Bad Log... New Updates...

Darling girl, mummy is so sorry that I've not been updating your blog for quite some time! Todate, you are 16 months and 25 days old. You've grown up quite a bit, girl!

Here's some of your progress so far:

1. Started taking your first few shaky steps when you were 14 months old.

2. Started walking steadily when you were 15 months and 10 days old.

That is more than a month's gap before you found the courage to let go and walk! Mummy was counting down to the day you gain this new independence.

Mummy took you to West Mall while waiting for daddy to finish his viewing and you restlessly wanted to get out of your stroller and walk. Mummy finally let you out and you darted left and right and headed straight to Breadtalk. You saw those interesting buns behind the plastic cover of the different display compartments and decided to reach out to one of the yummy buns. Mummy thought you wouldn't be able to figure out how to lift open the plastic cover but in a split second before mummy could react, you managed to "decipher" it, lifted the plastic cover, reached for the a bun and crushed it with your little hands! The evidence is your right hand covered with custard cream! Ha ha...

3. Nodding your head to say yes!

After just a day of practise, you can now express your wants by nodding your head whenever mummy asks - "Do you want milk?" or "Do you want to mumm mumm (eat)?" or "Do you want to sleep?". It's a fun way to interact isn't it? :)

4. Alerting us whenever daddy or mummy's handphone rings.

You are always super excited whenever be it just a message alert or ringing tone on daddy or mummy's handphones. You will try to get our attention and point in the direction of the sound, wanting us to reach out to our handphones and answer. And if the handset is within your reach, you will bring it over to us like our little efficient helper :)

5. Now you want adult food!

You are no longer interested in your baby porridge anymore. And at one stage when you were around 13 months, your appetite dropped and seemed uninterested in the usual fare. Then mummy got to crack my head and come up with new food to get you eating well again. No more porridge, but instead steamed soft rice to go with different dishes like soup, steamed or stir-fried minced pork/beef/fish in sauce, fried eggs with silverfish etc. And of course, you will always ask to sample a few mouthfuls of food that daddy and mummy are eating!

6. Increasingly playful and attention-seeking.

You enjoy our little game when daddy or mummy lies down beside you and asks you to "sayang" us, you will motion to us for us to kiss you on your little lip by making a lip smacking sound, and when we kiss you, you will break out in laughter!

Whenever mummy is busy doing housework in the kitchen, you will stand at the safety gate between the living room and the dining area looking at mummy and blabbering your baby language to establish some form of communication with me. Mummy of course, replies intuitively although trying to figure out what is it all about in my mind... Ha ha... Or whenever daddy or mummy is in the room behind closed door, you will knock repeatedly on the door wanting to come in. "Knock, knock anybody home?"

7. "Exercise!"

This is something you are being asked to "perform" for us everyday since the time you imitated Ah Yee when she was doing exercise at Po Po's house one night. You were looking intently at Ah Yee's movements and started kicking your right leg like her while supporting both your hands on the wall! We all had a super rolling laughter when you successfully did the feat! Since then, you never hesitated to kick those legs and set us laughing all over again when we say, "Exercise!"

8. Your first water bottle.

During your 8th month, mummy wanted to introduce you to a training straw cup but you refused to drink anything from it, and you also refused to drink plain water from the milk bottle. Then out of desperation to find something you could drink water from, mummy jumped ahead to the last stage of training cup series - to feed you water from a cup. You started drinking but still not much cos you tend to end up coughing from the choke on the big mouthfuls of water down your throat. After trying a few types of cups over several months, mummy went back to a sprout cup during your 13th month and from there you practised sucking, and finally mastered drinking from a straw! It seemed to be a reverse learning process cos you should be learning to drink from sprout then straw then cup, but you learnt to drink from cup then sprout then straw. Nevertheless, mummy realised something concerning learning - its different strokes for different folks, and what matters most is that you eventually learn it!

So now you have your own Dora water bottle, and drinking lots of water too!

9. Kissing goodbye!

You started to kiss goodbyes enthusiastically when you were in your 13th month, and more enthusiastically to the bunch of nannies congregating at the void deck of Po Po's place. It seems like you have taken on the trait of your daddy when he was young - having a more ready liking for old people. Mummy and daddy were so amusingly surprised when you shed your normal cool self and did waves and kisses so readily and enthusiastically every time, I mean every time you passed by them!

10. More blabberings.

It seems like these days you enjoy talking more and more. Mummy and daddy on some occasions even caught you humming tunes to yourself, trying to verbalize the words or songs that mummy and daddy speaks or sing to you :)



Charis at 15 months and 3 days old.



In a playful mood...



And smiling happily :)



"Big lady boss" sleeping after a tiring day... What a pose!



Charis at 15 months and 17 days old.



Charis and her fave toy umbrella which is even UV protected! Can even use it when taking her out for walks :)



At Po po's house. Charis is constantly looking for new stuff to play, and now moving the side table around...



Around the entire living room!



Back at our house. "Daddy, 抱抱 me!"



Charis at Ah Ma/Nai Nai's house. Daddy suddenly thought of a playful idea - "Let me put Charis girl in the toy box!"



There you have it. Introducing Jack-in-the-box!



Charis at 15 months and 24 days old. Our leisure time at Esplanade on 18th Jan 2010.



"See mummy, you are squatting down to take my photo and I'm squatting down too!"



Daddy with Charis.



Mummy with Charis.



Nice family photo!



Outing to Singapore Zoological Gardens with daddy, mummy, Ah Yee and Jie Jie Sharie on 24th Jan 2010! Hey, what got Ah Yee so amused???



This is it! Charis throwing her body onto the folding handle of her stroller... Why? The sun is so hot that we open the hood tilt to shield her from the glare, but she insisted on looking out to her surroundings and ended up looking like this :)



Once Charis holds the umbrella, she can't stop! So its her and the umbrella throughout the journey.



Daddy and Jie Jie Sharie trying to adjust the umbrella for Charis.



Family photo under the umbrella, of course! And a happy Sharie popping out from behind :)



Charis waiting for mummy and Jie Jie Sharie to get their ice-cream. Still holding to the umbrella... Ha ha



Mummy and Jie Jie Sharie choreographed this pic. We were supposed to pretend to feed Charis but she managed to take a quick bite on the ice-cream while we were posing for the camera. Yummy right?



Charis at 16 months and 3 days old. Mummy was sorting out the accessories for the upcoming flea market with ah yi and then mummy found this piece and decided to let you try it on. Not bad huh?



"Mummy, I'm going shopping. You wanna join me?"



"Ok bye, I'm off now."



"Alright, let's see what I've got..."



"I'm happy with the stuff I have. Hee hee..."



"Come, join me! Join me!"



Look at Charis's right hand? Her thumb is on the on/off button of the television. Sometimes when mummy is watching a show halfway, the screen suddenly blacks out. Not power failure, not power supply cut-off, but one of Charis's mischievous acts! To top it off, she will turn around and watch my reaction. Don't know should I laugh or cry??? Ha ha...



One of Charis's recent fave activity - trying on mummy's sleeping slippers.



Then walk in those oversized slippers! :)

Picture Perfect Time!!

I lost my digital camera more than a month ago, so didn't do a lot of snapshots for some time until I got a new Nokia N86 phone with 8 megapixels camera. It's good enough to take the place of a live camera for me, so it's snapping time again!



Charis, just 9 days before turning 10 months.



Charis likes to tug at the car seat safety belt or "dig" into the buckle as if she's trying to release the button and set herself free. She doesn't like to be strapped ever since she started crawling :)



She likes to lift up her leg as well...



And put her feet into her mouth whenever she feels like it..



A leisure afternoon on her favourite Fisher Price rocker.



Charis playing with daddy's lanyard. Citing my mum's experience when she took care of Charis a few hours when I'm out with my friends from time to time, Charis can only play with one item max 10 mins and she'll throw it aside. That's so true! We got to keep coming up with something new to keep her interest going.. In fact, she'll end up having remote controls, mineral bottle, note books and stuff in hand instead of her toys. Ha ha..:)



Charis with Ah Gong. See! Another remote control!



Charis holding mummy's bottle of cleanser. "Hello, hello, anyone there????"



One of mummy's favourite picture, the "cool baby" look.. Ha ha :) Charis, 10 months and 2 days..



Charis is now very into grabbing support - whether objects or mummy or daddy and lift herself up. Here's the demonstration. So Charis says, "First, hold on to a support tight, as tight as our little hands can grab.."



"Then lift up your butt and pull yourself up to a stand. You can also try to get to a kneeling position and pull yourself up from there. No hard and fast rules, just always ensure safety first!" :)



"And voila! I'm standing up! Remember to turn your head and look at mummy or daddy, cos they may be waiting to snap this moment!" Ha..ha..



A satisfied Charis shaking her hands :)

Charis Is Now 10 Months Old!!

Oh I've been away so long! And so many additional milestones to Charis's little life, so I shall do a little catching up...

Charis has been biting on her fists to ease her itchy gums for quite a while, but one fine day on 9/6/2009 ~ 8 months 15 days, the much anticipated teeth sprouted out of her gums! It was the 2 lower front teeth that came out first, and now she has a grand total of 5 visible teeth - 3 lower and 2 upper front teeth :) I read and heard that babies may commonly experience diarrhoea or fever during teething, but for Charis, a few days before her first teeth emerged, she screamed in her sleep!! As soon as she screamed, I immediately ran to her rescue only to find her still asleep??!! Amazing, isn't it? :)

Her first crawl or slither, I should say, happened on 28/6/2009 ~ 9 months 4 days. She suddenly started doing "breaststroke" on daddy and mummy's bed when she woke up in the morning. We laughed as she made those raw attempts to push herself forward using her knees and belly. Gradually with much practice, she is now able to move faster and she is now gaining enough strength to pull herself up to a standing position while holding on to a stationary object. With these new accomplishments, she is even more curious and active these days and refuses to sit still like before. Gone were the days where she will lie quietly in my arms except when she's sleepy.. I kind of missed those days, but honestly I will be very worried if she stays that way still :) Nowadays, she will throw herself downwards when I am carrying her as if she wants to walk, and then she will go through daily obstacle course of climbing over stuff like pillows and bolsters, practically anything and everything in her way! Even in the car, she will climb over my thighs to reach for the car latch and up my belly to reach for her toy at the back of the car! Changing diapers is also increasingly challenging as she always fights to roll over on her belly. Now she is also able to roll herself in the sarong while rocking her. Whew, its WWF - World Wrestling Federation, Baby Episode.

We also have been trying to train Charis to wave bye-bye, and finally on 5/7/2009 ~ 9 months 11 days, she did her golden wave to Ah Gong and Ah Ma! But till now, she still prefers her favourite clapping and only "flaunts" her bye-bye on rare occasions. Oh just 2 nights ago, she suddenly shouted, "Bye bye" while tucking her to sleep and I was shocked! Isn't she supposed to learn to wave but not the speech yet? Hee.. hee.. But nonetheless a pleasant surprise :)

Another favourite activity for Charis recently is singing and screaming!! Her favourite advertisement on television is the Ribena drink advertisement "A Perfect Match" where Ms Lemon meets Mr Blackcurrant, following scene of them running towards each other across the pond, and finishing off with a classic swirl on a Hindi tune. Whenever this ad appears, her body will freeze and her eyes will be glued to the TV. Then seconds later, she will start clapping happily and make sounds as if she is trying to sing to the tune :) She also seems to be mesmerized by how loud and sharp her voice can be and she would scream a few times then stop and repeat them till she is satisfied. Her Ah Ma would put her index finger to her lips and say, "Shhh...shhh" but Charis took it like a game and screamed even more enthusiastically in response to her.

Ah Gong, Ah Ma, daddy and mummy had a good time laughing!! :)

Charis Is Now 8 Months And 16 Days!

At 8 months, Charis can now sit up very well. My mum also taught her to clap her hands when we encouraged her by clapping our hands together with her and repeating, "拍手, 拍手, 拍拍手!....". Charis always makes it a point to look at us whenever she claps her hands and when we laugh, she will clap even more enthusiastically with a hearty smile and sparkling eyes, totally immersing herself in our affirmation at her new feat :)

During feeding, I have also noticed an increasing interest in her wanting to participate in the feeding process. For example, she will try to grab the spoon from me and when she succeeds, I will exclaim a big "Ai yo darling!!" simply because the cereal will splatter onto her clothes but she remains unaffected by the messy sight and continues to "fight over" the spoon with me, leaving a frustrated yet amused mummy by her side. The word "messy" is certainly not in her dictionary yet! Ha ha... Same goes for bottle-feeding. She will try to grab hold of the bottle but instead of holding the bottle upwards, she can only pull it downwards so its mummy vs Charis - I am pushing the bottle upwards and she is pulling the bottle downwards! When this happens, I just got to pull out the bottle from her mouth and try again :) All these are part of her learning process to develop control.

So Charis says,"Mummy, I want to eat and drink by myself!!!"

And Mummy says,"Ok, be patient cos you need to learn to do it right ya?"

Here's some recent pics at 8 months:



This is a view taken from the inside of her sarong when she woke up from one of her afternoon nap. Started introducing sarong only when she's at 7 months to give her a longer sleeping time:) But during night time, it'll be back to her good old playpen.



"Look this way darling, and smile!"



We bought a jumbo walker for Charis to practise her walking, and the design is supposed to be an aeroplane. "See, I'm controlling my airplane!", says Charis.



Me having fun!



"Mmh.. The steering wheel is interesting cos I can turn it left and right, but the advertisement also very interesting lei. How ah?"

Outcome : Distraction!



A leisure time on daddy and mummy's bed..



Charis's favourite alarm clock in hand. In fact, she doesn't really fancy toys and she will get bored after playing for a while. But she likes real "toys" like this :)



"How can I dismantle this?"



Another favourite "toy" of hers - remote control! She's always aiming at it whenever I put her on my lap while sitting on the sofa, and before I know it, she will throw her body sideways to reach for it :)



At our dinner outing to New York New York... Daddy and Charis girl.



Mummy and Charis girl.. The hilarious part behind this pic was when we were taking this shot halfway, Charis suddenly turned her head back towards me and the moment our eyes met, both of us burst out laughing! All within a split second!! She sure knows how to amuse her mummy :)



The waitress was trying very hard to get Charis's attention, but to no avail :) Well it's ok, one more family potrait to our collection!