Activity Books Completed in November 2011

Riding on another wave of momentum in doing the activity books with Ian, we managed to complete yet another 4 books this month. We had worked on these books since a few months ago, and I was glad to be able to keep them away at last.

Preschool Basics - As the name suggested, a workbook of simple exercises for preschooler.  However, we had needed to guide Ian in some of the activities such as the sound of a word.

快乐连线游戏 - Workbook for connect-the-dots from numbers 1 to 10.  It was simple, but Ian did not draw very smooth lines to join all the dots.  He did have a lot of fun colouring the pictures though.

My First Book of Mazes - We might have been working on this book for a year, because of the long hiatus from worksheets, here and there.  Ian did not need help in tracing the mazes now.  He was able to retrace his route and try another route whenever he encountered a dead end. 

More Let's Fold -  So glad to have finished this, at last!  We had been working on it alongside with the first book in this series, as I had felt that he needed some reinforcement in the basic folding techniques that I found in the beginning pages in this book.  However, as we finished the book, I thought that he was still not able to fold neatly according to the lines. 

Isabelle @ 5 Months

Our little girl is not a big eater like her brother.  Till now, I am just starting to push her milk intake to 4-5oz every 3-4 hourly.  However, many people have commented to me that she appears to be bigger-sized than her age.  I feel rather puzzled, because according to statistics, she is merely in the 50-75 percentile range for both weight and height.  And this is a result of adding one dreamfeed at 1 plus AM just before I call it a day.

As of this month, Isabelle is now a proficient flipper, abeit only from back to tummy, on her right side.  She likes to sleep on her tummy, or her side.  Whenever we put her down to sleep, she will quickly turn to her side or her tummy, and find herself a comfortable position to fall asleep.  In a way, it is a good thing because her head will not become as flat as Ian.  On the other hand, we have to be more vigilant when she is sleeping and make sure she is able to breathe well. 

Ian @ 3 Year 8 Months

We have an early Christmas visit from Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!



Our super duper active boy had a fall from the sofa at G2000 Takashimaya about 2 weeks ago.  His face landed flat on the rough mat and his skin sustained scratches from the mat.  The bump on his forehead has subsided a lot now, but his broken skin on the nose is still red and pretty raw.  It does not help that his itchy fingers are always scratching and peeling on the wound! 

As of now, his weight is approximately 16-17kg, height is approximately 105-110cm.  I think he is the tallest boy in the class now!

He is now able to read books with simple words.  During the recent Popular sale, I purchased more of the Peter & Jane series (3a/b, 4a/b) for him to progress to the next level.  As always, I have difficulty in making him sit still during our reading sessions, unlike Daddy.  Wonder how to make him improve on his attention span?

Isabelle's Smile

Today, she surprised me by flipping from her tummy back onto her back!  She has also been trying to move around on her tummy, by kicking the floor with her toes.  Like Ian, she is now at the stage of drooling, drooling, and drooling!  We have endless loads of laundry to do for the two of them!

I also noticed that a pearly white line is sprouting from her lower gum.  Will try to take a picture of it soon!

Isabelle @ ~ 5 Months Old

Isabelle had been having a low grade fever since Friday.  On Saturday morning, we decided to bring her to get checked by the PD.  She was diagnosed to be having a viral fever.  The PD also assessed that her neck support was strong enough, and we could her on solids.

Her weight as of today - 7.03kg. 

It seemed a bit slow as it was slightly below a 1kg gain from last month.  However, when I checked the growth chart in the health booklet, her weight still fell around the 75th percentile.

Isabelle had also been able to rotate 360 degrees, when on her tummy.  She had not been able to flip from tummy to back yet, but was already proficient in flipping from the back to the tummy.  She loved to sit up and look around her as well.  Her naps were getting shorter too, and that meant I had to pay more attention to her.  Just recently, I had found, on different occasions, the swaddle blanket and pillow over her face.  Or else, she would be flipping to her tummy in her sleep, and once, face down.  I had to remind myself to be constantly checking on her, even at night.  It was a good thing that she would make noise if something was over her head.

I finished flashing the GD outline cards to her about a month ago, and had started on the words cards and also the Math dots cards.  Pretty slow here, but I am trying!

Our girl also loved to make "ah" and "uhm" sounds when she was playing.  Perhaps she had found her voice, and enjoyed hearing her own voice! 

She also loved to clasp her hands together, and appeared to be studying her own fingers and hands.

One thing that set her apart from her brother, was that she loved to smile!  And she was a lot more responsive than Ian when someone played or smiled to her.  One funny thing that I noticed was how excited she would react whenever she spotted her Daddy.  She would fix her eyes on him and kick wildly. 

Our girl simply melted our hearts when she smiled sweetly at us!  I guessed that girls were inborn with an ability to be very sweet!

Ian's Development Assessment

We had an early parent-teacher session in Ian's school, as we were not able to make it for all the scheduled dates in December.

Overall, the teachers were pleased with his academics and independence, and mentioned that he was quite advanced academically.  Their primary concern was still his behaviour.  Even though he knew that something was not to be done and could even say the consequences, he would still attempt to do it.  The teachers also admitted that he fared better in a smaller group setting, but needed a lot of attention.  He would also have sudden outbursts when the teacher talked to him on what he had done wrong, for instance.

As we had a review session with the child development doctor in the afternoon, we mentioned the above to her.  She proposed to send Ian to a few occupational therapy sessions to manage his emotional behaviour, and in the meanwhile, to schedule for a session with a child psychologist. 

Upon my request, she also did an assessment for Ian, but based on a 4-year-old guideline since he was only a few months away from hitting four.  He passed most of it and the doctor said he had already reached the 4-4.5 year old level in most of the items.

We were contemplating putting him into another childcare centre, but due to our location, there were limited choices available.  Hence, Hubby suggested looking into more enrichment classes for him at the time being, as he felt that Ian's progress had been slowed down since last year.

Trial Class @ Kindermusik

I had received a coupon for a complimentary trial class at Kindermusik via their Facebook page.  So we decided to bring Isabelle for the class this morning, since Hubby was on leave and Ian was in school.

We arrived a little early, and waited some time for the rest of the kids to arrive before the instructor started the class.  As expected, Isabelle was the youngest babe in the class.  Most of the others were already crawling at least.  Halfway through the class, she became cranky, and Hubby brought her out to feed her. 

She managed to calm down a while later, and we managed to complete the class.  However, we both felt that she was still a little too young for it.

Keepsakes

When Isabelle was a month old, we brought her to the Taimaobi Centre opposite TMC to have her first haircut, as well as to make these keepsakes for her. 

The brush is to wish her wisdom and the umbilical cord stamp is to wish her good health and wealth.  We ordered almost the exact set as Ian, except that they no longer sell the semi-engraved brush, so we have bought the fully-engraved brush instead.  The photo mug came as a freebie from the shop.

Have to thank my 2nd sister-in-law for collecting these goodies on our behalf from their outlet at TPY!