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As Vai turned 22 months some 2 weeks ago, I notice he started ’singing’ a lot.

He likes to repeat the lyrics and follow the tune.

Anyway, here’s one song that he sort of ‘masters’ so far, hehe.

Click HERE to watch the video on youtube.

Enjoy!

PS: It’s true, ‘bathroom echo’ is the best!

Just one day before Vai turned 21 months, he apparently found the ‘key’ to moving forward while still ON the bike.

Though right now he’s yet to master the art of pushing the pedal ‘in full circle’, I’m happy to see how he’s discovered his own way of steering and moving about.

Anyway, click HERE to view the video clip that marks the beginning of his ‘biking’ days.

Enjoy!

Vai’s turning 21 months in a week’s time, and at this age I’m glad he’s able to communicate better with us.

So far he can string two or three words together, reply with a nod or a ‘no’ (like when we ask him if what he just did was wrong), and recognise a few numbers and letters.

When it comes to introducing him to alphabets, we do it as we go about doing our day to day things actually.

Like when he sits on his stroller and we pass a row of parked cars I’d say an alphabet or a number and I’d ask him to spot, point and say it for me. It’s more like a game for us. And if he gets it wrong, that’s okay too. No rush.

So far, he knows : A, B, E, M, O, S, T, and U

Anyway, click here to watch Vai doing his Alphabet thing on youtube! Just a little something we’d like to keep to remind us of his ‘first step’ towards the journey of reading. Enjoy!

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And here are some useful links on introducing letters of the alphabet to toddlers :

>> How to teach a toddler letter recognition

>> Six great alphabet games and activities for toddlers

>> What’s the best to teach my child the alphabet

Anya has learned quite a few English and Chinese songs from school. And usually she’d sing for me the new songs she’s learned when I pick her up right after school.

And so this is her (click HERE), showing to me how her ‘I love you Mama’ chinese song goes.

Honestly, if I hadn’t known the english version of the song, I would’ve had NO idea what she’s saying (well, other than the sentence ‘wo ai ni hao Mama’ of course! Heh.)

Still, it’s always nice to hear your kid sings out different songs for you!

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Btw, the english version goes like this:

I love you Mommy, deep down in my heart
I love you Mommy, deep down in my heart

Deep deep, down down, deep down in my heart
Deep deep, down down, deep down in my heart

[And oh, she often sings the version 'for Daddy' too]

Took the kids to the huge National Library near Bugis Junction today.

Anya enjoyed the trip a lot, and she ended up borrowing a really nice english-mandarin pictorial board book (which I know even I myself will learn a lot from it!)

As for Vai, other than checking out the books, playing horsie on the library’s kiddy chairs and laying on the carpet (!), he went through pictorial books together with me too.

Click HERE to watch his attempt to repeat and say the animal names properly.

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Anyway, do check out these related links:

>> Fun activities for beginning readers

>> Helping your child to love reading

Here’s one parenting book I’d like to recommend today.

First-time Mom, by Dr. Kevin Leman.
Getting off on the right foot - from birth to first grade

After a friend of mine shared how insightful the book is, I finally managed to get a copy from the local library (again, thanks to another friend who borrowed it for me during her trip to library!)

Dr. Leman is a Christian psychologist with decades of family-counselling experience. His books are mostly about parenting, marriage and family issues.

His writing is really easy to read and he shares lots of real-life examples as well, making it easier for us to understand the points he’s trying to put across.

Though I’m no longer a ‘first-time mom’ when I read the book, I still find many useful tips and info. On handling toddlers and kids’ tantrums, parenting values and ‘mistakes’ we tend to make, etc.

In fact, later on I think I’ll share parts of the book which I personally find interesting and insightful.

Anyway, if you’d like to get a little preview of his ‘value-packed parenting’ talk, click HERE to watch a video clip on youtube.com

Happy parenting!

Here are some of the screenshots from the video clips we took of our little family last Saturday.

I love the film mood and feel of the shots.

Now, our next challenge will be finding the time to edit the clips (hubby’s role) as well as finding a suitable background music and producing a ’story’ (my role).

As our family is quite into photography, our kids kind of naturally grow up seeing cameras pointing towards their faces pretty often.

I take photos nearly everyday. It’s more like a hobby to me. And on top of that, I just want to preserve as much growing-up moments with and of the kids as possible. And with that same Canon Ixus, I take video clips of the kids too, though not as much.

The thing is, despite the facts above, we don’t have that many family photos. And I mean, nice family photos. Photos that are not taken with one of our arms stretched out (read: self-taken).

And, although Wilson - in running our business - deals with video cameras too, we don’t have any nice videos of our little family too so far.

Until today.

Late afternoon today, we took some clips of the kids. And even of the four of us! (Wilson had to leave the camera on the ground, press the recording button, run towards us and sit together with us while we all look at the camera!)

I’m so happy we finally had done it.

Honestly though, I’m not too sure if we ever get to edit the clips and produce a nice video out of it.

Anyway, if we somehow manage to, I’ll sure share it with you all *smile*

PS: Since I sometimes do get asked about the kind of business that we run, I guess I’ll explain it briefly here:

we’re in the creative industry, producing works for advertising, film and television - online as well as print. We do creative concepts, graphic designs, visual effects works, 3D as well as animations.

If you feel you want to know more, just drop me an email yeah *smile*

With Vai, mealtimes are hardly ever plain nor straight forward. Since the very first day we introduced solids to him at 5.5 months old.

And now, though he can pretty much feed himself with a big spoon and all, it’s still up to his mood - whether he’ll gobble his meal well (self-feed or spoonfed), eat three to four spoonfuls and reject the rest (even if spoonfed), or pick and slowly drop his food down to the floor!

[This is despite our continual effort in teaching him a 'better' eating manner]

And, of course, there are days too where he simply does BOTH.

Like today.

Other than using the spoon, he ‘hand-picked’ his rice, put some into his mouth, dropped some on the table and down to the floor.

And after some five minutes or so, he’d want to get down from the chair, but after some (apparently successful) distractions, he managed to finish up most of his meal by himself.

Oh well, AT LEAST he ate his food, I told myself *rolls eyes*

Anyway, click here to see Vai and his messy (yet relatively ’successful’) mealtime today.

PS: Sitting and eating by the roadside - with things readily seen by the kid - does help in keeping Vai and Anya somewhat ‘entertained’ (even if the ‘entertaining impact’ lasts for a short while, to me it’s still better than nothing)

In three days, Vai will be a 20-month-old toddler.

And like most kids his age, he just LOVES playgrounds.

He’d happily climb, slide, swing, rock himself silly, jump and spin around.

And I think it’s great since he gets to exercise and practise his gross motor skills too.

Anyway, click here to check out some of his favourite playground stunts *smile*

And click here to see the complete list of our video clips.

Enjoy!