HK trip day 1 (Arrival)

Coach ride to Disney Hollywood hotel

Pretending to be the driver of coach...

Though Lele only had a 10mins nap in plane, he was high-spirited after the power nap...

Arrival at Disney Hollywood hotel Outside hotel Inside room... in case u are squinting to have a better look, Lele's wearing a brief! This is the first time he agreed to have it on. It looked to cute we just had to have a pic taken.

Arrival at Disneyland

Inside Disneyland

snack time

train rideoutside train station... Lele's holding a brown bag with leftover Mickey jelly, which he couldn't finish
Both father and son looking tired even before the train started Both fell asleep soon after ride started. Lele was so exhausted he only woke after night parade was finished, despite all the commotion and hoohas.

During night parade

After night parade
Lele looked grumpy after waking up from his nap. Needless to say, he was in no mood to indulge in the festive mood. Nor did he even notice the beautiful illuminated castle in the background...
Small world ride
Madhatters' ride
After a rides, we went to have our dinner. Halfway through dinner, the fireworks began! Lele and I quickly ran out in the open to look. Lele was so excited he kept jumping up and down, exclaiming now and then, "Lele is not scared of the fireworks!". See, this is the second time he has seen fireworks. The first time at Fullerton hotel during NDP, lele was abit frightened of the loud explosions.

Hong Kong trip day 1 (before departure)

Changi Airport before check-in

After check-in, before boarding

Long time no see

Yesterday morning after breakfast, I brought Lele to the playground. Before that, we headed to the supermarket to get some groceries and yoghurt. While at the yoghurt section, I met a neighbour and we started chatting while Lele busied himself with choosing a yoghurt flavour. Suddenly, he turned to the neighbour and said in mandarin,

"Wo heng jiu mei you kan dao ni. (I haven't seen you in a while)"

Fireman, Lele

Lele simply loves playing fireman.　Ever since he received the helmet at a community event last month, it has been his daily toy. He will put on the helmet as and when he wants to play fireman, construction worker, Bob the Builder and grasscutter. Even when not wearing it, Lele will bring it along with him whereever he is in the house!

Top 4 games Lele likes to play in the house
1) Fireman
2) Bob The Builder. He loves to carry his tool box around looking for things to fix. Even though there are many tools inside, his most used tool is the hammer. His most-loved method of fixing is by hammering hard and loud at the "faulty" thing, for as long as we allow his to...
3) Watching YouTube with papa. Well, this is not really a game,　I know. His favourite programs are ... actually,　I have no idea because I am usually barred from entering the room wo watch the clips because (in his words), "You cannot come, because I only want to watch with Papa." Watching videos is associated with Papa because he will only request watching with him and not me. Think it is something special and fun he likes to do with papa.
4)Cooking. Recently I organized Lele's messy toys. I found boxes for him to sort out his toys into cooking things, vehicles, small things, train things and tools. This makes it much easier when he is looking for things to entertain himself with. The most-used boxes are the cooking and tool boxes. When it is time to keep, I make sure we return the toys to their boxes before dumping into the huge "Francis Fish basket".

Below are some pics taken during the community event where he received a fireman helmet.

Countdown to Hong Kong!

Only 2 more days to go before we leave for Hong Kong...YEHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though this is the very first family trip overseas and I don't know how little monkey Lele will take to the whole thing, I look forward to this trip SO much...

4 months of playgroup

Lele attended Chinese playgroup from July to Nov. Initially, I received many feedbacks from the teacher that Lele's attention span is quite short. Though I understood that lele's inability to sit still to receive knowledge was probably due to his inquisitive, curious and observant nature, I couldn't help worrying.

Will he outgrow his restlessness?

Is he hyperactive (Daniel convinced me that he is far from hyperactive behaviour... phew...)?

Besides including a few quiet activities (such as writing, colouring and puzzles of which he is very fond), I also set prayers for his and his teacher's high life state during lesson. Knowing Lele's curious nature, I chanted that he will be so curious about whatever the teacher is going to teach that he'll pay attention to her without getting restless. This specific prayer worked. Even without my asking, the teacher commented that Lele has been much more attentive in class. Some weeks, I'll receive good comments for 3 consecutive days. This is a far cry from initially, when he will only pay attention for 30mins at most and become quite restless. In the last lesson, he was even able to complete a worksheet by matching animals to their homes with a pencil, by listening to clues given by teacher.

Though I have chanted for Lele's development all this while, it was only when I began to set specific prayers and take specific action did I see very quick results. Before chanting, I used to worry about things even as I take action. But through this benefit, I can feel that as long as there is specific prayer + specific action, we have nothing to fear.

As a mother whose greatest responsibility is her children's wellbeing, I found this very reassuring.

Jungle play

Papa bought a 28-piece floor puzzle for me. I was pretty excited to see such big puzzle pieces. Though I did not complete the puzzle in the morning with papa, I manage to complete the entire puzzle by myself the 2nd time round, after a good nap. Mama suggested inviting my soft friends for a jungle walk, and I had lots of fun!

choco love affair

Lele likes sweet things and absolutely loves chocolate. Above is him devouring an entire choco muesli bar after 150ml milk for his teabreak. He requested for the muesli bar after waking from nap, and I made a deal with him. He can only have the bar after finishing his milk. Though reluctant, Lele finished his milk. I had thought he would not be able to finish an entire bar given a full stomach of milk. But he surprised me...

springcleaning

Under the iniative of Daniel, we springcleaned the storeroom this afternoon. Look what I found... photo collage of Lele during his first few months of life before 1 year old... This was given to Lele by his dearest playmate shushu, a day before he was due to fly off to Australia for studies. He made the photo collage as Lele's first year present. I showed Lele the collage after his birthday party, which shushu could not attend because he was already in Aus, but he wasn't too interested. Not wanting to leave it around in case he destroys shushu's hard work, I rewrapped it and kept it in the bedroom. Later it was moved to the storeroom due to dust accumulation. I had wanted to bring it out later to show lele, when he is older.

How time flies! Now dear lele is 2.5 years old, and his dear shushu has completed his 2 year studies also! I showed Lele the collage and asked who the picture was.
He replied,

"Baby!"

and I told him that the baby is him when he was a baby. His face showed a mixture of amusement and confusion... haha.... I left it at his bedside bookshelf and we looked at it again before bedtime. This time, he asked,

"Where is the picture of Lele when he is big boy?"

I replied,

"Right here."

And gave him a big hug, saying,

"Last time when Lele was a baby, mama loved him very much. Now Lele is a big boy, mama loves him very much still."

I also explained to him that the collage was done by shushu, that it took shushu a long long time to do, but he did it because he loves him very much:)

Thanks, Gary!

What a beach!

22 Nov was beach day for me. Papa, mama and me met up with waigong (maternal grandpa), waipo (maternal grandma), dajiu (mama's big bro) and dajiumu (his wife) to go to the beach! Kudos to mama for making that suggestion! I literally played my pants off (more juicy details coming up...) Dajiu and dajiumu had fun playing with my sand molds, building sand castles and stuff, while I had twice as much fun destroying them with my power rake *evil laughter*. Waipo was reallie cool. She roughed it out with me playing with sand and water while waigong just chilled out on a mat high and dry. She even brought in a coconut that came floating in with the tide. I had fun piling sand on it and was sad when the waves decided to lull it back to the sea. I chased after it without realising I was wading deeper and deeper into the water. Luckily waipo caught hold of me in time. Bye, coconut... Hope to c u again the next time I visit...

On the way to the beach, I came across a small baby excavator under a tree. This real truck is much better than any toy truck mama got me. I spent quite a while meddling with the gears. 2 passerbys couldn't help smiling at us. They must be jealous :p Topmost picture is dajiu and me. Dajiu is so tall, isn't he?

See that on my hand? Don't be deceived by its sweetie pink colour. It is actually my weapon on destruction. I use it to destroy whatever sand creations dajiu and dajiumu built with my sand molds.

Even though papa just returned from a 2-day scouts camp the very afternoon, he still accompanied us on this beach trip and played with me. Mama had suggested that he stay home to rest while she and me will go to the beach with the others, but papa told mama that he had promised to bring me to the beach and therefore must keep his promise. What a great papa I have!

That's waigong chilling in the background while I busy myself as a sand transporter using my teeny shovel. Hard work but loving it: )

Waipo feeding me some biscuits brought from Japan by her neighbour. Yummy!

Waipo also bought a watergun for me. We had some fun squirting. Unfortunately, the watergun couldn't stand papa's rough handling and "died"...

Me trying to chase after my friend, Mr. CocoNut, but was held back by waipo.

I appear to be working with dajiumu and waipo, but actually I'm just waiting for a chance to use my pink rake (see it lying there?) keekeekee...

Shortly after playing with water and sand, my entire pants got drenched. About 1 hour into playing, I needed to pee. Mama told me to pee in the sea (hey, it ryhmes!) and I insisted on removing the pants. After my pee, I refused to put the wet pants back on and played bottomless for anothe halfhour. Mama is especially amused to see me playing bottomless in public and not caring at all. See, I am so self-conscious of my body that even at home, i will not change in the living room unless nobody is around. If I need a change of clothes, I will almost always insist on doing it only in my room. If anybody (besides the one changing me) comes in and cry shame, I will kick a fuss and quickly cover the vital parts with blanket or towel or korkorbear. That's how self-conscious I am.

Mama thinks the reason why I could be so nonchalent about showing my bum in public is because I was having too much fun to care. Besides, my totally soaked pants must have felt so horrible on my bare bum that I rather play without it.