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feel absolutely terrible. that i haven't been conscientiously chronicling the little marshmallow's antics.
i cannot overstate how wonderful it has been for hubbs and i, to be able to occasionally look back at my posts here on LJ and on dayre, and read about when munchkin first smiled at us, cut his first tooth, kissed us, said his first word, etc. much as i'd like to, i just cannot remember all his firsts, and neither can i remember every single heartwarming anecdote. it helps a lot, to be able to look back because i have kept records.
but i have been sadly remiss in doing so o'er the past few months, and it makes me morose.
but. school's out! i submitted the last of my assignments a week and a half or so ago, and am officially DONE with my masters!
and the children's camp is over! it ended yesterday and hubbs and i finally had the first good nights' rest we've had in weeks!
oh and i must chronicle this, too, lest i forget His benefits to me. so i was camp speaker for the older kids this year again, and hubbs had planned the outline for the four days' worth of camp. and i just couldn't come up with the fourth day's story, no matter how long i spent thinking bout it.
i fiddled with it, drafted it out numerous times, made changes, heavily edited, and still wasn't happy with it.
it wasn't till the night before the fourth day, as i was taking a long, hot shower that i finally had inspiration. it was almost 8pm, i was exhausted, but i went and wiped out the entire preparation i had done previously and changed it completely.
it was hard work, putting my thoughts into words and then pictures for the kids, and coming up with a more interesting way of delivering it so it would be compelling, and even though i kept nodding off i didn't let myself lie down for fear of falling asleep before i was done with it. i only slept close to 3am that night.
but that night while i was praying about what to say, while i was preparing the story, and that morning when i was delivering it to the kids were one of the times when i felt closest to God. it was one of those times when i was acutely aware of my inadequacy, and of my need for Him, and it was one of those times when i felt completely humbled that He would fill me with His Spirit and use me to accomplish His work.
and it reminded me again of how He's a just-in-time God, He gives me what i need, not a long time before i need, but just right at the moment when i need it. you have no idea how long i had been trying to prepare that day's story, but He only gave me inspiration for what to say and how to deliver it, at the last possible moment.
its like how Caspar ten Boom explained to Corrie that just as he always gave Corrie her train ticket to Amsterdam just when she needed it, God gives us what we need at the precise moment we need it.
WHAT. a wonderful God.
and now, back to some updates about the Dear Little Peppermint Choc Chip Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows.
he speaks in sentences so often now i am very pleased and yet i sorely miss his babyish talk at the same time. he's also proving to be a very logical little boy, using "because" when asked "why".
he even speaks in sentences in mandarin now. he'd go "但是" or "因为" or "可是" and it always astounds me. i keep forgetting my little sweetie pie isn't even 2 yet, for all his adult-ish talk.
oh this i have to chronicle. the other night he was lying beside me on my right and he asked for milky. and i asked him which side (of my breasts) he wanted milk from and he said "the other side first" so i said, okay, go to my other side then and drink. and he got grouchy at me and said "the other side first" in a frustrated way, which made me realise that he meant he wanted milk from the side he was on, he'd made a mistake. so i said, "you want milk from THIS side lah, not the other side! you said the other side yourself so MaMa asked you to shift over, its your own fault!"
and he said...
WHATever!!! (yes, with emphasis on the WHAT)
and even rolled his eyes at me!!!
and hubbs and i couldn't stop laughing cause that's just... me! he must have learned it from me cause that's so exactly me! and i couldn't really even scold him because he'd seen me do just that countless times.
its tough on parents, really. you have to be on high alert 24/7 and watch your own language and behaviour at all times because there's always a little absorbent sponge trailing you and picking up all your mannerisms and speech and actions.
okay, moving on, another update is that the sweetheart loves. to. sing. i've got dozens of vidoes of him singing and i replay them all the time. i love hearing him sing. he sings all the time. he sings in the shower, he sings in the car, he sings while playing, he sings before bedtime, he sings all the time. i love it. i sing with him all the time too. i used to sing to him all the time too, from when i was preggers with him, so that's prob where he picked it up from.
and he sings everything. in september the kids at church presented some songs at our mid autumn festival gospel rally and he sang the older children's songs instead of his own, lol. he just did the same thing again this camp. he went and sang the older kids' songs.
its amazing how many song's lyrics he remembers. i sing all sorts of songs to him. i sing children's Hymns, Hymns, chinese songs, chinese Hymns, whatever, and he sings 'em all too. he sings everything from "Jesus loves me" to Steve Green's children's songs whose lyrics are all verses in the Bible to "Alas! And did my Saviour bleed" to "主喜乐充满我心” to the Hallelujah chorus in Handel's Messiah.
and somehow, like Asher, he loves conducting. i don't know if its cause he's imitating hubbs or not, but he keeps trying to conduct whenever he sings. its hilarious to watch him at it.
when asked, his favourite person in the whole wide world is "PaPa" and the person he loves the most in the whole wide world is "MaMa".
right now, when he grows up he wants to be "just like PaPa". when asked what he means, what is papa like, that you want to be like him, he'd say, "PaPa's a man!" LoL. i really did NOT teach him these stuff okay. i have no idea where he gets this from!
when asked what occupation he wants to be in future he'd say "garbage truck driver" or "cement mixer driver". should i love or cry?! he does not want to be a doctor, no he doesn't wanna be an astronaut, no not a lawyer, or a pilot nor a teacher either. he just wants to be a "garbage collector".
he is infamous at church for saying NO or DON'T WANT to just about everyone. no one is surprised anymore when he refuses to greet them and says NO or DON'T WANT to them for anything.
he is extremely independent at eating. over the past four days of camp i just left him with his class and he ate on his own and finished every last grain of rice. i love that about him. i love for him to be independent.
he refuses to be potty-trained but is half potty trained. he knows to run into the bathroom when he wants to pee. he hasn't had an accident in months and months. but he refuses to sit on the potty. he'd stand in the shower and pee. he still refuses to sit in the potty and poop too. so he's half potty-trained because he'd tell us that he wants to poop but he'd just still squat down and poop in his diapers. he's got a really cute potty shaped like a dalmation and its got cushioned seats but no, he's just not gonna sit on it to take his poop.
he's getting real adept at kicking balls. maybe i think so because i'm a klutz and am inept at ball games. but yes, in my opinion, biased mommy though i be, he does seem to have rather strong legs and a rather good knack for kicking the ball.
i'm getting tired. this has become quite a long post and right now all i wanna do is lie down in bed and laze around for a little. cause the little dearie is out with my parents at the mall and hubbs is working from home today! and i'm dead tired from weeks of inadequate sleep. so imma stop here.
and end off with that,
John Jireh Tan Song has brought me endless delight and joy from the moment of his conception, and i love him so so so much. i am so thankful to God for this opportunity to be a mom. i can't imagine not being a mom. i think i was born to be a mom, to have children, to have a noisy household full of screaming kids. i give thanks all the time for hubbs and the little jicama.