We all want to be effective parents. There are many ways to accomplish that goal. This is my personal collection of tips and tricks to effective parenting. Power to the Parents!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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...
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.
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:
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?
