It's been almost 9 months since Renzo started going to Childcare on April 01, 2011. It was a fruitful 9 months for this little boy although we do not know much about his life in school, since he is not able to tell us much about what's going on daily at this moment. But we definitely noticed some changes in him, such as being able to feed himself, wear his clothes and shoes, sing a lot more songs in both Chinese and English and talk in full sentences, etc.
A few weeks ago, we had a "meet parents session" with his Teacher Helen from his Pre-Nursery 1 class. It's about 20 minutes talk and at the end of the session, we were given a CD which contains some highlights of Renzo's school life in powerpoint format. Teacher Helen is a super friendly, caring and sweet lady and we could easily tell how much passion and love she has towards the kids in the center, and we are truly grateful to have her as Renzo's first teacher. She gave lots of positive feedback about Renzo, telling us that our little boy is always willing to follow instructions, never bullies other classmates, has a very pleasant personality, loves singing and dancing, sleeps well and eats well, and never throws tantrums in school at all. She also commented that we parents seem to have taught Renzo a lot at home, as he knows his alphabet and numbers well, could recognize a lot of items like shapes and colors while reading his books, and being one of the most talkative kids who's able to converse in full sentence, in both Chinese and English. Well we have to definitely thank Teacher Helen as being Renzo's Chinese teacher, she had definitely motivated and encouraged Renzo to speak more often in Chinese.
Both Win and I were super proud when Teacher Helen mentioned that Renzo is very focused and patient when he is doing something. If he is reading a book, he can really sit down there and read page by page for a long time and not be distracted by other kids who are playing around. If he is playing a puzzle or block game, he always makes sure he completes the last piece of his puzzle or build up something with the blocks, so he could show the end result to the teachers happily.
The only "concern" she has to share with us is that, Renzo is still not feeling comfortable with large group of people. And she said it could be due to the fact that Renzo is the only child, and in the past he was not exposed to many strangers while he was cared by our maid alone.
Time really flies and after Christmas, Renzo will be promoted to the next level - Pre-Nursery 2 class and the good thing is, he will still be able to see his Teacher Helen during breakfast or morning assembly session. We hope maybe some of these lovely kids from Renzo's Pre-Nursery 1 class, could become his life time good friend in the future!!
For our friends who know us well, most of you must think that Mummy Chan is the strict one who disciplines Renzo with frequent spanks and time-outs, whereas Daddy Chan must be the one who either handles him with loads of love and patience (just like how he treats Mummy Chan), or simply does not care too much.. Well, you are totally wrong then.
This is the conversation happened before Renzo went to bed last night:
Renzo: "Daddy, I want train train!!" Daddy Chan: "No Renzo, it's bedtime, you need to sleep!" Renzo: "Train Train, Renzo want to play train!!" Daddy Chan: "No Renzo, it's too late, cry also no use, no train for Renzo!!"
Renzo: "Mummy!!!" Mummy Chan: "Yes Renzo baby, don't cry, tell mummy what do you want?" Renzo: "I want train train!" Mummy Chan: "Okay no problem mummy get for you~"
Daddy Chan: Side Note: I have to admit, there was a bit of miscommunication because when Renzo was talking to Win, I was watching my cantonese show with my earpieces on, if I knew that Win has already rejected Renzo's request, I should have just let him handle our boy with zero interference, as we both agreed that consistency is important when comes to disciplining Renzo. But you get the idea about how Renzo's request will be attended if he were to come to me directly at first.
Win believes that spanking is absolutely okay as long as it is used sparingly and not abusively. And I believe that each child develops at their own level and each stage of development has its appropriate behaviors. So to Daddy Chan, throwing tantrums at "terrible two" stage is normal; but to me it is normal AND acceptable. And to Daddy Chan, if Renzo misbehaves, there needs to be some reinforcement in place to let him understand what he can and cannot do; but to me, I rather maximize his opportunities to play and explore in his own way, but minimize his chances to misbehave and get into trouble, so we don't even need to deal with the consequence. For example when Renzo wants to snatch Daddy's laptop, Win will tell him it's not the right thing to do as it is not a toy for him to play with, but usually I will rather that we don't even use it in front of Renzo if we know certain things like a movie or game on the laptop might catches Renzo's attention. So can you see the difference now?
We've exchanged ideas with other parents but it's never easy to find the most effective parenting style. And now we both are patiently waiting for Renzo to grow up a little, at least wait till he turns 3 years old.
Daddy Chan thinks that's an appropriate age to enforce some punishment for Renzo to learn self-control, and the difference between right from wrong.
Mummy Chan thinks that's an appropriate age for Renzo to understand the connection between actions and consequences and he might pick up good behaviours automatically.
Haha not bad, at least we do share some thoughts in common finally..
Communicating with little Renzo is getting more and more interesting nowadays. When I told him that Mummy is tired and need rest, he sat down by my side, pat on my back, and said "Renzo pat pat mummy!". When I sent him to school in the morning and told him not to cry, so in return I would buy his favorite grapes after work, he really held his tears back and even remembered to ask me for grapes at night when I was home. Well he even managed to buy himself an ipad "find alphabet" application and charged that to Daddy's credit card. (okay the scary fact is that we couldn't even figure out how did he do that!)
And, after inventing his own word "swimming pee" from "swimming poo(l)", and challenging our intelligence level by responding "That's not LEFT" to our comment "That's not RIGHT" on things he did wrong, last night after his shower time, my mother-in-law came into our room and asked him to sing a new song "Two little black birds" she just taught him 3 days ago.
So there he goes, a modified version of the song with his own imagination and, sense of humor:
"Two little black birds,
Sitting on a wall;
One named Joy Joy,
One named Renzo.
Fly away Joy Joy!
Fly away Renzo!
Come Back Joy Joy!
Come Back Renzo!"
The lyrics is way much simpler than many other lullabies he learned such as "Incy Wincy Spider", "Do Re Mi", or any other songs he mastered in Chinese. But I was very impressed with the fact that he has replaced the birds name "Peter" and "Paul" with "Joy" and "Renzo".
Joy is a classmate from his Pre-Nursery 1 class at the childcare center. We've met her once or twice in school and she's about half a year older than Renzo. She's not the most beautiful and cute girl in his class, well both Daddy and Mummy Chan found another girl Audrey being the prettiest and cutest little one. And most importantly, Audrey likes Renzo very much (we can tell from her sparkling eyes whenever she sees Renzo). So we were kind of hoping that our boy could have some "chemistry" with Audrey, okay we know that's not the most logical and appropriate thoughts at this stage of course..
Anyway we did notice something very special about Joy. She's very sociable and interactive, maybe it's also because she's the oldest in PN1 class. Her linguistic skill is obviously stronger than most of the kids in class. The previous time we saw her during Renzo's birthday celebration in school, she's "leading" the group to sing songs in English and Chinese whereby most of the kids could barely follow. And maybe Renzo is just like his Daddy, who prefers someone who's able to hold an intellectual conversation with him?! LOL... (*Daddy Chan is nodding his head in the background as he is reading this...*)
This morning, I just checked with Renzo's teacher whether he's behaving well in school, since he repeated a few times these few days "Teacher Helen is Angry!", which made us a bit concerned about whether he's been naughty at school. And the lovely teacher happily told me that Renzo is the most well-behaved one who always follows instructions closely and never likes to disturb others in class. And she even said sorry to Renzo that she might be angry with some other kids who were shouting and screaming in class, which made Renzo worried or scared, LOL...
Remembering how we were fascinated by Renzo's baby noises (video here)during his first few months, seeing how Renzo is able to communicate with us really bring about much joy. Next level would probably have Renzo holding a proper conversation with us... something Daddy Chan has wished for since forever...
And so it is another of those nights where I take a glance back at this blog and have this sense of guilt that I haven't updated Renzo's blog as regularly as I would have expected myself to. It is not like nothing happened, in fact, so much happens that most of the time Mummy Chan and myself don't know which to start penning down and which to just ignore.
But in any case, fact is that it has been almost a whole month since I wrote here and I guess I can't blame it on writer's block or lack of time... haha
So without further ado, here is a post for our memory's sake, Renzo's first visit to the Fire Station~! (an excursion more than a month ago *hide* )... and yes, I'm writing from memory here, so pardon me should there be a lack of detailed information on the trip itself... *sigh*
We came back from our China trip with knowledge that Renzo would have to make a Fire Engine to bring back to school as his "homework", though we fully understood that this task was more for a parent-child bonding activity to have parents and children come together to do some craftwork together, but judging from Renzo's inability to fully cooperate due to his young age, the intention seems to be little/no-at-all applicable in my case... :/ ... so this becomes a parent "homework"... heh
But still, we thought that it would be a good reason to bring our little boy to the local fire station to take a look at the real deal... and to have him equipped with more knowledge and exposure to our civil defense.
A simple Google search led me to SCDF's website and a call confirmed that members of the public of less than 10 members can just walk-in to the station and request for a tour (details here). Lovely service!
So that Saturday morning, we took a direct bus ride to the Fire Station to let Renzo see what these guys do to protect our neighbourhood. We were introduced to Warrant Officer Farhan who gave us a very warm welcome and handed Renzo his very own fireman hat (which he eventually lost in school anyway... lol) and started giving us a walkabout and introduction of the vehicles and equipments that were part of their daily use. The compound itself wasn't nearly as big as I expected but it sure was equipped with all the things needed to complete their duties. From hydraulic jacks to lift heavy loads to tracked vehicles to maneuver difficult terrain, you name it, they have something for it. Interesting to note is that I did ask if they really received calls from the public to rescue cats stuck high up in trees like it was rumoured, and to my surprise, they used to receive and respond to such calls, but now that there are more critical situation that involves more lives/property damage, such "urgent" pet-rescue missions are left to the SPCA.
We left the station with a better understanding of how our unsung heroes diligently strive to keep our neighbourhood safe and also with some fold-along-the-dotted-line cardboard cutouts for Renzo to play around with.
So back at home, we starting putting our thinking caps together and with the cutouts provided by the SCDF, some HL milk cartons, 4 drinking bottle caps and parts of some renzo-destroyed toys, we completed our masterpiece that was to be marveled at by schoolkids in the weeks that followed after its submission... and till date, it is still in Renzo's toy box as one of his Fire Engine toy, complete with fully extendable, rotating fire ladder... ^_^... A home-made toy by Mummy Chan and Daddy Chan...
Two days ago, I had a post on my plan to teach Renzo how to blend letters with his basic knowledge on phonics for single alphabet. I introduced the set of cards I made as "New Toy" to Renzo and after playing with them for a short 1 minute on the first night, he returned them to me and told me "Don't want New Toy!!". Argh.... calm down Mummy Chan, like I said, we really need a lot of patience dealing with kids at this age, especially when comes to teaching them as we need to make learning fun for them, which is never easy though.
My sister helped us get a set of phonics books for Renzo at Popular, and she suggested me to try those books since that could help me save a lot of time making DIY cards. So last night, I took out the set of books and opened book number 2, because book number 1 is about basic phonics which Renzo has mastered by now. To my surprise, book number 2 has the exact same concept as the DIY cards I made for Renzo, except for the pictures attached to each words which I do not have for my cards. Well I should not be surprised anyway, my sister is always good at picking the right books for kids. Anyway so last night (Sept 21), I decided to try the book with the cards since the colorful pictures on the book look promising enough to keep Renzo attracted and focused, at least for more than 1 minute I bet.
Look at this video of Renzo blending his words "Fat", "Mat", "Hat", "Cat", "Bat", "Rat" one by one. I didn't manage to capture a nice clip (probably because I was too excited with Renzo's progress), but basically I just put the cards I made on the book to match up with the same words introduced in the book, and covered the pictures at the same time because the purpose is to teach him how to read words, not to memorize the words by looking at pictures.
After this, Renzo happily, and proudly, recited a new nursery rhyme he learned in school to us:
"妹妹背着洋娃娃, 走到花园来看花. 娃娃哭了找妈妈, 树上小鸟笑哈哈"
Although he's not been very clear with his pronunciation and missed out "小鸟" in his last sentence (which he did recited clearly before this round but we didn't have the chance to record down), it didn't take us too long to figure out what was he saying.
Now both of us are super enticed and can't wait to see Renzo's progress in next 2 months.
Daddy Chan pointed out to me recently, that our blog posts seem to get longer and longer nowadays. Well I do notice the same, it might not be too easy for our readers' eyes, but then there are just too many great and funny stuff about little Renzo, which we must pen down. I am blogging quite a bit about Renzo's education, whereas Win tends to focus more on fun facts. Hmm, am I that academic driven??!!!
Anyway last night (Sept 19), our little boy impressed his parents on 3 different occasions. Shock #1
When I returned home from a tiring long day at work, I suddenly heard Renzo singing this new song with his Daddy, while he was finishing up his dinner in his high chair: "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Brother John, Brother John? Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing Ding dong bell, ding dong bell."
Well to side track a bit, Renzo baby is able to sing the complete lyrics (or at least 80%) of all these songs: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" "ABC" "Do Re Mi"
"Baa Baa Black Sheep"
"Ten Little Indians"
"London Bridge is Falling Down"
"Old Man Donald had a Farm"
"Happy Birthday to You" "12354, once I caught a fish alive" (fortunate, or unfortunately, in Burmese, LOL)
"小红帽"
"我是一个大苹果"
"一起去郊游"
"泥娃娃" "小白船" "送别"
Daddy Chan told me that he started singing this song all on his own on their way home from childcare, when Daddy casually questioned baby about what did his teacher Florence teach him in school.
He then followed by singing another new song "Incy Wincy Spider" and I have to praise the childcare teachers for introducing wonderful nursery rhymes to kids at such a young age, some of those songs are indeed not easy to catch.
Shock #2
Since we communicate mainly in English at home, Renzo's most frequent exposure to Chinese language is through this set of interesting "right brain training" educational material called "智慧宝". He's been watching this together with his Leapfrog DVD almost everyday, and learned at least 20 Chinese words from it. He could recognize those words by looking at the associated pictures. Two weeks ago when we were having our holiday in China, my mother pointed at the word "门"on the train door and asked Renzo what's that, he answered "门" loud and clear, which caught us by surprise because we always thought he knows those words by looking at pictures. So this time round, I decided to test him on his Chinese by covering all the pictures, although we did not revise with him for the past 2 weeks due to traveling, he could read 11 out of 15 words absolutely correct. On a side note, we were watching a Chinese educational channel during our trip and they were introducing the wonderful right brain training method, a 7-9 year old boy could recite a given list of 30 random words in perfect sequence, and even reverse sequence. And you could pick say number 7 and he will tell you what's the 7th word, or vice versa. We were totally blown away and wanted to get the same training material (costs RMB589 per set) for Renzo, then to realize that the set he's been using since he was 1 year old, which was bought by my father, is the exact same set they were promoting on TV. LOL, lucky us!!!
Shock #3
My sister Kelly just passed me an old Alphabet book for Renzo, nothing spectacular about the book but it caught Renzo's attention immediately when I presented it in front of this little boy, at that moment he was sitting on his potty and passing motion indeed. I guess the most interesting part of this book, is that it has interactive sliding panels for each alphabet, so that kids could slide those panels to show/hide the Alphabet, the Letter starts with that Alphabet, and the Picture describe that letter one by one. Knowing that Renzo could recognize Chinese words without looking at associated pictures, and the fact that he is way stronger in his Alphabets and their Phonics sounds, I decided to experiment something new. I showed Renzo the word DOG, and break it down to phonics sounds D-O-G and after a few rounds of reading with Renzo, when I hid the picture of a dog and showed him only the word DOG, he could read it by saying D-O-G in phonics one by one, and shouted DOG!
These great experience with little Renzo inspired me to search further on how to teach phonics as I believe he is ready for the next level of phonics learning - blending words with vowels. So I went to my favorite Tamarind's blog to dig out this article: http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html
I remember when I first read this, Renzo baby was only 7 months old, so I chucked it away quietly with the thought that we will not be using it any time sooner, since it works for kids who masters all the 26 alphabets and their phonics sounds only. Time really flies and now I believe the 25 months old Renzo baby is fully (if not at least almost) ready for this.
I printed out the "A" words, cut them out and pasted them on cards, and used scotch tape to wrap them around in order to minimize wear and tear. They are the "new toys" for Renzo and we plan to go through with him every night before bed time.
Will we be successful in teaching Renzo how to read? Well the most successful case I've seen before, is a 27 months old boy who could read a bunch of words by breaking them down with phonics sounds, and even know the meaning of them all. (His mother is the one who advised me to get Leapfrog DVD for Renzo). Let's see how is Renzo's progress after 2 months of practice and learning then. I guess there is no hard and fast rule to teach a toddler at this age, all I need to do is to be extremely PATIENT, repeat, repeat, and REPEAT..
On Saturday, August 20th, we sent AyeAye to Changi Airport Terminal 2, she took a Silkair flight at 7:55am to Myanmar with her slightly over-weighted luggage. We then headed to Terminal 3 to board our SQ flight to Shanghai at 8:05am. That ends Ayeaye's 1 year and 10 months employment with us.
I had imagined in the past that upon Ayeaye's departure, we would have thrown in a delicious meal, a beautiful farewell cake, thoughtful gifts and warmest hugs and kisses at the airport. All these didn't happen somehow, but she did ring me from the plane right before taking off, and I let Renzo talk to her for a little while. Our little boy followed my instructions and said 3 things over the phone: "Hello Auntie Ayeaye" "I love you Auntie Ayeaye" "Bye bye Auntie Ayeaye"
It's a long story about why she chose to go back to her hometown, in a nutshell, she decided not to work as domestic helper anymore and we decided not to hire anyone till our new condo is ready and we move out from my in-laws' place as they are not used to a life with maid.
So officially, we are "maid-less" now!
I remember mentioning how important Ayeaye is to us in one of my posts before, there is definitely a significant impact to our daily life. Win has to help out with housework again (just like the period when I was preggy), floor mopping and laundry are things he does everyday. I still need to cook during weekends, and take care of other household chores. Even my father-in-law started to iron Renzo's school uniform and my mother-in-law's responsibilities is probably the heaviest, to pick Renzo from school and cook for the family during weekdays. And the worst part is, we won't be able to spend our time freely and easily with Renzo like before... unless we could get the housework settled in the blink of an eye.
But I can see everyone starts to get a hang of our new lives in a few days. Even Renzo seems to grow up overnight. He was acting like a super glue throughout our trip in China and insisted to cling to me only, and at night, sometimes he even had nightmares and woke up crying for his auntie Ayeaye. But when we returned to Singapore and started sending him back to school on Monday, he immediately got back to his usual routine without making any fuss.
Win has been sending him to school these mornings and I've heard from him about how well behaved Renzo is, that makes us feel really proud of our little boy. Deep in his heart, I am very sure he sensed that things have changed. On a few occasions, while he was playing his toys on the floor or eating and stoning in his high chair, out of sudden, he mumbled, "Auntie Ayeaye go home, no more", "Renzo is a big boy already!".
Now he is able to eat well, play well and sleep well without the presence of Ayeaye, although I am not sure if he has fully accepted the fact that his Auntie Ayeaye will never come back again, but sending Ayeaye back and bringing Renzo for a 2 weeks holiday at the same time, is definitely a wise choice. He has definitely picked up a lot new stuff during his trip, see how a 2 years old play with his seat belt in the plane!!
Then came the video console. The great Atari, Nintendo and Sega days. I still can remember when I first laid hands on a controller and saw Mario jump whenever I hit a button on it, through my little mind I was thinking that this has got to be the best interactive game on Earth. Well, it was back then... some 20~30 years ago... and I still remember those times when a game cartridge failed to load up, we'd take it out and give the cartridge and console a blow, supposedly blowing away dust and dirt that might have screwed up my otherwise wonderful experience.
Modern day entertainment haven't really changed much in concept, but vastly in delivery. Renzo still likes TV programs the way I did when I was a kid, but instead of having only SBC 5 for English shows, SBC 8 for Mandarin and SBC 12 for sports (SBC is Singapore Broadcast Corporation for you young kids... or ill-informed oldies...=P ), Renzo now has a Starhub Cable Box that delivers international shows and cartoons to a LCD TV screen probably 4 times the size of those in olden days.
Renzo has games too, yes. But instead of lugging around a bulky console that plays games on 16-bits colours and MIDI file audio, he carries an iPad2 from my table to his bed effortlessly and dives into a world of 1024*768 pixel resolution at 132 ppi (pixel per inch). And no longer does he have to deal with the disappointment of a failing game cartridge as all the applications are downloaded wirelessly into the 601 gram device via a wireless network (that were only make-believe Sci-Fi technology in movies during my childhood days).
How technology has evolved and the need for kids to learn and adapt with them. Just like how my parents were amazed when I first opened the TV cabinet to flick a switch to turn on the TV, we were fascinated when Renzo knew how to get his favourite Leapfrog DVD out of its plastic prison, put it into the DVD player and successfully place the previous disc back into its correct cover. How he manage to learn all that is beyond me (though Mummy Chan did tell me that Aye Aye showed Renzo a couple of times already). Anyway, Renzo was again performing the feat when I rushed to video it down.
I can't imagine how things would be by the time Renzo's child runs into the living room seeking entertainment... hmm... I won't be surprised if it was the Entertainment running to the child from the living room... heh...
To me, Renzo has always been a pretty healthy boy. Sure he has some runny nose and fever once in a while (okay okay... a little more than once in a while *sigh*), but at least he physical growth, in terms of his body mass, undoubtedly puts him under the category of "well-nourished".
But as with all kids, especially those put at childcare centres, visiting the doctor is a pretty frequent thing. It is not as if we adults don't fall sick, let alone these little toddlers who are still developing their immunity system to fight off the legion of bacteria and viruses.
So here we had a little Renzo, suffering from a serious cough for quite a few days and a runny nose worthy of an Olympic medal. But since no fevers developed, Mummy Chan and I agreed that we'd still send him to childcare and that after his breakfast, I'd take him to the doc just one level below the childcare.
The visit was a pretty pleasant experience, firstly it being in a slightly more 'ulu' location, there were only a couple of patients before us. Secondly, the service was pretty top-notch. When it was Renzo's turn to visit the doc, instead of having the nurse calling out Renzo's name like the other clinics, we had the doctor himself opening the door to his office and smilingly calling out for Renzo. After simple diagnosis, the doctor instructed the nurse to prepare the Nebulizer, a device that supposedly administers medication in the form of a mist/smoke to be inhaled.
Initially, I was rather worried that Renzo will reject having to breath with that mask over his nose and mouth, but to my surprise, he didn't even react to it. Maybe it was the novelty of the new 'toy', maybe it was the sleepy side-effect of his breakfast, but either way, he took the medication well. It being a ten-minute (i think) process, he soon grew restless just sitting there in my lap while the whizzing machine does its job inches away. So I had to whip out my trusty Android and entertain Renzo with some flash cards and his favourite game...... Angry Birds. I must add that it was damn funny to hear Renzo talk through the mask, reminds me of my military training on chemical warfare...lol
When the process was completed, the device came to a halt and Renzo was left with a noseful of mucus flowing down to the edges of his tiny lips. The attentive nurses quickly gave him some tissue before proceeding to lead us back to the doctor's office. The doc looked at Renzo for a while before concluding that Renzo is find and that it was probably a mild case of Bronchitis.
While waiting for the nurses to prepare Renzo's medication, Renzo played with some wooden blocks and toys (I presume this clinic has a fair number of little patients considering a childcare is just one level above) and proudly reciting his Alphabets and counting. This came to the attention of one of the nurses who spoke in Hokkien to her colleague, praising Renzo for stronger linguistic abilities compared to her almost-two-year-old grandson. By the time the medicines were ready for collection, Renzo's nose and mouth regions were again flooded with his mucus and required tissue again. The nurse promptly did so and recommended a device meant for clearing toddler noses by means of a simple chamber attached to a long pipe where one end was to be fitted onto the nostril of the little one and the other, a straw from which the adult sucks to vacuum out all the dirt and mucus out.
Before we left the clinic the nurses smiled at Renzo lovingly and reminded me to get the nasal-cleaning apparatus they recommended and specifically mentioned to get it from Pigeon Brand as the others ain't as effective. Looks like Daddy Chan and Mummy Chan will be visiting Kiddy Palace again pretty soon ~
And so in a blink of the eye, our little hero his now 24 months old.
I can only remember so much about my second birthday but I'm pretty sure it was nothing like Renzo's. Back in those days, celebrating the birthday of a two-year-old meant gathering the relatives together, getting a giant cake usually shaped like a number "2" and a short "Happy Birthday" sing-along session. It'll usually end with mummy blowing out the candles in place of birthday kid who is either (a) confused by all the commotion (b) distracted by the sight of a tasty cake. Either way, cake cutting and sharing will start and everyone will have a generous share of a fluffy, creamy cake made deliciously by the local bakery within walking distance. Birthday kid then receives gifts from everyone and busily tears away at the wrappers. What fun it was~
Fast forward to modern day today. The general concept still remains. There is a gathering (but not with relatives), there is a cake (still in a number "2"), there is a confused birthday kid (who does more than just eye on the cake... you'll see that in a moment) and there is that bakery (but we chose Four Leaves Bakery... ^_^ ). Difference now it that instead of receiving, he'll have to give gifts...
Renzo's day started with him all dressed up for his day. During his wait for the bus, he was having a fun time digging out all 11 little gift boxes that we bought from ELM Tree that were very affordable (more on the gifts a few paragraphs later...) and then slowly putting them back into the paper bag.
Before long, the bus was here and we (Aye Aye and myself) were in a mad rush to pack everything back and hastily hopped onto the bus.
As usual, Renzo is pretty well behaved on public transport, occasionally looking out the window and when he sees a bus coming at us from the opposite direction, he'll start saying, "Oh... Double Decker Bus Number XX"... XX being the number of the bus service. Of course he doesn't always get them right (he is just two years of age afterall), but still, credits for the effort for at least recognizing the characters as numbers... ^_^
Upon entering the school compound, our happy little hero skipped to his cousin Cherry, who attends the same school (different class of course as they are grouped by age) and anxiously waiting for her to be the first person to give Renzo his birthday gift (and for records, yes, Cherry beat me to it... Renzo only received his gift after returning home from school... haha).
We went into the classroom and settled him down for his daily breakfast. Normally, all the little kids will be in their school uniform, be it the buttoned white shirt or the more comfortable yellow t-shirt, so of course I was expecting Renzo to be the outstanding one, but much to my surprise, just across him was a pretty little classmate of his who was also in her own attire and had me guessing if she shared the same birthday as Renzo...haha...
After instructing the teacher to pass the gifts (there are 3 different types, Number flashcards, Alphabet flashcards, and Fairies game in a very colorful portable metal box) to those kids who were on half day and unable to attend Renzo's birthday celebration. Fairies game is a card game played like "Snap" where cards are placed out evenly and when 2 of the same is turned over, first player to shout "Snap" wins the cards in the pile, we bought 2 boxes of this for Renzo and Cherry as they both have mastered their Numbers and Alphabets. So Alphabet Flashcards went to Renzo's best friends Haoxiang and Audrey, the rest of the class got Number Flashcards... Then I left and Renzo's adventure continues during the later parts of that afternoon.
Soon afternoon came... The plan was that I'll be the one to collect the cake from Four Leaves and then intercept Mummy Chan at the MRT station and we'll make our way down together, my Dad and Mum will make their way down there themselves via a direct bus. But as Murphy's Law states, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Mummy Chan couldn't make it in time because work. So I went up to his school with my parents without Mummy Chan.
When I reached the compound, the teacher said that the kids were waiting for the cake and some were already asking where is the cake... haha... these little hungry things... So without further ado, we stepped into class with a not-so-surprise cake in hand. The kids were seated neatly with Renzo and special guest Cherry (special guest because to the other kids, Cherry is the big sister from a senior class) on a separate table.
Before the setting up of the cake was done, Mummy Chan arrived and the celebrations began. Renzo couldn't sit still with the cake just in front of him. At every opportunity, he would reach out and poke at the cream and then stick his little finger into his little mouth to taste the heavenly strawberry shortcake (you'll see it in the video below).
With singing and cake eating. I must say the cake was a nice one a 20cm * 30cm "Duckie Cake" from Four Leaves that proved more than what a class of 10 two-year-olds can finish.
And so we left the school with Renzo, receiving thanks from the cake-stuffed kids and teachers waiting to share their experience with their parents... and waiting for the next birthday celebration in school...=P
24 hours ago, I finally decided to sit down in front of my computer and read up on Primary School registration information in Singapore. What triggered my interest was a discussion on Aug 2009 mummies' Facebook page about "Understanding The Singapore Primary School Registration Processes", which made me feel completely clueless as I had zero knowledge about it before blogging about it right now.
Just a few days back, I was talking to my mother-in-law about how fierce the competition is and how kiasu our Singaporean parents are in terms of pre-school education for kids. More and more parents with kids at Renzo's age are spending 1-2k a month on branded childcare centers for their precious ones. And without any doubt, those parents are definitely willing to and trying to do whatever they can, in order to enroll their kids to the best primary schools. She (my MIL) casually mentioned about putting Renzo to Win's primary school - Qiaonan that is 5 minutes away from her house which, I agreed silently.
But now, the game has changed!
It was to my biggest surprise to find out that Qiaonan seems to be ranked 170+ out of our <200 primary schools in Singapore. True that I am not an advocate of school ranking system but, it still bothers me a bit after knowing this fact. Then I started to look at other possible options for Renzo. I told Win, the reason is simple, I do not want Renzo to crack his head like us 30 years later, just to figure out which school our grandchildren can go to. Although we can't promise him the best, at least we should try out best to leave a better option for him in the future. And here are some pretty useful information I found online for those "blur" mummies like me:
REGISTRATION PHASES
Here's a diagram I found on kiasu parents site, that illustrates 7 phases of registration exercise: Obviously, we could only look at Phase 2B onwards since Qiaonan is out of picture by now. So the next question is, should we enroll Renzo based on our new address or my in laws' address?
DISTANCE PRIORITIZATION
Here comes the next highest priority for our selection, distance..
It's so ironic that before we sold our old HDB flat, we had 3 schools within 1km distance to our house and out of the 3, 2 of them are the most popular primary schools in Pasir Ris. But now, none of these 2 are near to our new house.
And to find out nearby schools, go to www.onemap.com.sg, enter your postal code, click on "free map based services" menu and select "school query" to find out schools within 1km and 2km from your house.
For us, if we search based on my in laws address in Tampines, we have: <1km:
Changkat / Tampines / Yumin / Chongzheng/ Griffiths / and of course, not to forget, Qiaonan <2km: St.Hilda's / Poi Ching / Gongshang / Tampines North / East Spring
Whereas if we search based on our new address in Pasir Ris: <1km:
Coaral / Elias Park / Park View <2km:
Meridian /Poi Ching / Gongshang / Tampines North / Loyang / White Sands / Casurina
Those highlighted in RED are the popular schools (not purely based on ranking) and indeed we do not have any within 1km distance at both Tampines and Pasir Ris, except for Chongzheng, which becomes my first choice for Renzo immediately.
But after much readings, I have to move on and believe that registering Renzo based on our Pasir Ris address makes more sense, since we are not allowed to register him based on more than 1 address once the registration phase starts, and <2km branded schools near my in laws' place are just too competitive to get in. PHASE 2B POSSIBLE?Well I think that's pretty difficult. I was seriously eyeing on Chongzheng and even asked my mother-in-law to find out for me on how to become a member at nearby RC. But to my dismay, the RC at her house place is not active enough for me to clock 96 hours and become a member easily. So my only choice is to work on parent volunteer job at my desired schools when being selected, well for that I have to wait till Renzo turns 4 or 5 years old, another 2-3 years to go. (You know how kiasu I am by now).
In a nutshell, we need to decide on:
First Choice:
- we are likely to be qualified under 2B phase
- <1km if possible or at least <2km
Second Choice:
- we are likely to secure a seat under 2C phase
- must be <1km
Third Choice:
- must be <1km
- we die die can get a seat even under 2Cs phase
Don't ask me how I came to this conclusion, I only can remember I had quite a long conversation with Win and also my sister who has been making enormous efforts to put my niece into the best school in Tampines.
First Choice:
- A popular school that is <2km, good thing is we do have a direct bus to school from our house
- Must go for parent volunteer work when Renzo gets to K1 and if we could clock 40 hours in a year
Second Choice:
- Less popular school but pretty good reputation
- Nearest to our house <1km
Third Choice:
- Not popular at all
- Next nearest to our house <1km
Of course there are a lot more strategies worth consideration such as 5 years+ balloting history of your desired school, which could give you a clearer picture and rough gauge on whether balloting is needed for the phase you are registering for. But after all, I could only manage things within my capability so sometimes, it might be rather important and worthy to prepare your kids for primary school than getting yourself on a roller coaster mood and trying your luck like praying for winning Toto..
And, this is how we are trying to get Renzo prepared... to get him to learn his alphabets as early as possible...
Recently, Win has been sending Renzo to school every morning together with Ayeaye. And there are 2 times he shared with me that Renzo was greeted by his classmates, once was his Audrey jiejie, who often gets brightened up whenever she sees Renzo, and another time by another boy we do not even know the name. Unfortunately all our little one did, was to remain oblivious to his surroundings, and went straight to his chair, sat down happily while waiting for his breakfast to be served. Look at how he took off his shoes and socks, behaves like a king right?!
And he even "kidnapped" this cute pair of slippers Win bought for me and walking around the house as if he is really an Angry Bird... so much pride huh?!
Anyway, knowing that Renzo is someone who’s able to express himself pretty well in full sentences, I did not expect that he refuses to talk to people most of the time when he’s outside. I meant if he can’t even talk, of course I won’t feel this bad. I am guessing it is probably because we didn’t really enforce the rules at home. Just like we try to cultivate good habit by asking him to say “Good morning” to his grandparents, most of the time he will keep quiet or respond with “Good morning 爷爷不要”. And more often than not, we just laugh it off without correcting him on that. That reminds me of Amy Chua's "Tiger Mother" way of bringing up her 2 daughters in a strict fashion. I have not read her book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" but my cousin who finished reading that book, shared a bit with me about Amy's relentless determination and parenting philosophy, contrary to modern American standard of permissiveness and mediocrity.
Well, I am pretty sure that Win was not brought up in a "Tiger Mother" way, but to certain extend, I was. I remember vividly how my parents used to talk to us from young. They always encourage us to study hard and work hard for better life. They believe that's the best way to prepare us for our future. We learned the concept of "you reap what you sow" before we could even wrote our own names. During our era, there's no such thing as "parents should foster learning is fun", or "stressing on academic results is not healthy for kids". I am sure even until now, some of my mummy friends who are advocates of Western parenting style, eventually still get stressed out by peer pressures from those who managed to raise stereotypically successful children with a more "tiger-like' way.
So, the question is, am I too soft to Renzo? Maybe, but then, nowadays kids are so smart. There was one time Renzo muttered "Don't use your hand, use your spoon!" while feeding himself dinner. That's exactly what we have been reminding him almost everyday. Although he ended up stuffing 60-70% of his meal into his mouth with his hands, we didn't rake him over the coals just because of that. And the fact is, he really knows what is the right thing to do, just that it takes him time to put that into action, at least that's what I choose to believe. There was another time when Renzo was not even 15 months old, when I smacked his little hand and scolded him for biting my finger, he turned around and looked into my eyes, he didn't say a word (well he couldn't say much back then), but his expression made me feel that he's complaining: "You are my mummy, how could you do this to me?". Since then, I've never raised my voice at him again, not even once.
Guess I should stop thinking and talking like an expert, 'cause I am not. I still have no clue what is the best for Renzo despite self-claiming many times that I want to provide the best for him. But for now, I am not going to be a "tiger mummy" and risk myself of raising up a rebellious instead of successful kid, at least not before Renzo could write his own name. haha...
Renzo was quite cooperative in front of the camera this weekend and allowed us to take some of the videos of him doing funny stuff. Usually, he would stop dead in his tracks once we took out the camera. It has always been something of a desire for both Feli and myself to be able to capture these actions down and show it to him when he grows up to have a little laugh together.
If a picture paints a thousand words, then this post would be about... hmmm, lets do some calculations...
30fps (frames per second) * 2 minutes 46 seconds = 4980 frames 4980 frames * thousand words = 4.98 million words... possibly the longest post ever written on this blog (or any blog for that matter)
Anyway, here are the 3 videos we took over the weekend... njOy~!
This was taken just after Renzo's shower. Every time after his hot shower, he is treated to a bottle of milk, and "Daddy I want milk milk, please" is some manners we taught him...=P
Just after his milk, he decided to powder himself... something he does some of the time, but rarely allowing us to video it (he'd stop once we wipe out the camera)
He was playing on my his iPad2 and launched his favourite "Angry Birds" and linked to the page of "Angry Birds"... and this was what he thought of the evil egg-loving green pigs...
After my 2 weeks business trip, it became apparent that Renzo baby developed this distinctive preference over his daddy nowadays.
Incident #1:
Win went for grocery shopping after dinner to replenish milk powder stock for Renzo. In the past, he would just tell Renzo where is he going and when will he be back, well indeed that doesn't concern our boy much, he is surely more interested to know if Win will leave his ipad at home for him to play only. But nowadays Renzo often cries for Daddy, and keeps asking, "Where is daddy? You (I) want daddy, where??!!"
Incident #2:
One of my most important (to Renzo) routine tasks, is to sing bedtime lullabies to Renzo, and since his birth till now. I've been switching between more than 20 English and Chinese songs for this little one. The biggest worry I used to have was, how could Daddy Chan coax baby to sleep when I am away for my trip. But now, I am not worried any more. A few nights ago, while I happily ended 1 round of "ABC" and just about to start on "Row Row Row your boat", I was suddenly stopped by Renzo, he shouted "Mummy sing song, row row row your boat 不要, Daddy sing song, row row row your boat, please!"
Incident #3:
Recently we noticed that Renzo loves to give instructions to us adults on what we should do according to his perference. Such as forcing grandpa to only sit on his own chair instead of on grandma's chair, insisting on eating "potato" from his plate and throwing them out when we correct him that it's "pumpkin" instead. I didn't really expect that unfortunately, finally I became his target. Tonight right before his bedtime, he was playing around and while Daddy Chan finished shower and returned to the room, Renzo was extremely excited. (Needless to say, he was super cranky while Daddy Chan went for his shower). And this time, he quickly lay in his bed and got into his sleeping position, then he started giving out instructions in his captivating tone: Renzo: "Renzo lie down, Daddy also lie down!" Mummy: "Where? Which side?" Renzo (pointing at his right hand side): "Here, this side!" Daddy: "So can Mummy lie down also?" Renzo (without hesitation): "Mummy lie down 不要!!"
While I was wondering what am I supposed to do then, Renzo: "Mummy go walk walk!!" and he then pushed me down from the bed.. Mummy: "Ergh, Mummy go where walk walk then?" Renzo: "Mummy, open the door, go walk walk!!!!!" (Apparently getting me out of the bed is not good enough, he wanted me to be totally out of his sight!)
I find it rather hilarious although I know I supposed to feel pretty downhearted over all these. But I am very touched to see the efforts Win put in recently to look after our Renzo gets well paid off this way.
Here's a little video of Renzo feeding himself on our recent trip to the airport.
Today marks the 1st week of us putting Renzo into extended childcare. Meaning he wakes up in the morning cranky, gets pacified by nibbling at a slice of bread or playing with his animal blocks, change and set off for the childcare center at about 8am. And from there on, peace and serenity at home until we pick him up again later in the day at about 4pm to 4:30pm or whenever the teachers deem appropriate (e.g crying out loud because it is 'late' and we haven't gone to pick him up). Previously it was only till about 12:00pm when we pick him up... so yeah, that is pretty much the new routine that we are set to have trial running over the next few weeks (months even) to see if Renzo can get used to it.
Anyway, day one was good. According to the teachers, he slept well but when he woke up and didn't see family members around, starting to cry for daddy and mummy. We sent aye aye to pick him up at around 4. Day two was the following Monday, and because it was over the weekends, his routine was pretty much unbroken. So on Monday itself, he instinctively knew that once he slept in the afternoon, he won't wake up to see Daddy or Mummy around him. So he rejected sleep, managing only a mere 30 minutes, resulting in us having to pick him up around 3. But since that Monday, all was well. He seemed to enjoy the routine. Perhaps it was the afternoon shower, perhaps it was the tea-break snacks. But whichever the cause, I love it when he come skipping home to the front door and cheerfully point at me and go "DADDY~". An obvious sign of good mood since the day he learned to walk and talk. There was even that one day when Renzo brought back artworks to us... ^_^
At this rate it goes, probably we will be able to place him in fullday childcare, from 8.30pm to say 5pm (if my parents are able to pick him up) or 7pm (for us to rush from work to his childcare). Poor baby, having to go to childcare for such long hours just because Daddy and Mummy have to work. Gone are the days when single income families can survive the high standard of living in Singapore. My dear Renzo, I certainly hope that this aspect have improved by the time you become a daddy.
As I cuddled our little boy to sleep then laid him onto our bed, I realized just how special this period of time is for me...
It was months ago when feli told me of her business trip to the US in May and we wondered how we would be handling Renzo. True that we still had Ayeaye around the house, but the lack of the presence of feli would ultimately mean that Renzo is going to be more attached to Ayeaye which would lead to more devastation for little Renzo when Ayeaye leaves us to go back to her hometown in Myanmar.
So I conveniently took this opportunity to quit my job to spend more quality time with Renzo, to forge a stronger daddy-baby bonding. Took minimal effort to convince myself that it is a right choice, but i know that deep in everyone else's hearts, despite the smiles and thumbs up, they are worried for me and i thank them for that.
So on the very day that feli took off on that airplane, my adventure as a full time daddy began.
At the time of writing (not time of posting), feli has been gone for about 6 days. And here are just some things that has happened since...
1) Pacifying Renzo when he cries for Mummy Chan~
Right from the start of day one that Mummy Chan was away, Renzo reacted by waking up at 6am in the morning when his usual routine has him waking up at least an hour later. Unfortunately, there was nothing much we can do to change the fact that Mummy can't be by his side until almost 2 weeks later when she is back. So to help ease that feeling of absence, we have Renzo see Mummy on Skype video calls on almost every opportunity that we have. Renzo has this funny habit of not giving full attention to the video calls, preferring to run around the house in his usual fashion, or crying out for my his iPad 2 to play some Montessori games. Then as soon as we end the call because feli has to go to bed, Renzo will look at the laptop and go, "EH?! No more Mummy..." (yes... with the exclamation)...
The other thing that i do when Renzo cries for Mummy is to show him pretty pics (mummy is always pretty) of feli. From wedding photos to candid camera phone snaps... anything that has feli in it will soothe and comfort Renzo for a while, enough for him to calm down, then continue to run around the house again... LOL
2) Bringing Renzo to childcare One of the things that i was never able to do before when i was working. Because Renzo usually reaches the childcare just before 9, and back then, I had to reach office at 8.30am, making it impossible for me to send him to childcare in the mornings. But all that changed and wheee~, such joy to carry the little boy and board/alight the public bus... simple joys... and to see him walk into his classroom and disappear into a crowd of 10-20 other school kids eagerly waiting for their other classmates to come, it almost makes me envious of the jobs those teachers have to interact with these young ones on a daily basis
3) Grocery shopping
Okay... so this ain't really something new, I've been on grocery shopping a lot with feli even before marriage. But to do it in the mornings after sending Renzo to school, things just feels... fresher... or maybe it is because that NTUC that i went to has a smaller shopper population due to its inaccessibility (i go there just because it is within the same building as Renzo's childcare). But either way, to bring fresh groceries home daily and have fresh food/fruits for Renzo makes me feel that much more fatherly...hahaha
4) Nail cutting and nose digging (bodily maintenance...=P)
Renzo's first few nail cutting was done by feli's mum and feli, but since one incident when Renzo's little finger was clipped, they were afraid and the task of nail cutting was handed on to me. So effectively, I have cut Renzo's tiny little nails for a good 80 times maybe? (we cut his nails every Sunday after he sleeps at night). Nose digging however, is something relatively new to me... I mean in my entire life, the only nose i've ever dug is my own, haha... but now, i proudly proclaim Renzo's as the second. It ain't easy for me, first of all, his nostrils are tiny. Secondly, I have larger fingers than Mummy. Thirdly, I do not keep my nails for events like this. So, i have to use 'tools' from cotton buds to ear diggers (which i must add is a rather dangerous equipment but Renzo's nostrils were seriously congested with dried mucus and nose dirt). There is a certain sense of satisfaction when i got out a rather alarmingly big piece of dirt. Ewwwww + wheeeee at the same time.
5) Communicating
Nothing is more comforting for a daddy than to see his child come running up to him requesting for hugs and cuddles. And that is exactly what Renzo does. I do sit in front of the computer quite often, be it to checkout my Facebook or msn or trading, but whatever it is, i'll give it up when Renzo runs into my room from the living room and gigglishly go, "Daddy carry you~" (which in Renzoese means "Daddy carry me"). In the afternoons i'll sometimes bring Renzo out so that Ayeaye can prepare dinner in peace or have devoted attention to cleaning up the house. And it is these times that allows me to play more with Renzo and talk more with him, something which I shamefully say that I should have done more previously.
At night, we would sit in bed together and i'll whip out his favourite iPad 2 and we'll play some songs or games until he is reasonably tired, noticeable because he'll lean onto me and stare blankly into space, upon which i'll cuddle him to sleep and lay him down once he is asleep. And it is today when I laid him into bed that, as I started out in this post, realized that what i'm doing is something that not every working father can do for/with his son... and i must say that i'm proud that at least in the future, i can look at my grandchildren and tell them, "when you father was a little boy, there was this one night when grandpa cuddled him to sleep then laid him onto the bed, and then realized just how special that period of time was for me..."
For the first time in the past 21 months, I have to leave Renzo to Win for a couple of days, indeed 12 days 11 nights to be exact, for my business trip to the States. Luckily Win has just quit his job and will be staying at home till I am back from my trip, at least Renzo is in the good hands of his lovely daddy, my lovely husband..
Monday, May 16, 11:07PM Home Renzo and Win are sleeping in the bedroom and I am sitting in front of the dinning table in the kitchen, finishing up my last minute packing and preparing to set off in another 4 hours. Our little boy knows about my trip, I am pretty sure about it. I've been telling him that mummy will be going for holiday and back in 12 days, since he understands "holiday" from his "HI-FIVE" DVD. The last time I went for business trip and left Win alone for around 10 days, was before we had Renzo, about 3 years ago when I went to Mexico. I am going to miss the two like crazy!
My next update, will be either at Singapore or Hongkong airport, when I have internet access. Or else, it's going to be May 18 around 5am when I reach the hotel at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Tuesday, May 17, 5:13AM Changi Airport Terminal 3 Yes I am at the airport and waiting for boarding around 5:20AM. I am using the free internet access here, woot nice service!! Took a cab here with Win around 4AM, kissed Renzo before I left home while he's sleep soundly. I have to rush to Gate B5 now and I love you Win and baby Renzo!!
Tuesday, May 17, 12:19PM Hongkong International Airport I reached HK at about 9:50AM, did some quick shopping to get a few more souvenirs for my US colleagues, and happily queued up at the boarding gate at 11:00AM. But after a long wait of 30 minutes, we were told that the flight got delayed due to technical issue. What a day!!
I chose United Airline over Singapore Airline so to save some traveling time as there's no direct flight to Chicago from Singapore by SQ. But ended up, I will reach my destination at least 6 hours later than planned. I am sitting at departure hall in HK airport, with no phone service (not sure why the starhub network is not working on both my office and personal phones), and a laptop with only 58% of remaining battery which is not going to last me for too long. Btw let's give our Changi airport and Singapore Airline service TWO THUMBS UP!!!
And no visit to COACH Oshkosh factory outlet for me today, as I will reach around 10pm instead of 4pm local time, so my friends who requested for COACH bags, please do not blame me as I might only have time to shop when I reach Santa Clara next week.
Renzo baby must be having his lunch now, hope he will have a sound sleep during his nap time later.
Tuesday, May 17, 7:20PM Chicago Time (Wednesday, May 18, 8:20AM Singapore Time) Chicago Airport Terminal 2 The moment I heard Renzo's voice, i burst into tears..
After a tiring 14 hours long flight, and almost 1 hour of wait at immigration checkpoint, another 40 minutes to get my luggage checked in for the next flight from Chicago to Appleton, finally, I'm all set. But here I do not have free wifi access, instead I have to pay 6.95 USD for 24 hours, but who cares, I just need to talk to someone since my phones are not working. And I have to thank the person who invented credit card, I managed to ring home with my beloved credit card for a few minutes. That was when I heard the little boy's voice..
Probably the only thing I like about this trip so far, is my "Bailey's Irish Cream on the Rocks" I ordered on the flight here. But to think about my previous trip to US via SQ, I bet I will never want to travel by any other airlines for my future business trips. And we Singaporeans should be really really proud of our Changi airport, it's definitely the world best airport, seriously!!
Heard our poor boy had a fall at the playground, and he cried this morning when Win sent him to school, he even woke up at 6AM these 2 mornings to ask for "mummy hug hug", oh dear, i just miss him so much!!
Tuesday, May 17, 10:40PM (Wednesday, May 18, 11:40AM Singapore Time) La Quinta Inn, Oshkosh, WI Finally, I checked myself into the hotel room, sitting in front of my laptop and talking to Win via skype video call. The flight from Chicago to Appleton was quite pleasant, I slept through for that 50 minutes. And my colleague Chris picked me up at the super small airport and drove me to the Hotel. So that's it, I have to get ready for tomorrow's meeting, but now, I just want to wait for my lovely boy to be back from school, kiss him good night before i go to bed...
Wednesday, May 18, 9:40PM (Thursday, May 19, 10:40AM Singapore Time) La Quinta Inn, Oshkosh, WI I took a cab earlier on and went to purchase 8 purses + 1 scarf from Coach Factory Outlet, and 6 pieces of clothes for little Renzo at Oshkosh B'gosh outlet. I saw Nine west and some other branded stores there but don't have time to visit those. I feel super exhausted now and decided to sleep right away and talk to my little boy in another 10 hours time, right after his shower.. Can't wait to bring him to swimming pool when I am back, as I promised.. and, he still remembers that, he kept going "Mummy bring me to swimming pool!" at home.. such a sweetie =)
Thursday, May 19, 9:00PM (Friday, May 20, 10:00AM Singapore Time) La Quinta Inn, Oshkosh, WI I went to buy a new luggage earlier on as my luggage handle was broken when they sent it from Chicago to Appleton, well I probably will still get a new one even if it's still in one piece, just because I did too much shopping the night before and i can't squeeze everything into the old one anyway. Then I joined the team here for bowling but just for a short while, and now I am back at the hotel patiently waiting for Win and Renzo to get online.
Friday, May 20, 10:00PM (Saturday, May 21, 10:00AM Singapore Time) Avatar Hotel, Santa Clara, CA I took one hour flight from Appleton to Minneapolis and spent another 4 hours to reach San Jose airport, then I grabbed a taxi and it cost me 25 bucks to reach my hotel about 5 miles away from the airport. And from my hotel room, I could see my office building just across the road. I bought this "packers" football at Appleton airport for our little Renzo, he was pretty excited when he saw that through webcam, but his favorite toy for now is still daddy's ipad2. I am going to bed now as my boss is picking me up tomorrow morning for lunch and shopping, it's so great that I am having a break finally during the weekend. Saturday, May 21, 11:30PM (Sunday, May 21, 2:30PM Singapore Time) Avatar Hotel, Santa Clara, CA I went for a whole day of shopping with my boss but I did not manage to get anything for Win and Renzo. But I guess this little boy is only interested in Ipad2 now so I will just pack my loots and go to bed now =)
Wednesday, May 25, 11:30AM (Thursday, May 26, 2:30AM Singapore Time) Yahoo Great America office, Santa Clara, CA Here are my achievements for the past few days: - Went out on Sunday alone, took public transportation back to the Great Mall and shopped for 6 hours non-stop, loads of loots of course - Visited both GA and Sunnyvale HQ offices, my favorite, is the salad bar at cafeteria, I can get very cheap but good quality food there. Both offices are breathtakingly beautiful! - Went to spa with 2 colleagues here, and spent 165USD on a 80 minutes facial. That's the ultimate stopper for me to get another piece of adorable dress at a boutique store, as I've been overspent like crazy during my trip - Went back to the Great Mall for the 3rd time to help some friends to grab COACH stuff, but this time round, my best purchase is a box of LEGO blocks (310 pieces) for Renzo for about 20+ USD
Friday, May 27, 11:30AM (Saturday, May 28, 2:30AM Singapore Time) San Francisco Airport Finally, I am all set to fly back to Singapore. I took my boss' advice and booked a shuttle service to San Francisco airport this morning. It's a wiser choice than my initial "public transportation plan" of taking Light Rail, then Caltrain and then BART train, because my 20kg of luggage is quite a challenge indeed. Besides minor hiccups during check in, everything went smoothly and I spent my last 100 USD in the airport getting souvenirs for my team. While waiting for boarding, a Singapore Airline aircraft just landed at the airport, and I finally realized how much I miss Singapore, HOME SWEET HOME!!
It's been almost 9 months since Renzo started going to Childcare on April 01, 2011. It was a fruitful 9 months for this little boy although we do not know much about his life in school, since he is not able to tell us much about what's going on daily at this moment. But we definitely noticed some changes in him, such as being able to feed himself, wear his clothes and shoes, sing a lot more songs in both Chinese and English and talk in full sentences, etc.
A few weeks ago, we had a "meet parents session" with his Teacher Helen from his Pre-Nursery 1 class. It's about 20 minutes talk and at the end of the session, we were given a CD which contains some highlights of Renzo's school life in powerpoint format. Teacher Helen is a super friendly, caring and sweet lady and we could easily tell how much passion and love she has towards the kids in the center, and we are truly grateful to have her as Renzo's first teacher. She gave lots of positive feedback about Renzo, telling us that our little boy is always willing to follow instructions, never bullies other classmates, has a very pleasant personality, loves singing and dancing, sleeps well and eats well, and never throws tantrums in school at all. She also commented that we parents seem to have taught Renzo a lot at home, as he knows his alphabet and numbers well, could recognize a lot of items like shapes and colors while reading his books, and being one of the most talkative kids who's able to converse in full sentence, in both Chinese and English. Well we have to definitely thank Teacher Helen as being Renzo's Chinese teacher, she had definitely motivated and encouraged Renzo to speak more often in Chinese.
The only "concern" she has to share with us is that, Renzo is still not feeling comfortable with large group of people. And she said it could be due to the fact that Renzo is the only child, and in the past he was not exposed to many strangers while he was cared by our maid alone. 
