Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

… she ended up drawing this! Heh.

You see, Anya was very hungry that afternoon. And after a rather long walk towards our eating place, we had to wait again for at least 20 minutes before our food came.

While we’re all waiting (by the water fountain), she asked for a pen and she started scribbling on the back of her placemat.

It was interesting to see how she poured out her thoughts in writing like this.

(I never was like this when I was her age!)

If she had a twitter account, she’d probably tweeted this too, haha.

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This was what she wrote:

Anya said
“I think the water fountain is beautifull”

“I think the rastorant is very long to wait if we want to eat here. So long, so bad.”

Being a stay at home mommy of two (and soon to be three!), I must say that I don’t quite see myself as much of a ‘spender’.

I mean, I don’t easily spend and shop for things.

Instead, I like to window-shop, browse and get those that I need (and some other great bargains, hehe).

As for browsing and shopping for things online, I must say that I’ve only started doing so in recent months.

I don’t know. Somehow I’ve just started to pay more attention to online shops recently (and how nice and therapeutic it often is to browse around ONLINE!)

[I think it’s also really due to the fact that I can always browse and buy things ‘anytime’ from the comfort of my home, without getting the kids ready to go out and accompany me, especially on school days!]

Anyway.

There’s this online shopping mall called Jipaban.com that I’d like to share with you today.

And rather than just tell you about it, I thought it’ll be much better if I take you through three shops (that carry children clothings and other cute things!) and share with you the items which I personally like from each shop!

Here they are.

Shop #1: Vvibes

Floral Dress: Summer Serenade
Blue Overall: Cool Dude 1984

The cute little dress is for Anya. Looks so comfy! And the blue overall is for baby no. 3, IF it’s a boy, hehe.

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Shop #2 : Voguebebe

Floral Skirt: Charlotte
Bubble Dress : Scarlett

The pretty green skirt immediately caught my attention when I checked out this shop. As for the bubble dress, haha … it’d be for baby no. 3, IF it’s a girl!

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Shop #3 : Bobodino

I know Anya will LOVE these!

Left: DIY wooden stamp set
Right: Stickers in a tin box

Above: Monopoly Passport Case (brown)

And, I totally NEED this passport case! I love how it comes with a little memo pad (for me to jot down my ‘things to buy while overseas’ list!) and pockets for me to put my endless little ‘stuff’.

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Now, another interesting feature of jipaban.com is, you can link it to your Facebook!

ie. when you like a particular item, you simply click ‘Add to egg-on’ (just below the item’s image and description), and the item you’re thinking of getting will automatically be displayed on your Facebook! Your friends can then share with you what they think of it BEFORE you go ahead and buy the item!

[I clicked ‘Add to egg-on’ and this passport case appeared on my Facebook wall!]

And if you’re wondering HOW you can connect your jipaban account to your Facebook, here’s what you need to do:

– Register yourself in Jipaban.com
– Go to your Jipaban‘s profile page
– Click on ‘Authorize with Facebook’ link (refer to image below)

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And oh, one last thing.

For payments, you have the options of using your PalPal account OR your credit / debit card.

Here’re the three easy steps to pay for your items:

– Upon checking out, click on the PayPal or Credit Card button
– Login to PayPal using your PalPal ID and pasword, OR enter your credit / debit card details via the ‘continue checkout’ option
– Review and confirm your order.

That’s it! Very simple and straight forward.

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Anyway, I’d say … just go ahead, hop over to jipaban.com, and simply browse around.

And you never know, you may find something that you like and need!

Happy browsing and shopping, everyone!

And we attended our friends’ beautiful wedding today.

Anya was in the children choir and was one of the sixteen flower girls!

They were all so cute!

It’s all hazy again here in Singapore.

[And the last time it happened badly here in Singapore was in 2006, not too long after Vai was born! It was so bad that we could only see a few hundred metres ahead of us, and the rest was just a blur]

The return of this haze problem dawned on me when I saw how bad the weather was when the kids had their swimming lesson today.

It was smoky all over.

And when I got home, I found out how it’s caused by fires in parts of Sumatra (again), and how the winds blow more smoke towards Singapore.

Sigh.

It does make me feel reluctant to go out and about.

Plus, with this morning sickness phase still lingering around, the haze somehow gives me a little ‘breathing discomfort’ too.

[I know some people’s asthma returns, and kids fall sick too as the result. Poor thing.]

Really hope the air is clear again very, VERY soon.

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Btw, how are you affected by the haze?

I must admit.

One of the questions I asked myself after Wilson and I discussed about trying for baby no. 3 was: Can I actually divide my time, attention, energy and love to THREE kids?

You see, I thought about that question too when we planned to have baby no. 2.

I wondered if I could still care, love and pay enough attention to Anya, my first born, as much as I would love to, when number two came along.

Well, today that number two is four years old. And when I look at how things are during the past four years, I can say that we have loved them both the SAME.

Yes, no.1 does not get ALL of our time and attention like how it used to when we only had one child in the family. BUT, having no. 2 around does NOT mean we love no. 1 any less. At all.

In fact, when having more than 1 child in the family is possible, it allows the first child to enjoy what siblinghood is all about. And the ‘positives’ outweigh the ‘negatives’, if you ask me.

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Okay. That’s about having two kids in the family.

But how about having three?

Caring and loving three kids IS a completely different thing.

Errr, isn’t it?

I mean, when you have two, I can hold one with one hand, and hold the other with my other hand.

When we go out, one can be with Daddy, and one can be with Mommy.

But how will it be when I have three?

Can we love, care and pay attention to the THREE kids as much as we’d love to? Because I surely don’t want to miss anyone out.

…

If you ask me, somehow I believe that we’ll work things out next year.

Don’t ask me HOW, because I’m eager to find out how it’ll be too next year!

(I guess, it’d be similar to how Wilson and I worked together, supported one another, and managed things out when we started having our second child in the family?)

Anyway.

Despite all those questions, there’re some things I can say for sure :

There will always be things about the future that we don’t know today. But if God has entrusted us with another child in the family, we both really believe that HE will also …

… give us the necessary strength to go through the ups and downs we’ll face each day

… provide for us what we need every day

… shower us with His faithfulness, patience and love so that we too can share what we have received from above with our little ones

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Btw, did similar thoughts cross your mind too when you plan to have more than one child in the family?

… while waiting for Mommy or Daddy at hair saloons:

They both would take turns and do their own imaginative role plays.

One would be the customer, and the other would be the hairdresser.

They would imagine combing, shaving, and cutting the other person’s hair.

Interesting and amusing.

And, it does keep all parties happy and busy, hehe.

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[Photo: Taken with iphone by hubby]

If you live in Singapore, you definitely must have noticed this chopstick-like monument called the ‘Civilian War Memorial‘, standing tall right in the middle of busy city traffic near Suntec City and City Hall.

The question is, have we ever walked past the monument, stopped and checked it out, even for a little while?

Well some time ago, we did just that.

For our very first time, in more than a decade of seeing the monument!

The four of us walked from City Hall MRT towards Suntec City and decided to stop by and actually see what the monument is all about.

Obviously it’s not something that the kids would be interested in.

BUT, they DID ask what ‘it’ was.

And that’s when we felt it was timely to explain a little bit about war.

[You see, our kids have heard about ‘war’, soldiers, etc, but we don’t expose them to ‘war stories’ (read: where people kill or shoot at each other). We don’t encourage physical aggression in our family. And, we discourage play using swords or toy guns, and we do explain to them why.]

And so, here’s our simple explanation to them of what the monument and war are about:

Imagine if there’s a stranger standing outside our home and he wants to come inside. Once inside, the stranger says, ‘This is now MY home! This is NO LONGER your home!!’ Then he used our bathroom, he slept on our beds, and he told us to work and clean the house for him.

[I then asked the kids, ‘Whose home is it?’, and they both said, ‘It’s of course OUR home!’]

If THAT happened, then we – the real OWNER of the house – would definitely ask the stranger/outsider to LEAVE. And when the stranger insists to stay and claims that it’s HIS home, everyone at home will surely get together to make sure that the stranger leaves for good!

The same goes for a country like Singapore. Last time, some people from another country (ie. Japan, in this case) came to Singapore and said, ‘Singapore is now MY country!’. Then of course the people of Singapore said, ‘NO! It’s MY country! Leave Singapore and go back to YOUR own country!’

But they didn’t want to leave. The people of Singapore fought against them to make sure that Singapore was still THEIR home. During the fight (which we know as ‘war’), many Singaporeans died. And that’s why we have this monument. It’s to remember that many Singaporeans died, when outsiders came and said that Singapore was THEIR home.

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We were around the monument for less than 10 minutes, I think. But during that short span of time, I know the kids learned a little something important.

About the need to protect their own home and family. And about the need to respect others.

[Tummy at 4.5 weeks pregnant. Basically it’s taken after I double confirmed that I really AM pregnant]

I’ve been feeling nauseous, bloated, and sleepy since the beginning of last week (and that’s when I was about 5 weeks pregnant).

I’ve lost my appetite, and I have little energy.

I don’t feel like eating, but yet I feel hungry.

And when I do eat, I can’t quite taste anything. My taste buds are mostly gone.

I feel like my ‘stomach’ goes all the way up towards my throat, making me feel like gagging.

And you know, just yesterday, when we had our first check up, my doctor asked, ‘So, how are you feeling?’

And when I told him how things are, he smiled and said, ‘Oh, that’s GREAT! It means the pregnancy is going well! And it’ll get worse, peaking at around week 10!’

Gee.

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Oh btw, I went through a similar phase when I was pregnant with Anya and Vai.

I actually kept a journal on how my pregnancy was and the changes in my tummy size, week by week, on my old website. Those pages are still ‘active’ and I thought of sharing them with you today, as they’ll probably be somewhat useful to some of you.

Click HERE to see my FIRST pregnancy days.

Click HERE to see my SECOND pregnancy days.

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Anyway, I’m still thankful that I’m not bed-ridden or anything. I know many others who go through much worse morning sickness phases.

I mean, at least I only gag, and don’t actually vomit. I can still send my kids to school and occasionally force myself to cook something simple for the kids.

AND, at least I’m not like this lady I know who felt sick and nauseous … whenever she saw her husband! Haha. I thought that was funny! She had to stay with her mom during the weeks she had her morning sickness. And this happened when she’s pregnant with her THREE kids! Imagine that!

Oh well.

Still, I’m SO looking forward to the days when my morning sickness phase is over for good.

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Btw, if you’re a mom, how was YOUR morning sickness phase? I know some lucky ones have NO morning sickness at all!