Callum starts solids at 5mo

Couldn't wait more and started to suck his thumb

Over the weekend, I was preparing some mashed apple for Callum as trial. Surprisingly, he accepted it. He is quite actively and knowing how to use his hands now. As I spooned some mashed apple and bringing towards him, his hand came about and pushed my hand which holding the spoon. Callum is cooperative too, when the spoon approaches, he opened his mouth big and look up. He is such a genius :D

My mama dressed Callum up like a handsome to church. He looks so...so mature i would say. My little Callum is the cuttest boy inside me. Whenever I think of him, I sing inside me with 'Callum, Callum, my boy boy!' So sweet of my little chubby Callum.

A little update of Callum development milestone. He is able to roll front and back now. When he roll on his tummy, very fast without your notice, he was on his back again! Got to watchout closely now.

I'm thinking of what i left out in order to prepare him for solids. Plate, bibs, booster chair, a food processor maybe... and possibly a variety of recipes to keep him interested and open his mouth while feeding ;)

Oh ya, I passed my mama a parenting book. She read it. Just yesterday, she requested me to buy a 0-2 yo story book for her, so that she can read for her lovable grandson. Hm, I was so surprised that she has enough time to spend in reading the book I passed to her as she really taking care of everyone in the house and i expected she has no time to spare anymore. Mama, you're my superwoman!

Hand brand

I've been using Philips Avent Isis manual breastpump to express breastmilk and later bottle-fed my 4mo son. Recently, a small little rubber accessory attached in the breastpump was teared off. It's still usable but a little fussy as i need to dissemble and assemble the pump if it is over-sucked.

While assembling, the small little rubber is dropped into the milk storage. Why not giving me more time as I was doing it halfway, I wasn't done yet! I screamed inside me. There is no way that i can get the rubber out from storage bottle. No choice, all I've is both my hands. During prenatal class, nurse did teach us on how to express breastmilk using hand. I think this is the best time to recall my memory and practice. Surprisingly, it's easier than i was thought. Not sure if it's hygience as hands might infect bacteria.

If anyone of you going to buy a manual breastpump. My advice is, use your hands. There are equivalent tired and time consuming but different in cost. Unless you're using electric breastpump. Trust me.

Balance

Things around me happened out of my control, one after another.

Been told that should have a balance work a.k.a. doing multiple tasks in one day, equivalent to 8 hours continuosly for at least 2 months. The expectation was not set right in the beginning. Fine, balance work. Yet additional tasks are not reflect in the workplan been assigned. And yet, others people doing additional task has a luxury of 40 hours allocated. I can manage balance work but i can't help in balance thought!

Been busying follow up with banker regarding housing loan which developer is not in the ADL all of the sudden.

Been told that the best BLR would be -1.9% effective tomorrow.

Been told that there will be no ZMC package offer by banker a.k.a. buyer has to bear banker's legal costs.

Being totally stress out can lead to tear drops. The thought of jump off flashes through to get rid of all this. However, it stays not more than 3 seconds.

Update

At 4 months old, Callum is able to lift his head and shoulder high with the support of his arms when putting him on this tummy. I would like to give the credit to mama. She used to train Callum since he is at 2 months.


Since then, Callum get to train his neck and able to lift up his head slowly. Right now, Callum is more happy and enjoy his tummy time. He lift his head and shoulder high and smile. When he is tired, he knows to lay down and get a rest (like photo).


And Callum started to turn over (body only) by himself, just that he can't make use of the energy in turning his head. Mama gave me update on this :)

My Poor Brain

Recently, things happened around me is totally "new". And I need to catch up with it by equipping myself with the knowledge. Else, I gonna left far behind or rather stand still.

Fresh things for me:
1. Siebel skill
2. Knowledge in buying a house, signing a Sales and Purchase Agreement, housing loan application, housing loan interest calculation....more to come
3. Parenting

I never let my brain in such a tense mode. As I fully utilize the brain cell and absorb as much information as I can to handle the decision making phase. Keep it up!

Another Update

Hann and I are weekend parents as my mama is babysit Callum at hometown. Almost every weekend, we travel back to Kuala Kangsar for several purposes - transport breast milk, visit Callum, my cutie nieces and everyone at home. This time round, I hardly spend precious time with Callum as I am sick since last week. And I don't get to sleep Callum at night. With afraid that I might spread the bacteria to Callum and cause him fall sick.

Before I get into the bus, I waived to Callum bidding goodbye. What surprises me is, Callum he slowly raise his little hand up yet holding his fist to bid me... Be it happens in conscious or coincidently, it makes me reluctant to step into the bus!

Without failed, I am able to snap tons of photo. In case, I miss him alot, I can at least looking at those pictures taken. Well, Hann and I were taking turn in looking at the pictures taken in handphone and camera on our way back to kl. At night, we repeated before sleep.

Callum, do you know how much daddy mummy love and miss you?

Growing fast

Stepping into the month of October, Callum is now aged 3 months old. I've missed the moment when he grows in seconds, minutes... Thus, I cherished the moment we had during weekend. That is the only time we spend together.

In his age, he probably can sit upright when propped up by blankets or pillows.
There is once, I put him on the couch for photograph purpose. He seems toppling to the side. I guess, Callum needs more training on his sitting position. Thus, there we have our second hand bumbo. I always put him on the bumbo for a very short moment so that he able to see things in different view. And I guess my mum found it useful as well. I get to tell that, Callum was putting in his bumbo when my mum is preparing the formula. It's particularly useful when you need your hand free for a short period.

And now, he knows and recognize my voice from the phone! On the other end, when I talk to him, my mum reported that, he curiously looking at the phone. It makes me miss him alot. He is playful at this stage. Whenever I talk and play with him, he can react and smile. His smile can kill me seriously and it interpretes that happiness is showering him at every moment.
He can make alot of noise now. When I put my face near his mouth as if he is kissing me, he is able to make some noise and knowing that i'm playing with him.

Recently, we have putting him on his tummy so that he get to train on lifting his head thus strengthen his neck. He likes to 'perform' whenever I take out my camera for recording. Sometimes, he behaved lazy particularly not getting enough sleep. In a way, he complaint not to train by shouting out loud without crying.

However, he might get to behave badly when he is in sleepy mode. Hann commented that he has a bad temper. And I personally know that it is inherited from my gene. He can get angry when you feeding while talking by crying out loud and push away the bottle. The new trend is, Callum wants to feed only in his room. He refused to drink milk in a bumpy car journey. Ha!

Interesting Facts

Image from internet.

I always think that breastfeeding will take longer time for women to loss weight a.k.a. gain back their figure in prepregnancy. I was wrong until today I get to read that -- after one month of breastfeeding, women are expected to lose one to two pound. The reason for the steady weight loss is that the process of lactation uses the extra body fat that was stored during pregnancy. After the first three months, breastfeeding women generally lose weight more rapidly than bottle-feeding mothers and return to their prepregnancy weight sooner.

I'm using breast pump to extract breast milk and bottle feed baby Callum. I wanted to try direct breastfeed him but he refused to suck it. I suspect that he been fed using bottle in the hospital and he already used to the slower flow of milk from teat as he "drink at own pace". Breastmilk will still flow out even if baby Callum is not sucking it once it's been "triggered".

Before I get back to work, I have this idea. I wanted to stop feeding baby Callum with breastmilk as I need to tie to some dietary where some foods are root cause of colic. On my way back to KL, I re-consider my decision on this. As I really reluctant to leave baby Callum at home, I'll miss him a lot.

Since I'm leaving to KL, nothing I can give him, why not I continue to give him the best first food of baby, breastmilk.

By having this in mind, I continue to feed him with breastmilk.

53 Days After Delivery

I spent 53 days in hometown ever since I gave birth to baby Callum. I came back to KL yesterday, "physically" prepared myself back to work. I left my house with heavy heart as I will only see baby Callum once a week or even once fortnightly. Worst thing happened where the night before I left, baby Callum wasn't feeling good. He has cough at night but "looks" fine in the day. Thus, I go back to KL as planned.

This morning before I left to do shopping for working outfit, I received a call from Doris. Saying that Mama is bringing baby Callum to clinic now... Omg, that means baby Callum is not getting any better after a day. I am so worry... I wish I could rush back to hometown now. Well, I've got my bus ticket now, it's tomorrow at 2.30 p.m.

Hope everything will be fine...

Baby Callum, mummy will be back and take care of you soon. Mummy and daddy love you so much!

Tulips From Holland

Every year, when Mothers' Day is around the corner, we start thinking how to celebrate this special day. With celebration or even simple greeting, only indicates that we show our love to mum or as an appreciation. I believe most of us are taught in a way that Carnation is symbolize love and gratitude. It uses to show our love and gratitude to our parents especially on Mothers' Day.

Ever since I get to know Hann, living in KL and get to mix around with his family. I get to experience that, Tulips are use in Mothers' Day as well. Hann has got a cousin sister who works in Dutch airline. Every Mothers' Day, they have such a good brain that bring back Tulips from Holland and sale it at shopping complex. I'm not sure about the pricing however for sure, the cousin sister will distribute the Tulips to every mother in the family.

Tulips were my favorite flora when I was young. I should say, till I meet Tulips, I've lost my love to it. Maybe it doesn't last longer than any type of flower. It needs to shower with ice water else it will dry out. I managed to catch it before it dries out.

Playing macro with my Sony T2

As usual, Hann likes to play around with the light with assistance of Efficient Agatha.

Another shot.

What Daddy Get for Little One

When Hann is doing shopping, I can clearly know what type of shops he'll pay a visit. Most likely bookstore, toy shop, gadget/electric appliance store, and likely souvenir shop. However, there was once he went for his gym. I was waiting for him at the knitting shop to complete the sweater for him. Guess what, Hann went into this clothing shop. He bought 4 pieces of baby cloth! How amazing that a guy would do shopping for his son. Though, ocassionally Hann did accompany me for baby-essential shopping and my own shopping, still I found that it's quite surprise me. I should start to use to it as his father's love starts to grow.

One Fine Day

photographer: Hann

Back in April, I was watching this Singaporean series called Little Nyonya. As the name Nyonya, the whole series is recording the lifestyle, custom, and Nyonya food of a Nyonya family. According to the series, a Nyonya should always spend their time in the kitchen. Somehow, it's important to have a good cooking skill (to cook Nyonya food, of course) as well as crafting skill like embroidery and beading (bead shoes). Well, what's attract me the most is the Nyonya food itself. The director captured alot of the scenes in the kitchen where the Nyonya food is prepared. I felt hungry especially I watch this at night, not to mention craving.

Thus, I decided to make this kuih Nyonya called Kuih Dadar. Recipe extracted from Amy Beh cook book. I made this before at home when I was in secondary. During that time, mama was beside me and give instruction on what to do and she even prepared the grated coconut ready for me. Now, I do it myself from scratch. Surprisingly, it turns up to be quite ok. It wasn't that hard though. I follow extactly the recipe and the end product received quite good comment. Too sad to say that, I forgot to take picture of the end product. Recipe can be found here.

Exhausted Friday

Yesterday was a painful one. Reason, I was located in my office for 12 hours. Yes, working overtime. It was the first time I required to work late since I rolled off from previous project which is 2 months ago. Officially, everyday I go to work, mentally rest. Not until yesterday, both phisically and mentally need to work.

I started to find out that my new laptop gives me a lot of burden on shoulder. Everyday I surely need to walk a certain distance from Tower2 to Hann's pick up point. So, with my new laptop, I get out from office, took lift to level 41 and change another lift before I can get myself down to ground floor. I went in Isetan, took escalator to level 3, headed to Sun Moulin bakery to get myself a bite as I knew it will definitely take some time for Hann to reach here. Then I walked down to Ground floor while bitting cream cheese bread. Found a bench to make myself easy. There after 10 minutes of waiting, I saw a familiar small car, I got up, opened the glass door and jump into the small car. I reached home at 2200 with empty stomach and exhausted body. Yes, you can see that I put the blame to the new laptop that causing me tired, shoulder-ache as I already have an extra weight to carry which is my little one. When I get everything done, ready to go to bed and started to lie down... I just can't help but make out some noise to show my tiredness. Then I started to understand that when a baby is crying for nothing, I guess baby is tired and definitely need someone to comfort immediately. Though I personally think that comforting is not really works but best still someone willing to comfort, console and ease you.

From Old to New

I've made an appointment early this week to make replacement of my existing company laptop. I'm the kind of person practice 'last minute', where I only busy backup-ing my personal stuff into external hard drive before I sleep. While doing some background reading in order to help out for some proposal later this week.

Something weird happened. My HP can't log-on to internet connection at home. I've to use Hann's laptop to download some mails. Later on, I was trying to open my time report application. The application prompt some error message saying I need to locate a database to open the application... And this morning, I'm connecting to wireless network and there it goes, available wireless network is no longer available for me.

Well, I'm not a well debugger nor passionate in debugging error. I left it be what it gonna be. As I've got my NEW laptop now. Everything doesn't work fine now running fine in Lenovo now. I just don't care. Even the technician said, "Sometimes it just gila." I should say, it's time to bid goodbye to HP and say hi to Lenovo.

Picture taken from flickr

Pregnancy at 30th Week

I'm in my 30th week of pregnancy now. Preparation for both little one and me yet started. At this stage, I should have all necessities bought, well packed and ready to hospital in case of emergency. Seriously, I've to list down things to buy and settle it by this weekend. As it getting closer to the EDD, the slower i walk and feel tired easily. And Hann always leaves me far behind in the shopping mall. There is once, I've to look around for benches in the shopping mall so that I can rest before continue to do shopping. Poor lady.

Things to buy:
for me,
Nursing bra
Breast pad
Maternity panties
Maternity pads
At-home-slipper

for baby,
Wearable blanket
Baby wipes
Going-home outfit
Baby towels


The list above are items to be packed and prepared during hospital stay not to mention baby crib and mattress, stroller, carrier, car seat, food warmer, changing table, baby daily outfits, baby shower gel, nappy clean, laundry/cloth basket, changing mat... There are more to list aka more money to burn.

Well, it's time to read more on pregnancy matter other than extract from magazine. I do read both book and online resources recently. Cost wise, I read but not buy. To eliminate the fear during labour, no choice but I've to equip myself with much information as I could. Since I'm not assign to any project at the moment, it's best to browse bookstore after lunch. Kinokuniya is where I heading to after lunch. However, all books are sealed. I gonna approach the staff to unseal it. However, the more I get to read, the more anxiety I am. Especially when it mentions perineal tears which could happen or it's likely to happen in delivering the first baby through vagina birth. Be it tears or episiotomy, gosh it really scare me off!! I can feel the pain now :( SOS!

At Home on Sunday

I have ran out of idea what to eat out during weekend. Thus, i decided to cook on Sunday afternoon. I brought some ingredients at wet market nearby. At the exit/entrance, someone approached if we want to buy durian. I actually saw the mini van with boot full of durian for sales. I followed the way to the mini van and decided to buy some. The seller offered RM13/kgs. I wanted 2 but they forced to take 3. Ok, 3. Then the seller weighted the durian, it's 6.6kg in total, 3 durian costs RM85.80 and i started to open my wallet and realized that I've only RM76 left in. I wasn't sure how the durian seller feels but I did feel funny where he grabbed all my leftover money without asking me to compensate the rest of amount later...So, I got the deal at RM11.50/kg not a bad deal but still it's expensive for 3 durians and it tasted as Jusco 3 packets for RM20 kind of durian.

Well, we'll have our durian lunch today. However, Hann started to complaint that he is very hungry! The lotus root soup is boiling at the first hour only! It gonna takes another 2 hours to cook. This is the first time I prepared soup for Hann. He is always a soup lover. His comment of my soup is too much red dates. Well, I've nothing to say as I'm satisfied with the first-time soup that I made. It just tasted exactly like what my mum used to feed us. Other than lotus root soup, I prepared egg plant stir fry with dried shrimp and stir fry grated sengkuang (jicama) and carrot. Surprisingly, the eggplant received good comment from Hann :P

It was a good cooking experience and I wish to cook more in future. Gonna steal some recipes from mama when back to hometown. Btw, it was my mama 60th birthday on 19th April.

Wish you healthy and happy always. Love you.

Random Update

I've left this blog for an idle mode quite some time as I not picking up any new knitting/crochet project. Even cardigan for Hann I leave it halfway. Well, I still remember the initiative of picking up this hobby. The outcome would be 2 sweaters for our Mt. Kinabalu climb. Yeah, we're back from Sabah but not Mt. Kinabalu as I'm a preggie now.

I'm 27 weeks pregnant now. People around always popping up question like do you feel baby movement now? I was like, baby movement? How does it feels? I can't describe and tell as my little one hardly move. This made me quite worry until these few days, I took Hann's palm on my belly, he feels it as little one is moving inside! Little one likes Daddy so much, he lets Daddy feel the movement first. I have to put my palm on my tummy then only I feel little one moves around gently and softly. Now, I noticed that little one moves whenever there is noise. He is so excited to hear and join us when there is TV shows, chit-chatting, laughing ...

I started to receive the blessing of swollen ankle which makes me walk slower now. Sometimes, cramp happened in the early morning if stretching too much, muscle pain at lower thigh, belly growing bigger ... All these symptoms indicates the soon arrival of the newborn to the world and to our family. May everything goes smoothly.