Updates on Potty Training..

2 weeks ago was a depressing one for me because Dillion made 2 wet accidents at home on same day.
I was infuriated because it occured just minutes after asking if he needs to pee.
And I gave him a hard spank on his thigh.. he cried loudly and I felt so guilty.. my heart break too. I gave him a hug after that.

I was so dishearten.. I always been patient and talked to him nicely that "Its ok to wet the floor.. just let Mummy knows if you need to pee" in the past and I had enough. I lost my temper and just whacked him hard.. hoping he learnt through the hard ways since the word "Cane" always worked magically on him.

I think I'm beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.. I'm still asking him if he needs to pee and still bringing him to the toilet. But lately when there is an urge to pee.. he will call "Mummy Mummy" urgently, holding or pointing to his shorts and thats the signal to pee/poo. Though he still not saying "I WANT TO WEE WEE"

Its good enough.. after 3 months of sweat and tears.. I can see a lil' bit of success.

I have to confess that I regretted force-starting him on potty training when he turn 2 year old. I always assume its easy to train and see result within weeks. Dillion was never ready from the start..
There is no turning back to diaper days for me now..

A Labour Day..

As the title say.. it was a labour day for me at home with Dillion. Just the two of us as Kevin got work comittments.

Because of the nasty swine virus, I decided to keep the fella at home for a day and it turned out to be a bad choice as he mess up the house:

1) Wet (urine) accident in the living room because I was merely few minutes late in bringing him to the toilet

2) Attempting to pour chrys tea from bottle to his cup hence spilling on to kitchen floor

3) Threw his dinner on the floor. I was in kitchen, leaving him to self feed and it was a nightmare seeing rice all over the floor. Think he must have accidentally flipped his bowl over.
Needless to say, he got a lashing from me.

4) Spill plain water from his cup when he was walking around.

Kevin thought perhaps he was too bored at home as he rarely at home in the evenings.

Anyway.. some things he done to redeem himself:

Forming a railway track with his blocks on his own


Posing happily with his creation


Then destroying them


I heard him laughing behind my back .. and he did this:



A video of him attempting to sing his ABCs and also tearing up his book

Devils in the making?

I received a sms from my pal- Faridah last week on Dillion's birthday.. Wishing him and also telling me that they will turn into a devil after 2year old.

Lo and behold.. how true! My son suddenly had such fiery temper and lotsa naughty antics that is too much for me to blog it down.

And there was an embarassing incident that D did in the train that almost made me breakdown and wanted to bring him out the train although its not our destination.
It makes me wonder.. why did he turn out this way? Suddenly I seem to have a lil' monster with me.

Then I realised.. actual fact, his Terrible Two has just started after his birthday.
When you reason with them, pacify, and they simply throw a big tantrums over minor things and never seem to be able to calm them down. Cry is his weapon nowadays.

It was a bad night today.. and there is more to come.

Cheeky boy..

You know your boy is so cheeky when you are taking laundry out of the wash machine, he keeps attempting to close the machine cover and does it with a evil grin- Hur hur hur!! And he is so happy to disrupt your work.

When you bring him out in the mall.. He wishes to go opposite direction from you. But you do not allow him so what does he do?
Just happily plonked his bum on the floor and not look at you.

I left him alone and walked away to hide in a corner.. he spotted me and used his hands to cover his eyes and played peek-a-boo!

There are so many incidents where by i left him sitting on the floor in public places and he seem to be ejoying all the attentions and stare given by the public. Sometimes he can even wave Hi to them.


This is my son and I still love him loads!

Hmm..

Its amazing how Dillion can remove his shoes sneakily on his own whenever he is on the highchair dinning out with us all the time.

However once we are back home, he will roam around the house with his shoes which I warned him several time to remove them but it falls on deaf ears.

He would sit down and pretend to have difficulties.. hence needing help from us.

Today, I made him sit down on the floor with me and I forcefully made him remove on his own of course with some scolding and coaxing from me as he was pretending to divert his attention on the TV.

I may be a meanie Mummy when some regard him as too young to do such simple chores.
But if I don't start now.. then when?

Sad Face..

I can't recall what naughty things Dillion did. He was on the verge of crying..


I think my boy can be stubborn like a mule and has a strong character. When I spank or scold him.. he will look away, refusing to look into my eyes.
Or when he sense something is not right, he will immediately give me a hug to seek forgiveness!!

Sometimes its difficult maintaining a straight face when we are disciplinging him!

Morning read in the Library..

We brought Dillion to Bishan Library on Tuesday morning. We were one of the few early birds in the children section and it gave D a chance to explore and potter round the place..

D trying to navigate down the step on fours.. I wonder when would he have the courage to step up and down on his own??



Saw a book on the floor? Thats his guilty look of being caught red handed by me for throwing the book!








This boy was so friendly that day.. he would go up to the kids that step into the section with a smile and gave a pat on their chest.. Guess that his way of saying hi. He attempted to pull a girl's hair.. the girl ran to her mom and the mom said loudly.. "next time learn to avoid". Sigh.. as much as I have disciplined, lectured, scolded D.. I can't seem to break his habit of hair-pulling antics. To D, its his way of expressing his excitement (when he sees new friends) or friendly gestures..But to other parents or kids, they may not understand. or may not like it

Erratic Timing..

Because Dillion woke up early for his milk, he ended or rather we all woke late at 10am almost everyday..
Hence it sorta affected his nap time.

Today, he simply refused to sleep.. so mother and son lie on the bed for 2 hours. Yes I kid you not! An utter waste of my time. I was so frustrated that i slapped his bum many times losing my temper then feeling angry with him and myself because he cried innocently and it broke my heart!

Anyway.. I be making an effort to wake up at 9am.. so that its easier for him to nap from 1-3pm.

Then night time will be a breeze!

Night feeding..

For the past few days, Dillion had been waking up at unearthly hours asking for "neh neh" (milk)!!

Last week, he woke up at 3-4 ish am turning 360 degrees on the bed disrupting our sleep then chant "Da Da, Ma ma.. Neh Neh neh neh" ..
Admit we are both lousy and lazy parents and we chose to ignore his pleas hoping he would just fall back to sleep.
We were wrong and he rant till we cave in and made milk for him.

Past few days.. was slightly better and he woke up at 6am for milk. Then fall back to sleep with us.

We were puzzled and not sure why the sudden growth spurt in him. We suspect that he may be waken up due to the heat as we sleep with the fan on.

OR

He may be teething as I spotted his 'Dracula' teeth cutting out from his upper gums.

With this.. it made his daily schedule turned upside down :(

Kids these days...

Today after D's lesson at GUG, United Square.. I witness 2 seperate incidents which set me thinking nowadays it not easy to be a Parents.

Incident 1:
After the lesson ended, one of D's classmate refused to let her Daddy wear his shoes! She keep crying and saying 'NO NO NO'.. not sure why and the Daddy was pretty cool about it and keep coaxing his girl. I gave him a smile as I walked past him and then he told me "Now my girl is controlling me!"

Incident 2:
A 4-5 year old girl had a major meltdown with her parents. I saw her sitting on the floor of 2nd level crying "I don't want" refused to be carried by her parents and kept struggling. I presume she was being forced to leave the ELC store unwillingly.

When I went down to B1 for my supermarketing.. the saga continued.
This time she threw herself on the floor and crying loudly and ranting the same words.

The Mummy just stood beside her.. did not even raise her voice as she was trying her best to persuade and cajole her to leave the place.

It went on for a good 30 minutes of the time i was at Cold Storage till I was standing quite near to them then my jaws dropped when I heard the mummy said "Ok, Mummy and Daddy say sorry to you many times already. We naiughty people ok". The girl still refused to give in and was still sobbing and screaming her lungs out.

I must give her credit for being so cool all the while. If it was me and my temperament, I would have just give D a smack on his legs or scream at him!

Wow.. now I know why Kids Control their Parents and not the other way round! I mean its obvious that this girl is throwing tantrums! Why can't the Parents just drag her away from the shopping centre then talk or coax her when they are in the car or at a quiet corner?

Perhaps I've not been through this stage with D so I think its easier said then to be done. I was thinking if D does that to me in public... I will either stand aside, ignore him and watch him perform or simply just carry him home forcefully.

If I were to do this as a child, I would long be given a tight slap by my own Mum!
Times have change!

Smart Alec + Inconsiderate Passengers..

Smart Alec and act strong mummy brought Dillion out to AMK Hub to meet Nick and Lanfang.. without my trusty Ergo carrier for the first time!

I was thinking that since its only a 5min walk to the bus stop then I can hop on to the double decker bus no. 88 then when i am at AMK hub.. they can help to carry D.

And it was a truly disaster trip... allow me to rant..
A single decked bus came and it was quite packed. So no choice got to carry D up and sadly NO ONE GAVE UP THE SEAT TO ME!!!!!

I was standing beside a woman around my age and she looks emotionless. And it impossible to let a Grand Ma or a father with a 2 yr old boy whom were seating near her to give up the seat to me.

I wonder do I look like a muscle woman that day that everyone thinks I can manage a 10kg boy?
It was a awkward situation for me as I can sense sympathetic eyes on me from the passenger at the back of the bus.

I certainly hope that my photos will not appear on Stomp.com!

About walking..

Many friends told me that once my boy starts to walk, we will be busy catching and looking out for him.

At home, Dillion is walking more than crawling although he tends to forget and resume crawling.
It gets exasperating when its bed time and he is now able to get down from our bed on his own(which is quite high as its a storage bed with thick mattress) and potter around the room..
throwing his diapers and toys all over or disturbing and pulling the power plug off Daddy's lappie.

When we were out of the house.. we observed that he would refused to walk when we are at the void deck and insist to be carried.
When we were in shopping centre, he would want to come down and walk.

Conclude: He cannot walk when there is no air con.

Eating Disorder..

Sometimes when you put in a lil' more effort in cooking for your child and he ends up spitting out your hard work.. his actions really demoralised me!

For the past few days, Dillion have left me bewildered over his eating habits. One day he can eat milky macaroni, apple slices..
Few days later, he would be spitting them out, refusing to eat.

Yesterday.. I boiled Corn soup over the fire for 2 hours to serve with rice for dinner. He spat out every thing.. refuse to even eat a single drop of food.
I was fumming mad.. perhaps he is not hungry as he had his milk 2 hours ago.

Fine.. probably he is in one of his moody days. So we brought him out to a birthday bash thinking maybe he would prefer outside food.
Once again he refused to eat after 5 scoops and preferred to wander about.

Today, same episode again. I did not cook and he did not have his proper lunch and dinner when we are out at coffee shop and my Grandma place respectively.

I'm pulling my hair out over his poor eating habits and I really don't know what he fancy or dislike!!!
He has got mood swing like a woman!

He hates apple slices and preferred them to be purred and recently he starting to munch on them.

Come on baby.. stop confusing your mummy!!! Please revert back to my eat 'everything under the sky' baby

He is walking..

I can say D is now walking much more than crawling although sometimes he forgotten that he can walk and will prefer to crawl instead.

Although he still can't walk steadily and need to raise both his arms to balance.. I'm grateful enough to be able to witness this important milestone.
Key word as other mummies friends have told me is "Patience".. D will surely surprise me one fine day!

Today both of us were alone at home.. and D busied himself walking all over the living room whilst i chill out on the sofa..
Video taken using my mobile thus the poor lighting..



Few days back, when we were at J8.. i held D's hands and we walked a distance. There was this Uncle staring and looking at D weirdly (D raise both his arms as he walked). Hey, my boy is a normal being ok!

Why we need bed time routine..

Sometimes people do not understand that its not easy to get a child to fall asleep for the night.
He is not one whom will lie down and sleep the very moment.

Time is spent: Bathing, story telling, milk, etc etc etc..

Then light off.. and then another 30-45 min then a child will go to dreamland..

So that's why night time starts early so that a child can sleep early too.

One know that its not healthy for a child to sleep late..

Only when a person do this daily then they will understand one parent's difficulties in adhering to bed time routine:

"Your baby will be more relaxed if she knows what's coming next," says sleep expert Jodi Mindell. "The more relaxed she is, the more likely it will be that she'll go to bed easily and fall asleep quickly."

When your baby is as young as six or eight weeks old, you can start to follow a set pattern every night; your baby will quickly come to appreciate the consistency and predictability.

What you include in your routine is up to you. There's the standard bath routine, putting on pyjamas, reading a story, having a cuddle, or playing a quiet game. Just make sure you choose something that helps to calm your baby. And while you can certainly start your routine in the bathroom or the living room, aim for it to end up in your baby's bedroom. It's important that your baby's room is a nice place to be, not just somewhere that she's left at bedtime. Making bedtime a pleasurable event, with time, attention and cuddles in strong supply, means that your baby will love the whole process. If she gets upset as she sees you leave after you tuck her in, tell her you'll be back to check on her in a few minutes. She'll probably be fast asleep by the time you return.

Rough patch for Mummy..

The week before we left for Korea, it was difficult and trying time for me and Dillion.

I put him under his great grandma care for 3 weekdays so that I can run errands and prepare for our trips. Not sure if its because of this, Dillion rejected me for many days.

When the whole brood is at home, I have accepted the fact that I'm his last choice of preference to be with.
But he only wants his Mummy to cuddle him and accompanied him to sleep for the night so this sort of compensate for the fact that he is not close to me.

For the first 3 days in Korea.. it was hell for me.
Dillion only wanted his Daddy and no one else. He will not even allow me to carry him.
He refused to sit on my lap on the coach.. and will cry 'Daddy, daddy' when Daddy is out of his sight.

He is so ultra sticky and manja to the extend of pulling me to the gents to look for his Daddy dearest.

When comes to bed time in Korea, he did not want me beside him and cried and insisted Daddy to carry and rock him to sleep.

His behaviour broke my heart and I was shattered! Because i simply don't understand why the sudden change in him. I was very angry as well because it took me time, patient and effort to train him to fall asleep without patting, lullaby and rocking.
I'm sad that my boy do not want me anymore even at night.

I broke down on the 2nd night in Korea as its really demoralising seeing Dillion crying so badly for his Daddy.

Daddy on the other hand was supportive of me and also patient with Dillion.
I'm very thankful that he agreed and refused to accede to D's request to rock and also let him cry himself to sleep in Korea for 2 nights.

We may sound like cruel parents but we don't practised this at home .. we can only do this in Korea without anyone intervention.

3rd night in korea, Kevin went and 'hide' in the toilet which enable\ me to spend some time with Dillion.
I'm relieved that D did not fuss and slept with me accompanying him.

Situation improved after that.. and I felt much better.

Back in S'pore.. skies are cleared and I got my boy back with me at night.
I used to complain about D wasting my precious time accompanying him to sleep at night.. now I better keep my mouth shut!!

GUG & Lunch @Globtrotters..

I personally did not enjoy myself at D's GUG lesson this week.

Firstly, Teacher Ida on MC. I don't quite like the replacement teacher.

Secondly, few of D's classmates had progressed to Todd class and we have new babies joining our class for this new term.

In my personal opinion, i think its a tad too early to send your child whom is less than a year old to class like GUG which demand 1.5hr of attention and activities. Perhaps Gymboree/Kindermusik would be an appropriate choice.

We have 4 new babies and they either turned cranky or crawled towards the teacher in midst of lesson. The parents being new to the class did not bother to bring them out to pacify them or pulled them away thus it was quite disruptive and it irks as the bigger kids starts to whine and walked away, including Dillion.

The replacement teacher did not do a good job in controlling them unlike Teacher Ida.

After lesson, we went to Globetrotters Restaurant for lunch. Their main course are reasonably priced at $10 onwards but the standard of food is so-so only. Definitely not for fussy eaters.
We ordered a kids meal- Chicken nuggets and fries for D:

This week happenings.. Fever strikes!!!!

Mon
We were out at Junction 8 on Mon evening when I felt D's forehead was warm. Fed him paracetamol and he did not want his last milk feed.

Tue
Kevin took leave and we brought D to the GP. Fever was moderate for the whole day. No appetite for milk at all but was able to take his solids. Have to spoon feed him water in order to keep him hydrate.

D was in his usual self and not restless at all. Thank God.

Wed
Kevin took half day leave to help me out as both of us did not have enough sleep.
Fever gone down finally and he recovered.
Finally able to drink his 1st and last milk feed.

Thurs & Fri
Home alone with the boy as Daddy has to work. It was tough handling D as he turned super sticky to me at home.
Clinging on to me like a kola when he wakes up in the morning and after his nap.
Refused to be put down and even need me to accompany him to watch his Barney.
Ended up he sat on the kitchen floor watching me cook his meals.
Milk appetite back to normal but still rejecting his afternoon milk feed.

Fever
After D's fever episode in June, Kevin and I are better prepared and handled the situation pretty well.
We fed paracetamol diligently for every 3 hours which help to bring down his fever fast.
And I did not fret over D's poor appetite and did not force him to eat or drink.
GP did advise that due to his molar eruptions, he may not want to drink his milk as its painful having to suck the teat.

Stickiness
We do not know why Dillion became so sticky to us at home that I told Kevin that D is like a leech at home.. clinging on to me.
Photo taken using my laptop's web cam when i had to accompany him to watch his Barney:

D laid on my legs (refusing to let me go to the kitchen to prepare his meals)for half and hour whilst watching his Barney.. which is very rare of him as he will normally moves around the house, messing things up.

Change in preferences & behavioural

I realised that ever since Dillion hit the half-way mark to 2year old..there had been some changes in his food preferences and his behavioural. Coupled with his molar eruptions, Terrible 2 Syndrome.. yada yada.. It been a hell of time with him, understanding his needs, wants, whine, tantrums..

Food preferences
I'm disappointed that my once non-fussy boy has start to show dislike for some food like for instance:
Cheese, tomatoes and apple slices (he is ok with pureed apple)
In order to let him have added calcium, i had to add cheese into his oatmeal with pureed apple or spread jam over the cheese cube on his bread.

Eating habit
Recently, D been eating much lesser. Sometimes he only manage to finish half a bowl or porridge and will spit out when he is full instead of clamming his mouth like he used to.
And is driving me up the wall because its messy.. I hope that this is poor appetite due to teething.

Potty training
D starting to protest when i bring him to his potty during diaper change. He cried, struggled.. simply refused to sit. He will only do so when I catch him in better mood.

Refusal
He shake his head whenever we say Bath time, wash face, brush teeth.. He will whine and we have to everything fast. And he will cling on to us during shower which puzzled us as he used to love bathing.

Possession of things
He wants to grab hold of things he sees and refused to get distracted by other stuffs. He ends up throwing tantrums and won't stop crying until he gets it.

Sleepless nights
D been waking up crying for past few nights due to teething and making us so zombified every morning due to lack of sleep. And its always a guessing game on whom he wants us to carry. If he prefer Daddy then he would not allow mummy to take over and vice versa.

We hope this is just a phase and once all his teeth are out, our lives will be back to normal.
Dealing and handling a child's tantrums and meltdowns is a test of our patient and a learning experience for us.
We have scolded, beat his hands, let him cry it out for we hope that we can get the Terrible Two syndrome over .. but I read that we still have to deal with Terrible Three! *GOOD GRIEF*

Velcro boy..

Lately Dillion had been like a velcro tape to me at night. He will stick body to body with me regardless of any position i lay on the bed. Or he will lay his head on my leg.

Kevin think its a sweet gesture from our boy which he does not get this from D. But i find it irritating especially when I'm trying to get him to sleep for the night and yet this bugger seem to be playing around with me.

I was so irritaed that i walked out of the room awhile ago and left him with his daddy.