Potty Training Problems? Try This!

You think this will work???

Work From Home

The one thing that I've been hearing more and more from mothers with young children is their desire to work from home. This is not only fueled by their love for the children but also the increasing awareness of the state of the world and it's environment. More than ever, children need their mothers to be in the home and many of us are beginning to realize how crucial that is to our children's welfare. Maids, daycare centres, grandparents and relatives will never be as influential as the care and guidance provided by a mother.
However, to be in the home, working mothers have to battle their fears whether they can adapt to the different lifestyle. Usually, the BIGGEST concern is MONEY. The ideal combination is to be at home AND still earn money.

So, the question most frequently asked is "what kind of work can I do from the home?"

I was one of many people who asked this question and was introduced to the world of internet marketing. Pretty much it's about creating websites that earn you money through clicks, affiliate programs, your own products etc....

The way I see it, there are 2 ways you can do this: The easy way and the professional way.
The easy way would be to just write any content, like personal blogging, add some money making thing-ies like adsense and a few affiliates, then wait to see if what happens. Sounds just like this blog of mine. Hahaha. Well, guess what? Yes, I earned some money... like 5 cents a click. This kind of pocket money won't even earn me a bowl of noodle.
So obviously, if you want to fill your piggy bank, it's better to do it the professional way. This is where your head will be swimming with terms like adsense, niche, keyword analysis, traffic building, list building, search engine optimization, article marketing, PLR articles, linking, RSS, etc....

There are tons of information out there on this topic and if you are a newbie like me, you might drown in the information. Plus, guru after guru will introduce tools, tools and more tools. Of course if you are just testing the waters of internet marketing, you might not be so keen on buying tools yet. But, if you really want to make money, you do have to spend some eventually.

Well, here is something I found that might interest you. It's called NO-BS Blueprint.

What is it?
It's exactly what the title says - a no-BS look at how to make money online, focusing on blogging, content creation, getting traffic and using our own tool-set to do it.

What will you be reading about?
1- How to find keywords.
2- Where to find traffic.
3- How to approach the search engines.
4- What search engine strategies work.
5- What search engine strategies don't.
6- Our own toolset and how to use it.
7- Where to get your domains and hosting.
8- IP addresses.
9- How big and how fast to build blog farms.
10- Where to get content.
11- What search engines look for in content.
12- How to give it to them.
13- Content rewriters and how to use them.
14- How to target site pages for search engines.
15- How often to update and ping blogs.
16- New features of the BlogSolution and how they help you.
17- How to link you sites and blogs together.
18- 7 real-life marketing scenarios.
19- Tool recommendations.

It's free and it is a pretty good read. So get it now, just click the following: NO-BS Blueprint.

This won't be my only post on "working from home." If I come across something interesting, I will let you guys in on it. Meantime, it would be great to hear feedback from you mothers out there as to what are some of the things you are doing to get that X-tra pocket money. Hope you gals don't mind to share-share the info ya. Doesn't mean you can spam me ok. Hahahah.

Baby Hiccups: What They Don't Tell You In Books

Baby is now 2 weeks old and hiccups everyday. He even hiccuped when in the womb. Anyway, when I had my first child, my mom told me this: "When baby hiccups, it means the baby will poo-poo soon." I didn't believe her BUT you know what? She is right. Now that I'm on baby #3, this fact seems true 80% of the time.

It is rather incredible that a 2 week old baby knows how to poo-poo on cue. Above is our routine in the morning and evening before bath. We take off his diaper, lift up his legs, do the 'emm-emm' sound and after a while, we have stuff coming out of his butt. AND more often than not, he will start to hiccup before the poo comes out. Other people may tell you to give baby water, gripe water or something to suck to get rid of the hiccups. Me, I say grab a fresh diaper.

If you have a newborn, observe this phenomena and tell me if it's true for you too. Does baby poo after hiccups?

Baby, Baby, My Sweet Baby!

My baby is finally out. Everyone say welcome to Danic Lim.

He finally decided to check out of the Mommy Hotel on wednesday night at 11:11pm. It was a pretty quick labor. I felt some pain at about 8:30pm. Left the house at around 9:15pm (had to make sure it was the real thing first you know) and by the time I arrived at the hospital near 10pm, the contractions were 3 minutes apart.
Trying to focus on the breathing to survive the contraction pains, I had to deal with a medical student asking me thousand and one questions so she could get her survey done.

She is lucky I don't swear and can still be polite under such circumstances.

Anyway, it was a different labor experience for me as DH is not there with me this time. One of my pet peeves was when the doctor tells me I'm already 9cm dilated BUT don't push yet ok???? Then, they all walk out of the room. Wow, like I can press a button and put a pause on the pushing. The best thing is, they tell you not to push, BUT they don't come back to tell you when you SHOULD start pushing.

Anyway, I was a good girl and did my best. At least for another few more minutes. But when I had to push, I pushed. Thank goodness another medical student happened to be in the room and started screaming "Is that the baby's head????"

Hello people, I am in labor you know! Anyway, that brought all of them rushing back into the room. I am ready but they are not. So once again, they go "hold on ok, don't push yet". So poor me had to put a temporary red traffic light on baby. How I did that, I don't know!

Finally they said, ok push. Thank you, thank you, it's the moment I've been waiting for. Well, I pushed and pushed and pushed and didn't stop because I wanted the pain to be OVER!

It was good to finally have the baby out. I swore never to forget that pain but I know I will.

Anyway, the nightmare wasn't over yet. I tore slightly and they had to stitch me up. The guy took about 45 minutes for what he said was "a slight tear." Worse part is after the local anesthesia, I still could feel the stitching. The reason? "Oh, it's because I'm going through the skin." How come I never had this experience with my other two then????

The next morning when the doctors were doing their rounds, the doc took a look at me and went "Oh-oh". Now that's not a good sign indeed. In the end, I had to undergo further stitching. It was pretty obvious the work done the night before wasn't satisfactory. Hey, if you are going to put me through some pain, the least you could do is do a good job right? Geez, another "X" on my rating list.

Well, overall I am glad that everything was quick, smooth and normal. Doc even allowed me to check out by afternoon. Didn't sleep the whole night so I was glad to be back in familiar territory.

Here are the big "jie-jie" and "ko-ko" trying to help baby get ready for bath. These two are so excited with the baby. They literally jumped up and down when they saw us. It's so cute to see them sit near baby, stroking his head, holding his hand, kissing his head, smelling his hair, stroking his cheek, counting his eyes, putting their nose to his nose, hugging him, asking to carry him, wanting to take him out so they can show the neighbours etc....

So here they are, the 3 of them. My bundle of joy.

Honey Snaps

Didn't feel like doing much baking for Christmas, so opted for something really easy peasy: HONEY SNAPS! It's a big hit with my kids and I'm sure it will be for yours too. No baking experience necessary :)
Chinese New Year is coming up. You could add this to your list of yum-yums.

Recipe:
60g butter
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups cornflakes
90g unsalted peanuts (I left these out as my kids don't like peanuts)

Place butter, honey and sugar into small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until butter has melted. Combine cornflakes and peanuts in a basin and then pour the butter and honey mixture over it.

Mix until the cornflakes and peanuts are well-coated. Place party paper cases in a patty or muffin tin. Spoon tablespoonsful of mixture into paper cases. (I sprinkled some hundreds and thousands to make it look more festive. You could choose to put any kind of sprinkles you want. The kids would love to help in this area). Bake at 180°C for eight minutes. Stand 15 minutes until firm after removal from oven. Makes about 30.

How to Bicycle on Two Wheels

On a Friday sometime before Christmas, we decided to get rid of K's training wheels. We figured this 5 year old could tackle the task. Heck, there are kids on this street shorter than her riding on two wheels already. Anyway, she wasn't too happy about that. She kept falling down and was really frustrated. There were tears and lots of grumbling. Minimal cuts and bruises.

What is a parent to do?

1. Make sure the seat is low enough for the feet to reach the ground. This was my main mistake. Initially, the seat was a little high and she had to tiptoe to reach the ground. Thank goodness Daddy came to the rescue and got it lowered. Definitely reduced the falling down episodes.

2. Keep drilling into their mind that it will take a while before they get it right. To succeed there needs to be determination. Encourage the "I can" and the "keep trying, don't give up" attitude.

3. Praise even the smallest achievements e.g. "See, you got going for half a second."

4. What instructions to give? I only gave 2:
- when you push off, make sure the pedal is in the up position.
- move the bicycle first before you try to balance. It's easier to balance when the bicycle is already moving.

5. Do you need to hold the bicycle from behind to help them balance? Not necessarily.

Towards the end of her first session on two wheels, she was able to hold her balance for like 2 seconds. That made the smile come back to her sour face. Nothing beats the taste of some success. It brought hope back into her darkened world. Anyway, she woke up early Saturday morning and the first thing she did was grab her bicycle. You wouldn't believe it, she had gotten it! She was cycling at the back of the house where there is a cement court, and she was going straight and turning and maneuvering like a pro. What can I say? She proved to me that anyone can move from training wheels to two wheels overnight. And here I thought it would take a few days. Way to go girl!

Next in line, little D. We'll give him another year or so on those training wheels. Be ready my son!

RESOLUTIONS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!!!!!

This is the only time people talk about resolutions, so let's start with some of mine.

1. That the kids don't end up sleeping on the streets. But if that happens, they've already practiced sleeping out of cardboard boxes. AND look how happy they are.

2. That I actually "pop" on my due date which is this coming Sunday (7th January). Can this be counted as a resolution? More like wishful thinking. If this baby is anything like the other two, he'll stay inside for another 2 weeks. WAAAAAAH!

3. Get rid of the snails, caterpillars, cats and whatever else that have been damaging our beloved vegetable garden. Get the soil more fertile so we can have an abundance of green, healthy, fat veggies. Can't wait for harvest time. Oh, credit for this garden must go to DH and not to me. Keep up the good job "lou kong" (hubby)!! I"ll try not to accidently step on your veggies when hanging out the clothes.

On a more serious note, here is a list of popular New Year's resolution people make. Are you one of them?

1. Lose Weight – With more than fifty percent American adults and countless others in other countries being overweight, it’s no wonder that this resolution appears a lot. Unfortunately there are so many plans out there for losing weight and eating right, that it’s difficult to know what works and what doesn’t and which plan is best for which individual. Keys to successful weight loss focus on good eating habits, a good exercise program and sticking to targeted goals to reach.

2. Pay Off Debt – A main resolution of many is to pay off credit cards and minor installments loans; i.e. like auto loans, not mortgages. Often a tough job, lack of paying off debt often stems form economic issues, unexpected bills, decreased income, health-related bills and more mounting all year long. Do you best and check into refinancing at lower rates is often advised.

3. Stop Bad Habits – Popular resolutions often involve stopping bad habits like smoking, drinking, gambling, drug abuse, cheating on a mate and being a workaholic. To help overcome these, there are 12-step programs out there for nearly any issue today.

4. Continue Education – Another popular resolution is to return to school to finish high school accreditation, to complete college programs and complete other educational training. And with online technology so advanced today, many are able to jump back into programs with online help round the clock and round the world.

5. Travel – Hitting the road, the sea or the air is another top resolution of many. Travel sites offering helpful online planning, booking and savings grow in popularity as does this resolution made by many.

6. Workout – Both genders make resolutions to get fit in the new years ahead. Whether it’s to lift weights or run track or bike or swim, people as a whole seek better fitness. And trying to work in a fitness plan is not always easy with families on the go today. So trying to squeeze in smaller amount of time blocks might help many. For example, workout for 15 minutes a couple of times each day instead of looking for blocks of an hour where you will be free.

There are more popular New Year’s resolutions. Make some of your own and see what you are looking forward to, then make plans to reach your goals. Happy New Year!

Now the problem is actually achieving your resolutions, not setting them. Anyone can set a new years resolution, right?
Exactly.

So make sure you actually set yourself up for success. Write it down and keep it in front of you. Tell others about it and then work on it daily.

For a free report on setting and achieving your New Year's Resolutions, check out:

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS HELP

All the best in the New Year!

Looking Back 2006: December

I'm going to skip ahead to December coz' there is still some Christmas spirit hanging around. The kids woke up quite early and ran down to open their presents. Thank you to all our wonderful friends at church who gave our kids pressies.

The night before little D was not being very kind and we told him that if he didn't start behaving, Santa would come take his presents away. That was very worrying for him coz' the first question he asked when he opened his eyes was "Did Santa take my presents away?"

Later we headed over to church for a Christmas party. Good food and fun. DH prepared 3 dishes of chicken: Chicken stew, Chicken curry and Fried chicken. We were asked to only prepare chicken stew. Very ambitious when he is in the mood.

Overall, it was a calm Christmas for us.

Christmas Spirit

Growing up in a non-Christian home, Christmas is not a very exciting holiday for me compared to Chinese New Year. Even though we are Christians now, Christmas still doesn't bring much excitement. There are no family reunions or big "makan" to look forward to. Christmas decoration around the house is minimal. But I love my kids for they bring some Christmas spirit into our quite mundane life.

Thank you little D for singing "Jiggle Bells" while in the toilet doing your business. It made me smile.

AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Why I Choose to Co-sleep With My Kids

One of the many issues that parents with a newborn baby struggle with is whether to co-sleep with baby or have baby sleep in a separate bed/cot or even room.

Co-sleeping of course in much more convenient especially if you are breastfeeding. You don't have to get up to feed baby. You can just plug them into their milk source while lying down. But some worry that later on when they are older, it will be difficult to kick them out of the bed. Plus some are not in favor of having their bedspace invaded especially when Mom and Dad need some personal time together.

As for me, I've enjoyed co-sleeping with my babies. I love to cuddle them and I feel more peace knowing that I all I have to do is open my eyes and look over their way to see that they are safe next to me. Now that the kids are a little older, they have moved on to their own beds which is next to mine. So, in a way, we are all still sleeping together.

But I have to share with you what happened 2 nights ago. Little D started laughing in his sleep. I looked over and asked him what he was dreaming about. With his eyes closed he whispered "dragon." I continued on "what is the dragon doing?" Still whispering he said "flying".
"So, what's so funny?" He smiled and said "he fell down." Hahahahah. Even I couldn't help laughing. And the look on his face was just so satisfying for me to watch.
I asked him the next morning if he remembered what he had dreamed the night before and he couldn't.

This is one more thing to add to your list of advantages of sleeping with your child -- even in the middle of the night, you don't miss out on the heart warming, memory creating moments.

Looking Back 2006: March

Some of the fun educational stuff we did for this year. The trip to the science center at KLCC was full of fun for the children. Of course they don't comprehend the science lessons behind the gadgets and experiments. They are just excited to turn things, push buttons, step on things etc.... It's exciting because they are making things happen.
If you do decide to go, make sure you are ready to spend 3-4 hours there. Also, bring in your bottle of water and maybe a small packet of biscuits in your pocket. Don't think you can spend more hours there as the children will get hungry.

The tadpoles thing was fun only at the beginning - when they were catching it. After that it was more of Mommy's project. We had success in raising some of them into frogs. Thank goodness they didn't decide to become frogs all at the same time.

See also:
http://mamasbagoftricks.blogspot.com/2006/03/we-have-tadpoles.html
http://mamasbagoftricks.blogspot.com/2006/05/froggy-update.html

Free Photography Tips

Discover the Simple Tricks For Taking Superb Digital Photos... Click here!

I just found this fantastic report with tricks and techniques for taking great pictures with your digital camera.

I didn't know this, but there are some really simple tricks you can learn to help you take stunning photos. The report is called "Top Photo Tips" by David Peterson.

And best of all, it's free.

Already I've learned a lot just by looking at the first few tips! So I wanted to share it with you ASAP.

I recommend you take a break from whatever it is you are doing if you can an take a look now...

TOP PHOTO TIPS

PS - The Author, David, says it will only be available for a few weeks at most so do not delay...

Looking Back 2006: February

Looking Back 2006: January

I did the "Looking Back" series last year and thought I'd continue with this tradition. What I do is put the pictures I've snapped throughout the year (according to month) into scrapbook form. It takes a bit of work but when it's all done, there is a sense of satisfaction. My goal is to eventually print these mini-scraps out making them into a yearly photo journal. When the limbs go feeble with age, it would be fun to look back and see how the family has evolved. Okay, let's start with January 2006.

p.s. To see last year's "Looking Back" series, check out my archives:
January - May 05
June - December 05

File Folder Games

Once upon a time, I came across this idea of making File Folder Games for children. My DH had invested in buying a laminator and so I decided to make some simple, homemade games with both educational and entertaining values. I've written a bit on this on my other blog, along with pictures. Do check it out especially if you are looking on what else you can do to occupy your children's time:

http://blog.valuebookshop.com/?p=25

The Unfortunate Frog

Guess what daddy caught today? A FROG! Of course he was motivated by our little boy. D agreed with daddy's idea to put the frog in the cage so he could see it jump, jump, jump.... I agreed to go along with the idea coz' daddy said the frog would help reduce the number of flies that we've been having around the house due to his gardening (we've been throwing our kitchen waste into the garden to get it the ground more fertile, so that's been attracting flies). I've been conned. I don't think that frog will reduce the fly population here. I put him in the garden where the flies were buzzing but I don't think he could reach them. It was more like torture coz' he was staring at them, but could not get to them. Sigh! Let's see what happens to this frog.

And the question of the day is:
WHY DOES THE FROG HAVE SPOTS (BUMPS) ON HIS SKIN?

D asked that question and I just don't know the answer. Any takers?

What Would You Do For Ice Cream

D: Mommy, can we have ice cream?
Mommy: Show me how much you love me first (this is Mommy fishing for some hugs and kisses).
D: I will go outside and make noise so I don't disturb you (these kids are always jumping on the bed and talking with maximum volume when Mommy is trying to rest).
Mommy: Why must you make noise?
D: Because I don't know how to talk (Meaning he don' t know how to talk softly)
Mommy: How else can you show you love me?
D: If the T-Rex come, I will kill him for you.

K: Mommy, can we have ice cream?
Mommy: How much do you love me? (still thinking I will get some hugs and kisses)
K: I helped to shut down your computer just now.
Mommy: Yeah, but you were the one playing the computer so it's your responsibility anyway.
K: Just now when D was moody, I hug him so we don't fight.
Mommy: And what about your work?
K: I will do my math afterwards. I promise. If I don't, I won't have any junkfood. I PROMISE!
Mommy: Ok-lah, go and get your ice cream.

Still no hugs and kisses. But looks like I'm doing good in bringing up "loyar buruk" kids that know how to "bodek" to get what they want :)

* loyar buruk = smooth talking lawyers
* bodek = apple polishers

What Rice Is That?

Some more funnies from my children:

K: What are you cooking mom?
Mom: Fried Rice
K: Fat Rice? The rice make you fat is it?
Mom: No, fried rice
K: Oooh, fright rice. You eat the rice then you will be frightened.
Mom: No no no. Frrrried Rice.
K: Fried rice? What is the meaning of fried?
Mom: Mean you put in the wok here and fry it lah. Sigh!

Lucky I didn't say it is "fly lice". Don't know what she will make of that!!!

Scared in Your Own House?

When we moved to our current double storey house, my children was ecstatic because it has "upstairs and downstairs." But no matter how ecstatic they are, they do not like to be left alone on either floor. If I go downstairs, the troop goes with me. If I go upstairs, the troop starts screaming "wait for me, wait for me." If I need one of them to get something for me upstairs, the other must be recruited to be a companion before the task can be accomplished.
The other day I was watching television and the two kids were just making too much noise. I asked that they go upstairs to their playroom and the reply was "who is going to take care of us?"

What an interesting question indeed. Here are two kids who pester me every evening to let them go out of the house to play. If I say yes, they zip out the door like a hurricane. If I do not insist they stay inside the gate, they will be running on the road and to goodness knows where else in search of adventure and play. They couldn't care less if I was around to take care of them.

So, I just don't get it? Is inside the house more scary than outside the house where there are cars, strangers and other dangers? I asked my daughter this question and it was interesting to see her reaction. It was like a revelation to her that "yeah, how come I'm scared to go upstairs alone but I do not hesitate to run out of the house where it's more dangerous?"

Well, let's hope the little "lightbulb" that went off that minute stays lit and their fear of being upstairs or downstairs alone has been relinquished. I've been repeating over and over again that this is THEIR HOUSE. There is nothing to be scared of in your own house. Is it just my children or anyone else have this problem too?

Miracle of a Band Aid

I am always humored in the way band aids work on children. They are also known as "plaster" in this part of the world. Although the purpose of a band aid is to prevent germs and what not from entering the wound, it's effect on children seem to be more psychological rather than physical. My children has demonstrated this phenomena countless of times, the latest being this afternoon. Little D somehow managed to cut his thumb and upon seeing blood oozing out, screamed his head off. Oh, what demonstration of pain and suffering. The minute the band aid is on, all pain and suffering mysteriously disappears. And I am left wondering how a cut in the thumb has effected his ability to walk as he insist that he now must be carried. Sigh! A band aid is a necessity even in times when there is no sign of blood. When children insist that whatever they have needs a band aid, you cannot argue. I am thankful to whoever invented the band aid. It is the best pacifier a mother could ask for. It is an instant tear stopper. So if you see my children plastered all over with band aids, don't be alarmed. Usually it's nothing serious. It's just their way of getting some tender, loving care from their mother. I guess it does make the heart feel good to have your Mom give you a few minutes of pampering. Oh, I must not forget to add that the "magic blow" is quite effective as well. Nothing special, just blow on the wound but say it's magic. When they are young, they believe most anything. Afterall, most of the time it treating psychological wounds rather than physical ones :)