Jason Shi's seminar.

Yesterday and today, I attended and will be attending a seminar by Jason Shi. For people who are doing pretty well in network marketing will probably know him. And people in Taiwan and China will certainly know him. He’s the guru of network marketing or some called it MLM. For me, I do not know him though. Hahaha… I gotta know him through WBG. I am not doing as well as you might think :P I haven’t own a bungalow in Singapore :P. “Own” to me is not with mortgage, it’s 100% mortgage free :). That is partial financial freedom to me. The cost to have Jason Shi is not cheap. I know it’s 25,000 per day, but I dunno whether it’s USD or SGD. The currency makes a lot of difference though ;). The CEO of WBG and all the management people also attended the seminar. The leading networkers from Penang, KL, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, China, etc. came too. Aloysius is the youngest attendee! Kekeke… good exposure to him :) I have dreams for Aloysius, so I tried to expose him to impactful and good seminars and courses. Of course, the speakers gotta be very good and is a great leader. In a few years’ time, I will let him join the kids in WBG in leadership and entrepreneurship “training”. It’s a “training” is soft skills which I did not get even when I was in the University. I spoke to one of the founder last year about her vision for WBG and her kids. Her elder son is 3 years old plus now, and she will “train” him to be a leader, a great speaker to lead many, just like the mom and dad. And the plan will be executed when he’s 5-6 years old :). That’s another strong reason why I stayed on in WBG. It’s for my precious Aloysius development :).

Jason Shi speaks very very fast Mandarin. Luckily, I still can follow him. However, I got not much time to jot down some points in my notebook. Hahaha… good training for Aloysius’ speed listening in Mandarin? ;) Jason Shi’s seminar was very lively and he’s full of energy. I wonder where did he get that kind of energy to deliver his speech in such a lively manner. He has lots of jokes throughout. He even joked about his height. I tried public speaking before, but it’s not easy. Though I have many audience, but some fell asleep… hahaha…

Aloysius was a very good boy yesterday. He just got scared in the beginning, cos there were about 100+ people, which is many people to him. He was also scared and clingy to me during MyGym class. He’s not used to an environment with many people. Hmm… this tells me that I better give him more exposure to groups of people. After a while, he started to creep around and “talking”. Hahaha… So cute rite? The pretty customer service gals also helped me to play with Aloysius at some point when he wanted more mobility, while I attended the seminar. There were many people to help me to carry him. Hahaha… He’s fine when others carry and play with him.

I woke up to cook porridge in the morning for Aloysius’ meals – brown rice, millet, button mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, “heng chye”, sweet potato, wakame seaweed, sweet corn. He liked his porridge yesterday. Today, I will be cooking porridge for him too. Ok, I better stop writing here. Gotta start to prepare for the day out with Aloysius :)

Trial at MyGym at GWC.

This morning, we went to MyGym at Great World City for a lesson trial :). Aloysius woke up quite early and was rather tired before the class started. However, after seeing other toddlers running around and playing happily, he decided that he wanna go on the carpet to creep too. When the class started, he cling on to me like a koala bear. I dunno whether is it he’s tired, or he’s afraid, but he looked tired. When it was time to go on the swing, he enjoyed it very much. He went on the swing twice, and almost dozed off. Surprisingly, he did not cry to get out of the swing. After that, it’s “separation time” from mommy. He enjoyed taking out the toys from the box to play with other kids. He liked the Little tikes xylophone very much. Hmm… I am thinking of whether to get him one too. Robinsons has similar one from Fisher Price. The wooden one that he has now at home is out of tune, unfortunately.

Today, I introduced mushrooms for his dinner. I chopped two types of mushrooms till very fine and add into his brown rice plus millet porridge. The taste is really good :) I think he likes the mushrooms and spinach porridge cos he finished his dinner very fast. I just changed the brand of his brown rice too. The mushrooms are organic ones from NTUC :).

Recipe:
1 tablespoon of brown rice
1 tablespoon of millet
2 medium sized mushrooms, finely chopped
1 handful of “heng chye”, finely chopped

Rinse the brown rice and millet and soak for about 2 hours. Pour into a pot, including the water that is used for soaking. Add the spinach and “heng chye” and boil. Remember to keep stirring to avoid burnt porridge at the bottom. Boil till the brown rice and millet are soft.
For me, I boiled the porridge for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a thermal pot for an hour, then boil for another 10 minutes. I will add more water if it’s too dry. Too little water will cause the brown rice to be very grainy.

NB: I was told that by soaking the brown rice, and using the water that is used for soaking, will make the brown rice easier to be digested. I dunno the scientific reasons and proof, I only know it gotta do with the enzymes in the brown rice being released during the soaking.

3rd trip to the zoo!

We went to the zoo yesterday with 3 other families – 8 adults, 2 kids, 3 babies :) It was a very nice outing to the zoo. Aloysius enjoyed his trip very much yesterday. This was his third trip to the zoo. He took a 45 minutes nap in the morning, and woke up when we reached the zoo, ready to see all the animals! We brought along a erasable writing pad to write to show him the words of the animals that we were seeing :) I thought it’s a good way of showing him the words and animals. If you have a better idea, do let me know, ya? My hubby and me took turns to carry Aloysius to show him the animals. Yesterday, we covered the Outback Australia, Polar bear, Hippotamus, Hamadryas Baboons. We covered these animals before, but last time, Aloysius was sleeping… We did not go for the animal show. Maybe next time :).

Oh yes, yesterday, there were many kids and strollers at the zoo. Hahaha… I thought maybe next time if I wanna buy a stroller, make a trip down to the zoo to see the many different models that are available. It was like a stroller exhibition too… kekeke…

We left the zoo at about 1.30pm and reached home at about 2pm. I was hoping that Aloysius would have a nap before his Shichida class. He did not nap till we got on the cab at 3.30pm. He napped for half an hour and woke up when we reached. I was surprised that he did well during the class. He still loves the flashcards and songs. Hmm… I gotta work harder on his finger training part. How? Any suggestions or any ideas?

Meeting with CEO.

Last Monday, I had an opportunity to meet the CEO of WBG, Nicholas, at his house in Kembangan. I brought Aloysius along so that he can absorb some tips on doing business when we chat. hahaha... KS hor? ;)

Nicholas has a very cosy and homely house. The atmosphere is relaxing and calming. I noticed that he has several small water fountains around his house. His neighbours include several ministers and ex-ministers. I was like “wah”. I was very impressed with his sons and daughter. Both his sons are in the medical school. At the age of 5 years old, his daughter already visited 10 countries. How I wish I can give that type of exposure to Aloysius too. I need to give Aloysius that too, cos it’s an exposure to the world. This is very important in nurturing a child. Hmm… Shichida mentioned about exposure and going out everywhere in one of his book too. I really need to work harder to provide Aloysius with more exposure and my future kids too.

His daughter is only in the lower primary, and she has very matured thoughts and a very confident child. When you see her, you can feel that she’s a child full of loves. He told us a story of his daughter selling hand-picked apples from Australia outside his house at the age of 5 years old, without his knowledge! We were like “WOW”! His daughter has very big ambition. Her first choice is to be the President, second is Prime Minister, third is Deputy Prime Minister. I had forgotten the fourth and fifth, but her last and sixth is the wife of the President. She has great ambition, haven’t she? When I was a child, I had never thought of an ambition. We really had a different environment, different exposure. I need to provide Aloysius with more of this type of environment. I dunno if you do agree with me that we are what we are due to our environment, unless we are determined to change it.

We chat about the importance of network too. I was asked, “If your child missed by a few marks in PSLE to get into his dream school, will you be able to make a donation to get him in? Or will it be easier to get in through network?” hmm… What do you think? After my experience of trying hard to get my 3 nephews into a Primary school early this year, I think money is nothing in top schools now. Donation for a place in a top school is already history. Network will get the child in. My nephews got into primary schools here through network too. I think I will really need to stay in a “good network” for my future generation. I will need to make a change myself. Inverted commas for good network, cos we might have a different definition of “good network”. I am glad that I found WBG too. It has given me health, wealth, and certainly a very different network which I will need for my kids. And of course, lots of fun and a superb learning place to improve and upgrade myself together with my hubby and Aloysius. Anyway, Nicholas helped a few kids into ACS through his network this year. Mind you, this year’s intake for P1 is the popular year of Dragon.

We talked about “WEALTH”. What is “wealth” to you? Pause for a while and think for yourself.
“Wealth” in inverted commas cos we might have a very different definitions, and we define our own. I am starting to re-define my definition of “wealth”. To me now, apart from monetary wealth, I gotta provide wealth to the blood. Nicholas shared with us what is his definition of wealth. He told us that monetary wealth, wealth in properties, his children have more than enough. Someone saying that he owns 20 properties is an insult to him. However, it’s the mindset and network that he’s building for his future generations. For example, he’s sending his daughter to MindChamps to pump in wealth into the blood. He commented that I am pumping wealth into the blood too by sending Aloysius for classes at a young age. Haha…something positive about what I am doing, eh? And most importantly, we are giving wealth into the blood. It’s a little bit to describe what is wealth in the blood. Hope I haven’t confused you.

We chatted till about 11pm. He gave my sister several very useful tips for her wedding planning business. His advice to her is “be a wedding planner of wedding planners”. Hmm… chim hor? Really not easy to achieve that though, but that’s where wealth will be. Imagine, his barber who used to cut hair for many people in a small little shop, and lots of people queued for their haircuts by this barber. He gave his barber suggestions on his business, now his barber drives a Jaguar. Wow, ain’t it?

I think I better stop here. Else, I can write and write lots all the impressive things from the meeting with Nicholas. We chatted about success of other people, mindset, business and investment too. I better spend some more time to nurture Aloysius. Lastly, do take your health as your priority. That’s the number one priority in many very successful people around the world. Stay healthy and happy :) Do you need to be healthy? Or do you want to be healthy? Need and want are different. Later all…

Aloysius' meals at 10 months.

The above picture is Aloysius’ millet porridge with spinach, wolfberries, sweet potato, wakame seaweed.

This is his typical daily meals schedule.

Wakes up 8.30am Fruit
Breakfast 9am Oatmeal porridge
Lunch 12pm Mashed potato with vegetables
Tea-Break 3.30pm Oatmeal porridge
Dinner 6pm Millet porridge with vegetables
Milk 9pm – 6am I dunno how much milk cos I breastfeed :p

Aloysius will get his “fingers training” and “self-feeding training” in the morning with his fruits. He loves grapes and plums very much. Not too much of strawberry though. He loves blueberries like his mommy too, but it’s not in season now. I will give him some grapes in his bowl and put him on his high chair to let him feed himself. The little explorer him, will feed himself, and also play with the food and bowl. I will have to help him to pick up his fruit or bowl from the floor or around him. Hahaha… He can self feed himself for good half an hour. I will have time to prepare his oatmeal porridge and soak the vegetables for his lunch in KV6 water.

Aloysius also loves Vitality plus a lot. Vitality plus is an organic “whole food” which he has been taking since birth, or rather since he was in my tummy. Before his daddy goes to work, when he’s awake already, his daddy will feed him 3-5 Vitality Plus. 1 is not enough and he will scream for more! “ah ah ah”… He will bite them with his sharp teeth though. Vitality Plus is good for both his mental and physical development since it’s a whole food. Apart from being organic, I chose Vitality plus because it has lots of calcium and iron, which are important for his development at this stage. Sometimes, I will give him a treat to some Indinine. He loves the Indinine most! My dear Aloysius really knows what is the best!

For his oatmeal porridge, I will add some lecithin granules and/or wheatgerm and/or black sesame seeds powder. Lecithin and wheatgerm are recommended by Mrs. Khoo from Shichida Method. Prof Shichida also has a book on the goodness of lecithin. Black sesame seeds is very high in calcium and other nutrients. I buy black sesame seeds and blend into powder myself. At least I know how it’s processed. Aloysius also loves to taste the lecithin granules. It has a nice after taste which I also like. I will take one teaspoon of lecithin in the morning sometimes. Lecithin is very good for us too. There are many benefits which were written in Shichida’s book on lecithin. If I have the time, I will write on the summary of the book.

For Aloysius’ vegetables, I try to have 6 types of vegetables and 5 colors. Different colors of vegetables contain different kind of nutrients for different parts of the body. I have yet to introduce legumes/pulses/nuts. I just bought a recipe book for legumes and pulses :) I shall try the recipe for myself first…

Sample recipe:


Oatmeal Porridge:

2 tablespoon of rolled oats
Water

Add the rolled oats into the water and boil till the oats are soft.
I will let the oatmeal cool a little, then sprinkle some lecithin and wheatgerm. Lecithin and wheatgerm are very good for baby's brain development, immunity, physical growth, etc.


Mashed potato with vegetables:

2 small sized potato
1 handful of spinach
1 small slice of pumpkin

Steam the potato, spinach and pumpkin. Then mash.
Potato has very good nutrients required for baby’s growth.


Millet porridge with vegetables:

2 tablespoon of millet
1 handful of broccoli florets
1 small slice sweet potato (cubed)
2 pieces of wakame seaweed

Soak the millet for an hour so that it will be cooked faster. Boil the millet and all the vegetables for 20 minutes over medium fire.
Millet goes well with tomato and pumpkin too :)

Responsive Aloysius.

Aloysius has been communicating a lot lately. Yesterday afternoon, he creeped to one of the bedroom. I called out to him to ask him where was he, and he went "ya... dadadadadada..." He's so cute, isn't it? It's like he's telling me "yes, I am here in the room." I asked him "where?" a few times, and he seemed to be replying me "dadadadadadada..." in his cute baby language.

Last nite, his daddy made him so happy by playing peek-a-boo with him on the bed :). He has not chuckled for long for some time already :). I did capture part of his chuckles on video, but the file is rather big. I gotta find a way to compress it and upload the clip some where :)

This morning, dear Aloysius woke up at about 6am to latch on. My milk supply has gone down for his morning feed. He latched on and cried sevaral times. So I woke up to make formula milk for him. I am giving him Prosobee. I carried him while I made his milk. I let him see me pouring hot water and adding milk powder into his milk bottle. He stared at the whole process! Then we went back to the room. His daddy also woke up to help. We managed to coaxed him to drink 100ml of formula milk :). It's an achievement, really. Must thank his daddy for managing to coax him and make him happy :)

High-need baby?

Last week, I had a rather high-need baby. I gotta carry him for almost the whole day. It was indeed very tiring for me. All I could do for the day was just carrying baby and cooking his food. He cried hard whenever he wanted me to carry, or when I wanted to put him down on the floor to play. At times, I gotta carry him to sleep on me. I could not be out of sight even for a few seconds. He cried and creeped to me and stood, wanting me to carry again. Sometimes, I just held him to stand on the floor, and he also cried. My parents brought him to the East Coast Park. And when they came back, he wanted me to carry and feed him. He wanted no one else but me. At night, he creeped on me to sleep like a koala bear for two nights. hahaha... My "baby koala bear" felt quite good though cos he was so close to me. However, after a few hours, it can be rather aching on my chest with his heavy head resting on my chest ;). I wondered if it's the so-called separation anxiety. I thought I had done everything I can do since birth, to prevent this stage. From Shichida's book, a baby whose needs are satisfied will be a very secured and calm baby. How come I had a not so calm baby? hmm... Could it be teething? Maybe... He's salivating again. And he's biting my clothes very often. My Armani top has a hole now :( I was also rather worn out last week.

Last Thursday, I thought, maybe Aloysius is bored at home, so I brought him to the library. I wanted to read some books to him, but I ended up giving him some books to flip on his own, and I read up on babies to find out whether I had done anything no so right in parenting to has caused distress to myself and Aloysius for the past one week. Ooopss... Aloysius was very calm and a good boy when we were out, pushing him in the stroller. It gotta be places with many people passing by, and lots of interesting things to see.

I picked up the book titled "The fussy baby book" by Dr. William and Martha Sears. hahaha.. It's the Sears again, eh? ;) And yes, the Sears again. I browsed through the book. hmm... I think I had not been sensitive enough to Aloysius. His weaning off the breasts also plays a part in causing him to become a high-need baby. Another which I was guilty of was when he cried, I asked him to call "mama" first before I would carry him... kekeke... oops... Ok, I shall not repeat that again :P I had made use of his cries for his needs to ask him to call me. He did call me many many times after I picked him up - "ma ma ma ma ma..." He was such a lovely boy, ain't he? :)
After reading several chapters of the book, I followed what I read immediately.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, I breastfed him as much as he wanted to. We brought him down for a swim. He creeped at the side of the pool happily. He enjoyed watching other kids having their swimming lessons. He also had several mini-dives on Friday and Sunday :). On Saturday, he's accepting his daddy more, and started to be back to his usual calm, contented, and happy self :). Good thing that we got that settled partly, in time for his new term in Shichida class :). He was a bit of a challenge in class yesterday, but not as bad. He still loves the flashcards and the songs, but quite a challenge to get him to do the fingers training portion. He was rather active. He has very amazing ESP though :). And very good photographic memory. Good job, Aloysius :)

Today, Aloysius is a very, very good and happy boy. He woke up at 9.15am with a smile. My mum is around. He can play on his own with his toys! Maybe it's my mum around? Or I had already satisfied his needs for the past few days? I am glad that he's creeping and exploring around the house again :). He even creeps to his toy bag to take out the toys that he likes :).
At least now, I know I am doing the "right" things in his upbringing again :) On and off, I gotta re-read the books that I have to "revise".

I am H A P P Y, I am H A P P Y:)

I am very happy now :) First of all, we just came back from Bintan Lagoon. We stayed in the Angsoka villa. There are 4 families with kids. It was quite fun to see the babies and toddlers interacting and playing with one another. All of us enjoyed ourselves very much. Aloysius loves the white, sandy beach. He was exploring and creeping on the sand :)

This picture are the daddies and their kids :) We are on the ferry, on the way home. Look at their happy faces :)

Secondly, and very importantly, my lovey-dovey parents went to Penang with my sister for "qing ming". My sisters showed me their lovey-dovey photos :) At least we did not waste money for the 3 days "psychology of vision" workshop which we attended togather in Feb07. We "forced" our dad to attend the workshop, but he did not regret at all :). Having renewed their love and commitment to each other :) Beautiful, isn't it? Dun think I will upload their lovey dovey photos here :)