I want out!

DN doesn't like sitting in his car seat. The minute we release the buckle, he moves into "I want out!" mode --> twisting, turning, maneuvering until he's free from the evil clutches of the car seat. Humph. -_-

24 hours with DN

It was just DN and me today, so I attempted to be a (pseudo) photojournalist!

5.30am
DN wakes up for a milk feed and refuses to go back to sleep. So I throw some toys and books into his cot and go back to bed. He entertains himself for about 20 mins, then starts to shout for us to wake up. We drag our lame, ancient bones out of bed at 6.45am. -_-

8.04am
DN is eating his breakfast - barley cereal (bleah) and pear puree (yum!).

8.12am
Breakfast over. I wash his hands, face and hair (!!) coz Mr Ong loves to put his fingers in his barley-cereal-covered mouth and then in his hair. And in that order ONLY. -_-

8.37am
His brown rice porridge has been cooking for about an hour. Almost done!

8.56am
DN takes an early nap coz he was up early today.

9.40am
And he's up!

10.03am
Sometimes, I leave him alone in the cot, to teach him how to be independent. He can now play alone for up to 25 minutes. Of course, there are days when even 1 sec is impossible.

10.15am
Even I am bored, so we walk out to the main road to look at traffic. DN loves the buses and motorcycles especially.

10.34am
DN has the metabolism of a triathlete and sweats like one. By now, he's smelling a bit funny. I always start off by cleaning his tongue. Now I clean his teeth too! Hee!

11.36am
I've got a staff buffet lunch in town and DN is my (hot) date. We're on our way there.

12.32pm
DN is a hit. He was quite the ham and let everyone carry/pinch him. Here he's being fed by Aunty Jennifer.

1.48pm
He's down for a nap so the real eating starts! I attack the buffet spread with a vengeance. He slept for about an hour. Which means, I ate for about an hour. -_-

4.36pm
Decided to pop by my mom's place. Here's DN and his great-grandma.

6.31pm
DN stayed at his grandma's for about 2 hours and had his dinner (porridge and zucchini) there too. The poor guy knocked out in the car.

7.13pm
PF was already home so the three of us went for a walk. Here are the 2 chihuahuas in the neighbourhood that DN is fascinated by (and vice versa).

7.37pm
Decided to pay an impromptu visit to Aunty Nora who lives across the road. PF and I had some cheese and crackers and DN got to play with a baby carrot. What fun.

8.28pm
Storytime and then bedtime. This is DN's fav book right now - "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle. I find that DN is more attracted to books with simple layouts than those books with lots of pictures and text. Easier for him to focus I guess.

Breakfast

DN has cereal for breakfast. It's baby cereal, not cereal like Cocoa Puffs or Frosties, and it's quite horrible actually. When he finished his last box of Oatmeal Cereal, we thought we'd let him try something new - Barley Cereal. The first time we prepared it for him, I got a shock. It looked like wet cement and was just about as appetising as eating old newspaper. Really.

Here's how his morning cereal is prepared...


First, I warm up some milk. (about 30ml)






Then I scoop about 3 tablespoons of cereal flakes into his bowl. (it looks like fish food :p bleah...)

Milk + Cereal Flakes = GREY MUCK!
Yeeesh. The photo really doesn't do this justice. It's really a much duller shade of grey. I bet if I made a whole batch of this and left it out for a week, I can lay the road with it.


DN's Breakfast --> Grey Muck + Pear Puree

Our Breakfast --> Bak Chor Mee + Fried Mee & Bee Hoon with Luncheon Meat and Fried Egg

I'm so glad I'm not a baby!



DN : "Why do I get the grey muck???"


DN : "Can I have the fattening, artery-clogging, no-nutritional-value-whatsoever fried breakfast pleasssssse?"

*blink*blink*


DN : "Humph. Dowan done!"


Golly. He eats it all up everytime.

Chiclets!

Whenever DN has a cranky night (i.e. wakes up @ 12am, 3am & 5am) PF and I will mumble to ourselves and each other, "Must be teething!!!" In the morning, I will check his gums. Judging from the "passion" he puts into his crying, I expect to see that two teeth the size of chiclets have exploded from his gums overnight. Chiclet-sized teeth? MUST be painful. What else can explain all that crying???

So, DN's 4th month passed, then the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, and he's still waking up at night and there are no teeth to blame it on. So we gave up using the teething excuse.

Until last week!

At 8.5 months, DN is finally teething. :) And still waking up twice at night. :(

Bought DN some organic teether biscuits. We're not organic people (haha!) but this was the only one I could find that didn't have cow's milk.

I foolishly gave DN his first teether biscuit on the way to his grandma's house one morning. If you're asking, "What's wrong with that?", then you don't have a baby, car seat or an affinity for cleanliness. I have all three, but apparently lack the most important thing - common sense!

In 2 minutes, the biscuit became a hard and pasty STICK-THING.

Check out the pasty, soggy, remnants-of-biscuit on his fingers, nose, t-shirt and car seat straps!



Ewwwww...

Never in the car seat again, NEVER.

Going Out with DN

You know you are a boring old fart of a parent when the only shopping centre you go to now is Paragon because they have a floor dedicated to kids. (They give free popcorn on weekends for the kiddos! I go there pretending I'm getting some for DN, hur hur. *greedy Singaporean pig*)

We were there AGAIN today.

Bringing DN out now is a little more troublesome now that he's started on solids. The diaper bag weighs a TON because His Royal Highness's porridge needs to be kept warm in a Thermos. To protect his majesty's clothes, us lowly servants also pack a bib, small towels and a little toy to entertain the mighty one as he partakes in his meal.

Chey! So troublesome!

Anyway, I took some random photos today and decided to compare them to some earlier ones. DN has grown! As of today, he is 8 months and 3 days old. Hee. :D PF and I are now seriously talking about what to do for his 1st birthday party. Wow.

DN @ 2 mths, 25 days

The beanie was still big, we had to fold it up a little.

DN @ 8 mths, 3 days

The beanie now fits!

(same look, different direction, LOL)

Not a flattering shot coz of his 'spacey' eyes, but just wanted to show off my favourite DN outfit - navy polo tee & jeans. Machiam public school boy!

The beanie wasn't on the head for long. 20 bucks down the drain. -_-

DN @ 2 mths, 10 days

Yes, I know. That pillow thing makes him look like Princess Leia. But it keeps his head from lolling about la!

DN @ 8 mths, 3 days

Know why DN's making that face?

Coz that's what he's eating! Brown rice porridge & spinach.

Looks nasty!

Fuzzy photos are caused by vibrating babies.

See the thing at DN's knee? That's DN's favourite toy, Crinkle. We've spent good $$ on toys that twirl, roll, sing and do your taxes, but the one he likes the most does nothing and was free! -_-

Crinkle is stuffed with plastic so he makes a crinkly sound when you squeeze him. DN just loves him. Or rather, his limbs and head coz they fit in DN's mouth perfectly.

It's been 2 wks since my last post and I have so much to blog about. DN's milk allergy, DN's love for heavy vehicles (I'll explain), DN's sleeping pattern, DN's love for swimming and DN's day @ Gymboree.

Let's start with something fun!

DN's Day @ Gymboree

B organised a trial lesson at Gymboree for a few of us Sept moms. DN got to meet Cayden, Jovann, Arianne, Gabriel, Reubern and Sophie. Golly, his social circle is bigger than mine. -_-

Learnt 3 things from the class.

1. I'm no spring chicken.

It's official, I'm an old goat. I could literally hear all my 32-year-old bones creaking and protesting as I rolled, jumped, bounced, slid and crawled. Dust was coming out of my joints. Golly, was I tired. Thank goodness Gymboree allowed both parents in coz after 5 mins, I deftly handed the baby over to PF and told him I'll take care of taking the pictures.

*bleat*bleat*

2. I don't learn my lesson.

I signed DN up for 4 more sessions at Gymboree!

It's $30 a pop, goodness. So after our 4 sessions are over, and after I've learnt how to use all the equipment, PF and I are just going to bring DN over for Gymboree's "Playgroup" sessions. It's one hour of free play for $8. Who needs a trained instructor specialised in baby development when you've got 2 over-the-hill-and-far-far-away old goats??

*bleat*bleat*bleat!!!!!*

3. DN is a Teacher's Pet in the making.

One of the activities required all the babies to sit in a circle as the parents sang and helped them with simple hand movements. As the teacher was talking and explaining, DN decided to show the teacher what an attentive little baby he was. He crawled into the centre of the circle and plonked his bottom down, facing the teacher, and he couldn't be coaxed back. It was hilarious!



His name tag!



During one of the activities, the teacher blew bubbles into the air for the babies to reach out for. Good for eye tracking.


That's DN & Cayden.


With Cayden's camo-outfit and GI haircut, they look like they're conspiring to overthrow the government or something.


This is supposed to help build their sense of balance. It's an upside down dome that rocks.



And this is DN, looking a bit lonely in the middle of the circle.


Sophie, DN & Jovann

I love the weekend :D

When PF asks me what I'd like to do when the weekend rolls around, I usually say, "Let's hang out at home." Egad! I'm a hermit! I was never like this before. In fact, we used to joke that our home was like a hotel (minus room service & housekeeping, shucks) coz we only went back there to sleep.

Now, I love staying at home with DN. He's so much more fun to be with now, compared to when he was just a wee baby. Okay, it's not like we're having intellectual conversations about capital punishment or baking cookies together, but I just enjoy being with him. Granted when it's nap time his Mr Hyde persona blossoms, but when he's not cranky, he's quite a funny chap.

Today I did all the things that I miss out on on weekdays when he's at my MIL's place, like...

• Giving him a bath (he likes slapping the water)
• Preparing his lunch of rice cereal
• Feeding him
• Playing with him & his toys

Simple stuff really, nothing to write home about, but it's the only time when I'm really a MOM. And, bless the little guy, although he's with my MIL from 830am to 630pm from Mondays to Fridays, I'm still the one he looks for and crawls to when he wants a cuddle, and at night, he goes to sleep the quickest when I'm the one cuddling him. :D

Nothing beats an adoring baby when it's time for an ego boost eh?

Some photos I took today. Thanks to WP & B for the montage idea!

And of course, the icing on the cake is this photo I took with THE PHONE. A gem! A gem I say!

Before THE PHONE



After THE PHONE

(look closely, the new eyebrows are the same as his original ones! LOL!)