9 months old

At nine months old, Rou starts claiming ground, exerting her independence and showing us glimpses of the character in this little compact body.

She's still being bathed in her green tub and is a little cool dude. Once, she (or rather, her butt) slipped and her head went under the water for a split second but hey, no fuss from the little one.

She's crawling everywhere, and the cutest part is that once she detects that I'm out of sight, will come crawling all over the house in search of me. She exercises some form of elimination or priority over the choice of locations too, and I must say, most of the time, she'll find me at her first choice of location.

She objects when you take her toys from her, chuckles to herself at play, adds head-banging to her repertoire of dance moves, and starts to respond to instructions (sit down, clap clap, do the hallelujah).

She seems to be able to say "mummy" in a really distorted sort of way, and only when she's desperate.

gasp gasp little rou. (Her laughter is really just a series of quick gasps.)

She loves riding on the tricycle! Papa would push her around, "chasing" after gor gor, and the two will have the greatest time. Such small things amuse little children so much...

How can one be comfortable like this??? But it's a pretty regular thing, finding Rou in weird sleeping postures.

We've weaned rou and she's very happy with the bottle. Ahhhh....!

Little drummer girl

Nightly routine with Papa. Papa will get a little tub of water and clean Rou up before changing her into her pajamas, giving her her last bottle of the day and scooting her off to bed.

How's the air up there?

Contented with holding on to a little toy, as usual, but what could be the cause of such fixated concentration?

It's the one-eyed monster. Brother's getting his daily dose, sister's the recipient of collateral damage.

Don't belittle these pole-like grills. They keep her standing steady, and entertained. How, you may ask? As with all other items, she gnaws on/ tastes/ bites on them.

"Ok meimei, I'll play the drums and you'll play the guitar."

Rou looooooooves her grandfather. When we return to derod's, she'll only have yeye carry her. If derod and I are not around, poor yeye has to be around all the time. If he went to bathe, she'll be at the foot of the door, wailing for him to come out.

Firstjohn and Rou.

Firstjohn's daughter and Rou. She's been carrying Rou since Rou was a month old, and even chided her auntie for carrying Rou the wrong way!

Uncle Hoho is Rou's best friend on Sundays. He'll hold her and "dance" till she sleeps during worship, every Sunday. Some people say that if you spend a lot of time with another person, the two will grow to resemble each other. Can you detect any form of similarity between the two? ;p

Mei and Mei!

8 months Old

Rou Rou's eight months old now! I'm really not as diligent in keeping up with her progress in development but I do have some interesting snippets.

She's crawling around endlessly, targets her brother's toys on the floor. She can crawl towards you if you clap and open your arms to her.

She throws her head in the direction of where I park my mobile phone the moment she hears the chime that signals the receipt of an sms.

She's gotten into an appetite madness. The amount of porridge she takes at a single meal, and the amount of time she takes to slurp up that amount, is astounding.

She puts everything into her mouth. Like animals that need to sniff at everything, she has to taste everything. Above picture is the classic scene of Rou hanging on to the rail of her cot - you're bound to see this scene when she's in there.

See? Object: her clothes. Oh by the way, she's got absolutely no teeth yet.

Toys...

Bed time. Papa's doing an action song tonight. Gabe sings along, Rou's happily entertained while standing in the cot.

On Papa's lap as he tries to get some work done. Doesn't she look pleased.

Still loves sleeping on her tummy, though we find her on her back more often now.

The siblings looking out at traffic.

We had visitors the other day; the Ds came over and we attempted another shot of the thorn among the roses, with an increase in the number of "roses".

How she looks like early in the morning, still in her PJs.

She's been pulling herself up with other furniture, and not just confined in her cot. She can pull to stand but still has problems landing. Later on in the month, she decided the best way to go about it is to just let go and plop on her butt, but she's smart enough to do it only in the cot where the landing is softer. Here she is, examining her brother's bed.

Entertained children. Mei's head is still pretty bare. I can hardly blame the whole world of strangers who mistake her for a boy.

When reviewing this shot, Papa told Rou that she was caught in the act of smacking him on the head.

Weaning Rou

Nursing is a choice every mother makes. For the mother nursing her first child, this choice will be confronted with challenges and difficulties, and the one who succeeds at this endeavor will surely agree that it takes a great amount of determination to see this through. But the subsequent children reap the benefits of the experienced mother and it is to my delight (and perhaps the little girl's) that her nursing journey was fuss free and smooth.

I started lactating from the second trimester of my pregnancy; yes, right when Rou was still in my tummy. I must say it wasn't the most pleasant way of finding this out. I would, on a number of occasions, wake in the middle of the night and find a sizable portion of my bed stained with colostrum. And one day, I chanced on the most peculiar thing: how colostrum gathers and forms into a drop heavy enough to drip, without any form of pressure of stimulation. I started to realise that Rou will have ample milk supply the moment she comes out into this world, and I didn't have to go through the first few days of waiting for the milk to come in, like how it was during Gabe's time.

In fact, Rou had so much to drink while we were still in the hospital, that she would sleep for three to four hour intervals in between. I have to give her credit for being a wonderful nurser. While other newborns take three to five sucks and rest before going at it again, she does an average of ten to twelve sucks. Which means nursing time is reduced (30 minutes in total) and coupled with the good milk supply, ensures she has a full feed, which then translates to a good three hour nap in between, giving the mother a good break. When we got home, the confinement lady had to give me a bottle to catch the milk dripping on one side when Rou was nursing on the other.

Then the time came when I had to evaluate the quality and quantity of my milk supply. Rou was on semi-solids and into solids, and it affected the milk supply; less demand equals less supply. And I was not well, taking a lot of medication and struggling with weight loss. It was perhaps not a good option for my health if I continued nursing for too long. Hence we stopped, when she was 9.5 months. Just as well, as her brother was also weaned at the same age.

I miss holding her that way. I miss seeing her reaction when I take out my nursing cover -- she knew that the sight of the cover meant food and would kick and grunt in response. I miss the whole mother-daughter bonding over nursing. But in the same breath, I embrace the freedom of having a weaned baby. No worries over engorgement, being away from her when it's milk time, and most of all, the ability to leave her with other caregivers while I take my breather-breaks. I enjoy watching her kick vigorously at the sight of her bottle, hold it in her little hands and drink to the very last drop.

Speaking of which, both my children had smooth transitions to the bottle despite being fully breastfed and I have to credit it to the Pigeon MagMag. I started getting them to drink water from it when they began taking cereals. After getting used to the idea that they can drink from another source other than mummy, they took to the idea of the bottle very easily. Mei even went on to drink from the straw cup at about nine months.

Writing this post simply means that my little girl has grown. There will come a day when she will be weaned from our care, and I'll probably have mixed feelings about that too, when the day comes. Ah well, we'll try to enjoy every step along the way yeah?

Nursing Rou for the first time in public - Church service where she was dedicated to the Lord.

Rou after her final feed. Bye bye nursing!

Angel Baby

A friend commented that Rou fits the description of an "angel baby" after spending some time with us.

There is a certain author of baby literature, who categorized little ones into four general groups. On one end of the spectrum are the ones who require a lot of attention, where the slightest things would cause them discomfort and irritation. On the opposite end of that spectrum lies the angel babies, who are generally easily appeased and quiet, and who only cry when the need arises.

Well, Rou is indeed generally easy going and hardly cries (save for the training at nap times, and when she's hungry) and I attribute this entirely to God's grace.

Almost immediately after my confinement, I developed severe pain in my upper back and when attacks strike, would have me bedridden for two whole days. The first of these two days will see me doing nothing but throwing up. Nothing can stay in my stomach, not even water; I'll spare you the details. Once, we even called the doctor in for a house visit as I was unable to move, let alone get out of the house for a consultation. The trigger of these attacks later moved from the back to the stomach/ digestive system and we probably saw a total of six to seven episodes in the span of half a year.

On these occasions, Derod would take urgent leave from work. Our parents would take Gabe to their place and Derod would be the main caregiver for both Rou and I. He would bathe, change and take care of Rou, while getting me the medication and food I need, not to mention helping out with the little things around the house. I would be lying in bed, coping with the mental and physical symptoms of depression (which we later discover was aggravated by the drugs that curbed the vomiting). Once every three hours, when it was Rou's meal time, Derod placed her next to me on the bed. With nary an ounce of nourishment, and dark clouds plaguing me, I continued providing for the little girl.

Derod lost a lot of sleep, shouldered the burdens of the household and had to manage a wife diagnosed with depression. I lost sense of who I was; I couldn't recognise myself anymore. My thoughts were gloomy, I had panic attacks, experienced physical symptoms at the slightest presence of stress, and of course, lost lot of weight, rapidly. With each attack, the weight loss became more pronounced, to the extent that my skinny jeans dangled on my hips. We lived each day at a time, sometimes I lived each hour at a time.

Through it all, Rou was an angel baby. If God had not made her who she is, we would not have survived this period like we did. So, my dear little angel baby, you are a living testament of God's grace to me, and the family.

Special thanks to Derod for being the perfect husband, Gabe for being the generally-easy boy and a caring and gentle big brother to little Rou, our parents for looking after Gabe, livingjoyfully for being the friend who cried with me and loved me, firstjohn for opening her doors to the kids when attacks struck, auntie cg for being the perfect listening ear and human counsel. Most of all, God who watches over all and provides for every need.

We stand not on shifting sand, but on Christ the Rock, the Cornerstone.

Uncle Vinp

We have a dear friend we loves our two children very much, spending time with them, holding them, doting on them with gifts to the extent that the parents have to fend off certain enthusiastic suggestions.

Vinp was Gabe's favourite uncle, and probably still is, though the list of favourite uncles is now longer.  Is it then a surprise that Rou shares the same sentiments?  

Rou is generally an easy baby, and during the foremost stage of innocence where stranger anxiety has yet to set in, she could be carried by just about anybody.  But as she grew in age, so did her skills of perception and recognition, and chose a privileged few who could hold her.  Though we only see Vinp once a week in church, somehow this uncle is special to her.  She would look out for him, and yell "AHHH!!" to get his attention, asking him to carry her by opening her arms wide and leaning her body towards him.  If he was anywhere in sight, Rou would make her preference known.  There were occasions where he took over carrying her when she was tired and grouchy and immediately, she would lie on his shoulders and in no time at all, fall into deep sleep.  This is, of course, a huge ego boost to our dear friend, who would always give us a smug look in response to the attention the little one is giving him.  We witness these in great amusement.  But more so, we're glad our buddies enjoy the company of not just us, but also our kids, and that the feelings are mutual.      

Thanks bro, and hope you had fun with the kids this last year.  Here's a little photolog for you:

No, it's not the leader of a certain communist nation holding my daughter.  It's just Vinp in his CNY hairdo, paying us a visit in the hospital.  Rou was about two days old. 

Dropped by to visit the kids during lunch time, and made the mummy very happy with famous roast duck and char siew rice.  Rou was six months old.

Another lunch visit, and Rou was about nine months old here.  

Towkay zo dua seng li.  See how snug Rou is?  She was about 10 months old.  

  

Vinp holding Rou during worship practise. *  

Awww... pat pat sayang sayang.   Here, Rou was about to turn one year old. *

* The benefit of posting "archives" means I can include pictures of the "future".

The True Drummer

If you ask me, I think the true dummer in the family is ROU.

Mei has started patting everything randomly. The table, her pampers, us, the bath water.

The bath water. It's really bad. I'm wet even before I start bathing her. She's different from her brother in that water hits her hard on the face and she's still happy. The brother would have gasped enough for you to get him a paperbag.

Rou's drumming behaviour is hugely due to Gabe's influence. From infancy, she watched her brother at his daily routine and she has come to a stage where she imitates his very actions, especially the specific way in which the arms are waved. She is very responsive to music. The slightest hint of a melody will get her wiggling her butt, shaking her head and basically grooving to the music. But of late, she started to respond by waving her arms that way.

It is a funny sight to behold, when Gabe picks up his "drumsticks" and mei's at his side, both looking like they're the greatest drummers in the world . Sure looks like I have a budding band around here.

Brother's got the tin, sister's got the cover, both jamming away.

Rou grabs the opportunity when Gabe's distracted with other toys.

Drumsticks or any imitators that are hard are "banned" in our home. They cause too much noise, headaches and broken toys. Only straws are allowed and when Gabe is not playing with them, Rou will have a feel of them.

And a taste of them.

Lubricate them with some saliva

Dig around in the mouth a little

Ensure the entire straw is evenly coated, and there, she's marked her territory. Except the straws are changed regularly. *Readers heave a sigh of relief*

Rou at Play

It's interesting to see changes in the way Rou "plays" in the span of two short months. When she first started crawling, she would stop at something that interests her and sit there for ages examining the item with her eyes, and then with her mouth. It amused me very much that she knew where her play toys were and would crawl to the shelves and helped herself to the lowest tray of masak. She even figured out how to remove the cover!

She'd take out a few toys and spend a long time sitting in the same place, examining them quietly. I have to say that this is extremely helpful to a mum who has to juggle housework and a big brother.

Looking at the little girl relative to the furniture.

And there's the favourite utensil toy thing. You can give her a toy spoon/ fork/ knife and she'll sit there fiddling with and gnawing at it for ages. The best entertainment is free!

Then she progressed to fishing more things out of the box and after examining them, throw them aside. The final result: a floor strewn with toys.

Rou's motor skills are far more advanced than her brother's, when he was her age. I suppose something's gotta give - Gabe's linguistics skills were far more superior to hers.

Concentrating...

Here's Rou at her paternal grandparents', playing with her auntie. Yes, you got that right. This little one on the right is three days Rou's junior, derod's cousin, and Rou's 表姑.

They seem pretty comfortable in each other's presence, almost as if they knew they are of the same age. Wondering if they can "communicate" Look Who's Talking style.