Fer's 1st trip outta country!

Went to Melaka for 2 nights (26 - 28 Nov) with hubb's parents. It's been about 5 years since we last went Melaka and well, everything looks and feels pretty much the same! It's Kiefer's first trip out of Singapore, kinda like a prelude to our Shanghai/HK trip next week. 

It was a 3 hour drive to Melaka, and we didn't needed to stop along the way and got there at about lunch time. Checked into Hotel Equatorial and had lunch at the Peranakan restaurant (Seri Nyonya). The food was pretty good actually. We ate there also because we had F&B credits to spend.

And since the kids slept all the way there, we had the entire afternoon to walk Jonker Street and visit Christchurch & St Paul's Church. Kieran loved the fountain there and was just so excited. Anyway, we finished all the sight-seeing the first afternoon we were there!!! Haha.. We even had time to go back to the hotel room for a late afternoon nap before heading to Dataran Pahlawan for some shopping and dinner. Dinner was at this Hong Kong food restaurant in Pahlawan. All I can say is that the food was... ahem..

 

Since we were done with all the sightseeing on the 1st day, the 2nd day was simply spent on shopping, shopping and more shopping. we bought some clothes at the FOS, Brands outlet and Reject Shop. Not as great shopping as we would have at Gilroy, but good enough! ;) 

On the way into Melaka, we kept seeing signs that said "Eye on Malaysia" so we went hunting for it and saw the ferris wheel. Kieran started going "wheel! wheel!" and so we went up on it. It was RM$20 per adult, RM$17 for seniors, children under 3 go free. It was way smaller than our flyer and it turns much faster. 1 ride was about 5 revolutions. Nothing much to see from up there, except for the surrounding construction and the ship in the sea. Nonetheless, Kieran still enjoyed looking at the boats/ship from up there.

2nd night's dinner at Beizhan was great! (Thanks Blee for the recommendation.) The dinner was only RM$90+. Very worth it indeed!!

 

Here are our 2 boys on the final morning, having fun on a patch of carpet grass just outside Dataran Pahlawan.

 

Just for the record, Kieran was pretty well-behaved on this trip, except for that he actually bit Fer on his toes on both nights!! He got it bad from us the 2nd time he did it and I think he actually learnt not to do that. He was just lying there fiddling with Fer's toes when he suddenly nipped him! It was exactly how he used to bite Hubb at 1 point! Naughty Kieran!!

Strong legs!

Fer's able to stand up with his feet flat on the ground with little support! I now bathe him standing up and I'll usually support him under the armpit. I realise that he can actually stand pretty well as I do not really need to hold him. I just have to put my hand under his armpit and he stands!! I don't actually need to hold him. He stood even when I just put my thumb under him. He can stand like that for about 1-2 mins while I rinse him down!! 

What's for dinner?

Didn't know what to eat for dinner and Hubb was out playing soccer. So whipped up this broccoli/sweet potato/ tofu omelet for Kieran!

Peek-A-Boo!

Kieran: Peek-A-Boo!

Kiefer: *smiles*

Kieran: Boo!

Kiefer: *bigger smile*

Kieran: *hides & jumps up* Boo!

Kiefer: laughs!!!

Finally scrapped Kieran's 1st day at Kindy!

Kit: Peppermint Creative Kindergarten Crafts

it's Shrek!

Hubby ripped loads of music/songs into the iPod and played it in the car. Within the 1st second of the start of the 1st track, Kieran yelled, "Shrek!". It wasn't the theme song in Shrek, it was only one of the songs in Shrek. Both Hubb and I only knew that it was a song from the soundtrack cos 1) he played the song from the album and so he knew what he was playing, 2) we only recognised the song only after another 10s into it.  

How did he know?!! I think he's been watching too much TV!! But he hasn't been watching Shrek recently! His current favourite is Monsters Inc.

Then & Now

More on sweet potato intolerance

Though sweet potato is usually suggested as a suitable starting food (low allergenicity risk) for weaning babies onto solids, there ARE incidences of intolerances and allergies!!

Read this  blog article on sweet potato intolerance. This lady also googled like I did and I read all the articles that she read as well!! Ha. Aren't mothers similar?!

I am going to try it with Fer again this weekend to confirm. Hubby said it was simply because I gave him too much!

Another useful article on weaning here!

Foods that Kiefer has tried and has no adverse reactions to:

1. Rice cereal (Nestle)
2. Avocado
3. Pears (Earth's Best)
4. Peach (Gerbers)

As far as possible, I give Fer homemade foods, but if I use bottles, I'll try to give either Earth's Best or Healthy Times. But these 2 brands are not really easy to buy (i.e. NTUC don't really carry them, so far I bought them from Market Place). These were the brands that I gave Kieran the last time and they are organic with no added stuff. Great stuff but expensive here though. The last time, we bought most of the bottled foods when we were in the US. And since we are not going this year, I've got to buy them locally and this means more $$ and less variety. :(

A little flower...

Made this awhile ago and then gave it to Janelle cos she simply looks cuter in it! Got the design from mycakies, but of cos, hers are way, way, way more beautiful!!

Sweet potato intolerance?

Gave Kiefer some pureed orange sweet potato for lunch yesterday. About half a cube of it. He quite like it and finished all of it. The rest of the day went as normal, he had his milk and had 2 tbsp (dry) of rice cereal for dinner at 530pm. 

Woke up at 530am to feed him his morning milk. He was a little fussy after finishing his milk and could not settle to sleep. I thought he wanted to nurse more and tried to latch him on again. But he vomited a huge amount of milk out instead. Wet our bed and had to pull the bed spread up. I thought he was dry and thus left him on his own bed but he didn't get back to sleep. Hubb got up to check on him and realised that he was all wet. He must have regurgitated again I think. So now I had to strip his bed and wash the mattress! Then he did a poop and Hubb cleaned that up. And 2 major burps (more like belches). And then I thought it might have been the sweet potato cos Kiefer was already a gassy baby and sweet potatoes can cause gas too. Came online to google on the topic for about 10min, went back in and found that he had pooped again! The poop was soft and slightly darker (I think it's just the solids he's been eating) than usual, but not watery.  

So now I'm not too sure if it was the sweet potato that caused the gassiness or that he didn't drink his milk properly. 

He just belched again!

Kiefer is sitting up!

Kiefer can sit up unsupported and stay in the position for a long, long, long time!! And now that he can roll over, he tend to sleep on his side all the time. Even when I turn him onto his back, he somehow rolls onto his side again in the middle of the night!

I gave him some avocado to taste yesterday and he seem to really like it! the first time I gave it to him, I watered it down with water. Today, I watered it down with BM and he slurped it all up even though it was right after his milk feed. There was about 1 tablespoonful of avocado. Now I feed him 2 meals a day. Once at lunch and once at dinner. I try to give him the new food at lunch so that I'll have the rest of the day to watch for any reactions. I think I'll try bananas or sweet potato this weekend!

He is not waking up much at night for milk anymore. Most nights, he sleeps from about 9pm till about 4am in the morning when he stirs for milk. Sometimes he'll fall back asleep once I give him his pacifier till about 6am when I pick him up for a feed before I take a shower and get ready for work. So he is in effect sleeping about 6-9hrs at a stretch without feeding already. And this was even before I started giving him cereals.

At the last Dr's visit for his Hep B 2nd dose, he weighed 7.83kg & is 64cm in length. I think he is growing rather well!!

Rolled over or slid down?

Fer was lying in the MIDDLE of the queen sized mattress when I left the room to go attend to Kieran who was crying (he just woke up from his reluctantly-taken nap). When I returned to the room in less than 2 minutes later...

Anyway, as Kieran would say.. "fall down"... :P He somehow managed to slide off the mattress and landed nicely on his bum! He just sat there and waited. I didn't hear him cry or anything. In fact he even had a cheeky smile for me when I came into the room and saw him in that position! As I was getting the camera, he started sliding lower and lower. His head would have reached the ground if I were to leave him be for another minute! :P

It was funny, but now gotta start watching out for him and putting up all the bed rails...

Kiefer at 6 months old!

Today is the 3rd day that Fer has been eating cereal. I gave him about 1 tsp of dry cereal blended with about 20/30ml of EBM, once a day. He is starting to know to eat the food and not try to push it out of his mouth now. 

Now that he can roll over, he is starting to sleep on his side! We put him on his back to sleep at night, but he will turn onto his side some time in the middle of his sleep.

Here's Fer Fer at 6 months old!

Kiefer is 6 months old & eating for the FIRST time!

 

 

Gave him about 1 tsp of Nestle Rice Cereal blended with breastmilk. He didn't really like it at first. I think he must be wondering what  on earth was shoved into his mouth!! But I think he was ok with it in the end. Gotta try again tomorrow!!