the M9 I can hardly believe it. Leica has made a full-frame digital M camera, just 3 years after releasing the M8. (I say "just" but OK - full frame digital cameras are quite common now.)Camera lust is a terrible thing. And sadly, I do not have the kind of moolah to splash out on one of these sexy things. The only thing I can hope for is that in a few years' time (or more probably, a lot more than a few years), my lenses will find themselves happily attached to one of these bodies... X has been chattering away a lot now for the last few weeks. Most of the time, i just let him get on with it, but sometimes, when i think i can make out sentences, i stop and try to listen to what he's saying. The other day, he was playing and blabbering to himself, and i thought i could hear him saying "tissue! tissue!" So i stopped what i was doing to listen, wondering if he'd actually wanted a tissue. But then i realised that he was singing "Ring-a-ring-a-roses" after he went "...all fall down!" and then dropped his bum onto the floor. that was super cute.and the other night, i was quite tickled by this:X: more yoghurt!me: there is no more in the fridge.X: go shopping!(pause)buy yoghurt!i tried to recall the times i've told him that we have to go shopping in order to get things that we had run out of, but i can't think of more than a couple of times. so i was pretty chuffed to hear him say that. the funniest thing that X said today when we were walking back from tumble tots, i alerted X to this bit of dog mess on the road and then he started going, "Dog pooooo... Dog poooooo... Gross!" i couldn't stop laughing because i don't know when he picked up the word "gross", but i'm guessing it must have been when i was out into the garden, picking up after the dogs...'twas also quite amusing when he tugged on my arm this morning when i was nearly falling asleep on the couch and went "mummy, UP! mummy UP!"and then again, when he was nearly at the point of meltdown at dinner because he didn't have an afternoon nap today - "more soup! i want more soup! MORE SOUP! MORE SOUPEE!!!!!" he's been adding "ie" to his nouns lately (sockies, shoesies, etc) but i thought "soupy" was just too funny, so i had a good laugh and that made him laugh too, which prevented the meltdown. my own little helper was well impressive today.as he took out each item from the laundry basket and handed them to me, he was able to name most of the items. "Xander's trousers, xander's sock, mama's sock, dada's trousers, dada's sock, xander's sleepsuit, towel..." i've never heard him say "sleepsuit" before, so i was quite impressed. it is amazing that in the last 2 weeks, his vocab has increased by soooo much. and he seems very keen to learn more words at the moment because he keeps wanting us to read to him all the time. more developments in the last couple of weeks since his cousin left to go back home to Singapore, X's speech has suddenly developed in leaps and bounds. Earlier this evening, he said 'i want to poo' and it was the 1st time ever that he expressed this need in a full sentence. Mummy was proud, and daddy ran upstairs to get the potty. Unfortunately, the poo was done almost immediately after he said this. Still, hopefully, this means that potty training won't be too hard... 'dog Poooo...' there's something funny about the fact that the 1st two words that the boy has managed to string together himself are 'dog' and 'poo'. And the way he says it - slowly and deliberately - makes it quite a lot more funny. potty training? I've been asked by several people when i'm going to start X on potty training. The first one was my mum, who made me lol because she said that my sister's nanny told her that if boys wear nappies for too long, their pee-pee will be - er, crooked. (ahem!) i wanted to ask her how many penises she has seen both at the baby, as well as the grown-up stage, but i thought that might be a bit of a weird/rude question to ask.Anyway, I haven't actually given potty training much thought, but just said that i would start once X can communicate better.And in the last week, the boy has just started doing this - he runs to me and says to me, very definitely, 'Poo. Poo.' and sure enough, he had done one. i'm actually quite proud of him for making such a progress. Now i just have to get him to tell me before he needs to go. :) speech development the boy has not developed as quickly as his friends (mostly girls) in terms of speech. He says fewer words, and the words that he does use, he pronounces them less accurately. I attribute this to the fact that he is more interested in physical activities - like climbing, jumping, dancing - so his body wants to continue developing in these ways rather than trying to express himself more.This makes it difficult for him and we find that he tends to be screaming and shouting and having more temper tantrums in the recent weeks. But he is still a very sweet little boy and as with all things, this testy phase shall pass too. I just think i should enrol him in gymboree soon so he can have fun doing the more physical things that he enjoys...Something i'm quite pleased about over the last 2 days tho' is that he seems to be trying to say more proper words - the night before last, as we stepped out of the house, he looked up to the sky and said 'moon'. I can't remember the last time i showed him the moon (must have been months ago!) and so, i was quite suprised when he remembered. Also, last night, he tried to say 'open' as he passed me a lotion bottle when he was in the bath.I'm hoping these are signs that he is interested in communicating more becos' temper tantrums are really no fun! stupid things that commentators say last nite's snooker game between ronnie o'sullivan & mark selby:'He's been in hot water before. And now, he's using it!' (on ronnie holding a cup of hot water to keep his hands warm.) we moved X to his room for bedtime a couple of days ago, and he's not too happy about it.This was how he tried to get his dad's attention last night whilst i was trying to put him to bed:(standing at the child gate)X: DA DA! DA DA!DA DA!(fails to get any attention)X: Nee! Nee! Nee... Nee... (fails to get any attention)X: (knocking on the metal child gate) Nyock Nyock!(Still no attention...)That was funny then, but i wasn't so amused because it took me 2 hours or so to actually get him to fall asleep, after much whining and crying. Poo. NAB: 'Where's daddy's nose?'X - points to NAB's nose.NAB: 'Where's daddy's belly button?'X - lifts up NAB's t-shirt and sticks his finger into belly button.NAB: 'Where's milky?'X - starts to lift up NAB's t-shirt again, but stops and looks confused, then turns to mummy and gives a cheeky smile, remembering where they are supposed to be... The boy fed himself his entire lunch (spaghetti with salmon and tomatoes) yesterday with a fork. Previously, when eating stringy noodlely type things, he mostly used his hands and sometimes, a spoon. But usually, this would be messy, and after a while, mummy usually ended up feeding him the rest of his food.Yesterday though, he was really good! There was hardly any mess, and he finished the entire bowl of food, and after he was done with his yoghurt, he removed his bib and placed it nicely on the table whilst I cleared away stuff to the kitchen!I am well impressed because although he is able to feed himself other food like porridge, rice, or yoghurt with a spoon, he had never used a fork much before. And now, mummy can eat her lunch at the same time more peacefully! the boy has an affinity for green things, just like his mum... except for peas. the boy said the word "t-o-a-s-t" properly just now! Not "tow" or "toes", but "toasT"! :) Counting Crows, finally! .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Counting Crows, originally uploaded by monster-ru. i finally saw them on sunday, and it was well worth the wait! adam duritz sounds as good live as he does on the CD, and i'm not being biased. :) it was really incredible. the highlight for me must be when they played an extended version of Round Here - "did you think that you were dreaming..." and this time, it was about a girl named "Mary". (no more Maria - pui!)Setlist is here: Le Ballet D'or / Have You Seen Me Lately / Hanging Tree / Mr Jones / Colourblind / Cowboys / Good Time / Anna Begins / Round Here / Washington Square / Big Yellow Taxi / A Long December / Rain King / Blues Run the Game / Hard Candy / Meet on the Ledge (Fairport Convention) / Holiday in Spain.a bit disappointed that they didn't play Mrs P's Lullaby, but it was still a very good night. adam durtiz said something about trying to squeeze the most number of songs into a short amount of time. also chuffed to bits that the babysitting went so well. when we got back to the hotel at 11ish pm, (after a drink at the bar!) our friend was sitting in the dark so as to not wake Xander up! (p.s. - the boy also started to walk properly on his own. he took quite a few steps on sunday by himself, and last night, he gained enough confidence to walk around all by himself!) more updates the last week has been a really busy week.amongst other things, X has learned to say a new word - "ba-ba" for bubbles. (we have a bubbles machine that we just used yesterday at a friend's baby's 1st birthday party.) He also managed to repeat the words "huai dan" (bad egg) after me, which was really funny becos my mum actually warned me not to say that too often in front of him, as it might be the first chinese words he'll learn. Oh well, too late for that now.he was also really sweet when i put him to bed just now - he leaned forward to give me a kiss without me asking for one. :-)i can't believe how fast things are progressing with him, and i don't even have the time to document them! NAB can really cook anything. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } beef kway tiao (dry), originally uploaded by monster-ru. up the stairs .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } up stairs, originally uploaded by monster-ru. i haven't blogged much at all - haven't really had the time cos looking after this little monster, er... bundle of joy i mean, is taking up quite a lot of my energy.the boy has indeed grown a lot over the last couple of months, and it is quite amazing how much he was developing as he approached his first year.this photo was taken a couple of days ago, when he crawled to the stairs (where i was standing), and then started making his way up. i was quite intrigued because he had never shown any interest in doing that, and he even made it all the way to the top, with very little help from me. (i really wished i had a better photo, but i was too nervous about him falling down!)he'd never really been keen on crawling, but he is really enthusiastic about walking. we got him his first pair of shoes on the weekend, and i have a feeling that very soon, he'll be walking on his own. at the moment, he is also trying to stand up on his own, and getting him to sit in his pram for a long-ish period of time without him protesting is also damn near impossible now. tonight is the first night that i have seen Xander roll from his back to his front in his sleep, (tummy time, with his head up but eyes closed!) and then sleep facing down. then he turned his head again to switch sides.strange to see him moving so much in his sleep. i know he inches towards me during the night, but this is quite interesting because he usually does not voluntarily go onto his front. meanwhile, this nasty cold and horrible horrible cough made him projectile vomit most impressively earlier on, and the useless GP didn't even give him any meds.oh, and make that 3 CDs that i have bought since Christmas. the new REM album was released yesterday. happy. i have purchased 2 new CDs since Christmas. Hooray!! i don't recall a period in my life ever that i have bought so few CDs... the poor boy has fallen sick again, and this time, i think it's the worst ever.he's coughing, and throwing up, and not eating much at all. the worse thing is that he hates taking his meds, and it is such a struggle getting him to take any of it. tonight, as for the last few nights, we made him take some and he threw all of it up, including the milk he drank before that. the poor little fella was feeling so sorry for himself, and it's really heart-breaking to see him being so unwell...he has however, made the connection that shaking his head means that he doesn't want something... so that's quite sweet.(AND FINALLY! i am so happy to see Casey Stoner making mistakes on the race track! the others have a chance!) teeth the boy's top teeth have cut through now. He has been miserable for the last couple of weeks or so (and so have we!) and i thought that maybe it is just the two top ones. But i looked closer today, and i think all the 4 front teeth have started to appear! and i think more from the sides are coming because he seems to be chewing things (including his fingers!) with the side of his gums! God help us! my son can now kiss on demand. It's the sweetest thing on earth. i feel like such a bad mummy today.first, i woke my son up by taking him out of his pram where he'd earlier just fallen asleep in, and then put him into a cold cot-bed in a cold cold room. and the worse thing was when i attempted "Controlled Crying". i wasn't going to give up or give in. But after 45mins, i decided that it was enough...so, besides feeling like i'm a bad mummy, i also feel a bit of a failure where this is concerned.sigh... tomorrow i will try again. YEEESSSSSS!!!!! Counting Crows will be playing at Hyde Park this summer! YIIPPPPEEEE!!! Xander, the bully .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } smack!, originally uploaded by monster-ru. Taylor is 2 mths younger than Xander, but very recently, she has got bigger and taller than him. Still, he does not get intimidated, but smacks her one in the face when she does not give him any attention! Rats! .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } xander being ill, originally uploaded by monster-ru. We had plans for this year's Chinese New Year. We'd got the car from mum, and i'd recently bumped into a chinese lady whose kid is a month older than xander, who told me where i can drive to (somewhere really near, not chinatown!) to get some stuff for the new year.We wanted to do something. Have a party, invite the neighbours, get some friends around, and have a proper reunion dinner. Unfortunately, i fell sick over the weekend and then the boy got quite ill last night. I ended up having to hold him in my arms all night so that he would get some sleep. (and me, very little.)So this is how he looked today... he felt so hot this morning, it worried me. And i feel bad because if i hadn't fallen ill, he probably wouldn't have either. :-(Luckily, our dinner was salvaged by NAB going to chinatown and bringing home some yummy "sioh bak" and beef noodles. So we all had a relatively good time, with Xander grooving to NAB's freshly-downloaded-from-itunes chinese new year songs and us being quite amused by that. Oh, and the dogs were not left out either. Finn was kind of entertaining X by letting him wave his hand at him, and Belle jumped up into my lap to be spoilt.Anyway, i've had a good Pig year, except for the bloody chicken pox. And i hope you all have a great Rat year ahead. vroom vroom! tomorrow, we get our very first car, courtesy of NAB's mum.whilst i'm a bit kan cheong because i have not driven for a few years and never in this country, i am also looking forward to being able to take the boy out to places besides the town centre and not be restricted by the fact that i can't take him out in the pram by myself if i have to use the train. (blame it on the fact that the space between the platform and the train is far too wide!)oh, and about something else unrelated, i took my tongue piercing out. might still put it back in, but it is looking quite unlikely... sick boy .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Dad i am so ill!, originally uploaded by taekwon-dodo. this poor little fella has been ill since sunday, and sunday night was probably the worst night ever in terms of dealing with baby. he sreamed and cried (and threw up as a result) most of the night.but the funny thing was that our neighbours had a new lodger and it was his first night - and we think he's the guy who when parking his car on our street, failed to check before reversing and nearly backed into us at high speed. the angry me wanted to "kanninabei!" and "chowchee" him jiaklat jiaklat, but it came out in a milder version instead because i am trying not to swear in front of the baby... - so it was a great welcome "gift" for him! anyway, the boy is still snotty and teary, and has lost a bit of weight. but after taking all his measurements, the midwife today (at his 8 months check) assured me that we have a very "proportionate" baby. hahaha! haircut - stage 1 .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } haircut - stage 1, originally uploaded by monster-ru. The boy's fringe has got so long that it was getting into his eyes. I managed to cut a bit of it off this morning, before he started wriggling too much. At least now he looks less like a girl!(oh, and he started clapping with both hands all by himself this morn!)