Chinese

Recently, ZQ learnt to say Xie Xie (thank you), BaBa(Papa), MaMa(mama) and many more. Here's how he says Papa, Xie Xie and Mama - I tot he sounded quite nice.

Ba Ba(Papa), Xie Xie (thank you)

Ma Ma (mama)

Going 19 months

Some things to record about ZQ at this stage of his life.

1. He is good at listening to instructions.

He is still obedient, hoping that his terrible 2 will not start soon. Still enjoying him very much.

2. He will take a cloth from the kitchen and wipe off the water if the floor is wet.

Often, it is caused by himself. Well, this is what I call creating work for oneself to do from nothing, hence, creating work. Isn’t tat what a lot of people are doing in the office?

3. He will pick up rubbish from the floor, table and throw it in the waste paper bin.
Sometimes I suspect if he is a clean freak in the making. He will find dirt, rubbish and then picks it up, go to the wastebin in the next room and throw it in. He has also learnt a bad habit from my MIL where he will rhrow it out of the window! I stopped him and told him not to ….. well, they are really learning a lot of things from us especially the bad ones.

Once I said “Shit” and next, we heard him repeating after me … I had to remind myself not to say this too casually.

4. When we tell him to say “yes” … instead of yes, he will say the word “Say” … so funny.
Somewhat I discover that he learns Chinese faster … perhaps it’s because at my IL house, we speak mainly mandarin.
Words he learnt
a) Flower – Hua. When I say flower, he says “Hua” – faintz.
b) Cat – Mao. He will say Mao Mao instead of cat – I hope he will not be confused in the future.
c) He knows BaBa, MaMa, YeYe, NaiNai, GuGu, Bao Bao, WaWa … also with his XieXie (thank you) haha, all the double words. Now he is learning to pronounce the words and some actually sound quite nice.

5. He can now eat by himself.

Had started training him earlier but when I came to my IL place, my MIL will not allow him to eat as she feels it’s messy. Only quite recently that he was given the freedom to explore himself. What can I say about different methods of bringing up the kid.

6. He can now pick different sets of keys and find the key to the gate, put it in.

He is short of learning how to turn it round 2 times! He can prob do it once. This is a real worry as he is rather tall and can access things on the table and sometimes climb on a chair (risky stunt) to retrieve things. Worried that he might just open the gate one day and walk out. Been telling them not to teach him or even let him see by accident how they turn the key and open the gate and of course, to keep the keys in a location not accessible by him.

6. He has learnt to say “Muak” and kissing with the loud muak sound.

7. He also knows how to say “Ha Ha” …. Sounds like an adult ....
Once, my maid was teaching him the Fiddle Diddle song and she said “The dog laughed” and goes “Ha Ha” …. He remembers and each time we say laughed … he will go “Ha Ha”.

Off the head, these are his progress updates.

8. He has learnt to stretch his hands into the armhole of his clothes.

9. He can remember where things are placed and even recognise which clothes is for whom.

My MIL and maid said that sometimes he will point to some of our clothes and say "BaBa", "Mama", "YeYe" ... so he actually knows who it belongs to.

10. He seems to remember where things are being placed too and he would try to put it back to the same position.

My hubby took a clock in my room down and left it on the table and ZQ discovered that it is not on the wall where we hang, he brought the clock to me and kept pointing to it and say "clock clock" ... so we had to put it back in place ... without the battery cos it was irritating my hubby's beauty tat's why he took it down in the first place.

Tarzan in the making?

Often when ZQ screams or making very loud noises, we'd ask him to do this. This distracts him and he will not continue to make a fuss. It works wonders. There are other times when he attempts to bite us and we'll say kiss kiss, in the end, he will kiss instead of biting. Of course there are accidents when we did not manage to distract him in time.

Museum

Went to the museum yesterday. ZQ seems to enjoy himself a great deal - not looking at the stuff but playing with the curtains.

Turning round and round

ZQ loves turning round and round nowadays.

Wheneven my hubby walks in front of him and faces him, talking to him ... ended up walking backwards, ZQ will also imitate. See him in action!

16 Tooth!

Forgot to track how long it had been since ZQ had his 16 tooths all grown out. Just realised that for this stage, it's completed.

Gotta check why his front teeth has some bit of white on it ... perhaps it was due to his bad fall when he was younger ... twice he fell and it knock on the hard floor ... and it bled badly .. full mouth of blood. It was rather scary and I remembered the ancient way of stopping blood flow - that is to put sugar into his mouth. His first taste of sugar was at a tender age of 4-5 months.

ZQ has a beautiful smile with his 2 little cute dimples which I strongly believe is inherited from me - otherwise it seems there's nothing much he inherits from me. He is a photocopy of his father except that he is much cuter.

He now tries to brush his own teeth but he is not good at it, hence we still have to brush it for him using the gloove and he bites real hard on it. Not an easy task sometimes. Though he drinks alot of water but his mouth sometimes stinks n perhaps that's due to his cough and the medicine he is taking.

This reminds me to start bringing him to see a dentist ... it's never to late to start young, isn't it?

18 months' jab

Took a day of leave on Sep 11 to bring ZQ for his 18th months' jab. Met happy and clara on the way to the clinic. Haha, what a day 2 bring him to do his jab .... this mama had been busy with work and did not bring him for his scheduled jab last Sat. As I was still coughing and not getting any better, I also went to get some meds for myself, killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

As the clinic is in Seng Kang, I had to travel from Clementi back home. The journey is a long one and sometimes ZQ cannot take long rides - like mama here. So far, he had once or twice puke when he took long rides. Unfortunately, this time I had to experience his puke when we were almost there, Yuks! He was drinking his milk and suddenly he puke all over me and in the taxi. I then had to clean him, clean myself and the taxi before I alighted. Smelled damn bad.

Did not have the luxury to get home to change first as i had to go to the clinic first else my trip is waste. Washed myself a little in the washroom but still the milk puke remains on me ..... haha, i cannot smell it anymore but it was the nurse who asked if ZQ puked earlier. Hehe, cannot hide.

ZQ is vv strong now and he did cry for a little while after he had his jab. The entire day, he was feeling normal until at 11plus at nite, his fever went up to 37.5 and was rising so I fed him meds.

Things are well so far and ok, another milestone passed. He now weights 12.9 kg @ 85.5cm

ZQ's 2nd trip to the Zoo

ZQ @ 18 months - 2nd trip VS ZQ @ 7th month - 1st trip

Went to the Singapore Zoo on Sunday but it was almost 2pm when we reached there. This is the 2nd time ZQ is visiting the zoo and it seems like yesterday that we first brought him there ... each scene feels so recent ... it was almost ten months ago (last Oct) when we brought him there but as the saying goes - times flies. It really seems like yesterday.

A new milestone - ZQ is 18 months old

Today, ZQ had turned 18 months. Time flies. From a newborn to a toddler , it's really amazing to see the process on how he had grown. I am really enjoying each day of him - he is really such a darling - it's amazing how much fun, laughter and joy he has brought.

Let me sing him a birthday song and watch him blow the candles. I hope he will grow up strong and healthy, sporty and charming like his father and have certain of my good qualities (which i paiseh to mention here and he has got to find out himself ;)) I also hope he grows up to be a good and kind person and one who will have good values and be successful in his life. Whatever he does, he will do it wholeheartedly - as his name suggests. Quan as in Quan2 Bu4 -- to give his all.

Making amends

To make amends of posting the duh pic of his short haircut by my MAID ... let me stress, by my MAID .... not me ... hehe, here's a collage of his nice pics which i created.

ZQ is actually vv handsome and cute ok ... not really so duh .... hmm ... makes me realised hairstyle really makes such a great difference. hahha.

Dumb and dumber (haircut in Apr 07)

I am really not kidding when I wrote that ZQ's haircut by my maid looks like Dumb and dumber ... here's proof. hahaha. Of course, he had already outgrown that horrendous hairstyle la.

So Mommy Mission, dun complain about your handsome son's haircut by the professional. So far, my ZQ is cut by both the 3 "professionals" at home - my maid, my MIL and myself.

So far, I proudly declare that I am the best barber. hehhe. Will post his latest pic soon.

Haircut

Mommy Mission complained about his ZY's ah Wang hairstyle ... this mommy here jus gave ZQ a haircut while he was sleeping. Quite difficult to gauge lor.

Papa says not easy to cut his hair when he is awake and it seems that no one else had the time to do it ... so I took out the scissors and comb and just did it. Quite short but not as short as the one that my maid cut for him right after his birthday .... he looked like dumb and dumber alright.

Haircut by my maid. Will post his latest one ... short but I think not as bad as this one .. haha

2nd trip - Desaru

Went to Desaru recently and Pulai Desaru is quite a decent place. Hubby went there not to take part (he's out of form) but to support a friend who was bringing his daughter - and we're there to help look after her while he races.
ZQ had a fun time at the beach, playing with the sand. The sand is the sticky sort, pretty hard to get rid of it - see his hand full of the sticky sand.

The new art of cleaning & his old art of spitting

ZQ has recently mastered the art of wiping ... he will help to wipe up after he finishes -- sometimes. With his earlier mastering on his art of spitting water, now he can hold the water in his mouth and spit it out "very far" -- *headache. Well, he will mess up, spitting water then point to the floor and tell us it's wet. We'd teach him to use a cloth to wipe it in case he falls down.

First he says "more more" to ask for more water so he can spit it out ... *sigh.

Next, he will wipe it up.

Underwater World

Both hubby and I were on leave and we brought ZQ to his first Sentosa's underwater world experience. We were planning on an overseas short trip or a chalet but due to last minute planning, most of the local chalets are booked. Hence, we ended up at Underwater world.

Hadn't been there since a long time ago and as ZQ is going 18 months, he can probably appreciate the sea creatures better. ZQ had fun today playing at the touchpool and with the StingRay especially.

See how daring the little boy is ....... at first ....

Look what he does after he realises the potential "danger" ..... and the clever boy discovers the usefulness of his papa's hands. So clever hor?