Lele's schedule for now.

After some time, Lele's schedule has finally settled into a more predictable routine.

7-7.30a.m. : Rise & shine. Nowadays he tends to wake at around 5-ish to ask for milk, then go back to sleep.

8a.m.: Breakfast of oatmeal & milk (150ml) cereal with toasted corn bran added for the crunch. He likes to munch on chewable foods and resists soggy textures.

8-9a.m.: Either help me in the kitchen while I prepare the brown rice (he'll pour the rice into the pot), ingredients (he'll take out the tomatoes) for his lunch and boil water or play on his own.

9a.m.-10a.m.: Morning walk

10-10.45a.m.: Flashcards session followed by my morning prayer with him playing around me.

11a.m.: Bath

11.30a.m.: Lunch

12.30p.m.-2.30p.m.: Nap

3p.m.: wake and snack of milk (180ml) or cereal with 150ml milk

3.30 to 6p.m.: Either outing or free play (books, toys, flashcards etc) at home with other family members if avail or me

6p.m.: Bath

6.30p.m.: Dinner

8p.m.: Bedtime story

8.30pm.: Sleep

Not ready for school

Lele tells me he is not ready for school.

On the way to the library, I chatted with a fellow passenger. Having a kid is such a great converstion starter I tell you. We would not have chatted with each other had Lele not pointed at her watch and say "wo" kekeke...
This passenger is on her way to fetch her 2 1/2 year old grandson. After we parted, I asked Lele,

"The auntie is on her way to fetch her grandson, a gorgor, from school. This gorgor has gone to school and now wants to come home. So auntie will go to school to bring him home."

I went on to ask him if he would like to go to school like gorgor. I told him that he will stay in school till it's time for me to bring him home. Immediately, he shook his head with a signature "Ahhh..."

I asked him again and the response was the same.

Some months back during the morning walk when we passed by a preschool, I asked Lele if he would like to be in school and he replied "yao". I said to him that he will stay in school to play with other gorgor, jiejie and teachers while I will be home and he shook his head and said,

"mama."

So I asked him,

"So do you prefer to stay home and play with mama?"

and he replied,

"Yao!"

Actually, I have no intention to send Lele to school just yet because I believe tht he is simply too young, that he is not ready for it yet. I believe a secure relationship with loved ones are to be built now and will go a long way, hence there is no need to send him off to school so soon. My ideal age to send him would be 2plus or 3 years old. Of course, he might not have as many chances to socialise with other children but since he'll be attending enrichment classes and have a pretty sociable personality, I'm not that worried about developing that aspect.

Understanding Lele

Yesterday I left Lele in the care of his shushu and nainai for the whole day from naptime. I needed to run some errands with Daniel and we decided to return after dinner.

With Lele being so sticky to me, I wasn't sure whether he would be "ok". The last thing I wanted was for him to wake up from nap missing me and crying frantically for me. I took care to explain to him that mama n papa will be away to tend to very important things, and he will have to stay home with nainai and shushu. He took it very positively and I was taken aback. Did he really understand that I will be away? After his bath, I told him the same thing again. This time, he said, "Mama" after I said that he will stay home with nainai and shushu. So I explained that mama and papa will be away for awhile, and when we get back we will play with him. He seemed happy with this explanation.

I was pleasantly surprised when MIL told me that he did not cry for me the whole day and had lots of fun playing with his shushu. At that point, I knew that Lele must have understood my explanation and trusted me when I said that I will be back................................................................

Mother's instinct?

A few more pleasant surprises awaited me this morning. Eversince his SA, he has been blowing hotcold with other members of the family and always want to hang around me. But this morning, he actually hung around the kitchen with yeye the moment he saw him go in. When he saw his nainai, he actually ran into her arms and gave her a bear hug. Moments after waking up from his nap, he actually took a few playthings and went to shushu's bedroom to play with him.

Overall, Lele was still sticky to me but not THAT sticky. He seemed more at ease with other members of the family and if I had to be out of sight, he seemed comfortable with that too, unlike the past.

I'm glad for this change in Lele! He will always be mama's baby but there is nothing that pleases me more than seeing this little baby growing up confidently, socially and healthily...

Sticky Chewy Choco-LELE

I wonder when Lele's separation anxiety will fade (is it even that?)...
At home he mostly wants me even though his yeye, nainai and shushu (uncle) are always there. It's sweet to be wanted by my dearest babe, but can be a tad irritating esp when I wanted to get some chores done. I hate to do chores at night esp my most hated (hand)washing n ironing. Thankfully, these 2 aren't daily chores! Whenever there is some (hand)washing or ironing that simply needs to be done, I always try to squeeze in some daytime to finish them. Now with such a stickychewychocolele who will fuss even if I'm out of sight for a while, it is so difficult to accomplish even abit of chores time. Even me-time seems out of the question...

SIGH....

But when we are at other places, he seemed perfectly fine. He'll gladly interact with gorgor or jiejie and other people. I know part of the reason could be because he knew I was nearby hence felt safe to socialise.

BUT shouldn't he feel even SAFER at home? Since I am in the house and he knows it. Surely the company of yeye, nainai and shushu beats that of total strangers... right?

Hmmm...

Categorizing

Papa says that being able to categorize is a very importamt skill to acquire, hence I try to create simple toys to help Lele dev this skill while honing his fine motor skills @ the same time. I created 2 animals, cat and rabbit, with different sized mouths (one big the other small). I prepared big and small animal "feed" for Lele to feed the animals. Lele quickly discovered that the small food bits are for the cat and the big food bits are for the rabbit. When he tried to put the big food bits into the cat's mouth and couldn't, I'll explain to him that the food is too big for the cat's mouth.

Much to my pleasure, Lele appreciates this game very much and requested to feed the cat and the rabbit several times. Due to the small size of materials, I could not leave him to play alone. Each time after he had finished feeding, I will tell him that the animals need to sleep.　And he will return the animals without protest.... aw...

Notice a green thing in Lele's hand in the last pic below? That's the green scoop I was talking about. It almost never leaves his hands!

Storytelling time

Lele used to be and still is (I guess?) an early sleeper. it used to be 8p.m.. Nowadays his bedtime is around 8.30 to 9pm, thanks to storytelling sessions.

Lele enjoys the sessions soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much that each session lasts up to 30mins, hence his bedtime became later.

Reasons for such long sessions were:

1) Lele likes to participate by enthusiastically pointing out details and communicating with me about them. In this manner, a book which would take 3 mins to read would take 5 to 1o (yes) mins.

2) When we reach the last page, he never fails to request for the book to be read again. Usually, we would read the book 3 times before I would (buay tahan) tell him,

"Okay, last time. No more."

When we finish reading the book for the last time, he would put the book on his bed so that he may enjoy it the following morning.

When Lele is sound asleep, I would put a few more books on his bed so that he will have fun reading the following morning.

Deepavali @ Istana

Monday was a public holiday in celebration of Deepavali, hence papa suggested going to the Istana for picnic n play. Though it was a hothothot day, we had alot of fun messing around in the grass fields, listening to concerts, meddling with children play equipments and eating homemade tuna sandwiches!
Thanks papa for your great suggestion!
A secondary school band held a concert at the Istana. Lele and I enjoyed a few music pieces under the scorching hot tentage. I was surprised he did not mind the heat and sweat at all. All throughout the 1st 2 pieces, Lele stared mesmerised at the band. After the first piece, Lele shouted,
"Yao!" to mean he wanted some more music.
After the second piece, the band conductor gave a brief introduction of the band etc. Lele must have been worried that no more music will follow, for he exclaimed several times,
"Yao! Yao! Yao!!!" and we received a few stares...
Kids can be reallie fickle-minded (aren't we all?)... for he became restless just halfway through the 3rd piece and wanted to get away...
Incidentally, the band conductor used to be my secondary school band conductor! I was in the band and played the clarinet... WHAT A COINCIDENCE... he hasn't changed much at all lor. Band days were busybusybusy but totally enjoyable... ... ... ... ... ...
I had wanted to say hi to him and maybe chat a little when the concert ended. But before I knew it, the concert ended and the band was gone. Hmm Hmm... Hope fate might allow us to meet again.
As mentioned above, I packed some homemade tuna sandwiches for lunch at the picnic, which were enjoyed by papa n me. Lele had none, because he hates bread! Being a super non-fussy eater as he is (bitter, sour or a little spicy? Bring it on!), he will always shake his head when we try offering him some. When he was little, he did not mind bread. But now it's a no-no 99% (1% is when he 'accidentally' tasted the jam filling of the bread and likes the sweet taste) of the time. Hence we had to bring home cooked rice lunch for him. One grandma came over and asked to see the ingredients of Lele's lunch. Turned out she was very impressed that Lele has such a hefty appetite (esp when I told her Lele is 18mths and eats 1 to 1 and 1/2 bowl rice each meal), cos her granddaughter is 2 1/2 years old but cannot finish 1 bowl of rice, is fussy eater and usually chooses to drink milk instead of an actual meal. Below are the few pics taken there...

Mama, Goop!

Not too long ago, I blogged about Lele's attachment to a bear plush toy. I thought his relationship with it might last a while. How wrong!
Lele is now with a new love...

A green scoop (show the pic next time).

One fine day, Lele went into the kitchen and opened the drawer looking for things to play with. He saw the green scoop and decided he loved it. From that day on, he and the scoop was almost inseparable. He took it with him to baths, for play, to the outdoors, anywhere. If I had let him, he would bring it to bed too. No matter how much he insisted and fussed (big time!), I just cannot say yes to letting him sleep with the scoop for safety reasons. For almost a week, the first thing Lele did when he got up in the morn was to go to the kitchen, open the drawer and get the green scoop out! It's quite a funny sight actually. Very amusing to see how much fun a tod can c in a simple (in adults' eyes) item as a green scoop.

Not amusing when he misplaced it during his play time and came looking for me saying,

"Mama, goop!"

Poor me would then have to stop whatever I was doing and helped him look for the not-very-big goop...

Separation anxiety?

Quite tired these few days due to Lele's irregular nap patterns. Had wanted to log off but couldn't resist the urge to blog kekeke. Okay, just for a while...

Since young, Lele has never shown separation/stranger anxiety. Though not the smiliest of babies, he will stretch out his arms to anyone who offers to carry him. Ofter times, people commented that Lele is very calm and not afraid of strangers.

Ever since I stopped working 5months ago however, Lele started to become ever-clingy to me. This is fine and I guess only natural since he was probably just afraid that I might go back to work and disappear again hence the stickiness. I expected the stickiness to wear off but it only got stronger.

Initially he would stick to me and ignore nainai whenever it was just her and me. When yeye comes home, he would gladly follow him around to play with him. More often than not, he would choose to let yeye carry him as long as he offers. When yeye's about to go out, he will want to follow.

Nowadays he pays even less attn to nainai and significantly little attn to yeye. Whereas previously, Lele will clamour for yeye's attn whenever he was in the house, now he will just continu whatever he was doing even when yeye arrives home from work. Even when yeye carried him, he will say "Down!" after just a while and run over to whereever I was. Previously, Lele just cannot resist a trip down to Yeye's car with his dearest Yeye, when he will be allowed to take the driver's seat and meddle with the steering wheels and stuff. Now, even that cannot "tempt" him to leave me. No matter where and with whom, Lele will not follow as long as he knows I won't be going along.

Even naps have been disrupted. Previously, Lele will fall asleep on his own after I leave the room. But now he will start to cry the moment I start to lower him into the cot. I needed to sooth him by patting him while he was in the cot and he will calm down but struggle to keep droopy eyelids up for fear I will leave. Once I leave, he will start to fuss.　Sometimes he will fuss for more that 30mins and I will have to bring him out. Many naps have been lost this way.

Tired mama and Lele.

Even though Lele seems to be having separation anxiety now, he doesn't have stranger anxiety. He is still very willing to interact with anybody he meets outside. He stills sings, laughs, talks and plays like his usual self when we are in public. I hope the separation anxiety, which is only a normal development of most if not all children's lives, passes quickly!

Plee and dan-cute

Was surprised that Lele repected "please" and "thank-you" quite accurately (by his standards la) when I decided to teach him at whim last night over dinner. For please, he says "plee" and for thank-you, he says "dan-cute". Haha!

Up until recently, Lele's words are mostly made of simple sounds and mono-syllabic words but now he is starting to pronounce "br", "bl" and "pl". He even attempted to pronounce a two syllabus word "burdock".

Transitioning to 1 nap...or not?

I'm so confused by Lele's erratic nap patterns nowadays. Previously, he will take 2 naps faithfully. Just a matter of long or short.
Now he will start fussing the moment I try lowering him onto bed, fuss for a good 5 mins after I leave the room and continue to talk/play/sing/fuss for up to 30mins even when he is very tired. Sometimes he will fall asleep on his own, but other times he will continue fussing till I have to go in to check on him (diaper etc), sooth him abit and then he will sleep. If he had a short morning nap, I will let him take an afternoon nap, which will happen as well.

The above is just the GOOD day.

On BAD days, he will fuss so hard for so long that I have to bring him out to let him play, which he will gladly do (grrr...) and then bring him into the bedroom to sleep. Sometimes he will fall asleep after some patpat, but other times he will fuss very hard the minute he saw that I wasn't in the room. Then I will have no choice but to bring him out, let him have lunch first before trying again. Only THEN will Lele take his nap...

So I wonder if Lele is ready for a single nap.

If he is, why does he still take 2 naps on most days?

If he is not, why does he resist his morning nap so much and stay so energetic for so long?

Confused!

I'll just see how often Lele miss the morning nap. If he starts missing it more often than not, I'll save us both the agony of the morning nap.

What must you say?

Sometime last week, Papa thought Lele how to say a new sentence. He taught him to say,

"wo yao ji (I want chicken in mandarin)."

We were so amused to see Lele raise his left hand to demo "ji" (chicken in mandarin) whenever he said that word. It turned out that papa had taught him the action for "ji". When asked why he taught such a comical action, he replied matter-of-factly that it resembles a rooster's crown...

???

Anyway, it is reallie cute la...

Lele the cuddly bear2

I dunno why but whenever Lele is in the car, he will always want to sit on my lap, hugging me like a koala bear, or using my body as a car seat to lean against. Papa had tried several times to win him over to his side but all atempts soft or hard failed. Despite the fact that Lele had grown much attached to papa, he still prefers me to him as long as we are riding in the car. As a result? A green-eyed papa...

Yesterday papa came home from NS reservist family gathering with a new "weapon"... a superpro-looking WATERGUN!!! Lele and him had so much fun squirting away in the bathroom. After that, we went riding in yeye's car and guess what?

Lele finally decided cuddling up with papa is not such a bad idea after all...

Lele the cuddly bear

Usually for Lele's morning nap, mama will carry him in her arms and hum/sing a song to him for a while (5-10mins) and then put him down on his bed. Recently, he has started to resist whenever mama starts to show signs that she's gonna put him down. But once mama leaves the room, he will stop fussing soon after and play/talk to himself for 10-15mins, after which he will fall asleep.Yesterday morning, however, Lele's on-off fussing did not stop cease even after 30mins. Mama went in to check on him. When she left, Lele kept crying for,

"Mama, mama, mama, mama, MAMAMAMAMAMAAAAAAAA"

So mama decided to bring him out for a while before trying again. When yeye saw that Lele was unusually fussy, he carried him and played w him for sometime, then he lied down on the sofa to take a nap. Lele fussed when he saw that. He climbed onto the sofa and even fell asleep for half an hour to yeye's soft humming...

Rolling forward

Lele surprised all of us by doing a perfect front roll several times on nainai's and yeye's big bed!

Nainai and yeye had no idea Lele was even trying before, so they were pleasantly shocked to see Lele did the front roll at a whim. Nainai was excited she kept saying,

"Lele was like a little ball!"

Actually, mama and Lele had been practising the front roll for some time (A mth? maybe 2?). When mama noticed Lele liked to get into the front roll position, mama decided to teach him to do the front roll. Whenever mama was looking, Lele always did just a lopsided roll. Hence mama herself was pretty surprised that Lele managed to do a complete roll all by himself:)

Wearing Papa's cap

The cap was bought from Disneyland by nainai & yeye for Papa, way back in 1984...

Mama let Lele try on a new pair of Mickey Mouse pants which were too big for Lele last time. When mama was done, she removed the pants, but Lele insisted for Mama to put them on again. This was when Nainai remembered the Mickey Mouse cap she bought for Papa years ago. She took it out from the storeroom and and put it on Lele.

At first, Lele did not want anything on his head. Yeye and Nainai worked their magic and showed Lele how fun cap-wearing is. After their demo, Lele gladly put on the cap. In fact, it became his favourite toy of the evening!

Nostalgia...

Now that Lele has stopped sucking on his 2 fingers (ohsohappie!), whenever he gaze at me when I carried him in my arms before bedtime, I get reminded of the time he was just so tiny. Day after day, Lele keeps doing things that are becoming more toddler-ish, yet he looks just like a teenytiny baby whenever he is in my arms at bedtime...

Below are is a vid of Lele when he was 4 months... At that time we were so thrilled jst to hear his baby squeals. Now he can actually express himself with words, diff tones of cries, screams and actions...so nastalgic!

One of the first times Lele tried to "talk" to us...

The first time Lele displayed his sense of humour at a funny word, "chouchou (stinky in mandarin)" said by Papa.

Kiddy rides

Lele's current reads

Fave bedtime story: I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
This is a book about the love between a lil boy and his soft toy bear. Since Lele also has a bear which he loves to bits, I told him that the boy is Lele and the bear is his Bear Bear.
The book is made of short sentences which I "read" by singing out each phrase with a made-up tune. I think I'm a better singer-reader than reader-reader. Hence most of the books read to a tune of some sort.
Lele loves the book so much that he will not let me finish it. When we reach the last 2 pages of the book, Lele will say, "Yao!" and hurriedly flip to the beginnin so that I can start over. After the 4th or 5th time repetition, I have to coax the book out of his hands. I could have gone on and on with countless repetitions, but Lele was yawning away and was obviously tired.


Fave daytime story: A Child's First 123 COUNTING by Alison Jay
This is a book which I love as much as Lele! I love it so much that I'm gonna buy it so that it will be in my possession forever. See, most of the Lele's books including this one are borrowed from the lib. We did buy books for him but to be honest, his interest in the books I thought he'd like and bought for him was so mild.
This book about counting is so interesting, simple yet impressive! Everything about it right down to the nitty gritty details was well-considered by the author. Each page is linked to the other in a magical (I kid you not) way that everytime Lele and I read the book (to the tune of "ten little indian boys"), Lele and I will discover some new details...
I have never come across such a counting book! Better stop before I start to sound like a salesperson but I will definitely recommend this book for anybody's fruitful read...

Lele and the rolly-polly man

Here's a vid of Lele playing with the rolly-polly man. Ha! What a silly name! I named him... kekeke...

Lele likes to put as many round thingies as he can in one hand. Actually, he was supposed to put the round thingies into the pole but he had his own way of play, not to mention being very kaypoh about things going on around him. The plush toy on the table is Bear Bear, Lele's current fave toy. I've got a feeling he's gonna be Lele's bestie for quite some time...

Lele's current best fren

It used to be Donkey (an Eeyore soft toy which we named Donkey). Bear Bear had always been taking a backseat in Yeye's car, literally. Lele loves to cuddle Bear Bear whenever he took a ride in Yeye's car, but was happy to say goodbye to him when it's time to go home. Bear Bear and Lele lived in 2 separate worlds which sometimes mingled, until one day... things changed. Lele decided to bring Bear Bear back home.
Once home, he was "Bear Bear" this and "Bear Bear" that. Whenever he reads storybooks with bear in it, he will rush to Bear Bear. As far as I could remember, Bear Bear is in Lele's arms most of the time. Once or twice when Lele had minor bumps or falls, he cried for Bear Bear. Once Bear Bear is in his arms, he seemed to calm down quicker! I thought,
"There's something about Bear Bear that made Lele love him so much. Even Donkey did not enjoy such treatment from Lele..."



Sometimes when we are about to go for a walk, Lele will insist on bringing Bear Bear. Most times, I managed to coax him out of it, but once (or twice) he just gotta have Bear Bear...

Above is a vid of Lele playing with the rolly-polly man (silly name? I know and I named him heehee...). Noticed how gancheong Lele was when Bear Bear fell from the sitting position to lying down position. After ensuring Bear Bear's "safety", Lele was so happie he sang a Bear Bear song to the tune of "twinkle twinkle little star", while swaying his body. Papa says he loves Lele's carefree look whenever he enjoys himself. So do I...

Last class of Kindermusik... ... ...

Last Sun was the last lesson of the term for Lele's Kindermusik class. We have decided to discontinue Kindermusik as we want to explore other classes which involve not only music&movement but also other aspects such as gymnastics. Currently on my lists of to-try are Seimpi and JWT. Will bring Lele to the trial classes and see if we (Lele and I) like it.
Below are the pics taken during Kindermusik lesson.

With Miss Callyn, the instructor. She had just been our instructor for 3 lessons since Miss Shauna left.

With a fellow classmate (same age as Lele) and her mummy. Chloe will also be discontinuing.

Notice the "thing" above Lele? That's the parachute, which is a huge piece of circular cloth with many colours. Lele loves zooming around underneath it!

I dunno when. I dunno how. But hope to see you again, parachute!

Lele and papa during one activity.

U dialled what?

Guess what? Lele dialled triple 9 last Fri afternoon...
By accident, I think (or not?). I was busy in the kitchen when the phone rang. MIL picked up the phone and passed it to FIL. After a brief exchange, he hung up. MIL came to the kitchen and exclaimed,

"Lele dialled 999!"

I was like,

"No kidding!"

Turned out that Lele must have indeed pressed 999 on the dial pad of the telephone in ILs' bedroom by accident, before running away to another place. The police called and asked for my FIL. They asked him if anyone dialled 999 a moment ago. FIL thought the police had made a mistake. When they insisted that someone had indeed dialled 999, FIL recalled seeing Lele play with the telephone just a while ago and told them,

"It must have been my 17mth old grandson who dialled 999 accidentally while playing with the telephone..."

The police was not amused, however. They told FIL sternly that a warning letter will be issued to us, and a penalty of $5000 imposed should the same thing happen again... ... ...

WOW... what an over-reaction.

2nd splishsplash

Today is Sat and Papa made an impromptu suggestion to bring Lele swimming @ Anchorvale. Papa and Lele splish splash around in the pool while Mama took loads of papa-son loveydovey pics.
Initially, Lele seemed quite overwhelmed (by all the commotion and activities, perhaps?). He clung onto papa like a Koala bear and kept shaking his head n patting his chest. He didn't seem to enjoy the baby pool and kept pointing to the competitive pool (now what does that mean?). He was so uncooperative in the baby pool and so persistent in his request to visit tht competitive pool that Papa had to walk over to the competitive pool several times.

Luckily, a gorgor (about 6-7yrs old) came to save the day. He went over to papa and Lele to kicksplash joyfully in front of him, as if to invite Lele to join in.

With gor gor around, Lele began to kicksplash himself!

As he grew more confident in the water, he even began to wade in the water on his own... to the center where all the mini 'waterfalls' are. Once, Lele even tried a new stunt. He bent his knees to lower his upper body into the water. As expected, some water got into his mouth but he took that in the spirit of fun and wasn't bothered at all: )

A GREAT THANKS TO KIND GOR GOR AND JIEJIE (who joined in later). They made Lele 2nd pool exp so much funner! Both Mama and Papa (I'm sure Lele too) hope to meet this kind gorgor again!

After the papa-lele bonding session, mama n papa could see that Lele was obviously closer to papa and showed more affection to him. He sang papa song and hugged him spontaneously, and asked papa to carry him several times. Even before bed time, he insisted on going out of the bedroom to look for papa and say gd night to him.............................................awwwwwwwwwwwwww...........................................

Mama is very touched by papa's effort and Lele's love for papa. Despite papa's super hectic work schedules, he made a lot of effort to do small things with Lele as and when he can. Even today, papa had to wake up early to go to work, but he suggested a swim session and proposed to keep Lele company so that mama can rest, even though he could have just rested at home. Mama also knows that Lele looks up to his father, even though his papa doesn't see him much (sometimes papa sees Lele only 2times in a week). Mama thinks Lele loves papa because he can feel papa's love for him.