My funny man

Gerrard has always made a fuss when we ask him to wash his hands or take a bath. I think it's because my timing is never right, it is always while he is in the middle of some important play or something so he will sulk and cry. That day I was telling him that I realized he cries everyday, inclusive of all little cries, long cries and fake cries. I said it's quite an awful lot of crying in a year.

Surprisingly, just now when I asked him to wash his hands as we are getting ready for bedtime, he replied "okay". I did a double turn...

Me: Gerrard, did u say ok?
Gerrard: yes!
Me: wow! (speechless for a moment)
Gerrard: I'm good boy right?
Me: yes! Good boy!
Gerrard: 外婆 say if one day I never cry, she will 中马票 and give me. But it is just today, not everyday ah!! (with a big grin on his face)

Munchkins or Mummies- Both are learning all the time

Gerrard loves activity books, especially those that has anything to do with the Alphabets. Mention alphabets in any form and it catches his attention instantaneously. My mum does a set of English, Chinese & Math books with him during weekdays and I thought since I am on leave, I could do some with him as well as I have ran out of toys for him to play with.

How difficult could a pre-school exercise be right? Ha, think twice. I had lost to this "Phonics Enrichment Book for preschoolers". There is this particular page that requires us to say the sound of each letter then find and paste the picture that begins with the sound we made. It started out ok until I reached the word "j" and upon seeing a cup sticker, as there isn't a "c" in the exercise, I automatically assumed it is a jug and told Gerrard to stick the sticker in the "j" box. The real challenge came when I saw the "m" box and there isn't any stickers left except for the airplane. As there isn't an "a" and nest is definitely in the "n" box, my heart started to beat a tad faster. I quickly flipped to the last page for the Answers only to realise there isn't any answers page in this book!! OH dear!

All this while, Gerrard has been quietly observing how Mummy started to panic and he didn't really understand why is there no "answer" to the "m" box. He looked to me for directions... and I told him, no worries, this is a very difficult word, the picture is actually a military plane so it belongs to the "m" box. He appeared apprehensive at my explanation but I insisted I am right and that he sticks the plane sticker in the "m" box and we called it a night.

Just as I laid in bed last night with a million other things running in my mind, the exercise page suddenly flashed across my head and at 1.30am, it is as if a light bulb had lit up. The cup is actually a MUG and the plane is a JET. It is that simple- why the world did I not think of it in the first place? DUH, what a boo boo!

Life is already complicated enough as it is, sometimes thoughts just need to be a bit simpler and you'll get the picture :)

2 August 2011- Living the life of a full time mummy

It has been 4 months since I last posted and my last post on 28 Mar doesn't even count as a decent post as I remember I posted it while lying on the bed at 2am after I have finished my work and looking at Gerrard while he slept. For the hard work I have put in for the last 4 months, I was granted 3 weeks of leave. 3 whopping weeks.. the last I experienced this was in 2006 when I was still in my previous line of work where we get to rest more than 1 week after we had worked our butts off the past 3 months.

I set out hoping to achieve A LOT during my break, thinking that I will go shopping, catch movies, read books, manicures, playing new pieces on my piano, learning to cook (yes, even that), revamp my house, play lots of engaging activites with Gerrard and the list goes on. However, it turned out that I am experiencing the life of a full time mummy. I wanted to put full time "housewife" initially but as I didn't learn to cook at all, I can't be considered a housewife right? This period feels abit like my maternity leave, where I am at home all the time, looking after Gerrard, with my maid doing the cleaning up and my parents doing the cooking. It may seem great that I have so many people helping but I am already struggling. I feel so so tired, even more tired than I was working. I think it has something to do with age and I cannot catch up with Gerrard's enthusiasm and action! And it doesn't help that now he is in the "Terrific Three" stage where he is so active, understands everything except instructions on "No" and "Cannot". Everyday, I am almost yelling "No, don't do that" or "Cannot touch that", "Cannot climb" etc. He will only show a flicker of acknowledgement at my yellings but yet with determined nonchalence.

Gerrard has started to not wear diapers to his Kids Discovery programme at Zoophonics. He is already toilet-trained at home but as there isn't toilet facilities within the school, the teacher would have to bring him to the public toilet which is about 50m away. However, since his diaper is always extremely full after class because his teacher sometimes forgets to change for him during the break time, we decided to let him try out. I kept encouraging him to tell the teacher if he needs to go toilet but being the worrisome me, I was still very concerned, below are the extent of my worrying:

1. I really don't like the public toilet coz it doesn't have toilet paper and there is only one child cubicle. As I am working most of the time, I seldom get the chance to bring him to school nor assess the public toilet "situation". One day, as I brought him to the toilet before his class, I saw the cleaner outside the toilet. He was a man in his mid-forties and he was smoking. I was about to complain when I thought, who can I complain to other than my parents & my husband? Who will care about it since there is nothing much I can do as it is a public toilet right? I thought it was very inconsiderate for him to be smoking while that toilet is being used by young school children. I told myself to calm down and take it in my stride. A bit of cigarette smell should not linger too long by the time Gerrard uses it.

2. Another day before class when we went to that toilet, I saw that the floor outside had a puddle of water. It looks like it had spilled while someone was washing the floor but did not mop it up properly. Guess what, my immediate reaction is to take out tissues from my bag to WIPE THE FLOOR CLEAN so that Gerrard will not step on the puddle of water when he comes out to toilet later. I had to mentally tell myself to "stop it, you crazy woman" because even if I can clean the floor once, how can I clean the floor everyday and everywhere that my son goes??

Breathe Irene, breathe...

28 March 2011

Gerrard is like my big soft toy ; my source of comfort and laughter that god has blessed me with =)

20 January 2011 - now who's teaching who

I was waiting for the lift with Gerrard when another toddler girl walked up beside us. She was learning to talk so went bah bah eh eh etc. After we went into the lift (without the girl), I made the remark...
Me: Gerrard, that fat Mei Mei didn't come in
Gerrard: Mummy, cannot say people Fat
Me: oops! (it was really just am unintentional remark) sorry Gerrard, mummy forgot. Then what should we say?
Gerrard: say people thin.....

Now who's teaching who? Haha.. The joy of motherhood ;p

8 October 2010 - Our First

Kenneth & Liting had their traditional tea ceromony on 8 October and Gerrard was tasked with an upmost important job- to open the car door for the groom! The night before, I explained the task to him and we practiced with 2 alphabet blocks as I told him that after opening the door, he needs to pass the oranges to Uncle Ken.

Getting ready to go to Ah Ma's house

Opening the car door



Part I- Successful!

15 October was the wedding banquet at Oriental Hotel. Gerrard was dressed in a suit and many people praised him for looking so smart!

I love this picture- they look so cute standing together!

Although he could not understand all of it coz in the bridal suite, he said it's Gu Gu's house; overall he appeared to enjoy himself. I reckon he thought it is just a very big dinner where a lot of people were eating together =)

Part II- Grand Finale, well done my boy!

Many people could not understand why I am making such a big fuss over Gerrard attending a wedding but it is indeed a significant milestone for him. It is the first time we brought him along to attend a wedding dinner together and is indeed a significant milestone for us as a family. It really took us a lot to reach this stage and I heaved a huge relief that all turned out so well.

10 October 2010 - Touched

Me: Gerrard, quick sleep, mummy needs to work tomorrow
Gerrard: I don't want mummy work
Me: Mummy needs to work, then will have money to buy a lot of toys for u
Gerrard: I don't need a lot of toys, mummy don't work

4 July 2010- Last Day of "Nature" theme at Zoophonics

We've reached the last of the "Nature" theme at Gerrard's weekend Zoophonics class today. For the past few weeks, Teacher Noreen has taught about the different plants and animals in the rainforest and today's session ended with a lovely story about having a Flower Garden anywhere you like; in a box, in a vase etc. showing the children that the beautiful view of the colourful flowers is not just limited to being in a garden.

Gerrard's craft works

Gerrard has been attending the classes for about 4 months now- I can see the improvements he made. Though not by leaps and bounds, but I feel so proud when I see him slowly joining in the songs, dances and story-tellings. He enjoys the craft work too and going to class gives both of us a bright start to the weekend!

His signature cheeky smile

Gerrard is rather talkative and he LOVES to sing. Everyday, he'll be singing and singing, with actions sometimes. And he loves to listen to stories so I've bought lots of books to read with him. Recently, there was the word "enormous elephant" in one of the books so he asked me what is that? I told him it means very, very big. To my surprise, he actually remembered when Yi Yi asked him the next day! We were so tickled and proud of my little darling.

6 June 2010- 'Peace' sign for the camera

Gerrard has recently mastered the 'peace' sign when posing for the camera. Before this, he was about to indicate number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 with his fingers but now he also knows how to hold up the number '2' when taking pictures- it's so cute to see him posing =)

9 May 2010- One of my son's favourite things..

Every night after we switched off the lights and getting ready for bed, here's how the conversation will go:

Mummy: Good night, Gerrard..

Gerrard: Good night, Mummy..

Mummy: I love you, Gerrard...

Gerrard: I love you too... (sometimes, he'll say, I love you three, I love you four... I think he

mixed it up with "two")

Mummy: Good night, sleep tight, sweet dreams...

Gerrard: Sleep tight, sweet dreams, dream of.... toys, books,

Mummy:... cars, balls, numbers, alphabets....

Then I'll sing the ABC song till he falls asleep..

Gerrard is able to recognise and recite A until Z and 1 until 100 before he was 2 years old. He has a natural keen-ness to read out numbers and alphabets whenever he sees them.

Delighted to see the alphabets poster at IKEA

7 May 2010- "Lilo"

Gerrard met a new friend today- a very chatty "Jie-jie" at the children's slide @T3. She's a lovely girl and even agreed to take a picture with us. At first sight, she reminds me of Lilo =)

6 May 2010- We are going to the Zoo, zoo, zoo......!

We brought Gerrard on his first visit to the zoo today! Set off around 8.30am and reached there around 9.20am due to the morning traffic jam. The weather was very hot and I packed along water, porridge, milk, change of clothes and shorts, umbrella, mosquito patches...

Having a Barney ride at the kids' shop- it's my favourite place as it's air-conditioned! A great relief from the scorching heat!

Gerrard enjoyed the Children's playground the most- his 1st time playing with water in an outdoors area! He had so much fun splashing and kicking the water with Daddy.

I love this pic- he looks so thrilled to run under the water!

After lunch, we managed to catch the elephants feeding time and I guess elephants are his favourite animals! He was so brave and fed the elephants some bananas and was amused by another elephant nearby who was swinging his trunk in full circle =)

2 April 2010- Weekend with the ponies

Gallop Stable @ Pasir Ris Park houses imported children friendly ponies which are specially schooled for children riding activities. We brought Gerrard there to have a look but perhaps it was due to his 1st time seeing a real pony, he was rather scared and kept wanting us to carry him. He did not even want to walk on the pavement next to the ponies. Shirlyn & me ended up being the ones who had a fun time feeding the ponies. Their mouths and teeth felt slighly wet when they slurped up the feed from us. We'll try to bring Gerrard the next time when he's older =)

Gallop Stable

61 Pasir Ris Green

Singapopre 518225

Tel : 6583 9665

Fax : 6583 7282

Email : gallop@horseshop.com.sg

Operating Hours : Pony Rides / Lessons

Daily (except Tuesday) - 8am to 11am / 2pm to 7pm

21-25 March 2010 – Yokoso Japan!

With each day leading to the day we are leaving for our trip to Tokyo (yes, we have finally decided to go after so much contemplations), I tried to tell Gerrard that he won’t be seeing Mummy & Daddy for 5 days and during that time, he will stay at Grandma’s house. Sometimes, he will nod and say ok but sometimes, he will tell me no. He grew more and more “sticky” to me, to the extent that each morning when I was going to bring him over to my mum’s place, he will say that he don’t want to go to grandma’s house. After coaxing and he finally agrees to go, he will hold on to me, refusing to let me go to work. There are so many times when I thought of giving up the tickets coz I cannot bear to imagine him crying when he can’t see me.

On the actual day, he cling onto me all the time, like a baby koala bear. I really left for Japan with a very heavy heart. This is the 1st time in my life that I actually had such a feeling for anyone.

I called home everyday while we’re in Tokyo and to my surprise, Gerrard was actually coping very well! The first day when he woke up, he asked for mummy but Grandma told him that mummy went to work and will only be back on Friday. He nodded and continued with his playing.. I felt so relieved and glad that my son has sort of grown up and he understands.
We had lots of fun in Tokyo and we miss Gerrard just as much. I hope the next trip we go to, we will be going as a family.

27 February 2010- First school day

Gerrard started his 1st Toddlers Playgroup weekend programme at Zoophonics Tampines Mart today. He's still very shy as it's 1st time attending a proper class (previously, he attended a trial class at Little Neuro Tree when he was 1 yr old). However, as the parent is allowed to go in with them, I am there to assure him and guide him along. Hope that he'll settle well soon =)

7 Mar 2010- Gerrard's new house!

We went IKEA Tampines this morning for breakfast- I love IKEA coz the food is nice at a reasonable price, it's rather kids-friendly with lots of parking lots, it's near my place and it's very spacious for Gerrard to roam around.

While window shopping, Ati pointed out this tent to me and Gerrard, saying that Gerrard has always said he wanted to build a house. We bought it back and after fixing it, our boy was apprehensive at first about going in. I threw in all his colour balls and went in to start playing around and slowly, he followed me. Soon after, Gerrard kept wanting to "invite" us into his house; I stuck the fish he made in class to the door to indicate that it's his special house =)

My cheeky son

19 February 2010 - A busy start to a new year

The beginning of the year used to be rather quiet for me as the only "event" was Derek's birthday in January. The lunar new year was also quiet in relative to some other people as I have few relatives in Singapore and basically our visiting can be completed in 1 day max.

However, since I gave birth to Gerrard, my busy time will usually start from Nov where it's mine & Shirlyn's birthdays, followed by Xmas and New yr hols, then Derek's birthday, Gerrard's birthday, followed by CNY celebrations.

Derek's family & friends came over to our place for steamboat and catching up during Gerrard's birthday celebration.

Self-made birthday card by Wendy

The 1st day of CNY coincides with Valentine's Day on 14 Feb 2010- the last time it happened was 58 years ago. Liting & Ken decided to mark this memorable day by registering their marriage! The function room was nicely done up and during the time there, I was actually more in the "marriage-love" mood and almost forgot that it's CNY :) We spent the whole afternoon there before proceeding to Holland V for the gathering with Derek's family.

Grand Mercury Roxy Hotel- the CNY decor at the lobby was very nice and Gerrard was excited to see the "Dong Dong Chiang"

The solemnisation

Due to some last minute plans, we were unable to visit Derek's aunt on the 2nd day of CNY. As Gerrard has been requesting to go airport for the longest time, we brought him there in the evening. I expected it to be very quiet and was looking forward to a nice leisurely meal but how wrong was I! It was twice as crowded as compared to a typical weekend and even when we were leaving around 9pm, there were still people who just reached!

Posing with the seahorse in his signature grin =)

Giving Grandma a kiss!

Recently, I have been hooked on Cathay Glass. She, who writes under a pseudonym, has been a foster carer for more than 20 years and I just happened to pick up one of her books, Damaged, at San Bookshop and I finished it within 5 days. Her writing style is very engaging and easy to read. And best of all, it is the first time I could read a book in a moving car without having a headache! I was so touched by the story that I wrote an email to her and guess what? I received her reply that I had never expected to. She even posted my comment on her blog http://www.cathayglass.co.uk/ I continued to rent the rest of her books but Damaged is still the best so far- I feel somewhat like a fan chasing her idol to some extent!

Recently, I've been tasked with quite a bit of projects at work and there's gonna be lots of changes and new exposures. I need all the luck I can have so I just hope that everything will go smoothly. Am also thinking of planning a short trip but that's really too early to confirm anything yet. Hope we can make it!