in Nursery 2 while Xi Yu Nursery 1.

MIcro mini kick scooters

2012-01-07T23:21:00.000+08:00

At the age of 3-4, Hao Re is well aware of what a birthday is meant for - celebration at his childcare with a cake and goodies bags, and to receive birthday presents.

For the celebration at this childcare, he has been telling us what kind of a cake that he wanted since he just turned 3. Yes, for the entire year last year, he mentioned numerous time to me that he wanted to have a Superman cake. But at the end, we bought him a 2kg Batman cake from Bengawan Solo, it's his own choice when we brought him to the shop. He chose Batman over Superman, don't know why. For his goodies bags, he only told me he wanted me to prepare goodies bags for his friends, but never asked what should be put inside the goodies bags. It's a very simple but pretty nice celebration for Hao Re at his school. It's also his last day at school. His best mates gave him a big big hug before he left the school. I remembered to capture some photos for his memory sake.

For the birthday presents. It has been months since we (me and Hao Re) talked about what kind of presents he would want for his 4th birthday, and we agreed on a kick scooter. I have been procrastinated in buying one for him till his actual day of birthday on the 4th January. We have seen some scooters in the shopping centres, but I don't like the plasticsy feel of it. Until I saw this Micro Mini Kick Scooter from this website (Disclaimer: I do not know the business owner and I did not receive any reward from them in posting this. It's my own genuine love towards this scooter). I was so lucky that they have a pick up location near to my workplace! So I got off work earlier went to buy them each a scooter. I was so glad that I can keep to my promise.

Hao Re already mastered the skill on riding on a kick scooter within one hour. He can already zoom here and there in a very fast speed, even knew how to use the brake already! He enjoys the scooter very much, he brought it everywhere he goes (not sure how long this would last). Totally worth it (it's not cheap though.......) to see him enjoying his scooter. His is a version meant for older kids, a Maxi Micro, for age 6 and above, but since it didn't really differ so much except it's a little bit heavier, I picked this one for him as it can last till he is 10 years old as it can withstand up to 50kg, and also his favourite colour - black, is available for this version only.

While for Xi Yu, yes, it's not her birthday, obviously, but we could foresee the fighting. Plus it is a good gadget for outdoor play. Plus until now we still haven't bought Xi Yu a bicycle. She was so happy to see her pink scooter! I almost pick the same Maxi Micro version as she weighs almost the same as Hao Re now (serious, less than 1kg different!), but because she is really still a very young kid, only 2+ year old, so I went for the Micro Mini, which is meant for age 2-5, and can withstand up to 30kg.

Hope they would have lots of fun with their scooters! Will definitely bring them to the various parks with their scooters in the coming weeks/months!

Trying out their scooters, a pink Micro Mini, and a black Maxi Micro

Very happy to see them enjoying their scooters!!

Site note:
I was hoping Hao Re would be able to cross the 17kg mark when he turned 4 year old. But no, he is still below 17kg, heaviest measured at 16.8kg, still hovering around 16.5kg now. He hasn't been eating well for the past month due to the moving. I haven't been cooking since early December, then my mum cooked for a few days at our old place, then can only start cooking in early January when our gas has finally been turend on at our new place (ya, all thank to me who forgot to arrange for the gas turn on). Hopefully he would start to eat right again (he has been eating a lot of junk food last month) and the weight would catch up. Xi Yu is less than 1kg lighter than Hao Re, she is alread 15.8kg!!!

Nonetheless, he is a very healthy boy! Only sick (high fever, viral infection) for 1 day for the entire year that he couldn't attend childcare. He had caught some bugs throughout the year that caused him to cough, having runny nose, high temperature etc, but he managed to recover very fast without medication. The most recent incident was on the 28th December. His suddenly developed a fever in the evening, temperature shot up to 40.1C! He drank lots of water, asked to go to bed earlier, and the fever was gone the next morning. Yes, at 40.1C we still didn't give him any fever medicine. Though I hesitated for a while and asked if he wanted to take medicine. Hao Re loved to take medicine, but he said no this time, so I just let him be. Turned out he made the right choice :-) I monitored him very closely though, checking on him the entire night every half hour or so. His high fever only broke off at about 5am.

More outdooor with the scooter means a healthier boy in the making!

Happy birthday, my dearest!

2012-01-03T23:54:00.000+08:00

It's Hao Re's 4th birthday on the 4th January 2011.

Happy birthday to you, my dearest Hao Re!

Since it's his birthday, I gonna spend sometime writing something about Hao Re.......

As many of my fellow mummies commented, and if you have been following our blog for a while, you would have figured that Hao Re belongs to those good boy category. Bringing him up for the last 4 year has been a very easy sailing one, with nothing much for us to worry about. Since newborn till now, he sleeps well, eats well, drinks well, develops well in all aspects, and stays very healthy all year long. He rarely cried or whined, not even during teething period (we didn't even notice when his wisdom teeth erupted). He eats literally everything, most if not all types of vegetables, meats, fruits, other food. He started to like junk food when we became very relax about his food intake about a year ago. He likes all sorts of activities, indoor and outdoor, action or quiet, from drawing, painting, puzzles, arts and crafts to singing, dancing, story telling, to swimming, playground, sandplay, he never fused about anything. Since the first day Xi Yu was born, Hao Re has been the greatest big brother to her, entertaining her, playing with her, protecting her and sharing things with her. Surely they fight at times, but he loves his Meimei, no doubt about that. He called her "Hao Re Gorgor's princess"!

He is a bright and smart kid. Love to learn new things and learn things at a very fast and steady pace. He is sensible, he is caring, he is loving. He is such a perfect kid, in my eyes, I love him to bits!

Until recently. Recently mean starting in early December.

First he refused going to childcare. Cried murder every morning when we dropped him at childcare. Nothing worked to stop him from crying. He used to take on reasoning very well, as long as we can come up with an explanation that he would accept, he would obediently follow what we said. But not this time. Even though during the car ride, I have talked and talked and told him that we needed to work so they need to go to childcare, he seemed okay but once I was about to leave, he clinged on to my leg and cried till my heart's broken. That went on for the entire month, till his last day of school at the previous childcare (pray hard he would stop that with this new childcare).

Second, he likes to beat people. A little violent. This could be due to the fact that he reads lots of superhero books, magazines and comics. I know it's not age appropriate, but he just loves them! I try my best to control, at least he hasn't watched any on the screen.

Third, which is the worst to me, he doesn't take to reasoning anymore! When he says A, we must get him or do A. No tolerance for A- or A+ or a or B or whatever. If he doesn't get the A, he would behave very badly. We couldn't figure out why this sudden change of him. Testing our limit? He didn't give us much problems during the most scariest Terrible Twos period but only now. This totally beats me. As I do not know now how to communicate with him. He is generally still a very happy boy. But when he doesn't get what he wants, he becomes the grumpiest, the most difficult boy to handle.

It could be the many changes he has to take and adapt?
It could be part of his growing up process, that he wants to be in control?
It could be that he is really testing us out?
It could be me (as I was very bad temper in the past month, so I lost patient on them)?
Or it's the combination of all the above and more?

No matter what could be the reason, I only wish for one thing. I wish that I could be more patient, that I stop the screaming and shouting, and stop throwing my temper on them, stop giving them the black face, stop sighing in front of them, stop threatening them - in short, stop all the negative things which I shouldn't have started doing :-( Feel like such a big failure! Thankfully my hubby always cool and calm. He is definitely a better parent than me, even though he doesn't read much on parenting, shame on myself! Not easy to stop myself from doing all the above. But I have to try harder, I have to think of ways of cooling down when I start to boil. Hopefully I can constantly remind myself and my hubby is always here to support me.

Hope we will give Hao Re the full support to go through this challenging period. I am hopeful that Hao Re will be a good boy soon and enjoy his childhood as much as he used to (and I enjoy his company).

I couldn't take leave to celebrate his birthday with him like what I did on his 3rd birthday, as I had taken 1 whole week of urgent leave last week because of my dad. Luckily I have already pre-celebrated his birthday at his previous childcare on the 23rd December, which was also served as their goodbye party.

We love you, Hao Re, you know that, right? Please continue to grow happily and healthily, and be the person you want to be!

New year new beginning!!!

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000+08:00

I am back to this blog sphere, finally!

We have stepped into year 2012. A new beginning to The Kam Family as we moved in to our new house since 23rd December 2011, new place new environment to get used to, new routine to be established.

It's been a crazy December. In the first week of December, I had gone for a business trip. Then it's all the packing to do. Initially I thought we haven't accumulated too much stuff, but then I realised I was wrong. Even though we are the sort who doesn't buy more than what we need, we don't stock up things, we don't usually keep things that we do not need, still, over the past 3 years, lots have been piled up. We ended up packing our stuff into 20 small boxes (for books, magazine and files), and some 40-50 big boxes! We were so run out of time that we didn't finish packing when the mover came. So after the mover moved out all the furniture and boxed up stuff, we still have to return to our house for 3 times to clear up the remaining stuff.

Then it's the unpacking. Moving from a 5-room HDB (with very big living room and kitchen) to a smaller condominium is quite a challenge. We don't want to waste any items, so we moved literally everything from our old to new place, from the smallest to the biggest piece of furniture. It took us a week to put everything into places, and we are still doing up small improvements here and there continuous for the coming weeks. We are not up for designer deco, but it's more of making a comfortable living space.

Oh ya, talking about this, in addition to the packing before the move, all the weekends in December were spent in painting and doing whatever necessarily to this new house. When we bought, it's in a livable condition, with minimum renovation done by the previous owner. We do not want to spend money doing renovation. We (or rather hubby) did everything ourselves, including painting a new coat of paint, dissembling the unwanted build-in furniture, and the cleaning up. That really tired the hubby up, but he insisted to do it ourselves, to build a new home for the kids, he said :-) It's really great to have a hubby who is good in all sort of DIY work, nothing he couldn't do, so far.

As if the packing, moving and unpacking was not enough for us to busy with, there were more things happened during December -

- a minor car accident which I blogged in the previous post;
- Xi Yu's falling sick for almost a week, brought her to Dr Keoy as it's dragged for more than 4 days;
- have a wedding dinner to attend on weekday in JB;
- prepared for Hao Re's early celebration at childcare, first time preparing goodies bag and ordered a Batman cake for him;
- my dad was admitted to the hospital for 5 days (from Christmas day till 30th December), meaning I have to take urgent leave for 4 days, can't imagine to piled up work when I return to work tomorrow, and what made it worse was that this week the kids didn't go to childcare;
- Hao Re had high fever >40C! Lucky he is a very strong and healthy boy, he recovered overnight without any medicine intervention!

It's been crazy month for us to be overly busy with all these. It especially hit me, as I have so much things to remember and to do, my mind was always occupied with something, I have less time to spend with the kids, no enough time to use for everything. I was very bad temper, which left a bad effect on the kids, sigh, would have to let them slowly get over this and start afresh.

Good thing is we are positive thinker, we are Buddhists, so we try our best to live at the very moment (活在当下), to know and to realise the cause and effect of each happening(因缘). We survived, pretty okay :-) As I said in my FB, a problem is not a problem if it can be resolved :-)

So yup.

New year new beginning!!!
We are settling down well. We love the new place. Though it's not as convenient as our old place (where a shopping centres and food courts were just literally downstairs), but the great environment and the condo amenities made up for it! The kids love the waterplay area! Hao Re loves that he can go cycle anytime!

Best thing for us - we moved the kids to their own room. Effortlessly! When they wake up in the middle of the night, I still have to wake up and go to their room to attend to them, but at least they are willing to sleep in their own room (a bunk bed that we got from IKEA). It's been 4 years! We finally got back our bed! Sleep very well every night as can hug my hubby to sleep :-) I thought I would not able to let go, but nope, not a problem at all, happy to see them sleep in their own room. Guess it's good for all four of us, happy happy!

Hao Re has been watching TV and playing iPhone quite excessively. That's because when we were busy with the DIY and when we visited the grandpa at the hospital, we can only rely on TV / iPhone to entertain him. We are having problems with him, he displays very bad behaviour and attitude. I guess it's not only the TV/iPhone, but also because of the move, the lack of time he got from us, the new environment, etc. We are using 300% of our patience to deal with him, but still have to scream/scold at time. Have to give him more time to adjust and adapt and whatever. Meanwhile, really really have to hold my cool.

Their sleeping routine is heavily disrupted as well. There were a few nights they went to bed passed 11pm (which I won't tolerate if not because of the move). Haven't brushed their teeth for many nights. No story telling / book reading for many nights. All these would have to be established once again.

Tomorrow is the start of our new routine - new childcare for them, new route for me travelling to and fro work. I am sure we would be able to establish a new routine that everyone is happy with.

We certainly look forward to a better and happier and healthier 2012!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

(p/s: hope I can blog more from now on. So much to say about the kids. Hao Re's 4th birthday is just 2 days away)

Car accident

2011-12-14T00:05:00.001+08:00

We were hit by a car from the back last night while our car was stationary in front of a traffic light. I was alone with 2 kids. Though it was a minor bump, but it did freak me out, as I was so worried that the kids might get hurt. So stress that I even swear, ops, in front of a stranger first time ever in my entire life :-p Luckily no one was hurt.

I could still drive the car home. So I put the kids to bed as soon as possible and I knocked off top. Figured that's the best way to handle stress, as long as I can fall asleep, just sleep all the problems/worries/stress away. Left everything to the next day.

Today was such an eventful day, and I survived! So busy that I didn't have a chance to sit down and rest. First thing was to report the accident. Claim fully on the other party, including a replacement car. So we are a temporarily Nissan Latio driver, for a week or so. Good thing was we met a kind driver who readily admitted his fault and let us do full claiming. Then have to rush back to office as there are so many things waiting to be settled, cannot afford to take a day off, as I have already asked to postpone a meeting yesterday as I have to rush to our new house for the SP services guy to turn on the electricity and water.

As if life is not challenging enough, Xi Yu's cough got worse and woke up with mild fevet this morning. My dear hubby offered to take care of her. Hubby brought Xi Yu to see Dr Keoy. Nothing to worry about, just lots of phlegm stuck. She refused to take medicine, so the $130+ like goes down the drain. She seems to get better. Hopefully she can sleep better. Last night she coughed so badly that both of us hardly slept.

Hao Re went to childcare as usual, and cried bucket when I left him. He has been like that for the past 2 weeks or so. So heart pain to see him cries so badly every morning. I have talked to him many times, and also talked to his teachers, but couldn't figure why. Probably it's the upcoming change?

I realised I am so good in time management and stress management, hehe :-)) For this month, I am juggling packing, moving preparation, DIYing the new house, business trip, double workload, the kids. As if not enough for me on the plate, added in the car accident and a sick toddler. Prioritization works for me. Know what's most important and readjust the stuff on the to do list every now and then. From this week onwards, i have stopped cooking dinner, don't want to over burden myself.

Stay positive always!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Minimal or no post for the next 2 weeks or so

2011-12-11T01:52:00.001+08:00

We just got the keys to our new home today. Confirmed moving on the 23rd Dec 2011. Meaning only 2 weeks to go.

We are not going to do any renovation. We are going for DIY on adding a new coat of paint and then a thorough cleaning of the house. Yes, all by ourselves, to get the house ready in 2 weeks time. We are not taking any time off work, mind you, maybe we would, depending on how's the progress.

Packing has just started, which we do these nights after the kids go to bed. Going quite well though, >50% done. We are living a simplicity life, we usually just buy enough for use, seldom buy things that we don't need, we don't go to sales to stock things up. So not that difficult to pack,
I think. Now I am, at 1.42am, taking a break from packing since 11pm :-)

To make things worse, I am super busy at work too. Just came back from a 3-day business trip on wednesday night. Lots of stuff to be settled, all urgent, all need immediate action. This is the first time I wish I could have a few more hours at work. But no, I still knock off at work at 530pm sharp. Just gonna try harder to do more stuff, time management is crucial!

So, yeap, taking the moving and the work, the kids, (plus my age), I am so exhausted everyday, so lacking of time everyday. Don't think would be able to write any post, though there are a lot of happening that I would really like to pen down, guess I have to keep to the priorities :-p See if I can manage to do some short photo posts, from iPhone.

My parents are supposed to be here to help, with the kids mainly. But my dad had a fall on last Sunday. Luckily it's not serious. I asked him doesn't have to worry about us, asked him to stay home till he's healed. So, it's still us :-) Hao Re has been of great help! Xi Yu was not well, hope she gets well soon and joins in the fun!

Till the next post :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A different experience at the Singapore Zoo

2011-11-30T01:02:00.001+08:00

Ya, right, really no surprise, it's Zoo again, for The Kam Family :-)

Since I was on leave to take care of my 2 kids before of the closure of their childcare centre, I brought them to their new childcare at Yishun to do the registration. That's the reason why we went to the Zoo, as we passed by the Zoo on our way to Yishun. The kids were shouting, Zoo, we MUST go to the Zoo! So Zoo it was.

Since it's a weekday, we got to take the tram ride FOC (for Friends of the Zoo). And I remembered to bring a pram along. Such a nice trip, with 5 hours spent at the Zoo, with me alone with the 2 kids, every minute went passed peacefully without any scolding or shouting. Couldn't believe my luck! Many people were staring at us, as it's a very unusual combination - 1 adult + 2 kids. It's more common to see in Singapore / Malaysia / countries common with live-in helper, the combination of 1 kid + at least 2 adults, even up to 1 kid + 5 adults (parents, grandparents, and helper). So yeap, I was asked a couple of times - you are alone with 2 kids? The kind mums asked in half pitying and half unbelievable tone. My answer was, yes, me alone with 2 kids, I am used to this, but not for every day though :-) Worst thing I faced was, they were people who were so unsympathetic, seeing me carrying Xi Yu, who was sleeping, holding on to Hao Re, who was trying to hold an umbrella to shield Xi Yu from the rain, and me trying to close the pram to get on to the pram, not only these people not giving a pair of helping hands (yes, true, they were not obliged to), they even gave you those, aiyoh, why you so slow, quick lah, delay our time already. What kind of a society we live in?

This trip was a special trip because - 1) without Baba coming along, 2) stuck in a heavy rain, 3) took 3x of the tram rides, 4) didn't catch any show as all afternoon shows were cancelled because of the heavy rain. We enjoyed the trip a lot, more if not for the heavy rain.

To end this post with some conversation I have with my little boy, who is going to turn 4 years old in just a little more than a month time.

On the way to the Zoo:

妈妈：哇，今天好热叻！
皓日：噢，因为太阳公公今天很生气。
妈妈：是吗？
皓日：是！太阳公公很生气月亮婆婆。
妈妈：为什么？
皓日：太阳公公今天很生气月亮婆婆 kacau 它睡觉，它睡不好就很生气。
p/s: kacau (in Malay) = disturb.

****************

On the way back home:

妈妈：哎哟，真讨厌，为什么下雨。
皓日：因为那些树要喝水，喝水很重要的，你知道吗？

These conversations made me thinks that:

1) we adult simply complain too much, never happy with the situation - when the sun is out, we complain it's too hot, when it starts to rain, we complain that raining is very troublesome. Kids don't complain like us, they appreciate the nature more than us, they appreciate, adapt and accept every situation they are in.

2) whatever we said to them, intentionally or unintentionally, they take it seriously and remember everything we said, and trust us wholeheartedly. So really have to be careful of what we said. Best method to raise a kid - show by example 身教和言教！

It's really fun to talk / chat with the kids. Hao Re in particular as he now thinks and reasons with you, and likes to tell stories. Xi Yu is not doing any worse, she likes to listen to us, and she would join in whenever she can, she can talk very well for her age, not only that she talks in full sentences, but her vocabularies are really amazing!

Since it's hard to me to post photos in the coming week or so, probably I should do more posts recording our conversations. Yes, I think I should really do so.

The weekend

2011-11-29T00:56:00.000+08:00

Only touched down at the Changi Aiport at 6.30am. It's one of the worst flight schedule. Departing at the departure destination at 12 midnight. Flight time is 4 hours. Arriving at Singapore in the early morning. So minus off the take off and landing time, only about 3 hours to sleep, and that is if you are able to sleep. So the next day is sure a dead beat day. To make it worse, Singapore Airline partners with Silk Air so most of the flights are operated by Silk Air, much smaller air craft, with very different level of service. Chances of catching the 3 hours sleep - almost zero :-( This very last flight back was on a SQ flight, but there was a baby whined non-stop and very loudly, so I couldn't sleep at all.

Reached home at 7.30am. The kids woke up soon after I took a shower. So meaning no sleep for me. I felt pretty okay, so I suggested to make a trip to JB since the kids won't let me sleep anyway. Needed to buy something from JB, supply of their formula milk included.

The trip was not too bad, though I was so sleepy during the journey, but the kids just won't let me close my eyes. Xi Yu was very sticky on me and was very whinny, after didn't see me for 4 days, which I couldn't and shouldn't blame her. I tried my very best to hold on my temper, be cool, and be extremely patient with her, but still I snapped a couple of times, she whined too much! She was having a bit of cough and runny nose and couldn't sleep very well at night. Think she was tired and desperately wanted my attention, full attention.

I knew she wanted my full attention because she was not happy when I was occupied by Hao Re. She was angry with her brother so much so that she scratched his handsome face with her long nails. Hao Re has a deep scratch, not from his classmates but his beloved sister.

I didn't see it happen, that later at night when we were at home, Hao Re bite Xi Yu fingers and hand, so bad so that it bruised quite badly. Taking revenge?

Well, at last they said sorry to each other. They hugged and their kissed and said never do it again.

***********************************************************

Sunday Xi Yu was better. More of the normal self. Phew! We woke up really late, and hubby dragged the kids out and let me sleep another hour till about 10am, that's soooooo nice, and helped a lot!!!

We then got ready to go out. Went to a Japanese restaurant at the Esplanade mall who was running a origami workshop by a master from Japan. Hao Re was very much into origami recently, so when I recieved the mailer from the restaurant, I signed up for the event. It's not really meant for children. But since it's not a big crowd, basically it's only our family of 4 plus another mum with her teenage girl. So, the master was very willing to accommodate to the children. Oh, coincidently, her son is also names Hao Re!!

We made some simple but very nice origami, including a Christmas tree, a flower, a trick boat, and a toy stuff that can spin. Quite fun, I would say, though the kids won't be able to make it on their own, they were very patient and happy to observe. (Sorry too lazy to download, edit, and upload the photos :-))

We then walked from the Esplanade to the Marina Bay Sands through the Helix Bridge. First time on the Helix Bridge, but it's like, errr, nothing special. Marina Bay Sands has changed a lot since our last visit about probably a year ago. Just have our lunch, walked around a little bit then we headed back to the Esplanade. We were very lucky that once we reached to the building, it started to pour cats and dogs!

We waited for a live performace at the courtyard at the Esplande. The performer is Patrick Chng, who is apparently quite famous among the Singaporean artists. I have no clue who he is, but he does sing well. Xi Yu was so focused in the first 2 songs, but by the 3rd song, she KOed :-) Hao Re was very happy listening to the live music and danced/jumped along with the music.

Spent about 5 hours at Esplande / Marina Bay area. It's a pretty pleasant place to walk around once in a while. Should come again after a few months :-)

Today was not a good day for Xi Yu. When we were doing our grocery shopping on our way back home, she fell from the shopping trolley, face up. We were not able to catch her. Luckily she was not injured. Then after taking a shower, she ran out of the bathroom, despite me shouting "don't run" and despite my numerous reminder time over time, she fell hard on her back, for the second time in the day.

*********************************************************

Monday and Tuesday are my off days, as the kids' childcare centre is not in operation these 2 days. After a week away from time, it's good that I have these 2 days to do the "re-bonding" with them :-) This is the first time in my life that I need to check and reply mails throughout the days despite that I am on leave :-(( Not a good thing, but it's not going to happen often, it's only because there would be an external audit next week. So tired, mentally, to have to deal with work stuff when I am away from office. Now I can understand how the feeling is........

My little girl

2011-11-25T02:33:00.000+08:00

Aiyoh..... miss my kids so much!

There was internet connection problem at the hotel for the past 2 days, so I couldn't call home (calling using the Viber as it's free call, else calling from India to Singapore is very expensive, something like a few dollars per minute!).

Only tonight I talked to them. Hao Re was okay. Told me a little bit what he did and his tone sounded okay. But Xi Yu was not. Once she heard my voice, she cried and called me "Mama, Mama......". Soooooo heartbreaking, I tell you :-((( She doesn't really understand what's exactly happening and she can't express herself well, so poor thing.

Oh, my little girl! Think I miss her more than Hao Re.

Wanted to write something about Xi Yu, wanted to note down some of her developments, etc, in the last 2-3 weeks. But was not able to as I was totally tired out at work, leaving me no energy to stay up at night to blog :-) Wanted to do it now actually. But it's passed midnight now and my brain refuses to function properly after a very hectic day.

Just wanna say Xi Yu now occupies a very special seat in my heart :-) Mama loves you lots and lots, my darling girl!

See you in about 24 hours time! Mama will give you lots of hugs and kisses and you need not cry no more :-)

Childcare search continues..........

2011-11-23T02:05:00.000+08:00

From my last post on childcare search at Yishun /Sembawang area, I visited 4 more centres on my own. Managed to shortlist 2. Brought hubby and the kids to do a second visit, and we have decided on registering them at one. Yeah, the painful search is over!

Now, back to my survey:

Childcare center #5
To save my time, it's very similar to Childcare centre #3 in my previous post. About the same environment, same size, same setup. Except it's a lot more crowded (seems like a popular centre), and without the big indoor play area. The person in charge said they bring the kids out to have fresh air instead. While I was there, she was proud to tell me they also have waterplay in the centre for the kids, which is actual fact - simply means fill up some water in a tub, and the tub was placed in the toilet, yes, toilet, though there is enough space, but it's still a toilet, and the kids changed into swimming trunk (seriously, really need to?) and splashing water in the toilet (which other kids were coming in and out of to use the toilet). Teachers are mostly local 40-50ish or younger China Chinese.

Childcare centre #6
It's the cheapest among all. Has a pretty passionate principle who has been in this line for 20 years, HDB void deck, the usual curriculum, acceptable environment, no outdoor play as there is no playground nearby but they have started a small garden about a year back, so the kids get to do some hands on in planting vegetables every now and then, non air-con. It's an okay childcare. And so I shortlisted this.

Childcare centre #7
Went to visit this one because of recommended by a fellow mum. I like that they have a pretty well maintained outdoor area, with the play structures on grass patches and tri-cycles on the concrete flooring. But the indoor place is very cramp. Students spend most of the time in the small rooms (it's a single storey landed property), and it's air-conditioned. The place is a little run down and looking pretty tired (the piano in the hall is like can retire to the museum anytime). Teachers look okay, good with kids. The principle like a bit bored with the routine, including entertaining visitors like me :-) They don't have vacancy for Hao Re anywhere. So don't have to consider this.

Childcare centre #8
It's located at one of the HDB shophouses, which didn't give me a good first impression when I saw it. The shop front is a common area, while all the classrooms and activities areas are on level 2. It's almost run on non air-con though air-con was fixed. Environment okay but a bit cramp as it's located in shophouses. They have daily outdoor play at the public playground right in front of the shop, monthly short/long distance excursion. It's their very good centre supervisor who changed me from being negative to all positive. She is very passionate and knows lots about the "modern" early children education. Enrichment classes included in the monthly fees (speech and drama, reading program in both English and Chinese, abacus). One big bonus point which is hardly found in most childcare, they serve very healthy meals (brown rice, wholemeal bread, vegetarian menu available, use non processed food as much as possible), that's a big attraction to me. So this one was shortlisted.

So, among the two shortlisted childcare centres #6 and #8, which one did we choose during the 2nd visit?

I posted this on my FB and the choice is very obvious. Yes, everyone chose childcare centre #8 and none has chosen #6. We are no exception. We chose #8. Have called the centre supervisor and places are now reserved Hao Re and Xi Yu to start with them in the year of 2012!! Nothing wrong with #6, we would have chosen this if there were no #8 :-P

The search is officially ended. So happy, one major thing ticked off from the list, phew!!

(Note: I was surprised that actually didn't react badly to the "academic" stuff that the childcare centre #8 offers, which I usually did. Think it's the teacher who has successfully convinced me. I have to agree with her, as long as materials are used properly, teaching methods are proper, no stress is put on the kids, and they enjoy the learning process, it's actually no harm to expose to kids to more things. Kids have no limit, they are truly like a sponge, soaking up all possible knowledge very fast, should not "waste" this golden period of their lifetime for optimum learning and development 头脑开发的黄金期. Besides, with these reading program and stuff in place during weekdays, we do not need to sacrifice their weekends outdoor activities for classroom learning. Would be very glad to see that we have made a right choice for the kids!)

A mum traveling for business trips.........

2011-11-23T00:56:00.000+08:00

............ sigh, it's really not easy.

When I joined this company, I thought I have found a place that I could spend my next 10 years, or more, till I retire, maybe.

But things have not gone as well as I have wished.

I have taken on more responsibilities (not that I have a choice), and that means more work, which I don't mind, and keeps me very busy at work, which I also don't mind as time passes faster that way and I am feeling good to be doing something useful.

The thing that bothers me is increase of travel frequency. When I took up the job, it's communicated that traveling would be at about 25%, which is equivalent to one week per month. It's getting harder and harder to keep to this frequencies, and it seems like I have to travel more than this.

I am totally not okay with this. It has such a huge impact to the family, hubby and children. Especially the emotional stress that my kids have to face. They surely won't like Mama to be away, but they are trying to accept that (yes, they are very brave), which made me feeling even worse :-( They don't know how to say it out, especially my girl, don't really understand why Mama is not home for a few days every now and then. I would be very sad if my mum were to do that to me.

Initially thought I have understanding bosses. Yes, they are still nice and they are still understanding. But they are other people who are not, especially those business people. They are not my direct supervisor but I have to work with them and to listem to their instructions to some extend. These are not so nice people. They travel a lot to run the business overseas. But because they travel a lot doesn't mean I can or I have to. One of them is really quite "Ah Beng". The first thing he said to me - "get a maid lah, then you can travel anytime, just like me". Hello! You do not mind to get a maid to help attend to your son doesn't mean I should follow your way too. Then he said, "you should learn from me - my son didn't even notice me exist!" H-E-L-L-O!!! I am not sure if he is joking or telling the truth, but regardless, this has left a big impact on me on how people in this company are not all family oriented which I thought they were :-(

I do really like to nature of the this. I admire the big bosses still holds on to his principles after so many years, and able to make some money along the way. Yes, there are also other things that I am not happy about, but I can deal with that slowly. The main thing that bothers me is still the traveling part. It's not the best company. But good enough for me to want to stay on. That's one of the (small) contributing factors why we are moving house.

I hope I can hang on for a little while, maybe I just need to get by this period, and it would be smoother sailing after. If not, it's time to flip the Saturday's Straits Times. Let's see...........

Childcare search

2011-11-15T23:44:00.002+08:00

I thought it's going to be easy, as we don't really have any "checklist" to tick on, we don't need a branded one, we don't ask about the curriculum, we don't look at the menu closely, location is not that important either as long as it's convenient enough for us to drop them off on the way to work.

We go with 2 things in mind - within our budget and that we and the kids must feel comfortable with the centre. We have visited 4 centers so far over 2 consecutive weeks.

Childcare centre #1
When we arrived, I thought that's it! We were so lucky that we found the one, and that the search's over, just like that! The environment is great - big compound, 2 double-storey landed houses joint together so it's like the space of 3 big houses. We were like "WOW"!!! There is a small patch of area for the kids to grow vegetables at the front. The entire indoor area is very neat, organized, and clean, plus purposed built toilet for kids. Each group has a dedicated big classroom, plus common activities room like music room (even have a piano!) etc. Outdoor play is pretty good too. Meal is cooked by an auntie, even tea time is serving noodle soup or other cooked food, rather than the usual kueh, biscuit, pandan cake, etc. Teachers seemed professional. BUT BUT BUT, our heart sank to the bottom when the principal, whom we don't feel comfortable with (bleah!) told us they turn on the TV in the morning till 830am (breakfast time) and from 530pm onwards till the parents pick up their kids. So added up together, a kid could have watched a total of 2-3 hour of TV at this childcare. Big turn off for us, but great for those who doesn't mind the kids watching this much of TV, like the principle claimed - we only show "educational" program. While we were there, the kids sat on the floor and tilted their head (TV was placed on a pretty high cabinet) watching some Chinese nursery rhymes (with the MV totally not relating to the songs), and Barney, so "educational"!

Childcare centre #2
I was very impressed with this centre on the world wide web. It sounded really great and I put high hope on this, that it would match our expectations. In reality, it's really bad, pretty run down, felt like going out of business anytime kinda centre. The books they displayed on their "library" can be counted with my 2 hands. Kids were sitting lazily on the couch watching TV when we were there. The teacher who showed us around was like ya, we are like this loh, you want you come, you don't come better. Lesson learnt - must pay a visit, cannot trust the web, at all!

Childcare centre #3
This was done on the 2nd week. So we kinda lower our expectations. This one was pretty okay. Big compound, dedicated classrooms, neat, organized, friendly looking teachers. The drawbacks are everything is done within the compound, no outdoor activities at all. It's located on the 3rd storey of a building, no lift (won't mind the exercise except the kids would take forever to go up or down the stairs, or when both in bad mood, wanted me to carry :(). And parking could be a problem at peak hours. And oh, it's fully air-con. Yes, they let the kids watch TV too in the evening, but at least not in the morning, haa!

Childcare centre #4
Again, I put high hope on this, as it's a "branded" one, and it's more expensive comparatively to the above. Sigh! Totally disappointed :-( The outdoor play structures were so run down, dirty, tearing apart etc, and the garden is not maintained at all, that the grass patch has grown to knee height, so meaning no outdoor play for the kids? The sandpit could have been abandoned for a long time. Indoor is not any better, small room, run down, don't feel it's clean. Pathetic amount of books and toys. Kitchen was cooked in a small room (kinda) attached.

So, which childcare have we enrolled the kids to?

None of the above.

And re search is still on. Wr have 1.5 months to decide. A couple of centres that my fellow mummies have recommended have no vacancies, or 1 centre has for XY but not HR. Have not been doing anymore viewing last and this week. Wanna take a break. Probably the next round, I would go alone or with hub without the kids. Only when I have shortlisted okay ones, then will bring there to see, for their approval :) I can sense they, especially Hao Re, got a bit confused to have to visit so many centers but none would be their going-to-be school.

Wish us luck! Hope can stick to our budget.......

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Age is catching up.......

2011-11-13T23:21:00.001+08:00

......which explains the lack of posts lately :-(

For the past 2 weeks, after putting the kids to bed, though I tried to and wanted to wake up to spend some time on whatever - reading books, surfing net, blogging, doing house chores - I simply couldn't keep my eyes opened. Yes, it's as bad as that. Only managed to walk to the kitchen zombie-ish to wash their milk bottles, and that's it, headed back to the bed straight till the next morning :-( I am never a morning person, so I cannot wake up earlier because I sleep earlier, doesn't work that way.

Luckily the hub has been helping, on auto mode that is without having me to tell him what to do, with the laundry and other house chores, including ironing, mopping the floor, keeping the toys etc, else our house would be in a total mess for sure.

Gosh, feeling so bad :-( Not able to stay awake a little while to have some ME time is pretty sucks. Feel like not functioning well. Probably it's the added workload in the office, but I knock off at 530pm every day without fail, could it be the invisible stress that causes it? Been very busy at work lately as I took on more responsibilities, I haven't been this busy for years, but I am feeling good, coping well (I think), and glad to be this busy at work.

Also, there are the moving house stuff to worry about. We haven't even started packing yet. But just to think of the 1001 nitty gritty things, would make me tired out :-( Could imagine how to cope during the real move next month (good thing is my parents will come to help out, mostly to keep an eyes on the kids :-)).

One thing for sure - I am getting older year by year :-(( No longer like in the Uni days when I could burn midnight oil every day and didn't feel anything, stayed up to study till 3-4am and then woke up at 8am the next day for classes - those were the very young days, sigh!

Hope that it's a transition period that my body system is adjusting to - with the extra workload, hence more brain cells needed, and the invisible stress, etc. Hopefully I would go through this period and would be able to do more things at night.

I an still able to catch up on FB though, and still able to post a few status update or photos/videos weekly. Maybe I should consider double post in FB and this blog? Bu those who are following my blog + friends on my FB + fans on The Kam Family page, would be so bored with triple posting, haha. Let's see.

Wish everyone a great and production week ahead!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A small Fund Raising project - need your support

2011-11-10T00:25:00.002+08:00

We have revisited the same topic many, many times, over many occasions, at different places - whether to add another family member or not. The FINAL conclusion is - NO. We decided we would be coping well with 2 kids, and just nice. So, yup, no plan for another one, and we will make sure no "accident" should happen :-P

We will be moving house in December (details coming up later). So we figured it's a good time to let go of some of the pre-loved toys and baby essential items.

I am actually quite unwilling to let go of their toys, as most of the toys were presents received from dear families and friends when they were born or on their 1st birthday, all have special meaning. Things like those puzzles are pretty sentimental stuff to me, as these "witnessed" their first couple of theri growing up years. But they no longer playing with these for a long time, so it's better to clear up the space so their toy/book shelf can be neater.

To view these pre-loved toys and baby items - go to our Facebook Fan page, the photo album titled "Fund Raising - pre-loved toys and baby essential items for sales" or click "HERE". May add more items when I find more. Small items can be sent by post, while bigger items will be self-collect by buyers. Delivery may be possible for the west / north side, depending on the exact location and at our convenient.

Initially we thought of just giving it away. But then changed our mind. Would like to collect some money from these items, as these are still in good to excellent condition, and then all the money will be donated it to a charity. Decided on donating 100% of the money to World Vision. Though it won't be a lot of money, but it means a whole lot to those children in needs. Every buyer will do doing a good deed for the needy :-)

Hopefully will be able to sell all these off. Please kindly help to spread the words to your families, friends and colleagues!

Vitamin C - deficient or overdose?

2011-11-08T00:28:00.000+08:00

Was talking to Viv today. She told me something that was pretty shocking, though I knew the similar fact from a public talk, but I didn't know that it's that serious.

She took 2 Vitamin C chewable tablets meant for children, and the recommended dose is 2 tablets per day for a 3 years old. She took it because she was trying to make her son played along with the idea of sharing. Coincidentally, she went for a seminar on public health and did a blood test the following day. What caught the nurse an her eyes was that the reading for Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) was way exceeding the normal range - that was an adult taking recommended dose for a 3 year old, and the Vitamin C tablet was meant for children, plus that it's more than 12 hours after consuming!

According to the Health Promotion Board Singapore, the Recommended Dietary Allowances for a normal healthy 3 to 5 years old kid is 20mg of ascorbic acid a day. I didn't ask which brand Viv has got. But after I did a quick search on iHerb, I found out that chewable Vitamin C can be ranging from 250mg to 500mg per tablet - and that's more than 10x the Recommended Dietary Allowance!! And I am pretty sure I have seen tablet that is with much higher dosage than this. A medium size orange would have about 75mg of Vitamin C and that's enough for a daily requirement. Vitamin C is also found in other fruits and vegetables.

Often parents give Vitamin C and other supplements worrying that the kids might not have enough vitamins and minerals from their food intake. But parents rarely think of the possibility of overdosing and the consequences. Just google "vitamin C overdose" or similar term, or refer to this one for an easy read. Though 500mg it not considered high dose, and it's likely to be flushed out from the body in probably the next 24 hours (?), but why spend for the unnecessarily and make the body works harder for removing the excess?

While overdose of Vitamin C doesn't seem to be as detrimental, overdosing on other vitamins may be, for example, Vitamin A. I am not an expert in this area, but it's pretty easy to get good reading materials from the internet.

Unless your kid is eating very poorly that his growth is affected, it's very unlikely for a kid who drinks milk regularly and have reasonable food intake to be malnutrition (have you ever heard of a kid who is malnutrition in this developed country?). If you have to give your kid some kind of supplement for a peace of mind, consider multi-vitamin than a single source tablet, like Vitamin C tablet. Do consult your paediatrician who should be able to advise accordingly. Lastly, and most importantly, read the label of the tablet(s) that you give to your kid, in comparison to the Recommended Dietary Allowance published by the Health Promotion Board - know how much you are giving your kid versus how much he actually needs. Don't forget formula milk is also fortified with Vitamin and minerals that are important for the kids' growing up.

Too much of a good thing may not always be the best - moderation is still the key!

Arts and Crafts @ home November

2011-11-07T21:08:00.000+08:00

Hao Re is still very "on" with arts and crafts. Kept asking me why don't we stay at home and do arts and crafts. We went out the entire day on Saturday (to run errands in the morning and to visit the Zoo in the afternoon). So on Sunday, we promised that we would stay at home for the first half of the day so that we can do arts and crafts.
This is the outcome of the craft. Need not to say, it's another Mister Maker's inspired crafts :-)

We made use of the play-doh that we made a couple of weeks ago. We just left the ice-cream on the shelf and it's still reusable for this crafts, we just kneaded in a little bit of flour to harden it. Recipe for making play-doh is in <HERE>. So this one is a simple pirate ship. The base is made of rice grain and some beans, coloured into blue, mimicking the sea. The play-doh was shaped into a ship. Flags were made of straw and kitchen tissue. That is it. Simple but nice outcome :-)

This is another one we did the weekend before that I didn't manage to find time to post. We tried to make an elephant head with long trunk, if you can see. What Xi Yu described as 鼻子长长的大象 :)

Very simple craft. Just need 2 paper plates, paints, and materials to make the eyes and nose (up to you to create with whatever materials you want to use). For Xi Yu and Hao Re, you can see the vast different in their way of painting. Hao Re's one is so coordinated, especially how symmetrical it is between the two "ears". This was absolutely his own choice of colour and how he wanted to paint it. While for Xi Yu, she was not too keen in doing this actually. So she quickly painted the paper plates and went off to play.

We still have a few crafts from the Mister Maker books that we haven't done. Hopefully more to come (when we do some nice one).

Hair cut

2011-11-06T18:22:00.001+08:00

If only judged by how the kids respond when it's time hair cut, think we must be one of the luckiest parents on earth.

Yup, there is no resistance at all when we brought them to the hair salon. Never needed those specialized in children type of fancy and expensive ones, never needed to attempt to cut them while they are asleep. Just bring them to the neighborhood $7 hair cut and they go in happy, come out happy.

When they were younger, we needed to bribe them with sweets and ice cream and have iPhone ready for entertaining them.

In the recent 2-3 hair cuts, none of the above is needed. In fact, just today, Hao Re asked to be brought to the hair salon, because his hair was poking his eyes, he complained :) For Xi Yu, the hairdressers praised her that she is the most cooperative kid (of her age) they have ever seen :-)

Don't you agree this make us re luckiest parents on earth, kekeke :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

(Jigsaw) puzzles and young kids

2011-11-02T23:47:00.002+08:00

It's raining in the first half of the afternoon on Saturday, so we were home bound and the kids dug out all puzzles from the drawer and made our Saturday a puzzles making day :-)

So, I took the chance and did a "stock-take" since all the puzzles were out from the drawers. Guess how many sets of puzzles they both own, accumulated over the past 3 years or so? Considering that Hao Re is a puzzles lover, and Xi Yu started to like puzzles?

Make a guess?

Not 10.

Not 20.

Not 30.

They have a total of 43 set of puzzles!!! From the simple slot-in, to children puzzles, to the actual jigsaw puzzles. From the small few pieces puzzles to near one hundred pieces of jigsaw puzzles. From free to cheap to expensive, bad to good quality, bought from pasar malam to the proper jigsaw puzzle shops. I didn't know that would be the number until I finally counted all of them. Amazing, huh?

Friends who know our kids well, they know how good Hao Re is with the puzzles. He needs no training, no guidance, no help. Since young, he has excellent attention span. He has very good focus. He is full of confident. His love for puzzles is natural. So there was no effort put in, except buying him puzzles that suit his progress, and sometimes lead him to play with puzzles. He started with the slot-in. puzzles. He managed that very well when he was at about 1.5 years old. Then before long, he started with the 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-pieces jigsaw puzzles, and managed to build that comfortably at 22 months old. That was a really big achievement for a 22 month. We were very surprised by how well he took on jigsaw puzzles. So we gradually bought more jigsaw puzzles for him whenever we saw some - continued with 12-pieces, 20-pieces, 40-pieces, 48-pieces, 60-pieces,72-pieces, and the recent ones that he can manage, 96-pieces, when he was about 3.5 years old.

Xi Yu is totally different. She wasn't interest in the puzzles till very recently. She can manage those slot-in easily about the same time as Hao Re. But after that, she didn't want to try out the jigsaw puzzles, even with the simplest ones. Her attention span is not as good (though she can read/flip books for a long period of time). She doesn't play as independently, she likes to call or cry out for Mama whenever she can't fix pieces of the puzzles. We didn't push her, just let her be. All the times she observes how her brother builds the jigsaw puzzles, and she joins in or disturbs gorgor occasionally. We were very lucky, or she was very lucky - we bought a unique set of puzzles from Popular one day and that changed everything - we call that "life-changing" puzzle sets!! After completing these puzzles, she gained so much confident, and she likes to do puzzles a lot since. She moved on to completing the 12-pieces, 16-pieces and just today, 20-pieces, at 26 months. It's a pretty good achievement, I would say. I have a feeling that she might progress pretty fast after this, as if she has known the "secret" of how to build jigsaw puzzles, let me see if I am right.

Okay now, time to showcase the puzzles they have. From the simplest to the tougher ones.

These are the simple slot-in. Great for their fine motor skill for young children. May start them on this as early as 1 year old. Pick whatever that they are most interesting in - for my kids, it's animals! They learned the names of all those animals and alphabet and shapes while playing with puzzles. Wonderful toys! Got from various sources, Popular at JB and Singapore, Jaya Jusco Tebrau, and online (Amazon).

Hao Re went straight to these insert sets. Also got from Popular Tebrau City. Watch this videos of Hao Re building this puzzles while singing, super duper cute :-) Xi Yu has just mastered them too. It's not as easy as it doesn't have frame.

These are the "life-changing" sets that got Xi Yu interested in puzzles. Worth a try if your kid is the same like my gal. Each item is made out of 2 or 3 pieces, and to be fitted in to a specific shape, so it's easy for the young kids. We got it from Popular at Tebrau City, JB.

These are some random puzzles that we bought from some toy shops, very cheap, like $1 or $2 per set. One of these was free when we dined at a restaurant. Xi Yu mastered these soon after the "life-changing" set above.

You would notice we bought a lot of animal theme puzzles, because our kids love animals. These sets are good because the puzzles are of different or unequal shape and size, easier for the young kids to handle. Got from the same place, Popular Tebrau City. There are a total of 10 sets for this series, 10 different animals, in either 20-, 30-, or 40-pieces. We got 3 out of the 10. Xi Yu managed to do the 20-pieces Monkey one on Saturday.

Then auntie Viv bought this puzzle book for Hao Re, contains 5 sets of puzzles. Again, it's about animal. 16 pieces each. Hao Re loves this book. This is also the first series that he worked on which every piece of the puzzles are of the similar shape and size.

These 4 mini puzzles were received during Xi Yu's 1st birthday. Xi Yu started playing with these and was able to complete it most of the time.

These are the big odd shaped floor puzzles which are pretty fun to play with. Hao Re didn't really like these but these got Xi Yu interested in.

We have another puzzle book (5 sets, 48-pieces each) of dolphins. But I couldn't find this book anywhere.

And then we thought it's time to move on to more challenging one.

He was very, very into Thomas at that time. Saw this in a shop and he immediately asked for it. It's also the most expensive one we have bought so far, very good quality. Hao Re managed to complete it after a few try, despite that it's a 63-pieces puzzles! It's a great set that helps him to be confident with big complicated puzzles. It's specifically designed for children, where each piece is of different shape and size, making it much easier to play with, though it's complicated.

From the same shop, we also bought these 2 Thomas puzzles. Though these are 48-pieces, and because it's "frame-less", makes it more difficult than the one above, as these are exactly like the "adult" puzzles, where all are of similar size and shape. Hao Re rarely plays with this though he can complete these.

With so much success of the 63-pieces Thomas puzzles, we went back to the same shop and got this Mickey one. Same concept. Unfortunately, it didn't attract much of Hao Re's attention, he plays with it a few times only, though have no problem completing it.

We stopped buying puzzles for a while. Till we saw this animal set of 48-pieces which is like the adult puzzles. Hao Re likes this more than the Mickey one. Xi Yu started to play with this too. It's good as the jigsaw puzzles were cut out in such a way that it's easier for the children to find the matching puzzles.

Got this from pasar malam near our house. Quality not good, and the shapes are too odd that making it difficult to fix. Think this is the only set that Hao Re has never completed on his own.

Then we were looking for puzzles for a long time, wanting to get something a little more advanced so that Hao Re can challenge himself again. We searched for a long time and figured that the next "level" is straight to the 96-pieces "adult" puzzles. We were worried it's too much for Hao Re. But he really surprised us!

We got the Thomas (again, because he likes it) 96-pieces. The first few rounds, we were there to help him a little. Then he was able to complete the Thomas one in just under half an hour time! The Cars and the Doraemon ones were bought by uncle CX when he came to Singapore for work trip. Hao Re can do the Cars one, but haven't completed the Doraemon on his own yet.

That's how far Hao Re has progressed. It's time to look for the next level of puzzles again :-) Let us know if you have seen any nice puzzles.

Oh, if you have noticed, after so long, almost all sets are still fully intact, no lost pieces :-) Let me tell you how I did it - I make the puzzles after the kids go to bed, to make sure all pieces are there, if any pieces missing, I will look for it immediately. When I don't feel like doing puzzles, then I would put each set into a zip-lock bag, and somehow make the kids play with the same set again to make sure all pieces are there. Haha, ya, pretty stressful :-)

Before logging off, a few tips/advice to share:

1. Do not teach him how to do it. You know how we adults usually complete the side ones (make the frame first), do not teach him this. They have they own way to do it.

2. Be patient. It may take him 5 minutes just to fix 1 piece. Let him be. Don't offer to put it for him. You may guide him verbally, when he is really lost or getting impatient, like turn it the other way, try this one, try that one, but do not fix it for him.

3. Do not just give the puzzle set to him and then walk away. Though you are not supposed to help him, but you should sit with him, see him do it, give him a smile as encouragement, or say something to praise him when he fix a few pieces.

4. Do not set a timeline for him to complete a set. Let him take as long as needed.

5. Kids learn by repetition. It's okay that he plays with the same set for a few months, they won't get bored till he can fix the set effortlessly.

6. When he can complete a particular set in shorter and shorter time span, you know he is really for a more challenging set. Get new ones, that is appropriate for him (not necessarily age appropriate, but to follow his level of confidence and competency), to keep his interest.

7. They need lots of encouragement. Give them lots.

8. Enjoy the bonding time! Don't see it as a chore, but a quiet and calm period for quality bonding.

9. After all your effort, he still doesn't like puzzles, don't fret, try other activities. And come back to puzzles a few months later. Never give up on a certain good activity (same applies to food). But don't label him as "he doesn't like puzzles" (same as labeling him as "he doesn't like grapes" and never let him try again). He may not like it at that time, but do let him try again every few months, with lots of encouragement.

If you want to let your kids try out some of the puzzle sets we have, come visit us, I am sure Hao Re and Xi Yu won't mind sharing their puzzles :-)) Happy jigsaw puzzle-ing!!

Our first visit to the Labrador Nature Park

2011-10-29T23:51:00.001+08:00

Thought of exploring a new place (new as in places that we have not been to) than to go back to those we frequently go to.

So we headed to the Labrador Nature Park. It's a pretty nice park between the Keppel Club and the West Coast Park. It's along the coaster line of the west coast, so it offers nice scene and sea breeze. The park is not crowded (could be just today, as it's raining in the afternoon), hence it's quiet. Feeling good.

There are 2 parts of it. We didn't know anything about this park. So we just anyhow tried. First we followed the sign to Carpark A, which is up the hill, nice simple and short trek in the bush. There is a very cosy cafe too. We have our coffee while the kids and the grandparents have their fruit juice, plus the rojak that we packed from one of the coffee shops at Clementi (I know, quite a funny combination and to have it at a really cool cafe, keke).

It's a historical site. Something to do with World War II, think it was one of the battle ground (didn't read the signboards in details). So there is a fort thingy in front of the cafe.

We then saw the other side of the park, which was along the coastal line. We drove down instead of walked down so that we didn't have to walk up again. There are Carpark B and C. Apparently most people come to this side of the park. We walked a long the park slowly and enjoy the scene.

The kids are enjoying the park.

We were there from about 5 to 7pm. So bonus was to admire the sunset :-) Photos taken with my 2 years old iPhone3GS, not too bad ya :-)

There is a playground at the park. Surely the kids wanted to have a go with it. Xi Yu surprised us by climbing up the vertical stairs confidently (see the video below)! She wasn't able to do that the last time she used a similar stairs. Oh, now she can walk up and down the normal staircase without holding onto the railing or our hands.

Xi Yu climbing the stair independently! See how confident she is and how strong her arms are!

She then went through the tunnel, climbed another fly of stair, came to this very tall slide and slided down without any fear!

She repeated this many times. My very cool hubby said just leave her alone. No matter how cool I wanted to be, I just cannot be as cool as him. I tagged behind her whenever she climbed the stairs. It's only at the very last time when she climbed, probably she started to get tired, she slipped and almost fell!! I was so relieved that I was there to save her, well, she might hold on tight and might not fall, but if she did, she would have injured badly. I just have to be careful with her till she is as steady as Hao Re.

Where's Hao Re? This little boy really truly is a clean freak!! He climbed up to the structure, then he sat down and used his hand to sweep off all the sand on the floor! So many kids running around and made the floor sandy again once he has cleaned it. He kept on cleaning till we left :-P He did the same when we were at West Coast Park last Sunday. Such a funny boy!

Sure we will come back again!

爱的承诺

2011-10-26T00:53:00.002+08:00

两年过去了，似乎从没一天能好好的，完完全全的去爱我的小淅瑜。
心中的愧疚，无法言传，无人能了解。
真的，一直都是在找借口，以不同的理由来说服自己。
累，不是借口。
忙，不是借口。
睡不好，也不是借口。
妹妹爱哭，爱撒娇，坏脾气，更不成理由。

爱，对孩子的爱，是不应该有条件的。
对孩子的爱，是要完整的，

不是不知道，是知道的。
也不是做不到，是做得到的，就如对皓日般，我很清楚我是能做得到的。
一却唯心造也。
要时时提醒自己，好好的去观照内心。

两年两个月了。
总算醒悟了！
虽然来迟了，总比继续迷糊来的强。

不能再有任何的借口。
不能再错下去。
不能再让这错误继续下去。
最后一次了。
不会再说同样的话了。

淅瑜，妈妈终于学会了如何去爱你！
连你那么一个小瓜也懂得无私的爱，为什么妈妈现在才懂？
淅瑜，过去的让它过去，我们重新开始，好吗？
让妈妈从新出发，用心的去对待你，完全的爱你，好吗？

妈妈爱你！
就像爸爸那样的爱你，就像哥哥那么的保护你！
淅瑜宝贝，这是妈妈对你的承诺。

Parenting Quotes

2011-10-26T00:03:00.000+08:00

Was reading Young Parents Issue August 2011 while Hao Re was attending his piano classes the Sunday before last. Came across these quotes, they were taken from people who are involved in childcare related businesses, either an educator or business woman. I think some are pretty good that I should share it here:

Working mum

2011-10-18T00:26:00.000+08:00

It's not easy to be a working mum. We need to juggle work and home.
We want to be a good employee, a good mum and a good wife.
We want to achieve our KPIs at work.
We want to give our best to our family.
All at the same time, to achieve work life balance.

It's a little tougher when we don't have help.
No maid because we don't want to give up on our privacy or we cannot tolerate things not being done the way we want, or both, or for other 99 reasons.
At times it can be very challenging.
We just bite the bullet and do it.
We can do it because we are mums/dads.

It gets even tougher if one (mum in particular, no so much for a dad I reckon) needs to travel for work.
For me, the traveling part is actually okay.
Except we need to arrange for grandparents or relatives to travel to this tiny island down south to help out everytime a travel need arises.
It's in fact a nice break for me from the routine.
Stay in a nice hotel, have dinner and shower peacefully and a few nights of totally undisrupted sleep.
Get to solve a lot of work issues very effectively.
But what makes traveling not okay was when you bid goodbye to the kids, telling them you are going off for a work trip, they cried buckets, struggle to get off from the Baba and Grandma, and reaching out their hands for Mama.
Hao Re even had nightmares, woke up crying for Mama in the middle of the night.
Made me thought of quiting my job at that very moment.
Was feeling so guilty and was really sad that I have to do this to my kids.
But, but, but, when I called my husband just now,
Apparently they didn't even mention about Mama, and no more crying at all.
They were happily watching TV, which was not allowed when Mama is around.

So for a working mum who needs to travel for work every 1-2 month, it's actually not as bad.
As long as the travelling keeps to this low frequency.
Any increase in the travelling frequency, I would have to ask to change my job scopes or look for other jobs.
Just gonna make the most out of it, when I have to sacrifice my family for this.

See you, my dear kids and hubby in another 80 hours!

Arts and Crafts @ home

2011-10-14T23:05:00.001+08:00

We were browsing the two Mister Maker books that I got for him many months ago, when we were really crazy about Mister Maker then (see, it's not always bad to watch TV, if not for the TV program, we would not have done so many arts and crafts, or worse still, I didn't even know how to start! But no, if you are curious, we are still on "NO TV policy", the TV hasn't been switched on for them till today). During that crazy period, we did one Mister Maker crafts every day right after watching it on the TV, and we did it for a consecutive of 2 weeks. Then it gets cool down, we did it once in a while by picking a page from the book (haven't watched Mister Maker on TV for a long time).

These last few weeks, Hao Re has been asking me to do arts and crafts again. He brought me the book almost every day, asking me to do a craft with him. We started with browsing the books, reading the books, and to reading every single detail of the pages, but I always gave him reasons that we don't have certain materials needed (it's an excuse, really). I just don't feel like doing, bad mummy I am, worried about the mess that Xi Yu would make :-) Yes, it's not Hao Re, but Xi Yu, as she couldn't take instructions very well (already very good for her age) and she loves to mess things up.

Until one day, on a weekend, Xi Yu was taking her nap, so I thought it's the best time to do a simple craft with Hao Re, and so we did. That made him so happy!! I should have done this weeks ago, hehe.

Basically just stuck some cotton wool onto a board, then paint the different shapes form using different colours (I was still lazy, only let him choose 3 colours, hehe).

Then, just a couple of days ago, we finally got to do a nice one! That's because my parents are around, and they help to entertain Xi Yu (she was not interested to join us anyway) while me and Hao Re got on with this play-dough ice-cream! It's a really fun crafts, from painting the cup to make it like a ice-cream cone, to mixing and kneading the flour/salt/water/colouring to play-dough, and then form a ice-cream.

So mighty happy with the ice-cream he made, he has been asking to do this for weeks! End result was pretty good ya. Hao Re did everything from the beginning till the end, with the guide and help from me. Wonderful craft!

Yes, both crafts are ideas of Mister Maker (from the books).

And the play-dough recipe here, think some of you may ask. We have tried 2 versions of making play-dough.

First version (more elaborated or original version that I got from a fellow mummy):

250g water
100g cooking salt
1Tbs cream of tartar (optional)
280g plain flour
15g oil
Food colouring

-Mix everything except colouring in a pot. Cook over medium heat until it becomes thick, ready for kneading. Will take about 5-10mins.

- Then put on floured surface. When it's cool enough to handle, knead till dough is no longer sticky and play-dough is smooth.

- Divide up accordingly and knead in colouring.

Though it's more work and involved heating up, the end product is nice, smooth and just like those commercial one!

Second version (modified or short-cut or lazy version):

100g cooking salt
1Tbs cream of tartar (optional)
280g plain flour
250g
Food colouring

- Mix salt, flour and cream of tartar briefly. Then add in water and mix (add more water if necessarily to get the right softness).

- Knead till play-dough is smooth.

- Divide up accordingly and knead in colouring.

Easy to do. Good when you only need the play-dough to make some craft, like what we do for the ice-cream cone. Though it can also be kept and reuse, Hao Re didn't let me destroy his ice-cream and it got harden.

Hope we can do more these few weeks when my parents are around to help out :-)