Visit to Science Centre (28 Jan 2009)

We brought Kendrick to the Science Centre on this morning for a simple outing. He may not understand the things now, but it's good to expose him to different visuals, objects and environment. We notice he likes to observe things at times, so that's what he did and now that he can walk, we also let him roam about and touch some of the exhibits

Who's this little man beside Mummy?

Dinosaur at the entrance of Science Centre

Check out our reflection

Viewing ourselves in the Kaleidoscope

Kendrick's head on the platter

Celebrating Lunar New Year (26-27 Jan 2009)

This Lunar New Year is a long break for me as my company enforced leave for the whole week, so it just means more time to spend with Kendrick, Dear and our family. Well, it is quite significant start to the Lunar New Year as Kendrick is able to walk already. Just 1 year ago, he was still a baby when we brought him out visiting. This year he is so much more aware of things and enjoy running around and touching everything! Since I last updated that Kendrick took his first walk by himself, he has progressed quite a bit over the last 3 weeks. From walking unsteadily, to balancing himself by putting his arms out horizontally, to walking with a lot more confidence all over the place, to putting his hands down (no need to balance outwards) when he walks. Indeed, it has also been a really busy time for Mummy and Daddy as we have to keep a lookout for him in case he hurts himself! No wonder this is the really busy time. Someone said when he starts to run, even worse! Ha ha.... But we do enjoy seeing Kendrick walk all over our house as it is quite amusing to see him following us as we do our stuff. It's really a 'little man' walking around :)

Besides walking, Kendrick seemed to progress quite fast with his talking and understanding of things that we say. He has certainly picked up a lot of single syllable words and he can say things like "tok" (clock), "Door", "Bad" (bread), "No", "Bear", "Mo" (Elmo), "Tong" (Gong Gong), "No more", "More more", "Na na" (banana), "doe" (let's go), "pong pong" (bath), "he he", "ha ha", "tata" (as he waves goodbye), "star", "there", "na" (as in 'na, I give u this'), "boo" (book), "boc" (box), "wah", "oh" (when he thinks he did something wrong), "bao bao" (to carry him), "pull" (when I want him to pull out his socks), "Sok" (socks), "Nu" (as in cow in Chinese), "olo" (hello when he put the phone to his ear), "baby".....

We're quite amazed at his progress but I suppose this is the time that he picks up everything that we adults say or do so we also have to be extra careful as he is mimicking us in some way. But it's a fun time too overall and I will certainly miss this stage as Kendrick grows up...


Lunar New Year Day 1 - As Dear's parents are overseas, we went visiting my side of the relatives

Kendrick in his LNY outfit - he's the Kungfu Master!!

Mummy and Kendrick before heading out in the morning

Kendrick's favourite thing this LNY - mandarin oranges

Hoi! Ka cha'!

Goodness, you've got a double chin here Kendrick! :)

Pointing to his favourite orange

My parents and us at my paternal grandma's place

At my maternal grandma's place

Family photo time

Lunar New Year Day 2 - We were pretty free this day. We took Kendrick out to the park in the morning then headed out for lunch to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. In the evening, we also popped by her place for dinner as there was a bit of gathering there again

Kendrick at Bishan Park on his tricycle

Sitting a swing for the first time and he was really happy!

Heading out for lunch

Daddy gets a shot with Kendrick too

Celebrating my grandma's birthday

New Milestone - Kendrick's First Walk (10 Jan 2009)

Kendrick achieved a new milestone today - it was the first time that he took quite a number of steps to walk by himself independently and he did it many times over! I was just playing with him in the playroom when I managed to encourage Kendrick to walk towards me and then back to this toy table he had. Although Kendrick had been cruising a lot for some time now, and also balancing himself without any support and he even took a few steps on his own before, today was considered a much bigger STEP indeed. He actually walked quite a bit around the house as he gained confidence at our encouragement! It was quite a funny sight to see him walk too as he certainly looked quite awkward at it. Haha...I guess practice makes perfect so a bit more time and he should be able to master it with more confidence :) I guess it's little things like this that really makes your day :)

Zoo Outing (8 Jan 2009)

I balloted successfully for my Company's zoo pass so we brought Kendrick for his first zoo outing on this day. He may not know a lot of animals now, but we thought it's good to expose Kendrick to more nature stuff every now and then. So off we headed this morning. Thankfully, the weather was very good. It was not too hot, neither did it rain heavily. There was only one point in the afternoon with a slight drizzle. The good weather really helped to make the outing less tiring. And given that we went on a weekday, the zoo was not crowded, so it made the whole trip more pleasant! As for Kendrick, he managed to sit through 2 of the shows, one on land animals and the other more on sea animals. We also let him try out the new Rainforest KidzWorld section where he played a bit of water with Daddy.

We arrive at the zoo to lovely weather :)

We were just in time to catch the first show for the day

At the next show which involved sea animals, Daddy brings Kendrick up for a photo with the star of the show - Phillip the sea lion! This shot is blur but we bought the one that the zoo took for us anyway. Haha...

As we walked on, we took a shot with the Orang Utans...

Cute smile from Kendrick

We headed to the newly opened Rainforest KidzWorld

Checking out some of the farm animals like the pony, cow, goat. Here the cow wants to take a sniff at Kendrick!

This is the water area where you can get wet and have fun

Daddy takes Kendrick to play after our lunch break

Kendrick was generally a little scared of the water, perhaps it's too cold? But he did enjoy this water slide though. Father and son took it a couple of times!

After that, we headed to the Safari section to check out the lions

Another smile from Kendrick

Checking out the giraffes opposite the lions

The only family shot we took

Well, after this, Kendrick fell asleep as he was quite tired without any nap since he woke this morning. So the rest of the time was just Mummy and Daddy walking around, having tea and checking out some other remaining animals like the White Tiger. We eventually left the zoo around 3 plus in the afternoon and headed home to rest. We certainly hope to bring Kendrick back again when he is older!

Kendrick's Birthday Outing (7 Jan 2009)

On Kendrick's actual birthday, we decided to bring him for an outing at Go Go Bambini - an indoor playground designed for kids, located at Dempsey Hill. Actually, I was also considering another indoor playground called Fidgets which another fellow Mummy friend had tried out. However, since we heard that the fees at GGB was slightly cheaper, we decided to try there first to see how it was. Turned out to be quite ok... might be more fun when Kendrick grows older. For now, given that he can't really walk by himself, Daddy and Mummy really have to tire ourselves out to help him overcome all the obstacles and climb up and down!! We were quite tired after spending about 2 hours there.

Before we left our home, took a final shot with the backdrop which we kept on till this day

At Go Go Bambini - we start Kendrick off slow first by letting him play with balls

We soon moved on to the 'bigger playground' where we had to climb up and down with Kendrick to get him to overcome the various 'obstacles'. As the place was rather dark, not many shots turned out nice. Here are some highlights....

Kendrick climbing down this hole with the help of Daddy who is hiding below..hehe

Going through this tunnel together

Kendrick crawling through this other tunnel by himself

Mummy and Kendrick take the slide!

Finally here are 2 videos - One of Kendrick climbing down an obstacle and the other of us coming down on the slide!

1st Birthday Celebration & Milestones

We celebrated Kendrick's 1st birthday over the weekend by having a simple buffet lunch spread at our home. Since our place is quite small, we only invited our immediate family members for this little party.

Well, 1 year has flown past already and I'm glad that Kendrick is growing up healthy and fine. He's achieved quite a bit so far before he turned 1. He loves to babble and knows objects like 'Clock' which he pronounces as 'tok'. He knows where is the 'Door' and says it as it is, he loves his bear (which is also why we decided on Pooh Bear theme). He's also learnt to call Ah Gong by saying 'Tong'. As for us, Kendrick only knows how to call me 'Ma' and he will say 'Pa Pa' for his father. He's also taken his first few steps before he turned 1. He did this when we guided him and let go of his hands to allow him to walk some steps. He's still not very good at it yet, but I must say it's good progress. Kendrick is also learning to balance himself pretty well by standing without support. Another thing which we taught him was how to climb down from the bed or slightly higher ground. As a result, Kendrick would turn to have his butt down first so that he can lower his legs to touch the ground, as opposed to falling head first. This little boy is certainly growing more active day by day! With that also comes some headaches!! Like how it is now very difficult to make him take his naps at home. He would rather play and move and explore than lie on the bed and sleep! Sigh...Sometimes really don't know what to do with this boy!

Anyway, here are some of the key photos taken during his birthday celebration...

Kendrick was up and about in the morning and here he is standing at his little table which would be used for the cake-cutting. We decorated the house quite a bit and I really like the Pooh scene setter that you see in the backdrop

Pooh Bear Birthday Balloon which we got from the part shop

Our hall decor

Goodie bags for the 'young ones'

Our Mums helping to prepare the home-cooked buffet spread

Kendrick and his Wai Po

Here's the birthday cake we got from Pine Garden

Ok, getting ready for the Birthday song...Kendrick seems happy and excited. As we sang, Kendrick also clapped his hands like all of us!

Make a wish and puff goes the candle!Cutting the cake together...Kendrick stares at the cake

Kendrick managed to get a taste of the cream and boy does he like the sweet stuff!

He gets more cream on his fingers and mouth!

Ok, family shots now...

Here with his Great Grandmas, Grand Parents and Grand Aunt

Kendrick and I with my cousins

At the end of the party, we were clearning up and we happened to take a shot of Kendrick sitting on the Little Tikes chair. Thought this shot really reminded me of those nursery or kindergarten photos where little kids sit in the little chair! Haha...

Our family shot

Kendrick's present from Mummy and Daddy!

The little fella' is so happy until his eyes closed...

Well, we finally wrapped up the celebrations by late afternoon and although Dear and I were tired after having to put Kendrick to bed and then clean up the house, it was still a nice a memorable afternoon that we had. In the evening, we even took some time to bring Kendrick downstairs for a short walk to let him try out his new tricycle. On a final note, just want to thank all our family members for their gifts and help!!