37 Months Old!

Dear all,

I am 37 months old! This picture above was taken on my 37th month birthday and we were in Bintan for a holiday. I am an animal lover and I am interested in dogs, birds and frogs. This frog that was on the window sill when we were having breakfast at the resort cafeteria thrilled me somewhat.

See, I even attempted to touch it though I did not make any real contact because of the glass!

When we walk past our neighbour's place at the ground level, I like to count the number of bird cages that hung from the ceiling because I can see the birds in them. I also like to count the mynahs I see when I am out and about.

With all these counting, I probably became a much better negotiator. Once, Mama was singing Great is Thy Faithfulness to me at bedtime when I asked her to sing it a few more times. She said she will sing 1 more stanza and then I asked for 4 more stanza and then 10 stanzas. Though Mama was impressed and amused, she certainly did not oblige me.

I love water activities too and this month, I had more opportunities for water play when Mama brought me to the zoo at the beginning of the month and more opportunities when we went Bintan. Here are some lovely pictures, or at least Mama thinks they are lovely. :D

This month, I had learnt that I can lower my pitch when I speak and I enjoy doing it when Mama reads the Spot books with me. Spot is a little puppy and we have quite a few books on Spot. The stories are simple with only 1 or 2 sentences each page and almost every book is a lift the flap book. There was this page when Spot's Mama asked him where is Papa and I will lift a flap in the book, lower my pitch in imitation of Spot's Papa saying, "Here I am." I got this idea because Mama also lowered her pitch when she read "Here I am"

Talking about Spot books, there are some Spot books which I kind of memorised. Not by sheer recitation but because Mama read the books so often that I can remember the details and read responsively with Mama. So it seems like I can read as I can lift a flap and read the words under it but it's more because I had remembered what Mama had read when each flap was lifted.

Also, I not only read with lowered pitch but with tone as well. There was a page when Spot tugged at someone's towel and the owner of the towel said,"Let go!" I will lift the flap and said "Let go!" in a way that seemed to convey some irritation felt by the owner by raising my pitch.

Ok, Mama is not exactly sure if she used the words "pitch" and "tone" correctly but you get the idea. ;)

This month, I had also become more dependent on my tutu, often asking for it even when I am not sleepy. Mama thinks it's like some kind of regression as I had long been using it only during nap times and night times but I now ask for it when there is nothing else that interests me. That explains why many pictures taken the last 2 months or so features me with my best friend. ;p

Papa is now more conscious of helping me kick off this bad habit of using the tutu and tries to insist it's only for sleep times while Mama had become more like Papa whom in the past, preferred to give me the tutu to keep me from making too much noise. Still, Papa is the one who remembers to take tutu out with us by hiding it in my bag, out of my sight, as Mama often forgets to bring it.

At 37 months, I like to climb. See me try scaling new heights!

Last month, I also had my first sleepover at Nai Nai's place. No pictures for this as Mama was out with Papa for evening class but it was a good break for Mama and Papa. Aside from my hospitalisation for jaundice treatment when I was 4-6 days old, I had always been with my parents whenever I sleep. This is a first for me! Mama was kind of prepared that if I am awake at 11.30pm, she will pick me up from Nai Nai's place as she does not want to wake up in the middle of the night to bring me home. But at around 10.45pm, Shu shu messaged Mama to say I had fallen asleep. Hurray! A note worthy point is that I usually ask for Mama if Papa tries to put me to bed but that evening at Nai Nai's house, I did not ask for Mama. Maybe it's because I understood that Mama would not be coming for me as she had explained to me the day before.

Mama also had a few issues with me at 37 months old. Mama had noticed that I have butter fingers and tend to drop whatever I am holding easily. I can be seated at a bus stop with an Ez-link card in my hand and the next moment, I had dropped the card on the ground.

I also choked over my saliva a little more often though the last 2 weeks though things had been much better the past few days. You know, I am still drooling when my tutu is in my mouth even though all my 20 teeth are fully grown. The norm is that once I had finished teething, I should have stopped drooling.

This month, I tend to get bitten by some unknown bugs and it's now part of my bedtime routine to ask Mama to help me apply Mopiko to my legs or bum.

On a more postive note, as I become older, I like to take up responsibility. Last Sunday, as my parents did their final round of packing to Bintan, I insisted on bringing my float. So they told me it's my responsibility to take the float with me wherever I go and truly, I held on to it on our way there most of the time except when our bags were placed in Papa's car or on the luggage shelf in the ferry. See, I even had it with me when I was checking out the vending machine at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and nope, I didn't drop it.

I'm really a big boy now!

Ok, it's bed time. Thanks for reading this far. Mama will update again! :D