Christmas Exploding Box

I did another Exploding Box for Ern, in a Christmas theme...

Well, we will be having a Christmas gathering with friends and their kids, whom are quite similar age with Ern. So I thought this Box is something meaningful to capture these good moments.

Top View:


I have yet to decorate the whole box. Only plan to do that once I have the pictures ready. Actually, the original idea on the lid is just tie a Christmas ribbon. Somehow I made a mistake by clipping the lid with a paper clip for too long. Hence, there is a clip mark left on the lid. So in order to cover the 'mistake', I need to use a wider width ribbon and cover the whole thing. Didn't expect the outcome turns out to be quite ok.

Inside View:


Somehow half way cutting the card, the idea of putting all polka dots came into my mind. That's how you see I used all polka dots patterned papers.

Nice??? :-)

Maze Book

This is Ern's first ever Maze Book from Mummy. I learn from here and honestly, I was quite satisfied with it. Not that I did a good job or what, I guess the colorful and bright patterned paper bring out the "sunshine' feeling. LOL

I have yet to figure out what theme to go with this book. Hence, I have not decorate the book much.

See below photo for a closer view inside. You can paste 16 small pictures in this book. I kinda like this concept because it's handy to bring everywhere.

Xylophone

This is the continual from the 'drawing session'. :-)

See, Ern cried the moment we took the white board and marker pen away from her. To distract her, we brought in this xylophone, which was a gift from MIL. Phew, she stopped crying and immediately turned into the delightful mode. I think weather change also not as fast as her..children, children, they are mostly alike!



See the clip below. I think you would be able to gauge how much she LOVES sitting on the step. Enjoy!

Drawing Session @ Home

Since I missed the fun of joining the other Jie Jie & Kor Kor in the last playgroup (you can find details here, here and here), Mummy decided to ‘compensate’ me with another drawing session.

I was pretty excited when I saw this white square thing becoz I can recognize the Pooh Bear. Mummy bought this from Tesco, which comes with a marker, eraser & 2 magnets.


I started to ‘draw’ after my Mummy showed me how to hold a pen. See, the broken lines are drawn by me. The connected line is from my mummy. Can easily tell, right?!!

As I was so curious about this ‘black, wet’ thing (Mummy: the pen ink), I kept on touching on it with my finger and palm. Wow..it was so nice to touch it and in the end, I decided to extend my drawing outside of the board, ie on my hand and leg.



I thought this looks cool on me though my Mummy almost pengsan with me already. Oh by the way, I have also decided to draw on my shirt since it is so plain. Luckily Mummy didn’t really stop me, or too late for her to stop!! *grin*



See, not only I can draw, I can erase the board well also, after seeing how Mummy did it.



After a while, I get tired just sitting drawing on the board, arm and leg. Hmm…then I discovered I have a BIG ‘drawing board’ – the floor.



Mummy stopped me immediately the moment I started to draw on the floor because she thinks I may start to draw on the wall!! Mummy removed my pen and I cried so loud because the whole drawing session was just less than 20 mins. Argh…so short, sure cry loh!

In the end, Mummy brought me the xylophone and only then, I stopped crying. See, I am naughty, right??!! But then, I really enjoyed drawing mah…

Fish

This post is 1 week late as I was busy working on several paper scrapbooking projects. :-)

I took Ching Ern touring around Equatorial Hotel after our lunch at Kampachi (Japanese Restaurant) since Daddy had not finish taking his buffet lunch.

There is a big fish pond just right outside of the restaurant. Ern was so excited when I told her we are going to see fish. I brought her pretty near to the pond so that she gets to see the beautiful and big koi fish swimming around. Trust me, these fish must be fully fed by the hotel staff (or the guest?), all of them are quite big in size.

At first, I thought she may get frightened by these fish but to our surprise, she wasn't. In fact, she wanted to free herself from us and get down to the pond! *roll eyes* Look at the second photo on the left, she either wanted to 'dive in' to the pond. Or, she would turned her body facing us and about to do the butt down to the pond. She was really 'all out' to the fish!! LOL

Scrap credit: Valjs

Better Hand Coordination

I bought this toy for Ching Ern when she was 8 months old. I bought this toy from ToysRUs for 2 reasons - it has double sided activities and it was on sales. *grin*

When I first introduced the toy to Ern, she showed great interested just on the 3 shape blocks. Even then, she didn't like to play the shape sorter but just carried the shapes everywhere. Subsequently, she showed some interested on the phone, the blocks and the flowers.

Just few hours ago while I was working on my paper scrapbooking, I let her played on her own while supervising her from time to time.

Suddenly, I saw this:



I quickly rushed to get the camera and manage to ask her to do it one more time, with her in the picture:


Yay, Ern knows how to put the flower inside the hole and connect them one to another. The missing piece is for her to turn the big flower so that all the flowers will move together.

Let's see wait is the day then.

Sitting On Step

As the title speaks, Ching Ern LOVES to sit on step like:

1) At the staircase - which also indicate it's time to fix up the baby safety gate



2) At the door step



3) At the step between the living and dining room



See the video clip below and you can tell how happy she is whenever she sits on step.

Yes & No

Ya, finally she can distinguish and understand what is ‘yes’ & ‘no’.

Having said so, there are things that she will sometimes say no:
- Drink water (esp when she is full)
- Oah Oah (sleep)
- Pau Pau (carry)
- Keep (we have started on discipline in keeping her toys)
- Share
- Give

This is what she will show you when she say no:



Ha, there are certain things she will never so ‘No’:
- Kai Kai
- Mum Mum (eat)
- Pom Pom (shower)
- Watch cartoon
- Milk

Setting The Stage Right...

Looking at the title itself, it was as if I am talking in office - Setting the Stage Right??!!

Well, this is not only happening in office but on Ching Ern as well. If we don't set the stage right at the beginning on her, this will happen...

1) CRY: Before we place her in her car seat, we need to tell her we are going 'kai kai' (go out) and remind her to take car seat. She will happily nod her head and make no fuss about it. There were several occasions we forgot to say the 'magic' word (especially when Poh Poh carried her) and she cried so loud the moment we placed her in the car seat.

2) STROLLER: Again, we need to use the same 'magic' word or else, less than 15 mins, she would ask us to carry her out from the stroller. Also, we cannot carry her out 1/2 way through because she would never want to go back and sit in her stroller anymore.

3) CAR SEAT: Same thing like stroller, never take her out 1/2 way. Unless we get out from the car for a while, only then she willingly sit back. She must have thought she went for 'kai kai' already. LOL

4) SLEEP: We will need to 'remind' her it's bed time and we will need to deem down the light. Else, she can toss on our bed easily for 45 minutes before she gets tired and sleep.

See...how can we not set the stage right at the beginning?? :-)

Dancing

Kau Foo (my brother) just came back from his Yun Nan, China trip and he gave this so-called 'ferry tag' to Ern. According to Kau Foo, the tag was to differentiate which kind of ferry a person can board when he visited one of the famous lakes. The tag has the name of the ferry.

The moment she got it from Kau Foo, Ern put it on and danced along while she was watching the tele.

Cheeky, right??!! :-)

Exploding Box

I just love this Exploding Box. It is unique, small in size (3-4 inches only) and yet, able to keep up to 20 photos. I decided to start off by journaling on Ern's 1st Birthday.

Anyway, I learn from here and it took me:

- 1+ hours to complete the box & lid
- 1 hour to cut out and paste the patterned papers, ribbon & deco the lid.



- Another 1+ hour to paste the picture, wordings and put up some simple embellishments.



Personally, I think the color combination can be much better. However, I thought I just utilize the paper pad I had and make something out of it.

3 Molars

Ern has 3 more molars sprouting out from lower right & left and another upper left. Can't really see it but when you touch it, can feel the sharp edge.

Ya..for me to find out, it was a painful process. This fella, started to bite when we tried to put our fingers in..argh!!!

Ponytail

Finally, Ern's hair is long enough for ponytail!! Still a little bit to go to tie up all nicely, especially at the back.

At the same times, it also means time for mummy to shop for more nice & cute hair ribbons...hoho...another excuse for mummy to shop...LOL

My First Paper Scrapbooking for Ern

I started digital scrapbooking after read this blog and this blog. These 2 mummies did an EXCELLENT job in scrapbooking! Trust me, do hop over to their website and soon, you will fell in love with this new hobby. LOL

I can't recall how and when I found out about paper scrapbooking. The next thing I know, I "invested" quite substantial in this new hobby. It is a TOTALLY feeling between digital and paper scrapbooking.

This is the first ever scrapbooking I did for Ching Ern. It was a professional photo taken when she was 10+months old. I can't frame the picture because some part of Ern's face would be covered. Many thanks to the photographer!

Anyway, thanks to Evan's Mummy for suggesting the idea of using this 'paper stand". Then, Jo-Nee.com gave me some ideas to decorate the stand and tada, this is the end result.

It is a simple one, indeed. Nothing creative or special. Honestly, I am not a creative person! I used lace ribbon to frame the stand, add 2 flowers with a brad in between, 4 flowers and a chipboard sticker.

Closer look:

Mummy, Pat Pat..

With so many things to do and so little time, I normally ‘multi-task” so that I can ‘find & create” the so called “me only” time. Even then, the “me only” time only happen when Ching Ern goes to bed, which is around 10-10.30pm.

Normally, I will fold our clothes while tuck Ching Ern to bed. Since birth, we have been patting her butt as our way to tuck her to bed. What I normally do is, I will pat her butt for few times and then fold the clothes without patting her. Depending what I am folding, sometimes, I can fold them by using 1 hand while the other is patting on her. The interval of not patting her butt is just like < 10seconds and all along, it is acceptable to Ching Ern.

For the past 2 nights, things changed. This is what had happened.

Mummy: Pat few times + fold clothes
Ern: Turn her body back facing me, make the ‘ng ng’ sound and pat my knee.
Mummy: Ern, you want mummy to pat you?
Ern: Nod her head and turn her body back ( I will normally sit/lie down behind her because I want to cut down eye contact)
Mummy: Ok, ok..Mummy pat pat on Ern Ern.

The whole process repeat for several times whenever I stopped patting her until she finally fall asleep. See, my girl is starting to be ‘demanding’. Looks like the ‘me only’ time will get lesser and lesser.

Ern is 16-Months-Old

A good friend of Mummy, Miss K was making a very ‘creative’ statement when another good friend (whom is a mummy), Miss L shared her 6 years old girl’s professional photo – “those of us who are ahead of the curve are heading towards becoming ‘ancient’ when reminded by friends who have children”.

The statement is very true indeed. I can still remember Miss L was trying to ‘create opportunity” for me and hubby by inviting him to her wedding years ago….:-)

Time flies, her girl is going to Primary 1 next year while Ching Ern turns 16 months today!! At 16 months:

Vital Stats:
Height: 81cm
Weight: 10kg
Teeth: 8 in total - 4 top 4 bottoms (can see whitish spot sprouting out on the top)

Dietary:
Proper Solid: 3 times per day (1 porridge, 1 cereal/wheat at 6+pm & dinner at 8pm)
Light Solid/Snack: Round the clock whenever she is awake or we are eating/munching
Milk: 1X of 6oz at Poh Poh’s house & 2X of 8oz when she is with us

Development:-
- Her appetite is BIG. Sometimes, Poh Poh is a bit worried if she will have digestion problem. At 6+pm, she finishes her cereal in a 2/3 of a soup bowl with 6oz of water down. Then at 8pm, she can take around 2 big spoonfuls of rice + soup + vege + fish. At 9.30pm, she takes another 8oz of milk. A lot??

- When she hears fast beat music, she will dance by moving both of hands, just like how we show ‘driving’ hand sign.

- When she wants to watch Little Einstein, she will point to the TV and pat her knee. After then, she will climb up to the sofa, sitting at her ‘favorite spot’ and wait for us to turn on the TV.

- She is able to relate “eat = must sit in high chair”. So, whenever we ask her ‘want to mum mum’, she will walk to her high chair and ask us to put her in.
Whenever she wants to eat ice-cream, this is what she will do in sequencing manner - she will walk to us, hold our finger, pull us to the fridge, point to the upper compartment’s door, open her arms wide to indicate she wants to be carried, open the fridge door and point to the ice cream!

- She knows she must wipe her feet whenever we step out from the bathroom. She will rub her feet on the clothe.

- She can tell which remote is meant for what. For example, if she is holding a fan remote control, she will press the button by lifting her hand up towards the fan direction. When she is taking TV/Astro remote, she knows to press on the red button, which is the on/off button

- She is learning to jump by stomping her leg though it was small lift from the ground. She enjoyed doing it (who doesn’t!)

- We are seeing improvement on her keeping her toys. Hopefully this will sustain and less ‘clean up the mess” job for mummy! LOL

- She is able to squat down to let us wash her bum bum and wee.

- She loves to stack on the canned food than her stacking toy


Vocab:
- Flower
- Tar (she is referring to Honey Star)
- Wee ( Fish – obviously she can’t pronounce the “f” and “s”
- Ah ( she is referring to Astro’s Channel 315 “Wa TV”. Instead of “Wa”, she said “ah”)
- Bird

Scrap credit: Anita Quilts

Tag: Sam-Pat???

Sam-Pat?? In Cantonese, it means 38; but in Hokkien, it means silly!
Anyway, I received this 'long overdue' tag from GiddyTiger to answer 38 questions.
Here goes:

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night. Ching Ern, Hubby & Poh Poh (sorry lah, they really made my day)

2. What were you doing at 0800? In office already.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Lunch

4. What happened to you in 2006? Gave birth to Ching Ern

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? NVM

6. How many beverages did you have today? Coffee, Water, Liong Char & Chinese Tea

7. What color is your hairbrush? Black

8. What was the last thing you paid for? RM3.80 for my lunch

9. Where were you last night? At home jaga Ching Ern and Hubby (he was sick)

10. What color is your front door? Wooden brown

11. Where do you keep your change? Coin purse.

12. What’s the weather like today? hot

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Macanamia Nut

14. What excites you? Hmm..a lot actually..

15. Do you want to cut your hair? I am keeping short hair now. If cut somemore, botak already. LOL

16. Are you over the age of 25? Yes

17. Do you talk a lot? Yes, my job needs me to talk..haha

18. Do you watch the O.C.? Sorry, me a bit outdate. What is OC?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes

20. Do you make up your own words? Yes, when I talked to Ching Ern

21. Are you a jealous person? Not really

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Adeline, my ex-boss' secretary who works in Singapore now.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. KK, my hubby and he is like my friend also..

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? hubby

25. What does the last text message you received say? Harrick, an ex-colleague

26. Do you chew on your straw? No

27. Do you have curly hair? Yes, I have natural curly hair. So, never perm my hair in my entire life.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? Pantry

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Can't think of a name but i did met some

30. What was the last thing you ate? Amigo's Pandan Egg Part

31. Will you get married in the future? I am married..

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? I have not seen any movies for months ever since Ching Ern was borned. The last was "Casino Royale".

33. Is there anyone you like right now? Ya..my friends and family

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Sunday

35. Are you currently depressed? No because I choose not to. Life is short

36. Did you cry today? No.

37. Why did you answer and post this? Wow..tricky question ler..

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey. I think most people did it.

It is an honour to receive this award from Jeremy's Mummy. Thanks Anggie...

Will pass this to Giddy Tiger, JustMyTots, Charlotte's Mummy, Wei Xuan's Mummy & Hui Sia

PS: Hui Sia - I remember I have a tag from you but I can't locate the link anymore. Can you forward to me again? Sorry, I know it's LONG LONG overdue...

Lil Miss Sunshine...

I love this picture very much even it's a bit blur! It's not easy to take such a shot when your toddler moves so fast and showing more interest on your camera rather than stand still for you to take picture.

I did think about whether I should get a DSLR to take better pictures on Ching Ern and subsequently for # 2. (no..no..I am not pregnant yet!) The downside of having a DSLR is I would not be able to carry the camera conveniently as what I am right now...Hmm...I should re-think about it since I have gotten full sponsorship from Daddy!

Scrap credit: Allie Llacer

If You Say "Leg Up" to Ching Ern...

This is what she will do.

Ern was so proud on her own 'achievement' and she clapped for herself!! We didn't taught her that...somehow she knew when we laughed over her act, she will clap! Maybe she is trying to say 'cheers'...LOL

Potty Train???

Daddy is away on business trip and I had promised him to update about Ern more regularly so that he gets to see his girl and know her progress. Here you go, Daddy.

Yesterday marked another milestone for Ching Ern. She is now able to squat down to let us wash her ‘bum bum’. Actually, she was more thrilled in seeing her urine flowing on the floor and she get to play with it. Yiak, you bet!! But my vain girl loves it so much!

In additional, she will also wee in the squatting position (most of the time) unless she is being carried away by something! Since she is quite consistent signaling to us whenever she wants to wee (by touching her nappy clip), maybe it is something we can consider to gauge if she is ready for potty training.

Let’s see.

Self Feeding, The Beginner...

Ern has yet to understand to take her food one at a time. If we place everything in front of her, she would stuff everything in her mouth! That's why I kinda hesitant to let her self feed.

On Sunday night, I tried to let her hold her spoon when I fed her the ice-cream. Oh ya, she is still eating ice-cream almost everyday, around 2-3 spoonful each time and 2-3 times each day. I thought ice-cream is a good start since it will take longer time before fell off from the spoon (my own logical assumption! LOL)

As expected, she was so HAPPY holding the spoon feeding herself. I did helped her at the first few feeding to 'maneuver' the spoon to ensure it went to her mouth correctly. After few attempts, I think she got it right. Then, she was happily eating until i stopped scooping for her. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

Yesterday, I managed to take few pictures on her self feeding during her "1st dinner" meal. Her "1st dinner" is actually her baby cereal around 6+pm. When we, the adult eat our dinner like 8pm, she gets to eat rice, soup & some dishes as her "2nd dinner". Again, same 'assumption' like ice cream, I thought cereal has similar texture like ice-cream. So, I let her try again. She did pretty well and just the last few spoons, she was kinda full and start playing with the spoon.

Looks like it's time for us to clean the mess. I have learned few tips from other mummies to place newspaper below the hair chair for minimal cleaning.

I Am Serious

See how serious her face is...It was as if we have stepped on her tail and she is mad at us..

I took this picture when she was actually watching her favourite cartoon - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Very serious right, I think she is concentrating. Oh yes, that is the only cartoon she can sit still and watch the whole episode for the entire 30 mins. I caught her giggling away 1-2 times in one of the episodes..I didn't get to see which part because I turned and look at her. Oh boy, my girl can 'understands' a bit of the storyline ya. *Proud Mummy huh! Pai seh, pai seh!*

The rest of the cartoons, she will walk away right after the introduction song and glue back to TV during the advertisement time.

Unless She Is Fully Fed...

Otherwise, this is what she will do when she is awake - pointing at the dining table asking for FOOD. Or she will start her 'ai chiak, ai chiak!'

See, she is pointing at the green color container. She knows where we keep the biscuit!! Or she would walk to her hair chair, attempting to pull the chair near the dining table. *slap head*

Even then, we are blessed that she likes to eat food. To us, I think it's easier to control her not to eat than seeing her not eating.

Step On...

Ching Ern is at the stage of stepping on anything that is ‘stepable”. Sometimes, she even climbed up, hold to balance herself before she stand/step on it.
The objects that she will surely step:

- Books
- Magazines (especially those still nicely wrapped in plastic)
- Container
- Small stool (those that we normally place at living room)
- Square-ish thingy.
- Some of her bigger size toys

It’s dangerous as she may easily miss her step. We are trying our best to watch over her and just hope this is a short phase to go through.

Scrap credit:

Paper: daneila Austen

Overlay: Janosch Designs

Tarzan and Jane???

Mummy said I looked like Jane since one side of my shirt fall off from my shoulder. Mummy lah, couldn’t wait for me to grow a bit taller in order to fit into her Mickey T-Shirt nicely. You are right, I am wearing my mummy’s T-shirt, bought by Kong Kong back in 1980 when he visited Anaheim’s Disneyland in US.

Mummy said I looked like Jane and kept on asking me where is my Tarzan!! I get so upset about this crazy question and I showed her this face loh. Yet, she still laughed like mad and took photo somemore..that’s why I lagi mad! Argh…

btw, see how creative my Poh Poh is..she tied the cabinet using the rope becoz I love to take out all the canned food and stack them nicely..yeah, I love those big canned type like lychee & logan..

PS: Poh Poh said no need to buy the safety lock thing as the rope is workable!