Jaimie The Toddler

6th April 2007 was Good Friday. It was also the day Jaimie the infant transformed into Jaimie the toddler. Yes, Jaimie has turned one! Excuse me if I come across as overly self congratulatory here as I give myself a pat on the shoulder for having survived my first year of fatherhood.

One year old. 说大肯定不大，说小呢又不是太小。This is the awkward stage that when we are out and come across a newborn (or a young infant), we'd tell Jaimie "Look. Baby. Baby.". At the same time, when other parents with kids walk by and notice us, we'd hear them exclaim exactly the same thing in our direction. Oh well.

This little milestone seems like a good point to do a little "stock taking". Here're some of the more prominent skills and capabilities Jaimie has picked up in her first 365 days:

Vocab

- Baba
- Mama
- Gorgor
- Nainai
- Mummum
- ...string of other non-intelligible syllables

Signing

- wave "bye bye"
- signal "come" (sometimes indistinguishable from bye bye)
- blow flying kiss
- signal 怕怕
- gesture 恭喜恭喜
- hit head for "伤脑筋"
- Clapping (拍拍手)
- Raise arms(手高高)
- touch various body parts when these are named e.g. ears, nose, tummy and ermm...nipples (mine).

Psychomotor

- Walking
- Crawling
- Ascending and descending stairs with hand-holding
- Picking up pea-sized objects with fingers
- Grabbing and throwing objects
- Squatting to pick up object and reassuming standing posture

Angie organised a little get-together lunch to commenmerate the first candle-blowing opporuntity for Jaimie. It was a buffet-style makan session held at Bukit Batok HTNS's Guilin Restaurant. We were given a private function room (谦卑房) to use, so it was pretty cosy. And convenient since we did not have to clean up after. The birthday cake was a double-tiered "lychee-martini" flavoured one, courtesy of Ah Leong. Tasted good, not oily nor too sweet. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Alright. Nuff talk. Here're the pics. Happy Birthday, dear!

Yes, we're now prepped (both mentally and psychologically) for more challenging times ahead with the one-year-old....