A Day At The Museum

Read so much about the revamped museum, (actually is this mommy sua ku didn't visit the museum since my teens) decided to bring my 3 kids there and check it out.

I was disappointed that some of the interactive games like jigsaw puzzle and the snake & ladder was not there anymore but consolation is we got to visit many other exhibits for free as it happens to be International Museum Day!

But guessed I really got no artistic genes as I really don't know how to appreciate the art works on displayed. My prince though found enjoyment in hitting the "pots and pans" at the children exhibit but got upset when he was told to try the "maze" by himself....

Swensen Treat

My sis got the Swensen's 1-for-1 ice-cream and asked if I'm interested to bring my kids for an ice-cream treat. Of course this cheapo mommy (that's me) happily agreed! So with 3 babies + my maid, we happily drove to Parkway to meet my sister and her 2 boys.

While waiting for daddy, he was reluctant to join us at first but finally convinced by me....(heehee...so someone can settle the bill ; P ) all the little ones started to entertain themselves playing with the interactive games at the entrance of the mall. Little Nic joined in too! My sister laughed when she saw how he hopped and stomp at the ball; cars...

Once daddy arrived, all the kids couldn't wait anymore and dashed straight for Swensen! After our main course, we order 6 ice-cream (for the price of 3!!) and my boy himself finished almost half of the Sticky Chewy Chocolate which he supposed to share with his 2 sisters!

Yummy! Yummy!

Finally Get Him Reading!!!

Got a call from the centre on Friday afternoon informing that they were ordered to closed for 10 days by the MOH to break the chain of HFMD. *sigh* so my little poor baby got to restart the whole torture ordeal again!

So at home today, mommy tried to mimic what the centre does every day. I sat him down after he had his breakfast and we sang the "Good Morning" song. I'm so happy to see that he responded and shakes his hand with me (part of the action of the song). Then we sang "Wheels on the Bus"; "Incy Wincy Spider"; "Head and Shoulder, Knees and Toes". Mommy was so encouraged that Little Nic participate in it with a little actions here and there...(this shows he has been observing what others in the centre was doing and only too shy to do it)..Mommy was so happy and kept cheering him on : D

Then we moved on to story book reading, (mommy not a story teller, can only read from the storybook) I was really REALLY very happy that he promptly sat on my lap, like the way he sat on his teacher's lap, and listen to the story that I read to him. He managed to sit through the entire book (what a sudden change!) What really taken me by surprise was that he went off to take another book and sat back down again! YES! YES! YES! Finally, I'm able to get him to read!!!

Next, we did some flash cards and this time, I try to get him to say the word after me AND he DID! Oh....I immediately hugged him and kisses him..he must be wondering what is this crazy mommy doing... He can say the 2 and 3 syllabus word like elephant, orange, circle, triangle...

Today, I'm a Proud and Happy Mom!! Thanks baby!

Jacob Ballas Children Garden

After seeing my many blogging mommies bring their little ones to the Jacob Ballas Children Garden, I decided to pay a visit there too! Its my first time them and my impression of the place? Nice. Its perfect for little one to enjoy a few hours there.

However, a few of the "attraction" was closed so we didn't get to fully appreciate the whole stuff.

Ride down the slide with daddy

Admiring the flowers

Favourite - Water play!

I'm Sorry..Baby!

After accompanying him for a week, its time to harden my heart and leave him with the teacher.

For the past 2 days, I dropped him off and accompanied him into his class and stayed for a while. Then I excused myself telling him I need to go to the toilet and will be back in a while. Gradually, I increase the duration from 10 minutes to half an hour, then to 1 hour. I was sitting outside and can hear him cries for me when I "disappeared" for too long. The teacher did managed to calm him down after a while.

So today, after bringing him into his class, I handed him over to his familiar teacher and waved and kissed him goodbye. He cried but I'm sorry baby, mommy got to leave before I cry too. I went off and came back 1 hour later to check on him. I peeped through the window and saw him settling well on his teacher's lap, holding on to his water bottle (familiar thing for security) Relief.

The next moment, when the teacher gets up, he started to cry. He ran to his cubbyhole and try to carry his little bag and kept saying "bye bye! bye bye!" and wanted to walk towards the door, all this while crying. Its such a pitiful sight and tears started to well up in my eyes and at that point, I have the urged to walk in and carried him in my arm. But the logical part of me was controlling my feet and I find myself rooted there watching how the teacher handle the situation. She gently took away his bag and put it back into the cubbyhole, carried him and assured him that mommy will be back in a while. She then brought him over to the cars' corner and distract him with the toy cars. After a while, the crying stopped.

When I mentioned the sighting to the teacher when I picked him up, she assured me its normal that little children will cling on to the familiar item as source of security and that he is fine but he needs a lot of 1 to 1 attention. They will try to coax him into participating in all the activities when he is more settled down.

Though in time, he will settle happily in the centre, but right now, mommy felt so bad having to let him go through this "torture".....

Bad Cut

He was happily playing with his box of toys and the next moments, came the WAILING cry...

He had stepped onto the plastic cover with one leg and the other leg under the cover got the cut...complicated, right..mommy got no idea how he can do that too! With all the blood flowing out, no wonder he was CRYING so loudly!

A Day at Sentosa

Brought my little baby along today when we decided to try out some new stuff at Sentosa.

Poor little baby, he couldn't play any of the fun stuffs his sisters played except getting himself wet playing at the water play area. And while his sisters went to ride on the cineblast and 4D magix, he only got to pose in front of the poster! But think with a lollipop in hand, everything else doesn't matter anymore ; P

Six Word Memoir

Got this tag from Angeline.

***Rules***

1.) Write your own six word memoir.
2.) Post it on your blog; include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3.) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible.
4.) Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5.) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

so this is from me:

God makes man and woman so different, whether it is the way we handle a relationship; the communication style or the emotional needs etc... is so different...

We women complained about problems because we want our problems to be acknowledged, while men complained because they are asking for solutions.

Woman has the ability to multi task but man can't and therefore cannot accept the fact that the woman is listening to him and doing other things at the same time.

I’m tagging mommy of baby Mandy; Darren ; Kayton ; Ashley and Chloe

First Professional Photo Take

Got a call from a studio last week inviting me for a free photo shooting session with 2 complimentary photos to take home. Told her I'm not keen but she seems to know all mommies weak point. She told me she can changed it to photo shoot for my children. That's when I raise my white flag and agreed to go.

So today, when I told hubby about it, he was initially against it as he knows I have difficulty turning sales person away. He worried that I will be tempted to buy more pics at a cut-throat price. But I can tell from his weak "resistance" that he too has fallen for it....so when asked him how again, he just said "ok la, just don't be conned into it." And so off go the excited mommy and 2 princess + a prince!

We were each given some light make-up (except Little Nic). When he saw me sitting on the chair with a cloth wrap over my clothes, he started to cry. I think it reminds him of his last hair-cut...poor boy, he really develop a phobia of hair-cut now...

The 2 princess were very co-operative throughout the photo shoot. In fact, they were like experience little models posing so naturally in front of the camera. Mommy were a little stiff though. And guessed we did not consider my prince's timing, he's a little tired and thus sticking to me all the time. We managed to get a only few pictures of him.

Dancing To The Music

Yes! Finally videoed him dancing. Another of his favourite programme on TV is the "Lazy Town". I doubt he understands it but he like the hip-hop music and never fails to dance to it.

Confused or Cheeky??

We are wondering if this is the way he smile or he is simply confused between blinking of eyes with smiling?

His sister taught him to cover his eyes when he was in his car seat to shield away from the shining bright sun today and he remembered. He really learns fast through play : )

Trial Lesson - Day 2

This morning, I asked him if he is wants to go to school, he excitedly dashed to his little "school" bag, took it and ran toward the door! And as he ran, he shouted "RUNNNN..!" all the way till he reached the door.

Throughout out short drive to the centre, he was very cheerful, clapping his little hands along with the song. I thought "wow! He seems to love the centre and so maybe today I can start the "disappearing" act already!" But I was too ambitious. He called "mommy" every time I try to stand up or walk away. Once when I went out to answer a phone call, he cried and cried. The teacher tried to distract him but he just kept on crying till I'm back. (mommy sees already so heartpain.)

For the lesson, its more or less the same as yesterday. To replace the outdoor play time, the teachers brought out some paints and brushes for the kids to paint. They intend to make a snow globe with the painted rice (as snow).

The plate of rice was passed round to allow each child to have a feel of what rice felt like.

Don't think the idea to paint the rice worked. All the rice kinda stick together. But at least for this one, Little Nic is more willing to participate as it does not dirty his little hands.

After each child had a chance at "painting" the rice, its marble time.

He seems to know straight away what to do once he was given the "tools". He starts to busy himself by transferring the marbles from one bowl to another.

See mommy, I got marbles in my cup!

Snack time

At first, he was not interested in colouring, taking the crayon and banging on the table. But when he saw what the korkor were doing, he began to "colour" too!

So what mommy's verdict after 2 days trial? *sigh* After visiting so many centres and trying out 3 including this, mommy decides to go ahead and registered him here. This centre may not be as impressive as his sister's but every centre has its good and bad, so I think I should give this one a try. So let's keep my finger crossed and hope my decision is right.

3rd Playschool Trial - Day 1

After much hunting and homework done by mommy, finally found another Playschool.

Since Little Nic had elder siblings, one might wonder why I didn't enroll him in the same school...actually, I really like his sibling's school. I liked how they bring live to the class and the activities they do to help develop the toddlers' gross and fine motor skill. I also like their different monthly thematic approach and talks they brought in to the school (eg. occupation - they invite parents to come and explain to the children their occupation and even got the neighbourhood police officer to come showed the kids their job etc). Their excursions were planned round the theme and what I like most is they will plan to watch at least a play once a term and this really gave my kids the artistic boost. However, as the school grow in size, we had this feelings that they are more like putting on a show for parents to see and also very "marketing"...anyway, the main reason is because we had moved and the school is now 30 minutes drive away, how can I subject my kids to such torture?! His sister always fell asleep in the car, what worst for him...

Anyway, enough of side-tracking, first thing we did when we arrive is to sanitise our hands and followed by temperature, hands, feet and mouth check (HFMD screening). Little Nic was okay with all the checks except for the mouth. He just simply refused to open his mouth for the teacher to check. In order not to frighten him , they "let him go" this time round. Once inside the classroom, he was very excited and started to explore around. The room is a little old but its okay as he will be going to another new branch nearer to our house once they are really for "operation" in June.

The day began with the English teacher singing songs with the little ones. To mommy disappointment, there are no music and movements The little ones just sit there and follow the teacher's action or sing along occasionally. Once they completed the singing of a few songs, the teacher told them some stories and revised the flash cards on shapes. At this point, I couldn't help but compare this with his sister's school used to do with toddlers of his age, but have to keep pushing this thoughts away and try to convince myself that every school has its pros and cons.

Since they couldn't go for outdoor play, the teacher replaced it with art. My little Clean-Freak was initially reluctant to dirty his hands with the paint but after some coaxing, he unwillingly entertained us with a few strokes with his little finger and requested for it to be cleaned straight away.

See the frown on his face?

Free play time...making friends

Chinese teacher trying to "befriend" him

Copying what his new friend is doing..

The teacher did the HFM check every hourly (very kaisu hor?) and he simply refused to co-operate when comes to the mouth. They had their lunch at 11am and mommy tried to let him feed himself with SPOON. He did rather well I would say, dropping only a few rice here and there, but managed to keep his face rather clean unlike the previous time. And he eats fast too.

See how hungry he was...mouth wide open

Fruit for the day? Apples

After lunch, the Chinese teacher took over the class and repeats the same lesson as the English teacher. Then its home sweet home time.

Hitting Back...

To make Little Nic stop crying whenever he fell and bumped into something, we will pretend to hit the floor or whatever that he bumped into and scold it for being "naughty" to make Little Nic fall...sound silly hor but it helps soothe his anger (wonder if other mommies do that too?)

Now that he is older, he copied what we did. : { Whenever he fell or bumped onto things, he will scold the floor and hit it. That's not enough! He will make sure the entire family knows about the "naughty" floor by bringing us to the source and make sure we hit it too. Sometimes he caught me at a time that I'm busy and I told him to wait. The Little-Mr-Impatient will pull and pull until I give in to him.

I knew this is wrong and should have stop him, but sometimes, its just so funny to look at. Wonder should I stop him from "hitting" back or just hope he will grow out of it soon??

Brave Daddy

Daddy did something very brave today. He decides to bring little Nic out for a hair cut ALL BY HIMSELF!! My maid and I were actually quite worried that he couldn't handle him but I tried to refrain myself from discouraging his effort to bond with him. We just keep reminding daddy to be patience with him if he is unable to soothe him when him cries. So after briefing him on what to do and what to expect, the two of them took their first ever "Daddy and Son" outing.

After an hour or so, daddy came home with a half naked and very quiet Nic. I was impressed and thought "wow! Daddy is so capable. And Little Nic is so co-operative" (He cried the last time my MIL brought him to the barber) But I was wrong. Once I took over to cary and hug him for being good, he cried so pitifully! When I asked him what happen, he just kept crying and pointing to daddy and said in between his cry "naughty!... daddy!...." His this unexpected reply makes us laughed out loud! But of course, inside, mommy felt the heart pain to see him cried till this state!

According to daddy, Little Nic was fine in the beginning until they started to use the electric blade to cut his hair. Think he got frighten by the sound and started to struggle and cry. Daddy couldn't pacify him and he kept on crying until he vomited. The guy asked daddy if he still wants to continue. Since it's already midway through, daddy gave the guy the go ahead signal (that's the diff between man and woman...mommy would have called for a paused or even forget about the whole thing.). And so poor little baby cried throughout the entire haircut and all the way home.!

Daddy said Little Nic got tired of crying while on the way back and therefore was quiet when he first stepped into the house. My maid jokingly commented that it's more likely that Little Nic's complaint had fallen into deaf ears (daddy) and therefore give up crying till he sees us! My maid very imaginative and funny, right?!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to All The Great and Wonderful Mommies out there!

"A Mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for the pie."

That's how wonderful a mommy are....

Daring Little Boy

We went down to the pool for a relaxing swim after preparing my eldest for her exam. Little Nic was so happy that as soon as he saw his 2 jiejies changed into their swimming costume, he ran straight to look for my maid.

Little Nic: Wear..swim...Wear...swim...

Maid: Wear what? (pretend she doesn't understand)

Little Nic: dum (come)...wear...swim (pulling her into the room and pointing to the cupboard)

He now will tell us what he wants and if we don't understand him, he will ask us to come and follow him to the source of his demand. And if we don't follow him, he will pull and drag till we move our butt...gagaga

When we got down to the pool, he's so happy and he tries to follow how his 2 jiejies jumped into the pool! Luckily, daddy was fast to catch hold of him..we didn't expect him to be so daring.. but guess we should never had let our guards down when we are near the pool.

Anyway, this somehow tickles him and he kept dashing to the pool and daddy catching him before he drop in. There were a few times when we caught him waiting for daddy to be near before he takes the leap..smart hor ? : p

He is now more warm up with daddy already and doesn't mind daddy carrying him...I think it's something to do with daddy...he just can't click with babies below 18 months...gagaga

Another Failed Trial

Went to a popular pre-school today for another trial class.

The programme offered by the centre is very attractive but when I sit in today, I have this feeling that the teachers had not been doing their "work" until when parents like me sit in, then they pretend to teach...

What makes me said this? Well, if what the teachers are teaching is a normal day routine, the little kids would have known more or less what to expect/ do, isn't it? But I can see that they don't and the kids are not new to the centre, according to the teachers, they had been with them for a few months already! When the kids didn't respond, the teacher will remark that "O..so-and-so not here today...he is star of the class, he will bring live to the class...." I was thinking inside me "Do you need a kid to add fun into the class? Isn't it supposed to be the teacher's job?"

So, this centre is out again...I really hate it to put my little boy through all these trials/changes in environment but when I first talked to these centres, they always have great vision and planning. Only later that I found out they have no deliveries...*sigh*

Wonder was it my expectation too high? But I just want a fun, lively school for my boy to play and learn and grow...