My SIL2 told me about a Thomas Fair being held in Great Eastern Mall over the weekend, so last Saturday night, hubby and I took Gavin to check it out.  Aside from displaying a whole range of Thomas toys and VCDs, they also had a huge bouncy Thomas which children could play on at $5 per entry.

From the moment we arrived at Great Eastern mall and Gavin saw the giant Thomas on the concourse from way up on the third floor, he was all rearing to go.  We wisely decided that we should have dinner first or there would be no getting Gavin or we could all expect to go hungry since there was little likelihood of Gavin agreeing to leave the Thomas fair to go eat.

After dinner we took him down to the concourse and Daddy paid for his entry.  There were lots of other children bouncing around on the bouncy Thomas, but our son did not join in.  He was content to watch from afar and to “do his own thing”.

No matter how we coaxed and encouraged, he still preferred to stand on the sidelines rather than getting in, although I was convinced he would have gotten on if there hadn’t been so many other children around.

A mother with a few children playing on the bouncy Thomas noticed Gavin and remarked that he must be the only child.  Hubby said that he was.  She said that her son was the same until his sister came along.  With his sister along, he was more eager to join the fun. 

Now that I think back on it, I remember my brother was the same.  He was always the more reserved child, while I was the one always rearing to go.  My brother would only join in the fun and games because I was there.  I suppose not all first childs are like this, but at least I now know who Gavin takes after - his uncle.

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A couple of weekends ago, Gavin attended his first birthday party at Gymboree.  His friend A was turning one. 

Knowing that Gavin loves music and games, I was anticipating him to have a blast at the party.  Below: Adam telling Gavin the rules of the party. (Thanks C for the photo)

Below: Adam shocked by Gavin’s nonchalant attitude. (Thanks C for the photo)

Below: With the birthday boy and his parents. (Thanks C for the photo)

While the guests were arriving, Gavin had fun playing on the gym equipment - he was even making friends:

When the fun and music began, all he wanted to do was stand in the corner and play by himself:

After a while, he decided it was too much and he wanted out:

He even signed “please” as he begged to be taken out of the place.  I thought a breath of fresh air would make a difference. 

Hubby didn’t join us at the party because he was busy entertaining a friend from Australia who was in town.  They were also at Bangsar Village with us and hubby thought he would poke his head in to see how we were doing.  When Daddy tried to take him back to Gymboree, Gavin howled and wanted to be taken back out.

All in all, it was a disaster.  I was devastated.  My social butterfly son was anything but a social butterfly on this day and I was at a loss to understand why.  He seemed to be enjoying himself before the music began but almost the instant the music started, he refused to join the circle and he wanted to play on his own. 

It is difficult to imagine that it was the noise that bothered him since I have taken him to the toy arcade in the toy department of Jusco, Midvalley.  If you’ve ever been there, you’ll realise it is really noisy in there.  It is also difficult to imagine that he was overwhelmed by the crowd since he seems to adore interacting with people.  He waves, smiles and blows kisses at strangers we meet on the street. 

So why did he freak out?  If you’ve got a theory, feel free to share it in the comments below. 

In the end, I took him home early and he missed out cutting Adam’s cake.

I had scheduled a trial music class for him on the following Monday which I wanted to cancel after the disasterous experience at the party.  One of the staff convinced me to go through with it because she felt the environment would be completely different to party.  In the end we didn’t go because I was sick.

I have yet to re-schedule another trial class for Gavin.  We’re going to play gym tomorrow so we’ll see if he still has bad memories of the place.  It’s probably a good thing I didn’t blindly sign up for a year’s membership at Gymboree, although I’m pretty keen on the place. 

Why send Gavin to a place like Gymboree?

1. helps him to expend his excess toddler energy in a constructive manner which is both fun and educational for him
2. helps him build rapport with other kids and “teachers” while Mum and Dad or someone he is faimilar with can be with him - this is great preparation for kindergarten when he will have to go on his own
3. relationship building for him and his Dad or grandparent who brings him to the class

Although my original reasons for wanting to sign Gavin up for Gymboree were largely due to point one, I’m starting to think that reason number two is equally as important.

So far, I’ve only checked out Gymboree and Megakidz but Gymboree looks like a better bet to me.  Gymboree is designed to cater for toddlers, whereas, the focus of Megakidz is the older children.  Although Megakidz has programs for toddlers - like their music class - that’s about all they have.  Gymboree has play group, art classes, music classes, and yoga for kids.

Additionally, Gymboree looks brighter and cleaner.  Admitedly, I’ve only checked out Gymboree in Bangsar Village and Megakidz in Midvalley Megamall (located on the top floor near California Fitness).  If you take your child to another place that you highly recommend, please feel free to share it with me and I will check it out.

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Of all the four bookshops - Kinokuniya, MPH, Times and Borders, my favourite has always been Borders because you can always pick up some specials at their bargain bin.  Times and MPH are perhaps the most disappointing when it comes to children’s books because they usually lack the more specialised books. 

For instance I went to MPH Bookshop in 1Utama yesterday with the intention of getting Gavin another Thomas and Friends board book only to be disappointed by the range available.  Firstly, the range was extremely limited.  Secondly, of the limited range, very few were board books.  Thirdly, of the board books, half of them had paper flaps that could easily been torn by Gavin.  Fourthly, the remaining board books were all ratty and looked more like second hand books than new. (SIL2 - that’s why Kino wraps their books in plastic).  Even the bargain bin looked like a sale of pre-loved books rather than new books.

If you want something specific and unusual, then you really can’t beat Kino.  Just be prepared to pay a premium for their books.

Last weekend, while we were shopping at The Curve, I couldn’t resist picking up this bargain from Borders:

I figured the skill would come in handy for all of Gavin’s future birthday parties.  Instead of having to hire those annoying clowns, Mummy can make the animal balloons!

While Gavin was asleep, I got to work on my first project.  My first attempts didn’t go too well:

On my third attempt, I managed to make a dog. Okay, so the proportions are way off - the snout’s too short, the tail’s too long and the legs are uneven, but overall, at least still recognisable, I think.

My second animal was a poodle which turned out much better but still needing improvement.  I over-inflated the balloon so the tail isn’t quite right.

My third animal was a swan - this was actually quite easy compared to the first two:

Finally, I made a giraffe - which was getting a lot easier since I wasn’t so afraid of popping the balloon any more.

So now you know who to call when you need someone to make the animal balloons at your child’s next birthday party.  Don’t worry, my rates are reasonable ;o)

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I am sure any parent will attest to the fact that their children always find someone else’s toys more interesting than theirs.  With an attention span that ranges anywhere between 10 seconds and a couple of minutes at best, you can imagine how quickly a toddler can get through his toys in a short play session.  And when he sees the same toys day-in, day-out, he’s bound to go wandering around the house looking for something more interesting.

Aside from constantly buying more toys, what can you do?  Well, the books recommend rotating your toys around.  In other words, hide a few of his toys until he gets bored of the current selection then bring out the toys from hiding and pack away the ones he’s bored of.  After a period of not seeing these toys, they’ll seem brand new all over again to your toddler.

I did just that with Gavin and it worked like a charm. Look at the way he greeted his Elmo hand puppet like a long lost friend…

We bought Elmo for Gavin when he was six months old. We were walking through Toys ‘R’ Us and I put Elmo on my hand and made him play “peekaboo” with Gavin. Gavin was so tickled by Elmo that we decided we had to get it for him even though it was really intended for children ages 3 and above. Elmo eventually lost favour as more toys came into the picture, but it looks like a long leave of absence was just the thing he needed to regain his ranks in Gavin’s book.

Of course, toy rotation can occasionally backfire. For instance, my parents bought the Playskool Ball Popper for Gavin when he was eight months old. Back then, Gavin found great amusement from the music and the popping balls. He would constantly press the red button for more while I scrambled to get the flying balls back into the device.

I hadn’t taken it out to play for a long time since the batteries died and this was the reaction Gavin had when he saw it:

Somehow or other, he developed a fear of flying balls and would start screaming everytime the balls started popping.  The funny thing was that Gavin kept pressing the red button even though he knew it would start the balls popping.

When I took the toy out again today, he seemed eager to see the balls popping but he didn’t want to go too near the toy.  He kept indicating for me to press the red button but when I refused, he would press the button himself and then run for cover before the balls began to pop.  How strange…

Although I said earlier that his attention span is rather short, I have to be quite fair to Gavin - he did sit around long enough to build a few long towers out of his lego pieces and he even helped me build my Lego structure by handing me pieces of Lego.  A little later, he hammered out “Gavin’s Symphony No. 9″ on his Xylophone before getting up to dance to Hi-5. 

Another great way to regain his interest in his toys is to physically play with them.  For some reason, every toy I touch suddenly takes on a whole new light in Gavin’s eyes.  Where he couldn’t give it ten seconds previously, as long as I was playing with it, he would conspire to get his hands on it by sitting on my lap.

On the whole, I’ve come to realise that Gavin’s attention span is pretty decent so long as I don’t wander away too far for too long or he’ll come looking for me.  If I’m sitting with him, engaged in the same activity, he’s even better.  In fact, I would even venture to theorise that Gavin’s improved behaviour recently has something to do with the maid being back and my having more time to sit and play with him.  The last three times it was time to sleep, he didn’t complain when I put him in the carrier and turned out the lights - and when he did complain, it wasn’t particularly vehement. 

I guess a little quality time with Mummy and Daddy does wonders for child discipline after all…

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It’s been a while since I’ve updated on Gavin’s developments.  After speaking to my SIL on the weekend, I’ve realised I’m long overdue for more pictures and developmental updates.  As if to reinforce the point, Gavin signed “dog” for the first time today!  Gavin’s Ah Mah had just arrived home after taking the dog to the vet and he was crawling to see what she was up to.  Upon peering out, I said, “Ah Mah is washing the dog.”  Then Gavin signed dog!

Aside from “dog”, Gavin has learned to sign “milk”, “fish” and “telephone”, except the last is more like slapping his hand against his ear.  We know it means “telephone” because he does it whenever someone mimics answering a telephone call.  He’s also learned this Chinese game which I can’t translate because I don’t know what it means.  It just goes something like this: “Deem chung chung, chung chung fei!”  As you say the rhyme, you tap the right forefinger onto the left palm.  When you say “fei”, you left your hands fly apart.  Gavin keeps mimicking the action and he laughs everytime we repeat the rhyme for him.

Gavin also seems to love self-praise - true to what I read in the Wonder Weeks - because he claps his hands together when I said, “Clever boy!”  That’s about it for communication.  As for his motor skills, he’s able to climb up the stairs so easily now that he’s started experimenting on coming down.  He has also started to cruise but still favours crawling as his main method of locomotion purely because it gets him where he wants more quickly.

Here’s a shot of Gavin in action - don’t worry HH, there are more coming soon!

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If you’re anything like me as a mother, then you’ll probably be looking for a list of toys or games to play with your baby. Well, here’s some great news - Baby Center has a great list of games and toys that are age specific:

Games to play with your baby

Toys to amuse your baby

Now you don’t have to wreck your brains trying to be creative.

Another good book for figuring out what games to play with your child is “Fun Start” by June Oberlander. It’s a very resourceful activity guide that teaches you a new game to play with your child only a weekly basis. I like it because it reads chronologically according to your baby’s age and it starts from week 0. The first book I bought required me to scan through the whole book to find games that were appropriate and most of them were not appropriate for a baby as young as Gavin.

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Check this out! Crazy Hip Blog Mamas are giving away free Nintendo DS Lite!

To be in the running for a free Nintendo DS Lite, all you have to do is be a member of Crazy Hip Blog Mamas and blog about how a Pink Nintendo DS Lite can make YOU a more hop mom and link back to the entry in Crazy Hip Blog Mamas.

Here’s my story:

Before I got pregnant, I used to be super cool. I’d go rock climbing, caving, hiking…

Then I got pregnant and all that came to an end. Now I’m stuck at home, shabbily dressed in the hubby’s clothes because I’ve outgrown all of my nice clothes (even some of the maternity wear I bought no longer fit me because I’ve ballooned into an elephant). I feel so uncool and as unhip as ever…

I feel so depressed, I think I’m going to be a candidate for post natal depression.

I’ve become so unhip I don’t think my baby will ever think his Mum is cool…

Now if a certain fairy godmother by the name of Crazy Hip Blog Mamas were to wave her magic wand and send me a Pink Nintendo DS Lite, I’m pretty certain that would turn me into a really hip Mum!

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I was talking to a friend yesterday and the conversation fell to babies and television. Plenty of books advise against mixing young children and TV. Asian Parenting Today recommend limiting TV time for babies because it is not interactive. Babies need someone to talk back to them to help with their speech development. TV programs do not provide this.

Baby Talk recommends not to introduce babies to the TV until they are at least a year old. The reasoning for this is that a baby below one year is still trying to make sense of the world around them. Watching programs where inanimate objects are talking confuses the child and impedes their developmental progress because inanimate objects do not talk in real life. After the first year, it is recommended that TV time be limited to half an hour a day.

The hubby and I have decided to adhere to the recommendation from Baby Talk not to allow Gavin to watch TV until he was at least a year old. I remember mentioning this to a friend who was already a mother of a toddler and she said, “That’s how I felt, too, but it’s a lot harder to stick to that plan than you think.”

I know what she was referring to - TV captivates the children and that gives you a bit of time to take a breather and do things you ordinarily wouldn’t be able to because your child demands your attention. Well, that said, I will still try to limit Gavin’s TV time. As he grows older, I hope to encourage him to get involved with outdoor activities like what I used to do. I also want to get him interested in books and the sort of games I used to play when I was younger.

There’s a cool site called Winning Moves that sells the sort of games I used to play, like the Rubik’s cube, Monopoly, Scrabble and many other “old school” games.

I really enjoyed these games when I was young. I hope to introduce Gavin to them when he’s older, too. I wonder if I still remember how to solve the Rubik’s cube?

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