Dressing Kids Up - Tip #5

Dressing Kids Up Tip #5 - The right pants.
I think baggy cargo berms need to make an exit asap. Boys should don tapered knee-length pants already. Smart, neat and classic. Seriously, I haven't seen any retailing so maybe you can consider doing a bit of altering.

Sidra is a lucky boy cos his mom makes them herself.

Photo courtesy of Novita.

We Miss Gigs

Finally got round to sending the cybergamer brother to the airport last night. He was off to Seoul to challenge but we killed two birds with a stone; gathered a bit to meet The Guragas before he heads back ozzie for start of term.



And why I still yearn for a DSLR; Depth-of-field photos. Did I mention I lost my Nikon FM2 while I studying?

Dressing Kids Up - Tip #4

Dressing Kids Up Tip #4 - The right shades.
Sunglasses are one of the best accessory to play with but trendy kids only wear selected kind. Candy-coloured frames may be electro but only if your child is Kingston Rossdale, on kids they look more like they're wearing toys. Go for adult-looking kinds but no chrome or metallic pls. Think Nicole Ritchie. Gap and Old Navy normally have good-looking pairs in their summer collection and I've seen mini-wayferers at Accessorize.

Nathaniel shows you how:

Photo courtesy of Yvonne & Leon (yveon.com)

Dressing Kids Up - Tip #3

Dressing Kids Up Tip #3 - The right print.
Kids love their cartoon. It's fine but not on their clothing. I try as much as I can to avoid this despite being tempted several times just to see my kids happy. BUT. There are other ways to make them happy, eh? Don't have to give them the option they never had. ahah. I'm sure they'll appreciate it when they're older.

Stripes and polka dots are my all-time favourites.
But Sofia's a star:

Andz and daughter, Sofia. Pic courtesy of Andz

Dressing Kids Up - Tip #2

Dressing Kids Up Tip #2 - The right size.
Like most parents, I'm guilty of buying bigger-sized clothes for my kids too in hopes that they 'can wear longer' but most of the time, they end up in the closet for a long time before they can fit nicely. Unless you're going for a full hip-hop getup, I find bigger/baggy outfit makes child look sloppy-ish. Under-sized is somewhat acceptable sometimes, usually showing off a belly which is the cutest body part of a kid.
When the size is right:

Rifqy and Deidra with mommies. Pic courtesy of Shida and Azrin.

Dressing Kids Up - Tip #1

I'm no fashionista and I only have two kids so that doesn't make me a worldly expert in giving tips on dressing kids up but I realised I made certain rules by chance after much trial and error. My two kids have very different body type and I've discovered that what looks good on one may not look good on the other. I can share a bit on this lah but it's solely based on personal preference.

Dressing Kids Up Tip #1 - Knowing the suitable cut.
I've seen a photo of a cute little girl clad in a pretty dress from Kids 21 but the whole look failed for reason being the dress looked huge with prints almost as big as her head. It was poofy and and the length went all the way down her ankles. Too much fabric with huge prints, you can barely see the girl. Expensive and pretty clothes may not always compliment the child. You should find out what suits her best. Alterations may sometimes help too.

I realised this many times with Munchkin cos she's skinny and often does not pull off sleeveless or strappy dresses/tops well. The armhole ends up looking like it's meant for five arms. Sometimes I nip the extra length from the shoulders so the armhole is reduced. Sometimes if the dress is suitable and if weather permits, I layer the dress over a tee for a pinafore-look or layer a cardigan or jacket over the dress.


Iyub and daughter, Anais. pic courtesy of Iyub and Dita

One Year Old

Pumpkin turns one tomorrow but since I had gotten these junior gig-goers to come over last friday, I made it an excuse to celebrate her 1st.

Toilet-training

Following suit of being late was toilet-training. I read on parents who introduced the potty to their less-than-a-year-old babies which means Munchkin would come off as extremely delayed. I was hoping that it would be one of the things she'd be naturally ready about so I waited till she was 2.5yrs, I introduced her to training pants but upon putting them on, she hated it. She needed diapers for security. At that moment, I could see the problems I’d be getting into.

Since the time I kept persuading her to go diaper-free, she relented only a couple of months ago. Even then, she started trials on weekends since she didn't have to go to school. It was only last month when I decided to go full-force during her June hols. The things is, I skipped potty and put her straight to toilet with the child seat cos knowing her, she has difficulty adapting to changes in routine so from a potty to toilet would take another series of persuasion.

As I haven't been blessed with the virtue of patience, I found the whole issue more frustrating than weaning her off pacifier (which was horrifying but still do-able cos it was within my control). I was frustrated with not being able to control the whole toilet action- I wouldnt know when she'd have the urge; it took a lot of persuasion to get her to go to the bathroom; if nothing came out, I was not to let her sit too long (or she'd take it as a punishment); and if she had accidents, I was not come off disappointed or she'll be discouraged and want to turn to diapers instead. I did a motivational chart as a form of encouragement for her to go to the bathroom, but eventually, the novelty wore off. Pretty underpants didn’t appeal her either so the lazy mother just got more waterproof training pants to minimize cleaning up ‘accidents’. These pants are brilliant though cos not only can the child feel the wetness, but the pants itself is able to hold urine until child gets to bathroom. I kept wondering if Munchkin was not able to recognize the urge or did she forget to ‘feel’ that she needed to go so.. after the 3rd week, I sort of ‘gave up’ and just let her wet her pants in hopes that she will eventually recognize the feeling of needing to go to the bathroom. She’d usually say she’d want to pee after she did or just a second before she peed so a couple of days before her month-long holiday ended, when she said she needed to pee, I was expecting wet pants as I removed for her in the bathroom but lo and behold! It was dry!! She peed slightly afterwards (still in the bathroom) and made me feel like I just won a million dollars (ok maybe a thousand dollars).

She had been quite consistent since, a couple of accidents but not enough to cause disruption though I have not taken her off diapers when outdoors and bedtime. But the whole point is, I realized it’s a super big deal for a parent, that the lateness (at almost 3.5yrs) didn’t kill off the proud parent-moment of every accomplishment. In fact, it’s a bigger relief cos it was a task long overdue but finally completed.


A star-sticker progress chart I made for her. Oh the effort. And the prize - anything that comes in a box with ribbon excites her so I didn't need anything pricey.

Munchkin's Baby Story

Almost every blogging mom I know will, up to a certain degree, blog about their baby's milestones or kids' accomplishment. And to most, that was why they started blogging in the first place. As much as I try to avoid it, blog like I did in 2001 of all things useless and random, I can't cos the best part is, crazy mothers have the tendency to look back and check on what their children did at which age (ok not crazy but we're sentimental like that, can?).

So there aren't any here on Munchkin when she was a baby cos I was inconsistently toggling between multiply and LJ at that time but today there's a need to mention a bit cos it's a sort of reference to my next entry.

Munch was pretty much late in everything. Everything except for speech. And flipping over. She flipped at 3mths 3weeks cos she was an angry baby majoring in kicking. She was wailing and kicking 22hours a day and that day she exerted a little too much force in her kick that she accidentally flipped herself over (it also helped that she was featherweight). The wailing stopped cos she was in awe of seeing the whole world in a different perspective, not just the ceiling.

As for speech, her 1st two words she really meant (babbling mamamama or papapa don't count cos we didn't think she meant them) was burb (bird) and tet (cat) at 8mths but she had pretty good vocab by the time she turned 1. And my theory in this was, because of her short-tempered nature, she couldn't cope very well with people around her not being able to understand what she wanted.

Anyway, the rest came in late. Crawling at 8mths, walking on her own at 15mths, but there's this one that no one can beat - Teething! Her 1st tooth came out at *......drumroll.......* 22 MTHS!. I can't imagine how dreadful it'll be for her if her milk teeth will only drop when she's 13 or so (as mister said, was what happened to his brother).

So if you hear anyone complaining their babies not teething yet, well now you can tell her/him that you know of one who started teething close to turning two.

Little-Me

During the outing to PLAYtime with Feza and Elly last Sunday, we got round to window-shopping a little, first stop being the famous evil accessory shop at Raffles City. Upon entering, I found all four of us completely immersed in the frenzy of colors and glitters of the knick-knacks. In the midst of checking them out, Munchkin found interest in a purple hairband with a large flower while Elly showed her mom a colorful beaded bracelet. At this moment I laughed out loud when Feza replied "yes, yes I know you like that". The scene got recorded in my head before everything else around us turned slow-mo while orchestral music faded-in with me realising that: These 3-year-olds have turned into Little-Us! It's part endearing part frightening. Frightening cos I'm not sure if I'm mentally prepared for more grown-up-like actions from my 1st-born.