Life Of Baby Sebastian

Sebastian is more than 3 months old now. And like most babies his age, he doesn't do much apart from sleep, cry, and eat. When he's not doing either, he would get a little special attention from his new best friend... Mr Rocket Man!

    

Sometimes when he's tired of laughing, he would go for something more relaxing...like a back massage!

Okay, now I REALLY miss being a baby!

Happy 100 Day Birthday!

I know, I know, I really need to change the name of this blog, now that we have a new member in our family. I just need a little more time to think, with christmas, new year, and Chinese new year coming one after the other. We also just celebrated Sebastian's 100 day birthday. These few months have really been busy!

It was suppose to be Sebastian's party, but from the pictures we took that day it looked like he didn't have much fun. But it was amusing for me to see his reaction to the different ways people held him.

Tis the Season to be Baking

It's Christmas baking time again! This year, like in the previous year I've kept the cookies simple. With another baby at home there's just no time for anything anymore.

But our baking session this time around is a little more special, because we also decided to make the cookies for Sebastian's 3-month-old birthday.

Yes, I know Sebastian can't eat cookies yet, but I just wanted to do a little something special to celebrate him turning 3-month-old. I also wanted Matty to get used to having his brother around.

So how did it all go? Humming the Happy Birthday song, Matty helped me squish and cut the cookie dough. And being the good brother that he already is, Matty volunteered to eat the cookies for Sebastian because his little brother doesn't have any teeth yet. Awwwwww thats so nice of him.

Path of Imagination

Matty LOVES writing Chinese, and is not afraid of attempting to write any characters he sees in any books. But when it comes to drawing, Matty is more cautious.

He recently started to copy drawings from his books, and seemed to think that any drawing that's different from the version in his book was wrong. But after I told him drawings should come from his own imagination, he started to draw all sorts of things...including portraits of his family...NAKED!

Let me do some research now to see what that means.

Toy Story

I finally decided to reorganise Matty's toys so we can make more room for Jelly Bean's things (my baby no.2). There are toys that Jelly Bean can use when he's older, but there are some that we just don't have room for anymore, like the yellow race car that Jason 哥哥 gave Matty (Sorry Auntie Agnes!). Matty loves the car a lot, but its just too big for our flat. This was how I broke the news to him:


ME:               "Matty is it okay for us to give your car to other children who have no toys to play with?"




MATTY:      "Why they have no toys to play with?"




ME:                "Many children are not as lucky as you. Some have no toys to play with. And some don't
                       have Dada or Mama to take care of them. If they saw your car, don't you think they'd be
                       really happy?"


MATTY:        "Yes."




ME:                "So is it okay for us to give your car away?"




MATTY:         "Yes." 



Matty's eyes then drifted off in the distance. Could my 3-year-old really be thinking about how lucky he is?

A few seconds later...




MATTY:           "Can we leave 細佬 (little brother) there too?"



I tried to ask him why he wanted to that with a straight face, but I failed. My helper and I just burst out laughing. So, thats how he really feels about his little brother!

Matty寫中文

Like all kids, Matty loves to play with water. But recently he's been refusing to take his bath because he's on his summer break! If he didn't go out to play during the day he would tell us that he's clean and don't need to bath. 

But luckily he really loves learning how to write Chinese. We just have to take out his bath crayons, and he'd automatically run to the bathroom for his bath.

Yes, his strokes are not perfect, but right now I think getting him interested is more important.

Sometimes I wonder what Matty will end up doing when he grows up. Right now, he loves Chinese and maths. I just hope he won't end up being a dorky accountant. 

Hello, Dentist!

Matty went to the dentist for the first time today. He didn't seem to mind, maybe because we already did a little role playing at home so he knew what to expect. He jumped into the dentist chair and fiddled with the water basin thing next to him. The next thing he told us was "I farted!" So I guess he really wasn't too nervous afterall.

But when the dentist finally arrived, Matty refused to lie down in the chair. The dentist made Dada, who had a little dentist phobia, demonstrate what Matty had to do. The dentist pretended the chair was a spaceship that was about to take off, before lowering it.

Now, that certainly made Dada relax a bit, but Matty still refused to lie down. In the end the dentist made Matty lie on top of Dada in the chair!

So what did the dentist find? Matty has 20 teeth! Most of them are clean apart from the top front row which has a little stain. Hope they'll be gone when we next visit the dentist in 6 months time.

Living On The Edge

Matty has been exploring his dad's music recently. His favourite artists are now Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Beatles and Aerosmith. He particulary likes "Living on the Edge". I don't mind him singing it the first thing in the morning... but I definitely don't want him to live that way.

Just the other day we went for what was supposed to be a pregnancy/family photo shoot at a studio. Everything was fine until Dada tried to carry Matty from a flight of stairs there. Matty's head banged into a glass lamp shade hanging from the ceiling.

Some glass shattered over them and Matty burst out crying. I thought he was just scared. But seconds later I realised he was hurt. Blood was pouring out from I don't know where. And everyone just rushed for tissue to help stop the bleeding.

Matty was surprisingly brave and only cried for a few minutes. He didn't cry on the ambulance either when they cleaned the cut on his forehead. Yes its true, I haven't seen many cuts in my life. Infact the only cuts I've seen are paper cuts. But I don't need experience to know that Matty's cut was deep and long. If only I had a choice, I'd want the cut on myself instead... just anywhere but on Matty.

Cuts and scrapes I guess can't be avoided, especially when you have a boy. But seeing how deep the cut was really hurts. Although the paramedics said it was not too bad, Matty ended up with 6 stitches!

Since the accident, Matty has been busy reenacting what happened. And often he would ask me why it happened.


MATTY:           "Why did Dada hurt Matty?"




ME:                   "Dada loves Matty. He wouldn't hurt you. It was an accident."




MATTY:           "What does accident mean? "



ME:                    "Something bad that happens that nobody wanted  to."



MATTY:             "Why did Dada not see the light?"



ME:                      "It was an accident. Sometimes not everything can be explained."



Luckily, Matty doesn't seem to be in too much pain. He'll take out his stitches next week. We're just really thankful that the glass missed his eye.

One question we'll probably never figure out is why the lamp shade shattered so easily. I was told it was from IKEA! And thats one place I'll never buy glass lamp shades from. Infact I'll probably just stick to their meatballs from now on.

Matty's Fear of Rejection

If you ask Matty who his girlfriend is, he would say without any hesitation --"Eugenia!"  But after going to a few of his school outings, I realised that Matty doesn't even talk to this girl in class that he claims to be his girlfriend. No, not even one word! We asked Matty one day after picking him up from school why he doesn't talk to her:


MATTY:                   "I'm shy!"





ME:                           "But if you don't talk to her how can you be friends?"





DADA:                     "You should ask her if you can play together."





ME:                           "And maybe later you can hold hands together."





MATTY:                   "What if she says no?"





ME:                           "Thats okay, you can try another time."


So did he talk to her? According to Dada, Matty kind of tried while they were putting on their outdoor shoes at the end of school,  although all he said was her name. But at least thats a start.

Sometimes I wonder where he got this fear of rejection from. I don't remember Dada ever having that problem.

The "Beep-ing" Red Car

If you know my hubby, you'd know that he's very relaxed around Matty. He never even tries to control the language he uses around him, or think twice about the kind of music he plays in the car. I don't remember how many times I've told him to stop using certain words around Matty because sooner or later he'd pick it up. But what do I know right? Why would my hubby listen to someone who has the same parenting experience as him? I guess my hubby prefers to learn from real life experience.

The other day just as we were about to watch a Lightning Mcqueen DVD with Matty for the first time, Matty all of a sudden said "the fxxking red car". Not entirely sure what we heard,  we asked Matty to repeat what he said again, and it was then that the "F" word flowed out of his little innocent mouth. My hubby who was trying to stop himself from cracking up asked Matty one final time. After Matty repeated "the fxxcking red car"  again, Matty started laughing. Yes, I must admit it was a funny moment. But as parents we all know that if we laughed with Matty, we would only  encourage him to use the word again and again. So to limit the damage caused by my hubby, we put on a serious a face and told him that it was a naughty word, and he cannot use it again.

Don't know if Matty will listen. I just hope my hubby has learned his lesson.

Hello Baby Number Two

If you read my earlier post you'd know that Matty is not particularly keen on having a baby brother or
sister. In fact, he made it very clear he didn't want either. But what does a toddler know, right?  Having someone to grow up with will be great fun! Anyway we told him last month that he was going to have a
sister or brother soon... and yes, he wasn't happy.

He was in a bad mood for a while everytime we talked about baby number two. It was
until we told him that he can still sleep with us after the baby is born that he cheered up a little. But even then he'd still show his hostility towards the baby.

ME:                  "Will you love baby?"



MATTY:         "No! Matty hit baby!"



ME:                  "If Matty sleep with Da Da and Ma Ma, can baby sleep in Matty's room?



MATTY:         "No! Baby sleep in Pa Pa's (helper's) room.



ME:                 "But you don't use your room, why can't baby use it?"



MATTY:         "But I play inside all the time."


Over the past few weeks things have improved slightly. I'd make Matty kiss my belly goodnight...and he'd make me kiss his belly goodnight too. Yes, Matty pretends to have a baby in his belly. He's already had his sixth baby now I think. The first one was called Maya. But he later changed it to "Zywa". Maybe thats his way of accepting the the news.

Yesterday, we took him with us for my ultrasound. And there he saw and heard baby for the first
time. He didn't really respond too much until he heard baby's heartbeat. He was actually more focused on what the doctor was doing to my belly. While sitting on Da Da's lap, Matty looked at me and asked me "Do you feel pain?" Matty also said "yay" when the doctor told us baby was a boy! Although he denied saying that when we got home.

Hopefully, over the next few months Matty will look forward to seeing his little
brother as much as we do.

A Little Piece Of History

Chinese New Year spring cleaning is when you 'try' to clean your flat until it's spic and span. Its also when you dump old things that you no longer want.

Because 婆婆 (grandma) loves everything she owns, and has difficulty throwing away anything in her flat, she decided to dump some of my old stuff back to me instead. One of the items that got returned was a spinning top I made at school 20 years ago! I remember making the spinning top, in my CDT (Craft, Design and Technology) class, but I don't remember the actual process I went through cutting the wood, or how I sanded it with sand paper, or put a coat of lacquer on it.

Anyway, it's now the latest addition to Matty's toy collection. He really likes this old piece of wood! He has this proud smile on his face when he manages to get it to spin. Its not that easy actually, because the spinning top is made of solid wood, and is quite heavy for his little hands.

After playing with the spinning top that I made, Matty thinks I'm really smart! And now when he manages to get the top spinning, he would say "Matty is clever like Ma Ma!" Sigh. Does that mean I have to act like I'm smart in front of him all the time? That's no fun!

Never imagined my school project would end up in my son's toy collection.

婆婆 said I should pass the spinning top to Matty's children. It looks like this top has a long way to go.

The Gruffalo's Child

Matty and I had been looking forward to watching "The Gruffalo" over the weekend. We've been reading the book before bedtime for the past week just to get  ourselves in the mood.

A day before the show, my hubby went to pick up the tickets. It was only then that we realised we had bought tickets for  "The Gruffalo's Child", and not "The Gruffalo". My hubby blamed it on the layout of the HK Ticketing website. But I think he  underestimated the difficulty of buying tickets online, facebooking, msn-ing, and youtube-ing at the same time. MEN!

Luckily, Gruffalo was in the show too. He's the one that Matty really wanted to see. And although Matty hasn't read the Gruffalo's Child yet, he enjoyed the show a lot. It was an hour long show, with lots of singing and dancing, and some interaction with the characters in the show. After leaving the theatre he told us he wanted to watch the Gruffalo again! I guess we could since the show is still on, but spending another HK$400 each for a children's show is a little steep. I'd rather save it for the Barney show coming up in April. In the end we got him the Gruffalo's Child book and a CD of the Gruffalo's songs instead.

The Amazing Race For Milk!

Matty almost had no milk to drink last night! Usually our helper Suparmi would give us ample warning before we actually ran out, but this time, for whatever reason, she just informed us in the morning that we had nothing left. Neither of us, both working full-time, had any idea of this, so we were forced to search high and low for a new source. When I asked her why she didn't tell us earlier she just picked on the easiest target in the flat -- my hubby. She said she told him on Saturday...something my hubby denies. But with their track record, I don't know who to believe. 

Anyway, my hubby went to at least 4 different places in Kowloon City to hunt the milk down, but failed. We then drove to Lok Fu, where my hubby took off his jacket and ran across the street towards the shops as though he was in the Amazing Race. Again he came back empty handed. The last leg of the Race was at Festival Walk, in Kowloon Tong, after Auntie Edna managed to locate one last can at the Watson's there. We stopped the car next to the KCRC station, where Matty and I watched Da Da sprint up the flyover leading to the shopping mall. It was a funny sight, since he hasn't exercised for such a long time. But I'm so glad he did, after watching him down a Mcflurry with added caramel just an hour earlier. Life was fair afterall...well sometimes at least.

Superglue? Rubber? Waterchestnut Cake!!

With less than a month to go before Chinese New Year, I started testing out my waterchestnut cake recipe  again. I actually make it every year but I just never remember to write down the exact recipe so I usually have to experiment a little before the new year. And although I thought the paste didn't thicken enough in the process, the waterchestnut cake turned out fine. I was a little surprised actually.  Before I forget, heres the recipe. I adapted it from the Cheat Eat blog.

Ingredients:

• 250g waterchestnut flour
• 950ml water
• 12 waterchestnuts (can add more if you want)
• 220g or two and a half slabs of yellow sugar
• A little oil for greasing your pan

Method:

1. Grease the foil pan with oil. I got mine a few days ago. They usually just have two sizes. I picked the smaller one.
2. Sift the waterchestnut flour.
3. Mix about half of the water you'll be using with the flour.
4. Peel and chop, or crush the waterchestnuts. I usually put it in a gladlock type bag and just crush it with a wooden spatula or a knife handle.
5. Melt the sugar in a pot with the remaining water. Add the waterchestnuts and bring it to a boil.
6. Turn the flame down to as small a flame as possible and pour half the flour mixture in, while continuously stirring.
7. Turn the fire off, and pour the remaining mixture in the pot, while stirring. It should thicken while you stir.
8. Pour the mixture in your pan and steam for 30 minutes, or until transparent. I usually cover the top of the pan with foil to prevent water droplets from falling into the pan while steaming.
9. Eat! Or wait until it cools first.

My waterchestnut cake is on the less sweet side, so if you like really sweet stuff you can always add more sugar. Or if you like it softer you can add more water too. Its really quite flexible. ENJOY!

White Hair? I Is Scared!

We've recently been wondering AGAIN when Matty will sleep by himself, in his own bed. Don't get me wrong, we still love sleeping with him. It's just that he's really getting too big for our bed. And because he likes to sleep on top of the covers, both my hubby and I barely get enough blanket-area to cover ourselves. We really felt the impact of the shortage of our blanket real-estate this past week when temperatures have dropped to single digits in the morning.  But it looks like Matty has no plan to move!!

The other day after his bath,  Suparmi, my helper,  asked Matty when he was going to sleep in his own bed. And this was what he said: "Matty sleep in Matty bed when Da Da and Ma Ma have white hair!"

A little shocked by what Matty said, I did my own follow-up a little later:


ME:                           "So when will you when sleep by yourself?"





MATTY:                    "When everybody's got white hair."




ME:                            "Why?"





MATTY:                     "I is scared"




ME:                            "You're scared of white hair?"




MATTY:                       "Yes."



ME:                              "What if Ma Ma has a few white hairs, is that okay?"




MATTY:                     "Yes"



ME:                            "So you're just scared if all my hair is white?




MATTY:                    "Yes."




ME:                             "So when will everyone have white hair?"




MATTY:                      "When Matty is 20!"


Well, he sure knows how to make things clear. Although I know Matty will definitely not sleep with us until he's twenty-- its quite obvious he has not plan to leave our bed any time soon.

I later asked him about Santa, but he didn't seem to recall ever seeing Santa's white hair. I guess thats because the santa he saw (Da Da) last month had bits of black hair sticking out.

Anyway, I guess if we really, really, want to get Matty out of our bed.... all we need to do is bleach our hair white! Um...... lets see how desperate we get.

Big Brother, Matty

Matty has a very sensitive respiratory system, according to his pediatrician. Recently he's been wheezing occasionally--usually when Hong Kong's air pollution is very high or when the renovators next door decides to open the door to let the dust out!

Over the weekend, when little Hayden and 小波子 came to visit us for the first time, Matty started wheezing, and coughing again. We haven't confirmed anything yet, but we think Matty could possibly be allergic to our cats. He doesn't usually play with them that much. It was only when little Hayden and 小波子 came over that everyone started playing with them more. Matty recovered soon after he rested in my room.

But even if Matty is allergic to our cats, I don't think I have the heart get rid of them. My hubby agrees. They are just a part of our family now. I guess we'll just try to groom them more and see if things improve.

Anyway, despite, Matty's runny nose, and coughing, Auntie Annie let Matty hold 5-month-old 小波子. Its the first time Matty held a baby that young. I don't know how nervous he was but I can tell he was trying his best not to drop him.

While little Hayden and 小波子 were there, Matty also tried to act like a big boy, because he knew he was obviously older than them. At one point, he went to the bathroom to clean his hands by himself. He even shut the door! Yes, I was a little worried, because I couldn't open the door with him standing on a chair next to the sink! Luckily he was okay. But this "big brother" character didn't last long. Just as I turned my back on him he was squashing Hayden in his yellow car. Sigh. Boys will be boys.