TWO! - The Celebration

It was really simple this year.

No fancy.

No fanfare.

Just some balloons from Daiso, a banner from last year which we didn't use, and poster pages from this mook that I saved five years ago.

I stuck three of the pages over our existing frames in the dining room, with blu-tack so that they are easy to remove. But they are still there because these drawings brighten the area, and are a nice change to our original 'artwork'. 

The universe is pretty amazing - the way it has things planned. I had wanted to rush home to do up some hanging Suzy's zoo garland so that J's surprise can start the moment she's at the door. But on the way home from the wedding lunch (which was supposed to be J's birthday experience), I walked past a party store and picked up these streamers instead. She was indeed surprised. I hope I'll never forget the way she looks at the streamers and the way she gasps "de..co..ra..tions..!" 

My sister was available that evening too (I appreciate that both brother-in-law and her came over despite it being bil's birthday too!) and she came over with what J always wanted - helium balloons. In her favourite character. The delight, priceless.

We had a really tiny cake, but it must be the sweetest treat I've ever tasted this year.

*****

We agreed on giving J a birthday experience instead of throwing a huge party. 

It was supposed to be my dear friend's wedding lunch this year but it has been proven that it will be challenging for J to sit through the banquet.

I did plan some before and after her birthday, though.

The day before J's birthday, we visited S.E.A Aquarium with a little friend. Some trick-or-treating took place. We hugged jack-o-lanterns, and waved to skeletons. It was fun to watch the two littles holding each other like they are the best of pals, even though this was only the third time they met. (The first two meetings were brief.)

The day after J's birthday was Daddy's birthday, so we went for a good dinner and J got to eat adult food. Two is a pretty good age. I've not seen her this quiet when we are out dining.

Adult food is great. Look at how her face lights up at the sight of "my piz-sa".

That's rosti in her bowl. 

It was really rather simple this year.
We might have bent the party rules a little by having a mini party but little one is really happy.
She still looks at her birthday videos fondly - the one where she blew the candles (with our help).
And that's all that matters.

$3 easy DIY Light Table/Box

Yup. Only $3.

Very affordable, huh?

Here's the story.

I've been toying with the idea of a light table because it looks really fun and I would like to play with one.

I do not intend to purchase one due to its price tag and I cannot be sure that J would want to play with it for a long time. There are quite a few tutorials I found online for DIY ones but most required clear boxes which I will have to purchase. I came across one which explained the use of paper and aluminium foil in the project - to diffuse the light. Then I remembered that I have a TROFAST at home. Since that is already translucent, it could probably work?

It did! 

This 'light table/box" turns out to be really easy to make and it requires only two items, one of which I believe most of us already own.
Ready?

1. TROFAST storage box ($3, IKEA)

This one. The multi functional TROFAST storage box.


2. A smartphone, with a torch function
I noticed that using my own phone forces me to disconnect while I'm playing with J, which is a good thing! She did try to lift the box to retrieve the phone towards the end though.

Simply activate the torch on your smartphone and pop the TROFAST over your phone.
That's it!

Disclaimer: This is not a perfect light table since the corners aren't as brightly lit. But this would suffice if you just want to assess a child's response towards a light table before you commit to one. Or if your child has a really short attention span like mine and wouldn't spend more than 10 minutes playing with it each time. 

I like the TROFAST for its size. It isn't huge but provides a decent play area. Its raised sides also help prevent objects like marbles and pebbles from rolling off.

There's bright spot in the photo but it isn't that obvious in reality. Bonus if you have two smartphones to lay side by side because that gives a better diffusion of light. (Go take the phone away from Daddy now. Family bonding!)

The torch wasn't the first light source I first experimented with.

I used this - a frosted LED globe from my mum's place.

It doesn't give an even distribution of the light (obviously) and is constantly changing colour. But we discovered that the lights somehow turned out rather galactic and would work well for any space-themed play. So this is a keeper.

I tried it out with DAISO's LED light as well but the ring of bright spots turned out to be too obvious to me. Okay for a light table too and they would be perfect for a dot-themed activity.

I really ran out of ideas to do on stay-in-hazy days.

Can't wait to head out!

* I googled "trofast light table" after my little experiment and realised that the TROFAST is really quite popular as light table!

Linking up with:

Ocean Week - The rest of the week

It is really a bad idea trying to document our activities daily.
I went to bed early the night of Day 3 to save up as much energy as I can for The Big Day, and spent the next few days recovering from the running around at the aquarium.

But anyway, here's the rest of Ocean Week.


DAY 3
It was a day of realisation so we ended after one activity.

I found this idea from Pinterest - footprint starfish, but didn't want to risk J decorating my mum's floor, so I changed it to handprint instead. Pretty naive of me to think that handprints would end up looking like starfish.

J was apprehensive initially when grandma painted her hands, but quickly got used to it and started to insist that she paint her hands on her own. Even though the painting didn't resemble starfishes, it ended up looking like sea jellies when inverted.

We had a lot of paint left so we went on to stamp vegetables instead.

And... that is all the ocean-related activities we did. I stopped because I realised I was trying too hard to capture the moment with my camera, up to the point that I was interrupting J. She got distracted upon seeing my phone so on second thoughts, that's probably what made her stop. 

The whole afternoon, I reflected. Do I want to be so focused about capturing the moment with the camera? Or should I do so with my heart. J didn't seem as enthusiastic in the activities either so should I still attempt structured activities? I don't have an answer yet.

Because I was so caught up in my thoughts, we allowed J to have a lot of unstructured play that day. She did amazing. 

She helped with the clean clothes. She pulled out the toy box and played with the little toys that were from her uncle's time. She swept the floors when my mum was sweeping. 

She didn't ask to be entertained. But at the same time, she's learning.

Note to self: I'd still like to continue with themed activities but I probably not be too rigid about it and expect things to go as planned. Maybe I should try to take her cue and facilitate her learning instead of trying to 'teach' her.

Day 4

The big day we hit the aquarium! 

What's better than seeing those fishes and sea creatures in person?

We were lucky to see the dolphins this time. We've been there for three times but have never had luck with the dolphins! Read more about it here. :)

Day 5

We are all exhausted from the trip the day before. Maybe, except J.
I attempted to make a jellyfish from this activity sheet we got at the aquarium.
It got destroyed even before we started. Was I even surprised?

When I was about to give up doing ocean-themed activities altogether, my dad decided that it was time to show J the starfruits he brought home that day. Before they rot.

So, J

1.  felt the smooth texture on the starfruit (she sniffed it the day my dad brought it home).

2. saw that the cross-section of the starfruit is, well, a star (we tried explaining that to her, not sure if she got it), and

3. did some starfruit painting.

The starfruit prints are perfect as sea stars so I gave her some blues and greens to paint an ocean first.

J really doesn't like to paint over the entire piece of paper.

We didn't manage to do as many activities as I wished to during this week but I did discovered something about the way I tried to carry out the activities and J's learning style. Let's leave that for another post.

Let me go dream about future aquarium visits now that we have the annual pass.



Here's what we did prior...

Preparation and Book List

Ocean Week - Day 1

Ocean Week - Day 2

To S.E.A. Aquarium we go!

Aquarium (Ocean) Week

Aquarium (Ocean) Week begins!

This is our first week of themed activities and I'm so excited about it! I've been preparing it for days so I'm really hoping that J would enjoy them.

I'm not sure if there is going to be much learning but my main objective is to let J have some fun and see if she remembers anything from her last aquarium trip. She was 17-months-old then and was fascinated with the fishes so I'd love to see how it has changed over these few months.

If she can revise concepts like "big, small, bright, dark", or identify some of the sea creatures, OR finally get the colour "blue" and not call it orange, that's even better!

:: Books ::

Prior to this, I've never borrowed books purposefully whenever I go to the library with J. We usually let her pick out what she wants. If she like a particular series, we will look for other books in that series and that's about it.

This time, I scoured the library for ocean themed BOARDbooks. 

I didn't dare to pick out paperbacks or hardcovers in case J damages them. She usually quite gentle with the books, but accidents happen.

I found only four of them but these four are good.

Hide-and-seek, Pout-Pout Fish (by Deborah Diesen) and I Explore Under the Sea (by Dr Mike Goldsmith) complements the aquarium trip best.

Hide-and-seek, Pout-Pout Fish is a lift-a-flap book that exposes children to the various marine creatures like the anglerfish, but in rather adorable illustrations. It doesn't use the actual names of the sea creatures, so the anglerfish is Mr Lantern and the octopus is Mr Eight. But that's fine though since now J knows that there's a fish with a lantern on its head. She can learn the proper terms later. (and the illustrations are way cuter than the actual anglerfish.)

I like that I Explore Under the Sea contains more information about the ocean that is simple for children to understand, even though it does contain a non-fiction twist at the end. I also like that the sea creatures are labelled and half of what is mentioned in the book can be found in our aquarium. 

J has been asking to read these two books quite a lot so here's hoping that she would find some of the sea creatures familiar when we visit the aquarium.

We haven't managed to finish Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse with J yet but I love the story and am considering adding it to our collection. 

Now this one. This is a surprise find and other than the fact that it has got fishes and pictures of the ocean, it does not quite go well with what we are doing. BUT... ! Only One You by Linda Kranz is a book with beautiful messages, and I think even teens and adults should read it. I'm buying this for J when she grows older.

:: Introduction Activity ::

This is an activity inspired by J.

She asked to "pretend swimming" in the playroom one day, so I thought "Why not pretend we are under the sea?" I was trying to find a way to keep her occupied anyway so I took out my drawing pad and I drew some pictures that I plan to stick on the wall. I made it a colouring activity for her but as you can see, it didn't turn out so well. She ended up doodling instead.

She held this piece up and declared...

... "Mama!! Jellyfish!!"

Pretty close.

Update:

I left the colouring sheets as-is so that she can go back to it whenever she wants. 

She doesn't seem to be interested.

So I place the fish, which I had coloured in, on the slot on her tray so that it works as a reference. She decided to colour the fish instead and ended up decorating my walls.

This introduction doesn't seem to pique her interest as much as I thought it was.

Perhaps, it's time to try something else.

And here's the activities for the week.

Ocean Week - Day 1

Ocean Week - Day 2

Ocean Week - The rest of the week

To S.E.A. Aquarium we go!

Bay Window Makeover

My biggest new-homeowner-boo-boo was to NOT engage a contractor right at the start.

We were so confident that we could do it ourselves.

"Paint the walls? We are going to choose white anyway. Let's leave it!"

"We HAVE to paint it? Okay! We'll do it! "

"Cupboards? Get the company that does only the cupboards!"

Then we started on one wall and almost died. So, we caved in and engaged a contractor.

Because of all the money already spent, we kept the renovations simple and when the contractor put up my master bedroom wardrobe, he asked about our bay window and horror of horrors, I forgot about it. 

"You could put wood over it, you know? So that it's easier to clean."

But the wardrobes were up and it's a tad late and challenging to put up the wood up after that, so we left it.

For the two to three years I've stayed on the new home, I've NEVER touched the bay window, much less sit on it. I'm not sure if it's the dust or the paint, it's just so powdery.

Fast forward to start of the year, I found some adhesive sheets in Daiso. They are meant to stuck on the front of drawers, it seems. But I thought they'll be perfect for my bay window. 

*

J is at grandma's so the afternoon right after my doctor's appointment is dedicated to spring cleaning. The blackout lining on my curtains have somehow disintegrated and it's gross, really. I chucked those away and cleaned the windows. Gosh. But I'm glad I did it.

It was also the perfect time to do up the bay window. So, I did.

These adhesive sheets are quite easy to stick on, but they smell a lot like masking tape so I'm pretty sure they are not non-toxic. (Just can't bring myself to say that they are possibly toxic...)

It took me 8 sheets and close to an hour to finish the the entire bay window. That's $16.

And I'm sitting ON the bay window as I type this.

There's still lots to do, like putting up the new curtains, changing the sheets and mopping the floor.

But let me just enjoy the bay window for a little while more. Perhaps, have a mug of Milo by the window. ;)

Linking up with:

Santa "Corr"

Hi, meet Corr.

Santa has a new name because J says it that way.

Corr is saved from an old Christmas wrapping paper that was kept safely in my wrapping paper stash.

I couldn't bear to throw it away after I unwrapped J's only Christmas present last year.

(I knew I'd have use for it one day!)

J spotted it among the other wrapping paper and kept poking at it, going "Corr. Corr."

I think she meant "Santa Claus"?

She seemed to take an interest in the penguin too so in order to make her go to bed, I promise I'll cut them out for her.

I thought I should laminate these pieces to prolong their lifespan a little. But because I made the promise a little too quickly, and I had no laminator at home, it was an opportunity to try out an idea I spotted on Pinterest -- use the iron!

It worked!

Not too great as compared to using a proper laminator, but it worked.

So here's Corr and his pals!

*Laminating using an iron is fun, but not too fun when you have a deck of flash cards to go through.

I had to experiment with mine a couple of times on various settings.

But I did discover that 

1. The iron shouldn't be too hot. (I melted a sleeve) Common sense but somehow it happens.

2. Make sure you are using cotton. I thought I was when I first used my old pajamas, but it melted right through, with the sleeves.

3. Switch off the steam function. I didn't initially and it turned out all bubbly inside.

Hello, I am a SAHM

I used to think that I may be embarrassed by this. Because I get the idea that people would cringe once they find out. It's not a glamourous job after all. 

Is it even a job? 

It certainly isn't something my (extended) family would expect me to do. You do have a degree, girl. I did get a few shocked looks after they heard my decision. Even my dad questioned if it was a good move on my part.

But two years ago, when I told my very wise boss that I'm quitting to do something not ambitious at all - "I want to be a stay-at-home-mom eventually." He said this to me -

"This is not having no ambition. This is another kind of ambition, and I think it's noble."

He changed my views about what others may think of SAHM-hood. In fact, now I realise that it doesn't matter how others look at me because I'm doing what I feel is important to me. But he did gave me the confidence booster and now I can hold my head high and say,

"Hello, my name is Annabelle. And I'm a stay-at-home-mom."

" I work a 24/7 shift and I can't tell you how much I earn because I'm not paid in cash.

Instead I'm paid in something even better - sweaty palms, saliva, cries, smiles, cuddles and kisses.

I may be poorer (financially), but I feel richer at the same time. 

My heart is full.

I'm a stay-at-home-mom and I'm proud of it. "

* This post is dedicated to my very wise ex-boss, who is very wise in many ways.

** It's meant to be posted on 4th of July because that is the day I left my job two years ago. I left a calling for another calling. (Does this even make sense?)

But I was out with a dear friend and we enjoyed ourselves so much.

Teething.

I wrote this post a few days ago but took it down when we went to the doctor's and she said that Lil' J was having a virus. 

A visit to the doctor's again yesterday confirms that I should be human teether no more! 

I'm not sure if this is an appropriate title because I'm not even certain that Lil' J is teething.

But she's been extra clingy these days.

She used to be okay playing on her own in the playpen. And when she felt lonely, all she needed was to know that she's not alone in the house. These couple of days, she cries and stops only when she's being held. She hates to be in cradle position though.

We thought that that's just her growing up. You know, developing those would-be toddler tantrums, or simply whining for attention. So on some days, she gets scolded or we leave her to cry for a while.

This morning, she gave me 4 soiled diapers, and she was behaving strangely. She would bite her gums so tightly that her tiny body shakes. I thought it was fits but know it isn't after she laughs when I say "Don't do that!"

And she gave a grunt so loud that she frightened herself to tears. 

 I called my mum for advice and she said Lil' J could be teething. I looked up BabyCenter and this is what I got.

Some symptoms of teething

Trying to bite,suck, chew on anything she can get her hands on. Check.

Irritability. Check.

Drooling. Check.

Rubbing her face.

Difficulty sleeping.

Grabbing her ears.

Check. Check. Check.

I feel so guilty about scolding this morning when she kept crying and I thought it was just a temper tantrum. Imagine the discomfort if it really is teething. 

Poor baby.

If this is a preview of what teething is like, then I foresee exciting times ahead until all her pearly whites surface.

At times like this, I'm glad I chose to be a SAHM. I want to be the one going through my kid's tough times with her.

Tis the season to be jolly

It's the season of glitter and sparkles!

Only that now with Lil' J in the house, my parents and hubby has put a ban on all things glittery.

Nonetheless, they helped me put up the tree so that I actually do have a tree this year.

While everyone was busy shopping for Chinese New Year decorations last year, I went on a shopping spree and got myself some pretty good Christmas deals.

These silver baubles were going at 90 cents a pack in Ikea. Six for 90 cents works out to 15cents per bauble. Never came across such a good deal! 

No glitter would mean that I got to decorate the ornaments in other ways. Thank goodness for my stash of washi tape and lace tapes from Daiso.

Cheap and quick crafts and each ornament now less than 20 cents.

Allow me to beam with pride for a moment.

And here it is. The tree..!

It looks really simple but I'm glad it's up, somehow.

 

The tree topper is actually a snowman advent calendar I got from Cold Storage's post Xmas sale at $2 each.

My very adorable mummy helped me put it up. 

She's good with such things.

She even wrapped up all my board games so "the tree looks prettier".

 

Love my family.

Love my mummy.

:)

 

 

 

 

 

High Contrast Flash Cards?

I'm at a dilemma whether to do right-brain training with the little one. 

A couple of years back, I was all about flash cards. I knew I wanted to make some for my little one in future. 

I was also very into Montessori.

In fact I was into anything 'early childhood'.

Recently, I came across an article about right brain-training hindering creativity, and I falter. All of a sudden, I don't know what is good for Baby anymore.

 *

I bought a set of plain index cards a couple of weeks back. 

To doodle my own high contrast flash cards for Baby. Just in case I want to use them for visual stimulation. 

As of now, I'm still not too sure if I'd want to go ahead with it.

But since I have plenty of time on my hands, why not just doodle? 

I googled for samples of visual stimulation cards for infants. Those simple ones with shapes and stripes. 

I went all @@ drawing this.

While searching for images, I saw a set of adorable looking high contrast cards that's animal-themed and thought that maybe, just maybe, I could doodle some on my own. That set would cost me about $20 or so. I could save some money.

I'm not an artist. And I'm not very good at drawing.

But I guess when the momma instinct sets in, nothing is quite impossible. 

I trimmed off the index cards because they were not of the golden ratio. You know how things look pleasing to the eyes because of the golden ratio right?

Most of the images were inspired by those off the web. Except the fish.

I'm not even sure if they count as 'visual stimulation cards for infants'.

I started with these four. And thought "Hey! They start with different letters. I could do an alphabet set!"

And that's what I'm working on right now.

If I ever use these as a visual stimulation card for Baby, I'll add in the letters later. And the names of the animals at an even stage.

Else, I guess they could function pretty okay as nursery decoration too.