My God is So Big

Happy Birthday, Gabe <3

Our boy's 2!!! Can't believe how time flies! It has been an amazing 2 years being Mom and Dad for me and Dave. Hasn't been easy but being parents really have helped us to understand God's love a whole lot more. He has been so faithful in providing for us, teaching us and forgiving us when we make mistakes.

It was an interesting day! 15th September 2008 was Gabe's birthday and it was also my birthday based on the Chinese calender. (1 day after the full moon festival) In fact I didn't even realize until I got some phone calls from family in Thailand wishing me happy birthday and I was like...duh...?? thinking they made mistake only to find out what an interesting day it was!

Gabe's so happy that Daddy got him a swing-set. The part he loves the most is the slide. But I think Buzz and Woody got to enjoy the swing set more cuz Gabe took them on with him and entertained them pretty much the whole afternoon on both the slide and swings.

I was a bit upset that he had a fall when he was running to catch me. As a result, you can see the mark on his face near his mouth and a little bruise on his forehead. I'll get over it! Kids heal fast.

Can't thank God enough for His provision and how He's watching out for us. We thank everyone for your prayers for our little man. He's such a blessing and we have learned so many things from just watching him grow. I'll put more pictures on tomorrow.(if I get a chance) God bless you all.

What happened in May?

Well, a super busy month is gone and left behind a lot of good memories:

-We met Darby and her cousin Kedra in the city. It was pretty awesome being able to catch up with Darby and getting to know Kedra. More than anything, I think Gabe loves these two 'very' tall aunties!

-My first Tupperware party- I was stressed out the whole time before I had the party. I didn't know what to do, who to invite, whether people would wanna come and buy stuff...At the end, I helped Cheryl made over a thousand bucks worth of sell and as a result I got myself some free Tupperware stuff. The most important thing is I did try it, but I don't think I'll go there again. Love the Tupperware stuff though!

-Women's church- Still studying Dr. Larry Crabb's 'Encouragement,' led by a very wise lady called Ann R. I have learned how powerful words are and that we're responsible to the words that go out from our mouth-so before saying anything...think hard: we should only say words that encourage one another. One very interesting point though is that: Words that are meant for good have equally potential for evil!

-Playgroup has been good. Gabe was sick so we didn't missed out on the playgroup for 2 weeks. Last week we went back and it was Trinity and Matthew's birthday. I really enjoyed it. Being able to catch up with all the moms is quite encouraging. I also got a chance to update the playgroup's blog and am loving it.

What else happened in May? Oh! Congratulations to Nui, Matt and Julius for the safe arrival of gorgeous Casandra!

I think I'm gonna start teaching English again, just because Gabe's grown up a lot and think I'll be able to manage to do that. That's about all that happened and will try to keep you all updated more often!

God is still faithful

Gabe had a little accident about a week ago. He tripped and hit his face on the edge of a wooden chair and had a cut on his eyebrow and some bruises on his face. I was quite surprised at how well I took it. Guess these days I have learned to trust the Lord more than before. Just looking back, there was no hard time I went through without God being there supporting me and giving me strength. He has given me such a beautiful family and He's been faithfully blessing us and providing our needs so generously.

The school holiday's over and Womens' church is back on. I'm joining Ann's group and we're going to study about Key to Encouragement and yesterday was the first day and it is so encouraging already! I am looking forward to going back next week. I am very thankful that Gabe's doing better when I leave him with Maggie, Dorothy and other kids while I'm having the bible study. Can't thank those ladies enough!

I was invited to a Tupperware party at Mel B's place and I really enjoyed it. And crazy enough I booked myself one, which I have no idea what to look forward to whatsoever, but oh well, just another experience. Dave and his family are so supportive and encouraging.

Dave and I have talked a bit more about having another child and the answer is 'not yet' but we lift it up to God. (May His will be done) My back is still pretty bad, guess it doesn't help doing all the gardening and looking after a 19-month-old boy, but I enjoy them so much. Not sure whether I've ever mentioned that I have my own little garden bed in our backyard. There's some chili, morning glory, spring onion, lemon glass, basils and mint. Oh, forgot to mention that the grape tomato vine Matt planted for us when he was down is still there and Gabe loves picking them thinking they are grapes.(yucky ones) I should take a picture and post it on here next time. It's late, I should go to bed. G'night :)

Adjectives!

Gabe's 19 months old now. In the past month, he's learned a whole lot about adjectives, numbers and alphabets. Gabe recognizes numbers 1 to 10 and learning to say 'twenty, thirty...' and he recognizes about 20 alphabets out of the 26, which I think is quite impressive.

His new favorite cartoons, characters(whatever you wanna call them) are now Elmo and Cookie Monster, oh...and Thomas the train... At night I usually go in his bedroom to check whether he's still got his blankets on, sometimes I'd wake him up(as much as I try not to) and he'd say, "Hi, Mom! Watch Elmo, yeah?" and I'd say, "No, son, tomorrow." and he'd say, "okay, no more Elmo" and goes back to sleep.

When we put clothes on him, we often tell him how he looks handsome and stuff and he's learned to put those adjectives before some nouns, like...handsome jumper, awesome bib, amazing jacket, cool dude glasses, cute nappy and pretty flowers(he pronounces it wither the [er]bit.) Sometimes Gabe brings me his little beanies and asks me to put them on, and when I do it, he'd say..."Awwww...handsome!" We really enjoy these moments. The fact that he says things more clearly makes me worried sometimes, just because my boy's growing and soon he'll be independent and he'll go around doing things himself and won't need Mommy and Daddy's help anymore. Oh well...

A lot of people have asked when we're gonna have another child and I guess I'm not quite ready yet. I've got to work on my driver's license and make sure my back is well enough to handle the pregnancy. The most important thing I guess is to make sure Gabe's well nurtured and perhaps when he can do more things by himself and then we may consider having another one. In fact, we have to totally lift it up to God! May His will be done!

Gabe=18 Months

Gabe had his immune-shot today and he did well. He was upset at the nurse and pushed her hands away with the look on his face saying, 'I'm cranky at you!' but at the end he smiled at her and said, "bye bye" before we left. Grandpa and Grandma went down to the doctor's with us as well. It was good having them over the weekend and Gabe was so happy to see his 'Papa' and 'Mama.'

Gabe's into numbers these days. Often he gets them right, but still a bit confused between 6 and 9, and 1 and 7, other than that he often gets them right when he sees the numbers. He's talking a lot more and copying almost everything we say. He's learning to say the seven days at the moment and it's so funny that 'Saturday' seems to be the easiest day for him to pronounce. Anyway, I should get a nice video and post it on here. I need to go to bed now...zzzzzz

Gabe's first word was "hello"-he said the word when he was two months old. When I was in Thailand, I got a chance to babysit my little nephew, Ford, can't remember how old he was then but I was able to teach him to say a couple of words and since then I realized that baby can start talking when they're that little.

I found Gabriel always tried to copy things I said since he was a couple of months old. He was able to ask the question, "what's this?" since he was about 6 months and that was when I started to take time teaching him words, telling him what they are and how they relate to our daily life.

Being able to communicate has made him a happy boy.(That's what we think anyway) These days he's able to say "peace(please) and ta(thank you) when he asks for stuff. Recently just learned to say kyou kyou(Thank you) and it sounds so cute. He's also learning to put words together and sometimes he gets it right, and sometimes we just have to guess what he's trying to say.

Last Sunday at church, he's finally old enough to join the other toddlers upstairs where parents are allowed to be with them for 5 minutes then they'll have to leave their kids and go join the service. It was pretty emotional to me, thought he might cry, but it turned out so well. He just said "bye bye, Mom" and gave me a kiss and he was fine. I couldn't concentrate on what Ray was preaching cuz I wondered whether Gabe would be crying or when those ladies were going to come down to get me, but thankfully that didn't happen. After the service I ran straight up and Gabe pointed at me and said, "Mom" with a big smile and I was happy then to know that he had a good time. At women's church, he's going to join the bigger kids next week, so I'll be able to just concentrate on the study. That's such a blessing!

Oh, well! Anyway...this video shows our routine after giving him a bath or a shower, that's when we learn more words together. Sometimes it's a little bit tricky though cuz I breastfeed him right after putting the clothes on him and he's often can't be patient enough to have his tucker. :D

It's been a while...

Today's our 3rd wedding anniversary and I got the most beautiful card ever with a very surprising gift. Dave and I took Gabe to the park this morning and had a good family time together before he headed off to work.

Gabe's 17mths old now and he's really into drawing, coloring and saying words and putting them together. Every number used to be 'six' and every alphabet 'W', but now he's recognizing more and able to tell some differences. I often take him down the road and he'd walk to people's mailbox and points at them then reads the number out. We made a new friend down the road about 4 houses from ours. Coral is such a lovely lady. She invited us in and showed us her lovely backyard and the 2 cute birds.

Gabe knows that Tuesdays and Sundays we go to church, so in the mornings of those two days he often says to me, "...church," which I gathered he means today we're going to church. I'm happy that he's able to communicate a whole lot more, which makes things easier for me. We're recently joining a playgroup, which takes place on every Friday morning where we join other ladies and their kids in the morning and the kids get to play and learn new stuff and the moms get to catch up and chill out.

Well, I added new slide show down at the bottom of this page, hope y'all enjoy 'em :)

Gabe= 16 mths.

We took Gabe to get his pictures taken. It took quite a long time, cuz he kept pointing at stuff around him and asked the lady what they were...hehe Well, finally we've got TWO versions and we think he's adorable. (I know we're bias)

Gabe's saying a lot more words these days and I've better write them down so we can come back and look at them together when he grows up: aunty, uncle, mama(Grandma), Papa(grandpa), Ah-gong(Grandpa-Chinese), Ah-po(Grandma), Gege(older brother), Jiejie(older sister), Ah-yi(aunty), Teddy Pooh(he calls all the teddies Teddy Pooh, basically mixing Teddy bear and Pooh bear together-you can blame Daddy for that), bread, yuck, chunky, bye Dad, Bob(the tomato - from VeggieTales), ball, bib, burp, bird and a few other words we can't think of right now.

Pics From the Christmas holidays

Gabriel's words

The video explains it all :)