Fever

Look at the sickly chap... He's been running a temperature since Friday night. Temperature ranges between 38+ to 39+. Seen a doc, but doc didn't say much, we don't really know what's the cause of the problem.

It didn't help with a naggy mil around the house and keep asking me how come baby's temperature is not coming down... and keeps bugging me to bring him to see doctor when we already consulted one and doc's advice was to monitor him till Tuesday morning. She further makes my blood boil when she insisted to apply rice wine all over Declan's body and she took great pain to apply extra amount on his head.... I'm not really sure whether that will help, but it worries me that the alcohol will seep through his skin and get into his blood...

I can't stop her.... the feeling that my son is not my own is back again.... why can't i have some say when it comes to the well being of my son...??

Recent Discovery

Recently I discovered the following about my little boy.

1) He doesn’t like durians. Weird isn’t it? To think that both his mum and dad are crazy about durians. When I was carrying him, I ate sooooo much durian in my last trimester that my weight shot up! You may wonder how we discover that he doesn’t like durian. This little glutton will always want a share in whatever we eat. There was one occasion when we were eating durians at home and we offered some to him, to our amazement, he actually pushed our hands away. When we offered to him again, he turned away and there was this not so happy expression on the face. Hmmmmmm must train him to like durians!!!


2) He knew how to make “3-point turn” to get himself down the bed. Previously, he always wanted to plunge head down off he bed. After some teaching and nagging from his dad, whenever he wants to plunge of the bed, we’ll get hold of him and say;” baby turn turn, remember what daddy teach you?” He’ll just do a “3-point turn” automatically and let himself down the bed. The won him many applause from his “audiences” whom find this act very entertaining.

3) He has learnt how to climb onto the bed on his own.

4) He has developed separation anxiety. Sometimes I wonder whether it is really separation anxiety or it’s just what his grandma termed “flower leg”, which means that he’ll want to follow whenever we are going out of the house. Nowadays, when he sees me get dress up and start to mess around with my hair, he’ll crawl to me and pull himself up holding onto my legs and refuse to let go. I’ve no choice but to carry him, after which he’ll refuse to be passed over to anyone else, not even to his grandma. He’ll fight with all his might to cling on to me, I’m actually amazed by his strength when he hold on to my blouse so tightly and tensed his whole body so forcefully that it is actually a real challenge to ply him off me. The end result is always him wailing his head off.

5) He’s got 2 more teeth!! 2+2=4 Four incisors! And he’s also developed a liking to use his caregiver as teether…. Ouch…

Recollection of 28 June 2005

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone of you for wishing Declan happy birthday!

28 June 2005 marks Declan’s first year on this planet. He has been giving us plenty of joy, laughter, surprises and love during the past 12 months. Our lives have never been the same again after his arrival. This little wonder rules our time and attention 24/7. His every little action and every little squeal will trigger a reaction from the people around him. All of us can’t help but be thrilled by how fast the little one is growing. In a blink of an eye, 12 months had flown by.

I miss little Dec as a newborn helpless infant, so huggable, so dependent. Over the past 12 months, he had developed his own traits and character and is no longer as dependent. He has his own thinking now and will show us his displeasure if something is against his wish. Slowly, I am seeing my little baby grows into a little toddler and in a few years time into a little boy and I bet before I know it, he’ll have grown into a little man.

Don’t ask me when is the second one coming as I am still enjoying the special moments of my first born.

One year after that special day, when Little Dec first see the world, we choose not to do anything elaborate. Instead, our little cosy family of 3 chose to enjoy some private and quiet moments at east coast beach.

We started the day by singing him another birthday song and this time we got a cake with the name spelt correctly. The cake was a gift from a family friend. It was pretty tasty!











That day was the first time Declan set his feet on a beach. He was a little frightened when we first put him down on the sand. After awhile he his curiosity got the better of him and he started playing with the sand. His dad even brought him to the coastline and let him get splashed by the waves. Not sure if he enjoyed it, you guys go judge from the photos. One thing I know for sure is I definitely enjoyed playing with the sand heheheee.










Father and son fighting for the pail


Mum enjoying herself, building her little fortress


Baby enjoying destroying mum's fortress.....

Pre Birthday Celebration

We are back again Phoebe ahhahaha

We celebrated Declan’s birthday 2 days earlier on 26 June 05 as it happened to fall on a Sunday. It’s easier to gather the family on a weekend than a weekday thus we decided to do it 2 days earlier. Actually, it wasn’t much of a celebration. We didn’t really do anything special for him and it wasn’t a big hoo ha thing. We simply collected our immediate family together and sing a birthday song for him, followed by us (the parents) helping him to blow out the candle and cut the cake.

I ordered a 1kg Tasmania monster mango cake for him. I actually preferred the baby Mickey Mouse cake, but the minimum size of that cake had to be 2kg. We only gathered about 10 relatives so we won’t be able to swallow a 2kg cake, thus the decision to go with the not so nice Tasmania cake. The worst thing was that the cake shop actually spelt Declan’s name wrongly!!!! Arghhhh!! They misspelled it as Dellan…. What a way to mark the most important milestone of my little one’s life…..



Actually I do not have any intention to celebrate for him as I find that it doesn’t make much sense… It’s the little one’s birthday but they won’t get to enjoy the celebration when we throw a party for him when he is just a year old. He doesn’t know the meaning of birthday, he doesn’t know how to blow the candle, he doesn’t know how to cut the cake and he doesn’t even know what’s going on right??!! All he knows is that one big bunch of people are gathering near him and singing loudly and making him does funny things and everyone is expecting him to smile and while all the adults seem to be enjoying everything, he is being passed around from guest to guest making him all tired and fussy. That’s my personal opinion though.

People around us had been asking about how we are going to celebrate for him. So, in order not to disappoint our immediate family, we decided to at least buy him a cake and did the birthday song thingy for him.

I will throw a proper birthday party for him when he turns 5 years old, when he will have his own friends to share his joys with and that is the age when he’ll probably know the real meaning of birthday and he’ll be old enough to play host.

It seem like Declan wasn’t in a good mood that day. He was fussing the whole time and he wasn’t very cooperative during the photo taking session. I guessed it must be due to the fact that he was hungry and not being fed on time.

Here come the photos of that day, take note of Declan’s grouchy face hahahhaha







That's Declan with Kiat's sister's family


Little Dec is jealous that his grandma is holding Ethylyn and not him hahaha


I just love this pic!! Ain't Ethylyn sooo cute??? Molest Declan and got caught red handed!










We are singing birthday song for him and he's holding on very tightly to his Gardenia Raisin bread. He just refuse to let it go.


Candle blowing time!

We have being "familied"

Hey I discovered that Baby Talk has been "familied".What do i mean by "familied"? ohhhh let me enlighten all of you. Nowadays it is the in kind of description you know? When you get mentioned on Mr Brown's blog we say that you are been "browned" and when you get mentioned on! Xiaxue's blog, we say you are been "xiaxued" right?

Baby Talk was briefly mentioned in July copy of "Family" magazine so ain't it right for me to say that Baby Talk has been "familied" heheh.

It was a surprise and pleasant discovery. Last Saturday, I had to take over my mum's role as the newspaper lady at our kiosk, to pass time, I started flipping through all the latest magazines. While flipping "Family", I came upon an article about blogging and upon turning the next page I saw a screen shot with the picture of a half naked baby. I was thinking to myself :" Hey, this screen shot looks kinda familiar" Then I realised :" Hey that's Declan and hey that's my blog!" hahah so fun.


Huileng! You have been "familied" too

Happy 1st Lunar B-day

Yesterday was Declan’s Lunar Birthday. His grandma was up and about in the kitchen early in the morning to prepare glutinous rice and red eggs for the prayer. By the time the lazy duo (none other than yours faithfully and her son) woke up, grandma had already set the prayer table with food including a roast chicken, a box of “red-tortoise” kuays (aka ang ku kuay), red eggs and plates of glutinous rice. It was a short and simple prayer.

The interesting part was when we had to lay out various items for Declan to pick, which according to traditions would mark his future destiny. The items we laid out included;

1) kitchen weighing scale (to replace the old Chinese type of balancing scale as I have no idea where to get one. I THINK this signifies that he will be a businessman in future. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I am not too good with all these Chinese traditions)

2) Ruler (no idea what this signifies.)

3) Chicken drum stick. (signifies that he will have enough to eat)

4) Pencil, pen and exercise book (signifies that he will do well academically)

5) Abacas and calculator (no idea why I threw in the calculator since both of them signifies the same thing, I THINK. I THINK, they signifies that he will have plentiful to count, or do they also signify that he will be a businessman also??? *confuse* )

6) Ang bao aka Red Packet (signifies he’ll be prosperous)



Before we let him off to pick his “future”, grandma said we must let him step on the 2 giant ang ku kway, which she ordered specially for this occasion. I am not quite sure what is the rationale of this act. Can anyone enlighten me please??





Guess what, mum in law said that the giant tortoises gotta be eaten by the parents... SO BIG how to finish???

After stepping on the poor “giant red tortoises” we let him roam free and see which of the above items would interest him most. Its kind of exciting to see your own kid “pick his future” wahahaha. I anticipated that he would reach for the red packet as this item was one of his all time favorite.

To our surprises, he actually picked up the pencil, followed by the pen and then the weighing scale! No interest on the ang bao at all!!







According to his choice it meant that he would do well academically and also be a businessman. It never occur to me that he would do well academically since he never show any keen interest in books until lately…. See this pic? Hahah it’s taken today.



Anyway, it is really too early now to worry about whether he will do well academically. I’ve got loads of other things to worry about.

Happy Lunar B-day to Declan!!

Nail Cutting HAzard

2 days ago, while I was sitting in front of my PC doing some work, a loud shrill from the next room suddenly broke the line of my thoughts. That was Declan crying out in pain. My first conclusion was he must have bumped his head again. I quickly got up and rushed to the next room. His grandma was hugging him while he was wailing. His grandma sheepishly informed me that she had accidentally cut his finger while trying to cut his nail…

I quickly took over him and carry him out in the living room trying to soothe him. When I picked up his hand trying to assess his wound, it really pained me to see that his little index finger was bleeding profusely. Little drops of blood were dripping from his index finger. In a short while, his pants was dotted with little red spots.

My heart really really ached… soooo heart pain… I use a tissue to wipe away his blood, but they just kept coming… His grandma gave me a plaster, so together we put on the plaster for him. I couldn’t see how deep the wound was because of the blood. Luckily the plaster was able to stop the bleeding but this boy hated the plaster. He kept trying to pull it off and I’m so worried that the might just aggravate his wound if he really managed to pull it off.

Hmmm I wonder whether pharmacy sell plaster suitable for infants and toddlers. Those normal Hansaplast seems a bit overkill for the little ones.

He kept crying non stop, probably from the pain and also from the frustration of not being able to get rid of the plaster. I dropped him into his sarong and within a short while he fell asleep.

I left for work. When I got home, he had gotten rid of the plaster and I took a look at his bloodied finger. He didn’t really want anyone to touch it so that explained why it was still bloodied when I came home. Wahhh I nearly fainted, don’t know from heart ached or from shock…. The cut on the finger was so deep that if his grandma just apply a little bit more strength on the cutter, she would have sliced off the flesh of this tiny finger tip!!! That was how deep the wound was!! That explained why he was bleeding so profusely. Oh my god… my poor little boy… I don’t know why old folks are just so stubborn! We had warned her time and again not to cut his nail as her eyesight was no good but she kept insisting that she could see very well…. For goodness sake she can’t even see the figures printed on her bank book and she still insist she can see well!! I read out the figures to her and she can go :´where did u get that figure? I don’t see anything printed anywhere” and she still dare to attempt to cut her little grandson finger nails??!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!1

This was the third time his finger was cut. The first time was when he was about 3 months old and his daddy nipped him during his first attempt to cut his nail. That time I cried together with the baby. Second time, it was my sister in law who cut him, that time I was at work when it happened. This time it was the most serious and I really hope it will be the last time anyone will injure his little finger again! Why can’t they just leave him alone??!!! His daddy will cut it for him when he is sleeping so that the chances of nipping is lower as he is motionless. What about me? I got a weak heart, I dare not cut for him at all……

Getting Married? Looking for Ring Pillows?

Hey Folks!

If you are getting married and looking around for unique ring pillows do drop by Sharons's Tink's Haven. This young lady makes beautiful ring pillows and the prices are sooooooo unbelieveable!!!

Even if you are not getting married anytime soon or already married, still can go take a peep and recommend to your friends who might need them!! I simply love her pillows!!

Time Flies!

Ying Ying Ying!!! Here we are here we are!




Was it just yesterday that I bumped into Huileng’s blog which inspired me to start a blog for my little bundle?

Was it just yesterday that the panicky me was asking around for advice from experienced mum like Ying and Huileng on how to handle these limbs waggling little beings that can’t really tell us what they want except for screaming and crying to show us their sentiments?

Was it just yesterday that I am like a milk cow who needs to express milk at every 2 hours interval?

Was it just yesterday that I am walking around like a zombie due to lack of sleep for having to feed the new member of the family every 2-2.5 hours?

Was it yesterday?? Was it?? NOOOOO!!!! It’s been months since all the above happen!!!! Now my helpless little bundle has grown into an active and unstoppable 11 months old! He’ll be turning one on 28 June 2005.

From not knowing how to communicate, he now knows that he can get something when he starts screaming his head off. He can no longer sit still. Now, whenever we leave him on the floor, he’ll crawled off quickly to the nearest furniture and pull himself up and reach for whatever things which are within his touch. So, the whole family basically spends our time chasing after him and watching over him so that his mischief will not be hazardous to himself and also to make sure that he doesn’t start destroying things which he laid his hands on.

He is still crawling with his tummy stuck to the floor. He’s able to shift himself from tummy position to sitting up straight. That also means, he has his fair share of toppling over when he didn’t sit steadily and fall backwards. Sometimes, he’ll deliberately throw himself backwards, especially when he is on the bed. He’ll assume that he’ll hit the pillows and of course there are times when he missed the pillows and hit the wall. I guess you don’t need me to illustrate what was his reaction when he hit the wall.

I am watching him carefully hoping that I will be able to catch a glimpse of his first step. From what I see, it’ll not happen anytime soon. From the way he wobbles when he stands up, I think he’ll probably need another 1-2 months before he’ll attempt to stride his first step.

That’s all for now folks! We’ll be back!

I'm still ALIVE

Sorry lah folks... i really cannot find time to blog these few weeks. Hands are really tight, whatever time I have left is very precious, so I dedicated it to my boy. Now that he has slept, I quickly come up here to blog a few sentence to confirm that I am still very much alive and kicking.

For mummies who miss my boy, here is a half naked pic of him. I snap it when we were rolling around in bed. hahaha I always like to roll around in bed with my boy.



He has learnt how to "pray pray" this evening. Still can't do "thank kiss", "pank kiss" nor "frank kiss". Dec has also grown more vocal over the past few weeks. He's now babbling alot but he don't really make much sense.

For awhile we celebrated that he is sleeping on the dot at about 10+ nightly, now his sleeping routine has gone haywire again... Yesterday he refused to close his eyes till 2+ in the morning....

Me and my team have a booth at the book fair, so mamas, if you all happen to go to the book fair and pass by booth 07 can say hello to me.

I will update more often in 2-3 weeks time, meanwhile do bear with me.

Good night!

Musical Baton

Ohhh after reading Phoebe's post on Musical Baton then the sotong me realised, I am suppose to do the same after I got the arrow from hahahah

Total volume of music files on my computer:

Just reformatted my computer last week, so currently music files do not exist in my computer. How sad!!!


The last CD I bought was:

Barney... for my son

Song playing right now:

Blasting gun shots from my eClub users....

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

Self created humming lullaby by Kiat (my husband) - he use that lullaby to make my baby sleep

Non sensical babbling by Baby Declan - I assume he is singing cos he will do the babbling in one whole breathe non stop.

That's about it actually, I don't really have much time to listen to songs :p


Five people to whom I'm passing the baton:

Fannie
Stacey
Online Triplets
Sleeping mommy
moshengren

Academy of Greetings

Most parents will send their babies to the “Academy of Greetings” along the way when this little ones develop from a newborn to a toddler. What does the Academy of Greetings teach? Ohh simple, they teach the kid to wave bye bye, signal hello, throw flying kisses and most importantly do the ang bao churning act of gongxi gongxi. Sounds familiar??

My kid has graduated from the course of waving goodbye, and sometimes when he is in a friendly mood, he’ll extend out his arm and twig it a little to signal hello. So, I’ve enrolled him into another course, which is the course of throwing a flying kiss, which the whole family mispronounce and always call it the “frank kiss” or “thank kiss”. So hello Lims, its call the flying kiss and not any other kisses.

In a bide to teach him this flirty act, since many people keep asking my confuse baby for it, I place my palm on my own lips, kiss my palm and then removing my palm in a throwing out motion. While I demo to him, I keep telling him:’ Baby flying kiss, flying kiss.” After seeing his silly mum demo for the longest time, he gets a slight hint of what is expected from him, so he place his palm on his pacifier (he’s got the pacifier in his mouth) and then he mimic the throwing out motion.

Guess what? Instead of a flying kiss, I got a flying pacifier. Morale of the story, next time before you teach your kid the act of flying kiss, make sure that he/she does not has a pacifier in his/her mouth.

Newfound skills

Phew has been pretty busy lately… not much time to give updates on my little boy.

He is coming to 11 months old already. Wow! He has learnt how to sit up on his own. His newfound skill also includes pulling himself up to a standing position with the help of furniture around him. Most babies when they learnt to pull themselves up to a standing position, they will then attempt to walk a few steps sideways while hanging onto the aide.

This boy, instead of attempting to walk a few steps, he is more interested in climbing upwards…..I can foresee that once he learnt to walk, he’ll want to climb the stairs and window grills more than walking.

He is also getting naggier by the day, when the mood strikes, he’ll babble on and on and on. Very lor soh….. but cute! Hahaha I actually enjoy his babbling and will join in too! so u get a pair of naggy mum and son, wonder whether we are driving the dad up the wall.

More newfound skills in my next update. Now gotta run out of office fly home and hug my son!

Don't Trap ME!

After the humpty dumpty experience, we are finding other ways to trap that boy. But ahhh this little powerhouse ahhh just hates to be confined! Look at the below "progress" photos when we put him in his high chair during his dinner time.



Yeah! Yeah! Food! Glorious FOOD!!



ok! I've sit inside long enough.. mummy "bao bao"....



*Yawn* When is somebody gonna get me out of here.....



take..me.. out.. pleeeaaasseee.....

See how this boy "wilt" in his seat? All these happen within minutes. This boy really got itchy backside.. cannot sit still.. If you don't take him out, he'll refuse to eat and kick up a fuss and start blowing out his food like merlion.

We thought play pan was a good idea. It's the safest place we can leave him in when we really need to get something done. He hates it too...





That amount of toys can only keep him entertain for like 5 mins? After which he'll cry and try to push himself through the net... begging to be let out...

We are really running short of ideas on how to confine him in a safe way....

Mama In Need

I met a soon to be mama who is very young and single. The sad thing is she has no one around to help her through her pregnancy... Absolutely no one... Her family will not be there for her, I won't disclose why as this is very personal to her. Her situation really touch my heart. I wish I can help her out in all aspects... but there is only so much I can do.

I have offered her my assistance if she need someone to send her to and accompany her back from the hospital after her delivery. Mama Fannie has also offered her assistance. It's sad to deal with this alone. But she is very brave and optimistic. I salute her for she choose to keep the baby instead of letting a wonderful creation waste away. Thus I think for us who are fortunate to be able to afford to buy things for our own child, it's only right that we extend a little helping hand towards her. No obligations though. If you have something extras which your own babies aren't using, list it down in the comments so that I can take stock and see how to liase and send it to her. I've done up a list of things which I think she may need :

1) Warm water dispenser/ boiler
2) Milk bottles/teats
3) Bottles sterilizer (or at least a pot for dumping all the bottles in to boil)
4) Breast pump
5) Breast pad
6) Maternity Sanitary Pads
7) Baby Cot / Baby Sarong (yao lan)
8) Diapers
9) Formula milk powder
10) Wet wipes
11) Ru Yee Yu
12) Baby powder
13) Baby powder container
14) Milk powder dispenser
15) Mittens/Booties
16) Baby Clothes
17) Baby toys
18) Tonics
19) husk pillows/bolsters
20) baby blanket
21) Baby shampoo/shower foam
22) Pacifier
23) Nappy Rash Cream
24) Baby Pram/ Stroller
25) Baby Rocker/Bouncer

If u gals/guys have anything to add on please feel free to let me know.

Declan at the Bird Park

Last weekend was a real busy week for us as mentioned here. We brought the little one to the Jurong Bird Park on Saturday morning.

The weather was real humid and his grandma kept complaining about the sun. Kind of a spoil spot... It didn't help that I actually forgotten to apply sunblock for Declan. He ended up 1 shade darker at the end of the trip.

Below are some photos taken during the visit.


Little Dec striking a pose



The silly boy thought he could actually feel the fish by placing his palm on the tank. Nice fish huh?



Dad, granny and Dec

On Sunday, we brought him to attend Kiat's friend's baby's full month celebration. There, little Dec came face to face with little Claudia (Mama Stacey's girl) for the first time.



Poor chap, Claudia bo hiew him hahahah



Finally they see eye to eye.

I wonder what were they telling each other then. Little Ethylyn was also there that day, but we didn't manage to snap her pic.

There are quite some new pics updated in my multiply album.

For Declan's 10th month's pics, click here

For the pics of the wedding we attended on 30 April, click here

For the pucs of the wedding we attended on 01 May, click here

For pics taken at the bird park, click here

Commando in the making

This boy is forever trying to dive off the bed.. I bet he'll make a good diver or commando in future. He's always scaling new dangers.

The baluku which he acquired last week was aggravated when he decided to test the hardiness of his forehead by banging it against the wall. The swell was about to go off, when he decided to perform that act, bringing the swell back plus a patch of blue black...

Ohh by the way, does learning how to pull out drawers considered a developmental milestone for babies? If yes then he has reached another milestone because he is starting to pull out the lower drawers under the tv rack.........

Parenting Tips I Learnt

Just finished reading this book.



Learnt 2 things from this book:

(1) "Praise in public, criticize in private"

From my observations, a lot of parents neglected the fact that kids (no matter how young they are) do have some sense of self-esteem and ego. Many parents commit the mistake of critising the shortcomings of their own children in the public and very often in the presence of the little ones' friends.


I remembered vividly when I was in K1, a conversation between my mum and her friend. She told her friend :" I tell you ahhh, next time ahhh I can never depend on this girl to feed me one ahhh! she ahhh no use one! Her younger sister is better, I think I can only depend on the younger one!"

"OUCH" I was only 5 years old then, what did I do for her to conclude that I won't be able to do my part as a daughter? Since young, I was always the quiet girl who got bullied by my younger sister and yet she's the one who would get all the new toys. My sister was only 2 years old when my mum said that to her friend.

Ain't it shocking that a 5 year old girl would carry what her mum said for 20 over years? I'm shocked too. I have bad memory, but yet I remembered that conversation as if it just happen yesterday.

Today, I am proud to say that, it is her useless daughter who is keeping her employed and it is also this useless daughter who she'll run to whenever she needs help to solve some problems or run some errand.

So parents, heed the book's teaching and my advice to think twice before you speak in front of your child. You do not want them to grow up thinking they are not being loved and to dampen their self-worth.


(2) "When discussing consequences, don't make threats that are outright lies ("If you do that again, the police will take you away" etc.) Futhermore, don't issue a warning involving a consequence you are not actually willing to carry put."

"If you don't behave ahhhh later the policeman will come and catch you!"
"You anyhow run lah, go lah! later bangali come and catch you!'
"you noti somemore!! I don't want you liao, sell you to bangali!"
Don't the above threats sound so familiar?

Threaten the kids with those for repeated times and they will soon learn that those are just empty threats which will never materialise.

"if you don't behave, we will cancel our trip to disneyland"
"if you don't behave, we will all go shopping and leave you at home alone"
Before you spew similar threats, do ask yourself are you really going to cancel the whole trip? Is it fair to penalize the rest of the family members for the mischief of 1 child? If you are not prepared to really cancel the trip, then think of some other forms of penalty. I don't think many parents will feel at ease leaving a naughty child home alone while the rest go shopping as a form of punishment. He/she may be up to more mischief and ended up with regrettable consequence if left at home.