Month 18

The highlight of Swe-cha's 18th month is Aku's visit. He had lots of fun playing peek-a-boo and getting tickled by Aku.

He was very well-behaved when we went out for lunch with Aku at Red Lobster - if you consider dipping a straw into water and then flicking it to spray water around the table a form of "behaving".

In any case - he made Mommy and Daddy so proud because he sat in his high chair and did not demand to be released all throughout the meal. He also tried RL's cheddar bay biscuits (loved it!) and a few spoonfuls of the New England clam chowder.

Swe-cha still likes taking walks with Mommy in the afternoon. He prefers to walk by himself - without holding anybody's hand - but he will listen and stay with Mommy (sometimes) when she calls out for him.

If all else fails and he ignores our calls, we usually just have to say "BYE!" loud enough for him to hear it and he will come back.

Swe-cha can now answer "Essss" (Yes) in the right context. Sample conversations are:

"Does your tummy hurt ?" when he wakes up crying.

"Esss"

"You want Humphreys ?" (his teething strips)

"Essss"

"Go out ?"

"Esssss"

"You want to read your book ?"

"Essss"

"You want this milk ?" or "Hungry ?"

*stare* :)

"You want potato chip ?"

"Essss"

He has not learned to say "no" yet.

He loves his soup and is more willing to taste new things. He throws away finger foods if you let him hold it but he will eat it if you feed it to him. Some of his recent tries are potato chips and french fries. He is also eating his baby mum mums again (rice husks).

Last weekend, he was playing with the little condiment cups at McDonald's and was imitating Mommy by dipping his fry into an empty cup. Mommy decided to dip a fry in ketchup and let him have a taste, he nibbled and did not complain. Daddy then dipped a fry into honey mustard sauce and gave it to him to try. Swe-cha was startled, his eyes went big and his body gave a big jolt - all of which made Mommy & Daddy laugh - and then he refused to eat anything else after that.

Our baby is now a little boy and he loves doing boy-stuff such as:

wrestling,

riding his scooter while watching TV,

and car maintenance (note, that is the neighbor's car).

But we make sure that he grows up to be a well-rounded boy so he has his art,

science (Botany),

and for a bit of Chinese culture, he also tries to hone his mahjong-tile-mixing-skills at the church baby room while Mommy and Daddy hear mass (wait, this sounds so wrong!).