Milestones

It's an amazing experience watching my son grow with each passing day. From a tiny little baby weighing only 2.2kg (ya, ya, I know, Keat & I are such horrible parents), Dennis has grown to the fine toddler that he is now. He might not be the biggest boy around still but he's a very active and happy kid, who spreads his infectious joy to everyone around him. He loves the outdoor and enjoys being yeh yeh's little "helper" in the garden. He loves watering the plants so much we have bought him his own miniature watering can,but he still prefers what yeh yeh uses.

Over the past few months, my baby has achieved several milestones and I'm proud to report them:

1) Dennis has learned to drink from the cup with very very minimal spillage. I don't know when and where he acquired the skill because I don't train him that diligently. So I was very impressed when my maid announced that he could already drink from the cup. Maybe, she's been doing all the hard work.

2) He can also spit after brushing his teeth. This, I've trained him for a while (maybe 6 months) .... on and off.... and one day he just stopped swallowing the water and let it drip out. It was a very fulfilling moment indeed! The training process was tedious but Dennis made it easier by coining a term for spitting. He calls it "duh". Before he learned how to spit, he would swallow the water and say "duh" - thinking the water would drip out as he said "duh". Thankfully, after many many goofy demonstrations by mummy, he finally could "duh" properly. Nowadays, when I say "duh" he knows what to do.

After the few successful attempts, Dennis, being the curious, playful kid that he is, decided to experiment "duh" in other scenarios. E.g. when he's drinking water, he will "duh" on the floor or in a cup (which he will then drink up again, and finish off with a satisfying "aaahh"). One day, Keat made an awful discovery that Dennis has been "duh-ing" in the cup which he's been using for his midnight drink. Oops...mummy forgot to mention but that's becuase mummy didn't know that daddy uses that cup. =)

3) Dennis wore his shoe on his own! Ok, I would be lying if I said he knows how to wear his shoes now. It was just one isolated incident when he was desperate to go out to the garden and decided to put on the shoes on his own. And he did! We were surprised to find him wearing one of his Crocs (wannabe) sandals. Like I said, it's only a one-off thingy and it's never happened since.

Just like most parents, I want so much for my son to pick up all these skills quickly. I want him to be independent, so he doesn't have to rely on me so much. At the same time, I don't want him to grow up so fast because I want him to remain as my baby! Zhen mao dun! (what a conundrum!) I'm very sure I'm the only one who feels this way. So make every moment that you spend with your kids special because you can never have it back again. Believe me, one day, you will look back at those days and wish you could relive those moments again - including those potty training days!!!

Duet

Watch Dennis do a duet with me in this video. He is Miss Muffet who's frightened by a spider.

Hokkien kia (Hokkien child)

Dennis can't really say many words. But oddly, the few words that he often uses all sound like Hokkien (a Chinese dialect). I say it's odd because he's constantly bombarded by Cantonese and English, and I must confess I hardly ever speak to him in Hokkien. Yet his first words are Hokkien words. For example, when something ends/finishes he will say "bo, bo" which is "no more" in Hokkien. Or if he doesn't want something, he will shake his head profusely and say "mai mai" which is "don't want" in Hokkien. (He often does that when he disagress with a TV channel that you're watching and wants you to switch to one that he favours. Demanding little boy, ain't he?)

Well, the saving grace is his other favourite word is "ye ye" which is grandpa in cantonese. Everytime he sees his grandpa, he will call out "yeye". Smart boy, because that wins him a lot of brownie points, which he usually uses to redeem for extended cartoon hours.

To my dismay, he's still not calling me "mummy" yet. Before, he used to call me "mama", but I haven't heard that for a while either. Well, well, I guess I'll just have to wait.

Stitches removed

Dennis had his stitches removed yesterday. I wasn't there to witness it firsthand but MIL said that he was bawling his head off. I think it was not so much of the pain but probably fear that set him off.

In any case, the procedure took much longer than anticipated becuase the doc said that the stitches were too close and were difficult to remove. Of course, it didn't help with Dennis screaming hysterically and struggling uncontrollably. But the doc was very patient and stopped many times to let Dennis calm down before proceeding. All in all it took about 1 hour plus. After the stitches were off, he noticed that Den's wound is a bit septic and to prevent any complication, he gave my baby some antibiotics. I know, it's not good for Den to take antibiotics but I guess we can't help it in this case.

The doc is a very sweet guy and I've never met any doctor as patient and thorough as he is. For all the hard work and time he put in to attend to Dennis, guess what! He only charged RM30!! And mind you, this is inclusive of the medication! He's one kind doctor, who just wants to help people and not out to make money. This world needs more doctors like him! Thank you Dr. Saw.

A painful fall, a painful lesson

Last Saturday was an eventful day. Dennis had a bad fall and sustained a deep cut on the forehead that had to be stitched up.

For once, it was not his mischief that got him into trouble. He was actually sitting at the edge of the couch when he fell but the unfortunate part was his wooden shape sorter toy was on the floor. So when he fell, his forehead hit the corner of the wooden toy and it cut deep into his forehead. Initially I thought it was just another fall but when we saw blood gushing out, we panicked. Even, his first aider daddy didn't know what to do. In the midst of the chaos, I told myself to calm down and act fast. As soon as I regained my composure, I got Keat to get me a face towel so that I put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. But as soon as the bleeding stopped we saw how deep the cut was - about 3mm- and we knew we had to send him to the clinic immediately. To add drama to the whole situation, it was pouring cats and dogs outside.

But we were lucky because despite the rain, miraculously we found a parking spot just outside the clinic (this is in Desa Sri Hartamas,where it's impossible to find parking spots!) and we were the only patient when we arrived. The doc that attended to Dennis was very good but he told me to get out of the room because he didn't want an emotional mum to interfere with his work or pass out during the procedure. So, I left the room, with Dennis crying and pleading to me not to leave him behind. Outside at the waiting room, as the wind howled and the rain poured angrily, I cried silently as I prayed for his suffering to end soon. He could hear him continuing to cry and scream and I didn't know how long it lasted but it felt like eternity.

As soon as it was done, I went back to the room and Dennis immediately clung on to me. All the struggling and crying tired him out and soon, he fell asleep on my shoulder. But I didn't mind it... after what he had to go through, all I wanted was to hold him close to me and protect him from more harm. My poor baby, he's gone through too much....and he shouldn't have to. He had 8 stitches! But it was not becuase the cut was very big. The doc stitched very closely so that the wound will not leave a scar and can heal faster.

The irony of it all was Dennis fell when he was sitting sandwiched between Keat and I. Whatever it is, this episode has taught us a painful lesson and we vow to be more careful next time!

PS: Dennis is recovering well and he's due to remove his stitches tomorrow!

Hysterical Dennis

Over the weekend, Keat and I noticed that Dennis gets a little agitated when we read one particular book to him - "Goodnight Moon". In fact, he would snatch the book from us and start hurling verbal abuses at it. He's so emotional, I swear if I could decode baby language, I'm not surprised if I had heard some obscenity. =) I wonder what he finds so offensive about the book!

In the following video, watch how "hysterical" he became the moment he saw the book.

Dennis' topsy-turvy world

Dennis loves to see the world in a different perspective.