Favourite playground

Little Andrew is not a fan of playground since his first experience - be it indoor or outdoor, he is just not into it.

So one day, we went to Ikea and they have this children furnitures and toys on display in a section at the entrance area. It was filled with soft toys, toy kitchen cabinets, toy cooking utensils, tables, chairs, cars, etc. Andrew immediately felt right at home! He was playing with everything there! I didn't expect him to be so mesmerised by the play area that he refused to leave - BOTH TIMES we went to Ikea!

Money saving tips- no need to bring your kids to expensive indoor playground, just bring them to Ikea!

It's been awhile...

I have not been updating any new progress about Little Andrew lately :( I seriously need to work harder to keep it up!

We travelled by car a lot and occasionally we travelled up north and the journey will last for at least 3.5 hours. Little Andrew has been doing this since he was little. And has no problem dozing off in the car or staying in his seat when he is awake.

But sometimes, some entertainment must be on hand to keep the little one occupied. So snacks like cookies and fruits are always abundant! Toys to keep him busy. Sometimes we draw and lately reading, well more of staring and flipping. Well, whatever it takes to keep him at ease :)

S.T.R.E.S.S.

I had this eczema out of nowhere. And I had 2 serious case of outbreak in a span of 6 months. I never had eczema, not ever. I thought that it might be due to hormone imbalance.

Then these couple of nights, I started to have insomnia. So bad that the other day I didn't sleep a wink, or maybe I did but definitely not more than an hour of sleep in a span of 36 hours! Again I thought that it might be due to the tea that I had.

Tonight made me think about why all these problems. I guess my denial to even think that little Andrew needs help in his development made me stress? I'm not sure.

He still can't talk or say any words that really make sense at 28mo. He kept repeating "bao bei" and lately he will say "mum" for food/milk. But that's about all that he says. Oh one more is "Ahm" when he sees me getting his meal ready. He does babble a lot but not talking and this really made me worried. Well, more of in denial and putting it all to "boys talk later" but how long can I use this excuse right?

And his lack of eye contact... I actually see some improvement but could have been more or better.

I am so worried sick in a way that he is autistic. I know for sure he is not of severe case because he can take instructions though he chose to ignore me sometimes... but another thing that worries me is he sometimes doesn't respond to his name! So you see... accumulative small little gestures, or rather the lack of it, made me stress.

I think I need to look at it more seriously now that he is 28mo. should I seek intervention? should I seek out for child development specialist? I dread the outcome. This has to be the most stressful event of my life!

At the moment, I am trying to work on these issues with little Andrew and am hoping that it will work out. Again I am stressed thinking if I did the right thing, if I've done enough to help him.

I wanted to enroll him to a playgroup so he can interact with other children his age. Will this help him to behave like his peers? Because I can't help thinking maybe I did something wrong somewhere that I'm not showing or teaching him the right way.

Tonight is the first time I felt like bursting into tears. I am holding it back not to! Oh yes I think my stress level is all time high now.

Ok back to having vege

Day 2 of Ok-I-Will-Eat-My-Vege. Yaye! What more can I ask right? I am giving him mixture of vege and fruit juice but it's by no way replacing his vege intake And it shouldn't be. He should be eating his vege and not be a picky eater. I don't want little Andrew to grow up becoming a picky eater. I love food!!! So he can't be picky!

He is ok with feeding himself. In fact, I am willing to let him just feed himself whatever ways he wants. But the OCD daddy won't allow cause it's just too messy at times. But I'm totally into letting him do whatever he wants and show him the right way from time to time. We gotta make meal time fun time right? I don't want him to hate meal time!

No vege!

Don't know why or when, Little Andrew started to pinch out every single vege that he can see. He was all good when I did the feeding. But lately he started this terrible habit of not eating his vege when he feeds himself! How did it all happen!!!?!?!

I have been trying to be creative when it comes to feeding him vege. I tried to snug it under his rice, putting more vege in his meatball or nugget and now I started juicing with vege.

But these are all short term solutions. He got to start eating his vege again!!

Stacking cups

Stacking cups can keep the little one busy for a long time! Little Andrew started playing with them since he was 1.5 years old. In the beginning it didn't make sense to him and he was just literally playing the cups. It didn't take him too long to figure out how the stacking cups work.

Now that he is 2 years old, he is already the master of it! And fortunate for us, he still likes to play with it after 6 months.

I do think stacking cups is one of the good old fashion toys that will never grow old.

Wooden puzzles

On and off I let Little Andrew working on these wooden puzzles.

The one of the left comes in 5 sets. He is already quite an expert on the "shape" set and so now moving into the "animal" set. He couldn't get it done at all when we first started. so I let him work on the shape first. Now that he is bigger, I decided to give the animal ones a try. He wasn't sure on day 1 how to do it. but on day 2, he could so it by himself! Wonderful! I showed him that it's about matching the same animals and I hope he got what I said.

Then the one on the right, it has 5 cylinder shapes in a block. Each puzzle has different sizes and length. He could do 4 of them and there is this last one that is of same shape but different length. He can't seems to get the idea. He did got it right once the other day but I suspect that was by luck because after that he couldn't do it again. Will just gotta keep working on this one.

It's not easy trying to occupy the little one's time at home with all sorts of activities. He got so much energy! As much as I would love to keep him busy with activities and not just watching TV or YouTube, the temptations are ever presence at home. And people tend to give in to his request all the time!!!! I just gotta work harder in keeping him away from these temptations. Oh and the good thing is he knows that I will not give in to him easily so he won't ask me to switch it on!