"Home"made Holiday project

Yes, as the time (and date) stamp on this post shows, it has been practically two months since my last post. Such a sad showing for a blog. So much has happened in the last two months that well, I actually fail to recall at this point, what those happenings were. Ah, my terrible memory strikes again.

So with Christmas 9 days away, am about 98% done with my shopping. That is an all-time record in being early for me, since I tend to cram and complete my shopping around the 23rd. This year, I ended up not buying any Christmas wrapping paper though (well, not exactly...). The 2 sources of this year's wrapping paper are:

(1) Leftover wrapping paper from last Christmas; and
(2) Nico's dozens of art work on flip chart paper from school -- which I have made into wrapping paper.

Initially I started to collect the artwork, not able to bear throwing these precious things away. But with the weekly (and sometimes, more than once a week) collection of painted papers piling high on the buffet table, I decided to take photos of the art and considered disposing of them instead.

Luckily, I came across the blog of a homeschooling mother involving her child in painting on kraft paper - creating their holiday wrapping paper. 'What a great idea!', I thought. And off I ran to buy some red, green and gold paint - along with a HUGE roll of kraft paper, with aspirations of getting my son to create our wrapping paper this year.

Ah, how foolish Mommy was to believe he would actually be interested in such activity! Behold, he agreed to paint (a section of) the kraft paper twice. And so - I decided to recycle his art from school -- after all, he had created these as well.

They turned out very nice too! :) Happy Holidays from mine to yours!



p.s. Anyone in need of craft paper and paints?

Update as of 1Jan2012: Nico eventually got interested in painting on the kraft paper, and I had a good amount of homemade wrapping paper that I used for Christmas. Hooray!

All by Myself

The absence of posts is indicative of how truly crazy life has been.
Summary of my September/October:

• Nico gets sick 1
• Yaya 1 Leaves
• Nico gets sick 2
• Hire Yaya 2
• Pack up and move house
• Fire Yaya 2
• Nico gets sick 3
• Wait for Yaya 3 to come (hasn't happened yet - so Mommy is now YayaMommy).

Oh yes. What a month this is turning out to be!

A lesson in detachment

Some months ago, I posted that Nico's yaya had asked to leave. I actually asked her to stay until I found someone to replace her, to which she agreed. Well - months later, I have finally hired a replacement (although a little too young for my preference, we are giving her a try) but have asked the yaya to stay until the end of the month to help "teach" the replacement.

Well, this morning, yaya asked if she could leave this weekend - one week early - because she had found a new job. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the request, but I guess the overly-trusting me expected more in terms of loyalty. Just goes to show that no matter how good a yaya is, in some way, she is really still an outsider and loyalties and promises will only go so far.

A lesson in detachment.

Moving on.

Kumon Worksheets

I must credit some of the ideas of my homemade worksheets to the fabulous Kumon worksheets/workbooks. They make coloring, writing and cutting/pasting a lot more fun for Nico! (I'm still doing the cutting, btw). He also really loves the books of Mazes (pics for another time). What we haven't quite made any traction on yet though are the books on Folding Paper.

Let's Color!

Let's Sticker and Paste!

Homemade worksheets - Part 2

As a follow up to my previous post, here are some of the other worksheets I prepared and had Nico do while I am at work (or even when I am home).

Tracing shapes

Identifying (and pasting) farm animals!

Tracing letters

Identifying (and pasting) land, air and sea vehicles!

Homemade worksheets - Part1

I've been trying to get Nico to practice his pencil skills more, but he usually gives the pencil/crayons about 1 minute of attention before proceeding to do other things. 

At last, I found a way to get him to enjoy using the pencil (and asking for more)! And it tests my skills in drawing things on the spot, depending on what he wants to see!

Help the bees land on the flowers!

Decided to use some color this time to make it more appealing

He can read the instructions too!

On bumps and bruises

Over a chat with my brother this morning, I discovered that he had fallen asleep while supposedly looking after his 10 month old baby early this morning - resulting in the baby's rolling off the bed landing on the floor with a loud thud. Of course he was feeling like a really horrible parent, which is a feeling all too familiar for me, from the first time my son fell off the bed too.

Note that I said - first time.

My son has fallen off the bed quite a number of times. Maybe thrice when he was a year old, and about the same number of times in the last year, at two years old. Eventually even putting pillows or having two sleeping adults beside him didn't work. His sleepy body would somehow find its way to the parts of the bed with a little vacant space, and roll off and land with a loud thud on the floor. No major accidents ever came from his falling off the bed, and after a minute of consoling, everyone is back in bed and dreamland. Doesn't make it any more pleasant an experience though.

A lot of people tell me that having a son means expecting a LOT more bumps and bruises in the future, and I can already foresee that. Nico runs like a bullet - at times with his eyes closed, and other times moving forward while his head is turned looking behind to see if anyone is chasing him. He's ran into walls, table corners and doors, fallen on grass and on the pavement. He's had a huge wound smack across his nose, and bumps growing on bumps (really! it was U-G-L-Y. I felt like he had hydrocephalus!).

But well, I'd better get used to this because this bullet of mine is not slowing down.