Say Bye

Today, when Mama picked me up from school, I was the last second student to leave and there was an older boy behind. When we were not too far away from the classroom, I heard him say bye bye as his maid had arrived to take him home and I said bye too.. Mama was really happy to hear it.. I am starting to talk! Bye :)

Even More 24 Months Pointers

This month, I had started to spit out the food that I am given to eat. Sometimes, I just want to see what they look like and then I will put them back in my mouth and continue eating them. Many a times, it could be that they are too big a piece as Mama did not bother to make them smaller. Other times, I just did not want to eat them and want to continue eating something else.

Mama noted that I usually spit out stuff that ends up in pulp after I chew them such as pieces of meat and the green leafy vegetables. This meant even chicken wings which used to be a favourite is no longer in my favour.

Stuff like porridge, mushroom, white rice and hard boiled eggs, I will usually swallow them. Mama also discovered that if she cut the pieces of meat to be even smaller than the grains of rice, then she has very good chance that I will swallow them. She did this once when she gave me pork that were boiled together with soup for a couple of hours and the pork was easily broken up.

But I don't spit anywhere mindlessly, mind you. I will usually spit into the rice bowl that is being used to hold my food or Mama's hand or hold it in my mouth until I find somewhere neat. Mama can't remember me spitting onto the board of my highchair or table. I am just too tidy to do such stuff. ;p

Also, at 24 months, I seldom use my bath tub. I usually shower. When Papa showers me, he will insist I sit down on the floor to prevent myself from slipping. Mama will usually allow me to stand and then turn the tap linked to the shower head and tell me it's raining! This worked fine until very recently, I slipped and the back of my head hit the floor when Mama was giving me a shower. That was another frightening episode for Mama and from now on, Mama got to me sit down more when she showers me. Still, she did not want to eliminate the element of fun and so she will hold onto my arm and let me stand for a short while when it "rains" in the bathroom.

And I am now not so afraid of water anymore. In fact, when it "rains" in the bathroom, I will walk into the rain and enjoy having "rainwater" fall on my back. I will also stretch out my hands high to feel the rain. I am not afraid of water trickling down my face but if Mama uses the shower head directly on my face, I will still go into a shock-like state and quickly grab Mama.

But Mama is careful that she does not let me stay in the "rain" for long as it usually "rains" before I am soaped and just after the soap on my body has been rinsed away. So I am kind of clean when it rains and maybe just a couple of seconds in the rain will suffice for me to have some fun. Usually, I am very cooperative when the "rain" stops and I have to be toweled dry and leave the bathroom. :)

ok, that's about all Mama can recall..thanks for reading again.
:)

How An Ah Beng Behaves During Haircut

The weather for the past few days had been the same for the past 300 years : hot, humid. And so Mama thought it's time to get my hair trimmed.

This is how an Ah Beng should behave when he is having a haircut.

That's right, gum in mouth, chewing it non-stop and put on a nonchalent look.

This is how one looks after getting the haircut.

Seriously though, Mama thinks this new hairstyle is too short but she has only herself to blame because she might have communicated wrongly to the hairdresser to make it very short when she meant trim it. ;p

This was what I looked like after I had a haircut on 1st March last month. See the difference? :)

(ps : for those who are disturbed by the gum chewing comment, Mama adds that I was really eating a sweet. Chewing gum has been banned in Singapore a long time ago. ;p)

More 24 Months Pointers

At 24 months old, I am really very active. In fact, when Aunty Cheyanne saw me a couple of weeks ago, she said I am really active and very different from the children she has seen. She should know because she is doing a course in speech development right now in US.

Talking about speech, I am still very delayed in my speech development but this month, my parents can tell that I seemed to have made some progress though I still babble at times if I even babble at all. My current word is "S" and I started saying it a few days ago. Mama was kind of happy with this "s" I kept saying as her surname starts with S. And it seems that I can say "discs" when I stand before the shelf where my Sesame Street discs are kept.

I have watched the disc Head, Shoulders, Fur and Toes so many times that I seem to have remembered the content of the show and I can follow the games of Ernie Says, which is actually Simon Says in Sesame Street version. And I can recognise Cookie Monster, Grover and Elmo by pointing them out when I see them on toys, on PC screen and so on.

I still love to see the MRT trains go by and I am excited when I see them. I am also interested in unfamiliar places when Papa brings me somewhere new.

Nowadays, I would nod my head continuously when I hear upbeat music. One of my current favourite songs is If You are Happy and I will nod my head when I hear the song. If I hear you sing If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet, I can even follow.

Then again, I am not always co-operative. This morning, Papa had to firmly teach me what it meant to stand still and wait with my hands by the side and I really stood still on the spot and waited for a good minute or so according to Mama's estimate.

Also, I can be misunderstood at times. There was once when Papa and Mama were about to take me to church when I suddenly turned back from the opened door and headed towards the TV set. Mama thought I wanted to switch on the TV and she said no. It turned out that I wanted to turn off the power before we left the house.

I am also learning very fast when I am interested in something. Last week, we passed by this arcade after dinner and Mama let me try this motorbike kiddy ride machine. Mama used a paper card with a magnetic strip to make the machine move. I had never seen this technology before but when I wanted another ride, I pointed to card-reader in front of the machine. Mama interpreted this as I wanted her to swipe her card once more to get the machine to move. She is really impressed that I am so smart!

Diet-wise, I have recently started to stick out my tongue when Papa or Mama wants to feed me. Papa said this could be my defence mechanism as I was scalded by hot porridge recently when Mama tried to feed me. Initially, Mama thought so too but when Mama gave me sushi to eat this afternoon for lunch, I did the same too which made Mama think that if I was concerned the food might be too hot, there is no reason I should stick out my tongue at sushi. Perhaps, I am using my tongue as an exploratory probe to taste the food and see if it is indeed hot.

Also,I am getting more independent in the area of self- feeding. Many a times, I will want to feed myself and my parents will allow me to do so though sometimes, I get kind of messy. Last Sunday evening, Papa bought an aloe vera with sea-coconut dessert. After some coaxing from my parents, I tried a piece of the aloe vera. Boy, it was really juicy and sweet and I immediately wanted to have more. So I started to feed myself. Papa was so happy with my self-feeding that he exclaimed that the day has finally come!

Yes, I am pretty unadventurous about trying new food and Papa said this takes after him too. Many a times, I would turn my head at some food offered to me and Mama had to coax me a few times to get me to try it. Sometimes, after trying, I decided I like the food and will want more of it by straightening up and indicating I want more. If I decided that I am not eating, I will turn my head away and stubbornly refuse to ingest any. Mama wonders if she will cause me to dislike a particular food for life if she punishes me for rejecting the food. But Mama is of the opinion that I am entitled to my likes and dislikes but I must at least give the new food a try before I decide to reject it.

Still, I managed to put on about 3.6 kg in my second year. When Mama weighed me on my first birthday, I weighed 8.4kg which is about 6 kg heavier than my birth weight. Mama read that in my second year, the rate of weight gain will decrease and I may put on only 2 or 3kg. So she is quite pleased that when she weighed me a few days ago, I weighed 12.0kg and yesterday (or was it this morning), the scale read 12.4kg. Now, it's not that Mama was obsessed and weighs me all day long but it's because I love to stand on her electronic weighing scale and seeing the LCD screen display come on and the figures start moving. So she will sometimes take a look at the reading. Yes, I had put on a good 3.6kg in my second year. Still, that makes me stand at about 30% precentile compared to other kids of my age in Singapore. Well, as long as I am growing and happy, who cares how I compare to national average. ha.

This month, I am also more into shape sorting and building blocks. Kind of delayed development over here again but better late than never. Papa and Mama had agreed long ago that by the age or about 4 or 5 years old when I have to go to school, as long as I can do most of what the kids at that age are doing such as running, jumping, talking and so on, it does not happen which age I start doing it.

Mama thinks it's not so much that I did not like to do shape sorting but I may prefer to do it with a context. She thinks so because though I did not take well to the shape sorter when she first bought one for me, I had been very interested in trying to fit plastic covers onto their respective containers, especially in the recent months.

Maybe in the past, I thought it's pointless to place the blocks one by one into their container by looking for a hole that fits shape of the blocks when you can just turn the container over and throw in the plastic blocks. But now, I am more interested to play with the shape sorter with Mama. It's like silently, I had grown to be interested in doing it. She first discovered this in church school when Aunty Siew Lan brought a shape sorter to keep us toddlers occupied. Mama thought I would not be interested but I actually sat for a while to do it with the jie jie telling me which hole the block should go through.

I am still very interested in Papa and Mama's hand phone. Papa's phone is a touch-screen phone and I will use my index finger to touch the screen. Mama was really impressed by my intelligence and Papa said it was because I had seen him do it many times.

This month, I also got more chances to use the phone as Mama will dial her own hand phone number using the houseline and once, I even got to talk to yeye when Mama was speaking to Papa.

One last thing before Mama forgets, I am also getting used to the bedtime routine. Immediately after my bath and waering my clothes, I will usually go into my room. Sometimes, a bottle of milk is on my bed and I will drink it before I sleep. When I see Mama lying on my bed trying to help me fall asleep, I will bring her the breastfeeding support pillow to prop up her head if she is not already resting on it. Yes, Mama is beginning to see how used I am to seeing her prop her head on the pillow.

Ok, that is about all that Mama can remember at the moment. Thanks for taking time to read so far. God bless you! I will be turning 25 months old soon in a week's time. cheers! :)

My Latest Craft

Last Friday, I came home after school holding this in my hand. No idea what this is?

How about viewing it from this angle then?

Still no?

Ok, try this.

Tada~ yes, it's a caterpillar. The letter of the week is the letter "C" and the word caterpillar starts with the letter C. Papa was pretty skeptical if I really did this on my own. Mama replied it comes with my name and so it must be mine.

Still, Papa is proud of this and it now sits on top of the TV set..

Visiting Covenant Evangelical Free Church

Today, Papa, Mama and I visited Covenant Evangelical Free Church and I was given this sticker with my name to be pasted on my back. Mama placed it on her wallet to take a picture when we reached home.

It was a busy and tiring day for me as I was exposed to lots of sights for the first time. I had breakfast with Papa and Mama at the food court at Greenridge Shopping Centre next to the church. I had never been there before and I sat obediently next to Papa when Mama went to buy breakfast for me. Mama saw this very beautiful picture of me and Papa seated next to each other as she walked by us on her way to the fried noodles stall. There was no baby chair around but Mama had no problem constraining me because it was Papa who scolded me a few times to keep me seated. haha.

Then we went to the church and I was allowed some time at the outdoor play area. Though it was supposed to be outdoor, there was a large canvas over it and so it's not hot and we were all in the shade. I loved this toy house and had a good time with it. Not just in it, but outside it as well. :)

And this one below is Mama's favourite shot of the day. I was so engrossed with playing that I did not bother too much about Mama taking pictures of me.
In fact, I was so engrossed that even though Mama left me to play un-supervised and went to pick up my stroller and water bottle, I had not noticed her absence. I would have stayed there if Papa and Mama had not taken me by force to the Cradle Room so that Papa could attend service. These adults nowadays found it difficult to change my mind to cooperate with them and so they used brute force on me by the sheer fact that they were bigger sized than me. tsk tsk...

But when we reached the Cradle Room, it was another new playground for me, or should I say, training ground. Future chef in training, anyone? :)

Halfway through, there was a short time of singing and I was really engaged with the singing as there were action songs that include clapping hands, stamping feet which are actions I could do readily and Mama was very happy with my participation!

There were also some small tables covered with paper and crayons were provided. Mama let me draw with the crayons but I was more interested in keeping them.

At the end of the service, we left and I was so tired out by this new exposure that I fell asleep in the car. Only a small regret though: Mama saw her college mate, Aunty Yibing, in the cry room and was so caught up with her that she did not noticed I had picked up a piece of red crayon and started scribbling on the cream-coloured wall. By the time she noticed, I had left a pig patch of scribbling on the wall and when Mama tried to remove it using water, she could not do so. She then asked the lady in charge if there is any cleaner that could be used but there wasn't any. In the end, the scribbling was left on the wall. You can say I had certainly made my mark in the church building! ;p

Haagen Daz for Dinner

Papa came home with a $20 Haagen Daz ice cream voucher recently. This voucher was given to Papa because of the points he accumulated in his credit card and so today, we went to Haagen Daz after Papa and Mama had an early 5.45pm dinner. Maybe it was due to the bottle of milk I drank at 4.30pm, maybe the fish bee hoon and chicken rice they had was not to my liking but I only took about 5 mouthfuls of food during dinner and so when we went to Haagen Daz, Papa ordered this for me so that I can eat some waffles for dinner. Yum.. (and not to forget, a loving Papa that I have)

No photos nor videos to show for this one as I got quite worked up when I saw Mama using her handphone camera. Anyway, Papa and Mama fed me pieces of waffles and the ice-cream. Initially, I was not too keen to try the ice cream but after a couple of mouthfuls, I loved it! As Aunty Siew Lan said, which kid does not like ice cream? :)

There were 2 scoops of ice cream. The yellow one is mango flavoured and if Mama is not mistaken, the pink/purple one is strawberry sherbert which is a little sour. But I actually prefered the strawberry sherbet ice cream to the sweet mango ice-cream! Something that is unlike Papa as he usually does not like sour stuff except for tom yum soup.

So there it goes, my dinner for the evening, waffles and ice cream (which eventually became melted). I am such a blessed boy! :) And just in case you are wondering, I did not eat this all by myself. Papa and Mama ate some too but Papa was very occupied with feeding me and so he ate very little of it. When I am grown up, someone remind me to take my Papa to Haagen-Daz for dinner, ok? :)