Due to the recent bout of nappy rashes and flu, we had delayed our girl's vaccines until a week after she had recovered from the flu.
At the clinic on 7th January 2012 (6 months and ~1 week), her measurements were:
Weight: 7.2-7.4kg (my postpartum brain is bad)
Height: 69cm
I wonder if Ian's clothes have shrank? Because Isabelle is now wearing about 12M sizes in some of Ian's old clothes, and even some of the Gap/Carters/OshKosh dresses that I had bought for her. However, the percentile charts do not seem to put her height in the top range.
Her weight has been rather stagnant since 5 months, probably because of our recent trip to HK and also because of a poorer appetite when she caught a cough and a flu from her elder brother.
Since some time around hitting the 6th month mark, Isabelle could roll over from both sides, and from tummy to back, and vice versa. And now, she can also crawl, based on GD's definition of crawling (meaning move around on her tummy). Whenever we put her on the LG playmat, she will wriggle her way out of it quickly. And if some object catches her fancy, she will make her way towards the object. Ian has had a "hard time" keeping his slowly deflating blue balloon away from his baby sister. She has also been showing signs of wanting to lift up her butt, and hopefully, she can start creeping soon even though that means more efforts on our part to keep her safe.
She can also sit independently for a few seconds, before she topples over and go back to her crawling position. We are waiting eagerly for the day when she is able to sit more steadily, so that we can leave her on the high chair while dining.
I think that she is a rather quiet baby, as she has not started to make many babbling sounds. However, I noticed that when we forced her to take her medicine until she was crying very badly, she would let out a "ma" sound! Wonder when she could start calling us? I have always thought that girls develop speech much faster than boys.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Ian - Beginning of a new year means beginning of enrichment classes again!
We have not been sending Ian to enrichment classes last year, partly because of my unstable pregnancy and partly because we had wanted to settle down to a more manageable routine with a new baby. However, we felt that his progress had stagnanted after stopping his LNT classes at the end of year 2010. Hence, Hubby also agreed to send him for classes starting this year. After gathering feedbacks from friends, we had shortlisted Chinese, Phonics and Piano classes for Ian.
Chinese @ Tien Hsia
The first of the enrichment classes to commence. The trial lesson was FOC, but we had to pay for the trial if we decided to sign up. The charging part did not make sense to me, but we signed up anyway because Ian said that he wanted to go again when we asked him right after the class. The good thing was that this centre did not make us pay registration fees or deposit. The bad thing was, a few days after the trial, Ian said he did not want to go again and he preferred the art class (that he attended in December) to the Chinese class. Errr... well, since we had signed him up for a term, there was no turning back now. Hubby and I agreed to give him some time in this class and see how things turned out at the end. Our objective was to see some improvement in his poor Chinese. Somehow, we felt that he had no interest in the language as he did not like to read Chinese story books nor speak Mandarin.
Phonics @ Jan & Elly
When I learned, during the first lesson, that the curriculum for learning the sounds of the 26 alphabets would stretch for 6 months, I opted to put Ian through a placement test upon the suggestion of the teacher. Ian passed the test for half the alphabets, and the teacher gave us a few options. One was to let him enjoy the class for the entire 6 months, or to home-tutor him the other half of the alphabets, or to take an intensive course of about 4 lessons to bridge the gap. And he could either join the intermediate class immediately, or wait for the current batch of students in the beginner's class to graduate and join them later. The risk in joining immediately was that he might not be able to catch up, because from their experience, most children start to understand sound blending only around the age of 4.5 years old. Since we felt that it was quite a waste of time to spend 6 months on the letter sounds when he knew at least half of it and could already recognise all the upper and lower cases, we opted for the intensive course. And, we opted to let him join the intermediate class immediately too, since the teacher felt that we could give it a try as he might be able to cope if we did some revision at home. He has since attended one intensive lesson and one intermediate lesson. The teacher's feedback was that he coped pretty well in the intensive lesson and was ok in the intermediate. But it could be due to fatigue from the back-to-back lessons (45 minutes of intensive course, followed by an hour of intermediate lesson). Anyway, there are 3 more of such tiring weekends to go, and then things will be less hectic again when it is only a one-hour lesson.
Piano @ Mandeville
Ian has always shown an interest in music since young, and after asking around, we finally decided to enroll him in this school as they have piano lessons suitable for his age group. It will only commence in February and we hope that he will truely like the class.
English/Mandarin Speech & Drama
The speech and drama classes were conducted in his school by Julia Gabriel. I had intended to sign him up for only the English version, but put a tick by mistake for the Chinese version. Even though I had scribbled away the tick, they had counted it as an interest to enroll in the class. I only got to know about it, after he had attended the first lesson (the school did not collect any payment until I asked about it later). Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because Ian said that he enjoyed both classes. I had been secretly suspecting that he loved to perform, and probably this was the reason that he enjoyed the speech and drama classes now because he would have a lot of chances to perform! Hopefully, this mistake would also spur his interest in Chinese!
Chinese @ Tien Hsia
The first of the enrichment classes to commence. The trial lesson was FOC, but we had to pay for the trial if we decided to sign up. The charging part did not make sense to me, but we signed up anyway because Ian said that he wanted to go again when we asked him right after the class. The good thing was that this centre did not make us pay registration fees or deposit. The bad thing was, a few days after the trial, Ian said he did not want to go again and he preferred the art class (that he attended in December) to the Chinese class. Errr... well, since we had signed him up for a term, there was no turning back now. Hubby and I agreed to give him some time in this class and see how things turned out at the end. Our objective was to see some improvement in his poor Chinese. Somehow, we felt that he had no interest in the language as he did not like to read Chinese story books nor speak Mandarin.
Phonics @ Jan & Elly
When I learned, during the first lesson, that the curriculum for learning the sounds of the 26 alphabets would stretch for 6 months, I opted to put Ian through a placement test upon the suggestion of the teacher. Ian passed the test for half the alphabets, and the teacher gave us a few options. One was to let him enjoy the class for the entire 6 months, or to home-tutor him the other half of the alphabets, or to take an intensive course of about 4 lessons to bridge the gap. And he could either join the intermediate class immediately, or wait for the current batch of students in the beginner's class to graduate and join them later. The risk in joining immediately was that he might not be able to catch up, because from their experience, most children start to understand sound blending only around the age of 4.5 years old. Since we felt that it was quite a waste of time to spend 6 months on the letter sounds when he knew at least half of it and could already recognise all the upper and lower cases, we opted for the intensive course. And, we opted to let him join the intermediate class immediately too, since the teacher felt that we could give it a try as he might be able to cope if we did some revision at home. He has since attended one intensive lesson and one intermediate lesson. The teacher's feedback was that he coped pretty well in the intensive lesson and was ok in the intermediate. But it could be due to fatigue from the back-to-back lessons (45 minutes of intensive course, followed by an hour of intermediate lesson). Anyway, there are 3 more of such tiring weekends to go, and then things will be less hectic again when it is only a one-hour lesson.
Piano @ Mandeville
Ian has always shown an interest in music since young, and after asking around, we finally decided to enroll him in this school as they have piano lessons suitable for his age group. It will only commence in February and we hope that he will truely like the class.
English/Mandarin Speech & Drama
The speech and drama classes were conducted in his school by Julia Gabriel. I had intended to sign him up for only the English version, but put a tick by mistake for the Chinese version. Even though I had scribbled away the tick, they had counted it as an interest to enroll in the class. I only got to know about it, after he had attended the first lesson (the school did not collect any payment until I asked about it later). Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because Ian said that he enjoyed both classes. I had been secretly suspecting that he loved to perform, and probably this was the reason that he enjoyed the speech and drama classes now because he would have a lot of chances to perform! Hopefully, this mistake would also spur his interest in Chinese!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
First Food For Isabelle
This is the first food that we have introduced to Isabelle, at 6 months.
Frisocrem rice cereal, the same that Ian has loved when he is a baby. It is good that we still have a few extra spoons and bowl for weaning, left from Ian's time.
When I first fed this to Isabelle a few days before she turned 6 months, she rejected the taste, and literally blew out the cereal like blowing bubbles. It was daunting and messy. After a few more tries, she has gradually started to accept the taste. Now, she can finish about 1/5 of the bowl. She is a small-eater, and we have accepted this fact.
Frisocrem rice cereal, the same that Ian has loved when he is a baby. It is good that we still have a few extra spoons and bowl for weaning, left from Ian's time.
When I first fed this to Isabelle a few days before she turned 6 months, she rejected the taste, and literally blew out the cereal like blowing bubbles. It was daunting and messy. After a few more tries, she has gradually started to accept the taste. Now, she can finish about 1/5 of the bowl. She is a small-eater, and we have accepted this fact.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Siblings
A rare, nice shot of our 2 babes, with them looking at the camera at the same time...
Ian, 3 year and almost 9 month old.
Isabelle, almost 6 month old.
Ian, 3 year and almost 9 month old.
Isabelle, almost 6 month old.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Ian, Wow, Art
It was an official closure day for Ian's school today, and I had signed him up for a holiday workshop at WowArt Studio, after learning about it from a friend. It was $38 for one lesson (1 hour 15 mins).
Yesterday afternoon, Hubby had brought me around the area for me get a little more familiarized. This morning, after dropping Hubby off at work, the 3 of us headed directly to the studio although it was a little early. It was drizzling, so I could not park at the open carpark outside, even though it was very empty. Instead, I tried to park into the basement carpark. I was not sure whether it was open to visitors, and caught a fellow motorist around to ask. She was not sure whether it was open to guests but she had been parking there for an hour anyway. And the strange thing was, the barrier was up, meaning that she could exit without paying. Anyway, I just parked there as well, and brought the children up.
There were only 3 children in this class, which I liked for the small group. In the class, the teacher taught them how to knead clay, and they had to cut out some shapes using dough cutter. As expected of Ian, after he finished a shape, he would crush it up and do it all over again. The teacher had to remind him not to do that again after he had finished another one. She also helped to put the finished product aside so that he could not do it.
After Ian had settled down in the class, I went out with Isabelle back to the carpark. The carpark attendant was back, and she said she would help me with the barrier later when I needed to exit. There was a Sheng Shiong supermarket and I walked around. It was pretty cold, so I just grabbed myself a bottle of drink and returned to the studio to wait for Ian.
When I returned, Ian had already finished painting the clay model and they were doing free painting. When I saw his "abstract art", I thought that hmm, I had better enrol him in some art classes soon. I guess painting/drawing is not his forte, at this stage.
Here was Ian's finished product, though I was not sure how much of it was done by the teacher...
I had asked him on the way home on the class, and he told me that he liked going there, and asked me to bring him back again.
As for the carpark, the attendant charged me 1 hour 1 minute, $1.90.
We had originally wanted to meet up with Hubby for lunch, but unfortunately, he had been called away for a business lunch. Hence, we bought takeaway lunch from the drive-through Macs. It was Ian's favourite food and he kept bugging me to give him the fries on the way back.
Yesterday afternoon, Hubby had brought me around the area for me get a little more familiarized. This morning, after dropping Hubby off at work, the 3 of us headed directly to the studio although it was a little early. It was drizzling, so I could not park at the open carpark outside, even though it was very empty. Instead, I tried to park into the basement carpark. I was not sure whether it was open to visitors, and caught a fellow motorist around to ask. She was not sure whether it was open to guests but she had been parking there for an hour anyway. And the strange thing was, the barrier was up, meaning that she could exit without paying. Anyway, I just parked there as well, and brought the children up.
There were only 3 children in this class, which I liked for the small group. In the class, the teacher taught them how to knead clay, and they had to cut out some shapes using dough cutter. As expected of Ian, after he finished a shape, he would crush it up and do it all over again. The teacher had to remind him not to do that again after he had finished another one. She also helped to put the finished product aside so that he could not do it.
After Ian had settled down in the class, I went out with Isabelle back to the carpark. The carpark attendant was back, and she said she would help me with the barrier later when I needed to exit. There was a Sheng Shiong supermarket and I walked around. It was pretty cold, so I just grabbed myself a bottle of drink and returned to the studio to wait for Ian.
When I returned, Ian had already finished painting the clay model and they were doing free painting. When I saw his "abstract art", I thought that hmm, I had better enrol him in some art classes soon. I guess painting/drawing is not his forte, at this stage.
Here was Ian's finished product, though I was not sure how much of it was done by the teacher...
I had asked him on the way home on the class, and he told me that he liked going there, and asked me to bring him back again.
As for the carpark, the attendant charged me 1 hour 1 minute, $1.90.
We had originally wanted to meet up with Hubby for lunch, but unfortunately, he had been called away for a business lunch. Hence, we bought takeaway lunch from the drive-through Macs. It was Ian's favourite food and he kept bugging me to give him the fries on the way back.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
HK Trip 2011: Day 5
15 December 2011
We woke up a little earlier today, as we had a reservation at the Enchanted Garden restaurant, to have breakfast with the Disney characters! We arrived punctually at 9.30am, but there was such a long queue that by the time we sat down at a table, it was almost 10am.
Wasting no time, I went to take food for the whole family.
Unfortunately for me, Goofy came to our table while I was away so I did not manage to take a photo with him. I wondered if it was because there were so many guests in the restaurant, it was not exactly easy to get all the choices of food available, as they were always running out. For the price tag, we were quite disappointed with the food, plus taking photos with the characters was a rushed affair with occasional guests from other tables harassing the characters. And, we only saw Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto. That was it! :(
After breakfast, we returned to the room to do a last minute packing.
Isabelle, all ready to go...
After checking out, we still had some time, and decided to explore the hotel.
We had a walk through this maze garden. Ian completed it, with some help from Daddy!
We took a cab to the airport, and was in time for another round of dessert before entering the customs. We wanted to revisit the restaurant that we had eaten at during our last visit, but could not find it. Hence, we settled down at their "foodcourt" for wanton mee, duck rice, and char siew bun.
Until next time, HK!
We woke up a little earlier today, as we had a reservation at the Enchanted Garden restaurant, to have breakfast with the Disney characters! We arrived punctually at 9.30am, but there was such a long queue that by the time we sat down at a table, it was almost 10am.
Wasting no time, I went to take food for the whole family.
Unfortunately for me, Goofy came to our table while I was away so I did not manage to take a photo with him. I wondered if it was because there were so many guests in the restaurant, it was not exactly easy to get all the choices of food available, as they were always running out. For the price tag, we were quite disappointed with the food, plus taking photos with the characters was a rushed affair with occasional guests from other tables harassing the characters. And, we only saw Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto. That was it! :(
After breakfast, we returned to the room to do a last minute packing.
Isabelle, all ready to go...
After checking out, we still had some time, and decided to explore the hotel.
We had a walk through this maze garden. Ian completed it, with some help from Daddy!
We took a cab to the airport, and was in time for another round of dessert before entering the customs. We wanted to revisit the restaurant that we had eaten at during our last visit, but could not find it. Hence, we settled down at their "foodcourt" for wanton mee, duck rice, and char siew bun.
Until next time, HK!
HK Trip 2011: Day 4
14 December 2011
Just like the previous day, we had our brunch at Main Street Corner Cafe first. We ordered the same fried platter, but a different salad. It was a regret though, as we preferred the salad that we had on the previous day. Nevertheless, Ian got to enjoy his favourite fries once again.
We went to have photo taking sessions again, this time with Hubby and Isabelle. While waiting in the queue, we saw the trains that we had missed in our last visit.
While waiting for our turn, Eeyore made a surprise appearance!
After queuing up for almost an hour to take a picture with both Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas costumes, we made our way to Tomorrow Land for a few more rides. I sat down with Isabelle, eating popcorn and drinking soda, while Hubby and Ian went for the rides. Thankfully, it was a cool and cloudy day. I brought Ian for one last Buzz Lightyear ride, before calling it a day at Disneyland.
On our way out, we caught part of the parade. To our surprise, it was quite different from what we had seen last year. There were characters that had not appeared last year.
Our next stop was HarbourCity again. We planned to feast on sushi in HK for one more time, and so our dinner was at Itacho Sushi. We took a while to find the place, but thankfully, there was no queue at that hour.
We had a little feast on the various types of sushi that we seldom got to eat over here. It was delicious!
After dinner, we tried to go to ToysRUs again, keeping fingers crossed that Isabelle would be more cooperative. This time round, we managed to buy a remote control McQueen car for Ian.
On the way out, it was a nice surprise to catch a glimpse of the laser light display. We were not sure if this was the actual show, because it was almost 8.30pm. Moreover, we could not hear any music. But, the lights did move! It was a bonus as we had not planned to see the beautiful Victoria Harbour in this trip.
Back in the hotel room, Isabelle enjoying a hot bath in the baby bath tub.
We bought 3 packets of milk, and some desserts from the famous dessert chain. We let Ian choose his milk first, and coincidentally, we liked his choice the best.
In the order of our preference, from right to left...
Just like the previous day, we had our brunch at Main Street Corner Cafe first. We ordered the same fried platter, but a different salad. It was a regret though, as we preferred the salad that we had on the previous day. Nevertheless, Ian got to enjoy his favourite fries once again.
We went to have photo taking sessions again, this time with Hubby and Isabelle. While waiting in the queue, we saw the trains that we had missed in our last visit.
While waiting for our turn, Eeyore made a surprise appearance!
After queuing up for almost an hour to take a picture with both Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas costumes, we made our way to Tomorrow Land for a few more rides. I sat down with Isabelle, eating popcorn and drinking soda, while Hubby and Ian went for the rides. Thankfully, it was a cool and cloudy day. I brought Ian for one last Buzz Lightyear ride, before calling it a day at Disneyland.
On our way out, we caught part of the parade. To our surprise, it was quite different from what we had seen last year. There were characters that had not appeared last year.
Our next stop was HarbourCity again. We planned to feast on sushi in HK for one more time, and so our dinner was at Itacho Sushi. We took a while to find the place, but thankfully, there was no queue at that hour.
We had a little feast on the various types of sushi that we seldom got to eat over here. It was delicious!
After dinner, we tried to go to ToysRUs again, keeping fingers crossed that Isabelle would be more cooperative. This time round, we managed to buy a remote control McQueen car for Ian.
On the way out, it was a nice surprise to catch a glimpse of the laser light display. We were not sure if this was the actual show, because it was almost 8.30pm. Moreover, we could not hear any music. But, the lights did move! It was a bonus as we had not planned to see the beautiful Victoria Harbour in this trip.
Back in the hotel room, Isabelle enjoying a hot bath in the baby bath tub.
We bought 3 packets of milk, and some desserts from the famous dessert chain. We let Ian choose his milk first, and coincidentally, we liked his choice the best.
In the order of our preference, from right to left...
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