Training: Cot to Bed

You'll notice that we're trying to get as much training done as possible partly because gabe is at the stage of readiness and partly in anticipation of the arrival of #2. To complete the training of these areas would mean that we will face less protest in changing habits when he grows older, and hopefully that we'll have an easier time when #2 comes along. And since #2 is going to take over some of gabe's logistics, like the cot, it makes sense to transit gabe out of it, and make it available to his sibling.

We did some homework, checked out what some of our peers are doing, and settled on this Ikea bed. We made a few trips to Ikea, introduced gabe to his new bed there and told him we were going to buy that for him. With fingers crossed and hearts prepared for him not being able to settle into a proper night's sleep for a couple of months, we set the date for the transition four months prior to the arrival of his sibling.

To further ease him into the transition, other than the brain-washing we've attempted, we got him a big pillow and a new companion to add to the new piece of furniture. The pillow, so that he'll stop fighting with me for my very own baby pillow, which I hug to sleep, and Golden, a stuff doggie he fell in love with at first sight on one of those trips to Ikea.

The big day arrived and the bed was delivered and assembled. That very night, we put him to bed with the sole instruction that he was not to get out of bed on his own, and that he must call out for mummy or papa to help him if he needed to. He repeated the instructions to us voluntarily and lay stiffly in bed when derod put him down after our nightly routine. In fact, he seemed so conscious of himself that he hardly moved at all. We figured it's perhaps due to the lack of grills.

And guess what?! The first two nights are fuss-free, as though nothing has changed. We thank God tremendously for this miracle and pray that He will continue to extend His mercy towards us to ensure that every night will remain as smooth as these first two nights.

Training: Toilet

Gabe's pooping routine is rather predictable, and he's also able to communicate to us after he has soiled his pampers. So we started training him to poop on and into the toilet bowl a couple of months back. Thanks to jemmy's mummy, we got some tips on the kind of seat to purchase and some step by step procedures for the process.

We introduced the concept to him with a reward of a drink of ribena if he successfully poops into the bowl. The initial stage saw him protesting and sometimes crying when he was placed on the seat. Then he started protesting at the point where he realised we were going to drag him to the toilet. Today, he still makes his protests known, but we have less difficulty in getting him to the destination.

He does a hippity hop kind of dance on the spot and add that to the expressions on his face, and we know he's about to go. He is still not at the stage of volunteering the information of his urge but the signs are clear enough for us to whisk him to the toilet. There are times of false alarms, of course. We have also transited to the stage of rewarding ribena only when he does the full job in the bowl, and his pampers remain clean.

At the first sign of download, he will declare to us, "Good boy! Mummy give ribena!"

We've yet to succeed at getting him to pee into the bowl, which we really hope will take place soon, like before #2 comes along. It's funny because many mothers tell me that the pee-training usually comes before the poo-training. If anyone has any tips, please feel free to share with me.

Meanwhile, keep us in prayer as the boy transits from one stage to another into toddlerhood.

Note: image has been removed for modesty purposes

Update: 20 Months

Funny English
May I have the go outside please mummy?
May I have the sit down please mummy?
Your wheel
Papa give you peace (It should be "Jesus gives you peace")

Direction Sense
Can navigate from home to Buangkok Mrt on foot
Points to correct direction when asked where his home is, where mrt station is from waipo's house

Transited to one nap a day from about 18 months.

Speaks so much I lost count. But never fails to surprise with unexpected statements or weird English to make us laugh. Experiments with sounds to make you laugh.

Loves cleaning. Picks up pieces of paper or cloths and starts wiping everything. Fights to hold on to the magic-clean mop to clean the living room.

Imitates the mother cooking, especially "chop garlic" and "beat the egg". Helps that there is a masak station he can unleash his cooking skills at.

Has a scary memory that never fails to remind us we should be careful with our words or actions. Even things that we take for granted on an irregular basis is remembered.

Favourite toy: sausage
Favourite past-time: sitting on the day bed and reading the magazine

TV Time: approximately half and hour a day, with Mondays being the exception of an hour so that cleaning lady can get stuff done in the house.

Somehow started screaming and shouting for things he wants, without anyone teaching him. Has to learn to ask for things nicely before he is given them.

Initiates creativity. Creates "fireworks" and "water fountain" with soap on the glass door at bath time. "Draws" "fireworks" on his magnetic board. These will always be done in large circular motions as if trying to bring out his understanding of the nature of these objects.

Shoe size remains at 7, since about 18 months.

By now, all canines and front molars are out but are at different stages of growth. Loads of gaps in between teeth though, not the kind in nice, neat rows.

Train and Bus Boy

Gabe loves the (MRT) train, taking the train, watching the trains, commenting on what he sees with regards to the train.

Common phrases heard at the MRT station:
This one our train
That one not our train
Another train
Doors closing
Happy (berhatiti di ruang platform)
Train coming
Dao le
Hai mei dao
Train spoil
People get off train
Take escalator, take lift
Cannot take escalator on own

He loves to take the bus too. We'll be waiting for our bus at the bus stop and he'll obediently sit on the seat and wait till the bus comes. Meanwhile, he'll be playing with my ezlink card, and has no problems handing it back immediately at a single request. Likes to imitate the "deet" sound when the card comes into contact with the machine on the bus.

Thank God our boy loves the public transport, since we don't own a car!

Thorn Among the Roses

The Ds braved a trip across the island into the realm of Siberia (what a friend calls our home in this remote part of the world) last week with their two lovely girls. And how better to round up the gathering than with a few snapshots of the kiddos?

Seated in order of seniority, Tas, Gabe and little Yulia. A bit tak glam to be in diapers next to two well dressed ladies - something to dig out and laugh at him when he grows up. By the way, do gabe's grins give you a glimpse of him on cloud nine? You see, this guy is a buayalet (like piglet). He actually told me "U for Yulia" from the time after the visit. Amazing huh?!

Blabber Update: 19 Months

Adult: Call ______
Gabe: Don't be rude. [He actually meant to say "no!" but instead instructs himself while looking at you, with the response that you will give him when he does say "no", hence skipping the step of actually saying "no". The innocent bystander will be wondering why he is being told not to be rude when asked to be greeted. Alternative responses include "don't say no" and "must call people".]

Instructs the mother on a regular basis with "must call sam sok gong", changing the names of people according to his mood.

Tries to form a sentence with all the accurate vocabulary and grammar but due to the sheer feat, doesn't get it right the first few times. Will try and try again until he gets it right, and is satisfied with the final sentence, all on his own.

Negotiates. Understands the "do ___ first, then do ___" concept and tries to apply it to his advantage.

Increase in number of phrases in Chinese.

Can sing quite a few songs on his own without assistance. Increased repertoire of songs from The Sound of Music.

Can complete the-couple-equation for most of the people we hang out with, even if you only see him once a week, or been to visit at our home just once. For example,
Cheoklet: Auntie Joyce and...?
Gabe: Uncle Keith

Recognises and remembers all maternal and paternal family members on cheoklet's side and most paternal members on derod's, since derod's family is really large and we don't see all of them on a regular basis.

Counts from 1 to 20 in English, something he accomplished about two months back. Forgot his A for apple -- Z for zebra (which he achieved at about 15.5 months) since he moved on to other toys, books and veggietales.

Can describe your mood as "happy" or "upset".

Can grasp the concept of two. He takes a walk in the park and points out "two dogs", remembers there are "two aunties" in weiwei's house, etc.

Verbalises specific landmarks or memorable details of a place or person.

Please be Patient, the Doctor is In

For a boy who hardly makes any trip to the doctor's office, gabe has been doing more than his fair share of trots there these few weeks, and for all sorts of reasons.

He came down with a weird, red rash all over his body one morning. No accompanying fever or other symptoms. Turns out it's due to a virus. It was gone within a day but we still got to pay for the consultation and medicine.

One fine morning after I took him off the toilet bowl when he was done doing his business (yes, we've been poo-training him), I got more than startled to find it stained red, much like someone just poured a cup of ribena into it. So off to the pediatrician we went and he was diagnosed with constipation. Apparently, I had failed to notice the small but persistent signs for the last few weeks and the situation aggravated to this point. We had to give him a special sugar syrup to loosen his stools, go aggressive on the fibre in his diet and make the boy drink, which is one of the most tiring things I have to do. You see, gabe is bad at drinking. We have to coax, force, disguise, negotiate, do all sorts of things just to get him to take three sips. Anyway...

He came down with a bad bout of flu a week later. My personal method of dealing with gabe's flus is to last it out and unless it gets really bad, or if it affects his sleep, I would keep medicines out of the way. And if I were to medicate, it'll usually be self medication since I'm familiar with the few that he's been prescribed with thus far. But this one was bad. So off to the doctor's we went. Much to my dismay, we had to drug him for a week, but it all went off eventually and I took home more knowledge about his medicines and how/ when to administer them.

Two to three weeks later, which is today, we saw the doctor again! For the last two days, he has been giving me three soiled diapers a day, versus the daily trip to the loo for his downloads. The queer part was that the stools were progressively more watery with each incident. I wondered if that was diarrohea, since I'd never met with a situation like this before. On day two, he started to develop a low grade fever. Derod and I decided to take him to the doctor's the very next morning. Turns out, even if we didn't have that intention, the incidents following that morning would get our butts up and going: gabe woke us up just as the sun rose up the horizon with a big soiled diaper and after his morning milk feed, gave us two others within an hour. The diagnosis: gabe caught a virus and it should self-resolve but we have to last it out for the next three to four days. Meanwhile, we have to hydrate him with like a litre of fluids a day (I almost fainted) and we busted our pockets purchasing the prescibed fluids, which gabe fought to push away after just one sip. Apparently, he caught this virus from where children gather. The doctor named the possibilities of childcare centres and playgrounds.

When gabe was between six and ten months old, a friend commented on us washing his teether-toy when it dropped on the sidewalk where we had lunch, and on us wiping the high chair gabe was on (the wet tissue turned out pretty black). I thought about whether I was being too picky about cleanliness but decided that it was reasonable for two reasons. One, my son is a fingers-sucker and those little hands find themselves in his mouth after touching the world. Two, when we we young, there weren't such things as hand-foot-mouth disease, rotavirus and all sorts of other stuff you'd only encounter when one enters the realm of modern day parenthood. But as gabe grows older, I become more relaxed in this aspect but to rid him of the fingers-sucking habit is still the goal yet to be achieved.

Anyway, we ask for you to please pray that the little boy will recover soon and that we'll be rid of those doctor's visits. It's lucrative to be in anything that involves children (consultations, clothes, education, etc) so if you are considering a career change, why not place this on your list?