Barbie's Lost Her Head!

Little Missy's BFF has lost her head (literally!). It all happened too swiftly that I couldn't stop the "accident" from happening...

You see, Little Missy has recently developed the habit of having Barbie as her companion during bedtime. One night, she was fussing in the middle of her sleep and I had to attend to her... she was asking for her BFF and in the darkness of the night (I didn't turn on the lights), I discovered Barbie was under Little Missy's back... in my haste to get it out in order to stop Little Missy from fussing, I yanked Barbie a tad too hard...

Barbie was separated from her head and there was simply no way I could fix the head back (I tried for many times, even the daddy tried to help)!!! So in the darkness of the night, Little Missy didn't realize anything amiss and was happy to go back to sleep with the beheaded Barbie in her arms. But we already foresee what will happen when the truth was discovered!

When morning came, the daddy soothed a teary and super upset Little Missy by promising her a new Barbie... don't under estimate the power of a father's love... Little Missy was thrilled after knowing that she's going to get a new doll. It didn't matter to her that the old Barbie was beheaded, she simply threw it aside and looked forward to her new BFF's arrival!

*Update: Little Missy got her new Barbie just two days after the beheaded episode... so now Little Missy is sleeping with her new BFF!!!

Simply One Pot - Carrot & Radish Soup

We have all been sick of late and it's called for desperate measures to try to make remedy to the problem facing us. My kids and I have been coughing badly (real bad!) with thick phlegm and all... it was then I recalled what the chinese physician said that we are all very "heaty" and need to take things that would cool our bodies...

I flipped through a soup recipe book that have been sitting on the shelf for a while and decided that this soup was the simplest to prepare with ingredients that could be easily obtained from the market. Most importantly, this soup is most appropriate for people with phlegmy coughs...

I cannot guarantee that this would work, but I think even if you aren't coughing, it still make a very nice soup to drink *smile*

Ingredients -

1-2 Carrots

1 Green radish

300gms pork ribs

1 tbsp each of Bitter & Sweet almonds (apricot kernels) - it said that this is very good for the respiratory system

3 Candied dates

Salt to taste

1.5l - 2l of water

Methods of Preparation -

1) Wash and cut the carrots and green radish into large pieces

2) Clean the pork ribs

3) Rinse the bitter & sweet almonds, candied dates

4) Put all the ingredients into a soup pot, pour water into the pot accordingly

5) Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer on low heat for over an hour to two

6) Add salt to taste before serving

It's a Double Whammy!

Most of us might have the experience of running around a sick child. We know how that could throw us off balance from our daily routine and responsibilities... add that equation with two sick children and being sick yourself... that's a sure double whammy!

I've heard a friend who've said before "What can't kill you, can only make you stronger!"... well, I sure hope that this episode of the entire family (well, almost) taken ill will make me a stronger mom and person.

It's definitely not a very fun time we (hubby & I) have to put up with having no help at home and taking care of all the needs of the little ones... we didn't catch much sleep the past week as the kids couldn't sleep well either. Tim was coughing constantly and Little Missy's temperature was hovering around 40C for a couple of nights and would wake up a few times each night... then both kids will snooze throughout the day and refused to take their meals... when they were awake they'd watch TV all day long because I didn't have the energy to make sure they had something to do... gosh...

It was a nightmare - literally! Was glad to have finally made the decision to drag the kids to see the chinese physician at the TCM, after a few doses of the chinese medicine, they got better and today we've decided to put them back in school for half a day so that I could get some much needed rest as I've a workshop to run this weekend and I haven't got my voice back yet!!!

This time of being sick has taught me to be more conscientious about what I feed the kids (and myself) - more fresh fruits, vegetables & steamed/boiled dishes. To have a good habit of sleeping earlier each night and not overwork our bodies. Gotta take care now!

She could identify those letters!

It's been a few months since I last did any letter learning with Little Missy, simply for the fact that I noticed she wasn't quite ready when I introduced the individual letters to her. While she participated actively in a few of those activities, the rest left us both frustrated at the end of the day.

I gathered that instead of getting myself worked up and in the event killing her joy of learning, I decided to just take a break (indefinitely) instead of insisting that she learn those letters, we did reading, art & craft and playing of games...

After receiving her learning report from the school recently, I discovered that she knew a few letters that was taught in school. I decided to pull out this alphabet book and we played a game...

We read through this book "How to Build an A" together... after which I "tested" her... for each letter that she could identify, I was going to give her a Fairy Sticker.
I have deliberately kept this booklet of stickers in a secret place and would only offer it to Little Missy for every piece of work she completed to reward her. So far she's taken to this system rather well, and has been rather motivated to do some learning activities that I've given her. It was likewise for Tim, for every reader or learning activity he completed he'll be given a sticker as well.
Little Missy busy picking out her choice stickers...
She was made to paste the stickers next to those letters that she was able to identify :) this sure made learning fun for her!

When We Were Home Bound

The kids have been down with flu for the past few weeks, and during weekends, we tried to restrict their outdoor activities so that they could have some rest... however, kids being kids, packed with loads of energy within them couldn't seem to just sit at home and do nothing.

I didn't really like to the idea of TV-baby sitting all day long, before they ran amok in the house and to keep my sanity, I came up with this activity to keep them occupied...

SCRAPBOOK :)

There were loads of photos that I had printed and wanted to put them into a scrapbook myself, but have left them sitting in the drawer for such a loooooong time... the more I procrastinated the longer those photos would remain in the drawer... so decided to drag them all out and let the kids put those photos into a scrapbook themselves! *beaming*
This is a great time buster as it took the kids about an hour to put those photos together and embellished them accordingly...
Great for those fine motor skills training as well as eye-hand-coordination practice. Plus it had given the kids a great sense of achievement that they were flipping through those albums over and over again - admiring their handiwork plus looking through their photos *smile*
I had a good time bonding with them while they were at work. Without much instructions from me, they just took off to do up these scrapbooks using their own creativity...
I wrapped those A5 size clear folder with plain coloured paper and they decorated it with stickers of their own preference...

This was really a great activity to do together... for so much family warmth was shared during the hour we've spent working on this!

A Day of Imaginative Play

The kids are both down with bad runny nose and cough so it's a home-bound weekend for us...so what did we do with SO MANY hours to fill and no help at home (the hubs at work)?

Tried my utmost best to limit the number of hours on watching the telly, we did some home learning activities and the rest of the time the kids came up with their own fun... ;)

Little Missy was into fantasy play by imagining herself to be a super hero with butterfly wings *smile* she was racing & hopping up and down the corridor singing (what she's learned from Hi-5) her favourite Super Charli tune. Kept her very busy and active for a good 15mins *wink*
My two kids have a natural fascination on boxes... not sure why, but I thought they were quite imaginative to come up with their own fun using those boxes...

Tim, made a "Frog Trap" using an empty tissue box; he made some "flies" using pipe cleaners and told me that these were going to be used as bait to catch frogs... interesting idea!

While Little Missy, made a bed out of a carton box. She's not been that vigilant in making her own bed but with this carton box she was so quick to lay the bed nicely for a "good night's rest"...

Thank goodness they were able to entertain themselves leaving me some time to get all the necessary housework done! *sigh of relief*

Never Say Never!!!

Ever since the kids started school this year, they've brought back lots of habits, some were great but some irked me to no end!

I am not sure if anyone of you have had the same or similar experience but it's just so hard to get them to kick that irritating habit when the kids come home saying things such as -

Example 1) Mommy, my friend, J, NEVER come to school...

Example 2) No, this is not your ONE, it's my ONE...

Example 3) No LAH!!!!

I know this is part of our daily life ie. Singlish and it's also something unique about being a Singaporean... and I shouldn't be surprise when the kids come home with their English peppered with all these because they get to mingle with other children more often now but it's really irritating!!!

I tried in all efforts not to speak this way in front of the kids and have taken a lot of trouble to correct them whenever I hear those pesky 'NEVER', 'my ONE', and 'no LAH'... it just seemed to get worse not better... gosh...I need help!