You are currently browsing the archive for the Milestones category.
Scrap Credits
Happy Birthday Mini QP from Delicious Scraps
Beauty Sleep Alphas from Laurie’s Scraps
Weight
Actually I think she weighs only about 7.2-7.5kilos, based on our roughly accurate measurement of carrying her on the scale. A little below the average weight but I’m sure she’ll catch up soon.
Height/Length
Not measured.
Teeth
4 teeth: 2 bottom incisors and 2 upper incisors. Other incisors (top and bottom) coming out soon too.
Motor Skills
- Emma can sometimes stand unsupported for a few seconds before sitting or squatting down. Sometimes it is accompanied by w cute “sigh”.
- Continues with cruising around especially at the couch area. She tries to walk but is a little hindered by her sleep-n-plays, which she has to wear due to her eczema.
- Quite a strong and advanced grip and pincer’s grip, and she is very good at grabbing stuff (cups we hold, food we hold, straws), and also, lately she has been dubbed “The Ant Killer”, because of her ability to “hunt down” ants on the floor and press and kill them. Which means we have to wash her hands every so often too!
- Loves to wave her hands around.
Communication and Social Skills
- Says “Baba” and waves her hand usually when we say “Buh bye”.
- Calls “Dedeh” sometimes.
- Understands the meaning of “Stop”. When I say “Stop”, she will stop whatever she is doing, e.g. crawling, touching something, splashing water.
- Getting more accustomed to Daddy being around her. 🙂
Others
- Not sleeping through yet. SIGH. I suspect it could be due to the heat! Her sleeping time is sometimes out of sync with mine too, resulting in Mommy the Zombie days.
- Her skin is still pretty dry, so there is still some scratching, but hopefully it will get better soon.
Food and Feeding
Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she does drink some water (either from a regular cup or from a sippy cup), owing to her slight intake in solids. She’s not taken a keen interest in drinking from a straw yet though.
We’ve noticed that Emma seems to prefer fruits and veggies to meats; could this be a vegan in the making?
Some of the foods she has tried this month:
- Spinach
- Buckwheat
- Oats
- Egg Yolk (which she absolutely loves)
- Garlic (mixed in to flavor her food)
- A leetle bit of olive oil
- Carrot noodles (She loves this too, and eats it with her hands)
Last weekend, we had a small family event to celebrate Emma turning one. Can’t believe it has already been a year since she was born!
We decided to invite our guests to a lunch buffet at Sarkies in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, so that meant I would only need to work on the birthday cake. 🙂
I’d been researching possibilities for a cake for baby Emma, but only decided after I finished baking Hannah’s cake. Daddy suggested a cake in the shape of Mommy since Emma is totally attached to me, but I could not bring myself to make such a cake. In the end, I decided on this adorable cake which had piqued my interest.
It’s a … Cute as a Button Cake! …for a little baby who is as cute as a button 🙂
I had so much fun making this cake, especially crafting those cute lil’ buttons!
Emma enjoyed some fruits from the fabulous buffet spread.
She enjoyed being carried around, and thankfully, she was rather okay with other guests at the party, giving me a little bit of time to fill my tummy.
There was also evidence of trying to tempt Emma with pretty purses! 😛
He did it with style just a couple of days ago, when we were at AdventureZone with some of the kids’ cousins. Years ago, when he first visited AdventureZone, Ethan would only get on the Rainbow Slide, the least intimidating of the three. Sometimes he would attempt the blue one, but most of the time he will only stick to the Rainbow Slide.
Then last month, when we were there, he went down the Blue Slide (Double Drop Slide), which leads straight into a pool of balls. He shied away from the (very scary) Demon Drop Slide (red one), which is a 24ft vertical drop! Very very scary…trust me.
This time though, he said he would go on the red Demon Drop Slide and he really did. He conquered his fears and even went on the higher of the two options for the Demon Drop Slide.
Bravo Ethan…I’m very proud of you!
Two days before her actual birthday on March 2nd, we had a little birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her classmates. As was always the case pre-birthday, Hannah was rather undecided on what kind of cake she’d wanted. I would say she changed her mind almost every month leading to her birthday, so when she told me she finally decided, I had to ask her a few times to really confirm it.
Here’s my birthday girl with her Sofia the First inspired dress and tiara cake. She chose the design herself after looking through tons of ideas on Pinterest.
The entire cake is edible, even the fondant and gumpaste tiara, but I had to make some last minute modifications because errr….. there was a slight cake decoration mishap. But my little girl was happy nonetheless… 🙂 I had tremendous fun baking and decorating this cake too, the highlights being the tiara and the floral designs on the skirt. Not bad an effort for my first two-tier cake 🙂
I even painted an airbrush glimmer sheen on the tiara to make it sparkle!
My little girl Hannah is just about embarking on her next beautiful journey: learning to read. The fact that she cannot read as fluently as her brother Ethan did when he was her age last time does not bother me one bit.
Ethan was a fast reader and could already string words together before he was 3. Hannah on the other hand is doing a great job sounding the sounds alphabets make, but at one point, she was frustrated because she could not put these sounds together to form words.
I’m not concerned because as long as I know she is healthy and having fun learning stuff, I’m happy too. But lately I realized that Hannah could pick up reading more easily and readily when she reads a story repetitively, or when the story is read to her repeatedly.
Here, she is reading one of the books she borrowed from the library. With fun graphics and easy-to-read words, it’s an excellent start to boost her confidence and jumpstart her on the reading bandwagon.
I love her expressive words!
Scrap Credits
Spring Is In QP freebie from Delicious Scraps
Blue Valentine element from Lisete Scrap
Weight
Probably around 9 kilos
Height/Length
Not measured.
Teeth
4 teeth: 2 bottom incisors and 2 upper incisors.
Motor Skills
- Emma loves to stand with support, especially with her hands on the couch or chair. She loves banging her hands on the surface of the couch.
- Cruising a little.
- Can stand unsupported for like 3 seconds.
- Emma can clap her hands upon request, for example when we say, “Clap your hands”
- Sometimes she will open and close her hands when we say “Bye bye”
- Can manipulate objects better now with her hands and fingers (but everything still goes into the mouth)
- Very quick in grabbing stuff we are holding, especially drinks and food items.
Communication and Social Skills
- Calls me “Mama..” or “Mameh” quite often now. We’ve also heard he saying “Baba” and blowing raspberries too.
- Loves the remote control.
Others
- Not sleeping through yet. SIGH. Wakes up like once a night but stays up for 2-3 hours!! :O
- Working hard to cure her eczema once and for all.
Food and Feeding
Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times. Her favorites are papaya and banana. We’ve introduced the following to her thus far, not a lot but she does seem to be curious with new foods, which is a good sign:
- Beef – she’s not too keen on this though
- Pumpkin
I intend to introduce wheat grains to her sometime this week, so that if she’s ok with it, I can give her teething rusks.
Emma’s getting more and more adventurous with her eating. She loves to grab the spoon and attempts to feed herself with it. She also loves to grab my cup and drink from it. Of course I only allow water 🙂
Scrap Credits
One Perfect Day QP freebie from Blagovesta Gosheva
Weight
8 point something kilos.
Height/Length
Not measured.
Teeth
2 bottom incisors, and 2 upper incisors growing too.
Motor Skills
- Emma loves to crawl around now, and will usually target her siblings’ toys especially their Legos. Ethan and Hannah will dramatically announce, “Oh NO!!! The giant baby is coming! Hurry, run!!!”
- Opens and closes her palms often, sometimes playing with her fingers.
- Likes patting our hands when offered to her.
- Learning how to stand for longer periods.
- Tries to squat with support.
Communication and Social Skills
- Calls me “Mama..” quite often now. At other times, she just cries in a pitiful manner.
- Can play for longer periods on her own with some of her toys, sometimes buying me some time to do work, like cleaning and cooking.
- Loves to move her body to music as if dancing.
Others
- Not sleeping through yet. SIGH.
Food and Feeding
Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times. Her favorites are papaya and banana. We’ve introduced the following to her thus far, not a lot but she does seem to be curious with new foods, which is a good sign:
- Chicken
- Pork
- Garoupa fish (she didn’t like this)
- Salmon (so far, she only liked playing with it)
Scrap Credits
Joyeux Noel QP from Fancy Bird Design
Weight
About 8 kilos.
Height/Length
Not measured.
Teeth
2 bottom incisors.
Motor Skills
- Emma crawls pretty comfortably now. She can move from sitting to crawling and back to sitting position easily. She can sometimes spend a little longer on the floor playing with her baby toys.
- She love pulling herself up to standing position and is showing signs of cruising soon. She absolutely loves it when we praise her for doing a good job standing up.
- Everything goes into the mouth.
Communication and Social Skills
- Still waiting for that first “Mommy”…although we hear a lot of “Mamamama……”
- She loves it when I involve her to clap her hands.
- Very interested in her siblings’ Lego pieces. She makes a conscious attempt to crawl to those pieces but she is always stopped by us. Ethan and Hannah will say, “No Emma…when you are 18 months, you can play with the Lego Duplo. This is not for you!”
Others
- Constant moisturizing of her skin is essential, at least 4-5 times a day, in the process of healing her eczema.
- We’re hoping our new place (with less dust) will be key to curing her eczema.
Food and Feeding
Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, and she eats mostly fruits at other times. I will be starting her off on some protein soon.
Scrap Credits
Dried Roses QP from Marie
Weight
7.5 kilos as at last well-child checkup on 8/15. Slightly below the 50 percentile on the weight-for-age chart.
Height/Length
66cm as at last well-child checkup on 8/15. Slightly below the 50 percentile on the height-for-age chart. However, her head circumference of 44cm is above the 50 percentile.
Teeth
2 bottom incisors.
Motor Skills
- Emma can crawl forward slowly now. It helps when we place a little toy in front of her so she has a goal to reach. We find that it is easier for her to crawl when her legs are not covered in her sleep-n-plays. She sometimes does commando-crawl on her tummy, but sometimes she is slowly trying to crawl on her hands and knees too.
- Emma can sit unsupported for longer periods of time now. She loves to splash at water in the bathtub during bath times.
- She can pull herself up to standing and sometimes half-standing position, either in her crib (using the railings) or when we hold her hands.
- Her pincer’s grip is getting stronger and steadier.
- She loves to balance herself on her side with both legs extended sideways.
Communication and Social Skills
- Emma is beginning to make the sound “Mmmm” or sometimes she will just say the letter “M” when she wants me. Lately I think I have heard her say “Mama…” 🙂
- She loves it when we sing and clap our hands.
- Continues to be a very smiley happy baby.
Others
- Constant moisturizing of her skin is essential, at least 4-5 times a day, in the process of healing her eczema.
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. Some of the new food that she has tried are:
- Papaya
- Plums
- Dragonfruit slices
- Grapes (just sucking on the juice)
Her pediatrician has also recommended that we start Emma on a daily dose of 1ml multivitamin. In addition to supplementing her diet, it would hopefully also help to heal her skin more quickly.