Farewell to Beloved Zui Zui

Randall has been into this love-hate relationship with his pacifier since 2 yo in last year's CNY. I still remembered him feeling tremendously upset when relatives started to "shame" him for wanting to suck on his pacifier. Daryl & I, being the soft-hearted parents, assured him that he should feel free to suck on his "zui zui" (that's wat he called his pacifier by) anytime he felt like it. At home visits, he'd put his beloved in his pocket and was happy to know that he could have it anytime he wanted. Since then, he learnt to remove his beloved with relatives/strangers around, and only sucked on it when he was with us. About a month ago, we noticed that his zui zui was tattered and offered to change a new one. He kicked a big fuss and even picked his zui zui from our empty dustbin, attempting to put straight into his mouth. We warned him that he would then have no choice but to stop sucking when it was really in a bad condition. He agreed. Recently, his addiction for his zui zui was so great we almost lost hope of him weaning it off any time soon. But alas, just yesterday at his usual naptime, MIL noticed that the rubber part of his pacifier was torn and then told him that he shouldn't be sucking it anymore, or else he'd be sucking in air and the 'wind' would make his tummy ache. He agreed that sucking in air would make his tummy pain pain. MIL asked if he wanted a new one. He said no. MIL then place his pacifier by the side of his pillow, telling him that he could have it if he wanted, but he did not take it. He had great difficulty falling asleep though, fidgeting and yawning like a man suffering from withdrawal syndrome. That afternoon, he managed to nap but 1/2 an hour lesser than usual. Come night time, Daryl & I was worried he'd make lotsa noise looking for his pacifier, especially since he asked for his pacifier the moment he was put into his car seat on our way home. I had to remind him that it was torn and offered haw pieces for him to munch on. Surprisingly, when it's sleep time, he did not even once asked for his pacifier. He started asking me to sing him X'mas songs (It'd been some time since I needed to sing him to sleep) and drank water many times. Although it took him double the time to fall alseep, he didn't wake up in the middle of the nite to ask for his zui zui (which we expected he might). We were so proud that he actually persevered and succeeded in weaning it off! Hooray! :D

Happy 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated Randall's 3rd Birthday in Tung Lok Seafood in The Arena Country Club on the eve of his actual birthday with both sides of the family. Then on the day itself, both Daryl & I took leave to bring him to Changi Airport T3. It was the first time we went there since it's opened. There're many shops but we didn't get to shop much, only bought Randall's CNY new shoes from Cholette. We then took the Skytrain to T2 for lunch @ Swensen's. We received a free Firehouse ice cream upon showing the waitress Randall's birth cert. Birthday boys/girls get Firehouse for free on their birthdays! :D Randall had his junk food of fries and ice cream. Then we went home for his nap time. After he woke up from his nap, we went to IMM. Packed our dinner of Old Chang Kee fishballs, sotong balls and Poh Piah, and 3 small cupcakes from Four Leaves, and had our "picnic" by the koi pond in the open space. I thought it was quite a nice spot to have a leisurely picnic cos it's not very crowded, and since it was about 7pm, the sun was not glaring and hot, plus the fact that it was quite windy. We enjoyed ourselves so much that all 3 of us are suffering from our "Monday blues" today ;)

cheeky boy

Randall is getting cheekier nowadays, which makes him so adorable and fun to be with. Last Saturday, we had dinner at a Jap restaurant with my family, he suddenly laughed so excitedly no one knew what he was up to. Then we realized later that he stuck a Car sticker on my brother’s back without his knowledge. He’s also into hiding stuff from us. But when he has something up his sleeves, we’ll be sure to know cos he’ll be laughing in that “up-to-no-good” manner and running away as fast as he could to other spots of the house.. ha..

sticky sticky

I always hear people who have a son and a daughter say that boys are closer to their mummies while girls are closer to their daddies. I don't know how true this is, but I believe that the former statement is pretty true. When Randall was younger (about 1 yo), he clinged on to me like a plaster. To the extent that he was being nicknamed "koala bear" by Daryl's relative. Now that he's 3 days short of 3 yrs old, he's back to his stickiness. When I reach MIL's house, the first thing he does is to pull me along to his room and asks me to play with him. It'll usually take some persuasion/ negotiation (like I'll play with him again after my shower) before I can go for my shower. Sometimes while showering, he'll lose his patience and start banging on the shower door. I'll have to take a quick shower then play with him a while more before I can have my dinner. He will linger around to wait for me to finish dinner and when he sees tat i'm done, he'll immediately pull my hand and asks me to play with him. Like what happened in the past, he wants no one to sleep with him except for me. Generally, I don't mind him wanting to involve me in everything he does, since I think he must've missed me the last 12 hrs I'm not around with him. But it gets abit mundane after a while, cos I practically do not have much time to do my own things like watching shows. Often than not, I'll end up falling asleep with him at 9+pm. Fortunately, hubby just bought a LG portable DVD player as my V day present (Thanks, hubby!). Now, I can watch my shows on the way to work!

Pig-ump-ooh?

Brought Randall to my mum's house on Boxing Day since she was not working and so was i. Randall was watching the Heffalump Halloween movie and doodled something on the doodling board. Hmm... it looked suspiciously like a Piglet to me. Asked him what he drew and he told me it's Pooh, then after that when I asked him again, he said, "Don't Know". Showed my mum and she commented that the nose looked like Lumpy, the ears like Piglet, and the mouth like Pooh.. :D

i love u

I was playing cars with Randall on our sofa bed and he made the big transformers crane go "BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!" so loud that I made his little yellow beetle car go into hiding in fear. Then he moved his other blue car close to the yellow car and he told the yellow car in a sweet voice, "Don't be afraid. I love you!" awww.... i know it wasn't intended for me. But coming from him, it's really music to my ears. :D

Paintings

Almost every weekend, Randall will ask to "paint paint". We will then move his table and chairs out in the balcony for him to paint just in case he gets all messy. And sometimes, he enjoys mixing all the various paint together rather than actual painting.. Whenever he paints, we will try to date them and paste them on the wall in our living room. These are some of his creations.