Darth Connor!

Darth Connor!  Nov 2013

Our son was introduced to Angry Bird Star Wars some time ago by his uncle.  He never took much interest in it till recently and then he would quiz me about the various characters in the game.

For the first time ever, I had ALL the answers to something.  "Oh this bird?  This is the Han Solo bird, Connor.  Mummy loves Han Solo.  He's so wonderful."  "This one?  This is a stormtrooper pig." 

Like many others of my generation, I grew up with the original trilogy.  My Star Wars had Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, not CGI.  I spent a large part of my childhood carefully arranging pillows and bolsters on the floor to form the cockpit of my X-wing fighter.  Then with my uncle's battered motorbike helmet on my head, I would climb in and soar to a galaxy far, far away in my imagination.

So when my son showed interest in Star Wars, I was so thrilled.  Finally.  My very own padawan.  Teach him the way of the Force, I shall.

Daddy got very suspicious as Mummy enthusiastically gave in to Connor's request for Star Wars related toys.  "But it's his birthday, darling!"  "Yea, yea.. his birthday or yours!"

And so Connor woke up on his 5th birthday this year to find his presents were a lightsaber from us, a Darth Vader costume from J and a knock-'em-down Angry Birds Star Wars game from M&J.   He was over the moon.  In fact, he wore the Darth Vader costume for three days straight before I could peel it off him.

When I watch him play at being Darth Vader or Yoda, I feel like I'm watching me as a child.  It's so brilliant that something that had captivated me as a child has the same power over my son so many years later.  

May the Force always be with you, my little padawan.

Kids Activities: Sand Play

I'm trying to get Connor to spend more time outdoors now that the weather is better.

So yesterday I invested in a 10kg bag of play sand from the local Tesco.  It only cost £2.50 for the whole bag.  After school, I dug out one of our many IKEA Samla boxes and poured the sand in then set it on another box so that it was at a good height for him.

Then I made Connor collect all his beach toys from our garden.  We'd used them for playing with snow during the winter.  As it was drizzling slightly, I suited him up in this puddle suit I'd bought him online. It's padded, waterproof and more importantly WINDPROOF.  A definite must-have for kids in British weather.  I've decided to follow Nordic parents' advice:  There is no such thing as bad weather, just wrong clothing.  Do you know there are some nurseries in Sweden which are 100% outdoors?  When it's nap time, babies just nap in their prams all suited up in snowsuits and woolies.

Add in a few construction vehicles toys and then I chucked my son outside to play in the very slight drizzle.  (I can so hear my mum shouting "He's going to get the flu!")

He was so thrilled to have his own sand pit that he stayed outside for an hour or so.  And Mummy got things done in the kitchen in peace.

When he was tired and wanted to come in, all I did was bring a jug of water outside so that he could wash the sand off his hands.  Then he took off his puddle suit and came in sand-less and clean while I shook the sand off the suit in the garden.  Ta-dah!

Kids' Activities: Paper Toys

I'd said before Connor has become obsessed with Big Ben as a result of our trip to London.

A week after we returned, the 2012 London Olympics started and Big Ben was featured quite often on the telly.  Cue our super-excited son:  "MUMMY!  It's Big Ben clock tower! In London!  It's my favourite!"  A video on Big Ben produced by the BBC is on heavy rotation on our iPad and Connor would chime along happily. "Chonggggggg!  Chonnnnggggg!"  On visits to toy stores, he would ask for a clock tower and trust Disney to come up with a Big Ben replica for their Cars 2 line of toys right then!

I knew Dear Hubby and I wouldn't be able to last till our next trip to UK (tentatively scheduled for summer 2013) because all this constant talk of Big Ben and resonant chiming from our son would drive us mad.

Fortunately, Dear Hubby found a site called PaperToys and yes, they had a paper model of Big Ben!  What joy!

Download!

Print!

Cut!

Fold and glue!

Ta-dah!

"Mummy! Daddy!  Look!  I have a Big Ben clock tower toy!"

And it goes very nicely with our existing London double decker bus too.

Problem solved.

See how happy he is with it?

Connor's wish list

I made the mistake of leaving four of Connor's precious little die-cast toy vehicles in Liverpool.  He's not really been asking for them as he's been busy playing with his current set of toys.  As he'd not seen them for a month, it's almost like they're all new to him again.

Lately though, he'd been asking for his toy vehicles.  He's mad about the SIKU range of toys.  The cheapest toy starts at RM14.90 so that's not a big deal if I get him one of those every month.  They're well made (German engineering!), the wheels and side mirrors don't fall off ever and they're damn near indestructible.  They're stocked in all the toys shops we go to as well as Mothercare stores and Connor never fails to go up to the display and gaze longingly at all on offer.

We saw a bendy bus in downtown Liverpool on our holiday so I caved in to maternal guilt on our most recent trip and bought him one.  Cost me RM25.90.  It bends and all but to Connor's disappointment, the doors don't open.

The other day, he asked for a yellow school bus from SIKU.  I said no as I'd just bought the bendy bus a few days earlier.

Yesterday, he came up to me with his toy wish list.  As he'd learnt that Mummy generally says no to buying more than one toy at a time, he'd cleverly distributed the toy buying among the family.

"Mummy buy Connor a yellow school bus, Daddy buy tram, Jiu-jiu buy blue car transporter and Da Jiu buy red racing car... and... and.... Gong-gong buy helicopter... and.... and... um... and... Por-por buy clock tower!  Tomorrow we go shopping at toy shop!"

And he beamed triumphantly at his own cleverness.

I can't bloody believe it.

And the best part?

This morning on the way to school, he reminded me again of his toy wish list and adding more family members to it.

And Dear Hubby thought I was bad with my handbag wish list... at least I just wish for ONE Chanel a year!

Connor and his Transformers

Connor's had this Transformer keyring for ages.  Got it free from a packet of Frosties.  Lately he's been asking me to "...make it to car, Mummy?" and I can't because it's just a keyring, not a proper Transformer.

I gave in this week and bought a Lego Transformer set for him, it was an Optimus Prime just like his keyring.  Connor was SO thrilled when I put it together and he finally had a Transformer robot.  I thought he would play robot games with it... you know... I am the Big Robot here to bash all things up.

What transpired was something quite, quite different.

First, the Lego Optimus Prime sat on the toy Porsche and zoomed around.  Then it came to a halt and the robot got off. "Oh, Daddy's home!" sang out Connor.  The robot then clipped-clopped its way across the dining table and stopped before the key ring.

He picked up the keyring Optimus and said, "Now Daddy kiss Mummy." and the two robots knocked helmets together.  "Daddy sayang Mummy." was the next thing he said and the two robots gave each other an awkward robotic hug.

After that, the big robot walked off. "Daddy go change clothes!"  When that was done, the big robot sat down and was duly given a cup of coffee.  "Daddy switch on music!"

I was so charmed to see him act out what he sees us do every evening when Daddy comes home from work.  You know... this is what they do in therapy, especially for children who've been abused on the quiet... when they try to find out from a child's point of view what is REALLY going on at home.  They give the child dolls and encourage them to act out what happens at home.

It was lovely seeing him recreate accurately what happens at home.  Except for the Porsche part.  Dang.

Kids' Toys: The yBike Glider

Many mums know of the yBike balance bike.  It's like a bicycle, except it hasn't got any pedals.  Kids use it just like a regular bike.  Their claim is that with regular bikes attached with training wheels, kids don't really learn to balance as the training wheels catch them each time they lose their balance.  They just learn how to pedal real quick.   With yBikes, they focus more on learning how to balance themselves on two wheels and that is really the key to learning to cycle.

Well, we didn't get Connor a yBike as he already had a Thomas bike for his 2nd birthday.  But we noticed he would always stare in fascination at the older kids in our condo development who had kids' scooters.  He received one for Christmas in the UK but it was designed for a much older child who could already glide and Connor struggled with it.

About a month ago, we got him a yBike glider from Toys 'r' Us in Bangsar Village.  He was so happy with it that we unpacked it right away and let him glide back down the connecting bridge (with Daddy's help).  

Man, I don't know why we waited so long to get him that toy.  He's absolutely in love with it.  It took him about a week to figure out how to turn.  It's real easy, just lean on the handlebars in the direction you want to go and the glider will turn.  The glider is really well made, soft rubberised edges to protect little bodies, feels really sturdy and best of all, it's really, really, REALLY quiet.

We've cleared a path in our apartment so that Connor can glide from one end to the other.  He does so frequently and now that he's mastered turning, he goes round and round in ecstatic circles round our dining table.  When we had one MSN chat session with Nana in Liverpool, we picked up the laptop and let her see her little grandson zooming gleefully around on his glider and she thought it was brilliant.

I think we paid RM200+ for the glider.  There are cheaper ones on the market but I feel this was well worth the extra cost as it's so sturdy and SO quiet.  I was out the other day in Mont Kiara McD's and one little boy went past with his.  Click-clack-click-clack!  My god.  I would go nuts hearing that all the time in my house.

Right now, Mothercare is having a sale and I saw it going for under RM200 so get it while you can!  Honestly, you won't regret it, it's such a brilliant toy!

A Conversation with Connor: On cars

Connor was "driving" his toy car around and had Flintstone-pedalled up to me with a big smile.


Connor: Mummy... car!
Me: Oh wow, it is a car! Whose car is it?
Connor: Connor car!
Me: Really? Are you sure? Maybe it's Mummy's car?
Connor: CONNOR CAR!!!!!



Lesson learnt. Never come between a man and his car.

How our Christmas 2010 went

We three must have been very, very good this year because we got simply fabulous presents from Santa come Christmas Day.

This is Connor with his main present from us - a Take Along Thomas playset that Mummy snagged on sale from Think Toys in Gardens, Mid Valley. He is absolutely fascinated with the crane that's part of the set and currently only plays with that bit.

He got a bunch of other stuff too - a talking clock from my bro-in-law, assorted trains to go with the playset above and a tractor that he'd wanted from the toy store.

This is Mummy's present from Daddy! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!! Dear Hubby had cleverly asked me to open the smaller box first. I couldn't imagine what they were, thought maybe the smaller box had jewellery but I knew Dear Hubby would never buy trinkets for me without my standing by vetting everything. When I tore open the wrapper and saw it was for an iPad connection kit, I knew instantly the larger box must contain an iPad. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

At the rate we're playing with it, I think we're going to de-sensitise the touchpad very, very soon. I've just downloaded this hilarious app called Talking Tom Cat (I think?) which features a cat that will purr when you stroke it and fall down after you've poked it in the eye one time too many. The funniest bit is it will repeat whatever you say and Connor's been trying to figure that bit out.

Dear Hubby had quietly ordered it off the Apple site and had it personalised with the message "For Mummy, Daddy and Connor - Xmas 2010" on the back. Awwww... so shweet...

And I got my Birkin!!!!!

Sort of.....

I haven't got a picture right now of my present to Dear Hubby. It's a hand-made calendar featuring pics of Connor from the day he was born till now. It's a template I got off Smilebox and I spent endless nights working on the calendar. I made calendars for everyone in the family for their Christmas presents and had slightly different pictures for each of them. For example, Dear Hubby's has a month where the main pic is of him and Connor. My in-laws' had one month where I picked the picture of we took of them with Connor when we were last home. I added in holidays and birthdays too.

The reason I made the calendars was that I noticed my mum-in-law hung one in the kitchen and used it to pencil in appointments and birthdays. I thought that I would make them one featuring their littlest grandson since they don't get to see him often and that would be a nice way to remind them of him and help them keep track of appointments etc. Then I decided to make one for Dear Hubby as well as I can never buy him the boys' toys he wants and the only way to top a $50,000 speaker is to make him a gift money can't buy.

Well, those nights I spent slaving over the calendars were worth it. When Dear Hubby tore open his present and saw the first page, his first words were "It's beautiful." He loved it. In fact, he wants the same present next year.

We called my in-laws and wished them a Merry Christmas. Our cards and present had arrived in time despite being posted so late, so well done UK posties! I lupp you! I was so happy when my mum-in-law told me she loved her present, I'm so glad they got it in time. Apparently there was 6" of snow in Liverpool and I wish, wish, wish we were there to see it. Never mind... next year! (and it'd better bloody snow then too)

What a lovely Christmas.

I hope yours was as wonderful as ours was.

Shopping in Kuala Lumpur: We got Connor's Christmas present at Think Toys

... at 50% off!!! We got the set from Think Toys in The Gardens Mid-Valley. They're having a 50% deal on certain ranges of Thomas toys and we picked up this set at RM99. What a deal because the much tinier Knapford Station set we bought cost me RM80++.

Woohoo. It's a Toby Main Line Set from the Take Along Thomas range. Toby isn't one of those hot characters from Thomas the Tank Engine series because he's kinda fuddy-duddy and awfully slow. When you're a kid who likes engines, you wanna be the biggest, baddest, fastest engine right!

But the set itself is quite cool. It's got a drawbridge with lights and sounds, a cargo crane and a crossing. The main point is that we already own the Knapford Station set from the same range that will connect to this set and we also have Thomas and a talking James.

I can't wait to see my little boy's face come Christmas morning when he gets to open this present.

We've found the letter U.. FOR REAL!!!

Letter U was hiding in the pull-out tall cupboard next to the fridge. Letter U must have grown legs and made the mighty leap from the fridge to the shelf. Well, U is now back where U belongs - with the rest of U's fellows!

Tell you what.. all these ABC toys I bought for Connor seem to work. We were headed towards Solaris Mont Kiara for some groceries today. When I turned into the main road, Connor saw all the signs for parking and shouted from the back, "P!!!!!! P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When I sign in to Blogger, he'll point at the logo and tell me "B!" When we're in the lift heading for the swimming pool, I'll ask him to press the button for lobby and he'll press it and inform me, "L!" The pool is next to Block B so he'll pause in his play and point out the giant letter to me too.

To be honest, I always thought all these toys were just the companies' ploy to get money out of our pockets into theirs. Heh.. nice to see I'm wrong.

We've found the letter U! Not...

I bought Connor the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set sometime ago. I thought it would keep him interested at the fridge while I prepared breakfast. I was also hoping it would keep him interested enough to stop wanting to open the fridge each time he passes it. (It didn't)

The set we got comes with both uppercase and lowercase letters. I got out the lowercase letters because he already has a toy that teaches him uppercase letters. I like the Leapfrog set because the letters are chunky - easy for Connor to grip and they're too big to slide under the fridge when dropped. They teach the child the letter as well as the sound it makes with a song that gets more and more annoying with each repetition.

Last week I found out that we'd lost the letter U. Oh no. I didn't know where it'd disappeared to but I knew it wasn't under the fridge. I don't even know where to look.

Last night, I thought we'd found it. I sang out to Dear Hubby, "Daddy, look! We've found the letter U!" Dear Hubby feigned interest and enthusiasm, "That's great, baby." and went back to his hi-fi magazine.

Much later during dinner, I glanced towards the fridge again and realised that it's still lost. "Oh no. It's not the letter U. It's the letter N upside down."

Bloody lowercase letters.

Connor knows his ABCs

When Connor was 9 months old, I bought him the Fisher-Price Sesame Street ABC Bus toy. I thought he would enjoy the toy because he loved to press buttons and there were plenty on the toy for him to press to his heart's content. He was actually way too young for the toy then (it was recommended for 18mths and older) but I don't think it mattered to Connor. He loved the toy from day one.


It's actually a very annoying toy. Especially if you can't stand Elmo and I can't. There's only so much of his high-pitched voice that I can take without wanting to bash the toy to smithereens. The toy is rather loud too, I had to tape over the speakers with clear tape.


Connor is now 22 months old and he still plays with it. Two nights ago, I was sitting by him watching him play with the toy. He had it in the quiz mode where the toy will ask, for example, "What is the first letter of the word 'Apple'?" Obviously Connor doesn't know that so he'll just press random buttons. The toy gives you two tries before telling you the correct answer. "Apple starts with the letter A!"


Upon hearing that, Connor will press the letter A. I thought to myself "Whoa he got it right! Well, must be a fluke, he never pays attention when I try to teach him ABCs." When he got the 2nd letter right as well, I thought "Beginner's luck." But when Connor got the 3rd, 4th and 5th letters right as well, I started paying attention.


He got every letter right that night. And that's when I realised that Connor had learnt his ABCs from this noisy annoying toy.


I was really, really chuffed. I'd been worried I'd not spent enough time teaching Connor stuff, we don't do a lot of flashcards or charts or whatever. I figured school would teach Connor ABCs and 123s. Besides I thought it would be better if I taught him social and life skills first. This is why my son can't identify colours or shapes but can put on his own shoes, knows he must put his cup on coasters instead of on the teak table and will put the empty packet of rice crackers in the bin when he's finished with them.

But I'm dead chuffed he's learnt letters all by himself. I've never liked Elmo but I'm starting to have more positive feelings about him now. Hehe.

SALE: Choo Choo Train Great Eastern Mall

Calling mums of Thomas fans! Choo Choo Train in Great Eastern Mall is having a SALE! The Take Along series are at 50% off (yes seriously!) and the wooden sets are at 20-30% off. Boy oh boy.

I was there today and picked up a Take Along Thomas Knapford Station playset at 50% off. I also picked up a Light and Sound James and Take Along Toby. I spent a grand total of RM122.35 for all those items. A normal price Knapford Station playset will set you back RM169.90 at Toys R Us I think.

They are having 20% off Plan toys, Lamaze and The First Years stuff. I really like the Plan toys dollhouse, was wondering if I should get that for myself... hehe.

They are closing down the outlet after Raya so for all you Thomas fans out there, hurry up and grab some deals!

Happy shopping.

GIS Playgroup in Kuala Lumpur: The 2nd visit

Remember how I was worried Connor would get bashed up by the older kids at the playgroup? This is the reason why playgroups for very young children are separated into different ages. Can you imagine putting a 6-month-old who's just started crawling in the same playgroup as my Connor who's now running about gleefully and able to whizz about on ride-ons? Can we all say "roadkill"?

Maybe I shouldn't have worried so much.

There's this ride-on toy at the playgroup that Connor absolutely adores. When we arrived today, I saw another older boy playing with it. Eager to avoid World War III of the Toddlers, I asked the organiser mum if I could go get another similar toy. Unfortunately a class was going on in the music hall where the toys were kept so I had to wait. I tried my best to keep Connor distracted so that he wouldn't want to play with the ride-on but I had no luck. My little boy kept going over to the other boy and whining for the toy.

At 17 months, it's simply impossible to teach concepts like "sharing" and "waiting your turn". My best bet was to distract him.

Finally the class in the music hall ended and I ran out to get the other toy. I came back holding it to find Connor had managed to outmuscle the older boy off the ride-on and was now whizzing off gleefully with it. His expression was triumphant. "It's MINE! MWAHAHAHA!"

So I did the next best thing. I quickly offered the older boy the other toy and fortunately he was okay with it. Phew.

So much for worrying about Connor being pushed about. Maybe I should worry about him pushing the older kids about eh!

Baby Toys: Connor loves his Tiny Love wind chime

We've not bought a lot of toys for Connor. YET. He has plenty of stuffed bears given by friends and family and they're all sitting in my closet waiting for Connor as he's smaller than most of the bears! LOL He has a few other toys - teethers, stacking blocks, a squeeze box - that were given by a friend but he's still too young for them.

Actually there wasn't much point before in buying him anything earlier. He didn't seem to get the concept of toys. We ran out to Senayan City and bought an activity playmat when he turned one month old but to my disappointment, Connor showed little interest in it. I knew he was bored lying on his beanbag just staring at the ceiling but he didn't seem to understand this playmat was different and that he could actually play with it. "Oh no," I sighed. "My baby is stupid."

Turned out he's not stupid but First-Time Mummy here was just over-eager. When he turned 6 weeks old, I tried the playmat again and to my delight, he started batting at the overhead toys with purpose. YES! He gets it!

I noticed he liked things with sound and light effects. So I thought I would buy him a mobile with light and sound effects. I hunted around on Fisher-Price and found this mobile that seemed really nice. I ran off the next day to Suzanna Baby Shop which is my fave baby store because it's located in not-too-far-away Pondok Indah and stocks everything from clothes to breast pumps to toys. And yes - they carried the mobile. The price? Rp800k++. GOSH. That's one expensive mobile!

I took a look around the store and spotted this wind chime from Tiny Love. It cost Rp90,000 and looked decent. Okay, so it didn't have lights but it had sound. I bought it and went home. I was soooooooooo excited over the toy, far more than my baby boy was. LOL

I got home, took it out, gave it a wipe-down and then showed it to Connor. He looked at it and when I shook it so that he could hear the chimes, his eyebrows shot to the ceiling in amazement. Gently, I touched the toy to his outstretched arm to show him how it works and I could see something happen in his eyes. It was a Lightbulb Moment for sure.

I hung the chimes on his playmat arch and put Connor under it. Boy, did he ever get the toy. He batted happily away at it for probably half an hour and I sneaked away to get some things done. To a background of soft chimes, I got our personal documents sorted out, sorted out bills and actually sat down for a cuppa without being interrupted.

It's Connor favourite toy for now and he plays with it every morning. Big thumbs up from this mum!

Connor is one month old!

Yay! Today is my baby boy's full moon celebration! He's one month old and boy, he's already used up his weight in diapers.

The Chinese still take the full moon celebration seriously. None more so than my parents who have been oh so delighted by their grandson. They had ordered Connor's full moon gift packs before they left Malaysia to come and visit us here in Jakarta. Connor's full moon gift pack consists of hard boiled eggs dyed in red to signify new life and good luck, the all-important ang koo kueh and an almond cake (this is something modern, I have no idea why it's there!). You can read more about full moon celebrations here.

Connor had a rather traumatic start to his full moon day. It was time to visit the dreaded paed at Jakarta Women and Children Clinic for his vaccination. All was well till about 10 minutes from our appointment time when Connor decided he needed some milk. I popped into the nursing room to feed him and just minutes into his feed, his name was called and I had to interrupt his feed. What a good thing Dear Hubby was with me because I simply couldn't bear to watch the paed insert a needle into my little baby boy who cried and cried and cried till my heart broke into a million pieces.

After that, I had to change his diaper because I'd heard the usual praap-praap-praap! noises that told me he'd filled it to the limit and Connor cried even more because all he was interested in was a feed. He only calmed down when I managed to get his dirty diaper changed and started breastfeeding him. My poor baby boy. Dear Hubby said the entire clinic could hear him howl.

The afternoon was much more pleasant as we took him out to Senayan City for toy shopping. Dear Hubby acted the Proud Papa as he did stroller duty while I lugged the diaper bag. I'm suspecting he wanted to push the stroller because he'd found out that a man + little baby = chick magnet. Hmph.

We picked out an activity mat for him as I'd noticed that he was getting bored just lying on his beanbag and staring at the ceiling. I also picked out wrist rattles for him, they're made of fabric and fasten onto his wrists. I can't wait to get all his toys washed so that he can play with them!

Time really flies by. One month ago, he was still kicking away inside me and I was still sleeping from 10pm to 7am straight. Now I wake up every 2 hours at night for feeds, my day starts around 6am since he's all bright-eyed by then, my days are spent changing diapers and breastfeeding and the only peaceful time I get is when he's fast asleep. It's funny but we've adapted really quickly to Connor's arrival and it just seems like we've been doing this forever.

Happy Full Moon, my little baby boy, my Little Monkey.