Monday, December 31, 2007

Week 29

As you can clearly see, bathing sessions are still a hit for master Tobey...



Crawling has progressed from backward crawl to a few steps FORWARD! Yipee! Speed of crawl depending to target object. Fast for remote controllers and superfast for exposed electrical wire.


He also can sit himself up from a lying down position. The combination of these two newfound skills enable him to cruise the space around him. This morning I found him under the table looking cheeky and smug...


before asking for help to get out...

I chose to ignore him a little, hoping that he'll try harder to figure his way out, but can't resist this pleaful face

Tobey also mastered the ability to pull himself to a standing position and stand for long period whilst supporting himself on something higher. He's currently practicing walking sideways when doing so.


Oh, I cut his hair as they were getting into his eyes. I did a bad job, but what to do, no guts to let the barber do it. Off went his baby curls, broke my heart. Well at least now I won't be faced with the question of " baby boy or girl?"

SLEEP RANT

This boy of mine has always been a terrible sleeper. The first few weeks of his life saw me rocking him for hours only to get him to sleep for several hours. Plus he almost NEVER sleeps in the daytime eventhough he's suppose to be a newborn. Also, he hated his cot. We introduced him the pacifier out of desperation for some sleep of our own. Then there were the short stints of the sarung and the swaddling. We then discovered that he likes sleeping on his side, just aided by the pacifier on his cot. We were overjoyed. He was doing 9-9 with two waking-up sessions for milk until 5 months old. Then he dropped one then both feeds within several days. He then did 10-12 hours straight without feed and just several "eh-eh" which just required me to put his pacifier in and he would fall back to sleep. THEN came the big timezone shift back to Malaysia...and his sleeping pattern became bad to shite! Now, he would go to bed around 10, wakes up around 2am for feed and has like a gazillion "eh-eh" sessions, each time he drops his pacifier!!!!!!!! I didn't wean him off pacifier ealier as I believed that normally babies would learn to pick their own pacifier up and put it back in their mouth around his age. But this boy refuses to do so even when he's perfectly able to. Grrrr! Good thing that we are both on holiday and can take turns to nap in the afternoon, if not I don't think we can function throughout the day. Quoting the character Squidworth from Sponge Bob Square Pants "...even my eyesbags have eyebags..." We tried everything, from feeding him food with higher energy content to changing his going to bed time....NOTHING works! He left us with no choice but to eliminate the need of the pacifier. This is because he needs to learn to fall asleep on his own without the need of the pacifier. Hopefully then he will stop his "eh-eh"-ness for good and just wakes up for his one feed if her needs to. So last night was the first cold tukey night...he cried persistently for 2 long hours. Both SK and I just sat outside the room trying to stay strong and not reach for the damn pacifier....he cried till his voice turned coarse and finally gave up and fell asleep. One STUBBORN boy! Tonight will be cold turkey night two....if we fail this time, it will be only when we return to UK in February that we'll attempt another time....which will be much harder as knowing Tobey's stubborness, he will wail the house down...well at least it would just affect us then and not other working relatives in the house. Urgh! why can't he just zzz without all the drama!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Week 28



What have I been doing this week? Same old, same old...

Played with several more baby friends/relatives...


Don't think I like sharing MY toys...


Practiced standing in my bathtub...


and walking in my walker...Now I can go to mummy whenever I wish...kekeke


and of course, going out my mummy and daddy...

Oh, someone pointed out, I look like this dude on my nappy pack...

I don't think so!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Week 27



This week has been a busy one for little Tobey. He met a total of four different baby friends and relatives. First was baby Jaydon, SK's cousin's baby boy who is 11 months old. Baby Jaydon can walk already! When Tobey saw baby Jaydon crawling and walking so well, he kept staring and kept trying to take one of his leaps and crawl backward. Tobey only let Jaydon played with his toys for a minute before taking it away from him again.Hmmm...worrying. The second baby was baby Isaac, born on the same day, month and year as Tobey. It was a dim sum outing, so both babies just managed to steal some glances at one another whilst the adults were yapping away. Tobey was well behaved in the restaurant. Then there were baby Juan, 2 1/2 years old (actually more like a toddler) and baby Bhalraj, 10 months old. All three played well together. Both 'big brothers' took turns to play with Tobey's toys whilst Tobey watched on as if trying to track the whereabouts of his toys.



In terms of development...I can't really describe them in words any longer. It's more of a character change and an increase of understanding of the happenings around him, of his carers, of his toys. More expressive when conveying his feelings and intentions. On the downside, his demand for attention, not only mine, has spiraled upwards until at times I felt like just ignoring him. It could be due to him teething or the drastic change in surroundings. Whatever it is, I hope this is just a phase...for I am SO TIRED!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Back in Malaysia (Week 26)

Tobey's journey on the plane was the most excrutiating experience for both him, me and SK. The night before the flight, both SK and Tobey started to feel unwell, and it only got so much worse on the flight. Tobey was too uncomfortable to settle down to sleep, so throughout most of the journey, I had to try to soothe him. It was AWFUL to see my usually happy baby to be so uncomfortable and unhappy. I will never want to put him on a flight again when he's unwell. Fortunately, once we landed, he recovered pretty quickly (except for the lingering phlegm...grrr). Even his dry rash went away. I just love this weather.

Oh, Tobey took his first plane journey with his baby friend Shean Wenn (baby Shean was a gem on the flight, such a sweetie). As usual, both of them clicked!


Tobey is having a ball of a time, basking in the constant attention of both sets of grandparents, uncles and aunties. As usual, he charms and it works. We managed to bring him out most days and he enjoyed looking around and getting attention from shoppers. Total strangers in shopping mall and restaurant seem to think that it's ok to touch his face or just simply stop and stare really 'closely'. SK suggested we should let him wear a t-shirt that says "Can look but don't touch" ;P

In terms of developement, he is making progress in learning to crawl. However, he is moving backward instead of forward. Still has to master the use of his knees. He also started to press on his cot rail or bath rim to try to stand...at the moment it's more of a squatting position.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Week 25


We went to Southampton for an overnight stay. Packed half the house along. We even brought the steriliser along! Tobey slept on a single hotel bed surrounded by pillows as the travel cot's base provided was too low. Woke up once during the night and had a tough time getting back to sleep. I bet it's because he's aware of his change in surrounding. All in all, it was a good first trial. Packing will be much easier the second time around.

He was a good sport throughout our exploration of that town and it's surrounding. Even when his stroller encountered a long stretch of bumpy old rocky-pebbled path on our way to the port. Charmed several shop assistants and shoppers with his smiles ;)