I tendered my resignation letter on Mon. This is indeed a big step forward for me as I have been thinking about resigning to become a stay-at-home mum ever since I returned to work when Lele was 3 months old!
The reason why I waited so long to make the move is because I do not yet have my own flat. The flat we are currently residing is my husband's family's. I had wanted to wait till I get my own flat before resigning.
I believe that the 1st 3 years of a child's life is when the building blocks are laid, hence I want to garner my child with as much love, attention and guidance as I possibly can during these 3 years.
Alas, after trying to secure a flat for more than a year, we are still unsuccessful!
After discussion with hubby, I have decided to go ahead to resign.
For Lele's birthday, mama and papa decided to keep it a simple affair within the family. On the evening of 19th Apr, 3 days before Lele's actual birthday (which is tomorrow!), we (mama's and papa's family) all had dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
Some of you might remember that Lele is an early sleeper. On his birthday, he broke the record! By the time we left the restaurant, it was 10.30! Lele seemed to know it's a special ocassion, for he refused to sleep in his stroller even after several rounds of walking him around. He stayed active (too active...) throughout, and only managed a short snooze in the car on the way home. It must have been 1130 by the time we settled him to sleep in his cot! Needless to say, he K.O. immediately. However, he woke at the usual time of 7.40 the next morning. What happened to some belief that making a child sleep later will delay waking time???
Anyway, the celebrations went very well!
We all enjoyed the sumptuous food from Noble House at UIC building.
Lele received a pair of cool shoes from his gonggong (paternal grandpa) and popo (maternal grandma). They are his very first pair of shoes! Lele enjoyed stepping in it as they are so cool, lighting up with each step!
He also received a tigger backpack and music-making snail from his jiu jiu (maternal uncle) and his girlfriend. Lele loved the tigger backpack SO MUCH! He squealed with excitement and gave it several hugs! He couldn't seem to get enough of hugging Tigger!
From xiao jiu (younger maternal uncle) and his girlfriend, Lele received a toy telephone! Papa was quite excited because Lele is at the "play with telephone" stage. He likes to put the receiver to his ears when we say "hello..." and will smile sheepishly whenever we pretend to call his name via the phone.
Papa wanted to let Lele play with it, but mama suggested waiting a while more as Lele is playing with his toy piano now. Mama wanted to introduce one or two new toys at any one time.
Lele's yeye(paternal grandpa) and nainai(paternal grandma) bought him 2 sets of clothes and a t-shirt. Mama thinks the outfits are soso but loved the classic checkered pants.
Lele's tai ma (paternal greatgrandma) gave Lele a red packet to bless him with good fortune.
Lele's mama and papa? They gave him a shirt (mama chose it!) and a pair of jeans.
Actually, mama had wanted to let Lele wear the shirt and jeans on that day. However, nainai suggested letting him wear the outfits she bought. Mama was disappointed. But she decided to accede to her requests.
The next day, Lele wore his shirt and jeans and took lots of pictures!
Mama is really pleased with the new smart look the shirt created!
Constantly amazed at Lele's understanding power...
JUST HOW MUCH DOES THIS LITTLE FELLA KNOW...?
I was playing with Lele in our bedroom yesterday afternoon. Actually, "with" is not correct. He was playing and I kept an eye on him while changing into going-out clothes. I was planning to bring Lele along to a meet-up with Michiko, you see. Lele entertained himself by taking his things off the shelf and dropping them on the ground. He loves doing that! In order to divert his interest from picking up something else from the shelf, I asked him,
"Lele, can you put the powder (which he dropped) back on the shelf?"
Well, I've been trying to get him to return the things he dropped to their original places by repeating the instructions and guiding his hands to it... But I did not expect him to actually understand such a complex sentence.
It really came as a surprise when he turned away from the shelf and seemed to be looking for the powder. When he saw it, he held it up for me to see. I said,
"Yes, Lele. That's the powder. But can you put it back on the shelf?"
To my surprise, that's exactly what he did!!!
He... actually... went... to the shelf... and put the powder on the topmost rack!
I repeated the same instruction but different object. This time with a piece of paper which he dropped.
He managed to get it right again!
Wow wow wow...
We must be mindful of our language in front of this little one, 'lest we hurt his feelings with harsh words... or he learn from us.
Yesterday, father-in-law brought Lele for a walk in the neighbourhood.
Along the way they passed by Cat taking its morning nap. He said to Lele,
"Look! A cat!"
He then attempted to get its attention by calling out,
"Meow meow! meow meow!".
However, Cat did not wake up.
It merely waved its tail lazily and rubbed its paws on its face. Upon seeing not much response from the cat, Lele gave a loud cry... Finding this amusing, my father-in-law related the incident to us upon his return. The minute Lele heard,"meow meow sleeping", he started to cry. My mother-in-law tried to console him by saying to him,
"The cat was too tired and was fast asleep. That's why it ignored Lele..."
Upon hearing this, Lele started to cry. She tried again several times but each time he would start to cry. After his afternoon nap, several hours later, my MIL tried again to explain the cat incident. Surprisingly, Lele started to cry again! He must have been quite hurt by the cat's nonchalent behaviour.....................
I hate my home because it is full of large pieces of furniture with sharp corners and lack child-safety devices like drawerlockers, socket covers and even window grilles. I've been telling myself that I need to babyproof my home, but just did not get down to action. Well, recently Lele acquired yet another skill... He managed to lift his body off the seat of his playpen by pushing up with his hands on the top of the side "wall". While we are happy with this new ability, as with any new skills he acquired, I can't help but worry that one day, he will suddenly decide to poke his fingers into the electric socket, or climb onto the sofa...
I really must get into action before it is too late!
Yesterday when I arrived home after work, my MIL told me excitedly that Lele can now clap his hands! When I sang the song "clap your hands... clap your hands... clap your hands till the music stops...", Lele started clapping excitedly at the sound of "clap your hands"!
Actually, I have been trying to get Lele to clap for many months, since Feb. However, most of the time Lele will just smile at me. Sometimes when he was happie, Lele would clap 1 time and then move his with his clasped palms up&down. This is synonymous to the praying action to Lele.
Lele learnt praying from MIL. She taught him to point at the "Guan Yin" (goddess of mercy altar and pray by clasping palms together and moving them up and down! Even though my husband and I are of different religion from my MIL, I must say that Lele is very cute when doing the praying action! Initially I was a bit pissed with her, but my husband rationalised that we are since we are all Buddhists, it is not a bad thing that Lele is taught to respect and pray to "Guan Yin". He marveled at Lele's affinity with Buddhism.
So I've been trying to teach Lele clapping since Feb but unsuccessful till yesterday when he surprised his yeye and nainai by clapping his hands together when nainai asked his to "paipai shou" (clap hands in mandarin).
This reinforced my belief that babies and toddlers have such fantastic ability to process and assimilate information. I believe that while their limited motor skills might hamper their efforts to demonstrate understanding, this should not stop us from providing various stimulation, information and exposure, while all the while introducing new ideas and reinforcing old ones.
Yesterday was baby Kayden's first month baby shower. Above is a picture taken with mummy Fiona, daddy Brian and baby Kayden. From left: Papa, Lele, Mama, Mummy Fiona (w baby Kayden...) and Daddy Brian.
Have you noticed the resemblance between Mama and mummy Fiona? Actually... they are born in the same year and have been friends since secondary school days. Due to the strong resemblance between them, mummy Fiona's mum decided to "adopt" Mama as her stepdaughter! In other words, Mummy Fiona is Mama's step sister.
So Baby Kayden can be considered Lele's step nephew! Keke...
Lele was so excited to be in a new home. Being the active toddler that he is, he explored the grounds and enjoyed being in different people's arms while posing for the camera. But his didi Kayden was blissfully asleep in Fiona mummy's bedroom...
Mama was so surprised that Kayden enjoyed such a peaceful baby shower,. To the left is Lele during his baby shower, he was knocked out after the whole thing but was wide awake almost throughout (from 11-5p.m.) and was passed from one arm to the other endless.
Mama thinks the reason is because Kayden didi came to this world early at 25weeks when he broke Mummy Fiona's waterbag. Mama believes that babies who arrive earlier behave more like newborns than those who are born later.
Take for example Baby Warren who is born at 37weeks. When mama compared Lele's baby shower pic with babyWarren's (on the left), mama found a stark diff in size and alertness.
Mama has a friend whose baby Jayen enjoyed life in his mummy's tum for 42weeks before a "forced" evacuation by Gynae. At his 1st month baby shower, baby Jayen was very smiley and alert throughout. He even smiled and interacted with the guests!
So while it is beyond our control when our babies choose to arrive much earlier than due, mama totally disagree to inducing the baby or undergoing C-section before the due date, just because of some personal agenda of his mummy/daddy.
On 29Mar08, we went to Sentosa and had loads of fun there! Here are several pics taken at Sentosa! Undrwater world... Say cheese! Fish gazing Studying the ancient horseshoe crab... Posing with mama at Underwater pasage!
Since he was just a babe, Lele had been an early sleeper. He would go to bed as early as 6 each night, wake for 1 or 2 feeds, and wake up proper at 7.
Why does he sleep so early, you might ask...
Well, I guess the main reason is due to us adults not deliberately keeping him past his "sleepy" stage. I believe that babies need lots of sleep and if they exhibit sleepy signs, we should let them sleep. If kept awake past sleepy stage, babies and young children will become very active. This might give some caregivers the wrong impresion that they are not sleepy, when in fact they are VERY. So whenever Lele starts showing sleepy signs, such as eyes-rubbing, fussiness etc, we will pepare him for sleep.
Some well-intentioned relatives, colleagues and friends have advised us to keep Lele up later at night so that he will wake up later. But I don't think it is right to deprive anyone, let alone a young baby, of sleep. Besides, there is no proof that keeping a baby up late will delay waking time.
Now that Lele is older, he stays active for longer periods of time, so his bedtime is naturally delayed till 7.30 - 8 each night.
Looking back, I seriously think we all made the right decision by following Lele's cues for sleep. Even in the day time, when Lele is sleepy but we showed giving him his nap, he will crawl into my MIL's lap to indicate his need. I believe Lele is akeen to his own needs precisely because we follow his cues as well.
Hi Hi! Lele has been "missing" in this blog for sucha long time, cos his lazie mama (ME) did not do her job! Anyways, I have decided to get the mouse moving again, at the kind reminder of a dear friend, Faith. She lamented that there was no news of dear Lele since Sep. She asked me to start "working" again cos she wanna know what's going on in Lele's life.
So sweet to have someone care so much for the welfare of your son... ah... bliss...
Okay now... let's see what I can write after sucha long break...
Let's start with a checklist of what Lele can do now at 11months and 1 week old!
Language Say a few words→ mama, mum-mum, baba (means papa), yeye, okay, nai(means nice), bir (means bird), deh (means there). Respond to “Where is ___?” by pointing at items. Respond to “Show mama ___” by looking for item and holding it up. Respond to “Give ___ to mama.” by looking for said item and putting in my hands. Can follow sequence: open container→take out object→close container
Social/Emotional Smile when name is called Stretch out hands to all (strangers included) to open/close palm so as to garner attention Can wave goodbye Can do “come, come” action by opening and closing palms
Motor skills Can walk a few steps with and without assistance. Can release things held with hand into a container Can pick up small pea-sized objects with pincer grasp Can self-feed Can drink from a cup without much spillage Can squat and stand unsupported
MummyCake is a is a blur sotong mama who recently came back from Japan after 2 years, got a new job, got married, shifted house AND became a mama, all in the span of 10months!
as I possibly can during these 3 years. 
