Mornings Are The Worst

The first thing DN said to me when he woke up this morning was, "I don't want to go to school!" Ahhhhh. :( For the past week, every morning contains pretty much the following:

• DN running away from me and his school uniform
• DN wailing that he wants to stay at home
• DN insisting that I don't go to work
• DN refusing to wear his shoes or walk out of the house

Because of him, my list is pretty much the same actually.

• Me not wanting to go to work.
• Me not wanting to put his uniform on because the bugger runs quite fast!
• Me wanting to stay home and watch Bob The Builder with him because it's just easier you know?

Sigh.

In school, it's the koala syndrome I have to deal with, something I know other moms out there can relate to. DN develops this amazing velcro ability to just "stiiiiick" to my neck / leg / arm / other convenient body part, and can be quite difficult to remove. So he's usually peeled off me (wailing of course) by a teacher and I have to harden my resolve, wave bye, say I'll come back later and just chabot!

What else can you do right?

So I've decided to really go ahead with that scrapbook idea. I took some pictures of his school and the fun stuff they do there, and have been looking through them with DN in the mornings. It does help a little bit (and I stress LITTLE) and he does get a little happy (I'm not even using the word "excited" here) pointing out his shoe rack, his cubby hole, his bag, the sand toys, etc... so I'm hoping the scrapbook will help.

The Breakfast Area

The Menu Board

The (erm) Garden

The Garden Patch

The Sand Pit

The Rides (his fav pic)

The Water Play Area

DN's Classroom

The classroom now looks so *bleah* compared to all the outdoor shots!

The Bub Having His Temperature Taken

The Fake Smile (they had hard boiled eggs for breakfast one morning last week)

Day 2, 3 + 4

Ever been sabo-ed big time by a 3-year old before? Well, it's quite a humbling experience. -_- Halfway through Day 2, I thought I'd take a quick peek into DN's classroom (I was actually reading in the school office) just to see how he was doing. I couldn't see him, so I tip-toed a little higher. Then I saw Ethel, one of his classmates. And she saw me. And I waved at her because I didn't think it was possible to be sabo-ed by a 3-year old.

"DN! Your mummy!"

I think I made this face :O before my dulled reflexes actually worked and I ducked down. As I was "ducking down", I could see DN's head whip towards the window. He must have JUST seen my head disappear because a few seconds later, his little face appeared grinning at the door.

"Mummy! Come in! Sit here! Come in! Come in!"

"Wah," I thought to myself. "Ethel sabo! I'm going to tell her parents later!" (Her mom's my colleague and ex-roommate.)

It went pear shape after that and I had to sit in with DN for the next half an hour before he let me go. Crying of course. Did I learn my lesson? Hell no.

On Day 3, DN was actually on his own for 6 hours at a stretch - 10.30am to 4.30pm. During that time, I managed to finish my book (in the school office) and meet PF for a nice lunch. Things were going so well, (i.e. no calls from the teacher to come in and settle a manic DN) I thought there was no harm in taking a quick peek before zipping out to meet my colleague for a bit. Like I said, I didn't learn my lesson. Just as I slowly peeked into the classroom, DN chose that exact moment to look towards the window. I made this face again :O.

And it went downhill from there. In the end, I had to take him out of school early because my colleague was waiting for me. No way was DN going to let me out of his sight!

On Day 4, I finally came to terms with my separation anxiety and just dropped DN off in the morning and picked him up at 5.30pm. It wasn't all smooth sailing of course and there was some koala-clinging and crying, so I think overall, it has been a little tough on the little guy. But he's managing.

So because I wasn't really around on Day 2, 3 and 4, I have no pictures to show except these - personalised stickers from www.stuckonyou.biz for his uniform and belongings, hee! I'm such a slacker mom right, I only ordered the stickers a week before he was to start school and they arrived a week after he started. :p So much for getting him hyped up about school huh?

I roped DN in when I was placing the order and asked him to choose a picture for his stickers. His first choice was a peace sign *roll eyes* and then he chose a princess *slap forehead*. Of course, I had to make an executive decision and step in and choose for him "advise" him about his choices. So I only showed him the icons of vehicles and made him choose from there. HAHA! He didn't choose my first choice (the rocket ship) but said he wanted a train. Eeek! The train was so ugly! So I tried to manipulate my son's choice made another executive decision and asked him, "What about this DN? It's Scoop!" So he finally chose the excavator all on his own! I quickly placed the order before he pointed at (heaven forbid) the Singapore flag icon or (hurl!) a heart icon.

I know. I am so full of crap. But you got to give me some credit for letting him stick the stickers on himself. I was THIS CLOSE to ripping them off after he slept and doing it again. I think you can guess which ones I stuck on and which ones DN stuck on. If you had a crooked label to look at from now on, and a label with a peace sign next to your son's name, which would you choose?

I rest my case.

I wish I had done what Jovann's mummy did for him before his first day because the school scrapbook is a really good idea. Hmm... maybe I'll still do it. It might get him more excited about school. Yeah, I think I will!

First Day of School

Is it that wrong to feel guilty leaving your child in childcare and wanting to steal him out of there and keep him at home for the rest of his life? Ooops. My mom joked that my separation anxiety was worse than DN's. Haha, mom.

As a parent, I'm allowed to hang around the centre for the child's first 3 days of school. Honestly, I really didn't know what to do. I knew hanging around him like a leach probably wouldn't help him transition into school life, but I also didn't want to throw him into the deep end straight away.

On the morning of Day 1, I sat in a little, but away in a corner of the classroom. He did cry some and was always looking out for me, but it was okayyy... not great, but alright. During free play, I took a quick picture and quietly backed out of the classroom. He likes trains. :)

He had a mini-meltdown when it was shower time. Just REFUSED to let the aunty shower him, so I had to do it. Strike 1 against mommy. :P It was lunch after shower time and they had spaghetti with minced chicken, carrots and broccoli. I know this looks really bad, like DN just threw back up into his bowl, but it's really the combination of pink table, green bowl and horrible lighting!

Er... *sheepish*... yes, I was sitting next to him as I took this picture. Ooops. And I had to step in and feed him some because he just eats so slowwwly. Double oops. Strike 2! But he ate most of it, so I'm quite relieved about that.

It was apples for dessert and DN asked for seconds. I think Miss Elsie panchang him because it was his first day. He got an extra half a slice. I was like, "Hah? DN can eat a whole apple at home!" Of course he wasn't satisfied, haha.

Er yes... we are Hokkiens!!!!! Can't you tell? ;)

I'm Still Here!

Just wanted to leave a quick note to say, yes, I am alive and yes, I'm still here. I know I ought to be flogged for being such a terrible blogger (i.e. shamelessly and guiltlessly carrying on reading other blogs as I ignore my own) but so much has been happening, it's not funny.

1. Coming down with the flu... TWICE (ugh)
2. Wrapping up 2 projects, 1 with a children's performance at the end :)
3. Starting a new project
4. TRYING to get started on my journal articles, which are due in less than a month's time :(
   
5. Hosting my lecturer from the UK
6. House hunting (double triple MAJOR ugh!)
7. Packing up and moving house
8. Starting DN in school/childcare
   
9. Growing a baby
   

Yup yup, you read right, DN is going to get a little sister in ... da-da-da-daanggg... early September. Yikes. That's only 4+ months away, and I have to finish my dissertation by then too! Why do I make life impossible for myself, I want to know. I might as well stab myself in the foot. It's probably less painful. -___-"

On the DN front, here are some updates.

Toilet Training

He has conquered toilet training! Whoopee! It was SO quick and painless, it felt like someone was hiding behind the wings, waiting to jump out at me and say, "Gotcha! You're not getting off that easily, ha! DN, pee on mommy's leg!" But honestly, it was SO easy, I actually feel bad gloating about it. Er, okay, maybe not, ha ha!

I was so scared of potty training, I literally didn't want to start. One (brave) day, I decided to just give it a shot. And in my panicky state, I brought DN to the potty every half an hour. In 2-3 days, both of us got used to the routine and within a week, he was telling us when he wanted to pee and poo. After 2 weeks, PF and I even tried going out diaper-less, and it was FINE! I really wanted to give myself an Oscar / Golden Globe / Nobel Peace Prize / President's Scholarship. Er... but we haven't done it since. (Okay okay, take the statue back!) We've been doing lots of house-hunting, so to tell people, "Er, sorry, can my son use your toilet please? He really needs to poop." just doesn't cut it. So unless we're going to a nice(ish) mall, he still has his diaper on when we're out. (Okay, take the scholarship back too!)

Attack of the Cheese

DN had a "major" allergy attack a couple of days ago because of his parents' lack of judgement and bad junk food habit. You see, my favourite chips are tortilla chips and I just lurve the Doritos Ranch Chips. Now, when you think "ranch" you think "cowboys, horses, stirrups, chaps and yee-ha" right? You don't think "cheese" right? Yeah, so we allowed DN to have some quite a bit of ranch chips and in 5 minutes, his mouth turned all red and soon after, his eyes started turning red and puffy too. The poor guy kept rubbing his eyes and we knew it was an allergic reaction and the culprit was the chips! I quickly gave him his anti-allergy medicine. This time it took longer than usual to settle down but thankfully it did in the end and DN looked normal again. Phew. The only good thing that came out of this is, he doesn't bug us for those chips anymore!

Starting Childcare / School

Because of Bessie's impending arrival (will explain why we've nicknamed the baby such soon), PF and I decided to start DN in school. We know that when she arrives, all hell will break loose and soon, we will start looking like what the cat spat out and dragged in. We figured it would help if DN wasn't around so that we can devote all our time to Bessie and make sure we don't put diaper cream on her hair in a sleepy stupor for example. It might also help DN deal with any jealousy because he won't be around to see us fussing over the new baby. Well, we'll see if it works.

Anyway, today was DN's first day in school and it went "alright" I guess. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't a total disaster either. Alright. So-so. Okay. Can lah! I'm allowed to sit in / hang around for 3 days in total so I'll blog more about this later this week. Stay tuned. :)