Always keep your head on your shoulders.
In the words, don’t let your emotions cloud your judgement. Fear can make people do crazy things…and so does anger and frustration. Always remind yourself that you are capable of rational thought and self-awareness.

Be informed at every step of your journey.
It’s important to know your environment, the situation and the people involved. Read up, question what you already know, talk to the RIGHT people (don’t just talk to any Tom, Dick & Harry) and form your own opinion. Herd mentality is very dangerous.

Have faith and courage.
A lot of things in life are out of our control. We can only do our best and leave the rest to God. Have faith in yourself, the people around you and God. It doesn’t hurt to have some faith. Do not be afraid to live even if it means facing challenges and conflicts that may hurt you or your family. Living helps us build character, memories and experiences – yes, as cheesy as it sounds, it is true. By living, we end up growing too – for better or worse.

Talk alone equals inaction.
Don’t just complain and rant if you’re unhappy. Do something. Channel your frustrations and annoyance at the situation into action. Be proactive. Be the change yourself instead of expecting others to change the situation for you. This is YOUR life and no one else’s.

Running away is not an answer.
Life is full of challenges and tests. Running away is not an answer to life’s conflicts and tests. It is easy, yes, no one will deny that, but a journey fought and fought well is something to be more proud of than a journey that you hide from.

I hope that one day, my children will look back and remember how my husband was there to support me as I casted my vote as a postal voter & how we try to set a good example for them.

A while back, I’ve been giving Noah a free-hand with the pencils and paper lying around on Eva’s little table. He has been showing interest in his sister’s doodling and colouring activites much to her chagrin. (He is always pulling at her pants, trying to steal the paper from under her and even tossing aside the pencils and pens.)

While he is still a novice at drawing – he makes dots and very light doodles – it is clear that he is definitely exploring the creative aspect of things. At the moment, he seems to be gravitating towards making noise with the pencil or just exploring the shape & feel rather than doodle with it. But on some days, he is just like his sister – all doodles and scribbles.

For me, it doesn’t really matter if he likes doodling or not. As long as he’s happy and learning something. After all, creativity manifests itself in many aspects – music, painting, drawing, design work, baking, cooking…I should know. LOL.

The evaluation is split into a number of different sections – language, comprehension (reading & writing), student life, self-awareness, world knowledge and craft/creativity. Each objective is graded accordingly – (loosely translated) A – Acquired, CN – Correction Needed, IP – In Progress, NA – Not Acquired

Language
Exchange, expression
Able to relate and include adults and peers – A
Able to speak in front of a group – NA
Pronounces & articulates correctly – CN

Comprehension
Explains an activity after it has ended – A
Understands and executes an instruction – A

French language development
Able to produce a correct sentence/phase – A

Comprehension (reading and writing)
Familiarisation with tools
Shows an interest in tools – books, drawings, graphs, etc – A
Able to pick the correct tools, use, arrange and keep them – A

Oral/comprehension skills
Listens during storytelling sessions – A
Identifies main characters in the story – A

Reading skills
Able to identify the letters in one’s name – A
Able to identify the letters in other people’s names – NA

Lyric-music listening skills
Able to listen and repeat simple songs with a range of sounds/tones – A

Writing skills
Able to hold a pencil properly – A
Able to write/colour in the designated space – A
Able to trace shapes – A
Able to trace different movements – A

Student life
Community life
Has respect for others, the rules and community life – A

School life
Able to perform simple tasks – answer when spoken to, dress oneself, put away things, etc – A
Identifies adults and their positions – A
Can remain attention for long periods of time when necessary – A
Able to complete tasks on their own – A

Self-awareness
Adapts to changes in the environment – A
Adjusts to group/community rules – A
Able to co-operate with partners – A
Able to express herself through rhythm or sound – A
Roleplays with materials – scarf, small sacs of grains, etc – A

World knowledge
Object discovery
Learns to use every day tools – scissors – A

Material discovery
Learns to work with every day materials – modelling clay, paper, boxes, etc – A

Discovering the body
Able to name the parts of the human body – A
Knows and applies hygiene practices – A

Form & size discovery
Able to recognise and classify the following: form, size and colour – A for form and colour
Able to name simple shapes – square, round, triangle – A

Numbers and counting
Able to compare quantities – A
Memorises numbers up to… – A (11)
Able to count up to 3 – IP
Able to associate the number with its written form – IP

Time discovery
Able to recognize and predict different hours of daily life (morning, afternoon, etc) and days – A

Space discovery
Able to perform activities within a page – A

Craft/creativity
Able to adapt to different materials and techniques – painting with various tools & materials, tearing, gluework, assembling, etc – A
Plays with one’s voice in terms of tone and volume – A
Able to repeat and reproduce simply tunes – A
Sings along with familiar songs – A

To summarize the evaluation, the teacher’s comment section states that she is attentive, not disruptive and participates quietly in classroom activities. She is good with crafts, can colour/draw/work with pen/pencil and is progressing well with other skills (singing, dance, life skills, hygiene, social interaction, etc).

It would appear that she’s still shy when it comes public speaking (yes, they check that at her age), needs some correction with her articulation and pronunciation, and learning her classmates’ names. She’s also still learning how to count (but can memorise numbers up to 11) and associating the number with its written form.

The little man is fast growing up and becoming more and more like a toddler as the days goes by. He is started to enjoy bath time and sometimes will protest HEAVILY when we remove him from the tub. Imagine a screaming and wailing baby throughout the whole removal, drying, moisturising and dressing process. Sometimes it even continues until he enters his room which is a good few feet from the bathroom. Gack!

But when he’s happy, he truly is a joy to watch and observe. That’s him dripping water off his hand and fingers. Sometimes he’ll splash around, sometimes he plays with the cup…scooping water, pouring it away, drinking (I hope he doesn’t pee in his bath water) and attempting to blow bubbles. Once I even caught him trying to put his face right on the surface of the water. And when you catch him, he gives you that cheeky smile which says it all – HAPPY BATH TIME!

After a couple of months on the ring sling, I decided to scout around for a carrier that could distribute the weight over two shoulders and the hips instead of just one shoulder like a ring sling or a pouch. There are a group buy going on over at a Singaporean mothers group and I jumped on the bandwagon after looking at the specifications and design.

Ergo has a couple of models – the Classic, Performance, Sport and Organic. We settled for the Performance due to the fabric used – cotton wicking mesh knit and waterproof exterior. It was also supposedly lighter and more breathable. At the time, these were qualities I was looking for in hot and humid Singapore.

Ergo’s soft structured carriers have the following features:

• Shoulder straps: Padded with 1” high-density premium foam, expanding from 27” – 49”
• Waist strap belt: Padded with 1/4” high-density EVA foam, expanding from 29” – 55”
• Sliding chest strap
• Small & large zippered pouch
• Sleeping hood

You could use this from birth with the infant insert and all the way up till todderhood or at least 20 kilos. We took it everywhere with us – Singapore and France during the winter months. It came in handy when we were switching between users – it fitted my husband well and more importantly, comfortably too thanks to the long straps. The downside with this – like many soft structure carriers – is that back carrying a child doesn’t allow for much of a view for the child. So after a while, we stopped using this.

When Noah came along, I used this in a front carry style and found it to be very comfortable. He could still look around, snooze and all in it. Strangely enough, I thought it to be too hot for him due to his eczema and decided to let this go for another soft structure carrier which I thought would work well. Turned out to be a mistake as the one I purchased had a short body panel and Noah hated being in it. I have no doubts that he would have enjoyed being back carried in the Ergo.

Pros
Adjustable and suitable for multiple carriers of different size
Comes with an adjustable sleeping hood & pockets
Can be used for babies, infants, young toddlers
Versatile – front, back, hip carry
Fabrics used is pretty comfortable for the child and wearer
Love the bright colours (blue, green)!
Lightweight – about half a kilo

Cons
Can be warm for the summer or in the tropics
Doesn’t come with a carry bag
Accessories like teething pads and all are separate

Of lately, we have been talking about exposing the kids to music. Eva loves singing and dancing to just about anything…from nursery rhymes to Disney movies and songs. So for Christmas, my mother-in-law surprised her with a little gift…

Move aside princesses coz the rock star is here to stay!

I reckon she’s too young for the best guitars around but hey, it’s a start. At the moment, she just aimlessly plucks the strings as her hand is still too small to grip the entire neck. It sits in storage on most days; I should really get started on regular music exposure “lessons” – maybe make every Wednesday a music appreciation day.

Any ideas or suggestions?

It has been a journey that spanned nearly 18 months and one that wasn’t smooth too. I had my fair share of blocked ducts, engorgements, milk blebs, oversupply (undersupply wasn’t an issue this time as I was pumping in the early days and Noah didn’t need much of my milk) and all the “joys” that come with breastfeeding.

Noah was already down to two feeds – my kids drink “straight from the tap” since I am a stay-at-home mum – for the past few months and sometime late December/early January, I decided to try cutting back on boob-time before naps – experience told me that the night feeds are hardest to drop so I saved that for last instead. He accepted it and went to bed on his own with some shoulder patting. The weaning came by accident, to be honest, as sometime last week, I started to notice that he was playing more than nursing and when my period came earlier this week, I told my hubs that maybe it is time to stop completely. I let my hubby put him to bed instead of me – Eva was with my mother-in-law for the week since it’s the school holidays – and I reckon that if my hubby is the one to get him to sleep, he wouldn’t want to nurse or think of nursing.

It went smoother than I had expected. Of course I haven’t tried putting him to bed at night…not yet. I think I’ll wait for next week to try it out.

Now many people asked about my feelings on this, if I was sad about him self-weaning. To be honest, I am not. I think what made this time different from my previous weaning experience – my daughter self-weaned at 11 mths old – is that the both of us are ready to move on and I was not under pressure to build up a milk bank or make sure that he was still on milk as was the case when Eva went off breast milk. I am not working now and Noah is doing very well on solids – sometimes, we joke that he’s a bottomless pit – and more importantly, he is still on a balanced diet despite his food allergies.

I must say tho – I am happy to have my breasts back! Kakakakaka!

NOTE: If your child isn’t allergic to dairy, you can use melted butter in place of oil and milk or yogurt in place of soy yogurt.

Blueberry-banana muffins with soy yogurt
Adapted from Periplus Mini Cookbooks’ Blueberry Muffin recipe

SUITABLE FOR
Babies above 8 months, toddlers and adults

Ingredients

1-2 medium-large overripe bananas, roughly chopped up
1 3/4 self rising flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125 gms blueberries
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup soy yogurt (or milk or regular yogurt)
1/3 cup oil (or melted butter)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C and prepare a greased pan of your choice.
2. Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the blueberries and chopped up bananas. In a separate bowl, combine egg, yogurt and oil before mixing well. All the liquids all at once into the flour mixture.
3. Stir gently with a wooden spoon or fork until all the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy.
4. Spoon the batter evenly into each muffin cup until each cup is two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing. Serve warm on its own or with syrup if need be.

STORAGE NOTES
Keep frozen in an airtight container or covered for up to three months. When needed, bring down to the fridge to thaw overnight before microwaving for a few seconds. Alternatively you can rebaked this covered for a few minutes at 180°C.

As you may have already guessed, I haven’t been updating this blog as often as I should. Between knitting, managing two kids, checking FB updates and blogging (on the main blog), things are slowly coming to a standstill. Eeps!

I have much to share about the kids, especially with Noah’s eczema…but in the meantime, here is a photo of the kids at my hubby’s family home in the country.

While dropping Eva off at school, I noticed that the 4 year olds are planting hyacinth bulbs as one of their classroom activities. It seemed like an interesting idea to explore and something that could still remain interesting after a few days or weeks.

I had thought of getting a science-based project for her to start off on the science aspect of our homeschooling curriculum and a fighting fish came to mind. After doing some research and scouting around, I decided against it as it was just too costly (the tank, fish, decorations, heater) and too much work (water change every week, etc). Then I saw some bulbs of Hyacinth (above) and Amaryllis (below) on sale – it is common to buy bulbs to give to folks around this time of the year as gifts. They were much cheaper, easier to care for – since I have an Amaryllis at home already – and the learning objects would still be the same.

I allowed Eva to choose the colours she wanted and she settled on pink & purple. The two plants now sit on top of the fireplace in the playroom. Earlier today, I spent a few minutes explaining how plants grow and getting her to water them. I don’t really have a hard and fast rule for teaching this to her. It’s more of exposing her to plant care, growth and biology in a fun way. I’ll also be capturing the progress of the plant’s growth in pictures so that we can sit down and look back at how the plants have grown over a few days. I reckon it would make for an interesting discussion.