Last to leave

Someone ever told me not to let Iden be the last one to leave the child care centre as he will feel abandoned. We have tried our best not to let him be the last to leave and so far, we have been quite successful, until just now. In the past, ipapa could knock off early and pick up imama from work before picking up Iden. We would be able to reach his centre at about 6.30 pm. However, with ipapa just started a new job today, and for other reasons, it is not possible for ipapa to do his duty. The task of bringing Iden home now lies on me. Here's the tough part. You see, my official working hour is from 8.30 am to 6 pm. I must set off from my office at 6 pm sharp in order to catch bus service 105 which comes at about 6.15 pm. The bus journey from office to the bus stop near the child care centre takes about 30 mins (provided Orchard Road has no traffic jam). After I alight, there is still a 5-min walk before I can reach the centre. All in all, by the time I reach Iden, it will be 10 mins to 7 pm, the closing time of the centre. By then, friends of Iden would have left and he will be lonely, and that was exactly how he felt just now. Mrs Tan told me that Iden kept calling for me and Bryan's mum told me that Iden was crying when he saw that the other kids had left. Well, I know how he felt, but that's the best I can do. Things will be better if I am allowed to go back earlier, but my request of reporting to work and knocking off 30 mins earlier was not approved by my boss some time back. So, my hands are tied. I just hope Iden can understand this as he grows older. Meanwhile, I will still try my best to reach him earlier each day. Please help me to pray for the bus to arrive earlier and that the traffic is smooth all the way back.

Water confidence

I still remember the first few times when we brought Iden to the pool, he would not dare to walk on his own. He would want to cling on to ipapa.

However, with frequent visits to the pool now, his water confidence begins to grow. He gets to enjoy more now.

Papa the hairdresser

Ipapa decided to trim Iden's hair himself. To keep Iden still, ipapa switched on the CARS movie and let him watch while he cut. Well, the end result was pretty satisfactory and that helped us to save S$15 for a while.

Patience

Ever since Iden knows how to wear his own shoes, we have always asked him to wear them himself. To get him to wear his shoes is easy, but the wait for him to finish wearing takes ages! He will take his own sweet time, put in his foot into each shoe slowly, adjust the tape slowly until he is satisfied. On normal days when we are in no hurry, this long process is perfectly all right. However, on days when we are already running late, this slowness is real frustrating. We will then have to give him a hand to expedite the process.

Not only wearing of shoes, other tasks like eating, drinking, etc. All these also take a long time. Iden doesn't have a sense of time, huh? Or am I being too impatient? Haiz.... that's the thing about living in a fast paced and competitive environment. Everything has to be in a rush. Perhaps it is time for me to slow down my pace and learn to be more relax like him.

Train set

Iden gave me a pleasant surprise just now.

While waiting to go to school, he took out the train set (given to him as a gift from his uncle) and started to play. The wooden train set is pretty similar to the Thomas train set. I was sure Iden doesn't know how to assemble the set as I have not seen him done so. Just when I was about to assemble for him, he took out two pieces and started to put them together. He continued to form the track until all the pieces were used up.

For a moment, I was lost for words. A bit guilty too for not having confidence in him to be able to do it. But, it was nevertheless a great morning gift for me. Well done, my boy!

Class photo

The wait is finally over!

Iden had his class photo taken on 22 September 2006 and only today that we received a copy of it. It is a very precious piece to me since this is the very first class photo of my dear son. Can you spot him?

I have a strange feeling when I look at the picture. I can't explain the feeling.... it is kind of happy and sad at the same time. My boy has grown up.... from a helpless infant to someone who has a mind of his own now.... time flies and things happened so fast.

I wonder if Iden will still recognise his classmates 20 years down the road. I guess he will probably laugh hard at himself when he looks at this picture. We will get to know the outcome when it is time....

Car obsession II

Back to Iden's craze over cars. He has quite a stock of cars now.

If you think that he has only 4 cars, then you are wrong. Apart from these fabulous 4, he also has many other smaller cars. Prior to all these, we had threw away a few as they were faulty after being man-handled roughly by Iden. Luckily these toy cars are not so pricey. Can you imagine if they are real cars??? How can we afford to buy and replace so often?

An apple a day...

I must admit that I am getting lazier. In the past, I would bother to peel the skin of an apple and cut the apple into small slices before giving to Iden to eat. But now.... I simply passed him one whole apple to bite. Well, he is not complaining (he doesn't have any choice too). In fact, he is enjoying the crunchy bites and jaw exercises!

Car obsession

Iden watched the CARS movie 5 months ago and his love for the various car characters in the movie is still going strong. So strong that he has to sleep with them almost every night...

Keira's birthday party

Iden and Ilis were invited to attend Keira's birthday party just now. It was a fun-filled evening for everyone. The highlight of the whole evening, apart from the cake cutting, was the taking of the staircase picture. The parents had such a hard time making all the kids sit still for the picture. It was only when imama's friend, Carolynn, showed off the secret weapon - sweets, that the kids agreed to cooperate. Here is one of the better pictures taken amidst the chaos....