1 Year Old

okay, mummy admit that she is guilty of this very late post which happen close to 3 weeks late! beside the new routine that everyone is adapting into, she is totally drained by end of the day coupled with extensive online shopping for her 'dream handbag' and she got it! *grinz*

Zethan had his 2 upper front teeth and 3 on the lower gum with another one suspiciously cutting on the lower gum it seem. that explains the agreesive bitting and drooling Zethan is experiencing which is not a norm for him.

Despite doing very well in his milk feeds and porridge, apparently it seem he is not putting on much weight instead leaning down a little. This is not surprising since he is super duper active these days. One of his newly accquired hobby will be crawling up and down the bed and platform. Amazingly nobody actually taught him the legs down technique but he is doing it! Once down the platform, he will be everywhere at his whim and fancy, crawling at lightning speed.

Zethan love to clap out of the blue especially so when he is being praised. Mummy realised the strong charcter of Zethan and had to go on the soft approach on him. Instead of forcing it down his throat, she will have to coax him and praised him by clapping which result in repeated actions he does proudly (of whatever he is doing e.g. drinking from the sippy cup). He will pretend to cough or even when he is really coughing or choking on water, he will tapped himself on the chest which is what the grandma does to him typically.

on the emotional aspect, Zethan has learnt to manupulate the adults. mummy observe that when she is angry with Zethan and display an angry face / raises her voice slightly, Zethan will lean close to mummy's face affectionately! How very clever is that and of course it melts mummy's heart and she smile instead. Otherwise what he does is to flash his most charming smile and get away with everything, more so when he gets a smile in return, he will smile real proud! oh, remember about the 'trick' that mummy mentioned previously which made her irritated yet can't help sniggling over. Whenever Zethan is angry with the adults especially when one walk away without waiting for him to close up the gap, he will lay flat on his face with hands and legs far stretched and whine. where/who on earth did he pick this up from?

mummy was just commenting the other day, this little guy seriously crack his brain in almost everything he does. another classic example - when one refuse to let him down the bed, he will pretend to inch slowly and un-noticely towards the edge of the bed being letting himself down. either that or he will throw something down the bed amd on the context of retrieving the item, attained his objective of getting down. mummy foresee that it will be a sticky situation in the near future in the department of discipline. parenting tips anyone? be a permissive, authoritarian, authoritative parent, mummy is hopeless and clueless, time to hit the books! parenting for Dummies!

Tied

mummy's hands are really tied by lots of stuff apparently which explains the lack of updates as Zethan turn One! Some not so good habits he picked up recently that definitely need a update which is amusing yet annoying.

Trying to establish a new schedule for everyone in concern after a month of agony, fetching, sending and what's not. As mentioned in the previous post, with the arrival of Zethan's baby cousin and a month long of confinement, it's yet another period of trial and error in the arena of care giving.

Despite mummy's protest and objection, grandma insisted on travelling to and fro daily in order to take care of both babies. All thanks to her insistent and strong objection to Zethan's placement in an Infant care which of course mummy isn't in favour of if given a choice. mummy is more concerned about the daily distance travelled by grandma and worry about it taking a toll on her health with lesser rest and more 'work'.

So mummy is caring for Zethan in the night after work which goes to say she have left very little time for herself as well as this blog which mummy is trying her very best to update every now and then and not to abandon at this point of time. The upcoming festive is not helping much either, only adding to tightening mummy's hands further.

Mummy's fault

Zethan came down with runny nose, slight cough and slight fever on thursday night.

mummy gave him a dose of medication for each of the mentioned and the fever went away shortly. Fearing that the fever return, mummy gave Zethan the cooling pad when he's asleep at night. Guess he isn't feeling very good thus did not sleep very well.

now why or how could it be mummy's fault? she suspected that during the struggle they have the other night, Zethan must have caught a chill since he is drenched in perspiration, snot, tears and drool while the main door is ajar with strong wind entering the house which is a norm at this time of the year.

so yes, daddy and grandma put the blame on mummy. how did grandma know then? daddy went to tell on mummy! gosh!

Nuts

Nope, Zethan has not been introduced to nuts and toddlers this age should not be given till much later. Notice the transition from addressing infant to baby to toddler! BUT as always the infamous BUT, the promotion to toddler-hood wasn't a very pleasant one which explains the caption of nuts as Zethan is driving mummy nuts!!!

For the past few days, Zethan have been refusing to be fed in his high chair. Come mealtime be it lunch or dinner, he will cry as though being torture with tons of tears, snots, droolz upon placement into his high chair. Now this is not the 1st time he does it but usually it's for a short while which wasn't the case for the past 2 days or so.

Mummy is torn between having to pacify him to cut all the yelling and crying or insist on developing good table manners as in stay put in high chair for meals. mummy isn't ever going to tolerate feeding a child who is running around, NO WAY!

so today is the really bad meltdown, 3 episodes in all.

1st at lunch...as usual, put in high chair, yell, cry, fuss for a good 5mins. Managed to distract him with toys and advertisements help big time. in between lunch, repeat the same 'cycle' though rather managable and he finishes his lunch.

2nd at dinner....put down, meltdown for 5mins, carry to pacify for 5 mins, put down and the ordeal continue. carry out of high chair, leave him alone on the floor, don't work! He try to crawl to mummy for comfort but mummy resist and put him back in place. He can even lie down on the floor and continue crying till the point of lost of voice! Geez, this is definitely maddening. brushing everything values aside, mummy picked him up, pacify and had to resort to carrying him while feeding. talking about multi tasking. of cos this little guy isn't quite giving up, stubborn as a mule (some say he take after mummy in this aspect), he kick start a few short episodes of sobs again. All in all, the feeding take a total of 1hr with more than 40mins spent on crying and fussing.

3rd episode....water feed. Zethan have been hyper these days particularly so after his birthday party. The whole house was pretty cleared of 'junks' thus lots of room for him to crawl at lightning speed. since he has been crawling from kitchen to living / dining room for the thousand time, mummy gathered he need some water. He took a sip or 2 from his sippy cup and refuse more. Mummy is quite at fault here as she insisted on feeding more water to Zethan which resulted in another meltdown. This is is seriously bad, screaming at the top of his lungs displaying his stubborn streak further. so it's a game of tolerance for mummy and Zethan to which both are not willing to give in! at some point Zethan look as though he just came out of the shower, full of perspiration, snot, tears, hair real wet, shirt real wet. For a good 15mins or more, he continue while mummy ignore so much so that she left him and make her way to the room with Zethan trotting behind her. Only when Zethan made an attempt to stop that mummy offer him pacifier and his stinky pillow which end the ordeal.

Boy, it was so very exhausting for mummy and thankfully it's only 2 feeds a day otherwise mummy will go bonkers real soon. crossing fingers and toes that it is a passing phase and had better passed soon!

Zoo

Happy Birthday Zethan darling. May you be blessed with good health and wealth, stay happy and cheerful always!

To celebrate Zethan actual birthday, the whole family went to the zoo for a whopping 7 hours outing. Woke up in the morning and was glad to note good weather so immediately started preparation for the trip. Poor Zethan had to miss his after morning feed nap, mummy is crossing her fingers he will stay happy through the trip.

went for the boat ride 1st after peeping at the feeding of the monkeys. then to white tiger and the rainforest kidzworld. Zethan saw pony, goats and it was time for his milk feed. after downing his milk, ko-ed for a good 30mins and woke up when we left the cafe. it was a disappointment that the water play area was undergoing cleaning so mummy had the intention to let Zethan had some fun with water.

went for tram rides to look around as well as to cut walking time / distance. covered most of the animals enclosures e.g. zebra, giraffe, lion, leopard, snake, orang utan, chimpanzee, elephants, crocodiles, otters etc. missed out on polar bear, emu, kangaroo, wallaby, shall make a mental note to cover them for the next trip, hopefully soon. managed to enjoy 2 shows as well, rainforrest fight back and splash show. post lunch the good weather turn gloomy with 2-3 short episodes of drizzle.in a nutshell, the whole family had lots of fun. should have ignore daddy and go for the membership Friends of Zoo. as for Zethan, hopefully he does as well. till the next trip...

ONE

Zethan had a blast on saturday for his very 1st bash and he enjoyed himself lots. A big thank you to all aunties and uncles for your generous gifts!

Zethan's birthday party theme is Pooh and Friends while he had a fire engine 3D cake as mummy feel that it is unfair to 'define' his fav character at this age which is more like mummy's instead. anyway the fire engine cake is a last minute adhoc decision which turn out pretty well, not up to mummy's expectation but suffice.

He must have felt the vibe for the day as he refuse to nap like he usually does, not till he is really tired out and turn in for a short 1 hour nap. by and large he is very well behaved for his very 1st bash, the rest of his birthday party is there's any in years to come should be kept to a minimum. It was such a burnt out affair, worst off than a wedding reception it feels.

While everybody gathered and sang the birthday song for Zethan, he looked puzzled and start shouting at his guests. must be wondering why so many people singing to him. He insisted on seeing the last guest off before willing to turn in for the night!

enough of talking, it's photo time!

Photos

had a great time, hotel stay wasn't too bad. feel like holidaying minus the terrible logistic. Zethan experience many of his 1st, 1st hotel stay, 1st anniversary celebration, 1st time in the bathtub, 1st Christmas decor photo taking etc.

given a complimentary upgrade to the Royal Club floor (just bigger floor area and complimentary mini bar) as well as extended checkout of 2pm.

let the photos do the talking, be warned of the tons of photos though.

playing peekaboo he discovered on his own.

getting restless

heart this feature in the room, see through to bathroom

checked in, exploring the bedbest companion

more toys for entertainmenthaving whale of timemiserable small cottaken from the bathroomlet me outtt.....after nap...pool not baby friendly so no swimmingsettled for the bathtub thenno bath toys so 'donuts' to replaceferrero xmas tree with mummyone with daddyIon xmas tree

Wind down, toying with mag mag

hates to be in the cot

finish milk feed, time to hit the sack

wait a sec, take a family photo for rememberance

nitey, sweet dreams