Ian Is 18 Months Old

Ian had his 18 month vaccines done at Dr Ong's clinic this morning, accompanied by the 18 month checkup done by the nurse.

We expressed our concern on his speech ability because he was still unable to talk much, but they reassured us that boys were generally slower.  The nurse recommended us to put him into a childcare, because most children progressed by leaps and bounds after a few weeks in the childcare centres.

His weight and height measured 12.3kg and 85cm respectively, which was in the range of 90th percentile.  Although he had not gained much weight for the past 2 months or so, Dr was not worried because his weight was in the top range of the age group.

Once again, Dr reiterated the importance of introducing a wide variety of food, and to supplement more solid food with his usual porridge.  He also reiterated that at this age, milk was not so important because he could absorb the nutrients from other food.  We would have to work on getting him to eat less soupy stuff because till now, he had a preference for porridge over rice.  Dr also gave us a tip: we could train him to eat anything by persistently giving it to him everyday for 2 weeks.  So far, we had let him try a little spicy food and he showed no sign of rejection!

His milestones:
- Able to speak some words at whim: Daddy, baby, milk, "na2" (mandarin for "take"), ball, please, thank you, mum mum, up, two, dog, cat, book, shoe, bike, more, bye.
- Able to use a crayon/pen/pencil and scribble.  However, he still doesn't differentiate between scribbling on a paper and on the table.
- Able to keep his toys upon Daddy's order.
- Able to tell us what he wants by pointing and saying "na2".
- Able to throw up a ball and hit it from mid-air.
- Likes to flip books.
- Able to use a fork to eat.  However, he is still not dexterous with a spoon.
- Able to sort shapes with the shape sorting toy.
- Kicks objects on the floor, not just balls.
- Able to blow bubbles.
- Able to take off pants though not very skillful at it yet.  Able to take off one side of his diaper.  Can pull up his shirt but that's it.
- Has a lot of temper tantrums!  Is this the onset of the "terrible two"?
- Able to brush the front teeth on his own.
- Able to run to his little putty when he needs to poo.
- Puts his finger to his mouth and says "shhh".
- Unfortunately, he does not always respond well to instructions.  It helps to show him the 'cane'.
- Takes things apart and attempts to put back together.
- Understands what is "throw away" by taking the object to the rubbish bin and throw into it, and what is "wash hand".
- Understands some of his body parts like "mouth", "ear", "head".
- Loves to jump with both feet (and it is causing a headache to us sometimes).
- Able to take off his shoes though he needs help putting them on.
- Imitated us and now he knows how to play his favourite VCD before his mealtimes.
- Able to stack rings without help. 
- Able to blow his nose with a tissue.

We are still trying to teach him to put things back to where they belong, and sometimes, he will throw a tantrum and refuse to follow our instruction.  We discovered that his temper is especially short when he is tired and at such times, it is best to make him take a nap.  Also, Ian tends to obey his Daddy more and is starting to walk all over his Mummy.  Sigh sigh sigh...

The Beginning of A New Journey

Yesterday, I have finally bade farewell to my company of 7 years, after rounds of debates and contemplations.  It was for the good of our family, to take Ian home for some discipline and also in the hope of helping him to learn more things than being at the babysitter's.  It was also for the mental and physical well-being of both hubby and I, for me to take a break from the stressful work and to play a greater part in taking care of the household. 

My last day at work was a hectic one, as I had to uninstall all the softwares that did not come with the laptop, wipe out my personal data, reset the user profiles, backup my emails, say goodbyes to my users and my good colleagues, and lastly, to rush back to the headquarters to return my assets and get the clearance forms signed.

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our family, as I converts to a full-time home-maker.  For the time-being, I will take a short break to rejuvenate myself, while gradually adapting to my new lifestyle.

An Idylic Sunday

The three of us spent an idylic Sunday afternoon since we had no plans to venture out.  Early in the morning, I had prepared the almond tofu jelly and hubby and I enjoyed it with a can of longans (courtesy of my mom) after a simple home-made lunch.  Ian did not particularly like the jelly though he took a few mouthfuls of it.

Since Ian refused to have his beauty sleep this afternoon, and remembering that a fellow forumer friend had recommended this new spot for kids, we decided to bring Ian out.

Tada... the splash park on the top floor of the newly renovated Sembawang Shopping Centre.  We had long-forgotten this shopping centre since it had closed down for renovations for a long time.  In the olden days before we had Ian, we would take the free shuttle bus there for our grocery shopping when we had nothing better to do.  It seemed such a long time ago!

The long queue to get into the carpark came as quite a surprise to us, because we had never expected that such a secluded place would attract such a crowd.  And ironically, the mall itself was not too crowded.  The revamp was a nice move.  It had many new additions, such as Daiso, Sakae Sushi, and a few other eateries.  The Giant supermart was still around. :) 

Ian thoroughly enjoyed himself at the splash park.  It was much bigger in scale than we had expected.  We had not been prepared that Ian would be wet from head to toe, and hence, we did not bring along a towel.  But luckily, we had a spare set of clothings for him.

Ian never seemed to get bored of playing with the water fountains there.  It was a challenge to pull him away from the splash area.

Last but not the least, enjoy a short clip of Ian in action!

Whistle!

Recently, Ian has mastered the skill of blowing, from a whistle, party blowouts, and even a recorder.  We have been teaching him how to blow air from his mouth from January this year, and finally he did it.  Hooray for Ian!

One Month to 18

Ian turns 17 months today!

Unfortunately, he had a fever yesterday evening. When his nanny informed us at 6 plus, we quickly made our way home to pick him up and visited Dr Goh right away. Since the nanny said he was having a diarrhoea as well, Dr Goh diagnosed that the fever had to do with it and there was no worry for vomitting. Fortunately, Ian recovered fully today after a few doses of panacetamol. He also did not pass any motion for the whole day even though we did not feed him the medicine for diarrhoea.

During the doctor's visit, Ian had his vital stats checked again. As of 17 months, he weighs 12.4kg and stands at 84cm tall. We are pleased that he has finally crossed the 12kg mark, after remaining stagnant at 11kg for the past months. Our efforts to feed him more food has finally paid off.

Budding Artist?

We made a trip down to Ikea this afternoon to source for a table for Ian. We finally chose a white table to go with the colours of our home. At the same time, we also bought a stack of drawing papers for Ian to doodle on, as I have already prepared a pack of Crayola crayons for him from a recent spree at Joann.

We did not buy the matching chairs with the table, because Ian's cousin Terrin has passed down 2 children chairs.

Back at home, Daddy eagerly assembled the table and let Ian sat at the table to start his artworks. Ian drew all over, from the paper to the table. He appears to love drawing straight on the table! Although the crayons were washable, we found that some of the stains could not be totally gotten rid of. :(

Bye Bye Music Class

Today marked the last lesson at Kindermusik, which Ian has been going since he turned one. He obviously enjoyed going there for the balls and friends. However, that also meant we had to rush from class to class on Saturdays. After some deliberation, we had decided to give up his music lessons and we believe that whatever else that Ian may be doing, he will enjoy it with his cheery nature.