Saturday scrapping: Messy messy!

Hello... its not Saturday yet, but I thought I'll just post up this LO I just finished during Junior J's nap, before the really busy weekend hits me... I've hardly any time to try any challenges, so I thought I'll use the sketch for the Feb Crate challenge and quickly scrap something to journal Junior J turning 25 months on Thu:

The twine makes me happy: One single piece to spell "mths", plus act as a photo border, plus encircle the "25"! :)

This one was quick to do, since I wanted to take Pooi's advice and focus on telling a story (in this case, recording his milestones at 25 months).  The journalling is all hidden underneath the strips of paper, which are held together using washi tape and some related word stickers:

And the final messy LO, to match with the title:

Patterned papers are a jumble from the Little Sprouts, Restoration and Brook collections from Crate Paper.
Stickers are from Restoration.  And of course, Thickers, green glimmer mist, and brown distress ink.
(I really can't do without brown ink!)

Anyway, at 25 months, interesting developments have been:

:: He's been singing full songs like "Row your boat" and "Twinkle twinkle little star", in tune, and with his funny pronounciation.  

:: He's been trying to improvise his own lyrics to songs, or make up his own songs.  Recently, we've realized that he thinks the lyrics to the Sunday school song "Deep and wide" mean "Deep and WHITE".  So he adds other verses like "Deep and yellow, deep and blue", combined with the usual actions to the song.  Or he'll invent new songs like "Mama coming mama coming, Juju there!" (to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin")

:: He likes to describe people as "handsome" and "pretty".  He tends to jumble them up though, and say the males are pretty and vice versa.

:: He is still messy during meals.  And loves to mess around with paint.  And now declares "MESSY MESSY!" when he sees a messy pile of papers in the study.

He's growing up really fast, that some days I hope there's a "stop" button I could press...

Thinking Thursdays: Discipline in the family

With Junior J hitting the terrible twos, tantrums have been more frequent.  His ability to "bargain" has been getting better too: "Last time, mama?", "Please mama, 5 minutes?", followed by an innocent doe-eyed look.  While we've been trying to be as firm as we could with the little boy, it has been rather tricky balancing discipline and being affectionate at the same time.  So when our church held a talk on discipline last Saturday, both hubby and myself gladly turned up for it!

I thought I'd quickly share some of the points we took home from the talk, especially as a reminder for ourselves.  Also knowing how messy we are, we would probably lose the notes taken at the talk pretty soon!

So here goes:

1. The number one thing I remembered was "to let your yes be yes and your no be no".  And to be firm about what you say, as children do take the cue from us and know if we mean business.  5 minutes is 5 minutes, and we should avoid empty threats like "we're going to sell you to the karang guni", or "we going off now, bye" (followed by pretending to walk away, which we are guilty of doing sometimes at the shopping centre when Junior J refuses to leave because he wants to play with the mentos vending machine!)

2.  To be able to differentiate between wilful disobedience and childish irresponsibility.  Sometimes as children they might need help/games/prodding to finish tasks. :)

3. To be consistent for every child in the family and to avoid showing favouritism.  

4. And good disciplines to adopt in the family (for more concrete examples, do read this blog)

- Being affectionate: Through compliments, courteous words (I'm sorry, its all right, thank you) and signs of affection.

- Creating memories: Celebrating anniversaries and birthdays, telling stories

- Dependence on God: Through praying as a family and for your children and praying for others (and updating your children about any answered prayers).

- Devotion: Pointing our children to God by reading God's Word and Bible stories, and making church attendance a non-negiotiable.

- Dining together: Making it a point that one person never eats alone if others are in the house, assigning each family member a task in meal preparation/table setting/cleaning, reading verses and praying before every meal and sometimes inviting guests over for meals.

I found the talks by two of our pastors really helpful, and they shared alot of stories and examples.  I guess being a parent isn't easy, but, with God's grace and wisdom (and lots of prayer), we will do what we can! :)

Junior J, praying hard during one of our bible study sessions.
(He does peek sometimes!)

Weaning Wednesdays: How do you feed a toddler during a trip?

I've said this before, but I'll say it again... thank you, dear readers for all your helpful comments!  Last week I asked for suggestions and tips on feeding a fussy toddler, and so many of you responded, and took the time to give me useful suggestions.  It was actually really reassuring knowing I wasn't alone in having a mealtime monster, and comforting to know that they might eventually grow out of it.  Also, thank you for reminders that we should try our best to provide meals, but not get too stressed about how much the child actually eats, and great suggestions like giving them interesting cutlery and serving favourite foods during every meal.  I guess getting kids to eat healthily and well is part of the parenting process.  We are still learning, and its great to be part of a community of parents that are so willing to share their experiences!

Anyway, since I'm down with a cold, my head still feels stuffed with cotton wool and I can't really think straight, I thought I'd ask some more food-related questions this week.  (Perhaps Wed's posts might become mummy SOS posts eventually, heh!)  

So here goes:  How do you feed your toddler/child during overseas trips?  Any tips/suggestions?

Why I'm asking this is because I've been cracking my head over planning Junior J's meals when we head for Taiwan in March.  Yes, we're going there again...

Taken in Taiwan during the last trip (Jan 2010), when Junior J hadn't turned 1.

During the last trip, food preparation for the little boy was still ok, as he was still on mainly oatmeal porridge with veg/protein added in.  I would cook everything in the Petit Terraillon all in one that we have (it beats having to drag a slow-cooker etc along, which my friend said she did last time!), and we would factor in grocery shopping stops along the way to get vegetables etc.  Breakfast was usually cereal, or whatever we could get at the hotel breakfast (if it was provided).  We've survived a medical trip to Yunnan using the same method, and for trips to Malaysia I'd usually cook the boy's meals in the homes of friends/relatives, or sometimes, in the hotel.  

Since Junior J is now mainly on solid food for meals, we're probably going to try to give him rice/noodles when in Taiwan, and try to find protein sources like steamed fish (he hates the texture of pork or beef, so no hong shao nu rou mian, unfortunately!), or boil an egg for some meals.  But knowing how difficult it is to feed toddlers at night markets (where chances are, we'd end up eating oyster omelette and junk food, which he can't eat anyway), I'll probably plan to cook some of his meals, just in case.  Another problem I'm hoping to avoid is the MSG you get in food, especially in Chinese cooking, since the boy seems to get really hyper after he has food with MSG in it.  Whatever the case, we'll probably still bring along the Sack N Seat, for those places without high chairs.  

And this is probably the set-up I'm going to use to cook the food:

I just realized I can invert the steamer base so that I can fit the stainless steel cup (from Pigeon) at the bottom.
So pasta/rice goes into the cup, which is surrounded by boiling water,
and I can steam veg/meat in the top compartment at the same time! :)

So... how do you prepare/settle your child's meals when you are overseas?  Do share! :)

Edited to add:
I've gotten a few queries about the Petit Terraillon, so I thought I'd add some details about it here (and no, this is not a sponsored review, am just sharing as this has been the most useful thing we've had for feeding the boy on the go).  We bought it at the Taka Baby Fair, so I assume it should be available at Takashimaya.  The All-in-one allows you to sterilize bottles, heat up jars of food/bottles of milk, steam and blend food, and is pretty compact (all the compartments nest within each other which saves luggage space).  Right now I'm just using the steamer function to cook food.  The blender attachment (that contains the motor) is a tad hard to attach and remove, so I usually just bring my hand-held blender (we bought the simple one with no other functions) to use if I need to puree anything.  Other useful things I've managed to stuff into the bag containing the All-in-one would be a small chopping board, utensils and a knife, plus the stainless steel cup used to cook rice/pasta/oatmeal.  Hope this helps!

Thankful Tuesdays: Be thankful always

Have been feeling pretty tired the past week, especially with the dissertation to finish on top of other stuff to do.  And I think I'm coming down with a flu... but whatever the case, there are things to be thankful for:

:: God's Word that gives encouragement and teaches us about Him.  Everytime I open the Bible there seems to be some reminder or encouragement, or something new to learn. :)

:: Clouds in the sky.  That bring rain.  That come in funny shapes, like this bunch we spotted just yesterday...

:: Helping hands, both large and small: The hubby who faithfully does the dishes every time.  My mum who has been baby-sitting the past few days so that I can get my writing done.  And the little boy who insists on helping to sweep the floor, and does it quite throughly too!

I remove 2 sections of the "pole" to make it shorter and easier to manage for him.

:: While meals aren't exactly a breeze now, the boy seems to be eating better.  I've been trying different dishes using recommendations and recipe books, and I think he's been liking the variety. :)

:: The funny things kids do/say: The boy never fails to make me laugh.  Like giving me kisses and declaring "Mama happy!".  And the other day, when I was busy preparing breakfast, I gave him a book and asked him to look for the bear (there was no bear, but I was just trying to buy time).  There was alot of "Mama?  Mama, no bear no bear!"... followed by a "AHHHH!  I found it!  Mama, bear in book!"  And I returned to the room to see this:

What are you thankful for today?  Do share! :)

Weekend wanderings: On the sea and in the air

Hubby was post-call on Thursday, and we brought Junior J to see the Russian frigate, Pallada, which was docked at Vivocity.  Met little S and her mummy at Vivo and the two kids had some fun exploring the ship (but they were rather afraid of the sailors, probably because they were "foreign-looking").

There were ropes everywhere...

... and more ropes...

... and as we didn't ask any of the sailors to show us around, we really had no idea what were all the ropes and gear used for.  But the 2 kids got to turn the wooden ship's wheel, kept saluting and saying "ayeaye!", and also played peekaboo with the flags hanging around the sides of the railings.  It was really hot, so we ended up walking around inside Vivocity and had lunch there in the end.

Over the weekend we also managed to try some kite-flying at Upper Peirce.  The weather wasn't too good, and it was drizzling over at our side, but the rain held when we reached the reservoir.  And I had dragged along the dSLR, only to find that it was out of battery, even before I had taken a single shot!  So all these grainy pics were shot using my phone...

Anyway, the wind wasn't in our favour, and came in fits and starts, so this was probably the highest we managed to get the kite in the air:

The boy tried to help us fly the kite too, but spent most of his time getting tangled in the kite string:

All in all, the kite spent most of its time on the ground.  But it was still a nice trip to the park. :)  (Some monkeys jumped on the branches above our heads, thereby splattering some rain water on us.  The hubby told the boy the monkey peed on his head, and the boy went home saying "monkey peepee on head!"... haha...)

We also managed to go swimming on Sunday at the hubby's friend's place.  Hubby played squash and Junior J splashed around at the pool.  He met a 5 year old little girl who brought him to slide down the water slide many times (which got me really surprised as usually he's timid and won't like to try these things!), and they had alot of fun!  

All in all, a pretty good weekend.  :)  Now its back to rushing those corrections for my dissertation again.  Hope you had a great weekend too?  What are your recommended places to go to fly a kite?

Saturday scrapping: The boy and his bear

A quickie post before I turn in, since I'm way too zonked to do my corrections for my dissertation (which made its way back to me yesterday after being checked by the examiners...).  Just a scrap I did for a crop with a bunch of mainly churchmates, using the gorgeous ink-resist papers from Pink Paislee...

Using Pink Paislee's Parisan Anthology papers.  Love the ink-resist patterns pop up after you mist them!

Doing this LO was full of trials and errors.  I ruined a couple of papers along the way, and blur me added glue onto a Staz-On white ink pad instead of the glue pad, and wasted alot of time wondering why on earth my embossing powder didn't stick!  In the end I realized I took out the wrong pad, and managed to get my butterflies done:

... along with a whole load of flowers, which were either stamped or punched out:

Leaves were made using green Staz-On ink on transparency...
I realize stamping leaves on transparencies allow you to flip them the other way
if you want them to point in the opposite direction!
Large flowers were made using a scalloped circle punch. :)
Then it was inking and misting all the way...

The hubby took a look at the half-finished layout, declared it needed more brown, but said that I was getting my style back:

The paper used to mat the photo was also an ink-resist paper, but the fine details didn't show up after misting.
They turned up crisp and clear after I distressed the paper with brown ink though! 

Hmmm.  I seriously am not sure what "style" is he referring to, but I realize there are some things I need to do while making an LO, otherwise I'd feel funny:

:: Put some string on it.  Or twine.  And tie it to something.  A dog.  Or a tree...

:: Include a butterfly in there.  Somewhere.  Somehow...

:: Torture the papers, by punching, inking, misting or rolling them.  Or doing weird things like stamping with bubble wrap.  Or folding paper boats.

And all in all, I think I should stick to blues and browns.  I don't seem to do pink very well!

What are your favourite scrappy techniques that you can't do without?

Thinking Thursdays: The Tower of Babel

¹ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
 ³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

For details on making this craft, refer to the "Learning about God" page. :)

⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

- Genesis 11: 1-9 (NIV)

Junior J and his Papa read through the passage in the NIV Bible (it was hard to find this account in his Bible story books), and built the tower using his building blocks... he also did the craftwork and got to stamp "question mucks" all over, to show that the people were confused. :)

It was a gentle reminder in my case that while I may have my own plans, I need to keep looking to God, for He is in control.  

Have a great weekend! :)


PS: A HUGE thank you to all mummies who took the time to give suggestions in my previous post on feeding toddlers!  Now I have more ideas to try, plus I am comforted that we are not alone in having a mealtime monster, and that they eventually do outgrow it!

Weaning Wednesdays: Some suggestions please?

Some of you may remember me asking about when you mummies started feeding your toddlers full meals consisting of "solid" (ie, non-liquid stuff like porridge) food.  Using your suggestions and taking some advice from some other friends, we started the boy on solid meals some time back... and its been rather tough going.

He's always been quite the mealtime monster.  When he was younger, he would not swallow his porridge and we would need to spoon water/soup to make him do so.  Then he started this whole round of spitting.  Sometimes I wonder how he gets enough food to grow, when I read all the feeding-related posts on the little boy!  And he is growing rather slowly, and has slipped down the percentile chart such that he's now on the 10th percentile only.  Upon asking both our mothers, we found out that we were also difficult to feed.  Hubby's mum had to bring him for walks to feed him his food, while my mum said she fed me porridge until I was 5 years old as I refused to chew!  So its probably no wonder we have a fussy eater on our hands too... Oh well.

Anyway, right now, we've transitioned him to full solid meals, and are trying all sorts of different meals/textures to see what he will eat.  However, my mum keeps nagging me to switch back to porridge, saying that I'm depriving him of food, since sometimes he would refuse to finish his meals, or would start spitting halfway through the meal.  While I'm tempted to do so (since porridge is way easier than trying to make apple chicken balls and pasta on a busy day when you have a toddler hanging on to your leg saying "where's Juju?"), I think the boy does need to chew, and get used to solid meals.  Also, he does sometimes refuse his porridge, so our old tried and tested feeding method sometimes doesn't work.

So parents, help me out here:  What are your feeding suggestions for a two-year old toddler?  Did you have fussy eaters that didn't want to chew their food, and how did you get them to eat their meals?  Oh, and how do you get them to eat meat?  (That has been one particular headache for me!)  Do share! :)  

Thankful Tuesdays: Man's best friend

Grainy pic.  But still a keeper, since it was so hard to get a shot of the boy and dog together!

When you first came to our house, you were malnourished, ridden with scabs and sores, and frightened of almost everything.  We had adopted you off an online classifieds ad posted by your owner, who had been receiving a few warning letters from AVA for keeping 2 dogs in a HDB flat.  You were left in a pet hotel for a few days, and your affectionate nature hated the cage.  All the banging and struggling made your fur drop out, and you were skinny from refusing to eat.  

Hubby and I spent the lunch that was to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary discussing whether to adopt you.  Your owner had named you "Monster", and her other dog "Cookie" (she wanted to call the dogs together as "Cookie Monster"!).  The next day, we officially had a monster under our bed.  Intially you slept outside in your own basket, but would wake up frightened at your surroundings and would look for us in the room.  I would be wakened in the middle of the night by the smell of bad doggy breath and two imploring eyes looking at me.

It took almost a month before you looked like a normal dog.  The scabs were infected, so we had to apply creams, bathe you with special shampoos, and feed you good stuff like eggs to help you gain weight.  We renamed you "Nicky", since you didn't seem to suit your former name (especially when you would cower, shivering under our bed during thunderstorms).  You became part of our little family, joining us for walks in the park... and my constant companion during late nights when I was up marking.  When I was heavily pregnant with Junior J, you would sometimes lean on my tummy to listen... perhaps wondering about what was happening in there.  

You got a little depressed after the little boy came.  Once the center of attention (you ensured it was so by fishing for pats for every single visitor), you were now side-lined.  Formerly, you did have some bad habits that we found were difficult to correct (since you were already an adult when we got you):  Barking like crazy at everyone else (except for us) when they visited, and pawing at people for pats.  Dragging frantically at the leash, especially when you saw cats.  And barking furiously at other dogs.  And with you being sad, it got sorta worse.  You sometimes would purposely leave pee puddles on the kitchen floor.  And sometimes, you would give us this really sad look.  

You still welcomed us enthusiastically every time we came home.  You patiently endured the rather rough pats from the little boy.  I think if dogs were capable of love, you did love us with the whole of your little doggy heart (but I think half of that love was reserved for anyone that gave you a biscuit).  We still enjoyed having you around despite the tantrums and inconveniences (like the time you had a tummyache and pooped on every single carpet we had in the house).  The little boy loved you, always looking under the bed and calling for you.

But unfortunately, Junior J developed a sensitivity to dust and dogs, and with a heavy heart (after ignoring many people's advice to give you away, and trying our best to vacuum and clean more frequently), we tried to find a new home for you.  Thankfully, hubby's parents wanted to take you in.  So there was this flurry of jabs and documents, and now you have crossed over to become a Malaysian "citizen".  The boy intially kept looking for you, but now knows that Nicky is "in Ah Ma's house in Penang".  We sometimes see you on Skype.    

Sometimes people might scoff to see how others love their pets, saying they are just animals.  But you, smelly crazy doggy, do have a special place in all our hearts.  

I miss having a monster under my bed.  And I thank God that He blessed us with a canine friend, even if it was for a few years.  Be good, doggy, and please don't run out of the house again!  (Which was what he did a few days back, causing some panic with my in-laws.)

Monday made: Love is...

is...

Patient

Love is ...

...kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is...

... not rude...

... it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it...

...keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always...

... trusts...

... always...

...hopes...

... always...

... perserveres.

Love...

... never fails.

- 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 (NIV)

Junior J and I made these little hearts over the weekend (hubby was on call, so we stayed home and hung out).  I used a saltdough recipe shared by Jean in an issue of WNC parent (You can read the issue here, and the recipe is on page 24), but modified it: 

I had to add another 3 tablespoons of flour to this version to make it harder,
and the dough needs some kneading.  We added a drop of red food colouring to get pink dough!  

Little boy and I mixed it together, and then tried to cut out the shapes.  The whole process was fraught with all sorts of disasters...  Firstly, the dough wasn't tough enough to allow itself to be cut by the cutter (I should have mixed the dough first while the boy napped and should have left it to harden a little), so we grabbed balls of dough and pressed it into the heart cutters (really cheap if you buy them at Phoon Huat!).  Little boy loved stuffing the dough into the cutters, and once he got so excited he fell off the step-stool!  Then half-way through, he decided he needed to pee, and I couldn't carry him down since my hands were all covered in sticky dough.  I managed to get the potty to him but he had a mini-accident on the stool... To add to that, we had a pesky mosquito flying around biting us.  When we were almost done, Junior J decided he really needed to scratch his bites (but he couldn't since his hands will all sticky too), and leaned over on the counter to show me his bites, while squashing a few of the hearts!

A totally messy affair.  :p  But it was rather easy to clean up.  :)

ANYWAY.  Yes, where was I?  Oh, after cutting and baking the hearts for about 2 hours (I also forgot to poke the holes at the top to allow us to thread the ribbons, so I took them out 20 minutes into baking and used a chopstick.), we let them cool and then outlined the heart using pearlescent glitter (little boy squeezed the tubes, and I just rotated the hearts... and the boy did a few for his friends).  The next evening saw me writing the words using puffy paint (both the glitter and paint were from Popular), and the boy and his Papa had a ball of a time using the hair-dryer to heat up the paint to let it puff up (and Junior J decided along the way that his wet hair needed drying as well)!

Have hung these little reminders of how to love each other on the branches that we have on display, along with our CNY rabbits.  :)  I think they're quite apt for Valentine's day, don't you think?  Have you made little reminders of love recently?

Have a blessed V'day! :)

Saturday scrapping: Sometimes we learn...

I've been having massive cases of "scrap-block" the past few times I've sat down to scrap.  Argh...  Even the hubby notices it, and says I'm losing my scrapping mojo.  Perhaps its because I've hardly have a stretch of time to sit down and scrap away.  Anyway, I did get more time to scrap during the CNY period since the boy was busy playing with his grandparents, so I hastily assembled my materials and scrapped in the dining room (since our study was being used as a guest room for the in-laws).

So this was one of the projects I managed to complete while making a complete mess of the dining table:

Our Feb assignment for Papermarket was to use their new limited edition roses.  I thought I'd try something new by messing with paint in the background...

Photo of the little boy "ordering" pizza in Botanics.  I used the roses, paint, buttons, and the mini patterned papers from Sassafrass Lass Mix and Mend collection.

... but it turned out messier than I would like it to be.  (Told you, it was massive scrap block!)  Anyway, while struggling with scrapping, I think I've learnt a few lessons this round:

:: Painting is hard work.  The almost effortless splish splash of random splatters of paint on some LOs I've seen isn't easy to achieve.  Or perhaps I'm not good at painting... after all, Junior J seems to be way better at it than me.  I think I'll try to practice with him when he paints next time!

:: Hand-sewing using a uber-fine needle is painfully slow work, especially if you have to poke through many pieces of paper:

:: Both my boys are decidedly opinionated with regards to scrapbooking:  The hubby kept saying I needed to add lots of leaves to the LO to make it look like the boy was really in a garden (for a previous LO he kept telling me to add a nice bright yellow sun to it).  And the little boy insisted that I buy the Making Memories metal butterfly charms instead of the paper Prima butterflies (I think it was more because the charms made a rattling sound in the box, while the paper ones didn't!)!

Ok, gotta go, the boy is up... and we're going to make salt dough hearts! :)

Thinking Thursdays: This is the account of Noah

"... the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground... But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.  Noah was a righteous man..."

"... make yourself an ark of cypress wood... You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female to keep them alive with you... You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."

"Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.  And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth."

"Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth.  Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark."

 "The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.  But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded... the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat."

"And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.  Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."

- Excerpts from Genesis 6-9 (NIV)

Disclaimer: This is just a "role-play" we did at home using the boy's lego, and by no means is a good/accurate representation of the story (please refer to the Bible for the proper version!)... this version has been edited to omit other irrelevant events that happened during our role play, like the giraffes running away to hide in the sofa, and the elephant going for a swim during the flood.  The boy had fun, and herded the animals into the "ark" every night saying "OH NO!  Its raining!  HURRY HURRY!".

Some thoughts:

We also read the version from his Bible storybook... and also "read" "Noah's Ark" by Peter Spier.  It actually is more like a picture book since there was only text (a poem) on one page, the rest were filled with gorgeous pictures covering the account of the flood, and we had a fruitful time pouring over the illustrations.  What I liked were the beautiful illustrations that brought the story to life: The difficulties Noah might have faced in keeping all those animals in the ark during the flood, as well as the seriousness of the flood (animals that were left behind, cities drowned, something you hardly see in most storybooks, which allow for more discussion for older kids).

While reading through the account in the Bible and working through the story with the little boy, I must say that I too have learnt.  I am reminded of God's faithfulness and care for His people.  And when the day gets tough, Noah's trust and obedience encourages me.  After all, one cranky post flu jab toddler is nothing compared to building a huge ark, or clearing a floating zoo's worth of poop. :)

Thankful Tuesdays: Today, I give thanks that...

... the good Lord gave to me:

5 years of marriage...

4 great grandparents...

My fav shot of the week turned out blur. :(  But its still a keeper in my opinion. :)

3 cosy bedrooms...

2 boys to love...

... and Jesus who died and saved me!

PS: Short post today.  The boy has been rather fretful as he had a flu jab yesterday.  Also, he's been a mealtime monster (refusing to drink his milk during breakfast since Mon, and also spitting out his meals that are full solids), so I'm off to try to churn out something yummy in the hope that he will eat!

What are you thankful for today?