26th September, Saturday 2009

Cushy Throne. Waiting to go to the Godma's.

I was told that Kiki sometimes looks fierce.

A few people told me that.

They also said her eyes are bright.

The same people told me that.

I joked with Bren that it's because she has his fierce eyes and my bright ones.

Although Kiki is kind of a-little-hard-to-handle, I have no complaints as I feel both Brendan & I had our fair share of being hard-to-handle too. I mean, we've come a long way from being selfish-arses to being who we are today and we've matured or may I hope to say-- become better persons. In a way, I see us imparting what we've learnt to our baby. And what an apt way to start! The joke is on us.

To the Godma's (again)

Every once in a month, we go to the Godma's place.

Kiki is beginning to recognise faces and people, and she is not responding well to it.

She is fine with people around, she's also fine with crowd. In fact, she is fine with strangers.

She is just not fine when they start talking to her.

She would cry.

I was told that it is because she hardly meets people hence the hesitancy.

Well, it is my task to integrate her into a larger scale of people, especially when I feel that social skills are important.

Brendan is bringing her out more often during the day when he comes home early. Today, I heard she let a hawker lady carry her, without much incident.

At the Park (Sengkang)

Thinking that some fresh air would help, cousin JY suggested we go to the park.

A troop of us went to the park. Cousin JY, LS, Anna, My Mom, Sis, Bren, the two Babies.

But Kiki was still having that "oh-no!-stranger" spell, she cried when my cousins talk to her. I got rather upset with her being cranky the whole day. I felt that my cousins are accommodating us and I was embarrassed that I couldn't coax her out of it. Nevertheless, they were very encouraging and even suggested that I should bring Kiki over more frequently. Well, I will make an extra effort to get her accustom to people. Today, the Malay lady at the rice stall asked to carry Kiki cos she was just so delighted to see her. Kiki didn't cry for a full 5-mins. That is some improvement at least.

Something New

Finally had a brief moment of calmness when she found the toy interesting.

It has some push buttons that make sounds and play music.

This is supposed to be a tool box but it is missing a hammer, (it is a hand-me-down toy).

Nevertheless, it works well without the hammer and we just use our hands to push the buttons etc.

Hip Hop Hooray

Kiki Looks Like A Rapper.

I almost forgot about this Tee until I was searching for some stuff in her drawers. Luckily it fits and I think to fully utilize it, we could use it as a PJ too.

To The Airport

We were heading home after visiting the Bazar but detoured to the Airport since Kiki was awake and attentive. Plus, we've heard so much about Popeyes Chicken and have yet to try. I try to let Kiki use the pram more often now so that we don't need to carry her as much, but I think this pram is no longer suitable, she keeps sliding down. I think I need to use the other one that can let her sit up, but then again she hasn't learnt to sit yet...... not very sure which is which.

Excursion

We brought Kakak to the Bazar at Tanjong Katong to let her soak in the festivities of the Malay New Year. She was delighted to see that there were many Muslims around and we bought some snacks to give her a treat. I've also bought her a blouse for the new year.

As we were at the Bazar in the afternoon, the crowd was semi-thick, which was just nice for us to move about and we had a fairly enjoyable time.

Kiki was busy looking around, she stares at anything new that may catch her attention at that moment. We would slow down and let her watch whatever's been captivating.

Selamat Hari Raya

Pasar Malam at Tanjong Katong

Toy Stall

Indian Dancers at T3

Breaking News

Breaking News!

Price of Milk went Up. Overnight. All across Singapore.

I don't know about other brands but I'm talking about Friso (Gold- 0 to 6 months).

It was $29.95 and became $34.00 overnight.

This is a 13.5225% increase.

Bren says, "it's like this, when you have a car, the petrol will also cost you money"

I said, "you can don't drive a car but your baby cannot don't drink milk".

It never did cross my mind that the price of the baby's milk powder will increase so much as I thought it was already quite expensive. I mean, how can you peak a peaked price right? Wrong.

I also thought maybe I should just go and scout for the cheapest brand on the shelves but then on second thought, I don't want to make the switch since Kiki is doing well with the current brand, and it is not as if we cannot afford it. But still, what about the others?

Rubber Throne (in my favourite colour)

I almost forgot about this rubbery foam chair that Aunt Serene gave a long time ago. It was kept in my mom-in-law's store room cos at that time, we haven't had a baby. At the back of my head, I do remember this chair but I thought it was suitable for a 2-year-old. I tell you, my sense of judgement is absent when it comes to dealing with babies. Luckily Ashley reminded me of this or Kiki might outgrow the throne by the time I take it out of the closet. You can see that she fits snugly into it now. She doesn't like sitting in it for long, at most it's 5 minutes before she would push herself out of it. Stretch! Stretch! ... we have to lookout for her as she has yet to learn to use her arms to prop herself up, nor is she able to sit. This seat should come in handy when we start giving her some solids next month. The doctor says to introduce rice cereals when she's 6-month-old, so, we're in no hurry for now.

Some Roles Are Not To Be Outsourced

Work has been busy the past two weeks. Never a dull moment.

One some days, it can be quite taxing, hence I've decided to get some excercise at least to break a sweat and get the heart pumping. It helps to relief stress. But I only do this on a weekend as time on a weekday is lean. By the time I settle in after bath and dinner, it is past eight. Any waking moment is to be spent with Kiki, be it just watching her roll over her tummy. This makes my weekends more precious than they used to be.

Today has been a wonderful day as I feel productive. I let Kiki sit on my lap and we played with the few hanging mobile toys for about half and hour. Then we did some reading. She was especially responsive to Dr. Seuss' little book--I think it is tittled "Mr. Brown", I'm not quite sure. The rhymes go Moo Moo, Hoo Hoo, Pop Pop, Klop Klop. etc. and that is supposedly funny as Kiki would giggle after I do Pop Pop & Klop Klop. I have decided to make the effort to hold her and play with her whenever I have the chance because I realised that she was being overly sticky to the maid. It does takes quite a bit of effort on my part because frankly, I would rather be doing my other stuff, but I've decided that I have to part-take in the process of not just bringing up a kid but to be involved and stay connected. It is easy to delegate the job to the maid now that Kiki is so comfortable with her but it is wrong of me if I take that for granted. I do know that I need time to be alone, you know, do my own stuff but I also need to bear in mind that a relationship has to be nurtured eventhough it is with my own baby. I think being the bearer does not give you the immunity, on my part, I've got to be there too. Hence, I've been feeding her whenever I have the opportunity, I also sleep with her, and we will be going out of the house more often from now on. Let's have fun.