Lele's appetite has always been good. For breakfast he'll usually have oatmeal cereal and/or wheatbix with 100ml of milk. Lunch is usually noodles of either udon, soba or mian xian. He can take 3/4 bowl. As for dinner, he usually can finish 1 bowl of brown/plain rice. When I take my meals outside with him, I need to order 2 bowls of rice and a slightly larger portion of side dish because Lele can finish 3/4 bowl of rice most of the time. If I order noodles (usually fishball kway teow or meetaimak soup), he can almost finish everything.
Sample menu and daily routine
6 am: 180ml of milk
8am: oatmeal cereal with 100ml milk added with corn bran and raisin because he loves the crunch. Lele will usually wake around 7.30 in the morning. Upon waking, a mug of warm water is a must for him. He'll usually take breakfast at least 1/2 hour after waking.
10am: small bowl plain yoghurt with fresh cut orange. Morning walk usually follows breakfast. When he comes home a light snack will be served while I prepare ingredients for lunch.
11.15am: Udon (3/4 bowl) soup with minced meat, fish cake and generous portions of chinese spinach and broccoli. After his light snack, I'll give Lele a bath. He'll have some play-by-self time while I cook lunch.
12.15am: 120ml of milk. Lele will take his nap after the milk. Nowadays Lele's naps are usually between 1 to 1 1/2hour.
2.30pm: 50ml of freshmilk with corn bran, cheerio and raisins.
4.30pm: 150ml milk
6.30 to 7pm: dinner of 1 bowl rice with dishes. Lele usually gets into the bedroom for storytime by 8pm, lights off by 8.30pm and off to dreamland by 9pm. We have not been giving milk before bedtime for a long time because we didn't want to give him too full a stomach after the hearty dinner. Ocassionally when he has no appetite for dinner and just eats a bit, we'll give a milk feed (180 to 210ml) at bedtime.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Visits to school
So far I have visited 2 schools, L and K, with Lele. Both Lele and I like K better than L but K is way TOO far. Even by car it is 15mins drive in normal traffic. Imagine driving in peak hours. I would not mind a mere 15mins drive if it were that impressive, but both Lele and I feel that while the school is better than L, which is walking distance from home, we would not like to be there.
For Lele, he was happie playing w the toys there. At least the teachers and principal there did not keep saying "No." to him as in L. The toys were more variety and engages his imagination more. The kids and teachers were more settled unlike in L where the kids were rowdy and the teachers look more like neighbourhood market aunties than educators. When I ask Lele if he like the school, he said yes sometimes and no other times. For school L, the answer was no no no:p
For me, I like the school's well though-up and organised curriculum, settled children and conducive environment. No running around and big noises like in L. Very peaceful and calm. There is also enough room for activities, play and study for each age group unlike L which is essentially everybody under the same roof w barely any partitions.
But I dislike the hygiene standards. During this H1N1 critical period where scanning of temp and jotting down contact numbers of visitors are common practices anywhere, these were not done in K. Neither were our hands sanitized before we could enter. Despite this, Lele was allowed to touch the kids' toys and anything else. Imagine if Lele were to be in this school. He would be exposed to germs from visitors as and when, in the fully aircon environment. We entered the premises with our shoes on but the people inside walked around barefooted... How hygienic is this?
So, Lele and I have decided that both L and K are no-go. But 1 good thing that came out of the visit to K was that Lele received a little duck plush toy from the principal, Mrs Noor. Lele and I named it "Little Quack" which was a character in a storybook we borrowed from Lib sometime ago. Lele was very happie w it. Each time when he recalls who gave it to him he will say, "Not Mrs nonono." See, the name Noor sounded like No to him even though he know it was not. So he made a joke out of it. Sometimes he will say, "Not Mrs Yeh". So funnie...
Next week we will visit another school W which is pretty out of the way like school K. But I reallie loved what I saw on the website and have a hunch Lele will love it too! Every activity described sounded like something children in the daycare school of "Carl goes to daycare" (book by Alexandra Day) would do. Outdoor play with nature instead of just playground...gardening... cooking...lots of storytime w puppetry...dance...song...poem...culture teaching...
With all the talk about visiting daycare school, Lele must have sensed he will go to school too. He love tshe story "Carl goes to Daycare." Just now when we were reading the story at bedtime, Lele said, "Lele wants to go to this Daycare school only. Lele doesn't want to go to other daycare school." I think he saw how much fun the children seemed be to having makin lotsa noise with musical instuments, turning entire classroom into a garden, driving cars around the classroom and pretending to be bears, that he wanted to be in the school.
At that point I heard him say that, I decided that Lele should be in a school to have the most fun with maximum exposure. As long as the environment is loving and allows Lele to explore to his heart's content and learn with guidance from his exploration, I will be happie to let him enrol.
For Lele, he was happie playing w the toys there. At least the teachers and principal there did not keep saying "No." to him as in L. The toys were more variety and engages his imagination more. The kids and teachers were more settled unlike in L where the kids were rowdy and the teachers look more like neighbourhood market aunties than educators. When I ask Lele if he like the school, he said yes sometimes and no other times. For school L, the answer was no no no:p
For me, I like the school's well though-up and organised curriculum, settled children and conducive environment. No running around and big noises like in L. Very peaceful and calm. There is also enough room for activities, play and study for each age group unlike L which is essentially everybody under the same roof w barely any partitions.
But I dislike the hygiene standards. During this H1N1 critical period where scanning of temp and jotting down contact numbers of visitors are common practices anywhere, these were not done in K. Neither were our hands sanitized before we could enter. Despite this, Lele was allowed to touch the kids' toys and anything else. Imagine if Lele were to be in this school. He would be exposed to germs from visitors as and when, in the fully aircon environment. We entered the premises with our shoes on but the people inside walked around barefooted... How hygienic is this?
So, Lele and I have decided that both L and K are no-go. But 1 good thing that came out of the visit to K was that Lele received a little duck plush toy from the principal, Mrs Noor. Lele and I named it "Little Quack" which was a character in a storybook we borrowed from Lib sometime ago. Lele was very happie w it. Each time when he recalls who gave it to him he will say, "Not Mrs nonono." See, the name Noor sounded like No to him even though he know it was not. So he made a joke out of it. Sometimes he will say, "Not Mrs Yeh". So funnie...
Next week we will visit another school W which is pretty out of the way like school K. But I reallie loved what I saw on the website and have a hunch Lele will love it too! Every activity described sounded like something children in the daycare school of "Carl goes to daycare" (book by Alexandra Day) would do. Outdoor play with nature instead of just playground...gardening... cooking...lots of storytime w puppetry...dance...song...poem...culture teaching...
With all the talk about visiting daycare school, Lele must have sensed he will go to school too. He love tshe story "Carl goes to Daycare." Just now when we were reading the story at bedtime, Lele said, "Lele wants to go to this Daycare school only. Lele doesn't want to go to other daycare school." I think he saw how much fun the children seemed be to having makin lotsa noise with musical instuments, turning entire classroom into a garden, driving cars around the classroom and pretending to be bears, that he wanted to be in the school.
At that point I heard him say that, I decided that Lele should be in a school to have the most fun with maximum exposure. As long as the environment is loving and allows Lele to explore to his heart's content and learn with guidance from his exploration, I will be happie to let him enrol.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
farting and blinking
This morning Lele did a funny face by squeezing his eyes shut and exposing the teeth in a cheeky grin. I was amused and asked him, "What are you doing?" He said that he was blinking. I wonder if he was imitating me. See, Lele hates water to get into his eyes while his hair is being washed. Though I did a good job of keeping the water away with my hands and distracting him with a song, a trickle or 2 is unavoidable. I would wipe away the water with a handkerchief. These days, I have been trying to teach Lele how to blink away the water. I demonstrated how he can blink his eyes so that the water will go away. So far this has been unsucccessful. Lele was so concerned about the water in his eyes that he would not even try blinking. He just wanted me to wipe away the water ASAP.
In the afternoon after his lunch, Lele did a funnie farting sound by pursing his lips together. He was thrilled with this newfound skill and said, "Like Yeye!". I asked if Yeye taught him this. And he said, "Yes!". HAHA!!! Upon confirming with FIL, it seems he could not recall where and when he showed this farting trick to Lele...
Cheeky nainai said that maybe Lele caught yeye farting during their play together and he was embarassed so made this farting sound with his lips to cover-up!
LOL...
Below are the clips of his antics of the day.
In the afternoon after his lunch, Lele did a funnie farting sound by pursing his lips together. He was thrilled with this newfound skill and said, "Like Yeye!". I asked if Yeye taught him this. And he said, "Yes!". HAHA!!! Upon confirming with FIL, it seems he could not recall where and when he showed this farting trick to Lele...
Cheeky nainai said that maybe Lele caught yeye farting during their play together and he was embarassed so made this farting sound with his lips to cover-up!
LOL...
Below are the clips of his antics of the day.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Verner Panton exhibition
Brought Lele to Verner Panton exhibition at the National Museum. It was a lovely, lazie Sunday afternoon for all of us: ) Had wanted to bring Lele swimming but Daniel said he wasn't into outdoor activities hence the Museum trip. It was a stimulating trip for Lele. The chairs were very inviting for him to climb into and the colours
made him wild!. It was also an eye-opener for us. We didn't know that Verner Panton's designs are so popular. Many chairs and designs which we have seen before are actually his ideas. Examples are the heart-shaped chair
, cone chair
and the Panton chair
.
made him wild!. It was also an eye-opener for us. We didn't know that Verner Panton's designs are so popular. Many chairs and designs which we have seen before are actually his ideas. Examples are the heart-shaped chair
, cone chair
and the Panton chair
. We saw a series of pictures entitled "How to undress in front of your husband." Where the panton chair and a fully-dressed woman were in the first picture. The subsequent pictures were of her taking each piece of clothing off as she posed/used the Panton chair. The pictures were so well-taken! They made the Panton chair looked very sexy like a woman's body. The pictures were very modern looking but they were shot in 1970.
Although many pieces of furniture looked so inviting, they were out of bounds hence Lele could not climb onto them, much as he would LOVE to.
Although many pieces of furniture looked so inviting, they were out of bounds hence Lele could not climb onto them, much as he would LOVE to.
What he did enjoy was the Phantasy land
. He loved climbing all over the place, especially to the topmost "seat" and then jumping down. He was so brave as to tell me and Daniel to step aside to wait for him to jump down (about 1 storey high) by himself! Of course we didn't do that. Daniel caught him at the bottom. He enjoyed so much!
. He loved climbing all over the place, especially to the topmost "seat" and then jumping down. He was so brave as to tell me and Daniel to step aside to wait for him to jump down (about 1 storey high) by himself! Of course we didn't do that. Daniel caught him at the bottom. He enjoyed so much!Papa's Chinese Birthday
Nainai likes to celebrate Chinese birthday and May 5 happened to be papa's birthday. Actually, I already knew. When nainai said that she and yeye are going to get a cake later in the day...Me: For Papa
Nainai: Why do we need to get a cake for papa?
Nainai: Why do we need to get a cake for papa?
Me:Papa's birthday
Mama and nainai were so surprised! Dun ask me where I get my ESP from:p *wink*
Mama and nainai were so surprised! Dun ask me where I get my ESP from:p *wink*
Before papa came home, I went with yeye and nainai to get a pandan kaya cake from Bangawan Solo. I dun like Kaya on its own but the cake was pretty good! After I went home, mama made me do a card for papa. I was (as usual) only interested for 3 mins. After applying for glue and pasting some decos on the card,
I said,
"Enough. Don't want to do anymore."
I said,
"Enough. Don't want to do anymore."
Mama finished up the rest of the card. Papa was very happie to receive this simple gift from both of us:)
I'm a little sleepie becos it's near my bedtime. Papa says I'm just like mama in that my eyebags will show whenever I get sleepie:p
I got so into singing the birthday song for papa that I ALMOST thought it was my birthday heehee...
Me singing happie birthday like it's my own birthday...
Gone fishing
We brought Lele to Kid's Kampong on Mother's Day.For $14 for child and $10 for adult, we got a bucket, net, 2 small packets of fish food, bottled mineral water and ice-cream (as refreshments). I think that is pretty expensive for any child, let alone a child who found more interest in scooping water with the net/bucket than catching fish.
Besides catching and feeding fish, there were also some rabbits, chickens and goose. Not much to do actually at the Kids Kampong, but Lele enjoyed looking at the dogs training and swimming in the dogs hotel at the same area.
Overall, Lele had tremendous fun and enjoyed himself, but I'd much rather visit the Animal Resort near Jalan Kayu. Many more animals and FOC. Oh, forgot to mention that the fish I caught and brought home died within the night, a few at a time... Lele din even get to say good morning to them:(
After that, we met MIL and FIL for dinner at our favourite stirfry stall at Potong Pasir 881:)
Saturday, May 16, 2009
c...c...c
Yesterday was "c" day. Our "c" word was "catch".
I did a homemade fishing game with magnets for lele to catch some fish. Each fish has a letter written on its tail. As the fishing rod's string was quite long, Lele had to concentrate hard to catch the fish. Luckily, the whole idea was interesting enough for him to sustain the interest. Each time a fish was caught, I said something like,
"Oh, you caught an 'a' fish, it says 'a...a...a...'."
Today is supposed to be another "c" day but we'll be bring Lele to the National Museum so guess we'll take a break and postpone the "c" day till tomorrow:)
I did a homemade fishing game with magnets for lele to catch some fish. Each fish has a letter written on its tail. As the fishing rod's string was quite long, Lele had to concentrate hard to catch the fish. Luckily, the whole idea was interesting enough for him to sustain the interest. Each time a fish was caught, I said something like,
"Oh, you caught an 'a' fish, it says 'a...a...a...'."
Today is supposed to be another "c" day but we'll be bring Lele to the National Museum so guess we'll take a break and postpone the "c" day till tomorrow:)
Friday, May 15, 2009
b...b...b
Today is letter "b" day. Yesterday we made a bear with beans. Today we bought some played with bubbles and balloons. On the way to buying these 2 "b" items, I said,
"Today is 'b' day, so we're going to get some b...b...bubbles."
To my surprise, Lele said,
"And b...b... balloons."
In the morning when he saw the bear we made yesterday pasted on the wall of his bedroom, he was pretty happie and requested we make another one. We agreed to make another small bean bear. But Lele changed his mind and requested to make aeroplane instead. I said,
"But aeroplane doesn't begin with 'b...b...b...', aeroplane begins with ...?"
Lele said,
"a...a...a..."
"Today is 'b' day, so we're going to get some b...b...bubbles."
To my surprise, Lele said,
"And b...b... balloons."
In the morning when he saw the bear we made yesterday pasted on the wall of his bedroom, he was pretty happie and requested we make another one. We agreed to make another small bean bear. But Lele changed his mind and requested to make aeroplane instead. I said,
"But aeroplane doesn't begin with 'b...b...b...', aeroplane begins with ...?"
Lele said,
"a...a...a..."
Schooling
Been thinking about the subject and decided after discussion with hubbie that Lele shall start school from next year. Realised that I need to start looking around and register now, so I called 2 schools and booked an appointment to visit them next week with Lele. The environment is of course important, but Lele must be happy and comfortable with the school first and foremost, as he will be the one attending.
At first I was toying with the idea of letting Lele attend full-day so that I may work P/T or maybe even F/T, but the thought of not seeing Lele the entire day for 5 days a week is more unbearable than I had expected!
I mean, Lele sleeps early, by 9p.m. each night. If he starts attending school full day, there will be very little time for him to interact with family members. I don't think that's healthy for him. Nevertheless, Lele needs to have some regular interaction with same age kids. School environment is most conducive for this, I think.
So, I think I'll put Lele for half-day first and do P/T work in the mean time. What P/T work? I have no idea. In fact, quite lazie to search... sending of CVs, going for interviews and all those jobsearch stuff can be such hassles! Of course, will get down to that sometime, soon, I hope.
At first I was toying with the idea of letting Lele attend full-day so that I may work P/T or maybe even F/T, but the thought of not seeing Lele the entire day for 5 days a week is more unbearable than I had expected!
I mean, Lele sleeps early, by 9p.m. each night. If he starts attending school full day, there will be very little time for him to interact with family members. I don't think that's healthy for him. Nevertheless, Lele needs to have some regular interaction with same age kids. School environment is most conducive for this, I think.
So, I think I'll put Lele for half-day first and do P/T work in the mean time. What P/T work? I have no idea. In fact, quite lazie to search... sending of CVs, going for interviews and all those jobsearch stuff can be such hassles! Of course, will get down to that sometime, soon, I hope.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Colour magic, phonics fun and shapes
Colour magic
At the spur of the moment, I decided to add some experimental fun into Lele's bath time. For a start, we dabbled in colour mixing.
I prepared 2 bowls of coloured water made with Crayola paints. When Lele is playing in the bathtub (yes, we still use the tub for bath as it is so fun:p), I get him to scoop some coloured water from 1 bowl with a spoon and pour into the other bowl to see what happens.
He had much fun mixing colours and watching 2 colours combine to become a different colour! You can see the fascination in his eyes as he identify the colour change. He sometimes added more and more water into his colour mixture and discovered that the colour got lighter and disappeared.
I've been wanting to try the colour mixing activity for so long and am glad I finally started. So far we have tried mixing
1) blue+red to get purple
2) blue+ yellow to get green
3) red+yellow to get orange
Phonics fun
This week, I've also started on alphabets and phonics. This week's focus are small letters a-h.
I pasted big flashcards of letters a-h on the wall of Lele's bedroom and also prepared small cards with a letter on each of them. I "made" the letters with some prickly wire so that there is texture. Each day, I set aside some time to do "tracing and matching" of the letters, GUG style.
I got Lele to trace out the prickly letter on the small card while repeating the name of the letter and it's phonic sound. Then I got him to say the sound before letting him match with the big flashcard on the wall. After matching and tracing, we will do a simple activity with the letter of the day. We focus on a letter every 2 days. So far we made an apple and bean bear (show pictures next time).
Lele enjoys tracing and matching quite alot and will enthusiastically run to match the letters. Now he is can recognise a few letters by their phonic sound.
Shapes
Last week was our shapes week and we did a list of activities with shapes. Actually, Lele has been introduced to shapes all this while and not just in last week. But it was all informal and I was curious to know what he actually knows about shapes. I was surprised that on day 1 he could identify circle, square, star, heart, triangle and even trapezium. On day 3 or 4 while we playing, Lele took up shape puzzle and said,
"This one octagon." and he was right.
My conclusion:
Focusing on a topic each week can keep my ideas (of what to do with him in our play time) more focused and not all over the place. It also allows me to see what his interests are.
At the spur of the moment, I decided to add some experimental fun into Lele's bath time. For a start, we dabbled in colour mixing.
I prepared 2 bowls of coloured water made with Crayola paints. When Lele is playing in the bathtub (yes, we still use the tub for bath as it is so fun:p), I get him to scoop some coloured water from 1 bowl with a spoon and pour into the other bowl to see what happens.
He had much fun mixing colours and watching 2 colours combine to become a different colour! You can see the fascination in his eyes as he identify the colour change. He sometimes added more and more water into his colour mixture and discovered that the colour got lighter and disappeared.
I've been wanting to try the colour mixing activity for so long and am glad I finally started. So far we have tried mixing
1) blue+red to get purple
2) blue+ yellow to get green
3) red+yellow to get orange
Phonics fun
This week, I've also started on alphabets and phonics. This week's focus are small letters a-h.
I pasted big flashcards of letters a-h on the wall of Lele's bedroom and also prepared small cards with a letter on each of them. I "made" the letters with some prickly wire so that there is texture. Each day, I set aside some time to do "tracing and matching" of the letters, GUG style.
I got Lele to trace out the prickly letter on the small card while repeating the name of the letter and it's phonic sound. Then I got him to say the sound before letting him match with the big flashcard on the wall. After matching and tracing, we will do a simple activity with the letter of the day. We focus on a letter every 2 days. So far we made an apple and bean bear (show pictures next time).
Lele enjoys tracing and matching quite alot and will enthusiastically run to match the letters. Now he is can recognise a few letters by their phonic sound.
Shapes
Last week was our shapes week and we did a list of activities with shapes. Actually, Lele has been introduced to shapes all this while and not just in last week. But it was all informal and I was curious to know what he actually knows about shapes. I was surprised that on day 1 he could identify circle, square, star, heart, triangle and even trapezium. On day 3 or 4 while we playing, Lele took up shape puzzle and said,
"This one octagon." and he was right.
My conclusion:
Focusing on a topic each week can keep my ideas (of what to do with him in our play time) more focused and not all over the place. It also allows me to see what his interests are.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
"Lele wants to poo!"
Yup, that was what Lele said to me after lunch today. I was reading the papers while Lele was playing by himself in front of me (his current faze is play-pretend making pancakes w all his containers, ladles and stuff).
Suddenly, he ran to me and said,
"Lele wants to poo!"
I hurriedly brought him to the bathroom and asked whether he wanted to poo in his potty. He said he wanted to sit on the toilet bowl. So I put the toddler toilet seat on the toilet bowl. With some persuasion he agreed! Woohoo!!!
And he calmly poo poo in the toilet bowl!
We were all so proud of Lele for taking another giant step in toilet-training, from being afraid of the toilet bowl, insisting to poo in his diapers, to being able to poo in the toilet bowl!!!
Suddenly, he ran to me and said,
"Lele wants to poo!"
I hurriedly brought him to the bathroom and asked whether he wanted to poo in his potty. He said he wanted to sit on the toilet bowl. So I put the toddler toilet seat on the toilet bowl. With some persuasion he agreed! Woohoo!!!
And he calmly poo poo in the toilet bowl!
We were all so proud of Lele for taking another giant step in toilet-training, from being afraid of the toilet bowl, insisting to poo in his diapers, to being able to poo in the toilet bowl!!!
GREAT JOB!
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