The REALLY NOISY fishing game!

4 April 2010 : Shean Wenn @ 33 Months Old

This weekend being Easter Long weekend (Good Friday is a Bank Holiday* & Monday is a replacement holiday for Easter Sunday), saw us spending our Friday in a shopping mall. Meng went "mad" shopping for Shean Wenn at the toy dept.

Toy 1 : This "create & play" toy from ELC.

(Request of the day 5 Apr 2010 : A dog!)

It consists of chunky shapes, nuts & bolts and you can assemble & create various designs with it - the box gave many different ideas such as a robot, trucks, a car, shopping trolley & a wheelbarrow!

When we got home, SW excitedly told us she wants to build a car. Meng taught her what is a screwdriver & a spanner. And she helped out Meng with the whole project and was very very enthusiastic with it too. The next day, she asks daddy to make a truck for her. After seeing that there is a shopping trolley that she can also build with it, she requested us to help her build one. So, this time MUMMY dearest - the "engineer", had to help her out. I sat down with her & taught her the nuts & bolts too. The good thing is, daddy also taught her a system to arrange the nut & bolt together so she was very good at it. We build ourselves a nice looking trolley, but obviously not nice enough for her because she then "demanded" that I should put flowers on it. She looked for the flower petals in the box - and found it (I told her they didn't give it to us, but not satisfied with my answer, she rummaged until she found it!).

(Shean Wenn's very own shopping trolley - created with help from mummy!)

Toy 2 : THE VERY NOISY FISHING GAME!

Oh boy, the title says it all. Actually I have been telling Meng that Shean Wenn will sometimes swing her scribbler board by holding to its pen. When asked in horror what is she doing : she replies she is FISHING! Where did she get the idea from? I really don't know. But I was SO afraid she might swing it and it accidentally fly off from her grasp & hit herself, or the tv, or me! So Meng says let's just buy her a fishing game if we can find it. We managed to find one in Smyths and bought it straightaway . Meng also bought a Hello Kitty DVD, and 2 Wiggles DVD for her.

This is a video of her "fishing" - this was taken this morning, her first morning playing with it! She is very excited because everytime she comes home from outside, she will run to find it and sit down & fish!



NOTE : * Bank Holiday = Public Holiday

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 :)

New Toy

Measuring 15 x 8cm, her latest favourite "toy" is this piece of bubble wrap she found one day. I don't even know where she found it, it must've been stuck around the book shelf and she got hold of it. During the days, when she has tire of her other toys, she'll bring out her new "toy", and start bursting the bubbles - "split splat" is all I hear. Sometimes she gets creative and goes stomping on it! I tell her nicely not to step on it, not because it's rude and may cause her to fall but because the tiny sheet of bubble wrap would have all its bubbles burst if she goes on like this. This is like the best ever toy!

Sadly, a few days later during one Saturday morning as I was getting the both of us ready to go out, Shean Wenn decides to toss her bubble wrap into the bin. I was like, "BUT WHY?". I opened the bin again to have one last look at it. Obviously there isn't any bubbles left to be burst. Bye bye bubble-wrap, it was good while it lasted.

When we came back from shopping in the afternoon, I saw her happily bringing out a NEW BIGGER piece and went on happily playing....

(Shean Wenn with "Bubble Wrap version 2" - bigger & improved version)

This little girl!!! I'm so amazed at the things she can find to amuse herself. And this is definitely one fo the cheapest toys and it really keeps her occupied for a good 15minutes.

Psst....

* Edited *

(Unazukin Clover and Momiji Mika sharing a secret)

It's Bank Holiday Monday this coming Monday, so it's a long weekend for us. Yayy!

Ours will be one filled with visits to the London Aquarium, some sight-seeing, and some spot of shopping (mostly grocery shopping I foresee, since the broken fridge has been regas-ed and repaired temporarily). I hope I get to eat some cakes too. BTW, they will be sending us a new fridge soon. Thanks Hoover (thanks insurance, phew)!

(BTW, if you are visiting London Aquarium, don't forget to bring your Oyster Card - 2 for the Price of 1 paying adult.)

What will your weekend be like? No matter what, have a safe and great one.

PS : "Models" are my latest craze for Jap dolls - I found out that they are retailing the Nina Zimmerman designed Momiji Dolls at the local retailer and got my first one. Meet Mika (She can keep a secret). The Unazukin doll, on the other hand, is from E-Bay, my first successful bid.

The Little "Souz Chef"

The past 2 months, I noticed Shean Wenn has been having a little "separation anxiety". Our apartment is quite small and when i put her in her playpen, she will be able to see me even if i moved into the kitchen. i really do not see a reason why she would want to scream for me, or if she isn't "impris*ned", she would drop everything that she is doing and crawl into the kitchen to look for me.

This might explain why... Perhaps my Shean Wenn has been busy learning essential "living skills" while being with mummy in the kitchen.

Or perhaps, she just have the "Wong" genes (as demonstrated by her cousin Marwin, who displays a flair for "cooking" with his own set of kitchen)....

We were at ELC today, with intention of buying a gift for SW's friend who's birthday party is next weekend. We lingered for an hour or more in the store. The hubs saw this kitchen set and put SW down to gauge her reaction to it - she was really enthusiastic about it! Look...

(Ratatouille peeking at the Little Souz Chef at work)

SW was actually using a ladle/spoon to "stir-fry" a lemon in a "wok" - which is actually a sink!



She, mimicking the ways of pottering around the kitchen : At one point, she even kneeled down to open the "cabinet" underneath the sink to take out some dishes from the "dishwasher".

("I really love this")

And when it was time to go back, hubs had to literally tear her away from the kitchen set! She gave out a loud scream and kicked her legs in protest. By golly, I didn't know she would be SO ENTHUSIASTIC about it!

The set costs £60, but they are currently running a promotion in-store that when you buy the kitchen set, you get a free accessory set worth £30 (plus, I have a £5 off voucher to spend instore for June).

Personally, I would have preferred her to enjoy playing with garage sets or those boys' tools kit. But well... if she likes this, she likes this.


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