This is for Dr. Oh

How much can one tell from a muffin-baking session?
Lots! Starting from Ai Ai's favourite person of the week.
As she was scooping the batter into the muffin cups, she would name who it is for, and the first person who came to her mind this time is Dr. Oh :)

The other people who are always on her list are:
Grandma
Grandpa
Uncle Ian (she'll say "So many for Uncle Ian"... she must think Uncle Ian has a large appetite!)
Auntie Cindy
Auntie Vikki
Auntie Mel...

My ear is itchy again!

For the last 1 week, Ai Ai has been complaining that her ears are itchy, due to the build-up of wax.
So last Thursday, we brought her to "a very nice doctor", Dr. Oh Meng Choo, a PD who has just opened her own clinic a few blocks away.
Dr. Oh is really nice to kids... gave Soph a hug and a kiss and of course a little blue koala bear to gain her favour.
The clinic, though small, has a playroom upstairs.
Ai Ai was given a turpentine-based ear drop (Cerumol) to put into her ears for about 4 days before she was supposed to go back for ear-syringing today, a procedure using water to flush out the softened ear wax.

She was definitely looking forward to seeing Dr. Oh again for more presents :)

We got her ready by putting a towel over her shoulders and chest, then Dr. Oh explained to her what she was going to do, and told her not to be afraid.
Ai Ai was a really brave girl throughout the whole procedure - no struggling and no crying at all.
And we showed her all the "gar gar" that came out of her ears - I explained those are ear wax that caused her itchiness.
For her good behaviour, she got a yummy sweet from Dr. Oh.
Dr. Oh also explained that a lot of young PDs no longer do this procedure as they simply do not know how to do it properly - what these PDs do is refer us to an ENT specialist who will charge us an arm and a leg to get the ear wax out.
And guess what? The good Dr. Oh did not even charge us any consultation for this session today - just the $40 for the ear syringing procedure and the cost of Polaramine for Ai Ai's runny nose! :)

During lunch, Ai Ai told me her ear was itchy again, which I thought was quite impossible as I did not even notice her trying to scratch it.
So I asked her if she wanted to see Dr. Oh again, and she cheekily said yes.
I guess she just wanted another bear and sweet :P

Ai Ai getting ready for her procedure

Mommy is a fatty bunny

That was what she said to me as I was lying in bed nursing my cold.
I thought I heard wrongly and asked her again.
This time, she adjusted a ribbon she put on my hair, took her Bunny (with a ribbon too), and said to me again "Mommy is a fatty bunny" :(

I wonder whom she inherited her sense of humour from?

This was Ai Ai with her Bunny (it's got a ribbon)

She'd put a clipped ribbon on herself and of course, on this fatty mommy

"I like this big-girl school... Sophie did not cry"

That was what she told me at the end of the visit to her new school.
I've made the difficult decision to pull her out of her current school after this term.
I say "difficult" because I feel sorry that she has to leave her beloved Teacher May with whom she has such a fond attachment to.

R wanted to withdraw Ai Ai immediately and put her in the new school, but the new principal said it's better to have a break of 1 to 2 weeks at home before she starts her new school, since Ai Ai is so attached to Teacher May.
And the school holiday would be a perfect time as Ai Ai has experienced a term break before.
During this coming term break, I must keep telling her she'd be going to a new school and that she would have new teachers - Teacher Celine and Lao Shi.
Logistically, R would be dropping her off in the mornings before heading to work, and then she'd take the schoolbus home.

I hope I made the correct decision for her and she will forgive me if she thinks otherwise.

In preparation to becoming a Big Sister

We brought Kate for a walk to the pool, where Ai Ai made tea for Kate from the pool water and bossed Kate to sit in her stroller.
This was Kate's "virgin" drink of water and her first time pee-ing - we'd never let Kate drink real water before, even though Kate was fully capable of doing it and pee-ing it out.
Ai Ai looked a little shocked that Kate was just pee-ing anywhere without asking to go to the potty! :P

A lazy Sunday brunch!

It's been awhile since I met up with my friends as a group.

The Sunday brunch at TCC The Pier at Robertson was simply relaxing as the mommies chatted and daddies/helpers run after the kids :)

R also brought Ai Ai to the Opera Gallery next door where they enjoyed viewing Britto Romero's art, after which Ai Ai came back and asked me if she could buy some art pieces... costing a minimum of US$15,000/piece *gulped*

Having a little conversation with Daddy

R's arty piece of work through a prism

Cheryl's dd (Inessa), Ai Ai and Kel's dd (Annette)

Happy Birthday Yi Zhang!

We had a lovely shabu-shabu dinner in a private room at Cuppage Plaza to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday.
Ai Ai had loads of fun with her cousin Chhung Chung and Aurick... more so with Chung cos he is closer to her age.
This 10-kg featherweight even wrestled the 20-kg Chung Chung to the ground by climbing on his back and hanging on to his shoulders!
Chung Chung wasn't too pleased with this... he probably felt a little undignified :P
But his sweet and lovely nature didn't make him turn violent or rough towards Ai Ai... he simply made some hand action (some action hero) and tried to shoot Ai Ai to the ground.

Welcome to the Dark Side

Ai Ai and I bought this for R today.
This is a secret joke between R and I, and of course some of his ex-colleagues :)
They would know what it meant.

Mum,

Don't be too upset about this Darth Vader purchase.

Eventually, Darth Vader found redemption in the light side of the Force.

Darth Vader was no more.

Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, had returned and brought balance to the Force.

A lack of focus/concentration or simply not engaged?

Teacher in her school said that Ai Ai has a lack of focus i.e. when other kids are playing with certain toys, she simply roams about the classroom not wanting to pick up any toys, or if she does pick up an item, she doesn't play with it for long.

This school she goes to is a Montessori school. Even though it's not a pure Montessori school, the teacher is at the very least Montessori-trained, so I trusted her comments and started worrying about this.

Mum told me not to worry as she believed that Ai Ai was simply not engaged in the activities and was tired of hanging out with 22-mth-old kids. The school could not put Ai Ai into the older Tods class as it was "full". I say "full" because they actually took in 2 newcomers to the Tods class this term rather than "promote" Ai Ai and another 29-mth-old boy to the Tods class. All in the name of revenue, I would guess.

School does not interest her anymore - she is no longer keen to wear her uniform in the mornings and tells me sadly that "K" (her previous classmate) has gone to a "big girl school". Actually K, who is 2 mths younger than Ai Ai, has been "promoted" to the Tods class because she enrolled in the school one term ahead of Ai Ai and therefore has priority.

I read up "The Absorbent Mind" by Maria Montessori, and she wrote that a child below 3 yrs old does not suffer from the defect of lack of concentration. If there was this defect, it would disappear the moment the child finds an activity that engages her.

And here is Ai Ai today doing some simple pouring activity for a full 50mins!
I gave her some rice, her tea set, a funnel, measuring jug, bowls, spoons and a tray and she happily poured the rice from one container to another for close to an hour.
And I wasn't "playing" with her at all... I was just lying in bed half dozing off and observing her.

Now R doubts the teacher's credibility and wants to pull Ai Ai out of the school immediately rather than have her interest in school killed. We'd be checking out another school, Agape Montessori at Thomson Hills, next week. Afterall, Ai Ai needs to go to a school while waiting for a placement in Chiltern. Coincidentally, her current school called today and said they can promote Ai Ai to the Tods class after I called last week to enquire how to go about withdrawing her from school.

To school on a rainy day

This was how we went to school yesterday.
It was a light drizzle so I thought she might enjoy the walk in her raincoat and boots.

Child Labour?

Ai Ai helping me mash potatoes for R's steak dinner :)

Froot Loops is my Darling

I've never managed to get Ai Ai to drink more than the pathetic 20ml of milk eveyday.
Yep, you read correctly and I did not type wrongly.
It's REALLY 20ml - about 1 tablespoon or a sip of milk everyday!

Today I thought I'd try something a little sinful - Froot Loops with her milk for her breakfast.
And it went down well with her! :)
Today's record is 150ml of milk over breakfast and snack time!

She loved it so much that she told me "Froot Loops is my darling."
I say, "Froot Loops is my saviour!"

Learning to Skip

This is Ai Ai trying to skip with her lacing toy :)

She was inspired after watching our oh-so-fit neighbour skip at the fitness park.

National Museum!

I haven't stepped into the National Museum for ages, but thanks to my neighbour who told me about VERNER PANTON – The Collected Works, we managed to catch this exhibition on the last day it was displayed at there before it made its way to Tokyo.

Ai Ai had a great time climbing around in the Phantasy landscape while I simply rested on the oh-so-comfy curvatures :)

Image of Phantasy landscape Visiona 2. Cologne furniture fair 1970 © Panton Design, Basel
"Most people spend their lives living in dreary, beige conformity, mortally afraid of using colours. The main purpose of my work is to provoke people into using their imagination and make their surroundings more exciting." - Verner Panton

Ai Ai and R engrossed in the "magnetic wire" structure

Ai Ai was playing by herself for a good 15mins without us.
We were just standing at the corner chatting while she discovered what she could do with the wire hoop.
Is there really a lack of concentration in her as what her teacher said she suffers from?

On the way back to the carpak at Fort Canning, R and Ai Ai looking at the camera so their image could be captured on the wall.

At the end of the trip, Ai Ai said she enjoyed her museum trip very much and would like to take Nemo there next time!

Targetted next museum outing - Singapore Philatelic Museum!

Take a look at the lovely pictures in MamaBliss' blog :)

May I hold an ice-cream please?

That's all she really wanted to do - hold the ice-cream.
Of course she licks the ice-cream, but she doesn't eat much of it, maybe because it's too cold and she's not used to the sensation.
You guess right - Mommy eats up the ice-cream most times!
She loves the cone though :)

At my fattest ever :)

I went for my 28th week gynae checkup yesterday and guess what?
I put on 4kg in the last one month - thanks to the nightly supper R bought me!
From pre-pregnancy till now, I've put on a total of 12kg... I'm at my fattest ever!
With Ai Ai, I only put on 11kg for the whole pregnancy :O
The nurse was grumbling and chiding me for putting on so much weight... afraid that the weight would affect my blood pressure and sugar level.
When I saw my gynae and asked him sheepishly if the weight was a problem, he just looked through his records, smiled and shook his head.
Hmm... what kind of a response is that?
I take it that it's OK then, since I started off this pregnancy pretty underweight at 45kg.
So I went home and baked some Mickey and Mini Mouse cookies with Ai Ai and Mum :)

First Music Class at Mandeville

We had our first "Baby Music" class at Mandeville Music School last Saturday.
R took Ai Ai for her class while I was supposed to just run some light errands and then drink a cup of tea.
I didn't expect United Square cafes to be so crowded around lunchtime though, so I ended up peeping at the class through the window as I couldn't get a seat at most cafes.
Ai Ai saw me, then opened the door and insisted Mommy join her in class.
As we were only allowed one parent per child, I took over from R.

The class was pretty tiring, with lots of standing up and sitting down kind of movements.
It was led by 2 lovely and enthusiastic teachers, Ms Chua and Ms Low.
Ms Chua was really passionate about playing the piano while Ms Low was really engaging and patient with the tods.
Ms Low even followed up with an email attached with a document about what we would be learning during this term and information about Mandeville concerts!
I could see that Ai Ai was enjoying herself even though it was her naptime (it's a 1pm class).
Maybe this is a good start to training her for Chiltern PM session?

Thanks, Amy Yi Yi, for recommending the school and teachers!

Strawberry Bosom!

We made some strawberry cupcakes today - they were surprisingly yummy!
The buttercream frosting felt a little soft unlike the typical frosting on cupcakes sold outside... maybe those are fondant frosting?
My frosting also curdled a little because this greedy mommy added more strawberry puree than required.
Without a proper piping bag, I attached the nozzle to a plastic bag and attempted to make some swirls with the buttercream but failed miserably as my buttercream was hardened from being chilled... well, I thought the frosting was too soft so I chilled it, not realising I could not pipe them after it's been chilled.
The things that an amateur baker does!

Later, we invited Ai Ai's little friend/neighbour May and her mommy over for a tea and yoga session :)

I got Ai Ai to pose in her apron

Actually this is my apron bought from Seville, Spain :)

Ai Ai busy filling the cups and mumbling to herself who the cupcakes are for...

Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy, Sophie, Mommy,Auntie Mel, May, Auntie Vikki, Isaac, Auntie Alicia, Anya, Mamak, Gong Gong, Chung Chung....

WAIT! Mommy's only made enough batter for 10 cuppies... are you sure there's enough for all of them?

YES!

Our First Cupcake - Strawberry Bossom :)

Waitlist for Chiltern House - PM session!

R and I decided that being on #41 on the AM waitlist will not get us anywhere.
So we made the bold move to change Ai Ai to the PM waitlist.
This would be a really BIG change for Ai Ai as she is basically an early bird, usually waking up at about 630am, hence requiring her noon nap at about 1230noon.
Chiltern PM class would be 2pm to 530pm, and schoolbus uncle would probably need to pick her up around 130pm.
Let's hope this Gina Ford baby would be able to sleep through 12hrs by the time she is 3, so she can skip her noon nap totally (according to Gina Ford schedule).

She's now #3 for the PM session waitlist, provided she fulfils 2 terms of JG classes :)