Hallelujah! My little toddler’s turned two today I made a simple cake and will be celebrating with just us five — myself, Daddy, birthday boy, big bro Eric, and little Ezra. I’m expecting when we make our trip back to my kampung this weekend that we’ll have another small celebration there like Eric had with his birthday.

I can’t help but compare him with Eric; Joel had grown almost like Eric was at 3! He can even fit into Eric’s shirts that I bought when Eric was five. Joel’s not fat, just taller and a little tougher than I’d expected. Not that I’m complaining

Thank you Lord for giving me a healthy and happy family. Many more happy returns to Joel!

Recently, one night, Joel vomitted. Three times. The next morning, he vomitted some more, and had diarrhea. Oh no, I dreaded. Was it going to be the same episode of vomitting and diarrhea that could wind him up in the hospital?

Diarrhea and vomitting are my two worst nightmares ever since I have my kids. When Eric was about 1-1/2 years old, he had a case of D&V so severe that he went into shock. Even thinking about it makes me teary-eyed. (more…)

My kids are at the ages where hugs are still abundant — they love being hugged and getting hugs. Eric would come to me for his big boy hug at random times, especially when he’s tired. Joel demands one every morning, noon, and night with such gusto that sometimes I would almost fall back as he run towards me and jumped, expecting me to catch him every time (do I have a choice not to?). When he’s not too excited, he’ll just calmly sit on my lap, grab my arms around him, and he’ll hum “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Ezra… well, he’s still a baby, but what baby doesn’t like to be hugged? Ezra will either put his head on my shoulder, or be most alert, smiling and babbling himself away.

There will come the day when giving a hug to Mommy and Daddy becomes more and more sporadic, somewhat of an embarrassment, not to be given publicly. But that’s a long time away. I hope. I’ll take things one day at a time.

Joel had his head shaved while he was staying for a few nights at his Nenek Tuaran’s place. This is the third time he’s had a hair cut; the first one was when he was 7 months old, and the second while he was 14 months old.

Just like his big brother Eric, Joel’s hair has been growing unevenly, though lately it’s looking better. This should be his last shave-off, I hope. He’ll be getting a normal haircut from now on.

*Gondol is a Malay word meaning bald-headed.

Your bottle is my bottle, is how Joel sees it. I’m partly to blame for his behavior towards Ezra’s bottle, because I switched Joel’s to a bigger sized bottle while passing over his smaller bottle for Ezra’s use. Joel still hasn’t gotten the hang of the idea.

So what has happened is that not only is Joel drinking off his new bottle, he also drinks off Ezra’s (and Ezra’s formula) just because he enjoys it. I would make a bottle for Joel, and a bottle for Ezra, and when it’s Ezra’s feeding time, it’s abracadabra gone and the next thing I knew Joel was happily sucking his baby brother’s feed. Oh well.

By the way, I never meant to abandon this blog for so long. It’s just that, well, you know, life comes first, blogging second I hope my posting will resume to normal starting today. I’ll be doing a bit of back posting too just to fill up the gaps.