Speshol Station

Last weekend, as we get into the car to run yet more errands for our home renovation (furniture hunting walks a fine line between heaven and hell, heaven when we find the perfect piece and hell when this perfect piece is nowhere to be found).

E pipes up: Are we going to a speshol station?

Me: Um, no not really. We're not going anywhere special, just getting some errands done.

E: No, are we going to a speshol station where I can get the Lego toy car?

Ohhh, he meant 'petrol station'! The F1 is in town, today is the last day of the races, and the petrol station was running a promotion where buying $60 of petrol allows you to buy a Lego replica of the F1 racing cars.

The husband had bought one of the Lego cars when he last filled up the tank and E remembered.

What's In a Name?

E and I were having our usual pre-bedtime conversation and this came up.

E: Mama, why is my name E?

I blathered on about how daddy E and I gave a lot of thought on what name to give him before he was born and we thought that E was a very nice name and that's why we chose it etc and so on.

E: Well, you should have named me 'David'. I like that name.

Me: If you like, you could apply to change your name when you grow up.

E: Okay. I'm sleepy now, good night mama!

Restraint

5 July 

E showed remarkable self-restraint and listening abilities today.

We had a long day of furniture shopping with my parents. E was getting bored and tired from not napping earlier in the afternoon. He was bugging me about sitting on kiddy rides at the mall and was going on and on about it. 

I squatted down to his eye level and explained to him that I know he's tired and really wants to sit on a kiddy ride, but I was discussing furniture options and prices with his papa at the time and we had to leave the mall in 5 mins (my parents were at the customer service counter getting something done and we were waiting on them).

He took it rather well. I saw his downcast expression but he said, 'Ok.' and settled down to wait quietly.

So so soooo proud of my big boy and I told him that tons of times today. He also showed an incredible amount of patience while we shopped for furniture in a crowded and noisy mall.

I was inspired to write this post after I read this article on Aha! Parenting.com.

Allergies

23 June

My allergies are acting up due to the change in weather, it happens several times a year. There is a constant flow of mucus from my sinuses, it was getting annoying. 

I had a nagging headache the entire day and told E that papa needs to help me because I'm not feeling well and he cooperated really well. Which means he listened to the husband and did not argue about every single thing from bath time until it was time for bed.

Bedtime went smoothly, E did not do his usual negotiation for an extra bedtime storybook. The husband read a Mandarin book to him instead. I do the English books as my Mandarin is atrocious. 

Couple hours after E falls asleep, he wakes up and sees me awake and reading my phone. He asks if my nose is ok, 'Do you feel better, mama?' I tell him yes but my head still hurts.

He looks at me then says he will 'pat pat' me so that I will feel better and starts patting my stomach as he falls back asleep.

<3 

A Princess Morning

23 May

This morning when I wake up, E tells me a story.

E is the princess and I am the talking castle that he lives in. 

Papa is the monster that Princess E needs to hide from and 'mama talking castle' (E's words, not mine!) would protect him.

He has the most amusing dreams. I've been trying to explain the difference between a 'day dream' and the dreams he has at night. Sometimes he will be falling asleep and suddenly wake up to describe a dream to me. I figure it's his imagination sorting through the day and putting information together. 

Pretend iPad

29 April

At bedtime today E tells me, 'Shhhh, I need to think about Sunday and not buying things at the petrol station.'

And I go, ' Ok darling.'

Once done, he says he's trying to think of how to transfer the thoughts inside his head to the outside. Then he says he'll write it down on his pretend iPad and shows it to me before going to sleep.

<3

Where?

24 April

The 'where' questions have started:

• Where does apple juice come from?
• Where does Ribena come from?
• Where does 'bak' (generic Hokkien term for meat) come from?
• Where do eggs come from?

As I write this catch-up post on 18 August, E has progressed from asking simple 'Where' and 'Why' questions and turned them into long conversations about making a drink like Ribena on his own now that he knows where it comes from (blackcurrants).

He also asks a lot of 'farm to table' questions. Like where does cheese come from? My answer has to start right from the beginning with milking the cow, processing milk into cheese then the cheese being transported to the grocery stores where we buy the cheese. Same with meat (chicken, pork, fish etc) and vegetables. I'm trying to be as factually accurate as possible but I'm a little hazy on some of the details. The hazards of living in a country with little space to spare for gardens and farms.

He's an information sponge, I tend to forget this. He takes the information we give him and extrapolates. In retrospect, it's amazing. Caught up in the moment, I find myself sighing a little when he asks so many questions at the same time because I'm tired of answering.

So here's a note to myself:

Stop sighing and answer questions enthusiastically because E is learning!

Kids and Eating (Part II)

20 March 2014

So E has been starting to refuse food. He used to love chicken rice and would eat it all up by himself, now he only wants the roasted chicken skin with rice. If I sneak a piece of chicken in, he spits the entire mouthful out. 

I have resorted to telling him, 'I'm sorry but the skin is stuck to the meat. If you want to eat skin then meat comes along by default.' 

He also has a new found love for the crispy coating on tonkatsu (Japanese pork chop). And anything with a deep fried coating, KFC is also a favourite. 

We have been having talks on 'Real Food vs A Snack' and have implemented a rule where E has to eat 'Real Food' before getting 'A Snack'. 'Real Food' meaning rice, vegetables and meat and 'A Snack' meaning chocolates, biscuits and sweets.

E uses the phrase 'sweets and treats' to refer to snacks. So cute. Except when I need him to eat some rice or he gets a stomach ache because he gobbles up oily and sugary food and neglects to line his stomach with the basic protein and carbohydrate groups. 

E has also been asking for Toblerone at breakfast. Sometimes he screams in my face as I am waking up to demand chocolate or some other equally inappropriate food item for breakfast.

17 August - Looking back while writing this delayed post, I think we have come a long way since March. It is now August and while E still loves his 'sweets and treats', he no longer yells about wanting chocolate for breakfast and actually had a good-sized portion of Korean red bean rice and grilled saba for lunch today. With an apple-flavoured drink which isn't ideal but 'you win some you lose some'.

Papa's Armpits

12 March - The husband and E had an interesting conversation before bed...

The husband and E are laying in bed just before bedtime. 

E says (to the husband): I want to smell your armpit!!

Lifts husband's arm to smell and goes: Mmmmm! Good!

The husband and I are shaking with suppressed laughter. 

E goes: Let me smell your other armpit!

Goes to smell the other side. 

E: Arrrrgh! Chow chow (stinky)!!! You did not take a bath, papa!

Catch-Up Posts

19 January

Elliott picked up my speech patterns and uses 'actually' while talking quite a lot now.

20 January

I came across a National Geographic book for kids about space (part of a series that has animals, dinosaurs etc) and bought it because I thought the bright illustrations would catch E's eye and spark his interest.

Book cover

E saw the book cover and said 'Just like Dr Who!'. He was  watching quite a bit of Dr Who with the husband at the time. We decided not to show him the episodes with the Weeping Angels until he's older, they are pretty scary (to me!).

21 January

I was supposed to meet my mother at Centrepoint after lunch but she was held up in the office and was late. So while waiting, I took E for a walk around the mall to keep him entertained. He totally did not want to take a nap so we had to be constantly walking to keep him content in the stroller. 

Then E wanted to walk so he got off the strollder. After a bit more walking, I noticed he was talking to his stroller. Listening in, I realised he was putting a pretend 'baby' in the stroller and giving it a snack. Then after a few steps, he took his pretend 'baby' out and put it in a pretend Manduca (baby carrier).

20 February

E can almost eat a full kid's meal! 

Last weekend after his Sunday drama class we went to his favourite udon place, Tamoya, and E finished kid's size udon AND a vanilla cone from Mcdonalds for the first time ever.

Chewed Up Candle

So this happened. E ate a red swirly birthday candle because he thought it looked like a candy from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

It happened back in December 2013 (yes, I know I'm really late on posting about this. Still in catchup mode!). I was lying down for a quick snooze in the bedroom and E was playing on his own with the husband busy working on the computer.

E came into the bedroom looking for me and quietly told me about trying to eat the candle with chewed-up red and white wax all over the front of his shirt. At first I thought I was still asleep and dreaming but when I realised this was really happening and I was awake, I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

I decided to be positive and laugh it off with him while teaching him what edible and non-edible means.

We were going through a tough weekend (kiddo challenging us on everything we said and the husband being busy with work and me down with a headache) but I'm glad I made a conscious effort to treat the matter lightly (it was not a life or death situation) instead of freaking out.

Still finding bits and pieces of wax in the study room to this day (19 January 2014).

Quick update, there is absolutely no more wax to be found as I write this catchup post!

Drama-Free Drama Class

Catching up on blog posts again.

3rd times a charm for drama class!

So, we took E for drama class no. 3 on 19 January and he seemed  more positive. E wanted to bring his dinosaurs so I said yes! (Anything that might help him stay and participate in the class). The teacher, Miss A, took the initiative to offer E a sticker before class. I think that helped smooth the way so that E was more open and receptive to interacting with her. 

But I really think the secret weapon was arriving early before all the other students so that E could explore the classroom setting with Miss A and settle in before the hustle and bustle of his classmates arriving for the lesson. Getting there early gave his teacher a chance to speak with E one-on-one and gain his trust.

We heard some crying and screaming about wanting to leave after class began but we did not interfere as I wanted to see if the teacher could handle E this time. The husband peeked in through a window and reported that Miss A spoke to E and he settled down pretty quick.

Since then until now, E has been attending this drama class on Sundays with no major issues. We introduced a goodbye ritual where E gives (and receives from) each of us a hug and a kiss so we won't miss each other and it has been working!

Hopefully this goodbye ritual will serve us again when E starts kindergarten next year. 

Kids and Eating

This is not a post about how to get your child to eat because frankly, there are tons of other articles on the interwebs about it and I don't want to fight that battle 3 times a day with E. So I try to relax and go with feedback from E on whether he is hungry or full. But we do want him to get used to sitting together at the dining table and having meals as a family so even if he is full, we ask him to sit until everyone is done.

However, some days it's a losing battle for me because 3 year olds just aren't meant to sit nicely at the table all prim and proper. Some days, I feed E as he runs by me pretending to be Iron Man, or a jousting knight in a tourney or sometimes he just wants to run laps up and down the dining area.

So lately E has been pulling a stunt (usually at dinner) where he will eat 2 - 3 bites of food and say he is full so that he can leave the table and play, then when everyone else is done eating and we've moved on to bath time and getting ready for bed he will say,' I'm so hungry! I'm so really hungry, mama!' Then I usually tell him to drink water and go to sleep because the next meal is breakfast when the sun comes up.

I feel pretty horrible saying that to him because as a mother of course I do not want my kid to be hungry! But then again, I'm worried that if I give in now then he will be asking for food at all times of the night and bedtime will go haywire.

This has been going on for a couple months now and I hope E gets the message soon because I love watching him eat his meals happily and be full afterwards.

On a positive note, E tried liver pate from Brotzeit at Star Vista and really liked it. He was eating it off my fork and asking for more when it was finished.

Edit to say that this post was inspired by what I overheard a grandmother saying to her granddaughter in the lift recently. It was very similar to a conversation that I've had with E many a time over the past few months as he grows older and more aware of how yummy 'junk' foods can be!

I've re-constructed the conversation below, please allow for some dramatic license as my memory never really was very good!

Granddaughter: I'm so hungry! 

Grandmother: But you told me you were full and did not want to eat your pasta for lunch? And you had that biscuit and muffin earlier, are you really hungry now?

Granddaughter: Yes! I'm hungry now! 

Grandmother: You've got to be kidding me. Well, we are going to get some yummy cupcakes from the shop upstairs, would you like a cupcake then? 

Granddaughter: Ok!

Reminds me of my never-ending battle to get E to eat more whole foods (e.g. rice, meat, fish, veggies etc) instead of snacks and processed foods.

Act 3 Drama Sampler

I took E to a Drama Sampler class at Act 3 International in December to see what it was all about. For the Drama Sampler, parents were allowed to accompany their children during the class and E had a blast pretending to bake a cake (or brownie?), making a pretend toothbrush and playing a game called Grandma's Footsteps which is what I used to play in Primary school but we called it What is the Time, Mr Wolf?. It's a listening exercise for the kids because they are told when to move and when to freeze like a statue.

1 December 2013

Making a toothbrush

This is the way we brush our teeth

Gargle in the pretend bathroom

And a great time was had by all

After the Drama Sampler, I asked E if he would like to go again, but this time without me in class and at first he said no, then he said yes and it was a consistent yes answer after that. So I signed up for a term (10 weeks) and started prepping E for when class would start. 

I found a great book by accident at the library called Llama Llama Misses Mama about a llama's first day of preschool and E loved that book. He wanted me to read it for bedtime every night for a week. And E is familiar with the concept of school from watching Timmy Time which is about a lamb going to kindergarten.

So first day of class rolls around and we take E who was pretty excited to go. But when it came time for me to leave the classroom, he had a major meltdown and started bawling his eyes out. It did not help that there was another mother in the classroom who absolutely refused to leave and that kind of made E wonder why that kid had their mother in class but not him and he continued bawling. An extra teacher had to go in to comfort him and talk to him and she said he was participating in class but still crying. After class was done, he came out still crying albeit quietly instead of his earlier yelling. 

It was not an auspicious start. 

For the second class, we decided to let E enter the class when he wanted to instead of bringing him into class and just leaving him there crying (which I think was a rather traumatic start for him, at least it was for me!). Both daddy E and I were at our wits end. First we tried coaxing, then reasoning then it was a downward spiral into taking away his TV time, favourite toys and saying we were disappointed that he did not at least try. I even told him that if he participated in this entire class and still did not want to come back at the end of it then I would cancel the rest of the classes. He just flat out refused to go in.

There was a very kind staff member L. who really took the time to talk and coax E. She let him open the classroom door (it's made of opaque glass with a very small clear strip at adult height) and peek at what the children were doing inside. She offered to let me go into class with him or that he could sit by the door and just watch but he refused to put a foot into the room. He refused to enter the classroom until it was sticker time, which was at the end of class, so he got a sticker and lined up with the rest of the children and said goodbye to the teacher. After everyone had left, the teacher, Miss A., let him come in and explore the classroom on his own to try and get him comfortable in the space.

At first I was ready to cancel the rest of the sessions and withdraw E from the class. But I think we'll stick out the rest of the 10 sessions for this term and see how it goes. Daddy E and I are also determined to be more proactive in keeping our tempers in check and not use the word 'disappointed' because it's not E's fault that he is not comfortable in a drop-off class when he has been with me his entire life. 

Fingers crossed for E's 3rd class this Sunday!

Singing Toddler

I was thinking about this post on 28 November after toddler E's 3rd birthday. 

He's started singing to himself these days. Usually at bedtime, sometimes with nonsensical lyrics and sometimes he sings the theme songs to the cartoons he watches like Doc McStuffins or Sophia the First.

Cute and silly at the same time.

Although lately he's been on a Kamen Rider binge the past few weeks due to both me and the husband being down with a horrible cough / cold and only back to feeling 100% healthy a week ago so we've been lax in our TV management. It's especially tough keeping E entertained when both parents feel like zombie extras from The Walking Dead so he's been getting a ton of Kamen Rider videos, songs and toys. 

I felt like it was some sort of cruel joke that a virus / bacteria that's kept me and the husband sick for almost a week only kept E out of action for 1 day.

ONE DAY.

E was sick and lethargic (which meant earlier nap and less demands) for all of 1 day. After that he was sick but recovering so he was back to bouncing off the walls albeit with a constantly running nose when the husband and I could barely put one foot in front of the other.

No matter. We are all back to health now and that's the important thing!

Death and Toddler E

We have a neighbour auntie whom E calls 'po po'. He sees her a lot because our backyards share a wall with grilles and she spends a lot of time hanging out laundry and pottering around back there.

She had a bad fall at home and passed away while we were in Vietnam visiting my brother in October 2013, the husband texted me the news. I was worried about how toddler E would handle the news as he knew her quite well and remembers her.

We came back to Singapore and the next time we were in the backyard (the kitchen stove is outdoors by the backyard and toddler E insists on making his own scrambled eggs for breakfast so it was inevitable that he would notice 'po po' was not around). He asked me where 'po po' was and I just told him she's not here any more. 

He seemed satisfied with that answer. I guess I have a couple more years to come up with a more detailed explanation on death and loss of life.

Dancing with Tua Teo-Kong

I'm really grateful that toddler E has a chance to get to know my uncle who helped raise me.

My aunt passed away before I started dating the husband and she never got a chance to meet toddler E. I'd like to think that she knows all about him from where ever she is now and is looking down and chuckling at toddler E's antics.

21 October

Wave your hands in the air

Boogie on down

Run away!

Pretty good dancing for a 79 year old man and an almost 3 year old toddler!

Magic Trick for Lucky

Toddler E was teaching Lucky (auntie W's dog) a magic trick the other day.

20 September

Hold the wand like this

Wave it like this

Magic!

Lucky did not seem very impressed though!

Baking with Thoughtful Parenting

Whenever there's a chance, I take toddler E to playgroups organised by fellow moms which are informal and lots of fun. It's also more budget friendly for us as each session can range between $7 - $25 and there's no pressure to buy a package.

I found Thoughtful Parenting and we've attended several different sessions involving arts & crafts, learning to read and baking.

Toddler E really liked the baking. Everything is set up on the floor (covered by protective plastic sheets) which is great for kids and less worry about toddler E falling off a stool if trying to cook at the regular kitchen counter.

20 September

Slicing bananas

Mixing in the peanut butter

Adding wet ingredients to the flour

Om nom nom!

We made peanut butter & oatmeal drop cookies that had mashed bananas mixed in. Yum!

Mid-Autumn Festival 2013

The Mid-Autumn Festival is known as 'Lantern Festival' in my (not very Chinese) family. According to my very Hokkien husband, 'Lantern Festival' is not the right name for it. Oops.

Toddler E was quite excited to play with lanterns. We went old school with paper lanterns lit with a small candle and a wooden chopstick for the carrying handle.

19 September

In the driveway

I think the camera flash was on

Hello Adam!

The third play in the PLAYtime! series is Hello Adam!

Hello Adam! is a show about movement, toddler E's favourite thing to do! Kids were allowed on-stage before the show started and toddler E was making the most of it by doing his Kamen Rider moves on stage.

4 November

Looking around

After much coaxing, a somewhat decent photo

Playing with the props

Pose!

I did not take many pictures while the show was on because toddler E was really getting into the rhythm of things by dancing & jumping around along with the actors so I was busy making sure he did not jump into the kids around him.

Check out the photo gallery from the PLAYtime! website instead!