Educational Toys Part II

We give baby the board to keep her busy for a while

Starts displaying her talent ... see how she holds the pen ... like caligraphy! LOL

Looks very serious ...

Mommy, what do you think of my picture?

I'm not so good at this la ~~ play play only ~~

Ooooh, you really think i am picasso?!

Read the baby book and one of the developmental milestone around this age is SCRIBBLE. Certainly i can't risk my shiny cream tiles and pearly white walls by allowing the little explorer to start displaying creativity.

Thus i went to hunt around for a draw&erase board. Found that there are so many kinds on the market - there are the $10 ones, and even $50 kinds that make sounds and read words!! I wasn't sure if baby would be interested (remember she almost never liked any toy i bought), so decided the cheapest was the best bet hehe ^_^

Got a $10.90 drawing board with two chops - a fairly decent size for that price. To my pleasure, baby really loved the board! It's almost impossible to see her staying put for a teeny weeny moment, but we've found that we could actually stretch her attention span a little bit using this gadget! heheeee ~~ always great to keep her busy ~~~

I never actually taught baby how to write, but it seemed such a natural instinct to pick up the pen and just start scribbling! How wonderful is the creation of God! :)

Educational Toys

We have a big tub of toys collected over the year with gifts from family, hand-me-downs from friends, and occassionally new ones we get on sale. But i've noticed that wawa is always on the prowl for "new" and "real" things to play with e.g. my kitchen cabinet with the cooking paraphernalia, or tv console with all the interesting wires, even the water spray inside the toilet!

So for a long time, i've kind of given up on buying any toys. I just try to find something that we use around the house, safe for baby to play with, and just toss it to her every now and then to keep her occupied.

Once i was at mom's place, and her fridge is richly decorated with magnets of all sorts. There is the dog from malaysia, the cat from bangkok, the strawberry from cameron, the dancing lady from korea etc. They totally captivated wawa's attention! I would teach her the name for each magnet, and when i say give me the dog, she would pluck it out, and stick it back to the fridge. I realized this could be a great way to teach wawa new words!

So i was on a hunt for cheap magnets. First stop, naturally daiso ^_^ Bought this white board, magnetic alphabets and numbers. Wawa really enjoyed playing with them! I put them into a box, she would take them out, stick them on, take them down, and i'm happy it does keep her busy for a while. Maid says she has taught baby and she recognizes A, B, C. Haha i haven't tested her but i'm quite doubtful she knows!?!

I feel that this is a fun way for baby to learn. Now i'm trying to look around for cheap picture magnets. Mommy frens, consider this approach for learning, but exercise great caution if your child loves to put things into the mouth as these can be serious choking hazards.

Enjoy! ~

I am 15 months old!

In the past month, baby has formally graduated from being a crawler to a walker/runner. If all of us were at home, the little toddler would walk to the living room where daddy might be watching national geographic; then to the study where mummy is working on the laptop; then to the kitchen to find her auntie catching up on some chores; and then back to the living room, the study, the kitchen .... the routine repeats itself countless times but it doesn't seem to bother her the least :) She just looks busy all the time LOL

Baby has also developed a better ability of thought processing in that she responds to your questions with a definitely nod or profuse shaking of head. Do you want water? She nods and points to her bottle. Let's go to sleep now. She shakes her head and hand and says something that resembles BU YAO. If we should insist, be prepared for the siren wails ^_^ She seems to understand most of the things we tell and ask her, and is still a big copy cat at most times. When i pretend to drink from an empty cup, she will make the same "shrooop" sound and drink from it too!

PA PA PA PA is her favourite phrase. Talk about parental jealousy *rolls eyes* LOL. Baby says PAPA all the time. In the morning when she wakes up, she will say something like BAO BAO. Sometimes she can also say bo, which could mean grandma POPO, or ball. MA MI is already an acquired term, but comes on only where she is in distress, mostly in teary situations. Another word is mum mum, which means eating. At all other times, it is a melodious assortment of AI-YA-WA-MA-MI-SH-DA-TA which nevertheless sound pleasing to us albeit nonsensical.

Her favourite gadget is THE PHONE. Carries our home cordless phone around like a boss with a tai-gor-tai. Keeps pushing it to me or the maid and keeps saying PA PA PA. We will help her make the call to papa, and she will talk on the phone with papa. Sometimes when i call home from the office, baby will also "chat" with me over the phone. It's hilarious!

I thoroughly enjoy this stage of baby's growth as she's so fun to play with, getting responsive, and developing so much into a character which she calls her own. An additional benefit is the excitement i get from dolling her up given that she can now walk around and showcase the latest fashion piece! haha ~~~

How wonderful to have a child, and a bubbly cheerful lovely daughter at that! ~~~

CNY = RED

Happy happy first day of CNY :)

Where is papa and mama?

Wish it was "I" who fitted so nicely into a cheong sam ...

To many people, RED is a definite must for CNY. Especially on the first day, we must wear like a big red ang bao LOL ~~

My aunt bought this set of traditional red baby cheong sam for wawa. Frankly, i love it a lot as baby looks so cute in it! But i was hesitant to buy it coz i think it would be only worn on CNY. Still, my doting aunt loved my baby so much and splurged on this lovely dress. It also came with matching bubble shorts! NICEEEE ~~~

Blessed New Year!

Reunion dinner - i looooveee steamboat!!

I have always looked forward to the Chinese New Year, a time where we'll have new clothes, lots of food and goodies, and above all HONG BAOs!!

Since accepting the Lord, the New Year has a whole new significance for me. The bible also talks about the new year ...

The Passover is the first holiday the Israelites celebrate in the year. It commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. On the following day, they celebrate the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. For 7 days, the Israelites were to eat unleavened bread. This bread, made without yeast, represents how the Lord brought them out of Egypt in haste. In Scripture, leaven (yeast) also represents sin. Eating unleavened bread is symbolic to removing all sin and wickedness. The third day, they celebrate the Festival of Firstfruits, where the people offered the firstfruits of barley to the Lord as an act of dedicating the harvest to him.

Let us remember God’s goodness and deliverance in the past year, resolve to remove sin from our hearts and fully dedicate ourselves to him in the new year!

2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!”

Lamentations 3:23 “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

We do not need to wait for Chinese New Year to feel “new”. In fact, the bible tells us that as long as we have Christ in us, we are being made anew! An encouraging promise from God is that His mercies for us are also new every morning. What we fail to accomplish yesterday, we can start anew today. And the Lord is faithful to give us strength as we continue to trust Him and seek Him. What a faithful and mighty God!

Blessed new year, and may the Lord’s unfailing love rest upon you as you put your hope in Him! (Psalm 33:22)

I am 14 months old!

The past month has been an exciting time. I'm really enjoying every wee bit of this first golden year before charis hits "terrible two".

Major achievements:

1. Finally finally finally finally finally she has TWO TEETH! hahaha ~~~ This is certainly the most major of all major achievements! After much prayer by all in the family, the tooth fairy decides to visit! We spot a glimpse of two pearly whites sprouting from the bottom. Very thankful to God that baby did not experience much discomfort. May more and more teeth come soon! ~~

2. She could walk much better now on her own. I won't say she is totally independent, but she now likes to move about as if her soles are itchy. She has graduated from walking in a straight line to turning around in circles.

3. Finger pointing. Oooh she's becoming an expert at this. Ask her where is papa? She points. Mama? She points. Door? Points. Piano? Points. Apple? Points. Orange? Points. Car? Points ....... The embarassing part is, she does all with her middle finger!??

I find that children at this age has an enormous capacity for learning. Tell them a word a couple of times, they can remember it and point to that object the next time you say it. So we become very careful now to speak proper english because the baby will imitate everything and anything! It's true that children makes us better persons!

Our wish now is that baby can say GONG XI and HONG BAO in time for CNY! LOL ~~~~

Haircut

Mama my hair is too long!! I have no more eyebrows!

Director's cut ... looks pro right? Woahaha ~~

Final touches .. thanks to the pear!

Oooh all the hair is on my face!

Mama are we done? Heee ...

Ta-da! Presenting the supermodel with the zig-zag hair! YAY!

It would be interesting to understand how baby hair grows.

Charis' fringe grows very quickly and becomes a nuisance as they poke into her eyes, while the rest of the head especially the ends behind hardly grew an inch over the year!?

I almost wished her hair would grow longer if i pulled them each day. The thought of my cutey little princess having long hair donning a pinky pom-pom dress makes me drool with anticipation. When, just when will that day ever come??

Well, dreams aside ^_^ We gotta fix what's bothering her right now. I can't bear to part with $5 (maybe $10 huh?) just to let the neighbourhood auntie shred a few strands. That would work out to be more expensive than MY haircut!

So today is the day, where the mom also becomes the hair stylist, in addition to her washer, cooker, sleep patter etc role. I've always cut my own fringe and gotten compliments, so why not my baby's? Hee hee ...

It wasn't as easy as i had imagined. Baby twisted and turned and my scissors hardly stayed at the same spot for more than a second. Finally we got her attention on a pear and that gave me just a wee bit more time to tidy up the mess.

Oki, you tell me how she looks now :)