Catch 40 Winks

The big move

2010-03-30T00:20:00.005+08:00

After more than 2 and a half years of being on Blogger. I have finally taken the big step of moving this blog into my own domain and to an external hosting service.

Thanks to friends, many friends in my blogosphere network for reading my blog and regularly dropping your caring comments. Not forgetting my most loyal reader, dh.

Here's to more wonderful years of blogging. See you on the other side; http://www.catch-fortywinks.com Kindly don't forget to add my new URL to your bookmarks!

Crazy month

2010-03-25T18:27:00.004+08:00

There seems to be a never ending list of things to be done
Morning, afternoon, wee hours in the night
Keeping my eyes wide open is a tough fight

CSS, PHP. FTP.
Acronyms that I see everyday
No more greek to me now, I have to say

I am starting to see glimpses of the fruit of my labour
After days and nights of trial and error
It does seem like it still takes forever

With little time on my hands
I have decided that K starts school soon
Giving me more time in the afternoons will be a boon

I really shouldn't be whinging or complaining
Afterall, it is what I have chose
The only question I should pose

is

WHEN CAN STOP BEING SLEEP-DEPRIVED?

On turning three

2010-03-17T18:07:00.005+08:00

It feels like just yesterday

That you were just a little bundle

In my arms you quietly lay

At that moment, motherhood was still a muddle

One was the number

That you stood up and started walking

Still waking up many times in your slumber

And blubbering was all you were talking

Two was a picture of giggle and tears

Full of mischief, difficult to please

Temper tantrums, screams and lots of fears

Oh I was wondering when will it cease

Three has lots of sunshine

Lots of warmth and humor to light up our day

Endearing ways that suit us just fine

Just that little more difficult when you want your way

Filling our days with your endless chatter

Asking questions till our patience run thin

Somedays it gets a little bit better

When you flash us your cheeky look and gummy grin

We just want to thank God above

Thank Him for filling our years with laughter

Our lives with lots of love

And endless loving banter

Regardless of whether you are stubborn little thing

Well-behaved or a naughty boy

You will always be my little darling

And daddy’s biggest pride and joy

Happy 3rd Birthday Kyle!

Kyle turns three!

2010-03-17T16:59:00.003+08:00

After an extremely challenging morning with a misbehaving K, dh and I found the perfect excuse to leave the house legitimately (with K’s permission) to get his birthday cake. K was aware that his misbehaviour had consequences and was feeling quite miserable, but he knew that he had to stay at home with our helper.

We quietly put up the decorations in the hall when we got back, while K took his afternoon nap.

When K got up, he grinned from ear to ear to see the house decorated for his birthday party and could not wait to celebrate his birthday in the evening.

The highlight of the evening was the cake that we ‘pimped up’, Ben-10 style. I skipped the idea of getting a nicely decorated Ben-10 fondant cake and went with a strawberry shortcake from Canele instead. To make the cake look a little more authentic Ben-10 style, I relegated the strawberries and replaced them with green chocolate chips and Ben-10 figurines. It was a hit with the birthday boy, and the adults who attended his party sure were glad that they were not fed a heavy butter-cream cake enveloped with fancy fondant-covered decorations.

Toileting battle

2010-03-16T14:44:00.002+08:00

I have discovered that K is a very determined child. Once he has made up his mind that he wants to do something, he will be firmly resolved to his cause and no amount of persuasion, coaxing or even reprimanding can sway his decision.

Determination is a good thing I suppose. Especially when it comes to personal goals and meeting objectives. But when it comes down to something like; deciding not to use the toilet/potty when doing his big business and sticking to his diapers, I had to try to break his resolve.

For the past 5 days, I have tried to get him to pass motion in the ‘proper way’, but I failed miserably. He stood resolute against the ‘enemy’ (me) and refused to barge. He attempted to be cooperative and visit the toilet when told to on the 3rd day, he climbed onto the toilet bowl and potty for a total of 10 times in 2 hours and still nothing resulted from his attempt. One the 4th day, he sat on his potty for 1 and a half hours, coupled with big yawns, loud exclamations that he was very tired and that he was concentrating and the poop was on its way out, but still nothing.

On the 5th day, I was so worried about his constipation problems that I brought him to the doctor and got a suppository inserted. 10 minutes later when we got home, he had to clear his bowels but still refused to use the toilet/potty. By this time, he was sobbing loudly due to the pain and discomfort, but still refused to poop in the toilet.

After half an hour, I gave in. I could not take seeing him so tortured and decided that this was a battle I chose not to fight for now. I helped him into the diapers and immediately after, he pooped in it. The 2nd time, he could not hold it in and there was a small accident, so I had to help him onto the toilet. After his attempt sitting on the toilet, he cried and said it was smelly and wanted to be washed straightaway. I realised then, that my child has more than constipation issues, he could potentially have a fear of pooping in the toilet or even some form of Obsessive Complusive Disorder. However, I still cannot quite fathom why he is perfectly alright with peeing in the toilet thought.

I will have to let him continue using his diapers for now and revisit this problem down the road. Maybe by the time he turns 4 or 5, he will think that it is embarrassing to be in diapers and decide to do it the normal way like everyone else. I hope so, I do really hope so…

Regression

2010-03-07T09:43:00.006+08:00

After 12 days of co-sleeping, breaking routines, skipping naps, K’s sleeping habits have regressed. For the past 3 days since we got back from our vacation, I have to re-train him all over again to sleep by himself.

Sleeping routines have got back to usual, more or less. Except that he is very bad tempered, stubborn, un-cooperative and has started screaming when he does not get his way. When I ask him what is wrong with him, he tells me, “Not enough sleep.” A lousy excuse when he gets up early, too early at 7.30 a.m. and then refuses to go back to sleep.

So I have resorted to using the threat of ‘the hanger’ a little too often these past couple of days. K is absolutely terrified of the sight of ‘the hanger’ and that is probably the only thing that can coerce good behaviour out of him for now. Besides ‘the hanger’, I have another trump card for now; his birthday cake and presents. His birthday is approaching in about a weeks’ time and I have told him that if continues to misbehave, there will be no cake, no presents, no celebration.

Sometimes, all it takes is that potential thought of a loss of privileges, that might get a tot to wise up a little.

The best thing about our holiday?

2010-03-04T18:41:00.003+08:00

12 days is just about the maximum number of days we can stay in Sydney (without getting sick of the place or getting broke first after eating out so much).

It’s a wonderful cosmopolitan place, with lots to see and do, even for kids. However, most things are just too expensive. Shopping is about 30-40% more costly than Singapore (unless you limit your shopping from only Target, K-mart or thrift shops) and eating out is pricey. Besides there is hardly any service to talk about. Shopping is only fun when it comes to fresh produce, like meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables, however try not to even consider imported produce. I still find it extremely ridiculous that ginger (obviously not grown in Australia) costs like AUD$50 per kg!

Apart from little peeves like the above, it is still a nice place to go for a family vacation. The region offers a vast variety of nature and wildlife attractions, extremely apt for children who love nature and animals.

For K, there is one memorable thing that he remembers fondly from our trip…

The best thing... from Rachel T on Vimeo.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 11

2010-03-02T16:23:00.001+08:00

To the west of Sydney lies the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains region. With its temperate climate, coupled with beautiful scenery, a trip to Sydney will not be complete without a visit to the Blue Mountains. The close proximity of the Blue Mountains to Sydney (about 1 hour plus drive away) makes it ideal for a day trip, however, due to the lack of time, we only managed to view 3 sites and would have probably need a few more days to experience the many scenic sites of the region.

We stopped by a town Leura in Blue Mountains for lunch. Instead of walking around town to look what slowly explore what other cafes had to offer, we were hungry and fully trusted the map (that we purchase from the Blue Mountains information stop) for its recommendation. We ended up having a simple sandwich lunch, french fries and nuggets (for K) for AUD$40, another one of many over-priced meals that we experienced during this trip.

We went on to visit the Three Sisters, a famous rock formation in Blue Mountains. A little less magnificent than I envisioned it to be, maybe the cliffs are slowly being slowly broken up by erosion and may one day be eroded away completely? Regardless, I still appreciate the wonders of nature with the view of the beautiful scenery.

Our last stop in the Blue Mountains was taking rides on the scenic skyway, cable car, railway and a short nature trail on the broadwalks of a rainforest.

We drove back to the city thereafter and met Uncle Nick for our dinner for our last night in Sydney. Was not feeling too adventurous after a couple of expensive and disappointing meals in Sydney. So we ended up having our dinner in the same Italian restaurant in Darling Harbour, that same one that we dined in the last 2 nights. The four of us shared 1kg of bbq ribs, steak, 2 pasta dishes and were fully satiated after the wonderful and reasonably-priced meal.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 10

2010-03-01T09:21:00.001+08:00

The weather turned a little chillier on our last few days in Sydney, as it started raining in the morning of Day 10. From the hot 28 – 30 degrees celsius that we experienced the last couple of days, the temperature went down to about a windy 20 degrees celsius.

Australian MuseumWe had to re-schedule our plans to visit Luna Park in the late morning and went instead to the Australian Museum. The wealth of exhibits encompassing natural history is really impressive, I like that there is an interactive area; Kids Space, specially for kids under 5s.

Luna Park

We headed over to Luna Park after lunch despite a drizzle, we figured that the rain might stop and there will still be a couple of rides in the amusement park that will be sheltered from the rain. When we got there, we realised that Luna Park was closing in about 45 minutes time at 4.00 p.m. We also could not plan to return the next day as its opening days were only on Friday – Monday. So we tried our best to fully maximise our visit to the amusement park.

I realised that there is a similar amusement park like this in Melbourne in St. Kilda’s, and we never really bothered to visit the place when we were there about 10 years back. Guess a lot of things change when you have an additional little person in your life. Park entry is free, but the cost of taking the rides were really pricey, about AUD$10 per ride if no special passes were purchased. But since being little has got its privileges, (K’s admission to many of our visits to the various places of interest has been FOC, since he is below 4 years old). we got a special pass for K that cost $20.00. We specifically chose rides that he could either take himself or were allowed an accompanying adult without an extra charge; i.e., the carousel.

Coincidentally, the carousel is also K’s favorite ride at most amusement parks that we visit. Besides the rain got a little heavier, so dh and I made our money’s worth by taking turns to ride the carousel with K. The little boy was so thrilled that he got to sit the ride for at least 4 times over. As there was only 20 minutes left before closing time, we braved the drizzle and ventured further into the park to search for another ride that will be suitable for K. Overall, I think we really made our money’s worth with all the rides that K took, it only averaged about $2.00 per ride. Plus, it is really quite nice to be the few customers left in the park with hardly any other people around to vie for the rides.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 9 (Part 2)

2010-02-28T16:57:00.001+08:00

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Featherdale is one of the best wildlife parks that we have visited thus far, and the experience here was much better than Sydney Wildlife Park in Darling Harbour. The park had a vast variety of Australian animals, the tamer ones like the wallaby and kangaroos roamed about freely in their areas and they are so docile that we could actually pat them! K was so keen in patting the animals that he asked me if he could also touch the ones in their enclosure. He was all excited and co-operative until we met the ‘witching hour’ of 3 p.m. (not a good time, especially when he did not get his afternoon nap for the day) and started fussing till we got him an ice-cream to end his visit on a good note.

The Rocks

He fell fast asleep once we got back to the car and did not get up till an hour and a half later when we got back to The Rocks, north of Sydney city. As it started raining when we reach our next destination, dh had to brave the rain, ran to the nearest touristy shop to get an china-made umbrella that cost AUD$17.00! After spending so much for a lousy umbrella, we really regretted that we forgot to bring our own umbrella and K’s raincoat for this trip.

While waiting for the rain to stop, we went into a French bakery shop for some tea and hot chocolate. This was first time that K got to have a cup of hot chocolate by himself. Once the rain ended, we did the quintessential touristy thing of posing for photos at The Rock’s harbour, complete with the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. As we were walking on the wharf on the way back to the car, K started fussing and dh told him that the wharf will open up and swallow him up if he continued to misbehave. K thought for a while and said, “No such thing.” Well, looks like tall tales such as this sort will not really work too well with him. Good attempt though, dh :)

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 9 (Part 1)

2010-02-28T15:33:00.002+08:00

The highlight of our trip to Sydney has to be the day that we visited a farm, wildlife park and The Rocks (again) all in a single day. Not that I was the cruel parent that wanted to maximise our vacation by cramming too many activities for a tot in one day. But rather, rest for K was much easier to be scheduled in, when we took long drives to visit attractions out of the city. Being that easy traveller, K often took his naps in the car during our long drives and was full of energy when we got to our destination.

Animal Farm Dural

The visit to the farm in Dural, that was about an hour drive outside the city, provided many firsts for Kyle. We have been reading so much about farms, but never really got to experience it first hand. I was really looking forward to visit Golden Ridge animal farm, as it was a first time at a farm for me as well.

Our visit to the farm was the first time that K…

From this visit to the farm, dh and I realised that K has no fear at all for many kinds of animals. Often, fear is a learnt response for a child, it does help that adults around him show no fear for the animals and the child will learn to embrace new experiences / interaction with new animals.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 8

2010-02-27T17:52:00.000+08:00

We were back on another Sydney beach in the afternoon, after dropping Nana and Grand-dad off at the airport for their flight back to Singapore. This time round we took a short drive from the airport to Manly beach, so as to visit the Manly Ocean world; another of Sydney’s attraction which features many Australian’s sea creatures. Instead of getting all enthusiastic about the sea creatures in the Ocean World, K much preferred playing with the sand on the beach. Once again, I was totally not prepared for K to swim so he only managed a 15 minutes play on the sand and was very disappointed when he had to leave. He was sobbing and insisted that we go back to Bondi beach right then. Dh and I discussed that we should visit Bondi Beach the next few days, before we returned to Singapore.

By then, K was feeling hungry and asking for a sandwich. We went for early dinner and settled with sandwiches and good but expensive fast food; Nandos, to fill our stomachs. K was feeling so tired after his meal that he fell asleep on the table. We were feeling a little guilty for wearing him out with the day’s activities and decided not to wake him up. He took a half an hour power nap and was all rearing to go afterwards.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 6 & 7

2010-02-25T17:09:00.000+08:00

Day 6

Finally, the day that Kyle has been looking forward since we got to Sydney arrived; the day that dh joined us for our Sydney vacation. After catching on some rest in the afternoon, we went to Darling Harbour to check out the restaurants for some western fare for dinner. We discovered this fantastic Italian restaurant with delicious fare at reasonable prices (according to Sydney’s standards), and ended going back there 3 more times for dinner for the rest of the days we were in Sydney.

Day 7

We were back to Darling Harbour the next morning to visit the Sydney Wildlife Park. An attraction located on the harbour, right next to the Sydney Aquarium that boasts a total of 130 Australian animal species all living in the recreations of the natural habitat.

K was was utterly thrilled that he was finally able to get to see the kangeroos, koalas and wombats. Animals that he has been asking to see since the start of our trip.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 5

2010-02-24T18:15:00.000+08:00

To experience the golden sand and turquoise water of Australia’s most famous beach, we headed to Bondi Beach, just about 8km from the city centre.

For K, it was his first time experiencing such fine sand. He enjoyed scooping up the sand with his hands, running it through his fingers and kicking it around. Probably if I had brought his swimwear, shovel and bucket along, he would have no qualms staying on the beach for hours. We had to gently coaxed him into leaving the beach, and he was only willing to leave when Uncle Nick told him that daddy will bring him back here again.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 4

2010-02-23T17:34:00.000+08:00

After 3 days of packed schedules, I decided that K should take a breather so we kept our day easy and relaxing. K slept in till 10+ in the morning, while Grand-dad and Nana did more shopping for Uncle Nick's home in Sydney.

We took a leisure walk to the nearest McD’s and K got his share of fast food for brunch, before returning to our 29th floor serviced apartment in the heart of Sydney’s city. We leisurely enjoyed the morning and spent some time taking in some cool breeze and the view of the city from the balcony of the apartment.

K and I made our way to Powerhouse museum in the afternoon. The Powerhouse museum is housed in an power station for Sydney’s old tram network and is one of Australia’s largest museum filled with interactive zones spanning technology, science and history. We did not visit the other exhibitions within the museum and headed straight for Zoe’s House Play Space.

One of the key attractions of this museum for kids 3-6 years old is the renowned Zoe’s House play space; an interactive installation encouraging cooperative and creative play.As it was a weekday afternoon, the play space was relatively empty except for 3 other kids sharing the area. K had a great time pretending he was a builder and getting someone to play alongside with him.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 3

2010-02-22T16:15:00.001+08:00

We made a day trip to Hunter Valley on Day 3. Hunter Valley is a popular destination for its wineries, fine food and scenic drives, about 2 hours drive away north of Sydney. This day trip was catered mostly for the adults as K did not really appreciate the fine food or the wine. The most encouraging thing though was that K is a great traveller and have no problems being in a car for a long drive. He was either taking short naps, singing his favorite repertoire of songs at the top of his voice or entertaining the adults with his comments throughout our road trip. From this trip I found out that one of the most effective way to keep K contented and to get him to pose for a photo (even in a grumpy mood) is to offer him a jellybean. His passion for jellybeans can rival his love for ice cream and I can get him to do almost anything, if he gets a jellybean in exchange. Our trip to the Hunter Valley will not be complete without a visit to the vineyard. The vineyards were not looking too lush at this particular time of the year as we were approaching the tail end of the harvest.

The sun was getting a little bit too hot that afternoon and we decided to take a respite by stopping by an air-conditioned cheese shop. Instead of getting some cheese, which Grand-dad decided that it might be too much after nights of rich dinners. We all got ice cream and ice lollies to cool off from the heat. K relished every bite of his ice cream and it got a bit too much for the little boy that was watching him enjoyed his ice cream. The latter refused to leave the shop until his parent got him the same ice cream that K was having. For K, it was the perfect way to end off any excursion for the afternoon.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 2

2010-02-21T15:00:00.002+08:00

With everyone feeling a little jet-lagged from a lack of sleep from the previous night’s journey on the plane, we started our sight-seeing late the next morning. We crossed the Sydney Harbour bridge from the city to an area known as The Rocks. The Rocks is framed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House and is filled with heritage sites, galleries, cafes and a weekend Rocks’ market. K was not the most complaint person that morning due to the lack of sleep. It did not help that it was a really hot day at 30 degrees celsius. The thing about the blazing sun rays in Australia is that you can feel a slight burning sensation on the skin after some exposure, so slathering lots of sun-block and wearing a hat is a must.

The heat must have bugged K quite a bit, as his mood varied according to temperature of his environment. Sun = super grumpy, Air-conditioned / shaded area = slightly happier. His mood only got better after grand-dad brought him to the harbour to see a big cruise ship and after he thoroughly enjoyed his lunch of Fish & Chips and Ice Cream. Things got even better for him when grand-dad proposed that we visit the Sydney Aquarium after our lunch. The experience at aquarium offered was worth the AUD $30+ entry fees, it was a much bigger place compared to our local Underwater World. On the way back to the serviced apartments, we caught a glimpse of the performers getting themselves ready for the Chinese New Year Twilight Parade. Every year towards the end of Chinese New Year, Sydney’s Chinatown streets will be filled with floats, lanterns, lion/dragon dance performers, stilt walkers and acrobat celebrating the Lunar New Year. Very similar to what we see in our Chingay Parade but on a slightly smaller scale. That evening, we made our second attempt make our way to the Chinese seafood restaurant highly raved by Grand-dad, but our attempt was thwarted by road blocks set up for the Chinese New Year Parade :( We ended up with a fairly good but expensive Chinese Seafood dinner in one of the restaurants in Chinatown.

Kyle’s Sydney adventure Day 1

2010-02-20T13:17:00.001+08:00

K usually gets very excited when he knows that he will be going to take a flight on the aeroplane. I started prepping Kyle up for our Sydney trip only a few days before, as it was a last minute decision on my end to follow my extended family on this trip. Primarily, this trip was arranged to help Nick to settle down before he starts his first week of uni at University of Sydney. We took a 7+ hours overnight flight from Singapore to Sydney. Despite skipping his nap that afternoon, K was running on a ‘high’ and only managed 2+ hours of sleep on the plane. We arrived in Sydney early in the morning but could not check in into the service apartments till 2 p.m. that afternoon. We ended up shopping around for Uncle Nick’s things for his new apartment. K’s first day in Sydney wasn’t too pleasant as he was tired out from the flight and we could not get a place to rest till the afternoon. Thank goodness for the stroller, as K sneaked in little naps along the way.

We ended the evening at Sydney’s Chinatown. Grand-dad was raving about the seafood at a certain Chinese restaurant located at Sussex street but could not quite find it that evening.We settled for an alternative on Chinatown, which turned out to be a fairly pricey and mediocre meal. This was probably the start of our many slightly over-priced culinary experiences in Sydney.

Sleeping through

2010-02-18T11:55:00.004+08:00

K is finally able to sleep through the night!

After being consistently denied milk twice nightly for one week and constantly being shouted at to “Go back to sleep!” each time he sits up on his bed in the wee hours of the morning. He has finally decided that there is really no point waking up in the middle of the night to be treated ‘cruelly’ by his unfeeling mother. Through the past 2 weeks, I have learnt that the best way to train a child to sleep through the night is to not give him any sort of attention at all. In other words, I have ignored all cries and complains and will comfort him only if he has been woken up from a nightmare.

The longest stretch of shut-eye that he has held so far this week is a full 11 hours! A real feat for someone barely 2 weeks ago would only sleep for 4-5 hours stretches at one time and wake up 2 to 3x at night. Our bedtime routine right after reading bedtime stories, singing some songs and saying a prayer, will be to arrange a ‘sleeping party’. His favorite soft toys will take turns to say goodnight to him, get a customary kiss and hug from him and would share the pillow with him. A hug and a kiss good night from me next and I will be out of his room! He has learnt to self-soothe, so he will then take another 15 – 30 minutes to sing himself to sleep.

Yeah! Sleep training efforts have finally paid off. The process has been painful for the last 3 weeks but the rewards are truly worthwhile :)

Taking a break

2010-02-16T17:31:00.003+08:00

After all that Chinese New Year madness, K and I will be taking a short break for the next one and a half week.

This will be our first vacation in 2010. Sydney here we come!

To the countryside

2010-02-10T15:57:00.002+08:00

It is so not true that Singapore is a dull place. There is actually so much to see and do when it comes to nature, especially when we wander a little off the beaten track.

Located in the North of Singapore is the Kranji Countryside; consisting of a cluster of 10 farms, where kids can get to see how fruit and organic veggies are grown, watch fishes being bred, see thousands of bullfrogs culminate in a single place and get up real close to goats.

Our field trip to the farms in Kranji was more targeted towards the organic variety this time round. We stopped by Fireflies Health Farm to view the vegetable plots and picked up some organic vegetables. Since we are able to purchase the organically grown vegetable directly from the farm, the ones that were available for sale were extremely fresh and at a very reasonable prices. For K, it was a interesting experience for him to see how vegetables are grown, since we have just read the book ‘Growing Vegetable Soup’ about a week ago.

We proceeded to Bollywood Veggies for lunch. Our selection of chicken curry, mixed veggies and fish and chips + chicken nuggets for the boys were not too exciting for our taste buds, as the bistro boasts of healthy cooking with low salt and no-msg for all items on their menu. I guess our taste buds have been spoilt by our home-cooked food which is often laden with gravy and sauces for extra taste.

The boys much preferred eating the fries that was served alongside the fish and was soon back to chasing each other in the cafe and picking up pebbles outside the compound of the bistro.

After lunch, we took a leisure drive past Kranji Reservoir. Initially planned for the boys to see the scenery from inside the car, but K insisted that we stop for a while for them to enjoy the view. Their enthusiasm for the scenery was abruptly disrupted when silly me stepped into a patch of muddy grass.

Some must-haves for any field trips with preschoolers; wide-brimmed hat for both tot and adult, sunglasses, a bottle of drinking water, wet and dry tissues. And this I have just realised is extremely crucial for any mishaps that could result in dirty hands/ muddy feet / legs; 1.5 litre pet bottle filled with tap water stashed in the boot of the car.

Pain tolerance - Quite low

2010-02-09T22:49:00.002+08:00

“Don’t touch me, it hurts.” Kyle whined when dh touched his leg while sitting next to him on the bed.

K got his first scrape on his shin when he fell this evening, while hitting some golf balls downstairs with his new golf clubs. He was all teary when he came back upstairs with the graze on his leg, fussed a lot when I tried to clean the wound and placed the plaster on it. 10 minutes later, he was back downstairs running, hitting and picking up golf balls.

The whining started again when he got home and had to take his bath. After changing a fresh plaster for his wound, he started walking around the house with a limp. I asked him why he could not walk properly and he told me, “I don’t want the bandage to come out.” For the rest of the evening, he whined for help to climbing and getting down from the bed and chairs.

I nudged dh and told him, “K is quite a wuss when he is in pain. His behaviour is really quite familiar, isn’t it?”

No more milk bottles!

2010-02-09T16:35:00.002+08:00

The process of weaning K off the bottle has turned out better than I expected. I tried rubbing ginger on the milk bottles’ teats the first night, but he surprised me by finishing 2 bottles of milk, complete with the ginger taste on teats, and went contentedly back to sleep. The next night, I made him go cold turkey without his night feeds and did not bother to continue with ginger on the teats. He complained for the 1st two nights, but finally gave up the fight and went back to sleep.

He is now drinking about 240ml of milk three times a day directly from a cup, and only drinks about a third of the quantity of milk that he used to. However the heartening thing is that he is less fussy when it comes to his main meals.

I should have realised from the start and wean him off the milk bottle much earlier. At least it would have reduce many of the battles that we had during his meal times. When I serve him his favorites like fishball, noodles (ramen especially), Chawanmushi, Xiao Long Bao, Pasta or Pizza, and he will be a co-operative tot at meal times.

Where we going today?

2010-02-03T17:37:00.002+08:00

K's first question to me on some mornings will be, "Where we going today? We have been going out so often these couple of weeks that he is always looking forward to the day's morning activities.

We met up with his favorite friend, Seth and his mom Lay Keng this morning, and the boys had lots of fun shopping for shoes. Who ever said that only women will get a little overboard when trying out new shoes!

K has so much energy that it is getting a little challenging to get him to take his afternoon naps. Bringing him out in the mornings really helps to expend his excess energy and maintains my ‘me time’ in the afternoons. I also found that I should cut out sweets and chocolate in his diet (Dh take note; try not eat chocolate in front of K!), as he ends up bouncing off the walls and it gets extremely hard for him to fall asleep at night.

I am beginning to think twice about starting school next year, and have been contemplating to start K with school as early as after the Mar or June holidays. Although I get a little worried that I may end up the one who will be too bored in the mornings and resort to making crazy decisions like embarking on ‘Project No.2’…

Don't disturb me

2010-02-01T23:37:00.001+08:00

...while I read my magazine.

K Talk – Why mummy should not go to work.

2010-01-30T13:45:00.002+08:00

Dh always uses this excuse, “Mummy has to go out to work for a short while,” whenever I am out on a girls’ night out.

The next day after a girls’ night out…

K : Mummy go to work last night?

M : Yes, for a short while only.

K : I don’t like mummy to go to work?

M : Why?

K : Because I will miss mummy (complete with a sad face) Mummy don’t go to work ok, stay at home with me.

I had better treasure this response from K while it lasts, probably when he gets to primary school he might start asking me to go to work and get off his back.

Transitions

2010-01-29T00:15:00.005+08:00

After 2 days of torture (for me), waking up 5 times on the 1st night and 3 times last night. I came to realise that K is fully able to self-sooth himself to sleep with a little bit of encouragement. My encouragement comes in the form of total silence and zero body contact. I have also progressed to sitting on the floor next to his bed, while he tries to sing himself to sleep (see link for ‘gradual extinction’ sleep training). Eventually, I hope that I can be outside K’s room and he can fall asleep on his own.

So far, progress have been great. The only thing that is preventing K from sleeping through the night is his habit of waking up to ask for milk in the wee hours of the morning. This is the result of a lazy mom having a laissez faire attitude about leaving it all the helper when it comes to K’s sleeping habits. After 8 months of hardly any sleep, I threw in the towel and handed the responsibility of taking care of K over to my helper. Like most helpers, my helper chose the most convenient way to give herself more shut-eye at nights; which is to shut the fussy baby up by feeding him milk. Despite my insistence to start feeding him water instead of milk when he turned 1 year old, she chose the easy way out. Unfortunately, K did not grow out of this habit and now is a slightly pudgy almost 3 year old with a big stomach, as a result of feeding too much on milk that he really does not need at night. I know I should not be blaming anyone else except myself. Lazy mummy!

So the next hurdle to cross will be to wean K off his dependence on milk feeds from his milk bottle at night. Nana’s advice for me is to rub ginger on the milk bottle teats, a tried-and-tested method that has been used on me and my siblings when we were young. I am quite concerned that this method may just turned K off drinking formula milk altogether as he is a picky eater, and still needs his milk feeds to supplement his solid food intake. Nevertheless, I figured this will be an opportune time to move him to growing up milk and away from his dependence on the bottle.

I have been prepping him up for the transition since the beginning of the week. Telling him that his bottle is going to spoil, it will start to taste funny and we will have to throw it away. While getting him to anticipate his new sports bottle that is on its way. He loves it that he is going to get a sports bottle to drink his milk in, according to him, it’s “like uncle Nick’s”.

Gosh, I cannot believe the extent I go to help K with his transitions. People never tell you that parenting will be tough when they keep encouraging you to have more children. Like what I told Dh recently, “I will only have our second child when I decide that I am ready to inflict more torture on myself.”

Sleep training an almost 3 year old

2010-01-27T14:27:00.003+08:00

Last night. I decided that enough is enough. K has been waking up too many times at night and too dependent on my helper to help him to sleep. I told myself that it is time to do whatever I can to get K to learn to sleep on his own.

When K was about 8 months old, I attempted sleep training but failed miserably, as I just was not determined enough. After that I decided to drop sleep training and hope that one day K will just grow out of it. Unfortunately, I soon realised that bad habits that are formed will never be grown out of.

I knew that I have to nip this problem in the bud and address it now, before it gets even harder as he grows older.

In the evening, I told K that I will be helping him to learn how to sleep by himself. I told him that learning to sleep by himself is like learning how to feed himself, dress himself or riding the bicycle. All he has to do is to close his eyes, be quiet, not think about anything and go to sleep, I further added that only babies need to be pat to sleep.

We started at 10.00 p.m. After reading through 4 books together, I turned off the lights, said our prayers and tuck him into bed. I sat at the end of the bed, and did not respond to him when he talked to me. He started with, “Want to pang sai,” then went on to “Thirsty, want water.” Then continued with several other excuses. When he realised that he was not going to get any response from me, the bawling started. Then came frustrated ‘arghhs’, along with coughing and mock vomiting for the next half an hour. He then decided to sleep half an hour later.

It took a total of 1 hour last night. I think I had it easy last night as he was tired out by a whole host of activities earlier that evening; a short game of tennis with grand-dad, he rode his bicycle with Uncle Nick and even went to catch frogs with grand-dad.

I do hope things get better the next few nights. Although I am prepared that things do sometimes get worse before it gets better. All K needs to know is that I. will. not. budge.

A nostlagic trip

2010-01-26T15:05:00.002+08:00

If you were born in the 70s like me, chances will be that you would have spent some Saturday afternoons in your childhood years watching The Electric Company. The Electric Company in its time was credited with helping many kids in the 70s and 80s to learn how to read.

So when I saw the The Best of The Electric Company set of DVDs available online, I had to get it for nostlagic reasons.

Looks like educational television in the 70s was definitely better than many of the dumbed-down educational programs we have on cable nowadays. The Electric Company was designed to be a phonics teaching medium that is light years ahead of many educational shows of today. I love the simple humour they had on the skits, plus seeing talented actors like Morgan Freeman and Bill Crosby in their early days is really quite amusing.

K watched a couple of episodes this afternoon, he loves the Spiderman skits and calls this 'the funny show.’

Sometimes all we need is to press the reset button

2010-01-25T00:45:00.002+08:00

Having a sick kid, sick dad and mom did not make our lives very interesting for the past one week. K prove to be the one with the strongest antibodies as he recovered in less than a week (that’s why I still stick to my insistence not to get him started on antibiotics), dh was heavily sedated through the last weekend, while I have been blowing endless streams of mucus from my nose since Wednesday. Thank goodness we are all better now.

Despite little hiccups like these, there is really so much in life to be thankful for.

Reading about the how people are going hungry around the world, suffering from the aftermath of a recent natural disaster or how lives are lost so tragically. Reminds me how fortunate I am.

Sometimes I get so busy that I tend to miss the small things. The small things can be so simple, yet I believe that we can still find happiness from these things if I made a conscious effort to notice it, appreciate and find joy in it. It really helps to look for simple things in our lives to be grateful for and to savor those things.

Walk @ Hinhede Nature Park

2010-01-15T16:19:00.005+08:00

It has been 2 weeks since our last nature walk. This morning we went to another nature park near our home; Hinhede Nature Park, just beside Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. The Hinhede Nature Park is a great alternative to the nature reserve, as it is filled with easy trails designed for families with young children and the elderly.

As we ventured onto the walking path, we were greeted by one of the park’s regular resident; the clouded monitor lizard. It was a nice, serene and breezy walk, being surrounded by the canopy of trees around us, we hardly felt the heat of the morning sun.

The key feature of this nature park is the adventure play station. K enjoyed climbing up the bridges and was really keen to try the playground slide. I dissuaded him from going down the slide, as I felt it looked daunting for someone his size, all I could say to him was “Next time, when you are taller you can try the slide.” I guess the adult was probably more afraid of the slide than the little one.

K then got on a swing for the first time and I think the ride on the swing was the key highlight for him at the nature park. I wonder why there are hardly any swings in neighbour-hood playgrounds these days. The last time I recalled seeing a swing was at one of those old school playgrounds in a housing estate (still with laced with sand and not rubber mats that we now see) in the east quite a few years back.

We kept our eyes and ears peeled for the park’s other residents; banded woodpecker, drongo, plantain squirrel but could not spot any during our walk. The other highlight of the park was the scenic view of the Hinhede quarry, located at the end of the park.

On the way back, we came across signs warning visitors not to feed the monkeys but did not catch the sight of any monkeys.

We ended our walk with a visit to the visitor centre at the entrance of Bukit Timah nature reserve. Included in the exhibition area was 2 stuffed tigers, captured from the reserve eons ago, now stuffed and preserved for our viewing pleasure.

I was hoping that we will get to see more animal life in the park, but I suppose most of them are hiding in the safety of the nature reserve. K needs to be much older before he gets to experience his first hike in the nature reserve.

Fickle

2010-01-12T00:53:00.002+08:00

Been testing the water these few days with this question, “Do you want to go to school?” To my horror, K’s answer is now “No”.

Knew it. His interest to go to school was purely on a whim. He now prefers to spend time with me in the morning, reading together, learning from new lapbooks, playing with his hoard of toys that he recently amassed from Christmas, going for our weekly nature walks or simply tagging along while I ran errands during certain weekday mornings. Don’t know if I should give myself a pat on the back for making home learning fun for K.

Looks like “School is great / wonderful and you will have lots of fun and friends” indoctrination needs to start a.s.a.p. I still don’t have the guts, determination or discipline to home-school K for all of his preschool years.

A good break from nap routine?

2010-01-09T16:07:00.002+08:00

I am a stickler for routines. Especially when it comes to making sure that K takes his afternoon naps daily.

K’s nap times are the only time in the day where I can have some ‘me’ time; enjoy a cup of decaffeinated coffee, bury my head into a good book, start work on new lap books or just leisurely net surfing. Thus I started to get a little concerned lately, when K started sleeping later for his naps and waking up a little too early in the afternoons. I believe this could be largely due to his transition from a toddler to a pre-schooler, and his sleep habits are slowly changing. I really dread the day when he will finally drop his afternoon naps :(

However, this week, I decided to go a little lenient on K’s nap routine when contractors came over to my place to fix a new air condition system. My helper took over the supervision at home, while DH, K and I went for lunch at Mr Prata @ Evans Road to satisfy my prata craving. Found out that K did not really like prata and preferred eating the bits of sugar on his plate.

We drove around town to get some errands done, sent Dh home afterwards, while K and I proceeded to seek some afternoon fun at Sentosa.

I planned to drive into Sentosa so that there will be more time to explore the Nature Walk and then check out the beach thereafter. We ended up taking Sentosa Express into the island, as K wanted to take the train into Sentosa instead. Public transport is still very much a novelty for him, although I think it will most likely change after a couple of years from now when he has to take his school bus to school.Sentosa was surprisingly busy for a weekday afternoon, we had to share the train with throngs of tourists and students. By the time we reached Sentosa island, it was almost 3 pm. So I decided that we skip the Nature Walk and head straight for the water play area at Palawan beach.

It was a blazing hot afternoon. I found myself searching for shaded areas to hide, while I watched K have a splashing good time in the water play area, without being the least bit bothered about the sun. I slapped on lots of sunblock for K and myself, although that did not prevent us from getting a couple of shades darker after our visit.

After 2 hours, we headed back to our car, parked at at Vivo City. He was so awake and alert all through our excursion and did not show any signs of sleepiness until he got strapped into his car seat. He fell asleep barely 10 minutes into our drive back home and only got up when dh opened the car door.

Tried to get him to sleep early that evening, but he took almost 1 hour before drifting off to sleep. And then woke up, fussing every other hour from 11 p.m. till like 2 a.m., and then woke up at 8 a.m. the next day. Was a moody and fussy kid the next morning.

Maybe it is the break of routines that cause the sleeplessness or simply the mere excitement of the day that kept him awake? I guess I am right to trust my instincts to stick strictly to his afternoon naps daily, afterall, keeping to K’s nap routines is the best for him and I treasure my ‘me’ time too much to ever want to give it up.

Me ‘Kiasu’?

2010-01-08T16:14:00.003+08:00

I never thought I will be thinking of this so soon...but today, I finally succumbed to the common syndrome that plague lots of Singaporean parents; planning ahead for their child's primary education.

Just a few days ago, I loudly exclaimed to Dh that it is ok to stay where we are at now and then find a nearby primary school to register K in when time comes. I was thinking that it really did not matter and it was alright to drop our privileges (to be in one of the top 10 most popular primary schools in Singapore) to get into Phase 2A1 (if he joins the alumni) or Phase 2A2 for being a 'old-boy' of the school. So I thought to myself, "I wonder what is the big deal about getting into a good primary school, I should not be so ‘kiasu’ since K hasn’t even started kindergarten..."

I realised that I have put a foot to my mouth after I spent this morning with my neighbour downstairs; Lay Keng, a SAHM with 4 kids. Her oldest being 15 years old and Seth, her youngest child, is the same age as K. We talked about her children’s experience in primary school, 3 separate experiences and how each varied from the other depending on the type of school the child attends.

We talked about the parent volunteer system, how we can get into Phase 2B of a fairly good Christian primary school near our home (unfortunately distance of school is > than 1km), if the school have any vacancies for parent volunteers. Parent volunteers need to accumulate 40 hours of service (that’s akin to starting volunteering when the child turns 4). Anyhow I am not even certain that I will be accepted as parent volunteer, since I don’t even know what ‘service’ I can offer to the school.

Key take-outs from our conversation? It does make a difference which school the child attends. It will differ from the kind of support teachers/school can give to the other areas of development for the child (apart from academic development). Dh and I came from good primary schools (due to the effort on the part of our parents), so shouldn’t I give my child a chance to be in a better primary school as well?

It dawned on me that I am a kiasu parent, to be even thinking about this even before K turns 3. Just when I told myself from the start of the new year that I will need to learn to be contented, learn to live a day at a time and trust God for my future, I find myself thinking of things that are more than 4 years away. I find it such a irony when I don’t even know what will happen from a year from here, yet I am thinking of something 4 years from now?

It’s bizarre how having a child can make you conceive traits that you previously hope you will never have.

“Let me show you…”

2010-01-05T13:59:00.003+08:00

The drama king feigns death, complete with tongue hanging out and a mangled limb pose.

Cheese!

2010-01-02T22:47:00.010+08:00

K has decided that having the camera in his face is not that bad afterall. To my delight, he did not turned away when asked to smile, instead, flashed his sunniest smile.

This is a big deal for me, the over-eager family photographer, who revels for the moment to be able to capture that expression for this memorable shot.

Something to think about for 2010

2010-01-02T17:51:00.004+08:00

Sometimes a new year dawns with barely a quiet whisper, other times it arrives with a shout. This year I spent the early morning of the New Year all by myself in the study, drafting out a schedule for the next few weeks. Probably a harbinger that this new year is filled with lots of tasks ahead of me. Some which I look forward to expectantly and others I just want to procrastinate on. Just barely two days into the new year, my to-do-list is already filled to the brim. No doubt that this year will be a busy year for me.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop and get my bearings. It's so easy to move along a busy week to another without ever stopping to think about where we're heading and the direction we are taking.

Here are some questions from here (great for Christians, even some for non-Christians) for me to start with;

1. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
2. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
3. What's habit would you most like to establish this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What area of your life you most need growth, and what will you do about this year?

Some which I already have the answer and others for me to think about these couple of days. For now, I am only sure of one thing for this new year. My God is good, and has gone ahead to pronounce that 2010 is a year of Victory, a year for Increase, a year for Restoration and a Year for Favor for me and my family!

I earnestly hope you will also be filled with as much hope as I have for the year 2010.

A New Year’s walk

2010-01-01T16:38:00.002+08:00

K and I took a different route this morning when we went for our nature walk at Dairy Farm Nature Park. The distance we covered was about 2x further than the distance we walked during our last visit. My little trooper was all gamed to explore this new route and did not even asked me to carry him once throughout our 1 and a half hour walk. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if we managed to cover at least 3km from our walk :)

It’s amazing how how nature can be viewed so differently when we take that effort to observe nature in it’s organic form and see the patterns that it creates. Every walk that we take together, K and I will always stop, observe and marvel at beauty of nature. Admire the vast variety of species of different wildflowers/plants on display and watch insects going about their business in their natural environment.

From our walk this time, we were rewarded with a breath-taking view of the Singapore quarry, located at the south-western end of the park. We took in the tranquil sight of the wetland and watched the aerial antics of a fuchsia-coloured dragonfly flying near the cattails.

We spend some time seated under the pavilion next to the quarry and quietly listened to hidden birds, one which sounded like rhythmic drumming of a woodpecker’s bill on a tree.

K even wanted to explore one of the trails away from the walking path. I asked him if he knew what to do if a snake crossed our path, He shook his head. I then told him that it will be better if we explore this other trail the next time when daddy comes with us.

On our way back to the entrance of the park, we were greeted by a group of wild monkeys and caught a glimpse of 2 squirrels scampering across the path in front of us.

K was totally thrilled with the sights he saw this morning and he exclaimed really loudly on our way back, "I like nature!"

Green fingers maybe?

2009-12-29T13:54:00.002+08:00

“Is there fountain?” was the question that Kyle continually asked me in the car when we were on the way to the plant nursery. He absolutely loves water fountains and waterfalls, and often asks if he will be able to see one whenever we go for our nature outings.

This morning’s field trip to the plant nursery tied in with our lesson plan for ‘The Carrot Seed’. I told him yesterday that we will go to the nursery to buy some flower pots, soil and seeds to plant our first vegetable, just like the little boy in the book.

K saw a cactus and he was so intrigued by the thorns on the plant.

While we were walking around the nursery, I was so tempted to get more plants for the home but realised that I have never tried growing my own plants (unless mung beans can be qualified as a plant), and these plants could likely die in my hands.

He climbed into a garden swing by himself.

We finally got what we needed and went home to plant our first spring onion plant.

Looking forward to see the seeds germinate in the next one week. Now when I ask K, “What does the plant need to grow?” He can tell me, “Soil, water, sun and air.”

Annual Christmas do

2009-12-26T23:10:00.000+08:00

The Christmas season will not be complete without a get-together with friends. This is the second year that I have my friends over my place, and this year, I decided to make my own Christmas presents. In an attempt to make more cupcakes from the first recipe, I added less batter in some of the cupcake liners and ended up with 3/4 size of a cupcake. The result was less than satisfactory, however it was still rather satisfying to roll the coloured fondant and decorating the cupcakes with it.

As for the menu for the evening : Bulgogi beef, kimchi and Shabu shabu beef with lots of mushrooms. Little preparation that I had to do before hand; thanks to dad who shared his recipe with me (he is always excellent at sniffing out ways to create easy and tasty creations). We were so stuffed trying to finish the food that I ended up not bringing out the brownie and fruits that Linda brought for dessert.

Some shots taken:

K really appreciated having Alex’s company. He stroked and pinched her cheek (quite gently I think, since Alex did not complain) a couple of times, and I was pleasantly surprised that he had little qualms in sharing his toys.

Kris and Andrew were being entertained by the kiddos, while Linda joined in and played with them. K requested for his good old refrigerator cardboard house to set up. There were lots of excited squeals and laughter from Alex and K towards the end of the evening.

Christmas with the family

2009-12-25T17:02:00.001+08:00

Christmas has always been a really special time of the year for the family. We get to spend time with one another,

Share, chat and enjoy a feast.

Simply appreciating time together with the family. Having fun,

giving and caring,

a celebration for the heart.

Christmas is not wonderful because of the pleasant surprises…

Every Christmas song, every lit candle, every wrapped gift reminds me that this is the season of my Saviour’s birth.

“‘They shall call His name Immanuel,’ translated as, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:23)

Here’s wishing all friends a Blessed Christmas!

Wishing for a rainbow

2009-12-22T23:01:00.007+08:00

We are back to doing our alphabet activities this week. K started on the Letter R on the lapbook, we explored a food ingredient with chalk and did a rainbow craft. Coloured salt was a simple and fun craft to do and he was thrilled to have created an array of rainbow colours in the bottle.

One colour was missing in our rainbow colours, which was red. We could not create it with the chalk colours, it didn't really matter since K got the overall idea. So what are the colours of the rainbow? The lyrics of this song says it all;

Red and yellow and pink and green

Purple and orange and blue

I can see a rainbow, see a rainbow, sing a rainbow too!

He now knows how a rainbow looks like but have yet to see a real one. It rains so often in Singapore yet the sighting of rainbows are so few and far between. I think I have seen less than 5 rainbows in my 30 odd years. I am wishing that K will be able to catch a glimpse of a rainbow that hopefully will come our way during our nature walks, one of these days.

Nature @ Dairy Farm

2009-12-21T17:02:00.001+08:00

After our last nature walk, K and I have gotten quite hooked to the rush that we experienced after each trip, that I have decided that we will make this a weekly habit. This time round, we ventured slightly a little further; the Dairy Farm Nature Park, located about 2 km away from our home.

Butterflies of various colours greeted us as we started our walk. We craned our necks, looked left and right as we heard numerous birds chirping, in the hope that we will spot some uncommon birds but alas, did not see any.

The park was relatively quiet on a Monday morning, except for a couple of nature photographers and families that we met along the way. We spotted many wild flowers, unfortunately, with my lack of knowledge of flower species, I could not really tell K what they were. Fortunately for me, K did not show tremendous interest in the plants and much preferred looking out for insects and other creepy crawlies. Anyhow, looks like I have a bit of homework to do to get myself up to speed on my knowledge about things in nature.

K spotted his first spiderweb in the ‘wild’, his first stream that morning and plenty more wild flowers along the way. The view of the lush greenery, fresh air and peaceful surroundings made up for the lack of birds. Most definitely we will be back to explore a new route, and will be armed with our magnifying lens the next time :)

A nature walk in our ‘backyard’

2009-12-15T18:22:00.002+08:00

Setting :

bright and sunny morning at 9 a.m.
a small reservoir in our neighbour-hood park

Sounds :

Birds chirping
Crickets and other critters
Cascading water

Discoveries :

A baby brown lipped snail (its shell was only about 1 cm length)
Wild fungi
Bumblebee
Butterflies
Lots of large black ants, about 2cm in length (Crematogaster sp)
Wildflowers
A black crowned night heron (K’s description; ‘funny bird with long legs.’)

Result :

An extremely observant and participative little one; busy looking under rocks, anticipating what he could discover under it.
Squealing with delight when he saw how the mimosa plant's leaves reacted when he touched it
A happy and energetic tot who was so willing to pose for photos
No mention of TV or any present super-hero obsession throughout the 1 and a half hour walk

My initial worries were naught. I was worried that there will be little to see in the neighbour-hood park behind our house, and he might get bored and restless. But our nature experience proved how wrong I was.

“This is all play to the children, but the mother is doing invaluable work; she is training their powers of observation and expression, increasing their vocabulary and their range of ideas by giving them the name and the uses of an object at the right moment,--when they ask, 'What is it?' and 'What is it for?” - Charlotte Mason

10 days to Christmas

2009-12-15T08:09:00.005+08:00

Christmas deco at Nana's place; she has a real fir tree this year, decorated with her quaint ornaments.

Time for me to start losing some weight, before putting on more pounds after the long-anticipated Christmas eve feast.

A great way to end the week

2009-12-11T23:51:00.002+08:00

To be able to spend this evening playing with adorable mei mei Raeann was indeed a great way for K to end his week. K had a great time playing house with her fabulous kitchen set and was kept extremely busy with Raeann’s huge selection of toys (lucky girl has many cousins with great hand-me-downs). And just when I thought I could get him away from his vehicle toys this evening, he got absolutely thrilled when he discovered this motorcycle.

Thanks for being such a great host this evening, E. K and I had a wonderful time!

Am I too loud for you?

2009-12-10T16:46:00.004+08:00

I came to realised since a while back that I have a overly-enthusiastic, boisterous and dramatic kid. The good thing about it is that he can be really sociable, loves having company, warms up quickly to children his age and can strike a conversation with any child on the playground. If his friend is willing to hold his hand, sit next to him during meals and run around together, his friend easily becomes his most favorite mention the next couple of days.

When he is in the dramatic and show-off mode, even if this is the first time he has met the adult, he will have no qualms performing his latest move. Like wriggling his butt (Shakira-style) or show the difference between a shocked look (mouth agape, very much like the expression in the photo below), versus a surprised face (eyes wide with mouth shaped into a small ‘O’). So he does get rather entertaining to watch.

With Timothy on T3's big musical ball

The not-so-good thing is that he tends to get really loud and dramatic at times and has a tendency to scare off kids who are a little quieter. It’s quite strange how nature has this way of balancing things out, I used to be this quieter kid in school that stayed away from the boisterous ones.

I probably will not have to worry much about him being lonely when he goes to school. Although I just may get comments from school like, “Your kid talks too loudly” or “He cannot sit still” or maybe “He always talks to his friends and end up distracting them in class.”

Getting comfortable on the floor with his friends

Lately, I find myself becoming quite stern with him. K is looking for constraints, yet at the same time resents them intensely. When he gets difficult, he can get extremely difficult. When he is at his best of behaviour, I just wonder if I am this cruel parent who tends to get overly harsh on him. It’s an age of incredible extremes. Yet, it is a wonderful time, as he is so full of this spontaneous enthusiasm and affection.

Not matter how tough it does get on some days, I am still extremely thankful to God that I am able to see my child learning, growing, enjoying the company of his friends, interacting and having fun with unbridled spontaneity. After almost one and a half years of being a SAHM, there is still nothing I miss about working in the corporate world. I will not trade this for anything in the world.

Even for those days when he tends to get a little too loud.

Playing with Timothy and Joyce at the viewing gallery

Nature is calling

2009-12-08T00:01:00.005+08:00

Growing up in concrete jungle like Singapore, I had little contact with nature and most of my time was spent indoors. I did get that occasional visit to the zoo or bird park, however, it was mostly through school excursions when I got to primary school. I recall that I experienced none of that when I was in preschool. (It was likely that early childhood education was still in it's infancy in Singapore in the early 80s and academic development was the only focus for the 4-6 year olds).

When I finally learnt how to read at 6 or 7 years old, (I think in those days most kids only got to learn reading in primary school) I became a bookworm. Often my head was buried in storybooks, lost in the magical fantasy of Enid Blyton books, the mysteries of Nancy Drew and Secret 7. Rarely pick up any non-fiction books about birds, insects, frogs, plants etc. Without the knowlege of nature first hand, I did not have much interest in it.

All that I knew of nature, was limited to my pet dog in primary school, rabbits and hamsters kept by a next-door neighbour, bougan-villas, orchids and bonsais that were planted in my balcony by my green-fingers father. And a little more formal science lessons in school; planted some muang beans in primary school and in secondary school; learnt all about the innards of a dissected frog.

The only time when I got interested in nature was the time I spent in Australia in my university years. I walked to the campus from my home daily and always made a point to pick a wild flower, watch the butterflies, gaze at the cottony clouds above and simply marvel at the beauty of God’s creations.

Seriously. I hope K never become like that. To be so caught up in the secularity of this world and only know the man-made part of it. Only learn the commercial view of nature through animal enclosures and the television. Merely know the names of 2 kinds of species of birds; sparrows and mynahs or comprehend the metamorphosis of a chrysalis to a butterfly solely through a book.

Depravity comes in many forms, I think not giving a child opportunities to discern what he understands from nature through first hand knowledge is depravation. Children need to spend more time outdoors to be in direct contact with nature, learn to observe and recognise things in the natural world. I really have no excuse since there are a couple of nature parks a stone’s throw away from our home.

A wide-brimmed hat, lots of sunblock and a love for nature will be all we need to deal with sweltering morning heat, profuse perspiration and some freckles along the way.

Trying to spot squirrels and birds with Grand-dad in Bukit Batok Nature Park

Re-prioritising

2009-12-07T18:26:00.005+08:00

After spending so much time these last 3 years learning about child development and familiarising myself with the various education methods and ways to bring up a child. I often wonder what route I will take if dh and I chose to home-school K.

I still don't have the courage and the discipline to do this and will chose the conventional route of entering my child into Singapore's school system. However I will have to admit that I have a dislike for Singapore’s educational system. I was a late developer, struggled through my academic years in upper primary school and secondary school. And only managed to blossom when I was sent to Australia for my university years.

What if K is like me? I really hope not, I rather he takes after his dad in the academic 'department' (dh was in the ‘gifted’ programme from primary 4). This will surely make it a little easier for me in his schooling years.

Recently, when dh and nana were watching golf channel in her place, they talked about the possibility of grooming K into a sportsman. K has shown potential for golf and tennis from a very young age. He picked up tennis before he could walk, would be hitting the balls while sitting in his tricycle. And could effortlessly swing his toy golf clubs and hit plastic golf balls when he was about 1 and a half years old.

However, the grim possibility is this. Even if K is gifted in golf or tennis, it is hard for him to gain international standing if we were to stay within Singapore. If our family cannot afford to invest hundreds of thousands to send him to a foreign university in US or UK, sponsor him for international tours to obtain a standing in PGA or Pro tennis circuit, there isn’t a chance.

Instead of banking on hopes of being able to groom a sportsman, it is my job to expose him to as much learning as possible while growing up. Golf and tennis can be for leisure, if he really shows a gift for it, we can pursue it as see how far it brings him. The focus cannot be just in academics, it is not enough for one to just have book smarts. But also in areas of moral, emotional intelligence, social development, nature, sciences and the arts.

Sounds like a list of things to do and a huge challenge for me, but when I learnt more about the Charlotte Mason educational method, it is not as hard as I imagined it to be. I have read about this about a year ago, but recently my interest in it has been renewed after reviewing my home-school experiences with K thus far. I will be looking at ways to incorporate the principles of this method with our home curriculum, and continue using this to supplement his learning even when he enters preschool. This method will have more longevity as he develops and will allow me to learn alongside with him.

It is of my utmost conviction that that I bring up a child who will become a socially responsible and accountable adult, has self-control, learns to relate and adapts well to the environment around him. And most importantly, put God first in his life.

Family time

2009-12-04T23:21:00.004+08:00

I figured that it was about time to make our 'Friends of the zoo' membership worthwhile, before it expires in 2 months. As dh had some time-off this morning, we took this opportunity to make a morning visit to the zoo.

Being a mom who is a stickler for routines, I always ensure that our visits last the most 3-4 hours and then head home for K to get his long afternoon nap, after having lunch at the zoo. With that limited time each visit, the objectives to be achieved become extremely targeted. K will be posed this question, "What animal you want to see today?" And then we will just plan complusory stops along our route.

Each time when we are at the zoo, dh will make sure that I take that mandatory photograph of K and him with the otters, and then reminisce about the very first photograph that I took of them both in that same location. It's hard to believe that it has been barely 1 year 7 months ago, and our precious little bundle has grown to be this sociable toddler.

A trip to the zoo will not be complete without a visit to waterplay area. Especially since K is such a huge fan of water play, I thought I should not deprive him of enjoying some splashing good fun just because I am not too willing to get myself wet. Thus, dh was assigned the task of accompanying K in and around the area.

K had a short 40 minutes experience in waterplay, before a downpour came and we settled for a greasy fried chicken lunch. One of my gripes about the Singapore Zoo has to be the quality of food that is available. Apparently a visit to the zoo usually means we have to end up with a not too appetising lunch. My junk food addict (hb) obviously did not mind one bit, although he did complain afterwards about how this brand of fried chicken has a tendency to make him quite sick after the food settles in the stomach.

Nevermind the food, it was the company that mattered. I am sure K enjoyed the family time together, although he got slightly feverish in the evening. Somehow, his antibodies has this tendency to work overtime after a session of waterplay. Time to load up on some vitamin C.

Meeting new friends and revisiting old ones

2009-12-02T16:21:00.008+08:00

The last time Pauline and I met was a good 5 years ago. She was still working as a media planner and I was in brand management. We have came a long way since then, she's now a fantastic SAHM (brilliant @ homeschooling her children and a good cook) to two lovely kids, Timothy and Joyce.

It was a truly enjoyable session for K this morning, he got along really well with Tim (he has been telling me he wants a kor kor) and had a fabulous time at Atlantis City indoor playgym. As for me, I enjoyed a good catch up session with an old friend.

'Swimming' around the ball pit

Getting Tim to jump into the ball pit

Acquired a new milestone : He is finally able to cross the balance rope without any help, but with lots of encouragement from me. This was done only after shouting "Help, Mummy, me cannot do it," a couple of times.

Sat next to Tim during lunch and played 'crashing' toy cars.

Spontaneously held each other hands while making their way to the foyer

So looks like we will be seeing more of Atlantis city soon, as well as meeting up with Tim, Joyce and mummy Pauline!

Boxing

2009-12-01T22:21:00.009+08:00

K told me that he wanted to do boxing and needed to remove his shirt. Then requested for boxing gloves. I found an alternative; his socks.

Then he performed a series of punches and kicks in the air, coupled with nifty footwork. Wearing only underpants, sans his t-shirt and socks on both hands. Only when u are below 5 years old, one can be semi-naked in a photo, and get away with it by looking cute.

I asked him later where he learnt about boxing (None of us at home watch boxing on TV). He told me, "On TV, Grand-dad was watching."

24 days to Christmas

2009-12-01T00:00:00.003+08:00

Someone holds his wrapped present at least once daily and has been asking me if he can open it.

Strange emotions

2009-11-30T00:44:00.000+08:00

It started right after when K finished his slice of dh's birthday cake, I played a CD with Christmas music and K wanted to dance along to the music. When dh took my hand and told K that he wanted to give him a demo to show him how to slow dance to the music, K started getting upset and insisted...

K : Only mummy dance with me
Dh carried him, then held my hand
Dh : Family can dance together
K got more upset, started crying
K : Don't want family
Dh tried to get him to explain why he said "don't want family," K was crying through this whole conversation.
K : Only want mummy, don't want family. Daddy go to work, I want mummy only
Dh : Don't you love daddy?
K : Don't love daddy
By this time, Dh got quite sadden by K's remarks, so he asked K again
Dh : Daddy, mummy and you are in one family, we love one another
K : Sad family
K cried harder
M : Why did you say sad family? Mummy and daddy love you alot, you know?
K : Daddy always go to work
M : Don't you miss daddy?
K : I want daddy to go to work
At this moment, we both realised that K (being upset) purposely said the opposite what he wanted and this meant that dh did not spend enough time with him and he wanted to spend more time with his dad
Dh : Don't you like it like today, we went out and spend time together
K : Yes (still sobbing)
Dh : Don't you love daddy?
K was crying even harder
K : Yes
K turned to dh and went into his arms
K : Daddy don't go to work
Dh : Daddy needs to go to work as we need money for this home
M : Daddy will spend more time with you ok?
K : Yes (still sobbing)

I really didn't know how to react when I witnessed this that transpired in front of me, I was laughing and crying at the same time (being a mother does make me such an emotional wreck at times). It was so strange to hear a 2+ year old expressing that sort of emotion and sensitivity, yet I felt quite moved by it.

Come to think of it, I am quite certain that the birthday cake that K ate had some pear liquer in it. So it's true that when a person gets drunk, you lose your inhibitions and tend to get emotional, even for a 2 year old.

Another birthday for K

2009-11-30T00:14:00.003+08:00

Dh requested for Teppenyaki and we decided on Shima @ Goodwood Park Hotel. He had his fill of beef teppenyaki, while I stuffed myself with salmon sashimi and K loved the salmon teppenyaki and miso soup. We were all 'afflicted' with garlic breath for the rest of the day, but it was well worth it for we had a wonderful lunch.

Both wore the disposable bib given by the restaurant and and went to see the fishes in the tank outside its premises.

The last time we had a teppenyaki meal was when K was about 1 year old. He was rather fascinated when he watched the chef whip up our meal in full view.

No meal will be complete without dessert, and for K, it has to be vanilla ice cream.

No, it's not his birthday today. But according to K, anyone from the family who celebrates his/her birthday will need to share their birthday with him. Which includes, allowing him steal the limelight and giving him the full responsibility of blowing the birthday candle.

Happy birthday my dear hubby Keith...K and I love you lots!

Ready, set, Bake! - Pistachio Cookies

2009-11-27T15:55:00.007+08:00

Our bake fest has begun!

I recently got this book, 1001 Cupcakes, Cakes and other tempting treats from the Borders sale (30% off for Borders members) and this is the first recipe that K and I have baked; Pistachio cookies. I am planning to bake at least one to two recipes a week from this book, and possibly more leading up to Christmas.

An easy and scrumptious bake, here's the recipe:

A jolly good time

2009-11-25T23:00:00.005+08:00

We were planning to watch the evening omnimax show @ the Science Centre, but as traffic to Jurong in the evenings are rather daunting, we ended up meeting up with mei mei Raeann and her mom Ermin, in town. The mummies squeezed in some catching up, a little bit of window shopping and a good dinner. While the little ones had lots of fun messing around with the toys in the shops and chasing each other all around.

It is so nice to see the tots thoroughly enjoying one another's company and having so much fun. They even had colour-coordinated outfits (totally unplanned); christmas colours, so apt for the season. Looking as if they were all ready to bring on the Christmas cheer and lots of noise to people in the mall.

K has become extremely sociable since turning 2, always telling me that he wants to meet his friends or go to their house to play (for a child, toys which don't belong to you are usually more intriguing). In fact, just a few days ago when we walked past a NTUC childcare, he caught a glimpse of the children in the classroom from outside the window and told me he wanted to go to school. And since that day, he has been telling me that he wants to go to school.

Sounds like he may be ready to start school soon. But just in case this interest is on a whim, school will not become a routine until after the 2nd quarter of 2010.

So as to keep K contented, it will just be more playdates for him to come.

Deliberating

2009-11-25T13:30:00.011+08:00

I have been deliberating alot these couple of days. This happens to me alot when we are near to the closing of a year.

Thinking about whether I can do without a helper at home. Usually most people get better on the job with more experience, but it does not happen with my helper. She is probably too distracted about things with her own children in her hometown to listen to what I have to say. Like I cannot fathom how 'Marcaroni' can sound like 'Char Kway Teow.' Then when I say that she needs to listen carefully, she gives me attitude like as if I am the one who said the wrong thing in the first place. Lately, there have been lots of mistakes and lots of attitude from her. I really wonder who needs this arrangement more, her or I?

Will be possible for me to do without a helper at home? She does relieved alot of K's basic caregiving and the household chores. And I do pity her as she is a single mother and needs the income. I will probably keep her till her contract ends in 2011, so I just have to be more tolerant, start to be less dependent on her help and start teaching K to be more independent from now on.

So as to ensure that K learns to be less dependent on the helper, I will have to start looking for alternatives to keep K busy in the day time. Homeschooling works out well for some days, but not for most. Generally K only does these sessions once or twice a week. Most other times, he just want to do pretend play with things that he is familiar with, play with his toys or meet up his friends. K is becoming quite a sociable child as he enjoys the company of other children his age.

So the next easier alternative to start K with pre-nursery next year, the most twice a week. I figured that this will be a good introduction to having to attend school regularly. Still a little apprehensive about starting school, as he has little interest for structured activities and I am concerned that he will imitate bad habits/behaviour from other children. Besides, I have come to a conclusion that preschool is generally catered to the girls in class or quiet and compliant boys. As most of them have little problems doing seatwork; concentrating on activities like craft, colouring, worksheets, etc.

I am still looking for the ideal one that has play-based programme and can give him a jump-start in learning mandarin. Still making a point to speak mandarin to him at home, however I find myself lapsing back into English which I am more comfortable speaking. So looks like I have got to get more quality chinese books for him.

As for my future plans to have another child? I am still keeping it for a maybe future, as I know I am not mentally prepared for another huge responsibility. Haven't quite forgotten the trauma of my previous pregnancy (my pregnancy with K was not an easy one, was hospitalised 3x during the 36.5 weeks), as well as the challenge of taking care of an infant in the first year. Besides I know with the arrival of a second one, there will be some time sacrificed with K. So baby number 2 has to wait. Like what K says when dh asks him if he wants a mei mei or didi, "Me older first." Besides I need another excuse when K gets older, to not to go back to work :)

So what will be keeping me busy on those days when K goes to school? Suppose it will be more me-time to read, surf the net, explore new recipes and study the bible (maybe enrolling myself in BSF or getting involve in my church's women ministry?)

Well, 2010 will likely be a year of new beginnings for K and myself.

The Robot

2009-11-22T23:41:00.001+08:00

The robot from Rachel T on Vimeo.

Mummy go away

2009-11-22T21:55:00.003+08:00

K : Go away Mummy
M : Do u need my help?
K : No need, go...go mummy, smelly
M : Call me when u you are done, ok?
K : Ok...go mummy

Except for the occasional, "Mummy, want to change book." K has decided he wants to use the toilet for his 'big business' and has started becoming self-conscious about it. I managed to sneak this shot of him sitting on the toilet bowl, engrossed in his book.

It's beginning to feel like Christmas...

2009-11-20T00:20:00.016+08:00

It has been raining every single day since November 11 (Yes, I have made that mental note each time it rains). Whenever it rains, it just reminds me how near we are to Christmas and that this is my 2nd Christmas as a SAHM. No plans to change this status as I am enjoying it too much to ever want to go back to work.

I am so glad that I have the advantage of beating the crowds on the weekends and be able to do all of my Christmas shopping on a weekday. I have just ended the frentic race to buy Christmas presents. Really early this year, as I so do not enjoy the experience of hanging out at malls and jostling with the crowds doing last minute shopping.

So nice to be able to relax with dh and k at a mall on a friday morning. Taking our time to enjoy a slow lunch and dessert, without having to queue up for food or wait for seats. Dh and I absolutely abhor crowds, so you will hardly see us at a mall in town on a weekend, unless one of us needs to get something urgently. We will rather be in our shorts+t-shirt+flip flops dropping by at our neighbourhood mall for lunch or dinner.

After reading a feature on this new fast food restaurant, which has been voted as the best in New York, dh was curious enough to want to make a trip down to ION Orchard to try it out. Dh's review? Not bad, quite crispy and appetising, most apt for the american taste buds as the soy sauce chicken tasted a tad too sweet. Very much like sweet and sour pork dish that is served in most chinese restaurants in an European country, that is always a little too sweet on our taste buds.

Holding on the tag @ 4 fingers, which will light up when the food is ready for collection

For K, any meal in town will not be complete without dessert. So he patiently waited...

And waited...

Finally it was here, all 3 flavours. Coconut for dh, who is extremely consistent when it comes to his preferred gelato flavour. Apple flavour for me as I am the fickered-minded gelato consumer who usually goes with whatever I feel like for that day. And for K, another consistent epicurean when it comes to ice cream, it will be vanilla flavour for him. Except that the 'vanilla-like' flavour in this gelatarie was too milky so I chose another flavour that I was certain that he would like. When he tasted the hazelnut flavoured gelato, he exclaimed, "Like kinderjoy!" (his favorite egg-shaped chocolate that comes with a toy).

He is so thrilled that daddy is able to spend the afternoon with him and the highlight of the day was surely the gelato, as he does not get to eat ice cream when he goes out with me.

Rare photos of me with K. Such is the life of the self-appointed family photographer, who is always behind the lens. But I am not complaining, for I get to be the one who selects the ones that get on my blog. So there will hardly be one that is uploaded with me displaying a bad hair/smile day :)

Anyhow, I am in the mood for Christmas...planning to get the decor up at home, so as to get everyone else in the same mood, wrap up all the presents and looking forward to bake up a storm soon in my kitchen.

Friend n Fish

2009-11-18T00:43:00.007+08:00

I am really starting to appreciate the 'ulu-ness' of my address, which is in the vicinity of the Singapore Zoo and just a short drive to numerous nature parks and farms. This time round, K met up with Theo and we visited Qian Hu Fish Farm. Theo's mum, Sharon, who is a mummy blogger as well, coincidentally live in the same estate as we do.

K attempted 'longkang' fishing for the first time, but that didn't retain his interest for too long, as the fishes were darting around the pond too quickly. He got a little de-motivated when he only managed to catch a fish after 20 minutes. He much preferred to feed the koi in the nearby pond, and it was quite a sight to see the koi scrambling on top on one another to get to the food.

Overall review of the farm? Great for fish lovers, especially with its good variety of different breeds of fishes in tanks. 'Longkang' fishing experience will be more fun for the little ones only if they are able to get their feet wet in the 'longkang' (i.e., Bottletree Park in Sembawang). For a similar fish feeding experience with better landscaping, Hort Park will be a better option.

Dinner with the family

2009-11-14T22:08:00.008+08:00

A dinner get-together for an 'early' birthday celebration for the November birthday boys; dh and Uncle Nick.

Dinner at Aston's Prime, almost everyone had steak, while I had to settle for a grilled Halibut because of my bad throat; I was stuck with having the soft, greasy fish that was totally not appetising :(

The kid's meal that K requested for; chicken tenders, was far from being tender. Little effort was made on Aston's to ensure that the kids meal looked or tasted good. This will most likely be my first and last time at Astons. The saving grace was definitely the company and endless entertainment from dear K.

We proceeded to Orchard Central after dinner in search of dessert and K got a pretty good view of the Christmas lights from the long escalator located on the side facade of the mall.

Great photo opportunities with grand-dad as they did their super-hero poses.

K was thrilled (as always) when he got hold of Yiyi's iphone, surely he is a technophile in the making.

Photo-ops with Nana, Uncle Nick and Uncle Ed.

We decided to go with Gelera ice cream for dessert, K was thrilled with this choice. When we were selecting the flavours at the ice cream bar, he cast hopeful glances towards me, hoping he could have some of the ice cream. I nodded my head and he flashed me a huge grin.

He sure enjoyed himself while savouring the ice cream and showed off his dramatic displays of appreciation for it.

K's talk : Adult

2009-11-13T15:52:00.005+08:00

K : I am a adult
Me : Oh you are not an adult yet, you are a child or a kid now. You only become an adult when you are 21 years old. You want to be an adult?
K : Yes.
Me : Why do you want to be an adult now?
K : So that I can be tall.

It must be quite annoying seeing the world from his eye-level.

Splash!

2009-11-07T00:53:00.006+08:00

Doesn't really matter even if it has been raining every other day or that there isn't a pool to swim in. For K, there will always be another way you can go swimming.

Midway into the last quarter of 2009

2009-11-04T16:16:00.006+08:00

We are already into November! Time seemed to have flown by unusually fast this year, I can't believe that we are less than 2 months away from Christmas. Note to self : have to draft the Christmas shopping list, start buying 1-2 gifts per week so I don't get caught up in the Christmas rush.

I am still letting K take teeny weeny baby steps in his homeschool lessons, in fact we have only done 2 alphabets since we started more than 2 weeks ago. That's how slow we are going! He has been busy with unstructured activities for this week...mostly doing messy art and lots of play. He is having so much fun, till it has been quite difficult to convince him stop what he is doing to take his nap in the afternoons, brush his teeth or even go to bed at night.

Another day @ the park

2009-10-30T15:41:00.002+08:00

Hot day, lots of laughter and happy boys, despite some bickering along the way.

I took the 'risk' and did not get K to put on his diaper. And from this morning, K is now officially diaper free in the day, just after 3 days of toilet-training 'boot camp'! Life is bliss.

Oh bother!

2009-10-28T16:25:00.005+08:00

That's probably what K has been thinking, since we started the process of toilet-training yesterday.

He's been finding ways to get out of it. First tries to convince me with, "I am still baby," when I told him that only baby wears diapers the whole day. Then attempts to sway me over with his reasoning when I ask him why does he still want to wear diapers, "Because, I am happy when I wear diapers." Then uses the other method of 'If all else fails, use a little white lie.' He tells me that he needs to pass motion and has to wear his diapers to do it. Then once he is back in his diapers, he scampers around the house for the next 15 minutes playing with his toys.

When I ask him he if he needs to go the toilet, he tells me "No need," and then proceeds to pee in his underpants 1 minute after.

And he is unusually impatient and irritable, which makes our home-learning these 2 days rather challenging for the teacher.

Jeez, he sure isn't the only one that thinks that this whole routine is a real bother.

Fabulous learning fun

2009-10-24T14:24:00.011+08:00

We officially re-started our letter activities this morning and F is our first letter to explore for the week.

The file folder activities in the lapbook were interesting enough to keep K's little hands and mind busy for almost 20 minutes. He even requested to do the worksheets from Get Ready for the Code A...I was so surprised that he could complete 9 pages in one sitting!

He went on to pretend to be a firefighter for the next 20 minutes. Used his yellow+red retro car as the firetruck, bicycle helmet as the firefighter's helmet and his yellow umbrella as the hose. He attentively listened to instructions from 'station control'-me, to find out where the fire was, then rode his truck fleetly from room to room to put out the 'fire'.

We continued with a food feast consisting of fishballs, fish and crabs for his mickey family,

And ended off a with a short 'freeze' game. (If video cannot be seen here, u need to install Flash 10 and click on the 1st video on the Vimeo widget located at the right sidebar)

Freeze! from Rachel T on Vimeo.

It was a fabulous saturday morning for me as I am extremely heartened that these activities worked out really well with K. I am so glad to see his positive response and enthusiasm for these activities and I am now truly motivated to make it his learning @ home even more meaningful in days to come.

Nature is the best doctor

2009-10-24T00:16:00.012+08:00

I could still hear him cough late at night. It was already 4 weeks since he came down with the cough since we got back from our vacation in end August. We visited the pediatrician twice in that 4 weeks and the p.d. told me that if K's cough did not recover, he will be placed on a course of antibiotics. I was not keen at all to even let K start on antibiotics.

Towards the beginning of October, K seemed to have recovered from his cough and phelgm. But somehow, he still coughed intermittently in his sleep. I was getting quite perplexed with his cough that did not seem to go away. We avoided cold drinks and his favorite dessert, ice cream...the last time Kyle had ice cream was in August. I even tried chinese herbs; nán xīn, běi xīn and chuān bèi boiled with corn/apple soup. However K's taste buds are too discerning.

Until that fateful evening and following morning, K had his first taste of M & M's chocolate and went to the Barrage for some waterplay. He ended up with a running nose and dry cough thereafter.

I decided to call it quits with prescribed medicine and use western herbal remedies which has worked very well for me. Previously at the advice of one of dh's business associates, vitamin C, garlic pills, Echinacea pills worked wonders for his health. He was apparently down with pneunomia very often in his childhood years and he started being in perfect health ever since he started with this 'concoction' of natural remedies in his adult years. He is now in his early 60s and he told us he has never been sick with flu or viral infections for the past 30 years.

After hearing all of that, I went ahead to stock up on Echinacea, garlic pills and Vitamin C. And started taking a dosage of these pills and drinks lots of water whenever I feel under the weather. Within 2 days or so, I will be perfectly well and will show no signs of the flu.

There was this other remedy which I spend quite a while to researching; Nat Mur. Nat Mur is a natural tissue salt that is very effective in treatment of Coughs, colds and Influenza: Thin watery runny nose and dry hacking cough. Which were the exact symptoms that K had 2 days ago.

Previously I got this, consisting Nat Mur + other natural ingredients and tried this together with only vitamin c. Within 2 days, I did not show any more symptoms of flu. And it also work wonders for my helper, who has this tendency to get the flu quite often.

So I thought it will be safe to try it with K (since it is all natural ingredients) and went to get these products formulated for kids. Kiddieboost with echinacea to boost his immune system, Comficoff for his cough, Sniffly Sprinkles (which he loves the texture and taste of it) containing Nat Mur and a chest rub for easy breathing during sleep. All these can be used together with Vitamin C, added ginger in our soups, as well as lots of drinking water. And the wonderful thing is that since this morning, K has no more running nose and cough!

Lately, I been rather influenced by this book written by Roberts Mendelsohn , a late renowned US pediatrician. This book is a loan from Lay Keng (Seth's mom, she has raise 3 other kids apart from Seth) and it has a rather unconventional view of 'avoid your doctor whenever you can'. Excerpt from the book about coughs and running noses:

'If the nasal secretions are clear, gray or white, your child is probably the victim of a viral infection such as the common cold or influenza...Common colds and influenza do not require medical treatment and the medications often used to trat them, will merely relieve symptoms. The effects of doing this may be counterproductive, because they interfere with the body's efforts to cure itself.

Short of obviously severe respiratory difficulties, parents should avoid taking their child to the doctor or giving him over the counter medictaions for the treatment of symptpms. The drugs commonly used...include decongestons, expectorants, antihistamines, cough supressants, pain relievers and antibiotics. They have several things in common: they are unnecessary; they sometimes have undesirable or dangerous side effects; they may interfere with the body's own efforts to defeat the disease and they are a waste of money.'

Indeed...we should stop drugging our children and instead should look at the alternatives from nature that we can used to hasten their recovery. The same also applies for us adults.

K's talk : Worse and Irresponsible

2009-10-22T23:01:00.005+08:00

We were leaving the house to walk to our neighbourhood's mall. I unlocked the door and stood at the door to wait for K.
K : Wait for me
Me : Yes, I will wait for you. Put on your shoes.
K : Worse, people will catch u (I could hear that "You better be careful" tone in his voice)
Me : So you will protect me?
K : Yes (nodded his head with a sure and knowing look in his eyes)

In the lift on the way downstairs
K : (Pointed at the litter in the lift) Tsk, tsk...irresponsible...

Makes me wonder if he is really truly a 2 year old :)

A splashing good time

2009-10-21T22:04:00.005+08:00

After reading so much about the Marina Barrage's waterplay area from numerous mommies' blogs, I brought K to the barrage this morning to experience some water fun. He has been deprived of water play since we got back from our vacation in end August, as he has been having the cough for the past 4-5 weeks.

As K is an avid fan of water fountains, I am certain he will agree with me that Marina Barrage has one of the best waterplay areas in Singapore.

He had the wonderful company of friends (Seth and his older sister Faith)

Seth and K played goofy games like 'bumping our tummies',

flashed our cheeky grins,

and gazed at the big ships docked near the barrage.

When I asked if he enjoyed himself this morning, K said, "Fun, want to go swimming in barrage again."

The only downside of this excursion is that K caught a cold and he has started to have a runny nose and cough again! :( I have decided that we will give doctor's medicine a miss this time, as it only surpresses the symptoms and not provide a cure. Instead, I will be using some natural remedies such as Echinacea, garlic and vitamin C for a start. Hopefully, these will provide the boost for his antibodies to fight the flu naturally.

Chalk n clean

2009-10-20T15:28:00.004+08:00

According to K, scribbling with dark sugar chalk on our house's corridor was not that riveting. It only captured his attention for about 15 minutes, them we spent the next half an hour blowing bubbles.

The best part of this morning's activities had to be the cleaning up. Just part of my indoctrination to make sure that I have a son that will willingly help me with household chores in the future.

Planting roots, growing wings

2009-10-19T00:50:00.001+08:00

I think the turning point was when he turned 2 and a half. K started being able to articulate his wants very clearly, surprising me with new words and long sentences everyday. He knows almost 95% of the alphabets, numbers 1-10, colours, shapes and can count up to 5 items. All of that he learnt during play, from the books that we read and things that we see in our everyday life at home.

The only effort on my part was through the books that I bought for him, not limiting the words that I use when I speak to him (baby language is a no-no for me) and being a little more observant about the world around us. He shows alot of curiosity about nature, about how things work, and will ask me alot of questions about what he sees around us.

John Holt was right, when he wrote about how children are learning all the time.

"We can best help children learn...by making the world as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions...and helping them explore the things that they are most interested in." Extract from John Holt's Learning all the time.

My role as K's first teacher is to help him make sense of the world around him. We will be taking little 'baby-steps' towards starting short homeschool sessions for the next 1 year before he starts nursery, and will explore various areas of literacy, math, science, arts and bible & social studies. Also not neglecting lots of play and outdoor exercise at all other times.

I initially planned for him to attend some parent-accompanied playgroup programme, but after reviewing my objectives. I figured that gets enough socialisation weekly at Sunday school and during his one-to-one playdates with Seth. Besides dh is right in saying that he has at least 20 years of formal schooling, so why is there a big hurry to send him to school?

'Planting roots, Growing wings' will be my new blog to document our sessions at homeschool. This blog will be the best way to review my 'on-the-job' training as his first teacher, and to continually challenge myself to grow and change. Afterall, I believe that being a mother and helping my child to realise his potential is the best way to realise my own.

Tea for you?

2009-10-18T22:18:00.001+08:00

Why do bats hang upside down?

2009-10-16T22:28:00.002+08:00

K has been asking me this question; why do bats hang upside down?

Unlike birds, bats have trouble flying when they start on the ground! Because their wings are not quite as strong as those of birds and because they cannot run fast enough to build up into flight, bats have an easier time flying when they start already up in the air!By hanging upside down, bats are able to build up enough speed that when they let go of their perch, they can turn that speed into flight! This is something special that bats are able to do, which is why other animals like monkeys who might also hang from perches can't fly away when they let go. For bats, hanging upside down also gives them more choice on where they can stop and rest, since it's unlikely any other bird or animal will already be sleeping in the same spot. Thanks to their special toenails, bats have a very easy time hanging around upside down!!
(from Whyy)

Being a parent does make you more knowleagable...

Haircut

2009-10-12T14:29:00.004+08:00

The best way to keep him occupied at the hairdresser's is to keep his eyes, ears and hands busy the whole time.

Miniature Mondays

2009-10-12T00:32:00.003+08:00

The Rasa Sentosa's poolside

Tilt shift effect is harder to achieve when the photograph is taken at this angle.

A Sunday Wedding

2009-10-11T23:50:00.006+08:00

"Whose wedding?" K was asking me this question when I reminded him this morning that we had a wedding to attend this afternoon.

"Why get married?" was his next question. After giving him a lengthy explanation why a man and woman marry, he asked me, "Why mommy no wedding?" I told him that mommy and daddy already married, so no need to have a wedding. Thank goodness he did not go on to ask why he did not attend our wedding, why he wasn't born yet, etc. It will probably be quite a challenge to explain the 'birds and the bees' to a 2 year old! I will rather reserve that for when he turns 4 or 5.

He was rather satified with my answers to his question and then went on to fuss for another 20 minutes. He did not want to wear a pink shirt and he was adamant that "Pink for girls only." After convincing him that boys can wear pink and that he looked very handsome in his shirt, I changed him into his outfit for the afternoon and we scrambled out of the house.

He was thrilled when we met Grand-dad, Nana, Yiyi and Uncle Nick at my cousin's Melissa's wedding at Rasa Sentosa hotel. With all the attention he was getting from them, he did not mind the heat as much. He just wasn't too keen too pose for pictures, as I only got to capture him with his pouty expressions.

With Yiyi who is pretty in pink

Looking at the crowd with uncle Nick

Getting some respite from the heat with Grand-dad, enjoying the sea breeze

Taking in the view of a waterfall, one of his favorite past-time when we are outdoors

Looking all flushed-cheek after taking countless number of walks outside the ballroom

Picnic @ Hort

2009-10-06T15:50:00.008+08:00

We woke up this morning to a light drizzle, so I told K that we will go for a picnic tomorrow. He let out a huge sigh and looked really disappointed, as he has been looking forward to a picnic since late last week.

So we decided to say a little prayer for good weather, and went ahead with our little excursion to Hort Park.

Hort park; a gardening hub with neatly manicured landscapes, quaint water features and plenty of beautiful tropical plants and flowers. Probably the kind of urban garden I will want to have, if I had the patience to maintain it in my hypothetical landed property.

The urban garden looks aesthetically pleasing at eye level, however the juxtaposition of backdrop of office buildings along Alexander Road felt a little jarring against the lush greenery of the park.

I suppose it's just the idealist in me speaking. My concern sure didn't bug the insects anyhow, since we spotted plenty of butterflies, centipedes, dragonflies, beetles, which were thriving in the urban garden.

The little guy 'caught' the photography bug from me, and was trigger happy clicking away with my old canon ixus.

Every once in a while, he striked a dramatic pose for my camera

We spotted a shady canopy with wooden chairs and decided that we will have the picnic there

My little photographer spotted a centipede

While walking back, we went into the Bamboo Labyrinth. The Bamboo Labyrinth is made up of a series of circular paths enclosed within a grove of bamboos. When he asked me what was that place for, I told him that people could do exercise and chi-gong there. He then striked a few kung fu poses, raised his arms for his chi-gong stance.

We walked towards Alexander Arch and wanted to venture further to Henderson Waves, but turned back when the drizzle got heavier. K ended up feeding the fishes at the pond near the entrance of the Park.

There was a periodic light drizzle the whole morning, but it sure didn't dampen our fun. In fact, we enjoyed the light cool breeze that accompanied the drizzle. It will otherwise be too humid and hot on a typical late morning.

My first miniature

2009-10-05T16:01:00.004+08:00

of the view outside my kitchen window.

This really adds to the fun of photography... quite tickled looking at these pictures in Flickr.

See how we have grown!

2009-10-03T11:25:00.002+08:00

and I don't know what to do with it now...Let it continue growing or trash it?

Food for thought

2009-09-28T15:11:00.010+08:00

The list of things that K eats now is getting shorter and shorter. For this season it has been only

- chicken marcaroni

- spaghetti

- lasagne

- fishball noodles (he will eat this everyday if I allowed it!)

- prawn noodles (without the prawn, only with the fishcake)

- fried rice (only when it is home-cooked)

- ban mian

- yong tau foo (with all the fish balls/cake, without the tau foo)

- rice (only when he gets to eat it with fish ball)

- Japanese ramen

- cake and cupcakes

- an occasional piece of vegetable

I got this book, "Why should I eat well?", to teach K the importance of eating well. He can now tell me when I ask "Why must you eat well?" His reply will be "So that no pimples...no tooth decay."

He is rather disturbed by the visuals of the pimply kid in the book and have refused to look at the book now, after reading it a couple of times. This evening while I was washing my face, K came into the bathroom and we had this conversation -

K : "Why mummy washing face?"

Me : "I need to keep my face clean so that I will not get pimples."

K : "Why mummy got pimple?" (referring to the hormonal zit that I have been nursing)

Me : "Because mommy has not been eating well. So did you eat well tonight?"

K : "No." (He refused to eat his rice this evening and ended up picking on a piece of ham in a sandwich)

Me : "So tomorrow you might get pimples then."

K : "NOoooooo!!!" (he then scrambled out of the bathroom)

I felt quite guilty after hearing that distraught tone in his "No". I try not to use fear to manage him, but sometimes, I just can't help it. Plus, I hate to admit that it works quite well most of the time.

I have decided that once he turns 4, he will need to eat whatever he is given or he can choose to go hungry. Then be made to watch videos and images of starving Ethopian/Somalian children. And listen to a lengthy discourse about how fortunate he is compared to these children who have nothing to eat.

So I have it all carefully thought out for when he is 4, and still wants to play 'hardball' with me during meal times. Although, I am well aware that theory always sounds much easier than practical experience.

Call me doctor...

2009-09-25T14:36:00.009+08:00

Doctor. Ben-10 Kyle

According to K, he is now Kyle aka Ben-10. Dr. Ben-10 Kyle, not only fights evil aliens and bad guys, but also saves baby Mickey's life.

And you wonder where do they get the inspiration for their super-hero movie-scripts...

Planting bean sprouts

2009-09-25T14:14:00.011+08:00

1. Tear cotton wool and place in container

2) Plant the green beans and water

Day 0 of K's bean sprouts project

K's first science project; growing bean sprouts. My attempt to get him to observe how plant/vegetables grow.

Seems to be a useful technique to teach him the concept of patience as well. After he planted and watered the seed, I told him that we needed to water it daily and it will grow. He walked away from it, turned to me and said, "Ok wait, grow now." And then ran back to the container, hoping to see a plant.

I reminded him of his book "The Carrot Seed", about the boy who had to be patient for a couple of days and wait for his carrot plant to grow.

The best part

2009-09-23T00:04:00.007+08:00

K's been visiting his p.d. a little too often this past one month
To a point that the nurses have started addressing me on first name basis
It started with the flu a few days after we got back from our vacation.
Although it has been more than a month
he still coughs and vomits out phlegm on a periodic basis.

So well-behaved when he sees the p.d.
Stays very still when the doctor uses the stethescope
Obediently opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue when asked to
Doctor will exclaim, "Wow, he is such a good boy!"
K will be beeming with pride and flashing his 'beaver smile' (where he hides his top lip).

The best part of his trip after the visit to the doctor's
Will be checking out his favorite toys in the toy shops

He loves all typical boy's toys such as cars, trucks, tools and action figures
Pretends to be a firemen who fight aliens

Never fails to run towards the game consoles
This time he turns to me asking "Why never turn on?"
Persistently tries to fiddle with some knobs on the console
Hoping that the game will come on screen

This is a constant reminder why hb should never get the Wii
Till this little boy knows the meaning of discipline and self control

We ended up buying something more educational from the other toy shop
I just could not resist as it was on sale
If the stuff there wasn't so overpriced
I will get all of K's toys from that shop

He didn't show much enthusiasm when shown my choice
Didn't quite matter as I was certain he will like it
Once he got home
And was less overwhelmed by so many selections

I have to learn to appreciate this
While he is still willing to go with what mummy chooses for him

Confession

2009-09-22T17:20:00.008+08:00

Confession; I have been a lazy mom lately.

Not been doing much with K, except for a short finger paint session last week. Most of the other times I have been letting him play with his toys or plonking him in front of the TV watching cartoon network in the early evenings. While I will be slumped on the couch, nursing a headache or nausea.

I have been getting bouts of migraine quite often these two weeks. It usually lasts till lunch time and I end up doing nothing constructive with K. Been looking at the diet, I don't see anything which I could have eaten that could have triggered the migraines. Hb thinks it is the long hours I spend in front of the computer at night after K goes to bed.

Feel rather guilty about not providing more learning opportunities for him. Could I be experiencing a little bit of 'parenting lethargy' (don't know if there is such thing)?

Suppose it's time for another girl's night out with my good friend?

A year older

2009-09-18T14:30:00.007+08:00

It's official. I have turned 33 and K is 2 and a half years old. So how different has it been for us?

Mr. 2 and a half is still not toilet-trained; decided that he did not want to wear underwear anymore and will only want to use the potty when he feels like hearing some praise. I am probably one of those few mummies out there that have an extremely laissez-faire attitude when it comes to this. I figured there is really no rush, since K will not start pre-nursery till mid next year and I am sure he will not be in diapers when he gets to primary school. It is often easy when you have an eager-to-please toddler, but a totally different story when you have a little strong willed toddler whose daily mantra is 'I already made my mind on what I want today.'

The terrible twos behaviour can get quite bad on certain days. He can get extremely demanding, impatient, bad tempered, screechy and will be bawling his eyes out if he does not get things done his way (Picture above was taken after one of those tantrums, see the tear stained eyes). Other times, he is this animated, enduring and loving little boy.

Parenting him does take some tact, reasonable negotiation skills and lots of patience. In the words of my mom, an experienced parent of 3 children, "He is really not easy." Okay, I am not that exactly looking forward that he will grow into that 'not too cute anymore stage' in a couple of years time.

As for me, I am contented with life and I thank God everyday for letting me be a full time mother to K. Watching him grow up has been a joy, and I am glad that I have finally came to a point where I am not at all bothered by my lack of financial independence or perceived future security.

I think at many points of our lives, we often lose ourselves in the unwritten laws of the societal expectations. Call it denial, eccentricity or whatever, but I refuse to believe that our lives should be ruled by these expectations; most stay-at-home mothers are marginalized by devoting themselves full time to child rearing.

Taking care of children can be tedious and frustrating, but that will probably describe most jobs. The difference is that the time I devote to my child would be an investment in the most important activity humans can engage in. If I was still a working mom...and as K got older and left home, I don't think will I ever wish I had devoted more time to my career. My regrets will be all about lost opportunities to be with my child.

For me, there is really no higher calling than raising my child.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Birthday highlights yesterday :

Hb and I sneaked out when K was having his afternoon nap, proceeded to Funan to shop for my birthday present and went on to a wonderful japanese dinner at Inagiku. The sashimi was excellent, but worthwhile only with the Dine @ Raffles membership with the Amex card (we got 50% off the bill).

As with most of my other birthdays, hb always got me tech items. An ipod nano and mobile phones a couple of years back, digi cameras, a laptop the year before. He has learnt long before that it is always safer to let me shop for my own birthday presents :)

1st few test shots of K with the Ricoh Digital GR 3; a digi cam with manual controls, without the bulk of a DSLR and can deliver super b/w and quality coloured shots.

Will be kept busy the next couple of days mastering technical techniques of digital photography and capturing priceless shots of a super active tot.

Countdown: 1 more week...

2009-09-08T13:47:00.004+08:00

to being 2 and a half...

He is getting quite domineering and demanding. Things must be done his way, he gives the orders and make the decisions. If he decides that, “mummy do”, daddy or helper cannot be accepted as a substitute. If he decides, “Me do myself”, no one is allowed to help him.

He is extremely sociable. He loves attention, likes to make new friends and is quick to warm up in a new environment with other children. When we walk pass a stage at the mall, he points to it and tells me "my favorite". He approaches other children his age in Sunday School and smiles and says "hi" to them, unfortunately, he will be greeted with silence or a stare. I will tell him that "they are shy", when he looks at me quizically.

He is very enthusiastic to show his 'tennis', 'golf' or 'kung-fu' skills in front of others. He can be quite a show-off at times, especially since he does not seem to exhibit any form of performance anxiety. In fact, his 'performance' (complete with loud sound effects and dramatic movement) seem to thrill most of his 'audience' to bits.

He is not shy to to ask for things from the service staff at a restaurant. He even makes sure that he gets to order from the menu by himself, especially when he spots something that he fancies.

He is very inquisitive. His speech is now peppered with lots of "why-s", and he will not stop asking 'why' until he is given a satisfactory answer. He always make sure that I answer his, "Don't know what is this," or "Don't know who."

My little boy is growing up real fast (sometimes, a little too fast for my liking).

Countdown to one more week, I will be turning 33 years old on the same day...

Flu flu go away

2009-09-03T23:04:00.005+08:00

The phlegmy cough is now accompanied with running nose
As well as occasionally vomitting
The little trooper is still handling it real well
Still showing his 'tennis' + 'wushu' moves

Not so great for me though
I have succumbed to the bug
Throat scratchy, nose sniffy
Together with a slight fever
OTC flu meds don't work too well
Can't get any sleep as it kept me wide awake last night

Two days doses of echinacea, some vitamin c and garlic pills
Seemed to have worked quite well
Gave my immune system a boost
No more cough, just slight sniffles
Just more rest and fluids
And I will be 'as good as new'

What are lil' boys made of?

2009-08-25T16:09:00.021+08:00

What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

The rhyme forgot to add, as well as a penchant for all other ugly stuff.

My lil' boy has entered the phase of liking ugly stuff, and it comes in the form of 'Ben-10 Alien force.' All it took was two episodes of the cartoon Ben-10 during our recent holiday, and he started asking dh to get him the Ben-10 watch.

Being the slightly more indulgent and pampering half of the parent, dh got him the watch.

With his more menacing than Ben-10 look

This liking has been balanced out with something else a little cuter. He saw the trailer for 'Ponyo-on the cliff by the sea' and been singing his own version of the theme song for these last couple of nights before falling asleep...

"Ponyo-yoko...neh-neh-neh neh neh neh..."

I do prefer Ponyo to aliens, although I don't like how pop culture glamourises both aliens and magic. It is quite startling to see the power of mass media over a toddler. So I have to make sure it comes with alot of parental guidance and all of these will just be limited to imagination and pretend.

Post holiday outcome

2009-08-24T23:00:00.004+08:00

Down with fever since from Sunday morning,
Fever went up to 38.8 degrees in the wee hours on Monday morning
Dh panicked and wanted to rush K to emergency

Told dh, we should try first with the paracetamol and a gel pack
Got him back to sleep
Fever went down after 1 hour
Sometimes all it takes the other half of an occasional calmer parent

Got K to see the pd this evening
Found that he put on 1kg from the holiday
From a 14.6kg to a robust 15.6 kg

Been confined at home for a week
Told to monitor to his temperature till friday
And that there is little to worry since he is so active and alert

Back comfortably in his bed
Sleeping soundly
Temperature is back to normal
My lil' boy is a strong viral warrior

10 days full of sun, pool and ice cream

2009-08-23T18:02:00.034+08:00

(long post with lots of pics to load)

The last 11 days maid-less wasn't bad at all, since dh whisked K and I off the next day (after the helper left) to a 10-day beach vacation. There was no floors to mop, no need to cook, only a little bit of hand-washing of clothes along the way and lots of quality time with dh and K.

The nights weren't so easy. K took about 2 days to get used to the new bed and hardly slept through more than a stretch of 4 hours. He got up like 2-3 times through the night, asking for milk each time. The little guy is getting to be a real milk guzzler, as he started asking for up to 16 oz (420ml) of milk before every bedtime/naptime.

It may sound rather dull for most as we were just doing this every single day for 10 days; wakeup - breakfast - swim - lunch - afternoon nap - dinner - sleep. However, the three of us enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Dh was agreeable with his seafood/thai satay dinners and the 'to-die-for' coconut ice cream, while I was kept contented with Tom Yum Goong. As for K, swimming and ice cream daily (on some days, up to twice a day) sure made him a happy 2 and (almost) half year old.

In the plane on the way to Phuket. A new expression for the camera; the 'beaver' face. K was so excited to be able to take the plane that he kept awake the whole flight (although it was afternoon nap time). For the whole journey, dh and I were kept busy answering his, "What's thats" and "Whys".

The first thing that we did when we reached the resort; Sheraton Grande Laguna, was to take a dip in the pool. K was thrilled to play on the sand, while being in the children's pool at the same time.

It was chocolate ice cream next. For K, his energy was kept on an overdrive with a boost of sugar high, since it was 5 p.m. (without a nap) and he had almost one scoop of ice cream to himself.

That evening, he fell asleep on 8.00 p.m. at the dinner table.

When we went to explore the beach the next morning, K discovered this froggy water spout. He was so thrilled with it that he made sure that he got to play with it each time he spotted one in the resort.

On the way to the pool with dad. It was the same thing that we did daily every morning for the next 8 days.

The start of K's pool adventures in Phuket. A couple of new milestones were achieved here; 1. He is now able to 'swim' with us at the adult pool just holding on to dh's/my arms, without having the security of touching the bottom of the pool with his feet. 2. He has learnt to hold his breath underwater and can stay underwater for at least 2 seconds. 3. He dares to jump into the adult pool (unaided by a floating device), while trusting that dh and I will be there to catch him when he is in the water.

Walking with dad to the mini jetty to catch the boat. One of the special features of this hotel is that it is one of the 6 hotels that surrounds a large lagoon with private ferry boats.

In the ferry boat with dad

So pleased when he realised that we had a ferry boat all to ourselves that evening.

One more cheeky new expression for the camera.

He showed me this look when I asked for the 'beaver face'.

He got to play his own version of pool, while sitting on the pool table.

Lounging at the hotel lobby, while waiting for the transport to bring us to Phuket town.

K's view of the evening sky from the lounge chair

Got to do some supermarket shopping at Phuket town. While dad went a little crazy buying up the toothbrushes with special bristles, K chose a new toothbrush as well.

Ice cream after lunch at Central Festival, another more modern shopping mall in the town. We had our lunch at Sizzler as Dh was dying for some steak and ribs (I wondered what happened to all the Sizzler and Ponderosa's restaurants in Singapore?) We had visit Tops supermarket to top up on the milk + diaper supplies as our trip was initially planned for only 6 nights.

K's first experience behind the steering wheel of a pick up truck.

Mr Grumpy face while waiting for our seafood dinner at Lotus. We ended up having dinner at Lotus for another 3 more nights, as dh loved the barbeque prawns + big headed prawns there, while K got to eat his fishballs.

Photo at Lotus taken by K. I must say that he is getting to be a really good photographer.

Love this pic. Especially his smile and when he raised his left arm spontaneously to hug me around my neck.

Watching the latern being lit up

A family pic with the lighted latern before it floated up into the night sky

With Lucky the baby elephant. Another special feature of the resort was that 2 baby elephants came around to visit the guests of the resort every morning at breakfast. Kids got to ride, feed and take pics with the 2 gentle giants.

Spending some time playing in Kid's Room. The toys were not in their best condition with their missing parts but K did not seem to mind.

A swift return of the ball to dad. K played table tennis with dh while sitting on the table tennis table.

Ice cream again. The ice cream was a key highlight of the day for K.

"Brain freeze"

His new smile; he hides his top lip and shows his beaver look.

Tanned mom and tot, a result of 9 days swimming daily between 10.30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

More ice cream. Being able to say "Kot khun kup," helps you to have a free mini banana split on the house. K lets us know how good it is to have the ice cream all by himself. This was our last night at the resort, I am sure K will miss being on holiday (especially the ice cream moments).

Picture taken with his new friends on our last day breakfast at the resort. K got to know these fantastic irish brothers; Oliver (left) and Harry during our last few days at the resort.

A longing glance at the pool after a final dip on the 9th day at the resort.

"Pool and ice cream everyday...I am sure hoping to go on another holiday real soon!"

Countdown

2009-08-10T22:27:00.005+08:00

Counting down to 1 more day of being maidless for the next 10 days.
Not looking forward to cleaning the house or washing...
Or spending less time surfing the internet.

What can I say, except that...
I will never be cut out to be a stay at home mom who has to do housework without any help.

Just a wee bit more bossy than usual

2009-08-08T00:19:00.004+08:00

K's little streak of bossiness has reach another level of advancement, it's now more than just "Mommy do." He now tells me what to say during our sessions of pretend play.

While we were playing his fishing game, he caught a toy crab and said these few words;
"Mummy, eat crab."
He went on to exclaim,
"Don't say not good to eat."
"Always say is good."

I wonder where that came from...certainly not from me.

We love spending time together

2009-08-08T00:10:00.001+08:00

"Although we still get into little fights; like who gets to sit on the side of the steering wheel..."

"Or when Raeann takes my toy car.

However, I really don't mind holding her hand, only for a short while though...and maybe even share a hug."

July captions

2009-08-04T15:27:00.003+08:00

Been feeling kind of lazy to type too much into this blog lately, so captions will do for this week...

Playdate at Raeann's on the 30th

K needs time with mei mei to learn that there is more to just rough-and-tumble play

Celebrated Yi yi's birthday on the 1st Aug, K got a little too enthusiastic and blew the candles even before we finished the birthday song. So then the candles had to be re-lit.

Another fish hat evening; on the way to birthday dinner at Sopranos at Portdown road. Incidentally was the worse Italian food I ever had. Good ambience but lousy food. At least dessert was good when we went on to Peaberry and Pretzel @ Sunset Way.

Ain't it sunny?

2009-07-28T13:32:00.003+08:00

According to K, it was. He decided that it was so sunny indoors that he insisted on wearing my sunglasses while we were in the mall.

Sing with me

2009-07-28T00:28:00.006+08:00

Sing with me from Rachel T on Vimeo.

At the Botanics

2009-07-25T14:20:00.004+08:00

It was a sweltering hot day for a picnic, nonetheless, the hot weather didn't seem to bug K in any way. Yiyi, Uncle Ed and the dogs, Zac and Lea's company at the picnic did make it especially fun for K.

Kids have that affinity with nature and I don't think that I should be depriving him of it, although I am not particularly fond of perspiring profusely under the hot sun / getting bitten by ants. However, for K's sake, looks like we will be having more regular picnics in the near future.

K spotted a dragonfly! (While Zac wonders what is all that commotion...)

Checking out the water through the drain

Playing with Lea, Zach's (our family dog) sister

Posing with cutie little Kayla (Sheryl's daughter)

Turned out that Saturday morning was a mini SE alumni of sorts, as I met another ex-colleague Shaw Wun with her daughter Alissa. Looks like Botanic Gardens is a great place to have family picnics on Saturdays.

Back to more action...

Need a short breather. Taking a sip of ice cold water (So shiok!)

Our furry companions that day, Lea (left) and Zac

And the little monkey at the park...or rather...K's new pose for the camera.