Maternity Shots

While browsing through my old photos, I told my husband that we should go for a professional maternity photoshoot this time round to preserve the little moments. 

After browsing through many websites, we finally decided on Bambini Photography for their natural style and looks.

The package cost $499 which includes 75 mins of studio session, 1 piece of 8" by 12" Print, 1 piece of 5R Print, 28 edited soft copies, props, outfits and flowy fabric drapes provided. 

It was a great 90 mins with the photographer, Melissa. Kris warmed up after 20 mins into the photography session and as amateurs to angles, poses and public display of affection. We were patiently guided by Melissa through the entire process. The photos turn out great even without editing (The lightings were good, we were natural, the smiles are so warm). 

Happy New Year 2017

Happy New Year everyone and I wish everyone a health and happy 2017 ahead.

For myself, 2016 has been wonderful in terms of work and family. 2017 will bring me greater challenge being a mother of two with a challenging career.

Welcoming a new addition to our family

As I stay confined this Christmas and New Year, we would like to welcome our 2nd bundle to this world. Hello little boy and welcome to this world.

Kris has been showing mixed feelings for her little brother and me these few days

• When she came to visit me at the hospital, she refuses to greet nor hug me. Frankly, I was slightly upset. After discharge and a few days later, I asked her why she refused to hug me in the hospital? "Because, you are sick and you got a needle poking your hand"
• When she saw me feeding her brother for the first time, she burst out in tears asking her father to feed the baby instead.
• The moment she reaches home from school, she looks for her little brother and shower him with her soft toys butttt taking them back after a few days. 
• Hugging and carrying her little brother became a daily affair (of course with the aid of mama and papa)

As for me, being a second time mama 

• I'm more familiar with the pain and process that comes after labour
• I'm more in charge of what to do during confinement month
• Learning how to juggle between a newborn and at the same time not neglecting the older child
• There is limited "ME" time now with 2 children. After the newborn sleeps, I have to pat the older child to bed and finally myself.
• Learning multi-tasking (I need to grow 6 more arms)

Thankfully, I have my husband around during the past weeks to help me with those small but important task (groceries, taking care of the older child so that I can get my rest and wink, choosing of names, fixing the car seat and running multiple errands).

Will you slap your child?

While shopping at Daiso, I witnessed a parent slapping his son about 4-5 years old. I was shocked and left me thinking whether I will publicly display such acts.
It left me troubled for a few days and I wondered what scars will it leave on the child? Will it lead them to be abusive adults? Will it dampen their self confidence?
Personally, I agree to discipling your child behind closed doors and not yelling or hitting them in public causing them to be in the limelights at times.
What do you think?

Christmas celebration 2016

As we are grounded this year, our Christmas celebration became a simple family affair.

Kris was over joyed with all the Christmas decoration that she saw

• Orchard Gateway: Mermaid sighting and bubblestorm. This got her exciting and raving for 2 weeks and keep pleading us to go again and again so that she can revisit the mermaid and pop those bubbles.  "Mama, where is the mermaid mama and papa?"
• Centrepoint: The giant clock, muffins, cupcake, gingerbread man are every girls dream. We stood there staring at the muffin for a while. Strawberries cake here I come.
• Orchard Central: The pastel white and blue Christmas tree looks absolutely gorgeous.
• Ion: White reindeer's are so mythic
• Jem: Lighted reindeer's got her all excited again
• Tanglin Mall: For its daily 8pm foam party

While shopping at Ikea, my husband brought a miniature Christmas tree for Kris to decorate as we are not taking out our huge Christmas tree this year.

All clingy when she saw the mermaid

Year End Concert

My little butterfly performed so well during her school year end concert. No stage fright at all.

Changi love kids

For the entire month of Oct, Changi runs a program to welcome kids to it's facilities.

• Some restaurants conducted promotion where kids eat for free for each paying adult.
• All kids get a free "Changi love kids" pack where it contains an activities book with various activities such as maze, sticker page, dotted lines etc. The pack also comes with a mini block colouring pen which is absolutely great. This pen is so convenient that I packed it in my bag and lug it wherever I go. 
• With every $50 spent in a single receipt, we got to exchange for 2 kiddy ride session. There are numerous kiddy rides that the kids could choose from. 
• For kids who are tall enough, the could also redeem for T3@slides rides. Unfortunately, Kris wasn't tall enough for the slides :(

PS: Kris enjoyed going to the airport and welcoming her papa home. It's always heart warming to see them run towards one another and ended up in a warm hug. My 2 chipmunks.

Blast from the past

The saying of days are slow but years are fast is true. I recalled carrying Kris home when she was just born feeling the jittery of caring of a newborn every day and night and her depending on me for her daily food, play and attention.

Now, she is my little helper. Helping us to throw certain things away in the rubbish bin, grab our tv remote control, role playing as master chef junior, wearing her own shoes and helping to press the lift down on a daily fashion.

She is also able to converse in full sentences with us now which left us rather speechless at times.

At Birth

At 3 years old

Hello Kitty Cafe @Changi Airport T3

Hello Kitty Cafe has arrived in Singapore!!!

We decided that this definitely warrant a visit as Kris has gone "gaga" over this character recently but the question is when is the right time? We are extremely afraid of long queue and waiting time and so decided to visit the cafe on a weekday morning.

Kris was extremely happy and beaming with joy when I told her where we are going that morning.

The cafe was beautifully decorated with lost of kitty character stuff (Balloons, Tables and chairs, Ribboned box). Kris couldn't stop posing with the characters when she arrived.

Personally, I felt that the place was beautifully decorated and somewhat very dreamy. A nice place to have a cup of coffee or tea. However, the food was not yummy and slightly over priced.

Activity Village

As Kris is still very involved in her scissors (cutting motor skills), I'm thinking of activities for her to do instead of cutting random shapes and sizes.

I chanced upon this website and found it contain various activities for the kids to do and that include activities sheet for cutting straight, wavy and zig zag lines.

She is totally thrilled when I presented her the activities sheets and started to cut. Although, not prefect but we will get there as we practiced together on the zig zag lines.


http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/cutting_fringes_dotted.pdf

Discipline

I was chatting with my friend C over the discipline of our growing child. Every parents have their own unique way of teaching and disciplining their kids but what is the best method? Over the years, I realized that there are no best methods but rather what work best for you and your child.

Do not follow the method blindly just because it work on another child, remember each child is unique and special in their way.

I'm glad that I have never use the cane on Kris before and once I broad up the conversation of purchasing a cane with Kris and she shook her head ferociously and tell me that she does not need one as she is a good baby. 

My good baby has her up and down days as well. Oh well, testing my patience (That's what my husband say).

Fine Motor skills

I was brought up thinking that scissors and cutters are not for kids below 5, I was so wrong. Kris approached me one day and requested for a pair of scissor to cut some organic shapes.

I was thinking to myself what are organic shapes?

I brought a pair of scissor and a pair of patterned scissor from Ikea (that are suitable for children) for $4.90.I didn't know that this purchase could actually keep her occupied for a while for a longggg time.

First, she will request for some papers and start her usual doodling and colouring. After which, she will cut her paper into tiny bits and start to re-arrange them like tiny puzzles or even "cook" them in her mini kitchen station. Recently, I got some ice cream sticks hand me down from my cousin and this had her creating her own "boat" with a little help from mama.

Singapore Art Museum

I decided to go on a museum spree these few weeks bringing Kris to explore our various different museum which are absolutely free for residents of Singapore.

Imaginarium exhibit at Singapore Art Museum are scheduled to close this Jul 2016. 

Delving into the deep, Imaginarium: Over the Ocean, Under the Sea – the sixth edition of SAM’s children-focused annual exhibition – invites adventurers of all ages into the watery realms of our Earth as seen through the eyes of contemporary artists. So many recycle items are put to use here, cardboard boats, plastic tunnel etc. Kris had fun at the plastic tunnel where she remembered all the plastic bottles and wrappers that were commonly used  in our day to day lives and reminded her of our recycle bin at home. The coral exhibits is indeed gorgeous and so well done . All the items (almost) are hand knitted. Kris had fun in this room running here and there, touching the different corals and of course jumping up and down on the enormous whale. There is also a dark room with a giant lit ball where kids are allow to push the ball (gently) around the dimension of the room. We had a fun time pushing the ball to one another in this room and at times we pushed so hard that it rolled over Kris and had her giggling. We exited the room with "black" hands as there are points on the ball that we embedded with charcoal. However, she dozed off after lunch and we took the chance to return home for a quick recharge. I would recommend children of age 2.5 - 5 years old to visit the art museum as they will be better to interact better with all the stuff around them.

Singapore Art Museum

I decided to go on a museum spree these few weeks bringing Kris to explore our various different museum which are absolutely free for residents of Singapore.

Imaginarium exhibit at Singapore Art Museum are scheduled to close this Jul 2016. 

Delving into the deep, Imaginarium: Over the Ocean, Under the Sea – the sixth edition of SAM’s children-focused annual exhibition – invites adventurers of all ages into the watery realms of our Earth as seen through the eyes of contemporary artists. So many recycle items are put to use here, cardboard boats, plastic tunnel etc. Kris had fun at the plastic tunnel where she remembered all the plastic bottles and wrappers that were commonly used  in our day to day lives and reminded her of our recycle bin at home. The coral exhibits is indeed gorgeous and so well done . All the items (almost) are hand knitted. Kris had fun in this room running here and there, touching the different corals and of course jumping up and down on the enormous whale. There is also a dark room with a giant lit ball where kids are allow to push the ball (gently) around the dimension of the room. We had a fun time pushing the ball to one another in this room and at times we pushed so hard that it rolled over Kris and had her giggling. We exited the room with "black" hands as there are points on the ball that we embedded with charcoal. However, she dozed off after lunch and we took the chance to return home for a quick recharge. I would recommend children of age 2.5 - 5 years old to visit the art museum as they will be better to interact better with all the stuff around them.

Gingerbread man day

We decided that today is baking day. We brought a packet of greenfield gingerbread premix from our local super market and get our baking items ready.

This was so easy. All we need is to mix the premix with1 egg, 2 tablespoon of water and 2 tablespoon of butter, knead it into a dough and let it rise of 10 minutes in the fridge.

When the dough is ready, our mini master chef is all ready with rolling and decorating. This got her occupied for 30 minutes. I threw in additional garnish such as chocolate chip and plain M&M.

She enjoyed seeing the end result of her labour and was excited to share her gingerbread men with our neighbour and cousins.

It was quite tasty actual.

Isn't the gingerbread men lovely

Getting ready

Sleeping patterns

I was told that kids changes rapidly during their growing up stages. They develop habits (good and bad) and can get over them the very next day. So for us parents, do not fret and think it's the end of the world if they develop some habits that you totally do not like.

Take for example Kris's sleeping habits, she grew from a cot baby..to a mattress toddler...to our bed invader...revert back to mattress, became a 360 turner then now back to our bed again.

Now when I look back at Kris's 3 yrs, I'm totally glad that independence levels are increasing in Kris development charts as she would volunteer to throw her own rubbish, wear her own shoes and even help me at times.

PS: At times, I relish back at the times when she is crying non stop and all she needs is me and my cuddles. My little chipmunk.

Sleeping patterns

I was told that kids changes rapidly during their growing up stages. They develop habits (good and bad) and can get over them the very next day. So for us parents, do not fret and think it's the end of the world if they develop some habits that you totally do not like.

Take for example Kris's sleeping habits, she grew from a cot baby..to a mattress toddler...to our bed invader...revert back to mattress, became a 360 turner then now back to our bed again.

Now when I look back at Kris's 2.5 yrs, I'm totally glad that independence levels are increasing in Kris development charts as she would volunteer to throw her own rubbish, wear her own shoes and even help me at times.

PS: At times, I relish back at the times when she is crying non stop and all she needs is me and my cuddles. My little chipmunk.

Sleeping patterns

I was told that kids changes rapidly during their growing up phrase. They develop habits (good and bad) and can get over them the very next day. So for us parents, do not fret and think its end of the world if they develop some habits that you do not like. Take for example Kris's sleeping habits, she grew from a cot baby..to a mattress toddler...to our bed invader...revert back to mattress 360 turner then now back to our bed again.

Now when I look back at Kris's 2.5 yrs, I'm totally glad that independence is increasing in Kris development charts.

PS: At times, I relish back at the times when she is crying non stop and all she needs is me and my cuddles. My little chipmunk.

Nail Stickers

I can't rave enough of this nail stickers that had just the right sizes for Kris's chubby fingers. The nail stickers seem like it's being perfectly tailored for kids as each sticker size is just nice for those tiny hands.

For a price of US$6.00, its comes with 25 pieces of nail stickers of varying sizes. That work out to 24 cents per piece. Slightly steep.

The adhesive turns out well and could easily be removed from the wrapper and transfer to Kris's nail. The important part is that it sticks well!!! Typically, lasting more than a week if Kris didn't start peeling them off. Unlike for some other brands that I have bought which fell off within minutes.

I'm able to complete 10 nails within 5 minutes! This is totally safe for kids as they are not being expose to the toxic that some nail colors contains.

When the kids get tired of the design, you can easily peel them off their nails. 

Happy shopping to their large array of designs.

Brand: NPW

End product

Art and Craft

Painting seem to be our weekly affair now. A tray of different water colours and 2 types of different paint brushesgoes a long way. Helps to teach Kris about colour recognition and also how to paint within the lines.

However, things do get slightly messy when she doodle on the table as well.
 

Fingers can be a good source of stamping too

Fingers stamping

Playdoh

Imagination is all you need when you come to kneading dough. There are endless creativity and ideas from our little chipmunk. She enjoyed her weekends morning kneading kaya butter bread for mama and prata for papa.

Those little pair of scissor and dough stamper helped to train her fine motor skills as well.

This can keep her occupied for a longgg while (often it's us who requested her to stop).

Different sizes of bread

My Kaya butter bread

Imitation

It can be funny at times when Kris try to learn by imitating us, help us to order our regular coffee during weekend mornings "KOPI SI" or imitating us when we are angry. This tickles us at times. At the same times, teaches us to be mindful what we say or do in front of her. Being parents is not an easy piece of cake.

Are you happy?

Kris: Mama, are you happy?
Me: (Caught unaware) Yes, I am. are you happy Kris?
Kris: Yes. I love mama.

Ahhhh. Totally melted me. My jealous husband was asking our darling daughter on why she didn't ask him this question.

Art and Craft

A visit to Daiso and we decided to do some art work during our Sunday afternoon. We bought some A3 drawing paper and glitter glue from Daiso.

I drew some shape and have Kris squeeze the glitter glue (5 tubes cost $2) and "spread" the glue using a paint brush. She absolutely loved it and  have me drew various shapes and animal for her "special" painting works.

Taipei and Miaoli

Our first vacation of the year and we decide on Taipei for a few factors

• Cooling weather
• Flight time is below 7 hours
• No time differences between Singapore and Taipei
• Quite safe in general

Verdict
To our dismay, it's rainy on most days. Luckily both A and Kris had rain coats. It's important to be well equipped for rainy days especially with kids around.Maybe that explains all the luggage that I lug over.

Sakura flowers are also available in Taipei!!! We went to Yangmingshan and the entire place is littered with many different variety of flowers. A nice place to relax and walk around in this weather. The flower season is from 31 Jan till 20 Mar.

Make sure that you are comfortable with your kid eating street food or else stay away from them. We couldn't resist the temptation of walking and eating along the street so do Kris. Sampling of food is fun.

Releasing sky lantern along shifen seem enjoyable and fun for Kris as she took her time doodling on the lantern prior to release them into the sky and awe in wonder as the lantern flew up.

Flying cow ranch @ Miaoli is also a nice place to go especially with young kids. We went at about 1pm and I'm thankful for that else we will have to squeeze and crowd with at least visitors with 10 over schools excursion. Kris took her time to walk around the area, had numerous attempts feeding the baby cows as there wasn't much competition around, the animals feed was generally quite reasonably priced at TWD10 per feed.  Kris spent about 30 minutes at the sheep barn asking the sheeps to queue and behave. We spent about 4 hours walking round the ranch.

Hiring a private taxi is costly but it seem a better choice for us as it provide us with the flexibility of time and space that we needed. 6 hours of private taxi hire cost about TWD2,200.

The accommodation, Zhe Juan Meng Tian that we stayed in Miaoli is so cosy and feel so at home that Kris does not want to leave the place. Leaving for home seem so hard as she made friends with the house dogs and cats and had fun in the premise where its filled with slides, swings, little dog figurines.

We spent a relaxing day around Sanyi where we went wood painting. Kris selected her own wood sculpture and we spent the next 2 hours painting the sculpture. The price of the sculpture range from TWD250 till TWD800.

We spent about 2 hours at Beitou Hot Spring Resort which is convenient located within 5 mins walk from Xinbeitou MRT station.  We had a private room @ TWD1,950 to ourselves which came equip with 2 separate hot / cold tub, shower cubicle, WC cubicle, a bed and TV. Kris refer this to indoor swimming as the tub was huge enough to fit all 3 of us. We bought some bath toys along to keep Kris occupied. The package came with 2 cups of hot beverage coupled with a small slice of cake. Kris told me the next day and a few days later that she wanted to go indoor swimming again. 

It's also important not to packed your day with activities right from the start of the day as it could be pretty stressful for both the kids and the parents. Our activities are loosely packed and we can spend about 30 minutes walking from the hotel to the train station where in fact it only takes 10 minutes as we stopped by watching birds flew by or get distracted with other sights.

The nursery room at Taoyuan airport is WELL EQUIPPED. I'm totally surprised. The room contained warm wet wipes, diapers of various sizes, various pigeon products containing lotions and washes. Kris refused to leave the room as it's so well decorated with a bear theme.

Flying cow Ranch

 

Zhe Juan Meng Tian house dog

Cows enclosure at Flying cow ranch

Welcome the morning with a little swing at Zhe Juan Meng Tian