Gerrard and his Hi 5- October 2012

For the past month, Gerrard has been crazy over Hi 5 and keeps singing the catchy songs, dance moves included. He has gotten both me and Derek involved in his "performance" and I know I've caught the "Hi5 fever" too when I woke up one morning and was humming the song to myself as well :) 

I did a search on the Internet and found out that Hi-5 is an Australian musical group formed in 1998 by television producer, Helena Harris (who happens to be the creator of Bananas in Pyjamas too). She created Hi-5 when her children outgrew Bananas- what a smart mum!

The Hi-5 crew - his favourite being Lauren (second from right)

This is currently Gerrard's favourite Hi-5 song that he sings everyday- it can be a great mood booster as the tune is very catchy and lifts up your mood instantly! 

Amazing

Wow! What a surprise

You open up my eyes

You really are amazing

Wow! What a surprise

You won first prize

You really are amazing (amazing)

You are amazing

Let's take a rocket to the moon

Check out the stars along the way

Anything is possible

when you can run and play

when you can run and play

Wow! What a surprise

You open up my eyes

You really are amazing

Wow! What a surprise

You won first prize

You really are amazing (amazing)

You are amazing

Let's find a pirate treasure map

And sail a ship across the sea

We can do anyting

When you come and play with me,

come and play with me

Wow! What a surprise

You open up my eyes

You really are amazing

Wow! What a surprise

You won first prize

You really are amazing (amazing)

You are amazing

Wow! Just look at us now!

We can do anything

Wow! Just look at us now!

We can go anywhere

Wow! Just look at us now!

We can be anyone, do anything, go anywhere

Wow! What a surprise

You open up my eyes

You really are amazing

Wow! What a surprise

You won first prize

You really are amazing (amazing)

You are amazing (amazing)

Really are amazing (amazing)

WOW!

 Nightly 'concert' performance..

Changi Airport Terminal 3- Earned a brownie point with us (again!)

Following my earlier post on indoor playgrounds, Changi Airport is one of my favourite place to go as it is spacious, clean, nice dining options and NEAR OUR PLACE. Despite Singapore being a small island where you can drive from one end to the other within like 2-3 hours on a normal traffic day, the last reason is a very important consideration for us when choosing places to venture. Yes, we are practical this way.

2 weeks ago, we went for dim sum brunch at Imperial Treasures, Crowne Plaza Hotel at Terminal 3 to celebrate Mother's Day. As we were early, we took a leisurely walk around the airport as my parents had only came a few times. We chanced upon "The Millionaire Life" at the Departure Hall, a magnificent 3D illusion art piece created by world renowned 3D artist Kurt Wenner specially for Changi Airport. I had seen some of his art pieces online before and was really excited to see it in real life. While the art piece is, in reality, simply a drawing installed on 2 perpendicular flat panels, Wenner's anamorphic technique created an astounding effect that makes the elements 3D and so amazingly real that they seemed to rise out of the picture or deep into the ground depending on the placing your cameras at strategic angles.

Friends would know that I am rather bad at taking pictures as my pictures usually turn out blur even if I use the "anti-handshake" function. However, looking at how these pictures turned out, I can conclude that Wenner is really a very talented artist and the 3D effects are visible, especially for someone who cannot even take stationery, 2D pictures clearly.

We brought Gerrard to the SingKids@PlaySystems at Terminal 3 today and Gerrard attempted the Roller-car on his own. He had mastered how to use his butt muscles (shake his bum bum) and hands coordination to move the car. Although he still get stuck in serving the corners occasionally, it is a great improvement for him and we cheered him on. There were some kids who are older, more agile and took fun bumping into people's cars but Gerrard found it funny instead =)

He also had so much fun in the big bouncing fly-away balloons- this is the first time he was so excited to go in and played with his might!

 Formula One Grand Prix....

 While waiting for dinner, Gerrard suddenly grabbed Daddy & planted a kiss!

After dinner, we passed by yet another exciting attraction- "Safari @ Changi". This event featured a Safari play area for kids to explore and challenge themselves in the Giant Safari Play Area. About 10 kids are allowed to enter at 20 minutes interval (parents are only allowed on the ground level) and there are guides at subsequent levels to help the kids navigate the area. Gerrard was eager to try it out and couldn't contain his excitement. We told him that we can't follow behind him as he climbs and I must have asked and reconfirmed with him at least 10 times that he is ok with that because it is really his first time navigating the levels of an indoor playground by himself.

Much to our delight, Gerrard had thoroughly enjoyed himself in this- it must have been one of the proudest moment in his life. He carefully moved along, had some slips but picked himself up and tried again. Our boy managed to navigate through the play area and we were beaming with joy watching him go from one stage to the next!

 Instructions to children before play

 Hands sanitisation is key!

 Jumping on the tremboline

 Scaling his way up

 Cautiously crossing the "plank bar"

    

His favourite guide

Coming down all by himself

You did it Gerrard- Hip hip HURRAY! =)

8 April 2011- Getting silly

Gerrard has a great sense of humour and he was really tickled when I showed him the pair of big, round spectacles that Daddy wore for his friend, Ken’s “gate-crashing” on 5 Nov. After putting on the specs, he even asked me to show him to the mirror in the room where he can then take a good look at himself! It is very entertaining to be with him as his words and actions are so cute and funny.

Here are some of his antics:

- saying "Ha Ha Ha" when he sees something funny; yes, he actually says out his "laugh"

- covering his mouth when he is giggling

- Being very serious at times and "reprimands" us for being "Silly Mummy, Silly Daddy"

- whenever he is singing the "Cat in the Hat" adventure song where he moves his hands up and down like the boy and girl characters

- Doing the "snake dance" where he will close his fists and roll both arms round and round. He does this whenever he hears music and sometimes he wiggles his body along too

Makes me wonder where does he get this from?

Humour- yes, from me maybe....

Rhythmic sense of grooving to the beat? Must be from Daddy. Definitely.

7 April 2011 - The Mystery of Smell

I smell Gerrard every day.

In fact, I smell him every now and then, especially when I am giving him a hug. I noticed that Derek smells Gerrard whenever he hugs him too, even if he doesn’t have the baby smell anymore. And this is not something I was specifically told to do, nor had I specifically told Derek to do that. Why I say this is because, being first time parents, we literally had to be told what to do eg. How to burp your baby, how to change diapers, how to carry them and so on. However, this action is our natural instinct to do so.

Since the beginning of time, humans “see” the world largely through eyes and ears and we neglect the sense of smell but yet, mothers can recognise their babies by smell, and newborns recognise their mummies in the same way. This seems to have something to do with the fact that smells retain an uncanny power to move us and each whiff of our kids instantly conjure up scenes and emotions of love and protection.

Isn’t this amazing? This kind of emotion and action grows upon a parent... if you have not given your child a hug recently, go on and hug them today, and take in your deepest breath =)

30 March 2008 - And I thought pregnancy was tough enough

Gerrard turned 2 months old today. A month has passed whereby we have taken care of Gerrard by ourselves since Zhen-jie left. Everyday has sort of settled into a routine.. every morning, he'll have his bath, milk then I'll bring him over to my mum's place until the evening when Derek will fetch us back to our house to settle for the night. His feeds have roughly stablised.. feeding about 3-4 hours. During the night, I am the one feeding him while Derek helps with changing diapers, making the milk, washing the bottles and patting him to sleep.

The 2 most important people in my life

This has indeed been a roller-coaster month. I had a "BCG scare" a few weeks back when I saw a swollen bump on Gerrard's left butt. I even applied the nappy cream on it, thinking it might be a nappy rash only to result in it being even more swollen. I turned panicky and rushed him down to the PD. Upon seeing the bump, the PD rolled her eyes and told me to read the health booklet. There was a piece of paper inside which stated the effects of BCG vaccination and the symptoms of it swelling up is NORMAL. She said I am an ignorant mummy and the health booklet is not meant to be just kept in the drawer =P

I felt like an idiot and this episode made me realised that I still have so much to learn on how to take care of another being. Life is no longer about me, myself and I. I admit I am quite a perfectionist. At work, I have always set high standards on myself to excel and initially, I set high standards to be the perfect mummy as well, aiming to being able to handle him very well. Hence, when I faced obstacles such as unable to coax him to sleep or when I can't make him stop crying, I break down. I feel like I have failed and I don't know why. However, after talking to Derek, I started to see things from another view. I need to be more patient and take things as they come. There isn't any formula I can use or any "template" I can follow as every baby is an unique individual.

Sometimes I really feel exhausted as I need to help my mum out in the daytime as well. I feel like my own life is revolving round Gerrard, with no time left for myself. However, every time when I see him lying beside me, sleeping with his mouth half-open, or when he smiles at me in the morning when I say "Good morning baby!", my heart just melts. Last night, I was burping him and Gerrard was half asleep. His whole body was soft and leaned against me like a crumpled sock. I felt so close to him; it is amazing that he "lived and grew" inside my tummy for 10 months and now, he is out to see the world and learning new things everyday. At that moment, I made a vow to myself that I will take very good care of him, give him my love, attention and affection to support him in exploring the world.

Finally settling in for the night- A mighty task for us sometimes!

Carried by Grandma

Doesn't like wearing hats

Shots captured while he's changing

A happy baby after eating!

His hands are so small!