started toilet training ian couple days ago...told you i bought cloth diaper for the boys yeah...actually i'm trying to replace the disposable diapers...quite a lot of work, but i like it.

1 day before toilet training
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after showing ian the whole process from drinking water to pee pee to clean bird bird, hands, potty through mickey mouse and giving rewards to mickey mouse because his diaper is still dry (which...ian ate them all later). i told myself, cannot back out liao...read the book, it says cannot 'suka suka' start toilet training and stop later...can't remember what's the reason.

anyways, ian's been poo poo in the potty, so i presume he's ready physically for the 'pee' training.

day 1
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a lot of bribes and persuasion to remove his pull up diapers to training pants... great! his diaper was dry the WHOLE day! not bad for a start yeah...first day already so successful :D

connie: "are you dry?"
after 10 mins
ian: "dry"
connie: "dry? wow!!! very good, let mommy see" touched his training pants, yes, it's dry.
"wow, ian, your pants still dry! very goooooood, please tell mommy when ian wants pee pee okie" rewarded him his favourite biscuit.
ian: "ok"

i asked that 3 words 'are you dry' countless time the whole day... of course, ian didn't tell me he wants to pee...i concerned about having to clean up the floor more than whether he really wants to...kept checking his bird. alright...i'm not sure whether this is the correct way k, if his bird seems a bit 'unusual' size :P, i'll make up stories to lure him to toilet...which...of course, he opposed many times, say 'don't want don't want'. when the pants is down and the potty is right in front of him...i saw waterfall after that.

day 2
------
how many times should i tell myself????
never trust a kid????

connie: "ian, are you dry"
ian: "dry"
connie: touched his pants, wet, very wet
ian: "ian, it's wet, you didn't tell mommy ian wants shhh shhh huh, must tell mommy when ian wants shhh shhh okie"
ian: 'ok'.

don't know what i did that day...think i was very busy...kept forgeting to check his pants... so...ended up, the toilet training failed that day. wet whole day!

day 3
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no training pants! no disposable diaper!

just wear shorts! make him feel there's no protection!!! let see how it goes.

uhmmm! how come ian so quiet...oooooi??!! the floor is wet!

the book says cannot scold, just say nicely..."oh, ian pee on the floor, it's ok, mommy clean. stay there okie, mommy is going to get the mop. stay there"

"ian, stayyyyyy there"
"iannnnnnnnnnnnnnn, mommy said stay there, don't walk around!!!" (voice is getting louder, coz ian is walking around with his wet feet.

i was slinging nathan...and ended up have to carry ian to the toilet to clean him up! mr helpful wants to mop the floor too...

ian: "mommy, noooooo, ian mop! mommy no, ian mop, ian helpppppppp."
connie: "it's ok, mommy clean, you stay in the toileeeeeeeet, don't touch the pail, it's dirty. noooooo ian, don't touuuuuuch"

that ONE pee itself, both of us ended up talked very loud and drag the word very long.

so? only when ian sleeps, i let him wear diaper...other than that. shorts only.

day 4 (today)
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when he woke up, i removed his diaper and just wear shorts...uhm...looks like he accepts shorts now. no fighting and asking for diaper.

at in law's place...told everybody (in front of him)...that he's wearing shorts and pee in the potty. make him proud of his success attempts...(the books say that too, get people to praise him). ian loves it.

when my mom in law feed his lunch half way....ian came down the chair.

ian: "wait, grandma wait" his hand showed us the 'stop' sigh, ran to the toilet.

i followed him...saw him taking the potty and prepare to take off his shorts.

connie: "ian wants shhhh shhhh?"
ian: "uhmm"

great!!! another success attempt...but this time i'm very happy...he went to the toilet himself. i told ian...
connie: "ian, must tell grandpa grandma that you shhh shhh in the potty ok!"
ian with his cheeky smile: "grandpaaaaa, grandmaaa, ian shhh shhh already" everybody praises him...he's very happy :D

only one accident today...hope no more...but still should expect many accidents to come.

wish me all the best.

yes yes yesssss!!!! after uploading for the whole afternoon...finally can show you the clip...file size too big.

showing you the difference between the 2 boys...just one of the incidents only.

DURIAN

life is different when have nothing to look forward to...

after the introduction of 2nd generation iphone, don't know what else to look forward to liao...

been visiting the bulk purchase thread in singaporemotherhood forum...ordered something which i'm not sure i might use it...

then now...i want to potty training ian...bought training pants for ian from bumwear shop and clothe diaper for nathan...read up a bit, mostly good comments and of course i visit the 'snippets of life' blog, she commented on that too. so am trying to be environmental friendly and want to save some money for jem...since ERP rate will be increased AGAIN. don't want to share about this for now...just started using it....1st day considered a disaster for me coz am too used to the convenience of disposable diaper. easy to let nathan try on the new product, still baby, not so fussy....ian is tougher...gotta use bribes to make him wear. but i must say, they look very cute wearing it.

anyway, did i tell you i had brownie marathon about 1 month ago?....jem has been out of town for 2-3 days each week for the past 3 weeks. so while he's not around, i'll drive the boys to bishan and off to shunfu market to buy brownies...yap...from chocolat and spice again, trying to be nice daughter in law, bought muffins too and ended up they don't really eat, i have to finish them all. bought 4-5 brownies each trip, one brownie a day...so eat for 3-4 days each week. in summary, i ate 10-12 brownies for the past 3 weeks.....and...don't forget...i have muffins to clear too.

weiye, if you read this, you might tell serene..."juan, don't be like connie ok!"

i stopped buying for 2 weeks liao...now...suddenly feel like eating again...

the weather has been really hot and humid lately...i wonder how the boys can tahan all the perspiration when they are running, hiding, jumping around the house...whenever we're in bishan, ian would always ride on his favourite fire truck and driving around the house...just when i'm about to sit and relax on the sofa...

ah po: "ahhh yooooi, ZhengEn hao mo dam liao, mommy ga lu wada" (hainanese - ian's hair is wet, mommy help you to change shirt).

both boys perspire easily...during bedtime, i'll have to turn on the air con every night, just to keep their body cool...the 2 crocodiles always crawl up and down the mattress before they sleep. even so, they still perspire.

oh well, at least they get to bathe at least twice a day. am dying to bathe all the time, it's so hot and humid and i'm sweaty all the time...

few nights ago...jem came back from work...

"what's the smell??? you're very smelly"

a skunk is welcoming her husband back from work.

i stayed up till almost 3am on apple conference night...my mind, my body is gone the next day...no no no...the remaining week...tired...and blur blur. but it was fun, haha...refreshed the website to check on the keynotes and photos updates every 1-2 minutes....when the most anticipated moment ie. steve job was about to show the 3g phone, my dear nathan woke up crying for feed, grrrrrrr...thanked God he nursed for 1-2 mins and i ran back to check on the updates again.

got this picture from hardwarezone forum, steve job of course didn't display this slide lah, someone from the forum modified it, just to tell us what iphone can't do....anyway, nobody will know for sure the above is true, coz steve job didn't cover all the functionalities in the conference. all i'm hoping is iphone can do bluetooth file transfer which the 1st generation can't do....:(...nobody knows until iphone reaches other major countries which will be available on 11 jul. when it finally available in singapore, i think you'll see many iphone owners everywhere...:P

i lost my wedding ring 1-2 months ago! arggggghhhh!!!! that got me into feeling super low period. jem said it's just a ring, most importantly i don't lost my heart towards him (ok ok...i know it's a bit mushy here). i know it just a ring, but it's very important and very sentimental to me. i'm not going to tell you how i lose it...
we're going to get a new one......and....as a result of this ring issue, i earned $400 from jem, hahahahh!!!

huh???

jem and i have been arguing where we first bought our wedding band. i said in bugis, he insisted he got it from bishan. so i bet $200. when i found the receipt, wahhhhaha!!! of course i won lah! so bishan??? the ring he got from bishan is probably for mimi or susie ;P (he said it himself too)

next...just now...we talked about the design of our wedding band. i said gold line outside and silver inside....can't remember what he said, we ran to see our wedding band...$200...saya punya!!!

$400....just another $200...maybe i can buy a 16gb iphone...maybe a white casing...see how...black also nice.

1-2 more hours to go....

2nd generation iphone....steve job, 'gin' leh!

sorry mates, while waiting for the news, am just updating to kill time.

bernie, no need to drown my phone, nathan has been doing his job..love to hold my phone and knocking it everywhere. my phone rescuer is kor kor ian...who always talk to his bro in very high pitch voice "di di, nooooooooooo"

have many things to update actually, just not in the mood to update....most of the time are 'down' period, so i give it a miss to tell you guys over the blog. my boys are doing fine, nathan loves to walk a lot, of course with our hands holding him...he can't walk on his own yet. ian talks even more now...and i always love the moment when he would ask me and jem to sing together with him...

ian: "abcd....uh uh..mommy sing together with ian, daddy sing together with ian"
all sing together and nathan claps his hands :D

alright...gotta stop now, jem wants to use the comp...

updates
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12.49am now....

wahhhh haaha! it's fun ok! jem is zzzz, am sitting here...googling...

some websites like engadget.com, macrumors.com provide keynote live coverage of the worldwide developer conference...some have the count-down timers...news keeps streaming in in google...i've never been so 'siao' before...just for that iphone...

it's not that i will buy...oh well, i think i will get it eventually...i just told jem...it's something for a stay at home mom like me to look forward to, other than looking after the boys you know...that makes my life even more interesting...wait wait wait...let me check out the time left.

9 mins...wo wo wo!!! my heart beat very fast, i want to laugh...very fun!

see you!!! bye bye

don't want to update liao! talk later! am very busy now.

7 mins.....nathan...please please please...don't wake up okie...let mommy have fun!

just one more week to go...

9 June 2008

the 2nd generation iphone - rumored 3G iphone...will be released at the apple worldwide developers conference, wahhh hahaaaaa!!!

i hope singtel would start selling sooner...after the conference.

attended church service last sunday...after absent for more than a month...

finally...get to sit down and listen to the 90% of the sermon without having to follow ian around...the other 10% is nursing nathan in nursing room.

jem get his mother to attend church with us...to take care of ian in david club (children sunday service) while jem, myself and nathan went to the main service.

this is jem's plan, the only way to get his parents to go to church is their grandchildren.

in church
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- mother in law will take care of ian
- when father in law is well enough and nathan is old enough to go sunday service, he'll take care of nathan, so he 'bo bian', got to attend church too.
- and slowly we'll get the grandchildren to convince their great-grandparents to go to church!

with the very valid excuse we have "we want to listen to sermon"...and of course the boys will have to miss their sunday services sometimes so that our family can go to main service altogether...

i enjoyed the sermon very much...very blessed! jem is blessed too. it's a very very very fundamental sermon...which i still enjoy it so much. you know, the first point of his sermon is 'there is a God'...to most Christians, maybe some would think 'duhhhhh!!! of course we believe there's a God', i wouldn't elaborate his points here...all i can say is he put it differently and even though i may hear it thousand times or it's so common sense about his points, i still learnt something from it and as though it's very new to me.

(^^)

alright, another failed attempt in baking...nevermind...i don't mind sharing since i've not been updating my blog.

i didn't try the 'outrageous brownie' recipe which i told you i would try, they use all the angmo terms like pounds, 1 stick of butter (what stick??!!!)...though i have online weight conversion to help, but decided to go on easy path...use another recipe...which...other forumers showed thumbs up on its recipe. it's called 'fudgy, cakey and chewy brownie'...how nice, sounds like my favourite choc and spice brownie.

anyway, i prepared the ingredients one day in advanced...the recipe called for instant coffee and toasted walnut...though i would prefer bittersweet chocolate, but couldn't find in ntuc and cold storage, so...coffee can be a good substitute...

i was pretty excited okie! planning to give my neighbours liao! when the boys finally knocked out for their naps! i quickly run to my kitchen and start action!!!

first, i toasted the walnut till 'chao da'! sigh, too busy preparing other ingredient and forgot to look at the toaster...till i smell something familiar. from white walnut to dark brown (and some black). can't throw wattttt....i want chewy brownie!!! chao da a bit nevermind, so i threw in the nuts except the black ones into the batter.

then i added instant coffee...

put into the oven, off we go!!! wow...brownie looks good! before it turns cold, i cut and taste...

uhmmm....taste funny...

taste like nescafe and burnt nut...brownie.

mannnn!!!!...i actually added instant nescafe (coffee with cream) into my brownie!!!

ian who normally get excited about my baking, doesn't even bother to taste it! (oh yeah, he woke up after i finished baking)...he saw the cake dark dark...he doesn't like.

to comfort myself for my hard work...i eat another bite just to convince myself it's not that bad....

waiting for jem to come home and try...told him i added instant nescafe accidentally...

he yioks! 'i hate anything with coffee taste'

so???

he never touch the brownie at all or even look at it!

my brownie stays in the fridge for 5 days and i bid it farewell.

fudgy? i don't know...all i taste is nescafe
cakey? uhmmm...maybe...but not like the one i like...this a bit dense...maybe i should use creaming method.
chewy? absolutely, just 'chao da' only.

i will try again...use creaming method...no coffee or nescafe! will update all of you my new brownie baking again...