So, Suck Your Toe

Hop your way to Mexico! If this rhyme we kept singing in primary school were real, gabe would have made hundreds of trips to Mexico.

In response to jemmy's mummy: my son is a toe sucker. You would have thought that his signature two-fingers would have been sufficient to satisfy him but no, the big toes (preference for leftie) have joined the list.

He has various ways of reaching it. If seated, he'll plonk his head down to reach toey. If lying on back or seated inclined, he'd pull leg up and munch toey. If sock is on, he'll attack toey through sock.

So what of old wives' tale of babies who suck their toes? I'm sure they don't hop their way to Mexico. Yeah I heard. Something about them being naughty...

Random Shots - 6th Month

Typical look before bath. Gabe gets wrapped up in a diaper cloth so he won't catch a cold (or spray pee) en route to the outside bathroom.

Celebrating waipo's 55th birthday: waiting for the adults' coffee & tea at Dome. Gabe seems to be saying "please don't keep looking and laughing at me ..."
Can you tell? He's can now sit on baby chairs when we go gai gai!!

"They put the mint there to tempt me, then don't let me eat."

Mother-son shot, with gabe grabbing his foot, an action commonly seen for some time now.

Waigong seems more eager to try out the dong lui qia than the grandson, who broke out in tears when placed inside one large "vehicle".

Started placing gabe on the high chair this month.

Mat out again! Cushions at the back to catch him when he falls backwards after sitting for some time.

On high chair in kitchen while mummy does her chores. As usual, something to keep the fingers away from the itchy gums. You can see his hair's grown out too. Finally, some length after two months.

Ethan's 2nd birthday. Gabe's real height in relation to his second cousins; standing on the floor, lightly held onto by mummy. Of course, everyone knows what's going on except him, who's only keen to watch the expressions of those gathered around, and reeeeeeeeaching for the paper plates on the table.

Baby Room

Derod and I have been considering when it would be appropriate for gabe to be relocated to his own room. Although he's been sleeping in his cot, the current arrangement still consists of him being in the same room as us.

Let me make a mental list of pros and cons to this status quo.

Advantages: I only have to get up from my bed to reach him when he cries for milk at 5 or 6am; I can still keep a close eye on him when he wakes in the morning at 8 or 9am; and if I'm lazing on the bed and not pick him up immediately, I can still keep an eye on him; if I take a nap with him in the afternoon, ditto that for convenience.

Disadvantages: Well, your kid will have to sleep on his own someday and the later we drag this, the more agonizing it is for the parents when you have to put the process in place.

So since he's about to move in, I've been thinking of how to "decorate" the boy's room. You know how design savvy we two are so it's not too difficult to imagine us being stuck at the how-to without changing much of the current condition i.e. I'm not looking at painting, major change of curtains, installments, etc. The set of ikea drawers that stores all of gabe's stuff goes against one wall. The sofa bed takes the opposite wall. We have to relocate the ironing board and the clothes rack, which is another headache in itself. So that leaves the window-wall (not much of a wall) and a "free" wall, which logically would be where the cot would be placed against.

The other issue is the dust. Being on a low floor and at a traffic junction seriously increases the amount of dust in the house. Having a baby around increases the pressure to keep the place spick and span. If gabe is anywhere near inheriting both our genes, chances of him with a sensitive nose are rather high. How do you make it more colorful and yet low maintenance at the same time?!

I was browsing the blog of this lady in Australia called Karen Cheng and although the picture attached to one particular post has got absolutely nothing to do with her baby room, I couldn't help but notice how baby-room the room was. Isn't it nice to grow up in an environment like that, with bright sunshine flooding your room, such a sweet crib and mobiles attached on top, with everything looking so clean and comfortable?

Then I think of my poor little gabriel...

Any help out there???

Juicy, Succulent, Firm, Soft...

...baby flesh. Or at least that was what mrs buzzy thought.

Gabe awoke from his nap with three red bites on the right side of his face. We thought it was the bed bugs again. (He's been getting some bites from our bed!!) But ever since we found out and kept him off, there weren't any fresh ones so it was quite mysterious how this trio came about.

I found out that night.

We'd put him down for the night and after giving him some time to get into deep sleep, I came in, switched on the lights and prepared to cut his fingernails. Guess who I found perched on the mattress three inches from his face? Yeah, it's her. No room for errors; one shot, one kill. It wasn't difficult at all. Cos' she was soooooo bloated with my poor baby's blood. I'd never seen so much blood in a mosquito before. It's almost like how juice bursts forth when you squeeze an orange pulp.

So it turns out that the buzzy irritant had a buffet. She dug her sucking device into my son's flesh, had her fill, flapped her wings a five-mosquito-bodies distance away, landed, kissed him again and repeated that stunt once more.

Urgh! How I hate mosquitoes!

Intrigued Baby, Horrified Mummy

The Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner. *Ok... you can so see where this is leading...*
And indulging grandparents have already planned that their grandson should own a lantern. A note here that gabe is the first grandchild on both sides of the family.

My MIL commented that she would like to get gabe a lantern, and when I responded with a half snigger (read: yeah, nice to have one for him but then again, like he knows what it is) she quickly added that it'll be a simple one just for decoration on the wall.

Gabe's doting waigong was definitely on the same train of thought and when he saw this while walking along Chinatown one day, he couldn't resist.


Faint right??!?!?!??!?!?!? It almost "killed" me when it was presented to us. The choice of a pig was obvious for their 小小猪. The pattern was so cheena-fied and orbeet. Its trotters had this chinese sticker on it and worse, the choice of music that played when it's turned on is so no-way *shake head please* and can wake the entire neighbourhood. There is a second pig that reveals itself under a bobbing mushroom (and gabe's little toe was giap-ed under the mushroom at one point). My dad boasted that the lantern can run too. And man, can it really run. Those trotters were going at an amazing speed. It really looked like a rat scurrying across the floor. I have to admit that it's quite funny.

And gabe's reaction?

It's Mighty Interesting

how extreme opinions can form from just looking at gabe's face.

At the same stage of life, there are those who will exclaim how much gabe is an imprint of his father, and not really the mother, while another group will take the exact opposite opinion.

And though the boy's face has changed so many times over these past six months, this phenomenon still stands.

Amazing how different the same face (or situation) is seen from another pair of eyes.

Fishy baby

Ever since gabe started on porridge, I've been following the rule of introducing one new food at one time, ensuring that he takes that new item well over a few days before it checks into to the OK-list.

This week, it was cod, courtesy of my MIL. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. I don't even take cod for normal meals!

So began my experience with preparing this oily fish, which is supposed to contain much omega3, good oils for the development of brains and all. No one told me how irritating it was to get the bones out of them. But well, all for the sake of my son right?

But imagine my shock when I came out of the loo one night and was greeted with the fishy stench of an entire fish market. Wait! It's my son!!!!

Gabe had gone on his first day of cod for both lunch and dinner. He had been sleeping for a few hours in his cot, situated outside my room toilet, and whatever was in him must have come out through his pores or something. Horrified, I went to sniff him all over, wondering if he had thrown up. Nothing.

So, for the last two days, he's been a vegetarian. Broccoli's been good.

Mental note: next time I do cod again, must use smaller portions...