I knew the moment would come soon.
Any day now, I told myself.
And I was right… 🙂
Here’s Hannah, with her newfound confidence at 10 months old! Ta-daaaa…!!!!!!
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Scrap Credits
A New Beginning kit from Digital-Crea
Harvest Spice alphas from Shabby Princess Designs
Weight
Did not measure but should be close to 10 kilos now.
Height/Length
Getting taller and taller!
Teeth
4 incisors (2 top and 2 bottom)
Motor Skills
- Stands unsupported for longer periods of time, sometimes smiling and raising hands in jubilation, a la “Look Ma, no hands!” pose
- Able to take one step and then sits down on butt 😛
- Can pull herself up from seated position to standing and then can very slowly, unsupported, lower herself down again.
- Able to squat.
- Unlike her brother, Hannah has the ticklish massage feeling; when I give her her body massage after her night bath, she will giggle uncontrollably.
- Loves to roll around the bed with her brother.
- Loves to roll around on the bed, suddenly sit up and then very quickly make herself fall backwards with a big PLOP!
- Able to climb up stairs (shudder!).
- Is always trying to *escape* from diaper changes. I’m running out of toys for her to hold when she gets changed!
- Can shape her fingers into numbers 1 (pointing position), 2, 4 and 5!
Communication and Social Skills
- Can sometimes point to her nose when I ask her, “Where is your nose, Hannah?”Â
- Can respond to “Hands up” instructions when I am undressing her.
- Stops whatever she is doing when we say, “No Hannah!”. She will look at us, and then sometimes she will stop completely or continue doing it (as if to test us) 😛
- Voluntarily claps her hands when she hears some nice music. Can respond to verbal instructions to clap her hands, in English and Mandarin.
- Blabbering and raspberry-blowing continues.
- Is able to imitate movements. e.g. when we point at something, she will also point at the same thing.
- Hannah is very attached to us, especially to me. She will cry out when I leave the room, and stop crying when I reassure her.
- Is fascinated when anyone (Ethan, especially) recites numbers.
Food and Feeding
She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is having her solids for 2 meals a day now (if I can help it). Thanks to the fabulous invention of the slow cooker, I am now able to cook her porridge before I head for bed, and have the porridge ready for her by lunch time the next day. Hannah normally eats more during lunch time.
New foods she has been introduced to include:
- Banana
- Bayam (Heng chye) , of which she didn’t really like
- MilletÂ
- Brocolli
- …and just a few days ago, CHICKEN!
She appears to love her chicken porridge a LOT! And of course, she loves papaya too!
I don’t puree food anymore, not even the chicken. I just steam it and mince it into tiny pieces and shreds and then freeze it into cubes. And then I use them in her porridge. Little Miss Bulat loves it! 🙂
Oh, and she drinks her water directly from a regular cup (the purple one with her name on it) – of course I have hold the cup for her!
Ethan is a natural with numbers. He picked up counting on his own, without our prodding or pushing. He can count to a hundred very well now, but I was totally surprised when he started counting in Chinese one day when I was out with him.
He is exposed to both English and Mandarin in school, as he has two teachers: one for English and one for Mandarin. And so by the by, he has also managed to pick up counting in Mandarin too, although to us, it sounds rather *slangy”, if you know what I mean… 🙂
 Scrap Credits
Colchique dans les prés QP from Studio Soval Scrapbook Graphics
Giving Thanks Alphas from Stacey’s Scraps
Weight
Did not measure but should be close to 10 kilos now.
Height/Length
Getting taller and taller!
Teeth
2 bottom incisors, and we can see the *whites* of 2 more at the top! She is a perfect candidate to sing the song, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!”
Motor Skills
- Crawling everywhere
- Cruising everywhere, but at a slightly slower pace compared to crawling.
- Slowly beginning to *let go* of the support she uses to stand.
- Likes to arch her back upside down when being carried.
- Can raise one index finger as if in pointing, and sometimes 2 fingers too!
Communication and Social Skills
- Calling “Mommy” more consistently. 🙂
- Can clap her hands. Can clap her hands when being asked to verbally, and also if we show her by action.
- Loves playing with all of Ethan’s toys.
- Smiles a LOT – has a very cute dimple to boot!
Food and Feeding
She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is taking a little bit of solids too. New foods she has been introduced to include:
- Ground red rice porridge
- Spinach
- Pumpkin
- Japanese sweet potato
- Papaya
 
Finally, just slightly after 9 months, she uttered the word that has the ability to wrap me around her little adorable fingers.
Last night, Hannah awoke, let out a “come carry me” cry, stood up in her cot, faced me and said, “Mameh….!”
She’s currently under the tutelage of her big brother to perfect the pronunciation, and from the looks of it, it will certainly be “Mommy” really soon.
…can we say that that’s officially her first word? 🙂
 Scrap Credits
While Softness QP from Missty Scrap
‘Sweet Baby’ Wordart vol. 2 from Dreams Inspired
Circle Dot Alpha (the number 8) from Laurie’s Scraps
Last weekend, we visited a friend and coincidentally there was also another baby at the house. I was asked how old Hannah is, and when I said “8 months”, there were gasps all around. Turns out the other baby is close to a year old, but Hannah looked a wee bit bigger than the baby.
Weight
Did not measure but should be close to 10 kilos now.
Height/Length
Getting taller and taller!
Teeth (yup, she has some growing!)
2 bottom incisors, and 2 more at the top are sprouting, I believe!
Motor Skills
- Can crawl really well now.
- Attempting to cruise.
- Loves to hold on to things for support and stands up, e.g. the couch side, cot side, wooden toy, Ethan’s toy train…you get the idea…
- Casting (throwing) of objects has started.
- Getting harder and harder to bathe her because she will want to stand up or crawl out of the bathtub!
Communication and Social Skills
- She sometimes responds/*talks back* to her brother when he *scolds* her or takes her toys away.
- More pronounced verbalization of sounds. I’m hoping she’ll call “Mommy” any day now 🙂
- Can wave hi and bye. I’ve also caught her waving to her reflection in the mirror.
- Can give a high 5, well…more like a low 5. I offer her my palm and she’ll high/low 5 it! 🙂
- She is usually independent enough to play on her own, provided there is someone around in sight. Will cry if she does not see anyone around.
- Hannah has learnt the art of smiling into the camera when prompted. 🙂
Food and Feeding
She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is taking a little bit of solids too. She has a solid meal once a day in the evenings, but it is more for tasting rather than making her full. She takes a combination of any of the following now:
- Rice cereal + EBM
- Pureed pear
- Pureed apple
- Pureed carrot
- Pureed potato
- A little bit of water.
Her favorite right now is Pureed carrot + rice cereal + EBM. I normally add some rice cereal and EBM to the fruit/vegetable purees to make it creamier in texture.
Last week, Ethan surprised us yet again with another one of his newfound abilities: Coloring INSIDE the lines. I bet he must have picked this up from school, because we never pruposely force him to color inside the lines. I prefer to allow him free reign of how to express himself artistically. And look how handsomely that has paid off!Â
 
I’m so proud of my boy, and can’t believe how much he has grown up! 🙂
Last Saturday, October 17 2009, little Hannah was baptized in church, in a simple meaningful ceremony. She didn’t really put up a fuss at all, although at times it was hard to keep her hands away from everything; from grabbing the book, from grabbing my hair, my pendant, and from being ever-so-wriggly!
In fact, she was so active that I could not position her properly for the holy water to be poured over her head. This here is my attempt…
 
Hannah was curious to see what was going on…
I had to pass her to Daddy, the expert…and that also, some of the water entered her eyes!Â
Of course, there was the compulsory family photo after the end of the ceremony,…errr… positions all a bit out, but everyone was there nevertheless. (baby in front is NOT Hannah…that’s Phoebe, her cousin. LOL… Hannah too busy with *other* things at the back)
I also wanted a family photo of just the 4 of us. We didn’t have many of those, but I discovered that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a proper shot.
Hannah’s baptism of course calls for a reason to fill our tummies…and fill them we did, at Mama’s… No photos of the food, sorry! 😛
With 2 kids to attend to, it’s rather impossible to whip out the camera, set the macro and focus…but trust me when I say the food was definitely scrumptious! To quote Ethan, “Smells…..LEEECious!!!!” 🙂
Two days ago, on Monday, Daddy lowered Hannah’s cot level. It was beginning to look really dangerous, the way she would very quickly hold onto the side of the cot and hoist herself up on her feet, sometimes trying to reach over the cot. At that time, the cot side was at the level of her tummy! Now, it is the same level as he mouth…and she has discovered that the cotside tastes incredibly yummy…
 
At least now I can safely put her in the cot sometimes, when I have to urgently attend to her brother.
My little girl Hannah has been growing up so rapidly the past few weeks, I find that it is inevitable that I need to post a milestone post now before her 8th month update comes along!
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She has begun crawling really really well now. Sometimes when she doesn’t see me around and wants to look for me, she will crawl all the way from our living room to the dining and kitchen. If she is in her *manja* mood, she will wail and cry while crawling!
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She can stand, while holding the edge of her cot or the couch, or our hands, for support.
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Sometimes we have even caught her beginning to cruise!
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Since she can now sit steadily, we can put her in a baby chair when we dine outside in restaurants. (soon, when I introduce rusks, she will have more things to occupy herself with)
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She has cut her first two teeth! I can see two bottom incisors sprouting!
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And she is getting increasingly difficult to bathe. Each time, she will want to grab onto my stool or the bath tub and try to stand up!
We do not believe in forcing our child to write or forcing him to hold a pencil or pen, when he is not ready. We would rather he take his time to play and learn and discover it on his own. That being said, Ethan has always loved numbers and alphabets. And he LOVES experimenting, especially on his doodle pad.
One fine evening, he surprised us by using the square-shaped mold from the doodle pad to *write*. He calls it “draw numbers”. At first he wrote 1 and 2, and he was mighty pleased when we applauded. He then proceeded with other numbers.
And writing this was his own idea…watch…Â
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Ironically, that is also how Pete and I write the number 9.
But when I ask Ethan to write 6 after that, he looked at me with those sweet adorable eyes and shakes his head, “I don’t know how to write 6, Mommy!” LOL
Oh, how I love my little boy!