'Mum & Tod' Group

Yesterday, I brought Tobey to a 'Mum & Tod' Group (MTG) in a nice village nearby. It's actually his first. You might wonder what took me so long to start him on these kinda meetings. Well, pre-m'sia, he was just 6 months old, can't crawl and obviously too young for such meetings. Although at that point he was quite a socialble baby, there's no way he could have mingled with other kids as he wasn't mobile yet. I called the organisers to such groups then and they felt that the ONLY beneficial meeting he and I could attend is some baby massage class.

Now is the right time to start, as he has been having lots of social contacts with other babies back in Malaysia during our holiday. It would be a shame to not provide a continuation to this which has been tremendously beneficial for his social and emotional development.

Choosing the right meeting to go to is another task. You see, the local group near where I live (which is not exactly a fantastic neighbourhood, as our 'Taman' is next to a council estate which houses lots of young mums, unemployed men, you get the gist) will not have the type of kids I want Tobey to get familiar with, as it will include kids from my neighbouring council estate. Now, I am not being a snob here( I take the bus to work OK ;P), but seriously, do you want your baby to mingle with kids whose clothes stink of smoke and has lots of cats fur on them??? So, since I am still working on my UK driving license, I rather fork out cab money to go to a nicer MTG meeting in nicer neighbourhood.

Review of this MTG: Organisers were quite friendly, but most mums are still not use to having a 'yellow' mum in their group (I don't think this will ever be an issue in big cities like London), except one, that moved up from London(!!!) who actually took time to know me more. Others were just willing to exchange a word or two with me in passing. They were more interested in mingling and catching up with gossips with the other mums who were obviously the 'regulars'. There's these 2 mums that were super-duper 'sombong', as they actually put on perfect make-up and wore fully fashionable gear to a kids meeting and sat separately from everyone else. Both didn't even wanna look my way.HAHAHAHAHA! Having lived in this area for so long, I've seen all these before, therefore, I don't feel a thing. These people will take looooger time to warm up to you compared to people who are more used to foreigners being in territory. All you need is TIME. One thing I wasn't comfortable about was the overlicked toys available there...I guess it's also a chance for Tobey to build up his immunity to more germs from here!

Anyways, I have to stop rambling and here are some pics (which I lost during downloading, and needed to PAY to retrieve it...I simply have to have all of Tobey's pics, regardless of the price, especially when it's his first MTG) of Tobey playing with the mountain of toys available there, mingling and playing with other kids. Tobey is the youngest there. Every other kids were walking escept another baby girl who was stil combat crawling.



Oh, one rather distubing pic...this is my son taking a liking to a baby doll.....and at one point he was fighting with another boy to get hold of a play stroller with a baby doll on it. According to the organiser, the stroller has always been a 'hit' amongst the boys. HAH!I guess because such girly toys aren't exactly toys I would get for a BOY. It might be beneficial for me to get him a baby doll this weekend, just to satisfy his curiosity, maybe a black doll instead of a yellow one?

The 8th Month Check

Actually this check was done when Tobey is 8 1/2 months old, due to his tight (ahem) travelling schedule the past two and a half months.It was done by both a GP and a Health Visitor (HV).

Stats at 8 1/2 months old:

Weight: 10.54kg
Height: 75cm
(both of the above is charted between the 91st and 98th percentile in the growth chart for boys)
Head circumference: 46cm

Solid intake:

Tobey started on solid when he was 4 months old and was doing fine until back in Malaysia, when his appetite for solid when down and reliance on milk went up. That was extremely frustrating as he's suppose to gradually WEAN off milk! Anyways, once we got back to UK, back in my own kitchen, having access to fresh produce from my local familiar Tesco, his appetite came back. I've discovered that he is 'into' western cooking, as in he would eat any dish that is potato based instead of rice based. But being Chinese, I want him to get used to rice as well....so this is an example of his daily menu

(Note: As he still hasn't got any teeth yet, all food has to be mashed finely or pureed. It's encouraged to feed baby lumpier food at this point in time in order for them to encourage verbal development...I guess chewing, yes they can chew with their gum, builds muscles required for speech)

Breakfast: Cereal with some fruits
Lunch: Scrambled omelette with salmon, potato and spinach with some grated cheese
Snack: A pot of Fromais frais
Dinner: Chinese rice porridge of anchovies, carrots and spinach with some fruit

Drinks: He has 22oz of milk and lots of water.

Now you can imagine how busy I've been in front of the stove!!! But it's all worth it when you see him enjoying his food.

Physical Development:

He can sit (4mths), stand supported(6mths), crawl and walk supported(6 1/2 mths). He still has not mastered the standing unsupported yet though.

Social and Emotional Development:

Socially, he loves company of both adults and children. He shows no reservation in approaching other kids when at play and would gladly smile and crawl to an adult he just knew. Emotionally,I think he's still having some form of separation anxiety and he demands of attention whenever he can. Hmmm..actually, I need to look more into this...


Speech Development:

The hums, screams, more so than babbling, which was a great concern for me. But the HV assured me that baby boys are slower in speech development as all their concentration is more on exploration of their surroundings. But I am told to encourage him further by making exciting and contrasting sound whilst reading to him, whilst going on a walk, etc etc... So both SK and I have been doing 'animal' sound as real as we can in hope that he will be interested to imitate us someday.

Week 37- Back in UK

We are back!

The flight was OK (much better than the first one). Tobey only slept for 3 hours. The other 10 hours were spent looking around, trying to touch the trolleys, and trying to get onto the floor to crawl. Tobey was happy meeting his daddy at the airport. I think he didn't fully recognised him after being away from him for 5 whole weeks. But after tugging on Sk's glasses and nose, he finally remembered. Daddy certainly was happy beyond words when reunited with his dear son.


Since his mobility has increased dramatically from just sitting down and scooting before our Malaysia trip to crawling and climbing now, we rearranged our hall to be 'Tobey safe'.

As you can see, we blocked of the TV area with some toys storage bins. Then at the left, is Tobey's new playpen. Actually, he will only be in there if one of us is in there with him. I guess it's too small compared to the one in Malaysia. Now that the hall is pretty child safe, THE HALL has became his new playpen. Sk has been using the little playpen as his place of sanctuary. He would caged himself in for some me-time and so that Tobey can't get to him. Hmm.. wait till Tobey knows how to open the pen's gate....kakakakaka.

2 Days after arriving home, Tobey was down with vomiting, fever and diarrhea. We brought him to the GP (TWICE) as they said that it could be Rotavirus. According to them it is one of the most common virus to attack kids during the winter months (totally not comforted by that fact). We submitted his poo sample for testing. Since it's the NHS, we still have not got the results back yet. TYPICAL. As for now, no more vomiting and fever, but there's still this frustrating and lingering diarrhea. I seriously do not know where he got it from, could be from the plane or the shopping mall where we brought him to on Sunday. This is the first major 'illness' for him and oh boy it made me worried till high heavens. I MUST be more vigilant in ensuring the cleanliness of his surroundings and things he put into his mouth (which is alot).

Anyways, I really wish to see my boy totally healthy again soonish. The clinic already recognised me by my voice, since I've called so many times to speak to the doctors. They must think of me as a paranoid first-time mum. Like I care :p We paid the NHS all these years and We'll sure hell get our money's worth.

Week 36- Goodbye Malaysia

This is the last of the long 10 weeks holiday we had in Malaysia. This week we went to Penang and stayed in a resort with my family. Managed to visit many relatives in conjunction with CNY. Tobey had fun on the beach, playground and pool area (didn't let him play in the pool as there were fully dressed kids playing in there). Before leaving for the UK, I had Tobey's head shaved at the local barber, in hope for even hair growth and to encourage the growth of hair in his bald patch at the back of his head. SO after his first proper haircut since birth, he now looks like this

Week 34 & 35 Photojournal

Tobey the explorer

Tobey the driver


Tobey during his 1st Chinese New Year



Tobey the big boy he is now

At week 35, little Tobey has been seen standing unsupported several times. I hope he'll soon gather enough courage to do so more often.