36 weeks 4 days

I'm still eating a lot. Although I had some nausea and breathlessness, that doesn't stop me from eating and eating. Eager to know baby's weight and whether she has engaged during this Thurday's check up. I'll be able to hear her heart beat that day. We are doing a heart beat test for 20 min.

I've a feeling she might be engaged as I've a feeling of something pressing down whenever I get contractions. Frightening feeling coz it feels like baby is being squeezed out.

She has damn strong kicks n punches. Really painful sometimes. I kept video records of her movements. Must show it to her when she's older.

It is 3am + and I couldnt sleep due to hunger. Ate a swissroll & drank milk & took my supplements. I have this feeling that this is preparing me for the middle of the night feeding when Caitlin arrives.

Dreading the newborn caring phase all over again but then again I'm excited and looking forward to seeing baby Caitlin. I just dreamt of her yesterday. She looks gentle and sweet and peaceful. When oh when will she arrive? 1 August or 8 August or right on the EDD 22 Aug?

Big baby?!

Oh my God!

I had this thought that baby was 2kg at 32 weeks but when I checked back again, I realised she's actually 1.6kg at 32 weeks!

At 32 weeks, she's 1.6kg, at 35 weeks she shoots up to 2.5kg. This means she grew 0.9kg in 3 weeks! At this rate, she'll be way past 3kg at full term! She'll be much heavier than Kieran at birth, and I'm still eating and eating and eating...

Her gor gor didn't reach 3kg at birth. I guess because that pregnancy wasn't easy. I vomited everyday for first 6 months, and I lost lots of weight. This time, I didn't vomit much. Only vomited max of 5 times in first trimester, not including the dreaded stomach flu which I contracted twice. Shudder...

35 weeks 5 days: sudden nausea

35 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Suddenly, this evening, I felt nausea and dizziness. Happened just before dinner.

I'm thankful that my mom is here to help. She helped to cook and shower Kieran, and I'm glad to hear Kieran happily running here and there, eating his dinner, eating his fruits and in very good mood playing with his toys although mummy couldn't be there to play with him. I was lying down all the while. I switched on Xin Jing to listen, and to let baby Caitlin listen, and lie down on bed, hoping the nauseating feeling will go away soon. My head was hurting too and I felt almost like I had in first trimester. I hope this won't happen again.

My mom helped me buy young coconut from Fairprice. Maybe I'll drink it tomorrow morning after Kieran goes to school.

Kieran is still not looking forward to school. Sigh. I hope one day he will tell me he wants to go to school and urge me to hurry up dress him and bring him to school to play with teachers and friends. His unwillingness to go to school also makes me reluctant to place him on longer hours.

I am initially interseted in Kinderland preschool as its near my parents' place. I had wanted to bring Kieran to the open house this Friday. But after finding out the school fees, I aborted the idea. It was $1600+ for term 4 last year. My goodness gracious! Its 3hr per day lesson with 1hr most likely used up for breakfast or lunch, and only 2 hr or less for actual lessons, and they want to charge this kind of price! I'd rather send Kieran to enrichment lessons like music and phonics with extra money.

This Thursday, I'm going out with friends. Leaving Kieran with my parents. I hope nothing will happen to Kieran. Pray hard!

And this Friday hubby suggested we can try to go to Circuit Road for dinner, as because of an accident, we couldn't go last week... But I think its kind of jinxed... not sure whether we should go. I'd rather keep Kieran safe and sound.

I'm not destined to enjoy anything...

Please let my son be safe. No illness and no injuries. That happens again and I'm really going to break down.

35 weeks

Baby Caitlin is 2.5kg at 35 weeks. Seen Dr Ho yesterday. He said baby is gaining weight steadily so its alright.

I should have eaten more red apples, should eat one everyday like how I do when I'm having Kieran so that baby will have good skin.

I should start to have young coconut juice now.

But very very tired. Nowadays too tired to do anything.

The toys are all over the floor and the baby room is not packed yet. No motivation these few days.

Feel like just taking a stroll somewhere. Feel like shopping at IKEA but then again, there isn't anything much to buy. Feel like having hubby accompanying me.

Having a lot of negative thoughts. Negativism is exhausting on the mind and spirit.

Looking forward to going out on a dinner outing with hubby without Kieran tomorrow. But not sure whether I'll be happy after eating the nice food, or if the food will be nice.

Kieran reciting Chinese Nursery Rhyme

I promised to upload Kieran's video of him reciting “三轮车跑得快”, so here it is. 

I tried to capture him saying 弟子规（总序）but he refused. So better luck next time!

Preparation for little Caitlin

Handwashed and folded and kept all the new clothes for little Caitlin. I especially bought some of the clothes for special occasions like her home coming from the hospital, full month celebration, and Kieran's birthday. I hope Caitlin is fair as the bright pink looks nice on fair skin.

Not difficult to guess the gender of our second baby once you look at these sets of clothes right? Haha

These are what I've prepared for home coming for Caitlin. The bear cap is a gift from a friend Jin Xian, and belonged to Kieran. It looks small and cute and just right for a little newborn Princess. The elephant embroidered pink shirt is a gift from Xiao Yi (my youngest sister), the washcloth is a free gift from Spring Maternity and the swaddle is Kieran's old one bought by Grand Aunt. The mittens are new, and I bought them from the last baby fair that I went to. Looking forward to having Caitlin wearing these and coming home with us.

All nicely packed in clean Ziplock bag and kept in my hospital bag. I've to pack and keep everything now in case my pregnancy brain forgets this and that when the day nears.

34 weeks 5 days

Here is me at 34 weeks and 5 days into my pregnancy.

Tummy doesn't seem to be very big. I didn't have very big tummy during my first pregnancy too, but I had water retention which made me look swollen. This time, hurray! No water retention and not much stretch marks too. But belly button popped out, sadly. Took one year to flatten back after first child birth and now its out again.

My baby Caitlin is kicking me more strongly now, as if she's protesting that there's no more space for her inside. I asked a friend who has a baby girl, whether her girl kicked her strongly too. I guess some girls are more gentle. She said her girl never gave her strong kicks, whereas her boy (she's pregnant with a boy) is now giving her strong karate kicks and punches very often. Hmm that means both my boy and girl are "violent" babies huh?!

Sadly I'm having flu now and I wake up with stuffy nose and sore throat everyday. When I sleep, I also had to bear with one side of my nose blocked, whichever side I'm lying on.

And I have to protect my tummy every time I hug Kieran to sleep because he likes to kick his legs before he doze off. I think some mummy somewhere must have invented some tummy protecting armour just for mummies with little toddlers.

My symptoms now are:

• Frequent urination. At night, I have to get up about 4 times to go toilet.
• Frequent contraction. I feel tummy tightening to become rock-hard, and sometimes if I'm lying down when it happens, I get backaches too.
• Aching legs. If I walk too much or stand for too long, it happens, usually at the end of the day. 
• Urge to drink water or beverage. I drink lots of liquid now. Listening to my body. I think its because my breasts are producing milk in preparation for baby.
• Cravings to eat sweet stuff but the urge is lesser now. Last few weeks, I guess baby had a growth spurt and everyday after 4pm, I was eating and eating and eating. My fridge suddenly became filled with food.
• Right side, upper thigh, and near to waist area hurts terribly if I sat down on the floor in one position for too long. I guess its sciatic nerve pain. Had that for first one too. It's getting increasingly difficult to get up from sitting on floor to standing position.
• Had insomnia sometimes. 
• Panicking about things occasionally... especially when I start to worry about what happens after baby is here, how we can adapt to another baby, and how to be control of my life when everything becomes chaotic once more.

I'm looking forward to seeing Dr Ho again this Thurs for 35th week review. Looking forward to seeing baby on the ultrasound monitor again. Every time I sees him, Dr Ho says everything is well. This pregnancy is too smooth sailing to be true. In fact, I never get extra fats, never had very nauseating symptoms or extreme exhaustion or that irritating eczema all over my body, like I had with my first.

Back to school

Kieran finally went back to school after one week of absence. He cried this morning when I left him but he got used to it quickly and he's happy today when my mom and I brought him back home.

I'm so happy that Kieran is well again. He is his usual self, happy, playing on his own and not extremely sticky to me. Phew. I can eat my lunch in peace. He even allowed my mom to carry him to sleep! Now he's napping in his room while I just finished doing the chores.

Playpen is wiped, my lovely baby new clothes are hand washed and hung up to dry. I stood in the bathroom for at least an hour to wash the clothes. I feel so happy hand washing my baby's new clothes myself. Bought with love, washed with love :)

Just that we can't sun dry the mattress today because there's no strong sun. Try our luck tomorrow. Today is really a windy and cool day and that lifts my spirits.

Oh yah, and we went to the Mothercare VIP launch of Baby Bjorn Carrier One last friday. It was quite well done and Kieran had fun going around the store looking at and touching the toys, baby cots, etc.

Here's our pictures at the launch.

Sick and rest needed!

This is so irritating! I am sick now, and I have been sick for very very long, and I desperately needed a rest!

The worst is I have to care for a sick toddler for past one week, and he didn't go to school, and my mom wasn't here to help full time, and this toddler is sticky only to his poor mummy.

And today, everyone had their own activities. Today is Sunday. We are supposed to go to my parents in law's house. Parents in laws are busy with activities and hubby is busy with activities, and so the care of baby is left to ME again! And I am sick. For goodness sake. This sucks.

Yesterday I took care of baby whole night too but that's ok as he never really cry much but I will try to let him self settle awhile and if he couldn't, I'll go to hug him. And hubby had to come into the room trying to help every time baby cries. This made me so irritated as I will feel obliged to have to go and take care of baby every time he cries, otherwise hubby will take over or carry him away. But I do not want him to carry him away. He CAN self settle at times! Carrying him away is not necessary to deal with it! He'll never learn to self settle if we kept doing it.

Woke up with runny nose and blocked nose that has already been bugging me the whole night (and actually for every nights for the past week), and that already made me feel so horrible. And I had to leak urine every time I sneeze (due to pregnancy- the hormones that relaxes the muscles and the heavy weighing down on the bladder)! I had to change pantyliners and wash the panties twice last night. And my throat was so parched during the middle of the night, I had to go and drink some water to relieve the dry itchiness.

All these and today, everyone tells me they have some kind of activities to be busy with and cannot help to take care of baby.

I wished to leave baby there for awhile and take a good break, and just focus on taking care of my own body for a change. And nobody will understand. Why can't a stay home mom get MC leaves? I'm going to go on strike today.

Everything just sucks to the max today.

Panic

I'm in my 34th week now. And I'm just starting to panic a little bit. There are quite a few things undone yet for preparation of baby Caitlin...

• Cleaning the playpen. Daddy has set it up last week and now I need to clean it. Thinking of using Dettol to wipe it and then clean it with new cloth wet with water.
• Sunning the mattress and washing the mattress covers.
• Washing Caitlin's new clothes. I've washed the hand me downs but the new clothes, not yet as I need to hand wash them and I'm a bit lazy to do that last few weeks, and also Kieran hasn't been going to school due to his flu so I don't really have the free time in the mornings to wash them.
• Packing baby room. My dad has passed me the toyogo plastic box and I need to pack and maybe repack the cabinets.
• Hospital bag half packed... I haven't pack in lots of stuff like my sleep wear and going home outfit and of course baby's new outfit and swaddle to go home in coz I haven't washed them yet. This time, my hospital bag is much much lighter than the one I brought when I had Kieran. I had experience now mah. No need for so many things. Haha.

This coming Thursday, I'm going to meet Dr Ho again for a baby scan and that will be my 35th week. I hope baby has grown bigger now. I hope she'll pass the 2kg mark.

And next Thursday, 25 July, I'm going to meet my mummies friends for shopping at Taka Baby fair and for high tea. That will be the last last last shopping and chatting session with friends before baby arrives. I'm grateful for my parents for agreeing readily to help me take care of Kieran when I need it. No complaints, no worries, just told me to go ahead and they'll take good care of my son, and also their precious grandson. Parents are God-sent angels in our lives :)

I'm also hoping to meet insurance agents to talk about buying health insurance for my little ones, and for myself too since I'm thinking of changing my current one to a better insurance policy.

And I'm hoping to go for a dinner or lunch date with hubby only (No baby tagging along) and enjoy a nice meal and couple time with hubby before baby arrives, and turn our lives happily upside down once again.

And if time allows, I'm hoping to get a pre natal massage too!

So much to do before baby comes! And if baby decides to pop at say 37th week which is her full term, I've only got 3 more weeks to go! And week 34 is ending soon... We don't have many weekends left. So... panicking now... Ok, I'll better wash those clothes and mattress at least by next week!

Kieran down with flu

Kieran has flu and his temperature raises once or twice during the day, and usually once at night.

We brought him to see paediatrician at Mount Alvernia today.

I'm a tired mummy. Dark eye circles appeared again. Not going to let Kieran attend school for this week.

Thankfully daddy took childcare leave and Nai nai came to help out, otherwise things will be worse.

Kieran was so eager to get out of the house just now, he kept bugging us to go out. He kept saying “出去，出去，去 NTUC (Fairprice)” I told him, "等等好吗？等爸爸冲好凉才走。" He said “不好！不要等！” Then proceeded to help me take my shoes. "妈妈穿鞋。"He said. And then kept pulling at my bag, “妈妈拿bag。” Finally I told him "ok, 妈妈换衣服，换了衣服才可以出去。" He happily followed me into the bedroom to change clothes, knowing there's some progress in preparation to go out. I am done changing and was talking to him outside our bathroom door. Once daddy came out from the bathroom, he went out to get daddy's shoes, "爸爸穿鞋！"LOL. Not a minute lost. Kieran will make sure we don't dilly dally. He's super happy when we finally get out of the house and make our way to the NTUC store at the next block. He happily explored the shelves of interesting objects and making comments at every thing that interests him. Very active little boy. Doesn't seem like a boy with fever. We had actually wanted to bring him to NEX at Serangoon for some shopping after dinner but his temperature raised again so we decided that we will just go downstairs. And Kieran is satisfied with that. We bought a chocolate Swiss roll for breakfast tomorrow but he insisted on having it so I gave him one small slice.

I enjoy talking to Kieran very much. He could explain to us what he saw at Universal Studio last week, and how he felt about the fireworks, the rides and the things he saw and heard. Its so interesting to hear him talk and he's so cute.

His favourite toys now are Lego and stickers. He could spend several minutes assembling and de-assembling the Lego blocks, playing alone. I gave him my old sticker book filled with stickers I collected when I was young, and he loves playing with it. Of course most of the stickers were destroyed by him, but at least we don't need to buy new ones. He has got lots of old stickers to entertain himself with.

Abuse at Childcare centre

I am horrified at a case of abuse at a Child care centre in Singapore. I'm sure although this case surfaces due to its severity, it is just the tip of the ice berg. There might be more of such things happening behind closed doors which we did not know about.

This is a Childcare centre at Toa Payoh called "My First Skool" run by NTUC.

Links to videos of abuse are here on the parents' facebook page:
Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151557043991849
Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151557217131849

And Mr Brown blogged about it: http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2013/07/child-abuse-case-at-first-skool.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mrbrown+%28mrbrown%29#sthash.J0rUyDMv.gbpl
And the Malay teacher Siti Hadijah, a woman in her 50s, was later arrested, as reported in The Straits Times: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/police-arrest-childcare-teacher-who-allegedly-caused-injuries-3-year-o

The videos are so heartbreaking! I heard the mother cried and moaned "My child was tortured!" when watching the video captured by CCTV and the father demanding to know why the teacher did that to his boy.

The boy is a 3 year old toddler. He is active and he may not listen to instructions but he did all these because he's a toddler! It's a perfectly normal behaviour for a young child to want to play and jump around, and misbehave. It is totally NOT ok for an adult to insult, slap or slam the child down hard on the floor to stop him from trying to run around and play.

Some of the reactions adults took to children's behaviour are totally irrational but they could not see it and reasoned that they are "disciplining" the child. My friend said her hubby would cane their daughter whenever she goes to play with the powerpoint at their house. I asked her "So after caning, would she stop going to play with it ever again?" She said, no, the daughter still continues to do so. Then why do you keep using the cane when its ineffective? Puzzling, isn't it? Albert Einstein once said that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Sometimes we just don't THINK.

I hope the teacher can be punished severely and the school and the principal be given serious warning too. This can serve as a strong warning to all Childcare operators and teaching staff.

Any parent considering sending their children to childcare centres have to do their research to find out which one is good and which one is bad. I've heard enough horror stories about Childcare centres.

Centres like My First Skool are generally well thought of by parents, so its surprising that such an abuse case happened there!

I've heard parents complaining about one of the child care centres at Sengkang. The child came home saying "teacher beat, teacher beat". And when I called up that centre, the teacher cannot speak English or understand me, and when I tried speaking Chinese to her, she has a strong Malaysian chinese accent. I guess most centres staff themselves with cheaper foreign labours whom they can make to work long hours, in order to save cost and maximise profit? Anyway this centre is out.

A friend who worked in a childcare centre part time told me she saw the teacher held a boy up by his shirt collar and threw him onto the chair when he ran around after she gave instructions to sit down. When confronted, the teacher said this is the only way to treat the children, otherwise they will be too disobedient. My goodness! This is what a child care teacher thinks? My friend said the centre is clearly over crowded, too many students and too understaffed, and the children are very naughty, running around, going hay wired. When you don't give enough activities to stimulate the children, that's what they do. They don't sit down and guai guai wait for you to instruct them to sit or stand. When the centre is understaffed and curriculum improperly planned, that's what happened. And if you treat the children with aggression, that's what they learnt too. They also became aggressive and unruly.

Another friend who once worked in a local childcare centre said one of teachers locked a boy in the toilet and scolded him, and the principal, being on good terms with the teacher, ignored the situation. That's totally unacceptable. Locking small children in a confined area is really scary for them!

Then I've visited another centre near where I stay and one minute there is enough to tell me its a "No". The Chinese teacher didn't sound like she's teaching Chinese, more like barking instructions, and when she brought the children out to playground, she's constantly scolding the children. And she's the only teacher who brought the children out, no assistants. Understaffed, I guess? And while I was there observing, another teacher, the English teacher was scolding a girl for playing in the toilet or something like that. Its not the problem with scolding but I couldn't see any love in the actions or hear love in the tone of the voice. They don't seem to enjoy their job at all. And this centre's charges are high.

Then I chose to send Kieran for half day to Ci Ai, mainly because its clean as its a new school, students  there are not a lot as its new, and the teaching staff there, as far as I can see, are rather caring. But I'm not taking any chances. I'm peeping in whenever I could to make sure he's ok and the teachers are not harsh on him or other children. Kieran has a great English teacher but she has left for further studies, and he now has a very nice Chinese teacher. He also likes the Centre supervisor who always bring him in during the mornings, and wash his hands, and take him to the breakfast table. He also remembers the songs that the Chinese teacher teaches him, and he sings for us. But there are a few teachers or assistants there who are really fierce and deals with the naughtier children. I saw another teacher scolding a boy in his playgroup who is more active and doesn't listen to instructions as well as they hope he would. I'm glad Kieran can speak well, communicate well with the teachers, listens to instructions (because he can understand what we say and respond accordingly which may not be so for many toddlers yet), and he doesn't like running around. But then afternoon, they will close the windows, pull down the blinds, and let the children nap. And you never know what's happening behind the closed doors. That is why I am very reluctant to let him continue on the afternoon sessions although it would be good for me and other caregivers when our Caitlin is born, and also more rest for me now when I am in the 3rd trimester. Sigh. I hope I can do more for little Kieran and I really hope there's someone else who can help to care for him as well as I do, in my absence. But this is really difficult. Nobody can replace the mother, not even if you engage the best nanny with the highest pay. Who can tolerate the child's tantrums with a forgiving heart and will discipline with the objective of love and not because of anger and frustration, as well as I do? Kieran made me so tired sometimes but as a mother, we just forgive and love.

Pregnancy at 32 weeks

Mummy:

• Big and heavy tummy. Walking, sitting, and even lying down is uncomfortable!
• Aching back... ouch!
• Tummyaches. Ever since this pregnancy started, I've got a sensitive tummy. Don't remember that happening while I had Kieran. I couldn't take too much milk as I had mild lactose intolerance, I couldn't take raw things like eggs, and I just realised I had allergic reaction to kiwi fruits. I ate golden kiwi few months ago and I got a super tummy pain for hours. Today, I forgot about it and ate one small slice of green kiwi. My inner ears, the connecting part between ears and throat started to itch terribly, and I later got tummy ache too. I read online that this is an allergic reaction. 
• Two nights ago, I woke up with serious tummy ache. 
• Frequent urge to urinate. Last night, I visited the toilet 4 times at night. Sometimes, I can pee 10 minutes after just peeing. Sigh. Super troublesome.
• Having to carry Kieran when he's fussy. I've got no choice. I can't deny him of mummy's hugs even though I've a big tummy.
• Frequent tired feeling. Sometimes when I get tired and sleepy, I just need to nua and not do anything. My poor Kieran :(
• Sometimes, I feel energetic all of a sudden. 2 days ago, I felt great and I could do grocery shopping, mop the floor, wash baby clothes, and play with Kieran, and then yesterday, I suddenly felt sleepy and weak and couldn't do much. Unpredictable.
• Weight gained so far is 11kg.
• No signs of water retention, unlike first pregnancy when I have to remove my wedding ring and buy larger shoes because of swelling. And my face was swollen like pig too!
• No visible stretchmarks but I don't care much about these too. I had a few small light ones for first pregnancy and they faded within a year.

Baby:

• Baby Caitlin was 1.6kg at 32 weeks check up. Doctor said she's on the small side but she's ok, and I do not need to change my diet. I asked hubby whether I should eat some durians like what people say, to increase baby's weight. He said its ok. Big babies are not easy to give birth to too... hmm. I shall just wait a few weeks and see if baby weight increases.
• She's at a good position to give birth in. I hope she stays that way! Head down, face down.
• I'm counting her kicks everyday now. She's super active! And her favourite activity is to punch my bladder. Hurts!

Hubby:

• Hubby is lovely. He went to work late everyday so that he can help me send Kieran to school, and he has to get home late every night and that's really tiring.
• He massaged for me almost every night, unless Kieran made us both too tired and we only had energy left to wash up and go to bed.
• He's definitely looking forward to meeting our darling daughter. He talks to her almost everyday and asks her to be good.

Kieran (the soon to be big brother):

• Kieran is a darling. He knew a baby is in my tummy long time ago. He would point to baby picture and point to my tummy and told me its the same. 
• Sometimes I told him about baby in my tummy, he will tell baby to "get up" (and not keep staying in the tummy, I guess). 
• Yesterday, I told him to listen to mummy's tummy, and he curiously put his ear at my tummy. I asked him "what does mei mei say to you?" He listened intently but he couldn't hear anything. So I asked him, "Did mei mei say 'gor gor'?" He said "yes" happily and nowadays, whenever, I get him to listen to my tummy and asked him what mei mei say, he will say "gor gor." Hubby found that really amusing. Kieran really made our lives so much happier and much more fulfilling. Although he can make me feel super tired and aching all over my body, all the pain and challenges are worth it.

I'm so exhausted everyday taking care of toddler and handling the pregnancy woos. But I'm glad hubby and my parents are supportive and came to help everyday to help tide things through. I'm so looking forward to the day I hold little Caitlin in my arms. But I'm more looking forward to the day I need not carry the heavy tummy around anymore! At least when she's out, other people can do the carrying for me. But I'm remaining positive. I'm going to have a lovely little girl who will have all the attractive features of her daddy (I'm praying for that!), and in the future, my son and daughter will be great playmates. I think the future is bright and that keeps me going when the going gets tough. I look forward to seeing hubby's joy when he meets our daughter. He always wanted a daughter, and as Buddhists believe, a soul chooses to be a girl if it is closer to the father, and hubby always said he's not so good in yuan fen to have a soul choosing to be closer to him, but indeed he does. So I'm sure this experience will be much more special to him then to me.

Planting green beans

I've always loved Nature and plants, so I want Kieran to be able to enjoy and appreciate them too.

Yesterday, we planted some green beans.

I showed him the Yakult bottle that we will plant the beans in. He finished up the drink in the bottle and I washed it clean and told him we are planting green beans in it. He didn't know what it is but he can sense it must be something fun and he's excited about it.

I let him touch the soft cotton wool balls and told him what it is. He thought its the "cotton candy" that I let him eat few months earlier at the Fo guang shan fun fair. LOL. He has good memory.

I let him touch the cool water I poured on a plate that we are going to dip the cotton wools in. He said "water" and "水". I like how he's bilingual and knows these 2 stands for the same thing.

And of course I showed him the green beans.

Then we wet the cotton wool and he put them into the bottle. We then put in the green beans. He tried to pour out the green beans again but I told him not to do that as the beans need to be inside to grow.

Today, I get him to use a spoon and scoop some water to water the green beans. One of the beans have sprouted. Very soon, he'll be able to see the tiny plant growing.

The best way to teach a child is through experiential learning. I hope Kieran will soon explain to people about life cycle of green beans through what he learns from this.

My love for plants started since young. My dad loves planting and his plants thrive very well under his care. While other parents taught their kids that the soil is dirty and the insects and creepy crawlies are disgusting, my dad allowed me to help him scoop the soil, water the plants, and watch with fascination at the tiny garden snails and small ants that form a small eco system in each pot of plant. I knew then that the soil is not dirty. It is a lovely gift from Nature where plants get their nutrients from, and its a lovely home to lots of tiny and amazing creatures.