变脸 and updates..

Over the weekend, we brought En and Xuan to the nearby Mac for a "fries" session.
And hubby brought a happy kids meal which came long with this 小丸子变脸 freebie.


It was a normal toy till.. i found a way to use it.
I read the Babycentre emailer just this morning that silliness is good for kids and it helps diffuse the tension off situation.

So as En was stalling over his milk earlier as usual, and I was fiddling with 小丸子 next to him.. I showed him this face with me mimicking the face..



and I told him that when he finished his milk, I can be the smiley face again..

That tickled him no end and he started laughing non stop.. and in a short while, he finished his milk, in between his hilarious laughter looking at the face. So, I thought to myself, humor is quite key to relationships indeed. Be it between parents and kids, or between spouses or even friends..

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Many asked what do the kids and I do in our lives here, and it is very hard to answer as there is just overwhelming amount of things to do..

I shall just attempt to litter bits of them here along the way..

-The Confectionary-

Papa brought this set of toys for the boys on one of his trips to the baby store.

It is a really nice playset for a gal, but I guess, boys will play it their own way. Not too bad yah?


Anyway, I also believe at this age, kids's toys should not be limited by gender.. so En and Xuan do enjoy playing with it other than their train sets and building blocks.

En operates a confectionary store with this, and I will call for orders while he prepares and send them to my place. Along the way, he learns to remember where our address is as well as to remember the specific orders that I have. Perhaps in the future, I should get him a cashier as well and teach him entrepreneurship!!


Xuan loves to sing the birthday song when he sees the cake and loves to imagine himelf eating the cake. He would cut the cake and serve it to the others and ultimately himself! He is really a cookie monster!

- Houhai -


*Pic Taken by Bao En* - Photography seems really natural to Bao En..

We brought the boys to the Houhai area for a walk over the mild weathered weekend and En was really excited over the ducks he saw. He kept singing the duck song which I find really amusing.



Xuan as usual - with food, the trip is good I guess :)

The place is littered with pubs with interesting decor mix of East and Weat and is really more of an expats' or tourists' watering hole than for the family, but I am glad there are the boats and the ducks to entertain the kids..

- Rui's toys and food -



Rui is really sitting up quite well now, and can't wait to put everything he can grab into his mouth. And I am busy reading up on how to manage and tweak his feeding schedule with the introduction of solids.. in addition to the weaning recipe book for purees to make him.. Thus far, he has tried most of the stuff that he is supposed to at 6 mths and moving on to more variety each day.. (banana, apples, carrot, papapya, broccoli, peaches, cauliflower, pear, pumpkins of various varients, sweet tapocia of various varients). I am gonna work on peas for tomorrow, that is really an effort as I hate shelling the peas but I guessed he better start eating start eating his greens early.

We got a blender here for Rui's puree but I am happily making use of the juicing function to make juice for the tods as well.

The weather here is just too sweathering hot and it is a good way to have them drink more liquids as well as making sure they are getting the Vits.

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I also got myself these handy books with recipes of food for kids through the various seasons. The section on summer is particularly useful as it teaches us how to boil the various soups and use the various ingredients to combat the heat.

The best part? Each of these books costs less than 5 SGD bucks!! Books are really affordable here, the Chinese ones anyway, so I really enjoyed going to the bookstore 2 streets away to buy books for myself and the kids. The street stalls at WuDaoKou (the hangout area for students) also have "pirated" English books going for as cheap as 2 SGD dollars, with covers so authentic that you would not have tot they are fake!

Hence, I am like reading 5-6 books all at the same time, depending on what interests I have or the mood I am in. I have..

1. Marketing for Rainmakers - Phil Fragasso
2. 100 details to bring up magical boys (Chinese)
3. The Leader in You - Dale Carnegie
4. 3 岁决定孩子的一身
5. The Baby Healthy eating planner

Where do I find the time to read? When I am pumping, before I sleep, while I get the boys to do their own stuff in peace (though these moments are really rare!).. Well, if I dun accomplish anything during these long period away of work, I guess I see it as a retreat to recharge and brush up the knowledge on parenting and work. There are always tons of books that I wanted to read but just no time when I was working, so I am really indulging myself here. And reading keeps me sane. It is an adult world, and it reminds me of who I am. Being a SAHM sometimes makes me forget that there is a very much sane world out there, with meaningful adult conversations and stuff that trigger my interests!

Of course, there are really many many interesting kid moments too, but for me, I can only take so much of the kids in any given day. Any more of the quota and I go a bit crazy, seriously. And there are always the parenting books to make me think and re-think about our ways of approaching the kids..

Are we stifling them? Am I mis-understanding them? Am i decoding their signals and emotions correctly? Are we engaging in meaningless power struggles... etc etc.

Life has never been more challenging, but at the end of the day, I tell myself I may never have such a time with the boys again. The present is now, with them at these ages, and we can never do this again. So for this one chance, for the good and the bad, I must do the best I can and make the best of it. Carp Diem..