Sean @ Play - Puzzle

Sometimes I'm at loss on how to occupy Sean's time without the TV. So whenever I'm not working or busy, I try to get Sean away from the TV and play with him.


I've been looking for a puzzle set that is within Sean's capabilities, i.e. one without difficult shapes but interesting enough to attract his attention. We found a really cute Safari puzzle set for 2 years+. The shape of each piece is exactly the same. The puzzle is about recognizing patterns and colours.

On the first day, he couldn't really do the puzzle. I'd show him where each piece goes. Over the next few days, he managed to do the puzzle all by himself! Although he still gets frustrated when he can't fit the puzzle in properly. Sometimes he finds it difficult to turn the piece to fit the space. Other times, he does it effortlessly.

Once I knew he could recognize the patterns, I would mix all the pieces up and put them in incorrect spots to make it more interesting for him. Every time he put in a correct piece, he would clap and expect us to clap with him. he he he.

Recently, he only cares about getting the purple Hippo and Orange Tiger correct. He really can't be bothered about the rest, but gets really irritated when I take the Hippo piece out. Hippo is the only animal that has to be correct. If he sees that an incorrect piece in in Hippo's place, he'll correct it immediately. Sometimes he corrects the Tiger, sometimes he doesn't.

So to make him do the whole puzzle, I took all the pieces out and hid the Hippo piece. Then I encouraged him to do the whole set. Only when he finished the rest, I'd bring the Hippo piece out for him to complete the whole puzzle!

Ha ha ha..I'm one devious mummy =P

Potty =Chair =Car?

Since we have bought Sean a potty a while back ago, it's been sitting collecting dust unused. So we decided that maybe we can start introducing him the idea that the potty is the place for pooping.





It's quite easy to see when Sean is about to poop (unlike when he's peeing). His face scrunched up and look tense. =P So we put him on the potty with his diaper on. He seemed to like it. He makes the appropriate pooping face and then laughs. It was very cute when he does that the first time.


But now he likes the potty so much, he puts his toys in it. He pushes it around and says "brr brr" pretending that it's a car. Or he'll sit in it and treats it like a chair while he plays with his toys. The potty has never been used for actual pooping before, so at the moment, it's clean.

To him the potty is a toy, or maybe his car or his chair. It is rather ergonomic, so quite comfortable to sit on. But I'm wondering if he will know in the future that it's a place for poop and is not a toy?

Peeing in the bath

Sometimes Sean pees in his bath, then he will grin at me. Sigh... he thinks it's funny!

Sam says it's because when we put Sean into his warm bath water, the body automatically feels the need to release pee. By the time I realise what Sean is doing, it's too late! So I'll have to redraw his bath.

So I tried getting him to pee before he enters his bath. Sayingh Shhh Shhh.. doesn't seem to work. He just grins and then walk into his bath. Last night, he peed twice! Once at the beginning of the bath. Then after his bath. So I had to rinse him again.

LOL..... my little boy thinks it's a funny when his mummy gets all flusterred about him dirtying his bath water. He laughs out loud, as if I'm entertaining him. I wonder how other mummies teach their little boys to pee into the toilet.?

The Rickety Cardboard House

Like most toddlers, Sean loves cardboard boxes. But he really enjoys playing inside his rickety house. I had always wanted to make Sean a house so I saved up the box his car seat came in. We brought him to a relatives' house who had her own play room complete with a live size house, a slide and a huge collection of toys. Sean loved to play inside the house, so I decided it was time to convert the old car seat box.

It started as a slap and dash job, a lot of tape here and there to keep the box upright. Even when it was bare, Sean loved playing in it. Here he was decorating his house with his Cars stickers. It must be the novelty of having a big box inside the room. =D

---

Next I added lots of white glue and papers to strengthen the box and pasted color papers left over from school days ("A" Levels Art exams) to cover the bare interior walls. I can't believe I kept those papers since 1995 and actually brought them along from Spore to Malaysia.

-

Then I covered the exterior walls with white paper to make it look cleaner and in a burst of creativity at 3am in the morning, I added a paper tree on one of the wall. Hey.. it looked great!

-

Feeling that there was still something missing, I added a giraffe. Sean liked a picture of a giraffe I had. He kept carrying around the room, so I decided to make a bigger version of it on his house.

-
Now that one wall look so good, all the other parts looked awful. The colorful interior started to look garish after Sean tore off bits here and there. At that time we were watching"Finding Nemo" almost every day. So I thought it would be interesting to make the interior as the Ocean. The seaweed took a lot of time, glue and paper. By now, I had to buy lots of new color papers. My collection of old papers had run out of greens and blues.

-
The fishes took a bit of time because I had to look for pictures that I could easily copy and then I had to work out how to cut the pieces of color papers to make them. The floor was done days later because by this time I was totally hooked on Knighthood. Sean's house was rather abandoned.. he he he...

-
After the interior was sort of done, I lost inspiration. I tried to think of ideas for the other 2 exterior walls and came up with several ideas but I couldn't combine them well. I wanted to do something that Sean would like. Although I like the giraffe a lot, I don't think he's really interested in it. Finally I made a Lightning McQueen, drawn on red paper, not cut out because it's just too complicated and time consuming to make a paper cut of it. After all Sean thinks they are stickers and tries to peel them off all the time!

Alas, he's peeled off a few fishes by now. I have to repair it soon before I forget. The lightning McQueen is stuck on another wall but I haven't done anything else yet. But seriously, Sean enjoys his house whether or not it's decorated. I'm just rather lazy at the moment to continue the project. Will have to make time for the other 2 walls soon! =P

Hi and Bye Mary

Mary, Sam's younger sister, came back for a few weeks holiday recently. She came with her fiance as well as his parents for the first few days. Their wedding isn't going to happen until March next year, but since they are going to have it in Malaysia, Mary had to cram as much wedding research as possible during her holiday. We were all thrown into the whirlwind of planning for their wedding.

We brought Sean along on hotel hopping to look for the venue. It was very clear that it was impossible to do or see anything while trying to chase Sean around the places. So Sean had to stay home quite often when I and MIL take turn to accompany Mary on the search for the perfect wedding venue, dress, photographer and florist.

It was rather nostalgic going through all the wedding planning again. I can't believe that we've been married almost 5 years. It felt like it was just a while ago. But Sean is already 19 months old and time really flies when you are busy taking care of an active toddler.

As usual, we forgot to take photos until the very last minute. So here are a few photos taken with Mary the night before she leaves. Gone are the days when we can go for supper and chat the night away, so we bought supper home: Ikan panggang, roasted tofu, hokkien mee, sate, Hochien (not sure if this is the right spelling). As you can see that Sean isn't so easy to take a photo with. I made weird faces to make him laugh, so he laughed while struggling at the same time!

--
Bye Mary. See you in December!
-

Little Monkey

When I look at Sean's sleeping face, he looks so angelic.
When I see him smiling and laughing, he is just so adorable.
However, Sean is mostly an active little monkey who can't sit still!
Just last night, he climbed the back of the sofa and fell backwards.
I tried catching him but it was too late, he feel on his neck!

We were so worried because he cried and cried.....
After a while, he stopped and said "ne-ne"
When I carried him up to the room, he waved good-bye to everyone as usual.
I was so relieved because I know that he's alright.

Just this afternoon, he climbed the arm chair to get into the staircase through the side!
When I pulled him off, he threw a major tantrum.
Later, I was trying to feed him some yogurt while he was sitting on the arm chair.
He avoided me and almost fell backward and hit his head on the marble top drawer!

I think from now on, my blood pressure will rise a little each day.
The time when we can leave him on the chair while we do something is over.
Have to keep an eye on him at all times!!!

At least when he is in bed with his books, he's quite a good little boy.
He can occupy himself by turning the pages and pretending to read.
I'm just glad he has one thing he likes that isn't dangerous! =P

18 months!

Time flies... I can't believe that Sean has passed his 18th month.

This is a rare picture of him smiling. Most of my photos have turned out blurred and it's been extra difficult to get a picture of him smiling since he smiles after the camera takes his pictures! =P

What is he like now?

He's a spirited boy who seldom sit still unless he's zoning in front of the TV! Now he doesn't throw tantrums if I don't switch on the TV. He's a little more subtle than that. He runs to his seat to show us what a good boy he is. He expects us to turn on theTV for him when he sits in his chair. ha ha. If we're busy,he'll come after us and run back and forth to his chair.

Although Sean still doesn't speak much, he communicates pretty well by pointing. Maybe it's because we respond to him too fast that he doesn't feel the need to speak much.

His favourite words are : "buk buk" (book), "bok" (box), "neeeee - neeeee"(breast milk), "Brrrr" (car), "Mum mum" (food), "num num" (drink), "da" (can be daddy or mummy, although he can say "ma ma" clearly when he wants to), "Ot" (hot), "izit" (what is it), "de" (there), and an emphasis "unngghh uuuggghhhh" with lots of finger pointing for everything else! The latest thing is he points to his diaper when he poops, and to his mouth when he's teething and it hurts. I hope he'll outgrow this and speak more soon though.

He loves to flip through his books and listen to stories.
His favourite books are:
"The Dinosaur who couldn't sleep" (uncle John's old book),
"Harry and the dinosaur says Raaaahhhh",
And since yesterday "The guide to The Incredibles" which I bought for my nephew and he found on my shelf. He has torn a page, so it's his now. =P

His new toy is the cardboard house that I've been building for him. He'll sit inside with a book and flip it as though he's reading seriously. We'll play Peek-a-boo together through windows. I think he's starting to have an imagination and is learning to do some play acting. One thing great is that he can play by himself now.. ha ha ha, especially since I've been spending so much time raiding gold and seizing people in Knighthood.

He's a warm and loving boy. When I ask him for a kiss, he'll go "mmmuuuaaaahhh", and if Sam is nearby, he'll spread his arm for a group kiss. When we go jalan-jalan, he loves walking while holding both our hands.

He has a few quirks. He walks with a tiptoe which cause him to stumble and fall when he runs too fast. It seems I tiptoe too. I'm not sure since I don't do it consciously. He also has a crouching and side-sliding walk. I don't know where he gets all these from. *roll eyes*.

He likes good music. When he listen to a pleasant song, he'll sway to the rhythm. When he listen to good dance music, he'll do a little jig. Although it's just a lot of arm flaying and jogging feet. It's funny how when we pass a shop playing a good dance music, he'll let go of our hands and do a jig suddenly. I can't help but smile when he does that.

He loves a good joke. He loves the part when Dory speaks whale in "Finding Nemo", and the first time Mator speaks to Lightning McQueen in "Cars". And oh yeah, he loves South Park, much more than anything else, especially Terence and Phillips. Sigh... I'm worried about the language he may pick up.

Mostly, I love the fact that he can understand us so much better now. When Sam and Sean send me to work, I'll tell Sean " Go home and have a nap, ok. And be a good boy." He'll nod sweetly... he he.. so adorable.