7 Months

At the expo John Little sale
I love the pastries from the sweetest moments.
We got these after attending Huang Biren's youngest daughter full month party

The food strike continues into the night... so basically Andre is on a liquid diet today.

7 Months: Food Strike

I cooked 3 different kind of meals and Andre downright rejected everything.

1. Chicken and carrots.

2. Pork with Potato

3. Beef with pumpkin.

In the end, we left him on the high chair to watch us eat. We had his leftovers for lunch.

7 Months: Nursery

Got these wall stickers from the forum. The winnie the pooh one is S$25 whereas i got the accompanying tree and grass for only RMB$5 =_=

Spent the whole morning sticking them on the wall, and isn't the effect so beautiful?

We intend to shift Andre's cot here eventually.

Thank you daddy for your patience.

8 Months: Daddy and Mummy celebrate their 2nd wedding anniversary

Time flies. 2 years ago, this time, it was the happiest day of my life. Well, at least i thought it was going to be the happiest day, but then now life is getting better, and i'm feeling even happier than before.

I could still remember very strongly, the events of that day, the joys and congratulatory messages. We are really very blessed.

2 years later, we have the most wonderful, beautiful baby boy, Andre. What more can we ask for?

We decided to go for a meal to celebrate our marriage. Chose dim sum lunch buffet at the Mariott. A bit low profile, but well a getaway to phuket is in the plans. But that has to wait until our new helper arrives and that we are comfortable to leave Andre in her care.

Andre quietly seated at his baby chair. He has been wonderful in the morning, completing his feed and taken a 1-1/2 hours nap. He's in the bestest mood.

Our happy little family

My favourite. Guan Tang jiao. Flakes of sharksfin, abalone, sea cucumber and all the good stuff, cooked into a big dumpling.

Andre has food too. Baby biscuit. Gave him a little of the frog legs porridge, but he kinda gagged it all out.

Andre's looks seemed to have mature a little lately, don't you think so?

7 Months: Happy Andre receives 1000 hits.

That's also a milestone yah!... LOL

7 Months: Cooking at 4.30 am

Just left one pot of pork ribs, potatoes and ‘老黄瓜’to brew in the slow cooker. I'm just so afraid that i would not have the time to cook when baby wakes up in the morning and we need to be out of the house by 10.30 am. Yesterday's exotic taste is apparently not very warmly received by my picky eater. So i decided to go all the way back to basic, MR POTATO, the food that Andre liked very much in China. And for the protein bit to boost his growth, hopefully he likes pork.

I concluded, i need to hold off carrots and rice cereal (esp this!!) for a while. Even when i mix these with his supposedly favourite foods like avocado, Andre can detect and reject!

7 Months: Go Go Bambini

Decided to check out this play gym at Dempsey as it is free for kids below 11 months old.

Although Andre wasn't too upfront enthusiastic, but we could see that he's very curious to check out the place. He thinks he'll like it, but he is very careful to check out the place first. From very young, we could see in his personality that he is a thinker. Definitely, not someone that rushes into things, but will contemplate first.

Crawling over the keyboard. The keys will light up and sound when the baby goes over them.

Still enjoying the good ole' balls

Suddenly, he realized he could actually pull and stand at all these interesting structures...

Daddy having fun himself

And Andre discovers that he could slimb stairs as well...

And when he reaches the top, there's a different way to come down

We played for 45 mins before deciding to call it a day.

7 Months: Mummy dorns the apron

It is Vesak Day today and mummy decide to try our the recipes in the "Top 100 Baby Purees" by Annabel Karmel.

Anyway, the only meat bottled baby food is Beef and pumpkin by Heinz and i think Andre is already super bored by now.

And so, today our little gourmand is going to try "Salmon Surprise" and "Chicken Puree with Carrots"

Cheddar Cheese for the good fat

Carrots, Chicken, Bay leaf, Apples stewing in chicken stock

Salmon that was baked in freshly squeezed orange juice and unsalted butter. Later blended with milk and carrots.

"Salmon Surprise Puree"
It was smelt and tasted heavenly. We almost wanted to eat the fish for lunch. Daddy is jealous why mummy never cooked for him.

Unfortunately, the blender broke down while blending the chicken puree. Started smoking... and one of the rubber bits melted into the food. :( However, we still managed to save an earlier portion before this lousy blender went ka-boom.)

Andre's lunch is all ready. Daddy couldn't wait to feed him.

The remaining puree are bottled and stored in the freezer.

Post project analysis:

1. Andre took half a bowl of salmon. It wasn't in much zest though. It may smell wonderful when freshly cooked, but once the salmon cooled, the fishy smell can be quite unbearable.

2. Should have only used carrots in one of the dishes cos we found that Andre did not fancy carrots too much.

3. What do you do when your baby does not like the food you cook? Kevin and I had it for dinner the next day :)

It was fun cooking, but too much work imo. But that does not stop me from cooking again once our helper is here =)

7 Months: Child Care :(

I'm in serious desperate need of child care options.

Yesterday, Andre went on a milk strike. I wouldn't have been bothered if not for the fact that this boy is already at the 10% and not having a healthy growth rate. He remained stagnant at 8kg over the past 2 weeks :(

Fed 80ml at 8 am. And no more milk was taken at po po's place all the way till 9.15 pm where he took 150ml and 11pm where he took another 150ml at home. Luckily for the 2 milk feeds at the end of the day. Otherwise, i can really cry. Well, meanwhile Andre managed 2 bowls of solids amidst tremendous difficulty as feedback by popo.

Andre, being a fussy eater, needs to be slowly coaxed to eat. Any bit of urgency, he'll reject food. If he's in the midst of exploring or play, you can totally forget about feeding/drinking. He'll protest and wriggle out of your arms, very determined to continue what's on his mind. You cannot raise your voice, you cannot be gan chiong. That will make him further resistant.

Po po, on the other hand has 5 other grandchildren to look after. And she's coming 69, where got time and energy for her to be following up with Andre all the time? And it's really unfair to her. It's her retirement age where she should be doing things that relaxes her and makes her happy and carefree and not bogged down the responsibilities of child care.

If my Andre is old enough to speak, i will not hesistate to send him to full time child care or leave him alone with a maid. At least he can speak up for himself. But now he obviously can't, and as such i can only leave him with my mum.

But things obviously are not working out. Both po po and gong gong are very very tired. Who wouldn't be with a fussy baby and 5 thundering kids running amok the house all the time. Much much reluctant as i am, i think its time i consider leaving my baby home alone with the maid. We just can't be forever pushing our babies/kids to my parent's place.

Someone mentioned to me before, that it is of absolute selfishness to push your kids to the grandparents to look after. They are your kids, not theirs. They should be enjoying the grandchildren and not be reponsible for their welfare. God forbids, if anything were to happen, do you want your parents to live in guilt forever.

Now this phrase is constantly ringing in my mind. It simply makes sense. If you want to make kids, you are responsible, not your parents.

I can only pray now. Dear God, please send me a very good trustworthy helper with a good heart. I don't need my house to be in tip top cleanliness and tidiness. Just be able to take care of my child well, be patient with him, feed him and keep him happy. I am in desperate need of an angel. I will harden my heart to consider leaving my child home alone with her.

If not for the lack of infant care options now (all are fully booked, !!! *BIG SIGH*) hopefully in a short while, i can just leave my maid and baby home alone. It's time to free up my mum even if others are not willing to do so.

I hate to type all these out. But this is the current situation. Life is not all rosy as all the entries in the blog are. I am soo sooo sooooo vexed now (not to mention, tired as well).

7 Months: Andre in his walker

Andre has pretty good leg control and can zip around the room in a flash second. Problem is he gets bored after a while and attempts to escape.

We try not to put him inside for too long as we prefer he learns how to walk by himself rather than depending on the walker. These walker can cause serious posture and spinal injury when the child is not ready to walk. And also, it hurts damn much when the baby rolls over our toes.

8 Months: Its Daddy's 41st birthday

Unfortunately, daddy had to be in KL today and could only return at 10PM. By the time, we got home, fed baby his medicine, changed him and make him sleep, it was almost 12 midnight. We managed to get the cake out and blow the candles before the clock striked midnight. As it was late, we couldn't get Andre in the picture. What a disappointment.

Presents from mummy and Andre

And here's the card that Andre 'made' for daddy. He contributed by stamping his 2 feet on the paper. It was fun, i guess the ink made him felt ticklish and he couldn't help squirming and laughing.

"Happy Birthday to the Bestest Daddy in the World"

7 Months: Daddy is away from Sun to Tue

Andre playing with his fisherprice stacking blocks

Sharing a pear with Adelle jie jie. Andre's pear is all mashed up in his palm.

New flashcards. Brought in from the States by Uncle Ye Beng. Andre's is still too young to understand, but he likes chewing the corners of the cardboards...LOL Good teething toy

Daddy is in KL for the 3 days for PCK advertisement. So mummy moved home with Andre for 2 nights. At least there are extra pairs of hands to help me.

23 May:
Po po and gong gong are out. Left Dua Kim and Xiao yi at home. Andre now knows how to recognize people and only wants mummy! He's fine whenever i'm in my room, but the moment he detects i'm missing, this sticky pea will wail with tears and all. Looks like i need to let him interact more with my sao sao and Veronica. Anyway, we had beef and potatoes for dinner. May the dinner do Andre good. Oh ya oh ya, not to mention, we went to Thomson Plaza to get materials for daddy's birthday card =)

24 May:
Andre was an angel. He woke up a couple of times to 2.30pm but very easy to rock to sleep each time. I supposed he flipped to an uncomfortable position and then he sits up, waking himself up. All i need to do is to rearrange him, and little bub slept again. Woke up at 7am, took a feed and slept to 7.45 am while mummy pumped his milk. Bathed him and i showered and i made it to work in time.

By the way, there is an excellent piece of news today. The Tanjong Pagar railway station is going to be shifted to Woodlands! What does this means for us? No more noisy trains travelling at the wee hours of the day, no more smog, smoke and dust, but most importantly! It's probably going to kick our property prices up. WAHAHAHAH.....

25 May:
Some little boys cannot be praised at all. Andre woke up a couple of times, and finally fell asleep at 3.30 am with half a bottle of milk. I'm totally flipped. Woke up at 7 am to cry. Poor mummy has to pump, feed, bathe him and prepare to go to work. Things are not as smooth as yesterday, but well, still enough for me to scoot to work at my planned timing.

Andre now loves to venture on the floor. I'll just put him wherever i go. On the kitchen floor, living room, bedroom... and off the little explorer will go. One downside though, his interest seems to lie only on dustbins, electrical wires, gumming the base of the coffee table, and scrapping the drainage cover. What's with that...

7 Months

An overloaded storeroom stacked to the ceiling.

7 Months: Haemin Playyard

Finally, Andre has a chance to play in his Haenim play yard which mummy bought 2nd hand from the forum. It is a temporary holding place for him to keep him from crawling amok. But i think we need to get rid of it soon, cos it is taking so much space in our teeny weeny living room.

7 Months: Tai Mao Bi and Unbilical Cord Stamp

Finally collected the tai mao bi and umbilical cord stamp after procrastinating for so long.

What is Tai Mao Bi?
It is a brush made of baby's first hair that is collected when we shave him for the first time after the full month's celebration. The literal translation for 'Tai Mao' means hair in the womb.

What is umbilical cord stamp?
The stump that fell off Andre in his first few days is dried and encased inside an acrylic stamp. We chose the Ox as it is the year Andre is borned in.

We went for these 2 momentos as we felt that it is very meaningful.

Umbilical Cord stamp

Box containing the brushes

Andre's chinese name

Andre's baby hair

The remaining loose hair is collected in this red ang pao

Don't you think it is all so scholarly?

Hopefully my son can be scholar as well la!