Bearitone and Bunnytune!

One of Caleb's favourite uncle, whom he affectionately calls Keng, has brought in limited edition mobile players that come in the form of bears and bunnies. Uncle EK, very kindly let Caleb play with his one of his bear samples. Though Caleb's too young to recognise the functions, he had fun carrying it around and playing with it. It's quite nice as a Christmas gift, (not for Caleb lah) but for the young and hippy generation who's into ipods, mp3s and whatnots.

Here's a little writeup on the bear and bunny.
If you're interested, feel free to contact Ek.
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Bearitone and Bunnytune (limited edition) are designed in Japan and making its debut in Singapore. These utterly cute and adorable stuffed bears and bunnies have more functions then it seems! Each of them has an FM auto-scanning radio embedded in their tummies. Just by squeezing their ears and paws, you can auto-scan FM radio stations, change volume, and power them on / off. This is enabled by micro-switches embroidered in them. Amazing isn't it!?

That's is not all...they can function as external auxilary speakers too! Unzipping its back will reveal the battery compartment and a hidden universal plug; pluggable to your mobile players like IPOD, MP3 players, CD players and laptops. Your fav music can be played henceforth from the speakers in their tummies.

They run on 2 x AA size batteries and comes with 6 months warranty. Snowy white Christmasty theme - makes the perfectly novel Christmas gifts for the young and old. Usual Price: S$59.90. Special Price Now: S$49.90. Further 10% discount if you get through this site before 31 Dec 06!

Please contact EK at 97527477 or bunnytune@yahoo.com.sg to order. Limited numbers available. All new materials. While stocks last!

Bearitone


Bunnytune

Wake Up Daddy!

Here's Caleb's attempt at waking Daddy up. Poor Daddy had to suffer a few slaps from Caleb. Thankfully though, this is not the typical way which he wakes us up. Nowadays, when he wakes up, he'll play in his cot on his own for a while. On days when he's feeling kind, he'll play on his own for up to half an hour. When he gets bored, he'll climb onto our bed and starts shaking me and either start demanding relentlessly "I want to drink milk!" or he'll throw himself on top of me and say in a very pitiful voice "Bao bao! Mummy... bao bao!" and he'll go on and on until we respond to him.

Happy Face Sad Face

Here's Caleb doing his version of "Happy Face" and "Sad Face". He was very cheeky when I asked him to demonstrate his different facial expressions and tried to do the opposite of what I asked him to do. But he made me laugh lah. Cheeky boy!

Rainy Days and Thunderstorms

It's the rainy season and we've been hearing a lot of loud rumblings from where we stay. When Caleb was younger, whenever there was thunder, he'll just point to the sky and say "bom..bom", as if to tell me about the thunder. Now, all of a sudden, he seem to have developed a fear of thunder and his reaction has changed to... "Thun-der!...Mummy!!! Bao bao!!!" and he starts running for his dear life towards me.
Yesterday evening, again we could hear thunder for like 20min. Caleb was really scared and kept clinging on to me and asking me to carry him. And when I carried him, he patted himself on his chest and said "scared... scared" and then he buried his face onto my chest and said "hide... hide". I wanted to laugh but didn't lah coz I felt sorry for him. Poor kid, the thunder was really loud. I remember being afraid of thunder as a kid and I used to run and cling on to my sister, so I guess I can identify with him.
This afternoon, again there was thunder and of all things, it coincided with his nap time. Obviously the loud rumblings woke him up from his nap and he didn't sleep as long as he normally would. Well, look on the bright side, hopefully that'll mean that he be very tired tonight and go sleep early. I'm just praying that there'll be no thunderstorms tonight. If not, we'll probably have to end up carrying him to sleep!

Visit to Children's Home

We went with Yee Yee and Nicole Jiejie to help out at a children's home today. Yee Yee belongs to a Catholic Mums group and her group was volunteering to prepare and serve food at Canossaville Children's Home today so we went along to help out. The lunch menu was hot dog buns, fried bee hoon, fish balls, nuggets, fries, koniyaku jelly, and ice cream. We were in charge of preparing the hot dog buns, fishballs and jelly so we had to leave quite early to get the food ready. Caleb didn't quite have a clue about where we were going. I just told him that we were going to this home where there's a lot of kor kors and che ches, and I guess that was good enough for him. I think the highlight for him was probably the big playground that the home had and the other children around to play with him.
He clung to me for the first two hours as I tried to help out with the food. I was assigned the very simple task of helping to separate the hot dog buns but the task got quite daunting when Caleb started tugging at my arms and going "Bao bao..Bao bao.. Mummy, bao bao!" I ended up babysitting him, nicole and keeping an eye on the children of the other mums who were helping out.
After the children at the home finished their lunch, they started coming over to play with all the volunteer mums' kids. An Indian girl about 11 or 12 years old, came along and told Caleb that she'll bring him to the playground to play and he left my arms and went with her. And he didn't come back looking for me after like 10 to 15min. I had to look for him!

Ok, sidetrack a bit. I'm not racist or anything and I don't have any issue with it but it's just an interesting observation. My son likes Indians. For the last 19 months, he has shown time and again that he's willing to leave us and go off with some Indian kor kor or che che. If a chinese boy comes along and tries to carry Caleb, chances of him agreeing is quite low. But if an Indian boy comes along, somehow, more often than not, he'll agree to let him carry. Don't believe, ask Raveen from church! He can be my babysitter any time! And if you are a girl, with long hair, slim, dark skinned and quite pretty, he may agree to let you carry as well. We thought about it for a while and concluded that maybe it has to do with the fact that when I was pregnant, my job required me to interact a lot with Indian men. Yah, I talk to at least 5 Indian men a day from the time I start work till I knock off. Multiply that by 9 months.. that's a lot of Indian men that I talked to! I guess Caleb must have been listening in to my conversations. I told PJ that and he attested that it was true coz Caleb seemed to look at him a bit more when he put on an Indian accent when he talked to him.
As for the girls part, the helper that I had when I was working was dark and had long hair. She wasn't very slim though. I think the slim and pretty part came from me. (Hee hee, so thick skinned, but something got to come from me what!)

Ok, back to the home. Well, I think the home visit ended quite well. The children at the home enjoyed their lunch. Caleb had his fun. And we spent the afternoon in a meaningful way. I do hope though, that when he gets older, he'll appreciate the many blessings God has given him and not think that everything is just for fun. Daddy says we should bring Caleb to Nepal and he'll see just how fortunate he is compared to the children there. Daddy, when Caleb is older ok?

Oh, and I promised Yee Yee I'll blog this. When we were on the way to the home, Caleb was really vocal in the car. He was just going on and on.. "Big Bus! (and he says it with a LOT of Gusto!) Blue Taxi!... Dump Truck!.. Car!... Bird!.. See! Trees!" Yee Yee was laughing at him and I was saying "Yah, he's quite a chatterbox nowadays..." and the next thing I know, Caleb followed and said "Um! Chat-ter box!"
I really have to watch what I say!

Interview with Caleb on Animals

See my interview with Caleb on the different types of animals that he's familiar with.


I didn't quite manage to catch all the animals that he knows coz after a while, he wanted to see the video. After he watched the first video clip, he was very satisfied and wanted me to take more... but only for a short while before he came rushing to look at the video again.


And a last video where Caleb shows how a monkey behaves. He picked this up from watching Barney. And again, he comes rushing over to see what I've recorded. The boy sure enjoys watching his own video clips!

BJ and Barney

Recently Barney has become Caleb's favourite TV programme. He used to insist on watching only Hi-5 but somehow, he seemed to have gotten tired of Hi-5 and has now developed a preference for Barney. I've really never liked Barney and never in my wildest dreams, imagined that my son would like Barney... but he does.
Ask him what he wants to watch on TV and he'll tell you "watch Bar-nee! watch Bar-nee!
And one of his favourite soft toys todate is Barney, kindly contributed by Ma-ma and Gong-gong. And the latest addition is BJ(Barney's friend), kindly contributed by Grandpa and Grandma.

He was in a really affectionate mood one afternoon and started hugging both BJ and Barney. And when I took the video, he started to kiss them. And after kissing BJ and Barney, he came over to give me a kiss as well. Very sweet of him lah!

The SickLee Family

Here's part II of the SickLee family saga. Last Tuesday, when Daddy woke up in the morning, he was soooo sick, he couldn't get out of bed. He couldn't sit up and he had chest pain and was breathless. He told me that he was contemplating going to the hospital. When Daddy says things like that... you know that he is Really not in good shape. Well, he was in so much pain that I was worried he'll get a heart attack or something if I forced him to walk to the car.
My mum came over to help me out with Caleb and we decided that we better call the ambulance to bring him to the hospital. Seriously, it took a lot of effort and help from me to get Daddy to sit up on the bed and just that made Daddy breathless. I called 995 and the ambulance came with 4 huge abled bodied guys and a stretcher. Just before the ambulance arrived, Daddy chose that moment to get out of bed to go to the toilet (of course that required a lot of effort and help from me) but it made me look a little silly (paranoid woman!) coz I told them that my husband couldn't get out of bed and there he was standing in the toilet! Anyway, they were very nice about it and helped him into the stretcher and wheeled him down to the ambulance. I sat in the front seat of the ambulance and followed them to hospital. First time I get to sit in an ambulance. Not a very exciting experience. Don't think I want to sit in an ambulance ever again. The ambulance drove us to Changi hospital. The guys in the ambulance took a long time to take Daddy out. Got me a bit worried coz I took a peep and saw them rolling out long tubes. Apparently Daddy's blood pressure dropped quite a bit in the ambulance and they had to put him on a drip. And according to Daddy, they didn't do a good job in sticking the super long needle into him and his hand hurt for a few days.
To cut the story short, Daddy had a couple of docs looking at him. Initially they thought it was dengue, but concluded that it was a viral fever. And surprise surprise, they asked us a couple of questions like whether there's anybody who's been sick at home recently. Well, I told them about Caleb and they said that Daddy could have gotten the virus from Caleb. We were quite surprised coz Caleb had slight fever for only 1 day and then the uclers came and then rashes but he was generally very active and could eat his meals. Unlike Daddy who has been having fever for 4-5 days, and so weak and sickly with every bit of his muscles aching away. Daddy did develop rashes on his body though. Doc said that apparently children get all kinds of viruses easily coz their immune system is low and somehow, it may not seem to be a big deal to them. But when that same virus hits us adults, it could make us quite sick. Next time Caleb gets any viral infection again, I'm going to pump the family with Vit C! Well, Doc also said that with such viral infections, your body will need to fight it out on its own and it'll take Daddy a couple more days to recover.
So, Daddy had to stay in the hospital for 3 days. Docs wanted to make sure his blood pressure and blood count were ok before they let him go home to rest. He was so weak, he couldn't get out of bed for two days. I was a bit shocked at how weak he became. He had to get the nurses to help him cut his braised chicken into smaller pieces coz he didn't have the strength to do that. And he tried to lift up a small bowl of soup and his hands started trembling!
He's much better now and back at work, though I think he's not fully regained his strength.

And of course, I must not forget about my little Caleb. He was quite an angel during the time that Daddy was in hospital. He was very cooperative most of the time when I had to rush to and fro from home to hospital. And he amused himself and Daddy at the hospital.

I brought his crayons to keep him occupied in the afternoons. See poor Daddy sleeping away.


Actually he's more interested in the TV then his drawings...


When Daddy first took his meals, Caleb kept telling me that he wanted to take the helmet. Took me a while to figure out what he was referring to as his helmet.


And here's Caleb drinking his milk on Daddy's hospital bed. Grandma taught him how to lift up his leg like a "towkay"! That's the night before Daddy got discharged. See he looked so much better.


Anyway, the long saga continued when we got home. The day after Daddy got discharged, I started to feel like I had body aches and then I realised that I was running a fever myself! Really potent virus. I had the same symptoms as Daddy, body aches, fever for a few days, feel faint, no appetite. Daddy was still quite weak and I had to tell him that it's his turn to hold the fort at home. And we decided to quarantine ourselves coz we didn't want anybody else falling sick. Daddy tried his best to entertain Caleb whilst I kept away in the room to rest. Thank God I got much better after four days and didn't become as sick as Daddy. I prayed really hard and got a few other friends to pray for us. I was thinking, at a time like this, only God can help us and sustain us, and He did!

Well, for all our friends and caregroups who prayed for us and checked on us from time to time, Thank You! We've recovered from this nasty virus.
The Lee family sends our appreciation by... uploading more of Caleb's photos and videos ok?

The SickLee Men

The men in the Lee household are sick (physically of course...) Yah, Caleb got really cranky a couple of days ago and didn't have any appetite and had a very slight temperature. It was then that I realised that he had lots of ulcers on his lower lip and on his tongue. The poor boy was in so much pain. He had like 4 small ulcers at the tip of his tongue and many more at the top of his lower lip. I had to boil porridge and make it so watery and slowly scoop them into his mouth for two days. Broke my heart to do that. Felt really sorry for him and so scared that he'll lose more of his fats (which I love!) Anyway, he seems much better already. I brought him to the doc and she said that it's too early for her to diagnose. She guessed that it could be oral thrush but yet, it didn't look like it coz he didn't have any ulcers on the inside of his cheeks. It could be herpes (which according to her is a very common amongst children) but if it was herpes, he'll probably be running a very high fever, have swollen and bleeding gums. So she sent us home and got me to observe him further. Thankfully, Caleb haven't been having any fever, no swollen gums and his appetite is returning. The only thing though is that he broke out into a full body rash yesterday (which sometimes children do get after they get a bout of fever). The rash subsided today so I'm still observing him. My guess is that maybe he got the ulcers coz I bought him a new toothbrush and he insisted on brushing his teeth himself and he brushed it too hard and gave himself lots of ulcers which subsequently got infected coz he picked up stuff from the floor to put into his mouth. Sounds a little far fetched? I dunno lah, I'm just praying that my little boy will be ok.

And Daddy, poor daddy has been down with a persistent fever since Sat afternoon. He's literally lying in bed the whole day and can hardly get out of bed. When he gets up, he feels weak, want to faint, no appetite, headache, body ache, chest pain...and his throat hurts. We saw doc today and he said it's probably a viral infection and he gave Daddy some fever medicine and told him to go back if the fever persists past five days. Well, Daddy's fever seemed to have come down a little this evening so we're praying that it's the road to recovery.

As for me... gosh, it has been tiring and trying at times trying to keep the house in order and look after the two boys and separate them in our little home. If Daddy is in the living room, I'll try to keep Caleb in the bedroom and vice versa. I think Caleb misses Daddy quite a bit and doesn't quite understand why Daddy has not been carrying him and not going near him. We just keep telling him that Daddy is sick and needs to rest. He'll look at Daddy and tell me "Daddy sleep... sleep". Just now, when I was trying to put him to sleep, he started to demand to see and talk to Daddy who was resting in the living room. He kept telling me "I want.. see Daddy. See! I want... talk Daddy... talk Daddy!"

My little Caleb... Daddy misses you too... he'll play and carry you again when he's well again ok?

A little addendum from Daddy : The boy is so sweet lah. He'll come up to me, say "Daddy sick, daddy sleep, pat pat." Then he'll give me a few pats as though he was putting me to sleep. Such a sweet boy.

At the beach

We've been trying to get Caleb to walk on sand, (something which he has been very reluctant to do) so we brought him to the beach.
See how cautious he is standing on the sand. It took him a couple of minutes before he would move his legs and walk confidently.


After he warmed up a little more, we persuaded him to touch the sand with his hands


And then, he got a little more confident. He started lifting the sand and letting them run through his hand.


And... he decided that he could actually create a little mountain by heaping the sand together


And hey, what do you know? Other than the hands, you can use your legs too!


And then... how about throwing the sand instead of watching them fall through your fingers?

Oh, and do you know, you can use your shoes to scoop up sand too?


Well, after a while, Caleb got a lot more adventurous and started trying out all kinds of stunts with the sand. See his different poses.


We went home with a very sandy boy after that. He had sand in his hair, on his arms, legs and butt. He definitely had fun coz over the last week or so, from time to time, he'll start to bug me and say "I want... play sand!"

The Sua Kus!

The Sua Kus were given time off this afternoon by the Boss. The Boss was being entertained by some VIPs (aka Grandpa, Grandma and Chek Chek), so he did not need the Sua kus around. Elated, the Sua Kus decided to go to Plaza Sing to hangout and be Cool and Happening... The Sua Kus chanced upon an arcade and started to reminisce about the time when they were King and Queen of arcade games. They confidently strolled in and Sua Ku Daddy stopped short and said "Wah! now they got games like that ah??!! Got a lot of new games hor.."

The Sua Kus being confident, changed just $2 thinking it'll last them a long time. They headed for a Picture Puzzle machine and slotted $1 coin in with style. They very excitedly went through the list of games and finally settled on one. But no matter what they pressed, the game just refused to start. After a few tries, they decided to get their coin back and move to the next machine.

Well, the next machine was worse! It ate up the coin and again refused to let the Sua Kus play no matter what they pressed. Meanwhile, a bunch of hippies had settled themselves on the machine the Sua Kus had abandoned. They slotted in their coin easily and started playing the same game that the Sua Kus chose. Refusing to give up, the Sua Kus stayed on for a few more minutes, pressing all kinds of buttons, finally giving up, but not without letting out a few embarrasment-covering grunts.

With confidence slightly dented, they decided to stick to an old-trusted game, one which had previously provided hours of enjoyment on a low budget. The $1 coin was once again slotted in confidently and the game started easily (phew, what a relief!). The game must have been upgraded since the last time they played it, cos it seemed faster and more difficult to get through the stages. The Sua Kus lasted a glorious 4 stages, out of which they failed 3! They decided after that that actually watching other people play was a lot more fun than playing. Also, somehow, $2 seemed a lot more to them nowadays than before, so they decided to cut their losses and move on to explore the rest of Plaza Sing.

See the Sua Kus' reaction. There were a lot of exclamations like "wah, that's new leh", "wah, can self service to buy movie tickets ah" and "eh, they got link to MRT leh".

Quotes from the Sua Kus after the outing...

- "I'm glad I can openly declare my "sua-kuness" in front of you because you are as sua ku as me!"


- "Now I fully understand when people talk about having generation gap with their parents!"

The Yawn Series

Caleb has been practising saying "yawning" every time he sees us yawn and now he's practising yawning whilst riding a bike at Ma-ma's place. Talk about driving when you're tired!





Looking very satisfied with himself. Must have had a good yawn.

Caleb in the morning

Here's my little boy lazing around his cot with Barney after waking up in the morning.

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The Boss Dictator

Now that Caleb can say a lot more things, he has been explicitly dictating what he wants and verbalising his actions.. sometimes, even my actions are verbalised.
This happened yesterday morning.

Mummy: (Zzzz.....sleeping away)
Caleb: (shaking Mummy's arms real hard and talking to my ear) Drink milk.... drink milk... drink milk.. NOW!
Mummy: Ok.. ok... (no choice since he's very persistent)
Caleb: Down! (lets himself down my bed and runs to the door, points at it and gives his command) Open!
Mummy: (obediently... opens door)
Caleb: (stretches out his arms) bao bao
Mummy: (picks Caleb up, prepares milk bottle and pours in luke warm water)
Caleb: (points to the hot water flask) Erh! (ya, like Mummy will forget to pour in hot water...)
Mummy: (pours in hot water and starts scooping in milk powder)
Caleb: two.. three...four
Mummy: (he's counting the number of scoops of milk powder I pour in to make sure I get it right.)
Caleb: Down!
Mummy: (once I'm done preparing the milk, he'll want me to put him down and he'll run to my bed)
Caleb: Up!
Mummy: (ya and I got to help him to climb up my bed)
Caleb: (Walks about my bed and jumps into his cot and loses his balance a little) Whoaaa.... (gives dramatic sound effect and grins at me. Knocks Barney off my bed in the process.) Bar-nee fall down... (Picks Barney up and places Barney on my pillow) Bar-nee.. sit..sit. (proceeds to lie down on his pillow) Sleep...sleep... (he always says that when he lies down to drink milk on his bed) Take... the bottle...
Mummy: (obediently passing the boss his milk bottle. I sit there and stare at the boss and stifle a yawn since I've barely woken up.)
Caleb: (takes out bottle from his mouth and points at me) Yawning....

I sit there staring at the boss and thinking... ya, that's how I start my day. I have a boss who dictates his wants and needs and will not fail to point out all my actions whether they are good or bad. He's watching me every minute and especially recently, refuses to let me out of his sight. He wants me with him 24/7. He wants to know where I'm going, what I'm doing. I even have to tell him when I go to the toilet and he'll either give his nod of approval or wail and insist on joining me. When he wants to play, I have to play. When he wants to read, I have to read. When he wants to sleep, I have to put him to sleep. I cook, wash, clean for him. And he has never agreed to giving me a day off and you can forget about taking MC. Tough job huh!

C.A.L.E.B

Here's my first attempt at teaching Caleb how to spell his name. I was surprised that he was willing to spell along with me coz I've not really taught him any of the alphabets.
Anyway, from his reaction, I don't think he'll be the kind of student who would sit quietly in class and do everything the teacher says. Hopefully I don't get called up to see the teacher from time to time (something which Daddy claims happened to him quite often as a child!). Or maybe if that happens, I'll just tell Daddy to see the teacher himself since Caleb inherited his naughty genes!

Hair Cut

As Cherie has commented, Caleb's hair has been getting quite long and starting to look unkempt and giving him heat rash round his neck. Previously Ma-ma would try to trim his hair whenever she can but she's been busy recently so Mummy has taken over the task of trimming his hair. I must say that I'm no hairdresser so I've been finding that an extremely difficult task and it doesn't help that Caleb gets really upset whenever we try to cut his hair.
I talked to Caleb about cutting his hair one day when he was in a very agreeable mood and got him to agree to sit down in the toilet for me to trim his hair. I didn't get pass two snips before he started protesting and squirming away.
See my attempt with Caleb in the toilet.


Later that day, I attempted to trim his fringe when he was sleeping soundly. That's the only time when I can touch his hair. Unfortunately it didn't turn out to be what I expected and Caleb ended up with a very slanted fringe.


I gave up trying to cut his hair myself and we decided we needed to get professional help.
Here's Caleb at Junior Leagues before his turn to cut hair. He's looking very apprehensive as he watched the other children get their hair cut.


And here's Caleb during the haircut. He was the only child wailing away. We were too busy holding him down to see how the other children were reacting to him. The lady cutting his hair was quite flustered by him though coz he was REALLY LOUD! He started with screaming "NO!NO!" but we were holding him down, so in the end he just sat in my arms and cried through the whole haircut. He cried as though we were all beating him up with very big tears streaming down his face. Very poor thing ah!


After the hairdresser finished with his hair, we had to take a few minutes to calm him down and assure him that his "ordeal" is over. We changed his clothes and the hairdresser offered him some sweets to hold (he only gets to hold on to the sweets coz I'm not really to introduce sweets to him yet!) and before we know it, he's back to his usual self again.
Here's Caleb outside the salon just after his haircut. He was attempting to go back into the salon to get more sweets to hold.


Although he didn't come out looking like a superstar but we're still quite pleased with his haircut coz the hairdresser cut it pretty short (which means it'll be a while more before we need to cut his hair again!)

3 kids in the house!

Yesterday was a public holiday and Daddy was home with us. We decided to be real nice (and brave and adventurous!) and offered to babysit Nicole Jiejie and Nat Meimei for the day. It was the first time that we (Mummy and Daddy) are handling 3 kids on our own but I thought that since Daddy wants 4 kids, this is the best time to test him out to see if he can really handle it. Well, Daddy thinks that the test is not realistic coz there's no way he'll have 3 kids who are all a year apart!
Anyway, Yeeyee dropped Nic and Nat at our place just before lunch and left us with clothes and lots of milk for Meimei as ammunition. We started the afternoon well. We put Caleb and Nic in front of the TV to watch Barney and eat their lunch. I fed Caleb and supervised Nic in eating her lunch while Daddy watched over Meimei. Meimei was good at the beginning and fell asleep for a while on the sofa. Me and Daddy were quite happy that so far so good, things are under control. With Barney's help, Daddy and me could eat our lunch too and wash up the dishes.
Once we were all done with lunch, we took out all the toys for Caleb and Nic to play. At times, they played on their own but more often than not, they would fight over the same toy. Apparently toys that either one of them is playing with always looks more interesting than those that's lying on the floor.
I must say that all in all, the STAR performer was Daddy! To distract Caleb and Nic from snatching each other's toys, he would play games with them that enabled both of them to participate at the same time and he got them to expand their energies by marching and running round the house. And when Meimei woke up from her extremely short nap, Daddy was the one who carried her.

Here's Nic and Caleb showing their affections for each other! (Or more of Nic grabbing Caleb)



More of Nic and Caleb. Aren't they cute. They have a love-hate relationship. When they don't see each other, they'll ask for each other. They'll wave and smile brightly when they meet. Then the toys snatching will start and they'll cry, fight and scream at each other. And before you know it, they'll be running and laughing together. And the whole cycle starts again.



Well, when 3pm came, we decided to try our luck at putting all 3 kids to sleep. We had no idea whether that can possibly be done coz Nic and Caleb typically have to be carried and patted to sleep. And there's also Meimei who wants to be carried ALL the time and there's just me and Daddy. Where got so many hands to carry all of them!
Well, we gave Caleb his milk, apparently he was so tired, he fell asleep on his own whilst drinking his milk. (This is not something I like him to do but at a time like this, I just let him be). I carried Nic for a while and managed to convince her to lie in bed and be patted to sleep. Meanwhile, Daddy was feeding Meimei milk. Once Nat fell asleep, I took Nat over from Daddy and sent him to the room to watch over the two kids and make sure that if either one wakes up, they don't wake the other kid up.
I tried to pat Nat to sleep but for some reason she just kept crying. Nat likes to be in the sling so I tried to sling her with my sling but each time I tried to put her in, she'll struggle and cry. After like 10min, Daddy came out of the room. He said "Eh, she's very loud lah! She's going to wake the two kids up with her crying!" He took over Nat and sent me into the room instead and guess what? He managed to pacify her and she stopped crying! (See what I mean, when I said he's the star performer!) Meimei was super wide awake the whole time the two older kids were sleeping but it was a big achievement for us already coz the two older kids slept for almost one and a half hours and that gave me time to cook their dinner whilst Daddy continued to carry Meimei who refused to be put down.
In between, Nic woke up once and Caleb woke up once. But Daddy was like the watchdog, once he sees either Nic or Caleb stir, he'll quickly signal me and I'll quickly run in to pat them back to sleep. Well, at 4.30pm, it was game over for us when Caleb woke up and insisted on staying in the room. Nic opened her eyes and both kids, now recharged with energy started jumping around on the bed.

Here's super star Daddy with the 3 kids on the bed



When dinner time came, Daddy said "Yeah! One more hour to go!" We were by now quite exhausted. Daddy especially, coz he was still carrying Meimei who would cry whenever we put here down and she refused to sleep. Oh, and Daddy managed to feed her a full bottle of milk. Meimei likes to drink direct from her Mummy but some how, our super star Daddy managed to feed her.
When Yeeyee and Jior Jior (the children can't pronounce Ah Teor which means Auntie's husband in Hokkien, so they call Daddy and Bro-in-law "Jior Jior" which means "Itchy Itchy" in Hokkien) came, we were really glad to return the kids. We were totally exhausted and Daddy claims that he has increased his biceps size from carrying Meimei the whole afternoon.
Taking care of the 3 kids the whole afternoon was really a full time job and it totally zapped out our energy. We really couldn't do anything except watch them, play, feed, change and carry them. It was ok for a day but I don't think we would have survived if it was longer with the 3 children at this age.
But whatever it is, I must say, "Daddy! You Passed the test with FLYING COLOURS!"

Oh, and not to forget Meimei. Here's photos of her. She has an enormous appetite and has grown so much in the past two months. At two months plus, she's wearing clothes that Caleb wore at 4 months!
But isn't she pretty with her big eyes?

Sentence construction

Nowadays, other than picking up new words, Caleb is also attempting to string the words together into short sentences. The last month or so, he had been exploring with the words that he learnt and matching them with other words. Like he'll say "sit there, see there, take that, the ball, the bear etc". Over the last few days, he started to develop short sentences on his own. He started by saying "Take that bottle", then he said "play the ball", yesterday he said "I wear shoes". And today he started exploring with other items like "take the bear". Oh and since we stopped going out with Yee Yee coz she's back at work, he has been asking me like 15 times a day "Where yeeyee?" (I told Yeeyee that the time she spent with Caleb has paid off. For some strange reason, Caleb refused to let Yeeyee touch him during the time that she was pregnant. She couldn't even hold his hand without him flinging it away or getting upset. And she was the only one whom he reacted to in this way. But now, he keeps asking for her after she has delivered. I told her that maybe he got scared of her big stomach when she got pregnant. Yeeyee thinks that Caleb is just out to bully her!)

Anyway, back to Caleb and his speech. He really doesn't cease to amaze us. The previous night, Daddy was sitting down with Caleb at his little table looking at pictures of animals and after 10min, Daddy was telling me that he's amazed at the number of new words that the boy is picking up. He said he must have at least 100 words in his vocab now! I thought about it and did a quick scan on the words that he knows in my head and I thought, yah, I have lost track coz I talk to him all day long, but I do think he has about 100 words in his vocab now. I must say it's really much more interactive with Caleb now. We can hold mini coversations of our own and understand each other well.

Of course there are days when I don't understand Caleb at all. That's when his pronounciation goes off and I can't guess what he wants and he gets really frustracted that I can't understand him. He walked to the carpet the other day and started hitting it and saying "breeks... breeks". That's what it sounded to me but I had no clue what he wanted. I tried to guess and ask him "Is it this? or you want that? you want Mummy to do this??? He kept saying "NO! No! with each question and started wailing and hitting the carpet and repeating "breeks! breeks!" in a very frustrated tone and he gave me the "Mummy! Why aren't you getting what I'm saying???!!!" look. In the end, I had to stop his wailing by distracting him. And I had to try really hard coz he's much more focussed in what he wants nowadays and no longer that easily distracted.

Handsome Boy

Recently Yee Yee claimed that when she asked Caleb who's the handsome boy, he promptly lifted his hand and patted his own head.And she said, "wah, your son can tell him that he's the handsome boy ah!". I was quite puzzled for a moment because I don't recall teaching him that. I didn't quite believe that he would claim that he was handsome on his own accord unless he was taught to. Yee Yee got him on video to show me how he responded to her question. I had been cracking my brains on who had taught him that and concluded that maybe it's one of the grandparents.
Yesterday, after I bathed Caleb, I combed his hair and said my usual line "Caleb, Mummy comb your hair so that you will look handsome ok?" He looked up at me and promptly patted himself on his head. That's when it stuck me that I was the one who had thought him that! I had said it so often to him whenever I comb his hair that he would pat his hair whenever we mention the words "handsome boy"!

Here's Caleb doing his "handsome boy" acknowledgement.

Hazy Days, a Sick Toddler and the doctor

Now that Yee Yee's maternity leave is over, we have less excuses for going out Everyday and are staying indoors a bit more. And it certainly doesn't help much that there is the haze, and that Caleb has fallen sick. So now, Mummy has to think of more activities to entertain and expand Caleb's energy indoors instead of outdoors. There are days where I run out of ideas of what to do with Caleb and there are days where I feel more spontaneous and creative and have more fun activities with Caleb. And there are days when Caleb is plonked in front of the TV for a short while, watching Hi-5 or Barney or Baby Enstein. Or sometimes, Caleb will entertain himself by riding on his scooter round the house.

Here's Caleb riding around on his scooter. Recently he likes to verbalise his actions so when he hits something, he will make the sound "bong" and when he turns around, he'll say "back".


As for him falling sick, Nicole jiejie caught some virus at school. We visited meimei while Nicole jiejie was away from home but Caleb still caught the bug. (Yeeyee claims that the bug did not come from Nicole but the haze. We beg to differ coz now Meimei is also sick and all 3 kids have got the same symptoms!) Anyway for the last three days, Caleb has been down with fever and a bad throat. Thankfully he's still active and eating well and only gets cranky when it's time for him to rest or at night when he can't sleep well coz of his bad throat. We saw the doc today and she said that his throat is very red and sore and warned us that it may get worse. And depending on the virus, sometimes it may travel down to the lungs and develop into Bronchitis. Obviously we're praying that he'll get better and Mummy's trying really hard to give him lots of water to drink!

One thing we realised is that Caleb still doesn't understand what it means to be sick. We tried explaining to him that he's sick and should rest more and eat medicine but he doesn't seem to understand and will just stare or knit his eye brows in deep thought. And the other thing is that he Hates letting the doctor examine. The minute the doctor tries to examine him, he'll start screaming and wailing and it'll take many pairs of hands to try to hold him down. He probably scared all the children outside thinking there's one nasty doc in the room. And the doc that we went to today was very patient with him and tried to humour him with toys and sweets but he would have none of that and kept screaming "NO!NO!NO!".

The last time that I "bravely" brought him to the doc on my own, he refused to let the doc examine him and was wailing and pointing to the door and screaming "OUT! OUT! OUT!" for at least 5min. The poor doc had to raise his voice to try to explain to me what was wrong with him and how I should care for him amidst all his screaming. The minute I said ok, we're done and leaving, his tears automatically stopped and he cheerfully waved and said bye bye to the doc as though nothing happened.

Oh, and if you ask him about the doctor, he'll say "poke, poke" and poke himself. We brought him for his MMR jab two weeks ago. The last time he had a jab was about half a year ago and he was less aware of what was happening and a much, more pleasant kid in front of the doc. So I thought that I should prepare him by talking to him about it. Two days before the jab, I told him that we're going to the doc's and the doc is going to give him an injection, which means poking him at his backside. I reinforced by asking him "when we go to the doctor, what is the doctor going to do?". He'll say "poke, poke" and poke himself with his finger. And I'll ask him "poke where?" he'll laugh and point to his backside. Well, the that visit was not too bad coz Daddy was there to help hold him down. I distracted him by pretending to play "superman" with him on the doctor's bench! (yah, the things parents do!) He wailed when the needle went in but only for 5seconds and said "No! No!" once the injection was done, he was ok and smiling again.

Well, but me and Daddy today were thinking how can we get him to be more cooperative for future doctor visits and we thought maybe we should get him a doctor playset for him to get used to the idea. Or maybe Godpa should come over and play "doctor" with him (Ha! and maybe risk Caleb not wanting to go near him after that!)

Caleb's inheritance

Whilst people inherit huge fortunes in the form of $$$ and estates, Caleb has been blessed with his own unique inheritance! Clothes and toys from Daddy! Grandpa and Grandma have been surprising us with clothes, toys, sweaters, blanket that used to belong to Daddy. Yup, and I must say that the clothes and toys, though they're about 30 years old already but they're still in very good condition. Check them out!

T-shirts that Daddy used to wear. They're from Buster Brown which is supposed to be branded during Daddy's time.


Daddy's sweaters and hangers that he used!


Daddy's blanket. This is one of Caleb's favourite. Very nice and warm. Caleb enjoys covering himself with it when he wants to go to sleep.


Clothes that were meant for Daddy but he never did wear them. They come complete with price tag. Check out the Isetan tag. The logo's green and not blue like it is now.


Daddy's figurine toys. When Daddy saw them, he was like "Hey! I remember them. I used to play a lot with them and gave them names!" And the toys come complete with a schoolhouse!

Outings! Outings! Outings!

Now that Yee Yee is on maternity leave, we have been maximising Yee Yee's time away from work and going out Everyday! Ya, everyday, we will lug the kids out of the house and just go somewhere... anywhere actually. Well, the outings that Caleb enjoy more were visits to Ikea and this restaurant called Globetrotters. They are more child friendly and have got play areas for children.

Here's Caleb at Ikea. He was extremely fascinated with the kids section where there were children furniture that he could get easy access to, and soft toys which he could play with.



And here's Caleb at the dining section of Ikea where there's a section partitioned out for children to sit at, watch TV and play with the Ikea toys.



And here's our outing at Globetrotters. There's actually a playroom with a glass panel separating the dining area. Kinda like a mini playground with a "babysitter" watching over the children. Caleb loved this place coz there's a mini slide with a watch tower, kitchen set where he can play make believe, and they play children songs in the room. It was really nice for Caleb coz we went on a weekday afternoon and there weren't many children so he practically got the playroom all to himself.