Bz Mommy

Feb is my 8th month into the pregnancy.  Besides coping with the heavier belly and strained legs, I started to have sleepless nights as no one position seems to make me comfortable.

8th month! Means we are left with 1 month+ before the little one is coming out!

Besides getting Dawn ready, we also have to start thinking of what are left to buy or what can be re-used. In order to get Dawn to give up her pram to her little sister, we decided to buy a buggy board for Dawn to stand behind the pram.

We checked the prices at most departmental stores, and was disappointed that the Lascal maxi buggy board is a controlled-priced item and even if Robinson is having a 20% storewide sale or having a Kiddy Palace member card, the buggy board is still at $129! -.-

I was walking around in Mothercare the other day and it struck me that I have a discount coupon of 15% for “Home & Travel” items cut out from somewhere.  I asked the store assistant on whether the discount can be used for the buggy board and wala, it can!

So we saved $19.35!

Dawn posing with the box, she is so thrilled!

Daddy & Dawn fixing up the board :

Dear chose a red buggy board, nice colour!

Dawn trying out the buggy board! She enjoyed it!

Went to the Toy Fair at Taka, and saw some interesting and affordable toys.

Look what I bought for Dawn!

DOMINO!

And bye bye to the placing of the domino by hand! This comes with a truck that lays the domino! Issn’t that COOL!

And the truck knows how to turn and form a snake instead of a straight line! SMART!

And it comes with Catapult!

Here’s one of the formation we had :

Dawn is holding on to the little truck that helps to lay the domino.

Going to start!!

Cool right?!

Arhhhhhhh!!

My first Mothers’ Day which I got a present from my Dawn. And she gave me a big hug and shouted “Happy Mothers’ Day!”

Dawn had wanted us to buy her a pair of chopsticks after seeing us using chopsticks for our meals.  We can’t find a proper one for her and the training chopsticks (with cute thomas train and cartoon characters) that we see on carts and bulk purchase forum are not the ideal pair. Dear thinks that those with training loops are not ideal because the grip looks and feels incorrect.  After much consideration, we finally decided to chose the training chopsticks from Combi.

And so we passed the chopsticks to Dawn and we taught her how to pick up her small toys using the chopsticks. Dawn didn’t have much oppotunities to use the chopsticks because she ate rice or porridge most of the time and a spoon served her well.

So finally she has this opportunity when she was “taxing” my lunch of bee hoon..and I was amazed by her improvement!

Amazing issn’t? It is to me, because I myself didn’t know how to use a chopsticks till pretty late…kids nowadays are just amazing..

And here she is posing with her chopsticks. :p

Oh ya, a closer look on the chopsticks in case mummies reading here wants to buy one too.  This cost about $11+ in Kiddy Palace.  It has something to hold the 2 chopsticks together, and the orange guide is to help the kid to position the hand. It had 2 points which allows one to chose for right or left hand usage.

Bought a Christmas cum birthday gift for Dawn – Thomas and friends train track!

I seldom shower Dawn with nice expensive gifts because I do not believe that a child should always get new and expensive stuff to play with.  I also do not like to educate my girl that birthdays or Christmas must come with presents because that will set the wrong expectations for a kid.

I made Dawn waited for 2 days to open this present too :p

I am not that perfect mum, but I can only try my best to let my girl learn the good manners that most kids lack of nowadays.

Anyway, here’s the choo choo train! Quite interesting! Dear spent half an hour to fix this up for Dawn!

Dawn had been learning to feed herself since April.  Here’s one of the post which I had made about this : Yummy Yummy.

Looking at her own progress, we think that it’s time for her to feed herself for her main meals.  Her first attempt was in Dear’s place while we had teochew porridge for lunch.  She did an excellent job and even though there’s some mess on the chair and the floor, it’s considered a good attempt for a kid of her age.  And of ‘cos the understanding and encouragement from Dear’s parents did a wonderful part in this partnership.

My mum gave me this unbelievable look when I told her that Dawn should start feeding herself for her main meals.  I guess is the thought of having to clean after Dawn…but if we continue to be so protective over the kid, how can she learn? How can she explore?

Anyway, because today is Sunday and I was at home during Dawn’s dinner (which during weekdays I would be still at work), mom had no choice but to let Dawn feed herself because I insisted. :p

And Dawn finished her dinner by herself, with minimal mess, and even stopped my mum from feeding her when at one point my mum was concern that the porridge was getting cold. I have a girl who has character! (and sometimes too much of that…haiz). 

It’s always my personal belief that kids need not be overly showered with those “branded” toys.  Why are we teaching our own kids about BRANDED stuff from age 0?  However, I cannot deny that most branded toys had more considerations on the safety aspect, but this is not my point today.  We should buy moderate quantity of toys, and not all must be branded lah…

I myself did not buy alot of toys for Dawn, and even if I buy toys, I realised those “Ma Sa Ma Sa” from those neighbourhood shops are equally good. Yes, some toys had branded themselves to provide high education value…but, kids can learn words and their ABC from other settings too right?  Anyway, branded toys are too expensive for me to buy them…I will go broke if everything she’s playing now are branded.  The only good buy which I am satisfied with, is the Sesame Street Driving Simulator toy which I bought from Malacca at 70% off! It’s only about S$9 :p

I think most kids can turn the things which they see day to day as their fun toys.  They are more curious in exploring such things rather than those toys which they get bored after awhile.  At least this is very true for Dawn.  So besides her toys in her big toy box, she likes the clothes pegs, the newspaper, the telephone, the remote controls, my water bottle, empty boxes, my mum’s house slippers and the list goes on…basically anything that can interest her in the house.

So, her lastest toy.  Let me present, the Kung Fu Dawn Dawn. 

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↑↑ Look at me! This is the famous move which I learnt from the Master.  Master Wu Gui is he?

↑↑ I got you, you little ANT!

↑↑ I am ME, the Kung Fu Dawn Dawn.

I think teething process is a painful thing to go through, for both the kid and the mother.  I mean, can you imagine a big hard tooth trying to break the once perfect smooth pinky gum? OUCH! And a kid of 2 years have to tolerate the pain of 20 such teeth breaking out the gums. OUCH again. As for the pain of the mother, she might have to endure the sleepless nights, a kid who suddenly became very fussy over the food or dealing with a restless kid.

I myself went through sleepless nights, for a period as long as 1.5 months! Then, I was still very puzzled with Dawn’s changed sleeping patterns.  When the sleepless nights ended, i then realised that Dawn was teething! And she was teething 8 teeth at the same time! Oh My, now I know why she was so difficult during that 1.5 months!

As you can see, this is the teething chart.  Right now, Dawn has all the teeth, 1-4, upper and lower.  The 2 upper first molars are not fully grown yet, but had already made their appearance.

When Dawn was about 5 months old and shown signs of teething, my parents and I bought a few teethers for her. I wasn’t very particular with the types of teethers in the market and just bought anything which was of the right price and shape.  She had 8 very pretty pearly whites (4 upper and 4 lower) for sometime before she started teething for the next 8 teeth (which was the 1.5 months of sleepless nights which I had mentioned). At that time, we gave her the same teethers which she was using initially.  That was then I realised that choosing a teether is a very important decision.

Because she already had 8 front teeth, it was a grave mistake to pass her a teether which contain rubber parts. This is the result of our mistake. 

Look at the hole (below the watermark) that was bitten off by Dawn (the purple parts at the both ends are made of rubber kind of material)!  Can you imagine our shock?  I thought that teether is supposed to be safe to bite on. I thought teether has no age limit.  And I was so so wrong!

I had threw away the packaging and thus I could not find out whether the product had actually specified that this teether is for particular age or labeled with some caution. I mean, if there was none, it could be the negligence of the manufacturer. However, I also do not deny that fact that we as parents should also be careful with what we pass to our children.

So parents out there, be wise in choosing your teethers. You can try Luv n Care Round Pur Ice Bite Teether or Soothie Teething Pacifier

Here’s some websites which you may find them useful when your kid is teething : Teething-babies , BabyCenter and Parents.

Ok, I am getting real here. I love to receive free samples and freebies (who doesn’t?).  Especially after I have my girl.  I mean, it could be just a sample diaper or a one-time feed of milk powder, but to me, it’s a potential opportunity to save some hard-earned money. Also, the samples allow me to test the product first before making a real purchase.

I have a few friends who had asked me where to get those samples and freebies.  I am going to share them here so that the other parents can “benefit” too. :D

1. Abbott - You can get free samples of Similac, Gain, Grow, Pediasure, Isomil milk powder.  If you are expecting, they will also send you this booklet on “Naming your baby”. Sign up as their member too! They will send you a 400g tin of milk powder when your baby is 6 months old and 1 year old.  And I must say they are very prompt in this too
2. Dumex – You can get samples on their Mamil Gold series or the Nutrakids Cereal if your kid is ready for semi solids. For pregnant ladies, you can get the Mamil Mama!
3. Enfa – Here’s the Enfapro, Enfagrow & Enfakid or Enfamama milk powder. If you sign up as the club member, they will send you a 400g tin of milk powder when your baby is 6 months old. After which, they will send 2 packets of the 1 year old milk powder.  But if I remember correctly, their membership has an expiry date.
4. Nestle –  You can’t ask for free samples over the Internet for nestle.  But there’s a customer service number which you can call to ask for NAN sample and Brown Rice/White Rice cereal samples.
5. Goo.N Diapers – Register and get a free sample of the Goo.N Diaper.
6. Huggies – Register and request for samples.  You can request up to two samples per product per household.
7. Sometimes Drypers also gives samples but information can be found in their advertisements in magazines for mothers.  They will usually require you to sms to ask for samples.  Huggies does that too.  So look out for those advertisements!
8. Collect a free babyplus bag when you join the FairPrice BabyPlus Club. There are goodies in the bag!
9. Depending on which hospital you gave birth to your child, you will get a Bag of Love or the Baby Plus guidebook. Check out here.
10. If you are staying in the southwest district, you can get a babybliss cash-card valued at $38! This amount is good for paying off some ERP or car park charges right?! For those who do not drive, you can buy your baby items and pay off using the cash-card.  Check out details here.

Do note that these freebies are for those who are staying in Singapore.  For information about samples and freebies in other parts of the world (for example, US), check out bestfreestuffonline.

Hope this helps!