Tuesday 30 October 2012

Ho Chi Minh City - Traditional yet modern, old yet new

I don't have any idea about Ho Chi Minh City before I went there, the only things come into my mind are Vietnamese War, French Colony, Motorbikes and Beef Noodles, yet I know none of them in detail. Hence, I was quite excited and looked forward to our 4D3N trip in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It felt like quite an adventure.

I was expecting a city pretty much like a city in the current North Korea now or in China during the 80's. What unfolded in front of me as I took a bus from the airport to the city center and toured around the city center by foot, is a city traditional yet cosmopolitan, old yet new, exciting yet tranquil. It has a mix of everything - modern Asian culture, typical Western influence and ancient Vietnam history, yet they seem to blend in perfectly well.

Coming out of the airport and into the city is quite an experience, especially by a local bus. There are motorbikes everywhere. Car, taxis and buses are surrounded by motorbikes, the drivers need to horn every one minute in order to get moving. 

This photo I took does not do justice to the real traffic. You hardly see cars on one side and motorbikes on the other, and you hardly see them stop for traffic lights. It just seems very, very chaotic but the traffic seems to flow. Learning to cross a street in Ho Chi Minh is quite an art, yet most tourists mastered it rather quickly, not without a few high blood pressure moments though.


Motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh

We went straight to the city center in District 1 after checking in our hotel. There are some really stunning and grand buildings such as the Reunification Palace, the Post Office and the Notre Dame Cathedral. I like especially the french colonial influence on the latter two.

Reunification Palace

Post Office

Cathedral (Right) and inside of the Post Office (Left)
Where we spent most of the afternoon is the War Remnants Museum. If you have to choose one museum and skip all others, it has to be this one. You can't understand Vietnam or Ho Chi Minh without reading about the (American) Vietnamese War.

Weapons used by Americans
Exhibition of war photos and posters

After the heavy stuff, it is time to explore markets and food. I am not very fond of going to night markets in any asian cities because of the suffocating crowd and the endless pushing and bargaining. I am just not a shopping type. As for food, we did not have any must-go places, we were quite happy to just try out street food or step in a restaurant where most customers are locals.

Street food stall

Arranging fresh fruits

Food stall at the famous Ben Thanh Market

This is the famous Vietnamese beef noodle from a street stall. We both agreed it tasted the same if not better than in a restaurant. We tried different variety of noodles for a few days, so much so that during the last day in Dalat, the husband declared "I had enough of eating raw vegetables!". He is refering to the fresh vegetable and herbs they serve in a plate for you to dip into the noodle.


Noodles are not the only food they have in Ho Chi Minh though. There are very nice restaurants offering a large selection of Vietnamese cuisine. Most of their food use lemongrass and fresh herbs heavily.

There are many western cafes in town too, you will be spoilt for choices. Some of them are so posh that we don't quite dare to venture in even though we have a few million Dong in our pocket. This is the new and modern part of the city. It is amazing how fast they have developed since independence some thirty over years ago.


Most tourists opt for day tours out of the city to nearby scenic places during their stay in Ho Chi Minh, while some (especially westerns) will wander around the streets for days and weeks until they sink in. We only stayed one day in Ho Chi Minh city. We booked an early bus the next morning to a highland resort place called Dalat. I am glad for our choice. All the noises in the city can be quite overwhelming, it is also humid and dusty. And as I am not into shopping and nightlife - both are the highlights of the city - I can't wait for my 2-day getaway before heading back to it on the fourth day.


Monday 29 October 2012

Bubble love

Finally I am back! No I don't mean to the office, but to my beloved blog. It has been an eventful week for us, which explains why I don't even have the time to sit down and update my blog. Firstly Grandma came to visit for a week. Then we went for a short 4D3N trip to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. "We" means Daddy and Mommy, ONLY. Yes it is the first time we travelled without the baby. We came back on Thursday night, rested on Friday and went to collect the key to our new house on Saturday. Grandma went back this morning. Kah Yen is back to Nanny and I am back to office.

After being away for one week, there are loads of work to do in office, but I can't seem to get my engine start without reading my favorite Mommy blogs and updating my own.

Here are some photos of Kah Yen blowing bubbles - bubble love from a bubbly girl. It seems even the fun of travelling cannot beat a moment like this when it comes to bringing a bright smile on my face.

Maybe I am getting old, or maybe it's just a Mommy thing.





Friday 19 October 2012

And so it worked

I shared earlier this week on the problems I am facing with Kah Yen's bedtime and what we are doing right now to re-train her back to sleep on her own. And here is the update.

The fifth night went pretty much the same as the fourth night. I put her down on her cot and prayed for her. She still cried the moment I ended the prayer, but she did not clinch to me and refuse to lie down like the previous few nights. She cried at my leaving but she remained lying down. I think it is already a big improvement. It means she has received the message we are telling her through our words and action now - that she is supposed to lie down and sleep on her own. It also says that her crying at bedtime is not a deliberate disobedience that we need to seriously look into and discipline. She may be crying because she is frightened by noise or darkness, or she plainly wants to be with Daddy/Mommy more. These can be tackled by showing her more love and praying for her more. If she is deliberately being defiant, the action required will be different and more challenging.

Just like the fourth night, she stopped crying immediately when I left the room. And she did not make a single sound after that. 15 minutes later I went in to check on her, she was already fast asleep.

Last night was the sixth night. And I am happy to tell you that she didn't cry at all! We even put her down to bed half an hour earlier than usual because we were expecting visitors for a gathering. After I prayed for her, she said "Amen" without me prompting. And when I said "Goodnight" to her, she returned "Goodnight Mommy!" and then turned to the other side of the cot. I left the room quickly and she did not cry.

And a child who happily sleeps on her own and sleeps early wakes up a happy child in the morning. This morning the moment I got up from my bed, I received a cheerful "Good Morning Mommy!" greeting from her. She was already awake in her cot but she did not make any noise to wake us up. 

A happy child in the morning

I am not sharing this to brag about what a good girl Kah Yen is or how good we are at training her, but rather, I hope this serves as an encouragement to other parents who are also going through some struggles at bedtime with their toddlers, whether your child refuses to sleep on his/her own, or only goes to bed at the wee hours. 

It is not easy. I had my low moments in the past two weeks. And this is not the only time we have to re-train her. It happened a few times before. But, take heart, it can be done. It requires firstly discipline from us parents, to be consistent and stick to the same schedule and routine for our children; and then we need to be tough, to dare to discipline when our children disobey. But most importantly, we need to have the conviction that it is something good for our children and worth the effort to do. A healthy sleep is critical to their growth and development, it can't be emphasized more.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

22-month and counting


This post is late. She is already into the fourth week of her 22-month, five weeks shy of 2-year old. I have been looking at this photo of her for the past 2 weeks. In this photo she has a very bright and beautiful smile, but that's not the real reason. The real reason is, from this photo, I can't find any trace of babyhood on her face anymore, I have a big girl in front of me, and it makes my heart ache a bit every time I think about it. 

How fast she has grown!

The growing-up process is not as rosy as the photo shows though, especially for the last month. Elaine from Sweet Sophia has shared her recent struggle with Sophia during bedtime, quite coincidentally, my 22-month old is giving me new headache too.

It all started with us though. She has been falling asleep on her own cot at 8:30pm every day since she was a baby. But recently, due to the hot weather, she sweated a lot and was not sleeping very well. She asked to fall asleep on our bed and we gave in, hoping she would fall asleep better. 

It was totally a mistake. It worked on the first few days and then out of a sudden she realized her new found freedom - she could come down from our bed easily and come out of the room if she didn't want to sleep. We had to send her back to bed a few more times. Following which she would scream and cry and demand us to lie down with her. We each did it for a few nights and it was both frustrating and tiring. So we decided once and for all we were going to train her back to sleep on her own again. Of course she screamed like hell when we put her down to her own cot the first night, she cried hysterically round after round as if we were dumping her forever, it was so painful for me but I told myself to be tough and decisive this time, however, after 10 minutes my heart gave in and I went into the room and promised to lie down on the floor till she fell asleep, she calmed down quickly and soon fell into sleep.

So for a few nights, I lied down on the floor till she was about to doze off and then wiggled my body out like an earthworm, as a result our bedroom floor is at least five times shinier than before. 

It was still tiring especially when one of us was not at home, which happens at least once a week, because there are other housework to do after she sleeps. What's more than the tiring part is the frustration. We were frustrated more at ourselves than at her. We knew well she is capable of sleeping on her own, but due to our inconsistency we had caused this bad habit in her and now we don't have the courage to correct and re-train her - for it requires seeing her crying into sleep and doing nothing.

To cut the story short, after this drama went on for one week Daddy made up his mind that we were going back to basics - to train her to sleep on her own again. No more lying down on the floor! We pray and we say goodnight and we leave her in the room, even if she cries.

So it started a few days back. It really hurt me to see Kah Yen crying and clinching to me so desperately the moment I finished praying for her, in fact before I could say "Amen" she already jumped up and grabbed my arms, but I had to remove her hands and put her down, and walk out of the room the fastest I can.

The first night, she cried and screamed for as long as 15 minutes before she was finally exhausted and sobbed into sleep. I was standing right outside the door the whole time but I did not go in.

The second night, she cried for about 5-7 minutes.

The third night, she cried for 2 minutes then stopped. It stopped so fast I was actually a bit worried something was wrong, but I resisted going in. 

Tonight was the fourth night, Daddy was not at home but I was determined to do it even on my own. I put her down, same thing happened, but after I came out of the room, she stopped crying almost within a minute. Even I was surprised at the progress.

I know that tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, she will probably still cry when I put her down, but I am going to continue doing it till she sleeps contently on her own again. How I miss the times when she happily says "Amen!" after my prayer, when she gives me her goodnight kiss generously, and before I close the door and come out she would shout another "Goodnight Mommy!". How I miss those times! To tell you that I am doing this without being emotional is a lie. I often feel guilty that I am too harsh on her, after all she is very well behaved throughout the day. I also worry if this is purely behavioral, or there is some real fear or insecurity in her that she is not able to express. All I can do is keep praying for her. 

This entire episode made me ponder a lot these days. Parenting is really a huge responsibility. It requires much consistency, diligence, courage and conviction to train up our children the way they should go. And we often fall short of the standard because we are not perfect parents. But it definitely worths the effort because it is one of the most rewarding experiences we can ever have. Children are a blessing, a delight, a reward and a heritage.


Monday 15 October 2012

Making a stand-up 3D Duck

So Mommy and Kah Yen's foray into art & craft continued this weekend. Last week we attempted for the first time together and made a very simple duck. This weekend we made a duck again (Okay I probably need to be more creative next time), it is a stand-up 3D duck though. I used the template from the same site  First School - Alphabet Worksheets and Activities.

The template already provided us with the body, head, mouth and feet, so I simply cut them out and colored them together with Kah Yen. The assembly was the more challenging part. The body was a big circle, so we folded it into half. A small paper plate can be used too. The feet was folded three times into a standing letter M, it was then inserted into the bottom of the body and stapled on both sides. Position of the feet was very important because otherwise the duck wouldn't be able to stand. The head was simply pasted on. The mouth glued half and folded half into a 3D. Kah Yen helped on coloring, applying glue and pasting as usual.

The other part which involved Kah Yen the most was making the feathers. And it happened to be one of Kah Yen's favorite drawing activities - making hand prints. I traced Kah Yen's hands on blue paper and cut them out, then pasted them on both sides of the body as feathers. We were so happy when it stood up like this:




Again it was a rather simply craft, and Mommy was doing most of it. But at least we spent one hour together concentrating on something instead of wandering around the house. And Daddy had one hour uninterrupted time to do his freelance work. Divide and conquer - yes that's how we survived when we had an entire day at home with Kah Yen :-)

We had some fun time taking pictures with our craft too!




Wednesday 10 October 2012

Sleep mummy sleep

I was in deep sleep when I heard Kah Yen crying suddenly from her baby cot, in the middle of the night. It must be a nightmare again. I quickly got up and walked to her. I hugged her and gave her some water to sooth her down then put her down to bed again.

I thought I could get back to my bed like usual days when she wakes up for water and goes back to sleep on her own. But today no, she cried at my first attempt to leave her. The nightmare must have scared her. Sigh... Looks like I had no choice but to pat her to sleep.

I stood by her cot, patted her back while singing softly a lullaby. It must be 2 or 3am. I was extremly sleepy myself and could hardly keep my eyes open. The singing soon became humming and it slowly faded. The room was both dark and quiet. I continued to pat her while testing if she had fallen asleep. You know the test every mother knows how to do? You pat and then stroke and then lighter and slower and then you try to leave your hand up in the air, and you start counting 123. When you count to 10 there is still no movement from the baby, she is aleep. If the moment your hand stops in middle air she tosses, you need to pat a few minutes longer to test again. The worst is when your hand stops she turns to your direction and opens her eyes to look at you, she is not even near to falling asleep yet, you can forget about going back to sleep in the next half an hour. In fact if there a coffee machine nearby you might as well get a cup to stand by. I tried a few times and everytime she moved when I stopped, so I continue patting.

About 20 minutes later she finally went back to sleep. I counted from 1 to 10 and back to 1 again and there was not a single sound from her. Relived, I climbed back to my own bed and snuggled under my warm blanket. I didn't want to check what was the time. You sleep a whole lot better when you pretend you still have a long night before you.

However, I barely lay down for more than a minute when I heard some movement and murmur from her bed again. And her voice soon travelled to my ear, "drink water, mummy, drink water". Sigh...Didn't I get give her water when I put her down? Why didn't she drink a bit more? I thought she had already fallen asleep? When I think of having to pat her for another half an hour again, I was very reluctant to get up. And I thought of the alarm clock silently waiting to greet me good morning at 630am. I was almost sure I won't be able to get up on time and I will be late for work again....With such a heavy heart I dragged my body off my bed and went to pass her the water bottle.

What happened next was totally surprising, but it was surely sweet. And it is the reason why I take such length to write this article. My 22-month-old girl, after drinking her water and passing back to me the bottle, pointed at my bed and said "Mummy sleep". With that, she lied down on her bed and turned her back towards me, comfortably and contentedly.

Ah this little girl, she surely knows how to warm my heart. How she learnt to be so sensible? I certainly have not taught her to be so. Maybe it is just a once-off thing, but at that moment, I felt such a privilege and honor to be a mum.


Monday 8 October 2012

Chasing birds and laughters

I don't know exactly what to write, I just got the pictures. Look how happy Kah Yen and Daddy are just by, doing nothing but chasing after the birds. We were on our way to the market on a Saturday morning, passing by this field with a lot of birds. Kah Yen was excited as usual and wouldn't go away. Daddy decided to have some fun with Kah Yen by chasing after the birds together.

What a big smile there is on her face! If you are there, you won't miss her laughter too. It is no wonder Daddy said Kah Yen's laughter is the sweetest voice he has ever heard.

And Kah Yen is always very generous sharing with Daddy her smile and laughter. For with Daddy, there are more spontaneity, more running-around and more playful moments.







Wednesday 3 October 2012

One thing at a time

I have mentioned more than a few times that I am not an artistic person. I don't draw, or paint or make handicrafts. I am not just being humble. I really don't know. I did not have the chance to learn any of these when I grew up.

But, I guess motherhood is about learning new things, ALWAYS and NON-STOP. So I try to learn and do some art & craft activities with Kah Yen. Not because I have the ambition of raising a great artist, or so that she can get more extra-curriculum points when she goes to school, No, I don't have any of these in my mind. It is simply because it is a fun and easy activity to do with toddlers, also a good time for bonding, and for training their fine motor skills and attention span.

So last Saturday we made a duck together, with a bit of drawing, cutting, coloring and pasting. I downloaded the black & white craft template from First School - Alphabet Worksheets and Activities, I cut out two egg shapes (small and big) for the head and main body, two identical heart shapes (in oval rather than round shape) for the wings, two identical stars for the feet, and a rounded rectangle for the mouth. Together we colored all of them in either yellow or blue, with me doing 90% of it. I then asked Kah Yen to help me apply glue to all the pieces, she was very enthusiastic and did most of it herself, except I have to keep telling her to apply on the correct side. As you can see from the below photo, she was applying glue on the color side instead.


We then pasted the different shapes on her notebook according to the picture sample, the interesting part was the mouth, which we need to glue half and fold half to create the 3D effect.

The craft was done in less than 30 minutes. It was really a simple idea but I enjoyed the time we spent together and I hope we will be able to do more in the future. This is nothing as compared to what Daddy did with Kah Yen, but, Mummy is learning, one thing at a time.


Monday 1 October 2012

Kah Yen's first children's day celebration

Yesterday Kah Yen celebrated Children's day for the first time at sunday school. It was exciting and fun but overwhelming as well due to the big crowd, I am proud that Kah Yen did very well through the entire two hours of celebration.

Firstly all the children were invited to join the adults for worship. I so wanted Kah Yen to participate in the worship I brought her all the way to the front row so that we can jump and dance around freely. (Yeah I sometimes do that, guess it says I am still young at heart) We both had a great time singing and dancing together with other children. 

After the worship all the 2-4 years old were led to a different room for children's day program. Usually Kah Yen's class consists of only 10-15 children between 18 months to 2-year old. Today with the addition of 3-4 years old, the total class size was more than 50. It was a massive crowd. Kah Yen was a little overwhelmed initially but she stayed on and behaved well.

Here is all the 2-year old at their first station game - kids bowling. How cute to see they all sitting properly waiting for their turn to throw the ball. And you can see all the parents, teachers and maids cheering behind them, probably even more anxious than the children. LOL. I couldn't squeeze in so I decided to stand aside to take some photos instead.


This is Kah Yen waiting for her turn. You can see the bigger kids were more "aggressive", while Kah Yen and the other girl were at loss what to do. They eventually threw the ball when the teacher guided them to.



After the bowling, they went to the next station - sandbag transportation. This is Kah Yen waiting in the line. I love how she followed instruction to stand in the queue and put her hand on the kid in front till her turn came.

At this station the children were told to carry the sandbag on their heads and walk to the line in front and back. I thought they are too young to play this game, but I was wrong. All the 2-year old were able to follow the instruction and transport the sandbags. Of course being 2-year old they were allowed to "cheat" by using their hands to support the sandbag to prevent it from falling. Kah Yen held the sandbag firmly on her head with both hands and finished the walk. I love how serious she looked, too bad I didn't get a photo.


After all the games Kah Yen received two goodie bags of candies and also a coupon for candy floss, she is too young to eat candy floss so Daddy and Mommy finished it on her behalf.

I can't help thinking how fast she has grown. She was still a tiny baby last year now she is celebrating children's day. I am proud of her for being such a well-behaved big girl. There will be many more children's day celebrations to come in the years ahead and I look forward to each and every one of them.