Books

New books for dd at bargain prices (3 for $15). I like the big stencil picture book on animals. Every alternate page is a huge detachable stencil for drawing animal shapes. The Eric Carle's book teaches the concept of numerals while the 'Say hello' book talks about the various countries and their languages (with a guide on pronounciation as well).

Blocks

Putting down the final touches of building up her blocks according to the pictureTa da !! All doneBuilding up a different 'picture' of blocks

Birthdays

We had to miss a fun gathering of mommies & their little ones celebrating the midautumn festival today as we are celebrating Matthew and Meira's birthdays at the SICC. We are sure our friends had great fun at the 'maf' and hope to see them again soon =) DD giving jiejie Meira her birthday pressieKorkor Matthew reading a book with dd whilst the grown ups finish up their dinnerMeira helping dd to put on her shoes but to no avail. Meira promptly told me that "Mai shia's shoes are too small for her" =PBy the time we got home, it was way past dd's 8pm bedtime. Really hope she won't wake up with nightmares tonite from all the hyper laughing and games during dinner. It happens to her sometimes when she sleeps late.

28mo

At 28 months old, dd can make you laugh one moment and the next moment you feel like spanking her =P. And if she knows a spanking is imminent - she will quickly plead "don't beat me! please? please?" or "sorry mommy sorry sorry" or a more direct "no! cannot beat me !" - all of which may or may not spare her a spanking, depending on what her mischief was.

These days her chattiness always makes us roar with laughter at the cheekiest things she says. Her love for books has also prompted her to start reading on her own. Here's a short snippet:

Sanzijing

Bought this "Sanzijing" book a while back but hardly read it to dd (I find it hard to pronounce the words!). I also recommended it to mommy L sometime ago, who gladly told me recently, that her kid had enjoyed it. I was reminded to bring it out from the depths of the cupboard. DD was reading it in her english accented mandarin when I quickly grabbed my camera. She had 2 obvious misprounciations (my fault because I pronounce those words wrongly too) before even completing the page =P

Cards

These big sequencing cards for The Ugly Duckling and The Three little pigs are great. They comprise of 20 cards per set and even have the story depicted on the back of each card.

Nails

DD's 2nd visit to the nail parlour. She was all cool and calm. Not a wince, not a cringe, not a single protest - just happily munching her biscuits. All thanks to her excellent therapist.

Hats

Who can resist babes in hats/ caps?? They are simply the cutest! Chanced upon this local online seller with one of the widest variety of hats/ caps. Alas, most of the hats are only for up to 12mths!! *arrghh* I guess its because todds won't look as cute in them as compared to a baby =P

Luckily, dd has done her fair share of togging up in hats/caps when she was younger so no regrets. But still, these caps are such eye candy I couldn't resist posting a few designs here.

Housewarming

Connie's new house in the heart of Siglap has just been rebuilt and done up, hence we were there as a sort of house warming. DD's favourite moment must be when she met baby caylin.She couldn't help giving her a gentle pat as baby caylin sleptTickling baby caylin's footBig jiejie to baby caylin

Potluck

A simple potluck party at Markorpo's flat, for grandauntie Margaret from Australia who's back for a short holiday. She lugged back gifts for everyone including 3kg of milk powder for me =P. Mind you, not dd's formula milk but milk that I drink and which can't be found anywhere else but in Australia. Introducing the siblings/ spouses..Our guests for the evening included Gordon and Margaret (pretty common name) who has flown in with grandauntie Margaret and granduncle John.The many kids had fun with dd's playdoh and shape makers. DD's first taste of keropo! Uncle teckmeng must really buy 4D!! DD was very happy to be carried by him (dd never allows unfamiliar 'uncles' to carry her). Uncle woeimeng who spent a LONG time trying to get dd to warm up to him looks on in disbelief!!! He had been trying all sort of antics to make dd laugh but dd just ignores him.

Cut

The wisps of hair standing up on her crown prompted me to cut dd's hair back to a neat bob. These wisps of fine hair has obviously been traumatised and broken at some point. Made me really very heartpain.

In fact, on more than one occasion, I have also inadvertently pulled out a huge handful of her hair. So enough was enough. Her hair is so 'slippery' and hard to grip that often after tying her hair up, the hairtie will 'run' free of her hair within 2 hours (or less if she's more active)So we end up with this scenario above This is how long (and how untidy) her hair was

Riot

Last day of term at sm *yippee!*. A rare glimpse at a sm classroom as male classmate ziyi and dd ran riot in class after everyone else had left. The two kids did a good imagery training of being teachers.

Next - image training as cleaning uncle n auntie??

DD as dimsum dolly by pushing sensei's trolley while ziyi decides to be next triathlete
A snapshot with li'l Ernest. Majority of dd's classmates are boys =P

Festival

The mid autumn festival seems to herald the beginning of festivities that usually comes with the last quarter of the year. This year's SICC mooncakes from ah ma are in the shape of gold ingots . Exactly the same packaging as last year's but we like them.

Pictures

These series of books are entertaining not only for dd but for me as well. It doesn't have any text in them at all - just pictures. So dd is allowed to utilise her imagination to 'create' any story that she wants for each corresponding illustration.

Alternative

Kids these days are faced with SO many different types of enrichment classes that even if cost was not an issue, time and effort would surely wear one out. And dd's not even 3 years old yet. From phonics to foreign language to art to ballet to gym to music classes and the list goes on.

Parents naturally have to pick and choose which classes to send one's child to. Amongst those classes that we aren't keen to send dd to yet (till she's older), include art, ballet, swimming, etc. Even tho' mommy Eileen has talked to us about attending ballet lessons at Centrestage or the CC , I decided to borrow this delightful DVD from our library as a cheaper alternative =P We prefer to wait till dd is older and determine her interests before sending her for classes.

Vegetarian

A rare trip to Waterloo street pedestrian mall, right outside the Goddess of Mercy temple. It was a scorching hot day - so I tied dd's hair up into a ponytail. I noticed that her super fine hair seems to suffer a lot entanglements and once, when I was removing a stray sticker from her hair, I inadvertently pulled out a handful =P.Lunch was at this retro looking vegetarian restaurant which served delicious mock meat fareTheir mooncakes and pastries neatly laid out

Pillows

Buying a pillow these days is no easy task. From microfibre to down to vicose and anything in between, its a mind boggling range that requires careful selection. Every 12 months or so, we try to shop for new pillows - and the time has come to get new ones again. DD helping out in our selection process This would be a better way to shortlist the pillows! Come on and join me We finally settled for this 'smart'/ 'space technology' pillow. Definitely not one of those top end over a hundred bucks type of pillow because I can't imagine dd doing one of her 'merlion' milk act on the pillow one day =P.

B&J

DD's first visit to the Marina barrage. Auntie Melody had asked that we join her for the Ben&Jerry's chunk fest hence we are here today. Auntie Melody had won the top prize recently for the B&J 'create a new flavor' contest and was headed to the Dominican Republic to represent Singapore in Nov.

A retro Volkswagon van decked out in colorful decorDD enjoying her first taste of ice cream - B&J no less.