At 2 years and 8 months, Vai still finds it hard to fully remember names of basic colours.

Oh, he always remembers black though. Because it’s the colour of one of his favourite toy cars, I guess! Hehe.

Anyway, we did this simple activity together the other day.

A simple and fun way of remembering names of shapes and colours.

I cut out different shapes, eg. triangles, squares, rectangles, circles (some were not quite ’shapes’ with actual names though)

Then he glued and put different ones together and made ’something’ out of them!

And as you can tell, he’s very happy, especially with his lorries and ambulance!

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It’s been a while since the kids and I went out to a park. I mean, just the three of us.

And so when Wilson was away overseas last weekend, I told them I had a surprise! That they’d need to put on their sunblock lotion and hats, AND pack their little backpacks with icy cool water bottles and … sand-play equipments!

The kids were excited!

Out we went to Bukit Batok Nature Park on that very glary afternoon (yes, we went out in the middle of the day!).

The kids found a good cool spot under some wooden playground and had fun playing together.

While I had a bit of me-time reading a book.

It was a very warm day. But we managed to have a good day out together anyway.

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One baby photo found.

Taken some two years ago when he was about eight months old.

Had four teeth, was still drooling.

And was somewhat ‘meat-ier’.

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Some thoughts for today, as shared by Rev. Stephen Tong.

…

The greatest teaching in history about mankind is that mankind does not accept the teachings of history (read : man keeps on repeating the same mistakes again and again throughout history)

But, one who learns from history - although he himself may not have experienced its mistakes - will advance further in life and will learn more about life.

Because history is like the greatest professor that teaches mankind about life.

…

The question is, do WE learn from history?

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Here’s one place you can visit with the family over the weekend.

Bottle Tree Park.

Some 10 minutes walking distance from Yishun MRT Station.

We checked out the place with our friends in January this year. Considering that it’s not that far from the ‘housing areas’ at Yishun, we’re quite surprised to see it’s pretty secluded and ‘green’. Felt like we’re in a little village area.

The kids played with sand near the playground. And they tried out water paddling around the big lake too (Only one adult and two kids allowed on one boat, so Daddy did all the paddling. And he got a very good 15mins leg-workout! I would’ve displaced my knee caps if I went instead of him! Heh.)

They sell live seafood there too and they have quite a few activites available, like prawn fishing! (we saw some people caught a huge prawn from the pond!)

But I guess the more popular one amongst kids is their ‘LongKang’ Fishing, where children get into a 40-cm deep pond and try to catch little fishes using a little net.

(For S$10 per child, you’ll get a little plastic tank and a fishing net. Kids can catch as many little fishies as they can and bring them back home)

We were on a Saturday and the LongKang pond was pretty crowded with kids (quite a few big kids too). They’re all over the place, and I must say most of them were far from ‘gentle’.

We saw some big kids randomly whacked the water with their nets hoping to catch a fish or two at the same time. Some caught a fish and let it go again. Some caught LOTS of fishes (like, fifty?), put them all in their tiny tank, walked back home while SWINGING the tank back and forth (I’ve heard stories where most of the fishies died afterwards)

I don’t know how you feel about this particular activity, but Wilson and I felt sorry for these little creatures. I guess if the management actively encourages a ‘better’ way of LongKang fishing (and how to care for them afterwards), it’ll be different.

Anyway. Other than that, we thought the place was okay.

The weather was nice and breezy that day, and we all had a relaxing day out together!

(Anya, Vai and Elissa : checking out the ‘dinosaur bones’ near the carpark)

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Every child goes through developmental milestones. Big and small. And it’s good if they know that we are happy with their developments and that we ‘celebrate’ their milestones.

‘Celebration’ can simply be an action that shows happiness and appreciation of the child’s efforts and accomplishments.

It can be in a form of a smile, a kiss, a nod, a hug, a compliment.

And the way I see things, a child is generally happy when we’re happy with them. When we appreciate their efforts. When we put aside extra time to acknowledge what they’ve accomplished (read : a child is not naturally driven to always gain ‘material rewards’ from us, UNLESS they’ve been brought up that way in the family!)

…

For Anya and Vai’s case, they know that I often take photos of them and their work.

It’s one of my ways of appreciating (and remembering) their effort, and of ‘preserving’ valuable moments and milestones.

Also. I think it’s just not practical to keep ‘everything’ (ie. physical keepsakes) at home.

Like that little piece of paper above. That’s Anya’s very first ‘english essay’. Hehe.

Anya just turned 5yo at the time, and we’re at a friend’s place. I was happily chatting away with my friends while Anya was on the floor with her pen and paper.

And at the time, she occasionally went, ‘Mommy, … how do you spell ‘people’?', or ‘How do you spell ‘because’?’

I spelled the words out to her, assuming that she was scribbling those alphabets on her paper. I never thought she was actually writing a ’story’.

This was what she wrote :

“One day the fat people very sad. Why. Because he do’t have money. Juse a little bit of money. But there a queen named Flora.”

Hehe.

She didn’t get to finish her story because we had to go home.

Hmm. Perhaps, Queen Flora then helped all these sad people who had a little bit of money?

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The kids made this the other day.

Jellyfish friends!

A really simple and quick activity for little kids!

Here’s how your family can make some too :

What we used :

- Balloons (We used tiny balloons, usually available in supermarkets too)

- Double-sided tape

- Crepe paper

- Marker (to draw the eyes and mouth)

What we did :

- Inflate the balloons, tie the ends and stick double-sided tape around it

- Cut out strips of different coloured crepe paper

- Let the kids place crepe paper onto the sticky tape around the balloons

- Draw eyes and mouths on the balloons

And that’s it!!

And the kids went all silly with them!

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Our little guy is 4 months away from turning three. And we thank God for His grace and blessings showered unto him every day.

Here are some quick updates on Vai:

Hot stuff

In the past 2 weeks or so, Vai has been showing his ‘interest’ in ’spicy’ stuff. Which I find is quite interesting since my husband and I are not really into spicy food.

He’d come to my desk and ask if he can have some of my ‘kripik pedes’ (I think it’s called ‘Spicy Tapioca Chips’ in English. Not too sure about this).

The very first time he asked for it, I let him take a tiny bite thinking that he’d find it too spicy. But no. He cringed a little and asked for MORE.

Now he’d take away quite a chunk, and eat it like he’s eating some potato chips. And, he doesn’t ask for water afterwards. Interesting little guy.

[Btw, though I let him try bits of spicy stuff when he asks for it, I don't let him eat 'too much' since I just feel it may not be good for his digestion, especially since he's not even three years old!]

Puzzles

These days he shows more interest in doing puzzles (those giant 28-piece floor puzzle pieces).

He took out the box himself one day, and when I saw him trying to put the pieces together, I sat next to him and explained why this piece needs to be placed next to that piece.

And gee, it was TOUGH.

He was clueless even after I’ve explained it again and again. And I almost gave up (kept my thoughts and words to myself though),  thinking that perhaps he’ll understand it better when he’s a little older.

By the fourth time he wanted to put the puzzles together, I was busy preparing dinner, and so I told him that he should try and do it by himself because I know he can. He kept asking for help, and I kept telling him to give it a go without me. And hey, to my surprise, he DID manage to put 28 pieces together, ALL by himself! (I felt so happy for him! And, a little guilty of underestimating my own son).

Terrible Two

Ah. The dreaded emotional rollercoaster most toddlers face has kicked in.

He refuses to obey simple requests. He pretends he doesn’t hear what we say to him. He’d whine and cry easily. And in the past week, he OFTEN screams and cries out for things that he can’t have. Even, for things that we DON’T have.

Like when he woke up from his nap asking for some Ribena. We don’t have any at the time and he insisted that we DO have some at home. He went on and on, crying and screaming unreasonably for a good 20 minutes. Nothing I did (from reasoning with him to disciplining him) could immediately stop this surge of emotions. And so I closed all doors and windows. And I think I nearly went half-deaf too.

Oh well.

Other than those mind-numbing and mentally draining moments, I must say he’s still his usual self.

And at the end of it all, I honestly feel there’s nothing he can do that can make us not love him. Our silly and funny little guy.

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One who has been through difficulties and struggles will find it easier to feel satisfied.
But one who has hardly been through discomforts, inconveniences and difficulties, will find it easier to complain and criticise.

[Thoughts shared by Rev. Stephen Tong during our Sunday Service last week]

…

What kind of life have we been living? Or to be more specific, what kind of life have our children been living?

Is it a life where difficulties, struggles and discomforts are simply absent from it ?

We parents love our children, and we obviously do not thrive in letting our children ’suffer’ on purpose.

However, the reality is, when our children hardly ever know what it’s like to struggle, to want something and not get it, to put in lots of effort in order to get something, we parents are ‘robbing’ them off their ‘fighting spirit’.

Our children will one day grow up and be independent. They’ll be in a world where there will be difficulties and failures.

The question is, will our children - when they’re all grown up - get up and walk again when they fall?

Yes, it’s not possible for us parents to completely know how our children will be like when they’re all grown up, because life in itself is complicated, and there are many external factors that will influence our children’s characters.

But one thing that we can’t deny is, as parents we do have crucial roles in our children’s lives. ESPECIALLY in their first few formative years, when they’re still very dependent on us, and are still learning about the world from us.

And, we CAN decide on the kinds of ‘environment’ and ’situations’ that our children are exposed to when they’re little.

Let’s be with our children today for our children’s future.

And let’s continually ask for God’s wisdom, so that we’re better equipped too in raising and bringing up our little ones according to His ways.

Because being a parent is never easy, and we can’t be close to being a ‘good parent’ without HIS guidance and mercy.

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