Renzo's Flower Artwork

One year after Renzo's ladybug artwork, I was faced with another challenge (starting to think art pieces is gonna be an annual event for me...). Mummy Chan WhatsApp-ed (is that even a verb?) me a picture a piece of paper with nothing but an outline of a flower and a purple ice-cream stick taped to it (which later i learned from Renzo that it was to be the stem of the flower), I was to think of how to decorate it and have Renzo bring it to his school for his teacher as a teacher's day present the next day.

My immediate idea was to make the flower a 3D one, as opposed to a simple color-pencil/crayon/poster color painting. And with 3D looks, there were a few ways to achieve it.

• get clay or plasticine and mold a flower, but judging from Renzo's handicraft, it would most probably be 95% my effort, not to mention that it would stick to the paper
• get colored paper and do a paper origami flower (try googling "Winson Chan Origami" and you'll see what i mean... and NO, i'm not THAT Winson Chan), but again, it'll mostly be effort on my end as Renzo wouldn't be able to manage the complexity of origami
• soak toilet paper in a 2:1 PVC glue to water mixture and after they dry and hardens, paint over with poster color... my preferred choice and it is very mold-able before it dries and i have had much experience doing it in my childhood days but unfortunately, it is time consuming and tedious 
• get colored beads/sand/confetti and just glue them on... which seems to be the best choice for this job

So I went to Daiso and purchased 3 items at $2 each and started work with Renzo straight away after my dinner and we were on a tight deadline... as opposed to the ladybug project from last year...

And for the benefit of those who want to try it out with their kids, I'll list out the materials and steps :)

Materials

• Colored pipe cleaners (the one i got from Daiso is 50 pieces in assorted colors, eventually i used 2 silvers, 2 yellow and 2 greens)
• Starch Glue (Daiso packs them in 3s... picked it over other type because of the strength and also that it is not too liquid as this project requires a large surface area of glue and those runny ones will soak right though the paper
• deco sand (those gardening deco kind... bought a can of blue ones to be used as blue petals)
• scissors to cut the pipe cleaners
• pen... for writing...duh...
• paper with outline of a flower on it

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Step 1

Slap a generous slab of glue in the middle of the flower and spiral yellow pipe cleaners onto it as the pistil of the flower (if i got the anatomy of the flower correct...haha) and cut silver pipe cleaners and outline the petals of the flower.

Tip: Be really generous with the glue, you wouldn't want the pipe cleaners to move about later when you pour the blue deco sand onto the paper

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Step 2

Spiral 2 green pipe cleaners and then squeeze them near the center so the become over-shaped and kinda like leaves of the flower and again with lotsa glue, stick them where the leaves should be

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Step 3

The trickiest bit of the project

Pour the deco sand onto a small container (I just grab a plastic lid which was within reach), so that you can gauge how much of the sand would be poured onto the paper.

Lay a thin layer of glue on where you want the blue petals to be and gently pour the sand onto the glue

After completely covering all the petals, let the glue set for a while... (I gave Renzo a bath... lol) then dust away the remaining sand that were not held on by the glue. Stick an ice-cream stick between the leaves to make a flower stem if you want to.

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Step 4

Write your own greeting message... =)

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And we are done!

Hopefully Renzo's teacher Stella will like Renzo's little gift and HapPy TeAchERs' DaY to all the teacher at Renzo's school... and every other teacher out there!... You people affect eternity, you can never tell when and where your influence stops, so carry on teaching!

Sweet Renzo Kor Kor

Since the day little Rynus joined the Chan family, our attention has to be shared between the two boys. Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, it didn't take too long for Renzo to get re-adjusted, and by now Rynus has turned ONE, I am proud to say Renzo has been coping way better than expected. He loves his Rynus Di Di although he still insists Renzo is Mummy's 宝贝，and Rynus belongs to Daddy.

During day time, Renzo enjoys his school life at the child care center. Rynus has to spend a whole day alone with our helper at home. So after Renzo comes home from school, the brothers could spend a couple of hours playing together, well fighting together also ^_^. Renzo only let Rynus touch toys we specifically mentioned "bought for Di Di". Yes he has this super good memory that he could easily identify toys we bought for Rynus and usually he doesn't even touch them. But then, he will shout and stop Rynus from touching toys belong to Renzo, which makes baby Rynus a little upset sometimes. 

Recently, he finally started to share his toys and maybe he just realized that there's no way to play all his 101 Thomas trains at the same time. Yesterday, I observed that Renzo allowed Rynus to play with some of his legos, and he even reminded his little brother that those pieces are very dangerous for Rynus as he's only one year old and he might accidentally swallow them. If you wonder did Renzo say that to Rynus? Yes those are his exact words, he really talks like an adult now!!

And when it comes to bedtime routine, before we had Rynus, Renzo was getting 100% attention from me. I used to bathe him, read with him, talk to him and sleep together with him. But now, Daddy has to settle everything for Renzo while I feed Rynus and coax him to sleep. Last night, after Daddy turned off the light, hugged/kissed Renzo and said good night, Renzo asked, "What are you doing Mummy? Can you come over here?". I told him that I am carrying Rynus and can only go to him after Rynus is asleep, he said "妈妈，我要你坐在这边，那样我就很开心了!"..

OMG I almost burst into tears when I heard that, little Renzo understands that I can't put Rynus down but all he asked for, was to have me sitting on his bed while carrying Rynus, so that he could fall asleep happily! He's such a sweet darling, isn't he?!!

He requested me to take a photo of him hugging his Rynus!

And look at how he plays with his Rynus Di Di, so loving and caring right?!!

late submission of school work for the first time

Last night, Daddy checked Renzo's comm book in his school bag and we were shocked to dig out a piece of paper with instructions in Chinese from his Teacher Yang, dated Feb 22, requesting students to draw and color their favorite fruit on a paper plate, and bring to school, on Feb 25!!!

My brain was buzzing at the moment I read the deadline and I didn't even know how to react to it. For the very first time, WE made our boy miss his deadline for submitting school work!!!

Usually I am the one checking his school bag daily and make sure all information provided by his school teachers / principal on his comm book are properly read, acknowledged, and executed. So no excuse here, I didn't check his comm book during the weekend and we just MISSED it!!

I pulled Renzo aside and asked him.

"Did Zandon bring a paper plate to school today??"
"Yes Mummy!", said Renzo..
"Did Lakisha bring a paper plate to school today??"
"Yes Mummy!", he answered happily again.
"So did Renzo bring a paper plate to school today??"
"No, Renzo forget to bring the paper plate..." the big frown on his face made me feel extremely miserable and I hugged him and said, "No Renzo, it's mummy who forgot about the paper plate, I am really sorry!"..

Then I asked him if his Teacher Yang said anything about it, he couldn't answer besides telling me Teacher Yang speaks Chinese (well maybe that's the reason he couldn't express probably although I am sure he understands Chinese well enough). Anyway so I told him let's make sure we get it done in the next 20 minutes and bring it to school the next morning. He replied "Mummy, if I forget the paper plate again tomorrow, I will be very sad!!" =(

I read the Chinese instructions to him word by word, and he repeated that in English so I was certain that he fully understood what he supposed to do. For the next half an hour, he diligently followed Daddy's instruction to draw his favorite fruit - GRAPE on a piece of paper, he insisted to draw more than 9 grapes, and Daddy has to draw everything in dotted line for him to trace as he wasn't confident enough to do it on his own after a few tries, and it was too late at night so we just have to get it settled in a quicker way.

After Renzo finished drawing and coloring his grapes, guess what? He decided to write his name!! He did it all on his own without any help in spelling or writing.

While Daddy was cutting and pasting the GRAPES and his NAME onto the paper plate, Renzo grabbed a green pencil (his favorite color) and wrote this on another piece of paper. It took me a while to figure out what he wrote there: "GRAPS FRETS", and he said he wrote "GRAPES FRUITS".. Well done my little boy although the spelling is not 100% right but it's good effort from you!!!!

It's pretty obvious that he writes better than he draws! And of course, for Daddy and I, we promised to check his comm book daily till he is able to read it on his own independently!

the reason why mummy thinks Renzo is a very "funny boy"

There's this thing we have noticed about Renzo long time ago, when he was about less than 15 months old. He's quite obsessed with certain things in particular. For example, if he picks up a toy on the table, after playing, when you put the toy back on the chair, he will insist to put it back on the table again. When we return home everyday from work, he opens the door for us and insists mummy must be the first one to step into the house, instead of daddy. If he decides that you have to sleep on his right side, you just can't go to his left side. He even has his own fashion sense that basically he has to match the colors of his top and bottom, every time, even for his pajamas. And recently I noticed that he's getting even more serious about it by telling us "No, you are a wrong way! (pardon his grammar though)".

When he met his cousin Cherry before his piano, Cherry said to him, "Renzo, it's time for your piano!", he responded with a big frown: "No!! You are a wrong way!! It's time for my piano..CLASS!!".

Hearing such a logical conversation from a little boy with a baby looking face, just makes me feel that our Renzo is so funny!

Sometimes, well in fact at all times, I've been seriously wondering what kind of things are being processed in his little brain.

When I was following my DVD workout at home, he dug out another piece of DVD from the same series and told me, "Mummy, I hold this for you, later, you must jog this and dance nicely okie?!"..

When I asked him who bullied him in school, he gave me an upset face and said: "Jiale, he PUuuuu (playing saliva) on Renzo! and, Renzo PUuuuu back at Jiale!". Of course I told him that's not the right thing to do and he should inform teacher instead..

When I asked if I can bring him to cut his hair this weekend, he said: "No mummy, if cut the hair too short, it's not nice!". I questioned him, "who told you that Renzo?" since I know daddy mentioned a few times that he looks good in longer hair, he said: "ME! Renzo!!".. Then I told him we will just trim his hair a little shorter because if he keeps his hair long, he will look like a girl! Guess what happened? The next morning, he woke up 1 hour earlier than usual and insisted to go and cut his hair!

He asked me what is 蜡烛 in English, I told him that's candle. So he asked, "What is BIG BIG CANDLE in Chinese?", I told him that he should know it. And he responded with a cheeky smile, "Is that 大大的，什么呀?", that reminds me about how exactly I used to replace the Chinese words I don't know how to read with the common word "什么什么", but that's when I was in primary school, and he's only a 3.5 years old toddler!!

Renzo has been bringing tons of laughter to us and especially after I came back from my business trip about 2 weeks ago, he has started to communicate with us with logical reasoning, and his usual sense of humor, that made him so much easier to handle nowadays!

Overseas trip without Renzo? Not possible anymore..

The previous time Daddy and Mummy Chan went for an overseas trip alone, was in September 2012. It was an extremely short trip, 2D1N getaway in Bintan Lagoon Resort. We only went for an hour massage at a spa a few kilometers away from our hotel, and the rest of the time, we stayed in the hotel room or at the resort beach to pass time, although we didn't have too much time to "pass"..

Renzo's grandma voluntarily took care of Renzo for one Saturday night, and a whole Sunday till we returned home at about 6pm. Overall he was doing pretty well, but we couldn't afford to extend the trip any longer as my mother-in-law has to work during weekdays and we could not imagine if Renzo is able to cope well for even just one more day.

It's till my very recent trip to the States, I started to realize how difficult it is to go overseas without Renzo. Well I understand it's indeed a good opportunity to let him learn to be independent, but he's really at the age that he understands what's going on and is able to express his feelings (especially when he's upset). It's not fair to just make our own planning/decisions without factoring in his needs and preference. So the moment I returned from my business trip, I made the call to book a ticket for him, to fly to Bali together with us in April. One of our best friends is holding his wedding ceremony in Bali and we booked our tickets in last December with the initial plan to leave Renzo to his grandparents, since we know that it's impossible to get "drink, drank, drunk" with all our besties with this little boy around in a foreign land. But now,  I just have to admit that it's so heartbreaking to leave him behind the moment I think about how he behaved while I was away. So even though his one ticket costs the same as the tickets for us two, I rather just bring him along and let him enjoy some fun bonding time with us. 

So here we go, to Bali in April, TOGETHER!!

Renzo misses mummy, mummy misses them all

This is my 2nd business trip after having Renzo and again, I had to take a 18 hours flight from Singapore to San Francisco, including one hour layover in Korea, and stay 8000 miles away from my 3 darlings for one week, that's a torture, really..


For the past few days, I didn't have the courage to do a video call with Renzo, because my little sweetheart is extremely sensitive, emotional but, with a very logical brain. So I am worried that he will get super excited to see my face, on screen, but the moment he realizes I am not able to get back till a few more days later, and his logical mind kicks in, daddy will have to clear a whole lot of mess after the call then.

Of course I know how much Renzo misses me and I feel the connection between us is even stronger although we are far away, but I was still a little surprised when Daddy told me about their conversation, as I just couldn't imagine how much information is being processed through his little brain around the fact that "Mummy is away on business trip".

Monday night, before Renzo went to bed, Daddy kissed him and said "Daddy and Mummy love you Renzo!"
Renzo: "No Daddy, don't say Mummy, because Mummy is working!"
So Daddy had to tell him "Daddy loves you" instead, he then happily nodded his head and slept.

Wednesday morning, Renzo woke up early at 6:30am and asked Daddy: "Daddy, is Mummy coming home? I think, Mummy is coming home, cos I cannot see the sun!!"

Gosh why is my little boy this sweet to me?!! That makes me missing him, and in fact missing all 3 of them even more!!

Renzo's week with Mummy aboard

I admit that I have been more of a laid back Dad when it comes to administering Renzo's daily routine since forever. Apart from his daily showers and sleep time, I probably know less than Mummy or Renzo's auntie Jona. You would probably find me in front of the PC or on the bed most of the time, with the exception of Renzo's after-shower activities such as reading or maths time or even colouring/tracing.

But when Mummy Chan goes overseas, I see myself stepping into the role of full-attention parenting quite comfortably (much to my own surprise). My first encounter of such a situation was a little less than 2 years back in May 2011, when Mummy Chan was away for a business trip. Back then, Renzo was still little and didn't have much of a concept of what a "business trip" was, so we simple told him that Mummy went on holiday (he knows that from his Hi-5 DVD) and he seemed to take it pretty well... and to think that it was a 12 day trip. Kudos to the little one... haha

This time round, Mummy is away to USA again. Having spent the last week explaining to him what was going to happen, Renzo apparently was reluctant to be separated from his dearest Mummy and in fact replied, "Mummy, I want to go US too. Mummy you wait for Renzo to wear shoes, I also want to go (A)merica~"... The thought of him having that impression not just melts the heart, but kinda leaves that sour feeling when you know the kid wants so much to be with Mummy yet we know he can't be. Alas, such is life, not everything turns out the way you want it to be. Thankfully Rynus hasn't come of age to even know what is going on...

On the morning that Mummy was US-bound, we sneaked out of the house early in the morning while Renzo was still in bed to avoid having to deal with a cranky 3-year-old who would refuse to let Mummy leave without bringing him too. We made it to the airport smoothly thanks to the empty 7a.m roads and had a simple breakfast there. With a kiss, Mummy went through the gates and I set off on my way back home to take on the role as Dummy (my quite appropriately self-coin term for a Daddy+Mummy hybrid... without the motherly instinct).


Just when I was at the front door... I heard the unmistakable "Noooo... Noooooo... NOOOO"...wailing of Renzo... I knew he was awake and knew that Mummy had left him behind in Singapore and pacifying him wouldn't be easy. It was an pretty one-sided conversation from the start, with every action/word of mind drawing a tantrum kicking response. So I decided to let him wail till he got tired, only then did I crawl slowly into the bed and, with an iPad in hand, so him this very blog of himself. I trolled through the blog to find the entry describing Mummy's previous trip and what had happened and praised him for being a good boy back then and that we are sure he would be this time round. The pictures of Mummy and her voice from the videos finally brought a smile to Renzo. He then calmed down and took a moment to go through a few other videos before going back to his usual Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies.

He skipped breakfast totally and refused food till I told him I'd bring him to eat some Andersen's Ice Cream, only then was he ready to end his iPad regime and head out with me. Knowing that he was tired from the morning's tantrums, I brought him to Suntec City by bus and sure enough, Renzo slept through almost the entire journey and woke up just a couple of bus-stops before our destination.

The renovation works forced us to take a detour around the building and we entered via a side entrance and just down the escalator was a Burger King. Followers of Renzo's would know that Renzo ain't a stranger to fast food joints and was more than happy to settle for a mini-sundae at BK as opposed to walking to Marina Square for Andersen's. Travelled halfway across Singapore just to have lunch at a fast food joint. Well, at least I haven't had a BK burger in months. =/

After touring around Suntec City and Marina Square (where Renzo thoughtfully (albeit a little randomly too) picked out a pink headset for Mummy, insisting that it would look good on Mummy) we headed home by MRT as Renzo requested and we reached home a happy boy. So satisfied in fact, that the rest of the evening was easy for us too. He showered early, had his dinner without fussing, completed a couple of Maths questions (ooo... he is into the hundreds+hundreds now...) and went to bed himself.

As I write this post, Renzo and Rynus are happily tucked in their beds beside my computer table and I can hear both of them snoring away in sweet rhythmic melody (at least to my ears)... Now I just need to repeat and maintain these incredible feats of awesomeness until 4th Feb and I'll be able to handover the superhero cape back to Mummy...

Effectiveness of Renzo's "thinking corner"

Disciplining Renzo is not a tough job anymore, ever since we introduced "thinking corner", the staircase next to my in law's unit for Renzo to reflect on his misbehavior. Renzo has been sent to the "thinking corner" once in a while, when he refuses to admit his mistakes after our reasonable attempts to correct him.

When he throws tantrums for no reason or have unreasonable requests, most of the time we just need to mention the word "thinking corner", he knows what to do immediately and only on rare occasions when he's really out of control, we have to send him there and I do believe it works better than yelling and hitting.

I didn't realize the effectiveness of "thinking corner" until last Sunday, when Renzo talked to me about buying angry bird toy on our way to Toy R Us.

Renzo:
"Mummy, number ONE thing, mummy must get a blue angry bird;
number TWO thing, Renzo must get a black angry bird;
number THREE thing, Daddy must get a red angry bird!!"

I wasn't paying attention to what he said till he asked me: "Mummy, what's the number ONE thing huh?"
I gave him a blunt look, and he continued:
"You FORGET huh??!!!, Let me REPEAT!!"
He went on to repeat his number ONE to number THREE thing again and I had to control really hard not to burst out laughing.

I then repeated what he said and he was extremely excited this time, "Mummy, you are so good! Tick!! I give you a star!!" He's talking like a teacher, again.

I am very sure that he has learned the way how Daddy disciplines him at the thinking corner. Daddy usually talks to him like: "Renzo, there are 3 things you need to remember, first thing...  second thing....and third thing..."

It seems that there are definitely certain things instilled into his mind at the "thinking corner" =) As a reward, he got his BLACK angry bird soft toy, just as he wished!!

Round the world with Renzo?

A few days ago, Renzo shared with me that his classmate Kaleen went to Disneyland in Japan, well that's how interesting topics among toddlers get nowadays in school. It's not just about Hello Kitty or Mickey Mouse anymore, they do share their travel experience and you will be surprised to find out, almost every one of them go for overseas holiday with their parents very frequently. I always believe overseas travel is an eye opener that allows children to experience different ways of life. And the great thing is they won't even realize just how much their little brains are soaking up, all without a book or classroom in sight!

Renzo went to Australia with us in 2008, when he was barely a 3 months old fetus inside my tummy. And at the time we brought him along to Phuket for his 1st year birthday celebration, he couldn't even walk on his own. Last August, he enjoyed a 2 weeks holiday with us in China, it was definitely a tough trip for us as he was trying to cope with a new life without his auntie AyeAye. He gave us all kinds of unreasonable requests from eating up a big icecream cone on his own (that's when he had his first taste of icecream), to opening windows in the plane (yes he meant literally opening the flight window, not just lifting up the blind). For the past one year, we have not been traveling around due to the arrival of our Baby Rynus, but we have been trying our best to arrange for Staycations at local hotel. And it seems that Renzo loves hotel stay even though it's not an overseas travel.

How do we know that?
He remembers which floor we were staying at during our last staycation, and when he commented that my office is NICE, he added, "But, my hotel is NICER, Ritz Carlton Hotel Mummy!!"

Daddy Chan and I decided immediately to keep our Marriott Vacation Club membership, which allows us to stay at more than 2000 hotels under Marriott worldwide (including Renzo's favorite Ritz Carlton of course), after hearing this comment from Renzo. Although we were pondering about selling it off initially since we do not have much time to travel with small kids.

So up next, where should we bring little Renzo to, for a better family bonding experience??

- The States? Most likely I am going there again for business trip next year so the family could tag along, but the 20 hours travel time is still my biggest concern..
- Bali? Our best friend is holding his wedding dinner there next April, but how to "drink, drank & drunk" with little Renzo around??
- Abu Dhabi? Renzo knows that daddy's brother and sister-in-law are there, we could have visited them together with my in laws earlier this year, if I wasn't pregnant with Rynus..
- Phuket, again? The villa under Marriott property is a great place for relaxation, I won't be surprised if Renzo could still remember that place..
- Australia? I have 3 cousins there so for sure we could get some "babysitting service" while enjoying our couple time, but wait, aren't we talking about family trip here? LOL...
- Taiwan? A place Daddy Chan and I both love a lot and maybe Renzo will appreciate the food there??
- HongKong? Well every time we plan to go to HongKong, I get pregnant.. so.. OUT!!


I realized that when mapping out an overseas trip with young kids, nearby countries are always favorable due to convenient location and comfortable weather.

And maybe, I should plan a trip to Universal Studios with a night stay at one of the RWS hotels, since not just Renzo, even Daddy and Mummy have not visited USS so far, LOL...

Renzo's trip to the animal farm

Renzo has been hinting me that he wanted to go to the Zoo in recent days with liners like "Daddy, you have to drive the car and bring Renzo to the Zoo. Then Renzo can see the Zebras", while bringing his little chubby hands up to his eyes to make an pair of imaginary binoculars. But despite having a helper to look after Rynus, generally Mummy Chan and myself still prefer not to be out of the house to too long a period of time and even if we do, we are usually pretty near home (able to reach home within 30 minutes).

So as an alternative to satisfy Renzo's craving to see animals, we decided to bring him to the Pasir Ris Kid's Kampong at Pasir Ris Farmway. Not only was it soooo much closer to home, but it is a hell lot cheaper too... (but of course, ducks and fishes compared to tigers and pandas... Zoo wins hands-down).

It was to Pasir Ris White Sands first for a hearty brunch at Pepper Lunch. It being one of the few times that we actually dined at Pepper Lunch, I didn't even know what was on the menu. Spent quite some time there deciding what to eat and ended up with the first item on the menu, something which I usually do when visiting an eatery for the first time.. (on the assumption that the first item is usually a dish that the establishment is most proud of...lol)

After the meal, we headed to the Bus Interchange to catch Bus 88 which would bring us to within 10 minutes walking distance from the animal farm. The journey after getting off the bus wasn't the most pleasurable. The roads, though wide and empty, were strewn with dead snakes that were run over by passing vehicles... we were even 'lucky' enough to come across one that was 'freshly crushed'... the poor reptile in a struggling slither, trying to maneuver in its pathetic state... disheartening sight.

A couple of turns left and right later, rain starting pouring... and all we were armed with was a little foldable brolly in Mummy Chan's bag that would have to shelter us all the way to the farm. Thankfully we made it there in a relatively dry state and when we did, the pouring rain subsided to a drizzle.

We inspected the place a little and spoke to the usher whom advised us that because of the rain, the visit might not be as fun as it would be during sunny afternoons but we could still buy the packets of feeds and let Renzo have some fun feeding the little animals. And so we did. For a mere $3, 2 adults and 1 child gained admission and given 3 neatly packed animal feeds (1 for chicken/ducks, 1 for fish/tortoises and 1 for bunnies/rabbits)

First stop was the over-populated koi pond with hundred of always-hungry fish. Feeding them was pretty fun and it was interesting to see the fish rushing up to the edge of the pond, all eagerly anticipating Renzo's handful of fish feeds to hit the water and they'll rush at them in a frenzied state.

Then there were the ducks (or were they geese?...seems too huge to be ducks) enclosure. Honestly I have no idea how to feed these guys on a rainy day. Their feeding bowl was flooded with muddy water and there was no way I'd let them eat off Renzo's hand, anyway, Renzo was too short to reach over the fence. So in the end, Renzo just throw the corn feed all over the muddy floors and also into the flood bowl, but they (ducks/geese) seem happy enough to gobble the food up anyway... =/

Next came the rabbits and bunnies, which I found more fun as them being mammals, they seems to really have a high level of intelligence and generally look warmer and more huggable than fish and fowls..lol... Many of them perched up against the wire mesh cage, seemingly really crying out for food. But judging from their large sizes, I'd say either there were plenty of visitors or the owners really do feed them well. Renzo gently rolled the food pellets into the funnel and watched as the pellets rolled down into the food bowl in the cages... and into the mouths of the little critters.

Lastly the chicken coop (which we failed to notice on our first round around the feeding area). And housed in it were aggressive roosters and hens. If I understood their language, I'm sure I would have been hearing curses and swears for Renzo not giving them more corn.

So after the last bit of corn was dropped onto the floor of the chicken coop, we headed to the lobby and tried to book a cab. But turns out that the rain stopped before we could even confirm a booking. With that, we made our way out and back onto the main roads on foot, with Renzo mischievously jumping into every puddle that he came across. At the bus stop, we realised that there was a direct bus that would bring us directly back home and the first thing that Renzo did upon boarding the bus was to nestle into mummy's cradle and sleep throughout the journey home...

Renzo loves Maths!

A few weeks back, Daddy Chan and I decided to introduce a little more Maths concepts to Renzo. Frequent followers of Renzo's blog definitely know how much Renzo loves alphabets, but in fact, his interest in numbers is just as strong, or even stronger.

Renzo could recognize numbers and count from 1 to 10 when he was 1 year 4 months old. By now, he can count to 100, and understands the concept of hundreds and thousands. He loves to count 2 by 2 to 20, 5 by 5 to 50, and 10 by 10 to 100 in a speed that even I have a little difficulty following. And he has been doing simple addition by counting his fingers for a few months, and randomly, he will ask us 2-5 times a day the similar kind of question, "Mummy and Daddy, THREE plus FOUR equals, what number??"

So, we decided it's time to go a little deeper and teach Renzo how to do addition without counting his fingers. I have to say there's probably no hard-and-fast rule to teach besides practicing repeatedly. So I've bought a Maths sticker book, which Daddy Chan uses to teach Renzo his basic addition. Although Renzo loves the book and asks for it almost everyday, knowing how short children's attention span is, Daddy's home maths tuition wasn't that successful from beginning and all of us just resorted to a much slower pace until the recent two days, magically, we caught Renzo doing his own addition and here are some examples of what he told us:

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4
3 + 3 + 3 = 9
1 + 2 + 0 = 3
5 + 5 = 10
6 + 4 = 10
7 + 3 = 10
8 + 2 = 10
9 + 1 = 10
34 + 0 = 34

I am impressed that he doesn't need to rely much on finger counting, instead, he knows the answers by heart. And if you notice, there are some patterns here and he has somehow grasped the concept of "which 2 numbers add up to 10" and "any number plus zero equals the number", which are the emphasis of Daddy Chan's "home tuition" weeks ago, so our efforts didn't go down the drain, although he's still far from solving maths problems on his own, Renzo is definitely picking up slowly, but steadily!!

Renzo Kor Kor, please love your Rynus Di Di as much as we do

From the very first moment Renzo looked at Rynus in awe, through the baby bassinet in my ward at Thomson Medical Center, it's been exactly 5 months!!

It was pretty tough for Renzo to understand the fact that he has to "share" his daddy and mummy, and all attention on him with his little brother, but it didn't take too long for him to accept the new addition to our family with huge curiosity and enthusiasm.

Being the 2nd child in the family, I have to say honestly speaking, Rynus is already at disadvantage since birth, because no matter how hard we try, there's no way for Rynus to get our full attention like what Renzo was receiving from us in the past 3 years. So as a mummy of the 2 lovely boys, I could only wish that Renzo will love Rynus and dote on him as much as we do.

Renzo said Rynus di di is handsome and cute, BUT.. "second" cute only, because, Renzo kor kor is "first" cute!! But just a few days later, he decided to become the "second' cute in the house and wanted to grow shorter and smaller like a baby, so he could be like Rynus baby and have his mummy back..

Renzo also said Rynus di di's daddy is Renzo's daddy, BUT.. Rynus di di's mummy is - nainai (his grandma), because, mummy (me) is Renzo's mummy!! He even had to highlight to Rynus, "No, don't beat MY mummy, cannot do that huh.." while Rynus accidentally hit my arm with his little hand. But look at the bright side, at least he didn't say Rynus di di's mummy is auntie Jonalyn, LOL..

Siblings are siblings after all. Renzo will kiss and hug Rynus occasionally for no reason, and voluntarily takes care of him when he cries or whines. But it's still a long way to go to build a much stronger bonding between the boys, for that, we have to work harder together for sure!

Because... I LIKE MUMMY!!

Renzo is getting more and more expressive after he turned 3, and nowadays he could explain things clearly to us even with reasoning, of course not all the time.

So conversation with this little chatterbox can get really funny!

Example 1:
Renzo: "I don't want to go to school!"
Mummy: "Why Renzo?"
Renzo: "Because... I like mummy!"
-_-!
Renzo: "I want to play my toys at home with mummy!"

Example 2:
Renzo: "I don't want to shower!"
Daddy: "Why Renzo?"
Renzo: "Because... I like mummy!"
-_-!
Renzo: "I want Mummy to shower for Renzo!"

Example 3:
Renzo: "I am so scared of the thunder!"
Mummy: "You don't have to feel scared Renzo!"
Renzo: "But, I never scare of thunder already!"
Mummy: "Huh, why suddenly you are not scared then?"
Renzo: "Because... I like mummy!"
-_-!
Renzo: "Mummy will hug hug Renzo, and I will not cry, and I never scare of thunder already!"

Example 4:
Renzo: "I am so worried about you Daddy!"
Daddy: "Why Renzo?"
Renzo: "Because... I like mummy!"
-_-!
Renzo: "I like to talk with mummy, and, Rynus didi likes daddy, but, Rynus didi cannot speak with daddy! I am so worried about you Daddy!"

It seems that as long as he could not provide a valid reason or not sure about the answer to the question, he will tell the whole world that the simple reason is because, he likes his mummy!

Yes mummy's little sweetheart, I LIKE YOU TOO!!!

The Terrible Two that does not end at Terrific Three..

Daddy Chan has blogged about Renzo's "Terrible Twos" and I have mentioned before that maybe it's going to come to an end soon..

The fact is, I was all wrong!!

But with a year of experience observing and interacting with this "terrible" little boy, we somehow figured out his way of doing and interpreting things. Although we could not agree with him on most occasions, we jolly well understand how to get things done in a twisted way (not 100% his way but not 100% our way either), without making Renzo too cranky.

Of course we have to give Renzo some credits, after turning "Terrific Three", he is showing signs of improvement. He does not throw tantrums without any reason, yes he still throws tantrums for sure but but but, there's always a reason, be it valid or invalid. And look at the bright side, he's able to express himself well enough for us to understand what he really wants, so we could address his needs more effectively, and rapidly...

If I have not mentioned anything about how fussy Renzo is when comes to food, yes just like most other kids, he's gone through a long period of "no vegetables" diet, I meant REALLY LONG period, which lasted for almost a whole year. He started off with eating vegetables only in school but not at home, after we enrolled him into full day childcare for a few months last year. Slowly, things got worse and he was even rejecting vegetables in school and became very picky during meal time. Only during these recent weeks, he started to have much better appetite and eat almost everything we offer to him, including all types of vegetables. This must be the greatest improvement I've seen so far. I have no magic solution to his eating problem during the past one year although we've tried almost every method you could think of. All we did was just to wait... wait for Renzo to outgrow this stage on his own.


Luckily Renzo is a big fan of fruits, all kinds of fruits (besides mango, which causes rashes on his skin), he even loves durians!!  And many people questioned how can he be so chubby if he does not eat??!! Well he basically survived on fruits!! If you've seen how he gobbled down 2 big pears, 2 medium apples, 1 banana and a few pieces of papaya in a stretch of 3-4 hours, you will understand what I meant.

Anyway, there are still a hundred and one "Renzo problems" awaiting for us to tackle, we understand that his "Terrible TWO" is not going to end at "Terrific THREE" but we are willing to welcome his "Fabulous Four" to come in less than a year's time!!