Sweet Miracles

I decided to just upload the photos to little boy’s online album due to lack of time. I completed this task 2 days ago and wanted to upload the videos in youtube before i post all the links together in one entry. But given my extreme fatigue these days (and looking like a panda at the same time, albeit a panda with a tan after Disneyland!), i figured that i may not get around to it for a while.

So for those who love browsing photos, you may wanna check this out: http://ianpang.myphotoalbum.com. There are some really adorable pics of little boy, as well as some really horrendous pics of mine. Whichever appeals to you more… haha… Enjoy!

Some snapshots of cute and funny moments with little boy…

My mum sometimes teaches little boy the strangest things… like smelling his feet?!

I ordered organic veggies from Green Circle to be delivered to the house for a few of weeks. Min amt for free delivery is $30. The gd thing is that the veggies are fresh from the farm and are quite gd tasting, esp the green veggies which are really crisp. However if the order is just above $30 and some items are out of stock, they will adjust the quantities of other items to keep it to above $30, so there are times when i didn’t get what i really wanted and got too much of what i didn’t need. Still, if i have the budget, i would continue ordering from them cos for organic veg, it’s pretty low-priced. Anywayz, once i got this strange looking cucumber, and the moment little boy saw it, he immediately used it as….

Hello hello? / Mummy, thanks for the new phone! / Eh, hung up already? How rude!

Here is a pic of a possible future state that he might be in at university or at work (hope not! I really don’t mind him being a happy farmer boy!)

 Last min work - gotta stay up tonight again!

I decided to add on to little boy’s emotional vocabulary by teaching him different expressions. Actually i was in the toilet and little boy had to stand outside as usual, so i decided to entertain him by covering and showing my face, revealing diff expressions each time e.g. happy, sad… He was very amused, and another day, i got him to show the diff expressions to my family. The “performance” was a great hit, so i hoped to video it to share with more pple. Unfortunately, the perfectionist got the better of me and i stopped the video when little boy forgot the response to “tired”. It turned out to be one of the better videos of that day cos he was so happy doing it, so if i had just continued anyway, it would have been great. I didn’t know what the 2nd one was abt, but it really showed little boy’s personality. Anyway, the third one is the more complete one, but little boy got pretty bored at that time, so it was done with much less enthusiasm, though his “angry” was pretty good!

(the videos just disappear when i publish the entry, so no choice, have to paste the links here again)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo86m8cwrNo&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqWCVcNXn80&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veCbh-nf9ns&feature=user

I can’t rem if i have shared this video of little boy cleaning the floor, but in case i haven’t, here’s my little cinderella! (and yes i’m the mean mother…HAHAHA)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M7xg0JnBkU

Little boy can be real persistent. During our evening shower today, he insisted on using the hose to spray water at me. My response was to turn off the tap, which would at least delay for him for a minute as he has to carefully turn back, step up and stretch for the tap to turn it on. I must have turned the tap off about 20 times, and he went back to turn it on without fail, without a single whine or complaint. In fact initially he even laughed (after that he just did it with grim determination). My hats off to this boy who doesn’t quit!

The other morning, he got up early and i heard him open the fridge. I was too sleepy (or lazy) to find out what’s happening, but i heard him close the fridge so i thought that was it. Who knows, he came into the room with an opened packet of choc biscuits that Mr Gua Gua bought. Later i checked with Mr Gua Gua if the choc biscuits were already opened - they were. Thank gdness little boy doesn’t know how to open packets by himself - yet! Well, it was a rare treat and i let him, cos i was too sleepy (lazy) to get up. After putting one in his mouth, he took one out and offered it to me.

LB: Take one!
Me: Mummy don’t want.
LB: Eat.
Me: No thanks.
LB: YES!
Me: (took the biscuit)

Who could say no to a little boy who could persuade you to take the biscuit in 3 ways?

After which, little boy proceeded to the other side of the bed to offer Mr Gua Gua one as well. I heard Mr Gua Gua say no as well, but only one time, after which he accepted. Guess he was smart (or sleepy) enough not to put up a fight against little boy.

Little boy loves to watch tv sitting next to me, and at times, he would turn his head and look at me with a huge grin and a little laugh, either telling me how much he was enjoying the show with me, or making sure that i’m enjoying it with him - prob both!

The moment we get angry at little boy and raise our voice, his first response would be “NO!”. I don’t know if it’s a no, i didn’t do it! - or no, don’t shout at me, i don’t like it. Prob the latter, and as much as i wld prefer him to just stop whatever he was doing at that point in time, on hindsight, i quite like his spunkiness. May he always dare to say no at the right moments!

We have some gd reasons to suspect little boy used to be a Buddhist in previous lifetimes. When Mr Gua Gua plays Buddhist music or mantras on the computer, little boy would immediately focus his attention on the music, often saying om together with the music. Once i saw little boy prostrate and turn his palms upwards, which is part of the Mahayana tradition of prostration, and Mr Gua Gua said he never taught him. Little boy loves playing at the altar, which is prob partly cos he’s imitating Mr Gua Gua who spends a lot of time burning incense and stuff. He knows where the incense and lighters are kept, thinks it his duty to put the incense “cup” into the 4 (yes FOUR!) incense holders on the main altar and smaller one each day. He does overdo it, by insisting on lighting incense sometimes up to 3 times a day, maybe even more. But he would be very good in holding the incense between his palm, and saying something that begins with om, that i’m not familiar with, which is prob what his Ye Ye says when he prays at our altar.

Little boy recognises Buddha, Green Tara and Guan Yin and would put his palms together when he sees images of them. When we visited the Nalanda Trail with little boy, he stopped at the amulet display, and suddenly got down on his knees and did a perfect prostration, which we hardly saw him do at home. Obviously, it was of his own accord and we were both amazed and intrigued. Mr Gua Gua’s guess that some of those amulets must have had very strong energy, and little boy responded accordingly.

Sometimes when i’m chanting, little boy would come by and sit in my lap and either fiddle quietly with the stuff under the altar, or pretend to be chanting as well. I think he has great affinity with chanting. Mr Gua Gua taught him to chant om mani padme hung. He can only echo us still, but his pronunciation is close to perfect, esp the padme, which is amazing when he’s only a toddler of two and most of his words are missing a consonant here and there.

We were talking abt little boy’s delivery tonight and Mr Gua Gua said it’s really amazing that little boy came at exactly 18:20 which adds up to 11 (and the date 11/03/2006 adds up to 2 11s as well). I always had the doubt about the birthtime and thought they prob rounded the time off to the nearest ten. Mr Gua Gua confirmed that it was indeed 18:20 cos he looked down at his watch the moment little boy, in his words, ”popped out”. There was a digital clock in the room that displayed that time as well, so i guess it was no coincidence nor mistake. Little boy is my 11-11-11 baby, and to all who are regulars of my blog and know about significance of number patterns, this is something very special, to me at least.

Mr Gua Gua and i do agree, for a toddler, little boy is really very coorporative most of the time. He’s also sweet and funny and gentle. During moments when i’m angry at Mr Gua Gua, little boy has come up to me before to put his hand around my shoulder, as if gently showing his love for me and telling me to cool down. He would also give me big hugs before i leave for work, and most of the time whenever i ask for it. And recently, Mr Gua Gua told me, which is something i also felt, that little boy has a healing touch. There is something about his touch that makes one feel very good. Warm, gentle, and something else that is quite unexplainable through words. But i believe we are not saying that just cos we are his parents. Even a friend told me before that he’s a very huggable baby.

Even his nos are often pleasing to the ear, believe it or not! Most of the time, it would be this little low-toned drawl - nooooo… that sometimes even come with a little grin. Of cos, he has his moods at times, but i’m glad that so far, he has not yet (and i sure hope the blog jinx doesn’t attack this one) displayed the infamous toddler tantrums that involve lying on the floor kicking or screaming the whole place down. Oh, he does have his screams, and thank gdness they come infrequently and hardly last more than a min each time.

Little boy is getting so much along so much better with Mr Gua Gua these days. There are more things he allow Mr Gua Gua to do with him, like console him after a fall, or light up the incense for him, which he usually wants me to do and would get angry when Mr Gua Gua comes near. As i always tell Mr Gua Gua, it doesn’t take much to get into little boy’s good books. Just some attention and love, a real attempt to join little boy in his world (instead of getting little boy to come into yours!), is all that it takes for little boy to want more of you! I think Mr Gua Gua is finally taking it to heart and it’s great encouragement for him to see his efforts paying off.

I’m very pleased to report that the gobbling goblin is still here. Little boy has been stealing food from Mr Gua Gua’s dinner bowl these days. Mr Gua Gua likes to leave his food for ages while he does his stuff, so in the meantime, little boy would help himself to the rice and try out the veggies too. Try out, meaning, if it doesn’t pass his palate test, back into the bowl it goes! For those who find this disgusting, when you become a parent, it’s part of the role to get used to eating your kiddo’s saliva. Hah!

I have recently discovered a new breakfast food that little boy loves. French toast! I made him an omelette sandwhich before but he didn’t care much for it. But french toast, he loves. I think it’s also cos i bought thick slices bread that soaks up the egg really well, and the egg on the inside is only partially cooked which makes the bread nice and moist. I made it yesterday and today and he enjoyed it with great relish. For me, the pleasure comes from watching him eat (out of the corner of my eye, in case my staring makes him lose his appetite or something - you can never be too careful!).

The fruit juice is still a hit and miss sometimes, so i have decided to just make it for Mr Gua Gua and myself and let little boy sip from my cup when he wants it. Less stressful for myself this way.

Okie, that’s enough updates for now. Should prob do it more regularly so i miss less. Anyway, think i covered good ground today, and am sure that this would make nice reading years later for both little boy and myself.

Dear little boy,

This is a belated birthday letter to you as I have been busy with work lately. Sometimes i’m grateful that there are so many people who shower you with so much love, because it makes Mummy less bad about not spending enough time with you, since she knows that you are well taken care and well loved by many other pple.

And this was clearly evidenced by your birthday. It was a simple birthday celebration, where Popo, Gong Gong, Yi Yi, Mak Mak, Ye Ye, Xiao Gu Jie, Da Gu Jie and Gu Jiong all came over to celebrate your birthday with you. You were obviously excited, so much so that at first you were practically ignoring all of us, and just going about doing your own things. I guess all that attention was a bit too much to take, and we were indeed all giving you our attention. After all, you were the VIP of the day!

In preparation of this special day, we taught you how to gesture number 2. So by the time this day arrived, when you were asked how old are you, you were able to proudly hold up your 2 fingers and say 2 years old (though it sounded more like 2 er O)! The night before, Mummy also rehearsed the birthday song and birthday cake cutting with you. Using your drum and drumsticks, we practised singing the birthday song together, both English and Mandarin version, and you kept on wanting to blow the candles way before the songs ended. Mummy practically had to punctuate each line with, WAIT, because your cheeks were already puffed out with air, ready to blow the imaginary flame on your pretend candles. You just love blowing candles! But you did wait, and when Mummy finally finished singing the birthday song and told you, NOW, you happily blew. Then you practised cutting the cake, using a fan as the knife, and we went through this whole routine a few rounds because you enjoyed it so much, so you got the whole routine hands down.

Needless to say, when it came to the real thing, your face glowed with excitement, and i was pretty excited myself, so i’m not quite sure, but i think you managed to wait for the singing to end before you blew the candles. Well done!!! Isn’t it interesting that we can prepare so much and so long for something special, and when it happens, it seems to happen in a flash? But it’s the magic of the moment that counts, and even though it only lasted for a minute of two, i know that it was something that would always remain in your heart - another happy memory to add on to the whole big bag that you prob already have! You were indeed very happy my dear… and if you don’t remember by the time you are able to read this letter on your own, i have the photos to prove it!

  Surrounded by love

You really enjoyed your cake too. It was a delicious chocolate fudge cake, and I thought i would just share your piece of you, thinking you prob wouldn’t want more than a bite or two. Who knows, you actually ate about half by yourself. You even managed to feed Mummy a few pieces with the fork in the most skilful way. Your self-feeding skills are really getting good, and i’m sure it was a big thrill for you to be eating your birthday cake on your own. We are glad you enjoyed your cake!

And the presents… wow, the presents! You were just overloaded with so many presents that night. Here are the presents you received:

  You received from Xiao Gu, a microphone that comes with its own applause and acoustics, that you were initially paiseh (shy) about singing into…though in no time, you were singing opera, little boy style, with it!

 A fire truck from Ye Ye and Mak Mak which you really loved (and the tune is so catchy that Papa and Mummy can’t stop singing it these days! I am a fire truck, a big and shiny fire truck… i am a fire truck, coming down the street… i hear the noisy siren wailing on the truck!),

A book and puzzles from Popo, of which the latter i think will be used only months later as they seem a bit advanced for you, but you loved the book of nursery rhymes with its colourful pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjZzBCmaWoE

An Elmo throwing board from Yi Yi for you to practice your throwing skills. The bean bags can be matched according to colour, first alphabet, or number - so far, you have been pretty good with the colour matching, though you are still throwing from a mighty distance of 1 inch away!

 You have one of those magnetic drawing boards already but Mak Mak felt it was too small for you to fully utilize your drawing talents, so Da Gu Jie and Gu Jiong bought this ultra big one for you which even comes with 3 types of stamps! Here, Gu Jiong drew a special underwater picture for you (that big black blob is supposed to be a garbage bag!).

 Papa bought you the classic toy - Lego - and stacking cups which are numbered 1 to 5, and i thought it would be a great teaching tool, so you understand 2 is bigger than 1, and 5 is bigger than 4, 3, 2 and 1! The latter was peanuts for you, and within the next couple minutes, you had the cups nicely stacked up. Well done! He also bought a guitar for you, to add on to your already quite large musical instrument collection, and you decided to make Papa strum the guitar while you sing along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3Ro71Bce0

 Last but not least, Mummy bought you a wooden toy made up of pieces that can be made into different structures, as well as a family of dolls. Obviously not your fave toys of that day, but hopefully they would intrigue you one day into making a mountain, where those dolls can live in, or whatever your imagination comes up with.

Needless to say, with so many toys, you hardly wanted to go to bed that night, and you finally went to bed at 10+ pm, one of your latest bedtimes so far.

My dear boy, you’re indeed a very blessed boy, and it is also our blessing to have you come into our lives. As you can see from the photos, everyone is so happy to see you happy - you have brought us much joy in these 2 years, and i’m sure there’s infinite joy and blessings to come!

May you continue to shine your light on all those around you!

 Hey, i’m 2 now, that means i am big enough to wear Papa’s shoes!

Loving you very much,

Mummy