Raffaël

Voila! The waiting time is over. It's been 2.5 months, and he's growing really well I must say. He was out Thursday morning on the 7th Oct at 7.43 am after I experienced intense labour pain from 6 am at home on the 41 weeks. We thought his weight was about 3.2 kg but it turned out to be bigger than we estimates. Everything was normal, Dr. Paul Tseng was a good coach during the labour. And I think I benefitted also from regular yoga exercises for breathing techniques. He told me to breath the baby out to prevent tearness of the tissue, and I did obeyed.

At the beginning I was worry he may not have enough nutrition, but the nature take care of itself. I think, when I trust our body to work in a natural way, it does work. No matter what other people say about it. Generally, he sleeps well and I am beginning to train him to sleep on his own without too much rocking and swinging.

Really looking forward for him to run around in the house!

P.S: It is the Birth Announcement and Thank You card I made to be sent to our friends. The background of the photo is the blanket I made for the project

Creation

This is tough. I am 36 weeks pregnant and I feel like I am running to finish the collection before the baby arrives.

Today, I am looking for inspiration for boys collection as I am preparing my bag for delivery day in the hospital. I also have to do birth plan sheet for our gynae. Hope it doesn't come to fast, but it's getting heavy the load.

The Nature for Children

We live in Singapore, one of the most developed country in South East Asia. Beautiful and efficient. Less polution and clean. We are bringing my daughter up in a cosmopolitan, cultural and mentally stimulating environment. The different races live side by side and we celebrate most of their festival together. I am not too sure if it is stimulating physically. I didn't grow up in the small village, but the environment I had was child-friendly. I walked to school on my own from the age of six. We could happily let ourselves play in the garden with trees and other bugs.
I may be a little bit worry that my children are not being given the freedom we probably had and are missing out an incredibly important lesson in life, namely being able to be responsible and independent in a safe environment. Lately I was reading the article by Richard Louv, a term for this called "Nature Deficit Disorder. It is a damaged caused to children who never experienced the natural world.

Now I prefer turning my little kids into outside adventurers....
The best time for the children is surrounded by nature, trees and fields....

La boum avec Lapinou...

La boum avec Lapinou..., originally uploaded by L'Aubergine Grillée.

Yayy!

She loves the dress that Tante Sari gave her. When I put on the swing Jazz Manouche, she moved and pulled me to dance. After a few minutes, I took a break and recorded this in my iPhone. She could be doing this in one evening and refuse to take a shower!

The second chance!

28 weeks, originally uploaded by L'Aubergine Grillée.

I am up for another chance. And I am hopeful it's gonna be the last one in Singapore.

My lil' Noe has grown up to be a nurturing little girl for her baby dolls.

And I still have a bit of patient to hear the small baby cries again in a few months time! No, of course it's a joy. But until now I do not know what to expect for the second one....

2 year old Noelia

Children Cereals, are they good?

Kids love sweetened cereal for breakfast. I used to see on TV about average American families have for breakfast. They usualy on the breakfast table having the bowls of cereals with milk and a glass of orange juice. And for quite sometimes I thought, this is what normal family need to do in the morning before doing their activities.

Little did I know that not all breakfast cereals are healthy, even though they may seem like they are. I spent sometimes on the research of this issue when I started to walk on the aisle of supermarket figuring out what to serve my family for breakfast. There are many brands of cereals from oatmeal to US cereals dedicated for children. And I thought, let's do some researchs on what is the good brand to choose since I would like to give the best to my family. A good, healthy and sometimes fun breakfast helps children to start the day out right.

One of other reason why I need to know this issue is to be able to explain someday to my kids why it is better not to have sweetened cereals for breakfast. Someday Noelia would probably come back home and request to get the same cereals as her friends have in the morning.

According to US Consumer reports, Cereal companies spend about US $229 million a year advertising cereals to the children, hoping to get them to beg to their parents for their favorite brands. Are they good enough?

Studied have been made that 161 breakfast children cereals from 4 leading manufacturers were high in calories, sodium, carbohydrate, and sugar but significantly lower in fiber and protein. Why not sugars for them?
We need to ensure the children maintain a diet of complex carbohydrates and decreasing simple sugars will help them maintain their energy throughout the day rather than all at once. When children have long days and need to concentrate in school providing unhealthy start to their day can inhibit their development and progress.

Apparently, breakfast cereal is among the worst in the industry, labelling their products being "made from the whole grains" when they are made primarly with refined grains. Those US made cereals such as Kellogg's Honey and Post Golden Crisp, are more than 50 percent sugars and 9 or at least 40 percent sugar. Some of it has high sodium and zero in dietary fiber. Many cereals that have "chocolate" in it actually the chocolate made out of sugars. It is partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, and cocoa. I think the real chocolate would have been healthier.

Some of the best cereal for breakfast which could be fun for the kids are;

1. Raisin Bran
Love the organic Raisin Bran. We can find it in supermarket and it is cheaper than US made cereals marketed for children.

2. Granola
This probably consume for most European.

3. Oatmeal
I served organic oatmeal that I found in NTUC supermarket on alternative days for Noelia. Some days she has wholegrain bread that I bought in Cedele as a 'tartine' in french. It is a slice
of bread with the fruit jam. That bakery shop has a good range of healthy diet breads and cake.

4. Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite-Sized
I am not bias, although that I do not serve this to my family but according to research this can be a good option for fun breakfast. It has 12 grams sugar per serving but it also very low in sodium and has 6 grams of fiber.

5. Honey Nut Cheerios
If I am forced to have choices I may get this as an alternative for other healthy breakfast

6. Cheerios (all General Mills)
Personally, I want to help and support the products from small farmers not big
manufacter like General Mills. I will have to do more more research on this issue
as General Mills maycontribute to global warming.

7. Kix

Luckily, Noelia is not fussy about breakfast. She loves multi-grain or whole-grain bread with a jam or oatmeal because it contains lots of fiber and iron she needs. She usually starts with Kiwi or other vitamin C fruits and followed by 'tartine' or oatmeal porridge with milk.

Honestly, I prefer not only encouraging the healthy habit to the children but purchasing with consciousness the products we consume everyday. This involves also the whole stakeholders, the farmers, the environment, the distributors and the products.

Remember, check the nutritional value on the box if we have to purchase the cereals. The cereals who have 'a halo effect' such as added iron and calcium need to be examined before purchase.

And Have a healthy breakfast to start your day!