Another exciting weekend

It was such a busy weekend. Obviously Eliza enjoyed it thoroughly, since she get to gai-gai everyday. How can she not?

Now that i'm working 4 days a week, my so called alone daytime with her is on friday. So it seems like fridays are our day of the week. This friday, my in-laws went for a day cruise which got them out at 6am and home late at night; and Ww had school meetings till about 3pm, went training for the marathon and a teachers farewell dinner at night. So that left me & Eliza on our own. It was really cozy and nice being together like that. Now that Eliza's quite ok being left to her own devices and ransacking the house down, to a certain extent, it's easier to get things done with her, things like prepare & cook her porridge, washing & hanging clothes even..and sometimes me watching tv.

I was planning to make some changes in her nap and feeding times.

Changing naptimes
Eliza has been sleeping later and later from her usual 830pm to 9pm to 10pm. Despite sleeping later she's still waking up at 7am in the morning. One of the reasons i realized that stemmed from her sleeping late is because she's taking her afternoon nap later and thus waking up later (ie. 530 or 6pm). And knowing this playful lil girl, she can last being awake for 6hours from her last nap. When i come home from work, i usually ask my mil what time did she last wake up, as that'll give me a gauge on how early i start putting Eliza to sleep. Nowadays it has been taking me anything from 1hr to 2hrs to get her to sleep. A lot of factors come in, the most sian one is distraction on her way to la-la land, she'll return from la-la-land and take a long time to go there again. By then i'm drained.
She has been able to stay up till 11am or 12pm from the time she wakes up in the morning so this weekend i didn't make her try to sleep earlier. It's a little tricky because if she sleeps too early for her morning nap, she'll be sleepy at at dinner time which is not good. Saturday was a classic example. She was sleepy at 4pm, we arrived at church for meeting at 4pm, fed her milk, started meeting and had lots of ppl talking to her, she got really excited and stayed awake till she fell asleep at almost 7pm, woke at 745pm, sleepy, grouchy and hungry. She slept at 1115pm that night.
It's still a while till that 1 nap days but i feel the transition and we're adjusting.

Changing feeding times
I've been wanting to drop her mid-morning milk and introduce her breakfast. This weekend i managed to do it for at least 2 days so far. It was a lil tricky, hoping her naptimes doesn't interfere with her feeding times. There was a little mess of the schedule but still she was well fed. Essentially, if she is able to continue to wake up at 8am, then hav bfast after that, then comes lunch, then milk, dinner milk. Here's how everything went this weekend..

Friday
8am - 180ml milk
1030am - went out to TM to run errands
1115am - 150ml milk
12pm - nap
1pm - reached home...Eliza's still napping
2pm - finally woke up & had lunch
4pm - went to Bedok to SKP & library & some shopping
meanwhile....i forgot to bring milk! i wanted to feed her milk...so i sat down at BK, bought a ice-milo and asked for hot water; searched for the milk but realized i left it at home! argh! thot it's ok since she only had lunch 2hrs ago..but when she saw me drink my milo she also wanted it. so i let her try...not just feeling how cold it is, but tried to get her to drink from the straw. actually i've been wanting to get her to drink from the straw but all she does is bite or chew or pull it out. and this time she did it!! must have been quite an extraordinary taste for her...ice milo. once she tried it, she wanted more. got her to try it a few more times, and everytime she managed to sip it, i immediately took the straw out...sorry Eliza...not too much sweet stuff for now..)
Anyway the library trip was quite rushed cos i wanted to reach home by 6pm...and at Bedok library there was space like this which Eliza had so much fun playing she couldn't be bothered about me...

see her sneaky look....

at least these racks are better than the book shelves...cos she'll pull all the books down! oh my itchy hands little girl.
Still we had a good time...as we walked out of the library to make our way home. Eliza gave me the super grin and claps, i can tell she had a great time. :)
6pm - reached home, dinner
8pm - bedtime
10pm - Eliza finally sleeps

Saturday was also a really busy day even though we only set out at mid-day. Went to Hayley's party which was really exciting, esp for Eliza...all the balloons and kids. Too bad it was Eliza's lunchtime and she was taking super long to eat (cos of the spinich), else i would have let her loose at the kids table. haha...
Group photo with november mums' babies

Ashlee & Eliza negotiating the Apple puree...now one for you..one for me...

After that we had to go for a meeting at church which i wasn't too keen on bringing Eliza to. Eliza in a meeting?
Actually i was hoping she'll drink her milk and sleep along the way, but we were running late and Ww said there's hot water at church. Alas she was happily happy in the taxi, and when we got to church, everyone wanted to talk to her, and she was even happier in the library where we were having the meeting. She was talking to Jiejie wannabes Shuyi, Jane, Dianne. Seems like she's becoming more of a social gal eh? Last time she'll look suspiciously at most people. Still she's not keen on letting anyone carry her.
Anyway she happily crawled up and down, here and there till she got bored of the place. I brought her to the main santuary where we watched music prac going on, and she wanted to head towards the piano or whatever she can get her hands on...yes, the books on the pews as well. I think she was on overdrive liao...awake since 1230pm. tsktsk...eventually she knocked out at 645pm for a short nap. Guess what time she eventually went to bed? 1115pm.

Gosh so many late nights Eliza!!

SUNDAY.
Eliza overslept......till 9am.

I watched her sleep...and she looked so contented. How do you describe it? feeling all so nice and warm inside.

Anyway we wanted to go out for a good lunch, Eliza was still sleepy even on our way out.


After lunch and some walk around at Suntec & Marina Square we thought of dropping by the Marina Barrage to check it out...
dark clouds was looming in the distance so we hurried past whatever we could see...


Yeap...evidence we were there...check out Eliza's grinny face. she looked really cute here...seems like she's really happy sitting there.


and rain it did....we managed to get in the car before the large droplets started to pelt down...
Ww trying to get Eliza to wear her hat...actually she lets us wear it for her when there's sun, but once we're in the shade she'll take it out.


Gosh what a weekend!
It's Eliza's birthday celebration next weekend!!

Busy weekend

We've had a really busy saturday. Met my dad for lunch and then BKC's thank you dinner at Humble House, we didn't plan to bring Eliza along but she was great company for everyone and she surely did enjoy herself. :)

What Eliza was up to in the morning...

i have to keep her water bottle away from her sometimes because it becomes a water toy...she'll just leave water everywhere. here she is watering the cloth...

We had lunch at Sake Sushi with my dad & mei...and Eliza enjoyed the spread, on top of her porridge. She tried the chawanmushi, salmon, bean curd, soba, rice. No wonder she could sit with us throughout the meal.

After lunch she fell asleep at about 3pm and we went to catch a cup of coffee at Gloria Jeans and then went to walk around.
This is Ww doing an inpersonification of Eliza....which is quite similar yah?


Anyway Eliza slept till 5pm..it was a loooong loong nap. Nowadays she tends to take 1.5-2hr naps in the afternoons. so i love taking afternoon naps with her..quite fruitful, usually.
Some outdoor photos for a change...:)
Eliza pointing to something..i dunno what.


Eliza telling daddy i love being outside!!


At the esplanade roof terrace...it's not easy trying to get an expression from Eliza when taking photos like this. we'll usually sing a song so that she'll start clapping and smile...else she'll give that expressionless look.

Us!


Saw this photo recently cos it was in Ww's iphone and we havent' been uploading it for quite a while. This was taken at my mum's place during dinner, we tried the baby yoghurt which was really too sour for Eliza's liking..this is what she expressed to us:

mummy why u give me such weird food???


Recent favourite activity: ransacking pockets, wallets, bags...of course my wallet isn't spared.

Interestingly, she finds the thrill in taking things out only...after her successful attempt, she'll just give it to us.

Eliza Updates:
On teething:
Her top 2 front teeth is growing!! finally! On the day we discovered that she was extra cranky during her lunch, refusing to eat at all after a few mouths. her mouth was really closed tight! I'm wondering if her lack of teeth affects her from articulating more sounds.

On eating & food:
On that week she started rejecting her porridge, the ease with feeding her for the past 3-4 months just went down drastically. we needed to keep her hands occupied to get her to eat, or else she'll be turning her head left and right or refusing to open her mouth. we tried to experiment with other food like meesua which was quite a hit cos it's different i think. mashed potato worked too but not so much. i bought baby pasta, but my mil tried cooking it and said it didn't get soft.
On the other hand, she loves our food. whatever we put into our mouth she'll definately have a go at it. So far i'm letting her stay away from sauces, oily/fried stuff, spicy stuff, food that has loads of seasoning on it, sweet stuff too like cream or chocolates or ice-cream or whatever's sweet.

On sleep:
I think sleep is always such a mystifying thing with babies. How to get them to sleep, how to get them to sleep longer, etc etc etc. I've tried to take all the 'success' stories i've read or heard with stride and believe that sleep patterns is 70% baby temperament 30% conditioning.
for a few days i was having difficulty getting Eliza to sleep, such that by the time she falls asleep it was 10pm and i was exasperated. i've all kinds of rationalization about why she's not sleeping & the like....too hyped up, milk before bedtime makes her extra awake, she can't bear to stop playing, she needs to burp.
There are four ways on getting her to sleep
1. Milk. success rate not too high because sometimes i need to get her to stay seated or upright enough to burp (else she'll cry in the middle of the night cos of gas). sometimes she just gets even more energetic after milk!
2. Roll in playpen until she's tired. This takes really really long...1 hour+? but sometimes it works
3. Carry her and rock her to sleep. this has the highest success rate of them all, although it'll backfire at times with her struggling to get out of my arms. actually it's the only way to get her to concentrate on going to sleep, when there's no toys or potential things to play that will distract her. I read that it's not good to rock your baby to sleep at this age...but i don't care already, i just need her to sleep.
4. Be outside. It's the only time i'm not particularly fussy about her going to sleep...and i know if she's sleepy enough, she'll sleep on her own.

On walking:
No signs yet...but she can stand on her own for a few seconds before she'll squat back down carefullly.

On being cute:
All the time!
Ww & I will wonder how smart God is to make babies grow up & develop in such a way....and to grow up so adorably!

Eliza's 1st birthday party!

Party preparations is finally in progress.
I know Eliza loves going out but having to book a place is a hassle that Ww won't be keen on at all. So we'll be having it at home, which Ww also asked, are we doing this every year? (no, not that big, i assured him).

Anyway, starting to find the caterer & cake. That's about it. Maybe buy balloons & do up the glass wall.

I've done the cards! (was doing BK&C's thank you dinner card before starting on Eliza's one...i wish i have a better printer and better paper to print on...anyone heard of digital offset printing??) Anyway, actually finding the photo was more difficult than doing the card. In the end i had 8 series of the same 1 card type cos i couldn't decide which photo to use.

The next step is who to invite and how many people will there be? There's a limit to how much our house can hold but all is welcome. I just hope i will order enough food to go around. :)

Someone was asking what to get for Eliza...honestly i haven't been thinking about it. Just hoping i can get good photos on that day and that Eliza will be friendly enough to enjoy all of it!

Just some of the things Eliza's up to...I feel too busy to post more things especially since Eliza's sleeping later and later (tsk tsk resisting sleep..this girl...).
I call her Eliza the Explorer...she got so excited taking things out of the snack cupboard...

I love this photo of her tickling (or torturing?) the panda bear.

We went for a short short trip with her cousins, and her cousins cousins to the zoo. It was PUB's family day and we had free tickets in. Wasn't too eventful as there were soooo many people, we had 6 adults and 5 kids + 1 baby in tow, and one of them wasn't feeling well (had diarrhoea). We were out at 830am and home by 2pm. we didn't even go to the kids zoo section!! :( Next time Eliza's slightly older, i would love to bring her there to find the animals!
Well..here she is as evidence that she was there...she fell asleep about 12pm and slept all the way home.


Guess what is Eliza so delighted about?

Apple. She loves checking out the apple and finally biting through the skin to savour the sweet apple. then again, she's just being her, the excited & expressive lil gal.

I've been wanting to catch her in action doing this 'tang3 tang3' or 'lie down' action. And yes here she is! When we ask her to lie down, she will go into this lieing down position with her palms up, smiling away...and that lasts barely 10 seconds.

Quantity time

It's back to work after a long weekend. And ever since this month..october, i've been always so busy at work...leaving at 730pm every time. Today, after a meeting, which was interesting though, and that lasted from 5-715pm, scutted out of the office door by 730pm. I told myself that by hook or by crook i gotta leave by that time. If i gotta stay later, tell me 1 day ahead of time. I'm missing my baby.

I envy those mums who can stay at home and take care of their babies. Sure thing, i don't really think it's that boring anymore, especially when i see how exciting Eliza can be.

These are stuff that she has been up to this weekend:
- Putting hp or whatever to her ear, as if she's answering the phone. But when given the real phone with a real person on the other line, she'll be looking around to search for where the person is.
- She has been giving us things. Occasionally, even things we say 'no' to. Really, generous.
- She started giving the 'kiss' which sounds more like when you smack your lips together. If u do it, she'll follow suit and give you a sweet smile, as if being really accomplished, after that.
- She continues to 'ba' and 'bear'.
- She points where she wants us to go when we carry her. Once, Ww was in our room and i was in the kitchen, she pointed her way to the kitchen to find me.
- She understands 'no' and will obey it...well..if she really really wants it, obviously she won't. Or she'll pretend not to want it, move away a bit and attempt to have a go at it again.

I wish i can spend more quantity time with her. now with 4 out of 7 days that i'm not with her, sometimes i feel like she is more disposed to my mil. because my lil girl is kinda sticky kidna girl, i feel like she'll find people she'll stick to. Dont really want to 'lose out' to my mil, and it's not that my mil doesn't take good care of her but you know....as a mummy you still want to be your lil baby's no.1

No money to buy time :(

Attachment Parenting

I remembered something i wanted to blog about but keep forgetting, but after reading Babylicious's post, i remembered.

October is AP month.

Anyway, it was until after i gave birth, grappled with baby issues that i started reading all the books on parenting. I read Babywise first. I thought it was middle ground between AP & the other end which i dunno what to call it.
Then i read Gind Ford. That got me started on routine. And some CIO method which i felt wasn't it for us.
Then i read Sears: The Sleep Book, The Good Behavior Book, The High-Need Child Book, The Successful Child. which was very pro-AP.
Then i read Baby Whisperer. Which was somewhere in between.
All had their useful advises which i took here and there, tried this and that, till we found out style of doing stuff together.

What kind of babycare i veer towards? Eventually the AP one...minus the demand feeding part. Also, I don't know how to 'wear' my baby. I couldn't figure out the sarong thingy, though i'll try with baby.no2...and ask someone to help me!

The other thing is co-sleeping. I loved it. but i worried whether it could pose a problem of moving Eliza out of our room in the future. I read about that in Sears book...though it seems like a long phase to move into.Anyway, I was talking to a mum in church one sunday and asked her about c0-sleeping with her children. She asked me if it was something i felt comfortable with and enjoy. And mentioned that in their own time, they will want to have their own room to be in. meanwhile, we just enjoy the fun & closeness of being able to be close to our children.
Come to think of it, i always slept with my mum even till my sis came along...it was only when we moved house that i got my own room and loved it. I was 11 yrs old. Then my sis have always slept with my mum...till i moved out of my house..and now she took over my room.

Babies don't keep

"Babies Don't Keep?"
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth empty the dustpan,
poison the moth, hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo .
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Honestly, in my house...as long as my mil is in the house...the cleaning and scrubbing can't really wait till tomorrow. She's super clean. Me? I can wait till tomorrow. I will wash the clothes when i feel it will fill 3/4 of the washing machine load. I will iron the clothes when it forms a mountain in the box...and do it all at a go. I will scrub the bathroom when i start to see the grooves yellow. I never cleaned my windows before (someone else did). I vacuum & mop when i feel the floor is dirty, not every two days. I don't mind the mopping, but not the vacuuming(!) especially when we got that heavy iEcologi...the more i dread having to vacuum the floor. Ok call me lazy. But..i believe in doing things economically...ie in bulk.

But really...i love every minute of Eliza. Even the seconds when she drives me crazy. Even the moments when she is a tough ball to handle.

My in-laws went overseas for the weekend. So we have the whole house to ourselves. It's nice really. After we had put Eliza to bed, sorted out all the clothes folding, bottle washing, packing up etc...we settled down on our sofa with coffee for Ww & Yoghurt for me and talked. Ww was saying that he missed the times when we had the house to ourselves...and it won't be for a long time when we can have that again...maybe when our kids grow up and rather be out than at home. Still we can't help, feel warmed at the thought of Eliza, the unique way she cries, or fake cry; the way she gives us that muck lips grin...and 101 things that's so her. I'm glad to see her grow.

To digress....
Eliza babbled her more intelligable word. "BA", "BEAR", "BER" and she'll go on and on....
Ww has now adopted the word "BA" as calling him...-__-

This is what Eliza does sometimes...i think it's only when u have no teeth can u do this...I can't seem to do it the way she does.


Yes and only the cute but powerful two bottom front teeth.

4-day week

Two more weeks and i'll be starting to work 4-day weeks. :(

We discussed about it and decided that i would go back to work one more day a week, maybe after this year. However, because of some plans Ww's' planning, we decided i could start going back a little earlier to start saving up earlier. At the same time, my boss popped by my table talking about getting me to have more role in the projects than just doing drafting work...and my decision to work an extra day a week is even better for such an arrangement. Personally, I would like to do a little more, yet don't wish to have to spend time OT-ing...or having to come back another day. Then again, 3 day or not...i felt busier these days that I'm still leaving work 1/2-1hr late. :(

My confusion and slight regret started when i was reading the book "A Mother's heart" by Jean Fleming. I quote:
"I cringe when i hear, 'It isn't how much time you spend with your children that matters, but whether the time you do spend is of high quality'. High quality for whom? If we define quality time as that which meets a need, we must ask, 'Meets a need for whom? .... The decisions these mothers made are based on their values. By working, each feels she will benefit her children. Each of these woman must judge whether her absence really benefits her family. ...must confront the question, Is money for college, nice things, or a Christian education more valuable than my being there? Each family must come to grips with the issues and the alternatives. They should weigh the pros and cons, and make their decision in light of biblical values."

If we could, I would love to stop working altogether, stay home and play with Eliza all day and get on with the day in and day out of home life. Miss out on the corporate world? Actually i don't really bother.
To a certain extent, we can't live with one income. Even as it is, we can't save. Although we could try to cut down on some expenses, still there's always the extra stuff we didn't expect to spend, or stuff we just had to spend.
So why do i still work? Because we still need the money. Even if we manage to get by with 1 income, sometimes it seems quite silly to not work when i have my mil to take care of Eliza, and do it so well too. We didn't really need to 2 people to take care of her, though it would be definately be great.
Maybe when baby no.2 comes along, i might take that drastic plunge, as we have planned to & hoped to, By then hopefully i have enough savings, maybe a hobby income or some passive income too. Well...at least when the maternity leave comes, it'll be based on my 4-day week pay instead of 3-day week one?


Quirky & fun stuff Eliza's up to
- she holds me hp to her ear like i do, as if talking on the phone. (she's starting to imitate what we do nowadays...my fil taught her to do it too with her toy phone)
- she understands the word "NO" but it doesn't work all the time
- she understands 喝水 and drink water...and so will turn to get her water or point to her water bottle
- she can understand & sign 'milk', though it can happen all out of the blue, as if practicing the hand sign
- she responds to music most of the time by clapping her hands, she especially enjoys worship time in church, and sometimes hums with you, as if she's singing along with you.
- she used to climb from the low coffee table in the study room to the sofa...now she has moved on to climb up to the study table...or any higher stuff by lifting her legs really high
- she loves scratching out stickers/price tags on things with her salvia & two bottom teeth
- she can now open caps, those lift up types, with her two bottom teeth. so no more giving her the diaper rash cream or whatever container tubes, and even our new Nalgene bottle to get the contents out.

I didn't catch her in time,. I left her to her own devices for a while and later found her with one of the tubes open, and smelling of the fragrant cream.
- she's into pulling out drawers
- she'll sometimes pretend to be in sleeping position, or lying down on her tummy when you tell her to go to sleep. how you know she's pretending? she's smiling away while she does it, and few seconds later gets up, pleased with what she has done.
- she's still playing peek-a-boo with us :P