Stack away!

Well, the stacking cups are really old toys that have quite been forgotten and never quite used in the way they were intended to till lately. She would (and still does!) pretend to drink from these cups, or hold one of the cups with her lips and crawl/ cruise/ walk around (depending on the stage that she's in) pretending to be some animal, or simply put something small in the cup and shake it wildly to make some noise. I haven't really been 'teaching' her how to play with those stackable cups for the past few months coz like I said, they're a forgotten toy. I just dug them out for her recently because I read that 16-mth-olds should be able to build a tower of 2 blocks at least before they reach 17mths and maybe build a higher tower of 3-4 blocks even, if they are fast. Hence, I went to dig out her stacking cups and showed her once how to build a tower of 4 cups. She, needless to say, destroyed my tower of cups. Surprisingly, she went on to build her own tower of cups and voila, she did it(!) and then proceeded to destroy the tower she'd built. Haha. Well well well... didn't really need to teach much. I guess when it's time for them to master a skill, we don't really need to 'teach' that much! :) These few days, she's starting to clap after she succeeds in building a tower of 4 cups and will look at me for approval - of coz i'd clap and praise her!

These days, when she sees these cups lying randomly around in the house, she'd just go over and stack them then carry a tower of at least 2 cups carefully around with her as she toddles in the house. I think she secretly likes the challenge of balancing the cups as she walks. When I do manage to get a video of her stacking cups I'd upload it here. You know, for babies and toddlers, things happen so fast that they're over before you can even whip out a camera or a phone. For now, here's a pic of the stacking cups:

Story-telling session at Bukit Merah Library

I signed Alicia up for a story-telling session held at Bukit Merah Library at 7.30pm on 11/11/09.

And here's the recount of the session:

The librarian went through some rhymes and short little songs before actually going into story-telling. She told the story of The Enormous Turnip and had cute little props made of cloth on ice-cream sticks. The props included the turnip of course, a farmer, a dog, a rat and I can't remember what else. The kids were either seated (though not all were really actually listening to the librarian's story) or wandering around. And what was my Alicia doing? She was of course wandering around, tottering about in the room. Well, that wasn't all that she did in that half an hour. She actually went up to the librarian several times, attempting to snatch the book and her props. Later she noticed that the props were actually on the chair next to the librarian and so she helped herself to them. She grabbed the turnip first. The librarian had a hard time getting it back from her. I didn't want to snatch it from her grasp coz she would wail and destroy the whole story-telling session and anyway, I'm sure this happens all the time so I just waited to see what the librarian would do. Subsequently, when alicia took the dog and later the rat, the librarian just told the rest of the kids that alicia was pretending to be the dog/rat, which i think was an appropriate way to handle the situation.

Just when i thought that that was all the disruption she was going to cause, a much older kid went to the CD player and tried to remove the CD and of course, my little one decided to follow suit. She's very good with electronics and always seems to be able to press the right buttons and so she decided to turn on the music. The librarian was stunned and speechless and helpless for awhile. Hahaha. Then after stopping the music, she commented that Alicia's quite a techie, to which I definitely agree. Hmm... i think Alicia must be the librarian's worst nightmare now... I may well be barred from the next story-telling session - islandwide... hahaha...

Well, here's a pic of alicia wandering about (and me hovering around her) while the librarian was telling the story...

Alicia's checking out the recommended books on the table

We borrowed five books for her that night and so here's the selection of library books I have now at home:

I made hubby clean every page of the books with dettol upon reaching home so that they'd be CLEAN!

The last time my niece borrowed library books she got HFMD - not sure if it's a coincidence but it's better to be safe than sorry...

Oh, and we managed to get Happy HoliDogs on Ebay and it's on its way to Singapore now... not cheap though. We got it for US$12.69 I think (erm, the funny thing's the shipping costs US$12 and the book's only US$0.69!)

Mini Trolley, Play Pretend games

Alicia has lots of toys and I figured that if I'm gonna blog about all of them, starting from the beginning, it'd be quite a nightmare for me. So I think I'll just blog about some of the toys that we just gave to her not too long ago starting with the mini trolley.

We bought a mini trolley for her during Takashimaya's toy fair this year (erm... one of the many toys we bought coz some of the toys were really cheap!) coz I remember my niece liking to pretend to push a trolley/pram of her size at a certain age (can't remember when exactly though). Anyway, play pretend games are always fun for the little ones - I love playing such games with her like making her soft toys (or rather mine :D) 'talk' to her or I pretend to play with her/my soft toys (now they've become shared possessions). Play pretend is a milestone that most kids would have reached by 17mths (Alicia's currently 16mths).

To side track a little, I found it very amusing when she shoved a spoon into her/my large plush Elmo's open mouth, pretending to feed him (this is yet another milestone - feeding dolls, in her case, soft toys). My hubby says that must be a reflection of how often i try to shove food into her mouth, so much so that she's imitating my actions. Hmm... I wonder if there's any truth in that... Anyway, feeding a doll is, according to babycenter, a milestone that half of kids would have attained by 17mths and one that most kids would be capable of by 20mths.

Well, anyway, back to the trolley. It's really a mini trolley. After I assembled the parts, I realised that it was so small, that it's hard to push along. I'd imagined that it's the same size as her walker but it's far from that!

The first time I let her play with the trolley, whenever she tried to push the tiny trolley, she would end up falling down. After several tries, she decided that it was a better idea to carry her mini trolley around... hahaha... I tried to catch it on the videocam but it was a really tough job! Anyway, these days she's gotten a hang of how to push the trolley without falling down and she would load her trolley with her toys and just go around happily till the next more interesting toy catches her eye...

Here's the box illustrating the mini trolley:

And here's the pack of groceries that comes with the trolley:

Here's how small her trolley is:

And here's a video of alicia playing with/ carrying her trolley around that day:

Whitebait Powder (銀魚粉)

I've been wanting to add ikan bilis powder to Alicia's porridge because it's supposed to be high in calcium. But I've always been wary of the saltiness of ikan bilis so I've been holding it off, even after she turned 1 year old. A couple of weeks back, my mother-in-law made a batch of coarsely ground ikan bilis powder for me to let Alicia try. I fed some to Alicia and she gave me the grossed out look. Hahaha... To be sure, I tried a second time and she gave me the same expression. Subsequent attempts to feed it to her failed. I didn't want to add it into the porridge immediately as I was afraid that she would dislike the new taste in the porridge and so I introduced it on its own first - I do this for all new foods since she was younger. This is to prevent unnecessary wastage, as if she disliked the new food, adding it to the porridge would mean that she would reject the whole bowl of porridge - that of course happened before so I'm just learning from experience and I just don't want history to repeat itself. :) Well, so I ate the ikan bilis powder myself since it was so coarsely ground - I thought it was quite tasty but nevertheless salty, even for an adult's tastebuds. Perhaps she wasn't used to the saltiness as she hardly eats anything salty! Haha...

Then one day, after reading and posting questions about ikan bilis powder on mummysg, a nutritionist who often posts replies there suggested making fresh whitebait powder instead of ikan bilis powder. Whitebait is known to be nutritious as it is high in calcium and iron. After asking around a bit more, I was quite certain that the fresh whitebait wasn't gonna turn out to be as salty as ikan bilis so I decided that I would buy it the next time I go pick up Alicia's cod from the fishmonger.

I finally bought the whitebait from the fishmonger yesterday when I went to pick up Alicia's cod. Actually, to be honest, it had already slipped my mind. Fortunately, the fishmonger had three packets of fresh whitebait on display and they caught my eye while I was checking out the prawns. These fresh whitebait are different from those dried whitebait purchased from dried goods stalls at the market. The dried ones are much saltier. Anyway, just to be sure, I double-checked with the fishmonger if the whitebait's salty and he reassured me that it was gonna be ok for Alicia's consumption.

After rinsing the whitebait, I fried them till they were dry. To be very sure that it was really dry, I toasted them in the oven till they were just crisp and not burnt. I offered Alicia one whitebait from the oven as she insisted on having one (she was hanging around me while I was busy in the kitchen) and she kinda liked it so I was quite encouraged by her response. I ate one and offered one to hubby too to check out the saltiness. We both agreed that it was mild and nothing like ikan bilis in terms of the saltiness. Haha. After toasting the whitebait, I proceeded to blend them into fine powder as I intend to add 1/2-1Tablespoon of it to her porridge in future.

Did she like the porridge with whitebait powder? YES! She finished her porridge in less than 5minutes yesterday! Hahaha.. maybe she was very hungry but well, at least she didn't reject the porridge with the new ingredient! She's quite a 'purist' with her food: she doesn't like me to mix her food together so I always have to feed her dish by dish and she eats her brown rice porridge (cooked with stock) on its own. So adding an extra ingredient into her porridge (which is soooo nutritious) and her acceptance of it just made my day!

Online Art

Who says letting a little one do art has to be messy and a household disaster?

Here's one way to let my little one have some fun without the mess! :)

Alicia's art piece done during lunch time on 4 Nov... a good way to distract her while she eats... haha.



Simply go to http://www.jacksonpollock.org/ and have fun!

My titillating, toddling toddler!

Alicia started pushing the walker on her own without help on 13 July. Earlier, she needed close supervision when she used the walker because we were afraid she would fall flat on her face.

Here's a video of her pushing her walker happily across the hall on one of the days after she could push the walker confidently:

She took her first independent steps on 30 July. Baby steps. It happened so suddenly we had no time to get a camera to film it down. Besides she took only 3 baby steps and it was over so quickly. And so it was: she kept taking baby steps at unexpected moments so we couldn't really capture it. But there was this night when I happened to be taking a video of her playing on our bed, she stood up and walked the famous baby steps. You must be patient when watching this video coz she only stood up and walked later in the video:

Nowadays she toddles around the house. And somehow she loves to carry things along in her hand(s) when she toddles around. Here's a video of her toddling around with a box of buns meant for her breakfast the next morning:

She's walking more these days and even when we go out, she insists on walking on her own instead of sitting in the pram or be carried. But she's not so good yet walking with shoes so we still have to hold her little hands as she walks. It must be really exciting for her... but for us, it's simply back-breaking. :) Yet another parenting hazard... hehe...

Applesauce pancakes

I've fed Alicia pancakes before when she was younger but after awhile she stopped liking them and so I stopped making them as well. I used to make my own batter but one day I decided to try out commercial batter. I went to mummysg to ask for recommendations and finally I bought this brand:


I thought it tasted quite nice, like McDonald's hotcakes... and I even served it to her with a little honey after she didn't like the pancake, thinking that perhaps she may like it better with honey. But at that time, my fussy little one decided that Betty Crocker Buttermilk pancakes with or without honey just didn't appeal to her palate.

Today, after a few months of not feeding pancakes, I tried again. I made some for my own snack yesterday and ate it with a generous dose of honey and thought they were really delicious. So I thought well, no harm trying to feed her pancakes again and since she's into eating breakfast these days, pancakes could be on the menu if she liked them again. Anyway, here's the picture of the yummy pancakes with HONEY (I just love honey!!) I made yesterday:

These are just plain pancakes.

The ones I made today contained applesauce but they look similar anyway... :)

I had promised my hubby to make him pancakes with melted chocolate on a weekend but till today it hasn't happened. Ok, I finallymade the pancakes, but I didn't have chocolate on hand so he just had to have it with honey instead. That wasn't too bad anyway. :)

Today, I hadn't finished making all the pancakes and my darling was hungry for breakfast already so no photos were taken. But they all looked nice and pretty, just like McDonald's hotcakes. And the best part about it is that Alicia ate 1 whole pancake without honey, and most importantly, without fuss. :)

Here's how the pancakes were made:

Pancake Batter

4 Tablespoons of Betty Crocker pancake mix

3-4 Tablespoons of COLD water

11/2 Tablespoons of homemade applesauce

Method

Pour 11/2 Tablespoons of the batter into a heated nonstick pan (use low heat). About 1 minute later, flip the pancake over (you should see that the pancake has taken on a nice even shade of light brown) and cook the other side. Repeat process to make the rest of the pancakes. You may need to let your pan cool after each pancake if your stove has a really strong fire like mine!

Serve warm with honey!

The birth story

I had meant to jot this down long long ago! But never really got down to doing it. Haha. And she's already coming 16mths now... oh well, I just decided that it should be written down just so that I can remember how it was and next time she can read about it. :)

I went for my usual routine checkup with Dr KT Tan at KKH on 7 July 08 (37 weeks). Before the appointment, she had scheduled me for an appointment with the sonographer to determine the birth weight of Alicia as she said it would be a more accurate estimate of her birth weight. Alicia's birth weight was estimated to be 2.6kg. That's pretty small for a baby in these days, but in the end she ended up even smaller than estimated. Haha.

Anyway, during my gynae visit, I mentioned to her that I noticed a decrease in fetal movement that day. The whole morning at work, I think I only felt her kick twice, no matter how much I talked to her, she just didn't move much. And usually when I teach in class, she'd be very excited and kick me very hard, sometimes so hard that her little kicks and punches can be seen by the students through my blouse. That morning, nothing much happened and I was very worried. The gynae was worried too so she put me on CTG for 30min to check for fetal movement. After that half hour, another gynae came by to check for the results as KT Tan had gone off for some other duties. The gynae told me that there was no fetal movement! So she admitted me to the delivery suite. I had no idea what that meant and I just followed instructions.

At the delivery suite, I was put on CTG again and some other machine. On and off, doctors and nurses came and went. At about 8pm, KT Tan came by and asked me if I wanted to induce Alicia because of the decreased fetal movement. At that point, I was very confused and I told her no. But later, I decided I wanted the induction but she'd left. So instructions were given to the nurses to induce me and she said she'd see me in the morning. I was induced at 9pm and was told that KT Tan would burst my waterbag only when the dilation was at least 2cm.

It was a long wait.

8 July. Still no news of little Alicia. Dilation was really slow. After a whole day, I dilated only 1cm. And I was wheeled in and out of the delivery suite, each time wondering if I was gonna deliver. The nurses said my contractions were very strong and regular and every nurse that came in asked me the same question, "Not painful?" Well, no. Then their response was, "Not painful, cannot deliver." Strange logic I thought to myself.

9 July. KT Tan encouraged me to take a walk around the hospital. She said it might help with faster dilation. So I walked and walked... round and round.

10 July. Dilated 2cm. KT Tan finally burst my waterbag at 7+am. I thought this was it. It was going to happen. That empty crib in the corner of the delivery ward was gonna be filled with my little pink bundle of joy. I had been staring at that corner for the longest time. And this was the day. Well, I wasn't wrong about the day. But it took an awfully long time to deliver! I started feeling the painful contractions from 9+am. I relied on the laughing gas for pain relief. Nurses kept coming in to ask if I wanted epidural and I insisted I was going to get through it without epidural. But I just wasn't dilating fast enough. The nurses kept increasing the dosage for the induction to make contractions stronger so that Alicia could see me faster. But it didn't work. More painful contractions yes, but faster birth process, no. Finally, at 3+pm, I succumbed to the seductive calls for epidural. I was told I had only dilated 1cm for the whole day, making it 3cm in total. That was it. The last straw. If I were further in the dilation, I would have just bore the pain. But this was ridiculous. Almost 6hrs of pain and only 1cm. How much longer did I have to suffer this pain? I just couldn't take it anymore. I started crying and asked for epidural. I heard the midwife say, "She's finally crying!" I find that amusing now because I recall nurses coming in to check if I'd started crying. Not very amusing to me then. :)

Epidural must be one of the best inventions in human history. I felt so much better after the epidural. And dilation was faster too. Within the next 2hrs, I dilated 2cm. Finally at 6+, KT Tan came by to check on me again. Apparently, dilation was stuck at 5cm and she advised me against continuing to wait so she proposed an emergency C-sect. Till today, I still don't really know why it's called an "emergency" because I didn't think it was one. But I guess I'd never know why.

Anyway, after KT Tan announced that she was gonna operate on me, things happened so fast I had no time to think. Nurses rushed into the ward within seconds after her decision was announced and I was transferred to another bed to be wheeled into the operating theatre. The next thing I knew, I was in the operating theatre and within 10minutes, I heard Alicia's cry. A nurse brought her to me. I thought Alicia looked rather gross and slimy but kissed her slimy head anyway when I was told to do so. Haha. I heard them announce that Alicia was 2.43kg, 45cm. My tiny girl. :) Born at 1829hrs, 10 July 2008.

My mind was in a whirlpool then. Spinning. Spinning. I felt like puking. I told a nurse. She told me that it's normal. I didn't want to hear that it's normal. I really felt like puking. I held back that feeling of puking and hoped it would go away. Then there were the shivers. I kept shivering, and not because I was cold. Again, that was supposed to be normal side effects. Then I asked when I could breastfeed Alicia. I'd read that it's best to breastfeed as soon as possible. But I was told by that nurse that I couldn't breastfeed for now till the anaesthetic wears off. Disappointed I was to hear that. I almost cried. This wasn't what I had expected at all: first, I was admitted early to hospital when I only came for a routine check, then next I had a super long delivery (counting from the moment I was induced), then an unplanned C-Sect, and now, I was told I couldn't breastfeed.

Anyway, the shivers lasted quite long. And I only felt better when it was almost midnight. My little girl. I finally held her in my arms. She was already busy looking around even though she was a newborn. Bright and alert eyes. Looking at the surroundings, the people.

Looking at her mamma. :)

The joy of motherhood.

My journey begins.

Kindermusik Trial

I brought Alicia for trial at Kindermusik on Saturday. I had been looking forward to it but in the end, I felt that it was quite a letdown. Perhaps my expectations were too high since Kindermusik's so well-rated. I was expecting the lesson to be more educational musically but it was quite commonplace and really, I could have conducted the class myself at home with Alicia.

The lesson started with letting the kids play with a ball each for awhile to warm up then we were given some percussion instruments like the maracas, shakers, and other miscellaneous ones to play with throughout the lesson to various rhymes and songs. Could I have done it on my own? I pretty much think so. In fact, I would have included more activities that didn't just centre round the same concept of moving and shaking percussion instruments to the beat. Bored I was with the lesson. And I think Alicia was too coz she was busy walking and crawling to various parts of the classroom to pull interesting stuff down to play while all the rest of the babies managed to remain in the circle. She was particularly in love with this plush toy dog and she pulled it down, hugged it, sat on it like it was a horse then hugged it again. Everyone was amused by her. But I think deep down inside they were irritated and annoyed coz she kept disrupting the lesson with her antics. Honestly I couldn't quite bring myself to blame her either. And even though I think she was apprehensive and scared at her first lesson at Staccato, I believe she actually enjoyed herself better there. And I would think Staccato has more potential to teach little tots the fundamentals of music as it has more varied activities and covers a larger scope. Well, that's just me critiquing the music lessons from my own standpoint. I'm sure there are parents who swear by Kindermusik. Perhaps I'm too quick to judge it. But well, I'm not going back there for now and for quite awhile.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna start work on making materials to teach Alicia music on my own... :)

Reading...

I read the book "The Snow Ball" most often to Alicia before she was born ever since I received it for my '08 birthday from my friends in my department. Knowing that I was crazy about my snowbears, getting books about snowbears (or known commonly as polar bears) for me is most apt. Plus I can share them with Alicia. Double bonus.

Here's the book:

And here's Alicia reading the book on her own on her play mat when she was 8mths old.

Apparently after reading the book, she was inspired to love her snowbears (or rather mine) so here're the shots I captured of her 'loving' one of them.

It's still the most read book to date and she knows when to raise her little hands in anticipation of my reading "No school!" cheered the bears. Haha. My well-trained little one. This is a really cute board book with lovely illustrations that simply captivate her. And of course, I can narrate the whole story by heart... :) and so the story goes on although she's busy flipping through random pages of the book...

First trip to the library and the first book we borrowed!

Alicia's always been fond of books and I wonder if it's because I've been reading to her since she was in the womb. Anyway, I brought her to Bukit Merah library last Friday to secure a place at the Fun with Tots programme on 11 Nov. It's a story-telling session for children 1-3 years old. I've been wanting to introduce her to the library and I think a story-telling session would be a nice way to do so.


As I was perspiring like crazy after the walk from my place to the library, I decided to hang around in the library before leaving for home so I went to check out where the storytelling session will be held and also the children's corner. I brought her to the area where the recommended books were for adults and kids and she fell in love with this particular book at first sight. She pointed at it and exclaimed loudly so I brought her nearer to the book and she took it off the shelf. This is the book she's so captivated by:



I had a hard time trying to get the book from her hands to borrow it and of course she screamed and threw a tantrum like any other 15-mth-old. I tried my best to be quick with the process of borrowing and returned the book swiftly back into her little hands. And she really loved the book so much that she held it all the way home and she even tried to flip the pages while we were walking home. I had to explain to her that reading on the go is bad for the eyes... I had to peel it out from her grasp when we reached home as I wanted to give her a shower after the trip out and quickly put her to bed for her nap. Actually I was the one who needed the shower badly. Hee... :D

Anyway, she pronounces "dog" as "dag" currently and initially I thought she was trying to say "cat" because it sounded like "cat" to me (she already knows how to say "cat" and can point to a picture of it and say it correctly). So I kept trying to tell her that's not a "cat" but a "dog". After listening more carefully, I realised that she said "dag" and I'm still trying to correct the pronunciation.

It's a really colourful book and the illustrations are really nice. I'm thinking of buying it from Amazon.com as a Christmas gift for her (update: we really bought it for her!).
Anyway, it's a story about Christmas so it's kinda apt. I've already placed a bid for it last night and we'll see how it goes. For now, we get to keep the library book till 20 Nov and maybe we'll renew it after that.