We brought Matthew to the pool. Wee Suan came along too. Matthew is now tall enough to stand with his head above the water; i.e. he should be at least 75cm tall. He enjoyed splashing the water and putting his hand out to "catch" the water from the fountain. After his shower, he had his dinner of brown rice porridge with carrot, cauliflower, broccoli and meat and he finished it fast.

Then it was playground time. The playground at Caribbean is designed like a ship with ropes, sails etc. There were some portholes and we played peek-a-boo with Matthew. He was fast to pick it up and we had fun!

Labels: playground

During lunch, Matthew made a mess of his food by putting his naughty hands into his bowl! With no extra hand, I had no choice but to let him be messy and wash up later. I literally dumped him in the kitchen sink to wash him up.

I thought why not just bathe him in the kitchen sink after dinner. I cleaned up the sink, got his towel and bath gel. What an innovative idea! He enjoyed his bath with a view and played with the kitchen tap. Oh, he somehow discovered how to turn off the tap!!!

Since I was not working, my mother and I brought Matthew along to the Jurong East market. Matthew was curious about everything. He wanted to touch this and that, that and this. By the time we were all ready to go home, it was way past his morning nap. When we put him in his car seat, he fell asleep immediately. This has never happened before. I was amazed!

KS got an S$100 Marriot F&B voucher after she wrote to them about a bad service experience at Crossroads Cafe. Well, she is a hospitality undergrad and was very disappointed with the service.

On Monday, we went to enjoy the voucher without her. After Matthew woke up from his nap, we changed him and gave him his milk. I put his BAHA on and I think he has adjusted to being able to hear on his left side. I left it on throughout the ride from Mom's place to Crescent Girls' School (where Wee Suan teaches English and Literature) to Marriot Hotel.

We ordered curry chicken, 8-treasures vegetables with crispy wanton noodles and an OktoberFest special of sauerkraut and bratwurst sausages. The curry chicken was yummy good, thick, but absolutely sinful with lots of coconut milk. The noodles was ok. The portions were huge. By the time we finished all the food, there was almost no room for dessert. Wee Suan and I were determined to make the feast worthwhile, so we ordered a Mango and Banana Chocolate Spring Roll with Maple / Walnut ice-cream. Deadly sinful, but satisfying! If anybody is interested, for 2 persons, just order a main to share and enjoy the dessert buffet for 2 at S$14+++! Cheap deal!

Matthew enjoyed himself. He was very happy and screamed the whole place down, literally. The whole lobby could hear his excitement! Marriot's service was family friendly; they provided plastic plate, bowl and a spoon (all from Ikea) to keep kids occupied. Matthew was more interested in his little Pooh spoon. We fed him his porridge there. He was very co-operative and finished more of his dinner. It was a pity that I forgot to bring a banana and some of his baby cookies.

KS tagged me on her blog. Now I shall list now 20 miscellaneous items on us (i.e. mike, matthew and me)... starting now!

1. 1+1=2. ROM on 19092000
2. customary wedding and hi-tea reception at traders' hotel on 16122001
3. we went to NZ for honeymoon for 16days
4. our twosome became three on 25022005
5. matthew is our little prince
6. matthew is 8 mths old today! hooray!
7. he drinks 8oz of formula milk a day
8. i breastfeed him twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening
9. he likes banana
10. his fav bedtime book is little bunny's bedtime
11. his fav cartoon character is winnie the pooh
12. he likes to play with water
13. we love you matthew!
14. matthew crawls like lightning
15. he can pull himself up to stand
16. he likes to put things in his mouth
17. he misses his ah-yi
18. he screams when he's happy
19. he went on the MRT for the first time on Sunday
20. he loves the open space

hey.. those 20 items took 6 minutes!

We finally made it! For so long, we wanted to do it but never got down to it. Yesterday, we brought Matthew on his first MRT ride. We were actually on our way to West Coast Park. It was still early, so I suggested to Mike that we brought Matthew on his first MRT ride.


We parked the car at Clementi Ave 2, the car park nearest to Clementi MRT station and took a train to Dover, then to Buona Vista. Matthew was frightened to tears by the loud noise, but it was not the noise from the MRT train. It was some Harley Davidson motorcycle rider, who decided to ram his accelerator! Noise pollution! Never had a good impression of Harley riders.


Matthew enjoyed his ride. He was, as usual, curious about everything. Looked around, left, right, front, back, everywhere!!! Usually he would look at the camera when we took photos of him, but the train passing by was more captivating. He did the pole dance and the monkey loops!

We should bring him on such rides more often. The next time would be buses!

We then went to our regular open space - West Coast Park. We rocked him on the springy horse and let him "climb" the rope squares. Half way up, our little prince decided that he wanted to poo! Boy, it was a lot of poo! People were watching us, but then what was there to see. It was a baby who did not want to poo in his diapers. After we cleaned him up, we let him try on his new pull-up pants, Drypantz from Dryers. It was so easy to put it on him. At least, we did not need to struggle to put on his regular diapers.

We went to MacDonald's and gave him his porridge. He was a good boy. He sat in the baby seat and finished his dinner within 20 minutes. It was fun.

Oh yes! Before I forget, I was so happy this morning, because Matthew waved Bye Bye to me!!! What a good feeling!

Now I got to pack his bottles for tomorrow. Suxx, I'm on duty tomorrow. Let's hope Matthew would sleep till morning after a long long day!

Mike did not have any appointment today, so he spent the whole day at my mother's place with Matthew, my mother and mother-in-law. I'm pestering him to blog about his full day with Matthew. Let's see what he will blog about. Well, I've given him some suggestions.

When I called home late afternoon, I was promptly informed that Matthew did not take his afternoon nap. So when I reached my mom's place, Mike and I had an early dinner, so that we could bring Matthew home earlier. He was still Bright and Sunny, lots of energy, could smile and giggle and make funny noises.

When my papa came home, he took Matthew for a short walk and Matthew was put into his car seat. Well, I think he was happy. He waved bye bye and made happy noiz. Then we gave him his pacifier. On our way to send Ah Ma off at Bt Batok MRT station, our little prince fell asleep. He must be exhausted, as he is not one of those babies who sleep in the car.

As we were bringing Matthew up in the lift, he woke up! The stupid lift voice that goes "Storey 6, going up, beep beep beep beep!" Alamak. I knew that if he woke up, it would take a while to put him back to sleep. It was 7pm. After much persuasion, crying and carrying, he finally slept and it was 8pm! *sigh* next time, I just carry him and climb up the stairs.

I bought a 2nd hand Sesame Street Baby Scentsations: Crawl Along Musical Garden in May from a LTA colleague. It was worth it. When my mother finally took it out, cleaned it and let him play last Friday, we all agreed that it was a good toy.

This mat actually make noise at almost any point where the baby sits. So whenever Matthew moved around the mat, different insect sounds are played. He enjoyed sitting on it and flipped his books etc. on the mat. It was very fun for him.

Let's see if I can get other 2nd hand toys. Chris has already passed me a lot of stuff. Still recovering from my loss of short-term memory (due to pregnancy. I wonder if I'll ever get it back, but my long-term memory is super good), so I cannot really remember what she has passed to me. I must go and make a list...

A recap.. "Matthew has a normal left ear pinnal, except that he has a ear tag, like me and my mommy. His ear hole is slightly smaller. The CT scan showed that his left ear auditory canal (EAC) is blocked and his left ear drum (or tympanic membrane) is replaced by a bone structure. The floor of his right EAC is partially deficient, but it would not be too much of a concern as he has perfect hearing on this side." To read and understand more of the ear, you can read up at Let's Hear It for the Ear.

We finally got the BAHA Softband last Thursday and we tried it on Matthew last Saturday. I think he knew something was different when we put it on for him. He had this look on his face that said "this is funny?" He probably realised that he could hear better and was "shocked". After a while, he cried, probably new to hearing much clearer.

We will start with short periods, say 5 mins, then slowly increase the duration of wearing the BAHA Softband to 10 mins, so on and so forth. When he grows older and starts to understand more, I think we would need to prepare him and tell him that he could only hear clearly on his right ear.

I have wanted to blog about this for a long long time. After fully breastfeeding Matthew for six months, I decided in early September to stop pumping in the office and put Matthew on formula in the day. I'm still breastfeeding him in the morning when he wakes up and the evening before he sleeps.

To me, breastfeeding directly was a breeze. Any time, any where. No bottle etc. Pumping was very very tiring. After a long day, I still had to wash and sterlise bottles and pumping accessories. Now that I've stopped pumping, I do not have as much washing to do. I have more time for myself and for Mike.

With only two 4-oz formula feeds each day, each big tin of 900-grams last a full month! A baby on total formula, four 7-oz feeds a day, a big tin last one-and-a-half weeks. I've saved a lot of money on that.

The target was six months, encouraged by new mothers around me, like Chris, Luan, Mitch's wife. Mitch's wife is still breastfeeding the little Zenaide (19 months old next week), which is amazing. My aim now is to continue the morning and evening feeds up to my next one, if possible.

Breastfeeding is still the best! To read more about breastfeeding, check out this website Breastfeeding Mothers' Support Group (Singapore).

My sincere apologies to all who have been following Matthew's Little Blog. Let me update you on the happenings in the last 10 days or so.

1/10 - We went swimming again, well, trying to make it a weekly activity. Unlike the last two times we went, Matthew was more aware. The minute he opened his eyes (he was taking a nap) and saw the pool, he was excited and made lots of noises. He just loves to play with water. He slammed his hands on the water, played with the sprinkler and fountain and floated on water. Lots of fun!

2/10 - He tasted orange for the first time. He took an orange segment and used his gums to squeeze the juice out. I think he enjoyed the taste to the last bit. He even grabbed the "remnants" of the orange segment after we took it from him.

We went to Botanic Gardens for a puppet show staged by SPH for their 160th anniversary. Chris, Tianfa and Megan joined us there. We fed our kids and then they had fun with their fathers. Megan played with soap bubbles. A little girl, a month older than Megan, joined in. She made contact with Megan and they hugged. So cute! But too bad, I did not manage to get a photo of that. Mike was "walking" Matthew on the grass and the both of them had fun!

3-7/10 - Matthew has learned about "cause-and-effect". He would grab something and drop it. This generated sounds. He would then pick up the thing that he dropped and it would start all over again. He can also now pull himself up by grabbing hold of chairs or our legs and arms etc.

8/10 - Chris and I have been planning a Sentosa day trip since a month ago and the day finally came and we were all excited. Matthew enjoyed himself very much, especially at Underwater World. He was attracted to the colourful marine fishes, but not the dull grey sharks and eels. He wanted to grab the swimming blue fishes, so kept hitting the walls of the aquarium. We settled down at Palawan Beach for tea break and we had hot dogs, tuna, apple cake, dried apricot, prunes and raisins and hot tea. Matthew sat in the Bumbo Seat (courtesy of Chris) and had his teething rusk, which he kept dropping on purpose. He also had a piece of apple to "chew", some prune and banana. Megan got a rubber ball from Underwater World to add to her ball collections, but poor little Megan fell sick with fever at the end of the day. Oh, just to add, Matthew took his first bus ride. He was all curious, looking out of the window and enjoying the ride.

11/10 - I have established a bedtime ritual with Matthew. Thanks to Chris for passing me the magic theatre. At the end of the day, we would go into the room and I would breastfeed Matthew on one breast. I would then read him his bedtime story (Little Bunny's Bedtime). Last night, he made me read it 3x! Then off the lights and on the magic theatre. I would breastfeed him on the other breast. After a cuddle, he struggles to be put into his own bed. He now knows that he has his own bed. Every time I ask him, "Where's Matthew's bed?" He would look in the direction of his bed. Almost as soon as the pacifier goes into his mouth, his eyes close and he would sing himself to sleep. The whole routine last about 30 minutes.

BUT...

He has been waking up in the middle of the night to play! I would find him standing in his cot, big eyes - wide-awake. Happy Matthew, Poor Mommy. He would stay awake for 1-2 hours. *sigh* It's just another phrase of growing up. He has learned new skills and won't waste a chance to demonstrate.

Labels: BG, sentosa

Today is Children's Day. I still remembered that back in primary school, we would celebrate the day on 30/9 with half day in school. No lessons, just loads of fun. Teachers would give sweets, tit-bits, nick nacks etc etc. The school would have some stationery or sort for the students with the school logo / name and "Happy Children's Day XXXX" to commemorate the day. Secondary school students are no longer considered children, so no celebration for them, so it was a day when I would lament that I was no longer a child.

There is this Toys R Us warehouse sale at Toa Payoh Safra Club this weekend. I was there yesterday with Chris and I can guarantee that kids would go WILD there. There were just so many toys at up to 70% off! I bought this Goofy Giggles Wheelie Wobbler from Little Tikes. It has wheels and it giggles and laughs when you roll or shake. It was making so much noise in the car on my way home that it just tickled. Matthew was curious, hearing the sounds, but not sure how to react. I think when I open up the toy tomorrow, he would have a good time, laughing at it! I'm already laughing as I'm thinking about it and posting this very moment.

I also bought this caterpillar toy which is controlled by remote control panel. I saw Megan playing with a remote controlled toy a couple of weeks back and she had fun, so I thought I would get something similar for Matthew. Maybe I should ask Chris if she would want to exchange toys so that both of them have a variety of toys to play with. mm.. toy exchange scheme, seems like a good idea?