Walk

Zethan show signs of learning to walk about 3 weeks back even though it is just 2-3 steps motion. Grandma keep harping that Zethan is slow in this department since most of the babies under her care including mummy and JiuJiu walks when they turn 1YO.

Just before CNY, Zethan progress to having more steps, say 5-6 steps before he plonked himself down on the butt. Over CNY, around Chu 3/4, he walked 8-9 steps and even attempted standing real firm post walking.

Mummy is really glad that she is able to witness another major milestone of Zethan's on 21 Feb (sun). Zethan tood himself up without any support and starting walking from then on of course for a short distance. He seat himself down, squat n one knee and pushed himself up with the other leg. How very exiciting and mummy found herself smiling away proudly though at that instance mummy is merely thinking about the headache of having to run after him soon. Well, thinking positively, sounds like mummy's dieting regime is happening real soon!

Since then, he is caught walking longer distance and is successful in turning himself round to continue his walk. More bumps, knocks, blue-blacks in the pipeline!

CNY ~ Day 2 - 8

Day 2 ~ Zethan slept all the way till 12pm noon before waking for his 1st feed. The whole day out yesterday must have tried him out completely.

Mummy and daddy are expecting their friends over in the evening. The crowd was rather huge and Zethan was so distracted that he took 1 hour to finish his dinner! He refused to sleep despite not having a nap for like 9hrs or so. worst thing being he slept at 12am for only 1hr and woke up super cranky and fussy. refused to go back to sleep as he know there are still guests in the house. mummy and daddy was tried out because he asked to be passed back and forth, you get the picture! Finally he knocked out at 3am in the morning after the group left!

Day 3 ~ the whole day in the noon was spent at home for Zethan to 'recuperate'. only in the night he had to visit his Gu Por. suddenly he decide he had enough of porridge as he reject his porridge, stuffing all in his cheeks like hamster and refuse to swallow. oh man, tough to be feeding for 1hour for both lunch and dinner, trying to test mummy's patience to the max.

Day 4 ~ home arrest! porridge feeds still as disasterous. mummy left out the vegetable thinking it is the culprit but yet tough luck!

Day 5 ~ despite staying home yesterday, his routine remain in a mess. woking up earliest 11+ for milk feed, rejecting cereals or at least 30 mins to polish it off which is unusually slow. in the late noon, set off to Loyang Tua Peh Gong for prayers but forgot to take picture again due to the crowd. afterwhich dinner at Tampines Ikea only to reach home at about 11+pm which end yet another day.

Day 6 ~ playdate with the buddies hosted by Caleb! Zethan had lots of fun with his buddies and what surprised mummy was that he actually snatched toys / fight for them with his friends. it's time to reinforce the concept of sharing soon! The adults had a game or 2 of Wii and it sure was draining mummy of her energy! Aunty Ophelia is very nice to cook Zethan's share of porridge but again 1hr! It as also the 1st time that the 4 families come together including the daddies. one care for the kiddos while the other had their hand on mahjong! Zethan 'tong' for like 10 hours till his milk feed at 10+ before KO-ed. Mummy was relieved however her happiness was short lived since he sleep for 1hour only! afterwhich he become a koala bear and fussed to be held by mummy and even refuse to let her be seated. mummy's arms nearly broke after a good one hour! the night ended late or rather early which is a 1st time as well with all bidding goodbyes at 1+am!

Day 7 ~ how fast the holidaying season is coming to an end. a last minute decision was made to attend daddy's mate at his housewarming. fortunately Zethan apprreciate his lunch of mee sua today otherwise another meltdown. It ia Ren Ri today which means everybody's birthday thus Grandma suggest we went for a Lo Hei session cum dinner. so yes it is Zethan's 1st Lo Hei, he participated with mummy helping him to hold the chopstick and flipping the yu sheng!Day 8 ~ the last day before mummy and daddy start work tomorrow. plan to bring Zethan to Marine Barrage was dashed by daddy! so it was a stayed at home day!

how fast time flies as always especially when one is not working / holidaying! mummy enjoyed the 11 days of being a SAHM and spending time with Zethan minus the rejecting of porridge of course. back to 'reality' time!

CNY ~ Day 1

gosh, how could there be no wishes for CNY. This might come rather late but still Happy Chinese Year and hope that all have had a roaring good time! Gong Xi Gong Xi!

Although there isn't much visiting to do as usual, busy is an understatement.

Mummy is over the moon as Zethan woke in the morning, smile very sweetly at her and wish her Gong Xi Gong Xi!

The day started very late as you see the problem with Zethan is, when mummy wish that he would just nap a teeny wee bit longer, he woke up after 30mins which is considered lucky. ironically, Zethan nap longer than usual and more frequently. so the whole family can only step out of the house close to mid noon say 3pm and it was certainly a blessing that there are just the few locations and all are in the vicinity.

First angbao was from mummy, she make sure she reminded herself for thousand times to remember and thought it is surely of significance for the 1st angbao to be from her.
1st stop to his Grandma and Grandpa house. 2nd stop to Grandma's house to Bai Nian as well as to pick up his baby cousin to join for CNY visiting. 3rd stop to Great Great Grandmother's house. Yes there is no typo error, it's Zethan's Great Great Grandmother. It was here when he was fed a love letter but mummy decide not to fuss over it since it's CNY! Then whisked off to another relative's house (relationship too complicated to understand) - mummy call him Peh Gong in hokkien. by then it was already close to 6.30pm which is Zethan's dinner time. Even so, mummy decide to bring Zethan to Grandpa's house to Bai Nian before heading back to Grandma's house for dinner.

The last stop of the day will be Yi Po's house in Bukit Batok, reaching close to 9.30pm. As Zethan had a long day out, he had to be home soon after which is already midnight!

The rest of the week, his daily routine go all haywire, terribly way out of schedule. It is a pity that Zethan did not get to take a picture with many of the relatives.

oh one more thing, amazingly Zethan's face shone with a cheeky smile when he was given an angbao. mummy swear that she did not teach him that, this little action of his tickled everyone pink!

Know How

mummy have been slacking recently in blogging about Zethan. Gone are the days when she try her very best to update at least once every week. The only 'me' time she has is only when Zethan goes to bed at night, daytime is out as Zethan is napping lesser and lesser these days.

Just few days back, Zethan master his Gong Xi Gong Xi. It must have been the CNY DVD which grandma bought for him, blasting it on ever so frequently. There is this song in particular (the Dong Dong Chiang type) he will freeze his attention on and pick up a few actions from there. So is this a good thing or bad, rather subjective. Good will the things he imitate which is 'harmless' while bad goes the other way.

Another discovery yesterday during the visit to PD as he is having his occasional sniffles and runny nose. Mummy thought she is mistaken when she heard Zethan making a 'clucking' noise with his tongue. She confirmed it when Zethan did it repeatedly especially so when praises are showered. Daddy though mummy is kidding him (mummy is making the noise instead) and it took him a while before bursting out in laughter. Somehow Zethan managed to 'cluck' loud and clear. Where did he pick it up from? anybody's guess.

Mummy reminded daddy that one have to be extremely careful and conscious of their actions in front of Zethan as he will quietly observed and imitate subsequently!

Up and Down

Zethan is recently damn good with climbing up and down the furnitures from platforms to bed to couch and the list goes on.

It came as a surprise for mummy to realise that this little guy is all set to climb the furniture only to make his way down again. That's real fun for him basically and it happen just like that!

Remember about the complaints of not drinking water from sippy cup, refusing his high chair during meals. Thank god it is a passing phase and everything revert back to normal. The combi sippy cup for him is another toy and he could finish like 100ml of water for fun's sake or rather when he feels like it. Praying hard that he will 'forget' about experimenting of drinking the water, purposely let it flow out and wet his whole shirt.

another piece of good new, the nightmare is over *crossing fingers and toes* he is slowly adjusting back to having meals in his high chair, distracting with toys which seem to does the trick now. not that previously toys are not used for distraction but it doesn't work then.

Zethan is doing much better in his fine motor skill, pinching the Happy Baby puffs and aiming to his mouth. He is much more willing to self feed these days although so far only dry food are attempted. well, at least improvements are observed so 'baby steps' towards self feeding, allow him to take his time and decide for himself.

Today for the 1st time after close to 13 months, he held his own bottle during milk feed. as you might know, milk feeds have been pretty much a struggle all along till recent times, stablized. He is still not very good at it managing only 1/2 feed before releasing his grip but practise makes perfect, again reminder baby steps!

As for large motor skill, when he feels he's up to it, will managed 2-3 steps at most. seriously mummy isn't the least bit worried and thought there's no hurry in progressing to taking more steps otherwise the next headache will set in, having to chase after him around the house!

Zethan added a few more food to his list of food tried ~ salmon, kailan, minced pork, shredded chicken. Lacking quite a fair bit of fruits in his diet but Zethan don't fancy fruits like apples, pears. perhaps it's time to re-introduce them and who knows he might love them big time now. Next will be tofu, english spinach, tomato for the vegetables and melons, kiwi, mango for the fruits. Not to forget cod fish and beef. Any advise on ways to introduce beef, what cut will be ideal and method of preparation?

Gong Xi Gong Xi

wow wow.....CNY is fast approaching and we are talking about less than 12 days away. This year will be the 1st for Zethan though technically should be 2nd. But as all are house bound during last year's 1st CNY due to confinement, this shall be considered as the 1st!

mummy and daddy have been exempted from giving away angbaos for 2 years (not self proclaimed though) but this year will definitely be unavoidable but alas that's what CNY is all about. The main reason why children always fancy CNY ~ angbaos, new clothings, goodies to munch on.

It had always been mummy and daddy's yearly 'tradition' to roam Chinatown after reunion dinner, reaching there only in the wee hours to be jammed in human traffic packed like sardines. They gathered that this tradition of theirs might halt after a little one comes along thus still indecisive if to proceed or halt this year.

anyway to pre-soak in the festive's atmosphere, mummy and daddy brought Zethan for a CNY photoshoot at The Studio Loft. The whole family all decked in orange outfits coincide with the next family who is also in orange, duhz! by and large the shoot was a pleasant one although Zethan wan't very cooperative nor in a good mood with a messy head of hair all thanks to the blur mummy. The products truned out rather satisfactory and mummy pay for additional 6 photos in all.

Birthday

Birthday again? yes, yesterday is Zethan's lunar birthday which happen to be on the 17th day of Dec on the lunar calender.

so how was it 'celebrated', nothing fancy to shout about but had a fun game of 'tradition' for an indication of his future career followed by another 'tradition' with giant size Ang Ku Kueh!

at the same time, Zethan opened all his pressies and yes he is very late which like like after 3 weeks (all because of the procrastinating mummy) but well they say it's never too late *excuses by mummy*

based on a very old tradition which people practised in the olden days but currently very much modified and modernised just for the fun of it to identidy his future career or so they say. 7 items were placed in a line in front of him for selection namely color pencils, $10 note, $50 note, calculator, calligraphy brush, measuring tape, mouse. Zethan was let go at a distance and made to crawl towards the mentioned items which he did excitedly and the 1st item he picked is the calculator, turned and smile at daddy, turned back, crawl and pick up the $50 note. So what's the interpretation then of his future career? perhaps accountant or auditor? daddy said it had better not be cashier, duhz!

later in the evening, went to pick up the pre-ordered giant ang ku kueh. Apparently it's about the size of an adult's palm thereabout. Supposedly Zethan will have to step on both, a foot on one each and offer some words of blessing so as he gets to enjoy good fortune in all he does in future (with minimum effort to achieve maximum results - there is this proverbs in chinese but prove too much for mummy thus can't recall totally) with more benefactors and lesser villians in his way. afterwhich he is to munch on abit of the kueh for significance. some of you might be thinking at this point, yikes, step on it and munch subsequently, how gross is that. well basically the kuehs are slipped into a plastic bag thus not stepping directly on the kuehs.