I had the chance to attend a bento-making workshop organised by Health Promotion Board yesterday at Cairnhill Community Club. The session was part of their initiative to promote healthy eating. If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you would know that I love making bentos, so I was really excited to attend the workshop! =)

Upon registration, I was given a bento kit!

The bento kit contained 2 bento boxes, some cutters, a healthy recipe book as well as a book written by Angie, our teacher for the bento-making.

The workshop was conducted in a kitchen in the community club.

That’s the teacher, Angie.

 

And this is my fellow group of classmates  for the workshop. :) Most of them are mummy bloggers, and some are even experts at making bentos! It was really a great time of networking with them because we have the same interests: Bento-ing & Blogging! =D

   There were many food stations set up on the kitchen counter tops. There was different sections for breads, fruits, ham, eggs, vegetables, sausages etc. The stations were set up so that we could have a hands-on session in making our bentos. After a short lecture on some basic bento-making techniques, Angie encouraged everyone to start making our bentos, and we each had to make one rice bento and one bread bento.

It was fun! I always thought that the most troublesome & boring process in bento-making is the ingredient preparation part. But everything was already prepared for us! Angie even brought along all her bento tools – different rice moulds, cutters… All so incredibly easy to use.

I went around taking photos of different people’s bentos while busying with my own. Everyone was soooooo creative! Just look at how pretty the bentos are!

Wanna see the bentos I made??

TADA! ~

Quite frankly, I initially wanted to make a Strawberry Shortcake or Dora Explorer bento so that I can surprise Joey when I bring the bentos home. But…… it was too difficult la! =P

And this is Leonny, the person seated next to me during the workshop. If you do not know yet, she is a mummy blogger as well, and her blog is famous! =D Happy to know another blogger friend. :)

I feel my bento-making itch coming again! Especially when I saw how Joey gobbled up all the star ham & cheese sandwiches, eggs and broccoli when I brought the bentos home! I might start making them again soon! =)

I remembered Joey loved standing up when she was about to start walking. Because all she could do was lie down and sit up in the first 10 months of her life, she particularly enjoys standing up by holding on to something. The same thing is happening to Jayne now.

She can’t pull herself up to a standing position yet, but if I let her hold on to something, she can stand there for the longest time. Well, at least more than enough time for me to whip out my camera and shoot!

The sturdy gate at the nursery entrance

She gets all gleeful when she stands. It’s almost like a sign of victory, ‘See, mum! I can stand!’

I was pretty early one morning in office, and while waiting for the nursery staff to arrive, I decided to get down to Jayne’s level….

It’s pretty ridiculous-looking if you caught me taking these photos. I was practically on fours flat on the ground, face-down. Anything for great photos. =)

 

Somehow, things look a little different down here. The doors to the rooms look scarily tall and huge! It takes a lot of guts to be a baby.

 

And frankly, there’s really nothing much to do here except for eating dirt (ok baby, mummy understands better now.)

Oh well, it actually feels good being at this level. (No, I don’t mean the eating dirt)

You didn’t expect us to get that excited over a yellow watermelon, did you?

Well, WE DID!

The story goes like this: The weather was really hot, and we were all getting pretty heaty, so Papa Isaiah went along to buy us all a big watermelon. To cool us all down. We went straight to the devouring when the watermelon was brought out of the fridge. As such, what you see below is a half-eaten melon, no less.

God is definitely the best artist ever. Just look at how yellow this yellow is! Sunny, lovely and absolutely delicious-looking.

It’s huge, juicy and very cold!

I don’t think Baby Jayne likes watermelons very much. I tried putting a small bit into her mouth and she almost regurgitated. =P

Still, it’s an object of interest to her. Can’t blame her really, it’s cold and brightly colored.

  

Joey had so much of the watermelon, I was kinda worried she might get a stomachache. Thank God it didn’t happen.

I declare: “Watermelons are awesome!!”

And I did get feel a lot cooled down after feasting on it. Yummy.

I am super blessed, I know.

My 1st kid started sleeping through the night about 30 days after she was born, and although she sleeps at 830pm every night until next morning 6am or so, it was already considered a miracle no less. At least I got a decent 6-8 hours of sleep every night. Many mums hear that and wanna cry because their kids still wakes up once or twice every night.

Joey, at her fattest. Sleep makes babies fat, for your info.

My 2nd kid started sleeping through the night slightly after 2 months old, but immediately from then on, she sleeps 12 hours straight, without making a sound in the night. Of course, a baby being a baby, she sometimes stirs during the night, or on very rare occasions (happened only 2 or 3 times so far in the eight months I’ve lived with her), wakes up to cry, then falls back to sleep again soon after. She sleeps at about 830pm every night, until 830am the next morning if I don’t wake her up. That translates to 12 hours of sleep with no milk feeds. And it doesn’t happen just once or twice. It’s been 8 months and she pretty much sticks to her 12-hour sleep schedule. That, is a huge miracle, according to some.

Yes, I think sleeping a lot gives you double chin too. 

And so, I had been pricked by my conscience to share my secrets with you, just so that I can do something for the society and for the general good of mankind. After all, how many people can remain sane and happy if they have to wake up every night to attend to a screaming baby? Sleep is a rare commodity for most new parents, and the faster we get back the sleep, the faster we get a life.

Apart from playing with your baby for 12 hours during the day so that he/she can pass out at night due to exhaustion, what else can you do?

1. Much as you want to play with your baby, tickle her and fling her up & down, stop all play by 7pm. This will calm and sooth her nerves, and prepare her for a peaceful night of rest. You don’t want to over-stimulate your baby because when a kid plays too much, she is likely not to settle down to sleep easily, and may even have more dreams than usual due to the hyper mode they are in just before bedtime.

2. Keep to a bedtime routine. Every night at 830pm, I’ll play the same CD. Go for soothing music and no rock ‘n’ roll or heavy metal please. I think piano pieces or worship music are great. Then I’ll switch on an orange light, keep the air-con at 25 Degrees Celsius and give her a cloth & bean pillow to hug. I don’t even rock her to sleep, just feed her one full bottle of milk, let her lie down in her cot, and leave the room. She’ll flip and roll here and there for about 10 minutes and fall asleep on her own. When the conditions are kept the same at bedtime, the baby subconsciously knows it’s time for bed and will likely not put up unnecessary struggles to fight sleep.

3. Try giving the baby a warm bath just before bedtime. Even adults sleep better after a warm shower. It calms the nerves and makes the baby drowsy. Applying Ruyi oil on the belly button and chest will also calm the baby somewhat and aids smooth breathing.

4. Introduce a security item. It can be a pillow, a soft toy or a blanket. The baby has something familiar to hug and hold on to, and will feel less jittery even when she wakes up in the night. The familiar scent of the object will also help the baby sleep better and longer because she feels more secure and at ease.

5. For those just starting out to condition your baby to start sleeping through the night, you might want to avoid night feeds for the first few nights. Of course, you should try doing this only when your baby is at least 3 months old because younger babies need to drink milk every 2-3 hours and night feeds are necessary if they cry for it. But once your baby shows signs that she wants to sleep through the night (like waking up during the night and falls back asleep after patting or rocking for a while), then you can try to stop the night feeds so that the baby knows she is supposed to sleep and not drink milk. Slowly, the baby will stop waking up during the night.

There you have it! Get some of your sleep back and you’ll make a better parent during the day! =D

I’m so excited for this event this Sat!!! =D

Thanks to Ed for recommending me to them, so that I can attend the session! This bento expert will be sharing her experiences and tips at bento making, health tips for healthy eating for children, and the best thing is we’ll be given a set of bento tools and have a go at making bentos on the spot! How fun!!!! =D

If you haven’t read my bento-making expeditions, you can click here to read them. It was more fun than anything for me, so don’t expect stuffs that look like those professional bentos above okie?! Haha!

On Monday, I initially wanted to bring Baby Jayne to the swimming pool to have a dip in the pool. But smart me suddenly remembered that I could let her have a dip in her private pool in the comfort of our own home as well! Save a lot of hassle and she’ll also have a good time!

She loves playing with water and every time she bathes, she’s full of smiles and giggles. Real cute.

You can imagine how thrilled she was when we put her into the pool with some toys. Hee hee..

And we taught her how to splash the water by tapping on it. She loves it when the water flies up onto her face!

Of course, chewing on the towel is very fun too, and she gets to savor the bath water. =P

She’s totally not scared of water! Even when we pour water over her head and let it flow all over her face, she’s unfazed, and was only interested in licking the water!

Looks like my girl may become a great swimmer next time seeing how much she enjoys being in water!