a day in the life ....

this is hilarious. sums up life as a working mum for me (minus the crazy 5am wake up time, daycare and difficult bedtime bits). i can especially relate to the dinnertime expressions. haha.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3805399

12 months - sandy sunday

we visited the sand playground at sembawang park again over the weekend to get baby used to having her feet in the sand. we tried to get there as early as we could to avoid the scorching sun, but we only managed to reach the park around 8.45 when it was already quite warm. nonetheless the playground was relatively empty and we had lots of space to ourselves. 

baby refused at first to put her feet down in the sand, preferring to do some leg lifts and abs training, but after some coaxing, she put her feet down and even managed to chase us around for awhile (so that we could pick her up and rescue her from the sand! haha). 

we spent some time in the huge swing and the hubby had his own fun exploring the warship play structure that looks pretty challenging - there's no easy way to get up to the higher levels and one has to either "rock climb", climb a net ladder or scramble up metal poles to get up.

also spent a bit of time watching / chasing after baby who was chasing after dogs along the beach boardwalk before adjourning for breakfast at our favourite prata joint where only the hubby had prata (while i had thosai and baby was kept occupied with an apple). definitely a great start to our sunday!

12 months - feeding time

baby has been refusing to eat much during mealtimes. at least that's been the case for quite a number of weekends now. i am not very patient when it comes to feeding her, so after a few rounds of coaxing that usually ends with more food on the floor than in her mouth, i tend to give up altogether and just give her more milk for her late afternoon feed. i don't think she goes hungry either, as she will refuse snacks and other food/fruit in between lunch and her afternoon feed.

i have tried (a) to push back her lunchtime so that it is at least 3 hours from her last milk feed, (b) to give her her own set of utensils and bowls to mimic the whole feeding process and (c) resorting to turning on the tv for one dinner feed, but nothing has really worked.

the standing joke is that baby gets overfed on weekdays and goes on a diet on weekends.

so this weekend i tried letting her feed herself ... it was quite messy and we still had to guide her to put the spoon (with food) in her mouth, but at least she ate a bit more compared to the past weekends and was more willing to OPEN HER MOUTH to eat instead of fighting me at every bite. it was probably a combination of this self-feeding thing and the more "adult" food we fed her this weekend instead of porridge - macaroni and yam rice (the duck rice kind).

some progress is still progress!

12 months - check up

forgot to post about this earlier. we brought baby for her MMR jab the weekend before the long national day/hari raya break. we were prepping for much resistance from baby now that she's so much bigger and stronger. but surprisingly, she stayed quite still when i held her to have her jab on her arm. and then SHE DIDN'T CRY! to the surprise of the nurse as well, who then took a fancy to her and decided that she had to carry baby for awhile after the jab too. baby does have a way of charming people.

two weeks on, and i think baby's pretty much in the clear - no signs of delayed fever or spots, which are common symptoms after the MMR jab. we are so thankful that baby has been fever free after all her jabs so far. however, i think one side effect of the jab was a drastic loss of appetite (or that it induced a solid food strike) - baby would eat only a few mouthfuls of food at mealtime, although she would still chug down her milk like a champion.

oh well, i am glad to put the MMR jab behind us. 

and for the record, baby's vital stats at 12 months 6 days was 10.9kg and 79cm ... still a 97th percentile baby for weight and height. she's more than 3 times her birth weight and 30% longer/taller than she was when she was born. wow.

12 months - mmm ma

baby has gotten the hang of planting kisses on demand (when she feels like it). she used to only "sayang" and kiss her beloved soft toys for the longest time, but now she has decided to be generous and share some of her kisses with all of us. she goes "mmm ma!" in a gentle high tone everytime she plants a kiss on our cheek ... it's a very happy feeling to get kisses from your kid.

12 months - wonder week!

so, it's been two nights back to back where baby has been really fussy about going to bed. we check the wonder weeks chart and viola, we are in a stormy period. on the bright side, this storm should blow over within a week, and if baby's past behaviour during a wonder week is anything to go by, this storm should only last a few days. by few, i mean TWO. :D

12 months - growing vocabulary

just a laundry list of words that baby is able to identify and say to date: neck (we love making her say it as it sounds super cute), toe, thumb (without the "b" ending), bird, hot, ba (chinese for 8), papa, mum-mum (food), nen-nen (milk), wow-wow (sound the dog makes), brrrr-brrrr (sound the train and motorcycle make), roar (sound the lion makes), (ze)bra, tau (cantonese for head), bye, home, (ba)nana, hair (usually said as "har") ... notice how mama is not included above because she doesn't say it when i ask her to. blah.

she also has a store of actions that she does given the right cue: waving goodbye, shaking her hands left/right to show the 不开不开不能开 part of a kids' chinese song, moving her arms in circular fashion to show the washing machine spinning, dancing when her favourite songs are played, shaking her hands to indicate no more, putting her hands out to ask "where?", putting her thumbs together as part of a cantonese rhyme, hitting her head or whichever part of her body is in pain when she hits something/ falls down, sticking out her tongue to show how the giraffe eats ...

am continually amazed at how quick she is to learn new things and words.

12 months - long weekend

the long hari raya and national day weekend just flew past but i think we accomplished a lot. aside from sembawang park, we also brought baby to the zoo and both grandparents' homes. we managed to catch the giraffes' feeding time this round and baby immediately started imitating how the giraffes would stick out their tongues to grab whatever food was being held out.

we also managed to have our favourite ampang yong tau foo that we hadn't had in ages, and also ran errands in town while baby "camped" at my parents' place. i also got to indulge in good food and company at 10 scotts. 

give me another long weekend soon please!

reading - the wonder weeks

for posterity. baby has been quite a textbook wonder weeks baby for most of her first year and it has been a relief to refer to the chart and realize that baby is being fussy or waking up at night because she's going through a stormy wonder week period. i hate not having an explanation for deviations from the norm so this chart has been a good guard against unnecessary stress and worrying on my part. 

12 months - a new sandsation

brought baby to the newly upgraded sembawang park this evening and found it full of people. we still managed to have some fun even with the crowds, and i must say that the facelift made a huge difference to the feel of the park. the new toilets and shower areas are modern and functional, the boardwalk at the beachfront allows one to stroll along the beach without getting sand in one's feet/shoes, and the HUGE ship-themed playground is one big adventure zone for the kids.

we thought that baby would enjoy exploring a new playground, but it turned out that she was stumped by the sand. the playgrounds near our house are those with synthetic bases, so having to negotiate a sand playground was something new to her. she first refused to put her feet down in the sand, and when she finally did, she just stayed in the same spot and refused to move.

it was really amusing to see this energizer bunny staying still for such a long time. and later on, she put on her poor-thing face and literally complained until we carried her. haha.

she was back to her usual self once we got her shoes back on and put her on the pavement. 

we will definitely be back now that there's so much more to do at sembawang park.

reading tina fey's prayer for her daughter

putting to words the fears and hopes of many parents

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.
May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.
When the Crystal Meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half and stick with Beer.
Guide her, protect her. When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.
Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.
May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.
Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.
O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.
And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.
And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.
“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.

12 months - this bundle of joy

how not to love a baby like this? 

 

my parents have converted half of their spacious living room into a huge play pen for baby so that she has somewhere safe to play in when she visits / camps over. then they decided that an upgrade was in order, and set up a very colourful circus tent  (from IKEA) in the play area just a week ago. baby loved it, and was so busy crawling in and out of the tent. i recall being very fond of the tent that i used to have as a kid, so i guess there's something about being able to be in one's own space that appeals to babies as well. 

baby turns 1!

what a great year it has been of welcoming a new member to our family and riding through the highs and lows of parenthood. can't remember feeling so overwhelmed by joy and laughing as much as i have this year. also can't remember feeling as tired as i've been this year before. which is strange, because baby has been clocking uninterrupted 10-12 hours of sleep since very early on. all i can say is that looking after a baby is terribly energy-sapping. 

we spent baby's birthday weekend simply enough - no parties, just hanging out with the grandparents on sunday, having the obligatory cut cake sing song session that's a tradition on the hubby's side of the family, visiting the cloud forest and flower dome at gardens by the bay, and spending an afternoon at the zoo on monday. oh, but we did get some huge helium balloons because baby's fascinated by them. they were a hit with her and she loved pulling around her helium panda balloon. 

we will leave the big parties, fondant cakes, crazy catering and bouncy castles  for as long into the future as possible. :D