Thank you to the many of you who supported the giveaways that ended last week. Here are the selected winners:

All winners will receive an email from me soon. :)

Thank you for your participation!

Ever since Jayne started going to school, she has been singing the National Anthem everyday. She is such an expert at it now, I tell you. Check out this extremely professional recording, complete with emotions and expressions.

I feel so touched by her patriotism.

I love Baby Jayne's smile because she has two really huge front teeth. They are such cute-looking bunny teeth!

It's pure coincidence that Baby Jayne loves carrots. =P

Linking up:

Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)

Monday
28 Jan 2013
10.30pm

Peer pressure is a scary thing.

I remember a period in my life when my friends meant the world to me and I would do absolutely anything just to blend in with my gang of friends. If they were into branded bags, I would follow suit. If they ate at expensive restaurants all the time, that was what I would do too. That happened to me during my secondary school days.

My dad was very relaxed in money matters with me. I could ask him for $50-$100 to buy a new bag every week and there would be no questions asked. At that time, my friends were crazy over ELLE bags and between us, we had every style, shape and pattern of bags produced by that brand. I am definitely not that relaxed in terms of money with my own kids now because easy money is not a good thing. Thankfully, we were not bad kids. In fact, we continued to do well in our studies every year. Our only shortcoming then was our obsession with branded bags and poor management of finances. I outgrew it immediately when I graduated from Secondary School, and since then, I've never been particularly fond of branded stuffs.

Peer pressure used to be part and parcel of teenage life, but things are definitely different now. At Primary One, Joey is already experiencing peer pressure and from the way it's progressing, it's only going to get more and more intense.

She came home one day last week and told us that she wanted to get a chain to connect her wallet to her skirt so that she wouldn't lose her wallet. The chain can be bought from the school bookshop at $1.50 (You see, she's even checked out the price). The main reason why she needed to get it was because ALL HER CLASSMATES HAVE IT. Well, I seriously don't think everyone in her class has got it of course, but since we thought it is quite a useful thing to have, seeing how she always misplaces stuffs, we gave her the money and she went to buy it.

Joey bought it, came home and really excitedly showed it to us. To Joey, it is such a beauty and a bridge between her friends and her - something common they all have. She even said she chose the design with three shades of colour. =.= We obviously have very different tastes.

With the springy connector linking her wallet to her dress now, I dare say she has this air of confidence in her now. There is a skip in her footsteps.

 

 

This might be peer pressure in a mild form. The scariest kind of peer pressure would be that from exam results. I totally understand how that works - As a student, I used to compare results with my friends and if I didn't do as well, I would feel horrible that whole week. Kids have this need to compare to know where they stand. But unless you are always the top student everywhere you go, there are bound to be times when you would get disappointed. While it is important to do the best and get good results, I certainly do not want Joey to have an overly competitive attitude. That would rob away the joy of learning, and make everything seem like a task - Certainly not what I hope to see.

I think that life's pretty good now that my kids are past the infant stage.

When we go out, I don't have to lug a huge diaper bag with me. And now that Baby Jayne is coming to 4 years old, I don't even need to bring milk powder and milk bottles because she feels embarrassed drinking milk outside of the house. When we go for meals in restaurants, the kids feed themselves and I can have a pretty decent and comfortable meal myself. Plus, the kids are not old enough to warrant me to be excessively concerned for their studies yet. It is really an enjoyable phase of motherhood. :)

Yesterday after church, we decided to check out this bistro nearby called Heath Bistro. Even though there was hardly anyone inside the restaurant, the food turned out to be quite alright. I love it that the restaurant was cosy and very quiet - Just the kind of environment I like for a meal with my family.

Our highlight every Sunday after church would be to listen to the kids tell us what they learnt at Children's Church, the artwork they made and songs they sang. Simple joys like that make me very happy. :)

Check out Joey's LONG fringe - She refused to cut it off no matter how many times I've nagged at her. So she's been going to school with hair clips to put the fringe up everyday. It's funny to me because I remembered keeping my fringe long during my Secondary School days too. Even though the process of keeping it long enough in order to tie it up was tough, I persevered and 20 years down the road, I've still kept that long fringe and never once have I cut it short before! =P

We ordered Fish & Chips ($9.90) for the girls and pasta for ourselves ($8.90 for Aglio Olio with option to add chicken or seafood at $1 & $2 respectively).

Lots of ingredients in my Aglio Olio. Only complain is that it's not spicy! :)

With every main course, you can order the Soup-of-the-Day at $1. Pretty good mushroom soup they served!

Love Sundays. Don't you? :)

Ever since Jayne started full-day childcare, the girls have much lesser time together at home. It used to be that they will spend their entire morning, evening and nights together. Now, Jayne leaves the house at 8.30am when Joey is not awake yet sometimes, and they will only get to meet again by dinner time at 7pm. I thought that because of that, the two sisters would treasure what little time they have together, but I guessed wrongly. They still squabble, argue and fight at night when they start playing together. =.=

So when I saw this scene last week, I was very glad. I love it when the sisters hang out happily together - I am very peace-loving by nature, you know. Having two hyperactive and very loud girls at home have made my life a lot less peaceful than what I ideally hoped for.

It was raining heavily that day, so being stuck at home, the girls thought it was a neat idea to bring their chairs to the kitchen right outside the toilet (Don't ask) and read their storybooks. It was bewildering and funny at the same time, but no real harm done, so I reckon I let them. Sometimes when we get bored at doing the same thing all the time, making small changes to things such as location and method brings the joy back in again. Check out the smiles on the girls' faces - They said it all. :)

And so Jayne has been adjusting well to her school though tears still fill her eyes every morning when we drop her off at school. Don't ask me why - I am guessing that she is more emo (or drama queen) by nature. Every evening when we pick her up from school, she is always happy telling us what happened at school that day and what did her friends say and do. The fact that she has many friends whom she mentions by name tells me that school is quite enjoyable. I am definitely glad for that. With the amount of time she spends in school everyday, the last thing I want is for her to be unhappy. Her teachers love her as well, and everyday one of the teachers would tie her hair up in cute styles including ponytails, plaits, double ponytails, buns etc. Funny enough, she only allows her teachers to tie her hair and not anyone else - not even me!

Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)

Wednesday
23 Jan 2013
1.05am

I don't know how your Primary School life was, but I remembered mine to be extremely colourful.

Apart from participating in all kinds of ECAs (I was in Science Club and basketball, and was a Brownie), I was also involved in drama performances, story-telling competitions, recitals and all kinds of camps & excursions. I have very fond memories of my Primary School life - It was a time I felt I truly enjoyed school without having to deal with examinations and stress.

A very vital part of Primary School life was of course sweet romance with the favourite boy in my class. My 'boyfriend' and I 'got married' at Primary Three, and we treated our friends to our wedding reception of 10-cent drinks. It was all in the name of fun, nothing too serious - Though we were publicly known to be an 'item' till we graduated from Primary School! I am sure even if you didn't have a wedding reception like me, you would have secretly admired someone from your class or received love notes from your secret admirers. It is hilarious as I recall everything now of course, but it's all part of my growing up. :)

And don't we all have a friend or two who's always poking fun at us, and seemingly disturbing and bullying us at every opportunity? Now that I am grown up, I can see that's just how Primary School kids react when they are fond of a person - The more they like a person, they more they would disturb & bully that person intentionally - To get attention perhaps? I'm sure you know what I mean. =P

And so, Joey has been telling me about this boy called Brandon - a Primary Three prefect, who has been disturbing her all the time. When I heard how she calls him 'irritating', I couldn't help but giggle inside. It's even funnier when she mentioned him three days in a row, albeit all complaints about what he had done and said. Sounds really familiar. =P

I'm not sure I am ready for my girl to grow up so fast (it's only been three weeks since school started!), but at the same time, I feel excited for her. Life is full of interesting things and people, and I can't wait for her to have new encounters and new experiences in life. :)

Since I started this series, I haven't really touched on the academic part of the Primary One journey. The truth is, there really haven't been much homework given yet. In the last three weeks, Joey's come home with homework less than 3 times. I like it that the school is taking it slow and easy - I definitely don't want my girl to be bogged down by tons and tons of homework & assignments.

English spelling and hanyu pinyin spelling have started though. Joey's had no problem with English spelling - she scored full marks easily last week. But hanyu pinyin spelling is new to her, so she got only 16/20 for that spelling. She came home telling me that she was very disappointed because many of her classmates got full marks. Looks like I don't even need to put stress on this girl of mine - she has high expectations of herself. Of course, I had to assure her that marks was not everything and she can always do better the next time round. I have no doubt she will.

The next good thing is that there will be no Examinations for Primary One kids. The teachers would be doing an assessment of every kid in many areas of cognitive and behavioural skills and give a report at the end of the year to the parents. This would continue for the first half of Primary Two, so the first examination that Joey would face would be in Oct/Nov of 2014. Sounds good to me. :)

Read all the posts in this series: Mum's Diary

Linking up with:

Year 2013 has gotten off to a hectic start for me.

I've taken on a new portfolio in my job which requires me to do things I've never been good at. It's in fact the very thing I dislike since I was a kid. But I've taken on the new responsibility with such positivity that I've surprised even myself. Thankfully, I've always been an optimistic person, so when I am faced with tough tasks, I tend to self-talk myself into believing I will be able to handle it well, and try my best not to freak out. =P

Without a shadow of doubt, I know I will not be able to be this happy in life if not for the pillars in my life. Look what cute pillars I have:

I am blessed to have a wonderful hubby who always believe in me, always stand by me and always listen to me. I am blessed to have two happy girls who know all my weaknesses and flaws and still think that I am a great mum. Whenever I feel like I am in a pressure cooker and cannot breathe, I close my eyes and think of these darlings and feel better immediately. At the end of a really busy and stressful day, I feel happier just by hanging around with them.

What would I do without my family eh? :)

Linking up:

Disclaimer: Not a sponsored review.

In my church, the kids are told to bring along their bibles for Children's Church once they turn 7 years old. So Papa Isaiah went to buy a bible for Joey, and in my opinion, it's probably going to be the best gift he can ever give to Joey. It is a gift that will guide her entire life. :)

We were advised by the Children's Church teachers to get her a NIrV bible (New International Reader's Version) for easy reading as a start. I didn't even know there is such a version, haha! Joey's bible is a study bible, so it is very thick and heavy. But I reckon since she only needs to bring it to church once a week, it should be fine?

There is a introduction of every book in the bible - I like it that it's in simple English and easy-to-understand phrases.

At various sections of the bible, there are also prompt questions inserted to aid the child in thinking deeper into the stories and verses. I was initially a little worried that a study bible would be too complicated for a kid just starting out, but the questions are catered to the level of the kid. It also provides a good platform for us to have a bible discussion with Joey - Such a great idea.

Apart from the discussion questions, there are also snippets of information everywhere about the lives of the people during the time when the bible was written. Pretty interesting to read them. :)

Of course, being a kid's bible, there are colourful illustration pages inserted here and there - All to help the kid stay interested in the Word of God. :)

If you are looking for a bible for your kid, I would recommend this NIrV Study Bible. :)

Our prayer is that our little girl will grow in her love and understanding of the Word of God, and grow up to be a great woman of God. :)

Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)

Saturday
19 Jan 2013
1.51pm

When I tweeted about Joey's 1st day in Primary School, a friend replied saying that soon, I will find all kinds of things from the school bookshop in my house.

True enough.

When I was a little girl, I remembered getting all thrilled and excited over the very pretty stationeries at the bookshop. I wish I could bring home all the rulers, erasers, mechanical pencils and notebooks. Everything was lovely and desirable. I reckon it's the same with my girl now. Except that what she's brought home so far have been less than useful.

She came home on Thursday and announced proudly that she DID NOT buy any green tea that day. I was glad - Finally, she understood what a big waste of money that was?? Then with a big wide grin, she whipped out her prized purchase that day:

A PACKET OF TISSUE PAPER.

Granted, the cartoons were quite cute. But the main reason why Joey bought it was not because it was cute, but because.....

IT SMELLS LIKE GREEN TEA!!!

*faint*

Joey brought the packet of tissues right underneath my nose and insisted that I smell it. It smelt like Jasmine flowers, which I totally dislike. But I can understand why Joey would think it smelt like jasmine green tea. =.=

So which is the lesser evil between the two green tea products that my girl had been spending her money on?

She was feeling extremely pleased with herself that she bought such a wonderful item from the bookshop and got a little offended when I told her it smelt really bad.

"I thought you would like it as much as I do. =( "

oh well. Not when we have hundreds of packets of tissues in our cupboard at home. This is a white elephant, no? Ok, maybe a pretty white elephant. But STILL an elephant.

But of course, I did not tell her that. I tried to retract my words seeing how hurt my little girl was. It was after all a small victory that she managed to overcome the temptation of buying green tea. Surely, that warrants some form of encouragement.

Guess what she came home with on Friday?

A packet of tissue paper that smelt like BAMBOO (Which totally smelt like jasmine flowers to me again, so I suspect the bookshop auntie is not very honest. LOL!)

I wonder when the tissue paper series will end.

Read all the posts in this series: Mum's Diary

Product Review

Last week, a special delivery from Hong Kong came for Baby Jayne. :)

Peekabox is the solution for busy dads & mums who cannot find the time to go shopping for their kids' clothes. Every month, a surprise box of Peekabox clothing essentials will arrive at their doorstep. Boxes are shipped regularly on the 10th and 25th of every month. Not only will you have the element of surprise when opening the box, your kids get new and lovely clothes every month! If you do not have children, Peekabox can serve as a great gift for your friends' kids as well.

Each box is custom-made with 3-4 items specially selected according to your baby’s individual specifications. Just simply tell them your baby’s age, size & style preferences and they'll do the rest! Check out what came in Baby Jayne's box:

Inside Jayne's Peekabox was 2 striped tees, a black tights pants and a hardcover book on 'Opposites'. I have to say that the clothes were of superb quality. They were soft to the touch and very comfortable when worn.

You might have noticed that the tees look a little big on her, because I asked for one size bigger, thinking that she can wear it for a longer period of time. Kiasu mum syndrome at work here, yup. =P

The team at Peekabox who puts the different selection of clothings together consist of dedicated expert mummies and stylists, so you can be assured that Peekabox knows first hand what’s important when it comes to choosing the best for your baby. Currently, Peekabox supplies clothes suitable for kids up to 4 years old, but they are developing their global site and working on expanding their product range very soon. Each tailor-made box retails at 298 HKD/month, which is about S$50 per box (Additional charges apply for delivery to Singapore).

www.peekabox.hk
facebook: www.facebook.com/peekabox
instagram: peekaboxhk

GIVEAWAY

Peekabox has kindly agreed to sponsor two boxes for the readers of The J Babies. If you are interested in winning a Peekabox for yourself or for a friend, complete the following step:

Mandatory:

Leave me a comment on this entry (either via disqus or facebook comment) that you would like to win a Peekabox (leave your email address as well for easy contacting), OR drop me an email at .

Not Mandatory but Nice to do:

Like & share this blog entry
Like The J Babies Facebook page

Closing date for submission is Friday, 25 Jan 2013!

Product Review

Sorry to burst your bubble, but while I sound like a modern mum on this blog most of the time, I am really quite a GEEK beneath it all.

I am slightly ashamed to admit that the games I enjoy playing the MOST are word games. I love all kinds of word games such as crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, scrabble, etc. I can play those stuffs for hours without getting bored. It's not like I have such a huge wealth of vocabulary in my tummy that I win all the time. Truth is 99% of time, I don't. It is such an irony because I often tell the husband that I dislike playing games that require me to use my brain to think. What can I say? I am a typical woman who sometimes am not sure what I really want. =P

And so, when Emway Singapore wanted to send over a new board game called 'Word Winder', you bet I said 'Yes!' within all of 3 seconds. It was an even bigger draw for me because the game is apparently suitable for kids to play as well, and can help them to improve their vocabulary. Joey has just started Primary One, and I'd love for her to improve her English language in a fun way and not feeling like mum's forcing it down her throat. How apt!

And so, Word Winder arrived at my house and I challenged Joey to a game. By the way, the game's created by David Hoyt, who is the world's most syndicated word game creator.

My first impression of the board was that it is a word version of Pictureka - Instead of finding pictures, you look for words on the board.

There are three different coloured chips provided so either 3 players can pit against each other, or form 3 teams if you have more players. To win, all you need to do is to form words on the board from one end of the board to the other end, either bottom to top or side to side, WITHOUT breaking the link between the words.

Even though the game is supposed to be for 8 years old and above, I challenged 7-year-old Joey to a game. She took up my challenge with much gusto.

You can form the words in any direction at all as long as they link. So for example, I formed the word SHAPE as below:

In order not to break the link between my words, I have to find my next word that links to the previous word. The words I make can overlap with the previous word without using the same alphabet more than once in the same word. My opponent (Joey) cannot touch the alphabet I've placed my coloured chip on. So, to make it difficult for my opponent to reach the top of the board and win the game, I can block her way by forming words that uses alphabet in her path. I didn't tell Joey this tip till the end of the game, haha! So, that's Joey pondering and thinking about words she can form.

I have to say I am mightily impressed with Joey. She may not be able to spell many of the words, but she can see the alphabets available and guess that it can form a certain word. Then she checks with me on the spelling of the word she has in mind and most of the time, they can really be formed on the board! I think she might have a hidden talent for unscrambling words from random alphabets provided. The red chips are Joey's and mine's blue. You can see she was just one step behind me in the game! In fact, we played the game several times and she won me in some of them. *ashamed & proud all at the same time*

To make the game more challenging for adults to play against kids, you can add in your own rule such as 'Only three-letter words are allowed' or allow the use of dictionaries etc. Don't underestimate the ability of kids - Sometimes they can think of simple three-letter words just like that, while the adults are still scratching their heads! We adults make things too complicated sometimes, and it is an art to be able to think simple.

Of course, I helped Joey along the way when she got stuck, and took the opportunity to teach her new words as well. It was all very fun and easy, and I could tell that Joey enjoyed herself. It was a great learning tool!

With 16 boards and 32 sides, there are over 1 trillion combinations you can make out of them! This is definitely a good game that helps kids and adults improve their vocabulary and have a fun family time together.

Too bad Jayne is too young to play. She was a little sad she couldn't participate. =P

GIVEAWAY!

Emway Singapore will be giving away 3 sets of Word Winder for interested readers of The J Babies. All you need to do is to complete the following simple step:

Mandatory:

Leave me a comment on this entry (either via disqus or facebook comment) why you would like to win a set of the Word Winder (leave your email address as well for easy contacting), OR drop me an email at with your comment.

Not Mandatory but Nice to do:

Like & share this blog entry
Like The J Babies Facebook page

Closing date for submission is Friday, 25 Jan 2013!

I love visiting cafes, especially those with a distinct style or theme to it.

Some weeks back, hubby and I were out on a date without the kids, and we chanced upon this cafe called SHOTS on Ann Siang Hill. The cafe is bright with whitewashed walls,but what is distinct about it is that it is also an exhibition hall for Insta-Art. With the rise of instagram, insta-Artists and their artworks have started to gain popularity as well.

We had coffee & sandwiches + waffles there, while viewing the little 'gallery' on the walls. It is amazing how good instagram shots turn out sometimes. I say, it captures the essence of the moment better than some professional cameras do.

The menu is pretty simple with sandwiches, waffles with ice-cream, scones, pies, croissants, etc. The coffee's pretty good too.

I totally took this shot on my own with self-timer. =P

A rather nice place to chill on a quiet afternoon with a magazine in hand. :)

Speaking of which, ever since I got my new Samsung Note II and downloaded Instagram, I've been posting lots of photos. In a short span of one week, I've accumulated the following:

I am sure you know by now what a visual person I am. :) If you are on Instagram as well, follow me at klessislee. :)