TEVA's back!

Guess what I bumped into recently?

OK. OK. This probably look like it's nothing to you. But to me, this is a big, frickin' deal. Let me explain...these are TEVAs. My most favourite brand of sandals. Ever.

I thought I was dreaming, but the logo is all to familiar to not notice! It's about bloody time, I'd say. After more than a decade long of hiatus (of course I'm exaggerating!), it really is time they make a comeback! I guess the Lord of Footwear must have finally heard my lament, but of course he only decide that it should only make a come-back just after I got my swanky pair of TEVA from outside the country!

Anyway. I'm frickin' excited!It means, should something happens to my TEVA, I can get a replacement. They have got some funky and cool designs, too. There was no one tending to the shop when I passed this, and so I did a little of sandal-whoring.

This one is really, really light and comfeeeee. If not for the fact that it is a little too pricey and that I already have a swanky pair, I would probably have bought it. It will take me sometime for my current pair to exhaust itself before I purchase a new one. Damn.

And no, they did NOT pay me to review this. Perhaps, they should.

Fried Chicken Party

As of today, I am officially unemployed! (Well...I'm actually clearing a couple of official sabbatical days prior to my official-official last day, but that's just me being technical). By 9 a.m. I had happily plonked my backside on the chair of Dr. Feet getting a one-and-a-half hour long of a very much needed foot massage.

It was divine! No (corporate) responsibilities. No meetings. No kids. No plans. No stress. For once in a long, long time, the whole set up felt really good; even if this luxury of having a little me-time would last for only a few days till I start my new job next week.

That being said, I still feel a little sentimental when I thought about a particular "Fried Chicken Party" that was held at the office yesterday.I had intended to quietly disappear before 4pm after all the personal goodbyes to several people, and so when I was told to stay a little longer for a "Fried Chicken Farewell Party" (quote-unquote from one of my colleagues), I was completely surprised. It wasn't just some random, ordinary "Fried Chicken Party". It was a party set up by my very sweet colleagues who took the trouble to plan for a small, intimate farewell party for me on my last day at the office. In all honesty, it was not something I had remotely expected, as I didn't think anyone would have cared or bothered.

But it turned out they did. They bought lots of yummy fried chicken and said some really kind words that touched me deeply. Deep enough to make me weep. Yikes. (Damn it,Ex-boss!And I'm saying it endearingly) My team said a heart-felt, "Thank you, Mom". I couldn't decided there and then if it was a good or a bad thing.

And then, I was thrown into the spotlight and there was no escaping of having to deliver a speech. I was completely unprepared and I.had.to.give.a.speech. I had to think on my feet and my mind drew a blank whilst my heart had crumbled by the touching words that was delivered just minutes prior. (I thought that was unfair. Hmmph! Damn it, Ex-Boss).

And I tried very hard to compose myself.

And I failed.

Miserably.

And I surrendered to the mighty,mushy heart and let out some tears as my head screamed silently in protest, "This is bloody unfair! I can't be tearing in front of 30 people!"Arrgghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Not cool. That wasn't supposed to happen.

But it did. And in between tiny sobs (just a tiny bit!), I braced myself and rambled my thank yous, still could not believe that the team had bothered to do a little something for me. I was touched and I was humbled. It was a small gesture, yet it carried a lot of meaning. It was genuine. I feel blessed.

It was also symbolic for me. My tenure has officially ended, and for what it's worth, I hope that I have inspired the people I worked with and no matter how small, I sure do hope that my contributions have had a positive impact on them. My job is done and whether they realised it or not, these people are talented individuals - I have actually learnt a lot more from them than they would ever have from me.

My desk had never looked so clean and empty. It was a good place as I had a very distinct vantage point and most of all, my desk was all "fengshui-ed" up.

Before

After

It was a nice ending. It was an end that symbolises an imminent new beginning.

And oh!Fried chicken now brings an entirely new perspective for me!

The Fried Chicken Party with variety of fried chicken!

Faith in humanity

Watching this 4:04-minute video up to the very last minute of its run had my stomach churning knots, my heart in palpitations and my eyes welling up with involuntary tears.

The video entitled  "A dying child, a distraught father and a tattooed stranger" is one of the more powerful and emotionally surged-up video I have come across yet - and one which represented a situation in which no parents would ever want to be...in either position.

But above all, it is videos like this that restores my faith in human kind and a testament as to why we should never, ever judge anyone by how they look or what they wear.

Calvin and Hobbes: Snowmen Series

The Snowmen Series are my favourite.

If you are having a bad day, I guarantee that you will be laughing your guts out by the end of this post or at the very least, this should trigger a tiny, little smile on your face.

 

 Here's to a cheery weekend!

Pregnancy Q&A

After experiencing two pregnancies, I don't think I could go through another pregnancy again. And so, when  stumbled upon this, I thought that this is pretty hilarious and worth a share.

 

The one with the latte-cat

This is one of the coolest latte arts I have come across from someone else's FB posting:

Just observe the intricate details on that, and tell me that you have the heart to drink it all away and destroy the work of art that was done with milk foam.

Maybe I should start learning how to do these latte art to amuse myself. 

Related post(s):
Latte Art

Quote of the day

This... is classic case of a first world problem:

Sad.

Jelly-crazy

Jelly, plasticky, bendable flat shoes have always fascinated me.  Unfortunately, I have always found the price to be notoriously expensive that I don’t think I could ever justify to myself why I am paying more than 150 (Singapore) dollars just to be able to walk in them.

So, when one Mummy-friend of mine told me that she got a pair of those jellies at a sale for her 3-year old tot, I was excited. I thought, if I can’t get one for myself, I would certainly consider getting one for Spud if the price is affordable. She then proceeded to send me a shot of the shop located in Siam Discovery Centre along with a couple of pictures of jelly shoes for kids which were on discount.

The shop at Siam Discovery Centre, Bangkok

Colourful selection of Jelly shoes for kids

 Aren’t they not the cutest little things!

I don’t think I would want to afford the shoes had they not be on sale.  At 40% off though, it gave me an excuse to get Spud a cool pair of blue jelly shoes. Spud showed an instant liking to the Jellies the moment I showed it to her. I let her try it on when I got home and it took a good amount of convincing before she agreed to take it off her feet and not walk around the house with it.

As for me, I cannot remember the number of times I tried a pair on since I first saw it at a local mall at least 5 years ago. Each time I tried a pair on with the intention of purchasing it, I managed to convince myself that I don’t really have a need for it. They were, however, so, so comfy and I remember that they were still pretty affordable then.  By the time I decided to actually buy it six months later at that time, two things happened:

1. They did not have the ones I really, really liked in my size.
2. Thanks to my curse, they were taken off the shelves soon after

This time though, I threw caution in the wind and scored myself a pair of brownish-red Jelly.

These jelly shoes emit a very strong, plasticky, weird smell. It sorts of give you a high, although it doesn’t beat the “high” I feel from finally being able to buy us a pair of awesome Jelly shoes!

I caught Spud sniffing her shoes the first few days every time she put them on, and when I asked her if her shoes smells yuckky, she gave me an expression as if to say I was crazy and then replied in a matter-of-fact-tone with a, "Noooo. Smells nice."

Brand:Melissa + Campana

Cost (from memory!): 740 Baht (Kids), 1,390 (Adults) 

From: Jelly Dreams, Siam Discovery Center

Related post(s):

Footwear

Night-light Timer

Ever since Spud transitioned from a crib to a big bed a couple of days short of her second birthday, our mornings had since then became rather disruptive as well. You see, with Spud’s new sense of freedom since the crib, I believe, she thinks that it would be absolutely acceptable, not to mention extremely exciting and fun, to wake her parents up at the ungodly hours of 5.15 am. Every. Single. Day.

When that happens, we would usually send her straight back to her room. She would go kicking, screaming and waking up the dead, but would usually comply. For ten minutes. And then it would start all over again. By the 5^th time of going back and forth every 5 minutes (at best!) thereafter, we both would either allow her to join us in bed and/or be completely wide awake. Spud would make it near impossible for either one of us to fall back to sleep as she just would not be able to keep still.

Enter the electrical timer:

How this work is that a socket-located light timer that’s attached to a lamp or a night light will switch on the electric current, allowing the night-light to be turned on at that specific time. The time can be modified and set manually, and when the light is on, it becomes a cue for Spud as it tells her that she can now come out of her bed.

Shared by a friend in Holland, it took us a while to find this nifty little device in Bangkok (we finally found it at Home Pro). This tip has been a life saver for us to relish that much needed half an hour in the morning as  this little trick helps the kids learn the concept of waiting for when it’s time. And that means as long as the light does not come on, she stays in bed!

Spud’s a funny little creature, and when it comes to routine, she can be quite a stickler for it. It took Spud two days to get used to it, and as soon as she did, she actually had gotten quite upset the first few times when we told her that she could already get out of bed even when the light was not on as the device was not set up properly the night before.

On days like that, it always makes me smile in glee when I think how she would be watching the lamp intently the moment she wakes up while anticipating for the light to go on so she could make a dash to our bed as quickly as she could!

Fried Rice for little tots

If there is one food that can never, ever be considered as “Epic Fail” to cater to little toddlers’ picky taste buds, I reckon it has got to be the humble Nasi Goreng, otherwise, fondly known as Fried Rice.

A toddler's plate of fried rice with steamed salmon

I have heard from several other parents too that if all else fails for their kids, fried rice usually will come to their rescue. And, I know from experience that when Spud gets difficult with food, a plate of fried rice would often do the trick to get Spud to eat.

Spud loves her fried rice, and it has become one of her favourite staples; even Squirt has shown his liking for fried rice! Contrary to the belief, fried rice can actually be quite healthy. It is easy to make and the best part about it is that you can sneak in all sorts of vegetables in there without it being glaringly conspicuous to the kids to minimize the potential rejection of vegetables that they see in their food.

This is how I make my Fried Rice for Spud.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cupful of rice, rinse in water then boil
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 egg (optional)
• Half a teaspoon turmeric powder (Optional)
• Salt to taste

This is when you can get creative to add to the base in case your child does not like vegetables:

• Spinach or bak choy or any green leafy vegetables – chopped finely or blend
• Carrots – diced small or
• Peas /Corn– blended or as is
• A sprig of spring onions – chopped finely

The dish is not complete without either one of these:

• A piece of chicken breast, minced or cubed small or
• 5-6 pieces of prawns, sliced or
• A handful of minced beef or
• Palm-sized salmon or mackerel, cut small or
• Fish balls or cuttlefish balls, sliced

[there is always room to mix the above depending on how you like it]

Method:

1. Boil rice and set aside
2. Blend garlic and onion together, set aside
3. Heat up oil. When oil is hot enough, add in the blended garlic and onion. Fry for about 2 minutes till it turned a little brown
4. Add in the chopped/blended vegetables. Stir fry for another 5 minutes or until cooked (especially cubed carrots which will take a longer time to cook)
5. Add in the meat and fry till all is mixed and cooked well.
6. Crack an egg, stir in together then add salt to taste
7. Lastly add in the rice and spring onions and mix well
8. Ready to be served or frozen in batches for future meals!

It really is a fuss-free dish. Feel free to also use left-overs to whip up this yummy dish and I hope this recipe comes in handy for your little picky eaters.

Squirt enjoying his small bowl of fried rice at 13.5 months (and he's only got 2 bottom teeth!)

Mind-bending visuals

Here are a few of my favourite images which I find to be utterly fascinating. I could easily lose track of time just by looking at them as I try to scrutinize every aspect of it:

Amazing isn't it?

I realise that I'm can never be so creative like that, and so, I just marvel at what other people can do, and hoping that one day, I have my own calling at something 'creative' - whatever that may be.

Original article can be found here.

Eid Mubarak 2013

The last time we were back in Singapore to celebrate the festivities of Hari Raya with my family was 2 years ago when Spud was only 13 months old. We missed last year because Squirt was only a couple of months old (I didn’t feel like I was up for traveling with a newborn), and this year, all the four of us made it there and back - thankfully still sane and in one piece.

The trip wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be, and although Spud did throw one of her worst ever temper-tantrums every other day, we managed to get through the week without me completely losing my head. It was also a novelty for us to watch the kids amuse each other and laughing their guts off when they were put together in the same room at bedtime – something which neither we nor the kids have done before.  The first two nights were the roughest as both went on a crying spree at the same time refusing to sleep even though they were knackered. But as the days went by, hearing bucket loads laughter coming from behind closed door after we kissed them goodnight was pretty endearing. The kids eventually fell asleep after about an hour of mucking around (amazing how they can amuse each other, even though Squirt can barely talk!) and of course, not without us butting into the room every 5 minutes and finally threatening to take their bed-buddies away.

Despite a rather hectic schedule, we managed to do our rounds of mandatory visits to the relatives, caught up with a few precious long-time friends over for lunch at my parents’, had our Sambal Stingray at Newton and squeezed in a trip to the zoo.  Spud even managed to score herself a bonus trip to the Bird Park with her Nya-i when we had to do some errands on one of the days.

The silly thing I did was to forget to charge the battery of my digital camera before we left Bangkok and because I cannot be bothered to attempt taking pictures from my mobile, we don’t quite have that many pictures to share this time, save for these few!

Spud and Squirt with their Uncle at the zoo

Spud & Squirt flanking their cousin

Smiling Spud with 2 apprehensive little babies!

Squirt trying to engage his cousin in a conversation

A picture evidence for Spud that we passed the Rhino which she insisted on seeing.. She fell asleep as I wore her on my back.

Squirt falling asleep on his Nya-i on our way to the airport

The week had flew by so fast and because we were either chasing kids or running after schedule all the time, it felt like I was zooming in and out of a dream. Now that we are back in Bangkok, it felt kind of surreal that we have survived this trip given the circumstances.

This year, I missed a good friend whom I always look forward to see during our annual Hari Raya gathering. I had thought of her.  I remember how much she enjoyed my Mom’s cooking and Hari Raya goodies, and at the same time, it saddened me that I would never see her again in this life. My eyes welled up with tears when I stumbled upon her comments on a blog post I had published in 2011 while I was trying to recall what I had written for the last Hari Raya two years back. It is hard to believe that she was gone. I still feel the warmth in her voice, and while my eyes had involuntarily turned glassy as I read what she wrote, her cheerful and playful tone also made me smile. May the sun always shine bright on your soul, Vicky. I have missed you.

In the spirit of festivities while doing our part for the less fortunate and remembering the departed regardless of race or religion, here’s us wishing everyone a (fairly belated) Happy Eid Mubarak and wishing you a blessed Syawal.

Spud's 3rd Birthday Bash

If Spud have had the privilege of her paternal grandparents visiting AND throwing her a small party when she turned two last year, this year, Spud has been blessed once again with a home-made birthday cake, complete with hand-piped frosting from her maternal grandmother when we were in Singapore over Hari Raya for a short visit last week.

Imagine that! A three-year old getting a slab of my Mom’s priced family recipe, time-intensive, no-egg yolk-no butter, steamed-for-4 hours- Rainbow Cake  and one of my favourite Hari Raya healthier- alternative cakes, is a treat I don’t even get for my own birthday. (I need to get the recipe!)

What an awesome treat that was!

While Spud didn’t want to blow out the candles and preferring to lick the bottom of the candles instead, she could not wait to cut the cake and sink her teeth into the multi-coloured slab before opening her present from us.

Spud's a lucky little girl  – that was her 2^nd birthday cake in a span of 3 days (the first was an advance joint birthday party celebration with one of her younger friends) with the promise of a 3^rd this coming weekend with her playmates "if she behaves".

Spud licking the frost off the candle

Spud cutting her cake as her Nya-i looked on

"Present! Is it a Cheshire cat?", she asked

Spud and Mr. Cheshire

She then spent the rest of the evening not only playing with her new Cheshire cat, but also chasing my Mom’s British Short-hair around the house as she attempted to smother the poor feline with hugs and kisses. I bet Coco the Cat feels utterly relieved now that  he is no longer victimised by 2 strange kids in his home.  

Spud cuddling Coco the Cat

Squirt wanted his fair-share of cat, too and Coco the Cat was not too amused!

 

Spud turns THREE

[Warning: A very lengthy post]

Dear Spud,

I hate to have to break this to you, but, you see, as our first born, you have been our little experiment. You have to understand that your Papa and I are both rookies at this parenting thing. We don’t always know what we are doing, we are more likely to be wrong in more ways than one, yet insist that we are (mostly) right and with you, we are always, always, always on a steep learning curve.

It feels like it was only a month ago that we celebrated your second birthday. And suddenly, just like that, you turned THREE right before our eyes. It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbow all these 3 years (you made sure of that with your big personality), but despite us being such novice at parenting, we believe that we haven’t screwed up too bad so far.

We marvel at how much you have blossomed into this social butterfly and well-adjusted little tot who is just curious about the world. You have endless supply of energy and I get exhausted just watching you bouncing off the walls. Being quiet and meek are never your strongest points. You are boisterous to the point of being clumsy at times - falling over, getting cuts and bruises all over the place just because you weren’t looking while walking or running.  With the bruises you earned yourself sometimes, I do wonder if there may be people out there who thought that your mother may have been smacking you way too much!

Because you are so quick at grasping things and seem more mature than you are for your age, I sometimes forget that you are barely three years old. Just about a month ago, you surprised us by rattling off your Papa’s phone number while we were at the cashier as we were paying for groceries - all 10 digits of ‘em! You have always demonstrated to us that you have an incredible memory and this recent incident completely blew us away. You were so happy that you got it right and you repeated it effortlessly. We will not be showing you how to dial those numbers on the phone just yet or you’ll be wanting to call Papa every 2 minutes. Since then, I've been rattling off my phone number to you every now and then, as I do think that it is only fair you know your Mama's phone number too, just in case. And, within a week or so, you surprised us again with your incredible memory!

Like your Papa, you have turned out to be quite the chatterbox. You talk about everything and nothing, and you say what is on your mind with ease. Sometimes you get frustrated if you cannot articulate it, but you keep on trying (although not without temper tantrums). You repeat what you hear so often these days, and more than ever, we realised that we have to be very careful of the words which come out from our mouths.   

You are into the princess phase for several months now (a phase which I find to be extremely annoying) and telling everyone you pass by, whether they know you or not, that you are a princess. I smile my wry smile (and secretly roll my eyeballs) every time somebody eggs you on it, and each time I reminded you that you are not, you again insisted that you are. I guess you can keep working on that. I can only hope that you get out of this phase soon because I am so done with this princess crap.

But then again, I realise this is not about me. This is you trying to create your own identity and find your ways about the world. I need to respect that, understand that you are going through a phase and in fact, I should fuel your creative imagination. I promise you I am all for it… as long as you stay away from all those princessy, girly crap which I equate to being unnecessarily high-maintenance. OK, OK. I will bite the bullet for as long as it takes, but sorry, but your Mama has got her quirks,too.

These days, you are very quick to “appease” us with your ready answer of “Already” every time we ask you to brush your teeth or  put on your dress to name a few. Clearly, you haven’t quite figure out yet that your mother is actually able to see if you have put on that piece of clothing you said you already put on. But that’s OK, you are only 3. You will eventually be able to figure out that your Mama can actually see through you soon enough.

You love singing and not a day goes by without you belting out a song or two every 5 minutes. Whenever we are in the car, you would say, “I don’t know how to sing”, every time the music came on the stereo.  You sound annoyed because you cannot sing along. There have been moments when your Papa realised that he’d have to skip certain songs because the lyrics were just not meant for kids in the backseat. But be patient, my child. Very soon, you’ll probably be belting to Green Day, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd and the likes of those classics!

Darling Spud, I know that I have never been your most favourite person. You rejecting me when you were 10 months old for over a year was a very tough pill for me to swallow.  I keep asking myself what I have done so wrong that made you repel away from me.  I want to go into that little head of yours and find the very source to understand what I can do better to make it right. Every morning I wake up hoping that you would come to me first, but that’s like asking for a cow to produce chocolate milk au natural. You would be upset if you don’t see your Papa but would think of nothing if you don’t see me. Sometimes I just want to disappear, feeling unworthy to be a mother, especially when you blatantly refuse to allow me to even hold you, let alone touch you, when you crawl into our bed. When you fell or hurt yourself, you refused to come to me for comfort even when I was sitting right next to you. Instead, you went berserk if I tried to comfort you and you would run away as you search for your Papa, even though he wasn't in plain sight. While I try my best to keep my cool and telling myself that it was nothing personal, I can’t help but feel hurt every time you push me away. People tell me that I could only smother you with love, kindness and to never give up, and I tell them I’m trying so darn hard. Every.damn.single.time. It’s always easy for other people to make comments about what I should or shouldn’t do when rejection happens because they are not the ones dealing with you day-in, day-out…but sometimes Little Spud, it would help if you cut me some slack.

We have come a long way where this rejecting crap is concerned and I believe that both of us are healing in our own little ways. You have actually been quite sweet to me and I thank you for that. Your rejections, if any, have not been as violent, and while there are some pockets of resistance every now and then, I hope these rejections will desist for I am so bloody sick of being rejected and feeling like the “lesser” parent all the time. You are my child, I am your MOTHER and nothing can change that. If you don’t like me, then bloody tough luck – go find another Mummy who would take in all your crap, cook your favourite meals, clothe you and love you all the same the next day!

Now THAT is out of the way….

I know being 3 is tough, Little One (guess what! It ain’t gonna get easier...), and you being Spud would want everything done your way if given a chance. But we know you cannot always have that, and sometimes like us, you would have to suck it up. The last one week had been particularly trying as you upped your ante with your over-the top tantrums that appeared to have come from nowhere. So ridiculous those tantrums were that at one point, I just wanted to burst out laughing because I thought your screaming were just too ridiculous to entertain. You drove your Papa up the wall and tested his patience real good.

Meanwhile, know that I am trying my darnest and as a mother who is on a permanent apprenticeship, I sometimes falter as a parent. I am sure you sometimes cannot understand why I scream at you when you push my buttons. To be honest, I don’t get it either and I blame it on a few screws missing in my head.

I remember that one time I almost, almost, almost hit you with a plastic tail-tub because you made me so, so mad while I was showering you as you were engulfed in one of your epic temper tantrums.  I swear that scared the living daylights out of me!  I then diverted my anger by slamming the tail-tub full-force on the floor…the force was so hard that my hand hurt for a few hours. You cowered away as you wailed, probably frightened at how I reacted. The moment I regained my composure and realised what could have happened had I not been able to control myself, I broke down and drew you close to me. I felt horrible. I realised how much I love you and that I would never want to hurt you in any way. I later apologized to you for my unreasonable behaviour and I am ever so glad that you can be ever so forgiving.

You have taught me so much, my darlin' child. In the last 3 years, our life together is anything but boring. You taught me the virtue of a little bit more patience when I thought I had none left. You taught me that losing my head in a screaming fit isn’t cool because apart from stressing myself out, I achieve nothing from it. You taught me empathy when I thought that I am just an emotional fuckwit and most importantly, you taught me the importance of forgiveness when I thought that I have ruined it all and you let me try again so I can be a better parent.

We don’t know how you will change or who you will eventually become. And till then, we’ll just have to wing it. I want you to have the bestest childhood you could ever have and milk that childhood for what it’s worth. I want you to play till you collapse, sing till your throat is sore, dance like there is no tomorrow, get and give hugs and kisses like your life depends on them and never ever let the pressures of society define who you are. You are learning, and as long as we have blood running through our veins and our hearts are still beating, we will learn and we will soar.

You still have to go to bed by 6.30 pm though.

Happy Birthday, dearest Spud. The best years have yet to come.

A new hope

Something came up quite unexpectedly a while back. While yes, I celebrated my 5^th year anniversary with my current company this year, and yes,I think that the organization has been able to give me enough challenges in the 5 years to a certain extent, I have actually been feeling quite “dead” and under-valued for a while. My soul feels empty and under the new management, I felt that the room for personal growth has come to an end. With the new opportunity in sight, I know in my heart that it is time for me to move on.

In fact, I have, in the last 2 months been serving my notice with my current job. Two weeks after I tendered my resignation, I was told that I had to disclose the specifics to my new employment,citing “non-disclosure confidentiality clause” based on the business that I was working on.

That didn't sound quite right to me, and so, after checking around, it is now safe to say that as an employee, you are not obligated to disclose your future employment regardless of where you are in the world. Unless you have signed a specific indemnity form addressing that, the current employer does not have the right to demand answers as to where their current employee would end up. (and neither do you as a potential candidate is obligated to disclose your salary to your future employer as suggested by this article here).

Although what I will be doing in the future seemed to have escaped to the grapevine, I have refused to officially disclose my future employment. I now have another long, brutal month to go before I’ll be unshackled and boy! Does time ever go so slowly! 90 days to serve your notice is a bloody damn long time; I am convinced that it is a sure-fire way to kill anyone’s soul.

But, there is a ray of hope. In about a month, I will be embarking on a set of brand new challenges with a different, but familiar organization. It is the organization which brought me back to Bangkok more than 8 years ago.

I am not quite sure what I am up against, but this time, it feels like I’m making a strategic move (albeit a slightly lesser package). It feels right. And besides, the draw is that I kind of feel like I am going “home”.

My life journey begins again. Wish me luck!

The ringing cow

Quite a while ago, somebody gave us a tip: use a sand-timer to give little toddlers a sense of time. It is useful to get them to transition into the next activity, and especially during times when we needed to peel her away from the playground when it was time to leave.

It was a simple suggestion shared by a child educator and a really effective parenting tool; one which we haven’t thought of before that fateful meet. We have been an advocate for it since and have gone through 2 sand timers which unfortunately had broken into pieces due to rough handling of the little hands.

And because sand timers are not as easily found here in Bangkok, we had been without one for a couple of months since the last one broke. We then soon forgot about it, sticking to just, “You have 5 more minutes according to the hand on my watch or that clock on the wall.” To our credit, it mostly worked with Spud.

Then came one long week.

It was the week when Spud decided to dedicate a whole hour to finish her meals. She would sit at the table and do everything else but eat her food or she would put the food in her mouth and not chew for 15 minutes or she would put her spoon down after every frickin’ bite and started fiddling with her hair or whatever that was in sight.

I tried being nice, I tried being gentle and I tried giving descriptive positive reinforcements (which was extremely tiring and later become absolutely annoying! I mean how many times do you have to cheer her on and descriptively praising her for every single thing she did – from picking up the spoon, to putting the food in her mouth, to her chewing away – and do it like a hundred times in a super-happy tone as if you are cheering for the million dollar lottery like a lunatic?). Whatever trick I tried, I failed miserably.

It was the week when I was at my boiling point. She has been pushing my buttons all week and now this. The entire family was miserable at meal times, I was getting a little out of control with my temper,  I was completely at my wits end and all the supposedly genius recommendations of descriptively praising in gentle parenting style made me feel like a complete failure. It was the most frustrating week that I thought she didn’t deserve to have any meals served in front of her anymore. That was how mad and defeated I was. 

I ran out of ideas as to how to make her to not only eat, but eat faster, so, when I saw a kitchen timer during my lunch break at the supermarket one day, an idea struck me. I thought, perhaps, I ought to try one more thing: Use a timer during every one of her meal times. If she is not able to finish up her meal within the stipulated time, we take her food away. If that happens, she would not be entitled to have any snacks and she would have to wait for the next meal time to come.

I then bought myself a ringing cow. It was to be a test device to be introduced to Spud at breakfast the next day.

When I showed Spud what I had bought and explained the concept to her, she got excited. We first set it at fifteen minutes (I was determined!).  She finished most of her food but when the time was up, we had to remove the food from her and told her that she could try again at lunch. On the hindsight, 15 minutes was rather ambitious and I was setting her up for failure; I could have actually increased the time. On the other hand, I was also conflicted – I felt that if I had increased the time, she would have seen me reaching out for the timer, and then, she would not have taken me seriously. I felt that it was more important to educate her on the consequences of her food being taken away if she didn’t finish eating when the timer goes off. I then set a time of 25 minutes on subsequent meals.

Since then, there has been some improvement to her eating speed at mealtimes. She understands that she does not have to finish everything on her plate, and while lots of encouragement and reminder in the form of “chew, chew, chew, swallow” like a drill master are needed, I could see her trying really hard to beat the clock. And when the timer finally goes with a loud “drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggg”, everyone, including Squirt would be clapping and cheering.

My ringing cow is now our best-friend. Spud understands the concept that there’s always time attached to everything we do and it helps her to transition to the next activity without much protest because she knows what would happen next.

For now, kitchen timer has become that perfect little device that tells Spud that time’s up because the cow says so. Not Mama. Not Papa. Not Nanny. It is the bloody damn cow!  Now go argue with it.

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggggg!!!

Fun in the office

1 small bull-dog clip, 1 paper-clip, a bunch of multi-coloured markers and sticking 2 blunt pencils into holes on a plastic chair with a broken back made for a very fun day in the office from an almost 3-year old toddler's perspective...

 

...top that up with a little cam-whoring to inject a little bit of fun and excitement to entertain life's simple pleasures of being a kid is just priceless.

While I'm glad I won't have to drag Spud to the office any more since Summer school is over, I will miss this little tête-à-tête we have been having in the last 3 weeks. It is not out of the ordinary, but it has been special.