Standing up!

My baby can pull herself to a standing position already! Though she did it a few days ago, I was only confident of leaving her to support herself just 2 days ago. She pulled herself up on the cot and stood there for a good half an hour and when I tried to pull her hands off the railing, I found her holding on to it very tightly. She could even walk left and right holding the railing (slowly, of course). I took a picture to capture it in case I couldn't find time to blog. So now because she can stand and feels confident, she does so even when on the floor. First she will put her two hands on my stomach, then onto her knees and finally on her feet. She can't stand right up but she will be in a push up sort of position first. All the while she is smiling away! This evening, I noticed her pulling herself up and then slowly letting go of one arm and back to a sitting position. This is fantastic, because I was wondering how she was going to sit down after standing for so long. It's amazing to see that babies learn these things or are drawn almost magnetically to practice these essential skills.

Yesterday, we put her with Koko for 2 hours while we went to visit Pop in hospital. She was very well behaved and Koko can't wait to babysit. I am so proud of her because she can take so well to them. Even though we were not around, she didn't display separation anxiety. I was afraid she would fret cos she couldnt' see us.

In terms of speech, she has been saying alot of 'oohs' and 'ahs' and 'booos'. Today she uttered 'ba ba' very often and sometimes ' ma ma'. I don't think she means mama and papa just yet; it's obvious she is trying a new sound. I reinforced her use of it by using 'baba' to mean daddy and 'mama' to mean me. She seemed quite happy and continued to use it for a while. Oh yes, she can now wave when we say 'byebye'. I think this is the result of my in-laws saying byebye and waving whenever they see her. Babies learn association very fast.

Food wise, she has begun to eat a greater variety of cereals and fruits. I am also starting to offer her green vegs (well soon anyway). So far, though she doesn't eat pumpkin, carrots, pears, apples when they are served to her on their own, she seems to take them when mixed with her cereal. I guess this will have to do for now because at least doing that she will get a variety of tastes and vitamins. The apples and pears can be so soft that I do not even need to steam them!

According to the wholesomebabyfood website, I can feed her pasta and cheese already. They even have menus I can download and follow for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that a wholesome meal is provided each time. They have recipes that sound so interesting i.e. addition of spices and yoghurt etc.. Scrumptious! I must start doing some of those... oh yes, time to start on fish porridge and chicken soup! I'm going to be so busy!

She attended her first mass today and was very well behaved. She was also very sociable, smiling and waving at people. She also kept bending her body to look at the people behind me, so much so that they were quite distracted... other than that, she was adorable.. I sang songs to her quietly in her ear and teased her, causing her to laugh. So cute! But 1 hour is really too long for a baby to sit still and not engage in activity.. at the end of the mass, she was getting restless so I stood up to carry her. I totally understand why she felt so...

Took her swimming last week and though the water was cold, she adapted very quickly to it and soon was enjoying herself! She can pivot when we call her (thanks to being in leapfrog I think) and also paddle her feet towards us. Of course we support her by putting our hands under her feet so that she has something to paddle off on. The good thing about the float is that I can also hold onto it and push her around and then also let go of it for her to have some independence. I think she likes swimming alot! If I had a pool, she'd go swimming everyday.

Oh did i mention that she likes to sleep on her front? Also she has been sleeping and waking earlier these days. Like sleeping at about 8+ and waking up at about 6.30-7am. On the one hand it's tiring, but on the other, it's good cos it gives V and I more time.. and besides I can go to sleep with her during the day. Helps me recharge. Speaking of zz, I want to go zz now....

Oh yes, she is kissing me quite spontaneously these days. Sometimes when I ask for it, sometimes she just shyly kisses and turns away.. she is doing it well now, with the correct 'muak' sound after she finishes it! :) So happy each time that we do a kissing dance!!

Post fever

Sherrie is much better now, thank God! She took about 5 days to fully recover, with sponge baths and paracetamol syringes (which she of course hated). I am so happy that she is back to normal i.e. drinking formula milk and eating cereal. I was getting worried because my milk supply was dropping and she was only wanting bm.

Everyday I spend with her, I feel that she is very smart! I hope I am not biased and thinking that just because she is my baby, she is clever. But, she has done certain things that make me feel so. Here are some examples.

1. After a few demonstrations of how to play with a new toy, ie the gumball machine, she knows how to throw the balls thru the top and press the lever (though she still prefers to topple the tower).

2. She held onto a spoon and licked the food end of it and smiled; then flipped it and licked the other end and gave a disgusted look. She knows which end brought her the food and after flipping the spoon a few times, stuck with the food end. When she had licked all the food off her spoon, she dropped it.

3. She used the spoon once and now wants to feed herself. Same for the biscuits (though Mum & V get quite nervous about her feeding herself. It is very cute to watch her do so.)

4. I put her in the leapfrog when I pump and now she has gotten used to being next to me that she doesnt' want to play with the things on the frog but wait for me to entertain her. Just because I did it a few times. When she was far away from me, she would entertain herself... Boo.

5. She knows that the moment she comes in front of the computer, she can pull open my drawer. I didn't teach her that but she did it, so now it's almost impossible to do that because she will reach for it and it is dangerous (she might hurt her fingers if they get trapped).

6. On the toolbox, she knows that she can pull the lever and the ABC song will come out. Promptly she will sway her body to it (very cute). If she doesn't hear the song, she will keep pulling it until it starts or she might start to get frustrated.

Other than these examples, she has also grown abit. Taller, leaner and less chubby. But still very cute. She has started propping herself up on me and after going her knees, goes onto her feet. She is constantly searching for higher ground where she can pull herself up! I think she will be standing holding onto something on her own quite soon. How quick is that! The question is does she want to? She can be quite lazy..

She is still not so interested in story books, but she listens whenever we describe something to her. No 'words' yet but some of her sounds sound like 'hello' and 'hi'.. So i take it she is greeting us. Sometimes there is a some semblance of a wave so.. we'll see. Maybe soon she will associate waving with the hello. :)

Can't wait for her to toddle though i know i will be even busier.

Sherrie had a fever

Over the weekend that has just past, poor Sherrie had a fever. It all started on Fri night, around midnight.. She was feeling a little warm and when we took the temperature it was 37.1 deg. I took a cool towel to wipe her down and she went back to bed. When she got up in the morning (Sat), she was feeling much warmer, so we bathed her and decided that we'd take her to the ped. Not realising it was Deepavali, we took a morning stroll and found the doors closed..... thankfully a clinic next door had a sign that it was open at 1pm and it was a family clinic.. so off we went back for home.

At 1pm, after she had been bathed several times and wiped down, we brought her to the clinic. It was pretty crowded with other children and the consultation was $30. After waiting about half an hour, we took her into see the doc. She was burning up and the temperature at the time was 39.2! So scary for me.. he suggested giving her a rectal suppository to bring her temperature down. Thank goodness, because it worked very well! Of course, he checked her ears and her lungs etc and found that everything else was fine.. Phew, i was so worried!

Anyway, the whole weekend was spent taking care of her, sponging and taking temperature and keeping her cool. It was heart breaking when we had to feed her the fever medicine cos she obviously didn't want it. We had to pin her down and syringe it into her mouth, followed by water. Poor baby... thankfully it worked and she is now better. However, she is refusing her solid food. I guess being sick does something to your appetite cos her milk intake is also reduced. Unless... she is goin on a diet cos everyone says she's like Michelin!

On another note, she can now pull herself up using the railing of the cot! I walked in last thus to see her doing it, so promptly had to ask V to lower the mattress. The playpen is no go now unless with supervision. She will put both hands on the rails and pull herself to kneeling position. Scary if she is unattended, so the safest place now is the cot and the leapfrog. Yesterday when we held onto me and pulled herself up to kneeling position she was so happy, gleefully smiling away at me. New skills so I guess she wants to keep doing it. Oh yes, she now wants to crawl over things. Like me, for instance. Also, on the bed, she goes for the highest points! Somehow she knows that she can stretch herself doing so... so the pillows and cot become targets for her... and the wood carving on my bed post.. dunno why she likes that so much.

She is also waving objects about, as if to see how it responds when they are shook. Also she likes to drop things on the floor, just to see how it reacts/sounds. I guess all babies go through this. Very cute though sometimes troublesome! I think she might wave to us soon!! Hoping for that...

No kisses for the moment, though she did fall asleep on my shoulders yesterday night. What a sweetie! I love!!

Sherrie is crawling!

My baby has learnt to crawl quite proficiently! She can cover the mat too quickly and i'm afraid she has outgrown her rocker. She cannot be left alone in the rocker for even 30 secs because she promptly rolls over in it and can drop off. How scary is that! Also, in the playpen, she has started to put her hand on the railing to look over.. she could easily prop herself up and go flying down too. Hence, the safest place is in the cot, where we can raise the railings or in the pram, next to me.

Her crawling is really quite deliberate now. She looks for something she wants, then very determinedly crawls towards it, raising her hands in the air (one hand on the floor and one hand in the air) and then moves it forward, one at a time. It's really so cool to see her development day to day. Aside from crawling, she is also sitting up in her pram. She didn't use to even though she could, but now when out, she will sit up and look around, observing her surroundings. She really is very curious at this stage. The best part is that she can sit for quite a while by herself, looking around, giving us time to eat out. I love my baby!

Vocally, she hasn't said much, but is still squealing and babbling. I guess all babies have their own timetable. I am encouraging her by saying mama and dada and also reading the picture books to her. At this stage, however, she seems more interested in perfecting her motor skills instead.

In terms of food, we've introduced prunes into her diet because rice cereal tends to be constipating.. also avocado, which i discovered has alot of soluble fibre, so it helps her to poop too. She likes them both, thankfully. have not tried reintroducing pears but will do so today.. adding to her cereal should be a good way to get her accept it.

She really is a blessing to us because she is so well behaved. At Su's wedding recently, she was mildly frightened by the sheer number of people but she was so sociable, smiling and allowing so many people to carry her. Of course, so many people touched her cheeks.. we couldn't prevent that! We also brought her up to Su's new studio apartment and she rolled on the bed so happily. During the church service, she slept. At the dinner, she was also very good, sleeping for the most part, through the extremely loud music. I don't know how she did that!! But she has received nothing but praise from everyone and all cannot wait to spend time with her!

Sherrie kissed me!

To savour the moment, I am noting this down.. Sherrie kissed me twice tonite! I was hugging her when she was on her tummy in the quiet moments before she fell asleep and she turned her face to my cheek and planted the first slobbery kiss on my cheeks! Then she looked at me and gave the sweetest tender smile. After that i asked her if she kissed me and she kissed me again.. as if to say, yes! :) :) :)

I was so touched I cried. She is sooo sweet! I love my baby.

First accident!

Sherrie fell off the bed on Sat morning, to my utter shock! I was getting ready to pump and suddenly heard a thud from next door followed by loud crying. I knew my worst fear had come true. V was so tired from duty that he had fallen asleep while patting her and without realising, she rolled over the blanket barricade (not much obviously) I had made and landed, according to him, face down. I was so terrified to hear her wail and quickly ran into the room, to see him comforting her. Of course, she was crying and wailing very loudly, but after a few minutes of cuddling, she calmed down and promptly started rolling again. I was so worried that she might suffer broken ribs or concussion. Thank God that she is ok... no vomiting and she is eating and playing normally. With her increased mobility, we have to be extra vigilant and never allow this to happen again! Poor baby.....

She is also constipated, i think, from eating too much rice cereal and not drinking enough water. She doesnt' want to take water from her sippy cup and only wants to have it through the spoon. So everytime after having solids, I feed her water. She takes it but is not interested in it for long... so I think i've got to give it to her through her bottle. Probably fruit juice diluted with water will work. She's fussy about fruits so far, so hopefully that'll work. We've also bought prune puree from Gerber so hoping she will take to it and bomb tomorrow. I don't mind cleaning up the poop.

Last weekend, I didn't write, she had rather bad diaper rash, and we had to put her on cloth diapers for a few days. What exhausting few days those were! First she couldnt' sleep on her cot cos she would roll and spill her pee, so she slept with us. Then she peed about every 45 mins so I was constantly changing cloth diapers and applying thick coats of Desitin. Lack of sleep plus extra changing and extra laundry did not make me a very happy mommy at all. Boo. We are now very cautious to ensure it doesn't happen again.

On the positive side, now that i've gotten all the -ve things out, is that she has crawled forward! I think it was on Friday that she did so. She wanted to reach her blue teether and lunged forward, using her legs to propel her and she got it! Today i tried it using my handphone and she did it again! I think she will crawl soon. She doesn't much like sitting up, but she can do it. She needs a mood for it I notice, but she loves to stand and be on her tummy, propping up her legs. She has also started grabbing the railing of her cot I think she wants to use it to pull herself up... we gotta pull up the rails soon.

She has started to imitate some of our words. Like the other day I said 'Hallo!' and she said 'Ah oh' and then some other things we said today, she repeated in her bb language. I think she will get the hang of talking soon. She is making so many sounds. Oh yes, when she sees the bowl thati put her cereal in, she will go 'Hair hair hair (sounds like hair anyway) and flap her arms, showing her excitement. It's so cute!!! She will want to grab the bowl and spoon. Today, we had Mcdonalds cone ice cream and when i showed it to her, she immediately reached out and touched it, resulting in some of it landing on her fingers.... so sneakily fast!! When she likes something, her hand shoots out soo quickly!

She is certainly skilled in responding to her name already. When she is in the playpen, I duck and call her name and she will look around trying to find me. And she now notices that i'm below and have not actually disappeared! Haha... Very cute playing peekaboo and hide and seek. She is very curious about words, esp when I read the words on the mat aloud to her. She enjoys it very much and looks down then looks up and me.

Recently she has become very much more attached to me, because V has been on duty 10am to 10pm. She rolls towards me and wants to cuddle next to me. When he hugs her, she doesn't respond the same way and keeps fretting. Of course it makes me feel super close to her. Aww... so sweet. And i simply cannot get upset with her cos she wants to be close to me! Hee...

She is still not sleeping through the nite and we are wondering how we can do something about this. It is very disruptive to our sleep and I end up with blacker and blacker panda eyes. Not very desirable and not to mention, I am exhausted at the end of the day. So is V cos he has to work. In the long run it's really not very healthy for us. I guess we have to try something drastic (cry it out??) or just be resigned that she will definitely wake up once.

Ok I hear her. she doesn't like the pear juice! I dunno why.. it's sweet... this baby likes yams and sweet potatoes! I hope she takes to the prune or else she will be constipated for too long and will need an enema. Boo.

Growing growing growing

Sherrie is growing real fast! I dunno how heavy she is now, but her motor abilities certainly are much more varied than before. She now points at things she wants and we will walk towards it and then bend her body almost at right angles (if it's on the floor) or lunge both arms towards what she wants. It takes alot of energy to manage her when she is bent over. When we sit, she wants to bend her body to her side, arching her body to see whatever it is. I just put my arms in a ring and she moves freely. Sometimes she will lay her head on my shoulder to look up too.

When she is on her tummy, we turn on the christmas lights and she will arch her head backwards. It takes alot of effort on her part but she tries so hard! It's so lovely to see. She is still crawling backward but sometimes when she is stuck and both feet are against the wall, she kicks and moves forward a bit. Guess it's a matter of time before she gets the hang of it. You'll be surprised how much distance babies can cover by rolling and crawling backwards. She has to be supervised at all times!

She can also spend alot of time in the leapfrog now. Her favourite toy on it is the page turner. Even without the music, she can play in it for half an hour or so, frequently standing up on her own and then taking a break when she is tired by resting in the chair. Tonight she was so frustrated because she wanted to open a flap but only knew how to close it. She squealed and squealed... haha...

Food wise, she has officially accepted sweet potato (mixed with breast milk). We bought it from cold storage and steamed it. Surprisingly she loved it! when I ate it, I knew why! It is sooo sweet and doesn't hv the raw taste carrots have. I still wonder though, why she doesn't like pear. Maybe it's too tart? Anyway, we will try pumpkin, yam and avocado next. The 4 day rule means we can only try one thing at a time. Meantime, milk and cereal are enough. :) I enjoy feeding her cereal because i can see her face to face and she is so patient when eating. Sometimes, though, she gets distracted by the colourful playmat on the ground, so i hv to shield it with the pouffe.

We've also started taking her out more. Like today, Mum and I went down to CK Tang cos we wanted to look for a coffee machine for Su's wedding. We didn't find it at CK but mum wanted to carry her to show her things and she kept her hand out most of the time, wanting to touch things. Of course, knowing how expensive the things there are, we didn't let her.... soon i think she grew tired (even being carried need energy) and we settled her in her pram and made our way to ION to check out the Nespresso machines. We were treated to a demo of how the Citiz & Milk machine works and also a cup of espresso and i had a decaf latte. Nice! She took a nap till we got home.

Last weekend, we took her to the beach and let her feel the breeze on her skin, experience it turning from light to dark, see bicycles and roller blades, a small ferris wheel and market atmosphere. She was so tired she slept very well that night. We were of course pleased. :)

As for talking, she has begun to say 'ma', 'ba' but they are not deliberate. I do encourage the sounds when I hear them. Occasionally she says something that sounds almost like a word that matches the occasion - that fascinates us and we wonder if it's coincidence... :P Other than that, her babbling is really cutie cutie and i have videotaped them to remember them cos once they start talking we'll not hear them anymore. Not to mention the whining!!!