Cheeky Monkey's 2

An animal themed party for the little monkey's 2nd birthday:





Attended by special friends..






..who were sport enough to get down and dirty during game time.

Thank you to all lovely parents who took their kids to The Playground that Saturday and unwittingly ate the saliva & snot cake (no thanks to the re-lightable candles! :p)


It was so good, I took some home and had a cake-filled Sunday! :)

Chicky (';') made a special appearance..



..and traumatised a few guests that day, most notably the guest-of-honour who screamed as though he was confronted by Chucky, and not the friendly resident chicken:


But one guest, at least, was still in awe of the legendary chicken mascot, excitedly exclaiming "Eh, its Chicky b*lls!" (guess who?) Who cares if he's outgrown the Chicky phenomenon by 30 years, its a KIDDY PARTY and we should all get silly!



Happy 2nd birthday Nishu, we love you even though you're quite a wiggle these days! *muacks*

With love,

The non-committee who is the very description of L-A-Z-Y (of our own admission).

Seduced

I'm not exactly an arty character.. my credentials list like a kids pop-up book: short, spontaneous events that add a bit of colour to an otherwise regular life. Attended WOMAD once? twice?, attended 2? 3? plays because I've friends performing (read: free tickets), musical? no thanks I would rather be in the movies.

... so when Sapna called and said "Babe, I've got free tix to a show at the Esplanade", it was right up my alley. First I get to spend time alone (no kids, no hubby) with my best friend (something we TRY to do but hardly gets done), secondly its free and thirdly I need a distraction from the stress at work. I didn't even ask what the show was and because she and I think alike, she said "If it gets too boring, we can leave halfway and grab a bite". Haha.

Well, we didn't have time to get bored. We sat riveted throughout this performance? installation? called The Manganiyar Seduction.


















It was an Indian musical performance of a different kind altogether and never have my senses been fully and completely assaulted by something so seductive, so elaborate, so uplifting, so... arty! :)

Maybe its time to look out for the next Singapore Arts Festival, though I doubt the husband will enjoy it. He would rather watch men beat up other men:



















PS: I forgot to mention that President Nathan sat 3 rows behind us, enjoying the show for the 2nd time! Gaaaaah.

Program Play-date

The tricky bit about going from one child to two is managing the quality time you spend with each of them. And on that front, I have been feeling guilty about not allocating enough 'alone' time with Big Sis which probably explains the naughtiness and just.plain-out.stubbornness.

Even if she's probably at the age where they become more assertive, a small price to pay for their independance, I still feel the need to carve out our own YOU&ME time.

So I've planned Saturday mornings as our play-date to coincide with Sofia's nap time. And because we only have 2-3 hours by ourselves, my Masterplan will have to evolve around activities in the North. I find this link on Timeout extremely useful and have incorporated our own suggestions:

Sembawang Shopping Centre
Hop off at Sembawang MRT Station and onto the free shuttle. Head straight for Emiko Arts at Level 3 for some creative channeling of energy and a souvenir worth framing.
Cost: $5.50 for 20mins
















By 11am, she's ready for the free-to-use Splash Park & covered Playground.





















And by noon, we're at Hei Sushi or across the road at Daddy's Fish & Chicks for a Saturday brunch.
















Golden Village @ Yishun 10
If there's a good flick to catch, this is where we head down to.
Cost: $10 per movie entry for adults & kids above 90cm.


Little O-Zone at Orchid Country Club
A tad smaller than I'd like but enough romping around to kill an hour easily. Link here.
Cost: $7 for NTUC member / $8 for general public




Bottletree Park @ Khatib
There's longkang fishing and playground (with real sand!) and caged animals and so much more! Impossible to get here without a vehicle though!
Cost: $10 for longkang fishing.





















Woodlands Regional Library @ Civic Centre
The library organises storytelling sessions suitable for 3-6 year olds every Saturday (3-3.30pm) and every 2nd and 4th Sunday (230-3pm).
Cost: $0


Woodlands Swimming Complex
Public pools just got a facelift from SSC! Slides and waterfalls just upped the fun factor at an otherwise drab facility. I take Sofia along as she enjoys her waterplay too and usually naps longer after a dip!
Cost: $1.30 per adult per entry / $0.70 per child per entry

Its insightful how this article connects quality time with disciplining a child. I vouch for the fact that when spending our quality time together, Arissa is always polite, always obliging... a far cry from the obstinate nature she can and will freely display when I'm trying to entertain, feed or bathe the little one.

Its been a month since I started the Program- sometimes with Hafidz, sometimes without. And the results have been positive so far, just the other day Hafidz commented that she is much better behaved and seems so loving with Baby Sis. What can I say... sometimes you get more done with sugar than vinegar! :)

Ho-Hum

Lets see now...

High fever - check
Runny nose - check
Cough - check
Rashes - check
Sore eyes - check
Sore throat - check

...which makes me deduce, if we were living in the era before the advent of penicillin the lot of us would have long perished. *cough cough*

But on to more exciting things, Sofia will be turning 1 soon.



And although I will stop here before I go into the whole "how fast time flies" monologue, I can't stop myself from wishing she would stay my baby forever. Like Bill Cosby wrote in his book "you will always have a soft spot for your last one"..

And although I'm not a fan of big birthday bashes for 1 year olds (I mean, seriously its more for the Parents than the bub), I now have a chance to right the deflated birthday party that was Arissa's 1st.

I manage people and projects for a living, surely I can coordinate one birthday party, dammit.

*takes out notebook* now... where should the planning start...

Post-script
Did a little bit of research online (c'mon its Friday, I'm allowed to 'eat snake' riiight) and found this fantastic site to share:
http://yourhomebasedparties.com

A Dummy's Guide to: High Fever

Frivolity aside, its time to share some very important tips in controlling high fever in infants or toddlers, straight from the horses mouth. By horses, I do mean medical practitioners of course!

SATURDAY
4am: Sofia's feeling warmer than usual. Ignored signs because too lazy to open my eyes and get up.
11am: Low grade fever, fed her 2ml paracetamol. Fever dissipates, active as usual.
6pm: 39deg fever, fed her 2ml nurofen and rushed her to GP. Requested for suppository but too soon after nurofen to be given. Doc advises to stick to paracetamol every 4 hourly throughout the night.
9pm: 2ml paracetamol, fever contained.

SUNDAY
11am: 38deg, fed her 2ml paracetamol. Not as active.
5pm: 38deg, more paracetamol. Eyes watery and tinge of redness to lips but overall active.
10pm: Sudden increase of temperature while at dinner. Forgot to bring meds so rushed home from restaurant. Otw home, Sofia weak and sleepy.
11pm: Raging hot, fed her 2ml paracetamol. Meds do NOT work, temperature drops slightly then bounces up again.
2am: Reading 39.8deg. More paracetamol, then straight into the shower to bring down temp. Body still hot after shower and she starts grating her teeth, possible fits?!?
3am: Rushed to Thomson Medical. Reading 39.4deg. Suppository given and within 15minutes she breaks into sweat. Temperature drops to 37.5deg within the hour. Doctor gave go-ahead for admission but Nurse stops us, sends Sofia for blood test @ lab instead. Test results for haemoglobin: good. Assured its a viral infection, cleared to go home and monitor closely.

MONDAY
Very little urine output over 12 hour period. Visit to SBCC for urine test: clear. Assurance from doc that viral fever will run its course over 5 days.

Tip #1:
Schedule their medication. Paracetamol every 6 hours in the day, every 4 hours from 5pm onwards for the simple reason that fevers hit its peak at night when the bubs are less active. Give medication on time even though they seem fine to the naked eye.

Tip #2:
Catch it early. Paracetamol will kick in an hour after ingesting and will bring down the temperature by a mere 0.5deg every hour for the next 3-6 hours. So if medication is taken when thermometer reading is say, 37.5deg at 11pm, you can expect the fever to go up slightly to maybe 38.5deg before it comes down by midnight. Paracetamol do not work like a miracle drug so one should not wait until the child is too feverish before giving the meds or panic might ensue even before the paracetamol has a chance to work.

Tip #3:
Sponging, maybe even dunking. Like the nurse @ TMC told me (curtly) when I said the reason I didn't wet her head at 2am was because I was scared she may catch a cold- "Mummy, cold got medicine leh and can get better, fits no medicine and can cause brain damage. You should just shower full body with lukewarm water if she is more than 39deg". Point taken.

Tip #4:
Last resort. If the paracetamol + sponging combination fails, go for the additional Nurofen dose. This does not damage her/his liver if taken in moderation as a last resort option.

Tip #5:
Viral fever will run its course over 5 -7 days if scheduled medication is properly administered. Miss a dose and you're back to square one with another 3 days added on. So goodbye sleep, hello panda eyes! *yawn*

This is how I look like in the office. Really.

You can't always have what you want.

Oooo... i like!



But it will only remain pure white for 3 hours (until Arissa gets home from school- and then its "goodbye lamps"!). Shucks.

Tadaaa...

Got cranky in office one stressful day and decided I needed a Drastic.Change.

Immediately texted Omar @ Tresses Couture to check for an appointment. That man is perpetually busy and I haven't seen him in ages..

"Now" he replies. Now?! Ok now then. *gulp*

$65 later I have a do that takes all of 2.5 mins to whip into place, including blowdrying (yes, I timed it). No time for a colour just yet and 'sides I'm still b*feeding (speaking of which, I am soooo ready to give up and its only Month 10!!! Argh!)

Some days it behaves and I like it; other days it has a mind of its own. But the Redken Elastic Works 09 (RP: $45) works wonders to tame the mane (shameless product placement :p).


Now we look like sisters, don't we?? :)



PS: Omar & Sam are uniting next year. 2 words: About.Time.

sisters of the travelling pants

..we look alike..

..we sleep alike..

we're sisters of the travelling pants!

altogether now... awwwwwwwwwww!

SOLD!

Guess who's walking down the plank next....?







SHE is!

















And a little get-together to recapture the past excesses, misadventures and misdemeanours of our youth...


















..and indulging in a different kind of sin altogether:


















Love ya heaps chickadee! *muacks*

By leaps & bounds

To be honest, I wasn't sure Madrasah was the right choice to start her off on the path of lifelong learning. There were too many horror stories about how kids who went to Madrasah Kindergarten ended up not knowing their ABCs when they enrolled in Primary 1. It even happened to my cousins, many years back. Perhaps not being under MOE purview caused a lax in their teaching standards? Perhaps they focused too much on the spiritual aspect? Perhaps the teachers were unqualified? Perhaps perhaps perhaps..

But when Arissa first went to a secular play centre, I could not agree on the standards of hygiene especially when she came back home with "slash marks" on her diaper- evidence that they don't wash the kids bum-bum after their No 2.

More upsetting was when she came back with a slew of Singlish fillers- the LAH and the MEH and the ARH. Call me ya-ya papaya but I just.cannot.accept Singlish unless it's used recreationally. Our main language at home is Malay (I was intent on instilling a sense of YOUR MELAYU ROOTS) and I wanted her to pick up 'proper' English from school.

So there I was, (falsely) thinking a secular environment would compel her to learn boardroom English but what did I get after 5 months in NTUC Childcare- a tot who spoke like a run-of-mill, coffee-shop Ah Lian! Undoing the damage was the hardest part.. For the longest time she called me "MUMMY ARH..." to my chagrin.

Anyway, back to the story:

3 months into Madrasah and I have yet to hear any Singlish in her diction.

The school gives me weekly updates of her curriculum through a "communication book" which she brings home every Friday. And a library book meant to cultivate 'parent-child bonding'.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are Phys. Ed days where the kids play at the rooftop playground. I feel safer that she isn't at a common playground near any roads or paedophilatic strangers.

Fridays are solely religious days where she learns the things Hafidz and I could not teach her, because we have forgotten all of our little doas, save for the ones we say before a meal. (Reminder to self: get a doa book for parents asap!). The other day in the car she held out her hands in prayer and recited the whole surah Al-Fateha to our surprise (maybe because Daddy drives like a maniac on speed).

She has a clique of her own- a trio comprising NorJannah Hayley, Qaisara and a love-hate relationship with Mysha and Diah Inshirah. Names too cute, I have to meet these girls in person!

She brings home weekly topical worksheets and bibs and bobs of craft they did in school. She recognises all her alphabets from A to Z and Alif to Ya even when I mix them up (hey, just making sure it isn't rote memory she's exhibiting). She has learnt phonics through songs:

Elbows Everywhere, Eh Eh Eh
Elbows Everywhere, Eh Eh Eh
Elbows Everywhere, Eh Eh Eh
'EH' is the sound of Eeeeee

And one quiet Saturday, when Sofia was soundly sleeping and it was time for our letter-writing session, I found that she had carefully, on her own, traced out 4 pages of the book. So impressed was I by her squiggly penmanship and show of motivation that we got her more stationery.

But (and there is always a but)...

...when Arissa plays pretend, she usually becomes a Malay-speaking teacher mimicking all that happens in class, leading me to believe that her teachers speak a lot of Malay to the tots. And also because this is Madrasah, she has a very limited network of non-Malay friends, apart from Yen (my Mum's 4-year old neighbour) and Anish. I don't deny a secular environment would do a lot of good for her social skills (and contribute vastly to her Singlish vocabulary) so I'm weighing the option of sending her to a secular Kindergarten next year when she officially begins schooling. Having said that, it all depends on how the rest of the year goes and we still have another 9 months to go down this road..

But for now, Mummy is very happy that Madrasah education has improved by leaps and bounds. Sofia, however, thinks Kakak is a showoff, as always!

Pillowtalk

Overhead @ 2:45am, Sat night.

Daddy: Arissa, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Arissa: I want to be a cow..
D: A WHAT?
A: Cow laaaaaa... moo moo
D: !?Why a cow..?
A: Eh tanak, I want to be a cat... Errr no no no, a bear. So I can live in the jungle.

Point being: She only 4 with limited reasoning (..and ambition..) and doesn't always make sense yet most days we forget how small she is and expect her to act like Big Sis all the time.

But when I see that cheeky grin, I just want to smother her with butterfly kisses. :)

1 so soon!

Happy birthday to you..

Happy birthday to youuuuuu..

Happy birthday to Adelia..

Haaaaappy birth-daaaaayyyy tooooo youuuuu.. (*nah..amik kau, selalu bully aku kan!)

xoxo,
Kakak H-A-N-A Aritha & Aunty Shabanah

Locomotion

I've finally pulled out my old bible and wiped off the 3 year old dust sitting on it. The pages are brown with age with dog ears randomly placed (I hate bookmarks, keep losing them). Its really my toilet read, just about the only time I have to myself in the house. Baby's Month by Month Development is an all-time favourite, it allows me precious insights into the magical world of babies and why they do the cutest things they do, when they will do the cutest things they do and how to react to the cutest things they do. One can never be too much of a pro at mothering...

Month 7:
Still hates the bottle/formula milk- I have no idea which it is. Even the award-winning Tommy Tipee bottle failed the ultimate test... Her line of defense was to either:

a) chew on the teat
b) spit out the milk
c) let it dribble down her chin
d) shut her lips tight

Arrrghhhhh...........!

When I'm home especially on the weekends, she can survive on what little b*milk I have left until Sunday evening when I get a little bit of relief- the sight of her sucking down a full bottle of Similac formula is enough to make me weep with sheer joy.

But what little formula she takes, she compensates with solids. A little breakkie of cereal in the morning, followed by porridge at lunch and dinner and snacks in between. I'm not sure this is ideal, according to my 'bible' she needs at least 270ml of milk daily and I am certain I'm not producing THAT much.

This month we saw a spurt of large motor development. Which really means she went from 'Baby Relaks' (as Hafidz's cousin calls her) to 'Baby Wiggle'. Overnight, she developed a continuous urge to stretch /twist /turn /lurch so much so I now put her on the floor with Arissa where she will grab /bite /claw /pinch at the toys. I was most afraid that Big Sis would get annoyed and wrestle/push/punch /jotos her but worry I need not. Arissa is so in love with Baby Wiggle that she readily gives her a little trinket from her treasure trove, followed by a little show of affection- a pinch on the cheeks and baby talk "Aaaaaadiiiik... pweeeeeetty girl".

She hasn't started crawling properly, its a cross between creeping and lurching but yesterday she got on her knees and pushed off to a jumpy start...





But for Big Sis who has a pair of the well-padded, well-coordinated legs, its time to take the art of locomotion a step further. I suddenly realised I hadn't gotten her anything for her 3rd birthday yet so off we traipsied into Toys R Us, on an adrenaline-infused adventure.

Should I get this little tech thingamajig for my birthday...?


...or this too-cool-for-school trike...?

The secret to staying young is..

...to live honestly...

...eat slowly...





...and lie about your age.


[or at least get a rejuvenating massage so you feel a lot younger on your birthday, @ Estebel Spa].

Happy '25th' birthday nyet! *lolz*

Big girls don't cry

I remember my first day in Kindergarten.

In those days, no one has heard of Nursery or Playgroup or any of that nonsense. Us kids, we start school at 5 years old when our parents (my grandmother in my case, Mum was a teacher and couldn't take annual leave on the first day of school- duh) put us into a fugly checked uniform and tell us we're going to 'K-wan' at the nearest 'P-A-P'. I don't know what that means but I got a new water bottle and shoes to go with the uniform and its all looking good.

Lalalala.. we stroll along like any other afternoon walks. The sun is shining and we pass by an empty playground. "Nanti balik boleh main kat playground ok?", my grandmother assures me.

I hold on to her hands and skip along, feeling very excited to be in 'K-wan', Mum told me I would have nice friends and a lot of fun things to do. We turn round a corner and I stop in my tracks. No nice friends here, I am faced with a congregation of Brylcreamed children, all crying, some hysterical. They're all desperately clinging to their respective guardians. The teachers are yelling and sweaty from trying to exercise crowd control. I start to panic a little bit but my Tok Mak pats me and mutters words of assurances which I do not hear over the din.

We're all hearded into chambers that resemble a little more than a mortuary with alphabet stickers on the walls and small orange tables and chairs set in clusters. Fun is a foreign concept in this classroom it seems!

I feel a mounting claustrophobia at this point, that I would be abandoned in this whitewashed room with its glaring flourescent overheads, and would never see my Tok Mak & Tok Bak, my parents and smelly brother and cat- Bobby- anymore. My life had officially ended.

I join in the howling of my friends who had magnetically attached themselves to walls underneath the louvre windows holding onto the hands of their loved ones. But the witches pull us away one by one and close the shutters with a finality that makes us howl louder. In our mutinous state, we crying children cling to each other for comfort, each feeding off the other's panic.

By then, I had made up my mind to hate school, especially this one with its smelly and mean teachers. With its colourless walls and disinfectant odour. How long do I have to put up with this torture!!?

Sidenote: I put up with a decade of official schooling + 2 years in college + 3 years in uni + 1 year in postgrad + 2 years in Masters. Not bad for someone who started off so badly eh! *masuk bakul angkat sendiri, actually I was putting off going to work* But then, Mum had transferred me to a more fun school called Zion Kindergarten so kudos to them for instilling a sense of lifelong learning in their charges. :)

***

And because I remember all too well the (bad) experience of a first day at school, I prepared Arissa well in advance for her transition into school- by talking to her about the new school, taking her there during orientation and helping her make friends with the other children. We spoke about her school bus and her teachers and her newfound friends at length to whip up the excitement of going back to school.

I don't know if she remembers what was spoken (at 4, I sure as hell didn't) but little did I know, she was so ready to go back to school I had zero problems on Day 1. I didn't realise how much she yearned to be with friends her age.. even the solo bus ride did not daunt her.

When I got there, she ran over to me excitedly "Kakak tak nangis tau, Kakak dah big girl!". She's positively looking forward to 'Skola Masjid' every day!