Preparing Baby Claire 1st year Birthday Party

It is going to be one year ever since our little baby came to our world. To us, time really flies. When we were looking at the photos taken during this past one year when preparing her birthday montage, there was a gush of feeling that came over us.."oh mine...see how much Claire has grown and developed". I even mentioned "Claire looks pretty fat when she was younger, no wonder his uncle said she looked like Hao Shao Wen, the famous shaolin monk kid actor". Now, she looks much more like a girl (refer to the 2nd pic). At least, some passerby asked "She is a girl rite?", not "Is she a boy?" :P

Papa Justin has volunteered to take up the task to create the montage. Can't wait to see how it looks like. Aren't you are excited as me too?

So what are we preparing for the party?

A checklist of items:

• e-invitation
• Banner. This took me some time. I have to cut and copy from her favorite characters from Baby TV.
• programme with activities
• Cakes, cupcakes, buffet, special plates, cups for kids
• Decorations
• Present Wish-list (Since some of our friends asked for a wish-list)
• Claire Video + surprise babytv clips
• Venue @ Bukit Batok CSC, Children Party Room. Initially, we booked a chalet at Aloha Changi. We decided to change venue due to inaccessibility and ...lots of mosquitos which we don't think it will be good for the kids
• Kids' goodie bags
• Play mat, coloring materials for kids
• Music

We wanted to make it a Baby TV theme however, the lack of decorations may be an issue. Thus, we will made do of whatever we have. We will include characters from Hippa Hippa Hey, and characters from Baby Hood.

This is the invitation card created for our relatives and close friends. A friend mentioned that it as so cute. It seemed that Claire was the one inviting them. :)

This is the programme outline. We hope the party will be full of fun for the families and kids. The wonderful thing about this venue is that kids are able to run to the indoor playground next door to have some physical activities.

And..nothing forgetting the cute little things like cupcakes. The rainbow cupcakes from Hey Cupcakes are so cute and yummy for kids. We bet they will love them. Claire can't wait to take a big mouthful of it. :P 

Last but not least.....the Kids Goodie Bags! Pretty simple stuff. A sneak preview into one of the items, the hand clappers! Claire loves it and started clapping with it :)

3 more days to go! :) 

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

Baby Claire's first swim

We've finally bought our little Claire to swim yesterday morning at Singapore Polytechnic. It is pretty near my house and the good thing is that the pool at SP is chorine free. :)

Some of my friends asked "Why did you take so so long to bring Claire for her first swim"? Well, we felt she is so tiny, afraid wait she will catch a cold and also partly because the fortune teller said that we need to be careful of her and water when she is below 3 years old.

However, I felt that she might be very fearful of water like she is stepping on the sand at the park. Thus, I woke my hubby up and say "Let's bring her for her swim TODAY".

We put on her new pink swimwear and put her on a pink top and ready to go!

Glad that I decided to ask Papa Justin to take out her toy to let her play in hope to calm her down, and she did!

After 5 minutes letting her to play her toy while I move her around the pool, I slowly removed her toy and she seemed fine with it and then the fun began!

We played in the baby pool for around 30 minutes and I guess it was pretty not bad for her first swim. :) Happy that the weather was good with some sun. And you know what?? We were really lucky because after our swim, it began to pour. :)

P.S: Papa Justin did not go into the pool today because his thumb is still covered with stitches. :( 

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

Her current favourite song. Three Blind Mice.

Claire loves Mommie singing nursery rhymes to her. I sang to her everyday, even when I am back from work.


Here are a list of them.

1. Twinkle Little Star
2. itsy bitsy spider
3 Three Blind Mice (Her top favorite now)
4 old macdonald had a farm
5. row row row your boat (but i changed the lyrics to include seeing different animals along the stream, instead of life is but a dream)
6. and other nursery rhymes

All all these songs, Three Blind Mice is the only song which she will AUTOMATICALLY sing together with me. Take a look at this video! Hahahahaha, so cute.




Cheers,
Deariebear Mommie

How to make Baby Claire laugh Part 2.

On this typical afternoon, I decided to continue to blog what makes little Claire tickles.

Still remember my first part about how to make your baby giggle? If it doesn't work, what about the following?



4. Drumming with her

Back when she was 6 months ago, I realized that she loves to smack her green chair. So I drummed a few rhythm for her, and encouraged her to drum too. Too, she can't really drum to the beat, but she was truly amused by it. Currently, she is not into drumming, but smacking or hitting things with whatever is in her hands.

5. Blowing bubbles on her body

Baby Claire loves blowing bubbles at our hands, legs. Anywhere where she can grab and hold you. Dunno where did she learn this. I guess when she is younger, we also tried to blow bubbles on her belly and she picked it up! I feel that she is trying to make us giggle when she does that. You can just look at her expression. However it is a messy sight when she tries to be funny during lunch (*Just happened today) which I sternly told her no. If u are lucky to get bubbles from her, it shows that she really like you. :)

2. Playing peekaboo

These couple of weeks, Claire loves to play a little hide and seek with me hiding. I will then suprise her with "peekaboo" and she giggle over it.

I also chanced upon this slideshow if you want like to know what are some ways to make your babies giggle.

Linking up with Adora :)

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

Fun on our bed with Baby Claire

Just ended my 2 weeks leave and back to work this week. I've taken these days off so I can spend quality time with Baby Claire and at the same time giving my in-laws a good break. :)
Instead of talking about my usual routine at home, I prefer sharing what I love to do the MOST at home with little Claire on a typical day.
 
Claire is not exactly a baby who loves going to bed to sleep. Neither is she a fan of walking up. She will cry when she wake up from her sleep and I guess that's her way to say, "Hey, I am wake, where's everyone!??" since she is left in a room alone during her day time naps. 

Recently, we also find out that she fights sleeping at night. She will start crying when we put her down on her cot at night. Justin Papa thinks it is separation anxiety from Mommie. We tested it on Sunday night where Justin Papa carried her out from her cot, and was not able to pacify her until she saw me. And when he brought her back to her room, or somewhere out of sight of Mommie, she will start crying. Now, we are trying to find out ways on how to overcome this challenge. 

So in order to ease her anxiety, I will let her play with me on our bed when she wakes up from her nap. That's like a little playground where she learns to crawl, fall and recently sitting up. She dares to do a free fall, I mean really a hard fall and still smiling after doing that. Luckily, she is clever not to do it on her playmat. Else "bump"!

Here are some of the fun photos taken last week:

A short video on her having fun with me on our bed.

 

Did I mention that she loves to be tickled and to be sing to especially three blind mice? The picture below shows that she was singing together with me with this song. Hahahaha, I will share a video on the song on another blog post. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

How to make baby laugh Part 1

Little Claire is a sweet happy little baby but it is not that really easy to make her laugh when she is younger than 6 months. However our Justin Papa always managed to make her tickle. When she is 7 months and now going to be 9 months old, I found it pretty easy to make her laugh too. Below are some examples:

1. Singing twinkle little stair with BIG movements. I even did a slight change to the lyrics on the song.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star (use fingers)
How I wonder what you are. (Use both hands to touch her cheeks)
Up above the world so high (stretch both my hands up)
Like a diamond in the sky (use fingers to shape a diamond)
Twinkle, twinkle, little star (same as above)
How I wonder what you are! (clap hands)

When the red bright sun is gone, (Use fingers to shape a circle and move it from up to down)
When he nothing shines upon, (shake head and hand)
Then (emphasis the "then" to get her attention)...Claire, you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. (Same as above)
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, (Same as above)
How I wonder what you are! (Clap hands)

2. Falling on the bed

She loves to be scared. Falling into the bed is one of her most fav ticklish moments.



3. Put on a funny face and sound
This is Justin Papa's weapon. Never fails. He is truly "drama mama".



I'm not bad too. See how I did it this week.



And there's more.. Please stay tuned for Part 2. :)

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

I believe in play for my child.

I chanced upon this video about believing in Play, which is important for our child's development in their mental and physical well-being. This video is by KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. I wonder is there such organization in Singapore since our children are so super stressed up!

I remembered that when I was young, I had lots of freedom to play at the playground near my house, playing hide and seek with my friends and sprained my ankle twice. Playing under the rain with my brother, splashing through the water when we were on our swings. I still remember the taste and smell of the mud water. Eeee! Making sand dolphins. Sadly, I did not have the luxury of having barbie dolls or I don't even remember I had much toys during my age, but was given the freedom to play outside.

Looking back, I really treasured those childhood moments though I did not exactly have a happy family back then. Faced with uncertainties and fear, freedom to play gives me to confidence to explore the world, courage to face the world and its challenges.

Cheers,
Deariebear Mommie

Some shots at Neil street and Marina Barrage

Bear was thinking of capturing some shots of places which we may consider for our photo shoot. Thus, we went to Neil Street and Marina Barrage. He bought his baby Nikon D-90 camera, capturing quite a number of pictures. I selected some of those which I like here.

Cherry, a new member to e family

Recently, my younger brother-in-law, Justin's third bro, ah yong bought a mini Schnauzer. She is called "Cherry". She has a very nice coat of black fur with white fur on the 4 feets. This little new member to our family just learned how to walk not long ago and also started teething.

Mr Bear tried all his means to take nice pictures with his Nikon D-90. That was his first time taking motion pictures. I think he had at least taken more than a hundred shots to get some nice ones since e puppy was so excited and kept walking around. Ah young is really patient, using the comb to brush her fur, uses cloth to clean the toilet tray area. The remarkable thing is that this little lady is already toilet trained. We noticed she will go to the toilet tray area whenever she wanted to pee. However, accidents do happen. She was frightened by Bear Bear when he suddenly moved the camera drastically away from her, and she went off and pee under the table.

Cherry is pretty dependent on Ah Yong. When Ah Yong went to wash the cloth that use to wipe the pee, she kept looking outside. No matter how I called or how Justin whistled, this lady totally ignored us. Not even move a inch of her head to look at us.

She is so so little that I can just carry her with just one hand.

Finally Bear decided to let me take the photo instead and start to play with her.