Valerie is 2!!

Time really flies this year, and Valerie is finally two! This year we wanted to keep the celebration simple but we ended up inviting the same group of people, Ivan's family, my family and Uncle Herrick's family. And this time we let Ivan's mom to be in charge of the food. Last year, we didn't want to trouble her that much but she still ended up cooking loads of dishes. So this year, we let her come up with the entire menu. And she cooked fried rice, 2 types of mee, sandwiches, jelly, paos, fried wantons. One wonders how she managed to do it all by herself!

Ivan's dad provided fresh fruits as usual and we had a sponsor of chicken wings and curry chicken. We ordered balloons but not as many as last year :D  The birthday cake was sponsored by Ivan's bro so nothing fancy looking compared to last year, but taste wise, well, you could never fault a Secret Recipe cake :P

All in all, we cut down a lot on the birthday budget and we still had lots of fun :)

Hey mommy, can I drink this?

Let me just take a lick!!

Mommy, Daddy and Me with my birthday cake

Bloooowwwww....

Let me cut... I can do this!

This year Valerie is old enough to open the pressies...

Crayola Art Desk with magnetic alphabets and numbers! Purrrfect!!!



Check out my Minnie Mouse cap and swimsuit, so matching..

Last pressie, from mommy & daddy

Look how engrossed Valerie is with the toy...

Finally a smile on her face! Mommy knows best :D

Look at me feeding nen-nen to the baby...

Flash Cards Works!

Right up to now, I seldom test Valerie on what she knows although I've been showing her tons of flash cards. As described by Shichida method, the flash cards should be done at half a secord per card and at large quantity (at least 200) to activate the right brain.

For us who are left brain dominated, this does not make sense. How could anyone remember anything that is flashed that fast? Let alone a small child? I have to admit, on many occassions I'm tempted to flash the card slowly, pronounce it slowly, and show maybe about 10 objects. And if Valerie could show me she remembers any of these, I'm very happy. 

Nonetheless, I resisted that idea, and continued to show the flash cards at the speed recommended.  According to the Right Brain educators, we are also not advised to test our babies as this will put a  lot of stress on them and thus make them lose interest in learning altogether. So, being an avid follower, I didn't test Valerie. In a way, it's also good because I'm also not stressed, knowing she will learn eventually. And my job is just to provide her the opportunity to learn, as well as to take the time to bond with her.

It was until last week, Valerie digged through her box of books that she found the Baby Einstein flash cards on Animals. She took it out and gave it to me, waiting for me to do something with it. I bought the set long time ago, thinking I would use it to flash animals card to her but then later dropped the idea because they were not A4 size as proposed.

She's more excited than she looked, really... :P

Since Valerie expected some activity out of it, I took out 3 animal cards and asked her which one is 'Elephant'. She looked at the cards and picked the right one. Then I asked her to put in on the headboard. This seemed fun to her. Then I added more cards and she picked the one that I named. Soon there were animal cards all over our headboard.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed because she got about 98% right out of the stack that I've asked. Those she didn't pick correct were because they have not been shown in the flash cards so she didn't recognise them.
So I have to say, flash card works. Flash them fast, flash them in big quantity. Believe it or not, your kid can remember them even if it doesn't make sense.

Valerie Can Count

I couldn't remember since when Valerie could count, probaby about 3-4 months ago. To be honest, she got bored of those dot cards I've been showing her. So I thought of another way to teach her counting, while going up and down the stairs. Everytime we went up or down the stairs, I would count 1, 2, 3... and she soon caught on and tried to recite after me.

I didn't think it was significant until 2 months later, Nanny came up to me excitedly and said.. 'You know, Valerie could count 1-10. You must have taught her that'. Just then I realised, 'Yeah, Valerie could say the numbers in order'. Then I told Nanny that I've been teaching her all the way up to 17 (because there are only 17 steps in our house... hehe... ).

Nanny said, 'Can meh?'. I said 'Why not? Nobody said kids can only remember up to 10. If you teach them more, they will learn more.' I then told her she is taught up to 100s in Heguru, but whether she knows them, I'm not too sure.

The next day, Nanny told me... 'Yeah, I tried more than 10, she could go up to 14... then the rest not very clear'. In fact, Nanny and her kids got so excited that they tried to get her to recite from top, from halfway like from 7.. and she could continue with 8, 9, 10... The only thing they didn't attempt was saying the numbers backwards. :)

Then and again, I wouldn't really say Valerie could count. It's more like reciting the numbers in order. If one day she could tell me '2 balls' or '3 apples', then I think she really understand the meaning of quantity.

It's a Horse, Daddy...

Last week at Heguru, Valerie played with blocks again. This time Ivan saw for himself she could really build. So after class, we dropped by Robinson since I have some vouchers and decided on a set of Megablocks. That evening, daddy built her a giraffe while Valerie was stacking some blocks on her own.

Daddy told her 'This is giraffe'. Valerie stared at it for a while and then said 'Horse'. Daddy said 'Giraffe', Valerie again pointed to the 'Horse'. Okay, it did look a bit like a horse. Since it's about her size, daddy suspected she might want to sit on it like a real horse. We warned her not to and then went to have our dinner.

Few minutes later, we heard a crash and saw Valerie running to the dining room. She pointed to her butt and then pointed to the living room. Lo and behold.... her horse has broken into pieces. Why... I'm not at all surprised to see she has attempted to sit on it even though we have asked her not to....

Activity on Colours

I've finally made one activity for Valerie to practice her colours. I printed a picture of a tree and 4 colours of berries. Then I cut them out and got them laminated. As usual, when Valerie came home from nanny, she saw the 'Tree of Berries' and pointed to it. She knew it's another game.

I sat Valerie down and ask her to pick the 'Red' berries. She picked the first 2 correctly, after that she couldn't wait to get her hands on the other colours. After that Ivan played the same activity with her again while I bathed and asked her to pick 'Blue' berries. Again she got the first 2 correct, and then she started picking other colours.

So Ivan and myself figured that she knew the colours but she only got the patience to pick first 2 berries correctly.

Another time, while I was doing homework with her, she picked the Orange crayon. As she was doodling, while I was colouring her Mandara diagram, she suddenly pointed and said 'Orange'. I was quite surprised. I guess she knew her colours after all.

For those who would like a copy of this activity, feel free to email me. I haven't figured out how to share this on the post yet :)

Valerie Can Build Tower

Last Saturday daddy was not around to go to class with us cause he has to work. So grandma tagged along to help out. After class, I brought Valerie to Isetan and I let her sit at the children's play area. 

Few months earlier, she didn't know what to do with the blocks despite us showing her to put them on top of each other to build a tower. In the end she ended up throwing on the floor or tasting them with her tongue. So Ivan has banned her from playing blocks for a while.

But this time, I noticed she took the block and put it on the existing square tower. And she repeated this piece by piece until the wall was about 5 levels higher. Yea!! Valerie can finally build block towers! So I told Ivan, maybe we could consider buying her a Lego set now or Duplo or something. Or maybe just the cheaper blocks made from China sold in those small toy shops. Who knows, she might like building blocks today, and won't want to have anything to do with it another day. No need to buy such expensive toys. Something I'm learning as a parent with a toddler now. Kid's interest is so short that you don't need to buy expensive branded toys.

Daddy Bonding Time

Some of you may not believe it, but Valerie has never called Ivan 'Daddy'. Well, she does know who is her daddy and she can point to daddy if you ask her. But she will never call daddy, 'Daddy'. On the contrary, she has called 'Mommy' since she was, hmmm.. I can't remember... 9-10 months??

If she's hungry, it's 'Mommy!', if her diaper is wet, it's 'Mommy!', when she wakes up and finds no one in the room, she'll cry 'Mommy!'. But never 'Daddy'. In fact sometimes when I'm not free and I get Ivan to pick her up, she will look around for mommy, if her first option is not available, well, she'll let daddy carry. Better than none, I guess.

Recently, I realise something. Ivan has never really bonded with Valerie. Sure, he has always been the 'Papa Maid' around the house. He wakes up early to boil porridge, run around to get the milk bottles ready, set up the bath tub, make sure the house is protected, if not, double protected  (I'm not exaggerating!) from mosquitos and all. But he never really has much hands-on moments with the baby. The only exception is when I need to get chores done, he has no choice but to carry her. He will then bring her downstairs, sit her on a sofa and turn on 'Little Einsteins' for her. That's his version of daddy bonding time.

So last week, I enforced a new rule. Daddy has to read her at least 2 books at night before she goes to sleep. Heck, I even bought a 'My Daddy is Fun' book to emphasise the word 'Daddy'. As expected, Ivan whined and showed me the bored look, but I couldn't care. I told him, he has to take up some of the actual parenting work :P

Relunctantly, he read. I have to say daddy did a pretty good job, in fact, he told the story a little differently than how I'd normally read it, but interesting enough to capture Valerie's attention. So after finishing 2 books, daddy couldn't escape. Valerie gave him more books to read. Haha... Less computer games time for daddy now.. Yeah!!

I'm not sure if it's coincidence or what, but after 2 nights of daddy's story telling, Valerie started calling him 'Daddy!'. In fact, nanny told me, Valerie actually said 'Daddy' at her place too. This has never happen in history. Before that, when nanny say 'Daddy arr'... Valerie will answer 'Mommy!!'.

Over the next few days, Valerie will actually look for daddy and tell me 'Daddy', pointing to the door. She wants me to carry her out of the room to play with Daddy. Isn't this great? I know deep down, Ivan must be really pleased. :)

So to all the daddies out there.... don't wait, roll up your sleeves and start bonding with your kids. They need daddy's love too, and that means sitting down and really spending time with them. Look at it this way, you may play computer games until your hair turns gray, but kids? Once they are out of the door, they won't be looking for you anymore. So treasure the time now, when all they want is you.

But that doesn't mean you should stop being the Papa Maid around the house, ok??