Cayden's Latest...

Went to the peds and had Cayden weighed. He has lost weight.

Weight: 17.8kg

Hmmm... not too good. Time to start cooking for him again.

Jan 2009 - Cayden's Update

We brought Cayden to his pediatrician for his annual flu jab, and also for a general health check.

His latest stats is
Weight: 18kg
Height: 103cm

Peds noted that he can draw quite well. Our camera is spoiled at the moment, but will upload pics of his drawings after we get it fixed.

Mosquito bite

We went out for dinner earlier with my parents, brother and sis-in-law.

I normally feed Cayden and try to get a mouthful of food myself. While Cayden was chewing his food, he saw the BCG injection mark on my arm. He thought it was a mosquito bite. He asked me "Mama, is it pain?" while touching it. I replied "No". He asked again "Mama, is it itchy?" and he started to scratch my "mosquito bite" for me. *smile*

Oh by the way, Cayden shocked all of us by eating a total of 3 strips of Pai Gu Wang (deep fried pork ribs). If you don't know, Cayden rejects meat. All types of meat, cooked in all ways... that is until today.

My brother concluded that its not the food that Cayden is rejecting. Its my cooking... not tasty enough...

So malu!

I was out with Cayden yesterday. We decided to go to Orchard road for a bit of shopping and people watching.

Cayden wanted to go to the toilet to pee-pee so I brought him to the toilet. After he is done, I wanted to pee too, so I told him to wait for mummy. Mummy needs to pee pee too. He said ok.

We have always taught Cayden to pee standing up. So to him, pee pee = stand up. Poo poo = sit down.

While I proceed to sit down, Cayden said in his innocent but LOUD voice "Mama, you poo poo????" I whispered to him "No, mama pee pee, not poo poo".

He didn't understand. Why is mama sitting down when she goes pee pee? No, she must be poo poo-ing!

So he repeated "Mama, you poo poo????" That's right. Announce to the everyone in the toilet what mama is (NOT) doing! I didn't answer him this time.

Bad move. He proceed to repeat "Mama, you poo poo????" again and again, till he got a response from me. That's right. You are not loud enough! Not enough people heard you.

Sigh. What an embarrassing moment.

Dora Show

We went to the Dora show at United Square today. I have been feeling really bad that I have not brought Cayden to see any of the shows so when Shareen asked me if I wanted to go to watch Dora show together with her son, I immediately agreed.

The show is scheduled for 1pm, but knowing that there will definitely be a crowd, we decided to go early. Shareen & Brion went to the Barney show the day before at Marina Square and they had to queue up for 1.5 hours!

We arrived at United Square at 12pm and there was already a long queue. We got into the queue and started taking some pictures for the boys, but were not very successful. Its impossible to get them to look at the camera at the same time, with all the distractions around them!
















We were finally urshered into the sit down area at around 12.45pm. Cayden seemed excited enough. But when the show started he became scared! He refused to stand up and only wanted to sit on me. I could see that he was really interested, but he was too scared to participate. He kept stretching his neck to see the stage.

Only after 15 minutes he started to stand up, but only within the confines of my crossed legs. After 5 more minutes, he started to jump up and down. Not scared anymore. :)








Cayden & me



Shareen & Brion

Finally Settled In school

Finally, Cayden stopped crying whenever I leave him at school. We arrived in school early today, and I spent some time with him in the classroom as his classmates are not here yet. When most of his friends arrived, I turned to him and said, " Ok, Cayden. Mummy will see you later, ok?" His face immediately turned red, and his eyes filled with tears, but he put up a brave front and said "OK" with a very sad voice... It was so heartbreaking for me!!!! I nearly teared myself. When I stepped out of his classroom, he waved to me and said " Bye mama! Bye! See you later!".

My brave boy! I was so proud of him!

Some pictures we took before his classmates arrived:


In his classroom... the playdough the school uses are home made.


The school's "make-do" Xmas tree!


Where are my friends?



He was bored so he started dancing


The school foyer

Get Together...

We had a get together amongst ex-colleagues last night. One of our ex-colleagues, Jesley, will be packing up her bags and leaving for Shanghai to work in mid December. This get together is her farewell.

During dinner, I had felt disconnected with my friends. Somehow there is an invisible barrier and exists between us. No matter how I hard I try, I couldn't. After a while, I gave up. I guess this is inevitable, because I am no longer working so we have different lives. On top of that, I live in a another country, so we have lesser things to talk about. I guess now our status is now downgraded from "friends" to "acquaintances"?

But I was still glad to have went for dinner because I could catch up with Jesley. She and me can talk for hours and hours. I am sure to be visiting her in Shanghai soon.

I wonder if its true that as you grow older, you have lesser friends? Or it is just happening to me?

Afternoon in Town

Sent Cayden to school today and thankfully, he has stopped to fuss. Keeping my fingers crossed that he will continue this good behaviour from now on. I was told by Teacher Kelly that Cayden was happy and well behaved even during the transition from Playgroup to Music workshop. Playgroup starts at 9am and end at 11am from Monday to Thursday. Every Wednesday, Cayden will attend music workshop which starts st 11.15am for 1 hour. During the 15 min break, the teacher will keep an eye out for Cayden and bring him into the class when it starts. When I picked him up at 12.15pm, he was happy and looked like he enjoyed his class.

After class, I brought Cayden & my mom to town, because I wanted to take some pictures of the Xmas decorations on Orchard Road. We went to Mandarin Hotel's Chatterbox to have chicken rice for lunch!!! It was yummy-delicious, but VERY pricey. It was $21.50 before tax! I was taken aback by the price, and decided to splurge since we don't have it often.



Picture of Chatterbox Chicken Rice Set




Cayden happily tucking in...





Actually, this trip back, I realised that prices in general have risen, quite substantially. I had a conversation with one of my girlfriend earlier and both of us made the same observation. When we shop for clothes, I realised that most items costs around $59 or $69, even for a simple top! This morning, I stopped by This Fashion (a shop which supposedly offers cheap clothes) and saw that 1 simple cotton short sleeved shirt costs $30! In my mind, I thought it should be about $15? Am I getting more stingy? haha?

Did not get a chance to take pictures of the Xmas decorations because it started pouring!!!! Only managed to get a shot of the huge Xmas tree at Ngee Ann City. No pics of Cayden too because he was sleeping! Have to make another attempt next week.


Xmas Tree at Ngee Ann City

Fun At MacDonalds

After Cayden woke up from his nap today, my mom & I decided to bring him to the MacDonald's near my parent's house. We could have our lattes and he could play at the playground. PERFECT! It turned out to be a great decision, because Cayden had a good time.

Initally, he was quite resistant in entering the playground. He just hovered around, taking his time to observe the place. I could see that he wanted to go, but he was apprehensive at the same time. I decided to step back and let him take his time. After a while, we could see him inching forward by the minute. After a good 20 minutes, I thought he just needed a tiny push. I stepped into the playground area, turned around and asked him to join me. He needed no more persuasion. Immediately he jumped to me and entered the tunnels. haha! Took many pictures.

Great place for a quite afternoon hang out.










Cayden trying to copy Ronald's pose





Hugging Ronald



Me & Cayden

Still trying to settle in...

Cayden is trying to settle in class. In the mornings, he is still putting up a struggle when we send him to school.

On his third day at school, I did not walk into the classroom with him but stood outside by the door. When the class started, the teachers closed the doors and he started wailing! It was so loud that I could hear him at the waiting area for parents.

Ethan (the boy with the show off grandma) came with his mother and maternal grandma that day. Ethan was also quite upset that his mother could not stay with him in the classroom and started crying. When his maternal grandma saw from the outside that Ethan started crying, she blamed Cayden for crying and thus affected Ethan. She kept saying "That boy is crying, that's why Ethan cry" without knowing that I am Cayden's mother. After she repeated this comment twice, I looked at her and said "That is my son". I wanted her to know that so that she would not say more things that might upset me even more and cause me to argue with her. After that, she stopped making that comment. Yes, i am very protective of my child.

On his fourth day at school, Cayden also fussed when I left him in the classroom and he wailed when the teachers closed the doors. But this time, he cried for a much shorter time.

I hope things will get better next week.

Second Day at School

Today is Cayden's second day at Learning Horizon. I think he enjoyed the program better than yesterday. Once we arrive at the school, I followed him to the classroom but slowly made my retreat to outside the classroom. Initially he was doing very well, playing with friends and teacher, without needing my company. Then the boy with the "show-off" grandmother arrived. The boy whined a little, wanting the grandmother to stay with him in the classroom and she did. Once Cayden saw that, he started to look for me and ran outside the classroom to pull me into the room.

I took quite a while to convince Cayden to stay in the classroom to play with his friends and teachers without me. I left the classroom and after a long while, I heard him wailing. I decided not to go into the classroom and see if he will stop shortly. True enough he did. After 10 minutes, I peeped in the class and he was playing happily, colour Santa Clauz picture.

When the session ended, he came out of the classroom and told me excitedly on all the things he did in class. :)

Tomorrow will be another tough day, because from tomorrow onwards, no parents are allowed anymore in the class, so I am expecting more crying...

More update tomorrow.

Good weekend :)

We had a good weekend. Hubby stopped by Singapore for a few days. He is on his way back to Mongolia from a meeting in Bangkok. He arrived on Friday so Cayden & I went to pick him up at the airport.

Before we saw hubby, I was wondering what Cayden's reaction would be when he sees daddy, someone he has not seen for 6 weeks. Surprisingly, he recognized hubby and called "Da-da" right away. But when hubby picked him up, he was VERY quiet, almost shy. Anyway, it took them less than 5 minutes for them to warm up. Now he is so attached to Da-Da. He wants Da-Da to go upstairs together when he is supposed to bath and sleep. He wants Da-Da to put him to sleep and willingly wave me away with a "Bye, mama! I love you!"

Hurmp! Obviously I have dropped in ranks from his favourite people list. When Da-Da is not around, I am No.1. Now Da-Da is here, I am No.2! Oh well. I am grateful that hubby is such a hands-on daddy. He takes care of Cayden and both of them enjoy each others so much!

So pictures that we took over the weekend:

Cheeky picture taken at lunch


Taken at the fountain at Bugis Junction


With Daddy


He loved the fountain!




Swimming at Temasek Club

First Day

Cayden started his first day of school in Singapore. No, this is not a permanent situation. We have been here in Singapore for the past month, to escape the harsh Mongolian winter. While we are here, I thought its a good idea to let Cayden join a playgroup that allows him to interact with other children. We couldn't get a place in the school with the regular program, as the class is full, so I have registered him for the holiday program instead! Its a 4 week program that is on from Monday to Thursday every week, 2 hours a session.

Today is his first day. When we arrived in school, some children were there already and 2 of the girls were already wailing away. I have to say it disrupted the class quite a bit. I mean, seriously, the girls were crying for a full 2 hours! The parents/guardian of the girls just left them in the class and went away. Cayden was somewhat affected by the crying and he started to fuss too. He became super-sticky to me and wanted me to go everywhere in the classroom with him. He also became quite sensitive - when a boy, Jonas, pushed him away from the alphabet board, he started wailing, which is a really unusual thing for him to do.

The teachers were telling me that Cayden did pretty well, taking into consideration that it was his first day in an unfamiliar enviroment and all.

One of Cayden's classmates was brought to school by his grandparents. This boy is new to the school, as he is regularly attending another pre-school but that school does not have any holiday programs, so the boy's parents enrolled him at Learning Horizon for this holiday program. The grandmother stayed in class with the boy, but after a while, she started showing everyone (including me and the teachers) a video clip on her mobile phone. It was a video of her grandson performing in his school concert. He was holding pom-poms and dancing. Nothing spectacular. She said that this current class is not advanced enough for her grandson. He is already doing to things that other children here cannot do, so the grandson is bored. I was amused and thought that she was quite a show-off. I wonder if she will withdraw the boy from this program?

This reminds me of a conversation that my friend Shareen & I had earlier. We said that parents are normally more humble when talking about their children, but grandparents are more vocal & proud. They often singing praises for their own grandkids, not shy at all.

To sum it all, Cayden wasn't terribly happy in school. Fingers crossed, he will enjoy school better.

Below are some photos I took in school:

Taken right before we left for school...

Strutting confidently to the car


During the crafts session of the class


Teacher Anna helping Cayden




Aha! I caught the ball!


Daddy & Cayden having a word...

Beijing and Singapore, here we come!

29 Jun 2007


We finally got our flights sorted out. We will leave home tomorrow morning at 4am (horrors!!!) to catch a 6am flight to Beijing, stay over for a day and night, and depart Beijing for Singapore on Sunday 4pm.
It is a safer alternative, instead of leaving Mongolia on Sunday morning and connecting to the same 4pm flight in Beijing. The flights flying out of Mongolia is often delayed. The reason is unknown. The representatives of the airline often blame the strong winds and bad weather, but it was too often to be true. And usually it was the Sunday flights which are delayed. Strange, huh? We only have a short 2 hour transit in between and I don't want to take the risk of missing our Beijing/Singapore flight. If we do miss the flight, we lose another precious day in Singapore! I would rather leave early and spend the day in leisure in Beijing. I think Cayden will have fun too since he hasn't been there. Must take a photo of him in Tiananmen Square. Such a touristy thing to do!!! haha.