I'm a full-time mummy

Recently I came across a website featuring bathroom aids from UKS Mobility and memories of my late mum flooded back into my mind when I saw this product...

About a month plus before my mum passed away due to her kidney failures, my hubby then boyfriend bought her a chair similar to the one shown above. It allows her to sit on the chair and use it as a commode as well. She did not use it for shower as she can still walk around slowly just that our bathroom is the squat toilet kind so she was not able to squat anymore, hence the purpose of getting her the above chair.

I recalled how difficult it was for us to find products like this in Malaysia. Some pharmacies sell them but the stocks and designs most often are limited. So I think it is great that there is such a website selling products like this.

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We recently went down to Melaka to attend a marriage seminar. As the seminar was held from Monday to Tuesday, my husband and I decided to travel down to Melaka on Saturday so that we can spend the weekend relaxing with our 3 kiddos - yes, we have to lug them along to the seminar as well since we cannot afford to leave them back home with no one to help us take care of them (day time yes, but I think our family members will tear their hair out at the idea of having our kiddos spending 3 nights with them)

So anyway, on Sunday itself we decided to check out the Melaka zoo. We had initially planned to go for the night safari but last minute decided to just go visit the zoo during daytime so we could have enough time to rest before the seminar starts at 9am on Monday.

Before I begin, I just want to note down that I did googled through some websites checking out other people's reviews on the zoo and I shared what I read with my husband - that most of the reviews are not very positive. My husband said it is based on each individual's perception. So anyway, we went to the Melaka Zoo with open mind, open heart... and this post is to document down our thoughts and feedback on our visit to the zoo...
 

We reached the zoo before 12pm. Parking was horrible. Not enough parking lots available and we drove past a barricade which was supposed to be a barrier between the zoo compound and a big field next to it (sorry, was not paying attention to the name of the area where we parked - but it looks like a big field, pretty much like our Dataran Merdeka) and with no choice, parked at the road side, slapped on a few hours worth of parking tickets on top of our car's dashboard and head up to the zoo.

The queue to buy the tickets was bearable and I personally feel at this point without entering the zoo yet, that the ticket fees charges are pretty reasonable. I was hoping to get hold of a map guide to the zoo or a brochure or something but nope, nothing for us at all.

Once we got into the zoo, we initially wanted to try the tram but we realised that the queue to buy the tram ticket is super long. At this point where I started getting annoyed, I thought why couldn't we just queue up for our turns to sit the tram and pay the driver before we get on to the tram? Why the need to queue at a counter with long zig zag barriers which slow down and create major queues and wasting time? We can see a couple of trams lining up waiting for passengers to get onto the tram but the zoo visitors are all stuck at the tram counter lanes trying to purchase the tickets. Silly right?

Anyway, we ditched the tram idea and decided to walk. With 2 kiddos and a month old newborn in a stroller. Yeah, we are pretty adventurous huh?

So we walked... hubby got our 2 years old Alyson sitting on the Hippychick Hipseat while our 4.5 years old Benjamin trailing next to him or me while I pushed our 1 month old baby Carolyn in her stroller. And that's when I got more and more annoyed.

You see, as much as I am glad that there is tarred roads for the tram to go on, the walkways for the visitors are NOT, I repeat, NOT stroller friendly. Of course I can push the stroller on the tar roads but whenever a tram is approaching, I have to quickly pulled to a side or carried the stroller back to the visitors walkway as the tar roads are just wide enough to fit a tram. Silly right? To add on to my annoyance, it rained earlier in the day so the visitors walkway are muddy and dirty. And some of the bricks on the walkway cracked up and fell out so pushing a stroller on this cracked walkway is annoying as hell and required a high amount of kungfu to carry the stroller up and ballet skills to somehow maneuver the stroller away from the uneven path.

Since we paid already and we are like 5 minutes into our visit, we decided to soldier on and put on a smiley face for our kiddos. I mean, to us this whole thing might be annoying like heck but to our kiddos, it may mean the world to them to be on such adventure right? Right....

So we walked and strolled on, despite quite a number of enclosures being closed for maintenance, we were lucky to see rhinocerous, tapir, the one and only Malayan gaur, crocodiles and tons of deer varieties. Stripped ones, dotted ones, etc etc. So much so that I was beginning to wonder whether this is a zoo or a deer park?! My only highlight of all the animals was seeing the tapir quite up-close.

A good thing that I noticed in the zoo is there seems to be quite a number of food and drink stalls/shops around the zoo. However I do wish there are more benches or chairs provided all around the zoo so that we can sit and rest during the visit.

As I mentioned earlier that the walkways are NOT stroller friendly, I also get irked when some of the enclosures required us to go down a flight of stairs in order to view the animals - such as the black panther. I can only wait up with baby in the stroller and zoomed in with my digital camera while hubby brought our 2 kiddos down the flight of stairs to take a closer look. Same case for some of the crocodiles, tigers and leopard exhibits which I cannot go closer to look unless I abandoned our stroller and bring baby up to the exhibit to see the animals. Sigh....

To sum up our review on Melaka Zoo:

PLUS POINTS:

• Reasonable entrance fees

• Bearable queue line despite us visiting on a Sunday

• We get to see tapir quite up-close

• Lots of varieties of deers

• Quite a number of food and drink stalls

BAD POINTS:

• Limited parking lots

• No brochures / map guide

• Tram tickets can only be purchased at the tram counter inside the zoo

• Not enough benches for people to sit and rest

• Walkways NOT stroller friendly

• Some enclosures are closed

• Lots of varieties of deers (are we in a deer park??)

I totally don't have the intention to share this bad review of the Melaka zoo, but seriously, am just disappointed with our visit. I hope the zoo management do something about the feedbacks shared.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

For today's post, I would like to share with you all our tips in getting our kiddos to try new foods, do remember each child is different and what works with ours might not be the same for yours, but at least, you have some general ideas on what to do / try:

Start when they are young

When I say young, I mean, when they are still innocent and naive to know what is happening. Hahahaha... for example, around 8-9 months old we started our 1st child with oats. This is after the failed attempt of giving him rice (for rice porridge). Amazingly, our 1st child accepted oats with no issues. In fact, there was once a phase where our child could go on oats for all his meals day after day! Oats after oats, sometimes with raisins, sometimes banana slices, mango slices, chunks of chicken meat or fish, broccoli, cauliflower anything I can find, I just add them onto his oats. For our 2nd child, Alyson started taking oats around 2 years old, she's not very much into oats before that so I never continued trying until after she turned 2 years old and to my surprise, she can also take the oats plain as it is.

Show them yourself

Okay, I'm not really a good example in this especially when it comes to eating vegetables. I made sure I included them when our kids started solids but I myself don't take them unless I was forced to. Guilty as charged! Anyway, what I'm trying to say in this tip is, you want your kiddo to try new food? You show them by trying it yourself first. And make sure if it is also new to you, to keep your facial expression as positive and cheerful as you can. Never show them yucky, gross, ewww face as that will surely leave a bad impression to them on that food.

Make it fun and exciting

I have done the aeroplane, train, rocket spaceship, anything you can think of... just hold the spoon with the food in it and enact an amazing journey or experience as you zoom closer to your child's mouth. You can make splashing, crashing, etc etc sounds. Anything as long as it sounds fun and exciting!

Find something your child can relate to with that food

As a parent, you would definitely know your child's likes and dislikes. Use that to your advantage!

For our 4.5 years old boy, he was never a fan of soup for the first 4 years of his life. After he turned 4 years old, we tried getting him to drink soup. One time, my MIL made this vegetable soup which was green in color and as our boy was crazy with Green Lantern and soldier stuff at this phase, we told Benjamin that it was a Green Lantern soup. It will make him healthy and strong and let his antibodies fight off viruses and bacterias if he drinks it. He tried and since then, was the biggest fan of soup. True story!

Gently remind them if you see other children taking the food

Some parents use this method, meaning peer pressure method. Let your child see other children eating the food and just gently let them know that other children are enjoying the food and maybe they want to give it a try too? Don't push or force if your child insist not to try though. You don't want to traumatise or give them a negative impression on that food.

Make it a competition or race

We have only recently tried this approach, which is to make it look like you are going to compete to eat the food with your child. As if that will be the last ever food left. Or in our case, we make it a big deal after our kiddo tried out the new food by sighing and 'complaining' loudly to them that we are going to have to fight to eat that food from now on especially since our kiddo tried the food and is okay with it. For example:

Me: Ben, come try this soup. It's very nice!

Ben: No.

Me: Okay fine! Good also you don't want it, else I have to fight with you next time we have this soup. In that case, I won't have enough for myself!

Ben: No! I want to try!

Me: No, no, no! Better you don't try it! I don't want to fight with you!

Ben: NO! I want!

And then you 'reluctantly' gave them try some and when they really don't like it, you go 'Okay, nevermind at least you tried! Good job!' or if they really like it, you go 'Oh man! I'm going to have to fight with you next time already! Arghhh!!' and smiled cheekily along with them. Win-win!

With 3 kiddos in the family now, it is getting harder to comply with everyone's tastebuds whenever we have our meals. Of course, every now and then we do have those 'Arghh.. what-the-heck-just-go-with-the-flow' moments but do remember, this post is more on the approaches we used to introduce new foods to our kiddos.

So do you have any other tips to share?

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.