Crafts: Projects for December 2010

Paper Plate Pig - Yet another piggy project we had done together, after the disastrous 3D one that we did a few months ago.  I had also wanted to remind Ian the effect of mixing white and red colours.  Ian painted the 2 paper plates, after which I traced out the ears, nose and legs for him to cut out.  When the paint had dried, I showed him how to paste the parts together, and helped to draw the eyes and nostrils, and put on the tail.

Paper Plate Frog - I had originally intended to make a crown with Ian, and since there were some leftover yellow paint afterwards, I mixed a little bit of blue paint to turn it green.  I wonder whether this mixing had registered in Ian's mind, as it was not our first attempt?  Ian had more fun with painting yet another paper plate.  After the paint had dried, I traced out his little hand and did the cutting as it might be tough for him.  He got to paste the legs and eyes, while I helped him with the chenille stem as it was tricky to make it stay in place. 

Santa Claus Hat - A craft that we did out of a whim on Christmas morning.   I thought that it was pretty boring for Ian to be idling on this day and quickly found this neat craft from the internet.  First, I made a cone out of a piece of red construction paper and stapled it in place.  Then, I cut out the face and belt.  Ian got to paste on the face and I helped with the belt as it was a little challenging for him.  We used the leftover cotton wool (since Ian was born) to make Santa's little hat and beard.  He enjoyed pasting the wool onto the face.  It was kind of regrettable that the hat was a tad too small for Ian to wear properly, but that was the largest piece of red construction paper we had at home.  Nevertheless, he loved his new little hat!

Last Speech Therapy Visit

Hubby brought Ian to visit the speech therapist for the last time. In this visit, Ian was assessed on his language ability. The therapist concluded that he had reached a normal level for his age (2 years 9 months), though it was noted that he had a weakness in comprehending the words "he" and "she". She officially "discharged" Ian from the treatment and we only needed to follow up with the doctor in April next year for another review.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To All Readers of HelloLavender!

Activity Books (Oct-Dec 2010)

For the past few months, Ian has been working on a couple of activity books simultaneously. These are the ones that he has completed between October and December.

Sticker Books - More titles from Usborne, which filled up Ian's time when I ran out of activities for him.

Kumon Workbooks - Ian began working on the book of tracing sometime in August, and finally completed all the exercises in November.  Towards the end of the book, I thought it was getting boring for him to be tracing the paths all the time, and introduced the other Kumon workbooks (Mazes, Alphabets, and Numbers) for him to do concurrently.  He was also working on the little Kumon workbook on pasting for a while before he finally finished it recently. 

Chinese Activity Books -  The first book of mazes contained tracing exercises that were similar to Kumon's.  Ian finished the first maze book very quickly and I let him progress to the next level (bottom picture).  The 2nd book was slightly more difficult.  In comparison to the Kumon's book of mazes, I would prefer to the latter.  In the Chinese version, there were some mazes that had animal characters blocking the path, and Ian had confused them as road blockages.  In these books, Ian had used a pencil instead of a dry-erase marker which he used for the Kumons.

The other activity book (first picture, right) contained punch-out templates of things to make, eg. an elephant, a watch, a bucket, etc.  It was slightly difficult for Ian and I had to help him paste some of the 3D parts and held them until the glue dried.  Ian simply had no patience to wait for the glue to dry.  However, this book was convenient to use when I had no time to prepare for his paper plate crafts.

We are now working on a series of other activity books... till the next time!

Sick Again

Our boy is sick again... Yesterday, we had already noticed his teary eyes and a lot of mucoid particles in the corner of his eyes. And in the night, he developed a fever and we gave him panadol immediately.

This morning, we rushed him down to see Dr Oh again, and she had diagnosed his lungs to be having the wheezing sound. She also discovered that he had ear and throat infection. Since Ian was always taking a long time to recover from his coughs, she suggested us to get an inhaler home to help him. If his cough was not treated properly, it could worsen into asthma. She demonstrated how to use the inhaler and luckily, Hubby was around to learn as I was kind of confused. She told us to go back for a review in a week's time and also after we finished the spray bottle.

I also checked with her whether he was always coughing because I had taken birdnest during my pregnancy, but she said during her time, people only said that birdnest was good for the fetus' complexion. I was quite relieved to hear that.

Hopefully this time round, Ian's cough will really be gone for good after the long treatment.

Our First Visit to Universal Studios (SG)

A complimentary trip sponsored by Ian's Da Bo, we made our visit to the "new" theme park in Sentosa.  We arrived there at about 10.30am together with Hubby's family, and to our surprise, the carpark was quite full by that time.  Luckily, the sun was not strong and it was quite a cool and breezy day.

 Shops near the entrance

 A huge Christmas tree for this festive season

 Nice, "crowd-less" street in the morning

A happy kid waiting for his lunch

After 2 shows, we had fish burgers for lunch at about noon and Ian did not like the burgers and only ate some of the fries.  The chocolate milkshake was pretty good, I felt.  After a few more rides, we headed to the foodcourt for a second serving at around 2pm.  This time, Hubby bought wanton noodles and Ian ate more of it.  The queue at the foodcourt was horrendous!  I told Hubby that I had been sitting until my back was aching, while he complained that his legs were aching from standing for so long in the queue.  The noodles were surprisingly decent though, after the long and horrible wait. 

We did not expect to find a mini splash park outside the foodcourt, and it was a nightmare to pass by the area as Ian kept on wanting to go in and get wet.  After lunch, the party went for more rides at the Jurassic Park, while I entertained myself with YouTube.  This time, the sun had come out and it was getting painful to wait under the sun.

While the rest of the party wanted to try out the more adventurous rides, the 3 of us split up with them.  It was way past Ian's nap time and he was super tired but refusing to give in to his fatigue.   Fatigue had also caught up with me.  We went for the carousel and around the shops to spend the 2 pieces of $5 vouchers.  At last, we decided to get a Magic School Bus book and a box of biscuits, and headed straight back home.

Ian probably enjoyed the rides and the new sights more than us.  It was pretty boring for me since I could not take almost all the rides.  The only 2 that I got to try out was the Shrek 3D movie and the carousel.  I also went for the "rock concert" but it was not to our taste. Perhaps, it would be more fun for us a few years later when the rides become more "suitable" for us and when Ian is able to take the roller-coasters.

An Early Xmas Celebration?

It has been our family's little tradition to buy a hazelnut log cake ever since we moved in this house.  This year, things got sweeter, because we only paid a few cents for our cake (we accumulated a few Bengawan Solo cake vouchers collected over the year). 

Somehow, it tasted better than last year.  Perhaps it was a good decision to buy the cake earlier and avoid the busy Xmas Day (we bought it on Xmas itself last year).

New Car Seat for Ian

For a while, we noticed that Ian had long outgrown his convertible carseat that he had been using since birth. His shoulders were way above the highest strap slots, and his chin was already over the top of the seat.  It was also getting difficult for Ian to climb onto the seat because of his height.

We had been scouting around for a suitable upgrade for this boy.  I had done some research on the Internet and many "experts" suggested a 5-point harness seat, for safety reasons.  So, we had gone around searching for one.  It was not so easy and almost all of the booster seats with a 5-point harness were too small for his height.  After a few comparisons, we finally chose a Combi booster seat.  It cost around $215+ after the 10% discount from Takashimaya.  It would probably be cheaper nearer to Xmas, but we figured that we could not beat the crowd then.  As a bonus, we claimed back $3 in our cashcard as they offered free parking benefits for cardmembers and also earned some rebate points to exchange for their vouchers.

We had compared with 2 other Maxi Cosi boosters and decided on this, because the shoulder strap did not cut his neck and the seat belt laid across his laps nicely, and not across his tummy.

The new seat was delivered to us on Wednesday afternoon, and Hubby changed his "throne" on Friday since he was on leave.  Ian fitted in the seat nicely, and it was no more an arduous task to get him into the car seat.  In no time, this little rascal learned how to release the buckle.  Thankfully, he had not been mischievous enough to release the buckle while the car was moving.  But, he had always demanded to be the one to "press the button" to get out of the seat and would fly into a tantrum if we had done it for him.  It was also a blessing that the shoulder strap laid properly over his shoulder most of the time, as my initial fear was that he would struggle out of it. 

An Early Xmas Pressie for Ian

A staff from his ex-enrichment school had recommended me to get him the Junior Engineer toy a few months ago, and hence, we gotten one for him during the recent festive sale. 

This is only the basic set, and costs around $60+ after discount.  When we got home, this little boy was so eager to open up the box and play with his Daddy!  

Ian's Haircut @ Baby Spa

Our usual hair stylist was overseas for this festive month before we could get one 'last' cut at her place, hence, we had no choice but to source for another place to get Ian a trim.

Since Ian has always gotten his hair cut at the same place since he was a baby, we had no idea where to bring him to, because it was hard to keep him still during the cut.  I remembered that the Baby Spa shop did have this service, besides letting babies swim, and hence we brought Ian there to try out their service on this afternoon. 

Ian sat in a toy car and the lady who attended to us switched on a cartoon to keep him entertained.  Unfortunately, he was not in the least interested in the cartoon.  Hubby had to keep Ian down as he was fidgeting at the sound of the electric shaver. 

I had told the lady that I wanted the hair to be short, and she really did exactly what I said.  (I am lamenting at the shortness now.)  One thing good about their service was that they provided a vacuum for us to suck up the hair from Ian's clothes.  

The first cut cost $16, and with the member card, subsequent visits will cost $10.

Ian's Progress In School

We had a review session with Ian's childcare teachers this afternoon.  It was a short 30 minutes chat with the teachers and they showed us his "report book".

Generally, his "grades" in all aspects had improved, with mostly 3s (1 being the lowest, 3 being the highest).  I wonder if the teachers had been a tad too generous with the scores?  However, as expected, the language development sections had many 2s, but there were no more 1s unlike the mid-year review.

The teachers also showed us a stick figure sketch that he had drawn in the beginning of December.  It was a self-portrait, with eyes, nose, mouth, hair, body, hands, and legs.  I was a bit surprised at the sketch, and the teachers said that they were a bit surprised too because it was probably something that a 3.5 year old would draw.  They noticed that he was strong at sorting shapes and colours.  They also commented that he was a curious child, and always tore off bits of paper from the crafts pasted on the wall. 

It was a pity that I only had a quick look at the comments written in the report book, which would follow him until he completed K2 in this school.

On this day, I also noticed the big difference in his behaviour, upon the appearance of his English teacher.  He was running wildly along the corridor while we waited for our turn, and immediately turned into a "demure" sheep when she walked out of the classroom.  It was good to know that there was someone in school who could control him from misbehaving.

Crafts: Projects for November 2010

Yet another lazy month for me... only managed to accomplished 2 pieces of crafts with my dear boy this month.  He has been more engaged in tracing mazes, alphabets and numbers for this month.  Also, this lazy mommy has been using pre-cut craft templates from craft books, and also letting him play with stickers. 


Thumb Print Apple Tree - I cut out a template of the tree and let Ian create the "apples" with his thumb.  A simple activity, but he enjoyed it a lot. 

Paper Plate Rabbit -  First, I drew a centre line across a smaller paper plate and let Ian cut the plate into half.  Then, I traced out 2 ovals on a piece of pink construction paper and let Ian cut out the shape (though I did help him to trim a little).  I drew the eyes and mouth on the bigger paper plate and let Ian stick the pompom on as the nose.  Then, I helped him paste on the chenille stems as the whiskers, and guided him to paste the ears behind the bigger plate.

Ian @ 2 Years 8 Months

Quick Stats:

Height: 97cm
Weight: 15.2kg

• Our little boy is getting more and more talkative, and likes to sing along with the radio or TV credits.  He also has the habit of repeating something he said until he gets our attention.  His tenacity sometimes surprises us.
• Ian is now able to unbutton his uniform when he is back from school.  However, he still needs some help when buttoning his shirt.  So far, he has been putting on his undies and pants without much help from us.
• He is now toilet-trained in the day, except for occasional accidents.  We are contemplating to start him in his undies for school as well, as he can differentiate his undies from a diaper and refuses to go to the toilet whenever he's in a diaper.
• Able to write a few letters and numbers though they do not look as pretty yet: "H", "I", "T", "L", "1", "2".
• He is also starting to show defiance whenever we ask him to do something.
• Learning to pedal a tricycle.

A Happy Weekend for Ian

Ian must have enjoyed this day a lot.

Firstly, we signed him up for a trial class at Abrakadoodle. The theme of the day was using fir tree branches and create a painting of snowy forest.  As much as Ian enjoyed doing arts and crafts at home, he enjoyed dabbing the paints on the paper.  At the end of the class, he got to bring back his framed artwork.

After the class, we decided to bring Ian to ride his bike at the Lower Seletar Reservoir.  We had been talking of visiting the place for ages, and this was the first time we realized our 'talks'.  There was a splash park but strangely, the people playing with the water were not kids.

Ian learned to pedal his bike on the wooden bridge...

The Maid #2

Our Scooba's long-awaited sibling finally reached us yesterday afternoon.  I had waited for a while to woot this sibling, who will be complementing the Scooba in house-cleaning.  Although it was not the model that I had desired, nevertheless, the price was too good to resist ($290) and almost half of the price I saw on eBay.

After charging it overnight, I set it off its first mission to vacuum the whole house.  See it in action...

These 2 siblings never fail to amaze me how much dirt they always find in the house. I have tried running the Scooba everyday for a week, and the water is always black. Perhaps, I should use the Roomba first to suck up the dirt, followed by the Scooba for a more effective cleaning.

Crafts: Projects for October 2010

It has been another lazy month for us... anyway, here are what Ian has been doing for this past month...

Paper Plate Fish - We read the book Rainbow Fish and I decided to let Ian create one (the one on the right).  First, he used crayons to colour the fish as he liked, while I helped to divide out a portion for the mouth.  After he has finished his colouring, I let him cut out the tail and he drew the eyes.  I stapled the tail to the body of the fish, then tore out little scraps of aluminum foil that he pasted with glue onto the body of the fish.  We found another piece of paper plate around and he said he wanted to make one more fish, so I let him.  To my surprise, he enjoyed doing this craft which was simple in my opinion.

Frog and Tortoise - I was trying to introduce the concept of mixing yellow and blue paint to get green paint, and to avoid wasting the paint, I let Ian paint the colour onto 2 paper plates.  I had prepared the cut-out legs, eyes and other body parts in advance, and Ian helped to paste the body parts onto the paper plates. 

Pig and Elephant - Ian first painted the 8 paper plates, egg carton, and toilet rolls in pink.  After that, Hubby helped to glue the individual parts together as it was not easy to handle.  This craft was not very successful in my opinion, as perhaps we should have used more plates to make it look more proportionate with the legs.   

The 2nd craft was from Chinese craft book with punch out templates.  Ian helped to attach the body parts of the elephant with glue.

Cheap Homeschooling: Dressing Frame

I made a simple buttons dressing frame for Ian to learn how to button and unbutton.  What it had cost -  a $6 frame, scraps of cloth, huge buttons that I found amongst my scrapbooking materials, and about an hour of work at the sewing machine (my first attempt to sew button-holes with this machine).

He has started practising on it for the past 2 months or so, and it was only recently that he started to apply this skill in real life.  Now, he is able to take off his school uniform, although he still needed a little help buttoning it up in the morning. 

Once he is more dexterous with this skill, perhaps I could try to let him learn how to tie a ribbon?

"Eat M, Okay?"

"Eat M, Okay?". 

Initially, I did not get what Ian was trying to tell me, until once, I followed his eyes and saw the big "M" signboard - McDonald's.  Every time we passes by an outlet, or when we tell Ian that we are going to eat, he will say these 3 words.

He loves their fries, much to my chagrin.  Whenever I am in a hurry to fetch him or have run out of time to have my lunch before fetching him, I will resort to fast-food.  Sometimes, I bring him with me to buy my lunch, and he gets to eat my fries, which appears to be a feast to him as he savours each bite. 

Most of the time, we finished the meal in the car before going home.  Sometimes, if we do bring the food home, he will place the fries in front of him, followed by placing my coke next to his fries, and begin his feast. 

Our Long-Awaited Maid...

I wooted this at the beginning of the month, and it seemed a long wait before the DHL courier finally brought our robotic maid to us yesterday afternoon.  We quickly went out to get the local voltage charger and fed it with power for 16 hours.  After putting Ian to bed just now, I eagerly made it perform the very first task for our house...

Verdict:  I had expected it to leave the floor pretty wet, but this is wetter than expected.  Perhaps if I left it to clean the same area, the last cycle would have dried the floor.  It could not reach the corners, but it did a pretty neat job of sucking up long hair and random dirt and dust on the floor.  For the price I had paid ($310), it is good, as it can take away some of the housework from us. 

However, after the robot had completed its task, I had to dismantle the tank, the filter, and the brush cleaning head to clean up.  The water for the first mission was black (showed how dirty our house was).  It was quite a chore to clean up the filter and cleaning head as a lot of hair, dirt, and even bits of papers that Ian tore up, was stuck inside.  After that, I wonder how long it would take to dry up, before it can embark on the next mission?  Perhaps because this is a lower end model, so it could not clean up the whole house.  But, it is good enough for us.  Hopefully, with a cleaner house, Ian and I can stop suffering from allergy-related problems!

As a side note, I have not seen how Ian will react to our new family member. Hopefully, he will not abuse it!

Surprises Today

Our little boy gave me many surprises today!

1. When he came back from school, he unbuttoned his uniform without any help from me.  We have been teaching him how to handle buttons for about 2 months, and finally, he did it on his clothes.  Hopefully, this will not turn out to be a one-off event, and he can continue to do that tomorrow and so forth.

2. After his shower, he went to the first-aid box to take a plaster to paste over the little cut on his leg.  Although he has been able to put on a plaster properly (he has even helped to paste one over a mosquito bite on me before), it was a pleasant surprise still when he came to the kitchen with the empty box to throw it away.

3. While I was changing the bedsheets, Ian has become my little helper.  He helped me pull the bedsheet at the other corner of the bed, and took the dirty linens to the laundry basket in the kitchen.  He even helped to place the pillows at their usual places.

4.  Voila!  That is a portrait that he drew while I was not looking.  When I asked who it was, he said "Mommy!".  It was a surprise to me, because it did not look as weird as his previous sketches of our family members.

Development Assessment: 30 Months

We visited the speech and occupational therapists today.  The occupational therapist explained the result of the profiling that we had completed last month.  Ian fared pretty normal except for his auditory processing, which showed that he had a slightly higher threshold for noise tolerance, which meant we needed to put in more effort to catch his attention if we were talking to him. The therapist mentioned that he could be 'discharged' since we did not have any major concern. 

The speech therapist also mentioned about discharging him soon, perhaps after a doctor's review.  She was happy with Ian's explosive progress since our first visit just a few months ago.  Ian could now attempt to join a few words together in his effort to communicate.  And surprisingly, he could pronounce some difficult sounds such as "train" (the "tr" sound is supposed to be quite advanced for his age).  She was also happy that he could recognise a specific vegetable such as broccoli during the play time.  We pointed out that he is having difficulty pronouncing "fish" instead of "bish", and she told us that this was pretty normal for someone who just began to talk.  But strangely, Ian could say "four" and "five" correctly.

After the next review, if everything is good, we probably could go for a review again in another 6 months.

At his childcare, his teacher also brought up that Ian's progress in talking was good.  He was starting to imitate the words that the teacher said. 

Both of us also found that he has become pretty talkative.  Sometimes, he would wake up in the morning and talk to himself while he played alone.  He also loves to praise himself "well done" for something that he has done.

Crafts: Projects for September 2010

For this month, I have slowed down the pace of his projects due to some unforeseen events at home.  Here are what we have done...


Sheep - Found this project from the internet and decided to try it out with Ian.  I cut out the head, tail and legs beforehand, and let Ian paste cotton balls on a paper plate.  In case you are wondering, I helped Ian fill in the gaps between the cotton balls that he pasted.  After that I guided him to paste the other body parts onto the body.

Lion - Another simple project... I cut out a yellow circle beforehand, and drew the face.  I showed Ian how to mix the red and yellow paints to get the orange paint for the lion's mane.  He painted the paper plate first and after it dried, Ian made snippets around the edge of the plate to get the mane.  After that, I guided him to paste the face onto the plate.

Hand Prints -  A 'lazy' project!  I showed Ian how to mix white and blue to get a lighter shade.  After that, I gave him the brush to dab on his palms and paint at his free will.

Resources: 
Artists Helping Children - Paper Plates Crafts
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Ian Is 2.5 Years Old

More noticeable development for the past month was his vast improvement in speech.  When we first sought help from a speech therapist in June (~ 3 months ago), Ian could hardly pronounce words with 3 syllables.  Now, he is able to join a few words together such as "I don't want", "Thank you, (whoever)", and pronounce some words with 3 syllables.

We are pleased that he can finally say the letter "W" properly, though now he still has difficulty in pronouncing some lengthy words like "helicopter" and "octopus" (which becomes "oc-pus-to").  Ian is also making more effort to express himself, although sometimes we did not manage to catch what he wanted to convey. He has also displayed some interest in using preposition, such as "in the floor", "in the top".  We are still trying hard to correct his wrong usage though.

Socially, Ian is able to recognise some of his classmates.  I only realised this when I showed him the photos that his teacher had taken, and he started to point out his classmates with names.  He seems to be well-adapted to going to school now, because he does not become clingy when we drop him in the class.  Instead, he will wave bye-bye to us.

Another more notable development is his progress toilet-training.  Now, he is able to keep the pants dry at home and through his naps.  There had been a few accidents on and off, but I guess that is to be expected.  He has also managed to keep his pants dry when we go out for a short trip to my mom's place for dinner.  I wonder when we can start to put him in cloth for longer trips?  (We are two clueless parents who managed to toilet-train our boy up to this stage!)

Thanks to his toilet-training drills, I have let him put on his pants by himself.  Most of the time, he is able to put them on correctly (label at the back).  With loose tees, he can take them off on his own and sometimes, put them on without help.

Ian has also managed to draw a simple sketch of a face, but his favourite thing to draw is still a balloon! 

It had been a busy month for us, and Ian spent a lot of time with his 2 cousins during their one week holiday.  Now, they are officially his top favourite people (perhaps they top the list over us!).

Last Lesson at LNT

Today marked the end of Ian's lessons at LNT.  He has been attending their lessons since Jan 2009 (he was about 8 months at that time), and it has been nearly 2 years.

Some of the stuff taught in the class were pretty helpful in his development, such as drawing mazes, crafts, counting, learning the names of common furniture, logic blocks, cutting.  These activities gave me a clue on the areas on which I could start to teach him at home. 

However, Ian is still unable to pay attention to the class, especially when it comes to flash cards.  He has just started to appreciate the songs, but as for some activities such as differentiating an object from a group, stacking 3D blocks, he was pretty much behind because he joined the 2007 children. 

We wondered whether it was because he skipped a year and missed out the foundations of building these 3D blocks, etc.  Anyway, we decided that it was time for a break.  He was not concentrating much in the class, and we had been pretty tired bringing him there and forcing him to concentrate in the class.

Perhaps it was good to try out other classes to see whether something else would be more appropriate for his interests.

Toilet-Training: Diaper-free Days At Home

This week, Ian has caught a cough and a runny nose.  Hence, we have been keeping him at home since Tuesday because his nose turned into a leaking tap.  I took this chance to try putting him on his training pants for the whole day. 

Tuesday - Perhaps he was not used to the extended hours of being diaper-free, and poo-ed in the pants.  However, he did a good job of keeping it dry otherwise.  It was my first attempt to let him have his nap in the training pants and it was a success.  I also ventured to let him go diaper-free for going out (fetched Hubby from work and had dinner at my mom's place).  However, he peed in the car seat on the way to fetch Hubby.  Hubby said he was still not ready, and changed him back into his diapers at my mom's place.

Wednesday - Oops, Ian had a little accident.  He poo-ed a little into the pants and quickly ran to the toilet for the rest.  He also peed in his pants once, but had kept it dry through his nap.  I tried to let him go diaper-free for our short outing again.  This time, I reminded him repeatedly not to pee in the car and not to pee on the floor.  He managed to keep the car seat dry.

Thursday - It was a dry day...yippie!  Again, I put him in his training pants on our short outing in the evening.  I reminded him repeatedly again not to pee in the car and on the floor.  He managed to keep it dry, but wet his pants while playing with his cousins at my mom's place.  Hubby changed him back into diapers again. 

Friday - Ian peed once in the training pants again, even at home.  I wonder if this is a regression?  However, he had kept it dry otherwise.  Once we reached my mom's place in the evening, Hubby brought him to the toilet immediately to empty his bladder.  However, he did not pee, and wet his pants in a while later. He also managed to pee into the toilet bowl successfully after the little accident.

After these few days of "training", I realised that Ian needs to go to the toilet frequently in order to keep his pants dry.  I wonder is it normal for children to go frequently?  It is going to be hard to keep him diaper-free for longer trips outside.  :(

Crafts: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

This afternoon, Ian woke up earlier than usual from his afternoon nap, and so I decided to make a paper lantern with him for the upcoming Chinese festival.

I drew lines on the construction paper for Ian to cut, and then helped him paste onto a paper towel roll.  Then, Ian got to paste some stickers as decoration. 

This was an activity that he enjoyed tremendously...

After he had completed with the stickers, I poked 2 holes and pulled a chenille stem through them as the handle.

I was not able to find a stick around the house for a proper handle, so Ian had to make do with the chenille stem for the time-being.  He played with it for a while, almost destroying the lantern.

When Hubby returned home at night, Ian showed the lantern to his Daddy, and Daddy found a balloon stick for the handle!  Now, it looked better...

We wish a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to followers of this blog!

Toilet Training: He Stood!

Our little darling gave us a huge surprise on Wednesday night!  As usual, he went to the toilet himself to pee and after I heard the music from his FP potty, I got up from my seat to help him with the cleaning up.  I was extremely surprised to see what he did to his potty - his urine was all over his potty chair and on the floor.  It meant that he had urinated while standing up.  Although it was a big mess, I was very happy that he had progressed to the next step in his toilet training.

I had earlier tried to teach him how to do this, but nothing came out as he stood at the toilet bowl.  And all of a sudden, Ian had decided to stand and urine.  We scratched our heads and wondered what changed him?

We have also started to put him on his training pants when we go over to my mom's place for dinner.  He wet his pants the first time we tried it, but it was probably because he did not detect his urge to go as he had a big quarrel with his cousin and was crying non-stop.  Over the last few days, Ian had managed to keep his pants dry until we returned home.  Once, he was able to tell us that he wanted to go to the toilet, and had stood to pee at his Por Por's house.

At home over the last couple of days, he had been peeing either standing up or sitting on his potty, depending on his mood.  If he decided to stand, he would use the adult potty and so far, he had not made a mess since his first success.  (Ian, thank you for not adding more mess for Daddy and Mummy to clean up!)

We hope that soon, we could put him on training pants during his afternoon naps too.

A Self-Portrait

Hello, everyone!

This is my self-portrait!

And Mummy helped to write my name under it!

Toilet-Training: A Collection of Potties

We began toilet-training Ian in August, once I received the training pants that I had ordered from Amazon and a Taobao spree.  We had expected it to be difficult, and it was indeed fraught with difficulties.  We had not much idea on how to start, and began by putting him in the training pants at night, after his shower.  This was to let him feel the wetness when he peed or pooed in his underwear.  It was very tiring as he kept dirtying his undies and the floor.

We had no success in getting him to sit on the potty to do his business.  He resisted very strongly whenever we asked him to sit on it.  This is how his first potty looked like (it was one of the wedding gifts from my Mom).

Whenever we asked him to sit on it, he would point to our toilet bowl and once, we even found him hanging over the seat using his hands to prop himself up.  After about 2-3 weeks of futile attempts to get him seated on his own potty, we decided to splurge on the Fisher Price potty.  It was not very easy to find this and we only saw it at Toyrus and Robinsons (not even the John Little or Kiddy Palace branches that we visited).  There was no sale at Robinsons, but we bought it anyway ($79, IIRC).  We felt that it was really expensive as compared to other normal types of potty seats, and when I paid at the cashier, I was rather apprehensive that the money would be wasted.

Hubby assembled the potty when we got home, and it was a big, big relief when Ian happily sat on it and peed.  There was a sensor at the bottom that would activate songs when he peed or pooed, and this was good, because it enabled us to know whether he was successful or not without having to check.

We had this potty for about 3 weeks now, and recently, Ian has been going to it whenever we are at home.  He has been keeping his undies dry most of the time, except for one or two accidents when he leaked a little and ran to the potty.

I checked with his childcare teachers on whether they could help our potty-training by bringing him to the toilet with the other children who were already trained.  However, they told me that Ian must be able to stand and pee before they could do it.  I did not understand the rationale behind this 'rule', but that meant we had to work harder at home and bring the toilet-training one step further before he could go to school without diapers. 

At the current stage, we still had to put him in diapers when going out.  During our recent visit to the child development therapy sessions, we had faced difficulty in finding a child's toilet seat when Ian had wanted to poo, and he ended up doing it in his diapers after enduring it for some time.  Hence, to aid with our training, we decided to get a travel potty.  I spotted this on Amazon and bought it - Potette Plus travel potty.

Hopefully, this is money well-spent too...

Ian Loves Sticker Books

Ian loves stickers, and so we got him sticker books to keep him occupied for a while when we were out of ideas of things to do with him.

His first sticker book was from Usborne - Summer Sticker Book (~$7.70). It contained over 500 stickers and many scenes for children to fill in with the stickers.  Ian was slightly overwhelmed with the mere quantity of stickers for each scene, so we resorted to cut out each sticker page into half or a third for Ian to play for one session.  After about a month or so, Ian finally finished all the pages.  (We have gotten a few more sticker books from Usborne as the quality was good!)

The next sticker book was one of the activity books that I have gotten from a Dangdang spree. This is a simple but educational sticker book and Ian finished it in only 3 days. It could have been finished in an hour, but we limited the number of pages that he could do in a day (about 4-5 pages).

The book was priced at RMB6, so that translated to about S$2 with shipping and GST.  Although the stickers were a little hard to peel off, it was still quite worth the price.

Crafts: Projects for August 2010

We did more crafts for the month of August...


Rainbow - We happened to see a rainbow outside our window one afternoon, and ever since, Ian started to say "rainbow" whenever we looked out of the window at the sky.  Hence, this project was planned, to show him the colours of a rainbow.  Ian helped with cutting and tearing up the paper pieces, and he got to do one colour a day.  At the end of the project, he gets to paste the cottony clouds on.  He knew all the colours, except for indigo and violet.  This piece of work took us about 2 weeks to complete!

Hand-print Sheep  - A very simple project.  Ian helped with pasting the wool on the sheep.

Sun -  I traced Ian's little hand onto construction paper and cut them out.  Ian painted the paper plate yellow and helped to paste on the hand prints.  This little project has added some 'sunshine' to his room.

Useful reference for Family Crafts.

Development Assessment: 29 Months

We had our second visit to the Child Development doctor on 27 August.  The doctor was someone new to us because the previous one was away for this period.  We had to go briefly with her Ian's development all over again.

She did a simple assessment of Ian by showing some age-appropriate pictures, asking him to stack some blocks, and testing his responses to what she said.  The doc thought that he was doing OK, and told us to continue with the speech and occupational therapist, and then see her again in December.

On 31st, we visited the speech and occupational therapists.  The former did an assessment for Ian to test where his language and comprehension skills stood.  She showed him some pictures and he could answer most of it.  However, she noted that he could not comprehend when she used words ending with the '-ing' form.  Our homework was to reinforce his language and comprehension by spending some time on a daily basis, to play with him and teach him new things, by emphasizing and repetition, and by keeping our sentences short and precise.

The session with the occupational therapist did not go as smoothly though.  Perhaps it was Ian's nap time then, and hence, Ian was quite uncooperative.  The therapist began by drawing out a simple timetable to show Ian what he was to expect - a few minutes of table work (matching game), followed by a physical activity (which Ian loved), followed by table work again (drawing and colouring), followed by another physical activity (which Ian loved), and table work again (geometric stacker).  Ian could hardly pay attention at the table, until it was getting a bit frustrating to get him to complete his task towards the end.

Anyway, some quick statistics of Ian which the nurse took during our visit:
Weight: 14.5kg
Height: 94cm

We were glad that he had passed the 14kg mark convincingly this time!

Kumon Workbooks - Another 2 Accomplishments!

Ian has completed another 2 Kumon workbooks - More Let's Colour, and Let's Sticker and Paste for the past month.

His colouring skills did not seem to be improving after the 39 pages of exercises.  I wonder if he is tired of colouring, or because he lacks the concentration?

On the other hand, it was easy to go through the stickers and pasting workbook with him as he enjoyed doing the exercises.  At the beginning, he was not able to paste the stickers properly.  As we went through the exercises with him, his pasting skills showed improvement as he tried to align the stickers as he pasted.

The workbooks were rather costly, but it was worthwhile to see his fine motor skills improving so quickly.

Cheap Homeschooling

I read a book on teaching Montessori at home and found some of the exercises very interesting.  Taking reference from the book, I created my own DIY number rods (the real ones retail from $50-70 depending on the size).  Effort and cost?  About 2 hours of a Saturday night, and less than $2 for a corrugated board.  The rest of the materials were lying around at home (markers, scrapbooking scraps, glue).

We also got him a pair of tongs and fluffy balls for him to practise his dexterity with fingers. Surprisingly, he was able to use the tongs quite well, and thus we decided to introduce the Combi learning chopsticks.  Here is a short video of him using it (you will need to tilt your head a little)...

Ian's First Trip To The Zoo

It was a cloudy morning and Hubby decided to go ahead with a trip to the Zoo, that we had been talking about for a while.  Since Ian knows the names of quite a number of animals, we thought that it was good to let him see the real thing.

We reached there at around 9 plus and the carpark was pretty packed.  We parked the very last slot in the area under the guard's direction and walked our way in.  There was already a huge crowd, to our chagrin.  I quickly queued up for the tickets, while the men went to buy breakfast.  We had a quick bite and entered the zoo, while Ian ate the toast along the way.  Strangely, everybody was crowding around the entrance, and hence, we quickly made our way inwards.

Our first destination was the boat ride.  It was a breezy cruise around the reservoir, but we probably would not take it again.  The ride took us to nearby the kids zone.  Ian managed to feed some greens to the goats and he really enjoyed the attention from the goats.  We proceeded to the water play area, changed him into his swim wear and let him play in the water area for quite some time.  As always, he enjoyed water play thoroughly. 

When it was near to lunch hour, Hubby pulled him out and we searched around for a place to eat.  We walked aimlessly around before finding the Ah Meng restaurant.  Ian was tired from all the play in the morning and ate only a little of my chicken rice.  The food portion was small, and Hubby had to buy a second round of food. 

After lunch, we boarded the tram to tour around the zoo.   We saw a few of the familiar animals in the zoo and after that, spent around an hour on the tram while Ian slept on his Daddy's laps. 

For our last stop, we visited the Australian Outback station and saw 2 small kangaroos and an emu.  It was too hot and all the 3 of us were exhausted.  We called it a day and left at 3 plus.

Verdict of the trip: we would probably need to find more outings like this to build up our staminas!  But it was a good exposure to Ian to let him see some real animals, instead of on paper or on TV.

Shopping At Expo

It was pretty worth going to Expo this weekend, because there were Borders and Metro on sales.  We grabbed some books for Ian, all for $53+ and we received a $10 voucher for our next patronage.

Ian enjoyed flipping through the Big Bug Book and Mighty Machines, as they were both pop-up books.  I had to constantly remind him not to tear the pop-ups off the page!  I wonder how long the books will last with this little curious, rough guy?  (I have also started to buy more paperbacks and hardbacks for him instead of board books, since Ian has displayed some ability to flip through the pages without tearing.)

I happened to see the Scholastic reading line book set, and hence added it to my shopping cart as well.  I was surprised at the simplicity of the books and two of them in the series are pure picture books.

We were at the Metro sale as well, and did not buy many things because it was the usual things on sale.  Crocs was on sale as usual, but as Ian had just upgraded to size 10/11 last week, we decided that there was no hurry to stock up another pair as the previous one lasted him for over a year.  But, most importantly of all, the prices were not compelling enough for us to stock up.  Due to a cranky toddler, I only managed to find a pair of home shorts for Ian for $2.50 (cheaper and better quality than my neighbourhood stores), a nursery rhymes disc for $3, and Hubby got himself a pack of socks and snacks.  I also spotted some anime classic series going for $7.50, but eventually held myself back as I probably would not have the time to watch!

Cheeeeseee

Ian had a potluck party in school this morning, and had to dress up in red and white clothings.  His teachers painted his face for the National Day celebrations in school.  They had also made a hat that look like the national flag.

Ian had probably learnt to love posing for photographs from school, as he said "cheese" whenever I whipped out the camera.

Another mischievous shot...

Crafts: More Paper Plate Crafts (July)

Ian and I did some more crafts using paper plates this month...

Standing Ducky - Ian helped to paint the paper plates yellow, and stick the bill on.  Unfortunately, this craft did not win his favour as he cast it aside.  He still preferred the Ladybug puppet that we had made earlier on.

Butterfly Puppet
I traced the outline of a butterfly on the plate and let Ian colour it with his favourite colours.  Ian preferred this over the Ducky, but his favourite is still the Ladybug. (For an update, the Ladybug is now legless as he had pulled them out.)

Reference:

Crafts for Preschoolers and Kindergartners

Ian @ 2 Years 4 Months

Just to keep tab on Ian's developments...

Weight: ~14kg
Height: 94cm

Sadly, he has not been putting on much weight recently because he has been falling sick every month.  We have started him on Sambucol as well under his PD's recommendation, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will work better than his previous supplements.  He is also taking cordycep soup every Sunday at his Por Por's house.


Motor Skills:

• Alternate feet going up and down the stairs independently.  (Since he slipped and cut his lips in February this year, we had not allowed him to climb stairs independently until recently.)
• Hops like a frog, and walks sideways like a crab.
• Playing ball games: kicking, throwing, rolling.
• Drinks water from a normal cup (we are giving him with only 1/4 filled for a start).
• Puts on and removes his shoes.
• Brushes his front teeth and some parts of the inner sides.
• Uses a blunt metal scissors to cut (with supervision).
• Builds block structures that are vertical and horizontal.
• Thread wooden blocks with a shoelace.
• Self-feed, though only at the beginning of meals, because he loses interest in food very quickly.  However, his teacher mentioned that he is self-feeding in school.
• Washes and dries hands at the toilet with the help of a stool.  Sometimes, he gets too engrossed till Daddy has to 'remind' him to stop playing with the water.
• Takes off jacket, pants and diapers, and loose-fitting or stretchy tees.  However, still needs some help with his shirts and normal tees. Sometimes, he is able to put on pants properly without help.
• Opens doors (inwards and outwards) by turning the knobs.
• Wiggles his toes and thumbs.

Cognitive/Language Development:

• Knows his basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, diamond, star, crescent, oval, dome/semi-circle.  However, cannot differentiate between a pentagon, hexagon or octagon.  To him, they are all 'hexagons'.
• Counting objects up to 4.
• Recognises numbers up to 11 or 12.
• Recites numbers up to 13, sometimes more.
• Sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
• Getting more talkative: can join 2-3 words together, and say words with more than 4-5 syllables (eg. helicopter).
• Differentiates helicopter and airplane by hearing and by sight.
• Knows that a cow moos, a pig oinks, and a duck quacks (he imitates this with the action of flapping wings).
• Can name the primary colours (red, blue, yellow) and others (white, black, pink, purple, green, orange, brown).
• Knows his own name (finally!) and refers to his belongings as "Ian's".
• Recognises all his uppercase alphabets, and according to Daddy, all the lowercases too.
• Knows that a cat is "neko" too. 
• Writes numbers 1 and 6.
• Draws horizontal and vertical lines, circles (though far from a perfect one) and spirals.  He can also draw an apple, pear, or orange at whim, and also attempted to draw his Daddy's face.

Social Development:

When bringing him to school, he still displays his stickiness to us by clinging to us for some time before finally settling down in the class.  Perhaps, this is due to his frequent absence from school that he is still not very well-adapted to going to school, like his other classmates who have no issue when their parents say goodbye.  His teachers informed us that he has improved a lot since he first joined.  At the beginning, he would keep a distance from the rest and was afraid to join the group in their story-telling sessions.  Now, he is able to join them freely and sometimes, plays with the others too.



Other notes:

We are still working on his temper management.  We have consulted an occupational therapist for his behavioral problems, and in the first session, she has advised us to work on pre-empting him on what to expect next.  For example, when we are about to end something that he is playing with, we can countdown the activity with him before ending it.  She has also advised us to work on a timetable, and this is something that she will be demonstrating in the next session on how to facilitate it.

His current favorite characters are Elmo and Ernie, and he enjoys staring at the pictures of the Sesame Street books that I have gotten for him.

Some of his fave books at the moment:

• The Blue Balloon (Great recommendation from a friend again!)
• Too Big for Diapers
• Big Enough for a Bed
• Chugga-Chugga Choo Choo
• Tugga-Tugga Tugboat

Miscellaneous Resources:
Height (for boys) Percentile Chart
Weight (for boys) Percentile Chart 
Weight-Height Chart for Boys
Milestones (Babycenter)

Crafts: Paper Plate Ladybug...

A craft project that I have been wanting to do with Ian for a while, since Ian loves the "Ladybug, Ladybug" song that he has been playing from our iPhones.

While I was cutting out the paper pieces for the eyes, body and legs, Ian helped to paint the paper plates in red and black colours. After the paint dried, I stapled the 2 plates together with the legs, and Ian helped to paste the rest of the body parts with some glue.

Voila!  A paper plate muppet for the little boy... and like most toys, he played with it for a while before casting it aside into the 'cold palace'.

New Crayons for Ian

We bought a new set of (M&D) crayons for Ian!  He tested it out today on his Kumon colouring exercises and they turned out to be as good as expected. 

What is so special about them?  They are made of plastic.  Although the smell is a slight turn off, but they are mess-free unlike your traditional crayons.  And, there is no paper wrappers to peel off every now and then.  They go smoothly and easily on your paper as well.  What a great find!