Ready for Potty?

Declan is 20 months old today. One of the very crucial issues, which I have been looking at, is to get him potty trained. During the past 2-3 weeks, he has been taking off his pants and diapers on his own accord. There was once he pooped and he took his own liberty to remove his diaper without telling us that he had "ng ng". Luckily, Angelia (bro in law's gf) caught him in action and held on to the diaper for him. If not for her, we'll have a big mess to clear.

I wonder if the pulling down pants and ripping off diaper action is a sign of readiness for potty training or a sign of him turning into a pervert flasher.

There are times when he'll refuse to let us put on his diaper and pants and he'll run around the house butt naked with us chasing after him.

We tried introducing the potty to him many months back but it was not successful. The moment he sees us approaching him with the potty, he'll start shaking his head and say :" mai mai!" then run away.

Due to his "flashing" acts, we have reintroduced the potty to him again. This time he is more receptive. He don't mind sitting on the potty, he seems to be even enjoying sitting on it judging from his grins. However so far we have only managed to get him to pee 2 drops of urine into the potty.

Yesterday night, he told his "kong kong" he wants to "she she". "kong kong" announced that to us, so Kiat and me excitedly stripped his pants and diapers and rushed him to the potty. He insisted on sitting on it, we were more than happy to let him do so. That only last a few seconds before he got bored, stood up and told us "mai mai"..... Aiyah.... anti-climax.....

Side track abit : YL I didn't burn down the studio, his photos turn out fine I quite like it but both Kiat and myself looks shitty in the photo. But never mind, the main idea is to capture the little on not us. No time to scan the pics, will post it up once I scanned them.

Do you have these Symptoms?

Let's see, how many of you display the following symptoms?

1) When you talk to your kid, your pitch will usually be one octave higher (which may sounds really mushy to a 3rd party) without you realizing it. – I’m guilty.

2) You do not really call your child by their actual name, but by some mushy nonsensical pet name. – I’m guilty. (mine is “ling ling” as in darling or “b” as in baby, what’s yours??)

3) You can’t stop kissing their cheeks. – I’m guilty

4) You can’t stop soliciting kisses from them. – I’m guilty

5) You can’t stop hugging them. – I’m guilty.

6) You can’t stop soliciting hugs from them. – I’m guilty.

7) You don’t mind acting silly just to make them giggle and laugh. – I’m guilty.

8) You think your kid is simply the cutest one around, no horse run! – I’m guilty.

9) Simple things your kid does makes you squeal in delight and vice versa. – I’m guilty.

10) You can’t stop smelling their hair and goes “uhmmmm how nice!” no matter now sweaty and sour they really smell. – I’m guilty.

11) You can’t stop snapping their photos hoping to capture and document every second of their life and every little achievement they accomplish. – I’m guilty

12) You babble non-stop about them to your friends oblivious to their interests. – I’m guilty.

13) Everytime you go shopping, you bring home more stuff for the kid more than anyone else, including yourself. – I’m guilty

14) Your schedule and activities are planned to suit the little one’s time in order to be around him more often. – I’m guilty.

15) You handphone and PC wallpaper show your kid’s face. – I’m half guilty. He appears only on my hp.

16) Your office desk is “littered” by the little one’s photos. – I’m not guilty at the moment.

17) You feel real bad when you go out for fun while leaving the little one at home (even though there is a reliable care giver to look after him/her). – I’m guilty.

18) Whenever he/she goes :”mummyyyyyyyy….” Or “daddyyyyyyyyy…” you feel as if you gonna melt there and then. - I'm guilty.

Added on as of 22 Feb 9:37am as suggested by yl

19) when you took a studio shoot of your baby and the shoots didnt not turn out well, you threaten to burn down the photos plus studio together... :P - I'm definitely gulity as it was actually me who wrote that in the comments of my last post.

Added on as of 23 Feb 8:37am as suggested by ylyet again!

20) there is NO DENIAL symptoms as compared to other addictions... - Guilty guilty!

If you have most of the above symptoms then finish, you’re probably too addicted to your child. Are you? I am! But who cares??? It’s not an offence! We better be addicted to them while we can and while they allow us to do so. When they grow older probably all the above will disgust them. :p

Excuse me Are you a model?

I always like to take photos. I think it’s a great way to capture emotions and memory. I’ve been planning for a family portrait for the longest time. In fact, it was first scheduled last November. Unfortunately, due to our tight schedules, the photo shoot was postponed till late January this year.

When I communicated with the photographer, I emphasized that I wanted the photos to focus more on Declan and less on me and Kiat.

The photo shoot took place on 27 January. It was quite fun! Declan was not really co-operative at the beginning. In fact he cried and wanted to get out of the studio the moment we stepped in. It took awhile for us to coax him and the photographer had to sacrifice quite a few packs of chocolates to get him to co-operate. It’s not an easy job to capture snapshots of a moving toddler. At some stages, the photographer even had to lie on the floor with him in order to snap the photos.

I snapped these during the shoot. See? 3 big men (photographer, make-up artist and Kiat) had to entertain him as if he was some big shot diva.

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I bet Zoe Tay and Fann Wong were much easier to handle than an 18 months toddler. The photos will be ready by this Friday; I’m praying hard that it’ll turn out nice!

Interactive Johari Window

Hi Friends, help me know myself better. Click here. Just be truthful ok? Thanks! :)

Ear Infection

Ah boy is sick yet again.... He's pretty weak nowadays. He was feverish since Wednesday night. The fever went up to 40 degrees on Thursday night. That garnered a trip to the hospital where the nurse advised us to sponge him and they inserted a pill into is "poo poo" hole. An examination detected sever ear infection in the left ear. I innocently asked the doctor whether the infection is caused by hygiene problems and he replied no and went on to explain to me the possible causes. A jab and a blood test later, we were sent home after collecting bottles of medication and a bill of nearly $130. That is not inclusive of the GP visit and the PD charge for his follow up. No wonder people say that having a child is expensive.

He's still feverish as of now... The fever came down but never went away. Today, diarrhea was added to the list on top of fever and vomiting. A big relief was he's still quite active. It's tough to feed him his medication and we are getting all confused over what to feed him and when... The different medication required us to feed him differing amount and at different time period.. Very "Luan...." He missed 2 days of childcare last week and he's definitely not well enough to go back on Monday. "sigh....." the momentum which he built up bravely will be gone with the wind again......

It is at times like that, that causes me to have the same sentiments as Mama Blurblur that I can be at home to accompany my child through his sickness. I'm still pretty new at the new work place, thus it will not be convenient for me to take leave. So, ah boy got to stay at home with just his ah ma.

I was cuddling ah boy and chit chatting with Kiat when I suddenly notice him doing this :

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Ah boy is protesting that the Ah mi is noisy :p hmm or is it due to the ear infection? I prefer to believe its the latter.

He is coping well

I think this little boy is coping well with childcare. He no longer cries when being put on the school transport home. The below are the messages written in his communication book by his playgroup teacher and centre director

Dear Ivy,

I just want to assure you that he is eating fine and always eager to feed himself during mealtimes. He would usually finish his serving of food.

I think he is settling down well and is starting to initiate playing with his classmates.

Tiffany

Dear Ivy,

We saw a marked improvement with him this morning. He cried for bearly a minute when we received him and joined the rest of the children with play and assembly after that. I think he has developed a sense of security with the school. A really good sign!

Renee


I'm really glad to read the second observation, which was penned by the centre director today! He cried bearly for a minute! wow! Well done! I expected him to cry for weeks.

Since we put him in childcare, he'll usually whine alot when he's home. The moment he came home, little things will trigger him to whine and he'll go :" ah miiiiii...... ahhh miiiii........ ahhh miiii....." with his eyes half closed, squeezing out a few tear drops and be very sticky towards me. This can go on the whole evening until bed time.... It can get a little frustrating but I know that I have to be patient with him as he's learning to cope with the changes. Today, he didn't whine much! Just once and it ended soon after it started.

I am looking forward to him getting use to his new routine. I'll really rejoice on the day when he'll wave bravely to us when we hand him over to the teacher at the gate. We have since decided against putting him on 2 ways transport. We treasure the little time the 3 of us can spent as a family on our way to the centre. It may be abit of a hassle, all of us have to wake up real early (6+ am) but I really enjoy the bus ride with Declan and Kiat to the childcare.

Auntie Boy

In an earlier post YL, was commenting that "soon, the auntie-boy would be going to the wet market, haggling over the prices of fish and pinching a few stalks of chilli after buying some veggies". He's quite close to doing that in fact hahaha.

Weekend mornings, if I can manage to get out of bed early (which is quite rare), we'll then follow mil to do marketing. This auntie boy loves to hitch a ride in the veggie cart.

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If we let him run loose, he'll probably be combing every corner of the market. Since he enjoys being push around in the cart, we are only too happy to put him in there so that we'll have some control over him.

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That's him , kwai kwai standing in the cart, while his ah ma was busy choosing fish.

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At the end of the marketing trip, this helpful chap insist of pushing the cart even though I bet the weight of the cart is heavier than him. He did quite a good job in pushing the cart in the right direction. I bet when his speech is more developed, he'll be doing what YL is expecting hahaha.

Childcare Trauma Update

It’s back to childcare again after a super long break. I expected the worse. The dad is still on leave, thus our little boy have the luxury of both daddy and mummy sending him to childcare this morning. The moment we walk through the gate, he started to protest. When we let him down, he kept pulling my hand and even attempted to run towards the gate, crying of course. I’ve got no choice but to carry him in. He’s not pacified though. He continued to whine, wanting to go home. His teacher attempted to carry him away but this boy clung on to me for dear life. He was holding on to me so tightly that the teacher got to literally tear him away from me.

I guess today was a bad day for the centre. There’s plenty of crying children. Even the older ones are tearing. It was hard to leave him there but Kiat and me just “heartlessly” left him with the teacher and went for breakfast. After breakfast we pop back to check on him and he’s still crying…… The teacher was nice enough to carry him from the moment we left him there to give him the missing sense of security. After peeping, we left. We headed home for a short break and guess where we went?? KARAOKE! Bad mama and papa were crooning away while the son was left at the centre… Actually all this while I was quite worry about him but I guess my presence at the centre won’t really do him good. I was feeling so lousy that I skipped a very important lunch appointment


Today, is also the day when he will be taking the school transport home. Quite poor thing right? So young and yet he’s got to travel home alone (with an attendant in the bus to look after him of course). We decided that this will be a better option as he will be able to come home earlier if we put him on transport. If not, he’ll have to wait at the centre for either myself or Kiat to pick him up after 6pm everyday. By taking the school transport, he’ll reach home about 5.25pm

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Guess what are all these “kan jiong” spiders doing??? (Another one was behind the hp camera). Yes, what u see is what u get. The mum, dad, grandma and grandpa are all waiting downstairs to receive our little prince. He’s expected at 5.25p.m Kiat and me went “bag hunting” after the karaoke and I insisted to take a cab back when I saw that it was 4.30p.m. I badly wanted to be there to welcome him home personally. When we reached our block of flats, it was only 4.45p.m. Upon alighting from the cab, we saw the Ah Ma sitting downstairs waiting eagerly. And I thought I was early! HA! Ah Ma said she’s worried that the clock at home ain’t telling the right time thus she chose to come down much earlier.

We chit chatted downstairs and as the time drew nearer I walked towards the carpark and sat on the railing. Waiting waiting. Ha! I saw a white passenger van. I told myself yeah! He’s home! Kiat and ah ma rush over. The van stopped quite a distance from where I was standing. I waved to the driver and after I did that, a man alighted from the van. Oops… wrong van. :p Ok we retreated a few steps feeling embarrassed. Not too long after that, I spotted another white passenger van. I jumped off the railing and Kiat was telling his mum :” Lai liao Lai liao” As we looked at the van eagerly, it came towards us and guess what? It turned into a lot and the driver proceeded to park the van. Double oops… wrong again.

We waited and waited again. Third time we spotted a while passenger van again. Kiat:” Aiyah must be this one already!” We all rushed forward as the van came nearer and we spotted a little figure being carried by a lady. AH! That’s my son! The moment the van stopped and he saw us, he was jumping and jumping, half crying and half rejoicing that he finally saw some familiar faces. Poor fellow… his eyes was all teary and swelling from all the crying. I hugged him close and hurriedly brought him home and Kiat made him a warm bottle of milk to soothe him.

It’s gonna happen all over again in another 7 hours time… Good night folks.

True blue prata lover

The dad is on leave today, so we brought the little one for a late breakfast. On our way out, this "auntie boy" insist of bringing along a very auntie looking plastic bag. There's nothing inside there except for another mini red paper bag which we use for carrying around the mandarin oranges.

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We tried coaxing him to let go of the bag before we leave home but he just refuse to let it go.... So this aunite boy brought along this auntie plastic bag and carry it in a very auntie way....

The dad ordered prata for himself and this boy decided to share his dad's breakfast. We pinch a small portion and let him hold on his hands to feed himself. That's how our muslim friends eat prata right?? Seeing his dad deep the prata in the curry sauce, this boy also wants to do the same. He dipped it in, put it is his mouth, I half expected him to spit it out but he didn't wor. He smiled upon tasting the curry and he dipped his small piece of prata in again. He's eating the curry instead of the prata....

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I was amazed. Then the dad said :" Aiyah the curry not spicy at all lah" Chey!

Over protective?

What do kids usually do when they are at the playground? Naturally they will, run, climb, crawl and like it or not at times they will also trip, fall and hurt themselves. However, in my humble opinion, this is just part and parcel of growing up,

This evening, I brought Declan down to the playground for him to work his limbs. He was climbing, crawling and running all over the playground. There were a few times he nearly tripped and fell if not for my agility in catching hold of him. 15 mins into his play, another mum brought along a boy whom I guess was about 3 years old or maybe slightly older. As the boy got nearer to the playground, he started to pick up his pace and soon he was running towards the playground. His mum then shouted:” Boy ah! Don’t run ahhh!” The boy stopped and walked towards the spring rider on which his mum helped him up. After riding it for awhile, he came down and started to run towards the main playground structure which Declan was happily scaling and of course with me following close and tight behind him. His mum goes:” Boy ah! I say no running!! If you run again we will go home!” His boy was running on the rubber mat… I was thinking even if he falls it’ll not kill him…

The boy obediently stopped and walked over to the steps. He climbed the few steps up and when he was about to scale greater height to gain access to the curling slide his mum shouted:” No! No! No!!! Not so high! You cannot climb so high! If you don’t listen we will go home! ” She looked down towards the slide and went:” Aiyoh, so dirty!! Let’s go let’s go!!” I can see that the boy was feeling so disappointed. However never once did he defy his mum. Since his mum wouldn’t let him up, he walked pass me and Declan and go down the steps. He walked to the spring rider again, climbed up and started riding it. His mum rush to him and said:” Aiyoh! Don’t climb! Later you will fall down!” After saying that she pulled him down and said:” Let’s go home!” and off they went. The boy turned to look at my toddler who was only half his age, climbing and running all over the place, with envy.

Like that, where got childhood?? Cannot climb, cannot run and hardly 5 mins at the playground he was being pulled home. I admire the boy for having cooperated with his mum fully, without any defiance. Some parents may feel so proud about such a child. I was thinking, will he grow up to be a man without his own mind? Of course I too yearn for an obedient child but I will not want a mummy’s boy. Anyway, everyone have their own parenting method.

As the sky turns dark, I had to ply his fingers open to get him to let go of the playground. You need not guess, this boy didn’t cooperate with me. I’ve let him played his share, but to him it’s never enough. So I had to half pull half dragged a crying and struggling toddler home. I brought him there fresh and clean wearing a light green pair of pants. I brought him home with a grey pair of pants, having played the good citizen by cleaning the playground on behave of the town council with his butt. Topping that, was a pair of dirty hands with 10 black fingers. In return, I get a happier child (despite him crying as he didn’t want to go home yet).