What A Pleasant Surprise!

Daddy Scott came home with a big catch! Obviously Le Xin appeared to be really happy when Daddy pulled out his fish from the purple plastic bag to show it to her. Fish Fish Le Xin tried to say it twice and Daddy Scott taught her to say Yu which is Fish in Mandarin

It was a great learning experience for Le Xin to see a real-life fish right in front of her eyes, the fish was really very very smelly though. I think it will be good if Le Xin can witness how Daddy caught the fish because somehow I don't know if she understands that Daddy actually caught that fish with his fishing rod but I do really love her expression hahaha!

When Daddy caught a fish, everyone is happy! We have an extra dish to eat! Yummy :)

Exploring Letters and Numbers

I recently bought these magnets from Toys R Us at only $16+ for Le Xin to explore letters and numbers. She picks up each magnet and asks me to tell her the name of  the letter or number.

I strongly think that this is a very good manipulative for children to learn about letters and numbers in a fun way. If you buy a few packets, you can even use the letters to form words or even your child's name. I use the magnets to form Le Xin's name since every letter of her name is different!

There are 72 magnets in each pack which consist of  letters (both upper and lower case) as well as numbers from  0 to 9. It is either packed in a blue bag or red bag and I bought the red one. When I opened it, I poured all the magnets into a basket as I think it is easier for Le Xin to pick up the magnets in this way.

While I am cooking lunch or dinner, Le Xin will keep herself busy by picking up the magnets and putting them on the fridge. Once she is done, she will put all the magnets back into the basket and leave it at a corner so that she can explore them again.

Love this idea? You can try it too! Remember simplicity is always good!

Waterplay @ Vivocity!

Le Xin is a huge fan of waterplay......which child doesn't like water?  In the previous waterplay post, I blog about her first water play at home in our service yard and now I would like to share two occasions where we brought Le Xin to Vivocity's Sky Park - Paddling Pool for a big play! Ohh she loves it very much...... in fact, Mummy was having as much fun as her and the two of us really enjoyed soaking our feet in the water!

The first time I brought her to Vivocity was with my Papa and his wife.....whom I called her "Auntie Pin". Daddy Scott was not with us as he went fishing with his friends. The outing turned out really well. Before Le Xin was introduced to the pool site, she was blessed with a present from Wai Gong!

A parrot which can sing and talk to her. She likes to play with this toy very much and one time she even tried to pull the parrot out from the cage.....whahahahha!!!

When we reached the sky park, Auntie Pin and I  tried our best to encourage Le Xin to walk. At 16 months, she stood on the wooden plank and observed her surrounding, then she took her little steps in walking. Aww~ How cute and lovely!  Something interesting must have captured her attention in this photo, just look at her face :)

Le Xin was very careful about her first attempt in trying to soak her feet in the water. In fact, she observed how the other children beside her did it before she tried to "imitate" them.

It didn't take long for her to realise the how fun it was to step on the water. Splash Splosh!!!.....Splash Splosh!!! I tried to make the sound effect while she was stepping. Of course, I have to relate this experience to the bear hunt video that she has  been watching on Youtube! Le Xin are you in the deep cold river? How does it feels like to have your feet soak in the water? Hmmm......Mummy feels quite cold what about you? I asked.

Knowing that I have packed extra clothes for her, I suddenly had an urge to be adventurous so I put her inside the pool. No worries, I tried the shallow area, apart from feeling the texture of the rough ground, she also tried to scoop the water up and observed how the water flowed through her fingers!

She played for a good whole 15 minutes, and my Papa was like telling me again and again not to let Le Xin play for too long in the pool, just in case she catch a cold, so I told her it's was time to stop.

Obviously, she was really mad at me! I could tell she really wanted to be soaked in the pool FOREVER haha but I really had to bring her back which made me felt bad :p

Nonetheless, MummyT2X brought her special weapon; Le Xin's favourite baby bites. She was practically screaming her lungs off, crying and protesting to be back in the pool once again! I tried to reason with her why she had to stop playing. Then I changed her clothes, sanitised her hands and gave her a piece of biscuit.....after that she felt much better! Thank God for the biscuit I brought along haha :)

After having so much fun that day....I decided the next time when we visit the pool again, I seriously have to bring Daddy Scott along and yes I did it! After two months later, in March when Le Xin was 18 months old, my dad drove us to Vivocity again.

This time round, I could see the difference in terms of her confidence level . I guess the previous exposure/experience has helped her to gain insight on what to do. She took her shoes off, placed her feet in the pool and started kicking as soon as she saw the paddling pool.

Once again, she went into the pool too. I like how children couldn't care less when their clothes are wet, they are never bothered or concious about this sort of things. I tried to move her to the deeper area this time, where her two legs could submerge into the water. As she tapped the water, she accidently drank a few gulps of water, I quickly carried her up.....Daddy Scott gave me a nasty look and I knew he was quite mad at me :p Opps....I must be too engaged playing with water as well.....reliving my early childhood experience :)

Then I tried all sort of methods to "trick" her back on "land" haha. Daddy Scott was shocked to see that her diaper had turned into a water ball hahaha Fatty Diaper that's what I call it......I feel that I should have changed her to her swimming costume before her waterplay but anyway the park was actually quite windy that day so I am not sure if wearing a swimming costume was a good idea or not???

Here's Daddy Scott showing his love and care for his little princess.....alright mine too :) Feeding her some pancake while I continue to snap snap snap some photos!

Everyone was quite tired by then......but still how nice it was to go on a family outing together.....I really enjoy spending time with my family especially with my Dad......cause I know he dotes on me and Le Xin like crazy!

Once again, Wai Gong was excited to get Le Xin a present at Mini Toons but Mummy was there to stop him......No more soft toys please haha!

Le Xin spotted the water fountain outside Vivocity and was intrigued by it.... She stood there and observed the water fountain but it was quite late by then and she was feeling quite sleepy actually.....so we decided to put something that we just bought from Daiso into good use

Wow now she really looked like she was enjoying her life as a princess sitting on her mini yellow chair (just $2)

The idea of this post is not only to show how Waterplay has provided Le Xin a sensorial experience. I truly believe it gave her so much happiness and joy as she begins to learn the importance of building relationship with the closest people around her..... HER FAMILY :)

Ending this post with a very sweet video of my own father getting into the water just to play with her grand-daughter.... My father's involvement in my life as a young child has a big impact in whatever I am doing today.....So the bottomline is never undermind your role as a father.....your child looks up to you as a role model and the impact you left on him/her will determine how he/she is going to treat his/her child/children in future :)

Thanks for reading, I hope you like this post as much as I love my family :)

Image of the child: Children Are Curious!

I strongly believe that all children are curious. It is very important for us adults to recognise this and think of  various ways to facilitate their curiosity. Daddy Scott and I brought Le Xin out one day to Bedok Point. She came across this Japanese restaurent and was intrigued by the fake food on display. She pointed at the display and turned back to smile at me.

I waited for a while for her to observe the food before bending down to explain to her. These are fake food Le Xin, they are not the real food that we eat but they look really real isn't it? They put the fake food on display so that we could know what they are selling inside. (Pointing to the restaurent)  Would you like to eat at this restaurent someday?  I told her that the food she was looking at were ramen and japanese wine and suggested that we could try the ramen the next time we visit that place again.

It's common for children to pause and look at something because most of things around them fascinate them. We would usually ask our children to move on because we find that somehow they are slowing us down. However, if we could actually make use of these little opportunities to share with our children on what they are looking at, I believe they will soon become keen learners who are always ready to ask questions and learn. That's because we are modeling this behaviour as a parent too when we show them we are interested in their learning.

Most importantly, value the time spent and have fun!

Waterplay!

Nothing is better than soaking ourselves in a big pool of water! I am very excited because it's Le Xin's first water play. This activity should always be guided because there is always a risk of drowning!

A few days before the water play, I began looking for the swimming costume that my sister gave me. It was passed down from my niece, Tricia. Nonetheless my darling girl could fit into it. That very morning, I got Le Xin all dressed up in her costume and she was delighted to see a big pool of water in the service yard. Yes! We literally have to shift everything out from our yard to place the pool in.

We started throwing balls, containers, lego and small barrels for her to play in the pool. As we were afraid she might fall because she was still crawling at that time, Daddy Scott went into the pool to play with her too. I can't emphasize enough how important it is for fathers to be involved in their children's learning. All mummies should always be grateful and appreciate their hubbies' involvement as well!

While my hubby played with her, I took pictures and videos of them. It was indeed a very fun and meaningful play as she explored the properties of water, like how she could pour water in and out of the containers and how she could tap the water with her hands and kick them with her little feet.

I bought a float for her but the water was too shadow so perhaps I should use the float in a real swimming pool instead. Looking forward to the next water play again. Don't bother to put hot water in the pool, because we did it but the water will never be hot enough because there was just too much cold water in there. Anyway, we reckoned that when everyone is experiencing so much of fun playing, who cares about the temperature of the water.

 Then it was Mummy's turn to jump into the pool to play with Le Xin. Of course I had to! Do you think I was going to miss out all the fun? Haha we had a great time playing with the water, I wished the water level could be higher but we were afraid to waste too much water as well. Touching on that, if you like to try this activity at home, you can promote recycling by using the water to mop the floor or wash the toilet later.

After playing, Le Xin had her shower immediately so it's always good to engage in this activity before you shower your child yeah?

Can't wait for Water Play Part 2........coming soon!

Roll Over

In this photo, Le Xin was trying to roll over to grasp her mini barrel.... She really caught me by surprise, didn't expected that she was able to do so!

 

I guess children do not need motivation when it comes to rolling over, they just somehow know how to do it by themselves when they are ready. It's good to provide them a big and clean mat for them to practise rolling over on the floor. I don't really like rug or carpet kind of materials as I feel that they trap dust and dirt, something that is washable will be good! Place interesting and colourful things near the baby for them to reach out to get. Le Xin enjoys twisting and turning, sometimes she rolls over from tummy to back and back to tummy, she's really cute when she does that! Here's a video of her.....enjoy!

 



Haha fat chubby thighs :p

Crying!

 

I get very distressed everytime Le Xin cries. As much as I understand that crying is an infant's way of communicating, a way to let me know her needs - that she is feeling uncomfortable, but  I still feel panicky each time I see her cry. Many people have given me old wives advice for example "Don't pick up your baby too soon if she is crying, if not you are just spoiling her and she will always demand you to carry her" Another advice "Ohh of course you must pick up your baby if she cries too much,  she will soon develop colic"

 

Alright so which is which? Hmm....I've decided to follow my heart! Sometimes my minds tells me otherwise :p I decided to pick her up to comfort her simply because I do not have the heart to hear her crying painfully as if something terribly wrong was going on. I think that it's really too early to assume that she will be spoilt and allowing her to "cry it out" often makes me feel nothing but distressed and guilty :(

 

Here is something I will do, I will carry her in my arm and start singing "我要向高山举目" haha it calms my heart and then I will keep praying that Le Xin will feel my calmness too!

 

I am glad I follow my heart because according to Ages and Stages by Karen Miller "Babies who are picked up promptly and cared for in a very responsive way turn out to be more content and compliant in the second half of their first year, and later toddlerhood. An adult who responds dependably to a baby's distress is a direct predictor of a child having positive social relationships with other children later on."

 

To some extend I feel that the above statement is very true! Have you read this poem? -> Children Learn What The Live  I am a strong believer of this poem so much so that I even pasted this poem in her room so as to remind myself that I must never ever get irritated when she cries :)

 

Having said that, years of my early childhood teaching experience did not prepare me for this.....a crying infant! I called almost all the mummies in my HP list because Le Xin would cry from 9 plus at night to 6 plus in the morning, yeah I know I am on maternity leave but I still instinctively feel distress!!!

 

救命阿 was all that I could  think of when she started crying, I tried all sorts of method, feeding, changing of  diaper, bathing, burping her, walking with her, rocking, singing, even using a pacifier but that didn't stop her from crying. Strangely, during the day, she just slept quietly like a sleeping beauty but somehow at end night she just start to sing like Stefanie Sun!

 

Once she even screamed so loudly that it soon became quite freaky to us which left Daddy Scott placing a bible below her rocker. We were really at our wits, I finally decided to get one of the Pastor from Church to pray, however,  the crying episodes went on and went on till one fine day, I decided to seek help from my ex-principal. She just gave me one simple advice which was try to keep her awake during the day and kept explaining to her that the sky is bright now time to be awake, the sky is dark now - time to sleep. I was really having doubts but as long as anyone could save me or rather us a desperate me will be more than willing to give it a go and try it out... So I tried and guess what?....she slept perfectly and soundly that night!

 

Phew, finally the crying nightmare was over! So I guess, she just slept too much during the day... Nothing very serious, I still gave her grip water thinking she had colic = -------->Bad Mummy! From time to time, we as parents still suffer from sleepless nights with her unexplainable mad crying especially when she felt sick but couldn't express it.... Ohh well, I guess we can only comfort ourself by saying "Probably it's just (hum-bin) a Hokkien term which means bad dreams.

 

Offering reassurance is the best thing to do, if you can't provide physical assurance at least try to provide a verbal one. I often say Why Le Xin, Mummy can hear you cry, don't be sad....I know you feel tired right? Sometimes it could be that she is hungry, even though it's just my assumption, at least I try my best to let her know that I care about how she feels.....Crying is really part and parcel of a child's life, don't take it too hard on yourself especially when an infant cries, place your child near to you and let her hear your heart beats then pat her gently that's when somehow you two will feel the connection.... CheerZ!