What are you scared of Mummy?

I am scared of cats. When there's a cat standing in the way of my path, I will make a big detour just so we will not cross paths. When a cat comes to our table at dinner, I will lose my appetite worrying about it brushing against my legs. My hair will stand and even typing about it now. I do not dislike cats and I can't explain why but I fear them and I know they can sense it as they often give me a stare and a hostile meow, like they are asking me to back off or they will come to me.

After having kids, I feel that I have to put on a brave front so as not to influence them to be scared of the things I have fear for. And very often, cats are the first animals kids learn to identify so they get all excited, calling out to the cats and attempting to touch them. When they start walking, the kids also try to be friendly and get real close to the cats and asking me to snap photos with my jelly hands.

Good luck to me now that Ava's first words are 'cat cat' and she enjoys going on a cat hunt in the evenings.

Better late than never: Making time for the kids

When I was still at my full time job, the only time spent with Aiden (who was then our only child) was a few hours each night, usually after dinner and bedtime. As a brand manager in a multi-brand retail concept in the beauty industry, there was never a dull moment at work. I love what I was doing and never felt that it was a chore even when I had to work into the night for event set-up, going to work on weekends for a consumer event. I brought my work laptop home almost every day as I try to have dinner with Daddy Darren and spend time with Aiden before his bed time (which is not very early, usually after 10pm) before I get back to my emails & reports.

We were always looking out for interesting activities to do with Aiden, interesting places to bring him over the weekend for quality bonding time. I enjoy bringing him for swims, going to the parks and beaches to get closer to nature and have picnics which he enjoyed. We definitely brought him out often, to the malls, to the zoo, to the aquarium, to indoor playgrounds and on play dates.

With Ava, we realized we hardly go out as a family of four as we did not want to deprive her of quality sleep which she does indulge in quite a bit even now at 10 months old. She can take 3 naps ranging from half an hour to almost three hours in a day and her bed time is around 10pm. It was also more tedious going out and there were activities or places we wanted to bring Aiden which was not so suited for babies. As a result, we often have my parents care for Ava while we bring Aiden out.

After going full time for PriviKids in August and opening our first retail store, I have been spending substantial time at the store and have lesser time for the family especially the kids. One key reason for going full time for the business is to have better work life balance and to spend more time with Aiden and Ava and the initial months are tough.

Nowadays I get to steal little brackets of time on weekdays to fetch Aiden earlier from day care and either spend time playing with him at home or bringing him out for a nice treat or water play, and on some days, springing a surprise visit to Ava and bringing her & my mum out to the malls or taking her for a walk. The smiles on their faces and the connection we enjoy during these one on one sessions serve as a reminder to me, for the bigger goal we have.

I find myself trying to pry my fingers off my laptop and handphone to reply to one last email and keep my promise to play cars with Aiden and to snuggle up with Ava. Despite not spending a lot of time with Ava, she's really loving and sweet whenever she sees me and this reminded me that it's never too late. I may regret not having spent time with her in the past few months but every time we play together, it helps strengthen our bond.

This journey is not going to be easy and smooth sailing. I am enjoying every bit of it while trying my best to strike a balance with family time. I guess each role has its set of challenges in trying to achieve work-life-personal balance.

Caught this picture of Ava and myself while taking we-fies with her and love how she looked at me. Her eyes lighting up as though encouraging me on this journey and I know I will work hard and work smart to be a role model and inspiration to both my kids.

My gentle giant, Aiden

Mums never stop worrying about their kids.

I am always the one reminding Aiden to 'be careful, don't run too fast', 'look in front, we are nearing the end of the escalator', 'stop jumping, careful of the sharp edges'. Hoping to prevent accidents from happening and shielding him from potential falls, cuts and injuries. When would it be considered overly protective? I want Aiden to learn to be aware of the danger in his environment and yet be resilient and have the ability to pick himself up from a fall. I was speaking to a mom of three kids recently and she shared how the first born will always be the overly protected and careful one while the second child would be more daring, a risk taker as she will grow up with fewer restrictions and more carefree.

Nowadays, Aiden will tell me 'I know mummy, I will be careful' and this brings a smile to my face. My baby has indeed grown up to a young boy and knows how to deal with his mum's constant nagging (concern).

Spending quality time with Aiden on a weekday afternoon is a luxury I can have now, and it gives me renewed energy to drive the business when I return to work. It's always tough to turn down his requests to buy toys and I take a firm stand on what he can get.

We make it a point to fetch Aiden to school in the mornings, and some days he would be ok and give us a wave and a hug and on other days, he may get emotional and it affects me. I try to tell him that we can play tonight when he returns home but he can only muster enough to say, 'I want you to stay with me Mummy'. He has to be in school and I am looking at either switching school where he may enjoy school better (to which I spoke with him and he resisted switching), or take a more proactive approach to speak with his teachers. There was a recent change yet again, in his teachers and this may may have affected him as well.

My boy, it's as difficult for Mummy to leave you in school each morning. Let's make the best out of this together.

Inability to sleep in

It's the weekend!

The kids decided to do us a favour and went to bed earlier yesterday. I went to bed past midnight after a long week (this is cummulative... and in fact have been a tiring period of a few months). But I naturally got out of bed at 8am and picked up where I left off for a couple of work tasks and household chores.

I miss my precious sleep.

Interview with 3 year old Aiden

Inspired by what Ai has done with Lil' Pumpkin on her 5th birthday, I decided to interview Aiden with this set of 25 questions. The boy surprised me with some of his answers, mostly well thought out before he responded. It would be great fun sharing his responses with him when he's older and a really nice way to remember each stage of his growing up years. It is also really interesting to see his responses evolve as he grows up.

1) How old are you? 3 years old

2) What is your favourite toy? Cars

3) What is your favourite car brand? Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen Golf, BMW and Mini Cooper!
(he couldn't decide on one)

4) What is your favourite food? Hotdog

5) What is your favourite drink? Chrysanthemum

6) What is your favourite colour? Green
(prompted by Daddy Darren)

7) What is your favourite TV show? Cars

8) What is your favourite cartoon? Mickey Mouse

9) What is your favourite song? M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E MICKEY MOUSE!

10) What is your favourite place? Singapore!

11) What do you like to wear? Girl (clothes)
(We were quite surprised and amused to hear this. There were a few occasions he wore his clothes in a girl's style like his top as a skirt, his bottom as a tube top, and said it was fun when I asked him why he did that.)

12) What makes you sad? Daddy
(Why does Daddy make you sad? (Because he) scold me.)

13) What makes you cry? Ah-gong
(Why does Ah-gong make you cry? (Because he) shouts (at me).)

14) What makes you happy? Mummy
(Why does Mummy make you happy? She hugs me.)

15) What are you good at doing? Coloring and painting.

16) What are you not good at doing? Drawing

17) Who is your best friend? Daddy
(Why? Because he loves me.)

18) Which is your favourite animal? Tiger, lion

19) What makes you laugh, hahahah? Fire engine
(He was playing with Daddy Darren)

20) What are you afraid of? Fire, lizard

21) What do you like to do with Mummy and Daddy? Swimming

22) If you had one wish, what would it be? A birthday cake.
(You love to eat cake? Yes chocolate.)

23) What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman!

24) Do you have a girlfriend? Yes, it's meimei.

It's interesting to note that Aiden is sad because Daddy scolds him but he also sees Daddy as his best friend because Daddy loves him. Happy to hear that and this short interview makes me feel how fast my little boy has grown, and can answer me in such a mature manner.

Ava is 5 months old

Before we had kids, and whenever anyone asked if I have a gender preference, I would say 'A boy, I really love boys.' True enough when I found out that I was expecting Aiden, I was delighted and it was really nice to have a(nother) boy loving you so much. There are activities that are more skewed towards boys and Aiden has Daddy Darren to turn to for that. For me, I enjoy spending alone time with him crafting, baking, reading and in the pool and I love the bond we develop as mother and son.

When I was expecting Ava, I was really happy that we are blessed with a girl after Aiden. Though I had some fears that I wouldn't bond so well with a baby girl, it just happens naturally. At 5 months now, she can interact much better with us and I can see how cheeky she is as she discovers her own reflection in the mirror, as she chews on everything including my knuckles and laughs when I squeal in pain. I look forward to returning home to her smiles and chuckles, and this special bond I have with her is somehow different from what I share with Aiden.

 

Spending a day exclusively with her, I almost can't bear leaving her at my mum's place. Her smiles when I make silly faces at her, the tense look on her face when I swing her up high and her contented face when I kiss her on her lips. Kids grow up too quickly and I don't want to miss out on being a big part of their growing up years.

Embracing The Terrific Threes

Just as we thought we breezed through the terrible two toddler year, Aiden never fails to surprise us. Each new year brings it own set of challenges. Now at age three, he is more manipulative and engages in smart negotiating to get things his way. I find it tougher trying to balance discipline & managing his emotions. He knows what's right and often convinces me to let him have his way.

'Mummy, can I have a sweet please? I will only eat one.'
'Mummy, can I play with play dough then I will wash my hands and go to sleep?'
'Mummy mummy, can I play with this toy? I will keep my cars and then play with this toy...'

With such stressful years ahead of them as many parents of primary school kids have shared, I feel bad restricting him sometimes. With the small pockets of quality time with him, I remind myself to love, laugh and play with him within set boundaries. I especially enjoy talking to him as I discover his likes, his fears and sometimes that he makes believe things. As a parent, we are constantly learning and it's amazing what he has showed and taught me along the way too.

With super high energy levels that even Daddy Darren & I can hardly match on some days, we often bring him to wide spaces, playgrounds where he gets to run about, have fun and eventually go to bed exhausted earlier. The play area at Level 2 of Marina Square (near Mothercare) is ideal for toddlers and he learns new skills while at play. 

Learning to take turns with other kids

Balancing, he even ran down the slide on bare feet

Whee!

Hasn't mastered doing this independently yet

Love this expression!

Cool breezy evenings were hard to come by. We went to the Esplanade Mall and explored the installations and music performance.

Superboy or musician?

A cost free eventful day in Singapore. Where are some other places you visit as a family? Share them with us!

A Day At eXplorerkid Downtown East

Recently Aiden has been requesting to visit indoor playgrounds every time we ask him where he'd like to go. So on a Sunday afternoon, we made our way to Downtown East for lunch and headed to eXplorerkid with our boy who loves slides and ball pits.

 

Here's our experience at eXplorerkid at Downtown East and we'd definitely return very soon!

Super spacious play area
There was enough empty space, all padded for hyper active toddlers to run about without having parents worry too much about them falling and hurting themselves. As such, we saw many kids running about with no adult supervision - guess they must be very adventurous and the dare devil. The super spacious play area made it easier for adults to follow their kids around and crawling through tunnels. We love it that just under two hours of play, the active boy fell asleep in the car on our way home!

 

Lit Ball Pool & Toddler Ball Play Area
These got the kids (and parents) really excited. You can sink right into the pool of balls and disappear into them (yes it's that deep!). This must be the highlight for Aiden even though there weren't slides leading to the balls, as the other playgrounds he visited had much lesser balls in comparison. Just look at how happy he is. I lost count of the number of times he went back to them. There are 2 separate ball pools - one of them is the Toddler Ball Play Area for kids 3 and under, largely for safety purposes as older kids can get pretty rowdy and balls come flying around. This is very thoughtful so parents need not follow too closely and restrict their child's free play. The other is the Lit Ball Pool which Aiden really enjoys.

 

Friendly & attentive staff
They assisted us into the mega play area and took us through the various section - Ball'O'City, Lit Ball Pool, mega play area, the cave and party rooms. They had hawk eyes and helped keep the play area as safe they could by guiding kids to the right direction, point parents to lockers for their belongings and ensure the rules around the play area were obeyed.

The Cliff
This about 3 meters high rock climbing wall looks relatively easy to older kids. For toddlers, this can help train their sense of balance, agility and hand, eye coordination. Provides a great work out for the kids and helps with boosting their self confidence. 

Ball'O'City
This is a multi-level station with vacuum cannons, blasters and buckets. Kids can shoot, blast or throw as many as 2,000 soft foam balls, in a safe enclosure. The highlight of this area was the loud shower of balls periodically which may startle younger kids so be prepared. It was really crowded as this is a popular area with the older kids.

Themed party rooms
There are 4 different rooms which had different decorations for different theme parties including pirates, princess, safari and dino. You can book their packages and have their experienced staff run the party for you. There is even one room with disco lights for a dance themed party. 

Overall, we feel that eXplorerkid at downtown east is great for our active 3 year old. It encourages learning through exploration within the various sections, and most importantly, it transports the kids to an experiential fantasy world! Most of the areas are padded, even the walls so I needn't worry about Aiden crashing into them when he runs super fast. The deep ball pool which has changing colored lighting is a big hit with kids of all ages.

If you'd like to do some crafting, there are available stations for your kids to do sand painting, mud paintings baking or mask making. There are different activities going on every weekend and some weekdays so do checkout their calendar here before you set out.

Here are their play rates, ranging from $9 - $30 for unlimited play. Do find out more about their memberships as it is a great deal where you pay a one-time membership fee and your child is a member until the year he turns 12!

Location:
eXplorerkid at Downtown East
3rd Level, E!hub @ Downtown East, 1 Pasir Ris Close, Singapore 519599

Opening Hours:
Off Peak - Mon to Thu from 12pm - 9pm
Peak - Fri, including eve of Public Holidays from 12pm - 10pm & Sat and Sun, including Public Holidays and Gazetted School Holidays from 10am - 10pm
 
Disclaimer: eXplorerkid invited us to their centre for a review. No monetary compensation was given. All opinions are my own.

Ahhhh Suckers! The Dreaded Mosquitoes.

These couple of days, where precious sleep is much appreciated before I begin work next week, we have been kept up by the annoying blood suckers.

For three days in a row, Daddy Darren and I woke up abruptly between 4 - 5am to buzzing sounds near our ears & itchy red patches on our skin! We would switch on the bedroom lights, peel open our tired eyes and ran dagger-eye scans on every inch of the room to detect the mosquito before attempting to kill it with one swift clap. Oh well, if we get lucky. Otherwise it would be half an hour to an hour trying to detect the illusive one(s).

It gets more frustrating when this is bothering Aiden and Ava and they do not sleep well. Being sleep deprived already, you feel like banging your head when there is a whining, crying kid who is scratching himself and equally annoyed at the buzzing mosquitoes around him.

I was up at 6am to cries from Aiden's room and saw him scratching his feet. Minutes later I hear buzzing around my ears and when I switched on the lights to see better, there were two big red marks on his face and he woke up crying! After I settled him in my bedroom (hoping there are no mosquitoes there now), I returned to his room determined to exterminate them. I managed to get rid of one mosquito and there was so much blood in this one. Then I saw another flying around. Failing to deal with this other one, I left the room after spraying lots of Shieldtox and shutting the windows and door.

I never killed any insects myself, growing up with the protection from mum & dad. Today, as a mum, I don't hesitate to get my hands dirty getting rid of these pests so all of us get better quality and more sleep!

Please do share if you have effective methods in preventing and killing these pests. I am going shopping today to arm myself better for tonight.