Dear Eliot...

Oh gawd this really puts things into perspective on those bad days. Thanks a lot mum, you made me cry! ;-)

99 Balloons

Updates

Some updates!

1. My clever boy woke up from his nap in the spare room yesterday (I'd left earlier to wash up after our yummy morning snuggle-time) and managed to OPEN the door (it was slightly ajar), and started crawling towards my room to find me! I'd emerged from my bathroom hearing his cries and was leaving my room to head back to him where lo and behold! The little boy was half-moaning as he crawled down the hallway to me! It was a good thing he'd completely by-passed the stairs - we don't have a stair-gate for protection (yet). But EG and I thought it was pretty incredible he knew which room to head to.

2. He's never EVER done this before, so it was much to my surprise (and chagrin) that as I plonked him into the bathtub on Sunday night, I saw bits of orange stuff (think mashed sweet potato) floating up. From his butt. YIKES! In the 3 minutes I'd left him on his own in his room to play (after having wiped his bum in preparation for bath time), he'd managed to deposit a little something on the carpet for me. I'd wanted to give him some reprieve from the stuffy confines of his nappy, but well, I guess that's what I get for letting him free-ball it!

3. He had his first taste of chicken today! I tore some strips from the chicken breast we were having for dinner, and he really seemed to enjoy it! Kept doing his version of the "more" sign - clenching his fists and squeezing down into his chair. Heh. Cute.

I guess you can tell that he's really our son, since his first recognisable and indicative word seems to be "mam-mam". As in "Aidan, do you want food?" and I gesture the sign for food, and he goes "mam-mam! mam mam mam mam mam....mmmmmm...." Yup, he's a Soh (& Wong) all right!

4. Ok, I had one more update at the top of my head but I just can't remember it! Here I was, storing a neat mnemonic A.P.C. so I could remember what to blog about, and I can't remember the "A" part. Darn nappy-brain! Anyhoo, when I do, I'll update this entry.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure...

Look at me help Daddy carry the umbrella! See how STRONG I am!!

I'm doing this all on my own. Can you believe it??!!

I get really engrossed in my TV programmes. Just like mummy does.

No one can tear me away!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Don't you just love my new aviator-style beanie?

Teehee.Too cute!

Expectations

I purchased this book today as a gift for a friend.


But it's really something I wish I had for myself, especially 10 months ago when Aidan was born (and this morning when he was being fussy at 5.30am! I ended up only having 4 hours of sleep, tearfully sms-ing my mum at 8am, and talking to her at 8.30am --> 6.30am Singapore time!)

It's an amazing book with REAL expectations and encouragements. The author, Karen Miles is "an expert on the impact of motherhood on women's identity and career" (according to her website). She also writes in her blog on the impact motherhood has on a woman's identity. Interesting stuff.

It's a topic we touched upon at Hitched (our couples cell-group) today, how mums are often judged harshly, regardless of whether they choose the life of quiet (in our case, NOISY) domesticity, or the corporate spectra. To wit, allow me to quote Ms. Miles:

"Stay-at-home mums are not 'lucky', 'lacking in ambition' or 'on holidays'. Equally, mums who work are not 'heartless' or 'selfish'. Be careful not to judge other mothers and their kids. Especially at the supermarket. Don't compare your baby with others. No one wins the game of one-up-womanship. Aren't we all just doing the best we can..."

Lovely sentiment. I also resonated with

"The bigger your life was before having a baby, the harder the adjustment will be. Go easy on yourself."

I fear the night coming

"You're not alone. It's 3 am and there are millions of mothers around the world feeding their babies with you."

And perhaps my favourite:

"Stop trying to 'get it right'. STOP."


Hmm. I might just keep the book for myself... ;-)

Spot the difference!

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb

The world, I reckon, are split between two types of people. Baby-people and non-baby people. Baby people are those who coo and blubber whenever your baby's around. Non-baby people are those, like the guy sitting at the table next to our's during lunch, who flinched and turned away whenever his partner/friend cooed at Aidan. Aidan was being really friendly, gesturing and "waving" towards her. But her sour-puss friend just kept looking away uncomfortably. All right, I do admit I'm being more than a little indignant, but MY BABY IS CUTE DAMMIT, so cute in fact that Mr Uncomfortable-around-babies must renounce his non-baby loving past, stand up, and take the pledge of allegiance to all that is cute and slobbery!

It is in rare cases like these, when my adorable young son fails to elicit the requisite oohing and aahing and "oh my gosh, he is gorgeous" comments (to which I usually nod my head and smile benignly), that I unleash my most fiendish curse ever upon them (hastily muttered under my breath as we leave of course).

"May a thousand flies from a camel's bottom INFEST your armpits!!"

Harrumph. To prove to the world how cute my son is and what a great non-baby person proselitiser he is, here are some pics we took tonight. Bee-suit courtesy of my brother Aaron, who's been haranguing me to fit Aidan into it. Heeheehee...

Look at me buzz around like a busy buzzy bee!

More photos and video to come!

Sharing is caring

Hmm... just thinking about my previous post, and I realise it's not so much that Aidan hasn't learnt to share so he starts snatching stuff, but that maybe he thinks others should be sharing with him!

Because lately he's been doing the cutest thing; whatever he holds in his hand, he offers it to us! Like his pacifier for example - he plucks it out of his mouth, smiles the most adorable crinkly smile and offers it to me, as if to say, Here mum, you should try this too! He does that with his bread & rice crispies as well, and I take a small bite and say thank you, and he continues munching on it. TOO CUTE!

He's gotten really adept at maneuvering items with his hands, from big blocks to tiny raisins. According to the BabyCenter website, babies should be developing their pincer grip at his age, and true to form (he's really a textbook case on physical milestones for babies) he can grasp these objects really well with his index finger and thumb!

Speaking of fingers, he's also learned how to flick his lips with his all of his digits (such kissable lips I tell you!), and bounce his hand (where the thenar muscle is) on his mouth making a "bluhhh bluuuhh" sound. I'm not sure whether he's actually using sign language to gesture that he wants food (we've been teaching him), but it's really adorable to watch, and whenever I play out these actions, he mimics me too!

Ah yes...communication. We're getting there - he doesn't really gesture the "more" sign so much as grasp his high-chair table and make the "mmmmmmmmm!!!" sound while kicking his legs to let me know he wants a second helping! And he's also developed a nasty habit of standing and bouncing in his chair too. We've really had to tighten the belt on that thing, because he does his slithery sloth impression and manages to contort and squirm his way out of the restraint! He starts by pulling one foot up, then sits cross-legged, then stands, and hey presto! Prison break.

Mealtimes can be quite frustrating nowadays, with his distractions and monkeying around, playing with his food and trying to feed me his avocado sandwiches. Well. At least he's learnt to share!!

Mainly Music

We've just returned from our first session with Mainly Music, a kids music class where children learn to sing songs and play, and the adults join in too to teach them. We had a BLAST! I was actually popping in to check it out, since I'd rung beforehand and they said the 9.30am class was full, but when I came by they just ushered us in, gave us a bag of colourful instruments and another parent called us over to sit with them, and ta-daa! We were singing along!

Aidan really enjoyed it I think. At first he was just taking it all in, but he soon warmed up and started to interact with the other kids - he even started to snatch another kid's rattle during a song before I stopped him. We must learn to SHARE Aidan; not every toy belongs to you!

The class had a mixture of ages, from newborns to big kids (6, 7 year-olds) and there were parents and facilitators too. I like the fact that the facilitators looked like grandparents; I think Aidan needs exposure to mature-age adults, so he sees a bit of history to his existence (granted, they're all white people, but hey, we're all God's children eh?), especially since all our family are overseas. The programme is Christian-based I think, assuming from their value statement on their webpage and the incorporation of God in some of their songs.

The best part? Morning tea afterward, where the parents got to interact, which I thought was a great opportunity to socialise; I met another mum who just happened to walk by the venue and joined in, and we later discovered we had heaps in common. To occupy the children, they basically unloaded a HUGE bag of Duplo blocks and the kids just went crazy. Aidan had fun grabbing hold of the blocks and mouthing them, so I was glad to leave him alone. Although I did hear him whining later and had to "rescue" him; I think he'd discovered my absence and wanted to be picked up, which I did, after removing and returning the bikkie he'd snatched from another boy. We must learn to SHARE Aidan; not every biscuit belongs to you!

Overall, we had heaps of fun, and I'm really looking forward to joining again next week. They were really flexible, and just added our names to the bottom of the list, and presto, we're registered! Yay! Now we've more opportunities to get out of the house!

Father figure

The first father figure that I've ever had in my life, well at least from my conscious life, was my Papa. No, not my biological father but actually his eldest sister's husband. I started calling him Papa and my aunt Mama because they've been taking care of me since I was a baby and I pretty much followed what my cousins were calling them.

As with most Singapore kids, both my parents were busy working to support us and we were lucky enough to have my Mama take care of us. So I pretty much spent most of my childhood (0-8 years) with my Mama and Papa in their Margaret Drive house. My kindergarten was there and when I wasn't in school, I remember spending lots of time on my bike with my neighbours riding around the area. I remember how my aunt will always leave a box of coins in the kitchen which I could plunder from to go buy sweets/snack with, and I'll ride with my neighbours to the Econ Minimart and spend it on Kaka, or marbles.

I didn't see much of Papa in the day cos I know that he too was busy working in the construction site to support his family. And when he was back in the evenings, he doesn't really say much, but he'll sit there quietly shaking his automatic Seiko watch while watching the evening news. He was a quiet man, but a very loving man. I remember how he would make toys for me to play with, like how he made a kinda pin ball machine thingie that I could put my marbles in and bouce them around. Or when he taught me to build structures with twigs by sticking them into the ground and by balancing some across one another. He never once scolded me or yelled at me, in fact I don't ever remember him yelling at anyone.

He passed on yesterday from cancer and even though I knew he suffered from it and haven't had long to live, I think I was secretly hoping he would get better. He was always such a strong man, it made me think he was going to live forever. I heard that he didn't suffer to much towards the end and that Mama was with him when he passed.

I don't think that I ever got to tell him how he was the first father figure I had, or that he has always meant a lot to me even though I can't converse with him well with my broken Hokkien. But I'm glad that he got to watch me grow, get married and have a son. I'm glad that he got to meet Aidan and he must know that he's done something right with me, that he's built a foundation fo me to become who I am today. My thoughts and prayers go out to Mama and my 3 cousins. In my heart I'll always (like I told my kindergarten teacher) have 2 fathers.

Non c'e male, grazie

Aidan seems to be faring better at childcare lately. We put him in again today for another 2 hrs, his 5th session, with lunch this time. He actually reached out for one of the carers, Melissa, when EG arrived with him today! That's surely an improvement, even though he hardly ate his lunch, and wanted to be carried around as usual. Still uncomfortable I guess - it's an adjustment period after all.

The funny thing is, he behaved the same way yesterday at Mother's group too. Usually he's really good with mixing with the other kids and playing with toys at Sue-Mei's house, but yesterday he just refused to leave my side! He kept holding on, even when I was just a little distance away eating lunch at the table with the other mums. And when I placed him back amidst the toys and the other kids, he just kept crawling over and whingeing until someone picked him up. What a clingy boy he's become! And he was crying and bawling his eyes out the whole drive home from Doncaster! I though it might be the sunlight in his eyes and changed lanes; nope! Maybe it was because he lost his pacifier; nope! He actually spat his pacifier out, and I was at my wit's end, calling EG on the speaker phone so that he could calm Aidan down, but to no avail. As a last resort, I played my Silly Songs with Larry CD. WHO KNEW Bob, Larry and Archie Asparagus could have such a calming effect on a distraught 10-monthb old?! Phew!

I do hope he gets over this separation anxiety soon. EG says we should put him down to bed quicker - less cuddling and singing and patting before sleeps, which I think it's a good idea (even though cuddles with him are so yummy!) He's getting better at sleeping on his own, and is resettling himself well again, although there are still times when he screams the house down. Like this morning when I finally went to get him and he was crying with tears down his cheeks, but still HOLDING the pacifier in his right hand! So it's not the I-lost-my-pacifier-and-I-can't-find-it issue, it's a I'm-gonna-WAIL-until-someone-comes-pick-me-up-and-it'd-better-be-soon-mummy-or-else!

Well, at least he's getting used to childcare, which is good since I started my first class today! Buongiorno! Mi chiamo Sarah! (Good morning! My name is Sarah!). Sto bene, grazie! (I'm good, thanks!)

Muppet

Living with Aidan is very much like living with a small animal. He chews, spits, tears papers apart, and once I found a bread-clip in his mouth! The whole thing! It emerged between his lips like a CD out of a my iBook's disc-slot. I immediately plunged my index finger into his mouth to see if he was hiding anything else in the inner recesses of his chubby cheeks. Gold, perhaps?

So it was really funny just now, as he wandered around the couch, when he popped up between our legs sucking on his missing pacifier! We were wondering where it went, 'coz it mysteriously disappeared last night in the living room. We completely burst out laughing and he joined in with that little twinkle in his eye, the pacifier still lodged firmly in his mouth. What a cheeky little boy.

Another milestone too - he's learnt to climb the stairs! Well, he did it only once really, but we were so surprised when Ellie exclaimed "oh my gosh, he's climbing!" and true enough he was leveraging one knee on a step to boost him onto the next one. How clever! I tried to get him to do it again, but he got a little distracted. Ah wells! Maybe next time!!


Edit: Oooh! Only read EG's post after I posted this! Hee. There you go readers, 3-for-1 special today!

Watching him grow

Watching Aidan grow is such an amazing experience. And he's doing it so fast as well. Sometimes, we just put him in the highchair and watch him. Like a soap opera, he'll go through a whole range of facial expressions, from smiling to being cheeky, from bouncing up and down to flinging his arms up and down. We love him!

Today we discovered a few things that he's learned to do.

1) I love flipping him upside down, and not just because I can but because he loves it. So what happens is that I'll have him face me then I'll hold his ankles and slowly pull him up, then I lower him to the ground and he'll usually use his head to prop himself while I lower his feet to the ground. But today he started to use his hands to hold his weight up while I lower his feet to the ground. He's never done that before. Cool.

2) While watching TV today, actually, while playing Xbox today, Aidan started to crawl towards the stairs. He's never really tried anything with the stairs because I guess he never really knew what to do with it. But today he started to climb up! We got a little scared and stood close to watch him but he actually made it up 2 steps before he stopped. We tried putting him at the bottom again and whipped out the video camera but he didn't really perform like before, this time only doing 1 step before he got bored. Amazing! He figured that out all by himself, what a brilliantly curious boy. We'll watch him next time and probably stop him to climbing the stairs, but this time we let him.

I mean, we take for granted all the simple day to day things that we as adults can do, like climb the stairs or open a door or even drive a car, but to be there to see a child learn these things and watch him do it for the first time....simply breathtaking (you really do hold your breath while they do it).

Saving the environment

When I was younger, I thought it was fine to bring my half-sipped cup of coke into the toilet with me. After all I'd paid good money for my Maccas meal with my piddling Pr. 5 allowance, so I wasn't going to throw it out just so I could go to the loo.

Nowadays I abhor the idea. Ewww... food and the toilet?! How unsanitary!

Too bad no one told Aidan that. As I'm typing this, he's eating a snack of wholemeal bread, and interspersing it with grunts followed a strained look on his face. His face goes red, his eyebrows shoot up a little, and then he exhales, happily continuing his meal and kicking his feet.

How convenient, he must think, to be able to eat and poop at the same time! Poor mummy and daddy, having to make a mad dash for the toilet. In one sitting, I eat, poop, then bounce on my seat so that it's all squashed and compact for disposal. I am a one-kid eco machine! I am Aidan, the Eco-Warrior!

Happy 10 months!

Wow I can't believe it's only a couple of months to go before we hit the grand milestone, when bubba turns ONE!!

Been so excitedly thinking and planning for his party already...I've gathered some good ideas, and gearing up for it, especially since it's coming at a time when we're moving to the new house, opening the new cafe, and the in-laws are in town! So much to do!

Today's 10-month marker means there're only 2 months left for planning and getting everything done, and also only 2 months left to lost my last 7 kilos. Which is, coincidentally (not!) the same amount I needed to lose 2 months ago.

They say One is the loneliest number that you'll ever know. For me right now, that number is 7! Haha...

In other news, thanks for the well-wishes and encouraging sms, Aidan's been really good the last couple days since we returned from Queenscliff, sleeping through last night, resettling himself, having longer naps. Tonight he's even resettled himself a couple of times without needing me to keep comforting him physically!

I think it's 'coz the other day I just let him cry for almost an hour in the early morning so he got the point that I wasn't coming. Sorry to the bleeding hearts, but it actually worked (after only 1 try instead of long drawn-out weeks when I had to put up with crying from 7am to 11pm everyday!), my resolve has thickened, especially when it comes to disciplining him lately. No touching wires, no touching DVDs and stereo equipment, no toppling the heater, no touching his water vapouriser, no opening drawers.

The latter he learnt the hard way when he opened the kitchen drawer today and clipped his little finger. Not too hard, not to worry, but 'coz his left had was pushing against it, and his right index finger had slipped in, he got an Owie. I grabbed it quickly before it got wedged further, but I think I could've done it a little gentler! (Panicked mum at work!)

The little sugar plum wailed - but recovered almost immediately! It wasn't even a "I'm in paaainn!" cry - rather more like a "ow...that really hurt! Oooh. Biscuits..." kinda cry.

Good thing he's a cutie. Here's the proof.

Mummmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..........

There's just something about a child's infernal whining that can make any sane person climb a wall, smash a plate, or gnaw their eyes out with their dentures. And that particular whining, friends, happens to belong to my almost-10 month old whenever he's down with a cold.

It's grating, and has the capacity to suck the life-force out of you the way ah peks at Tiong Bahru market suck the marrow from bones. It builds from a small whimper to a crescendo, culminating in a full-blown wail. WAIL if you don't pick him up on time. WAIL if you put him back in the cot before he's fully asleep. WAIL if you remove him from harm's way. WAIL if you remove the piece of paper he's slowly mulching in his mouth, making its way to his digestive tract.

But oh joy when he's recovered, and the twinkle returns to his eye! Now I just need to retrain him in the art of resettling himself to sleep, and maybe, just maybe, I can get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep!


PS. Will post the pics from our weekend away to Queenscliff soon.

Today's a special day...

;-) Hope it's been a good day! EG thought we could have a late celebration with everyone here in September too?!

Today is...Pasta Day!

Daddy Soh had a brainwave today!

"Let's make some pasta! From scratch!"

So we finally broke in our pasta maker which we got 3 years ago. Here's some of the action...








More here on our Flickr photostream.

Sleep...perchance to dream...

Finally! EG and I got much needed rest last night after bubba finally went to bed at 11-ish.

We'd actually put him down at 8pm, but he woke up EVERY half-hour thereafter. It took a lot of rocking and swinging and singing before he fell asleep eventually in my arms. I fell asleep too, sitting in the armchair cuddling him!

So today we woke up at the normal time (phew!) and 'coz he's still a little sick he's pretty whiny. Whinge...whinge...whinge...mummy...mummy...mummy... I think he's actually recovering 'coz he only ever does this when he's getting better and has enough strength to hold that pitch-perfect whine. The grating one that tires you out just listening to it.

But at least he's not as sick anymore - fever broke yesterday. Which was a good thing considering the three, yes you heard me right, THREE hours spent waiting at the eczema clinic at the Children's hospital. We attended a lecture on how to provide relief for eczema sufferers, waited for another 2 hours to see the doc, spent just 10 mins with a super-fast talking Dr. Lakshmi who steamrolled through her diagnosis, and popped out to get his medication and more DermEze.

One good thing about being on the dole though - consults and medication are cheaper, or free! His Elidel cream (which'd worked before, when Yuls gave us some left-over from ZG's bout with eczema (even though I know you're not supposed to share prescriptions)) came to only $5 down from $32! Woohoo... I get another cheap refill, then a private script for it will cost full-price.

Anyhoo! We're off on a holiday this weekend (Sun arvo to Tues) to the coast - Queenscliff! With the Chews, and our two respective family nannies - Evie and Ellie! Haha...