Isaac's Two! A Tale of Two Celebrations

We had 2 celebrations for Isaac's birthday again. Had a Tan Family gathering at my parents place, with my uncles, aunties and cousins from my father's side over for a lunch gathering the Sunday before Isaac's birthday, 2nd August 2009.

See this Barney cake - we got from the same bakery that did last year's Spiderman cake. The Spiderman cake was much better coz it had soft chocolate coating, which was very nice. This time round, they said can't have soft chocolate coating coz then they wouldn't be able to draw Barney properly. Ah well. Anyway, Isaac was happy enough with the Barney cake.
Look at him staring at the cake, so much so that he didn't want to look at the camera!
We wanted to get a Thomas the Engine cake for him, but the cake store's drawings of Thomas wasn't very nice. So we thought Barney would do as well. Yes, he's currently "into" Thomas the Engine, Barney, Cars and also, of course, Spiderman. For some reason, he also likes Dora the Explorer, even though we didn't really expose him to that. Isaac did get to wear a Thomas the Engine shirt on that day though.
Isaac was quite stoned throughout the singing of the Happy Birthday song, until the end of the song when he finally realised that it was all meant for him - then he got very high and laughed loudly.
Here's Isaac blowing the candles out :) He sorta knows how to blow, coz sometimes, when we tell him that he has to wait for awhile coz his food is hot, he would imitate us and blow on the food on the spoon, before opening his mouth to eat it.
He was so excited that he quickly plucked out the candle after he had blown, before hubbs could stop him - we were afraid he'd burn his fingers on the hot candle!
See all the cheh chehs hovering around the cake... especially Isabelle! hahaha...
Look at Isaac enjoying his cake. This was actually the first time he's had cake. And so enthusiastically, at that! He's never shown interest before, and so we've not given him any before. But he happily polished off one slice that day, and after that, he would ask for cake now and again. hehehe... see who else was enjoying the cake too...
The girls are so big already huh!? Time really flies... Rebecca (below) is 6 this year, and so next year, would be attending Primary 1 already. Isabelle (above) is 4 this year, and would enter Kindergarten 1 next year.
My dad finally had airconditioning units fitted out in the living room. So, everyone was happily sitting in the living/dining room, no complains about the heat...
Here's Isaac engaged in his favourite activity at my parents place - racing around the living room table on his car with his cheh cheh Isabelle.
They had a mini F1 race going, with them both completing at least 30 laps! vrrrroooommm...
vrrroooom vrroooom!!!
Look who's in the background on the floor?!
It's Dylan! Hahaha... He's very smiley now... Look at him striking a pose!
He was also Yew Yi's good friend that day. hahaha... first time!!! All in all, it was a great gathering for the Tan Family as we hadn't gathered like that since Chinese New Year earlier this year.

pictures above taken on 2nd August 2009

Isaac @ almost 2 years old

Rebecca @ 6 years; Isabelle @ 4 years

Dylan @ four months to 2 years

Next up, on Thursday, 6th August 2009, we had a mini-birthday celebration at my parents-in-laws' home, where we went for dinner at night, after going home to take a nap after spending an entire day at the zoo.

We bought a Thomas the Engine cake from Polar! Thanks to Lili for the tip off! hahaha... Isaac was MOST PLEASED with the cake. "Thomas cake! Thomas cake!" he kept chanting.
Look at him grinning in all the pictures. Isaac is not as tense with just immediate family about. On Sunday, with the rest of Tan Family about, he was not quite himself and would cry and fuss, very unlike his usual self. But when it was just the immediate family, he's less tense and it was much easier to get him to look at the camera, take pix, etc.
He also, now knows how to pose for the camera - to look at the camera and "Say cheese!!!" flashing his cheeky grin. I particularly like this photo below - where we three all have our teeth flashing - we look alike huh?! :p
Isaac's hair is kinda long now. Coz he refuses to let me cut! He's afraid of the vibration of the shaving equipment. I told him I could just use the scissors, which would not have any vibration. But he was just so afraid at the idea of cutting hair that he refused to let me cut his hair. We decided not to traumatise him, and let his hair grow out a bit.
I did managed to trim his fringe with the scissors, without him knowing - hubbs sat him down in the bathtub to bathe him, distracting him with the water, while I sat on the toilet bowl, and fingered his hair, cutting it. Isaac thought I was just running my hands through his hair like I always do, and so didn't realise I was cutting his hair. I didn't dare trim the hair around his ears though, for fear of cutting him - the scissors are very very sharp!
Isaac blowing, and cheering when he managed to blow out the candles.
See the 3 generations of Tan men here...
And here's a preview of how Isaac's hairline will develop over the next 70 years...
Yummy! Isaac loved the cake. He ate his own cake, and asked for more! "More cake! More cake!"
I bought Isaac 2 suits of matching pants and top - one set of Thomas and one set of Barney! He was sooooo pleased and immediately wanted to put on the Thomas set.
Told him to stand straight to pose for me, but he happily went on to jump on the bed.
So all in all, think Isaac had a great time this birthday :) Here's a toast to our happy boy, Isaac!

pictures above taken on 2nd August 2009
Isaac @ almost 2 years old

Isaac's Two @ The Zoo!

In continuation of the special posts (this is Part 2) done to celebrate Isaac's 2nd birthday... I most guiltily admit that the ppictures you have been seeing the last few posts are kinda outdated as they were from December 2008, almost 8 months back!

So, as a special treat for Isaac's birthday, here are pictures of The Boy on the 6th August 2009 and our day with him :)

Both hubbs and I took leave on the 6th August 2009 - Isaac's birthday. This was the first time ever that hubbs took leave, coz he's now at MOE HQ and so he can. Previously when he was teaching in the school, he can't take leave on school days, no matter what.

So here's how we started the day. Isaac woke up and immediately demanded that a book be read to him. He often does this. Today, he picked out the Dr Seuss' book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" This was a particularly apt book that he chose for this special day, when he turns a big boy two!

As hubbs read to him, I contemplated that perhaps we should make it a tradition to read this book to our children on each of their birthdays. If you haven't read it, you really should. It's a great book. Here's a link to read it, or watch it read by Harrison Ford in this SuperBowl ad which adapts the contents of this book. Check it out!!! :)
By the way, also check out hubbs' Vanishing (Follicle) Island!!! His Suez Canal is widening by the day, so much so it's as wide as the English Channel already. Hubbs says when the Island vanishes altogether, he will cut botak. Which is fine with me - I rather he is botak than like those olden chinese times shave half the head only!

Next up, we got ready and hurried off to the zoo! I'd managed to wrangle the Zoo Corporate Card from my office for this day, and we could go to the zoo for free! We wanted to go early morning (we got there by 9.30am), so that it's not too hot and perhaps leave by 11 or so. As it turns out, the weather wasn't too hot (which was great!) and we enjoyed ourselves so much that we stayed till almost 4.30 in the afternoon!

At the entrance of the Zoo were the Ben & Jerry cows - Isaac immediately wanted to "Papa, zuo4 niu2" and "Mama, sit cow" - so we promptly sat him on the cow and took pix with him :)
I've been guiltily not taking enough pix (not by my standards!) of late as well, so I was determined to try and take more on this special day.
We brought Isaac's toy car along, the kind he sits on and pushes himself on - but the zoo people said we can't bring it in due to the many slopes in the zoo, so we had to leave it outside. Made poor Isaac cry his heart out to be separated from his beloved car.
So for most of the morning, Isaac was sitting atop hubbs' shoulders, which hubbs finds is an easier and less tiring way for him to carry Isaac who now weighs in at about 11.5kg.
We happened to chance upon the giraffe feeding time, which was quite cool coz the giraffes came up quite close.
More pix of me and Isaac! hehehe... half decent shots too, I must say. Though I am looking, oh alright, I AM fatter than ever. sob sob...
Here we are at the Elephants At Work and At Play show. It's the first time that Isaac has seen elephants in the skin, up close, so he was pretty entranced by them. He also kinda likes elephants, making sure to always point them out in pictures in books when he sees them.
Look how taken he is! Could hardly take his eyes off them.
Here's Isaac at the kiddy corner where they have the ponies and goats in small enclosures where the kids can see them up close.

We hardly have goats in books, more sheep than goats, really. So "goats" were kinda new to Isaac. And since sheep was "yang2", goats became "shan1 yang2" to him. But now he knows that there are sheep and there are goats.
To top off the zoo trip, we brought Isaac to the new KidzWorld in the zoo, for some water play! Look how pleased he is!

As you can see, Isaac's happy just playing with the water in the shallow pool, and water that sprays out of the structures. He loves 'stepping' on water and just splashing about.
There're nice structures at the KidzWorld with water coming out of the structures, plus slides and even a huge 'pail' collecting water, and when it is full, the bell starts ringing, and empty itself over... once the kids hear the bell ringing, they'd gather below the pail, waiting for the big moment! See how much water is accumulated below! For some reason though, Isaac wasn't too interested in the 'waterfall' at all. He paid it no attention. After letting Isaac play with water and sprays for awhile, hubbs decided to bring Isaac to try out the slides. In the beginning, hubbs had to position Isaac by sitting him down at the head of the slide. But after a few tries, Isaac quickly got the hang of sitting down at the head of the slide, and pushing himself off.


Isaac likes to take his time on the slide though. He'd slowly lower himself onto the top of the slide, and think awhile, and wait awhile, before pushing himself off.

There was an occassion though, there was this girl waiting to go on the slide after Isaac. She got so impatient with him for taking so long that, when she checked that hubbs wasn't looking (hubbs just looked away for a split second) she pushed Isaac down the slide! Thankfully Isaac didn't cry.

Hubbs was kinda amused and was laughing as he spoke to the girl, telling her that it was not a nice thing to do to push someone down the slide when they're not ready. But even though he was smiling and half-laughing when he said that - she kinda got 'scared' by his pep talk, and quickly walked off without going down the slide! hahaha...
So Isaac enjoyed his slide rides very much. Kept going round and round, climbing the stairs and sliding down. After awhile, Isaac even tried a different way to go down the slide! He went down feet first still, but tummy down! :) here, take a look!


Look how tall Isaac is! It's also the swim suit he's wearing, I suppose - he's been wearing that since he was 6 months old. Well at that time, the suit came down to his ankles whereas they're now above his knees. We took his height and he was 87cm on his 2nd birthday.
Look at Isaac all tired out at the end of the zoo trip! We finally left the zoo at about 4.30pm. On our way walking out, Isaac fell asleep in the stroller!

All pictures and videos above taken on 6th August 2009!
Isaac @ 2 years old!

Isaac's Two! Mummy has her say!

Isaac's 2 years old already! Today - 6th August 2009! Time really flies, can't believe 2 years ago today, I was in hospital, gave birth to Isaac at 7.15am in the morning.

We still remember the sleepless nights of the first few months. The tiring, tiring first few months when it was all poop and boobs, and especially when Isaac got colicky at about 7pm everyday... gosh... After the 6th month, things were more or less at steady state. And things got much easier the older Isaac got.

By the time he was about 12, 13 months, when he could walk, things were much much easier... He's a joy to come home to everyday (well, he always was :p). And we always look forward to weekends when we can spend the whole day with him, bringing him out, or just staying home. Even if we "stay home", we'd go downstairs for walks, sometimes cycling, play games, watch movies at home. We always have a blast.

But it IS tiring to look after a kid though. I don't think it's Isaac per se - it's just that accompanying a kid this age - who has boundless energy - is quite a feat to do along, for a long period of time.

Most weekends, both hubbs and I are not working, and we would be with Isaac all day. It helps that there are two of us, coz... it's just easier and less tiring. But if one of us were not around, we both feel that it's very tiring! *shiong* man!!! hahahaa I don't really know how to explain it coz it ain't obvious. But think most parents might share the same sentiments.

And all of a sudden, before Isaac's 2 years old! :) He's a big boy now. And he can 'do' many things. And say many things!

He's talking a lot now, and would often mimic whatever we say to him. But it's still cute and not irritating at all, coz we know he's mimicking us to hear what it sounds like if he says it. He mimics what he hears - so words in a song that he can catch, he'd say. Or if he listens to the adults talking to each other, he'd mimic words he hears too.

Almost all words, he can pronounce perfectly. I say he CAN, and not that he WOULD all the time. Case in point: FISH. He used to say the word Fish very well. When we see fishes, and pictures of fishes, and when he wanted to eat fish. Then suddenly one day, he started saying "shish" instead of "fish" ?!?!?! What the fish?!?! I kept correcting him, but he flashes me a cheeky grin and continues to say "shish". And so Dr Seuss' "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" becomes "One Shish, Two Shish, Red Shish, Blue Shish!" sighz.

Isaac takes to me correcting his pronunciation, quite well. Meaning, he doesn't seem to mind it, and he would say the word again, correctly pronounced, after I correct him. (Unlike hubbs who gives me The Look, when I correct him.) I am very conscious and would insist that Isaac pronounces his Ts and Ks at the end of the word. Like CaT, TalK, etc...He is very good, and always mimics me right.

Sometimes of course, he has the usual lazy Singaporean tongue. Like his "dun wan!" (don't want". He's very good at saying dun wan. Dun wan shirt, dun wan pants, dun wan diapers, dun wan touch (although I have managed to correct him such that he sometimes remembers to say 'dun touch' now), dun wan eat, dun wan water. hahaha... no, he's not really difficult with food and clothes, just occassionally, like most kids are. Oh best, "dun wan cut hair" - coz he's very afraid of the shaver that I use to cut his hair. Which kinda explains why his hair is so long now.

Isaac's 'dun touch' is quite legendary. He's very... particular - or as we say in Teochew dialect - very "goh tuck" - he doesn't like relative strangers (people whom he is not familiar with) to touch him. He can serially go:" Dun touch hair, dun touch shirt, dun touch pants, dun touch diapers!" when people pat his head, touch his shoulder or his thigh, or pat his bottom, respectively.

And our favourite, and our relatives' (who are all Teochew) favourite is when he says "mai tang!" which is Teochew for "don't touch!". It's hilarious to hear a boy his age say it, so amusing in fact, that my relatives kept on 'touching' him (irritating him in the process!) in order to hear him say "mai tang!" hahhaa... Will definitely try to get this on video.

Yes, he's apparently learnt to say quite a bit of Teochew as well. But hubbs and I hardly get to hear it, coz we've been very successful with our language programme so far. If you recall, hubbs will only speak with Isaac in Chinese, and I in English, and we managed to convince my mother-in-law to speak to Isaac only in Teochew. Thus, Isaac only speaks to us in those respective languages i.e. to me in English, hubbs in Chinese, and my MIL in Teochew.

Isaac, now at 2, has also learnt the concept that when one steps out of sight, the person doesn't 'disappear'. Thus, he has learnt not to cry, when we go to the loo, or go and bathe - he understands that "Papa is bathing" and not that his Papa has gone away.

In the mornings, when I drop Isaac off at my in laws place before I go to work. I used to have to sneak away. And he would cry when he realises that I am gone. But now, he knows and understands that hubbs and I have to be away, that we have to "go to work". In fact, his current way of dealing with it, is to ignore me when I tell him "Isaac, Mummy has to go to work now, okay? bye bye..." He doesn't even turn around to say Bye to me. Makes me kinda sad, in a way. But I guess that's his way of dealing with it.

okay, I was going to upload pix and videos along with this post taken on 6th August 2009, but it's kinda taking a long time. so here comes this post first :) stay tuned!

Dreaming of food?

No, not me. Isaac! These past two weeks, Isaac has been waking up at wee hours of the night (think 2.30am, 3am, 4am) to ask for food or drink.

Started last week. One night he asked for water, which we gave him his water bottle that we always have in standby by the bed at night. He threw a tantrum, and only settled down when we gave him "water in a cup" (as opposed to water in a bottle).

Then he woke up at 4am one night, sat up in bed, and asked for "apple juice". This is his new fad which he picked up during our recent trip to Australia, coz we were drinking lots of apple juice and orange juice there cos it was so cheap. He'd never had apple juice before the trip, so it was his new fav.

But we certainly weren't going to give him apple juice at 4am?! So we just kept telling him that it's time for sleeping, and that he could have water, but not juice at this hour. However, he just kept droning on in a whiny voice that he wants apple juice. He literally chanted "apple juice apple juice apple juice apple juice..." for like 15 minutes (while hubbs and I were trying to continue sleeping while telling him to go back to sleep)

Finally, hubbs was so irritated with his whiny chanting that he said in a very stern voice:"Papa's going to count to 10 ah!" (see how unclear men can be?) So I translated to Isaac:"Isaac, Papa's going to count to 10 and he wants you to stop making noise by then, ok? Stop it. Go back to sleep. Be a good boy, please."

By this time, hubbs had already begun his counting. "1, 2, 3..." Isaac paused when told that hubbs was going to count to 10, but he continued chanting... "... 4, 5, 6..." "Isaac, Papa is angry ah. You must stop making noise by the time he counts to 10 ah..." "... 7, 8..." Isaac lowered his voice but continued chanting in a whisper... By the time we got to "... 9, 10. " He crawled over to me and started whisper chanting in my face "Mama, apple juice. Mama apple juice..."

I quickly whispered to Isaac :"Isaac, Papa angry already. Stop already lah. Quick, go back to sleep. We drink apple juice tomorrow. Papa angry already!" Finally Isaac kept quiet, and eventually drifted off to sleep. Approximately every hour after that, Isaac would suddenly start chanting "apple juice apple juice" like he just startled himself awake, and remembered that he wanted apple juice. However, thankfully, he'd stop after a short while, and fall back asleep.

The morning after, we were kinda amused with what'd happened. It was the first time hubbs had made a threat like that. Well, sort of. So, we realised that Isaac now kinda understood what it meant for when his Papa is angry, and he sorta knew that there'd be some kind of consequences when Papa was angry. Interesting.

Last night, Isaac woke at 2.30am, sat up in bed and said:"Eat bread! Eat bread!" Goodness. Think it was kinda cloudy out, so the sky looked kinda bright, so I thought it was like 6am or something. If it was 6am, I was half willing to get out of bed to get the bread for him - afterall, maybe my darling son was REALLY hungry, right? ;p So I muttered:"Bread? okay..."

But I checked the time and it was 2.30am?! Sighz. There we go again. He was chanting and getting frustrated already. I just said:"er... darling, it is 2.30am you know. Can you go back to sleep, please." And thankfully this time, he was sleepy enough to be at it for only a few minutes, and he dropped back off to sleep.

So I was discussing with hubbs this morning. What's up, man? Last week, we can understand, coz he had a fever running, and that made him cranky. But his fever is long gone, and he asks for bread at 2.30am in the morning? Is he really hungry or what?

But he eats quite a lot. Dinner time, approx 7pm, he'd eat a whole bowl of rice, plus food. Last night, he ate meat and fishball, and soup too. When we got home about 9.45pm, he asked for bread. We went to buy a loaf and he ate a whole slice of bread on his own.

It was the same on Tuesday night. After dinner, he ate 2 pieces of bread, and he woke up at 3am asking to "Eat milk!" Geeez... you'd think we were starving him!

Ah well, maybe he's a growing boy yeah... need lotsa food. He eats more than I do! (And that's saying something!)

Well lucky for hubbs, I don't have such wee-hour cravings for food or drink... I wouldn't have cared whether he counted to 10 or 100, he'd better get it for me! hahaha...