27 Months

Hey there my little man,

I wanted to start the year with a letter to you because it seems like I just haven’t written one to you and about you for some time. Over the past year you have blossomed and grown so much that I’m far too busy talking and doing stuff with you to sit down and write. (That and the fact that you just would not let me use my laptop in peace when you’re awake.) But I know I must find some time to jot some of these things down, things about you, before this all too fleeting season of your toddlerhood passes us by.

A while back while organising his photo and video archives, your Papa came across a video of you which we had taken in HK back in Dec 2009 when we were there for a short holiday, and goodness, even though it’s only been a year, we had both completely forgotten what you were like when you were just past 1, not as steady on your feet and mostly wordless. You were sooooo impossibly cute.

Your Papa and I were both had one of those “WHERE DID OUR BABY GOOOOO??” moments. Right after watching this video and several others, we decided that we HAD to video you more often, because you are growing up so fast and it won’t be too long before your cute voice, the funny inflections in your speech, and the way you drop your “h”s, and pronounce your “s” as “t” and “f” as “p” in your words would be a distant memory. And I figured now would be a good time to do a stock take on how far you have come in a year.

This month you turned 27 months — 2 years and 3 months. I’ve long stopped counting in months and would say you are just past 2 to anyone who asks. They are usually surprised, because they expect you to be older. I think it is a combination of your un-babyish features and your height that make you look older. You continue to be tall for your age measuring in at 90cm this month. (This means that you officially have to pay a fare on public transport?!?) You’re taller than average, but more than that, you’ve got a lanky frame with long limbs so you look taller than you are most of the time. As for your weight, I think it’s around 12+kg. I’ve tried to stop worrying about it since I know it just goes up and down with your state of health and appetite. You are a skinny one my dear, but as long as you are eating your meals, I’ll try not to be too hung up about it. At least you’ve recently rounded out a bit, developing chubbier cheeks, much to our delight. With all that effort we put into feeding you and forcing milk slowly and painfully down your throat, at least grant us the satisfaction of seeing that food show somewhere!

There is so much I want to say, I don’t know where to start. You’ve grown in ways beyond the physical this year. In particular, your personality has come to the fore. I’ve spoken about you being an affectionate little boy. We love your kisses and hugs, especially the unsolicited ones, and Papa loves your “yuck yuck”s (where you both (disgustingly) blow raspberries into each other) — thankfully you both leave me out of that! Besides obliging our requests, you also sometimes ask for “a big kiss” or “a big hug” and we are always more than happy to oblige. It is wonderful to be greeted with such delight and we are suckers for it!

You are articulate and your vocabulary is, honestly, quite impressive. We rarely intentionally teach you new words. Instead, you just seem to delight in learning new words when you hear us say something that sounds new to you. I laughed and commented on you scurrying out of the room once, and you’ve merrily taken to describing yourself as having “scurried” in and about, using the word correctly too. Of course there are other words which you’ve picked up from your grandparents which I’m not as keen on, like going “Aiyoh!” very loudly when there is an incident. You’ll even gleefully told me “Nai nai said ‘Aiyoh!'” once, when that happened. Hah.

Your grammar is a constant work in progress, no thanks to the fact that you have your own ideas about what is correct. Recently you decided that the past tense of “go” and “come” are “go-ed” and “come-d” instead of “went” and “came” and would insist on using them when corrected. “(I) want to say ‘go-ed!'” you would insist. It’s quite funny, if you think about it. And there’s the use of “I” and “you” which you just can’t seem to get right. I feel like I’ve been correcting you for months, and still, you say “You want [whatever it is that YOU want]” and refer to ME as “I”. It gets a bit confusing sometimes! I’m still waiting for it to click. One morning just a few days ago, shortly after waking up, you started a sentence with your usual “You want…” then caught yourself and said “I want, not you want”. It seemed like a moment of clarity and I hope you’ll finally get it right soon! But otherwise, you are mostly able to form grammatically correct sentences. That said, while your sentences are usually correct in and of themselves, sometimes the tense doesn’t match the event.

Through our conversations with you over the year, we have noticed that you draw interesting connections when you try express yourself. Your father in particular likes to make it a point to remind you of stuff you’ve seen before and make a connection with what you encounter, so he is very happy when you do likewise on your own. For example, last weekend, you dropped pieces of cornflakes into your milk, and after observing them floating on the surface of your milk, said, “The cornflakes look like lily pads.” And you were right. When your impressed father asked you if you’d recently seen lily pads, you enthusiastically told him that “Noey saw GIANT lily pads in the park,” which you did, at Jacob Ballas.

We also had an interesting exchange the other day when you were playing with the coins in your piggy bank.

Me: “Noey, stop dropping the coins on the floor.”
Noey :”(I) want to drop the coins on the floor. (I) want to drop the coins, like rain!”
Me: “No, Noey, don’t drop the coins on the floor. Pick them up.”
Noey: “(I) don’t want to pick up the coins like manna!”

It was a distinctly odd thing to say, but when I thought about it, yes, we did tell you that manna fell from the sky like rain and the Israelites gathered it from the ground to eat. There is also a picture in your Children’s Bible of manna falling from the sky to the ground like rain. I just wouldn’t have used those words to explain myself I suppose. It is, however, very you.

You are a bit of a chicken, frequently telling us that “You are so scared!”. Hah. You don’t like the dark. You’re afraid of thunder and would run into my arms as soon as you see a crack of lightning. You can’t deal with dramatic music or people looking angry, even on TV, so you only ever allow us to watch (1) cooking shows; (2) the news; and (3) documentaries. You are possibly the only child ever to be scared of cartoons. I find the last point hilarious. I don’t advocate TV, but you’re missing out, kiddo!

You have a sense of humour and love to laugh. “So funny!” is one of your favourite exclamations. You think it’s hilarious when someone mis-pronounces a word and would repeat it many times over, as a joke. And of course, there are your favourite comments about poop. Recently you’ve been trying to “do magic”. When asked to demonstrate, you would clench your fingers tightly and wave them in the air, then either start slowly peeling your fingers open one by one with your other hand, or throw open your palms dramatically with a “Rarr!”. I really have GOT to get that on video.

You are a homebody. I’ve been told by other mummies that you’re low maintenance because you don’t clamour to go out much, and even when you do, you’re quite happy going downstairs for a walk, to the playground, or to feed the fish. Even going downstairs to buy bread from the vending machine is a treat. Otherwise, you’re perfectly happy being at home, reading your books or playing with your toys. Long may this continue, I say! I think it is partly because I do not made it a habit to bring you out. Your grandparents on the other hand, frequently bring you out in the afternoons on their days with you, and recently, I’ve been told that you’ve protested against being left at home and have been asking to go to “Jurong Point to pick Jiu Jiu!”

You LOVE to sing. Funny how you didn’t sing a note for 2 years, and suddenly, here you are, singing everyday, making up your own lyrics and correcting me when I sing a wrong tune. Nursery rhymes, Children’s Praise songs, you sing them all. You developed a serious love for Christmas carols over the past month, and thanks to our nightly singing sessions and some CDs which we play in the car, you can sing all 4 verses of Joy to the World, by far your favourite carol. You can also sing all 3 verses of Away in a Manager, and most of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, and Jingle Bells. (I’ve also realised that I can multiple verses from memory, surprisingly. Hence why you’ve been hearing them a lot.)

You are very particular about your toys, where and how they are placed. “The truck MUST be like that!” you would say, taking the item from me and putting it in the correct position. Or we’d hear you say “Oh no, oh no, the digger is on the wrong shelf!” and you’d immediately leap up to correct the wrong placement. This trait is also why it seems especially difficult to get you to share your toys. You really can’t take it when someone moves your beloved cars away from where you’ve parked them, or rolls the train on the track not exactly where you placed it. It drives you nuts. All I can say is: having Mei-Mei around is going to be a rude shock, just like it was for me when your Yiyi came into my life.

Learning to share and play with others is part of the process of growing up anyway so you’ll just have to get used to it. To give you some credit, we had a whole bunch of kids descend on us for a church care group meeting recently and you’ve tried VERY hard to ignore the chaos as they took over most of your toys. At some point, you crouched next to one of them (I think it was Gaven) and said very loudly and earnestly “Gor gor, move! The cars are not for the airport!” They ignored you of course, and I removed you to play with something else before it got ugly. I was quite pleased that you didn’t kick up a fuss the whole evening. You were really happy when it was time for everyone to go home though. Haha.

As you grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to define you, to describe the many aspects that make you the person that you are. In many many ways, I see myself in you. It scares me sometimes, because I know my weaknesses and I want so much help you avoid the same issues. That’s where your Papa also comes in. I’m sure a child is meant to have 2 parents so that they can balance each other out. Anyway, I hope you know that your Papa and I both love you dearly. This year will be a very different year for all of us. It will be the year in which our family expands into something different. It will be challenging for all of us, but I want you to know that you will always be special to us and we will continue to love you as much, if not more than before.

Happy 27 Months, my BIG baby.