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.

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.

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!

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.

Daily morning walks

Our daily morning would usually be walking Ilyasak to his kindy and Balqis and I will move on to a nearby playground, the field or to the supermarket for some grocery shopping on items which I forgot the day before. Both Balqis and I will enjoy the cool morning breeze sitting down on a bench observing people with their morning rush. Also immersing in nature, studying the different types of leaves, fruits and flowers when she picks it up for closer observation. Looking at snails plodding by which we will do when Ilyasak is early and has some time to join us for the walks before school starts.
I really love such activities with my kids and hope to be able to do it in years to come.

Ice cool Ice-cream

One of those rare after lunch snacks that they had. I promised that they could share an ice-cream if they finish their lunch promptly and they did. Ilyasak asked for this yummy reward almost immediately after he placed his plates in the sink. There was not a chance that I could pretend to forget to give them the reward.

They were practically pulling the ice-cream from each other. I had to be there to ensure that they took turns to lick the ice-cream. It was such a cute sight. The ice-cream was gone in under 10 minutes.

Balqis waiting for her turn to lick the ice-cream.

Putting on my own clothes

She has been trying to be independent these days. You would find her insisting on feeding herself. Yeah! more work for me as there will be more mess to be cleaned up. These are one of those other things which she has been insisting on doing it herself-putting on her panties or pants.
She is learning to put on her own clothes but of course mummy needs to give some kind of aid. Like for example, I need to help pull up her pants as it will get tangled somewhere along her thighs. Haha!!

Potty Trained princess

My princess is potty trained. We had successfuly trained her and she is off diapers when she is awake. We do put diapers on her when she took naps though. I am too tired to clean up mess- as it is I am forever cleaning up daily mess created by my kids. She did well, she can tell us that she wants to pee and poo more than a month before her second birthday.
She did have accidents though but they were not massive. Probably because she is a girl and her urine production is not as much as a boy's. I remembered cleaning up Ilyasak's big pee mass everywhere around the house and its definitely taxing and stressful. Being a girl and wearing panties instead of briefs helped a lot where her poo were contained in her panties instead of be9ng scattered around the house.
With the diaper wearing hours pretty much shorten to during naps and night sleep, her rash which had been bugging her since she was young had pretty much not go away. Having sensitive bums, had practically put a 'no-no' to cheap diapers. To be potty trained early, gave us the parents nuch savings on the diapers part.
All I can say is that, I did not have a difficult time potty training her. Well done! Balqis. We can now buy start to buy cute pink panties ya!!!

'THE' purple dinosaur

B was introduced to Barney about a month back when I played one of the VCDs for her. Since then, this purple dinosaur has found her heart somehow. It is definitely a clear obsession which she had for Barney. She will look for her 2 (big and small) Barney soft toy the minute a new day greeted her. Those two soft toys will also be her constant companion when she fell into her deep slumber or her short naps even! A barney knapsack will be strapped to her back the minute she is out of the house eventhough there was nothing in there.
The brother used to be fond of Barney also but not to this extent. It can be somewhat entertaining when you see her eyes glow and her hands pointing excitedly at the sight of any Barney (even when it is someone else's bag)shi shouting 'Bajin, bajin'-oh ya !that is how she pronounces Barney by the way. The 2 barney books in our home library are her current favourites and she will request anyone to read it to her at any storybook session we had with her.
Well, I don't know exactly how long this new found affection of hers will last but we somehow enjoyed feeding to her obsession. Ha!Ha!