Milestones

I realise I've yet to mark some key milestones that Aidan's been able to achieve, so here they are, to the best of my knowledge...

1) He can grab stuff dangling in front of him. Especially the strap attached to my mobile phone. Particularly when I'm on the phone.

2) He's just learned how to scratch an itch. Good because that shows development in his hand co-ordination. Bad 'coz he leaves a blood trail where his fingernails have been.

3) He's learned how to laugh spontaneously - just the other day his Granny (EG's mum) just grinned widely at him and he burst out in giggles. How adorable!

4) He's learned to whine...really whine...like when he's left alone he starts whimpering and then it escalates into a wail. Even when I'm just sitting next to him! He needs my full attention...sigh...

5) He can sit up a little - just the other day his Grandad (EG's dad) put him in a high chair at the yong tau foo stall we were having dinner at and he sat in it - albeit leaning heavily on the chair's support table. He also likes sitting while having a bath and splashing and tries to grab the cloth we use to bathe him with.

6) He's starting to recognise faces. I know this because somehow after 9pm when he starts to fuss and build to a scream, he will only calm down if I carry him. Not Daddy, not Granny, only me. I guess I should feel flattered, but, hmmm I'd rather have a reprieve.

7) He's so much more alert and awake these days, looking at everything around him. For some reason he's particularly excited about food - pop him on your lap at the dining table and watch him squeal! I'm not sure if it's the colours or the smell, but he's pretty happy at the table!

8) He gets easily distracted from drinking when it's milk time, so it's been rather difficult getting him to have a full feed, although they say that's pretty normal. He's just keeps looking and smiling and giggling at everything around him, although he can get bored pretty quickly too! What a child!

9) He's starting to teeth I think...he's starting off stuffing his hands (both sometimes!) into his mouth, and now he's graduated to enthusiastically gumming mine. But give him a teething toy and it's ptooi ptooi I don't like it mum! He's also been drooling excessively as well. Which makes for very wet clothes. My very wet clothes.

10) He's SO BIG now! He can barely fit his bathtub here - I wonder what his weight is at the moment. I reckon about 6.5 - 7kgs? He's now on the medium-sized Mamy Poko diapers (which are really good btw - they're one of the few brands which can take the amount of poo this boy generates! Sorry to be so graphic, but I can never look at Japanese curry the same way again).

11) He's grown more hair - it's all dense in the middle of his head, and sparse at the sides. He looks like those men with receding hairlines in the photos they use to advertise hair-growth solutions on TV!

Missing my wife and kid

Not having Saz and Aidan around is hard. Not that I don't enjoy the freedom and undisturbed night sleep but maybe something has changed in me.

Oh before I go on, for those of you who don't know, Saz extended her trip in Singapore while I came back to Melbourne and will only be back on the 11th of Feb.

I think that some people expect me to be enjoying this time of "freedom" with a wife and kid. I mean, I can do whatever I want and stay up as late as I want and even eat whatever I want. But what if what I want is to have them with me.

I think that for as long as I know, I've always wanted to settle down. My picture of a perfect life is a loving wife, a few kids and a house with a white picket fence. Yes I know, the "American Dream". Weird coming from a Singaporean I know. But that's me.

So yes, I not really enjoying this "freedom" that I have and really wish that they are back with me in Melbourne. I think that once you have a kid, everything changes. I've said that many times but I think that this is the first instance that not only the routines have changed but I now believe that something deeper in me has changed. I can't live without them, or can even imagine life with Saz and Aidan. They are as a part of me as my fingers are part of my hand.

I guess what I'm really trying to say at 230am in the morning is that I love them and really miss them heaps. Come back soon.

Another video of Aidan...

Random video of Aidan

Photos

Here're more photos via EG's facebook...but the few of you who actually swing by this site probably have seen it already, since you guys ALL have facebook! haha

Aidan and friends

The Sohs in KL

Accomplishments

Having surfed past a friend's blog, which I hadn't ventured to in more than a year unfortunately, I chance upon his high-flying adventuring ways. And I lament at what my life could have been - if not as extremely exotic as his, but at least charged with passion and energy at doing what you love and have been dreaming about for 10 years. As a job, no less.

My new career as a SAHM (that's stay-at-home-mum in the bubhub lingo) was someething I really looked forward to. Never realised it would be so hard though! And the thought of returning to Melbourne in a little over a week, to face a life of quiet domesticity with just me, A, E and the walls is enuf to drive me insane. I'll sorely miss my family, my in-laws' (although I can do without the niece & nephew fighting each other - apart they're great, together they're, well, kids (read: whiny & annoying - sorry!), and especially my sister's company; it's rare to find that fun girlfriend I can talk about pop culture easily with, AND have our feet bitten at by fish AND not feel pressured to make conversation when all we really want to do is read a magazine while sipping tea at a cafe (EG tells me I'm rude if I do that with our friends around.) But I digress.

I think the part, honestly, that I truly dread about returning to Melbourne, is having to COOK! Gagh. I don't mind baking, but having to think of, plan, buy groceries and prepare meals is really... eurgh. Maybe I coudda been a contenda, a jet-setter, a swingin' single party animal. I just want to find something I love doing, to push an edge. Maybe my edge is to be the best mum there is (but if that really is it, then I'm sorely uneducated). Sigh.

This look says it all.

My 2 boyz