Family outing at Singapore Botanical Gardens

In order to "avoid" the H1N1 flu virus, we decided that we shouldn't go to crowded areas like shopping malls during the weekends. So last Sunday we were contemplating between Botanical Gardens and East Coast park. Hubby decided on the former as he wanted to eat good food =) A sleepy Joshie and I. We were quite surprised and happy that he sat in his stroller for a good 45 minutes before he started crying. Yeah, we are timing him each time he sits in his stroller.
Any ideas on training your child to sit in the stroller?


Walking, walking and walking...........good exercise!

Joshie with his daddy.........

Feeding Joshie his dinner while we ate at Halia Restaurant. The food was really good and the bill was "good" too.......haha

Before & after Joshie

This picture was taken at the waterfall at Singapore Botanical Gardens when I was 25 weeks pregnant with Joshie.

And this is the "after Joshie" photo........taken last Sunday, 9 months after giving birth to Joshie.

Visiting the Lams

Highlight of the evening.....haha. Joshie enjoying his wagon ride courtesy of Aunty Lam. He was so so happy. I was quite surprised that he was sitting there and not fussing at all. He hates his stroller but seems to like the wagon. Maybe I should buy a wagon and bring him shopping instead of using the stroller. I guess everyone in the shopping mall would be staring at us.

Ok, so where were we? Well, last Saturday, I finally stepped foot into Gideon and Evelyne's big big beautiful house =) The interior design is so trendy, too bad I did not manage to snap pics of the house as I was too busy with Josh.

The two daddies with their precious ones. Gideon's daughter, Faith is 5 months old and she was so interested in Joshie. Look at her, she couldn't take her eyes off Joshie.

The two babies fascinated with each other.

Doubles! =P Taken at the dining area just before I fed Joshie his dinner.

A picture with Isaac who turned 3.

Video of Joshie crawling up the stairs

Joshie started crawling up the stairs when he was 8 months old, that's when we were back in KL for a week. I had forgotten to take a video then. Yesterday, when we were at Gideon and Evelyne's house, he saw the stairs and started crawling up again. This time, I managed to take a video.

Sleepy Joshie

These are Joshie's permanent sleep mates. A bear which Daddy bought from Gap and a colourful clown which was a gift during his full moon.

Here's Joshie nibbling the bear's ears before he fell asleep. Daddy bought him the other brown bear hand puppet during a recent business trip to Vietnam. However, I don't leave him with the hand puppet unsupervised as I am afraid that he will bite off the bead eyes.

TV addict in the making?

Joshie loves to watch tv. He can sit still for an average of 15-20 minutes if the tv is switched on. Especially if he is watching his favourite Your Baby Can Read VCDs. He would smile or shriek in delight when he recognises some of his favourite songs/words.

Cranky and clingy

My little cheeky has been very cranky and clingy this week. My guess is that he is teething. He already has 3 little tooth and I think another tooth is coming out on his upper gums.

It's NO FUN at all when he is teething. He only naps for half an hour during the day and at night, he sometimes would wake up. I didn't hear him last night but when I checked on him at 5am, I had a vague feeling that he woke up coz he was sleeping at the end of the cot.

The little cheeky

This active boy doesn't like to be confined at all. No stroller, no play pen! Car seat has always been ok for him (maybe coz the car is moving) but recently, he fusses if he has been sitting down for too long. Last Sunday, hubby was busy looking for a parking at Isetan Scotts and Joshie was whining away. Since we were already at the car park, I unbuckled his car seat this is what happened:
Struggled out. Turned his little body around and started cooing with delight when he saw his Daddy in front.

Look at his cheeky face.

My 9 month old

Joshie turns 9 months today. How time flies!

This month, Joshie has been really active. No doubt he has always been a hyperactive child but recently, he refuses to be confined. There goes my attempt of training him to sit in his playpen. He used to sit happily in his yellow Bumbo but now, he'd struggle to get out 90% of the time. He loves to crawl on the floor and he can crawl really fast too. And he has been cruising a lot too.

He is also a chatterbox and has been babbling a lot. His favourite word is still "deh deh" but he has added "kah" to his vocabulary. =P

Joshie is also feeding himself very well. I don't give him the spoon yet (lazy mummy don't want to clean up the mess) but most of the time, I give him pieces of bread and he is able to use his thumb and index finger (pincher grasp) to hold the bread and direct it to his mouth. And with 3 little teeth, I do not need to mash fruits like banana, papaya and dragon fruit anymore. I can just feed him direct.

He is able to recognise some of his favourite songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes", "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "ABC" and would grin happily when he hears these songs.

Joshie's dinner

Instead of porridge for lunch/dinner most of the time, I have been experimenting with baby recipes. Got some of my recipes online and recently I borrowed a recipe book from my lovely neighbour. Since I did not have to cook dinner for ourselves yesterday, I decided to prepare a chicken casserole for Joshie.

A combination of chicken breast with onions, sweet potato, carrots and green peas.

Blend the chicken casserole in the food processor and then separate it according to your baby's portion. Can either feed baby straightaway or treat it as a dish with plain porridge/rice. Joshie loves this dish.

The portion in the bowl was for his dinner yesterday. The rest were for freezing.

Joshie's first major fall

On Father's Day, my little boy had his first major fall when we were shopping at Paragon, Orchard Road. I was browsing through the clothes at Gant which had a discount of 40% storewide when I heard a loud "thud" followed by wailing. I quickly turned back and saw hubby carrying Joshie who was wailing on top of his lungs. According to hubby, they were both sitting on the sofa in front of the fitting rooms. Hubby had just turned his head for just a second and Joshie fell to the floor. It happened too quickly and he was not sure if Joshie had hit his head.

For a moment, I was upset with hubby, as in how could he have turned his head away from Joshie? But then, that could have happened to me too. Joshie is so so so hyperactive and refuses to sit still, even for one second. Even when he is eating, he would be moving.The only time he doesn't move much is when he is asleep. That is why I am very apprehensive about leaving my boy at a daycare/babysitter. Anyway, I have not gotten a job yet so I am not worrying about that yet.

To cut the long story short, Joshie quitened down when I carried him. We figured that the injury wasn't that bad after all and decided to observe first instead of rushing to the hospital. He was his usual active self and when hubby put him on the sofa at Gant again, he seemed to have "forgotten" about his recent fall and started moving towards the edge of the sofa again. My, my. Seems like he is not fearful at all.

We adjourned to Lawry's for our dinner and during dinner he was so so so active, which made hubby and I so so so relieved and happy. For once, we didn't bother asking him to tone down when he babbled at the top of his voice. Hubby felt so bad about the whole incident till he had a headache! My heart was crushed too when I saw a bluish reddish mark appearing on his forehead but I was asking myself, which kid doesn't fall? We were thankful to God for watching over our little boy. Even though he had a fall, it wasn't a serious one and I know that God is watching over my little one. We as parents will not be able to be by his side all the time but we can always trust that God will always be there for him.

Hubby was still worried after Joshie had gone to bed and kept on asking me to check on him. This is so unlike him. He himself also went in to check on his little precious before he retired for the night.

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day at Lawry's The Prime Ribs at Paragon. Had a quick dinner coz we had to go home by 7:30pm so that our little boss can go to bed by 8:30pm.

Joshie and his daddy. Our little boss was cranky here because we moved his high chair further back so that he would not be able to pull the table cloth. He is eyeing the white table cloth. I can't imagine the embarassment hubby and I have to face if he had pulled all the cutleries and plates off the table, together with the table cloth. I think we will be barred from entering Lawry's in future.

Joshie's starter - steamed Japanese sweet potato =P

Our starter - salad. Btw, the salad was not for sharing, hubby had his own plate of salad.

Joshie staring intently at the waitress who was preparing our salad.

Happy Joshie bouncing up and down. And he was babbling at the top of his voice too. For once, hubby and I were so so so relieved that he was so active. Let me tell you why in my next post.

Joshie's main - porridge with chicken, wolfberry, pumpkin and sweet peas.

The chef preparing my main course.

My main - English cut served with mashed potatoes

Hubby's main - Prime cut served with steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes and "muruku"

The dragon fruit mouth

I am really glad that Joshie loves fruits. So far, he has eaten apples, pears, bananas, peaches, apricot, avocados, mangoes, rockmelons and kiwi fruits. Recently, I started giving him the purple dragon fruit. He loves it and would keep on opening his mouth for more. See his satisfied smile.

"Look at my purple coloured lips........I want more, mummy!"

What's my little cheeky doing?

Last Saturday, I fished out his little hat which he wore during his full moon. My my, it was so tight. My baby has grown so much. Look at the hat, looks like it's dropping off his big head! I placed him on our bed, beside Daddy who was still half asleep. As usual, his itchy hands started looking for "interesting things" to grab and before I knew it, Daddy's spectacles were his target.

Joshua's bedroom

Joshie's cot next to a single bed. We are now officially without a guest room anymore since Joshie is sleeping on his own now. Thus, we are thinking of moving to a 3-bedder next year. Actually we should have rented a 3-bedder initially but we never thought that our baby will be sleeping in a room of his own at just 8 months old.

I bought some stickers to paste on the wardrobes so that he won't feel so lonely. =)

Joshie and his laundry basket

His cheeky look!

"Hmnn, why are my clothes here and not inside the wardrobe??"

I have been hunting high and low for a laundry basket for Joshie. I only wash his clothes 3 times a week so I couldn't just dump his clothes in the pail unlike in KL where we have a maid. Was really happy when I saw this cute "Pooh and Friends" storage basket during the Takashimaya sale.

Joshua's daily schedule

This is Joshie's schedule:

7ish am : Wake up
8am : Milk (7oz Enfalac A+)
9am : Breakfast (usually 4 tbsps of barley/oatmeal cereal mixed with milk and 3 tsps homemade fruit puree OR 1 little tub of yoghurt + 1-2 pieces baby biscuits)
9:40am : Bath
10:15am : Morning nap (usually 45-60 minutes)
11:15am : Wake and play
12:15pm : Lunch (6 tbsps organic brown rice cereal+5 tsps homemade fruit puree+ 1-2 tbsps mashed fruit OR a combination of 5 tbsps of mashed sweet potato/pumpkin/chicken/fish + 1-2 tbsps mashed fruit)
1:00pm : Playtime
2:30pm: Afternoon nap (usually 50-80 minutes)
3:45 pm: Milk (8 oz Enfalac A+)
4:00pm : Playtime/Shopping/Visiting friends
5:15pm : Catnap of 20 minutes (if he did not sleep well during the afternoon nap)
6:30pm : Dinner (a bowl of porridge[chicken+vege]+2 tbsps mashed vege/fruit OR a bowl of pasta with mashed sweet potato/pumpkin + 2 tbsps mashed fruit)
7:45pm : Bedtime routine
8:05pm : Milk (8.5 oz Isomil)
8:30pm : Sleep

I am one thankful mummy that he has been sleeping through the night for the past 10 days. He used to wake up once for a feed (around 5am) for the past 3 months but I have managed to wean him off that feed. I know of some breastfed babies who started sleeping through at 8 weeks old (they lasted 7-8 hours between feeds) but there are also babies who still wake up at night to drink milk when they are 2 years old. I guess every child is different even if the parents have read the same parenting books and applied the same method.

As for Joshie, there were nights when he wakes up 2-3 times, not to feed, but just for attention. He would quieten down whenever hubby or I carried him but would start wailing again when we put him down in his cot. So we decided that the best plan was to ignore him. We would hide behind the covers and cover our heads with our pillows but he would still fuss for at least an hour before going back to sleep. Our next step was to put him in his own room. I was pretty worried the first 3 nights and would check on him very often, even when he does not cry. But I learned to relax and after 3 nights, he is happily sleeping on his own.

What's so fascinating about the washing machine?

Checking out the inside of the washing machine.......

"Hey mummy, I like this toy. Why haven't you let me play with it before? I am so so so fed up of the colourful rings, toy cars, toy handphone, blocks and cloth books that you bought for me. I definitely prefer this!"

Where's the culprit?

This is my messy living room. Look at the books. flashcards and remote controls on the floor. Where is the culprit??




Is the culprit up to more mischief? Or is he sitting in a corner, feeling sorry for giving Mummy more work?






What is the culprit doing now?





Ta-da....

Chewing on his flashcards!!!!!!

Some snapshots from the baby gym

Joshie enjoys himself at the gym every week. For him, it's a big big place where he can crawl nearly everywhere he likes. As for me, it's a good place for me to relax and chat with other mothers.
Sticking out his tongue at the "funner trainer" who was encouraging him to crawl down the slope. First, it was 3 steps up and now it's down the slope. Joshie is pretty good at climbing stairs. When we were back in KL end of May, he managed to climb a whole flight of stairs, from the living room up to the bedrooms. All we had to do was to walk a few steps ahead of him and showing him his favourite toy. Too bad I forgot to take a video/picture of him climbing up the stairs.

I dun know what is this called. But it's to strengthen their leg muscles and coordination.

Joshie's favourite. Swing time!

Playing with the colourful balls inside Mr Purple Dino. At the same time, he was mesmerized by the bubbles floating in the air.

Goodbye song. "Goodbye, see u next time. Have a great day......." His hands were moving vigorously.