Watching theatre with him

Recently, I could sense Jovann's sibling jealousy, his possessiveness of my time, and his insecurity. And I started taking leave somedays to spend one on one time with him. In the past mth, have brought him to 3 theatre productions for children his age, and we had a lot of fun. Though his precocious 3yr old behaviour does still sometimes drive me up the wall hahaa.But I really enjoy those one on one hours with him.

18 August - Boom Bah by Windmill Performing Arts (Australia)
Its a picture book that comes to life on stage, in which children spend time with a cat, goat, pig and some friends as they create music from the spoons, cat food box, cup, chopsticks, washing, and other simple things found around the house. It was funny, and Jovann laughed out loud more than once. the actors were engaging, animated, and the entire perfomance was quite personal as the audience sit on the floor, on the same level as the actors.

Jovann waiting outside for the theatre doors to open.

After the performance, the "animals" interacted with the kids and let each of them try the various instruments in turn. Jovann zoomed straight for the violin first.
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8 Sept - The Little Green Frog by itheatre
Now this one is my favourite. Its adapted from a Korean folk tale, about a little green frog called Chung Gaygori,whom refused to listen to his mommy's wise advice and nearly got into big trouble. I like it for its educational value, and more so for its fantastic music, funny actors (I love that actress who did the mommy frog, she gave such a wonderful performance and hilarious washing up dance/song routine). It was interactive as the momma frog sought the little audiences help in hanging up her wash coz her little green frog did not heed her calls.

In cab with me.

This was held at the Drama Centre Black Box at NLB, and Jovann and me were so excited on the way there.

Jovann awed by the NLB surroundings

Playing with the leapfrog toys that latched onto the green frog theme to display their wares.

Admiring the view.

Brought him to the library of course, after the show. He took down nearly every book he touched and demanded I read it. We were through with almost 8 before I declared we need to eat.

After that we has an early lunch at the cafe outside NLB, and Jovann has carbonara spaghetti for the first time and didn't protest heeeee.

Being his cheeky self

The Boy who Cried Wolf (The Little Company)
This was a last minute booking, I decided to watch it and Joanne was interested so I bought tickets for the day after. I am glad I did. Jovann was near tears at the part where the big bad wolf was putting the 10 little sheep one by one into the boiling pot to cook. I was near tears from the laughing during the first few song and dance. All in all, its a wonderful show, albeit a bit lengthy storyline for a 3 yr old. But he sat riveted throughout. At one point, little Petey (the shepherd boy) was bored and asked the audience for advice what he should do to occupy his time. One shouted "blow the horn!!", and another boy yelled "Kill a Sheep!". goodness.

Breakfast with Reubern and Rochelle

Arrived at the theatre!

Jazreel at 10mths

My little girl is growing up so fast. She used to be quiet, sweet and good natured, but past her 9mths mark started showing her true colours. Now she's loud, fierce, supremely possessive of her toys, and is a doggedly determined little girl.

1. She started cruising around 9mths, and has 4 teeth by 8mths.

2. She likes baby crackers, and can munch one contentedly by herself, but usually will not finish. She started eating it for the first time on 4 Sep. She's still vomiting her food occasionally though.... :(

3. She don't dislike potatoes as much now, have not reintroduced parsnip though.

4. She chuckles out loud and laughs when we open the door to the masterbedroom and she sees gorgor and Daddy sleeping there.

5. She can't sit still, and is either crawling, climbing or exploring.

6. Since that time she called me mama 1-2mths back, recently she did it again at the dining table. Thereafter she don't do that anymore. But just last week, she yelled for my mom and called "Ah Ma!". quite a few times over the following few days...seems like not a fluke. needless to say, my mom was super pleased. Few weeks back, I even thought she said byebye when waving byebye to Daddy.

7. She hates it when gorgor or anyone takes the toy from her hand, and she will yell to make her feelings known.

8. Last mth, she attempts to catch our attention by waving her arms/hands in front of our face, but now she goes "ah! ARGHH!!" and points at us.

9. 16 Sept, climbed up the 15.5 inch high sofa by herself without aid, but grunting like a man in the effort. Aiyoh.

10. Hates anyone else washing her up for bed when she knows I am home. But she allows it if I am not home, but that only happened twice so far.

11. She is such a cia (fierce) char bor! Can't believe it. Hubby says that part of the genes' from me. HHmph.
12. She has this cheeky habit of sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, giving her a very impish look.
13. Since 9mths, she's no longer quiet and contented on the diaper changing table. She wails and screams and struggles like I am trying to torture her, and most toys won't appease her. She also has strong abs, and can crunch herself into a sitting position from the diaper changing table without pulling/holding onto any support at all.

14. At 8mths, she gave the first deliberate kiss to me, then 2 days later to Daddy. Both on the mouth hehee.
15. After her bottom teeth came out, she likes grinding her teeth. she has bitten me many times so far! Jovann has bitten me only twice during the entire 15mths of TBF! One night about 2 mths ago, she bite me when nursing, and I said "Ouch!" and pulled away. She looked up at me...thoughtfully...then grinned and started grinding her teeth cheekily! ARrrggghhh! No way am I putting myself back in her mouth that time.

16. She's so used to sleeping in her own cot in her own room that on weekend nights I bring her to our bed, its like she entered disneyland. She will sit up in bed, chuckle to herself in the dark, grin at us and touch our faces, climb over Daddy to peer down enthusiastically at gorgor. End up more often than not we don't sleep well.
17. She's just not putting on weight very well though, its been a mth and she still just reached 9kg. She's no longer as chubby as she was before that croup episode in July. I miss that chubby face. Milestones and aggressiveness are secondary, coz there's nothing else I want more than to see her grow well and healthy.

Jovann before turning 3

Its been a rather long time since my last update about my two little darlings. Have been so busy with birthday party planning (for the 2 of them), ferrying them to their activities, keeping up with their busy social calendar, taking outdoor photoshoot (more of that later), and our recent sentosa stay (more of that later too). Whew...*panting*

Jovann has turned 3, he's such a nottie little boy with many silly quirks and also bad habits. He loves mei mei and always brightens up when he sees her but he still pushes her, snatches toys from her, and refused to share toys sometimes. But other times, he will get busy bringing her toys to her, and under my suggestion, try to coax her to return his toy by offering her other toys. Still have to keep an eye on them playing together. Sometimes I do feel a wider age gap would be ideal but at other times watching their innocent play together is very fulfilling as a mom.

All about Jovann

1. He dances wildly sometimes when he's the mood, both hands flailing all over the place, head shaking, throaty yell like tarzan possesed.

2. He is very sticky to me now, and wants me to bathe for him, makes him sleep, feed him, change for him, everything. I could tell there's still a anxiety in him of me not spending time with him. A couple of times he even has crying fits when I leave house for work, crying the way he used to when he was much younger.

3. He says funny things. Sometimes they are sweet. Just 1 night ago, when I was preparing to read to him in bed and I helped him do something (I forgot what), he said "Thank you Mommy, you are always the best!". Wonder where he learn that from.

4. He has picked up this irritating and rude habit of repeating Daddy's admonitions. When Daddy goes "Jovann, stop doing that!", he will repeat mockingly "Jovann, stop doing that!". Hhmph.

5. He hates bathing now, and will throw tanthrum and needs a lot of coaxing whenever bath time comes.

6. He loves black sauce chicken or soya sauce fried fish that I did for him recently.

7. He is really really into dinosaurs. His favourite bedtime book now is Harry and the Dinosaurs say "Raaaaah!". And I bought for him a small dino bitty basket to accompany that story, as the bitty basket contains the various kinda dinos and a small dino land too. He has a dino colouring book, dino figurines, dino pencils. He's also starting to like the new school scrapbook I did for him.

8. For many mths now, he loves spelling out words he sees on brochures, on signs, on cards, on anything. He knows what sounds does each of the letters A- Z makes. About 2 mths back, he was reading a book and managed to "read" the word "GUS", which is the character in the book. He went "G-U-S......Ger...Us...S.....GUS!" Heheehe! However, sometimes he sees a picture of a father, and he will read out correctly the letters "F-a-t-h-e-r" but goes "Daddy!". hahahaa.

9. Last month when reading a dino book to him, we were on the page of apatosaurus, when he told me that "those dinosaurs pushed him down, his legs pain, and people angry with he dinosaur, make dinosaur say sorry, then no pain already.". what an imagination.

10. Whenever our maid calls out to us to "makan", Jovann will cheekily tell her back "Bu yao gam!" (don't hold food in your mouth, which is something Ah Ma Ah Gong always tell him) coz it sounds alike.
11. He takes pride climbing onto the metal door frame and sticking the key into the lock, turning it, and opening the door for us. So much so that if we get there first, he will cry. So every evening when we reached home, he will be waiting for that chance to open the door for us and hear our praises heee.

The growing of his dino egg last mth.

Jovann Celebrates in School!

Birthday Song
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For some reason, he has always been squeamish about crossing rope or wooden bridges in playgrounds. Today is the first time he did both without batting an eye, and he did it to "save" me heee. And he did it again and again, even the rope bridge. Don't watch the video if you will be bored by repeatitive actions, coz he did it again, and again...and again...I lost count.:P
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Our 3rd year as friends

Sophie is in NZ, DN just became a gor gor the day before, and Arianne is sick. The 4 of us celebrated on their behalf. :P

The cake was massacred during the cutting ceremony, when 4 plastic knives (tied with 4 different colour ribbons) digged enthusiastically into that poor diary-free cake by ETA Sweets. The cake had the names of the 7 kids on it.