Gymboree

So far, Elyssa has attended about 6 or her Gymboree classes. I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. At least she no longer sticks to me like what she did in her trial class back in May.

But of course she doesn't normally follow instructions from the teacher, but neither do most of the kids anyway. Ha hahhh...... not easy for a teacher when the "students" are kids 10-16 months old who either don't have a clue what you're saying or choose to completely ignore your words !! When it's time for the kids to go through a play equipment routine (eg. climb up the mini ladder, then walk the plank, then throw ball, then slide down) it's very common to have "human traffic jam" with one kid standing right in the middle and refusing to budge an inch.

My main intention for the classes is for Elyssa to be comfortable with kids her own age. So if she refuses to do certain things (she hates the parachute session) , I just let her be. I also want her to enjoy the classes, and not see it as a session where she's forced to do things.

One of my observation is that she's not a "groupie" sort of person and that she likes to do her own things. Like during the "busy box" routine where the teacher brings out a box full of toys. Some kids will immediately go towards the box, take out the toys and play at the centre. Elyssa tends to stay at the side, eventually pick up a toy then walk around the area rather than sit in the centre. Hmm.... wonder what that means? Good sign of independence? Or bad sign of her having difficulty paying attention in class next time? Well, I guess I should resist the inclination to analyse too much at this stage !

Anyway, here's some photos taken during last week's class.


Sitting in the rocking boat -



First slap from a boy? -



Practicing balancing skills -

Pushing the Air Log -

Pool Time

Last Wednesday around 6pm, I got a call from my father "You're working from home today right? Why don't you come over earlier. I'm setting up the pool for the kids in 10 minutes".

Yipeee yay.... I missed the first pool session (2 days before that) and I didn't want to miss it again. So I rushed to finish up some emails, grabbed my camera and dashed over to their house.

Luckily I wasn't too late. Elyssa and Justin were still in the pool - and they were both having a great time.

Some photos:

They were both enjoying themselves very much. The difficult part was trying to get them OUT out of the water. Justin kept negotiating for "extra 5 minutes". And Elyssa? She screamed, struggled and kicked when she was taken out of the pool ! :)

Sleeping Position

Hubby and I had a good laugh when we saw Elyssa's sleeping position a few nights ago.

A very unflattering position indeed with her butt sticking so high up, plus she was wearing one of her "auntie" looking pyjamas pants. Ha hahhhhhh !!!!!!!


Side profile


Back profile :)

Fun Sunday

We had an early start last Sunday by going to a birthday picnic organised by a mummy blogger, Chin Nee at the TTDI park. The picnic was at a wonderful shady spot with a shallow stream. Perfect for small kids! I'll definitely go again next time.

Pic of the picnic spot - It was Elyssa's first experience standing in the stream and she didn't fancy it at all. Just look at her face! ;)

"Mummy, why do I have to stand here????"

After a while, we decided to bring her to the nearby playground instead. She enjoyed that much more! Some pics taken -

" Daddy, I'm as tall as you !"

" Peek-a-boo", daddy !!!!!!!!

"This is fun"

" Yay....... time to slide down now"

We ended up spending more time at the playground instead of by the stream where the actual picnic was. (what to do...... have to follow what the "little boss" wants!) But it was nice to finally meet some of the mummy bloggers in person. I also found out that one of the bloggers whom I thought looked familiar worked in the same company as I did many, many years ago. Such a small world.

After the morning picnic, we met up for lunch at a nearby organic cafe with my friend Mun Sean, her hubby and their adorable son Nicholas. Wanted to take a nice photo of the 2 kids but it was an impossible task. Ha hah...... hard enough to take a photo of one kid but with TWO, I gave up after a while.

The only close-to decent photo I had -

"Piu pheettt....... this kor-kor very 'leng-cai'

Here's a photo with Elyssa completely ignoring instructions and Nick purposely shutting his eyes because I said "SMILE!!" Ha hah.... he's just so cute and cheeky!


After lunch we went to Amcorp Mall because hubby wanted to search for his second hand CDs. Not my favourite place to go but I gave in since it was Father's Day.

That night we had a Father's Day dinner for my father with the rest of the family. No pics as I forgot my camera.

All in all, an enjoyable Sunday :)

Rice All Over

When we go out for meals, sometimes all I ask for is just 10 minutes for Elyssa to sit down quietly so that I can eat in peace. One of the best way to make her sit down is with what else........ but food. If she has eaten her porridge, I'll usually let her have something from our plate like rice or raw cucumber.

Took some photos using the camera phone when we were in Sushi King recently. Just look at the grains of rice all over her chin!

"Take rice"

"Put in Mouth"


"Take rice"

"Put in mouth".

"I don't understand the fuss about the mess. Who cares as long as I get rice in my mouth??"

Shopping Carts - Dirtier Than You Think

I got a forwarded email from a friend today which really caught my attention. Here are some of the main points from the email about shopping carts/trolleys in supermarkets -

1. Handles of shopping carts in stores are worse than handles of public toilets!!

2. Studies have shown that there are 1 million germs in just one shopping cart handle.

3. Shopping carts are exposed to bacteria and germs via sources such as meat or poultry, children while sitting on carts and other consumers illnesses.

4. Why worse than public toilets? Because toilets are cleaned and disinfected regularly but shopping carts are not. In fact, most supermarkets only clean their carts a few times a year.

5. What should you do? i) wash hands upon completion of shopping and/ or ii) use wet wipes to clean handles before using.


Dirtier than handles of public toilets???? Ewwwww !!! And to think that Elyssa sometimes chew on the handles when I'm not looking. But then again, this study was not done in Malaysia so the comparison might not be so accurate since our public toilets are probably dirtier.
Anyhow, still better to be careful and use wet wipes next time.
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On a totally separate note from disgusting shopping trolleys - I thought I might as well post a photo since I'm already writing this entry. This photo was taken the same time as the batch of photos in my previous entry.

Really show's what a "monkey" she can be. Somemore with hair flying everywhere! :)

"I'd better hide my precious "treasure" (water bottle) quick !!"

1 Year, 2 Months old

About her -

1. Weight : 10.5 kg

Teeth : 3 at the top with one more peeking out, 2 at the bottom

Food intake : 6oz milk 3 times a day, porridge twice a day.

2. My mum has thought her to sit down whenever she eats or drinks her milk. Surprisingly, she has been very obedient on that. If she walks towards me while drinking and I say "sit down", she'll immediately sit down.

3. She uses her new skill to her advantage though. Whenever she sees someone eating or opening a packet of food, she'll immediately sit down in front of the person and then point to the food. Ha hahh.... smart tactic. Since she's "so good" to sit down like that, we normally give in!!

I still remember one funny incident - my family members were sitting down on the floor while chatting away and passing a packet of food. Elyssa practically "followed" the food !! Each time the packet was passed to someone, she walked to the person then sat down right in front of him/her. Ha hahh!!

4. She seems to be going darker as she gets older : (

She was never really fair in the first place, but not this dark either. It's not like she has been getting more exposure to the sun lately so I guess it's just a natural process.

*Sigh* lately I've been getting comments from others about how dark she is.

5. She surprised us last week when she took my mum's egg beater then proceeded to dribble her red plastic toy apple all over the living area! She has never seen hockey before so it was nice to see her being creative.

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She gave me plenty of smiles when I took her photos for this month's update. I can't decide which one I like best, so here's a few more :)