Uniform

How time flies. Xavier will be starting his playgroup/toddler program on Monday.

His teachers in his infant program says he enjoyed his times in the toddler program when they brought him up during lunchtime to play with the older boys in the last two weeks. It was part of the transition program Learning Vision (LV) have for kids who is graduating from the infant to the playgroup program. I think he just find the food at the playgroup more interesting and that he gets to eat more. Ha.

Below are some pictures of him "modelling" his new uniform for the playgroup. Ah yes, the start of wearing uniform to school.

Father Son Polo Combo

Finally got the polos I ordered from Ralph Lauren's summer sale. Xavier and I seem to have a pair of similar looking polos. I didn't realise it as I thought mine would look more "weather" and "faded".

Was hooked to online shopping from US sites last month due to their summer sales and the low USD/SGD rates. And yes I overspent. So no more online shopping till next year.

Salute to a Super Family

How many children do you want to have? Hardly do you get a number above two. Which is why it amazes me whenever I see "Super Daddy" bring three kids to Learning Vision, only to chance upon his blog recently and learn that he actually has four kids!

The Super Daddy I'm talking about is Andy from Boys.Girl blog. If you are a parent of an infant or a troddler, you would know that handling one kid alone can sometimes be quite a handful. So imagine handling three kids alone! The thought of handling three Xaviers makes me wanna run away. But this gentleman does it with such ease, its almost unbelievable.

And I had thought (before I read his blog) that he might be some rich businessman who runs his own business and have time on his side to raise so many kids. But after briefly reading his blog profile, its hard to imagine the middle-income couple bring up their four kids with no maid at all. *Salute to Super Family*

I would definitely be reading and following this blog closely over the weekend and going forward. And I would definitely recommend any young parents and parents-to-be to visit their blog and learn a thing or two from them. I know I will. :)

Leonardo came to my dreams?

Manage to catch Inception recently. Its been awhile since Lilian and I last caught a movie so it was a big deal. Like almost everyone else, I left the cinema with question marks on my forehead.

One of the question mark was, "Have I been incepted recently?". I mean for years I have enjoyed eating the tasty food, which usually do not classify as clean, healthy food. Think braised pork trotter, fried chicken wings and fatty pork with apple sumi-yaki and you get the rough idea. And I have never believed in gym, much less engaging a personal trainer.

Somehow after my Penang trip, it stuck me that this year's IPPT is gonna be a steep uphill task, mainly because my weight and belt size has ballooned faster than the raise in COE prices. And the thought of wasting time at RT when I should be spending time with my family made me do drastic actions.

So I engaged a personal trainer to get my fitness back, changed my diet to cut carbohydrates and totally eliminate fried and fatty food from my diet. It came a point that Lilian took some of my vegetables from my soupy Yong Tau Foo as she had less vegetables on her plate; even she couldn't believe she did that.

Its been slightly over a month and I'm seeing results in terms of 1 belt size reduction and a generally healthier feel. But I still have to work on my pull-ups and 2.4km run to get through.

So was I incepted? I don't know as I don't remember dreaming about people saying I'm fat and I should get a trainer and work on my fitness. But the fact that the idea suddenly grew in me makes me wonder...

Xavier's 18th month update

Xavier had his final mandatory jab on 14th August and Dr. Tan said with a chuckle that his weight is off the chart already!

You see, the highest line on the weight chart represents the 97th percentile and his weight (at 13.50kg) is above that line. This means his weight is in the top 3% category of all Singapore babies at his age. (I would be happier if next time his school results is in the top 3% of his cohort.) Anyway I do not think its a concern at this point since he is very active and growing well. His height is at the 75th percentile (at 82cm) and Dr. Tan commented at this rate of growth, we would probably need to pay for bus and MRT fare when he hits 2 years old. Bummer.

Dr. Tan asked some other questions to gauge his growth and one of the questions was what words can he say now. Lilian and I scratched our head for a while as we didn't really take note. But slowly we came up with a small list. But after we reached home and thought over it, he could actually say quite a number of words and response to even more. So we decided to make a list of words he can say.

Words Xavier can say:

Ba Ba (Sheep), Baby, Back, Ball, Bao (包)

Car, Cheek

Duck

Ear, Eat

Fish, Four

Good nine (Goodnight)

Hua (花), Hug

Jie Jie (姐姐), Jiu (舅舅)

Kick, Knee

Mama, Mao (Cat), Milk, Moo (Cow), Mu (舅母)

Nice, Nine Nine (Nice or Yummy), Nai Nai (奶奶)

One

Pain pain, Papa, Pig, Plee (Please), Put

Shoo (Shoe), Shu (叔叔), Star

Ti (Auntie), Toe, Tor Tor (公公), Two

Walk, Wet Wet, Woh Woh (Dog)

Ye Ye (爷爷)

I hope to start a project on taking photos of him doing actions for words we say. Might take awhile but it should be fun.

Xavier's late photo update

The last month have been busy. Work has picked up quite a bit and Xavier's HFMD saga added to the stress. Being dual working parents hasn't been easy, especially when the kid is sick. We been fortunate to have my parents helping us out when needed.

Anyway with the HFMD saga behind us, and since today is our National Day holiday, I decided to post the very overdue photos of Xavier taken in June. More photos can be seen at my Flickr.

Here is Xavier, feeling very excited about his Macdonald's balloon.

"Mummy, can I play in the playground with the balloon?"

Xavier in his Sunday-best during his visit to Singapore Botanical Gardens.

"Wonder if mummy likes daddy to dress like this too?"

"Daddy, how many times do you want me to wave at your camera?"

"Mummy, can I exchange your kiss for that kite?"

"Can I keep this leaf, please please please can I?"

" Sssshhh..."