Auld Lang Syne

Doesn't singing the song "Auld Land Syne" give you a very special feeling? It gives me a special feeling. We usually sing it at the stroke of midnight to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year but sometimes we sing it on the last day of school too.

I remember singing Auld Lang Syne with classmates, college mates, colleagues, girl friends, boy friends. Haha. The list is endless. Joining hands with arms across bodies gives a very warm feeling. Out with the old and in with the new. Let bygones be bygones as we head on to the new year. Sometimes we sing it with tears in our eyes as we say farewell to each other at the end of the school year.

So blogger friends, shall we sing this together online in cyberspace? Hehe. Happy New Year 2008 to everyone and may you all have a good year ahead. Thanks to those who dropped by with your wishes while I was not around. :)

An adventure and a gift rolled into one

Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa. And I'm available to write several personalised letters to your child to help them find the gift that YOU have purchased for them.

Imagine your child's delight as they receive these personalised letters from Santa requesting them to help solve some mystery and puzzles which will lead them to the gift you have hidden for them.

This novel idea of an adventure and a gift rolled into one is available from http://www.giftventure.com/ Its wonderful for children from ages 4 through 12, the age of adventure. The puzzles require certain skills, younger children may require some help while the older ones can solve the mysteries on their own. Children this age love adventure and they love receiving letters in the mail. My two are delighted to find letters addressed to them in the mail. They usually get those from the fast food or book store chain cards mailers which we have reqistered.

This personalised mail adventure is even better. You can use it for gifts for any occassion, not just Christmas (although a letter from Santa would certainly delight any child). Don't worry if you're late. Theres a Late Christmas Gift Adventure too in case you're late.

For other occassions, you can select other mythical characters to send the letter to your child, like this lovely fairy princess for example. You select the hiding place for the gift and give some information on your child's personal interest and favourite game and the rest will be done for you.

Your child will receive a series of letters from this character in pretty stationery in the form of a mysterious story with puzzles and games that they have to solve. You can select from a standard or package delivery. Standard means a series of 3-4 letters will be mailed directly to the child every 3 days whereas Package means you will receive all the mailers in a single package for you to distribute in your own timeline.

Sounds exciting? It will certainly be exciting for a child. The letters leading to the gift and solving the adventure may even be more exciting than the gift itself and something nice they will remember from their childhood.

Happy Holidays everyone and Happy Gift Hunting. I just love this time of the year and shopping for gifts.

MG's Top Ten Parenting Tips

Here is my Top 10 Parenting Tips for the day:


1. DO NOT STEAL!

2. DO NOT COPY!

3. DO NOT TAKE WHAT IS NOT YOURS!

4. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!

5. DO NOT PASS OFF OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS OR THOUGHTS AS YOUR OWN!

6. DO NOT COMMIT LITTERARY THEFT!

7. DO NOT PRACTISE FORGERY!

8. DO NOT ACT DISHONESTLY!

9. DO NOT TAKE WITHOUT ASKING!

10. DO NOT CLAIM OTHER PEOPLE'S WORDS AS YOURS!


And this, my dear blog readers is directed to the one who needs my Parenting Tips the most ie the blogsite which calls itself Parenting Details. (fake site)

Oh, I almost forgot. Read my blog post to find out more: Help! Someone is copying my entire blog! A short summary; It has come to my attention that the above fake site has been copying the contents of this blog Parenting Times.

I'm keeping this post sticky for a while. Please scroll down for my latest post. Thank you.

The oldest kid to enter kindy

Recently I took both the kids to a kindergarden open day to register the older one for kindy next year. She will be 6 next year. My other boy is 3 going to be 4 next year. When I looked around at all the other kids being registered, most of them look younger than my 3 year old!

It would seem that kids these days are entering kindergarden younger and younger. I was given the impression that 5 years old is now the norm (and that I was rather abnormal to let my kid stay at home till 6) but the kids I saw were not 5 years old. They were definitely younger. My kid was most definitely the oldest. There was no one near her age. Hahaha.

I'm not really bothered. I think my girl is ready for kindy now. She is excited about it and looking forward to it and we have discussions about it. Now if I were sending my 3 going on 4 boy, I wouldn't be able to have any discussions with him about it and I can forsee that he'd probably cry buckets. So he stays home with me for at least 1 or 2 more years.

Do you support caning in school?

I normally write stuff about education and kids on this blog but this matter is related to my personal experience and feelings about the matter so I have put it on my personal blog.

Would the readers of this blog hop over to my personal blog to give me your opinion on caning in schools? Here is the url:

Going to school should be a pleasant experience

Thank you and have a nice Thursday.

Merry-Go-Round Ride

The kids wanted to have a go at the Merry-Go-Round at IOI Mall recently. Its RM2 per kid per ride. This was how it went.

First Round

Yeah Yippeee Wheeee Hahahahahahahaha

Second Round

Hahahahahahahaha Hahahahahahahahahah

Third Round

Its too fast. I don't want adi. I don't want adi.

Fourth Round

I don't want! I don't want! Waaaaaahhhh! (Its ok. Don't worry. You won't fall off. See? You can hold on to the pole and theres a seatbelt too.)

Fifth Round

Sob. Sob.

Sixth Round

Hehehe

End of Ride

And would they want another ride the next time. You betcha!!

Help! My kids speak Chinglish

At home we refer to poo as "pangsai" (in hokkien) or simply "umm mmm" and pee as "Shee shee".

I have no idea why but the kids love toilet talk. They would often come to me to describe their pee and poo. I guess that this simple process fascinates them. Well, they use Chinglish in their toilet talk as well.

My boy: Look mummy, I have two umm mmms

MG: Are you done?

My Girl: No, I am still shee sheeing

Looking at the bright side, at least they know their participles and singular/plurals. Lol!

Her First Children's Dictionary

"A gift of a Dictionary equals to a gift of a whole new world of words and knowledge." - MG

"How to spell this word?"

"What does this word mean?"

After hearing these questions from my girl several times a day, we finally got her a Children's Dictionary of her own. "You can check up the meanings and spellings of words on your own using this dictionary", we told her. However, that first dictionary we bought was too simple for her. Almost all the words that she wanted to look up was not available in the dictionary.

So we hunted for another and eventually found the MacMillian Fully Illustrated #1 Dictionary for Children. It is an excellent Dictionary for Children. We all love it. The illustrations are beautiful. The coloured index at the sides make it easy for a child to use. Even her 3 year old brother loves it. He would open up the pages and read AAAA, BBBB, CCCC, till he reaches ZZZZ. Lol!

As for my girl, she is totally absorbed in it. She would sometimes "read" the Dictionary like a book, flitting from one word to another. (Since the explanation of one word naturally leads to more new words that she doesn't understand. Some of the explanations may be a little hard for her as its meant for children age 8 -12 (She's almost 6 now but I hope that this Dictionary can last her till 12 and continue to encourage her love in books and reading) so I will explain those to her. Using this Children's Dictionary as a guide, I can answer her questions about the meaning and spelling of words with ease.

This Children's Dicitionary receives a big thumbs up from MG. :)

Funny Conversations to remember

I had some funny conversation with the kids but I can't remember some of them now. If I don't have something to immediately record them I forget in the next instant.

Funny conversation with my girl.

My Girl: Mummy, afterwards can you turn to me?

MG: Yes

My Girl: Mummy, afterwards can you turn to me?

MG: Yes. How many times you want to say that???!!!

My Girl: Two times.

MG: Hahahahahaha.

Funny conversation with my boy.

My Boy: You are not a friend. You are mummy.

MG: Why?

My Boy: Because you scold us already, afterwards you smile.

MG: What about Daddy?

My Boy: Daddy scold us already, very loud and dunwan to be good.

My Girl: But then Daddy still love us. He buy toys for us wut.

Children are so straight forward and simple minded little beings.

Family Routines

We have a rather odd family routine on Sundays. Our mealtimes change. We have breakfast at 10-11pm, lunch at 3-4pm and dinner at 8-9pm. Then we have ice-cream after dinner. Even if its a cold day.

I'm not much of a routine person. I am an airy head, spontaneous, impulsive person. Hubby on the other hand thrives on routine. I've come to enjoy our routines even though I'm not routine-oriented (if there's such a word. haha).

Its really nice to look back and think about the memories gone by. Routine helps the memory process. We've had our routines ever since we met more than 10 years ago and before the kids came along so we do have some moments that we can look back now and say "We used to do this...."

I wonder if the kids will remember our family routines, look back one day and say with fondness "We used to do this/go here/eat this" etc when they drive by a certain place or smell a certain food or hear a certain music.

I certainly hope they will and I hope that our family routines will help to create or make happy memories for them when they grow up.

Experimenting with Crayon Resist Painting

The kids like to do this craft because its like magic. First they have to draw a picture using crayons and then paint the picture with water colors. The picture they drew will then appear like magic when the crayon drawing/writing resists the water colors. We have done this crayon resist painting before but at the time we didn't have white crayons. So, when we got the kids new crayons with white crayons included we decided to do this water resist crayon painting again.

By experimenting a little we found that crayon resist painting works best in the following circumstances:

1. Use same color crayon as the paper. Eg. White crayons on white paper or Black crayons on Black paper. (You can't see what you are drawing but it will appear like magic when you paint over it).
2. The results will be better when the water colors are watery rather than thick.
3. Use dark water colors on light crayons and vice versa.

Thats it! If you follow the above simple rules, you can create very nice results, even with very young kids. Here are some examples:

This snowman was done by my 3 year old. I gave him a black crayon to draw a snowman on black paper. Then I got him to paint over his drawing with white water colors.

This one was done using white crayons on white paper. Then we painted over the drawing with water colors in rainbow colors.

This night scene was done using white crayon's on white paper and yellow crayons for the lights. We painted the scene with black water colors and the lights in the windows turned on like magic.


Crayon resist painting is very easy to do and very exciting for the kids. It is also a very creative craft as you can come up with very nice and different results by experimenting with different colors. You can create snow scenes to make Christmas Cards for the holidays, a night scene as seen above, an underwater scene etc. Its up to you. You can view more examples of our old crayon resist painting here.

Talking about love is much easier than talking about death

Mummy why did he die?


When people die do they fly up in the sky?


When people die, they can't sing/talk/eat/dance anymore?


When people reach 100 years old they reach up to the roof of the house, then they have to fly up in the sky, so they die?


When people die then we can't see them anymore?


Will you and daddy die first because you are old?


Theres no doubt about it. Talking about love is certainly a lot easier than talking about death and dying to a young inquistive child.

More Mirror Image Painting: Mirror Image Twins

We've done mirror image painting before but this time we decided to do it with a little twist. After completing the mirror image painting (by painting and folding the picture into two to get a mirror image print) we continued to paint in or add some details to our picture. We did four paintings today.

Here is the first. Its our mirror image twins painting. First we drew a smiley face on one side then we folded the paper into two to get the same smiley on the other side, then we decorated the faces to make them look a little different.

This is my three year old's version of the mirror image twins painting. He did a nice blue smiley face at first then got carried dabbing brown blots all over his painting. Lol!

My girl wanted to paint a mirror image hearts, so I thought her to put different layers of colors to make a colorful heart. This will make a great Valentine's Day craft. After she painted the mirror image hearts and stars she wanted to write "I love you mummy" at the bottom of the page. Lol! I guess she was happy with me for doing the craft together with her. I always get happy hugs from her when we do crafts together.

Then she wanted to draw mirror image flowers in pink, her favourite color. After folding the paper and creating a mirror image of her flower she painted the sun and said "Mummy, I don't want to fold the paper any more because you can't have two suns!" Hahaha. I agreed with her solemnly. She also drew in the grass without folding the paper to get a mirror image.

More Lessons About Love

My Girl: Mummy, I spill the water, you scold me, but you still love me?

MG: Yes, I still love you.

My Girl: But I spill the water, why you still love me?

MG: Well, you spilt the water because you were not careful, thats why I scolded you.

My Girl: Hehe. Because I play play.

MG: Yes, thats why I scolded you but that does not affect the love I feel for you.

My Girl: What is affect?

MG: Affect means Change. It means that spilling water is one thing but it does not change my love for you.

My Girl: Mummy, what is love?

MG: Love is a feeling. Like when mummy looks at you and baby, mummy feels very happy because mummy loves you both very much.

My Girl: Mummy, you love baby because he's cute? Look at him. He is so cute.

MG: Yes, he's cute but even if he's not, I would still love him.

My Girl: Like daddy?

MG: Hahaha. Yes, like daddy.

My Girl: Hahahaha.

Well, I don't know if these lessons on love and loving helps or not but one thing I do know, my daughter does not think her father is cute. Lol!

Another time she said this...

My Girl: When I fall down mummy and daddy loves me more because I pain.

MG: Oh No, No, We don't love you more when you fall down. Because we love you, we show you our love when you are in pain, understand or not. (My goodness, I certainly hope she did. I wouldn't want her to hurt herself just to get mummy and daddy's love!!!)

What is Love?

My boy's definition of love

My boy: I lurve you.

MG: I love you too!

My boy: What about cheh cheh (sister). You love cheh cheh too?

MG: Yes, I love cheh cheh too.

My boy: And daddy?

MG: Yes, I love daddy too.

My boy: And kong kong?

MG: Yes, I love kong kong too.

It was at the tip of my tongue to add "Because we are family" at the end of my sentence when my boy finished the sentence for me...

My boy: Because you walk slowly with kong kong.

:) The observant little one had noticed that whenever we took kong kong out together with us on an outing I would slow down my pace and walk slowly together with kong kong who walks much slower than us and to him THAT IS LOVE! Love is simple. Love is kind. Love is all around us.

My girl's definition of love

We were doing some lessons together in her workbook. When we reach the assessment part, I told her that she should try to do it on her own without my guide. "This is a test to see how much you have learned, I told her."

My Girl: Ok, Mummy. Mummy, if I do it simply or wrong will you still love me?

MG: Of course I will love you, you know that Mummy loves you no matter what.

Love is so simple to the kids and indeed it is simple. To them it is a matter of how much time I spend with them etc. It is no wonder that they always get so upset whenever I get impatient and don't wait for them to finish brushing their teeth or eating and walk away. They must see that act of impatience or walking away as "You don't love me....."

I'm either busy, tired or sleepy

I'm either busy, tired or sleepy....... according to my 3 year old, that is.

Recently, when I was lying in bed, he came and grabbed my leg with his robot arm toy so I played along with him and raised another arm and leg at the same time. That always makes him laugh. He looked at me with a smile and said...

"Mummy, you not busy, tired and sleepy already? You can play now?"

OOPS!!!!

Looks like I have not been spending enough quality time with him.

Whats a good gift for a little girl or boy?

Little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. Little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Whoever wrote that must have been a girl. So now we know what little girls and boys are made of but whats a good gift for a little girl or boy? Hmm... better go and nose around the coupons site to see whats on offer.

Recently added, a Walmart Deal, is a Dream Town Rose Petal Cottage for $78.88 with make believe windows, doors, chimney and even a stove in sweet little girl colors. Just nice for imaginative little girls who can stir up some imaginative sugar and spice for a make believe cake.

A recent add for boys is the Best Buy Code Sony - PlayStation 3 80GB Limited Edition MotorStorm Pack at a $100 price drop for hours and hours of fun and lots of thrilled. Just be warned that the sweet little girl made of sugar and spice may try to take this from the little boy made of puppy dog tails. So be prepared for some fights as well. Please note that these are current promotions correct at the time of publishing this blog post. Have fun shopping. I just love shopping for toys!

Today's Craft: Paper Plate Duck

The kids had been pestering me to do more crafts with them so we went to the bookshop over the weekend and bought some new coloured construction papers to add to our art supplies collection. We have a cupboard just for our art supplies. We call it the craft cupboard. Whenever we want to do any craft, they will ask me to go and look in the art cupboard.

Today, they wanted to do a paper plate duck craft. This is really easy. All we needed were some paper plates and our colour construction papers. The kids traced their hands and cut them out to make the duck's tails. Then they drew in the eyes. I helped them cut out the feet and faces and stuck them onto the ducks.

Then they wanted to draw in some duck feed. (Thats what those dots on the paper plates are for in case you are wondering. Lol! The paper plate ducks can stand and rock. Cool!

For a more detailed instruction on how to make the paper plate duck, go here.

Learning Magical Chinese Characters

My girl enjoys learning Chinese Characters by watching the Magical Chinese Characters animation at BetterChinese.com, a site that teaches Chinese to kids in a structural step by step spiral up curriculum format. The Magical Chinese Characters animations are beautifully illustrated animations in black and white. They are kind of like stick man figures, very cute. There is a short story line with each animation. The story ends with the formation of the Chinese Character.

She likes to watch them over and over again and in doing so, she learns some new Chinese Characters. I let her choose what she wants to watch by herself. It is easy because the Chinese lessons are structured for kids who are learning Chinese in a non-native environment. She can select what she wants to watch/learn by clicking a list on the left pane of the screen. The list is in English, not in Chinese as most Chinese learning sites would be. This helps us tremendously because we don't know Chinese yet but we are learning.

You can go for a free online trial if you want to know what I am talking about. Oh, I almost forgot, for my blogger friends living in the US, there is a current free shipping promotion for orders above $50 by UPS Ground Shipping that runs till Nov 15, 2007.

What should a 4 year old know?

What should a 4 year old know? Or a 3 year old or a 5 year old? How much should my child know at his age? I am sure most of us have asked this question before.

Sometimes I read about how other 4 year olds are doing on the blogs and I start comparing (I know I shouldn't but...), I start comparing their progress with my 4 year old and start getting worried if he seems far behind in development.

I'm also worried because my 4 year old writes his alphabets in mirror image whenever I ask him to try using a workbook. I'm worried that he is lazy to learn. He usually says "I dunno" or "Dunwan" or "Lazy" etc during lesson times (He is not attending any playschool or kindergarden. I teach him together with his 5 year old sister at home) He also keeps on forgetting things we've told him over and over again. We try to tell him the name of certain sundry shops or bakery we often pass by but the next time we pass by the same shop he will say its a mall or smile sheepishly or giggle or shake his head and say "I dunno".

Sometimes I read too many stuff over the internet, then I get worried because I want to try to catch any developmental delays early etc etc.

Anyway, I was worried.......... until I read this wonderful article. What should a 4 year old know? I would like to recommend that all parents who have ever asked this question "How much should my child know at this age?" read it. Do read the links contain within too. They are useful as well. It basically stresses that Childhood should not be a race and that we, the parents have become overly competitive these days. We should just relax and cool off a bit and allow our little ones to be the children they are supposed to be.

Cheers! Have a nice day and remember to enjoy your little ones. They are only little once and they grow up so fast!

New English Vocabulary by kids

I think a new English Vocabulary is being created everyday by kids everywhere. Teens create their own new lingo all the time and as for the little ones just learning to talk. The new words they make up are just classic.

My little boy has just begun to speak in sentences and sometimes he makes up his own words. Its really adorable the way he makes up his own words to complete his own sentences.

Recently we bought him a new Henry train to add to his Thomas train collection and this is what he said.

"Mummy! This train can put on the track because got onner also." (Onner = Switch). He sounded so excited and serious when he said it which made it even the more hilarious.

Sometimes he fights with his sister. They tell each other...

"You are the moredest notty." (moredest = most)

However, usually they unanimously agree....

"Mummy is the moredest notty!"

Hahaha. Its fun to listen to the kids conversations. They do say the funniest things in their own vocabulary that sometimes only mummy knows.

Where to buy a pinch toy?

My boy loves to pinch the pimple on my face. Its a bad habit. Other babies cling on to their bolsters, suck their pacifiers or bite the edge of a pillow or blanket but he........ pinches the pimple on my chin. No other pimple will do. Its got to be that very same pimple on the right side of my chin. No, not even the left side. Only the same pimple on the right side will do.

Sometimes, I grow tired and let him. (The pinching increases in intencity when he is sleepy, tired or stressed. Strangely, the act of pinching my pimple soothes him.) Sometimes I slap his hand away and say "Stop pinching, its painful." Usually he will say "Nice!" and carry on pinching but the other day he suddenly looked at me and asked "Mummy, can you buy me a pinch toy?" Hahaha.

So... does anyone know where I can buy a pinch toy?

Teaching my kids the basics about colors

I was looking for some color activities to do with my kids when I chanced upon this site. Well, its part of a site actually. Its called Carmine's Introduction to Color. Cleverly presented in the format of a rhyme, it teaches kids the very basics about colors as it guides them through primary colors, secondary colors, warm colors and cool colors. It also teaches the kids how to make a tint (by adding white) or a shade (by adding black). Basic, fun and to the point. I love it. I'm going to get my kids to watch it soon especially the little one. The older one knows her colors well by now.

As I mentioned the link I just shared is just part of a site called A Lifetime of Color. I haven't had time to explore it yet but it looks like something I would want to explore because its got lesson plans, activities and games all about colors or incorporating colors. If I find anything else thats interesting, you can be sure I will share it with you my dear readers.

I usually note down these sites for my own use and easy reference and at the same time if I can share it with others too, why not? I love blogging!

Teaching my kid to tell the time

My girl has learned to tell the time a while ago, the hours and half hours that is. I've been trying to teach her to tell the minutes too but only half heartedly. I buy her storybooks about telling the time. I buy her a small watch to encourage her. We make watches for craft time and I draw a clock to teach her half heartedly.

Recently she started learning to count in fives so this means that she would be able to tell not just the hours but minutes as well but I'm still too lazy to teach her properly. I do know that she's eager and ready to learn though. So I'm really excited to have found this site to teach children to tell the time.

Its called Learning About Time. It is an excellent site to teach children to tell the time. Its very comprehensive with step by step description of the clock and telling the time. The best thing I like about it is the interactive clock or the Clock Program. You need to have Java installed to be able to use it. You can choose to have the child learn to set the analog clock to match the digital one or the other way around.

Just wanted to bookmark this site here and share it with other parents too. So pleased to have found a website to teach my girl to tell the time. Now she can learn on her own and I can continue to be lazy. I guide her through the first time and she's ready to practise on her own now.

Kids Activity - Playing with Food

Kids just love to play with food don't they? So why not allow them to do just that........ by getting them to help in the food preparation, under careful supervision if they are very young and making simple foods like egg sandwiches. Besides food always taste nicer when you make it yourself, at least to the kids. Not to me though. Food tastes nicer when someone makes it for me and hopefully wash up afterwards as well. Lol!

And so... one day when there was nothing left in the fridge to cook for lunch..... accept eggs, this was what I did. I boiled the eggs and then I got the kids to....

• smash them


• peel them


• cut them


• mash them


• mix them with mayonnaise

Then they put marjerine on the bread, I added a slice of cheese before spreading the egg paste they prepared and cutting them into little triangles, rectangles and squares. They walloped the egg sandwiches quickly whereas they used to turn their faces away from the bakery bought ones.

We finished lunch with some cut mangoes and homemade float made from chocolate ice-cream and coke. I'm a bad momma. I'm indulgent. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their simple lunch and so did I. ('cos I didn't have to slave at the stove only to have them spit out their food. Lol!) You should try this one day when you've run out of ideas on what to serve the picky kids during a meal.

Action Songs and Finger Plays

Action Songs and Finger Plays really fascinate the little ones. When they were babies, my kids loved finger play rhymes like "Round and round the Garden" or "This little Piggy". They still love them but now that they're a little bit older (a toddler and a preschooler) , they like a little bit more action ie full body action!

Recently we sound such a song which captivated them. They loved it so much. Its called Copy Me! by the Tweenies. I hope the link works. I am sure your little ones will love it as mine did.

You can join them in the actions too, especially if you need a little bit of aerobic exercises. Hahaha. Or you can be creative and come up with your own actions. Enjoy!

Co-Sleeping with Preschoolers

We practise co-sleeping like many Asian parents do. We or rather I still co-sleep with our preschoolers aged 3 and 5 years. (Hubby gets to do it on Sat night while I get beautiful uninterrupted sleep then. Whoopee!) I have no problems whatsoever with this arrangement. With parenting, I always believe that whatever style suits your family than it is fine. As long as everyone is happy, whose to say what is right or wrong. In this case, my husband is happy, I am happy and the kids are happy.

However, the kids will have to move to their own room one fine day (oh how we will miss them!) and we would like the transition to be smooth. We're doing a semi-transition now. If you can call it that.

Usually I sleep in the middle between the two so they won't fight over "who gets to sleep beside mummy". However now that the kids are older its not easy to get a good night's sleep that way. I need a good night's sleep for health reasons. (Who doesn't right?) The kids will toss and turn 360 degrees each night and quite often I would awaken with a punch or a kick on my face. Ouch!

So I decided to move down to the floor. After storytime or after they are asleep, I would creep to my mattress on the floor and get a better night's sleep that way but recently I've been waking up with a little hand dangling over my face and a soft voice asking "Mummy, can you hold my hand please?" Hahaha. (Because I discourage or disallow them from climbing down and sleeping with me on the mattress). I would then raise my arm a little to hold his little hand and both of us would fall back to sleep that way. I still get woken up from my sleep but this way is a lot better than getting a punch or a kick on the nose or eyes. Lol!

Baby Mine

Baby Mine by Bette Midler

Baby mine don't you cry

Baby mine dry your eyes

Rest your head close to my heart

Never to part

Baby of mine

Little one when you play

Pay no heed what they say

Let your eyes sparkle and shine

Never a tear

Baby of mine

If they knew all about you

They'd end up loving you too

All those same people who scold you

What they'd give just for the right to hold you

From your head down to your toes

You're not much goodness knows

But you're so precious to me

Sweet as can be

Baby of Mine

Thats my little boy's favourite lullaby and he is always bugging me to sing it to him. He loves it so much and he would give a delighted happy smile whenever I sing it to him and hold him close to me. I wonder if he will remember it when he grows up. :)

Anyway here's the Baby Mine song by Bette Midler for anyone who is interested to listen. The lyrics to the song are really nice. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Storybook Terms in everyday language

My boy's current favourite terms or words are the following....

"Once upon a time"

"Long long time ago" (even though he is referring to just a minute ago!)

"Mummy, you forgot"

"because"

"so long already"

"yah mummy?"

"you see, I told you already" (I think he picked this up from me!)

Some of these terms are storybook terms but he uses them in ordinary everyday language. I guess I must have been reading too many storybooks to him. Lol!

He also likes to answer everything with "because". Sometimes he uses it at inappropriate times but he likes to join in "discussions" and feel very important. Its really funny to watch him having serious discussions with his sister, his little face is oh so serious.

I just love looking at his face when he is not watching me observing him. He looks really adorable (at this age- he is 3) and my heart is filled with love when I watch him play by himself.

A little girl named Ice-cream

My Girl: Mummy, you and daddy give name to me and baby. So when I'm big, I will give name to my own baby.

MG: Yes, ok. We gave you names that we liked. What name do you like to give your baby next time? What name do you like?

My Girl: Mummy, I scared next time I name my baby Ice-cream or Lollipop or Chocolate.

My Boy: Coney. Coney. Hahaha.

MG: ------------------------- (Hahaha)

And thats how the little girl named Ice-cream came about. Lol!

Having Fun With Playdoh

Kids have lovely imagination. Let their imagination run wild with playdoh. My kids love playing with playdoh. It gives them hours of fun and me .... hours of free time. Heheh.

Recently my girl said she wanted to make a playdoh flower garden. All their old playdoh had turned an ugly grey because they tend to mix all the colours together so I agreed to get some new colours for her.

She made a green patch and said that was the grass. I taught her to make some flowers so we made flowers in several different colours. And then I added a mother hen (thats me. Haha.) grazing among the flowers.

My imagination isn't so great so I bought a book of instruction on how to make playdoh animals. Thats where I got the idea for the mother hen. It didn't turn out as nice as it looked in the book though because I'm low on patience. Lol!

Here is our playdoh flower garden.

So remember, if you run out of ideas on how to keep the kids entertained indoors on a bad weather day, just take out the good old playdoh. Playing with playdoh is a great activity for kids. Some mothers even make their own playdoh. Not me, I'm too lazy......

Nighttime Fears

My five year old girl has a fantastic imagination now. Her overactive imagination has led to nighttime fears and this makes it hard for her to sleep sometimes.

"Mummy, I'm thinking about the monster in the show."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about the pencil poking my eye."
"Mummy, I'm thinking about falling in a hole."

Usually I just tell her to think about something nice instead, like a holiday or a toy she likes or about us doing something she likes but after a minute she'd say....

"Mummy, I'm thinking again."

Last night I decided to play along with her ....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm thinking about the wolf in the book coming to me.
MG: Well, then think about mummy chasing the wolf away.
My Girl: Mummy, I'm afraid the wolf will chase you too.
MG: Well, then think about daddy coming to chase the wolf away. Daddy will rescue us.
My Girl: What is rescue?
MG: Rescue means to help someone in trouble.
My Girl: What is trouble?
MG: Trouble means problem.
My Girl: What is problem.
MG: Uh...uh... problem means when you need help.
My Girl: Ok.

(This is usually how our conversation goes. Question after question after question. Its really very tiring to a 41 year old who needs to catch up with beauty sleep. Haha.)

After a while....

My Girl: Mummy, I'm scared the wolf will come back when we are asleep.
MG: Well, you know our house has an alarm. If the wolf comes back the alarm will wake us up and we will all chase the wolf away.
My Girl: Ok.

I think I'll probably try this method again next time.

How do you calm an overactive imagination and soothe nighttime fears? You must be even more imaginative too! Put yourself in your child's shoes and try to imagine along with them, then tell them your story about how you or they can overcome the monster of their fears or their fear of harming themselves or of bad people harming them. Why don't you try it too and see if it works?

The Terrible Fives

I have no idea why people call the earlier growing stage the terrible twos. It really should be the wonderful twos. Both of my kids have passed this so called terrible twos stage and I still have no inkling why its called the terrible twos.

I love the two year old stage. They're so adorable, so cute, so cuddly, so lovable..... and they do as they are told! No temper tantrums. Ok, maybe a little but certainly not enough to earn the label "terrible".

Its different now that my first has reached five. I would call this stage the challenging five. Its really challenging having to deal with a five year old. My three year old is still cuddly and lovable and cute though rather clingy.

However the five year old..... drives me crazy all day long with her non-stop questions, her constant testing of her limits, her continuous need for reassurances and attention, her quick frustration and anger when she can't do something right, her nighttime fears and wild imaginations. These are so tiring. I really am having trouble dealing with this age compared to the earlier sweet twos.

I must try to be more patient with her as she struggles to understand the world around her, as she grows and tries new things etc. I'm not the most patient person and my patient runs thin easily with her. Where is the sweet little girl I knew? I hope I can guide her through this stage so that she doesn't turn out to be ill tempered and impatient like me. I'm beggining to see more signs of me in her as she is begginning to behave more and more like me ie the way I behave when I get impatient with her and yell at her. Help!

Celebrating festivals with children

This year is the first time the kids get to play with lanterns in their own porch. We used to live in a condo/apartment before so we didn't have our own porch to do such things. They enjoyed it of course. And so did we. We enjoyed seeing them enjoying themselves.

It makes us happy to see them so happy. That is the joy of having children. Their infectious laughter and happiness fills our home with smiles and happiness.

How quickly the kids have grown. Its festive occassions like these that makes us reflect and compare. I still remember their first lantern, second, third and so on and so forth. Just like I remember their first birthday and second and third..... We remember their first Chinese New Year, the second, the third....

We try to make each festival exciting for them while trying to expose and teach them about their own culture and celebrations. We try to make a family tradition out of it so that it will create happy memories for them. Hopefully we can continue with our family traditions and celebrations for many more years to come.

Win a Dot.com blogging contest

As some of you know, I have 3 active blogs. Two of them are hosted on blogger and the other on my own paid hosting. I have been contemplating getting another dot.com because its really more beneficial and valuable than a blog on free hosting.

For those of you who are doing paid blogging or considering paid blogging, you need to go dot.c0m. Advertisers prefer those. Despite this blog having better traffic and stats than my dot.c0m blog, I am constantly getting more orders on the other blog. Dot.com is the way to go forward.

So, when I read that 5xmom is giving away free hosting and free domain names in a blogging contest, I jumped and immediately did an entry. Hahaha. I didn't realise that the contest was for those on free hosting thinking of going dot.com. This blog is on free hosting but I already have one dot.com. So do I qualify? Oops!

Please go to her blog and read up this blog post to find out more about the contest: Go Dot.com contest. - 5xmom is giving away 2 free one-year hostings and 7 domains. Closing date is 10th October, so don't procrastinate.

Since I have done up my "entry" for the contest, I will post it up anyway... whether I qualify or not. You are supposed to write one post of about 200 words on why you think blogging is beneficial. Make sure you read her blog post carefully so you understand the rules and criteria. Happy trying! Good luck!

THE BLOGGER'S POEM

I am a little blogger, only 3 years old
How did I start blogging?
This story must be told
I am here to stay, its not a passing thing

I started blogging in '04 September
Though I didn't know what its about
But then I can still remember
At the baby forum 5xmom gave a shout

To lets have fun blogging together
Now thats when I started having fun
To write about life or just the weather
I knew that the fun had just begun

We left comments on each other's sites
That motivated me to blog even more
I blogged through my days and nites
Now I'm hooked right to the core

Then she told us how to Make$ Money$
Blogging had suddenly taken a new twist
The timing was really uncanny
Blogging had slowed but this I could not resist

So blogging took on a new chapter
As I monetized my blog and learned new tricks
I learned to be an adapter
And so begun my new fix

Soon 5xmom said we should go Dot.com
If we wanted to give our blogs more value
It was as if she had dropped a bomb
It was hard work but then I did pursue

And now just as I am trying hard to slow down
She organised this contest on the benefits of blogging
But even as I begin to frown
My fingers begin typing

So what are the blogging benefits
There are so many I can't write them all
Its not just about traffic and getting hits
Its something that can really enthrall

Blogging is about love, laughter, tears and life
It makes me laugh, cry, rant and smile
To see how freely others share their strife
As they walk down life's mile after mile

It helps me focus and be more positive
About the things I want to achieve
It also helps me become more creative
Writing things down can really be a relieve

Our blogs are our virtual real estate
It grows with maintainance and good content
So how could I resist this free domain bait
I assure you 5xmom, your money will be well spent

I haven't written a poem in a long while but I enjoyed writing that. Hehe.

Getting your child to eat their fruits

My kids love to eat mangoes, bananas, dragonfruit, mostly soft sweet fruits. One day someone served us some cut oranges. Thinking that they would reject it for sure, I was very surprised when they ate them. Why?

"Mummy, its like drinking orange juice from a curved orange bowl!" exclaimed the girl. I played along with her. Now everytime I want to serve oranges, I cut them up and say, come and drink your oranges from a curved bowl. It has worked so far.

The thing with children is to play along with them and be like a child again with them. That way, you can be your child's best friend and get them to do whatever you want. No, its actually the other way around. They get you to do everything that they want! Lol!

Mummy, I wanna hug hug you!

My 3 year old has found the magic sentence to get through to mummy.

Don't want to sleep in own bed? Just say... "Mummy, I wanna hug hug you!" together with a big grin. If possible try to get that grin right in front of her face. Be persistent. Even if mummy doesn't want to smile at you. Keep smiling and shoving your face right in front of hers.

If this still doesn't work, raise your arms into hugging position and repeat "Mummy, I wanna hug hug you!"

Been misbehaving? Mummy is angry?
Been pestering mummy? Mummy is angry?
Been whiny? Mummy is angry?
Been fighting with his sister? Mummy is angry?
Been clingy? Mummy is busy?

Whatever the situation (and there's more) just say "Mummy, I wanna hug hug you!"

It works like a charm everytime. Mummy will not stay angry for long and mummy will hug hug and smile in return. Sometimes mummy even laughs aloud.

Blogging for three years and beyond

Happy Birthday to me.....
Happy Birthday to me.....
Happy Birthday to my blog....
Happy Birthday to me......

I can't believe it. In a blink of an eye, I've been blogging for three years. That would mean I started blogging when I had only 1 kid and she was 2 years old then. Now I have 2 kids and they are 3 and 5 and I have 3 blogs and my first blog is 3. Lol!

This blog birthday is also my blogging anniversary. Because its my first blog it also happens to be the first time I started blogging. So, Happy Blogging Anniversary to me too. 3 years and I continue to enjoy blogging and am learning new things and getting to know new bloggers all the time.

Wanna know how I generated the birthday cake? Visit the The Generator Blog. You will love it and have lots of fun, I promise. Hehe. Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving me comments, especially those who have been with me right from the start. Thank you. I love it. :)

Scenes in a Chinese School

Scene 1: The Homework Scenario

My sister related this to me recently. Here's what she said.

"...reminds me of the scene i witnessed last month at the school gate..a pretty little std 1 girl crying her heart out and refuse to go in the school cos she was holding her exercise book and trying to finish her homework.!. Another mother and I had to coax her :"dont cry,dont worry, write quickly, still got time!"

School, studying and learning should be fun, not feared.


Scene 2: Discipline with a Cane

I saw this myself when I was waiting to see a Chinese School principal to enquire about the school. 3 teachers standing around a little girl who was crying "I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" *Whack!* "You did it didn't you?!!" *Whack!*

If I was the little girl I would have said "I did it" eventually even if I didn't, from fear and intimidation.

Scene 3: Does not encourage thinking out of the box

A friend's son has homework to colour a car blue. He happily colours the car blue and the wheels black.

Answer: Wrong. Students are supposed to colour the car blue. (So the wheels should be blue too apparently) *rolls eyes*

These are actual, real scenes happening in our Chinese Schools and they are the reason why I continue to have misgivings about sending my child to one. Sigh...

Calling all ladies, your opinion needed

I know some of you ladies who follow this blog don't read my personal blog. Sorry. I confuse you gals with having so many blogs. Hahaha. I do regularly maintain all of them you know and I don't just fill them up with sponsored posts.

I usually fill this one with useful parenting articles, links, craft ideas and stories about my kiddoes. My personal blog is mostly about me, naturally. Whereas my Mothering Blog is a place to share stories with Mothers Only. I hope it will be a useful resource for Mothers. I talk about breastfeeding, pregnancy, toilet training, me-time and all those other "technical" mother stuff that only mothers would understand or care about.

Anyway, this is not what this post is about. I have just written a post on my personal blog on What men do when they "entertain" . So ladies or readers of this blog. Will you please head on over there to give me your opinion. I would really appreciate that. Thanks.

The Age of Mischief

Yesterday they got into their first big mischief. I think the age of mischief starts at around 5. Thats when they want to explore and use their imaginations plus they want to test your limits and see how far they can get away with mischief.

Yesterday when I left the kids aged 3 & 5 alone for a moment, a long moment that is, I came back to discover the table including books on the table, plus the carpet plus the floor all soaking wet. They had nicely taken water in little containers from the bathroom to their room and were busy pouring them to and fro the containers.

I went beserk. I really did. Gave each of them a good smacking and telling off. However, I am also really angry at myself and guilty for not watching over them well enough. This time its a soaking carpet. They could have gotten into a much worse mischief. Who knows? Better watch them like a hawk from now on.

I blogged this a week back but forgot to post so yesterday refers to yesterday a week ago.

Life with a 3 year old and a 5 year old

I had written about "Life with a Newborn and Toddler" before in my Mothering blog. In fact, that post is very popular. Lots of people search for "Life with a Newborn and Toddler" and land on that page.

So now that the hard part is over, how's life with a 3 year old and a 5 year old? Lots of fun I must say. Everything is easier now. Bathing, Feeding, Sleeping and Going Out. But of course there are new challenges now.

They are both more mischievous and adventurous now so I can't leave them alone for long. They may unknowingly get into dangerous situations. I will talk about their first big mischief in another post.

The other thing is they fight all the time. Fight, Snatch, Push, Poke, Kick, Scratch etc each other. My voice is hoarse from shouting at them to stop it! I know all the parenting books tell you to talk to them nicely, reason with them, listen to them and don't scold or raise your hand at the kids when you are angry. Ha! When the scene is set and they are at it again, all the Parenting books and advise go out the window. Lol!

Paper Lantern Craft for Lantern Festival

The kids have been pestering me to get them lanterns for the lantern festival, mooncake festival or mid autumn festival whatever it is that you want to call it.

When they were young, I was very excited and would get them lanterns to play with early on. Some of the lanterns were battery operated and it would play loud annoying music till I couldn't stand it anymore and put tape over it.

As they grew older, we got them the real thing ie lanterns lit up by real candles but they could only play with those on the actual day of the festival. We will do that this year too. So no, we're not buying them lanterns yet, no matter how hard they pester.

We make them paper lanterns instead. As usual here is a step-by-step picture guide of how to make your own paper lanters. Its really easy.

Firstly, you will need coloured paper, glue and scissors.

Secondly, cut the coloured paper into A4 paper size.

Thirdly, fold the A4 paper into half horizontally and draw lines as show, then cut along the lines.

Lastly, open up the paper and glue all along one edge to join the lantern together.

Use leftover paper to glue handles on and decorate as you wish.

We used stickers to stick decorations on and we made several lanterns to decorate the room for a more festive atmosphere. You can use anything to decorate. Glitter glue, ribbons or make your own "tail" for the paper lantern using leftover paper. Mix and match your colours etc but remember....... don't use a real candle!!!!

Related post:

Tai Thong Mooncake

The Worst of Enemies, The Best of Friends

Thats my two kiddoes, thats who! They are constantly fighting and quarrelling. They push each other, scold each other, snatch toys etc. Their constant quibbling is driving me crazy. (Quibble means argue over petty things, yes thats what they do.)

But then........., as soon as I raise my voice or my hand suddenly they will become a loving pair of brother and sister as they run to each other and hug each other. Its really hilarious.

Ah siblings, how they hate each other and love each other. This love/hate relationship will continue for the rest of their lives. I just hope that its more love than hate. Hopefully, I can help to stir them towards the direction of love.

Related posts:

How to make sure your firstborn child accept the new baby
Siblings
Sibling Love
Finger Pointing
Birth Order Dynamics

How long does it take to train a maid?

Due to my health condition, it would be ideal to have a permanent maid. Someone to be around all of the time. At the moment, I have a part time helper. She is reasonably good but she is not around all of the time which is what we prefer. But just how long does it take to train a maid? Don't expect those that are provided to you by the maid agency to be fully trained. At the most, they will teach them to make some beds.

Some people suggests getting an experienced maid. That will cut down the training time. On the other hand you have to balance that with having one that is too street smart or street wise. Theres the issue of trust and a longing for new pastures when they are more experienced, I think.

So lets take for example you take in a new inexperienced maid. I think it will take several months to train one up to your expectations. Afterall how can you expect someone who is young, away from their family and country and who perhaps does not speak your language and does not know how to use modern appliances to adjust overnight? I think you should be prepared to spend at least one or two months of your time training and teaching them. I don't think working mothers have this time and thats why we have problems sometimes.

As for me, I'm not prepared to spend that time only to face the risk of them running away afterwards in cohorts with the agency after my hard work of training and teaching them. Nosiree. And thats why even though we would prefer to have someone around most of the time, we are not taking in a full time maid for now.

Recently I saw a family of 5, parents and 3 kids out for a meal with a maid. The maid looked rather unhappy and left out. When the food came, she stood up and took some portions of the noodles for the kids. Why does she have to do that, I wonder. The kids look old enough to help themselves to their own food. Just like most children can wear their own shoes by school going age. None of the family members made any effort to speak to the maid throughout the meal. No wonder she looked miserable and left out. A maid is not a member of family but they could at least have made some small talk with her, I think.

I sometimes do pity the maids and their plight of working far from home and family in a strange land with strange equipment and in a language they do not understand. Don't you?

Kids Craft: How to make a pop-up book

One of the ways to encourage children to learn is to make things interesting and exciting for them. You can teach them to make a simple pop-up book to learn their alphabets and spelling by having them write on it. Its really easy to do a pop-up book. Here is a pictorial step-by-step instruction of how to make a pop-up book.

First you fold a piece of paper in half.

Then you draw two lines in the middle of the fold.

Then you cut along the two lines to make a tab.

Finally you paste a picture on the tab and decorate or have your child write in his/her book.

As usual we made two. One for my girl and the other one for my boy. The first letter in the alphabet my boy learned to read and write is the letter "O" so thats what we made for him. We got my girl to write on his book.

"P" for Princess is of course for my princess. She chose the picture herself from one of my old magazines. We glued the picture on and she asked "How to spell princess, mummy?" Thats the best way to make them learn. By making it fun. :)

Homemade stuff especially those made by themselves are always more fun and valuable to them and its cheaper too.

How to make chain paper dolls

Its the school holidays or its bad weather outdoors? What do you do with the kids? You do some fun and easy crafts. You can make some chain paper dolls. These are dolls cut of paper that look like they are holding hands.

I wanted to do some chain paper dolls with the kids but I didn't know how. I knew it was easy but I didn't know how to cut so that the dolls look like they are holding hands. I did some googling and was pleased to find this site with adorable chain paper dolls.

Based on the idea from that site, we came up with our very own chain paper dolls. This craft is very, very easy and the pictures are self explanatory.

These are what you need to make your chain paper dolls.

Materials for Making Paper Doll

First, you fold a length of paper like a fan or accordian, then you draw in the doll making sure the hands touch the sides, then you cut out the doll but remember not to cut out the sides so they are joined together making them look like they are holding hands. You can make as many dolls as you like by the number of folds you make on the paper.

Paper Doll Cutouts

Tadaa! This batch of paper dolls is for my boy. After cutting, we drew the faces with color pencils and painted the trousers with paint or water colors. Then we cut and paste an old shorts of his so that the t-shirts look more real and 3-D like. Hahaha. After that we drew in the decorations for the T-shirt using marker pens.

Chain Of Boy Paper Dolls

Tadaa! This batch of cute ballerina cut out dolls are for my girl. This time we painted the tops and used staplers to clip on the little tutus or ballerina skirts. Our paper doll supplies or materials came from left over christmas hamper ribbons. I'm a hoarder so I kept these silly items to use for crafts.

Chain Of Girl Paper Dolls

Tips: Your dolls need not be so elaborate if you don't have the time. Just fold, cut and get the kids to decorate the dolls by drawing in with color pencils. It will be just as much fun and easier to do for the younger kids. Older kids can do the entire craft themselves, whereas younger ones may need some help with the folding and cutting.

Pin this image if you like this page. Thank you. :)

How To Make Chain Paper Dolls

Check Out These Adorable Chain Paper Doll And Other Paper Doll Kits:

I'm Raising Impatient Kids

"Mummy, sometimes we don't brush our teeth in the morning because we are always in a rush."


Thats what my girl told me recently after she read some moral book about brushing teeth in the morning and before sleep. She's right of course. Sometimes I let the kids brush their teeth while I shower them just to save that extra bit of time and yes, we ARE always in a rush.


"Hurry up and wear your shoes, we're late."


"Can you eat your food faster please!"


"Why are you taking so looonnng to brush your teeth?"


"Can we do this another time, we have other things to do now."


We're always rushing or else we'd be late or can't get a parking etc. The kids know the drill by now. "Hurry up or else.... there'll be no parking at the mall." for example. Even the little one knows this by now.


In addition to all that rushing, I'm terribly impatient. Sometimes I don't even wait for them to finish their sentences when they start talking and boy do they love to talk and ask and talk and ask. I've really got to make myself stop to listen to them better, I mean literally stop in the tracks.


So, how do you raise patient kids? The answer is obvious isn't it? Take a hard look at yourself in the mirror and change BUT... thats easier said than done of course, just like everything else about PARENTING. Lol!

School Holiday Fun

Second sister organised a lunch get together for all the wives and kids on school holidays. We had so much fun.

The older kids got together to play their computer games, the younger ones ran around playing and snatching toys and everyone ate and ate.

And what did all the ladies do? We ate and chat and ate and chat. The kids enjoyed it and so did the adults. It was a nice change for the kids to run around with their cousins and it was a nice change for me not to give them my attention all the time as they promptly forgot about me as soon as we arrived. Lol!

And bad mommy also used the gathering as a leverage for the first few days of the week. "If you still want to go to aunty's house you better behave!" Hehe.

My thoughts during the school holiday gathering are in a related post - Cherish the.... NOW!