Z is 21 months old!

Here are two latest pictures of Z taken last weekend. My baby is growing so fast!

5 months just went past so quickly; not easy to juggle a full time work, family and 'ME' time.

I was just looking back at Z's older pictures, selecting them to be posted in this journal. Am amazed how different Z is now compared to just few months ago and how much he has grown (physically, mentally and emotionally). 

November 2013:

We went to Langkawi for a short family holiday and the weather there was awesome! Z's favourite thing to do was going to the pool. He would point to the door the first thing he woke up; in the morning & from his naps. I think he likes the idea of staying near the pool because we visited the pool up to three times in a day.

                                       

We stayed at The Westin Langkawi as we wanted to pick a hotel that is baby friendly and could order Z's food separately. Z was 16 months old then and we were trying to delay in introducing salt and sugar to him until maybe about 2 years old. I was nursing Z by the pool with a fantastic weather and the feeling was so special :) 

We went up to the Langkawi Cable Car, a must go when you're in Langkawi. The queue management was horrible as we had to queue by standing in a line for almost 2 hours even though we were given numbers. The ride up was quite scary as it was really high up. The views were breath-taking even though the sky bridge was closed for maintenance. Heard that it was closed for quite a long time; almost two years. I would recommend every visitor to Langkawi to go up the cable car but try to avoid public holidays or weekends and try to go in the afternoon, at about 2pm. We were surprised to see there were no queue when we were leaving the cable car centre at about 2pm. 

December 2013:

Christmas 2013. Z's 2nd Christmas :)

We were at Jungle Gym, Bangsar Shopping Centre on the last day of 2013

January 2014:

Z's Calendars 2014!!!!! 

Z's first Chinese New Year shoes!

The moment Z saw these shoes, he was pointing & touching them while saying 'ar! ar!', that's his version of 'car'. His not-so-nice haircut was by his mommy :( I think I got better in cutting his hair after this haircut.

February 2014:

Z started imitating the adults by holding a phone to his year by saying 'arloo' and 'bye'. He would also use both hands to pretend to press on the phone as if he was texting. 

Chinese New Year 2014

Z the drummer boy!

Z simply loved the lion dance performances. He liked the drummer boys and would stared at them the whole performance but not at the lions. He would prefer to approach & try to hit the drums than reaching to touch the lions. Z never cease to amaze us on the things and details that he would get fixated on. He is so sharp that he would notice almost everything and would quickly point out on things that he likes.

March 2014:

We celebrated Z's Suk Suk (Uncle in Chinese) birthday!

April 2014: 

It was Grandpa Yong & Gandpa Chong's birthday month!

April was a very special month because two of Z's favourite persons had their birthday celebrations! Z was the centre of attention because he got to sit on the birthday boys' lap to sing the birthday song and blow the candles. He could hum many songs and sometimes would sing to himself. He has his daddy's trait because SJ would do that sometimes in the car when the radio was not turned on. It was quite fun to watch ;) 

Compared to 5 months ago, my baby:

Has more hair now.

He could run very fast now.

He could reach the door knob and turns it.

He could reach many things on the table.

He understands very well what we were saying.

He could follow instructions.

He could imitate the words that we speak and the words that he uttered would surprised us.

He can negotiates.

He knows what is a quiet corner. I introduced the quiet corner to him sometime in April after I realised that hitting his hands and legs did not make good sense. I would usually threaten to hit his hands if he did something that we didn't approve. There was once he was jokingly hitting his great-grandmother (Tai Poh) and I told him that he shouldn't hit Tai Poh because it hurts and wasn't nice. The moment I said: 'If you hit Tai Poh again, I am going to hit you', this entire sentence felt so wrong. How could I possibly educate my child not to hit anyone if I continuously hit him? It was there and then that I have decided to stop hitting him because he understands what I am saying now. 

He could hums the entire song of a few nursery rhymes. His favourites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and London Bridge is Falling Down.

He could recite A, B, C, maybe for the first 5 to 6 alphabets and hum the rest of the ABC song. 

He could count 1, 2, 3 and to 10 but missed a few numbers in between.

My baby is growing so fast and looking more like the man that I fell in love with, his daddy. I love my little family :)

Now I need to make it a point to update this journal at least once a month! 

I made the stupidest mistake which could be easily prevented yesterday :(

This was written yesterday, on Friday 28th February :( Am recording this down here to remind me how silly I was & to tell this story to Z when he is older.

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This afternoon I had an emergency crisis that made my heart beating very fast.

After Shichida class at 12.30pm, I put Z into the car seat while he was holding my car remote, the stupid me forgot to take the remote from him that the moment I closed his door, he pressed lock on the car remote. I was locked out of my car while my baby was securely fasten in the car seat with my car remote :(((((((((((. I tried to coax him to unlock the car remote by asking him to press other buttons but he kept pressing his favorite bit which was the lock button on the remote. Really stressful!

Called my car salesman & asked for my options to open my car & he said it's either spare keys, get a lock-smith or break the window. Also called SJ to inform him about my stupid mistake. He asked me what was I going to do & I replied him that I was going to break my car window.

After trying to persuade Z to press open for like 10 mins, he started to sweat & began to cry. I thought I still had the chance as long he is still randomly holding & pressing the remote but after a while, he decided to drop the remote away. It was then that I decided to break my car window. So I ran to the hardware shop located ground floor at Centrepoint & told the men working there of my emergency situation. My car was parked in front of Starbucks Centrepoint & people was wondering what was wrong with me. 3 girls sitting at Starbucks came & helped me to distract Z. They heard me speaking to Z outside of the door for a long time.

A man from the hardware shop came with a huge hammer & a screwdriver. Initially I instructed him to break the tiny small window on the right passenger side, which is opposite of Z. The girls were telling me that was not a good idea; the front driver window was better so the broken glasses would not fly to Z, which I agreed.

The man tried hitting like more than 10 times on my driver window & it didn't even crack. I was quite impressed with the tinting or the quality of my car window glass; could see the hammer bouncing off from the window. Another man came to help. I told them to try the sharp 'hook' side & they tried for a while more. Finally after like more than 20 hits & about 10 mins, the window finally cracked, they pulled the whole window out & I was able to press the central button to unlock all doors.

A huge crowd was gathered around us; wondering why this stupid woman asking people to break her car. Z was shaken with the whole incident; being hot inside & loud knocking sound but after he had some snacks, he was all smiley again. Most importantly, he is completely ok.

I am so thankful to the men that came to help me with the window & the girls for kept telling me to be calm & kept waving to entertain Z.

Lesson learnt for me: never let the kids play with your car keys/remote especially when they are in or near your car. There are many things that we often take for granted due to our busy lifestyles that has caused us to be easily distracted & not focused on the 'present'. This incident has taught & reminded me again that I need to STAY FOCUS on NOW. It's NOW that matters most.

Hope everyone had a better Friday.