Well, somebody’s pleased to be 11 months old!! [[image:allie297a.jpg:Wheee! I’m almost a year old!:center:0]] 🙂 That’s right, the girl was 11 months old last Monday, June 22, 2009. Another fun-filled month has gone by. It seems like I plan to do so much, but then suddenly it’s 8 PM, Allie’s bedtime and the day is done! And she is now 11 months and 6 days old. She sleeps through the night, enjoys music, and seems to be paying attention to the commercials on TV. She still has one tooth (but goodness, it is sharp!) although it looks like others may be coming soon. Allie is growing fast. She can now pull herself to a standing position if we give her a hand, and she is learning to balance and stands with little help. She can lean her back against the sofa and stand while holding objects in her hands. She […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: sila
Belated Happy Father’s Day!!
Sunday was Vin’s very first Father’s Day! I wasn’t on the ball enough to have gotten him a card, but Allie and I did pick out a couple of gifts for him (which arrived early so Allie was able to model them for Vin on Father’s Day). 🙂 Happy Father’s Day, babe!!! You are the best Papa anyone could ask for, and we both love you. [[image:allie277a.jpg:Happy Father’s Day, Papa! (And Hippos Go BERSERRRRRRRK):center:0]] [[image:allie276a.jpg:Loooooove Papa:center:0]] Note: Allie is wearing her new pink Chicago Cubs official onesie (Papa’s Father’s day gift). Also, a Happy Belated Father’s Day to Abah, Yope and all you awesome dads out there!!!
Continue readingAllie’s 10 Month Birthday
My goodness, I can’t believe that is is already June. Allie was 10 months old on May 22nd, and yes, I know it is now June but here it is, Allie’s 10-month birthday post. It’s later than it usually is because the month of May has been very busy for our little family. So let’s get to it. Allie is 10 months and 11 days old today! 45 weeks! She has been ex-utero longer now than she was in-utero. She sleeps through the night most nights and has a grand total of one tooth! Wheeeeee! [[image:allie264a.jpg:Blueberry-stained and happy:center:0]] Can you see the tooth in the picture above? Allie’s personality is definitely becoming more and more defined. She is mostly easy-going and easy to please. She sits by herself to play often, and loves to be read to and sung to. She now stands (with help) and “dances” to the Bingo […]
Continue readingAllie’s 9 Month Birthday
I feel like a broken record, but it’s true, time has passed so very quickly. Unbeknownst to us (seemingly), 40 weeks have passed. Allie has now been ex utero as long as she was in utero. She was 9 months old last Wednesday, April 22nd! So it makes her now, 9 months and 1 week old today. 40 weeks altogether. Woo! Her personality shines through strongly, and she most definitely is her own person with definite thoughts in her head about what she likes/dislikes, what she wants and when she wants it. It really is a balancing act to love her and give her everything, without becoming over-indulgent. Plus when she bats those eyelids of hers and smiles, how can we resist? 😉 [[image:allie236a.jpg:9-month-old Allie cons the ‘rents:center:0]] Before Allie was born, I thought that she would be the most important thing to us, and that we would love her […]
Continue readingHold the applause, please
So, she put her hands together and clapped her hands. She makes a little clapping noise and everything. She started it on her own on Saturday (April 4th), and has been happily clapping her hands since then. [[image:allie222a.jpg:Clap!:center:0]] [[image:allie223a.jpg:Clap again!:center:0]] Vin and I really didn’t try to actively teach Allie to clap her hands. We only spottily sang “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”. Somehow, she figured it out. Allie had been banging two objects together (one in each hand) for weeks now, and had also been holding my hands and making them clap together. Maybe it was research? Whatever the case, let’s sing together and Allie will clap: Tepuk amai-amaiBelalang kupu-kupuTepuk Alya pandaiMama upah susu OK. Now you may applaud. 🙂
Continue readingAllie’s 8 Month Birthday
This past month has also gone by in a whirlwind. I can’t believe it, but Allie is now 8 months old (last Sunday, March 22)! She’s just continuing to grow and develop before our eyes, and we feel blessed to have her in our lives. [[image:allie198a.jpg:The birthday girl:center:0]] Allie sits like a professional now, able to balance while she plays with her toys, reaching with impressive yoga-like stretching ability to pick up the toys that she has thrown everywhere. She expresses her emotions in so many different ways (not just crying). She giggles and squeals, hugs and kisses, and kicks her feet happily. She loves peekaboo, and loves to run around in the house in our arms, chasing and being chased by each other. She rolls all around the floor as her means of “crawling” – she does get where she wants to go! When she sees you walk in […]
Continue readingAllie’s 7 Month Birthday
Last Sunday, February 22, Allie was seven months old. I know I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by, and that it is already March 1st. How did that happen? It feels like we just celebrated the new year, no? And I don’t mean Chinese New Year, either. I mean Times Square, ball dropping, happy 2009! I am hardly even used to writing “09” on my checks (cheques to us Malaysians) and it is already March. 🙂 [[image:allie186a.jpg:Reaching for the camera:center:0]] At any rate, Allie has progressed further in this last month. We are done with reading stories from the Crab Orchard Review at bedtime. Now we are reading another short story anthology (I forget what year the book covers but I know that Michael Chabon edited it). For the most part, Allie sleeps well – from her 8 PM bedtime to 6:30 AM, with usually only one night-time […]
Continue readingA Visitor!
During the time of the big hu-ha (laptop dying + snowfall + sad miserable cold Sila), we had a welcome visitor here in Southwestern Ohio! Unfortunately, the weather being what it was, we were unable to take our visitor out to sight-see very much. We decided instead to relax indoors. Allie got along well with Flat Cavebaby: [[image:cavebaby1.jpg:Allie posing with Kakak Flat Cavebaby:center:0]] Allie enjoys “tummy-time” with Flat Cavebaby: [[image:cavebaby2.jpg:Allie demonstrates being on her tummy for Kakak Flat Cavebaby:center:0]] [[image:cavebaby5.jpg:Kakak Flat Cavebaby, Allie and Lulu hold hands and sing Kumbaya:center:0]] Cavebaby is very excited that snow is falling: [[image:cavebaby4.jpg:Snow falling on the back deck:center:0]] Too bad Auntie Sila is grumpy and hates the cold. By the way, it was way below freezing and the snow just keeps falling and falling. Grumpity grump! This is not really normal weather for Southwestern Ohio. We get some snow, yes, but the weather does […]
Continue readingMakan Time!
On Monday, February 2 2009, Allie was introduced to solids. Her doctor had cleared her for her first taste of non-milk at her 6-month checkup the week before, but we were snowed in for a week so did not get out to the grocery store for the recommended first food: rice cereal. Per the literature, every new food is to be introduced by itself for 4 consecutive days to check for allergies so Allie would eat rice cereal every day for the next 4 days. Here she is, happily (and unsuspectingly?) hanging out while I prepared her lunch. [[image:makan01.jpg:Before Makan:center:0]] Note: Makan means “to eat”. And of course, please mouse over the pictures for added captions. First, preparing the food. [[image:makan02.jpg:Rice Cereal:center:0]] [[image:makan03.jpg:Dry cereal in a bowl:center:0]] For the purposes of the very first makan, I used Vin’s yellow bowl, that his mother gave to him to take to college. […]
Continue readingSequence of Events
I have a few backlogged blog entries to make, and here is the sequence of events detailing why they were delayed: 1. Thursday January 22, 2009 – Allie’s 6-month birthday. Lots of picture taking occurred. 2. Friday January 23, 2009 – my laptop screen dies in the mid-afternoon. Connecting it to an external monitor shows that the laptop itself is fine. I drive to Best Buy, stand in line forever, only to have the Geek Squad (f*ckers!!!) tell me that a) my laptop warranty ended November of 2008, and finally they come around to say that they don’t fix laptop screens. Please call someone else. They suggest a company. (Don’t even get me started on how angry I was that I drove all the way to Best Buy to have them give me this bullshit. What kind of Geek Squad doesn’t fix laptop screens?) So I get back in the […]
Continue readingAllie’s 6 Month Birthday
It happened! Last Thursday, January 22, 2009 (also Yong’s birthday, happy birthday Yong!), Allie was six months old! She is filling her (and our) waking moments with giggles, squeals, chuckles and lots of love. She is an excellent hugger and cuddler, but hasn’t quite yet mastered kissing, and she can be quite the babbler. She still enjoys tossing her toys overboard and making us pick them up for her, and she is getting quite good at manipulating toys, books and such. Vin’s and my glasses are rarely without her fingerprints on the lenses somewhere. Some biggies: she rolled over on her own steam! Yayyy!! She can practically sit on her own (we need to help her balance a little but she holds herself upright quite well). We are done with the stories of Ambrose Bierce (the Civil War short stories turned out to be too disturbing for us) and we […]
Continue readingAllie’s 5 Month Birthday
Yet another month has passed! On Monday, Allie was five months old. She is growing into her own little person, smiling and reaching out for a favorite toy, and able to spend more and more time amusing herself. She has a bedtime and a daily routine. She listens to short stories by Ambrose Bierce at nights and seems to enjoy watching football (American football) on TV (oh no!!!). She giggles and squeals and sings and is generally a good-humored baby. She is getting quite good at manipulating things with her hands, including picking up and sucking on the rubber ducky at bathtime. She finds it amusing to drop a succession of toys onto the floor when she sits in the stroller, and watch us pick them up and hand them back to her. In short, she is a total joy. And of course, pictures! * Mouse over the pictures for […]
Continue readingDecember Musings
Here we are, December again. There was snow on the ground last week, and it has since melted. However, as I write this entry, it has begun to snow again. Winter has arrived, even though it is not yet December 21st. This bums me out majorly… 🙁 The difference this year is that our lives are filled with happiness as Allie grows and grows. Every day she learns new things. Every day she seems a little bigger, a little stronger, and a little cuter. And even the bleakest, snowiest days don’t seem quite so bad. [[image:allie116a.jpg:Giggle giggle:center:0]] And before I forget, a belated Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha to everyone! Parenthood is definitely one of the coolest things in the world. I never really understood it (only imagined it), but watching your child change daily, reading parenting books, trying out what the books say and seeing her react, it’s just amazing. […]
Continue readingAllie’s 4 Month Birthday
And just like that, another month has gone by. Alya turned 4 months old yesterday. It seems so unreal that she is now 4 months old, and able to do more and more, and becoming her own little person. She now squeals and babbles regularly, sometimes going into the only-dogs-can-hear-her register. She is starting to sleep better at nights (and thus, so are we), and wakes up happy and smiling (as do her parents). She’s really tugging and yanking at the hanging animals on the gymini, and has been busily at work massacreing Yellow Belly (the little hanging insect at her right-hand side off the car seat handle) and the Bee Buzzer. She can almost sit up on her own (I need to give her very little support), and she can stand and support her weight if we hold her up. She’s just learning new things every day! It’s totally […]
Continue readingAnd the Kitkat ups the Ante – I
It seems like since Allie was born, Lily has seriously upped her own CQ, as if to compete with Allie? Check it out: [[image:lily25.jpg:Usurping the gymini:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions [[image:lily26.jpg:Resting on the stairs:center:0]] [[image:lily27.jpg:Washing a paw:center:0]] [[image:lily28.jpg:Bengkok sini (bend this way):center:0]] [[image:lily29.jpg:Bengkok sana (bend that way):center:0]] This is what we call the roly-poly kitkat, who rolls around being cute so we will play with her or pet her, or pay attention to her. 🙂 [[image:lily30.jpg:Checking out the vibrating chair:center:0]] I’ll put more of the numerous cute Lily pictures that I have soon. Enjoy!
Continue readingHair! The Sequel
So, I finally did it! a) I got a haircut b) I left Allie at home with Vin for the first time. Oh my. It was more than a little nerve-wracking. Vin had expressed milk in the fridge, and a baby in a good mood. I was showered and dressed to go out. So. I left without her. It was quite strange, I felt discombobulated and scattered. Like I had forgotten something. I kept checking my pockets and my purse. (Was I expecting to find Allie on my person somewhere? I don’t know). Anyway, it was a successful outing. Hair that desperately needed to be cut (can we say post-partum hair loss? aka telogen effluvium) got cut, and I didn’t have any real separation anxiety attacks. And when I came home, Vin had kept a detailed note of what he and Allie did together. Wasn’t that sweet of him? So […]
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