Snowing in autumn?

Typical. I finally managed to arrange a night out with another mom for a musical, Wicked. Then weather reports says, possible snow....what? in autumn? Yep. So my one night out turns out to be an early winter celebration! Sigh. Was thinking of dressing up a bit for the show but what is the point when I'd be engulfed by my huge winter parka, wool sweater, thermals, beanie, gloves, scarf, boots...get the picture = michelin man.

Apparently, it has not snowed this early since 1934. Nice to be part of history. The show was great and it was good to be out for a couple of hours on my own.

Monday is here again....sigh...

Can you tell from the title that this is going to be a ranting post? Nothing but complaints coming ahead so if you are wanting a happy post....errr...check back in another week or so.

I may have gained an hour from daylight saving today but what is the point when the dreaded cold virus has come for a visit. S caught it first (as usual!) and he was happy to be held hostage by Josiah every night since he would conk out before Josiah anyway. As he got better, my throat got worse, then the body ache, then the fever all passed on to me. This was last weekend....and of course, Josiah has gotten it now. Although I would have to say, he has been a good sport about it in the day time. But when night falls, man, we are miserable together. Yesterday, his nose was so blocked, he could only sleep whilst being carried by one of us. But due to lots of wind in his tummy, he vomited 3 times over a period of a few hours. Besides having to change him in the dark and change sheets...etc, also, big laundry damage. Total laundry damage done last night alone - 1 bedsheet, 3 t-shirts for S, 2 pyjama sets, 2 pillow cases, 4 "chow-chow" / blankies and 1 sleeping bag. My washing machine was already full before this and I had to remove items to wash all above hence creating a laundry backlog. Nice start to the week...

If we have already moved to our new place, no problems since the new apartment has a standalone dryer. Talking about moving, yes, we are moving first week of November. Mainly for a few practical reasons. The new apartment has 2 lifts so no more lugging groceries plus a toddler up three flight of stairs again. Also comes with porter service so no more having to walk down the road lugging smelly garbage before going to work for S. No more having to line dry all of our clothes....how exciting. Hopefully, no more missing parcels as the porter can sign for deliveries. Best of all - no more steps coming into the apartment so less strain on my wrist.

Aahh, my wrist...who conveniently decides to stage a protest after 1.5 years of labour intensive work. I totally understand him (my wrist is a man!) - he has led a comfy life back in Malaysia. Only thing that he lugs around is my handbag (duh!). Since I had a desk job, carpel tunnel syndrome would be his worst nightmare but little did he know what he was about to be faced with. Manual labour in London.

Horror...

Let's see - carrying a 10kg toddler around, pushing a 6kg stroller & 2kg baby bag & 10kg baby on a daily basis, uphill and rough surfaces, doing all above AND then unloading 5 kg of groceries from Tesco off the stroller....get the picture....

He had to work everyday since then, no breaks, no holiday and still be happy about it. Well, he ain't happy no more.

I have tried to make him less angry by doing less groceries manually and more online, not going to playgroups too far away so less pushing of stroller, lots of TLC massages at night with pain gel, lovingly wrapping him in wrist guard to prevent further injury...he is still not satisfied.

I have warned him that I am going back to Malaysia soon and he will face the wrath of those scary Chinese massagers/acupunturist/heat therapist but he refuses to listen. So Mum or Dad, if you are reading this, please book me in for torture sessions as soon as I set foot in Malaysia. Because I cannot survive another 2 years here with an injured (man) wrist.

Josiah's new buddy - Tickle Me Elmo. Incidentally, Elmo is sick too, he does not laugh as much as before. Probably depressed about the weather too.

Josiah is practising his alphabets, shouting loudly at the TV. His beloved "chow chow" is in his mouth in between alphabets. For some unknown reason, he is calling his "chow chow" as "flower" lately. Stumped? So am I...does his white cloth look anything like a flower??

Terrible Two's already??

Josiah is already 21 months old now. So to make life more interesting for Mummy, he has decided to start the terrible two earlier.

He will only go to bed if one of us stays in the room with him. No trying to sneak out because he has hearing of a cat and would cry and prolong the whole sleeping routine. Daddy now goes in with his iPod, Bible, book, after going for a pee.....cos we both know it will be a long time before he can get out again. Most days, Daddy just falls asleep - probably before Josiah!

He want to choose his socks and shoes before going out. I have no problems with this except depending on his mood, the shoes he chooses may not be suitable. It is cold and wet now but he still wants to go out with his sandals. Although I let him go with socks on - he still slips and falls and gets his socks all wet. Grrrr.....irritating. He even chooses what shoes Mummy should wear.

He wants to take a toy out with him - if it is a car, no problem, just take it. But sometimes, he wants to take him wagon or stroller out. Imagine, we had to take his girly pink stroller to church one Sunday because he was making a huge fuss and we just did not want to deal with a meltdown before going to church.

A few times now, when he is upset, he will just lie on the floor crying. Hrrmph. I do not tolerate such bad behaviour and will carry him up, put him back on stroller and ignore him. So far, been working cos he realise he is not going to get what he wants just by crying.

Vocabulary log

"yucks" - he says this when there are leaves/crumbs/dirt on his stroller

"cute" - dont think he knows the real meaning of the word but he would repeat it especially when he hears others saying it. For example, I told him to look at the cute dog, he would say "cute dog"

"see you" - dont think he knows why we always ask him to say this but he does say it quite well

"nite-nite" - as above

"shoes" - he loves choosing his own shoes. Current favourites are his blue sandals, Bear shoes from Malaysia and Bubble Gummer pair from my parents.

"feet", "hands", "eyes", "nose", "hair" - he points the face parts of his teddy bears and on our faces, he would poke you in the eye and nose just to show you he knows what he is talking about.

"milk" - FINALLY, after like one year effort to sign to him 'milk' and repeatedly asking him to say milk. He can now ask for it and mean it too. Life is getting better, folks!

he can recognise a couple of alphabets too, namely "O", "A", "R", "C"

As I mentioned time and time again that he is quite slow when it comes to physical things. He has finally learnt to sit on his "ride on" and actually push using his legs! Most of these were his one year old presents and now he uses them :)

Also, I caught him trying to climb up my dining chair. Am not complaining that he is slow in this area as I have always been able to leave him alone in the room knowing that he does not try to climb things. But looks like he is catching up.

Welcome to Terrible Two's Album collection!

He does enjoy sitting in the rocking chair complete with vibration - a toddler Osim chair.

Better remember to buy Mummy one when you grow up!

Trying to stack as many crayons into his monster truck.

Mooncake festival may be over but 'Kung Fu panda' lantern is always a hit!

Josiah's first attempt at climbing our dining chair. He hasn't done it since this pic was taken. :p

Alone again....

My parents left over 2 weeks ago, and life has been quiet since. Josiah's best friend Emma has also gone back to Singapore for good. It would explain why he is super clingy till today, I mean, I would hold on to Mummy and Daddy, seeing that everyone seems to disappear suddenly. Poor fella, I have not had much luck finding him another proper playmate. I mean, he has friends but they are a little too young for him so he is not as excited playing with them.

A more expensive alternative to this problem is to send him to nursery for a couple of hours, maybe once a week (that would cost Daddy a whooping $45 per day!!!!). Daddy's company would pay 100% only when Josiah turns 3 and only 50% if he starts early. Hmm.....tough one!

On home ground, more domestic disasters to mark the beginning of autumn.

Unknown to me, apparently one is not supposed to put ceramic plates into the oven. Well, I've been doing it since long ago especially when I just want to heat up a sandwich...etc

Anyway, was having some guest over to dinner and since the duck was cold, I decided to pop the whole plate (a Wedgewood one, no less) into the oven to heat it up. Imagine my surprise when it broke into two piece inside the oven. Yikes, luckily it was bought on offer by mum-in-law for $1 otherwise, it would have been a double disaster.

Then I burnt up Josiah's lovely chicken stew when I forgot to switch off the heat before I took him for Gymboree class. Poor guy, he had to eat whatever I could salvage from there. Then our bank card got spoilt but in a funny way. We can use it to pay at some shops but then totally unable to withdraw money from the ATM. This is a serious case of the credit crunch - we are running low on cash and on one occasion had to pay card for $2.99 purchase. Alamak, how are we gonna survive for another 10 days like this. Answer: Cashout at Tesco and Mark&Spencer. So when I shop then I ask them for money. Weird but there is no other way at this point.

I think Josiah looks so cute here in Ethan's outfit (thanks Ethan!)