Monday, September 25, 2006

Bite = kiss (love) ?

Sometimes when Bryan is geram, he will grab our face and try to bite our cheeks, nose or chin. He will do it when he is over excited when we are playing with him, or if we annoyed him - either we hugged or tickled him too hard, or he just plain want to do that.

He does that to other children or babies too. His cousin Mel (7 yrs old) is very scared of him coz she say he bites. And when he gets close to baby cousin Jasmin (6 wks old), he will open his mouth as if he wants to bite her. But he is more gentle with Jasmine than with Mel. With Mel, he will lunge forward, but with Jasmine, he will lean gently forward.

And Bryan only do this to people he knows and likes. Maybe it is his way of showing affection. I mean we kiss him all the time on his cheeks, so i guess biting is his way of kissing back.

Ouch, love really hurts sometimes...LOL

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Hair cut #3

Took Bryan to his third visit to the barber today. Not as bad as #2. He was a bit scared and cried a bit, but calmed down very fast too.

He looked sooooo cute after his cut.

Good food = bad food

All the good food in life are usually bad food. All the food that cause high cholestrol / calorie are usually food that we enjoy very much - seafood (crab, prawns) , roasted meat (satay, char siew, sio bak) , chocolates, cheese cakes...

And not only adults have to watch their intake of good food but babies too, as they may cause allergy.

So far i have been very careful about Bryan's diet cause he had some minor eczema before and his paed told me to be careful when introducing solids.

Yesterday, Bryan had 2 types of good food
1. Bak hu, at MIL place. LK ate some and Bryan asked for some. So since it is only pork, we let him have some. Yummy yummy. For someone who is used to taking unsalted food, bak hu must be very delicious to him.

2. Beef koay teow - we had beef koay teow for dinner, and i forgot to bring any baby rusks for Bryan. There were also no stalls selling bread nearby. So since Bryan had had beef before, we thought it should be safe to let him have some koay teow. He loved it. Of course la, the beef koay teow was very nice even to our taste buds.

But when we got home, we discovered some hives on his right cheeks, and knees. It disappears after his bath and after i applied some calamine lotion on it. This morning, he was fine until we let him play in our bedroom without turning on the fan/ air con, and the hives appeared again. This time more - on his cheeks, neck and on his waist where his pants elastic bands are.

So i quickly put some calamine lotion again and it dissapear after a while. It seems that the hives appear when he is feeling hot. He never had these before, so we are assuming that it is either due to bak hu or beef koay teow. We suspect it is koay teow coz we can never be sure that the soup does not have anything else other than beef. They may put some seafood in there - cuttlefish, scallop, etc to make the soup tastier.

Eeekkk... that was certainly a scary experience. So Bryan, no more sinful good food for u until you are older.

Proud grandparents

My parents are really a pair of protective grandparents. It is obvious to everyone that they love Bryan to bits. Their neighbour, an elderly woman also took care of a baby girl - YanYan who is about 2 months older than Bryan.

But the girl is very "smart" - she understands most of the things we say, she can say quite a lot of words, can walk/ run unassisted and can imitate a lot of actions - the most funny is the "kepala sakit"action where she will put her hands to her forehead feigning headache.

So in comparison to YY, Bryan is very quite far behind, but i have always told my parents to not care or compare about it. Children develop at different speed and there is really no use to compare. And to be honest, Bryan is not behind in his development milestones, so there's nothing to worry about.

Last Friday, my mom told me that she don want to take Bryan out when YY is outside. Coz YY's grandma said to the other neighbours that YY is faster in her development than Bryan

How kiasu, and in a way sad, coz the old people's kiasuism is in a way affecting the children, since Bryan will have less chance to play with YY until my mom gets over it. Luckily, me knowing my mom, it won't be long.

Babbling Baby

This weekend, Bryan has been babbling non-stop. And it is the cutest thing ever. Besides the usual, baba, papa, mama,..he is starting to say bear bear, bye-bye. And some "complicated" words he imitated us this weekend.

1. Puk Ke Yi (mandarin for "cannot") => when we told him that he cannot "bite" or beat his baby cousin Jasmine.
2. Ice Kim (ice cream) => when MIL tempted him with ice cream
3. Hallo

My sis also said that he said "Fish" before when she showed him the fishes in her aquarium

It is usually a surprise to hear him say those words but unfortunately is difficult to get him to repeat it.

But i think he has yet to learn the meanings to those words or learn to control when to say it. Most of the time it is a long string of babbles. And if he hears a song he likes, you can bet the babbles will continue.

He have also learnt to make the finger movements to the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song. Although i sing the song to him all the time, i rarely make the finger movements. This weekend, i started to make it and he learnt to copy me in no time.

So it is really true what most people say. When babies learn to talk, they do learn very fast.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Genting

Safely back from Genting Highlands yesternight. It was a pretty relaxing trip, something that i had not had for a verryyy long time. Since my mid-term pregnancy, LK had avoided taking me on any holiday. And since arrival of Bryan, we take him everywhere we go, so it is usually quite tiring.

Although we did not take Bryan to Genting, he was constantly on our mind. Everytime we see a cute ride at the indoor theme park, we'll go,..."hmm..you think Bryan will be able to do that next year?" or "i think Bryan will love that ride by this time next year". Or when we saw a huge aquarium with huge fishes at one of the casino entrance, the first thing i said was, "Bryan will love this". And LK would say,..."eh how is our cutecute boy doing..." and that's a signal for me to call my mom to check on Bryan.

So taking Bryan to Genting is definitely in our plans when he's about 2 so that he can enjoy the indoor theme park.

But one thing i dislike badly about Genting is the poor air quality...there are just too many people smoking, indoor and outdoor. Arrgh...my nose was terribly irritated the entire journey. That makes it less attractive as a vacation spot for kids. So i certainly would not take my kid(s) up there frequently. Once in a while (i mean a few years) ok la, but for a yearly holiday getaway, i would prefer some place like Camerons. Yeah, LK and i like the cool places. We are not much of a shopaholics so highlands serves us very well as vacation spots.

So was Bryan a good boy in our absence. Except for the extended bed time, he was a pretty good boy at my mom's place. No complaints. Normally at our house, he'll be asleep by 830 - 900pm but at my mom's place, 1030- 1100pm. Too playful, i guess. Luckily he slept through the night, so my parents can still have a good night's rest.

My dad slept with him the 3 nights while my mom shares my sis's bedroom (in my old bed). Guess Bryan is a real kong-kong grandbaby. My dad even took 2 days leave so that he can help babysit and take him kai-kai. No wonder Bryan did not miss mommy and daddy at all! He was treated like a prince the entire 3 days.

And he almost finished my entire frozen breastmilk stock (about 30 bags of 3-4 Oz) during the 3 day stay at my mom's. So that goods news. Before that, he rejected frozen milk and i had to throw away a few bags coz they have expired (> 3mths old). Luckily he accepted frozen milk again, otherwise, i will have to start him on formula when i am away.

So now, i can start again with the storing, ...not that i have that much extra to store anymore since i am very lazy to pump now. :P

And i just read in the breastfeeding forum that HA formula tastes bitter and some babies don't like it. Cham la. Bryan quite particular about milk taste, so i hope he will be cooperative when i need to start supplementing with formula.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Will

Tonight, Lk and I will be going to Genting for 3 nights (tonight included). This is the first time that we are going away without Bryan.

Coincidentally, my financial advisor fren , Hong is also going on a 2 week Europe holiday with his wife.

So yesternight, he came to our house to finalize our will and also my life insurance. I have been talking to him about increasing my life insurance coverage and also to write our will. But we didn't get any of it finalized until yesternight. Now both him and us can go for our holiday in peace. That if something happen, he doesn't owe us anything and I know that Lk & my estate will be carried out according to our wishes, and most importantly, Bryan will be taken care of materially and financially at least.

Before i had Bryan, i had no fear of death. If i go on a holiday, i have no fear. But now with Bryan, I fear death not because of death itself, but of what would happen to Bryan.

So it is definitely right to say that having a child is a life-changing experience. You will never think and act the same after the arrival of a child. Your priorities will be different, and you can be sure that most of the decisions you make will revolve around him (or her.)

Anyway, back to happier mood. Since i at Genting, wish me luck at the casino...kekeke.

Papa,mama,baba, bpa,bma...

After months of eh, heh, hai,..aei,...finally Bryan said papa, mama,papa, mama at the same time. Yesternight after dinner at my mom's place, on the way home, Bryan suddenly let out a string of papa, mama, baba, mapa,bma bma, and he went on saying that for a few minutes. It was certainly a very happy moment for both LK & I.

And just for the record, he was 10 months, 1 week & 3 days old when he said papa & mama.

Now is to teach him tht papa => LK, and mama => me.

Before this, he use to call me HEH (sounds like prawn in hokkien). My bfg friends at work use to joke that if I am HEH, then LK must be HU (fish)...hahaha...

Finally there's an end to my HEH days.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Cooler bag

Bryan favourite bag is my Coleman cooler bag - that I use daily to transport my EBM from home/ office to my mom's place. Maybe because it is in bright silver color and I hav e a few key chains dangling from it.

But he can spend a long time, tossing & turning it, and take time to explore the key chains. If we are not paying attention, he will chew the labels & key chain too (EWwwwww...)

Yesterday, LK and I went to my mom's place together after work to have dinner & then pick him home. He was very excited to see us, and even more excited to see the bag. So after i had removed the bottles of EBM, i gave it to him to play on the living room floor.

While waiting for me to get the rice for our dinner, LK teased Bryan from the dining room table..."Nar bag" (take bag). To our surprise, Bryan got really angry and grabbed the bag close to him, screamed & kicked his legs. It was so funny to see him being so possessive.

We did not expect him to understand what LK meant. And we thought maybe it's because Lk made the hand movements.

So LK said "Nar bag" again without any hand movements. Bryan screamed again, and kicked angrily. It was absolutely hilarious.

It definitely proves that eventhough he may not speak, he does understand what we speak.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

First sickness

I am kinda proud that Bryan has never been sick since he was born. Yes, he had jaundice at birth and was admitted to the hospital once for vomit. But i don't really consider those as sickness.

For the hospital case for vomit, it was when he was 3 mths old. As he was still small, the paed was cautious and advised us to admit him. But during his stay, he was not given any medicine at all, although he as put on glucose drip (for fear of dehydration) and some vitamins only.

And i attribute his health to me breastfeeding him. Because he was and still is a breastfed baby, the paed say that he will recover without medicine.

Last Friday, was the first time he was really sick. His first fever. Mom called at 3++pm saying that Bryan temp was 37.6 C but i told her to just monitor as i have loads of work to do. Then, sis called at 545pm and said that Bryan' s temp was 38 C, and at that time , my immediate response is, i am going to send him to the paed.

So packed a few of his clothes and mine, in case he need to be admitted and then rush to pick mom & Bryan up to go see the paed.

His temp was 38.2 C at the paed's office and the paed classified it as symptoms of flu. May have got if fr Dad who just recovered. Anyway, paed say that he shd recover in 2 days time and advised me to breastfeed as much as possible.

Gave us paracetamol and some cough syrup.

Turned out that feeding Bryan those medicine was torture. He hated it. He vomitted the moment he tasted the medicine. I tried to taste it and it was very sweet. Smelt of medicine but sweet.

It took us a long time to feed him the medicine and he vomitted a couple of times during the process. In between, lotsa of cleanup - him, and the floor. And he looked so forlorn, as if we were intentionally tormeting him. He hunged tightly to my mom and in the process, vomitted over my mom's shoulder too.

But when i checked on him during the night, his fever has subsided, but i could hear a bit of phlegm in his breathing. So the next morning, i made him some rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. Then gave him his second dose of cough syrup. He really hated it, and tried to vomit out the syrup.

So that's it. I decided there and then i am not going to give him anymore medicine. Just monitor and let him get well on his own.

Luckily his situation continue to improve and there was no sign of sickness at all later Saturday afternoon.

So i guess, he just proved that breastfed babies do get sick very seldom but when they do, they get well really fast. I am so glad that I am still bfg him. This is probably another motivation for me to continue to bf him.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Ooops...I kiss someone's put-put

Yesterday was the last day of the Sushi King RM2 promotion. So since it was so cheap, I decided to take my mom for a treat. So after work, immediately rush home to P Terubong and fetch mom & Bryan. My sis & LK meet us at Sushi King BJ.

Arrived at BJ at about 6:10pm and there was a huge crowd outside. Luckily LK arrived earlier and therefore we can go in once everyone has arrived.

At Sushi King, as usual, we place Bryan into the baby chair. And in a few seconds, he turned around, grab the back of the chair, and pulled himself into a standing position. We did not even notice him doing it. When Lk noticed it, he was already standing proudly in his baby chair *pening*.

The chair does not have any strap to secure him & he would not sit still in the chair since he discovered a way to stand up. End up, we had to eat with him on our lap. Luckily it was just sushi, so fairly easy to eat.

After dinner, sis took mom home, LK drove home by himself and Bryan with me. But as it was late, he was quite fussy, so i had to keep entertaining him along the way.

As i stopped at the traffic light near my house, I forgot to switch my gear to Neutral but instead just continue to step on the brake. Then i played with Bryan and must have lose my footing resulting my car to slide to the front and knocked the backside of the Wira in front of me.

I kinda shocked and step out of the car and apologise immediately to the driver. Then i got back in to reverse my car. The driver inspected the car and realized that there were no damages, gave me the OK sign and got back into the car.

*Phew* Lesson learnt. No playing with kids while on the road! I may not be so lucky next time.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Bye Bye

Bryan can finally wave bye-bye to us. Now, sometimes when he hears the word bye-bye, he will wave his arms up & down. Started doing that last week. And last weekend, he started to wriggle his fingers after bye-bye as well. Like the way the fortune tellers count fortune with their fingers.

I use the word sometimes coz, he does not do it 100% of the time. But most of the time now :) .

p/s: I just figured out yesterday, actually it was my mom. The wriggling finger action...he was trying to snap his fingers. My aunt #3 like to do while playing with him.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

I need to pang-sai...NOW

When Bryan was a newborn baby, his bowel movements was very irregular. Average is once in 1 week, 7 days. Longest was 11 days.

Almost all the breastfeeding resource I read says that a breastfed baby will have very frequent bowel movements in a day,..sometimes more than 10. So inevitably, i was worried when my baby did not pang-sai when i took him home.

By the time Bryan is 10 days old, i had consulted 3 paeds about his bowel movements. All assured me that it is ok. Since he is a breastfed baby, i need not worry about constipation. It just means that he has absorbed all the nutrients from the breastmilk and thus, not much left to pass out from his system. And although it is not common, some breastfed baby really do not pangsai everyday.

His bowel movements was irregular until he started solid at 6 mths. Now he pangsai everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times as he is getting healthy servings of porridge with vegetables each day, a lot of undigested substance since his body is still learning to adapt to solids.

And usually he'll pangsai after his meal, or sometimes in the middle of his meal. And when he wants to pangsai...he will start fussing for no reason. If he's at my mother's home, she knows how to read the sign and will let him sit on the potty. But with us, I am still learning to read the signs. Sometimes i get it, sometimes i don't. If i don't, i will have another soiled nappy to throw away.

Yesterday after dinner at my BIL's house, he started fussing. Checked his nappy, sure enough, it was soiled. Changed it and 15 mins later, he fussed again. Checked nappy again,...soiled again. Aiyo, this baby thinks his parents very rich...a lot of $$ to spend on nappies.

Today, while I was feeding him dinner...he started screaming in a high pitch voice. He wasn't crying, just screamed,..sorta in a sing-song voice. I said to dh, maybe he want to pangsai, better let him sit potty.

Sure enough, he did pangsai. So, he really does know how to communicate to us, we just have to learn how to read the signs, until he learns how to verbalize what he want

Back to the waters

It has been more than 3 months (i think) since I last took Bryan for a swim. The last time I took him swimming was in May 06, that's when he was 6 mths old. I then stopped because
1. heard that there are Cosackie cases in Penang
2. weather has not been good - i only take Bryan swimming if the weather is hot, so that the water is warm after the sun has set. Normally we'll go swimming around 6pm.

Today, he was such a well behave boy. I went for a facial with my friend, and left Bryan under his daddy's care. He was haing his morning nap when I left. When he woke up, his daddy fed him porridge for lunch and then both of them just had fun playing. No tantrums, no crying at all. I am so proud of both of them.

So because he was such a good boy, and the sun was rather warm, i decided to take him swimming at our apt pool in the evening.

Boy of boy, he was scare of the water when we first went in. He held on to me really tightly. This was a sharp contrast to our experience 3 mths ago, where he kicked the water gleefully the moment he went into the water. There was no fear of the water at all then.

I guess he has lost his natural swimming reflex and is starting to develop fear.

It took him a few minutes before he relaxed a bit and held out one arm to bat the water. Slowly his legs kicked a bit but one hand still held on to my swim costume tightly. Refuse to let go.

After about 10 mins, only did he fully relax, started to enjoy the water and waved happily to his daddy who was recording the experience on our new handycam. Although he did kicked the water ala froggie style, his kicks were not as graceful & smooth as the ones when he was 6 mths old. I do have a tinge of regret that i did not take him swimming consistently. But then again, his health is more important than his ability to "swim"

By the time we took him out of the water, he was very comfy with the environment and thus protested with a struggle and some cries.

It's ok baby, if the weather is good next weekend, we'll come again.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Handycam

Finally, we bought a video camera. So far, we have been taking video from our digital camera. The quality is fairly good, but it is troublesome to convert to dvd, and thus difficult to share with family. Also the recording time is not long on the camera.

So yesterday, went to the camera fair at Gurney Plaza and bought the Sony DCR-DVD605E handycam. Cost was Rm1999 + free gifts - dvd player (worth Rm290), 3 dvds, handycam bag, tripod, umbrella, 2 sony cups (haha) & desktop calculator (pasar malam quality one). The price is usually standard but we get more gifts if we bought it during the fair

Features:
- PAL
- 20 x Optical Zoom
- 800 x Digital Zoom - B&W Viewfinder
- 2.5 in LCD Screen
- Touch screen
- Carl Zeiss lens

The other model that we were considering was Panasonic. The advantage Pana model has is 30X optical zoom. But we have used Aunt 5 Sony handycam before and the video quality is very good. Plus Aunt 5 has bought the camera years ago and it is still in good condition, so sony quality is reliable. The Sony model is made in Japan. With Pana, we have no experience, and although the Lumix Panasonic camera we have is very good, i don't know about their handycam. Btw, we bought the Lumix camera coz it uses Leica lens and is also wholly made in Japan. Leica lens is the best (or one of the best) lens in the world. But their handy cam are not using any branded lens.

Another thing my sis cautioned me is to get a camera with built in flash (?) so that can get good night scenes. We have recorded good night scenes using Aunt 5's Sony. During our trip to Korea, I manage to record some street dance by the teenagers at their public park from easily 200-300M away and it was at night.

Anyway, I haven't tried recording on my new handycam yet. Can't wait to use it. It's definitely gonna help us capture a lot of precious Bryan moments.