Xavier's Videos - Jan 2011

Below are videos of Xavier taken recently in Jan 2011.


Xavier entertaining himself with the mini slide at Toys 'R Us. He must have slided at least 10 times before I took this video.


Xavier having fun with the Leapfrog Leaptop. It states on the box that its for age 2 to 4. I wonder if it's really useful for Xavier at this age. But he sure knows how to move to the beat.


But one doesn't seem to be enough for Xavier. He shows us what "multi-tasking" means to him. Feels to me like a DJ spinning different turntables.


Xavier loves to express his thoughts now and he would keep calling out to us till we give him our full attention before he talks us what he want to say. We had a talk about balloons for his birthday and he insist it should be pronounced as "bul-ing". 

Gran Turismo 5: The Beginning of the Baby Racer?

You may recall in my earlier post about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (NFS: HP), I briefly mentioned about the driving simulation game, Gran Turismo 5 (GT5), and how people would buy PS3 and steering wheel just for that game? I did that too! Well, for 1 day.

I can only (barely) afford to play one game at a time and when many of the NFS: HP players switched to GT5, I went along with the flow. GT5 is a driving simulation game where it tries to simulate driving in the real world. They have an A-Spec part where you play the driver and win races for credits and cars. Then there is the B-Spec where you play the manager of a racing team, supply the cars and hire drivers to win races for you. There are also other aspects of the game like Online (where you racing with your friends), clearing Licenses (for cars and bragging rights), Seasonal Events, Special Events, Arcade mode, etc. Its one of those games that will probably have a long lifespan and its a very involved game.

Its double the fun when you have both the car model and the virtual car in the game.

So involved that I followed what my geeky heart told me and ordered the Logitech G27 Steering Wheel and Apiga AP2 Wheel Stand. I convinced myself that the G27 wheel would allow me to have fun playing with the Clutch and H-Shifter driving all those dream cars in Manual (as my current ride in real life is Auto). And the foldable feature of the AP2 would make storing ideal as it would not take up alot of space. So when all the stuff arrived on Saturday, I happily spent the night setting it up.

However, once I played two races, the "practical" side of me begin to feel the "After-Purchase Guilt". And it was so strong that I sold off the whole set the next day. My reason for selling were as follows:

1. The high price tag (SGD750) for the wheel and stand doesn't quite justify the small amount of time I have to play the game. Plus I would probably not have time for games at all after July.

2. Its rather tedious to set up the stand and wheel (need to move aside the mat, plug in power and usb, position the chair and stand), play about 1 hour then collapse the stand to keep. It's very heavy.

3. Storing it without collapsing is bulky and since I did not get wheels for the stand, its heavy to move it around for storage.

So off it went to another happy gamer at Bukit Panjang. But not before some photo opportunity for Xavier, the baby racer!

I would consider this setup if I have a dedicated entertainment room and the "cockpit" and wheel can be in a permanent position, all ready to play whenever I have the time. Till then, I will make do with the convenience wireless controller of PS3.

The Making of Xavier's 2nd Birthday Party

Xavier's birthday is coming soon and preparations are ongoing as I'm typing. We decided to keep it to immediate family members this year (just like last year), main reason being its very close to the Chinese New Year period and people might still be doing their visiting.

And being so close to Chinese New Year pose other challenges. Pine Garden's Cake, with whom we ordered Xavier's 1st birthday cake, is closed during that period. Catering options, balloon and party providers and are also limited for the same reason. This sent Lilian and myself into a little panic initially. But it also force us to explore and consider other options.

First things first, the theme. Xavier <3 his Cookie Monster soft toys more than the others so I decided to do a Cookie Monster and Sesame Street Theme. I love Sesame Street myself, having grown up watching it and Xavier seems to enjoy watching the Sesame Street now.
* Left image from fanpop.

Second and probably the most important, the cake. Since Pine Garden's Cake is out, we looked to the other more established cake shops (since they are likely to be open). However, only Polar Puffs & Cakes has the license for Sesame Street and their minimum order was too large for our party. Design wasn't impressive as well.

So I went to Google for some home-based bakers in Singapore and to my surprise, there were quite a number of them with very pretty cakes. Shortlisted three bakers: Aunty Yochana, Yummyumkins!, All That Matters. Decided to order from Aunty Yochana as she reply my emails and queries fast and was available to make the cake.

Aunty Yochana makes very cute and pretty fondant cake and customised characters. We love feasting our eyes on fondant cakes but find it too sweet for actual consumption. So we requested for a sponge cake with fresh cream and will provide her with the cake toppers. I don't know if she will still customise some characters but I leave it in her good hands.














* Left image from ourpartyshop and right image from Amazon.

As for cake toppers, I found these two very appropriate (especially the Cookie Monster with a "2") and decided to use both. Aunty Yochana has the set on the right and I got the Cookie Monster from the eBay store ourpartyshop.

Babyterror was where we got his balloons last year (see how much fun he had walking about with it) so we got abit worried when we saw they are closed beginning of February for relocation of warehouse. Fortunately Lyna was still able to accompany my order despite te relocation. We found them to be very accomodating and their price very resonable.

As for party favours, I went back to order from Kidz Party Store where we got last year's Pooh Bear cake topper. Was initially thinking of making our own treat bags by printing Cookie Monster images and pasting on coloured paper bags. But laziness got the better of me and I decided to get the Cookie Monster and Elmo treat bags from them instead. What's gonna be in there? We will keep it a secret for now.
* Above image from Kidz Party Store

Lilian is coordinating the catering and we should finalise it hopefully by this week. Now to keep our fingers crossed and hope everything goes well.

Yu Jie's Baby Shower

Steven (my brother-in-law) celebrated my nephew Yu Jie's baby shower today. I took my camera there to take some photos but Xavier prove quite a handful so my camera was t-loan to Lilian's cousin. So most of the photos where taken by her.

Red eggs are a must for baby shower with rustic calender as background.

The many faces of our star of the day.

Here's Yu Jie taking a nap.

Everyone having a turn carrying the baby boy.

The other kids keep themselves occupied.

Mang Kiko's Lechon

Most of the stalls in Lau Pa Sat serve average tasting food at pricey food court price (in my opinion) but there are a few rare gems there that serve great tasting food. Mang Kiko's Lechon is one of the rare gems.

This stall serves mouth-watering Filipino Roast Pork and Chicken. The big roast station on the left of the stall rotates rows and rows of pork and chicken over the white hot charcoal. The sight of the oil oozing out, coating the meat itself and eventually dripping into the charcoal and smoking the meat a heavenly sight for meat lover like me. My stomach is making noise now as I write this post.

I have tried the both chicken and pork before. The chicken portions are generous. The chunks of tender white chicken meat and that oh so tasteful chicken skin is a must have for chicken lovers and for those who are more health concious. I remember when I was trying to increase my protein intake, I just to order 1/2 chicken no rice.Yummy. 

The roast pork however is where the money is. Generous portions of tender roast pork with charred skin is an irresistible sight. Sink in your teeth and the grease, the charred skin, the BBQ aroma filled your mouth all at once. It's so good it always makes me sit back and chew slowly to salvage every bite.

There are a number of sauces to go along with your choice of meat and my favourite is the brownish-greenish one. It adds a sweet touch to the meat. They recently added chilli sauce too (probably by popular demand to go with the chicken). It also comes with free soup if you dine there.

Lau Pa Sat, Stall #27 (near Wendy's)

Xavier, 23 months on...

Xavier is gonna be two years old (or "two old" as Xavier would say) next month. Just a little update for 23rd month.

He has a mind of his own now and he wants a say in his life, from the kind of food he wants to eat, to which colour matching clothes to wear, even down to which animal cartoon is on his diaper?!?!

He still doesn't like to cut his hair at the normal malay barber (like Sri Nada), preferring Junior League which shows his favourite cartoon while he gets his haircut. Bad news for us cos the latter cost more than double. :(

His cartoon preference has also changed and his order of preference is now Bob The Builder, Thomas and Friends, Barney and Friends. He also seem to like his Cookie Monster soft toy alot, insisting on bringing one of the two Cookie Monster soft toys to school.

He has a liking for books which is great. He would ask for one of his books to be read before his last milk feed. Lilian also recites ABC and 123 with him and he is able to repeat after her pretty well. He also loves to dance to and "sing" Jingle Bells, Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider, though I'm trying to think of a CNY song to teach him.

My mum also started Xavier on a Barney jigsaw puzzle recently and surprisingly, he enjoys it. He is able to put the simple puzzle together on his own, then flip it all out and start again. To date he has 4 jigsaws. But most of the time he do not have the patience to complete it before moving to another toy.

He absolutely hates brushing his front teeth. Whenever we finish the back teeth and wanna brush his front teeth, he would shun away and shut his mouth, much to our frustration.

He can open doors and climb onto our bed on his own now. He is also able to eat on his own, although it usually ends in a mess. His favourite food includes mushroom, cheese pancake and raisins.

We also started him on the concept of savings and to put all SGD1 coins into the giant Hershey's bottle. But to him now, its just getting coin from daddy and mummy, putting them into the bottle and peeping through the hole so see where it went to.

Dealing with Kid's Demands

Xavier will be turning two next month and he is already starting to ask for things. And he is also getting more whinny and his fake cry acting is getting more polished. There was once when he was crying and whining about wanting to play with my remote control car and when I finally agree, his face changed 180 degree from crying to beaming.

As parents, we have to stand firm. I've been drilling into him that crying gets him nowhere. If he wants something, he has to ask nicely and he may get it. If he cry, we would not be able to hear what he wants so he gets nothing.

The other thing I learnt is to stop his crying first then reason with him. He usually cry after I pick him up and ask him to stop crying. If I try to reason with him while he is crying, nothing goes into his head. He would crying louder and I would usually lose my cool.

And both parents need to work with each other. Sometimes when Lilian see that I'm losing or lost my cool, she takes over and vice-verse. One very important thing to note is both parents stand must be the same. If its different, do not express it or intervene in front of the kid. Do it away from him. Kids are very smart. If you were to do in front of him, he knows the "authority" can be challenged.

If you have other parenting tips, please share them. :)

The good things about Childcare Center

Xavier has been attending infant and childcare classes since he was five months old. Being almost two years old now, we see the merits of putting him in a good centre. Like today, we were watching TV in the living room and it was showing a programme with butterflies in it. I engaged Xavier by telling him that's a butterfly. To my surprise he did the following:


Lilian and I didn't teach him that so he probably learnt that from school. His school also recent gave us a file of his artwork that he does in class. There is a bear made from toilet roll cardboard, a caterpillar from egg carton, a sheep with shredded tissue and many others. Pretty interesting.

We also get constant positive remarks about how Xavier loves interacting with strangers (after some warm up), listens to instructions (at times), independent and generally well behaved (only in the presence of outsiders). Being in school parts a part and peer pressure also helps to bring them up the curve earlier. We are happy with Xavier's progress so far.

But there is always a price to pay and being sick often tops the list. There were times when Xavier catches another bug before he recovers from his existing bug and we had thoughts of pulling him out school. Let's hope this year Xavier is stronger and more resistant to sickness.

Happy New Year 2011!

Another new year greets us this morning. Wishing everyone a healthy 2011 filled with joy, laughter and hopefully wealth. Xavier would also like to wish everyone a good year ahead.


2010 has been a roller-coaster year for us. We had some good moments and some really bad moments that we can't wait to put behind us. Let's hope 2011 would be a year to remember, for the good things to happen. HUAT AR!