1 month into full day childcare

In the blink of an eye, Rynus has been attending full day childcare for a month since July 01!

The 2nd child syndrome has hit me really hard this time when I read our blog posts about Renzo's experience when he first started attending half day childcare, and eventually moved on to full day care. With our first child Renzo, we were exuberant and did everything right (or at least tried to do everything right), naturally we felt everything is new, every experience is unique, we were driven to capture every moment, to applaud every achievement, and to generally create most beautiful memories with the apple of our eyes. Then, when Rynus arrived, the experience isn't so new. We've been there, done that. Though we seem to have taken more pictures of him (for the very fact that he's more photogenic and the megapixels on our phone camera doubled since Renzo's time), the every first of his was not as joyful and exciting as Renzo's, somehow.

But still, I took 3 days of annual leave to accompany Rynus to school, and tried to figure out a daily routine for everyone in the house. After about 1-2 weeks of experiment, and adjustment, the boys start to wake up daily at about 6:30am, Daddy Chan then drives them to school and our helper sends them up and stays a little longer with Rynus in the classroom till he settles down. At night, I rush down from my work place to pick the boys up, and takes a taxi home together. This is not the most economical solution for sure as the short taxi ride during peek hour usually costs S$7-S$8 bucks daily. But we are glad that we can handle them without involving the grandparents and helper, so that they could focus on their own stuff and have more time for themselves instead. And most importantly, the boys are having a better daily routine now, which allows them to have their dinner prepared by our helper right after school, and spend more time in the evening to play and study together with us.

So how did Rynus do in school?

Well let's first take a look at teachers' feedback about Renzo 3 years ago.
Teacher's feedback: "Pretty good, getting better, on and off cries for his auntie Ayeaye, but plays well with his friends and enjoys music & dance time to the fullest. Learning to eat on his own at the same table with other kids but very quiet and do not speak much."

And now for Rynus (I feel awesome to have received feedback about Rynus from the same group of teachers, who still remember about their experience with Renzo in the past)
Teacher's feedback: "Really enjoys music & dance time to the fullest. Eats well on his own, doesn't cry much but doesn't like to be touched by others. Behaving ok as long as he's not throwing tantrums."

It seems that I have 2 pretty "anti-social" boys who are not independent, and indeed, quite a handful. And being in the same school as his brother isn't to his advantage because he doesn't become any easier to manage when Renzo is around to play with, or take care of him.

I know most of Rynus' classmates (including his 5-days-younger cousin) are adapting well in school. So he's probably the only one giving most of the headaches to his teachers. But I still feel very proud of him for being able to stay in school for a whole day now and nap there daily while snuggling his little penguin. To think the transition period from half to full day was a few months for Renzo. And most importantly, Rynus didn't really fall sick (at least not very sick to the extend that he needs to stop school for days) like Renzo did during the first month. The fact is Renzo started school at 19 months whereas Rynus only started at 25 months, so his immunity system should be stronger anyway. Unfortunately, he still caught some bugs and was having diarrhea and runny nose recently. He's not fully recovered yet but he didn't skip a single day of school for a full month, yeah!!!

After all, I've already seen great improvement in him since he started school. He's still not able to express himself much, but he likes to follow whatever we say nowadays and his articulation is almost as good as Renzo's!! And seeing both of them holding hands together and skipping to me in joy every evening at school, is really the best reward I get after a day of hard work!

when will Rynus didi start talking?

This is the question I have been asking myself many many, many many times for the past 2 years. It's quite a challenge to answer a question like this when our elder boy Renzo, started speaking in short sentences since 1.5 years old. In terms of speech development, Our almost 2 years old Rynus, is probably at the level of our 11 months old Renzo, I am not kidding!

Although recently he's been babbling a lot more, the fact is, he's been babbling like this, alright probably slightly less, since he was.. 6 months old? And we were anticipating "baby is going to talk soon" for the past 1 and half years!

I am not too concerned after hearing from many mummies that some kids start talking after 3. Indeed I find Rynus extremely adorable with his "inability to communicate in proper language".

He must be feeling extremely satisfied, or maybe even proud, with the fact that he could understand all of us 100%, but none of us could understand him. And I've probably mentioned this before, his "TERRIBLE TWOS" symptoms are rather mild as compared to Renzo's, or, probably it's not even started because that's the stage kids throw tantrums often because when they try to express themselves, we adults do not understand them well enough. "Express themselves"? Rynus? He's not even willing to open his golden mouth so nope, we do not have much concerns, at least not often.

But this time round, I must give him some credits for being able to sing along the "Leapfrog alphabets song". I've been singing this with him almost daily for a month and his progress makes us feel extremely proud!! Time like this, I can't bring myself to believe that this baby still cannot talk!!

the emotionally smart Rynus

Rynus is turning 2 in about a month time, hooray!!

He's still the forever cheerful and adorable him, keeping everyone entertained by doing absolutely NOTHING! Seriously, I really meant it!! Observing him doing nothing is fun, because he's not able to communicate yet, whenever he looks into your eyes and talks in his baby language that nobody understands, and bursts into laughter for no apparent reason, you will follow him and laugh without knowing why too!

Daddy once said Rynus is not as academically smart as Renzo. He didn't follow korkor's footsteps by achieving most, if not all major milestones a lot earlier than other kids at the same age. Instead, he is rather slower (except for walking) compared to others. I often mention that Renzo has helped us save a lot of money on enrichment classes, so we could use the fund for Rynus, as he seems to know nothing at this moment, when I say nothing, I am referring to alphabets, numbers, phonics, words, sentences, days/weeks/months, colors, shapes, lullabies, poems, etc, etc which Renzo used to know very well at this age.

Of course, I was absolutely WRONG!!

Rynus has distinguished himself nicely from his korkor, by being an emotionally intelligent boy (just like his daddy)!

Well I know it's too early to judge but he seems to have the ability, to perceive his own, and other people's emotion very well. His "terrible twos" symptoms are rather mild. He cries when you do not give in to him but he gets distracted very easily. And most of the time, he understands our emotions through body language or facial expressions, if not verbal communications.

Once Rynus held my hand and walked into the room, he signaled "shhhh..." by putting his little finger around his lips the moment he noticed daddy was sleeping...

Once Renzo shouted he needs to pass urine, Rynus immediately ran into the toilet, turned on the light, and lifted up the toilet seat cover for his korkor (he can't even use the toilet but he knows when korkor needs to use it, LOL...)

Often when I am blending fresh fruit juice, he camps outside the kitchen and rushes in the moment I'm done, and takes out his own cup and tells me, "mama, juice, juice!!"..

Whenever Renzo gets disciplined by us and can't stop crying, Rynus pats on his back and gives us the "please forgive my korkor" look...

Everytime we are about to bring the kids to the pool, Rynus digs out swimwear from his wardrobe, gets sunblock, and takes slippers for everyone (instead of shoes which he always prepares for us before we go out)...

Everyday When he's done with his food, he places (often throws) cutlery back into the sink, and he voluntarily helps Renzo to do the same when Renzo is not in the mood...

When we shouts at him for doing something wrong, he immediately covers his eyes with his chubby little hands, and then opens his eyes big and round under his hands, pauses for a second and goes "Peek-a-boo", how to get angry with him!!! 

He did made some progress and learned his phonics through leapfrog. He's not a book lover like Renzo so the only book that catches his attention so far, is the magnetic alphabet book, he could sort the letters and form the words based on the tips given, very obvious tips though.. And he will say "BRAVO" and clap his hands each time he gets it right.

We didn't manage to capture a very clear video but he can recognize and pronounce "G", "O", "D", "H", "A", "I", "S" from his favorite "Good Habits" poster.

And finally I feel confident in coaching him myself, than relying on enrichment classes, but, of course not now, he needs to take his own sweet time at a slower pace remember?!! 

Rynus' simple phonics..

Warning: Lots of videos!!!

My little cute cute, yes recently I've been enjoying calling Rynus my little cute cute, has been giving us loads and loads of joys nowadays, with his countless attempts in learning, and failing to talk. Well his vocabulary list has expanded by... just a little bit, he now knows "car car", and "card card", but his "bird", "pig", "press" and "bolster", all sound like "beh"...

And, that's about it.. That's all he's learned to speak so far...

Is that normal for a 1 year 8 months old kid? I would think not, his 5-days-younger-cousin has been talking in simple sentences, and repeating any words after adults is not a big challenge to her anymore. Therefore all I could say is that, Rynus is clearly not a studious type like his Renzo korkor. There's one night Rynus tore one of Renzo's favorite Thomas train books, while drinking his milk in bed. That "what's the big deal" look on his face, almost made me beat him up because Renzo, on the contrary, has never messed up with his books since birth, ever!

Well if I look at what Renzo was doing at this age, gosh, Alphabets, Numbers, Chinese poems, English songs, he could handle them all! Let's just pick one video of him singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at 1 year 6 months.


This is Renzo recognizing different objects at 1 year 5 months..

As for Rynus, he has been watching Leapfrog daily, like his Renzo korkor. He did not manage to learn all his A - Z by now like what Renzo did in the past, but he has showed strong interest in the phonics sound of the alphabets, and could follow, or even make the sound while you mention the letters, he knows the phonic sounds of at least, 15 alphabets, but I only managed to record down "M", "N", "O", "P" in the video attached below:
 

I know it doesn't sound as impressive if you were to compare it with Renzo's progress in the past, so I am going to make it up by sharing this super duper cute video of Rynus laughing, while hearing "Peek-a-boo" from Renzo, I seriously love the bonding between them and my little cute cute, is just way too cute, isn't he?!!!!!!!!
 

loving his Renzo kor kor..

By now, it's pretty clear to us that our 2 boys are very different, in many many ways. But there's one thing they have in common - their brotherly love for each other.. Renzo might get annoyed or agitated at times if Rynus snatches his toys, or messes up his books, but for Rynus, he seems to love, admire and respect his elder bro, wholeheartedly, all the time!

Once, we caught him running into the bedroom and pulling out Renzo's blanket, he looked super adorable when he was attempting to cover his kor kor up, though I seriously wonder his intent was to have kor kor play with him when I saw his big grin with delight after he "accidentally" woke Renzo up from his nap...

Our helper has been telling us that Rynus often dreamed of Renzo during his naps, and shouted "kor kor", before he turned one side and snuggled up to his big bolster, and went back to sleep again..

Climbing up to Renzo's back is his favorite way of playing with his kor kor recently. And each time, Renzo's effort in pushing him away, just makes him even more excited.

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Last night, Rynus woke up at 3am and refused to get back to sleep, I had to carry him and walk around in the room. Suddenly he looked at Renzo in the dark and started calling out loud, "kor kor, kor kor, kor kor!!!!!!!!". I was so worried that he will wake Renzo up, luckily Renzo was sleeping like a log. And I ended up carrying Rynus to living room because he was reaching out to Renzo's arm and there's just no way to stop him!

Look at Rynus' "vigorous dance" when Renzo sets the DVD to fast play!!

Maybe in the eyes of Rynus, Renzo is the only, and the closest person to him besides Mummy and Daddy. I really wish one day when Renzo reads this post, it could somehow bring back some sweet memories about his little brother as a baby...

coaching Rynus, just not as easy..

I often emphasize on the theory of "every kid is special in their own way, and they will achieve their development milestones sooner or later at their own pace.", whenever my friends comment that Renzo is advanced compared to other kids at his age. But when I re-read my post about Renzo's funny patterns at 17 months, quite frankly I can't really keep my cool when I then look at our 17 months old little man, Rynus Chan, with a vocabulary list he's built to date like this:
- words used most frequently: "mama", "korkor";
- words with most syllables: "mama", "korkor";
- only words he seems to know: "mama", "korkor"...

-_-!!

Am I worried? Nope..
Am I concerned? Nope..
Am I bothered? YES man, I am!! Why? Because I feel that it is more because being the 2nd child of the family, Rynus wasn't getting 100% attention from us, and unfortunately, he could never get that..

I remember our ex-helper singing the ABC song countless times a day, reading number 1-20 to Renzo at least 5 times till she could memorize the entire numbers poster. I recite 6x Chinese poems + 三字经 at least 4 times a day, I sing along the alphabets and their phonics sounds introduced by Leapfrog whenever Renzo is watching the DVD, I carry Renzo to the window and spend at least 15 minutes a day to teach him how to differentiate car, taxi, van, bus, motorcycle, etc. And before bedtime, I sing about 6-7 lullabies to Renzo non-stop till he slowly drifted off to lalaland. My full 4 months of maternity leave, plus another 4 months of working from home, plus another half a year that Daddy worked half day in the morning, definitely allowed us to provide more support to Renzo's academic growth.

But for Rynus, I left him to helper alone since he was 2 months old. In order not to distract or rather say over-stimulate him before bedtime, I usually off the room light after his last feed and carry him quietly till he dozes off. That leaves me with no time to really teach Rynus anything. I tried to make some effort, but it seems that Rynus has super short attention span, he could not even sit still for long to play a toy, so forget about books, or study.. He's a happy kid who eats and sleeps to pass time, playing is fun, but not with the same toy for more than 5 minutes. Renzo is the opposite, he's always attentive and he doesn't need much sleep, so most of the time he's awake, he's absorbing new knowledge! And if he is doing something, he can spend hours on it without getting bored.

So my conclusion, it might not be 100% true but if  you want to know whether your kid is a great learner who can be easily coached, just look at how focused he is with whatever he does.

Last night, I finally decided to put in even more efforts, by introducing all the alphabets and numbers to Rynus before bedtime, while carrying him and walking around his room. Even Renzo seems to be concerned with his little bro's progress and he was trying to teach Rynus "sticker", "octopus" and "water", like a real teacher! I've joked with Daddy many times that Rynus doesn't need to be smart, his job for now, is just to stay cute and sweet, so to keep us entertained and melted all the time. LOL..

first staycation with baby Rynus - Marriott Singapore

On September 7, after attending our best friends Joel & Alicia's wedding lunch, we checked ourselves into Marriott Hotel for our first staycation with baby Rynus.

Staycation at local hotel has became our yearly family event, and we usually do it twice a year, because it's simply easier than flying overseas with the 2 boys. Talking about that, I just remembered that baby Rynus does not have his own passport! Lazy mummy better work on that before our next overseas trip! Some might think it's a waste of money to bring young kids for hotel stays, but to me, I believe it's an eye opener and great exposure for them. Renzo knows some hotels require room card to access the lift, which I am pretty sure many adults are not aware of.

With our Marriott Vacation Club Membership, we are privileged to enjoy hotel stays at 7 club resorts, 28 club connection hotels, or even more than 2000 timeshare resorts in 75 countries around the world. We celebrated Renzo's first birthday at Marriott Mai Khao beach club in Phuket, we stayed at Ritz Carlton Shanghai for his 2nd birthday, and we went to Ritz Carlton Singapore for his 3rd birthday as Mummy was pregnant with baby Rynus by then. In fact, when we attended our friends' wedding in Bali this April, we also stayed in Courtyard Marriott so in another word, our recently hotel stays were either Marriott, or Ritz Carlton, that's the way to fully utilize our club membership points since it doesn't come cheap anyway, LOL..

So this time, we decided to give Marriott Singapore a try since we've stayed in Ritz Carlton Singapore for 3 times in the past, including an indulgence in a super lovely premier suite room on our wedding day.


I knew long ago that Marriott has smaller hotel rooms, as compared to Ritz Carlton, so I wasn't expecting much and I just thought their superb location will compensate. Well to certain extend, it's true because we could afford to take a stroll around Orchard area for a couple of hours before the shops close at late night. But in all honesty, their hotel rooms are really dull with outdated interiors, and almost zero scenic views as we were given a room on the 5th floor. I thought I made a wise choice to upgrade the room to a premier suite with a living room area and a massage bathtub. Or else I really couldn't imagine how much the kids would enjoy most of their time inside the room.

We did not opt to add in the breakfast at a discounted price of SGD80 for 2 before tax, usual price is SGD90 for 2 before tax and I've heard lots of great reviews about their wide spread and quality food. I have no doubt in that after trying out their 12 bucks chocolate cake (almost as big as a standard log cake) Renzo insisted to get at their cafe. I am never a chocolate cake fan but I found it pretty impressive.

Rynus was curious about the new environment throughout the stay. It's pretty fun to see him climbing up and down, and hanging on the bed for dear life most of the time. Renzo is not a rookie anymore, he even commented that he prefers his own new house, and Ritz Carlton hotel is his favorite. The best gain of this stay, was the 2 videos we took while the boys splashing water like crazy in the massage bathtub, which I am secretly planning to include in their wedding montage one day. But for now, let's look forward to Rynus' first staycation at Ritz Carlton Singapore in one month time, well yes I've made booking for that and it will be Renzo's 3rd stay there!!