Sunday, July 29, 2007

More pictures

(continued from previous post)

We had a small celebration at home that evening. Gabriel got to open all his presents with a lot of help from his cousins. In fact I think they were more interested in his presents than he was.




We had another cake-cutting ceremony for him which was more like a candle-blowing ceremony as he didn't get to blow his candles during his party. That was despite having to light the candles twice. There were bigger kids with bigger breath then.


The Chongs



He couldn't wait to get started on the toys.


A nice way to end the night, drinking something he loves.


And thank you all for the generous gifts. Gabriel is definitely enjoying himself playing with them.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Pictures

I took a while to post these pictures from our outing on Gabriel's birthday as we got quite busy with stuff. It was a rainy morning but we still went ahead with what was planned. First stop, Hay Dairies. Fred didn't know that there was a goat farm here in Singapore. So suaku..

Milking in process. I think women have it easier and better than these miking mothers. They look absolutely terrible and heavy with their "milk bags" dangling below them.



See how interested he was in the whole process? He even folded his arms like some big boss watching over his men. So cute...



After that we got to see some bachelor goats in the barn. The kids were looking at some kids while waiting for me to give them some grass to feed them. We were not allowed to see the milking mothers. They probably needed rest after being milked.



Gabriel wasn't scared at all of the goats, even the huge big ones. He gave them food, and even waved bye-bye when we left.


We couldn't leave until the kids had their fill of goats' milk, (milk, btw is Gabriel's favourite drink). He wouldn't even let Fred or myself have a sip. I guess it must have been good.


Next stop, dragonfruit farm. Nothing interesting and we bought some red-fleshed dragonfruits. They were nice and sweet. We went on to a fish farm down the road. As it was raining, we couldn't go out to the ponds. We saw some fishes in the ponds indoors and bought 2 huge fish home for dinner. :)

Went on to Bollywood Veggies to have lunch at the cafe called Poison Ivy. Food was quite good as everything they served was organically produced. Had a good lunch and we went out to explore the farm.



Our little boy posing for a picture with Daddy.

And Mummy!



(to be continued)

Friday, July 20, 2007

Gabriel Turns Two

Our little boy is already TWO! A quick update on his development.

Height : 87 or 88cm (He wouldn't stand still for me to measure)
Weight : 12.4kg

Gabriel at 24 months:

1. He can recite the ABCs up to Z and also recognize all the alphabets. Occasional mix-up between A and B and sometimes mixing W and M up on purpose.

2. He can recite numbers 1 to 12 but recognize only up to 10. He can count up to 12, with his fingers pointing at each object.

3. He is not very good with colours yet, able to recognize yellow and orange definitely but with the rest of the colours, he is quite mixed-up.

4. He can draw ovals and the figure "8"quite well, trying to copy the fishes that we draw for him.
5. He can complete a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle quite effortlessly.

6. He participates more actively when we read or sing to him, eg. he finishes sentences or songs that were read or sung. Can sing quite many songs, only about 50-60% of each song. Can say about 50% of "Our Father" too. :)

7. Is partial potty-trained - at home he goes diaperless and he is able to tell us when he needs to pee. Brought him out for short while grocery shopping and to the library without diaper a few times and it was good. Not 100% trained to poo yet as he does it mostly in the morning after he wakes up or after his nap, when he still has his diaper on.

8. He doesn't really like eating breakfast while he enjoys lunch and dinner more. His alltime favourite carbo food is shape-pasta, favourite snack is Glico Pretz stick biscuit and favourite drink is milk (actually, as long as it's not water, he likes it). He loves fried stuff and he can spot them from a mile (I try my very best hiding these stuff from him). He is carnivorous and loves all his meat. Sadly, he doesn't take fruits. Not at all. There's not a single kind of fruit that he is willing to open his mouth to. So, if anybody out there has a way of making your kids eat fruits, I'm all ears. I have to give him Vitagen and fresh fruit juices to substitute.

9. Can play better in group now. Less fighting over toys means less crying and screaming, and less hitting and biting too. He does get emotional at times and can get quite rough trying to show his emotions, be it happy or angry.

10. He is more independent. He wants to do many things by himself, eg. riding his bicycle (his legs are not long enough to pedal hence he pushes himself with his feet on the ground). He can be on his own to play a little longer, even longer if watching his favourite TV programme. Always says "I do myself" as "Ma do maself".. extremely cute!

11. He only wants me to tuck him to sleep and not his Daddy. He is still not able to sleep through the night yet. :( Wakes up at least once a night to get me to lie down next to him on his bed. What can I do to get him to sleep better? sigh...

12. His memory is quite amazing as he can remember things I tell him just once. He can also remember things which happen a few days ago. When you tell him that he can do something later, like when he wakes up, or when someone comes home, he won't forget about it. So once he gets up, or when the specified person gets home, he will remind me immediately.

13. He likes to organize his blocks according to colour and things according to shapes. He loves putting stuff into containers, pouring them out, organizing them in order, then putting them back into the container... the whole cycle repeats many times.

14. He's getting to be a little friendlier to people. There used to be a time (a particularly long stretch of time) when he used to go "Want erh-erhh" when someone looks at him. He also has this funny habit of stuffing his hands into the back of his pants, or diaper.. and his face shows a whole bunch of shyness. He's slowly growing out of it.. like just a few days back, he eagerly told the Indian store aunty that there was a stingray at the next door fish shop. After that he stuck out his hand to shake hands with her before leaving the store. Unheard of just about a month back!

15. He's getting cuter everyday!

What else can I say.. Fred and I love him to bits!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

I AM TWO!!

It's my birthday today and I started today with a bang.... by waking up at 7am!!

Just to let you know, that's like 30 minutes later than my usual waking time, so I actually let Mummy sleep in another 30 minutes! Hee hee!

Yesterday, Mummy decided to bring me to Hay Dairies and Bollywood Veggies to have a look around the farmlands of Singapore. This morning, the skies weren't too good, but Daddy said we should go anyway.

We went home and got our troupies and left in Kong Kong's big car! So, Mama, Aunty Celest, Gege Nigel, Shannon and Aunty Isti came along too!

First stop was the Hay Dairies! After a long and tiring drive, we were rewarded with like milking of the goats! Wow.. from the look on Daddy's face, it seemed like he had never seen a goat being milked before too!

We proceeded to feed the goats in their barn.

I'm too tired to continue now, but I'll add the rest of the words and pictures in later!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

My 2nd Birthday Party

Thank you everyone for coming to my birthday party!















I had so much fun..


Sorry for the screaming.. if you ask Mummy and Daddy, they would tell you that I only scream when I'm having lotsa fun!!















See my cute cake?















I hope you had fun too!














Thank you for all the presents and for coming to celebrate my birthday with me!

Short list of Thank yous to :

Uncle Leo and Aunty Celest, Nigel and Shannon
Godpa Colin and Godma Yong Yong, Alexis and Ashlee
Uncle Mervin and Aunty Debbie, Saffy
Uncle Kenneth and Aunty Christine, Joshua
Aunty Lynette and Charlotte
Uncle Alex and Aunty Gina, Elizabeth and Bernadette
Uncle Wee Meng and Aunty Joan, Caleb
Uncle Gene and Aunty Sharon, Joanne, Jillian and Jared
Uncle Bernard and Aunty Roanne
Uncle Doctor Suresh Nair

and of course Mama and Kong Kong!

I love you, Mummy, for taking so much of your effort to throw this party for me and my friends! I appreciate it so much! Muaaaah!

I hope to see all of you again soon!!

Monday, July 09, 2007

Am I cute?

Hallo! Ola!!


Let me sing you a song... "The incy wincy spider...."

Daddy trying to get my fingers to show "2".

Hahaha... so easy..

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Early bird catches the worms

Gabriel was born in the morning, about 7.30am. Perhaps that is the reason why he is an early bird now, really early. He is always up by 7am, at about 6.30am to be exact. Expert says sleeping early and rising early is healthy for kids. Not too healthy for mummy who sleeps late and have to rise early though. He doesn't even sleep early, at about 10 or 10.30pm and sometimes later. Not because I don't want to put him to bed early, because he doesn't want to. So he sleeps for only 7-8 hours at night. Furthermore he still wakes up once or twice a night. Naps for 2-3 hours in the day. Terrible sleeping habit. Sleeping is probably his least favourite thing to do. He is not bothered by it but I am. I am drained and totally lacking sleep. :(

Fred thinks I feed him too much beans.. hence his super hyperactive nature..