First family trip

A place that is not too far (to save journey time) and packed with educational sightseeings to awe Ya tou.. Where on earth can I find such a place??

The first criteria helpfully sieve out faraway lands. I'm much left with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The latter two seems a little chaotic, so they were struck off. I finally decided on Desaru of Johor because of its farms and beach.

There was some mad rush.. Initially, i thought Ya tou doesn't need a passport to travel. (In the past it was so, just tag the child's name to the parent's passport.) Just the 1.5 week before departure did I realize it no longer works this way. Thanks to ICA's efficiency, her passport was produced within 5 days.

We took a ferry there instead of driving, hoping to enhance the travelling experience for Ya tou. There she is posing a shot at the jetty with the little (pathetic-looking) ferry at the back.

She wasn't as excited as we'd imagined. But she did enjoy running around the ferry exploring the open deck and enclosed cabin. That's Mummy and Ya tou inside the ferry cabin.

After settling down at the resort, we head off to Desaru Fruit Farm. It has claimed to grow over 100 fruits but the guide only showed us about a tenth-- dragon fruit, breadfruit, jackfruit, passionfruit, banana, custard apple, pineapple, soursop, figs, mangosteen, pumpkin and some herbs. Here are pics of Ya tou with dragonfruit plant and in a herb garden.

Another highlight of this farm is the animal sanctuary. They keep a galore of animals! Ostrich, turkeys, peacocks, eagle, owls, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, monkeys, tortoises, snake and lambs! Ya tou was exhilarated to see static pictures seen on books go live right before her eyes.

Back to our hotel, we took Ya tou swimming. It was a mind-blowing experience for her cos she didn't like water (like Mummy)! It took Daddy a long time coaxing and assuring before she entered the water. Below, Daddy teaching Ya tou how to blow bubbles in the water.

Next morning, we took a walk at the beach. Ya tou timidly retreated when Daddy invited her to play near to the water. She was also quite apprehensive in the beginning when we led her to walk on the beach barefooted. But soon she got used to it and started making more adventurous moves. :)

It was a short 2 days 1 night trip, but it did fulfill our purpose-- to relax and let Ya tou have some fun. Some more pics to say a few more thousands words..

 

    Ya tou 'warming-up' before her swimming class.

   This is inside the wardrobe. Ya tou loves sitting on the short table.

   A children's play room in the resort. Ya tou enjoying herself.

  

Daddy shed blood for Ya tou

Not to complain about how poorly shoes are made nowadays, but it is quite the fact. :P I remember my grandparents telling me how long their pair of shoes usually last-- it is Decades! The second pair of Bubblegummers footwear we bought for Ya tou broke apart within just few weeks' of occasional wear. (erm, it's the 'Pooh bear' picture label that came off..)

Daddy suggested sewing the label back though I rather take the easy way out-- to super-glue it. When it comes to making such domestic decisions, the 'greener' option always win. Sewing is definitely more earth-friendly than buying a super glue which is almost always left to dry up after its first application.

So one fine Sunday afternoon, Daddy spared time out to repair the sandals. His sewing skill is quite remarkable. He can actually use the antiquated 'Singer' sewing machine to mend his clothes, while I confessed that all my Home Economics class sewing work was done by my best friend Lao mong. haha..

The shoe material is quite thick and Daddy had a painful (literally) time piercing the needle through it. He pricked his thunb as a result..

Daddy is also a quick-witted man and thought of using a piece of wooden puzzle to push the needle.

Taa Daa... Done!! Like brand new!!

Picture story "A day at work"-- by Mimi

Hi, my name is Ya tou and I ain't no simple baby. With gloom economic forecast ahead, I'm already helping my Mummy to bring food to the table.

Red bull give you wiings but Milk give me good brains. It's critical for my optimal functioning each day. Support orginality, stamp pirates, go for Mummy's brand.

Behind every successful baby is a great woman. That's my Mummy. She makes sure my power suit is in order while I groom my hair.

 

Always think BIG! This is one great philosophy which I integrate religiously into my life, even in the choice of footwear.

This is my personal vehicle which I take to work. Aunties drool & scream when they see me in my mobile elefant. Cute guys pls stand aside~!

Hey, stop giggling!! I'll show you my 厉害soon! :)

  

Upon reaching office, I'll check my mobile phone for incoming business deals.

I'll get up my chair to get things started. Making calls to clients to foster relationships is crucial to my business.

 

I listen attentively to the needs of my clients and offer my best advice and a competitive quote. Upholding honesty and quality, it's not difficult to close multi-million dollars deals.

Sometimes when clients get unreasonable, it upsets me and I'll shut the phone. The negative energy from them is too much to take.

When the going gets too tough, I seek for a warm hug from Mummy. It always energizes me and keeps me going. "What's a million dollars without you.. Mummy."

 "Me too."

-The End-

Give me real food!

Talking about copy cats, my little ya tou is one true goood species. haha.. I believe it's not just her, but all the little people who are just beginning to learn about this world!

Children just can't help modelling their parents! Therefore, family upbringing is so crucial in building a child's character and values. This is something I always remind myself of, so that I do also 'behave' myself well in front of Zhirui. hehe..

Ya tou has always been curious about (and tempted by) adult food. Erm, the fact is that she just wanna copy us. But with the pathetic teeth population she has (her first pearly white only emerged when she's 13 months), we had to stick her to porridge, porridge and then... porridge. :D

Weeks ago before turning 16 months, she raised a protest against her porridge! Oh well, I would have predicted this day.. So the decision was made to overthrow porridge and institute a new food that's more 'muncheable' and 'adult-ly'.

For Chinese, steamed rice was the obvious choice. We accompanied it with soup. Since Mummy is a Cantonese and a fan of soups, she's quite happy to introduce this delicious liquid to Zhirui. :P

Her diet was to stay as 'virgin' and healthy as possible, so no seasonings were used. The soup contains only the natural flavourings from the ingredients, such as corn, carrots, tomatoes, red dates, beans, beancurds.

"Hmm.. that's more like it!!"

About vaccinations.. Am I the odd parent?

The last time we visited Dr Beardy (affectionately called 'Da Hu Zi Yi Sheng' in mandarin- our family GP) for Ya tou's vaccination, he asked if I wanted to give Zhirui the Chicken pox jab.

I pondered for quite a while. The fact is that I have already got an answer, which is 'No', but wondered if I should reconsider..

He helped to break the silence by informing me that most parents would do so.

"But during my generation, we have been living along with Chicken pox. I mean, it is a common childhood disease and not a threat to life." I provided my point.

GP explained that it saves parents alot of trouble and the child from suffering.

This set me thinking on why this difference in mentality...
SB and I are pro-natural and we try to adopt a natural way of life as much as possible. When Zhirui was still a bean in my womb, we had decided to deliver her naturally, avoid epidural and practise total breast-feeding. (We were quite disturbed when our gynae used a vacuum to assist her birth without seeking our opinion.)

Back to the point on vaccines, perhaps parents nowadays are more eager to protect their children from sickness, germs, suffering. While we try to shield our children from all perceived harms, are we also making them more vulnerable? While we try to alleviate their suffering, would they grow up to be less emphathetic of the less fortunate?

I watched a documentary on acute eczema on children recently. A study was conducted to examine the outcome of a group of eczema-inflicted children after daily play sessions in the garden. Children were exposed to soil and dirt during play. There was considerable improvement in conditions of these children. It concluded that 'squeaky clean' and aseptic environment could have made our bodies less resistant and leading higher occurences of allergies.

Just sharing another school of thought. :) For a path less travelled, it takes a strong belief.

Home alone (in car)

Since Zhirui's last fall from the high chair on a Daddy-less evening, I haven't had feelings of "ants on a hot pan" for some while.. until yesterday..

I was fetching Zhirui home from nanny's place as usual after work. The weather was wet and I had to carry Zhirui on one hand and hold the umbrella on the other. After managing her down onto the passenger seat, I didn't know why I did the following stupid thing: I gave Zhirui my car keys (to play).

Seconds odd after closing the passenger door, I heard a familiar 'BEEP' sound and the deadly 'shutting' sounds of the car locks.

OMG!.. Ya tou has locked the car!! I quickly pull the door handles and true enough and it was the worst I've imagined! How could I be so foolish? I could have known better that Ya tou loves pressing on my car remote key all this while..

I tapped frantically on the windows and signed her to press the unlock buttons on the keys. Think Zhirui got my idea and kept pressing on the button happily. "No Zhirui.. not the big button, press the smaller one.. the one beside." I pleaded her. But she just love the 'locking' button. I prayed hard that she won't drop the keys into some odd corners. There will still be hope if so.

My next resort is to get the spare key. Luckily my house is not far from nanny's. "Ok, will ask nanny to look after Zhirui as I go home to get the spare key." I thought. As these tots reeled thru my mind, Zhirui had dropped the keys onto the seat and moved to the driver's seat to play on the steering wheel.

"Wait a minute, but my home keys are in my bag, which is in the car!!" Oh nooo... So need to wait for SB to get home.. Will Zhirui suffocate in the car by then?!  (Negative breeds negative..).

I borrowed a handphone (hp was in my bag too) from a passer-by and tried calling SB. What can be worse? No reception, he's in the tunnel! Urghh....

Just at this darkest moment, I heard "shutting" sounds of the car lock again, but without a "Beep". As swift as my hands could, I reached for the car handles and pulled. "YES! Thank God! It's opened!"

Zhirui was standing on the passenger seat and stepping on the car keys. Believe her feet had pressed on the 'unlock' button. :)

Lesson learnt: I shall never to leave the car keys with Zhirui alone in the car. Phew...  

Hands Onz!

This a continuation of my previous post on Ya tou's new developments.

We found that she is very skilled in using her hands. Besides having the forte in drawing, Zhirui is able to drink from a glass, use a comb (what a waste of talent as we recently shaved her head! haha..), wipe her mouth. The newest stunt she's mastering now is self-feeding using a spoon.

Ya tou called me

How can I not jot this into my blog?... :)

Two days ago, a Saturday morning just moments after waking up, Ya tou finally called me "Mummy". She said it when Daddy prompted her. But subsequently she short-cut it to "Mimi"-- erm.. eventhough it sounds like some 80's nightclub hostess, it does not fail to melt my heart everytime she says it. (FYI, she called "Daddy" first many months ago. So it is true.. as I read somewhere before that it's easier for babies to say 'da' than 'ma'.)

Despite taking a blog break for nearly a month, things have been very happening in Ya tou's world.. as usual. :)
In terms of language development, she has expanded her vocab to daily usage words like bowl, bread, biscuit, banana, jam, chair, paper, apple, slide, bird, dog, fish, duck, bag, shoes, please, jie jie (sister), nai nai (grannny)...

I notice how intelligent she is in understanding our instructions.. When I told her, "Zhirui, walk on your own.", she would let go of my hand and walk by herself. During bathtime, I need her to stand and hold against the wall. I say, "Zhirui, on the wall please" and she would do as asked.

When it's time for milk, I'd say, "Zhirui, time for milk. Go to the bedroom." She will walk to the bedroom, climb up the bed. I follow and ask, "Where is the pillow?" She points to her own pillow. "Can you help Mummy take the pillow?" She pulls the pillow onto the centre of the bed and lie down, waiting for me to pass her the milk bottle.

Ya tou loves mingling with the kitchen drawers whenever I'm in the kitchen cooking. She would drag the kitchen towels, sponges out and scatter them onto the floor. When I'm done with my work, I'll ask her, "Zhirui, please put the things back." She would then squat down and start picking up the things and put them back into the drawer. "Very good girl. Close the drawers." and she'll push the drawers close.

Paint my love

Have been observing that Zhirui is quite skilled in holding pens. Not long, we let her drew freely on paper with pen or pencil. She loves the activity, many a times bugging me to give her the pen and paper. Well, so far her pieces were meshes of lines and dots. :)

I wondered if she'll enjoy drawing more if there were colours..

So I wreck my brains to think of a way to let her do painting without having to worry that she may accidentally ingest the paint. Ah haa!! I'll get her edible paint! Food colourings! As mooncake festival's around the corner, food colourings are on discounts. Bingo! I got primary colours- red, yellow and blue.

I placed Zhirui on her high chair, put her on a makeshift art apron (actually a plastic bag with holes torn on its base and 2 sides), prepared bowls of the diluted colourings, a brush and paper.

As I handed her the brush with some anxiety and anticipation.. i wondered what can be the outcome?
See for yourself..

She does look serious in working on her virgin piece ya..  :P

Her hands were badly stained by the colouring and faint blotches lingered on her hands for almost 2 days. If anyone has a better way to conduct painting for babies, pls share with me. :)

Japanese- Hiragana

This set consists of 47 cards including title cover.
Card specs: 300gsm, A5, double-sided
Price: S$18.80

Flags of Asia

Zhirui was totally intrigued by this set becos of its bright, colourful pictures.

This set consists of 52 cards including title cover.

Card specs: 300gsm, A5 size, double-sided

Price: S$33.80

Beans Flash Cards for Download

To share. Beans Download

Dear parents, do kindly drop your comments on this set of flash cards..
Please note that for this shared version, the quality has been reduced to keep the file size manageable. There is also a very small faint watermark to prevent commercial copying. For normal printing, it should be near invisible at a distance of 0.5m.
Printed hard copies from us do not bear this watermark.

Thanks!

三字经 (严教篇)- The Three-Character Classic

Yet another ancient wisodm.. This chinese classic orginated from the Southern-Song dynasty and has been around for 700 over years. It is endorsed by UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as one of the Children Literature for Moral Values.

The first book- 严教篇 teaches the importance of education and traditional values on filial piety and brotherhood.

I've been reading this classic to Zhirui when she's still in my tummy. Now, i hope to further instill in her proper conduct plus recognition of chinese characters through flashing these cards.

This set consists of 45 cards (including title cover).

Specs: 300 gsm, A5 size, double-sided (with han yu pin yin at the back)

Price: S$18 $16 (in the month of Sept 09 only)

Ancient Wisdom

Ya Tou finally recovers from the stomach flu. Thank God..

Her fever roller coaster (going up to a max of 40.4) kept us sleepless... There was one night the fever went up really high. Worse, she refuses water and no matter how we sponge her, the fever stayed above 38.5.

It all started when we took her temperature in the middle of the night as realise that it was 39.9. We quickly sponge her with water mixed with a couple of cubes of ice. (we din wanted to use ice water as we were afraid she might catch a cold and makes things worse). After many rounds of sponging, her temp lowered to about 38.8.

Water was given to her, but she simply refuses it. She still looks active and playful despite her fever and was blabbering lots of things. I wonder if she got "high" on her fever or what.

We had to resort to sweeten water to encourage her to drink, luckily, she finally accepted the diluted Gripe water, taking up to about 5 oz. After she drank, daddy somehow decided to wrap her up in towel. In the next 10mins, things turned. She started to perspire and her temp begin to fall. Within the 30mins, her temp fell to about 37.3. We continued to wrap her up in blanket and carry on feeding her water. Soon she fell asleep. By the next morning. Her temp was normal.

Can't help but start to appreciate the days when our grandparents / parents tells us, if you are sick, drink lots of water and cover well with blanket. With the advancement of western medicine, these old sayings are somehow slowly lost. Yet during the most critical times in life, it seems to work like charm.

Well I have to conculde that Western Sponging and Eastern Blanket-ing is really 鸡寒上树，鸭寒入水。Somehow, ancient wisdom seems to be slightly superior, as it
1. eliminates the inner heat (root cause).
2. uses that heated body temp to facilitate persparation.
3. minimise the risk of catching another cold

Subsequently nights, we encourage her to drink by cooking Green Apple water. It can be easily concoted by boiling cut green apples in water until the apple turns soft. Somehow she likes it alot. Probably becos of the slightly sour taste that excits her (probably) numb taste buds and the slight sweetness of it.

Zhirui, where is...

Ya tou is down with diarrhoea and fever these few days.. Dr Roy's diagnosis was gastric flu, which he said was on the high recently. Sb and I were up in the wee hours to make sure her fever does not escalate to dangerous levels. Ways to do it: hydrating her constantly, sponging her, feeding green bean soup (known to dissipate heat & toxins in TCM terms), fever medication.

Her little buttocks are burning red like those of a baboon due to nappy rashes.. Poor girl.. She cries in pain whenever we clean them.. :(

Amidst her poor health, Ya tou displayed something very amazing one afternoon! Read on..

Was reading the papers yesterday with Zhirui playing around. Then casually, showing her the Classified page, I asked, "Zhirui, where is the car?" She scanned the page for a moment and pointed to me the small picture of a car at a corner. OMG! (All along, we were pointing to her real cars on the road. Never did I know she was able to recognise this object on 2-D too!)

Riding on excitement, I quickly flipped to another car ad and asked, "Zhirui, where is the car?".. And she did it again!

"Zhirui, let Mummy test you again, where is the flower.. bicycle.. banana.. ball.. tiger.. camera.. shoes..?" I could hardly stop.. :)

Seems like the inputting part stressed in right brain training is effectively taking place all this while. Well done Ya tou!

End of my milking days..

More than a year ago, my husband and I made a firm decision to have our to-be-born ya tou exclusively breastfed. We were very determined to make it a success that we went all out-- studiously attended classes in BMSG, reading up everything on the topic and refrained stocking milk formula in our house. I remembered most of our relatives/friends who are mothers did not breastfeed, therefore there wasn't really a model for us to look up to.

Lucky for me, with a supportive husband and a cooperative baby, my breastfeeding journey started with few hurdles. I must never forget to give credit to my good old breast pump, Medela PIS. It became one of the cannot-live-without thing in my life.

During those struggling days when my supply could barely meet Zhirui's demand, I wonder how far can I carry on with this mission. My husband and I set a 3 months goal when Zhirui was just a month old. When she turned 3 months, we stretched it to 6 months. Soon, I realized that I could not give up breastfeeding! It's so natural and every latching moment felt so wonderful and loving. When she was younger, I would sing our favourite song "Home on the range" or read classics to her. She was most attentive when I recite the 'Heart sutra'. :)

It was a blessing in disguise when Zhirui contracted HFMD at 11 months, becos she learnt to sleep through the night during the episode. It was also then I started to reduce feeding direct to Zhirui. Soon after her first birthday, I decide to wean her off breastmilk by cutting the number of pumps. In 4 weeks' time, my supply dwindled to a pathetic 2oz a day.

Now, ya tou refused to latch, showing me her 'dispproving' face (小猪脸).

Alas, I can officially close shop.. albeit a little 舍不得...

Insects

I'm glad to be blessed with customer-mums who generously offer me feedbacks to improve my cards.

Just recently, Adriel enlightened me to a very fundamental fact that I was never consciously aware of-- flash cards with bright & colourful pics are likely to attract (and retain the attention of) our little ones!

I'm really grateful to receive her comments as it spurs us to make better flash cards that can best benefit our children. :)

I'm glad to present this title on Insects, splashing with rainbow colours. :)

-Consists of 20 cards (including title cover).

-Cards specs: A5 size, 300 gsm, double-sided

-Price: S$13.00

A Life-saver at Birth

I got a call from SCBB (Singapore Cord Blood Bank) sometime during Zhirui's first birthday. It was an annual follow-up call on cord blood donors on their health and well-being. Was glad to reply all her questionaires with 'peaceful' answers.. indicating that Ya tou is very healthy!

This brought me to lock this post on a donation we initiated (on behalf of Ya tou) a year ago. It is the donation of Zhirui's cord blood to the SCBB (a public bank).

I remember that time when we made the decision, we had to also ask our gynae if he is willing to conduct the operation of extracting the cord blood. To our disappointment (and much disgust too), he told us that he'll be charging $200 (if i'm not wrong) for the surgery. We asked the staff of SCBB if they could reimburse that fee. Unfortunately, they can't and have to depend on the doctor's goodwill to facilitate the donation.

My husband and I struggled sometime on whether to abort the idea. Then during the next check-up, we raise the matter to gynae again, asking if he could waive the fee. He tot for a moment.. and said 'ok', with a thin smile. We were so happy and thank him profusely.

Hopefully he would continue to listen to his heart when responding to similar requests from his patients. Coz a kind act goes a million miles.. and since the world is round, it can come back to benefit you. :)

Chinese Flash Cards-- Continents

This is the Chinese version of the set 'Continents'. It is designed to complement the English version.

• contains text in Chinese characters (simplified) and Han yu pin yin at the back.
• 8 cards (including a title cover)
• 300 gsm, A5 size, double-sided
• Price: S$3.20

First day in school & kite-flying outing

Yesterday, Zhirui had her first taste of school. Well similarly, Mummy had her first taste too.. of sending her kid to school.

As would all typical first-days stories go, it started off key with Daddy announcing the night before that he had to fly kite, both literally and figuratively.. He's going to skip attending the class with ya tou & I and go to West Coast Park for a corporate event (a kite festival).

We tried to prepare everything swee swee in order to make Zhirui feel at ease that morning. But somehow, there's always insufficient time & in the end, we still can't avoid rushing things till the minute we left home. We reached LNT 10 mins later than planned, though the class will only start in another 10 mins. After filling the registration form, teacher Lynn took us to the classroom where I tried to condition ya tou to the environment. It didn't took long cos the room looked friendly and soothing. Soon teacher Wang gestured the start of lesson. It's Chinese class today!

I reckon ya tou will move about exploring the room during her first lesson. But much to my delight, she did the reverse. Sitting obediently, her eyes glued to the teacher and her actions with intrigue. She enjoyed the sing-along sessions best, swaying her body as music plays. As for those intermitent games, she became quite upset when she had to return the games to the teacher. Going on to cards flashing, I noticed she didn't really pay attention. She was looking at her classmates most of the time. Maybe she finds that one male classmate very handsome.. haha..

I shan't comment or conclude too much about today's class, afterall, it's only the first. But frankly, the activities kept me in awe throughout the time. I had a great time!

After the class, we catch a cab to West Coast Park to meet Daddy and have some sun & fun.