Babies At Play @ Fidgets

When it comes to play, the babies definitely know how to have a great time! 

Our lunch @ Modern Asian Dining

 3 babies at a table, you can expect lots of noise, mess and crumbs...oops.

Finally what the babies have been waiting for...PLAY PLAY PLAY!

The mamas had a great work-out too!

Happy Train - Lesson 4

Baby boy is the first one to reach his class again! He was pretty excited to see the "fruit trees" prepared on the wall for their first game; pretend to be an elephant and go around "plucking" the fruits from the trees.

A few times half-way through the lesson, he turned around and wanted me to put him on his lap. I would prefer him to sit on his own seat so he can do his activity properly.

Reagan loves the lollipops from one of the Math games.

We're supposed to count the lollipops and match the quantity to the correct number on the candy jar. Baby Reagan was more interested in pulling out and putting in the lollipops onto the stand while I do the counting for him.

 

Homework

- Transfer pastas/bean/water from cup to cup

- Hide and find toy under 2-3 cups

- Find red yellow and blue objects

- Say "Do you like?"

Baby Fleur's 1st Bday Party

Oh my , I love kids' party! The cake, the balloons, the decor, the food (omg the food!), the sugar-rush,  the laughing & screaming kids haha, this mama here loves everything about it.  Although I love to plan one, I love to attend one even more of course! 

I love this photo so much, because there's 2 hot mamas, 1 cutie rabbit and 1 tribal warrior who is trying to act cool with his weapon !

Fleur's mama DIY effort, putting a personal touch to the decor... and not forgetting the props and phototaking booth!

 Our star of the day, darling baby Fleur! Our feisty flower turned ONE !

Baby Reagan getting his 1st taste of the lollipop, and he loves it of course (seriously which kid doesn't).

 We usually refrain him from sugary stuffs or food high in sodium (esp when he is a poor eater now) but since it is a PARTY and he never has a chance to get it from us, we felt it's fine to break the rule for that day. I tried to console myself that at least lollipops have not made it into my strictly forbidden food list yet. 

(FYI, eg. potato chips & soft drinks...scream  CANCER to kids! Strict no-no!")

Anyway the next lollipop he is getting is definitely only going to be during the next party he attends!

I was signalling daddy to get baby boy to share the lollipop with him so he can help him finish most of it haha!!!

His buddy Ean arrived and for a moment both of them were busy exploring my stroller and trying to move it, cute teamwork!

 The 3 awesome baby dragons !

Ean: "She's mine!"

Reagan: " You chose me right?"

Fleur: "Oh dear, this is a tough decision..."

I see very fierce competition coming up...hahaha!

JG Playnest Week 5

The Orange Week

Serious in his artwork!

I always felt so touched & proud of my baby boy when he does his work independently. It's like reminding me that soon, baby Reagan doesn't need me to attend school with him anymore ....*sniff* *wipe tears*

Foam dough sensory play. Mixing shaving foam and flour together to make dough!

Daddy ended work early and picked us up for dinner. Baby Reagan amazingly behaved like an angel at the restaurant today. He sat quietly on the sofa beside me, browsing his Baby Signing Time charts while daddy and mummy enjoy their japanese hotpot, haha! At times he would turn to me and want me to show him a certain sign, after that his attention goes back to the cards again. 

One of the "aunty" waitress stopped at our table and commented how lucky we are that our boy can sit and read by himself without disturbing us. I bet she haven't seen this angel turning into a demon, and this was only one of the pretty rare times he could sit throughout. Usually his time limit is only half an hour before he starts whining to get down. We guessed that probably the class that he attended earlier has drained up his energy, so he just want some relaxing resting time for himself now haha! 

But still , baby boy made his daddy very proud!

My Baby Can Read too!

Today is the day that my 16 months old baby is successfully able to "read" 10 sets of words which I've been practicing with him the for last 2 months. I show him the word on the card (without reading the words out), and he is able to look at the word and point or do the action of it.

The ten words
- clap
- eyes
- mouth
- fingers
- head
- tongue
- toes
- bellybutton
- raise your hands
- wave hello

I'm still trying to find a chance to record it on video, hopefully other parents can be more motivated and convinced that all babies are really genius and they do can read !!! I witnessed my boy's success with my very eyes, not only me, but my hubby and my mom were totally amazed too. Well, hubby was skeptical and thought I was exaggerating baby's boy ability, UNTIL I proved it to him right in his face. He was blown away and was totally impressed. He even commented how unbelievable it is to witness a baby recognizing written words.

 Many times I watched the beginning of the YourBabyCanRead DVD when Dr Tizer flash the words cards to his baby and she was able to "read" and do the actions for all the cards. I always wonder how true is that and if baby Reagan can do it too. And now I'm truly convinced that ALL babies can read and IT IS TRUE ! It is up to the parents how determined they are to put in effort to teach.

Probably in the next couple of days I try to catch it on video. It is not easy as most of the time I'm handling baby alone and need someone to help me with the recording while I demonstrate the cards with him. I'm truly excited and maybe next week I can come out with another 10 new words to practice with him !

Happy Train - Lesson 3

Baby Reagan is the first one to reach his class today and as usual he enjoys crawling around and exploring the different classrooms in school. Look at his mischievous face!

 I brought him to his seat and when he saw his name tag, immediately he picked it up and looked for his teacher to pass it to her. 

Today is mandarin class and I tried to remind myself to speak and give instructions to him purely in mandarin. Although there are still times I forgot and spoke to him in English or English mixed Mandarin haha! I hope baby Reagan can be more exposed to mandarin so he can pick up the language easier when he reached the verbal stage. 

Homework

- Play sequence game on shapes

- Categorize stationery and food 

- Say/understand "xie xie" & "bu ke qi"

- Match objects to numbers 1-5

Baby Teeth- Brushing

With 5 teeth ( although 3 of them not fully grown yet) at 16 months, we felt it's time to introduce him the use of a toothbrush and a toothpaste. Our baby boy has many times witnessed us brushing our teeth and he was really fascinated by the toothbrush. Therefore he was thrilled to receive his very own baby toothbrush from us. With the "banana" flavour toothpaste, he loves teeth-brushing even more. We tried to make it an every night routine and on some nights he will even remind us by reaching for his toothbrush and toothpaste from the low-shelf and crawls towards us to get help him with it. 

My baby boy enjoys brushing his own teeth!

Happy Train Year 1 - Lesson 2

Lesson 2 today is conducted in Japanese and my mom was interested to accompany baby Reagan in the first half session of the class. I took over during the 2nd half when the left-brain activities began. My boy as usual enjoyed the finger-training game, inserting pastas into a small jar. After he completed the task and without my prompting, he poured all the pastas out and repeat the activity again all by himself. It's a nice feeling to watch your baby boy so involved in an activity independently and full of confidence.

Homework this week
- Listening to animal sounds
- Drop pasta into jar
- Sort vegetables & fruits
- Say/understand "Thank you"/"You're welcome"
-Match number & quantity 1-5

Some of the Japanese vocabs learned this week
zoo - doubutsuen
monkey - saru
rabbit- usagi
owl- fukurou
peacock- kujyaku
carrot - ninjin
vegetable- yasai
potato- jyagaimo
peach- momo
fruit - kudamono
thank you - arigato
you're welcome- dou itashimashite

JG Playnest Week 4

Blue theme this week!

Lesson 7

Baby Reagan loves the story-telling today because it is one of his favourite books, titled "Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle. I used to read to him using flashcards and he simply adore it. Today the teacher read the same story to him and he focused really well from the very first page to the last. 

My baby boy listening to the story attentively...

Craft session today is bubbles-printing. The teacher blew the bubbles solution to create bubbles for the babies to print on their paper.

Lesson 8

My boy came as little Superman today, which also fits the blue theme.

Painting colourful spots onto the fish

My little Superman loves the easel painting today!

As usual, laying his fingers on the keyboard during the music & movement time.

The Animal Resort - Reagan's 1st close encounter with animals

I wonder why I read pretty good reviews from other mama's blogs on this place called "The Animal Resort' located at Seletar, where kids get to interact with the animals and have loads of fun there. Seriously, I wonder how true the reviews are, or probably I've higher expectation especially having to travel from one end of Singapore to this place. First, it doesn't look like a farm or barnyard or anything near it, and it's definitely far away from what it is being called,..a "RESORT". It looks more like a deserted rundown kampong that had once been attacked by a plaque. Secondly, the place is small, stinks badly and was infested with mozzies. Lastly, we went down on a Saturday and animals we got to see were rabbits in their cages, a couple of ducks , chickens, geese, pigeons, a muddy pond and a pathetic horse infested with flies. That day we didn't get to see the goats or cranes shown on their facebook page.

 I didn't get to take much photographs of my baby boy too because he was obviously not having fun and it was a terrifying experience for him. Almost throughout the entire trip, he was clinging on to me like a baby koala bear. I always thought all little kids love animals, but baby Reagan hates them. Or probably he is too young to appreciate cute fluffy animals. Anyway those we encountered at the resort were way far from being "cute or fluffy".

 I encouraged baby Reagan to feed the ducks and pigeons but he would rather throw the food on the ground and climb up to me desperately.

The horse that scares my boy....

Daddy fed the horse and stood near it to show baby Reagan that it is harmless and friendly...

 Baby Reagan was still extremely terrified and held onto me very tightly ... he shivered and cried in fear each time the horse made the snorting noise.

25 minutes spent there is long enough for us to get back into the car and baby Reagan was very glad we did so. 

Happy Train Year 1 - Lesson 1

Baby Reagan is back for the last term of 1 year old class this year, and I'm glad he still recognizes his teachers after the school break.

Happily in his seat waiting for his lesson to begin

Observation

-Reagan still can't do the blowing exercise (for deep breathing) by himself , till now I'm still demonstrating for him. Today they are suppose to blow down the panda, however he preferred to use his hands instead.

- When the teacher asked the class to choose the answer for the photo memory activity, he was excited and tapped the picture fast and hard. Although he didn't get the right answer today, I was still amused by the confidence he shown when choosing for the right card.

- After every activity, Reagan likes to help me to keep the props and hand them over to the teacher himself

- He followed instruction well for the finger-training game and able to complete the task without my help. He finished the activity fast so we were able to repeat a few more times before returning it to the teacher.

- Today is the first time he is exposed to the concept of sequencing. There is a board with a list of fruits eg. apple orange apple orange apple....and they were supposed to put the right fruit that comes next. Baby Reagan was able to sit still and focused well when I tried to explain the sequence game to him.  I'm not sure whether he understood the game but he was able to give me the right fruit for 3 consecutive rounds. Still I think it's just plain lucky guess for him.  

- Baby boy enjoys all the new songs for this term too, especially the "5 Little Ducks"

Homework

-Take photos of animals in the zoo

- Imitate animal sounds

- Revise sequence

-Pick & drop clothes pegs

JG Playnest Week 3

Yellow is the colour for this week!

Lesson 5

I noticed that by this week, baby Reagan is already familiar with the routine in class. When the teacher stopped the background music and sang the clean up song, without any of my promptings, he crawled to the front by himself and helped to keep the toys inside the baskets. Good job my darling!

The babies were supposed to paint using a damp sponge but baby Reagan refused to even touch it. He did not like the texture of the wet sponge at all. So this time I've to help him with the activity. I allowed him to use his fingers and palms to spread the paint instead. 

Lesson 6

Today is another round of messy paint, but this time it's on the bubblewrap

The babies get to stick recycled items like straws, wrappers and papers which are all yellow in colour, on the sticky board. Baby Reagan enjoyed this sticking activity too. 

My darling boy is in an awesome mood today. Hubs got off early from work and waited outside his class to pick us home later. Therefore baby Reagan was really surprised and excited to see daddy at the playground during his outdoor play. He spotted daddy from a distance and began smiling and giggling instantly. 

Beads Sequencing Kit

During the last baby fair at expo, I happened to come across a booth that showcased early-learning toys. I put baby Reagan at the kids' table to play with the toys displayed on it and took my time to browse at the other toys. It was then I noticed that my 15 months old was able to sit at the table quietly for a good whole ten minutes playing this bead sequencing kit all by himself. And needless to say, I was sold by this toy. 

It stated for 3 years + and above, probably because the child is supposed to sort and match the different shapes and colours of the beads to the templates inside. Of course baby Reagan can't do the sorting by himself, but he enjoys exploring the beads one by one and stringing them together. It's definitely a good learning activity to work on his hand-eyes coordination. And when he is older, I can teach him to do the sorting and classifying. 

The kit consists of 60 beads, 5 double sides pattern, 3 sticks, 1 lace and 1 stand. 

 I think I've said it a countless times that I'm totally obsessed with my boy's serious look of concentration each time he attempts an activity.