Pretend play: Ice cream shop

I was thinking of creating some simple trays for Lil Dragon 

and this recycled can was one of them.

I used it with Tiger loooong ago for inserting pom-poms and you know what?

He saw the can and asked for the same activity.

Sometimes, when people say things like, 

"Ai yah...the kid is only 2. He won't remember laaa."

 I usually respond with a polite but fake smile.

We have too many pom-poms to fit into the can, 

so I asked if he wanted to do anything else.

"Ice Cream Shop"

Okie Dokie  :)

In a flash, I gathered:

A box

Some bowls

Spoons

Real money

He asked for a "kapi-ruler"

"A what????"

"KA-PI-RU-LER"

"????"

"I count and press press one"

"Calculator?"

"YES!"

"OMG, what do you call a caterpillar then?"

"Ummm, ka-ti-ruler"  He ROFL

His ice cream, regardless of flavour or size; are all

RM 55,555,555

"Mama, five ringgit"

"Four ringgit can?"

"Can. Discount 1%"

"Actually, 1% discount would be 4.95"

I demonstrated on the 'kapiruler' and his eyes went, "WOW!"

I love being super mom.

Instead of 'study', we played ice cream shop for 3 consecutive days.

He offered to sort the colours.

Then, we debated over a dull green pom-pom. He insisted it was grey.

We decided on the flavors and created a menu together.

When we mix all the flavors together, the concoction is called L.O.V. E.

So corny, kan? But I like, I really do....

Messy Art: Bathroom Art Material Setup

 

This setup is probably the reason why I never shower alone anymore.

 Top (from left to right):
Brushes*
Crayola Window Markers
ELC Bath Crayons
ELC Knob brushes
Water Gun from Toy R us

Bottom:
Pebeo Brand Finger paint (blue, red, green, yellow)
Crayola BRIGHT Finger paint
Spray cans

*Brushes: The blue and yellow brushes are M&D Jumbo brushes. Good quality.  The handles are rounded and large (like my butt). I bought them ages ago from Mothercare (sale lar, of course) when Tiger was very young so that he doesn't poke himself in the eye. Eye patches only look good on pirates. Same theory applies to the knob brushes.

Recently, I bought some cheap ones from Becon. (Used here as well). Comes in 3 different sizes. The brushes were okay in terms of painting but do be careful when washing up as the metal edges are not tucked into the wood.

 We are so in love with the new Crayola Bright colours.

I named them;

Emerald

Tangerine

Turquoise

and 

Purple (yawn...) He insisted.

Gotta love the colours! 

Remember to look for BRIGHT on the box if you want these.

The Crayola Brand (RM 39)  is more runny compared to the Pebeo ones (RM 49 from craft shop) but they both work fine. I personally like finger paint because you don't have to add water and the consistency is easy for toddlers to apply. Also, they come in tubes, so Tiger can help himself.

We encourage free art expression. I don't believe or intend to send Tiger for Art Classes. Here's someone more experienced and better writing skills; putting my thoughts into perspective. Do read it Janet Lansbury

Parenting: Split Personality

Toddlers...sigh....their erratic behavior will be the death of me.

In a single day......

Tiger without Grandma 
We can go for  ice cream, book stores or my workplace when its just the two of us. Sometimes, I bring him along when I shop for clothes. He even picks out clothes for me. If you think I dress weird, you now know the reason. In other words, ***angel***

"Mama, I love you"
I shall put on my seat belt.
Mama, I want to read.
/m/ /a/ /t/ mat, etc
Removes/put on own shoes
Goes potty alone
Speaks in proper sentences


Tiger WITH Grandma   
One word: ***barbaric***

"Mama. You go away"
I WANT MICKEY MOUSE SHOES. NOW!!!!!
I want bread. Then, I want ice cream. Complete act with full blown tantrum and  epileptic like kicks.
You. Take off my socks. Now.
Come see me pee. Now.
Too hot
Then, too cold.
Speaks in a language understood only by monkeys.


I feel like pulling my hair out followed by head banging on wall sometimes. Usually I just use my special "LASER EYES LOOK" reserved for bad behavior.  He usually gets the message but last night, I was driving out of the shopping complex after my maid completed her shopping (She is going back to Cambodia for 2 weeks. Btw, you will never guess what she bought).

It is routine for him to insert the parking ticket but in view of his bad attitude, I explained, "Bad behavior = no ticketing". Privilege withdrawn. Obviously he has selective hearing because he started bawling and of course, he got his way. Think MIL. The best part, he wanted to insert the ticket AGAIN. Hello?

I turned into Tiger Mom (voice pitch and volume up a notch, maybe several notches) and these were my exact words,

"Why are you behaving like this? Are you a monkey? Do you think I have nothing better to do than going into the parking lot again just so that you can have another ticket? I won't. Understand?"

With a quivering voice, he replied, "Yes. I understand"

No crying, no tantrum, no turning to Grandma. Back to being my angel again.

On the other hand, Lil Dragon is always angelic :) Aaah, babies...gotta love'em.

Oh, my maid bought false eyelashes...ha ha...of all things to buy. And mascara.

Messy Play: Scented Sand Sensory Box

First of all, I am so thrilled that Tiger has finally accepted sand as 'clean'

He is okay with touching it but sitting in a sand pit is still a big no-no.

So, it would be pointless to buy a sand pit with cover.

They are freaking expensive. 

Instead, we used an IKEA Antonius box with lid for our sand play.

It is just the right size too for 500 gm of sand.

A lid is especially important if you don't want the cat to think its a litter box.

We speak from experience.

The initial game plan was to play archaeologist.

Tiger was like, "Arrrr what?"

"No nice"

So, we added dinosaurs and things from the garden.

The strands of pandan leaves gave the sand a lovely scent.

Pandan is an aromatic plant used in Southeast Asia cooking.

We may use this to scent everything else :)

 

We were busy scooping when it started raining halfway.

Tiger had the most urgent need to wash the gardening tools

He also decided that you only live once and playing in the rain is part of his bucket list.

Mommy agrees.

Can you tell we are so enjoying 'classes' outdoors?

Pretend play: Supermarket

I LOVED pretend play as a kid. 

My siblings and I didn't have a lot of props,

 so we had to use our imagination.

Having kids is like reliving my childhood.

I am a big kid at heart, which explains my addiction to my babies.

And this blog.

Here is the Supermarket using his train table and Ikea desk:

We have 'fresh' produce, canned/bottled goods, fresh eggs

and some 'homemade' candies

 


He was especially proud of the candies we made with his
one and only Playdoh set and green homemade dough.
So, must display nicely...

I predicted that would be the BESTSELLERS.
{They were! There was one crazy lady who bought every last piece!}

Purple rack: Daiso

 In every great business, there must be advertisement.

Money you cannot scrimp.

Of course in reality, RM 1 for everything would bankrupt us.

But hey, this is pretend play and it's easy for my young storekeeper

to write his bill.

 

On opening day, business was really good.

The same crazy lady came back, like, 5 times.

 He is wearing a tag that says 'Manager'

&

helping the lady with her Shopping List.

I decided to use an abacus instead of a calculator

Writing a receipt.

See why everything is 1 ringgit?

Packing the customer's goods.

 

We exchanged roles but he refused to gimme the 'Manager' tag.

Here's the reality.

Despite the elaborate planning, he will only play when I invite him.

And he kept asking Grandma what she wanted...he he....

Otherwise, he is like, "Play ball, mama!"

No creativity, this one.

So, we play ball :)

Outdoor Learning: Our New Classroom

Hubs bought this rocker/table from ToyRus a month ago.

According to him, this was a superb purchase, 2-in-1.

I believe it was the alcohol talking.

Thanks to him (our main sponsor), we now have an outdoor classroom

Yay!

It is also near Tiger's plants, so that he remembers to water them on a daily basis.

Rocker/table RM 299. No discount. Boo!

We have used it to make playdough, painting, etc.

Mostly messy stuff that would have driven me mad indoors.

After class, I just hose down the entire thing.

I mentioned salt writing sometime back, remember?

It drove me mad trying to sweep up those that ended up on the floor.

My lousy hand held vacuum could only do dust :(

When I took the box outdoor for our second attempt.....

 Hoot! Hoot!

Salt on the floor?

No problemo!

So good for my blood pressure :)

We used it to write Chinese characters from 1 to 10

"er"  (2)

"san"  (3)

 Then,  I thought..."Hey, this is not messy enough"

So, we did this too :)

We added some coloured chalk shavings

 

 Blue salt!

Genius, right?

Just like colored sand. Only way cheaper.

I love Pinterest :)

Messy Art: Bathroom Picasso

Since I am too tired/lazy/busy for art with Tiger these days,

we started doing more in the shower.

Art stuff we keep in the bathroom:

1. Finger paint

2. Paintbrushes

3. Bath crayons

4. Window markers

5. Water gun

6. Spray can

 On this day, I painted the wall red and gave him some clay modelling tools

We scrapped patterns.

 I bought a pack like this from Popular for about RM 5, I think.

 

Before washing, I will use the wall for some learning.

When we first started, he usually requested for randomly painted alphabets.

Then he will find A to Z and shoot them with the water gun.

Then it was some CVC words.

Now, we spell out words like chocolate, calculator, I love you, etc

This is me being creative with the S3

Usually we do this butt naked but for modesty's sake, he was allowed a shirt.

Vocabulary/Spelling/Art + Fun = Happy Mom

He enjoys doing this on a daily basis.

Even when I am just in the toilet for a No 2, he will be bugging me,

"So hot.....shower?"

Montessori: Mystery Bag

The mystery bag is probably the easiest Montessori material to DIY.

Unless you have a buying problem, like me, this is easily replicated with a bag

and objects around the house. 

Ours was purchased from kids.net (can't find it on their site anymore)

The mystery bag is used for refining the stereognostic sense.

The proper steps are outlined here at infomontessori

The prerequisite for this task would be the

 child already know the names of the items.

To start with, you can use different objects with different textures,

sizes and shapes.

To reinforce his sight words, I turned the puzzles pieces over, 

so that only the names are visible.

They were simple ones like:

Shape: square, circle, triangle, heart, cross

Animals: dog, cat, cow, sheep, rabbit, 

Transportation: car, train, aeroplane, bicycle,

Despite very gentle instructions to feel and and not see,

the half-monkey was cheating.

He wanted to pick out the Oppa Gang man Style aka human

 

Finding 'human'.

We took turns, so that I can demonstrate.

We also used this to practise his HSP.

He guessed everything wrongly...because he was in the mood to....

 

shake his bum bum....

So,  I recorded his video (which he loves)

And we ended up like this.

I guess it is no mystery how much I adore this half monkey. 

Little Tiger: 2 Years 9 Months

He's turning 3 in 3 months :)

This will be mostly an anecdotal record for him.

As a busy 2 year old, his daily personalities include:

1. The Bully

"Mama. Today I beat mei-mei three times"

"The head, hand and poke eyes"

That was a lie. I confirmed with Grandma.

Either that or Grandma's the liar.

2. The Boss

"Kakak, come here. This one you throw. This one you keep. Later I want use"

3. The Interior Decorator

"Mama. I help you clean."

Move toys around 

Mom roll eyes and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I help. Wait let me think first"

4. The Potty User

"Today Tiger so clever. I use potty to ta pian"

Really?

"Yes. I ta pian little bit only"

Shows me about a centimeter between his thumb and forefinger.

That is in fact the truth.

Still has issues pooping into the potty.

5. The Pacifier Addict

"Nai-nai, I wan cuit-cuit"

"Cannot. Ask your mama"

I will usually deploy some massive distraction.

One day, his craving was so bad,

 he pop mei-mei's tiny MAM one into his mouth.

6. The Courteous

He has been saying "thank you" without prompting.

Thank God!

7. The Crazy

"Mama, I tell you, I LURVE mei mei"

Next second, "Eh NOOOOO ah, don't come here. Go away"

Five minutes later, "Mei mei so cute"

then

"I no like you"

Repeat 20x

8. The Gatal 

He is a superb poser now.

Fake smile and all 

 9. The Accountant

His latest 'it' thing

The calculator

10. The Musician?

We went for YAMAHA trial class last week and he nailed it, like spot on, okay?

Did everything he was supposed to and I was practically salivating to pay for registration when the lady at the counter said,

"Oh, he is the one who is not yet three right?"

Oh Shit. Should I lie? 

"Err yeah. He will be three in June" I added hopefully.

The lady replied solemnly, "Wait for July class lar. 

His hands won't be strong enough"

Seriously, I very nearly wanted to strangle the woman because:

1. Tiger is bigger than most of the other three year olds.

2. He has the fattest baby hands

3. I called the center at 5.30 pm to ask about trials and she said "Come at 7 o'clock lar" Therefore, I did not eat or wash my greasy hair.

4. Most importantly, he LOVED the class.

Patience is a virtue...I know...I was probably too hungry and greasy.

Little Dragon: 8 Months

I LOVE documenting a baby's development in the first year.

It's like they are all super human.

Imagine if we continue to develop at such a phenomenal rate?

Astounding, huh?

<<< >>>

My Super Girl is 8 months old.

Last night, wide awake at 2 AM

I tried inducing sleep with boobs....failed.

So, I joined her in making a ruckus to irritate a snoring Papa.

Serves him right.

At 8 am this morning.....probably her most unflattering shot, ever

Sleep

She usually naps twice during the day BUT sometimes (like last night)

she decided to 'nap' from 8-10 PM.

Needless to say, the maid got an earful from me.

Sorry man, if I come home from work at 10.30 PM,

the last thing on my mind is to play puppy with my cutie pie.

Luckily for Lil Dragon, her mom has no principles when it comes to her.

Oh yeah......we played till 2 AM.

She is still addicted to the boobs and I am addicted to her smell.

Soooo.....this is going to be tough BUT I like.

Physical

She is going to grow up to be a......

a. body builder

b. wrestler

c. Wing Chun master

d. All of the above

At 8 months old, she is able to stand independently, momentarily.

She generally gets into a squatting position before pushing up on her legs

into a wide-legged stance for 2 seconds

She is able to take baby steps with support 

Oh, she 'fights' with Tiger now.

Mini tug-of-wars

Shouting at each other.

And she makes faces too...

Especially when displeased.

Frankly, she scares me a little.

I can foresee a lot of trouble with this feisty one.

No idea where all these attitude came from ><

Social

Guess who is her favorite person in the whole wide world?

Her chummy?

Her best friend?

Yeah....ME!

She probably factored in the BOOBS into the equation

but hey....I'll take it!

Play is serious business for this little girl.

She LOVES toys.

Can't stay away from them...hehe....definitely got it from me.

Speech

Papa wins here. 

Hands down

Everything is 'papapa'

The remote

The stacking toy

The papa

The mama

Occasionally, she mumbles mama....

then its goo gawaa na eh ak wahhhhhhh

yeah....that's about it.

Diet

She is more adventurous when it comes to tickling her taste buds.

She takes a bowl of porridge twice a day.

3 servings of expressed breastmilk

2 servings of Enfalac A+ OR Snow Brand (whichever is available)

Unlimited fresh mama's milk at night.

Baby girls are sooooo adorable....

Sigh....

Just to keep up with my Crazy Mom persona.  
Here she is, in Tiger's class

Do I have to 'read'?

This is edible, right? Who cares...I will eat it anyway...

 This girl thinks that books are tasty.

Oh, so are Tiger's puzzle pieces...hehe

Tiger, rushing to save his beloved puzzle...

Love these munchkins to bits....

Outdoor play: Water guns and ping pong balls

Finally, the rainy season has passed by and we can now resume outdoor play again.

Hooray!

I love taking Tiger outside, even if it was for 5 minutes.

Otherwise, he becomes agitated and a little psychotic from being 

cooped up in the house all day.

Since I work during the weekdays and never see sunrise on weekends,

we usually do stuff in the evenings.

He loves going to the lake nearby to feed the tortoise and fish.

I think we created some of our best memories from simple walks.

Like the time he first got acquainted with the large husky named Bounty.

  

or

when he jumped up and down in glee with 

the biggest ear-to-ear grin in anticipation of feeding the tortoises

with some old bread.

Real simple things....

Last weekend, he wanted to play with his large water gun.

Since he was still coughing, swimming was out.

So, I took out some golf tees and ping pong balls for target practice.

It took a lot of coaxing for him to actually touch the tee and grass.

It was dirrrrty *roll eyes*

Pressing the tees in to the ground.

 

 Placing the ball gingerly

  

He kept laughing and giggling.

Best part for him was probably scooping water.

I tried to sneak in a science-y lesson of sink or float

with the balls and a stone.

He thought I meant sink to wash up and threw everything inside.

He he....kids.

 

Since we are in a tropical country and Dengue fever is as common as fast food,

we always apply this before leaving the house.

Mozzie Clear Lotion from Buds.

Every evening, Tiger would hold the tube in his hands 

and 'promote'

"We put this and go park, okay?"