10-month Old Gareth

Gareth is now 10 months old! People said he has grown fast, but I see him daily so I do not get that same feeling. Well, at least I get to notice the small milestones he has achieved gradually. Gareth is a lot more responsive and very playful now. His eye-hand coordination has improved and he seems to know a few more things in the environment by pointing at the objects you name. When he sees a bus, he will point at it and exclaimed "BAR! BAR!".. I simply repeat after him by saying "BUS! BUS!". Hopefully he will add in a "S" behind the word one day. He has been trying to pronounce words (e.g., jiejie - referring to maid, gorgor - referring to greg, dada - referring to kengyong, mama - referring to me, yeye - referring to his grandfather, bye - when going away, bubbles - when playing bubbles). However, he will point to most objects and say "BALL! BALL!". At first I thought he did not know the name of the object, I had to correct him all the time. Later I realized that he knew the name of the object but it's just that he could not pronounce it. He could point to the object when asked, but when you asked him what the object is, he went "BALL...BALL". Well, undeniably, his favourite object is BALL. He loves balls, balloons, bubbles, wheels... anything that is round... and he simply loves BABY BOP! I don't know why, but each time she appears, he would clap his hands and give a charming smile, as if Baby Bop is his idol.

Gareth is a pretty strong boy. He would pull himself to stand, and attempt to stand on his own at times. It seems inevitable that he had several knocks on his head during this phase, and has some bumps and blueblack on his head. He is also a very clean baby. He would usually pass motion only into the potty. He gets upset if he has to pass motion into his diapers. So if I do not put him in the potty, he can avoid poo-ing for that day. And oh yes, when he gives his flying kiss after waving goodbye, he would simply put his index finger in his mouth despite the fact that Greg tried showing him the right version. Hahaha, perhaps that's Gareth way of giving his goodbye kiss. Last but not least, Gareth only likes to be carried by KengYong and I at home. Not too sure why he chooses not to be carried by the maid at home if he has other options.

Gareth has indeed reached this very lovable and fun stage. I am looking forward to the day he is able to play well with Greg. However, I do believe that I would have another set of challenge that comes with it. Kekeke..

Funny Facial Expression

Gareth has been making one funny face since he was about 6 months old but I have not been able to video it on time. He would simply screw up his face, especially his nose area, with his eyes squeezed tightly together, and make a loud sniffing sound. It's one of his ways to smile.. kekeke, especially when he is really excited about something. We will always laugh when he does that. Well, I managed to record it when he did once very briefly. See if you can catch a glance of him doing that.

Their New Toy

I have been searching for a nice kid's tent. We go to the beach pretty often, and a tent comes in useful especially when Greg wants to stay away from the sun and Gareth wants to take his little naps. I found some at Takashimaya. They have the ones with Dora/ Thomas the train/ Sesame Street but I do not found them suitable. Those tents are only suitable to be used at home and there are warnings that they cannot be placed under the sun for too long. Also those tents require you to put an additional groundsheet. Well, anyway, I found something interesting at Early Learning Centre. It consists of two tents and a long crawl way. I was so excited about it. So were my two boys when they saw the whole set-up.

Greg took the bigger tent, so Gareth had no choice but to take the smaller one. The two boys kept crawling and playing peek-a-boo... It's good that the equipment could be separated and used individually. well, one not-so-good thing is that I could not quite join in the fun. The long crawling tunnel was so small that I nearly got myself stuck in there! Greg was so excited about his tent that he decided to sleep in his tent for that night. He was so full of ideas, and he thought it was adventurous enough for him to sleep inside the tent. See those things he put in there. Gareth couldn't find the big tent and crawled into the room. He screamed with joy when he found Greg and the tent. He crawled in to take one blanket out but Greg wanted it so the two boys ended up playing tug-a-war. But when it was really time to sleep, Greg decided that he was not brave enough to sleep solo in his tent. He still crawled onto my bed to sleep in between KengYong and I.

Somehow when I see the excitement and the fun the boys have, it's simply priceless.

A Fun Get-Together

Sri was Greg's infant care teacher. She left the infant care centre for Perth to pursue her studies more than a year ago. She emailed me the other day to say that she is returning to Singapore for 2 weeks and I seized the opportunity to meet up with her. Well, Sri was fasting and she requested to meet during her break fast in one of the evenings. I have two very active boys and because I know I will have difficulties sitting down to have a proper chat with her for more than an hour with the two boys around, I got her to come to my house for dinner instead. She readily agreed, and what was amazing was that other ex-infant care teachers joined us for the gathering too. Mabel (Gareth's nanny) and Meifang came along, and that evening was so much fun. Greg has a classmate (Edna) who stays near my place, and her parents could also bring her and her 4 month old brother over that evening. We had so much laughter and I had a good time catching up with all of them. Greg was of course the happiest because his good friend Edna came over to play with him.

I then realized that with my two boys, it is quite impossible for me to meet friends and people up for dinner on a weekday night. But well, the gathering at my place that evening was great... at least to me. I think I should organize more of such gatherings at my house.

It's My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to MEeeeee..

Happy Birthday to ME!

My birthday falls on the day after Teachers' Day. Usually Mum made sweet long noodles with eggs for I on this very day. No such luxury now. Anyway, I had no intention to celebrate it at all because KengYong has been pretty busy with his work and his coming examinations. Well, unexpectedly I had quite a good time on my birthday this year. First, Rina gave me a very pleasant surprise when I brought my boys to meet her and Regine for dinner at BottleTree Park on 01 Sept. It was our usual meet-up over a meal and we had quite a sumptuous meal at the Chinese restaurant there. I then brought restless Greg, Gareth and Regine to the playground, and when we returned to the restaurant, to my surprise, Rina bought me a nice cake from Angie. She told me the reason she got me the cake was because the cake was named Nana! Well, as usual, Greg was very excited about the birthday cake and requested to eat Nana's eye and mouth. Frankly speaking, I was pretty touched by Rina's gesture.

On my actual birthday itself, I also received many unexpected birthday greetings. I really did not expect so many of my old pals to recall my birth date. When I fetched Gareth home, Teacher Mabel gave me a surprise pizza treat at her house. Wow!..and in the evening after my dinner at home, Raymond and his family suddenly popped by my house with an Angie cake! Kekeke.. I get to eat 2 Angie cakes this year. Aren't I fortunate? Thanks to those who remember this very day. .. and yes, I know. I am now a year older. Sigh.