Merry Christmas!

Wahaha!

Uncle Sam and Aunty Linda are in Kyushu Japan spending their Christmas and New Year here. :) Bought a bit of gifts for everyone... including Gandpa, Aunty Janet, Aunty Yangming and little Cayden! I think Mama Irene and Papa YT will get food instead. :P Have not spotted anything exciting for Uncle Chris and Feng Ge though...

Aunty Linda caught a cold and hasn't been in the best shape to eat and do shopping. She decided not to buy the Blue Label bag she spotted in Parco at Kumamoto. Instead, she found a cheaper bargain at GAP! A furry haversack and a leather belt - all that costed her 1400 yen. :) The trip to Muji hasn't been great. Bought herself a thin thermal top as well as 2 blusher powder and 2 sticks of lip gloss.... everything in Japan is expensive these days owing to the high Japanese exchange rate. :(

Anyway... more to blog when I have the time... Time to sleep. Catching a train to Beppu tomorrow at 8:30 am Japan time... that means I have to wake up to take brekkie and do my final pack up at 5:30 am SGP time. Japan is an hour ahead of Singapore.

The Day Out At the Beach

Cayden had fun at the beach, opposite the Dubai apartment and just 5 mins walk over, Jumeriah Beach Residence (JBR) beach. :)

Btw, his outgrowing his swimming suit again... but then again, who cares? He can swim topless too!

Holding onto Papa YT and dipping in and out of the water is fun! He could not stop roaring with laughter! Papa YT is tickled at his response too.

Papa YT says, "Son, we need to seriously pose for the Kodak moment."

Fuss Free Haircut

Cayden had his 2nd (probably) fuss free haircut in Dubai. The photos shows a very cooperative boy. :)

Almost done! Cayden turned around for Papa YT to take a photo of him. Cayden smiled at the camera:

Done with haircut! But the hair sticking on my face and neck makes me uncomfortable! *Scratch Scratch* POWDER PLEASE!

I like my new haircut! Good job Uncle Barber!

Cayden's Helping Out With...

Connoisseur’s been helping mummy with shopping purchases and housework!

He seems to be really happy lugging the oversized paper bag. What can I say? Courtesey movement is on and spreaded over to Dubai too! In addition, Connoisseur has grown more and is able to identify who needs help.

Shopping aside, he has been busy with housework too! The other day, the gondola was hanging outside the apartment and the gondoliers were busy cleaning the building. Cayden realized he should have helped clean up the apartment and so….

Angry with Papa YT

Aunty Linda has been missing in action for quite sometime (as seen in the single entry post last month). Was busy moving house! :)

Cayden hasn't been exactly the most well behaved boy but we must give him credits for being able to express his emotions. Lately, he developed the bad habbit of sleeping with lights turned on. Papa YT tried helping him to kick that bad habbit and in turn, received some nasty response from Connoisseur Cayden! Here's an account of what exactly happened last week:

Irene Ng says:
u guys knew cayden has a bad habit...sleeping with lights on?

Irene Ng says:
past few nites his papa trying to get him kick the habit. papa yt will switched off the lights

Irene Ng says:
of cse cayden will cry etc

Irene Ng says:
last nite cayden was angry with his papa cos of that

Irene Ng says:
asked me to sleep together with them too

Irene Ng says:
then said he is going back spore

Irene Ng says:
with ah ma, ah gong and mama

Irene Ng says:
papa yt cannot go back spore with us

Bubble says:
..

Bubble says:
but it's YT helps kick s habbit

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
dong bu dong jiu yao hui singapore.

Bubble says:
o .. we showed m uncle chris toy cars ..

Bubble says:
he asked uncle chris "can u give ?" hehe

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
he spoke to uncle chris in english?

Bubble says:
..

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
wah lau

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
so good.

Bubble says:
very animated lor .. then when show m Chris toy car .. he wanna clearly .. very act lor .. put s face so near to the webcam & keep askin

Bubble says:
shen mo lai de ..

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
yah la! and he will frown abit right?

Bubble says:
.. tilted s face at an angle

Cayden Misses Her....

Hi all, I am finally BACK IN ACTION! Been quite busy in the month of September! Anyways, Cayden returned back to Dubai last week... Somehow a part of Uncle Sam and me seems lost now that we really have nothing to do over the weekends. This mini-separate with Cayden would probably be useful and hopefully, he grows to be a sweeter boy when he returns. Seeing how he grows attached to the things and people around him has been encouraging though.

Irene Ng says:
cayden was upset last nite

Irene Ng says:
dunno with what

Irene Ng says:
wanted to go back spore

Irene Ng says:
to go see xiao ah yi

Irene Ng says:
then tears starting to well up in his eyes

Irene Ng says:
tat was before he zzz while he was lazing in bed

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
ai yo!

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
maybe because no one plays with him!

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
or he wants to watch Mei Ling with Xiao ah yi.

Irene Ng says:
as if hym will play with him! hym always ignore all at home, oni concentrates on her tv programmes!!!!

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
or he misses biting HYM!

Irene Ng says:
maybe

Irene Ng says:
so hor, can u guys go on msn video call on sunday or not?

Irene Ng says:
after hym;s dance class lah

Irene Ng says:
spore time at nite lor

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
ok...

Irene Ng says:
just asked him, he said he wanna go back spore to see xiao ah yi

Wasabi - Linda (HR) says:
xiao ah yi says call her on her handphone now

:)

Uncle Sam's Birthday @ Sentosa

Aunty Linda is freaking busy lately hence the missing in action! Earlier this month, we celebrated Uncle Sam’s birthday. It was over simple buffet dinner at One Degree 15 at Sentosa. The dinner was abit of a disappointment as the variety of food was not exactly pleasing. Anyway, we checked out the club compound before heading towards the restaurant for dinner. Cayden enjoyed his mini-roe maki and pickles. He had abit of the bbq pork as well as the cold crabs. Basically he ate abit of everything from the appetizers to the main courses (fried prawn ball, grilled fishes, chicken, vegetables) to the desserts (durian puree, nonya kuehs and coconut pudding!).

(oops the Aunty Linda w/o make up!)

(Aunty Yangming acting cute...)

(YUMMY???)

We headed home with a super filling stomach and couldn’t do the traditional birthday cake cutting at the sentosa. Cayden and Uncle Sam had a bit of fun acting silly while posing in front of the camera before cutting the cake.

(Standing still & pouting lips!)

(Cayden's signature look to go shopping!)

(Uncle Sam is 35 this year!!!)

Finally thy moment arrived! It’s the birthday celebration with everyone singing Uncle Sam the song. The ever helpful Cayden helped blow the candles of course... :)

Dentist-Uncle-Sam

Cayden visited a dentist some weeks back but it was quite a wasted trip. He refused to open his mouth wide and long enough for polishing and cleaning. The Pedia-Dentist (?? ha! new name) only mentioned that Cayden needs to get his teeth cleaned regularly or the milk stains remain. Since then, the entire family had been working hard to clean Cayden’s teeth using different methods and one of the most successful one is cleaning his teeth with his face towel. Dentist Uncle Sam had been pretty successful (at least two successful attempted recorded in video) in getting Cayden lying down and cleaned his teeth.

Touching his Nose with his Toes!

Cayden has been talking to Dad and Mum over video conferencing almost every other day. Mum taught him a new trick - using his toes touching his nose! I couldn't figured out the joy in this game/exercise. He did so but realised he wasn't able to do so with his right left and he concluded that it was because of the leg fractured when he first arrived. We really wondered if he really remembered how uncomfortable he was during his first month. It could possibly be he overheard the adults conversation too... The walls indeed have ears. :)

SuperStar in the Making

Cayden is preparing to participate in the different types of singing competition. Not only he tried practice public singing at the common place in front of our block, he made Grandpa bring him up onto the stone platform and Grandpa to listen to him at ground level. He has been practising chinese folks songs... the best part was he didn't allow anyone to sing along and needed everyone to listen and clap along.

He also did a chinese pop genre by Jolin Tsai and the song goes something like this, "I don't want a boyfriend. I need a real man!".

On certain occassions, Cayden prefers singing English nursery rhymes and he quite likes the Wendy song from Bob The Builder.

Celebrating Aunty Linda's Birthday @ Mandarin Oriental

Doctor Cayden Koh

Cayden hasn't been very consistent in brushing his teeth and this is worrying everyone at home. Yet Connoisseur believes he has a BEAUTIFUL set of teeth albeit alittle yellow... In an effort to encourage him to brush teeth, we adopted the "threatening method" that if he fails to keep proper dental hygience, he runs the risks of losing all his teeth to the dentist. This method seems effective.. We coupled the threatening method with "fun" by introducing him those dental equipment and he seems to be receptive of the toys. :)

We figured out maybe Connoisseur prefers to be a doctor because Cayden remembers the two doctors he has visited lately and they are Pediatrician Dr. Simon Ng and General Practitioner Doctor Chia (@ Clementi). He helped us with bandage, fed us with medicine, heard out breathing through stesthescope and operated on the soft toys too! He did everything quite professionally intially with all the gears on him.

But Cayden loves ice cream... he wants to be an Ice Cream Man!

Radio Deejay in the Making...

Cayden seems to be training for a job at the radio station. He tried repeating the 4D numbers announced over air on Saturday.

MSN Emoticons

In the recent weeks, Cayden seems to be aware of this application "Microsoft Messenger Live" all thanks to Mummy Irene doing live chat with us during office hours. He noticed the presence of different pictures representing the different users of the application in a window. Yesterday, while Mummy Irene was chatting away with Aunty Janet, Cayden spotted some funny emoticons on MSN Live and he started mimicking them!

There are 2 emoticons that Cayden can't get off his mind... (1) the monkey that sighs and, (2) the botak character that beats his chest (indicating me!).

The rest of the evening was spent listening to songs and dancing! Connoisseur came up with a Jelly Fish dance that he made Uncle Sam do with him...

Aunty Janet or Present...?

Cayden spoke with Aunty Janet over the weekend and apparently some treats were promised over the call. Cayden seems to be extremely protective of Aunty Janet each time we mention those nicknames given to Aunty Janet..... Something's fishy!

Charmaine Lin

Lately, there seems to be plenty of responses to a public wide appeal to help a 4 year old girl Charmaine Lin. Charmaine has been diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She is currently in the 4th stage and fighting hard. My heart felt really heavy after reading bits of the blog dedicated to her. The photos of her in her balding head just shows how much a fighter she is! I must say that Charmaine's mom is as equally strong if not stronger than the little one. May they win the battle against the illness!

Dozing Off Over Dinner

He couldn't resist dozing off while eating his dinner.

Cayden refused to nap on Sunday as he was too busy playing with Mummy and Aunty Yang Ming. As a result, he was sleepy by dinner time. Dinner was outdoor on Sunday at 7 pm... so he was kept awake until 7:50 pm. Cheeky fellow actually pretended to fall asleep since he know I was filming him. Very naughty indeed!

The Sunday Morning at ECP

We were at ECP about three weekends ago with original intention to go inline skating but we abandoned the plan since Cayden was with us. Cayden had fun time playing with sand in his crocs! Too bad we didn't bring his little denim hat along so we made do with Uncle Sam's cap. Cayden really has a big head! Uncle Sam tried to add fun to the entire activity by involving Cayden to bury a piece of dried leaf. Connoisseur tried throwing sand at us. I was worried if he threw the sand too high up and that the sand may fly into his eyes.....

Morning at Pasir Ris Beach

Last Wednesday (16 Jun), Cayden stayed over at Uncle Sam's place. Before he slept, he said he wanted to go to the beach and the next morning we did as what he wished. We brought him to Pasir Ris Beach where there was a mini horse stable and so Cayden saw horses of different colors and sizes.

We finally made a brief stop by the beach as the weather was getting hotter by the day. Did I mention we reached the beach at about 11 am?! So Cayden and Uncle Sam squatted by the beach (under a pathetic coconut tree with minimal shade) and started playing with the sand digging tools that belongs to Cayden!

In about 15 minutes, we started walking back to the carpark. It's a funny video! Cayden did some funny walking moves... and of course, see how he reacts when he smells the horses poo. :D

娃娃国, 娃娃兵

娃娃国娃娃兵
金发蓝眼睛
娃娃国王胡须长
骑马出皇宫
娃娃兵在演习
预防敌人攻
机关枪塔塔塔
原子弹轰轰轰

Blowing Bubbles

More Videos @ the Little Big Club Concert

Connoisseur did plenty of dance moves at The Little Big Club concert and check out this head move...

Fun didn't stop during the 15 minutes intermission. Uncle Sam and Cayden had fun singing and dancing while waiting for the food to come (courier service by Aunty Wasabi).

$6 worth of hotdog and fishball from the cafe next to Expo Hall 2. Didn't taste good at all... but we were hungry and ate them anyway.

Cayden had fun playing with the lightsticks....

Finally... his idols appeared!

Watching the Little Big Club Concert

Do you think Cayden enjoyed himself....?

There were only a few songs Cayden could associate with and one of them being Incy Wincy Spider. Check out how Cayden followed the rhythms in most songs he heard at the concert. So funny! He had fun singing along as well as swaying along with the rhythms of the songs. Btw, the lightsticks didn't come cheap - $5 for two light sticks... He loves the green one though!

Finally, he saw Barney...! But he was irritated when the light from the camera broke the darkness in the area we were seated. :D Check out how absorbed he was when watching his idols!

There were a few slow numbers performed during the concert. Cayden swayed along gently with Uncle Sam. Though he meets Angelina Ballerina for the first time during the concert, we supposed he enjoyed listening to their music albeit he was struggling to keep awake from his afternoon nap. More videos to come along the way......... :)

The Little Big Club

Uncle Sam, Cayden and I will be catching the concernt tomorrow at 4.30 pm at Expo! Cayden is kind of looking forward to the session especially when told that he will get to see Barney. :) I wonder if he will scream when he sees all his favourite Barney characters...

Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down

A thumbs-up represents good and awesome things, good food, feelings, people and mood while a thumbs-down represents the opposite. This is how Cayden has been communicating with people these days. If he were to asked to comment on something, he would either give a thumbs up or down to conclude his thoughts about some thing, people or food. Lately, he's into playing such games with Uncle Sam and he's so tickled with the responses he received!

Grown Up Boy

Apart from celebrating Grandpa's birthday last Saturday at the Mushroom Pot, we also took the opportunity to visit Leisure Park. Considerable time were spent at the Cherry cars roadshow though we tried to enjoy some drinks at the HK cafe on Level 1. There is this giftshop directly opposite the HK cafe which I thought wasn't really children friendly. They laid their toy cars infront of the shop attracting children to spend time there... Cayden was stuck there and refused to leave the shop and trying out all the toy cars laid there. While I was queuing, I hnd something breaking and i turned around... Uncle Sam was picking up the pieces of plastic car parts from the floor and poor Cayden was dumbfounded and shocked standing behind Uncle Sam... Fortunately, the car parts were detachable and we didn't have to part with $12.90 for the lousy toy car! As all may anticipate, Cayden got an earful from Uncle Sam though his heart yearns to go back to the shop again... Finally after much counselling, Cayden spoke to me and said that he would go back to the shop with his hands behind his back and he promised to just walk around the shop! He did it (see 4th photo below)!!!! I was impressed......!

After accidentally breaking the toy car, Cayden went quiet Uncle Sam went ahead to lecture him.... Cayden could not and would not talk back at all....

The next day, we brought Cayden out for a haircut and he cried... I had to carry him while the hair stylist does her work. Fortunately Cayden didn't struggle much and kept his eyes fixed on the tiny TV screen in front of the seat. The haircut was over in 10 minutes and we allowed Cayden to shop at Toys R Us. The irony is the very excited Uncle Sam and I kept introducing toys to Cayden but he kept telling us "No. Put back!"... We really felt ashamed as each toy gets rejected by Cayden. :-) Finally, we left VivoCity with a water gun and an extremely traditional water toy that requires winding before the bee flaps its wings. :) Cayden actually rejected both toys before...

Cayden had a hair cut and got a balloon as part of his visit to the hair salon!

Looks like Uncle Sam is more excited to be at Toys R' Us....

We headed back home for dinner with Grandparents and as part of my initiative to encourage him to hold back his tears while getting his hair cut, I offered him an ice cream. Judging at how children usually handle the ice cream stick, most adults would not allow children to hold onto an ice cream all to themselves and invite the hassle of cleaning them up. Uncle Sam and I did exactly that and little did we know, we pissed Cayden off and he convinced himself that the stick of ice cream was not worth it! This process of internalising the anger and converting his thoughts into a negative or opposite believe is the least of what we have expected... but we also worry about handling and teaching this kid. Haiz!