The Castle

A couple of weeks ago, we had our dinner at Bukit Panjang Plaza. Mama brought me to the roof garden for a walk and we saw this inflated castle there for kids. Mama paid $3 to let me spend some time there but I was not too keen to explore this structure without her. This is despite the numerous encouragements from the aunty who was manning the castle. See the lady on the left of the picture above? That's the aunty. She kept asking me to go in and get the ball but I was not too sure about that.

Well, I did spend some moments in the castle, but really not for long. Mama tried to help me enjoy the slide but this thing just does not work out for me. Oh well, maybe when I am older, perhaps. :)

I am a Car Owner!!

As of today, 30th of January 2010, I am now the proud car owner of the following vehicle.

Let me test drive it.

Seems ok though there is no suspension. haha...

Thanks for getting me this new car, Papa! :)

Back to School

Dear all,

I am going back to school! Yes, after a long fortnight of absence, Papa and Mama are glad that I can finally go back to school! Dr Winston Ng, my pediatrician, said I can go back to school after he checked me up yesterday though he also added that another viable option is for me to rest a few more days just in case I go back and catch another bug again.

So God-willing, I will be going back to school tomorrow!

Just now, Mama actually decked me in my school uniform and brought me to school to say hello to Teacher Yati and to familiarise me with the idea of going back to school. Hopefully tomorrow, I can re-adjust well when I join my classmates again! cheers! :)

My Hand Print

Dear all,

Papa drew this hand print of mine last week. He then proceeded to draw another handprint. So sweet a picture... :)

But I could not stay still enough for him or Mama to do the same after that evening... haha. :)

My Good Works

Hey everyone, see the red mark near the bottom left hand corner? Look harder and you can actually see the word "Good" and there is even a star!! Let's look at another one.

These are the "GOOD" works Mama mentioned when she blogged about my school work last time. Sorry to keep you waiting to see this. Papa questioned these look so messy and they are stilled "GOOD"?

Mama replied that compared to the previous week when I brought home empty worksheets, these are probably considered "GOOD" by teacher Yati. ;p

Mama thinks the colour we learnt for the second week of the term is green and so we did a lot of green stuff. Here they are.



To top it off, I even had green mucus at the end of the week when I came back with the worksheets! Yucks!! Talk about making the lesson come alive and living out what we learnt!! ;p

The green mucus also meant that I won't be able to go to school and I had already missed school for the entire week from last Monday 18th Jan til today, 25th Jan. The green mucus on Friday progressed to cough and wheezing on Monday, fever on Thursday, high fever on Friday and viral rash on Saturday. I had been ill for this long. Let's hope Dr Winston Ng, my pediatrician, gives me an all clear to go back to school when he sees me tomorrow. :)

Sky Train

At the end of the first week of school, Papa and Mama brought me to Changi Airport on Sunday afternoon for me to expend my energy. At Mama's suggestion, we took the Sky Train from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1. Papa and Mama both remember the lovely viewing gallery at Terminal 1 where one can watch the planes land or take off.

When they reached Terminal 1, they found out that the terminal does not have any viewing gallery anymore and the only viewing gallery is now at Terminal 3.

We had been at that viewing mall before but in my parents' opinion, that new gallery is not as good as the old one in terms of the view it has to offer. But well, the good thing is that at least, I had a chance to take the sky train. I had never taken the sky train before and it was a first for me. I was not as excited about it as I would if I had seen a MRT but it was still something new.

Some 22 month old development

At 22 months old, I am now 86cm tall and weighs about 11.5kg. :)

I also like to imitate some of the actions I see on TV when I watch my Hi-5 video and also what Papa and Mama does. For instance, there is this Hi-5 clip about one changing her hairdo and I will anticipate the part of the song whereby the singer points to her head and I will point to mine just before she does it. Another example, I had noticed how Papa and Mama use their feet to move the door wedge around and now that I am old enough, I try to do likwise.

I need a context to learn. Hence, I don't like to play with a shape sorter. I rather just place all the shapes into the bowl. It's much more efficient to keep the blocks that way. However, I will try to cover the plastic bowl holding my toys with the lid it comes with. I also try to fit the inhaler medication into the plastic column before Mama or Papa pumps me.

I also prefer to drink my soup by putting my mouth at the edge of the bowl and sip my soup. Using a spoon to scope the soup to my mouth may take too long. I am pragmatic.

I am also making more sounds that seems like I am talking. Maybe I will really speak soon after turning 2 years old. :)

22 Months Old

Dear all, I am 22 months old! This month, I started to attend school which is actually a 1.5 hr play group programme conducted on weekday mornings from 9-10.30am. Every morning, Mama will take me to school. For the past 2 days, I had been crying whenever I had to enter the classroom and Mama could hear me cry though the classroom door was closed but it only takes about 10 minutes or less before I quieten down.

I am now much heavier at about 11.5kg. Even Uncle Kenneth from church commented that I was heavy. It seems that my density is kind of high as compared to other kids who may have their weight well distributed throughout their body.

Maybe I had put on much weight recently with all the chicken wings that Mama had fed me. I eat chicken wings at least once a week and sometimes, twice a week. I love those wings in any way they are cooked. Even if it is just plainly boiled in water. I can also spit out the soft bones that is found at the tip of the chicken mid-joint though I may not always do so.

Also, I enjoy playing peekaboo with Mama and at times, initiate my own little game of peekaboo. And I am still very amused by This Little Piggy, often holding up my foot to communicate with Mama that I want to play This Little Piggy.

I am also watching less Hi-5 now but it's not because I don't love the show but because Mama is leaving the TV on with shows that she wants to watch and I would just sit down and watch whatever programme that is on the TV as well.

I am also sleeping at later hours. Mama has kind of decided to just let my body clock have its own way instead of trying to make me sleep by 9 or 10pm. This means that sleeping at 11pm is a more frequent occurence.

I can also recognise my own photograph with the sounds I utter whenever I turn on Mama's handphone and see my picture as the wallpaper. In fact, Papa tried showing me a video clip of myself and I actually repeated the sounds that I made when my video was captured.

This month, Papa is teaching me a lot of things and disciplining me more.


Once, Papa spanked me at Nai Nai's house and I cried. Nai nai felt very sorry for me and asked me to say sorry to Papa to appease him. I am also showing more attachment to Mama and I prefer to hold her hands and not Papa's when we go out.

Also, I had started to mumble when Mama spank me with ruler. With tears in my eyes, I would say "mama mama mama..." as if I was trying to explain my actions. I also had this very 委屈 look when I do this. Although Mama and Papa found this very cute and amusing, Mama would still put on a stern face and Mama would even ask me to stop arguing with her. Very hard-hearted Mama I have. ;(

Once, Mama scolded me and I had this complex look which is like I was trying to hold back my tears and trying to explain myself at the same time. Unfortunately, you don't get to see this as Papa and Mama are very serious about disciplining me and no picture-taking goes on during moments like this. This is probably the closest Mama can find. See some sadness in my eyes? You just have to imagine me with more intense emotions.. ;)

Oh, talking about saying sorry, I do not know how to say sorry. Rather, I expressed it by putting my head on Mama's left shoulder and hugging her. This is my very unique way of saying sorry and Mama has no way of telling if I am genuinely sorry but I am just using this method to stop her from further disciplinary actions. Sometimes, Mama would hold me by my shoulders to stop me from hugging her and continue explaining my mistake to me. Sometimes, Mama would just relent and hug me before continuing to explain things to me.

Of course, there were also many happy moments such as these.

Ok, that's about all for the moment. Thanks for reading so far and have a good week ahead! Bye! :)

My Worksheets

Dear all,

Attached below are pictures of the worksheets that I worked on in my first week of school.

The colour of the week was yellow and so we did some colouring on the pictures of the lemon and the banana.

No, it's not a case of Emperor's New Clothes where one has to be very smart to see the yellow colour. The worksheets above and below were really given to Mama with NO COLOURS. Mama guessed Teacher Yati did not manage to sit me down to do the colouring. haha.

We did lemon printing as well.

Papa thought the lemon printing is a very interesting idea.

Mama tried to let me take a picture of the banana printing that I did but as you can see, I was not too keen.




That's the work done in my first week of school. Stay tuned for my GOOD works in the second week. :)

Kids Kampong

Last weekend, Papa wanted to bring me and Mama to a dog farm in Pasir Ris for our family outing. At Mama's suggestion, we went to Kids' Kampong instead. It is a small farm with lots of koi fishes, some chicken, some rabbits, a goose and 3 ducks. These animals were kept in their respective cages.

Papa bought 2 packets of feed at the entrance of the farm and here we are, feeding the fishes. This is Papa showing me how to throw the feed into the koi pond.




He then gave me some feed to try feeding the fishes. I gave it a go but I am not too good at really throwing the feed into the water and some of the feed landed at the edge of the pond instead. Still, it was an interesting experience. The fishes really came very close to us and we can even see their heads sticking out from the water.

We also had my picture taken with the goose and the ducks.

Holding Hands

Alright, this may look a little dark but if you look harder at the middle of the picture, you can see this little girl and I holding hands. Papa said I am so young and already holding a girl's hands. ;p

She is about 3 years old and she came to me while we were playing at the playground. I was really excited to be playing with an older child and she held my hands and we went up the stairs and took turns to come down the slide. Her daddy was really patient, teaching her how to wait for me to climb the steps and helping me to go up the steps while holding her hands.

According to her daddy, she loves to have her pictures taken and so when she saw Mama taking our pictures, she striked this pose with me. Notice how we were still holding hands when she was posing for the camera? :D

First Week of School

Ok, that was me on my way to school on 4th January 2010, Monday. Below is me at the end of school on 8th January 2010, Friday.

The big white thing that Teacher Yati passed to Mama are the worksheets I have done for the week, or should I say, I have not done for the week. No photos yet but there are 3 pieces of paper altogether.

2 of them were blank as in I did not do anything with it. Mama guessed Teacher Yati was unable to keep me sitted to do my work. The last piece was a lemon print which has water colour prints of lemon. That piece carried my name and as I came home with a little yellow stain on one of my sleeves a couple of days ago, Mama gave the benefit of doubt that I had done it though she wondered how I could have done such a piece of work with so little mess. Want to see my masterpiece? Stay tuned for the pictures. Mama will take pictures when she is more free.

Well, Mama can't really say I like school as it seems that I will cry after Mama left. Yesterday, when Mama brought me to school, she heard an aunty commenting," This one will cry." The aunty was referring to me and Mama was not surprised if I do cry when I realised she is not in the classroom with me.

But one thing for sure, school really makes me tired. For the past week, I had been taking my 3-hr afternoon naps much earlier. I used to nap at around 2.30pm or even 3pm. But for the week that passed, I had napped at around 1.30pm. Perhaps the interaction with so many friends in my class and the activities at the playgroup has tired me out.

Also, Mama was happy to hear that I had gone up to a boy who was new to the class and hugged him. In the words of my new friend's mother, "The 2 boys hugged." Mama said he was new to the class as he was registered only on the second or third day after the term started. So he was not in class on the first day. Papa noted that I am an affectionate boy. May this continue to be so. :)

And Mama is sure enjoying her additional freedom that comes with my going to school. Yesterday, Mama actually bought me hotcakes for lunch after class and I also had a packet of fresh milk to drink after my hotcake lunch. Yumm....

My First Day in School

Dear all,

I am going to school. This is me, in my uniform and about to leave home to go for my playgroup. Mama is more excited than me for 2 reasons :

1) We are going to be late. Class starts at 9am and we were still at home at 8.50am.

2) Maybe I don't really know what going to school means. Only Mama does. haha..

When we reached the class, the room was still locked and it meant class has not started and so thank God, we were not late. whew!

Mama took some video clips of the class but she pressed the wrong button and didn't save them. what a waste! ;p

Still, here is a picture of me with my teacher.. The lady in white next to me is Teacher Yati. she actually put me on her lap when Mama walked out of the room for a few minutes just to see if I will cry when she is gone..

At the end of the play session, I helped to keep some of the building blocks and Teacher Yati gave everyone a sticker. She also tried to read a story about Pinocchio to us but we were not very interested and so she did not get to finish it, Mama thinks. :)

That's about all for my class today. Will update more if there is other interesting notes. Mama is still undecided to accompany me for class tomorrow although Teacher Yati announced that she will allow one parent to accompany me for 3 days as a starter for this week. :)

Getting Married?

Nowadays, I am able to reach into the side pocket of the play pen and take out the ruler which Mama uses to spank me. I also have no problem fishing out the mosquito net Mama has tucked into the side pocket. When Mama was taking my weekly picture a couple of weeks ago, she decided to put the net on me and here goes... let me tell you something : I really don't like this much. Haha!

Fairy Nutella Sanwich?

ok, this is actually just plain toasted bread with Nutella and some sugary rainbow sprinkles and Mama only remembered to take a picture of this after she gave me some of it. Hence the slightly unappetitising display. But hey, this is the first time I am eating Nutella sandwich. Surely, that is worth blogging about? ;)

By the way, even before I had a chance to try the Nutella sandwich for the first time, I actually responded to the Nutella advertisement on TV by raising one of my hands when I see the advertisement during the commercial break which comes when Hi-5 is being aired.

Mama ordered this sandwich for my breakfast when we were at Fidgets on Christmas eve morning. She was not too sure if I would eat it but she guessed there's probably a good chance I would since it's sweet and it's also one of the relatively cheaper thing to eat at about $3.70 for the 4 pieces of bread you see above compared to say, pasta which cost about $7 for a child's set meal or about $10 for an adult bolognaise spaghetti. ;) the verdict? here goes....

yummy....

21 Months Old

Ok, this is kind of post dated and I am turning 22 months in 2 weeks' time but there has to be some documentation of my development this month.

Well, I started climbing a lot around the time I turned 21 months and hardly a day passed by without me climbing up somewhere, be it the sofa or the coffee table. Even the stairs that Mama perceives beyond me is not a problem. Just look at the clip below.

This month, I also irritated Mama and Papa more. The cruise has taught me a very clear lesson -when you open the door of the room, you can go out. The week after I came back from the cruise, I will actually bring Mama to the door, pointed to the key hanging at the key hangers and indicated that I want to go out in the evenings. This irritated Mama as she prefers to watch her Chinese drama serial instead. Sometimes, I will fuss a little more and she will let me have my way.

This month, I also became more sticky to Mama. I would hold her hand and make sure she is close to me when we are out, especially if we are at not so familiar territory. This could be due to an incident that happened on my 21st month birthday.

My 21st month birthday was spend in a cruise holiday. That day, I napped at around 4pm in the afternoon and when I did not wake up from the nap at about 6pm dinner time, Papa and Mama decided to go for dinner on their own without me. They reckoned that the room is pretty child-safe and so they left me alone to sleep in the cabin and took turns to come back to check on me every 10-15 minutes.

When Mama came back to check for the 3rd or 4th time, she could hear me cry even though the door was locked and she quickly opened the door. She will probably take a very long time to forget what she saw when the door was opened. There I was, about 50cm away from the door, in my red T-shirt, crying and I stomped my little feet when I saw her, as if in protest of being left alone in the dark, terrified.

Mama quickly picked me up and comforted me and then we prayed together for God's healing touch to come on me. Mama guessed that when I woke up from my afternoon nap, I realised I was all alone in the room (cabin) which wa pitch dark save for the light that came through the bottom of the door. I came down from the bed and started crying. Only God knows how long I had cried before Mama came back to check on me.

Mama decided not to do something so risky again. In fact, for a while, I was kind of a little afraid to be alone behind a closed door. What an unusual birthday I had. ;p

Also, I will be starting to go to a playgroup on 4th of January, 2010. As mentioned, Papa and Mama decided to let me learn more social skills and so I will be sent to the playgroup opposite where I stay. It is a 1.5hr stuctured programme that will be conducted daily on weekday mornings from 9am to 10.30am. In other words, I am going to school!

Boy, Papa and Mama are excited over this in a way, especially Mama. Finally, she can go marketing in the mornings without me coming along and she can shop to her heart's content while I am in school. In fact, she already arranged to start tutoring Rachel jie jie, our Pr 1 neighbour, on the second day I start school.

This month, I also enjoy hide and seek better. Oh, I always keep my cool when Mama and Papa hide themselves behind a wall or pillar and I can't see them. And I will be very delighted when Mama appears in front of me, saying,"Niel!" ;p

This month, Mama let me try using a fork and I am actually quite good with it. You see, Mama hardly let me use fork as she is lazy to wash one more piece of utensil when we eat at home. When we went Mac Donald's for hotcake breakfast about 3 weeks ago, she was pleasantly surprised to see that I can use one pretty well. Mama thinks maybe I now enjoy my Mac Donald's hotcakes better because I like the experience of eating with a fork. Check out the video below.

Ok, that's about all for the developments this month.. how will I take to the schooling experience? When will I start to talk? stay tuned to find out.. in the mean time, blessed New Year 2010! :)