Hanging out

Believe it or not, Daryl likes going out a lot, even though he's only seven-month old.

Apart from visiting the clinic for regular check-ups, Daryl's first "official" outing was to his maternal grandparents' home when he was just over a month old. And he started having tea with us on a regular basis the following month.

One day when we were shopping at a department store with him, we went to one of the many children's wear shops and, amazingly, Daryl was clearly on a high. How high was he? He smiled and even laughed very loudly when we asked him whether a certain piece of clothing is pretty or not, and whether he wanted it. It's obvious that he still doesn't understand that there is no free lunch in the world, but when we saw him that happy and excited, we decided to buy fewer clothes for ourselves but more for him anyway!

Recently, we decided to have a crazy shopping day at a far-away shopping mall. We spent nearly seven hours there and had bought nearly two dozens pieces of clothes for us altogether. But the thing to note is: When we were shopping and wheeling Daryl around, we could hear him yell extremely loudly. He did it not just once, but many times instead. When I first heard that, I thought he was complaining that he was bored and wanted to get out of his pram for some much-needed walking exercises. But when we asked our expert (who happens to be our domestic helper) about it, she said that Daryl was not bored, but was excited and liked the place instead!

I am worried that he may soon become the youngest shop-aholic in mankind history.

But having Daryl in the mall has other perks too. I have quickly lost count on how many people have stopped and looked at his pretty face, and I can even hear some of them whispering that how much he looks like one of us (most of them said that Daryl is like my "Mini-Me"). But it's a shame that we haven't been offered special discounts because of him though.

Yet judging from the steady increase of his loveliness over the last couple of months, the odds are we will finally get the discounts or even freebies very soon.

He Walks the Walk But Doesn't Talk the Talk (Yet)

I know I have talked about it before, but I just can't resist talking about it again.

Yes, I'm going to talk about Daryl's attempt to walk.

As mentioned in a previous entry, we started teaching Daryl how to walk a couple of months ago. At first he was like a budding tree, who was so weak and fragile that any tiny force (or even breeze) could make him fall and even topple over.

But when he was four to five months old, we noticed that his bones and muscles have grown stronger. And just like Eason Chan, he has very strong and stocky legs. So we started to teach him how to walk.

We would pick him up by his armpits and let him walk along our couch. At the beginning he had no idea what we were doing, perhaps thinking that we wanted to pick him up but didn't have enough strength. But then we patiently taught him how to lift his legs and, magically, he could lift his legs one by one by himself!

It is such a wonderful feeling to see him walk. We can see that his eyes were focusing on his knees and legs, and every step he would lift his knee high, as if walking along a knee-deep quagmire. His steps are huge, as if he wants to cover the width of the couch in as few strides as possible so that he can take a rest, as he is often seen panting after such walk.

And I can tell you that we have just got the letter from the Guinness officials congratulating him for setting a world-record time in walking along our couch. Sweet.

As for talking, he still hasn't mastered the muscles and vocal chords yet. But judging from the huge strides (no pun intended) he made when learning to walk, I suspect that he will be a chatter-box once he learns how to talk.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when his Daddy has long been criticized for being dumb and laconic by his friends.