Trying Not To Be Taken Over By The K1 Madness

Haiz… TJ received his first rejection letter last week. Rejected from Think Intl… bloody hell. Reason given on the letter “Due to overwhelming response from parents…” Blah Blah Blah.

I kinda had this feeling that he will not get in anyway. We had the interview at 9ish in the morning that day, and there were already loads of eager beaver parents and kids. Well, interviews were conducted for all levels, pre-nursery, K1, K2 and maybe K3s, and the interviews went on till 4ish in the afternoon, so I supposed out of the many “thousands” of applications, we were just one of the many.

D asked me if YMCA doesn’t accept TJ, then how? I told him, I don’t know, seriously. I don’t want him to travel too far, and definitely not take the school bus. I get these paranoid thoughts of him alone in the school bus and it just gives me a major headache. So maybe he will not go to school at 3 years old.

Nowadays, I am just spending my time checking out different kindys/preschools websites and see if (1) application for K1 is still opened and (2) what my instinct tells me about the school, and getting stress each time. I am thinking if he doesn’t get a place in K1, it’s not the end of the world, but will I be shortchanging my son?

I want TJ to have a good childhood, and I know they learn best through play at this age. But on the other hand, I do think I need to expose him to some school-like routines to prepare him gradually for primary education.

I am thinking perhaps he would actually say more words if he is in a place where he needs to, unlike at home where we all understand him without him having to say much. And since I am not that consistent with using Mandarin at home (English is TJ’s native language now), perhaps putting him in school will get him to pick up the language much more effectively than from me.

I intend to sign him up for the YMCA “Toddlers World” when the next 11-weeks class start in Jan ‘10. Can’t remember if it’s twice or thrice a week, and it’s about 2 hours each morning.

The main reason I am signing him up for the playgroup  is that YMCA Intl Kindergarten gives priority to those who have gone thru’ its Toddlers World programme. The only thing I don’t like is that it’s mainly in English, so no Chinese, which means, I have to maybe put him in Mandarin playgroup on a weekend?!? I think I better force myself to think and speak in Chinese than to have him attend classes on a weekend.

And the second reason  is that I can’t keep TJ at home all the time. As it is, he does watch a far bit of  TV during the day (I’m not that anal about TV prohibition) and there is only so much playing at the park/playground each day. I can’t expect my helper, nice lady that she is, to give him the extra simulation from an educational perspective.

Physically, our place is far away from the choiced kindys/preschools, so it does limit our choices, especially since I don’t want him to spend too much travelling time. Think Intl would have been the best, as TJ would only need to walk to school. He wouldn’t have to wake up too early, and I could take him to school first.

Unlike back home in Sgp, I wouldn’t have that much problems with deciding on a school… a KINDY/Preschool for the matter, this is really crazy. Now, I am becoming one of those stressed out HK parents. Here, it seems more important to get a place in the school of your choice first then move house. Different for Sgp parents, since you wanna move first so that you can be within the 1km radius and have a higher chance of getting into the school of your choice.

And all these kindys/preschools are privately run, even though they are registered with EDB, so different schools have different types of curriculum… British, NZ, French, Montessori or a mixture. So I have to think carefully and ahead to see if the school will be ok for TJ as it sets the foundation for his next stage of education, which will obviously be the S’pore curriculum, even if we aren’t back home by then, he will be attending SISHK.

Perhaps God doesn’t think TJ need to go to school yet, so I shouldn’t push for it. Darn it… I am going to stop being one of those crazy HK parents, and just concentrate on TJ’s toilet training (he’s still only telling us after he has done his pee and poo), transition him from his cot to a bed (major project during the Xmas break) and just making sure TJ has good manners.

First Interview (6 Nov 09 Friday)

So it has come to a stage in our lives that we need to make an important decision, not the most important one, but enough for us to rack our brains over.

School admission… for a 3-year-old, which is considered late by most HK parents’ standards.

Nursery/preschool/Kindy interviews are a norm in HK, most schools (i.e. the private ones and not government-run) conduct interviews at least a year before the start of the new academic year which starts every Sept. There are some which accept kids on a first come first serve basis, but these schools are few and probably not something I would look into as TJ’s first school.

Actually most local HKers send their kids to school at 2 years of age, not cos it’s a childcare arrangement but cos the parents want their kids to start school that early. Period.

And the craziest thing is that getting into a good reputable kindergarten is of utmost importance cos it would determine the kind of primary school that the kid enters later, and subsequently that will also affect the choice of a secondary school too. Parents here tend to put their kids into ThroughTrain schools, so that they don’t have to worry about finding primary or secondary schools later.

Moreover if parents can afford, they would prefer to send their kids to the numerous International Schools from an early age, as the perception is that these schools are much better than the local schools. Here, anyone can get into an International School, as long as you have the moolahs.

S’poreans aren’t as kiasu as Hkers, and when it comes to education, the system here is not meritocratic like S’pore. My hometown’s system may not be the best (is there ever a best system in the world?), but it still has its merits since  I now have something to compare against.

My criteria for TJ’s first school: Bilingual in English and Putonghua (must say “Putonghua” and not “Chinese” cos to Hkers, Chinese is Cantonese), within budget (there isn’t any govt subsidies in HK if parents choose the private schools, unlike back home in S’pore) , morning session (cos TJ naps in the afternoon for about 2.5h) and that TJ doesn’t spend too much time travelling to and from school.

So we submitted our applications to just 2 schools, one that is within 5 minutes walk from our apartment (Think Int’l) and another a bus ride away (YMCA Kindergarten). I know some parents would send in loads of applications to many schools just cos it’s so hard to get in to the school of one’s choice, and it would be statistically logical to cast your nets wide.

We took TJ to his first interview at Think Int’l and it was a really strange affair. Prior to this, I had asked people and read up on the  forum  but still went in blind. For someone who really likes to be prepared for things, this interview was a headless chicken that ran round and round. It would not be honest of me to say that I wasn’t stressed by the thought of my 25 and a half month-old Neanderthal going thru’ an interview, but I was curious to know what the interview entails.

We waited for about 15 minutes before it was TJ’s turn, and were directed to a table (there were 8 other tables) surrounded by 4 chairs, one of which was occupied by the interviewer/teacher.

First question was “What’s your name?” in Cantonese (*roll eyes*) and obviously TJ wasn’t going to to answer to that. D told her that we speak English to him and she tried the same question again in English and he doesn’t say his name either. Actually he doesn’t say his name at all, even though we tried for the longest time. Once when we asked him that same question, his eyes grew as big as saucers, and his look was like, “Are you guys daft or what? You know my name and you still wanna ask?” Can’t blame the kid.

But he answers to “Who is the handsome boy?” by raising his hand.

Then there were the tasks: Putting the pieces back on the puzzle, stacking the cubes on top of the other, colour matching with shapes and threading beads together.

TJ didn’t put the puzzles pieces back to their original spaces, but inspected each piece and placed them neatly on the puzzle board.

He only stacked 2 out of the 5 cubes and decided it was better to arrange the cubes neatly in a rectangular array.

The colour matching exercise didn’t interest him, and he just placed the shapes neatly (again) on the laminated card, and it was a fluke he placed the green shape on the green square.

As for the beads, now that is one high cognitive exercise that I dunno what is the educational rationale behind it (maybe to check on dexterity and if you have an one-track mind). Anyway, the beads resemble this black Agnes B ring that I have, and I know this cos he picked up the black bead and put it near his ear, something that he always does whenever he picks up my ring. TJ put his hands in the mini basket and rolled the other beads around, toyed a little with the rubber thread and just pushed everything aside thereafter.

The interviewer had demonstrated all the tasks to him before giving him the chance to replicate the actions, but TJ did his own thing and I could sense his boredom cos those stuff aren’t interesting to him. In fact TJ was polite enough to sit through this entire interview without fussing and only showed that he was bored by shaking his legs quite abit and looking at the door each time another kid entered the room with his/her parents.

I wasn’t sure what our roles were during the interview. Do I help TJ? Do I show him how to do each task step by step? Do I keep quiet and let him do his thing? Should I throw the things at the interviewer/teacher and growl at the school Principal? Oh I felt like growling at her when she asked if TJ knows colours. I suppose he does, but I don’t think it is an important knowledge to him.

Anyway D and I didn’t help much, I reckon the interviewer/teacher should  be able to see my son for who he is, and to see the merits of what he does even if it is not done in the standard way. I think any parent can train their kid to do similar tasks at home, and would then ”ace’ the interview. But I’m not that kind of parent, and I will not forcefeed my kid with such insanity either.  

I was thinking during the colour matching task: If I had known he was going to be asked about colours, I should have brought his toy vehicles, cos he recognises which is the GREEN motorcycle and the RED fire engine and the BLUE Thomas.

His boredom wasn’t the only thing that I sensed, D’s stress level was hitting me quite hard and after the interview, D felt awful for his son and I had to reassure my older kid that these tasks are crap and it doesn’t mean anything, and definitely doesn’t determine my son’s intellectual level at this age. Besides this silly exercise that we went through wouldn’t have been necessary back home in S’pore, and since we can’t fight the system here, we just had to do it. And well we wouldn’t know if we would be back home end of next year, and if we don’t return, these are just some of the things that we got to do now.

We wouldn’t know the results of the interview till 2 weeks later, and YMCA would only notify us of any interview next Mar, in other words, if a vacancy comes up cos YMCA kindy is more popular. I told D that if TJ can’t get into any school at 3, then let it be. He can enjoy his childhood abit more. Besides, if we do return to S’pore next year, finding a school for TJ wouldn’t be this hard and stressful. So either way, we shan’t stress our lives over this.

I had this urge to punch someone at the interview, and to prove to the interviewer that my son understands our questions, I asked him the ”handsome” question and he promptly raised his hand with a cheeky smile on his face.

And just before we left, TJ blew kisses at the interviewer, waved and said bye. He had pushed his chair out when he got off the chair, and I called him back, “Please push in your chair.” The boy walked back and did exactly what he was told and followed a very pleased mum out of the room.

Sun, Sea, Sand & Spa @ Sanya 19 – 23 Oct

Our first official family holiday to somewhere else besides our kampung, S’pore.

I had my weeklong mid-term break and we had planned for this trip months before. Original venue was Phuket, but flights were already fully booked at the beginning of September. I had heard about Sanya, being the PRC version of Hawaii, and since we are beach bums, we decided to go there instead. Sanya is just about an hour-ish flight time away from HK and we were fortunate to get a pretty good family getaway package at Kempinski Resort & Spa.

Overall, we are pleased with the resort. TJ had loads of fun running around in our deluxe ocean view room and climbing up and down the king sized bed. D was pleased with the balcony which was his cigar-smoking zone. The free internet access was a godsend although I couldn’t access Facebook, Youtube or blog cos all these sites are banned in PRC. So I had less distractions and more time to start on setting my share of the SA1 paper, which I did after TJ slept. Yup, I took work along on the family holiday.

Bedtime was horrid on the first 3 nights, TJ just didn’t want to sleep until close to 11 on the first night and around 10 pm on subsequent nights. I don’t blame him, TJ is so used to sleeping in his own cot since he was born and this was the first time he had to sleep with us, in a new and exciting environment. Still we tried to keep to his routine but it was tough. I tried carrying him, rocking him, patting his butt, but TJ is so heavy now for me to do that. And when he was too tired, he would scream and cry before falling asleep with me holding him on the bed. And when I tried to peel myself away from his grasp, TJ would scream, squirm onto me and hold me even tighter. This went on a few times, and I was held hostage.

Even though we all slept on the king-sized bed, which technically meant there should be enough space for 3 of us, it was not so. Our son who slept between us would push and kick us to the edge of the bed, and when he couldn’t nudge or elbow us any further, would wake up and cry murder. There were good days and not so good ones and woken up by TJ at around 6ish one morning wasn’t something I expected on a holiday.

We didn’t get to make sandcastles on the beach but managed to take short walks there. And we only used the huge pool on two days before the topical storm poured continuously the next 2 days and nights. Still we were very fortunate to get those 2 days of good weather, ‘cos my student’s mum (saw my student and her family at the airport while waiting for our flight back to HK), that it rained for 4 days and nights over at the Ritz, where they stayed. Apparently it rained on more days over at Yalong Bay, where the fancier and better 5-star resorts were located.

The rain continued without lightening up, we were getting quite bored with staying in the room and watching Thomas and Friends. After a slow breakfast, I took TJ to Kidz Kempi, the resort’s indoor kids club and stayed there for close to 2 hours while he played with the many toys and kept himself entertained.

Food was ok, lots of selection at the daily breakfast buffet and for dinner, we just had BBQ buffet at Paulaner Brauhaus since it was included in our package. It got kinda boring after the 2nd night, so we supplemented the usual BBQ spread with ala carte stuff from the menu. D and I had the brewed beer only on the first nite and subsequently had our glasses of chardonnay instead. TJ wasn’t too keen at mealtimes, and didn’t eat as much unlike at home. Think he missed homecooked food, but on the last nite, I realised that I could order rice and stir fried veg at Paulaner Brauhaus, and fed that to TJ together with some of the BBQ chicken. He was happy to eat rice and drink the clear soup but not the angmoh Potato cream soup.

We braved the rain on 3rd day and took the free car ride to the supposed “shopping” strip at the city area. But it was raining so heavily that roads were flooded and by the time we got to the city area, we just zipped through a very boring “mall”, went to check out the supermarket and bought a few cans of coke, some imported kids cookies from Korea and Koka cup noodles (S’pore Laksa & Tom Yum flavour and imported from our kampung). Macs was next to the supermarket and we decided to ta bao our lunch. TJ had his first Fillet O Fish burger, and he almost finished the entire burger. On the way back to the hotel, we took the taxi and prayed hard during the entire ride that the flooded roads would not stall the cab and leave us stranded. The only person who was totally relaxed was TJ, who fell asleep in my arms, while D and I had this perpetual cramped look on our faces each time the driver revved the cab to keep it going, drove quite fast in the pouring rain and wet roads and talking on his mobile phone (no handsfree) at the same time.

D and I each saw two young kids, one a baby girl of maybe 7 months old at the supermarket and an older boy who was about TJ’s age at Macs. What caught our eyes was that both kids had their underpants on and no diapers. So what right?!? Except that their underpants had a huge tear, stretching from the front to the their butt crack for ease of pee and poo. We don’t think this is a fashion statement, and understand that diapers are expensive. But having the kids so exposed in that manner, with their genitals all exposed to the elements is very disturbing to us. The boy at Macs was seated on the table, and seriously, his exposed butt and all is on the table, which may not be clean to begin with and what about the next customer who comes in and eat at the same spot? So we are wondering, what is the point of wearing that tattered piece of underpants when what should be protected isn’t.

On the 2nd day, D did a 40-minute dive and he was very disappointed with the so-called good divesite, he reckons some divesites at Sai Kung are way better. In fact, he was also not impressed with the dive shop, especially since he was told that he would take over the BCD and the air tank from the previous client at the dive site, and that the air tank had only about 150 bars left. Anyway, D was so bored during the 40 min dive that he just wanna get it over and done with.

The day before we left, I treated myself to a relaxing Swedish/Thai massage and a facial at the Angsana Spa, pure bliss and relaxation for 2 hours. TJ had his afternoon nap, while D watched over him, while I took some time out for myself. Actually, 2 hours wasn’t enough but at the back of my mind, I didn’t want to stay too long away from TJ either.

The sun finally came out on the day that we were supposed to return to HK, double drats, but it was still a great family trip. The weather could have been better, but what matters is the time spent with the people who matter the most and creating memories for ourselves.

Photo Slideshow here.

Never Again

For the past three-plus weeks, TJ had this huge ugly red boil on his clavicle which hurt him when we touched it. I thought it had popped up cos of the water in the pool when I took him swimming the day before the boil appeared, but then again, I had taken him to the pool on numerous occasions and nothing happened.

We took him to see our usual GP and was prescribed antiseptic cream to apply. The swell went down, became pink and was softer and I thought, great, it is getting better.

However it never did and it became larger and redder. We saw a few more docs and all said the same thing, that the boil had become an abscess, was infected and the abscess needed to be surgically drained and cleared of the infection.

Last Friday, we got a referral to see a surgeon and had him take a look at TJ’s abscess. And when the surgeon mentioned that TJ had to be under general anesthesia, that he had to fast 6h before the minor surgery and had to stay overnight in the hospital, my heart sank. I didn’t think this would be such a big deal, and actually thought that the doc could drain the infection in the clinic with a needle and a syringe, or even if some kinda surgical procedure needed to be done, it would be just a day surgery.

So while waiting for D to arrive at the clinic for further discussion, I took TJ to get an X-ray done. It was hard… he didn’t like the dimmed room, didn’t like that I had to push him down on the cold metal bed, didn’t want to stay still for the X-ray to be taken, and TJ’s eyes were pleading me to let him go. And of course, that boy had to retake the darn X-ray 3 times cos of all that NG takes, and I had to go through the entire cycle again.

The surgeon wanted to make sure that the infection hadn’t reached his clavicle, cos if it did, we would need an orthopaedic surgeon to be in the operating theatre too.  After checking the X-rays, and by then, D had arrived, we had to go ahead with the procedure cos this abscess had been around for way too long, and it was 1.5 x 2cm large. 

So D-Day was chosen, 5 Oct 09, Monday afternoon at 2pm in Baptist Hospital.

The weekend was so hard for both D and I knowing that TJ had to go through an operation even if it was a minor one. I became really paranoid and thought of the worst possible scenario. I kinda blamed myself for letting the abscess grow so large and for so many weeks.

On the day of his op, D and my helper took TJ to the hospital instead and I stayed overnight at the hospital with TJ. The whole day while I was in school, it was hard to concentrate but I knew D was taking good care of TJ. As much as I would want to be there for my son, I couldn’t take too many days off. So D and I took turns, and I was just relieved that TJ was up and about when I reached the hospital later in the evening. My boy didn’t know what had happened, and according to D, he was good and brave, and didn’t fuss a single bit during the time when he had to fast for 6h before the operation and 4h after the operation.

We were fortunate that we could hook up the PSP, which has been preloaded with lots of TJ’s fav cartoons, to the LCD TV, and this bascially kept TJ entertained during the long hours of waiting. As for us parents, we were thankful for the free internet access and that the entire almost HK$11k hospital bill (not including all the consultations and followups with the surgeon) will be covered by D’s medical insurance. I reckon we may not need to pay anything, or even if we do, it could be a small amount, since we didn’t get a semi-private 2-bedded ward.

The next morning, 6 Oct, I had a major scare when the surgeon told me that TJ might need to stay one more night for more observation. I was not that keen to stay an additional night, partly cos TJ couldn’t quite sleep well in a new place; his roomate and visitors were noisy; and most importantly, D and I would have problems taking an additional day of leave. In fact, D only took half-day leave that day, thinking that we would all be discharged by 12 noon, and he could see us home before going off to work in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, TJ and I had to stay on till the surgeon returns later in the evening for a second look at his open wound, before making the decision. By then, it meant we had to pay an additional day cos we didn’t “checkout” by 1pm. I reckoned if the doc felt it was better for TJ to stay one more night, we would do that and I would just heck it and take another day off, even if it had to be unpaid leave. I thought, “The kids can survive another day without me anyway, and my son is so much more important than school.”

Fortunately, we could be discharged later in the evening, and after going through the heartbreak moment of holding TJ down while the surgeon changed his dressing a second time, I was in a better mood and just wanted to go home. The bill took about an hour to arrive, and D met us at the hospital after work and we were all just thankful that God was watching over TJ and that everything is over.

I simply can’t imagine going through something like that again, hospitals depress me. I thought about those parents whose kids have to go through multiple surgeries or stay long periods in the hospitals, and realised those are the real heroes.

Bedtime Stories

Well for now, TJ will not be telling the stories and making them come true like the movie with the same name (the one with Adam Sandler). That movie was quite a cute, happy ending kinda movie, not something that I will watch again and again though.

Anyway, ”Dinosaur Roar” is TJ’s current favourite storybook (Many many thanks to Aunty Janis for good taste in books… although he still doesn’t quite fancy the Spider one yet).

I do enjoy this book, ‘cos it has such nice and colourful graphics, short phrases and nice rhymes too. When we first got the book, TJ didn’t quite fancy it and when I tried reading it, he would stop me.

Just before his bedtime, we would read a story or two and usually, TJ would be the one to choose the book for the night. Then one night, TJ picked out “Dinosaur Roar” and it has been his favourite book ever since. And I seriously dunno why he is so tickled by the first page, but his laughter and attentiveness make me willing to read this book night after night. I suppose it wouldn’t be long before I memorise all the words in the book, just like the ones in “The Hungry Caterpillar” (by Eric Carle) and “Goodnight Moon” (by Margaret Wise Brown). Incidentally these books were also gifts from Aunty Janis. You must be very pleased and proud of yourself after reading this.

I am not much of a storyteller, but I don’t think it matters much to my son. He gets a lil’ impatient if I dawdle too long on a particular page and so I can’t always describe other stuff on the page.

We have been reading to TJ since he was about 3 months old at different times of the day, but especially just before bedtime so that TJ knows that bedtime is drawing near. And since then, TJ knows the routine and spending this 5 minutes with him is something that I enjoy as much as him. Rarely have I missed a single night without reading to him, and if I really have to be out that night, D will read to him instead.

I sure hope that TJ loves reading, just like D and I, and this would hopefully transfer to good grades too.

Caps

Both D and I don’t really wear much headgear, although we do have a number of caps and my Aussie Outback Hat that I bought from a shop in the Blue Mountains back in 2005.

But with TJ, it’s a different story. Seems like little kids just look really cute in all kinds of hats and caps. He has a couple of beanies and numerous baseball caps, some of which he has already outgrew. I just think any cap or hat looks darn good on my lil’ fashionista son, though I can’t say the same for his father. Somehow, D just look odd in a cap, not sure why, but maybe cos he has a small head.

On Friday night, we attended this Sunnto product talk organised by PSAI at a cafe in Central and took TJ along with us. Of course TJ would not be able to sit through the entire duration of the talk, and after he got tired to playing with his toys and watched enough cartoons on D’s Zen player, I had to take him out for a walk. (Some pics here)

Fortunately for both of us, H&M is nearby. At first, my son refused to let me go into the store. He shook his head repeatedly and pulled me towards the side of the walkway so that he could watch the vehicles zip by.

But after a couple of minutes of that, I had enough of standing in the humid night and carried TJ into the cool confort of H&M. It was a real oasis for me, and TJ enjoyed playing hide and seek amongst the clothes rack while I made sure that I didn’t lose him. There wasn’t many customers on that level, so I didn’t mind letting TJ run off some of that energy as long as he didn’t get into trouble.

Obviously I couldn’t do any shopping but I entertained myself with putting on different types of caps on TJ and having him walk up and down the “runway”.

I decided to buy the Flat Cap, since it is cheaper now and TJ didn’t mind having it on his head. Well … actually, it’s cos my dear Brad Pitt has been wearing these caps. ;)

TJ’s No-Fuss 2nd B’day

Unlike the Lil’ Gym b’day party that we were invited to last Sunday by D’s colleague whose son (“The Lil’ Prince”) is 2 days younger than TJ, we opted for a simple no-fuss celebration for TJ.

Since D had to attend a talk at night, we had to celebrate TJ’s bday early in the morning before we left for work. So we woke TJ up just a tad earlier than usual, got him to drink his milk and quickly get down to celebrating his b’day. We had bought the cheesecake the night before and I had wanted to get TJ a pressie but couldn’t find anything that I particularly think he would like. Besides we had bought him a number of new toys earlier and he received a KMB double decker toy bus from my helper, which made his day.

Although… I was very tempted to get the Roland digital piano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are just blessed to have this boy in our life and grateful that he is happy and healthy.

Slideshow of the pics here.

TJ’s Second Year

My baby is turning two in another 52 minutes and I still can’t believe it. He has lost most of his baby fat and not as chunky as he used to be. Physically, he has grown taller and running around much more. TJ is cheeky and has a contagious laughter. He is easily frustrated when he is not able to put the trains together and can be a real screamer. And when TJ wants us all to be near him, he would hold our hands and drag us all onto the beanbag.

There were days which took forever to end, but the year has flown by so quickly. I hope that TJ has had a great year and that we had done well as two-year-old parents.

“What a difference a year makes.”

Crayola Graffiti

TJ prefers the markers than the crayons that I bought for him some months ago. I know this ‘cos the crayons are thrown all over the place and I suppose it’s cos the colours aren’t as bright as the markers.

I had previously taken the recycled A3 and A4 paper from school and had TJ sit on the floor to doodle, but realise he prefers to stand. Since there is no space for an easel at home, sticking those paper on the side of the bookshelf is the next best thing.

In fact, I actually congratulated myself for being a genius, coming up with ways to utilise our little abode.

Anyway, the boy doesn’t stay on this doodling activity for long, maybe 5 minutes or even less, but it’s a way to expose him to art. I am just glad that I bought these washable Crayola markers, cos TJ has a knack at getting the ink all over him and not just on his hands. Actually, between drawing with the Crayolas and singing, TJ prefers to sing… all kinds of cartoon theme songs he has been listening to while watching his cartoons. There isn’t any words, just the tunes, but it tickles us no less when TJ breaks out into a song. Makes our day really.

My son, the next American Idol?!?

InSPECKtor Tan

Not sure what TJ is looking for when he walks up and down along the table and the cabinets.  Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that lil’ brain of his… what exactly is he trying to figure out. I suppose the world is such an interesting place for him now, and because of TJ, I find myself slowing down and seeing the world thru’ his eyes.

@ The Regent (Sheewen & Lisa’s wedding 15 Aug)

@ Aunty J’s place – Any dust?  (Edgefields 7 Aug)

@ Grandma’s place – Shoe Cabinet (Sgn Nth 8 Aug)

@ Grandma’s place – Stroller Wheels (Sgn Nth 12 Aug)