it's hard to get angry...

Pout...

hide...

sob...

That's what he does whenever he realizes he's going to be punished for mischievous behaviors.

So, tell me how?! With this innocent face, he can get away from scolding and spanking, very easily...

Rynus has officially entered into his TERRIBLE TWOS phase just recently (around 2 years 3 months). I know some parents do not believe in such a thing called terrible twos, which is a period in a child's social development (typically around the age of two years) that is associated with very defiant or unruly behavior. Well, we've blogged about his korkor's terrible twos multiple times before and now, it's finally his turn. 

 

I won't say his temper tantrums are as bad as Renzo's, because in general Rynus is rather a happy go lucky baby whereas Renzo was way more demanding.  And usually Rynus only requests for food, though sometimes we experience other episodes such as, he refuses to put on his diaper and clothes, or he refuses to be carried in the supermarket but insists to wander around on his own,  or he jumps up and down the sofa, bed, playmat, basically any flat surface he's able to find, well yes that certainly includes tables and chairs. 

But overall he's rather a "tougher nut to crack" as compared to Renzo because his attention span is way shorter. It's extremely hard to get him sit still and finish a meal, I definitely blame myself for not cultivating good table manners, but he's not like Renzo who can sit down quietly for hours to play alphabet puzzles on ipad, he might give it a try for the first few minutes, but the moment he realizes that he's not able to complete the puzzle independently,  he will give up and fuss around again. And any scolding or reasoning, thinking corner or time out method just doesn't seem to work on him at all. In addition, if we raise our voice to Rynus, Renzo will stop us immediately by telling us: "Cannot shout at didi! Cannot get angry with didi! Later didi will cry then how?!!".

So as of now, getting angry with Rynus, is just not easy! But that doesn't mean we do not "suffer" often from his terrible twos episodes, just that all we could do for now, is to (again) patiently wait for it to end, hopefully in another 6 months to 1 year time!!

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!

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?!! 

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.

.
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...

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!!

Being the Second Child of the Family

Having a loving brother is never a bad thing. Whenever I look at these two play together and roll around the bed in unison, I think back at the times when Renzo was the only child and how lonely and solitary his life must have been before Rynus came along. Sure, Renzo had Mummy Chan and myself around him, but who better to understand oneself than a sibling who is just a few years apart.

I sit here by the edge of their bed and Rynus crawls over to the curtains and attempts to conceal himself behind it. As an adult, I am amused at the 1-year-old's attempt, and finds it funny because he didn't realise he had only covered his torso, while leaving his stubby little baby legs in plain view (good attempt still...haha). But the very same action triggered very different response from Renzo. He saw it as something wonderful, and immediately mimicked it with the other piece of the curtain, and instantly, we had two giggly kids covering and revealing themselves, flailing the curtain around as if the curtains were the wings of an intoxicated pigeon. I can only imagine how proud Rynus must have been to know his actions led on Renzo to do the same and it must have bolstered Rynus' self-confidence by a bit too.

Being the second child of the family, I know Rynus is disadvantaged from birth. Renzo had dedicated attention and funds when he was the only child for the first 3 years of his life, whereas Rynus will never know how it is like to have that sort of love and fundings (3 boxes full of Renzo's Thomas & Friends trains...). As most parents will say "We love them equally"... yeah.. and we know the equal half of the whole loving heart is 50%. It maybe that because I'm also the second child in the family myself, subconsciously I tend to be more biased toward Rynus, being more tolerant and understanding (at least that is what i gathered from my conversations with Mummy Chan, my sis-in-law and my mum... =/ )

Well, in any case, Rynus IS a cuter, more adorable baby even when compared to Renzo when he was at this age... then again, it might be my subconscious mind drawing at that conclusion... haha... guess we'll have to wait till Rynus turns into the little terrible-two monster to see if it'll change my perception of things...

Rynus Di Di is just as sweet~~

Most of our friends who have seen the boys often, would agree with me that Renzo is a very sweet brother, his tolerable limit is amazingly high when it comes to his little brother, and many have witnessed how Rynus bullied Renzo by pulling his hair, poking his mouth and squeezing his cheeks, while Renzo stayed calm and gave the occasional unhappy frowns without making a single complaint. Although they fight for toys everyday, they can play together in peace and harmony most of the time.

Rynus is often curious about what Renzo is doing. Besides trying to mimic his actions and sounds, every sudden expression from Renzo could be a laughing trigger that makes Rynus giggle out loud. Not to forget this cheeky kor kor is extremely funny and dramatic! So the room is often filled with laughter from the two boys. 

They can be very sweet to each other of course. I've seen countless times when Renzo crept into the cot and kissed his little brother while Rynus was sleeping like a log. When Rynus cries, Renzo grabs his milk bottle and stuffs into his mouth immediately, or passes him his #2 favorite remote control if we refuse to give Rynus his #1 favorite handphone to play. But last Saturday, we caught Rynus wobbly walking to Renzo, and trying to cheer him up by shaking his pajamas right in front of him, since Renzo was upset from being disciplined by Daddy for his mischievous behavior. That scene was absolutely heartwarming!

I know sibling rivalry is inevitable when you have more than one kid, due to personality clashes, ability battles, attention tactics, etc, but promoting sibling harmony and helping my children be friends with each other before they learn to fight with each other, is always on top of my list. Friends come and go, siblings are forever!!