The beginning of weaning

Bryan tried the EyeQ Gain formula today. At first sip, he made vomit face, but after that he accepted the taste and finished the 2 out of 3 Oz that mom prepared for him. Mom gave him another 3 Oz one hour later.

My frens at work was teasing me that if Bryan don't accept formula, then i will have to bf till he is 5.

I will soon be able to reduce my daily pumping session to just 1, but i will continue to direct bf Bryan whenever he's with me, ie nights and weekend.

But I am still a little bit sad. This would mean that our bfg relationship is slowly coming to end. Not that i want to wean now, but it marks the beginning....

I'm front facing now!

Since Bryan is 1 year old now and is above 20 pounds, he has met the minimum requirement to sit in a front facing child car seat.

So we turned his seat around, hoping that he will "enjoy" the view more and will be more cooperative in the car seat.

He was,..for the first few minutes. He went "Aeiii" when we placed him in his NEW seat arrangement and was happy that he can see his daddy from where he were.

But it was only a few minutes, before he started fretting again...hai.....

Bryan is 1 year old

Happy Birthday to Bryan
Happy Birthday to Bryan
Happy Birthday to Bryan
Happy Birthday to Bryan

Yeah...my darling is officially ONE! That means i have met my stretch goal of breastfeeding till he is one!! YooHooo!!

Interesting/ New achievements this month:-

1. Expert at operating the tv and fan remote control.
• That’s the only 2 remote we let him play with. When he is at his bedroom, and the fan is off, he will point to the fan *eh*eh* and then search for the remote to turn it on. He will press press all the different buttons on the remote until the fan turns on. And when he press the button, got style some more one leh…he’ll point the remote to the fan.
• If he got hold of the tv remote, he’ll be pointing to the tv and press the different buttons to change the channel
2. When my parents came to our house, he’ll show around the house.
• Show them his toys
  
• Show them where the pet tortoise is
  
• One of the tortoises escaped and my mom asked aloud, “Eh, now got only one tortoise hor”. Then Bryan actually showed her where the tortoise was hiding – at the opposite corner of balcony

3. If we ask him “Where is Bryan?”, he’ll point to his photo in the living room, before patting his own chest.
4. Learnt the magic of the pointy index finger. He has learnt that pointing his index finger helps get him what he want – whether it is a toy or for us to carry us to where he wants.
5. Recognizes the items in the house, and where they are, fishes in the aquarium, tortoise, tv, fan.
6. Crawl on four at “running” speed. He’s really quite an expert at crawling now. Will take a photo and upload later.
7. Can recognize places. When I send him to my mother’s house each morning, immediately when we arrive, he’ll stretch out from his car seat to look out the window to search for my parents.
8. Can recognize when it is time to get out from daddy’s car. He can recognize the sound of the reverse sensor (during parking). So immediately when the sensor stops sounding, and he hears the sound of the hand brake, he’ll hold his hands out for us to take him out from the car.

So how did we celebrate his first birthday? Nothing really special as it was a working day and neither hubby nor I took the day off.

We just went for dinner with my parents and sister at the Shanghai Ding Tai Feng restaurant that is near our workplace & house. As usual, Bryan can’t have anything on the menu, so I brought different types of biscuits for him. Most of the biscuits ended on the floor, so it was a real mess. I jokingly told Bryan, that the next time they see him, they’ll probably take out the “CLOSE” sign.

1st birthday party

We decided to take advantage of the Raya Holidays to have an early birthday celebration for Bryan. Afterall, it is only about a week earlier, as the actual day is next Thursday.

I had thought and planned about this day months in advance. I was thinking of a few options

#1: Afternoon garden party at the BBQ corner at our apartment grounds. The place is nice, shady and spacious. I was planning to hang balloons & streamers at the tree branches to create a party environment.

#2: Dinner party at a restaurant.

#3: Small party for just relatives at our house.

Finally we decided on #3, and I am happy about it cause
#1: It has been raining the last few days and the grounds are muddy and wet. It also rained towards the evening as well.

#2: Went to hubby’s colleague baby’s first birthday party and it felt more like a wedding dinner.

#3: Since only relatives are invited, Bryan is familiar with everyone (almost). Also, as it is at our house, Bryan was very comfortable…no stranger anxiety at all.

All the food at the party is home-cooked
Mom: Fried noodles + egg jelly + red eggs
MIL: Fried bee hoon + curry chicken
Me: Pasta with cheese & tuna
Aunt #5: Swiss roll blueberry cheese birthday cake, creamy cream puff, tuna rolls, cheese tarts

Unfortunately, Bryan cannot have any one of it, not even the birthday cake. Paed had advised me to continue to avoid giving egg to Bryan for fear of allergy.

Nevermind la darling, by this time next year, you will be able to enjoy everything on the table.

MIL had to hold Bryan's hands at the sides to get this photo, as Bryan will pull the cap down as soon as we put it on for him....

Taking charge...

Finally Bryan realized that he is capable of taking charge and it is sometimes pointless to cry.

This morning, LK put out a few toys on the living room floor for Bryan. Then he left to go to the kitchen to get a drink while Bryan is engrossed with the toys. I was in the kitchen at the time. After a few minutes, Bryan realized that he was alone in the living room. LK noticed that and said, "Oops, he just noticed I'm gone. He’s going to cry now”

But to our surprise, Bryan did not cry, but instead just quickly crawled towards the kitchen. Not sure how he figured out that we are in the kitchen. I am so proud of him.

Bryan is 11 months old

Now he can

1. Say papa, mama, mum-mum, bye bye, bear bear, ai, kai-kai. These are the common words he says each day. Sometimes he will surprise us by imitating certain words as we say it.
2. Pull himself up to a standing position.
3. Take a few steps while holding on to something. Usually it is merry go round in his play pen.
4. Understand most of the things we say. Eg
1. When we say “suei-chiau” (sleep), he will find the nearest pillow and plop his head on it for 2 seconds. LOL. If only he can really go to sleep when we ask him to.
2. Up or “Chi Lai” when he is bathing, he will get up, of course with our help. But will still cry because he loves playing with water.
3. When we ask him to not put objects into his mouth. He will usually obey but sometimes can get angry. If he gets angry, he will throw the item down with force, only to pick it up again in a few seconds to continue playing , …and attempting to put it into his mouth.
5. If we leave the room and go to another without him, he will crawl after us…usually crying along the way.
6. Get down from his mattress (~ 6 inch high) on to the floor with no problem. No more hitting his head when getting down.
7. Has developed fear of strangers. Takes a while to warm up to strangers now, and is quite clingy when he is in new places or among new people.
8. He’ll clap my hand when I say “High 5” and offered my palm.
9. Ask for food whenever he sees us eating.
10. Can “drive” his car…backwards.
11. Sleeps through the night with occasionally waking up for 1 feeding. Usually at about 530am because of the azan from nearby mosques. That’s the trouble with staying in apartments, can hear sounds from different directions.

He loves - The mirror.

He still doesn’t like to:-

1. Sit in the stroller
2. A bit more cooperative in the car seat. Still will cry to be let out of the chair but not loud (bad) enough for me to get him out. (Except yesterday night on the way to LK’s colleague’s baby birthday party. Did not cry loudly but was as if trying to make himself vomit. I know he is capable of doing that, so LK said to get him out quick).

And he has 2 little teeth at the bottom, and another 2 emerging tooth at the top. OK, now mummy got to start planning for your 1 year birthday.

Crawling on fours

Yippeeee.....Bryan is now crawling on fours! And I was there to witness the very first crawl, together with my mom, sis and LK.

Hmm...i hope i will be there to witness his first unassisted step as well, which will not be too far away.

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.

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.

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.

Bryan is 9 months old

My darling bb is 9 months old today. Nah..we did not do anything special. Just that he is slowly growing into a little boy and slowly growing out from a baby.

Soon, less and less people will refer him as a baby.

Today when LK was taking him out from the car, he mentioned that Bryan is looking less like a baby now. His expressions and response are more and more like those of a child and not anymore of a baby.

Don't time just flies....the more reason to appreciate the presence.