Morning sickness --- ugh!

Ok, I realised that I haven't updated my blog for the longest time. Quite a number of things are going on right now, and every time when I log into my computer, it is to work, work, work. Not very fun.

It also doesn't help that I am suffering from a rather severe case of morning sickness. Yes, I am expecting Baby no. 3 (Baby no. 2 was miscarried in May 2013). Currently Baby no. 3 is at 10 weeks, still in the first trimester.

After the early miscarriage of baby no.2, I am very much more careful about this pregnancy. Especially since I am very prone to bleeding during my pregnancies, even my gynaecologist is rather paranoid and started me on Hormones therapy BEFORE I show any signs of bleeding,

With so much progesterone in my system, I feel bloated and constipated ALL THE TIME. And this simply worsen the nausea. So, I have to be on anti-nausea medication.

So many pills to take each day: folic acid pill, iron pill, hormone pill, probiotic pill and the anti-nausea pill. Ugh!

But I can't exactly complain... hopefully Little Nugget is doing fine and that's all I pray for.

Best of luck to me!

Dolly

Beanie and I were at the H&M recently and at the Kid's section, I came across this little cloth doll. It was on sale and only cost a grand total of 7 bucks! So I bought it for Beanie and we named her "Dolly"

The cool part about Dolly is that you can undress her totally (yes, you can even remove her underwear) and dress her in other outfits! I remembered that I really love to design and make clothes for my dolls when I was younger and I couldn't wait to make some clothes for Dolly!

So, Project Runway begins! I'm going to make a blouse and a skirt for Dolly.

I used an old dress to set a blouse for Dolly.

And I used an old sock for Dolly's skirt. Originally, I wanted to sew the ribbon as trimming for the skirt but I changed my mind when I realized that it would take me too much time to do so.

Above was Dolly's original outfit.

Ta-dah! Dolly's new outfit! 

And what was Beanie while I was sewing Dolly's clothes? She didn't give 2 hoot about Dolly and her new clothes at all... ...

O well, I think Beanie has to grow up a little more to appreciate our Project Runway Sessions for Dolly. 

Beanie's first visit to a farm (and mine too!)

Little Beanie took her feeding duties very seriously and insisted on carrying the feeding bucket.

The little wallaby was SO CUTE! It was a gentle little thing and was very patient with Beanie.

But Little Wallaby was simply too greedy so it went straight for the bucket.

Beanie: "Nah, bread for you!" 

During the Margaret river trip, we visited a petting zoo / farm: The Sunflower Farm. It wasn't really a real farm but more of a touristy petting farm. Nonetheless, it was an eye-opening for me, who have never been to an Angmoh farm or a petting farm.

First, we bottled-fed 2 cute little lambs. OMG, they were so cute and their wool was so soft! And the best part: they weren't smelly at all!

Then the baby wallaby came along and stole my heart. It was such a gentle little creature! It followed Beanie around since Beanie was the one carrying the feeding bucket. And Beanie was very intrigued by her furry friend. They hanged out for a while until... well, the feeding bucket got kind of empty.

Then we saw geese, limas, many different breeds of chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, sheep, a horse and a pony... etc (strangely, no cows) and most important of all, pigs.

I have never knew that pigs can be so BIG. I mean, HUGE. In my mind, I thought pigs are the size of big dogs, but fatter and smellier. But apparently, pigs that are reared for meat are really big animals! They are twice the length of me... Geez!

I stared at the pigs and lambs for the longest time and started to feel bad that I actually eat them. Sigh, maybe I should become a vegetarian but the foodie in me refused to even entertain the thought.

As for Beanie, she had a blast at the farm. She happily carried the feeding bucket, fed the animals, she was not afraid of them (not even the pigs?!) and was constantly interacting with the animals. I was rather proud of her, my little trouper. ;)

I'm now looking forward to visit other farms in other countries and maybe a farm stay too!

Losing No. 2

This will be a sad post, I'm afraid.

I was supposed to be 8 weeks pregnant when I started to spot brown. However, since I also had some forms of spotting and bleeding when I was carrying Beanie, I wasn't too worried about the spotting for this second pregnancy.

Unfortunately, after 3 days of light spotting, the bleeding started to get heavier and I noticed red blood bleeding and that was when I called my Gynae to book an emergency consultation. During the ultrasound, it seemed that the embryo had stopped developing since it was 5-6 weeks. In fact, we could see the amniotic sac but no fetus or heartbeat. It was a case of Blighted Ovum.

The doctor wanted to play safe and scheduled another scan in a week's time to ensure that there was indeed no development of the embryo, but he cautioned that my body might expelled the failed embryo naturally and I might suffer from a natural miscarriage. As long as I am not in severe pain or bleeding excessively, I should just let nature takes in course.

And true enough, I miscarried naturally later on the very same day, later in the evening.

The cramps and the backache started, it was as if I was going through a mini-labour. It was very similar to the same discomfort that I went through during the early stages of labour when I had Beanie. The bleeding intensified with many clots and then, suddenly I felt something passed out of me.

It was a small placenta, almost the size of a small kiwi fruit and the attached  amniotic sac, which looked like a deflated white balloon. Inside the sac, there was a very small, almost worm-like looking creature. I believe that the little worm was my little No. 2. My first instinct was to flush it away, and I did. But now on hindsight, I should have kept it in a box and buried it under my Frangipani Tree. It would have help me to move on.... and now, I have the guilt that I actually flushed my No.2 down the toilet chute!

Sigh. I know that miscarriages are very common and I have quite a few friends who went through at least 1 failed pregnancy but continued to have 2 or 3 perfectly healthy children anyway.

But it was still very sad for me to know that the little worm could have grown to be Beanie's little brother or sister. Yet, at the same time, I am also very thankful that my first-born, Beanie is now a healthy almost-2-year-old girl and this miscarriage makes me appreciate my Little Beanie so much more.

No woman will ever forget a miscarriage, every miscarriage was like a child lost.

Mommy will always remember you, my little no. 2.

Mother's Day at Gardens by the Bay

After the Mother's day lunch with my brothers, Mother and Grandma, we thought that it would be a good idea to bring my grandma, mom and Beanie to Gardens by the Bay: Tulipmania to enjoy some air-con in the temperature-controlled dome and to admire some beautiful flowers and tulips.

Well, apparently the whole of Singapore thought so too.

Gardens by the bay was totally packed yesterday!

Geez, I saw more people than flowers and due to the crowd, the dome was rather stuffy. Hmmm, they should really consider installing some fans to create some artificial breeze.

Nonetheless, my grandma and mom totally enjoyed the trip. It hits me once again that old folks are generally really easy to please. I could tell that my grandma was really pleased that we took her out for lunch and the trip to Gardens by the Bay was the icing on the cake. She is 86 years old this year, but still very healthy and feisty. She could walk around the dome on her own (with the help of her trusted umbrella) and was very intrigued by the various species of plants and flowers that she has never seen before.

My mom, being the gardener and Mrs green-fingers, was totally excited and went around on a photo spree. Hmmm, that sets me thinking that I should plan a trip with her to Japan during Spring to either see the sakura or to Hokkaido during the Spring festival.

As for Beanie, she was rather co-operative. Thankfully she did not pluck or destroy any plants and seemed to understand when I told her that she wasn't allowed to pluck the flowers and could only touch them gently. *phew*

This is my 2nd Mother's Day with Beanie, and everyday, I am very thankful that I am blessed with a healthy, spirited, cute and sometimes-she-drives-me-crazy daughter.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

Jewel Cafe at 129 Rangoon Road

Beanie and I checked out Jewel Cafe at 129 Rangoon Road yesterday. There are so many of these artisan cafes nowadays that they are bringing such a vibrant cafe buzz to Singapore. I love it!

In fact, for the past few weeks, we have been to a few establishments, e.g.: The Coastal Settlements at Changi Village, Piccotin at Turf City, The Orange Thimble and Tiong Bahru Bakery at Tiong Bahru, Omakase Burger at Turf City, Da Paolo at Rochester ... etc.

And so far, my favorite: Jewel Cafe at Rangoon Road.

This cafe serves really GOOD coffee. I must say that I have not had such a good cup of cappuccino for a very long time. Food was very decent for a cafe too, and not too pricey.

So for good, solid coffee, Jewel Cafe will definitely satisfy the inner coffee connoisseur in you.

As for Beanie, she was busy acting cute in front of the camera. My friend, M was totally smitten by Beanie that she was kind enough to babysit Beanie while I was sipping my coffee. Ahhh... bliss for 5 mins.

Beanie is at a very "enjoyable" age now, I can usually just let her loose in a cafe and she will then go around socialize with fellow patrons and leave me alone to drink my coffee or eat my breakfast. However, not everyone is into kids, so if i detect a frown somewhere or at times, Beanie can simply be overbearing, then I will cull Beanie over and strap her to a baby chair.

Thankfully, most of the times, Beanie can get away by acting cute and I can get away by pretending that Beanie is not my child and I'll go hide in one corner to drink my coffee in peace. ;)

A day at East Coast Park

And we brought Beanie to East Coast park for a short bicycle ride and some sand play on last Sunday. She actually cried for a full 5 minutes when I forced her to sit on the bicycle. She was pulling my shirt and screaming her head off when I placed her in the child back-seat of the bike.

It was as if I was bringing her to the slaughter house.

Anyway, I simply ignored her and started paddling and soon enough, she settled down and eventually enjoyed the joy ride. We paddled for about an hour and Beanie did enjoy herself as a back-seat passenger despite of her teary protests earlier on.

After that, we had some sand play with her playmate, Kylie. Both Beanie and Kylie are born on the very same day and on the very same year. Yeah... what are the chances right?

At Beanie's age, she still doesn't know how to interact-play with Kylie. So both of them just spent time digging furiously at the sand side-by-side and occasionally, snatched toys and shovels. That was their idea of "interactive play" --> by snatching each other's toys.

After that, we went to this really children-friendly restaurant, Brussels Sprouts at Playground@Big Splash. The restuarant has cute little outdoor slides and rocking horses for the children to play. It even invited a Balloon Sculptor to craft balloons for the little ones for free!

I was so impressed! And as you can see from the picture above, Beanie was totally smitten by the Balloon Sculptor too!

All in all, it was a really enjoyable family outing. ;)

And now, I have to think about what to do and where to go tomorrow, on Easter holiday!

Beanie meets Singa

Remember Singa? The Courtesy Lion? He was such an icon during my era. He was EVERYWHERE when I was a kid in primary school. I remembered that there was a little song about Singa, the lion where the lyrics went something like "it is so nicccccce to be courteous... .... lah lah lah" In fact, it was deem as "cool" to be nice and courteous so that we could all be like Singa!

And then for some reason, Singa disappeared.

Where did Singa go?

Apparently he has been residing at the building of Ministry of Communications and Information (you know, the one with many colorful windows opposite clarke quay.) In fact, Singa has been very busy because Beanie and I found out that Singa is now a proud father of 5 little singas! Very productive, if only every Singaporean follows Singa's footsteps and we will not have a problem with our ever-declining TFR and the hotly debated 6.9 million figure in our recent white paper.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time that Singa steps out of his super-early retirement and gets back to work. Singaporeans have been rather angsty lately due to the over-crowding in our MRTs and buses, that's assuming that the MRTs and buses are running punctually and without any glitches. All these jostling and pushing are not helping anyone. We can really do with some courtesy and niceness...

WE NEED YOU, SINGA! *wail*

Ok, enough of the drama.

Back to our little excursion with Beanie and the little Singas. So, we chanced upon Singa and his brood and as you can see, Beanie was really excited. She checked out all the little Singas and made friends with them. The little Singas seemed excited too because we were the ONLY people in "Singa, the Courtesy Lion" exhibit.

I was very excited too. It was like I bumped into a childhood friend and had so much to catch up! You know, chatting about our kids and how Singapore was like in the 1980s (so different from today!) and why is Singa a stay-at-home-dad now? Why isn't Singa making his rounds in primary schools like he used to?

Singa lamented that courtesy is not in vogue anymore. Schools are too concerned with PSLE and rankings to bother about courtesy and niceness. But I told him a piece of good news that primary schools are re-introducing "Good Citizens", so there is a fighting chance that Singa will have his job back!

Haha... it was really nice to catch up with Singa. I really do hope more people will check out his exhibit!

A picnic at Botanical Gardens

This post is a bit dated since we actually had the picnic before the Chinese New Year but I only have the time to blog about it now.

Before I have Beanie, I had fantasized about having a picnic at the Botanical Gardens where my beautiful kid(s) will run around freely and I would chill and relax with a glass of champagne while enjoying the live music from the performing orchestra.

Ahhhh... what bliss.

Well, my fantasy did come true! Hrm... minus the champagne part though.

Beanie, being the active little girl, was RUNNING ALL OVER THE FIELD. Although by nature, I am a really chill mom and I don't mind my kid running around freely, but Beanie was trampling other people's picnic mats and raiding other people's picnic baskets!

When Beanie was let loose for 15 minutes, she brought back 2 bananas, packets of biscuits, 1 ball and almost a dog! Luckily the leash of the dog wasn't long enough. So I had to follow Beanie around to ensure that she wasn't grabbing another kid's toy, snatching food or stealing someone's pet dog.

And little Beanie was rather fearless, she did not care whether I was following her or not; she simply ran after whatever item that caught her eye. Be it a dog, leaves, other kids or bubbles. After a while, I gave up and let her be. Every 5 minutes or so, I would just look around to ensure that the little bit of pink with white pokka dots was within my sight radar.

It was a beautiful day for a picnic. The weather was sunny yet breezy and the performance was fantastic. Can't wait for another picnic again!

Beanie, our little Helper

Beanie is now my little Helper... well, most of the time.

When she accidentally spills any water or milk, she will demand for a cleaning cloth and will clean up the mess. And most of the time, she actually does quite a good job in cleaning up.

She also enjoys dry-mopping the floor and she is rather meticulous, I must say. She also rearranges our shoes in the morning to ensure that our shoes are neatly arranged along the corridor.

At 18 months, I must say she is currently at HER CUTEST! Arggh, it is soooo cute to see her mopping around the house!

Beanie's 2nd Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year ! 

Beanie at 5 months old in the last CNY

When I looked at Beanie's photos taken during the last Chinese New Year, I got a shock. I couldn't believe that she was so small and tiny then!

Thankfully Beanie has more hair now. But her eyes seem to have shrunk. Not as big as when she was a baby.

Beanie has had lots of fun this CNY, she is so much more interactive now, able to run around and play with other children. Her favourite CNY snack is Mini Papadam. Every morning, she will point to the Snack Corner and shout "more! more! more!" That is her indication of wanting to eat the mini papadam.

I will usually humor her by giving her 2 pieces and as usual, she will shout "more! more! more!" and I will have to say "No more biscuits" and hide the container.

Then she will then usually proceed to throw a tantrum and have a melt down, which by now, I am totally immune and will just ignore her.

This little skit happens EVERY MORNING.

Im deciding how to end this vicious cycle by:

1. Finish the papadam with Beanie once and for all. We will stuff our faces silly with mini papadam and share a special mother-&-daughter bonding session. I will worry about the sore throats later.

2. Finish the papadam myself since it is MY favorite snack too! And pray that Beanie will soon forget about the papadam.

3. Eat as much of the papadam myself and leave a few pieces for Beanie. Let Beanie have the illusion that she has finished the papadam.

The rational mother in me indicates that Option 3 is the best but I am so keen to do Option 1 instead!

Potty Training Part 1

So I have officially started potty training on Beanie about 2 weeks ago, when she was about 17 months. Actually I have tried to start potty training even earlier, at about 1 year old. I wanted her to sit on the potty, just so that she would be comfortable with the idea of sitting on a potty.

At 1 year old, I thought she she was too young to understand the concept of pooping and peeing into a potty, so my training was ad-hoc and haphazard. I wasn't consistent and after while, for some reason, Beanie started to resist the potty. She refused to sit on the potty and would scream bloody murder whenever I took out the potty.

Ok, fine. Since I thought she was too young to understand, I let her be and we took a break from potty training.

Then I read a few parenting books and most (if not all, except for the book featured in the picture above) indicated that toddlers "have to be ready mentally and biologically" before they can start potty training. The books advise that toddlers at age 18-24 months will be mentally and biologically developed enough to grasp the concept of potty training and if you were to start younger, you are only wasting your time and causing undue stress to the babies or toddlers.

I totally DISAGREE with that.

I noticed that Beanie has understood the concept of peeing and pooping into the potty when she was at about 12-14 months, but because she is so used to pooping in her diapers while in a standing position, she rejects the potty by choice.

So, if a baby has started potty training early and has gotten used to the idea of peeing and pooping into the potty from a really young age, the baby should be diaper-free (during the day time) by 20 months or so.

Instead, now I have to break Beanie's habit of pooping in her diaper although she is clearly aware of the existence of the potty but chooses NOT to use it.

I personally find the book: Diaper-Free Before 3 by Dr Jill M.Lekovic to be very useful and I'm using her tips to potty train Beanie now.

As of now, Beanie is willing to sit in her potty willingly although I do need to use my Iphone to entice her. It is the only time where she gets to play with my phone, so she associates sitting on a potty to "happy time with the iPhone". She has also peed in the potty a few times but still refusing to poop in the potty.

Meanwhile, Beanie is also back to wearing cloth diapers and training pants at home, so that she gets to feel the wetness of her pants whenever she wets herself and hopefully, that will prompt her to signal her desire to pee before she actually wets herself.

And to my visitors for the coming Chinese New Year, I will strongly advise you NOT to sit on my carpet since Beanie has peed there a few times already! ;)

A stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom

Little Beanie was running all over the cafe. Thankfully the cafe was empty and she wasn't a nuisance to anyone.

I met up with some of of blog friends for tea recently at this really nice cafe, which was in this really swanky hotel.

"Wahhhhhh... so tai-tai!" Some of my friends claimed. They are envious that I can "play with my daughter the whole day", "drink tea at 3 pm in the afternoon with fellow Tai-Tai friends", and for those without children, they think that I am chilling at home with a glass of Lychee Martini while surfing the net all day.

Among all my friends, I am the only one who quit a full-time job to be a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-Mom.

To my friends who are full-time working moms, they think that I am lucky because I get to spend quality time with my daughter and now that I have a helper, I do not have to do housework anymore, and thus I am now a "tai-tai".

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tai-Tai... I am certainty NOT!

First and foremost, I am self-employed. Yes, I work from home most of the time but I do work. I do go for trainings, meet up with clients, clear admin work, think of ways to get more clients and prospects and I work when Beanie is asleep.

I face with the pressure of not meeting my sales target, not bringing a meaningful second income to my household, not contributing to my CPF and according to my mother, I am wasting my degree and CFA away by being a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom.

And because I am half a stay-at-home-mom, I also face the guilt of not doing enough of home-schooling for Beanie. I try to read to her as much as I can, I try to do art-and-craft work when I have the time, I take out my violin and play some simple songs to create my own "music lessons", I bring her out for a swim or a little romp at the playground whenever the weather permits.

But all these are ad-hoc and too free-style. Compared to some of the moms who blog about their organized learning activities with the flash cards and sensory toys, I seem to be doing Beanie a huge injustice.

And then there will be days when I would worry about the family's finances. What if my husband loses his job? How can we start to plan for our retirement with only 1 income? Can I afford to send Beanie to a good pre-school? (the answer is "no")

Sigh! The perils of being a stay-at-home-yet-still-self-employed-mom!

Beanie's update

A little update on Beanie:

She is hitting 16 months soon, Geez! My baby is officially a toddler at 1 year 4 months. She has started to exert her independence and at times, insisted of doing things her way.

Example:
We were supposed to head out for an outing, and so I got her to wear a pretty little dress. Beanie got very upset that she had to wear a dress and started a melt down. She pulled and tugged at her dress while screaming her head off. End of the day, I had to change out the dress and she wore a pair of tights and a T-shirt instead. Ok... Beanie is NOT into dresses.

Beanie has also started to say a few words. Below is her list of words:
1) MaMa
2) PaPa
3) Car (she will say "CAR...." whenever she sees a car. She will climb on the sofa everyday to look out of the window to spot for cars)
4) Bus (Same action as above, just that instead of "car....", she will say "Bahhhhh")
5) Turtle (We have a puzzle where she has to match various sea creatures to their respective cut-out shapes and somehow, she has taken a fancy to Turtle)
6) Bear (All animals are "bear" to her. When she sees a dog, she will go "BEAR!!!". When she sees a cat, she will go "BEAR" too)
7) Milk (sounds more like "ilk" actually)
8) Bird (She will point out pigeons and go "Bird....")
9)马 (the only chinese word so far, thanks to a picture book)

Beanie has also began to connect pictures with actual items. Just earlier this evening, she was trying to tell me that she wanted to eat grapes. She kept pointing towards the fridge but both my maid and myself had no idea what Beanie was trying to say. Exasperated, she fetched one of her picture books, flipped to a page and pointed to a bunch of grapes.

"Ohhh, so you want to eat grapes?"

Beanie nodded and ran to the fridge. And so I gave her a little bunch of grapes to munch. She took the bowl of grapes to her picture book, pointed at the picture of grapes again and begun to eat her grapes quietly.

All these while, I was very amused by her. My little Beanie is growing up so fast!

A short getaway to Phuket

A little garland to welcome Beanie to the resort

Family Photo!

Mommy, can I order this?

So after various rounds of debates with the Hub, both of us finally decided to lug Beanie along to our short getaway to Phuket. Luckily for us, our neighbors came along with us and the extra 2 pairs of hands came in very handy to carry Beanie around.

We stayed at JW Marriott Home Vacation Club 4-days-3-nights FOR FREE?! But there was a catch, we had to sit through a 90 mins sales pitch for the hotel's "vacation club points purchase scheme". For Hub and I, both of us went for this free stay with our eyes open but ears closed. So, after 2 hours, we still walked out of the presentation without buying or signing anything.

Yay! *do a victory dance*

But seriously, for a free stay. It was totally worth it. The hotel room was more like a service apartment with a fully a equipped kitchen, 2 bedrooms and decent size dinning & living area. Hotel service was prompt and every staff was polite and helpful.

All in all, this short getaway was very enjoyable. So much so that, we are planning for another short trip to Penang at the end of December!

Haha! And yes, Beanie will go with us too!

Beanie, the little coffee connoisseur

"Mmmmm... the coffee tastes good!"

"Wah! The Pecan Lime Tart looks yummy too!"

Chye Seng Huat Hardware: A very cool and chill-out place.

Check out the retro laps and window grills!

Beanie is acting cute in front of the camera again

We checked out 2 very cool coffee joints recently: Chye Seng Huat Hardware (a review by chubby hubby) and Loysel's Toy Cafe (review by Lady Iron Chef). Both blogs wrote excellent reviews on the cafes, thus I will not repeat.

What I will add is that both cafes are opened by the same guys who are behind Papa Palheta, so the coffee is good. Both cafes are situated at really "ulu" places but they are always packed??!! Both cafes have really cool vibes and are surprisingly very baby-friendly.

And yup, we did bring Beanie along to conduct our baby-friendy-or-not tests and both cafes passed with flying colors! Both cafes have open spaces for little tykes to run around, so parents can actually sit back, relax and smell a decent cup of coffee.

Ahh..... .... bliss.

So if you are looking for a chill-out place for a lazy sunday brunch or a catch-up with friends, both cafes are recommended if you are adventurous enough for something off the beaten track. 

Breast Feeding at 15 months

Yup, Beanie is still on breast milk at 15 months. Although my milk supply is really low these days, Beanie will still scream "Nei Nei!!! Nei Nei!!! Nei Nei!!!" in the mornings and nights, demanding to be  latched. 

If I were to ignore her, she would get really upset and cry really pitifully. So, I would usually cave in and latch her anyway. 

I've tried to wean her by introducing fresh milk and she has also started drinking fresh milk, but she prefers to drink milk from a cup and not from a bottle. Therefore, she does not see fresh milk as a replacement to breast milk.

I am prepared to breastfeed her till about 18 months to 2 years old but hopefully not any older! Meanwhile, I better start the routine of getting Beanie to drink milk from a cup in the mornings and nights to kick start the weaning process.

When the demand stops, the supply will stop too. And I can finally have my boobs to myself again.

Beanie's music classes

"Mom, you want me to play your violin as a cello?"

Caveat: I am not musically inclined and I barely can play the violin.

I am the least qualified music teacher in the world to teach my daughter music. But she is only 14 months old and seriously, I am too cheapskate to pay a few hundred bucks a month to expose her to music in those chi-chi music lessons, where I can actually do the same at home.

Well.... I did learn the violin before. So I have the Suzuki Violin CDs level 1 and 2, which I play once a week to conduct these "music classes" with Beanie. Whenever I play the CDs, I would hold her in my arms and dance around the house, according to the rhythm of the music. 

Beanie enjoyed the whole dancing-to-the-rhythm exercise because she:

1) got the chance to be carried by me (I seldom carry her at home because I want her to learn to play independently)

2) we jiggled around the house and when the tempo got fast, I started to swing her in the air and she would scream with joy. That adrenaline junkie!

As for me, it would be a TOTAL work-out. Try carrying a 10 kg bag of rice and jiggle around the house for like 10 mins.

After that, we would sit on the floor and I would then clap my hands or snap my fingers according to the rhythm of the music. Beanie would sometimes imitate me by clapping along, or she would simply shake her bum-bum according to the music and dance.

Sometimes I would take out my violin to let her play with it, or I would play a simple song, usually Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. 

The "music class" seldom last more than 15-20 mins. Her attention span is only that long. After that, she will either just wander around the house or go to her toy box to dig out her favorite toys. 

There, I just saved myself a few hundred bucks a month. Ha!

Little Picasso at work

To encourage creativity and to hone Beanie's fine motor skills, I stuck 2 pieces of mahjiong papers on the walls of my balcony to allow her to scribble and draw freely at her will.

I would first demonstrate by drawing apples and stars, sang happy songs to keep the session fun and interesting.

However, Beanie doesn't like to draw. She would either just stare at me blankly and then ran away to chase after Cookie for like the 100th times since 7 am in the morning, or she would just open my drawers and cupboards and proceed to empty them.

Nonetheless, I persisted. I continued with the "art class" weeks after weeks.

When I gave her crayons, she ended up using her little fingers to scrape and dig at the tips of the crayons.

When I gave her chalk, she had more fun breaking the chalk to small pieces and subsequently she tried to eat them!

When I gave her magic pens, she ended up drawing her hands, which I am ok with. At least she was drawing something!

But she has absolutely no interest in drawing on the mahjiong paper.

So one day, I bought water soluble paints and a brush and showed her how to paint.

Finally, she managed to keep herself busy for like 15 minutes! She was intrigued by the water changing color whenever she dipped the brush. She enjoyed splashing water all over the place and most importantly, she finally got the idea of holding the brush and begun to paint!

Yeah! That's an important milestone in my opinion!

If only the mess wasn't such a pain. Thankfully the helper could help me with the cleaning up!

Cycling at East Coast Park

We brought Beanie to East Coast park last friday and she had her very first bicycle ride. She absolutely loved cycling! She was rather apprehensive at the beginning when I strapped her to the baby seat but once Hub started paddling, she started grinning from ear to ear and even raised her arms to feel the breeze. It got to the point where she would actually protest when we stopped for a break or to adjust her little hat.

As you can see, the sky was grey so after 30 mins of cycling, it rained on us and so we had to take shelter. Thankfully the rain cleared within half and hour and we continued on. It was a friday and after the rain, the cycling tracks were totally deserted. We had East Coast Park to ourselves! ;)

I am now thinking of buying a bicycle so that I can cycle to Bishan Park with Beanie. Time to go bike shopping!