I want red

Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Duty Free Shop (DFS) at Scotts Road somewhere in Orchard. It's a duty free shop where any one can go in and shop at duty free prices. Anyway, my wife said she wanted to buy a bag from the DFS because she has a DFS card which gives her a 15% discount on top of existing discounts (if any).

Kristian is already asleep when we parked the car so we put him in the stroller so he can continue his sleep while we walk around the shop. It wasn't a very long sleep because he was already awake even before my wife paid for the bag. He was probably hungry because the first thing he asked for is milk. So we stopped at one corner and gave him milk. After he finished drinking the milk, we started walking again and we passed by the Burberry store.

My wife said she wants to check out some t-shirts so we went inside the store (Kristian was still in his stroller). While my wife is looking for some t-shirts to try on, I heard Kristian saying "I want red." There is a red leather sofa inside the store, I thought he wanted take a seat on the sofa so I let him out of the stroller. I told Kristian he can now go to the sofa and seat, but he's just standing right in front of me saying "I want red." So I asked him, "What red?"

Then he pointed to the red t-shirts that were on display at the same location where my wife is standing. So I told him, "Go to mama and tell her what you want." He walked towards my wife and I saw Kristian talking to my wife but I couldn't really hear what he's saying because I'm at the other end of the store.

The next thing we knew, Kristian is already talking to the sales lady. The sales lady is asking Kristian, "Do you want red t-shirt, polo?". Then Kristian nodded, "Uhum, I want red", pointed to his shirt "This is green, I want red" (he was wearing a green polo shirt yesterday). So the sales lady picked up a red polo from the children's corner and we let Kristian try it on. He was really excited trying on the polo with a big wide smile on his face and keeps saying the word red. Well, the red polo really does look good on him so we told the sales lady that we're going to take it.

Then my wife tried on some t-shirts until she finally decided on which one to buy. When we were about to leave the store, Kristian stopped me and asked, "Red?". So we showed him the red polo inside the bag to let him know that we bought the red polo. After seeing the polo, he gladly sat in his stroller then we walked away from the store. It was already late in the afternoon so we decided to head back to the parking lot and drive back home.

Kristian starts pre-school

Yesterday, January 8, 2007 was Kristian's first day in pre-school. He woke up late so we arrived at the school around 9:40 am. The classes start at 9 am according to one of the teachers who greeted us so he just needs to wake up earlier the following days. Shoes are not allowed inside the school premises so we have to remove his shoes and socks and put them in a shoe rack with his name on it. When the teacher led him inside the school premises, she unlocked the main door for me so I figured she was expecting me to leave. So I left after saying goodbye to Kristian and told him I have to go to office. I also told the teacher that if he starts looking for me or my wife, just tell Kristian that we're in the office and he will understand.

I went on leave yesterday as I was expecting to standby in case Kristian cries and wants to go home but seems like I have no choice but to leave him in the hands of his teacher. The class would end at 5 pm and his teacher said I can pick him up anytime between 5 and 7 pm. So I stayed at home all day. I decided to pick him up from school around 6 pm because it would be around that time I would be able to pick him up if I had really gone to office.

I arrived at the school at 6:15 pm, I couldn't see Kristian around. He is probably inside one of the rooms. When his teacher saw me, she went inside the room to get Kristian. I suddenly heard Kristian cry and he was crying when his teacher is leading him out of the room. I asked what happened and she said one of the boys is playing with Kristian's bag. Kristian really seemed upset that he went straight to his shoes and started to put them on. I helped him put the shoes on while he was telling me that he wanted to get into the car (he refers to the car as 'neneng') and drive home. I asked the teacher how he did at school, if he played with the other children. The teacher said he only cried twice, the first time in the morning around 5 minutes. That must be after I left the school. And the second time was what I have seen. She said Kristian does not play much with other children and always stick with the teacher.

When we were about to leave, Kristian's teacher mentioned that he was coughing the whole day and even vomitted in the morning so she asked me to monitor him. On the way home, Kristian keeps on talking in the car and telling me stories about what had happened that day. So except for the incident that afternoon, he seemed really excited going to school.

This morning, Kristian was still coughing so we decided to let him rest and not go to school. He was still excited to go to school when he woke up but we told him to stay home first because he's not feeling well. Maybe he can go back to school again on Thursday (if he's feeling better).

Kristian has a new favorite movie

My wife and I went out last Saturday to do some Christmas shopping and to buy a new set of chairs for the dining table. We passed by Gramophone to look for new releases of DVDs. I bought See No Evil (by Kane of WWE) and The Omen (new version). My wife bought Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and High School Musical. I asked my wife what is a High School Musical movie all about, she said she doesn't know but kids who have watched it, loved it.

Kristian was still awake when we arrived home so we decided to unpack the shopping bags and I decided to assemble the chairs. We bought the chairs from IKEA Tampines. IKEA Tampines is a new branch in the east which has just opened on 30 November. My wife decided to put the High School Musical in the DVD player so we can all watch it while I assemble the chairs. At first, Kristian is watching me open the boxes and pull out the parts. He would also pull out some parts from the box out of curiosity or probably he thought he can play with them.

Then suddenly, the main characters in the movie started out with the first song. Kristian always likes to watch singing and dancing on television so he momentarily stops playing with the chair parts and watched the movie until the song is finished. Then he went back to playing. I'm almost finished with the first chair when we heard the second song from the movie. This time Kristian went to sit with my wife at the sofa, he of course left the chair parts with me. He somehow knows that those things are for whatever I'm doing and not his to play with. Oh, and we also bought him a toy car which he kept with him while he is watching the movie.

The next thing we knew, Kristian was watching the movie intently up to the end. There were a lot of singing and dancing of teenaged boys and girls in the movie and that's what probably kept Kristian's attention hooked on the tv. So the movie ended and I stopped the DVD player and changed the channel to something else. Kristian was still sitting on the sofa quietly. The next words he said surprised both me and my wife, the exact words were "Mama, sing?". We knew then that he wanted to watch the movie again. So we put back the DVD and played it again and there he was sitting on the sofa focused on the tv again until he finally fell asleep on my wife's lap.

Last night while we were all in the bedroom, Kristian was singing but we couldn't figure out what the words are. Although he does that everytime, if he doesn't know the words, he would think of something else that would fit the song (doesn't matter if it's a real word or not). So I kept on listening to him trying to figure out what he was singing, I thought it sounded familiar. Then he said one line that I'm sure I heard recently, it was from one song in the High School Musical movie. Now I understand why it sounded familiar.

That's it, High School Musical is officially Kristian's favorite movie to date.