Concert 2009

Randall performed at his first year end concert in school for the first time last Sat since he has only started schooling early this year. He was all serious about it (as usual) and I must say he performed very well! He remembered all his dance steps and concentrated on his performance. He even remembered to bow 90 degrees as that was the only thing he practiced at home for the past few months. While we were walking out of the concert theatre, he asked me, 'U saw me on the stage?' I replied, 'Yes, you performed very well!' and he asked, 'u like the performance?' Haha.. Of course! It was such a joy to see him perform on stage :)

Trick or Treat

 

Randall had fun at the Halloween party at Bukit Panjang Plaza on Halloween Day itself. He went around various stores with a group of children, shouting out "TRICK OR TREAT!" and collecting lotsa goodies! He told me he wanted to be a vampire next year and asked me to help him draw on his face.

Countdown to Halloween

Randall is so looking forward to Halloween celebration he asked every single day "Is Halloween tomorrow?" We're counting down and tomorrow's it! Phew!
We bought a pitchfork and devil's horns for him to wear with his black shirt and pants. Don't wanna spend too much money on it.

Transformers

It was a last minute decision to bring Randall to Takashimaya for the Transformers Meet-and-Greet session yesterday. It proved to be a good decision as it was less crowded on a weekday evening and Randall was so super excited about it. He propped up and watched as Autobot and Bumblebee 'transformed' from vehicles to robots before his very eyes. Then when it was photo taking time, he dashed across the front stage by himself and went on the stage to be the first in the queue! Given the fact that he hates taking photos and is usually slow to warm up, I guess he must've really been eager to meet his heroes :D

Sticker

Randall told us proudly yesterday that his teacher gave him a taxi sticker cos he could pronounce the phonic of a certain letter. I'm really glad to see that he's enjoying his time in school!

Visit to Pastamania

Randall's first hand-made pizza from his school outing to Pastamania (23rd April). The box says "Not for consumption" which makes perfect sense since they can not guarantee the quality of the pizzas made by the little amateurs. We baked it and Daryl & I finished the whole pizza anyway. It actually tasted yummy!

Service with a Smile :)

I was tired from one of the working days last week and appeared to be grouchy while showering Randall in the evening. He looked at me straight in the eyes and blurted, "Service with a smile!" and pulled two end of my lips to a smiley face :) That sure brightens up the rest of my evening!

1 week of doing nothing

MIL is overseas and Daryl and I took a week's leave this week to take care of Randall.
I realise it's really a luxury to do nothing.
MOrning: Fetch Randall to school, had breakfast with Daryl (or jog before having breakfast), then watch DVD serial til 11am, then go fetch Randall from school
Afternoon: Either cook for Randall or bring him out for lunch. Go home and shower him, then put him to bed for his 1.5 hour afternon nap (I'll nap half an hour then wake up to watch my DVD serial while waiting for him to wake up). After he wakes up, we'll play half an hour of Rayman on Wii til we go out for walks and leisure dinner.
Evening: Randall will have his evening shower before watching some Bionicle music video with Daryl on his computer, then we'll read him some stories and he'll sleep after drinking his milk.
Then it's my personal time again and the cycle repeats itself the next day.
Ahhh... such LUXURY.....

Ultraman on WC

All cos of this ultraman we bought during our HK trip, Randall has taken the initiative to wean off his pink potty and start using the normal toilet bowl to poo. :) Thank u, Mr Ultraman!

HK Trip

We made our way to HK on 17th together with my parents, and stayed in Hotel Royal Plaza for 2 nites, and 1 nite in Hollywood Hotel. The airplane ride was fine except for the ear pressue Randall experienced while the plane landed. The hotel was pretty big but it was a 7-10 mins' walk from the Mongkok MTR. When we reached the hotel the 1 day, it was 1+pm and we just had some light tea at their foodcourt in the shopping centre next to the hotel (Grand Century Place). Surprisingly, the food pretty good, especially the stall selling egg tarts. After tea, we walked in Fa Yuen Street which is located behind our hotel. It's a great place to buy cheap stuff like the Ladies' Market. My mum and I had great time shopping and Randall bought his favourite 'Bionicle' at SGD8. He was so happy about his buy he had to ask Daryl to fix it up for him after we went back to the hotel.
On the second day, Daryl and I had the opportunity to go for a swim in the heated swimming pool with underwater music. Then we had dim sum breakfast in one of the Chinese restaurants in Grand Century Place. We headed off to the Ocean Park taking MTR and bus. Weather was pretty humid although it's stated 24degrees. Randall didn't really enjoy the dolphin show. The only time he got excited was when he saw the underwater creatures in Atoll Reef and the jellyfishes in Sea Jelly Spectacular. While Randall was napping, my mum and I went for more shopping at the Fa Yuen St til late evening and we had dinner at one of their fastfood outlets in Grand Century Place.
The third day, we were transferred to Disney Hollywood Hotel. Their check-in time was 3pm and we had to check out by 11am the following day. I thought this is quite ridiculous given the stay per day is only 8 hours. After checking our luggages in, we took their Disney bus to Disneyland. Randall was still in the don't-take-picture-of-me phase and became groucy when we started taking photos of him. He particularly liked the car ride and nothing else. Not even the Pooh ride. I guess he's over the Pooh phase. In the evening, we had Chinese dinner at Plaza Inn Restaurant and watched fireworks. It was beautiful except that Randall insisted that we go back hotel when the fireworks started to crack like firecrackers. Daryl had to close his ears for him.
Back in the Hollywood hotel, he was more than happy to just watch all his cartoons and lazed on the bed.
The following day we spent some time walking in the garden and playground while waiting for the bus to fetch us back to the airport at noon.
On the whole, I think Randall is still not ready for overseas trip given the fact that he still needs his afternoon naps and gets grumpy if he can not have his nap.
Oh, poor Daryl was bitten by bed bugs in his stay at Hollywood Hotel! Lucky thing is that only he was bitten since Randall and I slept on the other bed. We had since written our feedback to the Hotel. Can't imagine if kids were to be bitten...

School

From the various conversations we had with Randall so far, we know that he has been learning some things in school. Like the other day, he was eating a piece of cake and halfway through, he said he had enough and passed it to Daryl. We asked him if he’s full, he said, “No, becos cakes are Red Light food, so can not eat too much. Can only eat a little bit”.
He has also been asking me recently, what are letters for objects and names. Like, “What letter for Bionicles?”, “What letter for Mistika?”, “What letter for Fish?”

Happenings in School

Randall is beginning to know names of his classmates, after nearly a month. One fine evening, when asked who his friend was, he said, "Shuyi". Asked him if his friend is boy or gal, he said boy (although it sounds so much like a gal's name). Shuyi is his partner and the first person he claimed as friend. Incidentally when I uploaded my photos the other day, I finally saw this person by the name of Shuyi. So, it's not a made-up person. There REALLY is such a person is his class, only that she's a gal!
Now, with probing, he will share what happens in school. He shared that he painted the worksheet yellow cos the worksheet said "Yellow Lemon". He told me that Ms Lilian (his teacher) asked if they smell with their eyes, ears, nose or mouth, and all the classmates said "nose!". He shared with me what other classmates brought to their weekly show-and-tell session - transformers, power rangers, toy camera. He also said that this boy by the name of "Duke" doesn't talk to teacher. He said that "Duke has mouth but he doesn't talk". Hmm.. Randall also mentioned on two different ocassions that this gal named "Sanitha" (or "Sanathi"?) brought her birthday cake to school to celebrate her birthday but her birthday cake has no picture (oh well, the few celebrations before hers had pictures of transformers etc). He told me that he mentioned to the teacher that he couldn't take chocolate cos he was coughing, so teacher gave him a piece with "a little bit of chocolate". Hmm.. it's always nice to listen to what's going on in school :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Randall!

We held a small cozy celeb at home 10 days before his actual birthday since his birthday falls on the 3rd day of lunar CNY this year. So on his actual day, we went Vivo City for a casual dinner @ Asian Kitchen, and then bought him a small slice of strawberry cake from Toast Box. Then we bought some swimming floats and goggles in preparation for him to go play water over the weekend. He's a boy who's afraid of water, like his dad. Not sure if he developed the phobia from the last time we brought him to attend Aquaducks class before he turned one. So, we decided that since he started to show interest in the pool again (after seeing children playing in it), we shall start him slow and get him to like going to the pool to begin with.

First Day @ Sch

We did not start Randall off playgroup and Nursery 1 since Daryl & I both agreed that he should truly enjoy his childhood as much as he possibly can. And by that, it means school-free, eat, sleep and hang around. So on 5 Jan 09, he started his first day in Nursery 2 at Gracehouse Church near my MIL's house. Actually, I was more curious to see if he would cry since he has always been very sticky to us. So off we went, 3 adults including my MIL, walking him to school at 8.05am. When we reached, the aisle was filled with parents and kids. We found his classroom, Kindness, and the teacher, Ms Lilian, asked Randall to change his sandals into slippers, then wash his hands before going into the classroom. The assistant teacher, Ms Beng Sim, was there to teach him how to put back his slippers on the shoe rack without using his hands. They were pretty particular on this and would ask the children to wash their hands again if they used their hands to put back the shoes. Then I realised they were to have their breakfast right at the beginning of class. He was quite solemn and sat on the floor reading story books while waiting for the class to start. Daryl & I just watched him from outside the class although parents were allowed to go into the class to accompany their children on the first day. On and off, a couple of kids in the class cried and I was actually worried he would too. Halfway through the class when one of the newbies cried and ran to his mummy, I could see Randall trying hard to fight back his tears. When he saw me standing outside, he too, came running towards me. I carried him and tried to distract him by asking what the teacher taught in class. Fortunately, he got back his calm and went back to join the rest of the class. The class was 2 hours on the first day, and I must say he did better than we expected :) On the whole, it was a smooth ride on his first day at school!

The second day, we took Randall to school and told him we would be waiting downstairs since no parents were allowed. We waited at the ground floor for half an hour, made sure he was alright before we left. When it was time to fetch him, he came down with the rest of his classmates and seemed pretty normal. No red nose or eyes. The teacher just commented that he was very quiet in class. I was just happy he didn't cry for the whole 3 hours in class! The third day, we told him we were going to work and actually spied (unsuccessfully) for him and MIL to walk to school. MIL said he was alright. Went into the class and didn't even bid her goodbye. I guess he was comfortable enough to know that she would go fetch him after class ;)

On the whole, I guess he performed better than I expected since he didn't make much fuss, unlike me, when I was a child.. :P