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.