Maldives

I am drunk. Staring into the beautiful emerald ocean, I am intoxicatedly drunk. My eyes burned. The sea is too bright and shimmery.  I do not like its glare but I am trapped. The sea draws my thoughts into its depth that has no beginning or end and I am engulfed and helpless in its presences.

Sitting here, I suddenly feel exhausted. Very very exhausted. Without asking for permission, the ocean begins to take and take. The more it takes, the more I have to give. 

How much thoughts or feelings can a person hold and how much can this ocean drain?

Immense.

There is a stagnant wasteland deep within my soul. Filled with disappointments, deceptive promises and uncertainties. It is a rot that eats me from within, leaving my form deceptively untouched from my suffering.

For months, I have tried to verbalize this emotion. But how does one make sense of nothingness? This crushing sense of futility. Emptiness. Void. I thought of Meiling. Can she understand what I cannot say and put them into words and give me a voice?

Hours and hours on the speedboat. 

Hours and hours staring into the never-ending ocean.

Cyan or turquoise. 

Has the ocean transformed itself? 

Tinted by the filth of my accumulated angst? 

Then diluted and washed away?

Am I now slowly healed? 

Because I now have the words…

Thank you for bringing me here to you. 

More Activities for the 2-3 year old

Thanks for the support and feedback on my first blog of activities for 2-3 years old. Many great suggestions and ideas. Some asked how I have the time to do all these. Well, I got a lot of help. My in-laws looked after Megan, my helper looked after the house, Ken and me looked after learning and playing. NOW for more ideas. 

Stamping

If painting is too tedious, try stamping instead. Luckily for Megan, we bought boxes of stamps from Spain. Now is the time to unleash their power!

If you do not have ready made stamps then go creative with a spoilt potato or the extra cucumber. I don't think they really care about the shapes you carved out, they are just keen on the process.

And, forget about those ultra expensive stamp pads. Just use the same poster color set!

Spelling and Word Recognition
Tried this new game last week and boy it worked. Megan can now spell CAR, CAT and COW. Introduce simple words that consist mostly of alphabets your child already recognised. For Megan, words like BOY and CAR are a great place to start since A,B,C and O are easy so Megan just needs to learn R and Y.

For BOY, I drew a boy and wrote B-O-Y below the image and stuck the card to the wall. Then on individual wooden pegs, I wrote out the alphabets. For the game, Megan had to search through a row of pegs to find the exact three alphabets to match those on the image. She will then re-peg them accordingly onto the card. Its like... hmmm... learning simple words through matching.

However never make the same mistake as me. I wrote "Y" differently on the peg and the card (see above). Such minor differences is very confusing for the kid. Just keep things consistent.

The Toilet Roll Fish
Very excited to introduce the glue stick to Megan. Time for craft work using the trusty toilet roll. This is one of those activities that evolves over time and Megan really got addicted to the toilet roll. "I want to make fish, I want to make fish", she will pester me every weekend. But only the first session (see above) looked anything like a fish. I guess the moment I stop monitoring and helping her, she starts creating from her own imagination, which was great.

For this activity, I gave Megan a tray that has a pack of motif printed paper (S$2), a pack of color paper ($2), two glue sticks (S$1.40), a pair of scissors ($5), a flower puncher(S$2) and a star puncher(S$2). The tray is useful because it keeps all the shreds of paper and punch outs in place. While the supply of toilet rolls never ends, my pack of three glue sticks went dry in less than a month. So just buy a lot of spares. And be warned, this is a messy affair.

                           

These are two spin-offs from Megan's masterpieces. My only involvement was to cut the orange and green shreds and a moon on the paper she supplied and TADA, she finished with both for me to pin up on her board. Great job!

Beading

After attending Megan's nursery orientation recently, the activity of bead treading stuck with me. It is an activity that helps develop kid's hand eye coordination, I went straight home and offered my secret stash of beads to Megan. According to the teachers, hand and eye coordination is important for handwriting development.

"Mummy mummy, I do it" came after I tread the third bead. Megan took over the needle and my job was reduced to tying the knots after she is done. If I try to help, she will nag "Be careful mummy. The needle is SHARP and the hole is SMALL". She has since exhausted all my supply and asked me to buy more.

Writing
Too serious for a two years old you say? Yah... but surprisingly Megan enjoyed it. It reminded me of my SNGS days when I had to learn Higher Chinese. All the adults found it cruel and too difficult for me but I did not recall suffering. I had no basis of comparison between Chinese and Higher Chinese so I just did it and got through. It helped that mimi did not expect good grades (or maybe she did!?).

The writing book that Mimi bought for Megan looked like a boring workbook but Megan kept going back to ask us to write with her. Maybe she loved the novelty, maybe she loved the erasable ink. But how fun or serious you want this activity to be really depends on your attitude because the child will take it as it comes. It did not matter to us if she was tracing triangles or 123, it was merely an activity for her to pass her time. But in this case, she happened to learn writing 123 as well.

Five Stones
Five stones is all about concentration and precision. I love five stones and used to get real competitive with this game. But we are not playing five stones in this way for a 3 year old. Mimi brought giant five stones in a basket to my place one day. This is how we play it.

Game One:
Two teams compete to see who can throw more of their colored stones into the basket. This is really a stupid game for adults but it is not that simple for a kid. It requires concentration and focus!! Another hand eye coordination game.

Game Two:

Create an obstacle course along your vestibule. Place stones at intervals to create an S course for them to run. Penalty points if they touch any stones. Make them jump over two stones at a time. Pick up objects as they go. Whatever... you get my drift. 

Festivals
Festivals are great because they give me something specific to do outdoors. If not for festivals, we will be doing playground times infinity. Megan loves the Lantern Festival. I used to love it too as a kid... Burn all the lanterns. Burn them all!!!!

Sadly, in the name of safety, kids these days play with battery operated lanterns. Despised them but regretfully, Megan also has such. Will do the traditional way next year! Oh but special mention on the Hello Kiddy lantern Nicholas bought for Megan. THAT is cute and all the mothers in the park were exclaiming with jealously. 

Sigh, sometimes I feel Megan is growing up way too fast... We need to play more!

Activities for a 2-3 yrs old

Snoopyeo said that the nature of my blog has changed. From backpacking and diving to family and kids. Yup, my ancient friend whom I haven't met in 10years (!?)... I have moved on and most of my friends are in this stage of their life too. You should try too (or are u already married w kids?!)... 

On the topic of young parents with young kids, I thought I should do an informative blog, sharing with all our experience (omg, YY for once you are useful!). Not the most qualified person to advise on what activities to engage a 2-3 years old coz I will never get the mother of the year award with my minimum efforts but Ken is a great dad at planning activities. 

The Singapore Zoo

http://www.zoo.com.sg

Pride and joy of Singapore. This is a must go for family with young kids. Great variety of animals and numerous cool shady areas for feeding the young ones. Rainforest kids world inside must be the dream of every 2 - 40 years olds, everytime I go there, I want to get wet. The friend of the zoo membership will be your best purchase of the year! Go grab one today. 

Reinforce learning by going through A-Z animals at home. This can be in the form of an animal chart or an animal pictorial book. 

The Jurong Bird Park
http://www.birdpark.com.sg
If you want to demonstrate to your kid what is a classic example of a scam, come to the bird park - the home of sad looking birds (mostly parrots). If I really want to see parrots, I can go to a neighbourhood pet shop. In the bird park, you can however see a very rare sight. Colorful birds jailed in dense smelly cages while crows hopped outside go "chirp chirp chirp". (translated bird language : hahaha stupid birds, this must be the price of beauty... bye bye)

Gardens By the Bay

http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg

Impressive. Blew me away with its architecture as well as the interior landscaping. Great for slow strolls (think air-con) and photo taking. The downside is that husbands are usually not interested in the different species of flowers and they get bored real fast. 

Reinforce learning by picking up origami flowers. Make your child a bunch using different colored paper and possibility different flower types. They will learn to differentiate colors and number of petals pretty fast. Be prepared for these paper flowers to be utterly ruined in a month's time.

Amazonia Indoor Playground, Great World City
http://www.amazoniafun.com
A word of warning, do not bring your kid there alone, go with at least one other adult or you will be begging your child to stop. The 8m high obstacle course is exhausting! Slides, ball pits, trampoline, suspension bridges, tunnels etc... Megan was fearless and had a hell of a time and but I struggled, fell, slipped, sprained my neck, bruised my angle... fine, everywhere hurts!! In the end, Kenneth, me and our helper had to take turns to accompany her when she slided down and declared " let's try again!! TRY AGAIN!!"

The Little Gym, Marina Square
http://www.thelittlegym.com.sg
We enrolled Megan in the little gym for one season and would love to have her continue if not for the terrible renovation taking place in Marina Sq. Excellent circularium by professional coaches. Learning motor skills by encouraging kids to try their best certainly train kids to feel secure taking risks and become more confident. Downside : Expensive. 

Playgroups and Parties
Kids love parties and Zachary's birthday party was a huge success with lots of balloons, slides, swings and a gorgeous cake. Just look at Megan's eyes and you know she was having fun. Such events are great for children to learn social skills and for adults to catch up with friends.

Building Blocks
Building blocks is a great educational toy. With infinite imagination, your kid will never get bored with this toy. Have a competition on building tall, building long, building shapes. If she loses some pieces under the sofa, it provides great entertainment looking at her trying to get them out.

Plasticine
Bought my set from Spotlight. It is a great hit with Megan. So far Megan is only keen to mould worms, snakes, balloons and baskets full of grapes which she carried around the house.

Plasticine is messy so only allow kids to play them on their own work table and nowhere else so you only need to clean a small square area. Because Megan's table is beside our sofa, she does spill over at times. Whack them! After every session, check their fingers, plasticine is going to get stuck underneath their nails and you can't wash them out. Try brushing or just trimming the nails. Unexpected upside: Megan started volunteering to have her nails cut.

Reading

It is essential that children pick up the habit of reading. At this age, picking up knowledge from books is secondary, Megan hitting the bookshelves when she is bored (read: instead of hounding me) is priceless. 

In my old place, we had a study separated from our bedroom (so that we do not get distracted by the comfy bed). One entire wall of the study is bookshelves which Mimi stocked with story books, encyropedias, art and music books. Me and my sis each have our own 700mm x 1800mm study table at the age of 10 and 7. That was where we spent most of our time and in hindsight, a great place to prepare for exams during schooling age. Having a house big enough to have a large study and art work room has always been a vision of mine. 

Books are expensive in Singapore, I bought Megan's storybooks in Philippines and China. The libraries are also very well stocked with good children books. Borrowing from the library has its advantages, mother and child know that these books will only be around for two weeks so will actually read them. 

Learning Mandarin
We kept forgetting to communicate to Megan in Mandarin. Need to work on this. Anyway this blog is about activities so how can I make learning mandarin an activity to engage the kid for a period of time? Since Megan knew her 1-200 numeric very well, I started working on her recognition of 一二三四五. Wrote 一二三四五 on the visible side of folded paper, the digital numeric on the covered side and stuck them on Megan's door. Every time she walked in and out of her room, I played a game "what is this?". Her recital of 一二三四五六七八九十 is perfect but so far still confuses the character 4 and 5.

Painting
Forget about toy watercolor sets. Buy poster colors for a more vibrant hue. Invest in a good set of soft crayons sold in art shops, not the cheap types in bookshops. Cartridge paper should be A2 or A3 sizes. A pail of water and a good size color palette for her to squeeze paints by herself and mix them. Always have a cloth for her to clean up spills and dry her brushes. I experimented with different brushes and Megan preferred my expensive no. 14 horsehair watercolor brush to the nylon ones I bought for her.

See, even a 33 months old kid can tell the difference between a good tool and a mediocre one. Because it makes a great difference in her enjoyment of painting. A good brush holds water well, a good crayon paints effortlessly. The correct set of tools is important in determining if your kid is willing to spend time on the activity. Again, we only allowed Megan to paint while sitting at her low work table or at her room desk. If she dare draw one line anywhere else, whoever up there better bless her!!! But she never did because her low table is a specific furniture piece where most of her activities happen and she knows it.

What to paint?
When I am in the mood, I will reinforce learning by painting events that just happened. After a day cycling at the park, we will paint bicycles, trees, birds, flowers, millipedes, clouds etc. Encourage the child to recall and narrate all the things she played and saw. Using painting as a tool, she will learn story telling skills. Whatever she said, I will draw and double checked with her if everything is correct. When I am not in the mood, I will just leave her to paint anything she wants. You can tell she is good at abstracts.

The process of painting need not be an end in itself. To encourage her to feel pride in her work, we installed a huge magnetic wall to pin up her prized works. The wall is managed by her instead of us and she decides what goes up and comes down. When delighted with her masterpiece, she would run to me with her painting in both hands and shout "come on, let's pin, let's pin!". These days, she just re-adjust the wall by herself. Here is one of the areas she knows she is the boss. Although technically she is the boss most of the time.

Paper Cut Outs
One day I got tired of drawing with Megan and thought I could just pre-draw people and houses and cut them out for her to piece together. Started with faces, different types of hair, eyes, noses, mouths, limbs, clothes etc. Megan wanted to join me in the cutting so I bought her a pair of kids scissors and gave her triangle roofs to cut. Kids scissors are so blunt, they are practically useless but served its purpose of discouraging kids from using scissors again. Give your child a big space to compose her village.

Beware of the kids scissors though. My FIL woke up on the sofa one day to find Megan cutting his hair. Stupid scissors cannot cut paper but can cut hair!!!

After she grew tired of the village theme, I drew and cut another set on the sea, ships and swimmers. Drawing should take you 30mins, cutting and teaching your child to cut another 30 mins. Them playing with the results, an hour. Wah lah... an afternoon spent!

AHHHHH.... so many activities to engage the ever active 2 years old... Drain their energy or else they will drain yours. There are many other things we do together but I guess those will come in the next blog... Gee, Snoopyeo you are right.... my blog is getting far too auntie....

Being Jobless is SO busy

"Respect Yourself Enough to walk away from ANYTHING that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you HAPPY". I found this quote from Pinterest very true.

Hence I promptly typed my letter (again), waited out my notice period and さよなら永遠に!!! Loved my job, too bad no such feelings for the company. Changed my Linkedin status from Associate Director to Free n Easy on the last day and watch the clock... tick tick tick... FREEDOM!!! RESPECT!!!! DIGNITY!!!!!

farewell high tea on my first resignation

Nope, don't ask me where I am headed, I have not reached out to people. But offers are starting to come in, but all I want to do is chill...Hey people, I just broke out of jail, I want to lie on the beach, don't ask me to rob a bank now...  Luckily I have Kenneth to lean on.... so dearest, greatest, SUPEREST lao gong, how long u reckon I can hang around doing nothing?

Before I drive you crazy? Right! Let us recap the many little ways family life has improved since I've gone part time in March and quit totally now.

I signed up for a cooking class at the CC with my MIL. Chef was teaching cereal prawns, sichuan style steamed chicken and sweet and sour pork. I was obviously the youngest and prettiest among them all hence was given special attention by the Chef after a short while, "大姐, 大姐, 你听得懂吗? 你是channel 5 还是 channel 8 的?".

They say the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. How about some french toast with bratwurst sausage, banana slices, blue berries and raspberry sauce for breakfast?

Baked eggs and prosciutto in portabello mushrooms, plus meatballs in tomato puree for lunch?

Kuey Sala for high tea? Wah this one is too pro to be made by me, surely. Its painstakingly made and delivered to my place by no other than our little nyonya, Ally... (great to have friends who either do not bear grudges or do not read my blogs... hohoho). But stingy poker, the rice is not blue enough, she obviously had not killed enough smurfs to dye this. 

This is the gem of our typical Saturday dinner - Shabushabu. And above is a two person portion. A great thank you to Puna for passing me the recipe, it was the best thing that ever happened to my family. I always boost to people that my shabushabu is authentic, taught to me by a Japanese!!! Finished with tang yuan for desserts? Yum Yum...

My plan is working. Ken watsapped me this:

He loves me!!!!!!!

Enough of food, what are the other little things that filled up my days...
B said the first thing she will do after resigning is to look pretty again. SAME SAME.... not that I had any advancement in the looks department before but I can start right?

First, I got Kenji to chop my long hair short and he suggested a new shorter hairstyle every other month... I gave him all the freedom he needed and am loving the results.

It is very ironic that when I was busy earning money, I hardly spend. Now that I am jobless and need to be frugal, I end up shopping and spending a lot more. Check out this very cool watch. It shouts " GOT NO TIME BUT GOT PLENTY OF MONEY". I like... ( no, I did not buy that! Please! )

Coco Chanel is right - "The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive."

Driving... Nothing motivates me to learn driving more than having to fetch Megan around. Joined SSDC and the experience has been amazing. I loved it and am very good in circuits. However, the roads are filled with arrogant pedestrians whose life must be damn cheap and nasty drivers refusing to give way... Urgh... why cant people be more like me? I who failed my advance theory in order to keep the roads that bit safer for all my friends.

Growing plants. Bought three pong pongs in Bangkok. They travelled with me from Bangkok to Laos to Bangkok to Shanghai to Singapore. Been ridiculed by Ally everyday on the Bangkok-Laos leg. Why spend good money on pong pongs when you can go east coast and pick them from the ground, she kept nagging. And why the hell are you buying pong pongs?

To grow on my table lah!!! I even bought this ladle to compliment the plant. Anyway they all died before sprouting green. Or rather, nothing happened, I think they died.

Jessie gave me her pot of dragon fruit plant on my last day in office. Can you imagine, this little pot is a dragon fruit plant. How cute is that?

Yes, a dragon fruit... oh wait... how is it possible that this grew from that? You sure this is a dragon fruit plant you are giving me, Jessie? Regardless, I promised to look after the plant well and hopefully one day bring the fruits of labor to you. I am thinking this will be a breed of mini dragon fruits.

Oh Megan is back.... busy busy again! Being jobless is SOOO busy...