Tools

Fuzzy's my life-sized and real-time Handy Manny. I break all that is fixed, and he fixes all that is broken. And Chubbs' 87 year-old Tai-Gong (Great-Grandpa) still tends to the entire forest we call a garden with shears, sickles, shovels, axes, all on his own, every single day. He puts different gadgets and appliances together like a mad scientist to come up with new tools to help him out and produce higher efficiency. Chubbs has been watching them in action since birth and loves following Daddy and Tai-Gong around the house, absorbing and learning whatever's going on.

Because a lot of his toys are hand-me-downs from his cousins, it is no surprise to hear stuff like, "Mommy, car wheel missing", "Mommy, piano no sound" or "Mommy, car broken. Need to fix." Particularly, he has a range of toys that were supposed to be put together and taken apart by a set a tools that have failed to be located. We finally tracked it down in a store, and got Chubbs the battery-operated screw-driver so that he could start "fixing" his toys that are "broken".

Let's get drillin'.

Fixing the submarine.

And the boat.

I must say that he's really good at it! And Fuzzy was of course super proud of his little boy. Chubbs knew exactly where each part of the submarine/ boat/ race car was supposed to go when they were completely taken apart. I guess he knew how they looked like, but to know how and where to position the hull of the boat and which way to place the portholes of the submarine is pretty impressive. He has been taking things apart and fixing them back again, ever since.

The Big Boy's Turn

Happy thirty-#*%^ birthday, my Love. The oxymoron is that it's not too late to start growing up and it's never too late to admit you're old. We love you!

The boys.

Chubbs is still singing "Happy Birthday" to himself :/

Two chestnut cakes :)

Light 'Em Up

I thought we'd be unable to see the full moon this mid-autumn night, after a full day of drizzly rain and general cloudiness. But Mr. Moon shone through, and my son was able to enjoy his first lantern-carrying event. He was much too young and unstable last year to be toting lanterns and walking around the porch. But a few days back, we got him his first lantern; a simple cow design from the supermarket, and my in-laws bought him another penguin print one.

We've been holding dry-runs with the lanterns in the house (not so fun), and he was mighty pleased to finally be able to take his lanterns out for real, in the dark, crazily swing them around and enjoy the lights. Thankfully, it was a rather cool night, and he really loved watching the moon in the company of Great-GrandPa, Daddy and Mommy. It was super cute when he said, "Bye-bye, Moon!" when it was pushing 11pm and time to go into the house.

One for Mommy, one for Chubbs.

Googly Goggles

I bought myself some good goggles so that I could start swimming as a fitness regime again. I know it sounds bizarre, but wearing racing goggles that make me feel like my eyeballs are being gouged out, is very comforting to me. Brings me back to the days of daily swim training, when I was young, and life was much simpler.

Anyhow, we decided to get Chubbs toddler Speedo goggles too, for when he is better in the water. Hopefully, he'll be able to use them while swimming soon. Meanwhile, to get more bang for our buck, it has doubled up as new toy for him.

The little one really makes me laugh.

Snip Snip, Splash Splash...

Chubbs' past two and has not had one haircut. Despite the incessant comments that he looks like a girl, and that his hair is too long, Fuzzy and I previously never saw the practical need to cut his hair because it wasn't so long that it annoyed him or covered his eyes. But Fuzzy and I are extremely sad that the time has finally come, when he can't see much with a gust of wind blowing at him. So we suited him up in a nifty shrug/ poncho, made specially by the Japanese for kids' hair-cutting sessions.

The first snip.

Looking very upset half-way through the cut.

Ta-da!

It was nerve-wrecking for me because he was writhing and struggling throughout the haircut. I barely had seconds to position the scissors to snip. I hoped for the best since everything was estimated and rather inaccurate. So I was making the final touch-ups when the inevitable boo-boo happened. I closed the scissors on his ear. It bled a lot. He howled. I cursed. The bleeding stopped after 15-min and a bath, and Chubbs was back at eating his snacks. He's a tough cookie. Anyhow, I think he looks identical to Fuzzy now, not surprising since I'm Fuzzy's hairdresser as well.

Since Chubbs wasn't going to nap today, and the sun was shining fiercely, we decided to take him swimming at the Guild House; something we've been planning for weeks, but the weather has been uncooperative. As we were packing, Chubbs familiarised himself with his new floatation device, a Konfidence buoyancy vest; he thought it was some form of head-gear.

He was very excited to get swimming; looking out for Daddy to get into the car so we could go, pronto!

At the pool, he was raring to go, but we had to hold him back while we suited him up. He was a good boy, and patiently allowed us to prep him for the pool.

Step 1:- Swim diaper and suit.

Step 2:- Zip up the buoyancy vest.

Step 3:- Swim hat.

He enjoyed every minute of the swim. He walked all around the wading pool, splashing his palms on the water,copying how the older kids were playing in the water, dunking his face on purpose, and playing with the pool toys that I brought.

Then he graduated to the big, Olympic-sized pool, where the temperature of the water was set much lower than the kids' wading pool. Fuzzy and Chubbs were mighty pleased with this. Chubbs loved it in the big pool (he actually kicked up a huge fuss when we tried to put him back in the baby pool)! He wasn't at all perturbed by the fact the he couldn't reach the bottom. Plus, he kept dunking himself underwater because he was squirming so much that Daddy couldn't quite get a firm hold on him. To our surprise, the little one didn't mind going under one bit too! That's my water baby!

At the end of the day, Chubbs learnt how to blow bubbles underwater (and not swallow too much chlorinated H2O), thanks to Fuzzy. I'm so proud of my boys with the matching hairdos. The only downside of the trip was the extremely upset little boy when it was time to leave the pools. So I promised him that we would go swimming again if the weather was good tomorrow. He perked up immediately. And when we asked him which pool he preferred swimming in, he immediately said, "big pool" without blinking.

p.s. Chubbs turned two on 9th Sept! And I apologize for being extreme backlogged on my posts. Keep checking back for the parties that went down.

Happy Second Birthday, My Little Love.

Chubbs is two. I never expected this day would come so soon; I'm lost in a jumble of mixed emotions. Every year that passes is a celebration, a milestone and Chubbs has been blessed with good health and a family that loves him beyond anything.

We planned a day that we thought would make him the happiest. So he opened the pressies that his friends gave him at his party, and spent the morning playing with the great new toys. After a simple, yummy lunch of his favourite cheese, pasta and fruit, he took a nice nap to prepare for the fun to come later.

Dinner was just the three of us, at Chubbs' favourite restaurant, Shimbashi Soba. Nothing fancy, nothing exotic, just simple hand-made soba, which he ate a decent portion of.

Smile for soba!

Playing with the iPhone before the food.

Slurping away happily.

With our tummies filled, we drove to pick up his favourite vanilla bean ice-cream cake, and headed home for dessert.

I'm sure its apparent how much he loved his birthday cake.

It was time for the boys to play after the cake's been put away. And I take my hat off to my father-in-law for being able to organize a proper ball game between four (bordering on) hyper-active boys.

Three against one :/

The night wound down late, and he enjoyed his special day to the max, only resting at about midnight. Throughout the day, I've been contemplating the words that would make this post. But I've been drawing a blank on how I could ever do this little guy justice. To put it flat out, he is a fun-loving, good-natured boy, who loves aeroplanes, helicopters, cars, motorcycles, construction vehicles, dogs, singing, dancing and cooking. He has an infectious laugh/ chuckle that he shares easily, and his cheeky demeanor puts smiles on strangers' faces all the time. He is extremely affectionate, warm and full of love, and adores giving and receiving hugs and kisses. He goes up to kids in the mall pats them on the back, and sometimes hugs them too. I couldn't have asked for a better boy and he has made the world a happier place for me.

Happy Birthday my little darling!