Blessings from Above

thanks to Aunty J & Aunty G, we had a fun-filled halloween (bbq) night with lots of yummy food & chit-chatting while the toddlers had their 1st experience of 'trick or treating'! each of us invited were supposed to bring/prepare some food/drink item, dress up our kid in a costume as well as bring a toy to entertain them & a healthy snack for the 'treats'. i spent a couple of hours scouring the malls for suitable snacks and finally selected these 3. Organix - Organic Noughts & Crosses, Laughing Cow - Cheese Snack & Marks & Spencer - Organic Milk Chocolate for the adults... i prepared chicken curry & fried beehoon (which was unfortunately too wet coz my helper didn't discard the water after soaking the beehoon) - no photos though, as we rushed out almost immediately after i finished cooking... coz i thought we *were* late! photos next... the toddlers warming up to each other & playing with the toys we prepared all th

first up, i don't think any of us really enjoyed this trip - dh was totally exhausted from all that driving, li'l one was feverish the whole weekend, i didn't enjoy the journey coz of the space constraint (times like this i always wish that we had a MPV!) and my parents had to endure li'l one's incessant whining/crying in the car. saturday, 25/10/08 we left my parents' place around 11am and was caught in a (bearable) jam at the tuas checkpoint (as expected) - made a quick lunch stop just after we crossed over to malaysia. along the way, li'l one was grumbling/whining/crying/fussing as she was running a temperature. she didn't really want to be in the car-seat and i had to carry her most of the way, nursing her so that she could go to sleep. she had no appetite for any food at all and only want (breast)milk the whole weekend. i feared greatly for her safety since the north-south highway is infamous for traffic accidents even though dh is one of th

happy 18mth old our dearest princess... WE LOVE YOU! i'm so proud of my li'l gal :- she has no bad habits (sleeps through the night, doesn't suck her thumb, doesn't use the pacifier, shares her things, says please & thank you, listens to instructions - most of the time, etc) she's a brave gal (rarely cries - even if she does - e.g. after being vaccinated or falls down, she stops promptly when i soothe her) she impresses me every day with new skills and knowledge she observes and learns at amazing speed she readily shows her affection to those who love her dearly

i've been thinking about this increasingly as we inch nearer to what people term as 'terrible twos' syndrome but before i share about my own parenting style, here's the background on the way i was brought up. i'm the younger of 2 siblings and my sis is 7 years older than me. we are not as close as i'd like to be (probably due to the age difference). as far as i can remember, my home always had more than 4 inhabitants as my parents would take in foreign students (ranging from 2 to 6 at any time) under their care and thus, we always had a domestic helper at home. both my parents worked (my mom in the civil service & my dad, a businessman) and thus i was cared for, mostly by the domestic helpers - the good ones, took relatively good care of me, the others, made me do their chores. i spent a great deal of time in school as i was in one of the top ten schools in singapore that had a full day curriculum. i don't remember much of my childhood but in high sch

can't remember how many times we have already been to the zoo this year but today, i took the opportunity to bring our domestic helper along as she has never been there before (the only tourist spot she visited so far is sentosa) - we didn't take many photos though... just a couple for the kids. and as always, HE blessed us with good weather (it started drizzling only when we were in the cab on the way home). left the place disappointed (& hungry) coz the cafe was closed and i didn't get the chance to eat my usual chicken rice - the only venue selling food inside (other than kfc) only had 4 selections (nasi lemak, fried rice, vegetarian friend beehoon & meehoon) which did not appeal to my palate (nor pocket - each pathetic set was going for S$7.50) and we had to cab home since there was no one to hitch a ride from and it costed us S$20+. don't ask me why but li'l princess was exhausted from the trip and had to take a FOUR hour nap! at the entrance wai

turning 18 months old! how time flies... (yes, cliché and i've already said it many times!) her appetite took a dip in the last couple of days (again) and all these while, i've been thinking that its her molar cutting through that is bothering her! how wrong can i be?!? its not one, but FOUR of her teeth cutting through all at once! *sigh*... my poor baby! i soothed her today with teething gel, lots of hugs & kisses and allowed her to nursed as much as she wanted and she finally drifted off to la-la land! i'm keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps up with the good job of sleeping through the night! *side note* she went from 8 to 12 teeth just like that and bad mummy did not record down the dates that the various teeth erupted!

coincidentally, children's day falls on a public holiday this year so gives us an opportunity (of sorts) to 'celebrate' it with dd. after much deliberation, we decided to take her to the nearest park & check out the stables that i've read so much about. honestly though, it was like any other weekend that we spend with her, nothing fanciful; no special treats nor presents... i guess we are just not the sorta parents who indulge our child excessively and to us, time spent together is in fact the best gift we can ever give to her, more so than any material goods. as usual, our active child was happy to be out and about! practising her motor-skills her fav. activity @ the playground - rocking rides! checking out the (smelly) pony @ the stables - maybe she can learn to ride horses when she is older! in the meantime, she will have to be contented with riding wooden horses though... :)