Happy first birthday, Ryan!
Dear Ryan,
Happy first birthday (Feb 5), dear baby boy.
It has been an incredible year of getting to know you and loving you. You are our little ray of sunshine. Always full of gurgly smiles for everyone, fiesty and active as can be.
I squish and kiss you about a hundred times a day because you are soooo lovable :)
Your crawling days are well over now (sobs) that you have mastered the art of walking.
It took you a while to be brave enough to walk outdoors but now you shake off our hand and insists on walking by yourself. Sometimes you also like to loop your arm into handbags and look an aunty going to the market.
You love to visit the playground, climb all over the slide and seesaw. You will whine and protest when we have to leave.
Why, this month, you have even started to run. You are definitely not the most graceful creature around - sometimes I really fear for your two front teeth - but it is the cutest thing to watching you barrel towards us grinning, your short little legs pumping and hands held up high in the air :)
Your favourite things to play with at home are balls. You can play ball all day long. Throwing balls (you are a very strong and determined thrower), running after them, kicking them, looking for your balls under the table or sofa. Sean was pretty good with a ball at your age too - maybe it is a boy thing :)
The other toy you are very fond of is Sean's motorised bike. You know how to climb on it yourself, step on the pedal to rev it up and rumble off on your own. You can’t change directions yet so you have been driving into walls a lot (whereupon you would grunt at us for help). You love it so much we sometimes have to hide the bike from you or set it to reverse gear so you can just drive 'on the spot'.
You are starting to babble a lot more coherently. You are definitely more vocal than your brother was at this age!
Here is a list of words/sounds you can say to date (I will add on as we go along):
10 months - Mama, nen-nen (milk)
11 months - mum-mum (food), nei-nei (Nainai), Baba (Papa), bbbbbrrrr (car)
12 months - Yeye, Buh! (Bye), Baba (scared, while patting your chest), Ooo-ooh (uh-oh)!, Ah! (when you touch something hot)
You can definitely understand a lot more than you can verbalise.
You clasp your hands together gongxi-style when you see Chinese New Year decorations (and you know exactly where they are in the house and at our lift lobby). When we ask you what is a 'dong dong chiang', you shake your head wildly.
You hold our your little hand to us when we say 'hold hands' (it is the sweetest gesture). You pat your chest when you are scared of something. You like taking out a fresh diaper from the drawer and pass it to your brother (even when he doesn't need one). You can understand simple instructions such as 'throw this' or 'put inside' which makes you very handy to have around the house.
You have a funny sense of humour. You like grabbing my face/arms/legs and blowing raspberries to make me laugh.
You throw your head back and do a cheesy fake laugh when you see us laughing about something and you don't want to be left out. You like to sip water only to spray it everywhere or have it dribble down your chin. (You think it is very funny but I don't!)
You show very clear preference for using your left hand which makes me think you may just be a lefty like your Yiyi.
You are a champ at eating. You are constantly eating all round the clock which will explain your chipmunk cheeks and round tummy. You would finish your plate of porridge and then come round to the rest of us who are still eating and ask 'Mum-mum!' You like eating adult food like rice and chewing on meat even with your 6 teeth. Sigh, your picky brother and you cannot be more different in this regard!
Something wonderful happened this month: you *finally* learnt how to sleep on your own at night.
I didn't do anything differently but one day, you just rolled around in our bed mumbling to yourself and fell asleep. (You refuse to go to sleep in your own cot). Ok you can sleep on your own on most days now but some days you must cry and be rocked for a while before you willingly go to sleep.
You still wake up for milk at least twice every night but I have managed to train you to hold your own milk bottle so all I have to do is prepare your bottle and shove it into your hands. Once you are done, you will doze back to sleep on your own. Sometimes you don't even finish your bottle which makes me think you are not really hungry and just waking up out of habit.
I still can't get you to nap on your own in the day though - because I think you are used to Kakak rocking you to sleep while I am at work! Tsk tsk, we will have to work on that next.
We had a first year party for you the weekend before you turned one.
Of course, you had no idea what the fuss was about but it was nice just remembering all your little milestones and celebrating your very first year in our big, big world.
We are so lucky to have you. Happy first birthday, darling Rei.
Love,
Mama
PS. I promised myself that I will put together a baby book (of your first year). Let's hope I can get started on it soon!
Happy first birthday (Feb 5), dear baby boy.
It has been an incredible year of getting to know you and loving you. You are our little ray of sunshine. Always full of gurgly smiles for everyone, fiesty and active as can be.
I squish and kiss you about a hundred times a day because you are soooo lovable :)
Your crawling days are well over now (sobs) that you have mastered the art of walking.
It took you a while to be brave enough to walk outdoors but now you shake off our hand and insists on walking by yourself. Sometimes you also like to loop your arm into handbags and look an aunty going to the market.
You love to visit the playground, climb all over the slide and seesaw. You will whine and protest when we have to leave.
Why, this month, you have even started to run. You are definitely not the most graceful creature around - sometimes I really fear for your two front teeth - but it is the cutest thing to watching you barrel towards us grinning, your short little legs pumping and hands held up high in the air :)
Your favourite things to play with at home are balls. You can play ball all day long. Throwing balls (you are a very strong and determined thrower), running after them, kicking them, looking for your balls under the table or sofa. Sean was pretty good with a ball at your age too - maybe it is a boy thing :)
The other toy you are very fond of is Sean's motorised bike. You know how to climb on it yourself, step on the pedal to rev it up and rumble off on your own. You can’t change directions yet so you have been driving into walls a lot (whereupon you would grunt at us for help). You love it so much we sometimes have to hide the bike from you or set it to reverse gear so you can just drive 'on the spot'.
You are starting to babble a lot more coherently. You are definitely more vocal than your brother was at this age!
Here is a list of words/sounds you can say to date (I will add on as we go along):
10 months - Mama, nen-nen (milk)
11 months - mum-mum (food), nei-nei (Nainai), Baba (Papa), bbbbbrrrr (car)
12 months - Yeye, Buh! (Bye), Baba (scared, while patting your chest), Ooo-ooh (uh-oh)!, Ah! (when you touch something hot)
You can definitely understand a lot more than you can verbalise.
You clasp your hands together gongxi-style when you see Chinese New Year decorations (and you know exactly where they are in the house and at our lift lobby). When we ask you what is a 'dong dong chiang', you shake your head wildly.
You hold our your little hand to us when we say 'hold hands' (it is the sweetest gesture). You pat your chest when you are scared of something. You like taking out a fresh diaper from the drawer and pass it to your brother (even when he doesn't need one). You can understand simple instructions such as 'throw this' or 'put inside' which makes you very handy to have around the house.
You have a funny sense of humour. You like grabbing my face/arms/legs and blowing raspberries to make me laugh.
You throw your head back and do a cheesy fake laugh when you see us laughing about something and you don't want to be left out. You like to sip water only to spray it everywhere or have it dribble down your chin. (You think it is very funny but I don't!)
You show very clear preference for using your left hand which makes me think you may just be a lefty like your Yiyi.
You are a champ at eating. You are constantly eating all round the clock which will explain your chipmunk cheeks and round tummy. You would finish your plate of porridge and then come round to the rest of us who are still eating and ask 'Mum-mum!' You like eating adult food like rice and chewing on meat even with your 6 teeth. Sigh, your picky brother and you cannot be more different in this regard!
Something wonderful happened this month: you *finally* learnt how to sleep on your own at night.
I didn't do anything differently but one day, you just rolled around in our bed mumbling to yourself and fell asleep. (You refuse to go to sleep in your own cot). Ok you can sleep on your own on most days now but some days you must cry and be rocked for a while before you willingly go to sleep.
You still wake up for milk at least twice every night but I have managed to train you to hold your own milk bottle so all I have to do is prepare your bottle and shove it into your hands. Once you are done, you will doze back to sleep on your own. Sometimes you don't even finish your bottle which makes me think you are not really hungry and just waking up out of habit.
I still can't get you to nap on your own in the day though - because I think you are used to Kakak rocking you to sleep while I am at work! Tsk tsk, we will have to work on that next.
We had a first year party for you the weekend before you turned one.
Of course, you had no idea what the fuss was about but it was nice just remembering all your little milestones and celebrating your very first year in our big, big world.
We are so lucky to have you. Happy first birthday, darling Rei.
Love,
Mama
PS. I promised myself that I will put together a baby book (of your first year). Let's hope I can get started on it soon!