Our Parents Say – PUNGGOL BABIES

Life As A New Mum (again)

Four years after being a mum for the first time we welcomed Ian into our lives as our second baby. The experience with him is totally different from what we experienced with Isaac. One of the things I wondered during my pregnancy was how Ian looked like because he’d turn away every time we did the ultrasound. But I thought to myself, how different can he be from Isaac right? After all, they are both from the same “factory”. Boy, was I wrong. I saw no resemblance in the two of them the moment we met Ian.

Looks aside, Isaac was an easy to manage baby. He is probably the perfect baby anyone would wish for. He was smiley, his cries were soft and best of all, from when he was over a month old, he slept through the night without waking up for milk. When I say through the night, I mean from 8ish pm to almost 7am the next morning.

I always thought how lucky we were that Isaac was so easy to handle and was hoping Ian would be somewhat similar but of cos, all babies are different.

The first month with Ian was extremely challenging. He had a huge appetite and we were feeding him every 2 hours instead of the recommended 3hrs. I find myself with almost no sleep because feeding him and putting him back to sleep took about an hour and a half. This also means it was almost time for him to feed again. With no confinement lady, the hubs and I took turns to watch him through the night. However, even on nights that the hubs took the night shift, I will still have to get up to express the milk so there is enough supply for Ian and also to avoid engorgement. Many nights I find myself questioning when this situation will get better.

When Ian was 18 days old, he got hospitalised for close to a week because he came down with fever. After admission, his blood test revealed that he had bacterial infection in his blood. It was a major heartache for me seeing him with the plug on his little hand and later, lumbar puncture was also done to check if the infection went to his brain. We spent the long nights together being woken up by the nurses to have his temperature taken every hour. Thankfully, he got better and finally discharged from the hospital.

After a month of having the hubs at home, he finally went back to work. The first week of being home with just Isaac and Ian was trying. I tried to juggle between the household chores and the kids’ demands and I kept telling myself that I can do this and I did. I managed to plan the day according to Ian’s sleeping timing. Every time he took a nap, I would attend to Isaac, cook lunch (dinner on some days) and have some house chores done. Some days I’ll take them out too. On days that I am tired from the broken sleep, I will just cook lunch and watch over the kids. After all, the kids’ and my well being is more important than the housework. I did not want to suffer from a burnout myself so I can continue to look after them. The housework can wait.

To be honest, I am surprised myself at the confidence I have to manage them on my own and I am really glad that I have the opportunity to. The nights are long but the years are short. I shall cherish every moment with my babies.

Baby Incoming!

In just 2 months or less, we will be welcoming an addition to the family. Isaac is over the moon about it since he has been asking for a sibling more than a year ago. As work is out for me this pregnancy, I have been spending most of my time with Isaac, which is great, because we get more alone time together before the baby arrives. We have also been preparing Isaac with the arrival of the baby by making sure he feels just as important as us with the new responsibilities coming by letting him be involved with the naming as well as pick out the first set of clothings for his sibling. This sweet little boy has also been telling me how he is going to help with the diaper change and singing / playing with his sibling. The 4 year age gap between the siblings is really perfect in my opinion.

Based on our experience with Isaac, who decided to arrive at 36 weeks, I started to prepare for the baby’s arrival earlier this time round. I remember how we had nothing ready, except a crib for Isaac when he was born. He did not even have a name until we saw his face! This time round, I grabbed some really cool pre-order deals for baby’s bath and skincare products at 50% off the usual price from the baby fair happening beginning of July 2019. At this point, I can’t think of anything else that I need to get since we have pretty much everything from Isaac. I have started looking out for milk bottle and diaper reviews now since these are going to be the necessities.

One thing I have yet to sort out is the celebration of the baby’s full month. Searching for a suitable venue is always a pain. From the people I have spoken to, half of the response were – “Wah, must be fair. Should do if Isaac had a celebration.” The other half said “No need la, second child already.” Of cos, these are only opinions. Ultimately, the decision lies with us. Personally, I feel that every birth is worth the celebration regardless of which child he/she is. If time and energy permits, I would do it. The number of people celebrating their child’s 100th day seems to be getting more common, so that might be an option for us. Especially when the chances of me looking less of a zombie is higher at the 100th day. That being said, even if we end up not doing the full month or 100th day celebration, it does not mean that the second child is less important. It really is just because the dynamics of life is different now that we have an elder child to care for and energy levels might just be lower. We will play by ear.

Nonetheless, we are very excited to start a new chapter in life as a family of 4 soon!

Roar! Isaac is Four!

Took me long enough to finally get to writing this post.

We initially decided on not having any celebration in school and only have a cosy cake cutting with the family on the actual day of Isaac’s birthday. However, things did not go quite as planned. We not only ended up celebrating his birthday in school, our cosy birthday celebration turned out to be a guest list of almost 50 pax (mostly family members). Major face-palm moment but the boy was extremely happy.

29th March 2019

Celebrated with his teachers and classmates with a How to Train your Dragon cake because he is very much into dinos and dragons now. Tried searching for the character cakes from various bakeries and realised that only Cold Stone Creamery and Swee Heng carried what we wanted . Since Swee Heng is halal certified, we decided on them. One point to note, if you are collecting the cake from the outlet in Punggol, you should place your order on their website Swee Heng 1989 instead of Swee Heng.

Of cos we had the goody bags for the children.

Goody bags from us will not contain any candies because I am not sure if most parents allow their kids to eat them. As for Isaac, he never liked sweet stuff so whatever candies he brings home in the goody bags usually end up in the bin.

Evidently, he was the happiest kid in class that day. Especially when it came to distributing the cake and goody bags.

30th March 2019

The actual day of his birthday. We had told him that we will be going swimming on his birthday and he was really excited. Little did he know it was more than just a swim date with his cousins. We had invited both his paternal and maternal family members as well as some really close friends. I thought he would be really surprised to see them but he was really alot more happy than surprised. “Zhou Zhou!” he exclaimed happily when he saw his great grandmother who was the first to arrive.

Did I ever mention that it is impossible to capture a proper photo of the 3 punggol babies?

This was probably the best photo of them together that day.

We catered peranakan food from chilli api. Pricey but worth every cent. Of all the parties we have ever hosted, this was the first time there was zero food wasted. I enjoyed every dish we selected and am glad our guests liked it as much as we did.

What took the most effort for this celebration has got to be the DIY piñata. Simply because I could not find a Dinosaur piñata and the common ones are still pretty expensive ranging from $29 – $49 excluding the candies in it. A crazy price to pay for something that is going to thrashed I feel. So here was what was made. Tadah!

One of a kind Dino for my special little boy! Thank God for a few close friends who helped out as well. Total cost to make this piñata? $2. Only paid for the crepe paper and everything else was made out of recycled cardboard. Filled it up with candies and mamee (mainly mamee for Isaac) and we are good to go!

The kids were extremely excited when everything fell out

Finally, the cake! For the third year running, I got the cake from Cloud 9 Bake Shop. This year, we customized a Dino cake with his favourite type of dinosaur on it – triceratops.

I also added some cupcakes with little “dino eggs” in case there wasn’t enough cake.

Birthday boy was without a doubt super happy.

We had a fantastic celebration and was happy that everyone made time to come spend the day with us. More celebrations to come!

Isaac is Three-rific!

In the blink of an eye, Isaac is now three!

The little man requested to give his classmates presents on his birthday because he has been receiving goody bags on their birthdays. He even told me that he wanted to have a Catboy (pj mask) themed party. I think it is great that he is opinionated and can express himself instead of us trying to figure out what he will like.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a PJ mask cake from the halal certified cake shops at waterway point and Isaac decided to go for a paw patrol cake in the end. We celebrated his birthday in advance and here’s what we prepared.

No candies at all. I’ve received PMs in IG asking me where I got those projection watches, I got them from qoo10. I saw the same ones on sale at the shopping mall and they were selling them at $12 each – 3 times of what I paid.

His favourite part of the party in school was probably distributing cake and good bags to his friends. It was also apparent who his favourite buddies in class are because he gave the first few slices to them. Even his teacher told me, those were his best friends.

29-31 March 2018

We did a staycation for Isaac’s birthday this year at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa. It was a surprise for him and he loved it. We blindfolded him and brought him into the room as he went “Wow!” when he saw the room, the patio (more like the bathtub) and when we opened the back door, it was the pool and jacuzzi. He was so happy that he reenacted that a few more times kept going “wow!” over and over again.

He was too excited that we had to make sure from time to time that he wasn’t peeping

The day bed – Where i spend most of my time when they go for a swim

As our room had direct pool access, it was really convenient for us. Especially when Isaac can spend many hours in the pool. I just chill and watch him from the day bed while he goes to play. One of the most amazing thing about this place, is just how close we are to nature. In the mornings, we wake up to the sound of the birds. A peacock on our roof even!

“It’s my Birthday today!”

That was what Isaac kept saying from time to time after his papa and I wished him on the actual day.

He spent some time in the bathtub without knowing what awaits him that day.

Ding-Dong went the door bell and he was pleasantly surprised to see his mamagonggonguguguzhangjiejies all here!

The kids had a lot of fun in the pool and bathtub while the Isaac’s papa went to collect the cake and get lunch.

We only managed to drag all the kids out of the tub when we said they can open presents and cut the cake. Time to suit up kiddos !

We all had such a great time that day and this is why birthdays are awesome! Happy 3rd birthday my forever baby boy. May you continue to have the purest of heart and always remember that you are loved by so many!

Raising an Independent Child

In just a month’s time, Isaac will be turning 3. At this point in his life, I know that if there is a competition in getting things done independently regardless of time taken, he’d be winning in spades. For this strong-willed child, his desire to be independent takes precedence over everything else.

At times when he takes a long time getting something done, we’d just complete it for him so we can move on to the next activity. This would upset him and we end up waiting for him to redo what was done all over again. For example, every morning before leaving for school, he’d take his bag down from the bench at home before putting on his shoes. Previously on days that he overslept, we will bring down his bag for him so he only has to put on his shoes and we can leave. When he noticed that, he’d put his bag right back where it should be (on the bench) and take it down again. This only means we end up having to wait a longer time for him to get out of the house. Now that we have come to terms with this, we no longer try to complete tasks for him unless he wants us to.

There was a point in time when I wondered if there was such a thing as too independent? But to think of it, I personally feel that it is one of my parenting goals to raise a self-sufficient child. Even if it means having to spend more time for something to get done.

Just yesterday, when I was dressing him up for school, he told me he wanted to button his shirt by himself. I said OK, I will show him how and he can do it himself thereafter. After he struggled with the button for approximately 10mins, he let out an exclamation “Why, Oli can do it you know?”. Oli is his classmate. After some guidance, he finally managed it himself and he was really proud of himself. Well, I did mention he is very strong-willed.

Honestly though, I think there are more pros than cons to him being (too) independent. Although I have heard comments by numerous parents like “I wish my kids would stop growing“, or “don’t grow up so fast“, quite on the contrary, I don’t feel that way. I think it’s not all that bad. I love it that he is independent because ~~I have so much freedom now YAY!~~ everything’s just more fun now! I can’t wait to bring him on more holidays, make memories together and for him to experience life!

Growing Up in a World of Technology

Back when Isaac was younger, he showed no interest in what videos can be played on the ipad and his attention span on things was short. Hence, it was easy to keep the tablets/phones out of his reach. We’d also remind our parents not to show him videos on their phones because we were afraid that he’d become addicted to gadgets when he got older. However, in this age of technology, we finally gave in to exposing our child to the use of the ipad. Why? The main reason has got to be because everyone around him is using it. We, as adults are constantly on the phone / ipad / laptop most of the time. Be it work related or not, our kid sees us using some form of technology when he is with us. As he starts to get more curious at his age, how is it fair for us to tell him ‘no’ if he wants to see what we are doing. I remember it actually started with FaceTime. He realised he could still see his gramps or aunt even though they are not at the same place. It was only later on that he got more curious by what his cousins and friends were watching on the screens all the time. Am i guilty about starting him on the use of ipad? No. Here’s why:

I believe kids learn faster when they are having fun. We are careful about what he watches on the screen. I must say I am a huge fan of the YT Kids app. I can personalize my settings on the app like turning off the ‘Search’ function so it restricts the experience to a limited set of videos. The content that my kid is allowed to watch are suitable for toddlers of pre-school age. Best part of all, I can even set the timer to how long he is allowed to be watching the videos. In fact, he has learnt the words like ‘excavator’,’fire truck’ and ‘garbage truck’ from the videos. We are cool with him watching the videos as long as we are around (next to him) when he is watching them. Ooh yes, how can i even forget to mention how much he loves the Sesame Street?
Many people think that by giving kids the tablets, it will eventually replace the bond between the parent and child because more time is spent on the device. To which, I think it is not entirely true. That bond is only replaced if parents neglect their kids by letting them watch videos all day long. I’d take the time to sit next to my little one when he is watching and ask him questions like “what is that in the fire truck?” and he’d tell me what he thinks. From that, I actually learn what he is thinking, or his imagination of what is in the fire truck. After that, he’d tell me he aspires to be a fireman or a police when he grows up. Communicating with him is key. Bond is not broken by the gadgets. It is broken by what people fail to do. Quite honestly, I think watching the videos with him is actually bonding time for us.
I get to steal abit of ME time when he is kept occupied (of cause not all the time we’d occupy him with the ipad). I get to take a slightly longer shower, we get to eat in peace, we get to complete watching a movie. Sometimes parents just need a break.

That being said, we limit the time he is on the videos and try to balance it with other activities. When he asks for the ipad, we’d encourage him to play with his toys or read books with us. He usually co-operates knowing there are other fun stuff to do other than staying home to watch videos. Going outdoors usually does the trick.

At the end of the day, technology is here to stay. I am just going to take a step back from all our parenting book of rules and embrace it. 🙂

screen time

Isaac is 2!

In just a blink of an eye, my baby has turned 2. I find it hard to believe that he was once so tiny and could be carried with just an arm. Nowadays, when i carry him for more than an hour, i will start to feel like my arms/shoulders are breaking. When he was just a baby, we were afraid we will roll over and squash him at night (we co-sleep). Now, he does not fail to remind us every night that he is there by giving us “back massages” with his mad kickings. Regardless, I cannot express how much joy he has brought to our lives and I am thankful everyday for him. Here are some memorable moments between his 1st-2nd year.

He enjoys performances by buskers and once, he attempted to dance even before he could walk by himself. — Enjoying performances by buskers and attempting to dance even before he could walk by himself.

Had his first haircut & didn't shed a tear — Had his first haircut & didn’t even shed a tear

Finally decided to try walking at close to 15 months

I missed his facetime call for the first time during a work trip and he was not too pleased. LOL! — I missed his FaceTime call for the first time during a work trip and he was not too pleased. LOL!

Extremely pampered by his papa! Even up till today, there are still many unopened toys in his room.

We brought him to marina barrage and introduced him to bubbles. He could not contain his excitement!

Brought him cycling for the first time thinking he'd be excited. Who would have known he decided it was too boring and insisted I carried him to sleep. I ended up carrying him in my arms and cycling at the same time. Thank God the rental was only for 2 hours! — Brought him cycling for the first time thinking he’d be excited. Who would have known he decided it was too boring and insisted I carried him to sleep. I ended up carrying him in my arms and cycling at the same time. Thank God the rental was only for 2 hours!

He had his taste of beer. IM KIDDING! we didn't let him drink it even though he was insistent. — He had his taste of beer… IM KIDDING! we didn’t let him drink it even though he was insistent.

visited the pasar malam for the first time and he was really proud that he won for himself a beach ball — Visited the pasarmalam for the first time and he was really proud that he won himself a beach ball

First staycation at M Social and all he wanted to do was go up and down the staircase.

The helpful little one who loves helping out with laundry

'Shimming' is his favourite sport — ‘Shimming’ is his favourite sport

At USS, where he found his new loves - Sesame Street — At USS, where he found his new loves – Sesame Street. We ended up getting the annual pass and going to visit USS as frequently as we can just to watch the stage performance by sesame street.

Got him a drum set and the neighbours never had any peace ever since.

We let him put up the first ornament on the christmas tree last year and he gave the christmas tree a name - Oh Kimmy — We let him put up the first ornament on the christmas tree last year and he gave the christmas tree a name – Oh Kimmy

Soon we had so many presents that people told us we can put Oh Kimmy on top of the presents instead of the presents under the tree. The biggest presents belonged to isaac. — Soon we had so many presents that people told us we can put Oh Kimmy on top of the presents instead of the presents under the tree. The biggest presents belonged to Isaac.

CNY 2017 - First day of CNY and he was down with high fever. Even so, it did not dampen his mood to get out there to meet everyone. — CNY 2017 – First day of CNY and he was down with high fever. Even so, it did not dampen his mood to get out there to meet everyone.

It has been so much fun watching this little one grow up and I would never trade that for anything else in the world. If there is one thing he should know, is that he is deeply loved by many. No matter what the future brings, mummy and daddy will always have his back. Grow up well my little one.

Mini celebration at home after our return from cruise with his sesame street gang — Blessed 2nd Birthday my baby!

Lessons Learnt Through Parenting

After more than a year into this whole parenting thing, I’ve grown to realise just how much I have learnt from bringing up this tiny human. As a person who is stubborn as a mule, I am surprised myself at how my perception of things are now, in a good way of cause, and how I continuously look forward to being a better individual. I did not occur to me until recently when Isaac got bitten (twice) in toddler class. I’ll get to that later. Meanwhile, here’s what I’ve learnt.

“Patience is a virtue” – I used to think whoever came up with that saying must be a saint. I do not know how it is possible for anyone to wait for anything without getting annoyed, or keep their cool over the slightest frustration when they have had a bad day. All I want to do is have everyone just leave me be until I have cooled off. Of cause now that we have a toddler at home, I cannot possibly ask him to leave me alone. Even when he tests my patience further, I find myself taking a deep breaths and dealing with the situation in a very calm manner. Simply because he is only a child and I do not want to be filled with guilt after losing my temper at him.

“To err is human; to forgive, divine” – As mentioned earlier, Isaac was bitten in school last week. His teacher wrote us a note to inform us what happened because she could not get us over the phone. According to her, Isaac did not want to share with another kid in class which led to the biting incident. My mister and I did not pursue the matter because we knew for a fact that children fighting/biting is inevitable in school. It only made me think what if the kid who had bitten someone else was Isaac? Would I want the other kid’s parents to scold my child? I sure as heck hope not! I must admit I was upset to see such a big bite on his chin. But we decided to teach Isaac to share the toys instead of fighting back. That same week, he was bitten again. By another kid this time. At this point, I started having doubts about telling him not to retaliate. Did I indirectly teach him not to defend himself? After all, what’s done is done. I chose to teach him to forgive. At the same time, we informed the school to watch after the kids closely because children will be children. I do not blame the kids, I am just upset that the school’s oversight allowed this to happen.

“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach” – I cannot agree anymore with this quote. Especially at this age (21 months), Isaac is extremely impressionable. He is good at mimicking commercials or anything that we do. Once, he saw his daddy toss a book onto the sofa. The very next moment, he picked up the book and did exactly the same thing. Did his daddy have the right to tell him not to throw anything? Sure, but it contradicts his actions which he had just displayed. With such an impressionable toddler around us, it constantly reminds us to behave how we would like him to behave. Without a doubt, our little one is an unique individual. However, I do see some of our behaviours in him. I strongly believe that if we show him to be kind and respectful to others, he will mimic our behaviours even if he does not understand it yet.

“Better bend than break” – When I was much younger and before I had my own kid, I had in mind exactly how I would raise my child. I knew for a fact I was going to be a very rigid parent. I would probably end up being the one setting all the rules, while the kid has very little power and say. But as I grew older and entered parenthood, I noticed the need to be more flexible with the way I see things. I remember how I used to think that I would not expose my son to the television programmes until he is 2 years old. But I gave in before he even turned 1. Did it stunt his growth in any way? Nope. He ended up learning to sing, dance and count while watching Elmo’s World. All that I want from being flexible, is for my child to know that he has the right to make choices and I am always willing to listen. This will also help to develop his confidence and decision making skills in future. At the end of the day, it really is his feelings and our relationship that I value the most.

“A little more kindness, a little less judgement” – Every time I see any parent dealing with an upset child, I no longer judge. Simply because I do not know that mom/dad. It is certainly not the easiest job in the world being a parent. After all, a little bit of kindness / compassion goes a long way.

Life lessons
It is really amazing how a tiny human can make such a huge impact in our lives. While in the process of teaching our little one to be a good person, I realised that we are actually teaching ourselves to be a better every time. This is undeniably the best journey in life thus far.

Our Toddler’s First Day at School

19th December 2016 marks Isaac’s first day in toddler class. I spent the night worrying about how he’d react if he realise we were not there with him. So I prayed really hard the night before that he will be okay and by God’s grace, it turns out that my worries were in vain.

The night before, his daddy took out the backpack and told me to pack Isaac’s school stuff. It was then that I realised I had no clue what I was suppose to pack. All I knew was diapers. But actually, the basic necessities are stated in the parents’ booklet upon enrolment. Here’s what I ended up packing :

1 milk bottle
3 servings of milk powder
1 water bottle
5 diapers
2 sets of clean clothes
1 bath towel
1 comb / brush
1 set of fitted sheet (for nap time)
1 comfort pillow / blanket

Although the school recommends brining 1 serving of his milk powder, I decided to pack more instead because I was not sure if he would get used to the food at school. No harm bringing extra anyways.

the day

G (Isaac’s daddy) took 3 days off work so he can keep Isaac company in school while he adapts to the new environment. Prior to school, Isaac was taken care of by his grandparents and he has gotten used to the routine. I was so afraid there would be a lot of tears and meltdowns since I was told to prepare myself for it. This is also one of the reasons why G felt that he would do a better job at dealing with the separation.

Initially when we entered the school, Isaac refused to let one of the staffs check his mouth (daily routine to check if the kids have hfmd). He sat there sulking while we signed in on the register list. But the moment some kids entered through the door, his eyes lit up. When I was about to leave him with his daddy at school, he did not cry at all! He bade me goodbye very naturally.

Though I was at work, I spent the day asking G for photos of Isaac and his progress. I was informed that he was coping so well that the teacher encouraged G to leave the room 1 hour into the class. Although Isaac was left in class without either of us, he was too busy playing to look around for his dad. When he noticed his daddy was standing by the window outside the room, he even pretended he did not see his dad. LOL!

& then came the tears…

at bath time! he was probably uncomfortable with an unfamiliar person showering him that he started to cry. I guess that just need getting used to and he will be fine. In fact, he also threw a little tantrum when it was time to sleep. Pretty common for him when we are home and he wants to play even though he is extremely tired. So that, we are not extremely concerned about.

G went home (we live just above the school) after he saw the teachers trying to get the kids to sleep and only went to pick Isaac up at 5pm. The whole day went by just like that and it seems that Isaac adapted pretty well for a first timer. I am extremely grateful that there was not as much tears as expected and there was no separation anxiety for Isaac. Now that he is aware of how it is like to be in school, we will need to see how he behaves tomorrow when we bring him back to school in the morning. Our fingers are crossed for another good day. 🙂

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Today is our little boy's first day at toddler class. His daddy took time off work to spend his first few days with him in class so he could adapt to the environment comfortably. It turns out that he was able to familiarise himself so quickly that the teacher told his dad to leave the class after an hour of companion. Being the worry wart mom that I am, I kept telling G to update me almost every half hour on how Isaac was coping. The funniest of all was when isaac spotted his daddy by the window and he pretended not to recognise him.. must have been thinking "why is my old man embarrassing me?" 😂 Jokes aside, we are extremely relieved that there was minimal tears (apart from bath & nap time) and the transition from gramps place to toddler class seems to be smooth up to now. Seems like my worries were in vain. Isaac is our brave boy! 😊 #proudparentsmoment

A post shared by ᴘʀɪsᴄɪʟʟᴀ🍕 (@ninjapris) on Dec 19, 2016 at 4:55am PST

Isaac is going to Play Group!

Just last month, we walked past the school that I have registered Isaac in when he turned 1. He was extremely excited to see the kids playing and stopped in his tracks to watch them and tried to get their attention from the window. Although we always say that there is no need to rush things and send him to playgroup at such a young age, I decided to just call the school to check on our queue number just to see how far are we from enrolment. Much to my dismay, I was advised that they are not allowed to disclose the queue number due to personal data protection. To be honest, i cannot understand what kind of data are they protecting when all i wanted to know was our queue number. Anyway, I was even more shocked when the lady over the phone said to me “To ensure that you have a spot or a centre to go to, we suggest that you register you child in 10 locations so you have higher chance of securing a slot.” 10 schools! I even confirmed with her that I had heard what I heard.

I mean seriously, I have heard from my friends and relatives that I should sign him up for school as soon as I can because the waiting list is crazy.. but this is unbelievable! I refuse to get sucked into this rat race because I know that there are many more parents out there who need to put their children in playgroups because they have no one to look after their kids. Since Isaac has his grandparents to look after him, my thought is if there is a slot, then we will put him in the playgroup so he can learn to socialise with other kids. If not, then so be it. I will leave the situation as is. Not gonna be registering in 10 schools.

Last week, I received a call from the school telling me that there is a slot for Isaac in Dec. I was pretty surprised because with the number of young families in Punggol, I was expecting to wait at least another 6 months.

So now that this is happening real soon, I have started asking around what I need to prepare myself for (besides emotionally) when he goes to school! So far, I have thought of a couple of things like loading the kiddo up on vitamins since there will be a higher possibility of him catching bugs from the other kids. Name stickers for his belongings. Perhaps a bigger water bottle because he drinks alot of water in a day.

What else do I need?

By the way, ever since I heard the news that he will be going to playgroup, this has been my image of how he would look like:

OK… Maybe not so bad boy… more like:

As the date draws nearer, I have brought him a few times to look at the school from outside and asked him “Do you want to go to school?” He’d always reply “K”. Mentally preparing him for it although I secretly feel that I am preparing myself for it too. I hope he is able to adapt well to playgroup when the time comes. Otherwise, like what the hubs and I always say to him – Slowly but surely.