A day in my life

Joining in the fun with my fellow mom bloggers, sharing a day in my life! A day in the life of a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) with young children is I suppose different from a sahm with more grown children!
Now don't go yawning there! It's not an exciting life as a sahm but it's still fulfilling! :)
Little one is on my bed when I wake in the morning. He must have trudged over to my bed in the middle of the night. Wait, that was me. I trudged over to his cot and brought him over in the middle of the night and he whined many times in the night and I can't remember if I nursed him every time he did. Teething pains I tell myself as I feel every bit like a zombie. This.too.shall.pass.

I walk over to my girl's bed and is greeted by my messy sleeper *smile*

Head to the service balcony to keep the clothes for folding

and set the new load to wash

Time to boil a lot of some water to replenish the water in the house

While the water's boiling, I sweep the floor with my 3M easy sweeper. It's better than my little vacuum cleaner which I used to use - at least no one is woken up when I use it

As usual, I forget to pour the boiling water into the thermos flask so I have to reboil several times. But eventually things get done and I set out my brekkie.

Little boy will share the bread with me.

I don't sit to eat my breakfast as I multi-task and start preparing to cook Alicia's brunch and Alex's porridge for lunch. 

Baby wakes. Usually with a huge parcel for me.

Girl wakes and they both get to watch some TV while eating their brunch/brekkie

I shout at her to eat faster now and then, but it doesn't seem to work. She carries on munching real slowly like a food connoisseur. I yawn, wait, then shout again. Finally the food's finished and we dress for school. I mean, I dress her for school, I wear whatever I'm wearing and we head out to take a bus in the sweltering heat, hoping that we didn't miss the bus again.

We wait at the bus stop for the silly bus.

Little boy fools around during lunch - as usual I multi-task and I eat my lunch, feed him, catch up on Facebook and check my email

And when he finally finishes, it's time to see that little cute bum and then it's milk time! Waiting for me to lie down next to him for his feed:

Knocked out. I win, as usual.

Then it's time to rest. Kidding! Time to clean up the sink!

Boil barley water for the family:

Do some dinner preparation:

Then I get to sit down for awhile - an hour? Nah, just 10-20 minutes. 30 if I get lucky that day!

Girl comes home, bathes and snacks then she gets free play for awhile before it's story time and off to la-la land. I send her to bed and close the door and *hope* she sleeps. Most days I walk in and find her still playing in my bed but after a few stern warnings, she drifts off into deep sleep.

I'd cooked the porridge for Alex's dinner and he gets some 'reading' during dinnertime.

Make him take his evening nap and I set off to cook dinner and hubby usually comes back at this point or after dinner's cooked.

Dishes for the night. That's white button mushrooms (one of hubby's fav dishes), a tofu dish (for alicia) and her fav vegetables. Chilli prawns are definitely ours. 

Yes, I know it's aplenty of food for just 2 adults and a kid. But we are big eaters. 

Boy stirs before we get to touch our food. Hubby goes to pacify him while I clean up the stove, clear the dishes used for food prep and the wok 

 and mop the oily floor

And we get to sit down to eat eventually.

And then hubby makes me a cuppa :)

and offers to do the remaining dishes:

while I feed the girl and little boy just goofs around

After dinner, it's homework time from school (this doesn't happen every day, about 3x a week). If it's no homework, we get to do some craft, have a piano lesson etc.

She managed to fit in a wee bit of time to practise her piano today while we eat our fruits.

Kids get changed into jammies and she wants to do pretend play tonight:

while little boy goes on exploratory 'walks'

but eventually returns to mess up the place play with his sister

Then it's time to divide and conquer: hubby reads to the girl while I breastfeed the boy and after lots of nagging hugs and kisses, the kids are off to sleep.

Finally, it's time for myself! This is when I play some silly games, catch up on Facebook or blog on my phone in bed. Usually that's just writing some snippets as I'm still too used to writing on the comp. Yup, so if you do see a long post from me, it's probably taken a few nights of writing or I've woken up really early to do it. So must read, ok?

Then I go to sleep. Of course, the hubby is already snoring sleeping :)
Goodnight, world. I'm gonna get 1-2 hours of sleep before night duty starts...

Joining in the fun:

Learning to look beyond the present

I had one of those mornings today - the girl woke up late and took her own sweet time to do everything and I had to literally scream at her to finish her food. We missed the usual bus we take to school anyway and I had to bring her via the stroller with lil boy strapped on my trusty carrier. We reach the school, she sighs and doesn't give the usual goodbye kiss. When I finally sit down for my lunch, I took some time to think about the morning events and I started to think... about my little girl.

I love to hear those saccharine-sweet requests about doing art or practising the piano and I love to see that silly grin of pride on her face when she manages to play the tune correctly or when she creates a piece of art.

I love those moments at night when after I've tucked her to bed, she'd sneak over quietly to my bed and whisper, 'Mummy, I forgot to give you a hug and kiss' when we already had many hugs and kisses over at her tiny bed. And she'd do this more than once sometimes.

I love the way she tries to bargain for an extra bedtime story when she's already had one.

I love those moments when she'd ask, 'Mummy, can you walk me back to my bed? Alicia cannot see in the dark' and I'd hold her little hand and bring her to her bed.

I love those moments when after I've walked her back to her bed and she sits down on her bed and asks, 'Mummy, are you going to sleep with me on my bed?' but I'd tell her 'no' because her bed is so small. But really, sometimes I'm just rushing off to lie on my bed (finally!) and have some time to myself to check my Facebook and play silly iPhone games.

Today, when I think of all that I love about her, I realise that I'd really miss all these moments with her when she grows up and no longer asks mummy to sleep with her, or hug or kiss her or read that last bedtime story with her. I take it for granted that she'd continue to ask all these of me, but today I start to wonder (and fear) when mummy will be relegated to second place. I tell myself, I need to look beyond her faults and love her for the way she is now. Sure she eats like a snail and is a rude, petty girl sometimes. At the end of the day, I know she'll always be my little darling and it really is no big matter to be late for preschool occasionally.

And me-time can wait. I will have lots of me-time when my kids grow up and mummy is no longer the centre of their universe.
                                
So tonight, I'm going to chuck my phone aside and I'm going to lie down with her in her puny bed and read that extra bedtime story.

Here she is taking her kiddy ride on our Wednesdays-out-with-Mommy yesterday :)

Linking up with:

Musings about canes...

Read a friend's blog post about canes today and I was inspired to write my thoughts about it too.

Does caning really break a person's spirit? I don't really think so. I grew up with the cane being an all too familiar 'tool' in the house. And no, it wasn't hung up in the house for show. 

My mother is quite the perfectionist and she always wanted us to get perfect scores when we were young. I remember coming back home from school one day feeling very happy that I got 98/100 for English but all she saw was that it wasn't 100/100. Why did I make that silly mistake? Why did I mix up 'blink' and 'wink'? Till today, the difference between blink/wink is etched deeply in my heart. I wasn't caned for that test though. I think I hardly got caned for results. It was always the behavioural problems that rendered Mr Cane's presence. 

I used to dislike how my mother disciplined me - she's very old-school. But then I think about how it has shaped me as a person. I'm very stubborn by nature and I think it wasn't easy to get me to obey her. Would reasoning have helped? I'm not very sure since I don't recall her trying to reason with me. What I do know however is that I think she instilled enough discipline in me so I sailed through my studies, got my scholarship and degree (for semesters I scored a string of As, she would ask why not A+ - some things never change), got my diploma in piano... basically I think I fulfilled my duties as a daughter academically. Of course, all that doesn't really matter at the end of the day since I chose to be a stay home mom. :) 

What matters to me now, is how I'm going to instil the same sort of discipline in my children, not only for academic success, but more importantly, how to be a good person. 

I don't have a cane in my house, not even for show. I don't really want to buy one though I always joke about which colour cane my daughter wants when we walk past a shop selling canes. Not using the cane doesn't mean that I'm not old-school. My daughter gets her fair share of beatings discipline when she's naughty. I reason most times with her, but sometimes I think it's not all that harmful to discipline the kid once in a while. After all, I do believe in 'spare the rod and spoil the child', though I am currently not using a 'rod' per se.

I hope I never have to buy a cane.

I really hope so.

Do you own a cane? :)

Linking up with:

First post since lil Alex arrived!!

My precious boy arrived on 7 Oct 2011 (38wks) via elective c-sect - no surprises or shocks this time compared to Alicia's arrival. Well, actually I had a couple of surprises that day as Alex turned out to be heavier than estimated in the week before and the gynae popped her head over the barrier to tell me that choosing c-sect this time round was a wise choice as it turned out that the umbilical cord was not only coiled around his neck twice, it was coiled around his waist too. That would mean another emergency c-sect if I hadn't chosen elective c-sect. :) Phew. Anyway, chances weren't high for me opting VBAC as the previous delivery of 3D2N was too traumatic and unless you've been through that, I think you'd hardly come close to understanding why elective c-sect is my preferred choice of delivery.

Anyhow, Alex was a proficient little sucker as he was already nursing while I was in the recovery room after surgery. That was my idea of how breastfeeding after birth should be. This time round, I had many ideas about how I'd wanted the postpartum hours and days to be as I felt that we missed out on a few important things the last time, starting with only being allowed to nurse Alicia 12 hours after delivery due to some miscommunication. Fortunately as it wasn't emergency c-sect, I had time to tell the nurses and midwife that I wanted to breastfeed as soon as I could and I was certainly pleased with my little boy's performance. :)

What I wanted this time was time to be with my hubby, Alicia and Alex after the delivery. Just us. The last time I had so many people crowding around me after delivery that I totally missed out on the tender moments I should have had with my hubby and Alicia. Thankfully, this time I had a couple of hours of quiet time with my hubby, Alicia and Alex, bonding together as a family, time to reconnect as we celebrate the arrival of the newest family member.

Next wonderful thing that happened was that Alicia was allowed to stay over as well so after settling down, hubby went to set up the playpen that we borrowed from a friend for the hospital stay. She was quite an angel really during that period of time we were there, hardly throwing a tantrum and being ever considerate towards mummy. I guess all the chats I had with her earlier helped her. :)

Jealousy truly only set in later, and I'm not sure if it's purely due to the inconsiderate and thoughtless comments made by my mil that caused it. If she didn't cause it, she certainly made things worse by repeating comments like 'I don't love you, I love didi' every day she came over. Coming over every day was already unnecessary (twice a day at that!!!) because I really don't need my floor and toilets cleaned every day and it really frustrated me because there I was trying my best to show Alicia that she wasn't displaced by her brother and there my mil was negating all my efforts. Imagine having to calm a screaming girl every day on top of the stress of coping with a newborn and preschooler on my own (I only ordered confinement food so I did everything myself). Tsk. But this confinement was already much better than the last time round, where I did everything myself too, but my mil was around all the time and I couldn't rest at all coz I'm a light sleeper and her waking up the baby to play when I finally put her to bed was really infuriating for a sleep-deprived zombie with freaking painful nipples.

Anyway this time I suffered from painful nipples again due to improper latching by Alicia as we were experimenting with the positions of tandem feeding at the hospital. What was more unbearable this time was the engorgement that started at the end of day 1. Because I was feeding two, and I breastfed through pregnancy, the milk supply came in I guess, immediately. Breastfeeding was great though, with my two competent suckers, lol. And this time, I made sure that I wasn't the animal on show in the zoo (my mil watched me like a hawk the last time and refused to leave when the lactation consultant was teaching me how to bf for the first time). There, another achievement this time round. No one to keep asking you frustrating questions like 'why is she crying?', 'why doesn't she know how to suck properly?', 'what's wrong?', 'are you doing it right?'. Truly, I nearly got depression because of such behaviour from my mil the last time and I was not going to let myself get into such a situation again, ever.

The first month quickly flew by and as time passed, I realised that I didn't really like to breastfeed both of them together so if Alex could wait, I would feed Alicia first so that she'd feel that she wasn't always second place. Other times I would sneak out of the room while she was still sleeping in the morn and feed him first, giving her the false impression that I fed her before her brother. Little things like that made her feel good and she's more or less accustomed to her lil brother now (Alex is almost 4 months). Though she doesn't fuss about being first to drink milk anymore, I still tell her how I let her drink first sometimes just so that she'd know that mummy still thinks she's very important and that little brother is very loving and giving to let her have milk first.

Though I had more than enough milk for the two of them in that one month, I was quite stressed sometimes because I was worried that what if I gave Alicia the other boob and suddenly Alex needs to drink again? Well, in the end, none of that happened though you can't really blame me for worrying about the little boy.

Im glad to say that this time round, i've only 3.5kg left to shed and am still shedding wt gradually and consistently. I'm hoping to lose all the pregnancy wt soon n lose the 5kg I didnt shed after having Alicia! Wish me luck! :)

Anyway, like I mentioned in an earlier post, though my blog isn't updated often anymore, I still update my facebook page so do join me if you haven't already done so! :P

And the baby's full term...

It's been a long while since I blogged and I thought that I should just pen a few thoughts before I deliver little Alex. After all, I'm 37 weeks this week... and for the last pregnancy, I was warded immediately after my 37th week appointment with my gynae. Who knows for sure what will happen this time? And who knows when I'll have time and energy to turn on the comp? :P

This pregnancy was not a smooth sailing one from the beginning, starting from the fact that it was an unplanned one. There were lots of unhappy thoughts and I was just full of apprehension of how I was going to cope with Alicia with a big tummy and all the pregnancy woes. Then there was spotting in the early weeks and the unsatisfactory Down's Syndrome test (which turned out ok at the end) and the low lying placenta detected during the 5th month detailed scan (which has thankfully moved up).

Fast forward and at 37 weeks now and I'm still doing well, being able to take good care of my little princess and hubby, doing regular marketing and cooking dinners and bringing my princess to the nearby pool for regular dips despite my huge belly - which just freaks my mum out thinking how I can possibly make it to the market: and I didn't even mention the swimming. All I can say is thank God for the energy and good health I've been blessed with.

Now that I'm so close to delivery, I feel so overwhelmed by memories of the days when I just gave birth to Alicia and the confinement month. I had a terrible time and I'm really hoping that things would be much better for me this time round. I hope that I can get my privacy and personal space and time to bond with my little family - I really think it's important for us to have quiet time to spend as a small family unit, to adjust and welcome a little baby into our lives. I just wonder if that's too much to ask for.

I'll be tandem nursing this time - little Alex will get his milk immediately since his sister is still latching on. It's such an exciting thought, nursing both my darlings. I do hope that nursing them together will bring as much joy to them and ease any jealousy on Alicia's part. And I so hope that little Alex will know how to latch on, unlike his sister who only learnt to do so after the first month!

Anyway, I never imagined that I would breastfeed Alicia for so long but I guess anyone who managed to overcome the problems I did with breastfeeding her would have made the same choice. There are far too many critics of extended breastfeeding out there and so probably tandem nursing would be just too much for those people to accept. I'd probably have to put up with lots of nonsense from ignorant 'well-meaning' people but seriously, I don't give a damn. Breastfeeding is a personal choice and tandem breastfeeding is not only my choice, but also Alicia's. People ought to respect that.

So much lies ahead and will take place so very very soon. In my anxious moments, I was much comforted when my friend told me, 'God will provide' - I'm sure that includes a supportive hubby who keeps reassuring me that everything will be fine :)

Simply Mommie's Facebook page

I haven't been able to sit down much at the computer to update my blog as I've been busy... and tired...

I've resorted to uploading photos and status updates on Simply Mommie's facebook page so that I can still share what I've been doing with my girl. Do join the page if you're interested in getting small snippets of ideas instead of reading long-drawn blog posts which I have not much time for these days! :) It's drawing nearer to my EDD so I guess I'll have even less time to blog in future... :P

Things to be thankful for... and updates

I've been wanting to write this post for a long while now and am finally getting down to it. :)

Things to thank God for:

(1) good health and strength to take care of Alicia while being pregnant
(2) strength to go about the daily chores and cooking for the family
(3) my hubby for helping out when he can
(4) my little God-sent angel Alicia, who is so understanding and sensitive to mummy's needs now, always letting me rest when I need to while she plays or works on something on her own
(5) the right number of chromosomes present in little Alex (had to go for CVS in the 13th week as the blood test component of the Oscar test was not good)
(6) a good report for little Alex's growth (just went for my detailed scan on 4/6) - all structures are in place and he's an average-sized baby as of now :)

I have a low-lying placenta though this time round - it's supposed to be fairly common for subsequent pregnancies. In majority of cases, the placenta moves up when the womb develops so I'm praying that mine will move up too - though I already do plan to have a C-section this time. The previous natural birth attempt was just too traumatising (which in the end ended up as an emergency C-sect), so I'm just opting to go under the knife - might as well!

As this pregnancy was actually an unplanned one, I was filled with lots of apprehension earlier on about how I'd cope with pregnancy and looking after a tot. I'm just so glad that I've been blessed thus far and how everything is working out fine. I think I'm most thankful for little Alicia, who is so sensible for her age! :) In fact I was telling my hubby, if little Alex turns out to be as sensible as Alicia, I don't mind having more children (alright, just one more)!

The long hiatus

It's been more than two months since the last post about Corduroy. Alicia still loves playing with the buttons, carries her Corduroy around now and then and has learnt the art of buttoning and unbuttoning (mostly the unbuttoning bit).

If you've noticed, there's a new ticker on my blog - yeah, it's that pregnancy ticker! That should explain the long absence. First trimester woes really got to me and blogging was seriously the last thing on my mind. Now that I'm 10w4d today, I feel much better, though I still get those sudden tiredness spells and feel like I got hit by a truck. Fortunately morning sickness this time round was much better than when I had Alicia - the last time I was nauseous throughout the day, retching like every few minutes. This time round, I'm just rather averse to coffee (it was my favourite drink! - just as well, you say), vegetables and some other smells that permeate my kitchen and house at about dinner time. Cooking (other than for Alicia) as you can understand then, was not on my list of favourite things to do and for the past few weeks, we basically ate whatever I felt like eating at that moment. That seemed to be the best solution as I had and have sudden whims and fancies. The preggo wins, naturally, when it comes to choice of food. I just started cooking again lately as I started to miss some of my own cooking and with the first trimester woes abating slightly. 

As for homeschooling, it's taken a backseat for the past few weeks too though we've faithfully gone to the library once a week to do some reading and borrow books. I've made only one set of alphabet learning aids (the letter M) and that's all I've had energy to make. We still have fun reading books though and I started her on a tracing activity book where she learns to draw proper lines to form a picture - long, short, vertical, horizontal, diagonal and other shapes and pictures she sees on the page and fancies to trace (though they aren't really meant to be traced). She was really into it for awhile but her interest has waned slightly recently. Perhaps it's time to whip out a new activity book - she tires of a book after awhile.

Is the pregnancy planned? Nope. We actually wanted to stop at one, or at least have a bigger gap between the kids (though three years is actually to some a big age gap already). Oh well. God has other plans for us I guess!

Random rambling...

"Music is the universal language of mankind" ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 


Indeed, I believe the famous American poet of the 19thC nailed it. Just watch a young toddler dance to a song. She probably knows not the meaning of the lyrics. But she dances, sways and grooves to the rhythm. From the use of chords and the tempo, even a young child can detect the mood.


Today, I watched my little one waltz happily with her plush doggie pencil case. I think it was contagious because I picked up the nearest pooh bear and followed suit. 


Flashback to two years ago. She was in my arms. A tiny baby. And I was waltzing with her in the hall while listening to the same song. Songs can truly anchor our memories to really specific moments in our lives because while dancing with pooh bear today, I could recall every emotion I experienced two years back.


And what song were we dancing to, you ask.


Here it is. And if you scrutinise the lyrics, you'd know why I was swept away by my emotions:




Top of the World


Such a feelin’s comin’ over me
There is wonder in most everything I see
Not a cloud in the sky
Got the sun in my eyes
And I won’t be surprised if it’s a dream

Everything I want the world to be
Is now coming true especially for me
And the reason is clear
It’s because you are here
You’re the nearest thing to heaven that I’ve seen

(*) I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around
Your love’s put me at the top of the world

Something in the wind has learned my name
And it’s tellin’ me that things are not the same
In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze
There’s a pleasin’ sense of happiness for me

There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find
That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me
All I need will be mine if you are here.





To my darling Alicia, mummy loves you...

More unethical behaviour...

Today I received an sms from my friend, saying that someone just PM-ed her at SMH about cheap, educational learning aids.

After I shared the link with one of my friends who is very resourceful about online preschool learning materials, she told me that the person was selling free printables!

I'm not sure if that person knows that it's unethical to sell free printables. But I'm sure there are many who will find the learning aids cute and unknowingly purchase free printables, thinking they stem from that person's creativity juices.

This is just so saddening and it sickens me just thinking how people could actually stoop to selling free printables just to hop onto the bandwagon of selling learning aids, now that it seems that there is such a market for the products (though a very small one).

Personally I could not identify any of the learning aids the person is selling because I hardly surf around for them. Most of the time I create my own learning aids from scratch, not because I don't like what's easily available but because I love the challenge of making something of my own. I like to customise my learning aids for my daughter and I know her best, and what captures her attention. :)

Well, after my BP at SMH, I really am disappointed with unscrupulous people and it has opened my eyes to the harsh reality of the business world. I'm definitely not suited for such a world, it seems.

If people can stoop to selling free printables, what's there to stop them from plagiarising other people's learning aids and passing them off for their own?

I really should think twice about posting my learning aids online then... :(


As for that person... I shan't stop her from doing what she thinks is right. I can only hope that she will come to realise her mistakes soon.

A note of thanks :)

To my dear friends and readers who have spared the time to drop me emails, smses and MSN msgs to ask if I'm alright after my unfortunate encounter at SMH, thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement.

I will definitely continue to make my products available to genuine clients and my blogshop, as I mentioned in my earlier post, is still technically in operation as I've not deleted the account. You can still browse through the blogshop for my old products and should any catch your fancy, don't hesitate to just drop me a mail at simplymommie@gmail.com. I will continue to keep friends and regulars in the loop. :)

Thanks for the support :)

An unforeseen turn of events...

It has only been a couple of weeks since I set up my blogshop proper on weebly and I decided, just for the fun of it, why not have a BP on SMH? Hence, I went about the procedures of having a thread set up on SMH and for the first couple of days, sales were fine until yesterday when I didn't even get any enquiry.

I brushed it off, thinking it was just probably a bad day. Every business that just started up meets with hiccups.

Then today, I finally discovered the reason.

A devious person had copied my learning aid ideas and undercut my price. That's already improper in itself, but the person even stooped to going through my thread, checking out the nicks of my clients then poaching them by sending them private messages on the forum to 'advertise' her products.

Really. How low can someone get?

You could say that that's competition and I just have to learn to cope with it. I say, competition - fair competition - is when you come up with your own ideas and sell them on your own platform and not snoop around other people's clientele.

Business with integrity, please. I thought that's basic.

So what now, you ask.

Well, I will just go along with the BP (it ends on 22 Aug), though I don't expect any more business, with someone like that lurking around. I just can't compete with her prices I guess - I can't help it that my time is worth more than hers, at least in my opinion.

As for the future, I regret to say that I will no longer be posting any more pictures or ideas of my homemade learning aids. I will, however, continue to share free downloadable materials. You would expect that I won't allow that lowdown person to continue to ride on my creativity. Friends and regulars are still welcome to enquire and purchase the new products, but my learning aids will no longer be available to the general public.

My learning aids are conceived through my own creative thought processes and ingenuity. They aren't just laminated colourful paper because besides the time and effort I put in, you know you're purchasing a product at that price because you value the creativity.

If the ideas are copied, you know then, that those learning aids are merely laminated paper - and that's why they go at a fraction of my pricing.

I was initially disappointed and incensed because my newly-setup blogshop would henceforth not be selling anything else new (the current items will continue to be, technically, on sale). But after thinking it through, that wouldn't be entirely a bad idea. I could then channel my energy and time to other things, like finally getting about writing and getting paid for my writing. My daughter though, is still the top priority.

The most important thing I've learnt and come to realise after this?

I still have a big fan of my work, and she will, I hope and assume, continue to be my biggest fan because when I replaced her missing apple on her apple tree learning aid today, I saw pure happiness and delight, all over her cute little innocent face.

What greater joy can a mother wish for? :)

My first BP at SMH

Hi there!

If you love my home-made learning aids, this is just to inform you that I'm having my first BP at SMH from 16-22Aug.

Follow this link!:
http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/581296/4369940.html

My blogshop: Simply Mommie's Precious Handmades

I finally went about doing up the blogshop site and you can take a look at the collection of handmade learning aids I make. My learning aids are all over the place in my blog so I've decided to place them together in another site for easy viewing (and purchase, of course).

These learning aids are all original and handcrafted by me and hence, with the amount of labour (all the cutting gives me a sore and an almost-blistered right hand!) and time that go into the learning aids (not to mention the cost price of laminating pouches, original ink cartridges for printing, velcro etc.), they do not come, well, cheap.

Nevertheless, if you can see past the fact that the learning aids are just laminated pieces of paper that have been made visually appealing, you would be able to appreciate and recognise the creativity and the love that went into making them. :)

Happy shopping. :)

Here's a print-screen shot of my blogshop:

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! :)

My bike!

My exercise bike arrived on Saturday night and I've used it twice since, while Alicia napped - that's my me-time! :) It helps me keep fit and stay healthy while being able to be at home to ensure that Alicia's safe and well!

Here's Alicia trying to play with the foot pedals

I've told her she's not supposed to play with any part of the bike except the pedals and absolutely NO climbing. So far so good. :) In fact, she tells me she will fall and hurt herself if she climbs. hehe... that's my clever girl!

My new purse! :P

Ordered a custom-made purse online from sugarfringe shortly after I came back from Bt Tinggi and it arrived this week! :P

*happy*

Small things like this can make me happy! teehee...

My article for myplayschool (Part II)

As promised, I completed part II of my instalment for Teaching the letter A for myplayschool and it's available for viewing here.

I hope you'd find part II of my sharing useful. Feel free to comment and if you have any queries, do drop me an email at simplymommie@gmail.com or a line in my Chatterbox.

Thanks! :)

My article for myplayschool

Some time in late April/ early May, I wrote an article for myplayschool to share how I teach Alicia the alphabet upon Pauline's request/ invitation. (Myplayschool is a newly set up site to share activities and ideas for teaching the toddler and preschooler at home.)

You can view my article here. Essentially, it's really one of my old posts but I have included some of my teaching philosophies and the approach I take for teaching little tots.

I think it's crucial to read this article of mine there, especially if you happen to have the misconception that I stress my little one out by trying to teach her so early. Certainly, that is not my intention. And that is definitely not what I have done. I go through learning aids only when she wants to and I never force her to learn when she doesn't want to, simply because trying to do so would be fruitless anyway. :P

Have a good read and I hope to finish part II of this instalment by the end of this week! (I've promised Pauline! haha... :P)

My new cacti babies!

Hubby bought me my long-awaited cacti from Ikea over the weekend... aren't they cute? :)

Alicia even tried to say 'cactus' when she saw them - she said 'cact cact'! hahahaha... I think she remembered the old cactus because I didn't even tell her that these were cacti and she tried to say the word... She used to water the old cactus with me so I guess she has memories of it too. She must be wondering what happened to the previous one!