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!