Ashton Toilet Training

I have wrote about Ashton's toilet training before but this time is probably the most serious effort at getting him toilet trained. Ashton said that his teacher told him this "cannot use diaper anymore, must go to the toilet". And all his friends also do not use diaper anymore.

So, we need to continue this training at home. He was without diaper since he woke up today and I couldn't count the number of times I have brought him to the toilet. The result - two pairs of wet pants in the morning because we could not rushed to the toilet on time. Then I told him he must give me advanced notice and no false alarm because we would not have enought pants for him to change with all the little accidents. He is currently wearing his third pair of pants today and so far so good (fingers crossed). It has been 100% true so far after I told him that he cannot bluff mummy. And of course, he loves to see his own urine and flush the toilet each time after use.

The thought of saving some diaper money certainly feels good.

Ashton the big brother

Ashton has been playing the role of Gor Gor or Big Brother to Ashley lately. He would tell meimei, "come, Gor Gor shows you how to play this". And the two of them would have a good time laughing and playing with each other.

He also refused to let others call meimei a naughty girl. Of course, the lovey relationship between siblings can get sour sometimes when the naughty sister touched his things or when he feels that his position as the favorite child is threatened. But overall, Ashton has been a great brother so far and Mummy is looking forward to the time when the sister can communicate with the brother in words...should be pretty amusing.

Malacca Trip Day 2

Yeye and Mah Mah brought Ashton on a trishaw ride.

Ashton was supposed to sit with Yeye but he was too afraid, so the most he could do was to touch it. Look at the sulky face : (

Meimei was too young to take picture on her own, but looking at her personality, we thought she would not be scared.

Ashton with Yeye, the Cowboy : )
Papa with sleeping meimei. Biggest winner again is Ashton, he got himself a Ben10 gun!

Malacca Trip Day 1 Dinner

We met at the lobby at 5.45pm to go out for dinner. The hotel was decked out in Christmas decor and as tourists, of course, we could not missed taking pictures here.

Ashton was so particular that he insisted that he could only take his photo on this side of the christmas tree.

It was a short walk to the nonya restaurant but the 'road' there was really pathetic. It was uneven and not even paved! Bad! Thankfully, the food at the restaurant was cheap (because Yeye paid for dinner, thank you Yeye!) and good (yum yum, still could remember the sourish sweet prawn cooked with pineapples)

After dinner, its a trip to the shopping complex near the hotel. Though it looked pretty lousy from the outside, we were amazed at the number of shops just at the basement alone! It also has a cinema. We thought of catching a movie but the show time was pretty late and its probably better to get rested. Biggest winner for today has to be Ashton. He got a Man U ball from Papa

and a Green Froggy Singing Coin box from Mah Mah.

Malacca Trip Day 1

YAY!! Its finally our long awaited family holiday! And its the children's first trip after getting their passports. Although its not the first family trip, but its the first time we have the 3 grandchildren, Ashton, Ashley and Nathan on the same trip and Ashley and Nathan have not even turned 1 year old yet.

The arrangement in the morning was a little miscommunicated as the plan was to go to yeye's house at 9am (we reached about 9.10am) but Daddy told them 8am the previous night. And he told Siyi to leave only when he gets the sms so that we could coordinate the timing. Anyway, we quickly gobbled the beehoon that Mah Mah bought for us. Then Ashton took Yeye's car and Ashley and maid were in our car.

The journey to Malacca was pretty ok. We made a stop at Pagoh where the children had their porridge and the adults have a quick lunch. There were so many people at the rest points and we suspected that a lot of the Singaporeans were on route to Malacca. Guessed it's the few safer places where Singaporeans like to go (since JB is no longer viable).

As we continued our journey, we got a call from Siyi that they were stuck at Malacca for 2 hours and were still waiting! OMG, hopefully we could avoid the traffic. Unfortunately, the traffic was still as bad when we arrived at Malacca. Luckily, Siyi has already reached the hotel using a slightly roundabout route and told us to take that. So although it was slightly longer but at least we were moving.

FINALLY, at about 3+pm (think it was probably nearer 4pm) we reached our hotel! Wow, it was great to be able to lie down on the bed and relaxed for a while. The children started their bolster 'fight' the moment we checked into our room.

Ashley exploring the room, started to open every single drawer.

Ashton using the cot as a fortress! Meimei trying to 'attack'. See the bolster and pillow all over the room.

Meimei decided to walk away, found a better place to play.

Meimei decided that the bed was more comfy :)

Ashton 'surrendered', decided to lie on the floor. Lost his bolster.

Papa brought Ashton out to the shopping mall next to the hotel so that I could take a rest and packed the children's stuff in the hotel. Our room was a comfy Equator Club room with two balconies. Plus, it was a great idea to bring our helper along, highly recommended!

Christmas comes early for Ashton

Ashton got his christmas presents today, about 1 month earlier. All thanks to his persistence. Every morning, Ashton will ask mummy "when are you going to bring Thomas home?" This has been the case for the last two weeks and mummy's response is always "Saturday" : ) So, on mummy's birthday and day off, I decided to buy the presents earlier and give him a surprise on Friday instead.

In addition to thomas, mummy decided to get him a replacement froggie in case the current froggie retires from service in future and I can't find another froggie for Ashton.

Just now, I told Ashton that there would be no more toys as our house has ran out of space for toys. He looked around, agreed and said "Must put at Yeye's house." Haha, well, he has to ask Yeye then. I love my little boy, there is always a solution to a problem.

Meimei hasn't got her christmas present yet, Papa is trying to get her a toy from ELC, hopefully he gets around to actually get it before christmas.

Ashton's first voluntary work

We (Papa, Mummy and Ashton) became volunteers to deliver lunch to some elderly this morning. It was an eye opener to Ashton although he probably does not fully understand. We went to the Bendemeer, Whampoa area where there are rental and older HDB flats. Even though some of these have been upgraded by the government, the flats were typically small, spartan and the corridors were dark.

I wondered how Ashton felt if he could understand. Here he was asking us for a new Thomas & Friends toyset for christmas, there were some elderly who despite toiling when they were young, were either too poor or too weak to get food for themselves now. Most of the time, we were sheltered from seeing those living on the brink and tend to be unhappy over minor things. We thank God for giving us this opportunity to thank him for his blessings and providence. Amen!