Drawing with watercolour

It had been quite some time since our last painting session.  Should be at least 2-3 weeks ago...

Since the boys had early dinner and daddy will be home late, we could splashed up some colours and do some paintings.

Boys are very interested with colour mixing.  They would happily request for 2 colours and amazed with the results. 

Here, 3 of them with 3 very different styles & approaches, reflecting their individualistic. 

Usually we prefer to do painting on the floor as it is more spacious and less confined as compared to table. The boys could stretch out or move from one side to another to get the painting done. This could encourage them develop their big motor skill (using the whole arm). And most importantly, each of them have their own personal space to work on and less disagreement. :) 

Today, they prefer to draw instead of their usual painting-the-whole-paper-full.  Hence, I took the opportunity to guide them with changing of colours in order to distinguish the various objects in the drawing.  *very busy asking them 1by1 on the story that they are drawing, then guide him with the colours.  

They had a great one and half hour of fun learning, then proceed on with the cleaning up - the brushes & plates, the floor & lastly themselves.  

Their interesting drawings:
 (I am amazed that they could draw quite well considering for their age - 3 yrs old)

Juin & Syuen drew Dhow Boat and relate it with our recent Dhow Cruise. 

Dhow Boat by Juin
with lots of people on the boat & the left brown circle is the steering wheel

Dhow Boat by Syuen
Very sunny day. There are people in the boat, some people jumped into the sea for diving, and some people waiting (outside) at the beach for another boat. 

HAPPY Snowman by Syuen
Snowman eating Apricot from the Xmas Tree. There's a Armadillo next to the tree. Airplane flying in the sky. Faraway could see grandma's house.

Flowers by Hung
2 flowers - 1 'opened' & 1 'not yet open' (1 blossom & 1 bud), 2 butterflies collecting nectar, taking turns to collect from one flower because the other flower 'not yet open' 

Colourful Rainbow by Hung
Rainbow playing with clouds

Aeroplane by Hung
Blue airplane with lots and lots of windows. Horizontal lines on the right bottom corner representing the tiny little houses in rows when view from the plane. 

Car by Hung
Can you spot the tiny little orange wheels with lots of people in the car??

Car Park by Juin
lines representing the parking bay & tiny green cars drawn by mummy

Exploring with colours & techniques:

by Juin

by Juin

by Juin

by Syuen

by Syuen

Video Clip Sharing: Baby Talk@14mths

Was showing the boys some video clips of them when they were 1+.  They were amazed!

All of us had some good laugh.

Here's sharing one of the video of them "baby talking" when they were 14mths old (corrected age: 12mths old), hope you enjoyed it as much as we do.

DIY Paint

Friday is our weekend over here in Qatar. Daddy is not working and the boys are scheduled for personalized haircut from daddy.  While daddy is giving one of the boy his haircut, mummy needed to prepare lunch. However, the other 2 boys were quite 'gluey' today. They wanted to stay in the kitchen with me. I have to quickly think of something to keep them busy in the kitchen. I remembered this DIY edible paint recipe shared by some friends recently, the ingredients needed are simple, hence I gave it a try to let them prepare the paint by themselves.

First, they helped to prepare the 3 primary colours in 3 big bowls. 

Then I gave them a small cup (we use the yogurt cups) each. Guide them to select 2 primary colours and put into his tiny cups. Let them stir and mix the colours. 

Here, they are busy stirring the colour mixture and they were definately amazed with the result (secondary colours).  

mixing the colours at the kitchen

mixing red & blue

mummy, look... red and blue makes purple

Secondary colours

Painting Session:

Syuen

Hung

Juin

Exploring with pouring method

Syuen enjoys painting on his feet

Syuen enjoys painting on his feet

Masterpiece from 2 yrs 8mths old Cubbies 

DIY Edible Paint Recipe:

1 cup multi-purpose flour

2-3 cup water

1 cup salt 

(act as preservatives for the paint, without salt, the paint mixture turns sour within a day)

Food Colouring 

(could use natural colours from food such as beet root (red), tumeric/kunyit (yellow), blue-pea flower/bunga telang (blue) )

Triplets Self Feeding

Triplets are 20mth old now.. (corrected age 18mths)

Recently had been very busy with them and also making some photobook.. Didn't really get the time to update the blog. However, yesterday manage to record a video of them self feeding (thick porridge), so... enjoys the video clip.

Video was taken at the beginning of meal time, by the end of the meal... the table, floor, face, hair.. everywhere are in mess... (should have taken a photo of it)

Meals time is always not easy.  Have to prepare some nutritious meal and yet something that suits all of them. Although 3 of them are identical, but they do have their own personality and liking.  
Self Feeding is another stage of learning which involves a lot of patience, time and mess.  However, it is still good to start them early, especially if you are having multiples.

18mth Triplets miss CubbyDaddy

CubbyDaddy had left to work in Qatar since 2 days ago. Yesterday, cubbies was calling for cubbyDaddy whenever they heard the starting of car engine sound and sounds coming from upstairs. Guess it is not only me that needs time to get used to the term 'daddy is at work'.

Today as they were playing slide, they heard a car stopped outside the house.  Hence, they started to call for daddy non-stop.  They even climb on top of the slide to have a better view.  Enjoy the video...

cubbyDaddy, we miss u!

Brotherly Love

Triplets are down with flu and cough one by one..  We had tried to keep them slightly distance, separating their drinking bottles and utensils... However, we were unable to stop them from spreading and passing the flu bug to each other cos they enjoy and love to hug and kiss each other.  Once the hugging and kissing game started, it can keep them occupied for 30mins to an hour.

Here's a short video clip of them hugging and kissing each other.

Triplets' 15mth vocabulary

The triplets are so different as compared when they were before 12 months.  Within these 3 months, they had suddenly shown lots of development (really can't record every single development).  On their 1st birthday, many relatives and friends asked "can they call mama or papa??" My answer was "yes, they mama n papa to everything except to us"  :)

Now they are 15 months... I suddenly thought of counting the words that they can speak.

1. "Dok Dok" or "wou wou" = Dog; one of their first words as they have lots of dog soft toys. And they are really excited to visit the neighbour's dog everyday.
2. "Bart Bart" = Bird; they can point or look up the sky and tell when they saw the birds.
3. "Mak mak" = Milk; opss and when I first heard it, I thought they were calling for me or grandma (嫲嫲)
4. "Pak pak" or "Beet beet" = Beat beat; they will say that whenever they see the wall power point, or things which they are told not to touch.  Nowadays, they will say pak pak, when we tell them "No No".
5. "Ba pai" = Bye bye; able to wave and say bye bye at the same time. Nowadays, whenever they heard us saying bye on the phone, they will say it too.
6. "Ma Mi" or "Mi Mi" = mummy; not so often as they don't hear this word so often in the house.
7. "De Di" or "Ye Yi" = daddy; whenever they see daddy's photo, they will say it.
8. "Dai Dai" = Kai Kai; go out
9. "Bo Bo" = Bowl; will request for Bo Bo when it is meal time.
10. "Mum Mum" = whenever they see food!!!
11. "Daaa..." = Thida (maid's name); this is a word which they heard several times a day.  Whenever it is changing diaper time, they will call "Daa.."
12. "Maa.. Maa..." = Grandma  (嫲嫲); calling this name will get to be carried out of the playpen.
13. "Yeah Yeah" = Grandpa (爷爷); whenever they heard this name, they will look towards the gate, cos grandpa comes back from work every night.
14. "Paul Paul" = Ball; anything which is round in shape is a ball.
15. "Meh Meh" = Miao miao; referring to a cat puppet. 
16. "Pou Pou" = when they wanted to be carried
17. "No No" = No; with hands and head shaking left and right
18. "Ish" = Fish;
19. "Na Na" = McDonald; referring McDonald toys
20. "Per Per" = Apple; one of their favorite food
21. "Pa Per" = bubbles;
22. "Pom Pom" = bath time;
23. "Knock knock" = one of the favorite word, whenever they knock or fall down
24. "Mout" = Mouth; 
25. "Yer" = Ear;
26. "Tak Tak" = referring to lights; the sound of switching on and off 
27. "Dak Dak" = rubber ducks
28. "Veet veet" = wet wet;
29. "Per per" = Diaper
30. "vet vet" = Wait wait
31. "Be be" or "Beaar Beaar" = Bear
32. "Nieng Nieng" = the boys are so vain that they love to looks good... they will wear a hat or even just a nappy on his head, it is still considered as "lieng lieng"
33. "Touch" = will say the word whenever they wanna touch another person
34. "Beei beei" = Give in Cantonese; whenever they want something, they will start to say "beei beei beei..." non stop.

Is there anymore?? Yes, they do understand more words than these.... but then they can't say the words.  This list is the words which they can actually say it out when they saw the item.

Will update again when they have more words...

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Triplets' Love

13th months old (corrected age 11months old) Cubbies showing their care and love towards each other.

Triplets 1st Lantern!

Mooncake festival also known as mid-autumn festival falls on 12 September (八月十五).  Last year, triplets were too small to celebrate this festival. Now, they are 1 year old, have better understanding.

I was searching around for lanterns which are suitable for them to play. At last I found these Angry Birds Lantern.  It is not that we are a great fan of it, but I find it some how suitable for the cubbies.  The handle which holds the battery operated music and light can be easily removed from the bird, this means that cubbies could play with the bird as if it is a balloon.  Inside the bird it has a small bell which makes it more attractive.  But the boys are not interested with the bird-head balloon.  Finally, I gave in and allow them to play it with the handle.  Surprisingly, they knew how to hold it and walking around with it.  Although they had just mastered their toddling skill, they are walking quite well for a 13mths old preemie.  They enjoyed it better with the handle esp biting onto it :)

Here's a short video clip of the 3 little cubbies playing with the battery operated lantern.  Hope you like it!

Triplet's Nap Time

"What time is their nap time?" is one of the very common questions people tends to ask.
They will usually followed by "Do they all sleep together??"
"They nap for few hours??"

When Do They Nap?
I did not make a fixed schedule for them to follow.  Hence, they will nap whenever they feel like napping. :)

Advantage:
Flexible for adults in a way, whenever we feel like bringing them out, we'll just do it without worrying it affects their schedule.

Disadvantage:
When they are excitedly playing, they can over-tired themselves without us or them knowing it.  The next thing we know is that they start to be cranky and fussy.  When they are over-tired, it's not easy to put them to sleep.

Nowadays, they usually nap twice a day (1 year old toddler).  Once before lunch time and once in the afternoon.  The timing can be still vary.  For the morning session, sometimes they can fall asleep right after the breakfast (about 10-ish), sometimes not until 12 noon they fall asleep.  For the afternoon session, it is worst. For example, today one nap at 230pm, and by 3pm, all fast asleep.  Sometimes, they refuse to nap till it is 6pm.


How Long Do They Sleep/Nap??
Usually they nap for 30mins - 2hours.  Once again, the timing is not fixed.  We won't know when they wanted a longer nap.  3 of them might have different schedule, for example Triplet 1: 30mins - morning, 2 hours - afternoon; Triplet 2: 1 hour - morning, 1 hour - afternoon; and Triplet 3: 2hours - morning, 30mins - afternoon.


Do They Nap Together/Same Time?
They DON'T!  Sometimes you can have 1 napping, sometimes 2 napping.

Advantages of napping at different time:
You get to spend some personal or 1 to 1 time with one of the triplet while the other 2 are napping.
Less strenuous for new parent.  Handling 1 or 2 crying babies are much easier than 3 crying babies.

Disadvantages of napping at different time:
There's no time for you to nap together with them.  You have to stay awake the whole day and not having any 'me' time.

I will try to make all 3 of them nap together.  However, if each boy needed 10mins to put to sleep, there's a high chance that after the 3rd triplet fall asleep, the triplet who napped first might be time to wake up.  End result, three of them are not napping at the same time too. :)

Today, consider a bonus... the boys slept almost together in d morning and in the afternoon.

11am: cubbySyuen found his favorite spot - next to the sofa (sometimes under the sofa), one finger in his mouth, another hand holding d corner of the pillow... fall asleep without patting :)

11:10am: cubbyJuin also found his favorite spot and position, lay down next to me, thumb into the mouth, one hand holding onto my hand.. fall asleep without patting as well :)

11:15am: cubbyHung still active and busy playing...

11:20am: cubbyHung found his favorite pillow, 2 fingers into the mouth, one hand touching the pillow... fall asleep without patting :) and in the center of the toys too...

11:22am: Carried cubbyHung onto the bed, lights off... and I have free time to cook up their lunch. 

11:40am: cubbyJuin wakes up, followed by the other two at 12pm.

To reward them for their good nap time.. I've converted part of the sofa into a climbing platform for them... will blog about it another day :)

Cubbies are Toddling ! ! !

What is 'Toddling'?? 

From thefreedictionary.com/toddle

"toddle [ˈtɒd^əl]vb (intr)1. to walk with short unsteady steps, as a child does when learning to walk"

3 weeks ago during cubbies 1st Birthday, cubbies were only able to toddle few steps.  Within 2 weeks, they are able to toddle for quite a distance before falling down.

Only manage to take a few shots of cubbySyuen when the other 2 was taking their nap (cubbySyuen refused to nap).

Was shocked with his strength, he could lift up my tumbler (filled with water) and toddle with it. 

From this progress, I guess they should be able to walk when they are 13 months (corrected age 11 months, cos they are 2 months preterm).

Before this, we were still thinking to get them a push-walker...

But now, we can save $$ on that!!!  

However, it is time to consider 'Baby Harness'.  I'm sure they will start to toddle or walk around when we bring them out.

Should we get the one with backpack??

               Or just the normal safety strap harness??   

Any recommendation???

Triplets 1st Birthday Invitation

Another 3 weeks will be cubbies 1st birthday party...

Everyone is very excited over it.. even the triplets

Triplets' Sleep Pattern 2

Cubbies all have their individual sleeping style & pattern.

Cubby Hung - he had just started learning to "bulldoze" (pushing forward with his head on the ground). Whenever he's sleepy, he will start to bulldoze from one end of the bed to the other end. He will only stops when his head kept pushing against something. He will then lay down to rest.

Cubby Syuen - quite independant, once he's sleepy, he wants to be put onto the bed. Not so much of carrying to sleep. If he's not put onto the bed, he will cries & scream.

Little cubby Juin - he's active and full of energy. He will not rest if he's still full of energy. Hence, we need to give him lots of kickings and jumpings during the day in order to use up his energy. However, if he's too active, he refuse to rest even when he's sleepy. He will keep on jumping till he is over-tired & exhausted. When this is the case, he will be extreamly fusy and refuse to calm down. So, we'd to be very observant. Once, he has shown sign to sleepy such as yawning/rubbing his eyes, we need to begin calming him down. Way to calm him down: cubby-angel's hug & singing. 'twinkle twinkle little star' is d no.1 song in calming him.

Triplet's 6th month Development Milestone

Tmr will be cubbies 6th month b'day... (corected age: 4 months old)
Happy birthday cubby Hung, Syuen & Juin!!!

Cubbies 6 mths development milestone:

Hung
1) able to rollover from front to back and vice versa
2) learns to crawl, with the head sticking on the floor, backside sticking up...bulldozing his way from one end of the bed to the other end.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill still developing
5) learns to grab things with both feet
6) less talkative, limited sylables.

Syuen
1) able to rollover from front to back and vice versa
2) learns to crawl, with the head sticking on the floor, backside sticking up...bulldozing his way from one end of the bed to the other end.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill still developing
5) yet to grab things with both feet
6) talkative, able to make lots of sounds & uses sound to attract attention.

Juin
1) able to rollover from front to back only. 
2) can change directions but not moving forward nor bakwards.
3) very friendly smiles
4) grabing skill developing fast, observe fingers & use it to grab things
5) yet to grab things with both feet
6) talkative, limited sylables.

Feeding Preemie

4th Oct 2010 

Today is my pregnancy EDD, which means cubbies r officially 40 weeks.

Cubbies are born premature at 32 weeks. although they are not micro-preemie, they r still consider preemie with low birth weight of 1.8kg (Hung), 1.6kg (Syuen) and 1.1kg (Juin).
There are many new learning for parents of preemie. This time I'll share on Feeding!

Feeding a full-term baby is so much differ fr a preemie. I once took for granted (n i think most ppl hv this same thought too) that all babies r born wit d capabilities to eat/suck. 
What we found out during cubbies stay in NICU is tat we need to teach preemie to suckle!

1) TUBE FEEDING
During d 1st few days of stay in NICU, cubbies r fed using tube where d tube r inserted from his mouth into d stomach. D first sight of d tube make me tears as they r so tiny n yet needed to insert d tube. So, our first feeding lesson in NICU is to learn how to feed them using d tube.

2) SYRINGE FEEDING
We introduced syringe feeding to stimulate the baby's sucking action.  We had to control or fingers when pressing & releasing the breastmilk into bb's mouth while encouraging bb to lick & suckle. 

3) CUP FEEDING
When Hung is ready to learn sucking, he was first introduce sipping fr cup. Till now,i m still very raw to cup feeding,i'll end up pouring all out instead of feeding.

4) SUCKING
Hung did not know how to suckle fr breast. Hence, I was taught how to give him cheek massage, lips massage and tongue massage to stimulate his sucking movement. It seems that bb learns sucking movement in mummy's womb during week 33. But Hung was born at 32 weeks, hence there's a need to give him time to develop the ability to suck.

5) SWALLOW
Then we need to teach Hung how to swallow. Even during cup feeding, Hung will tends to keep all milk in his mouth without swallowing.

6) SUCK & SWALLOW & BREATHE
When Hung had mastered d sucking & swallowing skill, he needs to be stimulate to perform both d action n synchronize wit breathing. What a tough process for just a simple action of sucking milk.

I still remember there's once when i was BF Hung, suddenly his face turned blue. Since we're reminded on this, I quickly unlatch him fr d breast and gave him few slaps on his feet to wake him up. He was fine after that.

Preemie r known that they hv the tendency to forget breathing, regardless it's feeding, crying or even laughing. Even till now,we still need to b observant on d changes in bb face during feeding, to ensure bb remembers to breathe & swallow.