I've turned 30!

Here's a pic of Marc walking around with my birthday balloon....

Yes He's Turned ONE!

The creature has turned ONE! We've survived our first year as parents!! Thank God for his mercies and protection!

Marc gets a weekly bruise on the forehead now - either from a fall or knocking his head on the floor from crawling too fast, etc. He's able to walk 5-6 steps before falling, then getting up again and continuing. Sometimes when he's in the mood for speed, he prefers to crawl. We brought him to RP where the Husband teaches and the campus is amazingly huge (one incentive to move to Woodlands). There are nice water features and lots and lots of space! So Marc crawled to his heart's content on the carpeted floor. And because it was carpeted, we didn't have to clean his drool! hahah!!

He's a determined boy. When he wants to go somewhere or touch something - he doesn't give up. He insisted on touching a rubbish bin yesterday and we removed him at least 10 times - he just went right back to it. Same thing today at our neighbours house. He insisted on crawling to the laundry area - and I don't let him to there because of all the washing detergents and other poisons. But he kept crawling back. I foresee discipline can be a problem! He's not afraid of me at all - probably cos I miss him so much that I give in to him most times. The only effective disciplinarian so far is the Husband. Well, grandpa says at least he's afraid of someone.

Talking about the Husband - he LOVES daddy! He looks at daddy's picture on the computer screen and goes "deh deh deh deh"....when he gets in the car he goes "deh deh deh deh" - probably cos he knows Daddy does the driving. And he still gets me mixed up with food..."mum mum" = food, "ma ma" = mummy. I hear mum mum everyday...I think I haven't heard ma ma in a week.

And he's DEFINITELY a Type A personality. He's forever on the go, either exploring something, or going somewhere - he HATES to sleep. Putting him to bed is what he hates most everyday and he literally needs to be forced...he can crawl himself to exhaustion and he won't stop. And he doesn't "space out" - we get comments that he's very proud and serious - he looks that way when people talk to him cos he's just not interested...so he looks away at you or ignores you, but he doesn't actually stare into space and think. I've seen many babies space out whilst riding in their strollers, or in their parents arms. I don't think I've seen him space out once this entire year - even when he was a newborn! This boy is gonna be a workaholic.

His favourite game is Peekaboo. Any variation thrills him. I hide under a blanket and he pulls it off and when I shout peekaboo - he screams in excitement. Today we just played Peekaboo with the laundry basket. He's getting louder each day - either humming strange tunes, or walking around the house going "ah ah ah ah"...and lately going "ga ga ga ga"....he can make a funny face by squinting his eyes together, although he rarely does so on cue. I realise that he hates to be forced to do anything and doesn't "perform" like other kids. Maybe he's not at that stage yet.

I'm still waiting for him to learn to clap. I'll definitely upload a post when he does.

Accident Prone

With increasing mobility comes an exponential increase in accidents! The most drama one to date is Daddy and the Fan.

I came home from work one day to find The Husband's knee and the Fan both bandaged. Apparently Marc crawled so quickly that he dragged the fan's cord along with him. The fan tipped over and just like slow motion, The Husband saw it topple. He ran as fast as he could to catch it and got it just as it was about to land, which meant that his knee bashed the edge of the fan at an angle. As a result both the Fan and The Husband got injured. And the kid sat on the floor oblivious to the unfolding drama around him.

Of late Marc has also been knocking into lots of things. He gets a weekly bruise on the head. He recently discovered that he can make noises by knocking his head on the wall, so he does taps his forehead lightly repeatedly to hear the "tok" sound!

Whilst this stage of his development is EXTREMELY tiring, its also a time of great adventure and learning. I've recently read a book about teaching babies to read. The amazing this is that apparently babies can learn to read by recognising words. The problem is we print words too small so their immature visual pathways cannot distinguish the words. The reading program involves flashing different words for a few seconds each day. We started on it a couple of weeks back but its so hard to continue when I'm not around all the time. He loves flash cards though, he can sit through repeated rounds of alphabets and screams for more. He will only sit through it if we flash through the cards fast enough - otherwise he gets bored and crawls away.

He can take a few unassisted steps. He used to like us to hold his hands and help him to walk but he pushes all helping hands away now. He can wave properly, but I'm still waiting for him to learn to clap. His latest tricks include shaking his head vigorously from side to side when he doesn't want something. He can raise both hands in the air which we call "Hallelujah". And he loves to play with saliva...

And I realise now that all the things we thought were odd in Marc are perfectly normal! His new buddy, Ollie does the same thing so I'm assured that either both of them are very odd, or perfectly normal. I'd like to think its the latter.

We visited an indoor playground today called Fidgets. The place is full of expat mummies with their kids, and most were much older than Ollie and Marc, so we had to supervise them quite a fair bit. What I like about the place is that its entirely padded - so even if they fall its cushioned. It was pretty crowded for a weekday afternoon. But they have a nice cafe area and everything is very child friendly. I think its ideal if your child knows how to walk steadily, because all the adults were totally tired out at the end of the visit from having to block falls and prevent accidents!

Discipline is also a difficult issue to tackle. Every parent has their own methods and Marc's is not easy to handle. So far, the only person he listens to is Daddy. When he's naughty and I attempt to discipline him, I get no reaction whatsoever. Its hard for me to discipline him, because I feel I miss out so much of time with him already, so on weekends I usually let him have his way. I only put my foot down when he's doing something downright dangerous or being very rebellious. I still give him the benefit of the doubt most times and assume that he's cranky and tired, hence the bad behaviour...I just hope he doesn't grow up to be an indulgent brat!

He's turning 11 months!

Apologies to all for the late post...my little website project is keeping me busy. :) Will update you all soon enough!

Marc has a new buddy called Ollie who lives just at the block next door. Ollie is a month older than Marc and very alike. They both love to eat cardboard and stress balls, crawl all over the place (Ollie recently learnt to walk) and drool like crazy. We are hoping to organise another playdate among neighbours soon. We have about 5 babies around the same age - which can spell disaster!

He recently came down with a fever recently - we are not sure if it was teething or a stomach bug but thankfully he recovered within the day. His first bout of fever since birth, thank God for his good health thus far.

Trying to figure out how to discipline and train Marc is getting to be a challenge. He throws everything onto the floor when he's unhappy, yells when food is not fed fast enough, screams when he wants to get out of his seat, etc. When it comes to danger, we make it clear to him that its a "no" and remove him straightaway. Other times, its hard to figure out if he's frustrated because no one understands what he wants or if he's just throwing a tantrum. He's learnt to shake his head recently to say no or raise an objection.

Marc has only recently learnt to wave bye bye - a very feeble bye bye at that! He still can't clap and I'm starting to think he's going to be one of those non-compliant-refuse-to-follow-the-crowd kind of person! But Ollie's mum assures me that Ollie only clapped and waved at 11 months, so perhaps its a boy thing!

I've planned Marc's 1 year old party, which will be a buffet lunch among family at Carousel - they have a wide spread and great food for a reasonable price. I love the seafood! I've also taken leave for a couple of days to spend time with Marc...probably take him out which he loves!

Teeth = Trouble

Its been AGES since I've written a decent post. Been busy with lots of stuff. Am working on a little online business with 2 other friends - stay tuned for our launch! Plus the kid is keeping me really busy and very tired. He's at the crawling-trying-to-walk stage and he's really a walking disaster. He will chase us from room to room, with his knees squeaking as it rubs against the tiled floor and a trail of drool all over the place. Which is super dangerous by the way as our tiles are smooth so they become a slippery slidy hazard.

Just on Saturday, I gave him a board book to keep him entertained in the car. Which he decided to gnaw on. The next thing I knew, I found a portion of the book missing, only to realise to my horror that it was in his mouth! Conversation went like this:

Me: Dear! Marc has eaten his book! There's cardboard in his mouth!
Hubby: Just use your finger to dig it out!
Me: But my hands are not clean!
Hubby: It doesn't matter, just stick it in!
Me: *hesitation...dig dig*
Marc: *screams at mummy*
Me: I can't find it! *dig dig*
Marc: *screams louder*
Hubby: Have you found it?
Me: No! I can't find it!
Marc: *screams at top of lungs* *opens mouth wide cos of screaming* *cardboard peeks out from one of his 6 teeth*
Me: I found it! *already half deaf from being screamed at*

It was quite an experience I must say...so for the record, Marc has officially eaten:
1) Sponge from a stressball
2) Cardboard
Not bad for a 10 month old.

It was our helper's day off yesterday and the Husband and I were totally exhausted. Marc just refused to sleep, and he's been doing that every Sunday for the past few weeks. He's just so excited that Mummy and Daddy are around all day so he goes hyper. Which means we are very...NOT hyper. After juggling Marc, plus dinner, and HIS dinner (which has to be specially cooked cos he can't eat our food yet), I slept at 9.30pm and still woke up tired! We decided that this kid needs to go to childcare, or some form of play school that gets him to expend his energy. We're thinking of sending him when he turns 2...but he's only 10 months old and every weekend I feel like I'm doing night feeds all over again!

Marc has a new friend called Oliver who lives at the next block. I've been going to the playground with Marc every morning before I go to work and I bumped into a trendy mummy with her son that looked around Marc's age, so we chatted and made friends. Oli was born on National Day, so he's a month older than Marc. A sweet boy that loves to shout at birds and in many ways very alike with Marc. Its nice to have a fellow mummy with a baby boy Marc's age in the neighbourhood.

I have a business trip coming up in August which I'm not looking forward to. I knew the day would come sooner or later. I'm thankful for understanding bosses that have allowed me to avoid trips thus far and only scheduled them when absolutely necessary. My longest time away from Marc was Bangkok, which was a 3 day 2 night stint. This is for the same period of time...it felt like forever last time but I will be kept busy with meetings so I'm sure it will whizz by.

Marc has been sleeping through the night for about a month now. He occasionally wakes up screaming at 10 or 11pm, but he usually doesn't require intervention to fall asleep, except when he's overtired. We still feed him at midnight and give him a diaper change so that he's nice and dry. But its much better than before. I attribute it partly to the sleep training and partly to the passing of another phase.

As for the pictures in today's post - I got bored and decided to dress him up for photos again. The last pic was taken on Saturday - Marc ate so much his jeans had to be loosed and unzipped. Not even a year old and already with a pot belly and acting like a redneck! Sigh...I wonder what will become of him!

Marc playing

Decided to upload some pictures of Marc playing...he loves climbing up and down and crawling all over the place, then standing for as long as he can before tumbling down again.

And I've started calling him Mr Moo. He loves every dairy product I've fed him, milk, yoghurt and recently cheddar cheese. He wiped his entire tray clean of the shredded cheese today! We need to move back to Australia or somewhere with cheap dairy products. Or maybe we should live on a farm...

Dear Marc..From Mummy

Dear Marc,

Its been some time since Mummy has written you a letter. The thought of leaving you jogged me again when I saw images of the recent Sichuan earthquake. Many perished and I was moved by stories of babies and children losing their lives, and even more moved by stories of parents and mummies who shielded their babies from danger.

You waved bye bye for the first time last Sunday! Mummy and Daddy were so excited...and Mummy was even more excited that she was around to witness it! By my calculations, I spend a good 10.5 hours away from you during working days. Which means Mummy misses out a whole lot on your life...2 days on the weekends barely makes up for it. I don't suppose you'll really understand how Mummy feels for a long while yet (and even when you become a Daddy, I can assure you Daddies don't feel the same way Mummies do)...so every milestone that is shared is so precious.

Mummy enjoyed being around you 24 hours a day during Church camp. You are full of laughter and you are so active! I'll place my bets on you being a good rugby player next time. Why?
1) You're tall for your age (90th percentile) and fairly heavy (70th percentile)
2) You are SO ROUGH. Knocking your head on walls, headboards and tables are part and parcel of your daily routine. It doesn't seem to bother you much.
3) You have a high pain threshold (see point 2 above)
4) You are so persistent. When you want something, you will not give up till you get it.
5) You have a really strong grip. Even Daddy struggles to pull you free from whatever you are grabbing onto.
I think rugby will suit you just fine. But we should really get some health insurance for your many falls and broken bones.

And you just love MEAT. I know fish doesn't suit your palette, but fish is good for your brains! Daddy is worried that you will become like Mummy - a real foodie who has a preference for good food. :) What can I say, you inherited my good genes! Your all time favourite food is yoghurt. Second comes beef. Third is chicken. Mummy is trying to expand your exposure to different kinds of food. You will try kiwi fruit next.

Based on Mummy's expert assessment (ahem ahem) you are ahead in terms of gross motor skills. You're already cruising and standing quite steadily for a few seconds without support. But the only word you can say is "Ma Ma Ma Ma Mum Mum Mum Mum". At first we thought you were referring to food. But you say that even after food! Then I thought you were referring to me. But you're not always placated after I respond to your calls. So my guess is you're a bit behind on the vocab department. But you'll catch up. :) You've recently learnt how to imitate Mummy's "brr brr" sound, a sound I make with my lips to entertain you when you're bored. The only thing is you end up spitting on everyone and everything in the vicinity...which can be a bit gross...

Mummy is thrilled that you love to spend time with her when she's around. Its amazing how you even know that I'm your Mummy, from the little that you see of me each day. Mummy's prayer for you is to be close to both Mummy and Daddy, to always share with us what's on your mind. We'll try our best to never be judgemental and to allow you to learn and make your own decisions. Most of all, Mummy's prayer is for you to trust in Jesus and love Him! Parents, friends, riches and fame will all fade away - but God is your constant friend and guide.

Till the next letter - love, hugs and kisses, from your biggest fan...Mummy!