Meet You In Polliwogs

Hi mommies,
We'll be going to in the June holiday! It is in 1020, East Coast Parkway, #01-02. Anyone wants to join us there ? We'll probably reach there at about 12.30 p.m. Have your lunch before you come or we can meet up for lunch in Burger King too. There is a Burger King next door. The charges in Polliwogs are : FOC for adults and about $18 per child (for 1.5 hour play). They have a snack bar inside Polliwogs that sells simple finger food. If you're interested to join us, do leave your name in the comment box and I'll inform you of the exact date (will not publish outing details here for security reasons). See you there! (^_^)b

Little Indian Princess

We took our Swiss cuckoo clock for repair at Little India's Tekka Mall, so we thought of going there for a walk to look at the Indian costumes for little girls. Phoebe was with us as we brought her to watch a kids ballet performance in La Salle SIA. The Indian costumes were nice but some of the colours looked a little gaudy to me. We thought that if we could find one that we liked and was not too expensive, we might get one for Phoebe for Racial Harmony Day in July (that is, if the school does celebrate. Last year, they did not, maybe because of the outbreak of H1N1 in Term 3, so they might have tried to minimise mass celebration). Then I spotted a beautiful pink set which was Phoebe favourite colour. It was very beautiful and not gross. There were many jewels on the costume. We let Phoebe tried it on. It was very pretty, looks like a Walt Disney Princess costume. When I asked the shopkeeper for the price. I was surprised to hear that it cost $56! I thought I heard wrongly and so I asked again. He insisted that it cost $56. He said that if I was really interested, he would sell at $50. Phoebe liked the costume very much but I was not willing to pay $50 for it because I always thought that Indian costume would cost about $25-$35 at most. When the shopkeeper was attending to another customer, we took 2 pictures of Phoebe with the costume. We left the shop without the costume, to Phoebe's disappointment. Well, if her school is celebrating Racial Harmony Day, I might consider buying it for her then :)

Mothers' Day Blessings

Phoebe and Reuben are my blessings. They are the reason I celebrate Mothers' Day. Love them so much.


Phoebe created the bear card during her school computer lessons.


She also made a card for me and this delicious sweet rice crispies dessert with rainbow sprinkles. I ate it up in her presence! :) I love the wonderful presents she gives me because she did it with her Heart :)

This is the first time Reuben celebrates Mothers' Day for and with me. Reuben's play school, Little Learners, had a mini concert for the mothers. The children sang 2 English songs and 2 Chinese songs. Reuben didn't know the words well, but he was able to sing along and do the actions with the teachers. I'm so proud of him. Thereafter, the children were suppose to make coleslaw salad for the mothers and the mothers get a coleslaw treat but ended up, the children ate it themselves. Haha. Reuben was very well-behaved throughout the whole session of singing and coleslaw-making. It was so different from how he was when he initially went into Little Learners. He was whining and frustrated. Now Reuben has indeed matured! :)

May Day Chalet

I have never tried booking a chalet or organise a bbq before. Hence I thought it will be fun to organise one, a short holiday for the family. Gathering information from the chalet guru, Auntie KF, we read in her blog that Downtown East Chalet is the best, convenient and most children-friendly. Another family friend was interested, so we rented 2 units for 3 days 2 nights from 1-3 May 2010. It was indeed fun.

What is chalet without a bbq right ? So on the first night, we had a simple fuss-free bbq session with just chicken wings, sotong balls, corn, otah and sausages. It was very convenient as we could buy everything from the Downtown East NTUC and we even pushed the whole trolley to our doorstep! The food was ample, but Phoebe and Reuben prefered to hide in the cool chalet because she kept complaining that it was hot at the pit. *tsk tsk tsk* A bit spoilt lah. We also forgot to take pictures of the 2 papas playing chefs, bbq-ing for us. Forgetful mommy.

We brought along DVD for the children to watch as there was a DVD player. The children visited the chalet pool before the BBQ. It was Xuan xuan's first time in the pool and he was performing and adapting to it so well! I was impressed. On the second day, we went to Wild Wild Wet which was our first time too. It was fun but papa and I had sun burnt because we only put the sunblock for the children and forgot about ourselves. Haha :) In the evening, we went to Explorer Kid. It's our children's all time favourite although I thought the maze was a little stinko and old. After that, our family friends were very kind to give us a treat at the Japanese restaurant for dinner.

On the last night, while the children were sleeping, we sneaked out to watch midnight movie "Ip Man 2" at the cinema in the hub. We were surprised that many people were not asleep at 12.20 a.m. The show was grrrreat! We've caught part 1 and we loved it. Part 2 was just as good :)

All in all, we've enjoyed ourselves very much. The chalet was clean, comfortable and convenient. The toilet was basically clean for our unit, no ugly yellow spots or stain. I think we'll do that again! :)

Yi-yi's Creation

My sister loves the children. She is always giving them things or making things for them. She's a creative person. This time round, she decided to get iron-on labels to personalise the T-shirts for the children. We bought plain Old Navy t-shirts from the online sprees and my sister ironed on the cute labels for the children. The children love the special T-shirts, especially Phoebe! It's so nice to have a doting Yi-yi. The children are blessed! :)

Yi-yi chose ballerina for Phoebe because she knows that Phoebe likes ballet.
She chose a duck for Reuben because she knows that he likes animals :)

The "No More Milk Milk" Chant

Reuben is on formula milk now. However, at night, he still likes to latch on when he sleeps beside me. Even though there is still milk, I feel that he's latching on because of comfort and habit. I am trying to discourage him to latch on now. I even have a chant for him. It goes like this :

No more milk milk in the day,
No more milk milk in the night.
No more milk milk in the car,
No more milk milk on the bed.
No more milk milk for big boy,
No more milk milk for Reuben.

Phoebe hears this chant so often that she can chant it too. Reuben is also able to chant the first few words, "No more milk milk..... day. No more milk milk.... night." Sometimes he chants it to himself, sometimes when I chant it to him, he gets irritated and said NO! At night, when he whines to get latched on, I will usually give in to him, to stop him from making noise. After latching on for a while, I will tell him, "No more, finish." and he will pull my T-shirt down, turn his body to face the other side to sleep.

These two nights, I am trying to wean him off. When he whines, I will tell him firmly, "No more." He will tug my T-shirt, but I will tuck in my T-shirt so that he has no means to latch on. He'll whine very loudly and I just let him be. After a while, he'll stop whining and fall asleep. I'll persist on and hopefully, he'll be wean off soon.

Then, my next plan is to wean the children off my king sized bed. I think it's time for them to sleep on their own on the mattress on the floor, though within the same room (to save aircon).

But first thing first, No more milk milk.... (carry on chanting...)

Sibling Rivalry

Yes, Phoebe and Reuben do fight and have their squabbles. It's normal because they will learn in the the process of quarrelling. They will learn to share or live with each other's differences. Sometimes Reuben gives in, sometimes Phoebe. Sometimes no one wants to give in, so we take away whatever that is causing the unhappiness. If not, we'll use the distraction method. Sometimes, we'll use the scolding method too, but after that, we'll try to explain to them. Reuben may not understand fully, but Phoebe does. Sometimes, Reuben shows that he cares for his sister. When Phoebe was really very upset, he will call her nicely, "Jie-jie. jie-jie?" and then offer the item (be it a ball or a toy) as an apology. If Phoebe gives in to Reuben (and let him have the item cordially), I will reward her with something, maybe a praise, a kiss, a hug, a sweet or some time to play the Ipod Touch. Sometimes after giving in to her brother, Phoebe will tell me automatically, "Mommy, just now I let di-di have the ... I didn't snatch from him." I will praise her to show my approval.

These days, when Phoebe gets upset, she'll say, "It's not fair!" and I'll tell her, "You're right. It's really not fair. Some people in other parts of the world have nothing to eat and they're fighting for food and here you're, so well-fed and adorned and you're fighting over something to play. This is really not fair to the poor people." Then that will trigger her to think and her attention is being diverted a little and she'll ask me questions about the people living in other parts of the world.

I remember just last week, this Not-Fairness issue came up again and Phoebe said, "Mommy, if other countries are poor, Singapore can help them." And then I responded, "Yes, Singapore does give help to countries that need help. But in Singapore herself, there are poor people too."
"Then other countries can help Singapore." "Yes, but we ourselves can help the poor too. We don't have to wait for other countries to help us. We should help our own people first."
I hope that the discussion will help her to not to be so narrow-minded.

Sometimes sibling squabbles are not that bad. Though we strongly discourage it, we do not stop them from happening. What is more important is that, the children must learn something out of the squabbles and their matters must always be resolved harmoniously. Sometimes, Phoebe will complain that Reuben did not say sorry when he was in the wrong. I would explain that Reuben did not really know how to say sorry yet and I would tell him to apologise when he knows how to do it the next time. When Phoebe knew that I understood her dismay, she felt better and accepted the fact that her brother was still young. I will also use simple language to educate Reuben, in the presence of Phoebe, of his wrong doing. By doing this, it will help to educate Reuben and also appease Phoebe. Parents must play a part in explaining and mediating. That's a very important process to help them to learn and grow.

I'm still learning, and my children are helping me to learn day by day :)

Do not be alarmed when you see this clip. They played peacefully after this was recorded :)


Phoebe played with the princess boat and Reuben played with his favourite elephant.

Reuben is Reading

I've mentioned before that Reuben love this book from Joy Readers (EdVenture is having their annual discount from now till 1 May 2010. If you're interested in getting, you can let me know!). We read that book to him often and he has memorised the book. Memorising is also part of the skill to literacy development. Now, Reuben is able to "read" on his own. One evening before bedtime, his Jie-jie guide him in reading his own bedtime story. Watch Reuben reading. :)

:
Run, run, run.
Ow!
A wash,
a plaster,
a hug from mum.
I feel better.
Run, run, run.

Water Boy

Reuben is a natural water baby. You can put him in the water with a ring float and he'll move around at ease. He can enjoy himself for a long time. He kicks and paddles in the water without being taught. He mentions going to-ming (swimming) every day. When he is in the water, he sings:

All the fishes

Swimming in the water

Swimming in the water

Bubble bubble bubble bubble
Splash!

Phoebe is the opposite. She's a little rabbit. She's afraid of water even when she has the ring float. After floating in the water for a while, she will complain that her arms are very tired because the ring float is on her armpits, pushing her arms up, causing them to be very strained. She gets very agitated when she realised that her feet cannot touch the bottom of the pool. Haha.

They're just so different :) But that makes them very interesting :)

Meet the Water Boy!

Ixora For Mommy

Phoebe came home from grandparents' place with a small bouquet of Ixora in her hand. "Mommy, this is for you!" So sweet. I used that opportunity to add 2 words into her vocabulary - Ixora and bouquet :)