Lucky July

Its the time of the year again. Somehow, this month is a lucky month for me.. Many happennings just before my big day.

16 years ago, I was on a plane which 9 other friends to Peninsular Malaysia, to do my A-Levels in Taylor's College, Subang Jaya

14 years ago, I was on a plane to Sydney Australia to do my degree course in University of Technology Sydney

2 years ago, I won a Montessori Homeschool kit online from montessoriboard.com (now is called montessori materials)

Last year, I got a free cake from a wonderful, newly found friend

Few days ago, I won a voucher from mycheekyboo.com via shopping online

This morning, I got 3 kisses from my 3 wonderful boys. Sweet!!

Thank you Lord for this beautiful day, Thank you friends for your wonderful wishes

yahooooooooo!!
Birthday MySpace Comments

Baby C at 15mo

Time flies very fast.. Baby C has turned 15 months old early this month :)

According to Montessori, at 15mo, the early mission of hand and brain development is complete; now the intellect - guided by information supplied by the hand, is developing and the hand is now an effective tool.

He walks and runs with good balance, able to climb up and down the stairs (or chairs/sofas) without our assistance.

He says "dom" when he gets down and "Up" when he is climbing on something..

Currently, that works as an alert as I know what is he up to..

Climbing on to his favourite sofa.

His brain is ready - able to communicate with us using his body language. Nodding head means he agrees and shaking his head means he disagrees. He also understands instructions (both in English and Hakka) and able to let us know what he desires. For example, he is able to give us instruction on where he wants to go, which side of the table he wants to place his plate/cup and let us know if he wants milk (by touching his chest and says "nenen") or to drink water (by dragging us to the kitchen and point at the water tank or doing self-made drinking sign) or to get something in the fridge. He is able to say few words like Mama, Papa, TaTa (koko), Tungtung (Kungkung), ook (book). He loves books, and able to choose which books he wants me to read for him during bedtime.

He picked this book from under the coffee table. This is one of his favourite.

You dont want to know what is he doing here! LOL! A new position while 'milking'.

His motor skills like spooning and pouring are developing well. He is able to feed himself (but with lots of mess) and pour water from one cup into another one. His pincer grip is working well, like picking up little items such as food / minute objects from the floor. He also uses the pincer grip muscle to point to items/places he wants us to bring him to.

One of his favourite toys : Cooking!

Another current favourite! He loves sorting shapes and stacking too! In the pix, he is 'feeling' the dimension of a rectangle, only then he puts it in through the hole (tho not necessary will get it right - most of the time its "fluke shot").

Pinching his food

Gulp! Gulp! to quench his thirst

Follows whatever big Koko does.

He loves music. Not only he dances when listening to one, but he hums and sometimes mumbles sings to familiar tunes. He will also clap and pat/tap to musical beats.

He looks highly on his koko

Cheering for Koko while koko does the shuffle! hahaha

The B-Boys doing the downrock!

He has his sense of orders. He is aware of his daily routine like going outdoors when it is almost 4pm (Hey, kids do have some sense in time by looking outside the house.. lol), the things need to do during bath etc. Recently he is addicted to shoes, putting them on in the house and will insists that we put on ours too. With that, he will bring our shoes/sandals (and he knows very well which ones belonged to who) to us.

He putting on his slipper

Learning about himself.. and his shadow

At the moment, he is at the stage of potty learning. I know, it seemed too early for him, probably he sees his brother uses the toilet and he follows him in there.. (yeah, sounds disgusting, but he enjoys the experience.. hahaha). So, normally when both of us are in good mood (I do get energy low sometimes), I will put him in undies with cotton pants. Should there be any accident, the layers will absorb most of the urine. Recently, I bought some Monril training pants from Bonnie.. and it holds one-time pee which is fine with me. (I am at the extreme case of potty training kids... ahhaah.. let them pee on their pants, let them feel the wetness sensation and they will inform me that they need to change..)

Caught red-handed! ahahahahah!!!

He has a habit of taking off his diapers.. I am not in favour of diapers with velcro because he was able to unstrap himself since he was 10mo. And now, even with buttons he can remove his diapers. He is showing more interest to be potty trained.

p/s currently he is in his sensitive period of movement, language, sensory refinement, small objects and orders.

I need some inspiration

My blog has been abandoned... sigh!

My Cheeky Boo (dot) com

I love the name. Well, if you asked, it is a newly opened e-store by a friend of mine who is in love with Cloth Diapers!

I recently got into Cushie Tushies and was glad that finally, I can purchase one locally. One of the reason is that I can save on shipping costs! So, thanks Bonnie for bringing CT into KK. hehehehhe.

My Cushie Tushies - love them as they are super absorbent, and love the minky prints too!

Lately, I have been purchasing AIO cds as I am getting super lazy with pocket cds. Dunno why!

All the best with your new business, Bonnie! You have my support!

p/s Just to let you know that her Panda Baby Nappies are on sale, 15% off!

Michael Jackson passed away

Breaking news. A friend smsed me early this morning, "Michael Jackson had passed away! Sad"

Sad indeed!

Rest In Peace, MJ! you r not alone.. Thank you for the music!

In 1972

Recent (I think)

Mastering his world around him

I am always inspired by Montessori when its about my boys' development. Thanks to her, I am able to see and understand their actions/reasoning based on her research made 100 years ago.

Maria Montessori believed the child’s mind from birth to six years is quite different from the adult’s and labeled it an absorbent mind. The child effortlessly soaks in everything in his culture and environment.

Montessori called children under 6 years old the "sensorial explorer" as they learn about their world based on the 5 senses. That is why it is always encouraging to use concrete materials that can be touched / felt with the small hands ; and are real things - not plain plasticy toys that do not have much texture, not fantasy that cannot be seen with our naked eyes. It is not possible for the little minds to use their imagination/abstract thinking if they have not seen / touch one before.

Feeling the water sensation. Can a person who has not feel water knows what is water? same goes for a lil child, how does he knows COLD if he never experience it?

Fireman to the rescue

I do admit, in this instant modern world, children even adults are getting more and more impatience because they want to see the outcome immediately! Kids want to be entertained, instead of discovering the real world. They prefer to be in front of the computer / TV for hours, instead of being outdoors getting dirty & sweaty. It is difficult to get good, quality toys that encourages the child's thinking ability too. I see young boys adore their "Ben 10" watch that could costs their parents more than RM100 (I remembered one young boy - no more than 5 years old said to me - "I got Ben 10 watch, you dont!") hahahaahha... I always wonder what is in the child's mind by having that expensive watch? Does he thinks he is be able to mutate just like Ben 10? Does he thinks he is a super hero too? I dont know, deep in side me, I just laugh out loud. Maybe it's the in thing or peer pressure! *shrugs* I dread if my kid one day asked me to buy one for him too! (Lil C doesnt really know who is Ben10, but he did receive some Ben 10 stuffs for his birthday gift. I wonder does he really need to know who B10 is? Will it benefit him at this young age?) It is not that I dont allow my kids to watch TV, but I will always encourage them to explore and develop their refined hand movements instead. The hand is the chief teacher of the child.

In the first stage of development, the infant child absorbs the world through his unconscious intelligence. Merely by being moved about in it, now he takes in consciously using his hand. This is the first job that he has to do – to get the hand ready as a tool that he can direct. The hand has now become the instrument of the brain; a child touches something and his hand reports it to the brain. The brain decodes and guide the hand with the new information, the hand discovers more and reports to the brain again. This process is a continuous action of learning and developing and it is through the activity of his hands that he enriches his experience and develops himself at the same time. According to Montessori, "We must give no more to the eye and the ear than we give to the hand.” (E.M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life & Work). It could pose a problem which could cause disunity when the brain gets ahead of the hand and the hand is no longer feeding the brain.

Basically what it mean is that where there is input, the should have an output. I call that balance in learning! Montessori actually developed a "psychomotor timeline" to show how the preparation of the body and hands proceeds in unison from the begining of life with development in one area complementating that in the other. There fore it is important to assist the child with the right activities based on their age group. You can read about it here

Here's a 3minute action from baby C having breakfast by himself.. watch till the end.. haha

here's more about lil C in 2007.

• feeding himself
• Pouring drinks himself

Dejavu

Do you get this often? A feeling like, "I seen this before". Scarry?? hahahaha.. well, not these ones.

Would like to share some photos we took during our kampung visit to my parents' place.

Baby C amused himself with the sand. He just love its texture!

Wait, now who is this?

Seeing double???

Lil C loves running along the beach side

hahaha!!! Yeap, he was trained since he was very very young!

The kids.. (noticed how lil C's hand gesture while chatting with jiajia?)

And these were them back in 2006.. almost 3 years ago had passed!

You can check my entry here!

A hot item as everyone was playing with it.

We bought this kite in KL. According to the salesperson, this kite's material is similar to the parachute kind of material, very light and allows the kite to fly easily. True enough!

Cheeky Cs

On the way back from the beach, we spotted this. Can you guess what is the basketball net made of? LOL!! Creative huh?

...................................................................................................................

Back at my parents' place. The kids love this place because my parents have big yard for the kids to play. Baby C spent the whole day outdoor - discovering lots of new things.

One of the pictures that makes me laugh!

A dream came true

One of our activities during the recent school break, we visited a Firestation in Sembulan, KK. One of my cousin works there, so it was an informal visit. He brought us around and explained how does a Fire department work, in brief.

The kids, esp lil C were estatic to see real-life monstrous fire engines right infront of his eyes. He is one kid who is crazy over fire engines! You could hear the ooohs and aaaahs from this lil boy. The closest he ever been to one was one that passes our house quite frequently, but never touch them, what more ride on one. (Ok, that goes the same to Mama too, there's always a first time, right? - and this visit would not be the last one either! )

Here's us!

One of the Fire Rescue Tenders. Not sure how much water could this engine transport, probably 8,000 litres? Lil C was impressed by the roller shutters!

My cousin, Abang Abit, was kind enough to bring us around. Thanks abang.

These are the equipments needed to do the job - water pump, chain saw, helmet & other tools.

Lil C was amused with the water hoses - so many of them.

The rear of the engine - all the water pump equipment

My brother & family posing in front of the tender, with all the roller shutters were up.

Taking a break on another fire tender, I think this is a bigger one compare to the earlier. Could transport water as much as 10,000litres. Lil C kept instructing me taking pix of them

This is the TurnTable Ladder aka TTL, it got the oohhs and aahhs from us! It is so magnificent, beautiful red! (Ok, I know, its a novelty to me). Was told that the ladder can go as high as 100 metres (or feet??? - cant remember).

On the TTL

Lil C insisted me snapping this pix as he was excited seeing the ladder under this tender.

Fire Jet Ski.. vrrooom!

I wonder if these fire bikes are a team, meaning that 3 goes together to perform a task.

Each one has specific tasks; one carries the Floating Pump Unit, one is the Rescue Unit carrying cutting equipment and the last one carries Hose & BC Unit - predominantly at RTAs and small urban fires. Not sure, I only learn this online. Maybe next visit, I'll take a look closely!

An old Engine

Rescue boat!

Posing next to the racks of Firemen Uniforms.

We were told that the firemen use different uniform for different occasion.

The orange jacket (as seen in the picture above) is fire proof, so are the boots under it.

Not sure about the other attire, the patch of green and red.

Another uniform seen is blue (like the one the officer wore - shown at the photo below). Someone can explain please? (I left my memory bank somewhere)

This is the control room. This is where the '994' calls are received and they are able to identify the callers numbers. I wonder if that will solve the prank calls problem?

I was also told that there are few 'direct lines' from certain department around KK; no need to dial. Bestnya... esp if it links to my house directly.. teeheehee

Kakak Michelle taking care of Baby C

After walking around for one hour or so, the kids were exhausted. When we arrived home, lil C was bragging to everyone at home about his visit to the Fire Station. He then whispered to me, "Mama, next time, can we go and visit the Police Station?" hahahaha! He was already planning ahead. Hmmm... I dont have any police friend to visit... :D

Evaluation: I dont expect much out of a 4 year old kid with this visit. He was running around with his cousins, excited about the red machines! He got excited when he saw the roller shutter! He got excited to see the TTL & long ladders. I think the visit were educational, even for us adults. Unfortunately, this wasnt an Open Day so we cant see any fireman in action. Maybe next time!

This is all for now. Will post more activities later.

HFMD strikes again

Latest update: Lil C had HFMD last week Monday, the third time in three years. The third day after Lil C got it, Baby C was also infected. Thank God that this time, it was very mild. There wasnt any fever, just blister inside the mouth & a couple on their palms and lack appetite to eat.

There's no medicine to give, just some mouthwash to asisst oral hygiene and a lot of liquid to prevent dehydration. We gave icecream, chilled milk.. basically anything that the kids wanted to eat, because during this period, they refused most kind of food.

After a week quarantined the kids at home, the symptom had cleared and the kids started to gain their appetite again. Good news too that it started raining few days back which cooled the atmosphere a bit, so we went out to the garden to work play.

p/s Lil C missed school for 2 weeks because I didnt want to send a 'sick' child to school, and I was making sure that he is 100% healed. The best thing about it was there was no whining / nagging about hurrying a reluctant child to school.. hehehe

Out at the garden, baby C having his apple snack

Lil C helping kungkung to trim the Starfruit branches

hmm.. can you see how skinny has he been?

While baby C busied himself collecting some cut branches..

"Look, I found a tiny Starfruit!"

"Mama, I think I found the ants' nest!" while baby C was also busy looking at it too.

Using the Spindle Box  work on simple maths

A Montessori spindle box is wooden with ten compartments numbered zero to nine along the back. The lesson also includes 45 wooden spindles and is intended for children who have already done some work with number rods and numeral cards. This lesson introduces the concept of zero and helps children associate the numbers zero through nine with their proper quantities.

This is funny. Lil C made this using his Lepao blocks. He claimed that the people in Hong Kong used this tool (a long time ago) over their shoulder to carry water buckets... hahaha! He specifically mentioned Hong Kong, but I think he meant chinese people.. He must have seen some of my Chinese History books with old photos.. lol!

Yes, he too love to scribble!

Badminton, anyone?

Using tennis balls?? hahaha! I think the kids are confused between Federer & Chong Wei

Monkey see, monkey do

Lil C built a hovercraft complete with the air-cushion underneath it, after watching about it in Discover Channel earlier.

While baby C playing along

Lil C built a truck, with reference to his Truck book (on the left)

Did some craft with paper & starch-glue, trying to make a soldier steel helmet.. lol!

Sketched a house plans, while described the details to me.. quite impressive!

Yeah, have no time to blog nowadays... Those are just some activities we did at home.. Tomorrow, we are going to the Wildlife Park !! yeay!