All About Your Child

My dear Binbin did not cry again! *Yippee* I didn’t call my MIL today…I just don’t want to make it so obvious that I WANT TO PROVE HER WRONG! *laugh* Thank you Clement for passing me the hammer! *laugh*

Allan and my sister think its hereditary. Nope, not from Allan; ‘cos my MIL said Allan cried for 1 YEAR! (That’s so hard to believe, isn’t it? Oh well, that’s what the lady said) Anyway, they think Binbin has my ‘genes’ ~ the ‘like-to-go-school’ genes… *laugh*

I remember how excited I was when I knew that I’m going to school for the first time. I wanted my boys to have that excitement too. I remember WHY I was so excited and wanted to prepare my boys based on what I’d experienced. But because of my commitment in my retail line, I didn’t prepare my elder one for it, and he cried for the first 3 days.

I must make myself clear: I think its perfectly fine for kids to cry on first few days of school. Its understandable. Yet its preventable when the parents put in some effort BEFORE the child starts school.

I realised it only too late. I couldn’t help my Keatkeat, so I put in my all for Binbin. Guessed it worked… here’s how I did it…

Its a year long preparation. Throughout 2008, I make sure that I brought Binbin along whenever he is woken by his whiny brother in the morning. Binbin saw what it is like to GO to school. What to expect, things like: parents were not allowed to go in with the child; the door will be closed; the windows would be locked. I gave him the MENTAL preparation.

Next, I created chances for him to mix with other children by bringing him to the playground. For those of you who are not aware, Binbin is a ‘people-magnet’! People, be it young or old, black or white, like to approach him, stroke him, chat with him and kids often come forward to ask him to join in their games. (*sad* unlike poor Keatkeat who hardly get such attention) Hence, the SOCIABILITY / ADAPTABILITY preparation.

Finally, whenever Keatkeat brought home an artwork from school or a party-goodies bag because of his classmate’s birthday, Binbin’s eyes were always filled with envy. Or when Keatkeat went for an excursion, Binbin would often say with jealousy, “Aaaawwww…. So Good! And I can’t go!” My response often act as a reminder, “Binbin, when you start school next year, you’ll have all these too and even more. So do you want to go school?” “YES!!!” was always the reply. When a kid is frequently reminded of the ‘goodness‘ of something, their emotion towards it will be positive. And that’s the EMOTIONAL preparation.

To prepare a 2-3 year old kid for something this big needs a much longer time. I would say, I paid extra attention over last year to prepare him for the big day (yesterday)… I’m glad my effort paid off. *hooray*

Today is the 12th day of Christmas eh? So we decided to ‘bring down’ the tree.

Binbin is just as thrilled to keep the tree as putting it up after coming back from his first day at school.

My little Rooster boy DID NOT CRY!!!! *Yippee*

In order for the nursery students to get used to school life, they will only be there for an hour this week.

Thereafter, it will be 3hours every day. Yeah!

I’m not sure if its a Cantonese tradition or its just my MIL. Every child or grandchild of hers will receive these as well wishes when they step into preschool life. Here are the meanings of each individual item:-

“Sung Choi” (Raw Vegetables) — “Sung Sung Mung Mung” (Active)

“Kan Choi” (I don’t know the English Name *slap forehead* Vege on the left) — “Kan Kan Lek Lek” (Hardworking)

“Cong” (Scallion) — “Cong Cong Meng Meng” (Intelligent)

The raw vegetables are placed in the red packet while ANOTHER red packet contains money as a gift to the kid.

So from now onwards, its gonna be these 2 lovables going to school together.

Binbin was super eager to go to school, even though he had to wake up at 7am, 2-3hours earlier than usual.

Keatkeat, as usual, played his ‘dilly-dally‘ games.

When we reached the school, Keatkeat had no problem joining the queue to get his mouth and hands checked. Ever since the Hand Foot Mouth Disease, the school had to take these measures even though there isn’t any HFMD students.

Out of 10+ kids in Binbin’s class, 3 were sobbing quietly and another 2 were yelling at the top of their voices.

I’m soooooooooooooo proud of my boy! He was rather shaken up by the louder 2, but he controlled himself really well.

I went in with him to get him distracted with a toy or two, before I could give him a kiss and say “See You Later”.

First thing we did after the one hour was giving my MIL a call. ‘Cos everyone in the Loh family is expecting him to make a big hoo-haa on the first day, just like every other kid in the family.

Hey Hey, finally there is one who broke the ‘curse‘!

*sigh* But my MIL reply was, “Hey, don’t be too sure! First day didn’t cry, doesn’t mean the next few days will not cry….”

*Urrrrgggghhhhh* Anyone has a hammer to spare?!!! *Eyes rolled*

Sweetie Sandra gave me another 3 awards after the 1st which I posted on the 1st day on 2009. Thank you soooooooo much! *Muack* x100

The first one:

Here are the rules for the recipients:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

And a second one!!

And the third one:

And the lucky 10 are:
LZmommy
Ethan’s Mommy
Ling
KiNiGu
Sting
Rachel
Melissa
Suhanya
Cendrine
Blessed Mom

I received this email from my neighbour…enjoy…
Hmmm….some of these conversations are so familiar, as I recall my days as a Child Care Center teacher *laugh*

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America ..
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.
____________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
__________________________________________
TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile?’
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L’
TEACHER: No, that’s wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
________________________________ ____________
TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for wa! ter?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it’s H to O.
__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
__________________________________________
TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you are.
_______________________________________
TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ‘I.’
MILLIE: I is..
TEACHER: No, Millie….. Always say, ‘I am.’
MILLIE: All right….. ‘I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.’
______________ ___________________
TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn’t punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.
______________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don’t have to, my Mom is a good cook.
______________________________

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on ‘My Dog’ is exactly the same as your brother’s. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, sir. It’s the same dog.
___________________________________
TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher

Yesterday was a fruitful day. I was so occupied from as early as 8am to as late as 11pm. I can feel that 2009 will be an extremely exciting year for my family and I.

So yesterday, I woke up at 8am+ to bring my boys down for the school orientation. The boys were so excited to go to school, they jumped out of their mattress as if they were going to Toys R Us.

Keatkeat was all geared up to be the big tour guide of the day for his brother. While the principal was talking to us in one room, the boys were so at ease in another room playing with the wooden train sets and mingled a little with the other school mates.

When the briefing was over. Binbin refused to leave. He wanted to stay longer. To explore more. To play more. This is not the first time he stepped into the school, but definitely the first for everyone to step into the nicely renovated place.

I had to carry him out of the place! We had no choice but to leave early because Allan needed to help my BIL to deliver Chinese New Year greeting cards….

Later in the afternoon, my eldest SIL was so concerned if Binbin had cried on the first day of school (cos’ none of the Loh’s grandchildren has NOT), she sent me a sms…. and was disappointed when I told her there was no lessons…. I bet she’ll ask again on Monday *laugh*

This morning, Binbin first sentence was, “Mommy, wake up, I need to go school already!”

When I told him there’s no school on Saturday, he face dropped to a gloom. I hope his excitement will last long… *fingers crossed*

What a great way to start this new year with this wonderful award given by the sentimental Sandra. Thank you girl! *Muack*

I saw this meme at a usual blog I visit called A Place I Call Home. She didn’t tag anyone, but I thought it would be a great for the last post of 2008.

This meme is supposed to be called ‘first sentence meme’, but I prefer to call it 2008 Flashback. Oh dear! I’m such a rule-breaker! You are supposed to take the first sentence of the first post you wrote for each month in the year 2008.

Since I’m such a rule breaker, I added the link to each of those sentences, which is NOT part of the requirement to do this meme. If any of those sentences caught your eye and you would like to read more, you can click on the title of the post. *smile*

January: 2007 has not been really good, be it from the fengshui point of view or personal experiences…
Post Title: Happy New Year

February: Six more days and its going to be the biggest event for all Chinese as we celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year.
I am my Parent’s Child

March: This is sooooooooo exciting. My boys’ long awaited ‘ferris wheel’ is finally in operation today!!!
The Singapore Flyer

April: My previous post “Happy Birthday Binbin”ended with a low note….Binbin ended his birthday celebration way too high….38.1 Degrees Celsius.
Fun is gone…Tireness continues

May: Ok, so there’s going to be The “Child Seats Save Little Lives” campaign in Singapore for the very first time.
Importance of Child Seats

June: Surrounded by babies lately.
Baby Full Month Celebration

July: This is a ‘normal pair of shoes’.
Creative or Defiant?

August: Suhanya, Sandra , Tina and Juliana awarded me this BBF GOLD CARD! Thank you girls! Love you *Muack*!
Blogging Friends Forever Award

September: I wanted to reply every single comment for the previous post.
Everyone was Curious, So here’s the Answer

October: I was uploading all my photos taken yesterday (Childrens’ Day), while waiting, I stumbled across THIS headline!!!
Where is Your Conscience?

November: Though I can’t force, I do urge you to read my previous 2 posts ~ The Beginning and The Progress , before you get to this one, or else you may not fully FEEL the joy in my heart as I write this final post about the 7-long-months of struggle with Keatkeat and with myself.
It took 7 Months - The Finale

December: Everyday, I’m in for a surprise treat from Keatkeat.
What is This?

Happy New Year Everyone!

For those of you who wants to know how I truly feel about 2008, you can read it at my personal blog.

- We had another of our ‘Throw-Away-Toys’ moment again. After Keatkeat’s birthday bash in November and Christmas, the toys have exceeded the ‘limit’ which I have set for them.

Usually we would have this practice just before a birthday celebration or a present giving session like Children’s Day or Christmas. Our perfect ‘excuse’ to do it today was the anticipation of the Lion Heads’ replacement mentioned in yesterday’s post.

You can imagine how WILLINGLY my boys were at throwing those broken toys away. When you don’t have such ‘good reasons’ even those cars that have lost 4-wheels are like treasures to them! But during ‘Throw-Away-Toys’ routine, these are first to go….

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- While Allan was reading the updates of the English Soccer on the net, I was the monster chasing my boys around my 80+ square meter house for almost 45mins non-stop!

I remember Anthony Robbins once said in his seminar, “Use your motion to change your emotions”… so for those of you who saw my SOS post on my other blog, you know I had a burning ‘head’ yesterday and just as I expected, this morning I woke up with a headache.

Guess what? The mad chase around the house did change my grumpy look… *laugh* Aren’t I glad I have kids? Sure I AM!

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- At dinner time, Keatkeat did it again. The urge to pass motion comes after first few mouthful of rice. 1st attempt was not rewarding, nothing came out from his ‘hole’ after sitting on the toilet bowl for 10mins.

Came back and took another few bites. 15mins later, the urge came again, this time, he got a satisfying result. He even exclaimed that he only needed 3 wipes to get his bottom cleaned, instead of the usual 10-20 wipes.

He doesn’t like to wash, he prefers to wipe. I think either way, I’m fine. So long as he is comfortable and CLEANed. Personally, I prefer him to wipe because if he is so used to washing his bum after the ‘big business’ is done, when he is doing ‘IT’ outside, he will have issues, cos’ there’s no water hose for him to wash.

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- Binbin have not done this for a long time, but his unique ‘talent‘ have not left him. He did it again just now. *laugh* He fell asleep while he was eating his dinner half-way. Please don’t ask me how he did it. He just DID IT!!! He was munching away and the next moment, he was snoring…. *huge laugh*