My First Day and Last Day with Sparks

Hi all, let's do a comparison exercise in this post.

The picture below was taken on the first day of school, 4th January, before I left the house to go for school.

The one above was taken on my last day in school this year on 18th Nov. It's not exactly the same profile and so on but Mama thinks over the year, I have grown to be more boy-like and less "toddler-ish". Any other difference? :D

Xmas Celebration at Yee Poh's House

Hi all, I was on my way to Papa's aunt's place for Christmas celebration when this picture was taken. Mama tried to teach me to say Merry Christmas but it's probably too much of a mouthful for me and I said "mers" instead.

This aunt of Papa's is often referred to as Mee Mee's mummy because she has a daughter by the name of Mee Mee. This year, Yee Poh has invited the Hokkien choir of our church to do carolling at her place and we were invited to dinner at her place before the carollers arrive.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the yummy food nor the carollers for the occasion. But this is what Mama managed to capture. This was the first time we go to this Yee Poh's place and I was really fascinated by everything I saw. I wanted to touch everything and I wanted to have a good time of exploration.

My poor parents had to grab a quick bite and took turns taking care of me so that I will not damage anything in Yee Poh's house as I went about doing my exploration. Papa said I had embarassed him in front of his relatives. ;p

Thank God that I was rather quiet when the carollers sung their carols. Otherwise, my parents would have taken me home in the midst of the carolling. ;p

My Parents' Drawing

Can you make a guess who is portrayed in the picture above? ;p

Recently, Mama started printing some colouring worksheets from the Sesame Street website for me to do some colouring. At the spur of the moment, she decided to draw a picture of Elmo. She took a book that has Elmo's face on it and tried to draw a picture of Elmo. And the above is, urm, her attempt of trying to draw Elmo.

What made her day was that I can recognise the "Elmo" she drew and even said the word "same"! She even asked me to point out various body parts of "Elmo" and I could point to the various parts correctly. Now you know my Mama can draw for nuts. ;p

Two evenings ago, Papa was also doing some colouring with me when he decided to draw a picture of another Sesame Street character. Can you identify the character below? Isn't it obvious who is more gifted in the area of drawing? :D

My First Pet

Hi all, guess what I am holding in my hands!

Last Friday, Papa caught me a spider from the garden near our house. It's meant to be something like a pet for me except that I need not look after it, nor feed it nor do any of those stuff that a pet owner needs to do. I was pretty intrigued by this spider. What faster way to learn the name of this creepy crawly than to observe one myself. :D

What impressed Mama most was that Papa caught it using a plastic bottle (90ml capacity) that was used to hold cough syrup. Mama was impressed how Papa could have caught the spider with a bottle that has a rim diameter of less than an inch. She would need a much bigger container to be able to catch a spider. :D

Ok, since you are interested, come and take a closer look. :D

Out of Bounds No More

At 33 months old, I had already learnt that if I stand at the door of any rooms in my house, I can simply tip toe and reach for the door knob. Turning the door knob will open the door to the room I want to gain access to. Now my parents can't keep me out of the room by having the door closed anymore.... not unless they lock the room...

On the other hand, Mama also got Papa to hang some keys in the living room in case I should fiddle with the lock buttons on the door knobs and accidentally lock myself in one of the rooms. My parents can then use the keys to unlock the doors to rescue me.

Cheese Omelette

The day before, Mama meant for me to play a keyboard game on the website of Sesame Street while she prepared lunch in the kitchen. Then Mama heard me cry in an unusual way and found me holding on to the keyboard with 1 hand to prevent it from falling through the other side of the drawer.

She decided this was no good for me and so she brought me to the kitchen to watch her cook. She cracked an egg into a bowl in front of me. Then she gave me a slice of cheese, unwrapped it and held my hand while I cut the cheese into 2 slices using a dessert spoon.

I also helped pour a little fresh milk into the egg which Mama then beat with the spoon and poured into a wok with oil. Mama then carried me while I tossed the cheese halves into the wok. The first half landed on the edge of the omelette which Mama then folded into half.

The picture below showed where the second half landed- in a more central position. Cool, huh? :D

I had cheese omelette with rice for lunch that day while Mama had the sunny side up. Mama posted on Facebook that she may not need to wait 30 years before I can cook her a meal. Yeah!

Star Search #1

Hi-5 was my earliest favourite TV programme. I enjoyed the opening and closing songs and when I was a little older, I could sit and watch the programme on my own, giving my caregivers, Mama and Nai Nai a little time and space to do work. Later, Sesame Street took over and now, I watch tv programmes pretty selectively.

Recently, Mama came across a poster announcing the performance of Hi-5 at Marina Square and so a few weeks ago, she brought me to Marina Square to watch the performance. Her original intention was to just watch the performance from the levels above the stage. Hence she did not bring me earlier to queue for a seat in the front.

So here I am, waiting for Hi-5 show to start since 12.35pm, about 25 minutes before the start of the show.

The show started late at around 1.15pm and by then, I was getting tired and restless. Mama was quite happy to see the Hi-5 team though. She had enjoyed the performance more than me.

After watching for about 10 to 15 minutes, I wanted to leave. Mama, though reluctant to leave, decided to let me have my way as it's really about letting me have fun, afterall. The interesting thing is, when I told Mama I wanted to leave, Mama had in mind to bring me to the nearest MRT station which is a new station along the Circle Line so that we can quickly get on a train and go back home.

But I told her,"TT, Jurong East" which means we should take MRT to Jurong East Interchange before we transit to go back to Yew Tee. She decided to follow what I said though it means we have to walk further before we could get onto a train.

On our way home, she discovered if we had taken her original route, we will take a much longer time to reach home as there are many more stops if we had taken the Circle Line. Mama was certainly impressed with how smart I am! Well, how was I to know? I probably said Jurong East because we came from there! :p

Star Search #2

After the Hi-5 performance, the following week, Sesame Street came to Bukit Panjang Plaza which is not too far from my place. On the first day of the Sesame Street performance, Mama brought me out after lunch to catch the 1pm show.

By the time we arrived, the show has already started and we just stayed at the ground level to watch the performance which lasted only about 15 minutes. I could identify the characters : Elmo, Ernie, Bert (which I still call Big Bert) and Cookie Monster whom I call "key".

After the show, we went to the supermarket at Bukit Panjang Plaza to buy some ingredients before we went home.

Mama thinks with such a short performance, it was not really worth making a trip down to see the show. That's probably the end of our adventures in seeking out TV stars in 'live' performance. ;p

She will most likely not bring me on a Star Search again unless, well, if I ask for it but that probably won't happen for a long while... :D

Divine Justice

It's more than a week since Papa accidentally hurt my toe and here is the scab. See the brown line on my toe? Yup, I had that when Papa accidentally opened a door which swung over me. The bleeding has already stopped by now and it's no longer painful. Papa said it was retribution. Mama thinks maybe it's divine justice.... ;p

33 months

Dear all, I am already 33 months old.

This month, I curl my legs up more often when I am being carried and that makes Mama think I am becoming more like a koala bear in this way. Also, I am getting a little more "sticky", often wanting Mama to be near me when I play or watch tv or even when I am doing colouring with my crayons. I would often ask Mama to sit next to me or even tell her to rest by saying "Mama rest" and pushing her body to lean against the sofa we are seated on. I think if Mama sits with her back leaned on the sofa, she is more likely to sit with me for a longer time instead of walking off to do housework or something.

Mama often thinks if I already have a younger brother or sister at this stage, my behaviour will most likely be interpreted as some insecure behaviour arising out of jealously. But I have no younger and hence it's probably some stage where I feel insecure because I am growing quite fast in some way.

Yes, I am growing quite fast in the area of my speech development. I will often pick up things that are being said and repeat the words I hear. I can also tell when my parents are angry with me by interpreting their behaviour and the way they speak. For example, if I step on a puddle of water and Mama is frustrated with me getting my feet wet, she will raise her voice at me and reproach me for getting myself dirty. I will then say,"Mama gree, Mama gree" which is my way of saying Mama is angry.

Many a times, I will try to reconcile with my parents when they are angry with me. I will put my head on their shoulders, say sorry and stroke their backs. But sometimes, they are too upset with me to accept my reconciliation. Papa especially, is more interested in getting me to repent rather than making up with me.

Sometimes, Mama is just a little frustrated with me for a short moment but not particularly upset. I will stil say "Mama gry, Mama gry" and she will try to tell me she is not angry. But I don't seem to understand what she is trying to say.

Yesterday, it finally struck Mama what to say in response to my "Mama gree". When I said it again, she replied,"Mama is not angry. Mama just needs to be patient with you. "

And do you know what I said? I said,"Patient". It really amazes Mama that out of so many words she uttered, I actually picked out the most important word and repeated it. Mama has absolutely no idea how I chose the most important word but it seems that I can do it. I just know what are the key words when I hear a string of words.

At the beginning of Decemeber, I started coughing. But I was only coughing infrequently, say about 3 or 4 times a day and as I was still up and about, Mama was not too sure if I was choking on my saliva or I was unwell. Last week, she noted that it's almost 3 weeks since I started coughing and so she brought me to my paediatrician.

Around last week or so, she also borrowed a disc about Elmo seeing a doctor and after watching it many many times, it was no surprised that at Mama friend's place, I knew what to do with this toy stethoscope. :D

I am still in the midst of my school holidays although it will come to an end soon.

Mama thought I may get quite bored at home if she does not bring me outand so every day, we had been going out and taking MRT rides everyday. Now, I know MRT goes to Khatib, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, Woodlands, Kranji, Eunos and Redhill.

I also get to go grocery market with Mama more often and I often insist on carrying the grocery for her and help her with the payment when we are about to leave.

This school holidays, I also discovered the fun of chairs that allows one to swirl round and round and I enjoy being on them. :D

That's about all for the moment. Thanks for reading thus far. Mama will update again when she thinks of new things she can write about. :D

Bumboat!

The weekend that passed, a new word was added to my vocabulary. I can pronounce it very clearly : bumboat. Yes! I took a bumboat for the first time in my life! Here are more pictures. :D

Initially, I was not too sure about being in this bumboat thingy. This explains my not-too-happy expression above. Maybe it's because of the way my parents handled me when we were about to enter the boat. Papa carried me in his arms while Mama got onto the deck of the boat. Then Mama turned back and Papa passed me to her before he went onto the deck. Papa then entered the cabin and Mama passed me to him before entering the boat herself. I was not passed around securely but kind of just held at the armpit. My legs were dangling in the air with no support to my body and this kind of uncertainty made me a little scared too. I can feel my parents were a little uncertain too as they tried to pull it off.

Perhaps with Papa's arms around me, I soon got better. It was a short ride and we soon went to shore.

I enjoyed the return trip much better. I even spotted another bumboat and pointed out to it. Just now, as we went out for dinner and came home, I even said "bumboat" indicating I want to take the bumboat again! :D

Pulau Ubin

Ok, taking the bumboat was a first time for me. So where were we heading? My parents said it's a place called Pulau Ubin. We were supposed to come here to spend our Saturday morning before Mama goes to work.

We rented a bicycle to travel around. It was supposed to cost $12 for a whole day or something but Papa explained we were probably going to use it for an hour or two and asked for a discount. In the end, we actually got to rent this tandem bicycle for $5. Mama thinks the Ubin folks are nice people. :D

But what surprised Mama more was Papa's act of asking for a discount! Mama had never imagined Papa can bargain. :D

This was when we stopped to put on more mosquito patches. Papa put 2 or 3 of them on my back for fear I will get bitten. But these patches did not stop me from donating some blood. See the little bump on my forehead above my left eyebrow?

Strangely, this bump kind of subsided when we left Pulau Ubin but swelled up again in the afternoon. We did not stay long at Pulau Ubin as the cement path for cycling was sealed up and Papa preferred not to take the less developed track as I was with them. So he soon returned the bicycle and went back to mainland where we had a yummy lunch at Changi Village Hawker Centre.

Sec Three

Mama thinks I picked up this phrase when I heard her speak on the phone, requesting for 2 towels to be brought to room 363. This was where we stayed for our first family stay-cation at Changi Village Hotel. :D

I heard her and after she put down the phone, I picked up the headset and had an imaginary conversation saying something and punctuating my conversation with "sec three". She thinks I meant 63, the last 2 digits of the room number.

Mama likes the spacious room and was particularly impressed with the playpen although I disliked the playpen and even flipped over it to escape its confinement.

Mama had to work and so after lunch, Papa sent her to Newton before coming back to Changi to check in with me. Mama thinks it should be recorded that me and Papa, with the help of a pram, actually took 2 pieces of luggage, a swimming float, a set of Straits Times newspapers, and checked into the room all on our own. She imagines it must be tough on Papa to handle me, the pram, the luggages and the newspapers. Papa said I helped to carry the newspapers in my hands as he handled the rest.

I enjoyed playing with the sliding doors. The wardrobe and the bathroom had sliding doors and you can imagine how much fun I had when we first entered the room. These 2 pictures were taken when Mama came back from work.


When I first checked in with Papa, I had a lot of fun with these sliding doors. Papa said I spent over an hour on these sliding doors. I would go into the wardrobe, closed the door, climbed onto the safe, open the sliding door and try coming down from the safe on my own. Then, I would do it all over again by varying the actions. In fact, I enjoyed myself so much that Papa actually left me to play with the doors on my own and he went to take a nap. That was a bloody mistake. No, Mama is not using a swear word here. Papa did shed some blood. Read on to find out. :p

You see, after I had my share of fun with the doors and saw my old man nap, I actually went to him and poked my fingers into his nostrils. Papa was rudely awakened and saw blood oozing out of his nostril. As Mama was not in the room with us, Papa had to fix his bleeding nose all on his own and he punished me too. Mama found it really funny I had done this to Papa. Papa said Mama would had scolded me and disowned me if I had done this to her when she napped. Poor Papa. ;p

There were light switches at a level where I could easily reach but I was not to touch them.

When Mama arrived, I was at the pool with Papa. She was supposed to change into her swim suit (another phrase I quickly picked up and associated with swimming) and help take care of me but before she could change, Papa had brought me back to our room as it started raining.
We went for our dinner and after dinner, Mama meant to take me for a ride on Bus No. 2 to Tanah Merah MRT station as service no. 2 is a double decked bus and Mama thinks it may be quite fun for me. Papa went for his evening jog and exercise while Mama took me out.

But we took another bus instead after waiting for some time and ended up at Loyang Point before we took another bus back to the hotel. Mama was just very thankful to God we reached the hotel safely as the journey along the way was scary for Mama. Some of the bus stops were deserted and others probably had 2 or 3 persons and there was no overhead bridge in sight for us to cross over and take a bus back to the hotel. Not that Mama would have used the bridge if there was any as she was kind of scared to wait for bus at such a deserted place.

The next day, the buffet breakfast in the hotel was immensely enjoyable for Mama because my parents probably found the most feasible way for our family to enjoy buffet breakfast. Papa woke up the earliest and went for breakfast on his own while me and Mama slept in. Mama then enjoyed breakfast on her own after Papa came back and when she is done, they brought me to the buffet breakfast. See, there was so much food to try. :D

I enjoyed the miso soup which Mama diluted with ice water to make it less hot (easier for me to drink) and less salty. I also ate some rice and scrambled egg and tried a few mouthfuls of mini pancake. I ate some breakfast cereals too and I enjoyed the strawberry yoghurt with Mama though Papa could not understand why we would like something that has a bad smell.

Because Papa and Mama already ate their breakfast, they did not mind attending to me and letting me take my time, even making a little mess. Papa also had a small serving of the meatballs and hash brown while Mama munched on some breakfast cereals and tried the muesli when I was there.

After breakfast, Mama thought of taking me for another swim before we check out since we can have a late checkout at 2pm. Unfortunately, Papa injured my toe when he was opening a door and after attending to my bleeding toe with some pressure and a plaster, it was decided we should not swim. Papa thought it's retribution since I had made his nose bleed the day before and he had accidentally swung a door over my toes.

Mama then started packing to go home since there was not much to do anymore.

Since there was still time, she packed leisurely and we even had time to do some family shots. :D

Then, I spotted Papa's sunglasses and I started trying them on. :D

Papa said I look like Chef Eric Teo in this picture below. Chef Eric is a local celebrity chef who often appears on TV with his glasses perched on his head.

With this, we ended our first family stay-cation.

We had enjoyed ourselves and Mama is thankful to Papa who brought us here. Next stay-cation, where will we go? Stay tuned to find out... :D

Marketing

This school holidays, Mama had been taking me to the supermarket more often and I insist on helping her with the grocery basket when she has no suitable coin for the trolley. At the checkout counter, I would put the items on the conveyor belt and helped Mama pay for them by passing the cash or atm card alongside with Papa's NTUC link card to the cashier aunty.

Mama thinks I am really a good little helper in this way although I almost walked out of the NTUC with her grocery items without paying for them yesterday afternoon. :D

Baby

2 days ago, on Tuesday, I accompanied Mama toAunty Huishan's place to visit Aunty Huishan who is on maternity leave after giving birth to Baby Nathaniel. Aunty Huishan is Mama's secondary schoolmate and they used to be in NPCC together.

Baby Nathaniel is Aunty Huishan's second child. Her firstborn, Esther jie jie was born 2 days before me. Mama's water bag burst on the evening after she visited Aunty Huishan and Esther jie jie in the hospital when Esther jie jie was born. It was joked among Mama's friends that I was eager to come out after seeing Esther jie jie... haha...

The pictures you are about to see are actually pictures of a baby....

That's right! It's me! And I was holding Baby Nathaniel's tutu in my right hand!

After lunching at Aunty Huishan's place, Mama was trying to get me to nap at Aunty Huishan's place so that she and Aunty Huishan can have a long chat. Aunty Huishan had kindly set up a huge mattress for me in Esther jie jie's room. Mama had let me try sleeping in various parts of the house from the platform in her living room, her sofa, to the mattress in Esther jie jie's room but I simply refused to sleep though I was really tired.

After lying down for a few seconds, I would get up and walked about. It didn't help that Mama did not have a bottle of milk for me as she had not planned to let me nap at Aunty Huishan's place. Though Aunty Huishan offered to make me a bottle of milk, Mama did not accept the offer. Then, Mama thought she will let me try Esther jie jie's sarong cradle at Aunty Huishan's suggestion.

It was my first time in a sarong cradle and I was really scared! ;p

In the end, Mama took me home in a taxi and I napped from $7.70 to $15.80. Well, Mama did not take note of the time when I dozed off in the taxi but she looked at the fare meter when I slept and $15.80 was the fare she paid when we reached home. I soon woke up when Mama tried to carry me from the taxi to go back home. By the time we were in the lift, I was awake and remained so until night time. What a tiring day for me.

A Drum Set

This is Daniel the drummer, playing the full set of drums for the very first time!! *drum roll*

Esther jie jie's grandfather bought her this set of drums and I got to play with it when I went to Aunty Huishan's place yesterday. I love it! I could even play softly at Mama's instruction. Aunty Huishan says even her own nephews who are 5 and 7 years old still love to play with this drum set when they are at her house.

Mama's mind went something, " You mean one never outgrow that phase of hitting and banging?"as in, "Daniel will still be banging away at an older age?"

An interesting thing that Mama wanted to note was that the drum set actually came with a small black stool that the drummer could sit on but I kind of fell off it when I first tried to sit on it and so, Aunty Huishan let me sit on a chair from Esther jie jie's study table set.

What happened to the stool then? Well, if you look very carefully, you may just discovered that I had turned it into part of the drum set. See the picture above? The black stool is on my left hand side, near to the wall and just below the drum. I hit on it just like I would do for any of the drums in the set.

Well, Mama is now considering whether to get me a similar set for Christmas.. should she or should she not.....

Spice Soup

Last week, Mama made some instant kimchi soup using a concentrated kimchi soup stock and real kimchi. She thought the soup will be too spicy for me but surprisingly, I like the taste. Even though she told me the soup is spicy, it did not stop me and I call it spice soup. There are just too many syllabus in the phrase "Spicy soup" and so we shortened it to spice soup.

Mama thinks I had inherited this preference from Papa who takes to spicy food better than her. She only started eating spicy stuff at a later age, say around her teens and even then, she takes spicy food selectively.

The End of A Week of Surprises!

This week that just passed, I gave Mama some surprises.

1) I asked for a haircut.

2) I asked to play Whack A Mole.

And to end it off, on Friday, I took my sandals from the shoe rack, put them on by myself and waited for Mama while she washed her hands in the kitchen. Imagine her pleasant surprise to see me in my sandals. :D

Self-Initiated Haircut

Mama and I walked by a hair salon yesterday and I said,"Hair cut, haircut". Mama thought I was just commenting someone was having a haircut in the salon. She tried to bring me to the foodcourt for lunch but I refused to walk on and continued saying "haircut".

Mama was a little surprised that I seemed to be asking for a haircut and she asked if I wanted to have a haircut and I indicated yes. She asked if I was sure that I really wanted a haircut and I confirmed my answer with her. Seeing that my hair is a little long, touching my ears a little, she agreed to it, thinking she will spank me and scold me if I want out in the middle of my hair cut.

So here I am, in the salon, waiting to get a trim.

Oops, what am I getting myself into, really?

Actually, it's not too bad a deal. I even got sweets to eat. The hairdresser gave me 2 sweets.

She asked me to close my eyes too. Was she going to give me a surprise? ;p

After some time, tada!!! The final look! Don't you think I simply look good?!