Monday, December 29, 2014

Orientation

Today is the parent orientation day. Mummy had a chance to meet Benja's principal and teachers for the first time. It was everyone's first visit to the school.

We arrived early and principal was very nice to bring us round the school.

Daddy was impressed with the huge playground and outdoor space. Mummy was impressed with the big snack room and snack menu consisting real food like porridge and noodles instead of cookies and bread.

You were hesitant to take off your shoes or enter the classroom at first. With some coaxing from mummy, you agreed to enter to look at the 'babies' who were going to be your classmates.

Very quickly, you got engrossed with the toys in class and felt comfortable with the environment.

During the parent briefing, you sat quietly next to mummy. Great concentration!

Mummy is so happy and proud that Benja is going to school real soon!

Gin Good Boy

Benja has always been fascinated with cousin Gin's big guns.

Yesterday, the 'crowd' manage to persuade Gin to lend Benja one of his guns. Benja praised him for his generosity, "Gin, good boy!" ^^

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Cereal

Benja's latest favourite food is oatmeal cereal with cold milk. Mummy's secret to this is sugar :)

Here, Benja has the luxury of drinking from two cups.

See the handkerchief? Yes, that one underneath the blue cup. Two seconds later, Benja will pull it.

How does mummy know? Because she spent 15 minutes cleaning up the mess caused by the cup of cereal drink that fell onto the floor.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Drowning

Last Sunday, you almost got drowned at East Coast Park.
It was Mummy's negligence

My favourite

Yesterday Benja started to say, "My favourite." when I passed him some bread.

Then he said, "My favourite milk." again to the milk bottle that we filled up with milk for him.

Mummy is impressed with his language development.

On the other hand, Benja started regressing/using the bottle yesterday. He had never liked the bottle since he started bottle feeding. He always preferred the real thing, which are my "yeye"s. The bottle was introduced to him yesterday by Marzuki Mama in an effort to get him more interest in drinking water.

Mummy doesn't like this "regression". There must be another better way to get him more interested in drinking water... :(


Self soothing for naps

Benja actually can fall asleep on his own for naps since a month ago.

On Monday night, you were so tired that you fell asleep without waiting for mummy to return at 8.30pm. Mummy came back and was half disappointed but half proud that you fell asleep on your own.

Actually last week you were ready to go to sleep at night without nursing. But mummy is not ready because we haven't got any recent photo of you nursing to be kept for remembrance. So it has to be delayed till then ^^

Notwithstanding this, Mummy is very proud of your latest sleep development.  You've come a long way, Benja!

Ps: Ah Ma told mummy, that you loved to cling to mummy's worn t-shirt or shorts when mummy is at work. You will sniff them and feel calm and restful. Well, this can be counted as your security item, right? ^^

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Recognising places

Benja has been good at recognising places since he was about a year old.

He could recognise the route to Yeye's house, Ah Ma's house, the expressway exit to our house, the route to the library and swimming pool, etc.

Last week, Daddy went on a business trip to Thailand and sent us this photo. Guess what Benja said!?

爸爸去zoo.

LOL

I have to agree, the background in the photo really resembled Ah Meng's cafe in the zoo ^^

Talking on the phone

Last week, Benja started having conversation with Ah Ma on the phone. He could greet her, answer her questions,  talk about what he had for dinner, say what he was currently doing, and bid goodbye.

Funny thing is Benja would always request for the other grandparent when the first grandparent picks up the phone. Sometimes he would also ask for Ah Ku.

Well done, Benja!

Play

Out of the blue, Benja wanted to ride on his Leapfrog purple dinosaur. He shuffled around a bit and finally managed to sit on it. But the dinosaur couldn't take his weight and toppled.

He also used the linking toy as a pacifier.

Creative play?!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Bread

Benja took a loooong time to learn to eat bread. He was never used to a sticky piece of thing in his mouth and would spit it out.

The first time Benja ate a big piece was 2 months ago with Breadtalk's raisin pillow bun. He finished 3/4 of the bun. He absolutely loved it.

Here, he's eating french toast made by Mummy. He finished a good 3/4 slice even after he had just finished his breakfast of porridge.

Some weekday mornings, Daddy would also give him half a piece to munch on. He could finish all of it.

Mummy is relieved that Benja has finally learnt to eat bread ^^

Bath

It's amazing to see how much you've grown Benja. Soon, you'll have to bend your knees! ^^

Haircut

Ah Ma brought you for a haircut two weeks ago. She brought you to a few salons and you refused to enter. For the last one, she took you in without asking.

At the beginning of the cut, you kept crying 不要不要 and was so afraid that you shivered.

Then the hairdresser whispered 不会痛对不对? 有没有痛?

You managed to calm down slightly when you noticed it wasn't painful. But still, the entire experience was traumatising for you.

When you saw Mummy, you couldn't control and cried tearfully again.

Ah Ma and Mummy felt so guilty.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Shame

I don't know if the following is a result of the feeling of shame.

Last evening, Benja was airing his bottom as usual. Veda showed up at our door and Benja was happy to see her.

The next moment, Benja rushed into the bedroom.

Daddy followed to see what Benja was up to. To his surprise, Benja pulled out the exact drawer where his shorts were kept, fished out one and asked Daddy to help him put it on.

The moment his pants were up, Benja dashed to the door to meet his best friend again.

How cute!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Expressing love at 25 months

Last night, the weather was so hot that I woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep again. So I watched tv from my bed.

Benja stirred and was waken up by the bright screen. I quickly switched off the TV to restore the darkness.

But it was too late. Benja tossed and turned and talked to himself in darkness.

We were both having insomnia.

I opened my eyes to peek at him, only to find his big eyes staring back at me. He was smiling at me :)

The next thing Benja did was really sweet. He reached out one hand across my neck and pulled my cheek in for a peck! Then he did it again for another 3 times! These were real kisses with suction and smacking sound!

Hee hee... last night was not the first time I received real kisses from Benja. He did it once last week.

On Saturday morning when he had a nice time playing with his teddy bear, he also hugged and kissed the bear and said, "I like bear bear."

Don't lose this love, Benja!
Xoxo Mummy

Flu

A month after the Perth trip (where Benja boarded the plane with fever and blocked nose), he is sick again. Luckily, just a short one.

The culprit must had been the big bottle of cold milk, desserts, ice cream and cold outdoor shower Benja took during Lao Ma's (great-grandma) birthday BBQ at East Coast Park on Saturday evening.

On Monday (15/9), when Mummy was having lunch at Beyond Veggie with her colleagues, she received a call from Mama checking on the dosage of paracetamol for Benja. He was having a fever of 38.2'. Late afternoon, he was given another dose of paracetamol. By the time Mummy picked him up, the fever was a low 37.2'. And after that, no more fever, just runny nose with lots of flam.

On Wednesday night, Mummy had an important work commitment to attend to. Daddy took care of Benja all by himself. As Benja waited for Mummy, he made 'bug gun' with his Lego blocks and played every single toy he had. When Mummy reached home at 9pm, Benja showed off his toys and kept telling Mummy stuff. Boy, he must had missed Mummy. Tired, both Benja and Mummy slept soundly throughout the night.

Benja is left with slight flam and runny nose now. Hope you can get well soon!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Lip balm

During the Perth trip in August, we applied lip balm to moisturise his lips. But his lips still cracked. To add to that, he had an ulcer in his mouth. Luckily mummy convinced him that drinking water would help. So Benja drank lots of water during the trip.

Last week, Benja developed an ulcer on his lower lip. He complained of the pain and asked for "lip balm".

That was about 4 weeks apart. Great memory, Benja!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Biting

On Thursday evening, Veda dropped by our place. In a struggle for the remote control, Benja bit Veda's arm.

Veda's mummy was so upset that she almost cried.

Mummy told Benja off and flicked Benja's lips with a finger to punish him.

Then Benja realised he was wrong and cried badly. Mummy could see that Benja was truly sorry for his action and comforted him.

Like, love, want

Last night Benja was searching for baby stuff on my phone. Sometimes he watched videos of himself, sometimes he watches kids programmes on Youtube.

As he fiddled, he said to himself,

"I like baby.
I love baby.
I want baby."

So cute XD

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Airport

Benja saw our neighbour leaving the house with a luggage. Ah Ma asked him to bid goodbye to our neighbour. Instead of saying goodbye, he said, "Aeroplane" and went back playing.

You are so smart Benja, you can associate luggage with airport, and you can remember our last trip to Perth 4 weeks back where we pushed our luggage around the airport. Great memory work, Benja! ^ ^

Friday, September 5, 2014

Gun

Look Benja is making a gun!

Anything can turn into a gun for him.

He says, "Gun! Piang piang!"

OMG... He learns fast :(

Monday, September 1, 2014

Seat belt

Many months back, Benja developed an interest in plastic fasteners. Fasteners were on his high chair, stroller and car seat. He loved the challenge of putting them together and hearing the successful "click".

The interest in seat belts had led him to associate the nylon straps with seat belts.

Here, Benja was keen to carry the backpack because it had long 'seat belts' hanging from the sides. He tried putting them together. Realising that there is no plastic clasp, he invented other ways of playing with the 'belts'. (^^)

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Caterpillar truck set

This was Mummy's present to Benja for his 2nd birthday.

Benja has always shown great interest in excavators. Mummy remembered a couple of months back, Benja was still calling them 'truck'. 3 weeks before he turned two, he called them 'ter'. One week before, he managed to say 'vator'. At the beginning of this week, he said 'exvator'. occasionally, Mummy heard him saying 'excavator'.

Mummy was extremely proud when Benja said that. It was a great achievement, converting what one hears into actual speech wasn't an easy feat. Well done, Benja!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Benja turns 2

Here's my lovely Benja on the evening of his 2nd birthday.

Benja blew the candles out on his own and helped himself to the strawberry as well as the cake.

Keep growing and learning, Benja!

Saturday, July 19, 2014

5 minute sleep suggestion

It's 7.10am. Benja hasn't woke up yet.

It has been a long time since Benja slept past 6.30am. The situation turned from the worst last week. He didn't return to sleep after finishing his early morning feed at 6am. The problem lies in his bowel clock. He would always pass motion at 6+ and would tell us that he pooped. The cleanup would be done with the lights switched on, so he would be fully awake after the change.

Yesterday, Mummy had the rare chance to put Benja to sleep for the morning nap. So she used the 5 minute sleep suggestion to suggest that you will enjoy yr sleep and wakeup late. Not only will you require to nurse later (at 6.30am), you will not pass motion and return straight to sleep after nursing. You will only wake at 7.30am.

Mummy did the suggestion again at night.

Magically, after you nursed at 6.25am, you mumbled "Good night.", turned around and continued to sleep till now.

Let's see what time you will wake today... :)

P/s: Mummy also suggested something else. I will write about it if you display the behaviour ;)

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Happy 13.5kg

Let's record this joyous moment where you are a healthy 13.5kg! ^ ^

Last Sunday, when there was only Benja and Mummy at home, you finished a bowl of porridge with fish all by yourself.

Great job, Benja! Mummy is very proud of your big step towards independence.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Cousin love

After dinner, Mummy took the opportunity to take a snap of Benja monkeying around with 7 year old cousin, Xuanny.

Today, Xuanny asked about the school that Benja will be going to. Then she took a piece of paper to write down Benja's name and the name of the school that he'll be going to. Benja was very interested to see what Xuanny has written.

Mummy is very grateful to Xuanny who has always shown kind unconditional love towards Benja, like, helping to feed him, letting him play with her stuff (Mummy can never forget the time when Benja broke off the hand from Xuanny's doll and we called upon doctor Aunty Nena to help save the broken doll.), dancing with exaggerated actions, acting like a clown/monkey trying to induce a smile from Benja.

Xuanny always tells Mummy, "I think you will born 2 children. One is a boy and one is a girl."

Mummy hopes so too ^^

Mosquito bite

Benja is using his fingernail to peel a scab from an old  mosquito bite on his right shin here. This expression is a result of him bearing the pain from it. He had been peeling it so often that the wound got bigger and took more than two weeks to recover.

And this is the third time Benja revealed his shoulder through the collar. With his botak head, Benja looks just like a little monk. (The first two reveals were during bedtime with his pajamas.)

Benja looks innocently comical doing 'serious' stuff like peeling scabs, naming the objects he see outside the window, and singing along to the Barney music CD with his bare shoulder and innocent face. ^ ^

Friday, July 4, 2014

Fur balls

12 June 2014

Today we were playing with some coloured fur balls the size of  Cheezels. Benja would throw the ball and Mummy tries to catch with her hands.

Dog Dog was by our side. At first Mummy made Dog Dog pick up fur balls with his paws. Benja found it interesting and wanted Dog Dog to catch the balls he threw.

In order not to let the balls drop through Dog Dog's paws, Mummy showed Benja how to hold the balls by keeping them close together.

Here's Benja trying to do exactly that.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Empathy

Benja displays empathy in many situations.

The first time was towards our neighbour Veda's cries. Benja would make a frown with a 'woo' sound to imitate her and say "Baby, cry" or "Da, cry." That was many months ago when Benja was 16 months old.

It was in one of his favourite books "Girls and Boys Don't" that Benja fully understood the word "cry".

When a singer sang with great sorrow on a tv programme, Benja looked at mummy with his squinted eyes and said, "Woo... aunty cry."

You could perceive the sadness even when a person was not crying - through her expression.

On Mummy's birthday, she wanted to go so very much to Sentosa with you, but with the splitting headache she couldn't. When Mummy cried, you felt for her, hugged her and said, "Mummy 怕怕。"  Mummy was so touched by the gesture.

Barney show

Benja saw Barney two nights in a row (19 and 20 June, Thu and Fri).

The plan was for Mummy to bring Benja to the Barney show at City Square Mall on Friday evening.

But on Thursday late afternoon, Daddy was facing some bottleneck at work and he decided to call it a day earlier. So he fetched Mummy and we dashed home to pick you up in time for Barney. It was crowded but we managed to squeeze into the cordoned area for a seat. Within 3 minutes after we settled down, the host came out, and Barney, Baby Bop, BJ too.

Barney and his friends sang:
1) Mr Parpanickel
2) Just imagine
3) Green grass grows all around
4) Funny actions
5) Mr Sun
6) I love you

After the show, we hung around and watched kids who had the special passes to take individual photos with Barney. Daddy tried to take photos of us with live Barney as the backdrop. You couldn't take your eyes off Barney, so all we got were either your face with no Barney, or Barney's face with the back of your head. 

Mummy and Daddy felt thirsty after the singing, so we went to NTUC to get a drink. At the self-service check-out counter, Mummy noticed people discarding their shopping receipts into the waste paper basket next to it. She got an idea!

Tomorrow, Mummy shall rummage through those bins to get $50 worth of receipts to exchange for a special pass to meet Barney face to face and take a photo with him!! And she did! We took a family photo with Barney, all thanks to our clever Mummy! Isn't she smart??!!

At the second meeting, you knew what to expect, so you were much more excited and active. You reached your hands out and shouted, "Barney!" when Barney appeared on stage. You attempted to sing and sway along with the songs. You cried, "Baby Bop!" a number of times too. Mummy thinks you like Baby Bop more than Barney.

During the photo session, you said you were scared of Barney, so we stood next to Baby Bop instead. As what Mummy had suggested, you touched her head. Yippie!

This was the fun-nest outing we've ever had as a family.

Beading

Benja picked up beading after playing with the beads for 20 minutes last week.

He was so engrossed that he didn't even realise that Mummy lied down to relax and switched on the TV.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Swimming

Saturday was the first time Benja enjoyed the pool. He liked splashing water, waddling on the shallow steps of the pool and catching water from the spouting fountain on the water playground. Benja smiled and laughed the whole time there.

Daddy says Benja looks very cute in swimwear, especially his buttocks :o XD

Mummy is glad that Benja is no longer afraid of the water.

If we all had past lives, Benja's past life must had been a dog. He always sticks out his tongue and leaves his mouth open...


P/s: It was reported that summer temperature reached a record high of 32 degrees on Saturday. There could be no better time to visit the pool.

Precious egg

Benja had half of an hard boiled egg all to himself yesterday morning. He savoured  it in tiny bites.

Mummy likes to see Benja stuffing himself with food (^ ^)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Week of many firsts

My darling Benja,

For the first time in your life, you...

1) Almost had your head shaved.

2) Went to the toilet without telling anyone, passed urine, and showed the potty with urine inside to Daddy.

3) Ate 90% of your dinner of cabbage fried rice on your own, albeit with much credit to Barney and a little help with the scooping from Daddy.

4) Loaded shells and marbles onto your moving recycling train. You either chased after it, or waited patiently for the perfect time when it reaches you.

5) Felt comfortable walking on the rough sandy beach in your bare feet.

6) Wore Ah Ma's silk tank as we had run out of dry tops.

7) Blew Mummy's recorder of 26 years.

8) Spoke in three-word sentences like, "Papa keep train."

9) Slept through the night from 8.30pm to 6am the next morning. Without mursing or waking up (actually you had been doing that for the past week).

What an eventful week it was!

Love,
Mummy

Lost his hair

My poor Benja lost his hair.

It was a miscom to Ah Ma. We din tell her how short it should be.

Even Aunty Nena screamed "Oh my!" And hugged Benja tightly when she saw him. She mumbled that Benja reminded her of her son when he was young.

This morning Yeye did that too.. ( v  v,)

Now he calls Benja "Or Ni Ku" (little monk).

Monday, May 26, 2014

Veda's food

Last Friday evening, our neighbour Veda came over to play. Since it was her dinnertime, Veda's mummy brought along her baby food to feed her at our place.

Aunty P let Benja dip his finger into the food to have a taste. Benja seemed to like it. So Aunty P scooped out two spoonfuls for Benja to eat on his own.

Benja really enjoyed the food. It was the first time he sat down and helped himself to the food till he finished everything. Daddy and Mummy were amazed. *jaws dropped*

At Mummy's suggestion, Benja scooped food out of his bowl to feed Veda. Awww... that was so sweet... you've really grown, Benja! And Mummy is very proud of you!

Cars

Mummy likes to let Benja put on his squeaky shoes for the supermarket. All she has to do is to listen for the direction in order to locate Benja between the tall shelves.

But this time, Mummy found Benja after hearing a big squeal and some baby talk.

Benja discovered a little paradise for himself. Look at the way he sweeps cars off the shelf!

Pole dance

Monkeying around the metal poles of his swing, for daddy.

Looks as if he were pole dancing, yeah?

LOL XD

Monday, May 19, 2014

Playground

Before and after warming up at the playground ^^

Vesak fun 2014

Mummy brought Benja to the temple nearest to home by bus. Benja had a quick breakfast of kuay teow soup and we were off by 8.30am.

This is taken while waiting for bus. Benja was very excited. He kept saying, "Stop bus. Stop bus." Mummy wondered why he said it that way. Did he mean "bus stop"?

Benja liked to refer to the Buddha as 佛佛. I think he meant 佛陀. He always tells Mummy he's scared whenever he saw the Buddha image. He would tap his heart or upper tummy area lightly.  "Scared. 佛佛.怕怕." are his words.

When Mummy was having lunch, Benja slipped away to explore the temple on his own. He observed people putting their hands together and bowing to the Buddha image with the lotus candle offerings. He copied the action, said it was "拜拜".

Benja also enjoyed drinking the cool orange juice at the temple.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Mat Yoyo fan 优优猫粉丝

The closeness and concentration...

Now Benja will start asking for 优优猫 both in the evening, morning and in his dream (yes, he said 优优 in his dreams last night).

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Heavy

Bag bag. Heaby (heavy), heaby.

The blue bag that contains Benja's daily 4 reads at Grandma's place.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Y Glider

See him kicking with his right foot in this photo?

At 22 months, Benja can ride the Y-Glider after watching his cousins for a day. He can either push with one foot or maintain both feet on the board (mummy push). But he hasn't learnt how to stop yet.

Earlier at 15 months, Daddy setup the seat, but it wasn't used because Benja could not balance and kick at the same time. After 2 topples, Daddy felt that the Y-Bike offered more stability.

Benja has slighly outgrown the Y-Bike, so the Y-Glider came at a good time.

Fishball

What's in Benja's mouth? Fishball!

Benja remembers this. He asked for 鱼ball. Haha..

This is the second time he's eating fishballs. Last week, Mummy gave him one for the first time. He seemed ok with it. This time Mummy gave him two because he asked for it.

Benja would put the entire fishball into his mouth only to realise he can't swallow it. Then he would take it out with his hand and take a bite, some chewing, and another two bites. It's gone! ^^

According to Babycentre, 20 month olds learn 20 words a day. Mummy's sure Benja will say 'fishball' correctly the next time he sees it.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Tv

Benja is quite picky on the programmes he watch. Tried Baby Einstein and Zoo Moo, he gets scared when the puppet characters come out.

Right now, Benja's fave are:
- Mat Yoyo
- Barney
- 水果冰淇淋 feat. 美人鱼

He loves the theme song of the 美人鱼 segment and would ask for it to be replayed at least 5 times. To request for the programme, he would say, "奶奶。鱼。要。(Grandma. Fish. Want.)" and "Again." to request for song replay.

Mummy and Benja are enjoying this segment together in this photo. See the exact replica of body pose and facial expression ^^

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Conveying message

Last Saturday evening, after Benja nursed, he suddenly sat up and said, "Grapes." Then he looked into my eye, nodded his head and said, "Grape 要."

I didn't want to accede to his request. In order to deter him from going out of the bedroom,  I said, "去跟爸爸讲你要 grape. (Tell daddy you want grape."

Benja wriggled forward, holding my hand, wanting me to go out with him. I followed. 

He entered the study and stood in front of my husband. He said loud and clear, "爸爸grape要。grape要。"
He got the grapes he wanted.
------------------------@-----------------------

Dear Benja,

Well done! Not only did you understand mummy's instructions, you relayed it clearly to Daddy!

This photo was taken in Nov 2013, when you just started walking.

You loved the shiny sparkly 'balls' on the supermarket Christmas and would point and say, "Ball!" excitedly on every ball you spot.

You've came a long way, Benja!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Toilet training

Benja, you successfully passed urine in the toilet at your own control once on Saturday and thrice on Sunday! Yay!

Somehow, you knew what to do. You tried to stand in front of the toilet bowl, but it was too tall.

So, mummy asked you to go to the bath area instead. You squatted down, put your hands to support yourself and concentrated for 5 seconds. Then, out came to urine!

When you are done, you said, "便" which was the second syllable of the word 小便 (urinate).

Mummy cheered and praised you for doing that in the toilet. You smiled back proudly.

Congratulations on the job well done, Benja!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Goldfish

Grandma bought $2 worth of goldfish for Benja. She said, "才两块钱而已,又不是很贵。" (it only costs $2, it wasn't expensive at all.)

Benja couldn't contain his excitement when mummy went to pick him up. He exclaimed, "鱼!" more than 10 times.

Kind Grandma and Grandpa split the goldfish into two plastic containers to be placed in the two houses (grandma's and ours) .

Benja is still interested in the fish after two weeks. He would climb from the dining chair onto the table to look at them. Awww... that's dangerous!

Bye bye

Benja mastered the goodbye wave many months back, around 12 months old. At first it was a simple fling of the arm. Then it was the flexing of the wrist. Now Benja can wave with palm opened and fingers stretched.
Benja verbalised "bye" shortly after he started calling papa and mama. He knew when to use it.

In the evening, at grandma's house, he would say bye once mummy picked him up. To Benja, mummy carrying him is the first step to leave grandma's house.

Sometimes mummy just wanted to pick him up to wash his hands. Sometimes it was just to see flowers in the garden. Benja made the grandparents laugh when he said, "bye." during these times.

Mummy improvised by saying, "走,妈妈带你回家 (come, mummy take you home)。" Benja quickly learnt that 走 means to leave and would say "bye" upon hearing the word even when he was not picked up.
Now, Benja is able to speak in two-word sentences. He would say, "Bye bye, 爷爷。Bye bye, 嫲嫲。"

Last week, grandma taught Benja to say goodbye to non-humans. These are what mummy heard:
- bye bye cat
- bye bye 鱼 (fish)
- bye bye rice
- bye bye soup
- bye bye plants

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Haircut

First haircut was 13m, Benja was quietly observing the hairdresser and only started crying at the last stage when his hair needed trimming by the electric trimmer.

Second was at 17m before Chinese new year. He started crying as soon as the inexperienced hairdresser switched on the trimmer right at the beginning of the session.

This time, Benja refuse to even sit on the barber's chair. Both barber and mummy awkwardly apologised to each other and we left.

So Daddy asked 姑丈 if we could borrow his electric trimmers. He said yes. We went over and Daddy started shaving the back of Benja's head. 姑姑 held Benja's body still while mummy and the cousins watched on helplessly as Benja cried throughout the session. Even after he's done, Daddy would re-examine the hair and say some parts require more trimming. The process starts again.

Poor Benja, he cried so much that mucous dripped into his lips. Benja tasted his own mucous for the first time!

It took a long 10 minutes for the sobbing to die off.

Back home, Mummy stealthily trimmed and neaten the fringe and borders with scissors. Benja walked all around the house doing his own business. He took the cut quite well. Phew!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Bra

Bra bra!

Mummy opened the umbrella to show Benja how it works. Benja got really interested and learnt the word "bra (umbrella)" immediately.

When Benja is interested in something, he would want to explore it on his own. He touched the spokes, swinged the umbrella about, and... hit it on the ground.

"Snap!" goes the umbrella. Oops one of the spokes broke.

Hee... what a price to pay for teaching Benja one new word...

Monday, March 17, 2014

Grandma's place

Kembangan Ma Ma is going on a long vacation. Kind Tampines Ah Ma will be 'hosting' Benja for the next two weeks.

Benja looks totally comfortable sitting on the sofa and listening to Ah Ma's teachings.
Have fun bonding with Ah Ma and Ah Kong!