It's all about food

I've mentioned many times that Chris loves food. There's no doubt about that and the facts have long been established. And because of his passion for food, most of the things he does evolves around eating.

For instance, playing - I just noticed that he enjoys playing with eating utensils and pretends that he's eating. He'll grab a toy spoon or fork, and starts scooping from a toy plate, toy bowl or anything that resembles a bowl or a plate and feed himself. He sometimes stir a bit like he's cooking before "eating". One of his favourite toys is ....drumroll.... the toy cooking utensils - surprise surprise! He likes to pretend that he's cooking.... Or maybe just eating....

Food, Jolly Good Food!

Keat was chewing away an apple the other day. Chris heard the crunching of the apple and turned his attention to Keat. He watched intently as his dad chowed down the fruit. It was delicious he could tell. He continued to observe his dad in silence. Slowly, he swallowed some saliva and suddenly let out a loud cry! "I want to eat that apple too!" - that was my intepretation of the cry.

This is typically what happens when my tam ciak (greedy) son, Christopher Lai, catches us eating. It can be anything, he wants to have whatever you're having.

Dennis has a friend

Dennis has a friend in school and his name is Carlos. No, he's not the son of some Spanish-wannabe parents (hence they named him Carlos). According to Den's teacher, Carlos is actually an Argentian. Now, Dennis' class is made up of about 60% Japanese, maybe 10% Korean, 20% Malaysians and another 10% of the dan lain lain. So I thought he would have befriended a Japanese but no, he decided to befriend the sole Latin American in his class.

So I decided to check with Dennis whether Carlos was his friend, and he responded, "Talos, Talos"....I assumed that's a yes...maybe he doesn't quite grasp the concept of friendship yet. According to his teacher, the boys sometimes play together so I asked Den whether he plays with Carlos and what do they play, he said "too too train" - I wonder if there's any truth to that, cos I don't remember seeing any choo choo trains in his school. I'll just assume it's true. =)

I guess it doesn't matter who Dennis befriends, I'm just glad that my baby has finally learned to make friends. Sigh....he's growing up so fast.

Swimming

Took the boys swimming last week. It was Chris' first experience at the pool and probably Dennis' first for this year. We used to take Dennis swimming quite often until he started school and started falling sick quite often....

I think Chris enjoyed himself at the pool. He was a little weary being in the water initially and perhaps the crowd overwhelmed him too. But after playing in it for a while, he started to enjoy himself and refused to go when it was time to leave. He protested and motioned us to put him back to the pool but of course we didn't. Not getting enough of the pool, during dinner, he asked kakak to position his high chair to face the pool , so that he could eat his meal while enjoying the view of the pool. =)

Update on Chris

A little update on Chris - so what can he do now?

1) He's a able to take a few steps on his own without holding on to any furniture

2) He's starting to say a few words too. I've actually heard him say kakak, and "da" (beat in mandarin- the word my aunt uses to threaten him when he plays with shoes or anything he's not supposed to). He also randomly mimics some of the things we say to him. Sometimes he really takes us by surprise.

3) He's made some attempts to climb out of the playpen - guess it's just a matter of time before he actually climbs out

4) He knows how to sip from a straw.

5) He's enjoying Richard Scarry's Best Learning Video Ever, and will clap and cheer along with the cartoon. His favourite song in the video is "If You're Happy and You Know It" which was also Den's favourite. Very attentive when he's watching this video, am amazed by his attention span - he can sit through the entire 20 minutes.
Oh, he also likes Kungfu Panda. I thought it would be a bit "adult" for his liking but apparently not. He may not sit through the whole movie but he can sit still and watch it for quite some time.

6) He still likes to shake his legs when he's drinking his milk - especially when he's hungry

7) His lips are getting thicker, slowly matching the thickness of his dad's (but thank god it hasn't grown in size)

Christopher is 1

Ok, this post is a bit belated. Chris turned 1 on 22 May, which is about 2 weeks ago but we actually celebrated his birthday a week before that......so yes, this post is about 3-4 weeks late. I've already put up the photos on FB but according to my sis, it's not enough, I still need to blog about it. So here it is.

As always, it was just a small celebration with the immediate family members. But we didn't cook this time because I had to attend to some work thingy on Sat and on Sun (the day of the celebration) I had a meeting with a friend in the afternoon. So we decided on pizza and KFC and a birthday cake of course. It was a simple party but I think everybody had fun - well, like they say, it's the company that matters! As for the birthday boy, I think he was completely oblivious of the celebration but was happy to be able to eat and eat and eat and sample some new food.

I felt a bit guilty not putting in much effort for the "party" so I decided to buy some party deco to add to the merriment! =)

Got the kids party hats too!

The birthday cake (which Chris got to sample)


Birthday boy and daddy


Birthday boy and mummy


By the end of the party, the birthday boy was a bit tired and grumpy.

Look Mummy! No Hands!

Chris is learning to stand now. He can stay on the standing position for about 10 secs or more.

Sorry, you have to tilt your head - I don't know how to upright the video .

PS: Sin , you do notice he's wearing that kung fu track pants. =)

Dennis and His Songs

Dennis loves singing and he's diplayed a passion for singing from young. Even though he still can't pronounce his words properly, he's already singing his heart out. He creates his own versions of all the songs he likes - singing some bits correctly and the rest are just pure gibberish.

It's so cute to hear him sing and as his mum, it's gratifying to see him having such confidence of himself. There was actually one point in time when he became very self concious and stopped singing completely. But slowly I've managed to encourage him to sing again and now he's singing his favourite nursery rhymes songs every night. He may be singing gibberish but I'm proud of his singing and I love listening to them too!

Here's a video of Dennis singing Old King Cole,one of his favourite songs.




And here's him singing My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.

10 Things about Christopher

1. He totally despises having his nose wiped, he’ll shake his head so hard to avoid the wiping, sometimes we fear his neck may just snap.

2. He loves food, his lips will start moving when he sees food and it doesn’t matter what you’re eating, he wants to have whatever you’re having. My sis once caught him licking his lips, drooling over some apples on the altar table – she actually brought him there to pray but obviously his attention got diverted. He loves fruits especially apples, bananas, grapes and nectarines (provided it’s sweet). Who am I kidding, that boy just loves food! He sometimes finishes his bro’s food cos Dennis eats so slowly. Yes, despite having only 2 teeth (at the bottom) and being able to process only a small amount of food at any one time, he’s able to eat faster than his 3 year old bro. To be fair, Den is quite a slow eater.

3. He love his bro’s company – breaks into a big happy smile when he sees his bro and gets all excited when he watches his bro play. But sometimes he gets a bit annoyed by Dennis too cos Dennis likes to “kacau” him like poking his face, pushing him, giving him rough hugs...that really gets to him. But Chris gets his revenge by “Godzilla-ing” Dennis’ train tracks and toy bridge when Dennis is playing.

4. Loves his bolsters to bits – the sight of his bolster will make him grin happily and he’ll lunge over to grab it. Even when he’s hungry and crying for his milk in the middle of the night, Chris will still bend down to pick up his bolster to hug, amidst his pitiful sobs.

5. He’s pretty good with the camera. He actually makes a cute face for the camera and smiles to it. So cute!

6. Knew how to get down from the bed on his own at the tender age of 6 months old. He would slowly wiggle his way from the middle of the bed to the floor, with his backside first and land on his feet. I don't know where he learned this but we certainly didn’t even teach him. I was surprised to see him do that one day out of the blues. Dennis was different - when he first started learning to get down from the bed, he went head first, and tumbled down to the floor like Humpty Dumpty.

7. Started crawling up the stairs when he’s 8 months old. Mummy’s now training him to climb up the stairs, crawl to my room to fetch my handbag when I need to go out. (just kidding!)

8. He’s got big feet and his toes are way too long for an infant. I bought him a pair of shoes meant for 9-12 month old for Chinese New Year (he was about 8 months old then) and he couldn’t fit in them. We had to push and tuck his feet into the shoes like how Cinderella’s step sisters did with the glass slippers but we still failed to slide the feet in. And I thought I couldn’t go wrong with so much buffer! Cuz Jake will benefit from this.

"miku" foot - his foot is so meaty

His foot is almost the size of my aunty's palm.

9. He knows when to say no when he says no, he means NO. From young (like 2-3 months old), he would push the bottle away when he didn’t want any more milk. And he’d cry so hard if you even try to force him to drink a tiny bit more. As he got slightly older, he learned to shake his head vehemently when he refused something. Now that he’s bigger, he’ll wriggle his way out of your grip and he can be quite strong.

10. He’s not very good with strangers. He really needs time to warm up with the people he’s unfamiliar with. At the beginning of the meeting, he will stare intently and suspiciously at the stranger for a very very long time, refusing to get near him/her. Depending on his degree of unfamiliarity with you, he may need about 15 minutes to a few hours to warm up.

Mommy, a thousand times over!

I’ve lamented several times in the past about Dennis not being able to talk and not calling me mommy. I’ve also blogged about how happy I was when he uttered "mommy" for the very first time. It was the moment I had been waiting for! And 2.5 years is a long time.

But now I don't find the whole mommy thing so thrilling anymore, not when he calls me like 200 times (or more) a day! For every little thing, he’ll go “mommy, mommy, mommy”! Mommy this, mommy that. It’s a bit overwhelming now. But I’m taking it in stride and trying hard not to show my annoyance to him for I know I should feel blessed that my son is finally calling me. And he's probably making up for lost time! =)

Dennis has made much progress in his speech actually and he’s now started parroting a lot of things that I say, even though he doesn’t pronounce his words clearly. Instead of saying “cry”, he says “try”, “air” instead of “hair”. But the thing that surprises me is that he knows his numbers! He knows after 1 is 2 after 4 is 5 and he can say 8,9, 10. That I’m quite impressed – or maybe my standard’s just very low.

Dennis turned 3

Dennis turned 3 three weeks ago and we held a small celebration for him on the Saturday before his birthday, which fell on a Monday. It was a very simple do, intended for the immediate family members. Mummy is not much of a party organiser so can’t do anything more than immediate family.

Unfortunately, ma ma and yeye were not well on taht day, as a result they couldn’t attend it. But the show must go on, as we’ve already bought the cake – a Thomas cake- so we proceeded with the “par-tee” amongst ourselves and luckily, “seh han ee” (youngest aunty) was in town, so she and uncle Andy joined in. I cooked some pasta and daddy fried some lamb chops, and the dessert was obviously the birthday cake. Dennis was delighted to see his Thomas cake but didn’t eat it cos he was too obsessed with his presents.

Dennis cutting his Thomas cake


What presents did he get? Seh han ee and uncle Andy gave him Master Shifu and Po soft toys(Kungfu Panda), Mah mah Penang got him some trains (a set of 3 consisting of Percy, Toby and Thomas) and the cheap skate parents got him a train set – from Tesco! Hehehe...but guess what! He likes the Tesco wooden train set the most! After we opened up that train set, he never looked back. He stayed up until 10+ playing w the train set and we let him cos it’s afterall his BIG day!

Dennis with Po and Master Shifu

Dennis showing off his new choo choo trains

Dennis playing with his new train set - with the older boys helping him to build the track


On the actual day itself, he had another small celebration at school. I took time off from work to attend his birthday celebration at school, since it’s the first one and I thought he would be happy to see me. Boy was I wrong! He started crying the moment he saw me... I don’t know why, maybe he was feeling all shy and manja! He just stuck to me the whole time and refused to listen to the teachers’ instructions. He was crying during the birthday song, blowing of candles, when we cut the cake together....what a bummer. Perhaps he would have had a better time, if i didn’t show up. I guess I ruined his first birthday celebration in school!

The only decent shot we got from the entire celebration- one which he didn't look like he was crying.

10 Things About Dennis

1. He’s got the most mischievous but charming smile that melts my heart. And when he flashes that mega watt smile I often forget whatever mischief he is up to.
2. He’s a politician in the making, possesses strong persuasive and diplomatic skills
   - when daddy is angry with him he will give daddy a big hug and divert his attention to something else, something totally fault-free like his choo choo train
   - I first saw his diplomatic skills at full display during my recent company trip. Dennis was interested in 1 of my colleagues’ portable fan and wanted to play with it. So he went over to his table, sat next to him and instead of grabbing the fan right away, he took it slow and “befriended” my colleague first. Once he knew my colleague had been charmed, he slowly worked his way to the fan. By then, my friend was more than willing to give him the fan. How conniving! I guess you can say he’s a schemer too!


3. He’s got the most peculiar habits
   - before he drinks his milk he needs to have a certain blanket (he chooses the blanket he wants) cover him from neck to toe – he will use his neck to hold on to it. Even when it's blistering hot in the room, he will still ask for the blanket. No blanket no milk. The funny thing is when he's sleeping he doesn't want the blanket.
   - after he finishes his milk he will always pass the bottle to me. If I’m not around when he’s done, he’ll still hand overthe bottle to me when I come around. If I’m in the shower, he’ll knock on the door to get me out so that he can hand over the bottle to me. Strange but true.
   - he doesn’t like it when his pyjama’s pants are pulled up from his ankle, he will keep pulling them down.
   
4. He says “mai” ("no" in hokkien) to everything instead of no, even though I don’t speak much Hokkien to him. And boy, he can say that word with so much conviction and gusto – MAI!


5. He kills all the ixora in my house – he likes to pull them out in a bunch and then throw them in the air. When we away for more than a week during Chinese New Year, the flowers flourished so well, but only to be systematically murdered by Dennis when he got back.


6. He’s such a manja boy – chip of the old block. He will put his arm around my neck to sleep. Either that or I must at least place my hand on him.


7. He’s also a vain pot – chip of the old block too (this time it’s mummy’s block). Whenever I buy new clothes for him, he will want to wear them immediately. To persuade him to take his shower, I use nice clothes to lure him – I would tell him, you’re going to be wearing this handsome shirt, then he will relent. He also chooses his own clothes. Sometimes he has weird choices, like he wants to wear his pyjamas in the afternoon and would fight to wear it.


8. He’s such a weird boy who would refuse a cookie. Even if he eats it, he takes forever to finish 1. Sometimes, he doesn’t even finish it. And guess what he would demand to have??? Scott’s Emulsion! Yes, that smelly yucky fish oil.


9. He’s quite a balanced eater – he eats his carbo, meat, vege and fruits. At one time, he would only eat clean untainted rice or noodle – no meat, no vege, no nothing. If some sauce got on the rice, he would refuse to eat it. But thankfully, that phase has passed (or has it? It relapses sometimes).


10. He’s very good at imitating whatever he sees in the cartoons.
    - Lately his favourite cartoon is Kungfu Panda and every time he eats noodle, he will hang one strand of noodle from his mouth, like how Po does it to mimic Master Shifu and make me call him Master Shifu before he eats up that noodle.
    - Recently Dennis kept giving me these sudden big hugs followed by him calling me “mama”. I was so thrilled because he has never done this before. I felt so loved and of course enjoyed this sudden burst of affection from my son. And then one day, Dennis asked me to play the cartoon, “Ugly Duckling and Me” (which he has watched a few times) for him and I decided to join him. While watching the cartoon, I saw the exact same act - the ugly duckling running to hug Ratso and calls him mama (Ratso is the rat whom the Ugly Duckling mistaken for his mum). At that very moment, it dawned upon me that Dennis’ hugs were not an act of affection; it was another case of him mimicking the cartoon. I was completely devastated that day....