Thanks to all mummy friends

Time flies and our precious boy is 1 year 4 months and 1 week+ old now. He's a big toddler and no longer a baby, although he still has a chubby baby face. ^_^

I looked back at Renzo's growth so far and realized that I have not put in too much efforts to cultivate our boy, well I guess I am just not a mummy who will sacrifice everything including my personal life for my kid. I know a few friends who are like that, including my own twin sister.

But I am grateful that I have a group of wonderful mummy friends that I got to know through internet, I have not met any single one of them in person but they've been giving me loads of support and advice. I think Renzo should be thankful to these aunties one day when he reads this post too!

I talk to this mummy friend often because her boy is as chubby as Renzo and I love to look at his photos as he is simply so adorable. So when I was torn between staying at home to look after Renzo or getting a new job after my retrenchment, she gave me tremendous support and without her advice, probably I will not find such a nice job and start this new chapter of my life.

When I couldn't decide on Renzo's pre-school, another two mummies sent me personal messages on Facebook to give me suggestions on what to look out for. Our kids are born around same time so they understand my concerns and problems the best.

I got to know another mummy, whom I contacted only once via Facebook (yup Facebook again, LOL), because of this video clip she posted online: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=387280521008&comments , For those of you who couldn't view it, it is a clip of her 2 years+ old boy learning phonics, he could blend the alphabets together and make the sound of a word, and even knows the meaning. So I quickly contacted the mummy and asked what kind of enrichment class is his boy attending. Amazingly, it is all through self-teaching and she recommended this set of Leapfrog DVD to me. I have to say this is probably the best gift we ever bought for Renzo so far. He picked up his ALPHABETS from A - F, and some others like M, O, S, Z, etc, NUMBERS from 1 - 10, 14, 18 somehow, MONTHS like August, October, SEASONS like Summer, and DAYS like Tuesday all by himself after he started watching the DVD from about 10 months old till now. And he could even say a few words together to express his needs clearly, such as "go out, take bus", "baby chair, sit down, eat".

Lastly I found this fabulous blog written by Natalie (finally can mention the name of the mummy as I got her permission, kekee), http://preciouscheryl.blogspot.com/2009/11/josiah-montessori-graduation-annual.html , I suggest all parents should spend some time and read through her blog. Her posts were rather short but the content is great, and the pictures and videos she took speak a thousand words. Look at the progress of her precious girl, I am absolutely blown away. And I was so touched that she sent me emails of pages long and shared with me about how she taught her girl and made plans for the benefits of her growth and especially education. I respect her truly for devoting her time to her girl's early education. It is not easy for working parents to set a routine with their kids for crafting / reading / singing / drawing, etc every single night. And I fully agree with her in finding an academic-driven pre-school for Renzo that can build a strong foundation and keep him enthusiastic in learning at the same time. So the rest of his spare time, he could relax and enjoy his childhood, go for enrichment classes such as swimming, art or even golf, to have fun rather than academic stuff like phonics or maths.

I start to believe that ALL mummies are doing their best to provide their children a great future, although there's no guarantee on the result, they will still do it instinctively. And they are always willing to share their insights, as being mummies, they hope for the best for every kids. Kudos to all my mummy friends for a brilliant work done!!

Renzo's Montessori Practical Training

I just spent 2 days and finished reading a pretty interesting book titled "Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years" by Elizabeth G. Hainstock. There are a lot of useful information in this book and it has totally changed my perception of "Montessori" method as I always thought it is just about "learning through playing". I was absolutely wrong! It is definitely more complicated than that and indeed I found it a brilliant method of self-teaching our kids.

Most of the training materials could be prepared by ourselves but since they are meant for 2½ years old and above, I decided to start Renzo with some simple puzzles, so we brought back 3 sets of puzzles with knobs on the pieces from Cherry's place, she was pretty good at them when she's young. And when Renzo first started with it last Friday, I couldn't resist the temptation to provide help by telling him:"Come Renzo let mummy show you how to do this!". Then I realized that based on Montessori concept, I should act as an observer who is always there to guide, and keep my boy's enthusiasm alive without interfering with his efforts to teach himself.

So on the following days, I changed my strategy. Basically I just let Renzo continue with whatever he wants to do with his puzzle, including biting and throwing the pieces all over the place. But I give him encouragement immediately when he's able to put the pieces nicely on the wooden board, by clapping with him and telling him that he's done a good job! And 2 day later, this little boy found his way to complete his favorite "transportation vehicle" puzzle, how exactly did he figure that out, I have no idea at all. Look at how excited he was when he completed the puzzle!


Being able to do that at 15 months is not worth showing off, as I think kids with good eye-hand coordination all can do the same, but knowing that he's benefiting from a great learning method is definitely very rewarding!

Renzo boy is talking so much sense!!

Our darling boy is getting more and more adorable these days, well I guess all parents will say the same thing about their precious little one. Just a month ago, we were counting our fingers to figure out Renzo's first 50 words and a month later, he's surprising us with his ability to learn much more words and that makes his total vocabulary to almost.. ergh... 80 - 100? And most importantly, he seems to understand the meaning perfectly and use the right words at the right time to express himself well.

I want to pen these down as talking is the biggest milestone so far that Renzo hit earlier than we could expect. (Well, not like walking which he only started on 15 months exact).

Favorite words	Self learned words	Long syllable words	Sweetest words	First sentence
Biscuit Car No more 没有 Don't want 不要 careful 耳仔 Shoes Water Bottle	Don't bite Don't touch	Sweet potato Apple pie Bicycle Octopus Butterfly 玉蜀黍	Daddy Mama Renzo 小宝宝 爱你 (when you say "Renzo 我爱你")	I want water!!

When we look into his eyes and communicate with him, that's probably the most wonderful moment in our lives!!

Talkative Renzo's first 50 words

Renzo started babbling often during our trip to Phuket (for his birthday celebration) back in August. When we returned to hotel room after a day of outing, we tried to play flash cards with Renzo by placing 2 cards in front of him, and when we ask "where is apple?", he will point at the card with an image of apple and try to repeat "apple".

That's when he started to learn how to speak, prior to that he only picked up some basic words like Daddy and Mummy when he was about 7 months old.

Here's a list of his vocabulary as of today (in no particular order), things he can really pronounce but might not be that accurate:

Daddy / Papa	Mama / Mummy	爷爷 (his grandpa)	奶奶 (his grandma)	姨姨 (Feli's sister)
Ayeaye (well sometimes he will call out Auntie)	Dog (almost burst into tears when he saw a puppy walked away from him)	Apple	Orange (sometimes)	Car (well that's "dar dar" in his language though)
Bus (he can differentiate car and bus, effortless)	Eat (of course how can he not know this)	Biscuit	Bubble	Sweet Potato (not well pronounced yet but he definitely knows what's that)
Nose	Eyes	Mouth	No more	Full
Some more	Two (when you say ONE, he will reply TWO)	鸡蛋 (egg in Chinese)	小宝宝（baby in Chinese)	Baby
Baby Chan (well yes that's Renzo himself)	Milk (sometimes)	Water	Pee Pee (sometimes)	Poo Poo (sometimes)
哥哥 (Feli taught him Kor Kor and he picked up Gege from Ayeaye instead)	姐姐	妹妹	弟弟	Mango (a must learn, so he will not put that in to his mouth next time)
牙牙(whenever we say time to brush your teeth Renzo)	不要 (sadly we cannot get him start on this, he will repeat it nonstop till i start to worry that he's trying to play with his tongue)	Zip	Yes	No
Book	Up	小胖 (that's how our niece Cherry calls him, but if she could look at her baby time photos, she's not any thinner!)	Big Tummy	Careful
Swimming	Toes	摇啊摇 (a little game we play with him where he sits on our stomach and werockhim)	Shoes	Ball Ball

If that's all we could remember, about 50 words!!

And we have to credit this to Leapfrog DVD again because we realized that Renzo started to learn his words after watching this phonics DVD everyday. When we play the disk and alphabets start popping up on TV, he will try to mimic the phonetic sounds of "A", "B", "P", "L", "F", "S", "Z", etc...

Here's one of our favourite clips of featuring our little Poopersaurus showing off his linguistic mastery~

Renzo is now a little toddler...

This post is LONGGGGG overdue!!

I just finished feeding our little boy and was really glad to see him finishing his dinner, although he didn't have too much rice. As compared to a few weeks ago when he turned into a fruitarian and refused to eat proper meal most of time, he's making good progress these few days in my eyes.

Too much things had happened in the past few months. I don't even know where to start, but I have to hurriedly complete this post so that I can shower Renzo and coax him to sleep. Well talking about coaxing him to sleep, in fact he can sleep on his own almost everyday after his night feed at about 930pm, usually he plays in his cot with us and after we turn off the light, he then plays on our bed with his favorite (and only) blanket, and in no time, this little one is in lalaland... He still wakes up a few times during wee hours, on certain good days, maybe once only. And finally we figured out the reason behind his nightly wakeups... he's just hungry at night, because there was one night he shouted "biscuit" when he woke up in the middle of the night!

For the very first time in the past 15 months, Renzo fell sick badly. He had a bit of cold cough with phlegm and running nose, but that's not too serious and with the huge amount of water intake everyday, he got himself cured eventually. But at the same we discovered that he has got a serious food allergy and we believe the culprit must be mango. Because we fed him some mango when we were having dinner outside one evening and the next day, he started developing rashes all over his body. I have a history of mango allergy and I am not surprised that he inherited that from me, so we came to a conclusion - NO MORE MANGO for baby Renzo!!

I thought Renzo is pretty slow in his motor skill development, at almost 15 months, he still could not walk unsupported or feed himself. But I am not that worried, I believe it is just a matter of time and I am thrilled to see that he's picking up fast in terms of his linguistic skills. We will touch more on that on a future post on his linguistic capability.

At the same time, he has developed his own character, like an ox, really stubborn. And when he starts to throw tantrums because we are not giving in to his unreasonable requests, we have to play time out and leave him at his "naughty corner" (面壁思过), obviously he couldn't understand that at this age, and we often end up with a little boy playing quietly in his high chair after a few seconds of screaming, acting as if nothing had happened..

So I've decided to work on 2 things immediately from today:
1. Start potty training Renzo. He started to pee and poo in his potty since he was about 6 months+, but till now he still cannot express himself when he needs to past urine or past motion. I don't really know where to start but I remember seeing some books on this and if it can play the trick, i don't mind investing on it.

2. Look for a good childcare center for Renzo. I am torn between full day childcare and 3.5 hours playgroup at the moment. Knowing that Ayeaye might not continue with us after Oct next year, probably we have to strike off playgroups from our list. And I have to say it's extremely difficult to "shop" for a good preschool for kids nowadays.

After observing Renzo for this long, I start to feel that cultivating him to become a good tempered (keeping my finger crossed that he got that gene from his daddy) and well behaved person is the top priority, I certainly do not wish to have a rowdy child even if he is strong with his academic records....

Renzo's development - Month 11

11 Month vs. 10 Month
Weight: + 0.2kg
Height: + 2.5cm
Head Circumference: not measured

Woot!! Renzo boy is almost 1 year old and he's growing healthily and happily so far under the care of Daddy, Mummy and Auntie AyeAye.

There's nothing really new to Renzo's life during the past one month, he continues to amuse us everyday with all his funny patterns. We discovered that he's able to eat rice very well and Sushi rice seems to be his favorite food. He tried that once at a Jap restaurant and he got addicted to it. So the next day I prepared home made Sushi for him and he really cried for more when he finished his first plate.

Despite the fact that our big boy is getting heavier everyday, we still love to carry him but my sister has been reminding us many times that we should not "spoil" him by carrying him too often. So there was this afternoon when all of us were wandering around Vivo city with Renzo trying all sorts of methods to get out of his stroller, we decided not to carry him out irregardless. He cried loudly for almost 15 minutes till we finally surrendered and brought him out, but he continued to cry on and off for another 20 minutes even after I embraced him in my arms and rocked him non-stop, then only we found out that he was wearing this pair of new shoes (a bit tight for him as he's outgrown them) and accidentally he kicked on his stroller wheel and hurt his left big toe, so after we took off his shoes and socks, he's back to his usual self and sat peacefully in his stroller again with a painful bruised big toe. That incident reminded us about what my mother told us 10 months ago, although Renzo is not the quiet and easy to look after type, he will not cry for no reason. We must give him attention whenever he cries. My mother is so right about that, and seeing how this poor little boy fall asleep on his own after enduring the pain and being neglected by daddy and mummy just makes us feel more than a little guilty. (Just for records, the way he fell asleep was damn cute. He was biting the front of his stroller for a good 10-15 minutes with his eyes wide open and peering around... then the next thing we knew, he fell asleep, with his jaws still biting onto the stroller... haha... Revenge! You hurt me so I bite you!!)

During the past one month, we've discussed about whether to have #2 or not. Win definitely wants another baby but I have more concerns. Long pregnancy period, painful labour process, new job, my age, who's able to look after our baby, when is Dr Lim Teck Chye retiring (yes that's a HUGE concern also as I do not believe I could find a better gynae than him)? It seems that whether to have #2 is not the biggest question, but WHEN?

Another discussion we had was about whether to celebrate for Renzo's birthday or not? Renzo is turning 1 year old in another 10 days time, and we've not done any preparation for his birthday celebration yet. So, the answer is obviously NO then. Luckily Win and I are very rational people, we are sure that Renzo is not going to appreciate a party at this age, and we will make everyone super tired only. So we will just have a small cake cutting session with family then.

On a side note, my cousin just gave birth to baby boy Yuma Saburi on July 06, a super short labour of only 5 hours and she didn't opt for epidural either. I think after hearing the story from my sister and I, she has this same strong belief that natural delivery without epidural is the best option for mummy and baby. Renzo is now a big brother and we can't wait to see baby Yuma in Japan next year!

Renzo's development - Month 10

10 Month vs. 09 Month
Weight: + 1.2kg (OMG~!)
Height: + 5.5cm
Head Circumference: not measured

The previous one month has been a truly great experience for us. I am thinking that a few years down the road, when Renzo grows up, probably we will be missing this period of time the most. The reason is simple, baby Renzo is learning a lot and our interaction with him becomes so fun. But at the same time he has not learned to argue with us, how to cry for his favorite toy at shopping centers, and how to refuse vegetables during his meal time. So we simply enjoy taking care of him as much as playing with him during these few months. And those things he's learned simply brings us so much joy and sweet memories.

I have already lost my count of how many items he could recognize by now. And finally he is able to point at every object with his small index finger. It's so enjoyable when you watch him turning around and pointing at different objects one by one. He's learning to say "ball ball", which must be his first few words besides "papa", "mama", "daddy" and "mummy". And he could even pick a "yellow color ball" accurately from a cluster of items in his bath tub including balls in other colors. And just recently, he started to wave goodbye to Aye Aye before bedtime. Aye Aye has been teaching him to wave his hand for months, and suddenly on one of the evenings, he waved at Aye Aye right before she went out of our room after bathing Renzo.

Besides being able to point at different kinds of items, Renzo starts to "poke" at his little tummy with his right thumb when you ask "Where is Renzo?". And if you ask "How old are you Renzo?", immediately he will respond by lifting either his left or right index finger, symbolizing that he is 1 year old (well in another month plus). He covers his milk bottle with the cover after feed; he points at his water bottle when he wants to drink, and he points at the TV when he wants his "Leapfrog DVD" to be played. And the fact that he recognizes my parents, my parents-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, is just making everyone crazily happy!

Now we are anxiously waiting for this little boy to start talking and walking on his own, which will be another amazing milestone...

Just realized with didn't take any pics at all these past few weeks... So all we have is a little video of little Poopersaurus tearing down my camera phone after calling out a loud "Mama~!"
*PS: Sorry about the orientation of the camera... will remember to hold it in an upright position in the future...=P

Renzo, Our Precious Babe (and maybe Channel 8's too !)

So I came home from a friend's place after catching Argentina's first World Cup 2010 game against Nigeria which, despite a disappointing performance, still produced a victory and woke up early from Renzo's calls for me.

"Da Da~ Da Da~," he called from beyond my vision as I slowly push away the bedsheets to obligingly greet this little weekend alarm clock of mine. My usual routine have me sitting in front my computer checking out my emails and doing all my geeky stuff, when i came across a Facebook page that Feli deliberately left opened on her Firefox browser (she uses Firefox and I'm a loyal Google Chrome user, we both gave up on Internet Explorer). It was a page displaying a "Channel 8's Precious Babes" event.

Being someone who hasn't watched local broadcasts since the introduction of cable TV in Singapore, I knew Feli was up to something so I asked about it. Apparently it was some contest held by MediaCorp Channel 8 showcasing cute babies island-wide posted by eager parent whom each felt that their little bundle of joy deserves the "Cutest Baby" throne.

As I lazily scrolled through the pics on the Facebook page, I came across a many adorable little ones and just as many pictures that I personally felt were just a waste of hard disk space (many a times, it is the problem of a badly taken shot with a bad camera). Before long, I came to a conclusion that if those pics can rally a strong support of some 50+ votes, there is nothing that Renzo's irresistible pics cannot top.

We followed the instructions from the Facebook page and within minutes, we have gotten Renzo's picture posted on the wall and onto the media world.

Hello TV Lovers, My Name is Renzo Chan and I'm ready to take over!
Kindly support me by clicking on "Like" in the following link!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4431556&id=628153620&subject=125686800797062

Thank You all Lovely Aunties and Uncles, Kor Kors and Jie Jies~!

Renzo's favourite "where is ..." game

For the past 1-2 months, Renzo has been learning a lot from all of us.

Every night when I reach home, I will ask him "Where is fan fan?", "Where is potty?", "Where is the clock? "etc, and it has became a daily routine for us to check on Renzo's progress. It is pretty amazing to see how many things he could actually remember at such a young age.

Let me count those objects/people he can identify by now:
Clock
Fan
Light
Cherry jiejie (he will look at Cherry's photo when we ask "where is Cherry jiejie?")
His potty
His hat
His alphabet poster (when we ask "where is A for Apple?")
His good behavior poster (when we ask him to "be patient")
His number 1-20 poster (when we ask "where is Kangaroo?" since there is a kangaroo on that poster)
Mickey mouse (a wall sticker)
Our house door (when we ask "where is xx-xxx" which is our unit number)
Computer
Diaper
Pillow
Car (his toy)
Apple (his toy)
Dog (a picture on our calendar)
TV Mirror
Fish (both the fake toy at home and the real one in my brother in law's fish tank) Daddy
Mummy
Aunt Ayeaye
Yiyi (my sister)
YiFu (my brother in law)
Cherry jiejie (haha can be confusing though as he knows where is cherry's photo also)
Grandma (through webcam on computer)

Of course when he is not in good mood, he will not bother to answer your "where is..." questions. But when he likes to play with you, he can really "answer" all your questions correctly by looking at the right direction, and when you acknowledge that by saying "smart boy, very good Renzo", he will smile and clap his hands.

Amazing stuff right? Nah.. to me, the most amazing thing Renzo has done so far is: in order to grab his shampoo bottle which we put on the floor during his bath time, he throws his toys (used to attract his attention and keep him sit still) out of the bathtub, so that he could pretend that he needs to pick them back up, but in fact he's obviously aiming at the shampoo bottle only.. LOL

I guess babies' brains are just like a sponge and they are willing to and able to absorb as much as possible, as long as you are willing to teach them. Early education and cultivation is extremely important, and that's why I am not surprised when I came across this less than 2 years old boy who has mastered all alphabets and even basic phonics. His mummy has done an extraordinary job in self-teaching him, and this nice lady has shared her secret with me - a set of Leapfrog learning DVD. I bought the set for both Renzo and Cherry, it is still early for Renzo but Cherry is benefiting a lot from it. She used to know maybe less than 15 alphabets but after using that DVD for less than a month, she knows all 26 alphabets and even knows how they sound like(phonics).

I am not forcing Renzo to study hard now, I just believe that early education can help kids understand that learning is fun, not stressful. And to properly teach your kids, do not rely on anyone else, especially school teachers, we parents are the first and best teachers for our kids ever.

Renzo's development - Month 09

Renzo has just turned 9 months a few days ago, and this time, again Win brought him to Polyclinic for the checkup, there's no injection this month, but a series of assessment tests done to test his physical development. And our boy has passed all his tests with flying colors!
09 Month vs. 08 Month
Weight: + 0.4kg
Height: + 1cm
Head Circumference: +2cm (vs. 06 Month)

I start to get used to the fact that I am not able to bring Renzo to clinic as usual. And now Win becomes the one who spend more time with our boy instead. He has really sacrificed a lot for our boy, he's been working half days for quite a while, reason being that I am too busy with my new job and not able to come home on time every night. Now it is my turn to receive Renzo's photos at work from his proud father.
And on last Thursday night when I returned home after work, I was amazed to see that Renzo was able to recognize quite a few objects. He knows where is the fan, the light, his potty, his alphabet chart, cousin Cherry's photo, Mickey mouse wall sticker and the Kangaroo on his Numbers poster. We've introduced Renzo to a number of objects since a few months ago, and now our efforts finally got paid off. Of course we must thank Ayeaye for her great contribution as well, I am sure Renzo learned Mickey Mouse sticker from her at least.

Major development
1. He has a total of 6 teeth (top 4 and bottom 2).
2. He is able to pull himself up to standing position while holding onto something.
3. He is able to recognize a few objects (as per listed above).
4. He tried egg yolk on 8th May for the first time, no allergy.
5. He tried cheese on 9th May for the first time.
6. He cruises when we hold his arms.
7. For the very first time, he slept from 9:50pm to 5:30am without waking up in the middle on May 14 (too bad that was the one and only one time).
8. He tasted chocolate ice-cream and durian (super tiny amount).
9. He is able to pass objects from hand to hand.
10. He is able to throw objects using his hand (he seems to have more dexterous left hand, well, like daddy like son, LOL)
11. He enjoys "crab walk" in his walker

Renzo's diet is pretty healthy so far (well yes you might think I've been feeding him too much, in fact I am not, and I also make sure whatever I give to him is good to his body). He has tried outside food for only twice (when I was lazy to cook and having a crave for dim sum). It is tiring to prepare his food during weekends, so usually I spend a Saturday morning, and cook the stock and dumplings that can last him for about 2 weeks.

The stock I make for his daily meal usually contains 7-8 items, such as:
- Spinach
- Celery
- Asparagus
- Carrot
- Pear
- Papaya
- Mushroom
- Winter melon
- Pork

As for the dumplings, I use things like:
- French beans
- Mushroom
- Chicken meat
- Threadfin fish

And he always has fruits (1 banana or 5 grapes or a few pieces of papaya) after breakfast and lunch, and 1 cup of yogurt after dinner. I just can't wait to introduce a larger variety of food to our boy in another 3 months time!

Renzo's development - Month 08

For the very first time, Win brought Renzo for his Pneumococcus jab (2nd dose) at polyclinic on Apr 19 himself, and I was not there with them because taking leave is not something I usually do when I start a new job. I felt really bad about it because in the past I was always the one carrying Renzo when he had the injection, but this time Win had to do it, and according to him, instead of whining a little bit during every injection, Renzo really cried this time.

Overall his growth is really good, well his weight is a bit on the high side but he is all healthy, that's more important to us.

08 Month vs. 07 Month
Weight: + 0.3kg
Height: + 0cm
Head Circumference: not measured

Major development
1. His top 3 incisors erupted.
2. He is able to crawl well.
3. He looks at the fan when you ask "where is the fan?" and looks at the poster on the wall when you ask "where is C is for CAR?".
4. He uses his potty to pass motion most of the time. He pooped on diaper for no more than 3 times in the past 2 months.
5. He had his first outside meal at crystal jade restaurant on Apr 24.

Renzo has tasted a wider range of food during the past 1 month, that even includes some oily and salty stuff at the restaurant. It was really fun to watch him nibbling on "roasted duck kway teow noodles" and "cha siu bao (chinese steamed bun)", of course we only let him try the dough but not the filling. Of course he enjoyed his meal very much, and I was really worried that he will refuse to eat any home cooked food since they are usually less tasty. Anyway guess we might not let him try outside food again till he is 1 year old maybe, the reason is simple, outside food are too unhealthy and his digestive system might not be able to take it for the time being. Since I am working and AyeAye has not much time preparing Renzo's daily food, I've made stocks in an ice cube tray and a lot of dumplings for Renzo's lunch and dinner, so AyeAye could simply add them into Renzo's ABC pasta. During weekends, I cook porridge for Renzo as it requires longer time to prepare.

And finally, after so many months of crazy online shopping, I bought this nice little hat for Renzo at a small shop that sells kids apparels. The hat is made and imported from Korea. I was quite reluctant to pay 25 bucks for it initially. But when Renzo saw his own reflection in the mirror with this hat on, he was chuckling like nobody's business, his sweet smile simply melted my heart and I couldn't think much but made the payment immediately, LOL..

My dear baby, I LOVE YOU!

Apr 12th, it is a very special day to Mummy Chan and baby Renzo. I found myself a new job, and started working on the 12th, which is the day my dearest Renzo boy turned 8 months old.

I am proud enough to announce to the world that I've been staying at home and looking after my precious boy (of course with the help of Aye Aye) for exactly 8 months. Isn't that awesome? At least I think so! Because most of the mummies only have about 2-4 months with their newborn, before they have to return back to work. But we are just lucky that I can stay right in front of my computer at home for another 4 more months (after my official 4 months maternity leave), cook every dinner for the family and prepare every meal for Renzo, at the same time get my pay cheque of same amount every month.

But such a wonderful situation can't last forever. I need to work not just because we need a better income (which is also for the benefits of Renzo - see how many pieces of clothes I got here for him at one go, LOL), but also because I do not like the feeling of being disconnected from the rest of the world. In the past I did considered about being a SAHM (stay at home mother), and in fact my "work from home" routine pretty much gave me a clear idea about the life of SAHM. I enjoyed it, really! Being able to see Renzo's smile first thing in the morning, get most fresh fruits, fish and chicken meat for him at wet market, and laugh together with him at all times are something a FTWM (full time working mother) could never ever afford. But, I have to put a full stop to all these from Apr 12th onwards, and get myself adjusted to a standard 9-6 job routine quickly.

I do not really have much time to think about him at work, but on my way home, my mind is full of questions about whether he eats well, sleeps well and plays well at home. Recently I can feel a huge change in him. He is not excited anymore when he sees me at night, instead his eyes follow Aye Aye wherever she goes. Although I still bathe him, and feed him at night and in the early morning, when I talk to him, he seems to be in his own world and simply ignores the existence of his mother. Somehow I have this strong feeling that he is angry with me, because I am not embracing him with my warm arms after his every morning wakeup nowadays. That really really breaks my heart, even though I jolly well knew that this will be the consequence of me returning back to working world from the moment I accepted the job offer. I hope the situation could change but I do not think there's really much I could do about it. So no matter how tired I am, I will ensure to spend every minute of my time with Renzo during weekends.

I love you my dear son, I really really do!

Renzo's Play Room

Education isn't only about academics. And who's to say that play time can't be educational? With those thoughts in mind, Feli and I set out to decorate one of our rooms, and purposefully named it Renzo's Playroom.
In this Playroom of his, it spots the ever popular IKEA MAMMUT chest of 3 drawers and IKEA MAMMUT wardrobe that I painstakingly bought and brought home from IKEA and single-handedly assembled on one side of the wall adjacent to the door.

On the wall on the opposite, facing all these IKEA furniture, are Disney wall decals that light up and gives life to the wall itself. We starred Mickey's House as the centerpiece and gradually circled our way out, trying as much as possible to have the decals spread across a bigger area in a balanced manner while at the same time, having the focus redrawn back to the centre. And to complete the job, we filled in the gaps with flora and fauna and lots of butterflies and bees. ^_^ I like the end result and when coupled with the Parklon Bumper Playmat that we bought a few months back, it feels almost like they came in a set (at least to me it did).
Next, we bought a few wall posters from Popular Bookstore. Simple educational materials emphasizing on ABCs and 123s that were used wayyy back... So much so that even I remember seeing them during my Kindergarten days (20+ years back? lol). The wall posters of today are more vibrant and pleasant to look at than those from my childhood days. Then again, it could be the decay of those memories that is giving me this impression, but either way, Feli and I are pleased to have made these purchases... =P.. Especially so when we see that Renzo seems to be picking up ABCs. Frequently, we would carry Renzo to one of the posters and go "A is for Apple. B is for Ball. C is for Car......". Recently, we noticed that when we tell Renzo, "C is for Car", this little guy would turn his head around to look for the poster! Even more recently, it seems that it works for "F is for Fish" too... hehee...

Also, we bought a book set for Renzo, complete with full encyclopedia set, 4 Disney "A Story A Day" story books (366 stories), 4 Disney "Words Words Words" that is supposed to enhance and strengthen kids' vocabulary and a "Fun Thinkers" book which is basically a puzzle book to stimulate creativity and improve problem-solving skills. Of them all, currently we are only using the "A Story A Day" in Renzo's daily routine, reading it to him every night after his bath. The rest will probably come in handy in a few years' time after Renzo picks up reading skills.
So with the above in place, what's left is to bring in Renzo's toys, a mattress for comfort, a little fan to keep the ventilation going and voila, we are done. It has been more than a month now and yes, Renzo does enjoy his playroom as much as we enjoy seeing him laughing and rolling about in his Playroom ^_^

Renzo's development - Month 07

There is no vaccination for Renzo scheduled in March and thus we have to do our self measurement for him at home:
07 Month vs. 06 Month
Weight: + 0.3kg
Height: + 1cm
Head Circumference: not measured

I feel that his motor skills have improved greatly during the past one month.

Major development
1. He is able to pick up snacks from plate with his fingers, bite and chew with his gum and 2 little teeth.
2. He called “papa” on March 06.
3. He called “ma” from March 11, and often call “ma”, “ma” when he cries.

4. He claps his hands often.
5. He is able to pass items from one hand to another.
6. He has great interest in crawling although he has not mastered the skill.
7. He is able to drink water from straw.
8. He is able to do “high five” with us, he responded to “high five” since he was about 4 months old, but now he can do it very well.
9. He knows the meaning of certain words, when I say “car” and show him his toy car, he will play the wheels with his fists, and when I say “C for CAR”, he will look at the alphabet poster on the wall. So I think he can relate these two together.
10. He is able to use his potty!!! He’s not potty trained yet but he started to use his potty very often and we do not need as many diapers as before nowadays. Ever since he got his new potty (for almost 2 weeks), he only passed motion onto his diaper twice, the rest of the time, he did it in his potty!! (Make me feel that this blue puku potty is the best investment I’ve made so far!!!) And I can’t agree more with my sister and parents that bad habit is formed not because our kids are not doing well enough, it is because the parents are just too lazy. If we are willing to bring our babies to potty more than 10 times a day, and clean up the mess whenever they get wet or dirty without diaper, every parent can figure out our babies’ pattern and get them toilet trained as early as possible.
11. Unfortunately, he’s still drooling like crazy, as always, and here’s our “solution” to it:

Scarves, a lot of scarves

I’m starting to feel that the bonding between AyeAye and Renzo is getting stronger, although our boy still cries hard for mummy’s hugs, he likes to see AyeAye and to be carried by her. And we believe that we are lucky to have her in the family. On a few occasions I really left only the two of them at home for almost a whole day and she was able to manage Renzo very well, and even noted down his sleeping and feeding times without being asked to do so (she’s smart as she knows we are tracking such information). When Renzo tries to crawl, she’s on all fours and chuckles besides him; when Renzo wants to poo poo, she sits beside his potty and makes “en en” sound to stimulate him; When Renzo cries, she sings her Myanmar lullabies which no one in the house understands; When Renzo achieves his “firsts” milestones, she is as excited as us parents. I think she plays an important role in Renzo’s growth and development. And I am sure she’s also grateful working for us, as she told me that she didn’t expect us to buy coffee mix for her daily consumption and her mother planned to send that to her from Myanmar, and she even brought her own lunch box here as she didn’t expect that we would let her eat with us together on the dining table. I think she’s a sincere and hardworking girl, and I am sure if she works with us for only 2 years, most probably Renzo will have no impression of her in the future even if we have all her pictures well kept.

And these are the picture we asked her to post back to her family, new clothes, nice food and cute baby of course, haha, hope her mother will allow her to stay with us for longer time, LOL..


On a side note: Renzo has received his passport, and I have to praise Singapore Immigration for their efficient service. Despite the super crowded waiting area and long queues (as always), we managed to collect his passport in less than a minute, that all should attribute to the convenience of online application and e-appointment through ICA website!! (applause!!!)

Renzo's Feedtime Videos!

Ever since our little poopersaurus laid his little round finger on his first biscuit, Renzo has been wanting to taste different things, including Daddy's thumb, Mummy's hair, his toys and basically anything within a reachable 30cm radius from his butt.

We get as much enjoyment watching him munch through his snacks and much as he enjoys the snacks themselves... Below are a few vid clips of the little guy in action!

Here is our little hero eating bananas...


A Cookie Monster gnawing on his Morinaca manna baby biscuits. I LOVE IT when he claps after finishing each biscuit. ^_^


Lastly we have him showing off his motor skill dexterity by picking up his little GERBER® GRADUATES® Puffs from his plate.

All about sleeping through the night..

I am wondering how many parents are like us, for the past half a year, the number one baby topic we key into search engines is always "baby sleeping through the night". I believe nighttime waking is one of the most common dilemmas for us parents.

I said goodbye to uninterrupted beauty sleep ever since Renzo was born. Though I have been trying extremely hard to establish a daily bedtime routine for Renzo, he was only doing relatively well during his 4th month. And by "relatively well", I meant only a good 4-5 hour sleep after his shower time. I would still have to carry and cuddle him to sleep after his midnight feed. Then the 5th and 6th months were just nightmares to me as I was overwhelmed with his occasional 7 - 9 times of wakeups, meaning I need to creep to his cot almost every hour at night (that's no joke because I really had to pick him up and rock him or feed him water before he could sleep back again). He had never ever slept through the night for the past 6 months+, not even a single night!

Look at our beautiful record on this little boy's sleeping pattern:
Month 00 (Aug 09)
- Longest sleep after shower: 3 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 3
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Yes

Month 01 (Sep 09)
- Longest sleep after shower: 3 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 3
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Yes

Month 02 (Oct 09)
- Longest sleep after shower: 3 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 2
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Yes

Month 03 (Nov 09)
- Longest sleep after shower: 4 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 2
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Yes

Month 04 (Dec 09)
- Longest sleep after shower: 4-5 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 1
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Yes

Month 05 (Jan 10)
- Longest sleep after shower: 6-8 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 1 and down to 0 from Jan 13 onwards
- Carry to sleep in wee hours: Stopped from Jan 04 onwards
- Number of times wakeup and drink water: 7-9 times

Month 06 (Feb 10)
- Longest sleep after shower: 8-10 hours+
- Number of feeds during midnight: 0
- Number of times wakeup and drink water: 7-9 times

You can see around Jan to Feb this year, he started to form this pattern that he will keep waking up at anytime after his last feed, although no more night feeding is a remarkable milestone achieved. After ruling out teething pain, soiled diaper, hunger etc, I decided to start training him and change his habit, because the fact that he's been behaving this way for more than a month, and the thought that it might even take me years to correct him if I let him continue this way, really horrified me.

So, the training started on Feb 24. I am never an advocate of the famous Ferber's Cry-it-out method, but there are a few variations and I must say some tips are really helpful.

In a nutshell, there are a few things I followed that seemed to solve the problem:
1. Never pick him up from his cot when he's tossing and turning around.
- Challenging, because sometimes he wiggles as he needs to burp, so I have to make sure I burp him well before putting him to bed. But at least I am happy to find out that my cuddling triggered him to wake up so often in the past.

2. Put him into his cot while he's drowsy and let him sleep on his own.
- He's quite good at playing on his own till he falls asleep, but a lot of times he will cry and scream, and since I cannot pick him up, I give him water instead (which is not something very right, and might become habitual).

3. Do not feed him.
- Well I don't feed him milk, but I am still giving him water. This might be the reason why he is still waking up, as cuddling, feeding or talking to him might prompt him to wake up each night for such attention. But letting him cry his eyes out is still something I am not in favour of, especially during middle of the night.

4. Give him a few fussy minutes before responding to him.
- Sometimes we are lucky enough that he can struggle back to sleep on his own.

I thought about blogging on this topic last week, but decided to monitor him for a longer period of time in order to prove that I've found the cause and my solution is really working.

We have not achieved the ideal result yet, but at least we can see some improvement there as nowadays he awakens about 2-5 times, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that things will only get better and better..

(just for records, both picture here were taken in January 2010)

Renzo's development - Month 06

Personally I think most babies’ physical growth tend to slow down a bit around 4-6 months, and so does Renzo's.

06 Month vs. 05 Month
Weight: +0.4kg
Height: +1cm
Head Circumference: +4cm (vs. 03 Month)

With the 3rd dose of Hepatitis B injection done this morning, finally he has completed all his compulsory vaccinations that he supposed to take below one year. And we made an impulse decision at the polyclinic, which is to let Renzo have his 1st dose of Pnemococcus jab today together with his Hepatitis B injection. The initial plan was to have this only during his 7th, 9th, and 12th month, but since we all understand the importance of Pnemococcal immunization, we do not want to risk it and wait for another month. Luckily our boy is strong and brave, he just whined a bit after each jab but didn’t really cry out loud, well that’s the usual him, haha.. We still gave him 3.75ml of paracetamol as he was extremely grouchy, and I’ve boiled Chinese barley water for him. For those mummies who are interested to know, the recommended dose of paracetamol for 3-6 months baby is 2.5ml and for 6-9 months, that’s 3.75ml. As for the barley water, we need to boil the Chinese barley instead of Holland barley, as Holland barley has better flavor but only Chinese barley has the cooling effect.

The past one month was indeed a “nightmare” for me, as Renzo’s sleeping pattern has not improved at all, he continues to wake up almost every hour for a total of 6 – 10 times every night without a fail.

So for the two major changes happened during the previous month, the good one continues to be good, and the bad one continues to get worse.

- The good one:
Instead of having 5 feeds per day, we further reduced that to 4 feeds only and there’s no midnight feeding anymore.
- 1st feed around 7am (180ml)
- 2nd feed around 11am (210ml)
- 3rd feed around 4pm (210ml)
**Shower around 830pm**
- 4th feed around 9pm (300ml)
Well this schedule looked pretty cool and our life became much easier, as we have a good 5 hours interval between 2 feeds, during which we can happily bring Renzo out for a good stroll at the park, or even to shop around Orchard Road (in fact there's nothing to shop about because recently I have been purchasing most of Renzo's clothes online from jshoppers.com, as they are having this free shipping and handling fee promotion for purchase above 1500 yen, call me online shopaholic.. haha but seriously i've read good reviews about this website and so far I'm very glad with my purchases..). Although the last feed of 300ml scared me, he was still having a total of 900ml which is below the recommended amount on the milk powder tin for his age. But this nice schedule lasted for a few weeks only before it changed completely. After we introduced solid food to Renzo, here’s his new schedule:
- 1st feed around 7am (180ml)
- 2nd feed around 11am - solid
- 3rd feed around 2pm (180ml)
- 4th feed around 6pm - solid
**Shower around 830pm**
- 5th feed around 900pm (210ml)

- The bad one:
The reason I said the bad one continues to be even worse, is because last time when he fidgeted and wiggled during each wakeup, sometimes I could just pat him to sleep back again without picking him up from his cot or giving him water. But currently if I do not pick him up or give him water, he will be wide awake with his eyes open coupled with cries and screams. We have ruled out some of the possibilities after some trial and error. We’ve changed back his diaper brand to MamyPoko again, because he started to wake up often after we switched to Fitti premium 360 diaper; We’ve been giving him teething tablets since his bottom 2 incisors have erupted; We’ve tried Feber’s “cry it out” method by leaving him alone when he wakes up during his sleep; all these have failed us and some mummies on Singaporemotherhood forum who are experiencing the same thing have told me that it is just a phase and our babies will outgrow it eventually. Well not that I do not believe in it, I am just afraid that before Renzo can outgrow this, it becomes a very bad habit which might follow him for years.

I hope it is just due to teething, and the Hyland’s teething tablets (a lot of mummies swear by it) I bought from an online spree seemed to work on him, but I decided not to give him unless he is super cranky since I do not like to let him rely too much on medication.

Major development
1. He started to have 2 solid meals a day from February 9, 2010.
2. He is able to clap his hands.
3. He reacts properly when we say “high-five” or “gong xi gong xi” although he is not able to do these 2 gestures 100% correctly yet.
4. He jabbers a lot and invented his own vocabulary “ah jia” which no one knows what that means, but he can say that for more than 5 times continuously.
5. He is able to sit unsupported for a long long time, and he can even reach out to a toy, grab it and play with it with both hands, and still balance himself very well.
6. He is able to roll over (flip from tummy to back and back to tummy again). But sometimes he just likes to practise this skill at the wrong time...

Some notes on his solid food intake:
- He does not really like too sweet stuff.
- So far his favorites are Healthy Times Oatmeal cereal + Morinaca Manna baby biscuit and banana puree.
- He hates pumpkin and Nestle Apple n Cranberry cereal.
- He likes Moon Rabbit brand brown rice powder with ikan bilis although we all cannot take the fishy smell.
- His poo is a bit harder after starting solid, although he’s been drinking a lot of water as usual. Thus we need to be careful while giving him food that might cause constipation, eg: banana has a lot of fibers but we need to choose the smaller ones and cut off the core as the seeds will cause constipation (according to many experienced mummies but no scientific proof on this).

And Renzo just experienced his very first Chinese New Year festival. There’s nothing worth noting down at all as it is again the usual tiring period for everyone and Renzo especially, because we have to bring him along for visiting.The only sweet moment was when we put red packets under his pillow at 12am on first day of Chinese New Year, which is something our parents have been doing for us in the past, while we do the same for our precious little one, the feeling is just so heartwarming..

Renzo wants food... REAL food...

We were happily eating our dinner yesterday... Chicken wings, french beans and all. Renzo looked at us with such adorable puppy dog eyes from his little rocker. He licked his lips a couple of times and mimicked a chew, and hastily proceeded to grab one of his toys and chewed on it. Feli carried him over to our dining table and Renzo could see clearly what was laid out on the table. He stared at me every time I put a spoonful into my mouth.

Teasingly, I held a piece of chicken just beyond his reach and slowly asked, "Renzo~ If you want to get solid food, raise your hand" and I slowly raised my right hand with his bounty in my left.

Renzo looked into my eyes, then shifted his focus to my raised hand. Then OMG !! he slowly lifted his left hand in acknowledging fashion. It was such a cute moment.

So being parents of our words. We immediately set out to shop for cereals, purees and rusks (though eventually we only bought cereal and brown rice powder).

No chicken and french beans for you yet Renzo but these should be just as yummy~!

Renzo at Daddy's workplace

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and I need a haircut and we managed to book only a weekday 5pm appointment with Angie, our trusty home-based Hairstylist. Considering the fact that staying at home and reciting Tang Dynasty poems have been Renzo's routine for quite a few days now, we decided that it is time to bring Renzo out to the great outdoors and see more of the world.

To get my haircut, I'd have to travel to Kallang and since it is just a couple train stations away from my office, we decided that it'd be fun to bring Renzo to my office to meet my colleagues whom many have never seen Renzo in person (only from this blog) and of those who have seen him, it would have been at least a good three to four months since their encounter.

Bringing baby out is always an encumbering. First you have his milk powder+milk bottles, then the diapers and extra clothes, then his toys and rattles, then his raincoat and jacket, then his stroller and pillow, and the list just goes on and on and on...Nevertheless, after months of training, packing the above become a breeze and we set out to my office on Renzo's first MRT train trip.

He was a good boy on the train, sitting comfortably in Aye Aye's lap with eyes darting left and right as absorbed the scenery through the windows of the train cabin, never making a single noise throughout the half hour journey. We reached my office around 3pm and had a warm greeting at the reception by my counter colleagues. And as we made our way deeper into the office, Renzo grabbed the attention of more and more people. Renzo seems to have this liking for a particular colleague of mine, Joanne. Might be because of her long hair, might be because of her large eyes, whichever it is the sight of Joanne makes our little boy flash a megawatt smile.

We left the office and made our way to Marina Square to grab some items for Renzo and also to shop for some clothes for me at Domanchi (which dominates over 50% of my wardrobe). Nothing much to highlight on the Marina Square shopping trip except that they do have quite a comfy Baby room between the Gents and Ladies for diaper changing.

Left Marina Square and reached Angie's right on time for our haircut. We frequent Angie's place since a few years back, even before we were married. And after Feli and I tied the knot, Angie and Feli have had many conversations related to starting a family as Angie have been wanting a baby of her own as well. Blessedly, Feli got pregnant and brought a happy Renzo to this world. Before we leave Angie's place, she played with Renzo and bit and Renzo high-fived (is there such a word?) her on many occasions, drawing laughter from all of us.

It was about 6pm when we left and it was the peak hour where office workers left work for the day and the train would be packed full. Fortunately, there was a direct bus from Angie's place back to our's but it would mean a 90 minute journey. Eventually we settled on taking the bus as the crowd would be unbearable and if Renzo started a screaming fit, it might potentially be disastrous. We hopped on the bus and were glad we chose so when we saw Renzo dozing off almost immediately after we got a seat. Poor little boy, must have been such a tiring day of entertaining us adults and seeing the world beyond the boundaries of the four walls at home.

Many more trips to come my boy... Many more trips...

Angel Angel, our little angel..

Well if you think the neckfloat in the picture of my previous post looks like an angel's halo, then I am sure you will agree with me that Renzo is truly our little angel after seeing these pictures below:

You might wonder what had happened? I have no idea either. Renzo's hand control is definitely improving. He rakes objects towards himself and pick them up, and grasp them for quite a while before dropping them. But he was definitely not the one who put his favorite rattle onto his own forehead. Our maid Aye Aye was the one who did it, and the funny thing we found was, somehow the rattle didn't drop at all no matter how Renzo moved around.. haha he looked so innocent and it seemed that he did not feel the existence of this strange object on his forehead at all.. But we could't stop laughing while seeing our boy in his "angel look" (okay he needs a pair of wings.. haha)..

Anyway, I am sure all parents find their precious ones their angels, who can really bring bundles of joys to the family..

Yesterday I talked to my sister Kelly about my plan of giving our little boy a private space for play/study. Someone may raise an eyebrow on this, isn't it too early to talk about study when our baby is just less than 6 months old? The answer is NO, it is never too early as babies love to learn new things. And somehow I found Renzo has this fancy over Chinese language (maybe we've been speaking English to him all this while, thus Chinese sounds more interesting to him??), because he smiles and laughs whenever I read Chinese poems or sing Chinese lullabies to him. So I decided to pen down the 6 chinese poems I read out to him everyday, and I am hoping that a few years later he will be able to proudly tell his school teacher that his mummy has taught him all these since he was 4 months plus. My mother taught Cherry in the past and she could remember all when she was only about.. 16 months old?!!

《江雪》 柳宗元
《jiang1 xue3》 liu3 zong1 yuan2
千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。

qian1 shan1 niao3 fei1 jue2, wan4 jing4 ren2 zong1 mie4

孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪。
gu1 zhou1 suo1 li4 weng1, du2 diao4 han1 jiang1 xue3

《悯农》 李绅
《min3 nong2》 li3 shen1
锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土。

chu2 he2 ri4 dang1 wu3, han4 di1 he2 xia4 tu3

谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。

shui2 zhi1 pan2 zhong1 can1, li4 li4 jie1 xin1 ku3

《咏鹅》 骆宾王

《yong3 e2》 luo4 bin1 wang2
鹅、鹅、鹅，曲项向天歌。白毛浮绿水，红掌拨清波。

e2 e2 e2, qu3 xiang4 xiang4 tian1 ge1

bai2 mao2 fu2 lu4 shui3, hong2 zhang3 bo1 qing1 bo1

《赋得古原草送别》 白居易

《fu4 de2 gu3 yuan2 cao3 song4 bie2》 bai2 ju1 yi4
离离原上草，一岁一枯荣。野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。

li2 li2 yuan2 shang4 cao3, yi2 sui4 yi4 ku1 rong2

ye3 huo3 shao1 bu2 jin4, chun1 feng1 chui1 you4 sheng1

《春晓》 孟浩然

《chun1 xiao3》 meng4 hao4 ran2

春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。夜来风雨声，花落知多少？

chun1 mian2 bu4 jue2 xiao3, chu4 chu4 wen2 ti2 niao3

ye4 lai2 feng1 yu3 sheng1, hua1 luo4 zhi1 duo1 shao3

《静夜思》 李白

《jing4 ye4 si1》 li3 bai2

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。

chuang2 qian2 ming2 yue4 guang1, yi2 shi4 di4 shang4 shuang1

ju3 tou2 wang4 ming2 yue4, di1 tou2 si1 gu4 xiang1

Back to my plan of haivng a baby play/study room, most likely we will let Aye Aye shift to the guest room and give Renzo's baby room back to him after this Chinese New Year.

We will then decorate the room with beautiful cartoon wall decals, learning materials and a bumper playmat for him to learn sitting, crawling and walking in the coming months, it is going to be so fun I am sure!!

P/S: I just received all these learning materials from my parents today, some for Renzo, some for Cherry, some for us as the parents.. so touched..