Christmas 2010

Merry Xmas everyone. I hope all of you had a joyful and happy day. Our day was spent with our families and we had a wonderful Xmas.

Milk and cookies for Santa

Santa finished his cookies and milk

We can really see how much Ryan has grown up this year. He's no longer afraid of Santa and did a very good performance at his school concert. He knows Xmas a bit more this year. We got him to put some milk and cookies for Santa on Xmas eve. It was quite funny this morning. He usually wakes up very early in the morning but for some reason, he slept in this morning. He would have still been sleeping if he didn't hear his grandma arrived.

We started the day by opening presents at home.As usual, he was showered with lots of presents. We have to do a real tidy up of all his toys as we do not have anymore space for his new toys. Then we went to Grandma's for lunch. After lunch, we had some fun in the garden shooting each other with water guns. Late afternoon, we went to Por Por and Koong Koong. Ryan had more presents and we stayed for dinner. It was a very long day but we had lots of fun.



Some of the presents, more on the way



Opening a present from Santa

A present from Grandma

These are some of Ryan's presents

Tinytown Concert 2011

We were so proud of Ryan today. He had his end of year concert today. He has always not perform in the past but he was the 'star'of the show this year. We were so happy seeing him on stage enjoying the performance with his friends. Here are a couple of short clips. The sound is not that great but hope you will enjoy them.

Attached are also a couple of photos of Ryan with Santa. These are his best photos with Santa. I took him to the mall after picking him up from school. We reached Santa's grotto and I asked if he wanted to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. He was nervous inititally but Santa was really good with him.

Friends from Tinytown

These are some of Ryan's friend from his class at Tinytown.

With Hayden

With Hayden & Gavin

Acting silly. The boy next to him is Mateo.

My Little Wong Fei Hoong

My parents got this costume for Ryan from Sydney

December 2010

Where did the time go? It's been nearly 2 months since I was here. Other than being a pain, there has been nothing much to tell about Ryan. It must be one of those phases again that we have to go through.

Here's a photo of him with a puzzle that he did. We helped a little but he would have did more than 90% by himself. Pretty good if you ask me.

They must be rehersing for their concert at school as he performed for me when we got home today. I got him to do it again for the camera so you guys can enjoy it too :)

One Fine Day

What fantastic weather we have this weekend. It feels like forever since we last had a dry one. We decided to go out and enjoy the sunshine.

We started of by going to the mall. I know it's not a place one would go for sunshine but I wanted to have some lunch first. Ashley took Ryan to The Warehouse (Ryan's favourite store) and there was a Hot Wheels competition to win a pedal car. You get one entry to the competition when you buy a Hot Wheels  car and 2 entries if you buy 4 cars at a special price. Ryan only wanted 1 car although Ashley said he could get 4. Anyway, Ash entered Ryan for his first competition.

From there, we went to Cornwall Park so Ryan can play with his scooter. He is getting quite good at it. Only problem is he stops by dragging his shoes. Now we know how he damages his shoes in less than a month!

We were on our way home when I got a phone call to say Ryan had won the pedal car. Woohoo!!! He wasn't sure what was actually happening but the excitement from us got him really excited. We went to the mall to pick the car up and had a couple of photos taken. Here are some photos of the car. How cool is that?  :)

2010 Class Photos

It's time for class photos again. This is Ryan's 4th year in having a class photo taken. Yup, he has been at Tinytown for 4 years now. This year's photo will be the first one without his good friend Michael. Michael left for Canada a few months ago and Ryan still misses him.

He was very close to the 2 boys that are in the centre of the group photo but they have just left to go to primary school. Ryan is one of the youngest here so all his friends here will leave before him.

It always amazes me how the photographer can get all of them to smile :)

Birthday Party Again

Yes, Ryan attended another birthday party again today. It was Jorden's birthday and he turned 5. He has to make new friends at daycare as all his friends have turned 5 and gone to primary school.

Here he is playing at Chipmunks playland.

Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World

There was a half price family pass deal to Kelly Tarlton's recently and we thought it will be great to take Ryan. He hasn't been there before and we were sure he will enjoy it.

It was a good thing that we got a special deal for it as we don't think the visit is worth the full admission price. Don't get me wrong, it was a good day out but we were out of there in 1.5 hours.

Ryan had a really good time there. He was running around as if it was a playground and we had to really keep an eye on him as there were a lot of people around. He said the penguins were his favourites. They were my favourites too :)

Enjoy the photos.

August 2010

This post is of nothing in particular. It's just a general update. Hence the topic is the month of the year.

Ryan went to his first circus show a couple of weekends ago. It was an acrobatic circus so there were no animals. He didn't enjoy the bits that were a bit slow but overall, I would say he liked the show. His favourite was the clowns. Again, I didn't get any photos as they didn't allow any photography in the tent.

I have some very good news to share. Some of you may remember that I said Ryan refuses to sleep by himself not long after he turned 1. In the last couple of years or so, one of us will always have to be sleeping with him. We had no idea when and how we can stop this ridiculous charade. Well... lo and behold... that day has finally arrived and he has been sleeping by himself for a week now. He was pretty good the first night but wanted to go back to the old way on the second and third nights. We said no and he has been pretty good since. He is still asking for us to go to sleep with him before he goes to bed every night but we always say no to him. I guess his philosopy is it never hurts to ask   :)

He had his Plunket check up last weekend and everything is looking good. The nurse said that he's a lovely boy and speaks really well. Oh, she also said he is a big boy but his weight and height are in proportion so it's fine.

What else... haircut! One of the things we don't like doing is taking him for a haircut as he hates it with a passion. We only go when it's really necessary and the weekend that has just past was one of those times. I asked if we should go as his hair looked silly and that he will be really handsome after a hair cut. He said no initially but agreed to it eventually as he wanted to look handsome. That was his exact words to me. We got to the hairdresser and he was good the whole time. It took quite a while as he didn't want to use the clippers but he was singing nursery rhymes to entertain himself. We kept chatting to him to keep his mind off it as well.

That is all the update I have for now. Most things are looking quite positive :) 

Party and Movie

Children nowadays have such a busy social life. Ryan has lots of parties lately. He went to a birthday party at an indoor rock climbing place. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any photos as he wasn't brave enough to climb on his own. There were only a couple of walls that he was able to do and even then I had to hold on to him. The part he liked best was letting go and floating back down on the floor :)

We took him to the movie after the party... his first real movie. He has been asking for a long time to go to Toy Story 3 but we have been busy and haven't been able to do it. Anyway, I have to say he was pretty good. He only asked to go to the bathroom once. It's pretty safe to say that we can take him to the movies if it was for something he really want to watch.

Video Clip from Snow Trip

I had difficulty uploading video clips when I did my last blog but I have finally managed to upload one of them. Apologies for my shaky hands.

Snow Trip

It's been a year since our last trip to the snow. For those of you that read and remember the blog from then will know that Ryan was scared of the snow and stayed in the cafeteria the whole time. Well, I can tell you now that he was very different this year.

We told him quite early on that we will be going and as per last year, he was very excited so we did not know what to expect. We parked the car and as we were getting out, he got really upset and started to cry as the ground was really muddy. I thought to myself "oh oh". Ashley had to carry him to somewhere that was dry. He was ok after that and we got on the bus to get to the top of the mountain. He was so excited when we got to the top. We told him to wait for us in the cafeteria as we had to hire some gear but he was gone when we got back. He got my dad to take him out to the snow as he couldn't wait anymore!

When we found them, we asked if he wanted to try the sled but he didn't want anything to do with it. He was happy just playing with the snow. Ashley tried to put him on it but he got very upset. We thought we will take it slow... maybe he will try it next year. After all it only took a year before he stepped on the snow :)

We were playing with him after lunch with the sled sitting next to us and for some reason, he decided to go on it. I got up to pull him along. He looked like he was enjoying it so I asked if he would like to go down slope with us and he said yes. We went on it 3 times as he liked it but not so after the 3rd round. We tried to stop the sled with our feet and a lot of snow got splashed on his face. That really upset him. He decided no more but he went on it 2 more times before we left for the day but it was with my friend and I. He decided that dad was too rough :)

Here are some photos of him having fun.

I'm a big boy now

Yes, Ryan is a big boy now. He attended a birthday party all by himself.

Blaize, the birthday boy, is a classmate of Ryan and according to his mum, they have always been really close. I have only heard of his name through Ryan as his hours at Tinytown are a lot shorter.

Anyway, he doesn't go to Tinytown on Friday so his mum decided to have his party then. They invited Ryan and as it is still a working day for us, his mum offered to pick up Ryan from daycare and drop him back there after the party. Initially we were unsure of it but we thought it would be good for him as this will teach him to be independent. He tends to stick to us whenever we take him to a party and we would like to know how he is without us around. I spoke to Blaize's mum and she assured me that she will take good care of him.

We were told he was really excited when they picked him up that he got all his words jumbled up hehehe. The party was at Chipmunks which is an indoor playground. He cried not long after they got there as they were the first ones there and Blaize disappeared on him. His mum found him and told him that he was not to run off without Ryan. He was ok after that but he did cry a second time. It was when the chipmunk brought the cake out. That really scared him and Blaize's mum had to take him out of the room and gave him a cuddle. It was all good after and he even asked to go to their home on the way back to Tinytown. There were some minor hiccups but overall, I think he did have fun.

There are no photos to post as I wasn't there but Blaize's mum will try to get hold of some for me. I will post them if I do get them.

Bay of Islands

Wow! Has it been more than a month since I last posted on here?

Anyway, we just came back from spending a night in Paihia. Ryan was a real handful on this trip. He was being a real brat and was crying a lot. I guess a lot of kids are like that but it was meant to be a relaxing trip. Turned out it was more stressful than staying at home. Ok, I should really stop complaining on his blog.

It was a good thing that we left early on Saturday morning as today turned out to be a write off. We couldn't do anything as the sky was pouring the whole day. When we were on our way, Ryan asked where we were going and I said "Paihia". Then he asked "Are we eating pie there?". The way he said it was so innocent that we burst out laughing. Hahaha.

We went on the Mack Attack boat on Saturday. It's a speed boat that circles the whole of the Bay of Islands and lasted for slightly less than 2 hours. It was free for Ryan as he was under 5 and just as well, as Ryan was asleep within 5 minutes. He woke up for a little while but was asleep most of the trip. He was so excited to go on the boat but was very tired at the same time. He told me he had fun but I seriously doubt it as he got quite upset when the boat started to go really fast as the wind was hurting his eyes.

That was basically the only thing we did. We were planning on doing some other things but weather didn't allow any of it.

I have attached a couple of photos taken by Ryan. He kept asking for my camera and I couldn't say no, so I gave it to him to take a photo of a tree and water. Maybe I should look at getting him a real camera.

Enjoy the photos.

Disney On Ice

The day has finally arrived for us to go to Disney on Ice. It was nearly 2 months ago that I bought the tickets and Ryan had waited very patiently for the day to arrive.

We went with my mum to the show which lasted for about 1.5 hours and Ryan sat there the whole time. That was quite a record as it's hard to get him to sit through something that last for an hour. When asked if he enjoyed the show, he said yes and his favourite was Mr Incredible. That was the main reason we went!

Here are some photos taken at the show.

Costume Day

It was costume day at daycare yesterday and Ryan wore his Chinese suit. I was afraid that it may have been a bit small for him but luckily it fitted him perfectly.

We were told that he was a prince on that day and one of his teachers was Cinderella. He was dancing with her and even had her glass slipper. It sounded really cute and funny when his teacher told me.

The background on the photo is not the best as it was taken in the morning and we were in a hurry to get out of the house.

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day this Sunday and daycare helped the kids to make gifts for all mums. I thought I'll post the gift that Ryan has made for me.

He made a gift box by painting a cardboard box and gluing glitters at the top. I think he was probably the one that painted the box (with the help of his teachers) and put the glitters on top. They were then given a heart that looks like a hard cookie which they painted and made into a necklace. The necklace was then put in the box.

Here's a photo of my lovely gift.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Ryan and I went to the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert last weekend. It was to introduce kids to different instruments. Unfortunately, he did not like it at all. He didn't want to join in the dancing or singing. Luckily we sat at an area where he was able to move around without disturbing anyone. He clapped so hard when the guy said it was the end of the show. I think he was really glad that we could finally leave :)

Chopsticks

Ryan has just started to use the chopsticks. I have never thought of letting him use the chopsticks as we seldom use it at home. Anyway, he was at my parents' place and they made some noodles for him. They gave him a pair of chopsticks to eat with and he finished his whole bowl of noodles by himself.

This is a photo of him eating his noodles last night. It's not a very good photo as it was taken with a mobile phone. I do have a video of it but the file is too big for me to send from my phone to my computer.