Christy @ Kidsrsimple, Author at Kids 'R' Simple

Managing the Forgetfulness Monster

It’s long been known that women become forgetful once they have been through pregnancy. I have been through thrice. Will that make me 3 times more forgetful?

9 months after delivery, I have much problem remembering things. Below are some frustrating examples:

I can’t remember where I’ve kept things the day before.
I can be in the middle of a conversation and stop short of remembering what I want to say.
I can’t remember what I am searching for after filtering out my emails by a certain name.
I can be concentrating on doing a task, and forget about it when I return from a conversation with a peer.
I’ll walk into a room and forget what I want to find

This makes me rather frustrated with myself. I feel less competent. I wonder if I am suffering from some health problems. Has this something to do with my earlier stress state? Am I still suffering from too much fatigue? Have I allow excessive stress to creep in again and my brain is protesting while I am still oblivious to the warning signs?

A good friend told me that I probably have too much worries at the back of my mind with such thoughts working unconsciously. Kel said I have too much nitty gritty details on my mind such that my memory card is more than full. Now, I am worried because it is affecting much of my daily life.

I need to find some ways to manage this forgetfulness:

1. Jotting down

At work, I jot down information fast and furious before I turn my head and that information vanished in the air. It really literally happens that way now. On my way home, when I sort out some home and weekend schedule, I will jot down notes in my Galaxy calendar, or in Evernote.

2. Eating well

I am eating a balanced diet but I think I need more brain foods. A search on the internet shows up the following brain foods that boost memory and I was heading to the supermarket to get some of these before I even finished reading up:

Salmon, sardines and herring – rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are essential for brain function
Blueberries, pomegranate drink – high anti-oxidant properties that prevent the brain from the damage of free radicals. These foods can delay dementia and age-related conditions.
Avocadoes – high levels of monosaturated fats that boost the heart and blood flow to the brain for healthy brain function.
Nuts and seeds – high in vitamin E with benefits that correspond with less cognitive decline as you grow older.
Whole-grains like oatmeal, wholemeal bread, etc – promotes cardiovascular health which promotes blood flow to all organs including the brain of course. Healthy blood flow to the brain promotes healthy brain function which includes boosting memory.
Beans – stabilize glucose (blood sugar) levels. The brain is dependent on glucose for fuel.

3. Upkeep my blog

Perhaps I’ll forget much of my kids growing up years. I may forget the joy, the laughter, the challenges, the tears. I want to re-read all my blogs when I grow old and when dementia sinks in. Hopefully I’ll still remember I have a blog and its URL.

4. Sleeping well

I know I will not be sleeping well with the kind of schedule in our house around the baby. But I will have to work towards an earlier sleep time. I will have to spend earlier quality evening time with all the kids without being disturbed over dirty floors and unwashed dishes. That means I need to bring their nights out earlier to 1030pm from the current 11+pm which is rather late for young children. Then, I will be able to go to bed before 11pm which allows me to sleep for a continuous 4-6 hours before the baby wakes up for night feed. This should get better as the baby grows up.

5. Take things slow

I am an impatient person and one who wish to do everything perfectly in the fastest time possible. I need to change that to lessen my load on my body and brain. It has taken me years to learn to slow down and sadly I have not been successful in it. It’s all about mindset change and a determination to slow my pace. Maybe I should think along the line of aging faster if I continue a fast pace life. Hey! Maybe that’ll help!

This forgetfulness has led me to understand my 85 years old grandma more as we can see her dementia sets in day by day. I don’t mind repeating things to her and every time she sees me with the baby, it’s as if she sees him for the first time and there she’ll ask me again how many children I have now. She cannot control dementia and it’s important that we understand this and be patient with her.

It’s no fun forgetting things. While we can still control things and before old age renders us helpless, we should take good care of ourselves, have a good lifestyle, eat well, sleep well and maintain a happy and positive mind, hopefully to delay aging and its related inconveniences.

Do you have bouts of forgetful boos boos to share?

Yoghurt Cheese Cake for the little ones

The last time I made a cheese cake was 5 yrs ago on XX’s 3rd birthday. It was an oreo cheese cake. Recently on my favourite parenting magazine Young Parents, I saw a recipe on Yoghurt Cheese Cake which has recipe suitable for babies. I decided to try it with a little twist done to suit my older kids instead. I am still quite careful with what goes into my 9mth old’s little tummy for now.

Here’s the recipe:
Yoghurt Cheese Cake

Ingredients
10-12 Digestive Biscuits
125g of Butter
250g of Cream Cheese
3 tbs Honey
5 pieces of dried Apricots
2 Apples peeled and cored
75g Strawberry Yoghurt
10 pieces of Blueberries (mashed)

How to make:

Line a baking tin with clingwrap.

To make crust, mix unsalted butter with crushed digestive biscuits

Line the base of baking tin with the mixture, cover with clingwrap and freeze for an hour

Mix cream cheese, mashed blueberries, yoghurt and honey

Scoop the mixture onto the crust and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs

To make puree, steam apples and apricots for 15 min, and blend

Put puree topping on top of cheese cake or serve aside (I served the puree aside with the cheese cake instead, as my kids prefer to decorate with remaining blueberries and not so pretty strawberries as shown here. I think with the bright orange puree as topping, the cake should look much more enticing.)

As this was made on Father’s Day, it’s for Kel in name but made for the little ones instead. It turned out that both XX and YH love the cake so much, they keep on saying it is the best cake they’ve ever eaten! “Isn’t it terrific, Papa??” I would have made this a thousand times to hear this from them again! Kel, their Papa, however preferred the oreo cake, well, too bad, dear. You bet I’ll be making this cake again, eermm… maybe not a thousand times… 🙂

HAPPY PAPA DAY!

My son broke his 2 front teeth

My son, YH broke his 2 front teeth last weekend. He was playing catching with his cousins and sister, with his dad keeping a watch on his…ipad.. and raising his head every now and then. Suddenly, cries of pain were heard and blood stained YH’s mouth and soon both his palms were bloody too. It happened that YH charged through the bush like a little bull to catch his cousins, and somehow tripped over and knocked his 2 front teeth. One of the teeth bent inwards, while the other was extremely shaky. His lips were bruised and poor boy, it was definitely a rub on the wound that he had a couple of ulcers in the mouth prior to this incident and was already facing much difficulty eating. Poor boy! When he was back to his cousin’s house, he was sobbing so uncontrollably, I didn’t even think this sobbing belonged to my son. I was with the baby all the while and missed the entire episode.

Kel was good in coaxing YH to wash his blood-stained mouth, but not before a long hour had passed. When he had stopped his hysteria and finally fell asleep out of exhaustion, we took a peep at his half-open mouth to assess the damage. Well, there was only one thing to do, that is, to bring him to my friend who is a dentist and have her extract out his 2 upper central incisors.

The next day, my dentist friend slotted us into her busy appointment schedule. YH was a brave boy. While sitting on the dentist chair, he never flinch for once, and to consider this was his first dental experience! (I guess I won’t have to be so worried about taking him to the dentist in the future anymore!) After the extraction, however, he refused to bite on the cotton gauze which was meant to stop the bleeding, for fear it would be painful even though we all knew the most painful part was over. It was only then he cried on his dad’s lap. My heart went out to him.

The lucky thing is that the permanent teeth seemed to have a long way to go before they’ll be out. Hence, there is less chance of misalignment of the new teeth due to the knock impact.

Well, perhaps no one knows, but it is me who seem to be the most affected by this whole incident of YH losing his 2 front incisors. In fact, I must have had that worried look on my face because YH saw through me with my heartache.

Me: YH… you.. look so cute with that hole in your mouth. (I managed a smile)

YH: Mummy, I know what you are thinking about. You must be thinking I am so pitiful.

I lunged forward and hugged him tightly, with tears in my eyes.

Though, I take comfort in knowing he is lucky to be losing only his milk teeth, I still feel that to lose his teeth unnaturally is like having some part of him amputated. I wish to turn back the clock. I wish I had not let him go and play with his cousins. I wish I had been there and things might turn out differently had I paid attention to how he played. But we all know kids being kids, will fall and hurt, and we can’t be by their side all the time nor prevent accidents from happening even with our eyes glued to them every second. And I know it must be a Mummy’s thing to feel heartache and Daddy’s thing to feel resilience in YH. He shrugged and remarked that YH will now have a courageous story to be retold again and again.

Yh is by nature a cheerful boy. We all know he has low threshold of pain, but we also learnt that he is a brave boy. The moment the cotton gauze was taken out of his mouth after 45 minutes, he was all smiles and running all over again with his sister. And, we treated him to his favourite Mac Donald’s ice-cream.

Importance of Family Routines from young

8:30am – wake up and wash up

9:00am – breakfast

9:30 – pre-school

6:00 – free play

7:00pm – dinner

8:00pm – free play

9:00pm – practise piano

9:30pm – milk and brush teeth

10:00pm – story time

10:30pm – lights out

The above is the daily school day routine for YH, 6 years old and also for his sis, XX in Primary 2 from dinner time onwards.

Why are routines so important?

Children need to be living predictable structured lives. They will encounter fear if they do not know what is happening next. Implementing routines in the daily lives of little ones enable them to expect what is to come next. They feel secured, knowing what will happen at certain times of the day/night. They can look forward to a certain activity. They can be independent, knowing what to do after dinner, and carry out activities on their own.

Research has shown that families with good family routines have healthier, happy and better behaving children. In fact, they tend to do better in school. Good routines, may sometimes come with some flexibility. For instance, a special night out to visit grandma or a newborn nephew may disrupt the entire evening routine, yet, is seen to be a welcome disruption.

If you have watched the Super Nanny series on television (click on the link for good parenting advice), you would have noticed that one of her favourite ways to “rescue” families with misbehaving kids is to implement routines.

Family routines in our house

1. Mealtime is a family time

We aim to eat together for dinner daily. This is relatively achievable since our children are young and always by our side. At times, daddy is not able to join us due to work commitment, but we’ll definitely eat together on the weekends for most meals. Kel and I place importance in family mealtimes and hope to continue this even when our children get married and hopefully they come home for dinner with us every weekend.

2. Bedtime story-telling

My kids are young and they enjoy the nightly bedtime story-telling. One day, they are going to grow up into teens and may find bedtime story-telling childish. I am trying to prolong this as much as possible. I love reading to them. As long as they still want to hear me enact the stories in the books, I will do so happily. My hope is that they will take this enjoyment with them as fond memories when they grow up and do the same for their children.

3. Groceries shopping

I love groceries shopping. On most weekend evenings, we push the baby’s stroller with the baby inside, with his elder siblings running along or scooting along to the neighbourhood supermarket. I love to see the kids talking and laughing and running up grass slopes along the way. I love to see the baby with arms out-stretched and laughing along. When we reach the supermarket, the kids enjoy weighing the greens and putting milk cartons into the trolley. After Kel’s wonderful skills of packing a full load into the “car” (you guess it right! It’s the good old stroller), I carry the baby in the Baby Bjorn carrier and we walk back home. These happy moments will definitely go to the fond memory bank too, that is, when our kids grow up.

4. Weekend family outings

My kids have only one enrichment class to go for the entire week, i.e Yamaha Junior Course on every Saturday morning. We find one enrichment class a perfect commitment that is manageable for them and for us, parents. Because we no need to ferry them from one class to the other (at least for now), we are able to schedule swimming, outdoor playgrounds, visit to the museums and enjoy a day with wonderful family bonding time. When our kids grow up, such outings may get lesser but till then, we shall enjoy while it lasts.

5. Weekly dinner at Grandpa’s

This weekly dinner at my in-laws place started way way back to the times kel and I were in courtship. Now that we have 3 kids, we still make an effort to free up Sunday nights to go to their house for dinner. They always cook sumptuous dishes no matter how tired they may be. Such family gatherings are important to us and important for our kids to bond with their grandparents. Again, we hope that they will continue this tradition when Kel and I grow old.

Do you have family routines too?

Children’s Seasons 2013 – Singapore Art Museum

Children’s Season has been held for several years till now. Each year there are many interesting activities organized for the children to introduce the Singapore museums to them in various fun ways. This year in 2013, it is held from 18 May to 30 June.

The first of the museums that we visited is the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). When we reached the SAM, we were re-directed to another nearby building called “SAM at 8Q” where this Art Garden for the Children’s Season is held. There are in total 4 levels of art galleries and exhibition to be explored.

Level One – The Enchanted Garden City by Sandra Lee
Here is a little play area with colouring activities for the kids. This gallery mimics many fairytales with an Asian twist. Remember to enjoy the wall paintings. One of them has an Indian version of Rapunzel and an Indian prince rescuing her on an elephant!

Level Two – Around the world in eighty worlds by Vicente Delgado
The artist wants visitors to explore this gallery with their imagination and see things from different views. For instance, what may seems like a doorway is actually an outline of a cat’s face with lamps as eyes. Do you see its whiskers too?

Kids’ activities

You can get this Kaleidoscope kit for your kids by making a small donation of minimum $2.

This is how the finished Kaleidoscope looks like.

Art through fun games

You have to explain to your kids on these art work which may look ordinary but they have much meaning behind them if you observed how they are made and displayed with its orientation intent.

This bird moves when you pull a string below.

Turning the spiral eye wheel

This chair is a weird one with collapsed legs.

These few faces are not complete, you have to use strings to complete different expressions on the faces using your imagination.

String puppet

Mirror fun

Level Three – Stellar Cave II by Julien Salaud

This glowing constellation of stars is a beautiful and stunning work made entirely of screws and thread!

The Incredible Magical Expanding Room by Mojoko and Shang Liang

This room transforms when you speak through the microphone with soft and loud voices. It really intrigues even the baby!

Kids’ acitivities – threading the screws to form pictures

Les Reves Engloutis – Glossy Dreams in Depths by Stephane Blanquet

This gallery is a little abstract. It is a room filled with fantasy and dreams and the artist wants to encourage children to overcome their fears through the fun experience in here.

Look at this revolving wall with kids on the bed. They are taken into a 3-D environment behind this wall.

Even the baby has fun!

This dreams-filled room has kids’ activities.

The children create masks.

Level Four – Love. Revolve the World by Sun Yu-li

This is an amazing art work by the artist Sun Yu-li and 750 students.

What is interesting is the entire piece is drawn by a dot plus a line and plane concept.

While we always think that the Singapore Art Museum only showcases masterpieces from various artists, we never knew that art can be exhibited in such engaging ways! Our kids enjoyed themselves tremendously through the many activities organized for them. While exploring the activities, they get to appreciate art unknowingly. I feel that this is a great place for families to explore on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Admission: free for Singaporeans, PR and children aged 6 and below or

$10 (Adult), $5 (Students & Seniors aged 60 and above)

When: 17 May – 1 September 2013

Time: 10am – 7pm (Mon – Sun) 10am – 9pm (Fri)

Where: Singapore Art Museum at 8Q

Website: http://www.museums.com.sg