Due to the recent bout of nappy rashes and flu, we had delayed our girl's vaccines until a week after she had recovered from the flu.
At the clinic on 7th January 2012 (6 months and ~1 week), her measurements were:
Weight: 7.2-7.4kg (my postpartum brain is bad)
Height: 69cm
I wonder if Ian's clothes have shrank? Because Isabelle is now wearing about 12M sizes in some of Ian's old clothes, and even some of the Gap/Carters/OshKosh dresses that I had bought for her. However, the percentile charts do not seem to put her height in the top range.
Her weight has been rather stagnant since 5 months, probably because of our recent trip to HK and also because of a poorer appetite when she caught a cough and a flu from her elder brother.
Since some time around hitting the 6th month mark, Isabelle could roll over from both sides, and from tummy to back, and vice versa. And now, she can also crawl, based on GD's definition of crawling (meaning move around on her tummy). Whenever we put her on the LG playmat, she will wriggle her way out of it quickly. And if some object catches her fancy, she will make her way towards the object. Ian has had a "hard time" keeping his slowly deflating blue balloon away from his baby sister. She has also been showing signs of wanting to lift up her butt, and hopefully, she can start creeping soon even though that means more efforts on our part to keep her safe.
She can also sit independently for a few seconds, before she topples over and go back to her crawling position. We are waiting eagerly for the day when she is able to sit more steadily, so that we can leave her on the high chair while dining.
I think that she is a rather quiet baby, as she has not started to make many babbling sounds. However, I noticed that when we forced her to take her medicine until she was crying very badly, she would let out a "ma" sound! Wonder when she could start calling us? I have always thought that girls develop speech much faster than boys.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Ian - Beginning of a new year means beginning of enrichment classes again!
We have not been sending Ian to enrichment classes last year, partly because of my unstable pregnancy and partly because we had wanted to settle down to a more manageable routine with a new baby. However, we felt that his progress had stagnanted after stopping his LNT classes at the end of year 2010. Hence, Hubby also agreed to send him for classes starting this year. After gathering feedbacks from friends, we had shortlisted Chinese, Phonics and Piano classes for Ian.
Chinese @ Tien Hsia
The first of the enrichment classes to commence. The trial lesson was FOC, but we had to pay for the trial if we decided to sign up. The charging part did not make sense to me, but we signed up anyway because Ian said that he wanted to go again when we asked him right after the class. The good thing was that this centre did not make us pay registration fees or deposit. The bad thing was, a few days after the trial, Ian said he did not want to go again and he preferred the art class (that he attended in December) to the Chinese class. Errr... well, since we had signed him up for a term, there was no turning back now. Hubby and I agreed to give him some time in this class and see how things turned out at the end. Our objective was to see some improvement in his poor Chinese. Somehow, we felt that he had no interest in the language as he did not like to read Chinese story books nor speak Mandarin.
Phonics @ Jan & Elly
When I learned, during the first lesson, that the curriculum for learning the sounds of the 26 alphabets would stretch for 6 months, I opted to put Ian through a placement test upon the suggestion of the teacher. Ian passed the test for half the alphabets, and the teacher gave us a few options. One was to let him enjoy the class for the entire 6 months, or to home-tutor him the other half of the alphabets, or to take an intensive course of about 4 lessons to bridge the gap. And he could either join the intermediate class immediately, or wait for the current batch of students in the beginner's class to graduate and join them later. The risk in joining immediately was that he might not be able to catch up, because from their experience, most children start to understand sound blending only around the age of 4.5 years old. Since we felt that it was quite a waste of time to spend 6 months on the letter sounds when he knew at least half of it and could already recognise all the upper and lower cases, we opted for the intensive course. And, we opted to let him join the intermediate class immediately too, since the teacher felt that we could give it a try as he might be able to cope if we did some revision at home. He has since attended one intensive lesson and one intermediate lesson. The teacher's feedback was that he coped pretty well in the intensive lesson and was ok in the intermediate. But it could be due to fatigue from the back-to-back lessons (45 minutes of intensive course, followed by an hour of intermediate lesson). Anyway, there are 3 more of such tiring weekends to go, and then things will be less hectic again when it is only a one-hour lesson.
Piano @ Mandeville
Ian has always shown an interest in music since young, and after asking around, we finally decided to enroll him in this school as they have piano lessons suitable for his age group. It will only commence in February and we hope that he will truely like the class.
English/Mandarin Speech & Drama
The speech and drama classes were conducted in his school by Julia Gabriel. I had intended to sign him up for only the English version, but put a tick by mistake for the Chinese version. Even though I had scribbled away the tick, they had counted it as an interest to enroll in the class. I only got to know about it, after he had attended the first lesson (the school did not collect any payment until I asked about it later). Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because Ian said that he enjoyed both classes. I had been secretly suspecting that he loved to perform, and probably this was the reason that he enjoyed the speech and drama classes now because he would have a lot of chances to perform! Hopefully, this mistake would also spur his interest in Chinese!
Chinese @ Tien Hsia
The first of the enrichment classes to commence. The trial lesson was FOC, but we had to pay for the trial if we decided to sign up. The charging part did not make sense to me, but we signed up anyway because Ian said that he wanted to go again when we asked him right after the class. The good thing was that this centre did not make us pay registration fees or deposit. The bad thing was, a few days after the trial, Ian said he did not want to go again and he preferred the art class (that he attended in December) to the Chinese class. Errr... well, since we had signed him up for a term, there was no turning back now. Hubby and I agreed to give him some time in this class and see how things turned out at the end. Our objective was to see some improvement in his poor Chinese. Somehow, we felt that he had no interest in the language as he did not like to read Chinese story books nor speak Mandarin.
Phonics @ Jan & Elly
When I learned, during the first lesson, that the curriculum for learning the sounds of the 26 alphabets would stretch for 6 months, I opted to put Ian through a placement test upon the suggestion of the teacher. Ian passed the test for half the alphabets, and the teacher gave us a few options. One was to let him enjoy the class for the entire 6 months, or to home-tutor him the other half of the alphabets, or to take an intensive course of about 4 lessons to bridge the gap. And he could either join the intermediate class immediately, or wait for the current batch of students in the beginner's class to graduate and join them later. The risk in joining immediately was that he might not be able to catch up, because from their experience, most children start to understand sound blending only around the age of 4.5 years old. Since we felt that it was quite a waste of time to spend 6 months on the letter sounds when he knew at least half of it and could already recognise all the upper and lower cases, we opted for the intensive course. And, we opted to let him join the intermediate class immediately too, since the teacher felt that we could give it a try as he might be able to cope if we did some revision at home. He has since attended one intensive lesson and one intermediate lesson. The teacher's feedback was that he coped pretty well in the intensive lesson and was ok in the intermediate. But it could be due to fatigue from the back-to-back lessons (45 minutes of intensive course, followed by an hour of intermediate lesson). Anyway, there are 3 more of such tiring weekends to go, and then things will be less hectic again when it is only a one-hour lesson.
Piano @ Mandeville
Ian has always shown an interest in music since young, and after asking around, we finally decided to enroll him in this school as they have piano lessons suitable for his age group. It will only commence in February and we hope that he will truely like the class.
English/Mandarin Speech & Drama
The speech and drama classes were conducted in his school by Julia Gabriel. I had intended to sign him up for only the English version, but put a tick by mistake for the Chinese version. Even though I had scribbled away the tick, they had counted it as an interest to enroll in the class. I only got to know about it, after he had attended the first lesson (the school did not collect any payment until I asked about it later). Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because Ian said that he enjoyed both classes. I had been secretly suspecting that he loved to perform, and probably this was the reason that he enjoyed the speech and drama classes now because he would have a lot of chances to perform! Hopefully, this mistake would also spur his interest in Chinese!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
First Food For Isabelle
This is the first food that we have introduced to Isabelle, at 6 months.
Frisocrem rice cereal, the same that Ian has loved when he is a baby. It is good that we still have a few extra spoons and bowl for weaning, left from Ian's time.
When I first fed this to Isabelle a few days before she turned 6 months, she rejected the taste, and literally blew out the cereal like blowing bubbles. It was daunting and messy. After a few more tries, she has gradually started to accept the taste. Now, she can finish about 1/5 of the bowl. She is a small-eater, and we have accepted this fact.
Frisocrem rice cereal, the same that Ian has loved when he is a baby. It is good that we still have a few extra spoons and bowl for weaning, left from Ian's time.
When I first fed this to Isabelle a few days before she turned 6 months, she rejected the taste, and literally blew out the cereal like blowing bubbles. It was daunting and messy. After a few more tries, she has gradually started to accept the taste. Now, she can finish about 1/5 of the bowl. She is a small-eater, and we have accepted this fact.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Siblings
A rare, nice shot of our 2 babes, with them looking at the camera at the same time...
Ian, 3 year and almost 9 month old.
Isabelle, almost 6 month old.
Ian, 3 year and almost 9 month old.
Isabelle, almost 6 month old.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Ian, Wow, Art
It was an official closure day for Ian's school today, and I had signed him up for a holiday workshop at WowArt Studio, after learning about it from a friend. It was $38 for one lesson (1 hour 15 mins).
Yesterday afternoon, Hubby had brought me around the area for me get a little more familiarized. This morning, after dropping Hubby off at work, the 3 of us headed directly to the studio although it was a little early. It was drizzling, so I could not park at the open carpark outside, even though it was very empty. Instead, I tried to park into the basement carpark. I was not sure whether it was open to visitors, and caught a fellow motorist around to ask. She was not sure whether it was open to guests but she had been parking there for an hour anyway. And the strange thing was, the barrier was up, meaning that she could exit without paying. Anyway, I just parked there as well, and brought the children up.
There were only 3 children in this class, which I liked for the small group. In the class, the teacher taught them how to knead clay, and they had to cut out some shapes using dough cutter. As expected of Ian, after he finished a shape, he would crush it up and do it all over again. The teacher had to remind him not to do that again after he had finished another one. She also helped to put the finished product aside so that he could not do it.
After Ian had settled down in the class, I went out with Isabelle back to the carpark. The carpark attendant was back, and she said she would help me with the barrier later when I needed to exit. There was a Sheng Shiong supermarket and I walked around. It was pretty cold, so I just grabbed myself a bottle of drink and returned to the studio to wait for Ian.
When I returned, Ian had already finished painting the clay model and they were doing free painting. When I saw his "abstract art", I thought that hmm, I had better enrol him in some art classes soon. I guess painting/drawing is not his forte, at this stage.
Here was Ian's finished product, though I was not sure how much of it was done by the teacher...
I had asked him on the way home on the class, and he told me that he liked going there, and asked me to bring him back again.
As for the carpark, the attendant charged me 1 hour 1 minute, $1.90.
We had originally wanted to meet up with Hubby for lunch, but unfortunately, he had been called away for a business lunch. Hence, we bought takeaway lunch from the drive-through Macs. It was Ian's favourite food and he kept bugging me to give him the fries on the way back.
Yesterday afternoon, Hubby had brought me around the area for me get a little more familiarized. This morning, after dropping Hubby off at work, the 3 of us headed directly to the studio although it was a little early. It was drizzling, so I could not park at the open carpark outside, even though it was very empty. Instead, I tried to park into the basement carpark. I was not sure whether it was open to visitors, and caught a fellow motorist around to ask. She was not sure whether it was open to guests but she had been parking there for an hour anyway. And the strange thing was, the barrier was up, meaning that she could exit without paying. Anyway, I just parked there as well, and brought the children up.
There were only 3 children in this class, which I liked for the small group. In the class, the teacher taught them how to knead clay, and they had to cut out some shapes using dough cutter. As expected of Ian, after he finished a shape, he would crush it up and do it all over again. The teacher had to remind him not to do that again after he had finished another one. She also helped to put the finished product aside so that he could not do it.
After Ian had settled down in the class, I went out with Isabelle back to the carpark. The carpark attendant was back, and she said she would help me with the barrier later when I needed to exit. There was a Sheng Shiong supermarket and I walked around. It was pretty cold, so I just grabbed myself a bottle of drink and returned to the studio to wait for Ian.
When I returned, Ian had already finished painting the clay model and they were doing free painting. When I saw his "abstract art", I thought that hmm, I had better enrol him in some art classes soon. I guess painting/drawing is not his forte, at this stage.
Here was Ian's finished product, though I was not sure how much of it was done by the teacher...
I had asked him on the way home on the class, and he told me that he liked going there, and asked me to bring him back again.
As for the carpark, the attendant charged me 1 hour 1 minute, $1.90.
We had originally wanted to meet up with Hubby for lunch, but unfortunately, he had been called away for a business lunch. Hence, we bought takeaway lunch from the drive-through Macs. It was Ian's favourite food and he kept bugging me to give him the fries on the way back.
Friday, December 16, 2011
HK Trip 2011: Day 2
12 December 2011
We woke up at our usual timing - 7-8am and headed out for breakfast at Mongkok only at around 9am. Ian loved taking the Mickey Mouse train that ran between Disneyland and Sunny Bay.
We took the MTR to the Prince Edward Station first, and walked down the markets. We were in search of a cafe for pineapple buns and ying yang. Unfortunately, the cafe was located along the stretch of buildings that caught fire recently. There was a strong smell of burnt things, and we saw that a lot of goods from the stalls in the market were still around, some were burned, and some still intact. However, the whole area were cordoned off and there were policemen around.
Along the way to hunt for our next eating stop, we passed by the Ladies Market and quickly bought a set of Chinese costumes for both of them. They costed HKD180, perhaps slightly cheaper than our local prices. We did not haggle a lot because we were in a rush as Ian was grumbling that he was hungry. Hence, we settled down for a meal at a fishball noodle shop that we passed by. It was OK, so we had only ordered a bowl of noodles and a plate of vegetables to share.
When Ian's hunger was satisfied, we had more time to hunt for the next eating stop that we had planned in our itinerary - Mi-Ne Sushi. It was not difficult to find this place along Nathan Road. We ordered those that were not so easy to find in our local sushi chains - uni sushi, different grades of toro and some other miscellaneous. For Ian, he ate tamago sushi and ikura sushi. The latter definitely did not taste like what we had in Tsukiji Market, but that could be expecting too much. On the overall, it was a memorable and satisfying experience at this restaurant! How I wish I could taste them here!
Along the way, we went into the Xu Liu Shan dessert shop and took a short break again!
We had an early dinner at Ippudo Ramen, Silvercord Tower. Good thing that we had the itinerary planned with the route to take, so it was quite easy to find. We ordered the Akamaru Shinaji and another soup base which I could not remember the name. Unfortunately, we did not know that the ramen did not come with a half-boiled egg as we normally had them over here, so we had to order an egg separately after the ramen came. It was quite disappointing that the egg was white in colour, and not braised. Both types of ramen were quite good, but still, it was quite a disappointment as the local shop that we had been to, tasted better and had more ingredients, plus a tasty braised half-boiled egg. Perhaps it was better to have spent the time on some dim sum.
When we were back at the hotel, we finally discovered the cause of Isabelle's crankiness - she had a nappy rash from her diarrhoea. There was a raw spot on her skin, and it must have hurt her a lot. Good thing that we had brought along the Bactoban cream, so we applied it with Desitin.
We woke up at our usual timing - 7-8am and headed out for breakfast at Mongkok only at around 9am. Ian loved taking the Mickey Mouse train that ran between Disneyland and Sunny Bay.
We took the MTR to the Prince Edward Station first, and walked down the markets. We were in search of a cafe for pineapple buns and ying yang. Unfortunately, the cafe was located along the stretch of buildings that caught fire recently. There was a strong smell of burnt things, and we saw that a lot of goods from the stalls in the market were still around, some were burned, and some still intact. However, the whole area were cordoned off and there were policemen around.
Along the way to hunt for our next eating stop, we passed by the Ladies Market and quickly bought a set of Chinese costumes for both of them. They costed HKD180, perhaps slightly cheaper than our local prices. We did not haggle a lot because we were in a rush as Ian was grumbling that he was hungry. Hence, we settled down for a meal at a fishball noodle shop that we passed by. It was OK, so we had only ordered a bowl of noodles and a plate of vegetables to share.
When Ian's hunger was satisfied, we had more time to hunt for the next eating stop that we had planned in our itinerary - Mi-Ne Sushi. It was not difficult to find this place along Nathan Road. We ordered those that were not so easy to find in our local sushi chains - uni sushi, different grades of toro and some other miscellaneous. For Ian, he ate tamago sushi and ikura sushi. The latter definitely did not taste like what we had in Tsukiji Market, but that could be expecting too much. On the overall, it was a memorable and satisfying experience at this restaurant! How I wish I could taste them here!
Along the way, we went into the Xu Liu Shan dessert shop and took a short break again!
We had an early dinner at Ippudo Ramen, Silvercord Tower. Good thing that we had the itinerary planned with the route to take, so it was quite easy to find. We ordered the Akamaru Shinaji and another soup base which I could not remember the name. Unfortunately, we did not know that the ramen did not come with a half-boiled egg as we normally had them over here, so we had to order an egg separately after the ramen came. It was quite disappointing that the egg was white in colour, and not braised. Both types of ramen were quite good, but still, it was quite a disappointment as the local shop that we had been to, tasted better and had more ingredients, plus a tasty braised half-boiled egg. Perhaps it was better to have spent the time on some dim sum.
We attempted to shop at ToysRUs at the Ocean Terminal for a while before going back, but Isabelle was not cooperative. She was yelling in the store and I had to bring her out when we just barely stepped into the store. We tried to feed her and coax her, but nothing worked, until we carried her around. When we tried to put her back into the carrier, she was screaming again. So I had to take out my backup carrier - my sling - and tried to carry her in it. We endured the way back as my legs were aching after walking for the entire day, plus Ian was tired as well and Hubby had to carry him for part of the way back. On the way back to the station, we stopped at Xu Liu Shan again for a short rest.
When we were back at the hotel, we finally discovered the cause of Isabelle's crankiness - she had a nappy rash from her diarrhoea. There was a raw spot on her skin, and it must have hurt her a lot. Good thing that we had brought along the Bactoban cream, so we applied it with Desitin.
HK Trip 2011: Day 1
11 December 2011
We arrived at Changi Airport at around 7am to check-in, and hopefully a kind ground staff could allocate a bassinet seat to us. However, it was a fat hope and we had to stick to our original seats, but they were good because we were near the toilets.
To our surprise, we saw Angry Birds and some other exhibitions. We hardly had time for breakfast and quickly took a few shots before finding a good spot to sit down.
We arrived at Changi Airport at around 7am to check-in, and hopefully a kind ground staff could allocate a bassinet seat to us. However, it was a fat hope and we had to stick to our original seats, but they were good because we were near the toilets.
To our surprise, we saw Angry Birds and some other exhibitions. We hardly had time for breakfast and quickly took a few shots before finding a good spot to sit down.
After a quick breakfast, we headed to the departure gate. It was my first time on an A380 plane, and somehow, it had felt more comfortable. For this time round, we had chosen to take a SIA flight because after comparison with Cathay, the former turned out more affordable. It was a pleasant flight, but we reached HK later than the estimated time. We were probably lucky that Isabelle did not fuss much during the flight, and Ian was kept busy by the cartoons on the flight entertainment system and the tidbits that we had bought for him.
We took a cab to the hotel and it was cheaper than we had thought, less than HKD150. The check-in queue was rather long and I had to wait for Hubby to do the check-in, while keeping an eye on the luggages and Ian, who was running around the lobby. I had not expected the Disneyland Hotel lobby to be that crowded.
After settling down our luggages in the hotel room, packing our diaper bag, we set off to Tung Chung at 3.30pm, to the Citygate Malls. We had missed this place during our last trip due to lack of time, and this time round, we made it our first place to go because of the close proximity to the hotel and our lack of time. However, it was quite disappointing, because there was nothing that we wanted to buy from there.
At about 6pm, we had to rush back to the hotel again, for a dinner appointment with my long-time pal, Annie and her family. When we reached the Crystal Lotus restaurant, they had already arrived. It was a joy to see her lovely daughter for the first time in person.
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