Toy Name

Gabe has a toy, which he refers to as...

大便车

Gabe and his Grandfathers

Gabe has come to a stage where he can differentiate the lingos associated with different people. He'd speak Mandarin to his two grandmothers, Singlish to his waigong, Mandarin and broken English to his yeye and proper English to his parents.

But what totally gets me cracked up is the way he pronounces certain words when talking to his yeye.

"爷爷，我们去churt." (Read: church)

"爷爷，你[我]要money."
When I heard this, I was so horrified that he was asking his grandfather for money that I proceeded to give him a gentle lecture, all this while wondering at the back of mind how and when he learnt the concept of asking for money. Then, the yeye nonchalently replied, "好，回去给你看money."
I almost fainted at the realisation that it was "Barney" they were talking about.

"爷爷，你[我]要看vegetalian." (Read: vegetarian, which is supposed to be Veggietales)

"爷爷，那边有clan!" (Read: crane)

"爷爷，MRT tlack在哪里?" (Read: MRT track)

Give the boy a tiger... when he's older.

Cockroach Alert

I found a huge cockroach in the study one night but the rolled-up magazine missed it completely because of its weird location. Urgh... it was tough living with the thought of a creepy pest lurking around somewhere in the house. What if it decided it needed some company at night and crawled in to bed with us, or worse, with the kids?! Anyway, out of sight, out of mind. By the next morning, this piece of information was chucked at the back of my mind.

Two days later, we came home after dinner to a dark house. I flipped the light switch on and Gabe immediately pointed out the presence of the unwelcomed resident. We located it among the legs of the dining table and proceeded to exterminate the pest. As it was past the kids' bedtime, we decided to clear the mess only after putting the kids to bed, but obviously someone wasn't too comfortable with the arrangement.

Gabe was supposed to drink his milk before going to bed but the proximity to the dead cockroach proved too much for him. He covered his eyes and refused to budge until the object in question was removed.

Little Rays of Sunshine

Amidst the daily battles, Gabe still manages to make me laugh once in a while. Check out these little bits:

Gabe looked out the window and saw an ambulance heading off in the direction of Buangkok, where derod always takes him to get our groceries, on foot.
Gabe: Mummy! Ambulance is going to NTUC.

During lunch, Gabe suddenly burst into "I could fer fer lala lala... forever". I was caught by surprise since this song was led two weeks ago at service, and we've never sung it to him before. Looks like he does pay attention at service after all. Tune and rhythm were there, so I had to teach him the lyrics proper. I could sing of your love forever.

At bedtime, he taps derod and I on our shoulders while instructing, "Everybody sing together!" to whatever song he was going on at that time. And after the Doxology, he'll shake hands with everyone.

He was playing with his two-piece animal puzzles when he pointed to this and said, "Mummy, this is char siew."

Happy Mothers' Day

I'm like the best mother ever! Thanks, canyoupleazzze for the video!

CNNBC video

Brush Teeth

It'll suffice to say that Gabe is very particular with things and brushing teeth is just another item on the list. For about a year, I wrestled with him on a daily basis, just to get a little brush into his mouth and attempt to get its bristles somewhat against each tooth. Each episode would be accompanied by, at best, lots of cajoling and some rewards. Otherwise, we'll have a screaming kid messed up with mucus and tears, and a frustrated mum hot with anger.

I decided enough was enough when we received a brochure advertising lots of items on sale at AMK Hub. The Osim uSparkle, a kid's electric toothbrush set, was selling at a cheap price. So I reasoned that as long as I'm able to jam that brush into his mouth and have the brush touch his teeth, they'll be cleaned. With the normal toothbrush, I'll still have to ensure a few strokes on each segment.


We bought the orange set. It's quite cute, really. And the efforts (and money spent) have paid off. I can safely say his teeth are pretty clean. We still have the occasional battles but it sure trumps daily ones. Hurray to the uSparkle!

Good Helper

When Gabe is in a good mood, he helps us with our laundry. I'd remove the dried clothes from the poles in the kitchen, roll them up so that it would be easy to carry, and the little one would literally pitter patter his way out to the living room, where he would neatly place the clean clothes on our day bed.

One day, I was taking down our day bed covers, and decided that Gabe could handle the relatively heavier weight. He hugged the covers, did his awkward run out of the kitchen, and exclaimed, "so heavy!" while he was at it.

But as he grows older, I think he's beginning to realise that such work really belongs to the category of "chores" and has been declining to help me of late. :(

Now I Know My 123s

Auntie Kelly (affectionately known to Gabe as Juu Por) gifted him with a set of numbers puzzles for Christmas last year. It kept him entertained for a period of time as he worked hard at perfecting his skills. It was also because Gabe has limited toys so he ends up playing with this quite often. The mother was quited pleased generally, seeing that she could leave Gabe there to figure out the set on his own for an extended period of time, after she spent some time initiating him into the game.

At first it was just recognizing the shapes and placing them correctly. Then came the ease of differentiating between the 6 and the 9, which look exactly the same and if you squeeze hard enough, fit into each other's frames. Then came the identification of the numbers 8 and 0. I was unsuccessful at getting him to recognize the other numbers for a long time and then one fine day, out of nowhere, he was able to point out the numbers accurately to me.

I tried my luck at writing the numbers randomly on his magnetic board and he would get them right about 80% of the time. He still has problems with 1, 5 and 7 but well, it'll do.

Derod and I now have an easier time being in the same vehicle as Gabe. You see, for the longest time since he realised that "Bus 87 and Bus 27" come around our house, he has been assuming that all double-decker buses are numbered 87 and all single-decked ones with digitized numerals are bus 27s. So everytime we are in a vehicle, and we see a bus, we have to correct his "Mummy, this is bus 87!" or answer his "Mummy, what's this bus?". Try this for every journey, and every bus on sight for like, a few months!

Thank you Juu Por, for getting Gabe started on recognizing numbers!