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I used to think that Gavin’s interest in Thomas the Tank Engine was just a passing phase.  I figured that he would soon get over Thomas and move on to other things.

Not so…

If anything, his interest in Thomas has only escalated (sorry HL - looks like it’s going to be a Thomas cake for his second birthday after all…)

For instance, I was carrying him around the shopping mall when suddenly he started wriggling to get out of my arms.  Surprised, I put him down, only to watch him run away from me.  I followed him only to discover that he had spotted this in the distance:

Another time, when I was carrying him, he started signing train.  I started scanning around wondering where he had seen Thomas.  Spotting a picture of Elmo, I thought he had made a mistake.  “Oh, there’s Elmo,” I said.  But he signed train again more insistently.  Later I discovered the balloon with a picture of Thomas on it.  Yes, my son has sharp eyes.

Yesterday, my SIL2 and I took Gavin for lunch after our swim and Gavin kept signing train.  He wanted his small Thomas and Friends figurines that had been given to him from his friend Jack and the wooden Thomas train that his godmother had given him.  Since I wasn’t expecting to go shopping, I didn’t bring my bag.  Needless to say, Gavin was terribly upset - which didn’t help because he was also very tired after the swim.

Last night, we went to Jusco at the Alpha Angle.  Hubby set him down on the ground only to have him tearing off towards the Thomas section where he sat and eyed the Thomas toys with a longing that nearly broke Daddy’s heart. 

Hubby and I were talking when hubby realised Gavin was saying something.  He had been looking at the individual trains and he was naming them.  He held the Henry train and said something that distinctly sounded like “Henry.”  Later he pointed to James and said “James.”  I didn’t even realise he had learned the names to Thomas’ friends.

Unfortunately, he still can’t say “Thomas” but he says “train” and signs “train” to indicate he wants to play with Thomas.

Quite frankly, I never thought Thomas was all that educational, but I suppose if it inspires Gavin to learn and if it entertains him and keeps him in his seat, then I suppose he really is “a very useful engine”.

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This one’s dedicated to my SIL in Australia who’s missing out on all of Gavin’s cute toddler moments…

This video was recorded at Bangsar Village the day we took him to get his pneumococcal jab from the doctor.  And that reminds me, we’re about due for his MMR booster shot - oh dear.  Suddenly the title of this blog post becomes very relevant.

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When Gavin was born, they didn’t have any Liverpool gear for kids available - at least, not in Malaysia.  Now that he’s a toddler, Adidas has finally started selling Liverpool jerseys for kids.  I’m sure when Gavin is big enough to wear this, they’ll have the infant sizes - I hope.

In the meantime, I think Aunty Aileen will be very proud of this one…

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Gavin’s girlfriend is coming back for a holiday in September and he’s already been shopping around for a welcome back present - although he looks a little kiam siap (read: stingy) in this video since he keeps putting the shoes back after checking out the prices. 

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One of the toughest things about being a Mum is having to deal with your toddler when you’re sick.  One of the sweetest things your toddler can do when your sick is be extremely cooperative.

This is an account of another one of those days when Gavin was simply wonderful…

Yesterday, at the peak of my food poisoning episode, Gavin decided to take a dump in his diaper.  Thinking he couldn’t have picked a worse time to soil his bottom, I reluctantly took him upstairs to clean him up and give him a bath. 

Ordinarily, getting Gavin out of the bath is like trying to extract a molar with three curved roots without anaesthetic.  Yesterday, I pleaded with Gavin and said, “Mummy’s sick (I signed “sick”), can you please help me by coming out of the bath by yourself?”

At first he looked like he was going to ignore me.  When I asked again the second time, he got up and followed me out.  Gavin can be so sweet at times…

I do wonder if Gavin was trying to be helpful so he could be like Thomas and the other engines because there’s nothing Thomas and his friends like more than to be “really useful engines”.  Perhaps there is some value out of watching Thomas and Friends after all.

The other thing I realised yesterday was that Gavin has started stringing two words together.  He normally calls me “Ah Mee” - probably because grandma is “Ah Mah” so Mummy must be “Ah Mee”.

I digress.  I took a nap in the afternoon while Gavin played downstairs with Ah Mah and SIL2.  When hubby brought him up after work, Gavin shouted at the top of his lungs, “Ah Mee!”  It’s hard not to melt at the sound of delight in the tone of his voice.

In my haste to get to sleep, I couldn’t be bothered getting dressed after my bath so I slept in my underwear.  When Gavin climbed onto the bed, he said, “Ah Mee, clothes,” and pointed to the cupboard.  Actually it sounded more like “coat” but I understood his meaning because he also signed “clothes”.  Then I asked him, “You want Mummy to wear clothes and go downstairs to play with you?”  And Gavin nodded.

Ah… it’s hard not to feel proud of what a little person my son is turning into…

Below:  Gavin’s first bubble bath in Tanjong Jara.

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Gavin received a lovely present in the mail from his future MIL (thank you dear).  When the parcel arrived, he was so excited he kept hovering around it and pointing out features. 

Gavin has seen plenty of these Thomas and Friends box sets in the toy shop but we have yet to buy him one for the home.  As hard as I try not to spoil him by going overboard with the toys, it is terribly hard to resist the delight and eagerness he portrays whenever he looks at a Thomas toy.

In this video, he’s checking out his new Thomas Train.  There are no batteries in the toy so he’s trying to figure out why it won’t work.

Thomas the Tank Steam and Sounds Engine runs on two settings - manual mode and remote control mode.  In the video below, Gavin is playing with it in manual mode: 

I initially didn’t want Gavin to play with the remote control at first because he has a habit of switching from remote control to manual without warning and if I don’t flick the switch in time, he’ll grind the gears.  Unfortunately, my son’s eyes were too sharp.  He had already spied the remote control.  So here he is playing with the remote control:

Thomas the Tank Steam and Sounds was thoroughly entertaining (for both toddler and adult - the hubby swears I had more run playing with it than Gavin).  Although intended for ages 3+, Gavin still enjoyed playing with it, although it took a bit of patience to tell him not to push the train by hand when it is on remote control mode and to press only one button at a time when using the remote control.  Otherwise, I reckon Gavin handled the train pretty well.

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When you’re a parent, one of the things you quickly learn is how to be creative.  For instance, when Gavin decided he much preferred to stay in the bath long after he was done bathing rather than to get dressed, I decided to make his changing station more interesting by sticking up pictures from his VCDs onto the walls:

It worked a treat because he stopped fussing the moment he saw the pictures.  In fact, it worked so well that he seems to want to bypass the bathing part and get right to the changing part.  Last night, he went into the shower, dumped a few scoops of water over the lower half of his body (because it’s too heavy for him to lift any higher), came back out and pointed to his changing station.  He garbled a few words in toddler language that must have meant, “Okay, I’m done, let’s get dressed.”

He was so cooperative to get out of the shower that it seemed almost cruel to drag him back in for a proper bath.  This is what happens when your creativity works too well.  Sigh…

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Gavin has got new career aspirations…  Since he was born, he has wanted to be:

• a garbage disposer
• a cleaner
• a telephone operator
• a dancer
• a model
• a footballer
• a delivery boy; and
• a chef

Well, they do say that a child’s attention span is short and his passions change with the winds. 

Lately, his aspiration is to become a shelf sorter…  Here he is sorting the toy shelf at Times Bookshop in Pavillion:

And the Thomas toys at Toys ‘R’ Us (I forget the name of the mall but it’s one of the newer ones in JB):

As much as I hope he would aim higher as he grows up, the hubby and I have agreed that we will encourage Gavin to pursue his dreams, whatever they may be (although there’s nothing that says I can’t do a little bit of guiding - no pushing, just guiding ;)). 

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I took Gavin for his trial gym class at Kizsports yesterday. 

In short, it was disasterous.

Well, not quite as disasterous as Gymboree since we managed to salvage the situation with a bit of fun at playland.

We arrived early and one of the staff manning the reception lead us to the gym room.  The parents and children from the previous class were still inside so the room so perhaps it brought flash backs of A’s party in Gavin’s mind because he immediately did not want to go in.  When I persisted and walked in, his fussing turned into crying.

I took him back out and let him play on a car ride for a while as I wondered how I was going to get him back into the room without the howling.  Shortly after, the parents and children from the previous class started clearing the room leaving behind only one girl and her mother.  I decided to try again. 

Spying a ball in the room, I asked Gavin if he would like to play with it.  He nodded.  We went back into the room and he started to explore, albeit cautiously.  He was okay until the instructor called everyone (which was the girl and her mother, Gavin and me) to form a circle.  She put on some music and sang songs, but Gavin didn’t want anything to do with it.

Despite enticing him with Toby and Percy (two Thomas and Friends trains that Jack had given him as a souvenir from his trip down to Singapore), he still wanted to leave the room.  Not wanting him to leave Kizsports with a bad memory of the place (there are only so many of these playschools around so I can’t have him hating all of them or we’ll have no where to go) I managed to coax him into playing at Playland - which is basically like a groovy indoor playground. 

Gavin discovered the ball pit where he sat for large part of the time we were in there.  It was only after watching some kids come down the slide that I could convince him to leave the ball pit to explore the rest of the playground.  It was about then that I began to realise my age when my knees started hurting from crawling through the tunnels and I struggled to keep up with my toddler. 

Although it was fun reliving my childhood, it was also thoroughly exhausting.  I’m sure I would have been thrilled to bits playing in an environment like Playland as a child, but doing so as an adult is a completely different experience altogether.  On a positive note, by the time we left, Gavin seemed in better spirits and he agreed to come back to Kizsports again in future.

It seems strange that Gavin can be so sociable in most scenarios - he’s friendly with adults and kids.  He loves music and dancing.  He likes to play at the playground and similar structures.  And yet, he hates going to gym class.  The theory is that he finds the environment threatening with its large congregation of kids with their parents.  The instructor’s recommendation is for us to come a little earlier the next time so he can familiarise with the room before it starts to fill up with other children and parents.

Hubby suggested I let Gavin play at Playland before attending his next gym class.  The other suggestion was for Gavin to go with another child that he is familiar with.  My friend CC and her daughter will be back in Malaysia in September and she was planning to take her daughter to the music classes.  Perhaps Gavin will more keen to attend class with more familiar faces for company?

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