Wonder Weeks - The 9th Leap (week 60)

Em begins her 9th leap this week. She's a full 14 months and we've come a long way from those newborn days! 

She is finally confident in walking unassisted (although if I am closeby, she would still ask for my hand), is starting to eat better again, especially in the mornings, naps are getting longer and less interrupted (I can lay her down without fuss) and she will usually sleep 2 cycles in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.

That said though, this wonder week thing is really causing her to act up in a way. She's been super clingy, has mood swings, throws tantrums if she doesn't get her way, doesn't want to sit down for meals, and the big one... nurses ALL night. 

According to the Wonder Week app, the stormy period lasts for about 4 weeks while she discovers the world of "principles". It's time to lay down those rules! I foresee temper tantrums... she should be learning to understand the difference between "yes" and "no", "yours" and "mine", "right" and "wrong", "rash" and "careful"... I guess here's she the fun really begins! My baby is turning into a little toddler! 

Em's eating habits

Before Em was born, the hubby and I always talked about how we hope she will have a wide palette and love all kinds of food. I love my food and ate pretty much everything I was "allowed" to during my pregnancy, so we often said how Em must be enjoying all the wide variety of food too.

When she hit 6 months and was ready for solids, I started off by giving her mashed bananas. That was the easiest food to start with. No preparation (apart from mashing), just scoop and feed. At first, she loved it! And then one day, I must have overfed her, giving her a full nursing session and then immediately sitting her down for some bananas. She projectile vomited not long after her meal and since that day, has refused to eat bananas or anything even banana flavored. 

From there though, we progressed to puréed pumpkin and that remained her favourite food for a long time. She would gobble up every scoop you presented to her and didn't seem to tire of it. I started being adventurous, mixing pumpkin and apple, pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots, pumpkin and peas, pumpkin and pear, etc. Sometimes she ate it, sometimes she didn't. Unfortunately, the days where she didn't want her food became more and more often and I momentarily gave up cooking for her, switching to pre-packaged foods by Happytot and Plum. At least if she didn't eat those, I didn't feel like she was rejecting my cooking.

Yep, it was the beginning days of wanting to be independent and wanting to feed herself. So the only way I could get her to eat again, was to prepare finger foods, stuff she could pick up and feed herself with her fingers. Her favourite became bread and I'm glad I started her on wholemeal because now she wouldn't have any other type of bread.

Since then, her favourite foods also include cheese (absolute love), pasta (spirals), and macaroni!! Lately, we've also added mee tai bak, laksa noodles (just the noodles, not the laksa soup), tofu, fishballs, chicken and fish (especially salmon) to the mix!

Wow, looking at the list above, I feel a sense of achievement in the sense that she seems to love adult food. I can take her to the food court and order her a bowl of chicken macaroni, sliced fish noodle soup, or fishball mee tai bak and I can guarantee you she'll gobble it up!

My only gripe at the moment is that still have trouble trying to get her to take her puréed pumpkin and I'm still searching for ways and means to sneak some green veg into her. So far, she seems to love carbs and meat! The only way I've been able to do this is through pasta sauce, but I don't want her to get sick of pasta, so I'm spacing out her pasta meals. She's ever changing though, so I really shouldn't stress about it, some days I'm just glad she eats!

Free Fun Activity #1 - Rooftop Water Play Areas

I've decided to keep a log of posts to remember all the awesome fun filled days I spend with Em - especially those that come for free! I think there's so much you can do with a bub while they are growing up and even the simple things interest them and teach them things. So here's my first post on a free fun activity you can do with your bub:

Rooftop water play areas!

Many shopping centers these days have a rooftop play area and most of them are water playgrounds, which is great for when the weather is too hot to bear, especially here in Singapore.

I recently took Em to the one at Katong I12 and we had such fun! It was the perfect weather - warm, but also cloudy so I didn't have to worry about exposing Em to the the scorching sun. Although UV levels are also quite high under clouds so technically, I should have put sunscreen on Em... I didnt (sheepish) but at least I brought a hat and she didn't try to pull it off for once! Anyway, this rooftop at I12 is pretty cool, apart from the water play, they also have these percussion areas with drums and tubes made out of metal that the kids can bang on to experiment with sounds. Educational yet fun :) I'm sure Em will enjoy banging on them when she's older!

Another great water play area is the new one at Changi City Point. Located next to the food court on level 2, the area is called the 3 Top and has climbing structures too so older kids can run up and down to burn off their energy. It's got plenty of dry land for those who wish remain dry, yet also plenty of wet areas to play in. 

Parents be warned: The water jets are strategically placed, it will be hard to follow your kid around without getting wet! Although the kids (and probably most adults too) will love it in hot weather!

The good thing is that this play area is equipped with proper toilets so even adults can change into clean and dry clothes after getting wet.

As you can see, Em is not quite walking on her own yet, so I still have to hold her by her hands and walk everywhere with her. It's tricky trying to avoid getting splashed while bending over to hold her tiny hands and making sure she doesn't trip. It's also interesting how I've noticed she doesn't seem to want to crawl around as much when she's in these sort of areas. Always stretching out her little palm facing upwards as her way of asking for your hand so you can guide her to walk :) So cute.

Anyway, I look forward to checking out more water play areas in the near future with Em! Especially when she finally starts walking/running around. It's such an awesome way to help her burn off her energy so she has good sleeps. Plus it's free! Hope you enjoy taking your bubs to these play areas too! :)

Waiting it out (WIO)

I recently joined a group on Facebook called "Wait it Out" Method Support and am so liberated and encouraged by all the mummies on this group. WIO is pretty simple, you "wait it out" with your baby/toddler until they are ready to wean, sleep independently, etc without rushing them into it with "traditional" methods like CIO or controlled crying or "no-cry" sleep solutions. It's for mummies who are content to give the baby whatever they want (or need) at any time of day (or night), until baby decides they no longer need it (or want it). For example, nursing at night.

For me, after a whole day of watching Em, I simply don't have the energy to shush and pat and coo in the middle of the night anymore in a bid to try and get her back to sleep. It's so much easier (and gentler in my opinion) to just pop out the boob and let her suckle for 5-10 mins then roll off back to sleep. Sometimes I do think she's old enough to understand she doesn't need the boob and get frustrated when it happens 5-6 times a night (like last night...) but then I try to remember a "mantra" in the group - "She's not giving me a hard time, she IS having a hard time". When I think this way, all I want to do is to be there for her and comfort her in whatever way she needs. 

Which is why I posted the following in the group the other day, also partly I serve as a reminder to me as to why I am happy to just WIO.

"I may need to cradle and comfort you to sleep, but I don't see anything wrong with that... It's the only time of day you are peaceful and still in my arms. It's the only time of day I get to snuggle you and smell your hair without you trying to wriggle away to play.

Why rush you into adulthood when you are just a baby? I'm going to treat you like a baby while you don't know any better. I'm going to hold you and comfort you as long as you let me . Because one day, you'll want to do everything on your own and when you are ready to, that's when I'll let you."

My baby's first steps

At close to 14 months, Em is finally confident enough to take a few steps unaided! She's still learning, so if there's something close by for her to hold onto, she still will. Or she will turn her little palms upwards to ask for your hands. But if none of these are available, I have caught her taking those cautious, but brave steps on her own! Although most times, she will still just plop straight onto her knees and crawl.

At the moment, the minute my back is turned, she's scooting halfway up the stairs, I really don't dare imagine what it will be like once she's confident on her feet! Won't be long now and Em will be a tough one to catch. The only positive thing I look forward to is longer sleeps at night if she's given the opportunity to run about and burn off the crazy amount of energy her little body possesses!

The next step (no pun intended) is to get her to wear shoes. We have always let her go barefoot, not even socks unless we are at the indoor playground. So now when we do put shoes on her feet, she lifts her feet so high for each step and walks like she's on the moon. It's hilarious to watch! Just takes a bit of getting used to I'm sure, she'll be running around in no time, it's time to bring out those knee guards!

Babyzen Yoyo review

We are planning a trip to Japan in August and are faced with the decision of whether to bring our trusty Bugaboo with us. It's an excellent buggy and we have never had any regrets purchasing it, but it is quite heavy to lug as extra baggage and I have always resented the fact that it cannot stand up on its own. This means you always have to have a hand (or 2!) on it to hold and support it. Not ideal when travelling, especially through Japan where it's so crowded through the train stations.

So when a friend of mine introduced the Babyzen Yoyo to me, I didn't need much persuasion other than the fact that it weighs only 5.8kg and folds up to a mere 20" x 17"!!! Which means it's small enough to take onto the plane as handcarry (yep! Approved hand carry baggage!) I was sold!!!

Here it is folded up with Em standing next to it. Look our little it is! Em now measures only 72cm so you can see the buggy is much smaller than her. The stroller truly folds and unfolds with just one hand and is super easy to manage even when carrying bub in the other hand - which I often have to do. I love how easy it is to handle! Even though the Bugaboo is also technically one-handed operation, it's a heavier stroller so I've always had to struggle a little trying to lift it into the car while carrying bub in one hand. I just know already that this process will be so much easier with the Babyzen Yoyo!

Plus it has a shoulder strap, so you can easily port it around. It can also easily sit on top of your trolley baggage (because its so small!) when lugging through the airport (and train stations!).

I am soooooooo excited to use this on our upcoming trip to Japan!!!!

There is a good deal going on for the buggy now at Mums and Babes, preorders for the Yoyo is only$499 (usual retail $699). But stock arrives only in August 2013 so it may not be in time for our trip. We had to get it from Mothercare in the end but at least we got the member discount on it.

We took it for a test run today and my verdict: A good buggy that's very easy to navigate and swivel around (u can push with just one hand), plus I like the fact that you can fold the handlebar down so it becomes like just a seat for bub especially when going places and you need to feed for example.

Cons: The shopping basket at the bottom is not very big and can only hold up to 2kg weight so it's not very suitable if you know you'll have lots of shopping. As a lighter stroller, inevitably it doesn't feel as sturdy as the bugaboo.

Edit (after Japan trip): Em totally loves the babyzen yoyo! She fell asleep in her stroller for the first time while we were holidaying in Japan so the verdict is absolutely positive! It was the best decision to take it with us because we could easily fold it up when boarding trains (you know how crowded the trains get in Japan!) and we could put all our "barang barang" on it while walking the streets (and shops).  It was also handy as a seat in some restaurants (just fold the handle down and it looks like a chair!) because we found that a lot of restaurants in Japan just didn't provide babychairs. We could also take it onto the plane with us and no one even blinked an eye at us, just stowed it in the overhead compartment.

Start of STTN for Em?

Em slept a record of 5 hrs 52 mins last night! Ok... I'll round it off to 6! That's STTN by all accounts of definition! It's the first one though so I won't get my hopes up yet. The downside is that we leave for our trip to Japan tomorrow so that might turn her sleeping all upside down again! Booooooo! At least I haven't gotten used to her sleeping for such long stretches yet so it won't really matter. Or maybe she will simply sleep all night while we're on holiday! One can only hope...

Her sleeping habits have improved recently though. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of her nap, opens her eyes, tosses over, sometimes even gets up to crawl one step, then collapses back down again and sleeps for another cycle. Last night, she woke within 10 mins of putting her down, sat up in her crib and cried, but I leant over and patted her and I'm not sure if its cos she saw I was still there, but she then flopped back onto the bed and fell asleep. Amazing.

I guess what they say about Waiting It Out (WIO) is true! Babies will naturally start sleeping through when they are ready. Before that, they just want that extra cuddling and security in knowing mummy is there for them when they need it. I ❤ u baby Em!