Happy 3rd Birthday Ian

I am now 38.5 weeks pregnant and my doctor says it could happen anytime now. I am not sure how crazy things will get when our baby girl arrives, so here is an advanced post for Ian's 3 year old birthday at the end of August.


Dear Ian,

You brought us another year of joy and laughter and you are turning 3! Your characters and personality have surfaced and we love you more and more each day.

You still love music and demonstrate an impressive sense of beat at your age. You are steady at the drum and strum consistently on the guitar. When we ask you to pick among the piano, guitar, gu zheng or violin, you have consistently picked the piano. You love to sing, dance and sway to music. We hope that music will always be a part of your life.

You are very neat and particular about certain things, displaying traits of a Virgo. When you eat, you have to arrange your plate and cup in a certain way. When we play with you, you know exactly what you want and will get mad if we mess with your toys. You often wake in the morning and question why your toys aren’t in the way as they were yesterday. We often have to tell some white lies such as “a little tornado came and swept your blocks away” instead of the truth which is we have to clear the area so that we can vacuum the carpet. This way, we can prevent a melt down from you. Sometimes, if we are lucky, you will clean up and arrange your toys so that they look neat when you are done playing.

You are very loyal and only trust close family members and close friends. You definitely will not go with others even if they offer the things you most love. You like your old pair of shoes and don’t like it if we buy you new ones. When we bring you to the toy aisle, you enjoy playing and exploring new toys. When we ask if you would like to have that, you say no and that you already have many toys at home. Wow…we hope that you will continue to be this prudent in the future :).

You are very careful when you are playing and also when you are socializing. You tend to be more reserved when you outside of home, thus showing a completely difference character when you are not at home.

It takes time for you to warm up with a person before you open up and be yourself. You have two most beloved friends whom you call Monkey and Zhu Zhu. Meet Monkey, a little hand puppet.

Meet Zhu Zhu, who is actually Piglet from Winnie the Pooh and Friends.

You will share your most precious things with them, for example, your milk and your hanky. You will share your meals with them and need them to be by your side when you sleep. You pretend to be a doctor and take care of them when they are hurt. You will discipline them when they don’t behave.

You love rotational equipment, things that are round and rotate. Among your favorites are fans and gears. You also like things with a motor in it and understands that motors will make things rotate. Your interest in this area has not changed much since you were about 1.5 years old. You love to take things apart using tools. You also hope that something is broken around the house everyday so that you can repair those broken items.

You started to use the potty for your big business a couple months pass 2 years old. After about 7 weeks of grueling accidents, you just caught on one day that pee pee goes into the potty too. This milestone gave us the biggest sense of accomplishment as we thought that it will never happen.

Since you were about 1.5 years old, you grew very attached to your “hanky/bi-bi”, your little handkerchief. You think about it and need it everywhere you go. There were a couple times when we forgot to bring along your hanky and you got really mad. “Bi-bi” is the name you gave to your handkerchief. We later had to help you change the “bi-bi” name to “hanky” because teachers at church and school were taking you to the potty every time you asked for your handkerchief. Although you know exactly when you should call it “hanky” and when you can call it “bi-bi”, you still rebelliously correct me and say “You were wrong just now, it is called “bi-bi” and not “hanky”.

Just a couple months ago, your favorite colors were red and pink color. What a relief that you have changed your mind and you now say your favorite color is blue :) Here are some your favorites…

Favorite thing – the hanky (handkerchief)
Favorite phrase – Why? “wei shen me”

Favorite food – Air (just kidding, you like fish and starchy foods but you don’t like to eat a lot)

Favorite fruit - Grapes and oranges (but it changes unpredictably)

Favorite vege - Brocolli and celery (also changes unpredictably)

Favorite drink – Soymilk (we nicknamed it opium to prevent you from wanting a cup every time we mention milk)

Favorite friend – Your puppet monkey and a pig (When asked would you like a real human friend, you said no and that you prefer animal friends)

You started speaking more words and phrases when you were 2 years and 3 months old. From there your speech blossomed into full sentences. You are pretty expressive for your age. You will tell me your feelings, why you are happy or sad. One day, I asked you if you slept well last night and you said no. When I asked you why, you said, “I could not find you and I was sad”. You are very attached to me and like to follow me everywhere I go. So, I asked you “Why do you need to follow me everywhere I go?” You replied “I have to follow you because I am afraid you may disappear.” You often tell me that you like me and "sayang" (means love in Malay language) and that just melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

You are not very empathetic yet. When I told you that I could not carry you as much as before because you are a big boy now and my backbone is about to break, you still insist that I carry you a lot. However, you do sound like you care about me. When I asked you what will we do if my backbone really breaks? You asked me what will happen to you if my backbone breaks. I said I will not be able to get up and will constantly lie in bed. I asked if you will take care of me then. You said you will take care of me, you will cook for me and feed me, you will bathe me, you will put cream on me (because I am always putting cream on your dry skin), you will dress me, you will play with me and read to me. I was just touched to hear that.

Your eczema has improved slowly and we have been able to cut down your topical steroid usage. However, you still have your bad days sometimes. Your food allergy or food hypersensitivity is still hindering you from eating many foods. Thank God that this year, you are able to take small amounts of garlic. So, we still have cow’s milk products, nuts, eggs, chicken and sesame to work with. Ironically, your interest is not in food, so when we tell you that you cannot eat certain things yet, you are okay with it. We still try to avoid eating those forbidden foods in front of you.

I could write about you endlessly but I think I better stop here. We hope and pray that God will always lead your footsteps and you will grow up healthily. We love you! Happy 3rd Birthday!