Tag Archives: toddler

Drives us all up the wall

Posted on 10 April, 2010
Screen shot 2010-04-10 at 5.21.44 PM

This gallery contains 1 photos.

I recall I used to do this to my mum as well when I was this age. Kinda also recall driving her crazy too. You feed the 2 year old a mouthful. And he keeps it there. No movement, no … Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

More Galleries

When he poops.

Posted on 20 January, 2010 | 3 Comments

This title certainly got you clicking :)

Everyone has their styles. Some hold their groins scurrying and yelling “I gotta go I GOTTA GO” while others do so subtly, yet while others (still) don’t tell you AT ALL that they have done it.

As far as a number 1 goes, Caleb won’t tell you. At all. Until you carry him and feel the wet diaper on your forearm, or when you discover the puddle of pee on the floor, while he is still running around being his 2year old self discovering and/or copying what his older sister does.

For his number 2′s however, is something I haven’t seen “done” before.

I understand everyone needs their privacy, whether it’s cos the poop is gonna stink, or that it’s simply because it’s the action of pooping. But for a 2 year old, what’s “privacy”? So it is with a lot of laughter of adorableness when we hear about, and then get to see, how my boy does it.

In private.

When you kinda suddenly discover him missing, you start to wonder whether he’s okay- but more often than not it’s because he has run to some corner of the room/house; preferably behind something, and pushing. It doesn’t matter if the pusher is 2 or 20 years old, I believe all humans push the same way. It becomes a lot more “funny” when it’s on a 2 year old boy. The same slight-squirm, the same red-face. Only standing up, hiding in some corner.

When we discover him “midway” he is somewhat apprehensive, don’t-come-any-closer kinda gesture. Dunno why. Perhaps at (only?) 2 he is starting to feel shame and embarrassment already. This idea is emphasised when I tease him (yes this Daddee teases his kids)- at any “usual” moment I’d look at him and say “Ngg ngg? Ngg ngg??” (the local baby talk for pooping; I think you can imagine how that term came about!) where he’d quite vehemently declare “Mai! MAI!” (which till today we are wondering whether he is trying to speak Hokkien dialect when most of what he hears is Cantonese where “no” is “moi”, not the Hokkien “mai”) as if the act of it is shameful.

Not that we make fun of him, maybe he is starting to develop his own self awareness and image (self respect?)

For now, I will still laugh at him. It’s okay if he develops a complex surrounding pooping. Having a complex surrounding pooping is okay compared to “performance anxiety” surrounding peeing, at the men’s room urinal.

Heh.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caleb the heir, Ergonomics, life skills, Parenting musing

Tagged , , , ,

Christmas the silly season…

Posted on 10 December, 2009
bike_tilt

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Everytime Caleb’s jie-jie rides her tricycle or her training-wheeled bicycle he’d come up from behind and gladly be pushing her. Never has he asked to be riding it, even though he has Caitlin to see as an example. So, since … Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

More Galleries

Our Sunday afternoon…

Posted on 3 August, 2009 | 2 Comments

Woken by the kids, got them some morning snacks, and since it wasn’t too sunny and hot….

Luckily for everyone, Caleb actually likes to push from behind. But it won’t be long though, before he’d be wanting to ride.

Yes, they were still in their jammies. It’s Sunday okay- give us parents a break!

Evening came and it was time to get ready for bed.

Caleb can express his hunger quite audibly / comprehensibly now, by telling us “nan-nan”.

As you can see he’s quite comfortable on the beanbag. Quite a relief for all of us, since we don’t always have to be watching him when he feeds now.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was being rather cheeky about bedtime. Calls to her to go clean her teeth went unanswered.

We found her like this.

Now that’s one way of getting out of doing something. I gotta try that with Hot Mummee one day….

→ 2 Comments

Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caitlin the heiress, Caleb the heir, Food & feeding, life skills, Parenting musing, Parenting rules, Short post, Simple pleasures

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Sharing a good laugh

Posted on 30 July, 2009 | 3 Comments

Caitlin said something the other night and we shared a good laugh.

I mean a good laugh, you know the type that makes you laugh heartily, not the I am only entertaining or humoring you laugh.

It was in the evening, after dinner but before bedtime- I can still see it in my head. I was seated across her, she was in her blue short sleeved jammies, somewhat looking up at me, from her schoolbook homework; pretty sure she had a pencil in her hand.

She said the punchline. I found it really funny, and laughed longer and harder than usual.

She wasn’t conscious of herself like I thought she would, now that I think about it in retrospect. In the past she’d get somewhat self-conscious and demanded “Why you funny at me??” to which I often try to explain to her the difference between laughing at you, and laughing with you. I think she got this idea from possibly being teased at school, but not something or at a level that we should be concerned about.

So she laughed along. I think it was initially because she too thought it was a funny punchline, not going the “Why you funny at me” path; and then I think she kinda realised that Daddee was enjoying the joke, and joined in the hearty laugh.

I can still see it: In her blue jammies, the all teeth squinty eyed giggly hee-hee and occasionally mouth agape haha laugh.

Don’t ask me what it was that made us both laugh. I honestly cannot remember! The next morning I asked her, in the car on the way to school, and she too cannot remember!

But it was something else for me. It signaled that she is growing, that it wasn’t just simple things that made her laugh anymore; no, indeed it wasn’t what made her laugh but what she had said that made me laugh like I did.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caitlin the heiress, Parenting musing, Simple pleasures

Tagged , , , , ,

How to be a Big sister to a little brother…

Posted on 21 July, 2009 | 2 Comments

I am kinda struggling with this one.

Caitlin, in general is sweet to her younger brother Caleb. Since she was able to walk, she’d been fascinated by other humans her size. So, I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that she is so, to her little brother.

However, having been the only child for her first 3 years, the first grandchild at HM’s family side (Caitlin makes the 14th grandchild on my side!) I dare say she is kinda “spoiled” in that she’d be used to being the sole attention-getter.

For myself, I have made a conscious effort to be conscious of how she may feel when this happens. Especially when relatives are “re-living” having a rugrat and who’s just learned how to walk, Caleb has been getting all the attention of “How cute!”, “Look how he likes to walk in circles / spins / tiny stamping feet..”, Caitlin has been “relegated” to be the second favourite.

Touchwood- so far she doesn’t seem to be showing any ill feelings towards her brother as a result. The only hint of jealousy that I can readily observe, is when either is holding onto a toy and the other will want it (yes, only when the other has it!), or when one is embracing Grandma, the other wants to rush over for the same… the same doesn’t seem to apply to Daddee though! Caitlin embraces Daddee and Caleb is like “Ho hum ah well now what was I doing again?”

When this happens, I try my best that the other also gets the “equal opportunity”; either by embracing both, getting them to share, or even a simple look over to Caitlin offering her a reassuring smile. She usually reciprocates with one too, which is always heart-warming for Daddee. One thing I gotta do reverse too, is that in the mornings and evenings Caitlin rides with me in the front, with Caleb in the baby seat in the back with the helper. I spend most if not all of that time chatting with Caitlin on just about anything, whilst Caleb is kinda left on his own ogling at the window to the world zooming past.

One thing that I am a little impatient waiting for, is for Caleb to soon understand and speak more for us to also rationalise with him, so that Caitlin is not always the one having to give in; which she does now “because he doesn’t understand; and you’re the jie-jie..”

But that of course also means that Caitlin will no longer be the 4 year old that she is now, and that Caleb would have outgrown his current Royal Cuteness…. sigh.

How was your experience with growing up with a sibling, either as a younger and/or older one? How did your parents manage your different characters?

→ 2 Comments

Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caitlin the heiress, Caleb the heir, Infant development, life skills, Parenting musing, Parenting rules, siblings

Tagged , , , , , ,

He’s got short hair again!

Posted on 10 July, 2009

Hot Mummee came home with the kids yesterday evening. She was the one bringing them home from Grandma’s since I opted to head straight home to use the common room’s treadmill (as you know I am always complaining about my … Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

More Galleries