mummycake

HK trip day 1 (Arrival)

2009-12-26T07:45:00.001-08:00

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)

2009-12-26T07:34:00.001-08:00

Changi Airport before check-in

After check-in, before boarding

Long time no see

2009-12-09T19:45:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-05T06:34:00.000-08:00

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.

ALOHA!

2009-12-05T06:23:00.001-08:00

After more than 3 months absence, I'm finally back! Above is me riding on a ... ... oh right... excavator. I have just arrived at Pasir Ris Park and was making my way to the beach when I spotted this poor little excavator abandoned under a tree. I just had to get on. Under usual circumstances when I'm with mama, she will talk me out of going up by explaining to me that I have to ask permission from the constuction worker before I can ride his truck, and if he is not there, I cannot go up the truck on my own.

But that day I was surrounded by allies (namely, wai4gong1, wai4po2, da4jiu4 and da4jiu4mu3), so mama didn't bother wasting her breath and even took a few cool shots of me! Don't I look like Bob The Builder?

One month of playgroup

2009-08-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

Time flies. Lele has completed a month of playgroup. We are happie with his progress so far. Lele has learnt many things from the playgroup. Below are some of the more significant things.

1) Attention span is better
2) Renewed interest at holding writing materials to colour, write, paste and draw.
3) Can speak in complete, fluent and correct mandarin sentences.
4) Likes quiet play such as puzzles.
5) Can recite 2 tang poems and sing many mandarin songs.

Milestone

2009-08-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

Since last week, Lele consistently managed to put on his own sandals, take off his own shorts. He can put on and remove own T-shirt and shorts too, but need assistance. I am especially happy about Lele being able to put on his own sandals! It was all thanks to peer pressure and encouragement of his playgroup teacher, Wang lao shi.
Initially, Lele gave up easily after only abit of trying, because the sandals were quite narrow at the base and fitting. His little toe often got stuck in the gap between base and strap, after he tried very hard to slip the fitting sandal onto his foot. It is frustrating for Lele, Wang lao shi said. I agreed but did not go along with her suggestion to get another pair of easy-wear sandals, because I felt it is a waste of money since he will outgrow shoes quickly. It is only a matter of time that Lele will learn to wear his "difficult" sandals, I thought. I kept my expectations low but kept encouraging him at home. I was pleasantly surprised when Wang lao shi told me Lele managed to put on his sandals all by himself at playgroup. Nowadays, he will put on his sandals by himself and stand up proudly to show me his neat work:)

Be careful who u leave your child with

2009-07-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, just as we were about to leave home for his playgroup, I changed Lele into going-out clothes. Just as I was about to put on his pull-ups, he objected.
Lele: No need to put on diaper. Wear only pants.
Me: What will you do if you want to pee or poo in the classroom?"
Lele: Tell mama.
Me: Okay. But if mama is not around, then you have to tell Huang laoshi. You must say, 'Wo yao xiao bian' or 'wo yao da bian' to Huang lao shi. Okay?
Lele: Okay.

Along the way, I kept rehearsing the lines with Lele, worried that he might hold his pee/poo and dirty the carpeted classroom. See, Lele is totally diaperless now except during nap and sleep. Even in GUG he goes diaperless. So far he had been able to indicate whenever he wants to pee or poo. But I wasn't sure whether he will feel too shy to ask a person other than a family member to bring him to the washroom.

After lesson, I found out from Huang laoshi with great relief that Lele indeed told her that he wanted to pee, and allowed Huang Laoshi to lead him into the toilet! As a little reward, we bought a bottle of bubbles and went to play at a playground.

At the playground were a few other children, brought there by domestic helpers. One boy of about 3 was so interested in the bubbles and kept following us. Lele put the wand to his few mouth a few times but he shyed away. Suddenly, Lele used the wand and poked his eye! Luckily, the wand missed his eye and he wasn't reallie hurt. I kept apologising to his caregiver but she couldn't even be bothered to check on the boy. When the little accident occured, she was engaged in chitchat with another helper. This accident did not even interrupt their chat in anyway. They continued chatting like nothing happened. I feel sorry for children left in the care of such irresponsible caregivers. Thankfully nothing drastic happened this time...

Kids say the darndest thing

2009-07-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

One morning, Lele dug out a storybook, "Rhythm of my day" from his bookshelf. This book had been one of his favourite book for some time but had not been touched for months. He was happy to rediscover the book and requested papa to read to him. I was in the kitchen then. Suddenly I heard papa laughed out loud. Then Lele came to me and showed me a section of the book. I laughed so hard tears came! He showed me a picture and said, "This one is 'peng kueh' (a pink kueh with glutinous rice and peanuts inside, which he absolutely loves and can finish one on his own)."

The picture was actually that of a child's sock. Once he pointed out, I could see the striking resemblance. But it was just so funnie to have him say that something in an English book resembles something so asian...

I think this anecdote really highlights a fact.

Kids are like blank papers. They have no preconceptions or stereotypes.

The little things

2009-07-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

Lele likes to choose who to do specific things with him in the family, if given a choice.

(In order of preference)
Pee: Yeye/papa, shushu or me
Poo: Me
Wash poo (if he did "it" in the diaper): Yeye or me
Feeding: me
Bathing: Papa (esp if he bathes with him too), Yeye/me
Changing into dry clothes after bath: Me
Bed or nap: Me

1st week of playgroup

2009-07-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

Lele started attending playgroup this Monday and today marks the successful completion of 1 week of classes without me: ) Unlike the conventional idea of playgroup, this is conducted wholly in mandarin for the entire 1 1/2hour session.

Many months ago, Lele and I dropped by the school just for a look. I wasn't looking for a playgroup then, but thought a mandarin would provide a good environment for Lele, who loves mandarin but had limited vocab because of lack of exposure. Happened to pass by so went in to inquire about their Mandarin playgroup out of curiosity. Lele loved the school and me too, for its bright and spacious environment with colourful hand-made wall decos. Classes have not started yet as it was a new programme, but I left my contact number in case enough students sign up.

Somewhere along the line, Daniel and I decided to...

1)Let Lele attend childcare from next year
2)Stop GUG after this term

In the time gap between end of GUG and start of childcare, we thought a playgroup would be good. We looked for a nearby playgroup but found alot of hidden costs in addition to school fees, such as uniform, school bag, material fees, high registration fees, insurance fees etc. Assuming Lele only attending playgroup till end of these year, all the extra money we fork out will not be worth it. Last week the Mandarin playgroup people called us and asked us to confirm our interest. With only $10 reg fees+school fees and no extra costs, I decided to give in a try.

So far, I can see a few positive results of this playgroup.
1) Lele has become a much more fluent and confident mandarin speaker. Whereas previously Lele mostly names things in mandarin, now he tries to form him own sentences of more than 8 words, all in mandarin without mix with English words. I can tell that after each session, Lele has more confidence in using mandarin. He will converse with me in mandarin on his own accord for a good 10 mins.

2)Lele's attention has also become better. This is very evident in GUG class. His ability to sit has become stronger. He will wait and listen much more than before. In the playgroup, the teacher empasise on training children's ability to focus by sitting still while teacher is explaining. Because of the small class size (3), she could reallie spend individual effort on each child to help them develop goood attention span. I think this has helped him in becoming more focused.

3)Because of some writing practice in class, Lele has also developed keen interest in writing. He now likes to pretend he is writing numbers with a marker, or request for me to hold his hand and write.

Teacher's comment about him so far:
1) Loves to speak out and repeat after the teacher.
2)Good pronunciation
3)Needs to develop good attention span but showed alot of improvement in this respect.

Latest weight and height

2009-07-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

Lele's weight and height at 26months, taken when we took the flu jab.
Weight: 12.3kg
Height: 88cm

Height-wise, many people have commented he is tall but I'm not sure about that because I have seen so many kids his age taller than him.

Weight-wise, many people have commented he is rather skinny but I seriously dun think so. All of us in the family agree he is just the right size. Perhaps not then chubbiest in the market but skinny he definitely is not. At first I couldn't help but being concerned. But weight has alot to do with metabolic rate. Lele eats so much but runs around alot too. Perhaps that's why he doesn't have much excess. Besides, he is a healthy and happie little boy, with enough rest, food and play. What's more important that that?

Funny episode

2009-07-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

This morning, after dabbling in some paint work with Lele, I gave him a bath. After I changed him in his bedroom, I let him know that I need to go outside to clear up the mess made during art time. I told him to wait for me inside the bedroom, then left and closed the door.

As I hurriedly cleaned up the mess, I could hear Lele playing and talking in the room. Suddenly, he called,

"Mama! Mama!"

Then he knocked on the door.

I said,

"Please wait a while. Mama is still cleaning up the mess. Give me 5 more minutes."

He said,

"Lele wants to poo poo!"

Then he added,

"Lele yao la ba ba (baby talk for poopoo in mandarin. We learnt this from his favourite bear story book)."

I hurriedly opened the door to lead him to his potty. As we walked, he said,

"La baba yao chu lai le! (poo poo is going to come out)"

Little fat frog

2009-07-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting to blog about this milestone... of...JUMPING!

Below is a video of his first few maiden jumps at 25months. They are clumsy jumps as he sometimes managed to lift his feet off the ground but other didn't. In the video, he was jumping like a frog. He showed me how he could jump very well like a frog. I asked who taught him and he proudly said, "Yeye taught Lele!"

The frog jumps were not the first though. A few days before Yeye taught frog jumps, I got him to successfully do a few rabbit hops. But the rabbit hops were not as beautifully done as frog jumps. Yeye got him to squat down and jump up high by springing the legs.

You're a good teacher, Yeye!

Current interests

2009-07-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Lele's current interests are

1) fire engines, firemen, setting fire and putting out fire
2) police car, pretending to be policeman
3) fighting/fencing

Boys will be boys?

Visit to school B

2009-07-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Lele and I visited a school near us. This is the 2nd school which we have visited that is within walking distance. The other one is school L, but this one turned out to be even further away than L... It is too far to walk with a toddler (15 to 20 mins) but too near to take public transport. I seriously don't mind the distance if I have a bicycle. It will be good excercise. But what about in bad weather? And in the case when I have to work, it'll be tiring for MIL (in case she happens to be only one available) to pick him up. Points to ponder... As for Daniel, he wants to have a view for himself before making the decision.

Even though Lele (for the first time) refused to go into the school, he enjoyed playing at the various learning centres (partitioned areas with different play themes) that he was totally at ease playing by himself while I spoke with the in-charged and walked around with her. Apart from school W, this is the only school which Lele was so happy about that he says he wants to visit again. He also liked the in-charged. Below is a summary of good and bad points.

Good
1) Good hygiene
-Shoes removed outside and placed neatly in cubby holes for each student.
-Visitors required to fill in declaration forms and personal particulars, including temperature taken in centre.
-Visitors' hands are sanitised.
-Premises looked neat and tidy.

2)Spacious

3)Good variety of learning tools in well-partitioned learning areas

4)Excursions every month

5)Though the centre was quite noisy with activity, the N1 children looked settled and teacher seemed to have a good working relationship with them. Plus, they are tucked away in a corner, (a little bit) away from the hustle and bustle.

Bad
1)Curriculum wasn't explained very clearly to me so I get a very muffled view. In-charged just gave me a whole list of themes without explaining very well the students' schedule.

2)School has a daily TV time from 6 to 7 which I am not comfortable with.

3)Monthly excursions are good learning trips for Lele, but will be added costs.

Lele's first play!

2009-06-29T07:06:00.001-07:00

Lele went for his first play, "Tiger Loses Its Stripes" yesterday. The above is a picture taken with the casts. As this is a play meant for 2 year-old (and older) audiences, the mat which we were sitting on was packed with young tods like Lele and also many older preschool children. The casts did their best to engage the attention of their young audiences, but we could hear many cries from children who wanted to be somewhere else. As for Lele, he enjoyed some parts of the play. Even though he didn't sit still throughout, but he did very well by keeping relatively quiet and not disturbing others. I'm proud of him! I'll definitely bring him to another play but this play should be of a story he had read about, such as "The Gingerbread Man".

After the play, we went for some food. On the way, Papa and Lele played hide-and-seek.

Posing with Singa the Lion.

Lele was quite curious about this life buoy, because he has read about it from book, "Curious George" but has not seen the real thing so up close before.

Playing with Merlion water.

Barely minutes into play, Lele got wet through. The boy on extreme left started sweeping water at Lele repeatedly and made his clothes all wet. What was his daddy doing? Busy filming his oh-so-cute son splashing at us that he didn't even bother apologising. Duh... some people have the sense of a cow.

What mischief are you up to now ?

"I'll dip my hair into the water!"

Poorly taken because the Merlion was simply too big.

Trying to touch little Merlion's water fountain but it was too far away.

Looking at boats.

Lele's fascinated with rivers, boats and ships. Hope to bring Lele on one soon...

Bend the knees... JUMP!

Climb back up to try again, to the unamusement of papa.

Boy sculptures revisited.

On our way back home though the sky garden, Lele decided to carry our bag as his own. He liked to carry it on his shoulders but since his shoulders were too small and the bag threatened to fall off, he tilted his head to a the side where the straps are and raised his arm so as to keep the bag from falling.

Sat morning outing

2009-06-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

Papa, Mama and Lele went to the Mcdonald's at Anchorvale Community Centre for breakfast. Even though Lele has a 3 hand-me-down (from Papa and Shushu) figurines of Ronald Mcdonald (which he calls Mr. Mcdonald), this is only Lele's 2nd visit to Mcdonald's. The last time we went to Mcdonald's for breakfast, we ordered hotcakes for him but he didn't like. He also refused to try any of our food. In the end, I had to buy some pastries for a bread shop for him. This time round, we bought something for him to enjoy while we enjoy our breakfast.
Here, Lele is eating his breakfast of "soon kueh". He loves "soon kueh", "beng kueh" and "ruo bo gao", so Mama and Papa bought "sooh kueh" from the coffeeshop before heading out. We bought 2 mini "soon kueh" (size of siew mai) at 60 cents each. SO EX condering that one sold at Koufu is only 80 cents. We even bought plain pancake in case these 2 mini "siew mai" fail to satisfy him.

After his breakfast of "soon kueh" in addition to 150ml of milk he finished before we set off, he had his dessert of Yoplait Mango Yoghurt which Mama brought from home. He loves Mango Yoghurt from Yoplait but will not even try the mango fruit. Some kids have the weirdest taste!

Papa and Mama had our moments of peace while Lele savoured all 125ml of yoghurt. Papa read his newspaper while I enjoyed my BIG breakfast. After he finished, papa brought him for some play at the Anchorvale river park nearby while mama read articles about Michael Jackson in the newspaper. He had died suddenly of heart attack the day before.

Lele fussed for some apple (which I brought from home as well) after he came back.

Walking on the chairs and pretending he is a train walking on the railway track. We are at the LRT station.

Papa and Lele playing a fool while waiting for the train to come.

Flu jab

2009-06-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Brought Lele for his flu jab yesterday (Fri). The flu jab is not compulsory but Daniel wanted all 3 of us to get the jab because he felt that in the case that we get at least we will be qui the flu, at least we can be sure that its not caused by the flu virus we vaccinated against. In light of the H1N1 situation not, he felt this is one measure we can take to protect ourselves.

We went to a private clinic near us. The jab cost $29 each. We didn't want to visit the polyclinic as there will be more patients there and probably more germs. Lele watched as I received my jab. He was fascinated. When it was his turn, he leaned over my shoulder to look at a toy an assistant brought for him. While he was exploring,the doc pricked him. He didn't see the needle going in as the doc injected his thigh, but he felt the slight prick and whined a little. The doc said calmly,

"Oh... what happened? A mosquito pricked you?"

Then she quickly whisked out a deflated balloon and a pump to inflate the balloon for Lele. Before he got over his happiness over receiving this gift, she brought many Thomas the Train stickers for him to choose one. These 2 gifts completely distrated him away from the injection! He only whined a little bit more when the doc proceeded to put plaster on the pricked area.

I told him that the plaster is needed to cover up the pain brought by the mosquito. He agreed with this explanation. He was pretty pleased with this doc:)

After the jab, my arm felt abit number and pain for the whole day till next morning. As for Lele he seemed just as energetic.

Playful Lele

2009-06-24T23:33:00.001-07:00

Playful Lele has recently been resisting nap and bed time. See, we have storytime on the bed before nap and bedtime. Usually, Lele will ask for one book after another. We will read about 3 books before I announce,

"Last book."

He will pick the last book and I will read. After that I will put the book back on the shelve and switch off the light with him. Sometimes, he will request for another last book and I usually oblidge, because he will agree to lights out after that. But recently, after several "last book", Lele will still refuse to lights out. When I insist, he will protest. I'll just switch off the lights all the same (for bedtime). This will result in a few minutes of protest, which I'll ignore. Sometimes I'll carry him and lay him on top of me. He hates that and will go back to his own bed and for fear of the same treatment he will not fuss as much and drift off to sleep.

I wonder whether this resistance will get stronger? Anyway, I'm glad to be able to stand firm to that for now.

I also realised that Lele is able to drift off to sleep faster and sleep longer when I let him nap at 1-ish p.m.. Last time it was 12.30p.m.. He only nap around 1 hour (sometimes 50mins) and I thought that was normal. On a few ocassions, he nap got delayed till 1-ish and he slept for 1hour15mins.

Today he slept at 1. He has been sleeping for 1hour 45mins already and still in dreamland:)

I love mandarin

2009-06-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Since I was a wee babe, mama has been conversing with me solely in English except for flashcards and storybooks. Papa was supposed to converse with me solely in mandarin. But some things are beyond our control...

As I grew up, the only person who was consistent was mama, who spoke in whole and complete English sentences to me as far as she could. Yeye and nainai spoke to me in a mixed bag of English and mandarin. Shushu speaks to me in mostly English and papa started to speak more and more English to me too. Everybody found it easier to speak to me in English because I understood more of that and spouted mostly English. It is actually a vicious cycle. Since Mama is my main caregiver, spoke only English to me and loves describing things in lengthy details to me, I naturally understood more English than mandarin.

My English word bank expanded. I understood many things and responded well when spoken to in English. But when spoken to in mandarin (by nainai and papa), I sometimes ignore or responded back in English. Hence nainai, yeye and papa used more and more English and less mandarin with me, because they thought I will understand better.

Mama started to get worried that I will take to 1 language more than the other. She feels that Mandarin is far more complex to master. It will be a great pity if I lose the interest in the language from a tender age due simply to lack of exposure. She urged papa to use mandarin as he was supposed to. But it was easy for papa to forget. Most of the times he spoke to me in English, simply because it was more fun since I was much more expressive in English than mandarin.

Seeing that I enjoyed GUG mandarin lessons (only 20mins each time, twice a week) and was eager to learn new words, Mama decided to converse more with me in Mandarin. She did not want to start talking to me in Mandarin as she worried this might confused me. So she used storybooks instead. During storytime and GUG mandarin time, she will speak wholly in mandarin to me. This proved effective because I picked up many new words and sentences! Now I can converse in mandarin mostly in complete sentences with nainai on my own accord because I know that Mandarin is her strong language. I enjoy mandarin storytelling with mama alot. Each day will not go by without a chinese book.

Penguin-fish game

2009-06-24T22:57:00.001-07:00

Mama made a penguin-fish game for me which I really like because it is something new. The objective of the game is to train my fingers.

Can u see the little penguins riding on the fish? They look like they are playing and having a good time, but according to mama, they are actually eating the fish. See, the penguins are in fact paper clips shaped like penguins. With my pincer grasp, I needed to clip each penguin to a fish. To mama and my dismay, the clips proved too hard for my pudgy fingers:(

I was more interested in taking the penguins off the fish and doing other stuff with them, such as letting them sleep by making them lie down or putting them into a blender (which is actually a big toy milk bottle) and shaking it violently to make penguin juice.

After a far bit of play with the penguins, I took a rest on the floor and posed;)

Jellyfish

2009-06-24T22:45:00.001-07:00

Hi, my name is Orange! I'm a jellyfish made by Mama:) Look how cute I am.

Hi, I'm Green. I'm a jellyfish too. Lele made me with all the patience a 2year old tod can master (about 3minutes). Don't you think I look so cute?

Upside down

2009-06-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

For some reason, Lele has been really interested in looking at the world in another way recently. He will do go upside down and ask, "Where is Lele?"

I'll play along and say,"Hmm, I wonder where Lele is."

Then I'll ask,"Is it there?" and give a squeeze to his bums or thighs.
He loves to play this again and again:)
Sometimes, in order to avoid a squeeze from me, he'll quickly show his face to me and say, "There!" when I ask, "Where is Lele?"

International Museum Day

2009-06-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

Brought Lele to the Asian Civilisation Museum on Internation Museum Day (31stMay). On this day, all admissions to museums are free. The place was super packed with people, with the majority queueing up to visit the Kangxi emperor exhibition. In the end, we did not join the queue and instead just watched a video on sports with origins from China. Then Daniel brought restless Lele for a walk along the river. He was gone pretty long so I went to look for them. It turned out that Lele was so fascinated with several sculptures of boys getting ready to jump into the river. He kept saying,

"Want to touch boy sculpture penis!"

Above is a picture we took of him in one of his countless assault of poor boy sculpture. Just look at the twinkle in his eye! He even insisted we touch too, haha! When I refused, he pulled my hand and "forced" me:p

Lele just couldn't keep his hands off the boys.

Trying to get me to touch the penis of one sculpture.

We only took a few pics because Lele was mostly at the river:s. There were also too many people in the museum and too hot a weather for snapping. Above is parting shot taken of Lele and his da4jiu4 before we headed to Chinatown for dinner.

Picture of Lele, wai4po2 and wai4gong1 on our walk to Chinatown. Lucky Lele was carried in different arms all the way to Chinatown (1/2 hour walk). He fell asleep on Karen's shoulders and woke when we arrived at the destination.

National Blood Donors Day

2009-06-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

Was invited to the Birdpark with Weiqin and her daughter, Xinle. Blood donors (Weiqin's husband is one of them) get 2 complimentary tickets and subsequent tickets are only $8 each. Other perks include free lunch, drinks and fruit (Fuji apple which Lele ate as lunch because he fancied nothing else in the lunchpack).

As can be expected, the place was swarmed with people. Actually, I had not known about the Blood Donors promo. Had I known, I would probably not have lugged Lele all the way from Punggol to Jurong, just to squeeze with the crowd. Lele did not fully enjoy himself too as he were still "recovering" from our stay at Sentosa, which included many delayed naps and late nights for him.
Having said all of the above, I think it was nice to catch up with Weiqin after such a long time:) It was a pity we did not take many pictures as we were both caught up in running after our active children.

1st "overseas" trip!

2009-06-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

On 10th June, papa, mama and Lele went for a wonderful 3day-2night stay at Sentosa. We stayed at Amara Sanctuary Resort.

Mama's and Papa's verdict of resort: While the resort environment is quite peaceful with a nice seaview from the balcony and an openair sea-facing adults' pool, there is nothing much else to boost. The spa massage we received was of terrible standard for its price. The breakfast spread was minimal. The location, while nicely located on a hilltop, made it quite inconvenient to go to the beach with a toddler. We will not stay there again as family.

Lele's verdict: The big big bed and big big bathtub were 2 big wow factors for him. When he saw the bathtub, he was so excited and couldn't wait to get in. We took a bath together for the first time and then soaked in the bathtub. He truly enjoyed the whole experience. After the stay, he kept telling us that he liked to drink milk on the big bed at the hotel room:) He even said that he liked the hotel room bed better than his own. This boy knows the good stuffs in life. He also gave thumbs-up for the seaview balcony. On our 1st day, he was woken up from nap by the grasscutters outside the balcony. He spent quite some time at the balcony looking at the grasscutters do their work. He also enjoyed looking at the ships sailing about in the sea while at the balcony.
While it is quite tiring travelling with a toddler, I must say that Lele has been quite easytravel. He slept well for naps and night and ate quite well too. We are already looking forward to another trip at the end of the year, hopefully to somewhere further:)

In the 1st night, we wanted to watch "Songs of the sea" show but the timing wasn't right so we just took a stroll around. Above is a pic of papa and Lele atop a man-made castle. We even saw a bit of fireworks and special effects from the show. Lele showed little interest. Papa felt that Lele will not have the patience to enjoy the show.

We strolled around the Merlion Park. Lele was so excited by the water fountains that he almost jumped in on a few occasions. It was quite tiring to be chasing after him, yet heartwarming to see him enjoying himself without a care in the world.

A dream come true! Lele had always wanted to get into one of these (buggy, we call it. Though not sure if correct:p). We decided to indulge him on thie trip while no one was watching...

In the 2nd day, we decided to visit Underwater World. Here's us getting ready to get onto the beach tram and go to UNDERWATER WORLD.

"Look, Papa! What a big fish! Can't wait to see more..."

"Let me see what this is."

"Get me away from this monster!" Note: Lele was very afraid of the hideous-looking octopus, but liked the cuttlefish alot, though it looked just as hideous and gigantic to me.

"If this place is for rental, I'll be the first taker!" Note: Cannot be seen clearly here but above is a tank for some sea creature.

"Doing my trademark 'smileyface' pose."

Taken in the underwater world passage. Lele was only mildly interested in the sea creatures. He was much more interested in stepping onto and off the conveyor belt (is that what it's called?). Both Daniel and I agree that he was more interested the last time we came, when he was little over a year old. Could it be because he has seen enough during the last trip? I wonder... ...

Behind us are the jellyfish, which I hate, Daniel finds hauntingly beautiful and Lele has no particular interest in.

Observant Daniel saw this creature enjoying and playing with his food and couldn't resist taking a snapshot of it. It looked absolutely child-like!

After lunch, Lele fell asleep on the way back to hotel but woke when we got reached the room 10 mins later... He didn't sleep till 4p.m. because Daniel and I went for a massage next door to our room. We left him with the babysitter provided by the hotel. He seemed okay at first with her at first and we slipped out. But when we returned, the babysitter told us that Lele kept asking for us...:( He refused to take his nap and tried hard to keep awake in our absence, asking her about us every now and then. Though I was sorrie Lele had to postpone his nap because of our little indulgence (and the massage was so not low-quality!), I was also glad he did not cry histerically or kicked up a big fuss in the care of a stranger.

When Lele woke from his latelate nap, we took a bus to Vivo City for dinner, chill and then took the cable car back. Lele enjoyed the cable car ride pretty much. He still remembered about the cable car ride even after the trip.

Day 3: How good time flies! Before we knew it, it was time to pack the bags. After breakfast, I brought Lele for some sand and water play at Palewan Beach while Daniel watched soccer (or was it NBA? No difference to me, actualli...) in the room. I was glad I did it. Lele enjoyed himself thoroughly in the company of many other children playing there. I think the highlight of this trip for him is reallie the unlimited sand and waterplay, not the cable car ride, hotel stay, underwater world, and expensive food (all of which cost so much!). Once again, I think Lele is quite easily contented with the simple pleasures in life. Aren't they all?

Here's Lele enjoying a green apple at the bus stop outside the hotel. He reallie knows how to sit back and relax. He insisted on finishing the whole apple before eating lunch.

3rd school visit

2009-06-18T01:45:00.000-07:00

Sometime during the 1st week of the June holidays, we visited a 3rd school, W. It went great! The environment was very homely with wooden furniture and toys. The children seemed pretty at ease. The curriculum seemed pretty interesting with many hands-on activities such as water play, sand play, beeswax kneading, gardening, nature walks, cooking/baking and building of own play equipment. Besides these activities, there are also some other quieter activities incorporated such as storytelling and puppet shows, which Lele loves.

After ex'plaining my every question patiently, the person in-charged, Miss Vivian, tended to Lele and even let him play with the outdoor equipments! I had was pleasantly surprised... Lele even had a go at watering the plants with the watering can. He was so thrilled that he was reluctant to leave. He agreed to leave only when we told him that he could visit the school to water the plants again another day.

Seeing Lele so happy and comfortable in this environment made Daniel and I very tempted to enrol him straight away. There are some things keeping us back, though. Below is a summary of good and bad points about the school.

Good points
- For $350 a month after working mum sunbsidy (if I find work then...), the food menu is too good to be true. The menu is fully organic with lots of fruits and fresh vegtables as morning snack. Soup at every meal to accomapany a healthy main dish such as brown rice, pumpkin rice. I couldn't find deep-fried foods in the menu, for which I am pleased about. Daniel said that the food is so well-balanced that even an adult will not eat to nutritious food.

-Curriculum is full of goodness like the menu. All the activities looked very enjoyable. I am 100% sure Lele will enjoy most of them. There is also no regular TV time for the children.

-The principal and person-in-charge seem very accomdating unlike the previous 2 schools.

-Children can wear their own clothes except during nature walks. I like that because it feels more homely to be in home clothes rather than uniform all the time.

-Lele's comfort level is the highest here. He was very excited and at ease. He explored around and couldn't keep his hands off the toys. The teachers allowed him to touch, play and mingle with the children too.

Bad points
-Distance is quite great. We would either have to cater to a school bus, which can chalk up a hefty sum, or I can drive Lele to school to and fro each day, which would mean high petrol costs and also less freedom for me:( especially if I am working then. Distance is the main deterrent for us, actually.

-While the curriculum looked good on paper, Daniel observed that the children did not follow it through. When it was time for storytime, thee children were still all over the place with little indication from the teachers to gather them. Throughout the time we were there, the children seemed mostly doing their own play with not much structure. Most of the fun hands-on stuff (including gardening) were scheduled for afternoon so if Lele were put in for half-day, he would miss the fun and most probably spend the morning doing freeplay mostly...
But am I prepared to send him for fullday so soon?

-Cleanliness is an issue too. After outdoor play in barefeet, the children's feet were only washed hastily with water before they were sent back into the classroom.

-The whole place reeked heavily of insect repellant. Daniel liked the smell but I worry about the moquitoes, and is it safe to use so much repellant. Lele had so much repellant sprayed on him that my clothes smelled strongly of that even though I only carried him a while.

Oh... so many points to consider... bother...

Lele's diet

2009-05-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

Lele's appetite has always been good. For breakfast he'll usually have oatmeal cereal and/or wheatbix with 100ml of milk. Lunch is usually noodles of either udon, soba or mian xian. He can take 3/4 bowl. As for dinner,　he usually can finish 1 bowl of brown/plain rice. When I take my meals outside with him, I need to order 2 bowls of rice and a slightly larger portion of side dish because Lele can finish 3/4 bowl of rice most of the time. If I order noodles (usually fishball kway teow or meetaimak soup), he can almost finish everything.

Sample menu and daily routine
6 am: 180ml of milk

8am: oatmeal cereal with 100ml milk added with corn bran and raisin because he loves the crunch. Lele will usually wake around 7.30 in the morning. Upon waking, a mug of warm water is a must for him. He'll usually take breakfast at least 1/2 hour after waking.

10am: small bowl plain yoghurt with fresh cut orange. Morning walk usually follows breakfast. When he comes home a light snack will be served while I prepare ingredients for lunch.

11.15am: Udon (3/4 bowl) soup with minced meat, fish cake and generous portions of chinese spinach and broccoli. After his light snack, I'll give Lele a bath. He'll have some play-by-self time while I cook lunch.

12.15am: 120ml of milk. Lele will take his nap after the milk. Nowadays Lele's naps are usually between 1 to 1 1/2hour.

2.30pm: 50ml of freshmilk with corn bran, cheerio and raisins.

4.30pm: 150ml milk

6.30 to 7pm: dinner of 1 bowl rice with dishes. Lele usually gets into the bedroom for storytime by 8pm, lights off by 8.30pm and off to dreamland by 9pm. We have not been giving milk before bedtime for a long time because we didn't want to give him too full a stomach after the hearty dinner. Ocassionally when he has no appetite for dinner and just eats a bit, we'll give a milk feed (180 to 210ml) at bedtime.

Visits to school

2009-05-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

So far I have visited 2 schools, L and K, with Lele. Both Lele and I like K better than L but K is way TOO far. Even by car it is 15mins drive in normal traffic. Imagine driving in peak hours. I would not mind a mere 15mins drive if it were that impressive, but both Lele and I feel that while the school is better than L, which is walking distance from home, we would not like to be there.

For Lele, he was happie playing w the toys there. At least the teachers and principal there did not keep saying "No." to him as in L. The toys were more variety and engages his imagination more. The kids and teachers were more settled unlike in L where the kids were rowdy and the teachers look more like neighbourhood market aunties than educators. When I ask Lele if he like the school, he said yes sometimes and no other times. For school L, the answer was no no no:p

For me, I like the school's well though-up and organised curriculum, settled children and conducive environment. No running around and big noises like in L. Very peaceful and calm. There is also enough room for activities, play and study for each age group unlike L which is essentially everybody under the same roof w barely any partitions.

But I dislike the hygiene standards. During this H1N1 critical period where scanning of temp and jotting down contact numbers of visitors are common practices anywhere, these were not done in K. Neither were our hands sanitized before we could enter. Despite this, Lele was allowed to touch the kids' toys and anything else. Imagine if Lele were to be in this school. He would be exposed to germs from visitors as and when, in the fully aircon environment. We entered the premises with our shoes on but the people inside walked around barefooted... How hygienic is this?

So, Lele and I have decided that both L and K are no-go. But 1 good thing that came out of the visit to K was that Lele received a little duck plush toy from the principal, Mrs Noor. Lele and I named it "Little Quack" which was a character in a storybook we borrowed from Lib sometime ago. Lele was very happie w it. Each time when he recalls who gave it to him he will say, "Not Mrs nonono." See, the name Noor sounded like No to him even though he know it was not. So he made a joke out of it. Sometimes he will say, "Not Mrs Yeh". So funnie...

Next week we will visit another school W which is pretty out of the way like school K. But I reallie loved what I saw on the website and have a hunch Lele will love it too! Every activity described sounded like something children in the daycare school of "Carl goes to daycare" (book by Alexandra Day) would do. Outdoor play with nature instead of just playground...gardening... cooking...lots of storytime w puppetry...dance...song...poem...culture teaching...

With all the talk about visiting daycare school, Lele must have sensed he will go to school too. He love tshe story "Carl goes to Daycare." Just now when we were reading the story at bedtime, Lele said, "Lele wants to go to this Daycare school only. Lele doesn't want to go to other daycare school." I think he saw how much fun the children seemed be to having makin lotsa noise with musical instuments, turning entire classroom into a garden, driving cars around the classroom and pretending to be bears, that he wanted to be in the school.

At that point I heard him say that, I decided that Lele should be in a school to have the most fun with maximum exposure. As long as the environment is loving and allows Lele to explore to his heart's content and learn with guidance from his exploration, I will be happie to let him enrol.

farting and blinking

2009-05-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

This morning Lele did a funny face by squeezing his eyes shut and exposing the teeth in a cheeky grin. I was amused and asked him, "What are you doing?" He said that he was blinking. I wonder if he was imitating me. See, Lele hates water to get into his eyes while his hair is being washed. Though I did a good job of keeping the water away with my hands and distracting him with a song, a trickle or 2 is unavoidable. I would wipe away the water with a handkerchief. These days, I have been trying to teach Lele how to blink away the water. I demonstrated how he can blink his eyes so that the water will go away. So far this has been unsucccessful. Lele was so concerned about the water in his eyes that he would not even try blinking. He just wanted me to wipe away the water ASAP.

In the afternoon after his lunch, Lele did a funnie farting sound by pursing his lips together. He was thrilled with this newfound skill and said, "Like Yeye!". I asked if Yeye taught him this. And he said, "Yes!". HAHA!!! Upon confirming with FIL, it seems he could not recall where and when he showed this farting trick to Lele...

Cheeky nainai said that maybe Lele caught yeye farting during their play together and he was embarassed so made this farting sound with his lips to cover-up!

LOL...

Below are the clips of his antics of the day.

Verner Panton exhibition

2009-05-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Brought Lele to Verner Panton exhibition at the National Museum. It was a lovely, lazie Sunday afternoon for all of us: ) Had wanted to bring Lele swimming but Daniel said he wasn't into outdoor activities hence the Museum trip. It was a stimulating trip for Lele. The chairs were very inviting for him to climb into and the colours made him wild!. It was also an eye-opener for us. We didn't know that Verner Panton's designs are so popular. Many chairs and designs which we have seen before are actually his ideas. Examples are the heart-shaped chair, cone chair and the Panton chair.

We saw a series of pictures entitled "How to undress in front of your husband." Where the panton chair and a fully-dressed woman were in the first picture. The subsequent pictures were of her taking each piece of clothing off as she posed/used the Panton chair. The pictures were so well-taken! They made the Panton chair looked very sexy like a woman's body. The pictures were very modern looking but they were shot in 1970.
Although many pieces of furniture looked so inviting, they were out of bounds hence Lele could not climb onto them, much as he would LOVE to.

What he did enjoy was the Phantasy land . He loved climbing all over the place, especially to the topmost "seat" and then jumping down. He was so brave as to tell me and Daniel to step aside to wait for him to jump down (about 1 storey high) by himself! Of course we didn't do that. Daniel caught him at the bottom. He enjoyed so much!

Papa's Chinese Birthday

2009-05-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Nainai likes to celebrate Chinese birthday and May 5 happened to be papa's birthday. Actually, I already knew. When nainai said that she and yeye are going to get a cake later in the day...

Me: For Papa
Nainai: Why do we need to get a cake for papa?

Me:Papa's birthday

Mama and nainai were so surprised! Dun ask me where I get my ESP from:p *wink*

Before papa came home, I went with yeye and nainai to get a pandan kaya cake from Bangawan Solo. I dun like Kaya on its own but the cake was pretty good! After I went home, mama made me do a card for papa. I was (as usual) only interested for 3 mins. After applying for glue and pasting some decos on the card,
I said,
"Enough. Don't want to do anymore."

Mama finished up the rest of the card. Papa was very happie to receive this simple gift from both of us:)

I'm a little sleepie becos it's near my bedtime. Papa says I'm just like mama in that my eyebags will show whenever I get sleepie:p

After seeing the cake, I perked up a little. Besides, it's my favourite colour!

I got so into singing the birthday song for papa that I ALMOST thought it was my birthday heehee...

Me singing happie birthday like it's my own birthday...

Gone fishing

2009-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

We brought Lele to Kid's Kampong on Mother's Day.
For $14 for child and $10 for adult, we got a bucket, net, 2 small packets of fish food, bottled mineral water and ice-cream (as refreshments). I think that is pretty expensive for any child, let alone a child who found more interest in scooping water with the net/bucket than catching fish.
Besides catching and feeding fish, there were also some rabbits, chickens and goose. Not much to do actually at the Kids Kampong, but Lele enjoyed looking at the dogs training and swimming in the dogs hotel at the same area.
Overall, Lele had tremendous fun and enjoyed himself, but I'd much rather visit the Animal Resort near Jalan Kayu. Many more animals and FOC. Oh, forgot to mention that the fish I caught and brought home died within the night, a few at a time... Lele din even get to say good morning to them:(

After that, we met MIL and FIL for dinner at our favourite stirfry stall at Potong Pasir 881:)

c...c...c

2009-05-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was "c" day. Our "c" word was "catch".
I did a homemade fishing game with magnets for lele to catch some fish. Each fish has a letter written on its tail. As the fishing rod's string was quite long, Lele had to concentrate hard to catch the fish. Luckily, the whole idea was interesting enough for him to sustain the interest. Each time a fish was caught, I said something like,

"Oh, you caught an 'a' fish, it says 'a...a...a...'."

Today is supposed to be another "c" day but we'll be bring Lele to the National Museum so guess we'll take a break and postpone the "c" day till tomorrow:)

b...b...b

2009-05-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

Today is letter "b" day. Yesterday we made a bear with beans. Today we bought some played with bubbles and balloons. On the way to buying these 2 "b" items, I said,

"Today is 'b' day, so we're going to get some b...b...bubbles."

To my surprise, Lele said,
"And b...b... balloons."

In the morning when he saw the bear we made yesterday pasted on the wall of his bedroom, he was pretty happie and requested we make another one. We agreed to make another small bean bear. But Lele changed his mind and requested to make aeroplane instead. I said,

"But aeroplane doesn't begin with 'b...b...b...', aeroplane begins with ...?"

Lele said,
"a...a...a..."

Schooling

2009-05-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

Been thinking about the subject and decided after discussion with hubbie that Lele shall start school from next year. Realised that I need to start looking around and register now, so I called 2 schools and booked an appointment to visit them next week with Lele. The environment is of course important, but Lele must be happy and comfortable with the school first and foremost, as he will be the one attending.

At first I was toying with the idea of letting Lele attend full-day so that I may work P/T or maybe even F/T, but the thought of not seeing Lele the entire day for 5 days a week is more unbearable than I had expected!

I mean, Lele sleeps early, by 9p.m. each night. If he starts attending school full day, there will be very little time for him to interact with family members. I don't think that's healthy for him. Nevertheless, Lele needs to have some regular interaction with same age kids. School environment is most conducive for this, I think.

So, I think I'll put Lele for half-day first and do P/T work in the mean time. What P/T work? I have no idea. In fact, quite lazie to search... sending of CVs, going for interviews and all those jobsearch stuff can be such hassles! Of course, will get down to that sometime, soon, I hope.

Colour magic, phonics fun and shapes

2009-05-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

Colour magic
At the spur of the moment, I decided to add some experimental fun into Lele's bath time. For a start, we dabbled in colour mixing.
I prepared 2 bowls of coloured water made with Crayola paints. When Lele is playing in the bathtub (yes, we still use the tub for bath as it is so fun:p), I get him to scoop some coloured water from 1 bowl with a spoon and pour into the other bowl to see what happens.
He had much fun mixing colours and watching 2 colours combine to become a different colour! You can see the fascination in his eyes as he identify the colour change. He sometimes added more and more water into his colour mixture and discovered that the colour got lighter and disappeared.

I've been wanting to try the colour mixing activity for so long and am glad I finally started. So far we have tried mixing
1) blue+red to get purple
2) blue+ yellow to get green
3) red+yellow to get orange

Phonics fun
This week, I've also started on alphabets and phonics. This week's focus are small letters a-h.
I pasted big flashcards of letters a-h on the wall of Lele's bedroom and also prepared small cards with a letter on each of them. I "made" the letters with some prickly wire so that there is texture. Each day, I set aside some time to do "tracing and matching" of the letters, GUG style.
I got Lele to trace out the prickly letter on the small card while repeating the name of the letter and it's phonic sound. Then I got him to say the sound before letting him match with the big flashcard on the wall. After matching and tracing, we will do a simple activity with the letter of the day. We focus on a letter every 2 days. So far we made an apple and bean bear (show pictures next time).

Lele enjoys tracing and matching quite alot and will enthusiastically run to match the letters. Now he is can recognise a few letters by their phonic sound.

Shapes
Last week was our shapes week and we did a list of activities with shapes. Actually, Lele has been introduced to shapes all this while and not just in last week. But it was all informal and I was curious to know what he actually knows about shapes. I was surprised that on day 1 he could identify circle, square, star, heart, triangle and even trapezium. On day 3 or 4 while we playing, Lele took up shape puzzle and said,
"This one octagon." and he was right.

My conclusion:
Focusing on a topic each week can keep my ideas (of what to do with him in our play time) more focused and not all over the place. It also allows me to see what his interests are.

"Lele wants to poo!"

2009-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yup, that was what Lele said to me after lunch today. I was reading the papers while Lele was playing by himself in front of me (his current faze is play-pretend making pancakes w all his containers, ladles and stuff).
Suddenly, he ran to me and said,

"Lele wants to poo!"

I hurriedly brought him to the bathroom and asked whether he wanted to poo in his potty. He said he wanted to sit on the toilet bowl. So I put the toddler toilet seat on the toilet bowl. With some persuasion he agreed! Woohoo!!!

And he calmly poo poo in the toilet bowl!

We were all so proud of Lele for taking another giant step in toilet-training, from being afraid of the toilet bowl, insisting to poo in his diapers, to being able to poo in the toilet bowl!!!

GREAT JOB!

Mandarin rhymes

2009-04-30T01:54:00.000-07:00

Lele loves to perform for the camera. If he knows that I'm going to take a video of him, he will gladfully perform and eagerly ask c himself after the performance. Below is a series of performances.

Xiao Lao Shu (translates: little mouse)

San zhi lao hu (translates: 3 little tigers)

chanting Nam myoho renge kyo

Play-pretend

2009-04-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Nowadays Lele loves to play-pretend with our stuffs. His favourite play-pretend thing is a roller used for painting. It is kept in the storeroom (more correctly, the bomb shelter) but one day he saw it and requested (strongly) for Yeye to let him bring it out. We watched amused as he pretended to cut grass like the grass cutter, sweep floor like the road sweeper ("Sweep away the dirty things."), do fencing with it as the sword and blow our hair with it as the hair dryer. It was so funny! One day Nainai came home and just happened to see Lele play-pretending with the forbidden "toy". She commented,

"Boys will be boys. They all like playing such stuff."

I agree that boys reallie do seem to exhibit a certain kind of behaviour and preference. Before Lele came, I used to think gender behaviours are mostly cultivated through upbringing and influences from TV. I've changed my mind.

See, since Lele was a wee babe, we had not exposed him to TV as we believe that there are many things a child can learn (from daily living alone and from us adults) than from passive education on the BOX. It "helped" that he slept early as a babe. This means that at night when the telly is switched on the most (mostly watched by Nainai and Yeye), he is in dreamland. Even now when his bedtime is later (9p.m.), he doesn't show much interest to the TV and prefers us to switch it off so that we may play with him: ) This boy knows his quality time... ... haha...

But as Lele grows up, he gradually displayed certain preferences which are very boy-like.

1) Lele's changing mat has 2 sides, blue and pink. One day when I was about to lay him down on the mat, he protested,

"Don't want pink!"

At first I was puzzled. What was it about? Then I realised he was refering to the changing maty colour. I had put the pink side facing up and he wanted me to make the blue side facing up. Satisfied after I made the switch. He announced,

"Lele don't like pink. Lele like blue."

2) Some time ago I introduced a Chinese children's song to Lele, "ni wa wa (translate:clay doll)". He loved the song and requested me to sing many times throughout the day. When we got to part when ni wa wa has no papa and mama, his eyes will water.

Lele: Mama bring niwawa home. Lele play toy with ni wawa.

Mama: Yes, mama will be niwawa's mama. Mama will be niwawa's papa. Mama will bring niwawa home. Lele must take care of niwawa okay?

Lele: Yum!

Mama: Then niwawa will be happy!

Lele: Yum!

One day in GUG, the chinese teacher brought a doll to class and introduced the song "Ni wa wa". When Lele saw it, he refused to hug it. He refused to sing the song and then he declared,

"Lele don't like niwawa."

3) Lele is okay with pee-ing standing up ("...Just like papa") but ocassionally he will say he wants to sit down and pee. When he does that, I'll say,

"But only girls pee sitting down, Lele. If you pee sitting down, then I'll have to put on a pink shirt for you, just like a girl."

And he'll say,

"Don't want!"

4)Lele likes the story book "1,2,3" by Susan Boynton. He calls it the "loud loud loud" book. One page has many hippos dancing ballet. He was okay with it till one day out of the blue he declared, "Don't like this one."

5) Lele likes boy stuff like fencing, Taekwondo and Wushu.

Mingling skills

2009-04-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

I had been worried that Lele hasn't enough oportunities to mingle with other children since he is the only grandchild and child in the family, without any siblings or cousins. While some children will mingle and play with one another in the playground, Lele would rather play with the dog, pluck fruits off ixora plants or play with me, or with adults.

When he did mingle with other children, it was not very gentle. He would shove a little too hard, tug at the hair or proclaimed loudly,

"I don't like this one (meaning another child)."

Even though Lele attended enrichment classes from 9months till now, I accompany him to all these classes. I wonder if perhaps he has gotten a little too used to playing with me, hence he doesn't want to or know how to play with kids his age.

Nowadays at his enrichment class, I try to do 2 things.

1) Give less attention to him especially during free-play time at the beginning of lesson so that he can play independent of me. To my pleasant surprise, he showed absolutely no signs of distress. When I need to be away (either to the washroom or do admin stuff), I will just let him know. He will cheerfully say, "Bye, mama." and proceed to play with the teachers. One teacher commented,

"Lele can self-entertain very well."

I even found him more sociable towards other kids. After endless repititions, firm warnings and pep talks, he now does not behave rough towards other kids. Yesterday in class, he stroked a child's hair very gently:) When another child laid down on the mat, Lele thought he wanted to sleep and he actually got down on his knees to stroke the boy's chest while humming, just like I always does with him! Words cnnot describe enough how relieved I am to see these small kind gestures...

2) Training attention span by putting in more effort to engage him during activities. See, now the Lele is more familiar with classroom procedures, his classmates and the teachers, he is becoming more active. Instead of paying attention, he liked to sing or move around. When he moves around, I will tell him that he needs to be out of the classroom if he wants to move around. He will request for me to leave with him, and I will say that I don't want to go outside because I want to enjoy the activities. When he found himself alone outside, he will request to come back in. Then I'll make a deal with him. I'll tell him that he cannot move around in the classroom. He'll agree and then I'll let him in.

Other methods of training attention at home:

a) Have simple art/craft activities at home a few times a week.

b) When Lele chooses a book for me to read, I'll ask him to choose a spot where he'll sit. Then I'll tell him,

"No moving around during story time."

He'll actually be very focused during story time:) unlike last times when he'll be all over the place even though he still interacted...

Reading habits.

2009-04-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Lele loves reading more and more. Daniel and I are truly glad about it because this is the one expectation we had of him, to raise a book-lover son.
From showing not a pinch of interest or crying/fussing at the sight of books to loving them, we had come a long way to achieve it.

Nowadays, Lele loves to ask for books.

When he wakes in the morning, he will ask to read a book or 2 in his bedroom before I bring him for wash-up n change of clothes (out of his PJs).

Before his nap, he will request for a book or 2.

During his play in the day, he will request for a book or 2 when he wants to take a break (as I see it).

Before his bedtime, he will request for a book or 2. Sometimes, when it's past his bedtime by quite alot because we were out, I will suggest skipping. But he wants at least to have 1 book read to him.

If we are out in a train, bus or cab, Lele will also request for a book. It has become my habit to always pack 2 books in my bag when going out.

Papa and me

2009-04-23T16:43:00.001-07:00

Mama and papa feels that whenever all three of us are out together, I feel and act happier. Even at a young tender age, I seemed to treasure precious moments papa squeezed out for me. On rare days when I wake with papa next to me, I will happily ask him to play with me. Sometimes he will play a little while before having to jet off somewhere (usually work). Other times he, mama and me will go off for breakfast and I'll be quite happie....................................................
Below are some pics taken before, during and after a short trip so Seng Kang Sculpture Park for breakfast n play.

Mama took a snapshot of papa n me chatting.

"Say cheese!"

This is my 2nd time at Sculpture Park. The 1st time, mama and papa brought me to a place that was largely unshaded in the morning sun. We had lots of fun playing frisby n ball under the sunny sky but it was just too hot, thought mama and papa. This time rund, mama and papa decided to bring me to another part which featured a children's playground and was shaded. They were surprised when I showed not much interest and insisted on returning to the "hotspot".

There are many things to love about the "hotspot". For one, it had GIANT fishballs greeting me at the entrance. What more can a fishball-lovin little boy ask for? "ARMMMM!"

Here's me pushing a blue fish sail of some sort. Papa made the discovery (that it can rotate when pushed) on our first trip here. I just had so much time the first time round I had to do it again this time:　)

Not easy...

But so much fun!

Can u see me?

Playing hide-and-seek with papa.

Papa decided we had enough of the morning sun when I decided to leave the shade and venture into a scorching playground with equipments which were too complex for me anyway.

A final shot with papa n Mr. Dino before we headed off.

In the bus.

I was quite tired by the time we got off the bus. I laid my head on papa's shoulder while sipping some water. Papa was singing a tune for me.

Actual performance

2009-04-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

As I had practiced lots, I sang pretty well when the music came on for the actual performance of "happy birthday". Below is a clip of my lil performance:)

2nd birthday celebration (part2)

2009-04-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

2 days before my birthday, I held a 2nd birthday celebration at GUG with my mama, papa, teacher Wei, teacher Joyce and friends! Since the "hamster" cake was so YUMYUMYUMMY, I insisted on bringing that to the classroom.
To my utter disappointment, mama said that we'll biring a "cat" cake instead............................:(
I was pretty upset at first, until she got it through to me that I had chosen the "cat" cake myself at the cake shop some time ago. This "cat" cake is delicious too (more delicious than "hamster" cake, in mama's opinion), but I still prefer the "hamster" cake, as I could bring home 3 lovely Hamtaro hamsters for that one:p

Kids... we are reallie easy to please, aren't we?

As the birthday celebration this time round is more personalised with all my friends and loved ones, I was reallie excited throughout lesson. I enjoyed the entire session thoroughly!

Hope birthdays come by more than twice a year...

Teacher Joyce, me and Teacher Wei doing our smiley pose. Mama calls this the "smiley face" pose.

me, mama and papa, who rushed down from work. THANKS, papa!

I love ya!

The cake is here... ... but where am I? I declared, "WANT TO PEE." at the crucial moment and demanded papa to bring me to the wash room, hence the MIA. Sorrie to keep u waiting, friends.

2nd birthday celebration (part 1)

2009-04-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

This is my maternal grandmother, whose birthday falls on 18th April. I had a joint celebration with her:)

This is the birthday cake which I chose by myself! Even though there was another design with Pooh bear drawn on it, I insisted on the "hamster" cake because of 3 lovely hamsters on it. Now the 3 hamsters are my sleep-pals as well as play-pals.

When is they going to sing the happie birthday song and cut the cake? Wai4 Po2's pretty cool about it but I'm not... Can't wait to sink my teeth into those hamsters...

Here's me enjoying my "hamster" cake. It was quite a pity that the hamsters turned out inedible. I kept asking to eat them but mama explained that they are toys, not food.

WHAT???!!!???!!!

Even though I had my fill of dinner, I managed to stomach 1 1/2 pieces of the delicious cake. YUMYUMYUM!

Soon, it was time to greet everyone goodnight. I had a wonderful time. THANKS to da4jiu4 and Karen jiejie for the lovely dinner! Mama will upload a quan jia fu next time.

More practice needed for this one

2009-04-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm singing happy birthday song in mandarin here. Need more practice kekeke...

Happy birthday!

2009-04-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Nope... Not my birthday yet... but I know that it's going to be real soon (SO EXCITED!).

I'm practicing with a paper cake my mama hastily drew on the paper.

Descriptives

2009-04-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Serious

Cheeky

Pretty

Elusive

Funny

Chat before bedtime

2009-04-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

Lele and I had a little chat before his bedtime.

Lele: Shushu take aeroplane come back

Mama: Come back from where?

Lele: Shushu take aeroplane come back from Australia... shushu come home... play toy with Lele.

Mama: Lele play with shushu so much fun.

Lele: Lele take gun shoot with shushu.

Choco makes me spin

2009-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Family outing to Chinatown

2009-04-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone!

I went for an outing to Chinatown in just days before Chinese New Year. I went with my yeye, nainai, papa, mama and shushu! The following are some long overdue pictures of the outing, but I should count my luckie stars they even made it to the blog:p

Mama had put off uploading the pics for so long she almost forgot about it, but in the end decided to put up these pictures (FINALLY) because she thought my beloved shushu might be happie to see some pictures of his family... ....

You see, my dearest shushu is far away in Australia now. I know exactly where he is and what he is doing. But the adults (esp my nainai) don't seem to trust me. They keep asking me,

"Where is shushu?"

I'll reply,

"Australia."

Then they will 99.99% of the time follow with another predictable question,

"What is shushu doing in Australia?"

And I'll reply with either,

"Read books."

or,

"du2 shu1 (read book in mandarin)."

Even though mama explained to me that shushu needs to take an aeroplane to a faraway place call Australia to attend a school there, I find it hard to understand why he could not have simply stay at home to read books...

Well, I guess I'm just too young to understand some adult actions...
Nainai, me (munching at some very sour plums) and yeye with the God of Fortune at background

As I was too distracted by the sour plums, I was made to pose for another picture. Much better?

Shushu and me! Shushu is my favourite playmate in the family. Now that shushu is in Australia, I always pester yeye or mama to play with me. Shhh... I think I hear mama panting away now...:p

My little legs got wobblie after walking for some time in the sweltering heat. Let me take a rest... Huh? You calling for me?

My eyes lit up at the mention of some cool coconut juice. Yumyum!

A sip of coconut juice is all I need to feel energised again...

No way am I going to try the coconut pulp, though. They look kind of suspicious...

Mama was happie to have the pulp all to herself since I refused to touch it.

Cause for concern?

2009-04-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

1) Was bored in the late afternoon so brought Lele to the playground to play ball. We were the only ones there till a father came with his girl who was younger than Lele. I asked Lele to pass the ball to meimei, and he went to her and hit her on the head with it! Thankfully the ball was very soft. I promptly apologised to the father and asked Lele to apologised, which he readily did. Straight after he said casually,

"Sorrie!"

He started tugging at the girl's shirt. Yikes!

Again, I had to apologise to father and made Lele apologise. The father looked quite displeased.

This is not the first time Lele acted rough towards other toddlers in recent days. If you ask me, I feel that Lele is merely trying to interact but not sure how. Probably since he can be as rough as he wants with us adults, which are his playmates more often than not, he doesn't yet realise that there's a different way of playing with toddlers.

How?

The only way I can think of is to create more opportunities for Lele to interact with other toddlers and guide him in behaving more gently/amiably.

OR

I can send Lele to a childcare centre where he will get to interact lots with other children...

Will consider.

First time ever

2009-04-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

2 days ago before Lele's GUG lesson, we had abit of time so I went for an iced coffee treat from Yakun. It wasn't our first time there but for some reason Lele became the object of interest of the staff aunties. One auntie saw Lele and exclaimed,

"So cute!"

Then she gestured to another to see. They started commenting on his cuteness etc when one blurted out,

"If only he were a girl, then it'd have been perfect! He's like a small chilli."

NOW WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?

I half jokingly protested,

"Oh no, please don't say that!"

And another auntie hurriedly said,

"No lah no lah. Not like girl la."

Lele was often mistaken for a girl when he was a wee babe cos (I think) of his big eyes, small mouth and thick hair. But I have never thought of receiving such blatant comments about him looking like a girl!

Finally Free...

2009-04-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

... ... of diapers, that is.

Here is a proud mummy announcing that her dearest son can indicate his intention to pee by saying,

"WANT TO PEE!"

He is now totally diaperless throughout the day except for naps (till I buy some mattress protector, maybe). He goes diaperless even for his trips to GUG for lesson. So far so good ... ... Some part of me is afraid of accidental leaks, or even poos, but I tell myself that since Lele is going diaperless at home successfully, no reason why he shouldn't be free of diaper outside too.

I'm very proud of my dear son for being able to "graduate" so soon, even before his 2nd Bday!

Funny Lele

2009-04-07T01:04:00.000-07:00

I'm sure he's not the only one among tods his age, but my dear son Lele reallie tickles my funny bones nowadays!

One morning Lele woke and was playing alone in the bedroom. I opened the door ever-so-slightly to peep in. Lele was counting the bears on his bedsheet! He said, "5... 6.........(pause)......7" then asked himself, "Anymore?" and then flipped over a pillow before replying, "no more"
Then he gave a funnie, "Hmm...no more..."

Yesterday during his day nap, I was lying next to him pretending to be asleep. Suddenly he said, "Want to sleep with mama" and then climbed onto me. He laid on my chest for a while before climbing up to my face to give me a peck on the lips! I opened my eyes to see the sweetest toothy grin a tod can master and my heart melted as we looked each other in the eye.

One day, Lele and I were taking our morning walk when I sneezed. He said, "mama sneezed. Lele thinking of mama." So funny but so sweet...

One morning I woke earlier than lele and was watching telly when I heard lele calling from bedroom, "mama, mama, mama, mama!" This is strange because usually he will come knock on his bedroom door so that I will go open and let him out. I went in quickly and saw him lying on the mattress.
Me: Why did you call for mama?
Lele: bedsheet came off. Lele call mama to put bedsheet back.
... ...

Lele's favourite colour is green. We know because he told us, and also because he will always choose green things whenever there's a choice. I bought playdough for him and made sure there is green dough. To my surprise, he refused to allow anyone to touch that and not even hinmself has played with it. If you ask me, it seems he is treasuring his favourite green colour dough and dun wan any messing around with it. How else to explain why he always wants to open the yellow dough when he explicitly refused anything else yellow?

Long time no blog...

2009-01-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a very long time since I last updated my blog... why?
A little bit of busy, tired, lazy and lack-of-personal-space all mixed together.

I've stopped so long dun even know how to start!

Guess I'll have to start with latest development in Lele's life...

Shushu, play toy!
well, his uncle (my BIL) got back from Aus for the hols (upload the pics later) and has become Lele's best "playtoy" fren. After the initial shyness (afterall, he left for Aus since Lele was just 9mths old), Lele quickly warmed up to him. Whenever he sees his uncle, Lele will burst into smiles and say,

"Play toy!!!"

Then he'll grab his hand and lead him to his uncle's bedroom.

I think that by now Lele has a strong image of each of our roles in relation to him and will behave accordingly. With his uncle and papa, Lele will behave very playfully. He will have twinkles in his eyes and also fool around alot more. With his yeye, he will play just as much but not as wild. With nainai, he will usually associate with food.

With me?

I guess I'm abit of everything to him, but there are certain things he only associate me with. He will only want me to read bedtime stories and put him to bed if I were around. If I weren't, then he'll let other people do it.

New skills
Oh, Lele is now able to self-feed all his meals:) albeit messily. I'm very proud of his self-feeding speed, which is the same as when the meal was fed to him, at home or outside. Him being able and willing to self-feed meant that I can do other things while he feeds himself, like get my own breakfast and rush some small chores. It also meant I dun have to constantly try to grab his attention with toys while feeding him, because all his attention will be held up in self-feeding. Result is less stress during meal times!
Still working on getting Lele to be toilet-trained. He seldom have "accidental leaks" when diaperless nowadays but he will not tell us when he needs to go and just hold it in. Maybe I should try waiting for him to actually tell me before I bring him to the bathroom?

Language
In the span of 2/3 weeks (or a month?), Lele has started speaking in sentences. He can express himself using sentences most of the time. This is really amazing to all of us because he says the funniest things!
Anecdote 1: In aid to his language dev, I taught his to say " So-and-so, where are you?" when his toys or anything else get missing. Yesterday he was looking for a "meimei bear" plush toy. So I told him to call out for it. He said in all seriousness,

"Meimei bear!!! Where are you hide there???"

All of us (his nainai, shushu and me) burst out laughing. I explained that I only taught "Where are you" but he insisted on adding "hide there" in usage. It is as if he answers his own question haha...

Lele's schedule for now.

2008-12-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T07:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T07:21:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-23T22:21:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-10-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T22:36:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-18T21:54:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Lele's current reads

2008-10-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T03:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-13T16:20:00.001-07:00

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... ... ...

2008-10-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Lele's songs

2008-10-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

Papa, mama and Lele went swimming again at Anchorvale. We had great fun! So much fun that Lele sang happily for us when we made requests, even tho he was quite sleepy already.

After his performance of the "Papa song", papa requested a "mama song", which Lele gladly sang. Halfway through, Lele decided to mix in words from the previous song kekeke... Even the tune was a remix (I believe) of the original "This old man" which he had been humming/singing quite accurately since his first songs.

Laugh out loud

2008-10-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

In the vid above, Lele got curious when I whipped out my digi cam and hid my face behind it (to vid-tape him). He kept trying to peek at me. This got me laughing. When he saw me tickled, he LOL too!

Dunno where he learn this from but recently Lele loves to LOL. At first we thought he is laughing from the heart, but soon we realised it was his exaggerated way of imitating our laughs...

It'll begin with a funny action or word from Lele which triggered our laughter. We will laugh and he will grin cheekily. When we saw his grin we will laugh even heartier and he will laugh out pretty loud in imitation of us. Pretty cute la...

Endearing Lele

2008-10-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

Lele likes to address his papa, yeye and mama in the most endearing and LOUD way. Took a video finally. But his volume in the video is only 1/3 what he can achieve. He can be super loud sometimes lor. Initially, Lele was quite cooperative, but towards the end of his mini-concert, he decided he wanted my digital cameral. He said, "Mama, wo yao" and reached out for my cam. I liked the way he glanced upwards after saying "wo", pause for a while before continuing with "yao". It was as if he was trying to recall what should come after "wo".

Makes sense because we had only just taught him the phrase "so-and-so, wo yao".

Lele loves dogs

2008-10-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

Still early to tell, but Lele loves animals, I think. Maybe not ALL animals, but he definitely has a thing for birds, cats and especially dogs. Whenever he sees dogs, he will rush towards them and put his head to their faces to show affection. If the dogs return the favour by licking his hand or face, he will be so thrilled and squeal like the happiest boy on earth!

This morning during our routine walk, Lele came across 2 dogs brought down for walks by their caregivers. Lele had such fun playing with them that he couldn't stop squealing... I was silently glad when the caregivers commented on what a happy and clever (not sure how that came about, though) boy Lele is...

A new dish

2008-10-09T01:44:00.001-07:00

Lele had stirfried minced pork for the first time today, and his first reaction was?

Self-entertainment

2008-10-09T01:05:00.000-07:00

After lunch, Lele decided to self-entertain.

Progress on self-feeding and going diaperless

2008-10-07T17:11:00.001-07:00

Self-feeding
Lele can now scoop food with his spoon and put the spoon into his mouth without spillage! YEH!!! He hasn't tried self-feeding an entire meal yet, but for most morning feeds of cereal, I will scoop abit of his cereal into a shallow bowl (so that it'll cool faster) and let him self-feed.
When he finishes and wants some more, I'll scoop abit more into his bowl again. When he tires, I will just feed him the remaining food. This way, the cereal will not turn too cold for him.
Even for his lunch and dinner, Lele will also self-feed gladly especially if he sees his fave foods like pumpkin/fish. But sometimes, he will shake his head to self-feeding because he wanna play while being fed:(

Going diaperless
According to plan, I allowed Lele to go diaperless with just his pants on for as much of the day as possible apart from naps. He goes diaperless even for his morning and afternoon walks, which can last up to an hour each time. I think his bladder capacity is getting bigger and his ability to hold the urge to pee stronger, because I've not have "accidents" during the morning walk for the entire week.

Even though Lele will still fuss when we have to stop his play and bring him to the bathroom to pee, he fusses much lesser and cooperates in peeing. A few times he even indicated he wanted to pee!

mo mo mo mo mo mo

2008-10-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

During playtime, Lele decided to visit his reading corner. He picked up the book, 'I like the altar', which we had gotten for him since he was teeny tiny. This book is a board book for children to know more about our buddhist altar. Lele surprised me by putting down the book, clasping his hands together, and moving it up and down while saying,

"Mo mo mo mo mo mo"

I suspected that he was imitating our buddhist chant but was not sure. So I requested of him,

"Lele, how do you chant nam myo ho renge kyo?"

And he repeated the same actions!

Nobody taught him to do that but Lele took his iniative to chant. When we asked him,

"Lele, when you are sad, what must you do?"

He will answer with

"Mo mo mo mo mo mo"

It touches me somewhat that I should be strong in faith so that Lele will have strong faith too. I hope he will grow up to be a leader of faith!

Reading outdoors

2008-10-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Was about to bring Lele for a walk in the neighbourhood before his afternoon nap. As soon as the door closed, he strongly requested me to bring the book, 'Time for Naps'. So I did. At the sky garden, we read the book together. He was totally attentive from beginning to end. It's really nice to read in outdoors, you know?

Should do it more often:)

Grouchy morning

2008-10-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

Lele did not have a good night last night. He woke once at 4.35a.m., I gave some milk and he went back to sleep. At 6-ish, he woke again. I found his bedtime companion (a hankie), gave it to him and went back to sleep. Not sure if he went back to sleep, though. At 7.30a.m., he grew impatient with me and fussed for me to bring him out. And I did. But both he and me were grouchy, tired and fussy...

We just spent time in the house and skipped the routine morning walk cos I was afraid to tire him out. Put him in for his morn nap at 9.30a.m.. He fell asleep by 10a.m. and slept for slightly more than 2 hours.

Expanding Lele's language bank!

2008-10-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

Though Lele can speak many words, they are all single words and (still) monosyllabic words....I wonder how I can help him attempt double-syllabic words... I guess I really cannot force him to say words beyond his ability. Think I will just continue what I've been doing up till now: *conversing with him, ask him questions for him to answer instead of just talking to him all the time
*Naming everything he points at, to the best of my ability and asking him to say the word after I have named. Sometimes, he will repeat gladly but sometimes he will just ignore. Thankfully, my vocab is still enough for me to name most of the things he point out......................................................................................................
*Encourage reading by reading in front of him. Initially, when he saw me reading my papers, for example, he will grab a book from his reading corner and ask me to read to him, which I will do. Nowadays, when I am sitting on the sofa trying to watch TV, he will grab a book and climb onto the sofa so that I can read to him. As far as possible, I will do so because I enjoy reading with him. He's so interactive! And besides, reading together is much funner than watching telly. By the way, Lele is not v interested in TV cos we dun encourage exposure to TV from such a young age...

Most of the words start with 'b', 'm', 'w', 'y', 'z', 't'. I cannot recall if he had succesfully pronounced other sounds.

Besides expanding Lele's vocab, we also try to expand his sentence structure. We encourage him to say short sentence to express his needs. For example, when he wants either of us to give him something (usually food), he has to say,
"(name of the person he wants to address), yao!"
1 or 2 days ago, I decided to expand his sentence structure to make it more complete. So I taught him ot say, "(name of the person he wants to address), wo yao!"

Actually, I'm not too sure if this way of teaching is correct but I like the idea of him learning to speak in sentences hee hee...

surprise surprise

2008-10-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Lele said "yao (want)" to 2 things which he will always shake his head to, pee-ing and drinking water.

1) Peeing
I went into the bathroom for a pee and Lele pushed the door open to get in. As usual, he meddled with the bath things while I did my thing.
Me: Lele, mama is pee-ing. Do you want to pee?
Lele: Yao.
So I pulled down his pants and let him pee. He pee-ed without fuss but as usual said "No more" after just a bit of pee. Usually, I will ask him to pee some more and he will start to fuss. But since he was so cooperative this time, I 'believed' him once he said that and allowed him to get out of the bathroom.

2) Water
Lele and me were reading his favourite bedtime story, 'Time for Naps'. When it reached the part where the protagonist puts his pet puppy to bed, Lele pointed, as always, to a cup of water in the picture. And as usual, I asked him,
"Gor gor (protagonist) got some water for puppy to drink. Do you want some water?"
Very surprisingly, he said,
"Yao."
I asked him 4 or 5 times to confirm and each time his answer was affirmative! So I got a cup of water for him and he finished the whole cup with satisfying "Mmmm" after each gulp.