Fifth drama class (6 Feb 10)
Last Saturday’s class concentrated on the themes of fast and slow using the itsy bitsy spider song. We made finger puppets for the spider, sun and raindrop and flashed them while the song was sung. Then the toddlers were asked to act the song out and search for (rafia string) webs around the activity room.
Part of the class involved blowing a ballooon because the facilitator wanted to use the exercise to teach the children about a fast versus a slow heart beat. I don’t think Kaizer got that part because he was so engrossed with the balloon, plus we had to leave in the middle of that segment to visit the toilet.
He continued practicing with a balloon in the car, but he’s not able to blow the balloon beyond what you see in the pic above.
Decadent afternoon at Anchorpoint
On our way to Anchorpoint to meet a few Sept 09 mummies for lunch.
Kaizer had his usual spaghetti bolognaise and honeydew. So predictable.
A little while after lunch, me and another mummy decided to go for tea at Swissbake. We initially planned to have a slice of cake each but ended up sharing four because they were so yummy. So decadent!
Kaizer was sleeping on the stroller throughout tea.
His head and limbs were dangling out since he’s getting too tall for the stroller.
Lesson in expressing milk
We were all ready to start reading on Friday morning, but when I whipped the breast pump out (so that I could express and read at the same time) …
… Kaizer snatched it away so that he could show me how to express milk.
First, lift up the shirt.
Second, position the pump properly.
Third, start pumping by depressing the handle.
Thursdays with the boys
My driving lessons are slightly more spaced out now. Instead of attending 5-6 practical lessons a week, I’m now attending only 4 practical lessons a week, which means I get to spend more time with the boys. Thursday afternoons are reserved for Titus – I’ll pick him up slightly after 2pm and bring him out for dinner while Kok Loon/Kaizer will have their own (separate) dinner plans. Then Fridays are alternated between Kaizer and Kok Loon. Spent last Friday with Kaizer so I’ll spend this Friday with Kok Loon.
Titus on board the bus on the way to Clementi last Thursday.
Kok Loon bought Kaizer to PGP for dinner last Thursday, then both of them went downstairs to wash the car together. Kok Loon carried a big pail while Kaizer carried a small one (you’ll have to squint quite a bit to see the small pail in the picture).
Good weekend
Another weekend has just whizzed by! This was a good weekend because of so many reasons …
- Eczema on Titus’ face finally decided to clear up.
- Kaizer tried one egg yolk and was totally fine after that. It’s quite late for him to be introduced to the egg yolk at 34 months of age, but better late than never =)
- CNY is just one week away.
- I managed to go to bed at 9.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday!
- Took lots of nice pictures over the weekend. Will be slowly uploading them on the blog over the next couple of days.
Outdoor play
Joined Kaizer and his class for outdoor play on Tuesday.
This is a pretty interesting structure that requires some balancing skill to scale.
Kaizer was very naughty as he deliberately showed me how he could jump from the red triangle onto the floor. The other boys followed suit till Teacher Sri intervened and told them not to jump.
Then Kaizer and three other toddler friends took their own initiative to organize themselves inside an empty red container (meant for water play on Thursdays) and started holding hands as they sung ”row row row your boat” together.
Looking happy at the outdoor play area.
Looking fat (this picture is for por por) at the outdoor play area.
McChicken and fingers
Big brother stuffing his face with a McChicken at West Coast Macs yesterday.
Small brother stuffing his face with his fingers …
… and looking mighty pleased with himself for doing so!
No clothes!
Stripped Titus of his clothes (diaper’s still on) cos it was so hot this afternoon. Plus I didn’t want his clothes to be soiled with brown rice cereal at the end of his meal.
I think he looks very cute without his clothes … so here’s two more (almost) naked pictures for you to ogle at.
Good choice to take the clothes off cos he ended up with sticky fingers, sticky thighs and a sticky face after about 10 teaspoonfuls of cereal.
Chuckling
Dropped by at school at 2 plus today to pick Titus up a bit earlier. Teacher Mona was making funny noises and he was chuckling in return.
For the past month that he’s been in school, Teacher Mona has been his main caregiver when it comes to feeding and napping.
I stood quite far away from them actually, so had to zoom in 3-4 times to get these images.
Watching me
Titus woke up together with me this morning and sat on his chair to watch me use the computer + express milk. He kicked his legs in an attempt to shift himself after he got bored watching me.
29 March 2010
I’ve just booked a date for my class 3A driving test. This is going to be my first (and hopefully last) attempt! Test would commence at 10.15am on 29 March 2010. Would have preferred an afternoon slot actually because I’m used to driving around 2-4pm, but these slots are apparently so hot that they get snapped up the minute they’re available on the BBDC website. Slowpoke students like me will just have to contend with the earlier test timings.
Giant sundae
Monday’s dinner was a disaster. Kok Loon was slightly late in picking all of us up. Kaizer was ultra whiney during the car ride to West Coast Plaza because he was already very hungry. He was asking non stop to eat 米粉 (huh?!?) for dinner, and when he heard Titus bawling in the restaurant (Titus was due for a feed, but I didn’t have a bottle of EBM with me!), Kaizer started crying as well. In the end, I had to bring Titus out of the restaurant and get him to nurse to calm down, albeit after a long struggle. By the time I returned with a sleeping Titus, Kaizer was halfway through his pasta dinner and looked reasonably happy-ier.
Kok Loon and me didn’t have the mood to take any main course, so we opted to share a giant sundae instead. The ice cream served at New York New York was average only. Think I’ll try some other non ice-cream desert the next time I’m there.
Money bags
The younger toddlers made money bags for one of their art and craft sessions. Just in time for Chinese New Year!
Caught flipping
Finally! Caught him practicing his flip in school on Monday.
He’s pleased to see me at the end of his school day.
Swensons @ Holland Village
I don’t think the food served at Swensons is fantastic. But we keep going back to the restaurant because service is so good. Blogged about the good service at the Holland Village branch a couple of months back. We experienced the same good service last Thursday again. Kaizer’s kids meal (chicken bites and corn) was barely passable but he was so happy with his colouring sheet and colour pencils. And he was offered so many balloons – two normal ones and two sculptured ones – that we even had to politely return some back because we didn’t have enough hands to lug everything home.
If you look closely at the eyes only, you might see that Titus is growing to look more and more like me!
Giddy giddy
These were taken with Kok Loon’s phone two Saturdays ago. The boys wanted to show me what they usually do at the fitness corner.
They’re crazy over this “giddy giddy” game whereby both of them will spin round and round in circles.
Kaizer attempting the pull up bar (with a lot of help from Kok Loon).
Expressions
Taking his third spoonful of cereal.
Having a short break in between the feed.
Looking happy after his meal!
First taste of solids
Titus had his first taste of solids on Sunday. I wasn’t intending to start him on solids this early, as he’s 4.5 months old only, but it was between hearing him wail for 10 minutes while I hurriedly expressed his 5pm feed (had napped with him so I missed out on pumping out the feed) or offer him the cereal and hope that it would pacify him. I chose the latter and there’s no turning back now. He took 18 teaspoons of cereal in two separate sittings plus 10ml of boiled water. This effectively replaced his 5pm feed. He was happy enough with his meal and went down for his nap at 6.30pm. Keeping my fingers crossed that the cereal he’s going to consume in the days to come will keep his little tummy satiated enough to enable him to sleep through the night!
Endearing shots
I can’t think of a better title for this post, so endearing shots it shall be. We were waiting for Kok Loon to retrieve the car when I snapped these. Titus looks like he’s trying to cup my chin on the third pic. Sweet!
So hot!
After the ultra long breakfast, it was time to go to Clementi for lunch (I know, it’s so decadent right?) … and Titus was so hot when he got off the car that he almost couldn’t keep his eyes open.
Kok Loon and Titus don’t look too pleased with me for snapping away at them. Anyway the weather was so hot that we decided to just grab a bite (had glutinous rice dumplings, yum yum) instead of ordering a main meal and taking a long time at the coffeeshop/market.
The last two pics are from Kok Loon’s iPhone. Don’t you think the colours look a bit darker in comparison with the earlier pics?
Blogging from iPhone … failed!
Kok Loon, Titus and myself took an ultra long 3 hour breakfast at West Coast Macs. I managed to finish The Sunday Times back to back while Kok Loon read a draft of someone else’s thesis. We didn’t intend to stay so long at Macs actually, but since Titus fell asleep halfway through breakfast we just sat around and waited for him to finish his nap. I tried blogging from Kok Loon’s iPhone, but I just can’t figure out how to upload this picture onto wordpress. Someone who knows how to do it please leave me a comment with this post – with the full instructions please!
Happy 1st Birthday Vernon!
We attended baby Vernon’s birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Vernon’s our cousin from my mum’s side of the family.
Titus smiled a lot at the party, so I guess he enjoyed it very much.
Kaizer learnt that a balloon could be inflated with an air pump.
He and Leticia spent all their time at the party trying to inflate balloons.
Kaizer received some help from his uncle Lewis …
… while Leticia received some help from auntie Weena, who has very generously promised the two toddlers that she’ll be getting air pumps and balloons for them when they next meet up!
Fourth drama class (30 Jan 10)
Yesterday was our fourth class at Act 3. The children were told to dramatize the hare and the tortoise story, along with various other activities to practice expressing the concepts of fast and slow. Even though it’s been four lessons already, Kaizer is still very clingy to us (Kok Loon and me take turns to accompany him for the class) especially during the song and dance portions. He keeps wanting to be carried when everyone else is on the ground dancing along to the music. He does so better during story time and dramatization, as he would sit himself close to the facilitator for the former and follow the instructions correctly for the latter. We concluded that he hates singing and dancing, probably because its too boisterous. So maybe after the term ends, we’ll source for other types of enrichment activities that doesn’t involve so much singing and dancing.
Mess
Kaizer asked me very courteously if he could make a mess before he proceeded to pour the contents from his toy basket to the floor. Of course I had said no, but he didn’t care about my reply, which made me wonder why he even bothered to ask me in the first place.
Asthma medication
Medication that we lugged home from the hospital on Friday.
Kaizer taking in puffs from the Salbutamol via the AeroChamber. Other than these two items, we didn’t touch the rest of the medication. As compared to the hospital, Kaizer’s not very cooperative in breathing in/out of the AeroChamber at home. We’ll have to practice doing it more often with him in the days to come.
8 hours of sleep
I had 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in many many many months!!! I woke up only because I was quite engorged. Am about done with my pumping now and will probably get some breakfast before Kaizer wakes up. He slept really well last night probably because of the medication.
On a side note, he’s been refusing to wear a diaper when he goes to bed. Keeps complaining about the diaper, pulling out the tab on his own etc. He’ll wet himself sometimes in the middle of the night, but I guess that’s part and parcel of toilet training. I think he’s diaperless now. Shall have to ask him to use the potty the minute he wakes up.
Asthma attack
I’m just back from NUH A&E because Kaizer had an asthma attack today. Nobody has ever confirmed with me that he had asthma before, but the announcement today didn’t really shock or sadden me because I’m half expecting it, given the history of asthma in the family, his significant allergies, perpetual coughs at night, etc. Anyway, I picked him up at noon today after my morning driving lesson. The teachers told me that he had difficulties breathing, so hence the early pick up. I checked him into A&E after failing to clinch a last minute appointment at the PD clinic. We then spent the next 3 hours at the treatment room inhaling Salbutamol (or Ventolin) from an aerochamber, getting his wheezing checked, inhaling, getting checked, inhaling, getting checked … until the doctor on duty was satisfied with how he responded to the medication. Thankfully he was convinced after the final round of medication that Kaizer would fare well at home because he was seriously contemplating warding us when he first saw us.
So how was Kaizer throughout the whole ordeal? He was surprisingly bright and chirpy. He didn’t look sick or uncomfortable at all, so I suspect that he could have been quite used to the wheezing already. For all we know, he might have had asthma for the longest time. The doctor did comment that a lot of Kaizer’s energy is spent on breathing, so this could affect his development if the problem is not given its due attention soon. Hmm, this probably explains why he’s eating so much and growing so little physically. He’s 11.7kg today by the way.
Okay, he’s happily napping on the bed now while I’m expressing milk and blogging at the same time. Kok Loon has just dropped Titus off at my mum’s place for the night so that we get to devote more time to Kaizer. This is going to be the first time that Titus is sleeping without me. I hope he fares well at his por por’s house tonight.
Mountain load of laundry
Having to clear a mountain load of laundry on his second day at the job. He took so long at the task that I had to help him midway. Anyway, laundry boy’s took a rest today because we decided that we were too lazy to wash the clothes. We’ll just work extra hard tomorrow.
Laundry duties
I asked Kaizer to help out with the laundry today. Kok Loon usually does the laundry but he’s in bed with a cold today. I had half an hour (before his bedtime) and one free hand (the other hand was busy expressing milk) to guide Kaizer on his laundry duties.
First, I picked out the (small) items that could be pegged and left them on a chair for him. He would pick them up piece by piece for pegging.
Next I taught him how to differentiate which items needed one peg and which needed two. The light blue shirt’s pegged by me as an example while the dark blue pants are pegged by him.
Hard at work …
He finished filling up the first rack and went on to the second one (read: mountain load of laundry from him and Titus every single day).
He had to sit down halfway through the second rack because he told me he was tired. Lolz!
PS: I shall attempt to squeeze in laundry duties into his evenings so that me and Kok Loon don’t get swamped with so much housework every night. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but his pegging standards are seriously on par with his father’s (who doesn’t like to spread the clothes out properly and who uses one peg for everything)!
