Power struggle

It’s the onset of the terrible two. Alex has been showing his defiance or rather asserting his independence more and more these days.

Food- he refused to eat bland baby food these days. He has to has our food and even takes to spicy food n curry. Looks like my boy has gotten my taste. I tried various recipes n even resorted to make him special food like fish pie (shepherd pie but with fish) or mashed potato (with expensive hokkaido potato) n he just wont take more than a few mouths. Lucky for me he still likes his cous cous or quinoa porridge with organic miso and also my concotion of claypot rice.

Biting
Recently he has learnt to bite lesser of others but I noticed he would bite demure girls and when he’s antagonised or tired… The poor girls… =( We will discipline him by bringing him to a corner for a time out. Not sure whether this method is working…

Screaming
Oh Alex has such a shrilling scream. He would scream when he doesn’t get what he wants. Gone are the days where I just need to call his name out in full and he will stop whatever naughty things he was doing. =( We can only tell him sternly that it’s not a good behaviour and withdraw him for a timeout if he continues…

Headache!

KL road trip

We drove up to KL last week for a 3D2N short stay. Hb always wanted to drive up to Malaysia and we have tried to organise many, many trips to Malacca, but somehow Alex always fall sick during those times, and most recently, hb tore some muscle in his knee. So we are glad that we have made it this time!

Though we have a GPS, we got terribly lost on our way in and out of Malaysia. We entered M’sia through the causeway link, gotten lost and somehow entered the North South highway near Tuas… -_-  It took us nearly 1h to get out of Johor and more than 6h to get to our destination. I had a serious case of ants in the pants! Our Alex was a  darling during the drives. He took long naps and wasn’t cranky at all. =) The only time he was being a brat coz he saw his favourite toy, Thomas the train in the malls and he wouldn’t let us go away whenever he saw one. It doesn’t help that my hb likes the toys and bought Alex (or maybe himself) a big train set. -_-

Here’s our itinerary

Friday

• Lunch: Local coffee shop fare
• Shopping at 1-utama
• Dinner at TGIF: The portions were so big that we should have ordered half of what we ordered.

Saturday

• Ikea- haha, I know. Why would we go Ikea in Malaysia? The layout is very similar to the layout at Ikea Tampines.
• Lunch: super fatty n delicious charsiew and roast duck. It was the charsiew that did me in and I gained weight just after this meal!
• Dinner and shopping at The Gardens @ Mid-Valley shopping mall.

Sunday

• Breakfast: Super delicious dimsum at a local joint which seems v popular
• Lunch and shopping at KLCC.

It was a good trip with good company. We look forward to another trip soon. =)

Alex ah beng at a rest stop (which has high chairs and children playground!) waiting for us to serve him his breakfast.

His fashion statement: PJ pants stuffed in socks. Art direction: daddy

My aspiration for my child

Evelyn asked her reader to share their aspirations/expectations for their kids.

My reply is, “i hope that i will be able to equip my boy with life skills to handle the heart breaks, self-doubts n challenges he will face in his life”.

I think on the first look that my wish for Alex seems pessimistic. However it’s generously laced with a lot of optimism! Don’t we all have those mind or soul wrecking moments? At some points in our lives, we all just want to blend into the shadow and fade away. Nobody taught us how to handle emotions in our times. How we handle depends on how we had lived our lives till that moment. Initially I thought life skills is about teaching my boy to do house chores so that his wife won’t nag at him next time. Then I came to know that there’s more to it than I think I know (which is always the case). Character formation in early childhood is important. I don’t have to have my child be a rich and successful person, but I want him to be healthy, happy and able to cope or catch whatever lemons life threw his way.

I dug out this list from UNICEF website:

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal communication skills

• Verbal/Nonverbal communication
• Active listening
• Expressing feelings; giving feedback (without blaming) and receiving feedback

Negotiation/refusal skills

• Negotiation and conflict management
• Assertiveness skills
• Refusal skills

Empathy

• Ability to listen and understand another’s needs and circumstances and express that understanding

Cooperation and Teamwork

• Expressing respect for others’ contributions and different styles
• Assessing one’s own abilities and contributing to the group

Advocacy Skills

• Influencing skills & persuasion
• Networking and motivation skills

Decision-Making and Critical Thinking Skills

Decision making / problem solving skills

• Information gathering skills
• Evaluating future consequences of present actions for self and others
• Determining alternative solutions to problems
• Analysis skills regarding the influence of values and attitudes of self and others on motivation

Critical thinking skills

• Analyzing peer and media influences
• Analyzing attitudes, values, social norms and beliefs and factors affecting these
• Identifying relevant information and information sources

Coping and Self-Management Skills

Skills for increasing internal locus of control

• Self esteem/confidence building skills
• Self awareness skills including awareness of rights, influences, values, attitudes, rights, strengths and weaknesses
• Goal setting skills
• Self evaluation / Self assessment / Self-monitoring skills

Skills for managing feelings

• Anger management
• Dealing with grief and anxiety
• Coping skills for dealing with loss, abuse, trauma

Skills for managing stress

• Time management
• Positive thinking
• Relaxation techniques

Having said all these, I also won’t mind that Alex is athletic. =)

Protected: Digging out the skeletion

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The sleeping prince

This is the tale of a little prince who took a nap once a day. He always see to the matters of his subjects# throughout the first half of the day with the assistant of a loyal chamber maid butler. He also worked very hard to clear the rubbish, till the ground and plucking fruits*.

All is well till last week, he reached a conclusion that he can forgo the nap even to the loud protest of his loyal butler. So the loyal butler being a loyal person, secretly devised a plan to make the prince rest. She deliberately scheduled a new task for the prince which is to explore unchartered land. The prince has to climb bridges, slide his way down slopes or brace himself with the wintry season^. The butler also read reports and long essays till the prince couldn’t take it anymore… and napped.

The prince has been on his usual nap for 2 days! The butler is rubbing her hand in glee. For she can take a rest too. Muahahahaha.

The prince walking his pet dragon

#his toys

*throw his daper, rampage the drawers and pluck out clips from the clothes drying rack

^in the malls

Moments in time

The man who was in green, that’s my husband had finally completed his reservist (for the year) yesterday. Hurray for that and we can now have our family life back.

He took Alex to Polliwogs this morning for some father/son bonding time. =) Polliwogs is one of our favourite haunt but we seem to take turn to bring Alex there. Whenever Alex is exploring the place, we get a work out too. Otherwise, the lounge area is pretty relaxing for the adults and they have tonnes of high chairs. Definitely a parent and kiddoes friendly place.We also like the place coz it’s spacious with variety of setups and it’s suitable for walkers like Alex. There are older kids around hence parental supervision is still required. He loves the ball pit, the slides, collecting foam balls in pail, ball gun and a new obstacle today!

If there’s one thing about Alex, he’s a cautious boy. He doesn’t like to fall and he will test obstacles out a few times before trying. Hb shared with me that Alex has conquered his fear of the hanging bridge. He was holding on to the side and enjoying the sensation as other kids rocked the bridge. I think Alex is even more brave than I am! I feel so proud of my boy that he has overcome a small fear in his life and *sniff* he is growing up day by day. =)

The Polliwogs
1020 East Coast Parkway, #01-02,
Singapore 449878
Tel: 6442 2805

Playground hours:
Weekdays 10am – 7pm
Weekends 10am – 8pm

Driven up the wall and down in the dumps

Alex has not been taking his regular naps since Sun. He at most slept during a car ride, none yesterday and 15mins at most for today. I think this happened coz his nap time was disrupted on a day where we ran errands and left him with the grandparents.

He’s hyper when he’s tired and his antics really bothers me. To see him so tired, eyes glazed n not vocal even though he would still continue playing also saddens me. I put him to bed at 7:30pm tonight and he has woken up 3X so far coz I’m not sleeping beside him. I am dealing these by myself coz hb is in reservist but TG that there’s home-cooked dinner and support/advice given by friends. Not to mention I am tired.

So from tomorrow onwards, I will kick start a routine to make sure he will resume his regular nap, otherwise I will lose my sanity and wits. If this routine doesn’t work after a week and push comes to shove, I will use the cry-it-out method. *determined*

Routine

• Breakfast
• Gym time
• Bath
• Play
• Lunch
• Wind down time (reading)
• Nap

Maybe I will start him on some lifeskills training, i.e. doing housechores and also to tired him out?!

My little man turns 18!

My little man has just turned 18! In terms of months, I mean. I meant to keep a record of his development on a monthly basis, but whoops! It just slipped my mind. There are quite a no. of things to blog about. =)

He has recently started class at My Little Gym coz I reckon his gross motor skills need some further development. Alex’s a pretty cautious child, i.e. he takes too long to “test water” and refuses to climb. He knows how to be a slippery eel to slip down from our bed, but he doesn’t have much body confidence and would hang on to his dear life like he’s on a cliff, like for ages! I rescued him by giving him my hand to provide some support!

Then also I found his attention span was dwindling… He went to LittleBig’s playgroup at 9m-12m but stopped when the school moved to far, faraway. =( He was attentive during those while  and joining a new class at 17m proved me right, unfortunately. Worse still, he would scream when he doesn’t get the things he want. Luckily by the 4th lesson, he’s cooperative. =)

I find that his screaming issues gotta do with rejection. He doesn’t like it when I scold him (tired makes me short fused) or I tell him no. So I am really trying my best to be patient with him, even it means putting on a fake sweet voice to reason with him. Lol.

15th mth Milestone chart

• Plays with ball- Yes
• Can draw a line- Yes
• Walks up stairs- Yes
• Vocabulary increases up to five words- Yes
• Runs well- He doesn’t zoom around like a speedy gonzale, so I’m ok
• “Helps” around the house- Yes, he loves to help to throw diaper into the bin and load the washing machine with clothes =)
• Walks backward- Yes
• Adopts “no” as his favourite word- Yes =(
  
• Puts his fingers to his mouth and says “shhh”- No
  

16th mth Milestone chart

• Turns the pages of a book- Yes
• Discovers joy of climbing- |Not really, he’s too cautious
• Takes off one piece of clothing by himself- Yes and he has done so in the public! Fully monty?
• Has temper tantrums when frustrated- Ye!
• Stacks three bricks- No
• Gets fussy about food- Yes but seldom
• Becomes attached to a soft toy or other object- Yes, he likes his bolster
• Learns the correct way to use common objects (e.g. the telephone)- Yes, telephone is one of his fave pretend game
• Switches from two daytime sleeps to one- Yes, he takes an average of 3 hour nap a day

17th mth Milestone chart

• Uses a handful of words regularly- Yes
• Responds to directions (e.g. “Sit down”)- Yes
• Dances to music- No
• Enjoys pretend games- Yes. He likes to feed us, talk on the phone n sweeping floor (haha!)
  
• Feeds doll- Yes, but he does it with us. We are his dolls!
• Sorts toys by colour, shape, or size- No
• Likes riding toys- Yes
• Talks more clearly- Yes
• Kicks ball forward- No

18th mth Milestone chart

• Will “read” board books on his own- No
• Strings words together in phrases- Yes, he did so at 9m but now he can say papa, bao bao or bao bao baby
• Throws ball overhand- Yes
• Can pedal when put on trike- No
• Brushes teeth with help- Yes/No, reluctantly
• Takes toys apart and puts them back together- Yes
• Scribbles well- Yes
• Builds a tower of four cubes- No
• Shows signs of toilet training readiness- Yes, he likes to pee when I put him in the bath tub and he will respond when I ask him whether he has poo’d.

Alex’s word list

• moo
• boo(k)
• wheel
• key
• lee (leaf)
• 要
• lerh (灯/light)
• nana- Banana
• Wee-wee

New tricks

• Flagging for taxi. He learnt it from Aunty Vina. Lol
• Squeezing his face
• Pointing to to his eyes, nose and mouth when I asked him

Likes

• Wheels on the bus series
• Banana, his fave fruit

Dislikes

• Sand
• Bath foam
• Grass

A mother’s thoughts

I never know I am a bag of mush till I have given birth. I mean I used to cry but not as easily like now. Just this evening, I teared when I watched a program when a mother shared with the interviewer that she would want to see her daughter with cerebral palsy to be taken care by the people in the care home and be surrounded with her new family. The mother is 80 and the daughter is 52.

This segment pulls at my heart string, coz I have Alex to think about now. I cannot bear the thought of him being alone in this world with no family after we passed on or him suffering from some sickness. *touch wood*. For the latter, I am trying my best to take care of him by thinking of ways to boost his immunity… etc. Right now Alex is still the only grandchild in both sides of family. I have cousins who have tonnes of kids but nothing beats own flesh and blood. During some family events, I noted with envy that my cousins in a bigger family have a strong family bonding, that is something which I definitely want my kid(s) to experience. I also feel bad when he looks on to other kids/siblings playing longingly. :\

I am not young anymore and underwent the knife for Alex’s birth, I hope my next pregnancy will be my last and so I am really praying for twins next. Sounds like I have gone mad coz having multiples is a lot of challenges if we do strike, however I bank on the account that our joy will be multiplied as well.

So wish me luck. =)

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Banana chocolate chips muffin

Oh, I must say that I am very pleased with the end result of this bake experiment. I just made a small modification to this banana muffin recipe that I found.

I might have just overcome my fear of baking with this recipe =) so much so that I made another batch a few days later.

Banana chocoloate chips Muffins
(makes about 12 muffins)

Wet Ingredients

• 5-6 small bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/3 cup softened margarine

Dry Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup baking chocolate chips

Method

1. Mix the wet ingredients into a bowl
2. Mix the dry ingredients into a larger bowl.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180c.
4. Add wet mix into the larger bowl containing the dry ingredients.
5. Use a spatula and mix all ingredients together until it forms a sticky batter. Check that the flour are well mixed in.
6. Line the muffin tray with muffin cups
7. Spoon the batter into the cups. Fill up to maximum 2/3 of the cup only.
8. Bake for 15-20mins till the tops are golden brown.

My next adventure will be cinnamon raisin bread. =)