Chinese Songs

Gabe has a pretty strong repertoire of songs in both English and Chinese. He belts them out without bias to any language but tends to sound like a Caucasian when he sings the Chinese ones. Doesn't happen when he speaks the language though. It's quite funny. Check out his version of 三轮车.

The Latest Fad

Breastfeeding.

Gabe lifted up his shirt and announced, "Drink milk milk!"

When prompted to show how he should feed his papa milk, he did an awkward lift-up-shirt action that seemed to continue to something else but he just didn't know how. Oh, and he sometimes mistakenly thinks the belly button is where the milk comes out from.

Gabe Says in "Bumbo Chair"

Gabe regularly requests to flip through his photo albums and this picture would be viewed about three to four times a week. But today, he decided to vocalize his interpretation and I finally know what's been going on his mind when he sees this picture.


"Gabriel mmm mmm on the table."

The Protective Son

I was sitting on the bed this afternoon when Gabe came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my shoulders and declared, "Protect Mummy!"

I don't know where he learnt the word "protect", and wonder if he understands what it means but when the surprise wore off, the sweetness of the words spoken lingered on...

Gabe's Memory

Little children never cease to amaze with their abilities in learning. Their intake of information has been compared to the sponge's soaking property. Still, with this preempt, we're taken aback by Gabe's development, especially his memory.

From a very young age, Gabe could remember and address the different members of our extended family. He could remember songs that you taught him, and filled in the blanks for most songs very soon after he turned one.

He remembers promises. If I told him at the beginning of the day, that we should wait for his father to come home in the evening before something can be done, he would keep quiet about it (and I didn't think he'd remember) until his father appears at the gate.

Gradually, with the increase in his vocabulary, he managed to bring up incidents from his memory. If we drove past Punggol Park, he would tell us that "Papa and Mummy brought Gabriel to Punggol Park to ride tricycle and see fish." He could associate various people with the places that they have taken him to.

He has a strong sense of direction, and it was evident from as young as a year and a half. He could lead you from our home to the nearest MRT station on foot. He could point out the direction of our home (and "auntie joanne's house") regardless of the direction of approach. Even if we visited a shopping centre for the first time, he would be able to navigate quite quickly, enough to lead us back where we came from, if the route wasn't too complicated.

But what astounds me most is that he could verbalise the landmarks on the way to a certain destination, in chronological order. If we turned left from our car park, he'll conclude we're heading to my parents', and if we turned right, to derod's parents'. Then he'll proceed to look out for his next landmark, and so on and so forth, until we reach the destination. He even recognises the expressways we take, though he's unable to name them. The CTE has two tunnels. The KPE is the long long tunnel where he gets to see the wheel and the skyscrapers. If we took a different turn, he'd question where we are headed.

Gabe parrots a lot; he repeats a lot of what you say and because of this memory thing, we are quite thankful for our determination in controlling what we say, with the exception of exclamations like "wa lao!". So the next time you speak with the boy, don't be surprised he remembers what you tell him. :)

Spelling Bee

Gabe's picked up a few words, in that he can spell them. Actually, it's more like he can memorize the combination of alphabets of various words. He doesn't recognize the letters of the alphabet, save for the letter M and I honestly don't think he understands what he's doing when he's asked to spell these words. But it's just funny to see him do it anyway.

Notes:
Gabriel -- The mother was bored back then and decided to do something constructive, like repeat the spelling of his name. Well, he caught on and has been able to regurgitate it ever since. I think he was about 20 months old when it happened.

Taxi -- Credited to the waigong who's the sole inspiration of Gabe's passion to anything taxi-related.

Coconut -- The papa and gugu who taught him the spelling via the silly song.

Apple -- The mother decided to try her luck since he was able to accomplish the previous three.

Brotherly Love Part 2

I mentioned how possessive Gabe is with his belongings. But it seems this little one is especially generous with his sister. He has offered his beloved sausage and his beloved taxi on a regular basis to his sister, to the amazement of the parents. It usually directed to the parents in the form of a statement like "give meimei sausage" but the toy is stretched out to her. By stretch, I mean that the taxi, a relatively heavy piece of metal, is hovered precariously over her head or other parts of her body. We are overcome by a warm and fuzzy feeling that Gabe is willing to share his most precious of toys with Rou voluntarily, but at the same time horrified at the possibility of an accident. So we thank the boy for his sweet gesture, and explain that meimei is still too young to play with the toy and request for him to share them with her when she grows older.

The other day, Gabe was sitting next to the bouncer by his sister and held her little hand while he made some "small talk" with her. She actually smiled at him in response! Yes, Rou is at the stage where she responds to conversations, but at her brother! It's something really small but precious to the parents.

We have also caught him giving instructions to her. They are not real instructions and sometimes even just mumblings that are not words, but done in the tone similar to ours when we give him instructions. Seems he has some understanding of some form of hierarchy present in this family.

God is So Good

We introduced a new song at bedtime and Gabe caught on it pretty fast. After teaching him the first three stanzas, we wrapped up with a final one that summarizes the whole song. And we tried the complete-the-song stance, which went like this:

Me: God is...
Gabe: so good
Me: He...
Gabe: took my sin
Me: Now I...
Gabe: know my abcs, next time won't you sing with me [correct lyrics: am free, He's so good to me]

?!?!??!?!??!?!?

Can you please?!?!

Derod was playing with Gabe and doing something silly like holding up the cement mixer truck with flying sound effects when Gabe went, "Can you please!"

?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

Celebrate with Me!

We celebrated Gabe's second birthday together with Rou's 1st month at the Community Club near our place. We rented an enclosed space, ordered a buffet spread and spent time with loads of relatives and some close friends.

It was chaotic in a good way, I think, but I hope never to do such a mass gathering again :p

Birthday boy looking so smart in his new clothes. Posing with papa in color coordinated outfits.

And with mummy

Yup, it's a Veggietales chocolate cake! It was supposed to be Junior Asparagus but the baker got a little confused and included Father Asparagus instead.

So wowed by cake-cutting.

Too fast too furious. Gabe loves this zoom zoom from uncle Max and auntie Connie. The other kids, boys actually, love it too. It was labeled "most coveted toy/ gift of the day".

The other zoom zoom. It's automated and has a gear stick to change from forward to reverse mode. A gift from daigupor, gupor and sumsokgong and families.

We were surprised to find this looking like a studio shot, with half a Nike tick behind us though. It was taken in much haste and hence none of the few shots had everyone ready enough to call it a good picture. Nevertheless, we're happy to have this family portrait for February 2009.