Hurray

Yeah! My son has pooed! Smelly but Yippee :) haaha :)

Toilet Training Reuben

Reuben is almost toilet trained in the day time. When we're at home or out for short trips, he goes diaperless. But for longer trips, we still let him wear his diaper. He also wears the diaper before he sleeps at night. However, ever since we've let him experience being diaperless, he loves it and when he needs to wear diaper at night, he will whine, though he doesn't protest violently. So far, he only had one mishap yesterday when in school. If not, he's doing fine.

However, now we do have a problem with his bowels. He is very used to passing motion into his diaper. Now that he has no diaper on in the day time, he didn't know how to go about doing "it". As a result, he was constipated for 4 days and we took him to the doctor and 2 days ago (till now) he has not done "it" yet. We tried giving him prune juice at first but at the first sight of the dark-looking liquid, he rejected it. My mom gives him one bottle of vitagen a day to help in his intestinal digestion but it doesn't seem to help. Well, if by the end of today he still doesn't pass motion, I'll have to resort to the medical way - give him 5ml of Lactulose BP. :(

Reuben in his new underwear. We bought him a box of 'Thomas and Friends' briefs and he loves it very much. The one he's wearing in the picture is "Little Bo Dog" (not Calvin Klein. heehee). In the next picture, Reuben's 'shee shee pot' is hung in the toilet, above his 'Toy R Us' toilet seat.

This is mommy-made "shee shee pot" for Reuben. It's made of a disposable plastic bowl and I can let him pee anywhere in the house. After using it for a few days, I'll dispose it and change a new one. It's economical and hygienic.

Firefighter Reuben

There's a fire, there's a fire. Help, Firefighter Reuben! Get your skipping rope (Oops!) I mean, get your fire hose! :)

Watch this before the role play for more meaningful play :)


Reuben and Phoebe love this Barney Fire truck song :)

Sharing

Papa has just got his Iphone 4G in August. There are many applications for the children. Sometimes the children will fight to use the phone. Sometimes they will share. It's nice to see the both of them sharing. It's a lovely sight :)

Reuben can navigate the Iphone by himself. He is 30 months old. This is Reuben's favourite You-Tube video, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. He also likes 'The Elephant Song'.


Phoebe and Reuben would giggle at the silliness of this song and imitate the "no,no, no..."

POSB Run For Kids

Another backdated one. Phoebe and papa joined the POSB Run For Kids on 19 September. It was held in Anchorvale CC, very near our place, so papa decided to sign up for it. Phoebe was very disappointed when she found out that there was no medal for all the children, unlike in the Sprint Kids 2010 event. To add to her agony, the morning was extremely hot and Phoebe was tired and whiny. Look at her bittergoud face. Haha. She kept asking her papa to carry her because she was tired.

This little girl gets very uncomfortable when she feels hot and sticky. Whenever we go out for meals, she would ask, "Are we going to a hot hot place or cold cold place for dinner?" And if we say that we're going to a hot hot place, she'll whine, "Huh!!! I don't want to go to a hot hot place. I want to go to a place with aircon. It's nice and cool." *sigh*

In the early morning, Phoebe was still fresh-faced & clean. After waiting for some time, the weather got more humid & Phoebe was exhausted even before the event started.


The weather was very humid. Even before the event had started, Phoebe was already very lethargic. Her papa encouraged her to run a little but Phoebe was reluctant to run or even jog under such weather condition.

A Little Malay Boy

This is a backdated entry. Reuben's school celebrated Hari Raya Puasa on the 13th September. The children are supposed to wear their own outing clothes or traditional costume. So I decided to borrow a set of Malay costume from Auntie Suhailah. The costume fits just nice! Reuben did look a little like a Malay boy. This is what I like about Singapore - our diversity in culture. So our children can get to experience the richness of other culture. Reuben came back home that day, saying "tutupat", meaning "ketupat". The teachers have taught them some names of Malay food and items.

Reuben's 'tutupat' vs the real Ketupat

Thank You Auntie KF

Phoebe is going to be five in another 2 weeks' time. Auntie KF is always the first to give her her birthday present. Last year, Phoebe received a musical birthday cake which can do short recording. Phoebe loved that gift very much. She loves to do recording of funny noises and she would playback and listen to the recording and laugh at herself for her silliness. She made Reuben laugh too. This year, Auntie KF gave her a library of Dora books. Phoebe loves to watch Dora in okto. She was delighted to have the books and told me to read them to her immediately. :) Thank you Auntie KF for the lovely books! :)

Pictures From California

Here're some of the pictures from San Francisco, California.

We went to send papa off to Minneapolis and then a week later, my dad went to send me off to San Francisco. It was 7+ in the morning and the children were still asleep. So we had to sneak out quickly and quietly but Phoebe woke up looking for her missing one sock. She has the habit of wearing socks when she sleeps at night. My mum attended to her immediately to distract her while we sneaked out quietly.


This was our hotel room, small but cosy and nicely decorated. Warwick San Francisco Hotel, we paid about S$1100 for 6 nights stay. The next picture was taken in Union Square, which was just five minutes walk from our hotel. Union Square is the hub of shopping, very much like our Orchard Road.


My cousin, Lisa. Her family lives in San Francisco for almost all their lives. They were previously from Hong Kong. Sight : Golden Gate Bridge

Palace of Fine Arts, apparently, many couples like to take their wedding photos here. The next picture, Lombard Street aka Crookedest Street. There are people living in both sides of the Crookedest Street and they are the ones maintaining the flora and fauna on their street. See the cars coming down the street in a zig-zag manner?

Chinatown. We ate Tim-Sum there. This is a view of the North Beach. The blocks of houses are very neatly arranged. In the background is the Coit Tower, the tip of the tower represents the nozzle of a firehose.


We also took a ferry to the ever famous Alcatraz, a federal state prison for notorious criminals. I thought the prisoners were treated well, no torture, no starvation. They had proper meals with good nutritional value and welfare. Maybe the only unbearable thing was loneliness and strict routine. But of course, if they misbehaved, such as, instigating fights or quarrels, then they'll be locked up in a small dark solitary cell, in their bathing suit, for up to 2 weeks. The next picture was Fisherman's Wharf.


In the Alcatraz, we put on the headsets for the guided tour. After Alcatraz, we visited Fisherman's Wharf to enjoy our lunch, Fish and Chips and Seafood Platter.


Fisherman's Wharf is just next to Pier 39. We stopped by Hard Rock on the way to buy some T-shirts :)

Each shop in Pier 39 has a theme and they're very attractively decorated.

We went to a souvenir shop with the Alcatraz theme. They have Alcatraz prisoners' "clothes" for adults and kids. A real novelty but we didn't buy any of these. Haha. And from the window of that shop was a beautiful view with yachts and sailing boats.


At Pier 39, we see Sealions, basking in the California sun and swimming freely at the pier, lazily "parking" themselves at the berth to sunbath. The next picture was taken in Castro, a place where the gays and lesbians like to congregate. We took a tram to Castro and the sky was getting dark, so we only walk around the station to look at the rainbow flags. I didn't dare to venture any further than that.


On the last day, my cousin's husband, David came to fetch us to the airport. It was very kind of him. While on the way to the airport, we droved passed by the Civic Centre. I quickly snapped a picture of the building when the traffic lights were red. In the next picture, papa was surfing the net during transit in Seoul, Korea. We were only about 6-7 hours away from home.

This is a must-ride when go to San Francisco. We took a Cable Car from Pier 39 back to Union Square. Each ride is US$5 per person. It was a fun ride, even more fun if you stand at the side and hang by the poles :) The Cable Car station is in front of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. We sampled some yummy free "Pumpkin Spice" chocolates, which was their latest flavour, in line with Halloween.

Away From Our Children

My hubby had to go to Minneapolis one week before the September school holidays for a conference. I joined him one week after which coincided with the September holiday. School ended on Friday and I flew off on Saturday morning, 4 September. We came back Singapore on 12 September, so that gave us 7 days in San Francisco (plus 2 days in the plane). It's a good break for us at the right time.

The children stayed over in their grandparents' place and they were happy about it because it was like a sleep over party. At night, Phoebe wanted to sleep with her grandparents on the king-sized bed while Reuben prefered to sleep with Auntie Nia in the living room. Only Phoebe asked for me but there was no whining or crying. Reuben was too young to be able to tell the difference between day and night :) We spoke to Phoebe on the phone once (4 Sept US time and 5 Sept Singapore time) and that was it. That short 7 minute talk actually cost S$27.40 which I didn't realise until this week when I received my handphone bill. But I guess it was alright :)

Throughout that whole week, I tried to give Phoebe 2 pages of written work to do each day, just to keep her occupied. There was a variety - Chinese, English and Mathematics. Her gong-gong sat with her just to make sure that she did her work even though there was some coercion, persuasion and coaxing each day. I think Phoebe still needs to instill that discipline in her, despite the fact that I do give her a short piece of work to do daily on weekdays.

It was my third time in San Francisco. We did some sightseeing and of course, bought lots of stuff for the children, parents and ourselves. Even though the children were not with us, we never fail to talk about them all the time and shop for them. I've also bought some Coach bags for sale, not so much to make money, but mainly just for fun. We also met up with my gu-ma, cousin and her family who live in San Francisco. We have not seen them for a few days, so it was a good gathering. Coincidently, it was also US's labour day, hence they were able to show us around and we had quite good discounts.

We reached Singapore at about 1+ a.m. in the morning of 12 September. We were pleasantly surprise to see two drawings on our pillows, done by Phoebe and Reuben. Apparently, my parents took them all over to clean up the place 2 days before we came back. How thoughtful of them! :)




I was very happy and missed them so much. In the morning at around 9+ a.m., we immediately went to fetch them, despite having only 3+ hours of sleep. I unpacked the luggage till 6 a.m. in the morning.

So this is our first time away from our children. We did enjoy ourselves very much without them. But there were many times I wish that they were also with me to share the beautiful scenery and fun experience. I will definitely take them to US or anywhere else for holiday, but not when they're older because I think it is torturing to make them endure the 19 hours of flight. In the meantime, we'll just go to the neighbouring places for short trips.

I'm very thankful for my parents. It's because of their joint efforts in looking after the children so well, that we can have the peace in mind to go for our trip. I'm also thankful for Auntie Nia for helping out in the household and tending to the children well. Of couse, I must thank my hubby for my air tickets to US and the acommodation that he has paid for. Most importantly, we also thank God for making all these happened and His wonderful timing.

Flap Your Wings and Fly Phoebe

I've failed. I wanted to record some entries before the clock struck 12 on 30th Sept but I failed. I couldn't fight with the Zzz monsters. Is it because my days are so packed with activities that my energy was all drained or is it simply because my age is just catching up on me? I think it's both.

Anyway, every night before sleeping, Phoebe will need to visit the bathroom one last time before lights off. So as usual, last night, she went to relieve herself. Then she called for me. What for? To tear the toilet papers for her and clean her up. I was lying on the bed lazily and was reluctant to move. So I gave her an excuse.

Me : Phoebe, you're a big girl already. You need to wipe your backside by yourself. Make sure it's clean and dry. Then you flush the toilet, wash your hands and switch off the lights. You know the drill. Next year, you'll be in K2 and then you're going to a primary school soon. You have to do all these by yourself. Your primary school teachers will not do it for you.

Phoebe : Mommy, I want to go to your primary school.

Me : Why?

Phoebe : So that when I need to go to the toilet, I can look for you to ask you to help me wipe myself.

Me (and my hubby nearby) laughed. So I told him,

Me : (to hubby) See! She cannot be in the same school as me. She needs to be in her own school. She needs to be on her own and learn to be independent. She needs to flap her wings and fly and get out of my wings. She cannot be under my arm(pits) all the time. :)

Phoebe wiped herself, flushed the toilet, washed her hands, switched off the lights and joined us in bed.

Me : Phoebe, from next year onwards, you need to learn to wipe your backside after you have poo poo coz no one will do it for you when you're in Primary school. You need to practise at home first. Even if we're in the same school, you can't ask me to help you because I might be having lessons and you may not be able to find me. So you have to learn how to do it.

That's my Phoebe. She's still a baby to me. She needs to learn to flap her wings and fly. She needs to learn to be strong. She's my funny girl always!! :) Love her crazy! :)