Bye Bye... I am Moving!

DEAR READERS, I HAVE MOVED
Due to some changes, I have decided to move this blog. Thank you all for reading.
For future post,
Please refer to http://mapetitp.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU ALL.

Arghhh.... My baby say NO to me!

Today, am going to blog about the little word "NO". I have been hearing and experiencing a lot of NOs daily these days. Well, my little one has started to reject and say no to me for a long time already, but recently she has been refusing a lot of things to almost everyone she knows!

First of all, I am glad since the day she knows how to reject food, meaning using her tongue to push out the teats of the bottle and reject her milk. It is a sign of showing, I am growing up and I know what I want now. While this is good for her emotional development; it is also frustrating for me at the same time.

Well I have to come to the terms that she knows more than I thought and she is an individual who can say no if she does not like it. But she is still young and does not understand what is good or bad for her yet, so now it is my job to make her co-operate with me. I have come out with a few ways to make her willingly give in.

1. Distraction- I will ask her to sit down properly and watch her fav. show, while eating.
2. Bargaining- I will give her a cookie if she picks up her toys and place it properly in the bin.
3. Be creative- I will ask her to do role play with me while I do the chores at home. (eg. Like you are watering the plants like mommy.)
4. Changing the subject- When I ask her to go to sleep and she stills want to read her books, I will play Pee-ka-boo for a while and turn off the lights... and proceed to tune into sleep mode.)

I have found out that there is no use of shouting and scolding her at all, because she is just merely expressing her dislikes and it got worse by shouting at her. By using the above techniques, I get her to give in willingly without tears and shouting "NO".

Paper Cups

First of all I hate junk food. BUT ocassionally on Sundays, we would go for breakfast at McDonalds. Why maybe because my lil' one loves the place. Well besides the point, I am actually goin to blog about paper cups.

As you can see here I have been going to McD for a while and I really hate the idea of my hot coffee being poured into a paper cup.

So, I brought my own mug instead! The picture here shows that my cuppa coffee was poured into my glass mug so I do not also drink in the Wax coating inside of the paper cup that McD is offering. After drinking, I can refill again into this mug of mine or I can just wipe it and bring home to clean it later. :)

New Bamboo Car Seat

I have never seen this before, but my mum was telling me that I used to sit on one of these like almost 30 years ago. Here you can see what this car seat look like, and I know you can say that huh, this is not safe baby can easily climb out from there! Yeah yeah... but for my mum or you could say, old grandma prefer this. I positioned it on the back centre of the car; but my mum was telling me usually they positioned it at the front seat!??! OMG! I would just say one has to drive slowly and only for a short distance if they were to place a child in here.

Here you can see how my baby sit in it! She kind of love it as she stay still and does not move around. her legs are not hanging out but actually stepping on the seat. I guess older baby like her can fit into this car seat but definately not for a newborn!

Reading and Bonding

It is a surprise for my hubby and me that our lil'bean loves books a lot. Every now and then she will entertain herself by looking and pointing at the pictures in a book and try to read out loud. Well hopefully she will keep this habit forever! LOL...

Here she is showing her daddy which is her favourite animals and daddy is trying to ask her to pick out the correct animal when he named the animal!

I have already started to read a book to her every night before she sleeps since when she was 18 months old. Surprisingly, she loves it a lot and insists on me reading more and more books before she goes to sleep at night. Well I try to limit it to one, but guess she prefer more or else she will protests and refuse to sleep. I do not know it is a good behaviour or not; but nonetheless I let her choose her own book and read to her till she is satisfied then she will goes to sleep.

The whole idea of this reading time is that both baby and I get to sit down together and share a special moment. This kind of bonding makes her feel happy and loved. It does not matter if I repeat the same old book everyday though! She increases her vocab and language skills as well through the reading moments.

Once someone told me that it is not the content of the book that the baby understands at this young age, but the voice of a parent reading and the sense of security that a parent give does make a difference through this practice! So, I would strongly suggests to all parents if you can spare some time just read for at least a minute or two to your child, they will really appreciate it.

The New Generation Gap

I have been thinking to blog about generation gap for a while now.......
After some readings and thinking this is what I have found so far.



Briefly,


The Builders Generation (1925-1942)
Influence by WWII, Great Depression & major authority figures.

Baby Boomers (1943-1960)
Influence by TV, Rock&Roll, Threat of Nuclear war and Cold War.

Generation X (1961-1981)
Influence by PC, AIDS, Single parent families, multiculturalism & downsizing companies.

Generation Y or Millenials (1982-Present)
Influence by Internet, Globalisation, Sept 11 and environmentalism.



Well, Since I am from the GenX; I will mainly blog about GenY.

Since long ago, people always try to understand what the young ones are thinking rather than the old ones, so naturally, I am interested in the younger generation which is GenY or The Millenials.

Due to my profession, I come across many GenYs and because of that I have always wanted to know more about their behaviour and experiences.

The truth is, there are always exceptional examples who does not follow the stereotypes BUT, mostly often it does.

Well, the world we grow up in is very different now compare to last time. Of course the perceptions and expectations are different too.

GenY does not understand the value of money as everything seems so easy for them. Everything is almost provided for by their parents and need not know how hard it is to earn money on their own. Starbucks' coffee can only be a norm to them than those normal black coffee by the Kopitiam.

Internet, Wi-Fi is normal and gadgets like handphones are a must, come on, during my time, handphone is a luxury and now is just a tool easier for me to communicate. For GenYs handphone is a need not a want and I bet there should be a message texting competition for them as they type sms faster than any other generation with their own text language only they know best. Seriously, there is a big difference!

The pop culture influence and peer pressure is much different now, they tend to work well in a team rather than individually. GenYs hit hard on peer pressure, they go all in groups and seldom alone. Look at the latest boy bands and girls group all in threes or fours or more! More songs feat with each other rather than hit a single song on their own. Is it a trend? The invention of You tube, Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry..... the shout outs and videos are all being felt by everyone, GenYs do not want to be alone, they afraid to be alone and they want everyone to know their every single move.....

Globalization, more understanding of the cultures of the world and inter-race marriage is more possible than last time, which used to be a huge taboo for all cultures.

Due to the single parent agenda, more and more youngsters opt for cohabiting rather than having married to one another, like the famous Brad and Angelina..... why? Well it is no longer a social stigma, unlike 30 years ago. The idea of being responsible to each other is kind of scary to them. There are not much of a commitment and marriage spells trouble for them. It is somewhat economical too on saving rent and utilities bills. The fear of having a divorce too add in to the idea of cohabiting. This idea also contributed to many unmarried mother and lack of population in certain countries.

This spills on to the fact on being environmental-friendly. Less people = Less pollution? More awareness now than ever in GenYs, their quest to save the world is more obvious than before. The global warming the weather changing is more obvious now than in any decades. The doings of us and our forefathers seems rather bad to the environment and they hate us for not being caring to the environment.

In the workforce, generally the GenYs have too much expectations compare to GenXs. They will tend to switch jobs more frequently than any other generations. They need more feedbacks, more encouragement, their mere participation is frequent enough for a reward. Their work ethics are practically different than ours. They prefer a work-life balance, which is life come first before work. They want work to be enjoyable as well as life.

Well I can still go on and on but I guess you guys get the picture. In order to improve myself, I need to understand what GenYs are like generally as more than often we meet them everywhere. To understand meaning to improve and upgrade to the latest trend as in to keep up with them as well. The trend of GenYs are affecting a lot of GenXs, if we do not understand them no one else will.

Zen stories

I happened to stumble upon some intersting stories......... which are called Zen stories. I had wanted to search for some story books for my lil' bean and in the end I saw these wonderful zen stories.... (well not really spiritual) but more about moral.

I have indeed sort out a few which I think it is suitable for teacing kids about moral and attitude towards life. (Actually it does applies to everyone, no matter how old you are)!!

1. Letting Go

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk accross because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?"
The elder monk answered "yes, brother".
Then the younger monk asks again, "but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?"
The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her."

2. The Blind Men and the Elephant
Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like.
The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would "look" like.
The first blind men touched the elephant leg and reported that it "looked" like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man hold on to the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the "appearance" of an elephant.
The Buddha asked the citizens: "Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?"

3. Nothing Exists
Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.
Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received."
Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.
"If nothing exists," inquired Dokuon, "where did this anger come from?"

4. Maybe
Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Maybe,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“Maybe,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“Maybe,” said the farmer.

5. Just Two Words

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. “It has been ten years,” said the head monk. “What are the two words you would like to speak?”
“Bed… hard…” said the monk.
“I see,” replied the head monk.
Ten years later, the monk returned to the head monk’s office. “It has been ten more years,” said the head monk. “What are the two words you would like to speak?”
“Food… stinks…” said the monk.
“I see,” replied the head monk.
Yet another ten years passed and the monk once again met with the head monk who asked, “What are your two words now, after these ten years?”
“I… quit!” said the monk.
“Well, I can see why,” replied the head monk. “All you ever do is complain.”

Interesting stories........... :)

Baby First Grab...

When my baby turn one, we did a small mini ceremony according to the Chinese tradition. This tradition has been on going for ages and used to be very superstitious; but now in modern times it is more like an activity for fun. Indeed my baby has lotsa fun!

This tradition is named "Zhua Zhou"(抓周) or Grabbing Test, which used to predicts infant's future career path, personality traits and interests. A number of things are to be presented in front of the baby, so he/she can choose and grab what she likes or prefers.

I had place 12 different objects in front of my daughter for her to grab and Er...hem.... I am not revealing what she grabs.... just only the things that I placed before her.

1. A Bag
2. A Stethoscope
   
3. A Measuring tool
4. A Money bill
5. A Tambourine
   
6. A Box of jeweleries
7. A Book
8. A Hammer
9. A Brush
10. A Seal
11. A Cooking utensil
    
12. A Toy Doggie
    

If I Were...

If I were a scent I'd be Wisteria
If I were a month I’d be October
If I were a day I’d be Sunday
If I were a time of day I’d be 9.30 am
If I were a planet I’d be the Moon
If I were a sea animal I’d be a Seahorse
If I were a direction I’d be East
If I were a piece of furniture I’d be a Lounge chair
If I were a liquid I'd be Spring water
If I were a tree I’d be a Bamboo tree
If I were a tool I’d be a Screwdriver
If I were a flower I’d be a White Tulip
If I were an element of weather I’d be a Cloud
If I were a musical instrument I’d be a Chinese "Gu Zheng"
If I were a color I'd be Orange
If I were an emotion I’d be Moody
If I were a fruit I’d be a Strawberry
If I were a sound I’d be the Wind blowing leaves
If I were an element I'd be Fire
If I were a car I’d be Volkswagen
If I were a food I’d be Macaroons
If I were a place I’d be Kobe
If I were a material I'd be Cotton
If I were a taste I’d be Sweet

I copied and modified this from a blog LA VIE EST BELLE. Feel free to copy, change if you want too :)

Bamboo Tree Bangalow Home

Can you spot the little bird in this picture?

Hah.... well, this picture is taken from my balcony and seems like these little creature love to make their home at my bamboo tree!

Here's how it's nest looks like. It's been here since like years ago when I moved in. Long time ago it was just a shelter for a pair of loving birds and their young ones. Since then on and off there are a few generations going on and on so I guess I lost count how many birds have been moving in and out from this nest. But I can tell you it used to be quite a small nest. Now it has been upgraded to a terrace then semi-detached then bangalow and now is with extension some more. It almost occupy my whole bamboo tree! Hmmm........ as you can see the birds are quite small in size and yet they do not mess up my balcony so that is why they are welcome in my home. LOL.

First Children Party

This was Joelle's Birthday Party. She's 2 years old. Well. Lil' Bean did enjoy herself although it's not her birthday but she get to see and feel what it's like to have a birthday. She saw her blowing candles and met with a few new friends! I brought her there to mingle with children and see that she's not the only child in this whole wide world...... the idea is to let her be familiar with other children rather than seeing adults all the time. Surprisingly, she's quite friendly with everyone and smile a lot! LOL.

SHICIDA Method

I have already begun my research on (Early childhood education) and I realised that it involves lots of methods and trainings. And I still am not sure which is better!?! Anyone got any clues?

Ever heard of the Shichida method? It's about the "Right Brain Training" for a child. According to Prof Shichida, that presenting large amounts of information at a fast pace to infants, toddlers and preschoolers stimulates the right brain and can activate photographic memory. It is to believe that a baby can start learning from age 0-3 years. You can read more on this website: Shichida Method or go to www.shichidaparents.com

Well am just being curious about this method, just one question: Does it train the mind to memorize all the things or using both sides of the brains?

Then came Phonics, which I attend one of the workshops. Well, this method actually teaches a child to read BUT not knowing the meaning. To some parents this may be a shock, and if a kid follow through all the levels, a child will be able to pronounce all the words in the dictionary / Newspaper by 6 years of age. That is before they actually start proper schooling. Hmmm...

I ran on and do some other research which I came across another similar to Shichida, but it is called BRAIN-Child learning. Well this one actually train both sides of the brain and have a balance way of thinking. It is suppose to improve memory, enhance concentration and so forth. It is called a Mental Fitness Centre, whereby there are programmes targeting children age 6 to 13 years of age. You can read more about it in: www.brain-childlearning.com

Last but not least, I had a retired-teacher-friend which tells me that a child bellow the age of 6 years cannot regcognise words properly as their brain has not fully developed. Whatever they see are all opposite of what we see like in a mirror. So if we input alphabets to them they will write out on the opposite direction because that is what they percieved. If we force them to write it correctly, the kid will be using their memory to do so. In the end of the day it is not LEARNING but MEMORIZING!

Then he told me that we can only show them pictures and in this way no harm will be done. Finally, now I have come to a conclusion that, we are not stupid even though we learn slower last time why now we have to speed up the process? Then again, we have to keep up on the trend, so I think I will just introduce pictures to my kid and read her stories for now. No flashing cards and no ABC learning for now.

Baby's 4th month celebration

Well baby's four month old. We decided to give baby a small celebration. I am not very familiar with the procedures but well great grand is around to help. Our little girl has to wear new clothes and had a garland of "Phong Pneah"; those big round biscuits..... string together with a red string. She has to sit up properly so everyone can actually let her bite some of the biscuits. It is suppose to bring her luck and signifies that she's old enough to be able to sit up on her own. Also the biscuits are suppose to wipe off her saliva so she will not have lots of saliva dripping all the time. This is just a simple ceremony to symbolizes her well growing stage, and good health, I guess. All is done just less than an hour. Being Chinese and all every auspicious chinese customs must have ang pows........ so baby did recieve ang pows from all her elders!

Believe it or not my tortise lays her eggs today too...... but unfortunately the male tortise is around to destroy it too....... :(

New Bed

This is Baby's new day bed..... Initialy I had actually plan to buy the Fisher&Price rocker chair for baby. It costs a bomb! Infact it was onsale and still it is expensive. Then again, I have choosen to buy this pink day bed because it can be used untill baby grows to one year old; while the Fisher& Price one can only be use till 6 months only. Well this one is even cheaper... so I have finally bought this one for baby!

Wind O Wind, go away!

I am about to blog about this Ointment for baby.... right it is from Indonesia and it does really help my baby.

Recently my baby has been feelilng cranky and moody and refusing to drink her formular milk and also having a bit constipation. So I have decided to try this Ointment reconmended by my Masseur. I have some doubts about it before as I feel if she got use to the Ointment and I do not want her to have a habbit of massaging before her sleep... occasional is ok but not everytime or even everyday.

After I realise she may be have some wind in her stomach and after she drinks her milk she vomits / spits out some of her milk out..... then I think it's time I try the ointment.

Now after bath, I apply some on her stomach/ buttocks / feet.... she did actually release lots of wind from her body. Then she manage to pass motion often which leads to a happy baby!

SO this ointment is indeed useful. I rarely use it only when I realise she has wind in her stomach!

Happy Winter Solstice Festival. (冬至)DongZhi

Every year around this time (冬至)DongZhi, there will be a small gathering at home whereby everyone gather to make small balls of glutinuous rice "汤圆"-"Tang Yuan". This actually symbolizes happy reunion in the family. So the night before everyone will gather to make these tiny balls normally in various colours such as White, Red/Pink, Yellow, Green which you can buy the paste from the market. I have never encounter blues ones... but there are special ones with blue, brown and purple as it's kinda mix with fruit so I guess it's special order.

Say the picture above shows the "汤圆" that I took this morning. It's made by my grandma (the mickey mouse).... Yum!

Common Sense

Ermm.. did I ever blog about this topic "Common Sense"? Well I guess not, if I did, I want to repeat this again. The importance of training the brain to be aware of things around you.

What is Common Sense?

Well, according to Wikipedia: It is a strict construction of the term, consists of what people in common would agree on: that which they "sense" as their common natural understanding. Thus "common sense" (in this view) equates to the knowledge and experience which most people allegedly have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have.

Hmmm.. make any sense? To me basically I feel it's the common daily routines or actions or even knowledge that one would apprehend and believe to know; is called common sense. For example like say holding a pencil? Flushing the toilet after usage... etc.

Now what I want to highlight here is.... how does one teach common sense to their children? Does all parents know the importance of common sense? And how do we determine which and what common sense to teach a child?

Then again, it all depends on the parents whether to teach their child common sense or not as well. These days I find parents seldom teaches common sense to their kids as we ourselves are expected to figure it out when we were young. How brilliant is that?

So back again, Basic common sense like how to walk properly or sit properly when studying... how to hold a pencil... how to stand properly... all these are as important as to how to study well in school. So, I guess I have made my point clear here that these minor stuff is actually the most important things that one must teach their kids. Have I make myself clear?

The Precious Gift List

Every now and then, me and my hubby will be wondering and dream of how fast our baby will grow...... and there are so many things we wish to tell her or want her to do or become or even hope that she will know and learn what we have amiss when we were young.

Then there is this lists of things that we wish and want to give her or provide her or teach her; well so I have agreed that we should make a list of things and stuff that we wish her to know and learn before we forget what it is when she grow up later.

And so this Precious Gift List will soon be produced whenever we feel that it is necessary to teach her things later in her life. In this way both me and hubby will understand what are the basic things that we both agree to teach her and when we should execute it. It is a common goal and also help to remind us what we should do then.

I believe this Precious Gift List will be the most precious gift that we will provide to our little angel.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Anne Frank

Sexy Women...

Oh I just finish reading The Flirt by Kathleen Tessaro. A remarkable novel, it's a romantic comedy, very inspiring indeed too. I want to quote what the book mention about women's sexiness.

Here's an interesting fact:

What is the most sexy part in a woman?

Guess you will never get the correct answer. LOL

The most raw and potent part of sexiness in a woman is her IMAGINATION.

Don't believe me? Ask any woman you know and they will finally reveal and tell you this; not all woman will admit but it is so very true. If not tell me why woman sometimes find her lover boring and does not understand her all the time.... it is because woman like to imagine while man prefer the visual part... that's why people invent pornography for men and not woman!

Also you can see that woman love to buy things to inspire their imagination and hopefuly wish their counterpart will jump into their vision but then again hell..... the man would just jump in and get straight to the point. Well few men will join into those imagination hah! So that's the different between men and women.

So now you get it! :P

Dreams O Dreams...

Talking about dreams, as I watch my little one grow each day, I do know that she dreams a lot as most of the time she's sleeping. I was wondering what kind of dreams she may be encountering each day.

I sometimes see her smile in her dreams and even laugh out loud till she's shaking... obviously she's having a pleasant dream like maybe she dreams of me playing with her? I wonder....

Then again she has her nightmares too, she will suddenly cry out loud and then continue to sleep after that... I wonder again what kind of bad dream she may be having.... like chasing after her bottle of milk? Hmmm... sometimes she will be sucking in her dreams as I can watch her sucking her way when she's sleeping; must be dreaming of teats I guess.

I am very fascinated by her expressions and moods while she's sleeping.... this may be a tiny episode in her life but quite entertaining to me. It is kind of interesting to guess what she's been dreaming as I feel that she has just arrive in this world and does not even yet recognize her surroundings; yet she already started to feel the abstract world in her dreams how peculiar indeed!