Two weekends ago we went on a 3 day 2 night trip to Melaka. We have been talking about going for more than a year already, but  dates and plans never worked out until this Wesak Day weekend. Luckily I managed to book the hotel just three days before going.

We stayed at Casa Del Rio. Yeah, that fancy new five star boutique hotel. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, I loved it. And I know, we’re probably spoiling the kids with all this luxury… I mean I never got to stay in nice hotels when I was young! Kids these days, they’re so lucky aren’t they?

And I know… we’re spoiling ourselves too. But to me its all part of the holiday experience. Plus, we can never afford this kind of luxury on overseas holidays.

Anyway, we drove down there in good time, and were greeted at the hotel with a refreshing ginger and lime sorbet. A nice change from the usual fruit punch.

The rooms are really nice! They have a split level between entrance/bathroom and bedroom and the room extends out to a balcony with a comfy daybed.

The bathroom has a huge tub, in which if you were a couple - perfect for two, or in our case, if you have kids - perfect for them to splash around in. And it has a separate shower area with rainshower (of course).

We really enjoyed sitting on the balcony, what with the pretty flowers and the sound of the flowing fountain right outside, while the ceiling fan overhead kept things cool. I took the kids out there to eat their snacks so that they wouldn’t dirty the room.

What else was cool? Oh, the aromatherapy candle they lit during the turndown service, free wifi, free cake when we ordered drinks at the bar and in-room hot chocolate satchets.

What was not so good? Mini fridge wasn’t working, so they had to move a new one in for us, safe broke down, so they had to come and fix it, wifi wasn’t strong enough, so they had to come give us a booster gadget, turndown didn’t clean out our rubbish on the second day, breakfast was very slow on the first day, and we had to wait half an hour for room service to clean our room, as it wasn’t cleaned yet when we came back from lunch.

OK, so this post has become a review for the hotel. Haha. At least the service was very good. The hotel staff were all very prompt, friendly and responsive. As for Melaka itself, I enjoyed Jonker Street, we had Chicken rice balls (but not the original place) so maybe that’s why it wasn’t very nice, we went on the river cruise, visited the Maritime Museum and the ChengHo Museum.

The Chengho Museum was the best. We wished we could have spent more time there. They had a puppet show, a video, lots of models and historical artefacts and all kinds of interesting info about the eunuch, muslim Admiral - something the museum guide liked to emphasise to us. He also gave the kids little rewards if they answered a question correctly. Eg. asking Sean - “Which man in this scene is Cheng Ho?”

Unfortunately, my kids are too shy to speak to strangers, so I had to answer for them. Anyway, they went away with angry bird badges and butterfly erasers, so they were happy.

Cheng Ho had a fleet with over 300 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen! It was a floating town. I didn’t know that.

And did you know Cheng Ho made it all the way to Africa and brought a giraffe back for the Emperor? I didn’t know that either.

So that’s about it for the trip. We’re planning one more local holiday soon!

I was walking around Keira’s kindergarten the other day when I saw this poster advising parents not to let their children have too much screen time. One hour max a day is apparently what experts recommend for young kids. And when they say “Screen time”, they mean TV screen, computer screen, ipad screen, xbox, iphone and all the other modern forms of 21st century entertainment.

Like our new Internet TV, on which the kids have discovered Youtube and a whole new world of shows to watch. There’s actually lots of good british children shows on Youtube - “Charlie and Lola” and “Ben and Holly” are our favourites. But now Sean is addicted to watching lion dance performances on youtube!

Anyway, what’s the cons of too much screen time? Apparently it detracts from real interactive time with the family, it makes kids anti-social, trains them to just receive stimulus but not how to respond proactively (for TV anyway), and on a subliminal level, the non-stop images, music and action that come from TV shows and computer games trains kids to expect simulation all the time, so when it comes to real world activities, that go at a much slower pace, like reading, kids no longer have the attention span or the patience to sit through them.

The pros of screen time? Peace and quiet for the parents! and also quite alot of interactive educational programmes really do help kids learn.

I have read about this before, and I have “tried” to limit Keira and Sean’s screen time, but really, only one hour a day, max? Really?

Somehow, I just can’t seem to fill up the kids’ day with other activities until there’s no need for some screen time to occupy them.

Well,  at least K & S have learnt to enjoy books since they were young. But who reads all day? (actually I did when I was a teenager, but anyway… that was when King’s Quest was the coolest computer game around.)

Let me recount what occurs in a typical 12 hour day with the children.

- They wake up, have breakfast, wash up, change etc (1 hour)
- They play with their toys (1 hour)
- They get bored of their toys, so watch some TV, play iPhone (30 mins)
- Me, trying to limit screen time, will read to them or get them to do some drawing/colouring (30 mins)
- Lunch time, get Keira ready for Kindy, and send her to Kindy (1 hour)
- At least, for the next 4 hours K is occupied at Kindy
- Sean at home, will sometimes watch TV/play on the computer or I will try to find some activity for him - like play dough or baking (1.5 hours)
- Then I get him ready for his afternoon nap and we do some reading and spend time together and he has a nap (2 hours)
- Pick up Keira, and let the children eat some snacks. The TV is usually on in the background (1 hour)
- If the weather is good, we go out to play in the garden or if not, I try to find more activities to do with them - toys, music, drawing, reading, TV - usually all - cos each activity only lasts 15 minutes max (1.5 hours)
- Dinner and play again - sometimes play on iphone and computer, sometimes toys (1 hour)
- Bath time and getting ready for bed. (1 hour)
- They will have their milk and watch some TV (30 mins)
- Up to bed, read some bedtime stories and sleep (30 mins)

So counting how much screen time they have - I would say MINIMUM 2 hours a day!

Well, considering they have parents who spend practically all day staring at the screen (ahem), I suppose that’s not very surprising…

But I do feel pretty guilty about it. I just simply can’t find enough activities to keep them occupied all day! I know if I spent all my time playing lego, hide and seek, tea party etc etc with them when they get bored, they wouldn’t need the TV or computer. But I don’t have the patience for that. After just 5 minutes pretending to eat pretend food, my brain turns to jelly.

The good thing is now Keira and Sean can play together and mostly all they need me to do is be around, guide them, mediate fights and praise them, which I love to do.

I suppose my problem is when they want me to play with them. For some reason, I can’t play kiddie games for very long… my attention span is just not there. I would rather read to them, bake together, do some crafts with them or yes, let them watch TV, than have to crawl around on the floor pretending to be a shark.

So, I’ve managed to identify my problem! The reason why my kids have too much screen time is because I don’t like to play childish games!

I can’t just force them to go play by themselves all the time, so if I’m really serious about limiting their screen time, i’ve got to give up my own screen time and seriously find alternative activites we all can enjoy.

But what else is there to do with kids at home?

What do you do? Is one hour screen time a day a realistic expectation? Isn’t it important for kid’s of this generation to be IT savvy - meaning they should be pros at googling, filtering spam and playing Angry Birds?

We have just been to Publika at Sri Hartamas two Fridays in a row checking out the foodie options there. It’s a pretty nice place. Altho 70% of the retail space in the main complex is still empty, all the surrounding shop lots are bursting with food outlets.

I like this huge space they have outside with a stage, water feature, and lounge chairs for people to hang around and catch a breeze. Of course its also great for children to run around in!

Last week we ate at Fatboy’s Burger Bar. Juicy beef, lamb, chicken AND pork patties with all kinds of condiments to choose from. I like their “Build your own” burger menu, so I can choose the strangest things on the menu and put them together. Hehe. It’s also easy to order for the kids, since they don’t like mayonnaise, vegies, onion, pickles etc that usually go in burgers, I just ordered a bun with a pork pattie for Keira, and that’s it.

Next time, I won’t even order the bun as she didn’t eat it! Just the pattie by itself. Me too, cos I don’t really like burger buns either. What’s the point of eating a burger then you ask? haha. I don’t know. Well, CY loves burgers so if I have to eat them with him, its nice to be able to customise:)

And the burgers at Fatboy’s are juicy and yummy. The fries were even better, big, fat, crunchy, fluffy wedges of real potato. good.

In other food news, I’ve been seeing people line up for Garrett’s Chicago Popcorn at Candylicious since its opening at 1 Utama for quite awhile. Finally was there one night when the queue wasn’t too long and managed to get us a small bag of macadamia caramel crisp - at RM19 for a little bag - it better be worth it. And it was!

Yeap, it tastes as good as it looks. Sweeeeet!

I was also excited to discover a new french bistro/restaurant that opened at 1 Utama recently. Petit Millie serves casual french style food with funny names - tartes, tartines and poutines - which are apparently fancified pizzas, sandwiches and fries.

We tried the spaghetti with seared tuna:

Fish Pie:

and “poutine” with scrambled eggs and gravy:

The fish pie was YUMMY, the other two alright. And unfortunately the size of the dishes were quite “petit“. I do want to go back to try the tartes and tartines  tho.

My last little piece to blog about - finally finished sewing a dress for myself - which didn’t turn out as well as Keira’s dresses. Making big people’s clothes is alot harder than children’s clothes. The fit is so much more important, and I have no idea how to adjust the pattern to fit.

So this is the end product, which I don’t feel I can wear out in public, as it doesn’t drape properly, makes me look wide, and strange things are happening at the back - you probably can’t see all that from the photo, but it’s not very flattering.

Keira’s dress is lovely tho And yes, that’s Sean half naked next to us. So, I’m trying to see what I can do to make this dress more presentable. Maybe make it longer.

And that’s all the bits and pieces I have from the past few weeks. Till next time! xxx

Ah, sorry for the belated post. Past few weeks, I had a bit of work to do, then the school holidays came up and I went on “holiday” with the kids too, then we had a little party for Sean’s birthday, all of which occupied me for awhile.

But now, finally, with Keira back at Kindy, and no work to do, I can blog.

So, Sean’s party:) It was a smallish affair - and since it was a small group, I decided to cook most of the food.

“Most” was home cooked but not all… the hokkien mee, roast duck and roast pork were ordered from the local dai chow, the rest - the vegies, meatballs, yam rice, devilled eggs, lemongrass prawn and herbal chicken we cooked.

I also made half of Sean’s cake. Haha. The ugly half:

The actual cake is a Secret Recipe Chocolate Cheese cake, then I made two car cakes to decorate the top - I seriously don’t know how to work with icing. How do you get it all smooth and perfect? Anyway, we actually made five cars, and these two were the most presentable.

And since the kids loved the bouncy castle/slide that we got for Keira’s b’day so much, I just had to get it again for Sean’s birthday

Sean was so shy throughout the party tho. He didn’t dare play in the bouncy castle (actually none of the little kids played in it cos the bigger kids were bouncing around way too rough in there!), But Sean didn’t dare run around to play with the smaller children either. He clung to one of us the whole night, and just looked.

Keira took some time to warm up, but after awhile I could hear her shrieking with laughter over something or other. Ah, she’s growing up.

Here’s a family photo just before we sang happy birthday.

It was a fun night overall and I really enjoyed planning it

Yup, goodbye my baby. Hello, cheeky little boy.

Altho we still treat you like a baby, and I still wish I could cradle and rock you in my arms like a baby, (and actually I still do), you will be two years old in a few weeks time!

Time for an update on the little rascal’s progress.

At almost 2, we can see signs of the “terrible” phase coming in. Sean is becoming stubborn, saying “No” all the time, and crying at the top of his lungs if he doesn’t get his way. So, he has been getting “the corner”, when he is too naughty. Funnily enough, when I put him there, he stays there meekly and quietly until I come to get him!

His vocabulary is picking up slowly. The boy knows heaps of words, and his understanding is great, but he hasn’t got his pronunciation down yet,  and he knows it, so he only says the words that he knows he can pronounce. So far, still single syllables only.

So he makes do with single word questions and demands, like this:

“Mama, book!”

“Mama, deo” (video)

“Jie jie, come!”

“Wait!” with palms up

“Stop!” (when I try to sing… yes, I’m that bad)

He is still pretty good with food. He doesn’t eat alot, but eats enough. And he can feed himself quite well… err, sometimes even better than his 4.5 year old sister!

I am finally stopping the breastfeeding. Haven’t given him any in the past 2-3 days, when he asks for it, I have put him off in a rather interesting way, which is abit embarassing to blog about, but any mums out there who are curious, email me. Anyway, he has stopped asking for it

Unfortunately, Sean hasn’t been sleeping through the night in the past few months. Could be a bad habit, but he has to wake up 1 or 2 times a night to get a drink of water. I am so used to it that I don’t even complain about it anymore. He has trained Mummy well.

Oh, and he works the computer like a pro.

I am very impressed each time I see him clicking and navigating around. I’m like how can a baby do that??! Because I’m obviously still in denial and I still think he’s a baby.

Here’s a video with Sean in action. He is playing on starfall.com, which is excellent for young kids.

I don’t even have to mention the iPhone do I? He likes to play with the camera and take photos. Play with Talking Ben, Talking Tom etc.

He likes cars, bikes and making things fly. See this bike/buggy below (can rent at SS2 Mall RM10 for 15 -20 minutes) … after awhile, Sean was the one pressing on the accelerator, and steering the bike, while Ah gong just had to hang on for his life and navigate!

He’s not toilet trained yet. But slowly getting there. One day I asked him if he had done a poo, and he replied: “No, wee.” At least now he can tell the difference. He also likes to sit on the toilet - for fun - copying his jie jie, but nothing ever happens.

What else.. what else?

He can built really tall towers with Lego. He tries to sing along to songs by singing the last word in the sentence. eg. Music: “A whole new world….”  Sean (more or less in tune): “Wor…” hehehe. So far he calls me “Mama”, but recently started saying “Mami” sometimes.  Likes to cuddle Likes soft boiled egg for breakfast. Wants to go to kindy with Keira. Can pose for the camera.

That’s it. Except one last soppy observation from me … I’m treasuring every single moment with these two kiddos. Especially when they are enjoying each other’s company and playing happily together. They’re wonderful