Cold Storage Kids Run 2016 [Media Invite]

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

Jah and Bella just completed their 2^nd Cold Storage Kids Run yesterday and they are already looking forward to next year’s race! Mummy on the other hand is still recovering from getting up at 5am. :p Despite the rain that was still falling as we were driving to Gardens by the Bay at 630am, their spirits were not dampened one bit by it. Thankfully the rain stopped just as we were walking to the event area and the rain left us with muddy puddles (our shoes and freshly groomed car weren’t too happy about that) and a nice overcast sky (which made the humidity so much easier to bear with). The kids of course didn’t care about any of that and were just really excited that were making our way to the race.

Bella and Mummy before the race starts!

A milo boost before the race!

While we were able to race in the same category (Jolly Kiwi) last year because Bella was 2 and Jah was 4. We had to divide and conquer this year, with Bella still in the Jolly Kiwi Category (2 – 4 year olds) and Jah in the AIA Vitality Category (5 & 6 year olds). I was abit apprehensive about splitting up because Bella raced the whole way on Joel’s shoulder last year and I was going to race with her this year. I kept reminding her that Mummy was not going to carry her and that she really had to race on her own. I have to say I am extremely proud of this little lady because she showed me a determination that I have not seen in her yet. She raced the entire 800m on her own and only asked to hold my hand at around the 400m mark, right about the same time when I noticed that she looked alittle tired and was slowing down. Good job Bella! Mummy is so proud of you!

Insisting that I didn’t need to hold her hand

After finishing our race and collecting our medals, we headed over to the barriers near the Finish Line to wait for Jah and Joel. Even though their category was just after ours, we had more than enough time to find a spot and wait for them to race to the Finish. In fact we waited quite abit because we were in the first group of Jolly Kiwis who were flagged off and our boys were in the 4^th Group of the AIA Vitality category to be flagged off.

I absolutely love the planning at the Cold Storage Kids Run because this ensures that participants in the same category are staggered for safety and crowd control reasons and parents with kids in back to back categories have time to participate and wait for their other kids to come round the bend. 🙂

Although I did have a little scare when I saw Jah reach the Finish Line. Mummy’s instinct told me something didn’t look quite right when I saw him approach the finish line. He looked a little too pale for my liking. When I finally met him at the medal collection area, he complained that he had a tummy ache and that he wanted to lie down and sleep. I carried him and he immediately flopped into my arms, rested his head on my shoulders and went almost limp. My heart was in my throat at that point as I saw him turning whiter.

I quickly realized that he might be having gastric pains and low blood sugar because he had refused breakfast in his excitement this morning and only had 2 cups of milo from the Milo truck. Thankfully a nice lady happened to be giving out packets of sponsored chocolate milk and vanilla bread and I quickly gave him some chocolate milk and he instantly felt better! Colour started returning to his face and lips and he had the energy to stand on his own again. Phew!!! The poor boy did not realize that we had prepared bread for him in our back pack and he had thought that he wasn’t allowed to eat his breakfast since we had left the house already. Lesson learnt to feed them before their race and thank goodness for the sponsored refreshments at the race!! Quite literally our life savers!!! I am truly proud of his boy who managed to finish his 800m despite the discomfort and pain that he must have been feeling. I think it might be true what they say about boys not wanting to let their daddies down.

I still can’t believe how different my babies were during the race last year versus this year and despite having to be in different categories and Jah feeling alittle sick, I am kind of glad that I got to see the determination in them.

My little babies last year!

Time flies…

On a side note, they did have a Family Fun category for kids between 2 – 12 years this year and Jah and Bella have already requested that we join the Fun Dress Up category next year so that we can all race together again and play dress up as well! 🙂

Until next year!

JahBella’s Mummy

Disclaimer – We were invited to participate in the Cold Storage Kids Run 2016. No monetary compensation was received and all opinions and photos are our own.

12May2016

Phuket Holiday (March 2016) – Food and Activities with Kids

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

So what do you do when on a beach holiday in Phuket, Thailand? Laze in the sun and eat all the Thai food you can of course! If anyone tells you that eating Thai food with kids in tow is not possible and that you have to settle for Western food or Fast Food, don’t believe them! We had Thai food every single meal and the kids ate fine.

The Orchid – Opposite Katathani

If you decide to stay at Katathani like us, don’t miss the awesomely authentic Thai food found just across the street from our hotel at a restaurant called The Orchid. In fact we only discovered it on the 2^nd day after trying some other cut-throat restaurant on the same street, which was catered more to the Western palate and currency conversion. Their Tom Yum Goong, Beef Fried Rice, Curry Powder Prawn/ Crab, Fried Banana with Ice-cream and sundaes became our staples for every lunch until the day we left. We wished we had found the place earlier and the kids were happy to have their local beef fried rice plus a sundae of their choice at every meal. :p Come on! It was a holiday after all! 🙂 Everything was really value for money!

Perfect with lots of little green chilli padi!

Curry Powder crab!

1 sundae a day, keeps the tantrums away..:p

Goreng Pisang with Ice cream and honey…looks are deserving because this was awesome!

Tuk Tuk Rides

Because we spent the day just lazing about in the pool and enjoying the waves in the sea, we could only afford to explore Phuket in the evenings. We would take a cab from the hotel to the places we wanted to visit in order to get an estimate of how much each trip should cost and use that gauge when ‘bargaining’ for a Tuk Tuk on the return. The fortunate thing was the fact that we met very reasonable taxi and tuk tuk drivers on this trip and no one tried to fleece us. We found that we were always quoted the same/ correct rate for the return Tuk Tuk ride and it made the entire experience a lot more pleasant. The kids were also really thrilled to take their first Tuk Tuk ride of the trip and they were very intrigued by the fact that some Tuk Tuks were more fancy than others (loud hiphop music + colour changing lights). Unlike the smaller Tuk Tuks in Bangkok, the ones in Phuket can sit 6 adults comfortably so we only had to hire one since we had 4 adults and 2 kids. Definitely a must do with the kids if you head to Phuket!

Bella with her Aunty Tabitha..look at that smile 😀

Kata Night Market

Our aim on this trip was to allow the kids to experience some of the night markets/ food markets without being caught in a human jam. We ended up at 2 different markets on 2 different nights.

We made our way to the Kata Night Market on our first night and have to say we or I was slightly disappointed. Things were rather quiet and we later realized it was probably due to the high supply of night markets all over Phuket. Nevertheless, the kids were very happy that they got to pick their own fruits choices to ‘create’ their own fruit juice. Jah picked a grape + lime combination which somehow turned out better than what the adults chose. We got our fruit juices and took a customary stroll through the market, picked up 2 t-shirts for the kids and then tried to find a place for dinner.

Brain freeze anyone?

Thank goodness for our mobile wifi and toddler carriers which came in super handy. It allowed us to navigate our way through the streets of Kata with the kids safely on our backs and head to dinner. We even found a Pancake stall near the restaurant we had dinner at, yummy!!!!

Our Tulas to the rescue

Malin Plaza Patong

The 2^nd night we headed to Malin Plaza Patong which was more of a food market. There were shop spaces for souvenirs and clothes etc but very few of them were open. We decided to make a zipline for the food and also to look for a table to settle down at. Yes the nice thing about this market is the fact that there are tables and chair set up for you to consume the local street food bought from the stalls. We picked up some local fried food, Pad Thai for the adults, non spicy noodles for the kids and desserts all round. It was a nice experience even though the food may not have been the yummiest we have had or the most value for money.

Nice spacious seating under the stars at Malin Patong Plaza

Waiting for his dessert at Malin Patong Plaza

This might not be the most adventurous Phuket itinerary for families but it was certainly something a little different for us. Perhaps the next time we head to Phuket, the kids will be old enough for an island hopping tour..although I’m hoping it doesn’t happen too soon. We definitely still appreciate our afternoon naps and are perfectly happy to just laze on the beach and load up on Thai food 🙂

Time to go home

But a donut each first..

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

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.