My robust sleeper

Balqis is indeed a robust sleeper.Pronto!

She can sleep absolutely everywhere and in any sort of environment. She can even sleep on the bicycle seat which I have yet to take a picture of her in the act.

Sorting cum threading

I gave a tub of buttons of different shapes and colours to Balqis.and her first task was to sort them according to different shapes. She successfully did just that. Her second task was to sort it according to the different colours. She was a bit confused probably because some of the buttons come in different shades of a particular colour. Eg. Light, dark and also translucent sort of red. I think its time I introduce her to family of colours.
She did some threading with the buttons too and I am very happy that her fine motor skills is getting much better now. She could thread through the small holes of the buttons.

Mini lego creation

Ilyasak received his reward from me yesterday after he collected a card full of stickers. He collects one sticker each time he is well behaved or he perform certain tasks well. Eg. He got ready for school fast or he finished a meal fast without any form of feeding from me ( he does require us to feed him from time to time).
This time round he received a small Lego set from me as I try to keep his reward small and cheap. I bought this set from a sale so it was selling at a fraction of the retail price.
He worked on the set almost immediately and was done in about ten minutes as it was a pretty simple set for him. He will usually play with his Lego creations once he was done with it. That bought me some time when I could rush to the kitchen to prepare lunch while he was at it and Balqis was busy with her threading activity. She did helped his brother to fix the Lego figure that came with it though ( she has a thing about fixing Lego figurines)

Being 32

Being in the thirties definitely make u sound so old. I never doubt that fact and I turned 32 yesterday.
I had the sweetest birthday celebration yesterday. I was surprised by the darling hubs with a mini strawberry fresh cream cake as early as half past eight. Ilyasak blurted out to me,
'umi, hurry your strawberry cake is waiting for you' I was surprised for sure as to how the cake got into d house that early despite the hubs nit leaving the house and I know for sure that I did not see the cake in the fridge the night before. I am still trying to get the hubs to tell me his little secret.
I loved the taste if this strawberry cake eversince I tasted one of my student's birthday cake. It did not have the deadly sweet taste as though you have eaten diabetes off a plate. It was also filled with fresh strawberries within the fresh cream to balance off the sweetness with its sour taste. Basically, the cake was yummy. The kids being not big eaters had a piece each. 

We headed out for breakfast followed by grocery shopping.

Cough, raspy voice and lozenges

The pack of lozenges had been my best pal for more than 2 weeks now. I definitely took more than 20 of various kinds of lozenges- the generic ones as well as the commercially produced ones like Tussil 5.
When I thought it was finally going away, the cough came back and the cycle is back again. I am back to sucking the Tussil 5 again. I am not sure how much extra sugar I am consuming with the Tussil 5. Lozenges are after all sweet.

Sorting game

I created this sorting activity for Ilyasak about two years ago with the thought of reusing it again for Balqis. It did come to a good use and efforts to make it durable (laminated the pieces) did pay off too. Since those learning resources were ready to be used, Balqis was introduced to this activity much earlier. She was introduced to halves, wholes and quarters (the pieces were not exact quarters though) not the terms though as I figured it will be too much if I were to introduce her the proper terms. I was just as happy if she could just sort out the pieces accurately which she did after the 2nd attempt. However, given her short attention span, she had difficulty completing the task. Nevertheless, I am happy with her achievement thus far.

Giant puzzles

Balqis had more practice on puzzles and seems to have better interaction on giant floor puzzles. It is probably due to the large size which give her more ease in the fittings. She required more help from me on her first attempt on this particular giant puzzle on numbers. She got better at it during her second attempt on the same piece. She was able to study each piece carefully looking at the colours and illustration of each individual piece to find their exact fit. I am hoping to find more of such puzzles to let her practice.

Lego creator

His recent creation was the mini creator 5762. I bought it during our recent trip to the airport on children's day. He asked for it as his children's day gift. I was hesitant at first as he has far too many Lego sets. To date, his Lego sets are placed in a supreme huge container which we got from Ikea. They were really huge in my opinion and so one can imagine how many Lego sets does this 5 year old own and Lego sets do not come cheap. I have always told him of how lucky he is to be able to play with such expensive toys and I even added that I only had 2 sets throughout my entire childhood. Anyhow, I relented because it was after all children's day and he was well-behaved during the trip to the airport as well as earlier on during breakfast.
I have always been a fan of the creator series simply because you can create a t least 3 designs from just one set which is money worth in my opinion as compared to the city series which you can only yield one creation and pretty much ends it there.

He started working on the mini creator 5762 almost immediately when he arrived at my mom's. He complete the first design in about 15 minutes. Of course, I had to supervise him in case he missed out any steps or some of the tint pieces in the process. It gets really depressing if you lose just one tiny piece which deters you from yielding the final product. I forgot to take a picture if the first design.

Later in the evening, he constructed the second design during dinner. I am not favour of play and toys during dinner but I gave in because I wanted him to put up a stint. He cab be quite anal on completing the Lego sets if he already sets his mind to it and no form if compromise will be entertain by him. I know its bad habit and I should try to curb such behavior but I don't have the energy to deal with it that night.

Doodling

I was quite worried that ilyasak did not like to draw or doodle despite making all the writing and colouring materials readily available for him. It is like a common phase where every child will go through. It worries me when he showed no signs of interest in d field at all. He even had difficulty writing out the alphabets as well and hated the fact that he has to write and his pencil grip wasn't that strong either. Although he started to read before he turns 3 but he was only able to write legibly recently when he was 4 and a half years old. I was terribly worried. I even scout around for some suitable art classes for him but found nothing suitable nearby in terms of quality. The only good ones were really far away and it seems unrealistic to sign him up.
However, about two weeks back, he was seen doodling on pieces of paper or any scrap he could find. Yes! You bet I am real happy although most if his doodles comprised of modes of transport or should I mention aeroplanes in specific. He even include details such as turbine engines and propellors although it was not very clear until he explained it to me. He could create stories out of his doodles which made me extremely happy to know that he does progress like any other child. Only that he took a little longer than usual to reach the stage.

There was once when we were having tea in a cafe and he asked for his sketch book. That kept him occupied throughout out the time when we were there. It was simply amazing that he was doodling with such deep concentration. Hopefully, the 'burning' desire to draw is here to stay.

Bridezilla

One of those 'girl' things which I bought for Balqis a few weeks back. I just could not resist when I saw it at the shop. Sadly, she could not keep the frilly veil for more than 5 minutes. This pink veil uses a mini comb sort of to keep it intact to the hair which probably make it a little harder to stay.

I got a little carried away and bought a white frilly veil during one if my trips to JB. This particular one is a little different and better in my opinion because it uses a hair band instead if a mini comb which stays firm on the head longer. Just the other day, I coax her to put it on when we set off to my mom's. I know I am being ridiculous but I can't help it. She looks too cute having the veil on her. Ha!Ha!

Blackforest cake

He has been fond of blackforest cake for the longest time probably it was the first cake that was introduced to him. Although his range of favourite cakes has expanded, blackforest still remain at the top of his list of favourites.
These was taken during one of those evenings when I needed the sweet crave for cakes. My choice of tiramisu and his choice of blackforest. We have yet to discover Balqis' favourite as she seems to enjoy every single flavor of cake which was served to her.

Attempting puzzles

I took out some of Ilyasak's older puzzles which was shelved for quite some time to let Balqis attempt it. Surprisingly she was able to complete 3-5 pieces puzzle with minimal help from me. I had to give hints along the way though like asking her to rotate to get d exact fit and asking her to observe d colours and design of the individual piece to get d correct match up. I am real happy over her progress. I will dig more puzzles for her then.

Maybe I should get Ilyasak to start on doing puzzles again. This boy is simply unique as he does not seem to show interest in d usual typical activities or items which children his age enjoy. For instance, he needs to be coaxed to draw or colour a simple figure or two. He only like vehicles, wheels, gears and those items if that nature. It kind of worrying but I guess each individual child is unique in his or her own way.

Puzzles

I tried giving Balqis some of the simple puzzles from our collection. Basically from the time I started Ilyasak on them. She was able to complete with minimal help from me. I only had to teach her that she needs to rotate, observe the pictures, colours or the cutting of the puzzle pieces to get the correct fitting to the entire puzzle.
I will definitely introduce more puzzles to her in the future.

Maybe I should get Ilyasak to start on doing puzzles again. This boy is simply unique as he does not seem to show interest in the usual typical activities or items which children his age enjoy. For instance, he needs to be coaxed to draw or colour a simple figure or two. He only like vehicles, wheels, gears and those items of that nature. Its kind of worrying but I guess each individual child is unique in his or her own way.

Under the weather again

Ilyasak is down with fever again today. His temperature was 37.1 in the morning so I didn't think too much of it and send him off to school. However, he didnt look too good when we fetched him from school. Even his teacher informed us that he was lying on the floor looking weak during dismissal time. True enough, it was high fever of 39.1 when we checked his temperature again. Ever since this year, his fever will always be on the high side of more than 38.5 whenever he was down with one which worries us a lot.

Balqis on the other hand is down with runny nose since two days ago. Thank god! Hopefully she stays away from fever. It's always a big worry whenever our little ones are down with fever- like holding on to a time bomb where we constantly has to check on its figures.

Thankfully hubby is on childcare leave today which help to lighten my daily load with the kids. It can get real depressing if you have sick kids refusing their meals and wanting to be coaxed just to finish their meals.

They are off to their own slumber after their own dosages of the meds. Hope the hubs and I can brave the tide with neither of us getting the bug. Hope the kids recover real soon and be out and about to play.