young percussionist

7 months 3 weeks old

Mummy taught me how to play cymbals bang two toy cups together.

to her surprise, I did it!
She was so not expecting me to be able to bang the cups together
(considered an advanced skill for 7-month old on BabyCentre's Milestone chart).

the next day, she gave me clappers/ click clackers and I "clapped" them together while Mummy sings my favourite song from korkor's Yamaha Junior Music Class - The Little Drummer Cat.

You can get these clappers / click clackers from
ELC and party shops like SPK.
Mine are free from some events.

Mummy thinks I can start going for music classes!
but papa think Mummy has too much $$.


If you are thinking of sending your baby to music classes, here are some which offer music class for young babies:

my korkor had attended -
Kindermusik - from newborn
Seimpi School of Music - from 4 months

not tried before -
Staccato! - from 6 months
Bloom - from newborn
Magic Fiddler - from newborn

crawl

21st Jan 2011
7.5 months old

pardon me for showing my backside and for the low quality photos.
Mummy was too eager too capture my 1st crawling moments and there were no other cameras available except for her very laoyah camera phone.

Yup. I can crawl on my fours now.
a little bit slowly compared to moving on tummy though.

btw, thanx to Yi-Po, Gugu and YeePak for getting this set of Christmas Thomas wooden railway for my korkor.
I love it too!
and yes, my korkor shares it with me
though he has a hard time keeping me from eating the trains and railway tracks.

mei 妹

My word of the day is "mei".

went out for lunch with my mummy's cousin and future cousin-in-law.
when the lady asked my mummy what's my name and how to call me, Mummy said, "meimei" and started asking me to say the word "mei".

and I did.
ha.
You should have seen the surprised look on Mummy's face.

mmmmma mmmmmpa

19 Jan 2011
7 months 10 days old

This evening, I surprised my parents by calling them -
mmm-ma
mmm-pa
mama
papa

Mummy wonders why I have to say "mmmm" 1st before saying "pa" cos "pa" doesn't start with the "m" sound.
Papa thinks it's because I use "mmm" to start off saying words.

Actually I start saying "mmm-ma" a few days ago but my parents weren't sure if I was really speaking or just making sound.

There was once I woke up in the morning and wanted to drink milk.
Mummy wanted me to crawl (actually more like wriggle) across the bed to her and I cried out, "mama! mama!"

well, this time they're sure I'm speaking.

the next morning, the moment I woke up and saw Papa, I called him,
"papa. papa"

to stop or not to stop

not Jade but Jade's Mummy said...

"When men share their problems, they want solutions.
When women share their problems, they want empathy."
~ quote from John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" ~

May I add, "and hear the answers she already had in mind."

Recently have thoughts of stopping breastfeeding
because my supply is getting quite low and have to use freezer stock everyday on top of daily produce to meet Jade's daily demand.
Jade also seems not satisfied after her last feed at night and even started waking up at 3am for milk when she had been sleeping thru' the night since 2 or 3 months old.

So I posted this on facebook and got some comments.

It appears most moms think it's ok to stop breastfeeding once baby reached 6 months and some are even happy to stop breastfeeding.

I'm not so sure if I'll be happy if I really have to stop breastfeeding now.
in fact, I think I'll be depressed.

I think it is NOT ok to stop breastfeeding at 6 months because I'm kiasu and kiasi.
Read my 10 kias here.

now I can add a #11 kia:
Kia Jade feels shortchanged or unfair cos 6 months of breastfeeding is not even 20% of what her brother had.

After getting a few responses, I think the answer I want to hear is not that it's ok to stop breastfeeding now but that it's ok to continue breastfeeding and supplement with FM.

Oh well... for now, I'll continue to breastfeed.
Afterall, I have not tried the 101 methods to increase milk supply (will talk about that in another post someday).
Perhaps we've gotta start looking into supplementing with FM though.

I can sit up on my own!

9 Jan 2010

at exactly 7 months,
I can finally get from lying down position into sitting position all by myself.

So the teochew saying:
7 坐 8爬 9发牙
(sit at 7mth, crawl at 8, teething at 9)
is right on me!

I can move around really quickly on my tummy now and get into crawling position.
let's see when I can really crawl.

Millet - super healthy whole grain

Have you heard of this food - Millet [mil-it]?

image taken from crazysalad.typepad.com

My mummy hasn't heard of Millet til she read the book - Super Baby Food.
and now she knows that Millet is used to make one of her favourite bread - chapatti.

Millet is super healthy because
Millet is rich in B vitamins, especially niacin, B6, and folacin and offers calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc.

source: http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch29.html

check out other health benefits and nutritional profile of Millet at
www.whfoods.com.

Mummy grind and cooked and gave it to me today.
but I didn't like it and didn't want to take it!
even when Mummy added in some bottled pear baby food, I still refused to eat it.

Later in day, I finally took it when Mummy added a little of the Millet porridge into my brown rice cereal.

Mummy, u should take Millet and not give it to me since
"Millet has an interesting characteristic in that the hulls and seeds contain small amounts of goiterogenic substances that limit uptake of iodine to the thyroid."
source: http://chetday.com/millet.html

Tip: (updated on 10 July 2011)
soak the millet overnight before cooking.

Melt-in-mouth Baby Biscuits

Baby biscuits and other finger food are great to keep baby self-entertained during meal times.

though I still need a little help holding onto the biscuit.

Mummy thinks melt-in-the-mouth Rice Crackers are safer, compared to other baby biscuits,
for Beginning eaters like myself.

picture taken from fairprice.com.sg
Take One Baby Bites are especially popular with Singaporean mommies.
I suppose it's because it's cheap ($2.40 for pack) and easily available in NTUC Fairprice.

BUT my mummy is not about to give this to me. This Baby Rice Cracker is made in China.
How quickly people forget about the massive recall for China-made milk and dairy product in 2008 when this product was one of those that were taken off the racks.
Well... this product might be tested (or assumed to be) ok now,
but my mummy doesn't want to take the risk and be shocked like how
this Mummy did in 2008 during the recall.



We'll be sticking to made in Japan Pigeon baby biscuits which my korkor was taking.

Pigeon Small Fish Rice Crackers
Ingredients:
Rice, Cornstarch, sugar, fructo-oligosaccharide, salt, small fish powder, calcium carbonate.

cost $4.90 per pack, 2x the amount of Baby Bites, but I suppose we pay for the peace of mind.
Available at all major departmental stores.
You can always wait for these stores to have their 20% sale and grab a few of these.

Recently, Mummy found, by chance, another brand of Baby Rice Crackers:

Wakodo Rice Crackers (Akacyan Osenbei)
Ingredients: Rice (domestic production - Japan), rice/potato starch, sugar, table salt and calcium carbonate, the pyrophoric acid iron.

cost $4.50 per pack,
Available at Yamakawa Super - Japanese Supermarket at Square2 and Central
or you can try Cold Storage and Isetan's supermarket.

Wakodo is a reputable brand in Japan and has its own line of formula milk and other baby food.

Think the next time we go Square2 or Central,
we'll get the
Wakodo Rice Crackers with Vegetables (Pumpkin, carrot, spinach)

Mummy likes these Wakodo and Pigeon baby biscuits not only because they melt in the mouth but also because they are animals' milk free.

Cow's milk is listed on "Super Baby Food" as
"the food most notorious for causing allergies in young babies".
Since I'm on breastmilk, Mummy wishes to introduce cow's milk to me as late as possible.

So don't just buy any biscuit for me, kay?