One of Josh's fav video now is this phonics video called Alphabet Sounds which we found from Youtube. Presented in a song format with a catchy tune, it makes it very easy for him to learn the sound of each letter. He will also use the tune of the song on other words, such as "Daddy, daddy, de de de" or "Mummy, mummy, mm, mm, mm". So this video comes highly recommended as a fun and easy way for kids to learn basic phonics.
He's also learning to spell simple words (thanks to the Wordworld app), such as apple, stop, baby, dog, pig, cat, frog, car. He will spot things around the house and ask me to spell to him, like "how to spell table" or "how to spell spoon" and so on. It's one of the few activities that would make him sit down, hence I really enjoy doing the spelling game with him :)
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Daddy's back & house hunting
DH finally touched down yesterday early morning at 5+. I woke up at 4+ am to get ready to go to the airport to welcome him back. Really glad to have him back, though I did enjoy my alone time with Josh, even though it was tough to handle him on my own. The last 2 weekends were quite peaceful, all thanks to iphone & tv, which kept him entertained whenever I had to go away to cook or bathe. However, Josh did remember the terrible 1st weekend, so since then my position as his no. 1 choice has fallen to no. 2 after grandma :(
For the past weeks I had been intensively hunting for a new flat at Bt Panjang area while DH was away, and it's really tiring. Also brought Josh along to check if he's comfortable with the flat that we were viewing, as they said kids are more "sensitive". Some flats he would refuse to stay inside and kept saying "Go home & see snowy"..and immediately headed straight out of the door. Guess you really have to trust a kid's instinct.
There was a unit that I fell in love with as the reno was fanstastic and it looked like a show flat. I went to view last Sat but as DH only came back yesterday, so we went yesterday nite again for him to view it. Sadly, our agent informed us today that the flat was sold. We were just 1 step too late :( Back to square one again and we have to restart the hunt. I had seen so many units, even came across one that the neighbour was harrassed by loansharks as there was a notice on the door. With lots of factors to consider - is the location convenient, amenities, neighbours, condition, facing, noise level, any good schools nearby etc - gosh it's actually quite a stressful process to find your next dream house. Not to mention that the new govt rulings are not helping, either we have 30% cash + cpf on hand, or we have to sell off our house first and meantime try to find a place to camp for 2-3 months to reduce the cash payment portion. Josh now remembers our block no. and which floor we stay, and we have lots of wonderful memories staying here. I would probably get quite emo when we really move.
For the past weeks I had been intensively hunting for a new flat at Bt Panjang area while DH was away, and it's really tiring. Also brought Josh along to check if he's comfortable with the flat that we were viewing, as they said kids are more "sensitive". Some flats he would refuse to stay inside and kept saying "Go home & see snowy"..and immediately headed straight out of the door. Guess you really have to trust a kid's instinct.
There was a unit that I fell in love with as the reno was fanstastic and it looked like a show flat. I went to view last Sat but as DH only came back yesterday, so we went yesterday nite again for him to view it. Sadly, our agent informed us today that the flat was sold. We were just 1 step too late :( Back to square one again and we have to restart the hunt. I had seen so many units, even came across one that the neighbour was harrassed by loansharks as there was a notice on the door. With lots of factors to consider - is the location convenient, amenities, neighbours, condition, facing, noise level, any good schools nearby etc - gosh it's actually quite a stressful process to find your next dream house. Not to mention that the new govt rulings are not helping, either we have 30% cash + cpf on hand, or we have to sell off our house first and meantime try to find a place to camp for 2-3 months to reduce the cash payment portion. Josh now remembers our block no. and which floor we stay, and we have lots of wonderful memories staying here. I would probably get quite emo when we really move.
Sunday 7 November 2010
Home alone with the terrible two
Daddy will be away for 3 long weeks to US and departed last Friday. Honestly, I ain't looking forward to taking care of the terrible two alone, and oh god, please bless me with lots of patience and sanity to pull through this 3 weeks, cuz it was a VERY BAD first weekend.
Friday turned out pretty alright, as we sent Daddy off to the airport late afternoon and stayed till early evening playing at T3 viewing mall. The groomer was coming to pick snowy, so we headed home (damn $30 cab fare even without peak hour charges!?!). Josh fell asleep on the cab, so when we got home, I couldn't leave the house to get dinner for myself. And so dinner was what's left of the porridge that I made for Josh earlier.
When the groomer came to pick snowy, Josh got pretty upset and said "Cannot take snowy!"(and this was the only cute thing he did the whole weekend!!). In the end there was a miscomm, as the groomer thought snowy needed boarding since Daddy is overseas and it was too late for grooming so we had to reschedule. So Josh got his dear doggy back. Day 1 ended peacefully....
So after a good day, I was getting confident of a good weekend ahead. All started pretty well, with the usual weekend wakeup routine:
- Josh wakes up at 7am
- Rolls n jumps around trying to wake me up
- 7.30am says "Hello" and "Good morning"
- Hands me my specs and says "Mummy get up"
- Followed by a few nudges if mummy still doesn't get up
- Mummy sits up reluctantly, Josh jumps up and wants "bao bao"
- Mummy carries Josh n he demands to go sofa n watch TV
- If mummy says no or says to wee wee, change diaper or brush teeth first, he will throw tantrums
- Finally for early morning peace, mummy switches on the tv....
I had arranged with Rachel and family to meet at the Esplanade for dinner and bring our kids to watch some free outdoor performance with the UBS Sun Festival. Just as we were about to leave the house and I turned my back for a few minutes to pack his stuff, Josh attempted to stand on the plastic container that we use to store dog food and expectedly fell down. All the dog food was spilled and Josh was crying from the shock. It wasn't a bad fall but he continued to wail non-stop cos I didn't allow him to pick up the dog food. Snowy was gobbling off as much food as possible while I was clearing it. Meltdown No 1...
He was super cranky again during dinner so I had to bring out my iPhone for him to play as he was whining for it. I was expecting Daddy's SMS as it came in while he was playing with it. So when I took the phone away, he started crying again.
After dinner, we stayed at the indoor area to watch a violin performance as it was raining outside. Izabelle was clearly enjoying the show, while Josh was again super restless and kept running around. Bought a pack of ribena cos he refused to drink plain water, and he squeezed the pack and spilled all over his shirt. When the next performance start, he wasn't interested again and ran away through the crowd. Ran after him and to my horror he was playing with the dustbin, which had a rotating cap! And I tried to stop him and carry him up, he had meltdown no. 2. Such an embarrassment as the crowd there was trying to enjoy the nice violin performance which was marred by his loud crying noise. So in the end I had to bring him home straight.
He fell asleep in the cab, so I thought I can finally take a rest when we got home and I put him in bed. It was pouring outside so I couldn't bring snowy down and of course can't leave Josh alone at home. Guess what, cos Snowy ate too much of the spilled food, he pooed 3 big chunks all over the house plus pee. And my mop broke. To top it, a buyer was supposed to view my house in the afternoon but didn't turn up. Wasted my time cleaning up the house in the morning while trying to look after Josh. It was a bad day.
Day 3. 5am rudely woken up by Josh's cries. He wanted milk, so made a bottle but he refused to drink and wailed for his Bingo CD to be played. Had to put on the CD and then he took the milk. This was his favourite CD, and for no reason, he became agitated to hear one of the songs and started wailing "Off the radio". So I turned off the radio and he wailed even louder. I was already super grouchy from being woken up so early, so he was really testing my patience. I ignored him and he wailed and wailed till he vommited his milk on my bed!! Had to clean off the mess and change his clothes n he was still crying away. Meltdown No 3.
I can't remember clearly the details for meltdowns 4, 5 & 6, but something to do with he refusing to eat lunch, I refusing to give in to his requests for snacks and I talked fiercely to him for misbehaving. It's really a battle of wills with him, and it seems that he does his crying tactic mainly with me, and not at school or with his grandparents. If I don't relent, he will just keep crying and throw tantrums till he cries himself to sleep. But once you give in, he will stop immediately and can be laughing in a few mins time. I need to think of new ways to manage such outbursts.
It's the first time that I'm glad that the long weekend is over. Let's hope the next 2 weekends will be better.
Friday turned out pretty alright, as we sent Daddy off to the airport late afternoon and stayed till early evening playing at T3 viewing mall. The groomer was coming to pick snowy, so we headed home (damn $30 cab fare even without peak hour charges!?!). Josh fell asleep on the cab, so when we got home, I couldn't leave the house to get dinner for myself. And so dinner was what's left of the porridge that I made for Josh earlier.
When the groomer came to pick snowy, Josh got pretty upset and said "Cannot take snowy!"(and this was the only cute thing he did the whole weekend!!). In the end there was a miscomm, as the groomer thought snowy needed boarding since Daddy is overseas and it was too late for grooming so we had to reschedule. So Josh got his dear doggy back. Day 1 ended peacefully....
So after a good day, I was getting confident of a good weekend ahead. All started pretty well, with the usual weekend wakeup routine:
- Josh wakes up at 7am
- Rolls n jumps around trying to wake me up
- 7.30am says "Hello" and "Good morning"
- Hands me my specs and says "Mummy get up"
- Followed by a few nudges if mummy still doesn't get up
- Mummy sits up reluctantly, Josh jumps up and wants "bao bao"
- Mummy carries Josh n he demands to go sofa n watch TV
- If mummy says no or says to wee wee, change diaper or brush teeth first, he will throw tantrums
- Finally for early morning peace, mummy switches on the tv....
I had arranged with Rachel and family to meet at the Esplanade for dinner and bring our kids to watch some free outdoor performance with the UBS Sun Festival. Just as we were about to leave the house and I turned my back for a few minutes to pack his stuff, Josh attempted to stand on the plastic container that we use to store dog food and expectedly fell down. All the dog food was spilled and Josh was crying from the shock. It wasn't a bad fall but he continued to wail non-stop cos I didn't allow him to pick up the dog food. Snowy was gobbling off as much food as possible while I was clearing it. Meltdown No 1...
He was super cranky again during dinner so I had to bring out my iPhone for him to play as he was whining for it. I was expecting Daddy's SMS as it came in while he was playing with it. So when I took the phone away, he started crying again.
After dinner, we stayed at the indoor area to watch a violin performance as it was raining outside. Izabelle was clearly enjoying the show, while Josh was again super restless and kept running around. Bought a pack of ribena cos he refused to drink plain water, and he squeezed the pack and spilled all over his shirt. When the next performance start, he wasn't interested again and ran away through the crowd. Ran after him and to my horror he was playing with the dustbin, which had a rotating cap! And I tried to stop him and carry him up, he had meltdown no. 2. Such an embarrassment as the crowd there was trying to enjoy the nice violin performance which was marred by his loud crying noise. So in the end I had to bring him home straight.
He fell asleep in the cab, so I thought I can finally take a rest when we got home and I put him in bed. It was pouring outside so I couldn't bring snowy down and of course can't leave Josh alone at home. Guess what, cos Snowy ate too much of the spilled food, he pooed 3 big chunks all over the house plus pee. And my mop broke. To top it, a buyer was supposed to view my house in the afternoon but didn't turn up. Wasted my time cleaning up the house in the morning while trying to look after Josh. It was a bad day.
Day 3. 5am rudely woken up by Josh's cries. He wanted milk, so made a bottle but he refused to drink and wailed for his Bingo CD to be played. Had to put on the CD and then he took the milk. This was his favourite CD, and for no reason, he became agitated to hear one of the songs and started wailing "Off the radio". So I turned off the radio and he wailed even louder. I was already super grouchy from being woken up so early, so he was really testing my patience. I ignored him and he wailed and wailed till he vommited his milk on my bed!! Had to clean off the mess and change his clothes n he was still crying away. Meltdown No 3.
I can't remember clearly the details for meltdowns 4, 5 & 6, but something to do with he refusing to eat lunch, I refusing to give in to his requests for snacks and I talked fiercely to him for misbehaving. It's really a battle of wills with him, and it seems that he does his crying tactic mainly with me, and not at school or with his grandparents. If I don't relent, he will just keep crying and throw tantrums till he cries himself to sleep. But once you give in, he will stop immediately and can be laughing in a few mins time. I need to think of new ways to manage such outbursts.
It's the first time that I'm glad that the long weekend is over. Let's hope the next 2 weekends will be better.
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