Aloysius' 1st trip to Penang!

The Flight
It’s Aloysius’ second time on the plane. We took SQ flights to Penang this time. The journey is only 1 hour 25 minutes each way. On the way there, just before the plane took-off, Aloysius fell asleep, cos we gotta wait for quite some time to queue for take-off. He did not feel any discomfort and continued to sleep till we were about to land. He woke up and I fed him the Heinz apple & mango puree from the air-stewardess. It seems like Aloysius was the only toddler in the plane, hence, there’s limited jar food. He got another Dora the explorer. It’s his third Dora the explorer. He already got two from the flights to and from Perth in May. He felt a little discomfort in his ears during landing. He kept rubbing his ears. I distracted him a little by playing with him the Dora the explorer. He did not make any noise despite the discomfort. I taught him to play with Dora by using two hands to clap Dora's hands. He picked it up immediately. When in Penang, he played with Dora on and off too.

On the flights back from Penang, Aloysius was wide awake during both take-off and landing. When we boarded the plane, he was given a watch – Dora the explorer. Again… hahaha… During take-off, I carried him and sat near the window. He was amazed at the wings of the plane. He kept looking out. Half way in mid-air, he started to giggle. Hmm… Maybe he found the clouds funny. After that, he started to play with the brightness of the screen and the remote control. Surprisingly, he got a set of kid’s meal too. It consisted of a packet of cheese and vegetables sandwiches, biscuits, yogurt, milk. I requested for some jar food too. Aloysius had the jar food. He received another Dora the explorer! Hahaha… so many… During landing, I let him “read” the inflight magazine, and he sat on my lap quietly. There’s another toddler in the next row who was crying her heads off throughout landing. Poor gal cried till she vomited. Aloysius was curious and kept watching. Luckily, he just watched quietly.


In Penang

We stayed at my aunt’s place. There’s a big space for Aloysius to walk. It was unbelievable that he could actually walk for 3 hours, non-stop! I just let him walk as much as he liked, as long as he’s within sight. There were also other kids to help to keep an eye on him, just in case he decided to chase a dog. Aloysius knows what is “shoes”. There’s once when he was walking out bare-footed and I asked him to wear his shoes. He actually went around to look for his shoes. He learnt things very fast. My brother-in-law showed him “bao bao” by using both hands to tap on his tummy. He learnt that immediately. When we asked him what is “bao bao”, he used both hands to tap on his tummy and at the same time looked for my brother-in-law. He associated “bao bao” with hands tapping on his tummy plus brother-in-law. Hahaha… It was so funny.
Aloysius loves the fans, even the exhaust fans. We went to my cousin’s new home. Aloysius was busy investigating the ceiling fans and the exhaust fans. He kept pointing and wanted the fans to be switched on, just like the “fans supervisor”. We saw the little explorer “comparing” the exhaust fan and the ceiling fan. He walked to the kitchen to look at the exhaust fan, and walked to the room to look at the ceiling fan. He did this to and fro a few times. Hmm… what has he discovered? Who knows, maybe he will be better than me in my research subject – fluids dynamics.

We went to the botanical garden. Aloysius was very happy. He walked up and down the slope of grass many times. Good exercise, eh? He ran, fell and stood up, till he could not stand anymore. Despite falling with his face flat on the grass, he still stood up on his own and continued his walking. Hmm… maybe I gotta bring him to the Singapore botanical gardens too. Glen Doman mentioned that we gotta let them walk on different terrains.