Dear Sammy - 15 months

Dear Sammy

You have turned 15 months and oh boy, what a ride it has been!

Your biggest milestone is that you started walking right about the time you turned 15 months! We bought you proper walking shoes from Elefanten and since then, you have not looked back to your crawling days. Our hearts filled with joy and pride when you saw you whizzing through the apartment like a pro for the first time!

It does makes things easier now that you can walk, cos that means Mummy doesn't have to carry you wherever we go. The flip side to this is that you would rather walk in the direction that you (not we) want to go - that would mean up the flight of stairs in our corridor. 

The other thing that has drastically changed about you is your personality. 

You lost interest at the washing machine and were charging at the camera once you saw Mummy holding it!

You've always had a very cheery and easy disposition since your birth and for that, we are sooo thankful. We could bring you out to restaurants and you would remain in your seat and basically mind your own business while the rest of us could eat in peace.

BUT over the past few weeks, its as if a switch clicked inside your brain and you suddenly realized, "Hey, I'm not going to do what my parents want me to do, just because they say so!"

I'll be honest. It's been very tough trying to figure out the new you.

You were playing in some spilled milk

You have started little tantrums of screaming and staring at the ceiling whenever you don't get what you want. Once, while you were eating your lunch with a spoon, Mummy gave you a fork and tried to remove your spoon in her effort to facilitate your eating process - BIG mistake!

Oh boy, the high-frequency scream you emitted that very second could shatter glass! It was really piercing! Tears would stream down your face and your cheeks would turn bright red from all the frustration you experienced in not being able to do things your way.

The only way I could calm you down was to return you your spoon so that you could continue the slow, tedious process of trying to feed yourself chunks of meat that would roll off your spoon.

Everybody (ie. more experienced moms) tell me that this is a normal toddler phase of development. You're trying to test boundaries and figure yourself out as a person. I have to agree to that cos I see that even when you're crying sometimes, you don't seem to have a clue about what you're crying about!

We're hoping that this is only temporary cos you've been drooling a lot (sign of teething perhaps) and you've been feeling under the weather as well, with your constant drippy nose and cough. Get well soon little one. 

It's tough right now, cos you can't exactly verbalise what's bugging you. You're perfectly capable of telling Mummy what you want to eat / drink though! This morning, while Mummy was cooking a yummy scrambled eggs breakfast,  you conveniently found some peanut butter bread next to Mummy's bed and ate it up! Unfortunately, this also meant that you refused any of Mummy's gourmet breakfast. We call you the little scavenger cos you're so resourceful!

I guess the silver lining to the clouds is that when you do actually smile / kiss us, we know that you truly love and appreciate us! Especially cos you're no longer the baby who freely gives away his smiles to strangers.

Speech-wise, you added another VERY important word to your vocabulary! You actually call me "Mama" now! It so makes my day! You can say that more often!

You'll be celebrating your second Christmas with us soon! This is so amazing! Just to think that last Christmas, you were a 4-month old who couldn't even crawl and now, you're a little walking machine.

We love you honey. We're still trying to figure out our roles as parents so I guess we all have to simply grow together as we figure each other out. We know that you're such a gift from God, so we will depend on God for His wisdom to sail through the rocky waves of parenthood. 

With all our love
Mummy & Daddy

Our most recent family pix in the snow!

Daddy is so tall that when he lifts you up, your feet reach the ceiling!

The intense amount of snow we had in our garden just 2 weeks ago!

You all bundled up in your snow suit!

Babies are good for hugging, cuddling and taking cute photos with!

Right: Look at your "death stare" or should I say, "don't mess with me" stare