It started off with a fever on Tuesday afternoon. He felt feverish after his afternoon nap. When I reached Po Po's place, I found him very cranky and stuck to me. He did not eat much of his dinner and did not want anything else, not even water. He refused to be carried by anybody else, except me. I asked him if he wanted cheese, he wanted, so I gave him a portion of the Laughing Cow cheese.

Little would we know that after just a bite, he vomited everything that he ate after his nap. He was in shock and cried for a long while. We changed him out of his clothes and I changed out mine. After crying, he was tired (partly because he did not have a good nap). I breastfed him and that was ok. Then he wanted tofu, which he ate with no problem. At first I thought it may just be the weather. It had been really hot the past 3 days. Probably a bout of indigestion. I was also thinking that it might be sore throat.

The fever was suppressed after a dose of baby paracetemol that night. But Matthew did not have a good sleep. He woke up several times and drank water from his water bottle.

Yesterday, I decided to monitor his fever and went to work as usual. At about 4pm, Po Po called me. I rushed back and brought him to see Dr Ong. True enough, as I had suspected, he had sore throat. Dr Ong explained the high fever (38.8oC) was most likely due to a viral infection. Matthew had never clicked with Dr Ong and cried throughout the entire session.

He cried for a good session of 20 minutes during dinnertime. Nothing much we could do. He refused to let us carry him. He also no-no to his dinner of mee-sua.

Matthew slept through the night, before waking at 6:30am. He was probably hungry. Good thing was that he had no more fever (Dr Ong had expected fever to last 3 nights). Hopefully today he has a better appetite.

Matthew has been very much a singer and dancer recently. He would break into a dance or stamp his feet or clap his hands when he hears a catchy tune. Sometimes he would sing to himself. Now this has become more apparent since we started swim class at Marsden.

Songs that we do at swim class includes Ring-a-ring-a-roses, Wheels on the bus, Twinkle twinkle little stars. Matthew would go through and act out the steps of some songs, like turning around on the last line of Roses, up and down in Wheels.

Last week, we started teaching him words of some songs - Twinkle twinkle little star and London Bridge.

Us: Twinkle twinkle little
M: star
Us: How I wonder what you
M: are
Us: Up above the world so
M: high
Us: Like a diamond in the
M: sky
Us: Twinkle twinkle little
M: star
Us: How I wonder what you
M: are

Us: London Bridge is falling
M: down
(Us: falling
M: down)x2
Us: London Bridge is falling
M: down
Us: My fair
M: lady

We taught him 2x and he learned fast. We were pleasantly surprised when he could do it without our help on the 3rd time.

I just read that YiXuan was doing something similar too - filling the blanks of a song. Our toddlers are learning really fast, aren't they?

It was drizzling, but we decided to pop by at Marsden to see how the weather would hold out. Matthew took a short nap in the car (because he refused to nap earlier when he saw all the big brothers and sisters having fun at Mike's cousin's place). I carried him out of the car and sat by the pool. Matthew's not an easy person if we wake him up too early, but that day was different. When I told him (with his eyes closed) that we were going to swimming and the teacher was in the pool, he quickly opened his eyes and looked around. We changed him and sat at the pool, waiting for our turn.

We were the only ones! The rest must have been "scared" off by the rain. Matthew enjoyed his one-to-one attention and even had fun with Brooke. He even managed to "swim" to me, totally submerged. He merely wiped off the water from his face and eyes and continued.

We did the "If you are happy" song and that was one part where we were supposed to put our face in, I put Matthew into the water, with his face totally submerged. He was ok, to my surprise. Then we also did the Ring-O-Roses underwater.

Brooke was quite pleased and kept telling me that Matthew has improved so much over the few weeks. She asked if I bring Matthew to the pool often. No was my answer, but we did a lot of dry runs at home. She also emphasized that we must continue our efforts during the 4-week-term break.

Each kid with Marsden would be given a proficiency certificate. Matthew's first certificate! I'll scan it and put it up on the blog later. We are so proud of our little boy!

watch a video
Matthew's 5th swim class

I was on duty in office last Saturday. Mike and Matthew followed me and we had breakfast at the canteen down the road. Matthew had his morning milo, some butter roll and a hard boiled egg.

After breakfast, Mike and Matthew set off on their adventure, a bus ride to Suntec City. On their way to the bus-stop, this was what they saw in the sky

They must be rehearsing the Youth Festival or NDP show at the National Stadium.

Here are some photos of their adventure at Suntec. Where did they go? Toys R Us!


Doesn't Matthew look like a big boy in a toy store? He had lots of fun!

Boys will be boys. Construction vehicle. Aaaaahhhhh.

Auntie Hani was kind to lend us her daughters' Little Tikes Horse, which was with Auntie Jamie. Auntie Jamie was sick, but still delivered to the horse to Po Po's house. Matthew had fun on it. He knew immediately what to do when he climbed on the horse. Here's a photo, but he turned away as I depressed the shutter.

Thank you, Auntie Hani and Auntie Jamie!

Here's a video clip put together with a series of shots of Matthew walking on the foam mat. Taken on 17 June 2006 during his 4th swim class.

watch a video
"WALK" ON WATER

Last Saturday we went to Raffles City to catch the Lego Fair before Matthew's swim class. There was a play area for the toddlers with lego mats on tables and duplo blocks to play. Matthew had a go at the blocks and quite liked building the blocks, so we bought him a duplo tube of 90 blocks for S$19.90. Pretty good buy.

Matthew has been playing with the blocks the past few days. Last night, he showed Mommy how to build blocks and put the blocks together. Civil engineer in the making? No no, it's just a boy's thing. No more civil engineers in this family. No money to make. Hahaha.

watch a video
BUILDING BLOCKS

Last Sunday was Father's Day. No big celebrations, just a swim and a dinner at Marina Square Food Loft.

After Matthew's nap, we made our way to Caribbean's pool for a swim. Matthew enjoyed the swim very much. We brought along a tiny watering can (from the beach sand set), his plastic Barney toy and a rubber crocodile. We went to the small pool first, then realised that Matthew has grown tall enough to stand up in the 0.5m deep pool.

Matthew picked up quite a lot of stuff the past few weeks. Here are some of the stuff he learned to do or say, some of these really took us by surprise.

Unzip the backpack - Today I dozed off and woke up to find my backpack unzipped. Matthew knows the contents of the bag. His favourite books and his nesting cups, also his biscuit container. He had unpacked these items and played with them.

Putting things back into a small box - Can't elaborate here. Censored.

Turning on his Tomy Mickey Mouse train - His X'mas present from Auntie Liyun and Uncle Eric. He loves it, because it goes round and round. He would always bring the train to us to turn it on. A few days ago, he turned it on himself.

Pressing the doorbell - My parents' place has an indoor doorbell. They used it to call us from downstairs when we were young. Matthew loves the doorbell and would get us to press for him. Now he knows how to press the doorbell on his own.

Alphabets - He knows A, B, C, D, E, F and G, L, O and X. Thanks to my mom and the keyboard he always play with and the Sesame Street Alphabet School Bus, a birthday present from Auntie Liyun and Uncle Eric.

Dirty - We always tell him not to touch the dustbin, because it's dirty. Recently he learned how to say the word, so everytime he sees the dustbin, he will go "Dirty, dirty, dirty". When he sees the Dirty Dog in his book, Happy Dog Sad Dog, he will go "Dirty, dirty, dirty".

No, No, No - Something he has learned from us. Everytime he does something not so right, we would say "No, no, no". Finally he knows how to say no; not to tell us no, as in a reply to a yes-or-no question, but to tell us he knows it's wrong. Like putting a shape in the wrong hole or touching the electrical sockets. He knows it's wrong, so he will go "No, no, no".

Train, train - His fascination with trains. From our windows, we can see the MRT track. When we go out, we will pass by the track. Everytime the train goes by, we will ask Matthew, "Can you see the train?" Now he tells us when the train passes by. No need for us to tell him.

Gao, Gao (Mandarin) - meaning high / tall. He would go "gao gao" when he sees cranes, incinerator chimneys etc. Also those huge telecommunications towers on top of Bukit Batok Hill and Bukit Timah Hill. I must also add that he has really sharp eyes. He can spot them from very far and sometimes leave us looking everywhere, wondering where he spotted that "gao gao".

Matthew has been sleeping through the night for a while now. He has been on a one-nap routine since my parents went to UK. He would be ready for bed by 8:30pm. If we are still out at 8pm, we will get HELL from him during the car ride home. I'm hoping that the one-nap routine would continue when he goes back to my parents' place tomorrow.

Something funny happened last night. I had a late night, sleeping abt 2am, updating the blog and surfing www. At about 3:20am, Matthew woke up. No, he did not cry, did not wake us up. I heard him, but did not react to his waking. He climbed out of his bed, walked to our bedside table and drank water from his water bottle. He even closed the cap, put the water bottle back on the table and went back to lay down on his bed.

Well, good, he went back to his bed. He started singing and making sounds of sleeping (imitating Mike). I don't know what happened after that, because I left him be and went back to my dreamland. The next thing I knew, an hour later, he was still awake! Walking around the room, talking to his Garfield etc. Finally he decided to take another sip of water. After his drink, he put the water bottle on the table, with cap closed everything, came to me, held my hand and pulled me out of bed.

I was reluctant at first, thinking that he might want me to open the bedroom door, so that he could go out and play. WRONG!!! He wanted me to put him to bed. He held my hand, led me to his bed. Once he was in bed, he sang again. I went back to sleep till 7:20am.

Goodness. I hope this doesn't happen again.

Matthew had the most fun in his fourth swim class. After a week of reinforcement, importantly highlighted by Ignatius' mummy, going through the motions like playing crocodile on our bed and sofa, ring-o-roses etc, Matthew looked forward to his Saturday swim class at Marsden. I also kept asking about his swim class teacher and the pool. When we got out of the car on Saturday and asked him where we were swimming, he immediately pointed in the correct direction.

We invested in a full neoprene swim suit for Matthew after a cold cold swim class the previous Saturday and it really helped. Matthew was not even shivering when we got out, which usually would happen even if the water is not cold.

We sat by the pool, waiting for our turn. Matthew actually hestiated going to the pool, but once he was in, he was having fun. He said hi to Brooke, his swim teacher and hi-5 her. A little warming up helped a lot.

Here are some comparisons of Swim Class no. 3 and no. 4...

Matthew got over his anxiety with Brooke and even let Brooke carry him. He even walked on the foam mat towards me, smiling. At one point, he refused to walk, because Brooke did not hi-5 him (i told him to hi-5 Brooke and walk over to me). Matthew's only complaint? No slide! Hahaha.. Next week is last lesson. We are definitely going to continue next term!

We went to catch Barney Live! at Plaza Singapura today. We had brought Matthew to catch it twice at IMM, 28/5 and 9/6. Matthew seems to like it quite a bit, so I thought why not.

First Matthew had his dinner at MacDonald's. He had carrot and cauliflower soup with rice. He enjoyed his meal while I had a Fish McDipper Happy Meal. I gave Matthew some paper and colour pencils and he had fun scribbling. That kept him occupied and he finished his dinner real fast.

We went into the mall to look for a place to watch Barney, but the space immediately in front of the stage were reserved for pass holders. There was hardly any space behind, as it was occupied by Carrefour for some Hi-Tech sales.

We made our way to Level 2 and sat next to a maid and her charge. Matthew kept himself occupied looking at the TV screens, pointing at the different images that were shown, animals, cars, planes etc.

Finally the show started. It was actually the same as shown at IMM. Matthew's fav segment? The DINO DANCE. He clapped and danced along with the music and was so delighted to his dino friends on stage.

Gong Gong and Po Po went to UK last Thursday to attend KS's graduation. This week, Matthew would be staying at home. Ah Ma takes care of Matthew in the morning and I take over in the afternoon.

So last Thursday, we went to the airport to send off Gong Gong and Po Po. Matthew had a great time walking around.

We have no idea where he learned this from. But so far, it was the only time we saw him walk this way....

Like old lady or pregnant woman. so funny!

The morning did not start right. It was raining. Matthew woke up early at 5:55am. I told him to go back to sleep, very obediently, he went to lie down on his bed. But he was up again 5-10 minutes later.. This went on till 6:50am. I decided to wake up.

Our initial plan was to be out of the house by 8:30am to reach the zoo at the opening hour of 9am. Papa had a late night, ironing clothes and watching soccer, so he was in bed till 8am. It did not matter, because it was raining.

It finally stopped at 9am. We decided to go ahead with the trip. In 10 minutes, I managed to come up with fried rice for our lunch (a little cheating required, the ingredients were prepared earlier). We were out of the house by 9:40am, reaching the zoo at 10am. Matthew actually fell asleep in the car, but only for 10 minutes.

We rented the Tiny Explorer cart for Matthew. He was excited and kept pointing to us the direction to go.

The first stop was near the entrance, where the Simang (a type of primate) are located. We saw the zookeeper feeding some little monkey type mammals (not Simang) with peanuts and fruit. Matthew was totally amused by these small mammals, because they were fast moving and agile.

Next up, the otters. The group of them were busy following the zookeeper (who was outside the enclosure), obviously hoping for some food. But sorry guys, it was not feeding time. We also caught two otters swimming in water in their underwater observatory. Matthew saw them swimming and he paddled his hands, just like the otters.

Then we saw the flamingo. Matthew only associated them as birds. Nothing interesting here.

The lions were up next in the Cat Country. First we saw the lioness on a rock...

Then in the up close and personal gallery, we saw the big male lion. Whoa, it was the first time we saw a real lion so close up. Usually we would only the lionesses.

Finally another bonus, we saw the ever elusive leopard, taking a nap...

After that, we skipped the Children's Zoo and Play area and made our way to the Sealion, Manatee and Penguins enclosure. We had our lunch here, while waiting for the sealion token feeding session to start.

Matthew was not interested in the sealions, but was captivated by the Pelicans which stationed themselves near to where the zookeeper was. After the session was finished, the playful sealions (obviously wanted more food) were splashing water and making lots of noises.

This was something new we did not know, perhaps Matthew would do it when he's older - Token feeding for the penguins by the kids! The zookeeper got four kids to feed the penguins. The kids had fun throwing the fishes into the water.

After that, we thought we would just make our way to the entrance, stopping by at any interesting exhibits. Matthew was walking and somehow he tripped and fell flat on his face. He had some scratches on his forehead and nose and a Big Big Bump (baluku) on his forehead.

This is a photo of Matthew after a nice warm bath, on our way out to IMM to buy diapers. The swelling had gone down, but the bump was still so red.

Labels: zoo

There are quite a few playgrounds around our estate. So on Sunday morning, Mike decided that we should do some exploring.

First, we have a regular playground downstairs. We pass by it every day, on our way to the multi-storey car park. Matthew always point to the playground, indicating that he wants to play.

Down at the fitness area, where there is a basketball court, a hardcourt soccer court and a jogging track, there is also a playground. It's quite big. Only thing is that the morning sun makes it very hot to play there in the morning. The better time to be there is the evening. I was just jogging the other day and saw lots of kids playing there.

The third playground is further down the jogging track, next to a skateboard rink. It's smaller than the first two, but it's definitely designed with toddlers in mind. There are steps and bars and a wheel to turn, and of course, not forgetting the slides.

To the end of the track, there is the smallest playground of those we explored that morning and it's shaded from the sun. Matthew had the most fun here. There are steps which Matthew climbed and a wheel to turn, a short tunnel to crawl through, then a slide to come down. There are bars on the sides for the more agile kids. Matthew had a go at it. Well, he could almost do it without our help. Almost. A white cat came to join us. Matthew just kept giggling, pointing at the cat.

Up the stairs, turn turn turn the wheel

Through the tunnel, down the slide. HOORAY!

Hahaha... a cat!

Up the bars I climb!

The last one we found was actually near the market. It is sheltered from sun and rain. This playground was built to cater to LOTS of kids. The "corridors" were wide. Matthew was not too keen to explore this one. He was just contented to sit on the steps, examining the holes in the platform.

Five playgrounds in total. I did not know there were so many playgrounds around our estate.

Labels: Perth 2006, playground

We changed Matthew's swim class timing to 5pm, which is definitely a better timing for us, regardless of whether he naps twice or once a day. The timing is good too, as we could go straight home for his shower, instead of showering at Marsden.

Matthew had a "deserted" morning at Suntec and was tired from all the walking and playing. A good nap of more than 2 hours, he was up and about and active again. We gave him his tea snack, a drink of milo and some biscuits before we brought him to his swim class. We wanted to be early, so that he could get familiar with the surroundings and pool

He recognised the place. At first he ngeh ngeh ngeh about having to change into his swim suit and was quite reluctant. Then we lured him with the Little Tikes car. We realised that he was actually strong enough to move the car backwards on his own. mm.. now the trick is now to get him to move forward..

Anyway, after a while, he wanted to get out, so I brought him to watch two girls learning swimming. Matthew watched them for quite a while and after that he was quite happy to go into the water. However he was actually still quite wary of the instructor (though for this timing it's actually Brooke, and the earlier 2pm timing was Jane).

Brooke was good, she did not rush through the lessons and did not "force" herself on Matthew. She let Mike "swim" Matthew, instead trying to take our little boy away from his Papa (which was quite pitiful). Matthew had fun grabbing a note and putting it into Brooke's bucket.

After that there were some singing and "dancing" and blowing bubbles. Then it was foam mat time. This time, Brooke wanted the toddlers to walk on the foam mat. Matthew was so reluctant, but did a good job walking on the mat, holding on to Mike's hand.

Sliding time. The first time went up the slide, Mike put him up there from the pool. The second time, I guided him to the back of the slide and sat him and he slided down into Mike's arms.

I guess he had more fun this time. Mike and I decided that he should continue another term of swim class. Only then we could see its effectiveness. For Matthew, it would be water cum gym fun, as soon as he gets over his stranger anxiety (towards ang moh). Hahaha..

A "deserted" Saturday morning at Suntec City. Well, it was Saturday after all, not a working weekday.

Mike had a ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant) exam at 9am, so we agreed to bring Matthew for an early morning outing. We reached Suntec slightly before 8am and had breakfast at MacDonalds. We bought Matthew a Happy Breakfast Meal of hotcakes and apple juice. He loves hotcake and finished almost all of the two pieces of hotcakes. He had his morning drink of milo, but refused the apple juice. The Happy Meal came with a light green car Flo from the Disney Cars Movie and he happily played with it.

Mike left to take his exam while Matthew and I finished our breakfast. We then went to walk down the fountain terrace.



Here's a photo of Matthew, wearing his NEXT Tee-shift, which is so big boy, and his new pair of Combi shoes. This outfit made him look so grown up, don't you agree? :p






Matthew enjoyed the early morning walk and kept looking at the fountain of wealth. He was a good boy and even followed me to the toilet when I wanted to pee...

I brought Matthew to see the Koi at the koi garden. He did not seem very keen, getting too close to the fountain and the water and kept waving bye bye to the fishes. But he enjoyed himself watching the marine fishes at the Aquarium advertisement tank that was placed next to the entrance of Tony Romas. Innovative idea. He could differentiate big fish and small fish when I asked him. mm... opposites, time to focus on that.

Then up the escalator to Level 1, then to Level 2. It wss so good to be there so early. Matthew walked around, swinging his arms, dancing, like nobody's business. Then there was also no other kids to "fight" with him over those coin-operated cars. FYI, we have had some very rude remarks from 4-6 year old kids about Matthew sitting in the car without paying (because we agreed to only "start" the music thingy when he turns three. We are also worried that he gets frighten by the music and movements).

To get him to move on, I kept telling him that there were more cars to play with, until we eventually got to Level 3 Kidzone. We waited for Toys R Us to open and when we were in, Matthew had a great time. Experimenting with each different toy, pushing buttons, pressing keys, enjoying himself. All while waiting for Papa to turn up.

We played a while more after Mike finished his exam and made our way down to the foodcourt. There was no high chair, so we had no choice but to let Matthew sit on the bench and feed him. To our surprise, he actually sat for a long while and finished 3/4 bowl of rice. He enjoyed the double boiled carrot soup and had fish and tofu from Mike's fish soup. He even "disturbed" the young chaps who were sitting behind us. Haha..

After all the walking and playing, Matthew was definitely tired. One moment he was clapping his hands to the song he was listening to, the next moment he was already sleeping, even before we stopped at the first traffic light after we exited to Nicoll Highway.

What a morning for him.... and me too...