Back to reality

Things since returning back to Melbourne have taken a toll for the worst.

Let me explain.

Before we left for Singapore, Aidan had his cot, he slept on his own, and though he may occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, he'd generally pop back to sleep after a little resettling, or if I'm too tired, I'd bring him into bed with me.

However, being pampered as such in Singapore, he got to STAY UP LATE (til 1am once!) when he had sleep-overs at my parent's. And he got cuddled and squished and patted to bed. He was literally LOVED to sleep.

But now that we're back and he's been promoted to his Big Boy Bed (Dada surprised us both with an ebay purchase), he can't/doesn't want to sleep on his own, he needs me to sleep with him, he needs the hall light on, he needs the door open, he needs he needs he needs! Sometimes I find myself squished diagonally in bed with him at 3am in the morning! (The other night, he rolled over and actually FELL OFF THE BED!! His only words were, "Mum! Where's my pillow?!")

Needless to say, I'm a grumpy mummy.

I'm hoping he'll adjust soon, it's been a week, but there seem to be some positive improvements. It's just that all the whining and negotiations we have before I can actually leave his room is really annoying!!


On another note, his toilet training seems to be taking a back seat with all these huge adjustments in his life right now (back from hols, new bed etc.) I've ordered a toilet training pack from the internet out of desperation, and I'm hoping it'll teach me how to properly train him!

*Fingers crossed!*

UPDATE: He went down for a nap on his own this arvo! WOOHOOO!!! Could be we spend quite a  bit of time together this morning playing and reading. Whatever it is, hope it continues!

Happy 5th Anniversary!

So! Can ya believe it? It's been Five whole years already!

And we got a chance to celebrate it here in Singapore, with our friends. And thanks to David from Food for Thought, who pulled together a mega amazing meal for the whole bunch of us, it was made even more special!

Here're some pics thanks to Ami:

The Frisbee of Lurvvvee....

(that's how we met, playing Frisbee at church camp 17 years ago!)

The promise I made 5 years ago at our wedding 
(via Sarah McLachlan)

Proven false MANY times over!

The thank you card I'm holding is also a placecard 

with our guests' names printed on the other side

Our guests...friends who have journeyed with us over the years

The wonderful David from FFT (extreme left), who put all this together!

No pic of Ami, our photographer! :(

Delicious Noms!! I especially love the prawn linguine!

And...the pièce de résistance! 

The dessert tasting plate David created and designed from scratch. Each guest had his/her own platter, and we started from the spoon (quenelle of vanilla sorbet topped with espresso granita) and moved either clockwise or anti-clockwise round the plate.

And 'coz EG loves coffee, and I love chocolate we had a lovely bit of both on the platter! 

I chose to end off with the raspberry scone, which added a light refreshing finish to the density of the molten chocolate mousse with white chocolate base, and the triple-threat - banana, chocolate, peanut butter caramel trifle. TO DIE FOR!!

Suffice to say, it was a VERY satisfying meal. So much so, we eschewed our dinner reservation at Il Lido on Sentosa!!* (family had given us a gift - 1N stay at Siloso Beach Reort!)

Will post more pics from our camera soon.

* We ended up eating at the food court after watching Clash of the Titans - all action, gore and a bit of a anti-climactic ending. Enemy vanquished too quickly!

SURPRISE!!

Now that's we've landed, we can say, SURPRISE!! We're back in Singapore for a short visit!


Oooh...so totally looking forward to the catching up and hanging out with friends. But less eating. Must...eat...less...to...fit...pants....


See y'all soon!!

R(A)

More poo talk! Finally he's done a little one in the toilet the other day! When I offered him his choice of chocolate or gingerbread men as a reward, he told me, pointedly I might add, "2 gingerbread men, and 1 chocolate mum!"


Hmmm.... greedy munchkin.


Anyhoos! We've been quite busy lately, what with all the activities and work I've been up to. At least we got a chance to bake together yesterday, using our favourite recipe! Haha, this time he sat on the counter and stirred up the batter, along with helping me to tip the flour and sugar in. Yummers! Although he did sneak a lot of chocolate chips into his mouth while I wasn't watching... tsk tsk...


On a different topic altogether, I've been having more surreal dreams, enough to rival my friend Ami's. This time, John Mayer made another guest appearance, and I think *ahem* we were in love. But it was "Room for Squares" John Mayer mind you, not the recent bad-boy incarnation (I mean, we've all read the recent P-boy Interview --> warning, this links to an unsavoury website so please avert your children's eyes...)


I told all this to EG, and as usual, he laughed. 'Twas a nice dream though, one more notch on my celebrity dream bedpost (altho this is JM's 2nd appearance, heehee!)

Holidays are here again

It's been awhile since we've last blogged...that's because so much has happened!

The grandparents came and went, along with Aidan's Kao Gong (Great Uncle) Yeong, Kao Fu (Uncle) Gideon and Sai Yee (Aunty) Tessa.

And the car's been horribly dimpled by the storm on Sat.




Anyhoos! Thanks to the new blogger interface, I can load my pics way quicker, so... ENJOY!

Aidan jing cha to his grandparents. 
Couldn't spend CNY in SG, so they brought CNY to us! 
(Complete with cheesy music and decor)

 

Collecting ang pow from Kao Gong

  

 Our daytrips!

At the lavender fields in Daylesford's Sault 

 

Chomping down his scone at Miss Marples in Mt. Dandenong. LICK! He said...

Outside GB Southbank...Dada's gonna make us a coffee!

Mama and Sai Yee are complete poseurs. But isn't Sai Yee gorgeous?! 

Our attempt at the Toyota ad in the middle of the Brunswick St. Fest

Lady on the left! Cannot make it lah!

Speaking of posers....

 

Whaddup yo'

  

Kao Fu Gideon's turn. I think Aidan looks hotter, no?

Or maybe Mama? 
(Greedy much?)

 Nah... Aidan's way cooler!

Especially with his "cigar"

 

Kao Fu Gideon helping him start up his car.

 

With the Lims at Mart

 

 

Hail stones on the roof of the NGV later that day. 

So loud, it drew more onlookers than the exhibits!

A taste of the Epic Flood...
Good thing we were on the opp. side of the road & could maneuver onto the M1.
(Never thought I'd ever say this, but the West Gate was jam-free!!) 

So much has happened in just ONE week!

Bye bye paci!

OOOH! And before I forget, we've finally weaned him off the pacifier!

It wasn't as hard as we thought it'd be, EG just said "Oh, we can't find it!"

He actually had a couple of days like this in SG last trip, but we hadn't tried it since coming home.

But yay! Hooray. It's done. My son won't be a social outcast.

That said, I'm grateful for the many years of sleep-FILLED nights I got because of this gem. Even though all the books and people said it'd be hard to wean him off later. HAH. Phooey to you, know-it-alls!


RIP, Aidan's paci.

Toilet training part 3

*Warning* DON'T READ THIS AND EAT AT THE SAME TIME.

The mundane routine of our day can be often broken by a random gesture. POO ALERT!

At any given time, in any part of the world, there are 2 significant acts of purging a human body makes.

#1 A wee
#2 A poo

Ah, but once you enter the surreal world of baby love, you will acquaint yourself (and rather quickly I might add!) with a third form of expulsion.

#3 A poo EXPLOSION. When everything just DRIPS OUT.

This last one occurs especially after servings of fruit and vegies, like yummy tomatoes and peas and oranges...you get the idea. It's the perfect storm of bladder release meeting regular doses of roughage.

And for the last 2.5 years I've been dealing with said #3s off and on, but with Aidan being toilet-trained I hope I'm nearing the end of the mess that is a dirty diaper. Like, just DO IT IN THE TOILET ALREADY! I mean, you know it's coming, just tell me, and you get a chocolate reward (same colour what!) after! How hard a concept is it to master?

Case in point. Aidan paused in the middle of playing with his Lego and said, "Mama? Don't check me ok?"

"Sorry?"

"Don't check me ok?"

"Er ok..."

(Lightbulb clicks in my head)

"Did you just poo-poo?" I go check his bum. No poo.

(5 minutes later)

(A look on his face that I can only describe as um... strained.)

"MAMA! DON'T CHECK ME OK?!!!"

(This scenario carried on the next morning when he started thrashing about in his sleep shouting "Don't check me! Don't check me!!!") Methinks he has a morbid fear of nappy changes, no?

Anyhoos...here's to hoping he adapts soon. Wees aren't a problem (in fact he forces himself to pee to get chocolate rewards!) it's the #2s and #3s we're working on.

Plus, I'm running out of latex gloves.

Birthday Wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AH BOH !!!

Love and blessings from your favourite (only) nephew.

Aidan's first haircut - VIDEO

Finally! We got ahold of the video of Aidan's 1st Professional haircut, taken last year.

Voila! Take note especially to what he says at 0:33.

Toilet training part 2

I've been taking heaps of pics of Aidan with our new camera, but I've yet to put them up. I will soon, I promise. As soon as I find my card-reader!

On another note, toilet training is well underway, and bubba's received numerous stars over the last week, and chocolate rewards, for 'going' in the toilet. Weeheee! Of course we've had a couple accidents along the way, but so far, none on the couch!

Anyhooos, just a short update, will post pics soon!

New Year New Look

Hope you like it!

Small shout-out to anyone who has the time and inclination. Our blog needs a new mast-head, so if you're willing and able to do it for GREAT publicity on this blog (heeheehee), please let me know if you can help!

Toilet training part 1

Now that's it's the new year, I'm officially starting to toilet-train Aidan.

Officially, I say, because last year we tried, but not fully consistently, mostly on account of me. I wasn't very consistent at putting him on the dunny and asking him to go. Or when I did, he was more interested in playing with the toilet paper roll and flushing than really with the actual business of going.

Yesterday, however, was a semi-improvement. We finally bought some underwear at Best & Less (for only $1! I bought TWELVE pairs!!) and the day before I'd let him go nappy-less and he did a wee on the floor (and then the rug later in the evening!). It served its purpose - to show him the consequence of not going in the toilet. Of course if we're out of the house the nappies go on...don't want accidents in public!

Anyways, back to yesterday. I'd popped him into the bathtub for his shower, and asked him to go. And he did! On command! And he could control it! Stop and go, stop and go... there was a lot of cheering going on in that bathroom I tell ya! And a chocolate mini-muffin reward. And this morning I popped on his new underwear, which turned out to be too big, so I had to clip it together with a BULLDOG CLIP.

Proof

Hey I can't help it if he's a lot tinier than the ang moh kids around here ok?! It's the smallest size they had!

NB: Routines are finally back in order, he's back to feeding himself again, and eating the foods he used to eat (rejected bread and all his favourite stuff in Singapore!) HOWEVER....he's still waking TWICE a night, once at 2am, once at 5am...argffff

Duck Tales (woo ooo!)

Tuesday was particularly eventful - we spent the morning touring Singapore uniquely (haha) from the river's point of view.

We got to see the Flyer unobstructed, the Merlion, the impending IR... and Aidan was bored bored BORED throughout the whole experience!

I think he had the most fun when we disembarked and he got to play with his duck whistle (which really sounds like a duck! A German tourist standing behind my Dad at the counter asked him to blow the whistle and promptly bought it for...HUNTING!!)

*grumble* I could've saved the $$ spent on him and just bought the duck whistle straightaway from the counter. That said, my parents and I really enjoyed the tour, and our tour guide was pretty entertaining, throwing bits of useful information interlaced with historical fact. Like how the Swissotel Stamford's (formerly the Westin) the world's tallest building...20 years ago. And how the record holder for its vertical marathon last year of 1336 stairs clocked in at 6 mins 46 seconds. SIX minutes!! That's faster than the LIFT!!

I love the prize though - you get return tickets to the Big Apple, with an invitation to climb the Empire State Building. As the guide campily proclaimed, "So yes, ladies and gentlemen, your prize for climbing a really tall building...is to climb another really tall building!!"

My little ducky's big adventure:

All aboard!!

*Gasp* You mean we sit in it and not eat it?!

Off we go with our fellow tourists

Finally! A clear view of Aidan's favourite Flyer

And the Merlion
(NB: I only just found out what it means "to merlion" thanks to hubby
regaling me with story of NS drinking days) .

"This is my country...this is my land..."

Quack quack!!

Wiley coyote

Aidan set this up this morning, while playing Lego with Gran.



He said, "This is Mama, Dada, Aidan and Baby!!"

Hmmm.... methinks he's dropping A MAJOR HINT. Did somebody put him up to this??!!

Innocent eyes...bah!

Tube talk

Our morning ritual of breakfast has taken a new turn, with Aidan rejecting all bread and bread-like products. This means he won't eat sandwiches, buns, not even the chocolate-swirled ones!

Added to that, he hops onto his grandparent's couch and says, "I want TV!"

And apparently he has an aversion to any forms of encouragement given on-screen:

Ellen: Blah blah blah....hooray!!! (Audience claps)

Aidan (sipping his Milo): No clapping! Nooo clapping!

Me: It's all right, they're just cheering for the people on stage.

Ellen: blah blah blah....chicken! (audience cheers AND claps)

Aidan: Stop it! Stop clapping!!!

In conclusion, all he ate this morning were the dried berries from my cereal, his Milo, and a small bite of his peanut butter-and-chocolate-swirl bread. That's it.

Good grief, which kid in his right mind REJECTS PEANUT BUTTER-AND-CHOCOLATE-SWIRL BREAD?!!