Noah's Ark

Honestly, I do wonder what goes on in derod's brain. The churning mechanisms don't seem to function the same way as other normal human beings.

You see, he was playing with gabe the other day and declared to me that a pair of animals in this particular set of wooden blocks is gay. And he didn't mean the happy sort of gay. My eyes widened, jaw dropped and I couldn't for the life of me fathom how on earth he could arrive at that conclusion with children's toys!

Then upon closer examination, I had to admit he did have some point. But I still refused to go to the point of using that description on my son's toys. And I do wonder what the clockworks are like inside him to notice such, shall I be nice and say, details...

The Evolution of Parenthood: Cheoklet Evaluated

Karen Cheng recently put up a post on her blog, listing the different reactions of parents to their 1st, 2nd and 3rd kids. I laughed, blinked twice, winced a little and realised I'm really not a typical parent.

Your Clothes
I wore my regular clothes for as long as possible. 90% of my maternity clothes were hand me downs, and were in extremely good condition I might add.

The Baby's Name
Derod and I spent more time laughing and mulling over what we should not name our baby (his surname is Tan and various combinations could well be suicidal to the kiddo). Otherwise, I did the usual flipping of the baby-names book. I'm normal here.

Preparing for the Birth
I didn't practise breathing but the hee-hee-has came in real handy during the terrible 20 hours without epidural. I'd wanted to go all natural but to do so with a 35-hour labour is just nuts. I'll still want to try to go all natural if #2 comes along.

The Layette
I'm a combination of all three as a first time parent! But I did them in this order: I checked that all the clothes (new and hand-me-downs) are clean, pre-washed them and folded them neatly in the new set of drawers we bought from Ikea. I didn't sift out the pinks; I didn't get any pinks. In fact, my mother had to resift the clothes to pick out those with stains. I didn't see any problems with stains back then, but now I do *grin*.

Pacifier
This applies to toys gabe chews on too. I'm a combination of #2 and #3, except it's water I use instead of juice. But if the floor's really dirty, like in the hawker centre, it gets a rinse under the tap.

Diapering
Gabe gets changed once he was wet, when he was on cloth diapers. That's cos he'd scream the house down if it is not done immediately. But once the confinement lady left and he was switched to disposable diapers, it was changed every three hours except for poo poo incidents. Now, hmmm... I'm kinda between 4-5 hours and being description #3.

Worries
We're sooooo NOT #1. We've been given glares and uncomfortable, subtle urms and ahhs when people learn that we allow gabe to cry himself to sleep or not pick him up at his first sign of breaking into tears. This, of course, does not include times when he hurts himself. Then again, when he gets minor knocks which I know he's crying more for attention rather than in pain, I'll sit near him and tell him I'm here, come to me, instead of going over to carry him. If he really wants some comfort, he'll crawl over for some TLC. Otherwise, he'll stop crying and continue with his play.

Activities
I take him to the supermarket, shopping centres, restaurants, homes of friends, on the MRT, the bus and in taxis. No baby programmes in the agenda! We do daily walks (gabe in stroller) and swimming when we can. Am I a terrible mother?!

Going Out
I called home maybe 2 times? I think my mother (the sitter) calls me more often than I call her.

At Home
I think I didn't stare at gabe enough when he was younger... I think I'm more observant now. Derod used to be the one to notice things even when I'm the one at gabe's side 24/7.


Verdict: I think I'm highly abnormal...

Blabber Update - 11.5 Months

The boy is on the roll here. He seems to be listening and imitating sounds from the adults. Here's the list of additions:

Lie lie (light light)
Nana (banana)
Nane nane (rain rain)
Darr/ tarr (star)
Bur (bird)
Bur-ai (bye)
Baa baa (baa baa black sheep book)
Phoo-sounds (fish/ shoes)
Dare (there/ dog/ miscellaneous)

Oh! And he can now hi-five, gong xi gong xi, do the twinkle-twinkle action, indicate "no more" and lifts both hands up in great enthusiasm when we go "hallelujah!".

Constant Surprises

I suppose parents are being constantly surprised by their children and with time, it's really not a big deal to find something out of the ordinary. But I am still aghast at the stunts that gabe can pull.

We had a usual night with the usual routine: wipe up the stinky sweaty boy, change his diaper, dress him in his PJs, pop the bottle into his mouth, do the song and prayer routine and off to bed he goes. The entire process probably takes 15 to 20 minutes?

Tonight, I'd gone in to cut his nails after he slipped into deep slumber and was horrified to detect a bad odour. He had pooped!!! Exactly when he did it, no one knows, but how on earth were we going to change a sleeping baby, especially since we usually just rinse his bottom at the sink. So it was back to the good old days of swiping his butt clean with cotton wool and warm water. He actually slept through a good part of it and though given a rude awakening, was pretty cooperative for the remaining portion of the clean up.

I can so imagine fishing out stories to embarrass him in front of his wife next time.

The Bug and the Pox

The day has finally come where I have to handle a sick gabe. Except for a phlegmy cough when he was three months old, the little one has not come near any bout of sickness. I give all credit and glory to God who has been watching over him.

Today his temperature climbed to 38.5 degree Celsius. The doctor said it's just a normal flu condition. I hope the little grouchy one will start being his cheeky, smiley self again.

Oh, and he came into contact with a 7-month old friend who was diagnosed with chicken pox. Please pray he didn't catch it. Please pray for the little friend too; chicken pox ain't especially fun for both baby and parents at this age..

Gabe Says in "Dear Auntie Livingjoyfully"

Dear Auntie Livingjoyfully,

Remember this? We were out shopping together and had to stop to appease my growling tummy. But I'm sure you enjoyed your Pepper beef dinner too.

You were trying to coax me into an ahhhhh

That's dedication, mummy says. Look at your posture!

Maybe this will be clearer ;p

Soft Spot for Soft Toys

Gabe has come to a point where he seems to be able to differentiate between the regular hard plastic/ wooden toys and those that are softer and that have faces.

His latest favourites are a few soft toys, whom he reaches out for accurately when I call them out by "name". He'd also "hug" them by either burying his face into them, or just placing them on his cheek. Inspired by TaS's parents, who put a few into her playpen-bed for "companionship", I decided to try it out with gabe too. It has been successful, for many a time after waking from his sleep, I'd find him holding them and "talking" to them. For the record, gabe does a serious amount of jibberish through the day and the "talk" that is directed at these toys is usually more gentle in tone and really cute to hear.

Introducing Elephant.

And zhu zhu, giraffe and chipmunk. Fine, I'm not really creative with names...

This little pinkie is the apple of gabe's eye.