Matthew 101220 Water Play

Toys Toys and more Toys

it's nearly Christmas and I've been looking for the perfect present for Matthew and we've decided to get him a balance bike based on the reviews from other parents and watching the kids play around the park. At 18 going on 19 months, he's the perfect age for it. Watch this video. There are so many different brands and variations it's very hard for a parent to choose which one. Hopefully we can decide which one before Christmas!

I thought this morning that it would be good to document/remember what kind of toys Matthew's 'into' at this age..

Blocks (Megabloks & Duplo) - loves these, plays with them daily for the last few months. Stacks them then knocks them over or pulls them apart and starts all over again. He gets lots of enjoyment from these.

Shape sorters - we have a few different ones (Tolo, Fischer Price and ELC) He plays with all of them, especially the Tolo one (great eBay bargain for $3!) and works the shapes in and out and opens the case to get the shapes out with any problems. Also plays with this daily.

Stringing Beads (see pic on left) - he loves these, even though the packaging says suited for children 36+ months, perhaps they could be choking hazard, but Matthew does not swallow anything he can't eat. We were introduced to these when we were at a friend's place for the playdate. They have a 3 children all of varying ages so it was great experience for Matthew to try out different toys before buying! (Sadly this family is moving away to Melbourne)

Wind up toys - Cheap and small but highly entertaining for Matthew. We have all sorts of these pint sized toys - cars, walking shoes, chattering teeth, a Mexican riding a horse etc. They are great to just throw in my handbag before heading out for a meal as after about 20 mins or so of waiting for food or for us to finish our meals Matthew can get very fidgety.

Cars/Plastic Animals - he's building a small collection. He got his first set of cars his 1st birthday and animals during his first visit to the zoo.  Plays with these often too and amazingly looks after them well. Keeps them on display, lined up on his toy shelf.

Books - lots and lots of books. We have lots, close to a hundred children's books and counting. Some, which were given as gifts I've put away because he's too young for them. We've been 'reading' books together every day since he was born and he never tires of looking through them. He'll often sit on his own and flip through the pages. Our favourite or rather my favourite is this one (see right pic) called 'Kisses' by Barney Saltzberg. The best ones for small children are the hard board books with plenty of textures, colours and things to do (pull, touch, press, squeak etc). In Sydney, there is a great children's bookstore in Beecroft which organizes readings by the book's author. I havent been able to find anything like that in Singapore, even at the libraries. The consolation though is that books are much cheaper in Singapore, sometime up to 50% less than Aus!

There are lots of other toys that he likes to play with semi-regularly, like kicking one of his many (many) soccer balls or giving his drum kit a bash. But the best activity for an active toddler like Matthew is plenty of active play, singing & dancing, playing at playground with other kids and swimming. Makes them sleep really well ;)

Matthew vs The Pea

He loves peas, always has, since the day he was introduced to them. We always have bags of peas in the freezer as it's a guaranteed winner at meal times. Tonight's dinner which comprised of creamy ham, cheese, pasta and of course peas went down a treat. But instead of just eating his peas, he decided that it would be fun to shove a pea up his nose, not once but twice.

The first pea was rescued from Matthew's nose by a little massaging to encourage it to come out. The second pea up the nose quickly followed the first, as the stern talking to I gave him didn't do a thing to deter him from doing it again. This time, Matty did a really good job of making sure it was tucked all the way up his little nostril. Massaging it out again didn't help as I couldn't feel the pea and it was shoved so far inside that I couldn't even see it when tipped the little guy upside down to get a better look. By this stage Matty's starting to get a little agitated and grabbing at his nose as i'd imagine it would be pretty uncomfortable.

Read on carefully as it might come in handy one day... The trick to getting a pea out of a toddler's nose is this. Cover the unblocked nostril with your finger and blow in the toddler's mouth. It works!!! A quick puff is all you need. The snot cover pea obligingly popped out in the first attempt to which Matthew politely responded with 'ta!'

... Thank goodness for Google.

remember your 'ease' and 'ta'

I'm trying to teach Matthew some manners. He's pretty good at it but needs to be prompted most of the time to say his Ps and Qs. He's especially cute when saying 'ease', I find it really hard to say no when he asks for more hot chips and says 'merh ease, ...ease, ...eeease!' (more please, please, please!)

Matthew had his swimming assessment this afternoon so that the swim school can work out which class to place him next term. I must say both Dunc (who rushed out of work early to come along) and I are very proud of our little boy. Matthew did really well in the water and will skip past the entry level class and enter the 'Duckling Level 2' classes next year, joining other kids that are older than him.  He had such a fantastic time, giggling and smiling his way through the 30 min session. The only time we saw his smile disappear was when he was busy holding his breath (or drinking the pool water) underwater. We were so pleased to see how confident Matthew's become in the water, he thinks he can swim already!

We knew he would love the class as really enjoys spending hours in the pool and can swim quite comfortably on his own with his floaties (inflatable arm bands). Now it's a matter of ditching the floaties and learning to swim without them. Besides swimming, Matthew likes a bit of a drink...

I also heard from his school last week, they'd sent me an email to let me know that Matthew will be enrolled into the 'Harmony Bear' class (how cute!) and the names if his teachers, he'll have 2, one to converse with him in English and another in Mandarin. The school also requested that I staggered the days which I brought Matthew to school in the first week so that they didn't have too many crying children at once :( ... First day of pre-nursery is less than a month away.

Just touching quickly again on the changes we've seen in Matthew lately. He's been putting himself to sleep every night for the past 2 weeks, no crying or whinging. He chatters for about 20 mins in his cot and drifts off to sleep.... I really really like this new change! Also, as though right on cue, both his lower cuspids are breaking through his gums.

This was supposed to be a short update, but turned out to be a fairly lengthy one... till next time.