Lilybuff is 4 Months!

This baby over here is becoming quite the little lady isn't she! Look how beautiful the bow looks on her. That smile... those cheeks... that crinkled nose...

She has such a bubbly personality. She really really really laughs a lot. I have so many videos of her laughing but i just don't get tired of listening to her laughter. Sometimes she laughs so hard until she runs out of breath and snorts it's so funny.

This month she's into pulling her head up from the rocker, she likes grasping at her mobiles and hearing them ring. And she absolutely loves books, so much so that she has inspired a theme for her birthday party this November (you really do inspire me sweetheart). When she reads you can see her eyes focused on details on the pages, she wants to help flip but she can't. She loves pressing all the buttons (aided of course) because of the sound they make.

Physically she is not flipping yet but believe it or not i'm glad she isn't. You know wht happened with the first one, 14 stitches before the age of 3. NO NO NO. Not the girl, no way. She's really into kicking and swinging her arms wildly. She laughs when i do physical exercises with her. She weighs 7.2kg, height unknown but she is outgrowing some smaller 6-9M bodysuits!

Her schedule is not really fixed yet, but the eating is at least every 4 hr and about 180ml each feed. I do feed her directly at night and sometimes let her snuggle next to me.  Frankly i'm not keen on doing the CIO until i find her sleeping pattern an inconvenience to me. I never had the direct latching thing with Mountain Boy so I do like the usefulness of my breasts. haha.

Anyway, Happy 4th Month Lilybuff.

Mountain Boy is billingual!

One of the pros of being in China is that our children get to grow up being exposed to 2 languages simultaneously. Some months back i had been fretting (just slightly) about how Mountain Boy isn't talking as much as he should be. Of course i knew everything will happen in due course and people tell me i shouldn't panic yada yada... but it's normal for a parent to wonder if there was something that could have been done to help the talking, or worse still was there something I had already done that needed undoing.

In the last 2 months though, his speech development has taken quite a huge leap forward. He is basically parroting our last words and he speaks in 2 languages! But the more amazing thing is that he knows how to process who speaks what language and he responds accordingly.

For instance...

While he was on the potty after he poo-pooed, he tells me "finish". And when the nanny walks over he says "没有了".

This afternoon he wanted some polo sweets on the table but couldn't reach it so he said "I want i want", and when i said he couldn't have it he immediately turned to the ayi and said "要！要".

But the most interesting incident happened yesterday morning... He was busy digging his nose and when he dug out something succesfully he proudly showed me "peesai!" (which essentially means booger in hokkien, its a term we use quite commonly in the Singaporean context). And then he turned to the nanny and said "鼻涕!".

Time 2 Paaarrrtty!

Sometime last month, Mountain Man and I debated whether we should organize a birthday party for Mountain Boy. It'd be nice to celebrate his 2nd year with friends we love, but i also knew that it wasn't something we'd be able to keep up every year. Plus, i'm carrying around 7 months of pregnancy weight and i was growing more and more tired by the day. Mountain Man suggested a "relaxed" party and i wondered what "relaxed" meant, and who would be the one feeling "relaxed". I never knew the word could apply to party planning. Anyway, we kept the guest list tight. 7 families with an average of 2 kids each. So that would come up to about 30 odd people.

There were quite a number of setbacks during the day which upset me. The oven broke down which meant that i couldn't bake the perfect pizza i wanted, the stove wouldn't start, and somehow when it did the chicken wings were almost burnt every batch. The kitchen god must have taken the day off.

Thankfully the guests were gracious with praise for whatever food was served on the table. And many later on sent text messages saying how much they enjoyed the party. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night i could only afford to go to the toilet when my bladder was very very full, and even then i had to waddle-limp.

What made it most worthwhile though was how Mountain Boy felt the excitement for days leading up to HIS birthday party (which he now understood). Seeing how he clapped along during his birthday song and how he blew out his own candles just made me swell (not that i'm not swollen enough already) with pride.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Mountain Boy chose the colours of his balloons and it was a surprisingly good combination. I would have just gone with yellow and purple. We bought a helium canister and blew up the balloons ourselves, it was a lot of fun. I also stuck photos of our family all around the house to give the walls a pop of colour.

Kiddo friends...

Savoring the burnt chicken wings. He has no complaints!

Mountain Boy had been waiting for this moment for days! He was clapping along and went "Yay!" when the song ended. Sooo cute...

Just us 3 (almost 4).

Happy 17 months

I'm a few days late with this update. Our resident energiser bunny is now 17 months, Yipeeee! Half of the 16th month was spent in JKT-SG so i'll update more on that later.

His speech has developed the most this month, well it's about time. He says a number of words regularly now, like "ball", "bye bye", "hello", "hi", "没有", "不要”, "no no"... With the increasing ability to express himself comes the realisation that he doesn't have to comply to all my demands. I used to get him out of his bath relatively quickly in the past but now a simple "say bye bye to the bathwater" won't suffice. I need to do a 3 minute countdown, say the "bye bye" and take away all his bath toys to prevent him from lingering.

Sometimes I am in awe of the amount of things he understands. One day i told him that i didn't have money so we couldn't go out grocery shopping, to my surprise he gave me his "money" from the cash register! Good habits start young, hehe.

"Ka-ching!"

Physically he is nearing 10.5kg and about 83cm tall about 1 month ago. I haven't measured since but i know he has grown because he can climb all over the place and turn the handles of our doors! So we must make a mental note of always locking up behind us in case he barges in while we do important business.

Deep within, Mountain Boy probably yearns to be adults like us. He has been trying on our shoes, hats, sunglasses... brushing his teeth with our electric toothbrush, and just now he took Mountain man's electric shaver and tried to shave his "beard"! I took a picture of it but i haven't uploaded yet.

Over the past month, i've also been given a preview of the upcoming Terrible Two. While i was nanny-less, he really spared me no mercy. Case in point, he got his hands on a tub of flour, spread it all over the kitchen and took out all the utensils and made a "muachee" (a singaporean dessert made of glutinous balls coated in peanut powder) of everything. After that he'd walk round the house leaving flour footprints. To make things worse, the lack of housework experience on my part caused the gravest error of trying to clean up the mess with water. FLOUR+WATER = bad combination for clean-ups, trust me.

The self-feeding is improving by the day. In the past he'd projectile spill from his high chair over a radius of 2metres, now it's down to 1metre and on a good day no spillage. He still likes eating with his hands but accuracy of bowl to spoon to mouth has increased, but still he doesn't eat enough according to the kiasu parents standard so i do have to distract him and stuff a few mouthfuls at the end.

He likes noodles more than rice. Once i served him 3 meals of rice in a row and by the 3rd meal he flung the entire bowl unto the floor before the meal even started. Thankfully i mustered the patience to not smack his little head. In the end, he went to bed without dinner because i decided not to offer alternatives.

"Yummy yo-plait!"

Despite both our transgressions in the 16th month, amazingly we're still holding up well. Let's hope the new month will be full of interesting adventures.

Happy 17 months my dear!

16 months

Mountain Boy turned 16 months yesterday. The 15th month seemed to have whizzed by so quickly. He is now 10.4kg and 82cm. He had a bout of fever and diarrhea in between so he must have lost a few hundred grams there.

The biggest milestones this month would be the self-feeding. He uses a combination of the spoon, sometimes the fork, and he always finishes off with his fingers. I hardly have to feed him anymore. Maybe when i feel he hasn't eaten enough i'd distract him and stuff a few mouthfuls but that's it. Self-feeding is a very messy affair but laying newspapers below his high-chair during mealtimes help to reduce the amount of cleanup at the end. For a 16 month old he is doing pretty well in this department.

He also adds a couple of words to his speech vocab, such as "ayi", "pak pak" for carpark and sometimes "bye-bye". And he has learnt how to nod and shake head with the correct purpose.

The nanny has gone back for CNY so i'm left alone with him at the moment. It's been extremely trying and i've lost my temper quite a number of times. The messing up of the house i get, he's a kid and sometimes adults can't even be neat. He opens milk cartons and sprays them all over the house, rummages through the dustbin, dips his hands in toilet bowl etc...I can tolerate kids are curious. But what really makes my blood boil is when he yanks my hair real hard for sport. I yell and he cries. Even though i've read books and gone for courses, this discipline thing is really way over my head. I feel like i've lost faith in "the experts" who advocate bogus parenting methods that don't work. But of course when i feel that way it's usually my temper speaking. I know Mountain Boy is generally well-behaved and lovely.

Mountain Boy has mastered quite a number of expressions that always makes us laugh.

YAWN.

CRY.

SILLY.

THOUGHTFUL.

SURPRISED. He usually does this with the mouth open but i didn't get a good shot.

GRUMPY.

Here's a video of him doing some of the expressions before he took over the camera. Enjoy!

K i better go rest before the little dude wakes up from his nap and it all begins.

15 months

The 15th month has been a very trying period.

Separation anxiety usually peaks between 12-18 months and we are definitely going through a pretty intense bout of it. He started exhibiting symptoms of separation anxiety when we first changed nanny 2 months ago, and he has not recovered from it.

The nanny tells me that when i'm out, he'd play and laugh and be very obedient. But somehow when i'm home, he turns into a whiney needy koala bear. He wants to ensure that his body sticks to mine with the largest surface area possible before he is satisfied, and sometimes even that is not enough. I can't even go to the toilet without him following, no joke. As if spending all his waking hours isn't enough, he'd even wake up in the middle of the night and want to "hangout" for a couple of hours before going back to bed. Ugh... sigh... (he is whining as i'm typing now cos i'm not giving him my full 200% attention).

I've wished on many occasions to be more "wanted" by him but now i'm really overdosing. Sometimes i just want to scream, "GIVE ME BACK MY TOILET TIME!".

"I need you mama..."

Physically his motor skills has improved by leaps and bounds. He can go up and down the stairs unassisted, and he has become quite the imitator. Sometimes he does a funny action and i'd wonder WTH he's doing before realising that it's an impression of me! He will fake sneeze and cough while covering his mouth its hilarious.

Breadtalk did not sponsor this. And i did not help him put this on. I think he sees me trying on different hats before going out and thought it's fun to try.

He loves doodling. He still toggles between left and right hand.

Speechwise, he is still rather gibberish but a little more comprehensible than before. He imitates the firetruck in his book and goes "weeo weeo" , says "sss" when he sees a snake, says "mmmm" when he sees a cow, and he calls the nanny "yiiiyiii". Sometimes you catch him saying one or two things accurately but he almost never repeats.

However, not speaking is not a hinderance of any sort when it comes to getting his way. He will whine and pull my fingers when he needs me to do something. He'll even pull out the big guns (ie tears) when i don't allow him to do something bad like opening the diaper bin for example. Luckily attending PET has armed me with useful knowledge to diffuse some potentially catastrophic scenarios. But even then i've lost it a handful of times.

On the health front, not so good. Since winter came, the dryness of the air has caused multiple nose bleed episodes. Autumn winter is also diarrhea season and he wasn't spared. We went to the doc yesterday and he is still 10kg and 80 odd cm. He didn't grow last month again! I think the milk and food just evaporates from his body.

Where am i mama?

Can't see clearly in this picture but he just had the mother of all nose bleeds.

Anyway, he is running a temperature today so i am on night watch. sigh... hope he gets well before christmas.

Signing out...

Mountain Boy turns 14 months!

My little one turned 14 months yesterday. This boy over here is turning out to be quite the sprinter, always dashing from place to place. His obsession for slopes is quite puzzling to me, he likes climbing up slowly and then the thrill of rushing down really fast, and this can go on forever. He has this internal mega charged battery that goes full-blast from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep.

"Come get me..."

Thanks to watching Gymboree's Brave Elephant and His Friends countless times, he now gallops, hops and roll-over on command. He's sorta like our pet but better. We never get tired of his various animal impressions, namely the frog, the giraffe, the monkey, the elephant and the dog.

"This is how i gallop!"

It's funnier in real time of course.

Sometimes he surprises me with his cognitive abilities. He doesn't say much but he always understands my instructions. For example, when i ask "where is the train?" he'll point to the train. When i say "give mama the train", he'll take the train and put it into my hands. The quiet observer learns everything i do, so i must be quite careful to model myself well.

"I look pretty handsome when i don't do my snorty grin right?"

At 14 months, he is 10kg and 80cm tall. That's 25th percentile and 75th percentile respectively according to the WHO chart. I'm quite resigned to the fact that he'll never be fat till he turns 30. He was such a good eater (note the past tense). But eating has now become a daily challenge. Mainly because of the strong need to gain control of feeding time, which means that he chooses what to eat, and how to eat. No longer can we shaft food down quickly and neatly, now it's food flying here and there, whining and avoiding the spoon especially when being fed something he doesn't like. I guess I should be happy that Mountain Boy has a mind of his own but sometimes I do wish it can be neater and faster so we can just "get on with the programme".

"waaaaa"

Typical cry when he doesn't get his way.

Sleeping wise, he is still on 2 naps. But the first nap is getting longer, and the 2nd one shorter. I believe he is on his way to consolidating the naps but i still like the 2 naps schedule because then i can take him out to lunch. So i really am in no hurry to convert him. He sleeps about 12.5 to 13.5 hours total now.

Mr Cool.

The PD said that physically he is doing great. But the greatest threat to his health right now is accidents. Kids his age have no concept of danger so they do get themselves into pretty precarious situations. So there's no room for negligence although it's quite impossible to keep an eye on him all the time when I'm alone trying to do multiple things.

Anyway, hope you've enjoyed the pictures i've posted. We went for a family photoshoot end september and I finally got round to posting them.

Happy 13th month

Our camera had decided that death was better off than torture from Mountain Boy's constant banging, so RIP my Canon G9, you have served us well over the last 2.5 years.

As a result of the untimely death of my camera and the loss of my SD card containing last month's pictures, I can't remember what i need to blog about. But one thing's for sure, this month has been the biggest leap of all months. He started talking a little, he has a memory and remembers many many objects and pictures, he can point out a number own body parts, and he physically he started going up and coming down curbs without help.

Mommy friends who came over for a playdate said that he has had a growth spurt since they last saw him at his birthday party. I think so too. He is suddenly more toddler-esque, less baby.

He has also grown a deeper attachment to Mountain man and I, making it harder for us to put him to bed because he'll cry when he sees us walk out the door. What he probably doesn't know is how much it hurts us when he cries, and how much i actually like watching him sleep but i don't because "it's for his own good".

TV has become quite a huge part of his routine now. He watches Gymboree twice a day now. He does all the actions to Wheels on the Bus with so much enthusiasm it makes me laugh everytime. He remembers little scenes and imitates them in our daily interaction.

This little sponge is also learning some of our habits without us realising, like hailing a taxi and raising our hands to call the waiter. I wish i have a picture of it to show you. He is such a helpful little boy!

Anyway here's us having fun with the Mac photo booth yesterday. He follows my lead now. So adorable.

1st Yr: Letter from Mama

Hi Mountain Boy,

today has been a very emotional day for Mama. Every minute of today i was reliving what happened exactly a year ago. A few times today i secretly shed some tears of joy, I feel so much love for you i don't know if you'll ever understand, maybe when you have your own kids someday you will.

You've turned out to be an incredibly lovable boy. Not just to us but also to the ayi and people who have come into contact with you, even strangers. Do you know that you are famous in our estate for being the earliest walker/most active boy? Our neighbour keeps telling me that you are constantly being mentioned during their dinner conversations because you are extremely clever and advanced. Mama tries to be humble by playing down your developments but truth is both Daddy and I are bursting with pride. We are so proud to be your parents.

I wish today didn't go by so quickly. I wish the year didn't go by so fast. But at the same time I also look forward to you growing up and being a man of your own. We have absolute faith that we will remain proud of you no matter what you do or become.

Remember to always thank the Lord Almighty and rely on Him all the time. Momma and Daddy have always prayed for you and with you every single day for the last 1 year and He has never failed us.

Hope you had a great birthday my dear son...

xoxo

Mama

1st Yr: Actual Day

Weather wise, i couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was clear, the air was good, not too warm, not too chilly. Autumn is really the best time for alfresco events, the restaurant where the party was held had a huge veranda where the kids could play. I was so excited about the party because i had put in so much effort in making Mountain Boy's first birthday a special one.

There was ONE major glitch... The party was from 330pm to 6pm, Mountain boy had been napping pretty badly the past 1 week so i was really afraid that he would be grouchy at his own party. He struggled during his afternoon nap and slept late so he only woke up at 4:10pm, and then we were held up by a very bad jam enroute so we arrived at the party at 5:10pm! We missed a huge chunk of it, i felt so upset... Luckily Mountain Man was there to hold the fort and the party must go on. The guests had arrived and everyone was already chatting and eating and the kids were running wild.

I was like a madwoman bouncing here and there twisting balloons, blowing bubbles, eating, chatting, and then herding everyone into the restaurant to cut the cakes, and then herding them out again to play zero point, and then packing up by 6:15pm. Kind of like my wedding day, 2 yrs to plan and it was over in just 1 day! I wish i can go through the party all over again in slow motion.

Here are some pictures from the party..

Mountain Boy was very well behaved. He didn't cry, he didn't fuss. He just played along. I don't think he knew he was the star... But when he sees this post he will someday.

T-shirt from Rock Your Baby.

Mountain boy was pretty stunned when everyone sang the birthday song. He must have been wondering why everyone was staring at him and clapping and smiling. First timer at this birthday business.

A nice family picture for keepsake!

After the cake cutting, we adjourned with the Zero Point Championship. See me in action... I was doing the "five times" but i failed miserably my back almost broke. I used to be able to do "five times" 20 times no problem okay. It's the age and the extra weight. The Zero Point Champion turned out to be a man, and he kept insisting that boys played Zero Point too *roll eyes*. Anyway he was a real good sport and i sincerely thank him for humouring the crowd.

Just wanted to say a mega THANK YOU to all the lovely guests who attended the party. Sorry we were late but i hope u had fun regardless, if you didn't i hope u enjoyed the food at least. Mountain Man and Boy and I love u soo very much. Hope to see you again next year.

Click here for the rest of the photos.

1st Yr: Preparations!

The birthday post is WAY too long so i have to split it up.

About 2 weeks ago, we began intensive planning of Mountain Boy's first birthday party. The concept, decor, invite, party favours, games to entertain the little ones, the bigger ones and the adult ones.

Mountain Man and I have one key hygiene factor to meet when it comes to planning parties... if all else fails, the food must at least be good so the guests won't go home unsatiated. So we chose Nyonya Kitchen, a restaurant quite far from our home but serves very decent Singaporean/Malaysian food.

Here's the invite we sent out to our guests.

Games:

Given that the celebration was held at a rustic singaporean restaurant, we thought it would be fun to prepare some traditional games for our guests. I made the zero point and 5 stones, and bought a couple of "chateks" and marbles. The kids were easier, long twisty animal balloons and a bubble gun should do the job.

Birthday cakes: Technically i didn't prepare this, my friend did. I only bought the candles. She was so sweet to bake 2 birthday cakes, one for me and one for Mountain Boy- Lemon cake and Carrot Cake. I love love love her them.

Decor/Party favours: A friend recommended a company that prints stickers and banners so this was easy. But you know these black paper bags? I accidentally bought 200 of them even though i only wanted 20. I'll have to use the same bags for the next 10 yrs!

Well quite a lot of work went into today's event. I think we've also pretty much used up our budget for his second and third birthday!

Anyway stay tuned for more party photos.

11 month update

My little boy is one month away from the Big One. Seriously this month has been the most fun of all the months.

"Hello? Xiang kar pager?"

The biggest milestone of all is that he has started walking, quite steadily too!

Another big achievement for us this month is pooing and peeing in the potty. One thing i've learnt is that it's never too early to toilet train. Kids in China practically go diaperless since day 1. Getting Mountain Boy to sit on the potty was a challenge at first, but i bought him a book with pictures of older boys sitting on the potty and next thing i know he made his first potty poo the next day!

Daddy always says, "make the sound of your surname, NG....."

Developed a preference for certain foods. He used to eat whatever i feed him, but now he knows that he has the option of spitting it out if he doesn't like the texture. When he is full, he'll clap his hands because that usually signals the end of his meal. I've also started introducing him to more table food now.

It also seems that he has my kaypoh (busybody) genes. He always wants to see what we're cooking, what we're typing on the laptop, and he likes to open cupboards and rearrange things. And when he wakes up in the morning, he'll take us on a tour around the house, gesturing to the things he knows. The clock, the aircon, the robots in his room, the tv, the telephone. It's just amazing how much he absorbs these days.

I need to start child proofing.

Some of the other little stuff he does...

• Willing to hand me things if i say the magic PLEASE.
• Can point out his own hair, mommy's nose (but somehow not his own nose) and his ears.
• Finally drinks from a straw!
• Knows how to play the stacking rings, but gets very frustrated when he fails.
• Likes cars and wheels. It's a boy thing.
• Other than bababmamamdadadanana, he said his first word. it's DA! It means DOG.
• Trys to kiss but can't make the smoochy sound.
• Likes to shake his head when i say "nonono", or "yes yes yes".

First Steps (video uploaded once more)

I finally caught his little steps on video. I won't call it walking yet, more like staggering.

Perfect 10

10 months ago Mountain Boy was just a tortilla wrap, I can't believe how time flies. I don't even know where and how to begin this month's update. I wish you can witness his growth in real time because so much happens everyday.

He now has an incredible repertoire of items he can recognise. I ask him, "what time is it?" and he can point to the clock. He also knows the lights, TV, drumset, flower (the fake one on his learning home), ayi's ears, the aeroplane cube, the vibrating turtle, random stuff like that.

His sign language goes on and off but if i ask him "are you full" in chinese, he'd pat his own tummy. If you praise him he'd clap his hands, if you say bye bye he'd wave. When we reach the front door he'll point at the doorbell signaling for me to carry him so he can press the doorbell.

He is no longer just stuffing toys in his mouth, he actually plays with them! Here's a video of us playing together this afternoon.

Since summer came, I bring Mountain Boy almost everywhere with me. He really enjoys going out and experiencing the world. The social butterfly that he is knows how to make strangers squeal in excitement with his unbelievably charming smile, i never have to worry about entertaining him in restaurants and shopping malls because people would always offer to play with him.

Recently, he learnt a new snorty grin that will dispel any kind of wrath he may have inflicted upon himself.

I'm cute aren't i...

Mountain Man managed to take a video this evening. I don't know where he learnt how to laugh like that but it makes us laugh too. Pardon the colour cos the setting wasn't right.

LASTLY... we may have a walker really soon. He has started taking unassisted steps on his own the past couple of days.

Happy 10 months little one. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you.

The day he called me Mama

My 9 month old acknowledged me verbally for the very first time this morning, it happened twice actually. He wasn't just practicing a syllable, he called me because i ignored him while making milk. The nanny confirms.

If you could see my heart, it has melted into mush. My head is spinning and i am on cloud nine.

Mountain man is not admitting his jealousy, but he's been going "call papa, call papa" to Mountain boy all morning.