9 days

What a difference 9 days make. That was how long DH was away on a trip to Barcelona. And in that time,

• mini-b was potty-trained! (something that I never thought would happen)
• micro-b grew.... visibly
• micro-b made his first crawl
• micro-b found his toes
• I lost my marbles on a couple of occasions

On the potty training bit, it was his school who initiated the first step. I remembered his teacher, Miss Lauren, writing in the Communication book about being potty-trained as a goal for the new year and I remembered thinking, yeah right. I couldn't even get him to sit on the elephant potty let alone on the 'big boy potty', which is what we call the 'potty' that we big girls and big boys use.

But 2-3 weeks before school broke for the Lunar New Year holidays, Miss Lauren embarked on a no-diaper policy. And so upon arriving in school, mini-b changed out of his diapers and into training pants. The first time he peed into the tiny urinal, he got a two thumbs up from Cullen a 3 y.o in his class and a group hug from his friends. How sweet! Over the course of a week, he got the hang of it. There were several accidents with the washing machine kept very busy everyday and once or twice where I picked him up in school without his pants because mummy had forgotten to pack a spare one. My bad. I can just imagine the severe disapproval I must have gotten from the Chinese who would point out to me that the kids are cold without woollen beanies.... and mini-b going barelegged in winter. Tsk tsk!!!

Anyhow, when the 2 week long Lunar New Year holidays started, I bravely took that step of weaning him off diapers. (Incidentally, DH's reaction was one of pure terror when told of my plan.) As expected, there were many hits and misses. Progress seemed like a 2 steps forward, 1 step back tango. Along the way, I lost my marbles a couple of times when he peed in his high chair, sofa and even once on his bed (no, not when he was sleeping). And the worst was when he pooped in his training pants :#

Come Day 4 however, we had made significant progress. He still didn't go to the toilet on his own but I'd learnt to read his cues, like when he kept moving his feet in the hair chair, squirming on the sofa and basically acted like there were ants in his pants. He still had to learn how to aim and shoot though. Gosh, why did God made that equipment so complicated? I had also gotten him to sit on the 'big boy potty' with a duckie insert to poop! Yes! That was a major accomplishment. And I later found out that the reason for his resistance was his fear of the hole ("high up") and how he would "fall down". I broke that resistance by putting him on it, sitting beside him and giving him the car magazine that was in the bathroom. After a couple of minutes talking about Lamborghini, Ford & Volkswagon, the 'big boy potty' wasn't so scary after all.


And as for micro-b, he gained another form of mobililty by lifting his bum and with some luck and traction, inched forward towards that rattle/ stuffed elephant/ sock that he just MUST have. Most days he was sleeping through the night again but he was drinking tons of milk which translated into less time for me. I couldn't wait to start him on solids!

It had been a most eventful 9 days.


microbeanie is 5 months & 2 weeks old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

this past few weeks

I can't believe how fast time flies... (yep yep, don't we hear that all the time?) micro-b is 4 months old and the elder one is 2.5 years old. Developmentally, mini-b is talking a lot more now. School has been great. The exposure he has been getting, the socializing with children his own age, drawing, running.... all the kind of stuff I wish I can do with him on a daily basis but can't because my hands are tied (almost literally ;) Last week, his class baked gingerbread cookies because the letter of the week is 'G' :) And the next week, there will be a school excursion to an organic farm! I wish school was half that fun during my time.

And micro-b is a very jolly fella. He loves to squeal and laugh wholeheartedly when someone engages him - what a wonderful temperament... am I lucky. Last Monday, just 2 days before he turned 4 months, he flipped over from back to tummy and since then, he has been going round in circles on the playmat. Back-tummy-back-tummy.... I can probably get him to clean my floor if I attach scouring pads to his jumpsuit.

Anyhow, here are the past few weeks in pictures.

Gingerbread - a family tradition by now and there's my elf.

The Gingerbread house from the 2005 template. This year's cookies were a disaster. I over-beat the butter & sugar resulting in cookies that s-p-r-e-a-d horribly in the oven but I managed to work around it by using very cold dough from the freezer.

Christmas Eve dinner. No, I didn't bake the ham. Thank God for a local butchery run by a Kiwi couple!

micro-b's first Christmas!

Zzzzz... (Chinese Ah Pek in the making)

microbeanie is 4 months & 4 days old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

Linguistic sponge

For a few months, mini-b has referred to himself as "boy". It always brings a smile to our faces when he says, "mama, dada, baby, boy", "boy cwwhy" (cry) or "BOY!" when he wants to express that something belongs to him. On this trip to Finland though, he has finally learnt how to say his own name. Quite a feat considering how long his name is...we could have been nice and chosen a 1 or 2 syllabi name like John or Tomi. mini-b introduces himself as "Hasasan" or sometimes "Hassan" :D

It also amazes me how fast he's picking up language now. Before we came 2 weeks ago, he said, "hands pois (Finnish: away) please" and from his playschool teacher, he apparently said, "Everybody 洗手 (Chinese: wash hands)". I suppose it's inevitable that he mixes the languages he's learning everyday.

Thanks to his fav Ten Little Ladybugs book, mini-b can now count to 10 in English & Chinese. We also talked a lot about colours. M&Ms are great teaching tools ;)


microbeanie is 2 months, 1 week & 5 days old
minibeanie is a 2 year 3 month old toddler

I hadn't known that putting 2 words together is such a milestone for toddlers. Guess what minibeanie means when he says "mama mosh"? Mama sit! Hilarious :D I mean, he can say "mama" and "sit" pretty decently but put them together and what do you get? hahah... sometimes, it comes out as "mama dash" which is probably the last thing that mama can do right now.


minibeanie is 2 years & 3 days old
microbeanie is 33 weeks in utero

Sleep

Today marks a milestone. We're officially migrating minibeanie to his very own room for the night! 2 weeks ago, we started playing in the room during the day - I gave him a set of new army tanks, hovercraft & trucks that were played solely in his bedroom upstairs. This week, he had been taking his afternoon naps in the new bed and now finally today, we're going to take the leap and reclaim our bedroom for the two of us..... at least for the next 2 months ;)

Getting the bedroom ready had been a long work-in-progress. For a year, the room had been nothing more than his closet & changing table ;P Getting the landlord to agree to paint the wall was the first step in February. Then, it was a trip to the hardware store to buy the cheery yellow paint (阳光普照 - "sunshine yellow") that I envisioned the 1 wall to be painted. And since he began watching Winnie the Pooh, thanks to the Christmas DVD he got from his mummi (Finnish for grandma ;), I got a set of made-in-Korea Pooh wall stickers. This was followed by a mega shopping trip at Ikea's... Then, without boring everyone with a blow-by-blow account of what was assembled and when, it was suffice to say that this process of assembly stretched over a period of nearly 2 months. Thus, we finally come to these last 2 weeks where I put away the odds & ends, hung up the pictures and vacuum-sealed & categorized minibeanie's outgrown clothes ready for his micro brother.

He has been asleep for 20min now. I'm 'standing guard' outside his room in the study anticipating the prison break :D Time will tell how many times we'll find ourselves woken up by minibeanie marching into our room in the middle of the night straight into our bed or if we have to get up and soothe him because he cries waking up in a strange room all by himself. But for now, I hope he gets some zzz and for us some privacy.


minibeanie is 1 year, 11 months & 2 weeks old
microbeanie is 29 weeks 2 days in utero

Speaking up

All of a sudden, mb was able to vocalize a couple more words. It was on the first day of our arrival in Helsinki, when he first shouted, "Go go go!", ran to the door and pointed excitedly at it :D It was obvious what he wanted.

"Moooore" was another. Rounded lips and all. Also blatantly clear what he wanted especially when added after a treat of strawberries/blueberries/chocolates/cake.

"NOOooo" finally, a typical toddler word. We were wondering when it would come. And now it has. And when the mood strikes, everything is in the negative.

And his first Chinese word, "谢谢 / "shie shie"!" :D He must have picked it up during our short trip to Beijing.

It is apparent he wants to form words with his tongue but lacks the ability to do so yet. We 'sing' to the ABC song and he looks at my mouth so intently but could only say repeat a few letters and when he does, he breaks out in applause :D


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old
microbeanie is 28weeks in utero

Staying put in bed

As expected, the battle for minibeanie to stay put in bed continued for a few days. It's now the 6th day after the side of his crib is removed, which allowed him to get out of his crib by himself, and I think victory is on hand! Last night, I marched him back to bed SIX times within a span of 15 minutes. He surrendered finally either because he was so tired or because he knew it'd be futile. Or both ;) This afternoon's nap took 3 tries. As for tonight's bedtime, he tried to make an escape only once. Yay!!


Recently when having some friends over with their 13 month old daughter, I realized that some parents over-indulge their kids, to put it nicely. I don't mean the occasional candy or even the very occasional extra episode of Sesame Street. In this particular instance, the toddler refused to sit in her car seat and what did the parents do? Put her in the middle seat albeit with a seat-belt. What's wrong with this scenario? Firstly, she's too small to be sitting without a child-seat - why are child-seats or boosters even invented in the first place? Secondly, the middle seat only has a seat-belt across the lap. A 2-point harness is hardly the best safety belt for a regular adult let alone a toddler. Thirdly, physics tells us that a 10kg toddler becomes a 400kg torpedo at 40km/h. Therefore, "she won't sit in her baby-seat" or "we only drive in the city (implicitly saying "we aren't close to the autobarn speed") are merely whinings of over-indulgent parents. Who are the adults in the family who should know better?

I made a post on Car Safety eons ago when we were still in Finland. If anything, I've even more vitriol for our 'friends' yesterday because Chinese drivers are nuts. You can absolutely gurantee stupidity from others. If I'm dogmatic about this issue, that's because this is a black & white issue. It isn't even close to the pacifier or the sippy-cup debate by a far measure. Because in this case, over-indulgence can kill.


minibeanie is 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks & 5 days old

A Fall and a step towards bigger things...

I heard a loud thump in the afternoon followed by a baby crying 2 seconds later. Thinking it was the neighbour's baby, I felt sorry for the baby and continued with measuring the flour for my puff pastry. Then I heard the cries a lot louder this time. In fact, it was coming from the top of my stairs. Alarmed, I ran up the stairs and realized that it was minibeanie crying. The thump had come from him. And he had fallen out of his crib because he'd climbed out of it!

He had a blue and black protruding bump on his forehead. Thankfully, his cries were quickly soothed, he was conscious, his irises weren't dilated, he wasn't throwing up and he wasn't drowsy. Those were signs to look out for after a bump. He seemed fine otherwise.

Doing up his own bedroom has been a work-in-progress. One wall is now painted a bright and cheery sunshine yellow. (Heh, the Chinese name for the shade is in fact, 阳光普照) We just need to make our way to our local Ikea to get his "big boy" toddler bed and some storage shelves. The incident today forced us to take a step towards the migration. Well, we couldn't just plop him down in his new bed in his new room one night and expect that he's going to accept it. As with everything, it has to be introduced 1 step at a time. (Toddlers are sticklers for routine ;)

We were first thinking of moving the crib to his room (his eventual "big boy" would be unassembled in the storeroom) and when he has gotten used to the room, we would then introduce the bed. Well..... apparently, this afternoon's fall meant that the migration would have to take somewhat different steps. We removed a side of the Stokke crib which meant that minibeanie could climb in and out of his crib easily on his own. Might as well because his 'real' bed wouldn't have bars to cage him in anyway. So there, first big step for a little guy.

No 'cage' also meant that the sleep routine was challenged. Either it was the total freedom or the feeling of insecurity, minibeanie had some difficulty settling down to sleep tonight. Thrice he crept out of bed within 5 minutes and opened the door (yes, he has learnt how to work the door handle being on tip-toe - the Bolshoi Ballet would have recruited him as a Sugar Plum Fairy).

First the door would open 10cm, followed by silence. Then, it would open a little more and an impish boy with a grin would peek out from behind. Dada was in the loft working so he didn't get away ;) It wasn't until I marched him to bed and stayed in the room writing this blog that he stayed put. I suspect this would be the dance for the next few nights until he got used to the idea that a) we meant business when we said it was bedtime and b) the novelty of an 'open' bed had worn off.


Another milestone today was when he said "bye bye" accompanied by a wave. Previously, it was just the Queen's wave. He also tried to say "truck" today..... or something close. I'm glad that he's speaking a little more now. "Tam" (jam), "cheese", "kaa" (car)...


minibeanie is 1 year, 8 months, 1 week & 6 days old

Back after 5 weeks!

After a long hiatus, this blog is back :)

The last 5 weeks had been eventful. First stop was Singapore for the Lunar New Year, followed by nearly 3 weeks in Victoria, Australia. And when we came back to Chengdu, I'd (and still have) my mum with me. Only now after a week of settling back in, did I find the energy, will & time to blog. But more about the holiday later...

A recent development with minibeanie is that he has all of a sudden decided to use his spoon full time. I remember the precise moment. We'd just arrived in Singapore after a 7 hour flight from Melbourne and I decided to give him a fried egg for supper. Instead of feeding himself with his fingers like he usually did, he insisted on using the spoon and from then on, it was the spoon all the way :) I'm so glad he's feeding himself now because he's back to lapping up oatmeal porridge (with jam!) for breakfast.


minibeanie is 1 year, 6 months, 4 weeks & 2 days old

Telling a Fib

It's inevitable, I know. But I'd no idea I'd be facing this issue so early on. Child development experts say, "Lying Behavior Begins Early - Children May Lie as Early as Age Three". Ok, but minibeanie isn't even 1 and a half!

This evening after dinner, he was bending over at his waist in obvious discomfort so I asked if there was kakka*. No, he replied by way of shaking his head. And lo, a few minutes later when there was an unmistakeable pong, he had massive kakka. Maybe he didn't understand, u may think? In fact, he'd answer in the affirmative 'Ugh' when there wasn't kakka. This had happened more than once with great predictability now, which suggested he had done so wilfully. Washing his bum probably counted as his least favourite activity as I always had the impression I was running after a chicken gone amok when it was time for the sink.

So, any suggestions on how to deal with this phase?

Where's your belly button?

A Happy New Year to everyone!

minibeanie is 1 year, 5 months & 6 days old

* Finnish for poop

Self Feeding

Like going without the night feed, having minibeanie feed himself seems like a milestone to me. With the exception of oat porridge for breakfast, he'd been feeding himself lunch and dinner. He's still a total klutz at using his spoon; most times, he just gives up with the spoon and uses his trusty 10 fingers to do the job anyway.

We have the routine down to a pat. He'd bring his plate and bib to the dining table while I bring the rest: placemat, cup & his food in a separate bowl. Then, we would sit him down in his highchair, he puts on the bib himself and I proceed to arrange his plate, cup and placement and aportion half of his food into his bowl. From then on, I could leave him and he'd let me know when he wants a refill of his plate. Then when he's done, we have an "all-done" signal, he raises both hands in the air. At this point, I usually give him his share of fruits to avoid having to wash his hands a second time and besides, he usually picks up a few more pieces of broccoli or mash potato together with his strawberry or mandarin bits. Ha! cunning me...

Then, when he has his fill of fruits, we proceed to wash the grimy boy not just his hands & mouth but often times, his hair, nose & forehead. And once or twice, his pants need to be changed as well. How does one get pasta everywhere??

The morning milk feed

Last Saturday, I decided to make banana pancakes for brekkie. I guess the boys liked it.

Someone has morning hair

Busy bee

minibeanie has 2 finger puppets from our Silkair flights. One is a bee while the other is a Chinese man with a wide hat. We call the former, "Suzy the Busy Bee" while "Mr Tan" is the other moniker - a tongue-in-cheek reference to a friend who refers to himself as "Mr Tan of Boon Lay". Anyway, this is neither about the names we've christened minibeanie's toys or even about Suzy the Busy Bee...

December is a busy month. For the last week or so, I'd baked pumpkin pies for gatherings, tons of gingerbread cookies and vegetable casseroles that are traditional Finnish fare for the Christmas Eve dinner. And on top of everything, minibeanie is pushing his trolleys and cars into my feet, rearranging my larder and stacking the honey, baking powder & lentil boxes to form a precarious pyramid and generally making a mess.

He understands so much more now. All of a sudden, it appeared as if something clicked. He replies in the affirmative "Ugh" accompanied by a nod or every not so often, a shake of the head to indicate the negative. This afternoon I gave him his usual serving of fruit after lunch.

Do you like persimmon?

Ugh.

Do you like apple?
Ugh.
Do you like banana?
Ugh.
Do you like strawberry?
Ugh.
[ok.... maybe he's just saying "ugh" to everything I ask]
Do you like bugabuga?
....{silence}.......[he looked at me before continuing to shove persimmon bits into his mouth]
[Yaaaaayy! so he does understand me after all!]



minibeanie is 1 year, 4 months & 6 days old

Stack

On the feeding front, I'm hugely relieved to say that after the first day, minibeanie has now gotten used to eating from his high chair sans Elmo & co. Yes overall, he may eat a little bit less than he may have eaten with Sesame Street on tv but that's ok. My motto right now is, if he's hungry he'll eat. Better to cultivate a good eating habit right now.

And lately, he has gotten the hang of stacking things. (I didn't know it was such a milestone BMb*!) For a long time, his primary joy is in knocking down towers - the higher the better! Now, his little fingers are tentatively clasping the block and clumsily putting it on top of another. Apparently, fine motor skills still have some way to go ;) This afternoon, he even placed his shoe on top of the other. Encouraged by his success, he moved on to his dada's shoes - arrrgh, no!!

* BMb = Before minibeanie


minibeanie is 1 year, 1 month, 2 weeks & 5 days old

Walk the talk

minibeanie is walking!

When we noticed that he was becoming more gungho at cruising about 3 weeks ago, we made a trip to Ikea to buy him a push cart. It was a good buy :) He now prefers to walk around the room instead of going '4-wheel drive'.

He's ahead in the area of gross motor skills but doesn't seem too inclined in the linguistics department. He's quite adept at calling 'da-da'; on a few occasions, he has even called me da-da :D I guess any 1 parent is 'da-da' for minibeanie.

Bye bye!

minibeanie waved "bye bye" for the first time today! This comes after weeks of hugely exaggerated arm movements whenever one of us leaves the room :D

It's strange, this arm thing. For weeks now, he's been using his arm to beat to music - any music, from a catchy commercial tune and Sesame Street to mummy's 'ABC' song. This is usually accompanied with the bobbing of his head. (I tell you, he's a rapper in the making!) Recently, a new variation has emerged. He sways sideways to music.

minibeanie is 10 months, 3 weeks & 5 days old

First step

This is a moment to be remembered. A couple of moments ago, minibeanie took his first unaided step towards me!

minibeanie is 10 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

First word

minibeanie said his first word today! He repeated after DH, "Da-da". I think minibeanie was a little taken aback from the rapturous clapping and exclamations after that.


minibeanie is 10 months and 5 days old

Cruising

minibeanie officially cruised today! He had as usual followed me to the kitchen like a loyal puppy. And as I was making a banana strawberry milkshake, I was amazed that this little rascal had walked the length of the kitchen cabinet, oven & fridge right under my nose. Then he ran out of 'grip' ;)

He's always up to something. He's now ransacking his chest of toys in the living room as I write. It's ok when I can keep an eye on him but most times when I'm somewhere else, I keep my ears out for him. If it's a rustling sound I hear, it's likely he's pulling out sheets of tissue from the box; a clanging sound means he's banging his wooden blocks against the stone floor and if it's all quiet, then there's trouble. Yep, being a mum means I've developed super-hawk-like hearing. Just the other day, I heard DH trying to have another piece of a prized 70% cocoa chocolate when I was putting minibeanie to bed upstairs.

Crystal Ball

I'm beginning to get an idea of what lies ahead. If an 8 month old can be as rambunctious & curious as minibeanie, the toddler years will be anything but a walk in the park. Everyday, he burns off gadzillion calories by crawling, stumbling, standing, falling all over his rattles, playmat & me. Where does he get all that energy? Amazing stuff those broccoli, tofu, peas, pumpkin, cheese & apples. Anyway. If he can still be confined (barely) to a playpen or bed, what mischief will he be up to when he's up & running??

Meanwhile, before he's able to spin out of control like a hurricane, I'm his pillar of support (literally) when he pulls himself up, his soft place to fall on (especially when he falls on my midsection) and an endless source of curiosity when he sticks a wet finger into my ear or nostril.

Last Saturday, we had a sneak peek of what lies ahead at a 1 year old's birthday party. Fun ;) Here, DH looked like he would very much like a big slice of cake.


minibeanie is 8 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old

Trills & Spills

Our stuff finally came yesterday! After 5 weeks of wearing the same blouse and living on 4 forks, 2 knives and 4 spoons, it's nice to have our wardrobe and a full kitchen. Well... I suppose after awhile. There are 40 boxes to be unpacked.

minibeanie helping out with the unpacking

In the last few days, there have been a few remarkable developments. DH & I always say that minibeanie's more eager to go vertical than forward. At the smallest possibility, he will grasp at whatever that's within range and if it isn't rooted to the ground, he will be hoisting himself up. As a result, there has been quite a few unfortunate incidents with the latest one resulting in a bruise. And since the little bugger simply won't be contained within the confines of the rubber mat, DH decided to take no further chances and got an Italian helmet from Finland. Mama mia, all he needs now is a Vespa!


And just as I thought he will skip crawling altogether (some babies do!), he surprised me today when he crawled towards me. A couple of days ago, he might also have taken his first cruise. He 'walked' a good 1 m along the length of daddy on our bed. Honestly, I am not too trilled at the prospect of greater mobility. A climbing & crawling baby is plenty enough on my hands!

But the best part was how minibeanie will 'dance' when he hears a song! From mummy's medley of Ba Ba Black Sheep & Amazing Grace to the opening jingle of Dr.Phil, his upper body and head will bob up and down, and occasionally, his flailing arms will join in the dance. (Pre-clap, perhaps?) This boy got rhythm!


minibeanie is 8 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old