26 Apr 2008 - Go.Go Bambini

We brought Jerlene to Go-Go Bambini for some fun today. It claims to be Singapore’s Best Indoor Children’s Entertainment Centre. For kids below 2 years old, it will be $6 for unlimited play. Any number of adults can accompany a kid and there is a cafe as well. Below is the location map.

Jerlene really had some great fun here. Initially she's a bit careful but after getting comfortable with the place, she started climbing and crawling everywhere. Since young, I've been wanting to play in such a place but I just do not have the opportunity. So today is also my childhood dream comes true. This is my first time in a ball pool.....haha........

Jerlene was very tired after the session and I am equally tired having to crawl around with her. In fact, it's more tiring for parents because in most parts of the place, adults have to either crawl or bend down their body while the kids can just stand or run around. Sad to say, I again forgot to bring my camera so I did not catch any shots of Jerlene playing there. But no worry, since she enjoyed the place so much, WE WILL BE BACK for more fun! :-)

19 Apr 2008 - Toys-R-Us is more fun than Gymboree class

As the subject mentioned, we brought Jerlene to Suntec Toys-R-Us after the Gymboree trial class. She did not enjoy the class at all but the moment she stepped into Toys-R-Us, she started to get wild and ran all around. She picked up two green colored streamers on the ground and off she went. It's as though she's performing some Chinese traditional ribbon dance. See this for yourself. Haha........ (Oh yah, listen to the background music, it quite suit her dance move)

19 Apr 2008 - Gymboree Trial Class

Through the Singapore Motherhood Forum, someone had organized a Gymboree Trial Class and we registered Jerlene for it.

Some background: Gymboree is designed by child development experts, each of the seven levels focus on and support the specific developmental milestone a child is working on at his/her age--from sensory explorations for young babies to cause and effect, two-way communication, "motor planning", imaginary play, to early listening and language skills. Each program level incorporates fundamental, engaging activities that help to build a child's cognitive, social and physical skills.

The class started at 1pm and we were late by about 10mins due to bad traffic. Oh yah, the venue is at Harbourfront. As Jerlene was sleeping throughout the journey and just woke up, she needs a longer time to get herself adapt to the environment. Initially, she just stand very still and watched other kids play. When I tried to walk away from her, she dun feel comfortable and started crying. So no choice I have to carry her for a while first.

Slowly, she started to get used to the environment but still, she dun looked very happy. I can only see her first smile when the class was about to end. Since she did not seem to enjoy the class, I did not sign her up for the actual classes.

17 Apr 2008 - Asking for help

This is a short one. Just want to say that Jerlene knows how to ask for help now. And she does it by pulling my hand to the "thing" that she wants me to do. For example, when she wants to pick up a ball under my bed, she will pull my hand towards the underside of my bed. If she wants to open my room door, she will again pull my hand towards the door and then push my hand upwards towards the door knob. Things that she cannot or does not want to do, she will "use" my hand to do......call that smart? I'm not sure.......

14 Apr 2008 - Swimming Vest

Since Jerlene loves playing in the pool so much, I've bought a swimming vest for her recently. However, as it has been raining for the past few weekends, Jerlene has not got the chance to wear it in the pool yet. Having said that, every now and then, she will ask me to help her put it on in our house. And she enjoys wearing the swimvest and walk round the house. Sometimes she tried to put it on by herself but of course, it always fails so far (at most one hand in....).

Btw, look at Jerlene's hand gesture in the above picture, that's her way of saying "GOOD"! Not sure where she learns that from but I've encountered other babies also doing the same gesture instead of pointing their thumbs up. Anyway, it doesn't matter to me at the moment and I'm glad that she can now use different hand and body gestures to express herself, which is great. :-)

13 Apr 2008 - Changi Airport Terminal 3

We had planned to go Changi Airport Terminal 3 with my parents today. They are regulars there but this is Tracy's and Jerlene's first time at T3. I had lunch once at T3 so it was also my first time for most part of the terminal. After we had lunch at the Kopitiam food court, we walked towards the viewing gallery to see some planes. Our aim is to wait for the A380 superjumbo to touch down. Although I worked in Singapore Airlines, this is my first time seeing the world largest commercial plane.
According to the flight schedule, there is still about an hour before the A380 lands. So we sat at the benches along the viewing gallery while Jerlene started to walk around the place. Whenever there is a big open space, Jerlene will enjoy by walking around and attract everyone's attention. As she walked around with her scoop, she also attracted many toddlers towards her and she tried to act friendly by lending her scoop to them. Some kids dunno how to react but some just took it away from her before their parents returned it back to Jerlene.

Other than being friendly to small kids, she also walked towards adults sitting on the benches. She will stand right in front of them and stare at them. Again, some dun know how to react but most will try to "communicate" with her. Very funny......... Throughout the 2 hrs at the airport, I could at least hear 7-8 different people complimenting on how adorable and cute Jerlene is.

One thing about T3 is that it's so hard to find a baby changing room. We spent about 20mins looking for one and it's only big enough for one baby at a time. So we had to queue for our turn and we waited for another 10mins. This had caused us to miss the A380 landing....sigh......

Overall this was an enjoyable and fruitful trip.

12 Apr 2008 - Shopping at Tampines IKEA

We went to IKEA at Tampines today. We had our lunch there while Jerlene was sleeping. She woke up just before we finished our lunch. We then proceed to walk around the place and the first section that we went to is of course, the children's department. The moment we put her down on the floor, she started walking around and touching everything like nobody business. There was this spade that I passed to her and she held onto it throughout our 1 hour shopping in IKEA. I was so scared when we were at the household department because I'm afraid Jerlene might use her "weapon" on the glasses and plates. I held her tightly and quickly went past that section.

At certain part of IKEA, there are stations for children to play while parents continue their shopping. Jerlene was at one of the stations playing and refused to leave. She just walked round and round that area and totally in her own world.

9 Apr 2008 - Under the cover

One "game" that Jerlene loves to play recently is "cover up". She simply loves being covered, either under the blanket or any clothes that she can find. Usually before she sleeps, she will pull up the blanket and cover her head. Then suddenly her hand will stretch out from the blanket to touch me while her head is still under cover. Somehow she loves being in darkness and she's not afraid at all. At times she will even enter her playroom in total darkness, just to get something that she wants. So scared that she may fall down or knock into something. Wonder how she managed to find her toys when I can hardly see anything.

7 Apr 2008 - Hat no longer fit

I bought Jerlene a hat last year thinking that she might need it during our Sydney trip. However, she has been always refusing to wear it. Everytime when I put it on for her, she will pull it down immediately. Until recently, she started to become very "vain". Whenever we put something on her head, be it a hair band or hat, and said "leng leng" (nice nice in cantonese), she will smile and clap her hand. Sometimes she will even try to put it on herself and after she successfully did it (sometimes), she will look at me and wait for me to say "leng leng" before she claps her hand.....very cute. However, the hat that I bought her last year and is not able to fit her head now. Anyway, I may buy her a new one because she looks so pretty with the hat. :-)

6 Apr 2008 - A Series of Unfortunate Events

Today is by far Jerlene's most unfortunate day with injury, blood and pain. Sounds terrible? This was what happened...

We were on our way towards Causeway Point for our lunch. Jerlene fell asleep in my car and Tracy tried to cut her fingernail as usual. And as I entered the carpark, the car went over a hump and I suddenly heard Jerlene crying. I immediately knew what happened.....Tracy accidently cut Jerlene's thumb. It was quite a deep cut and blood kept flowing out. I quickly parked my car and we went to Guardian Pharmacy to buy some plasters. In the meantime, I tried to press on the wound with a tissue paper trying to stop the bleeding. This was the first incident.

We had our lunch and after a little shopping around, we went home. Jerlene did not want to take her nap in the afternoon although I can see that she was very tired. She kept falling while she walked around the house. I was in the living room when suddenly, I heard a "bump" on the wall coming from the corridor, followed by Jerlene's crying. I quickly rushed to her and realized she had knocked her head against the wall after she fell down. There was a bump on her forehead and we quickly used a boiled egg to rub against it. This was the second incident.

In the evening, we could not bring her down to the pool because it was raining. So I decided to let her play in our bathtub instead. She was having lots of fun and after more than half an hour, I decided to bath her there. Everything went smoothly until I sprayed water on her body to wash away the soap when Jerlene out of sudden shouted loudly. Tracy was beside Jerlene and she said the water was too hot. I quickly turned off the tap and saw Jerlene's back was quite red. She was almost "cooked" by the hot water.

Sigh....what a day for Jerlene. Everytime I see her in pain, my heart felt even more pain. :~(