US in the plane

Caden was so excited to be inside the plane!! ^_^

Happy 2nd Birthday, Caden!

I will always L.O.V.E you!!!
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***More pictures here***

Nervous...

So many things will be happening in the next few days. It’s been a little hectic around here.

Tomorrow will be Caden’s 2nd birthday party --- All of us have to wake up early tomorrow to prepare for the food and other last minute stuffs.

The day after tomorrow (on Monday) at 8am, we will have to leave to the airport to catch 10am flight to Jakarta.

Therefore in the middle of preparing for the party, I have to pack our stuffs for the travel as well.

Last but not least, I will have to take care of Caden for the next 2 weeks (starting from Monday) by MYSELF!!! Oh my gosh…I am so used to have people helping me with Caden…I am not sure in what shape I will be later on. I am hoping Caden will listen to everything that I told him to. *yeah…in my dream!!!*

Suster and the maid will be going back home to their village and I will left with no one in Jakarta as most of our helpers will be going back to their village as well…

Luckily we’ll be staying at my sister’s place whom just gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Alicia. Caden and I can’t wait to see them very soon.

PS: At least I will have a full quality time with Caden for that 2 weeks, right??? *thinking very very hard* ;)

The Invitation

By now, all of our friends have received the invitations. Most of them has replied to say if they are able to make it or not. And among them, only three families are not able to join us for the party.

I can't wait for the actual party to happen. I am hoping that Caden would enjoy his special day, just like I will enjoy myself there.

Caden's 'Quiet' Time

I should said that (maybe) we are lucky to have all those en-bloc sales around our area. There are 3 building that are about to be torn down very soon. So we have lots of cranes, diggers, trucks moving around all the time.

That means, Caden could see his (now) favorite moving vehicles everyday.

Before we go somewhere or after we go home from anywhere, we always stop in front of one of the construction building to check out the moving vehicles. And all the time Caden would be so talkative, telling us to see the digger or to see the truck and crane that were moving, just as if we will not see them if he didn’t say so.

He loves to just stand there and see.

One of our most favorite spot is at Isetan Shaw Centre car park. Every time if I park there with him, I always park at the 10th floor (below that would be too low to see) because there we could see the construction of Orchard Scotts and ION very clearly.

We could stand there for a long time.

PS: Here is a clip from him seeing a digger moving in front of our house.

Moving Vehicles and My First Hair Cut

Oma bought the digger when Mommy was away in the US and Caden has been obsessed with it since. He said 'thank you' to oma (without us telling him to) for hundreds of times, everyday, for the next few weeks.

Oma was very pleased and touched by his gestures.

So as Caden’s 2nd birthday is around the corner, oma decided to buy another moving vehicle for him.

I have been planning to bring Caden for his first hair cut, after his last shave at 7 months old. Today we went to the Kiddie Cuts at Forum (inside the Toy’s R Us). Oma decided to come to cheer and distract him.

The whole hair-cue experience was not so bad at all. Although he wriggle and wailing a lot, he actually quite distracted by the Thomas The Train movie and oma’s cheering sound.

I give a thumb up for the woman who did the hair-cut. She was trying her best to be friends with Caden by giving him balloon, candies, and stickers.

Although in the end the hair-cut looked not so neat (because of too much moving around), I should say, I like it. He looks much better this way.

He look just like ‘little Paul’ now (I purposely cut his hair similar to Paul’s). ^_^

After all the wailing from Caden, oma then brought Caden to find a toy. Then they found this Fire Engine truck which Caden was straight away hooked into.

He just learned about this “ni..no…ni…no” thing (that’s how Caden called it, following it’s siren sounds) a while ago from the book that I just bought for him.

He played with it, refused to do anything else and also refused to sit on his high chair for dinner, so he ended up eating on the floor while playing with the fire engine.

And not to forget, he said thank you for about at least 10 times today to oma.

“Thank you oma…” (with his sign language gestures)

Tennis Lesson Updated

I am happy for the fact that after a few weeks, Caden is improving and doing quite well in the Tennis Lesson.

He used to wonder around a lot and doing whatever he likes, rather than following the teachers’ instructions, but nowadays, he could listen and follow instructions much better, although I am still have to be near him all the time.

The other 3 kids in the class are older and have been in the class much longer than Caden (at least for more than 6 months). And all of them now can hit the ball pretty well. Oh, I can’t wait to see Caden hit the ball by himself.

In the picture, the kids were taking turns to hit the ball. I can only take picture when Caden is sitting down because when it comes to his turn, I have to be beside him, teaching him and make him understand the real purpose of the racquet -- not to be banged on the floor.

I am a bit worried, too, because we are going to absent for two whole weeks, due to our trip to Jakarta. I am just hope that he will not going backwards when we come back in 3 weeks time.

Height: 91cm

His head just barely touch the lower bar window partition of our apartment.

Soon, he will go far above it.

Caden and Mommy

A typical Saturday afternoon

Lantern Festival

Although I was here for my Seconday School and this Lantern Festival has been here for the longest time ever, I never been to one before.

Today would be our first time here.

We arrived at the entrance of the Chinese Garden at 5.50pm where it was still too bright to turn on the lights. But when we just entered the main gate and take our first picture, all the lights were suddenly turned on. From then on, Caden could not cooperate to look at the camera and smile –- he would look around and see the colorful lights around him.

It was a wonderful experience and a very nice lantern experience for us. They have done it so well and we loved it.

To me, the most important is, Caden enjoyed the trip. ^_^

@ 4am

Caden refused to take a nap the day before. Therefore, he ended up sleeping at 6pm.

He never able to sleep more than 10 hours straight before. So here we were at 4am this morning.

*mommy was yawning all the time!*

My Newspaper boy and I

The World Around Me...

I let Caden explores everything around him. I am fine with him touching a dog (though if the dog is bigger than him, which like most of the dogs in our apartment are, I am afraid it might harm Caden in anyway), playing with soil, playing in the playground, or things that some parents find it too dirty to be touch or play with.

In this picture, we were just started swimming when Caden saw a group of ants marching. Then he said, “Mommy… ‘semut’ (ie. Ants)” For a while, we looked at the ants marching and at the same time, I gave him a little story about ants.

I believe that this is good for his development to be able to understand that A LOT of other things are happening around him. Certainly, being the only little one in the family could easily makes him thinks that everything always evolves around him.

I would like very much for Caden to grow up being an unselfish person. Though I know that I am sometimes (okay... A LOT of times) spoiling him here and there, I will try my very best to raise him GOOD! *finger crossed*

*sigh*

People said, I need another baby(ies) so that I am not too concentrated with him. Well, although I really want to have one or two other babies, we (Paul and I) think now may not be a good time just yet.…maybe next year! We’ll see.

Mommy Careless!!

It was an ordinary Monday morning for us. As usual, we went to Julia Gabriel for Caden’s two hours English class. And at the end of the class, when the teacher open the door at 11am, just like the other Mondays, Caden quickly run out without even looking for me.

So I quickly opened my socks and put on my shoes while carrying his bag, my bag and the art and craft of the day.

I managed to catch him just before he reached the main door. Then I said: “ok, let’s find our car!!”

Knowing that Caden was on my left side, I opened the other side of the door. But in a split second, he was moving a little bit to my side.

Which means, his forehead then touched the sharp edge of the door. Then that’s it!!! He cried so loud and for the longest ever! (more than 5 minutes).

His bump was so bad that only about a minute after the incident, I could see the bump get so swollen and around that area, the skin color changed to reddish black color which makes it even worst.

I felt so guilty of not looking twice where he was standing. But luckily, now, at the end of the day, he does seem to forget all about it.

Thank you, Daddy!

With tight travelling schedules almost every weekdays, sometimes only once every two weeks to be home, daddy has been trying to make up his ‘lost’ time with Caden for the past week.

The two of them were always together the whole time. Paul will go out from the bedroom the moment he heard Caden’s voice (even when it is really early in the morning).

Today, we went to the Singapore Zoo. It’s our first time to be in the zoo with daddy. The weather was so nice, not raining, but a bit cloudy. It’s been a while since the last time we were here, and as usual, Caden was happy and excited.

Don't Ask!

Caden would wear this helmet all the time nowadays. Even in this hot and humid weather when his head will be soaking wet, he still wears it.
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He would play and run around the house with this and would be furious if we tried to take it out.

Well, maybe he is afraid that he might bump his head unto something. ^_^

Jab: 1st Hep A

Caden cried like nothing can stop him.

Suster, Dr. Siva and I have to hold him down so that he would not moving.

[“He is very strong!,” said Dr. Siva]

But the moment he is out from the doctor office, he acted like nothing has happened!

[Pictures are taken right after the jab]

Power Swimmer

I’ve bought this Power Swimmer products from US. It’s meant for helping Caden to be able to float easier in the water and swim while pedaling his hands and feet.

And it turns out to be GREAT!

He can swim longer distance now. *happy*

I tried the regular float and the float that you put on your two arms. He hates it! He will ask me to take it out right away. But not this one! I can actually see him gets used to it too much that he might not want to take it out. That’s why I only use it towards the end of our swimming time.

The best investment ever!

This car seat is the best investment I have buy so far for Caden. It cost me a more than $300 (and another $150 for the extra cover) but this works wonderfully, unlike his infant car seat.

In this car seat, other than for safety purpose, Caden would ALWAYS sit still throughout our journey (he would not stop moving around if he is without it).

Not to mention, with this, it’s enables me to bring him alone. How convenient in times when Suster is not around.

Click here for his pictures when he was using this car seat for the first time.

Playful Caden

Green Green Green

I have observes Caden for along time and there is no doubt that his favorite color is green.

I am curious on how he likes this color cos’ I very seldom bought anything in green. If his favorite color is blue, that is understandable because I bought quite a number of his toys or clothes in that color.

But GREEN?

Well, I started buying him lots of green now that I know that he TRULY likes green. He now has quite a few of clothes in green (and mostly are shocking green) and toys too. Then, I bought a few green tops myself, to support him. ^_^

PS: And this would be the color theme for his birthday party...yey!!!

Taken at Noah's 2nd Birthday!

Mommy, Caden and Noah!

LTA Museum

Daddy is free from work today. So we went to check out the LTA Museum.

There was no one at 3.30pm that day. I was surprise to know that it was actually a guided tour museum and we are supposed to call for appointment before. But the lady there was nice to let us in and guided us throughout the museum.

It was very interesting and very well done. But I was a little disappointed. I was expecting to see lots of busses and MRT display (miniature and real one that we can hop on into).

Turns out it was not too age appropriate for Caden. But well, he seemed to enjoy quite a bit there with the nice simulations and pictures of the transportation in Singapore.

Self Feeding

I never really successful in teaching Caden to feed himself and mostly it is because there is always someone around to feed him.

But he is almost two now. His hand eye coordination are almost fully developed, therefore it’s time to force him to feed himself. [He sometimes gets lazy and asked someone to feed him]

Of course the food has to be something that interests him, if not, he would just refuse to eat all together.

Here he was at Mc Donald, eating his favorite scrambled egg ONLY, while waiting for Daddy to arrive.

Thomas Saves The Day!

I bought Thomas tickets for Caden about a month ago. Thomas Saves The Day was the title of this year show. I was excited to bring him here as he is very familiar with the Thomas character (he has the books, the Lego, the clothes, and the toys).

But on the other hand, I am not too sure if he can make it until the end of the 1 hour 45 minutes show.

At 3pm, Caden was ready for the show. He was wearing Thomas’ shirt and pants, Thomas’ socks, Thomas’ watch, Thomas’ bag, and carry Thomas' toys on his hands. So off we go to Singapore Expo.

Haha..!! Turns out, Mommy was WRONG! Caden was so captivated by the show. It was a very catchy and full of songs. They made it really good! They changed the scene very quickly which made young children so hooked into it and questioned what will happen next.

We managed to finish the whole show without any incidents at all! Throughout the whole show, Caden keep waving hi and bye to Thomas and Percy who was the main characters of the show. Caden even took a picture with Thomas’ driver whom also gave him a stamp (on Caden's hand) which he has treasure it so much for Daddy to see.

Definitely we will go to one of these similar shows again. I know now that Caden is old enough to understand and able to sit still to watch a longer shows.

Off pacifier completely

I have been thinking how to stop Caden with his pacifier for a long time. He seemed so attached to it. But at about 18 months old or so, although he asked for it when he woke up, he could sometimes sleep without his pacifier at all.

I think, one of the reasons is because his doctor once told me that I shouldn’t change his pacifier size. Avent made a few different sizes of pacifier with bigger teats for older kids. Doctor said that when you didn’t change it, they will feel uncomfortable himself to suck the too small teats. Caden has been on the same newborn Avent pacifier all along.

So Suster tried to let him off pacifier once in a while and when she saw that Caden is actually refusing the pacifier a few times, she hide it and tried to make him sleep without it at all. This happen when Mommy was in USA.

So now, a month after, Caden is comfortable enough without his pacifier at all. All thanks to Suster.

I told him to throw away his pacifiers to mark his independence day.

Read here why I decided to give him a pacifier.

Caden and Nate

Caden is almost never goes on a train. The only time he was in it is when he was 10 months old and I am sure he forgot all about it.

Whereas his friend, Nathan, takes MRT almost everyday.

Sentosa by Monorail

We went to Sentosa by Monorail for the first time. Wow…it’s was a very interesting 10 minutes journey for Caden. He couldn’t stop saying that he is INSIDE the train even after we arrived at home.

Coincidentally, his favorite color (which is GREEN) comes up most of the time. He was inside a green monorail when we depart and he was also inside a green tram (that took us to Pahlawan Beach). Even the hand-soap was green in color. Furthermore, I bought him a miniature green monorail before we went home.

Caden was very happy that day. When he spoke to daddy on the phone, what he said was, “inside green…”. ^_^

"The face" of the day!

Not to be followed!!

Drinking Soy Milk on a jar??? *ck ck ck*

When Oma is in Jakarta...

...this is what I do to her car!

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PS: If you see this Oma, SORRY! ^_^

Happy!

So happy, surviving with just one egg egg egg (that's what he calls it) a day for the past 4 weeks.
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and it has to be a soft boiled one!!!

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*Mommy shaking head*

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PS: Actually he always ask for more, but I only give him once a day.

Dancing with my favorite partner...

With Ii Ali at home.