Shoe Habit

Everytime Gabe runs into the house, he'll sit on the stool placed at our door and remove his shoes. Then he'll take a shoe in each hand, place them together purposefully and then dash off to his toys. It would only take a couple of seconds but there has never been a time where he forgot to arrange his shoes; that little pair of adidas has never been carelessly thrown aside.

I think it says something about his personality. It's the same with his cars. If he lines all of them up, they have to face the same direction. He would run across the room repeatedly to correct me if I had purposely (unknown to him) lined them randomly. I wonder if Rou would be like that...

Stair Master

It was our regular visit to Gabe's great-grandfather's for dinner. There was a lot of commotion in the house and we found out that not too long after our arrival, the one and only lift accessing the entire block of 21 floors broke down.

Derod's parents, who are past 60 years of age, had to climb up 19 floors to get to their dinner, and to their two grandkids who were waiting for them.

When it was time to go, the lift was still not working so all four of us had to trot down 19 floors. I am amazed and proud to say that my dear son worked those stairs all on his own, holding my hand of course. Way to go, little boy!

New Room-mate

Gabe was a pretty cooperative boy after the arrival of Rou but with time, he began showing signs of not coping too well with sharing everything he possessed.

Rou's cot is parked in our master bedroom and round about her fourth month, Gabe started his bedtime tantrums. He'd want us to stay with him in his room indefinitely, request for one final song after another to stall for time, request specifically for us to switch off his air-conditioning, open the door, bring him to our bed, etc. It was so difficult to get him to fall asleep, and a vast difference from our usual routine of song, prayer, goodbyes, shutting the door and leaving him to fall asleep on his own quietly. Then began the midnight tantrums. He'd wake a few times in a night and make the same demands. And it further extended into the day-time naps. All descriptions punctuated with tears, screams, howls and what-nots. It was horrid. And heart-wrenching. It drained us physically and emotionally. We were frustrated constantly. No amount of psycho-ing, explaining, threatening, hugging would solve the problem. We figured it has to be the presence of his sister being able to be in the same room as us, and he was left alone elsewhere.

So after some thinking through and conversations between us and with some more experienced mothers, I decided to bring forward the day Rou would join her brother in the same room. My initial plan was to wait till she could sleep through the night so that I won't have to trot between the two rooms in the middle of the night. This move would eliminate the object of jealousy and we figured its banes would still outnumber those in the current situation.

Rou was about five months old when we shifted her cot over to her brother's room. He was told to stay in the same room as her and protect her. But the main message we sent across was that all of us would sleep in our own beds, in our own rooms and neither meimei nor him were going to share our beds (and deprive us of sleep).

In the next two weeks, his tantrums gradually died down. It never went away completely, with him still wanting us to be in the room for as long as he can stall, but the situation improved dramatically.

Unexpectedly, Rou slept through the night ever since she was shifted to her permanant location. She used to clock about 6-7 hours straight but now does 10 hours through the night. Both kids wake at about 7.30am and my day begins when they do.

My Goumet Son

He's gobbling down:

Sashimi
Lotus roots and red dates (soft from double boiled soups)
Ho see (dried oysters common in Cantonese food)

Sentosa

It was a Saturday. Derod and I were wrecking our brains, deciding where we could take the kids and the lot fell on Sentosa. So after a quick brunch, we headed off to the island and made the Underwater World our first pitstop. Free parking for visitors in open car park! Gabe panicked when his sandals touched the gravel ground so really, my first obstacle was to get him across the carpark on foot. We finally arrived at UWW after an eternity of persuasion and refusal to his cries of wanting to be carried across the "terrain".

Craning for a view at the creatures in the water

Rou sound asleep in her harness

Strike a pose! If you look carefully, it's me holding up his hand.


We saw huge fishes and sea turtles glide by from this glass display. Gabe was most fascinated. While papa was queuing up for tickets (discounted when paid with Citibank's card), the two of us watched a man drape snakes across the shoulders of tourists. The boy was actually quite open to the idea of touching the reptiles but alas, it's the mother who shuddered away.

You should have seen the boy exclaim "fish! fish!" as he dashed toward this display. Never mind the place was super crowded. He raced through all those pairs of legs and butts to get to this position.

Totally fascinated with the creatures in this tank, but absolutely refusing to put his hand in to touch them.

Father-and-son grins.

Urgh... too bad this shot was spoilt by the flash. It's one of my favourites.

We went downstairs to the main exhibit. And crawled through a small hole into a dome-like thing. I think the other people must be wondering what a weird person I am; seems only kids get into such acts.

Along the travelator...

Which intrigued Gabe more than the creatures swimming all around him.

Close-up shot of the jellyfish

Who would have expected a green screen? Derod is a no-body!

Pant! Taking a break from chasing the kid around the UWW.

Rou was asleep half the time. Caught a shot of her awake, and out of the harness.

Next destination: the Sentosa Skyride and Luge! Obviously one of us has to stay behind to tend to Rou, who failed to meet all the minimum requirements for the rides. Gabe and I in the snaking queue for the Skyride. This is the part where I psychoed him not to cry.

Our turn! His jitters are up on almost full mode.

Man had to carry him so that both of us can get onto the ride at the same time. Panic struck the boy.

Plonk!

And up we go. Gabe cried. What's new. I talked non-stop to divert his attention, and got him to set his sights on the surroundings. But I was starting to get jittery. It was actually a little scary. I lifted up my feet so my berks won't fall off too! The talking helped, both me and him.

We're supposed to smile when we reach the second tower. That's where the camera is. See Gabe protest.

And when we got off the ride, and headed for the Luge part, I had a hard time convincing him to put on the helmet. I gave up and dragged the boy to the queue. Who would have known that a pack of gummies from the attendant gave him full access to the boy's head. Down we went!

It was just seconds after we paid for all our pictures that it began to drizzle. With two young kids and no umbrella, we headed off back to the basement carpark a stone's throw away. But the rain poured without warning and minutes later, we were quite wet. Poor Rourou! Good thing we came prepared with towels and extra change though. All in all, expenses aside, it was a great time of fun.

Dear Uncle Ian...

Mummy informed me today that you will soon be taking an aeroplane to the USA to work and I won't be seeing you for some time. I kept silent upon the news. I think I'll miss your Peugeot, I mean, miss you very much. So I agreed to making a short video message with meimei, to say goodbye to you. Mummy taught me to say something to you, and haha... I plagued her with it non-stop for the rest of the day. Sweeeeeet! Oh, by the way, you can hear meimei hiccup-ing in the background.

Take care, and see you soon! Vroom vroom!!!

Insignia of Cars

Gabe recognizes these and will point them out as we travel along the roads.