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We took a leap of faith today and decided to cut Ben’s hair at home. We didn’t have high expectations for him to sit still; the challenge was trying to get him to sit still long enough so that we can take snips of hair at a time. Distractions with toys only lasted a few seconds, only until he felt a tug on his back hairs and the sound of scissors cutting away; then he’d turn his head quickly. I have a new found respect for hair stylists and barbers, especially the ones at Melonhead.

The toughest part of Ben’s hair cutting experience was cutting the hair around his ears. One snip of his ears and he’ll never get another haircut until he’s 10 years old. It was suggested by Sheila in mid-cut that we do it while he’s sleeping, but I’m not one to start a job, wait, and then finish later. “Let’s just get it done now”. Patients eventually paid off. Ben sat still enough (with tears streaming, I mind you) so that no more hair covered his ears. Granted, his hair cut isn’t symmetric anymore, but we did it!!

In the end, no blood was drawn and the tramatic experience was over and done within 5 minutes, for Ben and his parents. Next haircut probably won’t be until the end of the year. Lot’s of time to plan for that!

Ben has come a long ways since the days of just staring blankly into my eyes while sitting in his little rocking chair. He’s mobile, alert and curious about the world. Every day he does something that makes us laugh; especially when he tries to repeat what we said or imitate what we’ve done. The amazing part is he’s starting to put things together that make sense.

Case in point, today I took him into my office for a short visit (on my day off) after a long busy morning (doctor’s visit and then a visit to the drop-in centre he use to go to so that he can hook up with some of his old possie). On my desk is a wireless mouse which he started to play with. Unfortunately, he started clicking on things on the computer desktop that he shouldn’t have. So, I flip the mouse over, and turned it off, and the flip the mouse back over. Ben took the mouse, moved it around, figured that nothing happened on the screen, flipped the mouse over, and turned it back on. WOW! “Nice try daddy!” was his thought.

We started watching what we say around him lately. He’s started repeating words, and we’re afraid the one day we use the f-word, he’s going to repeat it. It’s almost inevitable, but we’d like to delay that day for as long as possible.

Today’s other WOW moments:

1) he said “thank you” when Sheila handed his apple back to him. Apple is his favorite fruit, mainly because it’s the only one he can say and recognize. “Appo” is all he can say when we hit the fruit aisle. And we can’t leave without him chewing on one, on the way to checkout.

2) It took me 7 minutes to put him to bed (and there was no crying either!). Usually that’s a 30-45 minute ordeal. His dad wore him down today.

3) He “asked” to go to the shitter while we were having dinner. He went up to Sheila and said, “Uggg…Uggg” (like he says when he pushes on the toilet). Sheila through him on the pottie, and presto!! Done! Usually we just through him on when we see a few signs, but he actually asked today!!

I’m looking forward to next friday already!!

Now that Ben’s developed his own personality, he’s always impressing me with the things that he’s learned over the months. It’s these things that appear in the most unconventional places or situations. Here is a list of some of those “cute” things.

1) I caught him “singing” to himself while playing alone in his room.

2) He understands “No”, but only when we’re around. Example, “Ben, don’t climb the stairs”. He smiles, walks away, waits for us to turn our back, and then climbs the stairs.

3) He’s starting to imitate our every actions. I plug the laptop into the wall outlet. He grabs a USB cable and proceeds to plug it into the wall. “No Ben!”

4) “Fun gow, Ben” translate to “Time for bed, Ben” in Cantonese. He puts his head down wherever he is; on the couch, on the hardwood floor, wherever.

5) He’s started blowing bubbles in the pool! Then inhales a mouthful of salt water.

6) Since he’s pretty much pottie trained, he does the “I need to go BAD!” dance in front of the toilet when #2 is calling and his parents aren’t quick with the buttons.

7) Every animal with four legs is called a “Woe-woe!”, except fish, which he says in Chinese “yeur-yeur”

8 ) He loves anything electronic…iTouch, laptops, AV Receiver, cell phones, Blackberries and remotes. He’ll pick up the phone and put it to his ear, but that’s where the fun stops. He doesn’t know what to say, or more like, how to say.

9) When his grandmother yells at him, he listens. When his parents yell at him, he laughs.

10) He sleeps like his dad, with his hand above his head.

Now that Ben has figured out the intricacies of walking, he has now turned his attention to speed and the U-turn (sometimes both at the same time). He gets so excited now when he sees our faces and our arms extended. I guess he’s associated that with “RUN!”. Although it’s only been a few weeks since his new found mobility, he’s still walking the tight rope; arms are still up high, and his toes are still clenched. Cute doesn’t even describe it how he looks.

Ever since the Olympics have been on, he seems to be imitating the figure skaters….straight walk, pick up some speed, get distracted, turn, and fall….just like the pros!! Fortunately it’s not on ice but on carpet or soft lumber.

One thing I have noticed is his climbing speed. I can confidently say that my boy is going to make a fine rock climber one day. Just don’t tell his mother that he won’t need any safety harnesses.

It’s also amazing to see what he sees. The smallest piece of crumb semi-buried in the carpet catches his eyes. Usually after a tumble to the floor, he’ll survey his perimeter and find something we adults take for granted; crumbs, specs, garbage smaller than grain of rice (in our house, it’s usually a small grain of rice) and ultimately it’ll end up…IN HIS MOUTH!! We have our own Roomba!! And he doesn’t even need batteries.

For those who don’t know what a Roomba is, click here.

Talk about a busy long weekend!!

First, it’s the Lunar New Year!! Goung hay fat choi!! IT’S THE YEAR OF THE TIGER! We’re celebrating it by having a monster dinner on saturday with both Sheila’s family and mine at our house. How big is this dinner? My mom started cooking a few days AGO!!

Sunday, it’s VALENTINES DAY! Yuppers. Big day. Lucky for Sheila and I, we had our date last weekend; we watched Avatar in IMAX 3D, and then dinner at Winterlicious at Convictions. Sunday, we’ll be recouping from Saturday’s feast.

Monday is FAMILY DAY!! Ontario’s new holiday. Love Family Day. We finally have a holiday between Jan 1 and Easter. No plans yet, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be running around doing something with Ben. If not, we’ll be running after Ben; he’s officially discovered this thing called WALKING!

He’s been able to walk for a few months with the assistance of a toy car, but he wasn’t confident enough to do it on his own. Well, over the last 3 weeks, he’s build up some courage and decided to walk unassisted. Now, crawling is almost a thing of the past.

My new phrase: “let the games begin!”

It’s been a long 7 years in the waiting, but Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics today. Even though our cousin city is 3000Km away, it still feel like the Olympics are downtown. I’m always looking forward to the Olympics. As excited as everyone is, it still sucks to hear that an athlete from Georgia (a luge athlete) was killed during a training run.

It’s kind of put a damper on the day; it put a damper on dinner when I actually saw the replay of the event on TV. CTV news hummed and hadded about playing it, and then finally decided to do it. It looked innocent enough, but like a bad traffic accident, you can’t help but stare or look. Well, when I saw that poor luger slam into a pillar on his last turn on the course going 144.3Km/hr, it was pretty bad. Dinner was spoiled. What started out as an exciting day, turned horribly bad very fast. Maybe I won’t look next time. Some things are better left unseen.

Let the games begin!! The next 2 weeks are going to be long! GO CANADA GO!!

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We’ve been looking for a good pair of shoes for Ben so that he can walk more confidently. He’s been taking steps here and there for the past 2 months, but he’s only managed to take up to 8 steps before he realizes that crawling is still the better way (isn’t that the TTCs motto?). It also doesn’t help that he’s always surrounded by family that want to hold him…he’s soo cuddly.

So, we found a pair of shoes made by Stride Rite. The marketing is amazing. It’s suppose to give the child more feel, more support and more flexibility (in the shoe) so that he can walk better. Damn, the shoe almost walks the child if you let it. The biggest road block with these shoes? The $65 price tag!! I’ve come to learn that Ben doesn’t wear something more that 3 months, mainly because he outgrows them. So, we went online to see how much the shoes cost in the US. They’re 50% cheaper!! For that price, we can get 2 for what we’d pay here! And shipping’s FREE to any US address!! Lucky for us, Sheila’s brother lives in Maine! So the search goes online for the “rite” pair.

Well, wouldn’t you know it? We were shopping at the Sear’s warehouse and clearance sale and Sheila see’s the exact Rite Shoe we wanted for 50% off!! DEAL!! We don’t have to wait for it to be shipped from Maine!!

We proceeded to the cash with the full intention of paying $33 dollars!! Well, the deal at the cashier was if you sign up for a Sear’s card (or used an existing one) you got another 50% off!! What?!! Another 50% off?!! That’s $16 for the shoes!! WAIT!! Since Sheila closed her Sears card last year, she’d have to apply for a new one. And if you apply for a new card and buy something with it, YOU AUTOMATICALLY GET $10 OFF THE PURCHASE!! What?!! The shoes would cost $6?!! How’s that possible? Is Sears going to call the police on us? Are we stealing from them? The original cost was $65!! Now we’re going to pay $6?!! That’s stealing!!

Wait, I’m pretty sure Sears is still going to make money on the $6 shoe. “We’ll take it!!” With that, we closed the deal of the century. Ben loves the shoes!!

Here’s the link to the Stride Rite site.