Winners of Rise & Shine Carnival Giveaway

Well, we've decided to do a "real time" draw for our giveaway.

Many thanks to everyone that has participated.

We finally got our Winners!!!

Congratulation to Geraldine Gigi Guo & Ranjith Royar!

See you at the Carnival.

Have Fun!!

$AHM: The True Worth Of SAHMs

 The importance of child-mother or child-stable adult figure relationship has been well documented in attachment literature and research around the world. The physical and emotional availability of the mother enables the child to develop a secure sense of the world. We now know that secure babies and children explore their surroundings more, resulting in creating meaningful explanation of the world around him/her. More current research also shows that a small behaviour such as regular eye contact allows synapses in the brain to form, creating pathways in the brain for normal development of the children. This highlights the importance of adults, especially mothers in crucial developmental years of infants. 

Secure children would be less fearful of their surroundings, and more likely to learn how to regulate their emotions. As they grow older, they are less likely to develop behavioural or mental health problems. Secure children are also more likely to have quality relationships later on in life. After all, children learn how to form and sustain relationships base on what they see, hear and experience. They are also more likely to learn better at school.

by Dr. Daphne Su
Clinical Psychologist

Unfortunately, there are some things that cannot be measured.

  

Stay At Home Moms are not Economical Liabilities.

Our contributions are just Intangible.

Not measurable by mere numbers such as the GDP.

We, the Stay At Home Mom of Singapore,

Works Harder than the Maria next door!

Tending to details on the home front 

so as to motivate our husbands 

to be fully committed to his profession.

Regardless of weekday, weekend or public holidays 

pledge ourselves to educate our kids to our best abilities.

Heh-shio, Heh-Shio 

to Achieve Better Fertility Rates

And Progress for our Nation.

Just for Laughs

 

Linking Up

Rise & Shine Carnival

Amused your kids' morning 

with bouncy castles, face-painting, balloon sculpting, & crafts.

Array of sports try-out,

ranging from kids' fencing, mini-golf, children's soccer, & wushu to explore.

There is even a special family photo booth with instant print out.

We are looking forward to

The Largest Breakfast Picnic Carnival in Singapore;

Rise & Shine Carnival.

3rd of March 2013

8.30am - 12.30pm

The Lawn @ Marina Bay

We hope to see you there too! 

Want to win tickets to this event?

All you need to do is 

"LIKE" and "SHARE"

the Event's Poster on Baby Hiroshi's Facebook Page

(CLICK HERE)

-giveaway closes on 22nd February 2013; 2359hrs

大年初八: Chinese New Year In Johor Baru

 Took a bus into Malaysia; Johor Baru.

It's Chinese New Year get together with the in-laws.

As we waited at City Square Mall for my sister-in-law to come pick us up,

I marveled at the newly renovated Mall.

Walked aimless around to kill time....

And I felt a tinge of excitement when I saw 許留山.

It's too good to be true!

This is one of my favorite dessert stall in Hong Kong.

I am delighted to find it right across the causeway!

An hour bus ride from where I am!

I wonder if the food live up to it's reputation.....

Got to have it!

Even though lunch appointment with the in laws is in 30 minutes time!!!

We ordered our usual repertoire of yummy snacks,

as we would when we were in HongKong

The food has far exceeded our expectation!

Our Must Try Recommendation Includes
糖不甩, 萝卜糕 & 粒粒芒A系列.

Not only did it taste as good as the ones in HongKong.

It somehow tasted even better
when we realized the prices are slightly cheaper 

as compared to the ones in Hong Kong!!

James the Foodie
Totally agrees that it is a worthy restaurant
to visit over and over again!

Lunch was at Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Authentic Japanese food.
At a fraction of the price compared to Singapore.
But, I still prefer my Japanese Buffet at Iridori,
River View Hotel Singapore.

Dinner prepared with love from my mother-in-law

Our Home Made Yu Sheng
Surprisingly, apples makes a refreshing touch to Yu Sheng!!
Hiroshi gladly finishes up a big plate of it
and declares it as his favorite Chinese New Year food!

年年有余
Our Yummy Smoked Salmon for Yu Sheng

旺財就手

Prosperity Pot

当归鸭

.Cousins.

A family picture before we indulge
in all those auspicious dishes.

大年初七 | Chinese New Year Celebration by EcoKidd Childcare (Punggol 24th Ave)

Sophia surprised us by hosting part of the program in Mandarin.

Happy kids with their candy loots from the lion dance  

 The Yearly Yu Sheng Affair

Officially the license to mess up the table and yet not get scolding thereafter.

  

Our Family Photo

  

Keeping Traditions Alive

Offering tea to the elders and saying auspicious new year greetings, 

before receiving ang bao!

This is Sophia's last year in EcoKidd before moving on to Primary one next year.

I honestly can't wait for that to happen any time sooner.

 We understand that the turnover rates for childcare centers are high.

The measly low pay plus long working hours.
We've seen too many great teachers leaving.

But, what have the management done to retain good, talented teachers?

School fees has been increasing every year.

I wonder how much of it 

(or perhaps I should rephrase, if ANY OF IT) 

has gone as incentives for good teachers?

As far as I know,
Some of the dedicated teacher has not seen a pay increment for the past 5 years.

Is it a purely profit driven business

so that the owners could change into 

a bigger, better cars and lavish bungalows?

Business models of Childcare Centers that served
only the best interest of its shareholders
will not last long
if they failed to retain their best teacher.

I've always supported Ecokidd all these while
even though I've seen good teachers leaving through the years.
But things took a turn for the worse with the new center supervisor
who is not friendly, autocratic, patronizing &
to what I can see - a control freak as well

I really hate to call the center & have her answering my call.
Her telephone etiquette
is best described as crude.

Most parents make the choice of childcare centers
by looking at the environment, the curriculum, and teachers.
 But however, 

without good teachers, 

environment and curriculum doesn't mean much either.

Dear Management of EcoKidd,

 You are making a grave mistake
by not listening to your teachers, parents or the kids.

I implore the management of Ecokidd
to look into the issues raised
as Ecokidd reputation is at stake
& that's definitely
NOT PROFITABLE.

The significance of saying 恭喜发财.....

For the 10294584th time,

Happy New Year is just not the same as GONG XI FA CAI!

The term "Happy New Year" is used

when celebrating the first day in the first month of the calendar year.

Whereas, "GONG XI FA CAI" is an auspicious greeting you use

in celebration of Chinese New Year

which falls on the first day in the first month of the lunar calendar!

恭喜发财!

4 simple characters, but yet, a wealth of meaning behind it.

It means Congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year!

We would love to preserve Chinese traditions, 

especially this one.....

So we would really appreciate if you would reciprocate

when we wholeheartedly greet you 

恭喜发财 

in our next Chinese New Year visitation.

This year was a little extra special.

We had my mother in law who came from JB 

to celebrate this festive season with us.

大年初一

Family Portrait before we head out

James was still having bronchitis, 

so he needs to be on the Nebulizer every 4 hourly.

Happy Gas!

大年初二

Another Family Portrait before we head out

It was suppose to be all Cousins Photoshoot.
Apparently, some aunties 不认老 also want to join our generation!

Next Generation of Cousins

Having a baby is the best way to warm people up.

Kids were all looking forward to the lion dance all morning!

Our Family portrait with the cheeky entertaining lion.

Even James got acquainted with Mr Lion!

We ended up at Dian Xiao Er @ Changi Airport T3
because Kitson had to report for work that evening.

Fa Cai Yu Sheng

Dang Gui Duck

Ee Mee
Longevity Noodles

Mixed Vegetables that has a wonderful nice sounding name
that I cannot remember!!

Wheatgrass Tofu

We were pleasantly surprised
at the unbelievably great service we received that night!
Very well trained staffs! 
*thumbs up*
Will patronize over and over again.
  
And while Kitson reports for flight
-
-
-
-
-
Grandma shares some lighthearted moments with Grandson.

And finally,
Sophia wishes one and all
A Prosperous 2013!

Sponsored Product Review: Word Winder

Word Winder;

The game of winding words.

Hiroshi is excited!!

16 double sided word boards 

with 3 set of word winder chips

does spell a trillion possible combination of fun 

in one single board game!

The mechanics of the games were really simple.

Shuffle the word cards and arrange them into a 4 by 4 grid.

Lay a continuous line of winding words with your colored chips.

Outrace your opponent.

Play offensive by extending your own line,

Play defensive by blocking your opponents' line.

The FIRST to get from side to side or top to bottom wins the game!

It does looks like some really exciting board game.
Afterall,we aren't expecting anything less from David L. Hoyt;
the world's most syndicated daily puzzle and word game creator.

In order to properly review this board game,

I've sent Word Winder to the most stringent reviewers in town.

Hiroshi with his favorite colored word winder chip.

He likes RED because Ferrari is RED too!!

After 30mins of intensive face-off,
the blue team did emerge as winners!

The Victorious Blue Team!

 Our Verdict:
On the overall,
we love this game.
The game was simple enough for a family to enjoy together.
But yet,
induces a child's hunger for learning new words.

My one and only grouse would be
I hope the word cards could be made out of plastic instead of cardboard.
Having indentation on every letter would be a bonus!
That would solve our problem of sliding word winder chips
when someone accidentally kicks the table.

Word Winder is available at Toys R’Us and major departmental stores.
It retails for SGD$29.90.

P/S: Many thanks to our neighbor; Sneha & Saurav
in pitting our mental wits on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

This product is sponsored by Emway Singapore/ TPR. 

Views and opinions are my own.