Kian's school had its year-end presentation two weeks ago. The little penguins shaked their little tails to this song from Happy Feet. It was dumpling's first venture on stage! I was worried he would shy away from the crowd but he went up there filled with penguin power confidence! So proud of my little dumpling!
Where is my mama penguin?
Admiring the icebergs
Watch our happy little feet dance!
Some penguins cried, some penguins danced their heart out and most penguins just stood there wide-eyed, looking out to the crowd (just like the ones in National Geographic!). But whatever each little penguin did, I believe being in front of a crowd for the first time made them just a wee bit braver :) And ain't that a big part of growing up?
One of my main focus for Dumpling to learn this summer is for him to master identifying colors. He knows all the names of the colors BUT he has trouble matching the name to the correct color.
Each time I ask him a color of a certain object, his immediate answer is "Red" (so when I point to an apple, he always gets it right!) or sometimes he just enumerates all the colors till he gets it right...so, I really needed to take his color learning to a higher level!
Here are some of the tools I use for Kian's Color Boot Camp:
This is our favorite color book which I bought from Amazon.
Sturdy board book to withstand kooky toddler hands! Its small size is perfect to bring everywhere!
This is my favorite part of the book: Side-by-side comparison of the different colors!
Here are Kian's favorite videos on colors which I have both on the iPad and iPhone.
The Rainbow Song sang by that famous purple dino
(yeah, you know who I'm talking about)
What I like about this video is that they show the actual colors in full screen for easier word-color association.
Performed by one of my favorite bands, OK Go!
They partnered with Sesame Street to make color learning just plain cool
(it's a great way to develop his taste in music, too!)
It's also nice how they teach kids how you can mix colors to make new ones!
Super cute how the little guy sings along to these videos. I even sometimes catch myself singing these songs out of nowhere, too!
I was also able to find a cool game called Color Monster (available for both iPad and iPhone). The hungry monster asks for a certain color and Kian has to choose from the different colored fruits and vegetables below and feed it to the Color Monster. Around 95% of the time he gets it right!
Just a caution: this hungry monster can be a bit rude. If you feed him the wrong color, one of the things he'll say is, "Disgusting!" So, if you are quite sensitive to that word, you may want to go with another game.
Of course, coloring (as the name suggests!) is also a great way to teach kids about colors! I alternate the use of both crayons and watercolor (though the latter can be a bit messy!). Every time he reaches for a new crayon, I ask him to identify the color. Or sometimes, I ask him to color the object "blue" and he needs to find the right color from the box.
For little hands, I would recommend Crayola's Jumbo Crayons.
The regular-sized ones didn't last a day because dumpling pressed too hard.
And here is Kian hard at work learning the color GREEN!
I allow him to color outside the lines!
Of course, we use EVERY opportunity to practice his colors. Even as simple as just asking him what color of jammies he is wearing or pointing out objects while we are in the car and asking him to identify the color! He has shown a LOT of improvement since I started this color boot camp. It's still not perfect but we are getting there :)
With my baby girl's arrival only 3 months away, I've been trying to think of ways to ease my son Kian into being a big brother.
You see, a friend confided in me that she was super happy that her son loved her newborn sister so much. He would always hug her and kiss her and tell her that he loves her... until, she caught him pinching the baby when he thought no one was looking! (True story!)
I went to Fully Booked and searched for a nice big brother book. I was so happy they had this in their collection:
They also have the big sister version! It's sold for Php294 (around $7)
Here's a sample page of the book. So cute!
It's an easy read with big letters and cute drawings! It teaches big brother-to-be how he can play and help out with his new sibling! It also tells him how things will be different when the baby comes (but in a good way!) and how the important things (like our love and care for him) will always be the same. I'm pretty sure our little baby in my tummy is listening to the story, too!
At night, I also ask my little dumpling to help put my anti-stretch mark lotion on my belly. I just put a pea-sized amount on his palm and he happily massages my tummy! Recently, he is the one who even reminds me to "put lotion on Shobe (Chinese for little sister)".
They say it's the best stretchmark lotion in the market! (a gift from Startupbabies) I got awful stretchmarks with my first pregnancy (I used Chicco Mama) so I do hope this works!
Kian is also fond of stickers! Last weekend, I saw him putting the stickers on our wall. So I asked him, "Why don't you put stickers on Shobe?" He gave me a big smile and got to work!
Belly Art!
We used Ben10 stickers which he got from a children's party. He got quite upset when I tried to remove the stickers so I had to sport it overnight. This photo of my belly makes me smile! I will definitely show this to his little sister when she's older, so she'll know that her big brother loved her even before she was born.
I used to wonder what "terrible twos" really meant. Did these sweet angelic babes suddenly turn into raving little monsters?
Well, I got my first bitter taste of the "terrible twos" syndrome... This morning, I caught my little dumpling using a permanent black marker on our antique narra (Burmese rosewood) bench which was custom-made from our province. Because of my wobbly pregnant legs, I was too late to stop him:
Practicing his scribbles on our antique narra
Even our bedsheet got victimized by my toddler's quick hands!
Good thing he decided to use his washable markers for this particular work of art.
My first instinct was to use baby wipes. I scrubbed the wood furiously. But the black marks just stayed there... mocking me. I wasn't about to give up! I tried to use different kinds of soap but still the marks did not fade, not even a little bit. I was thinking of using alcohol but I wasn't sure if it would leave a white mark (and that's another nightmare waiting to happen!)
I searched online to see if there was a special wood product I could use to remove the stain....
Then I found it, and I bet you'll never guess what it is...
TOOTHPASTE!!!!
No, this is not a sponsored post!
Just a few scrub-a-dub-dub and voila! Our antique wood is as good as new (or should I say, as good as old?)!!!
See, Mummy! You were worried over nothing!
So mummies, just remember that your toothpaste isn't just for your pearly whites! It's also an antique wood's mercenary from naughty little toddler hands :)
