Dinosaur at Science Centre

Last Monday, we visited Science Centre since it was a public holiday. It was packed but it has been ages since we step foot in this place. I had initially thought that the place is dead because it had been around since the 70s or something and those were places that kids usually go with their school buddies on excursion trips! Well, since it was the school holidays, we went as a family.

It was packed and that place had new exhibits since we last visited. At the entrance, we were greeted by the large Dinosaur exhibit. This one is enormous and the girls were a little frightened to stand closer for picture taking. Perhaps because it was controlled electronically so it moved and roars and looked as if it could get out and attack us anytime... hahahaha just kidding. But the movement when it sort of looked intently at me, i thought we shared a little hush hush secret...lol

Will post more interesting pics of the Science Centre later on in parts. We didn't finish with the gallery, lucky we didn't purchase show/magic show tickets. The place was to big to go through everything.

My Cheeky Girls

Do you have a favourite picture of your kid? Eh but which mom don't think their kids are cute and adorable, right? Every mom thinks of their offsprings as their beautiful child/children of all time. And they always share the mother and child bond. My younger one is very mischievious and temperamental. She is also very attentive to a lot of things and sensitive too. Sometimes, before I reprimand anything about her, I'd go the long way and praise her first. This way she knows how to read the signals and do the things that I don't like. She loves praises and will work for it.

It is good to praise your children because they actually learn alot from praises than to scold or criticizes. Lately, I've been very busy with them since my helper is still on holiday leave. Then I told my youngest that she had been a good little helper because she was keeping her stationary in the box. Because of this praise, she and my elder daughter sneaked upstairs into the other room to help fold the laundry. Though they aren't perfect, but I was extremely proud of them because a little praise moved them to do a great deal of work.

Honestly, I can't get mad at them long no matter what! Look at these cheeky pics!



Love you both, Rae and Lea!

Lea Is Back To School Today

When Lea was sick last week, she stayed home as she was not allowed to be in school. Did you know what actually happened? She had HFMD! I was terribly worried for her because my elder had caught it before in school when she was in Kindy. So when Lea caught it, I was worried how she would take it.

Lea's red spots on her sole

Other than some spots on her hands and feet, she had fever which lasted for 2 days. During the fever it was not prominent, only when she was recovering on her third day, did the spots appear. She did complained of a little ulcer at the tip of her tongue of which I applied an oral gel for her. As all other HFMD cases, she had to be confined at home, no school until she gets a medical clearance. The doctor said there was nothing to worry as hers was a mild case but of course, how could any mom not be worried. Some cases were so serious that it became fatal.

She was away from school for about 10 days of which by then the doc had given the green light to return to school on day 9. But I kept her at home just one more day and also didn't let her attend her speech and drama class that was suppose to be in the afternoon. Her teachers and school all were in touch and I kept them updated about her condition. Even the clinic called up but of course for some information too as they had to submit these to the Ministry of Health to make sure these are isolated cases.

So what did Lea do while she was at home? Well, she ate a lot, cried a lot, threw a lot of tantrums. She had all the attention she wanted and she got it. She even got to playing on my new laptop cos Daddy let her when she couldn't sleep! And she danced and sing a lot because she didn't want to miss out on her school practise and sang Chan Mali Chan and some songs she was suppose to sing and dance for her school.

I guess I am so relieved at the end of this traumatic session. I was a little down the best part of the week but I chose to ignore it actually. But I'm better today.

Kiddy Rides

Sometimes when we have exhausted ourselves of ideas for kids' activities, we bring them to the east for kiddy rides. Although you can find these rides almost in many housing estates nearby, we still like the east environment because this fella that does his kiddy ride business seems to be doing it in a larger scale and the space here is definitely more spacious than others.

He invested on those battery (or generated) operated children's vehicles (bikes, little mpvs, open top jeeps) and charges about $3 or $4 depending on the size of the vehicle for different age group.

Look at these pictures.

The operator with the clipboard checks each numbered vehicle for timing

Look at the pretty bikes in a row

When the sun sets, is the time where the parents brings their kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces for these rides. Sometimes there is a queue so the following kid need to wait for a vacant vehicle.

Each ride is given a period of 15 minutes. My girls really enjoy rides like these. I was thinking of getting them these but not too sure how much they cost per vehicle.. and how much does it cost to maintain it.

Lea taking her first ride on the mini bike (top) and larger bike (bottom)

MIA Reading, NEW COLLECTION - The Bugaboo Bugs!

Exams are a time where students get tested on the subjects they learnt in school like Maths, English, Listening Comprehension, Word Recognition and even some general topics that relate to civic mindedness and general knowledge. Sometimes it takes very little to get the attention of kids at a tender age of 4 to 8 to learn things unless the subject is interesting, colourful, captivating and fun.

If your child is between the age of nursery level to Grades 3, perhaps you might like to introduce to him or her this very exciting adventure of The Bugaboo Bugs that has been developed by an award-winning team, Kutoka (publishes high quality interactive content). Kutoka is an expert in education and multimedia for the past 10 years since their very first Mia game — The Search for Grandma's Remedy — reading.


The Bugaboo Bugs is a new collection and comes in a series of 5 titles under MIA collection that helps to complement and support children's educational journey in the knowledge of Reading, Science, Maths, Creativity and Language.

The story is about a mouse who lives in a lovely Victorian family home for years. Recently been invaded by pests who show some pesky behaviour of being noisy, uncivilized and lack of manners. To avoid being exterminated by human and faced being thrown out in the streets, Mia the Mouse needs help to find ways to help these pesky friends of hers.

This Series of learning adventure game includes educational activities, different age appropriate difficulty levels, evaluation report to follow the child's progress, activities that collaborate interesting stories, colourful environments, endearing characters, rich 3D environment, and more. This hybrid DVD rom can be used on both Mac or PC and suitable for ages from aged 4 to 9. Learn more about The Bugaboo Bugs and how to get your products here. Don't worry if you live in countries that teaches in other languages because this multi award-winning series is available is over 40 countries in 14 different languages. How about that?


MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows XP (sp2), 2000 (sp4), VISTA; Processor: Pentium III - 1Ghz; RAM: 512 MB; Video & Sound: DirectX 9 compatible; DVD-ROM Drive: 4X; Hard Disk Space: 1.2 GB.

Macintosh OS X, 10.4, 10.5; Processor: G4 - 1Ghz; RAM: 512 MB;
Video & Sound: Standard Macintosh; DVD-ROM Drive: 4X; Hard Disk Space: 1.2 GB.

Pick Up Good Cleaning Habits with Huggies CleanTeam®

As a mom to two young and cheeky girls, 3 and 7, hygiene is top priority in my family. When I bring the girls out, I always carry lots of wet wipes for sanitation purposes especially, when the girls need to visit the restroom or when it is not convenient to find a basin for washing of hands.

At home, I make sure that the cleaning products like bath foam, shampoos, and the liquid for washing of hands are always accessible. My elder girl turning 8 this year is taking her own baths and knows how to clean up after a visit to the toilet. The only thing that I need to repeat to her is that she needs to wash her hands after every visit, as well as before and after her meals. My younger girl is observing all these habits closely and she is following her sister's footsteps which is a relief to me! As she had completed her toilet training and makes her visit to the loo by herself, I place a low level wide stool for her easy reach to the basin, and she is enjoying it tremendously.


Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease Scare
I try to make good cleaning hygiene habits an enjoyable part of their everyday lifestyle especially when the recent scare of hand, foot and mouth disease becomes more apparent in the recent weeks. When Rae was 5, she caught it from her kindy just before the school closed for holidays. It was so heartbreaking seeing her with the mouth ulcers and how she couldn't eat nor drink. Even my poor helper cried at the sight of her. It was a painful experience but she now understands why hygiene is so important. I educate my girls about this disease and we all use the nickname Handphone and Mouse because at the same time, PC and Mobile phones are also part of an addiction.

A new line of cleaning products have just been designed specially for children. It is the Huggies CleanTeam® range of products. Huggies had launch this very funky for kids cleaning products which contain items like Bath products, Shampoo and Conditioner, Hand soap, Moist Wipes, Wash cloths and Cleansing cloths. The product revolves around cute illustrations of sea creatures for kids to associate each product for each purpose. These sea creatures are the CleanTeam® Characters that Huggies had created to encourage good hygiene practise to toddlers, especially.

As part of this new campaign, Huggies CleanTeam® is also inviting parent bloggers to write about their own experience of their kids' personal hygiene. To have a look at their line of products on video, you may like to go here. Check out the range of kids' colourful range of products which I'm sure will bring smiles and giggles to your child/children. You may like to check out their requirements, if you wish to do a review and have some product samples sent to you. Have fun!

Rae's Ballet

Before I forget, I wanted to post a video of Rae's ballet practises last week. There was some renovation going on in the building so you'd hear some drilling amidst the music. Rae is the one wearing white tights among these 5 girls. This video is not of very high quality res cos the better one took ages to download when I tried.

United Square is Kids' Mall

If you are a great fan of Sanrio's Hello Kitty and happen to be in Singapore, you might want to visit the Hello Kitty store in United Square. We were there to watch a live show when our window shopping trip chanced upon this store. When my girls saw this shop, they felt as if they were in a dream world and refuse to leave the place.

United Square is a great place to be if you are pro-kids' fan or if you want to send your kids for enriching classes here. You can find just about anything for kids in this mall that is located in Novena area. This is where you can see the funky Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream kiosk, Globetrotters Restaurant that is big on kids' stuff, and usual kids' stores like Toys R Us, and a Disney theme furniture store, Junior League (Salon for kids) or enroll your kids in language centres, speech & drama schools, golf with Kindergolf or even let your kids pick up fencing.

Lea's New Nursery Kindy

Mid week already and I wondered how on earth did I get to it so soon. I had been busy with errands and stuff since Mon. Lea had started her new school on Mon and she was excited and raring to go even before it was time. This time her nursery studies will be parallel to school term so she will also enjoy the normal school holidays just like Rae. The last nursery she attended was more like a daycare thingy.

What's great about her new nursery kindergarten is that they are big and they have lots of facilities like a large playground, a real kids' canteen, separate music rooms, indoor gym, trikes and bikes for kids, and they even have a little corner where they have little chickens running in a coop for kids' learning experience. I am sure she will be able to integrate herself into primary school in a couple of years time with this exposure.


(picture: Lea in blue pinafore and Red PE Ts & Shorts)

Monday, she was pretty proud of wearing a pinafore just like sis. Her school is just across the road from Rae's so she thinks that she is just as important. She has two teachers, Mrs Thomas and Teacher Chen. At the end of the day, the teachers were praising her for doing so well in school and could follow the class activities and not a 'sob'.

She participated in singing but she told me she didn't do any dance because she didn't want the teacher to be laughing at her. She also said the food in school was yummy and she refused to drink milo because her preferance was Ovaltine. What a lot of opinions for a first day.

Arguments, Fights, Jealousy

School holiday is coming to an end, with Sunday being the last day. I admit, I am a little glad. With both of my girls at home so often, there has been arguments, sibling fights and all that sibling rivalry. Sometimes it really gets into your nerves. Once minute they are fine, happily playing. The next minute, Horror of all Horrors! I think mom's will understand what I mean.

I was glad to have them home for the holidays, which meant I didn't have to rush in the morning getting the girls ready for school and all that erratic driving sessions during the day as Mom's Taxi beats the Time, Hot Sun, Passing Shower, Traffic Jams just to get her young ones in time for school, classes, enrichments, and home for a meal.

See the picture here. Lea cried uncontrollably. Why? Like any other day, clashes and temperaments soar high. They had the karaoke cd on one morning. Rae started singing. Lea wanted her to stop but Rae continued singing and ignored her. Lea started singing at the top of the voice. After a while she started screaming and crying. She complained to me that Rae sang too loud, she couldn't hear her own voice. Yes kids do fight over a simple thing like that. Did your kids behave this way, moms?

Wheel Them Around

Most of the time during shopping trips, I am torn with which kid gets to sit on which side on the shopping trolleys. My elder will usually get the larger basket and the younger one on the smaller front section facing me. On one of my shopping trip last weekend, I found out that this particular type of trolley allows my girls to have fun by having another one sitting just below the basket! This trolley allows two basket, one on top of the other, but if you take the basket below out, my younger girl can sit there comfortably. This has a face frontal seat for kids of 6 years and below but my girl wanted to sit so there she is. It is sometimes easier to wheel them around then letting them walk and starts taking things or get lost along the way. Anyway, they did have a good time and did not disturb me throughout the whole time in the store!

Korean Entertainment by Rae and Lea

The week long term break has officially started. I brought Rae to get her brownie uniform today but the darn store was closed! They close on Sat, Sun and Monday! Gosh. And I wanted to clear my errands by the beginning of the week so I can enjoy the holiday week with the girls. This afternoon, we went to Civic Centre in the North. Rae was going for her piano appreciation week and her classes had been schedule to Civic Centre for the week. I sent her there for the full hour class and I went on my hour long window shopping..

Yesterday my girls were in their Korean costume playing.. they love to play dress up. Rae was playing the piano and Lea wanted to dance. I captured them on video and I thought they do very well as song and dance week if there was one. Kinda like a folk song and dance skit. As usual, Lea loves to dance. Enjoy the video.

A Casual Day Out

I went to have a look at some shades today before Rae's piano lesson and turned out that it was my girl who was doing the real shopping. She was pestering me to buy the costume jewellery that she saw... of which most of them don't even suit her! She loves anything that gilitters. She picked ankle chains, bracelets, necklaces that made her looked like our Christmas Tree. She saw me at the corner trying on the shades and she, too helped herself to them and kept asking me if she looked fine or if she could buy them! It turned out that she was enjoying it so much trying on everything that I just stood there and kept reminding her to handle it with care!

So if any of you would like a company to go shopping, you can bring Rae along. She would be your best shopping buddy, I'm sure! I ended up buying her a wrist chain, with pink and white gems and pearls that cost only $5.00 which were on offer. And I probably need to shop alone for my shades.

Kids Invade Supermarket

A trip to the supermarket got me snapping away. Well not at the items but the kids whom were brought in for an excursion by their teachers to learn about shopping and calculations using money. They had their worksheets with them with boxes for them to fill in the items and locations. My little girl had that done in her kindy days few years back. But these kids were grade 1 kids so maybe they had more complicated sums and lots of grocery items to spell out. It was fun watching them, and it stalled my shopping trip abit. They came in groups of about 12 each. And the supermarkets were really swarmed with active and happy kids today.

Kids break the ice

Lea met a new friend on Friday. She was on one of those kid's toy rides when the little girl about her age sitting on the next one, wanted to make friends with her. Well, it was her Baby Alive that broke the ice for both of them. The girl wanted to reach out to pat the baby doll at first and Lea was a little wary at first.

I was amused that she tried to pull away her Baby Alive and put the baby doll on the other side instead. However, when she came down later on, the little girl too, climbed out and they were both in each other's face for a while. That was when Lea let the little girl patted her doll and they both actually talked. Well it was quite funny because Lea was trying to behave as if she was such a big girl and she talked to the little girl the way an adult would talk to a toddler. Too bad, I didn't have video taken since I was snapping pictures from my camera phone already. I soon found out that they were both equally 3 years of age and only a month apart, with Lea being the elder.

Not quite friends yet..






The little girl reached out to Baby Alive





Lea climbed down, followed by the little girl



Friends at last

Dance Dance Dance

My girls love to dance. Some of you might have seen their previous videos taken months back dancing to some hokkien Getai songs. I caught Lea (3 and a half) in her active dancing mood again (with Rae joining her later part) last week and chose to capture her secretly behind the sofa. I also told her I was deleting some pictures from my camera phone, when it's obvious. If she knew I was taking her she will be upset because she hates to see herself being replayed, actually. She feels shy about it..hahaha Enjoy..

Previous Video Link
Lea and Rae's second MTV
Kids having fun

Mighty Power!

I had another pleasant surprise today. My girls' Godma text me on my handphone.. She was telling me the girls were in the papers today.. So, excitingly I flipped the ST and yes, there it was, Rae and Lea on the home section in the local papers.

Well, for a start, I was blogging about my experience with a bank last month. When the bank saw my comment from my blog, they gave a surprise which was quite the envy of my friends. With my consent, I agreed to let them feature a story about my experience and the bank's prompt reaction to it. So it was in the papers today and I'm sure my girls will probably be The Star of the day at least, with their school friends. Check out the story below.

Also I would like to thank Shirley Chua for arranging all these and Jasmine Ong who dropped by with such nice chocolates, and lastly Nicholas Tan for the Mighty Savers' gifts. The girls have just turned into Die-hard Mighty Savers' Fans. (Picture of Lea on the right, doing a Mighty Savers' Power Stance).

Here is the feature story on the internet news.


Stories related to this post.
1. Not So Mighty, Mighty Savers
2. Mightier than the Sword, Mighty Savers save the Day

Shopping in town

Today was a shopping trip for us. We were in Suntec City since we didn't fancy walking in crowd-frenzy Orchard. 22nd to 24th are days when Orchard is jam packed you can't get parking anywhere and also the queue at the cashiers are like an hour long. Two hours long for gift wraps.

Suntec City was also crowded but we didn't mind since we usually would just buzz in Carrefour, ToysRus, MyPlayground, and the kids play area. Lunch was at the food court. This place is buzzling with activity because of the wide range of food. You can get Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice in this foodcourt too. So it's not entirely hawker fare but just sized down outlets.

Above: Eel and Beef Teriyaki Set, Below: Saba Fish Set.

Me, as usual would go for Japanese while Ah Boy loves Korean. We seemed to have the same diet even if we are in different food location. I had my Eel and Beef Teriyaki Set and he had his favourite Saba Set. The kids, I ordered BBQ Chicken with yellow rice and from another stall ordered Roast Duck and Roast Pork as sides.

After lunch, we went into Carrefour. It had changed since we last visited maybe in October. Downstairs the food section was the same but the layout for non-food items upstairs were different.

I did some shopping, bought some blouses that I fancy. I took 7 pcs, my record high for one time shopping and at the cashier, felt a bit guilty, put back 2 pcs. Well, I had tighten my budget for sooo long you know. So 5pcs is not really alot! And they were cheap, OKAY? Ladies clothes had extra 20% discount today! Grab Grab Grab!!! Bought a three-quarter (dunno how to type that in numeric) pants for Rae and a trainer pants for Lea (wanna cut down on her expensive MamyPoko diaper pants).

After the shopping at Carrefour, we went out to the Kid's area. On every Sunday here, they serve FREE candy floss, balloons and sometimes popcorn too! The kids went on to queue up at the candy floss queue. Then they went to the hall to watch cartoons too. I just ronda around (I went to ToysRus, shhhhhh...) to double check the price of BabyAlive and PixelChic.

I'd gotten it at another mall last Sunday, I just needed to know how much ToysRus sells... Phewww... not any cheaper or I'd kick myself! In fact those were nett price and it was label, Utimate Christmas Gifts! I saw some other Baby dolls which were like less than $15 with the same things BabyAlive has but the only thing is that, it's not automated. Never mindlah. Quality is good. I got a family game like the olden days Congkak. Thought would be fun to play it with them at home this Christmas holiday. Got it wrapped at the counter and told a white lie when Rae asked who the present is for... Then it was about 6pm and we decided it was really a long day out already.
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FREE Candy Floss and Cartoon Time!

Nitetime Say Goodnight Time.. I'd gotten the presents wrapped and placed them by the Christmas Tree. The girls are asleep now... Nite Nite Girls, Your Guardian Angels are probably watching over you..

Presents waiting for the girls

It was a tiring day altogether, but at least I did enjoyed it.