Phuket Holiday 2016 – Katathani

Posted in Holidays, Phuket, Thailand, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

Our first family holiday of 2016 brought us to Phuket, Thailand. While this was not our first trip to Phuket (we travelled there when it was just the two of us, for our first babymoon and subsequently for Jah’s 1^st holiday at 7 months), this is the first trip where we have ventured out further than 15 minutes away from the airport. No I kid you not! We always stayed 10 minutes away from the airport on all previous trips and basically parked ourselves in the vicinity of our hotel. We never visited Patong or any of the shopping malls ever. Ironically, we decided to stay almost 1.5 hours away from the airport while on holiday with 2 kids and ventured out every night by Tuktuk, for dinner. Perhaps parenthood really does make you stronger, more adventurous or just flat out mad! :p

The kids were really excited about this holiday and we were all up by 5am for our really early 8am flight. The first milestone we hit this holiday? Jah no longer needing his CARES Safety harness! He was constantly coaching Bella on how she should sit still in hers and that he could handle the ‘big people’ seatbelt now. 🙂 Honestly the CARES safety harness has been a great help for us when travelling with the kiddos. You can read more about it in our previous post here.

Big boy seat belt finally!

CARES Safety Harness for this little one (who is pretending to sleep btw)

We were picked up by our hotel private transfer and we managed to fit 4 adults, 2 kids, 3 suitcases and 2-3 handcarrys. Ermm yes we were there on a beach holiday but don’t ask me why we had so many suitcases. :p The transfer was about an hour long to the hotel and Jah and I were lucky to have a nice massage function in our seats. 🙂

Massage function in the car

We stayed at the Katathani which is located at Kata Noi. It essentially is right at the end of the Kata area and spanned a really large area, with two different wings. We booked 2 interconnecting Junior Suite rooms and were located at the Thani Wing which is closer to the beach. Each room came with either a king bed or twin beds + a sofa bed and they covered the sofa bed in our room with nice clean sheets, pillows and a blanket so that Jah could use it. We also had a really decent view of the pool and the beachfront.

Junior Suite with a Sofa bed made up for Jah

Junior Suite (Twin Sharing) with the sofa bed for regular use

View from our room balcony

Garden massage ($15 for 50 mins)

The hotel had many pools throughout its property which was one of the main draw for us when we were deciding where to stay. However we ended up playing at the same pool (right in front of our block) every morning before heading out to the beach and sea. The beach was located in an inlet and the waves were rather mild (usually got a bit ‘fiercer’ around noon time) so we can venture out with the kids. While the beach is not a private one, it felt pretty private to us because we had a guard watching the entrance from our hotel to the beach and you wouldn’t really venture out to Kata Noi Beach if you are not a guest at the hotel.

Empty clean beach…peace….

The kids also had a swell time at the kids pool with their toys and crocodile float which we bought from one of the many shops in the area. They also insisted on coming back from the beach at 11am every day without fail so that we could join the Aqua Aerobics class. Oh we had tons of fun and laughter with that class alright.

Aqua Aerobics Time!

The kids club at Katathani is located at the Bhuri Wing so it was a 5 minute walk from our block but the kids were more than willing to make the walk before lunch. The kids club is supervised and had tons of toys, games and even a ball pit. They have paid activities and free ones and even an outdoor play area. The kids really wanted to play outdoors but I wouldn’t let them because it was just too hot at 12noon. We didn’t go for any of the paid activities but there was more than enough to keep them occupied. In fact it was really tough trying to get them to leave and go to lunch. *grrrr* The thing I liked about the Kids club was the fact that they have a very flexible policy. You could choose to drop off your child with the staff or you could stay in the kids club with your child. We had one too many bad experiences with hotels who insist that the adults have to leave even when we just want to spend time with our kids in the club. We had no such problem at Katathani.

We really had a lot of fun at the Katathani, my only gripe was the fact that it was almost a 1.5 hour journey to the airport which can be really tiring. But the facilities and service far outweigh that little inconvenience. I have a feeling, this might be our go to place in Phuket from now on. 🙂

Want to know what else we did in Phuket with the kids and how we managed to have authentic Thai food even though we had kids with us? Stay tuned for our next Phuket 2016 post!

JahBella’s Mummy

21Apr2016

We need to stop judging Parents

Posted in Our Thoughts, Parenting decisions, Uncategorized by jahbella

It’s been a crazy few weeks and I haven’t gotten down to blogging much..not even about our recent holiday trip. But a conversation this evening with the hubby, propelled me to write this post.

I was reminded of how people judge the things parents do, yes even people who are parents and perhaps especially people who are parents.

I am definitely guilty of it. It’s so easy to judge another parent for choosing to do things differently from you.

Honestly being a parent is a tough enough job without having the world judge you and fellow parents can be the worst critics.

We judge when a parent leaves work on time to be with their kid.
We judge when a parent works late and doesn’t have time for their kid.

We judge when a parent sends their child to school when the child is sick.
We judge when a parent takes child mc for the nth time because the child is sick.

We judge when a mother chooses to be a stay home mum.
We judge when a mother chooses to be a full time working mum.

We judge when parents choose to put their kids in full day childcare.
We judge when parents choose to homeschool.

We judge when parents are competitive about school, school work/ school load.
We judge when parents choose to bring their kids overseas for a holiday during the school term.

We judge when parents sign their kids up for countless enrichment classes and make them study all the time.
We judge when parents don’t sign their kids up for any enrichment classes and allow them to play all the time.

We judge when parents allow their kids to use electronic devices.
We judge when parents don’t allow their kids to use electronic devices.

We judge when parents allow their kids to co-sleep with them.
We judge when parents make their kids sleep on their own.

We judge when parents choose to stop at 1.
We judge when parents choose to have more than 1.

I think this list could go on for quite abit and I’m sure many of you would have quite a few things to add as well..

My point really is we have to learn to stop judging each other. The world of parenting is hard enough as it is. We don’t need to prove or justify our parenting choices to people but it sure would make it a sweeter journey if we learn to stop imposing our views on each other.

After all, we all really just want what’s best for our children and family, within our own personal circumstances.

And if we all can just learn to be supportive or at least understanding of each other, the parenting world will be a less daunting place.

JahBella’s Mummy

7Apr2016

For Mummies of Little Boys – Foreskin Infection

Posted in Holidays, Kids health, Parenting decisions, Tips with Kids, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

So we are just fresh off a beach holiday and honestly this is possibly the last topic I would think to write after an awesome vacation. (More on that awesome vacation in our later posts).

However I felt that it was important for me to share our run-in or Jah’s run-in with a foreskin infection during our trip and what we did to help him. Excuse the lack of photos as the photos taken were rather private (pun intended :p)

A foreskin infection or balanitis is apparently a very common condition amongst little boys from the ages of 2 and up however there are varying and overwhelming information on how to go about handling this situation.

For starters, there are two camps on the issue – the pro-circumcision and the anti- circumcision camp. I will not be going into a discussion on this at all, rather I would just like to share what worked for us in a situation where we didn’t have access to his usual PD or an A&E that we felt we could trust.

Jah started complaining about a pain in his penis on Friday (a day into our holiday). On close inspection, we didn’t spot anything odd and figured it might have been an insect bite or a bruise that he might have gotten during a recent Sports Day event. We asked if it was painful to pee and ruled out an urinary tract infection when he said no. I started watching him closely for signs of swelling or redness and also monitored his peeing situation.

By Saturday afternoon, the boy was screaming in pain every time I tried to put on his underwear or if anything would brush or even come into slight contact with his penis. This time the sudden swelling was very obvious. The area was obviously swollen, red and very tender in fact the appearance of pus started to really freak us out. My best friend Google revealed that it was likely balanitis which we were looking at and it needed medical attention and likely a hydrocortisone cream and antibiotics for the infection.

We were more than 24 hours away from our flight home and I read enough horrors stories online about doctors not knowing the right way to examine for balanitis. I didn’t want to traumatise Jah before his PD got to see him and so the huge dilemma of whether to take him to the in house hotel doctor, a local A&E or to sit tight and wait till our return to Singapore.

We gave him a dose of ibuprofen to help with the pain and to settle him for a nap. The closest thing we had to a hydrocortisone cream at that point was his eczema cream which belonged to the same family of medicine. In desperation, we applied a thin layer for him and prayed hard that we would see some improvement after his nap.

Thankfully the pain relief worked and he rested. He also woke up to a slightly less inflamed nether region and no more pus. However the tip of his penis now had a small ‘balloon’ at the end and we started to worry if it was sealed swollen and whether he was able to pee. We only started breathing again when we witnessed him peeing without fuss.

We wanted to go to a nearby pharmacy to purchase a hydrocortisone cream for him but also read that using a cream without antibiotics might worsen the situation if it was a bacterial infection rather than a fungal infection. Thankfully we found out that organic coconut oil had anti fungal and anti bacterial properties and could be used to treat balanitis. We were fortunate that we were holidaying in a place where coconut oils were a plenty and we found a bottle of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil easily at a pharmacy.

Jah was in good spirits throughout this experience and was very happy to go for dinner, ice cream and to shop for his coconut oil and that settled us alittle. Mummy’s instinct told me that we were at least not in dire need of medical attention at that point.

This big smile put my mind at ease..(well alittle at least)…what a trooper!

We applied the coconut oil before bed that night and found that the swelling and redness had largely subsided overnight! Phew! We made it home the next evening and even managed to wait till Monday morning to take him to his PD.

A visit to his PD on Monday morning showed a marked improvement in his condition compared to the Sat photos we had taken and he was prescribed with a potassium permanganate wash as well as a hydrocortisone cream. Ironically the cream was something that he also used for his eczema but I had brought a different brand with us in the trip. *smack head*

Easily available at pharmacies too I was told…

So what lesson have I learnt through all this? Well for one I will definitely be packing some coconut oil and his hydrocortisone cream for our next trip overseas.

Some of the things we learnt and checked for
1) Could he pee as per normal? Any problems or pain peeing? This was to rule out a UTI.
2) Was he having a fever? This would suggest the infection was a lot worse and we would have then taken him to a dr or Hosp immediately.
3) Was he in a lot of pain and was that preventing him from functionally normally or sleeping. If so then give him some pain relief in the form of Panadol or ibuprofen.
4) Did the interim measures like coconut oil help? Was he in less pain and had the swelling situation improve? If the coconut oil had not made any improvements then we would also have brought him to the In-house Dr.
5) Mummy’s instinct..yes apart from the above checks, we used mummy instinct which overrules everything else above. Had I felt uncomfortable about the situation at all, we would have handed straight for medical attention.

Hopefully Jah will never have to go through that experience again but we will definitely be better equipped if it does. And I hope you never have to find this post handy 🙂

JahBella’s Mummy

28Mar2016

Cold Storage Kids Run 2016 + Discount Code

Posted in Event Listings, Kids health, Media Invite, Reviews, Uncategorized, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

JahBella participated in their first race during the Cold Storage Kids Run 2015 last year and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In fact they have been bugging us to find out when the next race will take place and which categories they will get to race in. So you can only imagine their excitement when we told them that the Cold Storage Kids Run will be back for its 9^th consecutive year and that we will be taking part!

While there is definitely no lack of runs/ races/ marathons in Singapore, my kids are strangely fixated on the Cold Storage Kids Run even though it isn’t ‘attached’ to any fancy cartoon/ animation character.

If you read about our experience last year [click here], you would know that we benefited from JahBella being close in age because they got to participate in the same category, the Jolly Kiwis for 2 – 4 years old. Well ok, they didn’t really participate side by side, given that Jah ran the whole 800m while Bella got carried on Joel’s shoulders almost from the starting line. But the awesome part was that the littler ones could move at their own pace and not be worried about being jostled by much older kids (which normally happens when every kid from 2 to 12 ends up in 1 category). In fact we saw many parents carrying their little ones in carriers or on their shoulders and the small ones were just really happy to be part of all that 800m excitement.

The one thing that I absolutely love about the Cold Storage Kids Run is the fact that the races are very well categorized by age. It is truly an out and out Kids Run which caters to the various ages in different categories as well as distances which the kids can cover comfortably regardless of whether it is in ‘fun’ mode or ‘competitive’ mode. There is even a stroller race if that is your preferred mode of ‘transportation’ 🙂 The ‘after party’ carnival is also a huge draw for the little ones to spend time with family and friends so yes gather everyone for a fantastic Sunday morning out!

This year, we will be participating in two different categories which means that Joel and I will have to divide and conquer. I’m taking Bella so wish me luck! Perhaps I’ll be whipping out my own carrier this time around :p

The Cold Storage Kids Run 2016 will be happening on 22 May 2016 (Sunday) at The Meadows @ Gardens by The Bay (7am to 12pm).

Race/ reporting times will depend on which category you have signed up for.

For more info on race categories and fees, please refer to this link.

Do note that the registration will close on 3^rd April 2016 or once the race capacity of 5,000 has been reached so make sure that you don’t miss out!

However if you have missed out on the Early Bird Registration Window, fret not!

Here is a promo code REFBLOGGER16 that will entitle you to a 10% discount off the registration price.

JahBella are already gearing up and practicing for their upcoming race so what are you waiting for? We will see you at the Finish Line! 🙂

JahBella’s Mummy

13Mar2016

Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival – JahBella’s Tips and Highlights [Media Invite]

Posted in Event Listings, Media Invite, Uncategorized, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

We attended our first Disney on Ice 2 years ago with Jah when he was a teeny weeny little baby ok maybe I exaggerate, he was almost 3 years old then. So we figured it was about time for Bella to have her first Disney on Ice experience since she would be turning 3 in 2 months! Oh how time flies…

With Bella all decked out in her Princess Anna costume (never say never! :p) and Jah in his Marvel Avengers outfit (yes this boy is still holding out for a superhero show), we headed for Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Before we go into the highlights of the show proper, let me take you through some tips that we learnt from today’s experience

Arrive early

While parking didn’t seem like too much of an issue and there was more than enough parking across the road at Kallang Leisure Park, getting a lot right in front of the stadium was perfect for ushering kiddos quickly into the car after a 2 hour long show. (Trust me the parents will need it even if the kids don’t 😉 ) Also coming early would help you beat the crowd queuing to for the bag check and entry and give you some time to leisurely check out the merchandise and F&B.

Bring cash for the merchandise and snacks.

There are some pretty cute and interesting merchandise. We got Jah and Bella a pair of binoculars at $16 each. Perfect for keeping them busy!

Snacks and drinks are also sold inside.

In fact if you are seated in the first few rows, you will be able to get them for the mobile kiosk in front of the rink. Oh and in case your kids ask for popcorn and you do not want to indulge in such a big tub, there are also smaller boxes available for sale (think movie theatre size)

Booster seats are available on a first come first served basis.

But honestly I preferred to go without because they don’t really fit well on the seats. Given that half the audience were kids, it was pretty easy to ensure minimal blockage by seating them strategically behind another kid.

Go ahead, prep your kids for that big Frozen Spectacular thats happening at the end of the show.

Yes 1.5 hours might seem like a long time time in ‘kids light years’ to be waiting for something and I was afraid to oversell what was coming at the end so I had pretty restless frozen hungry kids towards the end of it all. If I had known any better, I would have promised them a Frozen extravaganza which it turned out to be. 🙂

Now for the HIGHLIGHTS!!!

Storylines!

We absolutely love the fact that there were storylines to follow. Rather than a random act or song, we got to revisit a few acts from each tale. Awesome for those who were familiar with the stories because we could enjoy all the little details and perfect for this who weren’t familiar because they were introduced to the likes of The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast and Frozen. Who said you had to be a fan to enjoy it! Incredible storytelling!

Skills!

The aerial stunts, the ice skating techniques and the synchronised choreography. The spins, twirls, lifts and flips! I can tell you that the kids were not the only ones wowed.

Set!

The backdrop, costumes, props and effects were phenomenal! Fans of the Disney tales would notice the details and the larger than life similarities. Fireworks, floating lanterns, snow! The amount of snow that fell on the rink during the Frozen segment was truly an effect alright! Without giving too much away, I actually thought that it was quite interesting how they presented a Frozen Anna.

Bella was captivated as all the other young princesses were and Jah was hooked on the fight scenes as all young princes/ superheroes would be. :p

All in all, it was truly a Disney experience!

Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival will be in town from now till 20 March 2016.

Tickets are priced from $25 to $120.

Tickets for Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival can be purchased online via http://www.sportshubtix.sg.

To learn more about Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival, please visit http://www.disneyonice-asia.com/magical-ice-festival/

Disclosure: We received complimentary VIP tickets to attend Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival for a media review. No monetary compensation was received and all opinions are my own.