Happy Birthday Zhixin

I’ve been wanting and wanting to post this since forever :)

July 9th was Zhixin’s 1st birthday and we had a low key celebration at home.

As soon as he saw the cake, he was reaching for it. This is the first and the BEST picture I got. He really wanted to eat his cake.

OK. After a while I got another picture, see how he really wanted to eat his cake?

If the picture wasn’t hard enough, we have Huirou being jealous : How come I don’t get to take a picture with the cake? So, we obliged.

So I am really sorry if the cake seems to be melting a little already. By the way, it was chocolate mousse, next time I am so going to get carrot cake, no icing; but that won’t make for very pretty pictures, would it?

Huirou’s Favorite Snacks.

We have a hungry toddler at home who loves her food. Here are some of her favorites:Huirou especially like the Great Grains with the dates. When we got the ones without any raisins or dates, we throw in a bunch of our own sweets such as raisins, bananas or even some strawberries.

Another good standby for us is fruit preserved spread onto sandwich bread. Right now, we have the black cherry from St Dalfour in the fridge.

2 slices of cheese, sometimes shared with Zhixin.

This is supposed to be Zhixin’s Baby Bites Rice Rusk, but she likes them very much too.

Others are fruits, cookies and of course the occasionally chocolates and sweets. We don’t have too many “baby” food around the house other than the Baby Bites; whenever I buy them, Huirou doesn’t like them instead she will seek out what is in our bowls or what I cook for Zhixin.

I guess that’s a good thing.

The Siblings

She loves to hold him but as you may notice in this picture, he doesn’t like to be held, especially in her not-so-gentle hold

Often people will ask me about how the children are when they are together…

Both of them are the best of friends, being together 24 hours a day. There are many times that Huirou can figure out what Zhixin wants before we do. She’s the one who discovered that he likes to hold on to a handkerchief when he’s falling asleep.

But there are also frequent fights for toys and attention. Sometimes Huirou will even push or shove Zhixin, which is not allowed in our house. Zhixin will “fight back” by yelling or crying. The house is chaotic when I scold the children too.

Sometimes, it is possible to share. And that is how we normally eat: sharing an orange 4 ways, picking on raisins from the same container, or taking baths while we sing nursery rhymes.

At the end of the day, when they drift off to sleep, and I gaze upon their angelic faces, I feel that I am indeed blessed.

Riding on a Trike.

This is what we do when both children wants a ride on the tricycle. Don’t ask me what we will do when the baby becomes a toddler and wants to pedal too. We’ll think of something then. :)

Zhixin @ 11 months old

 

Growth, Food Intake and General Well Being

• Zhixin has 7 teeth. He’s special like that. Four big ones on top. 3 little ones on the bottom.
• He still consumes his 6 x 80 ml ebm a day. plus nursings as much as he want.
• On top of that he eats alot – fruits, porridge (aka congee), snacks, soft rice.
• My only concern for him is that he doesn’t like to drink water, so I limit his intake of biscuits, cakes, and anything that is dry or heaty. and no juice either.

Physical Development and Communications

• Zhixin has graduated from his commando crawl and can now consistently crawl on all fours.
• He goes into his turbo-crawl mode when he sees his uncle, or when chasing after Huirou on her bicycle. or when Hubs starts peeling oranges. ( He goes mum-mum-mum-mum ah all the way to Hubs)
• He’s also able to climb onto low furnitures (1-1.5feet is nt a problem to him) The only thing is he does not know yet how to get down the proper way.
• Yesterday, Hubs witnessed (and supervised) him climb the full flight of stairs in our house!
• He can pull himself to a stand and lower himself gently by holding on to furniture.
• He mainly still expressed his delight by laughing and shouting and his distress by crying.
• When Huirou take away his toys he will quickly cry. Sometimes he even cries when he thinks she has pushed him on purpose. So young, yet so soon to tell-tales!

Character and Temperament

• When he wakes from sleep, he seldom cries. Sometimes he will sit up and call me but sometimes he will not, forcing me to be alert all the time.
• He is very playful. Some of the tricks that he plays to make us laugh: pretending to cough. pretending to bite. spit at us. bite and pull out blankets, toys, water bottle.
• He will also pretend to drink by sucking and then as soon as I remove the water bottle he spits all the water out.

Zhixin is now at such a delightful playful stage. In the day he plays and plays and when it’s time to nap he falls asleep in an instant, all tired out.