Julia Gabriels

As mentioned earlier, Zethan attended the 'Beach babies' at Julia Gabriels Evans Road.

lesson start with indoor play with different toys daily as a form of warming up for children. Music was turned up louder as a sign to clean up and put away toys accompanied by 'clean up' song. All will sit in a circle and greet everybody with 'Good afternoon' song. Next come storytime and magic box time introducing the indoor acitivity of the day.

1st day ~ hand painting on sand paper + outdoor play, 2nd day ~ gop play + sand play, 3rd day ~ swimming time, 4th day ~ water play.

Snacktime is next on the list and is believed to serve organic food.

1st day ~ HT teddy puffs, 2nd day ~ HT maple arrowroots cookies, 3rd day ~ Applesauce, 4th day ~ honeydrew sticks.

Music time followed post snacks with Teacher carol playing on the keyboard with various songs sung. To end the day, it's bubbles time which is the toddlers' favourite requiring little effort to attract their attention.

Keyboard is then made available for the todds to explore!
picture time....

1st day.....

Day 2......

Day 3...... Day 4......
last day of the lesson is a excursion trip to the beach, Siloso beach @ Sentosa. Field report in the following post!

17 months

today or rather yesterday marked Zethan turning 17 months. It's seiously scary on how everything whizzed past and always feel that time is never enough for all. The intent to bring Zethan out for a walk in Botanic Gardens was dashed thanks to the rain in the late noon. So the whole family relac at home partially due to the need for recovery post Julia Gabriels June Holiday Program for the whole week. Hectic and exhausting for mummy, shall blog seperately.

Zethan has been rather moody and emotional these days, cranky, whiney, sticky to the daddy. It has become an impossible task to decipher his cries / whines and pacifying him is an tall order. everybody envy mummy for the fact that Zethan stick to the daddy but seriously it can be a torture especially when the daddy can't pacify him and mummy need to intervene, bearing in mind that he can turn very hysterical at this point. His false cries can get really deafening which get on mummy's nerve big time. Imagine a screaming toddler right next to your ear.

He is fully switch to the improved formulation of Gain IQ but weird enough, with the same consumption, he tend to burp and puke abit post feeds. As the only 'new food' introduced is the new formula, mummy highly suspect it is the culprit, to monitor. basically he is on 2 solid meals, 3 milk feeds daily with some snacks of yoghurt / fruits in between feeds. mummy recently attended the Amazing toddlers parenting congress and reaslied that Zethan is having far too much solids from the guidelines. For toddlers of their age, require only about 1/2 bowl of carbo per meal but Zethan is taking close to more than 1 rice bowl or porridge each meal excluding the meat / fish / vegetables. He is still not very receptive of textured food thus his staple food remain as porridge.

no sign of self feeding as he is fussy about getting his fingers wet / dirty. at times he can self feed with fork but could not poke the food himself. He can understand now after being told repeatedly that he should removed his shoes after entering the house although reminder is necessary at times. He will squat down and try to remove his shoe but of course it's just the action. He say night night to daddy by waving and saying Bye automatically when bedtime approach then hold mummy's hand to the bedroom and his little bed. It has pretty much become a routine for him.

He has progress to sleeping in his own little bed although most of the early morning, he will creep over to the masterbed which mummy let him unless it's like midnight then the transfer will be done. One concern which kind of weigh on mummy is that he sleep lesser and later. Bedtime delayed to 10pm on most days and he wakes at about 7.30am religiously daily which translate to just 9-10 hrs of sleep. Nap 2-3 times accumulatively is about 2-3 hrs.

Zethan is pretty slow in the department of speech. It has been observed that he can apprehend what was told to him but the refusal to speak is present. The few words he babble remain as Bye, Bus, Bird, Ball, Bubble. mum mum (eat), na (take). No news of mummy and daddy. He does not respond accordingly when asked for yes or no, randomly correspond shaking of head to 'No'. When he is whining for something and the wrong stuff is brought for him, he will push them away.

oh, he was weighed on the baggage weighing scale last week when visiting Terminal 3 and it read 10.9kg!

School

mummy signed Zethan for the Julia Gabriels June Holiday Program ~ 2nd week Beach Theme @ Evans Road.

4 days of lesson in classroom setting of 1.5hrs each day and last day will be excursion to Siloso Beach @ Sentosa.

Half way done with the lessons and it is really exhausting for mummy since shd had to to at work in the morning afterwhich rushed home to pick Zethan in time for his 3pm lesson.

Will blog about the program when it ended.

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.