Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

I don’t know if you feel the same way, but oh my … I think the weather’s been so unpredictable these past few weeks.

It’s scorching hot in the morning. And it rains in the afternoon.

It drizzles in town, but it’s all sunny and warm everywhere else in Singapore.

But.

When the kids can still manage to have a little fun at the beach in between our weird weather patterns, how can we complain about anything really …

[Photo : Kids at Sentosa’s Palawan Beach]

…

Note:
As my previous blog post’s comment section was deactivated, you’re very most welcome to share your thoughts and comments here yeah …  *smile*

And one other thing, … I’ve been extra busy these days and frankly I feel so bad that I haven’t replied many of the comments left on previous blog entries. I DO read every single one of them every day, and am always greatly encouraged by them.  Please continue to share, as your thoughts and comments may too encourage others. Thanks everyone!

[Anya : 4 months old | July 2004]

One of the many beautiful things about being a fulltime mommy is that I get to see my children grow.

I saw their first smiles. Heard their first giggles. Saw their first stumbles.

[Vai: 4 months old | December 2006]

But. As much as I’m there for my two children almost 24/7, I realise I can’t be with them ALL THE TIME.

[Anya and Vai at one year old]

Anya started going to her nursery school in January last year, and way before she did, I knew I needed to accept the whole idea of having a school-going child.

It’s the start of NOT being there for her.

[Day two of Anya’s school-going days | January 2008]

I remember thinking, … what if she refused to participate in class?

Or,
What if she’s bullied?
What if she played in the playground and put her fingers in her mouth?
What if a friend who’s down with cough and runny nose suddenly sneezed all over her?

(Btw, when she started going to school, she too started having more frequent runny noses and coughs. AND, passed it down to Vai! So it was then too when I started to realise the importance of maintaining a strong body immune system as much as we can)

And Vai … he’s starting nursery in less than THREE months.

*Yikes*

Soon I’ll have TWO school-going kids!

When I look at my two kids today, I know there are absolutely no reasons for me not to say thanks to God.

I know I can’t always be there with them and I’ll do what I can as a mom who wants what’s best for my kids.

BUT you know what, … the biggest assurance I have is knowing that God is always with them.

Watching over them, even when I’m away or asleep.

Loving them, more than I could ever love them.

OH GUESS WHAT??

Our Everyday Things actually made it to the top Five finalists for the Best Parenting Blog Award Category in the First Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards!!!

I was SO surprised beyond belief that I read the email (telling me of this news!) more than three times!!!

Now.

First thing first … I’d like to THANK EVERYONE who had nominated me! *THANK YOU*

Second, … I’d like to warmly welcome everyone who’s visiting my blog for the first time! *Big HELLO to you all*

And third, … I’d like to ask for everyone’s support in voting for meeeee …  *Please please please?*

Here, let me tell you a little bit about the Awards.

– This is the first ever Asia Pacific Blog Awards! (which explains how honoured and humbled I feel to have been shortlisted)

– There is a total of 12 categories, with only five shortlisted blogs in each, selected from thousands of submitted blogs from all over the Asia Pacific region.

– Winners will be announced on Friday, October 23rd (next month!) at the Awards Night that’s to be held at the Pan Pacific Hotel (400 bloggers, overseas bloggers will be flown in by the organiser, and guests will be there! Can’t wait!)

– Voting phase started some two days ago, and it’ll end on October 11th!

– Votes from the public will make up 50% of the total score. The other 50% will be from the panel of judges.

– Voters are entitled to cast one set of votes every 2 hours (ie. you have to cast your vote for every category)

You can check out the list of finalists from this link : http://www.awards.nuffnang.com/votes.php

HERE’S HOW TO VOTE :

1.  The easiest way is to simply click the Voting Poll on the RIGHT SIDEBAR of my blog

2. Another way is to visit Nuffnang’s Blog Awards website (click, and you’ll see something like the page above)

3. Votes must be cast for each of the category (so you’ll be clicking at least 12 times before you can successfully click ‘submit’)

4. When you see the ‘BEST PARENTING BLOG’ category, click on “Our Everyday Things”, then click ‘next’!
[if you’re using the voting poll on the right, you’ll see something like the image below]

5. No registrations needed! And, voting can be done every TWO hours *WOW*

And that is it!

It’s sooo simple and fast!

…

As I have always shared, my hope is for this blog to somehow inspire others, to make a positive impact to the society and to the world.

And if winning the Best Parenting Blog Award will help me reach that aim, I sure hope I’d win this Award.

With your help and support, of course.

THANKS EVERYONE!!

When we bring the kids to the swimming pool, they’d splash and play happily like most other kids would when they’re in the waters!

They have yet to learn how to swim though.

We feel the ability to swim is one of the basic ‘survival’ skills one needs to have, but we’re still waiting for the right time to enrol them BOTH together (because it IS more convenient for me to send them BOTH to classes at the same time)

And we’re thinking sometime after Vai turns four next year (By then Anya is about 6.5yo).

Hmm.

You know, these days they have swimming sessions for BABIES and it’s becoming more and more common to introduce swimming at an early age. 

And yep, I do sometimes wonder if it does make a ‘difference’. You know, the age at which a child starts learning how to swim. 

Personally I’m totally neutral about swimming sessions for babies and toddlers … but I am interested to hear other people’s cases and views on this topic.

So, what’s your view?

And if you’ve already started them on swimming classes, how old were they when they started?

…

Oh btw, here’re two interesting findings :
Just checked on wikipedia, Michael Phelps learned how to swim at the age seven, and Ian Thorpe started going to the pool at the age of five (and it was unintentional because he was following his sister at the time)

Somehow my days have been so full these past few days. So many things to do. So little time, I feel.

But hey anyway, as promised, here are some of the photos Wilson and I took at the Singapore Blog Awards held at the Supperclub last week!

There we were, arriving at about seven, going up to the second floor.

A cute choice of venue, with super long beds and comfy pillows on each side. No wonder the theme for the night was ‘Bedroom’ and hey hey … many DID come in their PJs!

Singapore’s foreign minister George Yeo was the official Guest of Honour. He gave his speech and unexpectedly stayed for quite a long while!

[Btw, did you know that he’s actively on Facebook, has close to 5000 people in his friends’ list, and … confirmed my ‘friend request’ within 2 hours and even left me a message? Considering how super busy he is every day, I was like, WOW that’s fast and nice of him!]

Anyway. Back to the Awards.

They had every nominee from each of the ten categories flashed on the big screen.

And the ‘Best Photography Blog’ category was like, one of the LAST two or something. Gee, I had butterflies in my stomach waiting for it!

Ah I couldn’t quite describe the feeling I had at the time.

I was like, excited + nervous + ‘why-was-it-taking-so-long’ + ‘now-I-would’ve-been-really-surprised-if-I-did-win’ kind of feeling.

(Felt so relieved when the whole announcements were over. Time to sit back and relax!)

Now here’s a shot of all the winners and the organisers! Big congrats to all of them!

AND, I WON one of Door Prizes too!

A really cute Document Bag from shinnpark.com, the winner of the Best E-Commerce Blog category! Sooo happy!

And last but not least, here’s me and some of the lovely friends I got to meet that night: Audrey from Apple, and crafty Joanne, a finalist in the Best Individual Blog category who braved it out and came in cool hair curlers! Heh.

Sure was a great night out!

I was looking through some of my photo archives, and I saw this again!

The kids at our friends’ wedding at Chijmes in September 2007.

Gee. I mean, TWO FULL YEARS have passed!

We can never stop time from ticking away, can we?

Ah anyway.

Here’s their latest ‘physical growth info’, before my memory goes too rusty.

Anya @ 5.5 years old
Height: 115cm
Weight: 18.5kg

Vai @ 3 years 1 month
Height: 100 cm
Weight: 17kg

Last month we all went to Marina Square to check out X-periment, the launch of this year’s Science 09!

[Click here to visit their official website]

And, the kids and I were impressed with Mr Bunhead‘s educational stage show. Especially the one where he placed ‘hydrogen bubbles’ on his head and created a fireball!!

Now for this weekend, they’re organising Kids Science Fest at the Singapore Science Centre!

Admission is FREE and it’s a carnival for kids with science-themed booth activities.

Well, as they say … the more we are curious, the more we are inclined to ask questions. The more we ask questions, the more we’re inclined to find out more about them ourselves.

Have fun while learning, everyone!

[errr … excuse Vai’s silly expression … *smile*]

Oops.

I just found out that if you ARE using Internet Explorer 6 (and I hope not too many of you), the overall layout of my blog will appear even FURTHER from how it should’ve looked (pictured above).

[I once shared about this IE6 issue here]

I know my blog’s top banner is not displayed if you’re viewing it in IE6.

But hey hey, apparently my right sidebar gets pushed all the way down too now!

*sigh*

Ah. Perhaps I really should change my blog’s design and layout altogether.

The next big question is however, … where would I find this thing we all call ‘time’?

…

[edited]
Thanks Emma and Mario for their help. If you view my site with IE6, the right sidebar is now back to where it belongs! The banner is still gone though …