Zachariah at 17 months!

Wow there must be something between turning 16mths to 17mths cos boy I can now see a real big jump in development in our little Z.

So here they all are:

1) Z is a 100% Chinese on the inside - I can not stress how Chinese our little one is. You see my father have always loved to turn on his Dong dong dong qiang - these annoying Chinese New Year songs weeks leading up to CNY. When Z stayed over at my parents place, he fell in love with it. Now every time he goes, he's goes straight into my parents room & demand them to turn on the cassette tape for him to dance. It's soooo funny! I'm glad my dad has finally found a little buddy to share his passion for CNY songs with. Then there's the han qu ping ying DVDs (learning mandarin) for little tots that my cousin sis Jeanne had bought him when he was only 3mths old. Of course I had turned it on for him to watch as soon as I got them, but he was never interested in them until... now! Every time he's at my parents house, he would go up to my mum and say 'a a a a, o o o o' and then pointing onto the DVD player insisting she plays the han qu ping ying DVD for him. It's soooo cute! This has happened for at least 3 weeks now. Then recently the most amazing thing happened. He took one of my Chinese movie DVDs and as soon as he saw the Chinese characters on the DVD, he said 'a a a a, o o o o' I was absolutely astonished! How did my little boy know that that's Chinese as opposed to alphabets cos he has never spoke to me in han qu ping ying if he gave me his beloved Spot books to read'. Just amazing. Last but not least, he loves to eat Chinese food & I mean real Chinese food. Like tofu, ang jiu mee sua, noodles, congee etc.

2) Z is about to finish kinder music and has just started his new term of play group which I'm extremely blessed to have my MIL volunteering to take him. He's since gone twice & goodness me, I can see a BIG change in him. Firstly, he's throwing his tantrums more often. If he doesn't get his way, he would scream in a high pitch voice & then bang his head on the ground either forwards or backwards. He's since had many bruises/cuts. I'm hoping he will learn to stop it since it hurts him.. but it's taking a while! Next, he loves to play tiggy. He wants us to chase him & he would run all over the house laughing in hysterics until he forgets to swallow to the point he salivates his entire shirt! But the biggest development of all is that he now talks more. In fact he is very sociable. He is the youngest in his play group (everyone else is around 3y.o). A lot of the times the older boys would tease him and say 'You still a baby!' b/c Z can't talk properly. But Z still carries on and blends in to play with them. He's actually not as shy as we once thought. Amongst his peers in his previous play group, he has always been the leader of the pack. Everyone else will watch what our little mischievous boy is up to and then copies him...

3) He now picks up signs from his surroundings and decodes this to figure out what is going on. For example, every night when I pray with him, he just knows that I'm praying (even though it looks as if I'm just staring at him while talking) and he would immediately say 'Amen Amen Amen' and I have just started to pray.. it's so funny to watch but once again I'm just amazed by his intelligence. If I point to something & tell him to take it to bah bah or gong gong or wai poh or yea yea or nai nai, he would automatically do it (Although there are times he gets it wrong like gives it to the wrong person - but most of it times he gets it right).

Oh and he absolutely loves his daddy dearly. If Mr M walks out of the room, Z will start to cry for him. He is after all a chip off the old block ;) I can now see how important a father figure is for this stage of Z's life...

Oh and did I mention just how much he loves his daddy's iPhone too! He even knows how to turn it on by the slide of his finger! He loves to also look at his photos on the iphone by flicking it with the slide of his finger.

4) He still has 4 teeth & loves to bite. After drinking milk, he has to grind his teeth on his pillow/bolster. Sometimes he would bite you if you keep on tickling him too much.. poor Mr M still has the scar that his little one bit on his chest but Mr M is so proud to wear his new tattoo around :) I can not stress how much he loves eating grapes! If he sees it, he will stop eating his dinner & won't eat anything else except grapes! Grrr.. He's also started to stop eating veggies cos my parents have fed him all sorts of CNY tibits & he's realised junk food taste better than the healthy food. He also loves eating fries.. Hungry Jacks is currently his fav joint thanks to his daddy's influence! Grrrr again!

5) Z had fallen sick since early Jan with a bad cough. The cough was so bad that he would vomit anything that was in his tummy. His vomit would be non-stop until he turned blue. Very scary to watch in deed. But thank God, over time, I knew what to give him (ie. warm thick liquid, plain congee with vegemite, bread, use a humidifier & baby balsam etc) & what to not give him (ie milk, fruits etc). It took a month before he recovered and this was only after my MIL took him to a homeopath b/c the GPs would not give him anything cos he was way too young & said he just had to fight it off.... Now his favourite food is vegemite on bread :) Oh & yes he now loves to feed himself too even if it means using his hands..

6) He's nearly half the size of his dad. Hopefully this mean he will over take him in his teenage years :) He now wears size 6 shoes & size 2 clothes even though he's not even 18mths! He walks & run very steadily now.

7) He now knows the following action: pray, jia you jia you, sleep, he finally learned how to give a kiss although sometimes he would open his lips to big that one would think his mouth was coming straight towards you to give you CPR... LOL. Usually when you lie next to him pretending that you have gone to sleep, Z will come up to you to give you a very sloppy mouth to mouth kiss out of no where!

8) All the naughty things he does include: a) Tipping out all of his toys & not packing it up. I would find traces of all his toys all around the house and guess who cleans up his mess? yes.. the pleasure of being a mum. b) If you leave your things around, it could disappear one minute and re-appear 3 days later b/c Z would put it somewhere around the house & then discovers it again & put it where the eyes can see c) He loves to pick up our glasses and attemps to put it on himself.. oh dear! d) He likes to throw everything! e) He still loves to remove everything in our drawers including his grandparents' drawers f) He loves to take off his nappy and run around the house naked! cute at first but now it's a constant headache cos we are always having to chase him down just in case a water fountain comes out from it... g) He pushes everything that has wheels including his new found toy - shopping trolleys for toddlers! :) h) He also loves to pull off everything that you put on him (eg. his bib, hat, shoes, socks & now his nappy!)

9) All the cute things he does include: a) If you pretend to fall asleep before him, he will come up to you and give you a kiss to wake you. If that doesn't work, he would take his hand and spin your face towards him so that he doesn't feel alone. b) All of my soft toys accumulated from my youth has been handed over to Z. He nows loves soft toys & thinks they are all 'woah woahs' because they have four legs (eg 2 hands, 2 feet). There are times I catch him pat his soft toys/bolster while singing to them 'oo oo oo oo' the way I would do to him in order to help him fall asleep. c) Everytime I say to him, where's apple or where's Spot? he would go grab his Spot books or the picture bible book for me to read to him as they all have apples in them. d) Everytime I was to distract him so that I can cook in peace in the kitchen, I would ask him where's helicopter? and immediately he would go to the fridge to play with his helicopter fridge magnets. e) Everytime I ask him to say apple, he would pronounce it as 'ajie!' or when I ask him to say gong gong, he would say g'ng g'ng. So cute.. my heart just melts! f) He thinks every 4 legged creature is a dog. If it's an elephant, lion, cow, bear, he would point to them and 'woah woah'. g) Every time he sees a lion, hippo or crocodile, he would start to give a cute little 'aaaahhhhhhmmmm' as if they're about to eat him so he needs to eat them first. h) He's discovered the art of throwing balls. As soon as he throws one, he would laugh in hysterics. Then he would pick it up, throws it again and laugh in hysterics. Repeat it by 20 times and yet it's still so funny to him.

10) Last but not least, the biggest milestone of all - We've just moved him out of his cot & our bed to his own queen sized bed into his NEW room. I'm really praying that he will learn to sleep by himself in his own room before the bub arrives and I have 6mths to teach him! C'mon little one.. jia you jia you!