Foot

I've been telling Wolfram that I can feel a foot from Pikachu just above my belly button. Today at the ultrasound I had confirmation that it was indeed his foot.

Pikachu turned and is now upside down with the legs facing out which explains why I can feel him so much. 

One day we will actually see the foot from the outside and it will make me think of Aliens.

Watch-out! Cute monster coming out soon :)

Frustrating

Two birthday gifts arrived this week. I am not allowed to open them until Monday. They are standing there on the entrance shelves and it kills me!!!

Mission accomplished

Oskar may not have learnt much last week at school but he did pick up something: a good cold. 

Last night he was coughing a bit and this morning he had a bit of temperature, a runny nose and the beginning of a rash.

I guess that's the beginning of a long series :)

On a more positive note, Oskar finally said Maman. It took a week of school to finally get him to say it and it is one of the sweetest thing I've ever heard :)

Good bye Muffin

Today we received the sad news that Muffin was hit by a car last night. He most likely died on the spot which I guess is better than agonizing for hours on the side of the street. Yet, he is gone and we are sad.

We always knew that now that the cats are going out, being hit by a car was a risk, but somehow so far the kitty cats managed to stay safe. Until last night.

No more Muffin love. No more chasing Muffin up and down the stairs. No more Muffin purring near you on the sofa.

Muffin, we will miss you.

PS: I hope Mokka is not too depressed. She has never been without her brother.

Preschool - Day 3

We dropped Oskar and left him there for one hour. There was crying but apparently he quickly settled down. It all depends on how long is "a while".

I came back for the water play as we wanted to check how it was done. I found Oskar with Agnes, the assistant teacher (yes another Agnes). He did not want to go in the water but played on the side.

Shower afterwards was tough as Oskar did not want to be washed but once dressed up again it was easier. In all fairness I cannot blame him for not wanting a cold shower. Apparently hot water is optional.

Today they finally did the so called life skills activity and Oskar enjoyed the different puzzles.

The lunch was better but Oskar only ate two spoons of the rice. It tasted better than yesterday but had a strong flavor most likely due to the coriander. Oskar and many other kids did not like it.

Morning finished with the Chinese lesson. It's difficult for Oskar to engage because he has no idea what's happening. At least the teacher was more lively. I guess she is not a morning person.

Tomorrow will be the big day. We will leave him alone the whole morning.

After three days, I cannot help wondering if this is the right school. I find that they are not stimulating the kids so much. There are lots of down time (no wonder if you spend the day showering kids) and even when they do activities, teacher and assistant teacher do not really interact with the kids. I sat through 3 hours of Chinese and I have no idea what she was talking about except for the few words I remembered.   During games, kids are left alone just supervised. My vision of school was more than that. If we wanted someone to watch Oskar, we don't need a school. We had Tess and now have Agnes. School was supposed to provide him with what he can not get at home: playing with other kids and additional activities. While I'm sure the first one will come in time, on the second one in not sure this school will be able to help develop Oskar. 

Second day at pre-school

The second day started better. Oskar was in a good mood. Well until he realized that he had to go back to the pre-school. On the doorstep he suddenly refused to move and did not want to leave me. It does not help that they want to measure his temperature and check his throat. Some regulation asks them to do so to make sure no sick kid would attend school. Given the little girl who had a runny nose yesterday was not here today, I am not sure it really worked. I'm counting days until Oskar is sick.

The beginning of the morning was tough as Oskar would not let go of me. It got better when they brought games. It was rainy so no outdoor play but they played with balls inside. He would go play just checking that I was still around every now and then. I started to hope that he was getting into it.

The lunch was a complete disaster. Oskar did not like it and I can't blame it as it was tasteless. Menu was rice noodles with a tiny bit of chicken and green vegetable. Clearly he won't get his portion of proteins and vitamins from this and we will have to compensate at home. Staff was arguing that he needs to get used to it because they assume that he is not used to Asian food. I argued that he would eat if the food was good. Like for every canteen, food is not good. Not that this is surprising. Anyhow Oskar has been labelled a fussy eater. So friendly of the staff.

Today I had Agnes joining me so she could learn the way and get familiar with dropping Oskar at the school. When she came back I asked her to bring some carrots for Oskar. He ate the whole thing up. Poor kid was hungry and after his nap, he ate watermelon, yogurt and cake. Dinner was much bigger than usual as well. 

The rest of the day was as normal. He napped. He played. He laughed. He took long for him to go to sleep but I guess he's processing what's happening. 

Let's see how tomorrow goes. 

First day at pre-school

Today Oskar attended for the first time the pre-school Caelum Junior. We selected this pre-school among the millions available in Singapore because it was nearby, small and we had a good feeling about it. Hopefully our guts are right.

The day started bad with Oskar making a huge scene when I removed his socks. Yesterday we bought him new shoes because the old ones broke and he got blisters. We should have known that this could happen but we did not think. Oskar got his first blisters and it burnt when we put him in the water for the bath. We ended up showering him so it would not hurt but then he did not want to wear his usual pajama so we tried one of the new ones with socks so he would not get cold. Eventually he fell asleep but this morning, when I took them off, I unleashed hell.

Eventually he calmed down, took his breakfast and soon enough we were changing him in his school uniform. Yes, in Singapore, kids wear uniforms as of 18 months. Looking at him in his uniform, it was both very cute and scary to think that our baby is now going to school. Time flies.

After a short (sweaty) walk to the school, we were welcome by the headmaster. The school was waiting for him. They had put his name in the show cabinet so he can put his shoes there. His name is already on the birthday calendar. Teachers knew he was new. It made me feel good to know they have anticipated his arrival.

We are doing a soft transition which means today I stayed with him the whole morning. It was a good idea to get him used to the place with his safety net and at the same time give us an idea of what happens during the time at school. 

The Playgroup group is a group of 8 kids. 3 of them are already 3 year-old... the kids born in January who have to wait the next school year to start (sounds familiar?). Obviously they are more independent than Oskar. Oskar is the youngest yet the tallest. That's funny to see him a head taller than the other kids.  

The morning started with the Chinese module. Basically the Chinese teacher came in, had the kids sat on the map and started to speak Chinese for an our or so. She was showing things on books so I could encourage Oskar to go check them out but it was really hard for both of us to figure out what was happening. I was also expecting something more interactive based on our experience with the French lessons. I guess my expectations were too high. 

Once Chinese lesson was done, there was some playtime with cubes which Oskar seemed to enjoy. At least he left me to play with the cubes.

Outdoor play was probably the part he enjoyed the most as he could play with the cars and bikes outside. 

I guess it will take a bit of time for him to get used to this new environment. 

From my side, I had a bit of a shock when I saw how they changed diapers. I wondered why on the list of items to provide, only diapers were mentioned. No cream or wipes. Now I know why. They change diaper standing. If it's only pee, no wipe, no cream. They just remove the wet diaper and replace with a fresh one. Now if it's poop, the poor kid is in for a full shower. One kid pooped and he ended up naked in the bathroom getting a shower. I can understand that it's easier for them to wash vs. using wipes, but why a full shower? with shampoo and everything? 

I know it's Asia and things are different but I was not prepared for that one. At least, we can chose whether or not we want them to wash his hair or not.

The other surprise was lunch. Menu of the day was some rice soup with tofu. Oskar ate the rice but not the tofu. What can I say, he is our son :) I do feel that it was not much food in the end but that's maybe because he did not eat much because he was very distracted. We will have to keep an eye on whether he gets hungry at the end of the day.

After lunch, there was some playtime while they shower the kids before nap. We skipped the shower for today, We will try tomorrow.

Around 12:15, we left and walked back home.

Getting him to nap was difficult but afterwards he was our cut little boy. 

Getting him to sleep at night was super difficult as he cried for no apparent reason. 

I hope this is just a transition phase and that we have not completely messed up our cute sweet little boy.

Getting moving

For a few months now I have been using the Fitbit to track my steps. With a target of 10 000 steps a day, on days without gym I often find myself pacing the apartment to reach the target. It's actually quite inpressive how something so small is forcing us to move more: pacing while on a call at work, walking back from Bishan instead of taking the subway for only one station, going to the playground with Oskar... Anything to make more steps and reach the target. 

In theory this should help me get fitter and it did work with Wolfram. Unfortunately none of those fitness tracking device or app can factor in pregnancy. So I exercise, but I don't get much benefit from it. Hopefully it will pay off later. 

For a few days now I have been using the apple watch (great gift from my loving husband) and it's making the challenge even tougher. The watch counts active calories which definition is not clear. Apparently it factors in the steps, the motion and the heart rate. In other words, the fitter you are the tougher your challenge. The lazier you are, the easier your challenge. Again the watch does not know pregnancy so I get an almost impossible 610 active calories to burn everyday. That's more than Wolfram's target and only reachable if I go to the gym for a workout. I guess the watch won't be happy with me for another four months.

If you read this message sitting, get on your feet and make a few steps thinking of us :)

Oskar is getting a professional haircut

Apparent my talent as hairdresser has found its limit when I last cut Oskar's hair. This time we decided to take him to a professional: QB House kids. It's the same chain where Wolfram goes but for kids. For 20$, they cut the hair of your child while he/she is playing with an iPad.

It works so well that Oskar barely noticed that someone was cutting his hair. In 20min, our son had his first haircut without any tears. Amazing!