Chubby Angel

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T16:46:00.000+08:00

Time really flies. Ezekiel is already 2 years and 9 months old. In another 3 month's time, he will be 3 years. In another few hours' time, the year would be past.

Now Ezekiel can tell people that he is 2 and a half years old instead of 2 years old. This Christmas, he is more aware of what Christmas is about. He has been attending Sunday School which taught him about Christmas and what people normally do during the Christmas festivities. Ezekiel knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and His mother is Mary and His father Joseph. He also knows that Jesus was borned in a manger. He knows that people normally top their Christmas trees with an angel or star to signify the Angel Gabriel telling the good news of Jesus' birth and the star as the sign to look for Jesus.

This year, Ezekiel is able to tell us that he liked the Christmas decorations along Orchard with the pink and blue "Light Balls" as he coined them. We brought him to Tanglin Mall to see the fake snow and alvanche, thinking that since he was quite scared of the noise produced by the snow machine last year, this year he would have outgrown the fear. True enough, he has overcame his fear but was scared of the big Ginger Breadman deco, and worst of all, he was not even impressed with the fake snow and alvanche, he looked so bored.. So much for our efforts..

Next, we brought him to Raffles Hotel for photo-taking on another occasion. He liked the decor on the exterior of the hotel. We even got to go into the main hotel lobby which is closed to the public and exclusively for hotel guest only, but thanks to Ezekiel, the hotel Manager allowed us to go in and take pictures of the Christmas tree. It was a grand and warm Christmas tree. Ezekiel liked it very much.

Ezekiel told me that he would like big presents for Christmas. We gave him a wooden train set which was big and he loved it so much that he wants to play with it everyday. Our financial advisor, Becky, also gave him 2 big presents, a drum set and a doctor set, of both which he loved. He received alot of presents from all our family and friends too, he is now so busy playing with his toys that he has neglected the books that we borrowed from the library for him to read.

This Christmas, Ezekiel also made his first appearance in our church's Christmas concert. Though he did not play a very active role on stage (he was something like an 'extra' to his Sunday School performance item as he refused to dance), his Sunday School teachers got to know him better during the rehearsals. They were all saying that he is more responsive now and is so intelligent, he can articulate very well.. Previously, Ezekiel was quite on low profile in the Sunday School but after the concert, he is quite popular with the teachers that they went up to him to say "Merry Christmas" to him. Surprisingly, Ezekiel asked to look for Pastor Yeowhwa and Pastor Wong Ling to say "Merry Christmas" to them, and this gesture delighted them. That was quite cute. He was also making friends with the waitresses and waitors at the restaurant that we had our Christmas luncheon. They were quite amused by him and one of them also told me that he is very bright.

We also went to Weixin's maternal aunt's place after Christmas. He didn't want to go initially because he would rather stay at home to play with his toys. But when Weixin drove past the swimming pool in his Aunt's condominium, Ezekiel almost immediately changed his mind about not liking the place he is visiting. He was also chatting alot at the gathering. He became sad when he realised he lost his aeroplane as we were leaving. All the relatives looked through the entire house for his little aeroplane but cannot find it. Ezekiel was disappointed at first, then he made one surprise request: he would like a replacement. We have never mentioned that when we lose something, we would look for replacement, so it's an unlikely request to come from a boy at such tender age... When we reached home and went through his stuff, we found his prized aeroplane. He was so happy the next morning to see it.

Ezekiel has a rather unusual love for eggs. That, we only realised recently. We always give him egg white only since he turned two, for fear of him developing allergies upon eating egg yoke. He developed a cold and cough just before Christmas and was barred from eating even egg white. He was so miserable! Every night, at the dinner table, he would demand for eggs, so much so that he would also asked his grandpa to remember his share of egg when he was preparing dinner. He woke up one day from his nap and dreamt he was eating eggs! But when he is denied his egg, he would cry. We even used eggs as a excuse to make him finish his dinner and take his medication so he could enjoy it when he fully recovers. Hee... hee...hee.. (so evil)

My Photo Gallery

2009-12-14T15:11:00.001+08:00

I should not have done that.. I am sorry..

2009-11-20T17:36:00.001+08:00

Last night, we went home after shopping and saw what Ezekiel did to the floor... There was a spot on the floor with a lot of pencil scribbles. I also heard earlier from my mum that Ezekiel had drawn on the floor and tried to conceal his 'misdeed' by covering it with the rubber mat. How she uncovered the 'secret' was because the rubber mat was not at its usual position in the living room, and she lifted the mat and saw what he did.

So in order to make him realise that we, as parents, will not always be there to clean up his mess whenever he does something wrong, we decided to make it an unforgetable lesson for him.

As it was his bedtime, he was tired. We told him to clean up the scribbles with an eraser. He tried to clean initially but realised it will take a long time and effort to finish cleaning as well as he realised we were serious in wanting him to clean up before he could sleep, he cried in protest and refused to clean every now and then. So the little naughty boy cried for a while and go back to cleaning, on and off throughout the cleaning process and kept calling him a poor thing. Nearing the end of his cleaning, we asked him if he would want to draw on the floor and on other surfaces again, he said that he would not do that anymore. I told him that if he does it again, I will definitely ask him to clean again, so if he disliked this act of cleaning up, then he should not do that anymore. At hearing this, he broke into tears and exclaimed that he would not do that again. Let's hope that he has learnt and will remember his lesson. When he called himself a poor thing, Weixin and I actually wanted to break into laughter!! But seeing the situation, we should remain solemn to ensure that Ezekiel will not treat the situation lightly. He hugged me and demanded for affection after that. Hmm.. he never fails to win affection...

The other night, we decided to show him our wedding montage but he broke into loud sobs in the midst of watching it for no apparent reason?? So we asked him why he cried and he cried even louder this time??!! We waited till he simmer down and asked him again. His response was silent, then as if in deep thoughts, he wanted to cry again! After some pacifying, he stopped crying and told us that the montage was played too loud for him. I wondered if that was the real reason behind the crying. I was reminded of how Ezekiel used to cry as a baby when we sang nursery rhymes like London Bridge, Home on the Range, Edelwiss etc. We were very puzzled then and still do. The only song that he would not cry at was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which he grew up to like very much. It was also the first nursery rhyme that he could sing on his own.

We asked him on whether he love me, he answered yes. I went on to ask him if he love his Papa, and all our direct family members, he said yes to all of them and told me one more person on his own, Weixin's 2nd Paternal Aunt who gave Ezekiel a set of bears which we placed in his bedroom now. He pointed to the bears and said he loves Ee Gu Por too. That was so sweet of him...

At Weixin's birthday, he was so excited and kept singing Happy Birthday song to him, that was so cute of him. But his love for chocolates and cakes was fully exhibited when he saw Weixin's birthday cake was a CHOCOLATE CAKE! Wow! Yummy! You should have seen how his eyes lit up! He kept asking for more servings...

Ezekiel is also quite a bossy boy now. He would always ask my dad "what soup will you be cooking tonight? in Teochew. He would also demand for an egg for himself. He loves banana and eggs now. He also adores chocolates but I refused to let him indulge in it as he is too young to have to much snacks. He would sometimes ask me to go and bath while Papa pats him to sleep when it gets very late. Those moments would really touch me. Ezekiel can also be a very thoughful boy. We really have to thank God for such a bright and lovable boy who has brought so much joy into our lives.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

2009-10-16T15:15:00.003+08:00

Ezekiel has learnt to pray for Mummy and Papa lately. In fact, he has already prayed twice for Mummy and once for Papa in Mandarin. He thanked God for Mummy and mumbled something else that I don't understand and ended his prayers with "in the name of Jesus. Amen. " before smiling at us again and complimented himself as "clever boy". I was very touched when he did this. My son prayed and thanked God for me at 2 and half years of age. This is his first attempt at praying himself without guidance from us and his first prayer is about his gratitude for his mummy... It really warmed my heart. He is also more caring now. There were times where it was already very late and I haven't bathe, after Weixin came out of his shower, Ezekiel would ask me to go bathing and asked Weixin to pat him to sleep instead. That was so sweet of him...

Ezekiel has always been very mindful of how he looks. He would check himself at the mirror as soon as he changes into clothes for outing. He doesn't allow us to take photos of him if he has just awoken. If the weather is hot and sunny, he would bring along his cap for outings. He has been saying that he wants to be tall like his maternal uncle, so he wants to achieve that by jumping up and down regularly. Whenever he can't reach the things that he wants, he would ask his uncle to help. He kept criticizing Mummy for having a tummy and even squeezed his own tummy to say that he is fat. I had to constantly assure him that he is NOT fat and that he is normal. He likes to pick his nose nowadays and to deter him from doing so, I had to take advantage of his vanity and tell him that he will not be handsome anymore if he keeps picking his nose and causing his nostrils to be enlarged by doing so. The same goes for rubbing his eyes. Hehehe, at least it worked so far.

There was this incident that really made us laugh. My paternal aunt has always with her a sling bag which she will bring whenever she goes out. She always wears a blouse with pants, it is quite unlikely to see her in skirts or dresses. She has also gone on the Perth trip with us earlier this year and Ezekiel had spent a lot of time with her on that trip. We also visit her on regular basis. On a particular day last week, my sister wore pants with a blouse with a sling bag across her shoulders, which we all think she looked very 'auntie'. Upon seeing her, Ezekiel immediately blurted out, "Ah-Ee (aunt) look like Lao Gou (Grand Aunt)!" We all had a good laugh when we saw how Ezekiel shared our sentiments!!

Ezekiel is getting more imaginative as he will try to make up a story on his own by telling us," One day....." and goes on and on with his story, even though most of the time, we couldn't quite make out what stories he was trying to tell. But I guessed this is good for him that he would try to organise his thoughts to tell or speak about an event, he just need more time to develop his ability to tell them logically. We, as parents, would need to have a little more patience with him and listen to his stories even though we cannot understand.

We have decided that we will not be sending Ezekiel to school until after his 3rd birthday. We would like to let him have a little more time to play, plus we do not wish to expose him to so much bacteria and germs in a school yet. As putting him in a school would also require additional funds, we guessed we have a little bit more time to save up. Meanwhile, we'll let him have as much fun as possible!!!

Haha! I am 2 and half years old now!

2009-10-01T13:33:00.004+08:00

Ezekiel is 92cm tall and weighs 15kg now.

He has not been feeling well these 2 weeks. He is still coughing and having a bit of running nose. We brought him to the doctor's last week and he was able to tell the doctor (on his own) that he is sneezing and coughing. When the doctor asked him whether he has fever or is feeling hot, he shook his head in answer. On the 3rd visit to the doctor, he volunteered information on he was feeling pain in his mouth to the doctor. Upon examination by the doctor, he told Weixin that Ezekiel has an ulcer in his mouth.

He can recognise leaders of Singapore like Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and our President Nathan. He could even tell us in Teochew that Lee Hsien Loong is the son of Lee Kuan Yew! Hahahaha! He also able to recognise Obama and say his name whenever he sees him in the papers or on TV. He can even associate USA with Obama. When we told him that his Grand Aunt is flying back to USA, he quickly exclaimed that she is 'flying back to Obama'. We all had a great laugh!

He knows almost the TV advertisement jingles and will sing to the tune once he hears them. He loves Ponyo and will easily spot her when he see Ponyo DVD poster in the CD shop. He is creative and imaginative, he is also very good with his hands. He is capable of opening anything that he can get hold of. It will not take him too long to figure out how. He is also observant, he often spot eagles gliding in the sky around our place and quickly point them out to us. He loves to look at the moon and stars in the night and would always draw our attention to how full or small the moon is and the stars surrounding it.

30 Sep 09, he was pointing to my bloated tummy and asked me if there is a baby in there as he had spotted a bump. Hahahaha!

3 Oct 09 was Mid Autumn (Lantern) Festival, my dad (Ezekiel's Ah-gong) bought 2 lanterns for him. He showed Ezekiel one of the lanterns that has red and blue blinking lights. You should have seen his expression, he was terrified!! He kept asking us to put both lanterns away, said that he was fearful of the lanterns and that he didn't want them. That really broke my dad's heart but we managed to get Ezekiel to thank him. We brought the lanterns home anyway, in the hope of enticing him to play with the lanterns. When we reached home, I delibrately lit the lantern with the blinking lights in the dark living room to fascinate Ezekiel. Instead being impressed, he screamed in fear, asking us to keep the lantern. We had no choice but gave up on trying to attractin him to the lantern. I wondered where he got his phobia of lanterns from and to such extent? I remembered having a lot of fun with lanterns and candles during Mid Autumn Festivals myself...

We were reading a book about ducklings conquering their fears to learn to swim. Upon finish reading the story, we asked him if he wants to learn to swim, he answered with a flat no. So we asked him why and guess what? His reply was that he is not a duck!!! Whahahahaha!

He saw us eating red skin bananas. Ezekiel is a big banana fan but he was really put off and scared by the colour of the skin of the bananas that he ran away when we offer to share our bananas with him! After a few of days of attempts, he finally succumbed to the lure of the delicious bananas (we delibrately peeled and remove the entire skin while eating) and tried the red skin bananas. He actually loved it so much, he kept asking for it!

We are contemplating on whether to send Ezekiel to school next year. Guess the answer will be revealed when we bring him to tour the kindergarten tomorrow. May God lead us in our decision making.

Have you been waiting for me?

2009-09-04T17:33:00.003+08:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your patience. It’s been a long time since the last update for Ezekiel. Time flies and he is already 2 years 5 months old! In another few days, he will be 2.5 years old!

Not only is he taller now, he is getting naughtier! He still likes to throw things to the floor when he is unhappy or when he cannot achieve certain tasks that he wants to. His temper is getting worse these days as he wants more attention and expects more from himself and others around him. He flies into a rage when he is sleepy and gets into brawls that last quite long. He hits papa and mummy when he is angry at times. There were 2 occasions that he slapped me and he got a slap from me in return each time he does that. It seems that he is at a stage when he is being confronted by his own emotions but cannot control them yet. I am very sad when he behaves in such a way and pray that God helps him to curb his temper and us as parents more love and wisdom in bringing this precious God-sent child up.

He speaks like an adult sometimes like reminding mummy not to stick her head out of the railing at shopping centres lest she falls out. Ezekiel can anticipate when we will compliment him as a “clever boy” or rebuke him as “naughty boy’” and say it on our behalf. There was a course that I had attended and the trainer was advocating the importance of “time horizon”. A good example of a person with “time horizon” would be Lee Kuan Yew who is able to plan and look 50 – 100 years down the road. The trainer said that the method he was sharing would only apply to 2 years old and below, because anyone older than that, would be able to defeat the system. We as curious parents, would definitely not miss the chance to test him. Hence, I bought Pocky, Ezekiel’s favourite snack, and told him that if he does not touch the 3 Pocky that I leave on the plate on the breakfast table within 30 minutes, he would get 6 Pocky after that given timeframe. In the test that the trainer had shared, he has given 2 hours as the timeframe but I reckon Ezekiel would definitely touch the Pocky the very second I turn my back on that plate of Pocky, that’s why I only gave him 30 minutes.

15 minutes into the test, Ezekiel asked me if he can eat the Pocky. I told him he can go ahead and eat it if he wants but he only gets 3 Pocky. I asked him whether he wants to eat 3 or 6 Pocky, he answered he wanted 6. Then he patiently waited for time to pass. When 30 minutes was up, Weixin reminded him that 30 minutes of waiting was over, and if Ezekiel wanted his 6 Pocky, he happily replied, “Yes!”. So he passed the test!!! I was so happy and surprised because he is the type who will definitely defy instructions. This also illustrate that he understood the concept of delayed gratification. Wow!

Ezekiel has also improved tremendously on his motor skills. He can play with his tool set and use his creativity to build structures and I think he has inherited Weixin’s engineering skills. He is quite good with the tools and building structures! He can also sing the entire ABC song without help from us and also recite the do re mi scale himself. He could recognize numbers up to 10 and also count. He could hold conversations with me for half an hour in full sentences, even pronouncing words of 5 syllabus. He often dances to music or songs he hears and he moves according to the tempo of the music, twisting his feet and his hips with a big grin on his face. It was actually quite enjoyable to watch him dance. He can jump up and down too. Last night, after he threw his tambourine to the floor and it broke, I chose to ignore him rather than flaring up like I usually do. In retaliation to response, he crushed a piece of pamphlet and threw it at me. He also threw the broken tambourine at me but missed (luckily, else I would have jumped on him for the pain I would have suffered!!). After a few more minutes of my ignoring him, he finally broke down and said, “Mummy doesn’t want Ezekiel! Mummy doesn’t love Ezekiel anymore!!” He repeated these words a few times and I hug him to assure him that I definitely love him but explained that I do not like the way he behaved and treated his belongings. He then calmed down and I made him promise that he would not repeat this kind of behaviour again. I knew that incidents like this is bound to repeat but I hope that with constant reminders and guidance, Ezekiel will grow out of the misbehaviour and learn to be a better person.

At bedtime, he could anticipate our prayers for him as we do the same prayer for him every night. Before falling asleep, Ezekiel told me that he think he is fat. Fat? That is the last word that I would expect him to describe himself! He went on to tell me that his arm is fat. I told him as a matter-of-factly that he is definitely NOT FAT and nobody is fat, lest he goes around and call anyone he thinks is fat, fat. My goodness, he is only 2 years old and he is worried about his image??!! On the hand, he surely is vain, because he often looks into the mirror when he is dressed for outing (as if checking if he is looking good?)… *Sigh* Kids nowadays…

I've been to Down Under... Perth!

2009-04-23T13:40:00.004+08:00

Ezekiel has gone on a tour again! This time, to Perth Australia!

He was very excited before the trip and has been a good boy, helping mummy and daddy with the packing. Our poor boy was also having diarrhoea before the trip and for the first 2 days of the trip, was on a plain and non-oily food diet. The night before the flight to Australia, he was so excited that he wanted to wear his shoes and said he wants to go take aeroplane!

On the day of the trip on 11 Apr 09 Saturday, he was awaken quite early at 6am but thankfully, we have no problems waking him up but he was still sleepy on the cab to the airport. He slept for about 1.5 hours on the flight to Perth which I was very thankful for, as I was having a bad cold so I was very grateful that Ezekiel did not demand that I take care of him but allowed Weixin to do so. He was very excited when we reached the serviced apartment in Perth City, roaming around the 2 apartments we booked. But he woke up every hour that night though, my poor mum who took care of him that night, was terribly tired the next day.

Ezekiel was very excited going around the various accomodations throughout the trip from 11 - 16 Apr 09. Some of them were in apartment setting, chalet settings, even cottages. Ezekiel likes all the accomodation except the last one at Fremantle Colonial Cottages which was a bit haunted, he didn't sleep well that night, waking up every hourly after 3am.

He finally can enjoy putting creams on his face like mummy does. He would sit down patiently, closing his eyes for us to apply sun block and baby lotion on his face. He even commented that the sun block smelled great. He ate more than usual on the trip, probably due to colder temperature, drinking milk whenever he gets on board the car we rented and biscuits and snacks on the way to destinations. He would sleep on the way to destinations but would sometimes get cranky when the journey gets too long, like when we travelled from Margaret River to Fremantle on the second last day. So we would have to entertained with song singing sessions and also storybook reading sessions.

Ezekiel was well-loved by people we met and well taken care of by all our family members throughout the trip. Strangers would smile at him whenever he passes by, especially when he sang on the flight back to Singapore. There's this Caucasian boy who would keep looking at him, and finally till he waved goodbye at Changi Airport. He was taken care of on the trip and in the night by my mum as I had to navigate in the day and Weixin had to drive. My grandma, mum and myself would take turns to feed him at meal times, Weixin would bath him and take care of him whenever I am not available. Samuel and my sister would always play with him. He even got 2 bookmarks from a shop owner at Fremantle Market and a mug from the owner of a gas station when I refused a chocolate Easter egg from him! There was this Caucasian lady who caught Ezekiel singing outside the cabin in the evening at Pinjarra Holiday Cabin, commented that Ezekiel is quite smart as her own granddaughter couldn't sing at age 4 years old.

He had a whale of time at Marrapana Wildlife World and Sunflower Farm at Margaret River where he had close encounters with animals, touching them and feeding them. He loved the playpen he slept in at the Margaret River Vintages accomodation because he had a comforter with cow, sheep and pig on it, plus the bedsheet was of the Sesame Street characters which are his favourite! Overall, he enjoyed the trip and whenever he was asked whether he likes Australia and would like to stay there, he would answer happily, "Yes!"

When he came back, we realised he has grown significantly taller as he stands against his playpen. He can even reach for the tap and turn it on. Ezekiel once tried to take the plastic basin, put it at the tap and turning on the tap, saying that he wanted a wash-up (this is usually what we does for him at bedtime)!! As we have yet to put away our luggages, he would pull them out into the living room, open them up and said that he wants to pack luggage because he is going to Australia again! Hahahaha!

Hi! Now I'm 2 years old!

2009-04-06T13:26:00.003+08:00

Ezekiel has turned 2 on 15 Mar 2009!

Our dearie had a private celebration on 15 Mar 2009 evening and he had his first taste of his Sesame Street birthday cake which he loved very much! He was also fascinated by the pictures of the Sesame Street charaters like Elmo (his top favourite!!), Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Ernie and Bert.

Before he turned 2, he has also experienced his first airplane flight to Bangkok, Thailand on AirAsia on 20 Feb 2009. He was curious about the flight but experienced some disturbance that caused him to be cranky during touch downs. Being the active and cheeky boy, he was constantly looking for things to entertain but started to misbehave (like unzipping my jean's zip and trying to pull the neckline of my blouse down, urgghh!!!!) on the homeward flight, much to my embarrassment.... During the 3 days' trip though, he fell ill with a terrible cold and Weixin had fever. So both were down and unable to shop with us, except in the afternoon on the second day. But he was very popular with the Thais, they were all very attracted to him and most of them say hi to him and tried to make friends with him when he passed by them. There were even Middle East tourist approaching to touch him. One incident was that a Middle East tourist even wanted to take photo with him at the airport! Such Star power he's got...

Ezekiel is definitely capable of moving me to tears sometimes. He said, "I love you mummy" to me on 13 Feb 2009, making it the best Valentine's Day gift I've received! He would express his love for me by hugging and kissing me on his own initiative from time to time. He is also very attached to me, such that I would need to follow him everywhere he goes when I am with him. This is especially so after our mission trip, when I was away for about 8 days. Now he would cry whenever I need to go for choir on Sundays and refused to go with my mum to Sunday School.

These are some of what he can do now:

He can feed himself carrot cake on 21 Mar 2009.
He would also automatically pass the ang baos that he received during the Chinese New Year to me.
He can climb stairs without us holding his hands.
He can walk and run quite fast now.
He is fluent in 3 languages: Teochew, English and Mandarin and is able to speak in complete sentences most of the time
He is able to beat his toy drum according to the tempo of the music he hears
He can sing parts of few Christian songs and nursery rhymes by himself, he also picks up the theme songs of shows on TV very easily
He would want to choose his own clothing
He is partially toilet trained, sometimes he will still forget to say he wants to pee or poo.

He has been having diarrhoea and vomitting these past 4 days which caused him to be cranky and lethargic. He would throw tantrums by crying and lying on the floor, refusing to get up. So let's hope that he would recover soon. During a visit to our family doctor on 1 Apr 2009, we discovered that he could actually recognise numbers! He was telling me that the number being called for was 2 and I immediately tested him on the number tag we got and he answered correctly that it was 5!

Ezekiel has also helped me in packing our luggage for the coming trip to Perth. He is definitely looking forward to it. hee hee.. See ya!

Babies Prom

2008-12-09T15:51:00.003+08:00

We were looking forward for this day to come as soon as we bought the tickets.

On 6 Dec 08, we brought Ezekiel to Andrew (Anlong)'s wedding before the Babies Prom concert by SSO. Our choir members mused over how cute and smart Ezekiel is, much to our delight. He was very fascinated but wary of the smoke from the dry ice created for the bride and groom's entrance to the banquet. He was given then mini tab light placed on the plate for the first dish by the waitress to entertain him, but he was not in the slightest impressed by it, refused the kind gesture and asked to put it away from him. One hour after we arrived at the banquet, we quickly adjourned to Victoria Concert Hall as we do not wish to be late.

The concert hall was in a state of chaos as Ezekiel and I entered (he was in my arms). Apparently, there was a pre-concert event for the kids and free seating was allowed. As soon as announcement was made for the official concert to begin, all the parents led and carried their tots to their assigned seats. I followed and managed to find our seats with Weixin joining us later after parking the car. Ezekiel remained quiet as he made his observation of the unfamiliar environment (this was his first visit to a concert hall), as usual.

The concert began and he remained quiet when listening to the first piece, part of a popular classic. He would occassionally say the colours of the balloons, shapes of the objects that he recognise like Christmas tree, stars etc, pointing to them at the same time, much to the annoyance to the older boy right in front of him. He seemed intimidated by the clown though, didn't like it from the look on his face. As the concert continued, the conductor gradually asked for the children and parents' participation by asking the children to move their body parts to the music, demonstrated how actions that we would not think of associating classical music with (like bouncing a basketball and shooting), marching etc and even asking parents to clap their hands to the rhythm and at his indications. Children were also given opportunities to be conductors by conducting a particular piece. All these while, Ezekiel wasn't moving around much and definitely not restless during the concert, something that he usually does, it only goes to show that he was genuinely interested in what was going on.

The last part of the concert was that all children were being invited up the stage to stand beside the musicians and experience for themselves, seeing the instruments being played on, up close. I gladly took the opportunity to immerse myself in the sea of chaos with parents and children alike, all jostling in front for the experience. Almost all the parents were standing before the stage as they were not permitted to be on the stage with their children, so they just carried their children on stage. I saw that the stairs to the stage at the side was not crowded and Ezekiel would be crushed with all the children standing infront on stage, so I carried him to climb the steps up on stage and put him down. But the concert helper forbade me from remaining on stage and so she took over Ezekiel. It didn't took long for Ezekiel to cry for me when he realised out of the confusion that I was not with him. I quickly went back to him and carried him but try to walk towards the back of the stage. The helper didn't stop me, maybe she thought that she couldn't handle a kid that young like Ezekiel. Fearing that I might be ordered to get down from stage if I walked any further, I put Ezekiel down on stage again. Out of blue, he wondered and walked away from me, and without me realising it, he has walked to the center of the stage amidst the viola musicians when they were playing "Jingle Jingle Bells". I couldn't quite see him as he was small amongst the adult musicians who were holding big musical instruments like the cellos and double basses. But he didn't look for me. As the piece continued, he was given a bow from one of the viola musician who taught him to tap and conduct with the bow like a conductor, then he was also given the viola and was taught to strum on the strings. By this time, all the musicians surrounding Ezekiel were all looking at him and were clearly delighted by the little boy in their midst, even the ones in front of him. I was overjoyed by this as I know Ezekiel has a special love for music even before he was born. After the concert ended, Ezekiel was still allowed to hold the viola and bow as he is unwilling to part with them. The official photographer took serveral pictures of him and one of the musicians also took a picture of Ezekiel with his own handphone. The musician was calling Ezekiel a little star of the event. It's a pity that I did not bring a camera like many of the parents. I politely thanked the musician and returned his instrument to him. Then this happy mum and son left the stage. As we walked down the stage, there were other musicians smiling at Ezekiel. I guessed they must have liked him. I was really thrilled at Ezekiel's first upclose experience with the symphony and proud that he was brave enough to explore for himself the love of his young life:music. I hope that this love would be entwined in his life for life. He was always excited and jumps whenever he sees a piano and other musical instruments. He is also able to hold musical scores in the correct way, (not sideways or upside down) and sings to his own tunes.

Ezekiel was excited as us, and after the much hype, he fell asleep soundly quickly on the way to Weixin's mum's place.

Tantrums

2008-12-09T15:24:00.003+08:00

I was preparing Ezekiel's dinner on Friday evening 5 Dec 08 when he took a bag of plastic spoons and forks from the kitchen cabinet and splattered them all onto the kitchen floor. I flew into a rage as there I was trying to prepare his dinner, he had to make a mess with the utensils. I demanded that he picked the spoons and forks, put them back into the plastic bag that had contained them and back into the cabinet. He started crying and refused to oblige, and asking me to picked them instead. When I refused, I told him that since he had created such a mess, it is naturally his responsibility to clear them. He then asked me to picked them up again and demanded that I carry him when I refused to. He wailed even louder. I closed the kitchen glass sliding doors on him, closed myself into my bedroom to isolate myself from him, he wailed all the way. After an hour of coaxing, threats, all the methods exhausted on him, he still wouldn't relent. Even my sis couldn't help. On the advice from Weixin who happened not to be at home, I brought him down to my mother's place for dinner and wait for him to simmer down before bringing him up after dinner to picked the pieces up. It worked but all the wailing had taken his appetite away so he kept demanding for cups of waters after wasting much tears and mucus on the crying.

Ezekiel picked up the forks and spoons with Weixin after he fetched us from my mum's place. But I guessed I also need more wisdom and love in disciplining him. He's only 20 months and I can't keep him under control, how do I manage when he grows older, and totally out of hand? I pray for God's special guidance in this...

A,B,C,D...

2008-12-04T16:37:00.002+08:00

Ezekiel can now sing the complete ABC song except for some parts that his diction is blurred. He would sometimes playfully hum the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in words that he made up..He was having a good time last Saturday, playing 'drum' on the big tupperwares that I put on the floor, with his daddy guiding him how to make different beats.

Now, whenever he doesn't want to eat or drink his milk, he would say,"haw liao" (in Teochew), meaning "it is enough". He would also request for Sesame Street by asking for "Big Bird". He would also ask to on the fan, air-con when he's feeling hot, depending on whatever deems appropriate for him. He usually demand to on the TV at night as it is our habit to watch TV at night.

This vainpot of ours will not just stand in front of the mirror to admire himself when he's got a new outfit, he would now stand against the bomb shelter door and ask us to take photo of him! Then right after, he would demand to "Kan, Kan" (means to look in Mandarin) the photos taken and then demand to take more photos! He was very happy when we bought him new clothes these few weeks and he would always try to take the clothes out from his drawer and says that he would want to "chuan" (wear in Mandarin). We took him out for shoe shopping last night as his current pair is abit torn and very tight for him. He was very excited the moment he went into Bata and took off his shoes shortly after, as if knowing that he is trying on shoes. After wearing the shoes, he would happily walk to the mirror and looked at himself and then turned around, obviously happy with it (even though he was having a little difficulty walking in the slightly bigger shoes). Eventually when we picked a pair of shoes from KidStyle, he simply walked out of the store wearing his new shoes!! He is also starting to pick the socks that he would want to wear for the day until I insisted that he wears another pair.

There was this funny episode last night when we were getting him dressed for bedtime. He saw the armpit hair under his daddy's armpit, started to point at them and the next thing? Laugh our loud! We were also so amused that we laughed uncontrollably! He is able to identify other more complicated body parts like armpit, neck, chin, elbow and knee on top of eyes, ears, nose, forehead, head, hair, stomach, legs, hands, fingers, toes and face that he already is familiar with.

He is bored with his fish and brocoli diet nowadays and demands for pork floss to be added to the menu. Occasionally he gets minced meat along with potatoes and carrots at my mother-in-law's place.

The last time we went for his checkup with our family doctor when he was 20 months exactly, we found that he now weights about 12.5kg and stands at about 92cm. He is very aware of what is going on as the doctor prepares for his last 6-in-1 jab and cries even before he was poked. But he would simmer down after a few seconds. The doctor was commending his intelligence and for being such a good boy. We visited a toy shop last night and the owner of the shop was also commending on his pitch as he sings ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star which he so happily showed off. She was saying his pitching and ability to recognise so many objects is outstanding for his age.

He would readily address strangers Uncles or Aunties that we run into in lifts or outside, overall he's considered quite well behaved if there are sufficient activities to occupy him (sorry, he is restless like his mummy.. ;P) I really want to thank the Lord for sending such a precious gift to us, we have a lot to learn from one another, and even though he makes us want to pull all our hairs out from our scalps by destroying things he shouldn't and making us exhausted by running after him...

1,2,3...10!

2008-11-13T13:09:00.002+08:00

Ezekiel can count now!

He is able to count 1 to 10 in English, able to sing the ABC alphabet song in blurry diction, punctuating at certain parts of the song with emphasis. He loves singing My Grandfather's Clock with us, happily punctuating DIE in the phrase, "when the old man dies" and also going Tick Tock Tick Tock in parts of the chorus. The other songs that he likes to sing along are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Incy Winsy Spider, Humpty Dumpty, and Christian songs like Ta Shi Zhu (He is Lord-Mandarin), Shen Shi Ai (God is Love-Mandarin), He's Got The Whole World in His Hands, Wake Up Sleepyhead, Who is the King of the Jungle, and many many more... He's really happy singing songs and we usually use song singing to cheer him up when he is throwing tanthrums too. But never sing Rockabye Baby and Home on the Range, he hates them. He used to cry whenever we sing, now he is able to express his disapproval by saying,"mai, mai" (don't want in Teochew). Don't ask me why he dislike these songs, I have absolutely no clue. He used to dislike Edelwise too, but no longer now.

Ezekiel enjoys music, and gets all excited and thrilled when he sees a piano, keyboard, violin or for that matter, any musical instruments. He always insists that my mum switches my sister's keyboard on for him to play with whenever he's at my mum's place. He saw someone playing the violin on TV last night and was grinning.

He is quite a linguist too. He is able to say body parts in English, can point to his body parts when being asked in Mandarin. He is tri-lingual in Teochew, English and Mandarin. For Cantonese, I think he is still trying to pick it up as we cannot provide an environment for Cantonese speaking being non Cantonese speakers.

Ezekiel is also quite a dictator, he would ask us to "off TV" whenever he wants us to leave home for my mum's place for dinner, or "off light" and "on light" when he want to exit or enter a room. He would automatically switch off the fan in his bedroom when he walks out of his room on his own. If he sees something on the table or cupboard which are out of his reach, he would demand that we carry him, so things get more "accessible". And when one method doesn't work, he would turn around and still attempt to achieve his objective through other ways and means. When we pray with him during meal times or before bedtime, he would insist that we bow our heads, clasp our fingers together and pray attentively together as a family. If one member of the family is missing, he would call out to the missing member till he / she appears and partake in the prayer. He knows that the study room is out of bounds, so when he sees the door to the room open, he would ask us to shut it. The same goes for the kitchen door when the washing machine is in operation as my mum habitually shuts the kitchen door to prevent the loud noise from waking Ezekiel if he is asleep. My mum's daily routine would start with putting our clothes into the washing machine to wash in the morning, so Ezekiel happily gets himself involved by loading the clothes from the laundry basket into the washing machine drum. When the washing process is completed, he would help to pull the clean laundry out from the machine. Ezekiel would also remind my mum to turn off the stove when the kettle boils saying, "zhwee gun liao" (in Teochew). Hahaha..

He has a keen sense of taste as well, he would spit out fish or food when it does not taste good to him or when it is not fresh. He has outgrown his regular toys now and prefers to play with my utensils. He is very good with dismantling things (even for things that he has not touched previously), so good with his hands that my mum thinks he will make a good technician, much to my dismay. We were at a bookstore once and he picked up 2 sets of body parts toys with yucky things like internal organs and skeletons. He was so happy and was saying,"nice" with a grin on his face and walking away with them at the same time. He was also quite attracted by the backbone skeleton in our family doctor's clinic too. I wonder what he will be when he grows up, a technician, doctor, musician or ..... (I don't know what..) *Sigh*

Hmm.. Ezekiel is ill again..

2008-10-17T13:29:00.003+08:00

Ezekiel fell ill on Tuesday 14 October 2008. He was having his runny nose and a bit of cough with a husky voice. He could sleep well for the past 2 days so his dark circles are darker than usual..

He refused to take his medication and does not have a very good appetite. Weixin and I are also falling ill soon, with both of us having sore throats..

But on the brighter side, Ezekiel was very happy when he got to wear Samuel's (my brother) red jumper when he was a baby. Ezekiel had always wanted to wear the red jumper, and when he wore it yesterday, he was very happy and kept saying that it was his uncle (gugu)'s clothes. So cute...

Ezekiel could read numbers now, he could say "1" when he sees one. He could also sing along some Christian children songs and nursery rhymes that we usually sing. He could even sometimes help to punctuate the songs at certain points. He could also clap to the rhythem of songs and could piece simple jigsaw puzzles together.

He could also tell us he wants to go out by wanting to wear his socks and shoes. He would tell us he wants to go home by wearing his shoes and demanding for the keys, then he would say,"go home" either in English or Teochew. When he is looking for something and couldn't find something, he would say,"Zai Na Li?" (where is it?)

Last Saturday when we went into the lift of my mother-in-law's place, he told the neighbours to "mang mang kiia" (to walk slowly in Teochew, as if to ask them to take good care!) when they went out of the lift. We are totally amused and couldn't help but laugh out loud on the spot! Hahahah! He would normally call out to my neighbour's youngest daughter, and now, the little jiejie who normally don't respond, also started to call out to him "di di" (little brother). So we would see the two children calling jiejie and didi to each other, quite an interesting sight. So cute...

Yippee! Ezekiel can walk!!!

2008-10-02T13:13:00.004+08:00

Our little boy can walk now (after all the waiting) at 18 months old!! His first steps took place on 26 Sep 2008 (Friday) - on the first day of the F1 festivities!

My 2 young cousins - Joie and Jon came to my mum's place on that night and when Ezekiel saw them at the doorway, he got so excited that he stood up and walked towards Jon to welcome him!! Then he was very proud and excited that he could walk and kept walking and screaming at the same time in the house! We were all so happy and excited!!

When Ezekiel could stand on his own without support on 19 Sep 08, we suspect that he might be able to walk soon. So ta-da! He is able to do that now. Even though he is still crawling most of the time, we are confident it will be no time when he grows to be accustomed to the motion of walking.

Temperaments wise, his moods swing as fast as a wink of an eye. He could be very happy one moment and crying the next, most of the time, it's due to him not getting the things that he would like to lay his little hands on.

He is quite musically inclined. He now sings and follows us (in bits and pieces) whenever we sing nursery rhymes to him. And he loves looking at books, even though he doesn't spend a long time at each book. He shakes his buttocks according to the beats of music. He can say alot of things in a mixed of languages in Teochew, English and Mandarin like, spectacles, opening door, eating, water, etc.

He is super friendly to our neighbours and their daughter and kept calling her "jie-jie" whenever our door is open. He will want to wear his shoes and go out. He also understands that the study room is out of bounds to him and therefore will not try to get into it. He can now say, monkey, giraffe, dog, birds when he sees them in his book and even attempt to put simple jigsaw pieces together! We would also want to try to bring to a baby prom by SSO and see how he reacts.. Hee hee hee...

Lalalala...I went overseas!

2008-09-12T14:13:00.004+08:00

Hi everyone! All Ezekiel lovers, get ready to love him even more!! Hee hee hee!

Let's see what our little imp is up to lately...

Ezekiel went on his first overseas trip recently on 30 - 31 Aug 08 to Batam. As parents of a toddler who couldn't walk, we had a hard time. The 45 mins ferry to Batam wasn't that enjoyable, we had his barang barang to carry and the seats in the ferry wasn't exactly spacious and clean, and Ezekiel made it worse by constantly trying to get down from our laps to "walk-walk" in his term. My my.... He doesn't want to sit in his pram while waiting for our rooms to be allocated in the hotel and kept wanting to "walk-walk". So one of us would have to bring him to "walk-walk" while the other looked after our luggage and wait for the room key. He saw a double bass in the hotel lounge and kept plucking its strings. He was quite delighted at the sound made and plucked away happily..

In the hotel room, the floor was dirty so we kept his crawling on the bed else he would have to walk with support of the furniture near him. He played with the phone, TV, pillows, whatever he can get his hands on. He was terribly tired in the afternoon and fell asleep, we too, fell asleep after all that activity with him. There was a mini zoo in the courtyard of the hotel that we stumble upon during our stroll after our nap. Ezekiel went "por por por" as soon as he saw the hens. We were certainly amused.

He was very popular with Weixin's colleagues (this was actually Weixin's company trip) and alot of his colleagues played with Ezekiel and offered to carry him. Even the tour guides liked him too. He would appear to ponder on whether he should accept their invitation to carry before he let them do so. Ezekiel was very "PR" too, he kept calling older boys "gor-gor" and aunties "auntie" and uncles "uncle". Weixin's boss' younger son liked Ezekiel very much that he would played with him whenever he sees him. After dinner, Ezekiel was looking out to sea and said,"boat". We looked hard and saw a ship very far away with green flickling light passing by. Mm.. this boy is observant. We asked him if there were stars in the sky and he would point to the sky and said,"there". Indeed, there were alot of stars in the sky as there was no "light pollution". So we asked him if there was any moon, he replied,"bor" (meaning "no" in Teochew).

Ezekiel fell asleep quite early that night. Snoring loudly and sleeping between Weixin and I, he kept shoving and pushing me to the edge of the bed, else he would be kicking me in the face. Otherwise, he would give a cry when his pacifier fell out or the bolster went out of his reach. I didn't sleep well that night. The next day, it seems that Ezekiel didn't sleep well too, he cried on the bus and slept when we went on the day tour and needed to get down the bus from time to time. He was sleeping but the driver needed to shut the engine down. We had no choice but to move him down as quietly and as carefully as we could. Ezekiel was also greeted by Indonesian ladies in the shopping centre as they cooed at how cute he is. We finally head for the way home. On the ferry, we saw some ships and I asked him to say,"ship" and the most funny thing happened, he immediately imitated the sound of a sheep. Hahaha, I was so amused but I corrected him, I said,"ship, not sheep". He went,"meh-meh-meh" again, as if to correct me. Then he asked for neh neh (milk) but I "acted blur" and starred at him for a moment, meeting my gaze and probably wondering why there was no reaction from me, he smiled. The rest of the journey was still bearable, as compared to the ferry to Batam. Though we were terribly tired, but we enjoyed the experience and treasured the time spent with Ezekiel anyway.

Yeah! I've got new shoes!

2008-08-12T13:58:00.002+08:00

Hi! It's been quite sometime that I have last wrote an update on Ezekiel. So here I am, providing a summary below (as best as I can):

18 Jul 08 - saw Ezekiel going under the sofa to retrieve a toy that has gone under
19 Jul 08 - He is able to say "nana" when he sees a banana
20 Jul 08 - He can say "beat"
22 Jul 08 - he knows what is dirty and will throw things into the waste paper basket when he is being told to.

We have lost track of what words Ezekiel is able to pronounce, as long as the word is not too difficult and is within 1 - 3 syllabus, he should be able to say it. Now that he knows what dirty means, he would sometimes try to get his hands dirty so we will bring him to the tap and wash his hands.

Over the National Day weekend, we brought him out for choir practice and thankfully, he was behaving quite well during the practice. This boy really knows how to attract attention to himself, so he was quite popular with the choir members. We brought him out shopping later and bought him a harness so we could use it when he can walk. He likes the bear on the harness and even hugged it like a stuffed toy.

Ezekiel is growing stronger with strength. Sometimes we will need both Weixin and I to control his movements especially when he is throwing tantrums and rolling about. He bit me on the shoulder on last Sunday and refused to let go, causing my shoulder to be bruised. My! He was like a German Shepherd, bit me so hard and even tiny bits of my skin came off! So we ignored him later and it seems that he knew he was in the wrong and fell asleep later without us patting him. Later in the evening, we brought him out for dinner and we bought him a pair of new shoes that would squek at every step he takes. He likes the sound it made and therefore, likes the new shoes he got.

He always lose his temper when we dragged him out of his bath tub after bathing him. He would kicked and cried like nobody's business. But when I bathed him yesterday, I told him that I am giving him a last shower on his head and body, then I carried him out. Amazingly, he did not throw any tantrums so we gathered that his little boy needs to be prepared and 'pre-empt' that his bathing session would be ending soon so he is not 'removed' from his favourite activity (bathing). Ezekiel can finally say his name in Chinese, Xijie. We were so proud of him when he could say his own name finally! Ezekiel is also learning to walk, though he cannot walk on his own, at least he is trying now. He can also unscrew caps, tries to open car doors and turn door knots now, talking about defeating systems...hmm.....

Lalalala... I'm a big boy now!

2008-07-15T13:08:00.002+08:00

Ezekiel is 16 months today. This cheeky boy of ours, is a delight and a pain (sometimes), mostly delightful to be with.

Our boy can recognise alphabets like M, L, E, G, W and when we sing the ABC song, he will end the song with "me" in the correct pitch when I sing the phrase, "now I know my ABC, next time won't you sing with __" . He is quite good with musical tones too, when we sing "do re mi fa so la ti" he could almost follow with the tones except for "ti" which might be a bit high or difficult for him. He can also say,"hold" when he wants to hold his milk bottle and "take out" when he wants us to help him remove something.

He has the ability to notice the little things around him. He would look at the moving leaves on trees, the moving clouds when the wind blows, the star on a little girl's dress on his rubber mat.. I think the ability to appreciate the little details in our lives is a gift, this is something that I lack, but a gift that he has inherited from his daddy. Weixin would not fail to notice the shape of the clouds or how nice the light piercing though the clouds is, the stars above our heads at night... I am often preoccupied with the BIG picture only, so this precious gift from God ought to be treasured.

We had a gathering with our missionary friends last night and it was also a birthday celebration for one of our brothers in the group. When we were singing the birthday song, Ezekiel saw the lighted candle on the cake and began trying to blow the candle even though he was so far from the cake! That was such a funny sight! But we can see that he understood the relationship between a birthday cake and blowing of candles. There was an inhouse playground in the restaurant and he kept pointing and crying that he wants to go back there to play. He was so excited to see kids older than him in the restaurant and kept making noise to attract their attraction. Ezekiel is one happy friendly kid. Later in the night, he was tired and grew edgy. He refused to let one of our sister touch his book when we sent her and her husband back. But he remained well-behaved when I chatted with her on the journey. Ezekiel was actually 'self-entertaining' (like me) with images which passes his sight.

Ezekiel is having some greenish eye discharge these 2 days which our pediatric doctor friend said was a mild eye infection. Ezekiel also refuses to let us touch his eyes to clean them. Hope that he recovers quickly..

We are planning to start teaching him the alphabetic order as well as the music theory since he proves to be a 'sponge' for absorbing new things... Hee hee..

Do Re Mi..

2008-07-04T13:33:00.004+08:00

Ezekiel is learning to sing now! We were in the car, on the way to AMK Hub when I heard him making some noise but not exactly baby babble and looking out at things from his window at the same time. Then I realised he is singing as the 'babble' came along with different notes.. Hahaha! I was so amazed and immediately asked Weixin to take note.

He is also tall enough to pull down his birthday cards that we stick onto our bomb shelter's metal door with magnets. He never fails to dance or move his body or booty whenever he hears music with distinctive tempo. When I call him "Xiao Ke Ai" (Little cutie), he would also respond with, "Ai-ai". So cute leh...

He is also able to stretch his left/right hands or legs out for us to dress him and if we are slow in getting him dressed, he will normally show his impatience by making noise. He is also able to point to some body parts and name the part he is pointing to. So far, he can say,"ear, mouth, nose, hands and legs". He is also able to associate shoes and socks with legs.

When my brother called home the other night, my sister asked Ezekiel to call gugu (uncle), he did. But my sister thinks that it is not loud enough, she instructed Ezekiel to call louder, and upon receiving the "order", he gave a loud and delibrate "guguuuuuu". Hahaha, we were so amazed and amused at the same time.

This week, poor Ezekiel hasn't been sleeping much as there were some renovation works going on on the unit below ours. The drilling and knocking has been too loud for him to fall asleep so he was not exactly in good mood nowadays..

I am a linguist! Hee hee hee...

2008-06-27T08:50:00.002+08:00

Little Ezekiel has indeed shown grown and development in his speech. From a baby who only can cry to express his wishes, he can now sometimes put it into words. We have to make it a point to be careful of what we adults say as he tends to pick up phrases easily.

On tuesday 24 June, it was my mum's birthday and he was taught to say,"Happy Birthday!" We thought it should be difficult for him to pronounce but to our surprise, he could actually say "birthday!" with such a smile on his face. And if you think that he didn't know what birthday is all about, you are wrong. At a tender age of 15 months, he could associate birthday with birthday cards, cakes and blowing of candles! He even pointed to the birthday cards he received for his first birthday when he said,"birthday!"

He can also relate "house" to the whole plot of private houses that our flat overlooks to. Recently, he kept saying "6565" in Teochew, and my dad, an avid believer of lottery, picked that up as a sign of winning lottery, ended up spending a lot of money banking on that number but never won anything : (

He could also say certain words in Mandarin like cat (mao1) or numbers 1 - 10. He was also able to say 1 - 10 and hungry (hue) in Thai, repeating after us. On Wednesday night, when we were trying to put him in bed, he began repeating after his dad, words in Cantonese, like good (hou), his nickname in Cantonese (Kit Zai), little fellow (zai zai), sleep (fan gao) etc. Although his pronounciation in Mandarin is not as accurate as English, Teochew and Cantonese. I think it is good enough.

Last Sunday, at my grandma's birthday celebration, he was making everyone so happy. He could address my aunt as grand aunt in Teochew (Lao gou) which I didn't expect him to be able to so. I thought he could only call people with repetitive names like gugu in Teochew (gou gou). Then when he want to go jalan-jalan, he would tell my aunt to go "gai gai". He could also call uncle in Teochew (cheaj cheaj), and knows how to demand food from me, saying "mum mum" (baby language for eating). My grandma was so happy seeing him talking so much.

Physical wise, Ezekiel is not growing very big but as long as he is healthy, I am thankful. He is learning how to walk now and will say, "Walk, walk, walk" when he is walking because we taught him a Christian song "Walking with Jesus" and he also like to say/sing the chorus part which begins with, "Walk walk walk in the light". He is also more confident in standing now, he used to support himself on both arms whereas now, he can make do with little support on one arm against a wall or table or chair.

This little imp is starting to throw tantrums by hitting his own head when we chided him for doing something wrong. But he can say "sorry" when being asked to apologise. He could also say "thank you" when being asked to. Glad that he could pronounce quite so many words in a few languages. He is like a sponge now, with the ability to absorb a lot of new knowledge but we also hope impart godly values into this young life.

What a 15 month old Ezekiel is capable of..

2008-06-16T13:20:00.003+08:00

Hi everyone! It's Ezekiel Herald Times again!

Ezekiel has turned 15 months old yesterday (15 Jun 08) and of course, there are new developments from the last update. Our cutie pie is experiencing and exploring new things each and every day, so let us share what he has learnt..

He woke up a happy boy yesterday when I greeted him with a song," Wake up, Sleepyhead". He was in good mood and we cleaned him to get him ready to go to church. After getting dressed, he was pointing to his jumper with a big Pooh Bear face on it and started saying, "nice, nice" with a bigh smile on his face. He meant to say that his clothes are good looking and he liked them.

Then we board my sister's car to go to church. On the way to church, he pointed to his clothes and said,"nice, nice, nice" to my sister. He was asking her whether his clothes are nice? My goodness, we all realised this little imp is so vain! Hahaha! But we were quite amused too, my brother was saying Ezekiel will definitely dress himself up when he is older and capable of making decisions.

He can now say,"thank you" and "sorry" when being asked to. But his "sorry" is so soft that we could hardly hear it. He can also be quite a screeching monster when things don't go his way or when he is being denied of something that he demanded for. We pray that the Lord gives us wisdom and patience in teaching him the right way.

Ezekiel is quite a "Stitch" too. (If you have watched "Lilo and Stitch", you would know what I mean). I would sometimes, out of fun, stack some of his wooden shape blocks on top of one another into a tower and whenever he spotted one tower building in progress, he will definitely sweep his arm across in the fastest speed he can manage! And there! Another tower collapsed! Whenever he reads a magazine, newspaper, or book, it will normally start with a fascination with either a picture or texture etc and the page will be torn in no time, irregardless of which degree of first attraction that brought his attention to the object. So all his books, toys or in fact, anything that comes into contact with him, will be defaced, torn, dismantled, suffer some kind of disfiguration in a matter of time. Yah, you've guessed, we sometimes nickname him "Stitch".

His meals are ok but he always require the person who feed him to be a patient figure. Make him angry or agitated, he will refuse his food and make a mess out of the food fed to him by spitting it out on his hand, then soiled his clothes and rubbed his eyes with his dirty hands, not forgetting dirtying the floor! He sometimes also experience difficulty moving bowels, so we started feeding him with fruits.

Well, we are not 'stressed' by Ezekiel all the time. There are fun times too! For one, our little one enjoys bathing times, and he has started showering instead of bathing in a bathtub. He would kick and splashed water on us that when he is done bathing, we sort of have "bathed' with him too. We were thinking that this boy surely enjoy swimming when he is able to. He is sensitive to music too. He would rock to music whenever he hears them and sometimes about to clap to the tempo! He is also able to sign for some of the Christian children songs we taught him, which is a joy to watch, as this is the fruit of many months of demonstration. He is able to fit and put the shape blocks into the appropriate openings. He is also quite creative, he would try to "trial and error" by putting a round shape into a hexagon opening and when he is able to fit in, he tries that on other shapes as well. Talk about thinking out of the box these days...

He is also quite good at saying no like me. ; ) And would say, "nice" to things that he sees and liked. On the whole, he has quite a mind of his own and even make a lot of noise/din so as to get our butts going when he wants to go home (when we are out). What a boy.....

I am 14 months old now! Yippee!

2008-05-16T15:01:00.003+08:00

Hi, Ezekiel is 14 months and 1 day old today. He can now say double syllabus words like,"lantern, no more, bible, purple, baby, auntie, lion, monkey, bottle, ngn ngn (for moving vowels), pong pong (for bathing), pi pi (for buttocks) etc and also single syllaby words like bus, car, star, milk etc. His linguistic development has been good so far, he could follow almost every single or double syllabus word we teach him to say, as long as it is not too difficult to pronounce. I must say, he is good at his age. Thank you Lord!!

I was trying to pat him to sleep 2 nights ago and I was trying to cut him off from the pacifier. So I asked him to sleep and passed him his bolster. He lie down as per instructed but got up again almost immediately, asking for his 'tu-tu' (pacifier). He sat up on his bed and began searching the entire bed for his tutu. I actually hid the pacifier behind my back and he was saying, "tutu, tutu" all the way as he made his comb. When he realised that his tutu is not on the bed (even when the lights were off and the room was only litted by the light from the living room, so it was not exactly bright), he looked at me and started asking me for his tutu. I told him that since he threw away his tutu earlier, I would not know where it is. He went back to searching his bed again, saying tutu, tutu again. When he confirmed that it was really not on his bed, he asked me for his tutu again. I told him I don't have it. He then looked at me intently and looked beyond me and started saying, "tutu, tutu, tutu" with a pleading tone. I realised this little boy has really sharp eyes, when I shifted my body abit when I insisted that I don't have his tutu, he spotted that behind me on the bed! So I had no choice but to give it to him!

We were trying to wash him and prepare him for bed last night when he beat me twice. I asked him to say sorry but he broke into a loud wailing and wouldn't stop for 15 mins! He should be capable of pronouncing, "sorry" but just simply refused and continue wailing. I asked Weixin to take him out from his room so he could calm down and stop crying. Instead of going softer on his crying, he wailed even louder!! I realised he might have misunderstood that I don't love him anymore and asked for him to be brought to me. He sat down with me and I explained that it is okie to make mistakes but he must apologise for his mistakes. I will still love him even when he is wrong and asked him to say sorry. But he started crying again so I hugged him and patted him. Think it's high time to teach him to say sorry and not be so prideful about saying sorry. *Sigh* he is so young and yet so prideful, may the Lord teach him to be a good child who is not afraid to admit his mistakes. May we as parents, also have wisdom to educate, teach and guide this precious gift from God whom we have been called to be good and faithful guardians. Amen!

Hey! I'm finally ONE year old, you know! (Episode 2)

2008-04-21T13:52:00.005+08:00

Hi, everyone, it's been a long time since the last update of Ezekiel. Do you miss him and would like to know how our little angel look like now?
Ezekiel is now 13 months old! How time flies! Our angel was borned with a whopping weight of 4.6kg! All thanks to the good appetite that I've been blessed with during pregnancy, thank God that I didn't have diabetes! I still miss seeing the cutie chubby baby who put both his hands under chin for his very first photo shoot in the delivery ward. He was late in his arrival into this world and I remembered sending off our church's mission team on my due date. When the team members asked me when he is due, I said, "today? I know he is likely to be late." Hee hee...

He was induced initially but when the dilation took a long time, I wasted no time by requesting for a caesarean. My sister said I was so gungho and to think I can still calculate costs on whether to go for 100% or 90% anthesetics in pain!! Anyway, Ezekiel's first 2 days in this world were graced by alot of visitors namely alot of our relatives and close friends! We also received alot of blessings via SMSes! Even the nurses were saying how cute he looked! When my dad chuckled at him, he tried to imitate! He was able to look in the direction of those who spoke in his presence even though his vision was not clear yet.

Weixin was nervous and excited when he first saw Ezekiel and mine was, "oh, ok, he's out." Then I fell back into sleep as I was still under the effect of anthestatics. When I regain consciousness the following day, I tried breastfeeding and it was so painful because Ezekiel sucked like a super high suction vacuum cleaner! No one ever told me that breastfeeding was painful, they only mentioned the advantages of it, so I was not mentally prepared for the pain! On the 3rd day, I tried to pull of the urinal and going to the washroom was one painful process! The walk to Ezekiel's nursery has been the most difficult, painful long walk I had ever experienced!

Ezekiel was borned with slight jaundice and so blood was drawn from his little heel for testing of jaundice level for the days spent in the hospital. Thank the Lord and he could be discharged with me. On the 4th day when both Ezekiel and I were to be discharged, his daddy forgot prepare his milk and my milk supply had not come yet, so our poor Ezekiel cried all the way from hospital, to NTUC (to buy milk powder) and then back home! My mum even had to put her thumb into his mouth to pacify his crying!

In the nights that followed, Ezekiel was sleeping in the day and crying in the night! It almost drove Weixin and I crazy! I think he was being colicky and the crying was so bad it lasted the whole night and sometimes sounded like he was in great pain! We were nomally exhausted by the day break! Luckily, Weixin's mum was there to help in the night when she was helping out for my confinement.. I tried to breastfeed Ezekiel then, but the milk flow went down drastically when I had fever during confinement and I stopped breastfeeding for 2 days. Before that, he was sucking so much that he was finding comfort in sucking! So when the milk flow declined, he refused to suck and screamed and cry whenever we tried to force him. So the milk flow just died out over time like that... I couldn't give him the best....*sob*, *sob*...

I have missed out on the records of our boy's developments as I lost the diary that I recorded his developments in. But I remembered them roughly, so I will write as I could remember. Ezekiel could turn his body at 2.5 months, a feat that doctor had said that heavier babies could not turn so easily as their heavy body prevent them from being agile. But he did it before due time (3mths old). He was a baby with his own mind even when he was so young. He determined the way he liked to be carried even when he was a few days old. He didn't like lying on the cushion on the wooden living sofa set, he would cry to exhibit his discomfort.

He tricked me into believing that he didn't want me to carry him when I offer to at times. It was only after some time that I discovered that he was kidding me as he would turn his face from me to smile secretly when he refuse my offer!! That was when he was only 3 months old! He always smiles bashfully when he farts or when he hears a fart as if he knows it is embarassing to fart out loud...Such a fun boy to be with..

Hey! I'm finally ONE year old, you know! (Episode 1)

2008-03-16T23:36:00.005+08:00

Yes, Ezekiel has turned one year old yesterday. Looking back, the journey of conceiving him, delivering him and raising him has been one full of thanksgiving. Time really flies...

I had never expected of becoming pregnant on our first serious attempt for child bearing, but upon God's abundant grace, I didn't have to go on a painful path of countless attempts to get pregnant. The entire pregnancy process was filled with its ups and downs too. I was bleeding since day 2 that I found out about the pregnancy, went to A&E department on the very same night, and then countless visits to gynae for jabs to stabilise the pregnancy till the 2nd trimester. Injections was one of my worse fears in doctor visitations, but God made me go through it with strength bestowed by Him. To keep my baby no matter what, I went through it. I discovered a tiny cyst which caused the constant bleeding and removed it by another gynae when my usual one went on holiday in my 2nd trimester. The biggest miracle is during the delivery of Ezekiel. When I could no longer bear with the slow dilation and it proved to be quite impossible to deliver since I had such a big tummy (so the baby is likely to be too big to be delivered naturally), I chose to go for Caesarean delivery, my gynae discovered that I had a tumour of 5cm in diameter in my wound which has a 20% possibility of turning cancerous. He removed the tumour subsequently. God really had an unique way of saving me. I could see His hands in my life in the run of events! Thank you Lord!

Of course, being pregnant was also a blissful process. I want to give credits to all my family and friends who have helped me and took such good care of me. My parents who cooked me nutritious dinner every night and brought me food when I was on long medical leave at home, especially my mum, dad and sister who prayed hard for me when I was so fearful of miscarriage. My mother-in-law was a great, great help to me, she boiled herbal soup for me, also visited me very often to buy lunches and do housework for me (so paiseh, I was so big sized that I had difficulty moving). Most of all, my hubby, who has been with me all the way, massaged my back and legs, prayed with me when I was fearful and worried and took great care of me, bringing to me to nice restaurants for meals because I couldn't stand the smell of cooking food! He always wake up in the middle of the night to make me milk and bread because I was always hungry even when sleeping! He even helped me make sure that my sleeping posture was comfortable enough and read me and baby bedtime stories. He was there for all gynae appointments, something that most husbands can't do, so what more can I ask for? Hee hee...I know how blessed I am! My relatives would encourage me, give me tonics and teach me prenatal education methods. My ex-colleagues at TeleChoice would bring me out to different venues for lunch, so I won't be bored with eating the same food over and again! Our church friends are always concerned on how I am getting on with the pregnancy. Lu Zheng and Yenting even lent us a bible for pregnancy so we could refer to it anytime we have quiries, along with Xiangping and Pastor Wong Ling, they have truly been a great source of strength! Our choir members have been very concerned and prayed along with us throughout my pregnancy even though I was on long leave since 2nd trimester.

To God, my family and friends, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart!!
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Following up on Episode 2 very soon, author going to bed now...zzzz.....

Watch Out for Me!

2008-03-05T16:54:00.002+08:00

Now that the Chinese New Year is over, our dear darling has never failed to surprise us with his latest development. Over the last 2 weeks (22 Feb - 4 Mar 08), the following are the new findings (hee hee):

He is able to press doorbells and lift buttons
While standing, he is able to slowly squat down and crawl away
He was able to blow a whistle and removing its strip out from around his neck
He could play hide and seek on his own initiative with us
After stopping calling "mama"(mummy), he starts to call me again! ; )
He could push sliding doors and able to open my sister's sliding cupboard door (oh no!)
He was also having a lot of fun pressing the buttons of the fan's remote control at my mum's place
And when he crawl, he could push a chair concurrently
Sometimes when we leave my mum's place after dinner, he would want everyone in the household to hug him before he departs home for bedtime. zzzzz.....
When he hasn't get enough sleep, he would not want to wake up when we try to wake him by lazing around in bed. hmm...
He would now extend his arms out for us to put his arms through his sleeves while dressing him (whether he is happy to change or not! Commentable... ; ))
Whenever he is able to reach the door knots when we carry him, he could and would try to turn the knot (he will be able to open doors when he can walk and reach the door knots)
He could pronounce quite a few words now, like ma3 (for horse), book (on 29 Feb), bird and call my sister "yi1" for auntie in Teochew (on 2 Mar) and definitely will call my mum "ma4" in Teochew automatically when he sees her. Of course, not forgetting he also does the same to Weixin's mother since she loves him so much. Hee hee... He could also say "oh-oh" whenever he hear dogs barking (7 Mar).
He has a new tactic to indicate that he doesn't want milk: search for his pacifier (which is normally nearby) and quickly put into his mouth while refusing milk, all at the same time!! He could actually the location of his pacifier! We were very amused by his reaction because he normally starts to cry and make noise at bedtime when we are dressing him so we gave him the pacifier. After finishing with the dressing, we would then give him a bottle of milk, so at the sight of the milk, he would remove the pacifier from his mouth using his tongue. And you know the rest of the story.....
And there's this action that he enjoys: When you say,"Ning-nang-pong", he would twist his wrist and smile at the same time. So cute right? It's ok, we love him too!!! Hahahaha!

Happy New Year! Gong Xi Gong Xi!

2008-02-21T08:55:00.000+08:00

Our little guy has yet new developments! Now that he is already 11 months old, he can now stand for quite a substantial amount of time with support. He was standing with support from a coffee table at my mum's place last night when we watched our TV serial and he was there, playing with everything in his sight on the table top. From the new year goodies to the remote controls, he was touching everything! There was a funny sight when he crawled on the floor and was reversing himself under the coffee table! He seems to know which are the things that are important to us. Like a remote control (from a spoilt LCD player) that my mum gave him to play, he would fiddle with it for a few seconds before moving on to other remote controls that could work! We were preparing for him for bedtime last night and he saw his bottle of milk ready for feeding, so he took the pacifier in his mouth out and placed it at the side of the bed. But as soon as he had enough milk and didn't want us to feed him anymore, he fought to refuse his milk and struggled to bend over to the side of the bed, and guess what? To look for his pacifier he left there earlier and put it in his mouth!! To summarise what he has been up to recently for this Chinese New Year festive season.. He started to clap his hands (rather than holding our hands to clap) on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year 8 Feb 08 and holding his hands as if to say, "gong xi gong xi" for the entire new year period. When we went over to visit Weixin's Da Guma (eldest aunt), he was playing with the cover of her new year goodie container. She hid it from him later and he was looking all over her to look for the cover, Da Guma was so amused by his reaction! She was sending us off at the lift when Ezekiel was asked to say goodbye and he duly did so along with gong xi gong xi and clapping his hands. He was happy when he did all that but when we were still not moving off, he became agitated (as if to say,"I've already show-hand all I could do, and why are you still standing there for?!!!) and started to scream!! Da Guma understood his reaction and was laughing when she said we should be getting on our way. Think she must have liked Ezekiel... When we went for new year visitations, Ezekiel was given angbaos and he would accept the angbaos, often refusing to pass to me for safekeeping! There were occasions that he would pass the angbaos to me and will look in my direction to check if it is ok to accept when our relatives gave things to him. His speech developments is getting on fine, he could now call ma-ma (4th tone, for grandma) but refused to call Papa or Mama at times. He would also imitate sounds made by us sometimes. He was seeing the TV characters doing monkey faces and shaking their heads, and he imitated them by shaking his head as well!! This little angel really brings smiles to our faces a lot of times...hee hee..

Ezekiel finally called me Mama!! ; )

2008-02-06T11:36:00.000+08:00

Last Friday 1 Feb 07, we brought Ezekiel to Weixin's eldest gu-ma's place for a family reunion. As we've guessed, he's popular with everyone present and almost all the elders had carried him. He responded very well to all and had a good time with his cousins. He even showed affection for Phoebe, one of the cousins, by sayang-ing her. On that night, he actually said,"ye-ye"(cantonese for grandpa).

The next day 2 Feb 08, he finally called me Mama!!! I was so happy! I've been waiting for him to call me. Now that he does, I am just so happy!! He was also able to suck in his cheeks to make monkey faces. To get the things on the table out of his reach, he would pull the table cloth to attain his objective.

On Sunday, after church service, he saw Jon eating titbits and he pulled his t-shirt to try to snatch the titbits from him or by patting his shoulder. My, he displayed such gluttony even at such young age! He was able to show affection to a 5 month old Yujia (Lihuan & Zhiqian's lovely son) by holding his hand and touching his face with his own.

Ezekiel could now shift his buttock voluntarily whenever we are looking for the buckle on his baby car seat. He cried for the first time when he was awaken and interrupted from his nap, something that he has never done in the past when we wake him up. I guess he was really tired. On the way to my grandma's place for dinner that night, I was feeding him bread and to ensure that he finishes each mouthful before the next, I would request to check his mouth, and he understood my intention and opened his mouth upon each request!! Amazing, isn't he?

Last night 5 Feb 08, we were playing with him before bedtime. Weixin and I were making some self invented rymthm and Ezekiel was sitting on me and he started shaking his bums according to the beat! Looks like he's got a good sense of music and this is a good start to his music training eh? ; )

The weekend that Mummy and Papa went away...

2008-02-01T13:32:00.000+08:00

So what have our little angel been up to lately?

Well, we went to Hanoi for weekend getaway and boy, how I miss him! This is the first time that I don't get to see him for several days. He doesn't seem aware that we are not in town and will not be coming home. But when I called home the following night on friday, mum put the phone on speaker mode, he heard my voice and refused to go to sleep that night! The next day, he continued to be restless and went to bed late even on Sunday 27 Jan 08 night, as if he is staying awake to wait for us to come back.

The next morning 28 Jan 08, I woke up at 9am plus even though I slept at only almost 3am as I really miss him so much. Knowing that he is awake, I went out from my bedroom and he was so happy to see me that he was almost jumping in his walker and immediately stretched his arms to signal me to carry him!

Realised when he says,"da-da", he was actually saying "ma-ma" (addressing me). In the evening, I reaslised that he could blow a whistle when my sister taught him how to do so. He could also cling onto a chair to stand up. Moving from one end of the playpen to another with support was also no problem for him. My, he has really grown! He could also sling the strap attached to the whistle around his neck and remove it!

I was really delighted at his development but then he still like to beat me or anyone who is carrying him. *Sigh*

Papa!

2008-01-22T09:10:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel finally called "Papa" on 16 Jan 08, the day after he turns 10 months!

We were so happy and he shows off by constantly going,"papa, papa, papa"!

Now he can stand with support in playpen and rock himself! When I bathed him on Sunday 20 Jan 08, he was beating the water so hard, my hair and t-shirt was wet after that! He can now make contact with strangers in lift in public places by smiling at them and waving goodbye to them. (his way of waving goodbye is by opening and closing up his palm while holding his arm up, so cute!!)

Last night, he got hold of my comb and laughed so happily as he quickly ran out from our bedroom to get out of my sight, as if thrilled that he got the comb and secretly hoping that he won't be caught. This cheeky boy...Going to miss him when we go on a trip to Hanoi this weekend..Sigh...Hope that he will be well and not think of us so much, so that he will not be so sad that mummy and papa are not around with him for these few days..This is our first trip away from him, quite difficult for me as a mother..

Days before 10 months old

2008-01-14T13:26:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel is still down with running nose. But that doesn't stop him from being active.

On Saturday 12 Jan 08, we took him for a haricut and he was very popular with market going aunties who would stop by to say how cute he is. Then while we were having brunch at the market, a primary school girl who is a daughter of one of the stall holders, played with Ezekiel. After a while she walked away for her meal and then came back. When she approached Ezekiel again, Ezekiel raised both his eyebrows as if to ask her where she had been! Even the girl was amazed by his expression!

Of course our dear boy wailed like nobody's business when he was being pinned down for the haircut (the 3rd time for him). But as soon as the haircutting process stopped and we complimented how nice looking he is, he was enjoying his look in the mirror and even looked quite pleased with his new hairdo.

So, he's not just smart, he's a mocker too. I was singing a song to him yesterday in the morning that I learnt from primary school but couldn't quite remember the exact lyrics so that I kept going at the same stanza, so he was laughing at me for not remembering (or whether I know how to sing the song or not?!)! So after cleaning him to get ready for church, I heard a soft whistle but I was not whistling and Weixin asked who was whistling? I was not, neither was Weixin, so it must had been Ezkiel who has his lips shaped like he is whistling!

We went to church later and he got sick of sitting in his pram and started crying. So I reckon that it is time for his bedtime and I carried him up into my arms to pat him to sleep. As soon as he was carried up, he looked back to my aunt who was sitting in the row behind and smiled secretly to her as if happy that his trick of getting out of the pram had worked!

After the service, Jon was showing me the white board he has won in Sunday school and Ezekiel somehow managed to snatch away the marker for the board from Jon and Jon tried to stop him from taking the maker along with my help. But we couldn't make him relase his grip on the maker and had to call to Weixin for help. So Weixin made him open up his fist eventually and retrieve the marker from him. Our little 'Samson' exibiting his strength again...

After that he saw Joie dancing away at a distance and he was so thrilled that he kept kicking his legs and pointing to her with his pointer finger.

In the afternoon, I was clearin his dish after feeding him his porridge, he began to pull the high chair towards him when he was seated in his walker so much so that 2 legs of the high chair was lifted and it rested on his walker.

In the evening when he was at my mum's place, he was sitting on the couch when he started to kneel in an attempt to stand up!! When mum gave me a bank statement that was mailed to her place instead, Ezekiel suddenly snatched the bank statement away and refused to let go. His grip on the statement was so intense that we need Weixin to make let go again! Another snatching episode in a day...

I called home today after lunch and he was with my mother-in-law when she answered my call. So he wanted to snatch the phone away from her as well. Looks like he is 'taking things into his hands'...

Little 'Samson"

2008-01-11T09:24:00.000+08:00

Our little guy is getting strong by the day. I saw him charging into the armchair in the living room in his walker and the result? He succeeded in pushing the armchair to the TV console and changed its position. He also managed to pull the table-top of his high chair while seated in his walker. Sometimes I think he resembles a wild boar charging at his prey when he runs so fast in his walker to charge at us or other objects! Hahahaha!

Ezekiel's communication skills has definitely taken on a higher level. He calls out to people when they have passed by him without stopping to talk to him, so he does that when he seeks for their attention. He can now shake his little cutie head when he says 'no' to food or questions posed to him. So, whoever said that babies are clueless? On the contary, I think they are pretty smart...

New developments..

2008-01-10T09:05:00.000+08:00

Our little baby Ezekiel has yet new developments!

On Tuesday night 8 Jan 08, I was playing with him when I came home from work and he started biting my tummy, then all over! When it was time to go to sleep at night, he was having running nose and could not go to sleep with a blocked nose and on top of that, he refused to not suck his pacifier. So, with the blocked nose and a mouth blocked with his pacifier, he cried all the more louder because he just can't breathe!

So we let him quieten down for a while and it's not long after that the sleepiness left him and he started becoming physically active to start playing. He was so happy and was saying, "jia-jia-jia" all the way. He was even happier when he saw how much we enjoyed his babble. We were all amused and recorded his voice. It was late and he still didn't want to sleep and we told him to lie down on his pillow in the playpen and he duly did so. This boy really can understand what we said! Amazing!

Yesterday, when I was playing with him in the evening, he started tickling me with his head rubbing under my armpit. This little cheeky boy never fails to amuse us with his mischief. When he cried last night before bed, he would looked out into the living room where my mother-in-law was watching TV, to look out for her reaction to his crying (he knew she will come into the room because he is the apple of her eye). Then he would want to get out of my 'clutches' and try to go down from the single bed in his room by himself. I would say he is quite steady in doing that because he can stand on the floor steadily once his feet touched the floor.

Our little angel is ill... : (

2008-01-08T00:03:00.000+08:00

Over the past weekend, Ezekiel was ill. On Friday 4 Jan 08, he was down with diarrhoea of 4 counts in a day (very bad) and then 2 counts in the morning on 5 Jan 08 Saturday. That was when Weixin and I decided to bring to the doc's. To add to the problem, his nappy rash did not subside but threaten to aggravate. It was red with pus but it has progressed to blister-like rash with redness.

We went to Dr Loh's and got some medicine for his diarrhoea and rash. We decided not to go to choir and my foot reflexology session to take care of him. He is ok emotionally, just a bit slow in reacting and always want to be carried more often than normal. He was knocked out after the visit to doc and NTUC and slept quite long after that.

Our baby's diarrhoea reoccur the next day 6 Jan 08, so we decided to give church a miss. He is quite uptight and easily irritated. Screaming when he is not comfortable or when things he wants are taken away from him. He constantly seeked for attention from us.

When we had a short family worship at home, he seemed fascinated by the guitar that Weixin played and tried his hands on it too. He was really plucking the strings that they nearly came off. Quite a strummer he is, I must say! Ezekiel is a music lover and enjoyed it whenever we sing.

We discovered that he not only can stand in his playpen, he can now stand with one hand and on one occasion, no hands! We are proud of this strong little baby who has brought so much joy into our lives and definitely thankful to God for creating such a cute one for us. He can also crawl very fast on the floor now. He would also tried to stand with support from his walker (of course we adults are holding the walker steadily) and was quite proud when we praised him. Even though he is ill, but his behaviour is still manageable. He always kissed my dad voluntarily (why doesn't he do that to me?!).

When I came back home on half day leave today, he was so happy that he dashed so very quickly in his walker wearing the brightest smile to receive me at the door. This really warmed my heart seeing my boy so happy to see his mother even when he is ill.

He can now answer me with a "hmm" when I asked him whether there are cars on the road after taking a glance at the road infront and seeing cars go by. So now whenever we asked something and he is agreeable with what we said, he might answer with "hmm". But the cheeky boy is always up to mischief. While I was bathing him today, he was bending so low till his face touched the water in the tub. I pulled him up and saw his mouth wet that I found that he was drinking from the bath tub!!

He was crawlling on the floor and was touching the floor with his mouth and then, you guess it, he was sucking at the floor! This might be one reason why he has diarrhoea. He was saying something like,"dunno" when we asked him something. He will always smile or laugh loudly when caught farting or he catches others farting. And smiling is one reaction that you would get from him when he is caught in the act of doing some mischief.

Before I went out in the evening, Ezekiel knew that (by the clothes that I've changed into), so he kept wanting me to carry him. This cheeky boy always wants to delay time in times like that. But probably from another angle of view, he wants to spend time with us in case we might be out for long time? I dunno, this is just my guess? We can ask him when he is able to express himself verbally.. Hee Hee..

Summary

2008-01-01T17:33:00.000+08:00

Over the Christmas/New Year Holidays, these are a summary of what Ezekiel has learnt or done:

19 Dec

- He is able to bend down from a sitting position to suck his pacifier (which had its teat was facing up), which shows that he can aim quite accurately.

- He could sit up in bed from a lying down position

- He was in the car seat and when we tried to adjust his seat belt from underneath from buttocks, he had this expression of discomfort all over his face. Hee.. Hee..

20 Dec

- Ezekiel could kneel on his bed with support from his play pen railing! Yippee!

23 Dec

- Wow! Ezekiel could stand with support from his play pen railing! He was so smug about it he kept doing it to show off!

- He was very popular with my relatives when we went for my grandma's birthday celebration that night.

24 Dec

- He has this loop-sided smile when our friends tried to talk to him.

- Ezekiel started on baby canned food and likes the taste of the carrot with sweet potato flavour

25 Dec

- I tried a new trick on Ezekiel, blowing air into his mouth when he tried to kiss me. He didn't liked it and had this unpleasant look on his face when I did that. Shortly after in the evening, he did the same thing back to me, how fast he learnt the trick!!

- When he behaved badly and I scolded him, he remained quiet like a guilty party who knows he is in the wrong...

27 Dec

- Ezekiel can crawl abit without being on his stomach on the floor, but I think he still needs a little more practice on crawling..

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Now that Ezekiel is able to stand, he will stand up on his bed when he refuses to sleep and give you the sweetest smile to decline our invitation for him to rest. He is capable of turning people down politely by smiling to get away from the situation. The best example is, when we ask him to call 'Papa' or 'Mama', he will definitely smile and then forget that we had asked the question.

Today, when he refuses his milk, he will wave 'no' to Weixin to indicate his intention. Oh.. babies nowadays.. (*headache*)

Mm.. I'm enjoying my food!

2007-12-18T00:02:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel has started on some solid food. It was carrot, cod fish and porridge. Yesterday, he tried pumpkin. He did not take a particular liking to it and only had a few mouthfuls but today, he could take more. It was hard feeding him, he is constantly trying to get his hands into the bowl of pumpkin and also touching the spoon going into his mouth. The worse thing was, he will suck into his bib or hanky immediately after taking in a mouthful of pumpkin. So you can imagine what mess it was! When he could not succeed in getting to what he is up to, he breaks into a wail! We will probably try spinach as the next veg..

We went jalan-jalan after church at Raffles City and we were at the supermarket. While we were queuing to make payment for our purchases, there was a boy throwing tantrums and was crying on his mother's shoulder. As his mother was standing in front of us and I was carrying Ezekiel at that time, Ezekiel reached out his hand quite a few times to the boy, as if he wanted to comfort him from the crying. I thought that was very sweet of Ezekiel! He knew how to comfort someone even though he is only a baby himself!

Today I was not at work and he is thrilled that I was at home. He was not drinking well though, he constantly asked for my attention and wanted me to carry him. But I really enjoyed the moments when he hugged and kissed me when I was carrying him. It makes me feel that everything is just worth the effort. He could now lift his body off the floor and attempt to crawl. When I layed out the rubber jigsaw mat today and patting the joints of the pieces to make them even, Ezekiel imitated me and patted the pieces as well.

While he is in his walker, he would really charge at full speed into our master bedroom and study room (which are out of bounds to him) at every opportunity when the doors of these rooms were open. He's really good at this. This evening, while Weixin and I were in the kitchen, (Ezekiel had to stay outside as his walker could not allow him into the kitchen because of the base of the sliding doors), he managed to reverse his walker and then charged full speed to go into the kitchen! He nearly succeeded in getting into the kitchen but managed to get half of his walker onto the kitchen floor. So if he had pushed further, he would have entered the kitchen. But the most amazing thing is, how did he figure that he needs to store potential energy by reversing so he can charge at full speed into the kitchen even with the obstacle? I guess he is really smart loh... Not as innocent as we used to be... *sigh*

Yippe! I have passed my medical examination!

2007-12-16T00:11:00.000+08:00

We were trying to get Ezekiel to crawl to us on the bed last night and had lotsa of fun taking it down on video. When it was my turn to get him to crawl to me, he stretched my arms under his armpits. He hasn't even finish what he was supposed to as it was still some distance to me, so I knew he did that so he could 'cheat' his way out in order not to crawl that far to get me to carry him. Kinda cunning, isn't he?

This morning, we brought him for his medical examination. He passed everything except that he couldn't pull or support himself to a standing position by himself. He weighs at 10.4kg and stands at 70cm now. The growth rate to me, is quite slow, because he only gain nearly 6kg and 15cm from birth after 9 months. He should triple his birth weight by 1 year old and looking at the rate now, wonder how he is going to achieve that? Maybe it's due to the fact that he is not drinking a lot of milk. But now, he seems to have taken a lot of interest in solid food like fish. He is always interested and wanted to eat fish during our dinner time. Time to start him on some veg like spinach, will try to get some tomorrow.

He is able to imitate sounds like,"Hi" after Weixin said it. He is absolutely not camera shy. He was playing his toys and I chanced upon him biting into his toy and thought it would be a picture perfect shot. But by the time I switch on the camera, he has stopped biting his toy and was looking at me. So I just asked him to bite his toy to get that shot and he did so upon my request! Of course, I got my shot ultimately..hee hee..

Ezekiel has been bitten by some bed bugs these days and my poor boy has marks all over his cutie face and neck. We changed his pillows, bolsters and washed his best and good 'friends' twice. Need to buy him a new mattress tomorrow since the constant washing of his bed 'accessories' doesn't help.

The Tooth Fairy Has Blessed Me Time and Again!

2007-12-14T13:44:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel is really screaming and making alot of noise these days, probably he's exploring what his vocal chords can achieve, who knows?

He has 8 teeth on upper and lower rows now, the first teeth eruption was when he was about 5 months plus on his lower jaw. He looked so cute when he smiles because the 2 teeth on his lower jaw are so prominent. He has started to eat rice cereals at 8months and carrots at 8.5 months and he is adapting well to food. In fact, he has started to eat porridge with cord fish on 11 Dec 07.

Tomorrow, Ezekiel will go for his medical examination with the doctor as he will be 9 months old exactly. Hope he passes with flying colours!

New trick..

2007-12-11T13:01:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel was sitting in his walker yesterday in the morning and when he saw that I was at home, he was happy. He leaned his head on my face when I squat down to kiss his head. If I were a kissing monster, then he would be the affection lover!! Hahaha!

When I left the house to go to the clinic downstairs, he cried for a while. But I didn't spent much time with him yesterday because I was down with cold and didn't want to infect him.

At night, while Weixin and I were having our dinner at my mum's place, Ezekiel had a very good time jumping on my mum's lap. It must have been painful for mum as Ezekiel is not very light-weighted.

I always miss him while I was at work, but luckily, I have his photos in my office. ; p

Mummy, let me show you what I can do!

2007-12-10T23:25:00.000+08:00

We came back from work on Friday (7 Dec 07) and were quite amused by Ezekiel making a clucking sound with his tongue, and when he saw how entertained his parents were, he continued doing it for quite a while. He also likes to be held in my arms when I rocked him gently in an affectionate way, I guess he is one baby who enjoyed being doted on.

When we went down to my mum's place for dinner, I showed Ezekiel a picture of me lying down on the floor as an infant and my sister sitting beside me. I told Ezekiel that the infant in the pciture was me and the little girl was ah-yee, he looked at the picture intently before looking at my sister and back to the picture again. It was as though he is trying to spot the resemblance of the little girl and my sister. That was quite interesting! No wonder my mum always says, Ezekiel is only short of expressing himself through speech, but you can see that he is quite smart.

However, we had a shock that night when we saw Ezekiel trying to stand with support from his arms on the railings of his bed! He has shown to possess great strength! I once jokingly told Weixin, we didn't name our baby Samson, how is it that he is so strong? There were occasions that I almost can't hold him when he tries to reach for things that he shouldn't.

More happenings for the next day (8 Dec 07). We were making sandwiches with the sandwich maker, and when he saw eating our sandwiches, he wanted to eat too. As soon as his request was refused, he wailed and screamed. Luckily, he soon got over it when we fed him with plain white bread after we finished our breakfast. We noticed that he has started to play with his tongue using his fingers.

There's this funny incident, Ezekiel was being carried to my bedroom as I was preparing to go out when I saw him resting his head on Weixin's shoulder and holding a red little pillow in his hands at the same time. Weixin and I were quite amused when we realised he had transported the pillow off from his bedroom even without Weixin's knowledge. He smiled sheepishly when he knew what we had found out. He also refused to kiss me when I requested him to do so but expect me to carry him. So instead of obliging me, he used his hand to push my face away! That was not funny!

Shortly after, when we tried to put him to sleep in his playpen, he sat on his bed and started shaking the bed even though he is in the sitting position when he is usually capable of shaking the bed when he is in the crawling position.

Yesterday in the afternoon, he gave a wet loud fart when Weixin was carrying him. So I asked who did it, and Weixin replied that it wasn't him, so I asked Ezekiel instead and he sheepishly smiled at me, as if he is embarassed to admit that he is the culprit. We really had a good laugh at his reaction.

My boy really has all it takes to make us really mad or laugh our heads off. But I would really have to admit that he certainly brought a lot of joy into our household with his wit and cheekiness.

Update

2007-12-07T09:05:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel has not been drinking milk well these days. Like this morning, he stopped drinking his milk when he realised both Weixin and I were leaving for work soon. He quickly refused his milk and wants us to carry him. I guess I can say he is a good boy instead, who wants to be there to bid his parents goodbye each morning when they leave for work.

From a newborn baby who sleeps late like midnight to a eight month baby who sleeps at 10pm or even 9pm sometimes, he has grown and change his lifestyle gradually. I am thankful to the Lord for these developments.

One other thing that I noticed is that he tends to be very impatient and screams quite a fair bit recently. He is screaming so much that my mum (who is his care-giver) can't stand it at times too. He will wake up and cry without fail, waiting for people to pick him up from his bed.

He will also allow things to drop from his hands and cries to demand that you pick it up for him. But not long after, he will repeat the same trick on and on again... *Sigh*

All I can say is, kids nowadays are definitely not as 'dumb' as we used to be....

New Developments..

2007-12-06T10:48:00.000+08:00

I heard Ezekiel saying,"Hi!" yesterday in the morning to me, that really caught me by surprise!

The funniest thing happened last night when he suddenly used his hanky to wipe his grandpa's face and after wiping, he leaned forward to kiss him. We had problems asking him to kiss us as parents and he actually would kiss his grandpa out of his own accord, that is amazing.

Our Insurance Agent came over last night and Ezekiel was so busy catching her attention that he refused his milk, really have to admit that I can't handle him at times like this... ayee...sigh...

Naughty Boy

2007-12-04T13:41:00.000+08:00

Ezekiel was rocking the dining chair to and fro, lifting 2 legs of the chair and releasing it, causing a loud thump everytime he does that. When Weixin (his papa) asked him not to do that sternly, Ezekiel took a look a his father and continue with it. (simply bo chap!!)

At 8 months old, Ezekiel is capable of waving bye-byes, squeaking his eyes in response to our conversation with him, navigating very quickly around the house in his walker, giving us wet passionate kisses on the cheeks or mouth (if he feels like it), pushing away his milk bottle and throw away his hanky from his neck when he does not want to drink his milk anymore.

Found something interesting about him last night, he not only can eat from spoon from first attempt, he can also drink from a cup very well! (Babies, nowadays, I must say, are really smart) Ezekiel can start to move forward or sideways the first time he sits in his walker! My mum says babies normally move backwards first in walkers before they learn how to move forward. Amazing! Isn't he just brilliant?! I'm so proud of him as his mum. Well, I must give credit to God and the DHA pills that I've been taking since pregnant with him at around 2 months. God is his master designer and the pills helped in building his brains. Looks like he is doing well for his first attempts so far. Thank you Lord for guiding his development.