Emotional Development.

This morning, I was reading another section of Shichida’s book – <<从胎儿开始的育儿法>>. I find that this is a very good book, but I will have to read again and again as Aloysius grows up. It covers the development from kids from birth till 12 years old! Good investment eh? Can last me another 11 years. Hahaha…

The section I read is about the emotional development from birth till 12 years old. Let me write about the development from birth till 3 years old. The most important thing at this stage is mother’s love for the child. Mother’s love… Mother plays a very important role in the emotional well-being of the child. The child’s satisfaction will come from mother’s love. When the mother shower him with lots of love, the child will not cry for no reason, nor get angry easily, nor fuss for no reason, nor dislike learning, nor slow in development. If a parent feels very difficult in the upbringing of a child, it is adviced that the parent carries or hugs the child, and let the child feels being loved and give him a feeling of security with loves. When the child feels satisfied, he will have confidence in the mother, and hence open up his heart. When a mother hugs a child with love, the child will have faith in the mother, father, himself and the society. Parents need to satisfy the child’s eagerness for learning and knowledge. However, the child’s feelings and emotional well-being also need to be taken care of. Else, as the child grows older, the parents will face more difficulty in the upbringing and discipline. If the child does not want to read a book or do something, parents should not force it. The emotional well-being is very important in order to nurture a happy child.

From 3 to 6 years old, it’s about nurturing the child to be able to control his own emotions and actions. Hahaha… I cannot help it but read the next stage of development too.

I, hereby, wish all the children in the world lots of happiness and love :). I hope all parents will be able to spend more time with their kids when the kids are very young.

Happenings for past few weeks...

We have been very busy every single weekend since we were back from Perth. Both Saturdays and Sundays, we were fully occupied. ***pant*** ***pant*** And this weekend, we will be going to KL. Next weekend, hopefully will have time for shopping in KL. Hahaha… We will be staying in Ascott, right next to KLCC. Maybe will meet my business counterparts in KL too.

On father’s day, we went to a very nice birthday party. Then to Shichida class, then we went to JB for dinner. It's my hubby's first father's day :) A very packed day, indeed. The birthday was very nice and Aloysius enjoyed it very much. He was very happy playing with the toys and rides.

Last Saturday was Aloysius' “por por” 60th birthday. We went to KO restaurant at Intercontinental for dinner, and got a chocolate mousse cake from Olive Tree.

Some how, from the photo, it looks like my birthday rite? hahaha...

Last Sunday, we went to Sentosa after his last Shichida class for this term. Aloysius’ daddy has got a wedding to attend at Rasa Sentosa. We took a cab to Mt. Faber, and took a cable car ride to Sentosa island :). It’s Aloysius’ first time on the cable car. He’s was very curious before we boarded the cable car. When we were over the water, he was scared and hang on very tight to his daddy. Perhaps he’s scared of height? Then we took a bus to Rasa Sentosa. We had a nice stroll at the beach, and enjoyed the sea breeze.

Last week, after some brief shopping, we finally invested in a car seat for him since we will be traveling to KL this coming weekend for about 2 weeks. It just arrived this afternoon. We put him on the car seat and strapped him to try it out. He cried out loud. Hahaha… He prefers to climb and stand on his car seat, play with the straps, etc.

And he has got a new “toy” – a big box! It can be a toy for hide-and-seek, peek-a-boo, creeping, standing, walking around it, etc. Nowadays, he can enjoy playing anything. Let me show you some examples…

Aloysius loves hide and seek now. It is very fun to play hide and seek with him. He will be chuckling away. He still prefers to creep than walk. It’s faster to creep than walk now. He walked unassisted for about 2 meter last week. But, usually, he prefers to hold on to my finger for support to walk. He loves the staircase too. Last Saturday, at KO restaurant, he walked up and down two flights of stairs repeatedly for about half an hour holding on to my finger, and refused to go home.

Today, Aloysius was very happy despite his blue black between his eyes, nearer to his right eye. When his "san-ee" came home in the afternoon, he was very happy holding his "san-ee" finger and walk around the house. He's like showing her around every room. When he brought "san-ee" to a room, he went "ka ka ka ka ka" in his baby language, as if introducing the house to her. Then bring her to his toys and "ka ka ka ka ka" again, as if telling her about his toys. He's so cute...

My reading again...

This morning, I was reading the book “chong2 tai1 er2 kai1 shi3 de4 yu4 er2 fa3” by Prof Shichida. I was reading about the exercise for infants. Hmm… something like what Glen Doman recommended in “How smart is your baby”. Heng ah… I found this book and had practiced it. Kiasu me hor? Hahaha… nah... I found it very "siong" to practice everything in the book. A lot of time is involved in preparing the materials, and it's not easy to catch baby in the mood for the activities illustrated there. I can only try my best :) Then I browsed through the middle of the book. I zoomed into the discipline section. It illustrates about discipline from birth! Wow! We gotta really understand baby’s / toddler’s emotions, behaviour, and what they like/dislike at a particular stage of development. Let me write about what’s written for a 1 year old toddler. It will remind me of what I should do for Aloysius at this stage.

At 1 year old, Aloysius will start to walk. At this stage, he will be very interested in everything and anything. He’s at the experimental stage. Hence, we should not keep saying “cannot”, but let him try whatever he wants. If we disallow him to do things he wants to experiment, nor things he want to touch, he will have a feeling of dis-satisfaction. We will only end up with a child who lost interests in things and is rebellious. We should give him lots of space to explore and play.

There are advantages and disadvantages of carrying him. Carrying himm too much at this stage when he’s starting to walk, will cause him to lose interests in walking. And also lose the opportunity to nurture independence.

Aloysius, at this stage, will like to do things for himself, such as, feeding himself. It’s advisable to let him self-feed despite the mess. At this time, we can start to train him to feed himself from a spoon. He will only eat and play at this stage. When he’s tired of playing, he will want to be fed. It’s better to feed him small meals, 5 times a day! And not to give him titbits, else he will not want to eat normal meals.

He will imitate me to hold a pen. We can give him a pencil and let him draw. Scribbling is the first step to nurture creativity.

At this stage, he will still love to be carried. However, we should encourage him to walk to nurture his independence.

Aloysius' porridge today.

Recently, I found a new "concoction" for Aloysius' porridge :) I love it too... hahaha... I always finish up his left-over, else waste $$$. To me, it's delicious, but maybe too plain for many :)

The following is what I cooked for him for today - lunch and dinner.


Ingredients:

For the grains:
2 tablespoon brown rice
1 tablespoon millet
1 tablespoon quinoa
1 tablespoon red lentils

For the vegetables:
Broccoli florets
Sweet potato
Beans (I dunno what it's called. It's those fresh red and white types which we buy from the market.)
Wakame seaweed.
Red capsicum.
Yellow capsicum.


Directions:
Wash and soak the grains for an hour in Kinertec V6 water. The soaking time is shorter with Kinertec V6 water cos there's lots of energy. Do not pour away the water used for soaking. Add more water to boil the grains. Red lentils provide lots of protein, and for better absorbtion of the protein, it's better to eat with grains.
Soak the wakame seaweed. This seaweed contains lots of calcium, a very important mineral for kids' growth. It contains more calcium than cow's milk.
Use only broccoli florets. Too much of the stem may cause wind in babies.
Dice the sweet potato.
Remove the skin of the beans. Lots of work here. For easier removal, I soak them in Kinertec V6 water first.
Remove the skin of the capsicum and dice the capsicum. No need to remove the skin also can, but the skin is not very soft.
Add all the vegetables to the boiling grains.
Boil at low fire for 45 minutes. I use a thermal cooker, so I will transfer the porridge to the thermal cooker for half an hour and bring out to boil for another 5-10 minutes.

Bingo! Nutritious and delicious lunch and dinner for Aloysius :) I will store his dinner in my thermal pot to keep it warm and nice. This concoction has a mild and natural sweetness, and is fragrant. Aloysius loves it, and only left a little for me...

Aloysius' feet.

Aloysius has grown and developed so much in his first year... Now, he knows how to communicate to get what he wants. He knows what he wants. He knows how to give. He can play with other kids. And he simply loves the remote controls. Let's compare his foot at birth and at one year old... ;)

Aloysius' first swim with Mandy.

A splashing good time indeed...

Photos time... continued...

We celebrated Aloysius' first birthday with many friends and relatives on 2 June 2007. It was a busy day for the adults, but it was worth it. Aloysius was very happy on that day. He woke up with a big smile and greeted us with his "ai ai ai" :) His beloved uncle decided to buy a projector from the PC fair and we could use it to show his photos on the projector! Wah! We enjoyed the party very much till we have forgotten to take many photos. The experience will always be in our memory :)

On the actual day of Aloysius' first birthday, 6 June 2007, we went to HRC for dinner :)

Photos time...

The blog has been a bit boring without photos. Let me upload some photos here... I dun think I will upload many photos from our trip to Western Australia. I will upload more in my Virtual tourist website when I have more time :)

When we just came back from Perth, we went for a birthday bash with many other babies...

Then, we went for a one week holiday program at Julia Gabriel, Evans Road. Aloysius enjoyed himself very much. He felt very at home in class. They played with bubbles, get wet and played in a pool. And also a trip to CCK water park. On the 3rd day, he started to have some runny nose and fever. He has caught some virus from there. There are kids with runny nose in the class. Thank God that Aloysius' fever only lasted a day. Of course, I fed him Indinine too.

Some thoughts...

Just now, I was browsing through a Shichida book again. I was reading on breastfeeding part. When I read a mommy's wonderful experience, I had some strong feelings too :). Breastfeeding is indeed very natural and a superb bonding time with our babies. It is stated that when the mommy has a diet with mostly grains, vegetables, fruits, less meat, the baby will have a wonderful and happy suckling experience. And how happy the baby is after every milk feed. Nowadays, Aloysius will wake up very happy with a big smile if I breastfeed him as much as he wants in the morning. He has big eyes, and sometimes he will look into my eyes during latching on. The feeling cannot be described in words. Or rather, I do not how to describe that wonderful feeling. It indeed made me and Aloysius very happy. Sometimes, when latching on, he will smile at me and talk to me :) At night, he will latch on, calm down for the day, and fall asleep soundly. So far, I have watched my diet a little. From the book, it's stated that mommy whose diet consist of high protein and fattening food, the baby will not like to latch on, and will fuss. Touch wood, Aloysius has been very good and calm during latching on.

Toys for Aloysius.

Last nite, I was tidying up my collection of books. I flipped through a new book by Prof. Makoto Shichida which I have bought and have not read. This is a book which the lady in the shop where I usually buy my books there reserved for me. And I was deciding whether to buy that book. I bought it when she told me that this book is very popular, and it will be snatched up once she put it on the shelf. Hahaha… the kiasu me, just bought the book becos it’s popular. Hmm… the book gotta be good to be popular rite? I opened the page randomly to browse. The first thing I saw is a bold heading saying that we should not give kids too many toys! ***faintz*** Aloysius has many toys and we are still buying. It’s kinda telling us to stop buying toys. Hahaha… I was curious on the reason and read on. The rationale of not having too many toys is to nurture concentration and creativity. Let the child play with the same toy again and again. A toy can be played in many ways. This will nurture the creativity. These are very important skills for learning. Hmm… Shall I keep most of his toys? Good reason to tidy up the toys, eh? Aloysius still have many new toys in the storeroom though!

Aloysius' Milk...

I am still breast feeding Aloysius. I am trying to wean him off from the breasts. It’s for my convenience instead of Aloysius’ health, cos breastmilk will still be the best for his health and development. Humans are the only animal on earth that drink other animals' milk. hahaha...

I have been reading up and looking for the “best” milk for Aloysius. I have omitted cow’s milk. I have tried soy based formula for the past few months, but he refused to drink. Furthermore, there’s a risk of too much phyto-estrogen. I read from Dr. Bernard Jensen’s book that if we want to drink milk, go for goat’s milk. Dr. Bernard Jensen is the father of holistic health from America. I looked around for the different brands of goat’s milk available. My kind and helpful friend sent me a few packets of Karihome samples. Aloysius loves it :) But it's quite sweet though. I cannot find it in AMK NTUC. And I could only get Healtheries goats’ milk from Bishan NTUC. So I bought one 500g tin of Healtheries goats’ milk. Another friend of mine recommended this brand to me too. It’s spray dried and without any other additives. No added AA, DHA, neucleotides, etc. Nothing at all… Just pure goats’ milk without water. Hmm… sounds good to me :) My mum bought another brand – Purenat, from JB. My mum bought it from the organic shop and was told that it’s organic goats’ milk. Wah… “organic goats’ milk” wor… It comes with a price too! RM48 for 400g. ***faintz*** The researcher me better research more on “organic goats’ milk”. Hahaha… It better be worth the investment… RM120 per kg!

Perth Trip: Food for Aloysius.

Hello all...

I have some time to steal here :) Let me write a little on the food for Aloysius in our trip to Western Australia. Hope it will give other mommies and daddies some ideas on what to expect when travelling with a one year old on a road trip :) If you need me to elaborate more, dun hesitate to email to me, and I will find some time to expand my sharing here :)

Before the trip, we were pretty worried what to cook for Aloysius, or what food to get for him. I prepared 8 of his organic jar food, and some instant oatmeal. I also brought along a few bottles of Kinertec V6 water for Aloysius. I also brought some thermal containers for Aloysius’ meals.
We went to Fremantle market when we arrived. We bought lots of fruits and vegetables, and some organic parsnips for Aloysius. The avocados there looked very nice and fresh. We bought a few of those too for Aloysius. Then, off we went to a supermarket to buy a packet of rolled oats for Aloysius. Throughout the 9 days there, Aloysius’ meals were very easy to prepare, and he loves the food there. The potatoes were tasty. His meals for the day will be oatmeal porridge, mashed potato, sweet potato, and parsnips. For his afternoon snack, sometimes it will be oatmeal porridge, fruits, or avocado. He especially loved the persimmon. We let him try eating the sweetcorn raw, and he loved it :) The sweetcorn was very sweet, juicy and crunchy. We went to the farms along the way to buy some vegetables too. The fruits and vegetables were absolutely very fresh and tasty. Meals for Aloysius were a breeze when in Western Australia. He only had two bottles of jar food, and I brought them back. For water, we bought big bottles of spring water from the supermarket, and used the bottled water to cook Aloysius’ meals. The Kinertec V6 water was for him to drink only, not for cooking his food.

We are looking forward to our next big trip to UK, and maybe a city in Europe :). I am very tempted to go to Europe for the different cultural and language exposure for Aloysius. I have a friend in Edinburgh, and it’s not bad too. How? So many places to visit, and limited time. Another friend of mine just sold me the trip to “Legoland”. Hahaha… She said that Legoland is suitable for toddlers. The rides are for toddlers and they will enjoy them. By the time we visit, Aloysius will be a toddler already. Most probably we will visit Legoland :).

Yesterday was Aloysius’ birthday. He’s exactly one year old :) He woke up with big smiles and laughter to make people around him so happy. He was a very happy boy yesterday. He explored with his Littletouch Leappad first thing in the morning. Then played with his toy musical instruments, and the other toys. He loves to hold on to the laundry basket for support to walk. So we have converted the laundry basket to be his toys basket.

In the evening, I got him changed into his new clothes and new pair of Collettee shoes. He looked so cute and handsome :) And we went to Orchard to meet his daddy. We decided to go for a meal at Hard Rock Café. Along the way there, Aloysius wanted me to carry him. He was a very curious baby, always looking around, and looking at people. We arrived HRC at about 6.15pm, so there’re not many people. The waiters and waitresses were rather free to play with Aloysius and keep him entertained, while I feed him his porridge. Hahaha… He was very happy there. He finished up his porridge very fast. Aloysius had a free sundae cos it’s his birthday, and a photoshoot :) It was very nice…

After dinner, we went to Guess Kids at Forum to have a look at their sales. In the end, we only bought a pair of jeans for Aloysius :) We took a cab home. His daddy gotta do some work from home, and I was not feeling very well, so we went home earlier and skipped the shopping.


Aloysius’ development
Many will ask: Can he walk yet? He cannot walk independently yet. He will hold on to something, or my legs to walk. He prefers to creep though. He can creep very fast now. He’s an active boy. He’s now an expert in picking up and feeding himself with small pieces of food or things using his thumb and pointer fingers. I will let him practice his fingers skills when feeding him Vitality Plus. Sometimes, I used Vitality Plus to play ESP games with him too :) He loves Vitality Plus, so that will keep him very interested. Hahaha… Aloysius has been “talking” to himself, his toys, his books, and of course, me, my hubby, my mum, and others. He sounds very cute in his baby language. He will also call out to people by saying “ai”. When he wants me to carry, he will say “ma ma ma”. I have been teaching him to say “ma ma bao” when he wants to be carried. He can say “aunty” and “jie jie” too, but that will depend on his mood whether he wanna call. Aloysius knows how to take the drumstick and hit the drum or his wooden xylophone. He loves to climb on the coffee table or the sofa, and down on his own. Sometimes, when he feels like it, he will get down from my bed himself. My bed is quite high, but I am not worried that he will fall now, cos he now knows how to get down.

We are continuing with his Shichida lesson. It will be a commitment for at least two years. We have paid for the next two terms. His Shichida lesson is getting better. He’s starting to be interested in the finger training portion. He really loves the flashcards and songs segment.

Ok, that's all for now... I need to get back to my work and get writing again... Later all... :)

Aloysius' 1st Birthday Party!

Yesterday was a very busy day. We had Aloysius’ very first birthday party :). Preparation for his party started before we went to Perth. We bought a nice Pooh bear candle when we were at Fremantle, Western Australia. We also bought some Pooh bears loot bag, but it was not used for the party, cos later on, we bought books as gifts for the kids, and the books cannot fit into the loot bags. It was not easy to decide what to give the kids. I know I can put sweets, lollipops, crackers, etc. But, I think a book is very practical :). Hahaha… I am an engineer, so very practical :P Since the theme of the party is Winnie-the-Pooh, we started to find something that is in-line with the theme. We were very lucky to find books with Pooh bear when we were in Perth :)

We settled the cake from Bengawan solo. We chose strawberry with vanilla cake. It was nice. I added the decorations for the cake :). It looked like Pooh bear in a grass field with his friends. We also ordered a Pooh bear agar-agar. Hahaha… we had some left over of the agar-agar – the head of Pooh. My guests are so funny. They cut the sides of Pooh, and left the head for us. Hahaha…

Yesterday, I got my brother’s gf to come earlier to help to wrap the books. She also helped to piece up the big poster of Aloysius. I printed 4 big posters, but in the end, we only have time for 3 posters. We bought balloons with words “HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY” to hang at the door. We skipped Aloysius’ Julia Gabriel last lesson yesterday :( We figured out that we will need more time for the preparation. At the last minute, my brother told me that he’s buying a projector from the PC fair. And we can use it for the birthday party. Hooray!!! I was wondering how to show the photos of Aloysius, cos I have not got enough time to compile a photo album for the party. I started to prepare the slides presentation of Aloysius’ photos from birth till our recent trip to Western Australia when I woke up. It took me half a day for that. Phew…

With the big colored posters, decorations, projector, play area for the kids, my hubby commented that we were rather “kua zhang”. Hahaha… We had a play area for the kids. We had a big “kangaroo jumper” which we bought from Perth. Aloysius loves to jump in it! He started to creep in and out when we were trying to pump it up. The kids love it. Aloysius was so happy jumping, standing, rolling inside the “kangaroo jumper” with other kids :). We also bought a Winnie-the-Pooh "bu dao wong". Aloysius loves this too. He will start to giggle and giggle. We brought down Aloysius’ ride n walker, and rocking horse too. We haven’t got enough man-power to bring his exersaucer down though. Nevertheless, all the kids seem to be very happy playing in the play area :)

We catered the food from Royal Catering. The guests commented that the food were very good. The decoration and set-up are satisfactory to me. I find Purple Sage has nicer decorations with fresh flowers. Before that, I told my co-ordinator for the caterer that I do not want plates, forks and spoons that will break easily which I get from normal caterers. Hahaha… Royal Catering does cater for weddings, so they know what I want. The sales person wanna give me china ware free of charge when he could not find better quality plates in their store, but the boss disagreed. In the end, they managed to give me disposable plates, forks and spoons of good quality. They were satisfactory. The sales person went to the store personally to dig out the better quality plates for the party. Kekeke… They change the jelly to mango pudding for us last minute, cos the salesperson said that the jelly were not up to my standard. Good service, eh? :) hahaha… that’s the power of network ;). I just got to know my friend’s friend from WBG, who is the cousin of the boss of Purple Sage. Hmm… Maybe next time will consider them again.

Back from Perth, but busy...

We are back from our trip to Western Australia. We travelled right down to Albany from Perth. I have been very busy lately. This week, Aloysius is in the Julia Gabriel one week holiday program. And his first birthday party will be tomorrow :) We just settled the catering this afternoon. hahaha... We got lots of toys, including a cool "kangaroo jumper" from Perth. We will get that set up for his party for the kids to enjoy :) I will update more on our trip when I have more time... I am very happy that we have the opportunity to bring Aloysius for a trip, finally... It was a very enjoyable experience. Later all... Stay tuned...