my first day in childcare

This is a new milestone for me! on the 2nd week i turned 18mth, i started attending childcare.

the childcare centre is just downstairs mommy's office building. so for the first day (16 nov) mommy was with me. initially i was alrite when daddy and mommy brought me for tea first. when we stepped in the centre, i was busy looking at the fish tank at the recep area. there was another new friend joining on the same date. then mommy started to remove my shoes, and there is an auntie (the principal) holding the thermometer and tried to check my hands and feet, i started to sense something wrong and started crying.

on the mrt with daddy. although got a nice lady to give us seat, i was too active to sit down quietly.

at the recep area

mommy assured me everything is alrite and would be with me all the time. so we joined the class. when i saw all the little friends in the same class, i sort of quietened down a bit. the first activity is the outdoor play. then when we were putting on shoes again, and i saw pple walking in and out of the door, i was crying so hard and cling on the door, waiting for any chance to run away. the teacher held out a rope with little circle on it and asked each of us holding the hole, but i refused to and was wandering around myself. it was really dangerous at one time tat i almost walked off. lucky mommy was around to carry me. then it started to drizzle a bit, so the teacher called off the outdoor play and returned to the centre. all along i was crying, especially so when we were on the way back.

at the junior tots' class, i was observing and getting myself familiarise with the place.

it seems i wasn't ready to mix yet... end up i was playing with the rubbish bin myself

on the way to outdoor play, see i almost wandered off myself.

mommy guessed i was hungry cos i usually drink a bottle of milk around 9plus to 10am. so once reached the centre, mommy made a bottle of milk for me. just after a while after finishing the milk, it's lunch time for the junior tots. we went to the eating area and all sat down on the chair by the table. the teacher was scooping rice for everyone and placed the bowl with spoon for each of us. wow, most of my frenz know how to feed themselves, but not me. so mommy fed me and i finished two bowls.

tat's wat's left at the end of two bowls. but anw. one bowl doesn't mean full bowl. at most half filled. so i wasn't eating alot acutally.

then it's shower time, i was reluctant at first, but once i saw the water i was busy playing with it. maybe i was tired, i soon fell asleep when mommy put me on the mattress after the shower.

but i didn't sleep for long, mommy was called back from lunch by the teacher cos i was crying after waking up. when mommy finally came, i was carried by the teacher at the lift lobbying waiting for mommy.

so mommy was accompanying me at the eating area cos the rest of the kids were still taking nap. and there was a teacher accompany the early risers and we read story books and played toys while waiting for others to wake up.

soon the light lit up and it was time for teabreak and i was able to finish two servings of cakes. then my fav segment of the day, the chinese story telling... while the other kids fidgeting around, i really paid attention to the teacher. i only fussed while waiting for other kids to do the painting.

i wasn't really interested in the gym play either, end up i took the toys and played all by myself.

well, after tat i got hooked on with playing with water in the kids' toilet. i kept going in while the rest were still eating.

then it's the chinese time with a chinese teacher telling story. tat seemed to be the only time i really quieten down and paid attention. and mommy can finally sit there resting.

tat's the chinese story telling time.

soon it was dinner time and i ate another two bowls of macaroni. then we changed pampers and went home!

guess i was really tired from the day. i knocked off at 9pm at the nite.

Me at 18mths

Time really flies and I am oredi 18mths. Mommy always says I am a big boy now and so I realized.

These are some new things I know when I am 18mths
1) love to point at numbers, and can say 1, 2, 3. 4 (pronounced as “sss” ) in mandarin.
2) Know how to put smaller thing into a bigger one.
3) Know how to hide an item and later find myself
4) Point to nose, head, ear when asked. Still point to nose when asked mouth or eyes which often gives mommy a good laugh.
5) Love to imitate adults like talking on the phone., will climb up to the sofa and take the phone and try to press and put beside the ear
6) Start to help out with the household chores, like this morning, I took the hanger mommy left on the bed after changing and walk to the door where are the hangers are and put back
7) Know how to wash myself during shower time, when asked “wash your body?” I will rub my hands up and down the tummy
8) Can say simple words like “car” and “star” (pronounced as “dar” and will do the open-close of the hand action) and the Chinese character “da”. Will try to imitate the sound when the adults pronounce, like ice-cream as “ai-sss-kree” and vegetables as “gee..” antique car as “tee-kar”.
9) Can pronounce letters A, B, D , E, G,H,K, L,O, R. S, T, and V.
10) Know how to throw tantrum when unhappy, esp when daddy or mommy says “no” when I am doing something. Either I will stomp my feet on the floor and start to cry. Or when daddy carries me up and I start kicking my legs in the air which daddy calls “air-walking”. For example, this morning, I was playing with daddy’s water bottle on the coffee table, mommy opened it and let me drink. Then it caught my fascination and I started to try to put back the cap back then opened it again, put my fingers inside and played with water. When mommy closed the water bottle and try to put away, I started to cry and stomped my feet.
11) Knows how to dance when hearing music from TV or when daddy and mommy say “Darren dance”.

The list goes on and on with new surprises every day.

Well all these small and little things mark my tremendous growth from a baby to a toddler and started to gain independence as a “self”. Mommy definitely misses the days when Darren was just a baby and needed constant attention. But she can’t be helped but feel proud when Darren can perform a small task himself and grow into a happy toddler.

new yoga pose

happy 18mth to me

my 1st swimming at Bishan swimming complex

well, the bishan swimming complex is actually only 10 min away by walking from our home, but yesterday was the 1st time ever i visited there.... and on mommy's impulse.

i supposed to go for my first GUG lesson after one term's rest. in fact, we reached earlier and mommy paid money for the term and also filled up the withdrawal form since i am going to start childcare soon.

when mommy carried me into the class, i looked quite timid and remained quiet. in fact, i didn't even touch the toys on the floor. then other babies started to come in. all look smaller and younger than me. then i started to feel uneasy. so even mommy ensured me tat she will be around, i started crying when the teacher started counnting names. so mommy had to bring me to the corner and gave me some biscuits to quieten me down.

then we rejoined the group and we started singing the "good afternoon song", but i started crying again upon hearing and this time the biscuit also didn't help. mommy had to bring me outside cos i was disturbing the class. everybody was looking at me. oooppsss, i felt a bit embarrassed as i am the oldest yet, all the didi and mei mei were looking at me crying.

outside the class, i still couldnt' be pacified even with the pacifier. i cried louder and louder. with no sign of quietening down anytime, mommy had to go back to the class to take back my bag. once reaching the door, my cries are even louder. so mommy called daddy to come back so that he can hold me while mommy make milk. even half way thru the milk , i cried when daddy said i am a naughty boy.

mommy thot i was cranky cos of hunger and it's almost time for my nap (my nap time has become haywired recently, for the past few weekends, it's been 2-3pm), so they decided to skip the lesson and brought me home.

who knows, upon reaching home, all my sleepiness was gone! i was walking and climbing all over again. daddy & mommy were exasperated and tired. so mommy said " let's go swimming" as teh last resort, and in hope tat the exercise would tire me out. we changed and within 15 min, we were at the swimming complex!

we went to the "wading pool" which was only 0.45m deep and i can stand with the water only at my waist! yippee, the pool was not crowded with only a few other kids playing around. so i happily walked around with daddy or mommy holding my hand. after i gained more confidence, i even attempted to walk on my own. but i got my first taste of swimming pool water when i slipped and lost my balance.

i really like the pool cos i cried in protest when daddy and mommy brought me up and said "no more". but my cries soon died down when we went to the snack area and my mouth stuffed with chicken nuggets and fish balls. and i even finished 3/4 tin of milo.

i think i definitely look forward of our next trip here and of course the little teat of junk food after the swim.

and i finally knocked out after i changed, showered, watched one espisode of barney and finished one bowl of porridge at 6pm! Gasped...

little surprise

last wed nite darren surprised me yet again.

He was sitting on his playmat, as usual, messing around with the flash cards. Suddenly he pointed at one of them with the Chinese character “大” and said “da”. at first I thot it was just his baby language and so happened tat he made tat sound. But he did again immediately. And after the dinner, he said it one more time.

Recently, he is trying very hard to pronounce the words. Like, he is very excited seeing the numbers on the lift changing as it moves up and down and we will say out the number to him. Now he can say “yi” “er” sometimes “san” and pronounced “si” as “sssss…”. And he likes to point and make you say out the word for him, sometimes, he will follow by trying to imitate the sound. Although might not be correct, at least he tried.

worst fall so far

It looked like any normal day… daddy and mommy picked me up from the nanny’s , then we went home, had dinner and then mommy played with me. then I started walking around and mommy followed.. and suddenly she started to make heavy footsteps like what we used to play, then I shrieked in excitement and started to walk faster and almost ran..

Out of sudden, I fell in my face on the floor and started wailing loudly in pain. Mommy quickly picked me up from the floor, then she realized there were drops of blood on t-shirt. I was rubbing my face and still crying, then mommy removed my hands and saw blooding coming out from lips. The teeth must have cut the lips when I fell. Mommy suddenly remembered mommies on the forum said tat sugar can stop bleeding and called out daddy to take sugar from kitchen and rubbed some on my lips.

Realizing something on my lips, I started to lick and found it’s sweet and finally stopped crying. Daddy was angry with mommy for chasing me and asked her to pack and send me to the doctor’s.

By the time we reached TMC 24hr clinic, I was playing as usual. but daddy said cannot let me walk on my own for the time being. But the queue was so long, after waiting for some time and seeing me behaving normally, daddy decided to go back home.

Well, little expected the wound to grow worse over the days. First, it started to become swollen, then there were some whitish pus appearing. There are two wounds actually, one on the outer lips and the other was more inside nearer to the gums. At nite, I always cried out loudly in pain cos the skin broke and started bleeding. In fact, it got so bad tat I refused to take my pacifier in the middle of the nite and there was blood stains on the bedsheet.
the picture is not very clear after shrinking, but still can see tat the lips is swollen and the whitish pus on it.

Together with the fever after taking the MMR jab, daddy & mommy were not sure whether the fever came from the jab or the pus on the lips. So we still went to see the doc at TMC 24 hours, took the antibiotics and some cream to apply on the lips. While the fever didn’t subside over the weekend and the wound on the lips still looking grossly big, we went to see the PD on Monday and he changed the cream to an oral drip for ulcer to aide the wound to heal faster.

the scariest jab

well, i supposed to take the jab when i turned 15mth old as recommended by pd, but then with things always cropped out last min, like i fell sick then the bintan trip. i only took it when i was 17mth old.

mommy has long heard the scary stories related to MMR, the fierce fever, the risk of having rashes or the worst, it's supposedly link to autism according to some weird reports. but then this jab it's compulsory by the MOH and sooner or later, i still have to be tuk.

so on saturday 10/10/09, daddy & mommy finally brought me to take the jab. as it's a saturday and the clinic was ful. we had to wait for quite sometime. so we went to the toys r us next door to spend some time.

i am the little transformer..

want to buy a car? let me recommend the latest model to you.

look at the mess i've made at the mega blocks section.

after almost 1.5 hour of wait. i finally got my tuk at 12 plus. i cried a while but like a macho boy supposed to be. i stopped crying soon. as it's time for lunch, we went to bakerzin and they served yummy kids menu.

hehe.. the kids set menu comes with a bottle of yakult. and guess wat, i finished it in 3 min flat.

the empty yakult bottle.

mommy ordered the grilled salmon with rice for me, but i only ate abt 1/3... mayb i was too full from the yakult.

actually i am eyeing the chicken wing daddy & mommy were having... looks yummy...

quite a good outing for taking a jab, isn't it..

but 5 days later, i started to have a fever at 37 + for two days and a week later tat saturday and sunday, the fever shot up to 38+ which gave daddy & mommy a scare.

it's really a powerful jab to have effect even after so many days. considering i didn't developed any symptoms even when i took the pneumococcal jabs previously.

when i turned to 17mth

when i turned to 17mth, i am a step closer to terrible 2.

firstly, i become very diff to feed. no longer the baby who just gobble down whatever stuffed into my mouth, now i really choose what i want to eat. sometimes, i just eat a few mouthful of the porridge and refused to eat any more. and i am not interested in eating fruits except golden kiwi. mommy can only do the trick of mixing them with yogurt. but it's just a matter of time before i realise it.

2ndly, at nite, play time becomes so precious tat i refuse to sleep at 930pm anymore. the latest record i held is 1052pm. which oredi tired mommy out. and in order to make me sleep, i can drink 200ml every half an hour from 9pm and by the time i finally slept at 1015, i have drunk 600ml plus. despite sleeping late at night, i still wakes up every early. for the past few days, i woke up at 6am plus. even earlier than the alarm clock mommy set.

haizz... mommy wonders where my energy comes from even though i am not eating and sleeping well.