Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee...
Yes yes yes, the joys of being a parent know no bounds.... Our Little One has brought us so much joy and we do Adore him oh so very much! Our Little One has recently acquired a new sense of assertiveness about his needs, wants and demands... and whenever any one of the needs, wants, demands are not met... Hear the SIRENS wail across the rooms and hallways... woe betide the parents (us) who then have to carry Our Little One and try to pacify him to where tears still hang on his cheeks (rosy already but made redder from the wailing) but he had broken into a once again content smile... Once again, calm returns to the household and we (as parents) breathe a sigh of relief that Our Little One is once again smiling....(we are such suckers).... Anyway Our Little One has recently acquired some new possessions (a term that he learned from the recent Christmas) and semblance of skills and is all ready to to face 2009! Happy New Year Everybody!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
I now baptize you as...
That's right, Our Little One has been officially baptized. It was a joyous occasion with Grandpa performing the baptism. It was also a perfect baptism in that Our Little One did not fuss one bit. No fussing, sniffing, crying, nothing at all. Everyone in church was amazed and impressed. The last part of the baptism entailed Our Little One being carried by Grandpa around the church. It was fantastic! Everyone in the congregation wanted to touch Our Little One, hold his hand, smile at him. Short of signing autographs, I would say Our Little One performed wonderfully! Don't believe me... see for yourself!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
4mths old... and a new set of skills...
Amazing how parents are intensely in love with every new (or what they think is new) development of their baby. So as typical parents, we are, too, in love with every little new thing Our Little One does. Take for example, today....
Our Little One just turned 4mths and we are both elated. I think back to when my water broke and the delivery.. and looking at Our Little One now, I am just flushed with emotions (think equivavlent of PMS-ing with tears and hormones all rolled into 1). He is now able to recognize both of us with ease and not so comfortable with strangers. He goes off like a siren if a total stranger comes up to him. But according to baby manuals (like as if babies really came with one) babies are supposed to behave like this right now... comforting to know that this is normal but no less easy to deal with when we are out in a mall where total strangers are sometimes fascinated by babies....
Our Little One has been progressively learning to roll over and crawl (albeit he goes backwards when his arms and legs move). So we as parents, naturally, try to encourage and build up his motor skills every chance we can. And of course like every proud parent, as Our Little One struggles to co-ordinate his limbs, we video-tape and photograph "every precious moment" for posterity.. or at least till Our (by that time, Not So Little One) Little One gets on our nerves when he is older and then we dish these old memories out and make him feel guilty about it... But we are enjoying ourselves... so let's not think too far into the future...yet
Another Fuji (brand of camera that I use) moment here (I wonder if I would get sued for infringing copyright if I had used the brand of a certain film in place of the camera that I actually owned).. I know I really like these pictures I took today!
Our Little One just turned 4mths and we are both elated. I think back to when my water broke and the delivery.. and looking at Our Little One now, I am just flushed with emotions (think equivavlent of PMS-ing with tears and hormones all rolled into 1). He is now able to recognize both of us with ease and not so comfortable with strangers. He goes off like a siren if a total stranger comes up to him. But according to baby manuals (like as if babies really came with one) babies are supposed to behave like this right now... comforting to know that this is normal but no less easy to deal with when we are out in a mall where total strangers are sometimes fascinated by babies....
Our Little One has been progressively learning to roll over and crawl (albeit he goes backwards when his arms and legs move). So we as parents, naturally, try to encourage and build up his motor skills every chance we can. And of course like every proud parent, as Our Little One struggles to co-ordinate his limbs, we video-tape and photograph "every precious moment" for posterity.. or at least till Our (by that time, Not So Little One) Little One gets on our nerves when he is older and then we dish these old memories out and make him feel guilty about it... But we are enjoying ourselves... so let's not think too far into the future...yet
Another Fuji (brand of camera that I use) moment here (I wonder if I would get sued for infringing copyright if I had used the brand of a certain film in place of the camera that I actually owned).. I know I really like these pictures I took today!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Babyhood aspirations
A new baby = new kind of fun.... erm.. sort of... depends on which side of the coin you are understanding this from... it's been back breaking work trying to take care of our Little One, have time with hubby as well as working.. and trying to go to the gym to lose that extra few (quite a few) pounds that I put on during pregnancy.... anyway I have been slowly adjusting to my/our new lifestyle... and of course with a growing baby, each new day is a new learning experience... for example:
1) Baby now sleeps through the night.. well he has been sleeping through the night for about a week or slightly more now... and it has been GOOD! after his last feed at about 8-9pm, our Little One will be changed into his sleeper and new diaper. He thoroughly enjoys this and will now kick and wiggle his arms no end. Not so funny for me who has to take off his day clothes, clean out his bottom, put lotion all over him, put on new diaper, put on sleeper. Its a tactical struggle but kind of fun for our Little One for about 20min. Then he gets carried around the bedroom and a collection of nursery rhymes, courtesy of the mother (in my brain, its the operation titled "Searching Memory Bank for Songs from Yester-years")... and starts to yawn in about 10min . Like magic, our Little One starts to zonk out and lo and behold, closes his eyes and sleeps.... once I catch his involuntary smile with his eyes closed ( at least I think the smile seems involuntary and instinctive)... our Little One is sound asleep.... ah bliss and the close of another day
2) Our Little One now is also Le Infant Terrible.... why.. well our Little One is the only one that we give our attention to hence, it is his god-given right that he be entertained every minute of his waking day... the same logic applies to our babysitter. Try putting him aside for 5min for a bathroom break and we will be greeted with a loud, piercing cry of distress.... as soon as our Little One is picked up, the distress call shuts off like a button's been pushed (think of the attendant light on the plane and how it shuts off when the flight attendant comes round)... and you see the Little One breaking into a huge grin with tears in his eyes.... what a (nonetheless, lovely) sigh....
3) Like all parents, we take the time to inculcate our Little One with aspirations... and growing up in the Cold War which also culminated into the height of Space travels, my dear husband has devised a way to interest our Little One with the love for "Space, the Final Frontier".... He carried our Little One onto his lap and in his most officious voice, starts a countdown from 10 to 0 and suddenly "Blast off!" and our Little One is suddenly rocketed into mid air (with the help and in the safet yof daddy's arms) and is orbitting round the living room.... sometimes this inter-galactic journey is accompanied by the themesong from "Lost in Space"... and here is a look at the launchpad from our living room and our Little One as an plain clothes astronuat....
1) Baby now sleeps through the night.. well he has been sleeping through the night for about a week or slightly more now... and it has been GOOD! after his last feed at about 8-9pm, our Little One will be changed into his sleeper and new diaper. He thoroughly enjoys this and will now kick and wiggle his arms no end. Not so funny for me who has to take off his day clothes, clean out his bottom, put lotion all over him, put on new diaper, put on sleeper. Its a tactical struggle but kind of fun for our Little One for about 20min. Then he gets carried around the bedroom and a collection of nursery rhymes, courtesy of the mother (in my brain, its the operation titled "Searching Memory Bank for Songs from Yester-years")... and starts to yawn in about 10min . Like magic, our Little One starts to zonk out and lo and behold, closes his eyes and sleeps.... once I catch his involuntary smile with his eyes closed ( at least I think the smile seems involuntary and instinctive)... our Little One is sound asleep.... ah bliss and the close of another day
2) Our Little One now is also Le Infant Terrible.... why.. well our Little One is the only one that we give our attention to hence, it is his god-given right that he be entertained every minute of his waking day... the same logic applies to our babysitter. Try putting him aside for 5min for a bathroom break and we will be greeted with a loud, piercing cry of distress.... as soon as our Little One is picked up, the distress call shuts off like a button's been pushed (think of the attendant light on the plane and how it shuts off when the flight attendant comes round)... and you see the Little One breaking into a huge grin with tears in his eyes.... what a (nonetheless, lovely) sigh....
3) Like all parents, we take the time to inculcate our Little One with aspirations... and growing up in the Cold War which also culminated into the height of Space travels, my dear husband has devised a way to interest our Little One with the love for "Space, the Final Frontier".... He carried our Little One onto his lap and in his most officious voice, starts a countdown from 10 to 0 and suddenly "Blast off!" and our Little One is suddenly rocketed into mid air (with the help and in the safet yof daddy's arms) and is orbitting round the living room.... sometimes this inter-galactic journey is accompanied by the themesong from "Lost in Space"... and here is a look at the launchpad from our living room and our Little One as an plain clothes astronuat....
Friday, October 24, 2008
Updates
Been very long since I last posted anything (save the Keck look-alike meter) and obviously something incredible has happened in my life.. I am now a mother to our little boy, born in early July. While I will not go through with the details of the process of delivery (believe me it was not that pretty anyway) but I will say motherhood is immensely enjoyable save for a few minor incidents with hyper-lactation.... too much of a good thing is BAD... the picture on the right is not a promotional picture for a certain brand of nursing products ( I should have turned the bottles to avoid any free promotion) but rather a picture of the 6-pack of breastmilk stored in our fridge on a daily basis for our little precious one. Yes, the only 6-pack in our fridge is milk. And this supply that you see is already after a (few) dosage of Sage tea to decrease production.
On the left of the blog is a photo of our precious little boy, photo taken at 8weeks. Been a handful today but I guess its life as a parent. I and more importantly, husband and I, are enjoying being parents but it is tiring.. and I am always struck by the fact that this is only the beginning... I do really appreciate my parents a lot more now...
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Household Help
This will sound so weird... having grown up doing my own laundry, cleaning my own room (Not very often), ironing my own clothes (still not that often) and cooking my own meals, now I have someone who cleans my house 1x a week and a part time help who comes in daily to (up to now) cleans my house and (when the baby arrives) takes over a babysitter...Talk about moving on up in the social ladder.
Truth be told, I am not that conscientious a person at keeping house. As long as I don't sneeze myself to death with the dust in the house, I am pretty satisfied wearing shoes all day at home and ignore (to the best of my ability) the layer of dust accumulation on the floor and furniture. Such is the life of DINKs (Double Income No Kids) before we found ourselves faced with the reality of becoming parents at the end of last year. Even then, I was still cleaning house myself when our families arrived to spend x'mas with us last year. Granted the house was not the cleanest but it was livable.
The first upgrade came about when we hired a 1x weekly cleaner to help keep the dust at bay. Mind you, it was a real upgrade. No longer was the floor clogged with dust or crumbs from the dinner table and for once, I could actually see what colour our furniture is. Not only was the dust sucked up by the vacuum, but ths house was actually mopped and the toilets were clean! My happiest moment had to be the realization that I can always look forward to having a clean stove at the start of every week. Not that I had help with the ironing (which by this point had been delegated, at a price, to the laundromats) nor the cooking or washing up. But the thought that I was no longer in charge of cleaning the floor, dusting the furniture and cleaning the bathrooms was so libertaing that I swore I nearly cried for joy!
And now, sheesh, what a step up in lifestyle for the stepford household. We finally managed to get part-time help every (week)day in the house. The idea was that this part-time help would also double up as babysitter and (sometime)kitchen help when I finally g0 back to work after delivery. And since the baby is still on its way, the part-time help has been turned into an avid fan of the Food Channel. Well, that is very unfair of me to say this. My part-time help has avtually been very conscientious at getting stuff done. She insists on asking me if she should clean the bathrooms everyday, or if the floor needs to be cleaned (everyday). Truth is there is not that much work to be done around the house. Though with the help around, stuff that was pending for like forever did manage to get themselves checked off the list. Take for example, hanging our paintings. For the longest time, all we did was visualize how how paintings were going to look on the walls. When the help arrived, they actually got hung on the wall. Ok, not every painting since some paintings are so heavy, I need another kind of help to drill in nails to get them up. But then still, at least the project got started. Plus the furniture in the guest room got moved to where now I can set up an office to work from. And today. lo and behold! My part-time help actually irons bedsheets! What a joy to have someone carry my groceries for me when we went to the store too.
This is the GOOD life!
Truth be told, I am not that conscientious a person at keeping house. As long as I don't sneeze myself to death with the dust in the house, I am pretty satisfied wearing shoes all day at home and ignore (to the best of my ability) the layer of dust accumulation on the floor and furniture. Such is the life of DINKs (Double Income No Kids) before we found ourselves faced with the reality of becoming parents at the end of last year. Even then, I was still cleaning house myself when our families arrived to spend x'mas with us last year. Granted the house was not the cleanest but it was livable.
The first upgrade came about when we hired a 1x weekly cleaner to help keep the dust at bay. Mind you, it was a real upgrade. No longer was the floor clogged with dust or crumbs from the dinner table and for once, I could actually see what colour our furniture is. Not only was the dust sucked up by the vacuum, but ths house was actually mopped and the toilets were clean! My happiest moment had to be the realization that I can always look forward to having a clean stove at the start of every week. Not that I had help with the ironing (which by this point had been delegated, at a price, to the laundromats) nor the cooking or washing up. But the thought that I was no longer in charge of cleaning the floor, dusting the furniture and cleaning the bathrooms was so libertaing that I swore I nearly cried for joy!
And now, sheesh, what a step up in lifestyle for the stepford household. We finally managed to get part-time help every (week)day in the house. The idea was that this part-time help would also double up as babysitter and (sometime)kitchen help when I finally g0 back to work after delivery. And since the baby is still on its way, the part-time help has been turned into an avid fan of the Food Channel. Well, that is very unfair of me to say this. My part-time help has avtually been very conscientious at getting stuff done. She insists on asking me if she should clean the bathrooms everyday, or if the floor needs to be cleaned (everyday). Truth is there is not that much work to be done around the house. Though with the help around, stuff that was pending for like forever did manage to get themselves checked off the list. Take for example, hanging our paintings. For the longest time, all we did was visualize how how paintings were going to look on the walls. When the help arrived, they actually got hung on the wall. Ok, not every painting since some paintings are so heavy, I need another kind of help to drill in nails to get them up. But then still, at least the project got started. Plus the furniture in the guest room got moved to where now I can set up an office to work from. And today. lo and behold! My part-time help actually irons bedsheets! What a joy to have someone carry my groceries for me when we went to the store too.
This is the GOOD life!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Neo-natal / Post-partum (Old Wives') Tales
Isn't strange that only when you:
1) plan to get married / plan a wedding
2) get ready to have a baby / pregnant / on the verge of delivering a baby
that your social life (people you are supposed to know) get so incredibly big all of a sudden... And what exactly do I mean by that? Ever heard of the "They say" syndrome? When was the last time you heard your mother / aunty / neighbour /stranger come up to your face and say to you "They say....." If you are in my shoes now (aka, option 2, on the verge of delivering a baby) chances are you would have already have heard of "They say" about a million times over the course of 8+ months.
I can only wonder:
1) Who "they" are
2) What "they" do
3) Where "they" live
4) What else do "they" do besides tell you what "they" think you should do?
And here ranks the list of "They say" things that I have heard and (not) supposed to do while pregnant / delivering / post-partum
They say:
1) Don't drink any kind of cold drinks while pregnant - baby will be born with a bronchial condition / baby will develop colds very easily / baby will be chilled in the womb and will be born with a "cooling" body constitution (that is if you understand the fundamental of Chinese medicine)
2) Don't eat mutton during pregnancy - baby will have a higher chance of developing epilepsy / baby will be born hairy / makes the mother's body too heaty, no good for baby
3) Don't drink water after delivery - "They say it's not good for you". Instead, drink tea made with red dates and dried longan
4) Do eat more bird's nest (for the untrained eye, its dried up swallow's spit) - baby will be born with fair complexion
5) Don't eat dark coloured vegetables - baby will be born with dark complexion
6) Don't eat prawns / shrimps - baby will be born with ugly complexion
7) Don't drink chilled drinks post-partum - it will stop milk production
8) Do bath yourself with piping hot herbal stuff post-partum - drive "wind"from your body
9) Don't eat beef, mutton, lamb post-partum - too "heaty" (erm, whatever happened to the need for iron)
10) Don't shower or wash your hair post-partum - the mother will develop rheumatism
11) Do eat more fish post-partum - to increase milk production
So, here's the list of "they say" that I can remember, god only knows how much more I have heard and just forgot. But it is rather fascinating that "they" seem to know so much more about neo-natal / post-partum medicine rather than the obs in the hospital (whose only advice dispensed to me so far is no raw meat, drink more water and rest more).
1) plan to get married / plan a wedding
2) get ready to have a baby / pregnant / on the verge of delivering a baby
that your social life (people you are supposed to know) get so incredibly big all of a sudden... And what exactly do I mean by that? Ever heard of the "They say" syndrome? When was the last time you heard your mother / aunty / neighbour /stranger come up to your face and say to you "They say....." If you are in my shoes now (aka, option 2, on the verge of delivering a baby) chances are you would have already have heard of "They say" about a million times over the course of 8+ months.
I can only wonder:
1) Who "they" are
2) What "they" do
3) Where "they" live
4) What else do "they" do besides tell you what "they" think you should do?
And here ranks the list of "They say" things that I have heard and (not) supposed to do while pregnant / delivering / post-partum
They say:
1) Don't drink any kind of cold drinks while pregnant - baby will be born with a bronchial condition / baby will develop colds very easily / baby will be chilled in the womb and will be born with a "cooling" body constitution (that is if you understand the fundamental of Chinese medicine)
2) Don't eat mutton during pregnancy - baby will have a higher chance of developing epilepsy / baby will be born hairy / makes the mother's body too heaty, no good for baby
3) Don't drink water after delivery - "They say it's not good for you". Instead, drink tea made with red dates and dried longan
4) Do eat more bird's nest (for the untrained eye, its dried up swallow's spit) - baby will be born with fair complexion
5) Don't eat dark coloured vegetables - baby will be born with dark complexion
6) Don't eat prawns / shrimps - baby will be born with ugly complexion
7) Don't drink chilled drinks post-partum - it will stop milk production
8) Do bath yourself with piping hot herbal stuff post-partum - drive "wind"from your body
9) Don't eat beef, mutton, lamb post-partum - too "heaty" (erm, whatever happened to the need for iron)
10) Don't shower or wash your hair post-partum - the mother will develop rheumatism
11) Do eat more fish post-partum - to increase milk production
So, here's the list of "they say" that I can remember, god only knows how much more I have heard and just forgot. But it is rather fascinating that "they" seem to know so much more about neo-natal / post-partum medicine rather than the obs in the hospital (whose only advice dispensed to me so far is no raw meat, drink more water and rest more).
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