Grubbs n Critters

After months and months of painstakingly putting our junk aside and then attempting to give it all away to charity but never got round to it because we didn’t really know where to drop them off at, we finally found one of the few organisations in Bangkok that not only accept items which we labeled as “junk”, but one that provides a free pick-up service.

Called Second Chance Bangkok (SCB in short, and I believe with NO affiliation to SCB Bank), the organization is a local initiative by the residents of Klong Toey slum to:

reuse and recycle household and office items
create employment opportunities for people who have experienced barriers employment
finance projects that support families in the slums

They rely on donations of second-hand items ranging from clean clothes (babies/adults), furniture and any unwanted items that can be reused or still in very good conditions. These items are sold at the SCB shop, or passed on to those who lack the resources to purchase the items that they need.
It felt good to be able to give our used items a “second chance”, as we not only were able to de-clutter our home, we were also helping out on a cause.

It is my hope that most, if not all of our items can be put to good use – all 7 big-full-to-the-brim-bags ot them as well as the rest of the loose items pictured here.

We did not screw up with #2 – Squirt has indeed turned ONE!

The past 12 months flew faster than I could ever anticipate, yet when I look at Squirt now, I somehow still see him as a baby. A walking, forever-smiling little baby.

I still remember the hard jabs and the constant kicks he subjected me to when he was in my tummy. It was not fun and neither was it an “awwwwww” moment, yet I often wondered how he looked like. Would this little tummy –wrestler has blue or dark brown eyes? Would he be hairless or have loads of hair? Would he have stubby, button nose like I do? What is his temperament like – would he be cranky or chilled? Would he give us more curve balls than his sister ever did?

While I was curious about him, I also could not wait for him to come out of my stomach mainly because I could not stand being pregnant anymore. 12 months later to the day, this little chubby person is walking- almost-running, blabbering and very much his own little person while starting to develop his own personality.

Here’s a video of him when he started to walk independently from about 2.5 weeks ago:

He seems to enjoy music and tries to dance to the beat whenever he hears music playing in the background. He looks at you rather intently when you sing to him, and smiles his biggest smiles if he is familiar with the songs. He pushes knobs and buttons that he isn’t supposed to touch and he repeats that throughout the day even after you remove him from the knobs and buttons 100 times in 2 minutes. He chases the cats and grabs their tails when they were not looking, leaving us in a constant red-alert to save the cats from his grasps.

He kisses plush toys whenever he sees them, but refuses to give kisses to us when we ask for it. He loves waving bye. He is eating a lot more in terms of portion size and much more than what Spud used to eat when she was one (fingers x), and has so far has not shown any signs of slowing down. He is all energy and plays all day; practicing his sprints and climbing in and out of the toy box. He is also not showing any signs of slowing down.

He still sucks his thumb when he is hungry, wants to sleep or when he does his own self-soothing; and he has been doing that since he found his thumb at about 2 or 3 months old (I’ll start worrying if and when he continues to suck his thumb when he turns 10). Teething has been quite slow for this little boy, but otherwise, is developing like most one year olds do.(I’ll start worrying when they do not pop when he turns 4)

Things could only get better and more interesting from here on. Meantime, here’s a photo collection of Squirt in chronological order for your viewing pleasure…