Archives for April 2009

Dh and K had a great time together.

Day 1 – K got his first pet; guppies
It took a bit of convincing from dh that he did not need to open the tank or put hands in the tank to get up close and personal with the fish, and the fish did not really fancy being ‘scooped’ up by the net all the time.

Day 2 – Zoo and ‘Macdolder’ (Macdonald’s) with dad and grandma

Day 3 – K and dh were on their way to the car when they spotted a cat stucked in a tree. K was absolutely thrilled by the sight of it and told the cat, “Cat come down.”

Dh single handedly went swimming with K (without the helper), taught him how to hold his breath, while dunking his head at the water spurt. K then went on to dunk his head at every water spurt at the pool.

When father and son went for lunch together after their swim. K ordered his own food for the first time and assertively told the waiter he wanted to have spaghetti.

Day 4 – K scouted around for a pair of kid’s sunglasses with dh and grandma. While waiting for his turn to play the toy at ELC, he got quite upset when another child hogged the toy and refused to share with him. He then tripped and hit his head on the shelf.

I still cannot figure out how the accident happened, thank goodness it was not a serious injury. Anyhow, K ended up with 3 new aeroplanes from ELC which helped to alleviate the ‘trauma’ he experienced.

Overall, I think dh did a good job and I noticed that K is closer to him, after spending so much time together these few days. When I asked dh how it was taking care of K these couple of days, dh made is sound like it was such a breeze.

I suppose it is just the ego talking.

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This coming week will be the first time (in 9 months since I left my full time job), that I will be away from K for a few days. Dh will be taking leave from work to spend time with K. I am glad to know that father and son will be spending some ‘male bonding’ time together, yet, at the same time can’t help but feel a little worried about not being around for K.

To satisfy my ‘anal tendencies’ (according to dh), he has asked me to draft out a schedule for him to follow. I have told him that setting up schedules with a toddler is fundamentally useless, especially when it comes to playtime. But I have anyway, wrote out a long list of activities that dh can keep k busy with, including routines that he can refer to.

Daily routines have to be established, but activities are usually child-initiated. If I want K to do a certain activity, his attention span will last the most 10-15 minutes, unless it is something that he is interested in exploring for the day.

I suppose dh will just do what he is best at…bring K out and tire him out with outdoor activities. It seems that a visit to the zoo, swimming and taking the LRT/MRT, are just some of the morning activities dh have planned for K.

Anyhow, while I was typing the activities out in a list, I realised that K spends quite a bit of time in front of the TV:
12.00 p.m. – 1.15 p.m. – Lunchtime TV/DVD time
4.45 p.m – 6.45 p.m. – Evening google box time with Playhouse disney
7.30 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. – Dinnertime TV (usually watching whatever I watch)

That’s a total of 4 hours and 15 mins or more, in front of the television everyday! So I have highlighted to dad that he needs to cut down on his TV time when he is with K, as he has a tendency to be a couch potato (which is his form of relaxation) at home. There have been times when I get dh to babysit K for a few hours in the morning/evening, I always return to dh with his eyes glued to the TV and K is sitting right next to him/tumbling on the bed/turning the room upside down, while dad has his eyes still glued to the box.

I really hope k does not become a coach potato when I am back on Friday…

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