Toys from London

The hubs went to London for work and bought some toys for his little cheeky. The cheeky missed his daddy and even complained that daddy did not call. Upon hearing this, the hubs was so touched that he walked to the store to buy some toys for his beloved son.

Busy checking out his toys.

Playing with the bubble gun that daddy bought. He was so thrilled and requested to play with the gun repeatedly. However, after two weeks, his excitement waned and the gun is now sitting in the bathroom, gathering dust.

Jurong Bird Park

A very backdated post as usual. I have been really busy and tired of late, thus the slowdown in blogging.

After 2 years of residing in Singapore, we finally brought Joshie to Jurong Bird Park. He's been to the zoo twice, but not the bird park.

We had to pay an admission fee of $18 each (for hubby and I). It's still free for Joshie till he turns 3, I think. It was quite a gloomy morning as it was drizzling.

Here's hubby and Joshie with the penguins. We also had the opportunity to watch the penguins being fed small fishes. My little boy was very excited and for the next few days he kept on telling me "mummy, penguin eat fish."

Walked around a bit and managed to take pictures with some parrots in the enclosure. There was a bird each on our hands, with the exception of Joshie. Own camera not allowed and we didn't want to fork out money to buy our pictures so no photos of us with the parrots.

Wandered further and came across this lovely pink birds with long legs......the flamingoes!! They were a pretty sight.

Went in to the theatre for the King of the Skies show. Saw different types of eagles. They were really huge!!!! But I'd say nothing fascinating about the show, if you are not an eagle lover. Joshie quite bored in-between when no new eagles came out.

Also brought Joshie to watch Birds of the Skies show which was much more captivating as there were some performances, dancing and singing. The hubs and I were pretty much bored by that time and didn't bother fishing out the camera.

We left soon after the show. Walked around a bit to look at some other birds and we were out of the bird park before noon. I'd think the zoo is a much better place for 2.5 year olds.

Getting cheekier by the day

As the days pass, my little son gets cheekier. Full of funny expressions and speech which makes the hubs and I really tickled. Good stress reliever for the hubs who faces a lot of pressure at work.

This is the "I don't want to eat already" look........

He found a box of raisins while rummaging through my bag. Happily climbed onto our bed to eat, even though he knows he's not supposed to do that. This is the look that I got when I "confronted" him!!!

Hogging the bag of Twisties all by himself during a school picnic. See the look of pleasure on his face? How much he enjoys junk food!!! And look at the amount of junk food served to the children. Each one had a huge bag!!! This is the ONLY main reason I am unhappy with the school and thinking of switching him to another school.

Sticking out his tongue at Rion when she tried to take a glimpse at his iPad.

Some of the cute things that he says lately are:

Mummy, what this? Tell me, tell me.

Why you kissing me?

Clever boy!!!!! (praising himself every now and then)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mommies...........-big grin-

I received my first Mother's Day card from Joshie last Friday. He rushed out of the school door eagerly and passed me the card without wishing me anything! As usual, he proceeded to rummage my bag for food. Teacher Winnie then came up to him and asked "Joshie, have you wished mummy yet" to which he sheepishly replied "Happy Mother's Day".

The cheeky posing with his card. He kept telling me that he liked painting the card.

There's a little booklet of mother's day coupons that came with the card.

One of the coupons that I am entitled to redeem. I know Joshie will be delighted to help with the dishes. His idea of fun play since it involves water. But I'd think it means more headache for me......hahahaha. There were also other coupons like "one kiss", "one hug", "one dance", "read a book together", "breakfast in bed" etc etc.

Babysitting Rion

My Japanese friend, Motomi has just shifted to another condo nearby as the prices here have gone exorbitantly high. On moving day, I offered to babysit her daughter so that she can handle everything without disturbance from a toddler. Poor lady, she settled everything as her hubby couldn't take leave on that day.

Rion came over slightly before noon as the movers were supposed to arrive at 1pm.

The two kids having fried rice for lunch. Rion has a huge appetite.

After lunch, I bathed Joshie while Rion played by herself in the room. Then I put Joshie down for his nap while my helper played Rion.

Luckily Joshie napped even though he knew that Rion was playing in the next room. Rion was pretty bored playing all by herself. She kept on going into Joshie's room to look at him as pictured below.

By 4pm, she was really restless, even though Joshie had already woken up. She was also missing her mom and kept on asking for mummy. I tried explaining to her but it was really tough communicating with her as she doesn't understand English. Luckily I managed to amuse and entertain her till her mummy came around 5ish.

That was my first experience babysitting a toddler for such a long period of time, 5 hours in total. Actually I was real glad when Motomi appeared at the door :)

His Mandarin class

Hubby and the extended family (especially my in-laws) have been voicing out a lot of concerns concerning my 2.5 yo's inability to converse with Mandarin. So I have actually been looking for Mandarin classes at various schools since last year. However, the classes that suit us (location and timing) are always packed and I'm real fed up of being put on the waiting list. I finally managed to get him a place at Julia Gabriel and the hubs accompanied him there. But we did not enrol him there as hubby felt that the fees are too exorbitant (SGD40 for a 1 hour class which in actual fact is only 45-50 minutes due to 10-15 minutes of free play).

Thus, when Lexuan, a Chinese Language School opened its doors at the mall opposite our condominium, I enrolled Joshie there. Three trial classes for $110. Comes to nearly $40 a class but it's a 90 minute lesson. He started his first lesson last week. It's a parent-accompanied class.

Only student in class. Since they are newly opened, they are still busy advertising for more students.

Joshie and his teacher.

Actually I was quite horrified to see the way Joshie behaved in class. I have not accompanied him for classes since Jan this year and thus, I do not know how he behaves in school. Last year, he used to stick to me and would obediently listen to teacher. However, this time, he was only quiet for the first 10-15 minutes. After that, he didn't want to sit still. He was walking, running and dancing around the room. Pulled the paper wall deco off the wall too. Didn't really listen to teacher and when she asked him to repeat a chinese word, he would say "ju ju" cheekily. Even stuck out his tongue at her. Gosh!!!

Cheekiness aside, I seriously don't think my son would enjoy this class. I don't agree with the teacher's method of teaching. She is too strict and doesn't give my son freedom of choice. She expects my son to sit still on the chair for the whole 90 minutes. Only sang 1 song throughout the entire class and there were no actions to accompany the song. A lot of flash cards. No interesting activities or craft. I know my son. He wouldn't enjoy this method of teaching. That's why he was restless and wouldn't concentrate.

Thus, we are not going back there anymore. Just gonna wait till January 2012 when I enrol him into LeapSchoolHouse for a 5-day week, whereby Tues and Thurs lessons are purely in Mandarin. Joshie enjoys the teaching method there and I have seen how much he has learnt through his thrice weekly English sessions there.

One of the most stressful moments for a mom.........

............is when her child is sick. Agree?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my little boy was sick. Started with runny nose and cough, followed by fever. I was already planning to bring him to see the paed the next day when his fever hovered around 38.5 - 39C. However, we ended up in the A&E of the hospital that very evening because he had a febrile seizure. It was the most frightening moment of my life, watching my precious son's eyeballs rolling backwards and arms twitching. I got even more worried when his lips turned blue due to the lack of oxygen. Truthfully I don't know how long it lasted, although I'd think it was less than 5 minutes. So off we went to the hospital as soon as his seizure ended.

Joshie being examined by the doctor on duty. He was given the oxygen mask as well. His fever was 39.6C!!!!! That's not the highest temperature he's had though.

Called paed on duty to examine him. According to the paed, the possibility of another seizure within the next 24 hours is high, so he wanted Joshie to be admitted. Blood and urine test done upon admission. In the picture above, the nurse was checking his blood pressure while the cheeky was engrossed with his iPad.

Fever still spiked the next day. So doctor advised to stay another night. I requested for a baby cot. The night before, we were both sleeping on the same bed and I sprained my neck as a result of that. Unfortunately fever continued to spike, and he had to be given Voltaren for the 3rd time since admission.

On the morning of Day 3, doctor discovered white dots at his throat. Diagnosed as tonsillitis. So that's the cause of the high fever!!!! Cheeky being fed more medicine. It was scary seeing the amount of meds given to him during his hospital stay. Every 4 hourly he had to take 3-4 different types of medicine. Doctor advised to stay another 2 days. Went home to bring cheeky more toys as I didn't want him to face the iPad the whole day.

Day 4. Mummy requested for discharge. Temperature has been normal so doctor agreed =) Cheeky was delighted too. He was so so so bored of the hospital.

Took him a week plus to recover fully. No more fever since day 3 but throat was still red so I had to watch what he ate. Anyway, I am real glad this is over. I'll hafta be really careful the next time he has a fever as the possibility of another febrile seizure is there. According to paed, he will only outgrow this at the age of 6-7 years old.