Blessings from Above

that's what our li'l princess likes to say whenever we are out after a while - so for the longest time, i have been contemplating on buying a twin stroller. never mind that we ALREADY have two strollers... to me, it just made more sense to push around a twin stroller than to push around TWO strollers, one with each hand - a bit like doing stunt, don't you think? And yes, I know they sell clips to attach two strollers together but that's provided the two strollers are similar.... we have a Jeep umbrella stroller and an Aprica one so i don't think those clips works.... and i finally found my solution today! i have seen these around but all the shops i asked told me that it CANNOT fit my Jeep... but guess what, i found that there are in fact three sizes and the 'mini' one solves my problem! :) now i'm happy as can be! my hunt for a twin stroller can FINALLY end... *i just have an affinity with sweden made products for some reason

saw this in our local daily today.... well, lady if you need OFFICIAL reports to tell you NOT to leave your child unattended... here it is! how appropriate... :P if u need to read the article, email me - i have it in PDF.

we visited kids explorer @ downtown east y'day, together with mummy D & jesse. half way through our playtime, i noticed a familiar face... he was running amok all by himself at the indoor playground for a good half hour and we are talking about a toddler here, who has yet turn 4. i'm appalled that there was no adult around AT ALL to supervise him. at first, i thought it was his play school that brought him there and was wondering which irresponsible school would leave a toddler to play all by himself but found out today, that it was actually his MOTHER who left him alone to play there (while she went to get lunch). granted, there are other adults around but seriously who would be bothered with another person's kid if they have their own kid(s) to mind, until the accident (if any) happens? of course, you may say that the indoor playground is relatively safe but ACCIDENTS do happen, otherwise why are they called ACCIDENTS and why would the playground have a 'no liabi...

another 4am and i'm up again - this time, awaken by the dog's sudden barking... C has been exhibiting terrible behavior the past few days - whining and crying excessively for attention and refusing to co-operate at all! where has my li'l angel gone to? Coupled with my overloaded schedule & pressure to clear my production before i pop, i lost it too many times - screaming and caning her when she refuses to stop! i'm a BAD mother!! *sigh*... she is clearly testing our patience - is this the 'terrible twos stage' that so many talk about or is it because we are nearing the arrival of #2? i had the afternoon off today to think through the events of the past few days. Her behavior is clearly attention seeking and us losing our temper definitely doesn't help at all! i refuse to end our day last night the same way we did the past few nights so we made that extra effort not to scold and speak gently to her at bedtime - it is evident that the gentle approach...

i've been asked this a lot recently - what's the gender of #2? when i give my answer, i usually get this response 'good! can close shop already...' funny how we have been 'brain-washed' by our gah men that 2 is the magic number (that was what our parent's generation were told) and the consequence? we have to import 'foreign talent' now... to make up for the 'lack of offsprings' - so much for having foresight! so i say, if you can afford it - have more! i know that we all want to give the best to our young ones - but i believe that we can make the most out of the limited resources that (almost) everyone has. we (dh & i) are far from wealthy but we do have the luxury of me not having to slog it out to contribute to the family finances (as with many of my friends who are SAHM). this allows me to spend time with our li'l ones in their formative years - sure, we can do with a bigger house, a bigger car or more luxury goods, who doesn...

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...

out of our 'normal' weekend schedule, dh and i spent the afternoon 'away' from C. we originally planned to bring her along but in the end, my parents called up early in the morning and offered to babysit her (i'm glad we didn't bring her along eventually - some of the parents did and their kids were screaming, shouting and crying in the auditorium and thus 'disturbing' the rest of us but i don't blame the kids - they don't know any better). our local tv station put together a short afternoon seminar titled 'perfecting parenthood', which i'd thought would be pretty interesting (and so, dragged dh along) - i mean, parenting is probably one of the biggest responsibilities we will ever have in our entire lives yet it is an area that we don't receive any formal training other than by observing our parents (and maybe other parents) and through our own experiences as a child (i was brought up like that and i like/dislike it so i'm go...

i came across this website ( http://www.naturalchild.org ) when googling and find it so useful... so take some time to read some of the articles there! i've been breastfeeding my baby for more than one year now and somehow, it came so naturally to me - from the moment i was carrying her, there was no doubt that i would breastfeed her. strange if you consider that i was not breastfed, my sis did not breastfeed, no close family members around me breastfed (or were breastfeeding) except for one cousin and only a friend or two breastfed (and are still breastfeeding). recently, mom has been bugging me to wean her off so that i can have another child but since i believe that children are god's gift from heaven, there is really no reason for me to do so. i will have another child when god thinks i'm ready and i will be happy to tandem nurse them. on a different note altogether, dh has been away for the last two weeks for his in-camp training and claire's schedule is all ups...

with the festive season around the corner, we have been going out quite a bit - mostly to catch up with friends and do last minute shopping... and thus, i managed to 'check out' a few of the nursing rooms available in the local malls and here's what i think of them... Suntec City (located at level 3, near toys'r'us and where all the 'baby shops' are) what i like: changing stations just beside the sink what i dislike: no privacy - nursing corner has no doors nor drapes Forum, Orchard (located at level 1, near the washrooms) what i like: the bright cheery colors, rather comfortable armchair for nursing what i dislike: aircon vent just above changing stations (blowing directly on baby) HDB Hub, Toa Payoh (located at level 2, near the washrooms) what i like: aesthetically appealing, nice comfortable armchair for nursing what i dislike: nowhere to put things @ the changing stations, nursing rooms are too small - cannot fit in my tiny aprica strol...

time really flies... i spent the last eight weeks changing diapers, nursing and playing with my dear gal. i have four more weeks before i 'officially' have to start work and i'm so not looking forward to it! princess is starting to be a lot more fun... she sleeps less but for longer stretches, cries less and smiles more. i still continue to wake up every two hours at night because my body (namely, my breasts) TELLS ME to. its just impossible to stay asleep when your breasts feel rock hard and start leaking milk! in addition, my impending return to work brings on the question "who is going to look after princess?". that has kept me up for several nights. yes, we have a helper now but i'm not about to leave princess in the care of a stranger (yes, i still consider her as such because she has only been with us for a month). the original plan was to leave princess and the helper with my MIL... looking at how things are now, i'd say that's not quite poss...