My little girl has grown!

6 Jan marks the day of formal preschool education for Jan in SJCK. I think I was more excited than Jan about going to school - kinda evident when I spent quite a long time to iron her school uniform (probably longer than hb's work clothes) :P

Here's Jan posing outside the house before we left for school.



2 days of orientation went by smoothly and I even had the chance to excuse myself out of the class halfway on the 2nd day during snack time. The little girl was busy eating biscuits and drinking milo (food not encouraged by her grandma) and was happy that I was out of the way. I "spied" on her outside the class and saw her asking for a 2nd helping of biscuits! Faint!



I managed to drop her off in school this morning with ZERO crying and boy was I glad! While she was in school, I had the time to buy my favourite teh c from Ya Kun at Mt Faber SAFRA, did my time alone in Telok Blangah Hill Park, had a prayer walk at Henderson Waves, run some errands and then picked her up from school. God is good! :)

In the car, Jan started pestering me to go back to work. When asked for the reason why, she said she wants to take the school bus. Really dunno to be happy or upset!! Seems like the bus ride matters more than spending time with me... boo hoo!!

Nonetheless, thank God for His protection over Jan and praying for better days to come! :)

再见了，陈老师！

1月24日。我从妈妈那儿得知我敬爱的陈鸿珠老师已逝世。消息因为来得太突然，我一时间接受不了，仿佛有着一种晴天霹雳的感觉。老师怎么会一声不响就走了呢？是不是旧病复发了呢？为什么没通知我们呢？。。。心中的疑问不停地浮现。当晚，我梦到和老师一起坐在车后座，游览了我们以前的住宅区，景色却有别于当年。两人一路上默默无语，有着一种尽在不言中的感觉。

回想起来，我同老师已结识了22年。当时，我正在念小学5年级，而老师则刚从高中毕业。白天，她在宽中托儿所上班；晚上，她就给我和弟弟补习。老师给我的第一印象是非常平易近人、纯朴、温柔、同时也带着点儿傻气（因为眼镜超大！）。但是，相处久了才发现老师原来非常严格，生气的时候瞪着你的眼神会让你毛骨悚然。弟弟好几次因为调皮而时常被老师鞭打。弟弟不爽就给老师取了“陈红猪”这个外号。然而，老师总在鞭打之后又给弟弟涂上雪花膏，让鞭打的伤痕没那么明显，呈现了老师温柔体贴的一面。这或许就是所谓的打是疼、骂是爱！

老师非常用心地教课，也让我对华文有更浓厚的兴趣。那一年，我还在学校的作文比赛中得了第2名，那篇文章《钱的自述》也入选刊登在全国小学作文精选集里头。她也教了我怎么去记中文字的窍门- 就是在同别人说话时，用拇指在食指上把说的话写出来。

渐渐的，我们因为常到老师的家上补习课而与老师的家人建立起良好的关系。老师的家境并不富裕，但是兄弟姐妹之间的感情非常融洽，让我羡慕万分。后来，才得知老师想要赴台深造，所以省吃俭用，兼职当补习老师完成她的梦想。虽然老师的父母并不同意她出国深造，但老师非常坚持自己的理想。记得在机场送老师的时候，我非常舍不得。老师就像我的姐姐一样，是个学习的好榜样。当时我告诉自己，一定要象老师一样，考进大学。升上中2以后，我也开始给小学生补习来帮补家用。

老师虽然远在台湾求学，但总不忘给我们写信问好，还常把近照寄给我们。老师也从不忘记我和弟弟的生日，总会给我们寄生日卡。当老师交到男朋友时（也就是我们熟悉的师丈-云忠），她也很大方地把他俩的照片寄过来，给我们介绍。我们和老师的关系更是从师生变成了朋友。老师出殡后的那一天，我在家里搜到了老师在台湾买给我的书籍，上面有着老师的笔迹。这将是老师留给我最珍贵的纪念品吧！

上中学的时候，很幸运地和老师一家成了邻居。老师回国后，两人无聊的时候还常互相串门子，那是多美的回忆啊！随着年龄的增长，和老师接触的机会也逐渐减少。老师婚后搬进了婆家，每次见面也就是给她拜年的时候。偶尔在街上碰面，老师总爱问我找到男朋友了吗？是不是眼光太高啊？当我终于找到对象时，便带着“他”去给老师“审查”。老师仿佛是岳母见女婿，越看越有趣！庆幸的是老师后来不仅参加了我的婚宴，也见到了我的女儿。去年3月份的时候，我们举家去探访老师。见到老师时非常高兴，犹如回到从前串门子的那种感觉，老师也不忘给我们一些教导孩子的贴士。到了该回家的时候还有几许的依依不舍，但却万万也没想到那竟然是我最后一次和老师见面了！老师在6月期间到新加坡伊丽莎白医院做例行检查后曾到我家做客，还带了一箱的礼物给我的小宝贝。只可惜她来的时候我正在上班，所以没机会见面。

1月27日。我们一家带着沉重的心情，回到新山去见老师最后一面。看到老师的遗照时，还是记忆中那璀璨以及和蔼可亲的笑容。当我去瞻仰老师的遗容时，却差点都认不出她了。老师因为癌细胞扩散到肝脏，脸显得浮肿，脸色也变黑了。眼泪不经意地落下，心中的遗憾、惋惜及愧疚感跟着涌上来。随后，老师的母亲招待了我们，向我们述说了老师突发的病情。老师后来因为接受化疗，嘴里长了许多溃疡，头发也随着脱落。在不能忍受疼痛使，要求家人送她到新加坡看医生，却在经过关卡的时候病逝了。一只手的拳头还在紧握着 - 想必老师走的时候放不下的应该就是云忠和年仅12岁的儿子-翊轩吧！听了之后，能感受到老师所承受的痛与不舍。但老师即使已病危，却再次叮咛家人不能通知任何人，以免让他人操心。老师就是这种性格，处处为他人着想！唯一的安慰便是老师终于脱离苦海，再也不会被可怕的癌症病魔纠缠。

老师出殡当天，来了许多在籍学生、已毕业的学生、同事、亲戚和朋友，场面非常壮观。老师在世的时间虽短暂，却已桃李满天下。大家都带着沉重的心情送老师走完最后的这一段路。想到将再也见不到老师时，眼泪便不由自主地流下。到了火化场，当和尚诵经完毕后，有人喊出“起立、行礼、谢谢陈鸿珠老师！”。的确，正所谓“一日为师、终身为母”，谢谢您老师！

火化场的门关上了。火化的仪式也完毕了。曲终人散，望着翊轩拿着妈妈的灵牌那悲伤的神情和彷徨失措的表情，心中不禁阵阵作痛。真希望翊轩能早日振作起来，永记妈妈的教诲，千万不要让她失望！

老师的逝世给了我许多启示。
1. 生命的长短并不重要 - 重要的是活着的时候能为社会做出多少贡献、给身边的人带来多大的影响。

2. 珍惜身边你所爱的人 - 无论是一句慰问、鼓励甚至是道歉，哪怕是一通电话、一则简讯或是一封电邮。不要等到失去以后才来后悔，留下遗憾。

3. 传福音的工作不能怠慢 - 必须抓紧机会，否则就来不及了！真希望老师曾经接受过福音，至少来日我回到天国时还能与她再次相聚。

安息吧！我的老师、我的朋友。。。

爱你的tupai

Taming Monkeys

This week we have been subscribing more to the old wisdom of "spare
the rod and spoil the child". We started drilling into Jan that she
will get spanked if she disobey us.

Why this week? Partly it's because she started school again, and it's
very challenging every morning getting her to class on time if she
refuses to eat breakfast quickly or let us brush her teeth. In
addition, we also wanted to greet her elders when she sees them.

There was definitely resistance in the beginning, and much tears and
some frustration. But after a week, we have made good progress. Jan is
noticeably more obedient now, and understands the consequence of
disobedience. She has also started greeting uncles and aunties when
she sees them.

A pat on our backs! But I reckon this as the start of the long
journey of child discipline.

A key goal of parenting

I believe that one key goal of parenting is to let our children achieve independence. My interpretation of independence, is when my children is able to provide for herself physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Hmm....these four dimensions resonates well with the heart, soul, mind and strength dimensions in Mark 12:30!

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength"

Above: After much effort, Jan finally drinks milk from her own bottle by herself. Yet another step towards independence.

Heart - emotions! Be able be the master over common emotions like anger, frustration, sadness, etc

Soul - spiritual life. Establish her own personal relationship with God. Know how to continually deepen that relationship. Also develop her own value system.

Mind - thinking skills. Problem solving skills. Decision making skills.

Strength - physical well-being. This requires her to be able to earn her own living and know how to take care of her own health.


Wow....this is complex stuff, but writing them out helped me think through this topic more.

One last area is motivated by the 7 Habits book. Besides independence, the author also stressed the importance of interdependence--the ability to create synergies with people around us. So interdepedence should be another key goal of parenting!

Share you experience of how you had progressed towards these two goals!

Jan's Naughty Spot

Jan is fast approaching her 2.5-year-old mark, and through the past few months, we have witnessed the infamous "terrible-twos" in Jan.

She is a lot more insistent on doing things her way, and would whine or throw tantrums to get her way. She also says "no" very frequently. It often made our lives miserable as simple tasks like meals and milk turned into long-drawn battles.

Fortunately, I had a copy of Jo Frost's "Ask Supernanny". Jo Frost, if you recall, is the supernanny on a popular reality-TV series where she is called in to bring order to families under attack from unruly kids.

Jo Frost finds the technique "Naughty Spot" the most effective. She didn't invent the technique, as it also often known as the "Time-out" technique, but her high recommendation got us to decide to give it a try.

The amazing outcome was it works but we still don't understand why it works. For example, we would be feeding her food, and then when she refused, we would take her away to her naughty spot. Then when she returns, she would obediently finish her food...! And sometimes she would even ask to be brought to the naughty spot....

Amazing stuff...do give it a try with your toddler. Might even work with your spouse =)

Above: Jan posing with her artificial smile (that's what you get when you ask her to say "cheese")

Jan in Disney

We went to Hong Kong earlier this month, and we decided to pay a visit to the disneyland there since we had not visited it before.

It was a nice hideaway from the busyness of Hong Kong, and thankfully the park was not crowded when we were there and the scorching summer heat had just departed.

Jan enjoyed many of the rides there, but I suspect it was just another amusement park to her as she wasn't that into disney characters yet. I suspect the "disney magic" worked more strongly in my wife...

Jan started school!

Since Jan turned two, we noticed that she had gotten increasingly restless at home, most likely bored by the lack of new stimulus and people to play with. As such, we began our hunt for a school for Jan so that she can get some regular playmates.

We finally decided to put her to the Montessori at Tiong Bahru plaza, based on friends' recommendation as well as the school's convenient location.

In her first week of school, Jan was reluctant to join her new friends. She gave all kinds of excuses to not to go--want to sleep, need to go wee wee, need to go poo poo. She cried when we left the school. One of the days in the first week, she cried from the start of the session to the end (about one and a half hour).

Her second week was much better, though she would still give some of the excuses, and would repeatedly comfort herself by reminding herself that granny would be picking her later. Miraculously, towards the end of the second week, the excuses disappeared, and she was running into the classroom by herself! The teachers commented that Jan adjusted quicker compared to the average child, most took two weeks to settle in. Thank God for that, we were really happy to see that she enjoyed the sessions.

Konichiwa!

The #1 question we got over the past few days was "How was your Japan trip?"; the #2 question was "You went to Japan?"

Yes, we were in Japan for six days, and it was really a very last minute trip.  An original work trip to Japan got canceled due to H1N1. We were disappointed both because we had already made arrangements on taking leave from work and also we had built up an expectation to see Japan.  So when the H1N1 situation turned for the better, we resurrected our Japan plans--this time as a family holiday and not for work--bought air tickets, booked accommodations, packed and left the day after.  Definitely the most last minute trip for the both of us!

Right: Me doing last minute planning of the trip.  Not sure what my girl was reading... 

For our lazy readers, a one-liner description of our trip would be: good but tiring, too short. 

Good because Tokyo definitely has a lot to offer -- interesting and very different culture, many types of food to try out, lots of shopping, numerous outdoor options and a great chance to practice Japanese for people learning the language!

Tiring because everyday we had to lug around our 12+kg girl, along with her meals, change of clothes, water bottle, wet tissue, etc etc...and we also had our SLR camera with us.  I was surprised at how sore my body was at the end of each day...think hiking was less strenuous.  Moreover, everyday we need to feed her milk, feed her food during mealtimes, shower her at night and put her to bed, wash her bottles, pack-unpack her stuff. Whew!

 

Top: Me with my standard gear -- Jan's bag and the camera bag

Left: PT had to carry Jan for much part of day, esp when Jan naps

Too short not only because Tokyo and its surrounding has much to offer, but also the meager number of usable hours each day.  This trip gave me a more realistic expectation of how much parents with young children can do each day.  I have learnt to plan my days to just focus on one or two highlights, strategically plan rest stops and include lots of time buffer.

When I started writing this blog entry, I was planning to cover the highlights from the entire trip.  However, as I went through the photos, I found that there were just too many things to talk about, and if I were to cover all of them, this entry would probably sit in my laptop for a very very long time.  So this is the introduction to an upcoming series of entries that will talk about the interesting sights and sounds we encountered during this trip.  Stay tuned!

Jan goes to school!

* Warning: This is a looooooooong post..........

Jan's turning 18mths soon and we thought it'll be good to expose her to some classes... so we signed her up for a holiday programme with Julia Gabriel for a week and the theme was "Off to the farm!". We also wanted to check out how the lessons was conducted and to gain some insight in teaching toddlers.

The first half hour was basically taking attendance and free play with all the toys on the red mat. Before lessons started, the toddlers will help put the toys away in the respective trays. Jan was quite upset on the first day when she had to put the toys away but it got better. She even helped the teacher to carry the tray!

The proper lessons was about an hour. It starts with morning greetings to all the teachers, adults and toddlers. The lead teacher would then do a demo of the craftwork that the kids would be doing shortly after. Here's the collection of art pieces that Jan did over the span of 5 days!

After the craftwork, there were songs, introducing the letters "p" and "g", "Magic Box" time, story-telling and more songs!

The last half hour was basically snack time and play time. Jan has many first-time experiences tasting different food like oatmeal squares, raisins, cocktail sausages, raisin bread, marie biscuits etc. I love to see her expression when she tastes the food. She also learnt to self-feed quite a bit from the class which I'm happy about :)

There was a variety of outdoor play time activities like the usual playground, sand play and water play. It was good exposure for Jan. She learnt to climb up the stairs, go through tunnels, down the slide etc.

All in all, I would say that this was a good experience for both me and Jan. It's actually quite tiring since I had to be with her in school in the morning, rush home after class and then get ready for work in the afternoon. Thank God for bringing me through the tough week!

Will post about the school excursion to the farm soon!

Well done Trinity!

All of us who send our kids to Trinity's nursery should really pause a moment and give it our most sincere thanks, because it offers awesome value for free!  After sitting in a Julia Gabriel class over the past week, I made a mental list of what I liked and dislike about the class.

What I liked was that Jan got to interact with and learn from other kids of her age group.  I also appreciated some new ideas of activities we could do with Jan (e.g. playing with playdoh).  Jan also learned more about how to feed herself!

However, I found that even for professionally trained teachers, it was not easy to engage children of this age using a classroom format--much of the time half of the children were lost in their own worlds.  Also, the instructor led parts of the session was only 1 hour long (the remaining hour is free play), so I find it a bit short...

So if I think of the session in a slightly simplistic manner, it was not too different from a typical Trinity nursery session!  Music, activities, snacks and play.  Yes, Julia Gabriel has more trained teachers, but Trinity has loving and committed volunteers!  Haha...think my church is going to get me be a spokesperson for the nursery.  Three cheers to Trinity's nursery!

I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet

We went to the zoo during one of the past weekends!  I haven't been to the zoo for quite a while, so it was probably as exciting for me as it was for Jan.  I rediscovered this world class treasure that we have in Singapore.  I was really impressed with how the place is setup, such that visitors can have close-up experience with a huge variety of animals, not be obstructed by cages and fences, and enjoy shade from Singapore's blazing sun.

Unfortunately, Jan was not feeling very well that day, so she didn't get to see much of the park.  Moreover, the park was rather crowded that day, so that further dampened our experience.

Nonetheless, I would want to go back there again.  I think it is a great place to visit, especially when you bring kids.  It is the perfect place for me and pt to bring alive all the animals we have shown Jan on picture books.  Moreover, there were a lot of informative display boards about animals in the park, and I think we adults can benefit much from the park too.  However, next time I would prefer to take leave on a weekday to go, hopefully it will be less crowded and more enjoyable.

Oh ya, if you are wondering what the title of this post mean, it is the title of a story that we frequently read to her.

Below:

1. The famous (probably now infamous) white tiger. 
2. Jan with a tired face...she was feeling sleepy for most part of the trip
3. These otters were really funny.   They would move around as if they were stuck to one another.

  

What should you learn next, papa?

Frequently I find myself spending time with Jan but have no idea what activity I should do with her.  I really want to make full use of the time to do something enjoyable together, and even better, teach her some useful skills.  Occasionally, I stumble into a good idea...but more often I am just blank.

So far, I found it useful to go to books and websites for help.  They have given me ideas of what skills I should focus on helping Jan develop, as well as recommended activities that I can do with her.

Moreover, once Jan master whatever skill that I want to impart, I will need to find new activities and new skills to impart her.  So I can't just learn once and the relax.

It's a constant learning journey for us parents!

Home Alone

Last Friday we had a church meeting to attend at night, but my mum-in-law was not around that night to baby-sit Jan for us, so one of us had to stay behind.

In the past, either of us could had stayed behind, since we both could put Jan to bed.  Recently however, Jan has become increasingly stickier to her mother.  She would cry uncontrollably for her mother during bedtime or when she gets woken up from her sleep.  Anyone else (except my mum-in-law) going to her rescue at those times would be greeted with more desperate cries.  I suspect it is somehow related to the fact that children of Jan's age is near their peak of separation anxiety.  Well, Jan's screams at me are probably also getting back at daddy for not attending to her cries in the middle of the night...

Anyway, strangely enough, we decided I would stay behind that night.  When my wife left the house, I was filled with much apprehension, as I have not put Jan to bed for a while, and I was worried that if my wife comes back to a crying baby who had way past her bedtime, she would not dare to go out by herself again...and I really didn't want that to happen.  So I prayed to God that Jan would quickly finish her milk and then quickly fall asleep.

After I prayed, I began executing my plan.  I had planned a series of activities to slowly wind Jan down.  At 7:30pm, she has already finished her dinner, had her shower and donned her sleeping clothes.  I let her run around for half an hour before I took her into the room to read her some stories.  By then, I had turned on the air-con and dimmed the lights, hoping that to use the cool temperature and the lighting to induce sleepiness in her.  I was started restricting her movements by placing her in the cot.  After a few stories, it was milk time!  Thank God that she held the bottle herself and drank more than usual (usually, she would only hold the bottle occasionally, drink a little from the bottle and would rely on us feeding the remainder of the milk to her using a spoon)!  As such, the milk feeding task was actually easier than usual.

Top: Jan holding her own bottle during our return flight from Hong Kong 

Once the feeding was done, I dimmed the lights further and played a music CD.  Now, I was really getting worried, because I still do milk feeds everyday but it must have been eons since I put her to bed.  With apprehension I put Jan into her cot and used the most soothing voice I could master to tell her to go to sleep.  She fidgeted around a bit before lying down, and within me I felt a rush of excitement as I felt I was nearing success.  Then I noticed she was clawing at her diapers.  Worried she had poo-poo'd in her diapers, I quickly picked her up to do a quick check.  Luckily no poo-poo, but I decided to change her diapers anyway since she was already on the changing counter.

The frustrating bit was that by the time I got her back to the cot, she wasn't as sleepy already...she roamed around her cot, made some attempts to lie down, before she decided it was time to summon the real bedside angel.  My dearest lovely Jan then started crying "Ma Ma!"  "Ma Ma!"...*faint*....

I quickly picked her up from the cot and whipped up my last trick--cradle her in my arms and walk her to sleep.  I have done it a trillion times and it almost always worked...only that we stopped doing that eventually 'cos we didn't want to make it a habit for her. 

The trick worked flawlessly--the crying stopped, her eyes started showing signs of sleepiness, and before long, she looked like she was going to doze off.  I battled in my mind if I should carry her till she was fully asleep--but risk re-enforcing a bad habit, or put her back into her cot then and risk her jolting her into full-wakefulness again. 

Left: Jan sleeping in the baby carrier during our Hong Kong trip.  Of course she would only fall asleep when it's mama carrying her.

I decided to be brave.  I put her down, and then held my breath to see what would happen.  Jan landed on the cot, sensed that she was out of the comfy of daddy's arms, flipped her body to a face-down position, and then started fidgeting around.  I quickly used my hand to pat her bottoms in the comforting granny way.  She looked asleep as long as I continued patting, and finally I realised that she had really fallen asleep!  Three cheers for Daddy!

Haha...a simple matter but amazing that I could write such a long post about it...heehee...really thank God for making it happen.  I even messaged my wife that the whole episode was a piece of cake ;-)

Hong Kong Holiday

We made used of the long weekend to take a short holiday in Hong Kong.  In a way, this is her first flight, because she took her first real flight when she was still not old enough to appreciate what was going on around her.

The flight to and fro went relatively smoothly.  The change in air pressure during take-off and landing didn’t seem to bother Jan.  Jan couldn’t really sleep on the plane though, think it’s too exciting for her to close her eyes.  We were glad we took SQ and got the first row because it was a lot roomier and it came with the bassinet.  I feel for other parents with young children who didn’t manage to get the front row…they looked like they were cramped in their seats.

Above: Jan in her bassinet

Jan also tried her first airplane meal.  SQ has this post-weaning meal for baby who just started on solids.  The one on our going flight (shown in the photo) was very heavily flavoured, so Jan didn’t eat very much of it.  The one on the return flight was much better.

Right: Jan’s first airplane meal

Traveling with young children is definitely not easy…have to constantly keep an eye on Jan throughout the flight, so we didn’t get to enjoy much of the inflight entertainment, i.e. the movies.  We had to eat our meals later because we have to feed her first.  Jan definitely kept us very busy throughout the flight.  The good thing was my parents helped to take care of Jan for part of the flight, so my wife and I were able to eat in peace and catch parts of the movie “Hancock”.

Our first night in Hong Kong wasn’t easy though.  Jan slept very late that day (past midnight!!), plus she was teething and she was in a new environment, so consequently she woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep till 6am….we spent the following day recuperating from that saga.

Amazingly, Jan was able to catch her naps during the trip in the baby carrier.  That gave us more flexibility in planning our time.  Nonetheless, Jan definitely slept less than her usual.

Left: Wonder mama carrying the 10kg baby all around town while baby catches a wink

We spent one of our days at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park.  It was numerous attractions packed into one, and we visited the ones suitable for families: Seeing the Panda and the Chinese Sturgeon, the aquarium, riding the cable car and seeing the ocean theatre.  It was a good place for the family to spend the day.  My parents had a good time showing Jan the animals, and we all enjoyed the sights and sounds there.  And at the end of the day, there is a cafe with a great view for all of us to unwind!

Below: Cable car ride; Grandma showing Jan the fishes in the aquarium; A great cafe to rest your legs while enjoying great scenaries

 

Right Brain Education?

I had always found it hard to understand why some parents send their children to all those fanciful right brain, left brain, centre brain training classes, and many of those kids have not even reach one!!!??  Why waste money on some useless classes?  Why be so kia su?  Why subject your children to school pressure so early in their lives?  Can’t we let kids be kids and enjoy their childhood?!!

Well, the amazing thing is…I am now also considering sending Jan to those classes.

I realised that because Jan’s generation is brought up so different from my generation, I can’t apply how I was brought up to bring her up.  Moreover, one of my fears is that Jan will start school a lot less equipped than her peers.  I don’t believe that having a bigger vocabulary or being able to play more instruments will give a child much advantage in school, but I do believe that equipping them with better learning methods and tools will let them learn faster and help build their confidence.

So now I am still half skeptical how useful those classes are, but I am willing to give them a try and see for myself how useful they are.

And I will definitely see if my girl enjoys those classes or feel pressured by them.  I doubt she will feel pressure though, ‘cos now everything new is interesting to her, and I don’t think they will put her through examinations yet.

Well, will tell you more after we get to those classes.

It has been a while!! Sorryz….

Many fans of this blog have hunted us over the past weeks for having kept silent for so long on this blog…a big apology to everyone…it’s all the mother’s fault =P

(…guess who took all the pictures…?)

Anyway, you must be wondering how our little girl has been these months?

She has definitely grown.  We know that because she outgrown her previous set of shoes.  We bought her a new pair recently, it is one of those that squeaks.  She enjoyed the squeaking sound a lot, and will intentionally stamp her feet to hear those sounds =)  My mum’s been complaining about how the sounds would impact Jan’s hearing though…but well…

Oh…and I forgot to mention, Jan is walking and walking and walking and walking nowadays!  Hmm…looks like I really haven’t blogged here for a long while, ‘cos I thought I should have mentioned that already.  Anyway, sometime in mid-August, she started walking more than crawling, and nowadays she barely crawls.  She enjoys going out for walks very much, and would get very excited when we put on her shoes for her.

Check out these cool photos!