leetlebellybutton

We've Moved

2011-05-25T14:57:00.001+08:00

Come and join us at our new blog: http://leetlebellybutton.wordpress.com/

See you there!

her love for fruits

2011-03-07T15:47:00.002+08:00

she loves her fruits and she loves them all. all except for durians.

she loves strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes (preferably kyoho grapes), apples, oranges, nectarines, plums, peaches, dragon fruits, mangoes, watermelon, cherries....everything!

she loves going to the fridge looking for fruits. and when you ask her what fruit she would like to have she would always say "I will check and see what fruits daddy bought for me!" She knows that it's her daddy who would lovingly buy an entire week's supply of fruits every Sunday. There was once the bill came up to S$110 cos he also bought up a carton of the sweetest and biggest cherries!

her appetite for fruits is insatiable. she would eat non-stop if she had her way!

she has fruits twice a day. each serving can be anything from 1 orange, to 8 strawberries, 1 whole mango or 15 grapes. after she's finished, she'll always run into the kitchen to ask for more, no matter how much she's had. these days she can even request for a variety of fruits. She will say "I want 3 fruits!" and it's her daddy who would prepare a fruit feast for her. and sometimes when she looks into her bowl and sees too few fruits she'll even say "this is not enough fruits for me!"

well, better fruits than junk food snacks I guess. :)

Natalie's First Drawing

2011-03-07T15:35:00.002+08:00

I'd always thought a child's first drawing would be like a stick figure. Definitely not this. I was completely surprised!

She's been scribbling and painting since a long time ago but they were mostly blobs here and there and scribbles that don't have a definite form, and very random.

But this is her very first drawing. Something I can make out instantly. Her strokes were deliberate and controlled and she can draw this same picture again and again.

I am so proud of my little girl! *beaming*

She Writes

2011-02-20T15:51:00.013+08:00

Well, not exactly writing. But what Natalie has been doing since the start of this year is to get her pen grip right and to control it well. I've bought a wipe-off Write with Elmo book some time ago and this book has been great in getting Nelly started on writing. It's beautifully illustrated with all of her favourite Sesame Street characters and the colours are very nice. It's wipe-off pages work best with a whiteboard marker and it erases easily with tissue paper. Great mileage as Nelly can write on it again and again and again.

The book has got sections for drawing straight lines, shapes, connect the dots and mazes. She really enjoys this book and loves practicing. When she wants to write, she'll tell me "I want to practice my writing". haha!

this is where she needs to draw vertical lines as strings for the balloons

she's doing horizontal lines here, helping Telly get to each triangle

the first black line is mine. she gets better with each line!

this is a "spot the difference" page where she's circling the character with a something missing

she's circled the Bert with something missing, ie. hair, and drawing in hair for him

she's circled the Telly with something missing, and giving him his missing nose

Connect-the-dots. She's able to connect the dots from 1-20 on her own. :)

Done!

a close-up of Ernie's bathtub.

I think I'm going to start looking for a suitable book for her to start practising the Alphabet and Numbers. No time to slack!

Fun with Foam Stickers

2011-02-20T14:52:00.011+08:00

I came across these foam sticker art packs and I thought it'll be something fun for me and Natalie to work on. They're not expensive at all. I think I paid less than S$5 for a pack. I bought 3 packs for her (Cow, Butterfly, Fish) and we tried it out one morning.

Here she is working on the Cow pack. It's got a 3D effect and has got a cow, a house, clouds, gate and trees.

Even I enjoyed putting this together. It's really good fun and not messy at all! At her age, she needs to be guided as to which pieces to stick first to achieve the 3D effect, and then she'll put the stickers into place on her own. When her daddy comes home at the end of the day, she'll proudly bring her art work to him and say "Look! I made this!"

A Drum Like Elmo's

2011-02-20T14:25:00.004+08:00

My two and a half year old toddler is a HUGE fan of Elmo. Maybe it's because the only thing she watches on telly is Sesame Street and nothing else. She knows all the other characters but, as with most other toddlers, her favourite is Elmo. She even has a chant for Elmo which goes "ELMO! EL-MO-MO!" Her knowledge of the characters is pretty impressive too! She knows full names like Abby Cadabby and Prairie Dawn! And she even knows that Grover's nose is pink and the colours of everyone's noses!

For me, knowing that Elmo's her favourite character helps in other ways too. I would try to get her to model after Elmo's good behaviours. She would often tell me herself that "Elmo has good manners", "Elmo doesn't lick off his toothpaste", "Elmo is a good monster", "Elmo goes to school himself and never brings his mummy or daddy" (of course this is just talk, she's still not going to Sunday School on her own!), "Elmo says must eat healthy food".

I should get to the point of this post. She loves everything Elmo and everything that he does. Recently, she's been seeing this video on YouTube and she's been saying "I want a drum like Elmo's. BOM! BOM! BOM BOM BOM!", and she'll pretend to be hitting her invisible drum.

And she's also very smart, cos she made the request to her Daddy. She knows that Daddy has the softest spot for her in his heart, and he takes her seriously. So one afternoon, her Daddy walked into ToysRUs and came out with a drum set that looks like Elmo's.

"The Drummer is here!", she would say!

Wait, there's more! A few days later, her Daddy also bought her a pair of pink fairy wings so that she can be Abby. ;)

Our Saturdays are made of these

2011-02-19T16:23:00.016+08:00

Somewhere since the Hubbahubs started on his new job, we've only been able to go to the zoo as a family on Saturday mornings. And this has now become our Saturday morning routine. And I'm beginning to love this family routine of ours! Here's what we do:

10am - we leave home

10:20am - we reach the Zoo, find a parking lot

10:25am - we do a mad dash to the Shaw Amphitheatre

10:30am - Splash Safari Show with the Sealions

10:45am - Show ends. We take a stroll towards Kidzworld

10:50am - We're seated at Kidzworld and we wait for the Show

11:00am - The Animal Friends Show

11:15am - The Show ends. Natalie goes down and pats all the dogs. We hang around in the air-conditioned shop after that for Natalie to play around, or we wander around to see the baby animals.

11:45am - We begin to walk out of the Zoo and head for lunch @ The University Club

12:15pm - EAT!!!!

2:00pm - We're all happy and full and we drop Natalie off at my parents'. She stays over for the night. :)

Here are photos from today:

her eyes fixed on the sealion. She knows all their names: Philip (her fav), Carlos, Stan, Andy. She knows their trainers' names too: Marshall, Judith and Tony.

with her daddy of a hero, waiting for the Animal Friends Show to begin

she LOVES this show. she's watched it so many times she knows it by heart. she even hosts her own show at home. today, she was the one who pointed out that Shane the German Shepherd was absent. She later asked the trainer who told her that Shane had sprained his leg.

after the show, she goes down to pat every single dog. again, she knows each one of them by name: Major, Faith, Hope, Smudge, Shane.

because of the CNY, the Zoo had brought in Giant Rabbits from Europe.

they always have so much fun together!

lunch @ The University Club. The food and service here are excellent. We always have the 3 course lunch for S$28++.

Starter: Pan-fried baby scallops

Fish soup noodles for Natalie

My Main: Tiger Prawns Linguini

Finishing up. Another lovely, lovely Saturday. :)

First Shots

2011-02-18T16:57:00.005+08:00

These were all taken in JPEG format, not RAW. Totally unprocessed and unedited. Didn't play around with the settings at all, all were taken using "P" mode, or macro. And don't forget that alot of resolution and colour are lost when uploaded here on Blogger. The original images are much better!

chinatown

using the "pinhole" effect

crispy beancurd skin rolls

egg tart, macro

a totally random shot of my dried-out hands

Panasonic LUMIX LX5

2011-02-18T16:25:00.006+08:00

I'm absolutely loving this new baby of mine!

My Canon IXUS 950IS has served me well for over 3 years. I remember buying it in Hong Kong, while we were living there for a while. It's been a handy and realiable camera. It's never failed on me and it was good. Until Natalie came along. All of my photos of her in motion are blur and that frustrated me ALOT.

And that's why we bought our first DSLR, the Canon 500D in June/July 2009. It's a great, great camera and takes excellent shots of Natalie and everything else. It accompanied us on both our Perth trips. I hardly use it in Singapore unless maybe at home because it's just hard for me to handle an SLR and Natalie at the same time. I tried only ONCE when Natalie and I were at the zoo and it was just too much.

SO... I've always wanted an in-between camera: Something better than my old compact camera, preferably with SLR-quality images, and it had to fit into my bag! Something I can whip out in like 3 seconds. ;)

When the financer and I were at the shops looking around, I thought I had my mind set on one of those micro four-thirds, specifically the Olympus EP2 or the Panasonic GF2. And then we saw the size of them both! They were smaller than a DSLR but still big! And then we talked to a really nice guy from Parisilk Store @ Holland Village. I told him what I was looking for, and mentioned the 2 micro four-thirds models. He immediately told me they were still considered bulky and if I wasn't looking at changing lenses then I wouldn't need them. Hmmm...that made sense. So the financer asked which was the best camera and he took out the LUMIX LX5 and he told us why it was better than other cameras like the Canon S95, G12, for whatever I wanted to do. We were sold.

The financer paid and I was happy! Our stay at Parisilk Store lasted for only like 10mins! I definitely had wanted a much longer and painful search for my ideal camera!

This camera retails for S$799 but we paid S$655 for it. I chose White cos it just looks so much better than the Black. :)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 specifications

Price	• US: $ 499.95
Sensor	• 1/1.63" Type CCD • 11.3 million pixels total • 10.1 million effective pixels • Primary Color Filter
Image sizes	4:3 Aspect Ratio: • 3648 x 2736(10M) • 3072 x 2304(7M) • 2560 x 1920(5M) • 2048 x 1536(3M) • 1600 x 1200(2M) • 640 x 480(0.3M) 3:2 Aspect Ratio: • 3776 x 2520 (9.5M) • 3168 x 2112 (6.5M) • 2656 x 1768 (4.5M) • 2112 x 1408 (3M) • 2048 x 1360 (2.5M) • 640 x 424 (0.3M) 16:9 Aspect Ratio: • 3968 x 2232 (9M) • 3328 x 1872 (6M) • 2784 x 1568 (4.5M) • 2208 x 1248 (2.5M) • 1920 x 1080 (2M) • 640 x 360 (0.2M) 1:1 Aspect Ratio: • 2736 x 2736(7.5M) • 2304 x 2304 (5.5M) • 1920 x 1920 (3.5M) • 1536 x 1536 (2.5M) • 480 x 480 (0.2M)
Movie clips	• AVCHD Lite 1280 x 720 pixels @ SH: 17 Mbps/ H: 13 Mbps/ L: 9Mbps) • Motion JPEG: 1280 x 720 pixels @ 30fps • 4:3: 640 x 480 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels @ 30 fps • 16:9: 848 x 480 pixels @ 30 fps
File formats	• Still Image: Raw + JPEG(DCF/Exif2.21) • Motion picture: AVCHD, AVCHD Lite, QuickTime Motion JPEG
Lens	• 3.8x optical zoom • 24-90mm (35mm equiv.) • f=5.1-19.2mm • F2.0-3.3 • LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON • 10 elements in 9 groups (3 Aspherical Lenses / 5 Aspherical surfaces)
Image stabilization	Power O.I.S lens-shift stabilization
Digital zoom	Yes, up to 4.5x
Focus	• Normal • Macro • Quick AF On/Off (On in Intelligent Auto) • Continuous AF On/Off • AF Tracking • AF Area select • Manual • Focus (Jog dial)
AF area modes	• Face / AF tracking • 23-point • 1-point • Spot (flexible/ scalable)
AF assist lamp	Yes
Focus distance	• Normal: 50cm - infinity • Macro / Intelligent AUTO/ Clipboard: Wide 1 cm / Tele 30cm - infinity
Metering	• Intelligent Multiple • Center Weighted • Spot
ISO sensitivity	• Auto • 80 • 100 • 200 • 400 • 800 • 1600 • 3200 • High Sensitivity Mode : Auto (6400 - 12800)
Exposure compensation	+/- 3EV, 1/3EV steps
Exposure bracketing	+/- 1/3 EV ~ 3EV step, 3 frames
Shutter speed	• 60-1/4000 sec • Movie mode: 1/30 - 1/20,000 sec (1/8 - 1/20,000 sec on MF operation on Creative Movie mode) • Starry Sky Mode : 15, 30, 60sec
Aperture	• Multistage Iris Diaphragm • F2.0 - 3.3 • F2.0 - 8 (W) / F3.3 - 8 (T)) • F2.0 - 11 (W) / F3.3 - 11 (T) in movie recording )
Modes	• Intelligent AUTO • P(Program) mode • A(Aperture Priority) mode • S(Shutter Priority) mode • M(Manual) mode • Creative Movie mode • My Color mode • Scene mode • Custom 1,2
Scene modes	• Portrait • Soft Skin • Self-Portrait • Scenery • Panorama Assist • Sports • Night Portrait • Night Scenery • High Sensitivity • Food, Party • Candle Light • Baby1 • Baby2 • Pet • Sunset • Hi-Speed Burst • Flash Burst • Starry Sky • Fireworks • Beach • Snow • Aerial photo
White balance	• Auto • Daylight • Cloudy • Shade • Halogen • White Set 1,2 • Color Temprature
Self timer	2, 10 sec
Continuous shooting	• Full-Resolution Image 2.5 frames/sec Max. 5 images (Standard mode), Max 3 images (Fine Mode) • High-speed Burst Mode: Approx. 6.0 frames/sec (image priority) Approx. 10 frames/sec (speed priority) (recorded in 3M for 4:3, 2.5M for 3:2, 2M for 16:9)
Image parameters	• Film Mode: Standard / Dynamic / Nature / Smooth / Vibrant / Nostalgic / Standard B&W / Dynamic B&W / Smooth B&W / My Film 1, 2 / Multi Film • My Color Mode: Expressive /Retro / Pure / Elegant / Monochrome / High Dynamic / Dynamic Art / Dynamic B&W / Silhouette / Pinhole / Film Grain / Custom Happy (only in iA mode)
Flash	• Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off • 0.8 - 7.2m (Wide/ISO Auto), 0.3 - 4.4m (Tele/ISO Auto)
External Flash	Yes, via hot-shoe
Viewfinder	Yes, External (optional)
LCD monitor	• 3.0" TFT LCD Display • 460K dots • Field of View : approx. 100% • AUTO Power LCD mode, Power LCD mode ,High CRI (Color Rendering Index) LED backlight
Connectivity	• USB2.0 High speed • AV Output (NTSC/PAL) • miniHDMI • DC Input
Storage	• SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card • 40MB internal memory
Power	• Li-ion battery • Charger included • AC adaptor (optional)
Weight (no batt)	233 g
Weight (with batt)	271g
Dimensions	110 x 65 x 25 mm (4.08 x 2.20 x 0.97 in)

Melissa Ultragirl Lace Black

2011-01-18T15:29:00.004+08:00

The doorbell rang at about 4pm yesterday and I knew it had to be them!!!!

This is my second pair of Melissa jellies and they're absolutely lovely! I chose black cos it's always a safe staple colour to have and so easy to match with almost any outfit. It's made of the same soft malleable plastic but with a delicate lace insert beneath. Gorgeous! and now my storeroom (where the shoes are kept) is smelling like the most delicious bubblegum! ;)

Marc by Marc Jacobs Pretty Nylon Tate Tote

2011-01-06T22:34:00.006+08:00

Oh how I love receiving presents for no reason at all! This is the best start to 2011!

I've been searching for a lightweight bag for nelly's stuff for the longest time. My criteria were that it had to be light (cos if it wasn't, it'll weigh like a rock after i pack all of nelly's stuff in it), waterproof (puke-proof, pee-proof, everything-proof), easy to dig around for stuff, and it must be PRETTY.

I've been having the old bag for 5 years now. *gasp* has it been that long??!?! It's really served me well but Hubbahubs pointed that the white is turning a bit gross now. Plus there's a hole in the inner lining which makes the bag not waterproof anymore.

So I was really happy when I came across the Marc by Marc Jacobs Pretty Nylon Tate Tote at the store (Retail Price: S$300. Retail Price in the US: US$198). The bag is perfect! C'mon, it's even got the word PRETTY in it! It's an instant winner! So Hubbahubs paid for it and it's all mine now!

Out with the Old. In with the New!

Hanging pretty

Here are some photos taken from the web. It's really a nicer and more vibrant red in real life. The colour is Rock Lobster, as they call it. :)

My Thoughts on 2010

2010-12-31T15:04:00.004+08:00

I'm sitting here, spending the last few hours of 2010. It's been a great year, and honestly I have no complaints. How can I, when I think about how good God has been to me. again.

The year 2010 began with the Hubby doing a whole new career switch - from being a partner in a commodities trading company to a Physics Teacher. I was on my fifth and final year of no-pay leave. With the new job, we were not as financially-cushy as it was before but it was something that Hubbahubs wanted to try out. Sure, adjustments had to be made but our life was still comfortable because God provided. :)

I got used to being with Natalie without any help from Hubbahubs in the day. Before, he was working from home so it was way easier for me. I slowly found my daily rhythm, lined the day with things to do with Natalie and soon enough I've got a weekly routine.

Somewhere into the middle of the year, it became apparent that teaching wasn't the thing for Hubbahubs. He enjoyed teaching and explaining to the students. But he found the overall environment rather stifling. So the hunt for a new job slowly started. And you've already read about all that in my earlier post. :)

As for myself, I've resigned from my job and that ends my five years of no-pay leave. Even though I've worked for only five short years, I've enjoyed my first job thoroughly. I had a very good and kind boss, had a group of fun colleagues whom I could trust, and I've travelled to countries which I probably wouldn't have in my lifetime.

I'm grateful that I'll be able to spend every waking hour with my precious Natalie next year. I want to bring her up in the Lord, teach her everything I know, and want her to grow up feeling so loved.

I'm also thankful for the most wonderful husband. I'm reminded this year that I should never take him for granted. I miss him when he's not at home and Nelly misses him alot too. I love that he works so hard for this family, that he's the same man that I fell in love with and married, and that he's such a devoted daddy to his little girl.

I don't know what the new year will bring, but good or bad, with God on my side, I'm so ready for you 2011!

here's wishin' everyone a happy and meaningful 2011! :)

Melissa Ultragirl Bow by Vivienne Westwood

2010-12-31T14:25:00.008+08:00

I've always been in search for that pair of perfect jellies. My first was a Tory Burch Jelly Reva in Parrot Pink which I ordered online without trying them out at a store. When they arrived, they were pretty but too narrow for my (broad and bunioned) feet. My friend helped me sell them away on eBay.

My second was a birthday present from my Mum. It's a pair of Ferragamo Nobel Jelly Flats in Red. This time, I bought them from the boutique and found them to be quite comfy. But after a few days of wearing, I decided that they were again too narrow for my problem feet. My sister has since inherited them.

I love jellies for these very practical reasons:

- they're so easy to maintain! and I can step out in them even in the rain cos they're washable.

- unlike my Tods, I have no fear of Nelly stepping on my shoes and I won't be grumpy with her after that.

- becos of the material, there's hardly any wear and tear at all. the shoes still look new for a long long time.

-they function pretty much like Crocs but look heaps better!

So thanks to my sister, I've found my perfect pair of jellies!!! These were also her wedding shoes btw, so you can imagine how comfy they were to have lasted her the entire wedding day!

I absolutely absolutely *LOVE* these shoes! They look pretty, they mould to my feet, no blisters on the first wear, Nelly can clomp on them for all I care, and they honestly smell like bubblegum! :)

(psst.... I love them so much there's another pair OTW!!!!)

Happiness is

2010-11-12T15:57:00.007+08:00

Natalie is such an amazing kid and I just LOVE watching her be this happy. *aaahhhhhh*

SCHOOL'S OUT

2010-11-12T14:52:00.003+08:00

For the hubby.

And for good!

The last 2 weeks have been just crazy! But in a most wonderful crazy way. :)

21 Nov, Thurs - First round of interview. Easy breezy over-Starbucks-coffee kind of interview.

29 Oct, Fri - Second and final round of interview. This was a gruelling 1.5hr session!

1 Nov, Mon - Nailed it!

2 Nov, Tues - Signed, Sealed.

3 Nov, Wed - Handed in resignation letter. *whoohooooo*

With this new job, we won't be seeing him walk through the door at 2:30pm anymore. No more evening outings and nice dinners together. BUT at least he won't be sneaking around the house in the dark and leaving home at 6:40am! And this is a job he really wants, and so I'm really excited and happy for him!

God is really good. All the time! :)

their new toy

2010-11-10T13:38:00.004+08:00

Each time we past a shop selling iPads, Natalie would want to play with it. Most of the time there would be queue and she would wait patiently until it's her turn. She would then sit on the table with the demo iPad, while the store assistants stare in amazement at how this tiny human can navigate her way through an iPad effortlessly. kids these days are incredible!

All seems good to me. She gets to play her iPad, we leave and we pay nothing!

But each time at the store, her Daddy's heart breaks. His heart breaks just seeing her sit there and playing with the demo set. And his heart breaks even more when he sees her standing and waiting til it's her turn. He even confessed to me once that everytime at the shop with her, he just wants to buy an iPad!

So two weeks ago, he finally decided that he's had enough. We drove all the way to Vivocity and picked up an iPad for the Queen of his heart. He let her open the box, let her have the first touch of the iPad, and let her turn it on for the very first time. And then that very night when Nelly was asleep, he quickly installed all her favourite apps and searched for new ones.

I always knew he'd be the one who would spoil our daughter silly. :)

My Black Friday

2010-11-05T21:30:00.003+08:00

Balenciaga City Bag in Black, and the iPhone 4

*loves Hubbahubs*

the cutest little thing

2010-11-03T14:12:00.003+08:00

the only thing cuter than Nelly, is Nelly being a ladybug! ;p

the hat and mask came as a set from IKEA for S$5 or S$6.

I'm Ladybug Girl!!!!!!!

another doh morning

2010-10-17T13:44:00.008+08:00

Eversince receiving her wonderful Sesame Street Playdoh set, Natalie's been asking to play with it every single morning, and sometimes in the evenings too. So what I do is I'll open up her set and dough pots and place it on her table. I'll then walk away and cook her lunch, while she plays on her own the entire time. :)

This set has got really good moulds for making Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. It's very easy and it didn't take long for Natalie to learn how to do this on her own. She knows that she would have to prepare a ball of dough, place it on the mould, close and press the mould together and "remove the excess dough", as she would say. Here's a video of one of her earliest attempts at making Big Bird:

busy little hands at work

just some of the cutters

the trio

All very, very fun for her! The set also comes with 3 playmats and assorted cutters and she really loves them all. This is definitely a set for keeps, and also perfect as a gift.

happy nelly

2010-10-16T14:44:00.000+08:00

And she's got every reason to be!

Natalie's other grandmother, whom she calls "Ah Ma", gave her a red packet so that she could buy whatever she wanted. Yes, she is loved so dearly.

Of course we decided what she liked and did the choosing. We thought about what kind of toys would be best for her and Hubbahubs quickly came up with puzzles and dough. We also decided that since she's not ready for a bike yet, she would own her very first kick-scooter!

So here's what we got and all for just under S$200 bucks!

1. MINI m-cro kick scooter in pink from The Early Learning Centre, S$125

2. 48-piece Melissa & Doug Pirate Adventure Wooden Puzzle from Toys R Us, S$17.90

3. The Learning Journey Puzzle-Doubles Create a Scene Dollhouse (50 pieces) from Toys R Us, S$25

4. Play-doh Sesame Street Fun Shapes Bucket from Toys R Us, S$29

We did all the shopping while Natalie was having her usual stay-over with my parents. When she got home the next day she was just thrilled to see all the shopping bags.... "nat nat's neeewwww presents!!!!"

She loved every toy that we picked out for her. She's getting quite good at the kick-scooter, whizzing around the house and in and out of the rooms on it. She loves the puzzles too and is able to complete both puzzles with some guidance. I don't know what it is in her, but she really is so good at puzzles! The Sesame Street Playdoh set,she lurrrrves it!!!! You'll read more on this at my next post. :)

A great weekend to everyone!!!

conversations with natalie

2010-10-05T14:35:00.003+08:00

Natalie and I were reading from her Toddler's Bible on the story of "Adam and Eve". After reading all about the forbidden fruit, and the snake and how both of them disobeyed God, I did a little re-cap:

ME: So God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree. But did they obey?

NELLY: NooOOOO! (disapprovingly)

ME: Are they supposed to eat the fruit from the tree?

NELLY: NoooOOoo! They can only eat fruits from the fridge!!!

Super Dough Play

2010-10-05T13:49:00.008+08:00

Looks like i'm really on a roll here being quite the cool and creative mommy.

I never thought this would happen this quickly. I hate dough. and I hate mess. so I told myself this is something which Natalie doesn't have to experience while growing up. Sure, I've always played Playdoh with my sister when we were younger. We had sets and sets of it! But now it's different. I'm going to be the one facing and cleaning up the mess.

And then I walked into The Better Toy Store at Ngee Ann City and there was this shelf full of dough things! "I shouldn't deprive my daughter of this right?" URGH!!!!!!

So I went ahead and bought a set which included 3 tubs of the safest dough, farm-themed cutters, a rolling pin and a chisel-looking thing. The set looked like this:

Natalie loved it! She would say "nat nat wants to play dough!!!" And it's been like this every. single. day.

This is her latest creation. It started off as a cloud, made from the cloud cutter. And then she decided that she didn't want the cloud to be a cloud. She wanted it to be a head. OKAY. So she added 2 big goggly eyes, and a smile. And then she flattened some dough and said it was a "t-shirt", and joined it to the head. And finally she squashed 2 arms and 2 legs onto that t-shirt.

All that mess???? Totally worth it, I say!!!!

conversations with natalie

2010-09-22T14:08:00.002+08:00

This happened today, just before lunchtime. I was getting ready to go downstairs to buy my lunch and Natalie was standing up in her cot, waiting for me.

She decides to put one leg over the side of her cot, waiting to see my reaction:

ME: Natalie, don't put your leg over! You will topple over and then break your head!

NELLY: Must buy new head!

ME: Buy new head??!?!? from where????

NELLY: PARAGON!

conversations with natalie

2010-09-14T22:04:00.003+08:00

My parents would be leaving this Friday for Perth to attend my sister's graduation. Over the weekend, my mum told me about a conversation she had with Nelly:

GRANDMA: when grandpa and grandma goes to Perth, what do you want us to buy for you?

NELLY: Cheap dress!

I really wonder who taught her that! Clearly not me! Else she would be saying "expensive dress" for sure!

something from 30.6.2009

2010-09-14T21:58:00.003+08:00

I was backing up photos from my previous Sony Ericsson mobile phone when I came across this!!!

This was taken when Natalie was only 1 year and a month old. And I believe this was her very first time on a supermarket trolley! Check out her hair and outfit! What were we thinking bringing her out clad in only her singlet and diapers?!?!??! And no shoes!

Rice Play

2010-09-14T21:30:00.006+08:00

Lately, Natalie's taken an interest in rice.

Whenever I take out our rice container in preparation for her fish porridge lunch, she would come into the kitchen and want to touch the rice. It gets a tad annoying when there's a little person tugging at your hand when you're trying to do something.

So today I decided that I was going to be the really cool and creative mommy, just like all other mommies, and do something we've never done before!

I poured a few scoops of rice into a bowl, took another bowl and a spoon. I could tell that Nelly was excited. Afterall, her mommy is rarely this spontaneous! We went out into the living room and all that rice fun began! She even put some grains into her mouth, munched her way through them, and then swallowed them all!

Here's a shot:

I then returned to the kitchen and was able to cook in peace. aaaahhhhhh. ;)

When I was done, Nelly was still very much engrossed with her rice and this is what I saw:

Yup. All that cleaning up, first by the handfulls, and then grain by grain! I kept all the rice in a separate container, ready to be taken out again for the next session. Which I'm sure will be tomorrow as already requested by Queen N 2-3 times today already!

Hubbahubs thinks red beans or barley should work better. We'll see!

The Book Depository

2010-09-14T14:25:00.006+08:00

A dear friend introduced me to The Book Depository of the UK and it's really the best online bookstore in the whole wide world! I'm seriously never going back to Borders! The books here are even cheaper than what I pay for at Borders with 30% off plus additional 10% off for members. I'm serious!

So when my friend sent me the site, plus a 10% discount voucher, I quickly did a search for Natalie's favourite authors and other highly recommended books and ordered a whole bunch of titles. There's FREE international shipping and shipping was pretty speedy. Good riddance to lugging heavy books!

The books all arrived in good condition and neatly packed. And throughout the whole ordering proces, there wasn't a single glitch or frustration with The Book Depository. Best of all, you can order any book at any time cos shipping is absoutely FREE!

a shot of all the books after they've arrived

Stick Man
By (author) Julia Donaldson
Qty: 1
$8.85Save $2.07RRP $10.92

The Three Little Pigs
By (author) Ladybird
Qty: 1

$3.78Save $0.89RRP $4.67

We're Going on a Bear Hunt
By (author) Michael Rosen
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

Mama Do You Love ME?
By (author) Barbara M. Joosse
Qty: 1

$6.32Save $1.48RRP $7.80

A Squash and a Squeeze
By (author) Julia Donaldson
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

The Tiger Who Came to Tea
By (author) Judith Kerr
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

Room on the Broom: vol 3
By (author) Julia Donaldson
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

The Smartest Giant in Town
By (author) Julia Donaldson
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

Monkey Puzzle
By (author) Julia Donaldson
Qty: 1

$7.58Save $1.78RRP $9.36

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!
By (author) Mem Fox
Qty: 1

$5.50Save $5.44RRP $10.94

Draw Me a Star
By (author) Eric Carle
Qty: 1

$5.58Save $5.34RRP $10.92

Delivery: Free worldwide delivery

Total order value US$75.49

this is the way I brush my teeth

2010-09-04T21:39:00.007+08:00

Thankfully, Natalie doesn't mind brushing her teeth.

Before she was 2 years old, we were just brushing her teeth without any toothpaste. I didn't think toothpaste was necessary. ;)

But since turning 2 and having almost a full set of teeth, I started her on Orajel's Toddler Training Toothpaste. At first she found it weird having to brush with toothpaste, but she didn't reject it. After 2-3 brushings she was totally at ease with having toothpaste in her mouth.

What I do is I would squeeze toothpaste onto her toothbrush, and then she would want to take over. Sometimes she would ask to hold the toothpaste. And then she does Round 1 of brushing and I'll take over with Round 2 of the thorough brushing. She brushes her teeth twice a day, once mid-moring and another time before she sleeps.

She's almost gotten her full set of teeth. Almost... because "where are her last 4 molars?!?!?!"

Conversations with natalie

2010-09-03T22:39:00.003+08:00

(Natalie takes her Daddy's set of house keys and pretends to open the main door)

Nelly: nat nat is going out!

(after trying at the door and failing to open it)

Nelly: nat nat is back!

Me: hello! where did you go?

Nelly: Shopping!

Me: Oh! and what did you buy?

Nelly: iPAD!!! .... and bicycle.

She Paints

2010-09-03T21:08:00.006+08:00

I've always said I would like Nelly to try painting. But I didn't think it would take this long. She's already started drawing on her doodle board and drawing using markers a long time ago. Crayons...yup she's also into colouring and drawing with crayons. So the next logical step would be painting.

"But she needs an art apron! and IKEA has ran out of stock. hmmmm...dunno when their new stock will arrive."

"But I haven't found suitable paint for her. The standard ones will just be too messy! cannot cannot!"

And then suddenly IKEA decides to re-stock their wonderful art aprons. They only cost $5.90! Nevermind that they're of a very unflattering green. And then I also chanced upon "Easy painters" from the Early Learning Centre. They're a paintbottle and brush all-in-one! Perfect!

So here she is...ALL READY TO PAINT!!!

our little painter

her masterpiece. those spontaneous blobs and smudges are all hers.

An Evening at Riders Cafe

2010-08-14T16:14:00.013+08:00

After Natalie's two and a half hour nap yesterday afternoon, we took her to Fidgets. By the time we made our way there it was already 4:45pm. We stayed till they closed at 6pm. For dinner, I was thrilled when Hubbahubs agreed to take me to Riders Cafe. He said it was "pay day". And hoooorayyy for pay days!!!!

the place

the stables

clockwise from top: crabmeat pasta in white wine; seafood marinara; chicken and chips

the pay-master

the pay-master-to-be

"the horse is over THERE!"

Mimolette at the back

once again, a beautiful evening! :)

Fun with Daddy @ IKEA and West Coast Park

2010-08-14T15:22:00.007+08:00

This was last week, on that Friday before the long National Day weekend. Hubbahubs had half a day in school which ended at 1030am. He swung by home to pick us up and then we headed to IKEA Alexandra at our little girl's request. She calls it "baby's house" cos according to IKEA's Children's catalogue which she flips through everyday, that's where all the babies live and play. ;P

When we got out of the lift at the 2nd level, Natalie quickly ran towards Smaland as she remembered her cousin, Jacob, playing in it when he was in Singapore. She was peeping through the big glass window and so I asked if she wanted to go in and she said "YES". I explained and pointed towards the play area that only kids were allowed in and no adults were allowed to be inside. She understood.

So I filled up the form, and she was in! All by herself!

The minute she got in, she seemed to know where she was headed for. She climbed the rock-looking steps and went into the ball pit, happy and confident. For a while. I was unable to zoom on my iPhone so if you look really closely at the photos above, Natalie's the one right at the back, with alot of black hair and in a tiny pink tee. In the last photo to the right, you can see her trying to climb out of the ball pit. And that was when it started. I think she was having difficulty trying to get out of the pit area and Hubbahubs told me she looked like she was in distress. She started signalling and calling out to us but of cos we couldn't hear her form behind the big glass window. He told me to bring her out. So I had to go all around the play area, towards the cafe, and pick Nelly up from the other side. By the time I walked there, I could hear her loud cries from the pick-up counter. And then she somehow managed to climb out of the ballpit and ran towards where I was, sobbing terribly. The Aunty gave her a Smaland sticker and she was happy after that. But I don't think she'll be going into Smaland on her own anytime soon again!

We went inside the Natalie played at all her usual places at the Children's Section. At about 1140am, we thought we should head to the cafe to find a seat cos that's the usual time I go in before it gets way too crowded. But on that day, the cafe was already packed with school kids big and small with or without their parents! All the kids in Singapore were on half-day and their parents apparently too! GRRRRRRR! We quickly left IKEA and headed to Vivocity to have lunch at our usual, Modesto's.

After that we stopped by Holland Village so that Natalie could get her fringe cut. This daughter of ours, will ONLY cut her hair at the salon that her parents frequent. Any other place and she would struggle and not sit and not want to get her hair cut. But here, OH, she would sit ever so nicely, allow the bib to be placed over her, look straight ahead, not move, and it doesn't even bother her that we had to cut her fringe twice cos the first time after it was cut, it wasn't short enough.

After the haircut we headed to West Coast Park (the initial plan was to check out The Playground @ Rochester Park but we couldn't find it!). This was close to 5pm I reckon. The weather was perfect. No sun! We were unprepared so I didn't pack her sandplay stuff into the car.

We were unprepared so I didn't pack her sandplay stuff into the car. But she was contented to just sit on the sand and scoop sand using her hands. At one point she started throwing sand behind her and her Daddy got really worried cos sand was starting to enter her butt crack! Her poor Daddy looked really traumatised it was so funny!!!!

I haven't brought Natalie here for quite some time now and I think she really missed the playground. She played and played until it was time to go home. We all had a MacDonald's take-away dinner that evening.

What a good day it was. :)

Sofa Nostalgia

2010-08-04T15:11:00.003+08:00

There really is such a thing.

The main reason why we decided to get a new sofa is for the Queen.

She was in the midst of getting toilet-trained and so would inevitably pee on the sofa. Our IKEA sofa had removable covers so technically I could wash them. Which I tried to the first time nelly pee-d on it. But the thing is, when I removed the cover of one of the sofa cushions, the inner lining (which is very thin!!!) which held all the stuffing had already torn! A total mess! And not forgetting that her pee had probably seemed through the cushions and all. grrrr...forget it, let's just get a new sofa!

I only had 2 criteria for our new sofa. Wipeable. Cheap.

We headed to Sungei Kadut at 11am on Saturday and by 12:30pm we've settled and paid for the new sofa. For a three-seater, we paid S$399 nett and I was very pleased.

Our new sofa arrived today and that was when I started feeling a lil' sad.

Afterall, this was our first family sofa and Natalie's first ever sofa. I've spent countless of hours breastfeeding her on this sofa, burping her on this sofa, and patting her to sleep on this sofa. Our first family photos were taken on this sofa too.

As she grew, she was allowed on the sofa on her own at around three months. When she started to crawl, she would also crawl around the sofa for 2-4 rounds. As she was learning to stand, she would use the sofa as her support. And then the time came when she mastered climbing up and down the sofa all on her own. And then she started to do lots of reading on the sofa, lie on the sofa sucking her thumb just relaxing, and eating all her favourite fruits and snacks on the sofa.

As for me and Hubbahubs, we spent so many wonderful hours catching 2 (or is it 3?) seasons of American Idol and Prison Break and Heroes. And not forgetting the many hours he spent fighting his online opponents over Street Fighter on PS3.

Such good times.

Here's a last photo of Natalie on our beloved sofa:

And say hellooooo to our new and very pee-friendly sofa!!!

And while I'm blogging this, Nelly just climbed onto the new sofa, laid down, and told me she's "relaxing"! A beautiful start to more sofa memories. :)))

Now I Know My ABCs

2010-08-02T14:50:00.002+08:00

Natalie's been singing the Alphabet Song for many months now and so I decided to teach her the letters of the alphabet about a month before she turned two. I used Melissa & Doug's Alphabet Peg Puzzle. And also Julia Gabriel's "The Alphabet Zoo".

I started off by singing the ABC song together with Nelly and pointing to each letter as the song goes along. And then because the peg puzzle has got pictures underneath, I would go through the letter and the corresponding picture starting with that letter, and add in some of my own objects and objects that she loved.

Slowly, Natalie started to recognise some letters, her firsts being "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "O", "Y", "Z". She keeps getting "M" and "W" mixed up and some other letters she won't recognise them at all. But increasingly, she just started getting more and more familiar with all the letter names and can even tell me which objects start with that letter.

This was supposed to be a fun learning thing so there was no pressure at all. Besides, I didn't even know at what age kids are supposed to recognise all the letters of the alphabet. But each time I took out the puzzle, Natalie was interested so I just kept on teaching her the letters.

And it soon paid off!!!

A few days before she turned 2, Natalie was able to recognise all 26 letters, pick the right letter from the pile, and also the object that starts with that letter. Soon she began to be interested in the words she was reading in her books. She would read out the title of the book letter by letter and then pretend to read the word out. But she isn't really reading, she's got the titles/words memorised already. ;p

So here's a clip of her showing off just for you:

The Toilet Training Report: Getting There

2010-07-31T22:18:00.003+08:00

Has it already almost been two *exhilarating* weeks of toilet-training? WOW.

I am proud to announce that our little girl's been doing really well the past 4 days now. She's been consistently doing her poos in the toilet bowl every. single. day. Pretty amazing isn't it? Looks like my scooping-up-poop and washing poop-laden panties days are over!!!

In the morning, I don't sit her on the toilet bowl. I believe if there's no poop there'll be no poop so no point making a kid sit on the bowl and wait. hey, the kid's got better things to do than wait for poop! So I only bring Nelly to the toilet when she tells me she needs to "poot poot". And she now even adds "must wait, poot poot cannot come out!" How I love her for not making me scoop poop anymore! :DDDDDD

As for pee-training, it seems I only mop the floor max of 1-2 times a day. A vast improvement from the week before! These days, I still try to bring her to the toilet every half hour. She sits there briefly and if there's no pee she'll say "no pee pee" and I'll help her down. Again, no point waiting for it when she's already said no pee right? And then I try again half and hour later. But she's been telling me when she wants to pee instead by saying "nat nat want pee NOW!" And then we walk real quickly to the toilet and there's really pee! So I think I'll skip the half-hourly toilet trips and maybe wait an hour later if she doesn't indicate that she wants to pee.

I haven't dared let her go diaper-less during afternoon naps, outings and night-time. I'll wait it out a bit longer. Besides, I haven't rehearsed, in my mind, how I'm going to overcome those eeeky public toilets out there!

conversations with natalie

2010-07-29T15:07:00.003+08:00

This conversation took place one afternoon after Natalie took a strand of thin yellow noodle (mee-gia) from my minced pork noodle with chilli (bak chor mee tah). She was having her usual fish porridge at home.

Nelly: nat nat want mummy's noodle!

Me: but mummy's noodle's got chilli in it! it's spicy!

Nelly: nat nat want...nat nat want!!!

Me: ok, ok! I'll let you try just one strand. I'll put it on your spoon for you.

(she eats the entire strand. her face changes a little.)

Me: Is it too spicy? I told you it was spicy right? But Mummy loves chilli.

Nelly: Mummy loves chilli.

Daddy loves chilli.

Nat nat don't love chilli.

Nat nat loves porridge!

(and she eats a spoonful of porridge to numb the spiciness!) Hohoho!!!

her favourite at-the-moment toy

2010-07-29T14:47:00.003+08:00

the crooked moustache is proof that natalie created this herself

This isn't your regular Mr Potato Head. It's the Optimus Prime Potato Head! He obviously was bought by the biggest and most knowledgeable Transformers fan I've ever known. ;) A month ago, Hubbahubs decided that it was time to hand this toy to his darling daughter. and boy does she love her new toy!

She loves it that she can stuff parts in, take parts out, interchange them, turn the moustache into eyebrows, turn the eyebrows into a moustache, make him bald, make him put on his helmet...the possibilities are endless!!!! And when she's done, she loves chucking all the parts "into potato head's backside" she says!

The Toilet Training Report: DAYS 6 & 7

2010-07-25T22:30:00.001+08:00

Natalie spent Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning over with her grandparents. She looks forward to the sleepovers and would pack all her favourite things into her black overnight bag. This time, she brought along 1 book, her guitar, the skinny Elmo and her red egg shaker. I also bought another of the child's toilet seat so that my mum can continue with the toilet training if her heart can take it. ;)

Saturday. I received a phonecall from my mum at about 10-ish annoucing that the little one has pooped successfully in the toilet bowl! Natalie then took over the phone and was telling me all about it "nat nat poot poot in the toilet bowl! bye bye poot poot!" HOORAHHHH!!! Shortly after, my mum also told me that Natalie peed in the toilet bowl too. :) I can't remember now if there were other successes that day.

Sunday. Natalie was still in her diapers from the night before when she did her first poop of the day, even before my mum had the chance to change her out of her jammies. But before we came by to pick both of them up for church, my mum said Nelly did a pee in the toilet bowl. She was in diapers the whole time in church until we got home. She did a pee at 3:45pm and I was just so happy! Later when I was taking a rest, Hubbahubs decided to take over the toilet-training duties. At 5:10pm, he asked if it was time to bring Nelly to the toilet again. I said he should. All I can remember was him singing "Happy Birthday to Pee-Pee...Happy Birthday to Pee-Pee", even before he could finish the song, Natalie pee-d!!!! He stepped out of the toilet beaming and looking rather triumphant, and told me that "toilet-training is EASY!" Beginner's lucky I say!

At night when he was bathing Natalie, she pee-d the second she stepped into the bath area. And then mid-way, she said she needed to "poot poot". So Hubbahubs transfered a very soapy Nelly onto the toilet bowl and she pooped! And again he said "toilet-training is EASY!" Little does he know he's enjoying the fruits of MY labour!!!

So for the first time ever ever, I did not have to mop up pee or scoop fallen poop today! Things do seem to be improving and there's hope! :)

The Toilet Training Report: DAYS 4 & 5

2010-07-23T22:30:00.002+08:00

On Thursday I decided that whoever said toilet-training can be accomplished in just 3 stay-home days probably didn't have a kid at all! I'm thinking THREE YEARS more like it! So today, we are going to step out of the house. To somewhere further than just downstairs. I asked her where she wanted to go and she said "Toys R Us". :)

I think there was only 1 pee accident before we left home. The walk to the carpark was totally refreshing! Two jailbirds on the loose!

When we got to VivoCity, the smaller jailbird ran wild in Toys R Us, taking all the sights in and running off to see all the toys that she's gotten familiar with. The bigger jailbird was just glad to be in a shopping mall and wanted to buy anything! We had lunch at our usual Modesto's and I enjoyed Nelly's company so much. We talked, we laughed, we ate ice cream together, and we laughed some more. She's such a great kid. We left at about 2pm and Natalie slept the entire ride home.

Once home, she's back on panties again. I brought her to the toilet 3 times and nothing came out. On the fourth try, pee started trinkling down her legs when I was removing her panties so I quickly placed her on the bowl. And she just peed and peed and peed! Wonderful!!!! After that, we went to pick our favourite guy up and had dinner at Din Tai Fung @ Jurong Point. Again, a very pleasant evening. :)))

On Friday, the weather was good so I told Natalie we're going to the Zoo. Before we left, there were 2 pee accidents. This time I wasn't fussed at all and was mopping it up quite happily and cheerfully. I must be mad. But it really wasn't her fault and I kept telling her that. :)

We had a beautiful morning at the Zoo. Natalie, again, was very well-behaved giving me no trouble at all. We caught the Splash Safari and Animal Friends Shows. Even before the Animal Friends Show ended, Natalie was already looking forward to petting all the dogs. She stroked the backs of all the dogs - from the smallest to that really huge German Shepherd! I just stood behind her while she did all the patting. We also made it to see the Hamadrayas Baboons and Nelly was quite tickled by their pink bottoms. We also took the tram once and also went to see another of her favourite, Enuka the polar bear. We left the Zoo just after 2pm and Nelly slept all the way home, and continued sleeping after we got home till 4pm.

And then...and then...as I was washing her hands, she suddenly said "poot poot!" I quickly removed her undies and was relieved to see no poo yet. I transfered her to the toilet bowl. She looked hesitant at first. Then almost immediately I saw her poo coming out...and then SPLOSH! Music to my ears!!! She laughed at the sound and said "poot poot piak!" I wasn't prepared to clean her bum with toilet paper as I haven't thought about how to angle her and all. Another headache. So I brought her down first. I showed her the poop in the bowl and she was amused. I then flushed it away and she said "BYE BYE POOT POOT!" AHHAHAHAHHA! I then washed her bum with water and soap.

My baby just did her first poop in the bowl! I was so excited I SMSed Hubbahubs to tell him of the earth-shattering news! Natalie was also excited and was telling Grandma and her Daddy that "nat nat poot poot in the toilet bowl" over the phone. I'm so proud of her!!! Her Daddy thinks she deserves ice cream (and probably an iPad too) :)))))

The Toilet Training Report: DAY 3

2010-07-21T22:00:00.001+08:00

It's been a whole morning of sitting on the bowl...nothing comes out...and then pee magically appears the minute she leaves the toilet! FIVE times have I mopped, re-mopped, washed her clean, put her in new panties, wash the pee panties, hang up the washed panties. WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!

It's 2:10pm now. Natalie sleepth (with a diaper on) and my mop resteth!

I must confess I haven't been the best toilet-training mommy. I try to be cheerful and encouraging each time I hear the trickling sound of her pee on the floor. But 3/5 times I get grumpy and I look it and I ask her ridiculous questions for which of course she doesn't have the answers. And then I would go about the cleaning and washing frenzy keeping quiet the whole time, and she just trails behind. It's really trying and sometimes I just feel like crying out of frustration, desperation, whatever! or maybe it's just the hormones. This is SO hard. I know everyone eventually grows up being toilet-trained but right now, I cannot see that happening with Natalie. She's going to be the only girl at Primary One with pull-ups custom made by Huggies.

After her nap, I decided to just put her back on diapers for the rest of the day. And I felt happier! "Give me a break, Give me a DIAPER!"

Amidst all the madness

2010-07-21T15:13:00.005+08:00

... I need you to know that Mummy STILL loves you so much, my sweestest! :)

The Toilet Training Report: DAY 2

2010-07-20T23:00:00.000+08:00

This morning I woke up feeling much better and was all ready to go with the training. :)

Even before breakfast, there was already a pee-puddle episode which took place on the kitchen floor. I mopped it up and then left the whole mop and pail setup in the toilet cos I knew I was going to use it for the rest of the day.

Shortly after her breakfast of strawberry yoghurt followed by corn thins followed by an apple, she had that look and said "poot poot", standing there. "Wait ! Wait! Cannot poot poot now!!!! Must go toilet!!!!" I whisked her off to the toilet and as I was removing her panties, a lump had already fallen out. And then a second lump fell out!

I told Nelly to stand there and not move while I pulled out some toilet paper. I picked the first lump up. Feels funny! Threw it in the bowl. Pulled out more toilet paper, picked up the second lump and threw it into the bowl. Pulled more toilet paper, wet it, and cleaned off the remaining smears on the floor. Flushed everything away. And then mopped the area again. And then washed Nelly's bum bum with water and put her in a new pair of panties. And then washed her slightly soiled pair.

I've lost track of time now, but somewhere towards 11am we were back in the toilet. As usual we sang songs, I tried to persuade her pee to come out, I massaged her tummy, talked to her pee again, and this time I threw in a reward! I was going crazy and getting a lil' desperate. I told Natalie that if her pee was out, she'll get a treat of wheel biscuits. These are the wheel-like biscuits that came in a paper cone when we were kids. So after a bit more of waiting, Natalie's face kinda lighted up and she exclaimed "pee pee!" and her precious pee was flowing!!!! It must've been the most wonderful sight!!! Nevermind that some of her pee was coming out of the seat, I was totally ecstatic!!! :DDDD

And then 2 more pee-puddles happened. In between I even brought Nelly downstairs, with no diapers on, to buy lunch. All was good. :)

The rest of the day I was mopping frantically again as nelly did not once pee into the bowl. Alas...only one hit and sooooo many misses! The reward of having a whole (small) bowl of wheel biscuits did not work anymore. I tried vanilla ice cream but even that did not work.

sigh. I'm beginning to think that she really hates peeing into the bowl. She's just not used to it. Each time she's on the bowl, nothing comes out, so I take her down thinking she really doesn't have pee. But almost every time, she walks back out into the living room and there's pee!

The only, only consolation for these past two days of toilet training is that all the pee accidents took place on the floor. Not on the sofa. Not on her cot. Not on our bed. It's a good kind of strange I suppose.

The Toilet Training Report: DAY 1

2010-07-19T22:00:00.002+08:00

I decided a few days back that the first three days of this week will be devoted to toilet training. Meaning no going out to play, no shopping for me, no fidgets, no zoo - strictly staying home.

So when I got up this morning, I was all excited. Changed Natalie out of her diapers and put on a pair of panties. And then I congratulated her on being a big girl now! Seeing her in panties must be the cutest thing in the world! But the *cute* only lasted for a while.

After breakfast, I sat her down on the toilet bowl, with her child seat on, and waited. and waited. and waited. We sang "Moses Crossed the Red Sea", tried to ask her pee pee to "wake up", I massaged her tummy, and at some point we even prayed! But not a drop of pee. After insisting that she had "no pee pee", I let her out of the toilet. She went back into the living room and then she froze and said "pee pee!" GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! An entire of pee puddle on the floor...what do I do..what do I do??? I pulled what must've been 15 sheets of kitchen towels and started moping up the pee puddle, and then cleaned the area with wet wipes. and then washed nelly up and put on a new pair of panties. and then washed her pee-soaked panties!

This happened for FIVE times!!!! My hands were all dry from all that washing and cleaning!!! It could've been more if I didn't put her on a diaper during her afternoon nap. Around the fourth and fifth time when it happened, I got smarter and started using the mop instead. It was definitely quicker. And I was running out of kitchen towels. ;)

By the end of the day, I was tired, and grouchy, and impatient, and grumpy. An entire day... and NOT a single drop of pee in the toilet bowl!!!! Can you believe that????

The Sequel

2010-07-16T14:14:00.003+08:00

Remember this conversation?

NELLY: poot poot! (that's her way of telling us that she's pooed)

ME: ok! come, let's go wash your bum bum.

When we stepped into the shower area, she's still standing up while I remove her diaper.

ME: natalie, you didn't poot poot. there's nothing in your diaper. hmmm...maybe your poot poot is on the way.

NELLY: poot poot sleeping!

ME: LOL

I put her diaper back on, and we went into the living room. Shortly after, she stands still, her face changes and becomes slightly red. And then she proudly announces:

NELLY: poot poot wake up!

LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!

So now....here's the sequel which has been happening since last week:

NELLY: GOOD MORNING POOT POOT!!!!

and you know what? She's even got a song for it, to the tune of "Happy Birthday"...

Good morning poot poot

Good morning, good morninggggg

Good morning poot poot

conversations with natalie

2010-07-04T15:52:00.002+08:00

Our little songbird loves making up and singing silly songs of late. At the moment, she loves going :

"bah bah bah ... bah bah bah ..bah bAH bAH..BAH BAH BAAAHHHHH!!!!"

Yes, the lyrics are nothing inspirational but she's got some rhythm and melody going on with increasing intensity and volume. serious stuff.

So one morning I was kinda missing this particular silly song and wanted to hear it:

ME: natalie, where's the "bah bah bah" song?

NELLY: in nat nat's mouth!!! (and she points to her mouth as a matter of factly!)

and she immediately opened her litte mouth and started singing.

Crayola Fun

2010-07-04T15:38:00.003+08:00

My cousin from Melbourne gave Natalie these cool crayons and she looks forward to playing with them during showertime. She calls them "cray - ONs"!

They draw smoothly and can be washed away quickly with water and some tissue paper. I used to wash the walls off using my palms but later realised that some paper or sponge would do the job much faster!

And did I mention that the above drawing was done by my very *talented* husband? They're obviously Elmos aren't they??? ;)))

RAWRRRRR

2010-06-21T15:01:00.007+08:00

Her Daddy cannot resist shopping for his little one and here's his latest:

And yup, she's stringing those beads really nicely and on her own now. she says they're necklaces for me! how 'bout that! :D

conversations with natalie

2010-06-13T16:06:00.003+08:00

This conversation took place at the beginning of the week, at home.

Natalie was wandering around the house when she suddenly stopped...

NELLY: poot poot! (that's her way of telling us that she's pooed)

ME: ok! come, let's go wash your bum bum.

When we stepped into the shower area, she's still standing up while I remove her diaper.

ME: natalie, you didn't poot poot. there's nothing in your diaper. hmmm...maybe your poot poot is on the way.

NELLY: poot poot sleeping!

ME: LOL

I put her diaper back on, and we went into the living room. Shortly after, she stands still, her face changes and becomes slightly red. And then she proudly announces:

NELLY: poot poot wake up!

LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!

twenty four months

2010-06-06T15:02:00.006+08:00

The past two months must've been the toughest for me and Natalie. The very first month when we brought her home from the hospital was tough too, but that was a different kind of tough. It was just about adjustments, nursing round the clock and fighting the lack of sleep. Now, I'm talking about patience tough, discipline issues tough, stubbornness tough, headstrong tough, really really tough tough!

Up until now, I don't think I've shouted so much in my life. And I don't mean just raising my voice. At times I really shout at Natalie - when she spitefully throws spoonfulls of porridge off her highchair; when she pulls off the entire tablecloth and all of its contents from the kitchen table/dining table spilling my lunch over in the process; when she deliberately just stands there not wanting to put on a fresh diaper. Grrrrr....those things make me really mad! So far, I've already tried shouting at her but it doesn't make her scared and she doesn't even cry. She just stands there and looks at me with her hard eyes. I've also tried closing the door on her and leaving her in the bedroom all by herself till she's ready to let me change her diapers or put on new clothes. She doesn't mind it as wel and she would do her own things in her room, talk to her toys or sing songs. After a few minutes I'll walk back in and ask if she's ready to get changed, etc. And it's worked so far. I've also threatened to smack her. I would ask "Do you want Mummy to beat your bum bum?" She would say "Yes" and then I'll be at a loss. Of course I'm not ready to smack my baby. arrrgghhh!!!! And then there's also the cold war between us where I would not speak to her. And she knows it. She knows that I'm angry with her and she'll just go about doing her own things until I'm ready to face her again.

I know that in the long paragraph above I must've done alot of wrongs according to the child discipline experts. But believe me, I've tried talking to Natalie nicely and calmly, I've tried being as patient as I can, I've tried saying that it's not a big deal and I can just clean up the mess....but it's hard. So hard! After maybe a day or two of non-shouting, she does something that makes me so mad again and all of a sudden I become the shouting monster!

But it's alright, together with God, I'm sure we can get through this. He will give me the added patience and added wisdom I need to deal with whatever Natalie's got for me. So don't worry, you won't be seeing her listing on eBay with a Buy It Now tag anytime soon. ;)

okie dokes. now that I've got all that awful lot out of the way, let's move on to all the fun things about Nelly. :))))

A week before she turned two, we visited her doctor. Nelly had quite a nasty fall from tripping at the exit of the kitchen and hitting the slate flooring face down. Her upper teeth cut into her lower lips and she bled and there was also a group of ulcers. I immediately took out ice cubes to stop the bleeding and to numb the area a little. After crying really loudly for not more than five minutes, she was back to normal and even asked me to brush her teeth. She could even suck her thumb! But we still brought her in to see Dr Chan just to make sure everything was alright. So the whole point of this is to tell you that during the visit, she got her height and weight taken. She's now 92cm tall and weighs 12.4kg! No wonder it's getting so hard to carry her recently! She must've gone through yet another growth spurt cos her weight is at the usual 75th percentile but her height measurement has gone off the curve and has hit beyond the 97th percentile! She needs hew own ticket whenever she rides on the bus or train from now on!

She still attends Toddler's Club every Sunday and loves every minute of it! She'll talk about "Toddler's Claarb" throughout the week, almost on a daily basis, and makes references to Toddler's Club. For instance, when she sees something familiar at home she would say "Toddlers Claarb" has this" or "like "Toddlers Claarb!" She would also talk about her teacher, Aunty Molly, in the course of the week too. She really enjoys Toddler's Club and looks forward to it every Sunday. Sometimes I have to remind her that it's only Monday and there's still Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to go before it's Sunday again! she's so funny! And her longest sentence by far is related to Toddler's Club where she says:

"Aunty Molly show puppets to nat nat about Jesus"

(referring to the bible story segment)

She loves learning and reciting her memory verse and here's her latest memory verse from the book of Acts:

In class, she's able to follow and anticipate the activity that's coming up. Some other mommies have also told me that they're really impressed at how attentive Natalie is in class and how serious she is when it comes to singing the Lord's Prayer cos some of the bigger kids would just be restless and start walking around the classroom. Natalie is about the youngest toddler in her class now. She also remembers alot from her class. When I'm not sitting in with her, I would ask her after questions about what happened in class, eg. "What colour was your bells today?", "What was the bible story about", "Can you tell mummy what song did you sing?" And she would answer me correctly! I'm just really happy that she genuinely enjoys the class and learning so much from it.

During the past two months, she's become better and better at singing. She can now sing entire phrases or even almost an entire song. It's really cute to just hear her chirping away early in the morning, singing along to her CD in the car, singing in her stroller, singing while walking around in the house, and even singing over the phone! She's my little songbird. I think she's got about 8 songs in her little repertoire to date. Here are videos of her singing two of her favourite songs:

While she used to be very shy socially and doesn't like strangers very much, she's changed quite a bit since. She's now ever ready to say 'hello' or 'byebye' to 'aunty' and 'uncle' and would sometimes even add a flying kiss. She remembers her friends names and would refer to them by their names in her conversation, usually recalling what her friend was doing or eating. She also remembers her friends' parents names too.

She's also grasping concepts of another, same, yesterday, only. She also has her opinions of what's nice and ugly. There was one time Nelly and I were at Colette, a kids' shoe shop. There was a long row of children's boots that were the high sort, some furry, some with bling, some black and some in other colours. She pointed to those boots and said "UGLY, UGLY!" loudly! I was quite embarassed cos there were other customers in the shop but couldn't stop giggling at the same time. It's true, those boots were really ugly! She also expresses herself alot with words like "no need", "not yet". Sometimes I would ask her if she wants more toys or more books....she would say as a matter of factly "no need". ahhahahahah! Or before leaving the car I would ask her if she needed the stroller....she would again say "no need!". Her sentences are also getting longer and clearer, like:

"nat nat feed dog dog biscuits"

"nat nat ask daddy wash natnat's bum bum" (after she's poo-ed)

"please daddy, give apple to nat nat"

"mummy ask daddy fix glasses"

ahhh, I must not forget about the time where hubbahubs kept asking Nelly who her best friend was. This must've been his favourite question to her for an entire week! methinks he's just addicted to her answer.

Daddy: natnat, who's your best friend???"

Nelly: Daddy!

Daddy: how about Mummy?

Nelly: no. ONLY daddy!

AHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!! but I've since corrected that and brainwashed Nelly into saying "Mummy and Daddy" now. heh.

She continues to be Queen of our hearts and the Queen of the house too. She's a bossy little lady and I love her for that. at least for now, until it becomes irritating. ;p When we're on the floor reading to her and she notices that we're not sitting right (usually because we're getting ready to scoot off once she settles on a book), she would immediately point and say "Daddy/Mummy, sit properly!" She would also pat the floor and indicate exactly where you must sit. When reading with her, we must also hold up the book using both hands else she would say "Daddy/Mummy, use two hands!" sternly. When she doesn't want you to do something, usually when her Daddy is teasing or tickling her, she would say "no please, no please!" It's SO CUTE! And when it comes to drawing, she's the dictator too. Watch and see....

In this video, Natalie is asking her Daddy to "draw square, draw square". After he's done so, she pauses to evaluate the square and proclaims that the square is "NOT NICE" and asks her Daddy to "DRAW NICE NICE!" And then she goes on to dictate what kinds of squares he should draw ("small square", "big square", "bigger square") and also the kinds and size of features she wants in them! Her seriousness of it all is just hilarious! :DDDD

On the puzzling front, she's made a whole lot of progress with her puzzles. She can now finish her box set of four 12-piece puzzles effortlessly, she can also complete her big 24-piece ocean puzzle all on her own. Last week, I've only just started her on stringing beads and she's still trying. She can string some beads on her own but still needs my help. She's making progress on going through a book on her own. She can narrate an entire book to herself, not reading as in recognising the words, but narrating the story as how we would tell it to her. For instance, in Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" book, she can go from cover to end on her own asking those repetitive questions and answers. All very fun! And if you're familiar with the book, she loves to just look at the page where all the colours are just like brush strokes, and she would recite all the colours and corresponding animal names just like that, quickly! It's like a game to her I think. ;)

I think it's going to be so much fun watching her grow from here, but at the same time, alot of hard work when it comes to disciplining and finding that right balance that's best for Natalie. We're both first-time parents and there's a whole lot we don't know and it doesn't help that I keep making mistakes as a result of my lack of patience and quick temper. I can only look to God and trust that He will make things good, that Natalie will turn out just the way He wants her to be. And for God to make me the best Mommy for my precious little girl. :)