Halloween: candies for kiddies

My choices available in Hong Kong are


Organic Yummy Earth Candies at Little Giant or Three Sixty


Gluten Free
Egg Free
Dairy Free
Peanut Free
Tree Nut Free
NO High Fructose Corn Syrup
Wheat Free
Soy Free
Casein Free
No artificial colors
No artificial flavors

Enjoy Life Chocolate Bars at Little Giant

Made in a dedicated nut free, gluten free facility, soy free, casein free, vegan, kosher

boom Choco boom crispy rice bar

Evaporated Cane Juice; Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter; Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic); Rice Crisps (Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice, Honey, Salt); Rice Milk Powder (Rice Syrup Powder, Rice Starch, Rice Flour, Salt, Carrageenan); Salt

boom Choco boom dark chocolate

Evaporated Cane Juice; Natural Chocolate Liquor (Non-Alcoholic); Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter

Food additives - sugars and artificial colors

I am appalled, yet I do it once in awhile giving ultimately bad combination of food to my children. I am probably as guilty as any parents and after even been informed of how bad sugar is and artificial colors are I will have the mentality of "oh it is just for today."


And sitting in the waiting room at an occupational therapy office watching a parent giving her child junk food and gatorade or vitamin water was like a blasphemy to why do the child even need OT. So I learn that there is no shortcut to giving bad food to your children. 


Looking at labels is gruesome but some smart decision has to be made if you can't read and interpret the label as to any food group categories DON'T BUY THEM!!! Food label are getting smarter in disguising things they call food. I try to by more produce and less processed food. Something like inverted glucose syrup or inverted sugar have high fructose corn syrup derivative.


inverted sugar - a mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose resulting from the hydrolysis of sucrose. it is found naturally in fruits and honey and produced artificially for use in the food industry. 


So may as well go with the real thing with a dash of honey with naturally made nutrients that function as antioxidants. The food industry of course want to cut cost and produce food that have a shelf life of 6 months to a year. And inverted sugar is sweeter than regular sugar so less for more bangs and lacks anything that is good for you.


Read Cathy's blog 
http://alifelesssweet.blogspot.com/2009/05/because-you-askedinvert-sugar.html


So what to use in replace of sugar :
honey
agave nectar - a small amount goes a long way and it has a lower glycemic index and glycemic load than table sugar or sucrose.
stevia


And of course anything consumed to the max is not good anyways so use sparingly cause sugar is sugar and sweet is sweet. 


What the heck is modified starch? I don't even want to know. 


The only starch I will use are:
arrowroot
tapioca
potato


Any neon artificially colored food and candies ... please avoid all. Now the food industry are replacing names with numbers and of course parents doesn't have the time to look up a bunch of numbers to find what the stuff actually is good or bad. 


Here is an index of color numbers in food ... you can find out for yourself what to avoid completely.


http://www.gluten-dairy-free.co.uk/Food%20Colouring.htm

Tangle in all colors, textures and sizes

I was visiting Mega Show at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. And I found the Tangle Creations booth. It is a serendipity. I really really love the Tangle and so does Theo and Clem. I also met Nicholas Zawitz who is the son of Richard Zawitz. Zawitz senior is the designer of the Tangle.

Tangle began with an idea of infinity and zen!

Nicholas gave us some promo items and a fuzzy Tangle. Clem was engrossed with the fuzzy tangle when I gave it to her.

It is a fidget toy, it is calming toy, it is visual and as it is tactile.

We love Tangles!

Fuzzy is a gift and Nubby is the one I purchased for Clem awhile back.

Fever that never go away

My poor Theo has been having this nasty viral fever since last Thursday. And he is still having a fever. Now developed into sore throat. I went to the doctors 4 times as of today.

The first fever lasted from Thursday to Saturday and he was fever free Sunday and Monday. Then the fever came back Tuesday at 102. The first set of fever was symptom free. And now he has a sore throat.
I gave him fever reducer with homeopathic remedies.

Ibuprofen taken every 8 hours.
Belladonna and Mercurius Solubilis both at 200 and taken 4 pills every 4 hours interval.
Lung Calm syrup 3 times a day,

Worksheets and Games for developments

I came across this wonderful website created by a teacher and a grandma called School Sparks.

http://www.schoosparks.com

I was looking for some exercises I can do with Theo to increase his audio processing skills. And also his vocabulary. I have seen much improvements with his English from June to now. He as been going to speech therapy twice a week with two different speech therapists. Both speech therapists work on similar concepts, but with different approach.

The more we practice, the more we improve as a team. Of course there is always a down time.

I also purchased some games for the children. Zingo games by ThinkFun. I got the Bingo with a Zing and Number Bingo. Playing game helps makes learning fun. Today we learn about matching pictures and taking turns getting the tiles. The numbers game help with counting and number memories. These games are for age 4 and up. Great for kinders.

Helicopter mom

So this is term that my mom told me about that I was not aware of coined for the 21st century mom or dad or just parents in general term.

Helicopter hovers and parents hovers their children 24/7. I think back in our parents' generation their parents have more children other than just them plus one. My mom came from a family of 8 children and my dad came from a family of 7 children. Their moms can't possibility watch all of them. There were hired help, nanny or maid. And they are not considered precious as compared to now having one child and that child is the golden boy or girl.

My aunt was a helicopter mom with her only "heart and liver" son. She didn't want him to go off to college because he doesn't know how to do the basic of looking after himself, but eventually he left to college and now he is a very successful person, husband and father of twins. My second cousin's paw paw told my aunt that she should let her son go. It will be good for him. And paw paw also told her side of the story of how she let her only son go to college and now her grand child is going to college too and how proud she is of her son's accomplishment.

Paw paw also continued on to a story about her friend who didn't let her son go off to find himself and eventually she passed away and her son doesn't have the education to get him by for a career that he wanted. He works odds and ends jobs and now at age 40, it is too late to turn back time. He has no money to go for school and he barely can make ends meet.

I have let go a lot and have my nanny take care of most of the things involving the children. I may not be a 100 percent helicopter but my tendency goes with therapies. I never miss if possible their therapies session unless I really can't do it or if one of them are sick. On the other hand, I would let them fall, hurt, fight and even touch the hot stove if they willingly wish to do so and learn from it. My youngest even got scratched by a poodle on the face. I felt miserable at that time thinking how I could have let that happened and never had a nanny watch her again for a long period of time.

But I reasoned how do I not be a helicopter mom if my children have problems that even any schools cannot accept them and want to change them to make them easier to teach or be compliance?

I want to focus on the positive and turned what is negative into positive.

Man-made chemicals and the human race

The other day I came across a documentary film on Discovery Health channel called "The Disappearing Male." It is about what our children are suffering in this progress of the human race. We have the abilities to solve problems, but in solving them we added toxin to our environment.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-disappearing-male/

I am sure any parents would want to find out what is causing their children to have sensory processing disorder or dyslexia or any other developmental illnesses or issues that may come up.

It is the least talk about when it comes to toxic chemicals and we probably take things for granted what all those preservatives in food or in shampoos will do to us and even in our children's toys. Have we strive to live in the world of conveniences that we are losing the most basic?

In the last 50 years we have more toxin made by us and it is now a part of our DNA and we will suffer from it.

Right now people are looking into what cause autism, adhd, sensory processing disorder, etc which is not something seem as forefront until now. Autism is unheard of until around the 1960s. So to look at the timeline of what chemicals were produced from the past 50 years until right now and we are in the time of a crises.

I do hope China realizes that as a production country, it is a backlash.

It is a real double edge sword ... progress or not to progress. Just like wheat is a double edge sword ... simply we cannot just stop industrialized and processed food ... because that is the wonder of the human progress to feed the masses bad food, then use medication to offset what the bad food had done to them plus having side effect.

I guess I am a romantic idealist ... so sometimes being ignorant is bliss.

Tiger Mother finding The Element

Why is Amy Chua so controversial? I don't think it is harsh when you want to teach a child life lessons, but just hope that your child will not make a big mistake when we the parents are not around.

I read her book in a week in-between taking my kids to schools and to therapies. As a parents you know the amount of potential your children have, but they need absolute guidance. And as a parents you do just that because children have no self control and you are the only baseline they have. 

Some say she is patronizing? is Amy Chau really patronizing? to whom? to the readers? does it depends on the walk of life you take? She is just telling a story from her point of view and everyone is entitled just that -- an observation. 

I finally threw out the iPads my children love spending time with and it was the best thing that I have done for them besides all the therapies I think they need and will need. Just like violin or piano lessons. My husband is probably like Jed. And I am the crazy mom. I am still trying to figure out my children's weaknesses and see how I can turn those around to be their strengths. It is a slow process, but I am getting there.

I think some people doesn't realize that Amy Chua was also in a learning curve as a parents. No parents are perfect even if you consider yourself a Tiger Parents. At the end she found her middle ground with her youngest Lulu. It is like finding your Element.

I also finished reading The Element by Sir Ken Robinson. I find that really straight forward read and with a mixed of British humor. Maybe as parents we should find our own Element and translate that to our children and teach them if you do things well with passion it will show. But passion takes a lot of commitment just like how Amy Chua enforced in piano and violin practice. I don't know if you should force the child to do something that they don't like to do. But if your child is willing to follow your advice then it is a good thing.

My mom tried to make me play the piano. She tried so much that I begged her please I can't take it anymore. I can't really sit still for it. I have no patience for it. I am not really musically incline at all. I am not much of a music person to begin with. Later on I love art. She asked me if I want to do art instead. I said yes. So I tried and I love it. I was enrolled in oil painting classes and drawing classes. I am not a particularly great artist or natural one, but I really love it.

Then I became a graphic designer. I enrolled to fine arts program at USC then to graphic design program at Art Center College of Design. I was on the roll. I want to help my children find their drives to be successful.

Sometimes being good at playing the piano doesn't mean you enjoy doing it unless you enjoy doing it so much that practice equals fun. Same goes with being an artist or just taking on drawing. It takes commitment and practice to get your foundation down then you can go off and break all the rules you want to be innovative and to be outrageous in the field.

To turn something into a career it is all about passion. My auntie J gave us her life lesson, if you want to be successful you should not be afraid to fail. Failing means you tried then not try at all. You put your all into it. Your time to it and it will show itself and people would want to be around you. And eventually money will come your way for you to make a living for what you enjoy the most. If you think about money first then you will never get anything done.