Starting solids

25 April Saturday.The day Jaz tasted something else other than breastmilk for the first time.I was so excited and happy about this weaning, and approached the day with anticipation and curiousity. Keen to find out her reaction to food. I even took 3 day's morning leave for the following week to be with her for this.

Her first foods.

1st Day-2tbs of Brown Rice Cereal

She gave me a funny face when she first tasted, but thereafter continued opening her mouth for it. She even grabbed my spoon to put into her mouth!It was a messy business, cereal all over her mouth, questionable expressionon her face, laughter from me. Even my maid was looking on and chuckling.Fun! She finished all.

I like her with this funny expression. :P

Day 2 - 3tbs of Brown Rice Cereal

Same as the day before, finished it all!

Day 3 - 4tbs of Brown Rice CerealFinished it all!

Day 4 - After 3 consecutive days of cereal. Time for something else! 4tbs of Brown Rice Cereal + pureed pumpkin.

Oooh...what a face she made. hehee. She was taken aback at the sweet strong taste of pumpkin I think.

Now, 23 days after she started weaning, with a 3 day break in between when she wasn't feeling well (more of that later), she has tried and given verdict for the following foods. In order of sequence of introduction.

Those she likes and can finish easily :
*Avocado
*Banana
*Papaya
*Broccoli (but this one depends on mood)

Those she DON't like (made a face, turned away, pushed away spoon, refusal to open mouth, gagged almost every spoon) :
organic pumpkin
fresh organic scrapped apple
steamed organic pureed apple

baby organic yogurt

Those she's neutral to OR cannot tell her preference coz she starting showing signs of tiredness when eating halfway OR like it one day but lukewarm the next :
fresh scrapped pear
Organic Carrots
pureed steamed pear

butternut squash

Tried Butternut squash, same family as pumpkin but I am banking on the more buttery texture (which I gather she likes from her preference for avocadoes and bananas) to score a point. But, dun seem enthusiastic leh.

I have also changed to Healthy Times Oatmeal Cereal and Billamy's Baby Rice instead of the HT Brown Rice, in case that's whats causing her hard stools which started on 3rd day of weaning. Also feeding her more water now.

No more nice smelling TBF "tao suan" stools. :( Although her TBF stools, unlike her brother's back then, is more smooth in consistency and bright yellow in colour, with a distinct tangy aroma. Hahahahaha pardon for sounding like a lousy food connoiseur, but I have a certain parental interest in how my kids TBF stools are like. :P

Sigh...somehow after the recent fever episode, she seemed more fussy about food. She used to open her mouth willingly for nice cereal, but now she will only open her mouth to things she really likes.Avocadoes so far are a fail safe. Even papayas also dun score a point every time. Tomorrow will be trying bananas again, as its the first fruit she tried and finished completely during 1st weaning. Hope it dun disappoint.

Not sure if its the antibtiotics that made her lose appetite. I really hope its not. I already feel heartpained as it is.

She's unlike her brother in that if she really don't wanna eat, she really will stubbornly keep her mouth close. Even if you make her smile, she's cautious. Even when she's protesting and "crying", she can cry with her mouth clamped tight shut, with the upper lip even slightly curled down over the bottom lip. Her brother at her age, despite now being quite a fussy eater, was easy to coax to open his mouth by making him laugh or when he's crying hehee.

Sigh...to think that I was even gleefully anticipating that she's much easier to feed considering her interest in our food at a young age, and considering her enthusiasm at the start. :(

Diaper Cakes

6 months ago, I recieved a lovely diaper cake from my teammates at work, for Jazreel's arrival. I gazed at it everyday, and it was the centrepiece at Jazreel's full month celebration. Silly me even left the tulle protector on when taking photos. drats.

2 months later, I ordered one for a friend who has just given birth to her first child - Ryan. As her hubby is a Man U fan like J's daddy, 2 of us friends decided to get for her a Man U theme diaper cake. It's fully customised and looks super cute!

Then, last mth, another friend from our same group had her first child, Lucas. Diaper cake again! this time it was "requested" by the mommy herself before her birth. Both her and her hubby wants their son to be healthy and sporty when he grows up. I asked the lady to customise a brand new mommy+sports theme for her.

Baby Spa

The day (27 April) after Jaz turns 6months, I am on leave. In fact, I took morning half day leave for the next 3 days to ease Jaz into her solid feeding routine. I want to be the first one to introduce solid and new foods to her. :)

In fact, I had grand plans. In the next 3 mornings, I planned to do the following:

- Introduce solids to Jaz

- Bring Jaz to baby spa swimming

- Bring Jovann to play sand at Jacob Ballas

- Bring Jovann for trial art class

Ambitious? no what. but due to rain on Tue, Jacob Ballas was shelved. Then due to Jaz waking up late from her nap on Thur, I wasn't in time for the art class. So we only managed to do the first 2 on my list. Heee...

Jaz waking up in the morning, fresh in her new yellow daisy PJs from the night before. :)

Baby Spa! The jiejie massaged and played with Jaz to warm her up physically and emotionally. According to her, this is to get Jaz used to her and the environment, so she won't be too fussy later on when we lower her into the water.

Jaz looked miffed when she put on the neck float for her though, but who would want such a thing around the neck. Her resistance melted however when she entered the luke warm water. She floated there quietly for some time, then discovered she can create funny motions when she kick her legs, and she started kicking with a vengence. Very soon, she was enjoying herself so much at times she bounced off the walls of the tub.

That night, brought J to try the new jap ramen near our place. Yummy! and we ordered a kiddy meal for Jovann. Its the FIRST time we did that. Perhaps this is not uncommon to other parents with a 2.5yr old kid. But as J refused to chew until recently, this ordering of a kiddy meal is a first for us. So it marks an event worth remembering hehee. He has his own homecooked soup, and this plate of teriyaki chicken with rice.

I wanted to take pic of the car itself but J wanted to pose hehee.

Jazreel's 6months!

Jazreel turned 6months old on 26 April. Its a Sunday!

True to the tradition of how babies in our family turn 6mths (eerrr.... so far only Jovann lah), I treated the 6mth old princess to a milk bath. :) Hehehe!

She was fussing when we put in, coz its one of the rare times we bathed her in the bathroom, and also the first time the bath water is white. But once she's in the water and realised it feels nicely warm and watery, she relaxed and enjoyed herself tremendously. There's 3 little new sailboats bobbing in the milky depths.

Fresh after her bath, I placed her on the bed to let her practise sitting. Today she can balance so well! She will wobble precariously, sometimes finding her balance by pushing herself on the pillow beside her, sometimes falling backwards with a smile hehe. Love the way she wobbles.




Next, balloons galore!!! Daddy blewed up these balloons, and after I sat Jaz down in her bumbo, Jovann happily helped me carried all the balloons from the tv area to this cosy corner for meimei. one by one. Then helped her play with them. Jaz wanting to grab the pretty coloured balloons to have a munch.

I started her on solids yesterday, so today is her 2nd time enjoying it. Its 3 tbps today, and she finished all of it again!

Off we go to Lucas full month!

The peranakan spread was yummy, and I fed Jovann his food while Jaz lie contentedly in her infant carrier. Auntie Hanzi came to play with her after a while, and chided her for being so unladylike with her legs. Heee...

I took this 2 lovely photos of Daddy and kids. Eh, not easy to get both of them looking and smiling at the cam at the same time leh.

That night, we ordered pizza delivery as we wanted to watch the Star Awards hehee. After dinner, Jaz and Jov played balloons together, with me carrying Jaz to hit the floating balloons with her hands. She enjoyed it, but I later realised she loved laughing at gor gor play with the balloons without me doing anything. She chuckled and gurgled and squealed with delight hehe.

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Jazreel wobbling on the sofa tonight.

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She's 7.6kg today.Daddy weighed her. :)

Daddy also took a photo of her thunder thighs earlier today when playing with her on our bed.


Daddy playing catch-the-caterpillar with her to make her crawl. She has been making this free style swim stroke, or what babycentre calls the tumbleweed motion, for 2 weeks now.She started it 2 weekends ago, when she could, by way of rolling left and right seemingly at leisure, she could read a toy placed a distance away on the bed or playmat. Her gorgor started with this too before crawling. ;)


She's really really kaypoh. I cannot nurse her outside when there's distracting things for her to see. Even if we are in an empty room, she will cran her neck and arch her back to look around her and observe her surroundings with curious eyes. If I wish to nurse her, I usually will have to do it in the privacy of the car, and sometimes even need a nursing bib to cover her inquisitive eyes. Else I risk getting exposed.

This is what she usually do.

When she's 4.5mths, she has started on 180ml of milk per feed for the 3 EBM bottle feeds a day. And around 2 weeks before she turned 6mths, I increased her bottle to 200ml per feed and she can finish it sometimes. I still has not idea how much she latch from me in the morning and at night, though I am guessing around 80-120ml (morning) and 200ml at night.

My pumping amount in the morning is still 200-240ml and at each of the 2 work pumps around 180-200ml.

She no longer fall asleep quietly on her own at night. :( Now around 10-15mins after putting her down, she will wake up and cry. At this time, she will ask for only me, and don't want hubby or the maid for some reason. She will stop crying once I carry her over. After some soothing she will go back to sleep. Though I wonder what changed, I do treasure this night soothing time hen I feel so needed.

She used to be able to sleep 12hours straight at night from 9pm-9am remember? Now she wakes up earlier, around 7plus am, making her nighttime sleep down to 10hrs. Her nap still remains around thrice a day on weekends though, ranging fronm 1-2hours each.

For some reason, she hates pumpkins!

She is also so used to sleeping alone in her own cot she can't sleep well when in the room with us betw hubby and me. I try to do this on weekends, but end up all of us don't sleep well as a result. Heee.

She also has her gorgor's cheeky smile, and seems to be starting to bully him by kicking him, pulling his hair etc. But gorgor don't mind. Sometimes he asked "I want meimei kick me" and laughs when she does that.

All about Jovann

Few days ago, I just finished reading a parenting book (it dwells on the question of how a child's emotional capacity grows in his first 3 yrs and the ideal kind of environment, home or childcare, it needs), which happened to mention that a young child's discipline is best shaped by a person he loves, since that person's opinion and approval holds some weight in that child's heart. If anyone who just has a casual or short term aquaintance with the child tries to discipline him, the effect of that is not lasting. As the child does not wholeheartedly seek that person's approval, the image of that person's dissapproving look in that child's mind influences his long term behaviour less than if that person is someone he loves. Disciplining by fear is less effective than disciplining by love. How true.

As with most parenting materials, almost every chapter of that book reveals something new that sends a light bulb going on in your brain. But I must admit when I read that chaper, that I harboured a slight cyniscm. Afterall, its not everytime that Jovann reacts positively to my admonishments, although I am positively(arrogantly) sure he loves me and hubby above everyone else. Hahaha...

So, that set me thinking, what can we do better? I spoke to hubby on the way home regarding some revealations and study recommendations highlighted in this book, and we decide to broadly realign certain parenting quirks/decisions from now on.

So its interesting to note that the next day at home in the evening, Jovann showed how true that discipline observation in that book is. We had just finished dinner, and he had just grabbed a piece of papaya in one hand, took a small bite and threw it back onto the plate.Then he ran off, with his sticky hands, and cleaned it on his clothes, on the cosy corner, and the cushions.

I was yelling at him to stop and let me clean his hands, but it went unheeded. So when the cushions got their share of papaya, I caught up with him and chided him for not listening to me. My voice was very angry but initially he seemed unfazed, still with the cheeky smile on his face. But after washing his hands, he suddenly said softly, with a trembling pout in his lips, "I don't want Mommy angry". Awww....at that moment I felt guilty, what the heck with papaya stains. So I hugged him and explained why I was mad and it has nothing to do how I love him.

Some recent quirks of Jovann.

+ Nowadays instead of saying "I love mommy, I don't love Daddy", now he says "I Love Mommy Daddy...". :)

+ He's back to his "bicycle ooh!". But now he asked us to hide underblanket, then when he "found" us, he will straddle us and pretended that he's riding a bike and bounced cheekily up and down, saying "bicycle oooh!, bicycle oooh!". I have no idea where he learnt that from!

+ He's been so sweet about protecting me. Yesterday hubby pretend to be a lion and wanna bite me, I yelled in pain and Jovann threw his little body over me and say "I protect you!" and shoo-ed Daddy away. Awwwwww......

Last Friday night, when lying in bed waiting for him to fall asleep, he turned towards me and held my right arm, saying "I wanna smell your t-shirt." He then took a big sniff and commented "so nice".

+ This boy has always hated blankets, kicking it away whenever any of us tried to cover im even a teeny weeny bit with it. But recently, he insisted on drinking his milk with the blanket all over him. together with the warm milk, this made him sweat buckets. Funny boy.

+ His word puzzle

+ There's something he has done for very very long time, but I have forgotten to record it. He has this little chant he likes to chant, the words may change, but the tone and rhythm don't vary.The original version goes "pi ka pi ka pika pika pi!". So funny! I don't know why he did it!

Ice Lollies

Made Icelollies 2 weekends ago. The lolly mold has been bought for months, but I hadn't had the time nor the energy to do it until now. Thanks to June who did it first, I got the urge to start on some!

Took out the brand new Moulinex blender for this purpose.
Jovann had fun pressing the huge blender knob to hear the whirring sound. Hehehe....he helped me blend all the flavours.

Yeah! done!

J helped me put the sticks in, then we put it inside the freezer...

The next day, we took out the mango and I let J try. .......................He didn't want it!!! Sigh.

Nevermine, we tried the next weekend. I pretended to take out the lolly and enjoy it myself, and that was when he decided that it must be yummy. So he wanted it from me licked the lolly for quite long. hehehe.

Ooooh...this is my favourite, the strawberry yakult one, just the right combi of sweet and tangy sour!

Spencer's 1st Birthday Bash

Spencer turns 1! his birthday party was held at Little Ozone, which Jovann loves.

Spencer and Jazreel

I was so happy too coz today I can dive into the ball pit with him. The previous time here I was carrying Jaz who was asleep so hubby had the fun. When poised on the edge of the ball pit, hubby gave me a huge shove and I went tumbling in, to the chuckles of Jovann. So fun! we played alligator chase hehehehe...no photos on this coz I was having too much fun.

Hubby eagerly spending time with his precious little girl.

I was more excited than Jov about him getting face painting. He was apprehensive, but he wanted ME to be painted. Better mommy than me. Hhhmmm....so I had some pretty flowers painted, thereafter he decided its not painful after all since I didn't scream or yell, so obliged to have a spider painted on his hand.

With Reubern and Rochelle

Visited Rochelle at her house last weekend, and Jovann had a great time playing with Rochelle, Reubern and Uncle Tony whom is the self appointed children entertainer and very good at what he does. Jovann likes him so much he sticks to him and prefers him over Daddy that night!

3 kids feasting on fruit cake. There were 2 cakes that day coz we bought over a cake too.

Jovann really enjoyed making a mess and gorging together with 2 other kids who are so obviously enjoying their food.

Jaz was asleep in the sling at this time....then Auntie Joanne kept lifting up the nursing bib protesting that she must be so hot underneath! Jas was sweating in fact, but woke up soon coz there's too much noise for her kaypoh nature to ignore for long.

Today is exactly a week before she turns 6months old, and its her FIRST time sitting SO LONG unsupported!!!!! She sat in this position for at least 10 whole mins! I think she's really in shock to see so many faces trying to make her laugh and smile, and she just woke up a few seconds ago, so she couldn't smile at all. She stayed that way for the longest time hahahaa...seldom see her like this.

Starting to smile already. :) Love this skirt of hers. Its for 6mths old but am hoping its versatile enough to last longer. The top she's wearing is for 1 yr old though, but the neckline it soooo tight she pouted and whimpered after I pulled it over her head when wearing it for her just now. Lucky I took it out today.

Auntie Joanne nowadays have a hard time deciding what to eat. Daddy was craving for KFC, and surprisingly she was keen, so we went searching for the nearest KFC. Whew. its still there!

Joanne in a pretty good mood coz the food was to her liking. :P

Sumptious time. R and J shared some fried rice, then ate chicken.

Went for some icecream at Macs. J asked for chocolate sundae and ended up not liking it. As hubby and I both don't like that flavour, I decided to order another strawberry sundae to let J try. R by this time was already halfway through his! I was keen to convince J that not all icecream taste bad (he obviously think the chocolate one does), and I ended up chasing and coaxing him to take even one small spoon of it. He refused flat out. I think the passersby must be raising their eyebrows at this wierd parent who is PERSUADING their kid to take icecream. Can't believe myself.

Jazreel, surprisingly still in a sweet mood despite it being her bedtime.

After we all walked back to the car park. R wanted to pee and when he was doing it, Jovann kept staring at him, and finally decided to poke R's belly button, hehehe! All the adults kept laughing... R kept talking about it for days afterwards.

Pre-visit, was trying to take a decent photo of Jaz in her cute orange skirt. :P