27.
18 October 2011
marked my 27th year on this earth. I used to be really excited about birthdays.
This year was abit different.
Perhaps I am just getting older, or maybe I feel different because I am a mother now?
Anyways, my birthday week was awesome because I got to spend time with E, Ryan, my family and friends.
I am happy and blessed.
*****
Celebration with E.
Mortons is the birthday place tradition for me since we got together. Heehee.
With my love.
Lobster bisque.
Sauteed Button Mushroo.
Broiled Sea Scallops Wrapped in Bacon served with apricot chutney.
NY Strip Steak.
My birthday sundae. 
Thank you, Mister E.
****
Birthday celebration with family.
E treated my family and I to Yam kitchen for a simple Chinese dinner.
E also got me an XS Manchester United jersey. Not a really wise decision.
I am no longer XS.
But nice to know that my hubby still thinks that I am.
My small family of E, Ryan and myself.
****
One more with my Hai Sing loves.
We had the celebration at Momoya, and Yvonne darling even specially got cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes for me! <3
****
‘Bring your child to work’ Day…
9 December 2011
Baby Ryan, at Daddy’s workspace.
***
Ryan, decorating the cake.
It was ‘Bring your child to work’ Day at E’s workplace. E’s colleague planned a really nice event for the children in the department which includes painting, decorating cakes and so on. Ryan had a nice time with his lovely new friends and I am really impressed with the nursing room at E’s workplace. For one, the nursing room is huge, with several cubicles, all equipped with Medela machines. Talk about being pro-family, I think this is one company that really promotes work-life-family harmony!
*****
His First Word-
9 November 2011
is ”Mama”.
Ryan started babbling alot more when he was 5 months. Very adorable!
Just one day shy of seven months(on the significant date 09112011), my baby boy uttered “Mama” distinctly. In fact, Ryan was going on, “Mmmm Mmmm” for a while…. and the day he slipped out his first precious word, “Mama”, it was when he was crying for me. It was definitely one of those heart melting, heart strings tugging moments… At first, I thought I was just being delusional. but has been witnessed by my parents, my siblings and E. So, I am not crazy.
After since that day, it is observed that he only calls out Mama when he is crying out for me. Heehee, I suppose this is one of the plus points of being close to him, Mama becomes one of the most important word to him. Nice.
Right now, I need Ryan to be more consistent in using word.
***
Hello Holidays!
November-December 2011
The holidays has finally begun. Iam back, spending my homely days with my Baby Ryan.
So far, it has been nothing but exceptionally awesome.
This is how Baby Ryan looks like now. Heehee.
As of 7 months, Ryan is able to stand for about 3-5 minutes with support.
******
We put him in the walker in his 5th-6th month.
Initially, he was rather afraid of being left alone in the walker.
In the first week, he grew out of his fear and then started moving backwards.
By his 6th month, he was extremely confident of moving around in his walker- forwards, backwards, sideways and so on.
*******
Also by 7 months, Ryan was able to crawl backwards.
His progress improved alot when we started taking out the playmat and make him do at least 20-30 minutes of tummy time every evening.
******
Our daily holiday routine would be- waking up at 7-8ish, rolling around in bed with Ryan stretching out, kicking me and E.
(Yes, our baby co-sleeps with us.)
Don’t you think Ryan looks a little familiar?
Heehee…
Ryan is especially “sticky” to me. In fact, he will have his choice of people he likes to hang out with.
Apparently, I am on the Number 1 on that list. Not sure if that is a good thing because I am really tired out by the end of the day.
*sigh*
But of course, it feels awesome that he obviously prefers my company to anyone else’s.
****
After the morning lazing, Ryan and I will send Daddy to work. Around 9-10ish, Ryan will have his milk while I get my breakfast. I will try to watch some telly- The Ellen Show while Ryan will sit on his playmat, playing with his toys while he listens to the nursery rhymes being played.
*****
If I do not head to my parents’ place in the afternoon, Ryan will have his Heinz bottled food for lunch. Yes, I know. Bad Mummy. Seriously, E and I really do not cook at all. Perhaps the day E can offically retire me comes, then it will be a good time to talk about grocery shopping and home-cooked goodness. Heehee.
Well, Ryan does get his share of good ol’ home cooked yums at my Mummy’s.
My Mummy will make him pork porridge when Ryan is at her place.
At the beginning, Ryan does not take to porridge too well which worried me abit.
(He makes those “vomitting” sounds when he is being fed porridge)
Thank goodness, that these days, that he is starting to reject porridge less.
*****
In the evening, after dinner, just before bed time, E and Ryan will spend some time together.
Just see how happy Ryan is,thinking that he will actually get a sip of the root beer.
******
Here’s a picture of my two boys, deep in sleep.
******
Every weekend, E and I try to bring Ryan to East Coast Park, no matter how tired we are in the morning.
Ryan obviously never feels exhausted.
He is truly an Energiser bunny.
He loves going to the park, or rather, he just enjoys going out.
I love what it says on his romper- I’m so cute. It’s dangerous!
****
I am so looking forward to these few precious weeks with my sonny.
E has taken two weeks of leave to accompany us.
Will update with more pictures soon!
****
Barang Barang- Outdoor Living
November 2011
Shopping as a family.
My boy, in his overalls.
2 seater sofa with coffee table.
The long bench with hidden storage.
***
As most of you would have known, we will be moving into our new place come January 2011.
Hence, we have plenty of things to do right now…
1. Sell our exisiting furniture.
2. Buy new furniture for our new place.
****
Currently, I managed to sell some of my furniture, namely, the dining set, the bench, 3 paintings and a long mirror. I really hope I can sell the rest of them as soon as possible. E and I have some new ideas for our new place…
Our new place will have a rather long balcony that both of us would like to fully utilise and possibly have somewhat of a outdoor living space. The balcony is quite breezy so I suppose it can be a rather nice place to chillax in the evening. The current owners have left the place status quo, so basically, the balcony is rather bare and the flooring is of ceramic tiles. What we envision is to plank/deck up the balcony with the wood patio tiles and furnish the place with nice outdoor furniture.
This whole concept brought us to our first big purchase for our new place. We needed the outdoor furniture to be weather-proof, simple to maintain and tasteful. After much research(to our surprise, outdoor furniture are actually quite pricey), we finally bought an outdoor 2 seater sofa set, coffeetable, dining set and a long bench from Barang Barang. Well, my Mummy is nagging at me regarding this purchase. From our point of view, it is can be a lifestyle sort of thing but she thinks that it is extravagant, and the idea of outdoor living is just wayyy overstated. I really hope she is wrong about this…
*****
Separation Anxiety
October 2011
It is getting harder and harder to tear Baby Ryan from me.
Ryan will get really teary and upset whenever he realises that I am not around him.
Even if it is just going into the next room for just a few seconds or leaving Baby Ryan with my mother for at night, Baby Ryan starts showing signs of worry and react by crying, clinging to me, and resisting attention from others. However, once I scoop him in my arms, his tears and drama will stop instantly. :-*
The interesting thing is that the separation anxiety intensifies at night. For most mornings, when we leave him with my mother, he is all right. It is almost like he knows there is a routine to follow with my mother. When night falls, he apparently has some sort body alarm clock to remind him that it is time for him to be home with me. This is when he starts getting abit cranky if he does not see me around.
Sighhhhh…Hopefully, his separation anxiety will ease over time and he will be a more confident baby.
***
Meds and milk strike
October 2011-November 2011
Remember how I was mentioning before that I suspected that Ryan was wheezing at the wedding that we went for? Or did I? The story was that Ryan was wheezing or made wheezing noises that night when we were at the wedding. E and I were so worried that we went to the 24-hours clinic at Parkway East Hospital. After seeing the doctor, Ryan was given Ventolin for the wheezing. Because of the scare, E and I had to clean up the house, especially our bedroom quite a bit. I was rather paranoid that Ryan’s wheezing could be triggered by the dust mites in the house.
We gave Ryan the meds and we did not notice any improvement in his wheezing. In fact, after a week, his appetite dropped drastically. He only drank a total of 100-200ml of milk and a bowl of cereal in a whole day. Ryan was already eating much lesser than his peers and can you imagine horrible it was when he went on a milk strike. 
In the end, we decided to see Dr Vasanthi at KinderClinic. After explaining to her what happened, she checked Ryan’s throat and saw that it was all red. Apparently, Ryan is having some reflux problem as there is some acid in his stomach. The wheezing sound that we heard was actually vomitting sounds from Ryan. (So, there was a wrong diagnosis of the GP at East Shore…Moral of story would be that it is better to just go to a pediatrician for babies and kids.) This condition caused him to reject milk. Poor baby. Ryan was then given Motilum for vomitting and Zantac for his gastric discomfort along with an oral aid to numb his throat. He was also given 2 bottles of Biogaia which would help to instill good intestinal bacterial between meals. Can you imagine how much medicine he was eating per day? Of course, I voiced my concerns to Dr Vasanthi who then told me to see those medicine as vitamins to boost Ryan’s health. Hmmm… Anyways, there was a noted improvement in Ryan’s appetite, so I suppose that is a good sign.
Then on Monday, my Mummy and I saw that one of Ryan’s tear was stained with blood. We thought nothing of it until the evening, after I recounted what happened to E, we checked Ryan’s right eye again and we saw that his eye dirt was red too. Once again,we rushed him to the pediatrician. Dr Vasanthi said that Ryan possibly cut his eyelid while scratching his eyes, so we had to file his nails(bought a baby nail file at Guardian) after cutting his nails. (Talk about manicures! Ryan is getting a manicure weekly nowadays!) Ryan was given some Dextracin to drop in his affected eyes, antibiotics called Augmentin to ensure that there is no more infection and Zyrtec which will relief him of allergy. We also had to return to review Ryan’s eye two days later.
In the span of two weeks, we have spent $600-700 on Ryan’s doctor’s fees. *sigh* Money aside, I just hope Ryan gets better and be healthier.
****
My Saturday afternoon…
October 2011
With my sweetheart.
I know I have been really anti social lately with my absence at gatherings and dinners. My deepest apologies but Baby Ryan is really quite a handful…
