World Music Festival

We get free tickets to the 2008 World Music Festival sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia. Why free? Well, the Platinum Sponsor of this event is the E&O Berhad and they reserved tickets for thier customers!

We get 2 adult tickets and Charlotte (children under 6) anjoys free admission too. Thanks to E&O!!

My 2nd Project

Yippee! My brother just came back from Oregon and he brought back the photo book that I have been long waiting for. Since I made Charlotte's first year with paper scrapbooking, this photo book is all about her 2nd year outdoor activities and vacations.

Oh by the way, did I mention that it is FREE?

Sand & Beach

Charlotte had her 2nd experience with sand and beach last Sunday, together with a couple of her playgroup friends. I picked up her beach play set a few days ago and thought it has been quite awhile since we took her to the beach. So I made her a promise that I will bring her to the beach again this week and also inviting some of her friends. It was not a pre-arranged event but we had a very good turn out! The kids had fun, the parents discovered new beach :)

Charlotte's previous experience with sand and beach wasn't very encouraging but she has improved so much this time round. In fact, she enjoyed the sand, water and sea shells so much that I managed to "cheat" 2 delicious sandwiches that JM made while she was happily playing.

We all brought along quite a number of beach toy set and all the kids had fun digging, pouring, and building sand molds.





Both Charlotte and Bryan soon advanced out to the sea water, Wei Xuan was very determined and only wanted to play with the sand. Charlotte then discovered that she could make rain with the watering pot that we brought and she was very busy filling water and pouring it out over and over again.




What an interesting post she made!?

It was a great great outing I have to say and it is a better location then the famous Batu Ferringhi beach considering the distant and crowd. I think we should do it again ;)

My First Project

Finally it is ready to be shared! I started this scrapbook many many months ago, I only made very small progress each time mainly because I can only do it at night when Charlotte already goes to bed. However, my job requires me to work at very odd hours simply because I am holding a worldwide position and I have quite a bit of late night meetings. Many times I felt like completing this scrapbook but I just couldn't find enough time and "spirit" especially after long night meetings.

I'm glad that I finally completed it and it is all worth the effort. I hope this will give Charlotte a good memory and story of her very 1st year.

I am so proud of this accomplishment. Thanks to those whom provided me so many advices and assistance especially in material sourcing from overseas.

3rd Semester At Kindermusik

It has been months since I last participate at Charlotte's music class at Kindermusik. We still continue her lessons but her daddy brings her most of the time due to my injured wrist condition. In fact, we just signed up the 3rd semester for Charlotte and the theme is Fiddle-Dee-Dee.

I noticed a great deal of improvement of Charlotte participating, enjoying the lesson and so much more responsive compared to the last time. She was very involved and responsive to every single action and movement the teacher asked and very independant. I used to (and had to) do everything together with her and beside her, encourage her to get involved. She is able to take the instruction from the teacher and did the action/movement that the teacher asked wihtout needing me to partner with her. She can partner with her teacher and with other kids and she is ok to hold hands with others (including other parents) when it comes to a circle activity. Of course, on and off she will look out for me and sort of asking for assurance and praise when she did it correctly.

When it comes to story time, she paid full attention listening to the teacher and all the time she was sitting on the "story telling mat"! The teacher will only take out this mat when it comes to story time and she will put it away when the story is finished. Charlotte used to decline sitting on the mat together with the rest of the kids. She preffered to sit on my lap but yet couldn't sit still throughout the whole story time. This round, she sat down on the mat before I even told her to do so, and she sat there throughout the whole story time and was answering questions that the teacher asked, totally responsive and involved!

Towards the end of each session, there is about a 5min "quiet time" where the teacher will pull out a basket of soft toys for them to take one each and lie down listening to the soft music while the room light is dimmed. When the quiet time is over, the teacher will ask them to put back the toy and continue for one last activity before they sing the "Goodbye" song. Charlotte was so tuned to that "quiet time" and I could see she totally into the relax mode when the light was dimmed.

I talked to her teacher after the lesson and the teacher said probably she is ready to be graduated from "Our Time" to another level. I was so happy to hear that!

Drawing

Charlotte's drawing has improved from merely scrapping lines and drawing circles to this...



These pictures were captured last week. She told me that she was drawing spiders (1st picture) and flowers (2nd picture). I was very happy and excited to see that she is another level advance in her hand/wrist movement and control.

She is able to reproduce the "spiders" but not the "flowers" though...

Princess Tooth Brush

It wasn't a very successful activity with Charlotte when I post about the teeth brushing training back in January this year. I didn't give up, nor give in, but continue to look for ways that I can keep Charlotte's teeth white and clean.

I bought her this about a month ago...

With the spinning motion, chances to get each and everty of Charlotte's teeth brushed are higher compared to the manual/traditional tooth brush, especially when she struggles. She named it "Princess Tooth Brush" and she loves it as usual, new toy to her! Of course, each time she negotiated with me that she wants to hold the tooth brush and brush herself. I promised her when I finish brushing her teeth I will give her the tooth brush. This deal went pretty alright for the first few days. I could brush her teeth completely and totally hassle free. But she gets smarter each day and very soon she insisted to have the tooth brush and brush herself. I had no choice but to force her down, and of course she cried! As she cried, I quickly turn on the tooh brush, locked her in my arms and start the brushing. In fact, it was very easy because her mouth was wide open and I could see very clearly and move the tooth brush freely (ha!). This continued on for a couple of days and I did the same, locked her in my arms when she did not cooperate.

By the 3rd time, she knew she is not going to win in this battle. She cooperated very well when she saw me bringing the tooth brush. She said "Charlotte lie down". Yes, I told her to rest her back in 45 degree angle, either on the couch or on the bed. That way I can see her teeth better witout having to bend down and twist my neck. She then let me brush her teeth without any struggle. As a reward, I let her had the tooth brush when I was done. She was happily "brushing" and said " Charlotte massage!". I have no idea where she learn that "massage" thing from.

It has been about 1 month now, I brush her teeth every morning and night. Although every now and then she still try her luck to negotiate, but when I ask her if she wants me to force her down and brush, she will cooperate rather well. Brushing has became another activity that both of us enjoy doing together.

"Weaned" From Bottle

If I have not write about how Charlotte takes milk I should probably do it here as I want to remember it and I also want Charlotte to read about it when she grows up. I did however, post about her being a picky eater earlier.

Charlotte takes milk very reluctantly, in fact at her age she only takes about 6-7oz, 2-3 times a day. Because she rejects milk I feed her when she sleeps. She takes pacifier when she sleeps, so what I did was pull out the pacifier when she was already asleep and quickly swap it in with the bottle tit. Without much hassle she normally finished the 6-7oz milk.

About a month back, I continued to do the same but she kept pushing out the tit each time I swapped the pacifier with the bottle. Sometimes I managed to feed her maybe only 5oz milk in a day. By the 3rd day, I knew this trick doesn't work anymore. I switched to the sipping cup instead. But she rejected it after the first sip. I had no choice but to spoon feed her. Sometimes she pushed away the spoon and the milk spilled everywhere. What I do next? I use the syringe, yes the syringe when you need to feed them medicine. I know it's not a very good idea, but at least I can feed her until the last drop without having the milk spilled all on the floor and ended up with one cranky toddler and an angry mother.

I thought maybe it's the formula so I switched the formula milk. Her PD recommended Nestle Nutrien. It came in a small 400g can and Charlotte could finished off in about 4 days. Although still "spoon" feed, I thought Charlotte like this formula milk better than the Pediasure. So, after bought 4 separate cans for about 2 weeks I purchased 1 carton (12 cans) straight away. Feeding was alright but later I found she ended up with constipation. I had to switch back to Pediasure. Now the Nestle Nutrien would be my back-up, use when Charlotte rejects Pediasure again...

So, officially Charlotte is "weaned" off from bottle. This is an unplanned milestone but not a bad thing to happen anyway. Also, since now she is taking milk while she is "awake" we get to brush her teeth before bed :)

Back To Basics

If you think this is about cloth diapering , you are wrong. I know it's like a hot cake these days but Charlotte is potty trained, so I don't have to worry about diaper anymore.

I can't recall what was the discussion topic we had last Friday night that lead to Charlotte asked us to bring her on a ferry. We agreed to it of course, and we thought it's a good idea to let her explore and experience new thing.

She had her first ferry ride last Saturday night. We took a ferry from Penang island to the mainland. We were lucky that the wait at the Penang jetty wasn't very long. It was only about 10min if I'm not mistaken then we were off to the ferry. Initially, Charlotte was a little nervous. She said "Charlotte (s)cared" as we took her down from the car and carried her to the front of the ferry to show her the "sea view". But very soon after, she said "Charlotte not (s)cared d". I think she enjoyed the ferry ride very much. It was a very nice night, breeze and all but it was a bit too dark. She couldn't really see the view as we wanted her to but overall it was great!

On Sunday, we took her for another ferry ride. Haha, it was our idea this time. We were somewhere in town till around noon and it was almost Charlotte's nap time. So Pat suggested that we go to the Sunway Carnival Mall and let her sleep in the car for a bit, then we take ferry back from Butterworth this time. Sounds perfect and off we went. The traffic was smooth and it only took us <30min.
We had lunch at the mall and walked around for a bit then we decided to offer Charlotte another ferry ride. She happily accepted it and was very looking forward to it. We got very lucky this trip as we were boarded to the upper deck of a double-deck ferry, all for vehicles! I got a little excited myself too (he! he!). Again, we got down from the car and watched the ferry took it's journey from one end to the other. We had a greater view this round as it was a day time and Charlotte was very excited as she saw many other boats and ships clearer too. The weather was a bit warm though. We would take a evening ride next time ;)

It was a great experience for Charlotte, and for us too (I think my last ferry ride was maybe sometime back in 1980s). The only regret was, I didn't bring my camera, for both trips :(

Charlotte's lullaby

Nope, it's not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it's not Rock A Bye Baby or other traditional lullaby. Read on if you want to know what that is...

Charlotte enjoys movie a lot, by now she has watched Madagascar, Ice Age (1 & 2), Barn Yard, Open Season, Toy Story (1 & 2), Shrek (1, 2 & 3), Snow White, The Ant Bully, Bugs Life, Bee and many more. Lately, she picked up a song from Toy Story 2, which played when Jessie told Woody a story of her past. Charlotte refers to that song as Woody Song because she associate it with that movie.

For past few nights, she kept asking me to sing this song to her when I tuck her to bed. Well, it is a very nice song but I couldn't remember the entire song (yet). So, what I did was just repeating the 1st verse. Last night, she asked again and of course I sang it to her. She was sleeping in my room last night because Brenda was sick. As usual, I sang it over and over again, repeating the 1st verse. Very soon after, I heard Pat snored...it was before Charlotte fell asleep :0 That was alright because Charlotte did eventually fall asleep too. It was until about 4am, Charlotte woke up and asked me to sing that song again!

It is a very nice song, "When She Loved Me"

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful
Every hour spent together, lives within my heart
And when she was sad, I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy, so was I
When she loved me.

Through the summer and the fall, we had each other, that was all
Just she and I together, like it was meant to be
And when she was lonely, I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me.

So the years went by, I stayed the same
And she began to drift away, I was left alone
Still I waited for the day, when she'd say "I will always love you"

Lonely and forgotten, never thought she'd look my way,
She smiled at me and held me, just like she used to do,
Like she loved me, when she loved me

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful,
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart
When she loved me.

Checkout this part of the movie in Toys Story 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is_hpHzEMiE&feature=related

The difference is my baby, I WILL always love you!