Dino-snore

Lele's current fave bedtime story is "Time for Naps" where a little girl (or boy?) puts all her soft toys to bed. When it comes to the part about dinosaur snoring, Lele will never fail to say,

"Yeye."

This is because once while his yeye was snoozing on the sofa in the living room, and Lele&I playing around the house, we suddenly heard snores from yeye. Lele was very amazed to hear such sounds so I explained to him that the sounds are yeye's snoring and "demo" for him. Since then, whenever he came to the part about dinosaur snoring in his fave bedtime story, he would say "Yeye." When asked how yeye snores, he will "demo" in the cutest way...

Usually, I will ask him, "Does so-and-so snore?" for each of us in the family. He will reply no for all except yeye, usually. Tonight, he decided that Papa snores too....................................................

Reallie gave me a good laugh at this out-of-the-blue response.

My art appreciator

During Lele's dinner, I got out a pen and paper for Lele to doodle while I fed him. Seeing that he had so much fun, I decided to join in. I took the pen and told him,

"Lele, mama is going to draw gorgor (big bro)."

As I drew each body part, I said,

"Gorgor's face... gorgor's eyes... gorgor's nose... gorgor's mouth... gorgor's ears and gorgor's hair..."

He paid close attention and there was a twinkle in his eye. When the drawing was completed,　he gave a squeal, brought his face to gorgor's face to "sayang (show affection)" him! Haha...

With such a positive response, I went on to draw a cat, jie jie (big sister) and pig. Each time, he paid close attention and squealed when my shabby drawing was completed.

2 challenges

Lele's top 2 challenges right now are:

1) Self-feeding

2) Go nappyless

For 1), Lele made significant progress from rejecting the whole idea of self-feeding using spoon to being able to self-feed the full breakfast feed of cereal this morning. I was so over-the-moon!

For 2), Lele doesn't seem to be ready yet because he doesn't seem to mind even when his diaper is so heavy it's drooping, and fuss like mad whenever we have to stop his play and bring him to the washroom for a pee. In order to get back to his play asap, he would often stop his pee halfway, saying, "No more. No more."
But I wanna start slow and steady with this. My "strategy" is to let him go diaperless for as many ocassions as possible so he can start to appreciate the difference from being diaper-clad. Perhaps he will start to enjoy being diaperless and reject the diaper!
That'd be great!

What a scare!

After the usual morning walk with Lele, we made our way home. In the lift, I asked Lele to press "10" and he pressed "17" instead. The lift door started closing so I pressed "10". Once inside the lift, I put Lele down because he likes to explore the lift.

When the lift arrived at level 10, I stepped out and kept a finger pressed onto the "down" button. I asked Lele to come out, which he will usually do without delay. But today he decided to stay in a little while more.

Just then, to my shock and horror, the door started to close! I pressed onto the "down" button a few times but the door just kept closing. Thinking back, the lift must have been on its way to the 17th floor that's why when I pressed "down" button it didn't work. Should have pressed "up" button instead.

The instant the doors clammed shut and the lift started moving upwards, my mind went blank...

After a second's daze, I went to the nearest staircase and dashed up like a mad woman.

11...12...13...14...15...16...17! All the while, I kept calling out for Lele so the he will hear my voice and be a little reassured.

When I reached 17th floor, I heard Lele crying. I dashed to the lift but he wasn't there! OH NO!

I went around and saw him at the corridor. Thank goodness!

I quickly ran to him and gave him a great hug, telling him,

"It's okay. Don't be scared. Mama is here now."

Luckily, he only cried for a few seconds before resuming cheerfulness.

I'm so glad nothing disastrous happened in this drama. Had he not gotten out of the lift at 17th floor and stayed inside instead, the lift would have just brought him to the 1st floor, or worse still, a stranger might pressed the lift and the lift would have gone down to anywhere. I cannot imagine what I would do if I did not find my dear son at the corridor.

Luckily, all is well and good now.

Really must be more vigilant next time. Must hold the lift door open by placing my hand on the door and not button...

Finally MMR...

Brought Lele for his MMR (Mumps, Measles and Rubella) immunisation jab today.

FINALLY!

This jab is supposed to be administered at 15months, but he was having a bout of coughs and colds which was not serious but took ages to completely clear (about 1 month!).

The jab seemed to be quite painful for him, because he continued to cry after we left the room.

The nurse warned that MMR jab might cause fever which might occur within the next 10 days. So far so good...

Oh, Lele weighs 10.23kg and 82cm.

Lele is getting more and more vocal. With his limited vocabulary, he will attempt to name the things he know, loudly. On the way to the polyclinic for his jab, in the LRT train, Lele suddenly exclaimed, "BAGGGGGG!" and everyone turned to stare at us. Whenever he comes into contact with any strangers, he likes to make eye contact with them and name the things on them which he knows.

I'm happy that Lele enjoys interactions!

Finally swimming

Yesterday, mama and papa brought Lele to the swimming pool for the very first time in his life. We had a great deal of fun at Anchorvale swimming pool. There were a total of 5 pools, with brand new slides, jacuzzi and all. Best of all, since we went on a weekday, it wasn't swarmed with people, or worse still kicking kids :p

Despite bring wary of those big water-fountain-like things at the pool, Lele was very brave to agree to venture under them after mama and papa explained to him how the fountains function. He even attempted to dive into the water when mama and papa were talking. As a result, he had his first tastes of chlorinated water. Fortunately, this did not spoil his adventurous mood.

One drawback was that the water was too cold and the weather a tad too cool. We went around 5pm, thinking that it would not be too hot then. Perhaps due to a rainy morning, the water was quite cold. Lele did not seemed bothered by the cold water, to our surprise. However, only 15 mins later, papa observed that Lele was teeth were chattering. We hurriedly removed him from the pool, wrapped him up in a big towel and dried up his hair, while feeding him something to munch and drink.

After he was sufficiently warmed up, we returned to the pool. But this time, we went to the warmed area. Another 15mins later, he was in my arms and I felt his legs shaking. So we decided to call an end to the pool dip.

Next time, perhaps I will choose the afternoon to visit... hmm...

Just a bit more

Shhh...

Lele is sleeping in the room next door...

It's 1.10p.m. now ...

and he has been asleep since 10.45a.m. ...

Trying to see if he can nap for 3hours straight...

35mins more to go...

Ever Lele and mama started started sharing the same room, they have been having disruptions to their sleep. Mama is quite sure the reason for Lele's disrupted sleep is due to her presence, because Lele's daytime naps went on as smooth as usual.

As a result of so many successive nights of restless sleep, both mama and Lele ended up tired, fussy and frustrated. Lele woke at 5a.m. this morning crying for milk. Even after milk was drunk, he kept tossing and turning, as if having difficulty going back to sleep. No such problem for Mama, a notorious heavysleeper, though. She fell asleep soon after and was only woken up by Lele at 7-ish. Even then, she managed to "buy time" in bed till 8-ish, when Lele reached the threshold of his patience and started harassing her by pulling on her pillow and patting on her face.

Mama has no idea whether Lele eventually fell asleep after his milk because she was sound asleep herself.

If Lele really did not go back to sleep after the milk, then he must have been SO tired by the time he finally slept at 1045! Poor dear............................................................................................ Mama feels very sorrie for him, and hopes Lele and Mama will get used to each other's presence soon.

3rd day sleeping with Lele

At 6.15am, I woke to see Lele sound asleep and without his blankie, so I got up to cover him up.

He sprang up and said,
"Mama."

Then he started fussing and pointed to the shelf (where milk bottles are kept) saying,
"There, there!"

I realised he must have been hungry since his last feed was 7pm the night before. So I made milk, gave it to him and went back to sleep, feeling more than a little angry to have disrupted sleep yet again for the 3rd night running.

While I was trying to fall back to sleep, I could hear him tossing and turning. I knew he wasn't asleep. His tossing and turning kept me up too. I was tired and irritated.

"Sooner or later as the day brightens, Lele is going to fuss and cry for me to get him out. Argh...", I thought.

True enough, when it was around 7am, he started to fuss and cry loudly. At the same time I felt sorry for him that he has such disrupted sleep, not able to sleep well despite being obviously tired, I was quite pissed off too.

I raised my voice at him and said to him, still lying on my bed,
"Why can't you just go back to sleep? Why must you always wake up this way?"

And I turned right over and ignored him totally. He whimpered a little but did not fuss or cry anymore. After a while, I decided to get up. Turned to him and was surprised to see he had fallen asleep. That was 7.30 am. He only got up around 9-ish.

I'm beginning to think that sooner or later I'll be able to enjoy peaceful co-sleeping with Lele... hmm...

Reallie hope he will get back to his usual sleep pattern before the week ends.

Lele's little indulgence

Mama and papa seldom offers Lele snacks. Even if we do, the snacks are mostly healthy, non-processed stuff such as sultanas, fruit or corn.

In between 3 mains (cereal breakfast and porridge/soft rice lunch n dinner), 2 milk snacks and 2 nap times, mama finds it difficult to squeeze in snack time without it ruining his appetite for the mains... Mama's speaking from experience, because there was one time she gave Lele some sultanas an hour before his dinner, and he spat out whatever was fed him during dinner! In the end, he just had milk and then to bed.

Lele has a little indulgence, though.

He simply loves Julie's butter crackers! His Yeye and nainai loves to eat them with coffee after lunch, so there is almost always some crackers in the kitchen. After a first taste of it, he fell in love. He loves the crackers so much he couldn't get enough of it and requested anybody who'd listen to give him some.

He soon realises that the only person who'd accede to his requests is Yeye (sometimes Nainai), so when he sees Yeye in the morning (not very often) when he gets home from work or wakes up to go to work, he will rush into the kitchen to demand a piece of cracker.

As if he knows that once it's finished, it's gonna be REAL difficult to get another piece, Lele will start taking really teeny tiny nibbles when he sees that the biscuit is getting small.

Birdpark

Here are some long overdue (4months, to be exact) pics of Lele's 1st visit to the birdpark...

These playful n sociable birdies are called LORY.

Papa let go of Lele's hands n he bravely "challenged" the suspending bridge on his own.

Papa observed that even though Lele was brave enough to walk on the suspending bridge alone, he was quick to walk back to where he came from instead of venturing to the other end.

Towards the end, we visited the puffins and penguins. Lele loved the puffins but did not feel much for the penguins. Each time we put him at the penguins, he will walk back to the nextdoor neighbours, puffins. Wonder if it's because they are smaller and cuter than penguins?

I saw a penguin hat and wanted to put it on Lele for a picture. Lele refused and went into "hiding" on my shoulders, so I put the penguin on myself:)

Last night I slept with Lele

Last night I shared the same bedroom with Lele, he in the cot and me on the bed beside it. Was such a bad sleep for both of us! Usually he'll sleep throughout the night, but this morning he woke at 5 am asking for milk.
I gave it to him while thinking that I shouldn't be giving him milk so promptly BUT I was would do ANYTHING to go back to sleep at that moment of interruption...

So I gave the milk and we went back to sleep... peace till 7am... instead of the usual 8am...

Even though I managed to steal a little sleep till he got impatient at 8am, it was next to impossible to get sound sleep with him patting my face/arms, poking his finger into my nostril and/or talking/humming!

ARGHHHH...

How I wish I can return to the good ol' days when he would sleep by himself in the cot!!!

But the cot has become too dangerous for him since we caught him trying to mount the sides. In a day or 2 we will shift him to sleeping on the mattress. For now I will have to sleep with him. Even during naps I dun dare close the door fully less he try funny things...

I've mentioned before but HOW I WISH I CAN RETURN TO THE GOOD OL' DAYS WHEN HE WOULD SLEEP BY HIMSELF IN THE COT...

Even if he sleeps on the mattress, it's not possible to leave him alone to sleep cos the room is simply too dangerous. not even window grilles.

SIGH.

Developmental milestones

Just a few more days to go and my little baby will be 17mths old.
Here are some of the things he is now able to do.

*Say about 20 words (all mono-syllabic)
*Can address all family member(except nainai) spontaneously without prompting.
*Able to link each family member to an object. Eg, when he sees a motorcycle, he'll say "Yeye, booboo" and then pat his head, to indicate that his grandpa puts on the helmet and rides on the motorcycle. When he sees a broom, he will say "Mama, boooom" and then do sweeping action, to indicate I sweep the floor with a broom.
*Speak in sentences of 2 words.
Eg: "Mama, yao." to mean "Mama, I want (something which he cannot yet pronounce the name)
"Yeye, ball ball." to mean "Yeye I want fishball."
*Can relate a story of what he did or what happened by signing/showing/words*
*Will imitate actions and sounds of words more readily.
*Able to recognise colours.
*Able to categorize by uses and colours.
*Able to doodle (but shows more interest in markers than pencils/pen)
*Able to roll on the floor and sometimes forward roll.
*Able to hum songs "twinkle twinkle little star" and "this old man"
*Able to run and stop without tripping over.
*Able to touch various body parts
*Able to do various actions such as dance, jog, turn around, hop, stop, stand up, sit down.
*Able to remove own shoes.
*Able to remove shirt with assistance.
*Able to feed with assistance.

what a morning...

Gave Lele a purple marker to doodle on paper, but he had better ideas...

"Hooray, a purple marker! Been thinking about it since the last time we 'met'! Let's see whether it still leaves marks on my palms... it does!"

"This is great! No need for paper hoo hoo hoo..."

"I'm done! Let's put the cap back and do something else."

"Now let's empty out my basket of toys..."

"Hey you, old toy. Lemme see whether I can find a new way to play with you..."

"I'm bored. Hmm, let's call my friend for a chitchat."

"Hello, kitten. It's me Lele... I'm bored at home... You too? It's not easy being little..."

"*Hugs and kisses* Bye kitten!"

17months

Time reallie flies... Lele is coming to 17months old...

From the day he was born, Lele has become the focus of the family. As the youngest and only baby at home, he enjoys unlimited love and affection from all of us at home (mama, papa, yeye, nainai & shushu). Of course, his waigong (maternal grandpa), waipo(maternal grandpa), jiujiu (maternal uncles) and their girlfriends dote on him lots lots too!

I'm glad that despite (or because of?) all the attention he gets, he has not become self-centred or selfish. In fact, if I may say so myself... I think that Lele is quite magnanimous, gentle and nonaggressive.

Magnanimous: When he is enjoying a slice of apple and we ask to have a bite, he will not hesitate to offer his share, no matter how little of it is left. Even as he is trying very hard to take as little a nibble as possible so that the apple will "last" longer, when we ask to have a bite, he will let us have it (as long as we don't gobble up the whole thing. He hates that.).

Considerate: Now that his language skills are more advanced, Lele can address all of us in the family, except for nainai. He can even address his uncle , who is currently away, and his jiu jiu, whom he seldom sees, but not nainai... ... ...
As if wanting to make up for not being able to address nainai, each time nainai asks him to say "nainai" and he can't, he will do a little 'stamp feet' dance for her or give her a little peck on the lips!

Sociable: Lele is quite a people-person. He likes to ensure nobody is being left out. Take for example, there was one time when we were all in the lift with Lele in yeye's arms. Nainai requested Lele to kiss yeye, which he dutifully did. After kissing him, he turned to each of us and kissed us... Besides in the lift, Lele repeated this action on several ocassions too. We are all amazed how such a young boy can understand not to leave other people out of his affection... ...

If I bring him down to the playground with his papa and asks to hold his hand to walk with him. He will hold my hand and then asks to hold his papa's hand too. Same thing with nainai. As long as there is more than 1 person of the family walking with him, he will ensure that none is left out...

Non-aggressive: At the playground, if there is a piece of equipment, like the see-saw, which he wants to get onto but which is used by another child, he will patiently wait for the child to get off first before going to it. No matter how much he wants to have a go, he will restrain himself.

When he comes across a toy or equipment belonging to another child/person in the playground, he will want to go touch it like all toddlers do. Each time, I will explain to him,
"This (name of toy/equipment) belong to (either gorgor, jiejie, uncle or auntie), Lele. If you want to play with it, you will have to ask them, 'gorgor/jiejie/uncle/auntie, can I play with your toy/equipment?'. If he/she says, 'Yes.', you may play. If he/she says, 'No.', then you may not play."
After I explained to him, he will choose to go on to other things.

Despite being able to show respect for other people's things, Lele is always willing to share his toys with others. He will not bat an eyelid when his ball or tricycle is played with by others.

I must say I have learnt alot of things from him too. I have learnt that it is very important not to compare my son with other children, because each child if unique, with his own strengths and weaknesses. A child who is good in climbing might be slow in walking. A child who started walking very early might start talking late. So 1 child's strength might be another's weakness. It really is quite pointless to look at how much another child can do, and refer to our own children as "slow" or even "useless", especially not in front of the child!

I have also learnt that we should treat our children as little adults and not children. Adults don't like to be restricted. So it is with children too. If we fulfil their needs for attention, movement, exploration and excitement, they will be all the more ready to listen when we have to say "No, you may not do that, because..."

Wah! Such a long post...

A funny word

Nainai tried to get Lele to say "shushu (uncle in mandarin)". Lele found that word so funny he chuckled SOOOOOO loudly each time he pronounced, "chuchu"...

Morning nap

Lele sleeps in his bedroom on his own cot for night time and naps.
Mama is usually the one to put him to bed. She will carry him and hum a song to him while rocking him for a little while (less than 5mins) before putting him on the cot to let him fall asleep on his own. to mama, being able to put himself to sleep is very important. After putting him down, Mama will leave the room and close the door.

When Lele woke from his morning nap, Mama heard him talking cheerily. Then mama heard lovely peals of chuckles and giggles, a first for Lele. Usually, he will just talk/babble. Lele must be in a very good mood to laugh like that, mama thought.

15 mins later when Lele started crying for her, Mama opened the door to see that Lele had his T-shirt removed halfway... Mama was so surprised and said to Lele,

"Wow, you actually took off your own shirt, Lele."

In respond, Lele chuckled heartily.

The joy of being able to remove his own shirt must have been the reason for the peals of laughter earlier on! Unfortunately, the good cheer was gone by the time Mama whipped out the camera to shoot some pics. By then, Lele had enough of the cot and couldn't wait to get out for some fun.

Brown (soft) rice dinner...

Remember the previous post when I mentioned letting Lele have pearl rice lunch and how he loved it? Well, I prepared brown rice for his dinner and he enjoyed very much. He finished all of 1 1/2 bowl of brown rice in less than 15mins. When all the rice was finished, he gladly took the spoon to self-feed the remaining dishes. Lele is very good at putting food into his mouth with the spoon, with no spillage or "misses", but he's not very good at scooping, still. Hmm, maybe I should prepare some games that involve scooping?

Not sure if you can tell from the picture above (not very appealing, I know...), but I prepared steamed cauli flower, fish and pumpkin to go with the brown rice. I think Lele enjoys being able to see what he is eating and taste a different texture and taste with each combination of dishes:) He kept "reminding" me to add a little fish to his brown rice by pointing to the fish and saying "there, there!!!" all the time.

Lele and his new bag

Lele received a Tigger backpack on his first birthday. Mama let Lele wear it for the first time on a dinner date with some of her and papa's friends. Initially, Lele was abit wary of it, but after giving it several hugs while in the pram, he allowed mama to put it on him without much protest.

Below are a series of pictures taken when Lele and papa walked up the stairs. Lele fascination with stairs was such that he gladly chose to go up the stairs despite the daunting (at least to papa and mama) height...

Lele at the supermarket

Mama and papa brought Lele along to dinner with their friends at the newly town, Buangkok. While waiting for them, they went to the new supermarket. Mama was very impressed with the spaciousness and huge variety of fresh produce there. No comparison to the one near home.

Papa: This is fishcake, Lele. You love fishcake, don't you?

Lele smackers his lips in agreement.

"Let's rearrange these tubs of margarine... ..."

"... and then run away before mama or papa discovers!"

"Papa says this is apple juice. Must be as yummy as apples..."

Papa: This is cold cold ice-cream, Lele. Try touching it.

Lele: Oooo... let me touch some more!

Kindermusik

Lele has been attending Kindermusik since he was 9mths old. After this term, he would have attended Kindermusik for about 9mths.

Perhaps you might wonder why we let Lele continue for such a long time? Well, simply because he enjoyed lessons. He loved lessons so much that he would burst out crying once Shauna announced the end of lessons, consequetively for 3 lessons. And we do see that he actually learned something from lessons despite being the most active boy throughout.

Some of the things he learnt was:

*Returning the toys: Even if he had lotsa fun playing, he would return the toys each time without fail. Hoarding toys he liked and keeping them to himself somehow never occurred to him...

*Stop and go: He was able to follow the music cue to move and stop.

*Loud and soft: During this activity, Lele wasn't paying attention. But when we tried the activity at home, he could beat the drum loudly and softly without our guidance.

*Following routines: Maybe it was because Lele has been with Kindermusik for so long, that he understands the cues for most routine activities. Here's an anecdote:At the end of lesson, Shauna (the teacher) will sing the goodbye song while bringing a dollie around to give each child a personalised hug and kiss. At the end of one particular lesson, Shauna had barely started singing before Lele ran to the dollie and gave it a hug, before dragging it to his classmate to hug.

From left: Shauna, Lele and mama

Here's the picture of dollie. A total of 3 boys (including Lele) are mesmerised by her. One boy even attempted to grab her by the hair and hoard her to himself... rendering the adults in stitches.

Rice lunch

Ever since he was 8mths old, Lele had been having brown rice porridge (with everything mixed in) for his main meals. We try to give it to him twice a day, but when it wasn't possible, then he will have 1 porridge meal and 1 cereal meal.

To be perfectly honest, porridge with everything mixed in is not very appealing to the average adult, including me. I wonder how someone can take such mashy stuff twice a day for 8months... But Lele seemed to like his meals that way. He can finish 1 1/2 bowl of it for each meal, no less.

2 months ago, I think, I introduced rice into his meal. He loved it, but Lele's nainai and papa feel that brown rice porridge is more nutritious than pearl rice. I figured that since Lele has no complaints about brown rice porridge, no harm continuing.

Recently, Lele has started to show signs that he is sick of porridge, so I prepared plain rice (softer than what adults eat) and some steamed dishes (broccoli, fish and tomato).

Unlike brown rice porridge, Lele was actually able to see exactly what he was eating. He loved this arrangement so much he tried to feed himself and also chose what dish he wanted to go with the rice!

Wait a go, Lele! Look out for more pearl (and perhaps brown rice) meals to come!

Housewarming

Below are some pictures of the housewarming and prior to it. To mama's horror, she actually forgot to take pictures with the hosts! TskTskTsk...

Not sure whether it's due to lack of sleep, but Lele demonstrated ultra stickiness to mama at the party. He would cry for mama if she went out of sight for more than 5mins. Is this the beginning of separation anxiety?

Oh, Lele said a few new words at the party. He learnt to say Da jiu (big uncle), jiu jiu (uncle) and uncle. Mama's brother claimed he heard him say, "wo yao mama (I want my mama)!" when he was looking for me.

He also learnt how to do "reverse parking". .. That is, he make sure mama is not far behind him and then reverse till he touches mama's lap. Then he will sit there.

Hmm, maybe I should cause Lele more anxiety so he will speak faster? Ha!

"Better do some work-out by running up and down the threadmill at lightning speed, so that mama and papa might be convinced to let me eat my fill at the buffet spread later!"



"No, it's not our housewarming party but we took a family photo all the same! Have you noticed that 4 of us are dressed in red/pink?"
(from top left clockwise: my da jiu (big uncle), his gf (auntie Karen), mama, wai gong (maternal grandpa), my xiao jiu (little uncle), me (trying out a cool stare) n my wai po (maternal grandma).



"Can u see that I'm holding on to an apple slice? This is my 3rd slice (as far as Mama can keep track). Hmm... let's see what other fruits I can have after this.

"Here's a serious pose of Papa and me."

"Mama, are you done? It's tiring to keep up a serious pose, you know."