Quips at 30+ months

He asks nicely, "Can you please... with me?"

"What are you cooking for me today?"

Innocently and voluntarily reports his mistakes to me, "Mummy, I didn't do...."

Runs out from the bath declaring, "Papa, I'm not smelly anymore!"

Favourite Doctor

Gabe HATES to visit the doctor. It must be a blessing then that he didn't fall sick at all in his first year and not very much so in his second year, so the parents didn't need to be traumatized by visits to the doc. (And we haven't even gone to the taking-medicine part.) Well, it's perhaps also because of the lack of "exposure" to these professionals that created this phobia in him. Anyhow, a typical scene of Gabe at Doc's goes like this:

- Mother will psycho him from home to clinic, till his name is called, telling him what the doctor will do (check his ears, listen to his heart and lungs, etc), procedures will not be painful, doctor is a nice man.

- Gabe verbally vomits all the information you fed him, back at you, throughout.

- Nurse calls his name. He panics and starts saying he doesn't want to go in.

_ Carries the crying boy in. Looks at doctor, cries. Doctor touches him, wails. In fact, he wails so loudly, the doctor gets a bit hesitant about touching him.

This happens for quite a few doctors that we have tried. Then Jemmy's mummy tells me about a pediatrician located a stone's throw from our home and we gave it a shot there. Proximity's important for a family with two kids and schedules, and pediatricians do tend to give medicines that taste better.

Dr V Tan gave us a very good impression. She was thorough, consultative, very quick and accurate in checking the kids and most importantly, firm yet gentle with Gabe. It helped that the clinic and her office were equipped with all things necessary to distract the kids, from bouncy things hanging from the ceiling to rattly things on her table and the "killing move" for Gabe, the little tub of xiao man tou that sits on the far end of the table. She would tell him what she was about to do, do it real fast before he can fully comprehend what was going on, and if he was about to cry, say "don't cry" to him firmly. That last instruction sometimes gets him stunned for a bit and by the time he recovers, it was all over.

And by the end of that visit, Gabe would ASK to come back again. For the xiao man tou!! And at subsequent visits, his crying totally stopped! The down sides: her rates are really high, and the waiting time estimates at 1.5hours.

Well, in any case, a big thanks to Dr. V for helping Gabe to overcome his fear of doctors!

Bye Bye Pampers!

Round about August 2008, when I was in my second trimester of pregnancy with #2, derod and I set aside three days to pee-train Gabe. There is a certain philosophy that a child can be potty trained in three days, provided the following signs are exhibited:

Physical signs

Is coordinated enough to walk, and even run, steadily.

Urinates a fair amount at one time.

Has regular, well-formed bowel movements at relatively predictable times.

Has "dry" periods of at least three or four hours, which shows that his bladder muscles are developed enough to hold urine.

Behavioral signs

Can sit down quietly in one position for two to five minutes.

Can pull his pants up and down.

Dislikes the feeling of wearing a wet or dirty diaper.

Shows interest in others' bathroom habits (wants to watch you go to the bathroom or wear underwear).

Gives a physical or verbal sign when he's having a bowel movement such as grunting, squatting, or telling you.

Demonstrates a desire for independence.

Takes pride in his accomplishments.

Isn't resistant to learning to use the toilet.

Is in a generally cooperative stage, not a negative or contrary one.

Cognitive signs

Can follow simple instructions, such as "go get the toy."

Understands the value of putting things where they belong.

Has words for urine and stool.

Understands the physical signals that mean he has to go and can tell you before it happens or even hold it until he has time to get to the potty.

Obviously Gabe's more than ready, according to the checklist above, and we wanted to train him before #2 comes along. But alas, it was not meant to be and by day 2, we abandoned the plan as he was crying so hard when placed in front of the toilet bowl. Derod's concluded that it was impossible to pee when the boy was so traumatized.

A few months later, Rou arrived and Gabe was at my in-laws' everyday during my confinement period and my very hardworking mother-in-law basically let him go diaper-free. She was willing to wipe the boy and the floor up every time he wet himself so that he would eventually want to tell us he wants to pee. I have to salute her for the effort and the results for it very much began my journey of toilet training him.

By the time the confinement period was over, and Gabe was home again with me 24-7, he was able and willing to tell me that he wanted to pee. Because my son is so particular about his habits, coupled with his disdain of the toilet bowl, it was not possible to pronounce him completely trained. I decided to take baby steps and count each crossed hurdle as victory steps to the final destination. He was diaper-free through the day, except during nap and sleep times, and when he wanted to pee, I'd let him wear his pull-up pampers. Gabe learnt to "let go" when I gave the instruction, and communicated when he was done. Later on, I simply took his regular pampers and cupped it over his bottom. The final part was to position a cup (a "special" mickey mouse plastic cup) instead and this step was surely not easy. He protested and cried for half a day, and would rather hold in his pee for that long than pee into the cup, which was obviously very agonizing. He screamed down the entire block, attempted at bargaining in between sobs, begged for hugs and comfort, and basically cried till he was exhausted and stood dozing off in the toilet. But after this crazy day, the training was complete.

But we still put him on diapers when we went to church during this initial period, since there was a lot of movement and we didn't want any accidents when he went to the toddler's class. But now, we're happy to say that he's diaper-free everywhere he goes. It sure is more convenient, since the bag is lighter and we don't have to keep changing him every 3-4 hours, but new inconveniences also arise. We have to time his toilet trips, figure out how to position him at public toilets and in cases of emergency, how to water the grass along roads. Then we learnt not to let him sleep in the car since he's still not able to control his bladder when he's asleep.

Well, lots of savings from diaper buying though, and a milestone for both the parents and the kiddo. We've still some work to do on the pooping part, but like I said, baby steps to victory!

So for the record, Gabe was officially pee-trained not too long after his second birthday :)

Proudly donning his 1st set of underwear, Winnie the Pooh no less!

Yee's Graduation

The kids' Yee Yee had a long academic journey, and probably enrolled herself into most of the types of academic institutions available in our country. If you could draw a graph depicting this journey, you'd find a steep progress curve round about 11 years ago and today, she proudly dons her mortar board at the graduation ceremony. Such an occasion, of course, calls for the entire family to be present for photo taking.

First with the favourite nephew...

And then with the favourite niece.

And then the dressed up grandparents take over the babysitting *snigger*

Blooper shot! You're supposed to look poised and preened at the grand piano.

Lots of great backgrounds for the graduates to pose in front of, but they were hogged up by hordes of others so we contended with some artistic fare.

"Wear your mortar board properly, Yee Yee. Sigh... I'll show you how it's done."

"Tadah!"

Laugh, mother, laugh while you can. It'll be a great many years before Gabe's turn, if he even takes that path at all... ;p

Little Drummer Boy

Gabe is OBSESSED with drums. I tried recalling how it all started, but try as I might, I can't seem to remember how! If you do, please enlighten me.

Anyhow, he's obsessed with drums. He calls himself "a drummer" and sometimes tells us "I am gor gor Ben" or "I am gor gor An". Ben and An are the two drummers in our church.

One day, Derod asked him, "What instrument do you want to learn? Piano, guitar or bass guitar?" and his son replied, "or drums?" And we find our son strangely drawn to our friends who happen to have drum sets at home.

He "plays the drums" on a daily basis at home, requesting for songs from a certain album, jamming with two straws in his hand. I decided to add to the fun by turning his masak masakplates around and told him those were his drums. Every Sunday while the whole congregation is worshipping in song, he too will worship, standing on his seat and wave his straws "playing drums", mimicking the real drummer, who has to be in full view. He trained his ear to pick up the drum lines in songs, telling you specifically which drums are being hit - snare, hi-hat, cymbals, toms, kick drum. He does a verbal toom-toom-tak when he's bored. It's gone to a level where as long as he hears a song, those two arms start "clanging" to the beat - even the doxology can be accompanied by drums!

I have to admit he is quite good at following and even executing those beats, but the ridiculous things I have to put up with (not to mention the discipline part) are so not funny. But there are laughable moments, like when he went to gor gor Ben's place for an hour of drumming fun, and came back with two blisters on his hands!

You can check out some pictures others took of him at the drums on my Facebook. Otherwise, here are a couple of shots for your entertainment.

The Ribena Bargain

Gabe's not very good with his fluids so sometimes, I look for an excuse for good behaviour to give him water flavoured with Ribena. Of late, Gabe's performance at bath time has improved tremendously so I took that chance to insert the ribena into routine.

Today, I decided that his behaviour didn't justify the reward and skipped the drink after bath time. He noticed the absence and asked for it after lunch. I explained that ribena is only for good boys. and listed all the "not good" things he did today. His response? Well, he paused for a bit and then quietly said "I looked up".

The reply totally threw me off guard and I burst out laughing. You see, Gabe has this issue with water on his face, especially his eyes. So you can imagine the protest during bath time. We've been trying to get him to look up when we wash the shampoo off his hair and it took a loooooong time for him to overcome his fear and obey the instruction.

In short, I accepted his "defense speech" and gave him a full cup of the drink, diluted as usual, true to my parenting style.

Traffic Supervision

Gabe was riding around the house on his Ferrarri toy car and crashed into something.

Derod: Orh! Come here! I'm the traffic police. I'm going to catch you. Give me your licence. *took a piece of paper and wrote down date, time, etc of accident* Go to mummy. Mummy is the macik. Go and pay her.

Gabe: *obeys and after "paying the fine", went on his play* I'm driving very fast!

Derod: If you drive very fast, I will catch you for speeding.

Gabe: *goes past derod and pretends to give him money* Nah.

Derod: Wait! Stop! You give me money? You are bribing me. Give me your licence!

Car Tales

Gabe plays on his own pretty much the entire day, but he'd always ask for company every now and then. I caught him making some new arrangements with his cars one day and decided to keep my thoughts to myself and just watch. When I finally asked him what the cars were doing, he actually had an answer for me. Kids, and their imagination at play.

Cars lining up at the traffic light.

I'm still clueless on this one; didn't manage to ask him what this is.

Glib Gabe

When Gabe makes me angry, he'll quickly go, "Sorry mummy, I won't do it again. I love you Mummy."