Happy New Year 2008

We celebrated the beginning of 2008 with food and champagne. It is Lucas's third year - born in 06, and now it is 08 and he is not even two! Looking back, I do not remembered how I managed the pregnancy period, and trying first two months after he was born, and now, the mobile toddler. I should congratulate myself for the job well done......ahem.
Let me try to recall what is he up to now - he can pronounce some words very well such as 'door', 'up', 'down', 'back', 'book', 'ball', 'more', 'bye bye', 'there', 'no', 'open'. His two word sentence is 'no more' and then gesture with his hands. He just loves to throw anything he can get hold off. Just today, when he was about to throw the house key, I said 'no'. He looked at me, threw the key and said 'no more', then gesture with his hands. That really caught me dumbfounded.
His favourite toy is 'mote' (remote control). He has 10 teeth now, four at the bottom and six on top.
We are still working hard on his sleeping habit. We let him sleep with us on our bed and then transferred him to his cot. This is not working well now that he knows how to get down from our bed. So, now, we put him on his cot and let him fall asleep on his own without us being around. Of course, he cried. The last time we timed, he cried for 15 mins before he falls asleep. We are timing it everytime and see how long does it takes for him to sleep without crying...
I am also planning to start potty train him again. I tried when he was 11 months old and he refused to even sit on it for a minute. Hope he is more ready for it this time round.

Quiet Days

Lucas has been staying with my family since Tuesday. This time, he did not cry his heart out. I think he is enjoying himself. Each time I called home and asked how is he doing, my sisters will say 'Oh..he has so much fun playing hide and seek', or 'No, he did not cry at all' or 'We are taking him out soon' ...
And meanwhile, Dominic and myself are enjoying a few quiet days. We are finally catching up with our sleep and TV show. We slept 10 hours a day, watching season 3 of 'Desperate Housewives', season 4 of '24', 'Next', 'No Reservation'...savouring it while it lasts!

Merry Christmas

Fighting over TV remote control

Father and son have started fighting over gadgets in the house. Yesterday, Dominic was watching 'The Amazing Race' and Lucas decided he wanted to watch the TV too. Lucas took the TV remote and change the channel. Then he pressed his favourite button, the on/off button. It gives him immerse satisfaction when the result is instant. And there it goes:
Dom: Lucas, give Daddy the remote.
Lucas: {press the on/off button more frequently}
Dom: Lucas, Daddy is watching TV. Go take your bath.
Lucas: {Look at Dominic and continue pressing the button}
Dom: Lucas, give Daddy the remote. {Try to take from his hand}
Lucas: {scream..}

At the end, nobody gets to watch the TV!

I need a bigger place

I was having a conference call with my boss on Friday from home. It was from 5pm to 6.30pm, and that happens to be Lucas's dinner time. And my god...he was screaming for 1 hour! My boss heard that and wanted to quickly end the call so that I can attend to him. This boy has learned to be very assertive. If he wanted something, we give make a lot of noise to make sure he gets it. The only way out is to distract him. So, only Friday,
1) he wanted to eat more papaya but the nanny did not want to give him. She thinks he has enough fruit. So, he decided to scream.
2) while the nanny was cooling his food, he screams again. He wanted it NOW.
3) While eating his dinner, he wanted to feed himself using his hand and the nanny refused. There goes another good minutes of screaming.

I was quite furious - don't know with Lucas or with the nanny (told her to keep him quiet before the conference call started) or both. And then I told myself, I need a bigger house. We have outgrown our two bedroom apartment. Next year resolution - move to a bigger house??!!

Not interested

A few weeks ago we were toying with the idea of putting up the Christmas tree or not. Our main worry was Lucas bringing down the tree and hurt himself. Then, when we were at shopping malls, Lucas was all excited about the Christmas deco. Pointing his tiny finger at the ornaments and said 'ball'. That was what prompted us to decide so swiftly. Now that our tree is up, he is not interested at all, which is good for us - not worry that he will bring the tree down; and sad cause we wanted him to enjoy looking at the tree like when he is in the mall. I was planning to get him some gifts so that he can have some fun unwrapping presents, and now I am having my second thought.
This month also saw us breaking a number of rules. We minimise Lucas's intake of sugar, salt,spice and oily food. But these few days, we allowed him to have a small piece of chocolate every day. Dominic got Lucas an advent calendar. Advent is an European tradition where children get small gift everyday in December leading to Christmas day. Most Advent calendar has a window for everyday in December and a picture of an ice-cream, candy, lollipop etc. The Advent calendar Dominic got has windows that open to real chocolate. And since it is Christmas, we do not want to deprive Lucas. We just decided to allow Lucas to have some adult food on Christmas day with us. It will not be memorable for him and us if Christmas day is just another ordinary day.
Christmas eve is usually spent at my in-laws' place. We had our dinner there and then had our presents open. Christmas day itself is a quiet day for us. We get to relax at home. This year we are cooking roast duck with red cabbage. I had to google the recipe and prepared our shopping list. Hmmm..can't wait...

In the mood for Christmas

Initially, I planned to involve Lucas in our Christmas tree decoration...just like how he is involved in doing laundry. But he doesn't seem to be interested in a bare tree. So, I have to do it myself. I will see how he will react tomorrow when he sees the tree with the decoration.
This year, we bought a fresh cut tree from Ikea and a new set of ornaments. I got bored with the ornaments that we have been using from the last five years. I changed the color theme to sky blue, and Dominic bought some very nice ornaments from Germany. There is a sentimental ornament we have for Lucas. It is a musical ball which says 'my 1st christmas'. It plays Silent Night. This is Lucas's second Christmas...how time flies. Last year he was sleeping throughout the eve's dinner. This year, I think we will have a hard time trying to get him to sit on his chair throughout the eve's dinner.

Learning Fast

I haven't been posting for a while. Work is getting busy and Dominic has been travelling. For the past few days, Lucas was showing off what he learns.
1. Whenever I do laundry, I will make him participate in the chore. I asked him to put the dirty laundry into the washing machine to keep him occupied. Yesterday, he 'did' his own laundry. He dragged his laundry basket into the washing area, and place his laundry into the washing machine. Then the took his washing detergent and wanted to open the detergent compartment. Dominic and I were so surprised that he knows the drill. We took some photos and I will try to put them in a slide.
2. He has been showing off his dancing skill. He will say 'dance' and then bend both his knees, kick one of his leg, and make a small jump. This is his new-age dance.
3. He knows and can say 'bread', 'grapes'.
4. His molar tooth is coming out and it is making him cranky at times. He will put one finger from each of his hand into his mouth. His appetite has not been good as well. He hardly finish his solid and skip the night feed.
5. He wants to feed himself when eating solid. He holds the spoon with his left hand (left handed?). He needs to be guided on how to hold the spoon correctly. Most of the time, half of the food is on his shirt, his high chair and the floor. Lots of cleaning for me.
6. He enjoys brushing his teeth, more of biting the toothbrush to ease his itching gum.

Christmas is around the corner, and we have just put up our Christmas tree. This year, we bought a fresh cut tree from Ikea. Later today, we will decorate the tree with Lucas. Our hope is he will enjoy the decoration and yet leave the tree alone. That will be a challenge for us to teach him. And I have not started my Christmas shopping.