Swimming

This is only the second time we've been swimming. The first time was when Liem was about 8 months old. I wasn't sure whether he would take to it. Here he is with his swimming trunks on his head as I was getting all the things ready to go. Anyway, he had the best time at the pool, playing in the water and wanting to go into deeper water all the time. Of course, he had such a good time that he got very tantrumy when it was time to get out and go. Very tantrumy when I gave him a bath and took a shower myself to wash off the chlorine. Very tantrumy when it was time to have a nap. Overtired, that's what it was.... Will we go again? Maybe, maybe not...

Headphones

Headphones are useful things when your baby cries all the time. They are still useful as toys when your baby is now a toddler.

Thank you, Ai Leen!

I don't know how single mums do it.... I find it quite difficult to look after Liem by myself. Several times now, when Khiem has had to go overseas for work, Ai Leen has come over and stayed with us to help me out. Not to mention all the times when she's babysat for us to help us keep our sanity! What a godsend she's been! Thanks so much, Ai Leen! We'll miss you when you go back to Melbourne!

Under the bed

The latest play area seems to be under the bed.

Chip boy

Liem loves chips. He especially loves tomato sauce with his chips, often licking the sauce off a chip and re-dipping the chip into more sauce. What an Aussie boy!

Power struggle

Sometimes it is a stuggle getting Liem to have his afternoon nap. This is one time when he lay there awake for an hour repeatedly calling out for Mummy to pick up his bear or his wrap which he "accidentally" dropped onto the floor. Or his socks which mysteriously came off his feet and fell onto the floor. Finally went to sleep when there were no more distractions in his cot.

Pirate hat

This is one of the times when Liem DIDN'T eat when we were out for yum cha. He happily wore the pirate hat Mummy made for him and wandered around the restaurant instead.

Merry-go-round fiasco

We took Liem on a merry-go-round twice. The first time, he sat on a horse for only a few minutes before scrambling off in a panic saying "Too big! Too big!". Mummy had to sit with Liem in the carriage the whole time. The second time, Liem didn't even want to sit in the carriage and Mummy had to carry him the WHOLE TIME! We are not going on a merry-go-round ever again!

No space!

This couch USED to be big enough for 2 people. Liem doesn't think so though.

Where's Liem?

We play a game called Where's Liem? Liem "hides", we say "Where's Liem?", Liem appears and says "Here!"

Singing

Liem is not one to join in with the rest of the group. When everyone is singing, Liem smiles. When everyone has their hands up, Liem's hands are stubbornly down. When asked to say hello or bye bye, he is silent. We had been trying to get him to sing nursery rhymes and Daddy was the most successful at it:

Daddy: Twinkle twinkle little...
Liem: star
D: How I wonder what you...
L: are
D: Up above the world so...
L: high
D: Like a diamond in the...
L: sky

D: Baa baa black sheep have you any...
L: wool
D: yes sir yes sir three bags...
L: full

Daddy even managed to get Liem to sing the last 2 words of every line. Then Daddy went away for a week and Liem forgot all about singing the last two words or even the last word. However he did start singing all on his own this song:

L: Bob a-builder, yes a-CAN!

Conversation in the middle of the night

Liem: (Bloodcurdling scream in the night. Crying.) MUMMY! MUMMY!
Mummy: (Hurrying into his room) What is it Liem? What's the matter?
Liem: Heaby. (Rolls over and falls asleep).
Mummy: ????

Complaints about food

When Liem first started talking, there were only a few words he knew. So when he didn't want to eat something, he would always complain that it was "hot" or "too hot" regardless of whether it was actually hot or not. Then as his vocabulary expanded, things were "too big" and needed to be cut up into tiny pieces. Strawberries, which are his favourite, are never too big and a huge one can easily be stuffed into his mouth using both hands to push it in. Then, food that was the slightest bit hard was given back to us with the complaint "bone". Food with the slightest bit of brown on it eg a piece of apple with a patch of brown skin or a strawberry that hadn't been hulled properly is "dirty". A spoon with some weetbix on it was considered "dirty" and if we told him it wasn't dirty, it would accidentally on purpose get dropped on the floor. Recently, things that Liem do not want to eat are "a bit hyucky"...