Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

It’s always interesting to see how we get to ‘meet’ new friends through the internet world.

Like for instance today six moms and seven kids (who’ve never met each other in person) went for a cosy lunch at Marche, Vivo City.

It all started when one mom posted a thread on Mumcentre website, where I am also a Resident Blogger there, inviting other moms for a casual meet-up over lunch.

It was a nice little get-together!

Since some two years ago (I think), the Singapore government has shown more efforts in making its country somewhat … more friendly for kids as well as those who are wheelchair-bound.

Nearly all MRT stations have lifts by now. More ramps are being built too.

And to me, who travel a lot with a pram and two kids, I think it’s a good move.

Now. I guess the next thing that needs to be gradually ‘changed’ is the mindset of the society in general.

Really. The reality is just rather sad, I think.

I can say, only two out of ten proactively offer help when I lift my pram (with Vai in it) onto public buses. Most will usually just stare, then look away. Including the bus driver.

At places where there are no escalators nor lifts, I’d be lifting Vai and the pram up the stairs (like, more than 20 steps), while everyone else just casually walks past.

Frankly, by now I’m used to it. I even actually find it a (nice) surprise when someone smiles and kindly offers help (or holds the door for me, Anya and the pram to go through).

The question now is whether I want to be indifferent too, especially since I live in a rather individualistic society anyway.

[I’ve given this a lot of thought, way before I had kids]

And my conclusion… I’d still be me. I guess it’s kind of a principle that I live by.

It sure is one of the values that I’ve been teaching Anya so far.

Like, remembering to say thanks and good bye to bus drivers, or saying thanks to the cleaners who wipe our food court’s table clean.

After all, our little act of kindness and appreciation towards others may change someone’s day. Someone’s life.

You never know.

The kids just woke up from their afternoon nap.

Took a few shots.

Looked at this one and thought … hey, they kind of look quite alike here …

PS: They don’t look too excited at the sight of Mommy with a camera though, huh …

Last week we went and got ourselves a little blender!

And I’m SO excited.

Okay. I guess a little explanation is kind of needed here.

Whenever I prepare home-made baby food for Vai, I mash and I strain. The traditional way.

You see, though friends have shared how their little blenders help a lot in preparing their baby food, whenever I go out, it just doesn’t register in my mind that I need to GET one of those.

[We actually have a blender at home, you know, the big one made of glass. But I shelve the idea of using it whenever I think of washing such a huge blender after making tiny portions of baby food]

And so I continue to strain Vai’s food (for MANY minutes!) till the middle joint of my right hand’s index finger got quite sore (read: a bit swollen!) starting some 2 weeks ago (it’s still not quite back to normal now, btw)

And last week, as I walked past the many range of blenders, the thought just suddenly came to mind. It was like, … HEY, I NEED ONE OF THESE!

In the end, we went home with a Kenwood Speed Chopper, meant for both dry and wet food stuff (so I can make creamy soup or milkshakes too with it).

Excellent!

Once we got home, I tested my little machine. I tossed some steamed tofu, carrot and brocolli, pressed the little blue button for one second and voila, it’s DONE! Still got some textures to it too (At this age, I want Vai to eat less of pureed / totally mashed food). I then scoop them into a few small glass jars and put them into the freezer.

My magical little machine saves me (more than) 15 minutes of food preparation! No more sore joints nor rushing to finish straining my last scoop of pumpkin so I can quickly pick up the phone!

I’m over the moon.

PS: With my little helping tool, Vai now enjoys more variety in his food menu too, like salmon and chicken. And Anya gets to help out and make banana milkshakes for everyone as well. Yummy stuff.

I don’t know about you but I still remember the time when I wanted to quickly reach my sixteenth birthday just so that I could get my (Australian) driver license.

Or the time when I first started working fulltime and somehow wished I could be a few years older, just so that I could deal with older colleagues and clients better.

[an ex-colleague once told me that her bits of gray hair did ‘help’ in making her look somewhat ‘wiser’. Heh.]

Now, being in my early thirties (okay okay, I’m now thirty one!), I somehow don’t feel the need to be older. Nor younger.

And so as I reflect on today, here’s my thought of the day:

What matters most is not our age, but what we have done, accomplished and contributed within the time that’s been given to us.

Frankly I feel I haven’t done, explored, developed myself, nor contributed enough so far.

And so now that God still gives me time, I hope and pray that God will give me the strength and wisdom to continually learn to be more responsible in whatever that’s been given to me. My family. My talents. And the countless other blessings that have been showered upon me from above.

PS: Thank you SO much for the birthday sms-es, emails, messages and phone calls!

We’re mere guests in this world. We come empty-handed, and we’ll leave bringing along nothing with us.

It’s not about how long we get to live in this world, but about the way we respond the Creator, Giver of life, and the way we live the life that’s been given to us.

However long.

However short.

Went to IKEA Tampines and brought along my parents. Well, basically EVERYONE went. It’s our very first visit and the place was just, HUGE!

It’s like, if Vai crawled away by himself and we lost him, it’d probably take us (and a search and rescue team) one whole day just to find the little guy under the MANY big shelves. Well, okay, I’m kind of exaggerating it. But you know what I mean.

We dropped by the thinkfamily.sg roadshow too, where I’m fortunate enough to contribute some of my blog posts there as their Guest Blogger. They introduced the website to the many people there and quite a lot signed up as members. Everything went well I think and it was good.

PS: [Top photo] Vai just woke up from his nap and was still in his ‘half-asleep-mode’.

Anya and I went to see Elmo’s Colouring Book show at Downtown East today! (Thanks SO much Imelda for the complimentary tickets)

Personally, I’m VERY into live performances. I love the music, the choreographed dance, and how the colourful lights, backdrop and other theatrical elements gel beautifully to produce a great show.

I guess it was a relaxing 1.5-hour break too for me. Spending time with Anya, clapping, singing along, moving to the beat.

It was so much fun!

[Thanks to my Mom and Dad who babysat Vai at nearby Tampines Mall!]