Kids....they grow up too fast

It only seems like yesterday that J and M are born. In a wink of the eye, J is 2+ yrs old and M turns 4 months today.

We did the "Marie Biscuit" tradition where marie biscuits are hung onto the baby to stop him from salivating. I don't know the exact significant of this tradition but it seems like a fun activity to capture on "film".

M, who is the exact opposite of J in many things, grabbed the biscuits and put it in his mouth. I think (and hope) M would be more interested in food when he grows up as compared to J who "eats to live" and not "live to eat". Just the other day, J commented that durians are smelly thus dashing all my hopes of sharing my love for the king of fruits with him which I wrote abt in my earlier post.

I was reading mum-yum's blog and came across this comic strip that she posted and the content is so befitting of this post.

There was a stage where they do nothing but just eat, sleep, cry and poo. Then one day, they decide to increase their activities by cooing, smiling, salivating and roll over. Once they start to roll over, that's where the trouble begins because that means they already have a mind of their own and is on the way to explore their independence. Try changing theit diaper at this stage and you would know what I mean. When you need them to lay still till you complete the change, they will insist on rolling over to see the world right-side up.

Just the other day, when I asked J to do something (I forgot what it was), he looked at me in the eyes and said....."No". And a few nights ago, he asked for "Starbucks Hot Chocolate". How can "Starbucks" be in the vocabulary of a 2 years old?

The growing years of my children is just speeding by me and I hope to slow it down slightly just to be able to spend more time with them.

M's Extreme Makeover

M reaches his 4th month milestone on 28th Jul and it is usually signified with a haircut. I remembered that it seems forever before J finally had his 4th-mth haircut (his hair constantly tickled my neck whenever I carried him) but for M, time passed by so much quickly.

As both J and M have a significant amount of jet-black hair, it seems like a waste to cut and throw it away. Thus with J, we decide to have the hair made into 胎毛笔 (taimaobi).

The tradition of giving a baby boy a "taimaobi" — fashioned out of his own first growth of hair — dates back to the Tang Dynasty some 2,000 years ago. When the boy goes on to be a scholar, he would use the brush when sitting for the Imperial examinations to be a government official. Only boys were given this gift as only males were allowed to sit for the exam in ancient China. The catch is that only the baby’s first strands of hair can be used to make these brushes. The brush has been widely used by Chinese officials, scholars and students to write, practise calligraphy or paint for thousands of years. Its popularity diminished with the advent of fountain pens and ballpoint pens.

These brushes does not come cheap. However, it is the only physical item that I can preserve for a long time and hand back to them when they grow up to remind them of their roots.

How do you like M's extreme over?

Our look-alike meter

Is J looking more like me? I still think he looks more like his dad and when you factor in his temperament; its like a chip off the block.

The bros Look-alike Meter

Do they look alike? Some say they do, some say they don't.

You be the judge and send in your comment!

M's first encounter with The Diva

It is M's 1st encounter with the opposite sex. She is G's little princess, Shynn who is also the only girl among the male cousins.

Unlike J who shy away from girls, seems like M is more drawn towards them.

When we place Shynn and M side by side, the "opposite attracts" actually took place!

They turned their head to face each other and actually started communicating and smiling!

From the inner picture, they even held hands! How sweet....ahhhh.

Hand-me-down from J

This set of clothes are hand-me-down from J.

- Red shirt: J wore it during CNY 2007 when he was 10 months.
- Jean: J wore it when he was 7 months old.

M can fit into it at 3.5months and it is kinda snug.

He is my (heavy) bundle of joy! Way to go, M!

An unhappy happy birthday

For the first time in 35 years (I am not afraid to disclose my age; many things in life get better with age), I felt unhappy on my birthday.

Due to some domestic misunderstanding resulted from the day before, the atmosphere at home was kinda strained. I had to get out for a breather and thus decides to take the boys for a swim since I have taken the day off from work.

It is a good thing that we lived abt 10 minutes away from the public pool. As it was a weekday, the pool was almost empty. The 1st time I took J to this pool was in Dec 2007 when he was 8 months old. He is now 27 months old. However, it just felt like yesterday.

J looks very stylo in this picture and he is quite tall for his age. The water level in the waddling pool is only up to his waist.

As M is still too young, he can only sit in his pram and look on.

When I got home, a bouquet of flowers from K has arrived. It is the 2nd bouquet I have received this year; the last one on our wedding anniversary after my outburst on Mother's Day that I don't feel appreciated at all.

I spent of the day in gloom as the "weather at home" still don't look promising. I just wish for the day to end asap. When the day finally draw to a close, I was surprised with a cake. This is the 1st time in our 8 years together that K bought me a cake for my birthday. He has really gone beyond himself this time round. I guess he must have felt my unhappiness and wanted to cheer me up.

In a way, this birthday has been an unhappy happy birthday for me.

Bonding Time

Recently we developed a new routine. Before M's bedtime at 9pm, we will bring J and him into our bedroom and let both of them have some playtime together.

M loves it when J plays with him. He would respond by cooing happily. J would hug his bro and even mimic M's action like sucking on his fist or laying on his tummy.

When it is time for M to wash up and go to bed, J would be very sad and insist on not letting M go to bed.

I hope these 2 bros contiune to enjoy each other's company even when they are all grown up.

Old MacDonald have a farm

It was again an impromptu decision to do something together as a family. As we have not gone to "The Animal Resort" for quite a while thus we decide to do that.

Of course we had to seek J's opinion first and thus when we asked him if he wants to go to a farm, his reply was "Old MacDonald has a farm, right?". What a silly boy. When we asked him what a farm is, he says "Farm has animals". I guess he does understand the nursery rhyme.

It was noon when we reached the farm but fortunately, it was not scorching hot yet.

We headed towards the feeding station and bought some carrots for the rabbits and hamsters. They seem to be extremely hungry and finished up 3 slices of carrots very quickly.

Next we headed to the grooming school and a few days were getting their fur groomed. There was even a chow chow which somehow reminds me of M. :-P

K and J wandered further into the farm where there was a big man-made pond. When I caught up with them, both father and son was standing in front of the pond and I took a pix of this lovely moment.

We headed back towards the feeding area and started feeding the geese. One of it even come so close to J that it nearly peck on him. We jokingly told J that the goose had kissed him so that he will not be afraid.

As it was getting sunny, we had to leave and before we left, J said "Bye bye Old MacDonald".

Family day at the beach

The night before, we made an impromptu decision to go to the beach the next day. Can you believe it? The last time we went to the beach was May 07! That's more than a year ago.

K dig a crater in the sand and J just sat in it for almost an hour playing with the sand. Here's a pix of J 1 year ago and now. He has definitely grown much taller and his face is no longer babyish. My little boy has grown up.

While K spent time with J, I took M for a stroll along the beach and simply enjoying the cool breeze. This is M's 1st time at the beach and initially he was hype up by the noisy surrounding and was slightly fussy and refuse to take his nap. However, he was soon lure to sleep by the slight rocking of the stroller over the rocky beach path and the sea breeze. We stroll (or rather I stroll while M sleeps) for almost an hour before we headed back to join K and J.

The day at the beach ended with a wonderful meal of ramen at Waruku Japanese Restaurant near to the beach.

It is indeed time well spent and I hope we can do this more often.