Joyful Joyful... we STILL adore thee... and thee's rejection of Formula Milk

Just as we thought all is going to go well for the new year, sigh.... trouble in paradise...

Ok to be fair, 2009 did not really start on a pitch perfect note either... "War on Gaza" (as reported by Al Jazeera news), Situation in Darfour is not cleared up, there is a (last I read) cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, 2012 Olympics has (apparently) been under budgetted, and of course the global financial crisis is only starting to rear its ugly head.... erm... save the UA Airways flight which landed safely in the Hudson with all the passengers unharmed, there most certainly does not seem to be any good news on the air recently....

An in our household, Our Little One decides that 2009 is the year to start his first strike! Down with Formula Milk!.... Let me contextualize this by saying that as conscientious parents, we have started introducing Our Little One to Formula Milk since he was 6weeks old... and made sure that 1 out of 4-5 feeds daily for Our Little One is given in the form of progressive infant care nutrition par excellence, Formula Milk, hypoallergenic too! But it all started about 2 weeks ago when out of the blue, Our Little One decided to make his contempt for Formula Milk rather blatant (let me contextualize this again by saying that it was never easy getting Formula Milk into Our Little One but the end result is he always accepts it, albeit grudgingly and kicking up a little fuss, usually lasting about 5-10min).... And blatant (and loud) it was!.... he would actively swing his both hands at the bottle (and knock it out of his mouth), filled with the detested nutrition of choice, and spit out whatever he has put into his mouth... to ensure that the taste of Formula Milk does not linger, he actually slobbers profusely to expel any last remnants of the dreaded substance! and I thought babies were supposed to learn (in a few years time) to be scheming as they grow up to he children!

Tonight was probably the worst episode of protest we have had so far.... ok granted, we brought Our Little One out for an errand (the purchase of safety equipment to childproof the abode)... and hence Our Little One did not quite get as much shut eye as usual.... but I mean come on, he has been out before you know... we do have a social baby!... So of course when mealtime comes along, we expected the usual fuss about not wanting Formula Milk (already trained from the previous weeks increased intensity of protests)... but so wrong were we! Even Master Yoda could not have expected such Force existed in Our Little Jedi! Not only did he knock the bottle out as hard as his arms and hands could allow him, the yelling and screaming was of a totally different scale, and so too the stamina!..... He was so tired after the tirade (30min) against the Formula Milk, he was actually willing to drink Apple Juice (something he has rejected for the past 2 days)!

My my.. and we had so much faith in the advent and progress of infant nutrition... how could it fail in the case of Our Little One????!!!! And Our Little One loves rice cereal and probably anything you put onto a spoon for him... Do I now have to feed Formula Milk to Our Little One through a soup spoon???? Heck, now, I try to lull Our Little One to sleep and just before he totally zonks out, I sneak a bottle of Formula Milk into his mouth and cause its instinct, he startst sucking and cos he is too sleepy, he just downs the bottle... so in effect, he does not reject Formula Milk totally... but when can I stop being so sneaky especially when all I want to do is to make sure that Our Little One gets all the nutrition he needs? Oh and by the way, his other feeds are EBM (hospital talk for Expressed Breast Milk)...

After dealing with a cranky and loud baby for almost 5 hours.. he started fussing as soon as we stepped into the house... thats another thing.. Our Little One refuses to fuss outside of the main door... I mean... come on!!! at least reserve some energy for our LONG-a** flights home!!!! It is after all payback time for all those hours that we sat with a smile and a shrug when some other baby/babies fussed within earshot in Economy!!!! We are totally smashed... like TOTALLY!!!!

But you know with so much happening in the world right now... who are we to b**** about dealing with 1 cranky baby??? :P

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!

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!

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!

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....

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...

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