Mid-Autumn Festival 2007

Gabe's first mid-autumn festival wasn't much of anything worth remembering. I mean, he could hardly do anything nor did he understand anything that went on.

He can't appreciate the play. He was given a total of three lanterns by his grandparents, all equipped with too-loud techno songs and plastic gyrating animals, and other than visually chasing and physically reaching for them, he's got absolutely no idea what lanterns are or what kids do with lanterns during this time of the year. He can't interact intelligently with other kids, and in this case, his Ethan gor gor.

He can't appreciate the company nor the things we could do together. We used to go down to a garden with kao fu and family, fold paper boats and stick candles on them and then watch them float down the middle of the pond. We would light paper lanterns and walk round the greens, watching other kids do the same. We would sit on the large mat and eat mooncakes (no crazy concoctions of durians, chocolates and what-nots), yams dipped in sugar, sip chinese tea, look at the moon, and really enjoy the company. I miss those days. I miss kao fu.

He can't sit down with the adults and listen (with comprehension) to them reminisce on their good old days and the games they played during mid-autumn when they were kids.

So basically, we spent the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month just trying to get gabe to focus on the lit lantern we have put in his line of vision, watch how adults eat stuff that's supposed to be eaten on mid-autumn.

But you know what? It's not a bad thing! I am looking forward to the coming years, when he can hold his own paper lantern, learning the delicate balance of it on the thin bamboo stick, trotting down his own path, showing off the light in the darkness, entertaining his elders with the sheer amazement and fun of this whole experience. And when he's older, perhaps to identify with us over stories of our past, enjoy the bits of snacks together and partake in the celebration of this festival.

Isn't growing up amazing? But for now this will have to do: our feeble attempt to take a family picture with the lanterns ; )

Privileged

I've always thought gabe to be a very privileged baby. We take him out so often he's been to quite a few major shopping malls in town, quite a few homes of our friends and family and of course, to try on quite a few baby chairs in the places his parents eat at. He's been in cars, taxis, on the bus and the mrt. I mean, he goes gai gai very often loh! And add Melaka and the coming Japan trip to that...

Anyway, on his 7th month-day, derod and I decided to take him to Vivocity. So began the preparation of dressing him up, getting his porridge in the thermal carrier and in our flurry, we forgot the camera! But we figured since we're hitting the same venue two days later for ah tu's farewell dinner, we'll just pretend the pictures were taken at the same time. You can tell where the break is since he wears two different sets of clothing.

"Papa thinks he's still young, like me"

"Superman me! But why does papa keep saying "doom doom doom" when he hits my butt??"

"Poor papa he must be so hungry. Steak's coming. Wait ok?"

Phhhhhoooooooooo

I don't know how on earth he picked this up but two days ago, it just started out of the blue. I must say that pouty look looks quite funny on him.

Gabe Says in "Uncle Etphonehome"

Uncle etphonehome is cool. That's because he goes around in this wheely chair. I love buses, I love cars and since uncle et's has wheels, and wheels that have multicolored lights too, I like!

He went on a trip to Taipei for a competition and came back with a silver medal!! He's the only Singaporean non-swimmer medalist. Congratulations!!!!! Although mummy did tell him "no gold don't come back see us", we think a silver's close enough hee hee. Check out the coverage:

1. Straits Times (19 September 2007) - sports page
2. Channel News Asia
3. Yahoo News
4. Stomp
5. Sunday's church bulletin hee hee, it's true!

Here's me with the winner, uncle etphonehome. You can check us out here too!

And here's a picture of the national hero ;p (far left).
Look! There's a pig (小小猪) behind cheering him on! No wonder he won... hee

"Good Boy"

These are the encouraging words that derod and I speak to gabe when he does something right/ correctly. It started from day one and it seems that he has come to understand the nature of the usage of the phrase, and has perhaps helped him in his learning process i.e. the repetition of correct action leading to "good boy" has generally guided him.

Suck suck
This was the first instruction that gabe was given and it was repeated to him many times a day for the first couple of months. Babies tend to fall asleep when they are nursing and gabe was a major one at that so you can imagine me going on and on with the instruction and when he "obeys" it, comes the encouragement "good boy". Surprisingly, I found that in less than two weeks, he had come to respond immediately to the "suck suck" instruction.

Up!
I make up many silly songs and tunes and one of them is sung when I change his clothes and require him to lift his upper torso for the top to go across his back. This began once the confinement lady left after the first month, and from a four line song, the routine indicator has shrunk to a one-word instruction (which I shall call it "up!" here) which he responds to since the fourth month, when he was able to lift his head. Prior to this, I'll be the one lifting him up la. The first time he contributed went like: sleeve through one arm, "up!", he lifted head, "good boy!", me pull him up to let shirt go behind back, etc. The repetition works. Today, he lifts both head and shoulders off the mat in assistance.

"Let Go"
I find this the most amazing of them all. Although he doesn't obey this all the time, and for quite a few other times you have to repeat and repeat and perhaps play a mini tug of war with gabe over the item, most other times he will loose his grip, open his palm and let go of the item at hand. Of course, you must praise him once it's done.

"洗嘴巴了"

After being wrapped up in his diaper cloth in preparation for his morning bath, I'll clean gabe's mouth with a piece of cotton wool dipped in cool boiled water. I'll tell him "洗嘴巴了" and round about the fourth or fifth month, he'll watch me wrap the cotton around my finger and opened his mouth voluntarily, without me needing to gently squeeze his cheeks to open it.
"Good boy" completes the sign to him that the action should be repeated.

"Shake Hands"
This is the latest of his tricks. Haha... machiam dog performing tricks. But yes, he can respond to the instruction "shake hands"!!! However, you must catch him while he has full attention on you, and add the visual element of the outstretched palm and make sure he sees it. I've been repeating this through the day to drill it into him and hope that the "good boy" will seal it in. Let's wait and see!

The Time Has Come...

When my little baby is no longer the blur-eyed infant that will allow you to do what you want to him. He has started developing a will and it is interesting yet amazing to see his character is and how it develops.

I'm currently reading a book (thanks keekoo for helping me get hold of it) on toddlers and the basis of this Christian-values-based literature is on the vital role of parents in a child's life. It puts forth that the toddler's life is controlled by HEP and includes the following quote:

Heredity bestows capacity,
Environment provides opportunity, and,
Personality recognizes capacity and improves opportunity.

It goes on to simply define that the personality of a child/ person is made up of three composites: heredity, environment and temperament (inborn into human personality). As a parent, I can't change the first and last bit but I can highly influence the environment gabe grows up in and though it's only one third of the equation, this will play a pivotal role in who he becomes.

Scary but yet so much potential lies ahead. But God has already in mind the destiny for gabe and we pray that we'll just do our best as earthly guardians and guide him as best as we know how. And as the days pass and gabe starts showing more and more of his learning capabilities and his keen awareness of what is going around him, the task of parenting becomes more real. What a journey ahead! I'm filled with excitement yet overwhelmed. Wonder if you know what I mean.

For those interested, please see On Becoming Toddler Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam.

Chaos in the Blast

We had a blast at alwayseekings' home, celebrating the Return of the Khoos.

The adults ate and ate and laughed and laughed. The kiddos... wished I could say they played and played. But what really happened was lots of chaos because of them haha. The older tods were trying to outsmart each other, two of the younger ones were attacking each other and when they weren't doing so, were kinda grouchy, especially gabe ;p.

But we had fun. Pity the Wii started too late though, cos the testosterone levels over the ManU vs Everton match were far too high. Thanks for the company guys. Missed the old yas. And thanks to alwayseeking for opening up their home.

Great pictures available here!

So, Suck Your Toe

Hop your way to Mexico! If this rhyme we kept singing in primary school were real, gabe would have made hundreds of trips to Mexico.

In response to jemmy's mummy: my son is a toe sucker. You would have thought that his signature two-fingers would have been sufficient to satisfy him but no, the big toes (preference for leftie) have joined the list.

He has various ways of reaching it. If seated, he'll plonk his head down to reach toey. If lying on back or seated inclined, he'd pull leg up and munch toey. If sock is on, he'll attack toey through sock.

So what of old wives' tale of babies who suck their toes? I'm sure they don't hop their way to Mexico. Yeah I heard. Something about them being naughty...

Random Shots - 6th Month

Typical look before bath. Gabe gets wrapped up in a diaper cloth so he won't catch a cold (or spray pee) en route to the outside bathroom.

Celebrating waipo's 55th birthday: waiting for the adults' coffee & tea at Dome. Gabe seems to be saying "please don't keep looking and laughing at me ..."
Can you tell? He's can now sit on baby chairs when we go gai gai!!

"They put the mint there to tempt me, then don't let me eat."

Mother-son shot, with gabe grabbing his foot, an action commonly seen for some time now.

Waigong seems more eager to try out the dong lui qia than the grandson, who broke out in tears when placed inside one large "vehicle".

Started placing gabe on the high chair this month.

Mat out again! Cushions at the back to catch him when he falls backwards after sitting for some time.

On high chair in kitchen while mummy does her chores. As usual, something to keep the fingers away from the itchy gums. You can see his hair's grown out too. Finally, some length after two months.

Ethan's 2nd birthday. Gabe's real height in relation to his second cousins; standing on the floor, lightly held onto by mummy. Of course, everyone knows what's going on except him, who's only keen to watch the expressions of those gathered around, and reeeeeeeeaching for the paper plates on the table.

Baby Room

Derod and I have been considering when it would be appropriate for gabe to be relocated to his own room. Although he's been sleeping in his cot, the current arrangement still consists of him being in the same room as us.

Let me make a mental list of pros and cons to this status quo.

Advantages: I only have to get up from my bed to reach him when he cries for milk at 5 or 6am; I can still keep a close eye on him when he wakes in the morning at 8 or 9am; and if I'm lazing on the bed and not pick him up immediately, I can still keep an eye on him; if I take a nap with him in the afternoon, ditto that for convenience.

Disadvantages: Well, your kid will have to sleep on his own someday and the later we drag this, the more agonizing it is for the parents when you have to put the process in place.

So since he's about to move in, I've been thinking of how to "decorate" the boy's room. You know how design savvy we two are so it's not too difficult to imagine us being stuck at the how-to without changing much of the current condition i.e. I'm not looking at painting, major change of curtains, installments, etc. The set of ikea drawers that stores all of gabe's stuff goes against one wall. The sofa bed takes the opposite wall. We have to relocate the ironing board and the clothes rack, which is another headache in itself. So that leaves the window-wall (not much of a wall) and a "free" wall, which logically would be where the cot would be placed against.

The other issue is the dust. Being on a low floor and at a traffic junction seriously increases the amount of dust in the house. Having a baby around increases the pressure to keep the place spick and span. If gabe is anywhere near inheriting both our genes, chances of him with a sensitive nose are rather high. How do you make it more colorful and yet low maintenance at the same time?!

I was browsing the blog of this lady in Australia called Karen Cheng and although the picture attached to one particular post has got absolutely nothing to do with her baby room, I couldn't help but notice how baby-room the room was. Isn't it nice to grow up in an environment like that, with bright sunshine flooding your room, such a sweet crib and mobiles attached on top, with everything looking so clean and comfortable?

Then I think of my poor little gabriel...

Any help out there???

Juicy, Succulent, Firm, Soft...

...baby flesh. Or at least that was what mrs buzzy thought.

Gabe awoke from his nap with three red bites on the right side of his face. We thought it was the bed bugs again. (He's been getting some bites from our bed!!) But ever since we found out and kept him off, there weren't any fresh ones so it was quite mysterious how this trio came about.

I found out that night.

We'd put him down for the night and after giving him some time to get into deep sleep, I came in, switched on the lights and prepared to cut his fingernails. Guess who I found perched on the mattress three inches from his face? Yeah, it's her. No room for errors; one shot, one kill. It wasn't difficult at all. Cos' she was soooooo bloated with my poor baby's blood. I'd never seen so much blood in a mosquito before. It's almost like how juice bursts forth when you squeeze an orange pulp.

So it turns out that the buzzy irritant had a buffet. She dug her sucking device into my son's flesh, had her fill, flapped her wings a five-mosquito-bodies distance away, landed, kissed him again and repeated that stunt once more.

Urgh! How I hate mosquitoes!

Intrigued Baby, Horrified Mummy

The Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner. *Ok... you can so see where this is leading...*
And indulging grandparents have already planned that their grandson should own a lantern. A note here that gabe is the first grandchild on both sides of the family.

My MIL commented that she would like to get gabe a lantern, and when I responded with a half snigger (read: yeah, nice to have one for him but then again, like he knows what it is) she quickly added that it'll be a simple one just for decoration on the wall.

Gabe's doting waigong was definitely on the same train of thought and when he saw this while walking along Chinatown one day, he couldn't resist.


Faint right??!?!?!??!?!?!? It almost "killed" me when it was presented to us. The choice of a pig was obvious for their 小小猪. The pattern was so cheena-fied and orbeet. Its trotters had this chinese sticker on it and worse, the choice of music that played when it's turned on is so no-way *shake head please* and can wake the entire neighbourhood. There is a second pig that reveals itself under a bobbing mushroom (and gabe's little toe was giap-ed under the mushroom at one point). My dad boasted that the lantern can run too. And man, can it really run. Those trotters were going at an amazing speed. It really looked like a rat scurrying across the floor. I have to admit that it's quite funny.

And gabe's reaction?

It's Mighty Interesting

how extreme opinions can form from just looking at gabe's face.

At the same stage of life, there are those who will exclaim how much gabe is an imprint of his father, and not really the mother, while another group will take the exact opposite opinion.

And though the boy's face has changed so many times over these past six months, this phenomenon still stands.

Amazing how different the same face (or situation) is seen from another pair of eyes.

Fishy baby

Ever since gabe started on porridge, I've been following the rule of introducing one new food at one time, ensuring that he takes that new item well over a few days before it checks into to the OK-list.

This week, it was cod, courtesy of my MIL. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. I don't even take cod for normal meals!

So began my experience with preparing this oily fish, which is supposed to contain much omega3, good oils for the development of brains and all. No one told me how irritating it was to get the bones out of them. But well, all for the sake of my son right?

But imagine my shock when I came out of the loo one night and was greeted with the fishy stench of an entire fish market. Wait! It's my son!!!!

Gabe had gone on his first day of cod for both lunch and dinner. He had been sleeping for a few hours in his cot, situated outside my room toilet, and whatever was in him must have come out through his pores or something. Horrified, I went to sniff him all over, wondering if he had thrown up. Nothing.

So, for the last two days, he's been a vegetarian. Broccoli's been good.

Mental note: next time I do cod again, must use smaller portions...