Fire engine toddler bed

So far so good. He has been taking long naps on his bed. But at night he tends to wake up and sleep on the mattress below with his daddy. He's been having flu so mountain man has been sleeping next to him.

Transition to Toddler bed

The long awaited Fire Engine bed finally arrived this morning. Mountain Boy had been anticipating his bed for almost 2 weeks. When I first showed him the picture, he said "mama, buy!" And subsequently when I asked him if he wanted to switch to a toddler bed he said "engine, mama buy".

This morning I got one of the maintenance workers to come in and set up for us. I've never seen Mountain boy sit so still, he just observed the guy put together piece by piece, didn't even ask to watch tv.

Let's see if his first nap and night sleep will go smoothly. He is down with a terrible cough so I am hoping it doesn't affect the transition.

Ready for big brotherhood?

Practice makes perfect...

I know at one point i was lamenting that all the damn discipline books i've been reading hasn't worked shite for me, Mountain Boy was then driving me nuts daily and most of the time i just wanted to smack his butt, confiscate all his toys and leave him hungry. But I started to realize recently that actually he isn't as terrible as i thought. Maaaaybe i should give those experts some credit.

He behaves reasonably for his age. He shares his things, he helps around the house and he pretty much does what i say if i explain to him properly. Of course on some tantrum occasions i've had to be very patient and reason with him very extensively, but so far i haven't resorted to smacking, bribing or threats. Warnings yes, but not threats.

Anyway...

Before I got pregnant with baby girl, I chanced upon this book called Sibling Without Rivalry , written by the same authors of How to Talk so Kids will Listen & Listen so Kids will Talk. The latter book was from a recommended reading list from the Parent Effectiveness Training course which i attended late last year.

The book on siblings is an interesting read, I mostly like it for the comic strips. But the very first epiphany is the parallel drawn between a firstborn and a first wife- having a 2nd kid is like your husband taking on a concubine. I can scarcely imagine what it'd be like for me if Mountain Man took a 2nd or 3rd wife. Imagine him saying how i should learn to like wife #2 cos she's so slim and pretty. gah!

So anyway, I've applied some of the principles on sharing and conflict management on other kids and sometimes the results shock me because they work. Freaky like voodoo magic. The other thing that strike me was how the methods differ from what i thought was right. It has made me afraid to trust my "instincts" a little bit.

But honestly, i will only know that these methods really work until i've applied them to all of my kids and achieve good results. I think I also need to get past the impending Terrible Twos because that is the real challenge. *fingers crossed*

PS: Mountain Boy points to my belly and says "meimei" and kiss kiss kiss many times each day. I wonder if he knows what's coming at him!

Toilet Training!

I wasn't planning on toilet training Mountain Boy so early. It just sort of happened. Sometimes during his bath he would pee into his bathwater and we'd have to empty the tub and refill the water. But not too long ago Mountain Man was able to make him pee at will into a bucket instead of the bathwater. And i thought, if he can do that maybe he can be toilet trained.

So i took off his diaper. The nanny and I would run after him every hr with a small sand bucket and sometimes he could pee into it.

Slowly we progressed to making him tell us when he wanted to "niao" (slang for pee in chinese). For the sake of simplicity, we stuck with the "niao" so the ayi didn't have to say "pee" and he didn't have to process in both languages. There was a short period when he didn't want to take off his diapers so i had to reassess if i was pushing him too hard. But i explained that it was too hot to wear diapers and he can stand and pee like Daddy! That somehow worked.

I always made sure that the Nanny didn't force him to pee like some of the local chinese would. They are very fond of going "shh shh" to induce pee out of the child, and worst still they would suspend the kids in mid-air and make them do the spread eagle which i think is very unsightly! The whole point of toilet training is to train the child to verbalize when he wants to pee, at his will not ours.

After some time of peeing into the bucket, i decided that he should try the toilet bowl. He resisted the first few times but i made him watch his friends do it. Soon after he didn't mind trying. In fact, he enjoys the ritual of us running to bathroom together, stepping on the stool, aiming into the toilet bowl, flushing (his favourite part), and then washing hands.

A few days went by with minimal accidents at home. So we started taking him downstairs diaperless and when he wanted to pee we always just let him do it in the grass or drains. I know it's very unsightly, but it's common in China! At least i don't let him pee on the pavement or on the floors of shopping malls, some do ok. Of course in time, I will train him to only pee in the toilet.

Today i went even further. I brought him out of the compound. We had lunch, we went to a shopping mall, and in the evening we went for a concert totally diaperless! Even during the excitement of seeing Elmo he didn't pee in his pants! I'm super proud of him.

Attaboy! So handsome in briefs.

The next step for me would be to train the number 2. I have heard that it's harder. So far he has refused to poo without his diaper.

What is it with Elmo?! and Barney!

We went to see Elmo's Green Thumb today at the 北京展剧场. To the kids, seeing Elmo is like watching your favourite band live in concert (in my case it would have to be either Depeche Mode or The Killers). There was pushing and screaming and all the violent stuff one can imagine.

Can't see here but he is wearing an Elmo T-shirt and carrying an elmo soft toy.

But to adults, Elmo's pretty much a snooze fest, like this...

This is my nanny by the way, 15 minutes into the show and she fell asleep.

So what is it with these furry colourful monsters? And more importantly why do the kids hail them as rockstars?

Honestly, i think Elmo has his merits. Elmo's world is quite light hearted to watch and it covers general knowledge like what to do when there's a fire, how to treat pets, learning the alphabets and numbers etc... Elmo is very lovable and cute, he asks questions as a child would so i think kids like him. Interestingly, Elmo is left-handed.

To digress from Elmo. Another character that I would recommend to parents is Barney. I used to crucify Barney even before i watched a single episode. But i can say that after Barney, Mountain Boy has learnt how to be affectionate. He would run to hug me when they sing the "I love you, you love me..." song. And the kids in the show are very polite and considerate to one another so i think the show does teach children good manners. The range of topics covered by Barney is also quite wide. Numbers, colours, shapes, animals... all the essentials.

So yeah. If you're gonna be guilty of using the TV as a virtual nanny. Might as well choose good programmes.

Other stuff he likes:

Dora the Explorer- it's his number 1 craze now. He remembers the sequence and he interacts with the programme.

Leap Frog- Letter Factory and Talking Words taught him the alphabets!

Fireman Sam- Totally not educational but he loves fire engines!

The difference between 1 and 2

This is the first belly picture I've taken since becoming pregnant with baby girl. I haven't even taken time to think of a nickname, or include her in the title of this blog yet.

I've been busy, really really busy.

But you know what? I anticipate her arrival very eagerly and that's the truth. I just can't wait to have a baby girl. Already a brand new wardrobe awaits. Leggings, cardis, dresses, tops, shoes. She's going to be so special I know it. We already have a name but right now we'll keep it a secret first, but its gonna be the most beautiful name for my first baby daughter.

I've also started taking a tablespoon plus of concentrated bird's nest every night to ensure that she has fair and delicate skin, compliments of pohpoh in Indonesia. I also take a bit of pearl powder as prescribed by a tcm physician. So if she turns out dark like me, i can't say i haven't tried.

She is kicking a lot these days. Sometimes I feel a jab right through my bladder and it makes me wince. The not so good news is that I'm suffering from incontinence (can so hear pohpoh say "I told u so") from carrying both kids. And my glucose screening didn't go too well so I need to go for the glucose tolerance test. Hopefully all is well.

See u soon baby girl! I love u so much already.

WHAT'S THAT?

The answer is...... *drumrolls*

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Mountain Boy's super large ear wax. HAHA. Becoming a mother has made me immune to gross things like poo, snort, booger and ear wax. Of course i'm only immune to Mountain Boy's "excretions". Sometimes i even have long conversations about texture, consistency and colour. This piece of ear wax here was soooo huge that i couldn't see pass it in his ear canal. I became quite obsessed with it after a PD commented how big it was. One day i could reach it with the ear digger (i know not supposed to dig ears) and out it came. Huge, dry and maroonish for some reason. eew.

Suede Underwhelms

The concert started only 5 minutes late. I think the anticipation build-up from typical hrs of waiting never really got to a high point. Nonetheless, good for pregnant people because we can't sit/stand for very long.

The stage was pretty boring. Just curtains and lights. No special effects or swanky projection. Brett Anderson made no effort to connect with the audience, he just went from one song to the next and to the next.

For the whole night we were waiting for Can't Get Enough which never came, and they skipped Beautiful One too! The setlist was incredibly short, only 15 songs as compared to 18-19 in Taiwan and Singapore, and the concert was over by 840pm! Very unhappening.

Date Night: Suede

Decent seats considering we got our tix last minute!

Summer Singapore: Boys and Toys

The idea of being obsessed with transportation vehicles has always been a mystery to me. I never learnt how to ride a bike till i was Primary 5 (11 yrs old), and that was only because we had to go to East Coast Park for Children's day celebration and i didn't want to lose face in front of my friends. I was (is?) chubby, I was a prefect, so i didn't want anyone to make fun of me. Not surprisingly, i still don't have a driver's license until now, and i suspect i never will.

So back to my almost 2 yr old.

He is absolutely positively bonkers about vehicles. In Singapore he is content with daily trips to the mall via the public transport. In fact it's a reward we used often to make him go to sleep, "Take your nap ok? We'll take the bus afterwards."

But his biggest treat this trip was our visit to the Alexander Fire Station located next to Queensway Shopping Centre, open to the public from 9-11am every Saturday morning. Big, small, long short... all sorts of civil defence vehicles to create havoc in. On some days, the fireman can hoist u up the ladder up to 8 storeys high!!

Firemen Mountain Boy and Cousin ready for the next mission!

They even give u a helmet for keepsake. Mountain Boy wanted to wear it all the time so i had to bring it back to Beijing.

Maa, can i have this one instead?

Project Fatten Mountain Boy: Avocado + Mango

Milk + Avocado+ Mango smoothie

Avocado is the superfood for babies. Its like butter but healthy. Mountain Boy used to eat it a lot but i got lazy because avocado is really expensive and difficult to store. It takes forever to ripe, it's good for 2 days and then it spoils. Reintroducing avocado is quite a challenge now because it's an acquired taste that can be easily forgotten.

I actually love the banana/avocado smoothie combination but he hates it so a friend recommended mango to mask the strong avocado taste. I don't quite like it and i think he doesn't either. So guess we'll have to move on to something else. Maybe i try guacamole?

Summer Singapore: Sentosa

The highlight of our Singapore trip was definitely our 3d 2n stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. Cost an arm and leg but it's the best hotel we've stayed in as a family. The suite we got was luxurious- the bedsheets must have been at least 800 thread count, free toiletries from Bvlgari, and a Nespresso machine! I'm so easy to please.

The launch of Resort World and Universal Studios have really transformed Sentosa into an ultimate tourist dream. I can no longer say that Singapore is boring. There really is so much to see and do.

We brought Mountain Boy to the beach for the very first time and look how much fun he had! Kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the sea, roll around in the sand and refuses to leave. Maybe he is a Beach Boy after all.

He plunged into the sea before i could put on his rash guard.

Of course the best part of the holiday was the company of family. Mountain Boy got to hang out with his cousin and boy did they keep us busy.

A rare picture of both looking at the camera.

Awww...

Mountain Boy has never taken public transport in China so the monorail ride was a real treat. There was once we killed time just sitting in the monorail going back and forth the stations.

Monorail madness.

Lolli-freaks.

The Hard Rock Hotel beach/pool was awesome. The sand was apparently imported from Australia so it's silky smooth and pristine. There's also a water feature and slide to keep the kids entertained. Mountain Boy enjoyed the pool so much that i had to drag him out after an extended countdown.

Can we stay here forever please....

Father and son enjoying to sun.

I felt so sad that we had to leave Sentosa because i've never seen Mountain Boy enjoy a place so much. Let's hope we can go back when the new baby arrives. Till then Sentosa!

Husband talk

True stories.

Story 1

Overheard on the radio in a beijing cab. DJ says that if you observe a member of the opposite sex for more than 8.2seconds, it could be a sign of infatuation or what is commonly known as "love at first sight".

Taxi driver: WHAT? I observe everyone for more than 8.2s!

Me: (nonchalantly)Yeah seems a little short...

Taxi driver: everyone except my wife...

At this point i couldn't help but burst into a giggle.

Story 2

Immigrations officer tried to compare Mountain Boy's passport photo taken at 2 months old versus his almost 2 yrs old face and commented that his face has changed.

And then when the immigrations officer saw my passport photo the husband automatically volunteered information.

Mountain Man: This one's face also changed.

&$#@!