Little Miracles

Monopoly Without Monopolizing

April 2, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

Every time Daddy comes back from a business trip, Ethan and Hannah would eagerly await his return. It is still unclear as to whether they look forward more to seeing him or if they look forward to the goodies he brings back for them.

A few months ago, when he returned from one of his trips, he brought back a board game that Ethan had wanted for the longest time: not the regular Monopoly, mind you…but Cars Monopoly!

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It states clearly on the box that the game is to be played by kids 5 years and over only, but because Hannah also wanted to play, we told her she could play only under adult supervision.

Well, fast forward a few months later and now, we can see that it is one of the most-loved board games both Ethan and Hannah enjoy together. Hannah would request that we play with her, and now she understands the rules pretty well.

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It’s not just mere entertainment though, this game teaches:

Taking turns
Counting (and moving your piece accordingly) – Hannah can now do it independently
The names of all the Cars 2 characters which are on the board
Money handling
How to lose gracefully
How not to brag when you’re winning (well okay, we’re still working on that)

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Counting out the correct amount of money to buy the particular car parking space – a very good skill to have, in preparation for the future, i.e. buying stuff
Saying “Please” and “Thank you” where money is exchanged

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In short, I have nothing but good things to say about this game, which after all, is proving to be so much more than just that.

Hannah is Three Years Old!

March 27, 2012 in Hannah, Milestones | 2 comments

hannah_3years Scrap Credits
Fresh Attitude Kit from Mel Designs

Weight

Should be about 14.3 kilos, at least.

Height

About 92 cm

Teeth

19 teeth, or almost there… Right now, she has 4 incisors on the upper jaw, 3 incisors bottom jaw; 2 canines upper jaw, 2 canines bottom jaw; 4 pramolars and 4 more back pramolars are making their appearance slowly but surely.

She can more or less brush her own teeth now, including squeezing the toothpaste onto her toothbrush, gargling and spitting, however, I still brush for her after that. Because of the good example shown by her brother, Hannah brushes her teeth twice daily: morning and night 🙂

Developmental Milestones

Can walk up regular stairs using alternate feet.
Likes to show us how she can “balance on one foot”
Hannah is showing an improved pencil grip, and can draw somewhat clear alphabets now, all these without us prodding or teaching her how to hold a pencil or write! She still loves to color and will make beautiful pictures for me.
She’s learning how to fasten and unfasten her buttons. She loves to undress and dress herself up, and will insist on doing so, unless if she really can’t do it, then I will step in to help.
Language-wise, she is showing that she knows how to use the plural form of words when necessary, although sometimes the word itself might not be right. For example, “Wow…look Mommy! So many car-ses!” She meant to say “cars” of course, but it is a very good sign that she used the plural form of “car” instead of the singular.
She’s also picking up some Mandarin from school, and can count very simply 1 – 10 in Mandarin (though not clear), and she can also sing easy Mandarin songs.
Loves to narrate what happened in school and can carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult with ease.

Toilet Training

During the recent one-week school holidays, Hannah asked to put on her panties in the daytime instead of her pull-ups. I agreed, and to my absolute amazement, she was able to keep dry the whole day long, letting me know when she had the peepee feeling and going to the toilet on time.

So when school reopened, I discussed with her teachers and told them that she was ok out of pullups during the day.

And she has been really really good thus far 🙂 Her diaper rash has also subsided since she started wearing only pullups through the night 🙂 Good progress indeed!

Food and Feeding

Appetite is good, but the only thing she needs to work on is to eat more greens!

Why, Why, Tell Me Why?

March 20, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Funny Moments, Hannah | 1 comment

Some time back, when my kids kept asking us “Why?” for every single thing, we taught them this silly rhyme:

“Why, why, tell me why?
Because the sky is so high”

What we had not expected was that Ethan and Hannah, who are very keen on rhyming words now, would create their own take on the rhyme and made it their own. Check it out…amazing how they could form a perfect rhyme all on their own!

Their version goes:

Why, why, tell me why?
Because the sky is so high
In the month of July
I want to eat pie
But I don’t got (have) enough money to buy
So I cry!

Sunday School

March 19, 2012 in Christianity, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

The kids went to their (somewhat) first Sunday School a couple of weeks back. Well, I say “somewhat”, because Ethan had been once when he was a little younger, but hadn’t gone since. For Hannah, it was her first time, of course made so much easier with the presence of her brother.

That Sunday, the kids had a praise and singing session at the start, followed by classroom activities according to age group. Ethan and Hannah happened to fall into the same class (age group 3-6).

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I expected them both to be a little shy and reserved, it being their first time, but I was surprised that Ethan was very vocal, and Hannah was not intimidated too. They spoke freely to the Sunday School teacher and did their coloring and even volunteered some answers!

A definitely fruitful Sunday, which the kids enjoyed immensely.

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See, I can do it too!

March 17, 2012 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

She’s been practising this for weeks now, and finally she proves that she can do it, just like her brother! So everyone in our family can do it now! 😀

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Star Kid of the Week!

March 16, 2012 in Growing Up, Hannah | 2 comments

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Meet Hannah, our very own Star Kid of the Week! …well, actually not just for last week, but for a few weeks running 🙂

She wears the medal when she is in school and keeps it in her bag, until it’s time to return the “loaned medal”.

Hannah’s school gives out medals to kids whom the teachers feel perform exceptionally well, and these Star Kid medals serve as a means of encouragement to the kids to keep up the good work.

Ethan has gotten it a few times after his first time some years back, and he was truly excited when he reported that he saw Hannah getting the medal during assembly that day.

Awesome job, Hannah! You’re truly a star!

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The Short Tale of the Lion King

March 13, 2012 in Funny Moments, Hannah | No comments

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While driving back home one day, Hannah suddenly squealed with delight.

“Mommy, Mommy, LOOK!!! It’s the new LION KING!!”

And when I turned to looked this is what I saw…

Read the rest of this entry »

Two Songs for You, Daddy!

March 3, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

The kids wanted to create their own videos to show Daddy while he was away on business trip, so I took these two videos of them each singing a song of their choice and sent them over to Pete.

Do you think they succeeded in putting a BIG smile on Daddy’s face?

A Dora Birthday Celebration in School!

March 2, 2012 in Celebrations, Hannah, Milestones | 4 comments

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Sweet lil’ Hannah turns THREE today, and she’s mighty excited about it 🙂

My little princess finally decided that she wanted a Dora birthday cake for her celebration in school, and since Daddy will not be around on her actual birthday date, we decided to have the school celebration a week earlier, i.e. last week.

“Mommy, I want ALL my friends to sing Happy Birthday to me,…then I will blow the candle!”

Yes, she had been waiting for it for a long time. 🙂

Those of you who follow me on Facebook would have seen the initial sneak preview of the Dora figurine that was supposed to sit on top of the cake, but I’ll have to tell you that the finished product shown here was my second figurine…errr…for reasons which I will reveal at a later time.

But anyhow, here’s the cake…with Dora and Boots looking a little too chubby than they were originally meant to be (because of the fondant spreading out). The cake itself is a moist chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting in between. Heavenly yums.

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As long as the *customer* is happy, I am also happy 🙂

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In order to be fair, I also made personalized chewy sugar cookies for Hannah’s birthday celebration party packs. In line with the Dora theme, I made the cookies in the shape of stars, and used colorful royal icing on top to make it bright and interesting. Each star was then labelled with a child’s name 🙂

Those 2 on the small white plate were decorated by Ethan and Hannah…because I made extra.

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