The Little One is One

She has turned one! Time sure does fly when you are a parent. I never ever have enough hours in a day for all the things that I want to do! That is why this post is almost a month and a half late. We didn't have a big birthday bash for her since she will not know what the fuss is about and she doesn't have a lot of friends. So a birthday party full of adults isn't exactly a fun birthday for a child. Instead, she had 3 celebrations. One each at both set of grandparents and a getaway trip for just the 3 of us to Sentosa.

She doesn't know how to blow out the candle yet. She did try! next year, she will definitely know how to!

Plenty of gifts. She isn't too excited about them, again, she didn't know what the fuss was about. Once the wrappers came off, she had a field day with the presents. She had so many, she didn't know where to begin!

Second cake!

Checking in.

We have brought her to the zoo, the bird park so we thought, why not an aquarium? She had a wonderfully day checking out the colourful fishes swimming around. She was pointing and babbling quite a bit in there. The tunnel wasn't as colourful, that is why she forced a smile in the photo. By the end of it, she was getting a little sleepy already. We walked along the beach a little, found a spot to sit down in the shade while I nursed her. She didn't sleep for too long though.

So, off to the pool we went! This photo very healthy lifestyle hor, wear swim suit eat apple. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dinner at a Japanese restaurant. She kept making funny faces in there. All the other diners were all kinda serious.. except her.

Hard Rock Cafe. The last time I was in a HRC was when I was 19 or 20. It was fun, especially after the serious Japanese dinner.

She loved the balloon the people at HRC gave her. I hated it. I hate balloons, they looked like they would burst anytime. The way she waved it around, the way she handled the balloon, I thought I might get a cardiac arrest. The balloon came off the stick a few times, The Husband helping her fixed it back, and she was so impatient, tucking at his bermudas, and babbled in a demanding and authoritative tone, as if telling him to hurry up and give it back to her.

It was a long long day and she wasn't about to go to bed just like that. She went walking round and round and round the room checking out everything. I am glad that she had a fun day.


The breakfast spread at the resort was really good. As anyone can see, she ain't too much a morning person. I love napping after breakfasts, and that was what we all did!

It was a great first birthday!

Sleeping Issues

She will start with a "Hey! Let me outta here!" protest.

Then she will protest harder and if you can see her little chubby leg in the second photo, pressing against one of the bars, trying to get out of the cot herself

If all the above fails, she will give you the puppy dog look, hoping that that will melt your heart and then you will pick her up.

She hates being confine in the cot. So we thought we let her sleep on a mattress on the floor instead. A little better, but i suppose she just like sleeping next to us. I slept on the mattress with her a few nights, and she was good, sleeping like how a baby should, but when she is alone on the mattress, she would cry a few times, asking for a comfort suckle.

Sigh I really have no clue how I can get her to sleep on her own. She just like to snuggle up next to me or the dad. Sigh...

An Afternoon at the Park

I loved that one Sunday afternoon we spent at the park, lying down on the mat in the shade with a little breeze. It was a lovely day. Beats being in the mall on a Sunday!

The Thirsty Toddler

I am so thirsty!


OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH! So good so refreshing!


MMMMMM..... MORE!

Pure Evil

Comes in the form of a big purple dinosaur.

I never understood why kids just love him. I was watching TV one day while The Little One was playing with her toys, then while channel surfing, Barney came on, I decided (rather stupidly now, I must say) to stay on that channel and see if she reacts to that purple dinosaur. It is amazing how she would just stare at the TV for quite a while and then, started waving her arms and go 'oooooooh ooooooooooh oooooooooooh'. That itself is quite something since she never paid any attention to anything that was on TV.. until that fateful day. What happened after that, was even more scary. She actually crawled to the TV console, pulled herself up and stared at the TV for the longest time!

Thanks to me, she is quite the Barney fan now.

That was about 2 months plus ago. Now, every time we go pass a Barney kiddy ride, she will point it out to us, waving her arms in the same frenetic fashion. She loves those rides now, I thought she would come to that a little later. Tearing her away from those rides could result in some drama. She will scream, she will kick and she will wiggle in your arms, trying to break your hold on her to let you know that she isn't too happy to part with her purple friend. Just saying 'Let's go' will have her whining and protesting in the ride.

I used to really dislike Barney, but I am alright with him now. After watching a few shows, it isn't too bad. I even bought her a DVD. Hahaha! I know he is on from Mondays to Fridays on Okto at 12 noon. She has some Barney books, a little plush toy (it was a FREEBIE!!!!!!!!!!!!) and a inflatable ball - courtesy of my sister..... My siblings brought her for a little walk, she saw the ball and show strong liking for it. HAHAHAHA! See, us parents are not the only suckers!

I just hope all that Barney collection at home doesn't grow too quickly.

Happiness

is sleeping in on a rainy day til noon, roll about in bed with some cuddles, kisses and plenty of laughter with my baby for a little while before tumbling out of bed, wash up and then going out for a lunch together.

Moments like these make it all worth it, makes all the undone chores seem so insignificant. Moments like these make me a happy happy person

Extra Hours Needed

I wish I had more hours in the day to

get the ironing done
get started on planning her first birthday already
do a bit of homework on my upcoming trip
CHORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sort out the photos
sort out the magazines
read
nap
drink coffee
CHORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cook


My work is never done

New Obsession

ETSY.

1st Children's Day

The one thing that she will eat readily is whipped cream. As it was Children's Day, we thought we indulged her and gave her a cup full of it to mess around with. From the pictures, it is obvious that she had a field day with it

No, she isn't crying here, just smiling too hard, it looks like she is crying. I had to whisk her away to the washroom and wash her down thoroughly, she had cream all over her. She had fun that day and was in an extremely agreeable mood :)

Walking

The Little One has started to walk on her own!

We are delighted indeed! She still likes to hold our hands or whatever she can get her hands on - rails, doors, walls, baskets, her toy car, chairs. When she is distracted she starts taking steps on her own, then she will realised that nobody is holding her, she will sit on her butt.

Once she gains more confidence, she will be walking and running really soon. I will have a harder time keeping up with her.

It is true that babies will come around doing stuff once they are ready, before last week, she didn't display any interest in walking at all, prefering to move about on all fours. Before we know it, she wants to walk all the time, allowing us to hold her hands, cruising a lot more on her own.

When She was 10 Months Old

She is talking a lot more these days, babbling in some strange language that manages to sound European and Indian at the same time.

She continues to imitate us, I have lost count of the things that is can do, some of the cutest would be her trying to do twinkle twinkle little stars and trying her very best to whistle. Hilarious! She loves music, all kinds, showing quite a strong preference for dance music and unfortunately, Barney and Hi-five.

She is still refusing solids. Only opening her mouth to whipped cream and ice cream. She allows a few tiny spoonfuls of porridge and that's it. If she is in a good mood, she will polish off a small tub of yoghurt. She still loves her milk and I am still nursing her, any hope of dropping any milk feeds soon seems plain unrealistic now. Her adventures with solids warrants one whole blog entry. So much that I want to write about.

Signs

She has been imitating us quite a bit lately. I am amazed how fast she picks up those actions.

It started with the bye bye wave, then the no-no shake head move, after that she did the flying kiss - though not too accurate but cute nonetheless. She will blink her eyes if you blink eyes at her. When she hears music, she will wave her hands in the air like she just doesn't care. She dances too, when you say "dancing dancing". She will put her toy phone next to her ear when you say hello. Sometimes she will try saying hello, which sounds more than ah-o. She has the Sang Nao Jing move too, where she will put both arms on her head when you say Sang Nao Jing - which roughly means, aiyoh, you are giving me a headache!

Today, she did something that I have been waiting for a while now. She clapped her hands! Yesterday, she held both fists together and shook them up and down, as though doing the Gong Xi Fa Cai thing. Then today, I realised that she might be trying to clap her hands. So, I sang and clapped my hands and clapped some more. She was still GongXiFaCai-ing away, then before long, she attempted a clap. Wasn't really a clap but she was trying. After a few more tries, she was clapping better already. Some more got produce sound hor! Not bad leh!

When babies are learning new skills, they will practise and practise. She was clapping in the car, and when I was dressing her. getting her ready or bed. Her clap now, is good! In just a matter of hours. I am impressed!

I am hoping to see the clapping figuring itself into her dance routine, which for now, comprises just of hand waving.

I can't wait to see what she does next!

My Birthday

This post is 2 months late. If only I have more time! Better late than never. I was pretty excited this year, because I am celebrating it as a mother. Sometimes I can't quite believe that still.

Tea at the Fullerton Bay Hotel

She just started learning to walk. She loves it when you hold her hands and walk her around, she will tell you where she wants to do by turning her body and stepping in the direction that she wants to go.

Playing by the water fountain. She loves loves playing with water. If you look close enough, her face is wet!

Happiness

is having an upcoming trip confirmed finally!

I cannot wait!

Happines

is being greeted with a wide grin from your baby when you open your eyes in the morning.

The Little One hears a lot of 'no' from us these days. There have been people who believe in not using that word a lot. But really, how can you not use that word??????????? Babies must learn the word! They must know what it means and they need boundaries! I don't think that it is all too negative a word at all. It is one of the first few words that she understands (but not necessarily obeys it.

No, please don't put that in your mouth. No playing with the cord! No playing with our hand phones. No, don't pick up stuff on the ground and put it in your mouth! No, don't tear up my book.

So what should a mighty curious 91/2 month old to do? We can't possibly say no to everything. It will frustrate the hell out of her, and I do fear that it might curb her curiosity. So we pick our battles, no to electrical cords, yes to messing up our CD collection. No to hand phones but she can play with the remotes, even if she throws them all over. No to the books but she can tear up some old magazines to her little heart's content. I do let her try killing a couple of her own books too. Heck, we even let her crawl outside if it isn't too dirty. Just need to wash or wipe her hands soon as she is done.

Just few days ago, she started to shake her head like us when we said no. That girl is really imitating our moves now. Gotta be careful, I wouldn't want her giving people the finger too soon. She knows that there are things that she can't do, so she will look at you with that look, checking with you if it is okay. Now, she might just shake her head even before we gave her the NO. Cute!

When She was 7 Months Old

She has finally managed to pull herself up to sit on her own! After being so frustrated and helpless, she could do it all by herself. She had also started to pull herself to stand in the cot, so time to put the cot at its lowest!

Oh, and of course, she went on her first holiday!

When She was 8 Months Old

I had meant to post a monthly progress entry, but guess what! I have no time, even when I am home all the time! So I am just catching up on my blogging...

When she was 8 months old, she started pointing at things and people. She will point to let us know that she is interested in something and we will bring her over to that interesting thing. Real cute!

She started to crawl when she was 8 months old. I thought she never would and would skipped it totally. She crawls in her own little unique way. With one foot on the floor (like squatting) and the other with the knee on the floor. She would then, take a 'step' forward with the leg that seemed to be squatting and move the other leg forward, without touching the floor. This way, she will not end up with bruised knees. Hahahaha.

She had gotten really sticky at this point. I can't even go to the bathroom without her protesting! Thankfully, she is just sticky these days and not ultra sticky. I think she has hit the 'separation anxiety' phase.

She did this weird little thing for about 2 days, pulling herself up in the cot and then letting go and landing on her bum. She was practising how to get back down safely while standing. She would do it again and again and again. really funny to watch. Before that, it would take a while before for her to get back down, some times crying for help even.

9 Months

She is about 9 and a half already! In a little more than 2 months she will be one! Time flies! So what have she been up to??

She has started to wave goodbye just last week! One of the more exciting stuff she has done lately. She started signs of waving a while back, raising her arm but not waving. Just last Friday, we were at my friend's place for some coffee and tea and when we left, she started waving! She didn't stop waving, waving at the cars passing, the trees, the traffic lights, everything. Even when I got her down for a feed, she was still waving. I don't think she knows exactly what it means yet. Now she seems to want to mouth the word "bye". First it sounded something like b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b... then there were a few times that it really sounded like 'bye'. Very happy indeed!

Very little thing she does, just make me so happy.

Unless it involves her trying to scratch people's faces! There was once when she got frustrated and went for her father's face, pulling off his glasses. He of course, scolded her, and she wailed. Loudly. She refused to even look at him after that! Time to really start disciplining her! I told her in quite a firm tone about something that she shouldn't be doing, she look at me for a second and then scratched my face really hard. She did it with intention. She thought about it for a second before she did it. I slapped her hand and gave her a stern talking to. Of course she wasn't too pleased and started crying. She had done that one my mum and my sister in law. Every time it happened I will scold her. Hopefully she will do that scratching soon. Hopefully it is just a phase and it will pass soon.

She is beginning to imitate us quite a bit. When we raise the blanket and play peekaboo, she would do the same too. She tilts her head when we tilt ours. Before, she just tilts her head, especially when she is curious about something.


She has started to climbed and stand on her pram. She doesn't like to sit in it too long. She would very much prefer to stand (which is of course, pretty dangerous) or have us carry her (very heavy, she is 10 kilograms already!).

The older she gets, the more interactive and playful she is! I can't wait for her to start walking on her own!