shopping in town !

It was the 2nd day of Jyn's birthday and decided to bring him out "Jalan Jalan".
It was just before noon that we reached Orchard. He was overwhelmed over his trolley bag
and keep on insist to pull along. 

 

 

At the same time, I always wanted to get a light weight stroller for traveling  on buses or short trip and decided to headed over to Taka baby department.I have heard about the combi F2 and it was a relatively extremely light weight about 3.8 kg. I put Jyn in the stroller to test and he loved it immediate ! But the price was not that cheap. $389 with extra seat liner and wheel cap. It was over my budget .With this price , I can get other combi cheaper model which can reclined.Though the bumble bee yellow was a good attractive colour.And also take note this model can only withstand till 15 kg . Anything heavier will make it hard to manoeuvre around . Another minus point is the wheels are very slim and it can easier stucked

into the hole of the metal plate drains .So this would be a no no for me no matter how attractive the stroller is.For  this model , I feel it is more suitable in Japan or any other western countries where there are lesser this kind of metal plate in SG. When come to the seat, the seat was a bit shallow and the toddler need to secure with seat belt or else, the child will fall out easily. So need to be careful if you pushing stroller on the escalator or stairs.Otherwise if parents are looking for sleet and slim design, this is a good choice. But of course, Combi is still very good in their invention of  closing and opening mechanism. This is a plus point .

 Finally, the sales person recommended the maclaren stroller which is most Singapore parents love to get. He let me try the Maclaren Triump 2011 model. This is also a light weight stroller but much heavier than combi F2. But I was not fancied by the colors.Only Green and brown which is suited for boys.One good thing, the price fall within my budget and can withstand till 20 kg of weight.But I'm still having difficulty over my shoulder.And finally he recommended the Globetrotter model. I didn't know Maclaren has this model.According to him, this model is quite new and weigh only 4.8 Kg.

And It has black colour "Blink blink" . Im not sure if I hear him correctly, but he says sit till 3-4 years only ( 25 kg ). Anyway, all the features fit my  criteria and decided to purchase it. It is now in promotion price of $179 ( previously $329). The stroller also come with a grey seat liner and rain cover.So I can consider this a very good buy.Still waiting for time to try it out

 

Jyn Turns 2 !

We have been preparing quite some time ago on the theme on Jyn's 2nd birthday.Finally , we decided to fix on soccer theme this time. Balls are always his favourite and this is quite a simple theme to do as well.This year will be a smaller scale celebration compare to his 1st one and it is much much easier.My mum decided to cook some home dishes and my uncle volunteered to help out. He is one great home chef and we love his cooking yum yum !


             1 year old theme - army                              2 yr old theme - soccer

 

 Washing up before party begins

 

dah dah, soccer jersey

    And ......... Ben and Jerry ice cream cake ! The cake was slightly late as the customer service called up to say the ice cream has melted and they are rushing to make another for the occasion.Ok , at least they were bothered to call.The ice cream cake seems to melt quite fast even though there's dry ice to keep the coolness.And it was quite messy during the cake cutting ceremony due to this.

 

 

 It was a total success and I am glad our guests enjoyed all the food !

Little painter

It's been awhile since my last post..Jyn was down with HFMD in mid of Jun and there's nothing much we can do about it and I am entitled with 1 week leaves with Jyn. Be it as fortunate , as it meant more bonding time with him .
With the usual, reading books together and play time what I can think of is to have some fun with paints.
I have bought this crayola tempera paint for children at arts friend ( bras basah ) some time ago. It's time for some little messy play time.I have mixed all colours and make it more diluted as it will be easier for Jyn to handle.
He was a little amazed of how these colours work and this also further enhance on his understanding of colours.Initially, I demonstrated using spoon to pour some colour onto the drawing board and then lifted the paper to let the liquid flow down.He immediately imitated them and he preferred to drip them little by little to create spots onto the paper.Not a bad start.
I would expect a big mess for playing these kind of painting game with a toddler, but in fact, it was not at all.Just abit of wiping on the floor and cleaning of the colour palatte. And we just leave the drawing to dry on it's own.

Book reading

We have done quite a number of readings recently, mostly before Jyn's bedtime.And I know that we both enjoy the bonding time together and I hope the feeling will last till ... when he is old enough to do reading on his own.

We have a list of owned books which I bought it from book fair or during shopping .And of course , some were borrowed from the local library. But I will try to balance both as understand young children love reptitions and by owning the books , I will be able to read his favourite books over and over again by picking off the shelve.Another advantage of owning books is children will ABSORB more on repetition. They will tend to remember well on the type of writing and of course increase his vocabulary library.

So this may act as an good excuse on buying books ;)

I will continue to add on the list of books we have spent reading together.These may not be award winning books , but I find them worth to read as I find that they have exceptional good contents inside.

The book "the itsy bitsy spider " is a well known rhyme that everyone including small children's favourite.
Frankly speaking, there are over hundreds of similar rhyme in the bookstore and library and what I love is the author , Iza Trapani put in different ways of retelling the rhyme .There are more than 2 ways of putting different words to this rhyme. And also I love the cool watercolour with pencil drawing on the pictures .It can be bought from amazon if you like to find out more.

04 May 2013 -The art of the brick exhibition- Nathan Sawaya

On last Saturday, We headed over to the Art  Science of Museum beside Marina Bay Sand for the "the art of the brick " exhibition.I am always amazed of how LEGO can be converted to arts and when I saw that there's such exhibition last year, I am yearned and looking forward to it. As Jyn was still very young last year, I decided to catch this somewhere this year. After knowing that this exhibit is going be extended till end of this month, I am not going to waste any more time and decided to bring Jyn and my mum for this fantastic exhibition.

It was drizzling when we reached there. Not much crowd actually. I guess because this exhibition is going to end prettty soon, maybe that was the reason .

Take note that for Singapore citizen, the ticket will be SGD13 for adult and senior citizen SGD12. Child is $8 and below 2 is free.Wow, this exhibit is highly recommended by CNN :) . There are total of 52 of Nathan's Sawaya 's work which he brought specially here.

It wasn't a big area and the space was divided according to different themes I guess.Before you enter the artist's studio you will briefed by the exhibition attendants of what are the things are allowed inside the hall.Take note that though you can took photograph of the art works, but flash light was not allowed. The only reason I could think of is not to disturb others while appreciating the works.

Some of the works are done by Nathan years back and we were lucky that we need not travel far to USA yet still able to watch his signature pieces  :)

Most of his works are human statues which reflected on his views on human lives and philosophy.And this really had done a great amount of impact during his creation of arts.A famous quote,a picture can speak a millions words and this is certainly true in Nathan Sawaya works.

Amost 90% of his works only work in 1 tone color and what can I say, arts means simple and less is more .

I couldn't agree more. Imagaination is everywhere around us and what we need is to look deeper and we can create anything out of simplicity which looks beyond of what may concur.

My little enginner @ work. Generating ideas , drafting on plan and testing and ...... final product ( with mummy's help of course :)

This is one of kids' favourite. Thanks to nathan whose creativity is far way beyond of any of us can imagine.This is make up of 80,000 pieces of lego blocks.



This is consider as Nathan's most simple art works which is call the "finger maze".

Did anyone of you think that lego can create mazes?I guess kids will be facinated by this 4 pieces of mixed colour mazes.

Anyone guess what this is ? Hint : This can be found on the floor...

It's ...............reflexology time !

Yes Nathan, you are right.We can create ANYTHING out of lego.

  Lego "portrait painting " .This is awesome.

There are of course many more of Nathan Sawaya's work other then I posted here.Do pay a visit if you can till 26 May 2013.

Venue: The Art Science Museum @ marina bay sand

Operating hours : 10 am - 10 pm ( last entry 9 pm )

Toy cars zone - Part 2

We are in the Toy car zone theme this week. I have bought the Tomica construction box set @ kiddy palace Tampines ($29.95 before 10% discount ).Jyn was very curious at this age ( 22 months) and is facinated at how the crane works.This box can allows 4 cars to be park and of course you can add additional cars as "bonus" if you like.This box is very convenient as it can also act as tibits or snack box if the child do not want to play with the cars. Hope this keep my little fellow busy for awhile :)

Toy Cars Zone

Recently trying to add some collection of small die cast toy cars for my little fellow. I find he hardly has any of these.Not trying to pamper but would like him to have some exposure on these little things.Come on,
isn't it weird that Boys don't have cars ?

Manage to find this economic "Fast track" "Hot Wheel" cars in Toysrus.$3.90 per piece.Ok, I am not a car lover, but was attracted to these bright colour cars and thought Jyn would love them.

Fruits Recognition

This was taken just 2 weeks ago @ nearby NTUC with Jyn. Taking this opportunity to
introduce fruits again to enhance on his vocabulary.

Letter Knowledge

Recently I have notice that my little man has already started to recognize letters like "O" , "C" "l"
at nearly 21 month.This is a great milestone for Jyn .In order to achieve this, don;t ever force a kid to learn letter or force him to read. I have input some toys with reading( no question to the boy but just simply reading to him ).And on 7th April 2013, he has proved himself to me that he has been learning words during story reading session and I hear him say out the word "sheep ". This is one of the story he loves me to read to him "where is the green Sheep" by Mem Fox.Inside is simple text and teaching the concept of opposite
.It was a special  moment as we spend time exploring different kind of Sheeps.There are blue sheep, thin and fat sheep.Some sheeps even enjoy certain activtities like wind surfing, sun tanning etc. Great book for little ones if you are into these kind of topic

Humpty Dumpty and more

This is a classic nursery rhymes I guess every adult or kids would love.I always love a collection of rhymes in the whole book so that I can pick and read and sing as I like.


But somehow I find this series interesting as it added more spice to the original rhymes.You can also create your own rhymes

using your own words.There's a whole Tadpoles nursery rhymes series can find in the library.

This is a translated chinese counting book by Mary Novick.

It consists of 1-20 numbers inside each page and fill with surprises

with using numbers when you lift the flap.So the little ones will love this full colours with fascinated illustration.Enjoy counting with your little one !

 

Jyn's reading

 We have missed last week Japanese lesson @ happy train due to Jyn's fever. So the lesson will be postphone to next term.

From now, I think I should add more topics related to reading together with Jyn.Actually, from birth till today ( 20 month + 2 weeks ), we have done quite many sessions on book reading together.Due to busy schedules previously, I had failed to share it here ( guilty ).I will make it a point to share as much as I have read previously/ongoing books whether myself or with my little man.The review I put here is base on my personal opinion and just for sharing. Some are rare books which I find on website or in library which I find interesting to read to my little one.

So...without any delay, today I want to share this A3 size interesting book " Big book of crazy mix up " by Nick sharatt which I bought from wood in the book ( a local bookstore ). I picked this book because Nick sharatt is always in my top 5 children book list when come to selection.
Reason been,Text is simple and I simply love the illustration and also the creativity on making the context interesting for "restless" children.

I know my little man is not those quiet kid who would site down to read from A-Z. So this make the selection of books very challenging for me .
So those award winning titles like the" tell me how much I love you" , or "mummy, do you love me" that kind of straight forward flipping is temporary out of my list .
Ok come back to this book by Nick, this book is not that exceptional cheap , if not for the 20% moving out sales, maybe I will not consider this title .It cost about $28++ or coming to $30 if I remember correctly.


 

I love the SUPER BIG TEXT of the book. Baby at this age loves big things and is easier for read together session . And what makes it more fun is it can be MIX AND MATCH as the title says to combine different part of the picture to make it really "CRAZY" for reading.It makes no sense but I find it is ok to make reading a crazy thing at this age.Most important thing is they tend to pick up vocabulary easier.







 




Spider becomes ice cream !