Crawling Adventures

She's growing up too fast!

Going, going... gone!

Help! Baby on the loose!

She looks like she's running away from something. Hmm...

"PF! Stop farting around the baby!"

Look Ma, I'm sitting!

 DS finally ditched the languishing pose and started sitting up about two weeks ago. :D And just last week, after many downward dog attempts, she figured out how to shimmy her butt into a sitting position after lying down.

She fell over in the last pic. Don't worry, my fleshy thigh I padded her fall. -__-"

Is that Tintin???

Blistering barnacles! The resemblance is uncanny!

This sure beats DN's balding pattern when he was four months old. My balding pattern however... SIGH! Let's just say I have a hairy floor now. It was like (black) magic. The day (DAY!) DS hit four months, I started to shed big time. So to make myself feel better, I turned to retail therapy and bought a whole bunch of hairclips for my own little Tintin.

And that's a big hint for next month's Raffle Wednesday! ;)

8 weeks and counting...

At exactly this time 8 weeks ago, I had just finished pushing my baby out and was presented with a slippery little thing that looked more worm-like than human. Sorry DS, mummy loves you, but it's true. You looked like a puffy worm! Well, that puffy worm is now 8 weeks old and, I'm happy to report, does not look like the hungry caterpillar anymore. (Although she still wriggles like one.)

This time round, I tossed my Gina Ford book aside and just let my baby set the pace, instead of some white English lady I'd never met before. When I was pregnant with DN, someone told me about Gina Ford and how she was a God in the baby-rearing world, so I bought the book and was quickly converted. I mean, this lady promised that your baby would sleep from 7pm to 7am! Yeah sure I'll have some of that!

But I soon found out that Gina Ford = Chairman Mao. I don't know about her dental habits, but her objectives sounded ideal, her practices made sense, she promised heaven... and it didn't work. Smells Marxist to me!

Okay okay, I'm being a bit harsh and unfair here. I'm sure it worked for tons of babies out there, DN just wasn't one of them. Bugger that! He still wasn't sleeping through the night when he was one and a half. But I think I've paid my dues because recently, DS has been waking up around 1-ish and then again at 5-ish to feed. Which, at 8 weeks, is WAY better than DN at 1 year 2 months. But, knowing my rotten luck, I've probably JUST jinxed that and she's going to want to do the macarena all night tonight.

Hmmm, so what else has DS been up to these past 8 weeks?

Jaundice : By her 1st month party, she was still looking rather unattractively orange. Her PD said it would take up to 2 months to clear because she's on total breastmilk so I had to be patient. Even though I knew that, it was still rather unnerving staring at a carrot in the cot. Thankfully, the yellowness disappeared about a week ago and she's looking like a normal baby now!

Baby Acne : With DN, I had never heard of baby acne so when his cheeks started getting pimply, my computer almost exploded with all that googling. This time, I was the epitome of calmness. It was my mother-in-law who flew into a panic and I had to calm her down. Just call me cucumber already!

Cooing : Okay, this is a first for us. DN was always the strong, silent type. This one? She's a pigeon! In week 5-6 she started cooing in response to what we were saying. So I became a pigeon too! Although we have nothing much in common, I still love talking to her. Coo coo gurgle gurgle...

Growing : The picture below says it all!

From L to R:

What she wore home from the hospital, Her sleepsuit from week 2-5, Her sleepsuit now :)

I'm Still Here!

Just wanted to leave a quick note to say, yes, I am alive and yes, I'm still here. I know I ought to be flogged for being such a terrible blogger (i.e. shamelessly and guiltlessly carrying on reading other blogs as I ignore my own) but so much has been happening, it's not funny.

1. Coming down with the flu... TWICE (ugh)
2. Wrapping up 2 projects, 1 with a children's performance at the end :)
3. Starting a new project
4. TRYING to get started on my journal articles, which are due in less than a month's time :(
   
5. Hosting my lecturer from the UK
6. House hunting (double triple MAJOR ugh!)
7. Packing up and moving house
8. Starting DN in school/childcare
   
9. Growing a baby
   

Yup yup, you read right, DN is going to get a little sister in ... da-da-da-daanggg... early September. Yikes. That's only 4+ months away, and I have to finish my dissertation by then too! Why do I make life impossible for myself, I want to know. I might as well stab myself in the foot. It's probably less painful. -___-"

On the DN front, here are some updates.

Toilet Training

He has conquered toilet training! Whoopee! It was SO quick and painless, it felt like someone was hiding behind the wings, waiting to jump out at me and say, "Gotcha! You're not getting off that easily, ha! DN, pee on mommy's leg!" But honestly, it was SO easy, I actually feel bad gloating about it. Er, okay, maybe not, ha ha!

I was so scared of potty training, I literally didn't want to start. One (brave) day, I decided to just give it a shot. And in my panicky state, I brought DN to the potty every half an hour. In 2-3 days, both of us got used to the routine and within a week, he was telling us when he wanted to pee and poo. After 2 weeks, PF and I even tried going out diaper-less, and it was FINE! I really wanted to give myself an Oscar / Golden Globe / Nobel Peace Prize / President's Scholarship. Er... but we haven't done it since. (Okay okay, take the statue back!) We've been doing lots of house-hunting, so to tell people, "Er, sorry, can my son use your toilet please? He really needs to poop." just doesn't cut it. So unless we're going to a nice(ish) mall, he still has his diaper on when we're out. (Okay, take the scholarship back too!)

Attack of the Cheese

DN had a "major" allergy attack a couple of days ago because of his parents' lack of judgement and bad junk food habit. You see, my favourite chips are tortilla chips and I just lurve the Doritos Ranch Chips. Now, when you think "ranch" you think "cowboys, horses, stirrups, chaps and yee-ha" right? You don't think "cheese" right? Yeah, so we allowed DN to have some quite a bit of ranch chips and in 5 minutes, his mouth turned all red and soon after, his eyes started turning red and puffy too. The poor guy kept rubbing his eyes and we knew it was an allergic reaction and the culprit was the chips! I quickly gave him his anti-allergy medicine. This time it took longer than usual to settle down but thankfully it did in the end and DN looked normal again. Phew. The only good thing that came out of this is, he doesn't bug us for those chips anymore!

Starting Childcare / School

Because of Bessie's impending arrival (will explain why we've nicknamed the baby such soon), PF and I decided to start DN in school. We know that when she arrives, all hell will break loose and soon, we will start looking like what the cat spat out and dragged in. We figured it would help if DN wasn't around so that we can devote all our time to Bessie and make sure we don't put diaper cream on her hair in a sleepy stupor for example. It might also help DN deal with any jealousy because he won't be around to see us fussing over the new baby. Well, we'll see if it works.

Anyway, today was DN's first day in school and it went "alright" I guess. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't a total disaster either. Alright. So-so. Okay. Can lah! I'm allowed to sit in / hang around for 3 days in total so I'll blog more about this later this week. Stay tuned. :)

Papa!

DN's definitely an early walker and a late talker. Sometimes I wish he would pick up more words so we can move onto actual conversations, but I'm not going to rush him, he'll speak when HE'S ready, not when we're ready. :)

In the morning, DN's voice is kinda raspy and soft so we love asking him to say "mama" over and over and over. DN has been saying "mama" since December, but never "papa". PF has never given up trying though and a typical conversation between him and DN goes like this...

PF : "DN, say papa!"
DN : "..."
PF : "DN, who am I?"
DN : "..."
PF : "DN, what's my name?"
DN : "MAMA!"

Two mornings ago, PF tried again as usual ("DN, say papa!"), and DN did! So, DN's verbal vocabulary has now expanded to include "papa". Oh, PF is SO pleased.

Words DN can say (in order of their appearance, and merit - haha!) :
mum-mum, mama, gu gu, kong kong, up, cut, papa

Going to the doctor's is... FUN!

DN is sick again. This time it started with a cough on Saturday, runny nose on Sunday and fever on Monday. A sick kid is no fun. He is extra cranky and he can't sleep well. This means we are also extra cranky and we can't sleep well.

Going to the doctor's is fun for DN because it's like a playground over there! While waiting to see Dr Keoy, DN usually busies himself with the slide and see-saw. (You can hear him say "up" in the video.)



DN never complains when he sees Dr Keoy. Dr Keoy can prod his tummy, peer into his mouth and jab his butt, and DN won't even whimper. That's because Dr Keoy ALWAYS gives him a biscuit. He's got all sorts of kiddie bribes on his table - milk biscuits, sugus sweets, stuffed toys, rattle toys... he's even got an activity table and a little scooter in a corner of the office. I wonder if there are other parents who think, "Me leh?" when Dr Keoy hands their kid a biscuit / sweet.

I hope DN gets better soon... we're flying to Perth on MONDAY!

18 months old

At 18 months, his personality, likes, dislikes, abilities and quirks are quite obvious, and I think I have a fairly good idea what kind of person he is.

Personality

• Short-tempered : He flys off the handle when he doesn't get what he wants. (alamak)
  
• Friendly : Unless he's just woken up from a nap or due for one, he can be very friendly with people. He'll smile and wave at strangers and if he knows you a bit better, he'll interact and play with you.
• Independent : He doesn't need us around all the time. At playgroups, he's usually off playing on his own or with other kids.
• Gung Ho : He's game to try anything, even a dark and narrow tunnel at the Julia Gabriel playground.
  
• Observant : He can spot things that we can't! (like the narrow & dark tunnel which was under a Little Tykes pirate ship)

Conclusion : If there's an Amazing Race for toddlers, DN will join it. He'll eat grubs and leap off playground slides, but if he doesn't win, you'd better siam! (leave quickly to escape from the exploding toddler and his tantrum)

Likes

• Eating : DN really likes eating. Even after his own dinner, he'll want to join us at the dinner table and eat, instead of play with his toys. During the day, we often see him dragging his high chair to the dining table and pointing at us to put him in it.
  
• Grapes & Kueh Belanda : He will give up his parents for these.
  
• Bathtime Peekaboo : One of his 2 favourite books now. He likes lifting the flaps and discovering the duck, penguin, fish etc. I like this book too because it's very baby friendly - board book, huge flaps, huge pictures & few words.
  
• Goodnight Moon : His other favourite. For the longest time, he couldn't sit through 4 pages of this book. Now, he'll sit and listen from beginning to end. These are the only 2 books he'll read in their entirety.
• Slides : Short ones, tall ones, straight ones, curly ones.
  

Conclusion : When he's older, I can just see all three of us hanging out at a cafe having tea/coffee/hot chocolate and cake and reading books. Lovely! I can't wait!

Dislikes

• Wiping his face : He likes washing his hands with soap, but hates us wiping his face. Go figure.
• Finger Paints : Strangely, although he doesn't like the feel of paint on his hands, he has no qualms smearing my carefully-cooked-on-the-stove-for-2-hours porridge on the table.
• Sitting in the stroller : I'm like, "Do you know how much this monster stroller cost us? SIT DOWN!"
• Sleeping through the night : -_-
• Bittergourd : Can't blame the guy, but trust the chinese to eat, and like, this awful vegetable.

Conclusion : A nightmare for him would be being chased by a giant face towel.

Abilities

• Signing : He's building up his signing vocabulary and recently added the signs for - carrot, umbrella, stand up (he made this one up himself), grumpy, grapes and vegetable. He's also more precise with his signs now. When signing 'more', he now uses his fingertips instead of his knuckles.
• Language (1) : He's definitely physically dominant and not linguistically dominant. He can only say "mama", "mum-mum" and "up", but he understands 95% of what we say. Like if he overhears us talking about going home, he'll go get his shoes and start waving bye to everyone, even though we're still sitting on the couch. He's been doing this since he was about 14 months old.
  
• Language (2 ) : He understands 95% of what we say, in both English and Mandarin. Woah nelly. I think his understanding of Mandarin is better than mine.
• Physical Development : He started walking at 12 months and it's been a whirlwind journey since. It wasn't long before he started running (13 mths) and walking backwards (15 mths). He cannot sit still. I think that's why he's not fat even though he eats so much.
  

Conclusion : In primary school, his whole world will crash when it's raining and he cannot have PE.

Quirks

• Eating medicine : He eats his paracetamol medicine and shows us the 'good' sign! And he'll open his mouth and receive other medicine willingly. Amazing. I love it!
• Fish Lover : He likes fishes so much that whenever he hears running water, or sees a pond, he'll run over to see if there are fishes in it. One of the first few signs he learnt was 'fish'.
  
• Guttural Sounds : None of us can do it, but DN can make this strange guttural sound from deep inside his throat. He started doing this just before he turned one, whenever he saw a dog or cat (like a growl!). Now he also makes this sound when we ask him to call 'gong gong' or 'gu gu'. It really does sound like it, haha.
  
• Smiling : At about 14 months, DN finally understood the concept of "smiling for the camera". Because he's seen me shove my phone-camera in his face so often, he started smiling as he held my phone-camera and pointed it at his face. He also accomodates when we bark at him to "smile", and he gives us his trademark squinted-eyes-scrunched-up-nose smile.
  

Conclusion : Strange taste buds? Vain pot?


Feb 2007


Feb 2008

The Grinch



I remember putting a baby in bed on Christmas Eve, but something must have happened at night because it wasn't a baby who woke up on Christmas Day. It was... THE GRINCH.

I don't know what came over DN yesterday. He was grumpy, testy and very disagreeable. He didn't want to eat his breakfast cereal, lunch or dinner and survived on crackers and apples the whole day. Whenever we took anything away from him, he'd lose his temper, start wailing and knock his head on the floor. (!!!) (Stop it! You only have one okay!!!)

Great. Just what I needed on Christmas Day when we're all supposed to be on our best behaviour (and I'm not supposed to use expletives around the baby).

At around 9am, I lost my temper. I quickly passed him over to PF because if I'd continued to be around DN, I would have lost it and shouted at him (and I mean, really SHOUTED at him). It was that frustrating!

Looking back now, I know what the problem is. The problem is me. :( I haven't come to terms with 3 things.

1. I can't control everything.
With a baby, it's difficult to have a schedule and expect him to follow it all the time. Sometimes, he just doesn't want to eat porridge at 12.30pm and unless I knock him out and feed it to him via IV, "it ain't gonna happen buddy." When I cook a new dish (like the Shepherd's Pie), I must be prepared for him to hate it and start using it as paint.

2. I can't expect the house to be neat and clean all the time.
There will always be toys on the floor, books on the couch and porridge on the wall. Sometimes, I look like Quasimodo, hunched over and scurrying all over the house, wiping food off the floor and picking up toys and books. Sometimes, I lose it when DN flings food around or sweeps all his books onto the floor. But I know he's still young and everything is new and just waiting for him to explore, so he's just being curious.

3. I can't expect to have my social life back.
Okay, this one I knew for a long time. I think I'll only get it back when DN goes to the army. -_-

Update
It was 2 new teeth that caused the grinch-like behaviour. 2 incisors, 1 on top and 1 below. Sodesune!

Jiang Hua Yi Yu!

"Children growing up learning two or more languages simultaneously can do so without difficulty. They learn at an early age about the arbitrary relation between words and their referents." (Reynolds, 1990)

It's true! Compared to the rate at which I pick up Chinese words, I think DN's learning curve is really a learning totem pole. I am humbled. -_-

He spends his days with PF's parents who only speak Chinese and Hokkien so it's no wonder that he understands English and Chinese and a smattering of Hokkien.

In Chinese, he understands when we say...

• Qu chuan xue (Go wear your shoes)
• Qu diu diao (Throw this away)
• Tui qu ku ku gu gu de fang jian (Push it into Aunt's room)
• Er duo / bi zi zai na li? (Where's your nose / ear?)
• Tang tang he shui (Lie down and drink your water)
• ...
  

And he knows what these are...

• Gou (dog)
• Mao (cat)
• Pai shou (clap hands)
• Xiao xiao (smile)
• Deng (light/lamp)
  
• ...
  

And now, we think he knows how to read Chinese too. (haha) Today, he dug into the pile of newspapers, tossed aside all the copies of The Straits Times, found a copy of the Chinese papers and brought them to his grandpa! Together with his reading glasses! LOL.

This he definitely DID NOT get from me because I am the sad monolingual one who told one of my student's parents during Parent's Day that her son was going to retire (tui siu) if he did not buck up and start studying. (I was supposed to say "tui bu" - "lag behind".) I knew something was wrong when Mrs X tried to stifle a snort.

Humph.

Evening Walks

DN spends his days with his Ah Ma and Ah Kong (PF's parents) while we're at work. We drop him off between 8-830am and get back there around 630-7pm for dinner. He likes going there because his Ah Ma manages to find all sorts of things for him to do around the house, like carrying clothes from the room to the washing machine and transferring containers from box to box. His favourite activity there is going on walks around the estate with his Ah Kong, who will point out the lamp posts, cars, babies, assorted vegetation and animals along the way.

Dandy!

If I manage to leave work a little early, I'll bring him for a walk when I get there. It's more fun now that he can walk on his own. His favourite part of these walks is to visit the fish on the 1st floor. A neighbour has a pond with many koi fish. When he wants to go for a walk, he'll start signing "fish" or "shoes". If no one obliges, he'll grab his shoes and throw them at your feet! Haha.


The incumbent MP for Bukit Timah GRC on a walkabout around his constituency.








MP Ong Der Nen watching a demo tennis game.












During his walkabout, MP Ong Der Nen was especially impressed by one resident's koi pond.







Along the way, Mr Ong picked up a few souvenirs to remember his walk by - 3 baby coconuts and 1 pumpkin.







(Just kidding! The pumpkin's from the market! The coconuts are really from the garden though.)

SMILE!

We had breakfast at the NUS canteen at the Botanic Gardens last weekend. (cheap, good and empty!) DN was a good little one and sat in the highchair, eating his bread while PF had Nasi Lemak and I had kaya toast and eggs.

During breakfast, we found out that he understood what "smile!" meant and can now smile on cue! Yippee, no more pictures of a grumpy baby. I think.

We wanted to stroll around the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden after breakfast but couldn't because the carpenter was on his way to our place to finish up the doors. (we're renovating)


This is what his face looks like when you say "Smile Der Nen!" LOL.











DN : "I'm so thrilled there's bread on my cheek!"












His smiles only last for a few seconds. Wasn't quick enough here.










He started squirming and struggled to get out of the highchair when he spotted some mynahs behind him. He loves to chase after hopping birds.


EWWW.

We were seated outside, next to a row of shrubs AND THESE MILLIPEDES!!!

I am 14 months old!

DN turned 14 months old yesterday and bringing him out is getting easier and easier. PF finished work early so we decided to have dinner at Shimbashi Soba at Paragon. I brought DN's porridge out in a thermos and we reached the restaurant at about 6.30pm. Perfect timing! While waiting for our food (Cold Soba & Salmon Sashimi for PF; Soba in Soup with Seaweed & Mushroom Tempura for me), I fed DN his porridge.

He sat nicely in the high chair and flirted with all the waitresses. Great! (It kept him occupied while I ate.) When he was done with his porridge, he started eyeing my noodles, and going "MUM-MUM-MUM-MUM" at the top of his voice. Really. People were giving us funny looks.


Here he is, "beo-ing" my noodles and signing "please".













We always ask him if he has anymore in his mouth before we feed him more food. And he obliges with a big "ahhhhh..."!





Hey! There's still a little bit of noodle left!













We went to ELC (Early Learning Centre) after dinner (thanks for the idea, Ling!) because they have lotsa toys out for kids to play with. DN gravitated towards the household equipment. (Should I be worried???) Here he is, walking backwards (his new trick) with the vacuum cleaner.

What's the sign for...?

Fish? Dog? More? Bye-bye? Papa? Sleep? Milk? Banana? Star? Please? Eat? Wash hands? "I love you"? Watching "The Wheels Of The Bus" for the umpteenth time?

(Yes, there's a sign for that! DN created it - waving his hands in circles like, er, the wheels on the bus... it's really a no-brainer!)

To date, that's the list of signs he has learnt. The very first sign he picked up was "banana". Not "Mum" or "Dad", but the sign for a yellow fruit favoured by monkeys.

And to date, the only word he will say is "mum-mum". Not "mum-mum-MOTHER" but "mum-mum-FOOD".

Can you see the trend? It's quite clear what his priorities are. And it's not me or PF! That's gratitude for you, humph. -_-

But teaching him signing has turned out to be a good move because DN is able to communicate with us with those basic, but vital, signs. He can tell us when he wants more food (his favourite sign... go figure!), he signs "please" whenever he wants something (I'm mighty pleased he picked that up), he lets us know when he's tired ("sleep") and when he wants milk. (which is a somewhat embarrassing sign when you're out in public - you open and close your fist, like milking a cow)

The Signing Time DVDs teach American Sign Language and most of the signs are very logical and common sense. For example, to sign "fish", you mimic the movement of a fish in water. "Dog" is patting the side of your thigh, like you would when calling a dog. To sign "banana", you raise your left index finger and with your right index finger, you stroke it down your left. It looks like you're peeling a banana!

Some signs are just weird. "Father" is opening your right hand and tapping your forehead with your thumb. "Mother" is doing the same, but this time tapping your chin with your thumb. DN learnt how to sign "Papa" but refuses to sign "Mummy". Humph.

There are so many more signs we want to teach DN --> thank you, mummy, cat, cracker, mummy, water, drink, bread, mummy, ouch, sorry, shoes, grandpa, grandma, bird and of course, mummy.

Thanks again, Carla, for passing us the 1st 2 Signing Time DVDs! ;)

Shopping Baby

When DN gets fussy / irritated / grumpy while we're out, we give him a plastic bag. He loves them!

(Can you say "AUNTIE"?)

Birthday parties, falling sick and a shopping baby

DN received a few party invitations this month. (Can you say "party animal"?) All the wonderful hosts were so thoughtful to set aside a play area for all the little ones. There were activity tables, ball pits, bouncy zebras/horses, games and coupe cars. Yes, you heard me right, a coupe! And trust all the little boys (and their daddies, LOL) to be fighting over that one at Jovann's party.


Break it up, people! Break it up!











Birthday girl, Arianne.



















Birthday girl, Trinity.




















Birthday boy, Jovann, and his Mom & Dad.



















DN & Amabel in the ball pit...











... DN climbing up the slide...



















... and feeling up a zebra!





















Click on this picture and check out all the fancy-schmancy cakes the Sept babies had!
















The Little Tykes coupe is this little car that operates like Fred Flintstone's car. Except of course, that DN's little legs are still too short so his was powered by PF and yours truly. It was interesting to see how PF and I both "drove" the car differently. (*hint: PF is Jay Chou and I am Morgan Freeman -_-)



DN received 2 more invitations to parties on 22 Sept and 29 Sept, but he couldn't go because he contracted... HAND, FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE! *horrors* He had blisters in the palms of his hands, on the soles of his feet and in his throat. He didn't want to drink any water, so we had to squirt water into his mouth with a syringe. He had a short fuse and little things would set him off - taking the remote control away from him, not giving him his crackers fast enough, not letting him walk, etc.

The first night was terrible. He woke up almost every hour (i.e. about 8 times that night!) and after a while, I didn't want to sleep because, what's the point?! Poor little guy. The ulcers in his throat must have been a pain.

BUT! The illness didn't affect his energy level at all. He was still as active as ever, wanting to walk everywhere. Just 3 weeks ago, DN could only walk about 8 steps before falling over, but now, he's pottering about everywhere.

Do babies have toe jam?

Since DN is now walking, he has shoes on whenever we go out. You just never know when this baby is going to squirm, leap out of your arms and land on the ground because DN knows that his legs work and can actually bring him places.

He has a pair of camel-coloured shoes from Pigeon and they STINK!

A week or two after DN started wearing shoes, I started to notice a funky smell whenever I took off his shoes. Initially I thought it was MY Hong Kong feet but began to get suspicious when the smell appeared even when I wore slippers.

Could it be DN's feet? But how could that be? Babies are only supposed to smell of powder right? How can something so pure and innocent produce such questionable scents odours? Alas, the smell wafting up from DN's hot feet was difficult to ignore. I hoped for the best, took a whiff and immediately had to rethink DN's position on the purity scale.

So, do babies have toe jam? YES! :(



DN needs to wear shoes like these so his feet can breathe. (and us too, when we remove his shoes) He might have smelly feet, but they must still look good!

I wanted to order a pair for DN, but they were out of his size. :(

Walking!

DN started cruising around the house when he was about 9-10 months old and it took him about 2 months to master "walking" (if you can call "staggering around in a drunken stupor" walking).

It's amazing how fast these babies learn. Last week, DN's legs and brain were still not cooperating with each other. His head said, "Walk to Mom and get a hug" but his legs said, "What's that toy WAY over there?" So he would look at you, but his body would move in the opposite direction! Anyway, that was last week. This week, DN is walking (almost) normally. Heh.

He usually starts off with a gleam in his eye that says, "Grrr! My. Legs. Are. Going. To. Bring. Me. THERE!" Then his little legs stumble forward and his arms start flaying about. He wobbles from side to side and this prompts his arms to flap about in a more agitated fashion. As he nears his destination, he picks up speed. At the end, he manages to find one last burst of energy and LUNGES forward and FLINGS himself into the awaiting lap. I'm not joking. We usually wait with arms open, ready to catch a self-propelled, flying baby.

Aiyoh. Very scary. Watch and see for yourself.



A funny thing happened a few days ago. I left my nursing pad on a low table and DN picked it up. I thought he was going to start chewing on it, but he didn't. He stood up, turned, walked towards me, pulled my t-shirt and tossed it in!

Oh gosh. I couldn't stop laughing!

Counting Down

Same time last year I was 39 weeks pregnant and stressing out E, my roommate (at work). She convinced herself that I was going to go into labour in the office and she would have to catch the baby. Every few days, she would check her phone and make sure that PF's mobile number was still in her phone. Funny E!

Well, it's 4 more days to DN's first birthday. I think it's time to update all on what the little peanut can do! A good friend, C, passed DN a copy of "Baby Signing Time". After some "brain-washing" (LOL), DN can now sign

• milk
• banana
• wash hands
• (i want) more
  

He has also taught us one sign - the sign for "eat". In American Sign Language, you bring your fingers to your mouth to sign "eat". It was the first sign we wanted to teach DN, but he never picked it up. We would be barking "eat! eat! eat!" and jabbing our mouths with our fingers, but he would just ignore us. Until one day, he started opening and closing his mouth whenever we barked "eat!" at him. And he's been doing that ever since. DN's very own sign language. :D

Besides these signs, DN has a few other tricks up his sleeve. On command, he can

• give us a kiss
• wave bye-bye
• give a flying kiss (it started out as a flying lick, eww)
• hug his bear when we ask him to "sayang Brownie"
  
• show us where's his nose and ears
• show us where're mummy's & daddy's noses and ears
  
• mimic making a phonecall when we ask him to "da tian hua"
• clap his hands when we sing "If You're Happy And You Know It"
• open and close his fingers when we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars" (in English and Mandarin... I think his Mandarin is better than mine!)
• lie down when we ask him to rest
• point his index finger up when we ask him how old he is (a very useful party trick for his birthday lunch on Sunday!)
  

Golly. He sounds like a circus seal.