What to wear: Weekend

Haven been doodling on Polyvore for quite some time now. This is my perfect get up for the weekend. Fun, casual and comfortable chic.

So so glad its finally here.

Agenda for the weekend: Spring clean the house, sort out the store-room, pick my sis up from the airport, have a good breakfast, tealicious and read a book.

Or I think I'll skip the first two and just have a good breakfast, my tealicious and read.

Yes, that will be good. 

I would like my ears back, thank you very much

An early birthday present for the husband:

glow in the dark entry pass

free standing for all

rock devotees

but i'm dressed as a disco ball

let the rocking begin

\m/

still rocking at 60 years old!

dude, wrong concert

It sure was LOUD.

But fun and truly heart thumping. Now I just need ACDC and Queen to hold their concert here to complete my rock rite of passage.

{Guest Post}

Today, I have a special guest post by Emily Patterson. She is an early childhood practitioner for Primrose Schools. Although the school is based in the US, the below article is a good example of how kids, no matter where they're born, are the same universally. They just wanna have fun. Or sort of. Or unless your kid believe that he is Spongebob Squarepants, then that is another article altogether. Enjoy.

Fun Ways to Beat Boredom without Beating Your Wallet
Submitted on behalf of Primrose Schools: early child care services by Emily Patterson (@epatt1062)

Two words that have never changed through the years and generations of children are the inevitable; “I’m bored” that every child utters at some point in time. Regardless as to whether it’s a rainy day that keeps them inside or a beautifully sunny day that presents a variety of opportunities, inevitably at least one child will offer this observation. 

One of the best ways to beat boredom is to come up with imaginative ways for children to play that will keep them thinking and engaged during the down time. Just remember that a child using their imagination is the key to keeping their mind active and thinking, and just as importantly, such activities do not have to be expensive. A child’s imagination is limitless and it doesn’t require a grand vacation or a lot of money to fuel it. 

Below is a list of ideas to help keep child’s mind active at the same time. 

1. Jar of Ideas to Beat Boredom: When summer begins have your family sit down and come up with a list of ideas that can be done alone or collectively. Make certain that your kids share their ideas and help with constructing the jar as well. This helps to let your child know that they are a part of everything and their ideas are important. 

2. Bringing Stories Alive: Although it sounds simple, reading will keep a child’s mind active during the summer. But a good way to enhance this is to find a way to make the story come to life; some books describe things like creating an imaginary world out simple things found in the back yard and such, challenge your children to do the same. 

3. A Treasure Chest for Art: This is a chest with art supplies and even items such as foil, paper towel rolls and such. The idea is for your child to find uses for these items and to create artistic creations, this helps to challenge their mind and their creative nature. 

4. Performing as a Family: Let your children put on performances for the family. Challenge them to create plays to perform and allow them to utilize their imaginations by dressing up and acting out their creation for you. Another good idea would be to video or record these performances, this not only shows your interest in your child’s creations but it also records some of your family history. 

5. Build a Fort: Children love to build and challenging them to build a fort will keep them occupied as well as challenge them to solve problems and the best part is the items can be found around the house. 

6. Fun from Cookbooks: Share your cookbooks with your children, let them pick out a recipe and help them cook it. The measuring helps encourage their math skills. 

7. Scrapbook: Use a spiral notebook and encourage everyone to draw a picture of what their favorite activities are. Also collect mementos of events; this gives your children an album to look back on as well as encouraging them at their story telling skills. 

8. The Listening Game: This is simple and all you need is nature and a set of ears. Just lie down on the grass and see what you can really hear and if you can imitate it. This gets everyone to slow down and increases a child’s focus on listening. 

9. A Scavenger Hunt: This is also a simple activity and can involve as many people as you want. Simply make a list or use pictures of common items and have the participants find them, you can even find ways to make this extra challenging by using clues. 

This is just a list of ides to help give you a jumping off point, add or subtract to the list as you see fit. Activities that give you a balance in the freedom of child initiated play and structured activities can be a big advantage in keeping your child thinking and active intellectually. 

Keep in mind that when a child says they are bored, this is usually because they don’t feel that they are being challenged by the activities they are engaged in, or they are too difficult. This is why it’s important to keep age appropriate activities in mind. 

Of course every child is an individual which means different interests and different learning styles. That’s why it’s important to provide a wide variety of suggestions for the summer months to avoid brain drain. Just remember it’s also important to give the child a creative hand in the process of the ideas to make it as personal and tailored to them as possible, this encourages their interest all the more. 

Now that you have some good ideas in mind and a starting point, you can easily help keep the dreaded cry of ‘I’m bored’ from being uttered by your children.

Explosion of the poopy kind

Do not ever, in any case give your toddler two plums. One is good but never two. I learnt this the hard way while we were out having dinner once.

We were seated at this eatery and towards the end of the meal, the son suddenly has this spaced out look. I thought he was just tired out since he hadn't nap at all during the day. Guess I thought wrong.

When I stood up to carry him out, what greeted me was not pretty. He had poop all over. All over the seat, up his back, his pants, his shirt, his arms and his hair (because I smelled it when I kissed him after the clean up and inevitably, cleaned it up with my mouth). I'm sacrificial like that.

So I freaked out and together with the husband, stood there for a while deciding which is the best way to carry him out without getting more poop on him. Thankfully the restroom was just beside the eatery.

We ran to the toilet where I hosed him down with the water hose (we used the handicapped toilet) and soap. Whereas the son was calmed, I was totally freaking out. There was really poop all over him. All over.

After I hosed him down with the cold water, he started shivering. So what do you do when your child starts shivering and his clothes are all wet and poopy? You do the next best thing.

You take off your shirt and lets him have it while the father goes in search to buy a new one while the two of you hide in the toilet. Exciting.

Moral of story? One plum is really good enough for a kid.

Oh, not that?

Always have back up diapers, change of clothes and make sure you familiarise yourself where the exit is first.

P.S: I really do want to apologise to the eatery for not cleaning up the chair. In the moments of panic and freaking out, we totally forgot about it. There's no CCTV right?

Its running on full tank indeed

How fast is too fast? Very fast indeed. Duh.

Our weekend was spent at IMM, Daiso (how I love that place), watching the Subaru contestants battling it out,  Ridgewood's Haato and basically the son was half with us and half with the grandparents. He would stay overnight with them and we would go pick him up in the morning. Repeat the next day.

Weekend:

peering at how ah gong drives

monkeying around in a photo booth

taking a siesta before lunch

waffles!

hungry after his nap

And so fast that its already end October! The year is rolling full steam ahead indeed.

{Advertorial Plug}

As a first time effort, Frasers Centrepoint Malls is partnering with the National Library Board and home grown company, Sparky Animation to bring Mr Moon to Singapore. Mr Moon is a series of charming tales of Mr Moon and his friends’ adventures in the wondrous galaxy.

In conjunction with the movie premiere of Mr Moon in Singapore, a nationwide Picture Book Contest is being held to enable children to showcase their creativity. All children from 7 – 12 years old can create a storyline and illustrate their own picture book around a "care and share" theme, using components from the Mr Moon animation. Character references can be found at here.

The top 3 winners will have the golden opportunity to have their stories transformed into a 3-minute animation and will also receive other fantastic prizes!

The deadline for submission is 25 December and participants must drop off their books at the Customer Service Counters at any Frasers Mall. Entry form and instructions can be found here.

There are 2 categories for the contest.
Category A is opened to children aged 7 to 9 years.
Category B is opened to children aged 10 to 12 years.  

Additionally, all children and parents are also invited to catch Mr Moon and Friends "LIVE" at Frasers Centrepoint Malls from 18 November to 25 December. For timings, please visit here.

Get your kids and family to join in the fun! 

Have a great weekend!

Sometimes, a change of plans is a good thing

Yesterday:

a hungry boy is a grumpy boy

breakfast @KFC

doing the peace sign

Initially, we planned on going to East Coast Park for some sun, sand and cycling. But the weather had a change of plans and we got cooped up at home instead. My mother-in-law and the husband watched TVB serials, I did some reading and the son took his afternoon nap. Perfect afternoon.