The Sorcerer's Apprentice

That's Ning's first movie @ the Cathay Cinema at Woodlands Causeway Point. We watched the 3pm show and Mummy paid $6 for it with NETS.

Ning seemed to enjoy the first hour, sitting facing the screen on Mummy's thigh. After that, the movie got a little darker with eerie music.

She fussed. I nursed her but she kept looking back at the screen as if willing it to be silent. I guessed she wanted to nurse to sleep.

Took us out for a toilet break and returned for the movie. Sat away from the center crowds in case she started fussing again.

We finished the show together :)

This wasn't my first choice, they didn't show Despicable Me, the animation and Inception was one and half hour later. There's why.

She tried to take off her own clothes

After i shed mine for bath.

It was time for bath and I usually undress before her. Today is the first time she did that.

Ning's in the Wok

Haha, I did it.

Shh, don't tell the grandparents.

She's really good at balancing in it too.

Wok and spatula play

Introduced the word wok, so I dug up our wok for her to play with. And what fun is a wok without the spatula?

Am so tempted to put her in the Wok for a spin. Will sure get scolding from Popo.

Second night without a single nappy change needed

This week. Or was it a third? I think there was one where we missed the wake up toilet call because both of us were too tired to heed her toilet signs.

The trend seems to steer towards 2 toilet calls per night and a very urgent wake-up pee.

This week she averaged 4 diapers daily i.e. If Mummy isn't out of tune with her needs too much. There were one or two days this week when I changed just to refresh her nappy after bath.

She used 18 daily as a newborn. At 4 months she averaged 8-12 daily. Now at 8 months, 4 daily is such a big relief for Mummy.

It seems like the goal is nearer. That she'd go and use the toilet by herself, hopefully by 15 months.

5th tooth out

It is the 3rd front lower incisor on the right. No wonder she's been salivating a lot lately.

I love peeping at the little teeth whenever she laughs, babbles or just smiles.

Speaking of teeth, she's eaten bigger portions of the baby cracker without gagging. Almost a third.

She calls. Head (dropping to floor from sitting position) getting heavy.

She understands our conversations

Yesterday, I was talking to Popo on the phone (speaker mode) in Cantonese and Popo asked me to 'lock' Ning in the cot if I needed to cook or do other household chores. I said she'd cry, Popo says it's okay, she'd settle down. Ning started to cry inconsolably when she was happily mouthing her rattle away earlier. I had to assure her that I haven't put her in her cot for a very long time and won't be doing that just to do chores. Then she stopped crying.

By the way, when I do cook, she sits on the high chair with me in the kitchen. I'd give her a pot or lid to bang with a spoon. I'd let her sit on the floor if I was going to be quick, otherwise, it's the high chair. I'm also quite a 'messy' cook, tend to flick water all over the place, and pieces of cut vegetables may fall on the floor. So, these are the reasons for the high chair.

Today, she was playing with her telephone rattle before bath. After bath, I dried her on the bed beside her fresh jumper and the rattle. She kept picking up the jumper to gum the collar. To get her off the jumper, I asked her, "Why don't you play with your telephone rattle? It's been waiting for you since before you bathed." And she immediately rolled over to get the rattle and let me dress her :)

The many toilet signs of Ning's

First, there's the ubiquitous "boo" which can mean toilet or milk. Then there's the bringing of both hands together trying to sign "toilet" in ASL (American Sign Language) which either ends with frustrated flapping of both hands or putting the cooperative thumb into her mouth.

The surest sign of all is the stop nursing, pull both legs up and thump down or starts shuffling towards the toilet, this one usually is for poo.

The best one is after bedtime, she'll pull her legs up, rotate to land her legs on either Papa or myself repeatedly, refuse to nurse, until she either wets her nappy and cries, or I bring her to the potty. Like last night. Sometimes its quite a rude awakening when you get thumped in the stomach or other sensitive areas.

The amazing thing is she doesn't cry first, but makes these signs in her sleep, occasionally accompanied by "uh uh" sounds. Right after I put her in position, she'll pee, eyes closed all the while. The moment i put her back in bed, she's fast asleep already. Then I'll fasten her nappy, button up her jumper and shift back to the middle of the bed.

Just now, while playing sitting up beside her cot, she suddenly blurted "tte tee tte" without looking up from her play. So I asked her if she wanted toilet. No response, busy playing. Then after a while, she looks up scans room and stared at potty. Then back to play. I plucked her up to go, she complained a bit, then peed in the potty.

I'm so in awe. I mean, from birth to now, this is really a big achievement.

Ning is a definitely a "clean-wanna-be" baby.

Funny Mummy scratching beach ball

Like a DJ scratching disc with serious intensity. Like real. More like a mad violinist with shaking head.

Made Ning laughed repeatedly with that one.

She's also a funny one, straining her neck to watch TV over her gym.

We had a late swim @ 6pm to make it more conducive for Ning to go to sleep tonight. It worked. Sort of. She only slept 10 minutes to 10 pm. Late but with very little complaint.. Rocked a little, whispered that its late and its time to sleep. We can continue to pray tomorrow. Then she said "boo..." so I potted her. Then told her "milk" and nursed her. She nursed for about 5 minutes, rolled over, rolled back, whimpered a bit and then laid back asleep.

*phew*

Learning seems to work

After the last addition equation today, 2+2=4, I was contemplating which card to let Ning "play" with for a while. She did crawl all the way across the bed to the dot cards.

So I said, "Hmm, which shall I give to you to play, 2, or 4? 2 seems too simple and boring, 4 then," and she picked the right card!

Yeah, it may be a fluke you say, but it made my day.

*beaming-with-pride*

Time to prep for tomorrow's sessions!

Ning's learning program

I started with the English reading program, following the book to the T, and then added Math, following the notes that came with the cards.

However, I had a problem finding 15 happy sessions half an hour apart. So it quickly dwindled down to 2 sets of 5 words i.e. 6 sessions per day, and another 6 sessions with the Math dot cards. You really need to flash very quickly. I'd lose her after the third card, meaning, she'd start looking at other things.

In between the beginning and now, I've also stopped and restarted Math cards, tried 3reading cards per session, 2 sets per day. Then decided to follow the book on 5 cards per set and hone my flashing speed.

Most of the time, if she seems to be in the mood, I'd do as many sets back to back. If she's not in the mood, I'd stop and wait at least 15 minutes for the next session.

And it's sort of evolved to 2 sets of 5 English words, 2 sets of 5 dot cards and 3 sets of 3 equations. She's particularly interested in the dot cards (crawled to them in favor of camera or phone or colourful musical Lamaze flowers) and especially attentive with the addition equations (just started 3 days ago).

I hear her waking, gotta stop!

Preparing for Ning's learning

This is the first time I'm writing on helping Ning learn to read and do math. I started with the physical program when she was 5 months old after reading Glenn Doman's "How Smart is Your Baby".

Took me some time to source for used cards within my budget (original costs SGD2,700). Found some old posts on forum but was usually too late. Finally a set from 6years ago that has all I needed for one-fifth of the retail price and started using them when she was 6 months old.

The set has the following:
1) "How to teach your baby to Read" English Kit (Volume 1 & 2)
2) "How to teach your baby to Read" Chinese Kit (Volume 1 & 2)
3) "How to teach your baby Math" Kit
4) "How to give your baby Encyclopaedic Knowledge" Kit (10 sets)

I was told the latest copies of the reading kits contained over a thousand words and my set from 6 years ago only had about six hundred and a little more. It was enough for me to get started, I thought. Once her sight has developed considerably, will make slideshows or own A4 cards :)

Sitting down from standing is also a skill

Just found out about that from BabyCenter newsletter.

She's developed this pretty quickly after standing. It's suppose develop in the 9th or 10th month. I think we don't give her enough opportunity to pull to standing though, we just put her to the cot bars / gym and she hangs on from there.

Will sit her down at the cotside more often. It's definitely sturdier for pulling up than the IKEA baby gym.

Developmental milestone: Walking

Lip smacking and teeth grinding

Ning's added lip smacking and teeth grinding to her repertoire of new sounds ;)

She woke and started grinding her teeth since 2 nights ago. A little eerie, but very amusing. Its like announcing the arrival of her upper pair of incisors to complete her first bite!

Captured the smacking in this video.

The grossest poo clean-up

Since we had dinner at the restaurant at Kota Kemuning. Then she had poo leaked onto the floor through her string high chair onto a neat round puddle on the floor. I didn't realize there was so much poo and got it all over my sling and clothes when I carried her to the car to change. It was Gong Gong who asked if I'd dropped her "round toy" on the floor. It was then that I noticed the puddle of poo.

Horror.

They'll probably remember us for a very long time.

Today, she was nursing leaning over the foot of the bed. And she pooed while nursing. I smelled it and saw poo trickling down her left leg and on the floor. I thought she'd said "poo" and tried to sign poo, but she fussed so much the last time I potted her I'd thought maybe later, when she REALLY has to go.

Too late.

Bathed her. Wiped floor.

Lessons learned:
No stand-up nursing.
Heed any hint for toilet.

Leaning over the bed

Ning likes to crawl backwards to the foot of the bed. When she reaches the edge, she drops her feet foot by foot on the floor. Then she'd bend or wiggle her buttocks with her upper body leaning over the mattress.

It reminds me of a scene where the lady leans over a bar waiting for her cocktail. Still underaged.

Blogging with Omnia II

Discovered I can lower resolution of video, limit to 15s maximum, and I can email to this blog! So much easier than with the digital camera and desktop computer.

Also, have setup Hotmail & Gmail on the Omnia II. Together with the free Starhub broadband SIM card, I'm definitely going to be updating more often now :)

First slightly easier bedtime since...

... a long time ago, at least it seems like it.

Today, Pa and I had dinner with Ning in the high chair until 8:30pm. Ning started "aaaah"ing and shouting, some of her usual sleepy signs, besides rubbing her eyes, or fingering her ears.

I carried her into the bedroom. This time, instead of putting her down to nurse, I skipped that part and started rocking her. A couple of times after she started to put her head on my chest, I placed her on the bed to nurse. She turned away and cried a little bit, and then a big sigh, and was asleep. In less than 5 minutes!

Today, she slept over 3 hrs in the afternoon. Tonight, she was asleep by 8:30pm. She must be really tired with the crawling.

Hope it works tomorrow!

First "Long" Distance Crawl @ 8 mths

Non-stop!

And she's not crawling for my mobile phone, soft toys or the camera. She was heading for the math dot cards!

Gym workout sitting-up

Recently she's been shouting like in this video a fair bit, mostly when Mummy isn't in tune with her needs and at bedtime.

She's really quite the professional sitter by now.

Only worry is when she's either sleepy or so pre-occupied with gumming things, she may sometimes just fall backwards.

Oh fun! Spotting a 8-month old!

Butt-pulling crawl

She doesn't do this often or for longer distances.

Rolling and pivoting on her stomach is still the preferred mode of transport.

Afternote:
Right after I emailed this out from my Omnia II, she did a long distance non-stop crawl and I happened to capture it! Yay!

Buttocks high in air, on all fours limbs

She reminds me of how her cousin Cerys Zeze "crawled" in Port Dickson with only palms and feet touching the sand.

Shay Ning's just pushing off the ground and sometimes to sitting, not moving forward like that yet. And yes, she's crawling (stomach on surface) and creeping (stomach off surface) intermittently. I'm a little confused, thought she'd crawl first, then move on to the latter after mastering the crawl. She seems impatient to get straight to standing and walking.

Time to remove all possible dangers from her level, where practical. We'll start with anything we don't want in her mouth like plants, soil and other potentially harmful objects or substances while she's still within my speed limit.

Heart-breaking bedtime

She's crying lots at bedtime again. only consolation is cooing and rocking her to sleep. milk alone doesn't work. At least not for the past 5 days.

What else can I do to ease her into sweet slumber?

1st Upper Tooth (Right) Erupting @ 8 mths 1 wk

Yup. She did it again, rubbed her right thumb's skin right off.

It's teething time again.
Been shouting a lot lately when sleepy.

Guess we can now blame it on teething, how convenient :P

I missed the gentle gurgling & babbling Ning Ning, but then again, this is necessary if she's to start talking soon, I guess. At least she's not crying and still trying to communicate, albeit frustrated and sometimes in vain.

Babble & shout on!

She signs for milk @ 8 mths 1 wk !

Whoa!!! And it's so accurate!

She's really good at it, should get it on video! When she signs milk, I'll quickly echo "MILK" and sign the same. Then she looks so amazed, that she'll keep signing milk and looking at her hand as if it's magic, sometimes forgetting I'm still offering her milk :P

On another note, she's not used "meh'lk" for some time now. Maybe it was because I didn't show enough enthusiam and encouragement when she did. Should really pay more attention to how I react to these things.

She's also been trying the ASL toilet sign. She'd bend 3 fingers and have difficulty with the thumb in before the index finger. All this while, she'd be concentrating hard, biting her lips and frowning. Then she'd just bring her thumb to her mouth before shaking both hands violently as if exclaiming, "Aiyah! I need to go to the toilet NOW!!!" Sometimes, not often, because she'd be impatient to pee already, I'd guide her fingers and she'll watch attentively.

Push-sit day

Today, is push-sit day. She did it once during lunch as I was having my packed economy rice. And at least 5 times in the evening on the living room floor. Once on the bed before sleeping.

Papa's been nagging me to video it. So I set up the camera to film her while I folded diapers. After a few deleted videos, I finally caught her in the act.

And Papa's reaction was so disappointing. He said it looked like she pushed against the sofa. Sigh. Asked me for another video. I thought he'd be thrilled to finally see it.

Sigh.

Anyway, YAY! She can push herself up to sitting position now! It's official! Hurray!

Ning Ning knows how to get off from bed and sit up from crawling position. All by herself!

When she reached 8 months. Yes!

She sat up all by herself @ 8m

Today!

The deed was done about half past six in the evening. She was rolling and pushing backwards as she's been doing a lot lately. Initially we thought she was learning to crawl.

Popo was right. She was trying to sit up. Thumbs up for Popo.

As she pushed herself off the alphabet mat, I nearly pulled her back in. Then, with one leg stretched out and the other bent, she finally stretched out both legs , pushed back with both arms. Slowly she pulled back lifting both hands off the floor. At first she wobbled a little as her legs was in perfect split, then she pulled them back a bit.

And she smiled. Finally accomplished.

Pincer grasp captured @ 8 mths (started 7 mths)

I've been observing this new development for a while now. Why no photos? That's because she's been practising while nursing, on the other "milk bar".

Today, I captured it on camera!

Lo and behold, she's got the pincer grasp! Most can do it by 13.5 months. It starts as any part of thumb and index finger at 10 months for most, and graduates to tip of thumb and index finger!


I'm so happy and proud!

*grins*

Crawling, commando style, in sight @ 7.5+m

She demonstrated her crawling twice yesterday, when I was busy with the telephone and another time with putting away the camera.

She was like, whoa, making these exaggerated movements, landing quite roughly each time she rocks her body from side to side to make front movements. Actually, it looks more like a boat rocking sideways twice and one big forward rock. Must give her more motivation to move i.e. more attractive stuff to move towards e.g. my mobile phone (we allow her to hold and fidget with it, but strictly no mouthing) :P

She's got a bruise the size of a pea under her chin, I wonder if it's from the crawling. Or the fall from mattress on Thursday morning. She didn't cry if, and when she fell. Papa found her in the middle of the floor on her tummy by the time she did cry.

Recently, she's been showing off her strength by kicking everything including the heavy pillows off the bed. Mummy's pillow almost landed in the potty or on the "puddle" of spilt pee on the floor at the foot of the bed. At the high chair, she's dropping and watching stuff roll on the floor. Mummy's exhausted from picking things up, so unless it's urgent or needed, it'll stay on the floor for the mean time.

Yesterday, she again lunged backwards until the foot of the bed. I watched. She wasn't alarmed. She placed her feet down, bounced a few times, as if testing if the floor will give way. And then Ning lifted her upper body off the mattress with her hands holding onto the mattress, and stood there for a bit, just bouncing and smiling at me. Then, she plonked her tiny backside down on the floor, a little too quickly, she had a surprised frown, she looked at me as if I'm responsible for it.

Way to go!

Hope she does this whenever she wants to get off the bed.

Baa... baa... (for 2 straight days in a row)

black sheep? No, it's for Papa. In Cantonese, Papa's pronounced more like "Baba".

We were back from more than a week of visiting the grandparents in Malaysia and she was away from Papa for more than 5 days. After which she spent 6 straight days with Papa at home, plus 1 more day in Singapore when I had my fever (3rd engorgement since labor day) and Papa took care of her most of that day.

So when Papa went back to work on Thursday, she was calling for Papa in the day and in the evenings. She would stare at the bathroom door, when I left it opened after bathing her, and the bedroom entrance in the evening. Both places where she most frequently sees her Papa appear.

I had to call Papa on the telephone when she's frustrated that her "Baba"s went unanswered and my explanation does not pacify her. Then when Papa's voice is broadcasted over the speaker phone, her face lights up with the brightest 2-teeth smile.

I keep falling in love with this little girl.

Sigh.

Hanging 3s, standing 5mins

She can hang from my thumbs independently for 3 full seconds 5 times today! Previously, I had to grip her still. This is a pleasant development. Ashamedly, I wasn't really consistent with this exercise, so this is really a pleasant surprise.

Today I placed her standing against the cot, using 2 bars for support. She could stand for a full 5 minutes before whining as she was tired and afraid of falling. I asked her to let go and sit down, with me supporting her underarms, and she let go 1 arm by 1 arm.


Tried playing toss with lion rattle today. I do think she gets it, although her tosses range anywhere between dropping it down in front of her or flicking it towards me.

Hmmm, what other games can I play with her?

Pottying situation update @ 7.5m

Ning's still going to the potty.

Some weeks, I don't even need to scrub a single soiled (poo) diaper. At others, especially after introducing new foods (like watermelon) she'd go in her diaper and more often.

When the weather's really cool and feels like we're in an air-conditioned environment, she wets more diapers at night or while napping than her usual 8 per day.

And it's been really cool recently. Good for long naps, but the laundry piles up pretty quickly and drying takes more than half a day. So by the end of the day, I'd be rushing to fold them before the last diaper is used up.

Hmm, we haven't reached the tipping point for going diaper free yet, which is three or less diapers a day.

Am planning to get her a sturdier Bjorn potty from Mothercare so that she can sit on it by herself now that she's become quite professional at sitting up without support :) Let's hope I'll "bump" into a potty sale at Mothercare's soon!

"Baa baa" and "Meh'lk" or "Meh'k"

That's what she's been saying the last 3 days, rather consistently.

"Baa baa" for Papa :P
"M'ehlk" for Milk.

I'm so happy! This is an early surprise.

Yeah, I realize she's not saying "Mummy" yet.
I'm still very happy at this new development!

Some photos from last week

Love the big doe eyes and long curvy eyelashes!


Spot the difference between Papa and Shay Ning (the stubbles don't count)!


Aiyah, you're blocking the television Mummy!
She's "watching" Cantonese serial with Popo.


A blur but nice photo of Popo and Gong Gong playing with Shay Ning.


A moment with Gong Gong.


"It's so hot and I'm so tired, Gong Gong..."


A snapshot of the action going on in Popo & Gong Gong's living room with 2 granddaughters around :)

New fruits, choking and throwing up

This week, Shay Ning got to try guava, apple and green pear as stick pieces, thanks to Gong Gong. However, when she was trying to eject a bitten off piece of guava, she choked and threw up the most since birth. The offending piece was only 2mm thick, and about 1.2cm long. Her face turned red, a very dark red. I was very alarmed but kept calm because I need to control what I do in order not to worsen the situation.

Today, we tried with scraped papaya and it happened again, she threw up on Papa, who didn't really believed me when I recounted the ordeal. All Papa said was "You should watch her more closely". It's like saying, you're not doing your job well.

I'm saying she's NOT READY for SOLIDS and to do my job well, I AM NOT FEEDING HER ANY MORE SOLIDS TILL I THINK SHE'S READY!

How many times must she choke and throw up before you'll give up on the idea she is? You yourself said every baby is different. Why must you insist that she start her solids 'like other babies'?! Why can't I start her when "I" feel she's ready?!

I'm so hurt. I'm her mother.

Why must I listen to what others have to say thru you, when you yourself don't want to feed her?! Why must I prepare food and force her to finish them when you don't even want to feed her anymore?

Why don't you listen to me instead?

I'm so upset about this.

A most eventful week @ Popo & Gong Gong's

In this week, Shay Ning's...

Been a great party buddy @ Huey Huey Yee Yee's wedding until 11:30pm. She was bouncing on my lap and laughing gleefully to the on stage singer's oldies right to the closure of the dinner. I'm so happy. Her Gong Gong and Popo are also very entertained. Papa's a little apprehensive as he has to leave her that night to go home.




Spontaneously waved "bye bye" whenever we said "bye bye" and "good night" to Popo.


Gave lots of "High 5s" and "5s" to Mummy, Gong Gong and Popo.

She's lunging and plucking her butt up and above the floor more and more now. Her butt is rising higher and higher off the floor, sometimes with one leg stretched out kicking. Am wondering if she's trying to crawl or sit up.

Gotta go now, Shay Ning calls :)

It's past 7pm now and I've just fed Shay Ning to sleep.

This is also a week where she got to see and hear her Papa the least as Papa left his mobile phone at Ah Gong's place. When she met him for the first time after so long, the emotional display was a surprise for all of us.

Papa was walking out of Gong Gong's toilet. She focused, unmoving, at Papa all the while. When Papa finally reached out to carry her, she pouted and cried, pouring out her feelings at finally seeing her Papa. As soon as Papa carried her, she stopped and was smiling again. So emotional. Such a darling.