Sam's 1st Field Trip - To the Zoo

Sam had his 1st school field trip on Friday. Teacher Drizzle had planned the trip for the children to see the polar bears & sun bears she's been teaching in her class, and the trip on 25th Sept 2009 involved many parents/grandparents/caregivers. I was pleasantly surprised to find the teacher had prepared a detailed itinerary:


There was also a mini workbook for the children to complete over the weekend, to emphasie the trip to the kids, I guess. I still couldn't manage to get Sam to colour in the pictures of the bears, he kept wanting to draw on the back of the pieces of paper instead!

But the trip turned out quite smoothly, for Sam & me at least. Sam was being quite a good boy, staying close to me most of the time. He had a whale of a time at break time (while waiting for the Splash Safari show to start), eating jelly & biscuits shared by fellow classmates & their friendly parents, ignoring the healthy sandwiches & apple juice the teachers prepared:

Lunchtime was at the KFC in the Kids Rainforest. I let Sam indulge in a scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, cos I was so hot by that time & needed the treat myself! ;P Since he had been quite well behaved, I also allowed him my fries, which he finished together with the Popcorn Chicken that was part of his Chicky Meal.

The bears, the reason for the trip, weren't particularly exciting for Sam that day, who found the stingrays in the Fragile Forest more exciting, goodness knows why. But frankly, I myself also found the Fragile Forest more interesting that day, seeing clearly in daylight bats & sloths feeding, and monitor lizards moving actively & scaring the ducks. Sam saw only 2 butterflies, the purpose for the trip to the Fragile Forest, near the exit.

Sam managed to stay awake on the bus on the way back to school, having a lot of fun playing with Megan, a very cute little girl. That was also when I discovered Teacher Drizzle had introduced the song "Nobody" by the Korean group Wondergirls to the class, and Sam could actually jiggle (I wouldn't call his moves 'dance') to the music!!

Photos taken by Teacher Drizzle during the trip: http://www.slide.com/r/Ki7L-8ii4D8zjR--1AQCRqYm0Tct9uTM?previous_view=lt_embedded_url.

Conversation On the Toilet Bowl

Was trying to encourage Sam to poop on the toilet bowl, and somehow the conversation ended up like this:

Me: "erh-eeeerrrrmmmm"

Sam: "poo-poo inside."

Hubby: "Yes, so must erh-erm the poo-poo out."

Sam: "poo-poo sleeping." (complete with hand-on-ear gesture, head tilted to one side.)

*Me broke up in laughter. Hubby impressed with Sam's 1st original thought.*

Hubby: "what if poo-poo wake up later when Sam is sleeping???!!!"

*Sam laughed sheepishly.*


Anyway, the usual promise reward of a sweet resulted in yet another successful toilet training attempt.

Over-Controlling Mum?

I got a shock yesterday when I went to pick up Sam from childcare & found him munching on - of all things - a prawn cracker. I was so stunned, I didn't dare ask the teacher why Sam was eating such an unhealthy snack. I was afraid I would have sounded too harsh & unreasonable, and should that offering be from a parent, instead of the teacher, it would have been rather embarassing.

So by this morning when I'm able to blog about this topic sensibly, I was thinking more along the lines of "am I being too paranoid?" instead of "how to stop my son from eating unhealthy foods?". After all, I'm an avid snacker myself. Though only God knows the lengths I've gone to to prevent my son seeing me eat potato chips, chocolates & potato chips.

So why on earth should I try stopping my son from eating all the 'interesting' foods???? I might as well enjoy sharing the snacks with him, right, just as my own mother does with me. The thing is, my mummy didn't start fighting with me over bags of potato chips till I was in adulthood, earning sufficiently to support our eating habits.

Sam is only 3 years old, and usually refuses to eat vegetables & fruits. I've a hard enough time trying to get him eat balanced meals so that I won't have to resort to popping more health supplements into him (already he's eating Vit C tablets). I don't want to affect his appetite with all these junk foods. Already I'm compromising by reducing his dinner portions (by 2 spoonfuls) so that he could eat his fav biscuits or ice cream as a reward for completing the meal.

And for that matter, surely there're healthier snacks than prawn crackers????? I'm not even talking about raisins (believe me I've tried, but Sam just spat out the raisins after giving them a good chew), or similarly healthy snacks all the magazines I read agree to be good for children. I'm talking about snacks with some kind of nutrients inside them: flavoured breakfast cereals such as CoCo-Crunch, chocolate-flavoured oatmeal balls (from Quaker), Hi-iron/calcium biscuits, candy laced with vit C & made with fruit juices. With such choices in the market, why do people like my in-laws still want to buy gummies with nothing in them except sugar & artificial flavourings??????

Am I being too uptight over a minor matter??????????

Sam at the Hairdresser's

This is a back-dated posting. Was clearing the photos in my handphone & realised I haven't posted this.

Brought Sam to the barber's at my mum's place on 1 Sept 09, when his childcare centre was closed for the Teacher's Day holiday. Turned out plenty of parents had the same idea too, cos the cheap hairdresser (S$3.80 per haircut) had a long queue. So we went along to his 1st hairdresser.

My mum actually want to wait, cos it's more expensive there. But at $6, it's dirt cheap considering what the shop at Pioneer Mall wants to charge me - $20 - when they couldn't even get Sam seated on the chair! And Sam had steadfastedly refused to even enter the EC House ($10) at Jurong Point........

Anyway, Sam spent his waiting time (there was one other customer before us) taking photos with my camera phone, and the results are so pretty I've posted them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109816&id=682608180&l=509a7fa178

And Sam was such a good boy that day, sitting still throughout the haircut. So I had no need of the extra set of clothes I brought for both of us! The barber rewarded him with a lollipop before I could stop him, and Sam polished off the sweet before we even reached home.

Hopefully all his future trips would be this good........

Short Trip to Botanical Gardens

Brought Sam to the Singapore Botanical Gardens for the 2nd time yesterday afternoon. Lucky the sun wasn't too hot. Thought Sam would enjoy feeding the swans & fishes, and he sure did!!!!


Basically, he not only fed the swans all the bread we brought for the trip (2 slices), he also ransacked the diaper bag & fed the hungry birds his own biscuits! I had to stop him from feeding the cup of cereals I prepared for him as a snack, despite his moans & cries of disappointment.

It was a good thing I did so too, cos he was ravenous after all the excitement, and finished the entire cup of peanut butter & chocolate cereal balls. Turns out the tap of the child-sized basin in the toilet was loose enough for Sam to press himself, and I had to stop him from pressing the tap just for the fun of it! And the water cooler tap was easy for him to press too (unlike the new one in MacRitchie Reservoir), so Sam drank a LOT of water from there:


We didn't do much else at the park. Tried to get Sam to enjoy nature by touching the low tree branch of the Heritage Tree (that's featured on our 5-dollar note), but he wasn't interested. Couldn't even get him to sit on the branch long enough for a photo shoot - he was afraid he'll fall down!

Sam in School - Sept 09 (updated)

I've been trying to think of a sensible way to showcase the photographs the teachers took of Sam (& fellow classmates) in school. And this is about the best I can come up with at this time.

So I'll post 1 every month containing all the links to photos taken by his teachers during school hours, then I'll put up the link to this post in the "Photos Galore" in the sidebar. The downside to this method is I'll end up updating the same post several times a month (if I'm hardworking & update every time I get the email from his teachers), and hence the post will be re-posted several times a month. But I can't think of a better way, so here it goes..............


11th Sept 09: http://www.slide.com/r/KFaXHVR67T-15q7tFEcN0YuR0mxTjxoA?previous_view=lt_embedded_url and http://www.slide.com/r/Tsx4eNqi3T-U_ZMeeh-x4Rlt9fY_ofv4?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original (巧克力水果串)

10th Sept 2009 : http://www.slide.com/r/E2_J1CA_4D9ETHsRMXiEKDqTWQfh6jJz?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (indoor play)

9th Sept 2009 : http://www.slide.com/r/kqIQ9nRp1T_6TeY0PNPi59Pg95sWBp5B?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (outdoor walk)

8th Sept 2009 : http://www.slide.com/r/Ult4DQ_l0z-_IHNfSPj-kf44QvNy6WlO?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (water play, bubble play)

7th Sept 2009 : http://www.slide.com/r/VOUymVYF4j-Y8gzKkp1vXl5p2-iEkd1c?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (bubble play)

Week of 11 Sept 09 : http://www.slide.com/r/7lnNBkUk5D9WJWgyWE9jraLbaDEItBPH?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original (巧克力水果串，坐火车)


4th Sept 09: http://www.slide.com/r/jp1GJvgD6z_JBJNwVpVA0Q628x1V6J7R?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (sandbox play, cookie-making)

3rd Sept 09: http://www.slide.com/r/2PkjNrrctj_UhHbKyH9225-vdiAqrp7A?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (sponging teddy bear, tricycle play, bubble play, Darrien's birthday)

2nd Sept 09: http://www.slide.com/r/8EVtjUFS5j_GCNLL8sfZYVWyB8HwJRhy?previous_view=lt_embedded_url (Kids Amaze play)

A Funeral Wake

Maternal grandmother passed away on Wed night. Today was the funeral wake. And it was so bloody difficult to feel sad properly when half of me was constantly worried about Sam shrieking in the middle of the funeral. Why can't the boy keep still for an instant???? If I had known he was going to be so difficult I wouldn't have brought him along on Sat night. Then maybe he wouldn't be overtired and be easier to control this morning. Men are so useless when it comes to babysitting, can't even keep the little bugger from running around in the funeral.