Pink Bumble Bee wriggly dance

She has developed many moves on her own. Wriggling while seated - this is my favourite.

Our water baby

Kim enjoyed her swim today with the new floats. She was quite pleased to have them on and was chasing after daddy who was trying to take some photos of her.

I could actually let go of her in the medium sized pool for a while before she asked to be carried.

She's jumping into the pool from the side in the photos below. The anticipation of the splash is so great her eyes are completely shut throughout.

Floating around holding mummy's hand with one hand.

Peen is pleased as Punch & extremely proud that his little girl is getting more confident in the water.

Top and ruffled pants

I've been looking for a pattern for ruffled pants but have not had success so in the end, I just used the pyjamas pants pattern, shortened it and added the ruffles. But I think it's too baggy and can be shortened more. For the top, I used an existing top as a pattern sample.

I have made some alterations to the pants. I took in on the side seams and shortened it.

After 2 terms in school

Kim started Chinese classes since the beginning of the year in Jan. She started off being relunctant to participate and refusing others into her huge personal space. When anyone approached her, she would turn her face away and bury herself in my arms, insisting to be carried.

After two terms, we see a vast difference in her.

1. Taking attendance.
In term 1, she was required to stick the apple (with velcro) with her name to the board. She refused to and I always had to do it for her. Until the end of the term, she finally did it on her own. This term, she is required to hang the apple with her Chinese name on a hook. Again, she refused to. Until a few weeks ago.



2. Play
She has mastered using the spoon to transfer marbles and furry balls. She is able to pour objects from one beaker to another most of the time. She is finally able to use the tongs to transfer the furry balls.



3. Greeting the teacher
She waves at the teacher upon arrival when prompted. She says, "Bye" and "Zai zian" when others begin to leave the classroom. She has never wanted to be carried by the teacher. I usually would disappear to the washroom at the end of the lesson to give the teacher some time to play with her alone. Just last week, at the end of the lesson when the rest of the kiddos were giving a goodbye hug to the teacher, she stretched out her arms and gave the teacher a hug too. The teacher was absolutely thrilled.

Nyna......ug

Kim loves it when Chyna is cornered. So she can do whatever she wants to Chyna. She would pat her, pull her tail and move the whole dog towards her so that she can give her a loving hug.

Child Labour

Just before her bath, she decides that her parents' room is in desperate need of cleaning so she does her bit to help out. Tired out, she sits on the latch to take a break but as if she just can't take too long a break, she cleans while seated. And sometimes, while prostrated on the floor. She cleans all the way to the bathroom. :)

The toddler's backpack -> DONE!

On one of our shopping trips, I put this on Kim. She was really thrilled and didn't want to take it off. I then thought of sewing a backpack for her.

I literally trawled the net for patterns and only came across this one that seemed easy enough. I didn't want to try to create my own pattern. Wasn't confident that it would turn out usable. So I purchased the pattern online and pieced it together.

This was work in progress. Never did anything with so many pieces to attach together before. Also, the piping turned out rather nice. I am glad I had some practice with that for the pillowcase.

The final product - front and back views. I added a velcro pocket to the front just to give it another compartment. For the next bag I make, I will try adding side pockets for bottles.

Kimberley is now ready for childcare. Almost.

Oh how I love fleece!

I have a soft spot for terry material. Well, anything soft and furry/fluffy actually. So fleece happens to fall into that category of soft and fluffy.

Spotlight has a new range of fleece with somewhat prettier prints. Actually, they used to only have like 3-4 bales of fleece of somewhat dull solid colours. Nothing suitable for happy little girls. So I HAD to buy one...no, two just in case. In case of what? To use one material first to sew whatever it is and make sure I don't make mistakes with the second one. But that is hardly ever possible is it?

Here is the first "trial" fabric.



And here is the one I really like. I have tried to stay away from prints / colours that are too girly....you know, the usual pinks / floral. But this one I couldn't resist. It's got purple in it, so I guess that makes it better.



What can you possibly make out of fleece in hot and humid Singapore? Well, I opted for bedding. It wasn't really hard to do. Except that there was fluff everywhere at the end of the project. The only challenge really was the pillowcase where I used self-made piping all around, just to keep the shape. I wanted to do it for the bolster as well, but it was way too troublesome so I didn't.



As I was making the little girl's bed in our room, she saw it and immediately climbed on to lie on it even before I was done! Haha. Well, I have no idea how practical this is gonna be. It will certainly be nice and cosy when the aircon is turned on. And fleece is supposed to wick away moisture is it not? We shall see.

There was some leftover of the fabic, so I decided to replicate a pullover that I had borrowed from a friend.

Here is the borrowed pullover with the nice giraffes.




Here is the one I made.



The length and width are quite alright but the neckline. It's a boatneck! Not good. Hmmm...wonder if it can be saved. I guess we could have the little one wear a collar tee inside and this outside. Oh, I haven't fixed on the buttons yet. I can't seem to be able to. Maybe the fabric is too thick or fluffy? The machine just sews on the spot. Maybe I should use snaps instead? But will that present a different set of problems?

I'm not really good at this use-existing-clothing-and-make-a-pattern-from-it kinda projects. They have all turned out a little wonky or too huge. Grrr.

Hugs are so precious. More so when initiated by the little one.

Usually what we do is we get down to Kimberley's level, stretch out our arms and say, "Hug Mama" or "Hug Papa". Then with outstretched arms, a huge grin on her face, she runs towards us for a hug.

Since she turned 17 months, she has begun to initiate hugs. She caught me by surprise one day when she stretched out her arms and said, "Ug." I was very very pleasantly surprised to say the least.

Today, she stretched out her arms towards Chyna and said, "Ug." When nothing happened (since the dog doesn't really understand what a hug is), she looked at me and repeated it, with her arms still stretched out towards Chyna who was running around. I had to catch hold of Chyna and hold her in position for the little girl. She (the girl, not the dog) was so pleased.

As we were going to bed tonight, lying on her bed, she suddenly said, "Mama....ug." So we did. 17 months. Magic.

"妹妹", says Joel

I thought this would be blog worthy.

Kimberley has been running a fever since yesterday. Well, it's off and on but it was rather high at 6am this morning so we didn't go to school again.

Here was what Dawn, mum of Joel, sent me in an sms:

Joel called "Mei Mei" like 50 times in the class and even took her name tag and walked around shouting, "Mei mei" until 老师 commented that he really misses her.

Awwww. So sweet. I wonder if Kim missed him too.

She knows what she wants

Kimberley has two beds, which she calls "bid". One in her own room and another one which I had just purchased from Ikea in our room. Her day naps and most nights she sleeps in her own room but on some nights when we feel like having the whole family together, we would bring her over (still asleep) when we go to bed ourselves.

She has been quite successful at telling us when she wants to sleep. She doesn't say, "Eeep (for sleep)" as I would expect her to. But she would either say, "Bid" or "Nork" (for milk).

This morning she woke up (on her bed in our room) at 7am. 7am for crying out loud!!! She sat there and laughed at Chyna who was also on the bed (frightened from the lightning and thunder), then pointed at her father who was getting ready for work and said, "Papa!"

All hopes of her going back to sleep so I could continue with mine were in vain. She hung around the house with me, occasionally pleading for me to "Wearweee" (carry) her. Walked with me everywhere I went. Played with my handphone, tried to type on my laptop as I did.

Finally, she looked at me and said, "Nork". I non-challantly replied, "Ok." Then she walks off expecting me to follow, which I did but not immediately. She went into her room and then came out again, after realising I wasn't behind her. She looked at me again and said, "Nork" and pointed to her room. So to her room we went. She walked straight to the fan, turned it on and then climbed into her bed.

Then she put her head down on her pillow, missing her tiny pillow as usual, and waited for her milk to come. She is finally asleep. Thank God! Now, it's time for surfing the net and getting lunch ready. Two hours of Van time. Hurrah.