Our family trip to Hong Kong (14 - 18 Jun 2009)

We finally went ahead with our first family trip to Hong Kong recently! It was certainly the most last minute holiday we've ever planned so far...haha..reason was mainly due to the H1N1 situation around the World. Actually a few months earlier, we had set our hearts on going to Australia during June as I had this 1 week 'off' that was company wide. But as the date drew closer, the flu situation seemed to take a turn for for the worse in Australia, which was why we decided to switch to Hong Kong. And just before we left, the number of H1N1 cases seemed to start to rise again in Hong Kong...but we still decided to go ahead since most of our stuff were all booked..so all I can say is Thank God for his protection on our family throughout the entire trip! God is good!

It was a free and easy trip, so we basically took our own time and pace to shop around Hong Kong as well as visit the Victoria Peak for its view and finally Hong Kong Disneyland :) Maybe it was a good idea that we went to a country that was only a 3.5hr flight away. Kendrick managed to sleep on the plane to and fro for about 1.5hr at least, so that really helped to cover about half the flight journey without him misbehaving! However, when we were in Hong Kong, Kendrick did misbehave on several occasions, throwing tantrums now and then and he was really sticky to me. He kept wanting me to carry him at different points in time. Even when his father carried him, he would make noise and wanted me to carry him. We certainly built up some arm muscles during this trip! Not only that, I guess Hong Kong is not really child friendly. When we took the MTR, we had to carry his stroller up and down stairs to get in and out of some stations. So no doubt, it was quite tiring for us, but it was still great that we got away together on our own, spending family time and feeling the 'holiday mood' in a foreign land!

The happiest bit about the trip was of course staying in Disneyland resort and paying a visit to Disneyland Park. True that Kendrick will not be able to fully appreciate it yet and probably can't remember much, but we'll have the photos for memories. I think I was also the happy 'kid' at Disneyland. Haha. Can't help feeling happy and spendthrift when there seeing all the gift shops and Mickey Mouse & friends. Pity the weather was pretty hot, not quite ideal. Nevertheless, at least Kendrick got to know a few Mickey Mouse & friends characters and he was really happy when he took a photo with Pluto! I guess it's because the friendly character hugged him alone and took some individual shots with him. Now that we are back and when Kendrick sees those photos, he says 'toe-toe' for Pluto :) He also learnt to say 'Pooh Bear' as a 2 syllable word.

Here are some highlights of the photos we took..too many to upload :)

Departure gates at Changi Airport T3! First time going inside for me and happy to take SQ!

Family pic in our hotel room in Hong Kong (Kowloon side)

The buildings light up in a lovely symphony of lights every night at 8pm. We caught the sight at the Avenue of Stars

We took the tram up to Victoria Peak for a view of the city. Wanted to go in the evenings but somehow we could not make it due to timing and weather. So we went on one of the mornings instead. Cloudy day I must say...

Hollywood Hotel in Disneyland Hotel is where we stayed! I really enjoyed staying at this hotel!

Some of the shots we took at Disneyland Theme Park...

Kendrick at 17 months

Kendrick is now 17 months old and here's an update on how he's developing:

Physical / Motor Skills

• Shows better grasp when holding on a pen to draw on this magna-doodle board. As such, he seems to doodle with a bit more precision now. That day when I asked him what he drew, he said 'fa-wer' (flower)... so cute of him :)
• Still does not know how to sort toys by colours or size. Guess we have to work on this more
• Still do not know how to feed himself with a spoon yet as I've not really let him try other than pretend playing only

Emotional Development

• Continues to throw temper tantrums when frustrated or when he does not get what he wants. Think Kendrick's kinda spoilt by his Grandparents! He seems to be quite naughty when at their home. Sigh! At our own home, he does misbehave too but we try our best to not give in every time. Guess he's really testing our limits! More patience needed....

Speech & Recognition

• Know how to call out to old ladies that look like 'Chor Chor' to him (Great Grandma). For older uncles he learnt to call 'Ah Zek'. For other man or women, he will tell us 'ah-ca' (uncle) or 'aunty'
• Has grown to know and recognise more things and made more attempts at saying words with more syllables after we have mentioned to him: air-ton (air-con), da gu (First Aunty), gong ji (cockerel), okto, A-plus, you gan you (Scotts Emulsion), xie xie (thank you), papaya, open, close, yi qi zou (let's walk together), ah-plane (aeroplane)
• Can repeat after us with very close proximity when we read to him A to Z
• Learnt to fill in the lyrics for simple children rhymes like 'Rain Rain Go Away', '1 2 buckle my shoe...', 'Ba Ba Black Sheep'
• Make very simple sentence like 'mummy, where?'. Sometimes he will then answer himself by saying 'there'

Just happy that Kendrick is a healthy and happy child. Next month he hits 1.5yrs already, will update again then :)

It's been a while since we took a shot like this together. The last time I think Kendrick was only around 5 - 6 months

Haircut day

We brought Kendrick to cut his hair this afternoon as it was getting kinda long and thick. Surprisingly, Kendrick was really cooperative this time. He just sat quite still on his father's lap while I distracted him with biscuits and things here and there. It was certainly much better compared to the last few times when he would fidget and move his head a lot lot more. I was also surprised that he was so alert given that he did not have his morning nap. By the time we left, Kendrick fell asleep in the car and he had a really nice afternoon nap :)

Kendrick wearing new PJs that I bought from JL sale and also after his new hair cut

Kendrick recovers!

Since my last update about Kendrick falling sick, we went through about a week and a half before he finally recovered. At first his cough and phlegm just would not clear even after 1 week of medicine, so we went back to the PD for another check up. She gave an additional medicine to help open up some air passage or something of that sort and loosen the phlegm. This helped and by Monday or Tuesday, we did not hear Kendrick coughing or have any runny nose or any phlegm.

So glad that he has recovered at last! Even though he had cough and runny nose the past week, Kendrick was practically still playing away and active and having fun. Nevertheless, we were still glad to see him healthy again. Only problem that still exists though is his milk intake which has significantly reduced since a few days before Kendrick fell sick. It remained that way when Kendrick was sick and now that he has fully recovered, he still does not always want to drink his milk. I feel really troubled by this. Although the PD had mentioned that milk at his age is just a supplement and not his main food, I still believe that kids so young need to drink milk still. Really have no idea whether this is a temporary thing or a permanent pattern! Sometimes we really run out of ideas how to 'trick him' into drinking his milk because when he refuse, he just totally refuse. Maybe he's bigger already and understands a lot more so it's harder to bluff him!

Kendrick....hope that we can find some way to make you increase your milk intake again!

My poor baby is sick :(

Kendrick fell ill over the weekend and this is actually the first time that he caught a virus and had the fever and runs. I'm not sure how it happened, but it started on Friday when I was on off and looking after him at home. I noticed that he seemed to cough in the morning slightly and it sounded a bit 'phlegmy'. I started to suspect something might not be right. He also seemed a little bit more listless. Tried to take his temperature but could not successfully do so as he kept fidgeting. (We did not have the ear thermometer at that point). Kendrick's appetite also started to drop this week when he refused to drink finish most of his milk feeds. But I guess it did not really occur much to me except that he's back to his milk rejection again.

By evening, I was convinced that we should bring him to the doctor as I did not like the sound of his cough. Fortunately we went. Kendrick was running a fever at 38.4 degrees. Doctor advised that it's a viral infection which meant that his fever could go up and down over the next few days. He had some phlegm stuck in his throat too which induces his cough. Got some medicine and we went home. Friday night was the hardest to go through - Kendrick certainly did not sleep well in the night. He took quite long to fall asleep and when he did, he woke almost every hour crying. Dear and I were rather tired by his irrational crying but it must only be because he was in great discomfort or pain. He finally slept longer after 2plus am and woke again at 6plus am crying slightly again. Felt that he was pretty warm so we quickly gave him another dose of paracetamol and sponged him. After that, Kendrick managed to fall back asleep till 9plus in the morning.

On Saturday, his fever continued to go up and down. But otherwise, Kendrick was pretty much ok, playing about and walking around in the house. He was like his usual self just that his voice seemed affected by the phlegm in his throat. Everyone in the family was really concerned about his bout of sickness! On Saturday night, he slept much better as the fever was much lower. By Sunday, he was much better and the fever seemed to come only once in the day. It was only the cough and phlegm that remains to affect Kendrick. Gosh, really pray that he will recover fast!! So sad to see him sick! He seemed to have lost some weight in just a few days.. :(

This episode has also shown me that it is not only tiring on the child to be sick, it is also tiring on the parents to have to shower the extra care and concern and comfort to the sick child. It is truly a learning experience for me and I admit that I still need to have more and greater patience with my son. Hope that Kendrick will recover well and gain back his appetite. Mummy and Daddy love you always....

16 months old

Kendrick turned 16 months old about 1.5 weeks ago but I kinda forgot to make an entry about it, so here I am writing this now. Here are some things we've noticed in Kendrick's development so far:

Physical / Motor skills

• Beginning to show some signs of wanting to run. Kendrick has been walking steadily for many months already, but lately he seems to walk quite fast at times and it seems like he wants to move towards running, though he still can't really do that yet
• Will dance his cute 'tap dance' style of dancing when we ask him to dance
• Learnt how to kick a ball though still not very good at it. Better at throwing the ball around
• Enjoys climbing up and down steps with our help
• Climbs up and down our sofa easily
  
• Sometimes he would turn himself in circles just to make himself feel dizzy and wobbly!
• Knows how to bring us objects that we ask him too, be it a particular book or household item or toy. At times, we get him to do 'mini-errands' like when I asked him to pass some clothes from the kitchen to the hall where his Papa is sitting
• Knows how to use the telephone in the correct manner by putting at his ear and pretending to talk
• Scribbled with crayons that I recently bought for him to play with
  

Emotional Development

• Has shown temper tantrums when frustrated. Either by his body language or even shouting. Sigh....
  
• Wants attention...he will keep calling us until we fully pay attention to him and see what it is that he wants to tell us before he stops calling us
• Still a very loving little boy...always affectionate to the ones he loves. Also affectionate to his stuff toys...kissing them whenever he holds them
• At times can be friendly towards strangers, calling out to 'kor kor' or 'jie jie' when he sees young children who are older than him. More willing to wave and say 'hello' as well as 'bye' even to strangers when we tell him to

Speech and recognition

Actually Kendrick never fails to amaze us with his recognition of patterns and daily things that we have taught him here and there. He knows what to expect every day when we bring him home from his Ah Ma place. He knows that when we say 'let's go' it's time to leave and he will start waving good bye to everyone and even make an effort to look say good bye to each individual person! He knows that downstairs our house there is a 'star' that is associated with Caltex station (which he calls 'tec')...He seems to recognise the flats or areas that is supposed to be his Ah Ma place or even his Great Grandma's place. In photos, he can correctly identify all our family members....and the list goes on...The main thing is, he loves to tell us things that he knows by pointing them out to us and saying it out loud. Well, the mind's a sponge for him now..so keep on surprising us Kendrick :)

• Numbers that he recognise and can say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10
  
• Letters he can recognise and say: M, O, P, A, S
• Things he understand and will respond in action: Go home, let's go, wear shoes, go out, come here, brush teeth, where, whose, what is this, throw away dirt, take out socks, keep, lie down, on and off
  
• Some new words & objects he has learnt to say and recognise so far: donal (McDonald's which I taught him to recognise...LOL), papaya, wallet, plate, fish, spoon, ter (computer), up, down, cheese, play, wain (rain), lightning, bow (rainbow), un (sun), pull, tar (guitar), please (to ask for things), 'peng you' (friend in chinese), key, tee (teeth), bama (Obama - yes...this one Dear taught him by showing him this book we have. Lately I've also been trying to tell him to pronounce O-ba-ma and he's still learning)

Well, as he gains increasing independence, Kendrick has also shown that he can be very mischievous and cheeky, always testing the limits of his actions to see our reaction. We try to teach him right from wrong but I'm really not sure if we are successful...have to continue guiding him as this is quite a critical stage in their learning process. Hope we succeed!

My Little Guitar Hero

Bought this new guitar toy for Kendrick recently at the Toys R Us sale. That night when I first brought it home and showed it to him, he was really excited to see a new toy! Well, no doubt he still does not know how to play with it too well, but the music and sounds that it makes is something he likes. Actually Daddy and Mummy had fun playing with it too. Ha ha...we were acting like crazy base guitar players to entertain Kendrick :P

Here's some shots that we got Kendrick to pose for us