Learning to walk

At 11 and a half months old, Caryn is very keen on walking on her own, even tho' she can't really do it yet. But I must say she can walk 7 to 8 steps without support & with us cheering her! That's already a feat!

She loves to be hold by 1 hand while her other hand points to the direction she wanna go or holds a toy. She absolutely enjoys holding my hand and pushing the toy stroller as she walks.

She's so confident at cruising around the sofa area now that she could do it twice as fast as a few weeks before. Crawling is all about speed now, and with a batter of the eyelid, she could have easily moved a meter!

The most amusing act she did was to walk at high speed, almost like running, from one end of her mattress to the middle, and happily fall down on the mattress thereafter. That's my joyful little baby! No wonder hubby keep saying she's getting cuter as she grows :)

Another of her favourite activity is to climb! Yep, she still loves that.. especially climb onto the sofa unassisted & wave bye-bye :) That's what the maid trained her to do almost everyday as hubby & me goes to work in the morning. Will she become a professional mountain climber in future.. I wondered?

Oh, she certainly loves food, but why izit that she's still so lightweight? At 7.4kg, she doesn't seem to look like a nearly 1-year old. However, whenever she sees people around her munching on food, she's sure to come our way, and she'll express her request to be fed :)

She has 6 teeth now, 4 upper & 2 lower, but she doesn't quite use them to chew.

As for her eyelid, it remains as 1 single & 1 double on & off. There was a period of 4 consecutive days when she has double eyelids on both eyes & you can imagine the joy in me :) I regret not taking a photo not knowing how shortlived the double eyelids were. It's alright.. I'm still waiting, the doubles will appear again.. *fingers crossed*

10 months

9 months

Botanic Gardens

This photo was taken at Botanic Gardens. I like this one, which captures her cheery mood.

Wave Bye-Bye

It's so amusing for us adults to see her wave bye-bye & says "Bai.."

She started doing that a few days ago and usually not on our demand, but as and when her whims & fancies feel like it!

Hello #4!

Caryn's 4th tooth erupted on the upper gums. Now she has 2 upper & 2 lower teeth.. truly like a Bugs Bunny :)

My little girl is still very fond of pulling herself up to stand in every imaginable opportunity she could find. She would flash a delighted smile across her face as she use one hand to hold onto the support while dangling the other hand in the air. Showing off that she could do it!

She enjoys crawling all over to explore new things around the house, which are all 'toys' to her. After examining the new toy for a while, she would test whether it is edible and put inside her mouth! And I mean she'll put EVERYTHING that she could grab hold of into her mouth!! There was once that she even bite off one corner of the sponge! I suppose it probably look very much like bread to her?!

A physically active baby, she loves to climb, be it climbing on my body when I carried her, or holding onto the window grills with both hands and legs attempting to scale it. Perhaps she'll enjoy rock-climbing when she grows up!

3rd teeth

Caryn's 3rd teeth erupted at the bottom shortly after her 2nd.

Crooked Tooth

Hubby discovered Caryn's bottom tooth is crooked instead of growing out straight. Arrgh.. He attributed it to the over-sucking of pacifier and put a ban on it. Thinking ahead, we wouldn't want our girl to wear braces in future.

Being the 1st day of the ban, Caryn was not used to it when she's sleeping at night and she fussed. So the decision was reduce the reliance on the pacifier gradually instead of depriving her of it suddenly. Thus she will go 'pacifier-less' during the day while at night she gets to enjoy it so that all we adults enjoy a peaceful night of sleep too.

Caryn pulls herself up to stand

I liked it that she crawls towards me, grab my legs and my body to pull herself up to stand.

She'll smiles widely, clap her hands & kick her legs when she finally manages to stand upright.

When she stands & holds onto the bed's headboard, she can slowly move sideways a few steps. My little baby is very agile at 1 week before she turns 8 months. She likes to move alot and is a very active baby, probably because she's born as a 'night mouse' :-)

Holding Hands

大手牵小手 温暖在心头

Holding her hands at 6+weeks -> see here

Tooth Fairy visits again

Tooth Fairy has returned to plant another upper tooth for little Caryn. Yippee, now she has 2 - 1 upper & 1 lower. The lack of teeth, however, doesn't hinder her from eating solids.. yes! She loves the food that is dished out from JieJie's bowl :-) Somehow other people's food is always more tasty, huh?

Saying pa & ma sounds

One evening after I came home from work, I greeted my little darling who was sitting on the stroller, and I turned to walk back to my room. She surprised me by yelling "ma.. ma" loudly. I would love to think that she's calling me.. How sweet!

Now that she can crawl, whenever I put her down near me, she would crawl towards me & tried to grab me to stand up. I felt good that she wanted to be with me although I don't get to spend alot of time with her.

Another happy moments is when she sees JieJie bath. Yeah.. the curious little gal just likes to be around JieJie. She loves to look at the mirror in the bathroom, at the other baby who smiles back at her.

Caryn crawls on fours at 7.5 months

She's a fast developer physically as she started to crawl on all fours at 7.5 months.

Watch her here:

Caryn cuts her 1st tooth

Caryn's first tooth erupts at the bottom gums!

That may be the reason for her fever in the past few days, and her constant desire to bite something.

Fell sick for the 1st time

A day shy of turning 7 months, Caryn had running nose followed by fever. The running nose is likely to be spread from JieJie, who has been sick for past 4 days.

I bought her to Kidslink PD and had her weight taken.

What!? Only 6.43kg! A mere increase of 200g over 1 month. That's very little :(

Caryn Inches Forward

She's on her fours, ie hands & knees. She'll rock herself forwards & backwards in several attempts to move in front. So funny to see her doing that.

This morning, I saw her breakthrough! She was aiming to take something which I put in front of her. She managed to inch forward while on her fours :-) First, she moved her hand forward, followed by the other hand. Not being very stable, she dropped on the bed. Shortly, she was up on her fours again, and this time she moved her knees. Viola! She has moved forward! Happy for my little girl :-)

Jealousy

I came back from work in the evening and sat down at the dining table to eat my dinner. JieJie came over and wanted to sit on my lap. Caryn, who was seated in the high chair opposite me, broke into a cry after seeing me hug JieJie. She was jealous!

For the first time, I witness her jealousy. In her little mind, she had wanted me to carry her but I hugged JieJie instead. I'm kinda secretly happy that she wanted me, even though I spent so little time with her, as I'm away at work most of the day.

I find that I'm like the 'Father' while Auntie is like 'Mother', who is the main care-giver. As for her Daddy, he's like the 'Brother'! hahaa..!

Caryn can sit on her own at 6.5 months

She can sit on her own for up til 3 minutes or so!

6 months on Earth!

My little darling is a very sociable little human being. When strangers play with her, she'll respond by stretching out her hands. Hmm.. the downside is she's unwary of dangers.

She enjoys looking at me playing with her JieJie and seems very interested to join in. She would laugh out loud, giggle, says 'ah goo'.. a chatty little baby. JieJie also loves to enterain her by singing songs or funny faces or just making up silly noises. It's really a joy to see both of them playing happily together :-)

At 6 months, Caryn weighs 6.2kg (at 20th percentile) and measures 65 cm in length (at 50th percentile). She still hasn't catch up much on weight gain.

The amazing thing about her is that she didn't cry when the needle poked her during the last of the 5-in-1 jab. The wonder of the pacifier again!

She starts to sit for a short while.. 1 minute or so.. unassisted and if she doesn't move her body much.

Flying

I find this 'flying' pose very adorable. Caryn would lift up both her arms and legs in the air, with her head high up, as tho' she's a little aeroplane.

Try doing this & see how much effort and calories you'll burn! Tiring, you bet! But tiny Caryn could do it with ease & she seems to enjoy it very much judging by the look on her face.

Yum Yum

Since Caryn started eating cereal at 4 months old once in the morning, she has been taking it quite well. In fact so well that at 5 and 1/2 months, she's eating it for breakfast and dinner. Each feed is about 2 big scoops (Similac scoop size). The speed she swallowed it down her throat is really encouraging! haha.. Most of the time when we put it in her mouth, the cereal is gone down almost immediately!

Compared to her elder sis who still takes an average of 1 hour to finish her meal at 3.5 years old, Caryn is really a delight!

She loves fruits too. Besides banana, she has tasted rockmelon, honeydew and apple. No rejection at all. Very encouraging to see her eat everything :)

I want that banana!

When will the double eyelid permanently appear on the left eye? I'm still waiting... Meanwhile, Caryn looks as though she has inbalanced 'big, small eyes'.

Here's the tale about the banana. I was eating a banana in front of her and she stared at my moving mouth. So I decided to let her have her first taste of a banana. When placed near her mouth, she sucked.. and sucked.. until her lips get quite messy. So I took out, wipe her mouth and continue biting my banana.

Whoa!! Came sounds of protest on a red, hot face! Translated to English, it simply means: "I want that banana!"

OK, at least I'm glad she's more receptive to trying out new food than her sis.

Target to Meet

There're targets to meet at work, and that by itself is stressful enough. Now, there's yet another target to meet, set by the PD, that is, Caryn have to gain at least 500g per month.

My tiny, little Caryn weighs 5.2kg at 4 months and is still at the 15 percentile. Hmm... is the pink weighing scale at the hospital inaccurate? Maybe I'd put her on the blue weighing scale during the next visit.. hehe.

Length-wise, she's ok as she's at the 50 percentile.

But her arms & legs looked quite chubby, although not very chubby, I mean she doesn't look as though she's underweight. Anyway, PD suggested we start her on semi-solid, ie cereal.

When it's time for the jab, I knew exactly what to do. Judging from the previous experience that she would stopped yelling with the pacifier on, I stuffed the pacifier into her mouth even before the needle poked her this time.

Guess what? I was right! When the needle went through, she was shocked for a spilt second and recovered almost immediately by sucking the pacifier. No cries. No sound at all, except perhaps the sound of sucking.

Wow! PD says she's a brave girl.

Wow! The wonders of a pacifier, thank goodness! I thought to myself.

Caryn flips

After a few days of intensive practising, Caryn finally successfully flips :) She was training hard for 3-4 days, as she would sound as tho' she uses a lot of strength, erh.. erh... But she never gave up! She even tried rolling in the middle of the night when she woke up. Perservance pays off, and now there she is, she would just flip in the blink of an eye.

Lifts up head at 16 weeks

Another milestone achieved.. Caryn can lift up her head on tummy position at 16 weeks. While doing so, her saliva drips continuously.. hehe.. maybe her pearlies are emerging? Oh yes, although she's still toothless, she shows interest when she sees the adults munching our food. This little girl at 3+months has already tasted small mouthfuls of rice, bits of soft fish & happily swallowed all :)

At 3 & a half months, she had another of her first.. haircut, done by Ah-Ma.

Tiny, little baby

Caryn is still a small, small baby at 3 months, weighing only 4.7kg. PD commented that she has consistently put on 600g per month for the past 3 months, although she is expected to gain more weight. My 2 other friends' babies born in Dec 08 are around 7+kg now! So you see the difference?

Smiley & Chatty

My mom noticed that Caryn is now more responsive & can play with her, such that she smiles readily when talked to. She's a sociable baby and enjoys cooing with the people around her. I joked there's no need to buy any toys for her as her JieJie is the walking toy. She's so easily amused by her JieJie's every move. Even in the midst of pooing, she'll stop to watch her JieJie when the latter enter the room. She simply adores JieJie!

I've also observed that her eyelashes has grown longer.

I hope it will eventually be as long as her JieJie's :) Even the malay massage lady noticed about JieJie's eyelashes & asked me if she's of pure chinese descent, as very few chinese has such long, beautiful eyelashes.

Btw I'm still patiently waiting for Caryn's double eyelids to appear ...

2 months old

Little Caryn is now 4.2kg at 2 months old.

Phew. She exceeded the target weight gain set by the PD. We took up the 5-in-1 vaccination package & so there's no jab on the 2nd month. We only need to bring her to the Hospital to record her weight.

Btw her temperament is still much the same... ie she'll yell at the top of her voice if she doesn't get milk soon enough. Imagine a tiny bod with the loudest voice! I bet our neighbours can hear her too. We pretty much put up with her impatience as we reckon a hungry baby is an angry baby... hee. I'm actually quite glad that she drinks milk more readily than her JieJie. Hopefully she's not a fussy eater as she grows up *fingers crossed*

Best Friend

Her latest best friend, that she misses sorely & can't do without, is none other than the p.a.c.i.f.i.e.r.

The maid had earlier said it's better not to give her the pacifier, just as we didn't offer to her JieJie. However, one day, I discovered Caryn's mouth was stuck with one! And she was happily & of course quietly enjoying it. Then I realise the pacifier is a great invention to keep the sanity of the adult who's looking after a non-stop wailing baby. I bet the maid really tak boleh tahan her cryings, especially at nights.

Her Daddy thought she looked so pitiful sucking a piece of silicon but soon realised it's not enough! The invention needs further enhancement... 2 pieces of duct tape, one on each side to stick to the sides of the mouth so that the pacifier won't fall off. Whahahaa.. what evil genius!

Tiny, tiny, so tiny

The tiny hand & fingers that made me swoon

6+weeks

... and the tiny feet that made me go head over heels
7+weeks

So Sweet!

This photo is my favourite so far. She flashes a gently sweet smile that my sloooow camera miraculously managed to capture. Her proud mom had the above pic enlarged to 5R & now it sits on the shelf in the children's room.

There were a few instances that she smiles widely, but those moments came by too suddenly that I couldn't grab my camera fast enough. What a waste not being able to capture on film but I'm glad it stays in my memory :)

新年快乐!

我的小红包

My mom bought this ang-kong-kong dress for Caryn & I thinks she's really looks like she's in the festive mood for her 1st CNY! So red hor...

She's my best CNY gift this year... she's like my little 'red packet'.