The Star 2: Celebrating Close Bond with Grandparents

This article is a throw back from June 2015. Little Reya and my parents were featured in The Star 2 paper.

The article is about the bond that every grandparents and grandchildren have through all stages of life and how beautiful it can be. For Reya she is super lucky as she is growing up with the person who truly loves her whole heartedly. Unlike for me and my little brother who lives with the babysitter when my mom works.

Read on : http://www.star2.com/family/2015/06/12/celebrating-close-bonds-with-grandparents/

This article is dedicated for Little Reya.

Bye Bye Pacifier @ 4.5 years old

Little Reya used to thumb suck since in womb. When we did 3D ultrasound scanning the sonographer told us see your girl is thumb sucking. That was cuteness overloaded and we didn't realise we will have rough journey with that habit.

Week 1 after my delivery i realise that little reya's urge for thumb sucking is so strong that literally i had to breast feed her continuously The urge to thumb suck and after so many sleep less nights i resorted to the much difficult decision which is the pacifiers. I have to admit that it was easy when she were using her paci and she slept well through night. She seems more calm and happy there after. Little did i know she will continue to have it longer than what we have expected.

I have tried to wean her off several time but often she will be crying continuously and being me i will always gave in. I would say that she were so obsessed with her paci. We were nearly gave up with the weaning idea altogether. I have tried all the methods listed online turning cold turkey, making it taste bad with oil and poking holes on it. Despite all the effort above i still failed as she did not buy in to the idea of letting it go and nothing works.

Lately we realise she developed a habit to having the paci all the time.. seeing a 4 year old toddler running around with paci is really not a good sight and deep down in my heart i feel really bad and guilty to introduce the paci for her when she was young.

Everyone we met will ask, she is such a big girl and why she still having paci and we have to keep telling everyone that she is sleepy, its her nap time and all sort of stories. I don't understand why parents/community nowadays wants everything so perfect with the children to the extent that undue pressure is on the kids. For me no one graduated from university wearing a diaper and using a pacifier.

So the key here is when the time comes they will know they will have to let go their baby moments. For Reya it was so magical that she just let it go in one day and without any fuss or cries. We were so surprised that she decided she don't need that anymore.

How it stops??

We went for a holiday and once be back everything was normal and usual with Reya. After few days, Little Reya had some sores in her mouth. We went to the Dr. and been prescribed with some ointments. She also had to drink lots of water. I have told her that she has to let go her paci and the sores will go on its own. She just slept through the night without asking for her paci at all.

After than that day she did not ask for paci at all and i gladly packed it and throw away all of them. Now Little Reya is pacifier free. I am also glad that i didn't force through it and cause unnecessary trauma and stress on her. Weaning process will be lots more easier if the kids them selves are ready and trust me the time will come.

There is an opinion diverge where according to an article by www.parents.com:  Ending to pacifiers :

Children willingly will be ready to let go their pacifiers around age 3 and 4 years old. So parents out there, once your child is potty trained and weaned than pacifiers will be the last thing to go. According to Dr. Dowell it is tolerant attitude.
Experts have agreed that they are entirely soothing for babies and limit it once child is 2 years old and eliminating it by 4 years old to avoid dental problems. Beyond that there is no hard and fast rules to say bye-bye paci.

I'm happy that i have let Reya to be who she is and didn't force her to let it go as each children have different level of sucking urge and ways to manage stress.

As a parent i knew i have made a right choice for me and my awesome little girl!!!

Parenting Skills: 5 Important Advice

Being a parent is not easy at all. Most of the time our deeds and way of doing things gives an impact to our surroundings and members of family. Nevertheless,  little ones who will be affected the most by our behaviors. It tend to impact them in way that they grow up.

Following the flow of hustle bustle of life and often overlooked on whether we are showing good examples in being a better human to our children. Lets refresh and make sure to hold on to the best advice by the famous Sadhguru.

1) Creating good ambience. Good atmosphere for nurturing the little human beings is by giving them the love and support needed that will automatically let the intelligence in them grow. Right ambience here consist of little sense of joy, love, care and discipline.

2) Knowing what the child needs and avoid putting them under due stress and hardship. We can't be the parent who wants our children achieve what we missed in our life and also the parents who pamper and make the children useless and powerless to live in this challenging world. We have to practice moderateness in setting expectations on them. Know what inspires them and what the wants in life

"Once, there was a yogi who belonged to a certain tradition called Kashmir Shaivism. This is one of the seven forms of yoga. It is a very powerful form, but it has mostly remained in the Kashmir area, so it acquired that name. One day, this yogi saw a cocoon which was slightly cracked, and the butterfly inside was really struggling to come out – the cocoon shell was too hard. Usually, the butterfly struggles constantly for almost forty-eight hours to come out of the cocoon. If it does not come out, it will die. The yogi saw this and out of his compassion he used his nail and opened the cocoon so that the butterfly could come free. But when it came out, it could not fly. It is that struggle to break out of the cocoon which empowers the butterfly to use its wings and fly. What is the use of a butterfly that cannot fly? A lot of people, in what they think is love for their children, have made their children like this. The children don’t fly in their life." ~ Sadhguru

3) To try and learn from children. This is very meaningful and deep. I often carried out in pretext of being her teacher rather than enjoying the moments with her. There are lot of things in my bucket list that i wanted to do with her during toddler years which i have still missed. Its good that sometimes we let go and be like them.. just enjoy the moment and be happy.

4) Just let them be.. oh yeah.. i would say i failed in this. When we raise the children it have to be in a way that they should be independent and never have a need for a parent. But Little Reya will be always tagging along with me most of the time. Though she is 4 years old now, she still practically awaits for me in front of bathroom some times for me to finish my bath and plays with her.

5) Last but not the least and as said always be a joyful parent and transform own self. Avoid tensions, anger, fear and jealousy. Its good to change yourself before changing how you want your child to be and it can be done with full of wisdom.

For more detailed write up on this awesome parenting skills, please do visit: http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/relationships/parenting-advice-skills/.

Thank you for reading!

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Recently we have realised our plants in garden not growing well. All the leaves looked eaten and when we checked we found so many caterpillars. As usual curious Little Reya wanted a closer look. We managed to catch a few and put it in a bowl full of leaves for her to observe as it grows in to pupa and butterflies eventually.

Huge one here

Put 'em in a bowl for our observation 

We continued to learn on life cycle of  butterflies throughout the day. Included in our lesson is the Grolier's I Wonder Why book which has nice pictorial explanation on the butterflies life cycle.

We did'nt manage to see all the caterpillars to grow into a beautiful butterfly as they managed to crawl out from the bowl.. Little Reya was a disappointed but i can tell that this kind of activities has nurtured her ability to observe and think creatively.

Fun Ways To Teach Toddler to Spell and Write Their Name

Recently Little Reya is so interested to learn spelling and reading. So this week we were all out to try few fun ways of learning to spell her name.

Puffy Coloring - Use some all purpose flour, a drop of food coloring and mix well in water. Not too runny or thick. Use the sponge to dot the alphabet with colored flour. While doing this it helps them to recognise letter the spelling even after completing the activity.

Ice Cream Name- print out some name printable activity. I usually source my activities for Little Reya through totschooling.net. They do have awesome collections of activities for toddlers that are printable.

I've got the ice cream sheet and cut out for Little Reya. She paste it on another paper while spelling her name out.

Salt Writing- Sprinkle some salt on a tray and use spoon to level it. Reya uses her finger to write on the salt. Beside learning to spell she did  experience the course texture of the salt and the taste too.

My Name Flower Garden- This activity is also from TOTSchooling. Where we created a small flower garden that contains Little Reya's name. I got her to arrange the flowers as accordance to her name and display the pot near her play area. Forgot to snap some pictures for this one..

Writing on Board- We use mini easel and magnetic alphabets to memorise her name

4 Days Spring Tour In Seoul, Korea

Holiday time.. Mr hubs is quite a traveler. He loves to travel and yeah bring us too where ever he goes. This time it is Seoul, South Korea.  It is the starting of spring with chill weather from 0 degree (early morning & night) to 17 degree (late morning and afternoon).

We were travelling in a group of 5, including my mom in law and sister in law. I would say Seoul is the top destiny travellers choose to go mainly for its food, fashion, cosmetic and skincares and also for the fascinating culture.

What i dislike about the travelling is the packing part. Of course to travel with Little Reya i have to be extra careful to ensure all here needs and necessity taken care of. I have packed extra milk packets, biscuits, bottled food and some medications for her.

Since the weather is going to be cold, we have also bring along her winter jacket, long john and sweater. Usually i will pack maximum gears to travel with toddler. Its to ensure we have her favourite book, food and little toy to keep her happy.

We booked our stay at MyeongDong and would say the hotel is 7/10. It is value for money and in strategic location. On our arrival to hotel, we left our bags and just walk around to main tourist destinations. Namsan Tower, mountain, Cheongyeam Stream, Myeongdong's famous night market. All within walking distance;-)

Day 2 onwards we booked Tour Guide service from Top Korea Tour https://www.facebook.com/topkoreatour/?fref=ts

I would highly recommend this tour and the guide Mr. Juno Lee! Such an awesome person and he did go that extra mile to ensure we are having fun the entire trip.

Our Itinerary were as follows:

Day 1 (Day 2)
Guard Changing at Gyeongbokgung Palace - Gyeongbokgung Palace - Samcheongdong Street - Bukchon Hanok Village - Lunch - Insadong Alley - Itaewon Shopping - Ehwa street Shopping.

Day 2 (Day 3)
Garden of Morning Calm - lunch - Nami Island - Petit France

Tour charges are inclusive of:

Vehicle + Driving Tour Guide + Gas / Parking Fee
Complimentary Mineral Water throughout the day

We made some last minute changes and add on to the itinerary base on suggestions by our guide Mr. Juno.

We managed to cover Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Dongdaemun Night Market, and Jogyesa Temple.

Little Reya enjoyed most of the places but didnt want us to snap her photograpgh...(hmmm purposely) she liked to see us annoyed with her actions nowadays.

Our Photos:

DDP. Little Reya is hiding 

Guard Changing Ceremony in Gyeongbokgung Palace

Nope. Little Reya is not there ;-) 

It's already blooming in Jogyesa Temple

Reya's Birthday Celebration Preparation

Recap: Disney Junior Birthday Book for April 2014

Its Little Reya's birthday month. As usual hubs  and i were excited all over and making all sort of arrangements to make the day even more special. This year we managed again to slot in birthday wish through Disney Junior Asia - Reya's all time favorite channel (will upload the new video soon). Birthday book wishes will be on air frequently. Each time Little Reya sees her photo on television she will be so happy and all smiles.

Since her birthday falls on school day, we plan to celebrate at her school with all her classmates. We custom order her favorite pink mickey cake, pizza and some goodies pack that contain milo, mini coco crunch and cadbury mini chocolates.

Well as previous years the celebration will continue for the whole day with some flower bath after back from school, temple visit and this year a special visit to Siddhartan Care Center.

Yay!! can't wait to celebrate our dear daughter's birthday on 8 April 2016..

Will post some celebration photos soon!!

USANA Supplements Malaysia

Hello everyone.. Hope you guys are happy and healthy as always. This post has nothing to do with Little Reya's activities.  It is more on a supplement that i recently came accross that can help us to stay active and energised to carry on with our day to day chores/work.

USANA supplements slowly getting attention of those who longing for supplement that gives out full benefit, goodness and at its highest quality.

One set of the supplements that is too good not to try are the Essentials. It contains vitamin, mineral and antioxidant. AO Pro Vitamin and Antioxidant Supplement and Chelated Mineral- Multi Mineral Product. Every Adult can take this to complement a healthy diet.

RM 202/84 tablets

As we grow older antioxidants and minerals are most crucial elements that our body needs. Human bodies naturally produces free radicals and antioxidant to counteract their damaging effects. However, in most cases, free radicals outnumber the naturally occurring antioxidants. in order to maintain the balance continual supply of external sources of antioxidants is necessary in order to obtain maximum benefits in neuralising the body.

Antioxidants plays important roles to skin health and immune system support. Good amount of these vitamins, mineral and enzymes must comes for one's daily diet. Boosting your antioxidant can help to provide added protection for the body against heart problems, memory problems, mood disorders, immune system problem and eye problems.

So parents out there please do take care of health for betterment of the family. 

Drop an email to iswari_101@yahoo.com for more information. 

Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park

Little Reya wanted to see a live frog, euww. I was curious, why on earth does she wants to watch a frog and particularly a green one😩??

Ok where could I find one, a frog display?? I'm not sure whether they might have it in a zoo or other animal farm but remembered various types of frog kept as exhibit in Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park ( I have visited this park last when I was in secondary school). The park used to have the world's largest frog.

This park is located in vicinity of the ever beautiful Lake Garden. It's main entrance is at Jalan Cenderasari. Here is the location map:

Though settled in the heart of bustling Kuala Lumpur, it was serene and cool place to visit. Paradise in city i would say. There are thousands of butterflies and other small insects kept in an environment that is as close to its original habitats.

Little Reya was so happy to get to see so many colorful butterflies around her and continued to ask when she can see the frog.

The park was very well kept and its tranquility was marvelous. They do have some other animals kept in large aquarium, such as long neck turtle, alligator fish and Malayan Horned frog. We walk around the park and they do have ample seating area around the park if one wish to sit back to enjoy nature and butterflies.

For Reya it was an educational trip where she gets to see unique insects, butterfly life cycle and lots of colorful butterflies. They do have frog but only one type which is the Malayan Horned frog. Not the green colored frog that Reya wanted to see, but some how its a frog thus wish full filled ;-)

Kids can learn on world of insects at the educational display room that houses variety of insects alive and the framed pictures of it.

The admission fee:

Adult RM 22
Children RM 11 (2-12 years old)
Video Camera RM 4

Malaysians

Adult (mykad) RM 11
Children (mykid) RM 6
Family RM 34 ( 2 adults & 2 kids)

Identification card (myKad/ myKid) is needed to get discounted rates. Below are some pictures taken during our trip there recently.

Lecturer on work during our trip (he's my bro) explaining Life Cycle of Butterfly

Curious on the Man Faced Bug in the Container 

Thank you for reading

Pretend Plays: The Good Side

Pretend playing is Reya's full time job nowadays. She starts her pretend play the moment she wakes up and gets her partner (daddy) ready to play. It is often funny and joyful to watch but how if it goes beyond few hours non-stop (frustrates and tiring ;-(). She often plays cashier, mommy who drops son to school, teacher and traveler. Yeah, she drags her luggage bag and create a waiting area before boarding the air craft. Since this is at beginning stage and we rarely encourage her to play she creates her own props and we just participate in the play as per her instructions on how to play.

Pretend plays are the most valuable learning experiences a child can have. Pretend plays or imaginary plays make the child to be like some one else. It is a huge leap to their understanding and learning experience. After all it is not just ABCs, Maths and language. It is something beyond, that helps to build their confidence level and creativity.

Lets check out the benefit of pretend plays:

Thus embrace it and trust me some where it will stop and you will be having a child that has grown up and has their own busy world. But how much pretend plays actually they need is a huge question at our home.. I swear that we do get tired easily with the non stop hours of pretend plays but it definitely pay off to know that our little one is working very hard to grab new learning experience through playing. Here i came across an useful article about pretend plays:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/tired-of-playing-pretend-with-her-daughter/2014/02/04/9ff29360-89d3-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html

Cheers!!