I pee like Daddy!

Sean's school teacher brought them to the toilet yesterday to get them to practice peeing on their own. As usual Sean would drop his pants down, exposing his rear, pee without holding onto his penis and dribble on to his pants. Then loudly he said to his teacher, " I pee like Daddy!"

Today when hubby sent him to school. They stopped by the toilet before going into the classroom. He went to the urinal, pulled down his pants and exposing his rear, and proceeded to pee, while telling his classmates who happened to be peeing at the same time, " I pee like Daddy!"

The classmates turned to look at hubby. Hubby was embarrassed, obviously.

What happens is that Sean used to take off all his pants before entering the toilet to pee. So hubby taught him to go to the toilet bowl and lower his pants before peeing. Unfortunately Sean still needs to lower all of his pants before peeing. Now, everybody thinks hubby moons everyone when he pees. Bwa ha ha ha ha =P

The quirky things he does and says

After having a good first day of school, he came back and said he liked school but only wants to go to school for ONE day only. He thought that was it. LOL.

One morning morning he asks why he needed to go to school. He says, "I have many toys at home and 2 computers to play." Hhmmm.. I didn't really have an answer to that. In his shoes, I would prefer to stay at home too. =P

He loves his indoor Optimus Prime slippers so much that he will not leave at schools like all the other children do. Sometimes he won't even wear them but keeps them in his bag, just in case he forgets to bring them home.

Funny or alarming?

I'm not sure whether I should find it funny or alarming, but recently Sean has been making comments like this:

"Sean cannot listen to Mummy!"

i.e. He doesn't want to listen to me because he's frustrated that
a) I don't understand him
b) I tease him too much. LOL =P

Oops! He does not want to listen to me at 3 years old? What will happen when he 12?

Ok, I admit sometimes I ask him again and again what he said because his pronunciation is still unclear. He gets frustrated when I still don't get it.

And sometimes I do tease him, for example he used to say "Otay" for Ok. So to get him to say it correctly, we tease him, is it 'Otay?", then he will say it correctly, "O-k-k-k-ay!". He specifically pronounced the 'k' properly to make sure we understand that he can say it correctly now.

Sometimes I tease him, "Are you my baby?" He will say, "No! I'm a boy! Not a baby!"

Okay, maybe I shouldn't tease him too often, but it's so fun sometimes. This mummy can be rather mischievous LOL =P

But, Sean also teases me back. The other day when I was toweling him off after his swim lesson, he peed almost on my foot. I told him off, but maybe not seriously enough. The whole trip home he kept saying "PeePee!" and breaking into peals of laughter. When I say "Sean...." warning him not to continues, he goes "PeePee!" ha ha ha ha...

*Shake head*

My 3 year old son is already telling me he does not want to listen to me and teases me back. LOL. Maybe I should be a little stricter with him. I've got a cheeky monkey for a son. =P

In touch with his emotion

Just since about last week, Sean has mentioned several times about how he felt.

The first time was last week, when I took his mini tomato and throw it to the rabbit. His demeanor immediately changed and he looked truly upset. So I asked:

me: What's wrong? Are you angry?
Sean : (nods) Yes, Sean Sean angry.
me: Was it because of the tomato?
Sean: Yes
me: Oh, I'm very sorry.

I knew he didn't like the tomato because the night before he spit it out, and I didn't want him to squeeze tomato juice on my white pants. I was taken aback because I didn't realized he would be so upset. Oops... my fault.

Then several times, he would tell me that he was happy. (can't remember when)
Sean: Sean Sean happy, Mummy happy, daddy happy, Akong Ama happy.
or if he did something wrong, I would tell him, "Sean, I don't like that." Then he would smile his most winning smile, squinting up at me, and say, " Mummy happy?" coaxing me to smile, and it works. =D

Then last Saturday, when Akong Ama went out, with his head down, he said
Sean: Sean Sean Sad.
me: Why? Is it because Akong Ama went out?
Sean: Yes, Akong Ama go out, Sean Sad.

Later that afternoon, we went to the library. I told him to get a book and "read" it while I look for books to borrow. He took some books, flipped through them, laughed loudly, and came to me
Sean: Sean Sean funny!

He can't really say exactly what he means, but I was just surprised by his telling me how he feels. Where did this come from?

The sense of self

I almost forgot to blog about this. It came so naturally that I forgot to note the first day he said his name. I think it was around the beginning of April. So it's been almost a month that Sean has begun to call himself Sean.

I remember a funny incident just a while back when he couldn't say his name still. He knocked on Akong-Ama's room door. "knock knock" "Who's there?" And the he pointed to himself while waiting in front of the locked door. Now that he knows how to say his own name, that scene will never happen again. That was a really cute memory.

Sean is quite a joker sometimes.
I ask " What's your name?"
Sean: Sean
Me: Sean Wee
Sean : Sean Wee ue ue ue ue

and he does it with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. His sense of humour is coming out more often now.

I sometimes teach him to say his full name: Sean Gabriel Wee. He can go "Sean riel Wee" It's probably a bit of a mouthful for a boy who has just started to speak in 2-3 syllables. I'll wait. I'm happy enough for him to identify himself as 'Sean Wee' at the moment.

The "Yes" boy

For the longest time, all Sean said was "No!"

with a smattering of words here and there. So we told him, if he couldn't say 'Yes', he can say 'Ya'. So at least we could get him to agree to something. =P

Since about 2-3 weeks ago, a switch must have suddenly clicked in his brain, because out of a sudden, he became the 'Yes' boy. He replies everything with a 'Yes!', with an emphasis for the 'ssssss.....'. He even replies 'yes' when he means 'No'. *Roll eyes*... he he he...

During these last few weeks, he's been making progress in his speech by leaps and bounds. After waiting for the longest time for him to get onto 2-words phrase or just even 2-syllable words, it's all coming out now. He's even trying to sing along the theme songs on TV, but he can only get the last word in every sentence. His current favorite song to sing along is "Old McDonald", with the "iyayo", and all the animals sounds.

But what I'm probably happiest about is that he's finally calling me 'Mummy"! For the longest time, all the called me was "Mum", which is fine too. But his calling me "Mummy" is particularly sweet to the ears, especially when it accompanies lots of hugs and kisses. =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

More on "Terrible Two" Sean

In continuation to the previous post.

"Terrible Two" Sean is still on the loose!

It's been difficult to get him nap in the afternoon, so he's been extra hyper and cranky.

Bath time is still a struggle. I've taken out the small tub for his bath so he can splash around, as well as let him play with an old bottle to squirt water with. He really enjoys the actual bathing, but..... getting him to go into the bathroom is still difficult. "Sean, bath time!" " Noooo!!" And now that he enjoys Mummy giving his bath regularly again, he doesn't want anyone else to bathe him.

He still spits food and often does not want the maid to feed him anymore. Mummy or daddy has to sit next to him on his kiddy chair and feed him.

He's awfully accident prone. Last week, within a 24hr period, he knocked himself 4 times.

First, just before bedtime, he knocked the edge of a table and had a big split on his lip, which gushes blood everywhere. The next morning, at playgroup, he run into the side of a book shelf while running away from me, and bump his head quite hard. Half an hour later, he tripped and fell face flat on the cement floor. An hour later, at Hun Kee's house, we knocked into the side of a plate I was carrying. It gave him a bruise on his cheek, which is still recovering. When we came home, his daddy asked whether Sean has been in a fight. Sean's face had a blue black and he was dirty and sweaty. Ooops! =P

However.. not everything is bad. Now the good parts! =D

Story of the day
We're going to have a Hallowen party at playgroup next week. So for my craft this time, I made the base for a giant spider pinata and a pumpkin for today, and next week we'll make pumpkin hallowen baskets for the children to hold their sweets.

So today, I was busy directing the mothers to make the spider pinata. As usual, Sean wanted me to do something with him, but because I was busy, I told him to wait and to go play first. When I was ready to spend some time with him, I couldn't find him. He wasn't playing anywhere. Eventually, I found my little boy sitting on a small stool in the library looking at a book! That was such a sweet moment =D

Discipline
The threat of being punished is actually working out quite well. Now all I do is threatened him when he misbehave. I'll say quietly, "Do you want to be punished? Sit on the chair?" Most of the time, it works. So he hasn't been put on the chair since the last blog post... yet.

Cleaning up
Sean has been putting his toys back into their places!

I was so surprised the first time I saw him doing it because I didn't even tell him to do it. I make it a habit to put all his toys always in the same place. His "Cars" cars in an IKEA clear box, his Duplo farm in a basket, his puzzles on the shelf, he also has a plastic drawers for all his other toys and I try to make is a habit to put back all his toys always in the same place.

It doesn't mean that I don't have to clean up after him. Maybe because he sees me always putting the toys back in the same place, he now knows where they are. So if he doesn't want to play something, he puts it back.

But of course, there are times where he just drops a toy and leaves it there. So to discipline him, I stop him and tell him to put it back or pick it up. He's not allowed to go until he does it. It's slowly working for the toys in the room. Now I've got to have a system for the toys in the living room!

Terrible Two stories

The term "Terrible Two" really applies to Sean. After he turns two, he seems to transform into this mischievous kid who doesn't listen to orders. Just a few instances:

Bath time
He'll scream and struggle when the maid bathe him. When I bathed him, he behaves better, so whenever I'm home, I'll bathe him. But just the last few evenings when I'm not back from work yet, he would refuse the maid at all for his evening bath, and would pull whoever is around, his daddy or Ama, to bathe him instead. In fact, he hasn't been taking his bath until I get home and bath him late at night.

But since yesterday, bath time is a struggle, even for me.
I say, " Sean, bath time."
He goes, "Noooooooo!" and runs away. Then I'll have to go chase him, carry him while he struggles into the bathroom. Once his clothes are off, he's ok and plays with the water while I bathe him. And then when it's time to get out of the bathroom, it's another struggle. This time, because he wants to continue playing water... or more like.. messing up the bathroom. So there I go, carrying a struggling bundle who's screaming "Noooooooo!" all the while, until he gets distracted by something else. Seriously, when he behaves, bath time only last a few minutes. This way, it takes at least half an hour!

Oh Man... writing this down, reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes! Oh no... I hopes he's not going to be as naughty as Calvin!

Punching people, throwing things and pouring water
Last week, Sean saw a boy and wanted to play with him, so he went and punch him! I am terribly worried that he thinks punching is a way of playing. He bunches his fist and swings it around.. and thoroughly enjoys himself. But even though he's only two, it still hurts!

When he's in a temper he throw things.. when he's in a mood to play he throws things...When we give him a cup or a bottle of liquid, he pours it. Last weekend, he poured water at Paik Ling's TV!
We were at quite a dilemma on how to discipline him. When we hit his hand for throwing, punching or pouring, he just laughs. He doesn't feel the pain and doesn't feel disciplined.

So I remembered the sit in the corner punishment and tried it again. It worked! Of course, I have to make sure my face is serious and show him that I was really angry. I got him to sit on a stool in the corner of the room for 5 minutes. Every time he tried to stand up, I said, "Sit! No playing, no standing, you're being punished". He'll ask for a drink, for food, for a toy... I said "No drinking, eating or playing until 5 minutes is up!". I emphasized the fact that he was being punished.

Of course he cried pitifully. The hardest part about disciplining is looking fierce and not get distracted by the pitiful display of remorse. But it worked! He behaved very well for the next few hours. =D

Spitting food and water
Sean has a bad habit of spitting his food when he doesn't like it or when he wants to eat something else. Sometimes he pushed so much food inside that he can't chew properly, so he'll spit all of it out. So I give him a bit at a time. When he ask for more, I say " Finish what you have first.", which somehow makes him spit immediately.

I hit his mouth for spitting..... but I don't hit hard enough for it to hurt, which makes it redundant. He's not scared of it. Then I tried changing my word to " Swallow first".... maybe he thinks "Finish" means "Spit out"... it still doesn't work. So I'm still thinking of ways to make him stop spitting food.

A new bad habit is keeping water in his mouth and spitting it onto inappropriate places. Last night, I gave him a sip of water, which he played with in his mouth, laughing and gurgling away. And then, he spit on to the bed! Now, I think I'm a rather patient person, but that really irritated me. That was my side of the bed.. and I hate sleeping on a wet bed!

"Punishment!... go sit on your stool!"... which immediately caused him to cry frantically. He refused to sit on the stool and hugged me tightly. I made him sit on it.. and he cried so hard... with snots dripping off his nose, his hand stretched out to me, begging me to hold him... a veritable display of pitiful remorse.

I only lasted 1-2 minute....sigh.. I picked him up and got him to bed. It was already late and I didn't want him to be too agitated for bedtime.It only took him a few minutes to get back into a good mood, so I don't think he was emotionally scarred by it.

The method actually works!
So today, I use the words 'Do you want to be punished?" quite often. He's a handful.. running here and there all the time. It took me an hour to get him to take a nap because he kept getting out of the bed. Asking for a drink, a snack, to brush teeth, I turned my back, he's out of bed and playing on the floor. So I said " If you're not on the bed, you'll have to sit on the stool!".. That got him going... he he he

Oh man.. disciplining is hard. I think disciplining is harder on the parents. It's hard not to be moved by all those tears and remorse. Keeping your face looking fierce is hard too. He gets away with so many things because he looks so cute, especially when he actually sits down for 5 minutes, while being punished.

Sneaking away for coffee

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it before, but Sean is very sticky to me. He wants me to be with him all the time. So it's been very hard to do things on my own unless I leave Sean with Sam at Toys"R"us, and even then, I only get half an hour to do my shopping.

Yesterday, several of us from the playgroup brought our children to Kidsport at Bangsar Village II because there was no playgroup this week. After we settled the children there, we wanted to have coffee at Starbucks which is just one floor below.

The other mums had their maids to take care of their children, so they had no problem. With Sean being so clingy, it was difficult for me to leave him. I was afraid he would be howling away the moment I left. So Samantha, took Keane, her 9 month son, with us and left her maid to take care of Sean.

I have to learn to let go of Sean, the same way that he has to learn to be more independent. It went well, he didn't cry and I didn't rush back every 5 minutes to make sure he was alright. So we had a great time. He didn't object to being left at Kidsport and I had a good coffee break chat with the mummies. =D

Funny Incidents

Kicked out of bed!

A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really cramped. I realized that I was sleeping on Sean's bed!

I distinctly remembered putting him to his bed the night before. Somehow, we switched places. He took my place on the big bed and pushed me to his baby bed!

He usually sleep with us on the big bed and uses his baby bed as a play area. It's really cramped and I wanted to get a good night sleep, for once. Instead, I get such a backache being cramped on his bed for so many hours! LOL =P

Diaper Magician

Yesterday afternoon, Sean came to me and passed me a full diaper out of the blue. For a moment, I was confused because he was still wearing his pants. I touched his bottom and realised that he wasn't wearing his diaper. So how did he get his diaper out without taking off his pants?

I think this was what happened. His diaper was heavy and one of the tab came off. The whole diaper fell off him and went through one of his leg pants. All he did was stepped out of it. Ha ha ha =P

The First Bargain

I've started to give Sean fresh milk just before his final breastfeed. It's because I don't think my body is producing enough. Just several days ago, Sean kept waking me up every few minutes. It was because there was very little milk and he was hungry all the time. I had no sleep whatsoever. I had to cancel work that day to nurse my headache from the lack of sleep.

Anyway, last night I was chasing Sean here and there trying to feed him a 5 oz cup of milk. I had to chase after him around the room to spoon feed him! I got irritated and stopped for a while after only getting 1oz into him. It took me another half an hour just to get him finish 3 oz.

Just then, he was at the table wanting the bottle cap of our water container. I said if you want it, you have to finish the milk. He whined some more. So I took it off and gave him but kept repeating that he had to finish his milk to play with the cap. Eventually, he took the cup and sucked the last 1 oz of milk on his own!

Ha ha.. Now that I know that he understands and can obey instructions, there's going to be a lot of bargaining around.

Dreams about cars

Sean dreams about cars..... Often.
He goes "brrrmmm...brrmmm...brmmmm" in his sleep.

I wonder what of cars he dreams about?
His dreams of cars last really long sometimes! =P
When I watch him dream, I can't help but smile at the varied expressions that appears on his face. =D

Peeing in the bath

Sometimes Sean pees in his bath, then he will grin at me. Sigh... he thinks it's funny!

Sam says it's because when we put Sean into his warm bath water, the body automatically feels the need to release pee. By the time I realise what Sean is doing, it's too late! So I'll have to redraw his bath.

So I tried getting him to pee before he enters his bath. Sayingh Shhh Shhh.. doesn't seem to work. He just grins and then walk into his bath. Last night, he peed twice! Once at the beginning of the bath. Then after his bath. So I had to rinse him again.

LOL..... my little boy thinks it's a funny when his mummy gets all flusterred about him dirtying his bath water. He laughs out loud, as if I'm entertaining him. I wonder how other mummies teach their little boys to pee into the toilet.?

Little Monkey

When I look at Sean's sleeping face, he looks so angelic.
When I see him smiling and laughing, he is just so adorable.
However, Sean is mostly an active little monkey who can't sit still!
Just last night, he climbed the back of the sofa and fell backwards.
I tried catching him but it was too late, he feel on his neck!

We were so worried because he cried and cried.....
After a while, he stopped and said "ne-ne"
When I carried him up to the room, he waved good-bye to everyone as usual.
I was so relieved because I know that he's alright.

Just this afternoon, he climbed the arm chair to get into the staircase through the side!
When I pulled him off, he threw a major tantrum.
Later, I was trying to feed him some yogurt while he was sitting on the arm chair.
He avoided me and almost fell backward and hit his head on the marble top drawer!

I think from now on, my blood pressure will rise a little each day.
The time when we can leave him on the chair while we do something is over.
Have to keep an eye on him at all times!!!

At least when he is in bed with his books, he's quite a good little boy.
He can occupy himself by turning the pages and pretending to read.
I'm just glad he has one thing he likes that isn't dangerous! =P

It's confirmed. Sean is naughty!

We just came back from meeting Margaret and son, Eugene, for lunch. We went to Ikea Cafe because it has an area for kids. I've had an inkling that Sean is probably not the angel we wish him to be. Today confirmed it!

He's the loudest and naughtiest kid in the kids area! He can't sit still, run around the whole place all the time. We've had to run and chase after him umpteen times. The last time we went there, he pushed a little girl out of the way to play with one of the toys. He's so loud too .....

Everyone must have wondered who's this little kid who makes a lot of noise, going right to the front of the TV and blocking everyone's way, toppling all the chairs, and who keeps running away, causing his mummy to chase after him all around Ikea cafe. *shake head* So naughty.... = }

Bedtime Reading

I have wanted to get into the habit of reading to Sean before bedtime. I try to read to him every night, but he was only interested in flipping pages, not stopping long enough for me to even finish reading the words on the page. However, the last few days, he has let me flip the pages and read the stories to him. So I'm really happy! =D

Although, it doesn't end at one story. He wants to read his favorite books a few times, and of course, he still wants to flip through them himself. But that's okay. I'm just glad that he's finally listening to the stories rather than just flipping through them quickly.

On other things:

I've been hooked of Knighthood, an online game on Facebook. It's Sam's fault! He has been enjoying himself so much playing the game that it intrigued me. So now I'm hooked! Luckily, Sean has been vastly entertained playing in his cardboard house, which I'll blog about when I've finished constructing it. So now I can play online while Sean plays in his house in front of me. I've also been playing Scrabulous regularly on Facebook. Anyone who wants to join on the Scrabulous or Knighthood game, message me! =P

On milk: I've finally found a great combination of milk that will interest Sean. It's still not all smooth sailing. I still need to trick him into drinking, but it's getting better and better. Sean now likes a concoction made of 2/3 Strawberry& Raspberry Yogurt drink with 1/3 full cream milk. Actually he just likes the yogurt drink, but we've decided to add the milk so that he gets his fats since the yogurt drink is 0% fat. This way, he gets to drink some milk!

On Food: It's still difficult. Sam just told me that when he was younger, his grandma had to force him to eat too and he only started liking food when he was in Standard5. So maybe it's just genetics. I haven't asked my mum about me, but I've always been skinny, so maybe I was a difficult eater too.

Hurricane Sean

Last Tuesday, when Sam and I came home at 10.30pm after BJJ, the living room looked as if a hurricane has run amok inside. Hurricane Sean!

The PIL had a guest and they must have been engrossed in their conversation that they left Sean to his own devices. He overturned his ball pit and strewn all 200 balls and his toys all over the floor. All the dining room chairs, excepts the ones being sat on, were toppled. Even his armchair was toppled! (I still don't know how a 17 month old baby toppled an arm chair by himself * roll eyes*) And of course, he was watching the TV all the way in front, as close possible to the screen. He also had poop in his diaper and from the smell and texture, it looked like he had pooped some time ago. When mummy isn't home, all hell broke loose! ....shake head...

So Sean has found a new game....Toppling big objects.

The next few days, Sean would topple chairs whenever he could. I, of course, stopped him, especially since his feet almost got squashed several times. Yikes! My FIL though said to let him do it since he enjoys it, never seeing it as an accident waiting to happen! I know that it's grandparents privilege to spoil their grandchildren, but I wish they would at least not be so easy going about letting Sean do anything he wants to do.

I have had to chase him round the dining table, stopping him from toppling the rather heavy wooden chairs and admonishing him. It has taken days to undo the damage of one night of no rules. I have had to re-established the TV rule too. Sometimes I spend half and hour switching the TV on and off before he'll sit long enough to watch a show. Sean isn't that naughty, but he is a curious and adventurous toddler who needs to have boundaries set around him.

Fork Power

Today I decided to let Sean use the fork with his meal. I made a carrot & potato pancake with cheese for his lunch. He really enjoyed his meal! No fussiness or rebellion for at least 20 minutes. =D

He was probably happy that he got to use this tool (fork) that has always been denied him. I gave him both spoon and fork ( I trimmed away the sharp points from the IKEA fork to make it duller), letting him choose which one to use. He tried the spoon and then the fork. He found the fork so much easier to use. He speared his bits of pancakes and ate it easily. Of course, there was still a mess, but definitely less mess than trying to get him to eat porridge with a spoon!

I gave him sliced bananas which he ate with his fingers and proceeded to rub his hands on his hair. What a messy boy!.. but I'm glad to see that he's starting to enjoy his meals at home. Fork Power!=D

But still no milk.. he sipped a little and threw the cup away. He tried to pour it out but I stopped him. I think someone else has to give him his milk. I read that it's much easier for someone besides the mummy to introduce milk to a breastfed baby. I'm hoping my MIL can do that whenever she babysits Sean. Sean refuses to eat with the maid, especially if I'm around. He would run to me and try to climb me and struggle if she comes nearby. So the maid isn't a good candidate to help me wean him.

I don't really want to fight with him over milk if he really hates it. My mum said I stopped drinking milk at 1 year old. No wonder I'm short!!!! 8{

If Sean doesn't like milk (the way I didn't and still don't like milk), I guess he's gotta get his protein/calcium some other ways. So let's do the "Noodle Dance" and think... think.... think.....

(This Mama watches too much cartoons!) =P

Destructor Boy - difficult eater

Sean has been getting rather naughty recently. For example, the sticker book we bought for him during CNY didn't last a week! He tore a page on the way home from buying the book. By day 6, all the pages have been torn out. I've layered the cover with plastic and let him use that as his sticker book.

But he's just so boisterous....and rough with his things. His favourite story book (to flip, not to be read unfortunately) has been torn in so many places that the pages are covered with tapes. Sigh...... (shake head)

He's also been very difficult with his meals. It's nothing new, he's always been a difficult eater. Even when he was a young baby, he never ate a lot at one go, preferring to drink a little at a time, but very often. But last time he was okay with drinking milk(EBM and even a bit of formula) in a bottle. Recently, he has only wanted breast milk, his "nen-nen". He runs away whenever we try to give him any other milk. It's been hard to even get him to drink water. We've hard to resort to giving him diluted juice, but even then, it doesn't always work.

On solid food. I can't remember the last time he actually finish a meal. He likes to eat outside food and will eat with us whenever we go for meals. But it can't be good for a young toddler to eat so much outside food.

I've read that toddlers don't need to eat 3 full meals a day and many prefer to graze throughout the day. So I'm hoping that Sean is getting enough nutritions with his haphazard meals. I've also been giving him yogurt for snacks. I have to remember to stock up on healthy snacks for him. Otherwise he will be asking for nga-ku crisps all the time!!