Happy New Year! and Matthew's first day at School

It's been a very busy start to the new year. So much so that I've not had time to blog! If we havent been in touch with you over the holidays here's a quick recap.

Christmas was spent in Hong Kong with our good friends Paul and Dina and their 2 kids Charlie and Lizzie and their 3 four legged kids Bruce, Toby and Lucy. They live in a very serene and beautiful part of Hong Kong called Sai Kung. The landscape is very hilly and green with lots of hiking trails surrounded by the sea and reminds me of the New South Wales Central Coast except greener.  It's a 45 min to an hour trip into town by public transport. We really had a wonderful time with lots of good company, good food and wine. We even managed to catch up with a few of our cousins during our visit and squeeze in a brief shopping trip in the city. Though I must say the trip wasn't entirely without some misadventures, but mostly there were lots of fun and excitement. Matthew caught a really bad cough while we were there which in turn made Duncan and I sick. The New Year came and went without much fanfare for us as we declined all social invitations over the last week to recover at home. Because of illness, Matthew missed his entire first week at school. I'm glad to say that the worse seems to be now over and we are all back on the road to recovery - YIPPEE.

Matthew had his first day at school yesterday, and admittedly I was anxious about leaving him in the care of his teachers. When we arrived at the school we were greeted by a staff member who did a check of Matthew's temperature and a once over of his hands and feet. (Foot and mouth disease is just as big problem here in Singapore as it is in Australia) We where then shown Matthew's classroom and cubbyhole where he could leave his schoolbag. His teacher, Ms Jesslyn then did a run through with me about what would happen over the course of the morning. After that Duncan and I said our goodbyes to Matthew as he was ushered through the gates of his room to be with the 6 other children there (about half of them were crying). It was only as I was waving to him through the gate and saying my final goodbyes that it dawned on him that we were leaving him there...

The plan had been to drop our little guy off at 830am and pick him up early at 11am (we are only sending him for a half day) to ease him gently into his new routine without Mum. When I returned to pick him up, Gwen the principal informed me that though he cried at the beginning, he still participated in all the class activities and was playing very well at the moment and suggested that he's stayed till after he'd had his lunch with the other children.

Matthew never fails to surprise and remind us how resilient and independent he can be. The report back from his teachers yesterday was that he did really well. This morning when we dropped him off, he walked right into the music class to join his teacher and other children without a backward glance at Mum or Dad :(

January and upcoming travel and visitors....
I might as well add that it's going to be a busy few months ahead for travel, Duncan is extremely busy at the moment as his counterparts from all over the globe has descended upon Singapore to keep him occupied for a while. Once that's over, I'm sure something else will crop up as it always does. In early February, Duncan will be flying to Sydney to attend our good friends, Josh & Bec's wedding as Best Man. I'm still undecided as to whether I'll make the journey home with Matthew to visit for a week, especially now that Matthew is enrolled at school. Sometime in March and possibly into April, we are planning a family trip away,  most likely to Europe.  We are also expecting visitors from Perth and my parents to visit us again during April which will be very fun. We are planning a trip away to Phuket in early May and possibly a trip to Hong Kong again or Tokyo for Matthew's 2nd birthday on the 28th. That's what's on the cards for now. Will update with firmer plans as the dates approach...

Matthew 101220 Water Play

Toys Toys and more Toys

it's nearly Christmas and I've been looking for the perfect present for Matthew and we've decided to get him a balance bike based on the reviews from other parents and watching the kids play around the park. At 18 going on 19 months, he's the perfect age for it. Watch this video. There are so many different brands and variations it's very hard for a parent to choose which one. Hopefully we can decide which one before Christmas!

I thought this morning that it would be good to document/remember what kind of toys Matthew's 'into' at this age..

Blocks (Megabloks & Duplo) - loves these, plays with them daily for the last few months. Stacks them then knocks them over or pulls them apart and starts all over again. He gets lots of enjoyment from these.

Shape sorters - we have a few different ones (Tolo, Fischer Price and ELC) He plays with all of them, especially the Tolo one (great eBay bargain for $3!) and works the shapes in and out and opens the case to get the shapes out with any problems. Also plays with this daily.

Stringing Beads (see pic on left) - he loves these, even though the packaging says suited for children 36+ months, perhaps they could be choking hazard, but Matthew does not swallow anything he can't eat. We were introduced to these when we were at a friend's place for the playdate. They have a 3 children all of varying ages so it was great experience for Matthew to try out different toys before buying! (Sadly this family is moving away to Melbourne)

Wind up toys - Cheap and small but highly entertaining for Matthew. We have all sorts of these pint sized toys - cars, walking shoes, chattering teeth, a Mexican riding a horse etc. They are great to just throw in my handbag before heading out for a meal as after about 20 mins or so of waiting for food or for us to finish our meals Matthew can get very fidgety.

Cars/Plastic Animals - he's building a small collection. He got his first set of cars his 1st birthday and animals during his first visit to the zoo.  Plays with these often too and amazingly looks after them well. Keeps them on display, lined up on his toy shelf.

Books - lots and lots of books. We have lots, close to a hundred children's books and counting. Some, which were given as gifts I've put away because he's too young for them. We've been 'reading' books together every day since he was born and he never tires of looking through them. He'll often sit on his own and flip through the pages. Our favourite or rather my favourite is this one (see right pic) called 'Kisses' by Barney Saltzberg. The best ones for small children are the hard board books with plenty of textures, colours and things to do (pull, touch, press, squeak etc). In Sydney, there is a great children's bookstore in Beecroft which organizes readings by the book's author. I havent been able to find anything like that in Singapore, even at the libraries. The consolation though is that books are much cheaper in Singapore, sometime up to 50% less than Aus!

There are lots of other toys that he likes to play with semi-regularly, like kicking one of his many (many) soccer balls or giving his drum kit a bash. But the best activity for an active toddler like Matthew is plenty of active play, singing & dancing, playing at playground with other kids and swimming. Makes them sleep really well ;)

Matthew vs The Pea

He loves peas, always has, since the day he was introduced to them. We always have bags of peas in the freezer as it's a guaranteed winner at meal times. Tonight's dinner which comprised of creamy ham, cheese, pasta and of course peas went down a treat. But instead of just eating his peas, he decided that it would be fun to shove a pea up his nose, not once but twice.

The first pea was rescued from Matthew's nose by a little massaging to encourage it to come out. The second pea up the nose quickly followed the first, as the stern talking to I gave him didn't do a thing to deter him from doing it again. This time, Matty did a really good job of making sure it was tucked all the way up his little nostril. Massaging it out again didn't help as I couldn't feel the pea and it was shoved so far inside that I couldn't even see it when tipped the little guy upside down to get a better look. By this stage Matty's starting to get a little agitated and grabbing at his nose as i'd imagine it would be pretty uncomfortable.

Read on carefully as it might come in handy one day... The trick to getting a pea out of a toddler's nose is this. Cover the unblocked nostril with your finger and blow in the toddler's mouth. It works!!! A quick puff is all you need. The snot cover pea obligingly popped out in the first attempt to which Matthew politely responded with 'ta!'

... Thank goodness for Google.

remember your 'ease' and 'ta'

I'm trying to teach Matthew some manners. He's pretty good at it but needs to be prompted most of the time to say his Ps and Qs. He's especially cute when saying 'ease', I find it really hard to say no when he asks for more hot chips and says 'merh ease, ...ease, ...eeease!' (more please, please, please!)

Matthew had his swimming assessment this afternoon so that the swim school can work out which class to place him next term. I must say both Dunc (who rushed out of work early to come along) and I are very proud of our little boy. Matthew did really well in the water and will skip past the entry level class and enter the 'Duckling Level 2' classes next year, joining other kids that are older than him.  He had such a fantastic time, giggling and smiling his way through the 30 min session. The only time we saw his smile disappear was when he was busy holding his breath (or drinking the pool water) underwater. We were so pleased to see how confident Matthew's become in the water, he thinks he can swim already!

We knew he would love the class as really enjoys spending hours in the pool and can swim quite comfortably on his own with his floaties (inflatable arm bands). Now it's a matter of ditching the floaties and learning to swim without them. Besides swimming, Matthew likes a bit of a drink...

I also heard from his school last week, they'd sent me an email to let me know that Matthew will be enrolled into the 'Harmony Bear' class (how cute!) and the names if his teachers, he'll have 2, one to converse with him in English and another in Mandarin. The school also requested that I staggered the days which I brought Matthew to school in the first week so that they didn't have too many crying children at once :( ... First day of pre-nursery is less than a month away.

Just touching quickly again on the changes we've seen in Matthew lately. He's been putting himself to sleep every night for the past 2 weeks, no crying or whinging. He chatters for about 20 mins in his cot and drifts off to sleep.... I really really like this new change! Also, as though right on cue, both his lower cuspids are breaking through his gums.

This was supposed to be a short update, but turned out to be a fairly lengthy one... till next time.

Matthew's 18 months old!

we reached this mini-milestone on Sunday... This also means that we've been in Singapore nearly 6 months already, where has the time gone?

So.. what's been happening you ask? Well, life resumes as per normal after our very relaxing 2 week break in Sydney and the Hunter Valley. We enjoyed ourselves a great deal catching up with friends and family while we were there. Matthew especially loved chasing 'Whoa Whoa' (our golden lab) around daily and receiving early Christmas presents from Nanna and Pop. Not so relaxing was for us was Matthew's disturbed sleep during the 2 weeks, we probably only had 2 nights where he slept through! To complicate matters, Matthew also battled a viral infection which meant fever, coughing and generally being super clingy. We were very fortunate to have had grandparents on hand most days to help with looking after him.

There are lots of pictures from our trip away... here are a couple of my favourites.

His little canines (cuspids) on the top also made a sudden appearance during the end of our stay - which makes a total of 14 teeth visible. There should be 16 in a couple more weeks with the bottom canines erupting. The next and final lot of milk teeth will be his 2nd molars and they should make an appearance at around 24 months. 

 We've been back a week now and I'm glad to report that all remnants of the virus seems to have gone away and Matthew almost back to his normal self. I say 'almost' normal because, he seems to be a different boy lately. He's decided that using the blocks to build towers can be as fun as knocking them down. Playing with his shape sorter used to frustrate him, now he'll patiently work the pieces through without problem and when he's done will ask me to politely 'open' the sorter again so he can start over. After months of repetition trying to teach him primary colours (red, blue, yellow...), he's just put two and two together and his gorgeous big eyes light up like he's had an epiphone! There are other little changes which I've observed too, he now suffers from separation anxiety, particularly when he's away from me. It manifested itself while we were in Sydney. Before this I used to be able to step away for hours and it wouldnt bother Matthew in the slightest. It's all part of his development the experts say, along with the temper tantrums which we've had occasion to experience as well. All part of Matthew growing up I suppose...

Over the next couple of weeks, Matthew will transition from attending JWT Playgym to Kindermusik and Duncan will take him to have toddler swim classes on weekends. Matthew clearly loves dancing, music and swimming. Come next year, Matthew will begin first term at Pre-Nursery school (Jan 4 to Mar 12).

Matthew in Sydney 6-21 Nov

the lack of updates is due to the fact that we are on holidays in Sydney at the moment. We've been here a week now and Matthew and I have enjoyed catching up with friends and family, but have been a little busy. Yesterday, I took Matthew to the Early Childhood Centre for his 18 month checkup. All is looking very good indeed. He's tall and slim for his age (as expected, I mean look at his Dad!) and checks all the other milestones with flying colours. Tomorrow we head off from Sydney for the upper Hunter. I've posted a ton of pictures on Picasa already from our visit including a super one of Soc (our Golden Lab) and Matthew.

Seeing as I've had the luxury of babysitters this week, I've had some time with play on Photoshop. Here are some of the results...Look at 'em BIG gorgeous eyes!

 Lovely and Ethereal Matthew

 Vintage Matthew

 Old West Matthew

 70s Matthew

Sunshine Matthew

Hazy Days

Before moving to Singapore my local friends had warned me that there would be days like these...

What I'm talking about is the haze from smoke fires that have descended upon the island. It looks a bit like the pea-soup foggy winter mornings you get in Sydney. But unlike those, this has been hanging around for days now. It got progressively worse as the week led on. The haze I've read in the local paper is due to the smoke from Sumatran fires brought here by the southwesterly winds. The Pollution Standards Index (PSI) went above 100 units, anything above this figure is considered to be in the unhealthy range :(

Today, the PSI is hoovering just under 100 mark.

Matthew and I have retreated inside and haven't left the apartment since yesterday morning for play gym. This has meant that we haven't been able to go for a swim for the past few days. Although it doesn't smell terrible, there is a hint of smoke in the air and you can definitely see it. Duncan who suffers from allergies is not terribly happy with the situation. I'm hoping that a big gust of wind will carry it off to sea. Here's a picture taken from our lounge room window of what I'm referring to...

Teeth! lots and lots of them...

The poor boy has 5 new ones *, which makes a total of 13 and counting. Fortunately though Matthew doesn't seem to be terribly bothered by all the toothy action.

* Edited to add: Oh dear, there's actually about 6 or 7 new teeth, one of his molars on the bottom seems to have pushed through overnight as well. There are sharp little bumps all over his gums - brushing his teeth is hard enough as it is.

Matthew for some weeks now has shown quite some interest in birds, hence we thought it'd be a nice thing to go to Jurong Bird Park on the weekend. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Gorgeous gardens, pretty birds of course, loads of people (as we went on a Saturday) and the shows were entertaining. Though not somewhere I'd buy annual membership to but interesting enough to recommend to visitors at a loss at what to do when visiting us. Matthew's Poh Poh and Goong Goong paid us another visit over the weekend also, so Matthew got his little dose of home plus presents from from their recent trip to China - lucky boy!

Our flights are now booked too for our trip home to Australia, we'll be their from the 6th to the 21st of November and hope to catch up with as many of you as possible during our visit.

Cebu

We're back from our holiday to Cebu in the Philippines with Matthew's Uncle Tim. We all had a great time and it's such a shame that holidays must come to an end! Cebu is highly recommended as a holiday destination for rest, relaxation and diving. Matthew had a lovely time, although was a little cranky at times, we assume due to a little bit of a cold (which came and went) and possibly due to the 3 new teeth that are coming at this time. He spent everyday either swimming, playing, running around being naughty, biting, eating, drinking 'Ju Ju' (banana or mango shakes) impressing and collecting new girlfriends or sleeping beautifully through the night and 2-3 hours during the day.

By the end of our stay in the Philippines, Matthew had attracted the attention of A LOT of ladies and girls. In return, he gave lot so of cheeky grins and cuddles and a lucky few even received frangipanis hand delivered from Matthew. As result, the female staff (and some of the male too) and guests knew his name and would call out a 'hello Matthew!' to him every where we went.

We stayed at the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa in Cebu for 6 nights and found the staff there to be very attentive and friendly. There is enough to do (if you like your water sports & spa treatment) at the resort to keep you occupied for a weeks stay. However additional activities come at a price. The most costly for us being the scuba diving, but it was well worth it. Duncan and Tim managed to accomplish 5 dives each and I managed to squeeze in 2 dives ... my very firsts. The AquaSport shop which doubles as an accredited dive centre was a minutes' walk from our 2 bedroom suite. The in-house spa which is one of the best in Asia is located 2 minutes walk from our room. We took advantage of both as often as Matthew permitted :) There is also a children activity centre and playground which Matthew took advantage of a couple of times. In addition to the usual resort facilities, there's also rock climbing wall, archery and firing range and free activities for children and adults scheduled throughout the day. One of the evenings, we took advantage of the Butler service and went out for grown up dinner and drinks while Matthew slept under the supervision of not one but two babysitters.

A quick update on Matthew's modeling career, he was offered a job which we unfortunately had to reject as the assignment shoot was scheduled for the period while we were away. Here's hoping the next job will be better timed next time.