Addicted to his charming smiles & laughters

Bibinogs term 2- Lesson 1

We are back to Bibinogs for Term 2 ! Baby Reagan is an active crawling baby now and trying to get him to be seated throughout the lessons is not an easy breezy feat anymore.It's like a new challenge for both of us!

He is more clingy to me as well, and enjoys climbing and swinging around me. When I made him sit on the mat, he would always turn back to look at me, giggle cheekily then wrap his arms around me again to pull himself up and start climbing over me again. He kind of think it's fun to struggle with me in class, probably because I always end up tickling his tummy and kissing his neck while whispering in his ear "You little naughty monkey!"And he will do it again to get my attention once more.

Term 2 doesn't make a very big difference for him in terms of his preference of activities in class. He is still obsessed with the alphabets and phonics....and still hates Craft-time! He finds it more interesting to watch me do the artwork and will get mad at me if I try to encourage him to contribute to his work. Anyway this week is letter "K", so we had Kiki Koala and for craft-time we took turn to "KICK" the balls before using them to paint.

Now other than Phonics, his next favourite activity is BUBBLES TIME! I remember the time when he preferred to sit down quietly and observed the teachers blowing the bubbles while other babies chased after them excitedly. I would then carry him and stretch out his hands to touch the bubbles and in response he gives me that frowny face. And now, I can see he is genuinely loving bubbles as much as the other older babies. With his cute giggles and smiles and his outstretched hands trying to catch the bubbles all by himself......it melts my heart and reminds me that my baby is not a tiny little infant anymore, he is a grown BABY! haha!

Goodybags are Ready!

Finally one more thing completed from his birthday party's to-prepare-list....goody-bags for the KIDS !

 These are the felt-material jungle animals badges and keychains personally handmade from scratch by my cousin. She did an amazing job!

 Check out her business, FELT FANTASY which does customization for toddlers to teens and even pets accessories with felt.

Ta-dah! Goody bags are finally done! 

 I can move on to the next preparation...and there's 5 more days to his 1st birthday party! Yippie!

Testing my new lens on my most perfect model

My cheeky darling monkey

Renting Toys

It's a joy to watch how baby Reagan uses his hands to explore and play with his toys. And I cant help but to complain that all his toys are gradually flooding the entire house. Most of them were either gifts from his love ones or the impulse buys from his daddy. So for his 1 year old birthday party, I wanted to create a play area for the little toddlers and instead of getting new toys, I decided to rent them instead. ToyRentalWorld is my first choice, basically because they accept cash on delivery and provides free delivery if the rented items came up to $50. After checking out my cart, I received an email which informed me of the delivery time to be from 11am- 1pm. On the actual day, my toys were delivered right to my doorstep sharp at 11am! They were packed and covered in plastics and the delivery uncle helped to shift the toys in, removed and cleaned up the plastics and set them up for me. 

I rented a mini slide, and to match his birthday "Jungle Animals" theme, I got him a ride-on horse and a jungle play activity toy.

  The rental fee for these 3 toys is $75 for 2 weeks, which is long enough to last till his birthday next week. The whole transaction was hassle-free and when my two weeks rental time is up, they will give me a call before coming down to my place to collect. ToyRentalWorld offers an extensive variety of toys from 0-6 years old, however quite a number of them are out for rent and you need to queue in the waiting list for your turn. I've been waiting for their play-yard like since half a month!

So is baby Reagan excited over his new play things? It took like 15 minutes before he crawls away to look for his old toys. He has not learn to appreciate slides and ride-ons yet and need some time to warm up with the new toys. Probably the other babies at his birthday party will enjoy them more than him.

Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 10

Today is Reagan's last lesson for this term at Bibinogs Playschool. We had a big group of 7 babies in class! I couldn't blame him for being distracted by the screeching and wailing noises and other babies moving around. During the lesson, my cheeky monkey was so eager to explore and move around with the other babies too and I made efforts to get his attention back many times.

Probably only during the story-telling time and phonics recitation, he is more willing to be seated on the mat. And now, he would struggle for me to let go of his hands when we do the actions songs together. He shows that he wants to do it himself and doesn't want me to help him anymore...oh well. Even for the craft time, we were supposed to paint the sea blue and paste jellyfish but baby Reagan was trying what he can do to "destroy" his artwork. His cheeky mischievous face tells it all...

Surprisingly baby Reagan showed more patience for the mandarin lesson today. Instead of trying to crawl or turn away as usual, he cuddled up to me, sat on my lap throughout the entire mandarin story-telling and all the songs and poems recitations. I guessed he had drained out all his energy during the English segment and was getting too tired and sleepy to move. As expected, after I popped in his pacifier and pat him with his pillow, he snoozed away within seconds.

Letter of the week is "J", and we had Jam Jam Joey!

1 more month to 1 year old!

Reagan is going to be ONE !

2 more weeks to baby Reagan's 1st birthday Party ! He didn't get to celebrate his first month as he was still stuck in the ICU, so we promised to throw him a lovely 1st birthday bash to make up for it. Even if he may not really remember his party in future, still I felt it's pretty meaningful to treat it as a celebration of making it through the first year of parenthood! Yeah we survived ! And I know...more to come..

I'm trying not to let this post end up all about reminiscing about how this day finally arrived all the way from last year. As a mom, you tend to think back on the day you gave birth to your baby and all the crazy and emotional journey you tide through that one year. It seems like just yesterday that I'm still carrying my tiny little kitten in my arms and now...I'm planning his 1ST birthday party!

The initiate planning stage is a little daunting as there's probably no step-to-step guide on how to plan your 1 year old birthday and my ideas are just scattering everywhere. I'm also a great procrastinator and it takes lots of effort to push myself to start thinking, sourcing, planning and executing the preparation just two weeks before his big day.

Bits and pieces of ideas are floating around my mind, of course they're no way near Martha Steward's style. I wanted his birthday party to be fun, creative, memorable, easy, fuss-free and of course inexpensive, but I admit that sometimes I do get carried away in my moment of thrill.

First, I need a theme, one that must be of baby Reagan's interest, and I chose "Jungle Animals" because currently that is one of his favorite flashcards topic, and also one of the easiest theme to execute a kids' party.

This banner sticker is made by my cousin, cute isn't it? She helped me with some of the customized stuffs which I'll talk more about it nearer to date.

So now, let's count down to my baby boy's first ONE-derful birthday party!

Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 9

 Baby Reagan is at the stage of learning to crawl and stand, therefore today he is so eager to "show-off" his new skill to his teachers. Throughout the lesson, he would eagerly get on all fours to attempt to crawl whenever he had the chance. Or else he would turn towards me, put him arms around me to pull himself up to stand. Usually during the free-play time, he can sit on the mat by himself and play with the toys quietly before the class starts. But now, he prefers to move around and explore! Today my boy is an active and curious little monkey !

Today is letter "I" and we made an Igloo out from a plastic bowl and some cotton pads. Mummy tried to help baby Reagan to brush the glue on it. Halfway through, he lost patience and started slapping his other hand on the plate of white glue. Poor mummy needs to clean him up again and finish the artwork for him.

Our art piece, little Igloo

The teacher brought out an Iguana puppet today which I thought was pretty cool but Reagan seems to have no interest and wouldn't even bother to look at it. And he used it as an "excuse" to crawl away..

Finally once the teacher whipped out the phonics flashcards, baby Reagan's eyes widen and he returned back to his sitting position.
As the teacher recite the phonics chant, he began smiling and moving his arms in excitement again.

 

 

He is totally obsessed with alphabets and flashcards, you can witness how much he enjoys the phonics segment.

Letter I, Iggy Iguana

 And also this week then I found out from his teacher that all these while they are doing the ZOOLANDER Phonics and not ZOO-PHONICS. Well, the only difference is the type of animals associated to the alphabets.

Bibinogs Term 1 - Lesson 8

 Reagan baby, you helped teacher to put the toys back into the box during the clean-up time! Good job sweety!

 

 Today's letter of the week is "H", and the teacher introduced Harry Hippo to the class! Reagan is still not a fan of soft toy but I managed to get him to give Harry Hippo a big "hi-5".

For craft-time we painted a picture of a Hotdog! There was supposed to be "chilli" and "mustard" stick on it but it got tore off when we reached home.

Polliwogs again! with his buddy Ean