Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 2b

On Reuben's actual birthday, we had a mini celebration in Little Learners for him. Papa and I took leave to celebrate Reuben's special day with him. In the afternoon, we continued with the celebration with Reuben's maternal grandparents. We gave them a lunch treat in Putien Restaurant in City Square to celebrate Reuben's birthday and also, in a way, for us to thank them for looking after Reuben for the past two years, especially the fact that mama's health was not in tip top condition. After the lunch, we walked around in City Square and took some goofy pictures for remembrance. We believed everyone had fun. Before Reuben fell asleep that night, we prayed for Reuben, thanking God for watching over him dearly. We pray that God will continue to hold Reuben close to His heart and give him favour in wherever he goes and whatever he does. We also pray that as earthly parents, we will continue to take good care of Reuben and guide him to walk in God's righteousness. Glory be unto God always! :)

Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 2a

The children's birthday celebration is always without the absence of grandparents. Reuben's too is no exception. We had an earlier celebration on the weekend with his paternal relatives as everyone was free only in the weekend. Since Reuben likes trains, we got him a Thomas birthday cake. After a delicious dinner treat by papa, all the paternal cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents gathered to sing Reuben a birthday song.

I love these two pictures! It's difficult to get the two children to look into the camera and these two pictures managed to capture the moment! :)

Reuben is Two - Celebration Part 1

Reuben has officially crossed the two year-old bar on 2 March. We did not hold a birthday party at home for him. There were just a mini celebration in school and also with our parents. When Phoebe celebrated her second birthday, she had a Barney cake. Likewise, we also got Reuben a Barney cake for his second birthday. Instead of the regular party favours in party bags, I bought the children a box of puzzle each. I think we were more excited than the children ; we sang the birthday song louder than the children. But Reuben enjoyed blowing out his candles (with a bit of mommy's help). Haha! :)

It is just the beginning of Term 1, the children still looked a little blur. Haha :)

A Recipe is Brewing

Hey, after writing about the previous entry, I suddenly have an idea! Maybe blogger mommies can do it with your child(ren) too. You can make and compile a

_________'s (name of child) Recipe Book

Phoebe already knows how to make some simple food items, such as

Roti Pizza
Cheese Nachos
Cornflakes cups with Honey

I can also teach her other simple food, such as

Tuna Sandwich
Baked Rice with Mozzerella Cheese and Tuna

I can get her to write (with my assistance in spelling) a simple recipe for each food item. For those younger children who cannot spell yet, you can take a picture of each process, develop the pictures and get the child(ren) to sequence the event and paste the pictures into the recipe book. So it becomes a pictorial recipe book! After that, compile the recipes and Tadah! your child will have his/her very own, first receipt book. It's fun to make and it encourages the child to write. It's also good for memory development with the recalling of sequence.

Hmm... maybe I should get started with this idea as her March holiday project. Today is already Wednesday! Not many days left!! :(

Or, maybe I should gather a few more other children in our place and made do the food project with the other children and get Phoebe to teach them ? So she becomes, Phoebe the Little Chef! We can have 5 two-hour sessions in a week, making 5 different food items. After each learning/cooking experience, we can do a mini MLEA and get the children to do sequencing in the process of cooking, or simple fill in the blanks, or other simple written work, in the form of a receipe. Then by the end of the sessions, each child will have a simple compiled receipe book! Cool?

Event Planner
10.00 -10.20 a.m. : Welcoming and tuning-in with a simple action song
10.20 - 10.35 a.m. : Story-telling (related to food hopefully)
10.35 - 10.40 a.m. : Toilet break and washing hands
10.40 - 10.45 a.m. : Demonstration of making simple food
10.45 - 11.15 a.m. : Children hands-on session in cooking
11.15 - 11.30 a.m. : Eating and washing up of hands/face
11.30 - 11.40 a.m. : Recalling of events, teaching of mini MLEA
11.40 - 11.55 a.m. : Children hands on in doing follow-up activity (e.g. worksheet)
11.55 - 12 noon : Pack up and go home!

Children will keep their written recipe with me first and they will get to bring them back only after I've compiled for them, at the end of fifth session.

Anyone game for this? :) I'll probably only have space for 4 children :)

Cheese Nachos

I really enjoy seeing her delighted face. She was very excited when she alighted the school bus, with a plastic bag in her hand. We were walking along the void that and here's our conversation.

Mommy, I have something to show you. It's cheeeeeese nachos.
Playing along, I exclaimed,
Really??!! Wow! Did you make this in school?
Yes! I made it all BY MYSELF. It's very yummy you know.
Wow! What did you put inside your cheese nachos?
I put cheese, this one (mommy interrupt : that's the corn biscuit?), tomato and raisin. I want to eat it now.
Can I try some too?
Suuuure.
Hmm.... it's very nice.
I told you!
How did you make the cheese nachos?
It's very easy. You put the cheese on the biscuit, then you put in the raisins and tomatoes. Then you put it into the oven to melt the cheese. Like that lor! It's very easy.
Did everyone make cheese nachos?
Yes!
Did you enjoy yourself?
Yeeees!

Verdict : School is good - learning is done and children have fun.
Case : Closed.

Possible home follow-up activity :
1) Get her to write down the process of making Cheese Nachos, like a recipe
2) Demostration of how to make Cheese Nachos again.
Ingredients : plain cracker, mozzerella cheese, diced tomatos, raisins and other possible ingredients.

Backview

Somehow I love to see the back view of my children because it always remind me of how small they are, especially when they're with an adult, there is a basis for comparison. Since I'm the photographer almost most of the time, many of the backview pictures of the children are taken with their papa. They look really cute :)

We can use these pictures to teach comparison or superlatives.
E.g. Papa is taller than Reuben / Papa is bigger than Phoebe. Haha :)

Fly Fly Fly My Butterfly

Reuben came home from school with a bird on a stick. Then he started singing, "Fly fly fly my butterfly..." I was puzzled. That creature with wings looked very much like a bird but Reuben was waving the stick and singing about a butterfly. Haha. Nevermind the creature's identity. The most important thing is that, he had fun. I do not think that he had helped much in making the bird/butterfly. Maybe all he did was some brushing of the paint on the creature. But he loved his bird/butterfly. He was still playing with it when he reached grands' place. I thought I better take a few pictures of it before it got ripped apart :)

Reuben looks like a big boy in these pictures but actually he's very small in size. He's the shortest child in his class, other than another girl :) Good things come in small packages! :)
Does this look like a bird or a butterfly to you? :)

Walk with Grandpa

Every evening, if it is not raining, my dad will usually take Phoebe and Reuben down for a walk because the children are usually rather restless by the end of the day. He will usually take them down one at a time because he was afraid that he alone will not be able to handle two active and jumpy young children. Unless of course grandma and auntie nia goes along too, then both children will get to have their walk (run) together. My dad has always love photography and he has taken many pictures of Phoebe and Reuben since birth. Here're just 2 of the many nice pictures that he had taken for Phoebe. :) It's harder to take pictures of Reuben because he's constantly on the move.

Table Manners

Reuben is still on his porridge diet. In fact, Phoebe too. They have porridge for lunch and dinner. They seems to like it and on days when I decided to give Phoebe rice instead, she would ask for porridge. I like giving them porridge because I think it is really wholesome food, easily digestible and always filled with all the goodness - fish, pork ribs soup, chicken soup, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, sweet corn, tomato, broccoli, spinach etc. I always try to rotate the ingredients so that the children will not get sick of tasting the same food.

But as their taste buds developed, Reuben has also shown interest in our food. He particularly likes savoury food, unlike Phoebe who has sweet tooth. During our dinner time, he would like to clamber up our laps to check on our food. During one of the CNY sessions in grandparents' place, he managed convince his grandma to hoist him up onto her lap after some whining. Once he was up there, he would survey the food and then indicate what he wants to try. My sister actually disapproved of this behaviour because she said it's a bad habit and table manners. But we still let him be. Why ? A good reason would be - It's good to let him have a taste of our food to increase his appetite, that would make the transition from semi-solid diet to solid diet easier. The truth is, we cannot exactly stand his whining and puppy-eyes! Haha. So talk about table manners, he doesn't really have, we neither! :)

Playing Family

I haven't been blogging for quite some time. Time flies for me everyday. Thanks to the wonderful school anniversary, it's a school holiday for us tomorrow! So I shall sacrifice my beauty sleep tonight and update my blog. I've many photos to update, so I shall cut short in the wordings, that is, if I can resist being long winded. Haha :)

On the whole, Phoebe and Reuben can play harmoniously together. Phoebe will usually be the leader, constantly making suggestions (sometimes coercion) to the brother of what to do or how to play. Of course, they do have times when they would not share. Bickering, snatching, fighting, crying and whining are inevitable. You may be surprise how much babbling Reuben can utter when comes to quarrelling! But most of the time, he'll whine and then get assistance from the nearest adult by pulling the adult's hand to get whatever item that he could not get hold of. He usually would not snatch the item himself but he would get someone else to do it for him! Talk about Mastermind! Haha :) This little boy has got good brains alright! :)

On one of the evenings, the two of them were playing family together. They were having a picnic with their toys. It was a very sweet sight, worth remembering :)

Yum yum yum, pretending to eat