Rhythm in Me!

Matt starts dancing everytime I play the Keel Row track from his Zoom Buggy CD which came with the Kindermusik home package. The tune is infectious! Heather, Matt's cousin, loves it, too.

Matt spends half the time standing still to recover from the dizziness he feels having turned round and round.

Reading

A close friend once said to me when I told her of my unsuccessful attempts at making Matt interested in reading or just flipping through a book - they will when they are ready and decide they will. My friend is a wise sage :)

Matt would take his favourite books, toddle over to me and plonk himself on my lap. Initially, he loved just flipping through the books real fast. I tried reading as fast as he flipped, but stopped after I had a sudden thought that he might be learning something bad through me reading so quickly.

Slowly, he displayed interest in pointing out things that he knew like parts of body, vehicles, of course, animals (after he visited the zoo). Out of the many First Words books we bought, I (and Matthew) like My First Words, Lets Get Talking! by DK the best as the pictures are well organized and spaced out, and the pictures are 'actual representations' of the real thing. Cartoons are great, but I think as an early learning tool, they should be able to link the pictures in the book to what they actually see in real life.

From there, we graduated to all sorts of books. Even hub's NS Pioneer magazine was of interest to Matt as there were pictures of tankers, fighter planes and trucks. I shall mention a few of Matt's favourites -

My Fold-out Bible Stories by Juliet David - This was a gift from Matt's Aunt Celest. Giant flaps open up, down, left and right with colourful illustrations of five famous Bible stories - Jesus heals a man, Jesus helps some fishermen, Jesus walks on water, Jesus feeds a crowd of people and Jesus calms a storm.

How Do I Love You? by P. K. Hallinan - I teared when I first read it at the bookstore, and had to buy it for Matt. It is essentially a love poem from parent to child with the simple message, "I love you unconditionally." Matt wasn't too interested initially, but developed a liking for it (not for the message but for the ice cream and the balloons!) I hope he will like it even better when he understands more of the world.

Clara's Counting Tea Party by Helen Stephens - Matt loves to pull the tabs and watch a new picture emerge each time he does that. The book is about Clara having tea with her friend, Oliver, and they count the things as the tea party goes on. Fun and interactive.

Amongst the best buys from New York when hubs and I went for vacation were some books from Borders near Wall Street. At that time, we felt foolish lugging books around New York City, but Matt loves them so much we now regret not buying more then! I never saw these in Singapore. The first three are part of the Bright and Early Board Books series.

Inside, Outside, Upside Down by Stan & Jan Berenstain - this was the first book Matt showed me that he could follow plot. The book tells the story, through rhyming texts, of a bear who gets into a box, gets turned upside down, gets on a truck, and how he and the box fell off the truck along the way to town.

Big Dog Little Dog by P. D. Eastman - the book stars Ted and Fred, two mutts who are opposite in every way. Fun way to learn opposites.

The Eye Book by Dr Seuss writing as Theo. LeSieg - A big-eyed boy and an equally big-eyed rabbit see everything there is to see. Story told through rhymes about the wondrous world of seeing. A joy to read.

My Very First Book of Numbers by Eric Carle - This is a very clever book where children can find the number of fruits on the bottom half of the page and match it to the boxes and numerals on the top half. For now, Matt just loves the illustrations of the fruits.

He can read these over and again, every night and day. I feel that books are a great way to wind down before Matt's bedtime. It's calming for the little fella, and I feel it's great bonding time between me and the boy.

"Kish!"

This morning, while stoning after waking up from sleep, Matt stared very hard at me, then suddenly he toddled over to me and say "kish mama" and promptly planted a peck on my cheek.

:-)

More Yakety-Yak

End-19 and 20 months, Matt's vocabulary increased many folds.

hi, bah-baii (bye bye), bug, fly, bird, twee twee (tweet tweet), dog, woo woo (woof woof), zoo, sky, kite, sun, moon, pram, book, pants, shirt, chleep, wice (rice), nice, key, wet, cold, fan, dark, bite, beat, on, up, down, go go, box, bear, roar, van, pear, quare (square), heart, wound (round) ...

He can now handle different-sounding syllables, not accurately though -

aish key (ice cream), apple, baby, Je-s (Jesus), wa-te (water), she-bra (zebra), ti-er (tiger), mung-ee (monkey), sha-y'ng (sayang), uh-oh (i love this the most! SO cute) ...

He can also bring two or more words together -

wan (want), no wan, i wan, i wan twuck, mama shit (sit!), shit bus, shit twain, no more bug, papa car, yeye car, ma matt chleep, big car, big twuck, sha-y'ng mama, papa chair, mama chair, i see a bug ...

He can count zero to ten, sometimes missing out one or two numbers in between. He can also repeat after me A to K, then he loses interest.

Oh, and one rare non-English word he knows is "shek" (sayang in Cantonese) and he'd ruffle the person's hair when he says it :)

He also pronounces 's' in his 'bus' these days.

Love For Things on Wheels

It started innocently enough. We take walks every evening. Every day at 6:25pm, Matt and I would wait by the roadside for the shuttle bus from a nearby condominium in our estate to pass by our house. The same bus would pass by again at 6:35pm. It was a treat for him! I so love how his eyes lit up and he would be grinning from ear to ear!

Then one day, I decided to let him be ON the bus. He was intrigued to no ends. The stops the bus made, people getting on and off, the big SBS buses and trucks he sees clearly because of the elevation on the bus. I guess I only have myself to blame - just looking at the bus passing by no longer satisfies him. He has to get on that bus every day!

Staring hard at bus uncle

The bus stops at the MRT station, and I have stayed on the platform with him for a long time just to see the train come and go. He'd excitedly point and shout "twain!" whenever one passes by on the track, and pulled me to get on every time.

He loves twucks, big twucks, van, car, big car, pain (plane), wheeees (wheels). Whenever he flips those My First Word books, he'd look for the page with vehicles and is able to point out EVERY type of vehicles when I name them.

He absolutely loves his toy cars, trains, trucks and buses. He also loves car show rooms. He has been to many many because for a while, hubs and I toyed with the idea of buying a bigger car since COE prices were low.

Hmmm ... perhaps we should stop encouraging him ...

Matt Down with Roseola

Been a rough week. Monday afternoon - Thursday evening, little darling was down with high fever ranging 38C to max of 39.3C. Fever finally broke Thursday evening, thank God, and some red spots started appearing on his face and neck. It was not until then and the appearance of the rash that the pedi was able to diagnose that Matt had roseola, and by then, he was already better. More spots erupted all over his body until Saturday night, and by Sunday, 90% has cleared.

I hate fevers in children. Especially when despite paracetamol, the fever advances rapidly beyond 39C and I am frantically waiting for that 2 hour mark before I can give ibuprofen. I dare not sleep at night out of fear that his fever climbs way up while I snooze. And I just want to be up to make sure he is as comfortable as he can get.

I also hate fevers for the discomfort it puts Matt through. If I had fever that high, I'd feel so awful. He remained amazingly cheerful, although more needy. He ate and slept badly. I can't help but wish that I could suffer in his place!

Matt's high fever always happens when hubs is away and I am home alone. That ups the fear factor for me.

Speaking of ibuprofen, I have 3 different sets of instructions from 3 different doctors regarding administration of this drug, ranging from 1 - 4 hours after paracetamol. Well, I guess some doctors are more conservative than others. Since I always kinda lose my mind whenever Matt has high fever, I am going to jot down for my own good -

Although ibuprofen is for when fever is >39C, it is okay to give if it's mid-high 38C. I often gave Matt paracetamol when his temp is mid 38C, then before the hour is even up, his temp is already above 39C. I learnt that paracetamol and ibuprofen are broken down by liver and kidney respectively. So, I would give ibuprofen 1 hour after paracetamol if really really desperate.

So glad this is over. I was SO tired. I hardly slept, and Matt only wanted me and no one else for everything. I was stressed, worried, clueless, helpless. And of all weeks, there was stuff to be done in the office. To put an end to the rough week, I fell down a flight of stairs near office after work on Fri :(

I am just happy that Matt is well again, and not feeling lousy. And good thing is, Matt will have immunity for life!

Crying .. or Laughing?

Matt has taken to throwing tantrums and crying to get his way.

What do you get from a little boy who's overly-tired and wanting but not getting one of his favourite tv programs? A cheeky grin and laughter in the midst of tantrum crying, and wanting and not wanting ice cream .. make up your mind darling! :)

I want Iggle Piggle!

Have Passport, Will Travel

In the last 19 months since Matt was born, we have taken long vacations without Matthew. We went skiing in Nagano, Japan, in Dec 2008. Our latest was to New York and San Francisco in May / June 2009 (yes, despite the swine flu outbreak). We missed him like crazy during these trips, and survived by looking at photos and videos of him on our laptop. We'd call to check on him, and my mother-in-law will go "today never look for m-a-m-a" without saying "mama" in case it triggers the little kiddo's longing for me.

Anyways. About travels with Matthew.

This is Matt's first passport photo -

Matt's first trip aborad was to Kota Kinabalu, August 2008, when he was 9 months old. We were attending a friend's wedding, which was held at Shangri-la. We managed to leave the hotel ONCE in 3 days.

I remember cooking porridge with sweet potato, potato, carrots, mashing his avocado, slicing apples. Feeding time. Out for a quick walk around the hotel. Milk. Dance him to sleep. Wash pot. Wash bottles. Sterilise bottles. Prepare next meal. Baby's up! Playtime at the pool. Shower. Milk. Dance to sleep. Cook dinner. Feed. Shower. Attend the wedding. Wipe down. Milk. Dance to sleep. Mega wash up. Sterilise everything. Crash.

Same thing the next day, minus the wedding, but we managed a trip to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Wow.

Bottles, milk powder, portable cooker, foodstuff

Enjoying the pool

Devouring his snacks

On the plane on the way home

Would I do it all over again? Apparently yes.

We found ourselves with him in Phuket with close friends visiting from SF in December 2009, a week before our ski trip. He would not have any of the bottled food we bought. Food strike was in full force, and he ate only rice/bread and cheese. But we brought him shopping and strolling along the streets. He didn't quite like the beach, but loved the pool.

Oh! He had his first massive fall this trip while playing peek-a-boo with Robin. He was laughing so hard, missed my arm and fell right under it and down onto the tiled floor. It happened so quickly I didn't even see how he landed. He wailed endlessly but I couldn't find any bruises or cuts except for a flushed cheek. I believe his tummy must've cushioned the fall, and thank God the tile joints did not cut him. We monitored him closely, was alarmed when he didn't finish his night feed, but he woke up chirpy the next morning and seemed well. Praise God!

We are often advised that travelling with Matt so young is pointless because he will probably not have any recollection when he's older. Plus I am SO tired. It made a lot of sense. We were somewhat convinced.

But we are equally convinced that he doesn't need to have memories of these trips. Matthew was excited, happy, intrigued, curious, ecstatic, when he saw the huge pool, the people, the beach, the breeze, the tuk-tuk, sleeping with mama and papa on the same bed, the airport, the plane. Seeing him smile and laugh, that's A LOT. Live for the moment, I say.

By the Singapore River - 9 May 09

Matt was absolutely thrilled when we brought him to the open grounds at Empress Place by the Singapore River. He ran and ran all about, smiled and laughed endlessly, and was intrigued by the boats on the river. It was great to see him so happy.

Marina Barrage - 28-Jun-09

Hubs have been wanting to bring the boy to Marina Barrage for a while now, and we finally went last weekend. Of all days, we picked one that was PACKED with screaming students who were competing in dragon boating. I felt a headache almost immediately.

We persevered and maneuvered through the crowd to get to the top of the Green Roof away from the maddening crowd.

I was so glad we didn't abandon the place.

Atop the Green Roof is an open space with an amazing skyline of the IR and the Singapore Flyer. Many were flying kites or playing frisbees or just chilling out. Matt, who loves open spaces, would have run around the wide green field but he was completely mersmerized by the colourful kites that filled skies. He learnt 'kite' today, and reinforced 'sky' and 'up.'




We will return for the water playground outside the Pump Room that looked very inviting, sans the students.