Of Sewing and Jigsaw Puzzles

I should have done this a long time ago... but I finally sewed a pair of pyjama pants for the little bugger. He's been wearing the old ones since he was 1 and they are now up to the middle of his calves! Whenever he has them on, he keeps bugging me pull them down to cover his ankles. After 5 times in a mere span of 5 minutes, I knew I had to drag that sewing machine out.

It was my first attempt at sewing a piece of clothing... and I must say it was really fun! Plus the fact that they actually fit is a real bonus!

And now that I have this prototype, I'm gonna make a bunch of pants for him! Good thing I have a roll of light cotton fabric from Children's Ikea. He's gonna love the bright colours.

By the way, Hubs is also eyeing a pair of adult-sized pyjama pants for himself. Can't wait to make matching pants for father and son. :)

So here's the the little bugger in his little blue pair of pants covering his little chubby ankles.










































Lately, Jeddy boy is into jigsaw puzzles. He now has 4 boxes of them, with four 3-piece to 6-piece puzzles in each. Every morning, before his breakfast, he'll bring a box to me and say, "Mummy, kai1!". And when I open it for him, he'll go "xie4 xie4", before proceeding to fix them. Awwww...... *pinch his cheeeeeeks*

He needed a little guiding when we started out with the first box. Now he's an expert on all the puzzles except for the 6-piece variety, where a little hint here and there is still appreciated.

It's fun watching him do puzzles. When he discovers that he has taken a wrong piece, he'll wag his little index finger at it and says "neooo" with a rising tone at the end in exactly the same way I say no to him when he's up to his mischiefs. Cracks me up no end.







































Oh, another Jeddy-style-obsessive-compulsive behaviour that comes with playing puzzles. As mentioned earlier, one box contains 4 puzzles right? Jeddy boy will complete all four of them, and then in one puff mess them all up. The key is he has to complete ALL the 4 puzzles before they can be messed up. Clueless mummy once tried to join in the fun and messed up the puzzles when he's only completed two. Little bugger threw a fit! I have since learned not to mess with Mr Jeddy when he's playing with his puzzles. *wipes brow*

Mess 'em up, mess 'em all up!






















While we're still not far from the topic of sewing, here is something else I made from a lovely piece of linen that I got on my last trip to Japan. A tissue-paper packet holder with a pocket for my ezlink card! Come to think of it, I can also put in loose change, since the button secures the holder quite well!

I'm lovin' it!
































Fancy one for yourself? ;)

Marina Barrage

We finally got off our butt again and went to the Marina Barrage on a scorching Saturday mid-morning. I'm nursing a burnt nose even as I write this....

Look, if you are a parent of an active toddler, this IS the place to bring your kid!

Jeddy boy ran, and he ran, and he ran, till he could run no more and laid wasted on the car seat all the way home. Ha!

We made a mental note to go back again in the near future, and this time, we'll definitely pack a picnic basket and bring along a kite!

Cool Jeddy at the start of the journey





















Checking out the big ships along the lookout pad. (Note: Totally child-safe with the high railings and narrow gaps. Let 'em loose and enjoy the scenery!)























In the gallery. Lots of bright and colourful lights to keep one entertained, not to mention informative and well-designed.

Jeddy getting a tad insecure with the see-through floor.





















He walked along the black frames for the longest time before taking light and tiny steps on the clear panels. Great way to encourage your kiddos to be adventurous and brave.























And here's a whole stretch of wall made up entirely of plastic bottles! Jeddy boy discovered he could unscrew them off and we had to whisk him away before he took the whole wall down!

Now how do I get this out? *unscrew unscrew*























Eh?























Bottle? What bottle?























The place with the best view, lots of picnic space, and great wind for kite flying!



















Take a picture with mummy please......!! No!


















Pleeeeeease.........! No!


















Don't want don't want lor... I take with Papa!


















Run Jeddy run!





















And we all know that he knocked out in the car after this. ;)

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Additional Infor:
1. There is also a lovely water play area for the kids. For some strange reason, Jeddy doesn't like it, but I'm sure your kids will enjoy splashing among the gurgling water fountains and water cascades.

2. There are two places to have your meal (i think). The gallery cafe and a popular chinese restaurant. The gallery cafe doesn't come equipped with high-chairs, just to let you know.

3. Lather on sunblock if you come anytime before 4pm!

ENJOY!

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Speaker's Corner for Tots

Jeddy boy has just put a whole new meaning to the term babbling. I've always known that my boy is passionate about what he believes in... but I never imagined he'd drag a high stool to the middle of the living room and deliver a speech on it.

Not that I have any idea what he's talking about, but I think I can guess...

Welcome to the Speaker's Corner for Tots!

Today, we have Mr Jeddy, who is going to give us a speech on why toddlers should only have cornflakes and cheerios for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He will also argue that yakult should be the only source of fluid intake for all blooming tots.

So let's put our hands together and welcome Mr Jeddy! *applause applause*



Note: The above is only an excerpt of the entire speech, which was more than 2 minutes in recorded length. Our Jeddy boy here also seems to love an appreciative audience, whose amusement only serves to fuel his animated discourse.

Tee hee hee...

;D

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Line 'em Up!

Mothers always know when their kids are up to something... when it gets toooo quiet.

Usually, when Jeddy's out of sight and I don't hear any sound from him for one minute, he's up to no good. Somewhere.

So far, he's been caught red-handed throwing my toothbrush into the toilet bowl (urghh!) and scribbling all over the air purifier with a green marker, just to name a couple.

And Jeddy boy is not the type who'd feign innocence too. When discovered, he makes a run for it, complete with big cheeky grin. *shake head*

This evening, I had to go Jeddy-searching again... and well, surprise surprise! It was merely his OCB kicking in and he just had to line up his favourite bedtime story books, back cover facing up!

Gotcha!


















Posing with his work























Left-right-left-right-left-right























For once, I didn't have to fish things out of the toilet bowl or make him go wiping up with a cloth.

Phew!

:)
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Goofy Fan

See what's tickling Jeddy Boy...



And by the time this video was taken, Jeddy would have repeated the synchronization at least 8 times!

;D
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Jed and the Beanstalks

Planted 5 kidney beans a couple of weeks ago to show Jeddy boy how plants grow. And my, did they grow!

After a week, the fastest growing bean measured 20 cm tall while the shortest was a mere 3 cm (after taking its own sweet time to sprout). Somehow that just reminded me of the way children grow too -- some faster, some slower, but they all get there eventually. :)

Was a great opportunity for Jeddy to learn how to water the beanstalks and watch them grow day by day. And kidney bean plants are waaaaay more fun than green bean/red bean plants.

There's only so much these beanstalks can grow on a thin bed of cotton and plain water. Well, I'm not about to fry these in a wok with chopped garlic, so the time has come to hand the plants over to Jeddy boy. *Yikes*

He treated the plants with kindness and stroked the leaves really gently... at first. But boys will be boys, and the rough play began to set in before you could even finish saying "kidney beans".

Stroke stroke























Tweak Tweak























Pluck Pluck























Ending up as roundabout shrubbery on Jeddy's town. *sigh*














































Do try growing kidney beans for your toddlers and be fascinated together with them.

Enjoy!

;)

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Doodle Doodle

Went to Ikea for a box of chalks (had enough of markers and Jeddy leaving marks everywhere!) for the little one to doodle with. Thought it might be good to let him try out different drawing materials. :)

And so he doodled... and also dropped all the chalks I gave him onto the floor, breaking most of them. Poor Jeddy just sat there among the broken chalks and muttered "huai, huai, huai...." to himself, while trying to attach the broken pieces together. :P
[For the clueless, 'huai' means broken/spoiled in mandarin.]


Doodle Doodle... Jeddy uses his left hand a lot, so maybe he'll be a left-hander like me!






















Flashing his melt-mummy smiles at just the right moment!






















Mummy melts into a puddle.






















Revealing his true true colours as Jeddy the little monster!























*shudder*

;)

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Bible Cover - A Little Handmade Goodness

Sis requested for a fabric cover for her bible the other day... and I couldn't wait to get started!

I threw together some cotton and linen fabric, pretty cotton lace and one of my handcarved rubber stamps.

Abracadabra!

And here's how it turned out. :)
























The interior


















Sis' bible all cozy and snuggly in its new cover.























That sure was fun!

Yay! :)

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Stab Stab

Don't worry, I meant stabbing pieces of apple. ;)

One valuable lesson I've learnt is that there's no point in teaching your toddler something when he's not ready for it. I tried getting Jeddy boy to use a fork and spoon almost half a year ago and failed utterly. So back into the drawer those kiddy forks and spoons went.

Last month, I decided it's time to try it again, after reading that at 19 months, toddlers are supposed to know how to use either the fork or the spoon.

I dug out his kiddy fork, chopped up an apple, and proceeded to teach him how to stab the apples. Next was to help him aim the fork into his mouth, something that we adults take for granted, but in fact is very tricky for first-timers. Because he was ready this time, and eager to learn, self-feeding with a fork was accomplished in one lesson.

Reminder to self: When he's ready, he's ready.

Here are some pictures of self-feeding-Jeddy. Plus another thing that he loves to do now: feeding others. ;)

Stab stab































































One stab too many.























Aaahhh!





















Um!





















Hello? Did you forget something?





















Riiiight.....


















:)

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Jeddy Meets Rommy No. 2

My hands were feeling itchy one afternoon. So Rommy No. 2 was born at the dining table while Jeddy boy was napping. It was really easy and fun to make. Plus Rommy's head actually bobs! Ahh... such is the ingenuity of the Japanese.

Jeddy boy went off to a good start with Rommy boy. He was just as amused as I was with the bobbing head. Anyway, I wanted to teach him how to be gentle and handle fragile items with care. He did and gingerly stroke Rommy, carried him around gently with his chubby hands... for a grand total of 20 minutes.

Well, all I can say is that Rommy is now without his head. ;P

So here are the short-lived happy moments of Jeddy and Rommy...

What's this?














































Sitting quietly together with Rommy.


















Rommy: "Don't crush me! Don't crush me!"


















The next Rommy I make is sooo just gonna sit at my desk, far far out of reach of Jeddy boy. ;)

Oh, do try to make a Rommy for yourself too! The link is provided above. Remember to use thick paper and strong glue!

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