All About Your Child

(Disaster! The original post was accidentally deleted by my uncontrollable finger, can’t remember the exact words I wrote type, getting old… you know)

Today is my nephew’s 1st Birthday. We celebrated Weidong’s Birthday earlier over the weekend at Pasir Ris Coasta Sands Resort. When I was still half-alive, Allan brought the boys there on Friday to stay over, in hope that I may be well enough to go to the BBQ on Saturday.

When I reached there on Saturday noon, the whole family was kite-flying. My boys were enjoying themselves, running around by the beach with Allan. Writing on the sand, spotting dead jelly fishes, dead crabs and other dead sea creatures on the beach.

I used to enjoy such chalets, for different reasons. It is here, do I find laughter and it is here do I find freedom; free from worries and midnight knocks on the door.

What do you do when you can’t get a kite up?

Get help from the older folks, even if they are above 60 years old.

Look at that smile on my Mom-in-law’s face. *wink*

Flying a kite is great but not when the mosquitoes are biting all over your body. Look at the scratchy ManYee…… and the dark clouds at the background…..

We came across this pretty flower, when we were heading back to the resort as it started to drizzle. Its hard to see, or rather notice such beauty when you are staying at the city. Its really good to get away from the hustle and bustle sometimes. So refreshing….feeling better already…..

It rained dinosaurs and monsters for a long time. The kids were getting impatient, stuck in the chalet doing nothing but eat chips and watch programmes that doesn’t even catch their attention for more than 1 full minute.

“Can we go swimming now?”…..5 minutes later….”We can swim now, right?” You know how kids bug you like at housefly till you said yes! ManYee couldn’t wait, sneaked out on her own to see if the ‘Swimming Pool Is Closed’ signage has been removed

And so it did! Came back and announced, “No more sign….we can go swimming now!” While everyone was changing into their swim-wear, ManYee was lectured for 10 minutes for leaving the ‘house’ without telling anyone.

At 3pm, everyone was getting ready for the BBQ. Allan and I guessed that one rented pit ($16 with $20 deposit) from the Resort itself won’t be enough. So we brought our own pit, the rectangular one on the right.

Till this day, Allan and I have no idea how did this pit get into our storeroom. This is the first time we are using it. The scotchtape around the box is still nice and strong. Its been years since this thing sat on the top shelf of my storeroom….maybe Santa came and couldn’t find Christmas Socks, so he left it there….hmmm…maybe. *wink*

Stringing the food….This is the first time I wasn’t helping in anything, just lie on bed, getting up occasionally to take photos of the BBQ process.

So there was hotdogs, fishballs, chicken wings, satay, otah……

then came the prawns, pork chops, (inside the aluminuim foil) sweet corns, sambal squids, sambal prawns, sambal fish, sweet potatoes – orange and purple ones. Purple ones are rare, they are imported from Japan, super yummy!

Then came the moment….Winnie the Pooh birthday cake with one little candle….

the birthday song…..

cutting the cake…..

and presents……the sealion is from Keatkeat, the puzzle roller on his left hand is from Binbin and the lady bug is from Allan and I.

When we were leaving, every kid was saying the same sentence, “I want chalet for my birthday….”

In 4 days time, my little Binbin will be 3 years old. Its during such times, the very cliche question comes to mind, “How time flies.” Then I start going through the baby photos.

I call Binbin my miracle boy because I conceived him at a time that’s impossible to conceive. Hey, I am not referring to the ovulation cycle or about miscalculation. He was ‘manufactured’ on a day when there were no ovaries in me. Did I hear you say, “Huh?” Nevermind, just take it that God magically put Binbin into my tummy, that’s how the miracle kid came to this earth.

The day he was born at KK Hospital on 30th March 2005. He had a girly look, doesn’t he?

One week after he was born, we realised that he sleeps with his eyes half open (yes! 50%). You can see his eye balls moving left and right as if he is awake. Till this very day, his eyes are still half open when he is in dreamland. Some old folks say, its a sign of naughtiness. (humph)

As if being proclaimed as a naughty boy, even when he was not even big enough to defend himself, was not bad enough, Allan’s parents spotted the 2 “turners” on the top of his head (seriously, I don’t know what you call this, so please tell me the name if you know).

They slapped with this conforming sentence, “This boy will be a terror. Very stubborn. Very naughty. Very disobedient.”

Sometimes it really makes you wonder what really goes through the minds of the older generation. How can that be related to a character or personality? All my aunts and uncles said I was the best baby, toddler that anyone could have ‘cos I am faarrrrrrr from being naughty, and lo and behold, I sleep with my eyes half open too!

This picture was taken on his first day of his 4th month. His fatty thighs could actually support him quite well. All thanks to breastmilk. So mommies out there who want a chubby little baby but do not want an overweight baby, Breastfeeding is the answer.

I breastfed him for 6 full months without any formula before I get back to work at my stall. Much longer than my elder one because Binbin was free from those classic objections.

Here’s the little one on his tummy. He could lift up his head and hold it up for more than a minute.

My adorable kid on his walker. Always love to see his smile, or laugh rather. Yup, my boy is more of a laughing boy than a smiley one.

Able to walk quite steadily on his own at 13 months. Just got up from a fall, still can see the tears in his eyes.

This was also the time when Allan and I called Binbin, ‘The Little Werewolf’. Why? Every month, there is bound to be a day, he would go crazy. I am not talking about tantrums. I really mean CRAZY. He would suddenly cry and shout for no reason and smash his head onto the wall. He will not stop even when the force of the bang caused him to bounce off the wall! He will just get up and bang his head on the wall again, till we hold him down for minutes. Its was bewildering. Thank God, those days were over. If not we would have trouble holding this 15kg boy down with his forceful struggles.

Since then, we realised that he had a very big threshold for pain tolerance. He can bang his head on the edge of the steel door, resulted in a dent on his forehead and he doesn’t even shed a tear. Remember my post on his unbelieveable ability to withstand pain? So far the only time he cried in pain was the bloodshed during earlier part of this year. Only such pain could make him wail. Amazing ya?

Right after his 1st birthday, we noticed that his development, in terms of behaviour, motto skills, intellectual and especially speech is extremely fast. Now he can perform whatever a child who is 9 months older than him do and sometimes can do even better.

That’s him last year, 2007 on Chinese New Year. This was also the photo which I sent to the Playhouse Disney Birthday Book.

Because of his super advanced development mentally, I tend to compare him with his elder brother who is 15 months older (I know its wrong of me but it just come naturally). Binbin is able to do certain things like cleaning himself after passing motion much better than his brother. He shits in less than 1 min. Clean and fast. Never had to worry about any mess when doing it out of the house. All he need is 1 – 2 wipes.

Binbin is a definite vocalist. So long as he is awake, its difficult to have peace for more than a minute. You either hear him babbling away, singing aloud, laughing or crying his lungs out. He spoke his 1st word clearly at 9 months and what’s that word? ‘MOON’. He was able to speak in a sentence of 8 words at 1 year old; sing a complete song at 18 months. Half a year ago, he was able to tell me the entire story of the 3 little pigs. Now he knows as many vocabs as his 4 year old brother.

I never had to worry that Binbin is not eating well, because eating is his hobby! He is ADDICTED to Vegetables. From anything that’s leafy to cucumber, carrot, cauliflower, potato; Favourite vege is broccoli, don’t you wish he is your boy?! *wink* When other kids at Kentucky Fried Chicken is changing their coleslaw to whipped potato, my Binbin needs to have 2 servings of coleslaw in order to satisfy his desire. His favourite snack is a slice of Chesdale Cheese.

He is very special….not the normal special as in the hearts of the parents but special because of all the above….or rather unusual for a kid. Other than his cute actions he is always mistaken to be the twin brother instead of the younger brother whenever my boys are out with me.

Most kid’s favourite songs are the usual Twinkle, twinkle little stars or anything of that sort. But my boy grew up with Chinese pop songs, (although he can hardly speak a proper sentence in Chinese) his favourite is Fairy Tale from sentimental king-Guang Liang. This is Binbin, singing the chorus….

Another very peculiar thing about Binbin is his soft personality. He is very boyish in every way on the outlook. With the natural punky hair, he is rough in his behaviour most of the time, but he has a heart of a girl.

He is attracted to things in Pink. Until lately, he tries to control his affection because too many people kept telling him that pink is for girls. (Says Who!!! ) He loves to play with my sister’s Barbie doll Kitchen set too.

He is in love with Minnie Mouse. I feel perfectly great about that! Though many times the expressions from strangers are not very supportive when they see my 2-year-old boy holding on to a Minnie mouse (as if its his, which he grab it off the shelf the moment his feet stepped into the toy dept) and walk around with it as he examines the kitchen set for the Barbies to play.

Then off he went to press buttons which makes the ‘Baby-Alive’ doll blink and speaks, before he went off to the car section where he checks out for any new hot wheels models.

When we are ready to leave the dept, he would kiss Minnie (sometimes) and say goodbye before putting her back to where she belongs.

He likes to cuddle soft toys. When he is in a snuggling mood, he would hug his favourite puppy and bear to sleep.

So now if I tell you one of his favourite cartoon is Stawberry Shortcake, that wouldn’t suprise you in anyway right? Other than every cartoon in Playhouse Disney Channel, he is very much a challenger at heart. He looooovvvveeees to watch FEAR FACTOR and AMAZING RACE. His eyes hardly blinks till commercial break. Animal Planet is the next on the list. Animals just have a special link to the hearts of kids, don’t they?

Talking about animals, Binbin loves animals, errrr….but his excitement may cause some animals to have heart attacks. He doesn’t really know how to express his emotions, so what he does is, he would chase my neighbour’s dog and hold it down on the floor and say “catch you”, then he would release his grip again and let the dog run (which the dog definitely would in attempt to escape from the clutches of my boy.), then “catch him” again. To him its playing, but to the poor animal, its tormenting. Poor dog.

He is 100% mommy’s boy. He hugs me like a bolster together with his real bolster to sleep. He ticks my cheeks with his little index finger, whenever I look at him in the eyes, in silent admiration; and as if to break away from his shyness, he would say, “Mommy, you sooooo cute.”, squeezing my cheeks with his hands. He can say “Mommy, I love you” so many times a day, sometimes it makes you wonder if its true. Of cos’ I know its from his heart. Kids at this age don’t lie right?

Yup that’s my 2-year-old boy. I love you, Binbin! In 4 days time, you are going to have your very 1st birthday party. I owe it to you. Finally Mommy don’t need to work in stalls 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hope you like the suprises that everyone has prepared for you.