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12/03/2009

The JG Lessons - Sat (28/11)

As Friday was a public holiday, the last day of the holiday class was held on Saturday. That meant that most parents could join their kids for the lesson - but not that many turned up though. Anyway, my hubby went along that day to experience the lesson for himself.

That day, as it was the last day of the course, there was no art segment but we had a puppet show in place of it. It was fun for the kids who love soft toys like Alicia (those who didn't ended up crying through the whole puppet show) and at the end of the puppet show, they were allowed to go up and play with the puppets. Alicia, if i remember correctly, took the baby owls and trotted back to us happily.

After that was snack time and they had crisp brown rice. This was a new snack to her but she still ate it rather happily. She ate so slowly though and she was last to get ready for water play. As we were afraid that she would catch a chill if she were to only wear her diapers and play with water, we let her participate in the activity with her dress still on. She had a whole tub of water with toys to play on her own as not many children wanted to participate in the water play that day.

Here's Alicia playing at the end of the water play session:


The kids weren't supposed to enter the tubs of water but since alicia had the whole tub to herself, when she climbed in, the instructors were ok with her doing so. She even helped to keep the toys in her tub. Haha...

We really had an enjoyable time that week at Julia Gabriel and we're looking forward to PlayClub next year! :)

The JG Lessons - Thurs (26/11)

The fourth day at JG was another challenging day for me - outdoor play that day was SWIMMING. I've never handled her alone when she swims so I was a bit apprehensive about how I would cope. Anyway, she was the only one who was donned in full swimwear for the outdoor play session. I was afraid that she would catch a cold if she wore just her swim diaper in so I let her wear her thermal swimsuit (which she usually wears when she goes swimming). Anyway, she was more reserved than usual during the swim session - I guess it's due to the fact that she had to share the tub with a couple of other kids. She usually has a large area to wander around in the baby pool but that day, it was just a simple tub with toys which she could play with. Handling Alicia after the swim proved to be ok after all as the instructor helped me while I changed her. Yet another exciting day at JG!



Art that day was challenging too. The children were asked to paint with their bare hands and the main task that day was to blend the colours with their hands. Earlier on in the course, they used the sponge and a feather, but that day, they were asked to use their hands so that they could have a new sensory experience. It was a HUGE mess - and I guess no one needed a crystal ball to foretell that. But well, I let her do it. She did well I must say and she blended the colours really nicely on the pre-cut flamingo. Here's a picture of all the art pieces she did at JG for the holiday course (and as you can tell already, the flamingo's my favourite):





The JG Lessons - Wed (25/11)

The 3rd day at JG holiday class was the most exciting day of all as it was an excursion to Jurong Bird Park! Unfortunately, my hubby couldn't get off from work that day so I had to bring Alicia on my own. That was quite a challenge for me as Alicia is kinda difficult to handle these days. As she doesn't like to sit still in the stroller for long, I decided that I'd fare better without it - otherwise, I'd have to carry Alicia and the stroller, and that would be a real nightmare. And so I set off with a big Deuter bagpack on my back, a baby carrier dangling in front and a mischievous toddler in my arms.

That morning, hubby sent us to JG @ Evans Rd early in the morning so that we could follow the schoolbus to the Bird Park and he went off to work after that. The bus trip was enjoyable for Alicia as the instructors sang songs and it so happened that the guitarist sat right behind us so she had a great time watching him strum on the guitar. There were also quiet moments where she just sat quietly in her own seat and looked out of the window at the vehicles zooming by. It has been a long long time ago since I last brought her for a bus ride. The last time I brought her on a bus ride was on the shuttle bus to Plaza Singapura and she fussed quite a bit on the bus - and that was the first and last time I took a bus with her, until that day. As you can imagine, I was quite apprehensive about the bus ride to the Bird Park but things turned out fine. Phew.

Then the next hurdle came. I tried to put her into the baby carrier before we alighted from the bus but I had a difficult time trying to buckle her in as it was too tight. Finally I managed to squeeze her into it but I think it was too tight so she made noise after awhile - we were still waiting to enter the Bird Park. And so it was. I had to carry her for almost the whole time in my arms as I was not confident of her ability to walk properly with shoes yet. But as it turned out, a couple of days later I tried letting her walk on her own with shoes and she did very well. Darn. Should have just let her walk more that day. Hahaha.

Anyway, first stop was to take the panorail to see the Lories. Taking the panorail's not just a new experience for her, but for me as well. However, the panorail wasn't that fascinating after all and it was quite difficult to get her to see the birds from inside the panorail. Here's a photo of us in the panorail - the only one we took together for the whole of the JG holiday class - taken by a nice grandpa.




She looks so serious here...


The Lories happened to be the first stop on the panorail line so we alighted quickly. I didn't manage to capture any photos of the Lories as I was busy with Alicia but here's a pic of a lory I downloaded from the web:

Lories are quite small actually! And they make really loud squawking sounds.


We were allowed to purchase food to feed the lories at $3. As I had my hands full already, I decided not to feed the birds so we just took a walk around the treetop walk and admired the lories which were flying around and some were eating the food which others had purchased. I allowed her to walk on the safe areas (safe areas = floor that would not cause cuts if she fell) and she was happy to roam about and watch the birds.

After that, we went back on the panorail and headed back to where we had come from and we were given some time to take a look at the flamingoes before joining the group for snack time at an open area near the flamingo park. Alicia didn't eat the teddy puffs provided that day but she did eat the muffin which I had packed along for her. After snacks, we gathered round to sing the usual songs. I tried to take videos of Alicia during that time as she was following what the instructors were doing. However, every time by the time I took out my phone, she would have drifted off and was off to do her own thing. Rather disappointing actually.

Anyway, here are a couple of really short videos of her wandering about that day:



After the songs, we went to see the penguins and Alicia had a great time looking at the big Emperor Penguins which swam by as she stood watching by the glass panel. We happened to choose a great spot to view the penguins so Alicia had a really good view. She waved and said "hi" to the penguins when they swam by. Too bad I didn't have any free hands to take a video of her coz i had to hold on to her.

The bus trip back to JG was a bit more challenging as most of the kids were tired out and napping on the bus so there was no singing. That meant that I had to keep her entertained somehow. Fortunately, the instructors played with her and so time passed quickly and we were back at JG in no time. While waiting for hubby to come pick us up, I brought her to the outdoor play area where she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Somehow, after that day, she totally warmed up to the place and she was very much her usual self thereafter for the rest of the lessons at JG. :)

What a tiring day it was for ME!

The JG Lessons - Tue (24/11)

On the 2nd day of JG class, Alicia was still behaved and slightly less wary of the surroundings. She sat still during story time and was friendly with the puppet of the day - three little blue birds in their nest.

Art for the day was painting with a feather. This was messier than Day 1 as I was splattered with paint by both Alicia's feather as well as other kids' feathers. Nevertheless, I let Alicia fiddle with both colours and do some painting before bringing her to clean up in the toilet next door. She splashed some paint on her face and lips even but becoz the paint's non-toxic, I wasn't worried at all. I just had to clean her up a little more than the day before. :)

Outdoor play was sandplay and this was a new experience for Alicia as we have never let her touch sand before. The instructors had prepared 3 sand pits (of varying textures of sand) for the children to play in. Since Alicia was new to sand, we went to the sand pit for beginners. Even then, Alicia didn't like the sand and after sitting in the sand for awhile, she climbed out of the pit and clung on to me. I put her back in several times but each time she climbed out and clung on to my neck. Finally she cried so I decided to let her just watch the others play with sand. We have decided to bring her to the beach some time this December to let her experience sand again...

Overall, the second day at JG was less stressful for me than the first day as I knew exactly what to expect. I really like the lessons at JG!

Organic Happy Baby Puffs

Alicia, as you can already tell, is into eating puffs of all sorts. We discovered this range of organic puffs at the pharmacy across Cold Storage at Great World City. So far, we've bought the banana puffs and just today, Alicia tried the spinach ones at my friend's place. This has half the amount of sugar in Gerber Puffs so it's definitely healthier!



Gerber Puffs

Alicia used to eat the Strawberry Apple flavoured puffs since she was about 9 months old and only recently we bought a new flavour for her - peach - and she is in love with it. Well, this is probably one of the least healthy snacks she has due to the corn syrup but I think it's still acceptable coz it's not like I allow her to consume a large amount each time.

Nowadays, she gets an assortment of healthy wholegrain snacks for snack time and at breakfast sometimes, where she eats them like cereal.


Teddy Puffs

Alicia started eating these Teddy Puffs when she was 10mths old and she's been going through phases of loving and hating it since. Just last week she was re-introduced to this during class at Julia Gabriel (after a few months of not eating it) and she loved it for a grand total of two days where she stuffed herself silly with the puffs. Subsequently, she started to show signs of rejection again.

I guess it's becoz she's teething again (I just discovered a new tooth two nights ago - I believe it's part of a molar) and coz these puffs are rather hard, they may actually be a bit painful to eat with sore gums....

Are these teddies yummy? Hmm, I think they are and one of my friends simply loves snacking on this - and she isn't a toddler! :)



Crisp Brown Rice

I discovered this new healthy snack for Alicia when she attended class at Julia Gabriel. It's crisp brown rice! The brand of brown rice crispies she ate at JG was Erewhon (which is available at VitaKids) but coz it was out of the way for me to go to a VitaKids outlet, I just settled for another brand of crispies for her.


Here's the pic of the Crisp Brown Rice I bought from the organic store at Harbour Front.


What I love most about this healthy snack is that there's only one ingredient used to make the snack - brown rice! How much healthier can it get? :) And the most important thing is that Alicia likes it!

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