Jayden's Journey

Jingle Bells

2012-01-05T08:56:00.004+08:00

If you are my Facebook friends, you'd probably saw this video already. Nevertheless, I'll share it again on my blog for those who didn't get to see it on my Facebook.

Here is Jayden, performing "Jingle Bells" for his classmates during the school's Christmas party. This piece can be found in the Fiddle Time Joggers that he's currently using for his violin lessons.

We were practicing this song a few weeks before Christmas and I casually asked him if he would like to perform this song for his schoolmates during the party. He obliged. The second piece that he played was not a Christmas song though. It was a special request from his Teacher, Ms Noor, as she said she love the rhythm of the song very much.

I'm always looking for opportunities for Jayden to play the violin for his friends, schoolmates, relatives or as and when there's upcoming concerts organized by his teacher. I believe it's very important as it will help boost his confidence, allowing him to be more receptive to play for future larger scales of concerts and recitals.

Should You Discipline Someone Else's Child In Public?

2012-01-03T22:49:00.006+08:00

This article caught my eye when I was browsing through the Family section of the recent Sunday Times. It basically talked about kids misbehaving badly and causing a nuisance to the public.

There were two cases cited. A policy development executive witnessed two toddlers hurling stones at a sleeping cat outside a restaurant. When the parents took no actions against the abusive behaviour of the toddlers, he signalled to the children to stop what they were doing and ushered them back to their seats, much to the displeasure of their parents. According to him, the children's father even remarked that "it's only an animal" that his son was targeting.

Second case was about a 39 year old housewife saying that she was dining at a restaurant with her 8 year old son and a 3 year old daughter at a cafe several years ago. Her son, who had finished his meal, stood on his booth seat despite her repeated admonitions to him not to do so. A couple seated at the other end of the booth seat were annoyed at the disturbance. "The man did not hesitate to tell us off. I was upset, of course. Besides the mild discomfort my son caused, there was no other trespass," the 39 year old housewife said. She hopes people in Singapore would be more tolerant.

"After all, it is said that it takes a village to raise a child and it is hard enough to be a parent. As a gracious society, we should just give and take when handling a child," she adds.

So back to the question. Should you discipline someone else's child in public?

If you'd ask me. For the first case that's mentioned. A definite YES. The kids and their parents ought to be slapped. How could they allow their children to inflict pain on a poor defenceless animal? If they can do it to an animal, come one day they may even be daring enough and capable of doing more harm than just to hurt a cat!

And to the 39 year old housewife ~ hey lady, you might find the actions of your son to be a very minor disturbance. But please before you ask people to more tolerant, put yourself in the shoes of others. If you were that couple, how would you feel if someone's constantly pounding on the booth when you are trying to just have a good meal? This is a cafe, not a kopitiam! Please try to have a firm discipline on your son. If he doesn't stop at your constant warnings, are you just going to allow him to go on and on?

I had a recent meetup with a couple of old friends and one them asked if I still use the "pull the ear" tactic when my son misbehaves in the public. "Oh yes," I answered. "As long as it works, I'll just keep doing it whenever he misbehaves!" Yes it's very unglam as once another friend lamented. But hey! As long as it works and it keeps my son from being a nuisance to the public, keeping him out of trouble, who cares if it's glam or unglam！

So, should you discipline someone else's child in public then? Yes. If the situation calls for it, I will not hesitate to do so.

And will I allow my son be discipline by others? Hell no. I will pull his ear and scold him myself before any Tom, Dick and Harry does so!

让别人来教自己的孩子，颜面何存？！

New Year! New Look!

2012-01-02T10:04:00.006+08:00

It's year 2012! A new year again!

It's time for a revamp for the again much neglected blog. It's been more than a year since I last put in a post. Time flies. I didn't even notice that the blog has once again, been neglected for this such long period of time this time round.

I'm sorry for not responding to the comments / requests that some of you have posted. I can't believe there are still people who actually continue to read this much neglected blog. A resolution for the new year ~ pay more attention to Jayden's (and also my own) blog and put in more entries!

Oh yeah, thanks to Daddy, we have a new look for Jayden's Journey. This time round I've requested for the blog to have a more clean, clear and simple design as compared to the last one. I also did a bit of cleaning up and removed links that aren't working anymore.

What have we, Jayden and I achieved for the past 1 year and 2 months?

~ We took our first long haul flight to United States and we did it without much hiccups!

~ Jayden graduated from his Suzuki Violin class at Mandeville Music School at April and started his one-to-one violin lessons.

~ Jayden participated in the national wide CMA Arithmetic and Abacus competition in May and came in 3rd for both categories!

~ Jayden started taking professional football training in June at Arsenal Soccer School League and his favourite coach is Coach Marciel!

~ Mommy took her first ABRSM violin exam for Grade 1 in September and scored a Distinction!

~ Jayden was given a longer piece of violin duet to practice in October, for his end year concert.

~ Finally, after practicing the piece of 4minute long violin duet for 2 months, Jayden performed the piece with his Teacher at the Matthias Oestringer Year End Student Concert on 11 December!

The above sums up more or less the significant events of year 2011! Of course there were many ups and downs but with the new year starting let's just think of all the positiveness and forget about all the bad stuff :)

And here is the video taken during Jayden's violin duet performance with Teacher Matthias Oestringer. By the end of his duet performance, I was beaming from ear to ear, and I'm sure so was Daddy :)

Neglected

2010-10-16T15:48:00.006+08:00

I have been neglecting Jayden's blog lately. Too caught up with too many other things relating and non-relating to Jayden including taking a week's off to Club Med Phuket and me being more active in my hot yoga practices at a new yoga studio.

Life goes on. And the child is still absorbing like at sponge till this day. Jayden is picking up fast with the abacus at CMA Arithmetic Center and the teachers reported that he's is progressing fast and eager to learn.

True enough, with around 14 pages of homework given, Jayden was able to finished it within 2 days and asking for more. I couldn't let him progress further without the teachers' coaching fearing that I might teach the wrong concept even though I roughly know how the method works.

He's really concentrating on his abacus homework :) He really love using the abacus.

The music appreciation lessons has also came to and end and we finally had our Saturdays freed! Thank goodness, less 1 day to brace the crowd at United Square. But still we have to go back to United Square every Sunday for Jayden's Suzuki Violin lessons.

Playing the violin is something that I yearned for when I was young. But because of our family financial conditions then, I wasn't able to realized. I am grateful to Jayden for giving me the chance to realize it now.

Taking the violin lessons together with Jayden is somewhat stressful, challenging and stretching my patience to its limit. Violin is something that is totally strange and new to the both of us. At times I had to admit that my patience could run thin as I will insist Jayden gets every motion and rhythm correct. I have to constantly remind myself not to push him too hard.

Here is a snapshot of Jayden trying to perfect his violin position on his foot chart in his playroom.

Will Jayden be a great violinist? Nobody knows what's in store for the future. For now I will be very contented if he could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

CMA Kinder Programme

2010-06-28T13:42:00.005+08:00

Have you heard of CMA mental arithmetic programme? If you haven't, neither have I until I went to explore and google about arithmetic courses for the young minds.

I also went into the KiaSuParents.com forum to read about kiasu parents' view on sending young kids (of Jayden's age) for extra arithmetic enrichment courses.

CMA is one of the most discussed schools when it comes to arithmetic enrichment courses. And there was also a recent feat on RazorTV of a 6 year old CMA student Cheryl Lee who holds the fastest record of 10-digit addition in Singapore. Very impressive.

Singapore really has alot of kiasu parents. Probably I am one of them.

I remembered Ms Jasmine told me that Jayden understands the simple concept of addition and subtraction and is able to use his fingers to do simple calculation so sending him for extra arithmetic courses would do him good. So I decided to call CMA up and find out more.

CMA is pretty stringent when it comes to enrollment. The child will have to go through a 45mins to an hour of basic assessment. The trainer will then introduce the basic concept and understanding of abacus and assess whether the child's fingers are agile enough to move the beads on the abacus.

Sounds easy, but I saw Jayden struggling with his index finger and thumb when he was asked to "open up" the beads (meaning separating 2 beads with his index and thumb at the same time). While the child is supposed to hold down the abacus with his left hand, the right hand's thumb and index are used to move the beads with the rest of the fingers holding onto a pencil. The pencil is never to be put down on the table at any time. This is to train the child to quickly write down the answer of the maths question without losing any precious time. Jayden got a bit impatient and at one time he dropped his pencil to the floor and then went on to separate the beads on the abacus. It is strictly not allowed and the trainer again reminded Jayden to hold onto the pencil again.

After 50mins, I could see the kids (Jayden was having his assessment with 2 other children, a 4 year old girl and a 5 year old boy) losing their attention span and interest. Jayden was constantly looking at me and signalling that he wants to go home.

Jayden and the other 2 kids passed the assessment. For Jayden, the trainer said that he could grasped the concept of abacus fairly quickly. He will just have to practice a bit harder on the fingering part which is quite normal for most kids his age. The trainer assured that after a few lessons he will do just fine.

The lessons can be conducted once or twice a week, depending on the child's progress and interest. For a start, we will just let Jayden try out the once a week programme. If he's doing fine and show interest then probably we'll sign him up the twice a week programme. I'm going to try to keep his abacus lessons on the weekdays so that we can still keep the weekends free.

This coming Friday will be his first lesson. I think it's going to be challenging but I'm looking forward to see how he fares.

Mandeville Music School

2010-06-26T11:04:00.005+08:00

It has never occurred to me that I've not blog about Mandeville Music School until Ivy asked for my comments about the school and the lessons that Jayden is attending.

Counting back, Jayden has been attending the Pre-Schooler Exploration for coming to 9 months. For the first 3 lessons, Ed and I would take turns to accompanied Jayden in class. The kids would sing, dance and learn musical notes. It's all very simple and basic music knowledge like clapping to the rhythm and learning to use some basic instruments like the cabasas, the triangle etc...

On the fourth lesson we were told by the Teacher to leave our kids on their own in the classroom so that she can have full reins on teaching, guiding and disciplining the kids. Not a bad idea for parents who would like to take a 45mins break or a quick shop at United Square.

After each lesson, Jayden would come out of the classroom in high spirits, singing to the tune he just learned or dancing to the rhythm. I would asked him if he enjoyed the lesson or what has he learned in there and he would happily tell me all about his classmates, the new notes he learned or the new clapping to a new rhythm. He was also given some simple homework every week like identifying the different types of notes and simple coloring. All in all, I think Mandeville is quite a good place to start the child on music appreciation.

The only setback that I could ever think of is not of the school but the mall that the school is situated in. United Square is really crowded during the weekends. As there are alot of schools there offering enrichment classes for kids, the crowd can get abit overwhelming. Searching for parking lots also posed a problem. At bad times we spent 15mins just entering the car park and up to 30mins just looking and waiting for a parking lot.

Ed and I are looking into starting Jayden on is violin lessons at the 3rd quarter of this year and Mandeville is one of the few schools that offers Suzuki violin lessons. That's also one of the reasons why we chose Mandeville in the first place.

Looks like we may have left with not much choice but to continue bracing ourselves to face the weekend crowds of United Square every week.

The grouchy monster obviously not in a good mood to take pictures!

Happy Fathers' Day

2010-06-17T17:36:00.007+08:00

Jayden was holding this two items in his little hands when I went to pick him up from school yesterday.

He was so excited and keep asking me if Daddy's home from work already. I had to repeatedly tell him that Daddy will be back soon and he'll just have to be patient and wait at home.

"Is daddy back yet? What time will he be home? I have to tell him Happy Fathers' Day!".

Sometimes it really takes quite a bit of patience to answer the many repeating questions of a 4 year old boy.

The cake is really pretty with the heart-shape sprinkles all round. I'm rather amused with the fine prints that's stated on the note. It says "please return container after wash." The cute little green pebble is 100% hand-painted by Jayden and I really like the shimmering heart shape.

It was good that Daddy came home a little earlier than usual and Jayden excitedly presented the gifts he made to Daddy with a beaming smile. I cut a small slice of the cake and shared it between the 3 of us. The kid picked out the heart-shape sprinkles and ate them separately.

Happy Fathers' Day to all Daddies!

All Things Marc Jacobs

2010-06-16T16:15:00.005+08:00

I only remembered I took this picture of Jayden in his Little Marc Jacob tee after reading this post from Chocklitmom.

The tee was a birthday gift from Volkswagen 阿姨 and was wrapped up nicely in a Club 21 paperbag but I didn't opened it up till was Jayden discharged from KK hospital and subsequently forgot to blog it.

Chocklitmom here is a Little Marc Jacob tee for boys!

Look at the naughty fella frowning all the way when I asked him to pose for me. The tee fitted him just nicely.

Here's a limited edition Marc by Marc Jacobs denim tote bag specially designed for the official grand opening of Marc by Marc Jacobs store at Mandarin Gallery. I was lucky enough to grab one before it got sold out. Thanks to Jenny again :)

Yes Marc Jacobs I love Singapore too!

Another item I grabbed at the recent Club 21 kids store sale, 70% off! What a steal! I particularly love the little mouse printed at the back of the tee. Cute isn't it?

What's Cooking ~ Home-grilled 叉烧

2010-06-15T09:43:00.000+08:00

After seeing Jenny making very tasty 叉烧 and grilled honey chicken with it I had to go buy it. It's rather straight forward and easy to use. It cost less than SGD170.00 for a mid size grill (it comes in 3 sizes) and with 2 simple-to-follow recipe books included. I really like this U-LIKE grill!

There's a daily demo at CK Tang with the sales person showing you step by step how to bake a simple chiffon cake with the grill and how to grill nice chicken wings and butter prawns. He was so nice to have showed me how to bake the cake twice when I told him I wasn't pretty sure how to do it.

The cake was really good. Light and fluffy. But I've yet to try it out on my own.

This is what I've accomplished the other day.

蜜汁叉烧

After 2 failed attempts which resulted in charred 叉烧, I finally got it right! It was good! Nothing beats home-cooked stuff! The grilling part just took about a mere 20 to 25mins but the marinating has to be done at least 4 hours beforehand to really let the sauce go into the pork.

I've also done Grilled honey glazed boneless chicken thighs which tasted really as appetizing as the 叉烧. I have to remember to take a picture of that the next time before I sank my teeth in it!

These both dishes Jayden takes it really well. Probably because they are on the sweet tasting side. It goes really well with plain rice!

Not sure if the guy who does the demo would be willing to let me video down the full process of baking the fluffy chiffon cake... I wonder.

What's Cooking ~ Apple & Fig Soup

2010-06-14T23:14:00.000+08:00

I've been cooking this soup many times for the past 2 weeks.

I like it because Jayden likes it. I practically like whatever the kid likes. If he takes it well, I will just cook it for him as often as I could.

You can find the recipe here. Thanks to Janie who gave me this link and that's how I learned to cook this soup for Jayden. What a lifesaver Janie is! I've been cracking my brains to cook different varieties of soup for Jayden almost everyday.

This picture that I took, doesn't look as appetising as the one that's shown here. Mine seems to have alittle more oil floating on the top, probably that's because I've used pork ribs and bones instead of lean meat suggested in the recipe. I like my soup with a teeny-weeny bit of oil and I was told by the butcher that pork bone makes sweeter soup!

I particularly like the functions of the ingredients used in this soup : heals and relieves cough, expel phlegm. Just what my kid would need when he's down with the coughing bug!

Try it out and you will see :)

Progress Report

2010-06-13T23:07:00.007+08:00

It's been another topsy-turvy month for May.

Jayden had another bout of high fever and bad cough. Once bitten twice shy. This time round I didn't want to wait for too long and got him admitted to Parkway East hospital.

Thank goodness it wasn't as serious as the last time. After a 3 days' stay, he was discharged. With a week of rest at home, he was good to resume school last week.

And last Saturday we had the Parents-Teacher meeting with Ms Jasmine at Zee Juniors to discuss about Jayden's progress in school for the first half of year 2010.

This is the summary of the report.

What Jayden has achieved

Jayden is a well-mannered boy who interacts very well with his friends and he never fails to greet the teachers in school. he is an intelligent child who grasps new concept fast and is a very independent worker who does not need much assistance from his teachers.

Jayden is able to blend and read there-letter words proficiently. He has a very good memory and is able to use the words he has learned into his work. He is able to read instructions and follow the steps without much help. he produces excellent reading skills for his age. Jayden will be able to proceed on to Blue Series (Consonant Blends) once he has completed the Pink Series Worksheets.

Jayden is good with numbers. He picks up the mathematical concepts with ease and is able to retain what he has learned. He is currently working with numbers within ten and subtraction sums. He will be moving on to numbers 11-20 in the coming semester.

Jayden participates passionately in the Creative areas (Arts & Crafts, Cookery and Music & Movement). He can sing and dance very well. He can also remember the lyrics very well. He shows great interest in Cookery and will ask when he has doubts. He is able to remember the ingredients being used. Jayden can draw very well and is able to follow steps by steps instructions either for drawing or painting, etc.

Jayden enjoys his time in school with his friends especially during outdoor play. He loves to jump on the trampoline and chase his friends on the tricycle.

Jayden is gradually eating better during lunchtime after some encouragement. He is still eating a small portion for his meal but is more willing to try out new dishes.

Keep up the good work, Jayden! It is a joy to have you in class! Three cheers for you!

承恩是個非常聰明可愛的小男孩。他的头脑灵活，记忆力好，对华文有着浓厚的兴趣。在华文课堂上，他认真听讲，积极回答问题，老师讲授的知识掌握得很快而准确。华文作业能够积极独立地完成，口语表达方面也不断提高，局继续努力!

Even though Jayden missed 2 months' of academic learning from school due to the severe lung infection episode, Ms Jasmine reported that Jayden is still in advance of his learning as compared to some of his classmates and was able to catch up with the work he had missed. Ed and I were very glad to hear that. We wanted to let Jayden take his time to pick up the pace of learning where he left before he was down with the infection and afraid that he might find it hard to start the school routine again. Seems like our worries were unfounded!

It's been one year since Cherie Hearts took over the management of Zee Juniors. We were glad that we let Jayden stayed on to the school despite that there were several times we did think of switching him to another school because of the messy transitional period. The school now is well organized and the teachers are a dedicated bunch.

After the official meeting session, Ms Jasmine and I had a short informal discussion... and I'm relieve to hear that she's most willing to work hand in hand with me to help improve on Jayden's eating habits and diet. It's really hard to find teachers who are willing to go above and beyond the call of duty these days. Let's just hope Jayden's immune system will improve as days goes by and will not keep missing his school days often.

要不要洗头？

2010-06-05T16:00:00.005+08:00

This video was taken 2 weeks back when Jayden had his usual haircut.

After the usual haircut, the young hairstylist asked "要不要洗头？” Jayden nodded his head and replied "要!”

So cute this 小大人!

What's Cooking? ~ Steam Red Grouper Fillet

2010-04-19T11:27:00.003+08:00

An easy lunch that I've cooked for Jayden yesterday.

The Red Grouper fillet tasted really good! I placed a few slices of ginger on top of it before I steamed it so as to eliminate any fishy smell. But there weren't any at all. The sauce for the fish was easy. I bought a bottle of superior soy sauce specially for steam fish, dilute a tablespoon of it with half a bowl of water and a little bit of sugar. Bring the sauce to a quick boil in a shallow frying pan and pour it to the fish when it's half cooked. Continue to let it simmer together with the fish.

Jayden loved the fish and took the smaller piece plus a little corner of the bigger slice. A great improvement consider last time he didn't even want to have a small bit of it! The sauce tasted really good with the rice and he ate up almost a full bow with it. Thanks to Jenny again, her cooking tips are good!

What's missing from the picture was the soup that my maid cooked. We had carrot and corn soup with red dates and Chinese mushroom. I got to admit, she's getting really good at cooking all these Cantonese soup. I always joke with her, telling her she can go home and set up a soup stall selling all these nutritious soup she learned to cook!

Out And About

2010-04-18T18:25:00.008+08:00

I've been out and about running around on the whole of yesterday. Was physically drained by the evening.

In the morning, I went to the market again to get more cod fish and salmon. And this time round I bought another type of fish - Red Grouper 红石斑。

Right after the marketing I had to go attend a cookery class that Ed signed up for me with the SHHK. I reached home at 9.30am and had to be at the cookery class venue by 10.15am. I only had half an hour to rest! Thank goodness the venue, which is at Katong Community Centre, is quite near to my place.

The cookery lesson, surprisingly, turned out to be quite a fruitful one. The chef who was doing the cooking demo was Chef Heman Tan. 真是有眼不识泰山，原来他是个 executive chef with a certain F&B company.

The demo was on creating an Bento meal for kids. Very appropriate for me since I have a super fussy eater at home. Here's a pic of what was being taught. In the bento, there's Grilled Boneless Chicken Leg with home-made BBQ sauce, Mashed potatoes, Broccoli florets & young carrots with cheesy mayo dressing, and Bubor hitam with mango combo. The chicken tasted really good and the mayo dressing is something new. The instant mashed potato, though tasted "instant", was nice.

Here's the recipe for the dishes shown in the Bento, except for the dessert of Bubor Hitam.

Grilled Chicken Leg Boneless with BBQ Sauce and Mashed Potato served with Broccoli Florets and Young Carrots topped with May Dressing.

Grilled Chicken Leg Boneless

1 chicken leg boneless - 160gm

mixed herbs - 3gm

paprika - a light dash

garlic - (chopped finely)

salt and pepper to taste

1. Washed and drained dry the chicken leg and season with herbs for 30-45mins.

2. Heat up pan fryer

3. Pan fry the chicken leg. When it turn slight golden brown, add in and coat the chicken leg with the home-made BBQ sauce and continue to fry it till crispy brown.

*extra tips from the chef : we can gently cut zig zag lines on the chicken leg to avoid it shrinking after being cook.

Home-made BBQ sauce

tomato sauce - half a can

hp sauce - 100ml

LP sauce - 100ml

cooking corn oil - 50ml

bay leaf - 1 piece

mixed herbs - 5gm

sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Just mix everything in a saucepan and cook it well. Once boil, just turn off the stove and allow it to cool. The extra BBQ sauce, we can always store it in a airtight storage box and store it in the fridge. We can keep it for approx. 1 month. Don't forget to date the sauce!

Mashed potato

instant mash potato mix - 250gm

UHT milk - 1 packet

butter - 30gm

bay leaf - 1 piece

water - 200ml

salt and pepper to taste

1. heat up sauce pan and add in butter and pour in milk and water. Careful not to let the milk to boil over.

2. Add in bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste and bring it to boil.

3. Off the stove and stir in mash potato mixture and set aside.

Cheeys Mayo Dressing

mayonnaise - 500gm

shredded mozzarella cheese - 100gm

Mix both the mayo and cheese well.

Bring it to boil and set aside to cool.

Sounds easy right? I shall try it this coming weekend when Ed's back from his Phuket trip :)

What's Cooking?

2010-04-16T12:45:00.003+08:00

I did said that I've been cooking more often lately, haven't I? Here's a pic of the Teriyaki Salmon fish that I've cooked up for dinner 2 nights back!

Not too bad consider I've only tried frying fish twice! Thanks to my dad as he brought me to the wet market that's called Bedok 58 八刹。This particular fish stall only sells 生鱼片and 雪鱼 (cod fish) and salmon slices. I was amazed how the stall owner slices up the 生鱼片so thinly!

For SAHMs like me who don't really favor steaming or handling whole fish, this is really a awesome way of getting nice fresh fish without the scales and bones! I bought all 3 types of fish!

I cooked the cod fish the other night but I was too eager to try out the taste and forgot about taking a picture of it. Surprisingly, I followed this mom's amazing method and it really covers up the fishy smell of the cod fish really well! Ed liked it and Jayden ate it!

As for the salmon..... it tasted really nice and not as fishy provided you eat it hot and fast after cooking it. It can taste a tad fishy after a while. Comparing the salmon with the cod fish, Ed prefers the latter. But Jayden takes both of them!

I guess I will be visiting this stall pretty often from now on!

It Calls For A Celebration

2010-04-13T23:36:00.021+08:00

A small celebration for the 3 of us as Jayden did his health review with the specialist this morning and was given the green light to resume his routine before he was brought down by the infection.

A x-ray was taken and we had a good 20mins talk with the specialist to discuss about Jayden's recovery progress. The specialist said Jayden looks clinically good and the x-ray showed that his infection has clear up quite a bit. Comparing it to the first initial x-ray taken upon his admission to the hospital, it sure does showed a great improvement! Upon the completion of the course of antibiotics (which the last dose will be this Saturday night) he will be good to go back to school!

A call for celebration! *Freedom! ~ Freedom!!!!*

So Ed and I decided to have a good lunch after the review! We went 新旺茶餐厅 to pig out! Sorry I dun hv pictures to show because we were so busy eating! Jayden ate quite a bit of 猪扒饭 and his favorite toast bread with butter and maple syrup!

These pictures were taken at Haagen-Dazs, right after our pigged out lunch. I had promised Jayden that I would bring him for ice cream if the doctor said he's well enough to eat it. Ed couldn't eat anymore so Jayden and I had the ice-cream all by ourselves! We each chose one of our favorite flavor and Jayden finally had his strawberry!

And finally the Marc by Marc Jacob Hobo bag that I've been eyeing on for while! I finally got it! Thanks to Ed for buying it as my belated birthday present and Jenny for helping me to pick it up and having it nicely wrapped up with not just normal wrapping paper but with Marc Jacob wrapper!

Quite a good buy consider that it's full leather and for less than $900. The size and shape is just right for a Hobo that I've been searching for. Now is to find the right time for me to 开张 this bag!

Finally, I think we can all put a closure to this hospital incident. From now on, lots of Pediasure, fish, meat and fresh fruits (specially mentioned by the specialist) for Jayden.

Hopefully with a improved diet, Jayden's immune system will be stronger. 真的是昂贵的教训!

Back To His Old Self

2010-04-11T12:22:00.006+08:00

He's getting more demanding and probably because I want to make it up to him of what he has gone through at the hospital I let him get his ways.

But there are still times that I will instill discipline when he has gone overboard.

He's happily playing with the balloons that we have got for him during his stay at the hospital. Every day he would pick out one of them and walk around the ward just like bringing a dog for a walk. Now he will let them float around the house.

This is a hand print painting that his teacher had brought to him during one of her visits at the hospital. I forgot to include it in my earlier postings. So thoughtful of his schoolmates and teachers. Jayden was very happy when he saw the familiar names and hand prints. He went "Oh that's Marcus Aw's hand print! It's big!"

Next Tuesday he will be going back to the hospital for his outpatient appointment with the specialist and a chest x-ray will be taken. Hope by then he will be fully covered and getting ready to go back to school. He misses his schoolmates and teachers too.

Random

2010-04-10T11:52:00.005+08:00

To Chocklitmom's request, here is a pic of my Marc by Marc Jacob tote bag. The size is just nice for me and I can dump lots of stuff in it and still look good. There's a MMJ Hobo that I'm eyeing at. Maybe I can post a pic of it soon?! :)

Here is a slice of the signature chocolate cheesecake from Lil' Foot Patisserie. It taste as good as it looks!

Did I mention that I've started knitting again? Here is the pair of socks that I've just completed. I regret I never brought it along with me when I was in the hospital with Jayden. The room temperature can go really low and my feet were freezing cold!

Now that I've started knitting again I wonder if I should start a knit blog again. Over the years I've tried to maintain a knit blog but to no avail. We'll see how long I can knit for this time round and maybe if I can stay focus enough, who knows, I could just start my knit blog soon!

The little cheeky fella insist on putting my knitted socks on even though he knows that they were too big for him!

This is another pair of socks that I've just started. Cookie A's Monkey socks. They are so fun and easy to knit!

This pic was taken by my sister during one of the many visits at the hospital 2 weeks' back. His smile was so sweet that I cannot resist posting it on my blog.

I've been cooking for this cheeky fella these days as nothing beats home cooked food. But once in awhile I'll still run out of recipes and ideas what to cook and how to make the dishes more interesting. I'm trying hard.

We have also ordered $200 worth of bottles of Pediasure Ready-to-drink from Abbott to put Jayden back on drinking milk again. I remembered when one of the doctor (while we were still in KK Hospital) told me that fresh milk is not good enough, especially for kids like Jayden, picky and underweight. She said Pediasure is the best. Ok enuff said, Pediasure it will be.

Oh, it's time to go prepare lunch. Gotta go cook!

Daddy's Work - 4 Year Old Collage

2010-04-07T14:11:00.002+08:00

Again beautiful work of the Daddy.

Jayden Is 4 Years Old

2010-04-06T14:18:00.006+08:00

This was meant to be posted earlier but because of the pneumonia episode it was being delayed.

Better late than never. Here are the wonderful pictures captured on the special day that's being marked on my calendar yearly.

Too bad Ed was in London, he missed the big day. He will have to make it up to Jayden when he certified all well and fit to venture out of the house by the doctor 1 and a half weeks from now.

Pictures taken during the day at school. Jayden did the cake cutting, giving out the cakes and his party goodie bags to his friends in school.

In the afternoon at Kidz Explorer, letting him running crazy and having fun with his cousin Natalie and our maid Anna.

I love it when he does the cheeky look smile. Cheeky fella!

On Saturday, right before his musical lesson. We had another small dimsum celebration with his two 阿姨 and favorite cousin Natatlie at the Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine at Crowne Plaza Hotel.

祝小承恩身体建康，天天开心，快高长大!

The Saddest Thing

2010-04-05T14:23:00.005+08:00

I didn't want to blog about what happened for the past 3 weeks. But then blogging it will be a reminder to me and a warning to all that we sometimes just cannot take things for granted.

It all started right after Jayden's birthday.

Have I been overindulging him in eating unhealthy snacks and drinking too much fizzy drinks over the past 2 days of his birthday celebration? Or did he caught the Streptoccus pneumoniae from Daddy who just came back from UK? Or was he infected when we first visited the PD on Monday when he had high fever? And the teachers were also very concerned if he had caught the bug in school and was hibernating in his body over the past few days before the high fever hit him?

I have no answers.

I was very angry with myself. How on earth did I let it happened? Of course nobody wants Jayden to be hospitalized but it can be avoided. How? By not waiting and be more prudent about going to the hospital or doctor earlier when the kid shows signs of distress.

14 March, Sunday

6.30pm:

realized the kid was running a temperature. Gave him a dose of paracetamol.

8.00pm:

fever did not subside and temperature was going up to 39 degrees. Called the PD and asked if I could give him a dose of Bifen. Fever subsided after taking Bifen. Monitored temperature every 2 hourly.

15 March, Monday

10.00am:

Brought him to the PD to make sure that it's nothing more than viral fever (which I can handle). There were a few kids in the clinic coughing and sneezing. I can see some of them were having fever as well. PD said it's viral fever which will take at least 4 days for the fever to go away. Was given extra bottles of Paracetamol and Bifen to standby. He was still active whenever the fever subsided.

8.00pm:

Jayden started coughing. High fever persisted.

16 March, Tuesday

9.00am:

Cough seems to worsen and fever persisted further. I decided to bring him back to the PD tomorrow morning. Still active whenever the fever subsides.

17 March, Wednesday

10.00am:

Back to the PD. A few kids were coughing. Some had to go on the neubrilizer. PD listened to Jayden's chest and decided to start him on the antibiotics. I'm not in favor of starting the kid on antibiotics because he will start to have diarrhoea and lost of appetite. But nevertheless PD said it's necessary with at least 1 dose a day. PD advised to do a remote consultation via phone on Saturday morning to check on Jayden's condition. Showing signs of lethargic, not to mention that his appetite started to drop.

18 March, Thursday

3.00pm

The cough seems to have worsen. But Ed and I decided to wait for a day before taking further actions as Jayden just started on the antibiotics. If I were bring him back to the PD, she would probably say that I'm being paranoid and too kiasu. High fever persisted and not eating much at all. He was still able to play a little whenever the fever subsides.

19 March, Friday

9.00pm

Cough worsen. Jayden was totally not playing and talking much the whole day. He was constantly drifting into sleep and then waking up coughing badly. He didn't want to lie down to sleep, insisted on sitting up straight. He was not eating much but kept asking for water. He was gasping to breath at times.

10.00pm

Decided not to wait any longer and went to KK Hospital.

All that happened after was like a blur dream. I got off at the drive way of the hospital while Ed went to get the car parked. There was no queue for the children's A&E and Jayden was being attended to immediately. The nurse did a quick check on Jayden's stats and immediately we were ushered into another room.

I was puzzled. The nurse quickly gave the stats to the doctors and the nurses in the room. Very quickly one of the nurse put a oxygen mask over Jayden's mouth to help him with his breathing. I was stunned and scared. I quickly asked the nurse who was attending to Jayden if he's gonna be alright. The nurse didn't answer me but keep looking at the machine which was monitoring Jayden's pulse rate, % of oxygen that he's taking and respiratory rate.

I was stunned, shocked and scared and tears started to well in my eyes. We waited too long. We should brought him in earlier and he wouldn't be subjected to all these pain and distress.

11.00pm

A chest x-ray was ordered immediately and the result showed that Jayden's right lung was badly infected and solidified. Preliminary examination by the doctor stated that he had pneumonia. The worse scenario is that Jayden may have to go through surgery to have his infected part of the lung removed. Another less damaging alternative was to insert a chest tube to drain out all the fluid that is now affecting his chest and outside of the lungs to ease his breathing.

11.25pm

Jayden had to be admitted to High Dependency ward because his condition had to be monitored round the clock. I was shocked when we arrived at the ward because there are other 4 kids in the ward with their accompanied parent there. It was quite a crowd with the additional nurses and doctors who were attending to Jayden. Ed requested for a 1 bedder room but was told there were no such class for the High Dependency ward as they need to centralize their resources.

12.00am

Proceed to the x-ray room for a further CT scan to further evaluate to see if Jayden can evade surgery.

20 March, Saturday

12.15am

CT scan shows that Jayden's right side of the lung is badly infected and solidified with fluid. After much discussion with the few doctors, it is best decided to insert a chest tube just below the surface of the of the skin, as near to the infected part of the lung as possible, to drain off as much fluid as possible. The doctors then briefed us on the side effects..... I was only half listening to what the doctors were saying. I left the rest of the discussion to Ed as I was too devastated, guilty and heart-pain.

1.00am

The doctors also ordered a high pressure oxygen mask instead of the normal oxygen mask for Jayden as the former will help to Jayden to breath even easier. But the high pressure oxygen mask was very big and the pressure was high. Jayden's lips gotten dry and soon started to crack under the constant harsh blowing of oxygen from the mask.

Jayden was constantly asking if he could take the mask off... he will go "ok? done? can get it off?!"... Even though he was in distress he could still sound demanding and feisty!

Doctors and nurses continued to hover over Jayden, monitoring him as the hours passed by.

4.00am

The procedure of inserting the chest tube has been ordered and will take about half and hour to complete. Jayden was heavily sedated so that he wouldn't be feeling the pain. As it was considered a minor procedure, it was carried at the ward itself with curtains drawn. Ed and I waited outside while the procedure was being carried out. They will leave the chest tube in Jayden for about 3 to 4 days so as to drain out as much fluid as possible.

4.30am

Saw the chest tube attached to Jayden's small body. It was heart wrenching but inevitable. I was very concerned about the pain that he would feel after the sedation is over and I kept bugging the nurses to be on time whenever the painkiller is due. Though Jayden was heavily sedated he was still conscious about his surroundings and the pain. He kept saying "pain... pain..." and he was hungry. But because of the sedation, he was not to be given any food or water. We had to try our best to distract him. He was so desperate that he even asked for milk. Milk was the last thing he ever wanted when he was well.

The rest of the day Jayden was drifting in and out of sleep due to the effect of the sedation. Gradually he began to realized that the chest tube was there to stay.

21 March, Sunday

Ed and I took turns to go home, wash up and freshen up. Doctors came and explained Jayden's situation to us again and again. Thank goodness Jayden's condition wasn't life threatening but the infection was severe. His blood samples were taken for cultural blood test to find out what exactly was the strain of virus so as to match the right type of antibiotics to counter attack it. But the cultural test will take at least 2 days to develop so for now the doctors will have to make a nearest assumption and gave him 3 types of antibiotics that are most likely to be effective in controlling the respiratory infection, Zithromax, Augmention and Amoxicillin. A lung specialist has also been arranged to see Jayden on Monday.

22 March, Monday

A senior consultant who is also specialized in respiratory came and checked on Jayden. We asked the next course of actions and asked her many many questions and were relieved when she further assured us that Jayden will recover given time. Cultural test results showed that the strain of virus has been identified as Streptoccus pneumoniae and Amoxicillin is the effective antibiotics that will fight it. Thank goodness they now can eliminate the other 2 as Jayden was constantly having diarrhoea with ever dose of antibiotics they are giving.

The senior consultant is now assigned to Jayden as his doctor and anything concerning Jayden's condition will be directed to her. Thank goodness.... I'm getting tired of having different Registras, different consultants, different Medical Officers and Health Officers coming to check on Jayden and giving different answers to my many questions.

Ed bought a portable DVD and attached it to Jayden's cot. With the DVDs, Jayden was less bored and much distracted with the pain. Jayden was never interested in cartoons. He actually preferred TV programs like Ninja Warrior, football matches and F1 Grand Prix races. But for a circumstance like this, he was able to compromise and settle for cartoons like UP (which we both watched for umpteen times!), KungFu Panda and the animated series of Mr Bean.

23 March, Tuesday

Ed and I received smses of concerns for Jayden from family, friends and from Jayden's teacher. Many wanted to come visit but I told them no. High Dependency ward consist of other patients who have other illness. There were much viruses going around. I strongly disagree of having visitors, especially young kids (my niece wanted to come visit badly) and adults who may not be infected with the viruses but MAY BE CARRIER of the germs and may pass it on to younger children or old folks with weak immunity system.

1.30pm

Received sms from Jayden's favourite teacher, Ms Jasmine. She insisted to come visit as she said she misses Jayden badly and wanted to see how is he doing. 2 other teachers came along. And upon seeing Jayden with the chest tube, Ms Jasmine cannot help it but cried.

24 March, Wednesday

Jayden's fever was beginning to subside but still there were a few spikes of high temperature. He was showing signs of recovery as he was breathing much better and easier. Pressure of the oxygen mask has also been lowered as the doctors wanted to wean it off him so that he can start to have intake of food via mouth and not through tubes and drips.

Ms Jasmine came again to visit and brought along a magnifying glass (as per Jayden's request). Ms Agnes also brought along Jayden's chinese story books for him to read when he is bored.

And finally the doctor has decided to remove Jayden's chest tube as the draining of fluid is much done.

3.00pm

Pysiotherapist came and together we did some exercises to help Jayden to build up his confidence to breath without the oxygen mask and to also help work his lungs.

4.30pm

Doctors clamp his chest tube, getting ready for the removal that is scheduled at 7.30pm. A chest x-ray was taken to see all draining by the tube has been done.

9.00pm

Finally the doctors came and removed the chest tube. I could hear Jayden asking alot of questions and saying things like "be careful! It's painful! What are you doing?! Why are you holding the scissors? Don't cut me ok?!" Another chest x-ray was also done to make sure that the infection is under control.

Finally the chest tube is off Jayden and resulted in 2 small stitches a the right side of his chest.

25 March Thursday

Senior consultant continued to check on Jayden daily and as I have constantly been bugging her, she finally give in and allowed Jayden to be out of the High dependency ward and to be moved to a normal one!

26 March - 3 April

Now that Jayden is finally transferred to a 1 bedder room, we are able to have more privacy, space and freedom. I was able to accompany Jayden all the time. Not that I like staying in a 1 bedder room in a hospital but it's definitely better than having to share a big room with so many other patients and accompanying parent!

And the waiting game began. Everyday was a waiting game as Jayden's fever, though slowing going down, but will have some spike up during certain time of the day. For example, the whole morning it will be 37.5 degrees to 37.8 degrees, Doctors considered 38 degrees and above will it then be having a fever) and then come evening 5.30pm the temperature will go 38.5 degrees. After a dose of paracetamol, the temperature will fall below 37.5 degrees.

We just have to wait till the fever is stabilized for at least 24 hours and then switch Jayden's administering of antibiotics from intraveous to oral before he can be discharged.

3 April, Saturday

Finally. The records from the nurses' constant measuring of Jayden's temperature shows that the infection has conceded defeat. Jayden's temperature has been constant for the past 24 hours and we can now safely switch Jayden's intake of antibiotics to oral instead of giving it to him intravenously. Just in time to be home to celebrate my birthday.

The above are a few snap shots we took during the hospitalization period. A few (the cheerful looking shots) were sent via sms-es to friends, Jayden's teacher and family members so that they are being posted of Jayden's status.

I was reluctant to have the pictures taken.... as it reminded me how careless I was and because of that that, it resulted in the pain, agony and heart wrenching moments that we all had to go through.

This blog entry will always serve as a reminder to me that I will not be complacent again when the child is down and when there are signs that he is in distress. Cannot always assume that he's doing ok even after seeing the PD thrice, cannot always think that tomorrow he will be alright.

Right now, I'm just glad and grateful that we are all able to overcome the ordeal and he's slowly taking back what he has lost during the down period.

And yes we were able to celebrate my birthday at home! And what did I wish for? I bet we all know and that is for Jayden to be strong, healthy and happy. Nothing else matters.

I Didn't Mean To Eavesdrop.....

2010-03-07T10:57:00.004+08:00

but United Square is specially crowded during the Saturdays and the kids and parents there tend to walk a little faster, stand a little closer and talk a little louder.

Saturday is music appreciate lesson day for Jayden at the United Square. We were running a little late yesterday as Ed was not here to drive us there. When we arrived at UE square we were both hurrying up the escalator to 3rd floor where is school is located.

We were standing right behind a little girl and a HOT mama at the escalator and I overheard their conversation.

Little girl : Mommy I'm really tired.... can you carry me?

Hot mama: Mommy cannot carry you.... what if mommy carry you and then sprain my leg then how? *pulling up her skinny jeans revealing a pair of approximately 4" inch high heels wedges to her sweet looking little girl* Then mommy will have to go to hospital and daddy will have to go there and pick us up, then how?"

The little girl continue to follow obediently behind her mommy and I gave a quick run down on the hot mama's outfit. The already-mentioned 4" high heels wedges, skinny jeans and a leopard preens spaghetti top, complete with a LV bag.

I looked down at the pair of Birkis that I'm wearing, my faded pair of bermudas and my plain black lycra t-shirt. No LV bag for me but I've got my very functional Marc Jacobs tote bag.

Hot and sexy mama look versus the comfy and "anytime can carry my child look".

Needless to say, I'd rather choose the latter.

五

2010-03-06T11:22:00.006+08:00

A few days back, when I was giving Jayden his usual bathe before bedtime, he proudly told me that he could write the chinese character number 5 and he started to write the strokes on the bathroom wall.

I was thinking it's not as easy as writing 一二三, but achievable to write 五 with teacher's assistance.

Jayden proudly show me his chinese worksheet when we took the folder back home on friday.

Indicated on his chinese work sheet was 3 star grade given to Jayden by his chinese teacher for writing the 五 on his own.

Jayden went "妈妈你看! 自己做! I did it on my own! 3 stars!" Not bad! Good effort from Jayden!

Teacher Jasmine did mentioned that straight strokes are the easier to write... the curves are the difficult ones, like the number 8.

I'm looking forward to see how will Jayden tackle 九。

Running Around

2010-03-05T17:09:00.005+08:00

35 degrees Celsius. That's how hot it was yesterday. I was perspiring under the scorching sun running around, finalizing all that has to be finalize for next Thursday.

Right after my spin class I set off to the baker's again to finalize the decorations and the size of the cake. Yesterday during our first meeting with the baker, we have decided the theme of the cake to be Racing Car Track theme and I am to provide 6 of Jayden's favourite F1 racing car. Immediately I rushed off to the mall and got him 3 racing cars and 3 other fanciful cars from Hot Wheels.

After I double check the size of the cake, I decided to go for a 2.5kg one instead of the initial agreement of 1.5kg. To have more than enough to eat is better than having less to share with his friends in school.

Once the details of the cake was finalized, I quickly grabbed a nice lunch and went in search of the perfect items for Jayden's birthday goodie bags.

Here's what I've bought for the 41 numbers of goodie bags.

Very cute miniature magnifying glass. When I first saw these cute magnifying glasses I said to myself that they are the "must-get" for Jayden! During the Lunar New Year when we visited 宋婆婆 and Jayden was so intrigued with the magnifying glass that she uses to check on her almanac. Jayden kept bugging her if he could use it just for awhile. I bet he will have a great time using it to check out the ants in the house!

Some pretty pegs, erasers and pencils.

Nice stencils with different shapes and lines.

Some sharpeners and colorful miniature highlighters.

A close-up shot of the pretty sharpeners that I've chosen. I really like the piggy face!

Some happy faces stickers to add on some fun.

Colorful party bags to contain all the stuff that I've picked up.

Last but not least, what's a goodie bag when there's no candy in it?! Remembering the school's request *minimal candies please!*, I decided to splurge a little on the candy part and bought the organic lollipop. One in each bag. Even lollipops can be organic! The mango flavor ones are really nice!

And I'm all set to pack the 41 numbers of goodie bags!

Oh I also splurged a little more for Jayden! The Armani t-shirts are really cool! Hard to resist! So I ended up buying 2 pieces and Ed is poorer by a whopping $200 plus!

The Club 21 Kids gift bag is a advance birthday pressie from Nissan 阿姨! I wonder what's the content of it? All Nissan 阿姨 could divulge was that it's a Marc Jacobs shirt.... must wait till next Thursday then we can open it!

Splurged on the kid and I will have to scrimp on my birthday celebration next month!

妈妈真伟大!

Getting Prepared

2010-03-03T10:28:00.004+08:00

I'm a little panicky these days.

Jayden's birthday is just round the corner. In a week to be exact. But I'm kinda flustered. I feel a bit nervous. Probably is because Ed won't be around to participate in the celebration this time round. He just left for London last night and won't be back till 13 March.

We both knew that it can't be help that he's gonna miss his precious' 4th birthday. Work still comes first.

Never mind, I can managed. I think I can. But up till now I have yet to order the cake. But I roughly have in mind what the kid and I wanted. I couldn't make up my mind which baker I want to go for... pricey and classy design? Or I wanna go for the taste rather than the aesthetic and it's gonna slightly cheaper? Sigh. Where to find a cake that's really great looking, not so pricey and taste healthy and great for the kids at school?

*Ed if you read this in London, please don't be upset with me if i busted my budget for the cake, ok? I really want Jayden to be proud that he's gonna get the cake that look really pretty and taste great!*

Anyway, I've made an appointment with the baker and will be going down to talk about the details in awhile. I hope it can be finalize today.

Oh, and there's the goodie bag to be settled. Minimal candies please! The school requested! Oh gosh..... so candies are out. I have to get something that's useful ie. stationaries like pencils.... colour pencils.. maybe some interesting stencils. No hello panda, no sweet gummies and no jellies. I think I will include 1 healthy organic lollipop in the bag. This is gonna be challenging.

Another challenging task. There will be another boy who will be celebrating his birthday too at the school on the same day as Jayden. And the school has set down quite strict rules about the timing for celebrating birthdays. Too bad that I sent in my request a little too late and I have been given the time slot of 11am instead of 9.30am.

The good thing about having the 9.30am time slot is the kids will be able to eat the cake as "morning snack break". So that means the birthday kid will cut and cake and the kids get to eat it immediately.

The downside is, we'll have to get the cake to the school at 9.30am sharp. Some bakeries might not be open at such a early timing.

As for the 11am slot, well... I get more time to fetch the cake as most of the bakeries open after 10am. But Jayden will only cut the cake. They will have to wait till after lunch and the cake will be serve as desserts.

Well, being a mom who's very particular about kids' eating habits, I understand where the school is coming from when they said they can only serve it after lunch. I just hope my effort of getting a good tasting and great looking cake won't go to waste.

Let's just hope celebration will go smoothly.... and now that Ed's not gonna be here, I will have to be the one who's gonna take pictures for the celebration. Sigh, I have to admit I'm a lousy photographer and under tense situations I tend to get very disoriented, so you roughly can imagine how the pictures gonna look.

To make picture taking real easy, Ed bought me a real easy-to-handle 笨蛋傻瓜 camera for the event. Minimum fussing and maximum ease, that's what it's important to me.

He got me a Casio Ex-H10.

Looks really easy to handle but still I have to go through the manual! Must make sure I really know how to use it or else all of Ed's effort in finding me this perfect camera will go to waste.... Must make sure I capture all the great moments of the party! *stress*

Oops, I'm running out of time. Have to get going. Appointment with the baker is at 12.30pm.

Gotta run!

新加坡福建会馆 ~ 庆元宵

2010-03-01T10:11:00.007+08:00

Time flies. I remembered last year when we attended the 庆元宵by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, Jayden was recovering from his fever and having a runny nose.

This year thank goodness he was in a good mood when we told him that we'll be going to see Lion Dance.

Last year we were very late and the seats were all taken up when we arrived. This year Ed and I decided to go early and make sure the kid will have a good view of the parade.

There's already a crowd when we first arrive at 天福宫.

We brought Jayden to tour around 天福宫 and offered our prayers and thanks to 妈祖, the Goddess of The Sea.

Jayden was pretty excited to see the props that were placed on the streets, especially the Lion heads as the colours were so vibrant.

The street parade will only start at 7.30pm but we arrived early at 5.45pm to start off with savoring all the nice Hokkien snacks in exchange with the coupons we bought for the event.

Jayden loves 扣肉包，福建面，瑕枣 and the complimentary free flow of popcorns and candyfloss. He had one and a half 扣肉包 and that could last him till the end of the parade.

The night was quite humid and all of the spectators were fanning away feverently. Look how Jayden was perspiring!

It was very crowded and all the kiasu people start "chob-ing" seats!

The strong men lifting up the very heavy flag!

Daddy and Jayden, both perspiring like mad!

飞龙在天!

My favorite segment of the parade ~ 舞狮!

This is the first time we got up this close and personal with the Lion Dance and what made it extra special is that this is no normal lion dance. It's lion dancing on poles! The stunts were amazing and we would hold our breath whenever the lion went up higher on the tallest pole. Jayden would danced to the beat of the drums and clapped his hands whenever the lion completes a stunt.

I'm sure looking forward to next year's 庆元宵!

“找鸭子”与 “我自己会”

2010-02-28T15:01:00.003+08:00

It's been a month since Jayden started full-day care at Zee Juniors. So far he's doing well and I can see that his Chinese has been improving. Chinese teachers submit reports to parents every Friday and this is what I usually see at the comment column:

故事理解能力强。

能够清楚确认生字。

阅读能力也很好。

This is roughly what I remembered on the report.

I'm happy to see that the kid is keen to learn Chinese and every week he will come back and recite to us "古诗一首", trying very hard to remember each single word and recite it to us in gusto! And every Friday I will go through together with him the contents in his folder containing all the worksheets and story books that he has done/read for the past week and I would asked him to explain and go through with me.

Going through last week's work ~ “找鸭子”与 “我自己会”.

但愿承恩能很快的真正 “我自己会刷牙，洗脸，冲凉，穿衣，等等。。等等。。” 那妈妈就可以在早上的时候多睡一会儿!

Daddy Mommy I Love U!

2010-02-23T00:26:00.006+08:00

Another performance by Jayden and Zee Juniors kids. But this time round it's at the school compound and the theme was Happy Lunar New Year cum Valentines' Day special!

This special performance was put up by the kids and the teachers specially for all the parents. Ed and I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Jayden wasn't feeling so good the day before the actual performance and I was so worried that he might be feeling sad having to miss it. Luckily he managed to recover in time with a day away from school to rest at home.

This time round they perform 2 songs. I didn't get the title of the first song but Jayden said it's the rainbow song and the other one is Daddy Mommy I Love You.

Look at his face full of expressions and emotions during the performance!

And we were also told that all the little ones will be presenting a special surprise gift to all their parents. And here it is :

It was no surprise for me at all as I remembered Jayden bringing home a memo from school a few days back requesting for a picture of Daddy and Mommy for a special art and craft work. And just 2 nights before the event, he actually let the cat out of the bag about the picture and the photo frame! But still, great effort from Jayden with the decorating of the frame and sticking up the stickers. Great job Jayden!

Yes Jayden,

Daddy and Mommy loves you too! We will always be there for you.

Christmas Caroling With Zee Juniors

2010-02-22T22:04:00.005+08:00

Finally the school has given us the CD for the Christmas Carol event that took place on Christmas eve last year. It's really an overdue post but it's worth the wait!

The caroling session was taken nicely and the sounds were much clearer than our FIY *film-it-yourself* home video as the school had specially engaged videographers and photographers for this special event.

Last Christmas eve was a very exciting day for us all as it was Jayden's first caroling! I specially ordered pastries, danishes and a log cake from Bakers' Well and prepared packet drinks for all the kids and teachers who were coming to our place for the special event. This is also the first time ever that we had this number of kids visiting our place.

Enough said. Let's enjoy the video.

I'm really proud to see Jayden singing and doing all the hand signs and actions quite accurately in rhythm with the songs. But at one point I think Jayden got a bit emotional... maybe because home he's at his territory or maybe he's a little shy having to perform to daddy and mommy? Or maybe he's a little tired because they had gone to one home prior to ours. In total the kids have to visit 4 places and sing the same songs four times.

I hope they kids will come again for this year's Christmas for another caroling session!

Can You Please Eat More, Baby?

2010-02-21T09:08:00.000+08:00

Last Friday I decided to take a break and stayed at home to to rest my aching muscles from the training I had with my slave-driver personal trainer, I stayed at home and read some blogs. It's been such a long time since I last visited some of the march babies' blogs that I used to read. Some of the posts never fail to amaze me how fast our kids have grown.

Some of the blogs marked on their children's milestones, some on their reading skills and particularly some on their kids' diet. Recently I read a post where the mom listed out the number of meals her child takes a day and how envious would I be if Jayden were to eat as much as her.

3 solid meals, and sometimes asking for 2nd helping, plus 3 servings of milk throughout the day and not forgetting snacks in between meals.

Come, let me see how much Jayden is eating.

In the morning at home before school, Jayden would eat 1 slice of bread spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar. Sometimes he would take half a pork floss bread or a small bun that's fist size. My maid, Anna, would usually prepare FruttLoops in a Lock-Lock box for Jayden as his snack to be take in school.

Schools serves breakfast too, but Jayden sometimes would tell me that he didn't like what was serve in school and thus he will give it a miss. He will then take his FruttLoops with 1 small cup of fresh milk.

Come lunch, school will usually serve noodles/rice, fish/chicken, soup and veggies. It will be a bonus if Jayden is able to finish the usual 1 serving. He hardly ask for 2nd helpings as according to the teachers.

At around 3pm, school will serve snacks like cakes, cookies, bread or cereals. Jayden will take another small serving of fresh milk.

Once home, I will give him his daily calcium supplement and his multi-vits gummy bears. And at around 5.30pm, another small serving of either cereals, danish pastry or a small bun. Sometimes a small tub of Petit Miam Yogurt.

Dinner will usually be serve at 7.15pm with rice, veggies, egg, chicken/pork and soup. No, it won't be filled to the brim. It would be a bonus if he can finish the small little portion that I usually give it to him. Did he ever ask for 2nd helping you wonder? Yes, just once and it never happened again. The last meal of the day will be completed by another tub of yogurt.

There should be another last milk feed during his bed time but one fine night Jayden told me soberly "Mama, please don't give me any more neh-neh *meaning milk*. I don't like neh-neh, I don't want anymore neh-neh, please?" Dream feeding didn't even work and I had to pour away the milk every time he refuses to drink.

Thank goodness Jayden is willing to take fresh milk during the weekdays because of his teachers' constant encouragement and cajoling. Or else he would have zero calcium intake.

Eating out has been challenging at times. I will usually do a quick check on the web to see menus and ratings of the new restaurants that we will be visiting so as to know what are the food that I can order for Jayden. Jayden loves good spaghetti from the French Stall and chinese stir-fried noodles, especially the Yee-Fu noodles from 聚宝. There was once we visited 聚宝 up to 4 times a month because Jayden eat the most whenever we are there for dinner! He also love tamago sushi, chawanmushi and ramen.

Gone were the days that I used to lament how little he's eating and fret over he's not-so-adventurous attitude in trying new food. I've learned to let it go. But still I'm envious of parents whose kids eat heartily and always have their mouths readily open when they see food coming their way. I have to admit that there are days when Jayden's appetite will still make or break my day.

So how do I retort whenever there are insensitive people who make comments like:

"how come your son is so skinny and small size?"

answer: good thing comes in small packages mah, don't you know?

"how come your son so picky about food?"

answer: because he's not a rubbish bin you know and he only eat the good stuff.

I'm so mean, aren't I?! *snigger snigger*

So, following doctor's instructions - just give your kid whatever he loves to eat. So I always make sure my fridge is pack with yogurt, yogurt and more yogurt since it's a good source of calcium and it can be a substitution for the milk that Jayden is missing in his daily diet.

Making sure there are a enough yogurt with different varieties / flavor for the little king of mine to choose from.

Since he doesn't take formula milk anymore, I use that sum of money (for the formula) and spend it on organic yogurt. 6 tubs of organic yogurt costs a hefty S$17.00 and on good days he takes 2 tub a day. It's only available from certain bigger Cold Storage outlets (Parkway Parade and Kallang). But the supply is not constant, sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't. So I will standby Petit Miam for those days that Yobaby is not available.

Multi-vits gummy bears! To replace all the missing vitamins and minerals that's from the food that he's rejecting.

The "very expensive" Lacto GG that costs S$100 per box of 30 capsules. Jayden's been taking this ever since he started school. Sometimes I do wonder if it really helps to make his immunity stronger? I have no answer to that. But I do realized that ever since he started taking Lacto GG, he's able to recover from flus, cough and fever quicker as compared to last time.

The calcium supplement as recommended by Doctor Dorothy. To make up for the lost of calcium since Jayden has very minimal milk intake.

I was telling my sister the other day that if there's any food that Jayden fancies, Ed and I would probably buy it for him, just anything that he wants to eat... no matter how expensive. That's how desperate we can get when we hit the bad days.

The only consolation that I can get is that though he's not eating as well as other kids but he's still growing well, healthy and very active. And in terms of school work, he's at least half a year in advance as compared to his classmates and peers.

We can't have the best of both worlds, can we?

We Love ION

2010-02-18T10:53:00.000+08:00

Both Jayden and I love to go shopping at ION for 2 different reasons.

I love to window shop at the high end luxurious shops and ogle at the branded bags.

And as for Jayden......

Every time we go there, he never fail to tell me:

"mama I want to go shh-shh *meaning pee*

"mama I want to go 大便."

"mama I need to wash my hands."

But even if he never tells me any of the above, I would have ask him! The toilet is soooooo cute! Everything is miniature and child-friendly! We would goof around in there and make sure he checks out every single thing before we step out of it!

How I wish other malls can similar child-friendly toilets just like this one.

古诗

2010-02-08T11:41:00.001+08:00

One night, when I was about to tuck Jayden to bed he suddenly call out to me:

"Mama Mama! 古诗一首~ 静夜思" and he started to recite it word by word. Apparently he learned all these chinese poems in his Chinese Enrichment Program that was running his school.

This is a video of Jayden reciting the poems that was taken by Ed the next night.

I was pleasantly surprised and happy that Jayden was capable of reciting the poems by heart. I didn't think I was able to do that when I was 4 years old. Though they are short poems and pretty easy to memorize but I don't think it was an easy feat for a 4 year old kid to achieve that. A really good effort by the chinese teachers at Zee Juniors!

I'm definitely looking forward to more 古诗 from Jayden!

The EzyRoller

2010-02-05T13:49:00.000+08:00

We were doing Lunar New Year shopping at Isetan when Ed spotted a kid riding on this thing. It's called the EzyRoller.

Again I wasn't too keen on getting such a bulky gadget for Jayden looking at the limited storage place we have at home. His stuff are getting piled up. But in the end we bought it because it really seems fun.

It is indeed a fun ride and because it can be extended and support a weight up to 70kgs, an adult can actually ride in it too.

We did thought of buying another EzyRoller so that we can ride it together with Jayden at East Coast Park one of these days. But first we just need to find more storage place at home!

Superhero Phonic Readers

2010-02-04T13:42:00.003+08:00

I began buying more books for Jayden a few months back as he has now cultivated the habit of reading a story before his bedtime. Some of his favorites are Charlie and Lola series of books. Actually Charlie and Lola are some of my faves as well.

I've also join Borders Privilege member so as to enjoy more savings when I buy books for Jayden.

And recently I've stumbled upon some interesting books and they are the Superhero Phonic Readers. Maybe it's been there all this while and it's just that I'm more into colourful illustrated books, or books with pop-ups and flaps that I've actually overlook small books like these. These are actually very good books that can help a child build up good phonics reading skills.

Jayden enjoys this series quite a bit and we have bought him the following titles. Ed and I were quite surprised that he could actually finish reading each book by himself.

One good point to mention about this series of book is that they have a section of questions at the end of the story to help the kids to understand it better and also emphasize on the key words used in the story.

Managed to capture a video of Jayden reading the book one night. Bear with us... this video a little tad long, 9mins plus to be exact.

There are up to 10 books in this series and I do hope by end of the year he could tackle book no. 10 as it has the longest story and seems to be the toughest to read of them all.

Wii Sports Resort

2010-02-03T13:41:00.000+08:00

This is the best Wii games that we have ever played so far. Some of the games in the Wii Sports Resort is pretty addictive and Jayden simply loves the "Sword Play" and "Table Tennis - Return Challenge"! Look at the way he hits the ball! Ed and I thought it looks like he's playing Tennis instead of Table Tennis.

We were impressed by his intentions to direct the ball towards hitting the cans during the game...and i must say his accuracy is pretty good!

Club Med Kanifinholu - Day 5

2010-02-02T13:39:00.001+08:00

Club Med Kanifinholu - Day 2 to Day 4

2010-02-02T13:39:00.000+08:00

Family Trip To Club Med Kanifinholu - Day 1

2010-02-02T13:38:00.000+08:00

It is our second trip to Club Med this year, and this time round we went in a big group to Club Med Kanifinholu in Maldives...

Below is a compilation of the photos we took during the 5 days' stay there...

Jayden Singing 数鸭子

2010-02-01T13:37:00.000+08:00

承恩自从上学后，华语有显著的进步。现在不止会唱儿歌，还会尝试用华语和老师交谈。下列片段是他学唱儿歌“数鸭子”，中途还有些破音。。。呵呵

Jayden and his transformers

2010-01-31T13:37:00.001+08:00

Daddy becomes a big fan of transformer toys and slowly bought Jayden few pieces each month. Last November, Jayden had 3 big transformers added to his collection as a early xmas presents from his daddy. :)

I'm just thankful that Jayden wouldn't ask me to transform his Transformers (from cars to robots and vice versa) or else the poor robots will only end up with broken wheels, head, arms and legs!

Is the Transformers a man's thing? I just couldn't quite get it..... I wanted to get the shopping trolley but daddy insisted that it's a No-No for boys!

Well, boys do go shopping with carts too, no? I'll keep a lookout the next time I go Cold Storage.

It's Been Such A Long Time

2010-01-18T08:38:00.005+08:00

Wow, it's been like half a year I didn't update Jayden's blog. Time flies. What have I been busy with?

Let's see.... Well, Mommy has been busy connecting with friends at Facebook, gaming in MapleStory still, and working out at the gym since Daddy signed up a membership for her. Mommy has also been busy playing Wii with Jayden almost everyday without fail.

So how is Jayden doing? Let's just do a quick update!

It's been a great achievement for the last 7 months as Jayden has already been completely diaper-free since last July. He's also totally weaned off from his pacifier and milk bottles! He's much more adventurous with food and we are eating out more often these days! He's also grown a slight taller and a tad heavier, though I wish he could just put on a little more weight!

Jayden has stopped going for Shichida classes since last year July. That's one of the major decision that we have made. Jayden has been attending Shichida lesson since he was 1 year and 4 months old.... Ed and I thought that it's time for Jayden to explore something new. We enrolled him in Mandeville's music school for some music appreciation lessons.

School has been great for Jayden too. He graduated from Nursery 1 class and was promoted to Nursery 2 this year.

Look at his graduation class photo!

And this is one of my favorite solo picture taken. Just like a 小大人!

I can tell that Jayden enjoys going to school to be with his Teachers and friends. He would be beaming with a great smile when I go pick him up everyday. Teachers also feedback to us that Jayden is doing well in school. He's half a year ahead of his peers and showing keen interest in Chinese language. He's also taking extra Chinese enrichment program that's being provided by the school. 许老师 told us that Jayden is always asking for new 笔画 whenever he finishes his worksheets! I hope this enthusiasm of his for Chinese language will continue as he progress on.

So what's in store for us for the new year 2010? 2009 hasn't been fantastic but it wasn't that bad too. I'm glad that we are able to tide over the down time and hopefully 2010 will be a much better year!

I wish Jayden would put on a bit more weight in 2010! The same old wish every year! Haha! And I hope Daddy's work will be 顺顺当当，生意兴旺 and 开开心心!

As for me, I would probably wish I can lose a few kilos!

And I wish everyone good health and good wealth for year 2010. World Peace!

Jayden At School

2009-06-16T11:17:00.006+08:00

Jayden has attended a one whole month of school for last month.

For 5 weeks he didn't fell ill.

It was quite a record for us. Since he started school last year September, it's always 2 weeks at school, followed by 2 to 5 days out. Sometimes it's 2 weeks at school and 2 weeks out. I always feel that we are paying 1 month of school fees but the kid only utilizing half of the fees spent.

What a waste of money.

But last month we finally we break even! Haha! And I hope we can now break even for every month. With a 2 cases of stomach flu, some viral fever along the way and some episodes of bad coughs, I think my son has toughen up. We have also successfully weaned him off his pacifiers *finally!* and he has gone completely diaperless during the day, at home and outside. We are now working on letting him going diaperless at night during his bed time.

Jayden has been doing very well at school. He will come home telling me he made new friends whenever there are new kids who joined the school. Proudly announced that he finished his breakfast and lunch whenever I go pick him up at 12.30pm and waving goodbye with a big smile whenever Ed and I drop him off at school every morning.

Zee Juniors has undergo some major revamp of curriculum and changing of teachers. Ed and I was skeptical about the changes. I wanted to pull Jayden out from it because those teachers that Jayden were familiar with, they left one by one. And under some influence of a parent who insist that the school is taking us for a ride, I was seriously scouting for another school.

But Ed wanted to hear the other side of the story from the new school director who took over the reins. So we went to hear her out with a open mind.

For now, we have seen a significant improvement made in various areas of the school. We have seen a better curriculum, more dedicated teachers and a more conducive learning environment for the children.

What I like best is the school has now worked out a menu for all the meals being served to the kids. Gone are the days that I have to ask the teacher every day what Jayden has taken for breakfast and lunch. I can see that the meals served are as according to the guidelines given by MCYS and are of a balance diet consisting of ample carbo, meat, veggies and fruits.

With the new improvement in school, Jayden was making vast progress in his academic learning.

Teacher Agnes feedback that he is accelerating at a faster pace compared to most of his peers and able to grasp concept at a quick pace. She also reported that when Jayden was given a choice to choose either to work with Montessori tools or play with his friends, he chose the former. Teacher Agnes was rather surprised the number of words that he could pronounced and recognise and even do simple addition and subtractions.

So we have decided, with the advice of Teacher Agnes, that Jayden will progress to Nursery 2 after the month of June's non-academic learning.

I was worried at first, and I emphasize to Teacher Agnes that I do not wish to push Jayden too hard when it comes to academic aspect of learning. I want Jayden to have a fun and enjoyable childhood and one that he will smile and fond of when he recalls it after he has grown up. But Teacher Agnes assured us again and again that children in the Montessori learning are never being pushed..... So for now, I'll just have to listen to the experts.

I'm anticipating for what is to come for the next 3 months.

From Shichida Method

2009-06-14T10:50:00.001+08:00

It has been some time since I last shared on Jayden's progress with the Shichida Method.

Here is the recent term report from Teacher Helen:

Areas of Good Potential

Understand subtraction within 1 - 10
Able to do complex maze / puzzle
Able to describe pictures
Can recall Linking Memory cards

Jayden has shown fabulous concentration throughout the lessons. He is able to recall the correct cards for flash and linking memory! Also, he is great at language games such as letters maze and is able to match words to pictures too! Great job!

Suggestions for Improvement

Jayden, let's practice simple addition at home! Besides that, parents can introduce composition of 1-10 to him as well.

Parental Strength

Both parents are good guidance to Jayden. Jayden enjoys both parents' company! Well done!

All the hard work on home practise paid off. I feel a great sense of achievement and gladness when I read the Teacher Helen's comments. I'm sure Ed feel the same.

Daddy's Work - 3 Years Old Collage

2009-05-01T11:20:00.002+08:00

Daddy's work - Jayden's 3 years old collage.

In this collage consists pictures of Jayden from 25 months old onwards til 36 months old

Good job, ED! Thanks very much for the beautiful collage :)

Zoo Trip 18 April 2009

2009-04-20T14:59:00.005+08:00

Our 3rd trip to the zoo. But this time round Jayden has the company of his 阿姨, his fave cousin Natalie and 大boy Nicholas.

Though this is the 3rd time to the zoo, Jayden got to do something different. He got to feed the giraffes with the help of 阿姨 and he got to play in the water play section at the Kidz World. I used to be very skeptical of the water at the water play section in the Kidz World cos' the water looks murky to me..... and with so many kids and adults running around barefooted in the water, I get very paranoid that the kid is sure to get viral after that!

Well, sometimes we just have to learn to let go.

And so, the kid got to run amok with his fave cousin at the water play section at the Kidz World. Jayden was unstoppable. We didn't bring along any towels nor swim wear but we couldn't stop the kid! So we had to stripped him down to his denim shorts and just let him have some fun with the water sprinklers at just one section of the water play area.

Lucky I've packed an extra set of clothing for Jayden and Nicholas brought along a small towel. Just nice to wipe Jayden dry after 45mins of amok running in the water sprinklers.

So, in future, one more activity that we can do other than just animal watching at the Zoo! Thank goodness the kid didn't get viral fever after that.

Jayden Loves Playing Electronic Games

2009-04-05T12:32:00.007+08:00

We all know that we shouldn't let the kids indulge in electronic games. But these days, with so many types of these electronic games in the market ie. Wii, PSP, DSLite, Xbox... It's not an easy task keeping the kid away from it all. Gone were the days that we used to play "zero-point" and "5-stones" during our childhood days. Now it's all about handheld computer games, online gaming and all the new game gadgets!

Even Jayden fell prey to it.

Ed and I tried our best to keep Jayden away from the Wii console that we have at home. In the earlier days, we only allowed him to sit by our side and watch us play. But gradually his curiosity get the better of him and he started to make request to hold the controller and try to mimic our movements.

One fine day, Ed decided lift the restrictions as he realized that the Wii games can actually be a useful tool in helping his development, like motor skills, reflex training, memory training, and coordination skills. Even Shichida kindergarten has incorporate Wii games in their curriculum! Can you believe that?! Haha!

But of course, we have set a limit of maximum 30mins per session for his Wii and PSP games. Anything more than that is going to hurt his eyesight.

Watch how he enjoyed on Wii games. Just for record, his highest scores on bowling without any help is 195... :)

And on Wii sports, look how he's trying to do the "tree pose"! And it's also my all time favourite yoga pose too!

Jayden, the future yoga guru?!

Genting Trip 19 March 2009

2009-03-25T11:31:00.005+08:00

This is the first road trip for us.

The whole family together with 阿公 , 阿姨s and his cousins, we all took a coach to Genting for a 3 days 2 nights short vacation. The journey was fun as Jayden was pretty much occupied with his personal "in-coach" TV games, of course also with the company of his favorite two 姐姐s Natalie and Elizabeth.

This was my 3rd or 4th trip to Genting.... nothing seems to changed. Still the same old looking hotels and the familiar old dingy connectors that linked the theme park to the various hotels and resorts. Everything in Genting seems familiar and kind of "old" to me but Jayden was pretty much excited when we arrived.

Once we reached, we explored the theme park and the arcade and it was more and more kidddy rides and arcade games for Jayden. He simply can't get enough of cars and train rides.

I think Jayden enjoyed the trip very much. I'm not sure about Ed, but for me it was physically draining having to run after the kid and telling him that he had enough of rides for the day!

I'm sure Jayden is looking forward to going back Genting again.

Jayden's Little Accomplishments

2009-03-13T18:16:00.001+08:00

As I was typing this post, I could hear Jayden asking his 爷爷 over the speaker phone:

“爷爷你在哪里？!” .

My little inquisitive boy.

At 3 years old, this little fella can really be quite persistent, keep asking why? what? where? what happened? I guess this is the stage where they are just so curious about anything and everything.

There are a couple of tasks that Jayden is now capable of doing and the ones worth mentioning would be staying diaper free during the day, self-feeding and able to read more words and story books with more short sentences.

I was particularly proud of the potty training part as it only took 1 major and 2 minor incidents for the potty training to take off. I guess what the books says is true - you train the child at 2 years, he accomplishes it at 3. You train the kid at 3 he accomplishes it at 3. It was almost frustration-free for us.

2 weeks before his birthday Ed actually bought this bike for him. He was tired of cycling on his little tricycle so Ed decided that it was time to get him a bigger, more real looking bike for him. This little fella took 15mins to get familiarize with the new toy and rest was history.

The second time he went on his bike, hop on, and off he goes!

Sometimes it's just so amazing watching him grow and giving us new surprises everyday. It just brings a smile to my face whenever I see him being so proud of himself being able to accomplish a task that he wasn't able to do so in the past.

3 years, which sometimes I feel like it seems a 30 years to me..... and with so much ups and downs. These happy smiling moment sometimes just wipe away the frustrations in me.

My Boy Is 3 Years Old

2009-03-12T11:47:00.015+08:00

It's the day that Jayden has been counting down the past 3 weeks.

Almost everyday, he would point to the calendar, or catch hold anyone of us and start asking "When is Jayden's birthday? Is it in March?!".

We wanted Jayden to have a party solely with the people that he knows, meaning no strangers, no friends of mama and daddy. People that he can communicate with, familiar faces that he would wanna share his joy with, and friends that he will have fun with.

So we ended up inviting all, almost all, his schoolmates and teachers from Zee Juniors.

Thank goodness his school is just 5mins walk from our home. We wanted to celebrate his birthday at his school but Teacher Jennifer suggested doing it at our condominium's clubhouse instead. It would be something new for the kids, they could get away from school with a valid reason and take the 5mins stroll to the club house.

To save the hassles of entertaining the kids on our own, Ed and I engaged MacDonald's help. That settles the food and the entertainment part. I wanted to get a magician or a clown to make it more memorable for the kids but that would mean that I'm gonna burst the budget! So in the end we settled for a balloon sculptor and each kid get to have at least 2 nice balloons to bring back home with them!

Here are some pictures to share with all. Great effort on the slide show and the picture trail. All thanks to Ed!

Look at the big grin Jayden has on his face when he saw the beautiful Mickey Mouse birthday cake that we ordered from Montreux. We chose his favourite cake base - strawberry shortcake.

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I really hope Jayden and his friends, schoolmates and Teachers have enjoyed the short but fun-filled birthday party..... Looking at the happy smiling faces of everyone just make me feel so happy too. I really love those beautiful pictures that Ed took for Jayden's schoolmates.

Oh yeah, here are some more pictures with Jayden celebrating his birthday again after our family dinner, with his favourite 阿姨s，姐姐，哥哥 and Aunty Anna and Aunty Ruby. See how he enjoys singing his own Happy Birthday song with that big big grin on his face.

我最亲爱的小承恩：妈妈和爸爸祝你生日快乐，天天开心，身体健康! 脸上永远带着灿烂的笑容!

Club Med Bali

2009-02-09T14:39:00.004+08:00

Ed's krisflyer points were expiring.

In fact it's been a couple of times when his krisflyer points were deducted because he didn't do any redemption of tickets. Those were the days that the thought of bringing Jayden for a trip was unthinkable.

Last year we took the risk to Japan. We did ok. So for this time round, we decided to go Bali. Since all our 3 tickets were for free, we can be a alittle extravagant on the accommodation.

We settled for Club Med Bali.

My fave pics are the ones that Jayden is drinking from the glass wine. He looked as if he's a connoisseur of fine wines!

Overall the trip was relaxing and fun, not too rushing like the Japan trip, everything was done at our own pace.

The room was cosy, the food was good too. The G.O.s are friendly too. Jayden had a great time drowning himself with free flow of fruit juices, icecreams, different types of bread, waffles, pancakes and other stuff. Not sure if it was the food or a growth spurt, Jayden actually put on a little bit of weight after the trip! :o)

We could have deposit Jayden at the Petit Club and have some couple time. But Ed and I decided not to. Not because we have to pay a fee for it but our idea of the resort stay was to spend quality time together as a family.

If you are looking for a relaxing stay at a resort, do consider Club Med. Majority of their villages in the Asia Pacific regions are all family oriented and children friendly.

Happy Lunar New Year

2009-01-28T11:32:00.009+08:00

Wishing everyone out there a prosperous and wealthy new year. I wish for good health and good wealth. What did you wished for?

We didn't do much 拜年 this year. Actually it seems that we are doing lesser and lesser of it .... Sad isn't it? Lunar new year celebrations and 拜年 just doesn't seems to the same as those of my childhood days.

Anyway, we still went ahead to visit Uncle Victor's (Ed's elder brother). Ed and I were sure that Jayden's gonna enjoy this visit as there will 2 cousins for company! And guess what! We were in for a treat! A long waited duet performance from the cousin, Sarah and Nataniel!

Come see Jayden joining in the fun too!

Uncle Victor kept the little violin for Jayden! It used to be Nataniel's but he has long out grown it and now upgraded to a better violin. So this is for Jayden to keep!

The 2 talented kids posing with Jayden.

See Jayden? Look as if he's really playing the violin! Posed 到似莫似样! He really enjoyed himself with this visit.

The rest of the days of the Lunar New Year were spent just lazing at home, watching TV and snacking on the new year goodies.

Let's hope the year of the Tiger would be better one.

New Dance Moves

2009-01-19T15:44:00.006+08:00

It's a new year and Jayden gives us new dance moves.

Featuring Takuya Kimura wannabe doing the Gatsby commercial.

Don't laugh out too loud if you are watching this video in the office.

Never fail to make me laugh whenever I watch it. Jayden really tried to go way out to mimic the dance movements. My sisters suspect there could be computer graphics involved, don't think anyone can do such flexible movements.

This commercial wasn't shown in Singapore tv. It just happened that one fine day we were shopping in Best Denki and somehow someone played the commercial song on the stereos section. I went home, googled it and found the commercial on the Gatsby website. The song is catchy and so the kid joined me watching it on my laptop. So you can guess what happens next.

My Little Gatsby boy.

It's Time To Do Catch Up

2008-12-30T14:35:00.005+08:00

Soon, in a few days' time we'll be stepping into another new year, the year of 2009. I apologize for the lack of posts for the past 2 months, as the bad mommy *me* was totally obsessed with being a virtual Shadower in another world.

Time flies, it's pass Christmas and another 3 more days to a new year. Jayden has grown pretty much, well not in terms of weight and height but rather in all other aspects. After almost 3 months in school, this is what Teacher Jennifer had to say about him in the year end term report:

Jayden has settled comfortably into our school. He is a very obedient, neat, tidy and helpful boy!

I'm extremely proud of Jayden's eating habit! He has improved tremendously in his first month with us in Zee Juniors. Now he is willing to try a variety of food and is capable of finishing his meal on his own!

Jayden is attentive during lesson and participates in all class activities. He loves music and movement and story time. He speaks well but is rather soft-spoken. He is able to express his needs quite well too but at times I notice he would hold his feelings to himself. he recognizes a lot of words for his age. Very impressive!

He enjoys the company of his friends but sometimes he prefers to watch his friends play. He loves the construction corner and outdoor, especially water-play. He is capable of some routine work like washing his hands, taking off and wearing his shoes independently.

Well, what more can I say? I'm a happy mom! Especially with the food intake part. Ed and I are really glad that we made the right decision to send him to school this early. Though the falling sick part, yeah, more frequent episodes of coughing and runny nose, but then we can see the better side of letting him go to school.

Almost everyday he comes back from school telling me new happenings, singing new songs, showing me new art work and telling me tales about his new classmate crying and not eating his or her meals. There was one day Teacher Jennifer said he's such a good friend telling his fellow classmate "no need to cry......" I think he was trying hard to tell his friend that it's no big deal coming to school and eating the meals?! Haha! Seems like my little boy is growing quicker than I expected.

Ed and I are now really looking forward to planning his little 3 year old birthday party in Zee Juniors coming March next year! I wonder will the little fella look forward to it as well.....

It's Christmas Time!

2008-12-30T14:30:00.005+08:00

It was Jayden's first Christmas party at Zee Juniors! Ed and I were quite looking forward to it and it's the first time Jayden would be having a party with his schoolmates!

It was an event filled with much fun and activities. Jayden enjoyed performing and singing with his fellow classmates and teachers. We contributed a turkey from Bakers' Well for the party and there were much food for all the parents and kids.

See below some pictures we captured on that day...

Edited to add videos

See the kids singing and dancing to the song "Jingle Bells"

And the kids singing the song "It's Xmas Time"

Jayden didn't take much of the food but he had a great time keeping all his presents and putting them at the Christmas tree back home.

Oh what fun!

Scooter Boy

2008-12-22T11:57:00.003+08:00

Seeing the other kids in the neighbourhood having fun with their scooters, Ed bought Jayden one as well to let him try out.

Somehow I think Jayden takes after me, we are not the very patient type when it comes to learning things totally new. I can see the little fella trying very hard to learn the art of scootering.

For now I think Jayden would prefer to stick to pedalling his little tricycle.

Trick Or Treat

2008-11-01T11:56:00.001+08:00

Jayden's first stint at Trick or Treat for this year's Halloween!

Ed and I wanted to buy a nice costume for him but there's just isn't any suitable ones. They were either too small ie. costumes in rompers style for small babies or the ones for 2-4 years old were just way too big for him. I end up buying him a witches' hat. Bleah. But that's better than donning on a costume that's way too big for him.

Natalie and Elizabeth were dressed in home-make witches drag with self-made tall witches' hat. Yup, the girls made their own witches' hat! Creative isn't it?!

We went around the 2 towers for a good 1 hour knocking on neighbours' doors and ringing door bells. But sad to say not many neighbours were prepared for a giving out treats and the kids didn't have much tricks up their sleeves. But still we had a fun time running around, hogging the lifts and checking under the doors to see if the neighbours were deliberately ignoring our knocks and greetings! Jayden had a pumpkin basket full of candies at the end of it and I was all sticky and sweaty! Not bad for a first-timer at Trick or Treat stint!

Ed was running around the whole time trying to catch us in action! Here's a short video on our Treat or Trick expedition!

Ok I looked like a slob... hair disheveled and dress in my not-very-presentable home tee and shorts. But hey, who wants to dress in glam for running around with a bunch of kids, knocking doors and shoving the little pumpkin basket in neighbours' faces asking for candies?!

My Little Scientist

2008-10-27T13:06:00.004+08:00

One fine day we were discussing about flashcards with Ed's sister as Ed lamented that we were running out of topics of flashcards for Jayden. And so she suggested flashing to Jayden the elements of the periodic table.

I rolled my eyes.

I hated Science when I studied in school. I particularly detest chemistry as I couldn't memorised all the signs that corresponds with the hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, magnesium and the list goes on.

Flash to my son all these? Just the thought of it scares me off. But then we were really running out of topics for Ed to start off more flashcards for Jayden.

So off I went to My Little Ones to see what other topics of flashcards can I get. Ok, something else. Nothing to do with all those signs please. Spare me the agony of seeing them again.

But it seems that Jayden takes after the daddy? Ed was good in Math and Science. I think Jayden finds it challenging in memorising them.

A good head start for Jayden in the subject of Science don't you think? At least there's hope that he will not detest chemistry like the Mommy did!

Or is Jayden going to be a Scientist in the making..... or was it all about power memory. We don't have the answer.

Better Than Strike 4D

2008-10-08T14:01:00.008+08:00

This is how I feel whenever the kid overcomes an obstacle, reaches a milestone that's delayed, accomplished certain tasks when the earlier attempts failed. Motherhood makes me more emotional.

For the longest time, Ed and I have been battling with Jayden being such a fussy eater, simply refusing all kinds of new food that we have tried so hard to introduce to him. Be it how fanciful, how we cajoled, coaxed and threatened, the kid just keeps on rejecting new food. We may have scored A for many aspects of parenthood but I have failed miserably for kid's food intake and supposedly building a good eating habit.

"Send him to school, let him eat with the other kids, let him succumb to peer pressure!" That's what the PD said. So did my dad. And that's also one reason why he's attending school right now. When I cannot settle the problem, send him there and the teachers will take care of it.

No, I didn't like the idea at first. Makes me feel like a lousy mom. Cannot settle my own problem I shove it to the teachers. Sounds very irresponsible. But then I was at my wits' end.

No luck for the initial 3 weeks at school. Jayden rejected every meal they offered be it how tasty, how attractive and how much encouragement Teacher Jennifer offered. Everyday Teacher Jennifer will feedback to me how he behaved during meal times, he cried, he fussed, he simply refused to eat.

But then came one day, I feel as if I strike 4D. Teacher Jennifer reported that he's beginning to eat. And the next day, he finished whatever Teacher Jennifer put in his plate. The 3rd day, he's eating the same amount of food as his classmates. Teacher Jennifer was beaming from ear to ear when she shared the progress with me. I almost cried.

Yup. The joy of knowing that he finally overcome the fear of accepting new food, knowing that he's willing to chew and swallow, willing to try to taste the food before spitting it out... I feel so happy, far more better than striking 4D *ok I strike 1 time 4D and it was STARTERS, prize was a mere few hundreds*

Though he's more adventurous now, there are still a couple of food he's still rejecting. Small pieces of pork, soft cubed potatoes, watermelon...etc..etc... I guess I will have to take it slow and steady and introduce new food gradually.

Finally, he has begin to enjoy food. I am beginning to enjoy eating out with Jayden.

Jayden and His Cooking Mama

2008-10-06T10:25:00.000+08:00

The little kid is simply obsessed with Nintendo DS Lite, and particularly the game of Cooking Mama.

After watching how the 阿姨 and his cousins poke the screen of the DS Lite with the stylus he became very curious and quicly learned how to play it as well. Ed and I were pretty surprise that Jayden could actually finished one Cooking Mama recipe all by himself and he can get the dish quite nicely done up!

See how he concentrate on the game of Cooking Mama!

A chef in the making!

School Days

2008-09-24T10:04:00.005+08:00

So far so good. Jayden only took twice "medical leave" from school in a span of 3 weeks.

The first episode of fever, the temperature rocketed to a high of 40 degrees. I didn't think he caught it at school. The daddy's to blame for letting him indulged in potato chips, alot of potato chips!

The second episode of fever was rather mild, at 37.8 degrees. Ed says it might be the teething. Could it be? I'm not sure too.

This is the 3rd week of school for Jayden. So far so good. He still cries a little when he reaches the school premises. But according to Teacher Jennifer he stops almost immediately when I say my "goodbyes".... Somehow he knows that going to school is a routine and he cannot run away with it from crying and whining. When I ask him to give me a "flying kiss" when I'm about to leave he still obliges but with a crying look.

Of course I feel kind of sad and sometimes can't bear to leave him there but I know I will have to give a firm stand to it or else he he will have the thought of using the whining and crying to get his ways in the future.

And so far things he's done in school includes colour painting, water play, sand play, moon-caking making, a lot of drawing, a lot of reading and story telling sessions, so on and so forth. I can see he's benefiting well from it all. Teacher Jennifer commented that he follows instructions real well and able to remember all his classmates names and even the spellings of their names.

The only problem we are still facing is the eating part. Jayden still refuses to eat the breakfast and lunch that the school provides. He cries upon seeing the food. Despite sitting with his classmates during mealtimes, Teacher Jennifer trying hard to encourage self feeding and even spoon feed Jayden, all to no avail. So right now, I can only adopt the wait-and-see attitude. He's also refusing his morning milk feed, drinking less than 100ml.

Thank goodness I'm way pass the stage where I would go crazy and berserk if he rejects any of his milk feed and meals. I will just have to be patient to slowly introduce him new food in small portions while I still cook his favourite noodles and soups for most of his main meals.

Edited to add: Nope Jayden didn't win the contest for the home-made lantern ... he was down with fever for the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in school for that day.

What's A Childhood.....

2008-09-24T09:43:00.008+08:00

without lollipops?

Previously Jayden didn't know the way of eating a lollipop.... or perhaps it's because I've never let him try one before. But last Sunday I had to let him have a taste of it.

He had his haircut again last Sunday and surprisingly he behaved exceptionally well. No longer did he need the daddy to carry him while the hairdresser work on his hair, he could sit on the booster sit calmly on his own. But in his right hand, underneath the plastic sheet around his neck he grasped a lollipop that was given to him before the start of the haircut.

I didn't really mean it when I told him he could enjoyed the lollipop if he is to behave well during the haircut but I think Jayden took it rather seriously.

While the hairdresser's assistant was cleaning up Jayden after the haircut, Jayden gave me a smirk look, then showed me the lollipop in his hand, indicating that it's time for him to enjoy the reward for being such a obedient boy.

I remembered my elder sis once told me "if you promised a kid something, you must do it or else he will be disappointed and remembers it for a long long time....."

Ok. No choice. The kid gets to enjoy his lollipop.

I know. It's junk food. It's unhealthy. It's empty calories.

But hey, what's a childhood without lollipops? And besides, he behaved really well, better than what I've expected.

So the kid gets his rewards. Look how much he enjoyed the candy in the stick :0)

I'm thinking of using the same reward system for his potty training. No lollipops though. Later tooth decay how?!

Welcome To School - Day 5 & 6, With An Assignment!

2008-09-08T15:39:00.009+08:00

Jayden is given his, indirectly ours, first assignment to do at home...that is to make a lantern to celebrate the mid-autumn festival in school this coming Friday.

This is what the school requested:
"Let your creative juices flow by making a lantern with your child at home and bringing it to school on 6 September 2008, Monday, to show their friends. You may wish to use materials such as tissue box, milk carton, basket, ribbons, strings, cellophane papers etc.... The most creative lantern will go home with a mystery prize!"

This is what Ed came up with, after playing around with the toilet roll, sponges, a plastic hook and tissue box. What do you think?

Looks good, don't it? I have to say I'm impressed. It took him 3 days to complete it.

I really hope Jayden will get the mystery prize with this Wall.E (in case you couldn't figure it out what it is) and in turn would like to go to school and not cry his way in every morning.

Today is the 6th day but he has begun to cry from day 4 onwards til now. Teacher Jennifer estimated that he would cry for another week or so. Other than the crying part upon arriving at the school in the morning and during breakfast and lunch time, the rest of the session, Teacher Jennifer reported that he is doing fine and enjoys painting, colouring, story telling and outdoor fun play. He behaves well and is very responsive to the teachers.

I really hope that Jayden would be able to adjust to the new routine of going to school and having his lunch at the school soon so that he's able to truly enjoy himself.

Welcome To School - The 3rd Day

2008-09-04T13:43:00.006+08:00

As anticipated by Teacher Jennifer, anxiety begins to set in.

This morning, as the same for the past 2 days, Ed and I sent Jayden off to school. Once reached, we both walked him to the door and 郑老师 quickly came over to ushered Jayden into the hall. I can sensed that Jayden was a bit apprehensive about stepping in but 郑老师 was quick to react. She quickly took Jayden by the hand and led him in. At that moment Jayden turned around and insist that I take off my shoes and enter the hall with him.

But I said no.

I told him that I'm not supposed to enter the hall with him and assured him that I will come to pick him up at 12pm. 郑老师 quickly showed Jayden the tools and ingredients of making mooncakes *they are having mooncake making session this afternoon* distracting him so that Ed and I could make the quick escape.

He was teary-eye when I went to pick him up at 12pm. When he saw me he quickly ran over and started crying. According to Teacher Jennifer there were 3 occasions that Jayden cried.

Breakfast time, he didn't want any breakfast.
After outdoor activities, he didn't want to go back indoor.
Lunchtime, when he saw rice and when he couldn't find his favourite food - the carrots.

Other than the short crying episodes Jayden is still doing great for his 3rd day at school. Teacher Jennifer is quite surprised and impressed with Jayden's motor skills and speech. For a 2.5YO, Teacher Jennifer said he can kick the ball well, climb fast and go on the slide quite quickly.

Not too bad for a 3rd day in school and I'm pretty happy to hear the positive feedback from the Teacher. I just hope that Jayden will start to eat better in school soon. I guess I'll just have to be patient and slowly wait for the day to come.

加油 Jayden!!!

Welcome To School

2008-09-03T15:38:00.012+08:00

Jayden started school at Zee Juniors yesterday.

We were all very excited..and worried. We were not sure whether can he adapt to the school's environment, not sure if could get along with his classmates, not sure if he will eat well in school, etc etc....so much worries.

School started and we left him there with teachers and few kids. He headed straight to the toys' corner and started exploring the toys available. We called out to him telling him we were leaving and told him to behave...and waved him goodbye. He smiled back at us in return and waved...and off we went.

At 12noon Teacher Jennifer called saying all the kids in his group had left and wanted us to bring Jayden home before he gets bored or started crying *apparently there's one kid who is crying*. So off I went to pick him up and this is what Teacher Jennifer had to say about Jayden :

Jayden behaved very well for his first day in school. He is able to follow teachers' instructions well and he returned the toys where they belong after playing with it. He even helped the older kids keep their toys when they refused despite the teacher telling them to do so. During the crayon coloring session, he will take only one crayon at a time, putting it back before taking another color, whereas the rest of the kids will simply take many and left them around.

Teacher was very impressed with the good habits that Jayden displayed.

Meal time, as expected he didn't really eat much.

The first day did went well for him, except for one incident. As related by Teacher Jennifer, Jayden pooped but he didn't inform her. Instead Jayden went to one of the older boy and said "Diaper dropped! Diaper dropped!". The older boy in turn told another boy and they were both quite lost about what to do! In the end Teacher Jennifer washed Jayden up and even managed to have him sit on the child-sized toilet bowl while doing it!

The teacher cautioned us that kids normally start to get some sort of separation anxiety on either the second or third day onwards. We are eagerly anticipating his second day at school.

Well, this morning, we dropped him off at school again and immediately waved him goodbye and drove off. He was standing at the window waving goodbye to us...and not showing a sign of being afraid or wanting to follow us home. Not a bad start for day 2!

At noon when I went to pick him up, again he was the last kid in his group remained and he showed signs of boredom. Teacher said he did well today and didn't fuss nor cry. The only time when he showed unwillingness was when teacher brought out his lunch and he didn't want to eat the rice but afraid to tell the teacher so. But he managed to finished up some sausages, carrots and potatoes.

Overall he is doing great in school for a start and all the teachers like him quite a bit *caught one even using her handphone to snap pics of him pushing the toy cart full of fruits that he put in!*

We are so proud of our boy! Fingers crossed for his 3rd day in school tomorrow!!!

We're off to school!

Ed and I really hope that Jayden will continue to enjoy his time in school. As for me, well I had to admit 4 hours of Jayden in school is such sheer bliss!

Singapore Fireworks Festival 2008

2008-08-23T12:40:00.001+08:00

Daddy's company has given out free tickets for the Fire Festival that's in conjuction with the National Day Celebration week and we brought Jayden to see the fireworks display live at the Marina Bay Floating Platform on 22nd August night. It was a fun outing and we all enjoyed ourselves. Jayden chose for himself a nice Elmo balloon and sat there amazed at the fireworks display throughout.

Last year we were given free tickets but decided against going cos' Jayden was too young back then. This time round we are glad that we made the trip as watching the fireworks live is definitely different from watching it on TV or far away. The only regret was that the weather wasn't good that night and hence there was too much smoke that sort off discounted the beauty of the displays.

Daddy lugged along his camera's tripod stand and took many pictures of the fireworks. Though many shots were taken, only a few did turned out nice as according to Daddy's standard.

Share with you some of the "ok" shots that Ed took on that night. Let's hope he can have more better shots next year!

Building Up The Physical Fitness

2008-08-18T14:19:00.004+08:00

Come across this article recently on the net...

"You may not think of "fitness" in terms of young kids and toddlers, but in the first few years of life, you can start laying the groundwork for your child to lead an active lifestyle down the road.

Two and three years old are learning to master basic movements like walking, running, kicking, and throwing. Kids this age are naturally active, so give your child lots of opportunities to practice and build on these skills. By encouraging your child to engage in active play, you are helping your child to be physically fit now and in the future.

How much is enough? Even at this young age there are activity guidelines. According to the National Association of Sports and Physical Education, everyday toddlers should:

get at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity (adult-led)
get at least 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)
not be inactive for more than one hour at a time (except for sleeping)

What Is My Child Doing?

When you're thinking of getting your toddler active, it's important to understand what your child can do and what skills are appropriate for this age. By age 2, toddlers should be able to walk, run, and jump in place with both feet. By age 3, most kids can run and jump well. In addition, your child will learn to balance briefly on one foot, climb well, kick the ball forward, throw the ball overhand, and pedal a tricycle....."

Recently we happened to introduce new activities in our daily lives to add on to Jayden's usual home games and swimming. Knowing that he enjoys much of the outdoor activities, we signed up a membership at a nearby kids playhouse so that we can bring him there more often to let him play with other kids and also have fun with all the toys and slides.

Now that he can pedal and control his tricycle pretty well we have started to let him pedal his tricycle in the park more often...this is a good way to let him further develop his motor skills and also let him sweat it out!

This kid just seems to have boundless energy that simply amazed us.

He's 29 Months Old - Many Faces Of Jayden

2008-08-16T12:11:00.011+08:00

Jayden is 29 months old now.

At 29 months, he's becoming more and more adult-like, always wants to make his own decisions and trying to hold a rather decent conversation with us. He's a rather cheerful fella who loves to interact with other kids and simply love to swim, read books, doodle with crayons and eager to learn new skills.

There was a time when I brought him to Borders and he suddenly turned to me and showed me his angry expression saying "Jayden angry face". I was rather concerned and asked him why has he got to show me the angry expression. He then pointed to a wall with a poster showing kids with various of different expressions. We both had a good laugh! What a cheeky fella!

Here's Jayden attempting to read the pack of cards from the "Your Baby Can Read" series. It was given as a complimentary that comes with the GAIN milk formula we bought for Jayden. He loves it very much.

Jayden Pedals

2008-08-11T10:30:00.005+08:00

Ed bought Jayden a tricycle two weeks back and he loves it very much. I like it too because it's real compact and foldable for easy storage!

We taught him briefly how to pedal but he didn't quite get it in at first. It actually took him a week before he got the hang of it.

Now he can handle the tricycle pretty well.

Once he is able to maneuver and get his sense of direction better we will bring him to the beach and let him cycle to his heart's content!

Pedal pedal Jayden! :o)

He Is Ready, I Think

2008-08-06T11:51:00.006+08:00

It was Ed's birthday last Monday and he took the day off so that we could all go out celebrate and have some fun. We planned to let Jayden go Frisk n Romp to sweat it out, followed by a sumptuous lunch.

Upon arriving at Frisk n Romp we were told that the premises are closed on Monday to Friday mornings from public usage for their private playgroup. Needless to say, we were all quite disappointed. We lingered at the premises for awhile and chatted with the person in charge who made some introduction about the classes that they are holding. And so I asked if we could let Jayden join in for 1 session of the playgroup while we pay the pro-rated fees.

The next thing we knew, both Ed and I were sitting at the cafe drinking iced tea and snacking, as suggested by the teacher in charge. We sat in the cafe chatting, waiting for Jayden's class to end.

Yes, the kid joined in for the 1 session.

The story telling was going on when Jayden joined in. So Ed and I stayed on awhile, just in case he didn't like it and we could bring the kid out immediately to minimize any disruption that he would cause.

Jayden was a little distracted with the balls and tricycles around him. For a few times he turned back to look at me, as if asking for my approval if he could play with the balls instead of listening to the story telling session. I signed "pay attention" to him and pointed towards the teacher. He understood and sat down to listen. After 5mins the story session ended. I heard the teacher saying something about going into the playroom to do colouring and art and crafts. The next thing I saw was Jayden holding hands with the teacher, happily followed her to the playroom, not even turning back to see if Daddy and MaMa is there........

For 2 years and 4 months, Jayden has never been left alone with strangers, not even for 1 hour. I was rather worried and panicky. We left our contact numbers with the teacher and instructed her to call us at once if the kid show signs of anxiety or starts crying.

For the first hour I kept checking on my mobile phone, worrying that it might ring any moment. But it didn't. As the minutes passes, I was less worried.

Jayden was in high spirits for the whole day I could see. He happily showed me a fire engine he had coloured during the class. When I asked him if he wants to go back to school tomorrow he replied with a loud "YES!"....

Is he ready for school? I think he is. Yesterday Ed and I went to the chosen school to finally register him to start on 2 September.

Finally he's going to school.

Happy Birthdays!

2008-07-28T12:27:00.005+08:00

Jayden simply love to sing and the birthday song is one of his all time favourite song. Not forgetting the events that follows right after ie. the blowing candles and eating cakes.

Since July he has been celebrating several family members' birthdays, namely cousin Nicholas表哥, Ginny阿姨 and of course Daddy's. Up coming in August will be Denise 阿姨 and 外公。

See how he enjoyed himself during Daddy's birthday cake cutting.

He simply have no qualms to belt out his Happy Birthday song in his loudest voice be it who's birthday it is.

Jayden Sings 小貓咪

2008-07-24T23:58:00.004+08:00

It's almost a everyday routine that Jayden telephones his daddy at his office.

But today he has a pleasant surprise for daddy. Jayden sang to him a chinese 兒歌which he has heard and learned it in his Shichida class. It's only for the past 2 days that I really taught him the words and he could memorize it well.

We managed to capture it on video.

Daddy thought Jayden sounded pretty ok over the phone with his singing :o)

Jayden The Flying Fish

2008-07-18T14:15:00.014+08:00

Thanks to recent hot and humid days, we are able to let Jayden swim more often these days. Record to date was as many as 4 days a week he swum. He has look a little more tan too.

He really enjoy swimming alot. At the mere mentioned of the word "swim" or "swimming" he would go charging into his room, whip out his swimming trunks and would shout " I want go swimming!" There were also some days he would look down at the pool and tell me "I want go swimming....."

We have also started to let him wear his swim trunks more often and not so much of him wearing his thermal so that he can build up his resistance to the coldness. Swimming is good for strengthening his lungs too as according to the doctors' advice.

Managed to capture some pictures and videos of him in the pool yesterday. Look how much he enjoyed himself. The little daredevil simply love plunging into the water jumping off from the platform.

现在流行自拍，我也式一式来个"自拍!” 哈哈哈! 我还拍到妈妈和阿姨在后面谈天聊个不停!

He's really like a fish in the water，像一只快乐小飞鱼。

Re-edited to add following video:

And in this video he has become a 特攻隊小飞鱼!

The Funniest Things He Said

2008-07-09T11:22:00.005+08:00

Sometimes the kid can just say about anything that we least expect.

And at times we dunno whether should we try to reason it out with him or just to just have a good laugh out of it.

Scene 1
It's been an everyday routine that I'll give Jayden a quick shower before his nap after his lunch After settling him down I'll said to him "Mama's gonna go pom pom *meaning shower*, k? U tey tey *meaning lie down* and wait for Mama, k?"

So one fine afternoon, I decided not to take the quick shower and wanted to lie down next to Jayden.

Me : Mama tey tey with Jayden, k?
Jayden: *Looking at me with his index finger pointing to the toilet* Mama go pom pom!

I stared at him in disbelief. Don't tell me that I've turned him into a clean freak as well.....

Scene 2 *related by Ed*
It was during one of the peak hours at Katong food street and I had to get some kueys. There wasn't any parking lot available so Ed had to drop me off at the Nonya Kuey shop and drive into a small alley to wait while I went to get the kuey.

Right at the spot where he waited, there was a "No Parking" sign.

Jayden: Daddy, *pointing at the "No Parking" sign* NO PARKING!

Ed gasped and stare at his son in disbelief. I myself had a good laugh when Ed related the whole incident to me! Haha!

Kids can really say some of the most funniest things.

Jayden Can Read

2008-07-07T09:25:00.005+08:00

If I remembered correctly, Jayden started reading short sentences when he was 20months old.

Today he is able to read simple sentences and also attempt to pronounce words that he has not come across. Credit must go to the daily flashing of words cards and the phonic song that's being sung during the Shichida classes.

Yesterday he was flipping the IKEA catalogue with Ed and he started reading some of the short sentences.

Let's hope he can start reading the restaurant's menus soon and order his own food yah? :o)

Jayden And The National Flags

2008-07-04T12:03:00.003+08:00

A couple of months back, we realized Jayden's enthusiasm on his flashcards was diminishing. At times he didn't want to look at them at all. So Ed and I had come to a point to face that fact that it's time we had to print new flashcards.

The commercialized ones were either a bit too boring, too expensive or he had outgrown many of the titles available. So that's how the car logo flashcards came about.

On top of the car logos, Ed had also made an effort to print out flags of many countries of various regions ie. Asia, Europe, Asia Pacific etc. etc. and on top of that, I've also bought a poster full of flags from Borders and had it pasted on the wall.

After a few weeks he could almost recognized most of the flags.

The task of taking photos and videos of Jayden has become quite difficult these days as the little kid constantly wants to take over the role of being the photographer or the director, demanding to take pics and videos of himself!

Sometimes I really find it amazing how he could memorize and recognize so many flags.... and at one point he even corrected Ed and I when we name the flags wrongly.

I have to admit that sometimes I really feel very tired and slacked on doing the home practice and flashing cards to Jayden. But seeing the results that yield from it all just pushes me forward and stretches me again and again.

It's just not easy being a parent these days, isn't it?

中毒太深

2008-07-02T13:07:00.000+08:00

I've been a bad mommy.

I haven't been blogging about Jayden's progress as often as I should. Even the last post about Jayden identifying car logo was posted by Ed. He got fed up waiting and waiting for me to post it up and thus decided to do it for me instead.

Thanks to those mommy-friends and friends who smsed / sms / called me to check whether am I doing ok? Yes, thanks for all the concern. I'm doing just fine. I just got too much poison. And I'm still being poison.

我真的是中毒太深了。我中了Maplestory 的毒。

After losing my Maple mojo for more than 3 months I got it back again. And this time round 我的毒 is so 深 I just don't want to do anything else but maple whenever the kid doesn't need my attention. I don't even feel like msning my friends, don't wanna blog, don't wanna talk about anything else except Maplestory. My insurance agent (ok he call himself finance advisor but I still think he's an insurance agent) has been trying to call / visit / talk to me about some new discounted riders that I can add onto my existing policies but somehow I'm just simply not interested in listening to him.

I'm still very much addicted to Maplestory at the moment but trying to strike a balance.

So back to the blogging now.

Momoko FTWM,
Sorry for not replying on the question about the language Tagalog earlier. Tagalog is the common language spoken in Philippines. It's my ex-maid who taught Jayden how to count 1 - 10 in Tagalog. No harm learning an extra language! But then it's just 1 - 10 only......

Chris,
Thanks for calling me and checking on me and I must apologize for the missed calls.... most of the time my mobile phone is turned to silent mode. Gotta meet and catch up one of these days!

And thanks to those mommies and friends who left comments / compliments about Jayden capabilities.... and those who constantly came back to the blog to check for updates and new posts. This bad mommy will try to keep up, post and share more of Jayden's wonderful journey of growing and learning.

Here is a recent picture of Jayden wearing a singlet bought by his 阿姨。

He's looking more and more like the daddy don't you find?...

Jayden And The Car Logos

2008-06-11T12:53:00.003+08:00

Jayden loves to identify different car logos whenever he sees them on the road. At times he can name them much earlier than we are able to see clearly, all thanks to our failing eye sight.

Besides looking at the logos in the front or back of the car, he is able to tell the make of the cars by looking at the side of the vehicles...how? Well, he will look out for logos on the wheels or window glass...

This is how we introduced the various car logos to him initially.

Now whenever I push him in his stroller on the way to market he would yell out the car logos of the cars on the road. He seems rather proud of himself whenever I say "Wah, good job you are right!"

It's quite and effective way to keep him occupied while we take our daily 15mins walk to and fro the market.

Re-edited post by mommy on 4 July @ 3.30pm

Jayden Is 26 months Old

2008-05-11T23:00:00.007+08:00

Jayden is 26 months old today.

Few days back we brought him to try out our Singapore flyer. Though it is nothing too exciting, Jayden did keep himself busy walking around the cabin, looking out at the scenery, climbing up and down the benches, singing and dancing, etc.

At 2 years and 2 months old, Jayden is now able to :-

1) Recognise flags of various countries (Mainly Asia and Europe. He has yet to learn the national flags of Africa, national flags of the Americas and the Caribbean, and the national flags of Australia and Oceania)

2) Count 1 - 10 in 5 different languages / dialects, i,e. English, Chinese, Hokkien, Cantonese, Tagalog. (Why only 5? Because that is all we know!)

3) Converse in an almost proper manner, e.g.

I don't want this one.
Can I try?
I want to come down (e.g. from high chair, bed, etc) or
I come down myself.
Excuse me, Thank you, Sorry.
I want some more (e.g. Carrot, fishcake, drink, etc)
I want to go (to the) market/gai gai, etc.

4) Understand the difference between right and left (e.g kick the ball with your left leg, raise your right arm and wave, etc).

5) Understand the difference between hard and soft surface.

6) Understand what we trying to relate to him and follow the instructions, e.g Stop at the pedestrian's crossing when the traffic light shows a Red Man, and cross when it is Green. listens to the instructions of the paediatrician when he went for consultation and having his haircut at the salon without crying or fidgeting.

7) Sing few songs complete (twinkle twinkle little stars, head shoulder knees and toes, wheels on the bus, and a few other songs he learn in Shichida classes)

8) Read some of his favourite books. One of his all time favourite is Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton. He reads the book all by himself, though there are still some words that are too difficult for him, ie. promenade he still tries his best to pronounce them.

9) Now can pronounce words up to 5 syllabus, e.g Hippopotamus, Cockadoodledoo.

10) Relate what he sees on books/cards/TV to real ones, e.g. Name various vehicles on the road, e.g taxis, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, concrete mixer truck, excavator, lorry, truck, fuel tank truck, van, and so on. He will also say out the words correctly when he sees the advertisement on the vehicles, e.g IKEA, SONY, NIKON, Tiger Beer, etc.

11) Figure out how to pronounce new words, though sometime he didn't get it totally right. There was once when he watched an advertisement and pronounce the word "VICHY" correctly. We were shocked as we have never taught him how to pronounce that word. The power of learning PHONICS!

12) Catch and throw balls using both hands pretty well.

13) Know all the basic shapes ie. star, triangle, rectangle, square, circle, oval and a few more sophisticated ones like hexagon, crescent and semi-circles.

My son has grown up quite abit hasn't he?

Ed and I are seriously considering to let him attend the pre-school class at the school just opposite our place. I've been to visit the school once and I'm pretty pleased with what I've seen. The walking distance from our home to the school is less than 10mins and furthermore the school is Montessori based which is just what I'm looking for. The only downside is expensive school fees. But then it's Montessori based so can't complain too much.

The paediatrician has also advised that we could try to send Jayden to school to see if he will succumb to the peer pressure of eating while he is with other kids. Moreover I think Jayden seems to be pretty bored staying at home looking at his mommy almost 24/7! We also hope the kid will learn to interact and socialise with kids of different race and ages.

Oooooh I can smell freedom! Haha! Well, at least for 4 hours! Can't wait!

We Are Finally Back (To Reality....)

2008-04-14T14:01:00.005+08:00

For those who know that we have gone away for a 10 days vacation to Japan, just to let everyone know that we are officially back.

For those who didn't, ok now you know and we are finally back.

Though it's a 10 days trip to Japan, Ed applied for 2 weeks' of leave and it finally ended last Friday. He's back to work today, officially.

And once again our lives falls into the usual routine again. Ed goes to work. I take care of the kid.

It's been a topsy-turvy 2 weeks. From a nervous wreck I was from the few days before our trip , I became exhilarated and frustrated during the trip, and then a little depressed when we came back to Singapore. I should say I'm more or less tuned back to "normal mode".

Overall the trip was great and fun. I think the best part for Jayden was he didn't have to eat when he didn't want to. And of course, checking into different hotels almost every night, fooling around with all the switches in the hotel rooms (within his reach that is), ransacking the mini fridges and taking out the packets and bottles of juices from it, arranging them nicely on the bed.

And the best part he went kicking the complimentary big grapefruit around the room when he got so bored. I kenna told off by Ah Bao when I told her what Jayden did to the grapefruit.

"You know fruits are so expensive in Japan!!!!! How can you let him kick the grapefruit!?!" Oops. Shall bear that in mind and not let it happen again when we go Japan for trips again.

The trip was physically draining for me. Jayden didn't wanna go on the umbrella stroller most of the time. I had to carry him up the steep slopes and stairs to the ancient temples. Chase after him in Disney Land and I had to be the one to give him his pacifier, bread, water etc...etc... He practically disagree and threw tantrums whenever Ed volunteered to do all the above.

If you are wondering whether am I pregnant and thus the kid is so sticky to me? The answer is NO. Haha!

Ok you can skip reading the following if you have been to Japan during the cherry blossom seasons. But you could read on if you think you'll have the same likes and dislikes of Japan like I do.

A few things worth mentioning:

The cherry blossoms were spectacular. No words can describe the beauty of it. You'll have to see it yourself. It's too beautiful, really.

Mt. Fuji was magnificent. Again you'll have to see the real thing yourself. Postcards and pictures in the mags do no justice for this great mountain. It took my breath away. In my opinion, it looked much greater than the Grand Canyon.

The women in Japan. What can I say.... They made me feel so dowdy and lousy. 99% of them seems to just jump out from those glamorous magazines you find at Kinokuniya. Lashes all curled and mascara-ed nicely, curling just at the right angle. They dress to kill. And especially at the cooling weather of 10 degrees and below, they looked sooooo good in their wind-breakers, down-jackets, parka and whatever else you call those beautiful and nice coats. They never seems to have a bad hair day. I feel and look so AUNTY beside these beautiful women!

The men in Japan. Haiz. What can I say.... all also so handsome. All dressed in nice black suits. I wonder if their dispatch guys were dress in black suits as well?! I didn't see any guys wearing jeans and shirts with cap!

The ToTo toilet bowl. It's not just me who find it fascinating. Even Ed and Jayden are impressed! This fascinating toilet bowl can mostly be found in normal places ie. malls, hotels, and some other glam tourist spots. How fascinating?

10 degrees and you take off your pants and you sit on it. Woohoo! The seat is warm!
Scared that the seat is dirty? Have no fear, there's sanitizer just right beside!
Wanna poo but afraid the sound of the "bomb" landing into the bowl might be embarrassing? Have no fear! Press the music button and nice flushing sound will camouflage your "poop poop" sound! The music goes on and on til you finishes your big business!

Ok Jayden doesn't use the toilet bowl, so how come he find it fascinating as well? Well... the way he presses the buttons tells me so! Everytime I uses the toilet he will come charging in too, and then start pressing the colour buttons!

And the Ramen I had, it's to die for. You will not like the Ramen here in Singapore once you have tasted theirs.

And Japan is as clean as Singapore. Slightly cleaner I would say.

The few things that I didn't like about Japan was:

You'll have a hard time finding dustbins.

The highchairs have no buckles, so that means the kid could slip down and run off. Jayden tried to wriggle his way down.... I had a hard time trying to make him sit still.

The Japanese thought I could speak Japanese. Do I look like one? No I don't think so. I looked too dowdy to be one. Duh.

I guess everyone who's been to Japan will agree with me on this. Everything is freaking expensive.

So, enough said. If you just wanna see the pictures, just scroll down to the next few posts.

Ed and I couldn't figure out how's the best way to post the pics (we have snapped 2000 over pics! Gosh!) so we've decided to just do one video on each day of the trip containing some of the pics taken in that particular day. We thought it will be a better way to keep track.

We have spent quite a bit of $ on this trip so the next vacation will probably have to wait for at least another 5 or 6 months.

But where next?

It's gonna be either Hokkaido or Australia Gold Coast! :o)

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 7, 8 & 9

2008-04-10T17:53:00.001+08:00

Highlights of the day:

We ventured into the Imperial Palace which is just situated opposite of the Palace Hotel where we stayed during our 3 days of free and easy in Tokyo.

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 6

2008-04-06T23:31:00.002+08:00

Highlights of the day:

The much anticipated 1 day trip to Disneyland! But too bad Jayden has to take his 2 hour nap in the park and missed taking his pictures with Mickey and Minnie, Chip and Dale....

But wait! He managed to wake up in time for the parade and took a few shots with Roger Rabbit, 3 Little Pigs!

He had a fun time running amok in the park, slinging his Mickey Mouse lunchbox, holding onto his balloon and sporting a Mickey Mouse magic hat hairclip! So much fun.......

Ed suggested that we bring Jayden back to Disneyland again when he's older. He's now still a little too young to appreciate and enjoy most of the rides.

Edited to add: those last few pics of Jayden brushing his teeth and goofing around on the bed in the hotel, just a few bonus pics :o)

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 5

2008-04-05T23:31:00.001+08:00

Highlights of the day:

More pics of Mt. Fuji.

Ramen Factory! We had our Ramen lunch at the factory. The Ramen was AWESOME!!!!

We travelled into the "bright lights, big city" Tokyo......

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 4

2008-04-04T23:30:00.002+08:00

Highlights of the day:

Mt. Fuji was magnificient!

Don't you think Jayden looked great in his mini-size YuKaTa?! Haha! He was a great hit with the aunties during dinner that night!

And I had a good 1 hour relaxation at the Inn's "Onsen" (meaning Hot Spring in Japanese).
Ok sorry no pics of the hot springs cause all of us were in the buff!

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 3

2008-04-03T23:30:00.002+08:00

Highlights of the day:

Great sights of the blooming cherry blossoms! Breath taking pictures!

The deers at the Nara Deer Park are some animals, they go after those who have food in their hands. Jayden chased after the deers and stretches out his hand asking the deer to "paw paw?"! The deers stink actually.

Jayden was well-liked by most of the fellow tour members, especially the aunties and the young ladies and some uncles and gor-gors as well!

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 2

2008-04-02T23:29:00.002+08:00

Highlights of the day:

Thank goodness Jayden didn't suffer from any air sickness.

He's pretty excited to be on a plane I must say! He went from exploring the remote control of the inflight entertainment system fervently to enthusiastically waving to the pretty air stewardess .

7D Central Japan Discovery/Fantasy + 3 Days Tokyo Free and Easy - Day 1

2008-04-01T23:27:00.002+08:00

Highlights of the day:

We departed from the new Terminal 3. It's new, clean and nice.

Daddy's Work - 2 Years Old Collage

2008-03-25T13:51:00.005+08:00

Daddy's work - Jayden's 2 years old collage.

If you have notice Ed also gave the blog a new blog header.

In this collage consists pictures of Jayden from 13 months onwards til 3 days back.

Good job, ED! Thanks very much for the beautiful collage and blog header :)

This Is A Good Friday

2008-03-22T18:56:00.008+08:00

The Terrible Two kicked in right after Jayden turned 2. I had a hell of a week.

The kid had bleeding gums with a 2 molars budding at the same time. He refused his food and had been cranky whole week long. Plus the teething resulted in the kid having fever. It's terrible I tell you.

Enough complaining.

Thank god there's a public holiday break in this terrible week, it's the Good Friday!

The weather was really good and so we took the opportunity to bring Jayden out to the beach to enjoy the sun. I wasn't too keen though and so I wasn't totally prepared wearing the swimsuit and all. I just lugged into a pair of bermudas and a sleeveless top. Anyway I just want the kid to have fun with the sand.

We set off to Sentosa's Tanjong Beach as it is less crowded and definitely much cleaner than East Coast Beach. We started building sand castle with him but soon the kid realised another activity that was more fun - to swim in the sea!!! Look how he enjoyed himself and running around the beach...we almost ran out of breath just to catch up with him! He almost got me all wet!

Thank goodness I bought the sunblock before we drove into Sentosa as we had to remove his shirt after he got all wet. Jayden is such a daredevil dashing to the waves! Ed and I could hardly catch up with him!

After that we had a nice and hearty lunch at Pizza Hut. Jayden didn't eat much of the food that I've ordered for him but he nearly finished the full serving of mushroom soup.

The beach outing was indeed a sucessful and a very fun one! Ed and I decided that we'll try our best to go to the beach as often as we can from now on!

But wait, there's more program in the evening!

We had a family dinner gathering at Changi Airport T2 Sakae Sushi restaurant. Ed booked the VIP room that could hold a max. capacity of 10 pax. It's really nice to have an area all to ourselves and Jayden was able to roam around the room when he gets bored after sitting down for awhile, and we could continue to enjoy the scrumptious sushi dinner.

It was indeed a very very fun and good friday.

Jayden Is 2 Years Old

2008-03-12T13:02:00.004+08:00

It's the day, the day that the kid turns 2 years old.

We wanted to celebrate his birthday by bringing him to visit the zoo again, or go sentosa and let him build sand castle by the beach, but decided against it when the weather was not looking good.

We went Changi Airport Terminal 3 instead. Though there was not much to do, Jayden did have a good workout by running non-stop at the viewing gallery, and he was running real fast...so fast that we overheard one westerner telling a local saying that Jayden is gearing up for youth Olympics!

After that we had a hearty meal at Sakae Sushi where Jayden downed almost 2 cups of chawamushi before heading home. Though it was not a eventful way to celebrate Jayden's birthday, it was definitely a good family outing for all. I had to say I enjoyed myself quite a bit!

After dinner we had the cake cutting celebration for Jayden and he enjoyed the cake very much...of course...the cake is Swenson's ICE CREAM cake! Last year the kid couldn't eat his own birthday cake cos' he was down with fever. So this time round we make sure he can truly savour his own birthday cake.

He attacked the cake with vengeance by poking on the cream right after we sang the birthday song! And the verdict for the cake - 2 thumbs up from the birthday boy!

Time flies...... by next year the same day I believe he would be starting to attend preschool....

I'm looking forward to that.

The Birthday Present

2008-03-10T23:18:00.003+08:00

We brought Jayden to TOYS'R'US on Sunday to buy him a birthday present.

We walked for almost an hour but still could not make up our mind what to get for him. We were keen in getting him the bicycle (see picture below), but it is too big and will take up much space in the house.

Furthermore Jayden is still too short to reach the pedals. In the end, we bought him the kitchen set, thinking it will boost his creativity.

See how he enjoyed playing the kitchen set with his cousins. We let him opened his birthday present though it is a day before his actual birthday.

I know it's gonna sound contradicting.... I'm always hoping time would passes quickly so that the kid would really grow up fast and I could regain my freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want.

In fact time really flies..... my son is turning 2 years old tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jayden :o)

Sort It Out

2008-03-10T13:59:00.004+08:00

Jayden is able to sort out objects and group them accordingly, whether same shapes or same colors, etc.

Watch how he sort out the various UNO cards into same color group.

Jayden's ex-Shichida teacher has given me some tips on how to take Jayden to a higher level of sharpening his sorting skills. I'll have to work on it.

Stay tuned.

This Is One Hungry Kid Part II

2008-03-09T10:19:00.000+08:00

Bought another set of flashcards that's similar to the birds and insects.

This time round is Transport and Occupation theme.

Marine creature series will be coming up next.

He just love his flashcards.

This Is One Hungry Kid Part I

2008-03-07T14:13:00.002+08:00

Hungry but not for the food. He's hungry to learn and he's asking for more and more.

A few days back Ed bought a box of flashcards on birds and insects from Popular Book Store but then they are a little too difficult to flash because of the paper quality, so Ed decided to just let Jayden play around with them.

He was very eager to learn the names of the different types of birds and insects and it's rather amazing that he actually remembers them by the third day.

And he seems to favour the lamellicon beetle, ant and millipede over the rest of the insects and the birds. He's also able to differentiate a few types of birds rather than just categorizing all of them as "birds".

I hope he's not gonna be afraid of the cockroaches like me when he grows up or else next time if there's cockroaches invasion at home we'll have 2 person running around screaming the house down!

Sometimes I really wish his appetite for knowledge can be balance out in terms of food intake.

This is one kid who really seldom ask for food and milk.

"劈腿" 小子 ?!

2008-03-02T11:07:00.001+08:00

2 months ago we realized the kid really like to do the stunt of "spilt" aka 劈腿.

At first he just 劈 a little bit.... but as days passes, he was able to 劈 and 劈 and 劈 his legs further apart! There was once he practically did the 一字马 style but Ed was alittle too shocked to take a pic of it in time.

The picture on the left was his furthest spilt that we managed to catch it with the mobile phone camera.

小瓜啊小瓜。。。。妈妈希望你长大了不要来真的‘劈腿’啊!

It's A Man's Thing.......

2008-03-01T11:06:00.002+08:00

to love cars that is.

Ask me about the engines, gear stick, gear box I'm not really interested and bothers about it.

Maybe it's really a mans' thing. Ed brought his dream car cataglogue back home one day and started flipping it through with Jayden.... The kid was able to recognize and name a few parts in it.

Pay a little more attention towards the end of the video. For the longest time he was trying very hard to pronounce the word s sports rim and finally he was able to do so.

Ok now I know exactly how a V6 engine looks like. Duh.

Jayden Loves To Sing

2008-02-23T19:20:00.002+08:00

Jayden loves to sing.

Be it nursery, pop, rock, chinese, english, japanese songs, etc. He only needs to listen to a song few times and he will be able to sing some parts of it.

The amusing part is not the inaccurate pronounciation but the many facial expressions he has on his face while singing!

Jayden The Future Striker

2008-02-23T19:19:00.003+08:00

Jayden can really kick the ball very well.

High chance that the daddy will be sending him to JSSL Arsenal, The Junior Soccer School & League when he turns 3YO.....

Mommy will definitely be getting worried. Striker injury prone leh, how?!

Jayden Is 23 Months Old

2008-02-12T11:42:00.001+08:00

Time really flies past quickly. Jayden is 23 months old today.

Last year during CNY he was still learning how to cruise around with support and speaking very few words. Now he has grown up so fast within the last 12 months in terms of motor skills and speech, so much so that at times some may have mistaken him to be a 3 years old toddler, if not because of his small frame.

2007 CNY - 11 mths old...............................2008 CNY - 23 mths old

We see vast improvement in his development when he was around 14 months old, coincidentally that was also the month that we enrolled him in Shichida teaching. Since then he is able to learn to speak/read quite a number of words. His memory is quite amazing too.

At 23 months old, he is able to :-

Read/Spell his own name both in English and Chinese
Read simple English sentences
Read simple Chinese sentences
Read calendar months
Count to 10 in English and Chinese
Count to 20 in English
Identify animals both in English and Chinese
Identify transportation both in English and Chinese
Identify colors both in English and Chinese
Identify vegetables both in English and Chinese
Identify body parts both in English and Chinese
Identify some food both in English and Chinese
Identify objects both in English and Chinese
Sing the complete version of Head and Shoulder Knees and Toes
Sing part of most of the songs in "Signing Times" and "Beep and the Band"
Recognise almost all the american signs language as shown in the 13 volumes of "Signing Times"
Memorise pictures/words/pronounciations within minutes
Complete 12 piece Jig Jaw Puzzles
Jump with both feet off the ground
Climb the steps, sometimes without support
Dribble ball
Kick balls towards determined direction
Kick high ball
Sort shapes
Put beads through a thread
Pour water from a toy teapot into a bottle with small opening without much spilling
Slide down the slide without any assistance

We are pleased with his development and the only area of concern is his intake of solid food. He is still rejecting food that needs to be chewed, e.g. Rice, Meat, etc. and only taking solid food in the form of soup and noodles. Well, guess certain things cant be rushed into and as long as he is growing up healthy, all these can wait.

See how he enjoyed himself today at Eastcoast MacDonald playground. We let him played to his heart's content before treating him a nice cholocate sundae.

At the Playground of ECP MacDonald with cousin Natalie.

Jayden giving us mega watt smiles at every attempt to go down the slides on his own. It's not everyday that he gets to enjoy such freedom at a playground cos' mommy is still very particular about cleanliness and worrying the son catching potential viruses left behind by other kids!

Looking forward to 11th of next month..... My boy is turning 2!

恭喜发财

2008-02-10T14:27:00.000+08:00

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous lunar new year 2008. I still made it in time to wish everyone because according to the chinese calendar the last day of celebrations ends at 初十五。
This year's lunar new year celebration has been a tough one for me. I was down with a bad cough throughout. But still I braced myself for the activities that I've lined up earlier, such as preparing the reunion dinner for Ed's side of family, go visiting at my uncle's place which is an annual affair *I don't get to meet my mom's side of relatives unless there's major event like a wedding* and we had a few rare visits from other family members.

At one point I think I had more than 12 guests in the house at the same time!

Now that I've a maid, hosting small gatherings and volunteering to host the reunion dinner seems to be an easier task! Afterall it's always nice to have sombody else *other than Ed* to clean up the place after all the guests have left! And it's been a nice experience for Jayden for he has never had to entertained so many people at a time at his turf! He was busy going around shaking people's hands!

Although plagued with a wicked cough, I still enjoyed the reunion dinners and the visitings. We had a good time.

And this year, finally we were able to get a nice oriental suit that Jayden could fit in! See my cheena boy!

Reunion Dinner At Laguna Country Club With My Side of The Family
My dad *公公* with Natalie, Elizabeth, Nicholas and of course little Jayden!

Thank goodness I listened to my sisters' advice on bringing the maid along so that she could help jaga Jayden as he went running around the country club while we were eating our reunion dinner in peace. He doesn't have much patient these days for sitting in the high chair waiting for us to take our meals at a comfortable pace! Even though I was coughing like mad throughout the dinner, I had to say I really enjoyed the good food!

What I really wished for, for the year of the Rat, is good health. Nothing beats having good health to enjoy every single moment with Jayden and Ed.

What did you wished for? :o)

Jayden Is Learning Three-Word Chant - 《三字经》Part 3

2008-01-22T12:01:00.000+08:00

窦燕山　有义方　教五子　名俱扬
易解: 五代时，有一位窦禹钧（又称窦燕山），遵照圣贤教诲的义理来教育子女，因此五个儿子都很有成就，都能光耀家门。
Tou of the Swallow Hills had the right method. He taugh five sons, each of whom raised the family reputation.

养不教　父之过　教不严　师之惰
易解: 生育子女，若只知道养活他们，而不去教育，那是作父母的失职。老师教导学生，不只是知识、技艺的传授，更重要的是教导学生做人处世的道理，使学生能够与人相处融洽，做事有方法，活得健康愉快有意义。因此对于学生的要求一定要认真严格，不能偷懒怠惰，才能教出好学生。（严师出高徒，严是认真，一丝不苟的态度。要教出好孩子，必须父母与老师双方面配合，也就是家庭教育和学校教育共同努力。）
To feed without teaching, is the father's fault. To teach without severity , is the teacher's laziness.