Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Check out our latest video clip of Anya singing her own little version of ‘Row row row your boat’!

She was trying to sing in a slightly ‘slow motion’ mode, but when things didn’t turn out ‘quite right’, she kinda found her own ways of ending the song! Hehe.

Click here to view the clip!

Enjoy!

As part of our ‘school holiday activities’ for the kids, we went to check out Explorer Kid at Downtown East today with a few friends and their kids!

It’s basically an indoor play area where there’re two ball-play corners (for toddlers and bigger kids) and a ‘maze’. And with nets covering all sides of the maze, we parents need not worry about anyone ‘falling out’ as the kids climb, slide and jump all over!

[Can you spot Vai in the photo above? Hehe. He’s wearing a blue top]

At first Anya went on exploring the maze with her friend, 5-year-old Eric. But when she reached the top where she needed to go down the rather long and steep slide, she panicked, went looking for me and not knowing how to go out of the maze, she cried and went ‘Mommy! Mommy!’ Hehe. My girlie girl.

Vai seemed happy with the place though. He climbed, slid, bounced away and went on the balancing rope too.

We were there for an hour – it’s an ‘hourly’ charge – and had our lunch together at KFC nearby.

And of coure it was pouring, again. But since we’re all indoors this time round, it’s not so bad.

As to the question ‘ will we visit this place again?’, well I guess we will. I got quite a bit of an exercise too from exploring the maze with Vai!

BUT, I’d most likely choose a weekday and avoid school holiday periods! It was just rather crowded today. With big boys and girls running and playing all over the place (and inside the maze!), I don’t quite feel comfortable, for the smaller kids’ sake, I mean.

Anyway. We had fun today!

PS: Oh btw, if you plan to visit the place, don’t forget to bring along your socks! You must wear them!

Anya’s one-week school holiday is here. And apparently so is the rain!

It’s just been raining SO frequently everyday.

Hubby and I made plans to visit the Zoo today with some friends and their kids too, and despite the obvious dark clouds and drizzles, we still went, thinking that perhaps it won’t be so bad when we’re there.

And we were so wrong.

We were there for a good 6 hours and spent most of our time under the shelter at ‘Australian Outback’, Elephants of Asia, Cafe and Reptile Garden!

We spent so much time at each of the exhibits that the kids (errr … Vai in particular) started to entertain themselves with whatever they found ‘interesting’.

He went up and down the wooden stairs, ‘re-positioned’ the recycling bins at the Cafe, jumped on water puddles, checked out the rainwater, THEN stooped and purposely positioned his head right under the pouring drips!

[Good thing I brought extra clothes!]

Really. It was pouring so bad that my hubby took off his shoes and went barefeet when he went to buy some raincoats for us.

[Zoo’s green ponchos are selling at only $3 at the main entrance, btw!]

Oh well.

By the time we got home, we’re slightly drenched and simply tired.

And since we spent quite a lot on its entrance fee (being a non-member) and NOT see much at all, I’d like to think of this trip as a chance to contribute towards animal conservation!

Okay, it wasn’t an intentional donation, but I do like animals (err … except for reptiles!) and at least by thinking of it this way I don’t feel like I’ve been ripped off or something.

Ah. What a day.

On Friday, 7 March :

Now that Anya has started nursery, we thought it’d be nice to share our thanksgiving with her school friends too.

And so we had a simple cake-cutting celebration today, which happened to be the very last day of school before everyone’s one-week school holiday started!

Quite a nice way to end the first school term!

On Saturday, 8 March :

12.30 pm: Lunch with hubby’s brother and his friend

2pm: Went to a friend’s church wedding

5pm: Went to Vivo City with another family, took the Sentosa Express Monorail together and had some sandplay fun at Siloso Beach, Sentosa!

We went to see ‘Songs of the sea‘ water fountain performance at Sentosa too, but apparently the kids didn’t like it! I guess, the songs and overall atmosphere was sort of too spooky for them.

[For $6 per person, I personally think it’s a pretty good show!]

Oh btw, Vai was half-crying when we let him go on the sand. He stiffened and gave me a desperate ‘pick me up now coz I have funny things in between my toes’ look!

But, after I gave him a spoon and his truck, he went on playing with sand happily within five minutes or so!

Oh well. I guess, some kids just need a bit more time to warm up to a new sensorial experience.

On Sunday, 9 March:

And today, we had a nice little gathering with Anya’s sunday school friends!

Finally, I’d really like to say thank you for all the warm birthday wishes and birthday gifts we’ve received! We appreciate it all!

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

For Anya’s birthday, her dear friend Hans – who’s moved to Sydney some 1.5 years ago – gave her a really cute drawing!

Apparently, it’s a picture of them both when they’ve grown up!

Aaawwww ….

We can’t thank God enough for the many blessings HE has showered upon our little girl (and us parents) over the past four years.

For watching over her,
as we parents are never capable of protecting our kids 24/7

For giving her (and every one of us) unique talents and characters,
so we all can treasure and see what a special individual she really is

For giving us the privilege to raise her up,
as we’re not perfect parents and are in fact far from capable to teach and educate our kids unless HE himself gives us the opportunity and the much needed wisdom, strength and patience to do so

It’s been a blessed four year journey.

I guess it’s kind of a universal thing.

Bring a toddler to a barber or a hairdresser and he’ll (very most likely) complain, wail or simply refuse to sit still.

And really, who can blame them if they feel so completely insecure about the weird buzzing sound of the razor or the shiny scissors snip-snapping away that close to their head!

For my case, I have always been my two kids’ hairdresser. And with zero hair-cutting experience, Anya and Vai are my wonderful guinea pigs. Hehe.

During the ‘cutting process’, Anya would be sitting on the toilet (on the covered seat), playing with her buckets and all. As for Vai, he’d be sitting on the bathroom floor, playing with his little bowls, spoons, funnels, bottles, etc – while I trim his hair.

[Since they’re not yet in their teens – who’ll by then most likely REFUSE my hair-cutting offer! – they’ve always been happy with whatever look they end up with! *batting eyelashes*]

Anyway.

Today, I tried something different.

I brought Vai to a nearby ‘home saloon’ whom my friend has recommended.

And yup, I ended up carrying him during the shaving and cutting process. We stood by the closed window and I had to enthusiastically describe EVERYTHING to keep him distracted.

It was like,

LOOK! LOOK AT THE BIRDS! WOW! CAN YOU SEE THEM! OH LOOK, THEY’RE FLYING AWAY! BYE BYE BIRDS! OH LOOK LOOK! THAT’S THE BUS! OH OH, THAT’S A YELLOW TAXI AND A BLACK CAR! OH WOW, THERE’S A CRANE! AND LOOK AT THE MEN! THEY’RE WORKING AND THE CRANE IS MOVING SLOWLY! …

I got bits and pieces of Vai’s hair on me, and he cried and complained towards the end too!

But hey, apart from the slightly uneven cut at the side, I think the nice lady did a pretty good job, considering how Vai kept moving his body and head too!

And oh, it was only FOUR bucks!

We both went home happy and satisfied.

…

If you’d like to read a bit more about cutting your toddler’s hair, here are some useful links I came across:

>> What can I do to make toddler haircuts less traumatic?

>> Helping your toddler at haircut time

>> Tips for parents: getting your toddler or child to sit still during a haircut

In his earlier days:

– Vai would cry and complain, look away, swat my spoon, blow his food, poke and press the meals in his bowl and eat them off his hands, then wipe them all over his face, hair and of course, the baby chair!

– When at home, he’d wear only his diapers (and his bib) during mealtimes and I’d lift him off his babychair and give the food-covered-baby a thorough shower immediately afterwards

– He’d need to be doing something during his mealtime (eg. play with toys) if I wanted to get any food into his mouth, that is

– He’d want to feed himself (read: play with his food using his hands!), but since it made feeding him somewhat a little better when he did so, I just let him (and worry about his oily fingers later)

Note: Photos of how mealtimes were very messy are in the April 2007 archive, like this one.

Nowadays:

– Vai mostly eats 30% – 80% (depending on his mood) of his meal by himself

– He’d use a big spoon, and sometimes lift his food off the bowl with his hands too

. When at home, I’d usually be having my meals too next to him and occasionally help spoonfeed him

– Most of the time, Vai still needs to be doing something during his mealtime (eg. stack toys or watch his DVD), otherwise he’d want to get off his chair towards the end, before his meal is done

– There are times when he really wants to get off his seat though he’s only eaten 50% of his meal. And if I really can’t get him to eat anymore, I’d just shrug and let him go (It’s less ‘mealtime stress’ for me this way, and anyway I know he’d ask for food later on when he’s hungry)

– Mealtimes are still messy (ie. bits of food still goes here and there, especially below the chair!), and so spreading sheets of newspaper below his seat at home has been such a great help! Less mopping and sweeping for me!

…

Things have not been so smooth sailing when it comes to feeding this little guy. Right until today.

But I know I need to learn and appreciate how at least there’s been encouraging progress (read: rather than focus only on the ‘difficult’ part of the process and discourage myself endlessly).

And really, after seeing those rather shocking earlier-day-photos, how can I not be thankful for how things are going nowadays? Hehe.