Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year 2009!
May the coming year bring good fortune, good health and happiness to everyone.

Sean had no voice for several days. I think he had a throat infection. We wanted to bring Sean to Dr kwan, his doctor, but it's been Christmas, the weekends, and the another public holiday. By the time, the doctor's clinic was open, Sean was alright.

But on the day Sean was alright, Sam fell sick, and then the next day, it was me. I think I got an ear infection as well. I was terribly tired the whole day. But thank goodness, we're all better in the evening, after lots of doses of Pei Pa Koa, 100Plus and water.

One thing that amazed me though. Sean was terribly good when he was sick. He still had lots of energy and was driving around in his car round and round the living room as if he wasn't sick. You wouldn't know that he wasn't sick if he didn't have such an awful voice!

And of course it was harder to feed him. He runs away when we come with food. He lived on snacks the last few days. He was willing to eat anything that wasn't healthy for him, but when it comes to proper food, he just runs away!

Sam, of course, took it worst, moaning and groaning about how sick he was. As boys grow up to become men, their resilience to sickness totally drops! =P

Back to toys. ..... Yes, John. Sean plays just like you did. Totally destructive! I'm re-thinking my wisdom to buy those small legos. Maybe I should get Duplo size blocks for him. at least, it won't take me such a long time to put it back when he destroys them and ask me to put back together!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a pig out on Christmas eve. As usual, we've invited the relatives to come for a christmas eve party with turkey, lamb roast, spaghetti bolognaise, mashed potato, fruit salad, garlic bread, noodles, cream puffs, and 2 cakes brought by the guests, chocolate and white macademia.

We were going to get Sean a box of Lego for his Christmas present, but I've found a china made lego that works as well as real Lego and asked the in-laws to join their Sean's Christmas budget with ours to get him the pseudo-Legos together so that he gets a whole set to play with.

We got him a hospital , ambulance, 2 race cars, an excavator and a Jet fighter plane. So he's been having a great time crashing his jet fighter to the hospital and crashing the cars and taking them apart. And of course, we've been fixing it every time he breaks them apart since he doesn't know how to do it yet. It can be troublesome fixing things over and over again, but he's having such a great time that he hasn't watch as much TV the last few days.

The one thing that has marred these few days is that Sean got laryngitis yesterday. He's been pointing to his neck the last few days, but I thought it was because he knocked his chin on the table. He woke up with no voice but still tries to talk and scream with it. He sounds really terrible, especially today.

I've given him cough mixture and honey water. Does anyone have a better idea of what to give him? Should I bring him to see a doctor for laryngitis?

Craft: How to make a Haloween Basket

Halloween Basket

This post should have been done before Halloween, but I didn't have the time then. Anyway, the idea can be used for any other types of baskets, for example, Easter baskets or flower baskets. I'm planning to make a flower basket for Mary's wedding this way. I'll post up the picture when I make it next year.

Materials:
Crepe papers, plastic container, scotch tape, double sided tapes, anything soft for padding, scissors, color papers, ribbon.

Instructions:
1. Cut crepe paper according to the size of the plastic container you are using. Cut enough so that it can be folded in. Stick padding around the side of the container to make it look chubbier.
2. Gather the crepe paper on a strip of scotch tape to make it crinkled. Make sure you leave sone tape un-covered by the crepe paper.
3. Stick the crinkled crepe paper all around the inside of the plastic container.
4. Cut a round piece of crepe paper and stick to the inner bottom of the container with double sided tape.
5. Fold over the crinkled crepe paper and stick the rest on the outer base of the container.
6. Stick the ribbon handle with double sided tape.
7. Cut leaves from green crepe paper. Line the inside of the container with double sided tape and paste the leaves neatly.

Other decorations:
Face:
Cut little triangles for eyes and nose, and a smile from black paper. Stick with glue or double sided tape.

Bat:
Draw a bat on hard black paper. Stick on green circles for eyes and draw 2 dots for eyes. Cut it out and stick on the ribbon.

Witch:
Cut the witch face from green paper, witch hat fro black paper. Cut a small piece of red crepe paper and cut tiny strips, leaving the top uncut. Crinkle the red paper to make hair and stick on the head. Stick the hat on top. Draw the face and mouth.

The instructions are not that detailed but I hope the pictures help. Click on the picture to get a clearer image. =D
Happy Crafting!

Sean 27 month - Stubborn

Despite still refusing to speak much, Sean's growth has been bringing much joy and despair to us. =D Why do I say that?

Joy... because he can be really charming when he wants to. He never used to respond when I said smile. Now he's full of goofy smiles and silly grins. Which is why he doesn't get punished very often.

Despair.. because he is so stubborn! His stubbornness seems to grow as he grows older.

Since he found the small plastic balls, he's been messing the whole house everyday. Sometimes I clean up, sometimes I leave it to the maid. But this can't go on forever.

This afternoon, we went down and he immediately went to the ball baskets and turned it upside down. He was so proud that he messed the living room. This was it! I told him to pick the balls up and he looked at me "innocently". As I kept repeating myself, his look became more and more stubborn. We came to a stand still. I punished him (sitting on chair), swatted his foot (which kicked the ball instead of picking up), and told him " No food, No TV, no toys, until he picked up all the balls". When he was still not responding. I asked " Are you comfortable on that chair?" He nodded, so I said " No chair!" and got him to sit on the floor, which of course made him cry harder.

Seriously, there weren't that many balls since I've already helped to put back some, but he just refused to pick them up. He preferred to cry his crocodile tears and still tried to sucker up his mummy. This went on for 1/2 hour, when he finally picked up a few balls and put them into the basket.

I could have saved myself a lot of energy repeating myself "Pick up the balls and put the into the basket" 50 times and did the clean up myself in less than 5 minutes. But I just felt that he has to learn to do it himself. It took a lot more energy to get him to do it though. =P