First haircut!

Caleb had his first haircut today and what better barber to go to but myself who has tried and tested my skills on CT when we were in US for 10 months.

This is a picture taken in US to show u my 'skill'.


And what better way to save money right?

Anyway, so here was Caleb waiting for me to cut his overgrown out-of-control hair.


It was not easy because of how active he is...and I was really afraid to accidentally hurt him with the scissors (which I got for only $5 at a pasar malam).

Anyway, I snipped and snipped..Initially, I was a little sad seeing my baby's first lock of hair on the newspaper.



But after a while, I grew out of the sadness and became trigger happy-kept snipping and snipping.



You want to see Caleb's hairstyle now?? Are you curious and anxious to see?
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Well..scroll down...if you are curious...
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Come on, a little more....
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Ta da! Goodbye curls!



(Before)



(After)

Vote!

hello to all my readers,

pls vote for baby caleb at this site.

Click HERE

Many thanks!

Poopoo incident

These few days, I have started introducing a little bit of formula milk during the daytime to Caleb since next year onwards, I will stop giving him breastmilk already. The reason is that next year is a super busy year for me. I not only have 2 graduating classes but I am the teacher in charge of my CCA as well as the chairman of Staff Well-Being Committee. No complains but just going to be busy busy busy.

Even now when its the school holidays, I do not even have the time to express my milk in school because of how busy I am.

Anyway, so since Caleb has been taking a mixture of formula and breastmilk, his poo has been harder to come out since breastmilk is very diluted. So a few days ago, he had problems poo pooing. He became very cranky as it just couldnt excrete out. So, we made sounds to help him to push...

It was a very funny incident as we helped him to poo..

Initially, he was ok...



Then he tried to focus to poo..



But when he couldnt, he started crying..



Then we gave him water to drink to help ease the process and placed him on the bed.

Each time I made noises, like,"Eummmmmm..." to help him poo, he had this funny expression on his face which really showed his effort...



Look at this video and see how funny Caleb's expression was. Never knew babies could have such natural reflex..

Videos...

Here are some of the videos which I have finally uploaded.

This first video was taken last week Thursday. Caleb was having his usual hiccups and look how he makes use of his hands to cover his head with the blanket and remove it as well.



This next video shows how Caleb likes to shake his body to the music, how he choked on his own saliva (too much!) and the noises he makes... (does that equate to singing?)



This one shows how happy Caleb was when we took him to the playground by jumping and dancing on the slide. Turn on the speakers to see how excited he was by stamping his feet on the slide as he bounces.



And the last video which I took in the playground was Caleb walking on the bridge..



Last Sunday in church, one mother first asked me if Caleb was my first child. I said yes and she then went on to comment that this is the nicest phase right now. CT and I looked at each other and were probably thinking the same thing- "Nicest phase with all that crying? What could be worse?" Then I told CT that we had better prepare for the worse since the mother's comments were not something which I never heard before. So it means that it will only get worse as Caleb grows up...

I am imagining a kid who keeps running around,climbing on stuff, thus making me fear for his safety. Also imagining a kid who is defiant and rude, showing tantrums and being stubborn. I ask myself- am I ready for all these? I guess the defiant and rude attitude can be avoided by laying down my ground rules and teaching him in the correct way but probably not the running around part. The good thing is, it will probably help me to lose weight chasing Caleb around. Must always think of the positive!

play time once again

When I play with Caleb, I think to myself that this boy's life is great! Only play, sleep and eat. But when I think of what he has to go through in future- at least 10 to 12 years of study and exams,balancing his school activities with studies, I'd stop envying him and instead, just glad that I have passed that phase.

Anyway today, brought him to the playgroud again since he was cranky at home.



He really enjoys it. Its nice to see some reaction from him finally.



Here's Caleb taking a rest from all the sliding.



And here is Caleb standing on the bridge of the playground. Check out his hippy diapers.



And here is him with his 'flying' pose...not sure why his arms so straight.



Have a number of videos to post up, but its taking a while to upload. So, will post it up another time.

Weekend

Yay! The weekend is here! So glad as I have been feeling very drained from work. Today was a mad rush since it was the last day of school-rushing to settle things like consent forms, report books etc etc with the students before they go off for a break, also rushed with coming out with reports for my Reporting Officer which took me the whole day to write about what I have done for the whole of this year and my targets..

There is so much paper work to do that I really feel guilty killing the trees. I do not understand that as we get more and more technologically advanced, why is there more and more paper work to be done? Why cant everything be done and sent electronically without having to print out? So ironic.

Last weekend, I went to my mother-in-law's place as usual. Caleb's cousin, Keelia was there at the place too. She was sleeping soundly in the bouncing "hammock".




After having dinner there, we walked to Eastpoint to let Caleb see and explore. He loves to look around at this stage now.Wanted to also show him the pet safari as all kids love that place!

So here is Caleb looking at the fishes. I presume he is attracted more to the lights than the fishes.



Then comes my favourite part of the pet safari, which is the puppies for sale! I love to look at them as I love dogs. So cute and smart.



This puppy was staring at Caleb-probably wondering,"why is there a baby even smaller than me? How can that be?"

As we were walking in the shop, we saw a dog basket which fits Caleb perfectly! I commented that maybe we can buy for Caleb to sleep in! Haha..And of course, we tried it on him.



There were a few passer-bys that found it rather cute and amusing to place a baby in the dog basket as there were giggling when they walked pass.

CT thinks that when Caleb grows up and read my blog, he might not like what he reads because of the things we do to him. OH well...we shall see!

Just for fun

I was reading my friend, Ben & Gen's blog that I discovered this. So, I was also curious to find out. Actually, this site is rather cool as it also has family tree application. I know there are more cool applications but havent had the time to look at the site further.

Anyway, here is the look-alike meter result. Picture of Caleb taken recently.



Like Gen, I wasnt satisfied with this result. So, I chose a younger picture of Caleb for them to analyse and this was the result...



How accurate is this? Def not accurate in my opinion since most of the people think that Caleb looks exactly like CT. So, only 4% from the result? I really dont think so..

Hold your head up high...

Caleb's neck is getting stronger. He can be carried without having to support his neck which really helps free up one hand. Today, he was lifting up his head just after he woke up.


We also placed him on his bumbo baby seat and he could support his head quite well. Only at times, he will start dropping to the side.



This was Caleb yesterday at the restaurant. He was bouncing by himself on the chair.



And here is the over-enthusiastic Janine pushing the pram with Caleb inside.

Celebrating Mum's birthday

I've got 1001 things in my mind to do and every thing seemed to be so urgent. I am really swarmed with work. Since this week is the last week of school, teachers are very busy trying to plan on holiday assignments, print out the work, churning out consent forms for students to come back during holidays, collection of travel declaration forms, giving out report books, collection of report books etc etc. I also have to plan the bridging programme for next week when the Sec 3 students will be coming down to school for lessons.

I have to admit that I do sympathise with students nowadays. When I was a student, I was never like them- having to come down during the holidays. I remembered when I was a student, holidays meants really holidays-I didnt have to even go back to school at all. But now, students seem to be going back to school almost every day despite being their school holidays. Its madness not only for the student, but also for the teachers who also have to go down to school almost everyday and not forgetting, the parents who may now find it difficult to plan a good holiday trip with the family.

When things like these happen which I do not agree on, I do wish I could be a principal or in a higher position to be able to change things. Oh well...

Anyway, despite the busyness in school, I was looking forward to a good family dinner tonight, celebrating my mum's birthday. My mum's birthday falls on 11 Nov, but we celebrated early because of the promotion the restaurant has on roast suckling pig(which my mum specially wanted to eat) which ends this month and also, we all have a wedding dinner to attend on the actual date.

In the evening, I drove to Kembangan MRT Station to pick CT up from work. As I was there early, we got off the car to play in the playground just at the station itself. Its a new playground.



Here is Caleb on the rocking aeroplane.



He seemed to enjoy it.



Check out his usual stunned look.


Caleb was such a good boy that I couldn't help but take pictures with him.





After playing a while at the playground, CT came and we went to my parent's place so that we can all go together in the van to the hotel.

Here is my mum feeding Caleb at the house as she sings to him..



We left the house at about 630pm. Went to Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel-Dragon Phoenix Restaurant for dinner. It was a nice ride to the hotel as Caleb fell asleep in my arms and I was talking with Vicky who was sitting beside me. Mum was driving with CT beside her and they were chatting with each other. I was also talking to my dad occasionally about the development in Singapore. There is really a lot of construction going on.

We had a 8 course dinner starting with sharks fin soup (which I wouldnt order if I was the one doing the ordering), steamed prawns which was huge and juicy, roast suckling pig, fried crispy soon hock fish with some black sauce, stir-fry suckling pig (leftovers of the earlier dish) with spring onions and ginger, yam basket (which is what this restaurant is popular for), brocolli with assorted mushrooms, ee-fu noodles as well as honeydew sago for dessert.

Check out the roast suckling pig..My brother actually went for the ears. I was grossed out by him. Haha..I told him that he reminds me of Fear factor where the contestants eat raw pig snouts with the hair still intact. Gross, right? Heard the snouts in Fear Factor are chewy and difficult to swallow.



Anyway for this dish, we eat only the crispy skin which is served with a flat steamed bun with sweet sauce.

And this is the crispy fish that we had



Initially, Caleb was behaving himself-quietly sitting down on Vicky's lap. But after our 5th dish, he started crying so loudly that we had to bring him out to change his diapers, give him some milk and put him to sleep.

Here is Caleb trying to fall asleep all by himself in the pram. His looks now reminds me of the cat in Shrek 3, giving that dopey look.



After dinner, we took some pictures outside the restaurant. Janine went onto my dad's lap. Check out how wide her legs can stretch...



And this is the family photo. (Picture taken by Vicky)



The couple behind my dad is Chloe and Chung. Chloe is from Hong Kong and is my dad's god-daughter. She was my dad's physiotherapist in Singapore General Hospital. She's same age as me too!

As we were walking to the lift, Janine was happily pushing Caleb with lots of enthusiasm as she was walking so fast and reckless.



I will upload the video of Janine pushing Caleb in this blog soon. Having some technical glitches uploading it.

On our way back to my parent's place(as I parked my car there), Caleb fell asleep in CT's arms..how sweet. It's nice to see Caleb behaving well and also when CT displays his fatherly affection and responsiblity towards Caleb.

Wheee...

Today at work, have been so busy from 745am all the way to 2pm without resting or sitting down in my staff room. Early in the morning, I had to open up the Multi-Purpose room for the Sec 1 Express students as they were going to have their IPW Briefing. So, had to go up to prepare the room and sit them down. Also helped to set up the mike and computer for presentation. Thank God I was not told to present anything.

My Sec 3 Form Class would be going on a trip outside school- Otah Factory, Mushroom Farm and Wheat Grass Farm. I was told initially that I would be going which I was really looking forward to. First of all, I love to spend time with my class since I have missed out so much when I was on leave. Secondly, I would love to see the farms. I love mushrooms and wheatgrass drink. So, it would be interesting. However, because I was down for IPW and there were parents who are coming down to talk about their child, I was unable to go. Sigh..

At 9am, I sat down with 2 of the parents from my class as they wanted to go through the exam papers with the subject teachers to see where their child went wrong. I really appreciate parents coming down and being concerned about their child's progress and how they can help to guide them further. I know of many cases where parents do not even bother about their child's grades or behaviour. They would just leave it to the teachers and expect us to discipline and bring up their children for them. I guess because they are either busy, or they have totally no idea how to discipline the child or maybe both.

I have known of parents who told me before that they cannot handle their children anymore and tears welled up their eyes-Their children would defy them and even come to a point of scolding their parents. That is why they wish the school could do something. They seem really helpless. I totally understand where they are coming from and I do wish I would not come to that point of being so helpless.

When I finally could rest from my work as I went back to the staff room, I had to sign the results slip and stamp the school stamp on it before I passed to my principal to sign. After that, I rushed home to spend time with Caleb.

I didnt have time to even have lunch. So went home and got Vicky to help me prepare this new product which I have not tried-MSG free instant pasta given by my colleague!



The packet came with the styrofoam cup and even plastic spoon.



As I was eating, Vicky was trying to get Caleb to do his business on the potty. So, she took off his diapers and while waiting, Caleb was dancing on the dining table.



After he gets tired, he would automatically sit down and rest..


After finishing my late lunch, we went down to the playground..

Visited the garden and spotted a few interesting plants..



First up, bittergourd!



Then spotted the brinjal(also known as eggplant or aubergine) among another plant.



Vicky even spotted a pumpkin plant.

Then I saw a few papaya trees. One of the fruits was quite big already.



Then there was even a banana tree but no fruits.



Also spotted a nice brightly coloured flower.



Then while walking, Caleb had his first encounter with a cat.



We then went to the playground and Caleb went on his first slide..He enjoyed it!

Vicky and I took turns to bring him on the slide.



Well, I had fun too as I cant remember when was the last time I went on a slide! Goodness!



I also went on the rocking horse with Caleb. I remembered when he was about 2 months old, he used to cry when placed on the rocking horse. But today, he seemed to enjoy it since he wasnt crying and considering how long I spent rocking with him.



Really had a great time with Caleb. Though I was so tired from my work, it was nice to be able to spend time with him to play.

Eversince a mom, I had to sacrifice a lot of my free time to dedicate that time to Caleb-play with him, read to him, feed him, bathe him, pacify him to stop crying,put him to sleep etc. Now the only free time I have, I would be either be expressing my breastmilk or blogging.