Review: Post's Alpha-Bits Cereal

Brand: Post

Origin: USA

Specialises in: Cereals

Where to buy: NTUC or other leading supermarkets

Link: postcereals

Product: Alpha-Bits wholesome sweetened oat and corn cereal

Weight: 11.5oz (326g)

Serving size for children below 4: 3/4cup (21g)

Vitamin D promotes healthy bones and teeth by helping the body absorb calcium and is important for a growing child's health needs. However, not many foods are rich in Vitamin D. Post's Alpha-Bits cereal claims to be an excellent source of vitamin D over and above the fact that it contains 11 essential vitamins and minerals. Also a good source of vitamins B1, B6 and B12 - to help support a child's healthy nervous system - this cereal is made with the child in mind.

This cereal contains 15g whole grain per 28g serving and is made with whole grain oat flour as its main ingredient.

The goodness of whole grains according to the Health Promotion Board:

"Eating more whole-grains has been shown to lower the risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart diseases, diabetes and certain cancers. The health benefits of whole-grains are not just contributed by fibre or any single nutrient. Instead, the different components all work together to protect your health. For example, vitamin E, selenium and phytic acid found in whole-grains have antioxidant effects which may help prevent damage to blood vessels, while soluble fibre helps reduce blood cholesterol. These play a role in lowering the risk of developing heart disease.

Whole-grains may also support weight management as they provide bulk to the diet. This promotes the feeling of fullness and helps reduce the risk of overeating."

If nutrition isn't enough to get this box of cereal into your shopping trolley, then perhaps the element of fun while eating might (read: great for fussy eaters):

On the packaging, there are two suggestions as to how to play games with the cereal:

Taste-wise, though it is sweetened, it isn't overly sweet and is suitable for children's consumption.

It's great as fingerfood or with milk but because it's sweetened, I wouldn't recommend this for children below the age of 1.

The downside of this cereal is that the alphabets aren't crafted all that beautifully as what's shown on the packaging and I believe after almost finishing the whole pack of cereal with Alicia, I haven't found the complete set of the alphabets. Many times I get Alicia asking, "this is...?" with reference to what alphabet the cereal is supposed to be. Some Ds look like Os, Fs are rare, Z is few and far between and I think I really haven't found G or K!

On top of that, there are scrape bits of cereal that don't form any alphabets and sad to say, if Alicia's looking carefully at the bowl, she would chuck those aside and go for those pieces that are recognizable as alphabets. Thus the fun part is actually diluted by the fact that the pieces aren't crafted as well as say alphabet pastas. :)

Teaching music with the keyboard cards

A few nights ago, Alicia decided that she needed to play the piano and I decided that since she was in the mood, I'd just take out the keyboard cards that I'd made earlier to just refresh her memory.

Playing earnestly

What's the next note?

D!

Now that she's able to recognise alphabets, it does make teaching music notes a little easier! I'm only targeting at her ability to recognise the pattern of the keyboard actually. How those music notes fit in would probably come at a later stage but there's really no harm trying now. :)

Hop over to Simply Mommie's Precious Handmades to check out this learning aid and others too! :)

Review of Eric Carle's Draw me a star

Before I move on to the book review, I just need to say that I am so fortunate to have borrowed a copy that was autographed by Eric Carle himself(!) and he wrote about his inspiration for this book (see picture below):

This is yet another book that's filled with colours, bursting with spontaneity. It is hard not to fall in love with his delightful illustrations and that certainly draws any tot's attention to the book.

I must say that I only flipped through a couple of pages of the book before borrowing it and I had a shock when I was reading the book with Alicia when I came to a page depicting a naked man and woman. That wasn't quite what I expected and I guess for that reason, this is probably a book not often read to older tots at school.

While the book seems to have some biblical undertones of Creation, and in particular, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and Adam and Eve in the illustration (there's an apple tree on the left page and the naked couple on the right), I would say that it hardly makes any other significant reference to Christianity.

And upon reading the autograph (see above), you can be quite sure that Eric Carle's inspiration for the book came mainly from his dream about a falling star rather than religion per se.

The story begins with a star and ends with it - and everything in between just falls neatly into the storyline that he created.

It is a book that tots would enjoy. I know, because my Alicia did, tremendously. :)

Review of Eric Carle's From head to toe

If you ever pick up any of Eric Carle's books, you'd notice the beautiful illustrations and a very simple story line that a tot can easily follow.

This book From head to toe is no exception.

As you turn from page to page, you are greeted by an animal on the left doing an action and a child on the right, imitating that action. As you would expect, this spells great fun during storytime for the tot. It is truly hard not to get into the thick of the action together with the characters in the story!

While this book doesn't quite transport the reader to a place less travelled or a mystical place, you can be certain that children will still be enthralled by the animals and their actions, and they will probably be begging you to turn to a certain few pages which excite them more and spontaneously imitate the actions..

Overall, it is a great book for teaching body parts, body movements and even animals! I even used iphone apps to show Alicia pictures and sounds of the animals mentioned in the book and needless to say, that added another element of fun and participation.

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Week 4)

We were the first to enter the classroom on Saturday - it's been eons since we've been early for class! Somehow we managed that day and Alicia had a little more indoor playtime. :)

Theme of the week?

QUICK.

Hence:

a crab that moves quickly

(you can place your thumbs behind the crab - there's a strip of cardboard attached behind so your fingers can act as the crab's legs)

A fast-moving boat at sea :)

The boat is attached to a disposable chopstick and the paper plate has a slit in the middle so you can move the boat horizontally!

Outdoor play was sandplay and she refused to go near the sandpits at all so off she scooted to the playground... when will she ever like sand? :)

Alicia's class size is becoming larger and larger - and I'm really tired of beating the crowd to get her art done. These days, she refuses to play with the toys while waiting and insists on waiting AT the table and trying to get her hands on the artwork. Needless to say, that means lots of struggling as I try to get her away from the table...

Lessons have become very noisy and inconducive with the new kids taking turns to cry. And since it's JG's philosophy to not let a crying child leave the classroom, we've had to put up with lots of noise. Although I do understand their good intentions of teaching a kid to settle in and all, as a parent of a not-constantly-bawling-child, I find it difficult to concentrate as an adult, what more a 2-year-old?

The huge class size also means a change in the teacher-student ratio and to pay that amount for the term with such a ratio, I find it truly hard to accept. Besides, I don't see Alicia picking up much from class this term. Perhaps it's the class size. Perhaps. I'm really not sure. One thing I'm certain though is that she's picking up a lot more at home so I think I should just save the school fees. I'm sure we have a better use for that money. :) That said, Alicia and I have enjoyed the lessons and the teachers, and it was only after much deliberation that we've decided to withdraw after this term...

Review: Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta

Brand: Marks & Spencer

Origin: made and packed in Switzerland

Where to buy: Marks & Spencer

Product: organic wholewheat animal pasta

Weight: 250g

Note: contains wheat, gluten;

suitable for vegetarians

My friend passed me this pack of animal pasta for Alicia (hence I'm not sure about the cost) since she doesn't get a chance to cook for her daughter and I decided to let Alicia try it last night.

Cute little things

While all pastas are low in fat and good sources of complex carbohydrates, not all pastas are made equal and some pack more of a nutritional punch than others, particularly where fibre - which may help protect against heart disease - is concerned.

Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta is, I would say, in the league of the more nutritious pastas as it is made from organic durum wholewheat semolina.

All semolina, regardless of whether it is enriched, contains several important B vitamins. Durum semolina in particular is very high in protein for a grain product. Semolina contains no fat or cholesterol and is very low in sodium.

It is stated on the packaging to cook the pasta for 7-8 min but I cooked the pasta a couple minutes more than stated since after the instructed time, I found the pasta still rather hard.

As an adult not accustomed to the taste of durum wholewheat, I hardly found it palatable.

Luckily, I thought to myself, I had my trusty pasta sauce to go with it to cover the taste. :)

Alicia's verdict: it's FUN to eat it! She was busy trying to point out which animal she wanted to eat and we would name the animal and make the sound that animal makes together. Rather fun really. I was holding my breath throughout the time she took to chew and swallow that first animal pasta. Fortunately she finished it quickly and asked for more... phew.

The serving size stated on the packaging: 50g of uncooked pasta for a child, give more if your child has a hearty appetite. Not knowing what age 'child' meant in the packaging, I decided to go with less and I prepared 40g of it. She had a few animals left in the bowl after she decided she was done with dinner so I guess I can prepare the same amount next time... :)

The downside of the product I guess is that this is probably quite pricey, since it's from Marks & Spencers and it's organic food. But I'm not really sure. I'd say, if your child is fond of animals and is quite a fussy eater, perhaps spending a little more to have that element of fun during mealtime might be worthwhile. :) A little money to spare yourself from frustration during mealtimes - I think it's worth it!

The third year of breastfeeding...

Alicia just turned two two weeks ago and I thought I'd just pen down my thoughts about breastfeeding her so far.

Time truly flies as it feels like not too long ago that I had problems breastfeeding in the first couple of months after delivery. And now, the little baby has become a happy, contented, cheerful toddler - still little though. :P

Breastfeeding a toddler is really different from breastfeeding an infant.

In the first few months (after Alicia learnt to latch), she was not very proficient and always needed help with finding the nipple and latching. Not to mention all the gagging whenever the letdown came as I had overactive letdown reflex. She only managed to overcome that after she turned 5 mths or so... and ever since then, I think she's been looking forward to those gushes of milk!

After 5 months, it became harder to nurse her in public as she was so easily distracted and unless I wanted to risk exposing myself, I thought it wise to nurse her somewhere private - even if that meant the toilet cubicle at times. She didn't mind and I thought it was a far better option compared to flashing my boobies at someone. :)

Before I knew it, she turned one and I blogged about my breastfeeding journey and here I am again, moving on to the third year of nursing.

I can only say, nursing has gotten more fulfilling, not just for her, but for me.

Can you just imagine your toddler telling you 'thanks' after a milk feed and that your milk's 'nice nice!'? It's something that I've been so looking forward to - after all, it is a little boring to feed an infant who hardly knows how to appreciate your milk, except to show you that contented look after she finishes nursing... not that I didn't enjoy those moments with her... it's just... well, different, now that she's older and growing more appreciative. :)

Well, I do feel truly blessed to be able to breastfeed for these two years and how God has blessed me a bountiful supply of milk all along to meet Alicia's demands, and how He gave me the strength to overcome my breastfeeding problems in the beginning. Only after surviving the ordeals have I come to treasure breastfeeding so much - something probably most people would never understand.

So here comes the question, which I get asked ever so often: when am I gonna ever stop breastfeeding?

My answer is simple.

When she wants to stop.

And when will that be? Who knows?

One thing you can be sure though, I'll be happily nursing her till then.

Celebrating Willa's birthday

My friends (Willa and Shuyi) came over today to visit and since it will be Willa's birthday in another 4 days, Shuyi and I arranged to have a surprise birthday celebration for her. We were both certain that April (Shuyi's daughter) and Alicia would enjoy the celebration (and the cake). :)

Well, true enough, the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and so did the adults who were busy taking photos!

Alicia trying to hug Aunty Willa... :P

1/4kg cake from QBread

Perfect size for a small celebration!

Blowing out the candles (Alicia blew out one after I placed the cake on the table... I didn't even see how it happened... it just did)

Cutting the cake:

Alicia insisting on cutting the cake with Aunty Willa!

Look at Aunty Willa's sweet smile!

Yummy!

Let's dispense with the formalities and help ourselves!

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 3 Weeks 2 & 3)

Just realised that after blogging about Alicia's birthday celebration at Julia Gabriel, I didn't mention or include pics of her artwork done that day... The theme last week was "fish" and that explains the art pieces:

Painted with fingertips

Cover the fish body with glue then sprinkle the crepe paper followed by the sequins and sprinkle glitter

Swimming during Outdoor Play:

Week 3's theme is "yellow" so yellow paint features prominently in her work:

Paint the turtle shell yellow, sprinkle soy beans on it then use the dotter to dot away!

This is supposed to be a clam, but it got crushed on the way home :P

Scrunch up tissue paper into a ball and stuff it into the clam then stick eyes on it.

Paint the clam yellow on both sides and sprinkle glitter:

My new shoes

Like my new shoes?

My old Asics have finally given up the ghost after one of my rides last week so hubby got me a new pair of shoes! :)

Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

The lighting when I took the photos was really bad, so you've really gotta pardon these photos with a blueish tinge...

To make up for the bad photos, I can tell you that this dish was truly a delightfully crunchy and savoury one, so if you do see chayotes in the market or supermarket, do give it a try!

Alicia didn't like the chayote cooked as a soup the other time - I guess she doesn't like the texture after it's cooked in the soup but she enjoyed the crunchy bites of the chayote yesterday during dinner.

Hubby and I enjoyed the dish too! I can't wait to cook this again soon!

Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

Ingredients:

• 1 chayote (chokos)
• 6 small prawns (washed, shelled and deveined)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• oil
• a pinch of salt
• water
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate prepared prawns with:

• a dash of hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper
• a bit of light soy sauce
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Remove skin and seed of the chayote. Cut it into quarters and slice as thinly as possible - the thickest slice I had was not more than 0.1cm.
2. Marinate the prepared prawns accordingly.
3. Parboil the sliced chayote in water with a pinch of salt and a bit of oil for no more than 1 min.
4. Remove the chayote slices and run room temp water/ cold water through them. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil in wok then fry garlic till fragrant.
6. Add in the prawns and stir-fry for a short while till prawns turn slightly pink on both sides.
7. Add some water and the chayote (the water should cover about a third of the ingredients in the wok).
8. Stir-fry for about 2-5 min (depending on how cooked you'd like the chayote - chayote can be eaten raw so there's no worry about eating raw veg).
9. Add fish sauce to taste.
10. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chayote slices into small pieces for easier chewing.

Her favourite pastime (for now...) and her newest achievement :)

Alicia really loves drawing and colouring these days and 'draw' and the different colours of her crayons are among the most used words of her vocab... Her current favourite colour is 'white' - I don't really know why since the colour isn't obvious on white paper - and she'd look for the white crayon purposefully and start colouring with it.

Recently, she also discovered the pens and markers in the drawer of the coffee table and insists that she must doodle with them too... and since she's so into doodling, I gave her a book specially for her newest hobby - it's an old unused planner which I've been keeping for her use :)

Watch her doodle (her grip's getting better!):

Her newest achievement is grasping the concept of colouring specific parts instead of just doodling across the whole page. Though she isn't able to colour nicely within boundaries yet, you can see that she has grasped that concept from these pictures:

Power over cervical cancer

It wasn’t till a couple of weeks ago that I seriously read up more about cervical cancer and its vaccine.

In a casual conversation with one of my friends, I found out that she had three friends who had cervical cancer, and one of them – her bestie, a young woman in her 20s who had just walked down the aisle with the man of her dreams not so long ago – had succumbed to the cancer less than two months ago. My friend urged me to be vaccinated as soon as I could, and to let my little darling take the vaccine when she is of age.

The POCC (Power Over Cervical Cancer) campaign couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

I had forgotten totally about this available vaccine – it’s the only cancer which you can be vaccinated against.

Cervical cancer takes the life of 1 woman in every 5 days in Singapore and is the 2^nd most common women’s cancer worldwide.* It could take years to develop, and you don’t need any family history of it to be at risk. The scariest part about cervical cancer is that it may not present any symptoms in the early stages and hence when one discovers it, it may well be too late, as in my friends’ bestie’s case.

The vaccination against cervical cancer was introduced in 2006 and it was believed to be able to prevent the two most common strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) which are thought to cause about 70% of cases of the potentially fatal disease. Just in an online report yesterday, it has been reported that the jab may actually protect against other strains, possibly up to 77% of cervical cancer cases,

The vaccination is available for females between 9-26 years of age and requires 3 doses of the vaccine given in a period of 6 months. However, even if you are vaccinated against cervical cancer, it doesn’t mean that you’re completely safe from the clutches of cervical cancer and it is still wise to get a pap smear test done every 1-3 years as the vaccine doesn’t protect you against all strains of HPV.

Well anyway, I must look really young for my friend to forget that I no longer qualify to take the vaccine as I don’t fall into that age group anymore!

While I personally can’t take the vaccine now, I will dutifully get my pap smear test done soon (the first and last time I did it was 6 weeks after giving birth!) and hope that the vaccine available in future will be able to protect women against more strains of HPV.

It helps too, of course, to spread the word so that more women are aware of cervical cancer.

After all, empowerment begins with knowledge.

*Source: http://www.pocc.sg

Power Over Cervical Cancer is a campaign that aims to make Singapore the country with the lowest incidence of Cervical Cancer and they need your help to spread the word. Pledge your support for this cause and protect those you care about by telling them about Cervical Cancer. Together, we have POWER Over Cervical Cancer.

Click the button below to begin!

Alicia's 2nd birthday! (Part II)

We had a birthday celebration for Alicia at my mum's place on Sat evening. She had a celebration in school in the late morning, came back home for lunch and bath and had her beauty sleep then went off for another celebration! :P She's been in high spirits since her birthday! It's sooo heartwarming for us to see her so happy and cheerful!

Here's her Classic D24 birthday cake from Emicakes:

We chose a panda face for her since it resembles Kungfu Panda :P

This time the Princess got to blow out her candles properly :)

Singing the birthday song with the 'singing birthday cake'

Yay!

Alicia's 2! :P

Alicia shares the same birth date as my cousin, so I ordered a set of cupcakes for him as well:

Blowing out his candles - 13 years old! :P

Cake-cutting

The durian's still frozen!

Mummy! Help to cut too!

The birthday gal in her pretty birthday dress

She insisted on sitting on the table with the birthday cake and cupcakes

Poke the eye!

Cupcakes again? :P

I just want the fish!

chomp chomp!

hee... :P

I just love the pretty toppings on the cupcakes