Water Play at Botanic Gardens!

We went to the Botanic Gardens one to two months ago cos there's a new section there especially for children, where they have a water play area, a tree house, some little garden with unique plants and an touch-area.

It's no wonder that the area that Caleb enjoyed most was the water play area. Look at how wet he is playing with the water... I will probably bring him back there again, and this time, I will get wet myself playing with the water too!

Pose De Facto

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Caleb has been using his Pose De Facto recently whenever we ask him to take photos... here's a few of his rendition of V for Victory!

Caleb and Chek Chek at Botanic Gardens' new Tree House

Another pose with a more cheerful smile... though you can see Chek Chek starting to perspire with all the carrying!

Caleb requested that I take a photo with him :)

The little boy was supposed to take a photo of me while I take a photo of him :)

The 1st few times he used the pose after learning it in school.

Blessed Caleb

As much as Caleb has been a blessing to us, bringing us joy and fun, he too has been blessed richly by God. We have rarely bought toys for him ourselves, but he has so many toys that we have to ration them for him by keeping them in the store and bringing one out every month.

This year, once again, he has lots of presents and we are truly thankful to all the uncles and aunties for all of them. Caleb himself has lots and lots of fun opening the presents one by one excitedly. Even as I'm blogging now, he has just received a few more presents from Chek Chek, Caleb's grandaunties and Caleb's grandma's bosses. Thank you all!

Look at how happy Caleb is with all his presents.

Happy to pose with Mummy and Daddy.

And also Grandpa and Grandma.

Special highlights go to this Dora playset. Dora has been a favourite of Caleb this past few months, having watched the cartoon, Dora the Explorer. I must say it is quite an educational programme and Caleb did learn a fair bit from it. Wife read somewhere that boys (yup, especially boys) at his age will always have a "favourite" toy or object which they will always hang on to. Well, for Caleb it is Dora.

In fact, Caleb has got a specific Dora figurine that he always has with him almost 24x7. Well, he lost it recently but it was promptly replaced by another Dora figurine from the above playset. Nevertheless, here's a photo of it for rememberance sake :)

Changi Airport Terminal 3

As true blue Singaporeans, with little places to go to, we went to the new Changi Airport Terminal 3 for a "walk-walk", trying to work out Caleb's energy, even though the terminal itself is not operational yet and none of the shops are open (credit to the airport though that even though the terminal is planned for opening only on the 9th Jan, we can see the shops well-stocked already, with the cloth racks, display counters etc all fully laid out).

Here's a pic of the departure floor.

Caleb was standing next to one of the dust bins that has got a bin each for cans, paper, food and "one more category which I can't remember". Glad we're doing our little parts to save the earth.

Here's Caleb making a comment on one of the displays.

Caleb was scrutinizing the T3 brochure quite intently. Grandma, who was there with us, commented that he knits his eye brows when he is concentrating, exactly what his daddy (that's me) would do too. Yup, I agree. I too would knit my eye brows when I concentrating intently.

Then we took a sky train to T2 for some Macdonald's ice cream (ended up eating nuggets, ice cream, fries cos Caleb wanted to eat all of them!). When the intercom announced that all passengers need to hold on to the railings, Caleb immediately reached out for the nearest railing and told all of us to do the same. He's always been an orderly kid, think he won't give us much problem with discipline in school in the future (maybe except for being talkative, which his grandparents have been called up to school for before, when his daddy was in school :)).

Grandpa and Grandma then each took a photo with Caleb at the Christmas Tree at T2 before we went to Macs. Caleb is old enough now to know how to pose for a shot, but not quite old enough yet to be truly creative about posing :) This pose (with the victory sign) was taught by his school was they were taking class photos.

My Friend, The Fish...

Last week, I was eating my dinner and Caleb came to join me at the table. I had steamed a fish that night and he pointed to the fish and he started a conversation about the fish.

Caleb: Mummy, is that the fish bones?
Mummy: Yes
Caleb: Is it hard?
Mummy: It's hard, see... ( I poked at the fish head to show him)
Caleb: Mummy! Why did you eat the fish?
Mummy: oh, coz fish is good for us. It gives us strong bones.
Caleb: but... but... it's my friend... that one... Mummy, why did you eat my friend, the fish???
Mummy: (Huh! Great! I ate his friend!!!??!!) eh.... well.... welll... but u ate the fish for dinner too right?.. (Ya, I know, not the best answer to give him... but I really didn't know what else to say..)
Caleb: but... it's my friend... why you eat my friend.... ( ya, and he went on and on for a while muttering to himself and sounding quite dismayed...hopefully I'm not creating any fish phobia in him)

Last night, again we had fish for dinner. This time round, I pan fried some fish fillet. I had actually finished the plate of fish when he came to the table to join me. This time he pointed to the empty plate and started going on about the fish again!

Caleb: Mummy, where's the fish?
Mummy: In my tummy.
Caleb: Mummy, why you eat the fish? It's my friend! Why did you eat the fish, my friend?
Mummy: (Oh great! Here we go again!) Um... well, I didn't know it was your friend so I ate it up. Why is the fish always your friend?
Caleb: Ya Mummy, it's my friend... that one... (and he starts sounding a little upset again)
Mummy: Well, I've eaten it up... so what do you want me to do?
Caleb: Take it out of your tummy and put it back... then I can see my friend the fish again.
Mummy:................ (well, I really didn't know how to answer him... so I did something that I usually don't do... I pretended I didn't hear him and carried on with my dinner. Ya, maybe I didn't handle it well BUT, I really don't know what else to tell him! Anyway, he moved on to another topic when he didn't get any response from me.)

I really don't know what is it about the fish and it being Caleb's friend. I mean, whoever planted that idea into his head??!! Whatever it is, I guess I'm fine as long as he's still eating fish and don't show any dislike for it. Ha! Or maybe I should look on the bright side and be happy that my son feels such great compassion for the fish.

Croup Attack!

Yup, my poor Caleb is sick again! After having a prolonged cough for 3 months, he finally got well. After our last visit to the pedi, she suggested trying one more course of antibiotics. That dose of antibiotics appeared to work wonders coz within 3 days, Caleb's 3 months old cough disappeared! But he still had to continue with his nasal spray for another one and a half months coz his nose was still inflamed.
Anyway, it was nice for all of us that Caleb finally got well and we were able to bring him swimming and let him eat anything he wanted. That kind of lasted for like 3 weeks before our dear son fell sick again!
This time, Caleb has caught a viral infection which infects the voicebox and large airways. According to the doc, he has got Croup. Symptoms of Croup including having a very loud cough, somewhat sounding like a barking seal. And when he cries and breathes, he gives off a very loud wheezing sound. Me and Daddy were a little alarmed on Monday night coz he woke up at midnight and started coughing and crying nonstop. And he sounded really bad, as though he was choking on something in his throat. And he was crying so hard, he couldn't tell us what was wrong. Then we realised that he was running a fever and appeared to be in great discomfort. It took us a while to calm him down and put him back to sleep. Thank God he slept through the night after that.
Well, when he woke up the next morning, he seemed much better and quite chirpy but he still had the nasty cough and a slight fever. I thought I had better bring him to the doc since he's still got a slight fever. Well, thank God I did coz the doc said that it was good that we brought him in early. If he didn't go on medication soon, his cough would get worse and by the 2nd day, he may start to lose his voice and coz the inflammation is very close to the lungs, sometimes, it may lead to bronchitis if left untreated. And if it got severe, he would have to be hospitalised. But all in all, the doc assured me that the symptoms really look much worse than it really is and since we brought him in early, we'll probably not see the full blown symptoms.
Well, after taking the medication, I must say Caleb really looks quite well, except for an occasional cough. Doc warned me that he might get high fever but thank God, he hasn't had any at all. We're keeping him home for the week so that he doesn't spread to any of his friends. Hopefully with lots of rest, he'll recover before the end of this week and be well again.

Is Caleb Ready For Meimei's Arrival?

As the day of Meimei's arrival approaches, I've been wondering whether Caleb is ready to receive her into our family. From the very initial stages of my pregnancy, we had already started talking to Caleb about a new sibling. He had always said that he wanted a meimei so that seemed like a positive sign. But ever since I got pregnant, he has been increasingly sticky and whinny and manja. Yes, many people have told me that it's the result of my pregnancy and he wants more attention from me. Well, anyhow, me and Daddy are trying our best to help him cope with the idea of having an additional family member.

At times, when we talk about Meimei and we talk about sharing toys with Meimei or talk about where Meimei will sleep or ask Caleb whether he will help out to take care of Meimei, he has always sounded quite positive. Sometimes, he'll take a ball and talk to my stomach and ask loudly,"Meimei, you want to play ball with me?" Other times, he'll come and pat my stomach gently. Or he'll come and talk loudly to my stomach when he comes home and announce,"Meimei! I come home from school already."

Whilst on the surface, he seems ok, but he has other reactions that tells me that he may feel a little insecure about having a sibling.
Well, for one, for the last 4 nights, he has been waking up in the middle of the night and trying to crawl into bed with us to sleep with us. I'm really not sure what's causing him to wake up coz he's not sick or anything. But that's what he's been doing. It's quite hilarious at times actually coz he'll gather all his pillows and bolsters (that's like 2 pillows and 2 bolsters) and hurl them all onto my bed before trying to make himself comfortable beside me. Of course we don't want him to make it a habit so every night, we chase him back to his bed to sleep. Sometimes he'll start to whimper and start to call me in a very pitiful voice when he gets sent back to his bed. And that's when Daddy steps in with his stern voice and tells him to go back to sleep.
Maybe he's training me for the night feeds that will come when Meimei arrives.

The other night, I was playing with Caleb. He was holding on to a toy taxi and telling me about the people sitting in the taxi. Well, according to him, he will sit in the backseat with me holding him. I tried to test him by asking where Meimei would sit. He told me that Meimei was in my tummy. So I asked him again, "what about when Meimei comes out? Where will she sit?" And he said,"Mummy carry Caleb and carry Meimei to sit at the back." So, I went on and said," Oh, but I can only carry 1 person. So how?" and he replied," then Mummy carry Caleb. Daddy carry Meimei." I was like... hmmm... ok....

There was this other day when I asked him whether he would share toys with Meimei and he said yes. And then I asked, what about Daddy and Mummy? Will he share with Meimei too coz she will call us Daddy and Mummy too. He stood there, froze and frowned for quite a while before moving on to change the subject without giving me any answer.

Well, I guess maybe it's really not a concept that he's able to grasp and accept, especially since he has never seen Meimei physically. Anyhow, me and Daddy are praying that he and Meimei will take to each other very well and hopefully when the time comes, it'll not be too big an adjustment for him. Yesterday I brought him shopping and asked him whether he wanted to buy a present for Meimei and he was very enthusiastic about it and helped to choose something for her. And I've prepared a present for Meimei to give to him in exchange. So hopefully, that'll be one small step to ease the transition.