ZK, ZK and more ZK! :)

Little ZK is sleeping now, nicely curled up in the middle of the bed, quite unlike this :p



Just uploaded the photo of ZK in the MBS jacuzzi pool in my earlier post - super cute! And here are more of him in MBS..

In the room with my in-laws - love that thoughtful look! And in a person so small - very cute! :)



This was at our dim sum lunch. Check out his sock - coming loose from his pull!



He soon fell asleep in my arms, awww...



Without his pacifier..



Baby spa followed - doing warm-up in his swim diaper!



And very happy to be in the pool :)



Saturday, 20 Apr 2013, was an important day. ZK crawled out from the room, looked at Sito who happened to go towards him and said "papa". Sito's eyes went wide and his mouth went small :p My boys :)

After baby spa yet again, we went to Mothercare to try on potties! Decided on the bigger BabyBjorn Potty Chair. We didn't buy it then and there cos I wanted a colour that wasn't available :p

Dinner came next and we ate a lot at a Sichuan steamboat buffet place in Vivocity. And so did ZK! I gave him some plain fish, tofu and rice soaked in chicken soup which wasn't salty. Think he must be really full that day... But we topped it off with some formula just before bedtime - this was the first day I stopped nursing before bed. So sad, no more fresh milk directly from milk milk factory :(

Since I'm not nursing, I also stop carrying him until he falls asleep. I would just let him roll on the bed until he sleeps. But he started to wake at all hours at night and wail non-stop. He didn't even want the pacifier! It was just hard to calm him.

On Sunday night, after he woke at 11 pm and smelled nasty, I brought him to our bed to check for poop. No poop but he was so super cute! He had his little chin on Sito's leg :) I was so tempted to just keep him with us that night! Sito gave a firm no. Yes, I should be firm too!

And on Tuesday night, actually early Wednesday morning, he woke at 4 am and cried so badly! :( Then he started going for my boob. Hungry?! But he hasn't had milk in the middle of the night for months! But no choice, I gave him a small bottle. After that, the pacifier worked, phew!

Last Sunday, he had a proper dinner for the first time. I heeded IFC's advice to give this hungry boy dinner. Gave him 50g of Heinz baby oats and a small bottle of milk to top it off. But yesterday and today, when I gave him Quaker instant oats, he rejected them! Why?! Yesterday, I ended up giving him milk. Today, I ended up sharing my scone with him - I was famished and had to buy a scone after fetching him.

Anyway, back to photos..

He now stands everywhere and he will pull on anything to stand! This was at our sofa - found Papa's bag strap, to chew on of course!



Mum gave him some cleaned containers to play with and he loved them! Now I'm using one set to distract him on the changing mat :p



He found his toy box and reached into it! I have a similar shot - digging into Mother's bag for food :p



When I pulled him away, he would only smile sweetly at me :)



Spent that Sunday just rolling around with toys, and he was happy! 自 high-ing :p



ZK could hold his milk bottle on his own already. But holding it while asleep - you win, baby!



But he drank very slowly that evening. I got a sense of how difficult it can be when Sito fed me Yukult through a tiny straw on Saturday while I washed dishes :p

He is also trying to transfer support - from the stool to the bench, from the bed to me, etc. Good for him!



And I heard he could even wave bye bye! He did that yesterday in IFC. Just not to me :(

He also knows how to say "no" - by using his hands! He used to just shut his mouth when we tried to feed him medicine *.*



Last Sunday, I finally took out some books. Wanted to read to him but...

What is this?



Oh, it's yummy!



This is yummier - times two cos there were pretty aunties to seduce too!



Anyway, after getting him used to having dinner, I'll introduce bedtime reading :)

Maybe baby

Last week, I effectively stated very publicly on FB that I would love to have another baby. And yesterday over a baby-free weekday lunch with LS they all, she commented that it would be challenging with Sito away most of the time. Sigh, how unfortunately true...

Thinking back, we don't exactly have a very good track record. We had one whole year of failed attempts before we managed to get pregnant although we lost that one. And, the whole year of failed attempts happened in Singapore. We succeeded - twice - only in Evanston.

Is it the weather? Is it the stress? Is it the frequent consumption of "liang" stuff which is very common in our hot little island? Or is it the not-so-tasty TCM treatment I went through?

So to up our chances of having a new baby in our arms next year, I'm starting to cut out funny foods and rubbish food from my diet to prime my ageing body - after all, I'm not biologically young anymore... If need be, we'll enter phase two, which is to adjust Sito's diet as well. And if we still have no luck, well, it's back to acupuncture and nasty concoctions *.*

老了

早上经过Oblivion的电影海报时，赫然发现Tom Cruise老了。再搜索一下中学时期偶像的近照，原来年轻时的偶像都老了。再看看镜子，我们也老了。

不过，老了有老了的样子还是好的，但别太皱啦！那些老了又看起来太年轻的，老实说我还真觉得有点可怕！

那天有人说我介于28到32之间，现在听起来还可以接受，甚至感到欢喜。因为有小孩，我也觉得我多少要保留心境年轻才可以试图理解下一代年轻人的想法，以减免代沟。可是如果有人在我40岁时还这样说我，那是说我保养超好，还是说我的行为举止还未成熟呢？

前阵子，我发现了眼睛周围的皱纹，还问起老公有没有长白发（老公：没有）。最近，我留意到健壮（不错啦！）腹肌之上那层松弛的肚皮，是吸气再吸气也吸不掉的那种。可是，我还是蛮喜欢的！并没有想去减肥什么的。可以接受任何年龄、任何样貌的自己，算是一件很幸福的事吧？:)

He knows

First of all, I must admit that I got my dates wrong - not that I remember his birth date wrongly but I really thought Thursday was the 12th when I blogged about ZK turning nine months!

So well, on the 12th, which was yesterday, he finally crawled out of his bedroom on his own while I was busy in the kitchen! I heard little hands on the floor, turned and saw his little head showing just behind the laundry basket outside his room. Super cute :)

Today, I had to work in the morning. Sito and Mum brought him to MBS where he had a foot bath in the jacuzzi hoho! No swim diaper.. Will post photos here when I get them..

What are you thinking about, my dear one?



After lunch, we headed for the baby spa, at Plaza Sing again. This time, he was super happy! We think he is now able to recognise that this is a fun activity :)

This evening, we decided to give him a bath instead of the usual shower. New colourful balls from Daiso and two rubber duckies were waiting on the water for ZK who seemed happy to see bath toys like in the baby spa :)

Then as usual, Papa dried him on the bed while I dried myself. ZK was looking at me. Then, suddenly, he said "mama".

"Mama", not "mamamamamama".

Wow.

Sito said he thought ZK knew what he was saying.

Wow.

But guess what, I felt strangely calm, as if he had been calling me "mama" forever, as if it was to be expected. But of course, it IS expected!

Now that I think about that moment, it just feels extraordinary.

He hasn't been speaking much for the past couple of weeks. It wasn't until this afternoon that he started saying "mamamamamama" again. And then, he stopped at just "mama", while looking right at me.

My dear boy, 九个月了就是不一样 :)

ZK is nine months old! :)

Big boy now :) And looking ever so serious!



What? I'm still a baby! And I cheeew! (With my leg up like a little beng beng, no less!)



That day, he had quite a bit of "outside food" - I gave him my tofu, rice and the inside of my teriyaki salmon. Gotta time the feeds properly such that he finished his bowl after we were done so that we could up and leave should he get cranky when he realised there was none left! But thankfully, he was alright..

He is super efficient at his lizard crawl now - check this out:



Doesn't that just remind you of Sadako in The Ring?! :p

He's not terribly good at climbing yet, still burying his head a lot. But using my hand as a support, he could prop up his little butt and land his feet on the floor, even moving his feet forward to get into a standing position eventually!

He can also climb from the floor to his bed now, often with or in search of his pacifier! Or my iPhone *.*



Since two weekends ago, I've been doing some serious mopping so that I can let him crawl around. Sometimes he would have crawled to the door when I get to him! The first time he did that was last Monday just before Sito left at 5 am - I didn't know and hit his head with the knob behind the door :(

My first reaction was shock. I held my hands to my mouth before I reached in to shuffle him sideways so that I could get the door open to get to him. Almost cried with him but he stopped pretty soon!

And in the morning, usually, I'll let him play in the room while I prepare stuff. Sometimes, he would crawl out happily :) But he has not gone too far from his room yet...

Another video of him crawling, this time at IFC:



Just that morning, I was thinking how nice it was to have all those toys in IFC; he would never get all of those if I were to take care of him myself! And that very evening, I saw how he enjoyed himself :) And the carer told me he was standing in the playpen and trying to move around the perimeter by holding on to the rim!

We went out quite a bit in the past few weeks - we were all healthy! Now let's stay that way...

The one day that Sito wasn't feeling too well, I cooked porridge for all of us - beef, spinach and pumpkin!



Alright, it looks pretty gross *.* But it was yummy! I added a sweet corn into the rice cooker too - it was so expensive ok, $2.40!

ZK is now taking two steady meals a day, each almost completely replacing milk. I said almost, because he seems to be eating more cereals at home and more porridge in school, and when he doesn't take enough, we give him milk shortly after.. I wonder why.. My porridge is so nice! And we use the same cereals!

Some time early last week, I stopped nursing on my left - he had not taken very well to that factory for a while by then. So now, it's just my right. Talk about dua suey liap... O_o

We were having dinner at Menya Musashi - there was absolutely nothing there that I could give him but he'd had milk so it was alright. But check out that little mouth!



This is not snot, Mama. This is my cookie. I just don't know how it got there...



I usually give him a cookie after his cereals so that I can clean up. Except last last Saturday - I got the timing wrong and his eyes were shutting as I fed him water after every few mouthfuls of cereals! It was pretty hilarious actually, that is, until he started whining cos he was too sleepy!

Oh, have I mentioned before? That day, 23 March, I was cooking porridge for him to bring to IFC as I had to work that Saturday. I delayed picking him up from his little seat and he went "mamamamamamama"! :) Whatever that means! :)

Anyway, with all these solids, he's pooping seriously gross stuff now. He must have had a stomachache on April's Fool day - instead of crawling or whining to be picked up, he lay on his belly on the floor, softly whining :( He kept whining softly as I massaged his belly on the changing table. Then it happened. Can't remember if it was then but there was once he pooped a little extra after I put on diaper cream! Thank goodness it was not projectile poop! And so I decided that that night, he would graduate - no more shit pad on his bed!

We've been going to baby spa more regularly too. He fits better into this now:



My little towkay :)



And last Saturday, we went to Plaza Sing instead of Harbourfront - they had containers with punched holes that totally mesmerised him!



We finally used the voucher from the baby spa when we signed up for a year - got a free framed photo:



It doesn't come in soft copy so I took the above using my phone hence the colour.. But the two below are nice! Cos we paid $30 for each, ouch!

Aiyoh, why so poor thing?!



We find this super classic. Many of us must have a photo sitting on some rattan chair!

Where are all the dead animals?

A lizard died on the TV bench yesterday. It looked like it just stopped in its track when I turned on the light upon returning with ZK. This morning, it was still in the same position, and I wondered if it was dead.. Then Mum called in the afternoon to say that she found it full of ants!

Ok, so it was dead when I found it. But how did it die?? 被吓死的??!

Actually I’ve always been wondering – what happens to animals (not pets) when they die? I mean, we bury or cremate our folks. But animals don’t light matches.. I imagine they won’t dig a hole for their folks too!

There are so many stray cats and mynahs and pigeons and crows in Singapore. Sure, sometimes you see a flattened bird on the road. But what about the majority of these animals? How do they die? Where do they die? What happen to the bodies?? Another scenario is survival of the fittest. I have seen it a number of times - a cat ready to pounce on a blur pigeon. But that really begs the question - who eats the cat?! Surely not the nice puppy next door! And no one will eat that nice puppy anyway!

So I did a little googling.. And ended up with a whole lot of spiritual things about where animals go to when they die!

I lost my train of thought here cos I just dozed off while thinking *.* Been very tired the past week. Or perhaps just sleepy. Maybe I'll research more on this topic another day...