12 months onwards...

From what I read, there are a couple of things to note when the LMM turns 12 months:
1. We should encourage him to drink his milk from the beaker - I did that for a while but found feeding him milk via the bottle most convenient. Ok, noted.. I will try to introduce the beaker at breakfast time tomorrow.
2. He can finally eat egg whites, peanuts, fish - He is already ok with fish. I am abit apprehensive about egg whites and I am super apprehensive about getting him to eat peanuts. Think we will hold this back til he is 1.5years old at least.
3. He can drink Enfalac's stage 3 milk (which costs just S$28 per tin!! Yeah!!!!)
4. He should be able to go to bed by himself -I imagined this to be a challenge but I tried that today. All the while, I have been putting him on our queen size bed during bed time, surrounding him with the pillows, letting him roll around, whine, etc until he falls asleep. During the whole time, I will be lying down on the bed, keeping real quiet. After he falls asleep, I transfer him to the cot which is positioned next to my bed. I have been doing that for at least a couple of months now... today, i tried to do the same with the only big difference: I put the LMM in his cot with one of my pillows to simulate a familiar environment while I lie on my bed (next to the cot). I still keep real quiet. He protests and stands up with the help of the cot railings. I told him to go to bed and I pat the pillow. I told him once. After that, I kept quiet. He mulled and rolled around in the cot, just like he would do on the queen size bed. Then, I noticed that he got sleepier and sleepier.. and i left the room. He never made a fuss . Guess he fell asleep shortly after. ;) Nice.

Little Milk Monster turns ONE!

As the LMM's actual birthday 29th Sept 2008 falls on a Monday, we had 2 mini celebrations for the LMM on Sat and Sun. One at my mami's home and the other one at Fisherman Village with Leadwe's family.

27 Sept 2008 : Sat Celebration at MaMa House:
Mama and Grand-dad made popiah for lunch. It was super spicy and delicious (ha.. anything that is spicy is good for LMM's Mami). MaMa bought so many presents for the LMM. A pair of sandals, a pair of shoes, a huge blue pony (which the LMM was terrified of for a couple of days), beach toys, Ang Pow. She also bought him a HUGE durian cake which we all enjoyed eating. Yes, LMM ate some as well. Its his birthday lah... Gina (Ford), give him a break! Thanks MaMa, Thanks Grand-dad!

28 Sept 2008 : Sun Celebration at Fisherman:
NaiNai and YeYe, Shen Shen (Lee Lee) and Shu Shu (Lixuan) were all there to celebrate his birthday! The owner of the restaurant is NaiNai's BFF (Best Friend Forever in case you don't know, its a hip term I learnt on radio what Paris Hilton uses for her BFFs) and she gave the LMM an Ang Pow as well. Shen Shen and Shu Shu bot the LMM a basketball rim and a basket ball. Yes, he loves BALLS and he has LOADS of balls. You name it, he has it.. basketball, soccer ball, rubgy ball, blue ball, pink ball, big ball, small ball etc etc..... Ye Ye and Nai Nai bot him a nice baby bicycle. He always looks so smug when he rides that bicycle. ;) Mami and Dadi bot a nice black forest cake for the celebration. The LMM was so intrigued by the little flame on the single candle...that helped when we were taking photos. Although he didn't know how to blow out the candles, he managed to hold the knife (with Mami of coz) to cut his own birthday cake.

Thanks Nai Nai, Ye Ye, Shen Shen & Shu Shu!

Mami and Daddy Presents:
Frankly, we ran out of ideas of what to get him. We bot him another soccer ball because we figured that he loves balls anyway. Then Mami saw a lego school bus and she bot that too. And then she saw a nice pair of Crocs sandals and she bot that too... ;)

Other lovely presents:
Auntie Felicia bot the LMM the famous fabric book - Counting Numbers.Its the very book I have deliberated whether to buy for so long coz its so damn expensive - $74.... Thanks Auntie Fel!!!

Auntie Shervone bot the LMM a cute squashy red van - he loves anything with wheels so its now his HFT (Hot Favorite Toy) during breakfast time. Thanks Auntie Shervone!

Papa's Birthday

Papa turned 32 on 22nd Sept 2008. We celebrated his birthday at Nai Nai's house with a yummy chocolate banana cake from Awfully Chocolate!

The LMM goes to SENTOSA!

We brought the little milk monster to the butterfly park and Underwater world today. We didn't expect a visit to Sentosa would be this fun! Gong Gong met us at the entrance of the butterfly park at 10.30am this morning. The LMM was captivated by the water fountain outside the park. Inside the butterfly park ($10 per adult), we saw many different types of butterflies. Travis touched a crumpled one resting on a flower. I figured that this butterfly just came out of its cocoon. Hence the crumpled wings.

While Gong Gong continued to take more pictures of butterflies, Travis savoured his lamb porridge in air-conditioned comfort of the insect exhibition area.

After a meal at one of the eateries, Gong Gong decided to head back home. We wanted to go home as well (it was so so hot!!!), but we decided to head to the beach, hopefully the LMM would take a nap and we could catch up with some newspapers, cold drinks, maybe a nap as well.. and we did just that. After a cool coconut, I fell asleep on the chair with the wonderful sea breeze softly blowing towards me. Leadwe read the news. Travis slept on. It was simply a perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Then...the LMM woke up, drank milk and we decided that we would finish our trip to Sentosa with the Dolphin lagoon and the Underwater World ($19.90 per adult). After we bot tickets to the Underwater World, we realised that the Dolphin show, which starts in 5 mins, is actually back at the beach vicinity. We hopped on a bus, reached the lagoon, and enjoyed the last 5 mins of the show. Travis had his eyes glued on the cute pink dolphins as they did the hula-hoop, waved goodbye, kissed the trainers, leaped in the air. Looking at how intensely he looked on at the dolphins, I felt that it was worth it. Worth it even if its just 5 mins.

After the show, we took the bus back to the Underwater World. I realised that I have never been there before. There was an area for visitors to touch and feed sting rays, fishes, star fish, etc. Papa touched a sting ray...soft and smooth he said. Mami cannot imagine doing the same.. yieks!!I would give the Underwater World a rating of 9/10 for entertainment value. We saw fish bigger than papa, sharks, rays, wierd fishes, jelly fish...

We stank at the end of the trip... all three of us really needed a shower.

We will return. We will return...

He Knows...

And we always think,"What do they know?? They are babies!!" and that's also why there's that phrase,"you want me to treat you like a baby?"

And today, I realised that babies like the LMM can actually know what he needs to do. This morning, he woke up at 7am (as usual) and I made his milk at 7.15am (as usual) and he drinks it up by 7.30am (as usual). What's unusual today was... after he completed his milk, he struggled to get away from my embrace and tried to walk. I held one of his little hands and let him lead the way. He walked straight to the end of the kitchen, where the potty was. He smirked when he saw the potty and started to sit down on the floor, mimicking the action of pooing. And so I put him on the potty and he did what he have to do. And all of this without me telling him (as usual)," Travis, go emn emn..." . A new adventure begins..

First Family Photoshoot

The photos were taken when Travis was about 10 months old. He didn't really like the photo taking session and much effort was spent trying to get him to stop crying and to start smiling. Still, I am so glad we managed to get a good collection of photos from the shoot. And my favorite ones are:

Mr. T turns Eleven!

29 Aug 2008 - He turned Eleven with a third tooth emerging on the front left upper gum. Travis is really growing up really fast. He has spent 11 months on earth with us so far. I really wish that he can slow down on growing up.... I know that I really will miss his reliance on papa and mama for basic things like walking, bathing, feeding... I love doing all these things for him and I know that soon, he will be walking by himself, feeding himself and bathing himself...

Travis never fails to surprise me occasionally. Yesterday, he picked up my mobile phone and guess what? He held it close to his ear, just like the way I always answered a call. Then lately, he moved his right hand in a circular motion each time we asked him where the fan was. He can also wave goodbye and blow a flying kiss.. I feel like crying each morning when I go to work and he does that.

Travis loves going to the park in the evening. That's where he gets to see his friends in the neighbourhood. Leadwe and I were on leave today so we played with him in the park opposite Grandma's house. We played soccer together with a basket ball and Mr T really knows how to chase and kick the ball.

At this stage, there are a couple of things I would like to do with him more often:
swimming
playing games he enjoy (soccer, hitting a ball or object to the ground, putting things in a box)
reading books
let him play with other babies his age

Its a pity I only have that 7am-9am in the weekday mornings (feeding takes up 7-8am so we're left with just an hour or less of playtime in the morning) and whole weekends. I know that I'll have to make full use of these hours I have with him.

Leadwe and I are planning for a 10day trip with Mr T. We are still undecided on the location although we would love to go back to Hokkaido. Many frens have suggested Perth though because of the shorter journey and the child friendly infrastructure. We'll see...

Its back to work for mami and papa tomorrow after this long weekend (we took Mon off to relax). 4 more days to the weekend again. Hope that the rain stops soon so that we can take Mr T swimming.

mami bel