Sing Way is 5 months old today!

Wow, 1 more month and its time to start solids!

Gotta prepare my menu, gear and shopping lists now!

Way: Now that I'm on my tummy, what's next?

That's what he seems to be wondering. This baby is intent on rolling over, over and over again. Then he seems to be figuring out what's next. I think he wants to crawl, he looks in front of him, as if willing himself forward, but his legs are held straight afloat,  as if flying...

Funny. Frustrating for him.

Keep trying, little one, you'll learn soon.

Roll over, baby!

Lately, especially the last 3 days, the little one has been trying to rollover to his tummy relentlessly. With mixed results.

Sometimes, he manages but over-rolls right back to his back. But mostly he gets stuck like the picture below. Yesterday, he managed to roll his legs over consistently, like the second picture. The head and under pinned arm is more tricky.

Check out his expression in the mirror. He was trying to watch TV.

Like a Boss

One leg kicking the colorful pillow, one hand grabbing the skwish.

Multitasking 101 by Hua Sing Way.

Punching at Gym

3m 13d: Baby Way has been doing some new things recently. One of them is pulling my thumb or finger towards his open mouth and trying to suck or gum it. We didn't let him. So we got him some "bananas".

Next, he is putting both fists in the center of his lower chest, sometimes holding fingers or hands, a little like the Machurians of old.

At gym, he no longer has arms on side, trying to swipe. Now he punches the suspended toy and ring like a little Rambo in training. Cute!

3-months Old Baby Boy's Typical Day

It is a little past 3am, I awoke feeling hungry and breathed heavily looking for my Mummy's breast. Mummy turned over, felt my nappy, it was still dry, and she offered me milk from the breast. Hmm... How convenient and fast, don't need to wait. Mummy is snoring a little. I wake her up because the nipple is out of reach. Mummy adjusts her sleeping position and I drink myself to sleep. Yummy.

Sometime later I am awaken again, this time my diaper is full. Baba wakes to change my diaper. He always wipes my bottom even when I did not poo. Oh, and he blows me dry too! Cool!

It is a little past 7am, there is light coming in from the windows. The sky is slowly lighting up. I exercise my arms and legs while my Mummy and Baba sleeps on either side of me. When my Mummy hears me panting, she offers me her breast again. I drink and drink until I suddenly stop. I need the toilet. How do I sign toilet? "Mummy, is it like this?"

Luckily Mummy knows me and my body language well. She quickly signs "toilet" back at me and puts me over the toilet. There I can pass urine and motion, a few times, without getting my bottom all sticky and wet. Thank you Mummy!

After toilet I continue to feed to my heart's content. Then, Mummy talks and smiles at me, and I do the same too. My sister also comes to talk to me. Then Mummy says it's play time and she brings me out to the living room. There I try to catch the dragonflies, and pull the red ring on my gym. I am very focused and excited. I usually workout til I perspire on my hands and feet.

Sometimes, I will call out for the toilet but I forget when I am having fun. When I am tired but not yet hungry, my Baby or Mummy will hold me til I slept. Sometimes, Mummy puts me in a stroller or carrier to walk my sister to preschool. I will try to keep my eyes open but usually I will be asleep before we are home.

I wake again after 10am and after the routine milk and toilet then milk again, it is play time again. This time Mummy put me on my tummy for short periods while I work on my pushups. Look Mummy, no hands needed!

About 1130, I am held to sleep again. I wet myself 1 hour later and drink myself to sleep again. Then again at 1:30pm. Mummy fell asleep with me this time. I always sleep longer when Mummy sleeps with me, maybe it's because she smells so nice, of milk.

It must be after 3pm... Time for more milk and toilet routines before my much looked forward to play time! Mummy, do you have any new games or toys for me? 

Mummy saw me shuffling my button yesterday and laid out a huge soft mat for me to play on today! I am not yet used to it yet. Enough! Hold me. Yawn.

It's a little past 4 pm, my diaper is wet and I am awake. Mummy chooses to give me the breast first and sleepily I take it gladly. After more play, Mummy bathes me in a small tub on a table in the bathroom. 

My sister is back from school at 5.30pm and she and my Mummy takes turns to shower and play with me. After that they have dinner while I amuse myself with the dragonflies mobile and toys. By 7 pm I doze off in my Mummy's arms. I awake again to feed about 8.30pm and have my nappy change. Then sweet dreams for me, hopefully til after midnight! 

I can see Mummy is tired already. She won't be documenting my day for much longer now. Good night, folks! See you tomorrow! 

"Look Mummy, no hands needed."

"Is this the toilet sign?"

"Nice pillow case."

Mummy keeps me busy by putting all those stuff just out of reach. I managed to get the mirror and the yellow smiling rattle! 

Baby Way Finally Latching on in Bed

Just a few days shy of turning 3 months old, I am silently thanking my lucky stars that baby Way is latching on better in bed. He can even spit out and slurp the nipple back in like a lollipop.

Naturally Mummy is happy. Happy baby. Happy Mummy.

My hands wouldn't be able carry him for more than 15 minutes now without going numb... I wonder how heavy he is. Gotta check when our next appointment is...

2m 25d Way: Singing Baby!

Last night while cooing baby Way to sleep, I sang the Carpenters' "Close to You". I then had to change his nappy.

While he was in bed I continued singing the chorus, "Hahhhhhh, close to you..." facing him and he made cute baby sounds with me... the closest sound to "you" was "owww oooo"can hear him trailing off.. the way I fade off.

This morning when we were all still trying to sleep wistfully, or blatantly pretending to sleep, baby was cooing away by himself just like singing. Some long parts, some fading... before, he would only chat with us or call us to attention (if we do not respond soon he would deteriorate to crying). So this is a very pleasant change.

Sing, baby sing!

Mobiles and Baby Gyms

These 2 allow me to finish my lunch or check some emails peacefully, well, for at least 30 minutes. Maximum was 1 hour. With some conversations with baby in between. Baby gym is from Ikea. We introduced only 1 item on the gym at a time. You could see how excited baby is because he wants to reach the hanging ring. Reminder to self, must get a video next. At 2 months baby hands cannot reach each other in the middle yet. Thus the challenge.

Should probably rotate the dragonflies mobile with something else. Baby Center newsletter actually suggests taping leaves to a ribbon as a mobile. Will try and see how that goes. Maybe Ning and I can make it as a project next...

Girl with heart shaped eyes

23/5: Ning drew this at school yesterday. I didn't even noticed it as it was folded into a sailors hat. Lougong discovered it when he came home. And... haha Ning wants to show Mummy first. Yeah! I am still the favourite parent!

In this pictorial...
Ning is grown up and in love with some boy in her class. He is happy he is marrying her. They're in their home garden, with a pet cat and a caterpillar that crawled up to eat the apple on the tree.

I told her she can only do this at the earliest 18!

I asked her where did she see people with heart shape eyes before... she says on TV. Wow. I've seen it before but never used it in my drawings. Cool!

Ning bawled at Chicken Little

Chicken Little and his dad were walking home sad because dad didn't believe Little about the sky falling.
The scene was long and drawn out with sad music.
Suddenly, Ning bawled out crying!
She felt the sadness and hopelessness that was portrayed and kept crying inconsolably until the commercials were over and Chicken Little woke up to school.
In this respect, I'm proud to say she's like me!!! :-D

Role Playing @ 2 yrs 4 mths

She's been surprising us with role playing a lot recently.

And she's quite serious about it too.

First, the doctor.

Baby's sick. Call the ambulance (and she sounds the siren on her Duplo ambulance).
Takes baby to the hospital. Takes the stethoscope. Listens to baby's chest. Then the back.
Takes temperature. Ok. Baby has a fever. Baby needs medicine. Takes medicine syringe and feeds baby.

And she can repeat this many times over.

Second, the birthday. Her favourite.

Pile all the 15 "five stones" pyramids together to make a cake.
Take REAL camera and place in front.
Sing and clap to "Happy Birthday" song, with FEELING.
Then blow candles. Cut cake (with toy knife). Scoops cake for Mummy & Papa in own plate.

Repeat as many times as Mummy can tolerate before calling it a day :P

Last one, this one caught me off guard, was the waitress.

She went and get a note pad and pen.
Lean over to Mummy (who was reading) and says, "Noodle?".
Mummy, out of context, wasn't sure what was going on, so I repeated, "Noodle?"
And then, she went, "Ok! Noodle! Ning Ning go cook noodle!"
And she happily waddles to her 'kitchen' (with a lot of pots clanking together), and occasional shout, "With corn?!", and Mummy says, "Ok!"

Finally, she comes out with a pot, and a couple of other utensils clasped under her arms to Mummy, and says "Noodle!".

This one's the most amusing one, so far ;-)

Painter Ning, 2012

She loves art & craft, which is mostly spreading paint and water around; cutting strips of paper and pasting it within a drawing.

Ning can fib rationally

I'm pretty sure it isn't the first time, but it is the first time I noticed and confirm she did it intentionally!
Today Mummy asked her to take shower but she declined. After Mummy showered, Mummy asked if Ning wanted to shower too. She said Ning Ning showered already. Mummy: "Ning showered yesterday." And she quickly added, "...today!"
Mummy was quite taken aback because I knew she hadn't so I played along and she was visibly pleased with herself for adding "today" on!
Anyway, Mummy's gotta wisen up so that we can still teach her by reasoning rather than sheer authority.
Oh yeah, Popo, she's been "bargaining" since quite young. First time was which breast to suckle at 2 weeks. First verbal, was also same reason. Thinks she has a special preference to one side.
Very frequently, her main requests will be cold Milo, milk outside, in living room, instead of bedroom. Dora panties instead of nappy, but she's still unable to take it off properly yet, so she'll run and fiddle with her cloth nappy until I ask her if she needed to go. Then she'll be taking it off and putting it back on coz Mummy helped. Until she really had to pee, she'd finallyet Mummy pull down her panties and let her sit on the potty and pass urine.
Sweet.
Good night, sweet little one!

Ning @ 23 months

She has quite a number of songs in her repertoire, including:
Finger Family,
London Bridge is Falling Down
Pat-a-cake
Rock a bye baby
And some Chinese songs only Lougong knows, too complicated for me to remember, I only know the tune

Ning is also very expressive giving specific instructions to get what she wants. E.g. If she wants Mummy to go out while Mummy is lying on soda reading, she will say...
1. Mummy get up from sofa irst
2. Mummy stand up
3. Mummy come (holds Mummy's hand)
4. Ning put on shoe first
5. Mummy take key (sometimes with 'please')
6. Mummy open the door and Ning go out say hello to Kakak and come back ok?
This is the part Mummy have to come up with some excuse or oblige.

She's also eating much more nowadays. Almost one full adult rice bowl of rice with dishes.

She also just had first stomach flu from childcare (8 vomiting cases reported since Ning). She started throwing up after going to bed. We bathed her because her whole body was covered in vomit. Then she nursed again, and threw up again. And Lougong had to change the sheets and blow dry.

Mummy changed her and we moved into next room. She had more milk and tried to sleep, but she threw up all the milk again. Lougong complained I 'overfed' her. So he made Ribena for her. This time we wiped her and changed her. And she just vomited again after Ribena. So we gave up, pat her to sleep. After 45 minutes, she coughed and threw up again. This time on our last dry mattress. I didn't dare sleep lest she threw up in her sleep and choked on her vomit. The moment she started, I'd prop her up. At one point, she didnt want Mummy's milk and insisted on Ribena. This carried on til 3am after which she slept til 06:30am.

We went to the clinic twice. Once her Ning and myself. Second round for Mummy and Papa. Thankfully she stopped vomiting after the medicine. At least the food reaches her stomach, right? Right, then she started diarrhea. Still better than vomit. I've learnt to be very grateful. Sigh. She's still uncomplaining and not even a whine heard throughout the ordeal. I was petrified when she went limp and her head flopped from side to side at one point. I almost begged Lougong to bring us to the hospital, but he reasoned she has no fever, can wait til morning. I couldnt sleep, kept checking her breathing and heartbeat. Both her fast and strong. I'm just glad everything is fine now.

On retrospect, we should've taken turns to monitor her. Instead I watched her til I sleep while Lougong busied cleaning up and then slept.

Simple sentences & fave phrases @ 22 mths

Mummy play hide and seek with Papa.
Ning Ning's water bottle straw.
Mummy sit there.
Mummy eat fish ball.
Mickey Mouse fall down on the floor already.
Mickey Mouse see helicopter.
See mosquito bite on elbow.
Put milk in this water bottle (sigh, after I made it in her milk bottle, at least she'll drink it).
Take off panties/nappies first (before toilet).

Where is moon?

Mine!
Mummy! (and repetitions)
Papa!
Wake up!
Let's go!
Don't want doggy wow wow! (after fierce dog barked at her)
Open door. Take keys first.
Playground!
Go playground!
Put on blue shirt.

And she's VERY friendly and clear.
She's pointed and named people quite clearly:
Kakak
Abang
Gong gong
Jie jie
Go go
Uncle
And sometimes, most embarrassingly, AUNTY!
A well dressed 30s lady looked so embarrassed when called aunty that she pretended not to look at her.

So now it's Jie Jie unless Jie Jie turns out to be Mummy, then it's Aunty.

Singing songs all by herself!

She's been singing songs to herself a lot lately. It's just recently that we could actually make out most words and which songs! We even caught one or two on video today!

Here are the songs we heard that are almost complete:
Baa Baa Black Sheep
客人来
只要我长大
Chop Chilli Chop

And she runs really quickly when we sing 三只老虎 at the part 跑的快. As if to show us she knows what it means.

She does the right actions for
Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Wind the Bobbin Up
This is the Way
The Wheels on the Bus

Ning can say 1 to 12 most days, although Mummy's thinking why stop at 10? So, whenever we start counting Mummy goes on until 100 or until Ning says "don't want", which has been quite frequent recently.

She's still recovering from cough and running nose. The medicine seems to be taking some time to take effect. Hope she gets well soon!

Singing songs most of the time...

She's been singing songs as she wakes, though she does cry when Mummy doesn't come in after a while, and when she's just toddling around the house.

Her favourites at the moment include:
Chop chilli chop
San Zhi Lao Hu
Gege Baba Zhen Wei Da
She'll be coming round the mountain
And a Cha Cha Choo Choo song that Mummy has yet to learn.

Last Friday, Teacher Soundhri says she cried at the playground and immediately, 2 boys came to her aid, each holding one of her hands and escorting her to the teacher. How sweet :)

Missed spying her in school. The load at work is getting heavier as 1 valuable team member transfers out tomorrow. Sigh. I'll only be able to spy at lunch or tea time then!

Mummy, *muAck*... Painful... "Papa sleep there..." "Papa sit there..."

Yesterday, we were watching the new Shanghai Bund, starring Andy Lau and Leslie Cheung.
 
Mummy cried at the shooting of Andy, Ding Lik, by Leslie's partner, who thought Andy had killed Leslie.
 
When Ning Ning saw Mummy's eyes full of tears, she smiled came over, smack right into my face, one big kiss, *muAck*.
 
Mummy laughed and smiled immediately. Lovely.
 
She can now say "painful" quite clearly and point to where it is painful and ask Mummy to kiss and make it better.
 
Yesterday, she kept pointing to her right big toe, and saying, "painful". It was a little red and the skin was peeling. I'm wondering if the shoes are too tight.
 
There... a very communicative Ning.
 
She also woke up in the middle of the night, said, "Papa sleep there", around 04:30hrs and passed motion. She wouldn't go back to sleep until "Papa sleep there." So Mummy went out to ask Papa to sleep on his single mattress and Mummy with Ning on the double mattress. Mummy snores. That's why Papa's sleeping in the guest room.
 
She's also been pointing to empty MRT seats and saying, "Papa sit there".
 
I love to play with Ning.
 
I think of her even when I'm at work.

Thank You! Mummy sit here! Mummy carry you!

These are the most common phrases I'm hearing nowadays.

Though, Mummy sounds more like "yee yee".

Thank you sounds more like "ang kyu".

And carry you, actually, sounds like it should :P

Although, she should've been saying, "Mummy, carry me."

No complaints there.

She's also been heard to say "scissors" when Papa used one to snip the vegetables at dinner time.

She's also parroting Mummy a lot when Mummy thanks the teachers in both Mandarin and English.

Best received ones are...

"Thank you, Aunty (or Jie Jie)" for the kind souls who gave up their seat in the MRT.

"Xie xie lao shi" and "Thank you Teacher" for the teachers in "school".

"Thank you, Mummy" for when Mummy gives her something or helps her do something.

Mummy's been sick, very sick. I've taken all the medicine prescribed by the doctors, and they almost took all the congestion away. Almost. Now I have no medicine left, except for the cough syrup and panadol. Let's hope the last sniffles will magically disappear by tomorrow morning.

Then Mummy can continue to care for Ning as usual again without worrying about transmitting germs to her by sharing food, or kissing! I feel so bad for keeping an arms length for so long...