Jayne is always singing or humming a song at home, and I think she has a nice and bright voice. :) The only thing is she cannot remember every song to perfection. Sometimes she remembers the chorus, sometimes she remembers the verse. It doesn't really matter because she would just come out with her own version and make everything sound like a complete song anyway.

This particular 'Good Morning' has obviously more lyrics than what she sang, but since she cannot remember all of them, she just keeps repeating them until the whole melody is completed. That's really fine too, you know.

The last line became 'Nice to see your SMELLY face.' =P

I was just having a conversation with a mummy friend who has two girls as well, and we both feel like we are already mummies of teenagers. Our elder daughters are both in Primary One this year, and even though they are only seven years old, they seem mature beyond their age.

To me, motherhood only gets harder and harder as the years go by. It used to be when my kids were still babies, it felt challenging and draining, having to deal with endless diaper-changes, milk-feeding and burping. The kids fell sick frequently, and I was always worried if they were drinking enough, sleeping enough and poo-ing enough. As the kids moved past that stage, I thought life would get easier, but that didn't happen. In fact, the sense of responsibility only became heavier because now that they understood more about life, I have to instil the right values into them, and hopefully mould their attitude and character in the right direction. That is the hardest part about motherhood, in my opinion.

When the kids were little, they would listen to me and it was easy to motivate them to obey my instructions. But as they grew older, the defiance streaks started to show and I now have to explain all my decisions in order to get them to follow what I want them to do. Motherhood now requires a higher level of wisdom, skills and technique. It's a whole new ball game altogether.

Joey started Primary One, and as all girls do, she has started to experience her fair share of 'I-friend-you-I-don't-friend-you'. She hangs around with a group of girlfriends every recess time, and within this group is the class monitor, who is also her BFF (For the misinformed, that means 'Best Friends Forever'). On a regular basis, and by that, I mean every few hours, the girls turn from BFF at school assembly to mortal enemies at recess time and back to BFF again by the time school ends for the day. When she gets home, she would tell me all the good and bad things her friends had done that day. Most of the time, it's complaining about this friend or that friend, or how upset she was because of a certain classmate. Frankly, it got me a little worried at the beginning and I even asked the teacher about it. I was wondering if she was struggling with social life in school! Eventually though, I realised that it's all part and parcel of a girly school life. I went through that myself as a kid, didn't I? Some counselling sessions had to be conducted on some nights, just so that she could understand why certain friends would behave or talk to her in a certain way, and helping her to get over some negative feelings. Now, milk-feeding and diaper-changing feel like child's play, literally.

To reinforce on the more stubborn stuffs like attitude and speech issues, I now have to engage in serious talks with Joey. Whenever an inappropriate behaviour is shown, I would point it out to Joey. At some points, I even became a nagging machine because she never listened after I said it for the first time. When I couldn't take it anymore, I would sit her down and try to tell her in all seriousness, hoping that the message gets across to her. This is of course a lot more effective than plain nagging, but definitely requires a lot more energy and careful choice of words. You see, motherhood is no longer so straightforward.

But this has also reminded me that motherhood is a high calling - One that comes with great responsibility and purpose. While I want to be a mother who can feed my kids and help them grow up healthier, I have a greater responsibility to nurture and groom them into outstanding individuals who can contribute to the society and become people who make a difference in the lives of others. Of course, underlying all those good values I hope to inculcate in them, I pray with all of my heart that they will grow in their love for God, for the church and for their family and friends.

I know while I think it's probably the hardest stage of motherhood now, I would look back a few years down the road and think that this is child's play. As the kids grow older and older, more and more challenges would come my way. I want to grow wiser, smarter and definitely more patient as a mum to tackle whatever comes my way, while concurrently enjoy myself in this role.

Told ya motherhood is serious business! No doubt about it.

The closest place from home we can get to Mother Nature to breathe in some fresh air and get some sunlight is the Woodlands Waterfront Park. The place is huge and spacious with a huge playground, and a jetty that extends all the way out to the sea. It's such a lovely place and my mood gets lifted up every time I go there.

Recently, I got to know that a new restaurant opened up at Woodlands Waterfront Park, and thought of checking out the place. Turned out, the restaurant is located right smack on the jetty itself! What totally blew us away that evening when we visited was the beautiful and glorious sunset sky. It was almost impossible to imagine that we could see such skies in Singapore! The sea was sparkling like diamonds too!

The restaurant is located at this junction of the jetty. There were so many people fishing on the jetty, even though the 'No Fishing' signs were everywhere! =P

We had to wait a while for our table, but I love the atmosphere in the air while waiting on the jetty.

The Rasa Istimewa Waterfront Restaurant is halal-certified, so many of the customers were Malays that day. Compared to Chinese, I feel that the Malays are more closely-knitted as families, and they always hang out in big family groups at such parks. Really heart-warming. :)

The restaurant usually keeps their windows open, so it has an alfresco feel. I personally liked it that way, because we can dine while feeling the sea breeze and people-watch. Really quite nice. :D That evening, one family complained that it was a little stuffy, so the boss ordered for all the air-con units to be switched on and closed all the windows, and the alfresco restaurant converted to a comfortable air-conditioned restaurant.

Sunday dinners with my family always make me feel happy & blissful. :)

Ordered some simple dishes, and I thought the dishes were pretty tasty!

Stir-fried green vegetables

Yam Basket

Salted Vegetables Soup

The skies got a lot more dramatic after our dinner. It was really beautiful, and I stood in awe of God's creation.

My most favourite photo of the evening. I feel so calm looking at this scenery. :)

Then one week later, we went back to the restaurant again to celebrate my mum's birthday! I love it that the restaurant serves a good selection of BBQ food, as my mum loves BBQ Stingray. I'd try their satays the next time round.

Tried different dishes that day. Hotplate toufu!

Hotplate beef with ginger & onions

French beans with spicy haybeehiam

BBQ stingy (The chili is good!)

Ice kacang

This may be a good supper place!

Rasa Istimewa Waterfront Restaurant
6A Admiralty Rd West, Woodlands Waterfront Park, Woodlands, Singapore 757445

Opening Hours:

Mon - Thu: 2:00 pm - 12:00 am
Fri - Sat: 3:00 pm - 1:00 am
Sun: 2:00 pm - 12:00 am

Sponsored Review

The kind folks at Swensen's sent over some vouchers for us to go check out their new 'Space Adventure Kid's Meal', and we enjoyed a nice meal with our good friends some weekends back. Love the ION branch - The dessert & ice-cream buffet bar as the centrepiece looks good!

The 'Space Adventure Kid's Meal' costs $9.50 each, and the kids can choose among a list of seven entrees, healthy side snacks and a wholesome fruit juice. Top up $1.50, and the kids can upgrade to Qoo Fuji Apple or White Grape. And for an additional nominal amount of $2.90, you can even add a Treasure Chest sundae or a Coit Tower Junior to the meal - Everything's served in paper Spaceship!

The kids are always excited to visit Swensen's especially because of the ice-cream treats at the end of the meal. :)

She's grinning because there are so many options to choose from! :)

Jayne chose the macaroni with tomato sauce & fried chicken nuggets, served with corn cup.

The portion's just right for my kid, but I think it might be too little for older kids in Primary school. I tasted the chicken and thought it tasted not bad.

Joey ordered cheese burger with french fries. My guess was that she made that choice mainly because it came with french fries. =.=

Looks not bad - Portion's quite okay because it's a full burger with meat patty & cheese.

The adults had a feast too! I've always loved the side dishes offered at Swensen's especially fried mushrooms and rodeo wings! Yum yums. :)

My friends ordered the black pepper pasta, and it looked not bad too!

Hubby and I had Ribeye steak - I enjoyed it!!! Done just the way I like it. :)

After a sumptuous meal, I had to order my all-time favourite Sticky Chewy Chocolate sundae! :) Love it as usual.

The kids enjoyed their sundaes as well - A sweet finish to our happy Sunday lunch. :)

I wish I could say that Jayne had a very happening birthday party in school, but the truth was she fell sick. :(

But since everything's been planned, we still went ahead with a simple birthday party in her school. She missed school that day, and we only turned up in school at the party time, which was after the kids' nap time. She couldn't really enjoy herself because she was obviously not feeling her best. But she still had fun, I believe. She enjoys the company of her friends so much, I'm sure she's happy to spend her birthday with them.

The moment we stepped into the school, her best friend in class - Huixin, came running towards her and hugged her tightly while saying 'Jaynnnnnnnneeeee'. It was soooooo sweet. :)

I was a little surprised at how well-behaved Jayne's class was, quite frankly. Aren't all four-year-olds rowdy and noisy and playful? When we were there, they didn't create a ruckus or make noise. They quietly watched us set up the cake and goody bags while whispering to each other. They obediently listened to their Teacher's instructions though everyone crowded around the cake and some were trying really hard to resist touching it. =P Such obedient kids - I was impressed!

Jayne's goody bags had princess photo cut-outs on front of the brown sandwich bags and secured with strings & flower felt buttons I bought from Daiso.

Jayne tells me many things about her friends in school everyday, so when I met them, I felt like I know them! I could even call them by names, which made them very bewildered indeed. =P

Even when they sang the happy birthday song, they were so gentle & angelic. They must be the most well behaved bunch of four-year-olds I've ever seen!

Jayne's cake was an ice-cream cake sponsored by Swensen's as well (Magadascar 3 series just like Joey's). The kids were unusually quiet  when eating their cakes - The teacher said it was their first time having ice-cream cake in school, and they were probably too busy savouring ice-cream! Hehe.

The kids probably needed time to warm up to me. Halfway through eating the cake, one boy turned to me and said, 'The cake is very cold.' I told him it's an ice-cream cake, that's why! He didn't look like he understood me. Probably thinking, 'Hello Auntie, this is cake, not ice-cream.' When I told one of the kids to quickly eat up his cake, otherwise it would melt, he said to me, 'If it melts, it'll become liquid cake!' - Very smart kids leh!

The cake was very yummy and several of the kids asked for 2nd helping. I guess kids can never have enough of ice-cream!

We haven't had the chance to celebrate her birthday with the family yet because she's still unwell. Praying that she'll recover soon and we can go have a celebration! Happy birthday again, babe! :)

Sponsored Review

When I first got to know that I will be reviewing the Philips PerfectCare Pressurized Steam Generator Iron (which comes with an ironing board as well), I frankly wasn't expecting much. I mean, how interesting can an iron be? I was expecting just another usual product review experience.

I cannot be more wrong.

Apparently, technology has advanced without my knowledge, and now, irons are able to perform much better, much faster and more economically. I instantly knew that this was no ordinary iron when I saw it for the first time:

I'm sure you now know what I mean.

The first thing you would notice about the Philips PerfectCare PSG iron is probably the water tank base. The iron comes with its own detachable 1.5-litre water tank that can support two hours of ironing without refilling. My mother-in-law's eyes totally lit up when she saw the iron with its own water tank. She had been telling me that only steam irons can iron those clothes with lots of creases due to machine wash. When she tried it on her very 'stubborn' clothes, the creases were flattened with almost no effort at all! I am glad to report that my mother-in-law is very pleased with the performance of the PerfectCare PSG iron. :P

Now if you are wondering if a high performer like this would utilize a lot of electricity, I am happy to tell you that the Philips PerfectCare iron is certified with the Philips Green Logo, which means it can reduce costs, energy consumption and even CO2 emissions! This means that you can iron the toughest fabrics using the least amount of time (No other pressurized steam generator iron is faster from start to finish). Not only will you be using lesser electricity (thus lower utility bill!), you are also doing a part for the environment. Win-win!

The Easy De-Calc knob is a hassle free & effective scale removal to extend the life of the steam generator. When there is a need to empty it, a button will light up. Pretty idiot-proof, and no need to keep track of when the emptying must be done.

With the OptimalTEMP Technology from the PerfectCare PSG iron, you can also use one setting for all types of clothes. That effectively means that you can now iron all ironable garments (silk, cashmere, wool, polyester etc) one after another, without having to wait or to adjust the temperature dial. This is so convenient and safe - No more burning a hole in your favourite top!

For an iron with such an impressive set up, I am sure you would expect that the ironing board is another thing to rave about. I have not seen such a broad ironing board before, quite frankly. And it's wonderful because I find the typical ironing boards a tad too small. Because of the large size, the Philips XL board shape is also ideal for ironing big items such as bed linen and tablecloths. It measures 45cm by 120cm!

With the unique ShoulderWing system, shirt ironing is easier than ever. This innovative system helps you iron shirts with little rearranging, saving you time and effort. The retractable ShoulderWing System can be opened and closed, depending on the type of garment to be ironed.

See how an entire garment can fit onto the board? I no longer have to iron my hubby's clothes one sleeve by one sleeve!

Even if I do that, there's ample space to spread out the fabric so that I can iron easily and conveniently.

There's still space for Baby Jayne to lean her chin on the board, as you can see! It must be quite comfortable, because the board cover is made of 100% cotton and is supported by foam and felt layers. This combination provides a comfortable and smooth ironing surface (and of course, comfortable leaning :P) P/S: When ironing is in progress, always keep the kids away!

Some other features of the ironing board, which made me feel that Philips had put much thought into the needs of the users:

Hanging rail for clothes - No need to make trips back & forth the cupboard during ironing! Just hang freshly-ironed clothes by the rack!

Child & Transport Lock - Child and transport lock prevents the board from accidentally collapsing while ironing and also keeps the board closed during storage. Very useful especially for families with active kids like mine!

XL Iron Tray - The stable and extra-large iron tray is perfect for steam generators. It is also heat resistant and can be safely used with steam irons. Again, safety is a priority.

So far, we are loving our PerfectCare PSG iron & Easy8 ironing board. It's made our ironing experience a lot more pleasant mainly because it gets the job done faster and easier! Anything that makes household chores easier deserves a big round of applause. 

The Philips PerfectCare PSG iron retails at S$699 (with a complimentary Easy8 ironing board worth $299). Available at leading electronics and departmental stores today!

P/S: I received a complimentary Philips PerfectCare iron & ironing board for purpose of the review. All opinions and comments are 100% my own.