Name calling

Khiem and I call Liem different names at various times depending on the situation. We usually call him "Little Liem" because he used to be little. We still call him Little Liem now because he's not. This apparently makes perfect sense if you are Australian.

At other times, he's Mister Grumpy, Mister Grouchy, Mister Wriggly, Mister Drooly, Mister Squirmy Pants, Mister Smelly Pants or Mister Cranky Pants.

Other people give him names too eg Bombalada, The Bulldog, Mister Moo (there's a trend here, see if you can spot it). We've also had comments like:
"He's not starving, is he?"
"Ooooh...look at his leg!!! Does he like his food?"
"He's even bigger than Fat Lump!"
"Wow! He looks like a sumo wrestler."
I didn't think I would be sensitive about comments like that....but they are taking their toll... Liem is on a diet.

Other parents call their children their "little angel". We would never call Liem our little angel except if he was asleep, the little rascal.

Another family photo

We don't get many family photos - the last one was taken ages ago. Here's another one courtesy of my dad.

Squeezing into tight spaces

Liem likes to crawl into tight spaces... then cries when he gets stuck.

Blowing

Liem has been learning to blow.... he can blow a few notes on the recorder (when he blows into the correct end). Then he also blows into other things - his cup, this bucket... we think he just likes the sound it makes.

Grandparents helping out

Due to my operation, I couldn't lift heavy things (a 10 kg child counts as a heavy thing, in my opinion). Ah Kong and Ah Por came over to help out (and a good thing they did too) - they had fun playing with Liem and had a taste of what I have to do every day. "Exhausting!" is the verdict. Liem was on his best behaviour for 3 days but he couldn't keep it up. Haha! Lots of his usual whining, crying, carrying on... Quote from Ah Por, "Don't like you when you are like this".

I can't believe how different my parents are as grandparents.... they are not the parents I know...

Don't look if squeamish

When I was pregnant, I "showed" early because it turned out I had fibroids (benign tumours in the uterus). The fibroids grew quite big during the pregnancy and I've just had them taken out. These are some of the photos taken during the operation. The first one shows the fibroids covered with some sort of membrane. The last four pictures show the leftover "stems" and the machine that chops up the fibroids into small bits that can be taken out. I was operated on for 3 hours and I continued to sleep for another 3 hours while poor Khiem was searching for me in the hospital (they "lost" me - said I was in a particular room when I was actually still sleeping in the recovery room). Everything went well...there was minimal blood loss and the large 12 cm fibroid and the smaller 4-5 cm fibroid were taken out cleanly. My wounds are recovering and I've only got a bit of bruising. Three holes in my abdomen and one in my navel. The wonders of modern medicine.

Edit: Have had to take the pictures away due to all the complaints! I've put the pictures somewhere else so you can still see them if you want to.

The boob man

Here's Liem checking out My Anh's cleavage. He's a boob man alright.

Mr Wriggly

Liem is very wriggly now when we try to give him the bottle... sometimes he almost falls off the sofa.

"I'm starving!"

Mummy: Your food is too hot, Liem. We'll have to wait until it cools down.
Liem: WAAAAAAAA! (Translation: I'm starving! I'm starving! I need food NOW!)

Climbing on Daddy

Young Master Liem climbing on Daddy.

"Let me out!"

Liem isn't very happy when we put him in his little jail these days. He wants out!

Shenanigans in the cot

Kneeling in the cot and standing up in the cot! This is what Liem gets up to these days.

Reading a book?

We are supposed to be reading a book. Liem 4, Mummy 0.

Swimming

We went swimming last week. Liem fell down by the side of the swimming pool on the concrete floor and gashed his nose. First blood!

Been hearing stories of falls, bumps and scrapes from the other mothers (and one father). We were supposed to go swimming this week too but went for a walk instead. I really should have taken a photo of Liem in his swimming trunks but didn't think of it at the time.

Eating bread

Here's Liem eating a slice of bread. He doesn't quite know how to hold it to put it in his mouth. And what a mess he makes!