DIY again

A trip to Ikea was needed as you are so mobile now that the coffee table in the living room is cramping your style and proving to be quite dangerous with its metal legs and sharp corners. You are also beginning to pick on the long pile of the wool carpet and eating whatever fibers you manage to pull out. So, another small fortune was spent in getting a new carpet in exchange for the current one, a mobile laptop table as the coffee table has to go, and new black out blinds so that you are able to nap better and hopefully sleep later in the morning. Your poor daddy has to do another round of DIY in the house again.

The living room does look more spacious now without the coffee table but we have definitely got to move soon before you learn how to kick a ball.

Jar food: Yummy?

Since you have established 3 meals a day, going out has become a little more tricky coz we need to make sure you get your food. We have managed so far with mainly short trips out with milk as a temporary measure until we get home to feed you. However, we knew it was going to be a long day when we went to Ikea so we had to introduce you to jar food again (You hated it the first time on the plane journey back to UK and hardly had any solids). Maybe it was the availability of the microwave to warm it to the temperature that you like, or the flavour of beef hotpot, or simply because it was nearly 2 hours past your meal time when we fed you, but you ate the whole bottle with minimal fuss.

I was very excited as this meant we can go out for long periods. Unfortunately, the next 2 days of trying to feed you jar food when we went out for meals prove to be 'colourful' with you not opening your mouth and 'fussing' and using your hands to push the spoon away making food spill all over yourselves and me. Maybe I need to get more beef hotpot flavour? I cannot give up offering jar food when we are out until we find another flavour you like.

The end of maternity leave

Today marks my first official day back at work after being off for 6 months. Although I have been back a couple of days in the past few months, it felt surreal to be back and I dreaded this day. Thank God it was not as bad as I thought as I was greeted with some good news about my research, and my office space is as I left it 6 months ago. Although I did not have to worry about you since you were in good hands, I kept thinking about you and what you were doing and it was quite difficult to concentrate. There definitely needs to be another change in the frame of mind and I need to trust God to take care of you when you go into nursery next month. I did take the afternoon off and your smile that welcomed me at home made me think twice about going back to work full time. Well, hopefully its going to get easier with time and all a matter of getting used to.

Cheekily manipulative

You have learnt how to get your way by either continuously chuckling and playing with your saliva or crying and screaming, until we give in. I thought we only needed to 'discipline' you when you were 2 or 3 years old. Its probably true that babies are much smarter than we think.

A few days ago when you bullied your popo when I left the both of you in the car while I ran into Tesco to get some things because it was raining. You cried non-stop for about 15 minutes despite popo doing everything to soothe you, until she took off your coat. Apparently you wanted to suck your fingers and because the coat was so thick, your fingers could not reach your mouth. You immediately stopped crying and chuckled at her. If you wake up at night or in the middle of a nap, your crying stops immediately on picking you. When we put you into the cot and you want to be picked up, you continuously laugh and swing your arms vigourously until your wish is fulfilled. You are very determined and know exactly what you want. Hopefully you will put this virtue into good use when you grow up.

Half a year old: 6 months

You turned 6 months old yesterday and are totally my pride and joy. You are flipping. rolling and 'worming': your version of moving forward at the moment, babbling, blowing bubbles, able to sit for short moments, stand and stomp your feet with support, and just about more reserve with who you laugh or smile at. You still laugh lots with us though. I think you are becoming more weary of your surroundings and people around. I can't leave you on your own anymore as you will be out of your playmat in minutes. Too bad the flat's not childproof yet and there are lots of ways you can hurt yourself. You seem to be very tough with not even a wince when your head hits the floor or cotside when you turn. Its us that worry and jump everytime we hear a thud, although not that often now because we take turns to watch you like hawks to make sure you are safe.Its a joy to feed you porridge because you eat it so quickly. But since you will be going to nursery and have to eat 'western' food, we tried to give you a mixture of tomatoes, potatoes and carrots which is slightly sour and jar food of which you dislike and know how to protest by looking away and down so that we can't get the spoon in. It took nearly an hour to feed this to you. Truly a chinese baby who loves his rice :)

An attempt to get a proper photo of you resulted in this:All in all, you've reached all your developmental milestones and is growing up well. If only you will learn how to sleep through at night.

Testing of patience

Motherhood's a real test of patience, especially when you have a kid who does not like napping and wakes up every hour or 2 at night. That was what you were up to in the past few days upon returning from Malaysia. I hope its jet lag and will not be permanent. Imagine spending half an hour rocking or patting and singing to you during nap time and then after you fall asleep, you wake up after 10 minutes and the cycle starts again. Similarly at night you wake up so often that I can't tell whether its night or day. I can literally feel myself losing control and feel like screaming at you, then you give me the most innocent smile to melt my heart, and sometimes even stick out your tongue. How cheeky!! I honestly am not sure what will happen when I return to work. Thankfully my mom's here to take some nap shifts to give me a break.

On the other hand, you are eating very well and can finish 4oz of porridge and open your mouth for more :) At least I don't need to be too patient about feeding you food that you like.

The time of my life

I can't believe my 6 week holiday is about to end in a weeks' time. It has flown by and am really not looking forward to going back and having to start work. This means not being able to spend the whole day with you anymore and seeing you do funny and adorable actions everyday. Life in Malaysia was so fun and I had the best time of my maternity leave. So many things has happened in the past few weeks, from you experiencing new things and developing, that I keep meaning to blog but the days are so short and full of activities that before I know it, it's always about midnight. So, I can only again summarise and write in retrospect.

A day before leaving KK, we brought you to the beach to get some sea breeze. You laughed lots and really enjoyed yourself. I thought you were too young to play in the sand or go into the sea. So, you have to wait another year to get the full beach experience.After returning from KK, you had to see your daddy leave. I don't think you understood it but he was very sad and missed you more than you know. He loves sleeping but in the following weeks has woken up at 5 or 6am just to skype with you. I think he will be surprised at how much you have grown and be amused by your new found voice and ability to turn. He's our motivation to go back to UK :)
You started solids a week before 5 months and is taking 3 meals a day now. Thankfully you love solids and feeding you is so much easier than giving you formula milk. You literally will gulp down food that you love which is baby rice, pumpkin, apple and surprisingly broccoli. The broccoli must be my influence. I am still trying my best to give you as much milk as possible so you seem to be constantly offered food. However, it has not shown on your weight as you only put on 300g in 5 weeks, pitiful amount and dropped from your 9th centile. So, I need pump you with food.

You finally flipped at 5 months 2 weeks old. You grabbed hold of the toy attached to the play mat overhang and pulled yourself to your tummy. Since then, you will flip to get certain things. Funnily, you will not flip on the playmat if its put directly on the marble floor but will flip if its placed on the carpet. Maybe the playmat's too thin and your tummy on the marble floor is too painful and so you don't like it.

You also had your first swimming experience and had your first swim class. You had to be a 'pretty boy' coz I was too cheapskate to spend RM150 to buy you a body warmer that will only be worn a few times. So, you had to wear Kaitlyn's (Zac's cousin) pink one. You loved the water until the teacher had your head in the water. Well, you actually liked the first dunk and came up all surprised. However, you screamed and wailed when you had to 'fall in' the water the 2nd and 3rd time. You also did not like to float on your back and squeezed your eyes shut. Maybe it was too glaring for you. A few more times in the last week here will hopefully make you more comfortable underwater :)

We tried bringing you to the playground but it was way too hot and stuffy for you. If we waited till the sun went down, it was the mosquitoes that became the problem. Well, you still managed to go on the swing and see saw. However, you became very irritable from the heat. You went from cheerful and all excited to a grumpy little man. So UK's better from this point of view.
It's going to be a shock for us both when we return to Liverpool where it will only be me, your daddy and popo around the house. You met and played with many and was always surrounded by family and friends over these weeks. There was also the freedom of no car seat where you enjoyed looking at everything passing by in the car. Hopefully you will not cry too much when we place you back in the carseat in UK. We have taken hundreds of photos and a few videos which need to be sorted out. My project in Liverpool when we return.