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Last month we went to Pangkor Laut for a short getaway. The resort was tastefully designed and the staff were very attentive too. Being an internationally acclaimed resort, I am glad they live up to their standard.

We booked a 3D/2N Garden Villa package. We had a very memorable trip to Tanjung Jara (bumped into Michael Schumarcher there) couple years back so this time round, we really had high expectation. The room was very spacious with indoor shower as well as an outdoor bathtub. Ryan was particularly in love with the huge outdoor bathtub. He wasn’t too happy at the pool maybe because the water was pretty cold.

Overall we had a wonderful experience though we were quite disappointed with the restaurants. The food was really just ’so-so’. Luckily we signed up a full board package else the food bill alone would make us jump out of our chair (we consumed a total of approximately RM2000 worth of food during our stay, luckily it was all covered. Phew..)

View from the pool
 

Cheeky monkey look

Having a fantabulous time in the outdoor bath tub

Luckily I also brought some mozzies patches. We were badly attacked by mozzies when we dined at Uncle Lim’s Kitchen on our last night - a very nice restaurant built on top of rocks and overseeing the sea. Beautiful view. Each table was equipped with mozzie repellant under the table but they just weren’t good enough to scare off these blood suckers. Thank goodness Ryan was spared. Hubs got away with just a few bites. Poor mommy was the one got bitten the most. I counted after we got home… I had like 50 bites on my legs of various sizes *imagine measles*. Pretty scary.

… anyway, in a nut shell, the experience at the resort was very good. A nice retreat if you’re looking for a place to wind down with tranquility.. and my boy, of course he had fun too. :D 

Yay!!! I had fun, fun fun…!!!
*one of the many faces he would show when you ask him to smile*

@ 28 months 3 days

When you have a 2 year old who just got toilet trained, these will happen:

We were in KL couple weeks back for a short vacation. During one of our outings at Mid Valley, Ryan screamed out he wants to ’shee shee’. It was the first time he wants to pee outside home eversince he was toilet trained mainly because of the long hours we spent out. Knowing what to expect from the toilets I told him to pee into his diaper (bad mommy). Poor boy must had been so confused. Kept repeating he wants to pee. Okay. Fine. No choice. It was a horrendous experience. With no prior experience, mommy ‘kelam kabut’ inside the cubicle. If handling an irritated toddler who was holding his bladder wasn’t bad enough, to make matter worse, there was no toilet paper inside the cubicle (gawd.. I should have known.. what’s new with our public toilets right). Ryan’s pandora bag was with the maid outside. I panicked. Quickly ransacked my own bag and found a pack of precious tissue. Tell you, the feeling was as if I found a pack of gold. Cut the long disgusting story short - there goes Ryan’s ‘first’ public toilet experience.

Second experience, it was worse! We were at the Subang T3 Airport (yes.. that still-around-rundown-airport’?). Mommy was better prepared this time but the state of the toilet was beyond I could imagine. I spare you the details. ‘Oek’ (Puke)!!!

The third time, probably the most traumatic for Ryan. We were on the road from KL - SG when his nature calls again (always so wrong timing!) and the next stop was like 5km away. He was screaming and wailing in the car begging us to bring him to the loo. I asked him to pee into his diaper but to no avail. Poor boy was so upset that his tears kepy rolling down his cheek. So pitiful. 

After a few mins, it was obvious he already peed but he was so distress that he continued to cry insisting he wants to ’shee-shee’ until we reach the Pagoh stop. Sure enough, when we were in the toilet, his diaper was already soiled…. Not giving up, Ryan still insist to use the WC and happily said ‘no more’ when nothing comes out. Maybe that helps him feel better (err.. less guilty?)*poor boy* .

After the few stints at the public toilet, I was so determined to get hold of the potty topper that I saw @ Mothercare the other day. It’s a bit pricey but it’s godsend! Makes the whole process so much easier.

Hubs said it’s a waste of money. In his opinion, using the Dettol sanitiser and a few layers of tissue lace on top of the seat works just as fine. But a child cannot hold his bladder that long….and this boy of mine is always so fussy. Always insist of taking off his pants, and shoes before he could relieve himself.  Speed is crucial here. So in the end.. i bought it nevertheless. This is the potty topper I bought….  

Nicely packed!

Adhesive strips at the back of each of the topper

*Oh.. Dora for illustration purposes only. Hahaha…*

A short summary of his 28 months updates:
** Calls me mom / mommy interchangeably.
** Loves computer games and activities. His favourite sites (Disney, Thomas, Nick Junior). Just moment ago, he taught me how to play Dora Tressure Hunt game.
** Potty Trained (almost…) Ryan still wears diaper at night but at times will wake me up middle of the night when he wants to pee (HELP!!)
** Started scouting around for playschool for his enrolment next year.
** Still nap once a day for 1.5 - 3 hours a day. Bed time is around 9 - 10pm.
** Able to speak a few Mandarin words. His comprehension of the language also improves.
** His confidence in water builds up a lot. More independent and able to float confidently now (with floaters on of coz). Also able to make a few kicks in the water.
** Introduced naughty room/corner. When he misbehaves, I’ll threaten to bring him to the naughty room. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Try luck. He also has a happy room which is the room with most of his toys. Often when I summon him to the naughty room, he will walk towards the two rooms (side by side) then stop in front of one of them and say ‘how about this room?‘ (pointing to the happy room).
** Loves his baby (actually it’s a bear) and mini stroller a lot these few weeks. Everywhere he goes he wants to bring them along.. when we go out, in the house, sleep, pee, poo, everything! At night before turning in, he would say ‘goodnight, I love you‘ to his ‘baby’ before giving it a kiss. So loving….
** I hate it when he doesn’t get enough sleep because for some reason when that happens, he will become restless and act out of his mind. He’s not agitated, not angry. Instead he will start his ‘fighting’ spree. Sotong is usually his victim, sometimes mommy and daddy are not spared. He will start to kick and kick, wriggle up and down, roll on the floor, use both his hands to slap your arms left and right and scream ‘YAH - HWAH - YAH (sound effect)’ - no more Ultraman for him! 

Taken @ the zoo two weeks ago. Don’t you just love that ziraffe top!
Happy 28 months!!

@ 27 months 3 weeks 1 day

All the while, Ryan’s drawing makes no resemblance of any kind. They are all circles, lines, dot-dotss, and some other funny shapes figures. Biasa la.. kids this age. They all looked the same to me although he would tell us this is daddy, mommy, kakak, cat, Thomas, etc etc…  

Then last night he caught me by a huge surprise. He was drawing  on a piece of art paper on the table next to me when he suddenly screamed  out ‘Mommy, mommy, see!!‘. I was actually just next to him and yet he had to scream. Kids.. gosh they get excited so easily. I took a glance and got a shock myself and ‘WOW’! Short of screaming.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Finally it’s something meaningful. I asked Ryan on purpose what did he draw. He replied “This (is) mommy, the same, got eyes, got mouth“. Well, it’s no picture perfect, no Pablo Picasso material. His drawing showed me with no hair, no ears, no hands and legs, obviously na-ked too with airport bodyshape (text me if you do not know what’s airport bodyshape )  but then again, it’s PRICELESS because it is a drawing of me from my ‘jui ngoi’ (beloved). So mighty cute!

Later.. I asked Ryan to draw a picture of Daddy. He scribbled here and there refused to cooperate; obviously ‘kembang’ (on cloud nine) from the compliments I gave him earlier. Well, sorry Daddy. Looks like your son cannot remember how you look like. So no drawing of you.

Instead, he drew this………

 Ryan said this is Peacock (we saw four big ones when we were on vacation last week) but I think it looks more like a snail

@ 27 months 2 weeks 6 days

Ryan was due for another haircut; something I dreaded each time the time comes. Yesterday seemed like a bright sunny day. So we decided to bring him in to the salon. At home, I started prepping him for the occasion; telling him he’ll be a handsome boy, bribing him with this and that.

Ryan was very reluctant to get out of the house knowing well the destination we were heading to. After much pacifying, he agreed with the condition we go to the playground first. Fine. After about 10 mins at the playground, he willingly walk with me to the salon. Phew…

I was anticipating the same old drama during the haircut. I prepped him again with all the small talks about the everything under the sky. Finally it was his turn. I asked him again if it’s ok for uncle to trim his hair, surprisngly he said ‘yes’. Wah Wah Wah??? Happy.. quickly asked the hairdressor to start.

*mommy seen happily giggling away*

*drum roll*

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my handsome boy

@ 27 months 2 weeks 2 days

… online Disney games. Every time he sees us in front of our computer, that’s it. He knows he can get his hands on the Disney online games. At first he was contented by us maneuvering the game by guiding his hand. Not anymore eversince he knows how to use the mouse. 

His current favourite includes Thomas puzzle, Barney hits the box, Pingu fish game, Memory matching game, Barney cake decorations, Pictures painting and drawing.

…. and just when I thought I could have the laptop by myself because it doesn’t have a mouse plugged in…

…. looks like the touchpad works just fine for him.

@ 27 months 5 days

Daddy was fixing a 3D Nemo puzzle when he realised 1 piece was missing. So Ryan was tasked to look for it because he was the last person seen messing with the puzzle. After a while of effort, he ran to the kitchen and asked kakak to come out for rescue.

Knowing kakak wouldn’t have a slightest clue where is the missing piece, I told Ryan

Mommy: Kakak won’t know where is it
Ryan: Kakak find Nemo
Kakak: *searching under the table* Kakak don’t know. Kakak cannot find

Kakak went back to the kitchen. After a while Daddy found the missing piece. “Yay, Daddy found”. Ryan who was still looking hi and lo for it under the table, stood up, walked towards Daddy and snatched it away from Daddy’s hand.

We could tell from his gesture he was about to throw the piece under the table. Before we could screamed out for him to stop, he made the throw. We were furious and puzzled at the same time not knowing why he acted the way he did. He wasn’t crying or whining whatever. Infact he was smiling all along. So we figured he probably thought that was funny…

…. but what happened next really sent us baffling.

Ryan ran to the kitchen again to get his kakak out.

Ryan: Kakak find Nemo *bend down and point to the nemo piece*
Kakak: Wow.. Ryan, you found! Smart boy! *Kakak obviously oblivious of what happened earlier gave me the look that says she was very impressed with Ryan*
Ryan: Good job! *clap in approval* (how thick face right. :P)

Till now, we couldn’t decipher Ryan’s actual motive for what he did.. whether it was to tease kakak or merely to gain the compliment…. Whichever it is… we were surely taken by surprise…. -o_o-

How about other parents? Does your kid behave as such? �

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@ 27 months

Height: 90cm Weight: 13kg  

- Diaperless at home most of the time, except during nap and bedtime (though they are dry most of the time after nap/ the next morning)
- Started wearing briefs. They are soooooo ultra cute
- Able to take off his own pants, pull up diaper and briefs
- Seems to be able to understand a little bit of Cantonese and Mandarin now (when we ask him questions in Cantonese/Mandarin, he is able to answer…in English ^o-o^)

Pictures taken during Singapore Flyer ride.

@ 26 months 3 weeks 5 days

*hot subject now eh with most 2 yr olds…*. Mine goes like this… 

Ryan’s wee wee training had not been consistent. Usually after 2 or 3 wet episodes (training pants), I’ll put him back on diaper assuming he wasn’t ready. Then a couple days later, we’ll repeat the same old process. 

Yesterday, 11th July marked the first day I stripped him off his diaper, off his training pants.

There were two accidents yesterday morning. The first, he told us he wanted to ’shee-shee” but before we could get to the washroom, he wet his pants. I brought him to the toilet and asked if he still want to ’shee shee’. He said yes. Huh??? But he did. Looks like he actually held his pee and finished off the remaining on the WC. For his effort, I gave him the thumbs up and big clap for telling us about it. He sure like the praises as he was beaming proudly here and there.

Second time, not so lucky. He was jumping up and down when I heard the sound of ’shee-shee’ flowing down. He stood there stagnant and I knew the mission had failed. Sigh…

Later, when it was nap time I let him pee again in the toilet before I changed him back into diaper. While he was having his milk, we recap on what happened (the wee wee incidents) and reminded him to let mommy know when he wants to pee next time.

When he woke up from his nap about 2.5 hours later, I was so surprised to find his diaper clean and dry. I asked if he wanted to ’shee-shee’, he said yes. Quickly brought him to the washroom and pee he did. Wow! Wow! Wow! He was so happy when we praised him again for his success. Ryan oh Ryan… Hahaha..

We continued to ask Ryan if he wants to go toilet like every an hour or so. At one point he actually got quite annoyed with our constant reminders that he actually screamed ‘NO’. Blehhh. Anyways, whatever it is, annoyed or pleased, no more ‘accidents’ that whole afternoon until the night. Yippeeeee!!!

When I was tucking him in bed yesterday night, Ryan told me he wanted to ’shee-shee’. Bad mommy assumed it was another trick of his to get away from sleep. So I brushed it away and told him to ’shee-shee’ into his diaper. Poor boy must be so confused.

Ryan: Mommy, baby want (to) shee shee
Mommy: You sure?
Ryan: Sure
Mommy: It’s okay, you have your diaper on. You can shee shee into your diaper.
Ryan: I WANT (to) SHEE SHEE!! (he sounded a bit geram)
Mommy: Ok.. you don’t lie to mommy ar. Come.
Ryan: Mommy forgot
(He was probably thinking why is his mommy so forgetful, at one point ask him to pee into the WC, then now asked him to pee on his diaper)

True enough.. he did it again in the toilet. Gosh.. don’t I feel sorry for making bad judgement of my boy.  

12 July

No accidents, clean dry diaper during his nap, saving me another 3 pull up diapers for the day and he’s also starting to tell us he wants to pee without us probing. Phew…

Good job!

Update: 13 July

I got another surprise from Ryan this morning. At around 6.45am (Ryan usually wakes up around this time lately), he woke me up saying he wants to ’shee shee’. I was sooooooo tempted to ask him to pee into his diaper again but my conscience got me. I dragged myself up and off we went to the toilet. As I was taking off his diaper, guess what.. instead of stinky stained wet diaper, what greeted me was another clean dry diaper! He actually held his pee for more than 9 hours? Fluke shot? We’ll see tonight.

….. it’s actually quite tiring having to bring a kiddo to the washroom so many times a day.. but….but.. I guess it’s all part and parcel of parenthood and the end of the day it’s gonna be all worth it eh. *beaming*

@ 26 months 2 weeks 2 days

The title says it all……….

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After we got home Ryan was still very excited so we stripped the lil fella and continued a few more shots before calling it a day… Heehee…

  
*he sure has a pair of cunning eyes*

scroll down for last pic (rated 18SX) 

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~~I so luv this shot~~

* My boy is sure no camera shy. He was pretty cooperative throughout the one hour session. After every few shots, he would go to Uncle Benjamin (the photographer) request to see his own pictures on the camera. Then he would say “nice“. *thick face*

For more…  check out my FB

**Update 3 Jul 08.

We have some of the previous studio shoot pictures hanging on the wall. This morning, Ryan said this to me:

Ryan: Mommy, I want (to) go there
Mommy: Where do you want to go?
Ryan: There, there (pointing at the pictures). I wan (to) go take pictures!

Hahahaha… he sure had fun yesterday.

@ 26 months 1 week 1 day

The V-Smile educational video console also comes with a mic. Occasionally Ryan would request us to play his fav song (when you’re happy and you know it) and he will naturally grab the mic and start singing his song.

Yesterday was like any other day, he grabbed the mic and sang………..

*totally focussed*

*beaming with smile*

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and then

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*Adoi~~~without a doubt, totally into it*

@ 26 months

Ryan was extremely difficult to handle during the first few weeks of last month. He was unreasonable, cranky, throwing tantrums like every other minute. Tucking him in bed had been a struggle every time without fail. Every night I had to drag him into the room. Poor baby, for the first two weeks he never fell asleep without tears in his eyes. Nap time was no better. Thank goodness that did not last long. 2 weeks ago, his temperament took a change for the better. He has been so angelic and goofy now that he’s constantly putting a smile on everyone’s face with the things he does and says. He is such a happy kid now.

Ryan showed us his best behaviour lately. No more crying during bed time now.  No more fussing about going out of the room despite being not sleepy. He understand when it’s dark outside, he needs to sleep. Occassionally when he wakes up for his night feed (around 5am lately) he doesn’t fuss to go out of the room anymore because he knows when it’s still dark it literally means oi-oi time. If he’s still awake after his milk, he knows how to sleep on his own. Once in a while he will call on mommy or daddy and wanted us to talk to him but we just have to ignore him and slowly he’ll doze off to sleep by himself. When Ryan wakes up in the morning, first thing he will do is to look out the window and scream “Mommy got sun, wake up. Can play!” He is sure happy to see the sun. 

When we pass by the guard house, Ryan will salute to the guards without fail. He will ask mommy to wind down the window so he could do his salutation. Once he’s done, he will say “Good Job” to himself.

Ryan’s fingers training are getting better. He’s able to hold a pencil the right way (left handed), able to draw circles and follow dotted lines to draw alphabets and numbers without assistance. Although sometimes the drawings are still not perfect, ie not a perfect round, neither perfect squares and the lines he drew were out of dots especially the difficult alphabets but he’s showing remarkable improvement comparing to last month when his patience was at bottom low.

He’s able to tell our mood by looking at our facial expressions. When I show him an angry look. He will say ‘Mommy, angry face’ while pointing to my face. When I pretend cry, he will show a panicked face, come forward to stroke my hair (he will say ’sayang mommy’), kiss my cheek/forehead and give me a big hug and say ’sorry mommy’. (Hehee.. how to be angry). 

I like to hear this…  “Ryan, you sayang mommy or sayang daddy”. His default answer is “Mommy!”. Then I’ll ask again. “Ryan, you sayang daddy or kakak”. His reply “Mommy!”. Ngek ngek ngek.. I am sure a happy mommy. He sure knows how to bodek (malay: please) his mommy.

When we ask Ryan a question that requires him to make a decision, his answer will surely starts with the words ‘how about…..’. Eg. ‘Ryan, which one do you want?’, his answer would be “How about this one?” or “Ryan, do you want to draw?”, he will reply “How about play games”

In terms of speech development. Ryan still speaks in baby soft but squeaky tone. His stuttering has descreased dramatically. I am so relieved. We are now able to hold a decent conversation with him and he is able to reply sensibly using his own digestion and understanding of the question we ask him.

Ryan is half toilet trained. He hasn’t had any poo poo accidents in the last 4 months. He is able to tell us when he needs bowel movement and able to hold it until he is fully seated on his booster seat on the adult WC. Will have to start his wee wee training soon.

Ryan is a picky eater. Still not eating table food. No preference with fruits. When he sees us eating chocolate, cookies, biscuits so forth, he’ll say we are eating ‘junk food’. 

The highlight of the month was definitely of what happened during the Father’s Day celebration. We were at a restaurant and I reminded Ryan to say ‘Happy Yeh Yeh Day’. He didn’t say the sentence I taught him, instead he said “YEHYEH, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!” . YehYeh was beaming throughout the dinner. So did we.

That’s all about Ryan @ 26 months

One of the rare occassions he used his right hand to draw