Cherie Hearts @ Eng Kong

Josh will be going for his first day at the childcare this coming Wednesday. We have signed him up at Cherie Hearts @ Eng Kong near my mum's, which is newly opened few months ago. We visited a few CCs in the area (grouse: bukit timah/toh yi CCs r all super ex!) before deciding on Cherie Hearts, mainly because the place, books and toys are very new. Daddy spotted a few garden ants at the indoor play area near the garden for water play, but otherwise the place is pretty neat and clean. It's a terrace house 3 storeys high, with a gym room and an outdoor playground. Currently they have only over 10 kids at the centre, so the teacher-student ratio is low. Josh has not had the chance to mingle much with other kids, so having lesser kids around might be easier for him to adapt to the new environment.

I was given a long list of items to bring to school:

1. Water bottle
- Was searching for a BPA free bottle with strap, but in the end settled for a Muchkin one without strap.

2. Bag
- Bought a cute Stephen Joseph's Go-Go backpack online from www.littlejewels.com.sg which I am collecting tomorrow. Hope it's big enuf to fit all the stuff.

3. Milk Bottle

4. Milk Powder

5. Towel

6. Additional set of clothes (2 sets)

7. Covered shoes

8. Diapers

9. Plastic bag for soiled clothes

10. Blanket & pillow (on Friday full-day)

11. Toothbrush, toothpaste & cup

We will be taking leave from work to accompany Josh for his first 3 days, so pretty excited yet worried about how it will turn out. Will definitely be bringing my trusty Lumix camera to capture some shots of his first day at school :)

小家伙发脾气

Last Sat at lunch, my sis reported that recently my mum has been giving Josh goat's milk sweeties to keep him happy whenever he throws his tantrums. And she noticed he has been throwing tantrums more and more often in a bid to get the sweeties. I was absolutely flabbergasted as it's rewarding him for the wrong behaviour!

Not long after, we experienced first hand how feisty he has become...he couldn't take his nap since we went out for lunch with my mum & sis, so was already behaving a little snappy. After we came home and forbaded him to play with the Pooh & friends dancing figurines (daddy's toys from Japan), he flew into a rage, wailed non-stop for an hour n cried himself to sleep. He refused his milk feeds n slept throughout from Sat late afternoon till Sunday morning, going almost 17 hours without food n water. *shake head*

Last nite when we sent him back to my mum's, I complained to her about his outburst, and said that he "发脾气"....n this little imp actually repeated "发脾气" back to me. *roll eyes 2x*

I just hope to convince my mum that sometimes you have to ignore him and let him cry. Then only he can learn that rewards come with the right behaviours.

Annoying Antics

This is a stress releasing post from mummy....just to grumble about the annoying antics (AA) from my son that can sometimes drive me crazy!

AA No 1: TV addict
Nowadays the first thing after his milk feed upon waking up, is to demand "Go Out" from his cot. Once mummy carries him up, he will point to the door and say "There" and will lead you to the sofa in living room. Next he will pick up the TV remote and start pressing. If he didn't manage to press the correct power on button, he will turn to mummy and say "TV, Cartoon" and will whine like mad if I say no. Sometimes I just give in to him...cos it's 7am in the morning and mummy is still in a zombie mode. So I will take a quick nap while he watches his playhouse disney channel for 30mins.

AA No. 2: Spitting out his food once he's full
This is an irritating bad habit. Once he has enough of his food, he will still open up his mouth to accept the next spoon, and before you know it, spit it out all over his clothes and plays with it, and then cheekily tells you "mess". GRRRR....

AA No. 3: It's a battle to change his diaper
I just can't understand why changing diaper can be such a painful task since young. He just refuses to keep still and even push my hands away when I try to undo the diaper. I can only guess it's because my mum always wash his butt in cold water with each diaper change, which he hates.

AA No. 4: Terrible One & a Half
Whining and demanding things or food that he likes (points to fridge and say "Biscuit" or points to bread and say "Peanut" to have bread with peanut butter or "Milo" when he wants to drink it), if wish is not fulfilled according to his command, the tantrum monster appears. Can't imagine what is to come in the terrible twos.

It's definitely not easy to be a parent and even with all these AA that I have to bear, I still love my little darling more than anything else in the world.

Josh in his Ferrari

COOLEST boy in town... haha!

J-O-S-H-T-O-N

Can't believe that Josh is turning 18 months soon and will be starting childcare in May. Will relate more on the CC in my next post.

My little boy has made good progress in picking up words. We are really amazed that he could recite A-Z on his own, without missing any letters. And if you ask him how to spell his name, he can say J-O-S-H-T-O-N! He likes to learn new words and read new books, so guess he's going to be a bookworm next time (hopefully not the nerdy type!). I can't decide if he's more introvert or extrovert...with his impish face and his hyperactive dashing round the whole house, he doesn't seem like an introvert child, yet the moment he's out of his comfort zone at home, he refuses to walk and wants to be carried all the time. Even at the playground, he just looks apprehensive and reserved and doesn't want to play, when most little boys I see would turn into little monkeys there. Hope he will open up more once he starts mixing with other kids at the CC.

We made an interesting discovery 2 weeks ago...he could finish off the last word of each stanza for more than 15 nursery rhymes. Even a long song like On Top Of Spaghetti, he could remember as well. Last weekend he just kept repeating e-ai-e-ai-o like a broken recorder.

Just remembered another interesting incident that I would like to share....few weeks back, Josh was flipping through a magazine at por por's place and came across a picture of a family having dinner. He pointed at the old folks and said "Gong" & "Ma", which is how he calls his grandparents, and pointed to the parents and said "Daddy" & "Mummy". Nobody was taught him the concept of a family, so I was really stunned that he could relate to that on his own.

Easter Weekend

Josh was down with fever over the weekend, a side effect from the MMR vaccination a week ago. So my plans for a fun Easter holiday to Fidgets and Botanic Gardens were pretty much dashed.

Cos of his fluctuating temperature, he was quite lethargic and grouchy with very poor appetite in the day. But in the middle of the night, he woke up at 1am and turned into an energetic bunny, refusing to sleep till 4am! I had to play with him and watch an hour of playhouse disney before he finally got tired.

On Sunday, we went to my in laws place for lunch, and Uncle Jeff bought a red Ferrari F430 Spider ride-on car for Josh. Gosh this must have cost Uncle Jeff a couple of hundreds. The car looks like this, without the sports stripes.



He is still too young to play with it as the car comes an electronic accelerator with a speed of 5km/h, so more suited for kids 5 years up to to able to control the speed. Haha next time he will be the coolest boy and zoom around at the void deck to attract little mei mei in the neighbourhood :D