Family Outings

Littlelam’s Daddy has been on a clearing-leave bonanza, so we’ve finally got some family time over the past week. I’m still up to my ears in Christmas wrapping on Christmas eve, so I’m just gonna post pics TTFN, and

HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Last week Daddy made good on his promise and took us out to enjoy the sunny weather (which only lasted 2 days)… I’m sooooo thankful that God held the rain till this week so we could at least enjoy some outdoor activities as a family.

Went to the zoo and FOR THE FIRST TIME, it didn’t rain. Actually it was really amazing because I God really showed that He also cares about our small ridiculous wishes, which for me, was that it would be sunny. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there till late afternoon, and the moment we got into the car to head home, it started raining, and the POURING! I am still so overwhelmed and amazed by His love (it’s not JUST because of that, but it’s a whole diff entry to itself).

Daddy and Littlelam sharing a quiet moment watching zebras

The highlight was Littlelam’s (and my) very first elephant ride!

We took a walk along Clarke Quay in the daytime, starting out for lunch at Brewerkz (where we met our JC-tutors enjoying a beer) and explored the rather deserted streets – I like! We discovered a lovely indoor fountain area for Littlelam to splash around in and after walking to Funan to try to check out the prices of the Wii, we looped back to The Central and had my favourite Azabu Sabo ice-cream by the river. Awesome!

Water-play that doesn’t cost a cent!

 Littlelam also had her very first concert performance where she danced as a Starfish and also a Snowflake Fairy. Too bad I was seated too far up, and don’t have a powerful zoom camera. Sigh, my little one is growing up so fast!

Littlelam's Concert "The Strangest Fish" - too bad I can't even see my little Starfish! (They're the ones with the conical hats..)

Weddings

I just like this picture I took of Littlelam peeping as a wedding couple were about to enter the ballroom.

Marriage. Seasons. Life

December Is Upon Us!

Walking the lighted streets with Daddy

Although I’m usually not a big fan of the whole ‘commercial christmas’ thing, having a kid does change things. At three, Littlelam is now better able to ‘appreciate’ the festivities, glitzy decorations and overt commercialism, which in Singapore often equates to shopping. Especially along Orchard Road. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t got in any Christmas shopping yet, mainly cos I’ve been too stuffed up with mucus and phlegm (ok, you didn’t need to know that) and I’ve just been busy attempting to MAKE Christmas stuff instead of buying them.

So on Sunday night we took the chance to hit the streets of Orchard, since it was FOR ONCE, not raining. (You see, in Singapore our ‘winter’ consists of unpredictable thunderstorms and constant drizzles.) I must say I was quite pleasantly surprised that despite the usual crowds of people, it was cool and the decorations were quite palatable. Except for a few very disturbing giant statues of reindeer-women ie: body of a sexy woman, but head of a reindeer, and hoofs included. I was too grossed-out to take a pic of the reindeer but here are some of the pretty dazzling lights and walk-in tree at ION Orchard.

Giant Walk-in Tree outside ION Orchard

Inside the ION Christmas tree.

 

Full but clouded moon rising above the iconic Tangs building

 

 Ironic splurge of electricity, sponsored by Hitachi (sorry, couldn’t resist!)

 

 

 

Protected: The Anniversary Getaway

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Simple Dinners… and other stuff

Hokay, so I’m kinda back from my momentary morose musings. I decided I’ll re-jig a few things on this blog and add a few more ‘categories’ that would inspire me to post more. But I SO wish I had a better camera. 

I figured that since I cook at least 3 times a week, and bake maybe once every 2 weeks ANYWAY, I might as well post up the piccies here. But I’m going to apologise in advance for the poor quality of the photographs because I’m only using a 2-year-old Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixels, and I’m a bit of a tech-idiot, I’m afraid. I’m taking away the ‘RECIPES’ page on my header because it’s been in disrepair for too long and I’ll just post up the pics of my super simple dinners as and when they inspire me.

Another topic that I hope to share on this blog (due to popular demand and requests from friends) is How to Use Creative Methods to Teach Your Child. Ok, the title is a bit of a work-in-progress, but you get the gist. Not to be a brag (but I dunno how I can say this without sounding like one), but my daughter was able to read both English and Chinese words by the time she was about 10 months. She had a commendable vocabulary by the time she was 18 months, was able to tell stories with big words by 2 and now as a 3-year-old, she’s able to play the piano by ear and compose music. I didn’t put her in any sort of playgroup or buy any expensive teaching material for her at all. She’s only started half-day childcare recently at 3 just cos I wanted some free time to work and run errands. Heh! So I’m going to TRY to note down and post pics of some of my own teaching methods, which are basically just stuff you can do in everyday life, but in a creative, purposeful way.  Hope this will help you in your journey to creatively teach your child at home too!

So since I’ve removed the ‘Recipes’ page (as I have totally been too lazy and un-foodie-minded), I’m posting some pics of our simple 3-person dinners. An important thing to note is that my kitchen is VERY VERY SMALL, and it is combined with the laundry area, which means my clothes have to hang right above all the action in the kitchen. This in turn means that I absolutely cannot do any Chinese wok-frying, stir-frying and of course, deep frying. The result is that I either steam, boil or bake EVERYTHING. Here are some of my own staple (and fortunately, my family’s fav) dishes that I’ve randomly concocted on my own with the few ingredients I can find in my part of the heartland:

Adult serving of Salmon and Rice with Chinese Veg

Grilled Beef Kebabs with Yellow Capsicum and Cherry Tomatos

Shepherd's Pie with 'chapalang' salad. Ok this isn't really an EASY, quick dinner, but at least you can prepare it in advance!

 

 

 

Neglected

I do realise I’ve been posting rather infrequently. I apologise for that if you are actually someone who reads my blog!

But sometimes I really have so many things I want to say, so many things I want to write about, that I really don’t know where to start.

Sometimes it’s also a momentum thing and also a matter of priorities. Sometimes I wonder why I’ve never really, and I mean REALLY pursued my dreams and put my ideas to action is because I’m too caught up in maintaining the daily. I don’t understand why I seem to be the only one that is unable to break free. Maybe that’s the sacrifice of motherhood.

Oh well, till next time!

Profound Words from a 3-yo

Daddy: (Giving her a coin for the offering on Sunday) This money is for Jesus.
Littlelam: Sometimes it’s Jesus, sometimes God, and sometimes Lord, right?

He is the same, yesterday, today and forevermore.

Play-Doh creations

I’ve always loved Play-Doh. I was an avid play-doh sculptor as a kid, and I’m glad in a way that my daughter enjoys it as much as I do. But now as mom, I can finally understand why some kids are not allowed to play with it. It DOES create a bit of a mess, especially if your child is fond of peeling/plucking/shredding the dough into little bits, and Play-doh does seem to have a special affinity for sticking to clothes, the floor, chairs and worse still, carpets.

But I think the fun outweighs the mess. Littlelam got 2 different sets of themed Play-Doh - an ice-cream set and a Breakfast Set –for her birthdays, so we do have quite a lot of fun with the varieties of molds. Here are some of the pics:

Playdoh Sausage Dog (of course I made it, not her!)

 

Ice-cream and Toppings!

 

Playdoh "Wua- Ko- Kueh"

Chinese DVD series

Despite being 100% Singaporean-Chinese, it is an unfortunate irony that my Mandarin-speaking skills are seriously not up to par. I get ostracised in my neighbourhood by the other Mandarin-speaking mothers because they hear me speaking English to my daughter, or when I attempt to speak to them in my halting Mandarin, it just comes across funny. If they only knew that my spoken Mandarin is already A LOT better than it was before I moved into the neighbourhood.

Anyway, this lack of mother-tongue linguistic skills has rubbed off on poor Littlelam. We hardly speak any Mandarin at home (cos it’s just me and her, right?) and both sets Grandparents hardly speak it too! When they do, the intonation is a bit wrong , so she ends up getting a little confused. So in a bid to create more interest in the language, her Grandma (who’s doing a great job trying to speak to her in Mandarin) chanced upon this series of DVDs which have been a big hit with her, and her peers! Most importantly, the music and singing is nice – non of that jarring yelling of kids that you tend to get with low-budget Mandarin VCDs, and the musical arrangement is not too boring as well. The graphics are good – it’s just very simple animation, non of that ridiculous footage of unrelated animals, trees, children running around etc.. The animation is tasteful and depicts the meaning of the songs, so even if your own Mandarin ‘cannot-make-it’, you’ll be able to easily make out the storyline.

From being unable to speak a word of Mandarin, she is now able to sing whole songs in Mandarin, in accurate intonation as well. Of course, starting school has helped because the Chinese teacher only speaks to them in Mandarin, so she’s also started picking up phrases, and better understanding sentences in Mandarin.

So anyway, I’m posting the pic of the DVDs because it doesn’t have an English title, and I’ve gotten a few requests from other moms asking what it is and where to buy them. It’s by Innokidz , which also has quite a few other good kids titles, and it’s a by local company, Innoform. You can buy these DVDs from Kiddy Palace and Isetan, from what I know.

Fun with Karaoke "Children's Song Little Genius" (loosely translated)

 

I think there are 3 or 4 DVDs in the series, I can’t remember. Pictured here are No.1 and No.3 The yellow No.3 album is Littlelam’s (and my) favourite because of the nice songs (even though some are pretty hard, but don’t underestimate your kids!!). I have friends who prefer No.1 because they are more familiar with the easy childhood tunes like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. But I find No. 1 has a lot of war-like and ‘communistic-sounding’ songs!!! But that’s just me.

My recommendation is start with No. 3 to pique your child’s interest, then move on to No.1 or No.2 to teach the words/ lyrics which are easier. But don’t be surprised if your child starts singing the so called ‘difficult’ songs just by memory! If you do buy it, leave a comment here if this has been helpful!

Paper flowers

Apologies once again for the long, long silence. I’ve been dealing with a little one who keeps falling sick — apparently a common thing when they first start pre-school. I’m thankful that Littlelam seems to be adjusting well, no more tears in the morning with regards to Mommy dropping her off, so that’s a big improvement.

I also noticed that because I have my solid 2 hours to do my own stuff (which unfortunately equates to washing breakfast dishes/hang laundry/do grocery-shopping), I am a little more enthusiastic in pandering to Littlelam’s requests to do crafts. And since she’s also been sick at home a couple of days, the 2 kids craft books I own have been very helpful.

One craft that Littlelam managed quite successfully all by herself, was this mini-arrangement of Paper Flowers.

Three very different flowers!

She drew all of them all by herself, and cut out the one on the extreme left by herself too! I think that’s quite a feat for a little girl who has just recently turned 3.  Best of all, this craft doesn’t involve much effort and mess.

Check out how to Make Your Own Paper Flowers

Another project that she and I made up together is this collage of Vegetables:

Veggie Collage

I drew the outlines of the veggies, while she coloured them all by herself. I’m quite amazed that she got the right colours (ok, except for the blue potato), and stayed within the lines so well. Next, I helped her to cut them out, and she stuck them on the purple paper. Easy peasy, but rather pretty!