Homemade Toys: Gone Fishing

What You Need:
Some papers or you can use your child’s masterpieces
Magnets
String/Ribbon
Stick (I used disposable chopsticks)
Scissors
Markers (to draw the sea animals)
Paper Clips (to attach to the sea animals)

Method:
Draw the sea animals on your children’s artwork or paper.

Cut out the shape of the sea animals with a scissors. Attach the magnet to the string/ribbon and tie the other end of the ribbon to the stick. Also clip the paper clips to the sea animals you have. Tata! You are ready to go fishing.

Pretend Play

As the boys reached 2.5 years old, pretend play is what they do all day. These are times when I truly appreciate them being twins as pretend play is so much more fun with a mate.

They referred to our book bin as the library and "drove" their buses to it. I helped them set up an "electronic" borrowing station similar to our library.

How did my laundry basket become a supermarket trolley?

Time Alone, with a child.

I didn't see how this is working for us when my individual time with one child usually lead to extreme jealousy from the other child.

Since they are twins, I don't get a lot of time alone with each child. The only times were the ones I dread, like one not going down for their nap or one waking up 30 mins into their nap. I started with 10 mins of individual time at home in my room doing some reading and playing puzzles with them. But that just resulted in 10 mins of individual time with one child and 10 mins of crying for the other. So, I changed my plan and brought one out each time. It can be quite enjoyable to bring just one. Being stretched with 2 toddlers in tow most of the time, bringing one out is a breeze. All was fine till recently, they cannot accept it's the other's turn. So, this individual time became another happy time for one and a devastating time for the other.

My plan has to change again. This week, I got my mum to bring K out and I made them go out first before Y and I set off. But I had a hard time with Y, check out his attitude from our conversation below:

Me: Hey, let's go ride on the LRT (I thought he would like it since he hasn't ride on one)
Y: No... I don't want.
Me: It's going to be fun. We are going to take a MRT train, then a LRT train.
Y: NO... it's raining (it was not and he continued to play with his toys.)
Me: OK.

Y (after a while, decided that staying home is not so fun after all): I want to take a bus.
Me: OK, let's go take a bus then.

On the way to the bus stop

Y: I want Mummy to carry you. (he is still confused with pronounce.)
Me: No, you walk to the bus stop and Mummy will carry you.
Y: Mummy will carry you when we reach the bus stop.
Me (trying to encourage him to get up the bus as he is a little scared of that): Will you try to get on the bus on your own?
Y: No.
Me: Will you try?
Y: I cannot.
Me: How do you know when you haven't even try?
Y: I do before. (started to ignore me)

The boys were really terrified of going up the bus and escalator but K has since overcome his fear from our last alone trip. When we reached the escalator, Y refused to take the lift so I told him he has to try to do it with me helping if he wants the escalator. He reluctantly agreed and was a little terrified when we were on it. But he happily exclaimed, "You did it!" when we got off and asked to do it again.

He slowly gained his confidence and was stepping up and down the escalator by the 3rd one. On our way home, I asked him again.

Me: Will you try to get on the bus on your own?
Y: No.
Thought for a while
Y: I want!

He did and when he got up, he exclaimed again "You did it!" (he meant "I did it").

It was from 2 alone trips that the boys conquered their fear and I'm starting to believe that individual time is beneficial for the children as we never know how much or how little attention we are giving to each one when we have 2 (or more for some) at one time.

Lessons Your Children can Teach You

The boys have been driving me crazy (as usual) but they made me ponder over a few things for the past 2 days. After Y threw his toy in the dustbin in defiance, purposely played with his chair and fell off and later poured Milo all over the floor, I decided it's time to get out of the house.

We went to a playground further away from our home. With the hot sun, the playground was quiet, with only 1 boy around the same age as them. I found out later from his Granny that he was just a month older than them.

I have to use the word "brat" to describe him. He scolded his Granny "I'll beat you!!" whenever she asked him not to do something.

Y&K were playing happily at the playground when this boys decided to rush to anything K walked to. I was displeased but still asked K to play with other stations. K was very disappointed whenever the station he walked to was being hijacked by the boy, he just waited and went to it happily when the boy moved away.

Then, we were at the slide and the boy, again, got in front of him and even pushed him. K lost his balance and fell on the ground but he picked himself up. The boy then refused to slide down, sitting at the top of the slide. I was getting irritated as we have tried our best to avoid him. So, I told K to say "excuse me" to the boy and go down the slide first but K answered, "let the boy go first.". I was surprised and luckily, the boy slid down and K went after.

K wanted the swing and was walking towards it when the boy, AGAIN, dashed for it. I distracted K and asked him to ride on a motorcycle. The boy left the swing when he sees K on the motorcycle. K wanted to go to the swing when he saw the swing was empty. We walked over and was about to get up when the boy saw and ran over demanding the swing. This time, I was getting very annoyed. I believe I should teach my sons to be assertive instead of giving in to a boy with unreasonable demands time after time. I ignored the boy and carried K on the swing. Y was already on the other swing then. The boy screamed and ran to his Granny crying. I paid no notice to him but the boys didn't play long before they have this conversation between themselves:

Y: K, let's get down and let the boy have a turn. 
K: I want to get down and let the boy have a turn. 

I helped him down and he even ran to the boy and told him "it's your turn.".

I felt so ashamed. I was being petty as I think I was angry with the boy for pushing K but the boys has displayed such magnanimousness and also showed empathy to the boy who weren't nice at all.

Lessons I learnt today,

• Don't fret over small stuff. It's just a push and K wasn't hurt, what's the big deal.
• Forgive and forget.
• Show empathy, be nice, even to nasty people.

So, here are my lovely boys, they seem extremely lovely today just now, until an hour later when they started throwing food on the floor and running away from me refusing to take their bath.  

Pipe Cleaner Sirens

What you are seeing is a Mummy's frantic attempt to placate an inconsolable Y whose world was about to crumble when he found that the siren on his police car fell off. We couldn't find the siren that had dropped and Pipe Cleaner was my savior for the day. He even got to choose the color for his siren. But I see trouble when his Van needs a siren, followed by his Dump Truck... his Bus.... I knew this has to stop when I see K pulling out his drawer of cars in excitement. But seeing Y's face brightened is worth it even if I have to install sirens for all their cars. :0

Planting Seeds

An introduction to Gardening.

What You Need:

Plastic Containers

Cotton Wool

Beans (I used Green Beans)

Water

Spray Bottle (optional but it's a must to get my boys interested)

Method
Just lay the seeds on the cotton wool and spray water on it. I had to do everything until the spraying part as the boys were not interested at all.

See how a spray bottle transformed a grumpy boy to a happy boy?

Another grumpy boy pushing the beans to me until his brother sprayed water on his face. The beans were being neglected, they derived more joy at spraying themselves and each other.

Calm Down Place

Another crazy month. I just wish I can say "it's a good month" soon. I don't know what to say with the things that has been happening in our home. Maybe I should just recap with these series of events that happened within 2 months (or probably less):

My mother had a Cataract operation
K went for his Hydrocele operation
Y started to be very jealous of K and behaved very badly
My mother in law was hospitalized
My domestic helper quit on us
My mother in law had to go through a Stomach operation
My husband went for a business trip to Europe a week after my domestic helper quited
The boys fell sick for a week when my husband was away

It was a very difficult period with the boys high with their meltdowns relay marathon. It was very draining for me. There was no time to blog at all. And I missed blogging. It was impossible to do any learning activities with the boys with the loads of laundry waiting to be washed, the dishes in the sink, the toys all around the house. It didn't help when someone is crying 99% of the time. The tension and stress in the household is affecting the boys. It's a vicious cycle, they behaved worse and they drained us further.

Anyway, I decided today that I'm leaving the dishes, the laundry and the toys and to take some photos and share something I did with you, for those still visiting this blog. My self worth index is dropping near to zero and being able to blog and knowing that someone out there is listening to me, reading and commenting what I'm writing is preventing my self worth index dropping down to negative.

So, I'm sharing my Calm Down Place with you. With the frequent meltdowns, the boys are often brought into my room to calm down. I wanted to have a designated calm down place and have transformed one small space at the side of our bed to be the place where they calm down.

Our Calm Down Place

I photocopied pictures of some faces drawings from a book they like.

And I have a slider to show Their Feelings.

This worked for the first few times. They stopped crying when they came to this corner to find their own crying face. But after 2 days, it's no longer working. I can't keep up with my sons! They get bored too fast. Anyway, this will be the designated Calm Down Place for them whether they like it or not and they will get to slide it back to the happy boy picture after they calmed down.

Alright, hope you like this. Please share if you have a calm down place for your child. I rushed to get this place up in 15 mins, it doesn't look as pleasing as I would like it to be. Now, I've got to go back to the laundry, the dishes and the toys.