I’ve officially stopped BF and Cameron has been successfully weaned off and he’s beginning to like solids only after 3 months of introduction! Phew. Even with the variety of food he is eating – avocado, pork porridge, millet, lentil, cod, salmon, parsley, etc, he still fusses around. How spoilt! Fortunately he is good with people and even strangers, otherwise it will be a nightmare for him to be with the childminder. This is the third week since he’s with the childminder and he is adapting well. Now I feel bad for not spending enough time with him ever since I started working. 10 hours a day away from us seems like an utter shocking figure. Maybe if we were living in KL, situation would be better as we would have our parents and maids at our disposal but then again it might not be as easy as it seems. Going through the stress of getting stuck in traffic and high living expenses especially when the little one is consuming 1 can of milk powder a week are not something I would look forward to. Although means of transportation and public welfare are of an advantage over here, it’s hard to find extra help due to costs reasons.  Forget about the suggestion about hiring a maid as it would most likely blow the entire month’s budget, well unless you are wealthy of course. Even though you are willing to pay for others to work according to your hours, you might still not get what you want as they are not suppose to work for more than 10 hours a day, according to the law. So you do not have much choice but to workaround all these constraints. That’s why people over here leave the office on time due to commitments. I guess people will learn how to persevere in every situation, just at various degrees of independence and intensity.

On the sleep matter, he only started sleeping through the night after 8 months! Now , he sleeps from 8pm-7am without night feeds. Now that he is on bottle and doesn’t wake up at night, I suddenly feel so free. When I was breastfeeding, I found it challenging and was desperately hoping that he would sleep through the night. Now that I’ve gotten over it, I just wished I haven’t.  Life is odd, although that moment might seem difficult and testing, but I was happy and content. Btw, he has started crawling and now he is trying to stand with support. And we are trying to keep up with him by making the house child proof. He sure does keep us busy…..

Cameron has developed quite a lot in these couple of weeks. I can see him discovering and learning new stuffs every day. It’s pretty scary as it means time flies so quickly without us realizing. See what he has been up to…

1.       He can sit.

2.       He can roll over. During bedtime, he will roll from one end of our bed to the other before settling down. Yeah he still sleeps with us.

3.       He loves to splash during bath time. Not forgetting he has little yellow rubber ducklings as bath pals.

4.       He is teething. Could see a small one appearing at the lower gum.

5.       He is extending his hands to be carried.

6.       He has added a new word to his current vocab. ‘Mum mum’ that is! But that doesn’t mean mummy. Although it sounds like he is asking for food but he seems to babble those words at any time of the day. Only he knows what it means :p

7.       He loves blowing bubbles even while he’s eating and I get splatters of it at times. I consider that a bad habit but I do not think there is such thing as a bad habit among babies. Just need to make sure he doesn’t inherit that when he grows a little older.

8.       He refuses to lie down in his car seat. Guess it’s time to upgrade it to a proper buggy for 6m+.

9.       He was sleeping well the last 2 weeks, only woke up at 2am. Lately he has been fussing, could be due to teething.

10.   Eng’s mum says he got a flat nose. Hahaha in line with his name, which means flat or crooked nose! Ma says I should have ‘pinch’ his nose during the first month so that it would be sharp like an “ang-moh’s”. I think I was the one who caused the flatness as I love rubbing my nose against his since he was born ooopssss.

And next would be crawling…

Monday was a bank holiday and it was also the last holiday of the year till Christmas. We took advantage of the long weekend by spending our holidays at Cornwall. At first, it sounded like a bad idea as it was a quite a drive and possibly massive queues but it all turned out so well. No doubt there was a short queue due to a vehicle breakdown but it didn’t spoil the journey.
As soon as we arrived at the first fishing village called Polperro, we knew that we made the right choice of destination. With the perfect sunny weather, fresh air, tasty cream tea and fabulous food as well as comfortable accommodation at a golf resort, we had a real smashing time at this magnificent peninsular. A place where you can get the best of both worlds; picturesque landscape as well as breathtaking seaside view.

Lands End which is UK’s most southerly point with its astonishing cliff is definitely a recommended stop. The other unique location is Minack Theater, an open-air theater by the seaside which was the brainchild of Ms Rowena Cade in the 1930s. There was a rehearsal in progress while we were there, could be the play The Tempest in conjunction with the theater’s 75^th anniversary celebration.

I’ve decided to post the photos on facebook, the latest social utility craze as I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Whatever it is, I’m still excited that I’ve personally discovered this new sentiment and I very much believe that I will feel the same way for his future sibling. Seeing him grow so quickly by the day tells both Eng and I that we need to be more discipline and efficient in managing the family to be able to grow alongside with him. I never thought that a baby could develop so much in 7 months – from a tiny softy sleepy infant who only fed on breast milk and needed to be carried all the time into a toddler who is now able to roll, sit and throw his hands and feet all over the place as well as feed on solids! Btw, he loves babbling ‘pau pau pau pau’ repeatedly and it makes me burst with laughter. I can’t imagine having to miss all these milestones if he was cared and lived with either our parents.  It’s already so hard not seeing him for 10 hours while I’m at work.

Anyway, at the end of the day, I’m still pleased that we are able to witness and immensely influence his development with minimal supervision from our family although it’s tiring without additional assistance. But it can’t get any better than to be in total control of your own kid, if you know what I mean? *grin So my advise is try to spend as much time as possible with your little one from the very first day he/she was born as it will never be the same again once he/she grows. I’m so pathetic as whenever I see a mum with a newborn, I would always recall when Cameron was like that although I’ve got him in front of me!

However, the story of our broken nights has yet to end. For some reason, he still wakes up multiple times at night; sometimes for feeds and sometimes for comfort. I still think the reason is feed. Still trying to figure out the correct timing and quantity to give him before bed time. The problem is he can’t drink plenty at once (max 5 oz) and he can’t stay awake very much after 8. So night feeds are inevitable for now.

As for other food besides formula, he has started on solids. We’ve been feeding him baby rice, broccoli, butternut squash, pear, apple, blueberry, avocado, carrots and parsnip. Mostly organic, so his food is definitely pricier than ours! Also, he loves sucking the juice of a whole nectarine. Well he seems to eat anything, so I’m not complaining.

It was the hottest day this summer, temperature increased to a record high 32 last Sunday. Perfect day for a picnic and off we went to Hyde Park at London. Girls were clad in bikinis sunbathing on the park. Should have taken some photos but sorry guys :p

We had a lovely home prepared meal – turkey breast wraps, grapefruit juice, potato salad, nectarines and scrumptious sticky toffee pudding. Cameron was distracted with the surrounding (must be the girls), so he refused to drink any milk. But I’m sure he had a wonderful time relaxing with us on the grass.

http://www.bluewater.co.uk/

Still feeling sorry for being a distant from Cameron while I’m at work and not being able to nurture him personally. Then, why back to work? Well, we are probably used to double income and with the money that my parents had invested in my tertiary education; I feel bad for ditching a career.  Old-fashioned thought eh?  Also, it’s due to never ending commitments here and back home. Furthermore, continuous employment is like an insurance for the future. But is it fair to my baby? No doubt it isn’t but we are doing all we can to give him the best attention that we could possibly give. Parenthood means a lot of worthwhile sacrifices. While we are at work during the day, the rest of the time are dedicated and reserved for Cameron. That’s what I mean by owning 2 jobs. Now I’m experiencing the tough ride of raising a kid even before he starts to crawl. Can’t imagine the challenges ahead.

1.       Limited evening events as Cameron needs to wind down by 8pm. Definitely retired from clubbing :p

2.       After 8pm, the noise in the house has to be at the minimum level. We even have to be wary with our footsteps, tiptoe is best; as our wooden flooring is quite creaky.

3.       Shopping list priority goes to baby accessories and baby clothes. There goes all the expenses….

4.       More focused and disciplined in meeting timelines ie. definite hard stop at work by 6pm as need to be home to attend to Cameron’s needs.

5.       Outings are like moving the whole house into the car – baby stuffs.

6.       Possess 2 jobs; 1 office job during the day with pay and 1 baby-sitting job throughout the night and weekend without pay.

7.       Multi tasking skill becomes the most essential and sought after expertise ie. the need to be able to cook and pacify a crying baby at the same time as well as the ability to enjoy meals and attend to an energetic baby simultaneously.

8.       Increased speed in completing tasks eg. Shower, dressing up and meal time cut down by half.

9.       Controlled vocabulary - Eng is forbidden from vulgar language.

10.   3 hours of uninterrupted sleep a day is considered a blessing.

…and one word to describe our life; ‘EXHAUSTING’….I can print more comments but when I look back, they all equate to a newfound happiness; parenthood that we really enjoy and appreciate. A personal experience and journey that is priceless and irreplaceable. So, can’t be complaining all the time…

Eng’s mum is here in the UK to help look after Cameron for a period of 2 months. Lucky me as it really helps since I will be returning to work pretty soon. She has been potty-training Cameron. Since he started on solids which are just baby rice, vege and fruits, his poo is starting to smell. Can’t imagine once meat is included into his diet.

- Cameron was down with a temperature for the very first time on the 3^rd day of our KL trip. Subsequently, it developed into chesty cough with phlegm and running nose. Could be due to the change in weather and haze. It lasted for almost 2 weeks, hence did not get to go anywhere.

- Eng and I were also down with cough and flu, thus we did not get to feast on our cravings that much arrghhhh Missed eating curry laksa, asam laksa, fish head curry, banana leaf rice, hokkein mee, roti canai, teh tarik, putu mayam, rojak…..ggrrrrr

- Breastfeeding was a torture. Imagine I had to stand breastfeeding Cameron at the ladies in Concorde. There wasn’t a single chair, no proper nursing area, not even a baby change! Wonder where other parents change their babies’ diapers. Either that, it’s not a norm for babies to be outdoor hmmmm. It was worse at 1U. The nursing area wasn’t air conditioned…goodness…Cameron was screaming away as it was too humid and uncomfortable.

- Best nursing area is Jaya Jusco. I was impressed by the facilities offered.

- Managed to meet up with close relatives and some friends and those were the best moments of our trip.

- It was the mega sale in KL but we did not have the time to shop. What a bummer. Well, once you have a kid, your life will never be the same….

- Had to change our return flight to a week early, as I was apprehensive that Cameron would develop further problems with the weather. Besides I was struggling alone with him and it was pretty stressful. The best resolution was to return to the UK.

- I’m glad we returned a week earlier as he is going through a tough weaning process. I’m resuming work on the 31^st July and hence I’m cutting down breastfeeding to just twice a day and he has to feed on solids and formula. It’s really difficult for the both us but he is getting better by the day. He is even sleeping much better.

So much so for my 4 weeks trip to KL. I would be visiting KL sometime soon or probably next year but do not think it would be a good idea to bring Cameron along after the bad experience. As usual, will see how…

I reverse parked in one of the space. Got out and it was warm and stuffy fumed with car exhaust. Can’t complain, as it is generally happening to any enclosed car park. While Mel is getting out of the car with Cameron, I went to the back to setup the stroller. I noticed there was a Kelissa coming along and signaled to park in the space behind me. So obviously it stopped as I was behind my car. I quickly got the stroller out from the boot, put it on the ground and set the whole thing up. Before I could finish, the Kelissa HONKED at me to move away from the space!!!!! What was that about??? While I was working on the stroller??? There wasn’t any other car waiting for them!

I swear I didn’t spend more than 7secs to finish what I needed to do and moved away from their space! If I had a choice I wouldn’t want to stay in the car park any second more than it takes to get everyone into the Mall.

I was furious! The driver was a mid-aged lady with another mid-aged man sitting next to her. It was such a rude thing to do, completely ignoring the fact that there was a young child in the car. It was so oblivious, so insensitive.

Well, I hope they got further that day with the few seconds that they were so stingy to give out to others.

It was good, met my family and had lots of food. But weather was hot and we were all ill…etc etc.

To be honest, did I really enjoy this holiday? I don’t know…

Many things happened during that 2 weeks and it was completely out of my expectation, more than I’ve bargained for.

The one week prior to the holiday, people from the church and people at work noticed my excitement. I had smiles on my face, nothing at work could possibly affect my mood; even the control freak lady of my team who trying to run the whole show by doing the least. We were so looking forward towards the trip. At home, we packed and re-packed, thought about the food we were going to eat, planned our itinerary and list of things to do. There wasn’t any word to best describe the feeling.

However reality is cruel.

The weather appeared to be a lot hotter than we anticipated. The landscape of Mel’s house in Cheras has changed. The little jungle has been wiped off 80% for new housing and as a result the house is hot. Cameron didn’t like the heat at all and gets annoyed easily. He developed fever on the third night. Traffic is mad. Looking for parking is a routine. Mel had cold and me follow suit. Both sides of the family members also fell ill from the flu.

Despite all these mourning, we managed to meet up with the family and had dinner. Cameron is well loved by everyone. We managed to taste some of the food that we have been longing for, although not all of them. We also managed to finish most of the things on our list.

As I am typing this, I was told that Cameron has developed cough (probably due to the Haze making a comeback on the day I left KL) and Mel is still battling her cold.

So it was a good trip in general, and the best part must be the beautiful one week before the holiday.

** Maybe weather, traffic and parking have been problems all these while. Maybe it was ourselves that played down the effect because of the excitement.