1st Swim

Friday is Vesak Day and it have been arranged to have a swim at Aunty Ophe's followed by Chilli Crabs feast.

The day started great with the sun shining brightly. went for macs breakie once again, think Zethan is turning into a junkie toddler real soon. reached home close to Two and put him to nap otherwise faced with a cranky kiddo is no joke. soon after, dark clouds looming in the sky and rained! haiz, was pretty upset that Zethan had to miss his 1st swim again. yes the word is again as it always rained when there is plan for a swim. it did not help when it was pouring cats and dogs when it's time to set off and Zethan just woke from his nap. The only hope is that it wasn't raining yet in Holland, still harbouring some hopes.

Reached Aunty Ophe's and apparently it feel like any moment the rain will come. all made a daring decision to change and resume the plan to swim. within 10mins, all were at the poolside.

As this is considered as Zethan's 1st time in the pool, mummy tend to be more cautious in case it get too over whelming for him. started off sitting with him on the step with water curling around his ankles. next to the second step, water level up to the waist and all this while playing with toys. once he get warmed up and showed no resistance, daddy brought him further, floating around in daddy's arm. it wasn't long before Zethan splish splash around, grinning from ear to ear.

the stay in the pool was not very long as the water is a tad cold with no sun in sight. After a good 15-20mins, Zethan's mouth start to clatter which Aunty Sue Lin spotted thus it's time to head back.

in the later part of the night, the children had yummy porridge with steamed cod fish cooked with love by Chef Ophe. Next come the adult feast, chilli crabs! food is yummy coupled with great company, the whole family had a great time and ended the night just before midnight.

Thanks Aunty Ophelia, Uncle Jason and Buddy Caleb for the invitation to your house and not to mention messing up the whole place.

Tantrums

so this is what they called the Terrible Two Syndrome??!!!

lotsa lotsa yelling and screaming especially when under daddy's care giving. With daddy caring for Zethan, even at home, he is forever yelling, screaming, fussing, whining. name it all and he does it all.

when he does not get his way, terrible meltdown. not only is he at the brink of bursting everyone's eardrum, he has learnt to throw tantrums by twisting himself out of whoever is holding him and jellied himself to the ground. so of course naturally the daddy give in but certainly not mummy.

the next question line, what about when the family is out and about when the meltdown occur in public. most if not all the time, mummy will insist on ignoring him least he got the attention he's fighting for. BUT, as always the infamous but, mummy do not wish for him to be a nuisance to others in particular. so the point is to ignore or intercept? indeed the balancing point is a challenge.

these days, Zethan refused to be seated in the highchair be it amid his dinner or while mummy and daddy is trying to finish their dinner at lightning speed. it has become quite abit of nightmare to dine out. now mummy is very strict when it comes to table manners in concern e.g. no walking around and feeding with food in mouth. however out of exhaustion, she is bending rules a wee bit but certainly hope that things will not get out of hand and completely irreversible!

coming out of dinnertime, Zethan is trying all his might in breaking loose. holding his hands is naturally out of the question and freedom is very much on his agenda lately. when one insist on holding his hand, either he will A - fuss and meltdown, jellied to floor or B - milder meltdown, squat himself and refused to budge. so one might say just let him go but there are many instances where it is never wise to allow him roam on his own. initially he will not roam far off from the care giver but now he decides he choose his directions and make his decision albeit roam very far off, displaying sign of independence maybe. mummy try to 'teach' him a lesson by hiding away from Zethan when he can't be bothered in crowded places. But the plan backfired as he thinks that it's a game of hide and seek and enjoyed himself happily~

so yes, going out and dining out is a superb tiring affair and both parents start to toy with the idea of staying in, resorting to hosue arrest again. yet adopting this Ostrich approach does not sound wise as well. so perhaps it's again crossing all fingers and toes that this is indeed a passing phase and please be over and done with very very soon!

MRT

Zethan went for his very 1st virgin trip on the MRT yesterday.

Grandma brought him on the train and apparently Zethan did not enjoy it! Not sure what kind of expression he had on his face so much so that a lady asked if it is his 1st time on the train.

He fussed big time on the train especially when the train reaches a station, ding dong and the door open. He want to alight! he refuse to stay on board, refuse to sit, refuse to come down and stand alone. He just wish to be carried and grandma is not allowed to sit too!

mummy 'witness' it by hearing him on the handphone, making a lot of noise. daddy said that most probably if he's with Zethan, he would get off the train instead. no wonder Zethan know how to manipulate and have daddy all wrapped around his thumb!

16 months

Today is the day Zethan turn 16 months old and he's just 2 months away to qualify for placement in playgroup / child care!

some updates on his development / milestones

Teething ~ can hardly judge / count how many teeth he has at this moment but last seen was the lower first molars appearing. Should have at least 8-10 teeth.

motor skill ~ climbing, walking, running is of no issue to him. In fact he enjoyed his freedom so much that it is really tiring to go after him. no signs of interest of self feeding be it with cutlery or using his hands not to mention lazy to hold his milk bottle.

language ~ few words mumbled often not in the right pronounciation. Bird, Bus, Bubbles, Ball etc. Any vehicle larger than a car (trailer, truck, van) is Bus, train inclusive. coincidentally all words appear to start with B! largely he still prefer to point and go 'Eh' or 'Ee"

eating habits ~ besides the 2 solids of porridge / mee sua, most of the days he will have 3 milk feeds of about 240ml each. at this point, he's still very much into soft and mushy food with very subjectively liking to texture food.

sleep ~ bedtime getting later and later averaging out to be 10pm. Naptime is worst off with usual duration of 30 mins to 1hour only! daily clocking less than the guide of 14-16 hours. as mentioned previously Zethan has kicked daddy off the king size bed but the situation is reversed now. He sleep on the single size mattress right beside the bed and is pretty used to it

Zethan is crazy over Mickey Mouse Clubhouse currently but having said that the show is not effective in keeping him still / capturing his attention throughout. He would still be moving around very often. He love MMC so much that his eyes are always on the lookout for the character. At times he is able to mumble mouse when he see one. Salute to him as even the smallest mickey appearing in the most secluded / out of sight area, he's able to spot them. One classic example is the advertisement in Facebook on Disneyland appearing in the corner of the screen which is so tiny yet he is able to spot them.

Mummy have observed that he is not very keen in books which she hope is not any tell tale signs for his future. He will flipped the book and threw them away subsequently. Flashcards do not work in capturing his interest / attention as well.

He is very manupulative especially that of the daddy. he knew that all things work deifinitely with the daddy thus displaying lots of tantrums to get away from ugly situation or achieve his wants. When he does something wrong and mummy gave him the stern look, he will pretend and flashed on his most charming smile. tantrums throwing also come in the form of kneeling down yelling and/or allowing himself to lie back on the floor.

He is pretty 'auntified' recently, lugging plastic bags and keeping his toys in it. the sideboard drawers in the living room became storage for his toys as he love to hide toys in them

Mummy Day Part 1

1st official Mummy's Day since the last went through the hypes of H1N1 and Zethan being such a young baby, avoiding crowded places is the only logical thing to do.

Zethan is a pretty good boy since he only woke at 9am for milk thus allowing mummy to sleep in for like an hour extra which is considered as a bonus. Perhaps that is Zethan's present for mummy's day!

kicked off the day's event by going for brunch and decide on Epicurious @ Rail Mall since it is the nearest and having read about the raves and high recommendation from food critics and bloggers. Personally thought that it is a bad choice though being critical here.

knowing jolly well it's mummy's day and the place will be packed, it was a surprise that they are rather empty. was 'pointed' to an available table (read not shown) which the family find their way towards it. so the mummy had to walk back to the counter for a baby highchair. placed the order and was informed that they might not have a serving of 3 pancakes but subsequently return with last serving of 2 pcs which is fine as it's meant to be Zethan's lunch. something worth complimenting will be a small bunch of flowers and being greeted Happy Mother's Day which is pretty heartwarming. It was only then to have realised that they served Thai food and was not shown the menu! too late for changes as food is served. Nice of them to offer plastic utensils for Zethan and he happily help himself with the fork and feed himself pancakes.

the dining experience wasn't very great since there seem to be this intense pressure of 'limited tables availability' lingering in the air which made the diners pressurized to finish the food and go to free the table! well come on, how to appreciate and enjoy brunch when the staffs are walking around exclaiming the tables are reserved and the currently occupied tables are to be freed for subsequent reservation. worst than dining in a food court.

food served was reasonable in terms of the taste but mummy certainly frown at the sausages charged at 3 bucks and there are just 3 tiny weeny sausages not even the size of pinkie. the anger rose when daddy went to pick up the tabs and return with the receipt. Gosh they have the cheeks to charge for portion of 3 pancakes when they served 2!

contemplating to lodge a feedback (read as complain) for the services as well as the billing which is not justified. yes the amount is small but it's all about integrity and consumer rights. end up mummy and daddy walked off grumbling. mummy can be very crticial at times and this is certainly one of the ocassion!

Milk

An observation worth mentioning which crack both daddy and mummy up.

Whenever Zethan realise that mummy is in the midst of preparing milk for him, he will automatically walked to his playmat and lie down to wait for his milk. At times he will become impatient and walked back and forth, repeating the same action untill mummy served him his milk!

This little guy can be so adorable, only when he don't act up of course.

Hello

okay this post is strictly about mummy, nothing to do with Zethan.

Finally mummy bought herself a new handphone and join the trend of having iPhone after using her lousy HTC for 2 years. She choose a white at the insistent of daddy.

Daddy is her mentor as she is plain lazy to explore the phone but it sure is exciting with the tons of apps available although she suspect that end of the day there will be more apps for Zethan over herself. At this point she is still rather clueless with the phone and require lots more exploration. However she is showing potentially dangerous sign of addiction to the phone.

One thing she is very certain, the next change will likely to be in 2 years time, 2 years cycle.