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Vee Turns 13 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:49:54 +0000

A faulty telephone line forced me to survive the entire week without Internet connection. Except for a few lucky emails sent out successfully, I had all the time in the world to admire my toddling son:

Communication

Ever since learning to shake his head, Vee has been doing that a zillion times a day. He seems to enjoy appearing uncooperative. Then, he recently coupled his head-shaking with “biao” (for 不要, which means “don’t want). What exactly do you want?!?
Just two days ago, he started to nod his head (*finally*), which involves an elaborate act of bending his entire body over.
He began to say “Po” for 婆 (grand-mother), “Gee” for 姨 (Aunt), “Jeh” for 姐 (elder sister), “ba-ba” for bye-bye, “bao” for 抱 (carry), “bo” for ball, “beh” for bear, “dug” for duck, “ta” for star / pasta / stop, and “ngao” for 咬 (bite / chew). During play-time, he would babble a lot and it seems like we are expecting a talkative boy.
He also took his first flight (to Singapore, where we visited the Takashimaya Baby Fair) and would be very excited to do the hand-sign for “aeroplane”.
He enjoys imitating adults using the telephone and remote control. When he feels like calling somebody, he would even use his shoe as a phone!

Physical

The adventurous boy is able to walk more than 10 steps at a stretch when he is calm. Once he gets excited, he forgets all about balancing and simply pounces forward like a tiger.
Mastered climbing up two flights of stairs on all fours
Would turn his body to get down the mattress, when reminded LOUDLY (absolutely zero sense of danger)

Diet & Feeding

Loves, loves, loves eating pasta (made of quinoa or brown rice, no wheat for him yet)
Enjoys organic brown rice cake, which makes a crunchy and healthy snack (Great for satisfying his love for self-feeding)
He is allergic to soy, so I am eliminating soy from my diet too, in the hope that his persistent eczema would subside.
During meal-times, he is able to sit through in his high-chair, gulping down his food or people-watch. This seems to be an envy among other Mummies, something which I just realised is a rarity among toddlers.

Potty Training

I still bring him to the potty chair during diaper changes, and keeps him seated by singing or giving him a small object to hold. He has been co-operative most of the time.
My husband and I have decided to say “wee-wee” for pee and “ng-ng” for poo. (Consistency is a must here.)
He is showing awareness by putting his hand on the front of his diaper when he pees.
When his face shows expression of straining to poo, I would strip off his diaper IMMEDIATELY and sit him on the potty chair. (This is an absolute test of skill and speed. Any miss would mean poo plopping on the floor or worst, on my feet!)

Sleep

The persistent nurser still suckles for comfort several times in the night. For the past week, Daddy is in charge of putting him to bed while I leave the room until he is asleep. Hopefully, he would be able to find comfort sleeping with Daddy too.

Our home-visit nurse gave Vee passes for all the milestones he achieved and witnessed for the first time how stubborn he could be:

After demonstrating his scribbling skills on his large doodle board, he insisted on sitting on the board with his fat thighs squashed like an “M”. To prevent his weight from damaging the board, I told him to sit outside it. He refused with a loud “Nggg!!!” and squashed his thighs tighter together. OMG, I am starting to feel fearful about our journey towards the “Terrible Two”.

I am preparing myself for this challenging journey. What are your tips for dealing with stubborn toddlers?

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Vee Turns One!

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:00:06 +0000

Today marks Vee’s first birthday and the first anniversary of our breastfeeding journey. We have come a long way since last year when I spent THREE calendar days in pain (yes, about 38 hours of contractions!) before he was delivered naturally. His birth story shall be shared in another post.

Since it is a working day on the fifth day of Lunar New Year, we held a mini celebration at home. Everyone in the family came back for a sumptuous home-cooked lunch and we held the tradition of letting the birthday boy crawl towards an item of his choice.

This was the spread offered: a toy stethoscope, an abacus, a pen, a book, a doodle drawing board, two red eggs, a construction toy, a toy musical instrument, and a toy laptop. Within split seconds, Vee zoomed towards the stethoscope and held it. We gave him a second chance, and he went to grab the pen and the toy laptop.

All right, baby… You aspire to be a medical researcher who writes reports on the laptop all day long.

Then we sang his birthday song in English and Mandarin, and blew the tiny candle on his birthday cake. Hubby and I had baked the carrot cake last evening, as a present to Vee. We are proud to have worked together to bake the cake successfully, signifying our determination to work as a couple to bring Vee up and educate him well. (Find the fabulous recipe here. We halved the amount of confectioners’/icing sugar for the frosting and it still turned out rather sweet.)

Vee has been experiencing an explosive development in the past month:

learnt to say many new words: ”Da” for Daddy, “Ma-ma” for Mummy and Granny (I’m trying to spot the difference in his intonation), “mum-mum” for eating, “dieh” for himself (as his nickname is 宝贝, pronounced as Bao-bei), “ger” for tiger, “ter” for water, “daw” for window, “ngao-ngao-ngao” for 摇摇摇 (which means swinging in Mandarin) and “ngai” for 来 (which means come in Mandarin)
picked up new hand-signs for words that he cannot pronounce yet: “fish”, “more”, “apple”, “no more”, ”pain”, “stop”, “don’t want”, “flower” (We are glad to have invested the time to teach him baby-signs because he can express his needs rather clearly and find little need for crying or whining. His speech has been developing well in parallel, and he learns words/signs much faster when they are sung and signed to him.)
recognises these items: book, ball, blanket, bear, fan, toy piano, potty
started refusing food fed to him in his spoon, then we realised he wanted to finger-feed himself while we finger-feed him (Using fingers to feed him porridge is very messy yet fun at times.)
able to take a few steps before falling
falling asleep by himself on two occasions (shared here)

I am overwhelmed by the surprises he gives me every day.

Here are my wishes for the adorable birthday boy: Stay happy, strong, healthy and kind all year round!

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Vee Turns 11 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:55:52 +0000

Vee is only one month away from his first birthday and I am pretty excited about it. He has been a darling this month and such a joy to have around every day.

His mini achievements:

He has picked up quite a number of new hand signs:
- initially I thought he was doing the ‘milk’ sign with both hands; then it appeared that he was signing for the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”!

- finally learnt how to clap his hands! He does this when we sing “If you’re happy and you know…” and when he is excited

- managed the “Gong Xi Gong Xi” (恭喜恭喜）sign, just in time for Lunar New Year next month. It was hilarious the way he had to clap his hands, in order to grasp his own hands, then bob his fists up and down for the sign.
He woke up one morning while I pretended to be asleep. Then he crawled right up to my face and said “Ma-ma”, my eyes opened big with surprise STRAIGHTAWAY!
When he fusses at night, I pretend to be asleep for a while more. On several occasions, he changed positions, sometimes crawling across me, then fell asleep on my tummy / thighs / chest / pillow ON HIS OWN! Without nursing! Gosh, I am soooooo… glad whenever this happens.

How did you or how do you plan to celebrate your kid’s FIRST birthday? Any special traditions in your family?

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Baby V Turns 10 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:28:36 +0000

Another month has flown by and Baby V has again managed little accomplishments:

from sitting to standing on his own without any support (I was amazed when he first did so and rushed out of the bathroom immediately in case he fell, which he didn’t!)
making the first hand signs to communicate with us:
~ milk (from ‘milking’ slowly with one hand to ‘milking’ quickly with both hands. Are you THAT hungry, boy?)
~ bye-bye (say ‘bye bye’ and he starts flapping both his hands. Hmm… maybe he can’t decide which hand to wave?)
peeing regularly in the potty chair/trainer (very adaptable baby)
pooing with ease in the potty chair/trainer every alternate days (He’s super adorable when mimicking my ‘straining’ sounds, then continues to do his big business. I’m still amazed by his control of bowel movements at such an early stage. Thank you for giving Mummy such clean diapers to wash, Baby!)
eating three meals a day on top of breastmilk
In case any Mummy is interested, these are usually what he eats:
~ Breakfast at 9.30a.m.: Brown rice cereal (4tblsp), some apple bits to chew
~ Lunch at 1p.m.: Brown rice porridge cooked with vegetable stock (5tblsp), vegetables, 1/2 apple/pear
~ Dinner at 6.30p.m.: Brown rice porridge as in lunch, vegetables
(Baby, thank you for gobbling down anything that is prepared for you. Muak!)
sleeping for longer stretches (2-3 hours) on several nights without nursing for comfort (Slow progress, which is better than none! He loves sleeping on his tummy nowadays and squeezes his head onto his Daddy’s or my pillow. Can’t you sleep on your own pillow, Baby?!?)

I have been showing flashcards to him for 5-10 minutes daily as he enjoys them. He plays rather freely the rest of the day.

We are considering enrolling him in The Shichida Method Programme for right brain education 1 hour per week, so that I can learn a more structured way to educate him.

Are any of your child(ren) on similar programmes in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur? Please share your experiences and feedback. Thank you very much!

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Baby V Turns 9 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:38:53 +0000

It is amazing how much a baby learns in a month. From last month’s post until today, he has managed quite a feat:

‘letting go’ in the potty a few times a day (Granny is using his pee as liquid fertiliser for the plants in the garden. Great recycling idea!)
pulling himself to stand and letting go of his hands (He falls several times a day, yet the diligent boy keeps practising at every chance.)
learning to walk by pushing a stool round the room with my help (He is very smiley when doing this and seems to enjoy the new sense of freedom to move.)

It is time to get him a pair of soft shoes for outdoor use and I am clueless about this. Which brand would you recommend?

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Baby V Turns 8 Months Old

MieVee @ MummysReviews.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Today marks the completion of eight months of mummyhood and Baby V seems more like a boy and less of a baby by the day. I feel a great sense of achievement having gone through eight months of roller-coaster journey with this precious little man:

- waiting anxiously for the first drops of breastmilk in the early days;

- coaxing him to take naps in the third month;

- overcoming his 1 to 2-hourly night awakenings for the past four months;

- battling teething discomforts on the day he turned four months and feeling all excited when four teeth finally erupted;

- witnessing his first rollover just before turning five months;

- watching in amazement how fast he chomps down solid foods at six and a half months;

- cheering his rapid crawls at seven months;

- following him closely as he pulls himself to stand this week and keeps practising with determination at every opportunity.

If this were a report card, I would give this baby straight A’s EXCEPT for the subject on Sleep. I am looking forward to him sleeping through the night (i.e. five straight hours).

The first year of a baby’s life marks so many amazing developmental milestones and I feel blessed to be with Baby V through all the ups and downs.

He is the inspiration behind Mummy’s Reviews, which I dedicate to every parent.

Enjoy parenthood!

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