Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

It's strange. They want to walk when they can only crawl but once they can walk, they want to be carried.  So to try to encourage him to walk on his own, I resorted to creating games on walking on certain coloured tiles or walking on the lines of the pavement so that he would walk voluntarily.  Millenia Walk is a good place to kick start the series of games as they have nice black and white tiles and not so much human traffic. So some variations are: - let's walk on the black tiles - let's walk on the White tiles - let's hop on the black tiles etc - let's cross the bridge (when you see a strip of a different colour) - let's run up or down the slope (when theres's slopes ..  So far, this has helped to increase his willingness to walk. Let's hope he can keep it up.  http://youtu.be/iLDSZVKJzsI

As usual, Cayen was meddling around the table instead of sleeping. He touched this ornamental cat and I warned him not to as that has dust . He asked me why there is dust .. And here my story goes : (resorted to spinning stories instead of reading the same story books) Once upon a time, there was an empty house with nobody. One day, a speck of dust flew in. He saw no one and was happy.  He said , " Yeah !!! The house is empty. There's no one to wipe me, mop me or sweep me away! Yeah !! I will stay here." On day 2, another speck of dust flew in and he was so happy to see an empty house and a fellow dust.  He said , " Yeah !!! The house is empty. There's no one to wipe me, mop me or sweep me away! Yeah !! I will stay here." On day 3,   another speck of dust flew in and he was so happy to see an empty house and fellow dust.  He said , " Yeah !!! The house is empty. There's no one to wipe me, mop me or sweep me away! Yeah !! I...

Every Saturday and Sunday , we always have the perennial questions "What's for lunch ? What's for dinner?" Then as usual, everyone would want to suggest the same old places and I would veto and try to suggest somewhere new. So this week, i suggested to go walk around the newly refurbished Capitol Theatre to explore the new eateries there at Capitol Piazza.  Given that our family is looking for Asian food, we soon wandered into Palette which appeared to be a new concept foodcourt.  We went into the fairly empty place (heard they only opened two weeks ago) and saw a handful of stalls. There's service staff just like a restaurant, and order taking was via iPads. So the concept was foodcourt setting, with service and high tech order taking. Hence, expect prices higher than food court but if you are there with kids, it's a more hassle free experience as you could order at your seat and food would be served to you. And child seats are available.  Th...

I've spent quite a few years in housing loans. Thought it's high time I shared how to save money on housing loans and in some case, make your housing loan work for you ! Taking up a mortgage from a bank can generally be for three purposes: 1) purchase of a house 2) refinancing your current mortgage for interest saving  3) cashing out on a fully paid up property or property with low loan outstanding (this is only applicable for private properties, not HDB) Given that we are in times of increasing interest rates, I will focus on refinancing in this post.  Some mortgage loans in the market has a lock in period. Typically it ranges from  0 to 3 years of lock in where you cannot fully pay off the loan (if you took up a fixed rate loan, you cannot partially prepay the loan either). If you do, you will attract a hefty penalty. And typically within 3 years, if the bank has absorbed your valuation fee or legal fees, this can be clawed back from you as well....

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)