I had lost count how many times I had blogged about Mal sleeping alone. It has been a long journey and we have come a long way. I have not updated his sleep progress since this entry . Actually the little happy note only lasted for a night or 2 and he soon reverted to his ‘waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-look-for-mummy’ syndrome and he would cry and refuse to go to sleep whenever it was bedtime. We eventually gave up. I was afraid this sleeping alone thingy was too traumatic for him as it was beginning to affect his afternoon nap as well. I took it as a sign that we should just let it be, listen to him and follow what he wants. Maybe he was simply not ready to sleep alone in his own room! Forget about what the book says…about what other babies do and how other parents handle. We were going to do it the ‘Malcolm’s way’. Is a risk that we took as we really don’t know what is the ‘right’ way.

We finally shifted his little bed to our room and had it right in a corner of the room. Our deal to him was ‘Yes you can sleep in our room, but only in your little bed and NOT in our bed’ He was happy with this idea and that night, for the first time in many nights, he slept soundly. No waking up, no whining, no crying. I felt bad as I thought of what we had put him through all this while trying to let him sleep on his own.

It has been about 2 months now that we had let him sleep in his little bed in our room. Once a while, he would take his afternoon nap in his own room, in his own huge queen size bed. He was fine doing that in the afternoon. Yesterday, I let him napped in his big bed again and he slept soundly for a straight 3 hours.

When he woke up I asked him ‘doesn’t your big bed feels more comfortable?? It is bigger and softer and you can roll around wherever you want!’ I was actually trying to coax him to take his afternoon nap in his big bed more often as I was thinking of making that his day bed.
He thought for awhile and told me ‘Can I shift my small bed here, next to the big bed so that I can roll from the big bed to the small bed! In the morning I will sleep in the big bed, in the night, I will sleep in the small bed. ‘
I was doubtful about what he said so I asked him again
‘Are you sure you want to do that?? If you shift your small bed here, you will need to sleep here at night, by yourself, ALONE and Daddy and Mummy will still sleep in our room. Are you sure you want that? You not scared anymore?’
‘Yes, I want that. I not scared now, cos I grown up already. Last time I scared, cos I still small’
he then continued to pester me to shift his little bed and his moon night light to his own room.
I told him that we had to wait for Daddy to do that the next day as Mummy can’t do it alone. I was actually buying time, to see whether he will change his mind. I wasn’t prepared for this, to have him so enthusiastic to sleep in his own room again. I couldn’t wait to tell Daddy, but then, I was also thinking probably he will change his mind the next day.

I was wrong, Mal knew exactly what he was saying and what he was getting himself into. The next day, Daddy helped to shift all his things to his room. His little bed, his moon night light, his books…

I looked at the empty corner in our room where his little bed used to be…maybe this is it…at close to 3 years old, our little boy no longer needs to sleep with us…

As he was taking his afternoon nap in his own room now, I blogged this down…

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

Mal used to be rather picky and choosy when it comes to food when he was a baby. He didn’t take formula, he disliked fruits and he started showing interest in what we were eating when he was very young and cooking his blend porridge was quite a waste of time as most of the time he didn’t finish what we gave him. So we let him join us at our dining table when he was very young and he would eat what we eat. Think he likes our food because it is more tasty! I would say, he developed a very clever taste bud at a tender age. He dislikes bottled food from Gerber and Heinz. We had thrown away so many bottles becos he couldn’t finish the food and these bottled food cannot be kept for long once opened. Feeding him when he was a baby was very disheartening, discouraging, tiring and frustrating!

Luckily he kinda outgrown that phase. He is much better now and he can eat pretty well nowadays. His all time favourite is MUSHROOMS. He loves different types of mushrooms, dried shitake mushrooms, fresh portabella mushrooms, canned mushrooms, golden mushrooms…he loves them ALL!!! It is weird! I wonder whether is the taste or the word ‘mushrooms’ that makes him interested?! All these mushrooms to me taste different but he loves them all.

Mal also loves soup and I think he takes after Mummy when it comes to this. Recently while drinking soup, we discovered some really weird things that Mal likes to eat…

We discovered that he likes to eat the small anchovy that we used for boiling the soup! He will use his hands and pick up all the anchovy and stuff them into his mouth! He definitely beat both us when it comes to eating anchovy. We marveled at his love for the tasteless anchovy and it almost make daddy feel ashame as daddy would normally pick out all the anchovy from the soup so that he can throw them away later!

Today, I made some herbal soup using some dried herbs. There are huai shan, yu zhu and white fungus (???). Mal ATE them ALL and insisted that we joined him saying that they taste good! These are the food that both Mummy and Daddy will considered ‘junk’ as normally we will throw them away after drinking the soup. This is the first time that he is showing so much interest for all these ‘junk’. We were astounded and amused! Mal ate something that both of us wouldn’t normally eat! For once, we were so proud of him as he eats all these healthy stuff which people would normally throw away as they are too blend.

I concluded that this little boy’s taste bud is still developing and he is still exploring and finding new food that suits his taste. This is good in a way as that means there is still hope for him to eat fruits! something that he simply refused to try till now.

herbal soup with huai shan, yu zhu and white fungus (???)

We were out late last night and by the time we reached home and put Mal to sleep, it was past midnight. Mal has a very bad habit of waking up early and he has problem falling asleep once he wakes up in the morning, even if it is still early, even if the sun is still asleep and even if he is still tired! He will lie in bed, wait for the sunrise and tell me that it is time for breakfast once he saw the slightest daylight peeking through the blinds! During this period of the year, the sun will rise earlier at around 6 plus so this guy has been waking up this early for the past few days. I am most of the time tired but has no choice but to begin my day early. It doesn’t matter whether what time he sleeps the night before, he just doesn’t have the habit of lazing in the bed. How I wish he is like Daddy when it comes to this.

The first thing he asked today when he woke up at 5 plus was…’Are we going to baby Ariel birthday party today?!’ I wonder is it all these activities and information in his little mind that kept him so awake and alert! Seem like he can’t wait to start the day. He only slept for 5 hours plus!

Today the pest control guy was here at around 10 am. He is normally here once in 2 months. Mal is usually shy whenever the pest control guy is here and will usually cling on to us. This was still so during his last visit. Today, Mal did something rather unusual. He was all excited and chatty when the guy came. He greeted the pest control guy at the door ‘Uncle, uncle, do you know we are going to baby Ariel’s birthday party at Litchfield Park today?!’ Daddy and I look at each other puzzled by his sudden chatty self. As the guy continued to work around the house, Mal followed him around asking ‘Uncle, uncle, do you know ducks like to eat crawly insects?’ Both me and Daddy were bewildered. Where did he learn that from ??!! Maybe is his lack of sleep?! The rest of the morning was filled with more WHYs…you will be surprised how tiring it can be trying to answer all his WHYs!

A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. ~Author Unknown

Spring shower is here. The weather forecast is showing showers for these few days. It is rare to get rain here and Mal is all excited again when he saw the rain. He just wants to get out there and be in the rain! Mal was happy to see the rain when he woke up from his afternoon nap. “Mummy, please come! I want to hear the rain, I want to go outside and feel the rain!” and that was what he did.

Given some paint and brush, this was the surprise that awaits me when I woke up from a short nap from the living room sofa. When Mal gets especially quiet playing alone and does not bug me to play with him, I get worried as there is a high chance that he is up to some mischief! And sure enough, this time, I was right! Luckily he didn’t draw my face, like he used to draw on popo’s ! hahah

to Uncle Eddy and YeeYee for the presents that you have showered on Mal for his coming birthday. I think you guys have covered more than 1/2 of what Mummy have in the wish list ! Mal was taking his afternoon nap when the postman came banging on our door. Received a box of presents for Mal and more to come based on the list inside the box. Will keep the presents aside and wrap them up so that Mal can have a HUGE surprise on his birthday! Can’t thank you guys enough !

Daddy is finally back. The last 2 weeks flashed by quite fast. Mal missed Daddy during the first few days that he was gone, but I think he soon gotten used to it.(I will be sad if Mal only misses me the first few days that I am gone!) Maybe because we reassured him that Daddy will be back soon and he also got to speak to Daddy on the phone everyday.

Telling Mal that Daddy will be back in 2 weeks’ time sounds rather vague, meaningless and abstract as he still hasn’t grasp the concept of time. I thought this will be a good opportunity for him to learn something. So, we printed a March calendar from the internet so as to show him when exactly daddy will be back. It became a nightly ritual for the past 2 weeks for us to write down what we did for the day before he goes to bed. I would let him stick on his favourite Mickey Mouse stickers for some of the days which really helps to cheer him up during the first few days that Daddy was not around. As the days went by, Mal got better at doing this. Instead of me prompting him, he would rattle on by himself on what he did for the day. I had to censored some of the stuff he said as I had problem squeezing all the nitty gritty details in the calendar! (you can see from the calendar above that I ran out of space for the last few days)

This is becoming so fun and meaningful that I am thinking of making this a nightly routine. It is like starting a diary for him…unlike this blog, which most of the stuff was written by me, the content of this calendar diary will come solely from him. As he will narrate the events for the day while I helped to pen them down. hmmm…should I give myself more work??

we woke up at 6 plus to see Daddy off…we went to the runway to see the planes took off … it was so cool to see the planes blast past us and they did a few rounds above us before embarking on their journey. Mal was dressed almost like daddy in his flight jacket (thanks to Auntie Jessica for the pic)

Mal had his first stint in a childcare center yesterday when I left him with a fitness center childcare for more than an hour. Joining a fitness club seems to be a win win situation for both me and Mal as I get to workout and Mal get to learn to be independent. But there is always the fear of trying this out as I know that Mal will not like it and we have never done it before. But like many things in life, there is always the first time.

Fitness clubs here are like huge playgrounds for the whole family. The main attraction of the fitness clubs here is that they provide childcare service of up to 2 hours a day for the parents so that they can workout in peace and have some time for themselves. This is a huge attraction to stay at home mums with toddlers who are too young to attend schools.

Went there with Auntie Jane and her 2 daughters Annie and Grace. We planned to go together so that the kids could have company at the childcare. It was both our 1st time leaving the kids at a childcare service. The kids were delighted when we went into the childcare center as there were lots of toys, indoor and outdoor and there were many other kids as well. Seeing them so happy and anxious, we were both relieved. We reassured them that we would be back after the workout. They were already playing with all the toys and were too busy to say goodbyes to us. I was thinking…hey, that was much easier than what I thought! We were gone for more than an hour.

When we returned to pick them up. Annie had already been crying for a while and Grace was doing a great job consoling her. Mal was close to tears. He was searching for the door to open so that he could come out, but we had left our ID in the lockers and in order to pick them up, we need to produce our ID. So we had no choice but to leave them again. When we were finally back, and went through the door to their play area. Mal ran to me and tears started to roll down his cheek! The first thing he said was ‘Why you come back so fast?!’ Hmmm…that was strange, maybe he was trying to say ‘What took you so long’. He went on to tell me that he didn’t cry.

I think what actually happened was, after playing with the toys for a while, reality sets in and he realised that Mummy was still not back yet. Think he had been trying to stay brave and strong and not cry while waiting for me to come back but couldn’t hold back and burst into tears the moment he saw me. Guess it was tears of joy and relief! I was so proud of him as I think he was so brave to stay calm even when he was feeling frantic.

My little boy has grown up and I think he should be ready to take the next big step…to be independent when Mummy is not around.

We rewarded the kids with plenty of water fun at the outdoor heated pool. The kids have loads of fun and I think Mal should be ready to do this again.

This will be a memorable day for both us.

“I love Grace cos she is my friend and she plays with me”

Went to the park with some mommies. The sun was soooo good! We brought food…sandwiches, cakes, salad, sausages, fried rice, lotsa fruits and drinks. Mal brought along his bike and he was in a sharing mood today, the kids took turns to ride on his bike. It was a beautiful day as I always love the warmer weather and the hot sun…simply love the heat!
The highlight of the outing today was the waterplay area in the park which was supposed to be opened next month. It happened that the people working on the water play area were conducting some trials and tests on the water spray. The kids went almost hysterical when the water started spraying. The whole area came to live! Some of the mommies were quick to grab hold of their kids as they did not bring along extra set of clothing. I was lucky, cos today, I came extra prepared. I think I was as ecstatic as the kids when I saw the water. The hot sun make the water simply irresistible! I urged Mal to go ahead and play and very soon he was running around bare footed, soaking wet. I was so tempted to join him too!

This park is within jogging distance from our house and I seriously can’t wait for the water play area to be opened next month as it will be so nice to chill out here with the kids. With 2 playgrounds, a rock climbing wall, a baseball field, 2 basketball courts and a very elaborate skate park, the people here really know how to enjoy life!

We had such good time that we brought the kids back to the park again in the evening! This time round, I put on my blades (my butt toning machine) to join Mal in his bike. Can’t remember the last time we spent so much time exercising in the sun. Before we had Mal, we used to blade every week for hours! It sure is a good workout for the butt. By the time we reached home, we were burned out. I swear I hit the quota for outdoor play time with Mal for a day!

We spent the whole morning and afternoon outside in the backyard today. After our breakfast, Mal played with his toys while I lazed under the sun reading the papers. It felt so good to relax under the sun flipping through the papers.

After all the relaxation, I thought of just giving the lounge chairs a quick wash since it was getting dusty again. This was soon snowballed into a crazy cleaning frenzy. With the water hose in one hand and the broom in the other and I went around washing the pavement and all the patio furnitures in the backyard. In a way I was really glad I finally did it as I have been wanting to do this for days or maybe weeks.

The frenzy didn’t stop there, I went on to rearrange some of the furnitures and toys. Shifted the bulky swing in the porch out to our outdoor makan table, so now, we could swing and eat at the same time. With the swing gone, Mal’s little table and chairs and drawing board were now shifted to the porch where there is plentiful of shade and will be more appropriate for him to play when the weather gets warmer. I love the new arrangement and was so proud I did it all by myself

At noon, Grace and Annie came over to play and out to the backyard we went again. I rummaged through the fridge and decided to fix something simple for lunch. Brought our lunch outdoor so that Mal could play with the girls and eat at the same time.

The girls were so happy to see the pool. Very soon, they were inside the water splashing away. Though the sun was hot, the water wasn’t warm enough to swim as the cool night had brought the temperature down. So instead of letting them swim, we let them sit at the edge of the pool where the water is not too deep. The girls came unprepared but was beaming ear to ear when their mummy told them that they could strip off their pants to play in the water. After about an hour or so, Grace and Mal were both shivering and it was time to get them all out.

I bet the kids can’t wait for the water to warm up so that they can jump into water to swim. As for me, I can’t wait for Daddy to come back so that I can show him how our backyard look with the new arrangement

this little sand table has been sitting in our backyard for quite a while now…
Mal finally urged me to open up the cover, today

it was a sand box with a castle, knights, princess and dragon…

Mal is finally learning how to play using his imagination

Annie, Grace and Malthe girls are so cute

Brought him to a birthday party for a 5 year old boy. The theme for the party was Knights and Princesses. It was a really cool party where the parents did most of the stuff themselves. We had BBQ food at the garage and kids had craft to keep them entertained. It was a rather boyish party and it made me realised that Mal is still in his very kiddish world with all his favourite animal characters with mouse, bears, dinosaurs and animals that talk!
After this party, maybe his world has expanded a little to include more boyish stuff such as knights, swords and castles!

Had always wanted to try making my own bread. Know that it is not so simple especially without a bread machine. Was flipping through some recipes and just couldn’t resist to try my hands on these Bacon and Cheese Rolls! Thought the kids will love them and also for me to overcome my fear…hahha…and venture into another new area of baking

I went through the recipe and steps…they look simple! Thought maybe I could finish in time for breakfast. HA! I was so wrong and far too ambitious! The most difficult part was for the yeast to react. According to the recipe, it should take only 10 minutes for the initial yeast mix to turn frothy, we took more than an hour! another 30 minutes for the dough to double in size, we took about 2 hours! and finally another 15 minutes for the rolls to rise, we took close to another hour! So all in all, we spent the whole morning and afternoon waiting and more waiting! We were supposed to place the mixture in a warm place…so guess what…we left the mixture right under the hot sun, in the backyard! hoping the heat could help speed up the reaction. So my bread was practically ’sun bathing’ in the backyard for the whole morning!

Another tough part about making bread without a bread machine is…the kneading of the dough was TOUGH! I basically use ‘cow strength’ to try to knead the dough till smooth. PHEW! Mal had his fair share of kneading the dough too…he was actually more like massaging the dough. hahah and was giggling all the way cos we found it so funny!

So finally at around 4 plus in the afternoon, the baking was done. The rolls smell yummy but I had tasted better bread and rolls outside. Not bad for a first timer I guess

Definitely room for improvement. Next time I shall be more generous with the bacon and cheese! and forget about making the rolls less sinful! cos that is all where the flavour will come from and the lesson learnt is …

Watch me!
this is the 1st time I am making bread
this is the way I knead the doughor should I say, this is the way… I massage the dough!
Mummy says, “Smack it!”“Squeeze it!”
and “Throw it!”
this is so ooo funny!
we made a total of 17 rolls
sunbathing the rolls
in the backyard!
before the oven
look how fat the bacons!
finally…
wanna try some ?!

Bought some food coloring yesterday as I thought of making some paint with them. Thought it would be easy,… some flour, water and few drops of food coloring should be able to do the job. End up, the mixture was too diluted and the color did not really come out. So to salvage the paint, we mixed them with the normal paint. Mal was so excited when I told him that Mummy could make paint with those food coloring ! He thought this time round, he could use them to paint the wall! Cos the last time when we let him paint the wall with the washable paint, we had a hard time cleaning up the mess. But when I saw how the food coloring stained our fingers and refused to come off even after washing, I decided maybe it was better to just let him paint on paper instead. That didn’t seem to dampen his painting spirit. He seem to enjoy it as much. Here are some pictures that Daddy requested for when Mal told him that Mummy made paint using food coloring and he was painting when he called last evening.

the paint Mummy made were too diluted! Where’s the colors?!Mal loves BLACK color! hmmm…wonder y?!“Daddy I am painting”

Mal and I have been sick for the past few days. He was having fever on and off. His temperature hit his record high on Tuesday afternoon when it went up to 39.4. Surprisingly after 2 doses of medication, the fever went off and he could sleep through the night till Wednesday morning and was well the whole day until afternoon when the temperature went up again. Woke up at 4 am this morning to feed him medicine and after that both of us had problem going back to sleep. So finally we woke up at 5 am for breakfast! Tried to sleep again, but we finally gave up and began our day at 7 am. Brought him to see the doctor but wasn’t of much help as the doc did not even give him any medication. Initially the doc suspected strep throat as Mal complained to have some tummy pain and throat pain, but after taking some sample from his throat and did some tests, he concluded that it was negative and we were asked to go home without any medication. Not even fever reliever as normally people here self medicate. Medication such as fever reliever can be found in any pharmacies. Doc said that it might be some kind of viral infection and since Mal did not look very lethargic, according to him, monitoring his temperature should be good enough. So will see how it goes…

So we have been home bound for the past few days. The day can seem extremely long when cooped up at home and especially so when Daddy was not around. Did a bit of activity with ???’s activity book and to cheer him up a little, we baked again. On Tuesday, we baked his favourite pandan chiffon cake and yesterday, we baked some banana walnut muffin which he was only interested in baking and not eating! He went “iirrrk! don’t put the banana inside, I don’t like the smell!” when he saw me mixed in the banana!

thought Mal was too young for this activity book

Mal loves all the stickers inside the book

and can even do some of the activity inside the book like tracing lines and drawing lines with ruler to link up matching items (he sure looks tired, doesn’t he ?)

helping to lay the muffin cups into each holes

as usual…helping to beat the mixture (I knew from his super obvious double eyelid that he is running a fever again! Normally he will have small puffy eyes like Mummy! Poor thing…only can have Daddy big eyes when he is sick ! hahah)

oh it sure smells yummy…

but only smell…when it comes to eating…this is as far as he could go…just a teeny weeny bite from the toothpick!

picking up the muffins using the toothpick to pack them in the box (he looks as if he got lipstick on! it is plain dehydration!)

We had been going out quite a bit these 2 days, to friends’ house and to the zoo. Even so, there are times when Mal feels down.

We were playing cooking in the backyard and had just talked to Daddy on the phone. I noticed Mal sitting on the swing staring blankly.
I asked “What are you thinking??”
silence
“Do you miss daddy”
He turned to me choking back tears
“Yes, I miss daddy”
“Is daddy coming home tonite?”
I replied “No, daddy is coming back in 2 weeks’ time”
“I want daddy to come back faster”
“I miss daddy, I feel sad”
“I am sad, I am very sad….”
“Mummy can you make me happy”

When I asked him whether he wants to call daddy and tell him how he feels, I was surprised that he said NO. I wondered why not. Maybe it’s not so cool to tell Daddy all these.

I went on asking him what can make him happy…plucking cilantro for the porridge?? mope…

Finally we settled for his favourite Barney movie. When he woke up this morning, I asked him again “Are you happy?”
“Yes, becoz I watched my Barney show last nite!”