Baby Biscuits

Last week, Mama's cousin, Aunty Chew Poh came to visit Mama and to pass Mama some stuff that her son, Samuel Gor-gor would not be using. More about that in another blog entry.

Aunty Chew Poh advised Mama to buy me some baby biscuits that I can chew on so that I get to practise chewing my food and not miss the developmental milsestone in this area. Mama took her advice and bought me some baby biscuits. She was trying to decide between teething rusks and baby biscuits but decided to get the teething rusks later. She had read from the label of the teething rusks has a small amount of salt added to harden the rusks. This has made her somewhat resistant to buying the rusks for me.

When Mama first gave me the baby biscuit, I didn't quite like it as I frowned after licking it. A couple of days later, Mama decided to let me try again. She gave me the biscuits and taught me to hold it and place it in my mouth. She also demonstrated to me by eating a piece of it herself.

I decided I can accept it better and so took some of the biscuit but Mama only gave me a piece of it. Here are some photos that she took. You can decide for yourself if I like them but the biscuits are certainly a little messy to eat. Maybe Mama should buy me another bottle of the Gerbers puffed grains that are smaller in size and less messy to eat. Those can also help me learn to chew, Mama thinks. But that will cost Mama another $5-6 as it's that expensive.

The current puffed grains Mama bought for me has already lost their crunchiness. You see, Mama was not sure how much puffed grains to give me and so only gave me a few pieces each time so that I will not regurgitate them. She ended up eating more of them herself. When Mama told this to her good friend, Aunty Kar Tin, Aunty Kar Tin wondered who is the one teething, me or Mama? ;p

Instant Food

Dear all, one of my Mama's favourite food is instant noodles. She eats at least a packet weekly. That is not very good for health but it's something she can prepare in a very short time. Now, she is also giving me instant food. ;p

A few days ago, when she went to the supermarket with me, she decided to get me a bottle of puree. The resources she read tells her she can blend food into puree form for me but Mama is not willing to get the blender from the cupboard and then use it as she is not keen to wash the blender after use.

So when she saw the bottled puree, she thought she will let me try. She bought me a bottle of apple and mango puree and fed me with it soon after we reached home. Here in the picture above is the leftover.

If you look carefully, you may wonder where is the leftover puree. Well, there is no leftover puree! The only thing left behind was the empty food jar and its cover! Hahaha! I actually polished off the whole bottle of puree in one go and that, my readers, is not enough to fill my stomach, small it may be. Mama has to make me some cereal to make up my feed.

Mama tasted a little of the puree. Instead of getting a baby food taste, the puree actually tasted quite sweet. Maybe Mama only took a very small quantity of it. Looks like I may get to eat more instant food in the days to come but no worries, Mama will not feed me with instant noodles. That is forbidden food for me until Papa says ok...

Uncle Alex, My Shu Shu

Dear all, this is my father's youngest brother, Uncle Alex. I should call him Shu Shu as that is the Chinese way of addressing an uncle who is also the younger brother of a child's father.

Shu Shu loves me very much. When he went to Taiwan last year, he bought me 2 pieces of body suits which Mama only let me wear recently as I can fit into the better.

On the day I was born, Shu Shu was also there to see me with the rest of Ye Ye's family. Even when I was a few days old, he came to visit me at my place and even learnt to carry me with Nai Nai's help. Aunty Marian told Mama that he felt quite sorry for me when I was admitted to Gleneagles Hospital for jaundice treatment when I was only 4 days old. During my stay in KK when I was about one month old, Shu Shu visited me and even asked his churchmate who was also working in KK to come and take a look at me.

Shu Shu loves me a lot. He likes to carry me and play with me when he sees me at Ye Ye's house and in church. Once, he even took a video clip of me giggling. He told Mama when Ye Ye's family went to Malaysia for a holiday, they watched that clip many times.

Now that I am older, Shu Shu also enjoys watching me show him the things I can do. If Mama is not mistaken, Shu Shu is the first non-parent whom I smack my lips at. That could be my way of communicating to him.

On the day the picture below was taken, Mama observed that I am observing Shu Shu with smiling eyes much like the same I did when I was looking at Papa and Mama, trying to register their faces in my mind. She thinks maybe I am trying to register Shu Shu's face as a family member.

Below is my latest picture taken with Shu Shu when we last went to Nai nai's house for dinner. As you can see, he loves me so much that he is even willing to feed me!

I am 36 weeks old!

Dear all,
I am 36 weeks old today. By God's grace, I have achieved quite a few milestones. Not only can I turn myself in 360 degrees orientation when I am on my tummy, I am also learning to go on all fours. Today, Mama also found out that I am able to go from a standing position to a sitting position when I am being supported under my arms. I also bounce when I am supported under my arms and I do relish being able to put my weight on my legs. A couple of times, I even took a step when Mama was supporting me. I am getting stronger!

Diet-wise, I am now eatting more types of food. I have tried potato, pumpkin, carrots, egg yolk and today, Mama added cauliflower to my porridge. I like it too. Also, Mama has been adding threadfin fish slices to my porridge and she has also taken Nai Nai's advice to add in a piece of pork. The porridge is more flavourful with the pork and Mama thinks it tastes nicer.

Papa and Mama have noticed that I am now visibly bigger in size and Mama also notices my fingers are now more chubby. When I was a newborn, Mama thinks my fingers kind of look like chicken feet but now I have stubby fingers.

I still love my Tutu but in its absence, I would put my fingers in my mouth instead. In fact, I am able to recognise a tutu. There was once Mama put a new tutu in my mouth and let me play with my old one. She then walked away to do some stuff and when she is back, I already have my old Tutu in my mouth and the new one was in my hand though I had fallen asleep.

Now that I am older, Papa is happy to bring me to more places. In fact, he is already planning where to bring me when he is on leave in mid-december. We are going to the zoo, the bird park and maybe the farms near our place. Meanwhile, Mama is going to fix up some play dates for me. Looks like December will be a busy month for our family. :)

I Called Papa!!

Today, we went to Nai Nai's house for Mama and Papa to have dinner. I am now much better at Nai Nai's house and I enjoy the attention showered upon me by Ye Ye, Nai Nai and Shu Shu.

After dinner, when Papa carried me, I said, "Papa" and this made Papa very happy! Papa and Mama had noted me saying my syllabus like 'ba' and 'boo' and so on but when I said "Papa" today, Papa was very happy! It's like I am calling him Papa for the first time. Seeing this made Papa happy, I was pleased to repeat it.

Mama said it's good I learn to call Papa so that next time whatever happens, I will call for Papa to settle it for me and this will leave her more free... what a lady! ;p

A Busy Weekend Last Episode

Yesterday, we went to church and after having some light refreshment, we set off to go to Botanic Gardens. Our church organised an outreach event to go to Botanic Gardens and Papa signed up to go as a family after Joshua gor-gor asked them over MSN.

It was a good experience for our family. I had never been on a coach ride before and this is the first time on a coach ride for me. Papa said this can be used as a gauge whether I can tolerate the long coach journey of about 7 hours if we are going to church camp next year. I got to see many different sights as Mama held me up during the coach ride when we passed by Chinatown.

When we reached Botanic Gardens, all the participants separated into their respective program groups. There were 4 progammes running concurrently : treasure hunt, photography, drawing competition and visit to the Orchid Gardens. As the first 3 were not suitable for us as a family, Papa signed us up to go for a visit to the Orchid Gardens. Mama was telling many that it's like, wow, this is an orchid, ok, let's take a picture beside it.

But she was wrong, there were so many different types of orchid and they were very colourful. She took some pictures of it.

It was a sunny day and at the advice of Rev Lim, Mama decided to carry me as putting me in pram would expose me to more sunlight than is good for me. At some parts of the journey, Papa actually put me on his shoulders. I enjoyed it and pulled Papa's hair but Papa is already kind of used to it by now as he had put me on his shoulders a few times when we were at home.

As the participants as the Orchid Garden were mainly uncles and aunties in their middle-age, they also took note of me. I was kind of like a mini-attraction. Aunty Ter Shian reminded Mama to give me some water to drink as it was a hot day and Aunty Soo Fern fed me with water when we came to a resting point. Mama remembers that motherly look Aunty Soo Fern had when she was holding me in her arms. She tried to capture it on camera but the effect wasn't quite captured.

When we finished the short 1 hour visit, I was worn out and fell asleep in Papa's arms when we were on our way back to church in the coach. I was so deep in sleep that when Papa got down the coach with me in his arms in a somewhat awkward position, I did not wake up. He put me in a pram where I slept until they had almost finished the buffet lunch catered by the church.

Last night, I slept early just before 9pm. Papa thinks it must have been a tiring day for me. I actually slept until 5.45am this morning when I woke up for a milk feed and went back to sleep again until daylight.


Mama thinks this trip is a good prelude to the Zoo trip Papa wants to bring us when he clears his leave in December. That will be another blog entry on its own. :)

A Busy Weekend Episode 2

Saturday was pretty uneventful in a way. Mama went to give tuition as usual except that she went on a shopping spree after that and bought me some clothes and of all things, a digital weighing scale. Mama has been quite concerned that I am quite small-sized though Papa thinks I am not. So when she saw this weighing scale on offer at $19.90 at a pharmacy, she thought about it for a few days and decided to buy it to weigh me.

Papa and Mama initially wanted to bring me to the reservoir near our place and then go to Telok Blangah for Laksa steamboat. In the end, we did not go anywhere as it started raining when I was having my afternoon nap and Papa saw Mama was tired when she took a nap while waiting for me to finish mine.

In the end, Papa bought some zi char and that was dinner for Mama and himself. The second day.

A Busy Weekend Episode 1

To Mama, last weekend began when Papa came home earlier in the day. Papa has been wanting to start exercising and so we thought we will start on Friday. Papa pushed me on the pram and walked along this path behind our place. He used to be able to go further without me but now, he stopped after he came to the end of the path that meets a road that has many lorries driving by at times. That was enough to tire Papa maybe because this time, he is exercising with load (ie me). :D

Then we had dinner at home and we went to Uncle Sam's place to visit Aunty Angie. It has been long since Papa and Uncle Sam caught up with each other. Papa and Mama enjoyed the visit and so did I because Aunty Angie took out her soft toys for me. They are just nice for me as they are palm-sized. Aunty Angie even took out a quilt cover for me to lie on when Mama decided to put me on the floor... so nice of Aunty Angie.

When Ma and Pa were about to leave, Uncle Sam and Aunty Angie gave them a can of pineapple tarts that Aunty Angie made. The tarts were so delicious. They literally melt in one's mouth. I didnt get to eat. It was Mama who said so... This is just the beginning of the weekend.... :)

Goodbye, Birdie Friend

This morning, Papa went to work and before he left the house, he asked me and Mama to bid farewell to my Birdie Friend. Ok, not a real friend as in human kind of friend but it's actually a stuffed toy my 4th Grand-aunt gave me when I was much younger.

Papa and Mama had used it on my bed as a cushion to prevent me from banging my head against the wall. I had been found by Mama to be kind of putting its beak in my mouth. Later on, after some time, say, maybe a couple of weeks, Mama found a small tear on its beak. She thought of stitching it up but had not taken any action and the tear just got bigger and bigger without her consciously realising it.

Last night, she found me on my bed ripping its beak even further and lots of its stuffing were exposed. Mama was surprised that I can actually rip apart the cloth and quickly removed it from me. Papa decided to throw it away. So this morning, Mama and I bid farewell to it. Goodbye, my Birdie Friend...

New Yolk New Yolk

Last Friday, Mama met her ex-colleagues and one of them suggested giving me hard-boiled egg yoks to try. It's supposed to be a good food for the brain. As Mama has read about giving me egg yolks, she thought she would give it a try yesterday morning.

She boiled an egg and stirred some of the yolk into my rice cereal. Yummy... I like it. In the picture above is the left over. Mama was advised to give me a quarter of the yolk to try and since this is the first time I am trying this food, Mama decided to just give me a small amount. Mama had to eat the leftover for lunch.

Mama has decided to give me some egg yolk to eat everyday. As she herself loves to eat egg white, she has no problem finishing off the leftover.. Is it a coincidence that the news on TV yesterday announced that the price of eggs imported from Malaysia has risened again? ;p

Whee-ee-whee (*wolf-whistle*)

Yesterday, Mama brought me to Dr Loo, our family doctor. I had been having running nose since last Wednesday and didn't seem to get better. So Mama brought me to Dr Loo in the morning. He gave me some medicine and told Mama to bring me back if I start to wheeze (produce hee-hee like sound when I breathe, not laughter) .

In the afternoon, I breathed with some wheezing sound which sounds high-pitched and what Dr Loo said came back to Mama's mind. She called the clinic and Dr Loo asked Mama to bring me back to him. So Mama rushed me back as it was almost the closing time of the clinic. This rushing is somewhat stressful for Mama. In fact, I was the last patient Dr Loo saw before everyone in the clinic went for their dinner break.

Dr Loo gave me the nebuliser which is a machine that gave out some medicated vapour to help open my airways. This machine is attached to a face mask and the vapour came out like smoke. At first, I seem somewhat sedated though Dr Loo said the medicine is not sedating in nature.

After a while, I became restless as I was in the same position for quite long and so I cried a little. Mama thinks its an eye-opener for her and a somewhat interesting experience for me to be on the nebuliser. But it really works very well. My breathing became much better after that. Last night, Mama slept with me on my queen-sized mattress to monitor me in case I start wheezing at night and I would have to be sent to the hospital. Thank God I didn't wheeze but I certainly was somewhat restless as I was rolling around at some parts of mid-nite and Mama woke up to see if I was doing ok. In fact, I rolled so much that I gently bumped into the wall the mattress was placed against. I also rolled to sleep next to Mama's body. Papa said I just want to be close to Mama. Well, it's not every evening I get to sleep next to Mama and so maybe I just take this chance to be close to her.. ;p

We Bang We Bang

Last Friday morning, I showed Mama that I can actually hit the milk bottle with my Tutu. Mama read somewhere that this is another development milestone and when she heard me bang the tutu while she was feeding me, she was pleasantly surprised. :D

Papa also hit a "mild stone". He was actually involved in a minor accident as his car hit someone else's car. Thank God Papa is ok but not for his car plate. Papa actually could not find it after the accident until he discovered it was stuck at the exhaust pipe of the other car. When he told his colleagues about this, they were actually more interested in buying 4D using Papa's car plate number and the car plate number of the other car.. haha...

Brown Rice Cereal

Dear all, this is a pic of me eating brown rice cereal. It has a nice taste like chocolate and I like it. Actually, I seem to like most food, even my cough medicine. Mama thinks I am a typical Singaporean because I generally like to eat. Hence Mama has to be careful with what she feeds me because I am so trusting and will eat everything she gives me.

So far, the only two times I rejected her food was the watery porridge she gave me last time and the brocoli porridge she gave me.

Yup, last evening, Mama added some brocoli to my porridge. She made sure it was quite fine before giving it to me but I really didn't like it. This time round, I was fast to show my dislike. I just kept my mouth closed after about 3 to 5 mouthfuls. The porridge is still sitting in the fridge now.. haha... Still, Mama is hopeful that I may like it another time.

A New Discovery

Mama just learnt how to create a slide show and put it in my blog. So here she goes, showing off the pictures of me like any proud mother.... for your viewing pleasure... :D

Porridge, Potato, Papaya and Pock!

Today, Mama made porridge for me. Actually, she made porridge for me some time ago but I did not take too well to it. Papa and Mama then decided to put porridge on hold but being reminded again by Nai Nai 2 evenings ago, Mama decided to try again.

So yesterday, Mama made some porridge for me but it was probably too grainy. I did not like it and refused to open my mouth to eat any of this watery stuff after a few mouthfuls. You know, when Mama was feeding me with this not-so-tasty porridge, each time I opened my mouth, I was really hopeful that I can get to taste something I like as most of the time, Mama has always offered something to my liking whenever she feeds me with a spoon.

But after a few mouthfuls of disappointment, I decided enough was enough and I don't really want to open my mouth to stomach this anymore.

Still, I had taught Mama the lesson of always being hopeful even though each time, we may end up being disappointed. Even though the porridge was not nice but each time I opened my mouth, I looked so happy and hopeful to receive something tasty and Mama was really impressed. It seemed to her like I have forgotten I had just taken a mouthful of porridge that I didn't quite like and now I am eagerly expecting the next mouthful. Perhaps when I get older, I will learn to turn away from something that I don't like to eat after the first mouthful of it. But until then, I will still be patient to wait and see if something better turns up for me to try the next mouthful. :D


Mama ended up eating the leftover porridge on her own with some canned peanuts. Initially, Mama decided to just stick to rice cereal for the time being but Aunty Siew Lan encouraged her to keep trying and Mama also remembered that she had read a few times that it can take a few tries for me to accept a particular food. So today, I got to eat the porridge again. I reacted better to it this time maybe because Mama had made it less watery and more viscous. Also, she tried to grind it to finer texture and I found it more acceptable. Papa said I know how to distinguish the good and not-so-good food..

Today, to make the porridge more "tasty" for me, Mama took out a frozen portion of boiled potato, steamed it and added it to the porridge. I enjoyed it. To round off the meal with fruit, she gave me a bit of papaya. This may sound like a lot of food and I did regurgitate a little some time after eating it but Mama thinks she did not really give me a lot in quantity. She should learn to gauge better how much to let me eat and not just always give in to my cry..

Then just now, when she was bathing me in the evening, I actually pursed my lips together and made a "pock" sound at her... She was amused and impressed. Actually, since late last week, Papa and Mama found me making this "tsk" sound by kind of pursing my upper lip or lower lip and letting it go. Mama thinks it sounds like a rude sound that some uncouth people make when they are trying to pick up a girl. But nevertheless, she was impressed by me and thinks it's more of a progress in my speech development. These few days, she tried to respond to me by making a similar "tsk" sound when I made my sound. She does not always succeed in sounding like me but it is enough to please me to reply her. So we were kind of "tsk-ing" at each other responsively. :D Now, I have refined my skills to make the "pock" sound. If this continues, Mama can communicate with me better as she is better at "pock-ing" than in "tsk-ing" haha...