...and then there were two!

Happy Birthday Der Nen!

Yup, DN is 2 and I must say, this 2nd year has been great fun, way better than his 1st year. I know I'm going to sound as heartless as those hamster mothers who eat their young, but DN in the 1st year was really boring! He couldn't walk or talk and was always drooling and pooping. Okay, strike the 'pooping' because he's still capable of pooping 4x a day if he eats a lot.

The worst thing about his 1st year had to be the nights and the breastfeeding. Now I'm going to sound as heartless as Colin-the-baby-whale's mother, but honestly, I never really got the whole breastfeeding thing. Many moms talk about how wonderful breastfeeding is because of "the bond" with the child, but unless they meant the literal, physical "bonding", sorry, no comprehendo senor. It was embarrassing when DN signed milk in public. This was also usually accompanied with him reaching into my top. It looked like I was raising another Hugh Hefner!

So yeah, I'm liking DN's 2nd year so much more.

• He's more or less sleeping through the night now. ROCK ONNNNN!
• He's moved from signing to talking (a little).
• He pretty much understands everything we say and we can even reason with him.

I guess what I like the best about this year is how his personality has emerged. He's quite a funny chap.

• He's a "think big" kid when it comes to toys and playing. He has no patience for puzzles and he finds them utterly boring. He won't sit down to figure out a shape sorter, but give him stools and chairs to stack and he'll be there.
• He quite an amiable and sociable fellow. When we meet up with his buddies, he's usually a koala for about 10 minutes, observing the rest. Once he's warmed up though, off he goes, socialising and playing with the rest. He'll wave at uncles and aunties on the street and is always ready to give his trademark (fake) smile.
• He just LOVES to eat. He will never say no to durians, suckling pig, fries, prata and grapes. He's not that fond of nectarines, tofu, cakes and potatoes though.
• He can be quite anal retentive at times. Sometimes he gets strangely fussy and things must be done a certain way. For eg, only I can take off his diaper and only PF can wash his bum. Sometimes (unfortunately for me) it's the other way around. -_-
• He LOVES sports and guitars. Yeah, it's so funny. We've caught him "playing" tennis and volleyball, sprinting, bowling and even doing gymnastics.

We didn't do anything fancy for his birthday this year. We just had a BBQ party for the little gang because they're all turning 2 this month. It's so nice to see how all of them have changed and grown. They're now so comfortable with each other and they know each other's names. Now I can't wait for them to be 3!

The kiddos LOVED the cupcakes! They were all excited when we opened the box and ALL of them wanted to touch the cupcakes. DN kept going, "cake! cake!" for about 45 minutes.


Here he is, opening his presents the morning after the party...


... and playing with the gifts immediately after breakfast.

DN, Sept 2006

DN, Sept 2007

DN, Sept 2008

Happy Birthday DN! We love your trademark smile! :D

Thanks Aunty Dawn, Gong Gong, Aunty Grace, Aunty Brenda, Aunty Wee Ping, Aunty Megan, Aunty Joanne, Aunty Ling and Aunty Carla for all your presents. :)