Another month, another very late blog entry! Again, we give thanks to the gods of backdated entries (whee!).
[[image:2013_0129_rafe27.jpg:Drooly cutie pie:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
This month, Adik went from walking a few steps in a row to a pretty consistent walker. He walks all over the house and can easily go from the living room to the office without falling over or resorting to crawling. However, when there is a need for speed, he does go down on all fours to zoom away. He is so funny when he walks though – that toddler walk, hands up in the air for balance and kind of a pirate-like rolling gait. Utterly adorable! Last seen in this house when Yaya was toddling around. Despite its cuteness, it gets the job done. Adik has now found his feet and has gotten fairly confident on them. This means we are running after him all the time – he loves to go and splash in the cat’s water dish and is starting to look at her dry food like it’s cheerios.
We still have to be careful when Yaya is around though – she thinks running around people is funny especially cutting right in front of you to try and trip you up. It’s so funny she’s had to be given time outs for making her brother fall down on purpose. And she wonders why Adik bops her nose when he gets a chance! One of the best things in the world is when the two kids are running after each other, giggling hysterically and playing tag. You cannot keep a straight face while they are running around shrieking with laughter.
Foodwise – since Adik has far more teeth than Yaya did at the same age (Adik has 5 teeth!), we are less conscientious about an organized method of trying out stuff. So the only foods that he had a proper 4-day trial were:
* Chocolate flavored Pediasure (thumbs up)
* Strawberry flavored Pediasure (thumbs way down – he refused to finish even one bottle)
* Parsley-spinach pesto (nutless) mixed with ground beef (blended up) + onions/garlic/carrots + acini di pepe pasta. He rated it thumbs middle, although both Vin and I thought it tasted pretty good.
Instead, Adik tried a lot of foods by begging for stuff off our plates. This would include:
* Turkey Lunchmeat (thumbs up)
* Toasted multigrain bread with butter
* Toasted english muffin with nutella (thumbs up)
* Grilled cheese (multigrain bread + cheddar cheese) sandwich (thumbs way up!)
* Grilled cheese with turkey lunchmeat (thumbs way up)
* Cinnamon-raisin circle toast (thumbs up)
* Macaroni and cheese
Adik’s pediatrician recommended that we keep up the high calorie diet to stimulate height growth. At his 1-year check up, he had gained some weight but it seemed like his height growth was not as expected so back to the butter/milk/heavy cream additives and keep up with the Pediasure! His weight gain was satisfactory though (yay!). He gained 3 ounces between his 6 month and 9 month appointments, and gained 4.5 pounds between his 9 month and 12 month checkups. Whee!! And the big change for this month is that I stopped expressing milk to give to Adik as a before bed supplement. He now just straight breastfeeds (still on demand). He doesn’t seem to miss the bottle and is happy just mooching off our plates! Sadly for Adik, he does seem to beg for my usually spicy noodles and I have to say no. Soon though, baby. 🙂
Speechwise, we still have the same four words clearly (Papa, Mama, Yaya and Kitkat) and in addition to roaring when asked what a bear says, he also barks when you ask what a dog says, and he trumpets when asked what an elephant says. Most of his animals are pretty fierce though: his penguins roar, a few other innocuous animals also roar. He does not meow (I blame Lily for being such a quiet non-vocal cat). He still loves to boing-boing-boing bounce the kangaroo finger puppet. We still see a lot of the “more” sign. He does get into very talkative moods where he babbles away in baby talk, with lots of nuance, tone and expression. He’s getting there!
Let us proceed to the pictures of how our young lad spent his 13 month birthday. He started off playing with Papa and Yaya downstairs, while Mama caught some extra z’s to make up for all the night-time nursing sessions (sadly, we are nowhere near sleeping through the night still).
[[image:2013_0129_rafe01.jpg:Wrestling with a leftover balloon from his party:center:0]]
After a morning nap on Mama in the office, Adik is full of beans again.
[[image:2013_0129_rafe02.jpg:What’s going on, Yaya?:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe03.jpg:You’re funny, Yaya!:center:0]]
It was my birthday, and it was miraculously 65F (roughly 17C which is way too warm for January – not that I’m complaining). So I took the afternoon off. We decided to go on a road trip – off to the butcher we go!
[[image:2013_0129_rafe04.jpg:Hi Yaya! Get in your seat so we can go!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe06.jpg:Waiting for our Thai food takeout to be ready:center:0]]
Surprisingly, Adik did not really nap in the car as we had expected him to, so he needed a quick nap when we got home. After that, he was back up to his tricks and getting into everything.
[[image:2013_0129_rafe07.jpg:Kacau-ing (messing) Papa in the laundry room:center:0]]
Next we have a segment called “Fun with Papa’s scarf”:
[[image:2013_0129_rafe08.jpg:It’s a sled!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe09.jpg:Let’s roll it up:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe10.jpg:Stomping on the scarf!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe13.jpg:It’s not a very good slide:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe22.jpg:Following Yaya’s lead – she draped the scarf over the yellow chairs:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe12.jpg:Even Lily wants in on the scarf fun!:center:0]]
Amazing what children and cats can do with a simple (overly) long scarf! Next let’s see how active the boy is and how many different ways can he and his sister mess up the house:
[[image:2013_0129_rafe11.jpg:Plotting with syringe in hand…:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe14.jpg:The middle of the floor is a good place to dump everything, including my ‘jamas:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe15.jpg:I can sit and be cute for a minute:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe16.jpg:Hmmm where can I throw this ball?:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe17.jpg:I can climb on this chair!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe18.jpg:Wheeee! Living dangerously is fun!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe19.jpg:I can play the accordion now:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe20.jpg:Good Dog Carl is an awesome book!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe21.jpg:Haha! I can get away with anything cause I’m so cute!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe23.jpg:Gotta stop and brush my hair:center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe24.jpg:Cheeky boy!:center:0]]
And then it was time for dinner:
[[image:2013_0129_rafe25.jpg:Jom makan! (Let’s eat!):center:0]]
[[image:2013_0129_rafe26.jpg:Lying down for a pretend nap after dinner:center:0]]
Coincidentally, it was of course my birthday and Yaya insisted on a candle (again). This year we scaled down and went with a cupcake:
[[image:2013_0129_rafe29.jpg:Yaya helps to blow out the candle:center:0]]
Adik was quite skeptical of the whole thing, but it was fun. The cupcake was delicious – Adik had a taste but Yaya did not. Then it was bath and bedtime. Adik takes a moment to gnaw on a bottle:
[[image:2013_0129_rafe30.jpg:Nom nom nom:center:0]]
It was a fun and busy month. See you all again soon! Happy 13 month birthday, baby boy! We love you!
[[image:2013_0129_rafe05.jpg:Sweetness and innocence:center:0]]
