Warming Up

There's a plan hatching in the house - to deliver the lil one to a childcare centre up on the hill, behind our place. It's a small little semi-detached house on Jalan Pari K, with a lovely outdoor playground and there's no air-conditioning in sight - a boon in these times of H1N1... But for Mr Anti Social, this plan must not be made known to him. Instead, we've had to sneak it up to him. For the past week, grandma's been casually walking him up to the place, and "accidentally" stopping by to chat to the teachers. He cottoned on quickly and wailed each time. Today, the whole family trooped up the "hill" (okay it's a slope!) with him. At first he wailed, but once he saw the miniature kitchen in the yard, he was enthralled and busied himself "washing hands" at the sink. We stood by hopefully, eagerly, waiting to catch signs of him being sociable. Alas, the minute the other kiddies came out to play, he scurried out of the kitchen's window in an attempt to escape human contact. Sigh! But at least he didn't cry. He likes the outdoor play area for sure, and he EVEN held onto a teacher's hand briefly. but after half an hour, he was ready to say "GO!" still, he didn't forget his manners, and waved goodbye to the teachers. We'll have to keep doing this for a while, and then harden up our hearts to leave him there. Arggh. Grandpa's already voted himself out of the game. He can't stand hearing Val bawl. No such luck for the rest of us! Wish us best of luck!

Of songs, slippers and sea stars....

Val and one of his favourite books - of trucks- his obsession for things that go have begun!

Now that Mr Smellybottom has found his 'tongue', he's begun to parrot most of what we say to our bemusement - most of the time. Often, he spouts words in Chinese because his grandparents are the main caregivers. it's quite apparent the influence of caregivers cos in the first year when i was with him, most of the words he picked up was in English, now the new words are invariably in Chinese.

But kids do say the darnest things...! One day we caught him holding a paper bag, and when we asked him what he was doing, he said "take bag...." and we prodded on, "take bag for?" he replied "shopping" AIYOH! hilarious. He also knows that "money" goes into his plastic piggy bank, and often requests that we give him "money" so that he can feed his "pig". Thankfully, he's yet to make the connection between money and buying things.

These days, he charms his aunt calling her "Ah Yi..." sweetly over the phone, he beseeches his grandma with a well-timed "Po po...." and he absolutely melts his grandpa's heart by calling out for his "Ah Kong!" in the middle of the night or while looking for him in the crowd.

The boy also loves to watch the telly...unfortunately. The saving Grace is that the videos we play are all songs and kiddie programmes - so he's learning loads from them but well, sometimes, the too-many requests to switch on the TV gets to me. I'm mighty worried that we might be creating the next couch potato in the family.... Not that we have done badly - i mean, this is a family that sat around the TV eating, but still grew up well and not at all dysfunctional. So there's hope...

The songs he's learnt - he doesn't sing them. But he's becoming quite adept at filling in the blanks for us or doing the actions to accompany the songs. Row RoW Row your boat is a crazy mime of his hands rowing the oars - while he will sing "tar" to each line of Twinkle Twinkle little Star. His best song would be 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive. The lil 'un had unconsciously picked up all the last words of this song so it's pretty amusing to hear him do it as he intones the words like "bite" and "right" with a curious British accent. (Think "Rawght" and "bawwte") There are a couple of Chinese songs that he does the same too.... but nope, he doesn't sing them. He just nods his head vigorously - so much so that Grandma fears he might injure his neck!



And it seems that all babies have a shoe fetish - perhaps it is the human desire to fill in shoes that way too big for them! But he absolutely loves going about in over-sized and potentially dangerous footwear. Sometimes, even while he's wearing his slippers, he tries to surreptitiously step into my Crocs and attempts to make an escape in them. It's funny but also scary ... in the event that he falls and cracks his coconut. I have some videos of him waddling about in these slippers but my bandwidth is an issue and i'm a lazy bum, so there...just a picture will suffice.



Here're some pic from our exhausting and very hot day out at Chek Jawa, Ubin last Saturday. Val saw sea stars up close, dug his hands into the gooey mud, traipsed all around threatening to snuff out sea anemones, and threw plenty of dirt at crabs. The little boy did so well.... still full of energy after the excursion (he had only a catnap) while the rest of the 4 adults with him were absolutely bushwhacked. I was almost close to tears trying to beg him to take another nap. The pocket dynamite fell asleep only at 530pm... gosh.. needless to say, it was a crazy night for me later on.....i think i'm still suffering from that ambitious day out.

With his auntie who woke up at an earthly hour to drive us to Changi - thks Ah yi!

Sea stars never fail to intrigue - even the adults were clamouring to stroke them!

oh boy!

The lil guy and I at the Botanic Gardens some weeks ago (yes, that's how late i've been in updating my photos!)

We're back in action! Mommy's tummy has stopped running, and Grandpa's attack of the shingles seem to be at the end stage. I declare ourselves officially "safe" enough for public interaction with other human beings.....

On saturday, i brought him to a free sampler of ACT 3's class for the VERY YOUNG. Remember ACT 3 - all those from my generation? Ruby Lim-Yang (who used to be the single Ruby Lim) is still heading this amazing drama company for children. I saw her in the flesh, and boy, drama for kids must be quite the elixir of life cos she looks still so energetic and young! of course there were wrinkles, but come on, who don't get them! laugh lines are a blessed feature, i say. But i digress. Anyways, i was full of energy in the morning - even going as far as taking the bus and the train, and then a taxi to get to 126 Cairnhill Road for the class. But the minute i stepped into the courtyard, the lil 'un began shaking his head and refusing to go in. Somehow he had the sixth sense and could tell that this was going to be SOCIAL INTERACTION with other kids, which was still a big no-no for him. I had to usher him into a green room and nurse him (yes yes yes go on and tsk!) cos i really wanted him to feel reassured and confident. But no luck. Soon, there were loud sounds, and noises as big kids outside demonstrated what DRAMA was all about. He began fidgeting and kept pointing to the exit. Then, when the class started - we were led into an air-conditioned room - socks and shoes off. Sat in a circle, parent and kid, with teacher Eileen. Val and 2 other kiddies were obviously unwilling participants. They all stuck to their parents like a koala. Sigh.. It was Tough. I cajoled him to no avail. Even a bright green ball failed to unlock his grasp on me. There were some kids who were dancing delightfully to the music, much to my envy. Oh how i wished.... Then it was storytelling time. He liked it enough to stop wailing, watching from a distance, while the other kids had clambered to the front. But when the teacher told them to "push down the imaginary sandcastle" he gave a wail and shook his head. he was distraught by the thought of them destroying the castle! He wailed so loudly. I didn't know where to place my tomato-red face. Finally, there were more dancing, and one last bit that he loved - climbing up the wall with me supporting him. He kept making me do it, even after everyone had stopped......... err......

Tick tock... the minutes on the watch never seemed slower. Finally the hour was up, and i was LIBERATED. Yeah, let's go. I couldn't believe my luck. He didn't bawl too much at least... But boy, was i defeated. I hopped onto a taxi (no way was i going to try public transport), got home, fed him and fell into a deep deep slumber - the fatigue draining out from my digits onto the bed... gosh. i wonder when i might muster up courage to bring him to another class.

dungbombs

There's now a very good reason for the already anti-social me to reach the acme of anti-social-ness. I have become a walking dungbomb so downright off-putting that i can't even stand my own company. it's the evil fishballs that are still wreaking havoc in my guts. Excuse me while i poison myself, fester in my air-conditioned room, trapped with my own gas. @#$%^&^& Poor Val. he must be wondering what the ....!