Juan Or's Own Contraptions

Recently Mommy caught sight of Juan Or making his own contraptions during playtime.

For the first contraption, he made a tunnel for his choo-choo trains by using a book and DVD boxes stacked and balanced against each other. The challenge in making this 'tunnel' is to find the right balance in stacking the roof part of the tunnel since both walls are not of the same height.

Here's another angle of viewing of the tunnel in which the choo-choo train is ready to pass through.

Juan Or's second contraption was made when he was helping Mommy to wash a plastic bowl to which he ended up playing with water and in the process, he came up with this.....

It's a water redirecting contraption. He stuck a chopstick to the outlet of filtered water, then turned on the tap - just a small flow - and the water can be directed to flow at a further target than what it initially was.

Here's another angle of viewing of the water redirecting contraption.

Big Indoor Playground at Critterland

Just last week Monday (i.e., on 27th September 2010), UCSI University declared the day to be an off-day as a mark of respect for the recent demise of the father of UCSI's founder and president. Mommy didn't go to work that day and made use of the off-day to spend more time with Juan Or. So Mommy brought him to a large indoor playground, known as Critterland at The Heritage, Seri Kembangan (opposite Mines Shopping Centre).

This playground opens at 10am and closes at 6pm on weekdays, and 8pm on weekends. Entrance fee is RM15 per child for non-peak weekdays and RM22 for weekends, public holidays and school holidays, whereas the accompanying parent(s) get(s) to enter and play for FREE! However, Juan Or gets to enter for free because Mommy got 4 pieces of entrance tickets given out as complimentary gifts to participants of a Glen Doman seminar on 'Babies Can Do Anything & Everything' that Mommy attended in March 2010. Yes, Mommy had wanted to blog about this seminar long time ago, but just couldn't do so due to work demands, but will blog about it soon! ^_^


As of this visit, this is Juan Or's third complimentary visit to Critterland. Before entering the playground, Mommy was required to fill in a registration form. Then the Critterland girl dressed in Brownies-like uniform would key in the particulars into the computer to churn up 2 stickers - one for the child and one for the accompanying adult. We were required to put on our socks too, had our hands disinfected and Juan Or's body temperature measured to ensure the child is not sick to enter the playground. As usual, Juan Or is very wary of strangers trying to do something to him, so he fretted and struggled when the Critterland girl tried to stick the sticker to his wrist. So in the end, the sticker was pasted on the back of his T-shirt!


There are many kinds of play items at Critterland - pool of balls, assorted slides, assorted tunnels, bouncy jumping, hanging on the rope, assorted barrier crossing, assorted ball shooters, swing, rocking animals, climbing structures, a volcano replica that shoots balls out and funny mirrors. However, Juan Or only seems to be interested in jumping into the pool of balls, nothing else. It was difficult to coax him to try out the other play items at first, but finally he gave in, but he did it rather half-heartedly. Makes Mommy feel like it's just a waste of money to bring him there if Mommy has to fork out money for the entrance fee!

There is also a twisty slide that lands into the pool of balls but surprisingly, Juan Or was not keen at all to go on the slide. So what you see in the photo here was a result of Mommy's coaxing.

This boy was even so concerned about the balls spilling out of the pool, so he actually did the Critterland girls a favour by helping them to go everywhere to pick up the spilt balls and putting them back into the pool without anyone prompting him to do so! So one of the Critterland girls actually said,"Thank you, Boy!" to Juan Or!

After playing with the pool of balls, finally Mommy managed to coax him to try out other play things, such as.....


......climbing stairs, ......

....going over peaks, ......

....going through two kinds of tunnels, .....

....going over barriers,....

....passing by the punch bolster, ....

....and climbing up the stairs again, but this time insisting on taking along his beloved 'bo-balls'.

Other things captured on video are walking on the net, ....

..... and sliding down the tall slide, to which Juan Or seems to prefer sliding down on his chest rather than on his buttocks!

Here are some more snapshots of him during his very first visit to Critterland on 25th April 2010.

This was taken during his 2nd visit to Critterland (21st May 2010).

Overall, Mommy had a good time there too. Because Mommy had to accompany Juan Or when he went through all those play items and structures, so Mommy got to play too! What Mommy enjoyed most were the twisty-turny and high slides as Mommy never got the chance to experience these when young, at most were the medium-height slides. Yay, it's second childhood time for Mommy! ^_^ The only thing about this playground was that the air-conditioner was not cool or powerful enough. In fact, the air felt warm most of the time. Other than that, the facilities are good - big rest area for parents to wait for their children, free wi-fi (but you have to get the password from the Critterland girls), an area for you to hold birthday parties or children functions, big shoe cabinet to store your shoes (since you have to be on socks only to step in the place) and a small cafe. The place is clean and the structures are bright, colourful and children-friendly.

After we were done with the playground, we went around The Heritage's compound for some sight-seeing because it has quite a fair bit of nice landscape to see.

In all three visits to Critterland, Juan Or always ended up asleep in the car when we set off home. Guess the workout must be really tiring for a little boy like him! ^_^

Playing with Food

Yesterday night, after finishing dinner, Mommy went upstairs to the master bedroom to get ready to take a bath. Along the way, Juan Or asked Mommy to give him some Honey Stars cereal. Knowing that Juan Or was in a sort of playful mood, Mommy asked him whether he actually wanted to eat or to play with Honey Stars, to which he replied to eat. Fine. So Mommy scooped some into his kiddy bowl. Then Mommy went off to take bath.


Once done with bathing, Mommy went back to the master bedroom and found his Honey Stars were not finished yet. Instead, Juan Or was playing with it! How? Well, just the day before yesterday, Little Sprouts' mummy (they went to Singapore for a vacation) bought for Juan Or a tube-shaped container containing chocolate candies (looks like M&Ms) with a polar bear head deco at the upper part of the container. Then there is this lever for you to press so that the polar bear's jaw moves repeatedly with some roaring-like sound. You know what Juan Or did? He took a piece of Honey Stars, placed it between the upper and lower jaws, pressed the lever so that the jaw munched the Honey Stars and then laughed at it! Ooooooh, Mommy never thought of such a way to play with the polar bear head! ^_^

Jack-in-the-box

Kids have loads of imagination! Anything can be made a toy. Even a simple small plastic basket can be made a toy! See what Juan Or is up to this time.....

"Ta-dah! See, Ma, I'm Jack-in-the-box!"

"Please, Ma, don't ask me to come out now. I'm not done yet."

"Look, Ma! I'm springing out of the box......

"......and am springing back in again, just like Jack-in-the-box!"

Playing with Food

Of late, Mommy noticed that whenever Mommy gives Juan Or titbits to eat, he will, instead of concentrating on eating, keep himself busy by pouring the titbits from one container to another - even if it means transferring just one tiny grain of titbit! Or sometimes, he will slowly pick one titbit to eat while doing the pouring job. Other times, if he doesn't fancy the titbit at all, he will just abandon the titbits once he's bored with the pouring job. During the pouring process, sometimes he aimed correctly, sometimes not. Watch this naughty boy!









Same for drinking water too. Nowadays, if Mommy gives him plain water to drink, Mommy will use the cup since Juan Or is not very keen to drink from the sippy cup anymore. Then Mommy will have extra work to do - wiping away those wet patches whenever he aims wrongly while pouring.

Playing Hide-and-Seek

Juan Or loves playing hide-and-seek between the curtains and the sliding glass window. Watch this video of how Juan Or bursts into squeals of laughter when revealing himself from his 'hiding place'.

Juan Or's Don't-Want-to-Sleep Rendezvous

During weekdays, after taking Juan Or back from the babysitter at 6 pm, Juan Or's typical timetable is like this:

• 6+ pm - Mommy breastfeeds Juan Or, Juan Or's playtime.
• 7+ pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 8.30 pm - Mommy feeds Juan Or with medicine for his mild bilateral hydronephrosis. Juan Or's playtime.
• 10.30 pm - Juan Or sleeps.
• 12.30 am - Juan Or wakes up for another breastfeeding session, and goes back to sleep.
• 2.30 am - Juan Or wakes up again for another breastfeeding session. After that, he appears to be sleeping and with a lot of tossing and turning, then wakes up and starts crawling. Refuse to go back to sleep (which means playtime and Mommy has to be up to 'entertain' him as well!). Usually this is the time for Juan Or's don't-want-to-sleep rendezvous. Shown here are two video clips of Juan Or's rendezvous:

• 4.30 am - Juan Or sleeps again. So Mommy sleeps too.
• 6+ or 7+ am - Juan Or wakes up for breastfeeding session, followed by morning stroll with Grandma
• 8 am - Juan Or is send to babysitter's place by Grandma. Mommy goes to work.

Juan Or's Handphone

Shown here is the top of the altar table - the place where all family members put their handphones or reminder notes that require urgent attention. Where handphones are concerned, from left to right, are Grandpa's, followed by Juan Or's and finally the last two on the far right are Jidek's (Second Uncle) where one is personal handphone and the other being company's handphone. Mommy's handphone was nowhere to be seen because Mommy was using hers to capture these photos. What!? Did Mommy just mention Juan Or's handphone!? Well...yes, indeed, the red colour handphone is Juan Or's handphone. What's a baby to do with owning a handphone at that young an age!?

OK, let's take a closer look.....





This is Juan Or's handphone - the one with the solid, non-reflective screen with the Ultraman picture on it. For ringtones, just press any of the buttons. The ringtones will appear in a certain order no matter which order of buttons you press. To make or listen to a phone call, just put the handphone to your ear and pretend you are making or listening to a call......

Anyway, his paternal Grandma bought this handphone for Juan Or to play.

Watch how Juan Or briefly 'danced' to the beat of the ringtone music!

Tender Moments with Mommy

Juan Or woke up at 1.40 am. After Mommy had breastfed him, Juan Or still refused to go to sleep and wanted to play. So Mommy took Juan Or downstairs to the hall, laid out the folding mattress and then surrounded the mattress with pillows and sofa cushions as barricade. However, Mommy kept the hall dark. The only light source was the light from the stairs, just enough to maintain visibility, yet dark enough to signify to Juan Or that now was not the proper time to play. Next, Mommy offered Juan or his toys: the spider, fire engine, the broken (but usable) rattle and the teether (borrowed from his cousin). After playing for some time, Juan Or seemed bored. So Mommy laid him on his back and blew raspberries on his tummy. And Juan Or smiled for the first time since Mommy took him back from the babysitter. Mommy felt good to see his sweet smile again. The babysitter reported that Juan Or had crying spells throughout the day. Mommy looked tenderly into his eyes, and Juan Or continued smiling as Mommy tickle his armpits and sides. And Juan Or looked into Mommy's eyes with tenderly love. How sweet......