Weaning Off the Pacifier .. NOT ..

Matt has been sucking his pacifier whenever he sleeps and it has been on my mind to wean him off it, especially since he is starting school soon. Decided to try weaning him off over this weekend.

Friday night - We got ready for bed and Matt was in a happy mood and was babbling and babbling. He did not seem to be looking for his pacifier, so we just leave it at that. When he finally got tired and got ready to sleep, I was also tired out. I think I ended up falling asleep before he did. Maybe he also got too tired to look for his pacifier, so he eventually fell asleep without his pacifier for the night. Yeah, pass the first night!

Sat afternoon - I thought he would be able to go without his pacifier again since he should be tired out from his morning outings and should be able to fall asleep quickly. He went to bed, laid down for a while, and started gesturing that he wants his pacifier. Tried to devert his attention and refused to pass him his pacifier. This little one refused to give up. He got down the bed, walked to the kitchen and started crying. He knew that the pacifier is in the kitchen. I refused to move from the bed. He also refused to give up. Seeing that we are not moving, he came into the room, dragged Daddy out of bed, pulled him to the kitchen and got him to take the pacifier for him. Daddy gave in. He came back to the room, happy, and fell asleep quickly. Oh well, failed for the afternoon test.

Sat night - He had his shower and was tired out from his night outing. Drank his milk and started looking for his pacifier again. Started crying but I was determined not to give in. Tucked him in bed, tapped him, gave him his favorite pillow, sang to him and hey, it worked. He fell asleep without his pacifier. Passed for the second night.

Sun morning - Usual routine of getting him to bed for his morning nap so that he is alert for his afternoon Shichida class. Again, he was looking for his pacifier. Tried to do what I did last night but he refused to cooperate. Continued to look for his pacifier. Given that I really needed him to sleep, I gave in. He finally fell asleep after much coaxing. Hmm, seems like we are always failing for nap times.

Sun night - Back from his night shoppings, had his shower, drank his milk and again, he gestured that he wanted his pacifier. I ignored him and just continue tapping him, coaxing him to just go to sleep. Guess he is tired out from all the walking earlier on, he fell asleep shortly after. Daddy was commenting that he seemed to be able to do without his pacifier at night. As if to prove us wrong, Matt woke up from his sleep and started crying. No amount of coaxing helps until we presented him with the pacifier. Damn! Failed again.

Oh well, seems like we need more time for the weaning off. Slowly, but surely, we will get him off it. Just hope it will not take too long!

Busy Saturday Morning

It was a busy Saturday morning. Woke up, had our breakfast and we were off to Philips showroom for some shopping. Matt was more than happy to be going out so early. Reached the showroom and Matt was happily exploring the place, walking up and down the showroom, checking out the items and moving the item/price tags all over the place. I left him to explore while I started my shopping, picking things up here and there. By the end of the shopping, I have three bags of Philips items, and a lot of Avent products, so many that Eugene was commenting that we can start an Avent spree. Haha.

Next stop was to My First Skool, Matt's school, for registration. We reached promptly and boy, there's a lot of kids and parents. At least this time round, Matt was willing to go into the school and he went around checking out the toys. Left him with Daddy while I sat to listen to the principal's speech. Did the necessary admin stuff. After getting bored with playing, Matt was already waiting for me outside the school, even finding me my slippers among the sea of shoes! Daddy commented that Matt had fun playing with the toys and cars with the boys. That's good, I thought. Hope he is able to adapt to school quickly and well!

Sayang Baby .... No?

I asked Matt to sayang the baby and lifted my top to show him my tummy. He seemed most unwilling to do as he was told. When I finally got him to come over to me, instead of sayang-ing the baby, he just pulled my top down and walked away. Faintz!

We were laying on the bed and getting ready for bed. I was talking to baby and telling him that kor-kor is drinking milk beside me. I don't know if Matt actually understood that I was talking to baby. But he seemingly make some noise and asked me to "shut up". And when I asked him if he wants a di-di, he just shake his head. Double faintz!

Think we have a lot more to do to integrate the arrival of baby into Matt's life. Hmm, maybe he knows he's going to lose that undivided attention soon.

Sailing Away .. for the 2nd time

It's cruise time again. Matt went on his 2nd cruise trip over the weekend. We gave him his own luggage to lug around this time round and he was more than happy to do so. He had a really good time - eating, playing and basically just roaming the vessel. I think the adults were more tired chasing after him!

*Waiting for gu-gu to pick us up from home*

*Finally on the cruise. Taking a rest before heading off for dinner.*

*Playing in the see-through elevator*

*Trying to get a snapshot with the Christmas decoration*

*Swimming**Playing with the duckies**Enjoying his fries**Arcade games**A snapshot with Mummy*

A Circus Comes to Town

We brought Matt for his first musical. Being a hugh fan of Thomas and friend helps as he sat through the 1.5 hours show without any fuss and showing excitement whenever the trains come on stage.

*Checking out the poster*

*A snapshot with Daddy*

*Waiting for the show to start*

* Thomas and Friends*

*Watching intently*

*Clapping to the music*

*Playing with his new toy*

Flashcards

I was lazing on the sofa, watching TV. Matt was playing with his flashcards and spreading them all over the floor. He took a couple of flashcards, came to me and started telling me what are on the flashcards - bag, cake, milk, clock ... While the list is not long, I was pleasantly surprised. :)

Saying "No"

Whenever we ask Matt if he wants something, he will either shake or nod his head. When we asked him to verbalise with "No" or "Yes", no words will come out from his "golden mouth". Instead he will just shake or nod his head more vigorously.

We picked him up after work today. Can't remember what we asked him, but instead of his usual shaking of head, he actually replied with a "No". To make sure I did not hear wrongly, I tested him again and once again, he replied, "No". While this might seem a small feat for many, to me, it's a big achivement for Matt and I was a happy mummy that night. :)

Almost Private Lesson at Shichida

Matt almost had a private lesson at shichida today. "Almost" cos one of his classmates joined him midway after the class started.

We started the class with the usual activities - welcome song, energy ball, blowing exercise (which Matt has much difficulty). Then it was time for ESP. Honestly, I think this activity is crap. I mean, how can a 2 year old kid be able to "guess" what the teacher is thinking. Even if he did manage to get the answer correct, I always think it's pure luck. Anyways, the ESP exercise today is to guess how many fingers the clown is holding up. Two or four. The teacher posed the question to the little one and he chose two. Answer revealed and he got it right.

Teacher: I noticed he is pretty good with ESP.
Me: No lah, it's just pure luck.
Teacher: No, I noticed that he has been getting the answers right consecutively for a few weeks. It's the same for Chris (Matt's classmate). He is also very good with this.
Me: O...K .. (honestly, I have my doubts).

We moved on to another ESP related exercise. This one is something new. We are given two cardboards with three pictures on the cardboard. Mummy is supposed to arrange the three pictures on the second cardboard, placed the empty first cardboard on top and little one is supposed to arrange the three pictures on the first cardboard, based on what he "feels" the arrangement is on the second cardboard.

I went ahead to arrange the three pictures on the second cardboard. Honestly, the minute I finished doing that, I have totally no recollections of what I had arranged! Passed the cardboards to the little one. He went ahead to arrange the three pictures. I revealed the second cardboard when he's done and to my utmost surprise, he actually got the arrangement all correct!

Teacher: See, he's good. Full marks for ESP today!
Me: Well done, boy! (This could again be due to pure luck but I must say I was pretty impressed. I think I shall monitor more in the coming lessons.)

Next up was the magic camera - the little one will be shown some pictures for a few seconds and he's supposed to "take a picture" of that image and then arrange the pictures based on what he remembers. First on the list was an image with four pictures. After the teacher flashed the image for a few seconds, the little one was given five pictures, out of which he is supposed to pick the four he saw and arrange them in the order he remembered. He did just that and he got them all correct. "Not bad", I thought. The next picture was to arrange three strawberries of different sizes. Little one got one out of the three correct. "Good try." The last picture was to arrange four colour strips. The little one took the strips and arranged them one by one. As he arranged, I asked, "Are you sure?" Cos I thought I remembered the colours were in a different order. My question was totally ignored and the little one just continued arranging the strips on his own. To my surprise, when the teacher revealed the answer, he actually got the colur arrangments right! I was the one who remembered wrongly! :p "Good job, boy!"

We continued on with the other activities - flashcards, songs, finger training, etc. Not sure if it was due to the undivided attention given by the teacher when he was alone, but I must say, he definitely was a very good boy today!

Pa & Pei

Matt's speech development is on the slow side. He hardly ever calls us. On rare occasions, he will call us "pa" and "mi". These days, we have been encouraging and bribing him to call us more frequently. Whenever he wants us to do something, we will get him to call us first. And he seems to be getting the hang of calling "pa". Decided to "test" him out again today. Got him to call me before I attend to his request. But instead of calling me "mi" like what he used to do, he started to call me "pei". Told him that it's "mi", not "pei". But this little one just insisted that it's "pei" and no matter how I coax him to say "mi", he will just call me "pei". I gave up! Wonder where the word "pei" comes from!

Szechuan Noodles ... Spicy!

Was tucking into my suzchuan instant noodles. Matt, seeing the noodles, decided that he wanted a share as well. He ditched his toy train, came to me, climbed up onto the chair and gestured that he want a bite too. Told him the noodles is spicy and he cannot have it. But ever the stubborn one, he insisted that he want a bite. Alrighto, I did warn him. Gave him a small bit. He ate and wanted more. Hmm, seems like that small bit was too little for him to taste the spicy bit. Gave him a bigger mouthful this time round. This time, the spiciness "hit" him and he tried to scratch his tongue to get rid of the taste. That was quite a sight. Got him to drink some water. He did just that and I thought that marked the end of his szechuan noodles experience. How wrong I was. He came back to me again, still wanting to eat the noodles! He will eat the noodles, run to his water, drink tons of water and come back to me again for another mouthful of noodles. And this continues till my bowl is totally cleaned out! And this little one even insist that I show him the bowl before he is convinced that the noodles is really "no more".

Progress in Shichida

Matt started on Shichida class about 3 months ago. I got the "honour" of sitting in with him for the classes and I must say, each lesson had been quite a torture for me, at least in the beginning stage. Matt barely sit still in the 75 minutes class. He will sit for a while but spend the rest of the time, either walking about or making a din and wanting to get out of the class. I am left trying to coax him to get back to his seat, to stay in the class and several times, we end up having to leave the class halfway. On the week when I wanted to sign him up for another term, he does not even want to get into the class at all! He just stood outside the door, crying and refusing to move until I say, "Let's go home." That and the many incidents set me wondering if I should really let him continue for another term, especially since the course fee is really not cheap. Decided to use the following week as the deciding week and surprisely, the little one went to that class and sat through it with minimal mischief.

Today is the start of term 2 of Shichida class. Matt was a good boy today. No chasing, no coaxing required. While I can't say if the lessons are really beneficial to him at this point, I sure hope the good behavior continues!

Matt turns 2

Matt turns 2 today! We decided not to throw a party for him this year. Instead, we had the usual relatives gathering, but at our place this time round.

Matt had fun running in and out of the house (catering was placed outside the house) and "stealing" food from grandpa every now and then. He had his first taste of chilli when Uncle Yinghao fed him a french bean cooked in sambal chilli. The little boy was still happily eating the vegetable before the chilli taste "hit" him. He stood there, mouth open wide and not knowing what to do. The look was simply hilarious!

Matt is a big fan of Thomas the Train, so we got him a Thomas the train cake this year. He was thrilled seeing the cake and couldn't stop going "train", "train", "train". He was busy checking out the cake while I set it up. And after the birthday song was sung, he happily tucked into his cake, mouthful after mouthful.

*The Birthday Cake**Checking out his cake**Family Picture*

The Water Boy

Matt totally enjoys swimming. Whenever he sees the pool or pictures of him in the pool, he gets all excited and goes "...ming" (he does not know how to pronounce "swim").

Thinking back, we "introduced" Matt to swimming only when he was about 9 months old. While he was pretty stiff during his first dip, at least he did not cry or make a fuss (or maybe he was just too young to understand). Subsequent trips to the pool shows that he really enjoys the pool, splashing water and having a jolly good time. But he never likes to wear any "protective gear", be it neck float, arms bands, life vest, float, etc. He just enjoys walking around the baby pool on his own, despite falling into the waters a couple of times!

*His maiden swim"
*Having fun in the pool**Now able to walk around on his own in the pool*

Watching ESPN

Enjoying ESPN with Daddy. Mummy can never understand what's so interesting about this channel.

Taking Mummy's Bag

It was the usual weekly routine where we picked Matt up from his grandparents place at night. He wore his shoes and was ready to go. But instead of his usual hugging of grandparents and saying his bye-bye, he pointed to my bag on the chair, said "bag" and headed for the chair, wanting to take my bag so that we can go off.

Am not sure if my gestures kinda indicated that I had forgotten my bag and was going to go off without it, hence resulting in his action/word to "remind" me to take my bag, but I was pleasantly surprised with his action and especially happy that he has added a new word to his vocabulary list, which is currently a very short list.

Having Fun with Daddy & Mummy

Our Little Footballer

"Kick!" .. "Goal!"

Our little footballer enjoys kicking his little "soccer" ball around and he often drags us, the adults, to play with him. Many times, we are tire out before he is!

"Reading" 8 Days

This is what Matt does when he gets his hands on a copy of 8 Days ..

1) Gesture and go "Corp?". This means "Where is the logo, Mediacorp?". When he does find the logo, he will go "Corp!".

2) Points to all kinds of logos, eg. F&N, 7-Eleven, Marigold and asking us to tell him what the logos are. This is also how he learns the logo "Mediacorp".

3) At the TV schedule pages, points to the various TV channel logos and again, asking us to tell him what they are. Till date, he is able to tell us which logo is channel 8, channel 5, channel U, okta and even suria!

4) Points to the items he knows, eg. ball, car, and telling us what they are.

Matt's First Photo Shoot

We brought Matt for his first photoshoot yesterday. It was a short one hour session. Matt was apprehensive as he was not familiar with the place and photographer. But the one hour was precious, so we tried ways to make him laugh while the photographer snapped away. Here are some family photos taken during the shoot. More to follow ...

Making Daddy's Day

We had not seen Matt for the past three days as I was down with fever and cough. To be on the safe side,we had left him at my parents' place. Managed to knock off work earlier than Ter today, so I decided to head to my parents' place first.

Matt was playing with his cars when I arrived. Seeing me, a wide smile spread across his small face and he greeted me with a cheerful "Hi", followed by a hug and a kiss. "What a darling", I thought.

Ter arrived much later than I did. When he arrived, Matt was zooming around the house in his toy car (which happened to be my toy car when I was young!). Matt saw daddy and instead of his usual "Hi", he sat in his car, pointed to Ter and went, "Papa". I was stumbled! Did I hear wrongly? As if to answer my thoughts, Matt went "Papa" again. All of us started to applaud and praise Matt and Matt, knowing that he has done something good, started to clap his hands as well.

Am so proud of my little boy! As for daddy, he was definitely a very happy man that night!

Knowing the Roads

Every Sunday afternoon, we have a fixed routine of sending Matt to Shichida class and we will always drive through two tunnels on our way there. Last Sunday was no exception. While we were approaching the tunnel, Matt suddenly sounded excited, seemingly indicating that we were reaching the tunnel soon. Ter commented that Matt actually remembered the route. I brushed the comment aside, thinking it was probably just a coincidence.

We were on our way to Shichida again today. Once again, we were approaching the tunnel and once again, our little Matt started to point to the front, indicating that the tunnel is near. Ter turned around and said, "He remembered." This time, it got my attention.

Hmm ... seems like the son knows the roads better the mummy. Think I shall test him again next week.

Having a Ride with Barney

Cruising around the house in his toy car is one of the things that Matt enjoys doing. I placed barney on his car today and he was thrilled just seeing barney sitting on it. He started to try placing barney on the car himself and after a few go at that, he decided that he shall give barney a ride in his car. He squeezed into the car seat with barney, found the car handles, and away he went , round and round the house, and having a jolly good time.

The Corner of the Pillow

Matt has a habit when he sleeps. He likes to fiddle and play with the corner of the pillow. He has since "hijacked" Daddy's yellow pillow and declare it his. He will always hug the yellow pillow, find the corner with the sharpest point and then start gliding his palm to and fro the corner, enjoying the ticklish feeling on his palm. When this action stops, it also signals that he has fallen asleep. Even when he wakes up in the middle of the night, as long as he has his pillow, he will again fiddle with the corner and eventually falls asleep. Was talking to my mum about this sometime back and she mentioned that I used to do that too when I am young! Didn't know such things are also genetic?!

The Vegetable Lover

Matt loves his vegetables. Whenever he sees vegetables, he will point to it and insists on eating them first, before eating any other food.

We were tucking into dinner - chicken claypot rice and a box of vegetables. Not wanting to be missed out, Matt decides to join us at our dining table. So that he has something to "entertain" himself, we took his bowl, cut up some vegetables and get him to feed himself. In the wink of an eye, he finished the vegetables in his bowl and deciding that it's probably faster to get the vegetables himself, he started "attacking" the box of vegetables himself, eating one vegetable after another. Even when we offer him the yummy chicken, he refuses it and insists on eating his vegetables, stopping only when he is truly satisfied!

From Then Till Now

Was sorting out my photo collections, and besides realising that Matt has tons and tons of photos, it dawn on me how fast time has flown by and how much my little monster has grown from that tiny baby to the little toddler he is now. Was watching a show which says - "Kids grow up fast and once you miss their growing up, you will never be able to get it back again". So true!

The Long Overdue Blog

Finally!

I have finally set up a blog. Have been wanting to do this for the longest time, to be exact, for almost 2 years! But the lazy vibes in me were just too empowering. Haha. A dear friend of mine should be glad that I have finally got this going. :)

Dedicated especially to my little darling, this blog attempts to capture the joys, laughters, happiness, worries he brings to us, as he continues to grow with us each day ..