New family member

This is our new family member! She is so sweet and beautiful, and has expressive eyes. I have never thought I could have a daughter.

Luke is adjusting well with this new member. Tried to give him more positive attention.

He is at home for two weeks before he starts school again, so I have to handle two kids now.

I am glad that he is doing well at home and in school previously. He could rote count in Chinese at 24months and could count his cars. He has recently taken interest in dinosaurs since two years birthday and I was amazed that he could pronounce 6 syllabi dinosaur names when I could not without looking at the word.

I'm trying to keep him occupied in the morning with Art, singing and books now that he is at home with me.

Happy Day

I was happy to see my son's pleasant surprise whenI celebrated his birthday privately with him. I bought him a slice of cake, lighted up the candles and sang him a birthday song at home. I could see that smile on his face. He love blowing the candles but he patiently waited for me to snap a photo first. Then we dug in. He ate most of the cake. Never mind the sugars that he is eating for a day! It was great bonding time.

He has been so fascinated with transportation. By 18 months, he knew most vehicles and before he reached his birthday this year, he could classify and name vehicles like 'bullet train','garbage truck','dump truck','big rig','ambulance','fire engine','police car','sports car','motorbike','digger','tractor',etc. He learnt all that faster than he learn the ABCs : )

I have been feeling more tired in this pregnancy than the previous one, no feeling of 2nd trimester, I cannot recall having insomnia. Quite unlike the first pregnancy.

He has been throwing quite many tantrums nowadays,esp when he wants something, on top of all the whining. Mostly, I just left him alone and had to wait for him to cool down. I know if I let him win and get his way, he will do it again. I just pray that there is no limit to my patience.

Time for school?

Brought my son for a MMI free trial today and realised he could learn very fast. There was another 26 mths old boy at the trial with him. They both seemed to click well.

I was rather surprised that L can finish the task using the montessorri tool faster than someone almost half a year older than him. I was amazed that he did well, he knew he had to put in the blocks from left to right and could sort out the blocks very quickly. The teachers were surprised and asked me if he was doing it for the first time and commented that he seemed intelligent and learn things very fast. I must say that L is rather alert and observant. I usually make sure that he listens to me when I talk. I gave myself a pat on the shoulder for the efforts I put in him : )

However, I don't think I can afford the time and energy to teach him with the arrival of the baby. He is always asking me to play with him or read to him. Furthermore, I cannot teach maths and sensorial using Montessorri. I have to make plans for his learning so he can maximise his current potential. I must say that the fees are steep for my consideration.

My father received Jesus on Easter Sunday

I thank my God that my dad received Jesus on Easter Sunday in a miraculous way during a healing service. If God did not speak to me to bring my parents to church, my dad would have missed the chance of receiving his salvation on Easter Sunday.

I also thank God for my spiritual mom in christ who has given me lots of support. Thanks for the love of Christ within her.

Thank God for my sisters in Christ who have shown their support in praying together with me.

God has shown me the importance of unity in Christ.

CNY season

A bit late in creating a post for the CNY. The CNY for us was enjoyable and passed quickly. Went to Science centre for a while but mostly, we visited friends and relatives. Wanted to take a good picture of him being the Strong man but our photography skills are not up to standard.



Strong man!

Kiss by mei-mei Ting Ting.

We cannot treat children like dogs

We cannot treat children like dogs
kiss them, play with them with they are in a jolly good mood and looking cute,
smack them, hit them when they bite us or get in our path.
Children are human beings too, they have emotions, they can get affected by the environment, they can get stressed and they can get cranky when they are sleepy.

I get cranky when I am lacking sleep too. How can I expect my 16 months old son to behave when I deprive him of sleep because I need to bring him out late at night? How can I smack him when he misbehaves because he is trying to catch my attention so that I can bring him home to sleep? He is a human being, not a dog.

What I have to do now is to try my best to bring him home to sleep when he can take it no longer : )

Children are human beings like us. Seek to understand them before expecting to be understood. Praises work well on him. No words like "You are naughty!", I use words like " What you did was wrong!". I catch him doing the right things and praise him. Understand his emotions and personality. I realised my son is very much like me. I was being caned and spanked a lot when I was younger. Outwardly, I was a quiet and good girl because I feared the spanking, inwardly, I was waiting to rebel. Everythings needs to have a balance.

Now, when he knows that he is going out, he sometimes will keep his toys on his own initiative. I was overjoyed when I saw that.

How to get him to eat?

My son has been finicky about food since a month ago. So now I have change the menu everyday and find out what he likes to eat. Recently, I tried a new way of cooking stew beef and he loves it.
Ingredients:
beef cut into cubes,
carrots cut into cubes(and any other vege),
a small slice of ginger,
1 star aniseed.

Fry the beef in a saucepan till brown. Transfer the beef into a slow cooker pot and fill with hot water just enough to cover the beef. Add all other ingredients and let the slow cooker cook at high temperature for at least an hour.

He can feed himself now using a spoon but he loves to play with food and cause a mess. Feeding him can take more than half an hour. Cleaning up takes another half an hour.

He is a smart boy, he started speaking phrases like " More, water" and "More, please" since he was 15 months old. And now he likes to tell me the different types of vehicles whenever we are outside (i.e. taxi, bus, car).

I am glad that I don't have to specially teach him things like a teacher, he learns well when I tell him about things when we go shopping in a supermarket, walk to the MRT station, sing songs and even when we are taking a bus.

As for me, I am trying to learn to sugar-coat my words as I tend to speak my mind. Not everyone can take the truth even if I speak out of love and concern for them.