Karmen's 2nd Birthday Party

Last Saturday was Shean Wenn's friend, Karmen's 2nd birthday and her parents : my friend Michelle & her husband Simon held a BBQ for her big day!

Everyone has a role to play in this party :

1. Meng, the BBQ Chef! Thanks to my hubs (the Australian BBQ Connoiseur), we get chicken wings just grilled to perfection, frankfurters that are crunchy on the outside but still maintained its moisture inside, and juicy pork steaks (he commented that the steaks were cut too thick, should've been thinner - all bow to his vast knowledge in BBQ! Hail the BBQ snob!)

2. SK the Engineer : DIY man-of-the-day, SK managed to fix up the trike we got for Kaka's birthday in record time! (Uhhh.. that's in between complaining of hunger and how the manual is mocking him :P) Thanks to him, the kids who roamed around the garden that sunny saturday got to ride on it safely, and gleefully!
3. Shean Wenn, the chic gardener : Hey, teddy needs to get somewhere, doesn't he?
4. Tsu Lin : Trying to set up the choc fondue but it failed miserably - oh wells... but at least a few of us got to use it before the choc got hardened and stuck on the machine.
Garden roamers : The kids absolutely loved all the garden toys and basking in the sun! (Tobey pushing birthday girl Kaka while SW stops to pose with her frankfurters!) This is the first time SW is actually POSING infront of the camera - I think she didn't do too badly, did she?
ML & I with the kids! After all their hardwork, it's time to sit and enjoy with a can of beer. The mummies Cake cutting ceremony : With the cake made by our friend Jessica who's pursuing a course in cake-making and will be happy to take orders soon!



------------ Me & my dear daughter who's testing out Karmen's new trike (A pressie from us).

Opening presents time : Shean Wenn is always eager to help! :)

Goody bag from Karmen : SW is more interested in what's in her goody bag than returning Kaka's kiss!! Oh, my little girl!
HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY little Karmen!

(All photos courtesy of Michelle Kong)

Her favourite toys : A Review

Some compilation of her favourite toys : Age 19-22 Months Old

1. LIGHT & SOUND PHONICS by Inspiration Works UK Ltd

A Christmas gift by the Chip-Peas, she has taken to liking it alot. There are a few dials on top to select the mode of play your child will want to play with. I say play but it's highly educational as well. Currently, I find the mode of "Find the 1st letter of the word" suits her best. Basically, the voice will ask, "Can you find the first letter of the word... " and when you press the right answer, it will say encouragingly "Well done! You found the first letter of the word....." So far, she can identify most of the items on the board.

Pros : Helps build vocab & identify objects (for her age, but it will also help older kids to identify the alphabets & numbers, depending on which mode you choose). Also help develop motor skills (pressing the right button upon identifying the answer!).
Cons : No volume switch. There was one period where she absolutely HAS to use it EVERY morning, before lunch, after lunch, daytime, night time! And becaus eyou can't tune it down, it's always at that volume. (*Tsu Lin pulling her hair out!!**)




2. WOODEN ALPHABET PEG PUZZLES Hand crafted, by Melissa & Doug



A gift from MIL/Daphne (SIL in Thailand), it's made of solid wood construction & have pictures under every piece of alphabets.

She can correctly place the right alphabet onto the right slot, ie A into the A slot, and so on. (I was pleasantly impressed!! She doesn't fail to amaze me :P)

She's identified almost every object on the board and daddy has been diligently teaching her new words every night. I was surprised few weeks ago, when she pointed to X-ray and told me "X!". She also knows the words Ring, Tie, Vine, Whale, Key & Leaves from there.

Pros : Great for motor skills & identifying shapes/objects/alphabets.
Cons : Whenever she tries to carry the board around with the pegs on it, everything falls off! MESSY! (How I wish they have magnets on it :P)

This is a video showing her slotting her alphabets into the correct positions



3. WOODEN BLOCKS by Hamley's

These 100 pieces wooden blocks were a gift for her 1st Birthday from Meng's friend. The MIL told me not to allow her to play with it at that age (12 MO) incase she slipped & fell on/from the pieces. I waited till she was more stable & less clumsy (still quite clumsy but slightly better now) at the ripe age of 18 Months Old before I let her played with it.

Besides making horizontal stacking, she also makes vertical stacking. I also find it amusing that she sometimes will put 3 blocks together & makes a train. How do I know it's a train? Because she pushes it around & says "Chooo chooo!"... The blocks are available in multi-colours and she also can identify her colours from it. The colours that she can identify now includes : Yellow (Nana, she says), Blue, Green, Purple, Orange (borange, she says), White & Red.

Pros : Need I say more... developing motor skills, colour identification, imaginary play that breeds creativity, the list goes on!
Cons : She will leave a block here & there just to annoy me for my daily exercise of bending down and picking them up!




4. MINI BUGGY/STROLLER from Asda

I recently decided to purchase a mini stroller for her because she seems to want to "do what the adults do" and searched high & lo for one "economical" stroller. I hunted for it in Tesco for at least 5 weeks before I realised they will never stock it up there :( and so went over to Asda on Monday to get it. It was the last one there and I'm so glad that I didn't have to pay more for it. (It was £4, if you must know) She has been happily pushing it around whenever I bring her down to the communal garden downstairs. Her dad has dis-allowed the stroller to be pushed around at home because it may damage the laminated flooring.

Pros : Helps in her pretend play.
Cons : -


Stress-testing the mini-buggy : Going over the manhole cover? PASS!


Stress-test 2 & 3 : Stroller going onto the grass & on tough gravel ground - both PASS!


On another note : HAPPY 22nd Month Old, our precious Shean Wenn! xoxo mum & dad :)

Spring : Season of fun!

Date : 21 Mar 09
Temperature : 15c
Weather : Sunny

Two reasons why we decided to head out to the park last Saturday! Glorious sun (not gonna last as I just checked and starting tomorrow for the next 4 days there are rain clouds!), perfect for spending the day outdoors. After lunch, Meng drove us to a new park - somewhere we've not been to, a park at South of the River Thames.





She, obviously enjoying basking in the sun, jumped up & down imitating the duck's quack and hopped around like a kangaroo or a bunny (see photo below of her "being" a bunny). My little <開 心 果> "hoi sum gor" (cantonese for "Happy Chappy"), she is.




There were ducks & fowl aplenty in the park and Shean Wenn, being an animal lover (she knows most of the animals in her book, even different kinds of birds - ie she knows her owls frm her parrots) went close to have a look at duck & geese swimming in the pond. But then, suddenly the geese started to honk! She retreated and pat her chest signalling she is scared! Haha.. that was funny. I guess she can't tell from the books or telly how loud a goose can honk!

We strolled around and allowed her to play in the kid's playground for awhile. And slowly walked back to the car. Overall, a very pleasant 2 hours to spend a Sunny Saturday outdoors.

Attending playgroup

It's been almost 2 months since I brought her back to Children's Garden for the weekly playgroup. Michelle came over to pick us up and we arrived a little late. After taking the coat off Shean Wenn, I asked her to go in to play.. she walked heading to the class but made a u-turn back when she saw the group of parents and kids (quite alot of people that day). She was overwhelmed, most likely, by the familiar setting (classroom) but unfamiliar faces! She hugged onto me and was reluctant to go into the class.

I prodded her along and reassured her that it's ok, go play with Kaka. She wanted to stick to me instead. That day, we were making some felt jewellery for the kids. I grabbed onto a heart-shaped felt, took along some felt string and a metal bell. I devised what design I wanted to make and did as fast as I could.. but, unfortunately my sewing is still BAD. In the end I had to take it home to continue working on it. One of the girl's nanny sitting opposite me came to the table for the last 10minutes (she was reading her papers at the corner before this) and FINISHED a necklace for the girl in that short 10minutes! I peeked at her sewing and it looked great. Hmmm.... some people just have all the crafty stuff sorted.

That day was one of the kid's 1st birthday, her parents, BOTH of them came to the playgroup bringing a cake & some yummy samosas to be shared. During mealtime, as with our usual meal of fruits & rice biscuit, there were of course, samosas & the cake. SO satisfying (because in the mornings I always rush out and don't get to eat my breakfast). Then it was outdoor time and I put on Shean Wenn's waterproof jacket and let her head outside - this time, I let her "go wild"! I took her to the sandbox and she proceeded to entertain herself in it!

(Shean Wenn in her Ferrari suit with Kaka the fashion-diva)

(The little girl on the left is Ka Yee, isn't she a beauty - look at the big round eyes and her jetblack hair!)



Shean Wenn enjoying herself in the sandpit!

GOING HOME NOW! Let's hold hands.. Both mommies love looking at how they hold hands while walking although it slows us down to a snail pace! :D

Snow Snow Snow....

It feels like christmas this CNY! Yesterday, as we were in our friend's house having "Lo Sang" (my first Yee Sang this CNY), it started snowing.. little by little, the grounds were covered in specks of snow. Last night it continued to snow covering an inch on the ground, I see kids making snowman/snow angels outside the window.




This morning I dressed Shean Wenn warmly and put on her boots and made our way down.

Someone had already made a snowman bigger and taller than SW! She was abit puzzled by the snow, but as soon as she saw the snowman, she said "Mow-man!" (Snowman). She tried to touch it, she stood at the spot for a long time, putting her hand out & trying to catch the snow.. then she walked around abit, fell on her knees! It's sooo cold!

Walking carefully in the snow...

After 10 minutes outside, I was feeling cold and so, I asked her to go back inside. She reluctantly followed. She was still looking at the snow as we walked back up.

(Everything is covered in snow!!)