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Milestones

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Hannah Our Little Artist

November 17, 2013 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

We’ve noticed that Hannah seems to have a excellent eye for art.  Even at a young age before, she would enjoy looking at pictures, drawing them and then coloring them.  She loves depicting and envisioning images on paper and it is a joy to see Hannah use colors and make them come to life.

This is a recent picture she did.  It’s a birthday cake she drew for Mickey Mouse’s and Minnie Mouse’s birthday:

This one is a combo picture of a smoothie or milkshake, a rainbow, a whirlpool (brown thing at 10 o’clock location), two trees, a green apple and (maybe) a purple monster:

One of the many pictures she draws for me regularly:

A watermelon slice:

She asked me to print out a picture of Ariel because she wanted to color it.  Then she asked me to teach her how to draw a star…that would explain the many stars she drew all over the picture! 🙂

A vegetable garden: see if you can name all the different vegetables!  Gotta love her butterflies and birds too! 😀

She simply LOVES drawing rainbows!  This one was a “Welcome home, Daddy!” gift to greet Daddy after his business trip home from US.

During the minion craze…

And recently, she brought these home from school:

Hannah explained that in this following picture, she was instructed to use only shapes to create pictures.  I was especially impressed when she said she used hearts for the crab pincers and a trapezoid for the roof of the house. 🙂

Visit to the Penang State Museum

November 1, 2013 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

About a month or so ago, Hannah went on a school field trip to the Penang State Museum.  It was her very first school trip since she’d rejoined her class after our return from The States.  Ordinarily, I would have wanted to tag along to take a few pictures for my own keepsake, but since I now had a clingy baby with me, I asked a favor from a friend of mine (whose son was Ethan’s classmate in K2) to help to take some pictures.  (You know who you are, thank you!!)

Here are some of the pictures from the trip… 🙂

Emma at 7 months

October 22, 2013 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Blessed QP from Dana’s Footprint Digital Design

Weight

Turns out I had been wrong all along.  At about a week past her 6th month mark, we took Emma for her well-child checkup and she was only 7.1 kilos then.  She should be maybe about 7.5 kilos now, I suppose.

Height/Length

About 61 cm at her 6th month checkup, so perhaps about 63 cm now?

Teeth

2 bottom incisors.

Motor Skills

  • Emma can now roll around and move in circles.  She can also inch her way around, and sometimes when she is on her tummy, we can see her lift her butt ever so slightly to move forward.  Sometimes she moves backwards this same way too though.
  • Emma can sit unsupported for a few minutes now.  She still tumbles over and loses her balance though, so she still needs constant supervision.
  • She can hold objects (like a rattle) and loves to suck on them.
  • She loves to “pretend” she can stand when we hold her by the hands.
  • I can “almost” give Emma a bath all by myself now, since she can sit unsupported for longer periods of time.
  • She has a very strong grip and can hold objects very tightly, including our hands, fingers and my hair (and Hannah’s hair).

Communication and Social Skills

  • Says “Mum Mum Mum” and “Ma Ma…” a lot, mostly when she wants Mommy or milk.
  • She loves to smile, even at total strangers.  The catch is that she needs to be held by Mommy.
  • She is very dependent on me and sticks to me like a stamp to a letter.
  • She loves her siblings’ antics and always giggles when she looks at them.
  • She loves Bananas in Pyjamas.
  • Her favorite place in the world is at home!

Others

  • I’ve started using a range of non-steroidal moisturizing creams and balms on Emma, in the fervent hope that her eczema will heal.  I’m also keeping her legs and hands pretty much covered all the time to prevent scratching.  I hope to review this range of products if/when it truly works.
  • I put her to bed on her back, but she inadvertently always rolls over and sleeps in a crouching manner with her butt up.  I wonder if it’s okay…hmmmm…

Food and Feeding

Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, although she has tried several types of food thus far, albeit in small quantities.  She sucks and nibbles on the following:

  • Steamed carrot sticks
  • Soft steamed rice (I’ve only given her red rice so far)
  • Banana (she will hold the banana and nibble on it)
  • Apple slices
  • Pear slices
  • Cucumber chips

She’s still learning to feed herself, and she loves to hold a spoon, even a spoon without any food in it.  I’m still going slow on her solids because she has yet to completely heal from her eczema and I’m afraid introducing too many different types of new food might make her eczema flare up again.

God With Us

October 11, 2013 in Emma, Milestones | 1 comment

Unlike when we had Hannah, we had not come to a firm decision on what we would name our third miracle when we were expecting her.  As soon as we knew it was going to be a girl, there were a few names we were tossing around.

Well, we knew we wanted a name from the Bible, or at least derived from a Biblical context.  However, some of the names, although sounded all right, just didn’t strike the right chord with either Pete or me.  To be honest, the name “Emma” was “not approved” by Pete earlier on for whatever reason, I do not know.  Subsequently, Hannah began naming her soft toys and her bear happened to be named Emma.  So when we started considering “Emma” again, we had to ask Hannah’s “permission” to have her sister share the same name as her bear.  It was a back and forth decision that continued for weeks, and in the end Hannah agreed to change her bear’s name to Olivia if we choose Emma for her sister’s name.  Well, we did…but Hannah’s bear is still Emma to this date. LOL

Anyway, back to Emma. Emma is a name that carries the meaning “Universal, whole or complete”.  It is also considered a Biblical name because it is a name derived from Emmanuel, which means “God With Us”.

Next comes the tricky part of choosing the Chinese name.  Once again, I requested for help from a friend of mine to help in determining the number of strokes which are suitable, and she confirmed that it would be the same as for Hannah the previous time, which meant that based on Pete’s surname, Chua (蔡Cài), there were 4 stroke combinations that would be a good match for the 2nd and 3rd Chinese character for Emma’s name:

  • 7 + 18
  • 18 + 7
  • 8 + 17
  • 18 + 7

We didn’t really restrict ourselves to having some form of common character for both our girls so our options were wide open.  However, upon doing some research, we limited ourselves to the stroke count above and also to the criteria that Emma’s name had to contain the “grass” radical (艹), given that she would be born in the year of the serpent/snake, according to the Chinese Zodiac.

I gravitated towards the Chinese character Xǐ (禧), from Hannah’s Chinese name because I really liked its meaning: Joy.  Then I stumbled on this character Yún (芸), and since it fits the stroke count and the radical criteria, I enlisted the help of a few friends to help me look up the meaning.  I found several meanings myself so I was a bit confused.  Turns out this character has several meanings on its own, depending on whether it was used traditionally or in its modern form.  One of its meanings is “To see”.

The combination of Yún(芸) and Xǐ (禧) (8 + 17 strokes) therefore meant “To see Joy”. What a beautiful meaningful name for a beautiful baby girl! 🙂

We are also very pleased that both our girls have a common Chinese character in their names but they are also unique names on their own, with the position of the Chinese character Xǐ (禧) switched.

So her full name is thus Emma Chua Yun Xi (蔡 芸 禧 ~ Cài Yún Xǐ), which carries the meaning God with Us, To See Joy.

Additional trivia with regards to our kids’ names: they are all in a way complementing or completing each other, however you want to look at it.

  • Ethan has 5 letters, Hannah has 6 letters and Emma has 4 letters; each one unique and special.
  • Ethan and Emma share the same first name initials.
  • Hannah rhymes with Emma.

More Chomps Ahead!

October 10, 2013 in Emma, Growing Up, Milestones | 1 comment

For the past couple of weeks, sleeping at night has been a whirlwind of inconsistency and disturbance.  Emma would wake up crying and kicking, unable to fall back to sleep even after being breastfed.  I’ve had to carry and rock her and sometimes bring her outside to our living room and eventually she would fall asleep.  By the time I’d realized it, it would be close to dawn and almost time for me to wake up (normally).

Initially I thought it was attributed to her 6th month growth spurt, but just last week, as she was sucking on my finger, I felt a rough edge on her bottom gum.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that…yes, our girl has cut her first teeth!  We can definitely see her 2 bottom incisors peeking out from her gums, and finally that’s when it all made sense!

Here’s a quick photo I took of her today…if you zoom in really closely, you can see the incisors 🙂

I’m excited for my baby girl, but in the same vein…*yawn* I’m yearning for more sleep!

(By the way, October seems to be a favorite month for all my kids to start teething:  Ethan’s first teeth & Hannah’s first teeth)

Emma’s First Solids

September 14, 2013 in Emma, Food & Feeding, Milestones | 3 comments

Two days ago, we gave Emma her first solids.  This time around, I figured I would attempt Baby Led Weaning.  It’s a relatively new concept and the more I’m learning about it, the more it’s making a whole lot of sense.

Basically with Baby Led Weaning, the baby is given “real food”, as in food that is as close as possible to what we as adults would eat (minus the salts and sugars, of course).  With Baby Led Weaning, there will be no food purees and mushy food that is always linked to weaning a baby.  A baby is encouraged to feed herself by holding on to food and chomping or munching as much or as little as she wants.  At the same time, breastfeeding is fully encouraged and baby can drink as much as she wants.

I’ve read that babies who adopt Baby Led Weaning tend to have healthier appetites, are not fussy eaters and become more independent with feeding themselves.  This in turn (hopefully) will result in happier meal times, because the entire family eats together.  Another obvious PLUS is of course that I don’t need to spend time making ground rice, pureeing fruits and vegetables and frozen food cubes! 😀

I’m still learning about Baby Led Weaning as I go along, so if there are any of you out there who has advice or suggestions, please feel free to let me know! 🙂

So I didn’t buy any rice cereal this time.  Instead, for Emma’s first solids, I boiled some soft Bario red rice grains and shaped them into little rice balls.  The boiled Bario red rice looked a little like porridge, soft and palatable.

She grabbed the little rice balls immediately.  But I suppose her hand-to-mouth coordination is not that advanced yet, so she didn’t really know what to do with the rice balls!

She ended up chomping away on the side of the bowl!

When she threatened to fling the bowl over the side of the food tray, I decided to place the food on the tray itself, so she could have easier access to it.

Well, she didn’t eat much of the rice that first time.  I did allow her to hold the bowl again, and she happily licked the bowl a little! 😛

I didn’t expect her to eat much this first time anyway.

Today, I tried again, and she did put a little into her mouth, but she became quite frustrated when she could not eat a lot (we think).  So I used a spoon and fed her small tiny spoons of the red rice porridge.

Guess what?  She grabbed onto the spoon and nibbled at the porridge!  Looks like she likes it!

And she drank some water too after that, with a sippy cup!

Great job, Emma!  Mommy is so proud of you!  Here’s to more healthy eating days ahead!

Emma at 6 Months

September 13, 2013 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Natural Glory QP from My Memories
Boxed words Volume 4-Love & Wedding empty tag from Chantal Taake

Weight

No up to date measurement as yet, I’m guessing probably around 8 kilos, at least.

Height/Length

No up to date measurement yet too.  Will be taking her to the pediatrician for her 6-month well-child checkup, so we’ll get some measurements then.

Motor Skills

  • Emma can now roll over and roll back again.  She’s getting pretty adept at it too!
  • She will roll and move her body around the bed or across the floor.
  • Sometimes when she is on her tummy, she till attempt to lift her butt up.  Couldn’t resist posting this picture of her in deep slumber, with her butt in the air.  Emma sleeps on her back mostly, but that morning, I caught her in this position!

Communication and Social Skills

  • Emma is babbling a lot, and on several occasions (especially when crying), we have caught her saying, “Mom”, “Mum”, “Mama” or “Ma”. *beams*
  • Will reach out her hands or leans towards me when she wants me to carry her.
  • She can recognize my voice, and will let out a cry when she hears me in the vicinity.
  • Smiles when spoken to.

Others

  • Still can’t wait for her eczema to completely heal.  It’s unbearably itchy at times and she scratches if it is not moisturized.  On countless nights, I have woken up just to apply the moisturizer on her skin so she feels better.
  • Her sucking reflex is pretty strong now, and she loves to grab and suck on anything in sight.  It could be a sign of teething though, but only time will tell.

Food and Feeding

She is 100% on Mommy’s milk.  Will attempt to reach for cups, bottles or plates if they are within her reach.  Methinks that is a sure sign of readiness for solids.

Frying an Egg 101

September 3, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

Ethan expressed an interest to learn how to cook, and today I told him he could fry an egg for me for lunch. 🙂

After all, seven is as good an age as any to learn how to cook, no?

I let him crack the egg into a bowl on his own; choose the egg from the fridge and hit it firmly on the edge of the bowl, then pull the shells apart so the egg slides gently into the bowl (he did it beautifully, with the yolk intact, and no remnants of eggshells floating inside).

Then I turned on the stove and explained that the pan needs to be hot before we poured the oil in.

Then Ethan poured the egg into the pan and waited for it to cook, and then he used a spatula to lift the egg out of the pan and onto my plate.

He was so pleased with himself, and he’s asking me what he will be cooking tomorrow.

Are there any Junior Masterchef classes in Penang? 😀

Hannah’s Back To School – in Nursery!

August 19, 2013 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

Hannah had been looking forward to this day for the longest time.  We had been having nightly chats about school and she had become increasingly excited about seeing all her friends again, getting reacquainted and just plain doing anything in school.

The day before, she had helped me pack her bag, and chose her outfit for the day.  She even chose what snack to bring!  Today, she woke up extra early, and got ready without any fuss.  We reached school in time for breakfast and she met one of her closest friends who had arrived at approximately the same time as her.

Her teachers and friends were overjoyed to see her, and I think it was mutual.  I walked her to class, made sure she settled down for breakfast, gave her a hug and kiss and told her I’ll be back at 12:30p.m. to pick her up.

When I did, she proudly exclaimed, “I had so much FUN today, Mommy!”

And that just makes my day.  Absolutely. 🙂

Emma at 5 Months

August 14, 2013 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Sweetheart QP from Delicious Scraps
Boxed words from Chantal
Boxed words (Volume 2 – Spring) from Chantal Taake

Weight

No up to date measurement as yet, I’m guessing probably around 7 kilos, at least.

Height/Length

No up to date measurement too, but she sure seems to be outgrowing her bath tub!  (so soon!!!)

Motor Skills

  • Emma started to rollover several days before she hit the 5-month mark.  Her head support is getting stronger and stronger now.
  • She can wiggle and squirm and move her body around in circles.
  • Loves to suck everything in sight: her fingers, her toes, our fingers, her fist..and so we started giving her a little teether too.
  • She can hold both feet up in the Happy Baby pose (Yoga) .

Communication and Social Skills

  • Emma adores her siblings.  Ethan and Hannah enjoy making Emma giggle and when she does, it’s the most wonderful sound in the world!
  • Emma is officially a SMILEY baby now.
  • She loves bath time, and sometimes cries and complains when it is over.
  • Loves listening to songs being sung to her.
  • Loves being with Mommy all the time, but nowadays is quite contented to be with Daddy too, as long as she’s not hungry.
  • She’s starting to love car rides, maybe it’s our new wheels, and also maybe it was just a phase she was going through last time.  Most of the time now, she can and will fall asleep while riding in the car.

Others

  •  Her sleep pattern is getting more consistent now.  She is used to the night time routine we’ve set out for her, so she falls asleep pretty easily after her shower in the evenings.  Praying it stays that way and gets better and better with time.
  • On good days, she wakes up on average once a night for her short night-time feed.  Sometimes she is up again at about 5a.m. and will not fall asleep till 7a.m.
  • We’re still moisturizing her skin several times a day to get rid of the rough patches, especially on her limbs and her neck.  She is still scratching herself quite a bit, so we need to ensure her nails are short and trimmed all the time.

Food and Feeding

She is 100% on Mommy’s milk.  Showing a keen interest in food, or so we think.  She will stare at my cup when I drink.

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