Majulah Singapura

So, after our top-notch seats to catch fireworks, this little boy was obviously inspired.

Spectators on the floating platform, watching the performer (perform) and
throwing confetti (he said 'powder'), with speakers (top right, he said 'radio')
and fireworks.

It shows me the observational ability of the child, how he discovers this form of expression unguided (I actually chased him away so I could do homework with the girl and he came back with this) and seeing his face gleam with pride, makes me so proud.


These moments make me happy!

Things J says

This week, my husband cut J's hair. He's looking very spunky and adorable now #biasedmomdontcare


Yesterday night...


Me: your hair looks nice. Have I told you that you look handsome?
J: no.


Me: ok, you look very handsome.
J smiles.


Me: why?
J smiles, "nothing!" he says


Me: You know, when I say you look handsome and you smile, do you think
1. I feel so shy that you say that I'm handsome! or
2. I already know that I am handsome!


So, J, which is it?


J responds - quickly may I add: Number 2!


Me: ROFL

Things Jake says

Last evening...


Me: I will be late tomorrow, darling. Mommy is going for facial so you will have dinner with cheche and mama and aunty ok?


J: Why must you go facial?


Me: you see? (points to face) I want to get rid of these dots on my face.


J - scrutinises my face upclose. Nods.


Me: I want my face to be as nice as yours. Yours is smooth and nice!


J - touches his face. "I want to go see" - runs to toilet to looks at himself


Me - hahahhaha


J returns.


J - my face is very nice.


Me: yeah it is.


J: my toes too right?


Me: what?


J - points to my 2nd toe nail that has no nail because it has fallen off (again, my recurring problem)
"Your rotten toes! Mine are nice!"


Me - HAHAHAHAHAHA

A boy and his toys

The children have a lot of toys. The helper and I devised a system where the toys get switched around from storeroom to play room on a random basis. The children forget what they had and always show super enthusiasm at being reunited with  the stored toys - "oh I was looooooking for thiiiissss" (yeah right)


The boy's current obsession of the last 2 weeks, was his LEGO blocks. I'm very proud to be in a very fortunate position to be able to provide plenty of LEGO toys for the children and even prouder that they engage with the building blocks. I truly think it's a great toy to teach them patience (building), and allow them endless creative possibilities (tickling the young mind)... but I digress. The point is, I'm happy that they love the toy.

Mommy, these are two fighter jets

Play

Masterpiece - this was a joint effort by K and J; it's an airport & aeroplane

Last evening, he spent 15minutes talking me through another of his creations, and explained to me the breakdown of colours, the characters, the way the builds can connect/disconnect because besides his house, there is a detachable boat, and there was a runway because that's where the airplane is parked!


Love the stories he creates!

Tic Tac Toe

I found the boy team in the room, heads together in deep conversation one evening last week. To my amusement, they were deep in discussion about strategy.
Where should you place your mark?
Where will your opponent place his?
How can you place your marks correctly after he places his so that you'll win?

Team strategy

Whoever knew that tic tac toe, the simple game that we learnt to play as children, can become so competitive and complex? The boy learnt it and has been eager to play it - as is the enthusiasm with novelty.


I was half amused, half horrified that a simple game has taken on such a serious spin. Of course, I was also the token 'opponent', to test if J has learnt the 'right' steps/skills to always win.


Ah, little perks of being able to turn everything into an education!

Achivement unlocked - J rides a 2-wheeler

It happened totally unplanned. The most thought that went into it was the husband's intent of wanting to teach the children to cycle on their bikes, minus the set of training wheels. It never happened because (1) their bike wheels went a bit kaput and the husband had to get a pump to mend the wheels (2) he was also looking for some tool to remove the training wheels.


On this Sunday morning, when the husband and I were planning to hit the gym when the kids were out, we spent it discovering this eureka moment instead!


It started because this naughty boy lost control of himself and ended up kicking his sister in the face - first thing in the morning! So, his treat of going out with the grandparents was removed, & he was stuck with us at home. We switched plans from the gym, to having bfast with him along.


Post-breakfast, we went to this playground nearby and there happened to be a boy with a bicycle there. The husband decided there and then to let him try - why not?



Lesson-in-progress

The kind boy who loaned us his bike

Going strong (10 minutes in)

Love his don't-give-up-I'm-trying-attitude

It happened really quickly. Within 15minutes, he seemed to be doing ok... and on this particular trial, the husband put him on the bike, held on, told J to "pedal!" and... stood beside me as the boy launched. I was a bunch of nerves! I couldn't believe the husband just let him go, I tried to hold the phone as steadily as I could (for some reason, I was trembling from excitement/anxiety?!) with one hand, while the other was covering my mouth. I know, it sounds so dramatic but I couldn't explain my thrill and I had to stop myself from squealing out - that'd freak him out and backfire the progress! It was so exciting.

His first time riding 2-wheels on his own!

Look at him!

It was amazing, his progress in such a short period of time, the husband's steady approach in training him, and ah-hem, I'll like to think I contributed by documenting this milestone. Ha!


He was on such a high after, exclaiming "I did it!" and I was so proud of him I told him so, and he parroted it back to me "Mommy, you feel proud of me right?"


Haha, so adorbs. Now, to get the girl on this too!

Free ice cream!

The brother told us of this activation by Haagan Daaz and we both got free ice-cream. Yum!

Happy birthday Jake

Leading up to his birthday, we made plans of what to do, how to spend time with the boy on his special day. He had gotten better after the pox attack and on the weekend of his birthday meal, he was in fine spirits that very morning... then fell super sick at lunch.


So while everyone was eating away heartily at the restaurant of his choice, the boy was lying asleep, fighting the fever that burned him. The fever pulled his spirits awfully down, to the point that he rejected his cake and present at lunch. Oh dearie me.It upset us greatly to see him in discomfort, with little for us to do except feed him meds and bring him to consult the doctor. This explains why for this 2017, there is no family group picture at his birthday meal.


Sunday afternoon was no better, as he pretty much slept through his fever and only managed to consume crumbs (literally, dry bread). The highlight of the night was when we set up his birthday gift. The husband had this idea of gifting him an electric drum set and oh boy, did his face light up!

First cheery smile from this fever-attacked boy :(

It was a rough night crossing into his actual birthday. Thanks to the husband who managed the night duty of tracking his temperature and dispensing meds, the boy awoke the next day still fever-beaten. I cancelled the secret play-date I had planned for him. In between his grumpy moods, we had some moments where he was able to stay up and engage in activities.

This is a 5yo, deep in concentration

Through the day, he slept and managed to eat some porridge and a good sign was when he requested for more porridge as he was hungry. We were mindful to moderate his intake though, as he had vomiting spells.


Another highlight was the late PM, after he had some snooze and regained some energy - he jammed to some music I played on youtube for him as music accompaniment and it was super cool watching him get into the groove.

My little drummer boy

The finale of his birthday was the cake. It's a bummer that we did not manage to celebrate the cake with my family and his friends, but it still matters that he had a cake afterall.

Playing along to act surprised

Tadah!

Cake-cutting

While the day did not pan out as planned, what's important is that we tried to keep him happy with what we could. This boy will stay positive as long as he gets to play! I cannot imagine that he was merely a bean... just look at him today. To end off this reminiscent mood, here's a picture of this little chum exactly 5 years ago.

28 Feb 2012

Happy birthday my baby boy. You will always be my baby, no matter how big you are. I love you.

Jake made a rooster

Someone did some craft at school and brought this home. So simple, so cute, so apt!

Rooster

And this is a funny sight of the boy one morning. Tee hee hee.

Sleeping - tucked like a rooster

Playing with guns

The boy revived his love for guns and was on a shooting rampage this weekend. He brought along 3 of his NERF guns everywhere he went and it was pretty adorable (while annoying).


I joined him for some moments and managed to distract/occupy him for some moments as he tried to play the game I set up. It was hilarious watching him trying his best... but not being very good.

Face of concentration

Elmo, the unfortunate target

This marks the week before Lunar New Year!

Jake and his brilliant smile

Love this pic. Our little bundle of dynamo, full of energy,
loud beyond necessary, forever curious and adorable to bits.

Recovery

The girl has been sick for a week now, and I choose to write about something heartening while our house is covered with gloom from her illness (and whining). Since J's accident, he has been on the mend. Last Sunday, 9 days after his fall, we brought him for a follow-up consultation.

Close up

In good spirits

Surprisingly, the wait was not long (phew) and the boy was still obviously in very good spirits. He was on an adrenalin, bouncing around the waiting room playing with the water dispenser and feeling very pumped up from his last episode; where he did not cry. This boy is truly brave and he is also good at remembering positive experiences.


A nurse came in shortly and said she will be removing the stitches. She told J to lie on the bed while she went around preparing for the procedure.

Slightly serious (worried) face

In-progress

Look at that serious face

The removal was painless (literally) and the entire visit to the doctor took about an hour! Yay to speedy service. We deliberated where to go for our breakfast, then finally settled for something simple. It was a nice, breakfast session I enjoyed with my boy and it felt good to see him feeling fine and eating like a champ.

Peanut porridge and fried bee hoon

So this wraps up the episode of his accident. I was slightly worried that he may scratch the sensitive area as there are no stitches to stop him from being rough with the itch, but it's been 3 days since and all is well.


Hooray!

Anecdotes of J and K

Masterpiece by J
The other evening, we were on the subject of bookmarks and J decided to draw something for me. 'I make a bookmark for you, Mommy' he said.

So, we are holding hands and that (in pink) is a shooting star. He also delighted in writing
my name, and paper-stamping out the star/ribbon shapes.

If you notice, the above piece of paper has a cut-out. The reason why there is a cut out is because he was not happy with something he wrote, and was throwing a fit. In a bid to damage control, I suggested that he remove the supposedly offensive mistake. Then, as if he changed his mind/ had another idea, he picked it up and continued to draw on it; then handed it to me as another bookmark.

I am actually using this. It's quite handy!

Writing by K
K received a card for her birthday from the insurance company. She had been looking forward to a meal at Swensens' with the voucher she received, and we ought to bring her soon. Anyhow, I spotted this the other evening and it made me laugh.

It is me! I am the birthday girl. Me me me!

Truly, she was such a happy child on her birthday and we chatted about her favourite moments of the day, and unsurprisingly, she cited the hours she spent when her friends were around to play with her. She questioned me of my favourite moments and before I could answer, she said, 'I know! It's after my friends left and when all the adults were sitting around, right?' (Such a clever one, this girl)


Instead of lying to her, I said, 'Yes darling, that was one of my favourite parts, because I could relax and hang out with the family. But the other favourite part was watching you and seeing how happy you are. When you are happy, it makes me very happy too.'


Ahh, sometimes they are so sweet and know so much, don't they?

Jake decorates the door

Last week, J excitedly hollered, 'PAPA! MOMMY! COME HERE!'


He stood by the door, with his hand over a particular spot on the door. He waited until we were there and moved his hand away to reveal a picture.

Spot the pic on the door

Close-up

'I put it there! So you can see it! I knew you will like it! (why? we asked) Because you tell me you love me!'


I cracked up hearing his simple explanation of why he chose to put his picture on the door, and how confident he is that we will love it. This boy is full of funny and interesting ideas, and pretty much always confident of himself. This results in a very boisterous and loud boy!


I found it quite amusing that he'd have a picture of himself cut out in this fashion, so I probed and discovered that the teachers at school had prepared Children's Day gifts to the class and the teachers had prepared pictures to be placed on each child's gift. What J then did was to recycle the picture and chose to decorate it on the door.


Ingenius little boy!

Learning mandarin

Little J goes for Chinese lessons. I'm trying to remember when exactly, but it was one fateful evening where I discovered he had knowledge and vocabulary of mandarin at a standard of like, I don't know, sub-zero. Why? Because we do not speak much of it at home and he only knows (broken) English. Sigh.


So, learning from K who is our first-child-experiment, we enrolled him in class. I forgot when we started exactly, but it was probably about a year+ ago; as I discovered our routine from this post of our Saturday routine last year.


The lessons have paid off, and it is so amazing and I feel so proud to observe this boy display his knowledge of mandarin in conversation (still sometimes broken) and more superbly, his ability to identify Chinese words. Love it! We try to revise with him at least once a week, and he has truly accumulated a lot of words.

Revision time

He is pretty good and knows the words like, 90% and now we try to have him form sentences to reinforce his understanding of words.


Just for fun, here's sharing some funny sentences J has formed:

• 他去桌子 - he's probably thinking 'he went to the table' but we had to tell him it's a fragmented sentence that doesn't work on its own.
• 我看桌子 - 'I see the table' - again, a fragmented sentence!
• 我去运动公园 - 'I went to exercise at the park' - literally. Had to switch his sentence structure; though honestly this is such a common problem that we face even in adults (uh, me)
• 我看到五颜六色 - J thinks that 五颜六色 is 'a rainbow' - get it? He's forming 'I saw a rainbow' in this sentence! Had to educate him that the phrase means as colourful as a rainbow, but how he's used it is not right.
  
  

His sentences are pretty funny sometimes, but he will get better and it's all in the fun of learning and improving!


Little K is also on an uphill journey to improve her mandarin. Her advantage with the language is that she was exposed to it younger, though with no formal lessons. Her conversational mandarin is great but the theory of the language is a challenge.


Her struggle this year also includes hanyu pinyin which has been quite a feat. She has improved though which is great, but there is still a fair way to go. Her ability to recognise Chinese words is also a constant challenge; and truly, I don't blame her. It is not easy especially given that we do not practise enough.


So, on this learning journey we keep going!

Jake gets into an accident

It was lunch time, and just as I was about to get lunch, I received a call from home. What I heard made my heart skip a beat. J had hurt himself. There was crying (him) and my helper was trying to explain to me what happened; and the gist I heard was that he had a cut on his head. That made me scared. Thankfully, I was able to leave work and after some harried phone calls to the helper and husband, we all met at the clinic. Was so glad that both the husband and I were able to take off from work at such instant notice.

The original pic that we received from the helper

It was a wasted exercise though, because the clinic GP couldn't help much. She recommended that we head to KK Hospital A&E department for more applicable treatment. We took her referral letter and made our way to Mount A instead, as it was closer.

We registered and thankfully, the clinic was not super crowded. We waited for our turn, and by this time, the boy was behaving normally with no hint of discomfort at all. Time didn't seem to pass too slowly; perhaps it was because we were walking about, watching some TV, fiddling with something/nothing and making idle chat with a set of neighbours that were also at the hospital with their child. Soon, our number rang and we headed to the first station.

First stop - a filter check by a nurse

A doctor saw to the boy soon after, and gave a quick prescription of an X-ray and possible stitching after was likely necessary. We were famished by this time (past 1pm) and we made do with takeaway sandwiches from subway. The X-ray results took about an hour to be ready and thankfully, nothing seems to be alarming from the X-ray and so we were referred to a room where the doctor came in to provide some follow-up attendance to stitch J's head.

Waiting for the doctor

While the husband sat on the bed to hold the boy down (in case he fidgeted majorly during the administration of the local anaesthetic - which by the way, the boy was a SUPER STAR, he barely flinched), I made myself nearly sweat with stress just by being in the same room. I stood at the end of the bed holding my breath unknowingly, fidgeting non-stop as I worried of the procedure.

My poor baby, look at his face :(

Truly, both the boys performed amazing. In his usual calm and steady fashion, the husband distracted the boy by chatting to him of random subject matters, and the boy responded in a quiet way, whilst receiving treatment. Besides his super solemn expression, the boy truly just laid on the bed with no outburst, no tears, no extreme reaction. I was so proud of him. He was so calm, that his eyes started to close...

And he fell asleep.

Of course, it was way past his naptime at this point (3pm) but to watch him rest so peacefully truly made my heart burst with relief.

Resting

It had been an anxious day with this accident taking place and it really made me thankful that (1) the boy seems fine. Yes he had stitches to his head, yes he made us so worried but he really seems fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no complications arise after. (2) The husband - as always, he is the pillar of calm in emergencies and to have him there, to watch him steadily assure and be with the boy, made me so relieved that I have such an amazing partner. (3) The relatively painless experience at the hospital - I know, it's not as if I was the one injured and in pain, but being a parent who has to bear with the child's agony, any other parent will be able to empathise that the experience is not one that any will envy. Plus, the whole waiting/treatment experience was bearable this afternoon and I am so grateful for that.


It's now nearly bedtime and the boy is receiving a proper head-wash under the assistance/supervision from the husband. It's tricky because his wound should not touch water but this boy is a sweat factory so we gotta find a way to ensure that there is some level of cleanliness involved. He has also been in good spirits the whole afternoon so I hope he will sleep through the night and be as fit as a fiddle tomorrow too.


Oh and the cause of his injury? An act of mischief where he was (probably) jumping about on the bed/window ledge and slipped - self-inflicted accident. Boo.


What. A. Day.

#jaketales

Facebook flashed up some adorable pictures of my not-so-little-baby boy, and these pics are so amazing I have to re-share them again here.

When J was only 6 months old. That was his original face, with
lack-of expressions. Serious much.

Then this pic shows how the husband always dreamt he will dress his mini-me up - in exactly the same way he dresses himself.

Stylo-milo

To finish off this random post of ah boy, here's sharing a conversation he had with my mom. They see each other every weekday morning, as my parents help to drop him off at school. On this particular morning...

J: Nainai, I have a mosquito bite.
Nainai: is it bad?
J: No. Don't worry, it is not ZIKA mosquito, because it never fly to AMK.


Haha! TGIF!

Lantern-making with Godpa

It has become a tradition where the Godpa owns an annual event with the children. It started two years ago, when I handed him the task of working on a lantern-making craft project with K. Last year, I requested that he helps - not one, both two kids - because both of them were in the same school, and so he did. (Sadly, I could not find any pics that documented the lantern of 2015).


This year, the end result is definitely the best - you know what they say, practise makes perfect!

Minions!

Lit-up minions

It's nice to have something for the children to have, even if it's this one project every year. They get to spend time together, and this year, I ended up taking a nap while they were working at this craft - ahhh, how nice!

Cebu, 11 Aug, coming home

Our flight home was at 4pm, which means that we had the whole morning, until lunch to finish off the holiday. The morning was a repeat of our last few days, where we had breakfast - headed to the pool - then washed up. Our request for late check out was approved, which made things easy for us to have a spot to shower and all.

Checked out, and waiting for our ride

We arrived at the airport - no drama there - but we did spend some time trying to check in. Turns out, due to our separate flights into Cebu, there was some mix-up and the counter staff took a while to locate the seats for J and I. After some long moments, we got our tickets - phew.  What was amusing was, during this time that we were waiting, J was self-entertaining by pretending that he was in the Ironman race! He was playing pretend by swimming, cycling and running - just like his Dad. I cannot express how thrilled I am at this positive influence!


Our flight was slightly delayed, but besides being called out on the public announcement 'calling for passengers Seah C..C... and Foo C...Y...' - oops (the husband was eating and I had to do a pee stop for J), we made it.


The seats were apart, and J asked to sit with me while the husband got some alone time. The flight back wasn't too bad... and I even managed to eat my meal in peace while J slept. He had his meal after me, upon waking up so the timing worked out pretty well.

Game time

The highlight of the flight was probably when we got invited to go to the cockpit! How thrilling! It started with J wanting to say goodbye to the pilots, and we were fortunate to have 2 very friendly pilots who invited him inside to take a look. They were warm and super nice, even encouraging J to sit on the pilot's seat!

In awe - so many buttons!

Rare visit

We finished off our visit in the airport by playing with this gadget that I had noticed previously. We spent some moments snapping our pics, seeing it pixelated - pretty cool!

Captain J

Us

We purchased duty free items, picked up our luggage, caught 2 cabs (big luggages much!) and made our way home.


It was nice to be home, and still being on holiday mode, we headed out for a late dinner. It was very nice to have an 'extended break' to not need to think about heading back to work/reality the very next day. Love it!


And so, this marked the end of our holiday to Cebu. All the days captured here: Day one, two, three, four, five , six and seven.