Thursday, July 20, 2006

Shoes Galore - Part II

Daddy finally got Caleb to wear one of the 24 pairs of shoes that he has. Don't know how he did it but he managed to get it on Caleb's feet. Caleb was very apprehensive when he first wore the shoes and did not dare to shift his feet. He tried standing up and was waving his arms around trying to move but not shifting his feet at all. It was hilarious but too bad we didn't manage to whip up the camera in time.
But we managed to capture him taking his first few steps. He was walking in a funny way at first trying to lift his feet high up but soon got used to it.

Body Parts - Part III

Yesterday Caleb was in a pretty agreeable mood and when Mummy asked him about his body parts, he was quite cooperative in pointing a number of them out. And nowadays, he is more chatty and would also say out the part when he points to them.

Masking Tape

Caleb was playing with a roll of masking tape today. Mummy tore a small piece of masking tape out to show Caleb that the tape is sticky and would stick to his fingers. He seemed pretty fascinated that he couldn't fling it off his fingers and then he decided to stick it at the back of his head like this.


Obviously with his soft, fine hair, it was very difficult for Mummy to remove the masking tape. Each time Mummy tried to remove the tape, he'll struggle coz the tape was tugging at his hair. Mummy had to do a swift tug to remove the tape and along with the tape came a small bunch of hair. Poor boy!

Socks again!

This morning when Daddy was leaving to go to work, Caleb saw Daddy putting on his socks and wanted to wear Daddy's socks as well. Daddy took a pair of Mummy's socks instead and helped him put them on. See how pleased Caleb is with the socks.


He was even posing with the socks beside the TV

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Bedsheets series

Over the weekend, Daddy and Mummy were changing the bedsheets and Caleb had great fun with the bedsheets.

Here's Caleb jumping up and down on the bed and trying to say "jump"


Then Caleb decided to make away with the dirty bedsheets and use them to clean the floor

Yoghurt Galore

Recently Mummy gave Caleb some yoghurt to try. Mummy heard that this particular brand Petite Maime is very popular with little toddlers so Mummy bought a pack of 6 with assorted fruity flavours for Caleb to try. The first time that Caleb tried the yoghurt, he actually gagged and wanted to spit it out and he gave Mummy the dirtiest look (like Mummy punished Caleb with very bad tasting food). And then he kept telling Mummy "no-no" to indicate that he didn't want any more. Mummy thinks he doesn't like the slightly sourish taste.
Well, Mummy tried on 2 other occassions to let Caleb try the yoghurt and each time round, he took one mouth, gagged over the yoghurt and gave Mummy a dirty look.
Strangely, yesterday Mummy took out the yoghurt and this time round, Mummy's the one eating it (if not, it's going to expire!). Caleb saw the packaging and indicated that he wanted some. He gagged over the taste of the yoghurt again but he wanted more. Maybe it's because Daddy and Mummy were laughing at him and he thought that it was funny.

See video of Caleb eating yoghurt. He has a tortured look after each mouthful and keeps wiping the yoghurt off his mouth but he keeps coming back for more!


See pix of Caleb with his mouth filled with yoghurt

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Out for dinner

We had a quick dinner before going for care group this evening and at the dinner place, Caleb got really excited coz there was paper and pencil for diners to place their orders and he immediately demanded to have the pencil and paper in his hands.

Here's a video of Caleb writing very intently on the order paper. He was concentrating very hard and was mumbling a lot of mumbo jumbo and laughing to himself. I think after a while he took to stabbing the paper with the pencil.


Mummy shared san lo hor fun with him and he loved it.
Here's Caleb feeding himself the hor fun with a fork.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Caleb the socks eater

Caleb's latest fascination is wearing his socks at home and walking around with them. As long as he sees his socks lying around, he'll insist that we wear it for him.

Here's Caleb playing with his toy plane with his socks on.
He was insistant that we wear it for him and looked really pleased after wearing them.


Last night Caleb insisted on wearing socks that were not matching. He wanted to wear a different design on each foot. Maybe he's trying to make a fashion statement.


And here's Caleb in action, trying to put on his socks himself. He got the concept there but doesn't know how to stretch his socks to get them onto his feet. And halfway through, he gets distracted and decides to chew on his socks instead.

Caleb aka Phua Chu Kang

Caleb insisted on sitting on his toy airplane in this manner.
It looked like a typical Phua Chu Kang pose!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Trip to the Library

Over the weekend, we brought Caleb to the library. It's the first time that he stepping into the library and he was thrilled, going from shelf to shelf tugging at the books.



Here's Caleb looking very shy and tugging at the book gently. Think he's looking shy coz he's aware that Daddy is taking a video of him. Daddy managed to take a short clip of his first visit before getting told off by the librarian that we're not allowed to take photos or videos in the library.


And here's the end result. Mummy borrowed 5 books for Caleb. Hopefully he'll be interested in them. Caleb will take a book and ask Mummy to read to him but after 2 pages of running, he's off to play with his toys again. The boy just can't sit still for long!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

After Church

Mummy didn't manage to take a photo of Caleb today coz we were busy selling breakfast. (So busy that Mummy forgot to feed Caleb his breakfast! But it's ok coz the boy got a lot of fats storage to last him.)
Anyway, here's Caleb last Sunday after church. All tired out. One minute he was staring at Mummy, the next minute, he was all knocked out and fast asleep.

Chatterbox Caleb

Over the last two weeks, Caleb has become increasingly talkative at home. He'll wake up in the morning and start blabbering non-stop. A daily morning blabber sounds something like this "pika-pika, bea-booka..ohhh" sometimes, it will be mixed with words that he already knows and sometimes, he'll be pointing here and there as though he is saying something really important and this will be accompanied with a lot of "Ohh" here and there. He's also becoming very good at imitating us in our speech and usually his attempts are pretty accurate and he is picking up new words quite quickly.
Last week, he kept saying "up" and "out". When he wants to climb up a chair or sofa or wants to sit on our lap, he'll say "up" and sometimes point with his finger as well. When we go out, out of the blue, he'll just say "out, out".The word for this week is "no more". He was watching sesame street and when it ended, he waved his hands and started saying "no more, no more". Now when he finishes his meals, or he doesn't want any more of what he's eating, sometimes he'll go "no more".I think his speech for "no more" developed from "Elmo". Last week, he started to say "Elmo" and "Mo-mo". From "mo-mo", it slowly became "more-more". And then it became "no more". (That's Mummy's silly theory. Sounds a bit far fetched??? But Mummy really saw him start from saying "mo-mo" to "more-more" to "no more"!)
Anyway, one other thing that Mummy noticed is that at least half the words that Caleb is picking up starts with the letter "B". Mummy's wondering whether is it that words starting with "B" are easier to pronounce? Caleb's vocabulary of "B" words include:bird, bus, bear, ball, boat, bye, baby, bike, bowl, bath, bathe, bed, box and the latest addition is bite. These "B" words are the ones that Caleb can say when he sees the object without any prompting. He doesn't say them all the time but only when he feels like talking.
2 small observations that Mummy has made about Caleb's chattering:
1) He tends to be much more talkative when he is at home with Mummy or Daddy. When he is out, he doesn't speak so much but prefers to point and go "eh eh eh" to communicate with Daddy and Mummy. Think a safe and familiar environment is important to encourage his speech development.
2) sometimes, he forgets words that he used to say when we stop talking about the subject for a period of time. One of the first words that he started to say when he was about 9 or 10 months was "duck". He used to bath in a rubber ducky tub and he'll be able to point to it and say "duck" quite accurately. But Mummy accidentally burst the rubber duck when he was 10 months old and since then that's the last that we talked about ducks. Recently we saw a picture of a duck and when Mummy asked him what that was, it was no longer duck to him. Now he calls it "duk". Mummy's thinking that maybe it's because at this age, their memory is still pretty short term so he can't really remember how he used to pronounce the word.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Ring finger vs index finger

On Thursday, Mummy was watching the documentary "Child of our Times" and one thing that Mummy thought was interesting was that we all have male and female brains in us but it's just a matter of how much more male or female brain does each child have.
How "male" or "female" we all are starts developing when we are a foetus in our Mummy's womb and this is determined by the amount of testosterone and hormones that the Mummy passes to the foetus via the umbillical cord.
And it seems that the way to tell is by looking at our ring finger vs our index finger. If you have more male brain then female brain, your ring finger should be longer than your index finger. So typically guys have a longer ringer finger than their index finger and girls have a longer index finger than their ring finger.
So the documentary was trying to do a study by measuring the babies fingers. For girls whose ring fingers seem to be longer than their index finger, the scientists think that chances are the girls will tend to be more tomboyish and boys with ring fingers longer than their index fingers maybe more feminine.
Mummy quickly looked at her own hands. Hey! My ring finger is longer than my index finger! But I don't think I'm a tomboy wat! Ok, ok ...not the most feminine girl around but I'm sure Daddy thinks I'm feminine enough to marry me... so that's what matters right?!
Oh and Mummy quickly looked at Caleb's fingers... ok, his ring finger is longer than his index finger so don't think he will grow up very feminine.
Anyway, enough of the sidetrack, Mummy thinks the documentary is really quite interesting. For those who have not watched it before, it's a documentary tracking the birth of 25 children from the time that they are conceived till they are 20 years old. These are all millenium babies so the studies that they are showing now are when they are just a few years old.
When I watch it, I find that the human body and our development is made up of sooo many complexities. It's really amazing. Truly, it is only God, who can think and put in so many intricacies into forming us and making us who we are. Imagine if he just made us out of matchsticks or something. We'll be so boring! I'm thankful. Thank you Lord!

Body Parts - Part II

Even though Caleb knows most of the parts of his body, he does not willingly point to every single part whenever Mummy asks him.
Here's Mummy attempting to get him to show her where his body parts are. He only points out his head and eyes but surprises Mummy with two new words "mouth" and "bite"

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Bags, Bags and more Bags

As with all children at his age, Caleb is extremely fascinated with carrying bags.
As long as the bag has a handle or strap, he will want to carry it.
See how happy he is carrying the different bags he has at home


These 2 bags are his favourites. Most of the time, he wants to carry both bags together.
Here's Caleb looking very busy amongst his toys.


And this is a video of Caleb showing off his school bag. This video was taken when he just turned one. He's walking was still quite unsteady then. Now, Caleb's favourite activity is to run away from Mummy and wait for Mummy to catch him.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Body Parts!

We have been teaching Caleb about the different parts of his body on an ad hoc basis. Recently, Mummy did a stock check and realised that hey, the boy knows most of his body parts already!
He can now tell Mummy where his hair,head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, fingers, tummy, belly button, leg, feet, toes and even his little pee pee (Daddy will say "wait for a few years and see!" :p)Now Mummy got to teach him where his neck, back and backside is. 3 more to go! Yeah!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Caleb the chipmunk!

We have been talking about how Caleb has been refusing to eat his food and all, but there is one fruit which we never had problems with and Caleb absolutely loves it. That fruit is the apple. Whether he is full or not, whenever we ask him if he wants an apple, he would always give a resounding and purposeful nod. Once he gets his apple (we'll cut out a slice for him), he'll take a big bite and then bite somemore to store some in his mouth, just like a chipmunk... here's a photo of him stuffing himself with apple :)

Elmo or Mo-Mo

On Sunday, Daddy and Caleb were playing with Caleb's stuff toy, Elmo, and Caleb just started calling Elmo by his name. He said Elmo twice.
Yesterday, Mummy tried to see whether Caleb really knows Elmo's name and pointed to Elmo and asked Caleb "who is this?" And Caleb said "Mo-Mo". He was calling Elmo "Mo-Mo" the whole day.
Today, Mummy asked Caleb again and the reply that Mummy got was both "Elmo" and "Mo-Mo". I think little Caleb thinks that "Elmo" is the formal name and "Mo-Mo" is the pet name that he is giving Elmo.

Here's a video of Caleb saying Elmo and then Mo-Mo.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Bonding Time

It's been very hectic (and sickly too) recently, so it was pleasant to be able to spend some quality time with family last Friday evening. We wanted to go to some place for dinner where there are places for Caleb to play, you know, with slides, swings etc... but having cracked our brains, we conceded that Singapore was really too small a place, and we just couldn't think of a conducive place to go. So we ended up going the Changi Airport Swensens :)
It's funny how in most of the other cities, no one would think of going to the airport unless they had the business of flying off or receiving guests, but yet in Singapore, the airport is both a tourist attraction as well as a place where locals do go to have meals and hang out (especially the younger generation). Kudos to CAAS for maintaining such high standards, but some may again bring up the fact that there is only so many places to go to in Singapore.
Anyhow... Swensens provided the opportunity to capture some of the more arty photos I've taken of Caleb. Here they are...



Ok, this last one below is not really arty, just cute and practical. Caleb's pretty heavy now and we didn't bring the stroller, so we used the airport trolley. He enjoyed himself quite a bit :) But we were promptly told by the airport staff later that children are not allowed to sit there. And it seems even Caleb understood and didn't struggle much when we told him we had to take him out :)

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Shoes Galore!

Recently Caleb has been blessed with new shoes that were given to him as birthday presents (from Grandma and Godma Mei) as well as some hand-me-downs from Caleb's yee yee's colleague, as well as Caleb's grand aunty's boss. (sounds complicated but anyway, they came from different sources at about the same time). The new shoes are really nice and the hand-me-downs look pretty decent and not worn much. Children outgrow their shoes at this age really fast so they don't wear each pair of shoes for long.

Mummy was packing all the shoes and she was just terribly amazed at the number of shoes that Caleb now has. At the age of 13 months, Caleb has, not 1, not 2, not 5.... but 24 pairs of shoes to his name! (Much, much more than Mummy and Daddy lah!) Thank God they are of different sizes. From the looks of it, Mummy and Daddy will only get to buy him new shoes when he is four? or five?

And Mummy couldn't resist taking shots of the shoes from different angles.
Here's a pix of the shoes all lined up in 1 row. I can barely see the end of the line!


And here's a full view of all the shoes! Small sized shoes, big sized shoes, covered up shoes, sandals, track shoes... you name it, you have it!


By the way, even though Caleb has so many pairs of shoes, he has been pretty resistant to wearing the new ones that he has inherited. He will take the shoes and indicate to Mummy that he wants to wear them, but the minute Mummy tries to put them on for him, he'll start to resist and kick them off. Mummy immediate task now is to think of how she can get Caleb to wear all these shoes and keep them on without kicking them off... and Mummy better succeed before Caleb starts to outgrow any of these shoes.

Sidetrack a bit... Mummy asked Daddy today after packing the shoes to guess how many pairs of shoes does Caleb now have...

Daddy: 5?
Mummy: nope, more.
Daddy: 9?
Mummy: nope, more.
Daddy: 12? (eyes starting to grow a bit bigger)
Mummy: nope, more.
Daddy: 15?? (eyes quite big now and voice a bit louder)
Mummy: nope, more.
Daddy: MORE??? 20?? (eyes very big now and looking in disbelief)
Mummy: Nope, more.
Daddy: 27??? (Daddy can't stop laughing now coz he's terribly amazed)
Mummy: no lah, not so many
Daddy: 24?

Mummy nods and Daddy's going "how come so many???!!"

God bless us lor... so thank you Lord for providing so much more and of course thank you Grandma, Godma Mei, Yee Yee, and Tua Ghim Poh.