His love for water

Joshie has always loved his bath time. Except for one short period of time (approximately 2 weeks) when he was terrified of water running down his face, he has been enjoying his bath time. Though he is already a big boy, he still loves the bath tub which he has been using since he was born. Sometimes I let him stand while I shower him but most of the time, especially on hair-washing days, I'd fill the tub with water and he would happily climb into it.

Lately, he has been throwing out his toys from the bath tub. Keeps on telling me "back, back" which means to put back the toys. He wants the tub all to himself without his toy fishes, ducks, boats etc floating around.

So what does he do in the tub??? Check out his poses =) I quickly ran into the room to grab my camera and started snapping away!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can be a model eh? Who wants to hire him? He can start earning money to buy his own toys!

Polliwoggs

Elke and I brought the 2 boys to the Polliwoggs indoor playground at East Coast Park yesterday. The place was spacious and well ventilated. And the floors are all padded so that kids won't get hurt when they fall. Had to pay $8 each, I am not sure if $8 is for unlimited play but we were there for nearly 2 hours. There's even a little cafe that serves light snacks.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Joshie playing with the bouncy ball. His eyes lit up when he entered the playground. He ran around freely and was happily exploring the place.

He went up and down straightaway.

Finally a picture of the 2 boys together. They were playing separately most of the time, different interest I guess. But both boys loved the ball pit to bits.

I don't know what is this!!!!!! But Joshie found the colourful cones interesting.

Crawling through the tunnel and looking through the little "windows".

The boys had some bread and a few spoonfuls of New Zealand yogurt before we headed home.

Supposed to be a happy outing right? Well, it was EXCEPT that I lost my phone!!!!!! Guess I dropped it when I was scooting down their long slides or playing in the ball pit. And I couldn't find it at all even though we looked thoroughly. Even asked the staff to help look for it in the ball pit. But the phone was not to be found!!!!!!!!! We reckon that one of the helpers who accompanied their employer's kids took it! Well, I should say stole right?????? There was a bunch of helpers when we first arrived at 10am! And they all disappeared quite soon after that(maybe 30 minutes later), which was when I lost my phone. The playground only opens at 10am and they left so soon? Seems a bit fishy right? Well, what's lost is lost. Shouldn't be too sad about it and should learn to be more careful next time!!!!!! But all my photos are gone!!!!!!!!!! =( Tell me how not to be sad lar?

Motherhood

This mummy has organized a contest in conjunction with Mother's Day next month. So here I go:

What motherhood means to me...........

1) Wet kisses all over my face
2) Tantrums
3) Sleepness nights when baby is ill
4) Bits and pieces of food all over my clean floor
5) .....and also in my hair when baby decides to stroke mummy's head "gently"
6) Endless contact with pee and poop
7) Milk, milk, milk
8) Tripping over toys
9) Good excuse to watch Playhouse Disney
10) Humming 'Twinkle twinkle little star' over and over again
11) Shopping = buying diapers + milk + baby cereal
12) Child friendly restaurant
13) Finding my spatula in my wardrobe
14) Off to the playground........AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

And many many more.......the list is endless cause motherhood is always full of sweet surprises and challenges which you can never predict and prepare yourself for!!!!!!!!!

Joshua @ 19 months

Time flies.........my little boy will turn 19 months in a few hours time. I feel that he has grown a lot in recent months; both physically and mentally. As much as I enjoy his growing process, I miss the little baby that he was and wish that he would take his own sweet time to grow up.

Just look at him in the above picture. Sleep like a big boy, on a single bed and with the covers pulled up to his chest. It's been a month since he "graduated" from his baby cot and he has been sleeping well in his new bed. He has learnt to sleep independently again and can self-soothe to sleep most of the time during his night wakings.

In terms of speech, there has been a "diarrhoea" of words in the past month. He surprises me when he uses words that I hardly or never use with him. Just a couple of hours ago, he surprised me when he picked up his toy comb and told me "comb". I don't remember ever telling him that. And he has been really good at immitating the words that we use. He can even repeat a whole sentence after us, simple sentences like "Dear God, Thank you for the food I eat. Amen".

He is still quite picky with food but I have realised that he prefers porridge to pasta now. So I have decided to cook porridge every alternate day. Other days I'll just feed him rice with dishes and maybe experiment with new recipes.

It's a joy to spend time with him everyday. Although he can drive me crazy with his over-dependence and clingyness, especially when I need to get some housework done, I am thankful that God has blessed me with a healthy, active child. He loves to "ride" on mummy, pretending that mummy is a horse and would giggle away happily when he is on my back. When he is in the mood, he'll shower me with wet kisses too =). I am really grateful that God has blessed us so much and that we are financially stable enough for me to give up my job and raise my child.

His best buddy

Joshie has quite a number of friends but he seems to bond very well with this Aussie boy, who used to be our neighbour. This little cute boy, Oscar is 3 weeks younger than Joshie and he is a really sociable and outgoing boy. He is a "people-person" and can play with anyone. However, his mother has also realised that her son seems to prefer Joshie to other kids. They have been playing with each other for nearly a year already. Of course when they were younger, there wasn't much "play" involved, they'd merely stare at each other and play on their own. But in recent months, they have started to enjoy each other's company =)

In this picture, they had a real good time playing on Joshie's bed. We could hear them giggling away.

Some snapshots from our Ipoh trip

Enjoying his "dim sum" at Foh San Restaurant. We were there early, at 8ish, so we did not have to wait for a table. However, I find that the food doesn't taste as good as before.

Watching his Barney DVD on kong kong's computer. At the same time, he was also scribbling on the pieces of white paper in front of him.

His favourite play area. Pretending to be the driver.

"Har-lo.........ahm.......ahm.....bye, see u!"

Naked boy in the kitchen sink.

Tell me

What do you do with a toddler who uses a potty as a hat?

His recent "achievements"

Joshie gave mummy a shock in the middle of the night again when he walked into our room at 1am few nights ago. At first, I was doubtful of whether I had really locked his bedroom door before I went to bed. Brought him back to his room, walked him to his bed, reassured him that Mummy is just next door and walked out of his bedroom again. Locked the door and stood outside. Sure enough, he cried and tried to open the door. I saw the keyhole turned and immediately held on to the handle to prevent him from opening the door. So it is confirmed. The boy knows how to unlock the door.

This is his bedroom door. He knows how to unlock the door by turning that knob. So we will have to install a safety gate at the door to prevent him from walking out at night. But I have a gut feeling that boy will either know how to unlock the safety gate or climb over it sooner or later. We'll see.


Today, I discovered that he can unzip the bag. He just sat down next to the bag, fiddled with the zip a little, and voila, he did it! I quickly distracted him before he could mess up my things. I was in the midst of packing to go back to Ipoh. Hehe, can't wait. We will be flying off tomorrow and coming back on Sunday!!!

Naughty or older kids

I realised that Joshie loves to mix with either naughty kids his age or older kids. He seems to find this two groups of kids very interesting. He is keen to join in on what they are doing. Whereas if I were to let him mingle with his peers who are quieter and less naughty, he'd just look at them and slowly entertain himself.

This is a scene from Kindermusik. This boy Joe, who is sitting next to Joshie is rather naughty. Won't sit still, hardly takes instructions and he's always running around during class. The maid has to go after him most of the time. Joshie finds him fascinating. When he sat down at the corner to drink his water, Joshie also took his bottle and went to sit next to him! =P

Sentosa Underwaterworld

During the long Easter weekend, we finally brought Joshie to Sentosa Underwaterworld. We enjoyed ourselves pretty much except that the place was overcrowded with lots of tourists! Wrong timing, shouldn't have gone during a long weekend. We didn't manage to take many photos as hubby was carrying Joshie and I was busy pushing the stroller. No point sitting in the stroller, he wouldn't be able to see anything so hubby brought him out although he didn't fuss.

A view from the tunnel.........lots of fishes swimming above us.

At the Touch Pool. Visitors are allowed to touch the star fish. Joshie was curious and he didn't hesitate to touch when hubby brought his little hand close to the star fish.

Looking at the sting rays.

"Wow, mummy........lots and lots of fishes........."

Waiting for the sea lion and dolphin show to start.

Very disappointed

Look at Joshie. Doesn't he look very disappointed? Haha........I wanted to attach a picture of our stroller and this was the first I came across.

Ok, serious matter! Both hubby and I are really very disappointed with Bugaboo. We purchased a stroller, the Bugaboo Bee in June 2008. It ain't cheap, I tell you. Yeah, I know there are other more expensive strollers like Stokke but we paid RM2,300 for this one. We were intially contemplating on MacLaren but the Bee looks much sturdier. And it is also lighter than Peg Perego or Quinny. So bearing all this factors in mind, we went ahead and purchased the Bee for the baby that was then swimming in my tummy.

Eight months after the cheeky was born, we discovered that the frame was slightly tilted to one side. And the handles were kinda stuck, ie we have difficulty lenghtening or shortening them. We brought it to the The First Few Years at The Curve (that's where we purchased the stroller) and the kind assistants helped us to oil them. But they said we need to request for a replacement frame. So we filled up the relevant form at the shop and also went home to lodge a complaint online. And that's when I also discovered from their website that there has been problems with the brake for 2008 Bee models, and they were giving out adapters to fix the problem. Of course I wasn't too happy with this additional brake problem (my brake at the time was still ok) but I thought I shouldn't be so fussy since they are rectifying it. That was in June 2009.

Now, it's April 2010. And we are still waiting for our replacement frame. Ok, the brake adapters were delivered to us a couple of weeks after we filled up the form and we were only beginning to start using them as our brake problem has emerged!!!!!!!!!!!! We have gone in and out of the First Few Years at Paragon, Singapore several times but the staff said that Bugaboo has not reverted although they have reminded them repeatedly. We are disappointed and angry!!!! Wouldn't you? Pay so much for a stroller and this is what we get. So early this month, hubby re-filed the complaint and emailed them too. This time, there was a reply...........

In accordance to a new service procedure agreement, it is unfortunate to advise that the claim has not been processed – due to the lack of information provided.

Please fill in the official service request form (see attached). This has to be filled in and emailed for ALL claims. Discard all OLD FORMS..

OK fine! My heart was boiling but I downloaded the form anyway. It was the same form which we filled up at The First Few Years, Singapore. I wrote a reply, not a very nice one but I don't care. Just want to get this problem fixed. I will never ever purchase a Bugaboo stroller anymore.

Updated 10 April:

I went to The First Few Years, Singapore to complain again and this time the staff said that my complaint has been processed and that my frame would arrive in two weeks' time. She told me not to fill up the new form again. I am puzzled.....seems like there's miscommunication amongst Bugaboo staff? Well, let me wait and see if my frame arrives......

Happy Easter

Joshie prays:

Dear God, mummy told me that Jesus rose from the dead today. He is alive and is in heaven with you. I am really happy that Jesus is alive!

Amen!

His first cut........

............but he did not cry. He was quietly touching his wound when I walked into our bedroom and saw him holding onto daddy's shaver with his other hand. I was shocked as I did not expect him to be able to reach the shaver as it is way back behind our other toiletries. Sigh, expect the unexpected from Joshie. He can do anything!

However, when I started dabbing his wound with tissue paper, he started whining and fussing. Hubby told me to stop touching his wound and said that the blood would stop really soon. True enough, it did but I was anxiously staring at the pool of blood beneath his chin.

This picture was taken a few days after the incident. He obligingly lifted up his head for me to snap a picture when I said "Joshie, look UP UP UP, please."

Second visit to the Botanic Gardens

Last Friday, we were all up early and so decided to bring Joshie to the gardens for a stroll. We also wanted to visit the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden. We have never been there before but we heard that adults can only enter the garden if they have a kids tagging along.

We reached the carpark around 8am and the carpark was already full. However, we were lucky as we only had to wait a few minutes to get a lot. Strapped Joshie into his stroller, gave him his milk and we started walking. Jogged a bit too but both hubby and I have lousy stamina.

Here are pictures of Joshie enjoying himself.

Playing with tiny pebbles, throwing them up into the air and watching them fall back onto the ground.

Walking across the suspension bridge. He started wailing a bit when the bridge shook but this brave fella completed the walk.

Having fun with sand. No, that's not his spade, he just decided to "borrow" it from the girl.

We proceeded to look for breakfast at 9 plus as our tummies were rumbling. However, the cafe was packed with people so we decided to drive to PS Cafe at Dempsey. I shared my blueberry pancake with Joshie while hubby had a chicken curry pie. It was pricey but the food was good. Unfortunately, we won't be going back there again in the near future as they do not have a high chair. They have a booster seat but Joshie can't fit in it :S. Without a high chair, hubby and I can never eat in peace. The cheeky stood up in his chair and insisted on using cutleries to eat. Messed up the whole table as you can see!

I think next time PS Cafe will put up a "No Joshie" sign at their main door.

Good Friday

Joshua prays:

Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins. Even though He was upright and righteous, he was crucified today, many many many years ago. I love you, Jesus.

Amen!