(2008/02) Feb 2008 MTBs

[xiaoyun9]

re: books
that's a good idea to share the info through some ways.
i was thinking to start a blog to do some reflection while growing together with C...
but think only and never ever started working on it. not even register for an account to start blogging.

well, i think reading those books helps me in some way.
e.g.,
i read the calm and compassionate children book. i learned be high-mindedness. looking at things in a positive ways. it helps me overcome the obstacles in my life.
i read the baby hearts book. i learned about the difference of guilt and shame. i found my weakness and i am trying hard to correct it.

 

[spoiltbratdazz]

books reading
how i wish we can hv books that the content could just input into us when we scan the books on our head... haha ;p

i still hv some books whc i bought when i was pregnant that i've not touched yet...

tokyo
aiyo......i so very missed japan......sigh.. the food, desset n the shopping... the weather now till May is just great ! garfield, can u pack me into your luggage too ??!! ;p

 

[star70]

welcome back p1nk1e!

 

[xiaoyun9]

oh Japan...
went Tokyo in Oct 2002. fascinated by the culture, electronic stuffs, and beauty products there..
go Akihabara for electronic stuffs!! but not sure if worth to buy those things back because of the concern of warranty.
there's a very nice Japanese fast food restaurant - First Kitchen. Must try if it's still surviving.

i wish to go Hokkaido next time. but when will be the 'next time'? don't know....

 

[p1nk1e]

Thanks, qingling

Reading thru' and very nice to see your princes/princesses reaching all the milestones...
My boy is still trying to stand, or rather, I'm trying to make time to let him learn standing...

 

[xiaoyun9]

lalala... i am going to cut my hair short this weekend!! (provided my hair stylist allow me to do so.. )

 

[xiaoyun9]

p1nk1e,
do you mean your boy can't practice standing when you are not around?

 

[berrywife]

BOOKS- Those who have been reading up, lets share our thoughts? Whats the most important/unforgettable lesson/thing you've learnt from some of the book/books you've read that you otherwise might not have learnt so far?

 

[berrywife]

pinkie, why need to make time for him to learn? Wont he be pulling to stand using all sorts of stuff anyway?

 

[p1nk1e]

Xiaoyun,
not really... my mom takes care of my boy alone, so I try to make time to be with him...
been working late and when i reached home he's zzz liaoz... so feeling kinda guilty that he's not able to stand yet...

 

[garfield9]

books,
i think amongst all of us, we already covered quite a few books. so i think if each can spend some time to summarize the key learnings and post, that's a start! then i suppose each mother will have a "pet topic"...so we can slowly branch out from there.

with regards to the platform, i have no preference.

leila,
you following hb on biz trip? maybe can extend and move to somewhere more touristy?

p1nk1e,
i'm going late march. going to collect bb's passport tmw! staying at shinjuku.

diana,
hehe...now rates are really low!! tempt you tempt you!! maybe you should make a trip too =)

 

[spoiltbratdazz]

iso: wow.. i also hope the toddler one has a 15min summary dvd... i can only read a few pages per day.. (when i'm on the train). on days when it's really crowded, i can't even lift up my hands, dun talk abt reading.. by the time i continue from where i stopped... i forgot what i've read b4...

r: hahaha.... i used to travel for work 6 times a year to kyoto, and twice to tokyo... now business is very slow for our japan market.. cut down all travelling... *sob*

 

[spoiltbratdazz]

gar: hahaha.... i used to travel for work 6 times a year to kyoto, and twice to tokyo... now business is very slow for our japan market.. cut down all travelling... *sob*

 

[star70]

Gar - so it's a good time to start changing yen

 

[p1nk1e]

Gar: Late march? Just in time for Sakura

Wah, bringing your bb too.... I'm not that adventurous... Which hotel in Shinjuku? I'm also thinking of Shinjuku

 

[isobellies]

diana
actually got! i just went to amazon to check. but tink they might not sell it here. DVDs are so much better for busy people like us

so nice, you travelled to jp so much! i miss travelling...

 

[garfield9]

diana,
wow 6 times is A LOT!!!

qingling,
what's the exchange rate like now ah? i heard soften a bit. yippee!!

p1nk1e,
i heard sakura season starts 20Mar this year, one week earlier than usual. i'm going to be there on week of 23Mar, hope to see it in full glory!

staying at citadines shinjuku. newly opened =) it's serviced apartment as i wanted to be able to cook just in case bb doesn't take to japanese food for some reason.

 

[isobellies]

gar
ooh did u book their offer?? something like 7000 JPY a night, i got their mailer...

 

[p1nk1e]

Gar,
Oh cool!
There's a promotion for Citibank for Citadines I think...

I'm considering Frasers Place... Havne't booked yet... Btw you're going on free & easy?

 

[spoiltbratdazz]

iso: hmm... yah i think they may not sell it here..

oh yes.... i really miss travelling too... esp to JAPAN!

gar: it was quite tiring for me then but no baby so still ok. but there was times when i had phobia going to the airport...

now no flying.. then backside itchy... so wanted to travel again ;p hahaha

nap & night sleep
oh btw mommies, i'm having problem getting my gal to nap nowadays. she used to nap between 1/2hr to 2hrs a day.

now when we want to prepare her for nap, she will cry the whole house down... just refused to sleep... *headache*

for night time, she has been sleeping around 9plus ~ 10 (she used to sleep by 8pm).

what should i do to make her nap ?

 

[garfield9]

p1nk1e,
frasers place is nice! but out of my budget. costs twice that of citadines =P

 

[p1nk1e]

gar,
oh nice? u've tried frasers place?
got promo for UOB i think...ta'ts why contemplating...

diana,
my boy also starts to ngek when i bring him to the bedroom... so what i do is i juz let him cry lor...
i'll hug him, say goodnight and close the door.
he'll ngek ngek a while, but later when i go back in, he's fast asleep liaoz...
maybe you can try "training" your girl...

 

[p1nk1e]

gar,
oh btw, u are flying by SQ? there's a promo @ $808...

 

[xiaoyun9]

re: income tax
garfield has asked this question before. but seems no answer.
can I confirm these are the relief/rebate that i can claim?

Qualifying/handicapped child relief - $4000 (can be shared with spouse)
Grandparent caregiver relief - $3000
Working mother’s child relief - 15% of income
Parenthood Tax Rebate - $5000 (can be shared with spouse)

is that all?

 

[xiaoyun9]

oopss...
realize that the item i posted is exactly the same as garfield.
so, should be all liao..

 

[toot]

pampers sales alert !
2 boxes of pampers active selling for $59.90 now at carrefour...

 

[yanyen]

Hi mummies,

I'm also a Feb 08 mum, usually a silent reader of this thread cos don't frequent this thread often and quite difficult to type out comments at work with boss around @@

Books/Behaviour of our children:
I do think its a good idea to share our ideas obtained from various parenting books, given we are all so bz with work and our kids. Besides sharing tips from books/magazine, would just like to share my thoughts: besides 'teaching' our kids about moral/compassion, i feel its rather impt for ourselves to be good examples as well. I used to have this high ideal that i want my boy next time to excel in everything from academics to moral to sports/music/arts. But then again, sad to say i myself do not excel in any of them (esp sports), am a couch potato, and i do have the occasional lapses (actually quite often) in behaviour like easily bad tempered, selfishness, laziness, procrastination etc. Only hobby i have is being a bookworm and watching TV. Hardly a good example for my boy and therefore who am I to expect my boy to be everything that i'm not? but everyday i try to be a better person and reduce my bad points so that my boy can look up to me (hopefully).

By the way, my boy is also a 15 Feb baby, still can't walk on his own, still baby talking (haven't heard him call me mimi yet le, only say baba), am getting anxious, but trying not to as I do feel baby knows it when we try to rush them or compare them, so keep reminding myself to just enjoy my baby's every single achievement no matter how small.

Sorry if this seems a bit off-topic, just felt like sharing my thots today and prob its nearing end of workday

TGIF!

 

[garfield9]

p1nk1e,
my friend stayed at fraser's and her feedback was good.

i think promo rate is about 13,000 JPY right? so in the end i chose citadines lor...cos almost 40% cheaper.

i'm flying SQ, but using my miles to redeem. 808 is dirt cheap!!

 

[xiaoyun9]

btw, how does the Parenthood Tax Rebate works?
$5000 rebate? hiak hiak hiak... this year no need to pay tax at all?

 

[p1nk1e]

gar,
wah... u have so much mileage...
mine oni can go bkk so need to buy
so what do you plan to do in tokyo?
my hubby "appointed" me to do up the itinerary so i'm like doing lotsa "research" and asking around...

yanyen,
me too, i dun usualy come/chat here 'cos not too conveninent...
wow, so many 15-feb babies

yeah - TGIF!!

 

[garfield9]

xy,
ya lor no one reply me leh on the tax questions =P

i think this year no need to pay tax liao!! the parenthood tax rebate is basically a deduction from your total payable tax.

so if after all the reliefs, the payable income tax is less than $7,000 then don't need to pay any tax!! (cos we have another $2,000 tax rebate due to poor economy).

 

[garfield9]

p1nk1e,
ya, used to make 4 trips to US a year on biz class. one year can earn almost 100,000 miles. plus now SQ has 25% to 50% discount on all redemption bookings.

 

[star70]

Gar - Citadines-that's cheap hor. i book the hotel in Uneo is almost 13,000 yen for double room..dun even have kitchen somemore - maybe i shld re-consider....

 

[isobellies]

gar
wow! biz class! so shiok... but the 50% off mileage offer not for tokyo right?

actually i realise that for hotels in japan, if you book for a single person it's cheaper than if you say it's double. my couple friend always pretend they don't know each other at check in to do that! lol.

yanyen
welcome

glad you posting and not lurking anymore

 

[garfield9]

qingling,
the room at citadines not as big leh. how many pple are you booking for?

iso,
for tokyo it's only 25%...ya miss my biz class travel days! but haven't travelled since mar 2007!! almost 2 whole years!!

 

[garfield9]

yanyen,
welcome!

would like to share how children learn about values (this is from the book baby hearts)

while children learn through our examples as parents, there is also a precious opportunity to teach them by our own efforts to improve ourselves.

no one is perfect. so if we try to improve ourselves (eg. be more hardworking, be neater, be more organized, etc), that in itself is a learning opportunity for our children. they learn about striving to be a better person =) and we can also talk about our shortcomings and discuss how to achieve those values. helps them understand the "abstract" values better too.

 

[toot]

lezy,
good idea on creating journal, me vote for blogger just because livejournal and facebook is blocked in office

we can probably post recipes as well

talking about recipes makes me think of an incident that happen between me and C, i was having dinner and he want to try my food so he keeps pointing at my plate and say "mamama" but of course i ignore him and then out of frustration he grab my hand, so i finally give in and give him my spoon which has a teeny weeny drop of the sauce... and his expression when trying that spicy sauce is just hilarious! though my hb gave me a disapproving look, but told him it won't harm C coz it's really just a small piece of peanut i wish i had a camera with me that time !

 

[p1nk1e]

isobelies,
really? but when housekeeping, they can guess 'cos 2 sets of towels etc mah...

Going off soon.... happy weekends~~

 

[bkkgal]

Asked my bosses for a lateral transfer few days ago. Kena rejected.

demoralised but i guess i expected that kind of answer, knowing the manpower situation in the office. But i got them to agree to 1 day per week work from home arrangement. That's a minor V for me! I guess that's the best arrangement that can be worked out at this point. Hopefully, i can "dong" until get my bonus. sigh.

Reading books
I second the idea to start a bookclub online! I think better we use the existing infrastructure i.e. FB than to start a new blog cos it's hard to get everyone to sign onto something new. Whereas with FB group, we have a pretty good sign-up rate. We just need to advertise the usage a lot more. It's died down cos we can't seem to upload alot of photos on it but I think flickr can be used.

I read Becoming the Parent you want to be. It's good but I couldn't get the hubbs to agree on the core values that we want to impart to our kid. T

here's this book I'm reading "Four Hour WorkWeek" - it's not parenting related but it can be applied so that our lives are less frantic and we can get more time to spend with our kids. It's about lifestyle design, maximising the 80/20 rule and getting more out of life. 80% of results come from 20% of our efforts i.e. maximise the 20% to get the most of 80%.

 

[adehs]

Hi mummies Ade here... I am doing my 1st BP... Please support me Just Finish the uploading the pictures and info... phew... luckily got "军师" to help...


http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/581296/2223534.html?1236339467

 

[yanyen]

hi there

may i know how to join the Feb 08 FB group? Not a frequent user of FB myself...

 

[bkkgal]

yanyen
just search Feb2008 mummies and add to invite or something like that. One of the administrators will admit you.

 

[leila]

qingling,
m gg to jap in either may or jun. Thks for ur link to the jap's transport system, will definitely be v useful to me.

gar,
ya, mayb extending the trip aftr hubs' biz trip. or alternatively, stay in touristy area n get hubs to travel to n fro office. heh heh heh...else i wld be bored stiff!

bkk,
hey! that's a pretty good arrangement u've got there. i knw it's far fm what u have requested but it is gd at this juncture cos u get to see K at least 1 more whole day of the week. N if u can, u can work fm fidgets/gogo/park/zoo instead of home too.

 

[star70]

Gar - i saw the pictures.looks bigger than mine leh. i might decide to change. me only for 3 person. me,hubby and heidi. good with kitchen too.i was planning to lug my slow cooker there.

 

[piglettail]

hi ladies..

Cooking eggs
Thanks for all your encouragement and tips! yes I will try again, maybe i'm just too gan jiong.

Tried to give hard boiled egg yolk yesterday mixed with his fav cereal-he rejected the whole thing! but yeah, the egg yolk had a 'smell' cos i boiled it 1 hr ago vs. just 'freshly' boiled the last time I gave him. sigh, maybe he's not a 'natural egg baby', need 'training' type...but hb and i both LOVE eggs when we were children leh.

JWT weekday trial
I'm keen, esp Wednesday. Anyone else is keen too? I think there's 50% discount for Citi and OCBA credit cards so it works out to be $20 after discount.

Anybody been to Shanghai? Planning a trip and hope can get advise on where i can stay on a budget/what to do/sight see...

 

[genice]

Hi mummies.. thanks for all e well-wishes. Ihave finally survived the almost 28 hr journey to reach my appartment!!

Baby is sleeping now so got time to come up here. Throughout e flight, bb was co-operative for my std.. make only a bit of noise... slept quite a bit in e small and tiny bassinet. I even have time to watch 2 movies plus sleep for 2 hrs during e 14 hr flight from doha to US. Hubby helped quite a bit too. Flight was comfortable just that baby had to eat jar food/cereal/biscuits/bread and milk...which she doesnt like.. think she lost some wt liao.

Acc is great, staying at Marriot Service apartments, so much prettier than my own hse..!
Now looking forward to step out of the hse to do some grocery shopping.

Re: Jet Lag
Just to share 1 funny thing, think baby's bio clock still not adjusted.. She woke up lastnight at 3 plus am to play and she even pooed at 4 plus am ( sin time abt 5 plus pm!), that is her nomral poo time in sin.. normally she will not poo when she is sleeping at 4 plus am.. haha.. so i think her bio clock still haven adjust yet. Me and my hubby were so tired liao.. still got to clear poo at night.

Re: book club

Great Idea although i cant contribute much.. maybe its time for me to get started.

Fairfield.. thanks for info abt e blocks.. i will check out Target.. Yester nite when we drove to our apartment, i was super excited cause Walmart, JC Penny, Target.. and many shopping places quite near my place..

Re; Japan

I thot yen was on e rise??So it dropped already? 7000 yen to 1 sin, izzit low?? Cause i wnana buy something there but not sure whether it is a gd time to buy.

Wow.. so many pp going Japan.. never been there b4.. maybe plan for next yr... Mummies.. must share ur itinerary k..

Ok... i shall go n rest now.. will come up here whenever i can .

 

[fairfield]

Genice,
i can imagine u must be very excited, esp now weekend, can go explore liao. Oh, let me know if i can help u in any way, cos i used to live in CT.

 

[fairfield]

mommies,
how do u clean ur bbs' ears? I saw a lot of ear wax in my bb's ears, but not sure how to clean it out.

 

[stephie]

xiaoyun
re: JWT trial
I've called JWT UE Square
Sat classes are pretty fully booked.
Hence, we need to split into 2 groups. 3 slots available each on 14 Mar and 21 Mar.
I've booked the 6 slots.

14 Mar
(1) tubao
(2) stephie
(3)


21 Mar
(1) xiaoyun
(2) Qingling
(3) leila

please PM your contact number and your kid's name and choose a date that you prefer.

garfield
wow, shiok ah. travelled in business class for so many times. sob, me always dreaming of travelling in business class. so far, only took once from Hong Kong to Singapore and that's because there's delay in our original economy class flight back to singapore, friends complained and they 'compensate' by giving us business class.

100,000 miles can bring you where? i v suaku abt this miles thingy cos never had chance to accumulate/redeem before

Re: Jap Yen
yes, exchange rate is falling. gd news for all mummies who are going to japan soon. can't recall the exact rates, it's abt 1.55 - 1.58. It used to be 1.694 when i was checking out other currencies abt a month ago.

jeannie
so nice to hear from you from US. wow, your apt location sounds v good, can do lots and lots of shopping within reach. good. shop till u drop. haha..my girl also had jet lag when i brought her to us in late 2007. She also woke up at 3- 4am and want milk. after that, she dun wanna sleep, kept talking to my mum. got adjusted after 4th nite i think.

hope shawn's trip to taiwan/europe will be as smooth as gwen.

did you prepare gwen for the flight?

 

[stephie]

fairfield
err.. i've never cleaned my bb's ear leh. hmm.. think the wax will fall off natural. heard pple saying that it's not advisable to try cleaning the ear.

Re: tax rebate.
i only know i got the working mother child relief when i had my girl in 2005. now can claim the parenthood tax rebate with 2nd child (can't recall the exact amount, think maybe 20k?). yeah, no need to pay tax for many many years.