Healthy Snacking : Easy Peasy Carrots

Sometimes instead of giving her biscuits, bread with cheese/peanut butter, or cheese sticks as her snack, I boil some vegetable sticks instead. It is so much more healthy that way, and Shean Wenn does enjoy her vege-sticks so much!

Just look at her....

"I love it!"

("Lemme sip some water")

.. continue snacking!

Preparation : It's easy, I just cut them into bite-size sticks, boil water, put them in & add a pinch of salt. 5 minutes later, drain n let cool & serve! There are so many variety of vegetable I can use : Carrot, Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Potato or even peas.

It is also a great snack for out & about, and as one of my friend put it, "the kids don't get to eat much vegetable when you dine out, esp in an ang moh restaurant" (This is in UK, of course - you usually get a serving of salad at the side : cold, raw vegetable which their tiny tummies may not be able to tolerate). So, I have also done what she recommended, boil the veges the night before your day out, store it in the fridge and just before you head out of the house, grab them container. It's a great snack for them!

(Left : Tombliboos cutlery, Right : Fun at the Zoo animal pots)

Look at these goodies I found from Mothercare . I know SW will love both of them, Tombliboos are one of the characters in "In The Night Garden" and the pots with cute animal prints would be great for storing her snacks... one for every other day!

19 Months Old : A rebel?

At 19 months-old and my BABY DAUGHTER (she is and always will be our baby!) has already turned into a teenager! Grrr.... *exhausted*

She fusses, she screams for attention, sometimes she brushes you off.

During lunch today
I feed her a spoonful of rice saying "Sek fan la." (Eat rice la) - my attempt at establishing "chinese vocab" in my young daughter.

She says "Rice!" - so much for my attempts!

After a few bites, she demands "Chic-chen!" (translate : chicken). I obliged. She eats happily... then.. "SOUP!". LOL! Well, at least she likes her soups - that is a very good chinese habit. :D


Near dinner-time
Me busy in the kitchen. She comes and screams at the kitchen entrance, walks into the kitchen (we have trained her not to do so, she is clearly testing her boundaries, this lady!), reverses out when I scream "OUT Shean! No coming into the kitchen".

She puts both her hands up in the air, frustrated that I am not giving her any attention. Punches the air/rolls on the floor/throwing her toys around in fits of tantrum. I stop what I am doing when she throws her toys, goes out and tells her firmly "No throwing your toys. Pick it up NOW". She relents after a few scolding. I make her say sorry. She mumbles "Bor-wee" (sorry?).

These days, she also puts out both her hands and says "Pou pou!" (a little accented, may I add.. meaning "Carry me" in cantonese), everytime I am busy.

The terrible twos has started, hasn't it?


BEDTIME : Daddy putting her to bed
Dad kisses her good night and covers her with a blanket. He looks lovingly at his perfect-in-everyway daughter... and she says "GO!" and pointing him to the door!

Meng comes running to me, complaining of her rushing him out now. Heh!

(Shean Wenn's "GO!" ala "You're fired", Apprentice-style)

On another more visual note, here are some photos of us swimming after New Year's



Photos above : You can clearly see Shean Wenn in her "swimming chair" while Karmen is using her swimming tube which I MUST add, is such a great product for babies this age. It is essentially like a swimming ring, but designed so well that it has a clasp to open and close so you can put your baby's head in it easily, strap her on and she's on her way to great paddling motion!

On a side note, if you notice in the background of the photos, we are facing the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome for those who didn't keep up to date after leaving England in 2000 :P)

Photos below : Look how happy Shean Wenn is, using it! She was practically focussing ONLY on her kicks! See the bubbles splashing around us??? She was just kicking and kicking, stopping only to check her toes ;)

My friend Michelle is selling it (Suitable from birth to up to 18kg). Do drop me an e-mail at tsulinplusplus[at]gmail.com to enquire.

Happy Chinese New Year : Spring of Hope!

Credits : Freebie Quickpage by Armina Designs

In her new dress morning of first day of Chinese New Year 2009.

"Wishing you a year of abundance and health!"





"Make sure you protect your eyes too!"

(Enjoying her sweet "kam")

Year of the Ox : Wishing you a meaningful & healthy new year and may all your wishes come true!

from our family.

18 Months Old : What is SW doing now?

She turned 18 months old on 24th Dec 2008, Christmas Eve.

Stats :
WEIGHT - around 11kg
HEIGHT - 68cm


Speech & understanding
As with most 18MOs, she can understand alot of basic daily speech and can/will reply you with a verbal answer, or with an action, or both!

Book & Reading : She loves them to bits and can indulge in reading for a long time, many times a day. Typical scenario of a day with SW - Mummy resting on the couch, SW toddles along, slams a book on my tummy/chest/nose declaring "BOOK!", me looking at her in alarm and she telling me "Up!" (to indicate she wants to climb up on me so that I can read to her) while climbing up and sitting on my tummy. This kid is getting heavy, everytime she sits her bum on me, I can feel my inerts being crushed. Ouch!

Daddy has also been teaching her a few funky stuff, ie the numbers (1, 2 & 3 only, let's not confuse her too much) and she also knows the "musical note" saying "MUSIC!". One rubbish that he taught her was where is her bum-bum and she will respond by turning around and patting her bum with her hands!

Here is a video of Shean Wenn reading with daddy.



Especially at this age, repetition is crucial for them because it is how they will absorb information - repeating what she learns from yesterday, an hour ago or 2 days ago. She reinforces her learning by also chanting the new words every now and then. What I do is to repeat after her, sometimes to correct her, but never with too many confusing words (ie, I don't string long sentences, I say something to the point so she catches the main part of what is important, for example instead of saying "This is a blue fish swimming in the big ocean", I say "FISH swim swim in the sea".)




MOTOR SKILLS

Eating :
Getting there, she can feed herself better although still with alot of mess and her spoon usually turns downwards upon reaching her mouth. Very annoying to watch, but I leave it to her most of the time because I want her to learn it at her own pace. She will point to her spoon, or even fork and say "Poon" (spoon). I will correct her everytime she says the fork as spoon..

Pulling/Pushing :
From around 16MO till now, she likes toys that can be pulled or pushed. Pulling toys include the wooden caterpillar my parents gave her for her 1st b'day, it is very noisy and can drive us up the walls... but I think she likes that it makes the clanking noise whenever she takes it for a walk. Pushing toys such as a mini-stroller also gives her a great amount of pleasure. Since we do not have one at home at the moment (she plays with her friends' mini-stollers at the mo), she makes do by pushing her kitchen set around the hall. It really reminds me of those "mamak stalls" or the aunties in the "pasar malam" (night market) pushing their carts around hawking their food. Meng teased her if she is selling "hokkien noodle" at the corner (corner of our couch, that is)!

I push you.... you push me! Child's play.

Role-Play :
She is learning alot about growing up by role-playing. Sometimes, I catch her forcing her Pooh Bear to drink water, and sometimes I see her using her toy spoon to feed pieces of blocks to Mr Pooh Bear! She is also a caring little girl, when she will bring Mr Pooh Bear to the couch and putting a blanket over him. Other role-playing activities she likes : "talking on the phone" (she will make do with anything as a phone, a piece of wooden block, a door stopper, my handphone, the pen-drive?), cooking up a storm in her "kitchen", holding a bag (like how I would hold mine) etc.

(Playing with her kitchen set)

"Mom, let me help you with your bag!"

SIGNS OF BEING INDEPENDENT
She goes to the shoe cabinet and brings out her shoes and tries to wear them as she sees her dad doing it, one hand holding on to something and her legs putting into the shoes, she usually gets it right. Sometimes she sits down on a box and put them on (like how mummy does it). She tries to wear her own clothes, and sometimes she pulls off a shirt off the hanging laundry and tries to put it on herself (daddy's t-shirt, a few times she tried to wear daddy's pants).


INTERESTINGNESS
I noticed it since she was 7 months-old), she likes to be very engrossed and focussed on doing something, such as clasping the clasp of a baby-chair/high-chair/stroller/shopping trolley. At around 11MO, she succeeded first time putting in the clasp of her baby rocker chair. I was very impressed... until now, she still likes doing it, focussing on doing up and sometimes (very rare) undoing the clasps. She also likes to lie down on the floor looking up to her musical-rocker (like how a mechanic checks the car chassis) and there are two little hinges there which is supposed to be clipped onto the back of the piano, but she will lie there, focussing on unclipping the hinges and then putting them back on again and unclipping it... she can do this for a long time. This really reminds me of my brother when we were young, how intently focussed he is on exploring and trying to figure out how things work. I hope this is an indication that my inquisitive little girl is a "thinker" ("how do I solve this?"). Maybe I can train her to solve the rubik's cube later on.. KEKEKE..