Messy Mittwoch: Simple solutions

Hooray!  We're finally a little more ready, room-wise, for Baby J.  The cot in our room has been cleared of stuff (it used to hold piles of clothes, plus odds and ends), and the baby things we need to use for the first few months have all been dug out and washed.  Now I'm just waiting for a sunny day to sun the mattress, and to figure out what to hang up for this little boy's mobile.  Junior J had a flock of paper cranes and a hot air balloon... and I'm wondering if I should hang this and this up for his little brother.  (Am thinking it'll look more balanced it there are three, but I'm not sure if I have time to fold another!)

And on a not so related note, we've had quite a few friends remarking on our little shoe rack for Junior J when they come over, so I thought I'd just share it here.  I've always found it hard to store his shoes, since all those small footwear seem to get all jumbled up in a regular shoe cupboard, so we just lined them up on a sturdy shoebox near the door.  It more or less fits 4 pairs of little shoes/sandals, and the boy can get at them/return them easily.  Nothing fancy, but I love how it works out!

Ok, I need to go and put in a few more things into my "hospital bag" for D-day.  You'd think packing the bag this round would be easier, but I can't seem to remember what were the things I packed/needed last time!  Guess the good thing is the hospital tends to provide many essentials (like baby diapers!), but do share, what were your essentials in the "hospital bag"?  (Ours would probably include the teeniest, tiniest onesie possible, since the last time Junior J was just too small to fit into the stuff his clueless parents brought along!)

Thankful Tuesdays: Let go and let God

Picture taken in Melbourne, in one of the parks.
 I can't remember which though!

Saturday came with pretty bad contractions, which were so frequent that we thought it was time to go down to hospital.  So we did more packing... but the contractions went away, so I guess Baby J decided to stay put for awhile (to our relief!).  The exhaustion these days has been pretty bad, and I've been falling asleep both in the mornings when the boy plays on his own, plus during his naps.  There have been a few "oh no, I don't know how things are going to be" kind of moments, like last night. That was when I realised that we will be going to have #2, and would then have to pack up our house a few months after, survive an 8 plus hour drive to visit hubby's parents with the two boys, drive back, unpack, pack again, then promptly move half-way across the world.  Again with everyone in tow.  Suffice to say I freaked out.

The hubby says I tend to be all "doom and gloom" (which makes all these thankful posts essential for me!), as I usually expect the worst to happen.  (He on the other hand, is the exact opposite.  This also means I tend to be a very through planner, though I get really stressed in the process, while he is a "play by ear" kind of person who tends to forget stuff... We more or less work well together, though we tend to drive each other nuts sometimes!)

Anyway, I am still trying to let go and let God, and perhaps this time of many question marks would be a long-drawn lesson for me to keep trusting in Him that knows our tomorrows.  So this week, I am thankful for:

:: His everlasting, never-changing nature.  That while circumstances change, we can still hang on to God and know that He is holy and perfect and loving.

:: The hubby, who reminds me to enjoy the journey.  Who also has been really patient and helpful around the house now that normal chores are getting harder to do, and is currently Junior J's self-declared "best buddy".

Junior J demonstrating how he got his face blue.

:: This little boy, who has been such a good boy for the past few weeks.

:: Little random collections around the house that make my heart smile.

:: Friends, who willingly agree to be put on call to baby-sit at anytime of the day/night, in the event that my parents are not contactable and I have to go to the hospital...

:: Rainy days that are perfect for reading Bob books in bed, and having mock picnics using the blankets.      

What are you thankful for this week?

Thinking Thursdays: Meet Trunky, the blue elephant

We were so heartened by our success with making Mr Croc that Junior J asked to make "Trunky" next (that's the elephant hero in "The Enormous Crocodile").  It took quite awhile for this fellow to come together.  Firstly, I wanted the elephant to match in size with Mr Croc (so that he can pass as having enough strength to fling the croc to the sun to be "sizzled up like a sausage", yes, I'm anal like that), so I thought it'd be best to go with another toilet roll as the body base.  Then elephants tend to be rather rounded in many aspects, and have all sorts of fiddly bits like a trunk and tusks, which I had to figure out.  And to top it off, I had absolutely no idea what materials I could use to make those stumpy legs!

In the end, after agonizing over it for a few days, I went with hosepipe for the legs, and this "skeleton" came together:

I did the base without the boy since it was alot of trial and error!
The body consists of a toilet paper roll, and the legs, hosepipe.
Then to give Trunky a more rounded look, he got two wads of paper stuffed into both
ends of the body.  The head was made from another scrunched up paper ball,
and the trunk was a rolled up strip of used paper.
Everything was held down using tape (again, use masking tape so its easy to paint over!)

The boy then got some PVA glue (white craft glue) and an ice-cream stick, and got down to smearing glue on the legs and on strips of paper:

We basically more or less "bandaged" the fellow up in pieces of paper and tape (I thought it would have been cleaner than trying to do paper mache with all those soggy strips of stuff), so Trunky ended up like this (we taped down flaps of paper as ears too):

Then Junior J got his paint and paint brush and got down to painting the elephant.  I went off to warm up his milk for supper, and came back to find him doing this instead:  

He had gotten impatient with using the paintbrush, and had started smearing paint on his hands, and then rubbing them on the elephant!  It seemed to be more effective though, so I left him at it, and we only stoppped when the boy got really dirty (it was bedtime anyway).  There were still alot of wrinkly bits of paper (thanks to the scrunched out paper balls) which were hard to paint, so I ended up covering those parts with tape and touching up those areas with paint.  Oh, and we also added a tail, which was just pieces of twine braided together.  The boy painted that as well:

Then Trunky was left for blind to dry overnight, and we gave him eyes and tusks (again, just scraps of drawing block rolled up and glued on) the next morning:

So now we have an elephant to protect all the little kids from the ravenous appetite of the Enormous Crocodile.  And if you are wondering why he's blue instead of the usual boring grey, well, the boy insisted that Trunky be painted "blue like Sidney" (another elephant, but from another book).  I'm wondering what animal he'll ask for next.  Hopefully, its not something complicated like an armadillo!

Messy Mittwoch: Art supplies, arranged

Junior J's art supplies have finally been packed!  These used to be scattered and stored in various parts of the home, but over the past 2 weeks I've managed to sort them into some semblence of order.  I thought it'd be useful to have them easily at hand, so that we can pull stuff out in a jiffy for a project, especially when we'll be extremely busy when Baby J comes along.  

So now, the supplies we regularly use are in little basket (from Arab Street), which is just the right size to fit 4 of those Ikea plastic cups containing varying materials like markers, crayons etc.  Each time Junior J needs to work on some art piece, we just need to pull out one or two of these cups, and return them back into the basket at the end.  There's also some space to store his art journals, watercolour set, playdough mat, scissors, and a whole bunch of stickers.  

All the remaining supplies have been kept in a shelf in the dining room (which is where most of his art gets done).  Most of the stuff we don't frequently use (other types of markers, puffy paint etc) go into clear plastic boxes (from Daiso).  Playdough and clay-making materials (eg. a mini-rolling pin and cookie cutters) have been stuffed there too.  I've yet to find a suitable box for some things, so I've resorted to just stuffing them on the shelf or putting them in a ziplock.  

So far, this system has been working well for us since I can see everything I have at a glance, and get stuff out quickly when I need them.  The basket also allows Junior J to see his materials, and he has been enjoying being able to choose what kind of materials he would like to use during normal drawing/doodling sessions.

How do you store your art materials?  

Thankful Tuesdays: Simple things

We went to apply for our visas yesterday.  It turned out to be a complicated affair, that involved alot of waiting and queuing.  We ended up staying at the embassy for almost 3 hours, while having to keep the little boy occupied.  Needless to say, we were exhausted at the end of the whole process... So this week, I'm thankful for the uncomplicated, simple things:

:: A chance for tea with the little boy during the waiting time:

:: Walks together in the park: 

"Mama is a T-rex, and I'm chasing her! Quick run, Mama, and I will chase you!"
(Then I have to lumber in front and try to keep a few steps in front of him.)

:: Kite-flying days, whether successful or not...

"I grab the kite!"

:: Showers, both man-made and natural, that give us cooler weather, wash away paint fumes (our block is currently being painted, and stinks really bad) and help to cool us down.

:: Little boys who ask you to "stay one more minute, Mama" at bedtime, because he wants to sing "Amazing Grace" to baby.  And who tells you "Don't kiss me, because I'm going to kiss you", and proceed to give you 10 kisses and 10 "hug-ses".  (He makes my heart smile.  Everyday.)

And above all... God's faithfulness and love.  Simple, yet so amazing and true. :)

What are you thankful for this week?

Weekend wonderings: MSG and night wakings

Little boy has never been a good sleeper until some time ago, when we finally managed to get him to sleep on his own in his room (after a period of night-weaning).  For the past few months, there have been some peaceful nights where he would wake once a night, or sometimes none at all, interspersed with some nights where he would wake up a few (or many times!) screaming and crying.  So far, we attributed most of these night-wakings to him falling sick or teething.

However, we also noticed another trend: if we fed the boy outside food, there was an increased likelihood of him waking up at night.  Make it Asian food (especially Chinese restaurants), and the likelihood increases even further.  So we suspected that the consumption of MSG (Monosodium glutamate, or what is sometimes known as Ajinomoto) might be the cause of some of these night wakings.  Initially, I thought it was just paranoia on my part, but we started being very careful about the stuff we fed the boy when we ate out.  I would try to either bring out home-cooked food for the boy when we ate out, or would try to avoid food that had a higher likelihood of containing MSG.  The problem seemed to improve somewhat, and the frequency of nights having the boy wake up 6-8 times a night screaming his head off decreased.

The hubby and I in general seem to also react to MSG as well.  For the hubby, consuming MSG in food makes him thirsty, and sometimes results in him being unable to sleep (which seems to be a known effect of MSG).  I too, get extremely thirsty and start getting headaches after an MSG-laden meal.  So it probably comes as no surprise that the boy too may react to MSG.  Not only does it seem to affect his sleep, it also seems to make him hyper.  Just this weekend, we had sandwiches and soup at a eatery (we assumed MSG was not added to their food, as they sold all the healthy stuff!).  However, hubby and I ended up feeling really thirsty after the meal, and the little boy got extremely hyper (and was so revved up, he couldn't go down for his afternoon nap!).  That day, hubby had to babysit the boy as he bounced off the walls while I took a nap, and henceforth has concluded that yes... we'd better stay far away from MSG in the boy's case if possible!  (He used to say I was paranoid, heh.)

The odd thing is, it seems that most scientific research on the effects of MSG have been inconclusive (click here for a pretty comprehensive discussion on the topic), and most of the evidence has been anecdotal (for example, this parent's sharing on how MSG seemed to trigger off night terrors in her daughter's case).  We've had a close friend who has also observed the same trend, as her daughter would wake up over 6 times a night after eating out at eateries serving Asian food (to the point that she orders sandwiches now when she eats out), so we're not ditching our theory as of yet.  Of course, the grandparents all tell us the boy needs to get his chicken rice and other local yummies, to build up some tolerance to MSG, but then again, they don't have to stay up with the kid while he thrashes around in bed and cries through the entire night!

So I'm curious... do any of your kids experience night wakings, or get really hyper after eating a meal containing MSG?  Do share!

Saturday scrapping: Just busy

The nesting instinct has really kicked in and I've been frantically cleaning and decluttering today.  That is, when I'm not feeling like I need a nap, which is about half the time!  Aside from that, there has been some progress on the "Almost 3" album, since the pages for Junior J's 32nd month milestones are done:

Am off to pack some more!

PS: Little boy has finally accepted that the sewn on fake pebbles on his river scene are here to stay, after he discovered he can hide real pebbles in them!