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.