Watch Kai swim

They're all for me?

Kai probably didn't know what was going on except that suddenly, there were plenty of boxes and paper for him to suck on. For this Christmas, we bought him books. He's already starting to disgest every single word.

Our best X'mas present yet

To celebrate Christmas with Terence's family, we went to Kuriya at Raffles City (Basement 1). Kuriya's fare is always good value for money, and this particular outlet didn't disappoint. The setting is a little more posh than the one at Shaw Tower and the service, excellent.

Here's another family portrait and one would think we had switched roles. Kai looked sane and mature, while Terence and I looked like we didn't have screws in the right place. Anyhow...

Kai's the best Christmas present ever.

Food wise:
One dish to try, and which wowed Terence, at Kuriya was the claypot stewed pork belly that was part of a fancy-named Kuriya set. Very flavourful and the fats actually tasted like lean meat. It was too yummy to resist.

X'mas with Uncle KW & Aunty Patricia

Went to Vila'ge, China Square, with my side of the family to celebrate Christmas. It's been a long time since my brother and Pat saw Kai. Although he's starting to have a bit of stranger anxiety, Kai took to them ok. :)

Fugu

Can't sleep. Must be that cup of teh halia I had with Joy and Jack just now...

Since I'm having problems going to dreamland, I thought I'll just blog about the fugu Terence bought for me about a week ago. Yes, fugu. The infamous puffer fish. Cut it wrongly and you'll DIE from eating it.

I've always wanted to try it but never had the opportunity. It's in season now and they're selling it in that supermarket in Paragon. (The name escapes me now; just too tired.)

Maybe it's motherhood or perhaps I'm really just a wuss. But I thought: "What if it's not cut properly? What if I die? What's going to happen to Kai? Who's going to take care of him? Maybe I shouldn't risk it? But Terence's bought it. How, how how?"

WUSS!

Conclusion: Fugu has a very nice textual. Chewy. Most lovely with the ponzi sauce. It doesn't taste fatty. But skip the innards.

Play time

Terence and I are trying to encourage Kai to play on his own, and understand that other people too need to have time to themselves to get things done. So Terence created this little "fence" of toys (plus cushions to soften his falls), allowing him to entertain himself whever he turns.

If he's with me, playtime is typically in the morning after his breakfast and I need him to "mind" himself while I get dressed for work or get some chores done. Over the weekends, I'll schedule another playtime in the afternoon after his nap. But I'll sit by him and read, something which I used to do quite a lot until he came along. These sessions never last very long though as he'll get bored with his toys.

I was initially reading "A spot of bother" by Mark Haddon (author of "Curious incident of the dog in the night time") during these sessions. It's tough to follow the plot as I only managed to read a few paragraphs--if I'm lucky, a full page--before I'm interrupted by an "Erhhh!"

Just a few days ago, I met Aileen for lunch and she gave me "Like the flowing river"--thoughts and reflections of Paulo Coelho (author of "The Alchemist"). The short stories are short enough (some are just one paragraph long) to read while I mind Kai, and each contains a message that one can mull over for a while. It is a Christmas gift tailored just for these playtimes. Love it.

Cutie crawly

Kai is learning how to crawl now and has managed to get onto all-fours. But after a while, he would flop down on his tummy. Although he manages to move in the direction he wants, he's still very clumsy and slow at it. So he gets impatient and says, "Erhhhh!"

This would be our cue to pick him and transport him wherever he wants to go.

Phut!

Right on the day Kai turned six months, we made him his first bowl of rice cereals. For the first two or three days, he took to it ok. But after that, he'd take in his first bite and PHUUUUT everything out into the face of the person feeding him.

Reading is fun?

Inspired by Terence's Aunty Nancy who taught her daughters to read--not by teaching the alphabets first--but by showing them words and using phonics, I bought the book "How to teach your baby to read" when Kai was one month old. I'd read it when I was breastfeeding him.

It is a very easy book to read. But chapter after chapter, it justifies why children have an amazing ability to learn, how children below the age of five have a tremendous ability to absorb things etc. Now, if all these were kept to just two chapters, it'd be fine. But evidence backing the authors' method went on and on and on... *Yawn*

I threw that book aside.

Then when I was in ELC, Paragon, I chanced upon a set of five books called "Your baby can read!". Reason is that the teaching method is similar to what's advocated in "How to teach your baby to read". I paid S$50+ for them. *Faint*

Some sensible folks reading this blog might scream but they're just "lift-the flap" word books, each containing 13 words printed in bold. Flip the word over and you'll have a corresponding picture. You're suppose to point just below the words as you say it, moving your fingers left to right. Warning: Don't block your child's view of the word (ah but then!).

I used the books when he was 2.5 months old. (Do I hear mothers screaming?) I gave up when he was about 3.5 months. The reason was a mix between "because I'm busy" and that I wasn't sure if it's interesting for him to be staring at words. I just read him picture books from then on.

Then he became "Mr Octopus". Hands are everwhere. No objects is safe from his grasp and the wet, inviting salivating mouth. If it's a book, he'll grab the page, crumpling it as a result and attempt to put it into his mouth. That's how he gets his fibre intake everyday.

This morning, I don't know what possessed me but I dug out the set of lift-the-flap books. He was acting up a little, getting bored with the set of toys put out for him. But once I started reading the books, he actually quietened down and looked at the words. What's best was that there was none of the grabbing and I-wanna-eat-you stuff going on. To test his patience, I read the set of 13 words twice. His attention wandered off a little here and there (like a normal baby would), but he sat there and listened.

Is that an indication of interest? I don't know but it's certainly inspired me to finish the first book. Flipped through to find out where the actual method of teaching babies to read starts--Chapter 7. (There are a total of 10 chapters in the book. Fancy that!) And after reading the contents page, I found that only two chapters are actually useful:
1. Chapter 7--How to teach your baby to read
2. Chapter 8--The perfect age to begin

Am I 'hot housing' Kai? Well, mothers show flashcards to their babies sometime or another. Some would spell out the words before pronouncing them, some would just show the alphabets etc. I'm just making my flashcard sessions more productive.

Well, we'll see how it goes. I need to find time to read the two chapters first, then make the flashcards, then find time to show it to him...

Deadline: Author says we should try to do it before babies turn five.

I think I should have plenty of time.

Yummy

What else can I say? He's teething!

Growing up

It's not just Kai who's growing up. Terence and I are growing up too, learning how to give unconditional love to a new person we've never met until 7 June 2006.

This tiny baby arrived wailing into this planet and changed our lives forever.

Uncle?

This is suppose to be a family blog. But since Terence hasn't written anything yet personally, I consider it my social responsibility to do so on his behalf.

He was walking (somewhere in Shenton Way), when he heard someone saying, "Uncle?"

He continued walking. Then he heard it again, "Uncle?"

Unfazed, he continued on until someone touched his arm and said: "Uncle? How do I get to [insert destination]?"

Perhaps Terence has an issue with age? But now, if the person calling Terence "Uncle" sounded like a kid, he said there's a chance he'd turn back the first time he heard the word. But the person who spoke was a Philippino lady old enough to be his mother.

Dream on, dream away

A quick post before I work on a story:

In the midst of my run this morning,

as I huffed and puffed...

as I tried very hard not to hit the EMERGENCY STOP button on the tread mill...

I changed my mind about doing any marathons.

But I might still get the iPod though.

I had a dream

I dreamt that I participated in a marathon last night.

It must be because:
1. We are doing a write up on a client's participation in the recent Standard Chartered marathon.
2. An acquaintance has named herself "Retiring from marathons" on the MSN Messenger list.
3. The Standard Chartered marathon ads were everywhere.
4. My yoga teacher talked about the guy who collapsed from running the marathon.

Lessons to be learnt from points (2) and (4): I should not participate in any marathons.

When I told Terence about my dream, he said:
Why don't you just do the half-marathon. It's only 21km what.

Only... Only? ONLY!

Ok, at this moment of weakness, I'm considering the 10km option. Which means I'll need an iPod to keep me company. Hmm...

Kai's new clothes

I bought him this cutest (but impractical) bath robe which he can wear to the pool.

Here's one of him looking like he REALLY minds wearing the robe. But another with him thoroughly enjoying the experience.

He's also more comfortable in the water and he loves using his right hand to paddle the water. But he splashes so much water in his face that his eyes turn red.

I-Kai-ea

Last Sunday, we decided to bring Kai to the Botanical Garden for breakfast and a walk in the morning. And since he was behaving so well, we decided to go to Ikea when the sun came out and it got too hot to stroll anymore.

We placed Kai in the child seat of the shopping cart, which drew lots of giggles and "ooh, so cute" comments from other shoppers. But the child seat isn't built for babies, so we were holding him most of the time to make sure he doesn't topple.
Anyhow, he started whimpering after a while so I had to sling him around the shop.

And just for fun (I was getting tired too), we placed him on a few Ikea beds. He was actually comfortable in all of them. So the beds all passed with flying colours.
Then he got really sleepy and fell asleep in the sling despite all the hullabaloo around him. Aww...