OMG My Baby Is 25 Months Old

Would you look at that date? How time effing flies!

I've been dying to talk about B for ages, just for my records but argh, he's a bit of handful these days. 

He doesn't go to bed that easily and we are out of our wits trying to get him to settle into bed on time. Half of it is definitely my fault, not getting dinner ready on time. Part of it is Bin's fault as he returns home from work rather late so B will want him to play together.

Doesn't want to have his photo taken.

A few months ago I tried to keep a record of B's expanding vocabulary. I was a wee bit concerned that he wasn't speaking the average amount of words. Just before he was 22 months old, he started speaking a bit more, and knowing some stuff (gee, I've forgotten what), much to my surprise.

Once he turned 2, I just gave up with my records. I know for a fact that his longest words are kookaburra and cauliflower, which doesn't seem that impressive. Heh. I will never forget my sister telling us that my niece said "embarrassing" before she was even 2! :)

Singing

He loves listening to his nursery rhymes and singing to himself. Well, just the recent 2 months, I suppose, the singing part. He's been trying to sing the entire alphabet song, London Bridge, Driving in the car, and many more. It's tiring to be his jukebox as he'll demand, 'Mama sing (names the song)!' whenever he feels like it, at the dinner table, on the bus or train, supermarket ... yikes!

B is also pretty good in adapting a particular situation to the song. Not sure if 'adapting' is the right term to use here but my brain can't function at the moment. In his bath tub, he was singing 'big bubbles, big bubbles' to the tune of the alphabet song. In his toy Jeep, he sang 'driving in the jeep' instead of 'driving in the car'. 

I can't help but to grin, of course. There's a rhyme that goes, 'Teddy bear, teddy bear, go to bed' or something like that, and whenever we are doing something, B will say, "Mama sing, 'teddy bear, teddy bear, drink water now'" when I've just requested him to drink some water.

Books

Our little bookworm still enjoys books. Just the other day he requested me to bring him to the library to borrow some books. I might have misinterpreted it as a request when he could have just been stating a past fact. Hmmm...

Anyway, as you know, I love books and I am always browsing online for some good book deals. I have to sit on my hands to stop myself from purchasing books for him when I know I should just borrow them from the library for him.

Just recently we borrowed 2 of Ed Vere's books, Mr Big and Bedtime for Monsters. B loves them. He enjoyed Mr Big when I read it to him twice, although I'm not sure if he empathized with the gorilla at first.

I am sorely tempted to purchase a copy of Mr Big for our collection but I'd best wait until it goes on sale.

I've also been twiddling my fingers whether to purchase the Gruffalo for keeps like NOW or later!

Tunnels, Towers, Things with wheels

This boy loves his cars and trucks and engines and he gets very excited at the department store's toy section. He's been asking for a biiiiiiig police car ever since he saw one at his friend's house. 

But he also asks for Rosie, Stanley, Kevin, any Thomas and Friends' engine that suddenly takes his fancy. Just this evening he asked for Mavis, which was a surprise. I didn't think she made much of an impression on him!

He was given a light up Thomas, but now
wants a light up Rosie or Stanley. *roll eyes*

Tunnels ... when he sees any crevices, including my rolled up exercise mat, he'll exclaim, "TUNNEL!!!!!"

Just recently he's been enjoying the concept of building towers and a few days ago out of the blue, he built one on the fridge. ;)

B's very proud of his tower. :D

I get a bit agitated at times when B starts hogging certain toys at play group. I tried reasoning with him that he can't have all of them, he needs to share them with the other children as they don't belong to him. But honestly, it's like talking to a mule's butt.

I don't even know how to dissuade him from playing with other children who aren't keen on playing with him. You can tell as they're older and they get all grumpy and hug the toys to their chest. 

Oh, but let's not start with the toy grabbing by the other children. Yikes.

Hogging the little cars and engines.

His 2nd Birthday

We didn't throw him a birthday party these year, but it was celebrated 3 times. I made a cake and brought it during our camping weekend at Creswick, a week before his actual birthday.

See that rascal, putting his half-eaten mandarin
on the cake board as if it was his plate!

I made another cake the weekend before his birthday with my favourite ang ku kuih. I wanted the cake to be a centrepiece for our family photo but argh, my frosting skills are still lacking. I decided to use fondant at the last minute for the windshield and windows. If only I had decided earlier to use fondant right at the beginning, it might look a bit better.

At least he recognized it as a police car and my lovely neighbour said the cake was yummy. I had to admit that it tasted better than it looked!

On his birthday, I brought cupcakes for his play group friends and the kids loved them. I wish I had slathered on more frosting but I doubt the mums would have approved of a sugar-laden cake for their children.

The obvious difference of his development after he turned 2 was his agility. Out of the blue, he could climb much better. I was just terrified he would slip and fall, but that's just me, always worrying about him tripping and hurting himself. 

He can peel a mandarin orange by himself and was very proud of his achievement the first time it happened. He went, "Yay!!!!"

Since then, mama must not peel it for him as he'd like to do it himself, please.

We took him to the Werribee Open Range Zoo on Sunday before his birthday and I suspect his parents were more excited than he was. I guess at this age, kids just want to be able to touch things to relate better, instead of observing them from afar.

As for birthday presents, we just bought them yesterday - a scooter and a wooden tool kit. He's very excited about the scooter - he prefers to push it around like a trolley. Haha!

Train set from a good friend!

But looks like we forgot to buy him elbow pads and knee pads ...