Breastfeeding - the lil man's first year

Dear Alex,

You are the sucker. Yes, you. You were a proficient sucker the moment you were born. After you emerged and got kissed, weighed and all the what-nots, you were presented with the life-giving boobies you are all too familiar with now. Though it was your first meeting with them, you knew what you had to do instinctively. Men and mammary glands have that sort of connection perhaps. Ok, ok, you have stronger survival instincts compared to your sister who couldn't latch properly till she was a month old.

But there you were. Barely an hour old, with mummy still recuperating at the recovery room after the c-section. You were doing so well the mid-wife and other nurses came to watch your marvellous performance, all lauding your ability to "suck so well". Apparently, very few people want to latch their babies that early after delivery - you are a lucky little fella you know? :)

You had no qualms sharing your milk supply with your sis. That is good because you know, the-one-who-bullies-you-every-day-now is the reason why you had milk to drink the moment you were born - your sis continued to take mummy's milk all the time that you were taking your time to grow inside.

You started off really well, sleeping through a stretch of 5-6 hours in the second month and gave mommy some peace and uninterrupted sleep for a few months. And then we shifted and you decided that you would start growing teeth all at the same time and you just had to get mommy's boobs to keep you company at night when you couldn't sleep properly. Trudging over to pick you up and put you back in your cot a few times a night is just too much for mommy, and you know it. That must have been your ploy - to get to co-sleep with us every night after your first middle-of-the-night summon to pick you up. I know that Sealy Posturepedic is much more comfortable than your foam mattress, and that is why you cry every night an hour or two into your sleep in your cot. Who can fault you, the discerning one? But try not to get too used to it, ok?

On and off, you didn't do your job properly and caused blocked ducts, which is really very painful by the way. And I really think that I'd rather eat cabbage the way that normal people do rather than have them on my body. But there was this once I just couldn't blame you because you were so ill with bronchiolitis and you had difficulty latching on to drink. Not blaming you didn't solve the problem of blocked ducts of course. Fortunately, your sister came to the rescue though she had already given up the privilege of drinking from mommy.

You know, I just have to tell you that I love to watch you while you drink milk, that innocent but cheeky little face waving your hands around - that's before you drift off to lala-land - and how you would try to trap my hand between your armpit and body just to make sure that I stay next to you on the bed after you fall asleep. You do have rather sweaty armpits sometimes, though I'm glad they don't smell half as bad as *ahem*, mine. I escape of course from your 'clutches' eventually, but I do love that feeling of being wanted and needed by your tiny little soul.

I know you hate the milk bottle and formula milk. Your daddy said that you might grow stronger if you took a little of formula but you flatly refuse, clamping down firmly on the teat. Nothing could change your heart and mind about it, even until now, after you have turned one.

How long are you going to continue to want mommy's milk? Your sister went on for four years and it has been more than five years of booby-duty for me. But take your time to think about it, son. Mommy will be here for you till you decide that you have had enough milk - from me. Just try to cut me some slack at night, yah?

Love,
Mommy

Music and the love of our lives

Finally, my little girl asked me, 'Mummy, can I learn to play the piano?' on 31 August 2012. I had been waiting for the day for her to ask me that because I believe that only with the passion to learn will she pick it up. Besides, I don't believe in piling kids with enrichment just for the sake of it.

My answer was a resounding 'of course!' and I got down to buy the necessary stuff the next day. 

But it wasn't until 7 September that we finally got down to having a proper lesson and I'm very happy that despite her humble age of 4, she concentrated very well during the 45-minute session of theory and practical with me.

This is her during another lesson, learning to draw crotchets and crotchet rests:

 And forming her own song:

And this is her revising crotchets last night:

and revising names of notes and rests as well as learning their values:

and while we were having our theory lesson, little Alex got a chance to play the piano! He had been hovering around for his chance while we were at the piano:

In the span of 2 weeks, she has managed to play a couple of very simple songs with my accompaniment and we are so loving it! In my years of teaching piano, I must say, this is my proudest and happiest moment, watching my own child start playing the piano! Oh and I found myself kissing the little head while she was concentrating hard on practising - something I can't do with other students of course! hehe. :)

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Lil man turns 11 months today

See that toothy wide smile?

That's my 11-month-old!

Updates on the lil man's life:

• His 3 teeth are much more visible now though the last front tooth is still pushing its way through.
• He gave up on porridge somewhere mid-10mths only to come back to porridge some time last week.
• While porridge was relegated to the hate-to-eat list, he ate rice(!), yummy mashed potato, pasta stars with pasta sauce, pasta stars in stock and mee sua in stock.
• He has started on wolfberries which I steam with his cod (he grew a lil weary of the plain steamed cod).
• Now that he's back to porridge, he's eating double his portion prior to stopping porridge. I've not brought back pumpkin or sweet potato to his diet for the moment though.
• He's officially snacking on organic puffs and vegetable crackers for crawlers.
• Gross motor skills: He can stand unsupported for a few seconds! Sometimes he doesn't even realise it as he's too engrossed in his activity. :P
• He's showing great understanding of the world around him - he knows when to wave goodbye and even add a badly-pronounced babyish 'bye bye', he can respond to questions and instructions (e.g. Where's your water bottle? - He would look around for the bottle and point/crawl towards it and he's even said 'there, there' (again, badly pronounced) while he points at the bottle for a few times; go and drink your water - he'd move to his bottle for a drink).
• He loves clapping to the beat and would shake his bum bum to the music (while seated too!)
• He can click his tongue(!)
• He calls his sister 'cheh cheh' (meaning elder sister)
• He calls mama, mama when looking for me! (I heard a 'mummy' twice!)
• He's unfortunately still not sleeping well through the night... sigh.

So what did I do to make him smile so cheerfully? Just calling his name and speaking in a cute mum-sy tone! That's all it takes to make a baby smile!!! :)

Linking up with:

The unstable lil 'walker'

Over the weekend, lil Alex could finally use the walker without tumbling forward :)

Ta da! :)

And I can play with the stuff on the walker too - while standing and holding on to the walker!

And I can be distracted ... and I won't fall!

Lil man reaches 10mths!

Lil Alex is 10mths old and I realise I haven't really blogged about him. Poor lil one. That's what happens to subsequent children? Lol. Fortunately I haven't neglected him in real life, and that's what's more important!

Here's a quick update about the little man.

• He has 3.5 teeth now - one is still emerging from the gums - must be very painful for him coz he's not sleeping well (and that means mummy doesn't get to sleep well too).

• He has been drinking from the straw since 9mths old and now drinks water from his straw cup during meals all on his own like a big boy (as in he'd sip from his cup when he needs/wants to then eat the next mouth of food).

• He has been cruising for erm, the longest time. Still not walking on his own though.

• He is still only 7.7kg (doesn't look like he's gonna triple his birth weight when he turns 1 but I'm thankful he didn't lose weight when he got bronchiolitis (not the same as bronchitis!) recently).

• He loves only mummy's milk. Offer him a bottle of formula and he'll bite. Quite literally.

• Favourite foods: cod and broccoli. And he loves to eat them on their own. No mashing up everything into my porridge, thank you. Pumpkin and sweet potato are fine in the porridge though.

• Hair. Not much. He thinks he's cuter that way so he's decided to let his hair grow real slowly.

• Potty time? Just took a dump a few days back on the potty successfully and peed yesterday in it (see photo). I rushed to grab the cam this time. I hope he hadn't played with his pee then pose for the shot. I really hope so. *crosses fingers and toes*

There! That's my first photo heart Friday post!

Linking up with:

The end of tandem breastfeeding

*This is an overdue post*

Yes, you are reading right. I have finally weaned Alicia off my breasts. She was three weeks to four years old.

Despite the fact that I have mentioned that I will wait for her to self-wean, it didn't feel so right that she should still be reliant on my boobs at the grand old age of 4.

During June this year, we made several major changes to our lives: we moved, I weaned her and she started school, finally. During the busy moving days, we entrusted her to my mum who cared for her for the whole day, picking her up only in the evenings. After we shifted, she stayed over at my mum's with her cousin for two nights - and that was what really prompted the weaning. I took the opportunity to wean her. When she came home and asked for milk from me, I told her that mummy was going to stop giving her mummy's milk, but I'd accommodate this as the last request for mummy's milk. She continued to ask for milk for a few days but when I reminded her that she already had her last time at mummy's boobs, she just laughed it off and went about to do her own thing.

Her staying at my mum's helped greatly in the weaning process as she started to drink formula milk together with her cousin (read: peer pressure) so the transition to drinking FM twice a day was made smoother. Nevertheless, she still doesn't quite like FM but she'd drink it - with lots of nagging and threats coercing.

My tandem breastfeeding journey has ended. Do I miss breastfeeding her since we've kept up with it for so long? Nope. Breastfeeding her through almost 4 years has been quite a journey but at some point, I acknowledge that my little girl has grown up. I love her all the same, but weaning her at this point in time makes her transition to a school-attending preschooler even more pronounced. I weaned her not because people feel that she should be weaned but because we both know that she's starting a new phase in life, and mummy's little baby is now mummy's little girl :)

Finally totally diaper-free!

After months and months of throwing away perfectly dry diapers every day, my princess has finally agreed to save the earth by wearing her panties during her nap, when we go out and through the night sleep. I finally convinced her to go entirely diaperless two days ago. What a way to celebrate Earth Day! :D

Bumwear-free days! - The potty training success story

I'm not sure if you've noticed Alicia wearing Bumwear (cloth diapers) in the photos before, but we started her on cloth diapers since she was two weeks old and she has ditched them since last Wednesday. Yippee!

When I was pregnant with Alicia, we made the decision to save the environment by using less disposable diapers (reserving them only for long naps when she grew older and when she slept through the night). We even tried letting her wear cloth diapers when we went out - but after awhile it got a bit cumbersome, especially when she poos so we caved in to the disposable diaper again for trips out. Other than those situations, Alicia's been always in her bumwear and yes, we've been faithfully washing the cloth diapers for 2.5 years!

I started Alicia on the potty since she was 3mths+, just bringing her to potty now and then and she'd pee sometimes. Lots of hits and misses along the way then at some point in time, she started to not want the potty so we stopped. Then we bought a new potty when she was older and tried again. She went through plenty of love-hate phases with this potty and eventually when she turned two, we bought a toilet seat for her, thinking that she may want to imitate us instead of sitting on the potty. Again, it made her happy to sit there for awhile, going through the motions of sitting, but not actually going about doing her business. After awhile, I decided to go radical and just let her wear a panty instead of bumwear but it failed. I tried every couple of months though but it never worked out.

Then last Wednesday after soiling two bumwears, one after the other in less than 10minutes - I told her that was it. Anyway I've found that sometimes she pees so much at a time or the pee gushes out so fast that the pee leaks from the bumwear, and even disposable diapers recently and hence, I really felt it was time for her to really learn to be potty-trained. And so after a very hard day of scolding and smacking ass, she quickly learnt by Wednesday night - yes, that very night - that she had to go to the potty to pee/poo.

One day of real toilet-training and that's that. :)

I'm so happy! No more washing bumwears till the next babe arrives!! :)

Here's some information about toilet-training in case you need it (and you're not willing to be an ass-smacker like me) :P

Her favourite pastime (for now...) and her newest achievement :)

Alicia really loves drawing and colouring these days and 'draw' and the different colours of her crayons are among the most used words of her vocab... Her current favourite colour is 'white' - I don't really know why since the colour isn't obvious on white paper - and she'd look for the white crayon purposefully and start colouring with it.

Recently, she also discovered the pens and markers in the drawer of the coffee table and insists that she must doodle with them too... and since she's so into doodling, I gave her a book specially for her newest hobby - it's an old unused planner which I've been keeping for her use :)

Watch her doodle (her grip's getting better!):

Her newest achievement is grasping the concept of colouring specific parts instead of just doodling across the whole page. Though she isn't able to colour nicely within boundaries yet, you can see that she has grasped that concept from these pictures:

Move, Move!

Alicia just mastered how to move herself on a 'car' yesterday but I didn't manage to get it down on video... but we got it today!!! :D

My little independent gal...

... has learnt to wear her own pants! Hehe... She eventually succeeded on her own though in the video, I only managed to capture the process of trying to put the pants on...

Development in the 16th month (Oct 09)

Walking

Started really walking on 12 Oct.

Teeth

Last incisor out (I forgot to record when the other 2 lateral incisors emerged...)

Speech

Word count:

7) cat: said "cat" when reading her book and can point to a cat and say "cat" on 25 Oct.

8) no: said her first "NO" on 13 Oct while shaking her head and waving her hand at the same time to communicate her preference

9) quack: said "quack" when pointing to a duck in the book,

10) dog: said "dog" when reading (30 Oct)

11) drum: said "drum" when reading (31 Oct)

Others

Can nod and shake head very well by 1 Oct to indicate her preferences.

Can pick out the right flashcards when asked (23 Oct).

Showed ability to understand limits: stopped at the 'forbidden corner' in the bedroom, said "no" and waved her hand, then walked past it :D

Development in the 13th-15th month (July - Sept 09)

Speech

Alicia started calling 'mamma' and 'daddy' specifically (well, most of the time!) shortly after her first birthday.

And on 17Aug 09, it was the first time she responded to requests of calling 'mamma' and 'daddy'.

Her 6th word

She referred to herself as "cia" (pronounced as 'sher') on 5 Sept 09 as we tend to call her that instead of "Alicia". Hehe..

Teeth

Her top central incisors emerged on 12 Aug and the lower left lateral incisor emerged on 27 Sept.

Climbing

She showed off her climbing prowess by climbing up our sofa (which is quite high) on 6 Aug 09.

Walking

Took 1 firm, independent step without stumbling on 28 Aug 09.

Took 2-3 firm steps on 14 Sept.

Fine motor skills

I started exposing Alicia to the doodle board when she was young but of course she wasn't keen or interested in holding the 'pen'. But on 16 Aug 09 (1 month after her first birthday), she decided that she wanted to hold the pen and doodle away! And there has been no end to that ever since! :D

Others

Alicia started imitating (or at least in my records) since 14 July 09. And she started displaying her 'love' for doing housework on 15 July 09 as that was when she started to imitate me wiping the floor. She'd just grab a tissue or cloth and start wiping the floor or table... and she's even more fond of doing this these days (at 19mths). Haha.

On 28 Sept, Alicia also learnt to shake her head to indicate that she doesn't want something.

Sitting up

Another overdue post. :) And lots more coming up - I try to update the blog whenever I can...

The first time she sat up on her own from a lying down position was on 9 March 2009.

And the next day, she sat up another three times on her own.

I remember her amazement at herself when it happened. It was written all over her little chubby face then. :) And whenever she managed to sit up on her own, she'd look at me for approval. hehehe...

I'm really glad to be able to have the privilege to be a sahm, to watch every little milestone that Alicia reaches! :P

Alicia's last jab (till Primary 1!)

Alicia had her last toddler jab today... the next booster's due only when she's 7. :D

Her vital stats:
Weight: 8.1kg (3rd-10th percentile) - put on 0.8kg since the 15mth checkup
Height: 78cm (25-50th percentile) - grown taller by 5cm since the 15mth checkup
Head circumference: 44cm - grew 1 cm since the 15mth checkup
Milestones for her age all reached, and even a little advanced :)


Overall report and thoughts:
Doc says that her head-body growth is proportionate and she's still growing overall and not too fast/slow in one particular area so everything's fine though she's considered really light for her age. Again, the doctor suggested supplementing with fm for the higher calorie intake since bm is more easily digested. Actually I'm not as against feeding formula as Alicia is. She's the one that refuses to drink anything else except breast milk - and she only wants to latch on for it. The last time I expressed for her to drink it, she refused it as well. I guess we just have to wait till she's ready to accept other drinks and other methods of drinking. Currently she's been drinking a bit of honey water or soy bean drink every day or every other day but the amount she drinks isn't a lot, and she doesn't always agree to drink it too. And on Saturdays when she goes for JG class, she drinks a bit of juice during snack time.

For now, I don't think we'll be going the way of force-feeding FM since she really doesn't like it. Maybe we'll try our luck again when she's 2. :D And meanwhile, we hope she'll gain more weight from her main meals!

Flipper!

Since I only started this blog not too long ago, almost all of Alicia's milestones and achievements are gonna be super backdated posts. In fact, I realise that I only have records of her milestones and such from Jan 09 coz that was when my hubby got a PDA phone for me to record everything about her, from feeding time to the amount of food she eats for meals, diaper changes etc. Before that, I relied on a notebook, penning everything down manually. But I think I had only time enough (and energy too), for just noting down feeding time and the number of hours she slept. To me then, that was what mattered I guess.

Anyway, the first time I noted down that she flipped from back to tummy was on the 21st Jan. Kinda late I know. But well, that's the earliest record I have of her flipping since I only started recording down stuff about her since 1 Jan 09. And on 2nd Feb, she mastered flipping both ways and started using rolling around as a means of getting around and to things she wanted to lay her hands on. She's come a long way since, isn't it? :)

Here's a video I tried to capture of her flipping around in the early days. She kept still whenever I took out the videocam and flipped only when I kept it. Hence, I managed to get the end of one of the flips in this video. Other videos I took were of a smiling baby who just simply refused to flip despite all my cajoling!

You can tell she wasn't very pleased with me for filming her flipping in this other video:

Of Alicia and Snowbears

Snowbears go back a long way and they used to be my 'babies' before I had Alicia. Now Alicia's my 'snowbear' and my snowbears are her 'babies'. :D

You must be wondering at this point, what the hell are snowbears? Well, they're this bunch of cute, cuddly polar bears with small, beady eyes and they look so adorable that I think they're the cutest soft toys I've ever had. I do so believe that Alicia shares my sentiments.

Here's my collection of snowbears (before Alicia came into our lives):










Here's a photo I took of Alicia with the snowbears when she was a few months old:







And here's a video I took of Alicia last night, walking around with one of the snowbears in hand. It's currently her favourite toy and she's become so attached to it that if I take it away from her she'd scream and cry, shout "that" continuously while pointing at snowbear till I return it to her. It is mentioned in babycenter that 50% of babies at 16mths will be attached to a soft toy or object. Apparently Alicia only really displayed such attachment to one of the snowbears on the very first day of 2010!

The unfazed fashionista wannabe

Alicia has been able to remove her own clothes for quite some time already - unfortunately I forgot to note down when she managed to do so exactly for the first time. But anyway, the milestone chart from babycenter states that the minority of toddlers will be able to remove a piece of clothing at 16mths on their own (it's considered an advanced skill) and it's a skill that most toddlers would have acquired by 20mths...

As for putting on a loose piece of clothing, the milestone chart states that only a handful of toddlers will be able to do so at 22mths. So far, Alicia hasn't been successful in putting on clothes, but you can be sure she's already trying to do so. They say practice makes perfect - and I'm sure Alicia is abiding by that good old adage. Here are her unsuccessful attempts that I've managed to capture:

Here's Alicia some time back, trying to put on her pants...

This is a more recent video of her trying to put on her singlet!

The bumbo re-visited

It's been quite awhile since we managed to get Alicia to sit down nicely on her bumbo. Today I brought out the bumbo and told her to sit down and she obediently walked over to me and sat down in her bumbo. Surreal isn't it? :) Well, that's just coz I was holding her pink bowl of snacks and she wanted to eat her wholegrains. So here's Alicia sitting in her bumbo with her blue tray and pink bowl of snacks, watching tv. Just in case you're wondering why I'm not using the original tray, well, she hates the tray because it's too restrictive (she can push away the blue tray when she wants to get up but she can't do that with the original tray!) and I've definitely got a gal who literally, doesn't like to be tied down.

In the past, she used to hate to sit in bumbo. We surmise that it's because she had difficulty getting out of it in the past. Now that she's so adept at climbing out of it, she doesn't view bumbo as a threat to her freedom anymore. In fact, we see her climbing into bumbo to sit down ever so willingly at times even when we didn't ask her to do so!

A tale of two utensils

Alicia has decided that she wants to be independent recently and insisting on self-feeding is one of the most obvious ways of demonstrating this desire. Fortunately I had the foresight that this day was nearing and I bought a set of utensils for self-feeding from Toys R Us on the same day that I bought the reindeer hairband for her. I thought that it would be expensive but it's really a great buy coz it only costs $1.90! The fork and spoon are angled so that the toddler can get the food into the mouth easily.



Here's a pic of the fork and spoon:

Alicia has amazed me by being able to self-feed some meals so far. Her best attempt thus far I must say was the day that she self-fed a bowl of noodles for dinner when we came back from Cameron. She sat herself on the edge of the sofa at my mum's place and ate skilfully: there was hardly any spillage despite the fact that it was the first time she was using a fork! And after she was done, she just put down the fork and went to pick up the newspapers to read. Toddlers are really amusing!

The milestone chart I got from babycenter states that a handful of kids at 14mths will be able to use a spoon or fork, 50% of toddlers would be able to use a spoon or fork by 16mths and most kids at 19mths will be able to use a spoon and fork. Well, so far it seems that she's already able to use both the spoon and fork and honestly it's quite a surprise to me because I don't actually let her self-feed all that much!