Event: Smartkids Asia 2013.

Have you brought your kids to the Smartkids Asia 2013 exhibition yet?
If you have not, you still have tomorrow as the last day to go!

Where: Singapore Expo Hall 5
When: 15 - 17 March 2013
Admission is FREE but EPS Parking at Expo applies.

Be prepared to join in the hordes of people for lots of fun-filled, educational activities for your kids.
There are many booths providing hands-on activities like craft, Lego-building, games, and lots of freebies and samples.
There is also a carnival and wall-climbing for the active children. No matter what your child likes, there is something for every kid.



Are you ready to brave the crowd?! Me posing with my free mylar balloon teehheee.

Now who loves freebies? Or rather, who doesn't?? 

The organic fragrnace-free sunblock which I'm gonna use on Adam for his swim lessons every Sunday.

Multivitamin supplements

Free magazine and Karihome goat milk sweets.

Sign up for LolliBox, a monthly-subscription project box for your young ones.
Each month is a different theme. Eg. The Little Pirate, Moon & Stars, Dinosaurs, Grow Plant Grow etc.

Aimed at a fun learning experience which incorporates 4 major components on how kids learn and engage: Create, discover, enrich, and award.

Ready for the surprise unveiling of our first LolliBox??



We got the Itsy Bitsy Bugs box!



Promotion: subscription rates for Smartkids Asia expo only.
Available in 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month subscriptions. Sign up for 12 months and get an additional box free (13 boxes for price of 12).

Your child is gonna be so excited to receive his/her parcel  in the mail and start working on the mini project!



Like the idea of LolliBox projects so much that you want to give them as favours for your chikd's party? Party packs available.
Do check out their website at http://lollibox.sg/about-lollibox/

Hope you have a great weekend!
Thanks for dropping by :)

Ashton update: stitches removed.

Ashton had his stitches removed today - Day 15 post-op. As Dr Seow is on leave, the STO was done by a couple of nurses in the treatment room and we have been given another appointment next week to see Dr Seow. Bummer!

On the bright side, I'm glad that I no longer have to do wound dressings and sniff out Ashton's bum for poop like a narcotics dog sniffing out heroin!

I met up with our care coordinator Lee Ping today to pass her a Thank You card and a balloon for her daughter and she was thrilled. She has been very helpful and forthcoming to us. As a matter of fact, the entire team of doctors, nurses, patient-care coordinator, right down to the clinic admin staff are very helpful and friendly. We are very thankful!

Hopefully things will continue to be uneventful for Ashton and our family.

Today will also mark the end of my 2-week-and-2-days leave as I will be heading back to work tomorrow.
After being at home with my cling-wrap children, I'm feeling a mixture of sadness but also joy.
Imagine this - after a long day of dealing with them, I try to relax on my Osim Uphoria but Adam climbs and clamours all over me and touches the buttons. I try to hide in the bathroom for some peace, but Adam knocks on the door and wants to use the loo.
When Adam is sleeping, I try to read my email, sort out my snail mail, and do some work, but shortly after Ashton cries for milk.

I salute all the stay-home mums because God forbid me to be one, lest I go insane.
I'm tired and need lots of sleep now. All I can think of tomorrow is - Good luck to my MIL and helper. Heh.

Good night :)

Adam goes for swimming lessons

Adam has been attending weekly swim lessons and enjoying himself.
This is the only extra-curriculum activity he is having at the moment. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against parents who sign their children up for back-to-back enrichment classes - I'm just not too jazzed about subjecting my children & I to the logistics and costs involved, and burning everybody's weekends (we tried GUG for 1 term and are not going back. Too troublesome to hurry Adam to get ready, drive there, wait for parking lot, be on time for lessons, wait an hour, fetch him, go home for nap, precious Sunday burnt. ZZZzzzz). Having been through Monday-Friday of rigid routine, weekends are for leisure!
Not to mention, I think Adam is not musically inclined, prefers painting at home to his own imagination, and has zero interest in being confined in classrooms on weekends, albeit air-conditioned and expensive ones.

Adam, however, loves the water and he was the one who said "Yes" to swimming lessons when I asked him before signing up.
Besides, swimming is a very useful skill to acquire. It can save lives!


For the initial few lessons, one parent is advised to accompany the child into the water to reduce seperation anxiety.
Well, Andy wouldn't, for the life of him, show off his hunky figure (looking somewhat like Santa minus the white hair) so it doesn't take long to figure out who is the next (and only) option.
My problem is - I don't have suitable swim wear!! Holy macaroni! (a Mummy of toddler without swimwear - unimaginable).
Although my husband adores my breastfeeding jugs, I doubt the same can be said of parents of the other children.
Also, I can't bring myself to don one of those hideous looking one-piece spandex things which show off the camel toe, so..... I decided the next best thing to do would be to pull a T-shirt over my bikini and hope it passes off as appropriate "swim wear".

Baby Ashton is also having a whale of a time. My happy baby! We enlisted the help of my MIL and helper to join us at the pool. Part of the village who are helping to raise my children!

It is crowded on a Sunday morning. So many happy little swimmers!

The Water play area, which Adam is more interested in than lesson proper. Pfft.

You need to be at least 1.2m to go on the big water slide.

My wild water baby is confident enough to go without his arm floats now, though it'll be some time before he can really swim like a fish.

Our pig-out after work-out. Shared between Hubby, Adam & I. We are HUNGRY.

I love my prata with sugar. Fat die me.

Couldn't decide whether to eat Bak Kut Teh or Claypot chicken rice, so ordered both. Greedy me!

 

 

.

.

.

By the way here's an amazing video I wanna share with you. Swimming is an important skill for all children. It can save lives!

Indoor playground: Fidgets

Located in Turf City, we heard Fidgets is the biggest indoor playground in Singapore.

Where: Turf City Level 3
Parking: FOC, ample parking lots in open area.
How much: $8 unlimited hours for children under 2; $15 unlimited hours for kids 2 and above. Adults and infants go in for free.
** Please bring your socks, even for adults!

 

Fidgets have their own cafe selling snacks, some western food, and drinks.

I like that it has a large seating area for families. There's another side with many sofas. Ample space to lounge around.

There's a smaller play area for younger children

We left the kids with our helper while Andy & I relaxed at the cafe, sipping coffee and enjoying some peace.

Got the moves like Jagger? Pictured on left: Sofas on the other side of the cafe for tired caregivers.

 

P.S. Fidgets is really huge and provided Adam a great workout because he was sweating despite the aircon! Too bad it's too far from us but nonetheless another kid-friendly place for West dwellers.

As Turf City is under construction right now, the place is quite difficult to access, therefore if you're thinking of going there, I would reccomend you wait a few months unless of course, you don't mind that there is only 1 cargo lift and the building is quite messy / dusty.

 

Adam's Show-and-tell in School

Adam did Show-and-tell in school this week. The topic was "My Family".
As I quote his teacher, he "showcased confidence and pride in his work" and in speaking in front of the class and teachers.




Adam is confident in show-and-tell to his classmates and teacher and articulates every member of the family well. I am so proud of him!

This is the art work which he had done with the help of his teacher with some family photos I printed.

 He also depicted drawings of his parents, ie. Andy and I.

I look to be of porcine resemblance

whereas Andy looks like something out of Star Wars

Adam used to be a very reserved boy in class, especially during his N1 year, which was last year. His teachers told us he was not confident in expressing himself and did not seem to know how to speak up or answer questions when asked.
I admit that with my second pregnancy and subsequently the birth of Ashton, followed by dealing with Ashton's diagnosis and endless doctors' appointments (from his normal Peadiatrician checkups / vaccinations to the Neurosurgeon; from MAH to KKH; from Ultrasound scan to MRI to Urodynamics study etc), we had neglected Adam in more ways than we had imagined.
I then tried to spend my time between my two children and because they had different priorities / needs,  it was stressful at many points. If you ask me how I managed to keep everything together without breaking down, I seriously don't know.

I did not sign Adam up for any enrichment classes and he does not go to any "branded" preschool (he used to attend Learning Vision when I started working in KKH but he didn't like the environment and was miserable on a daily basis so we switched him back to PCF below my MIL's).
Instead, I spent my free time after work with him, coaching him bit by bit. On weekends we usually go to kid-friendly places and let him enjoy being a child (you can check out our Out and About section).
There is no secret recipe in dealing with your child - the key ingredients are love, patience and the belief that both your child and you can achieve things together.
Today, he expresses himself well in both Mandarin and English and is confident in speaking in front of his class. His teachers at school and swim lessons also tell me he's an enthusiastic learner who raises his hand and offers to answer/ go first. This is more than enough to make my day.
I do not require my children to be Top 10 in school or LKY Scholars, I only require that they try and that they do their best.
I am also not the best mommy in the whole wide world - I scream at the top of my lungs and throw tantrums too - but I try my best to be the best Mom I can be to them.

Having a child is like planting a tree. The more you water and add fertiliser to it, the taller and more beautiful it grows; and the more rewarding it is for you to continue nurturing it.
This is all in hope that one day, your tree will bear fruit and provide shade for all those who come upon it.

Ashton blowing raspberry bubbles

Ashton self-taught himself to blow raspberry bubbles. He goes "Brrrr" and saliva splatters everywhere. Onto your cheeks, your lips, his toys, the furniture, everywhere.

I cannot, for the life of me, believe I forgot how cute this age is!

 

Let me assure you, it isn't always such a stroll in the park with my naughty urchins.

Refer to picture below:

Typical evening when we are loading the children into the car and trying to make our way home.
Specimen A is pictured trying to climb to Row 3 of car. Specimen B is sitting upright in his car capsule just 10 days after his surgery even though we have tried various efforts to make him "lie down and take things easy" as per the doctors' advise. (In fact, I had just tucked him nicely into the car seat and made my way to the other side to close the car door!)
No names mentioned.

Both little urchins keep Mumzilla on her pedicured toes!