Wessex Children's Book Festival

There was a children's book festival held here over the weekend and went for a little look-see. I wasn't planning on buying anything because I don't want to ship a container of things back when we go back to Singapore (I'm already halfway to achieving that objective... damn Ebay!).

It was a small festival, but the nice thing about it was, you could meet authors and illustrators. And not just one or two, but a whole bunch of them over the 3 days. When I saw the festival brochure I really wanted to meet Axel Scheffler. He's the one who illustrated The Gruffalo.

I had no idea what to expect, so I thought he'd give a talk or walk around and interact with people. I didn't know he was going to sign books and I didn't know his queue would be SOOO long. I didn't have time to queue because I had to meet someone in half an hour. Argh!

So I walked out of the hall and was THIS CLOSE to going off. Then I thought, "What is wrong with you! If you don't buy a book and get it autographed, DN will never have another book actually signed by Axel Scheffler and you will kick yourself tomorrow when you finally wake up from whatever stupor you're in and it sinks into your thick skull that this is your only chance!" So I walked straight back in and almost crashed into Maisy (who seems to be saying, "OMG. Look where you're going lady!" in this picture).

There was a whole selection of books on sale and I finally chose this one written by Kate Perry and illustrated by Axel Scheffler - Rosie Plants A Radish. It's a lift-the-flap book, so I could show DN what goes on underground when you plant something. And of course, I'll help him plant something so he can actually track the growing process, and test his patience at the same time. LOL.

Ah! Cute!

So I bought the book, got a ticket for the signing and obediently joined the queue, staying passive and patient throughout because of my "queue training" in Singapore. The queue was moving SOOO slowly. I figured that everyone was giving him 10 books to sign. I mean, it'd make a good Christmas present, but still? How long does it take to scribble a signature into a book? Then I got near the front of the queue and understood why his queue was so long and so slow.

He drew a little illustration in every book that he signed! Compare the before and after picture!

Of course, the first thing that popped into my mind was, "Dang! I should have bought 5 more books!" And of course, now I'm not going to give the book to DN until he turns 10 12 16 21 ... wait a minute! When's that magical age when boys actually start taking care of their own things?

Duh!

When PF and DN get here, I'll still have 2 weeks of school, and that's 9-5pm Mondays to Thursdays and 9-12pm on Fridays. So I've been in a tizzy over what they're going to do while I'm in school. Winchester isn't exactly hip-central (read : there's only 1 fastfood outlet here - McDonald's) and the weather isn't exactly balmy here. (read : it's freakin' cold!) so they'll probably be spending a lot of time in the tiny, boring flat. That's why I bought the ELC toy, those books and have been keeping junk for art and craft. I don't even have a TV! So for two days, I was going about a happy, oblivious life while the financial world collapsed around me... but don't write me off just yet, I know who the new US president is!

Okay sorry, that was quite lame. Even a mushroom knows who the new president is. -_-

Anyway, I'm no longer freaking out about DN being bored out of his pants while he's here. And the solution was (literally) right in front of me all this while - my school library! I was there a few days ago to borrow some musical instruments for one of my projects and when I got to the floor with all the instruments, it was like stepping into second-hand ELC heaven.

Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot!

My hands were literally shaking with joy as I took these photos. When I found out that I could borrow up to 30 items on my library card, I wanted to leap around the library. And when I found out I could loan out items for up to a month, it made my goddam fees seem worth it! Almost. Erm, okay, NO. But it will help me feel (a little) better about my fees, knowing that I can stock up a play room at home, for FREE!

I can borrow big books. And these are literally BIG books. I remember using these when I taught in a primary school, but using them as the teacher was quite tricky. They're HUGE! And because I'm so short, the minute I sat down on the chair in front of the kids, the book came up to my eyebrows. But the little ones used to love them, so oh well.

I can borrow lego out too! *tremble*tremble*

Water toys! Okay, these might not be that ideal for 10 degree weather. Next!

Big-piece jigsaw puzzles! Sorry DN, but mommy is going to stimulate that brain of yours. Big time!

Ah... these I know DN will love. Fake food! There are bags and bags of fruits, vegetables and meat and there's this pizza set that I want to borrow for him. According to PF, he "makes" pizza every night now and strangely enough, it's become a bedtime routine. He puts all sorts of things onto his pizza - chicken, pork, eggs, carrots(!!). He then puts it in an imaginary oven (under the pillow) and PF will count to 10 before allowing him to take the pizza out. Then they feast! What a simple activity yes? But it's taught him his numbers, believe it or not!

There're other toys I can borrow out too - maths toys, geography toys, musical instruments. I'm going to make the most out of my school fees!

* My university happens to be a teaching college too. :)

Story Time

Ever since DN was a wee little one, we've been reading to him daily. Or nightly rather, because story time is part of winding down time before bed time. We know he loves story time because there are nights when he bargains with us - "One more! One more! One more!" and if we don't give in, starts crying. So yah, I think he likes story time.

It's good to know that we're doing something to cultivate a love for books in DN, but it also means that sometimes we short-circuit after reading "Froggy Bakes A Cake" 10 times in one night and do things like this to keep ourselves sane.

Sorry for the Blair Witch Project moments in the video. Funny lah!

Bedtime Routine

DN's bedtime routine has been the same since he was about 3 months old.

1. Either a bath or a wipe-down... it depends on his "stinkiness".
2. Then PF, DN and I hang out in DN's room and play with his puppets, soft toys & puzzles.
3. Next, storytime. If he's really tired, one book. If not, DN usually wants to read about five to ten books. Sometimes, it gets to a stage where we're saying, "Okay, only one more book DN. Last one. No more. All gone. Time for BED!" I'm glad he likes his books. :)
4. After the last book, it's a kiss for PF and me, and then I cuddle him to sleep.
5. Zzzzz...

For the past two nights, I wasn't around to put DN into bed. On Wednesday it was a school event at Jubilee Hall, and yesterday, I decided to go to the gym after work (my first time in two years, so I'm walking like C-P30 today). It felt nice to do it again tonight (putting DN into bed, not the gym!).

DN has a few favourite books. He likes...

• Goodnight Moon
• Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me and
• the set of three Thomas The Tank Engine books we picked up in Perth

One of the books I used to read to him when he was really little was Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. My mom gave me the book and I teared when I read it to DN for the first time when he was about 3-4 months old. When he became more mobile and thus restless, I stopped reading that to him because he'd want to flip the pages every 2 seconds so I couldn't read the story at all.

This is how it starts...

"A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

The story goes on to describe how the little baby grew into a toddler, boy and teenager, and how, every night, the mother would sneak into his room when he's fast asleep, pick him up, cradle him and sing:

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

The teenager became a grown up and moved out. Sometimes, his mother would drive to his house, sneak into his room and sing the song to him as he lay fast asleep. Until one day she called him up and asked him to come and see her.

"When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...
But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick."

"The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be."

The story ends with the son going home and standing on the steps for a long time, thinking. Then he walks into his baby daughter's room, picks her up from her cot, cradles her and sings:

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

(If you're not crying or at least tearing by now, you've either just kicked your little toe against a cupboard, or you're a man. -_- )

This week, I tried reading "Love You Forever" to DN again, and he sat through the entire book. He stared hard at the illustrations as I read the story and when I reached the last page, he still hadn't moved. Not a peep, not a wriggle.

I think he understood.

18 months old

At 18 months, his personality, likes, dislikes, abilities and quirks are quite obvious, and I think I have a fairly good idea what kind of person he is.

Personality

• Short-tempered : He flys off the handle when he doesn't get what he wants. (alamak)
  
• Friendly : Unless he's just woken up from a nap or due for one, he can be very friendly with people. He'll smile and wave at strangers and if he knows you a bit better, he'll interact and play with you.
• Independent : He doesn't need us around all the time. At playgroups, he's usually off playing on his own or with other kids.
• Gung Ho : He's game to try anything, even a dark and narrow tunnel at the Julia Gabriel playground.
  
• Observant : He can spot things that we can't! (like the narrow & dark tunnel which was under a Little Tykes pirate ship)

Conclusion : If there's an Amazing Race for toddlers, DN will join it. He'll eat grubs and leap off playground slides, but if he doesn't win, you'd better siam! (leave quickly to escape from the exploding toddler and his tantrum)

Likes

• Eating : DN really likes eating. Even after his own dinner, he'll want to join us at the dinner table and eat, instead of play with his toys. During the day, we often see him dragging his high chair to the dining table and pointing at us to put him in it.
  
• Grapes & Kueh Belanda : He will give up his parents for these.
  
• Bathtime Peekaboo : One of his 2 favourite books now. He likes lifting the flaps and discovering the duck, penguin, fish etc. I like this book too because it's very baby friendly - board book, huge flaps, huge pictures & few words.
  
• Goodnight Moon : His other favourite. For the longest time, he couldn't sit through 4 pages of this book. Now, he'll sit and listen from beginning to end. These are the only 2 books he'll read in their entirety.
• Slides : Short ones, tall ones, straight ones, curly ones.
  

Conclusion : When he's older, I can just see all three of us hanging out at a cafe having tea/coffee/hot chocolate and cake and reading books. Lovely! I can't wait!

Dislikes

• Wiping his face : He likes washing his hands with soap, but hates us wiping his face. Go figure.
• Finger Paints : Strangely, although he doesn't like the feel of paint on his hands, he has no qualms smearing my carefully-cooked-on-the-stove-for-2-hours porridge on the table.
• Sitting in the stroller : I'm like, "Do you know how much this monster stroller cost us? SIT DOWN!"
• Sleeping through the night : -_-
• Bittergourd : Can't blame the guy, but trust the chinese to eat, and like, this awful vegetable.

Conclusion : A nightmare for him would be being chased by a giant face towel.

Abilities

• Signing : He's building up his signing vocabulary and recently added the signs for - carrot, umbrella, stand up (he made this one up himself), grumpy, grapes and vegetable. He's also more precise with his signs now. When signing 'more', he now uses his fingertips instead of his knuckles.
• Language (1) : He's definitely physically dominant and not linguistically dominant. He can only say "mama", "mum-mum" and "up", but he understands 95% of what we say. Like if he overhears us talking about going home, he'll go get his shoes and start waving bye to everyone, even though we're still sitting on the couch. He's been doing this since he was about 14 months old.
  
• Language (2 ) : He understands 95% of what we say, in both English and Mandarin. Woah nelly. I think his understanding of Mandarin is better than mine.
• Physical Development : He started walking at 12 months and it's been a whirlwind journey since. It wasn't long before he started running (13 mths) and walking backwards (15 mths). He cannot sit still. I think that's why he's not fat even though he eats so much.
  

Conclusion : In primary school, his whole world will crash when it's raining and he cannot have PE.

Quirks

• Eating medicine : He eats his paracetamol medicine and shows us the 'good' sign! And he'll open his mouth and receive other medicine willingly. Amazing. I love it!
• Fish Lover : He likes fishes so much that whenever he hears running water, or sees a pond, he'll run over to see if there are fishes in it. One of the first few signs he learnt was 'fish'.
  
• Guttural Sounds : None of us can do it, but DN can make this strange guttural sound from deep inside his throat. He started doing this just before he turned one, whenever he saw a dog or cat (like a growl!). Now he also makes this sound when we ask him to call 'gong gong' or 'gu gu'. It really does sound like it, haha.
  
• Smiling : At about 14 months, DN finally understood the concept of "smiling for the camera". Because he's seen me shove my phone-camera in his face so often, he started smiling as he held my phone-camera and pointed it at his face. He also accomodates when we bark at him to "smile", and he gives us his trademark squinted-eyes-scrunched-up-nose smile.
  

Conclusion : Strange taste buds? Vain pot?


Feb 2007


Feb 2008

Price tag, name tag, DN's been tagged!

I've seen these on other people's blogs and have secretly harboured the hope that I'd get tagged too, hee. Ling tagged me so here goes... 5 things! (I'm tagging on DN's behalf.)

A. Found in my Room

1. A big mess (Mom & Dad keep trying to get me to pack all my toys, but I have more important things to do... like overturning this bucket and all its contents onto the floor.)
2. Diapers - NTUC tape diapers (for day), Nepia pull-ups (for nights) & Nepia tape diapers.
3. A Flensted Dog Mobile
4. My little library of books - The Eric Carle ones are my favourites.
5. Dust! :(

B. I have always wanted to...

1. Climb up the stairs myself (but Mom won't let me)
2. Put my hand in the fish tank and play with the fish (but Mom won't let me)
3. Get out of my stroller the minute I'm put in (but Mom won't let me)
4. Pull Mom's earrings because they're so sparkly and dangly and be-yoo-ti-ful (but Mom won't let me)
5. Pee & poop in the potty Mom, but sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Time and tide waits for no potty!

C. Found in my (diaper) bag

1. Munchkin suction bowl
2. Pigeon fork and spoon set
3. My snacks! Sometimes Mom stews fruit for me, most times it's crackers.
4. Water bottle
5. Diapers

D. Found in my (mommy's) wallet

1. 2 pictures of Mom, Dad and me :)
2. Discount cards that she hardly uses but daren't throw away coz "you never know!"
3. Bobby pins
4. Lip balm
5. (not enough) Money

E. I'm currently into...

1. Opening and closing drawers and taking things out and in
2. Begging Mom and Dad for bites of their food
3. Drawing on the IKEA chalk board
4. Signing "tree", "leaf" and "baby"
5. Giving kisses without being asked!

5 people I'm tagging

1. My Aunt Dawn
2. My Uncle Josh
3. Mom's best friend, Aunty Li Yen, who only wants to be known as ZHE ZHE Li Yen
4. Mom's forum friend, Michelle
5. Mom's forum friend, Shirlyn

Ready, set, GO!

DN the Bookworm

When DN was about 2 months old, we set up a little reading corner in his room. It's not much, just a chair and a lamp from Ikea, but I think it's downright cosy! Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll inherit our love for reading instead of our laziness, tardiness and our-inability-to-save-$$$-ness.


It's cosy right!

We strive to read to him every night but it all really depends on how His Royal Highness is feeling. You know how royalty can get right? (Unreasonable, inflexible and demanding!) HRH can get really cranky at bedtime... grrr...











Anyway, we started off with "Moo, Cow!" by Salina Yoon, a book I got on offer at Borders when I was about 6 months pregnant. (I think it was only 5 bucks, ha!)


You can't tell from this pic, but the cow's pink "nose-area" (golly, what IS that part called? A muzzle? A snout?) on the cover is furry! (How far from reality can you get?)

Anyway, "Moo, Cow!" lost its appeal very quickly. (It only has 5 pages ok!!)





So, to save my sanity (and obviously not my $$ haha!) I bought more books...


Ta-dah! DN's little libray!











When he was about 3.5 months old, just about the time he had better control over his hands, he started reaching out for the pages and turning them. I told PF, "Look! Look! We have a genius!" (Yes, my head is that big.)

When we read to him now, he'll usually start blabbering too, as if he's reading along. And he still doesn't know how to adjust his volume for a reading voice, so imagine a little baby sitting on my lap screaming at Dr Seuss. Hilarious.

Anyway, I can't seem to stop buying books. Couldn't resist getting this soft book yesterday because I used to have it as a child too!


"Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman










It's about a little bird that fell out of its nest (and didn't crush its skull on the ground below!!) and went around looking for its mother who had gone off to look for food. (and probably worried his mother shitless, the ungrateful thing)


Come on, how could I not buy it? It comes with a little bird that you can "pop" out of the egg!



And on the last page, you can tuck the little bird under the mama bird's wing!

It's "cute" with a capital "Q".



Super excited about my new buy, I plonked DN on my lap last night, knowing that he would appreciate the little bird as much as me. Yes he did. He put it in his mouth straight away.

-_-


Here's DN looking like the cat who ate the bird. (literally) All this photo needs now is a little feather on his chin.

DN : "I eat little birds."














All this reminds me of that time when I brought Flash out for a walk and he ate a dead bird.

YAHHHHHHCK...!

But I'll leave that for another time when I have nothing else to blog about.

DN's Top 5 Favourite Things

1. He lurrrves to be carried upright!

He absolutely abhors being cradled like a baby. Propping him on our shoulder usually stops all crying.



DN : "Stop looking at my balding head!"












DN : "Back up! Back up! You're too close Dad!"


















DN : "Much better... at least give me a chance to show off the side with more hair, right?"

















2. He lurrrves his pacifier!

Actually, I think PF and I love it more than him. It's like a stopper - just plug it in and the crying magically stops! heh heh heh...


* can u see his "wet-japanese-cartoon-xiao-tian-tian" eyes??







3. He lurrrves to put his fingers in his mouth!

His motto? "The more the merrier" So we often see Mr. I-have-no-idea-how-big-my-fist-is-and-how-small-my-mouth-is trying to stuff all 5 fingers into his mouth.















4. He lurrrves story time!

PF and I usually read him a book or 2 (or 5! depends on when he starts to get sleepy) before his last feed of the night. He's now starting to reach out to touch the pages... ah, so cute!



























5. He lurrrves letting his parents take a million pictures of him doing nothing!

Yes, we are exploiting HRC ("his royal cuteness", or "his royal crankiness" if it's close to milk time, grrrr...) to the max!


DN : "Alamak, I sneeze also want to take picture..."



DN : "... they even want to take a picture of me chewing my burp towel..."


DN : "... a picture of my feet!?? My parents are ker-razy!"






DN : "... here? I'm not even looking at the camera!"


DN :"They're even sneakily taking pictures of me in the dark!"





DN : "Finally! A proper picture :) ..."

DN got his first X'mas present yesterday, and of course, he couldn't wait to put it in his mouth.

The Unveiling Of The First Christmas Present


All the way from Hawaii!







hmm... quite a serious looking wrapping paper for a baby huh?







whazzat?







It's an Eric Carle book and a Polo tee!

Thanks Aunty Dawn and Uncle Alex, the polo tee tastes so good, I can't stop *vibrating*!

* thanx Dawn and Alex for the gift :) this blog entry is dedicated to u guys (all together now! "awwwww...")