Athan turns one today! He had a really happy day — lots of smile and laughter throughout the day. Perhaps he knows it’s his birthday. 🙂 I have to add that he almost ate a worm this morning! Well, I have no idea how this worm manage to wriggle it’s way to our living area where Athan was playing. Anyway, our dear little boy saw the moving worm, thought it was interesting, picked it up and put it right into his mouth! Thank God I caught him in time and managed to fish the worm out before it got swallowed. That was close.
Celebration was really low key as compared with Calvin’s 1 year old party. We had a family dinner at a Chinese restaurant followed by cake. That’s all. I have to admit we are getting slack with the second child … but truth be told, my initial plan was to throw a afternoon tea party at a park and invite family and the children from my mother’s group to come. Unfortunately, the plan did not go ahead as Robin was not able to make it to the party, and I did not want to run the show without him. Nonetheless, the dinner with family turned out really well and Athan was so well behaved. He ate a lot too!
When it was cake time, Calvin was the most excited. He thought it was his birthday! It took a while for him to realise that it was Athan’s birthday, not his. Anyway, he sang the birthday song out loud and insisted on blowing the candle and of course, be the first to eat the cake. Calvin loves eating cake. By the way, Athan had a bite of his cake too. He loved it. 🙂
I’m really happy to see Athan growing up so well. Thank God. Honestly, I can hardly remember what happened one year ago except that I gave birth to a baby boy, and my baby screamed very loudly. He is no longer a baby now, he is *officially* a toddler and his little personality is slowing revealing itself. Soon, I’ll be dealing with his tantrums and discipling him when he misbehaves.
He is bubbly, easy going, very curious, very quick with his hands when he sees something that interests him and he is very active. He is always on the go, and his favourite place in the house is in front of the television unit. He loves to touch the buttons and play with the remote controllers and pull out all the dvds that are within his reach. He likes to pull wires too, if he can find any. He hates it and always screams his head off when we try to pry open his mouth to check if teeth are cutting through or to remove things that he’s not supposed to eat. He likes to play alongside his brother but he always gets into trouble because he *destroys* has been built and he can’t play at his brother’s level.
He enjoys outing, be it to the shops or just for a walk. He observes his surrounding quietly when we are out and he returns smiles to strangers when they smile at him. In fact, going out and being out of the house is a good way to calm him down when he is cranky. When he was younger, there were nights when he would wake up and cry uncontrollably for no apparent reason. I was worried and at the same time I felt helpless when he was in such a state. Robin would take over and he would take Athan out of the house to look at the night sky or traffic. Amazingly, this worked. The boy came back relaxed and ready to sleep again.
His eczema condition is much much more manageable now. Thank God. We have not found any food that causes a flare up, rather we find weather a much more likely cause, especially when it is hot and dry. Moisturising him throughout the day is still the way to go. I’m slow with introducing new foods to him too, just in case.
He is still on 2 naps during the day and his bedtime is 7pm sharp. We usually won’t hear from him until the next morning between 7 – 8am. He’s been a great sleeper these days and we are enjoying it! (while it lasts) Looks like all the crying during training is worth it. 🙂
We thank God for Athan. Happy Birthday, little guy!