Yes, that's the activities and yesterday and today!

Only waited till today, then I have the energy to blog. Reason being - I was dead tired yesterday, as I was having bad sore throat and a bit of running nose. After hubby and Hao Re both recovered from flu and eye infection, respectively, it's now my turn, the bad sore throat causing the lost my voice, with a pretty blocked nose, and a bit of cough. Finally consulted doctor on Monday afternoon, and have been given medical leave for the afternoon and also Tuesday. Wowhoooo..... really great for me to catch up with some rest.

Right, let's go back to our "adventure".......

We went to the Jurong Bird Park (instead of Zoo for a change). Reached there at 9am, as there is a special Breakfast Show, especially for breakfast patron. So, we were having our breakfast while watching the show. It's a simple and small scale show, kind of okay for a morning start. Hao Re was not as excited as we thought when he saw the birds. He looked at the birds intensely, and when he walked close enough to the birds, he wanted to touch them, but difficult to see him putting on his smile, and those naughty look. Slow warming up, I was guessing.

A family photo at the entrance

From The growing up story of Hao Re ~甘皓日~

Hao Re enjoying a piece of toast while watching the show

From The growing up story of Hao Re ~甘皓日~

A chance to get close to the parrot

From The growing up story of Hao Re ~甘皓日~

Next went to the "The Fuji World o Hawk - Bird of Prey Show". It was a pretty good show, very lifely and fun, the two hosts are good too. Hao Re really enjoyed the show, he followed the movement of the bird, clapped or cheered when the audiences did so, and stayed focused for the half an hour or so.

We thought he looked a bit tired. It's a hot day, and so I suggested to go to the Penguin room so that he can have his milk and then took his nap in the air-con room. Turned out to be a totally wrong choice. It's the penguin feeding time and the room was full of crowd and very noisy. Hao Re got all excited and didn't even finish his milk. When we put him onto the walkway next to the glass panels, he walked and looked and water and penguin, and got all excited :-)

Get close with the penguins........

Next we aimed for the Lory Loft. This is actually the reason why hubby suggested to come to bird park. When we were here about 4-5 years ago, we had a fond memory of the Lory Loft, where there were lories flied in groups (lots, at least 30 of them together) above us from time to time, ad it's a really beautiful scene and wonderful experience. But today was totally a dissappointment. We only spotted lory scatted loosely here and there, not many lories flying in the compound. Was it the wrong timing? Or the hot weather? Or our memory failed us? Or??? Not sure. We didn't stay long. Hao Re did enjoy walking on the bridge, and got close to the birds though.

See, I can be friend with a lory........ Hao Re cheeky look.....
Trying to touch the lory at the other side of the fenceAfter visiting the Lory Loft, we were kind of lost, didn't know what else we should see or bring Hao Re to see, it's birds, birds and birds. So thought of having lunch and can then let Hao Re play at the play ground. But then no nice restaurant, and the playground, err...... worse than those HDB's one. And that Hao Re was very tired already (hasn't taken any nap yet), and he didn't seem to be enjoying seeing the birds. What interest Hao Re most was his ability to walk freely, and to pick up leaf, etc from the floor, or just simply touch/explore whatever he can get hold of. So we decided to end the tour and headed to the Boon Lay for te "lui char fan" (hubby's and later, mine favourite).

Yes, Baba, let me walk, walk and walk
Hao Re was playing with the plant
Hao Re dozed off the sleep as soon as we got on to the car, and that was about 1pm already. His first nap. We then drove to test drive a car. Surprisingly, Hao Re enjoyed himself soooooo much at the car showroom. When we put him down to the floor, he was so happy and excited and just walked around non-stop. Maybe there was this little boy trying to engage him to play together. So he liked to have a little friend to play with.

Arrived home at about 4pm. Hao Re didn't take any nap anymore. So went to bed at about 7.30am.

Swimming at CSC at Bukit Batok
Yeah, finally we went CSC again for swimming. The last time we were here probably was 2 months ago. Too much activities nowadays and sometime because of the weather, can't make swimming a regular, though we try to.

This time, no photo taken at all. Because the camera man, i.e., ME, also changed into swim suit and joined daddy and son in the water for the fun! Oh yes, swimming is definitely Hao Re's favourite. He is really brave! We went to the kids pool. The water level was at a little higher than his chest level. Yet, he never scared of losing his balance or anything, he walked and walked in the water, and tried to chase us around. And tried to drink some pool water (don't know why), and a couple of times, he tried to submerge his head under the water.

We played in the water for almost an hour. Also been to the Jacuzzi pool, when Hao Re can't stand, his legs kicked so hard when daddy carried him under his armpit. Could this be a sign that Hao Re started to know how to swim? Haha, my expectation is too high. I must remind myself this is for him to play in the water and not really learning how to swim. Daddy brought him to play with the adult slide also. When they slided into the pool and made a big splash of water, Hao Re also didn't scare, though his face looked a bit unsure (shock?).

Again, gave him milk when we were in the car, and he dozed off the sleep immediately. Napped for about 1 hour, was woken up by the sound of the vacuum when daddy was cleaning the house (yes, DADDY is the one who does most of the house chores since I was pregnant, incluing vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the fans and other ad-hoc cleaning, ironing, etc). Lucky mummy. Mummy's main duty is the take good care of Hao Re, (occasional) cooking and laundry.

Afternoon went to a test drive again. And again, Hao Re enjoyed himself at the showroom. And slept for almost 2 hours for his afternoon nap. And he is still tired, and went to bed before 8pm. Phew, luckily Hao Re was cooperative and willing to sleep earlier. If not, with my flu, I would be too tired to paly with him till later hour.

Monday, is back to routine. Hao Re went to school, Baba and Mama went to work. Except Mama was not feeling well and came back home earlier, have a nice afternoon nap. Baba is as busy as usual.............
That's the update for the last weekend. This Sunday is going to be an exciting one - it's Hao Re's 1st BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

The answer is.........

Nothing special - shopping :-)

Hubby said the weather might still be gloomy, so we would be better off to plan something indoor today. Since it's a work day, we thought we should go to JB to avoid the usual traffic jam on Saturday. Ended up the traffic was still quite heavy at both customs, though not as bad as weekend.

We went to the City Square, where we haven't been for more than 1 year now, if I remember correctly. First went to the Printemp Photography Studio. We have been given a VIP member card, one of the gifts for our wedding photography package, 4 years back. This VIP card entitles us to take 1 simple photo session (like 10 min for 10 shots), with 1 free 8R printout, every year, LIFELONG. We took one when I was pregnant, now it's the second one we took, when Hao Re was just about 1 week to his 1st birthday. Maybe it's a good idea to take this opportunity to take 1 family potrait every year around Hao Re's birthday, since we are not going to take up any studio package after getting the Nikon D80 (if not it deficts the purpose of getting the D80).

After that, it's SHOPPING!!!!! It's very rare (rare as in maybe only happens 3x a year) hubby was in shopping mood today. Our bought ourselves some T shirts (most are on 50% off, so it's all good buy!). Then it's Hao Re's turn. These are the 2 outfits we got for him, need not to say, it's for the Chinese New Year. It will be the first year we will bring Hao Re around to "bai nian", so it's fun to dress him up nicely (maybe can get bigger ang pao, hohoho......).

Nice? Well, if you want to see how does this look on Hao Re....... you gonna wait till 26th Jan 2009.





That's the happening for today. Reached home at around 4pm. Hao Re got very tired.... went to bed at 7.30pm!!!

Well, tomorrow we have better and more exciting plan......... if weather permits. Come back to visit if you are keen to know where we are heading to...........

A family fun day of waterplay!!!

My boy is growing so fast!!!

I monitor Hao Re's weekly "milestones" according to the info on http://www.parentingweekly.com/baby/baby_information/development/index.asp. Of course I know exactly how old is Hao Re. But when people, especially stranger, asked how old is he, nobody seemed to believe me that Hao Re is actually a 11 months old baby!

I do agree Hao Re looks pretty mature comparing to his peers.........

There are babies walk earlier than Hao Re. But it's not common. Hao Re can be classified as an 'early walker". He is able to walk very stably when he turned 11 months. People usually thought he is >1 year old toddler. The best thing for Hao Re (and for us to see) is that he is able to explore his surroundings even more, and with this, he learns more and faster, and happier!

Evil look on his face..... not sure what he is up to?!!

He is interested in play play and play. As long as we give him, or he finds something of his interest to play with, he is able to play on his own and left unattended for a long period of time, like 30 minuts or so. I learned that it is good to let him spend time on his time, as this helps to train him to focus better.

Reading newspaper with daddy

When it comes to bath time........ oh this is Hao Re's favourite time! Because he can play with WATER! We now shower him first before letting him play in the bath tub. He already got use to it, we shower him from top to bottom, he is not scared of, or rather he enjoys, the water coming down his eyes and face.

Just finished his bath time


When it comes to food, oh boy, he is an extremely greedy eater! We have started solid (not semi-solid) on him. Give him rice, give him whatever we eat. He is taking everything (yes, it's EVERYTHING) well, thanks to his very good digestive system. He poops everyday, usually 2 to 3 times, and never has hard stool before no matter what he eats, though sometime can be watery. And he is able to feed himself very well too. He can pick him food, of whatver size (if to big, he will breaks down the food with finger or teeth) and put into his mouth easily. He has learned and mastered the finger grasp skill, that he can even pick up a string of hair from the floor! And he now holds his own milk/water bottle and feed himself for the whole course of milking. Also able to suck from straw very well already.

But at the same time, there are other aspects that I wish Hao Re can quickily develop and get rid of.......

Still wake up for night feed
He was trained sucessfully by daddy to stop the night feed. But my nice and long sleep only lasted for about 1 month. Recently he started to wake up for night feed again. Sometime just past midnight, sometime at 3am. Last night he woke up at 11.45pm AND 3am, both time drinking about 200ml of milk! I suspected he is having growth spurt now. But wonder once that is over, will he let go of his night feed again? I wish so..... but can't do anything to make it happen (the cry-it-out method won't work for me, and I am an extra light sleeper........). I can only wait and see (and I don't pray :-)).

Still need to be patted to sleep
When it comes to bed time at night, he again, unlike 1 month ago when he was willing for daddy or even grandma to pat him to sleep, but now, mummy is the only person doing this job. Though it's not that difficult to put him to sleep, I wish he can be more independent. But then again, I actually enjoy this particular time with him very much, so it's partly my fault for not helping Hao Re to be more independant. What happens now is that I prepare the milk and we both go to the bedroom. Light off totally. Then he lies down and finishes his milk. I lie besides him. When he finishes his milk or about to finish his milk, he would turn to me and wanting to play with me. We then spend about 5 - 30 minutes playing on the bed (depending on how tired he already is, and on a "bad" day, it can last till 1 hour or more). I do silly things with him, that he laughs so much, and I also teach him the name of the body parts, and I sing to him. When he is about the falls asleep, he starts to pull my hair and poke my eyes, nose, ear, for comfort, and sometime it hurts, really hurts. Then he falls asleep. We both enjoy the time so much (at least to me :-)), and this is the best mummy and son bonding time! Of course the best will be minus off that hair pulling and poking part, as this may turn into a bad habit and very difficult for him to get rid of. Probably I need to be firmer with him soon. I believe if you let child go to bed happily every night, and not forcing him to sleep and thus cries, he is most likely turned out to be a happy person in later part of his life........ yet to see how true is this.

Just another 13 days, my boy will be 1 year old! Hao Re continues to grow and continues to bring fun and laughter to our family.

Okay. Quietly, I have to admit, I still wish me and hubby could have more couple time occasionally :-) Sometimes is nice if we can do something without Hao Re, but this is not possible until our next trip back home or when grandma visits us again in Singapore. Frankly speaking, we could have dropped Hao Re to his school on Saturday morning as his school opens from 7am to 2pm every Saturaday, but we just not "hard-hearted" enough to leave him behind...... so no choice, for now, it's all about family time and no more couple time!

This is how Hao Re looks like with the infected eyes

On Sunday night, depsite the red and swollen eyelids, his eyes still looked big and beautiful.


Actively "protecting" his toys despite the uncomfortable eyes...... he likes to climb (onto anything) nowadays


See the very very swollen eyes, on Monday night.


Playing with the IKEA toy. A very simple and cheap toy, but pretty good in helping kid in developing their skills.

He knows how to put the blocks into the pole, such a clever boy!
(Note: If you are wondering why so many "lighting" happened during the recording period, that's hubby taking photos at the same time, see photos below):


Hao Re trying to put the block into the pole:


Yeah, successful! And deciding which one goes next.....

Poor Hao Re is not well

I saw Hao Re's right eye was full of dried up eye discharge when he woke up on Saturday morning. It has never happened before, I mean never that much, literally covering the whole eye. I didn't think of anything unusual, just thought he must have had a very nice sleep and hasn't got chance to wipe of his eye discharge. He was fine and we went to JB to run some errands, and to attend Uncle Woei's housewarming.

We only started to get a bit worried when the eye discharge came back in the afternoon time, and the next lot came out once we wiped off the last lot on the corner (close to the nose) of his eye....... and it got even worse in the evening. Nonethelss, Hao Re was eating well and playing happily, and what made us not that worried was that it wasn't accompanied with a fever, and he didn't rub his eye at all, so it shouldn't be that much of discomfort for him.

I called my mum and she said it might be the heatiness, but the strange thing is if it's heatiness, we should see the same for both eyes, but all this while only happened to his right eye, until the night time, where the first lot of eye discharge came out of his left eye. Mum also advise us to bring Hao Re to see a doctor asap, as the discharge is not harden type, it's soft and yellow and green in colour.

We thought we would see how it is when Hao Re woke up the next morning.

On Sunday morning, he slept very late till passed 8am (never happened before for at least the last 6 months), and evetually I woke him up at about 8.15am when I was trying to clean up the discharge covering both his eyes. For the whole day, he was all right, and the discharge was not as much as yesterday, and no fever at all. He was eating well. But seemed to be very tired. Slept a lot, with a 3 hours afternoon nap, and another 1.5 hour in the late afternoon.

On Monday morning, sent him to his school. But can't have a peace mind, kept thinking if we should still wait until we send him to see Dr Keoy after work. And Hao Re's teacher called to say his privy's turned very red, and need immediate attention! Hubby is having a bad flu, he went to the office to settle some urgent stuff and then got mc to rest for the day. So we decided that I should take a few hours time off and sent Hao Re to see Dr Keoy immediately.

Waited for >2 hours at Dr Keoy's clinic! We got no. 59 when we arrived his clinic at ~11.15am. Meaning he sees >60 patients in 1 morning, what a busy PD and clinic!!! When it's fianlly our turn at about 1.45pm, Dr Keoy checked on Hao Re with his forever cool face. Even after such a busy morning, he doesn't lost his patience with his little patients. Dr Keoy said the eye infection was mostly due to Hao Re's rubbing his eyes with a dirty hand, which is difficult to avoid for kid this age. The red patch and spots on and round his privy was mostly caused by the excessive sweat and wetness. Not too serious, luckily.

Hao Re was very playful at the clinics. He didn't get cranky at all despite the long wait. He explored the playyard, tried to inteact with other kids, and very friendly to adults saying hello to him, he gave them a cute and sweet smile!

We should have brought him to see doctor earlier. But the thing is we only trust Dr Keoy. So even if we brought him to see other doctors, it might end up we would bring him to see Dr Keoy again, because we don't trust other doctors. Only in case of very emergency case, then no choice bring him to see other doctor if his clinic is not open, like the HFMD last month, but at the end still got Dr Keoy to review.

Hope Hao Re recovers in no time!

A different (weekday) evening for Hao Re


And he certainly enjoyed playing with the sand! See my handsome boy.

Mummy is so happy as Hao Re loves it!

It is strange, to realise that it's my first attempt in cooking porridge for Hao Re for the very first time, though Hao Re has already started eating porridge since he was 6 months.

Why? Because Hao Re is given porridge every day at the infant care, so this lazy mummy take that as an excuse and didn't spend any effort to cook porridge during the weekends. To be honest, I tasted the porridge prepared by the centre's cook before. It tastes really nice, considering there is no seasoning at all. And they cook many different flavours and use fresh ingredients (chicken, fish, vegetables). See, such a good excuse to free myself from cooking.

Last weekend, Hao Re has very good appetite, which prompted me to cook some porridge for him to satisfy his demand for food. Cereal is very boring, and the fruits can't fill his stomach. And also, since it's halal food that the centre prepares, I wanted to introduce pork into Hao Re's diet.

So this is how I prepare the porridge (for advance weaning):

- small piece of lean pork, mince
- half a carrot, cut into small cubes
- 3 strings of snow green pea, cut into small pieces
- half a cup of rice and add enough water

> Bring the rice to boil, then add in pork, carrot and bean. Bring to boil again, then reduce the heat until it's enough heat to just bring to boiling point (if too much heat, the rice may start sticking to the bottom). Continue to cook for about 5-10 min, stir every couple of minutes, until most of the water gone. Then bring the heat to the lowest possible (again, if too much heat, you will end up with a pot with rice stuck at the bottow) and simmer the porridge for another 15 min or until it turns soft (to whatever texture you want according to your kid's needs). No seasoning needed at all. Ready to serve.

It was so satisfying to see Hao Re finished 1 whole big bowl with his smile on. Honestly, I tasted some, it's good, it has the taste of the pork and the sweetness from the carrot and pea, nice! Made hubby tried some, he said good too (he is a fussy eater). I didn't blend the porridge further, as Hao Re is able to take in lumpy food. The pork, carrot and pea were about 0.5cm in size, but they have been cooked soft, so Hao Re swallowed them well. Should have take a photo of this.

A happy mum and a happy boy! I should cook again this weekend, maybe pasta or some noodle? Till then!

The quality family time, it is.........

This weekend we have a lot of time bonding with Hao Re, especially on Sunday, thanks to the rainy weather.

On Saturday, we went to JB to visit some relatives, and to buy formula and cereal for Hao Re. Hao Re enjoyed himself very much meeting some little friends at the relative's house. He was very friendly and not scared of stranger at all, despite that it's full of people. Most of the people were commenting that Hao Re does have the very mature look, for the fact that he knows how to interact/engage and play with people, he walks pretty well, and he looks smart. It does really make me feel so proud when people are saying some kind words on Hao Re.

Time passes so fast that we have to stock up Stage 3 formula, EnfagrowA+, to prepare for Hao Re's "graduation" from EnfaproA+ in just a few weeks time. Good thing is Stage 3 formula is a lot more cheaper, though diaper gets more expensive when getting to bigger size (now on "L", probably will need "XL" in a couple of months time). And we also bought some cereal meant for children from Age 1 and above. All prepared for Hao Re approaching his 1st birthday.

It was a massive jam when we headed home at about 4pm. Stuck at both Malaysia and Singapore customs, and it took us more than 2 hours to clear! Hao Re just woke up from his nap, and didn't sleep at all during the 2+ hours. Lucky he was in very good mood, so not cranky at all, but it's really challenging to keep him entertained for that long in an enclosed space, and we don't usually bring toys along.

We bought some biscuits and pamelo from Ipoh, Hao Re absolutely loves these stuff!!! Maybe he has the "Ipoh blood", so he naturally likes stuff from Ipoh :-) The pamelo was actully quite sour (my preference, I don't like the sweet one), and it's really to our great surprise, Hao Re didn't mind the sour taste at all, and he kept wanting for more! He likes citrus fruits, just like mummy. He loves the biscuits ("sa qi ma") all the same too, but as it's very sweet, we didn't give him too much, but if you see how he eyes lit up, smile widen, and kept saying mmmm when eating the biscuits, don't think you can resist to give him a little more, a little more, and a little more.......

Hao Re went to bed at about 9pm. I finally managed to pull myself to clean up and tidy up the kitchen, which I should have done a month ago. Finally the kitchen looks nice now, almost to my expectation, but still lacking a little something. Will continue to make it nicer.

Sunday was almost a stay home day, except went out to Sim Lim to get a new PC for daddy. It's fun playing with Hao Re. He slept for a good 3 hours nap, probably made up for yesterday (only nap for 1 hour in total). Usually only when we spent time with Hao Re on weekends, we realised more and more new things happening on Hao Re:

- He loves walking on his own. When we were at Sim Lim, once we put him down, he refused to be carried, and would yell and shout to protest. I think he likes the FREEDOM he has. He got totally excited.

- He babbles a lot!!! My mum (and some experience aunties) said Hao Re might begin to talk very soon. He can make clearer pronunciation now, and try to imitate us. I will be absolutely thrilled when I can chat with Hao Re. I am sooooo looking forward to the "one thousand and one questions" from Hao Re, must be so much fun (I think, but people told me otherwise).

- He stopped drooling. Probably teething has come to a pause now. It's good. He does look more handsome if we don't put on the bib on him :-)

- He understands what we tell him to. We tested him by asking him to feed some pamelo pieces to Baba. He did follow our instruction and brought the pamelo to daddy, and not to put into his mouth. For the first few attempts, he refused to put the food into Baba mouth, but after a while, he was willing to do so, maybe he knows after the piece has gone, Mama would give him another piece. And if we say, go and look for Jiu-Jiu, or Baba, or Mama, he would start to walk and look for the person. Hao Re is so smart and this is absolutely touchy for me.

- Hao Re has absolutely great appetite. Wonder if he is trying to make up the low food intake for the past 2 weeks when he was ill?!?! For a few times, he drinks up to 9OZ (270ml) of milk and take 1 whole big bowl of cereal or porridge, and still have to be fed every 3 hours or so. I am not complaining. The more he wants to eat, the happier we are, meaning he is getting enough energy, protein, carbo, and all other essentials for his growing up, now it's an absolutely important growing up period. Me and hubby were trying to look for a bigger milk bottle, but couldn't find any, all bottles we saw have a max volume of 9OZ. Tomorrow must remember to ask Hao Re's teacher. Gonna prepare the appropriate bottles, should Hao Re's appetite shoot up again. Keep on eating, my boy! Hao Re may have inherited Baba's gene on the love for food!

Some said they don't want their baby to grow up so fast, they wish they can turn back the time. I don't. I enjoy seeing my baby growing up everyday, I don't look backward, as what has passed, passed. We should enjoy the present time. As a parent, we provide the best growing up environment to Hao Re as much as we can, and just be there for him.

Oh, and guess what. Since last Tuesday, we didn't take any photos of Hao Re. This breaks our record, as since Hao Re was born, we took photos of Hao Re almost everyday in the first few months, then at least every other day, and now....... For the very first time, didn't take any picture over the weekend! Have to remind myself to keep taking photos of Hao Re, can't be lazy.

Speaking about photos, we have developed hard copies, and is in the process of arranging them into the photo albums. How many have we developed? It's a crazy number - >500 copies (selected from the many thousands) for recording Hao Re from 0-10 months! Both daddy and mummy LOVES photos. My parents said we are mad, for spending that much of time and money.

Well, it's late and tomorrow it's a working day. Time to go to bed, and look forward to a good week ahead!

Some stories when we were at "home"......

First thing came to my mind - where is our "home"? It's funny when we were on our way back to kampung, we told Hao Re - "yeah, we are going HOME!". And when we were on our way back to Singapore, we told Hao Re the same thing - "yeah, we are going HOME!". Kinda confusing, right? Of course, to us, no doubt, our home is where we grew up, where our families and friends live, and where we consider as our "root". Now that we have settled down in Singapore and bought our house, and it's where Hao Re grows up in, but it's still not "The Home", it's a place where we work and live and find comfort in. I shouldn't worry until Hao Re asks us this question a few years later, if he even does.

Back to the story telling part..........

This trip back home was mainly for attending the wedding of my brother-in-law, Hao Re's Xu-xu. Despite that Hao Re was recovering from his stomach flu, and couldn't drink/eat well for a few days, he was all very active and happy. Couldn't sleep well on the first day, but after that, he slept very soundly, without waking up at all throughout the nights.

In this small village, it's a very new and exciting environment for Hao Re. Cats and dogs can be spotted very easily, and he got very excited when he saw one, used his little finger to point to the animals, and he has learnt to say "woow woow" for dogs, and "miao miao" for cats. He even dare to touch my friend's dog, without a second of hesitation. Oh, and he saw lots of other things, ants, insects, chickens, etc. Bad thing - he got lots of mosquito bites, I didn't count, but at least 20 of them, all over his hands, legs, and even face, so poor thing. We have bought those supposedly anti-mosquito spray and sticky, but none of those works. I have a weird thinking, maybe these kind of stuff only works for city mossie and not rural mossie, as these stuff are made from herbs and those rural mossies are used to the smell of herbs already, perhaps?

Besides play, Hao Re also met a lot of uncles and aunties, and some little friends also. Didn't show any sign of stranger anxiety. He would not let the stranger to carry him, but that only last for a few minutes. After the few minutes of warming up, he would start playing or interacting with them, and didn't mind to be carried by anyone.

While for daddy and mummy, daddy was busy helping with the wedding ceremony; mummy was busy taking care of Hao Re. So mummy was not very happy for those 2 days when daddy couldn't accompany us, hehe, very selfish mummy, right? I shouldn't really complain, as we had spent some great time before and after the wedding. Daddy and mummy have also satisfied our taste bud by sampling all those Ipoh delicacies - white coffee, Ipoh Hor Fun, dim sum, beansprout chicken, egg tart, etc. And also 2 big thumbs up for the wedding dinner, the food tastes really good. The restaurant was so famous that it attracts Hong Kong artists - we saw one of the "Jia Hao Yue Yuan" artists, just sitting next to us! And she is not the first one to visit this restaurant. Probably next time should try again, but then in Ipoh, there is simply TOO MUCH good food, oh yummy!!! Still can't find anything that can match Ipoh standard in Singapore and JB.

Couldn't seem to write something interesting to read. So better stop here. Just for record keeping.

Oh no, not finish yet. During the time when I was at home and after meeting many friends, I have decided (with the support from hubby) to start a new blog to note down some stories of our group of close friends, the very much treassured group of friends. Will post the link in this blog when I have officially started the blog on our beloved kampung - SALAK BARU!

And now ends with some photos.......

I love this photo, very similar expression - like dad, like son!!! I think except the nose, Hao Re does really look like daddy.


Hao Re helping out during the tea party



Playing with "Ah Hiong auntie" during the wedding dinner.

I am young, but I have learnt a lot!

Hao Re is, unfortunatley, sick again since yesterday evening. Stomach flu it is. Apparently pretty common in children as the virus spread pretty easily. Was vomitting very badly until today afternoon. Finally the vomitting stopped. Diarrahae also stopped. He is drinking a lot of water, so that's good. And just started to accept his first bottle of milk, hurray! Hao Re is on the way to recovery, yeah! It was a tough night for us.

So we will stick to our plan - we will be on the road "balik kampung" tomorrow in the early morning, and will not have internet access for 1 week. I thought it's better to post the blog today, rather than 1 week later.

The past month was a very exciting month for Hao Re and for us (and a bad month as he fell sick twice). Hao Re has made/achieve many important milestones:-

• Hao Re can walk stably for quite a long distance now!!! He made his 1st step "officially" on 10 months 2 days, and my mum said that's because he wanted to beat my record (I walked at 10.5 months) :-). Surprising, after Hao Re started walking, we didn't feel that it's so different from before, maybe it's because he has been cruising for so long already, just that now letting go of his hands. He successfully "upgraded" to walking without much falls (much less than when he was learning crawling and standing). He still crawls. And still move around as much as before.
  
• Hao Re can stand up freely without holding on to anything!!! We didn't realise when exactly he can do this. There was one day suddenly I looked at Hao Re and said to hubby - "yiii, Hao Re just stood up like that from squading position". I see this as a important skill, as this means that he can stand up anywhere anytime.
  
• Hao Re sleeps through the night!!! Basically he can sleep through for a strecth of 8 hours or more! This is really great, the best thing ever. I finally manage to catch some "quality" sleep. It really helps a lot, now I don't feel so tired at work.
  
• Hao Re has 8 teeth now!!! The final 2 early teeth came out around the last week of November. He was biting me, and only then I realised the last two early teeth have popped! The next of teething will be around 18 months. Hao Re wasn't cranky at all for all the 8 teeth, we are lucky parents :-)
  
• Hao Re has 2 additional playmates!!! For the past whole month, my parents were staying with us. So meaning Hao Re has got more people to interact with, and he certainly loves that. Although he is still so young, but he can already sense the love from people, and that makes him happier.
  
• Hao Re joins us for dinner!!! What we do is we give him his solid before our dinner. Then put him on his high chair when we are having dinner. We give him whatever we think that is suitable for him, and let him feed himself. He enjoys it and so do we :-)

Ops..... it's too late now. That's what I have got time for. Gonna go to bed now to catch some sleep as we are going to start our journey very early in the morning, 4-5am.

Tata for now!

Hao Re has 8 teeth now!!!

I came across this website (http://www.anbesol.com/) one day, can't remember where it is. The website is promoting some of the dental products and what attracted me was they have a nice "Baby tooth chart". I downloaded one, and finally entered Hao Re's teething "history" into this chart. It's pretty good for record keeping, cute, simple and nice.



Hao Re has cut 2 more teeth last week, so making a total of 8 teeth now. According to what I have read and based on the reference on this chart, Hao Re's teething is kind of "on track", 8 teeth have cut according to the "schedule", and the next 2 teeth might probably cut when Hao Re turns 1 year old, then at 14, 16, 18, 20 and 24 months, while the 2 last morals will cut only when he turns 6 years (sounds like a long long way to go).

It's really true that when Hao Re is not teething, he drools much less. Almost stop drooling now. Sometime he still wets his shirt with his saliva, but I think that's because he plays with his saliva, not because of drooling.

And oh, I can tell you, Hao Re's teeth is really POWERFUL!!! If you don't believe, just give him a finger of yours, and he will "stamp" your finger nicely with his teeth, and that is really PAINFUL! He uses his teeth to eat and to bite things, so now we have to diligently keep everything that is "bite-able" but not eatable away from him. Once he grasps something, first thing he does is still put into his mouth and "explore". He has "destroyed" some of his toy with his teeth..... and those poor toys have been thrown into the bin (*sob sob*)

The teething story will be continued in a couple of months time, hopefully....

It is so interesting to see Hao Re grows everyday

I came to a realisation yesterday that this is the time where my darling boy develops so fast and so much that I could not manage to blog at his speed of development. There are simply too many things that is worth noting down, but only if I have that much of time and energy to....... okay, at least I shall try my best.

Starting last week, it seems like Hao Re knows the timing. I said this because just right after 6pm, he refused to play, but wanted teacher to carry him or accompany him, and kept checking at the door, as we usually picked him around 6pm. But this week we were a bit late (started work later as not much traffic on the road due to school holiday), so he was getting pretty impatient, and when he finally saw the sight of us, he wanted to leave school immediately. I tried to put him down to play, and he would cry.

Oh, and early this week, Hao Re bit me on my finger, and only there and then, I realised, oh my, Hao Re is cutting another 2 teeth, making a total of 8 now!!!

On Saturday morning, we brought Hao Re to attend uncle JL's and auntie AC's ROM ceremony at the Botanical Garden. It's a very nice occasion with nice setting. Hao Re was a bit tense when he first arrived. He looked like he wanted to explore the new place, but yet he was hesitated if he should do so. After some time, he adjusted to the new environment, and he started to smiled and laughed to all the uncles and aunties. He behaved so well for the whole 3 hours, and deserved a big round of applaud (*clap, clap, clap*). Funnily enough, he peeped at the gorgeous bride, but he didn't want to make eye contact or play with her. While for the groom, as soon as he saw him, he gave him a big wide smile! Ha, he prefers male friends, ops! When we sat down to have our buffet, we gave him a piece of hard bread, and he happily chewed/played with it for a long time, while we tucked in with our food!