Egg and avocado

My little princess has recently decided that she would not eat egg yolks. The only time she'd eat them would be if they were scrambled. Hard boiled and poached eggs don't work.

Yesterday, I thought I'd try something new with her. I put the eggs in the rice cooker to cook and shelled them when they were cool enough to handle. Cut the eggs in half and scooped out the yolks.

I also scooped out half an avocado and mashed the yolk and avocado together to form a paste. Spread it back into the egg whites and served her.

She ate them!! Avocado egg yolk. Yum. Problem solved and it was a no mess hard boiled egg too.

If you have any other healthy and child-friendly methods, let me know too!

Cutting and Chopping Onions

Onions are not the best vegetables to chop up and I avoid them at all cost, until recently when I discovered that they don't make me cry anymore!

If I had the time, I'll peel off the layer of skin and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Otherwise, if I forgot about it, I'll still do the same with the skin, chop it up into quarters and rinse it in cold water for a few seconds.

No more problems with my onions anymore!

Try it and let me know if it worked for you!

Light, fluffy eggs

Cooked an omelette a couple of days ago. Had some cream on hand, so I stirred in 2 tablespoons into 4 eggs. Love my eggs! So light, fluffy and melts in the mouth!

It'll work with scrambled eggs too.

So, next time you want to enjoy some fluffy eggs, try adding in some cream. Milk will also work, but you might need to put more because milk isn't as thick as cream is.

Oh, and by cream, I meant the ones that are still in their liquid form. Not whipped up cream.

Increasing child care cost

I'm a day care mum. I run my own family day care and sometimes I wonder if it's worth people spending the money putting their children in care.

There are parents who can well-afford child care 5 days a week for more than 10 hours each day.The child gets to the carer before the sun rises and only reaches home after dinner.

Then, there are the upper-middle-income families who send their children to child care so that they can work to feed the whole family.

Thereafter, you have the lower-middle-income families who work to send their children to child care so that they can work some more to cover household expenses.

And then, there's the lower income family who need to send their children off to child care so that they can work to earn a living.

But with the Australian government introducing new regulations for all child care workers to at least be diploma trained, parents will be paying more for child care. What a viscous cycle.

All around the world, educators are recommending focus on teaching children under 7 years of age as this is the time where their brains are actively soaking in information. Children learn the most between 1-7 years old. There are parents who want experienced and qualified teachers and educators to care for their preschoolers, but not willing to pay for the work.

Governments are also encouraging couples to give birth to keep the population going but not really helping with child-rearing costs.

I don't know how difficult it is to teach school age children, but as a day care mum, I am for the child care costs to increase.

I have my reasons for saying so. Preschoolers are not easy to teach. Probably as with all other age groups. However, try, or volunteer, to help out at a local community group or centre for a day. 8-10 hours. Energy wise, they drain you faster than running a marathon.

A good centre or educator will plan the day according to the children's needs : story, songs, active play, sensory play, constructive play, role play, etc. In family day care, we plan our programmes every day if we get different children throughout the week. Can you imagine how tiring it is at the end of the day, after looking after them and then having to jot down your observations to plan for their activities the following day?

If parents find it tiring to look after their 1 or 2 children at home, it is the same for child care workers. Yes, we may be trained in this area, but hey, we're humans too! We need rest and time for other things.

Early childhood educators not only teach textbook knowledge, they also impart manners, habits and life skills.

Many people think that learning through play is easy to do. But what do you play to learn? Every activity laid out during the day is a planned play. Children develop mentally, physically and emotionally through play. There is an objective behind every activity.

For example, playing with water is not just throwing water everywhere. Children learn to take turns with water toys, they work their hand-eye co-ordination in scooping and pouring, they learn about volume and weight in filling up containers, they learn about wet and dry.

So yes, if anyone is in favour of increasing child care costs, I am.

Green Parenting : Water

Keri Greenwald from Responsible Mommy shares ideas on how to save water on a daily basis.

Marriage Maintenance

I was driving to the doctor's this morning for my health check report when I heard this marriage tip on the radio. It said to have regular time-outs as a couple, no matter how long you've been married.

The broadcaster raised a very valid point : If we will take time to give our cars a repair or maintenance, even more so will we need some repair work to make our marriage last.

In every marriage there will be its positives and negatives. When couples first get married, it's all rosy and compromising. After a few years, a bit of her changes, a bit of him changes and one suddenly finds that both are not on the same wavelength.

Here're some suggestions :
Take time to have regular dates to keep the freshness going. Remember the dates before the wedding day? Remember how much you look forward to meeting him/her again for coffee, movie or dinner?

Sit down and update each other on anything and everything. Your thoughts and feelings about issues that had occurred, both your plans for the future and even present ones. Get your calendars together.

Just like the car that needs to refuel regularly to run, so does the marriage. Encourage your partner, do things for him/her, say a word of thanks in appreciation even if it's for something simple like a home-cooked dinner.

Eat to Live or Live to Eat?

I'm in Singapore. With family. Singapore is a food haven to me. Authentic Chinese and Malay food, not to mention a variety of international cuisine!

Somehow,over the last few weeks, we've been eating at different places, for different meal times. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.

Had plenty to drown myself in!

Just had sashimi for lunch. It was a buffet at Hanabi. We went to the Katong Mall branch. We were there early : 11:35am. For a while, we were the only customers there. Mum, dad, sis, hubby, little P and myself. For $27++ per person, it was a good deal! We ordered a sashimi platters, tempura, chawanmushi and sushi. Our 18month old ate for free.

Boy, did she eat! Her favourite was chawanmushi, cleaning it up by slurping up the leftovers in her bowl.

All these eating really led me to think if how people survived without food. We are very fortunate to live in a developed country with clean water and safe food to eat. For some others in some parts of the world, food is a luxury.

Hanabi charges a $5 for every 100g wastage. Some people find it unreasonable, but I think that it's a good habit forced on the society. Think of all the others who dont' even have enough for a day..

So, the next time you decide to throw the leftovers away, remember the less fortunate. Ask for a takeaway of the leftovers, or just order less.

Blocked nose and VICKS

It's almost winter and the weather has turned cold. For some reason, everytime there's a change in temperature or season, children tend to have runny nose. Mine has and so did all my day care children.

Sometimes, they get blocked nose, especially when they sleep and that doesn't help them to fall asleep or have a good rest.

Found this really great way of unblocking their noses with VICKS! Or, whatever brand of vapour rub that does similar things.

Well, before you condemn me for rubbing it on them, please wait. I'm not too fond of having these rubs under my nose nor on any part of my body and so I have no intention of putting others, especially little ones, to such ordeal.

With Vicks, I heat up a jar of water (250ml), stir in 1 tablespoon of Vicks and leave it in the room. We have a lot of those empty sauce jars and I just took one for this purpose. Depending on the size of the room, I adjust the water and amount of Vicks.

The vapour helps to clear the blocked nose and the children get some peaceful rest.

If you've tried this before, let me know how it went!

Couple recognized for three decades of foster parenting

Recently I blogged about adoption and foster parenting. Came across this article today. I'm very amazed at their dedication to children who need love and proper family care.

The couple started fostering in 1978 and have seen 45 children in their 30 years of foster parenting on top of their 3 biological children and 7 grandchildren.

Read about them from Hometown Annapolis online.

Soothing Insect Bites Without Medication

Yesterday when I brought my day care children out to play, a garden ant (those huge black looking ones) crawled up Phoebe's little toe and bit her. I've had one of those bites before, and boy, they sting. The first time I was stung, I couldn't walk for 2 hours.

The poor little one simply sat and cried. It hurt her to walk, so she had to be carried. Remembering advice from friends and family about insect bites, I quickly brought her into the house and applied the home remedies.

First, I soaked her foot in white vinegar. That really caused the swelling to subside considerably. Don't think soaking was necessary, but with a squirming baby who wouldn't let me touch it, pretending to have "water play" was my best strategy.

Then, I sat her down for morning tea (even though it wasn't time yet), strapped her into her high chair and rubbed banana skin on her toe while she eats the banana. Again, I was told that leaving it on is good enough, but with her kicking her legs every other second, I figured it is best to rub it on. Amazingly, that seem to stop her from crying. Perhaps the itch and pain is more bearable.

Check out this video from About.com for Natural Itch Remedies.

Why We Should Read To Children

For children to be literate and competent in school, learning to read early is an important factor. It is not difficult to read to children, but a conscious effort needs to be made by the parent or care-giver.

Being able to read is a skill. It has to be taught and learned. When was the last time you tried to learn a language and found it difficult and frustrating because there was no one to interact with you? To learn a new language, we need the exposure - to hear and speak.

Children, especially in their early years, are like sponges - they soak up everything that come their way. This is the best time to establish good habits and skills.

When children are being read to, they are challenged both mentally and linguistically. By reading a variety of materials, children are exposed to different topics and language skills.

During story-time or reading time, ask questions. It gives children an opportunity to think and rationalise their answers. It is also a good time for them to communicate back to you, the story-teller, what they think and feel.

10 reasons why it is important to read to children :

10. It is fun and relaxing for everyone.

9. It is a good habit to instill.

8. Encourages communication between parent and child.

7. Promotes bonding between parent and child.

6. Exposure to the different sounds and rhythm in languages.

5. Increases children's vocabulary.

4. Great way to teach values through stories.

3. Develops children's imagination and creativity.

2. Builds children's concentration.

1. Encourages critical thinking at an early age.

When parents and care-givers are willing to spend time to read one or two books a day, imagine how much knowledge and language skills children will receive by the time they start school!

Try working it out with math : 
2 new words a day x 365 days = 730 words in a year.

For a child who only gets to read at age one, when he/she reaches the age of 5, that will be :
730 x 5 = 3650 words!

That's just a minimum number of two new words a day from the books. Children also pick up words and meanings from daily conversation and songs.

Start a reading routine with your children today. Set aside a period of time to read together. Who knows, both you and your children might end up having so much fun reading that you can't stop!

Tanisha Burke, "Reasons We Should Read To Our Children", Jamaica Gleaner News

Adoption, Foster Care or Biological Children?

We are planning to have a 2nd child sometime this or next year. While getting ready for pregnancy, we seem to hear quite a few discussions on adoption and foster care. Even supporting a child through an organisation. Sponsor a child, they call it.

Adoption and fostering is not in our plans for this second one, though when we got married, we did talk about it. It was brought up as an option that if I cannot conceive, then we'll look into adoption and fostering.

One couple whom we know were in the process of of applying to be adoptive parents but have dropped the application due to the difficulty of doing it. Seems like in Australia, fostering is much easier to apply for than adopting.

Has anyone done any adopting or fostering of children? Do you have both biological children and adopted/fostered? Can you share your experiences?

Fun foods for children

Do you have picky eaters? Children who would only eat certain colours of food or vegetables only or meat only or must-have-milk...

I'm fortunate to have a little one who eats all the food that we place on her tray as long as she can chew them.

Have found a few websites that have very interesting food that will appeal to children. Easy to make, appealing and fun to eat. Well, could be a little too nice to eat. =)

1. Familyfun.com
This site has just about everything from main meals to desserts to snacks and finger foods.

2. Milkdeliveries
Have children who can't have enough of dairy or don't want to have anything to do with dairy? Try these.. Main meals, desserts, shakes, smoothies and more.

3. Pork 4 Kids
Well, the name of the site said it all. Pork recipes for children. They're categorized by age group, so starting from 6 yrs old to 15 yrs old.

4. Kidspot
An Australian social networking site for parents, it has foods for all occasions and ages.

What To Expect After Giving Birth

You've packed your bag ready for baby's birth, bought enough diapers to fill up a guest room, learnt how to change a diaper, probably even started expressing milk to get your supply going.

But what about you, the mum, after birth? What about you, the dad?

With all the attention given to the newborn, it can be very overwhelming for the new parents. I felt the same. I wanted to give the baby away, even though I loved it at the same time.

I'd like to make a few suggestions :

MUM -
1. Have lots of sanitary pads handy. You'll need them after giving birth because of the bleeding. It'll take a few weeks to clear up.
2. As much as breastfeeding is recommended, don't stress about it. The more tired and cranky you are, the less likely you're able to provide. A bottle or two of formula a day won't hurt bub.
3. Take time to go out with your partner. Having a new person who doesn't talk is difficult. It can affect your time with your partner. Going out together helps to keep the relationship going. And while you're out, talk about yourselves. Not the bub.
4. Have some time out with friends. Invite them over or go out and have a cuppa. You'll need it to keep yourself sane. That's right - caring for a new baby can eat up a lot of you (physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally). Taking time to keep up with friends give you something else to think about.

DAD -
1. Be patient with your partner. It's not an easy time for both of you, but the women have to cope with hormonal changes, settling bub, breastfeeding and they don't need additional pressure.
2. Keep an objective view on things. It helps the mum to see things in a different perspective. Mothers get so caught up with doing things well for bub that they sometimes don't see things the way they should.
3. Bring your partner out on a date. Arrange for a trustworthy babysitter. Let her relax and just have a chance to talk to you.
4. Have a paper and pen handy at all times. If you think a pregnant woman has a short memory, a new mum who is breastfeeding and lacks sleep is no better. Help her to remember things by writing them down.

Do you have other suggestions for new parents?

Growing Up Requires Courage

Growing up takes a lot of courage. Not just getting older in age, but in character, maturity, thoughts, etc..

For a baby, the first thing it has to do is get out of mum's womb, where food and water is provided 24/7. There is no need to ask for anything. It does get rather uncomfortable inside towards the 9th month, being big and not enough space, but hey, everything's provided!

Once it decides to move on to bigger space, it has to come out of the womb. From then on, all sorts of challenges and growing situations is presented. Learning to ask for food/milk when it can't communicate in mum's language is a growing and learning process.

Learning to soil nappy and get changed is another part of growing up.

Then, there are solids, crawling, walking, reading, talking, puzzles, settling to sleep...

All these when given the opportunity to develop on their own and with encouragement, can help children to grow up confident and have the courage to meet challenges that come their way when they grow up into adulthood.

Remember reading this somewhere, but cannot remember under what context nor who said it. But this person said that being married to his wife for over 30 years, he cannot remember every meal that his wife cooked. But he knew that every meal that was prepared, cooked and consumed gave his energy and nourishment for his life.

Similarly, our children may not remember all that we've done for them in helping and guiding them to become able adults, but take heart, every little thing that we say or do, impacts their little lives.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. - Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

Too Cool About Falls?

Since day one that my daughter could sit, crawl, stand, climb and walk, I've let her fall on her face, let her cry, get up and move on again. Was told that I don't comfort her enough. Children need to feel loved and secure. Picking them up after a fall tells them that mum and dad are still around.

I have an issue with this kind of parenting.

1. Children can be loved in different ways. Picking them up after a fall does not necessarily mean loving them.
2. Children need to learn to pick themselves up and not depend on adults all the time.
3. Children need to learn to be independent within their means.
4. Parents cannot be with them 24/7/365.
5. Self-confidence takes time to be instilled.

I like to know that my children are able to stand up and try again after falling down. This can be in any time of their life. Starting from pushing themselves up after tripping or falling gives them the confidence that they can keep trying. I give them the encouragement and praise needed to help them along, but they gain the confidence and problem solving skills for life later on.

However, to be honest, everytime she falls, I had to refrain from rushing to her rescue. It hurts me as much to see her walk into a cupboard or fall over a ball. But now, if it isn't bleeding or bruised, she'd whinge a little, get up and continue on her way.

You and I may have different parenting styles. How do you respond when your little one falls while trying?

Hard Boiled Eggs

I've boiled eggs countless times. I've been disappointed and annoyed by them just as many times.

The traditional way of boiling eggs was to put the eggs in cool water, then bring to a boil Depending on the hardness of the egg, you boil for certain amount of time. Some egg lovers have also poured boiling water over raw eggs, cover up and wait about 7 minutes for a half-boiled, very soft egg.

This method is very costly in many ways:
1. Water wasted.
2. Time wasted.
3. Energy wasted.

I was sent an email some weeks back and since then, I cooked my boiled eggs differently.

Try this and you'll love the simplicity and efficiency!
1. Place a paper towel in your rice cooker.
2. Depending on the hardness and number of eggs, either sprinkle water or put in 5tablespoons of water.
3. Turn on the rice cooker to cook.
4. Once the rice cooker indicates it's keeping warm, you can remove the eggs and enjoy!

There's a bit of trial and error here with the number of eggs and how cooked you want it to be.

Try it, test it and you'll come to see what I mean.

Not going back to the water boiling method anymore.

Ling's List - My Dream Come True

Have you ever had a dreams and goals when you were a child? I did. We had composition writing in school and almost every year, there'd be a topic titled : My Ambition / My Dreams / What I Would Like To Do When I Am An Adult...

I went through being a teacher, a police officer, a housewife, a journalist, an actress, a librarian and also having my own bookshop.

Most of what I dreamt of have come true and by no means mine. God works in wonders and He has made it possible for me to be many at the same time.

I'm a mum.
I'm an educator - I run a Family Day Care and that requires me to teach them.
I'm a housewife - I work from home and I do my housework too. Husband helps too.
I'm a qualified journalist - Graduated with a diploma and a degree in Mass Communications and Journalism.
I am now also a bookstore owner.

Having my own bookstore was one dream that was archived into the cupboard of impossible. First, to have the money to open a shop is already impossible. Secondly, having to purchase books is also a huge investment which I do not have.

However, after starting my own home-based business as a family day care mum, the thought of having an online store started bugging me last June. I thought and researched and planned. Prayed and talked to family and friends.

What should I sell? What should I call it? Where will I find my market?

Ling's List was finally born in February 2009, after 2 months of working on the website. Had to take a lot of first steps : Contacting and sourcing suppliers, learning about secure payments, listing items, etc. I bought a few items that I was not satisfied and did not list them. They're still sitting in my guest room.

The site sells books, ebooks, educational and gift items, beads and pendants. God has been good. He provided an average of 2 sales a month. I would like to see Ling's List grow into a stable income source, but it would not be possible if God's hands were not in it.

So, another birth of an idea in 2009. Do you have any birth of ideas to share?