Go to Photofunia and try it out yourself. Go on. You'll find yourself ironically on a model's outfit, on Vogue's cover page and on Angelina Jolie's t-shirt!
After sending Asher to his first Shichida Method enrichment class, San Yi and us drove to E!Hub at Downtown East. The entertainment centre has been opened for months but none of us has visited it! On approaching the venue, we were awed by its Cadbury branded Ferris Wheel near its main entrance. This place sure looks fun! We hurried in to check out its ticket price. Our jaws dropped when we heard its charges. $6.50 for 4 min ride! That means it costs $1.625 per min. God! Even more expensive than Singapore Flyer which costs only $0.983 per min! I'd rather splurge the money on the observation wheel which offers more aerial and breathtaking views. I wanted to send Rynae to Explorer Kids but was also turned off by its steep ticket pricing. $22/child/entry/hour and each adult has to pay $1.50 to get in. I refuse to succumb to this extortion. We didn't stay long there as there simply wasn't much to entertain us. How could such a place sustain if there isn't interest and human crowd? I'll bet with my last dollar that the tenants' accounts will be seeing red soon. 
Children's Day this year is eventful. It not only coincides with Hari Raya, it is also the day to burn bigger holes in our pockets as SBS increased their fares by 4 cts, SPH increased their prices for some of its newspaper and electricity tariffs increased by 22%. Yes! All on 1st October! What fortuitous timing huh! 
Banzai! Rynae's school is having a Children's Day celebration today and kids are encouraged to wear party or ethnic clothes. Mummy borrowed a Yukata from Da Yi so as to dress Rynae up as a (counterfeit) Nihonjin. Isn't she cute? Our party-goer came back with 2 bags of goodies - 1 with lots of tidbits and the other with gifts. There were gifts from Teacher Meena, Teacher Dila, a cup from Vitagen, a book of stickers and a souvenir mug with tooth brush and towel from the school! What a happy, fruitful day.
Recently, grandma's been supplying me with organic spinach bought from Yong Xu Organic Enterprise in Chong Pang market. I found out that this stall's actually pretty famous amongst north-landers! Several of the people I spoke to has or is still buying from this stall. Few days back, on my way to a hair salon, I passed by an organic shop in Yishun central. It is actually the main retail shop of the mentioned organic enterprise! Who would expect an organic shop in a neighbourhood? Of course I set my foot inside. 
Our friend has been requesting me to buy Play-Doh for her for the longest time but I wasn't too keen to get her one. Honestly, I don't really like playing with Play-Doh as it has a pungent smell, can be messy and it also irks me to see the nice colours get mixed together. Not only that. The dohs get stuck in my nails and it's as uncomfortable as... as G-string in the butt-crack! All said, I did eventually get her one during recent Metro's 20% storewide sales. It wasn't so smelly as what I remembered it to be. Its texture was also much smoother and nicer to the touch now. The set came with 2 doh colours - blue and yellow. It was another educational activity for Rynae to learn colour mixing as she got green (accidentally) from mixing the 2 colours!
The most common thing that people comment about a child is his or her resemblance - looks more like mummy or more like daddy. I've hence heard countless remarks but have no consensus todate. Some said Rynae looks like daddy, some said like me and others said she has her own look. I came to know of MyHeritage Look-alike Meter that claims to use state-of-the-art face recognition technology to determine the resemblance of a child. Out of curiosity, I gave the 'test' a shot. Waiting for the result was like waiting for quick pick - kinda hopeful and anxious. The first outcome announced that she looks more like me by 22%! Unbelieving its technolody, I ran it twice. This time using a different set of pictures. Still, it claimed that she looks like me by 10%. Somehow true I agree because I do see some resemblance of me and her. She's lucky to inherit some of my beauty! Wahahaha...
The dust hardly settled after appalling the world with its shoddy tyres and lead-contaminated toys and now China has got into another tainted milk scandal. Like many others, Mummy combed the fridge and cupboard, study all labels and threw away suspicious food products made from China that has milk as an ingredient. Not many luckily. Well, they might not be dairy products but I'm not taking any chances! Rynae loves Vitasoy and she'll have to live without it for a while... all thanks to Sanlu! God bless the sick children speedy recovery.
Using toilet rolls to make pencil holder is not a novelty and you could have done it in your younger days too. It is almost inevitable to produce one when your child starts owning stationeries. So, we make ours this afternoon - just a simple structure that serves its purpose of keeping her writing materials in place.
I went back to Kiddy Palace to grab a box of tangram (SP $4.90) after thinking about it for several days. I have no intention to purchase it at first because I reckon Rynae would be able to form many figures creatively at this age. Furthermore, the suitability of this game, as written on the box is for ages 5 and up!
After mooting about the usability of it, I decided to give the game rule a twist by copying some easy figures onto pieces of paper and ask Rynae to try to solve the puzzles with the tangrams instead. That'll bring the difficulty level down yet serving its brain drilling purpose. She requested for help to complete some parts of the figures but also did manage to fit some herself.
Every 3 weeks, Rynae's school will select a story theme and base most of its activities on it. I found out from her that her teacher has read 3 billy goats gruff to the class for this term. Coincidentally while web surfing one day, I slipped into The Toy Maker, a wonderful website with lots of FREE paper crafts and found some paper models on this fairy tale. 
For the past few weeks, Mummy has been reading up on Mid-Autumn Festival Folklore. There were a dime a dozen websites about the myth of Chang Er and Hou Yi and the uprising against the Mongols in China, in the 14th century. The more I read, the more baffled and confused I became. There were so many versions of the Chang Er and Hou Yi myth!
I borrowed 1 English, 1 bi-lingual, 1 Chinese and 2 VCDs that are Mid-Autumn Fest related from NLB to read and play to Rynae but these weren't what I am looking for actually. They were either too wordy, too out-of-context or too boring. 
Remember the chillis and onions that Rynae and Mummy planted? After 2 weeks of futile wait, there are still no signs of life for the onions and the miserably few chilli seedlings are wilting one after the other. I told you I haven't any green fingers lor. I'm a green horn! So.. the saying of you reap what you sow is not entirely true huh? One might not reap anything sometimes. Hee..
Mid-Autumn eve was an eventful day. Not only is Covenant Church having its offical open house, Admiralty GRC is also organising an annual Mid-Autumn Festival celebration for its residents. I told Rynae about the line-up for the day and she was so excited that she woke up after just an hour's nap!
Children are always mesmerised by colours thus usage of colours as a teaching approach is always well-received. Rynae loves painting hence to give it an educational slant, Mummy decided to teach her the wonders of colour mixing. I've just replenished some poster colours and I've got 2 choices: Gooey paints vs runny colour water. I choose the latter because results are more instantaneous and less prone to abuse by my notorious gal. To cut a deeper impression in her, I did up a record sheet for her to jot down her findings. It was fun but I doubt she'll remember all the results. Gota reinforce through repetitions and revisions.
I came across some sewing cards and decided to DIY them as a fine motor skill activity for Rynae. Instead of the usual white papers that I use, I decided to print the cards on different colours of construction papers and laminated them for durability thereafter. As I had guessed, Rynae picked the green truck to tread first. Why? Because that is her favourate colour!
Mummy let Rynae play an old school game today - chalk scribblings. I still remember the days when chalks were such must-haves. It was not only used as a teaching tool but I could also whiten my dirty school shoes and draw hop scotches with it!
We heard that there's a new swimming pool, 4th week into its opening in Sengkang so we went with Rynae's Aunt and cousins to check it out. There weren't much search results about this place hence I shall provide you with more details on behalf of SSC.
Amidst international media attention on Thailand's political unrest caused by protesters to pressure the resignation of Samak Sundaravej, Grandma went ahead with her Bangkok trip. She got back yesterday midnight with repeated assurance that life in Bangkok is functioning as per normal. Riots in Bangkok are apparently kept in control and only in designated fenced-up ground; not as tense as what the media has portrayed. See how our perceptions and thoughts are shaped by powerful mass media? Anyway, she brought back some clothes for Rynae and some chewies for Mummy! I like the Billabong top and skirt but it is a little oversized. Maybe next Summer Rynae will be able to fit in.
I read with interest, a Monday article in The Straits Times about an article titled 'Fare or not? Height of contention'. In gist, it's contention from some parents about the free travel height limit of 0.9m that transport operators have set. Currently, toddlers or children above 0.9m but who are still below the age of seven have to pay child concessionary rate, which ranges from 40 to 50 cts. Some parents are trying to agitate for the height limit of 0.9m to be raised, citing reasons that the height limit is unrealistic because children are growing taller these days. 
Homemade is always best in my book as it is always more gratifying and without a doubt, more memorable. We've resorted to commercially-made lanterns in the past 3 years and this year, Mum has decided to make one out of recycled materials. I'm trying to reduce my carbon footprint remember? So I've to talk the talk and walk the walk! Here are the steps IF you're interested to make one for yourself or your kid too!
Tadah! All done. Simple isn't it? That's not all. I also made some paper lanterns, a craft that I remembered from my primary school days, to be used as decorations in the house! Now.. gota also educate Rynae on the meaning behind all these..
It doesn't need to be Earth Day to do gardening. On a fine afternoon, I decided to kick start an agricultural course for Rynae to let her understand how to do planting and how plants grow. Mum's not a person with green fingers but growing onions and chillis shouldn't be too difficult I guess? Rynae wanted to drop the whole chilli fruits as seeds after seeing me bury the 2 onions. Of course she soon learned that we have to cut the chillis and sow their seeds into the soil instead. I had choosen small chilli padi because of its cute miniature size but both of us suffered from finger chilli burns thereafter. Ouch!
Finally the day had arrived - 31 August. Mummy had waited the whole of August for the Hungry Ghost Festival to end so that we could visit the Night Safari at a 50% discount off entrance fee! Not that I'm superstitious but I'm just trying to avoid the avoidable. Night Safari is known for its extortion ticket price so having a 50% discount means a savings of $27.50 for 2 adults and 1 child. Quite significant isn't it?
Adding to the brood, Rynae brought home another snake and elephant today. With all her toys and crafts, my house is looking more and more like a child care centre. Tommorrow marks the start of a 1-week holiday and that means unrest at home too. Luckily it's just 1 week. I think I can bite it through. Hopefully.
It never crossed my mind that I have to repeat what I did 20 years ago - giving presents to teachers on Teachers' Day. True enough, what goes around comes around. Rynae was nonchalant when I told her that Teachers' Day was round the corner. At this age, toddlers simply don't understand the meaning of each festival hence I'll have to inculcate the values behind each. Mum never take it easy when it comes to gifts because it shows a presenter's personality, how much he/she knows the recipient and the importance of the recipient. Mum wants to give something useful and practical. After days of brainstorming, I decided on hair accessories as both teachers have long hair!
Our friend came home today with a lot of animals! She brought home a tiger, giraffe, elephant and many more jungle animals! So teacher has been reading Walking Through the Jungle with the children and these are crafts to elaborate about the story! Isn't it fun to attend pre nursery?
I don't usually buy recipe book but I took a fancy to The World of Nourishing & Fine Soups by Kenny Chen because it is bilingual (most important purchasing factor actually), has simple layout and uses common ingredients. Rynae loves drinking soups thus mum decided to dish out lotus root soup with peanut and mushroom stem to whet her appetite as well as to boost our health.
Some salesman's been to Rynae's school recently to promote Sounds Write! "The Phonics Series" (USP $79.90) at $35.50 but Mum didn't buy it 'cos I felt it's too advance for beginners. Hence, Mum has to do the teaching herself. Rynae has learnt letter blending with 'at' like cat, mat, sat so it is time to move on with 'ap' and 'an' and then digraphs like 'sh' and 'th'.
It's always a headache when it comes to lunch. So what shall I cook for the little gourmet today? On days when I am lazy, I'll just cook all-in-1 porridge. Other days, it'll be soup-based vermicelli or noodle. I decided to be a risk taker today - prepare Rynae's 1st homecook Italian pasta! Which 'D' does it look like? Disgusting or delicious? Haha.. Consume with gusto!
The moment I knew of Perfecting Parenthood : Tips Tricks and Truths to Raising a Well-Developed Child seminar organised by CNA, I went online to check out the speakers, speech topics, and the ticket price. There has been a lot of such parenting talks but I had attended none as I believe most of these seminars with shallow insights are organised as a sales opportunities for merchants to hard sell their products and courses to unfailing parents. I was surprised when I saw the ticket price: $11 for early birds! That's relatively cheap! Attractive pricing aside, the topics covered were interesting and having CNA as an Organiser gives some credibility. I wasted no time in grabbing hold of an early bird ticket. Luckily I did that because the seats were all sold out in the end!
Now that Rynae has perfected her phonics stage 1 - learning the 26 letter sounds, I thought I should subsequently introduce digraphs and word blending to her. Well, I've tried simple methods like using alphabet-shaped toys but she is uninterested with this one-way teaching. Usually a chatterbox, she'll turn reticent and unresponsive. To tackle this, I DIY-ed several sets of pictures and words cards to play with her. There was a 360 degree change in her behaviour! Expectedly, everytime we play this 'matching game', she'll always request to hold the pictures while I, forever having to hold the words, will have to match hers. Of course I'll try to act dumb and illiterate so that she could correct me lah...
Grandma passed me a newspaper cut out about a preventive recipe for HFMD. This article couldn't have come at a better timing, now that Rynae is schooling and needs to be ward off this epidemic! In this article, it mentioned that according to TMC, HFMD is caused by a deficiency of qi (most simply translated as energy) coupled with heatiness driven off by humid weather especially in a tropical country like Singapore. This saying, is contrary to western medicine that believes that HFMD infects children with weak immunity. Continuing from there, it also said that if a child were to be down with HFMD, having regular bowel movement and ample sleep speeds up recovery. Enough said, here's the recipe (no dosage mentioned):This 'soup' taste exactly like barley water with a slight wolfberry sweetness. Not as pungent as I expected it to be. It's a drink for everyone in the family! Last but not least, it sounds cliche but I'm still gonna say it.... Prevention is better than cure!
Rynae has a fetish for mazes after attempting some easy ones I printed from websites. As I mentioned before, mazes are good in training children forward-thinking, hand and eye coordination and memory (I made her use her fingers first then memorise the route, thereafter use a pen) hence I've no qualms about her playing with it. Most of the maze activity books in book stores aren't suitable for 3 yr olds but I managed to grab 2 from Twinkle Thinkers at $5.90 each. No doubt price is a little steep but Kumon is selling mazes with similar difficulty at $8+! Downright daylight robbery!
There is a new church, just diagonally opposite our house and today, the second week into its opening, Mum brought Rynae to its Sunday children's programme for some fun. There was inevitably some preaching worked into the activities but Rynae got to play with musical instruments and toys, colour, sing and dance too! Mummy stayed throughout as onlooker to monitor how Rynae and other children behave socially. Each child has a character and temper of its own. Some took it quite well to the temporary separation with their parents while others wail their heads off. Some were meticulous when they were asked to colour while others simply want to get it over and done with. Rynae was the latter - impatient and doesn't pay much to details. It was a pleasant start to a Sunday morning. My imp had whale of a time there!
I jumped out of bed before the alarm clock rang this morning. Rynae, on the contrary, had to be lugged out of bed. Aren't she the one who was supposed to be excited? The school is having a National Day party today! As requested by the school, I dressed her up in red top and white bottom. She brought along a pack of crackers to school too, because the teachers want to educate their children the virtue of sharing and to strengthen their bonds as Singaporeans. Indeed. Instilling a sense of belonging and patriotism should start when our offsprings are still young (and gullible). Our miss Singaporean came back with a zipped folder as national day gift and stuffed inside, loads of goodies!
An optical illusion is a visually perceived image that does not correspond to physical reality. After an image hit the retina, the brain will have to work hard to process the stimulus source, so as to make sense of the world. It is proven that left-brain vs right-brain and children vs adult, see optical illusion differently. Which means, what I see or could see might not be what Rynae could. Mummy has never shown any optical illusion images to Rynae so to kick-start the programme, as well as to test water, I DIY-ed a handy booklet with 18 optical illusions. 
For the past 3 weeks, Rynae was introduced to Zoo animals such as giraffe, elephant, monkey and so on in school. The children also learn about each animal's characteristic and the proper place to keep these animals. As you've guessed, the monkey in this picture is no other than Rynae. Green is her favourite colour so that explains why her monkey mask is green.
Wherever Mummy goes, she's always on the look out for good bargains. Out one day, I passed by a second-hand book sale and grabbed 2 books for Rynae, which I would highly recommend to novice readers. Dr Seuss series of books are known to drill children in word rhymes and phonics but not all collections are suitable for Rynae. Old Hat New Hat is targetted at beginners thus repetitive and simple words are used. It uses mostly adjectives and Rynae seems to be able to read the whole book by herself now!
In Glamour Mum and the Dude, Pan Ling Ling provided a fever remedy tip - green bean with salt. For the benefit of those who have missed it, the recipe is to add 2 teaspoon of raw green beans and some salt into a cup. Thereafter, pour in boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes. Consume after that. The weather is eccentric these days and Rynae showed some signs of heatiness so I decided to make this hassle-free drink for her. I tried some too myself and it taste akin to diluted green bean soup, err.. well, the salted type.
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