The big 13

Hayley turning 13 month old in 5 days. Every month or week you will notice changes. For some unknown reason she's turning into a whiner. Next Sat my whiner will be getting her chicken pox jab. I hope Dr Wong is not working on that day.. haha.

Last week my little one developed viral fever. She has fever for 3 days (comes and goes) and the temperature ranges from 37.5 - 38.8. Even with a fever she still plays and eat like normal so we weren't that concerned. But on the 3rd day I noticed some spots (pink rashes like spots) on her body, arms and legs. Just a couple of spots here and there and my kiasuism kicked in. What if she's got dengue, what if she's got measles, what if she's got chicken pox. We brought her to the doctor on the 3rd night. That time she didn't have any fever. Thankfully doctor said it was just a mild viral fever. If the fever didn't return there is nothing to worry about. The doctor did warn that the rashes might get worst but it will eventually subside. After the visit, the fever didn't return and the rashes didn't get worst. They were gone the following day and that costs mummy RM52 :-).

The doctor asked if anyone was sick at home. And guess who, who else but yours truly. Everytime I get sick, she would get sick too and I am getting sick very often since having Hayley. Sigh...

Apart from the viral fever, she's developing and growing and it's amazing to see all the changes in her. Although we are tired and frustrated at times, we found strength to face the day with a smile (unlike going to work, haha). That must be the power of parenthood!

Here are some of her highlights and lowlights:

Vocab
She can say a couple of simple words - mum mum (food), gai gai (go out), nen nen (milk), papa, mama, mummy, ball, ish (fish), por por (grandma), up etc. Occasionally she will impress us with a couple of new words but they are very rare. Not even sure if she knows what she is talking about :-)

We did teach her a couple of other things such as fan, clock, mattress, toes, fingers, ears, fish, belly button, toys, books, ball, baloon, caterpillar, hand, leg, chair etc and she would often point to them correctly when we ask her to. If she's not pointing she will look into the direction where that item is. On bad days, she will not respond to us or worst she will appear confused and point to the fan when we say mattress :-(

Attitude
Recently she's becoming a whiner. She developed a habit of clinging on to her water bottle and if she wanted to drink and could not remove the cover, she will whine. If she wants the teddy bear's head (coin box) removed from the body, she would point to it and whine. If she wants food she will point to the food and whine. We have on all occasions tell her to say our name and point to the item if she wants it and don't whine but its not working. So all we do the whole day is cover and uncover her water bottle, cover and uncover the teddy's head. What a tiring job!

I read on many websites that we need to train our little one to be independent to eat on her own. We need to prepare finger foods into small pieces/cubes and let her pick it up and eat on her own. I tried doing that to Hayley a couple of times and she will stuff everything into her mouth until she chokes. If she's not doing that, she will play with the plate and toss everything onto the floor. How can I teach her to eat properly?

Development
My little one is quite entertaining. A couple of times the papa and me pretended to be asleep and we made the snoring sound. To our surprise she picked that up! Whenever we ask her to sleep, she will rest her head on the mattress or floor (wherever she is) and then pretend to sleep and snore!

She also like to dance. Whenever she hears music that she likes, she will use her tongue to make the kluk sounds (repeatedly) while swaying her butt from left to right. Entertaining eh?! :-)

She's still at her cruising mode and prefers to crawl than walk. She did attempt to walk a couple of steps unassisted but these attempts are rare. Sometimes when I put her in a skirt and she finds it hard to crawl (the skirt would go under her knees) she will then crawl on four (with her butt raised high).. hehe. She is often standing up on her own too.

Napping is also longer lately. Last time she naps between 30 - 1 hour 30 mins. Now her naps are often 1 hour 30 mins - 3 hours! She naps twice a day.

Food
She's not into porridge lately. Not sure why. Maybe she just dislike my porridge as I dont hear the aunty complaining. She would eat at the beginning and towards the middle she will start her tantrums and refused to eat. She will sleep on the high chair, turn her face from left to right, spit out the food etc. I tried giving her something different today, I cooked vermicelli and it was the same. Interested in the beginning and then tantrum starts. I am not sure what else to feed her.

I know I am supposed to give her varieties but as I am not a good cook (kitchen is not my territory) I just dont know what else to do. When cooking is needed at home, hubby is the one. But for some reasons, preparing Hayley's food became my responsibility. When I ask my mom or the elderly, they will say porridge is sufficient. Use fish, pork, chicken etc to create various taste. But when I ask some friends, they recommended vermicelli and pasta. I have never cooked in my life and this became stressful! Is there a cook book out there that I can buy and refer?

As for fruits, she eats anything. Papaya, banana, apples, green pears, grapes and recently oranges. I was told to give her avocado and I aim to introduce avocado next week. I hope she will like it cause I don't and I am not going to eat her leftovers :-)

Snacks for her are biscuits, bread, yogurt (Calciyum vanilla) and cheese. I started cheese this week too and she loved it.

As for milk, she's getting Enfagrow A+ Original flavour. She gets 3 feeds a day (7 oz). When I first started her on Enfagrow (2 weeks ago), I started her with the wrong flavour. I bought vanilla by accident :-(. She developed constipation for a couple of days. After having Enfagrow for 2 weeks she's still getting constipation but only about once a week. We're trying to give her lots of water, lots of veges and fruits and hope the constipation would go away.

This coming Thurs and Fri I will be going down to Singapore for work. This is the first time I will be away for 2 days since having Hayley. This also means that papa will need to manage her without any help. He will need to get her ready in the morning and send her to the babysitter (currently that's my job) and pick her up in the evening, feed, bath and get her ready for bed. I hope he can manage it. Deep down, I know he can. :-)