Matthew's Little Blog

ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-03-17T16:13:00.000+08:00

We have been blessed with our beautiful daughter, little sister to big brother Matthew, JOANNE. She came to us on 27 February 2007 at 1022hrs. She weighed 3.295kg, measured 49cm in lenght, with a head circumference of 36cm.

With the new addition to our family, we have moved on to a new blog address:
Our Little Angels

D-Day

2007-02-27T00:37:00.000+08:00

Today's D-Day. I'm going for C-section at 10am. After that, it's no more Mike, Sandy and Matthew, it'll be Mike, Sandy, Matthew and Joanne. As of last Wednesday, Joanne is estimated to be 3.4kg with 33cm head circumference. Like Matthew, Jo is too big to "fit" into my narrow pelvic area. So we decided to go for C-section. Since we had to choose a date, we decided that it must be after Matthew's birthday. Matthew was borned on 250205, so we thought why don't we simply change the 5 to 7 and bravo - 270207.

We have been talking to Matthew about his little sister. We went shopping with Matthew for him to choose a present for Jojo (his nick for Joanne) and to choose a present for Jojo to give him. Since that shopping trip, he has been very much involved in our preparation. He even wanted Jojo to come out quickly, so that he can have his present! He helped Mike to push Jojo's baby cot into our room and was so excited about it.

Good Luck to me, Mike and Matthew with our new addition. See ya in 10 hours, Joanne!

Matthew's school

2007-02-27T00:21:00.000+08:00

We did it. We registered Matthew for Pre-Nursery classes at Calvary Pandan Kindergarten at Pandan Gardens today.

We brought Matthew along and he said he likes the school. Of course, there was a play area with his favourite slide and swing. As I was talking to the Principal, I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. According to Mike, Matthew went through the play tunnels, climbed the steps to the slide and up the swing all on his own. AND he wasn't afraid when some of the kids came to gather around him (maybe that was because Papa was around). Then when Mrs Low the Principal approached him to talk to him, he did not cry. He responded to her and answered her questions on mei mei. He even let her hold his hand when he wanted to touch the piano.

That's a good start, but probably because Papa and Mama were around. Got to call Mrs Low in August and see if there's vacancy for him in Term 4. I intend to staty him in Term 4, so that he can settle in more easily without all the kids crying around him next year.

Wonderful Birthday!

2007-02-26T23:36:00.000+08:00

We were out playing the WHOLE day on Sunday to celebrate Matthew's 2nd birthday! 9am to 9pm! Lots of fun! We went to Matthew's favourite playground - SENTOSA, then to our favourite Japanese restaurant for dinner. I'll let the photos do the talking.

** First stop - Imbiah Lookout

>> Matthew's birthday cake no. 1

>> A family portrait

>> Matthew enjoying the cake. He "went" for the cake, as soon as we gave him his fork and refused to "feed" us till he had enough.

>> Matthew having fun at the Sentosa Flower Fest

>> Not forgetting Matthew's fav ride - CABLE CAR!

>> Ba Ba Black Sheep at the Sentosa Flower Fest

** Second stop - VivoCity

>> We took the Sentosa Express to VivoCity and had lunch at Food Republic. Matthew fed himself kway teow-noodles

>> So tired...

Then it was back to Sentosa to pick up our car and we made our way to Little India. We usually park our car at Little India station, gate A and take the train. It's free parking on Sundays and Public Holidays!

** Third stop - Clarke Quay

We had dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant - Waraku. Matthew had rice with chawanmushi, udon from my Nabeyaki and soba from Mike's Tonkatsu Wazen.

>> Matthew drinking water from a big beer glass

After dinner, we had some time to roam around the riverside and Matthew spotted his favourite MITA building with colourful windows.

>> Riverside Walk

** Final stop - Por Por's house

We made a last minute decision to pick up the second cake from home to celebrate at my mom's place. When we picked up the cake on Saturday and Matthew saw the cake for the first time, he went, "WOW!"

>> Matthew's birthday cake no. 2

>> Another family portrait - we got to hold back Matthew from cutting the cake just to take this photo

Matthew was so tired that he was out in 10 minutes. But that was not before he held Mike's finger and gave a blow, saying "Matthew blow candle" in Mandarin. He sure had lots lots of fun!

2007-02-25T02:38:00.000+08:00

Flower of February - Violet, Primrose
Birthstone of Februray - Amethyst, Bloodstone, Onyx, Moonstone
Colours of February - Light Blue, Yellow, Purple

Famous people borned on 25th February
1971 Sean Astin (actor)
1943 George Harrison (former Beatle, singer)

Interesting birthday notes from BirthdayCelebrations.Net.

Chinese New Year 2007

2007-02-21T01:47:00.000+08:00

This is Matthew's 2nd CNY. As Mike's father and relatives are holidaying in China, we had less visiting to do. The first day was the same as before - Por Por's place, followed by a stopover at Ah Ma's place in Yishun, then to AMK at Mike's grandparents' place, back to Por Por's place for dinner and the last stop at Tiong Bahru to visit one of my eldery relatives.

>> Ah Ma's place in Yishun, 18/2/07

Now that Matthew is older, he had more fun playing with the older kids and enjoyed the attention showered on him. He says "xie xie" when he gets an angbow and "gong xi gong xi, xin nian kuai le" and offers two kums (mandarin oranges).

On the second day, we stayed at home, as Mike did some housework (and I did nothing...) and after Matthew's nap, we went to Sentosa. We brought Matthew on the new Sentosa Express (FOC since we are Islander members) and headed straight to Siloso Beach for dinner at Sakae Sushi.

After dinner, it was some fun at the beach. We had always thought that Matthew did not like sand. We were wrong. He played with the sand and had fun trampling on the sand turtle that Mike had built for him. Got to bring him back there for more fun. With his sensitive skin, we were not surprised with the hives on his hands... got to be careful abt the sand play.. heee..

>> Matthew looking at sunset

>> Matthew having fun trampling on the sand turtle

>> My two favourite boys having fun with sand

We spent the third day of CNY at my mom's place. On the way, we went to my godmother's place. Matthew had 3 packs of gummi bear gum-sweets and wanted more. We went to Por Por's place with my ganma, jiu jiu, jiu ma and cousins and had lunch there. Matthew amused everybody as he differentiated the ah-yis by where they stayed, like my cousin is Jurong East de ah yi, my sis is Faber Drive de ah yi. Then my little cousin is Xiao xiao ah yi, somehow he figured that cousin was the youngest.

After lunch, he had fun playing ball and mixing around before Mike carried him and patted him to sleep with his favourite stories.

Till next CNY, with a new member - Joanne. :)

Something in the formula?

2007-02-20T02:18:00.000+08:00

Incidentally, we stopped giving Matthew Enfagrow A+ on Saturday (18/2/07). We went for a late breakfast at MacDonald's that day. Did not give him his usual shot of milk; instead he shared a hot milo with me. After his afternoon nap, he also did not have his milk. His skin was clear for the rest of the day. At night, we gave him warm fresh milk with a teaspoon of milo.

Similarly on Sunday, we gave him warm fresh milk with milo for breakfast and supper. No hives, except due to his perspiration.

Today was the third day. We were quite upbeat about the findings. No formula milk, only fresh milk. 3 cups and his skin had been relatively clear. Matthew's skin is actually quite sensitive and we have to keep his skin relatively clean. After his lunch, I forgot to wipe his legs (he fed himself and had food on his legs), hives appeared. His little adventure on the sand at Siloso Beach just now also left him with hives on his hands.

Mike and I decided to continue with fresh milk for another few days, before we re-introduce 1 feed of formula milk a day. Reason being formula milk has lots of nutrients, minerals, vitamins and DHA, ARA etc "artificially" added. Maybe it's really something in the Enfagrow formula that's causing the problem. I'm quite reluctant to change the formula as it is the only one in the market that is not vanilla flavoured.

ENT review

2007-02-20T01:40:00.000+08:00

Matthew had his ENT review at NUH last Thursday (15/2/07). I was quite hesitant about this review because he was supposed to do a play audio test in an enclosed soundproof room. We were quite surprised - Matthew walked in without hesitation when the audiologist invited him into the room. The room was decorated with kids in mind. There were kid-sized table and chairs from Ikea, playthings, colourful carpets.

Matthew sat down at the table with the audiologist facing him. The audiologist told him to put the pin next to his ear, as if some sound was coming out of it and to place it in the holes of a playboard when he heard a "tu" sound. He passed this test with flying colours.

We couldn't proceed with the next test that required headphones to be used. He simply refused to have the headphones placed. This test would be able to test how much he could hear with his left ear, the different frequencies etc. The next review would be 9 months later. Hopefully, by then he would let the audiologist place the headphones on his head.

The ENT centre had an allergy clinic, so Dr Lynne Lin (Matthew's ENT specialist) recommended that Matthew take the skin prick test when she saw the hives on his legs. The nurse at the clinic explained to us that the only type of test she could do was to test for contact allergens, such as dust mites. The tests were not really conclusive, as Matthew's skin reacted to the negative control. The nurse suggested we keep a food diary, noting down everything that he eats and the time of his skin reaction (i.e. appearance of hives). The most common food allergies were milk, wheat, eggs and soya. We shall see how things go first before we try to carry out a food-elimination-diet, as it is so difficult to restrict the diet of a growing child.

Here's an article from askdrsears.com >> TRACKING DOWN FOOD ALLERGIES

Happy Lunar New Year!

2007-02-18T04:18:00.000+08:00

Have a prosperous and blessed piggy year ahead! Happy New Year!

Fun in the Kitchen

2007-02-17T16:41:00.000+08:00

I couldn't resist taking photos of Matthew messing around in my kitchen this morning.

3 birthdays in 10 days

2007-02-15T16:30:00.000+08:00

We had 3 birthdays in 10 days last month, my parents and my mother-in-law. Here are some photos...

>> Faber Drive Gong Gong's Birthday, 23/1/07

We had an early reunion dinner on my mom's birthday, because Matthew's godmother, i.e. my sister, was flying back to Scotland the following week.

>> Steamboat reunion dinner

>> Family portrait

>> Por Por's birthday, 27/1/07

FINALLY, it was Ah Ma's birthday on 31/1/07, but we celebrated on 3/2/07 with the rest of the family.

>> Ah Ma's belated birthday bash, 3/2/07

Muffins!

2007-02-06T00:27:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday morning, we made some banana muffins for our Botanic Gardens outing that evening. I measured out all the ingredients. Mike and Matthew mashed the bananas, beat the egg and mix the sugar and flour together. It was really simple - mix the wet and dry ingredients together.

Here's the receipe for 9 medium muffins.

Dry ingredients - mix well
2/3 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar

Wet ingredients - mix well
2/3 cup vege oil
1 egg, beaten

other ingredients
1/2 cup rasins
4 medium size bananas, mashed

simply pour the dry mix into the wet mix (or the other way round, it doesn't matter, really) and fold in. the mixture would still be lumpy. fold in bananas and rasins. fill muffin cups. bake in pre-heated 160oC oven for 20min. cool on rack. that simple!!!

>> Matthew helping to hold the muffin cup while I fill up the cup

>> here's the tray ready to be put into the oven

>> Muffins in the oven, almost ready

Matthew had one, as soon as it was cool enough. We brought the rest for the other toddlers. We were quite pleased that Matthew actually shared his muffins with the other 2 boys. Well, almost. Joshua did not take the muffin from Matthew and Matthew got impatient, virtually throwing the muffin at Joshua! Joshua was so happy to be running around that he did not finish the muffin. When Ignatius came a little whilte later, Matthew took another muffin and waited for Ignatius to take the muffin. Ignatius virturally stuffed the entire muffin into his mouth, then took his time to chew and swallow and had a drink of water after that.

So Pleased!

2007-02-05T23:24:00.000+08:00

Here's Matthew looking so pleased after he helped to pluck a big red chilli.

>> Por Por's garden, 29/1/07

MIA

2007-02-05T12:51:00.000+08:00

Yes, we have been missing in action for the past weeks. We had 3 birthday celebrations in 10 days and I've been kind of busy at work.

Will be updating soon. Some exciting news coming up....

Preggie Mommy with Matthew

2007-01-22T16:02:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Mike had an exam at Suntec City. Instead of "lazing" around at home, I decided to bring Matthew along and follow Mike to town. We brought Matthew for breakfast at the market before heading down to Suntec City where Matthew had a hotcake at MacDonalds.

Mike then bolted off to do some last-minute-mugging for his 12nn paper. Matthew and I decided to stroll around the quiet Suntec City at 10+am. Matthew was a good boy. He sat in his stroller, looking at things around him, talking to himself. I think he must be happy to be pushed around. I could only be glad that he didn't want to be carried. :p

We were at the atrium outside Mango, where a stage was set out for this movie called Dreamgirls. There were these three men, dancing to the music from Dreamgirls. I left Matthew near the stage to watch these men rehearsing for their show, while I went to look at the Singapore Mint coins. I watched him from a distance. He was totally mesmerised by them and even moved his hands and feet to the music. Then when the music stopped, he applauded them.

Time came for his lunch. We proceeded to the B1 foodcourt and Matthew had Yong Tow Foo for lunch. Despite having zhu chang fen and hotcake in the morning, he finished all the mee tai mak, two pcs of towkway and two fishballs!!! I was totally amazed by the amount of food he ate.

I wanted to get some ingredients from Carrefour to make some muffins, as my baking powder, baking soda etc have all expired 31/12/06. Matthew loves to help his Godmother make muffins and she has become his favourite person virtually overnight. Wee Suan is back for a month, winter break at St Andrew's, Scotland and she has been spending time playing with him.

Matthew was actually quite tired. He was getting cranky. I tried to carry him, pat him, he simply refused to sleep. When I accidentally reminded him of his toy cow and dirty pillow (his comfort stuff), he WAILED! I had no choice, but to carry him and let him cry out for a while. As I did that, I saw from the corner of my eyes, a family of 4 staring at us and the father had this mocking look on his face! I was like, "as if your kids never cry in public before!". Then his kids were imitating the way Matthew was crying, making things worse for me. *sigh*

After a while, I managed to pacify him and get him to drink water. At this point, Mike came and took over. What a relief! We managed to get some cheap cheap Okunishi rompers at $3 per pc for Joanne and my baking ingredients.

Despite the wailing in the supermart, it was a good trip for both Matthew and myself.

Oh, must add this... I won't want Matthew to follow me to the Ladies next time. Matthew wanted to pee, so I brought him to the Ladies. I also took the chance to take a leak. Guess what our little boy did? He was telling the whole wide world - what colour underwear I was wearing and what I was doing etc etc. My goodness! Can you imagine how embarrassed I was?? Hmmm, next time, maybe we'll try the handicap toilet instead.

PuLL YouR EaRs!

2007-01-19T13:07:00.000+08:00

>> MacDonalds HarbourFront Centre, 7/1/07

Hot Fudge Sundae and OH NO... Hives again!

2007-01-19T12:57:00.000+08:00

Matthew has this interesting habit. He will match a certain piece of clothing to a certain activity we do or place we go. There's this long sleeve blue / white strip jersey that he matches with MacDonalds.

Last Sunday, in order to get him to wear that jersey, I told him that we were going to MacDonalds. The whole journey to Suntec City, he kept saying that he wanted to go MacDonalds. After dinner, we brought him to MacDonalds and I decided to get a Hot Fudge Sundae to share with Mike.

Matthew saw the Sundae and said it was ice-cream and wanted to eat too.

>> Matthew: I want to hold the cup

>> Hahaha, hot fudge all over Matthew's lips and forehead too!

>> Matthew decided to feed himself and took the spoon away from Mike

Little did we know that the sundae would result in hives the following days. Well, it was not his first time eating ice-cream, so we did not expect hives. Next time, only pure ice-cream (i.e. expensive ones only).

Poke Poke, Who's there?

2007-01-09T15:27:00.000+08:00

>> Botanic Gardens, 1/1/07

Mei Mei's Name

2007-01-09T15:20:00.000+08:00

These days when you ask Matthew what is mei mei's name, he will tell you "Joanne". Actually this wasn't the name I taught him. I actually chose "Jolie", as in Angelina Jolie of Tomb Raider fame. Mike wasn't in favour of this name (though he quite liked Angelina Jolie) because he thought the name would give boys "wild ideas". Ya, boys like my hubby! hahaha. We don't know where Matthew got the name "Joanne" from, we like the name too, so mei mei would be Joanne Eng.

Chinese name? We are not quite decided yet. Got to ponder a little more on this one. Hopefully we can come up with something meaningful.

It's another 8 weeks to go with my EDD on 7/3/07. We saw my gynae Eunice yesterday and Joanne looks like she's going to be a big baby too. She is 2.07kg at 32 weeks and has put on 800g in 4 weeks, half of my weight gain of 1.5kg! At this rate, she's definitely going to be too BIG for me to deliver naturally. Well, it looks like it's elective C-sect again. Mike said that since we can choose a date, then better choose a good date / day. We will announce the date when we decide. :)

New Year Weekend

2007-01-09T14:49:00.000+08:00

It was another long weekend with the Malays celebrating Hari Raya Haji with Korban on 31/12/06 and we welcomed 2007 on 1/1/07.

We had dinner with KS at West Mall's Sakae Sushi on New Year's Eve. We got to sit in the new section where the tatami seats were located. Matthew enjoyed his dinner of rice with pumpkin chawanmushi and cod fish kaminabe. It was a good dinner as Matthew fed himself and the adults could enjoy the food at the same time.

>> Won't you agree that Matthew looked the best in this photo? :p

New Year's Day was bright and sunny. We decided to go to Sentosa. A trip to Sentosa would never be complete without a ride in the cable car (a must because it's Matthew's fav).

>> We bought him a purple cable car key chain which he spotted at the cashier on our way out. He was really really happy and excited to have one.

We had lunch at Subway. Matthew had an egg-cheese sandwich, while Mike and I shared a footlong turkey breast subway. Yum yum.

After lunch, we took a bus and the beach tram to Palawan beach as we wanted to catch the animal encounters show. Matthew took a nap in transit. It was too hot, so we gave the show a miss when we saw that the amphitheatre was open air, with no shade at all.

>> We then made our way to Imbiah Lookout via Merlion Walk.

Not wanting to waste such a sunny afternoon, we decided to go to Botanic Gardens for a kick-ball session, after that was dinner at the Taman Serasi Foodcourt.

The next day was spent lazing around at home. We were supposed to go to the airport to welcome back my parents from the New Delhi trip (which was delayed due to fog in the area). The flight was further delayed till late that night.

These days, we try to spend as much time as possible with Matthew before mei mei pops in 8 weeks' time. I'm sure going to miss the one-to-one times I have with Matthew, especially those times when I bring out alone on outings.

X'mas Weekend

2007-01-03T23:45:00.000+08:00

It was a long X'mas weekend.

It started with a sunny Saturday morning, 2 days before X'mas. We made a trip to Orchard Road via MRT from Bt Batok after lunch. Matthew fell asleep in Mike's arms, his usual naptime hours.

First stop - Centrepoint. We went to RSH to get Matthew and Mike a pair of sandals each. Mission accomplished. As Matthew has woken up, we made our way to MacDonalds' for tea break.

Next stop - OG at Orchard Point. I bought 8 sets of clothes for baby girl. Mike entertained Matthew in the toy department. When they finally came to join me, Matthew was not happy that I was buying clothes for mei mei. Then I told him to choose between 2 dress sets for mei mei, Matthew said, "zhe4 jian4 hai2 si1 zhe4 jian4. liang3 jian4 dou1 yao4!" hahaha...

Last stop of the day - My parents' place for chicken rice. Matthew's godmother returned from Scotland for holiday, so my mom cooked chicken rice. We took the MRT to Clementi and took a bus to my parents' place. After dinner, my father drove us back home.

It was quite a good trip without our car and Matthew was diaper free throughout the entire MRT journeys.

X'mas eve began with a rainy visit to the airport to send my parents off on their holiday to New Delhi. Matthew had fun looking at planes at the viewing gallery. After my parents left, we made our way to the MacDonalds' at East Coast Park. It has been a while since we last went to that playground there, almost a year in fact. The sky decided to stop weeping for a while, long enough for Matthew to have some fun.

>> Matthew saw a girl playing on the slide with a balloon and he insisted that he had one too!

After that, we made our way to Marina Bay and Matthew had his lunch of kway teow. It was raining and we were not so keen to go home and come out for dinner, we decided to roam around the area. We made our way to Raffles City, where Matthew enjoyed some macaroni in our minestrone soup from the Soup Spoon. Then we had dinner at Waraku Japanese Restaurant, one of our fav. Matthew had rice with chawanmushi and some of my champon udon.

>> Matthew enjoying some soup.

>> Dinner at Waraku

X'mas day wasn't any drier. We were virtually stuck at home in the morning. I cooked lunch and we put Matthew down for his nap after lunch. We visited King Albert Park, thinking that the MacDonalds still had a playground. We ended up doing some grocery shopping at Cold Storage. Then we made our way to Ramen Ramen at Rail Mall for X'mas dinner.

A Wet Wet X'mas, but X'mas nonetheless. :)

Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T00:32:00.000+08:00

We have gone "missing" the past 10 days! I'm on leave this week to look after Matthew, as my parents went holidaying in New Delhi and Kashmir.

I'll update soon on what we have done for the past week. As for now...

MERRY X'MAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, there are 12 days for X'mas. Enjoy the holidays!

Matthew misses Papa and home

2006-12-20T11:24:00.000+08:00

We bunked at my parents' place again last night, because of the rain. The rain was so long life, had been ongoing since last Saturday afternoon.

Matthew misses Papa, so do I.
Matthew misses his home, so do I.

Sunshine at last when we woke up this morning. No more rain, but it was "freezing cold" last night. Hopefully the weather holds and we can go home tonight. YUPPIE!

Mike darling, Matthew woke up this morning looking for you, maybe because you were there to put him to sleep last night. He woke up, sat up and said, "Papa, lai. Papa, Papa." 2 more nights....

A night away from home

2006-12-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

With one of the worst thunderstorms this year, continuous rain since yesterday, it seemed quite unwise to bring Matthew home. One moment it is pouring, the next moment, it is down to just a drizzle. Then 5 minutes later, it pours again. So tonight I have decided we stay over at my mom's place. Matthew seemed reluctant at first, but after some explanation that it was raining and Papa was not here, he accepted the fact that we were not going home for the night. He was actually quite disappointed.

It did not take long after lights out for him to fall asleep. Guess he must be quite tired. :) Good night and sweet dreams!

We had a fun Sunday!

2006-12-18T18:00:00.000+08:00

It was a gloomy Sunday morning. Mike and I decided to go to West Coast Park, instead of the usual Sunday market trip. It has been a long while since we last went there.

What a big difference! Now we don't need to follow him around that much. Matthew climbed around on his own and had fun.

>> Matthew walked across on the narrow timber bridge on his own

>> Preparing to go down the slide

>> No no, still need Papa's help with this one

>> Look at then and now. I had a similar post previously, comparing photos taken in Feb 06 and Oct 05.

After all the playing and the rain clouds closing in, we went to MacDonalds for breakfast. Matthew declared that he wanted hotcakes, so hotcakes he ate, with jam and corn margarine. Yum yum. We had breakfast and read newspaper and what was Matthew doing? After his hotcakes, he kept himself occupied and entertained. It was amazing. We were there for an hour, but I can't remember what he did. Hahaha!

After breakfast, we went to VivoCity. Thank goodness we decided to stay indoors, because according to the newspaper today, yesterday saw one of the worst thunderstorms of the year. We were early, reaching before 11am and it was still quite empty.

VivoCity is HUGE! Where to begin about VivoCity? One thing Matthew loved was to be able to see cable cars!

>> Cable cars in the background

>> here's a shot of Matthew and Mama

>> here's a random shot of Matthew, eating rasins

We had lunch at the Kopitiam foodcourt. Matthew had his usual macaroni. Then we walked around. It was almost 2pm and we wanted to sit down at one of the many F&B outlets for a break. When we finally decided to sit down at Ben & Jerry, Matthew said he wanted to look at cable car. So we went to Haagen Dazs instead. Then he said he wanted to pee. Mike brought him to pee and he came back with Matthew asleep in his arms. heee..

We let Matthew nap on the sofa, while Mike and I shared a triple bowl of Strawberry, Summerberries cream and Cookies and cream with hot fudge and strawberry toppings. Yum yum. I must say that I've fallen in love with the Strawberry ice cream. Simply delicious!

After letting Matthew nap for almost an hour, we decided to make our way home. Luckily we did. The crowd started to come in and the sky opened up after we reached home. It was still raining quite heavily when we went to the market for dinner. Matthew had a whole bowl of kway teow for dinner.

Matthew had an early night, sleeping about 9:20pm and Mike went back to camp at about 11pm. Me? I was up, watching Man Utd lose to West Ham Utd, while sorting out some clothes and ironing my work clothes. Finally slept at 2am. Matthew, my alarm clock, decided to sleep in on this nice cool day, waking up only at 7:50am. Hahaha.

Big Boy

2006-12-18T17:16:00.000+08:00

Look at this photo. Doesn't Matthew look so big boy in this outfit?

our 5th wedding anniversary

2006-12-18T17:06:00.000+08:00

Time flies. Another year gone. Last Saturday, Mike and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It seems only like yesterday when we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary with Matthew. Last year we had dinner at Crystal Jade Toa Payoh and we almost ended up at Crystal Jade at Jurong Point because Matthew loves the Shanghai La Mian.

We had dinner at The Soup Restaurant. Matthew did not seem very interested in eating, but he kept himself entertained for almost an hour, while we had dinner. He was more keen to get out of the restaurant to look at the Dancing X'mas Trees.

>> The Dancing X'mas Trees at Jurong Point

>> Mike and Matthew "lost" in the crowds. Matthew totally mesmerised by the dancing trees.

Happy 5th Anniversary, Darling Mike! Next year, we will have Gal Gal to join us in the celebrations. :)

A Zoo Trip - Just Mama and Matthew

2006-12-18T15:15:00.000+08:00

Yes Yes Yes. I did it! Since Mike's on reservist and I didn't wan to "waste" a wonderful Saturday morning, I decided that we shall go to the ZOO. Yes, on my own with Matthew. I know I'm heavily pregnant at 29 wks, looking very HUGE, but I DID IT! YES! heee..

I woke up early that morning to prepare Matthew's lunch. When he woke up, we changed and went to the market for chee cheong fan, Matthew's fav breakfast. Half way through his food, he suddenly remembered that there is a playground nearby and insisted that he wanted to go play on the slide. I somehow convinced him that Mama needed to go and buy bread, so we went to the bakery to get his fav oatmeal buns.

Off to the Zoo we went. Matthew recognised the polar bear on the banners hang on the street lights and remembered from his last zoo trip that there was a pond at the entrance atrium. He hurriedly made his way to the pond and pointed at the stingrays.

Then we walked on to look at the flamingoes and monkeys and then to the Polar Bear enclosure to watch the feeding session. There was this little display in front of the underwater viewing gallery that had a picture of penguins. Matthew saw the penguins and insisted that we go and see the penguins. Somehow he remembered that there was an enclosure with penguins.

After the feeding session, we went to look at the rhinos. It is one of Matthew's fav animals, because Mike would also pretend to be a rhino, carrying Matthew and "gallop" away. Then the zebras.

>> I managed to get Matthew to stand still on a tree stump to take a photo of him with the zebras in the background.

Next to the zebras were the little Meerkats, then the big lions. Actually we only saw the lionesses. Then we crossed the road to look at the tall giraffes. We were in luck. It was feeding session at the giraffe enclosure and Matthew watched as the zookeeper Sarah fed the giraffes with carrot sticks and long beans.

YiXuan and her mummy, daddy were also at the zoo with her godparents. We met up with them at the penguin / pelican / sealion / manatee enclosure. YiXuan was having lunch and when Matthew saw the Tiger flask with porridge, he said that he wanted to eat zhou (porridge in Mandarin). Hahaha. I told him that we were going to eat macaroni at Ah Ma's house, so he said, "wo men qu Ah Ma jia chi macaroni." After looking at the penguins, we made our way out of the zoo and went to Yishun.

>> The penguins happily swimming away.

Matthew is quite co-operative these few days without Papa at home. He would walk with me, hold my hand and cross the road. He did not ask me to carry him in the zoo, except once to look at the flamingoes, because he couldn't get a good view. He was also diaper free on this zoo trip. I was hesitant at first and wanted to diaper him, because I wasn't sure if I could manage. He has shown me again that he is totally toilet trained and is able to hold his pee if I told him to. I'm so proud of you, Matthew.

2006-12-15T00:39:00.000+08:00

Guess what was Matthew's reaction when he saw Mike after 3 days' absence? Totally excited and thrilled! He was so happy...

Mike's on 2-week reservist till next Friday. I've been taking care of him at night, instead of bunking at my parents' place. They need a break from this active boy!

So glad that Papa had his night off, though he got to book in by 2359. So happy was Matthew that he slept only at 2215, despite only a 2-hour afternoon nap. So sad was Mama when Papa got to leave so soon. :(

Mama is looking forward to Saturday. It's our 5th wedding anniversary. Earliest Mike can book out would be 1730, so we would go pick him up and have dinner somewhere... hmm.. maybe Jurong Hill? Pretty expensive. Maybe we would just settle for some restaurant at Jurong Point... It would be very very crowded.

Things to do on a Sunday

2006-12-14T14:52:00.000+08:00

1. Explore all the playgrounds in the neighbourhood
Mike brought Matthew out while I stayed at home to prepare lunch. They went exploring the few playgrounds in the neighbourhood. Here are two photos of Matthew:

>> Cheeky smile

>> Down the slide we go!

2. To the market for a chee cheong fan breakfast.
Not quite breakfast, more like a morning snack. He loves chee cheong fan and would mind eating it every day.

3. Eat Mommy's homecook lunch
I seldom cooked for all 3 of us these days because sometimes I simply don't know what to cook or what I want to eat (really dependent on my mood). It's so easy just to cook for Matthew; basically you can just give him white rice or plain macaroni, he would be happy.

Anyway, I felt like cooking on Sunday, so decided to cook the simplest one-meal-dish that could feed 3 of us - Claypot chicken rice, using rice cooker, with lots of Matthew's fav carrots and mushrooms. He was so excited when he saw his bowl of rice. He was actually more interested in the carrots and mushrooms when i gave him his bowl of rice. When he finally ate his 1st mouth of rice, his first remarks was "fan4 hen2 hao3 chi1" (rice is delicious in Mandarin). He made that remark spontaneously. It really made my day man!

>> Matthew feeding himself. yum yum!

4. To the airport to see aeroplanes
Well, this was something we wanted to do for a few weekends, but never got down to doing it. Off we went, to the airport. Matthew refused to sleep at home, but 5 min in the car, he was napping. We let him sleep a while more when we reached the airport. He was excited to see all the aeroplanes big and small. T1 had a better view of the aeroplanes, so we took the skytrain from T2 to T1 and back after that.

>> X'mas season at the airport

A Date at Botanic Gardens

2006-12-13T14:23:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Matthew met up with his little friends, Cayden, Joshua and YiXuan from the SMH Feb/Mar05 thread. It was National Day when Matthew last met them; Matthew was recovering from gastric flu at the last Pasir Ris meetup for the Mid Autumn Festival. All the toddlers have grown up quite a bit and their characters are quite different.

Joshua is the "Lao Da". He's the oldest of the gang, borned before CNY05, so that also made him the "monkey". The rest are roosters. He seems to have enormous amount of energy, ran and ran and ran all over the place, playing with balls, even chasing dogs!

Cayden is the sociable one and the youngest of the four. He got the other kids warmed up with his Vitagen bottles.

YiXuan is the lady of the gang. Grown more feminine and so sweet and demure. Hope our little gal would be like her.

Matthew? He is the most shy, reserved, hesitant, but give him a ball, he would be all over the place, kicking, throwing.

>> all kids love balls!

>> bubble time!

>> oops, Matthew got his hands dirty

>> YiXuan, Joshua and Cayden waiting for another wave of bubbles. Where was Matthew? he was answering nature's call in the bushes!

Yes, Matthew was diaper free for the whole Saturday, even when we went grocery shopping at Carrefour Suntec. Looks like we can save the diaper money. Only a piece a day for bedtime. heee..

Read Miini-World for more on our BG outing!

Fun Sunday

2006-12-07T14:46:00.000+08:00

We decided to pop by at the Zoo for a short outing on Sunday before picking up Mike's sister and father at Yishun for his grandfather's birthday lunch.

Matthew was excited. Along the way, he kept saying in Mandarin, "I want to go to the Zoo." When we reached Mandai Road, there were banners of Inuka the Polar Bear on the lamp posts. Matthew saw them and exclaimed, "Polar Bear". There were signs of animals for a letter representing each row of parking lots in the car park, such as G - giraffe etc. As we drove through the car park, looking for a suitable lot, Matthew would exclaim the name of the animal he saw.

The zoo entrance atrium has been revamped with a pond etc. This was our 2nd time since they reopened the atrium. He remembered the stingray from our trip to Sentosa and arowana (jin1 long2 yu2) from the fish shop at the market.

>> What are the 2 boys looking at?

>> Stingrays and arowanas. Can you spot the arowanas?

We went straight to the Polar Bear exhibit to catch the show. We were in for a treat. Both polar bears, Sheba and Inuka, were in very good mood. Many times we were there, only Inuka was in the water. That day, Sheba was also entertaining us and waving! Inuka showed us his prowess and height, standing on his hind legs, clapping his paws, at least 4-5 times!

After the show, we saw the rhinos, giraffes, zebras and lions. Then the rain clouds decided to open - it started to drizzle. It was also about time to leave, so we quickly made our way to the zoo entrance. Then me, the preggie me, smelling the fried chicken from KFC, decided that Mike and I should share a 2-pc meal. When we walked into KFC, Matthew declared that he wanted to eat Hotcakes! Goodness, the last time we went to MacDonald's to eat hotcake was long long time ago! Mike managed to buy an ice-cream wafer cone from Ben and Jerry. When Matthew saw the cone, he said it was ice-cream!?!? Now, where did he learn that from? We seldom eat ice-cream cone in front of him...

We went to pick up Mike's sister and father and proceeded to AMK for his grandfather's birthday party. Matthew remembered quite a few of Mike's aunts and cousins and took a wee short while to warm up. He had his lunch and was keen to play.

>> Matthew sharing rasins with Mike's cousin and nephew

>> Singing birthday song for Great Grandfather

>> Enjoying the birthday cake

What a fun Sunday! Matthew almost didn't want to go home! He wanted to stay and play more.

Diaper Free Outing

2006-12-06T01:20:00.000+08:00

Whoppie, Yuppie!!! We decided not to diaper Matthew for our Zoo trip on Sunday and we made it through incident-free! We should do this more often. heee... Check back here for update on our Fun Sunday...

Breastfeeding and hives

2006-11-30T01:53:00.000+08:00

I stopped breastfeeding Matthew in July (he was about 17 months old then) after we knew I was preggie. I actually planned to try tandem breastfeeding, but I was spotting, so the most logical thing to do was to stop.

Almost as soon as I stopped, Matthew started developing hives. We did not know what caused it, but we cut down his intake of soya milk, tofu, tow huay, all soy based products. He didn't seem to get any better.

Then in August, he came down with gastric flu that was accompanied by a high fever. We ended up in KKH because he had full blown hives, face all swollen after a dose of paracetamol and a dose of ibrufen 4 hrs later. The KKH doctors thought he might be allergic to ibrufen, so we were supposed to go for an allergy test that they would call me about, but never did.

The hives came on and off and got worse recently. Since we had eliminated all sorts of possible causes, we decided to change the bath gel. Matthew had been using Johnson Baby Bath for more than a year now. It seemed to be an unlikely cause, but we changed it anyway. Luckily I had earlier bought an aloe based liquid soap for the new baby, so we used it for Matthew instead. Immediately we saw an improvement in his condition. That was two weeks ago.

Last Saturday night, Matthew woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 38.3oC. As he was not affected by it, I decided not to give him any medicine. An hour later, he woke me up saying "yang yang" (itchy in Mandarin). I felt his head and realised that he had hives. For the next 3 hours, I was massaging his body to soothe his itchiness.

He simply refused to take medicine. Other than the fever and the itchiness, he was ok. In the end, we got to force feed him to bring his temperature down. We also soaked some rolled oats in warm water for his bath. I have read somewhere on the internet that oat bath can help soothe the itchiness and it really did help. His fever and hives subsided on Sunday night.

We have heard him coughing the past few days and suspected that he caught a flu. That explained the reason for the fever. We have also checked with Dr Ong and it seems like fever was more likely a reason for the hives he developed last Saturday night and in August. Rather than second guessing his hives problem, we would be arranging for an allergy test soon.

I asked Dr Ong if Matthew's allergy or intolerance only surfaced because I stopped breastfeeding him. She said that breastfeeding could have kept his allergy at bay because breastmilk has antibodies etc, that was why it flared up as soon as breastfeeding stopped. I also asked if I should give Matthew breastmilk after our 2nd one is borned. She said no, because Matthew is already off breastmilk and is building up his immune system. Giving him breastmilk may have negative effect on building up his tolerance level.

Now thinking back, Matthew did develop hives once when he came down with fever and flu a year ago. We also didn't know what caused it. But that was one single episode then and he didn't have hives after that. So at that time, we did not look too much into it.

Here's an article from AskDrSears.com on HIVES.

Cable Car!

2006-11-26T00:49:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, we decided to bring Matthew for a ride in the sky, so we made our way to Sentosa early in the morning. From our trips to Caribbean and HarbourFront Centre, Matthew already knew what the cable car was. He had always enjoyed watching the little cabins moving in the sky. This was going to be his first time riding in one.

Mike and I signed up the Individual Islander memberships which would allow us to enjoy free entries into the island; we only needed to pay for the car entry as Matthew is under 3, so his entries into the island and the various attractions would be FOC. With the trains from Vivocity coming into service next January, it might be worthwhile to leave the car at Vivocity or HarbourFront Centre and take the train in (which is FOC too for Islander members).

First stop - Cable Car Plaza at Imbiah Lookout

We bought tickets for a round trip to Mt Faber Jewel Box. Would I need to say more? Matthew absolutely definitely enjoyed himself! He watched the cable car cabins that were coming and passing us, exclaiming the colour of the lan3 che1 (cable car in Mandarin). He also told us to be careful and to sit properly and not to stand up! Mike tried to get him to stand up for a better view, but our little friend quickly sat down and said, "bu4 ke2 yi zhan4 qi3 lai2!" (cannot stand up in Mandarin).

>> Matthew and Mama on the way to Mt Faber

>> A stop at Mt Faber to take a break and enjoy the view

>> Cheeky Matthew on our way back to Sentosa

Second stop - Carlsberg Sky Tower

We were back at Imbiah Lookout. Our next adventure was the Carlsberg Sky Tower. All I could really remember of Matthew's excitement in the rotating and ascending cabin was "lan3 che1"!!! Hahaha!

>> Mike and Matthew before going into the cabin

Imbiah Lookout was a new name for an old attraction; newly upgraded with quite a few F&B outlets, such as Subway and CBTL, one of my fav coffee chains. We enjoyed a Chai Latte al fresco and had egg-cheese sandwiches which we had brought along for our lunch. Matthew had an egg-cheese sandwich and a glass of milk for lunch.

After lunch, we made our way to the bus-stop to take a bus to the Underwater World.

Third Stop - Underwater World

Matthew settled down for his nap while we were waiting for our bus to the Underwater World. We were lucky. A school holiday promotion of 30% discount was ongoing. Mike bought the tickets and we made our way in and found a quiet spot for our napping toddler. Although it was a short nap, Matthew was happy when he woke up to find himself "surrounded" by water! He watched the stingrays in their new ray pool near the entrance and was quite fascinated with the crabs in the new crab section.

>> The new ray pool

>> What were Matthew and Mike looking at?

>> Rainbow crabs

>> Giant Spider Crab from Japan - I was totally fascinated by these crabs. There were about 8 of them and they were really active, despite their size. They were simply HUGE!

>> Mike and Matthew in the underwater tunnel - Matthew wasn't too keen on this tunnel or the fishes that were swimming above. He was more interested in the moving travellator, kept stepping on and off.

>> Here's the section that had his attention most - Jelly section - showcasing different jellyfish species. He had a great memory. When we were watching an Animal Planet show 2 nights ago, he could recognise the jellyfish that was being featured.

We finally managed to pry him away from the jelly section. We had to pass through the shop before the exit. Matthew loved fridge magnets, so we got him to choose one. He chose the octopus magnet, but instead of taking one, one by one he removed all the similar pieces on display (abt 10 of them) and gave them to me to pay at the cashier! Of course, we bought only one. :p

The dark rain clouds threatened to open and pour out its watery content. We abandoned our plans to go to Siloso beach, so we took a bus back to Imbiah Lookout where we had parked our car to make our way home... BUT....

This was not before Matthew kicked a big fuss outside the car. This was what he told us, "Bu4 yao4 chou4 Toyota hui2 jia1, yao4 chou4 lan3 che1 hui2 jia1" (don't want to go home in the Toyota (our car make), want to go home in the cable car).... What more can we say to that!?!?!

Table and Chair

2006-11-20T15:02:00.000+08:00

We went to Paragon on 12/11/06 and Matthew had some fun at the Giordano outlet:

and so last Monday, after my gynae visit, we went down to Ikea and bought this:

Mommy's last cycling adventure?

2006-11-06T22:57:00.000+08:00

We went to East Coast Park last Saturday morning. Matthew did not want to be on the bike, so we decided to stroll and found a nice shady spot to put out our picnic mat.

We haven't really brought Matthew to play in the sand before and this time, I also forgot to bring the sand play set (must keep in mind to leave it in the car boot). While I rested and read the papers, Mike brought Matthew for a stroll along the beach. Matthew simply refused to walk on the sand! Mike got to carry Matthew. They walked around, looking out into the sea, watching people fish.

We moved on because there was a couple smoking away near us. We decided to go to the bike shop and see if Matthew was keen. Once he got into the child seat, no way we could really get him out. He even wanted to choose the bike. We rented a tandem bike with a child seat, so that I could ride too! I know I'm 5.5 months pregnant and I shouldn't be on a bike, but this was probably my last cycling adventure and with Mike controlling the bike, we thought it would be ok.

So off on my last cycling adventure! Hooray! It was FUN! Woah! The last time we took Matthew on a bike was in April. He fell asleep then and we didn't go back since then. With my unstable 1st trimester, I didn't even cycle at work.

We headed for Bedok Jetty and found the area to the east of the food centre cordoned off for the Osim Corporate Triathlon, so we stopped for half hour at the food centre for some refreshment.

Ice Kachang! I'm not a fan of ice kachang, because I'm not very tolerant of ice cold stuff. But Matthew had his first taste and wanted more and more! He even told us he wanted the green part! He also had cheese sandwich and some roti john.

Then we made our way back to the bike shop, stopping by at a jetty.

Matthew refused to go back into the child seat. Mike cycled back, while Matthew and I took our time to walk back.

We went to Parkway Parade for lunch, where Matthew fed himself chicken rice. Well, he fed himself quite a bit and we fed him too. We went home after that and our dear friend or xiao peng you napped in the car.

Anything Everything TRAIN

2006-11-04T23:08:00.000+08:00

Boys and their machines!

Matthew is totally fascinated with trains. Anything, everything can be a train. During meals, it would be a spoon or fork and he would push it round the table, along the edge of the placemat or table. It's the same with a straw. During bathtime, he would run his bath toy or empty bottle along the top of the tub and declare that that's a train.

Matthew has these bead toys, which I bought for $2 from Daiso. He would push the beads along the hard wire and keep repeating, "di4 tie3 dao4 le (MRT train, our local mass rapid transit rail, has arrived, in Mandarin)" and "di4 tie3 zhou3 le (MRT train has left)"....

So great is his imagination!

My Crocs

2006-11-04T22:51:00.000+08:00

I bought a pair of Butter (a paler shade of yellow) Beach Crocs recently in one of the SM forum spree. I love it and wear it quite often. Matthew loves to look at the colours of Crocs on display whenever we walk past any of those stores selling them.

The latest URBAN (a lifestyle paper that comes free with our local papers on Thursdays) had Crocs shoes on its front page. My sis KS was flipping it. Matthew saw the cover page and declared that it was "Mommy's xue2 zhi3 (shoes in Mandarin)" on the front page. He even pointed out the yellow pair, even though it was not the exact shade.

It's amazing how he continues to amuse and amaze us everyday...

CONGRATULATIONS, Kylie and Richard - Part II

2006-10-31T14:34:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Kylie and Richard had their church wedding and dinner banquet in KL. We spent 3D2N there to join in the celebrations.

27/10/06 - The Trip to KL

We left home at 8am and took a cab to Novena Square. The coach was scheduled to leave at 9:30am. Soon, Matthew's grandparents, aunt and Mike's aunts and Kylie's best friend May and her husband Kelvin joined us at the departure lounge of the coach company.

The coach left on time and we were soon on our way. We actually passed by our home along PIE and Matthew recognised that it's Matthew de Jia (home in Mandarin). As Matthew was in a chirpy mood, it was easy to entertain him. He had lots of bread, rasins and biscuits. Mike read Matthew his book and he had his little doggy with him. Lunch was my home-cooked chicken mushroom macaroni (which I cooked early that morning) and he finished almost all of it. Yum yum. Everybody could smell what Matthew was having for lunch.

Mike and Matthew reading the book titled "Matthew's Truck"

After lunch, it was naptime. He fell asleep in my arms almost immediately as he put his cheek to my chest. It was peace in the coach as he slept for more than 2 hours. He woke up as we were reaching Sungei Besi Plaza Toll just outside KL.

Matthew was in a good mood and let Ah Gong and Yi Po (grandaunt) carry him, as we waited for Kylie and Richard to fetch us at the coach company. We made our way to KL Baptist Church for rehearsal. After the rehearsal, we went to Oversea Restaurant Imbi for dinner. According to Richard, this chain of restaurants is similar to our Tung Lok group in Singapore. The food was quite good and the service was prompt. Matthew finished a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, ate some chicken and duck.

Then it was back to Renaissance New World Hotel for a good night rest. Our room number was 921 on the New World Wing. According to my sis KS (who's in hospitality line), there used to be two separate hotels - Renaissance and New World - until dunno which one bought over which one. Anyway, I unpacked the luggage and Mike gave Matthew a bath. He was already over-tired and it did not take us very long to put him to sleep.

28/10/06 - The Wedding Celebrations

Matthew woke up bright and sunny at 7+. We changed into our Sunday best and made our way to the Temptations cafe at Ground Level for buffet breakfast. Matthew had a hard-boiled egg and a slice of banana cake. After that, we went back to the room to get our bags and made our way to the bridal suite (1719) at the Renaissance Wing.

After Kylie had her makeup and hairdo, it was photo time.

Matthew's two pretty aunts

Matthew smiling for the cameras

Then came the groom "on his horse" - a blue BMW.

Here comes the groom!

Matthew opened the door for Richard and gave him a kiss

According to Chinese customs, the sisters of the brides gave the groom a tough time before he could get to the bride. We spent a good 20 minutes having fun. The questions asked were (not in order):

1. Richard to sing a song, loud enough for Kylie to hear

watch a video
Richard sings to Kylie

2. What was Richard's first gift to Kylie? A Gucci Bag.
3. What was Richard's most expensive gift to Kylie? Richard actually answered that it was himself, an answer Kylie accepted. It was actually the Tiffany diamond ring (it's HUGE!).
4. Which secondary school did Kylie attend? Mike was actually outside with the brothers, but kept his mouth zipped.. hahaha... all sorts of answers were given, but eventually he got the right one - Anderson.
5. Which handwriting belonged to Kylie? We had a sheet of paper with 5 handwritings on it. Richard chose the right one.
6. What is Kylie's fav colour? Green.
7. What is Kylie's fav drama? Full house.

We had angbows in assorted currency - USD, AUD, KRW, Pakistan, IDR, MYR and eventually Richard surrendered his entire wallet to us, with money and credit cards! So with his sincerity, we let him in. Of course, there was a second door to the bedroom where Kylie was waiting. So the final question was from Kylie.... Well, the answer was good enough for Kylie to let us open the door for Richard...

Matthew was actually being entertained by his grandaunts, watching the KL monorail passing by below, while Mama and Papa had fun.. Haha..

The Church Ceremony

We were at church early, because Kylie and Richard had their tea ceremony for Richard's family held there. We went to the nearby malls, BB Plaza and Sungei Wang, to walk around and Matthew slept while we walked. We then made our way back to the church for the ceremony at 2pm.

The KL Baptist Church was recently re-opened on 1/10/06 after the old building was torn down and re-built. Kylie and Richard's wedding celebrations was the first wedding at the new building, making the ceremony even more special. The lower Sanctuary Hall has a nursery room at the back of the hall, where parents could entertain the kids during church. So this was where I entertained Matthew for 2 hours during the wedding ceremony.

After the ceremony was a simple reception. We then went back to the hotel to prepare for the dinner banquet.

The Dinner Banquet

We were told that, similar to the dinner banquets here, traditionally it would start about an hour late, i.e. 8:30pm. We let Matthew have his bread, biscuits and rasins while we waited for the dinner banquet to start. By the time the banquet started, he was tired and cranky and the 3rd dish, he wanted to sleep. Mike stayed for the banquet, while I brought Matthew back to the room to sleep. He was tired, so it didn't take me very long to put him to sleep. I watched Liverpool score 2 goals before falling asleep too. When Mike was back at 12mn, the game was over. Well, Liverpool handed Aston Villa their first loss, beating them 3-1.

29/10/06 - The Last Day

It was a free-and-easy half day for us. Kylie and Richard brought Matthew's grandmother, grandaunts and aunt to Richard's place to pay a courtesy visit to his mother. We took the KL monorail to Bukit Bintang, which was two stops away from our hotel at Bukit Nanas. The last time Mike and I went to KL was 8 years ago, when we were paktor-ing. There were lots of changes to the cityscape.

We popped by at Lot 10 shopping mall, just to walk around. Matthew hates shopping, so no way I could shop for anything. The only store Matthew went in was the TimberLand store, because they had a water feature at the window, next to the entrance. Then we went to the foodcourt for lunch. Matthew had a rice set with chicken and mushroom and finished 3/4 bowl of rice. Mike had a claypot chicken rice. Me? I just had the leftovers from Matthew's lunch.

Then we took the KL monorail back to the hotel to check out at 2pm and waited for the rest to come back from their shopping spree.

Mike and Matthew chilling out before checkout

I left the camera in another bag, so no pictures to show our short trip to Bukit Bintang :(

The Trip Home

Our coach left for Singapore at 3:35pm. We had to keep Matthew entertained for the five-hour-journey. Jigsaw puzzles, books, paper and pencils, rasins, bread, biscuits, playing peekaboo etc. He disliked the taste of cantonese porridge and simply refused to take any of the porridge we bought and packed into the thermal mug. So he ended up eating more rasin buns! :p

Matthew didn't really cry in the coach, but he was sure making lots of noise. We tried to keep him quiet, but it was almost impossible, given that he's quite a vocal boy. As there was some jam along NE highway, we only reached Novena Square about 910pm. By this time, Matthew was all cranky and crying and wanted to go home. Oh yes, and he wanted to POO! He kept telling us he wanted to poo during the bus trip.

Finally we called for a cab and reached home at about 10pm. He did his big business, drank his milk, changed into his pyjamas and watched his Baby MacDonald DVD. Even before the show finished, he was already asleep on my lap.

CONGRATULATIONS, Jan, Anston and Cheng En

2006-10-25T14:22:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, Jamie, Cayden and 3 of us went to visit Jan at Thomson Medical Centre. A beautiful healthy baby gal, weighing 2.32kg and measuring 47cm, was borned to Jan and Anston, sister to Cheng En, on 23/10/06 at 9:15pm. Again, no photo of the newborn and mummy. Mike caught a shot of the water buddies. They had a water drinking competition!

Also, CONGRATULATIONS to Evon, Peter and Joshua. I went with some of the SM forum Feb/Mar05 mummies to visit Evon and Emma Grace at Mt Alvernia Hospital when Emma Grace was borned on 11/10/06. Another beautiful baby gal.

CONGRATULATIONS, Kylie and Richard

2006-10-25T14:17:00.000+08:00

CONGRATULATIONS to Kylie and Richard! Finally on 22/10/06, a new start to a new life together. The end of the road is still a long way to go; it may not be an easy road, with bumps and humps, but together you will make it! All the best and we love you!

Oh yes, one more thing, quick quick, Matthew wants a cousin to play with. :p

P/s - HAPPY BIRTHDAY too, Kylie. We knew your birthday was around this time, but forgot exactly when. What a surprise Richard has sprung on you and to get married on your birthday. Congrats again!

An armchair right in size

2006-10-23T14:16:00.000+08:00

An armchair right in size for Matthew and he looked so comfortable in it. Comes with a BIG price tag - $185!

Caught red handed AGAIN

2006-10-23T14:14:00.000+08:00

Haha... caught Matthew in action, messing my kitchen drawer. Well, he knew exactly which drawer contained his barang barang plasticware.

VivoCity

2006-10-15T23:10:00.000+08:00

Mike's cousin got married today and threw a wedding lunch banquet at HarbourFront Centre. After lunch, we decided to pop by at the much-talked-about VivoCity. It was quite crowded. Matthew doesn't really like department stores (except those with toys and books!) and we could only look around Tangs. Actually we were quite tired too. :p

Here's a photo of Mike and Matthew with the two Star Cruises ships and Sentosa in the background.

Dinner with friends at Waraku Marina Square

2006-10-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

It has been quite a while since Mike and I met up with some of our closer friends, so we organised a dinner at Waraku Japanese Restaurant @ Marina Square yesterday. Eric and Liyun, Terence and Grace, Siang Boon and Catherine, Tianfa, Chris and Megan and of course Mike, Matthew and myself. We missed Chen Ping, Kim Luan and Yanting, Su Hock and Angeline, Bangwen, Stephanie and baby HuiXuan.

Liyun booked a tatami room and it was quite comfy. Matthew and Megan could roam around without being confined to a high chair. If they were in high chairs, doubt we could have stayed two over hours! Lots of catching up and chit chats, but we forgot to take photo of the whole gang. But here are two of Megan and Matthew.

Megan telling Matthew a story. I wonder what the story was about.

Megan trying to figure out what to order, but that looks like the alcohol menu to me... hey, you are too young for that! :p

Oh ya, before I forget, CONGRATULATIONS to Boon and Cat on your first baby on the way! Take care!

Puzzle Puzzle

2006-10-13T15:22:00.000+08:00

We discovered that we have a very patient child. Matthew loves to do puzzles. If he can't put in a particular piece, he would put it aside and try another piece. He already knows how to put all the 2-pc puzzles that Auntie Chris gave him for X'mas.

I've earlier bought some 12-pc puzzles from Daiso when I was there few months ago. I took it out recently and Matthew quite liked it. He needed help the first few times. Now with a little help from us, he could put everything together.

Putting puzzle on the board.

Matthew looking very focus, concentrating on his puzzle.

4 more pieces to go....

... the last piece and it's done!

Last Sunday, I wanted to get more puzzles for Matthew, so we went to Daiso and got 2 of those 4-puzzles-in-a-pack types with the 4 puzzles of varying difficulty. $2 each pack, good deal. Here are two of the easiest ones and he could put them together quite easily.

I'm going to get him to try the slightly more difficult 10-pc ones tonight.

What naughty thing did Matthew do?

2006-10-13T15:15:00.000+08:00

HE DREW ON THE WALL!!!

I got to put this on record. We have always allowed Matthew free access to his crayons and colour pencils. He would scribble on big drawing papers (recycled from my office) and on the marble floor because it's easier to clean. On 1 October 2006, he decided to venture into the unknown! He scribbled on the floor all the way up to the wall behind the dining table.

We didn't know at first. Papa used a wet cloth to wipe the scribbles on the floor. Thank goodness it was the Crayola Washable crayons, so that came off quite easily.

But our little friend stood next to the wall and said in Mandarin, "Papa, this is dirty. Papa, clean here!" He kept pointing to the wall, only then we realised that he drew on the wall. Now our wall has a spray coating and it made cleaning difficult!

For his mischief, Matthew got 2 little smacks on his hand from me and 2 from his father and his crayons and colour pencils confiscated. :p

Update Update Update

2006-10-11T17:06:00.000+08:00

So what did we do the past 2 weekends?

1 October 2006
We went for Matthew's last swim class with Jason at Marsden. This was the third makeup class with Jason and he had the most fun.

Matthew examining the pink tube.

Matthew crawled through the tunnel.

After swim class, we went to Ridout Tea Garden along Queensway for morning tea (which was basically MacDonalds' hotcakes and hot milo). Matthew saw lots of tortoises in the pond. We then went to walk around Far East Flora.

Matthew eating his hotcake. First he decided he didn't want the fork and took a piece of hotcake. He examined it before popping it into his mouth.

Matthew and Papa.

Matthew and Mama.

After morning tea, we parked our car at Marina Square, took a bus to Tanjong Pagar and walked to Amara Hotel, where we had free buffet lunch. Reason we were there was because the F&B voucher we had was going to expire at the end of the month. We didn't pack Matthew's lunch and fed him whatever was available on the buffet spread. So What did he have for lunch? Porridge, chawanmushi (steamed egg), soba noodles, roti prata, cake, papaya.

Then we took a train to Raffles City and made our way back to Marina Square, via Citylink Mall.

Matthew at the entrance to Citylink Mall and refused to budge!!

Matthew taking a break.

We went to 2 Guardian Pharmacy outlets at Citylink Mall and Marina Square and folic acid was actually out of stock! Then we made our way to Suntec City and finally got it.

That day was the first time in so long that we were out the whole day. Matthew took 2 short naps, first in the car (he didn't even wake up when we carried him out and walked to the bus stop) and the second in my arms while we were walking around Marina Square. He actually told us that he was tired and wanted to sleep. :p

2-6 October 2006
Matthew came down with another bout of stomach flu. Poor boy.

6 October 2006
I took leave on Friday to look after him, as everybody was down, except the pregnant me. :p

In the morning, we had breakfast at home and sent Papa to work. Then Mama decided to swing over to East Coast Park for a morning stroll. Luckily the haze wasn't so bad. There was some breeze and Matthew enjoyed the morning walk. Then we made our way to 7-11 and bought a loaf of rasin bread and Mama decided that she wanted some decaf cafe latte. So we went to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and had an expensive breakfast of 4 toasts and cafe latte.

Matthew enjoying his toast with jam.

Steering the viking ship.

We went home after that and Matthew had his porridge for lunch. This little friend of ours refused to sleep! No matter what I did, he simply refused. Until almost 3pm, he came to me and told me, "Mama bao bao (carry) Matthew shui jiao (sleep)." Only then in my arms, he slept and slept for almost 3 hrs! I got to wake him up. I packed his dinner and met up with Papa at Caribbean Condo when we fed Matthew his dinner.

When we reached home, there was some celebrations as it was Mid-Autumn Festival. We lit up Matthew's lantern and joined the crowd. But Matthew refused to hold his lantern. He was more curious about the wu shi (dancing lions) and wu long (dancing dragons).

7 October 2006
The haze was so so so bad that we stayed home. With the aircon blowing hot air at us for the past 1 week, Papa decided that we had no choice but to get the aircon man to come in and do something. Spent $440 for servicing and spare parts. We actually wanted to join the other toddlers at Pasir Ris Park, but it was too late and Mama wasn't feeling too good with the haze. So we went to West Mall for Jap dinner at Sakae Sushi.

8 October 2006
Haze cleared quite a bit, but we stayed home most of the day. After Matthew's nap, we made our way to IMM and walked around. Rather uneventful.

Another bout of stomach flu

2006-10-09T23:10:00.000+08:00

Last week, Matthew was down with another bout of stomach flu. It started with 3x vomiting episodes on Monday night, then it was fever on Tuesday and diarrhea till Friday morning. No idea how he caught it. I was trying to recall what we did the previous weekend. On Saturday, we went to have MacDonald breakfast. In the afternoon, Auntie Jan visited with Cheng En and we went to Marsden after that. On Sunday, we were out the whole day. It was Marsden in the early morning. Then we went to Ridout Garden along Queensway before heading to Amara Hotel for lunch. We then headed for Marina Square and Suntec City.

With the bug going round and students from four schools affected, Matthew could have caught it anywhere. Things like this happened all the time, so it was just too unfortunate. This was the third time Matthew got stomach flu. Fortunately he recovered faster than the previous times. YiXuan caught it the previous week and is well now.

Today, Auntie Elaine reported that Ignatius is down with diarrhea and fever. Hope he gets well too.

Some information on the bug:
- Norovirus Gastroenteritis - Ministry of Health Advises Institutions to be Vigilant with Hygiene Measures
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevent - Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch

a favourite photo

2006-09-29T09:34:00.000+08:00

This has to be one of my favourite photos of Matthew. Taken on Monday night, he was dancing away on the sofa while watching BB DVD. He just stopped and put his head on the sofa cushion.

Last Saturday at Oriental Hotel

2006-09-27T00:09:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, we attended a food tasting session at Oriental Hotel for Gu Gu Kylie and Gu Zhang Richard's lunch banquet next month.

Matthew had a good time, running round and round the private suite where we had our lunch. He entertained us with his words and antics. :p

Here are some photos to share:

>> For this shot, Matthew told us, "Zuo hao, xiao xin bu yao die dao (Be careful, don't fall off)!"

>> Matthew was fascinated by the glass lifts going up and down.

Big Boy

2006-09-27T00:03:00.000+08:00

Matthew's a big boy now. He drinks his milk from a cup, no straw needed! When I wanted to help him hold the cup just now, he said to me, "Mama, shou na kai (take away your hand)!!"

This week's favourite toy

2006-09-15T13:19:00.000+08:00

This week's favourite toy was a Christmas present from Auntie Chris, Uncle Tianfa and Megan Jie Jie. Matthew walked into the "storeroom" the other day, saw the box and insisted on bringing it to Po Po's place. He knows how to match and put the 2-piece-puzzles together.

Update Update Update!

2006-09-15T10:58:00.000+08:00

Sorry people. It's almost 2 wks since the last update. So what have we or little Matthew been up to these days?

He has been sleeping at 10pm, instead of the usual 9pm! This makes me very tired and sometimes I end up sleeping before he sleeps. Sleeping a little later means that he wakes up a little later, at 7am. For the past few days, he wakes up only at 7+am, which also means that Papa and Mama also wakes up a little later.

He talks ALL DAY, except when he's watching TV, sleeping or eating something! my goodness, he always seems to have something to say! He speaks in mandarin and can string words into meaningful sentences. Sometimes he really catches us by surprise, the things he says. His English is not too bad, except that he still hasn't learned to string words into sentences, but he has learned some bigger / multi-syllabus words like Rectangle, Triangle.

He loves to count! He can now count to ten without much help in both languages. He would attempt to count up to twenty, skipping some numbers along the way, but for a 18-month-old toddler, I think he is doing very well now.

He sings too! Twinkle twinkle little star. ABC and some chinese er ge.

He eats prunes (those Del Monte / Sunsweet types), dried apricots, sultanas and he loves them! Other than cheese, these are the things he would ask for... He can self-feed, BUT he thinks eating with his hands / fingers are faster. One good example was our dinner at Mayim (West Mall). He had noodles for dinner. Mike was feeding him with chopsticks and a spoon. But the moment he saw the bowl with the noodles, he demanded that he fed himself. WITH HIS HANDS! gosh, imagine all the soup that dripped down his fingers, his arms. I was busy wiping him up... Hahaha...

He has quite a good memory. He remembers places. Like after Marsden had their term break, Matthew recognised the place when we went back for his first swim class of the new term. He also remembered Bt Timah Plaza where his paediatrician is. We went there for his DPT booster yesterday. When we asked him if he wanted to see Dr Ong, he said "Bu Yao. Hui Jia (Don't want. Go Home)". As I turned into the car park, he started saying "Hui Jia" and kept saying those two words in a voice that was almost crying. The moment I parked the car, stopped and turned off the engine, he burst into tears!

He hates doctors! All kinds of doctors! He cried and cried and cried the whole time we were in Dr Ong's room and only stopped when we got out and he played with the toys. It was the same at KKH and NUH! So as far as possible, we will avoid clinics, hospitals and doctors! :p

He's toilet-trained! Of course, only in the day. I'm wondering now if we have stocked up too many packs of Huggies diapers.. Hahaha... We still diaper him when we go out, but for short trips to the market etc, we just bring along plastic bags. He still can't hold his pee for a very long time, so we just get him to pee into the bags.

Finally, last but not least... Matthew has been telling us that he wants a mei mei and he got his wish. Yes, I'm now 15 weeks pregnant and it's a girl! :) My expected due date is 7 March 2007, just 10 days after Matthew's 2nd birthday. Hopefully we get to celebrate his 2nd birthday before number 2 pops. By the way, what a coincidence that the lunar date is the same for both of them.

fighter jets and helicopters

2006-09-05T15:00:00.000+08:00

RSAF had an open house at Paya Lebar Airbase last weekend. I decided to play punk and not go to work on Saturday (yes, it was my office duty, but boss had graciously let me decide whether to work or not...). We popped by at my office, so that I could send out an email on the weekend work arrangement and we had breakfast at the canteen down the road from my office.

We then made our way to Eunos Bus Interchange, parked the car there and took the free shuttle to the Airbase. It took us an hour from the bus queue to the Airbase. In the bus, Matthew kept saying, "zhuo fei ji" or sit aeroplane (loosely translated to English) and took a short 10-min nap. When we finally reached there, the aerial display had already started. But we did not "prepare" Matthew for the loud noise from the passing fighter jets. He cried! Poor thing. We knew he was very scared of loud noises (but not thunder, strangely), but I guess there was nothing we could do to prepare him for that...

After the fighter jets, in came Matthew's favourite helicopters. We saw the AH-64D Long Bow Apache Attack Helicopters and CH-47 Chinooks in the air.

>> What caught Matthew's attention?

>> 2 Apache helicopters up in the sky.

>> Here's a Chinook above us.

Then the fighter jets returned to the airbase and landed on the airstrip, right in front of the static display area.

>> Matthew watching Charlie 130 landing on the airstrip. Can you spot the plane?

Up close with the helicopters...

>> the Apache helicopter

>> and the Chinook.

We queued to go up the Chinook and the Super Puma. The F-16 had long queues and it was simply too hot to queue that long.

>> Matthew and Mike in the Super Puma.

>> Matthew in the cockpit of the Super Puma.

>> Matthew and me in the Chinook.

Matthew had his lunch in one of the hangars that was converted into a big air-conditioned food hall. It was queueing time again and this time we went up the F-5 fighter jet.

>> Matthew looking so small in the big pilot seat of F-5. He simply loved the red button!

Matthew could hardly keep his eyes open after going up the F-5 and fell asleep in my arms and we made our way back to Eunos.

What an eye opener for me and Matthew! I haven't never been to a military airbase or seen a fighter jet up close and guess what? lots of handsome pilots too! hahaha... of course none of them more handsome than my beloved Mike and Matthew.. :p

Jurong Bird Park

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000+08:00

Matthew and I went to Jurong Bird Park yesterday. It was fun. Entry was free, courtesy of Auntie Jannie, who lent us her family pass to JBP. Only needed to pay $4 for the panorail ride.

First stop was the Penguin Parade. It was all dark and cool. We saw lots of penguins, big and small, some were swimming, some were just "hanging" around.

Next, we took the panorail to Lory Loft. Matthew enjoyed walking around the elevated walkways and the suspension bridge.

Matthew on the elevated walkway

Matthew attracted to a red lory

Third stop was the Waterfall Aviary. We walked to the suspension bridge and was greeted by 3 birds. The view from the bridge was fabulous.

What did Matthew see?

3 birds walking across the bridge

Then we walked to the base of the waterfall.

Matthew fascinated by the waterfall

Finally we made our way back to the entrance atrium. We saw the beautiful pink flamingoes from the panorail. When we got off the panorail, Matthew said, "Xia qu kan Fla-min-go." (Go down to see Flamingo)

He was so captivated by the pink flamingoes and waved his hands when he saw them flapped their wings.

We stopped by the Talking Birds (mynahs, parrots and macaws). Only one said, "Harlow!" The rest were all quiet.

It was near lunchtime, so we made our way to the exit and went to Auntie Jan's place. Matthew had his lunch there and spent the entire afternoon there, made himself comfortable, playing with En En's toys. Too bad, we forgot to take photos of the 2 boys.

Places we went the past 2 weeks

2006-08-29T21:35:00.000+08:00

Too lazy to write long stories, so it would just be photos, photos and more photos in this post.

19/8/06 Botanics Garden

Matthew and Mike feeding the ducks

A pair of swans at Swan Lake

20/8/06 Bukit Batok Nature Park

Matthew eating his bread

We spotted a monkey

and saw some birds and squirrels

20/8/06 Dinner at Crystal Jade Jurong Pt

Mike feeding Matthew some La Mian (handmade noodles)

27/8/06 Dinner at Sakae Sushi

Matthew feeding himself - rice with chawamushi (steamed egg)

Matthew is 18 months old!

2006-08-25T23:30:00.000+08:00

Matthew is 18 months old TODAY! We bought a small slice of fruit cake for him. He blew out the candle and finished most of the cake!

Matthew blew out the candle and demanded to be fed immediately.

Matthew eating cake and watching Baby Beethoven at the same time!

Matthew recovered

2006-08-25T23:22:00.000+08:00

Matthew recovered from his gastric flu last Thursday 17/08/06. All the diarrhea had made him confused and mixed up about poo and shee. When he wants to poo, he tells us shee. Got us all confused too. He has huge appetite too! Eats a lot (so much so you really can see a huge tummy!!!) and every 2-3 hours! He has developed a liking for apricots and rasins, which are actually good for his bowels.

Amazing

2006-08-16T14:28:00.000+08:00

The past one month saw Matthew's language abilities taking flight! He picked up so fast that we really have to watch what we say and teach him the right things. He has learned to describe certain items.

Yesterday, my mom took out this 30-year-old toy which I played when I was a toddler. A matchbox toy. It's amazing some of the stuff my mom kept. Anyway, we were commenting that it was a Made-in-England matchbox toy. Matthew just blurted out, "Matchbox!". Goodness, that was fast!

This morning, he just pointed out of the car and said, "Green qi"! Half english, half mandarin. We quickly told him, "Green flag". Then he tried very hard and said, "Green Flag". Well, at least we know he's bilingual. :p

He would tell us what he sees when we are in the car. Gao1 gao1 (tall chimneys or construction cranes), qi2 (flag), trains.

He sees a colour, he will go blue, green etc.

He will tell us if he sees the stars at night; if there's no stars, he will go, "no more star".

He wants me to read a book, he will bring a book, sit himself in my lap and say, "Mama read" or "Mama du2".

Matthew is learning so fast! In another 9 days, he would be 18 months old. Another milestone. So fast so soon.

Tower Tower

2006-08-15T14:42:00.000+08:00

I was having dinner in my mom's kitchen yesterday and Matthew was with Mike in the living room, playing. Then I heard Matthew shouting "Mama kan4 (look), Mama kan4", followed by his hurried footsteps. He was carrying a tower of duplo blocks and he wanted to show me.

He set the tower down on the stool and showed off his creation. There was even some colour co-ordination. He was so proud of himself that he got us all applauding for him.

Here's that tower!

A Saturday morning at BG

2006-08-15T14:22:00.000+08:00

Mike had an exam at Suntec in the morning, so we went to Suntec MacDonalds for breakfast. After that, Matthew and I went to Botanic Gardens.

We made our way to the Symphony Lake and met up with Elaine, WW and Ignatius there. Elaine sat with me and Matthew, feeding the fishes, while Ignatius dragged his daddy round the pond. Before we knew it, they were already on the other side of the pond. As we were walking to join them, we came upon a family of 4 water birds, father, mother with 2 chicks. Then we saw 20 ducks in the pond, resting.

Here are some photos.

Matthew at Suntec MacDonalds

Matthew tried to shake hand with Ignatius. Ignatius "ignored" him, so Matthew turned his back on him. Hahaha...

The 2 boys happened to be wearing the same colours! Green and blue!

BBQ on National Day

2006-08-15T13:55:00.000+08:00

Last Wednesday was National Day. Instead of staying home to watch the parade on TV, we joined our friends at Jamie's place for a BBQ gathering. I prepared a non-dairy apple crumble, washed some corn, sweet potatoes and baby potatoes to be thrown into the pit and a simple salad. Jamie ordered the BBQ stuff from bbqwholesale.com. The food was not bad, especially the buffalo wings and otaks. Matthew ate fried rice and meat from the buffalo wings. Good, he would tell you when you asked him if the food was "hao chi" or delicious.

Some interesting snippets from the gathering.

1. 3 of the boys had their pants off because they wanted to go into the pool! It started with Ignatius, then Cayden and finally Cheng En.

2. Ribena boys drinking packs of Ribena. There was this Ribena advertisement from our younger days that went like that:

Iggy : What are you drinking?
Cayden : Ribena, my mother says it's good for me.
Iggy : Can i have some?
Cayden : Yes, but not too much

3. Matthew loved his apricots and he shared! Matthew and Joshua were sitting side by side on the steps next to the BBQ area. I asked Matthew if he would share with Joshua. Matthew, without thinking, stuffed the remaining piece of apricot he had into Joshua's mouth. Evon's helper and I were so worried that he would choke on it, but no, he didn't. Joshua just chewed and munched and finished it!

4. The fathers gathered at the BBQ pit, manning the pit. Some male bonding there. We gals wondered what they chatted about.

5. No more stranger anxiety for Matthew. He did all the Hi-5s, byes, hugs and kisses! He sat on my lap while I was chit-chatting with the gals and would giggle and laugh where we laughed! Hahaha!

6. Actually the boys are more or less the same height, but Cheng En is definitely the tallest! Matthew has biggest feet of them all, I think.

7. YiXuan was the only gal at the BBQ. Cherylin came and left earlier, before we started the BBQ.

So who were there at the BBQ? The hosts were Jamie, Joash and Cayden. The guests were me, Mike and Matthew, Evon, P and Joshua (with their helper), Elaine, WW and Ignatius, Jannie and Cheng En (with her helper), Lih Miin, CW and YiXuan.

We all agreed that we had lots of fun. Next time the kids are older and can play together, it would be more fun!

Sleepless in KKH

2006-08-14T13:40:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Matthew came down with gastric flu. Sad to say, he got it from YiXuan during a BBQ gathering at Auntie Jamie's place on National Day. It started with a low grade fever <37.5oC and a bout of loose stools in the morning. After that, he seems ok and we even went to Suntec and Botanic Gardens.

Near lunch time, he had another bout of diarrhea and wasn't too keen on his chicken rice. We went home and he had a nap. He ate a little porridge and had diluted milk. Fever still moderate. In the evening, he had some porridge for dinner and fell asleep in front of the TV. We woke him up for his paracetemol and went down for our dinner. He broke out in hives! He had taken paracetemol before, so we were surprised to see hives. He slept around 10pm. By then he had about 5-6x diarrhea and minor vomitting (because he ate too much too fast).

At 11pm, his hives subsided but fever went up to 39.5oC. We decided to give him brufen, a stronger fever medicine to try and bring down the temperature. An hour after, he broke out into FULL BLOWN hives. His eyes were swollen, body full of patches and it made him very restless. He was a zombie, leading me around the house, turning on all the lights. That worried me quite a bit, so I decided to get ourselves to KKH.

When we reached KKH, Matthew's fever has gone down to 38.9oC but eyes were still swollen and he was in a better mood. He really hates having his temperature taken. He cried! Really loud! and got everybody staring at him... as if they have never seen a kid cry before. *sigh* We walked around the whole place and waited 2 hours before we finally saw a doctor.

What I like about KKH is because it has a children's emergency department and they attend to the urgent cases first. But the non-emergency cases are often seen by the not so experienced doctors. They always have a more experienced doctor who they can consult, so that wasn't too bad. But sometimes you got to repeat the exact same thing you told the 1st doctor to the 2nd doctor. That can be annoying, especially when you have a crying baby on hand!!!

Anyway, we finally got to see TWO doctors and Matthew was given 5ml of some steroid based medicine to suppress the hives and 10ml of some pink anti-allergy medicine and half an hour later 5ml of paracetemol. By this time, my crying Matthew (who hates doctors because of the steroscope) was wore out, tired and falling asleep. At least he took the medicine without fuss and even drank 1 oz of water.

We spent another 2 hours in observation. By then the hives have gone down quite a bit but eyes were still swollen. Temperature was down to 38oC. After paying $65 (which included the medicine), we went home, with Matthew still sleeping and he slept till 9am.

What an ordeal! It really scared the hell out of me. Dr Ong said that what I did to administer the brufen was right, because his temperature did not come down, but we had no idea that he might be allergic to brufen.

Matthew is ok now, no more fever, but diarrhea continues. Get well soon, my dear boy.

Fish time at Qian Hu

2006-08-08T10:54:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday morning, we decided to bring Matthew to Qian Hu, a local fish farm / breeder / exporter.

He was all excited when we reached Qian Hu, pointing and exclaiming "Fish" or "Yu2". He ran around, stopping to look at the different varieties of fishes, so amused to see so so so many fishes.

There's an education corner in the farm, where they have drains or longkang for the kids to catch guppies or longkang fish. Catching longkang fish used to be a fav pastime for many kids my generation, but with technology, kids now are more interested in computer games, rather than spending time outdoors with nature. There are some local fruit trees planted around this corner and Mike went round pointing out the different fruit to Matthew.

We took a break and had a drink and Matthew had a piece of dried apricot.

We lost our way, taking a left turn instead of a right and ended up at some vegetable farm where they were selling fresh produce. We stopped to take a look. I bought some sweet potatoes and pumpkin for this Wednesday's BBQ at a friend's place and some mushroom to cook.

Matthew was quiet on the journey back, probably a little tired, kept himself entertained, talking to his little soft toy dog. When he was home, he was so active and refused to nap till 2:15pm and that was after some insistence on my part!

Last Saturday Morning

2006-08-08T10:26:00.000+08:00

What a mess of hair!

Here Garfield, drink some water.

Playing with his puzzle before going to Po Po's place.

Edelweiss

2006-08-08T02:46:00.000+08:00

I remember blogging a year ago about how Matthew quietened down and slept within moments when we sang Edelweiss from The Sound of Music. It was quite a while since I last sang it to him. 2 nights ago, he refused to lay down quietly during bedtime until I sang the song. He laid down very still next to me and fell asleep within 5 min. It happened again last night. I was totally amazed that it still works!

Learning to Count

2006-08-08T02:40:00.000+08:00

Matthew knows his numbers from 1 to 13, as in he knows how to recite them. We decided to teach him how to count. After each counting exercise, we will clap for him and praise him. He caught on fast.

watch a video - Catch his expression after each counting exercise!
Matthew learns to count!

Blocks

2006-07-31T16:30:00.000+08:00

Here's Matthew's tower creation!

Durian Durian

2006-07-31T16:29:00.000+08:00

Durian is one of my fav fruit. Matthew tasted it for the first time yesterday. The first taste was funny, the second taste was a good from him and then he just didn't want another go at it. Hahaha.

This morning

2006-07-31T16:08:00.000+08:00

This morning we sent our 2-yr-5-mth-old Toyota Corolla Altis to Pandan Crescent for a 40,000km servicing. We brought Matthew along this time and took a cab to my mom's place after checking in our car.

30 July 2006 - Zoo

2006-07-31T16:06:00.000+08:00

A nice cool Sunday morning to the Zoo. I baked blueberry muffins the previous night to bring along. Put together a simple lunch for Matthew, as we felt that there wasn't much healthy food available and too expensive. As we were up bright and early and Zoo only opens at 9am, we made our way to the market for breakfast. Three of us shared chee cheong fan, egg prata and cheese pancake for breakfast.

We reached the Zoo at 9:10am. Apparently some of the animals were still resting. The free-range Orang Utans were already up in the trees. We saw 8 white rhinoceros (did not know that we had so many), some wild african plant eaters, zebras, giraffes and the roaring lion and lionesses.

We had a up close and personal encounter with the giraffes. They saw the zookeeper with the leaves to be hang on the poles and thought it was feeding time. They came really close to the giraffe gallery, almost within reach.

The polar bear feeding session was 10:05am, so we made our way there and found the place already packed. Matthew enjoyed watching the bear swimming around in the pool. We took a break and Matthew finished one blueberry muffin. We took the tram to the Children's World and a train from the Play Land to the Animal Land.

At the Animal Land, Matthew had a chance to pat a guinea pig and saw some rabbits.

The goats were noisy and Matthew could imitate their sounds to perfection, really sounded like a goat. Then there were the sheep, the cows and the pot-bellied pigs. We made our way to the train station for our return trip to the Play Land. While waiting for the train to move off, Matthew decided that he wanted his lunch. So lunch it was. By the time he finished his lunch (porridge with shredded xiao bai cai, carrots, tofu and egg), the rain clouds had moved in and was threatening to pour anytime.

It just wasn't a happy ending, as the rain came pouring. As the entrance area was under renovation, the trams no longer stopped there. We got off at the amphitheatre and waited at the restaurant area for the rain to clear. By this time, Matthew had already fallen asleep in my arms. What a wet wet way to end our zoo trip!

29 July 2006 - It's time to swim away!

2006-07-31T16:03:00.000+08:00

After a 4-week term break, it was back to Marsden on Saturdays, instead of Caribbean pool. We were a little worried of his reaction. Would he be fearful of Brooke again? Anxious about not being with Mommy in the pool? Cry? We worried for nothing. As we turned into the narrow road next to Estoril, Matthew applauded! He recognised the road. He recognised Brooke and was happy to let her carry him, except that he was not too keen to talk when she asked him a question. Haha.

For the first time, he laid very still on the mat during the Sleeping Bunnies section.

Hesitation noticed when he walked on the mat. A little unsure perhaps, after a long break. Wobbly. Better kicking and paddling. He really knows how to do it now and is getting quite good at it. Our efforts during the break paid off!

Auntie Jan was there with En En for 5:30pm class because En En's 2pm class was cancelled due to lightning. She noticed that Matthew looked a little quiet and "stone" towards the end. Then Mike mentioned that he was a little cold. That explained why.

Botanic Gardens - Just me and you

2006-07-28T13:15:00.000+08:00

As Papa got to attend to some matters, I decided to bring Matthew on my own to Botanic Gardens on Sunday morning to feed the fish. Just me and Matthew.

We had quite lots of fun. We went to the Symphony lake and sat there for almost an hour. Matthew was very happy to feed the fish. Instead of eating the bread, this time he happily threw pieces of bread into the pond to feed the fish and the oversized terrapins. After a while, he got hungry as well and wanted to feed himself with the overdue bread. Of course, I brought his bread along and he ate his bread while I continued feeding the fish. We saw ducks too, flying around, and lots of mynahs and sparrows. Of course there were the dogs which were there with their masters for the morning walks.

Here are some photos to share...

Fun at Pasir Ris Park

2006-07-28T13:07:00.000+08:00

Two Sundays ago, we went to SengKang to Bro Bang and Steph's Baby 1st month celebration. The new baby is a girl and her name is Wu Hui Xuan. Congrats to Bro Bang and Steph. Too bad we didn't get a photo of the new addition to our group of friends.

After that, we went to Pasir Ris Park with Chris and family. The kids had fun in the playground. The swings, slides etc. Matthew did the slide on his own. He did not display any excitement or shock. His face was a BLANK! heee..

Here are some photos:

Matthew in the swing

Matthew looking very bored

Matthew having fun turning the wheel

Up the stairs we go!

Run Run!

Matthew's development at 17-18 months

2006-07-20T22:53:00.000+08:00

This is from Canadian Parenting website, courtesy of Ignatius' mummy.

What's it like to be 17 and 18 months old?

How I grow
- like to lug, tug and drag things. Yes
- I like to grab anything I can reach. Yes
- I'm beginning to use one hand more than the other. Yes
- I can walk upstairs if you will hold one hand. Yes
- I'm learning to creep backward downstairs. Yes
- I like to run, but I fall or bump into things sometimes.Yes
- I want my own way almost all the time. Yes
- When things don't go the way I want them to, I get angry. Yes

How I talk
- I can say about 10 words, but mostly I use the word "no."
Occasionally
- I often have long, babbled conversations with myself.
Yes and Mama is totally amused!
- I'm getting good at imitating words.
Yes and getting better at it!
- I understand more words than I can say. Yes
- I can ask you for what I want, like a cookie, by naming it -- sometimes. Yes
- I will do what you ask me to do -- sometimes. Yes
- I try to sing, and I like to have you sing to me. Yes
- I am beginning to understand the meaning of "now."
not sure about this one

Play I enjoy
- I like to play with nesting toys and stacking toys. Yes
- I often run around without any particular plan.
Yes, especially in circles!
- I like to push wheel toys, large toy boxes and other things like that around the floor. Yes
- I like to blow bubbles. Yes
- I may be able to string large, colored, wooden beads.
shall try that one day.
- I still don't play very long with any one thing. hmm.. is 5min long?

What I am learning
- I can fit a round block into a round hole. Yes
- I can build a tower of two or three blocks. Yes
- I can use a stick to get a toy. Yes
- I can point to one or two parts of my body if you name them. Yes
- I can copy the simple lines you make on paper. Yes
- I may be able to match circles and squares on a form board. Yes
- With your help, I can turn pages of a book. Yes
- I am beginning to remember where things belong. Yes

How I get along with others.
- I still love to show off and get attention. Yes
- I'm still mostly just interested in myself. Yes
- I may be grabby and greedy. Yes
- Sometimes, I'm stubborn and bossy. And sometimes, I'm loving. Yes
- In a few months, I'll be calmer and friendlier.
That's a good thing to look forward to.
- I may be afraid of some things, like thunder and lightning and large animals.
hmm.. I don't think this little boy of mine is scared of anything!
- I may have temper tantrums when I'm tired, angry or frustrated. Yes

What I can do for myself
- I can help put toys away. Yes
- I may be able to turn on some faucets. Yes
- When I'm ready for bed, I may bring you my pillow or my favorite stuffed toy. Yes

Toilet Trained?

2006-07-19T00:03:00.000+08:00

I think Matthew's almost there in toilet training. This morning, my mom brought him to the bank without his diapers. When we visited Dr Ong in the afternoon, again he was without his diapers. We got him to pee into plastic bags twice and both times he did it.

He would go to his potty and ask for help with his shorts or he will bring his potty to us. Occasionally we remind him to shee shee. There are still accidents, but getting less, perhaps 1-2x a day.

So proud of you, Matthew. Keep up the good work!

MMR shot

2006-07-18T23:57:00.000+08:00

Finally brought Matthew for his MMR shot.

He recognised the place from his last visit to Dr Ong for his flu. He kept quiet during the journey there. He did not play with the toys at the clinic. He seems to be anticipating something, something not so pleasant.

I like Dr Ong, because she is detailed in her examination and explanation and most importantly, she entertains my phone calls. But Matthew doesn't seem to like her. It's like the swim class, it takes a while to warm up, but it was not as if we visit the doctor every week, so each trip would be problematic.

Matthew cried when I carried him up and held him while the shot was administered. But once the shot went in. He wasn't crying that badly anymore. Now that he is older and easier to distract, I could actually calm him down more quickly.

For the record, Matthew has a big head (as been told to me many many times, even when he was in my tummy), 49.5cm, weighs 11kg and stands tall at 80.5cm. All above average.

Let's talk about the weekend

2006-07-11T15:11:00.000+08:00

8 July 2006

Little Tikes Cozy Coupe
Mama was on office duty and Papa had appointment last Saturday morning, so Matthew spent the morning at Po Po's place. With the NTUC's Huggies PWP offer for Little Tikes Rocking Horse and Cozy Coupe, I made her way to Aprisin at Upper Thomson to purchase the two items, sponsored by Po Po and Gong Gong. I brought home the Cozy Coupe and placed an order for the Rocking Horse as it was already sold out.

When Matthew saw the Cozy Coupe, he had a wild time. Getting in and out of the car, closing and opening the door, being pushed by Gong Gong and pushing the car around.

He examined the car and the wheels and realized that the back two wheels could not turn around like the front ones. He's a pro at reversing but doesn't know how to move forward. It's a little like learning to crawl: first he learned to crawl backwards, before learning to crawl forward.

Swimming
We made it a point to bring him swimming every weekend. So it was off to the pool at Caribbean again. No problem there, he had tons of fun. As like last weekend, Mike bathed and dressed Matthew; sat him down on the bench while he showered. Matthew sat on the bench the whole time quietly, watching Mike entertained him in the shower cubicle. Mike left the cubicle door opened. Matthew really surprised us that it was happening for a 2nd time. We thought it was a one-off incident last week. Oh, FYI, my task was to shower and pack up our stuff. I can't just walk into the Gents, you know? Heee..

Dinner at Marche Suntec
After a jolly wet time, we went to Marche Suntec for dinner with our friend Sharron. She brought her "friend" Jarrod along too (I'm more inclined to say he's her boyfriend, but she did not confirm that detail). We ordered a plain rosti (which was half charred / burnt), a mushroom ragout with mashed potato, a spaghetti special and a bread-and-butter pudding (which was excellent!).

As you know how toddlers are, Matthew couldn't sit still through the entire meal, so Mike and I took turns to walk him around the place. He was not too bad lah, only 3x we walked around. On my walk with him, Matthew picked up a bread which he finished almost a third. He ate spaghetti, some rosti and mashed potato and the pudding too.

He took a while to warm up to Sharron and Jarrod; I would give him an 8 for his behaviour, though he did get quite "worked up" when they first came.

9 July 2006
It was uneventful Sunday morning. I actually proposed a cycling expedition at East Coast Park, but Mike had a tentative appointment at 11am (which was later cancelled). Mike brought Matthew to the market while I stayed at home to prepare lunch. It was chicken porridge, with tofu, xiao bai chye and carrot.

After Matthew's nap and afternoon tea break, we took a bus to West Mall.

We went to the library and managed to read Matthew 3 books before he decided he was bored and started running around and taking books of the shelves. Then it was to the food court for dinner. We had chicken rice and a hot-plate tofu. We bought a bowl of plain porridge from the mixed vege stall for Matthew and he had some chicken and tofu too. He got bored and started "screaming" to get out.

We made our way to the atrium where Popular Bookshop was having a book fair. 6 chinese books for $10, good deal, but I couldn't go take my time to browse. Matthew saw some automated toy dog that could move around, bark and wag the tail. He grabbed it and refused to let go. I think we stood there for a good 15 minutes before we managed to persuade him the dog needed to sleep.

Then it was Home Sweet Home!

Proficiency Certificate

2006-07-05T10:29:00.000+08:00

This is Matthew's Proficiency Certificate from Marsden. His 1st certificate!

Great-Grandma's Birthday

2006-07-04T10:08:00.000+08:00

On Sunday, we celebrated my grandma's birthday. It was potluck, so everybody brought something for the dinner. Otak, siew mai, shui jin bao, egg tarts etc. My mom fried some noodles and mee tai mak, roasted 2 chickens and stewed a duck. Before dinner, my cousin's daughter XinYi and Matthew had fun in the garden. Matthew is not a very sociable person and it takes a while to warm him up.

The two toddlers had fun chasing and catching bubbles and playing ball.

XinYi is so small sized. She's 2 years old and Matthew's 8 months younger and Matthew looks so much bigger size than her.

Matthew caught the flu bug

2006-06-29T14:31:00.000+08:00

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.

Sing Sing Dance Dance

2006-06-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

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?

Matthew's 5th and last swim class of the term

2006-06-27T13:17:00.000+08:00

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

The Boys' Saturday Adventure

2006-06-26T13:12:00.000+08:00

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.

The Little Tikes Horse

2006-06-23T00:14:00.000+08:00

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!

Fun "walk" on water

2006-06-23T00:12:00.000+08:00

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

Lego Duplo

2006-06-22T23:53:00.000+08:00

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

Father's Day

2006-06-22T23:27:00.000+08:00

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.

When did he learn all these?

2006-06-20T23:53:00.000+08:00

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".

Something funny happened last night

2006-06-20T23:35:00.000+08:00

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's 4th swim class

2006-06-19T01:09:00.000+08:00

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!

Barney Live!

2006-06-17T00:43:00.000+08:00

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.

A trip to the airport

2006-06-14T00:31:00.000+08:00

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!

Zoo Trip... What an ending...

2006-06-12T00:46:00.000+08:00

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.

Playgrounds in our estate

2006-06-07T17:03:00.000+08:00

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.

Matthew's 2nd swim class

2006-06-05T23:40:00.000+08:00

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..

Early Saturday Morning at Suntec City

2006-06-05T23:35:00.000+08:00

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...

May Recap

2006-05-31T09:04:00.000+08:00

Time flies. It's the end of May now. Here's a recap of the events in past month.

1 May 2006 - Istana and Plaza Singapura
The Istana is open several times a year on Public Holidays. This is the time when we can catch a glimpse of the President and the First Lady up close and personal. We decided to bring Matthew to the Istana, parked the car at Little India and took a MRT train to Dhoby Gaut. Before we could enter the Istana grounds, we were screened by the metal detector and our bags by x'ray machines.

When we finally passed the security, Matthew spotted the green fields and wanted to get down. He had fun "running" around, chasing me and Mike. As we moved further to the centre, we spotted some Little Tikes outdoor equipment - slides, swings and playhouses! Matthew loved the slides and playhouses. While all the older kids prefer to be inside the house, Matthew preferred to stay outside playing with the doors.

Nobody can stop Matthew when it comes to water. He saw the fountain in front of the Istana House and got all excited. I let him touch the water and he would not stop doing him after that. We got to struggle to move him away from the fountain as we wanted to move on before the rain.

We made our way to Plaza Singapura. Along the way, Matthew kept pointing to our bag, as if he wanted something. Then we realised that it was his teatime. Bad Mama and Papa, forgot Matthew's teatime. We gave him a banana. At Plaza Sing's MacDonald's (which is still at the same location as long long time ago), Matthew had a little snack and milo for tea. We explored the shopping mall before settling down at Level B1's Yoshinoya for dinner.

I bought a Salmon Rice Bowl to share with Matthew. However I did not realise that the salmon patty was very salty until Mike noticed that Matthew kept drinking water. The vegetable served with the rice was also too hard and I could only gave him some broccoli. Mike got a Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl without the sauce, which was much better. So Matthew had chicken, chawanmushi (steamed egg) and rice for dinner.

After dinner, we strolled along and was standing outside this shop called "Action City" next to Yoshinoya. Matthew was "admiring" and touching the Garfield soft toys that were on display for $9.90 outside. Suddenly he just grabbed one and hugged it, refusing to let go. Since it was $9.90 and Matthew did not have a cat toy, we decided to get it for him. However this little rascal refused to let go of the Garfield and we got to bring him into the shop to pay for it. The cashier couldn't even scan the price tag and got to get another toy.

Matthew just held on to his Garfield all the way from the shop to the MRT station, on the train to Little India, along the underpass, up the escalator until he was in the car... Then he let go. He fell asleep on the way home. A contented little boy.

4 - 11 May 2006
Matthew came down with fever at night. 37.8oC. It went down to 37.3oC. We gave him baby paracetamol. We did not bother to bring him to see Dr Ong, because she would give the same medicine. He started coughing on 9 May, so we gave him cough syrup. He recovered fast and by 12 May 2006, he was no longer coughing.

13 May 2006 - Changi Airport
It was a long weekend, with Versak Day on 12 May. We went to look for Megan, Uncle Fish Fish and Auntie Chris at DownTown East in Pasir Ris. It was drizzling and because Matthew had just recovered, we did not bring him to Wild Wild Wet. But it seems that Matthew remembered that there was fun on the other side of the admission gates. We decided instead to head for the airport to see aeroplanes.

There was so much space to run around, Matthew was so excited. From T2 to T1, he was so happy, exploring the corridors and the wide spaces, looking at aeroplanes.

As we were heading for the skytrain, I spotted the bookshop and decided to make a detour. Matthew saw books and went gaga. He's actually quite book crazy like his Mama. He grabbed a book from the shelf (the children's shelf was right next to the shopfront) and walked away with the book. Da4 Yao2 Da4 Bai3. SHOPLIFTER!! no lah.. We quickly carried him back to the shop. To make him happy, I sat down with him and read him a Barney book on shapes.

We then took a skytrain to T1 as the viewing gallery there was much better. Matthew enjoyed himself watching the planes and even waved bye bye, as one plane left the terminal to prepare for takeoff at the runway.

After spending quite some time there, we took the skytrain back to T2 for dinner. We were deciding whether to eat Crystal Jade or Soup Restaurant and Matthew decided that he wanted to eat the Samsui Chicken at Soup. I think he recognised from the picture they displayed outside the restaurant that it looked like the Hainanese chicken that PoPo makes. While waiting for our table, he just simply kept pointing at the picture.

We ordered a Samsui chicken, a lotus root soup and a braised tofu in beggar's bowl. Matthew had a good dinner, finishing up almost a bowl of rice! He simply loved soup and tofu. We went home after that. After a long day, Matthew was tired and fell asleep on the way home.

14 May 2006 - Botanic Gardens
Nothing much to do, so we decided to bring Matthew to Botanic Gardens for some bubble fun. We did not know that there was a concert, if not we would have brought Matthew’s dinner along. We had fun blowing bubbles and running around on the grass. Matthew blew some bubbles too and he was actually quite good at it.

Watch a video
Fun at Botanic Gardens

16 - 23 May 2006 - Stomach Flu
Matthew came down with stomach flu. It started with diarrhea early morning. At first we thought it was just soft stool. Then I got a call and was promptly informed that Matthew was having diarrhea. I rushed to bring him to see Dr Ong.

Dr Ong diagnosed it as stomach flu, as his throat was red and there was lots of wind in his tummy. In fact, before Matthew, she had seen two other kids with stomach flu. It must be in the air. In fact, Auntie Fries came down with flu, followed by Matthew's little friend Ignatius with stomach flu too. According to Auntie Jannie and Auntie Babygrace, it would take about a week to recover, as when EnEn and Joshua came down with it previously. It was a good thing that both Matthew and Ignatius were not vomitting, just diarrhea, which mean that they could still take in food. No dairy products, no vegetables, just plain biscuits, porridge, eggs, banana, meat and lots of soup.

Matthew had diarrhea for a whole week and finally recovered from his diarrhea last Tuesday (23 May). Good news, Auntie Fries informed Mama yesterday that Ignatius has recovered too!