I must have been repeating my ‘key messages’ to Nat too often…

There are times when Nat will willingly sleep in his own room with one of us accompanying him. Usually, it’s me. Recently, he chose tehpeng. Mummy me of course “felt jealous”! When I asked him why doesn’t he want mummy to sleep with him…

Nat :: Mummy, you got baby. Your tummy getting bigger.

Right…this is what I tell him to prepare him that there will come a time I won’t be able to sleep with him, cos he tends to kick quite often in his sleep. Heh.

Of course, there are still nights he wants to sleep with us. Strangely, co-sleeping has never been on our agenda since he was a baby but now that he’s older, he chose to sleep with us!Other than space, sometimes, he wants my bolster too. When I tell him that’s mine…

Nat :: No mummy, must share!

LOL right!? It’s really using my words back at me!

And speaking of kicking in the night..the other night he was more rampant in his sleep-kicking and I got irritated cos I was woken up, I kept pushing his legs away and in a slightly irrtable (hey, it’s 3 am la!) tone told him – stop kicking mummy!

Nat :: I’m soooo sorry mummy

Complete with the woeful, Im-really-sorry-I-didn’t-mean-it tone. My heart softened and I felt bad for being irritated.

Then, the next moment, his leg came a-kicking again. Zzzzz.

拿他没办法…

There’s this CD of children’s songs (which we bought from Mothercare) which both tehpeng and myself will definitely list it as one of the “most-utilised” item we’ve ever bought for Nat.

For some reason, the whole repertoire of songs will calm Nat down, during car-rides and when he’s fussing since he was a wee one. So, we had the songs in our itunes/iphones which was really useful for our travels. I remember having to play the album for Nat, during bedtime on our first trip to BKK. I remember having it on repeat mode during our long roadtrips while in Melbourne. Yes, we even burnt a copy along for the rented car. Even for some car rides in SG, Nat will request for it. Before he could speak, he would fuss and would only calm down when we play the album. So much so, tehpeng has to title it “A Old Macdonald” just so it will be top of the playlist for easy access!

And now that he can speak, he will ask ” My song please daddy!!” in enthusiasm before we set off.

Last night, he surprised us all by singing along to almost every single song. For some songs, he knew part of the lyrics. For some songs, he knew the beat, he knew the instrumental parts and would make the appropriate sounds. It was really too cute. Made me realise, all this while, he’s really been absorbing everything going around him, in his quiet manner.

At bedtime, I was singing “Jesus Loves me” and you know what? He knew the lyrics to that too!

Then I sang the “Wise man built his house upon the rock” and he knew the lyrics too (ok, only the last few words of each sentence).

It was enough to make mummy tear. I mean, my boy is (almost) all grown-up!

Last night, as I was in the shower, Nat was pounding on the bathroom door and kept calling for me. Plus, he was being hyper and jumping around in bed when I told him not too, especially since his scissor-legs have kicked me a few times. And of course, I worried that he will fall off the bed.

So, when I came out of the shower…

Lilsnooze:  you’ve been naughty. Go stand at a corner and say sorry.

Nat :: Where?

Lilsnooze :: (trying not to laugh) There! Any corner.

He went to stand back against the wall and said “sorry sorry sorry”, in that cute tone of his.

If only I have a video of it!

I looked at tehpeng who was trying not to laugh.

How to be angry like that?

Just this evening, it poured. Nat told me “Rain”. I went to close the windows.

Then he told me “Good job”!

Haha, I guess I’ve been saying that to him quite often.

I read somewhere that children praised for effort, rather than intellect, tend to put in more effort instead of thinking that they are clever and need not try or put in any effort. True or not, I don’t know. But I kinda believe in the theory. No harm in trying to practise this. Of course, I do let slip a few “So clever!”. It’s so hard not to, when your child can do certain things for the first time.

Recently, we bought a “where’s wally? kinda book but it’s Cars-themed.

This morning, we were flipping through the book and trying to solve each puzzle. Nat could point out most of the items on every quiz, to my surprise and delight. He’s got a keen eye.

At one particular picture, he couldn’t find an item and he said “Dont have”. I looked through the picture and couldn’t find the item too.

I thought there was a production mistake and told nat ” So clever! It’s really not there!”

When tehpeng came home,  I told him what happened and showed him the picture. But tehpeng kinda found the ‘missing item’. It was small and hidden away.

Nat then looked at me and said “HAVE!!!!” and pointed at the item.

Lilsnooze :: Nat is clever, but daddy is more clever. Only mummy is silly!

We all had a good  laugh over this. Precious memories these are.

Just this morning, on their way to grandma house…

daddy tehpeng :: How many yi-yis do you have?

Nat:: 2 yi-yis…..(pause)

3 ti-tahs (tagalog for “auntie” and what he calls the helpers in tehfamily)….(pause)…..

2 woh-woh (till now he refuse to say ‘dog’)

As if he was doing a population census!

I want to remember this day April 27 2010. Not cos MBS opens its doors. But cos it’s the day my son said to us “I love you”!

Ok, not on his own accord…but rather we realised he could say these 3 words and we made him say it to us. HAH

As my helper played back the audio-recording of his babbles and him saying that, Nat was visibly shy. He didn’t want to do a ‘live’ performance,despite us egging asking him to.

Till, tehpeng took his milk bottle “hostage” and in exchange, Nat said it to him. Of course mummy wants it too!

He then came over and gave me a hug and said the beautiful ‘I love you”.

Then he took his bottle and got down for his “nightcap”. As if it was just another bedtime routine for him

Far from it, baby.

Much as it is convenient to tweet and update FB status, there’s no archiving of them, is there? I must note to post more, to jot down memories of my son who is continuing to develop and amaze us everyday.

Recently, he has some eye-infection (which actually doesn’t really bother him much,he’s still active as ever) and the Doc’s recommendation was to put eye-drops and some ointment for him. Well, if there’s a struggle getting him to take meds, I cannot imagine administering eye drops and ointment!

BUT, he was such a brave little boy when the nurse administered both for him. No fuss, no struggling, no crying. In fact, when tehpeng scooped him up after, he immediately went “Buy Toy”, nonchalantly. Which got us chuckling and of course, he did get to choose a toy after.

Of course, back home, it was a different story. There were struggles. There were bribes and even bargains. When he asked for my iphone, I will barter-trade that he will let mummy put eye drops. He will think for a bit before saying yes. But so far, he’s been good. We managed to administer without much force needed.

I must say, he’s very brave. I don’t think I have ever succeeded in putting the ointment into my own eye (I tend to just dab it at the outside of the eyel id). Yes, unfortunately, he seems to have inherited my ability to get eye infection. Sigh.

And this morning, he even told us, “No eye drops, just rub rub”. 6 words, 1 sentence! Amazing. By rub rub, he means the hot compress which I will do for him every night which will help to reduce the infection.