Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

I have a dozen of cards in my wallet and while I need to do lots of bill payment to different banks every month, the savings or rewards I get make it all worth it. My rationale is that since the money has to be spent, make it work harder for you.  Here's my algorithm for using my cards to maximise my rewards. This runs inside my head prior to every card transaction I make. The order matters.  If it's all too confusing or too much hassle for you , fret not. Just focus on 3 questions, what is your total expenditure per month on things that are chargeable to cards? Is there a few spend categories that make up most of your spend? What's your preferred reward type? Then, you can identify what's the best way to make your money work harder for you.  1. Immediate discount at Point of Sale If a certain card gives an upfront discount just by using a certain card , just use it. So you can typically save 10-20% off the price just like that.  Examples: look ...

Recently he has been very mischievous , and today he was especially naughty. He poured the Ruyi oil all over the floor and he poured out the toilet cleaning powder and attempted to eat it. That's not to mention him hitting Grandma again despite repeated warnings and even caning.  During bedtime, I decided to try a new tactic. I used his soft toys and seat them in a circle . I said they were his students and he's their teacher and he should teach him all the dos and don't. So I used the toys to ask him if he can pour oil and powder on the floor , what he needs to do when he's done with a meal and what steps he need to do in a bedtime routine. He got all the answers right and at least I know the theory is right. So I got all the animals to do these: Step 1: drink milk Step 2: drink water Step 3: brush teeth with toothpaste n no youtube Step 4: sleep  Then , I said he's the last one and he should set a good example as a teacher.  He looked very serious. He went to ask ...

Dining out with kids can be a real hassle and for a long time we went for the easy way out of giving him the iPhone. Nowadays , I decided to get more creative. Hence, this is my Doremon bag of tricks. I try to keep it light so usually I will take 1-2 of these combi. 1) interactive games like matching games 2) lego ( I will bring the mini ones)  3) book for tracing ABC 4) sticker books  5) crayons and paper (there's a little risk of making a little mess) 

At 32 months, he's more talkative than ever. And recently , he and a classmate started speaking some gibberish with the likes of "Ah ka wa ka .." When I asked him who taught him all these , he said he did. Not sure if he's speaking the truth but it's quite amusing though worrisome at the same time that he's weaving all these gibberish occasionally into his speech or songs on purpose. And he finds it funny so he would do it again and again.  Anyway, here's a more normal clip .. http://youtu.be/XnIBQo1BcYk

Tomorrow is what day ? C : Monday  Godma (GM) : On Monday, ah Ma goes to ... C: Work  GM: Ah Pa goes to ... C: Work  GM: Cayen go to ... C: Work  GM: where are you working at? C: Citibank !  (Everyone laughed out loud) GM: what do you do there? C: Pay money ! (Hahahaha! Faints.) ----------- Cayen heard the door open. He went to the door excitedly and saw that it's Godma. First thing he said , "do you bring your Handphone ??"  Talk about 心机！ 

We bumped into our next door neighbour. He said hello to Cayen. Cayen said Hello in return. I smiled and told my neighbour he's deemed a friend now as Cayen wouldn't usually reciprocate with a  hello as he has become shy. To that, Neighbour was very pleased and went into his house get some treats and give to Cayen. Cayen received it and said "thank you!" Once Cayen enters the house, he exclaimed in a rather puzzled tone  "he gave me this , again. I don't know why. " . He said this because our dear neighbour has given him this treat a few times now but Cayen doesn't quite know why.  Well son, this is called 人情味！(human kindness !) Talking about nice neighbours, my neighbour-friend will always buy us treats when they go travelling. Feels nice & fuzzy to live in a nice kampong !

Cayen was a little under the weather and having a little fever. Hence, we decided to feed him some medicine which is pink in colour. This is one of those that doesn't taste sweet and tastes like medicine. Me: Cayen, let's eat the medicine . C: I want the black colour one. Me: No, it's the pink one , that's for fever. Black color is for cough .  C: *feigns a cough immediately* cough * cough *  I looked at him and laughed out loud.  Then, he coughed again with a cheeky grin *cough* cough *  This little imp ! But he sures can act ! 

Last Saturday , we went to the long awaited Peppa Pig show at the Resorts World Theatre at Sentosa where hundreds of kids and adults gathered in great excitement. They put up a song and dance of all the regular songs in the Peppa Pig cartoons so Cayen could identify with it. However, given the price of the tickets, I was quite surprised that the Peppa Pig characters didn't come out in Life size mascots . Instead , toy size versions were held and manoveured by human actors. The plot and the props were usual for a kids production but nothing very creative or special. To be honest, I was bored stiff and thankfully Ah Pa didn't join and was waiting outside.  Yesterday, we went for Gingerbread Man at the Raffles Hotel theatre that was a lot smaller and cosier. In this theatre, they used mainly human actors to play out the characters in the story including Gingerbread man , and in a few settings ,  the toy size gingerbread man came out appropriately to depict a smaller size ma...