Baby can read & write!

At 25mths, Jarrett is able to write, unassisted, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and alphabets E, F, L (O not counted right?).
He's also able to read a few books by himself. I have no idea how many but his teacher was telling me she's running out of books for J. He's also able to recongnize and count big numbers, his favourites being the 30s series...dunno why.
I have not consulted my parenting books, so I have no idea if this is the norm (probably is, after seeing some of the kids in his class) according to the age development but I am fairly bursting with pride. LOL. My little baby is growing up!

Jarrett and his little friend

Jarrett sitting on the toilet, looking between his legs, trying to pee.

Papa: Are you done?
J: It's not working!

LOL!

Birthday dinner with grandparents - Part 2

Maternal aunties and uncles were away on a holiday in Japan, so only the grandparents with his 2 uncles.
Fighting to cut his cake.

Finally got to cut his cake.

Cheeky Jarrett at 2

Scene 1: Mama really really angry with J.

Mama sitting on the bed, Jarrett standing in his cot facing Mama.
He started combing my hair with his fingers and.......

J: Wow! Mama so pretty!

How to stay angry with this kid?

Scene 2: On the road, heavy traffic. Mama doing a turn.

J: Mama...........be careful!

Awww.............

Scene 3: Eating breakfast - Oatmeal with banana.

J: Good morning banana! Banana go take MRT

His fascination and obsession with the MRT.

Scene 4: Reading a book about a boy named Micheal who is learning how to use the potty.

J: Micheal, where is poo poo? (page 1)
flipped a page
J: Micheal, where is poo poo? (page 2)
flipped another page
J: Micheal, where is poo poo (page 3)
and the same thing for the all the other pages
J: Micheal, where is poo poo (last page)
J: The End!

LOL, he just rewrote the whole book.

Scene 5: Fresh from the shower, papa trying to wrap him up in towel.

Papa: Ok, u want to be Alibaba (wrap head) or Sexy Baby (tube dress style)?
J: SEXY BABY!

2nd birthday - part 1.5

No party on his actual birthday due to the illness, so we tried to make it up with birthday presents.

Opening the present from mummy
Waiting for the train to go thru the tunnel

So happy the train's finally here

Again!

and again!

and again!

and again...on another night. the train has since expaned to multi-levels, multi tunnels, with bridge etc.

the boy's in heaven playing Gorzilla!

the boy turned 2 - Part 1

Celebration at maternal grandparents' place with his loving great grandma, grandpa, grandma, uncles, aunties and cousins.

J turned 2 on the 16th Dec. Poor little boy was sick for more than a week and so his birthday plans were all disrupted. The party in school was delayed for 2 days, dinner with grandparents delayed 1 night. But overall, it was fun. He had 3 cakes this year! 2 small and 1 big cakes. So happy...got to eat his favourite food so many times in a week.

thomas goes to bed

Scene: 11pm, in the living room, playing with his new train set.

Mama: Jarrett, the train is tired.
J: Thomas is coming! Choo choo...................................... (jumping up and down)
Mama: Thomas is tired and he wants to sleep
J stood quietly and watched the train
Mama: Let the train sleep ok?

After 5 seconds
J: Bye bye thomas. Thomas go sleep (we r still working on the grammer)
he bended down and picked up the train and walked into the bedroom.
He then attempted to put/throw the train onto the bed, but failed.

J: Mama.....Thomas sleep (tugging at my hand)
Mama: Ok......

I took the train from him and put it on the bed. He went over and patted Thomas a few times.

J: Sleep.
and bounced off to the living room.

Awww....heart melted.

Jarrett turns 2 today!

The little one turns 2 today. This morning at the time he was born 2 years ago, he woke up to a burning fever and was force fed his medicine. Pook kid. He's been sick for the past few days. We made plans for a celebration in school, and dinner with family but all these will have to wait.

till then.......

After a week of holiday

This morning, in the car, on the way to school.

Mama: Is Jarrett happy?
J: No. Jarrett Sad.
Mama: Why is Jarrett sad?
J: I don't want to go school.
Mama: But school is fun!
J: Go Bali!

Followed by sobs at the school gate again....

2 boys and a bird

MRT & kiwi fruit

Scene: Jarrett crying and fussing for around 15mins in the bedroom right before bedtime. Papa was trying hard to calm him down with distraction, with the usual things like books, songs. Nothing works until he mentioned MRT.

Jarrett: See MRT!
Papa: But MRT is sleeping. Jarrett needs to go sleep too. When you wake up in the morning, the MRT will have waken up and you can see the MRT then.
Mama: Do you want kiwi fruit?
Jarrett: YES!
Mama: Ok, mama give you kiwi fruit for breakfast ok?
Jarrett: eat kiwi fruit. eat kiwi fruit.
Mama & Papa: Yes, you get to eat kiwi at breakfast.
Jarrett: MRT sleeping!
Papa: Yes. so you go to sleep. When you wake up, you get to see MRT and eat kiwi fruit.
Jarrett: ok.

He then flopped down on bed, face down and promptly let out a few fake snores, and after a few seconds.....

Jarrett: Good Morning! MRT not sleeping. Eat kiwi fruit! Eat breakfast! Yeah!!!!

LOL.

ARGH...............................why is parenthood so tough

It's almost the end of Nov and we now have to make a final decision on where to send Jarrett. Does he remain in his current childcare or does he go to Glory Kindi?

We have dragged making this decision for months.
I enrolled J in Glory Kindi early March this year, being the first to apply (VERY KS), thinking I best get a slot for J in my desired kindi ASAP. But then, we started thinking, maybe a child care is better, especially after the grandma raised the white flag and claimed defeat, saying she could no longer handle J.
We could have opted to employ a domestic help and let J stay with grandma till he turns 2 and start Glory Kindi in Jan 10, but then we could see the little one was bored at home and we hate the idea of having our privacy invaded. So we started searching for a child care ctr. Turned out Singapore mummies start chopping places in child care even before babies are born! So the top 2 ctrs we wanted turned out to be full. Heck, even the waiting list is full. Now dun get me started on how long is the waiting list at Nanyang Kindi, it's crazy. It's a crazy world!

So anyway, we finally found a place we like. J started school in Sep and managed to settle down after a few weeks. He seems to like his teacher a lot and been learning lots of new things each week. He sometimes surprises me with new skills or new words. Just yesterday morning when he saw my coffee, he went "Oh mummy coffee!" and made the drinking action. We said "No...no coffee for Jarrett". He pouted and said "Oh....poor Jarrett!"
And this morning, when Wx said "Jarrett, repeat after me. Say... I... am... a..... smart.... boy...".
Jarrett simply said "I'm a smart boy" and it sounded like it came with a smirk (hey! shortcut!)
I'm not saying he's a genius, but he's less than 2 and I am impressed with what he can say sometimes.

When J first started child care, I was still very adamant about him going to Glory. It's a good school with great reputation and most importantly to me, being part of the church, imparts Christian teaching to the children. I love that! I know I am not the most pious person around, so sending J to a Christian school will help greatly in introducing him to the faith. The plan was to use the child care as a temp. solution and transfer J to Glory a few months later. That was the initial plan.

So now, here's the cause of my headaches and Wx's as well:
1) Since J has settled down in Cambridge, we are reluctant to send him to somewhere new and get him to cry every morning for the next few weeks again. It's very heartbreaking and stressful.

2) I LOVE GLORY

3) BUT Cambridge seems to be doing a great job with J. He has been learning lots of new things, has his group of friends and loves his teacher.

4) The teacher to student ratio at the childcare is small, currently it's 2 teachers to 3 kids. It will prob grow to abt 1 teacher 5 kids next year when he moves up to N1.
In Glory, it's 2 teachers to 12 kids.
So in other words, J gets more attention in Cambridge now. But then may not be so next year when he goes to N1, but still a smaller ratio than Glory.

5) Cambridge is full day, with no long sch term breaks. Glory operates just like a normal school and has 2 long breaks per year. ie..no one to entertain J at home during the holidays. Even with a maid to help, the grandparents still can't provide much stimulation. J will definitly be well taken care of, but they are very old school and wun bother with activities to let J explore and learn. I know he's only 2 but he does get bored at home.

6) While I have warm up to the idea of having a domestic helper (dying here), Wx is still very reluctant to have someone else at home.

That's all I can remember now, but I am sure there's more...

So I'm off to kill myself trying to make a decison which I think will be best for Jarrett. Please dun call me, I'll be hard on my kneels, praying for a sign. Will it be a G (Glory) or a C (Cambridge)? Please God, heed my prayers....

First attempt - pics for his passport

scary face. we had to ask him to tone down.

the blur look. had to keep asking him "close your mouth Jarrett!"

turning cheeky

getting a little irritated.

and we call it a wrap. bed time for the little one.

A date with Pooh at the supermart

Why I can't afford to have no. 2

J's first grammatically correct sentence:

"I WANT RICE!"

It's just too expensive to feed these Ngs.

2 weeks into school

The poor boy has fallen sick. We have no idea if he got it from his new friend (there's this other boy who's been missing school) or his papa, who got sick just a few days before him. Anyway, he's been sick for a week, missed 4 days of school. Poor little thing, lost some weight despite his increasing appetite.

Anyway, it's a merry go round, it's now my turn to fall sick. If this means losing a bit of weight, I have no complaints. Ha...

very nice....

Sister rushing into my cubicle.

Sis: Eh..u know ur bro in law's friend? That very eligible guy, with a fortune?
Me: Yeah...the one who has all the girls drooling over him?
Sis: Ya that one! U know the other day he asked your bro in law if I (as in my sis) have a sister..one who is available and as capable!
Me: (perking up) Really? Then what did he say?
Sis: U wun believe it.
Me: (even more perked up) What?
Sis: hahahaha...a norm response wld be that you are married rite?
Me: Yes...(dreading the answer)
Sis: He said....
Me: WHAT?
Sis: Wow...she's a fierce one. U dun wanna meddle with her.

THANK YOU BROTHER DEAR, I LOVE U TOO!

Pictures of J!

First day of school, in his new uniform.
Having fun painting with his new friend.
Chinese lesson. The teacher trying hard to get his attention.
Party on the 3rd day.

The boy's in school.

J officially started school, or rather child care last week. After months of searching, shortlisting and so on, we finally decided on a school for him. We went on the trial, like what we saw and J seem to like it. Asked if he will like to go to school and he said "Yesh!".

The first 2 days, he went on half days, as advised by the principal. So it was all really fun, mixing with the children, playing with all the new toys, blah blah blah. I was with him, so he felt really secure and confident enough to explore by himself while I sat in a corner with a mag. The real test came when he started on a full day by himself. The first day was easy, cos he didn't expect me to sneak off, so all was well, with the occasionally "Mama, Papa", a few sobs which was easily smoothed with hugs and kisses from the teacher. On the 2nd day, again, not much problem. He went in and mingled with the other kids, who seem to like him, and it helps that there are a few older kids who like him enough to look out for him.
There's this cute little boy who asked me "What is his name (pointing to J, and then proceeded to squeeze next to us in the tiny bathroom)?" "Jarrett." "Oww.....I like him, he's so cute!" Ah..this boy, won so many brownie points with me. Hahahaa...
So anyway, when I picked him up early on the 2nd day, thinking not to stress him out so much, the little one was crying and hugging his teddy at the door. Aiyoh..my heart broke.

On the 3rd morning, while putting on his uniform, he told me "Go Ah Ma! Ah Ma! Ah Ma!" He apparently wanted to go grandma house instead of school. Needless to say, there was much crying at the school gate. I swear my heart broke into a thousand pieces when he tried to reached out to me, crying when the teacher tried to carry him away to class.

Today, which is the 4th day by himself, still a struggle. Poor boy...I hope he gets used to the routine soon.

Pictures later, busy with work...

Something's wrong with my blogger, can't post pics. How?