Zac's Update: 5+ months

At 5+ months, I:

• prefer to be on my tummy whenever I can, even after milk, which usually end up with me puking on the mattress or the sofa or wherever
• am afraid of strangers, will cry when they approach me
• can recognise my name
• experienced my first fall (ended up with a bruise on the face and forehead) thanks to my mummy
• have started solid (some organic rice cereal that mummy bought), sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't
• am officially off booties/socks except at night
• still love to suck my thumb and fingers or whatever I can grab hold of
• enjoy sitting in the walker and can go on reverse only for now
• love watching 'Your Baby Can Read' cds
• still do not have a proper sleeping routine. I sleep whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I don't want to sleep at night, I want to play!
  
• love when my sister plays with me and will get all excited with whatever toys given to me
  
• still experience different night feeding patterns. For 1 week I was a vampire, waking up every 3 - 4 hrs for feeds. At another week (current week) I slept from 9pm till 6/7am in the morning with no feeds. I am just so unpredictable hehehe
  

I will need another haircut very soon. I will not be going for any jab until I turn 1 so I don't really know how much I have grown in terms of weight and height. But mummy said she is getting back aches carrying or lifting me so I believe I am doing ok :-)

My sister loves to play 'dress me up' with me

A week of torture

The past week have been a nightmare... Zac decided that he somehow got bored of his routine and wanted to 'try' something new.. lol...

For the entire week he refused to sleep at night. He would sleep from 9pm till 12/1am and then will demand for milk. After milk he refused to go back to sleep and wanted to play or watch TV. He would then nap for an hour (after he got bored) and then fuss until given milk around 3/4am. Thereafter it would be PLAY TIME all the way! Papa and I were zombified - sleep standing will not be an issue!

He would make so much noise that he would wake the entire household aka ME! Luckily he didn't wake the sister but I bet he disturbed the neighbours too.

Thankfully it all changed after a round of shopping trip on Sunday. We went out around 1pm and he didn't nap for 4 hours straight (cause I guess he was too excited with all the people and surroundings or maybe he just dislike napping in the stroller just like the sister) that he knocked off from 5pm all the way till 7am in the morning. He only woke up twice for feeds with no issues going back to sleep on his own. Yesterday night he was the same :-). Fingers crossed that he will remain with this sleeping habit. Maybe I should bring him out 'shopping' more often on weekends... hehehe

When I told my friends about this, the only question they asked me is 'did he sleep too much in the day?'. Well good question. I suspected so as well but then when I confronted the babysitter she said he slept like usual in the day. Well, I guess that is the price to pay when you are not taking care of your kids yourself...

My minnie maid

My minnie maid has been volunteering everyday to:

• wipe the dining table after dinner (doing a pretty good job too)


• pushing back the chairs nicely


• hanging her lil brother's socks/booties to dry. She will hang the papa's underwear if I am doing our laundry instead :-)


• wiping the floor herself if she dropped food on the floor


• rocking the lil brother to sleep if he's crying and we're busy


• entertaining the lil brother if he wants to play but we're busy


• when I am complaining that I have so much housework to do and don't have time to play with her, she will offer to help me (she will say it in a pitiful voice like she's pitying me :-))

Now I understand why some people said it is nice to have an older girl as they will be more willing to help around the house (when they are not in their devil mode). Maybe boys will too, I do not know for sure as I do not have an older boy to compare :-)

Now to the ugly side of her. Of late, my minnie maid also developed the habit of biting her nails (she bit for a while when she was 2 ish but has stopped for a pretty long time) and also the straws of her water bottle. She is using one of those Bros bottle with straw and I think I have changed her straws like 4 or 5 times in the last month since she started developing this habit. She will take her own sweet time to bite the straw bit by bit until they get so short that it will be difficult for her to suck. I've sat down and talked with her, threatened and even beat her hands (started with 1x on day 1, 2x on day 2 and I stopped at 5x on day 5)but of no use. I didn't catch her doing it at home and the babysitter said she didn't do it at her place either so I think she picked up all these and actually doing it in school. She told me one day that one of her friend (I forgot the name she mentioned) bit her straw too.

I finally told the headmistress and requested for her help as well as the teacher's to monitor this and to warn her if they catch her doing it in school. I hope it will stop soon as they ran out of straws at the stores and she's currently using her last one. I don't want to waste money buying more bottles as she already has 2 similar ones at home now. The funny part about her is if you ask her whether she bit her straws (knowing that I will beat her if she did), she will still admit and when I ask her to lift up her hand, she will obliged with very little resistance.... you say la!

see the tip! this is just the beginning

Apart from the biting habits, she's also very clumsy or I would think that she's too hasty. She will constantly trip and fall or ran too fast and fall and will often bang into things. She has so many bruises/blue blacks on both her legs that I have eventually lost count.

Random photos of my precious gems

CAR [ticked]

Yesterday I personally reached a milestone. I paid off my car after 55 months. It felt relieved. I no longer have to pay for it anymore and can put the supposed installments to good use going forward. It is so nice to have some spare cash :-).

I bought this car when it was 18 months old. A 2nd hand car. My 2nd car. This car served me very well (as opposed to my first car which will burn a big hole in my pocket once every year for the 3 years I've owned it) in the last 55 months and in return I treated it well too. Even though it has passed its warranty period long time ago, it still gets pampered and checked only at the Toyota workshop which we all know costs a lot more than going to any of the mechanics out there. Never mind that I paid more, I believe in karma. If you treat something or someone well, you will get treated well in return :-)

I hope it will continue to serve me well despite being 73 months old and will not give me any major headaches now that it has passed the critical mark (you know how most cars will start making noises and have things falling out from God knows where once they have reached a certain age?!). I love my car, it looks handsome and charming and I am definitely not planning to change it anytime soon!

Counting my blessings

One day I was complaining about me being too skinny. The next day I suddenly felt very blessed. It must be the hormones playing up :-). But I ain't complaining, I like it when the 'good' hormones are acting up.. haha

But honestly I do feel very blessed and sometimes I just want to reminisce and be thankful for everything surrounding me, enjoy my life and not worry or fret so much over little things. Looking at all the shocking things happening around the world, you just might not know when one day earthquake will struck KL right? Life is too short. I want to leave (if it's time to leave) a happy and fulfilled person :-). Occasionally I will forget (we're only humans) but I will list it down, and maybe print and stick it behind my door so I am reminded everytime I leave the house.

Here is my simple list. I am thankful for being blessed with:

1. 2 healthy kids - they do get the occasional fever, flu and cough but I think that is very minor comparing to what some kids are going through.
   
2. a roof over my head - we're not rich, we don't stay in a big house but we have a home.
   
3. a wonderful husband - he helps with the kids and cooks.
   
4. a job - it puts food on the table and allows me to occasionally splurge on the things I want without having to depend on anyone.
5. a bunch of true friends - friends who listens and care and who you know you can rely on when you need them
   
6. supportive family - my siblings and my mom who will be there when I really need them

What more do I need right? Right!

And oh, I am now going through the 'hair dropping' stage which I am not thankful for. The hair on the bed, the floor and the bathroom is just scary...I hope it will stop or else I will go bald soon...