Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Link to my earlier Hong Kong Disneyland 2012 blog post :

https://www.oureverydaythings.com/2012/09/hong-kong-disneyland-2012-in-pictures-part-1-our-recommended-rides-and-shows

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Okay, as promised. Here’s a post on the hotel we stayed in during our Hong Kong Disneyland trip and the yummy eating places that you can check out when you’re there too!!

Note: This is another image heavy post, and do beware of loads of food photos!! =D

[While I checked in, the kids waited comfortably, watching Mickey Mouse shows on TV nearby]

Just like our trip two years ago, we stayed at Disney’s Hollywood Hotel again this time round!

Same friendly services! And we enjoyed our stay there!

TIPS:
> They can provide a baby cot and even the bed guard for bigger kids. Just ask the staff at the check-in counter for them!

Refreshingly great view from our hotel room.

Quite a nice break for our eyes, especially since we come from Jakarta – a packed, and busy city.

And look! Someone’s immediately enjoying the hotel’s stationery upon entering the room!

Without anyone’s cue, our 8-year-old Anya wrote a postcard to her cousins! =D

For more photos of what it’s like inside the hotel room, click THIS LINK –  a post I wrote during our 1st trip to HK Disneyland!

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Okay, now … get ready to see the different eating places you can enjoy, and of course … food photos! =)

DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD HOTEL

Chef Mickey

Conveniently located near the hotel lobby is Chef Mickey, it’s where you can have your breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Wide variety of meal choices!

Click HERE to read more about Chef Mickey, and click HERE to check out their offers, if any!

I saw some Western, Chinese, Japanese and even Indian food choices there!

And of course, you could always find some ‘Mickey Mousey’ food there!

Like this Mickey Mouse Waffle! =D

(Love the cute smiley faced hash brown too, hehe)

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DISNEYLAND HOTEL

Enchanted Garden Restaurant

Breakfast here is kind of a MUST if you’re staying in any of the two hotels inside the HK Disneyland area!

The food choices are as always great over here, but what’s more special is the personal encounter with Disney characters as you enjoy your meals! =D

No queuing up for photo-takings, because they actually come to your table!

We met Goofy, Daisy and Mickey when we were there!

Click HERE to read more on Enchanted Garden Restaurant!

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Crystal Lotus

This is the place if you’re ready for some Disney Dim Sum!

Tooooo cute!!

Click HERE to read a little more on Crystal Lotus!

Gobbling up the glasses of Chicken Little! Haha!

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Walt’s Cafe

Western food time here at Walt’s Cafe!

Click HERE for more info!

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DINING INSIDE HONG KONG DISNEYLAND

Corner Cafe

Other than the food and drink carts and the many different eating places available inside the theme park, you can find Corner Cafe too for some Western food (and high tea!) at the Main Street U.S.A. area!

Btw, the weather was very warm that day and I totally enjoyed their crushed ice drinks! So refreshingly yummy!

(I saw some moms munching on some food while the Daddies brought the kids to stand just outside the cafe to catch the Flights of Fantasy Parade. They then returned and continued on their meals when the Parade ended. Mom got to peacefully eat and rest for a while, and the kids got to see the Parade with Daddy! Worked out well for all, I think =)

Click HERE to read more on Corner Cafe!

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Plaza Inn

This restaurant was apparently inspired by the Disney movie ‘Mulan’!

It’s located at the Main Street U.S.A. area, so you can enjoy their Cantonese-style meals while waiting for the fireworks to start!

I saw some diners walking outside the restaurant to catch the fireworks show from the porch, and walking back in to continue with their meals afterwards. I think the staff already knew that it’d happen so they didn’t clear nor touch the tables =)

Click HERE to read a little on Plaza Inn.

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So there you go!

Plenty of food places for you and your loved ones to check out during your Hong Kong Disneyland trip!

(Don’t forget to bring along your cameras!)

We had a great time *again* at HK Disneyland and we look forward to our next visits to the Park! =D

Some of you may know that last year I was interviewed by Channel NewsAsia for their programme ‘Unseen Dollar’.

(The programme series was aired in February this year, and the episode where I was featured was apparently aired again last month)

In the first episode of ‘Unseen Dollar’, the programme touches on the topic of motherhood, and how the society has a tendency to see stay-at-home moms as having ‘no economic value’ because they don’t earn dollars and cents.

I feel honoured to have been invited to share my personal views on this, on behalf of moms out there, that the role of a mom is way beyond what eyes can see.

That moms and their roles in the lives of the children are priceless.

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So, here’s the video. FINALLY managed to have it uploaded.

I hope it can be a blessing to all, especially all moms out there!

If you live in Jakarta, yes you are constantly surrounded by traffic jams.

But, one thing I appreciate about living here (say, compared to Singapore), is that within a couple of hours drive, we could be in the outdoors and enjoy a completely different kind of experience.

The other day, we checked out this place called ‘Godongijo‘.

It’s in Depok, just outside of Jakarta.

And it’s one of those few ‘green’ places where you’ll get to do a bit of fishing in a huge ‘pond’ (it’s 5 metre deep!)

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Every 5m or so, they have separate ‘fishing spots’ all around the pond. Each comes with its own ‘lesehan’ (where you can just sit around, like the one in the picture above).

As a mom of a toddler, I appreciate this feature because Brie and I can sit on the ‘lesehan’. We had some meals and drinks, while the others tried fishing or played nearby.

[Nothing much for Brie to do just yet, so she entertained herself with straws and stuff =)]

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Visitors to Godongijo will get to see a green house, a huge variety of plants being grown and sold, and even a giant tortoise, a 7.5m python and a few other animals.

As with almost all other attractions here in Indonesia, I feel there’re always rooms for improvements. Eg. I feel the animals could’ve been housed in better cages, and the overall place could be cleaner and better managed.

(I usually just ‘close one eye’, and enjoy the activities and togetherness with friends and families)

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Anyway.

I did enjoy our simple fishing trip with our friends and kids.

A nice getaway from the usual city life! (which I really needed)

And, what do you know … we caught A FISH too! Haha.

I didn’t catch it, Wilson did!

And, his Mom cooked it for us!

(Note: Somehow other people around us caught SO MANY FISHES! And I mean, a LOT! Big ones too! We on the other hand … =)

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TIPS:

> Fishing rods are available for rent (I think it’s about Rp20,000)

> It has a cafe, so you can order drinks, snacks and even lunch from them (and eat them at the ‘lesehan’ spots, while the others continue fishing)

> You’re charged according to the weight of the fish you’ve caught. I think it’s about Rp35,000 / kg. Ours weighed about 600g, I think =)

> If you happen to catch ‘nothing’, you’ll still need to pay a fee. So better catch something before you go home! =D

> Personally I recommend going with friends and their kids too, so when the kids are ‘bored’ from the fishing (“Why haven’t we caught any fish, Mommyyyy?”), they can always have fun on their own nearby =)

(Our kids and their friends kind of made ‘potions’ by mixing leaves and soil =)

> It’s open from 9am – 5pm, and for more info, check out their website : www.godongijo.com

Some people find it easier to give thanks when they’re happy.

Some others find it easier to look up and remember about God when they go through difficult times.

But often, what happens is, God is simply … forgotten, in most (if not all) circumstances.

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I personally am still learning to include God in every aspect of my life.

Be it good or bad, happy or sad.

I still sometimes forget.

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This post is a reminder to myself, to always be thankful to God, in all circumstances.

And I hope it is a reminder to you too.

Have a blessed Sunday, everyone!

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“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18

[With Chef Afit and Chef William Wongso]

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Being an Indonesian, I must say, I still have SO much to learn about Indonesian food!

(In other words, I know very little about Indonesian food and I sooo want to know more about it!)

If you’re not an Indonesian, let me tell you something, … there’s SO MUCH variety, so many authentic ingredients, and so many things that you can explore and create, provided that you know what you’re putting together and cooking, of course! =D

What we usually see (and eat) at Indonesian restaurants overseas is only a tiny fraction of what Indonesian food is all about! REALLY!

[Some of the food we had was cooked right there and then!]

Not too long ago, we were invited to join in a Makan Session.

It was a gathering of Indonesia’s culinary experts and food fanatics, and we tasted super yummy Indonesian food! Most of them I haven’t ever tried before!

(We were busy chatting and eating that we didn’t take photos of the food spread other than the above!)

We had Chef William Wongso, Chef Bondan, Chef Afit and Lucy, his wife (the owners of Holy Cow Steakhouse), Ndoro Kakung (a senior blogger, well recognised by the social media here), Santhi Serad (a food scientist who owns a herbal garden in Bandung), Ade Putri (a food fanatic and a radio deejay who talks about food on air!), and many others!

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It really was a nice and warm gathering.

(And it made me appreciate Indonesian food a whole lot more! =)

If you have a child and you have NO problems whenever it comes to mealtimes (ie. Your child eats anything and everything you serve), consider yourself ‘lucky’.

Because most parents go through phases where the child gets rather … picky, about what she / he eats.

Especially when he or she is teething, or feeling unwell.

Some kids continually remain as picky eaters. Some ‘grow out of it’, eventually. Some are … just not as bad.

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All my three kids eat vegetables, but I go through different kinds of mealtime difficulties with my three kids.

[Anya at 3 years and 4 months]

> Anya

As a toddler, Anya would eat anything, BUT she ate superrrr slowwwwly.

I still remember how she’d spend around 2 hours to finish up her lunch (at the time she’s 2.5yo, and I was training her to eat on her own). Daily mealtimes became a test of my patience. Difficult months they were.

(Read about how I dealt with her super slow mealtimes HERE)

Now that she’s 8yo, she’s open to tasting new food and is not considered as a picky eater (by us =)

[Vai : 1.5 years old]

> Vai

Since the day Vai was first introduced to solids, at 5.5 months, my days were just … super difficult.

He’d REJECT solids, all the way till he’s past 9 – 10 months, if I remember it correctly.

He’d swing his head to avoid any food encounter, swat my spoon, refuse to open his mouth, it was just horrific (and I have LOTS of *fun* photos on this one!)

(I wrote about how I tried different tricks to deal with this mealtime struggle HERE)

[Vai : 8 months old]
Things got a little better when I let him eat on his own.

Self-feeding proved to be the better solution for this guy. Very messy, but at least he ate!

By now, he’s the more picky one. Eg. He prefers to eat only what he likes and needs to be told ‘very firmly’ to try out new food (ie. Even to just give a quick, small bite).

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> Brie

It’s still too early to say what she’ll be like, but so far, she does get very picky when she has a cough or a runny nose, eg.

She’d eat very little, and fuss during mealtimes.

And because she 95% of the time refuses to be spoon-fed by us, she’d just … not eat. And I can feel how her weight ‘drops’ over those few days!

(When such a ‘difficult’ phase happens, I’d usually bring along snacks and bread rolls in my bag. She welcomes bread most of the time, so to me, it’s better for her to eat some bread whenever she can, than not eat anything much simply because I stick to strict mealtime schedules. And oh, I usually would go for wholemeal bread too)

Thankfully, when she’s back to her healthy self, mealtimes are somewhat better too (still messy, but better =)

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As mealtimes and kids being picky eaters are common issues faced by many moms, I interviewed Chef William Wongso the other day. He’s one of Indonesia’s well-known culinary experts who still travels internationally for ‘food-related’ trips!

I asked him for tips and here’s the video on OUR CHANNEL!

The video is in Indonesian, so here’s the summary of what he shared, in English =)

> If a child becomes a picky eater, it’s the parents’ fault.

Many moms are busy outside the home these days, and the child is taken care of by someone else, eg. Domestic helper. Mealtime policy becomes : ‘Just as long as my child eats something’, and when the child doesn’t want to eat, they’ll just order home deliveries, eg.

> There’s no such thing as ‘healthy food’, unless it’s home-cooked

> Parents can prepare healthy vegetable soups for example and keep them in the freezer first, so the soup is always ready for the child to have at home.

> Vegetables that are already in the soup contribute to the taste, BUT when the soup is heated up before a child’s mealtime, fresh vegetables must be put in, because the child needs to SEE the actual vegetable shapes and colours. So, be it soup or something that you stir-fry (with little oil), children need to see, taste and experience different ‘textures’, since young.

> When the child keeps on ‘rejecting’ food that’s given to her, sometimes the parents may need to … just let the child go hungry at times, ie. The child has no other option but to eat what’s in front of him/her (This is of course in the context of a healthy and normal child)

> Children need to have a big ‘taste memory bank’. They don’t have to always ‘consume’ the food / drink in great quantities. Since they’re young, you can expose different tastes / smells to a child (by a quick lick, eg), and he/she will be more adaptable to different tastes as they grow up.

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Do YOU face mealtime struggles?

What are YOUR tips on raising a NON picky eater and in dealing with picky eaters?

Okay, first of all, I must say, I’m a blogger but I’m not a geek.

Meaning, I have little interest in anything technical.

BUT.

There’s one thing I do know, blog content – yes, everything! – can be LOST, forever, if something bad, something completely unexpected just … happened.

*GASP!*

And no blogger in the world ever wants THAT to happen!

Unless the blog is backed-up regularly, the impact of such a ‘crash’ ever happening to a blogger is … beyond words.

So I recently did a search on this and found out that for my case, a WordPress user, backing up my blog is EASY!

Even a non-geek like me can do it, safely, in a few clicks of a button!

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Here’s what I’d like to share with you : 

> There are a few ‘back-up’ WordPress plugins available

I’m using this one called : WordPress Database Backup (WP-DB-Backup)

(You can read more about it HERE too!)

It has more than 1.4 million downloads, so I’m sure the plugin must be pretty good!

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> What I did :

– Login to my Blog
– Click ‘PLUGINS’ then ‘ADD NEW’
– Type in ‘WP-DB-Backup’ then click ‘SEARCH PLUGINS’
– Once found, just click ‘INSTALL NOW’

> Once installed, click the setting and just click ‘BACKUP’ (before that, choose if you’d like to have the backup file saved to your server, computer, or sent to your email)

> Don’t forget to set and schedule your regular backups too, eg. Every week, or twice a month.

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I know, I know. This is such a techie post, but I must share it with you!

Do spend some 100 seconds and back up your blog today yeah.

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PS: If you’re using other blogging platforms, I’m sure it should be just as easy. Do share your tips and thoughts yeah, especially if you’re a fellow blogger too!
Thanks everyone!

[Loveee her cute little shoes by See Kai Run!]

Help!

Out littlest is growing up TOO fast!

And this post is to record what she’s like right at this moment (ie. Before I forget about her big and little milestones!)

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Here are some quick updates on our baby Brie, at 16 months : 

> We can see how she’s generally a happy baby, who likes to play, giggle and laugh along with her siblings

Like, Anya and Vai would do silly movements and sounds, and she’d laugh out loud (and I just LOVE hearing such baby chuckles and giggles!)

> She doesn’t speak much words just yet

Words she can say so far : ‘minum’ (drink), ‘ma-ma’ (mommy), ‘mam-mam’ (eat), ‘ba-bai’ (bye-bye), ‘uuuh’ (shoes), ‘ga boleh’ (cannot), and … ‘ek-ek’ (poop). Haha. She’d say ‘Ek-ek’ when I know she’s pooped and I ask her if she’s ‘ek-ek’ already! =D

(Btw, no, she’s not yet toilet-trained, and I have no intention of starting it till she’s at least 2yo =)

> She more or less understands what’s going on and what we tell or ask her to do

Like, if we ask her to throw the paper away, she’d go over to the rubbish bin and throw it away. If we ask her to pass the pen to her brother, she’d do it immediately too.

If we ask, ‘Where are your shoes please? Shoes?’, she’ll quickly grab her shoes. If we tell her that her hands are dirty and we need to wipe / wash it clean, she’d show us her hands and goes over to the basin (or gets us our wet wipes).

Yes, although she hasn’t quite ‘talked’, she does communicate with us, in her own baby language way =)

> She has 12 teeth altogether
> She likes to scribble 

She likes to grab a pencil or a pen and start scribbling away. I suspect that it’s because she sees her brother and sister writing or drawing a lot at home.

> She still likes to put things into her mouth!

The other day, we found traces of blue crayons in her soiled diapers! And I was like, oh great! Well, at least it’s not a blue balloon piece (which I actually found – TWICE – in her brother’s diapers when he’s 1.5yo! Yes, when you’re a mom of three, the ‘standards’ get rather low after a while =)

> She’s still breastfed throughout the day

And drinking about 300 – 600ml of formula milk a day.

This is btw done when she’s in our bathtub (so I don’t have to worry about the spills =), spoon-fed by me, while she plays with her bowl of water (which serves as a pretty good distractor so far =)

(Btw, I plan to slowly wean her off breastfeeding when errr … she’s at least 18 months?)

> She generally naps once a day now 

It usually lasts for about 1-1.5hours, and it’s usually when we go out to pick Anya up from school.

> She prefers to self-feed

I mean, when it comes to mealtimes, 95% of the time she’d REFUSE our help. She’d turn her head away from us, seriously shake her head, or simply keep her mouth closed when we try to spoon-feed her.

I do feel a little concerned when she doesn’t eat much (like when she had a bad cough and runny nose recently). She’d get cranky, she’d eat VERY little, and I noticed she’s lost some weight too at the time. I ever tried forcing her to eat, and she’d just spew it out. It didn’t work.

So, since forcing her to eat will only leave negative impressions of mealtimes, we nowadays leave her to eat however much she needs.

(There ARE times when she keeps asking for more, to my relief)

So, when it comes to mealtimes, our little Brie would just use her hands, fork, spoon, and whatever she wants to use, to get her food into her mouth.

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Yep, life with a 16 month old baby has never been dull.

And we love our little Brie for it =)