Change

We have all heard it often enough:

Once the baby arrives, your lives will change.

It’s true you know.

Especially after the second one.

We used to go out during the weekends doing whatever. Outings need not be planned around nap times.

We washed our sheets every 2 weeks or so, not every 3 days.

I needed only 15 minutes in the morning to get ready. Not 1.5 hours plus another 30 mins to persuade little children to put on their shoes and get into their car seats.

Even our reading changed to some of the books like these :

The books were also never chewed, scribbled and salivated upon. And heaven forbid that they be this tattered after only 6 months!

There were many big changes for us and some arguments along the way. We’ve had to make changes to our lifestyle, and habits. Some say that these are sacrifices that we make as parents and some merely view it as a temporary change in pace. But no matter what, all I know is:

I wouldn't want it ANY other way.

Zhixin @ 9 months old

(Note: I am not old yet, I just realised I forgot to schedule this post while wanting to write 10 mo post….)

As usual, a picture :) That’s what everrrryone wants.

 

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Zhixin now consumes 80 ml (almost 3 oz) of ebm 6 times a day at the baby sitter’s house. At other times we still nurse on demand. Same as before.
• He’s eating a fair amount of solids at a sitting.  I am regularly letting him have meats and vegetables on the low allergy list. He eats all fruits that we eat. He seems to like the processed cheese that Huirou offers him but we are still careful to limit his salt intake at this age.
• He is not too fond of drinking water. And I have not tried to offer him any juice lest he develops a preference for them.
• Right now, he has 4 cute little teeth. two on top and two on the bottom. However, in his mouth the teeth can appear much bigger and they are still quite sharp!

Physical Development and Communications

• Zhixin is definitely crawling much faster these days. Still commando crawling, but much faster. (which incidently damage the collars of all his clothing, and dirties the front too)
• He has better balance and can catch himself if he happens to topple over while sitting.
• He loves to play obstacle course with the cushions and pillows on the floor.
• He’s very interested in whatever his Sis is doing. Often screaming in excitement at little games that she comes up with.
• When he meets familiar people he holds up his hand to say hello, and when we go out or leave the sitter’s he waves bye bye.
• When he’s happy, you find him bouncing and clapping. A sure fire way to achieve this is to sing the beginning lines of The DoReMi Song.
• He can speak at least 2 sounds now. And they are very important ones. Together they form 3 very important words to him. Baba, Mama, Mammammam. That’s right! He can address Hubs and I and to demand food! In case you are curious, he waited to say Ba after he says Ma so as not to hurt his dearest father’s feeling. (But Hubs is insisting that he said Ba first. He’s of course wrong in my blog)

Character and Temperament

• Zhixin like loud noises, the television and is only quick to cry when hungry or tired. Other than that he can be left alone most of the time.
• He’s also very tolerant of the rough love that Huirou gives him. Whenever she pushes him or scratch him, if it’s not too painful, he take it all in stride.

Ahhh! Nine months old is a wonderful age to be at, isn’t it?

CNY 2010 Part 2

This post continues from CNY 2010 Part 1

On the morning of CNY eve, we took the early boat to Granma’s house in Pulau Ketam. When we arrived at the jetty, there was already a long queue mad rush for the boat. Luckily some nice people gave up their seats so that we may sit with the children.

The nicest part about going back to Pulau Ketam? The journey is the hardest, once we are there it’s quite comfortable. My husband is relaxed. My children get to lie down wherever they want (no dogs) and Huirou gets plenty of opportunity to play with the cousins. Zhixin has the sarong cradle to nap in. And food is always available. There’s no need to drive for food.

As soon as we step into Granma’s house, Huirou asked for a bath.

Meanwhile Granma was getting all the food ready as offerings to the ancestors. After prayers, we get to eat the food as well.

Every year, we have  the same type of food, with only a small variation, all of which were always yummy. This year we had braised duck 卤鸭, stir-fried mix veggies 杂菜, ginger chicken 姜鸡 , braised meat/eggs 卤蛋卤肉, fried fish 煎鱼. fried chicken 炸鸡, orr nee (literally this translates as yam mud) 芋泥, and ginkgo/longan dessert 白果龙眼汤.

and that’s not all, after “dinner” which is normally served at 4-ish pm, and continues to around 6 pm or until we were stuffed, Granma would bring out ALL her CNY cookies and candies.

CNY 2010 Part 1

So…… did you have a great Chinese New Year? Ours was wonderful.

Our celebration started off with my father’s (Granpa’s)birthday one week before CNY. For the past few years, we’ve always declined the invitation for this event as it is so close to CNY. However with two kids, we didn’t want to be stuck in the potential jam. So we decided to attend this year, forgoing going home for CNY altogether.

We started the drive with sleepy babies at 6 am. Arrived at 8 am and promptly started our Ipoh Food Adventure by visiting……

Macdonald’s!

Hey! We were starving, ok?

Then we went to breakfast at a local kopitiam ordering everything in sight. Chee Cheong Fun. American Breakfast. Tong Shui. Pan Mee. Hor Fun. Nyonya Kueh. and of course my Teh Ais!

We went to lunch in a new Overseas Restaurant in town.  We prefer the old Overseas with the excellent food and service, for many reasons, and I am not about to write a restaurant review here. The old one is just better, ok?

In the evening, we went to a park for Huirou to let out her energy. There were swings and slides and these:

Zhixin in the bear cut-out…

and Huirou in the bear cut-out…

At the end of the day were ALL tired. Hubs was chasing Huirou all around the park while I was holding Zhixin and he won’t stop wriggling around. He’s so impatient to grow up and seemed to want to go on all the slides with his sister.

Zhixin @ 8 months old

Alright, so he’s not quite eight months old yet; but it is rather late in the month to be blogging about his 7th month……

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Zhixin now consumes 80 ml (almost 3 oz) of ebm 6 times a day at the baby sitter’s house. At other times we still nurse on demand.
• He’s eating a fair amount of solids at a sitting.  So far he’s had rice, oranges, pumpkin, spinach, onion, garlic, papayas. Babysitter already gave him fish. And he sucks on apple pieces whenever I have some too.  Bananas are one of his favourites too.
• Just before Chinese New Year, one tooth sprouted- the one on the right bottom front. Then 2 weeks later the other center bottom one sprouted too. It was so nice to see :)
• His eczema is getting better. The skin on his face and his buttocks are the smoothest now. The skin in the folds of his legs and ankles is still not quite there yet. We are so glad that he is responding to the Physiogel.

Physical Development and Communications

• He’s doing the commando crawl to reach for things and can sit stably. However, he doesn’t yet know that he must look before laying down again so we still surround him with pillows.
• When something is taken from him he screams to have it back, so that he can continue to his rock band thingy aka banging them on the floor or the table or the highchair.
• When he sees his spoon and bowl he becomes impatient to be fed. Same thing when he sees his milk bottle.
• He loves to play with his feet. Often holding them when he’s bored. He will settle for looking at his hands if he is being held in a way that he cannot reach his feet.

Character and Temperament

• He is a boy through and through. He is loud, rough, demanding and……
• yesterday we were at the mall and he decided a little girl slightly older than himself is a looker and he decided that he should make friends. He was calling her and then when she looked over he promptly gave HER his sweetest smile. *sweat*
• His very best friend is his sister, Huirou. She can make him laugh easily. We adults will need at least 10x the effort to achieve the same result.

This post is getting long enough for those of you who hates to read this much. 

Note to self – update more!