Month 7.5 - Baby Led Weaning

Since starting solids, you have tried a variety of food namely purple carrots, purple spinach, baby peas, edamame, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, spaghetti, turnip and watermelon. I started you off with puree as you didn't seem to be sitting get up with strong support yet. Yesterday, I was feeding you pear scraped with a spoon and you spat most out. I ended up giving you the piece of pear and you were gumming it up happily baby led weaning style. You also had spaghetti and turnip while we had buffet on Sunday. You seem to enjoy feeding yourself as you have been trying to grab the spoon off me even when you were fed puree. So will be giving you more food to let you eat on your own from now on. Whee.....!

Month 7.5 - Strong baby

Though you may seem petite, you are extremely strong. Need to pry open your fingers when you grab hold of my hair. You gum hard on my chin. Sometimes you just press your head against me hard. You move about and turn onto your tummy during nappy change and it takes effort to keep you down on your back even just for that one minute to get your nappy on. You managed to pull yourself up to a stand in the cot so we need to lower the base down this weekend. Your kicks are powerful and Papa will say you are suited to be a footballer.

Thanking God for a strong and healthy baby. May He continue to keep you safe and healthy and let you develop well physically, mentally, emotionally and of course spiritually.

Year 6 - Ballet exam

Teacher Annabelle says she's considering you for exams. You mentioned just after the  lessons.

Loves the violin now. Mentioned Alicia CheChe is very kind.

Complains your fingers are painful when you practise the keyboard. Haven't practised for 2 weeks now.

Loves mandarin tuition on Mondays and Tuesdays. Asked me not to pick you up too early as you want to stay and play. Loves the way Teacher Joy and Teacher David teaches.

Parent review

Went for your review and your teacher only had good things to say about you. Seems like you are even a role model in class! You are improving in your Mandarin, able to respond and can recognise more words. Your Bahasa is good. Doing well in your ejaan and able to construct short sentences. English has always been your strong subject. Teacher commented you like Science a lot and notices you know some facts even before the teacher teaches which indicate that you read a lot at home. You are also able to grasp the concept of addition and subtraction well. She mentioned that you are not as keen in art as your other classmates though. I told her about the fact that the class was out of control without enough teachers to monitor the children. The teacher mentioned that you are very popular in school too. A few of your friends always want to sit with you. So as you can see you are doing very well and Papa and Mama are extremely proud of you. We pray and hope you will continue to be successful in all that you do and give God all the glory. We also thank the Lord for blessing you with your many talents and also good teachers and friends. Praise Him!

Six! And loving it!

You have been counting down the days to your party since probably last year! And everyday, you got more and more excited. We initially said we won't be having a party this year as 5 years of celebration is good enough. Then your friends started to have a party one by one. We gave in as we thought that this is the last year you will be in kindy with some of these friends and since you are the only one registered into a kebangsaan school when all the rest are in jenis kebangsaan, you may not see them again. So we had a smallish one at home with only five of your classmates and three siblings including KorKor, who was the thorn amongst the roses!

You had a Perfectly Purple Party. There were purple pompoms and birthday banner; purple beads, homemade wand and sunglasses for the photobooth; purple bento set with purple rice and jelly! The cake was moist chocolate cake with purple frosting of course. I had baked the cake the day before for the first time and wanted to frost it in the morning. When I tried some crumbs, they turned out to be waaaaay too salty! I had read the recipe wrongly. Instead of 3/4 teaspoon salt, I had added 3/4 cup salt! Horror of horrors! Good thing I tried it early in the morning. Had to throw all my midnight effort in the bin and started all over again. Sigh... Thankfully I had help from Popo and Aunty F to cook the rest of the item so we could have cake! They did suggest for us to buy one but I just had to make it for the extra special touch.... ;-)

Back to the party... the evening started with you girls stringing beads into a necklace. Then cake cutting and dinner served. You and your friends had the privilege to sit at the dining table while the adults stood around or sat on stools! While you all munched on your homecooked dinner, the adults had sushi, edamame, tomyam meehoon and belacan fried chicken. There was also black glutinuous rice for desert and green tea to quench their thirst. Dinner followed by photo session. Your friends also wrote you little messages on cards with their instant photos on it. A little treasure that you could look back in the future.

You all had lots of fun and your friends took home a party pack which consists of purple heart stickers and glitter glue, the star wand and their necklaces, a little book and a feathery princess pen along with their purple bento boxes. They also took home their instant photo with you in a homemade glitter frame.

It was another successful party, following your 5th Frozen inspired Elsa cake party at the indoor playground, 4th rainbow party, 3rd party with Goldilocks and the Three Bears cake, 2nd party with Mickey and Minnie Mouse cake at their Clubhouse and 1st party with Elmo cupcakes. No wonder you kept saying that you want a party till you are 10! Hmm...

Month 6.5 - Getting the hang of solids

It's been over a week since you started eating. You are mainly fed puree now as I'm not ready to tidy up the mess from baby led weaning. CheChe and KorKor both stayed home this week as school was closed for a week due to a few cases of vomiting and diarrhoea. Moreover, I'm preparing for CheChe's 6th birthday party this Sunday. With no help, I dare not be so adventurous. But I do eventually plan to do baby led weaning with you later. Meanwhile, you are enjoying your food more. Fighting with me to get hold of the spoon. You have managed to finish about a cube each time now. Today you had mushy peas! My favourite!  Yum! You devoured it in seconds! Yesterday was more purple carrots. You also tried sweet potatoes, purple spinach and cauliflower mash. So far so good. Forgot to save some papayas for you. Will let you try other fruits soon. Maybe add a little grains soon. Hopefully no constipation with you as what we experienced with your KorKor. It was traumatic especially for KorKor. So I'm a bit more careful now. Feeding you water and starting grains later. Happy eating Baby Boo!

Month 6.5 - Teething part 2

Poor Lil Boo. You only managed to nap a total of maybe 1 hour yesterday during the day. Last night you woke up every 2 hourly when you have been sleeping through. Now you are having a fever. When I parted your lips to check if your upper teeth have emerged, you cried in agony. You are more cranky and wants to be carried more too. Poor baby. Praying for comfort for you. And a good night's rest.... love you baby.

Month 6 - Starting Solids

So many things happened since my last entry! First would be your second fall from the bed this week. We can't seem to transfer you to your cot when you sleep. And to avoid interruption your sleep, we sometimes leave you on the bed surrounded by pillows which is of course not ideal anymore since you can crawl now. So you ended up on the floor twice now. Poor baby. Now someone has to be in the room with you or we will still try and try to put you in the cot.

You are also biting everything! Today you feel warmer than usual and you have irregular waking up times at night nowadays. Not to mention being more sticky. I'm suspecting another round of teething. Been checking your top gums often to see if they have cut through.

And the highlight of the week is that I have finally started you on solids! Your first meal was cauliflower mash. And you had purple carrots puree last two days. You are not used to all these tastes yet and ate only maybe a teaspoonful each time. You gave a funny unsure look which says, errr. ... what's this funny texture and taste in my mouth? You successfully made a mess especially with the purple carrot. You just wanted to grab the spoon and shove the food into your mouth but they ended up flung onto the floor or your chin...

You are not able to sit on your own yet so will try to do baby led weaning a bit later. You are however trying to push your body back to rest on your bum.

You know when I leave the room and beam ever so glady when I'm back. You love to laugh at your siblings silly antics. Sometimes even just the way they talk tickles you!