A Dog's Bark

Dad brought Dan for a walk one day to visit a neighbour. The neighbour has a dog, the dog greeted them with a wagging tail. However, out of a sudden the dog started to bark right in front of my dad and Dan. This gave Dan a fright and he came wailing home while my dad tried to comfort him. He had such a shock that he was clinging onto my dad and did not want to be placed down.

Now, I guess he has a phobia with dogs that when he saw Tiger -- my uncle's dog, he started to fuss and started being clingy. It took him a while to calm down.

This morning, I brought him to see Tiger, while Tiger was lying at the porch, he started staring and after a while, attempted to touch Tiger.

Later in the afternoon, the gas man came and Tiger started to bark. Dan started to whine. I guess it reminded him of the day the dog barked in front of him.

I Hate Mosquitoes

Baby Dan is currently spotting a rosy red bump on the right cheek.

Pearly Whites

We have just spotted a pearly white tip showing on the bottom left of Dan's gums. More updates coming up soon. :) My mum tested it by allowing Dan to bite her finger and she confirmed it. 

Up We Go

We brought Dan out yesterday to meet my grand aunt. There is a short flight of 5 steps separating the living room and the kitchen. Baby Dan decided to explore the world beyond the living room and started climbing up. What impressed us most was that he started climbing with his hands and the sole of his feet. We were expecting that he would have used his knees to support himself instead.

Cosplay Day

My little cousin's idea.. Daniel in her clothes...

As adults, don't we just love to dress babies up as dolls? Not sure whether they will appreciate it when they grow up.

My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ Tonari no Totoro)

On the Menu So Far

We have started on single mash purées and now continuing to let baby Dan try out more complex taste and textures.

Point to ponder: Would you serve baby food that you would not eat?

Blended Kai-Lan and Chicken with porridge

Nom, nom, nom...

Pumpkin and Pear in the Making

Pear Purée from Mum's Kitchen

Pumpkin and Baby Star Pasta

Ahhhhhhh....

My Little Adventure

Another flight back to my parents. This time we decided it would be best to fly straight home. After the little adventure over the last trip -- missing both the flight and the train. I made sure I double checked the flight details and left home early.

The night before I set the alarm 3 hours before the flight so that I had the time to prepare, leave the house, catch a cab and arrive at the airport 1 hour before the flight departs for check in. The problem was that I was so trashed from packing and making sure I did not leave anything behind, I could not get up the next morning when the alarm rang and put it on snooze -- bad idea. In my mind, no worries, there is a "back up alarm" if all fails. In the midst of everything, part of my mind was in nightmare land, that I had yet again missed the flight.

Baby Dan, my "back up alarm" rang. As always, when you need him to "ring" on time he does not. Looking out of the window, I saw the first light of the morning, that was what hit me and caused me to jump right out of bed. I swiped Dan out of his bed, onto the changing table, changed him, changed myself, made sure all windows were closed, double check my packing list and hit the road. Lesson learnt again -- never rely on your "backup alarm"  if it is a baby. We were lucky that we manage to catch a cab and be there on time.

Nothing much has changed since our last visit, only that baby Dan is now a lot more mobile. My dad has set up the bed for him and made sure there were barriers set up. However, Dan being a little explorer, understood that he is in a new place and decided to make full use of his nap time. After putting him to bed and assuming that he would be taking his full nap of at least half an hour, I left him in the room and started to prepare lunch. While I was preparing lunch, my dad decided to join Dan with his nap. Dad entered the room, and to his surprise, he did not find Dan in bed, he found him in the TOILET exploring! >.< I guess now with Dan more mobile, more precautions have to be made.

There is No End

When you are a mum, your day never ends. You do not sleep, you only nap.

Messy Day Turned Water Play

It has been quite hot and humid these few days. Therefore, decided to take baby Dan out for a stroll today. It is strange that some how it tends to be very breezy along the beach and the air is very still around our block. Along the way, we bumped into some people filling the beach with sand. I guess I can say people here do care a lot about maintenance.

We went for some shopping and got Dan some baby rusks. On the way back, he started to scream of hunger, so out of desperation, I opened the box of rusks and gave a piece to him. Maybe that was not the best idea as he started chomping away and the rusks started to crumble away, most of it ending up on the stroller, on his shirt, on his fingers and around his mouth. Passers-by must be commenting what a dirty little baby and what a irresponsible mum this is.

When we got home, I immediately prepared dinner for Dan. Porridge as the main course and the remaining rusks with apple sauce as dessert. Dan decided to have some fun by flapping his hands and porridge kept flying off the spoon as he hit my hand. Porridge was every where, on the tray, on the floor, on me... Then the best thing to do is of course to squish and mash the porridge bits that ended up on the tray of his high chair. I gave in and decided that we could have some fun after dinner as well.

With all the mess on the high chair, I thought the best way to wash everything off was to hose it off. So I stripped Dan for his shower, and put him in his high chair for his bath as well. It was fun, at least for me, I do not think baby Dan was that excited with me showering him compare to his usual spa in the tub.

Earthmover moving new sand onto the beach

Dan with rusk on his nose, shirt, stroller belt, diapers, legs...

Huh?

Porridge everywhere... A mum's nightmare...

This is so much fun!

No? Mummy, you don't think so?

Little Mr Messy

A different bathing experience

Not sure if I like it

Cranking It Up

Not sure what is happening. However, baby Dan has been moody these days. Especially hating it when he is in his high chair or when it is close to meal times. He has not teethed yet, so maybe teething? We will see...

Matthew Says

Over the weekend, we went to visit my little niece to celebrate her full moon..

Baby Dan got a chance to meet the new addition to the family and his older cousin - Matthew

Matt a jovial little dude has always been enthusiastic to play with Dan. Aaron, the younger one was down with flu and was at the clinic.

Matthew suddenly popped: I have two brothers. One is at the clinic and one is this.*points at baby Dan.* aww~ so sweet...

While baby Dan was taking his nap, Emil had some colouring session with little Matt. I assume that colouring must be boring for a little kid. Especially the main surfaces that remain blank. So Emil had to do the wide surfaces while Matt did the details, ie the star on the Christmas tree, the ribbons on the presents, etc.
Matt told Emil while colouring: I want to colour everything rainbow colour. Then he started just randomly colouring across the whole page.

The colourful world of a child. Should one impose barriers and lines like in the colouring book to a child's creativity?

Sweet and Calm baby Joelle

Matthew pointing at Dan

Matthew showing his work of art, in which he coloured the candle holders in different shades while Emil did the main surfaces.

Yet again, Matt colouring the ribbons and the star and scribbling all over.

Oh, Blueberries!

Baby Dan, enjoying his blueberry + apple + banana purée

Mummy's taking too long to cook, I'll just lick my bib to cure my hunger.

Hmm.. New taste again?

Let me try out my new spoon

Ahhh... I can feed myself

What's this mash?

*Squish*

*Knocks the spoon to get more mash*

Hehe... :D

No, don't take my spoon away~

Nom, Nom, Nom...

Daniel learning to chew with his gums. Gave him some steamed brocolli and some avocado today.

Brocolli

Avocado

Grounded

Little Dan did a flip and a tumble from the bed to his crib -- in which the bed is almost the same height with his crib before we lowered it. After he showed us his skills, we decided to lower the crib with the fear that he might decide to just jump out of his crib and end up on the floor one day.

Crib lowered :)

Baby Dan not happy with what we have done

Conformity

If members of the family are happy, is it that important to conform to the society's norm?

What is the society's norm anyway, if you are staying away from the society that you were brought up in?

As part of building a new family together, I think it is important to lay down the foundation of the new norm together as a family instead of fully conforming to the ones that we were brought up with or with the ones that are around us. 

Latest Winnings

Winnings so far... Does that make me a helicopter mum?

Today's Motherhood Coverpage Contest

Winning Shot

Moo Moo Kow Cloth Diapers Baby Photo Contest

The Asian Parent Fan of the Week - Prince in Blue Contest

Hornbills and Squirrels

After a whole two weeks of recuperation, finally made time today to surrendered everything that I owe to my previous company, my laptop, my staff pass, my key to the cabinets, my digipass to my vpn. A chapter close, another chapter opens, what next?

Enjoyed the day with a lunch with friends at Nando's and a great pool outing with San and baby Dan at the hotel, really nice pool, with a garden filled with squirrels. We also got greeted by a hornbill in the garden of the hotel which was pretty cool.

Funny thing happened at the pool as well, Dan got a shock and started crying when he could not recognise my with San's pink goggles on. Babies are just way too cute!

Sound asleep on the hotel bed

Spot the Hornbill

Spot the Squirrel

The Opening through the Garden.