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.