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. :~(

30 Apr 08 - A swimming star is borned

The reason why I say that is because Jerlene has started learning how to kick her leg in the pool. Not only that, she also seems to learn how to trap water, and how to swim backstroke etc etc. When I let her lie flat on the water surface in a backstroke position, she always tries to bend her head backwards so that her entire hair is submerged in the water. While in the freestyle position, she will start kicking her legs. Also, she kept wanting to jump into the water whereby it is much deeper than her height. She totally has no fear even when her head is submerged in water for 1-2 seconds. Probably that's because she knows I'm around and I will never put her into any danger. Having said that, I must really be extra alert now in the pool since she dun know what is danger.

Too bad I forgot to bring my camera down today. Otherwise I can show you all how she enjoy in the pool. But stay tuned as I'll try to capture some videos and images of all those fun moment next weekend.

29 Apr 2008 - My little "Ah Lian"

You must be wondering why I'm calling Jerlene "Ah Lian". Look at this picture and you will know. She was squatting in front of the TV and watch her Hi-5 video. There is proper place for her to sit but she prefers to squat instead.....sigh.........

26 Apr 2008 - The Vain Girl

Recently, Jerlene is becoming more and more vain. Whenever she combs through her toy box, one of the "must" item to pick up is her mirror. And when she stands in front of a mirror, be it in the lift or in shopping mall, she will smile at herself in the mirror. Furthermore, Jerlene no longer reject us from putting on a hairband for her. She used to pull it off the moment we put a hairband on her head but now, she does not pull it off anymore. In fact, she will stay very still so that we can put it on easily and after hairband has been put on her head, she will clap her hand and smile radiantly. Not only that, sometimes when she saw the hairband lying around, she will pick it up and try putting it on her head all by herself. Haha....very cute. Below are some cute photos of her with the hairbands.....

23 Mar 2008 - Bottle Tree Park (am) / Pool Play (pm)

After breakfast, we brought Jerlene to Bottle Tree Park for a walk. As Jerlene woke up super early today (around 6:30am), by the time we reached there, she was actually quite tired and sleepy. However, Jerlene would not want to sleep whenever there is opportunity to play. She will force herself to stay awake and play till she is physically exhausted. This is exactly what happened this morning. Initially, she was still having lots of fun walking around the park but after sometimes, she started to walk wobbily and almost fell. And that is when we decided to head home to catch some rest.

When we reached home, not sure what gave Jerlene the energy whereby she became very active again and refused to go to sleep. We tried to force her to sleep but she kept struggling to get out of bed and play. Sigh.......come to think of it, maybe this is the reason why Jerlene is so small in size. How to grow when she always use up all her energy playing??? She finally fell asleep at about 2pm.

Jerlene woke up about an hour later and it's time to play again. We decided to bring her down to the playground to see if she enjoys it. She does not seem to be very happy at the playground and kept looking over to the pool. As such, we brought her up and change into her "bikini". Yes, it's pool time again. She really really loves water play and whenever she's in the pool, I will have a hard time to ask her to leave. After about half an hour in the pool, I carried Jerlene out of the pool and wrapped her with her robe. She kept struggling and pushed me back to the pool. So I decided to let her play in the pool for another 5mins. She went wild again and after 5mins, I tried not to be soft-hearted anymore and forced her out of the pool. We had a great time once again and I'll try to bring her to the pool whenever possible. :-)

22 Mar 2008 - Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

The Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at the Bukit Timah Core of the Singapore Botanic Gardens is a specialized garden dedicated to children. Through play and exploration, children will learn about the importance of plants and conservation. Experiences in the garden will stimulate a sense of wonder for the plant world and provide happy memories for our child visitors. This is the first garden of its kind in Asia.

When we reached there, Jerlene was sleeping. So we quickly catch a bite at the Kidz Cafe right at the garden entrance. As we were about to finish eating the fish and chips, Jerlene woke up. She looked around and found herself in a strange place. As we entered the garden, Jerlene was very uneasy and refused to get down onto the ground. There were a number of activity stations in the garden. We went to each of them and slowly Jerlene started to get used to the place. The moment Jerlene felt more comfortable walking around, I have no chance to carry her again. As the sky looked quite dark after a while, we decided to leave the place. We will be back here very soon since Jerlene enjoyed her short moment here.

Next we went to Singapore Post as Tracy needs to buy a new pair of spectacles frame. While Tracy was choosing her frame, Jerlene started to get wild again. She kept pulling me towards the escalator and wanted me to go up and down the escalator with her. We then went to This Fashion before heading to Coffee Bean outlet and have some cakes and Mocha. Jerlene was showing off her dancing skill therre again.