Activity Books Completed in December 2012

At last, dear Ian had completed 2 more books after working on them for a long, long time...

#1 - Sequencing & Memory (Preschool)
Learning about simple sequencing, sorting, patterns, and critical thinking.  Ian enjoyed it, especially the last few pages of cut-out projects!

#2 - Usborne First Sticker Book - Trucks
A book that I had used to occupy him when I had to run some errands and could not sit down with him.

Showering - A Step Towards Independence

I have been allowing Ian to shower himself in the past 2 months.  At first, I supervised him and made sure that he had applied soap all over, and showered thoroughly until there was no more residue of the soap.  After a few times, I stopped supervising him, and only inspected him after he said he was done.  And the result had been satisfactory.  Good job, Ian.

Isabelle @ 2 Days to 16 Months

Discovered a rooftop garden at myVillage!  Isabelle seemed to enjoy running around the open space.  Best of all, we had the whole roof to ourselves!  

Here is one of my favourite photos of her:

Activity Book Completed in Oct 2012

Ever since we started Ian on the CMA classes, we had slowed down on the other activity books as the homework from the enrichment classes combined took up quite a lot of time.  We had worked a few months on this book: Kumon - My Book of Rhyming Words.

This book supports the teaching of 3-letter phonics, and we had started it late as the enrichment class had already covered all the words by the end of June.  I took it as a reinforcement of what he had learned, but would be skipping the next series "Rhyming Words & Phases" and jumping to "Learning About Long Vowels" which would be in line with what he was learning in the enrichment.

On the enrichment class - Ian joined the class meant for late 2007 children, and I am pleased to find out that besides phonics, they are doing simple comprehension, crossword puzzles, and also fill-in-the-blanks with words.  It will be a good preparation for him before he enters Kindergarten 1 next year.

(10/2012) My Sewing Projects

Recently, I took out my sewing machine from cold storage and started to make some little things for my kids.

#1 - Ian's bag for his music class just happened to have a big hole at the bottom, and hence, decided to make a bag for him first, with his favourite character.  I am lamenting now that I did not fussy cut the fabric to centralise the big McQueen. This is a reversible tote which is totally black on the inside. One day, should Ian grow sick of the character, he can flip it inside out and use it as a black tote.

#2 - An upcycling project, made of a stained maternity tee-shirt and a new tank tee that could not fit Ian at all.  I turned them into a peasant dress with a sash for Isabelle.  Due to my limited experience in cutting out the fabric pieces without using any pattern, the shoulder turns out quite fitting as of now.

#3 - A reversible sun-hat for Ian.  He is outgrowing the Mickey cap that we had gotten for him in HK Disneyland, and so I made this hat with two of his favourite characters - McQueen and Thomas!  This project also utilized the last of my black twill that I had purchased from Spotlight a few years ago!

The hat was made using the tutorial from Martha Stewart if anyone is interested to try.

#4 - A picnic mat that turned out a little smaller than expected.  I used a Premier Print zigzag twill fabric for the top, fused with a fleece interfacing to give it a little cushion, and a PUL fabric as a waterproof bottom.

Shopping Time!

One of our old Braun ear thermometers died at last, and hence, Hubby approved the purchase of a new thermometer. I had decided to try this - VeraTemp infrared non-contact thermometer - for the convenience of not disturbing a sleeping child when taking temperature.  I compared the readings with my other Braun thermometer and the latter consistently gave a higher reading. I have not taken out my oral thermometer to do a further verification though.

The 4th sleeping bag for my little princess - a single-layer Aden + Anais in size XL.

Belle On Trike

Hubby took our little Belle out for a ride, even if it was just along the corridor.... and she loved it!

Ian's Enrichment Classes

After 3 terms at Tien Hsia, we had decided to call it a day for the time being as he dreaded going to the class.  Another reason was that we had a hard time teaching him arithmetic, and felt that it was time to start him on the abacus class.

He took an assessment test with CMA in June, and the teacher allowed him to skip the Kindy class and join the Kinder class right away.  He attended the first lesson today, and we brought home 2 workbooks that I had to remind myself to go through with him on a daily basis.  Hopefully, he would not start to dread this class as well.

He would also be starting the 4th term of the intermediate phonics class next week, and he was still enjoying the lessons very much.

The other enrichment class that he was still attending was the piano course, which he also enjoyed.  It was not easy at the beginning to get him to read the notes, but at least there was some progress now.  He still did not play by reading the scores on his own, but at least he could remember how to play the song after a few practices.

Holiday Art Class - Romero Britto

Ian attended a canvas painting workshop again this September holiday, at Wowart Studio.  I stayed back a while this time round and discovered that the teacher had to help him quite a bit.

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable process for him.

Crafts: August 2012

This project was a school assignment that had to be handed in for Ian's Show-and-Tell session in October.  The theme was sculptures of places of interest in Singapore.  Hence, we decided to make the Singapore Flyer, the Esplanade, and Hubby used the leftover plasticine that we bought specially for this project to make a sculpture of the Marina Bay Sands.  For the landscape, we used up 2 cans of expired playdohs (too sticky to be used).  I mixed the blue and yellow to make the green land, and blue for the river.

Ian helped with rolling up the paper strips to make the capsules, and attached them to the flyer with the sticky dots from my scrapbooking stash.

To finish up the project, I made Ian write out the names (with my help, of course) of the sculptures and labelled them.

Little Graffiti Artist

I gave her a bath crayon, and there she went, doodling on the glass table top...

Activity Book Completed In August 2012

Recently, our progress in doing worksheets had been slow.  Ian always appeared tired after school and after finishing the homework from phonics class and music class, we were left with lesser time for home-prepared worksheets.

This was a book that we had just completed today, which took about a month or so for Ian to complete.  He loved doing the exercises in it, as it included stickers and interesting cartoons.  It taught the basic concept of addition.  

Even after completing the book, Ian's concept of addition was still weak.  I had to help him visualize by drawing bars on top of the numbers so that he could count them.

The Famous Chicken Rice

Thanks to a deal site, I purchased a $40 voucher to dine at Chatterbox, with only $12.  We finally had an excuse to try out the famous chicken rice.

The presentation was excellent, but we had to wait a bit for the food to be served.  The chili sauce was a little on the bitter side instead of the usual sourish types that we could find in coffeeshops and hawkers.

Verdict: Hubby and I both agreed that we still preferred the hawker-styled chicken rice.  But it was a good experience to dine there.

We ordered 2 plates of chicken rice, and the total bill after deducting the $40 credit and adding GST and service charge, turned out to be $23+.

Endless Joy

Thank you to Hubby for these!

A pair of running sneakers for Ian from Pediped, 2 pairs of Stride Rite (step 2 and step 3) for Isabelle, and a pair of Crocs for myself.  A good thing about the Pediped Flex series is that they come with extra insoles that will make the shoes about a size or half smaller, so that they will last longer before the child outgrows the shoes.

I let Isabelle try on the SRT Slow Motion pair immediately upon arrival. They were still a little big, but she could walk around on them and she seemed to be attracted to the shimmery bling on the shoes.

All for USD$137.29, shipped from USA to SG within just 4 days!

New Food Introduced @ 1 Year

Having passed her first birthday, we started to be more relaxed on the food that she could eat, including feeding her food from our plate which she seemed to enjoy a lot.

New food that she had been eating:

• Egg white
• Baby Spinach
• Brewer's yeast

• Organic kale - this was something that I had read about since Ian was a baby, but never managed to find in the local supermarkets until now.  A super green that boosted many benefits above the other vegetables, such as high in calcium, beta-carotene, and other nutrients such as vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B6, manganese, and potassium.  Imagine my excitement when I spotted it in the supermarket!

• Organic red lentils - One of the grains that I should have introduced earlier to Isabelle, but had been procrastinating.  

• Baby pasta stars

Not a new food, but one of my 'exotic' finds at the Takashimaya Cold Storage - purple broccoli!  After steaming, it looked just like the normal green broccoli.

She has also been sharing the tamago sushi that we always order for Ian whenever we dine at a sushi restaurant.  She loves eating the same food as us, hence, she normally finishes one whole sushi on her own, plus other food such as soba, and even fries.

Her First 3 Steps!

Our dear girl took her first 3 steps today.  And, Hubby was the only one who witnessed it!  Well, not too bad, at 1 year 1 day old!  Gambatte, Isabelle!

New Food Introduced @ 11 Months

As Isabelle approaches the big one year old mark, she is now able to eat a lot more varieties of food.

What she has been trying for the first time this month:

• Chia Seed - A super nutritious seed that I just discovered while reading up the ingredients on a Happy Baby food pouch.  It has benefits such as helping to lose weight and balancing blood sugar level, but there are others more relevant to a baby.  The omega-3s in chia seed is more than salmon (by weight), and these seeds are very high in antioxidants. Unlike flax seeds which I had added into Ian's diet when he was a baby, chia seeds do not turn rancid that easily and can store for much longer!  I do not make chia gel for Isabelle.  Instead, I simply sprinkle some on top of her cereal or porridge.

• Purple Sweet Potato - An "exotic-looking" variation of the normal sweet potatoes that I usually get to see in wet markets.  I stumbled across this in a Sheng Siong supermarket while waiting for Ian's holiday art class to end.  It was a good thing that I bought one of those, as I had not had the luck to see it again elsewhere.  Isabelle appeared to love this, as she always finished the porridge whenever I added a cube in it.
• Cherries
• Kiwi

I have also been adding a breakfast meal to her diet as she neared her birthday (she normally had only milk), since her appetite seemed to have increased.  I would add a food pouch or half of it to cereal, as she had been rejecting the taste of pure cereal.  Otherwise, if I had a ripe avocado on hand, I would blend it with mashed tofu.  She had also rejected blended avocado with only cereal, unless I added mashed tofu.  I wondered if it was because she didn't like a very smooth texture, but preferred to have something to chew on?

Anyway, as she neared her first birthday, we could be a bit more relaxed on her food and let her try more things off our plate.

Wow Art: Malay Kite & Canvas Painting

Ian attended 2 more classes in this June holiday, and he thoroughly enjoyed them, especially the canvas painting class.


Malay Kite Making
He got to learn the technique of batik print making.

Canvas Painting - Andy Warhol's pop art
I had been hesitating whether to let Ian try his hands on painting for quite some time, until I saw the results of a friend's daughter who attended it for the first time.  What the heck, I thought, just let him give it a try!  And, the outcome was more than satisfying - it was not just the artwork that he produced (under the teacher's guidance, of course), but the joy that beamed out of his eyes when I fetched him.

I asked Ian for feedback, and he said that he liked the painting class most of all!

And with this, it ended the series of holiday workshops for this time round.

Ian Wants To Buy Me Things

A conversation with my boy in the car...

Ian: Mommy, I will give you toys, ok?
Me: But I don't need toys.
Ian: I will give you all the books, ok?
Me: But I have a lot of books.  I don't have money.
Ian: Ok, I will buy things for you.  Daddy will pay the money.
Daddy: *speechless*

McDonald's Hello Kitty

Courtesy of Hubby!  He did not want to buy these, but bought them anyway because I liked Hello Kitty.

$3.60 each with breakfast meal or extra value meal, over a period of 4 weeks.

Activity Books Completed

We have completed another 2 activity books in the past 2 months!

#1 - Kumon - My Book of Alphabet Games
A book dedicated entirely to recognising and writing the 26 alphabets.  Ian completed this book pretty quickly, as we let him do 2 exercises a day most of the time.  We started this book a little late, as he had already mastered writing the alphabets.  I was pondering whether to skip this book or not, but had thought that it was good for him to practice his handwriting, and gathered that it would only take him about a month to complete it.

#2 - Chinese IQ Sticker Book (4-5 Years)
One of the favourite sticker books of Ian.  I had to help him in some of the exercises, such as counting money and reading the instructions.

Wow Art - Star Struck

It was the school holidays again, and that meant Ian would get to attend holiday workshops again at Wowart.  He was so looking forward to these workshops!

First 2 classes for the month - the Starstruck series - "Galaxy World" and "Friends from Mars".  We decided to let him attend the 2 classes back-to-back.  Hubby took leave to accompany us, and it was a very long wait, from 2.30pm to 5pm.

In "Galaxy World", he made a 3D galaxy, dripping paints on the background cardboard to make the stars, and kneading clay to make the planets.  The teacher mentioned that they learned marbling technique in this workshop.

In "Friends from Mars", he made Martians and put them onto the scene that he had created in the first workshop.

We returned before 5pm to pick him, but he was already waiting for us and had even finished colouring one full page of paper.  I wondered he had finished his class how long ago?  He was the only student in the second workshop, so probably it was a lot faster?  Anyway, I gathered it was not wise to proceed with the class if he were the only student.  He lacked the companionship of peers, and the motivation, I thought.

Nevertheless, I was pretty pleased with the artwork.  The teacher had helped him in some parts, such as the eyes, and the rocket.

Isabelle's New Skill - Putting Objects Into Containers

Recently, Isabelle had learned to put things into a container after taking them out.  Now, she had been trying to fit in things, into all sorts of containers.

So, I had passed her a box of wooden blocks, and she happily put them into the Busy Ball Popper machine.  After it was filled to the bream, she would clap her hands in delight.

She had also attempted to put other objects into the machine, such as the diaper cream, other toys of different sizes, and even a tennis ball (although it would not go into the hole).

Although it might not be a major achievement, it was a delight to see her feeling so happy at her own achievement!

New Food Introduced @ 10 Months

After the scare last month (rashes all over Isabelle's body), we slowly introduced new things back into her diet. What we had added this month:

• Fish Oil - Left: Nordic Naturals Baby's DHA for Isabelle.  (On the right: Children's DHA for Ian.)

• Wheatgerm - A very nutritious grain filled with fiber, iron, magnesium, manganese, protein, omega-2 fatty acids, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, vitamin E, zinc, B vitamins, and calcium.  I had bought a packet of this about 2-3 months back and kept it in the freezer until I could find a good time to introduce to our girl.

• Beetroot - Another super nutritious food, filled with fiber, antioxidant, iron and vitamins A, B, C, and other minerals.  It was a regret that I did not manage to include this super food into Ian's diet when he was younger.  

Beetroot puree in porridge

 Beetroot stained lips... just like wearing lipstick?

Good thing that she loved the beetroot.  It looked yucky to me!

I had also started to let her share my food (she was always glaring hungrily at my food), such as bread, rice, and the milder tonic soups from my Mom, like si shen soup, wolfberries soup, and sheng di tu fu soup that was meant for detoxifying.

I had also introduced the egg yolk back into her diet.  Thankfully, there had been no adverse reaction this time.

Other supplements that she had been taking: Childlife vitamin C and multivitamins, probiotics with colostrum,  and Eu Yan Sang Si Shen Powder.

Isabelle @ 11 Months

Isabelle is still cruising for the past month and has not been courageous enough to take an independent step alone.  She is starting to inch her toes around though.  Gambatte to our little girl!

This month, she has also learnt to put things into a container.  Finally, she can play the Busy Ball Popper toy on her own, by putting the balls back into the machine if they fall outside.  She has also learnt to push the knob on the ball popper and also press tiny buttons on toys, the aircon remote control, and the DVD player.  

She has shown us her ability to copy actions - from us, or from the TV.  I have been teaching her a few signs, such as milk, water, eat, drink, daddy, mommy, hello/goodbye, more, again.  She has been able to hand-sign "milk", and "more" quite frequently.  Although, sometimes I am not sure whether she really means she wants to drink milk when she shows me the sign.  She has also attempted to sign "eat" and "water" after watching us do it.  

Everyday, after her bath, I will let her see herself at the mirror and show her how to wave hello and goodbye.  Now she is quite an adept at it, whenever we passes by the mirror.  She can also clap her hands in joy, and hold up her arms when she wants us to carry her.

She appears to be recognising books that have been read to her before.  Everyday, one of her routines is to rummage through the bookshelves.  She loves to pull out the paperbacks that are meant for Ian, until I rearranged the shelves to bring the board books to a lower level within her reach.  Now, her favourite activity is to pull out the board books and throw them onto the floor.  When she sees something that she has been read to before, she will bring it to me to read to her.  Or, she will flip through the books on her own.

Her favourite books now are:

• Moo, Baa, La La La (Sandra Boynton)
• Peek-a-Who? (Nina Laden)
• Pat the Bunny (Dorothy Kunhardt)
• Blue Hat, Green Hat (Sandra Boynton)
• Chinese flashcard book

She is also not one to be bullied.  About 2 weeks ago, when Ian grabbed a toy right out of her hand, she retaliated by chasing after him, beating him on the back, screaming at him, and also grabbing his leg and attempting to sink her teeth into his flesh.

Oh yes, she has 4 teeth now, 2 middle incisors and 2 bottle incisors. I am not sure why, but she loves to bite my legs when I am wearing my black and white pajamas.  She has also bitten me on my tummy once.  I don't recall Ian ever biting us!

Her favourite word now is "ma ma" or "mum mum".  She will say "ma ma" when I come out from the shower.  I am not sure if she is actually calling me, but it sure makes me a very happy mama!  She will say "mum mum" whenever she wants to eat something.  

She is also showing greater independence now.  I can leave her alone in the room with Ian and my Mom for a few minutes without her crying for my presence.  She is also crawling around the house even when we are not inside a room or following her.  There was once that I had to search around the whole house, and found her in my master room toilet!

How time flies! In a month's time, our little girl will turn one year old!

Make-A-Bear Workshop

Thanks to a deal site, I grabbed a voucher to let Ian have his hands on "making" a bear.

We dropped by the branch at United Square right after his piano class.  He was very excited over it.

The shop assistant gave him a ready made bear without stuffing.  She brought Ian to the machine where Ian was to step on the pedal to "pump" the filling (polyester, maybe?) into the back of the bear.  Then, Ian had to choose a "heart" from a little box, gave the bear a hug, before she put the serial number tag and the heart into the bear, pulled the loose threads to close up the opening, and tied a knot.

Next, Ian had to give the bear a spa treatment, where he was to brush and clean the bear.

When he was done, we went to the computer to enter our details.  We named the bear, Blue.  Then, the shop assistant kept the bear into the Cub Condo carrying case, made Ian swore to treat the bear well before he could bring it home.

Ian and Blue

A Birthday Treat

A birthday treat from Hubby, to Todai.  We had a very memorable feast in Hong Kong a few years ago, at Todai.  There were lobsters, uni sushi, a super nice agar agar, and etc. Hence, I was pretty excited that there was going to be a Todai at MBS here.

Hubby chose to have a lunch buffet there on my birthday, to satisfy my craving.  The sashimi there was fresh, but I had to go a few rounds, each time just managing to collect not more than 5 slices.  A pity that they did not serve oysters and lobsters at lunch.

The dessert section was not too impressive, unlike the selection we had seen in Hong Kong.  

Anyway, it was a satisfying feast on sashimi and sushi alone.  Thank you, Hubby!

Isabelle @ 10 Months

It is amazing to be witnessing our little baby's progress day by day.  This month, she appears to be fast-approaching the next major milestone - walking.

- Stands up without support and stands still for about 15 seconds at times.
- Cruising well
- Creeping has turned into a "bear walk", which is walking with legs, but crawling on hands

She loves bath time, and always manages to splash the water all over the place.

Her stickiness to us appears to be slowly, very slowly, waning.  We can now leave her alone to play for a brief period.  At times, we can also leave Ian and Isabelle together and let them play on their own.

She also hates it when we take away something that she is holding, if we do not offer her something else first.  Actually, we do not remember having this problem with Ian.

Every morning, when her Daddy leaves for work, she will hurry to Daddy and pester him for a hug.  When the door closes, she will cry very loudly unless I quickly distracts her.

Something about Isabelle that is noticeably superior to Ian, is her ability to recognise faces and expressions.  From about 1-2 months old, she could return a smile to me.  Now, she will always check on the person who is carrying her to make sure that this person is either her Daddy or Mommy.  She will smile at strangers, but when the stranger wants to carry her, she will turn her back to him as a protest and hold on to me tightly.  Whenever we smile at her, she will also return us a sweet smile.

New Food For Isabelle @ 9 Months

Progress had been slow this month, as rashes appeared on Isabelle's body for no apparent reason.  We brought her to see our GP, who diagnosed that it was an allergic reaction.  We had to go back to square one, stop introducing new food, and start trying again slowly.

What we had introduced this month:

• Organic Baby Spinach
• Organic Amaranth

The first bout of rashes disappeared soon after applying Desowen lotion and taking Chlormine.  However, the rashes returned with a vengeance a week later.  With pimple-like spots on the forehead, moving down and finally hitting the stomach.  We had cut down on certain food like egg yolk and fish, just in case they were the cause of the rashes.  

I had also let her taken a bite of my bread, as she was drooling at my food.

Activity Books: Completed in April 2012

After skipping the 9pm drama and bringing the kids into the room for some "learning" activities, Ian has been progressing a little faster on the workbooks.  This month, we have completed another 3.


Kumon: My Book of Numbers 1-30

I had worked with Ian on this book for several months.  Progress was slow in the initial stage as he was just learning how to write his numbers.  I stopped the book for about 2-3 months in the midst of it as he was getting impatient with the repetitive writing of the numbers.  As the other Kumon books do cover the numbers again, I had started him on the other books to reinforce the lower numbers.  The last exercise was skipped, as the other books would repeat on that.


Kumon: My Book of Coloring - At The Zoo

I dug out this book from my stash in January or February, and pondered whether to keep this for Isabelle, or to let Ian practise his colouring skills.  The earlier exercises were very similar to the previous Kumon colouring books, with a small circle, square, or triangle in the middle of the picture for the child to fill in the colour.  Towards the later part of the book, the pictures started to get more complicated with finer details.  We were so happy to see that Ian's colouring skills had vastly improved over the exercises.  He was colouring within the borders most of the time, and getting better at it.  However, it must have been pretty boring for him to do the colouring on his own, as he always requested us to do it together with him.  Sometimes, when his progress was simply too slow (for example, doing only a very small portion of the picture a day), I would sit down and colour together with him and he would do more.  I wondered his fast improvement came from our consistent home-teaching recently, or from his childcare?  Probably, both.


Sticker Activity Book for 4-5 Years Old (EQ)

A very recent purchase from Dangdang.  This series of sticker books has been a favourite of Ian.  He could sit down and do some of the activities on his own, sparing us some time for other things.  He did about 2-3 exercises at one sitting, and hence, the book was completed in about 2 weeks (not doing on a daily basis).