Travels with Isabelle & Sebastian

It’s been a month + 3 days since we moved into our new home. Isabelle has adapted well so far… except bathtime. When we first moved in, the showerhead in my bathroom was fixed to the wall & she got frightened when she took her first shower here. Since then she’s been taking her showers in my sis-in-law’s bathroom. No negotiation even after daddy replaced the showerhead in our bathroom.

A couple of days ago I returned from a week-long business trip to Sabah & Sarawak. During the drive home from the airport (daddy picked me), he casually told me how he flipped through our old photo albums and realised we’ve both grown old.

I could have taken offence there and then! I think that was the first time he’s ever told me I’m old(er). But I decided to look at it another way… yes, we’ve both grown old(er). We’ve been together since 1997, had long distance relationship for 3 years, gotten married and our firstborn will turn 3 years in 5 months’ time.

It’s time for No. 2. ’nuff said.

We moved into our new home over the Raya weekend. So far Isabelle has adjusted well to her new surroundings. In fact she loves her new home very much. Her first night on mommy & daddy’s new bed was so comfortable that she slept till 11.30 am the following morning.

Yes, she’s still sleeping with us.

And one of the things I had planned to do after we moved is to get her to sleep in her own bed (her baby cot). Last night I set up the cot with clean sheets and new pillow & bolster. She got excited and wanted to sleep in her own bed. She played in the cot, calling out to us (we were unpacking & putting things away) & simply enjoyed herself.

But when it came to switching off the lights, she called out to me and said she wanted to sleep with us. Truth be told, I felt odd when I lied down on my bed without her by my side. So I carried her back into my bed and cuddled her to sleep.

Sigh… mommy & baby are having bedtime separation anxiety.

We’ve reached a stage where my growing toddler is learning to control her bladder and bowel. Sometimes she remembers to alert us when she needs to relieve herself, other times she’d go “uh oh”, “wet wet” etc. Mommy and daddy recently bought her an Elmo DVD on potty training to help her identify and heed the calls of nature.

Just a couple of weeks ago, after a short spell of constipation, she developed a fear of passing motion due to anal pain when hard stool passes through. So she’d strain herself but yet try to hold onto the stool. Eventually daddy and I had to give her enemas on several occassions to help her stool out.

Once she refused to poo poo even though she’s not passed motion for a few days in a row. Daddy showed her an enema in his hand and she immediately pushed her stool out. We’re talking about those big bombs shaped like giant bananas from Ghana!

Last night we went through the same episode. She’d cry coz of tummy discomfort, and yet refuse to poo poo. We had to wait to this evening when she finally poo poo-ed on her own, without any help from an enema. Phew!

I can’t wait for her to outgrow this phase!!

I came across this joke online & thought it appropriate to share with all mothers. Enjoy!

Tiny Misunderstanding

My wife is still mad at me over a teensy misunderstanding that occurred when our baby was born.

She called me at work and said her water had broken.

And I said, “So, call the plumber.”

My baby has learned to request for things by saying ”Mimi/papa/yeh yeh/mah mah/too too, I want…(whatever it is that she wants)… “

and ends her demands with “…NOW!”

*repeat the above as many times until parents/grandparents react/gives into her demands*

I wonder if this was a byproduct of watching too much tv, or did she pick this up from the babysitter’s?

Not too long ago I bought colour pencils for Isabelle so that she can learn drawing and colouring with the colouring book I got her last year. She already holds pens & pencils properly, and this is the next step in unleashing her creativity.

So far her sense of colours are a bit out, and she colours out of the outlines. I’m thinking of getting water colours for her to paint once we move into our new home.

Ah yes… we recently bought a new (and bigger) home and it’s under renovation now. Daddy and I have been planning for no 2, but there’s just no space in the current house for another member of the family. We’re lucky to find a place where everybody liked and is big enough for another 3 siblings. Hee.. hee… that’s a planned number, we don’t know if it’ll become reality or not.

Anyway, back to Isabelle and her colour pencils… this morning we found her scribblings on the living room wall. Uhoh… this reminds me of my younger days when I scribbled all over my father’s house. Like mother like daughter?

My toddler now throws tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants, for eg watching a particular Barney/Sesame Street/Bananas in Pajamas DVD. First she shouts “no!” a few times, then she starts crying… tears will flow down her cheeks and wet her face.

If this tactic doesn’t work, she starts hitting one of us.  When she does that I’d tell her to stop hitting the person and to say “sorry”. Sometimes she gets angry and walks to a corner, refusing to look at us when we talk to her. After a while she’d walk up to us and apologise.

Growing up with her really amazes me. Just this morning, as I related an incident her babysitter told me the night before (where she misbehaved) to yeh yeh, my toddler gave me the icy stare and ignored me. She refused to look or talk to me the whole day until bedtime.

Gosh… any mommies out there with advice on how to handle such situations? Help!

I don’t get it… my daughter simply loves Barney the purple dinosaur!

Wake up: “mimi…. Arney!” [mimi = mommy, Arney = Barney]

Throughout the day & evening: “mimi… Arney!”

And when I refuse to let her watch the DVD for the Nth time, she cries a river! This happens every single day.

Somebody please help!! Any of your kids crazy about Barney like my daughter?

It’s been ages since Isabelle last visited a paediatrician, no thanks to her daddy. However I’ve noticed how light she felt when I carried her lately. Also the fact that she’s refused to eat porridge that mah mah cooks, and she still can’t eat solids like rice, meat & vege. 

So last Saturday I made an appointment with the paediatrician who examined her at birth. For the first time in months we got her weight and height measured. Her daddy hasn’t checked these despite my countless ‘reminders’.

At 2 years 1 month:

height = 80 cm (slightly below normal)

weight = 10 kg (at the low end of normal)

The paediatrician, Dr Chye, explained to me & yeh yeh (daddy was working at that time) that Isabelle’s probably bored with the same type of foods we’ve been feeding her. He advised us to change the ingredients in her porridge, switch milk types, feed her snacks like biscuits, yoghurt etc.

That same evening yeh yeh & I went shopping at Carrefour. We bought all the stuff Dr Chye recommended, as well as a small tin of Pediasure chocolate milk.

Voila! Baby loves the new milk, in fact she’s been drinking double the volume compared with the Wyeth Progess Gold we previously fed her. As of today, we’re running out of Pediasure but there’s still 7 tins of 900 g Wyeth Progress Gold (vanilla) at home.

After yeh yeh instructed mah mah to change the ingredients of her porridge, Isabelle seemed to like the new porridge (baby: mmm nice!) and actually requested to have more!

Our next appointment with Dr Chye is in a month’s time. I hope she’ll grow a bit by then.

I have so much to blog about, mental notes & all… but my hectic work schedule doesn’t permit me to do so. So let me rewind my memory cells a bit and jot down whatever milestones I remember.

Isabelle turned 2 years last Friday. I was away for four days before her birthday, and when I got home my baby started talking to me in short SENTENCES. She no longer uses key words, she can now string words together to form short sentences. And the best part is, we all understand what she’s trying to tell us. WOW!

Baby: Hi mimi! [mimi = mommy]

Baby: Baby go upstairs oin oin [oin oin = sleep]

Baby: Papa pees pen [pees = please, pen = open]

Baby: Baby go outside walk-walk

Baby: Where’d mimi go?

 Daddy & toddler

 Isabelle’s fav characters B1 & B2

 See how happy she is!

 3 of us

Isabelle has also exhibited her stubborn streak, especially during her midnight feeds (yup, she still wakes up at night to drink milk!).

Baby: Ah nen-nen… (she says it once)

Mommy: Ok baby, please wait. Mommy makes milk for you now. *add powder to bottle*

Baby: Ah NEN-NEN… (she says it twice)

Mommy: Baby wait. Mommy’s making milk now… *shakes bottle faster*

Baby: Ah NEN-NEN! Ah NEN-NEN! Ah NEN-NEN!!!

You get my drift…