I was so touched and impressed by my precious little girl this evening. I got home after work just after Gabby's dinner. My dad had prepared dinner for my mom and I before he went out to work, and Calvin's on duty tonight. As expected, Gabby refused to let me go shower and insisted that I sit down with her. Even after I tried to distract her and lure her away so I can go take a shower, she insisted that I stay within her sight. Then I decided to use another tactic.

Me: Gabby, Po Po's hand pain pain. You go to the kitchen and help her take the bowls ok? If not, her hand pain cannot do it herself you know... You go and help her ok?
Gabby: *suddenly stopped insisting that I sit down with her, looked at Po Po, went over to hug Po Po and pointed to the kitchen.

Both my mom and I were dumbfounded... I can tell how pleased my mom was... she carried Gabby and walked towards to kitchen. Before they got to the kitchen, my mom turned around and told me in Mandarin, "she loves (dotes on) me..."

It was just a simple yet heartwarming gesture from a 20 month old. I'm so proud to be Gabby's Mommy!

I decided that I should be telling Gabby that Daddy and Mommy will be going away for a while. Calvin's on duty tonight and as I was lying in bed with Gabby getting her to sleep, I started telling her about our trip.

Me: Gabby... Daddy and Mommy will be going to another country to work and then for holidays. We won't be at home for 10 days, you know?

Gabby: *looking at me, puzzled (I was thinking she doesn't understand what I was saying, but I continued anyway)

M: So, when Daddy and Mommy are away, you sleep with Po Po at night and then Gong Gong will bring you to school in the morning ok?

Gabby: *nod her head (I think she understands this..)

M: You be a good girl, listen to Gong Gong and Po Po ok?

Gabby: *nod her head again, with a very sensible look

A few seconds later, she turned her whole body towards me and hugged me tightly. Tears welled up... I think she understood me the whole time!

I AM SO GONNA MISS YOU GABBY!!!

As much as we're excited and longed for this trip, our hearts ached to know that we'd be separated from Gabby for 10 days... ached even more to think that she'd be thinking of us, missing us.

Gabby, Daddy and Mommy love you very very much and we'd miss you more than you'd ever understand.

Recently we've started reading consistently to Gabby. It took her a while to learn how to sit down patiently while we read the books to her.

This afternoon, I was reading "Thank You God" to her before her naptime. We came to this page that reads "Thank You for feeding me, day after day. And thank You for leading me along the right way." And I described the pictures to her. There were 5 children, 4 of whom had a slice of watermelon in their hands. There's a little girl who didn't have any. The next page shows one of the boys sharing his watermelon with the girl. So I took the chance to teach her about sharing... Sharing with Jie Jie and Gor Gor, and of course, with her soon-to-arrive Mei Mei...

After her nap, she was sitting on the floor with her book, while I was surfing the net... I caught her flipping to this page and heard her softly saying "share... share..." Boy, was I impressed!! I'm so happy she remembered what we talked about earlier. But everytime I ask her, "Who do you share with?" Her reply would be "Mommy!" ^_*

Gabby had her first haircut 15.5 months after she's born... eerm... yes, she didn't have to cut or trim her hair at all for 15.5 months! :p

Gabby must be wondering where she is... what's that auntie holding in her hands...

"So, what are we doing here?"

"Why did they make Daddy put on this "robe"? And now I need to put it on too?"

"What is this auntie doing? Why is she combing my hair?"

"Hmmmm... interesting..."

"Oh no.. she's cutting my hair! I don't want..."

"Daddy... can you get this thing off me?"

Even the pacifier didn't quite pacify her...

Finally someone managed to distract her... can't remember how..

Done!

Gabby started going to infant care when she's about 3.5 months old. Then, my dad was still working and he would send us to the infant care centre (ICC) when he's not on morning shift. Other days, I would have to lug my bag and Gabby's bag and carry her in the sling and walk to the ICC. Now thinking about it, I really enjoy those walks, with her so close to me. I would sing to her, talk to her and pray over her along the way.

Some months back, my dad quit his job and became his princesses' chauffeur. I was so blessed with his daily ferrying. He would send us to ICC every morning and I never had to perspire early in the morning again. And he would wait patiently at the carpark while I settle Gabby in school. And then he would drive us to Bendemeer hawker centre to have the BEST fried bee hoon in the world for breakfast. And then he will send me to school. I was so pampered... Thank you Sok Sok!

Just a week ago, my dad sold off his car. And now, I'm back to the days of walking Gabby to school. Now that she's older (and bigger and heavier), we would put her in the daytripper instead of the sling. And we'd leave the daytripper in school so my parents can use it when they bring her home in the evening. I'm beginning to enjoy these walks again, although I do miss being ferried to work every morning and being able to knock out on the way to work...

Gabby's mommy enjoying the walk with her precious daughter.

Gabby was introduced to TV when she's about 11 months old. I read that watching TV is a form of training her attention span. TV or rather TV programs can be good for babies as long as they're not used as baby sitters.

She was never really interested in watching TV. I bought a few series of learning DVDs: colours, numbers, songs, etc. Nothing really caught her attention. I've heard tons about Barney and Hi-5... about how ALL kids get attracted to them naturally. Last Christmas, Gabby received a Barney DVD from Auntie Jasmine as one of her Christmas present.

I finally decided to give Barney a chance today. I don't know if it's because Gabby's older now and her attention span is also more developed, or is it really the powers of BARNEY... she sat down and watched continuously for a good 15 minutes! She swayed left and right while listening to the songs... She clapped her hands when they sang "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands"... I'm amazed!

And then, she amused me even more when she stood up and walked to the side of the TV console and looked at the back of the TV... She was looking for Barney!!! She's so funny! I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that... So innocent!!!

Before kids say the darnest things, they do the darnest things! wahahaha...

I'm as tall as the bottom of the dining table... (^.^)

It was just yesterday that I wondered if I'd get a chance to see you take your first unassisted step... And then you did just that when we were at Nai Nai's place just now. You were playing with Gor Gor's toys and Mommy was right behind you. You stood up and thinking that Mommy's holding on to your waist, you took a step... and another step... and as if you knew that Mommy wasn't exactly holding you, you sat down again. When I saw you take those 2 steps, tears almost welled up in my eyes. My baby is growing up so fast!

BTW, Mommy loves carrying you. I know that once you've learnt how to walk and run, you'd probably prefer that to being wrapped in Mommy's arms. But please remember to let Mommy carry you every now and then ok? You will never be too heavy for Mommy.

Our little girl started to walk, or more like inch along the sofa since 3 months ago and lately she has gone into the advanced stage of learning how to walk. She has been able to stand up on her own steadily for quite a while already too. However, she hasn't seemed to find the courage to take her first step without assistance.

She walks excitedly while holding our hands.

She pushes her walker around the house happily.

In fact, she's amazingly good at maneuvering the walker. She knows how to pull the walker towards herself a little and then turn it a little to change the direction. Damn cute! (I wanted to post a video to show her doing that, but don't know how come can't post videos... why huh?)

The teachers are saying that she's actually quite steady already, but just lack the courage to take her first step. Will I get the chance to see her take that first virgin unassisted step? She did a lot of firsts in school, without me nor Calvin witnessing them. Gabby, take your first step with Mommy and Daddy ok? Wait for us to be around ok?

Most of the time we don't get to pick you up from school. Most of the time when we get home, you're already sleeping.

When we do get to pick you up from school, you always make our hearts melt. When you hear our voices, your eyes light up and you start to flap your hands happily. And like getting to us in the shortest possible time is the only thing on your mind, you crawled like a champion towards us.

When we do get home early enough to catch you before your bedtime, you drop everything that you were doing (except when you were having your dinner...haha) and sprint towards us, hug our legs, grab our clothes and prepare to climb up into our embrace. You throw your arms around our necks and rest your head on our shoulders. You enjoy that precious moment as much as we do.

Gabby, this is all that matters at the end of every day.

Gabster has a new car! And she's in love with it!

Calvin's colleague John was spring cleaning and clearing out some of his son's toys. Lennon's a big boy now and he probably prefers real cars... haha. Thank you John!

When we collected the car from John's place this afternoon, Gabby already had her eyes fixed on it. She kept pointing to it. When we got home, we put her in and walked her around the house. She was so excited!!!

When Corinna brought Nigel over in the evening, Gabby sat in her car while Nigel played with the Around We Go Activity Station. We decided to swop them around after a while. Guess what? My usually generous daughter didn't quite like the sight of Nigel being in her va va vroom! She screamed as she watched Nigel go around the house in her car. She has never screamed when her toys are being shared. Haha...

Gabby fell ill for the 2nd time in 2 weeks! We decided to start Gabby on formula milk a month ago (26 Oct to be exact). I figured I need to get her used to the taste soon before I slow down my milk supply. Started her off with NAN HA, I'm a Nestle believer.. because they're my clients! hahaha.. but seriously, I believe they have quality products because a lot of research have gone into product development.

Anyhow, Gabby refused to take FM initially. The teachers in school had to trick her, coax her, etc. In the end, they had to slowly introduce FM to my daughter... 10ml by 10ml increase by the day. But she really doesn't like FM. One fine day at home, I decided to taste NAN HA myself... and I HATE IT! It tastes really bitter! No wonder my food lover daughter doesn't like it.

So, we decided to give Similac a try. We heard that it is sweeter... She seemed to take it better than NAN HA. So maybe it's really the taste of the milk powder.

After introducing Similac for a few days, my darling girl developed fever. And then a week later, she started coughing and sneezing and developed fever again! I began to think if there's any truth when people say that Similac is more "heaty" than other brands.

Now, I don't what to do to get her to drink FM, or any other fluid like water. God, help me...

Gabby coughing....:(

Gabby's not well, but still cheeky! haha

We had to pass by a "health check" station at the entrance of the school where the childcare teachers check every student from the childcare section for HFMD symptoms. Infant care "students" can go straight to the infant care room where temperature would be taken. And everyday, we had to stop by the health check station for the teachers to play with Gabby. They don't do this with other babies. And these childcare teachers would go into the infant care room to play with Gabby in the middle of the day. They love my baby! And I'm happy to have so many people in school loving her! At such a young age, God has blessed her with abundance of favour! Thank You God!

Gabby enjoying her throne: Fatboy

Gabby having a fun time with her Daddy at the airport when he came back from HK.

Our little girl loves to play with her Gong Gong. Eversince my dad stopped working in early Oct, he has been a lot more involved with Gabby. He can handle Gabby quite well now and Gabby loves him! She can sit at the playmat for a long time with Gong Gong. She will flash her million dollar smile at Gong Gong to greet him Good Morning! She will wave bye bye to Gong Gong when we reached school in the morning.

Gabby selecting TV channels for Gong Gong to watch.
This little girl will automatically turns to look at the TV, waiting for images to appear whenever she gets her hands onto the remote control. Thanks to my mom who always carries her on her lap while she checks her 4-D and Toto... haha

Gabby enjoying her stroll around her toy with Gong Gong.
My dad started letting Gabby hold his fingers while he walked her around the toy. Eversince then, she loved to do that with him and him only. She refused to hold any one of us for this activity. My dad is the assigned person for it. Very funny!

Our little girl loves bath time! It's so fun to bathe her now and it's so much easier now compared to her first few months. But it's also challenging in other ways. She loves to splash the water in the tub. She loves to snatch the hanky from you and then she'll suck the water from the hanky... yes, soapy water! haha.. She loves to play with dragonfly, the beetlebug, the flower and the lotus leave on the tub. She loves to stand up and look over my shoulder if my dad happens to be watching TV in his room.

We're loving every moment we spend with her - our 10 months old gem!

We never thought of renting toys when we first had Gabby. I always thought that renting toys would be "bo hua" cos it costs about $50 to rent an item for 1 month. Renting the toy for 3-4 months would already add up to the actual cost of that toy. Plus I always prefer to own than to loan. But when Corinna rented a rocking buggy for Nigel and he didn't like it, I knew why people would rent instead of buy. You never really knew if your kid would like the toy that you like. Imagine spending $200 on a toy, lug the bugger home, only to have your precious baby reject it.

So I decided to go to this website that Corinna highly recommended to check it out. They have a very extensive list of toys to choose from: jumperoos, slides, swings, playhouses, etc. I liked this Around We Go Activity Station the minute I saw it. And it's available for rental. This is it. I rented it and it was delivered within a couple of days, cleaned and disinfected.

This morning, as Calvin was recovering from his late night work, I put Gabby into it. She was exploring with her eyes initially... and then her hands stretched out to explore every part of it. She slowly discovered that she can move around the toy! So inch by inch, she went around... She was having fun! Glad she liked it. I actually contemplated buying it over. But of course, Gabby's Daddy stopped me! wahaha...