Shopping with Bear

Shopping is really not DN's cup of tea and although I'm gutted, I don't blame the little guy. Everything looks boring and it's out of his reach anyway. So what's a toddler to do? DN often chooses to announce his annoyance to all and sundry by...

(a) whining
(b) wailing
(c) hijacking our stroller and pushing it into other people's legs
(d) lying face down on the floor in the shopping centre
and his favourite, (e) all of the above, but on repeat and shuffle mode

I decided that enough was enough and decided to stop shopping altogether (yeah right!) buy him his own little stroller to keep him busy as we shopped. We had a feeling this would work because he's always hankering after our stroller and trolley. And it DID work!

We popped into ELC to buy this blue stroller. And since this bear was 50% off, we got it too. Anyway, I much prefer this to a spooky doll with those "automatic open-close eyes". Eeek.

It was a build-your-own-bear (version 1.0... no rocket science here) and it came with 2 bags of stuffing, a jumper, shorts and a really dehydrated looking bear.

I had to help DN with the stuffing. Now he knows how bears are made!

Here's the maker hugging the finished product in glee! We asked DN to name his bear (because the kit comes with a birth certificate for the furry one) and he said, "Bear!" -_- Ohhh-kay.

The happy bub and his happy bear. We shopped for 3 hours that day. Woot!

Since then, DN has been taking good care of Bear. Bear sleeps with him every night now and he occasionally gets a grape from DN (ha!) .

I've always had this romantic notion that DN will grow to love a stuffed toy that will sleep with him, eat with him, play with him etc... When he first started dragging Brownie around, I thought Brownie was it. Then Brownie was forgotten and tossed aside. :( Maybe Bear is the THE ONE!

DN the Homemaker

I burst out laughing when I found this in the fridge compartment of DN's kitchen set. He told me he was washing his thermals!

Yes. My son has pink underwear. That was the only colour they had left in Sainsbury's. Real men wear pink anyway. Humph!

Oh dear. And he has a pink sponge for his kitchen set! Again, what colour do real men wear? Roar.

DN has been having a ball with this kitchen set. He makes kopi-o-kosong (yes, he actually says "kopi-o-kosong" as he serves it!) for us everyday and when he serves his pizza/burger/etc, he makes sure that it's on a plate with a fork. He even forgets to do the dishes!

Finally

I can officially say it now... I'm going to see DN tomorrow! I've been waiting for this day for 10 weeks and it's finally here. I miss the little bub so much. Right now, I've got grand ideas of what our reunion will be like...

I will be waiting outside the gate and DN and PF walk out. DN spots me and shouts, "MA MA! MA MA!". PF puts him down and he runsssss to me, arms wide open and slams into me and starts hugging and kissing me (er... I'm thinking of DN here, not the husband. He's Asian and we're known to be conservative). And then PF saunters up, looks at my perfect outfit (turtleneck sweater dress, tights and boots) and says, "Hey you. Have you lost weight?" Ah bliss!

Sorry, excuse me a while. Let me remove my rainbow-tinted glasses. Ah... the grey looks familiar. This is what I think our reunion will look like.

First of all, I will look like what the cat stole from the garbage bin and THEN dragged in because their flight arrives at 6.20am and I have to start driving really early because I'm about an hour and a half from Heathrow. So no turtleneck sweater dress, tights and boots. Hello eyebags and jeans. I will probably miss PF and DN as they walk out because I'm so blind. After half an hour of impatient waiting, they take 5 years off my life by coming up from behind and scaring the bejesus out of me with, "Where were you??!" By this time, DN is cranky and whiny because it's been a LONG flight. And instead of "Hey you. Have you lost weight?", my husband says, "Help me carry this. DN, where are you going? It's mummy!"

-_____-"

We'll see huh? Keep your fingers crossed for #1 and watch this space for an update.

You all know I've been prepping the scene for DN's arrival yes? With the clothes, books and toys. Well, at this point, can I just say that I'm in LOVE with ebay? As in, deep, infatuated and forbidden love. *sigh... vapid smile on face* Ebay lets me be my true self. Ebay doesn't judge what I search for. Ebay is ALWAYS there. Ebay doesn't care if you have no makeup on and are in your long johns, a pink dressing gown (with hearts) and fluffy slippers (with sequins). I heart you, ebay!

See? Without ebay, I wouldn't have been able to get this ELC kitchen set for only £10. *smug*

There's even a little light over the stove for better cooking, and when you turn it on, a sizzling sound accompanies it. And yup, all the crockery and cutlery came with the set. Best!

Ah! Ebay! Without you, I'd never have found this Bob the Builder set of toys for £15.

Now, tell me you don't love ebay. I dare you!

postscript : I've self-imposed an ebay ban on myself. The prospect of shipping a container back to Singapore is becoming more and more probable.

Duh!

When PF and DN get here, I'll still have 2 weeks of school, and that's 9-5pm Mondays to Thursdays and 9-12pm on Fridays. So I've been in a tizzy over what they're going to do while I'm in school. Winchester isn't exactly hip-central (read : there's only 1 fastfood outlet here - McDonald's) and the weather isn't exactly balmy here. (read : it's freakin' cold!) so they'll probably be spending a lot of time in the tiny, boring flat. That's why I bought the ELC toy, those books and have been keeping junk for art and craft. I don't even have a TV! So for two days, I was going about a happy, oblivious life while the financial world collapsed around me... but don't write me off just yet, I know who the new US president is!

Okay sorry, that was quite lame. Even a mushroom knows who the new president is. -_-

Anyway, I'm no longer freaking out about DN being bored out of his pants while he's here. And the solution was (literally) right in front of me all this while - my school library! I was there a few days ago to borrow some musical instruments for one of my projects and when I got to the floor with all the instruments, it was like stepping into second-hand ELC heaven.

Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot!

My hands were literally shaking with joy as I took these photos. When I found out that I could borrow up to 30 items on my library card, I wanted to leap around the library. And when I found out I could loan out items for up to a month, it made my goddam fees seem worth it! Almost. Erm, okay, NO. But it will help me feel (a little) better about my fees, knowing that I can stock up a play room at home, for FREE!

I can borrow big books. And these are literally BIG books. I remember using these when I taught in a primary school, but using them as the teacher was quite tricky. They're HUGE! And because I'm so short, the minute I sat down on the chair in front of the kids, the book came up to my eyebrows. But the little ones used to love them, so oh well.

I can borrow lego out too! *tremble*tremble*

Water toys! Okay, these might not be that ideal for 10 degree weather. Next!

Big-piece jigsaw puzzles! Sorry DN, but mommy is going to stimulate that brain of yours. Big time!

Ah... these I know DN will love. Fake food! There are bags and bags of fruits, vegetables and meat and there's this pizza set that I want to borrow for him. According to PF, he "makes" pizza every night now and strangely enough, it's become a bedtime routine. He puts all sorts of things onto his pizza - chicken, pork, eggs, carrots(!!). He then puts it in an imaginary oven (under the pillow) and PF will count to 10 before allowing him to take the pizza out. Then they feast! What a simple activity yes? But it's taught him his numbers, believe it or not!

There're other toys I can borrow out too - maths toys, geography toys, musical instruments. I'm going to make the most out of my school fees!

* My university happens to be a teaching college too. :)

DN's Report Card #1

DN spent the day with his grandma (wee) and I got this "report card" from her via email. I just had to post it up here because it made me laugh out loud! 

"... Minutes before the PM nap, he asked for PF. He said, "Mama call Papa lai". He was in a state of distress so I called PF. He calmed down after that and slept because he was so tired.

I fed him when he got up and then we got changed and went to my colleague's daughter's 3rd birthday party. He was very talkative during the drive. Probably because he had enough sleep and his belly was full. As usual, I boogied to my fav tunes on the radio. (Yes, my mom is very hip!) He was very observant and said, "Mama drive" and nagged me every time my left hand touched the manual shift. He kept saying, "Mama drive". Many times I placed my hand on his knee (just to reassure him) and he would say, "No, mama drive". His regard for values and safety is well ingrained in him!

At the party, he took a while to warm up. He behaved very well and was kind, thoughtful and always aware of the consequences. I'm so proud of him. He enjoyed playing with the kitchen set, the supermarket trolley and the doll's house. He also pushed a toy stroller around and cuddled the baby so lovingly and gently. He didn't give way at times, but thankfully he didn't push other kids around.

I'm afraid he ate everything which you probably would not allow. His belly was so big, I got a bit scared. It was so huge. He looked pregnant.

I'll continue with part #2 tomorrow."

Thanks Mom, for the update. You're the best. ;)

All zoo-ed out! (Part 1)

Because I won't get to see DN for about a month o_o, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with him now before I leave. We went to the zoo twice this week, two days IN A ROW, and I've found my "zoo limit". No way can I do three days in a row because I will look like this.

We went to the zoo with Rina + Rae Ann and Ling + Sophie on Wednesday and my advice to all is this - go on a weekday. We've gone on a weekend and it's bloody awful. Unless you're into masochism and go to Comex AND ENJOY IT, go on a weekday. Please!

The kiddos at the entrance - fresh, dry and fragrant! (but not for long)

We had a wonderful time at the zoo because it was empty. :) We got there in time to catch the Splash Safari Show (featuring penguins, manatees, pelicans and sea lions). After that, we said hello to the elephants and then headed straight to the water playground.

I love manatees. Gentle sea cows who eat sea grass. :)

Funnily, DN is terribly wary of water playgrounds and all its bells and whistles. Here is someone who doesn't think twice about jumping into a deep swimming pool, but won't go near a shower fountain. Every time I tried to take off his t-shirt, he said, "no no no no no". So we sat on the bench for awhile. I was ready to sit there with him and wait for the two girls, but after awhile, he took the swim diaper from me and tried to put in on over his shorts, LOL. I guess he was ready!

DN was the driest of the three. I was pleased as punch when he finally bent down to splash some water. For the longest time, he was walking along the edge of the pool, throwing leaves into it. (?)

Picture Of The Day -->

Ling was theme coordinated! The zoo should give her a pass for her effort.

Ace!

You know you're watching too much Wimbledon when your 22 month old suddenly starts swinging AND GRUNTING while you're watching Wimbledon.

Here he is, doing a "monica seles".



After taking pity on DN "playing tennis" with a hand-held broom, we toyed with the idea of getting him a cheap set of rackets to play with. But of course, being the lazy bums that we are, DN continued playing tennis with ladles, cups and fly-swatters (UGH, imagine the fly parts flying around) until...

... we had dinner at Pasta Waraku. Yes indeed! A Japanese restaurant helped realise my son's Wimbledon dreams, haha. Let me explain.

At the entrance, there was a big basket of toys. At first, I thought they were for entertaining children while their parents ate, but figured they were for sale because they were brand new.


We didn't give it a second thought until PF brought DN for a walk while waiting for our food. Suddenly, DN came running back with this.

All kids at the restaurant get to pick a toy for free! Isn't that great? Before we left, a waitress even offered DN a second toy. We picked another set of rackets. Now we can play doubles, heh!

The first thing DN did was put the little plastic ball in the shuttlecock and start licking it like ice-cream. Wa-hahaha! PF and I couldn't stop laughing.






It was a good evening - funny baby, free toys and good food - what more can a Singaporean ask for (besides winning 4D also)? By the time I remembered to take a picture of our dinner, this was all that was left. No, we didn't lick our plates. I had the Salmon & Salmon Roe Spaghetti and PF had the Katsu Tamagoji Spaghetti. DN had both, but of course.

DN's School House

Last Saturday, we spent a rare afternoon at home. Rare because our weekends are usually crazy packed. Two weekends ago, it looked like this:

Sat : Zoo with Katriya, Lunch with Katriya and her parents at United Square, Some shopping at United Square, Nap at home, 80th Birthday Dinner (PF's grandaunt) at Carlton Hotel

Sun : Regular morning walk to the market with Kong Kong, Zoo with Jovann, Clarence, Arianne, Reubern, Rae Ann & Clarice in the afternoon, Dinner with everyone at Orchidville

That's why on weekends, DN only naps once a day (no time!) and his poo is, erm, "less than usual" (no time!). And that is why on MONDAY, DN takes 2 naps of a total of 3-4 hours, and why he super-lets-go an amazing amount of crap that day. I think his body and mind is finally calm, relaxed and free from all that insane zipping about on Saturday and Sunday.

So it wasn't surprising that we felt super uneasy when we had no plans last Sat afternoon. It was like an out of body experience, too surreal.

Me (to PF) : "So what do we have on this afternoon?" (we'd already gone to Botanic Gardens in the morning for breakfast and to feed the fish)

PF : "Hmm... nothing I think."

Me : "Nothing??? Are you sure?"

PF : "Yeah... I think so."

Me : "..."

PF : "..."

DN : "..." (twiddling his thumbs)

So we dusted the castle and blackboard, set up 2 fans in the front, called some neighbours over (Katriya - 15mths, Dillon - 19mths, Daryl - 3yrs & Denise - 6yrs) and ta-dah! The kiddos were suitably entertained for about 3 hours. Katriya's mom even brought over K's trampoline.

DN's School House Fees : $800 per month

(please bring your own trampoline)

What a morning!

Two Fridays ago, both PF and I took the day off. When you're a parent, taking a day off is not taking a day off. Unless the toddler is at his grandmother's of course.

At 7am, DN becomes bionic baby and can hear the dust rolling in the corner of our bedroom - the slightest sound and he's up. It's like his eyes pop open and he sits up like someone has released the spring in his back. BOING!

And he bounces (literally) out of bed and starts abusing terrorising rousing his parents. You see, DN will not stand for sleeping parents. He goes, "Mama! Mama! Papa! Papa! Up! Up! UPPPPP!" over and over and over. If verbal abuse doesn't work, he resorts to abuse of the physical sort. He will sit on our bellies and bounce. Doesn't work? He tries to lift our snoring heads up and shout "UP!" at the same time.

The poor guy. It's a gargantuan task really. The slug force is strong in us.

He definitely doesn't get the early bird gene from PF or myself because we have the comatose-until-12-noon gene. (My mom used to wake me up for school by pinching my legs. For 10 minutes!) So I don't know where he gets this trait from. Sometimes I wonder if the hospital switched babies when I wasn't looking and put a firecracker in my baby's cot.

Back to that Friday. After finally dragging my sorry butt out of bed, I lumbered downstairs like Babar the Elephant and set about making breakfast for the excitable toddler. After breakfast, I looked at the clock and went, "!!??!". It's only 8.15am! What am I going to do next with the excitable toddler?

Ah-ha! Now's a good time to finally use that activity pack Julia Gabriel gave us when class was cancelled one week because of the HFMD outbreak. So I stripped the toddler to his diaper and plonked him in his high chair, trembling with excitement just watching me get everything ready.

He loved it!

In the pack are "ingredients" for fried rice. The bag of yellow glue is "oil", the white crepe paper is "rice", the green stickers are "peas" and the paper plate is the "wok".

I helped DN with the peas but he "fried" the rest of the dish himself.
Looking mighty pleased with his oily fried rice. This dish definitely won't get the Healthy Choice sticker.



After adding the prawns and egg, it's time to throw in the rice.

After a few grains, DN got fed up and just dumped the whole container of rice into the wok!


No gloves in the kitchen. Tsk tsk tsk.

The finished dish. :D

DN was having so much fun, I decided to let him continue painting with the glue on rough paper I found in the house.















Time check : 9.00am! Only??!

DN and I go upstairs on the pretext of getting a diaper, but really to make some noise to wake PF up. Success! The father slug wakes up and we decide to troop off to Katong for breakfast.

PF orders a Pi Pa Kao canned drink, much to my amazement. The can is damn retro man. Tradition in a can!



It's Sarawak Laksa for PF...
... Chin Mee Chin cupcakes for me :)...

... and chai tow kuay for all of us.

DN : "What?! I have to share?"


















What a great breakfast! Food was good, weather was actually balmy and DN was his same amusing self, endearing the other kopi tiam diners to him. He kept smiling at this man sitting at the next table. I thought he was being friendly... until I saw the roti prata on the man's plate. He's beo-ing* the roti prata!

Since we were in the East, we drove over to the beach for a little walk.

The weather was really nice that day, and because it was a weekday, it was empty. :)


We found twigs and started drawing in the sand. I found a crab hole (this sounds so wrong, but for the life of me, I can't think of the proper name for it!) and showed it to DN. He probably understood 2% of my explanation of why crabs dig holes in the sand and where they go when the tide comes in.

I don't think I even understood myself.

Guitar

About two weeks ago, DN started saying "guitar" (of all words!). Not "fish" or "dog" or "monkey", but "guitar". I swear, he picks up the strangest words. Here're some words he can say so far :

car, up, duck, papa, mama, cut, pork (??), bye-bye, zai jian and...

... TAU POK!

He overheard Funny Bee and I talking about her friend's chihuahua, Tau Pok (isn't that the best name ever for a brown and white chihuahua?!), and he started saying "Pau Pok! Pau Pok! Pau Pok!". Wa-hahahaha. We had a good laugh in the car.

Okay, back to guitars. Since DN started saying "guitar", he's been obsessed with them. He makes us show him the pictures of guitars in his books, he points out pictures of guitars in the newspapers and he plays air guitar when we say "guitar". So PF thought it would be nice if he had a guitar of his own. He wanted to get a real-ish type plastic guitar with strings and all, not those fancy-schmancy guitars that play Christmas carols and shoot out fireworks.

PF looked for two whole weeks and couldn't find a simple guitar!

Until we went to Clementi Central. Who needs Toys R Us when you have Sinma Pte Ltd? One up for the neighbourhood store. It was the best $3.90 we've ever spent. ;)

This is him when we gave him the guitar. He couldn't stop smiling and grinning! DN has a little dimple that pops out when he smiles real hard. It made a 30 minute appearance that day. ;)

He was even admiring it in the car.

DN doing an acoustic solo.


Rock on!
Check out the nifty finger work.



I love it! It's only $3.90!

Cut! Cut!

This is one of DN's favourite words I think. He used to get so excited when he saw us cutting up food for him, so I guess it isn't that surprising that this was one of his first few words.

Actually, he still gets excited when we cut food for him. He'll shout "cut! cut!" and mimic the chopping action with (a questionable) fervour.

PF and I were at Mustafa last weekend and I was so tempted to buy DN this kitchen-food set that consisted of some plastic food and utensils. The best thing about it was this piece of corn that you could split into two, perfect for cutting! I knew DN would love it.

Even though it was only $10, we didn't get it because only one piece looked fun (the corn). The rest were just boring, static pieces like a carton of milk (made of cardboard, how wise is that!), a skillet (yawn) and a plate (ho hum). Also, for only $10, the plastic was probably radioactive or something.

Well... God bless the Great Singapore Sale! Woot!

We got this wonderful toy at ELC for 30% off its usual price. You can cut ALL the fruit, not just one measly piece of corn, AND the plastic will not sprout legs and walk away.

Cut, cut and away!

Usual Price $33
Sale Price $23.10

No way would I have paid 33 bucks for plastic fruit. In the wise words of my brother, "Alamak, might as well buy real fruit for him to cut!"

This toy really puts the $10 Mustafa toy to shame. Check out the details! The peach has a pit, the orange has segments, lemon has sacs and the papaya has little seeds. $33 lor!

We got it right with this toy. DN loves it. ;)

But I just saw the Toys R Us catalog. They're selling a similar set for $14.95. ARGH. -_-

It's HOTTTTT!

DN has the metabolic rate of a cheetah so with the current heat spell, he's constantly looking as if he walked through a car wash. Unfortunately, he doesn't smell like he's been in a car wash. -_-

We were at my mom's one HOT weekend and keeping him in the house wasn't an option. It was like sitting in a furnace. The poor thing had his sweaty hair plastered to his scalp and he wasn't smelling too fine. These days, DN smells good for a grand total of 10 minutes each day - 5 minutes after his morning bath and 5 minutes after his evening bath. After that, he starts smelling a bit funky.

Anyway, that hot day, my granny came up with a wonderful solution - dump him in a tub of water outside!

She dug out an old aluminum tub, my mom found some old toys and I threw in 2 plastic bowls and a sieve (fishing net!). DN had a gala time splashing about, catching sharks with his "net", arranging all the plastic fish, sharks, ducks and turtles on the wall ledge, dumping them back into the tub and arranging them in a row again. FAR-NEE!

Can you guess how long he stayed in the tub?

30 minutes? Nope.


45 minutes? Nope.


1.5 hours! AHHHHH!

In the market the other day, I picked up some goodies for future water play - a tiny sieve for fishing ($0.50), a squirt bottle ($0.80) and a spray bottle ($1.50), all for less than $3!