Happy Moo Moo Year

I'm sure all mothers whose children watches Playhouse Disney has this catchy jingle playing in their heads.

I wish everyone a very prosperous, healthy and productive Niu Year. As the economic outlook has been looking rather grim, I hope the wishes come true and all of us emerge winners this year. =D

Rojak blog

I thought that I would be updating my blogs more often now that I have a new laptop. Unfortunately, that's not happening. Sean is using my laptop more often than I'm using it. He watches movies and UTube videos. There was a period when he was really into old Mickey and Donald's short films. I'm kind of glad to find a clip of Mickey, Donald and Goofy on a camping trip. That was my all time favourite.

When he doesn't use it, I'll be with him and away from the laptop. Of course, I can't put all the blame on him. I've been reading and catching up on Facebook too, so I haven't blog very much. I'm finding that I'm forgetting things faster now and if I don't jot these thoughts down, I think I'll quickly forget them altogether.

The letter A

Sean is obsessed about the letter A. He still does not speak a lot, but he loves his letter 'A'! Everywhere he goes he looks for the letter A. He loves his Alphabet puzzles. Unfortunately, he poured water over them and after I dried them, he messed them about. Hence, there are letters missing from the puzzle. In fact, we're missing lots of things with 'A's on them because he played with them so often. I've been looking but still can't find them.

He loves to listen to the Alphabet song and makes me writes the Alphabet, especially the letter 'A' over and over again. You would think after so much exposure to the Alphabet, he would know more letters. Nope...... when I tried to get him to say other letters, all letters are "A" to him. =P

Bedtime

I've complained before that it takes a long time to get Sean to sleep. That, unfortunately, has not changed at all. In fact, it's getting worse now. Every time I say it's time to sleep, he makes excuses. He can't speak much but he gets his message clear.

First, he's hungry. Then, he's thirsty. Then he wants to pee. Then he wants a book. Then he wants to play. Then it repeats. By the time my patience runs thin and I say "Enough! Lights out." He starts crying loudly and looks really miserable. Sigh....By the time I get him to sleep, I need to sleep too.

Playing house

Sean has always played in his cardboard house. The house is no longer as pretty as it used to be. He's torn some of the seaweeds and fish, and drawn on the walls of the house. Fortunately, I made it really well, so it's still sturdy despite Sean's very rough playing.

He bash about inside and hides inside when he pooped or when he doesn't want to bathe or just to dump his toys inside. But recently, I changed the arrangement of the house so that the door will face towards his bed. The idea was that so he wouldn't hide inside easily when I try to bath him so it would be easier to catch him when it's bath time.

To get into the house, he'll need to climb onto the bed and climb down int the hole between his bed and the cardboard house. Because of that, he's found the house more fun to play in. He loves the act of climbing inside and hiding in the house. He throws all his soft toys, some of our pillows, and the blanket down on the floor and into the house. He brings his toys and plays inside. He pulls me inside to squeeze and play with him. It's mighty uncomfortable and I'm really reluctant to play inside. But I'm glad that the cardboard house is well-loved. =D

Unfortunately, it's harder now to get him to bath because it's almost impossible to get him out when he's hiding in the house!

Skin to skin

Baby books encourages mothers to have skin to skin contact with their babies to foster mother and child bond. When Sean was still a baby I tried to have as much skin to skin contact and I loved to cuddle him. Recently, Sean would lift up his t-shirt and press himself to my tummy when he breastfeeds just before sleeping. I just find the act of him lifting up his t-shirt to expose his tummy so funny.

The first time I noticed it, I was wondering what is this boy doing? It's just funny when he adjust himself so he's tummy to tummy with me. I guess breastfeeding and bathing together makes your child very comfortable with your naked self.

I guess sometime in the future I'm going to have to tell him that mummy cannot bath with him anymore. Or maybe he'll tell me that he's a big boy already and needs his privacy! ha ha ha .... But seriously

Potty training

Recently, Sean has been indicating to me that he wants to pee. I haven't really been trying to potty train him but I thought I should respond and try anyway when he tells me he wants to pee/poo. So I would quickly takes his pants and diaper off and put him on the potty.

I don't know if he finds it fun to sit on the potty or if he really needs to go. Most of the time, he sits and moves about in his potty without peeing. After 10 minutes, I'll ask him exasperatedly, " Are you done yet? If you're not peeing, let's put your diaper back." Then he'll say no and points to indicate that he wants to pee. Sometimes the pee doesn't happen at all. Sometimes after saying "Ssshhhh ssshhhh" for 20 minutes, I need to pee and he didn't pee after all!

I'm glad that he's starting to show interest in the potty, but it gets really exasperating waiting for a little boy in the toilet. I definitely need to get another potty so I don't have to run upstairs or downstairs to get the potty when Sean wants to use it.

Painting

I tried to do painting with Sean last week. I didn't have any finger paint so I quickly made some paint with flour, water and food colorings. It wasn't a success. Let's just say the preparation took longer than the actual playing!

First, the paint wasn't really nice. (Got to find a better recipe). Next, Sean wanted his hands to be wiped everytime it got dirty. Lastly, Sean was more interested in painting the table than the paper. After a few minutes, he poured all the the paint on the paper.

I thought....Okaayyy..... I think it's time to stop. Luckily I covered most of the table with papers, so all I needed to do was scooped the wet papers and dumped them into the bin and quickly wiped the table with a cloth. I gave him some playdough and flour to play with. It was equally messy but at least it didn't pose the possibility of staining everything that Sean touches.

No more painting until muuuuccchh later. Maybe he should only do painting when he's in kindergarden! =P

Grand birthday party

We recently went to a 7 year old girl's birthday party. She's the only child of well to-do parents. Her party was held in a clubhouse ballroom, with buffet table, an MC, abrass band, a group of highschool musical cheerleaders, and a magician. This was only what we saw because we came late and supposedly missed half the show.

It's great to be the birthday kid to have parents who love her so much. But I'm just wondering if giving so much to such a young child will cause problems in the future. Do the parents have to have bigger and bigger birthday bash every year? What if they can't afford it in the future? Is it going to be the norm? Some mothers have told me that birthday parties can cost thousands and it's routinely done. One mother even told me that she had to bring her children to 3 birthday parties on a saturday once and she keeps a stock of birthday presents. Gosh... birthdays are expensive!

I don't know if Sean will ever get such a birthday party. We can't afford it anyway. But even if we can afford it in the future, I would think that he would prefer to have the money spent on him, i.e. on his birthday presents, rather than paying for such expensive entertainments.

Playing games online

Yesterday, as I was surfing for pictures of the letter 'A' I stumbled upon PBS kids website. It has many online games. Margaret told me that her son Eugene plays Playhouse Disney online games regularly. I thought what a great idea!

So Sean and I played "Wordworld" games. Or at least I played and he watches. He really enjoyed it. I tried teaching him to use the mouse but he's not quite ready yet. The website has many games from all the PBS kids TV shows. Many are not even shown here. Sean loved the Curious George games too.

Here's the link if you want to check it out.
http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/index.html

Hello and Goodbye Vivi

The day before yesterday my friend, Soo, game me a young rabbit. One of her rabbit was giving birth and she had no space for this pretty rabbit. Since we already four rabbits in the garden, I thought it wasn't a problem to have another one. We have had up to 10 rabbits in the garden before I gave some of them away.

However when Soo came along with the rabbit, the maid who takes care of the rabbits said that the other four will bully the young one. I named the new rabbit Vivi and decided to keep her in a box in the house for the time being while I washed and dried a cage for her. She stayed indoor for a night. Sean was really excited to have Vivi indoor. He didn't want to hold her though but he was happy to have her nearby.

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep her indoor too long because I found that I'm allergic to rabbits! Gosh... I was sneezing non-stop whenever I'm near her. I guess the other rabbits have been outdoor for years and I rarely play with them now so I didn't realize that I've gotten an allergy to rabbits' fur.

Anyway, I decided to put her with them yesterday afternoon to let them get acquainted. I put a box in the rabbit area for her so she could hide if they were bullying her too much. I knew there would some bullying involved. It's just a territorial thing.

Tragically, when I came home in the evening, the maid told me that the rabbit was killed and taken away by a neighbor's cat! Poor rabbit. She didn't even last a whole day outdoor. It's so sad. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of her.

Sean @ 28 months

In continuation to the previous blog, I have to say that I'm not sure if this change to a sweeter Sean comes about from him growing up and getting over his Terrible Two period or it may be due to the effects of new toys and sweets, as well as an exciting trip to a new place. He may behave better because he is brought to a new and unfamiliar place. I can't say which is the real reason until we travel more often and see if my theory is correct or not. ha ha ha...

The month between him being 27 months old to now has seen him changing. Of course, his personality hasn't changed that much. He can still be really stubborn. For example, he doesn't want the maid to feed and bathe him anymore.

Just last week, it took me an hour to get him to bathe. He'll hide in his house and then he'll pop his head out. When I ask " Do you want to mandi?" He hides again. This repeats until he finally agrees to bathe. *Shake head* Sometimes it takes a lot of patience not to grab him and douse him with water just to get bath time over with. But it's just unwise to have a struggling boy on a wet bathroom floor, so I wait until he agrees to bathe.

It's still difficult to get him to eat, which is why he is so skinny now. He looks rather big in his baggy clothes but he's rather skinny underneath. I think he's the type who has to eat slowly, for example, the wedding dinner took several hours. Unfortunately, under normal circumstances, I don't have the patience to feed him for hours!

He also knows when he's naughty. A few weeks ago, I was really angry with him over some incident that I can't remember anymore. I told him, "Go sit in the corner!" He walked to the armchair in the corner of the living room and climbed on to sit. Then he began to cry. Aiyo....so pitiful!......I talked to him sternly about whatever it was I was angry about and let him go. I'm still not sure if I was manipulated or he was truly repentant about it. Ha ha ha.. =P

He still talks very little but he's started to call me "Mum" rather than "De", but it's usually when he wants my attention. I think the reason he called us "De" is because Sam and I call each other "Dear", so I guess he thought that's who we are, i.e. "De". I can't remember when he started calling me "Mum", but I think it's sometimes in December.

When he watches "Cars", he likes to re-enacts the scenes with his cars. Most of the time, it involves the cars flying and having accidents just like the race scenes in the movie. Sometimes, he gets Mater, the towtruck, to tow the cars away. It's really cute! =D

Sean @ 28 months:
Height : approximately 93 cm
Weight : I think he lost some weight when he was sick 2 weeks ago. I'll have to weigh him one of these days, but he's probably around 14.5kg.

Quick trip to Singapore

We've just came back from an overnight trip to Singapore yesterday to attend Aileen's wedding. The trip was also a little experiment to see how Sean behaves on a long bus trip. Sean behaved exceptionally well on this quick trip. We brought along sweets and 3 of the cars we got him as bribes to be given at different stages of the journey.

Surprisingly, his appetite was good during the dinner. I guess hotel food agrees with him.. ha ha ha....I think I gave him too many sweets during the dinner though. I gave him the Pretz sweet container. I turned my back to him for a minute and he popped in 3 sweets at one go! He drank F&N orange and ate chocolate too. At the end of the night, he was laughing uproariously... high on glucose! Gotta remind myself not to give Sean too much sweet next time.

I enjoyed meeting up with friends at the wedding whom I haven't seen for many many years. Here is Huijing and LiYe, both of whom I haven't met for at least 7 years! I realized that I haven't been keeping in touch with almost all my friends. I really should do something about that. I also realized that I have to do something about my hair. It looks really boring =P

In Sean's case, I think this trip shows how much sweeter he's becoming. He is starting to listen and follow instructions, and behaving better.

Toy Crazy

We found out about a toy sale by ToyWizard at Amcorp Mall. We went toy-shopping crazy and bought almost all the Disney die-cast cars they had on sale. Sam went early on Sunday morning to buy them and then quickly hid them from Sean.

We thought since we were thinking of collecting them for Sean, we might as well get them now while it was on sale. It's normally Rm25 each. They were selling 3 for Rm50. Still expensive when you're buying a collection, but we're going to give them to Sean a few at a time when we think is most appropriate. Maybe I'll give him 2 of them this Sunday when we will be in Singapore to attend Aileen's wedding. I hope with the new cars he'll behave himself during the wedding dinner. Right now, we're just letting him see photos of the cars.. ha ha ha =P

So Mary and John, if you're planning to buy Sean a present when you're coming back in March, help us with the rest of the collection.. he he he....=P

A floury day

Yesterday I decided to let Sean play with his playdough again. It's a messy sort of play so we set up a small table just outside the living room. I found out that home-made playdough should not be kept in a container for too long. It turns gooey and very sticky.

So if you made some following my recipe, try to use it up quickly or let it harden in air for a while. You can also knead more flour into it so that it will turn back to a better consistency. It's probably easier to just throw it away and make a new batch.

Anyway, I got out some flour so that we could try to use whatever old playdough we had. He was more interested in playing with his car and the flour rather than with the playdough. He kinda of smashed the playdough to bits with his car. It was fun but really messy! We had flour all over ourselves and Sean got flour all over the whole living room floor while running away from me.

But I thought, he's been cooped up watching TV quite often the last several months. I hadn't had the time nor the inclination to play with him in the garden for quite a while, so it's nice to just play and not worry about the mess.

Over the New Year

We met Karen, Kit and Kylae on New Year's day. They were up from Singapore to visit their family. We didn't dare to see baby Christian who was sleeping at home though, fearing that we may still be contagious even though we were already recovered. Luckily we didn't see him because the next day, my flu came back with a vengeance.

Kylae is just 3 months older than Sean but she's already speaking so fluently while Sean is still on his "No no no" phase. He can say the word "No" with a variety of nuances! But I'll blog about another time. Once she got over her sleepiness, they managed to somehow play together. Lol.. Sean just jumped around and Kylae followed. No fighting, unlike when he plays with other boys.

It was nice to catch up with Karen ad Kit. Now that it's a new year, I should really try to catch up with other people too! =P

Nick Vujicic - A giant of a man

This man is truly inspiring! When I first saw the Utube video, I had tears in my eyes. He makes us normal people who are blessed with all our limbs pale in comparison to his courage and strength. I hope you'll enjoy watching these as much as I did.