Archives for February 2010

Sleeping through

K is finally able to sleep through the night!

After being consistently denied milk twice nightly for one week and constantly being shouted at to “Go back to sleep!” each time he sits up on his bed in the wee hours of the morning. He has finally decided that there is really no point waking up in the middle of the night to be treated ‘cruelly’ by his unfeeling mother. Through the past 2 weeks, I have learnt that the best way to train a child to sleep through the night is to not give him any sort of attention at all. In other words, I have ignored all cries and complains and will comfort him only if he has been woken up from a nightmare.

The longest stretch of shut-eye that he has held so far this week is a full 11 hours! A real feat for someone barely 2 weeks ago would only sleep for 4-5 hours stretches at one time and wake up 2 to 3x at night. Our bedtime routine right after reading bedtime stories, singing some songs and saying a prayer, will be to arrange a ‘sleeping party’. His favorite soft toys will take turns to say goodnight to him, get a customary kiss and hug from him and would share the pillow with him. A hug and a kiss good night from me next and I will be out of his room! He has learnt to self-soothe, so he will then take another 15 – 30 minutes to sing himself to sleep.

Yeah! Sleep training efforts have finally paid off. The process has been painful for the last 3 weeks but the rewards are truly worthwhile :)

Share it:

Related posts:

To the countryside

It is so not true that Singapore is a dull place. There is actually so much to see and do when it comes to nature, especially when we wander a little off the beaten track.

Located in the North of Singapore is the Kranji Countryside; consisting of a cluster of 10 farms, where kids can get to see how fruit and organic veggies are grown, watch fishes being bred, see thousands of bullfrogs culminate in a single place and get up real close to goats.

Our field trip to the farms in Kranji was more targeted towards the organic variety this time round. We stopped by Fireflies Health Farm to view the vegetable plots and picked up some organic vegetables. Since we are able to purchase the organically grown vegetable directly from the farm, the ones that were available for sale were extremely fresh and at a very reasonable prices. For K, it was a interesting experience for him to see how vegetables are grown, since we have just read the book ‘Growing Vegetable Soup’ about a week ago.kranji1

We proceeded to Bollywood Veggies for lunch. Our selection of chicken curry, mixed veggies and fish and chips + chicken nuggets for the boys were not too exciting for our taste buds, as the bistro boasts of healthy cooking with low salt and no-msg for all items on their menu. I guess our taste buds have been spoilt by our home-cooked food which is often laden with gravy and sauces for extra taste.

kranji4

The boys much preferred eating the fries that was served alongside the fish and was soon back to chasing each other in the cafe and picking up pebbles outside the compound of the bistro.kranji5

kranji2

After lunch, we took a leisure drive past Kranji Reservoir. Initially planned for the boys to see the scenery from inside the car, but K insisted that we stop for a while for them to enjoy the view. Their enthusiasm for the scenery was abruptly disrupted when silly me stepped into a patch of muddy grass.

kranji3

Some must-haves for any field trips with preschoolers; wide-brimmed hat for both tot and adult, sunglasses, a bottle of drinking water, wet and dry tissues. And this I have just realised is extremely crucial for any mishaps that could result in dirty hands/ muddy feet / legs; 1.5 litre pet bottle filled with tap water stashed in the boot of the car.

Share it:

Related posts:

Pain tolerance – Quite low

“Don’t touch me, it hurts.” Kyle whined when dh touched his leg while sitting next to him on the bed.

K got his first scrape on his shin when he fell this evening, while hitting some golf balls downstairs with his new golf clubs. He was all teary when he came back upstairs with the graze on his leg, fussed a lot when I tried to clean the wound and placed the plaster on it. 10 minutes later, he was back downstairs running, hitting and picking up golf balls.

The whining started again when he got home and had to take his bath. After changing a fresh plaster for his wound, he started walking around the house with a limp. I asked him why he could not walk properly and he told me, “I don’t want the bandage to come out.” For the rest of the evening, he whined for help to climbing and getting down from the bed and chairs.

I nudged dh and told him, “K is quite a wuss when he is in pain. His behaviour is really quite familiar, isn’t it?”

Share it:

Related posts: