(Just For The Records)

Last year, during Chinese New Year my dad was diagnosed of having a 14cm tumor in his liver. After his surgery, he recovered well, and for this year’s Chinese New Year all of us were glad to see him, although thinner, looking good.

It’s another year of blessing, and good health is all we wish for.

My two girls love sweets, especially Zara. She can be popping sweets in her mouth like pop corns while watching TV, and before you know it, she’s finished a bowl of sweets. Does your child love sweets like Zara?
At times when I see them eating sweets like that, and all the rest of sweet drinks they are taking, I’m worried about their sugar intake.

The girls are already eating lots of other things which contain sugar, e.g. the daily carbohydrate that they are taking, fruits, biscuits, cultured milks and not to mention the various sweets (the ones we bought or the ones they got from party packs).

I don’t want them to grow up to be obese, and have a string of other health issues (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, which I’m high risk for both) because of their excessive sugar intake.

Just like our MOH’s Less Sugar campaign launched last year (url: ), in our own household we’re trying to do something similar.

When we buy something which will be consumed by the girls, e.g. juice, milk, even sweets, we always check the label for the sugar content. Do you know besides checking the label for the sugar content for added sugar (e.g. sucrose, corn syrups solids, glucose syrups solids), you should also check the carbohydrate content, if you are not aware, the higher the carbohydrate means the higher the added sugar level.

For sweets, we always try to buy those that are sweetened by fruit juice. (Girls called them ‘high quality sweets’.) If possible we go for non added sugar product, or a product that has lower sugar level (in the form of added sugar or carbohydrates).

When I bake at home, I too tend to reduce about 1/3 sugar in the bake goods.

Do you do sugar watch like this in your household too?

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you’d probably recalled posts about Zara and her very first boy friend; a boy who’s captured her heart for 2 years. Even though on her last year of kindergarten, the boy has already went to Standard 1 and attended another school and they never met again, Zara still thought of him as her boy friend. o.O”

After being in Standard 1 for 1 month +, she came home 1 day declaring she has found another ‘boy friend’. When I went to pick her up the following day, she excitedly pointed out the ‘boy’, R, to me. R sits several rows away from her, is really cute, looks like a goodie-two-shoes, with a radiant smile and deep dimples. Well, if I was her age, I’d probably like the same boy too.

A couple of times when I was there to pick Zara up, after the last bell rang, I saw them running out to the waiting area together Zara chasing after him to the waiting area. o.O”

In the car, she likes to share with me what happened to R and herself, here are some to share.

Zara : “Mom, today I kissed R.”
Me : *have to sound like it’s not a big deal* “You did?”
Zara : “Ya, I did.”
Me : “Where did you kiss him?”
Zara : “Well, I blew him kisses.” (and she showed me how she did it, 1st kissing her palm, then blowing the kiss out)
Me : (a bit shocked, but found it funny too) “And what did he do?”
Zara : “He dodged them, like this and like this.” (moving her body left and right) And she smiled, like it’s no big deal he dodged her kisses. o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zara : “Mom, every day I walked out to the hall with R after school”
Me : “You walked side by side?”
Zara : “Oh, well, he ran really fast, and I just chased after him and keep up with him.”
o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me : “Zara, you said R is your boy friend, does he treat you like his girl friend?”
Zara : “Ya, he does, he walks with me after school.” (more like she chased after him) o.O”
Me : “And you are his only girl friend?”
Zara : “No, he has 3 girl friends”
Me : “And you are fine with that?”
Zara : “Ya, I’m fine. Because he’s not married yet so it’s ok to have so many girl friends.” o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the best one…. yesterday on our way home from school.
Zara : *happily*“Today R talked to me.”
Me : “Oh, what did you talk about.”
Zara : “I touched him, and then he told me 不要摸我 (Don’t touch me).” *laughed*
(Faint! This is ‘talk’?)
o.O” o.O” o.O”

But…….. I’m amazed at her confidence, and her perserverence, and the way she looks at things light heartedly. Way to go my girl!