The 13th Month

Gabe picked up these skills in his 13th month.

Drinking from a Straw
At jemmy's mummy's suggestion, I attempted training by controlling the flow of water from a short straw, releasing water only when he makes an effort similar to sucking. I'm not sure it paid off, either due to my inconsistency or whether gabe was not really ready for it. But one day, I had enough of the stage-3 top of the pigeon mag mag (washed and sterilized) sitting in the cabinet and thought, what the heck, let's just try it. With both mother and baby persisting for about five to ten minutes, gabe's startled eyes widened and later squinted in delight as he felt a rush of water in his mouth. I too saw movement in the straw. So there you have it. My baby is now drinking heartily from the straw. Now the next step, the cup...

Putting Things Into a Bucket
instead of just being obsessed with violently emptying it, though one has to admit there's a teeny bit more throw than drop in the action.

Go Down!
With his ability to communicate this intention, gabe has attempted journeys down from bed, couch, chairs... and... yesterday, we found him standing happily next to the coffee table when three seconds ago, we had left him on the couch. I got no less than a fiery lecture from my mother, but that is another story altogether.

I'd figured that since it was but a matter of time that we got to this phase, it was imperative that he gets the butt-first method drilled in. So since a couple of months ago, many times when I let him down, I'll first turn him around and aid him in the climb, though I'm not sure the extent this has in fueling the thought of independent action.

Complete the Song
Currently, it's the "star" to Twinkle Twinkle, and the "nose" to Sing a Song of Sixpence.

Two Syllable Words
Taxi and lorry (pronounced lorr-lei) loud, clear, and done daily in a broken-record fashion.

Mark Smit

Since his last trip to Singapore, which was a couple of weeks ago, Gabe was able to address Mark by his name. Upon the insistence of the man, he is known as "Mark", not "Uncle Mark" or other age-bearing greetings, which does make things easier for the babe.

So here's the defining moment that sheds light on Mark's standing in the family: gabe looks at his yee yee a week or so after Mark's return to Bangkok, and says "Mark!".

Incidentally, derod's workplace is known by the acronym SMIT.

For those of you who have not seen Mark, this is his 如山真面目, seen here with a 9 month-old gabe.

You raised me up....

Blabber Update: 13 Months

Bad (bread)
Goo dah (go down)
Arp (up)
Yea (yes)
Mmmen (amen)
Keee (keys)
Door
Pern (open)
Lorr (lorry)
Seee (taxi)
Mier mier (milk milk)
Mei Mei
Dae Dae (jie jie)
Gor Gor
Bah (bra. Yep you read right)
Teee (panty. You read right too)
Torr (socks)
Booo (book)
Baa (butterfly/ button. They all start with baa right)
Bare (bellybutton)
Bahber baw (bubble ball. Bubbles actually but cos they look like balls, mummy has to differentiate them)

Gabe can also translate 不可以 to "no no", and string "no more" to whatever he can't see anymore e.g. no more bird.

It's not very easy to understand him, unless you are with him often, cos' as you can see, he can only manage the first syllable of each word. Till next time!

To Market, To Market

After having had enough of being overcharged for not-so-fresh ingredients, I plucked up enough courage and energy to hit the wet market in the vicinity. Gabe, of course, has to come along. I've tried the one within walking distance from home, and one that's three train stations away.

Whatever happened to grannies and housewives dragging their grandkids/ kids along to the market? I was the only person with a kid, and this kid and his pram were taking up much precious space. Most of the time I was trying to get through the human jam, and ensure that wherever I "parked", those little hands won't go touching its surroundings only to find their way into his mouth again. With women occupying almost 85% of the market population, I sure didn't get a lot of sympathy maneuvering around the place.

Do you hear the bell signaling the end of Round One?

What We Did in the Last Month

We had a rather eventful month, as usual, and I've been writing but not posting up many pictures, so here's a photo summary of what we've been up to in the last month. Add a couple of visits to the doctor and that'll sum it all up. By the way, I'm getting terrible at taking pictures; poor gabe seems to have lesser and lesser pictures as he grows older.

Hanging out with livingjoyfully, canupls, our spouses and children.
Featuring Timothy and Gabe in matching colors!

Took gabe to T3 to do a look see. Favourite spot of T3.

Looking down at the lounge where passengers have a drink after they check in. But we find most of them snoozing on really comfortable looking chairs.

A perplexed look at the Earle Swensens, where the parents stopped for a bite.

We hosted a gathering to say bye to dear brother Mac, who's returning to the US and then to Iraq for work. We'll miss you!!

Favourite jie jie! Gabe will crawl towards Tabitha, open his arms to let her carry him and call her jie jie when he sees her. A peculiar sight though, at the proportions of the two.

A generally happy baby, getting cheekier by the day. Still known for his patronizing smiles, huge front teeth with a massive gap in between and that infamous voluminous voice. Still in love with his nuby keys (seen in picture), buses and balls. Loves flipping through books; can identify them by titles and special pictures each book holds. Vocabulary expanding rather quickly (still yakking through the day while at play). Mobility too - he managed to step up a stool and climb onto the coffee table on his own. Looks significantly leaner due to bouts of flu and perhaps a vertical stretch. Waves hello and bye to random strangers.

Bout After Bout of Flu

There seems to be a series of flu outbreaks going on over the last few months and poor gabe managed to catch a few bouts. This is his third. To make things worse, this particular episode involves a yoyo-like temperature. After the initial wave died down in a day, it returned in a low-grade but persistent form.

With his cough getting more intense (derod's doctor uncle said rule of thumb was that if the child started coughing in the night, it's time to visit the pediatrician), we decided to take a trot down to the PD. Turns out the boy's got an ear infection. According to PD, if a child's fever returns after subsiding, it usually signals a secondary cause, so though gabe started out with the flu it's the ear infection that's the culprit now.

The visit ended on a rather interesting note, for me. I asked if any food should be laid off and PD said that other than cold foods/ drinks, "which you shouldn't be giving to him anyway", the rest should be fine. It sounded like a warning, a statement to fish out any bad parent behaviour and a piece of advise all at once. I'm just thankful for the encouragement that I've been doing the right thing in restricting his diet all this while.

Oh, and on a separate note, I wish I had a picture of him after a sneeze, with two channels of mucus down from his nostrils. If I had it, it'll have fronted this post :=p

Night Out in Town

We took Gabe out on a trip to town one evening to get a new set of phones for the home since both the existing sets have been giving us problems for quite some time. His last trip was in December, when the Christmas lights were all up. In a short span of two months, much has changed and boy, was the evening dotted with events as we navigated a small section of Orchard.

The plan was to meet up with derod after he knocked off from work, which meant that I had to come head on with the mad rush hour with a train ride into town. I wheeled Gabe into a very crowded train, with just enough space for the front wheels of his pram not to roll over an executive's shoes, and for the doors to close safely behind my back. Gabe looked up and for a moment, one can almost see the slow left-right motion of the camera capturing the scene: he was surrounded by executives standing around him in a semi-circle fashion, all looking down at him while he felt like a little grasshopper, and may I add, none smiling nor looking really friendly. He turned around to look at me and his face started to crack. Then it happened. For all of you who know my son, his vocal capabilities and that small space don't make a very good ride for every other human being within 1 km radius. So I had to reassure him that I was near, and pat his chest for physical comfort, twice, before he decided the situation probably wasn't all that bad. All this in the full sight of those unwavering stone faces of men in shirt and ties.

Dinner consisted of peppery beef on a hot plate with loads of sauces that tasted real good but of questionable origins. That was for us. Kiddo was served his home-cooked porridge. You can imagine the protest. And the volume of that protest. He tried unsuccessfully to get us to feed him what was on our plate; yelling, pulling derod's arm again and again. He finally gave up and turned his attention to the next table. Yes. He saw how the lady emptied her ingredients into the hot plate, how they sizzled and he was kicking with excitement. Next, he yelled at her to feed him, adding "maam maam!" to his other jibberish speech. Fortunately for us, she pretended not to notice him at all.

We hit the electrical store and the plasmas and flat screens (that were absolutely everywhere in the store) caught the little one's attention. He saw fish, water and other stuff he could recognise. Then all of a sudden, that expression on his face meant he saw something he absolutely loved, and in a tender but firm voice, he went "dog". I turned in the direction of his gaze and saw that Ice Age was playing. Now, we all know that there are no dogs in Ice Age. Turns out it was the squirrel, or whatever that prehistoric four-legged, tailed creature is.