Eat, drink and be married!

 


Dear Cyrus,

You are a big brother now...and this transition has been so tough for you. Mama knows and since blobbie's days you knew from day one that someone would be coming along and you already made it known to us you knew, in your little ways.

I know you feel lost, bewildered and all feelings of negativity no matter how hard we try to reassure you that nothing changes - we love you the same if not more, nobody's going anywhere but routines had to change.

You acted up before Celeste came along, actually the weeks leading up to her arrival and we all hoped this would pass faster than we know. The day she was born, you cried buckets when Popo showed you her first video and then developed a fever later that day. The first night she came back you cried so hard for Popo and Gong Gong, I cried along with you. We hugged each other to sleep but that did not stop you waking and screaming your head off. If only you knew, you knew how much it hurt me to see you cry...

You were less of yourself in school and the teachers all knew. :( Even at your combined birthday celebration with your friends you were mostly quiet, totally unlike the you that the aunties and uncles know. We prayed so hard that there'll be acceptance in your heart, slowly and surely my cheeky little boy will be back in action.

As much as mama wants a sibling for you to play and grow up with, I hope these intentions never get misconstrued.  You will always be our first born, that special individual who will not be judged because you're more mischievous, more cheeky...Routines may change, the order of doing things may change...our tone towards you may change but please always remember, we still love you like we did the day we discovered we are finally pregnant, we still love you like we never had children before....we still want to witness your every milestone the same way Mama documented those first 365 days with a photo everyday.

Two weeks on, we are definitely in a better place than when we started...baby steps all the way! It warms my heart when you ask for meimei the minute you reach home and while you expect her to be up and playing with you now, she will soon!

Love you more than you can comprehend and ever know,
Mama.

With 4 months away to the big 2...part of me is reluctant to let you grow up so fast. (And I say it on a good day)...on bad days I so wish you are already 18.


And here's some updates!

• We tried getting him to speak Chinese, at least mimic what we say and good lordy, sounds like a potato speaking!
• Cantonese was way more hilarious.
• Boy he can run...and you run so fast, sometimes we feel he's a hamster on wheels!
• He makes friends so well, from the waiter in the restaurant (he even held his hand and went off to see the water fountain) to the person on the road...
• He saw my newly acquired beauty and the beast cup and immediately claimed it as yours. DAMN. Well who can say no to you baby boy?
• His appetite is ginormous - in a single seating he inhaled a portion of brown rice, baked cheese ginger lemon fish and pork, corn kernels, corn and celery soup, 2/3 apple, 1 strawberry, 2/3 avocado, some mozzarella cheese strips, a handful of blueberries, 2 spoons of avocado banana icecream. We all feared he would throw up thereafter! Bottomless pit this one!
• We started swim classes too! More updates to come.
• He's starting to have a mind of his own, he insisted on wearing socks before swim class, got so upset one morning when we removed his socks and he realized there were no potatoes (we had turned to natural remedies for that nasty flu that wouldn't go away!) and...demanded Momma open my mouth because he saw me swallow the rest of your avocado in lightning speed so you wouldn't inhale the remaining 1/3! Man oh man, your antics never fail to make us all laugh.

We all love you so much...and wish you know so dearly behind every "no" is so much love for you.

Nineteen months, holy cow. Have we really gotten so far? This month has gone by so so so fast and school made you sucha character with a mind of your own. Did we bring this upon ourselves for starting school this early?

• New words this month include "switch", "xie xie", he gets incredibly excited when he can point out "same same" objects
• Food is still one of his greatest loves - try as I might to keep his food choices with varied as possible with little or no seasoning at all. I've gotten the hang of hiding food in his food (meatballs with carrots!)
• SKIN has been the bane of all our foodie escapades, must've been school and the non-skin chompers. Before school he was the kid who ate nearly everything and now, we have an issue with fruit with skin, pau with skin and...the list goes on for almost eternity. Terrific twos?
• Cooking for him has gotten wayyyy more fun with more cooking techniques - pasta sauces, homemade bread, sweet potato pau, tortilla, pita bread and....icecream! Dadda got us an icecream machine and I've dabbled with flavours like banana and sweet potato for the bub and honey avocado and brown sugar cookies for adults!
• I randomly discovered he can count to 10 and recite A to Z after me..SO CUTE! And the gusto he has always amuses all of us.
• He loves helping us do little chores, from putting his bottles and teats in the dryer to throwing rubbish and putting his dirty clothes into his designated laundry basket.

Stay little for that wee bit more?

• He walks, runs and...sometimes breaks into a little dance by bending his knees (I call it dancing like an ah pek!).
• He can speak in two syllables - open, amen (so so so cute when he completes my sentences "in Jesus' precious name, we say....?", aircon, bubbles, aunty, uncle, ami for 蚂蚁.
• Chinese is so foreign to him, speaks with a jiak kantang accent. So far we've tried 蚂蚁, 我是.
• Loves cats when we have a dog who allows him to bully to now. His favourite book of all time - Cat Nap.
• He knows how to smile and many a time we end up with wrinkled noses and squinty eyes.
• Favourite food still remains banana! He can self feed pretty well though soup is still very tricky.
• We started school right on the dot at 18 months and a day. Read all about his journey in his other posts!

Dear Cyrus,



Fourteen months and a few days have gone past just like that. I once thought writing monthly letters to you would be so easy. And look at where we are. 3 letters over 14 months.



You took your confident big steps unassisted a couple of days shy of your 14 months and we were all so joyful! We clapped and cheered you on and that glee on your face when you made it across the living room and more. These days you are content almost running and always nearly tripping. Thank God for your quick reflexes (this one, please thank your dad).



We had our second staycay overseas too! You love travelling don't you?



One term of playgroup down and the way you and your classmates wave so enthusiastically at each other (the baby way) and gurgle and chatter in your own language is just too cute to watch.



Your ability to mimic us is incredibly cute - throw ball (you grab your gertie ball with such force and slam dunk it on the floor, both dadda and I wish you'd be the next Michael Jordan - hahaha, parents.), point at all the fish in the pond and go "sssssh", whisper an ah-choo when it's supposed to be dramatic and by now you're well acquainted with the family pooch.



You've taken an interest in flipping books, swiping toys off the table (without any clear preference for trains or furry toys or blocks), mouthing duplo blocks and making yourself heard anywhere, everywhere.



Until next month's celebration, keep smiling baby boy! 


(I am just so late in these letters...we are almost hitting 15 months!)

Dear Cyrus,

"Where did all the time go?" is a question that I repeatedly asked myself since the day you arrived. It does seem that time fly by a lot faster...and I try to keep track of your milestones (and that scrapbook that's been collecting dust), update your social media accounts (by the time all these make sense to you, it'd have been a thing of the past! The bane of technology.

Five months old today and you are the apple of everyone's eyes - truth be told, Momma never thought you'd fill my heart with so much happiness, and to think I planned to be away from you during the pregnancy already and when these trips happen I guilt trip myself on those milestones I have missed and will be missing.

You've achieved so much and never seem to stop marveling us every single day. When you were so tiny, G-ma and I were afraid to shower you and would make do with just wiping down and coming up with a hundred and one reasons why you need not have a shower that day - sorry baby, your head really smelt so bad during those early days!

Let me try to list your achievements to date;

You've been sucha chatty little bub, Dadda would engage you in serious conversations before dinner..we vaguely heard ar-lo, bo-bui and mama amidst all that babbles. Dinner with us is almost a daily affair where you get propped up in that baby seat of yours with full view of our dinners, you remind us to include you in our conversations every now and then and tried to sit up by doing crunches. Haha! Too cute, baby boy.

Tummy time is your nemesis, you feigned sleep before, wailed your lungs out and got so horribly upset with us for cursing tummy time on you. And then one fine day, you flipped and landed quite proudly on your tummy. Since, trying to crawl is your nemesis than tumtum time. Haha, the irony! Your perseverance impressed all of us, the incessant practising that went on for hours, days and weeks just so you can roll over with ease..
 
Your face recognition skills amaze me, pry you away from G-ma and that cues meltdown. Your order of preference goes as follows - G-ma, momma, dadda and Gong Gong. We all get a treat of gummy smiles when you see us at the end of the day, the same smile that pulls down all walls of resistance when you get naughty.

Tula-time is your favouritest, it keeps you snug and makes nap times happy. Except, you've gotten so chubby, we are all feeling the weight (literally).

I'm thankful you aren't fussy - formula, ebm, fbm...you lap them all up with a vengeance. The only grouse is, you've begun to have a preference for warmer milk once it gets slightly colder than it should.

Impatience is what you've inherited from us both - and boy, you are a screamer. No amount of cajoling can come between you and your milk (but really, the milk is warming up! We aren't going to harm you.)

You are our water baby, shower times can be teary affairs when you are hungry but splashing in the water always makes you grin with such delight.

Recently, you learned to laugh. Your mirror reflections and peekaboo games elicit that cute laughter that got us all laughing with you.

You used to scream to get your diapers changed pronto - and those were the days where we made it through more than 10 diapers a day. Dadda cannot blame momma for morphing into a cent-scrimping auntie!

Those ceiling lights are your best friend - since day one. Going into a lighting showroom is one hell of a treat above all other favourites. And secretly, we wish Santa would grant you lights in your present this year.

You know the existence of the camera, and would humour both me and my camera if your mood is right.

Car rides are fun and you love going into tunnels - must be those lights again. 

Crowds intimidate you sometimes, and you prefer to take a cat nap in the baby carrier. Devoid of all noises.

Your fingers and fists have made their way into your tiny mouth, doesn't having your face wiped with saliva gross you out? Because you proceed to feed my face with it too.

I can go on forever listing the smallest and biggest achievements really and it won't stop. We love you to the moon and back and thank you for coming into our lives. Just don't grow up so fast please? As I tick the months off and you go from not being a newborn and soon not a baby anymore...where did the time go when I wished you'd exit from the womb quick?

Elizabeth Stone said, “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ”

I used to tell your G-ma, what is there to worry about me? I'm grown up and can fend for myself and...until I became a parent myself, this journey is lifelong. I became a worry wart. Leave the worrying to me baby boy, just be healthy, happy and dadda and momma have got you covered.