Addiction

Zethan have numerous bad habits and addictions which appear to worsen by the days.

Pacifier addiction ~ ever since eons back when he takes to the pacifier, there has been no turning back. while most of his peers have been weaned off pacifier, as opposed, Zethan is getting more addicted to it. Recently it worsen as he go searching for it very frequently at home. If not given then brave a major meltdown which hardly anything can distract him.

Stinky pillow ~ many people are fascinated over his obsession with his stinky pillow aka Chow Chow. Those who have seen can vouch on how he is seriously addicted to it as though there is some form of forbidden drugs on it *the way he stuck it under his nose to sniff it*. well it started with pillow which after a while appear to be redundant thus become the pillow case which is much more hygienic and easy on 'maintenance'. The good thing is he is fine with any of the chow chow when the dirty one is in the laundry. He is not particular over the smell of it. This being the case, there are a few pieces to rotate around but before long, one after one are being misplaced and the 'crisis' started with there's only 3 pieces left (2 pieces at home and 1 piece for outing).

Both mummy and grandma have been cracking their brains over a solution to resolve this issue. so one fine day, it strike mummy that perhaps the chow chow can be replaced with a Mickey Mouse cloth since he is such a fan of MMC. Mummy took the pain to source around and found a piece of blue Mickey cloth. Grandma sew it into pillow cases. BUT it did not work as of now after a few days! Try harder, be persistent!

TV addiction ~ initially he is 'tuned' to the 8.30pm timeslot for MMC so before the clock strike 8.30pm, he will hand the adults the remote to switch channel. Then it escalated to demanding the TV channel to be switched on to Playhouse disney every now and then. NOW it became whenever the TV is switched on, he will fight with the adults to have his channel on never mind he is watching or not. Refusal to do so will result in his favourite antic ~ scream, yell, cry and fuss. sooner or later, the neighbours are going to call the police for child abuse which sound very much like it.

He can refused to go for his shower because of the TV.

The root of the problem is that the caregivers love to use the TV as the mode to pacify be it naptime or during meltdown which prove to be effective by and large. No doubts it works but it has turn into a major concern now and warrant immediate attention urgently to prevent the addiction from escalating further.

Sound like quite a handful??!!

Zoo II

after some time spent on arrangement including last minute weather forecast update by mummy in the morning, the four families ~ Angs, Cheings, Chiams and Yeos head to the zoo with the kiddos in tow for a Family Date. Despite a fierce looking dark cloud spotted, it disperse within the next 20 mins and all look good for a zoo excursion.

Carpark is so damn full and they had to allow illegal parking at non designated lots, well it was NUS Family Day! argh! anyhow all managed to park and meet, entering the zoo at about 10.30am after some plans on what and where to go.

so it was decided to head to the Rainforest kidzworld for waterplay before the harsh sun rays appear over lunch. took a slow walk and along the way, stop and showed the animals to the kiddos. reached the destination and went on to take a look at the farm animals, pony, mini horse, goat. Think miss out rabbits! Despite being the 'role model', Zethan dare not feed the goats!

As the sky seem to look dark once again, all decide to change the kiddos at lightning speed for the water play. gosh the water is really cold, even for adults. Zethan being over whelmed by the crowd was very resistant even for water play which is a sight. Took him quite a while of warming up and there he goes stomping hard, treading in the water. But he is being very cautious and always ensure that mummy / daddy is close by.

The babes seem to be uninterested in water play for once or rather got tired of it pretty fast so off to change, ready for the Animals Friends Show at 12.30pm. Mummy had a very unpleasant brush with one of the staff there, quite unfortunately she did not note her name as mummy is contemplating whether to lodge a complain against her. You see, what happen was daddy park Zethan's stroller in a corner and when the show is due to start, she walked over and request for the stroller to be parked in the designated stroller bay. When queried if the stroller can be left close by as all were seated in the front row, she say no it was not allowed. so off goes daddy to park the stroller in the designated out-of-sight location. what peeved mummy off is that she did not appear to reinforce the same 'rules' to the many other strollers, not even to appeal to the owners to clear off the front row!

determined not to let such an idiot spoilt their day, the show was enjoyed more by mummy than Zethan. Zethan's enthusiasm is basically displayed with him clapping his hands with his monotanous expression all this while, no excitement exhibited. Went off for lunch @ Ah meng's restaurant to face a crazy queue and Zethan's fuss and meltdown isn't gonna help as well. Finally mummy get to eat in peace when he fall asleep.

After lunch, walked on to see the Hippos, kangeroos, emu, white tigers. Zethan only managed to catch a glimpse when he woke as all are about to leave the Australian Outback. As the sun is out and all are feeling the heat, proceed to B&J at the entrance before leaving. By this time Caleb and Cayden ko-ed.

So, yes all had a great time with great company blessed with nice weather. It is certainly nice to go on family date whereby everybody get to interact with each other be it the daddies, mummies or the kiddos (as if they really interact but they do at times). From mummy's observation, Zethan appear to be observing and looking on at the animals quietly thus no indication if he is enjoying himself except for a few oohs and ahhs along the way. Till the next family date!

Fever

Zethan attended J & A's wedding last sunday and got on mummy's nerves. He is trying to be difficult by refusing the highchair, food and every single thing except the forbidden stuff like cutlery. Clinging on like a koala bear further test mummy's patience.

anyhow back to the topic. Zethan had a sudden onset of fever the next day with temperature hovering around low of 38. He is not eating very well and after monitoring him for a good 2hrs or so, mummy and grandma decide to bring him to the PD in the afternoon. Call was made but appointments full so no choice but to walk in and wait. Meanwhile temperature hit a high of 38.6 at one point.

Despite reaching the PD 30mins before closing, the wait is around 45mins. Zethan weigh about 11.1kg but no chance to measure his height since he koala-ed. Good news is no phlegm in lung, no ear infection. bad news is throat is a tad sore and diagnosis ~ viral infection and fever can be expected to last up to 4 days. paracetamol and Brufen to bring down the temperature.

That very early morning, his temp shot up to 38.8 which freaked mummy out. woke him up immdiately for a dose of Brufen, sponging and turn on the air-con. mummy only dare to hit the sack when temp decrease to 38. fever fructuated the whole of next day untill late evening then normalised. By then, mummy is totally burnt out!

Thank god it's only a 2 days episode which as it is, more than enough to drain mummy off and worried sick.

18 mos

today marked another 'milestone' though rather insignificant. Zethan qualify for entry to Child Care, he turns 18 months!

mummy have not been spending sufficient quality time with Zethan these days due to overwhelming workload and she is totally drained returning from work. Stress and fatigue causes impatience when she dealt with Zethan which she is trying to avoid at all cost but easier said than done.
fair shares of enjoyment / fun at this age pretty balanced by same amount of frustration too.
Zethan recognise his way home, that is coming out of the lift. Tried a few attempts exiting from different lifts with different orientation yet he knows the way back. of course this is achieved by himself walking out alone without any guidance and he know the door to stop at.
He exhibit stranger anxiety recently by 'pretending' to be shy in the presence of others / strangers. Either he hid himself / buried his face or he try to smile sheepishly at them while trying to take a peek, trying not to get too obvious which is a funny sight. If he is in the 'comfort zone' (read as home), upon hearing footsteps or noises outside, he will ran away at lightning speed. sooner or later accidents is going to happen since he usually don't look where he is running!

Throwing tantrum is by all means as frequent as the 3 squares meal daily without any reservation. When he don't get his way, yell and cry at the top of his lungs as though he's being abused big time. Immunity is the way to go till the passing phase is over if it will ever be over. certainly is testing boundaries and watching the consequences before reacting accordingly.
The few favourite words of Zethan will definitely be Bus, Bye, Ball which Bus wins any time.

amazingly Zethan is picking up signing real fast which is a surprise. He always appear not to be paying attention when the disc is playing. however based on observation he is actually picking them up e.g. Dog, eat/food, bird, more, baby. all these are displayed within a few sessions of the DVD. Just yesterday and today, he sign eat/food when it's milk time. Not only he knows how to sign dog/bird but he does it when he see one physically.

He is certainly improving leaps and bounds when it comes to food in concern. The worried mummy actually 'drill' him with textured food such as alphabets pasta and now he can polished off with ease. A great achievement it is for Zethan although it might sound simple to some. Not only is pasta well accepted, even noodles / beehoon are requested by him from the adults' plates. Rice with soup / sauces training in process, pretty well progressing. A note for mummy, Zethan appear not to like dry food and prefer food with moisture e.g. soup. Ironically, he is downing lesser and lesser water. He is not sleeping as much as mummy would like him to. usually he will be tucked in bed like before 10pm but he would toss and turn, try his luck to continue playing for the next 10 minutes at least before reluctantly drift off to dreamland. by 7+am the next morning, he would be up and running despite everyone still in bed. Most of the days he clocked like 9hrs and even with naps, accumulatively at most it is about 11hrs (on a good day). mummy though the least should be ideally 13 hrs.
Zethan's new dancing trend resemble that of ballet dancing. when he hears music especially those he loves, with his hands in the air (one higher than the other), he will twill and turn round and round. get giddy and thump onto the floor. at times he will thump himself down purposely to get attention. action - reaction, when he does that, he gets oh oh from the adults.

He had super serious 'TV addiction' which worsen from requesting for his Disney Channel in the night for MMC by passing the remote control to fussing for it anytime of the day, fighting with the adults for his TV program. This is beginning to be a major concern of mummy since he is too much into TV. Not that she is totally disapproving watching TV programs / cartoon but he is spending way too much time on it.
mixed feeling on motherhood at this point of time. when he is not fussing big time, no major meltdown, it's such a joy. highly challenging when the table are turned, pushing boundries, have to bite the bullet and pull through!

Malacca

Zethan's very 1st virgin trip ~ road trip up north with the Chiam family which too happen to be mummy and daddy's 1st trip with Zethan.

It's a pretty eventful trip to and fro Malacca and in a nutshell it was a fun and exciting trip, exhaustion aside. The drive was not too bad since it is after the school holidays so no massive jams to get frustrated over.

set off on sat morning by meeting the Chiams at JBP carpark but daddy had to detour to topup his cashcard so arriving late, sorry! passing over the walkie talkie and less than 3mins on AYE, super duper heavy downpour. so heavy that Zethan started to 'concentrate' on the road as though helping daddy to watch the way. No major traffic jam at both Singapore and Malaysia custome although surprisingly Singapore custome took a tad too long to clear by comparison.

Hit the NS highway after a short toilet break and topping up of fuel. stretch of continuous drive say 1+ hr and decide for a lunch break at Pagoh R&R. No nice lunch so the poor babes had to take horrendous porridge for lunch and luckily no complains from them. Took abit too long for this break and hit the highway again after 1hr and arrived at Ayer Keroh Toll in about 30mins. It was only then that daddy 'informed' mummy that the GPS which was loaned suffered a flat battery! mummy froze and panic button is pressed!

she took out her map which to her relief she decide to print for reference as backup. it was no easy feat to follow the directions on the map as the road signs in Malaysia is super unfriendly. mummy is stressed to the max. despite a few supposed wrong turns which mummy thought so, the good thing is it turn out to be the right one and finally after about 30mins or so, destination reached! it was an amazing sight as 1/2 the carpark of Hotel Equitorial was occupied by S'pore registered cars. BUT no lift to the lobby so the hubbies had to carry the strollers + luggages up the flight of stairs.

Checked in and had the rooms on the 19th floor. settled in, fed Zethan his milk and gave him a bath which is might as well since he pooped. Phews! an hour later, the 2 families hit the street and the adults took a short walk in the shopping mall a stone throw away from the hotel to grab some mineral water before heading for the local delicacies e.g. Chicken rice balls. took a goo 15mins to get the direction right to Jonker's Street and found the famous store but it was closed! so head to another down Jonker's street ~ Hoe Kee. the mummies went gaga over the old school highchairs, being reminded of hair saloon. mummy thought that the rice balls are too mushy for her liking but Zethan had his 1st taste of chicken rice!

after lunch took a walk down Jonker's street when the night market vendors are starting out. next went for durian chendol at San Shu Gong, grabbing some local delicacies before making their way back to hotel for a good rest. Zethan drift off to lala land after his milk feed.

The next day started pretty early when Zethan woke around 7ish! fed him milk, change and head for breakfast. cafe was packed and had to wait for a table. Zethan did not behaved himself and caused a din which mummy put on her brave front and ignored all the stares around her. The Chiams came back for their breakfast much later and all head back to bath the kiddos before venturing out again. Zethan fell asleep after his bath which is ideal for mummy to pack the luggage.

close to lunchtime, checked out, walked over to the mall to grab diaper. decide to have nonya cuisine for lunch before the drive back. ask for recommendation from the info counter at the mall and went in search of this restaurant across the road ~ Makko. Another episode of mummies' gaga over the cane highchair! food is good and best of all very reasonably priced. when all are done with lunch, the rain came. so near and yet so far. waited for a good 10mins or so before the drizzle lighten and all dashed across the road to the mall for shelter. because of the rain, decide to shop for like an hour before heading back, not forgetting having A&W before leaving. silly mummy is pretty insistent on eating the waffle with ice cream!

the drive back was pretty taxing since night is approaching and traffic tend to be abit heavy. Zethan did not sleep a wink throughout the almost 3hrs drive. He must have felt something bad happening as 15mins before arriving at 2nd link, he yelled and cry very badly, refusing his car seat. mummy took him out for some cuddle and before long, a spot check which made mummy placed him back in lightning speed. Daddy was 'fined' for some lame reason of 'your number plate buay pass' so yup, payment on the spot! mummy is fuming mad over it, not because of the money but simply irriated over it.

weird as it is, once cleared Singapore Custom and back on homeland, Zethan slept almost immediately!

by and large it was a good trip and certainly enjoyable. another road trip in the making? yes and no, KL sounds good??!!

June

indeed it is scary how time flew by and half a year is gone just like that. before long it will be end of the year again with the festive seasons and Z turning 2! okay thinking too far as of now.

June had been pretty hectic month full of activities. Besides the JG holiday program, there's a BBQ at Ophe's in conjunction with Father's day and a mummys day out for dinner at Spruce.

The daddies helped to start up the fire for the 2 pits before rushing off to watching World Cup match. The mummies had to race against time + weather with flashing lightning and roaring thunder. The strong breeze prompted the mummies to double up with packing what could be baked and what not then fasten the BBQing process. Yes, successed end of the day but no rain! The feast continue with dessert of ice cream cake from Swensens as part of Father's day celebration.

Thanks to Florinda, the mummies managed a night out with dinner at Spruce. The bunch of mummies behaved like a group of school girls chatting non stop. Good thing dining al-fresco otherwise all will be chased out of the restaurant. But it was really great to catch up and chill with the mummies minus the babes thus could enjoy dinner in peace!

Excursion

way too outdated post! mummy has been really busy these days with extra portfolio at work minus extra incentives / increment. too burnt out after work to update this poor blog! Keke

the last day of the program is an excursion to Siloso beach @ sentosa. after some discussions and considerations, it is decided to follow the group setting off from school in a bus! sound very exciting isn't it which is the reason why it was decided against driving in. the bus journey was promised to be tons of fun with songs and all, not a single bit boring.

set off pretty early in the morning and daddy grumbled over the load mummy had packed along. a little jam along the way but still reached school in time. the bus journey was a fun one since the class boarded on a bus without any 'outsiders'. songs were requested and sung BUT all Zethan is interested in was the unblocked view of looking out of window!

reached the beach and found a nice spot with shade to drop all the stuff. applied sunblock and changed into swimsuit. All this while Zethan is fussing big time and clings on like an Koala. Gathered it was because daddy accidentally allowed sand into Zethan's sandal and he was certainly put off! mummy tried her very best to warm Zethan up bit by bit yet in vain. Not only his refusal to come down on the beach, not even allowing mummy to squat down while carrying him and getting close to the shoreline. after a few attempts, mummy gave up for good and to spare each other the agony, whipped him off to the shower area for water play! a pity the water fountain under going maintainence.

He had great load of fun while the poor daddy had to press on the tap for him for a good 20mins to say the least. time is pretty tight as the babes did not managed a proper snack before being rushed off to board the bus. majority of the babies KO-ed on the journey back!

so there you have it, the very not so exciting adventure 1st trip to the beach, not very fruitful afterall to round up the whole program.

by and large to summarize the holiday program, mummy do not think that Zethan had benefit much from it, socialization aside. His attention span is way too short and could not 'blend' in with the activities e.g. storytime roaming around, sit-down singalong activities did not managed to excite him as well. She feels that the teachers did not displayed good crowd control management and the class is way too huge for toddlers of this age. By the time activity get around and reaches Zethan / over and done with, he is no longer interested. One thing for certain, at the very least, mummy get to 'discover' more of Zethan's likes and dislikes for her to work or improve on the weakness.