happy 14th month baby!

that was 2 days ago but the past month had whizzed by so fast, I realised I didn’t really take a lot of pictures!

nothing much has changed the past month, you are equally hyperactive, if not more. you occasionally skip your afternoon nap and its been extremely tiring for everyone to keep up with your energy levels. mummy barely has anymore ‘me-time’! even blogging has taken a back seat because I’m constantly tired and spent.

this month, you added ‘pa pa’ (scared scared) to your vocabulary list complete with actions of thumping your chest with your hand. your no. 1 item on that ‘pa pa’ list is the vacuum cleaner and you’ll run for your life screaming ‘pa pa’ non stop when the vacuum comes into sight, amusing everyone to no end. grandma has also tapped on this and deliberately place the vacuum where she doesnt want you to go near. so far, its been very effective!

tantrums wise, you are turning into an uncontrollable little terror that whines and cries every other minute when things don’t go your way.. the household is adamant about not giving in but sometimes, its really heart wrenching and heart tugging to endure the tears, the screams and we mostly adopt the distraction method where we distract you with something else. its hit and misses for now, but I guess its a start.

you have also become a super-glue baby that glues yourself to my legs. you hang on to them with your dear life and I’m always stuck with you these days which reduces the amount of time I get to get anything done. I cannot even go to the loo in peace without you screaming/crying outside the door or attempting to open the bathroom door and get to me. its extremely frustrating for me and a real test of my mental endurance so I relish every single time I can get the baby off my hands. you have also shown a strong preference of me over everyone else so I have a koala bear glued to my hips now. I’m hoping that will change in the months to come because you are getting a lot heavier (even though you are still rather tiny for your age) and I think in the months to come, I won’t be able to handle your weight anymore.

food wise, you have pretty much been consuming the usual porridge with chicken/fish/scallops, celery/carrot/radish/potato/onion soup with beef cubes, spinach with fish, broccoli, and Gerber bottled baby food when we are out for convenience. I have also started to give you some of the usual food that I eat mainly to expand your taste buds and let you explore new textures and tastes. other than fishes, I usually ‘wash’ off the sauces with water or soup so its not as sweet/salty for you. you are quite fussy in the foods that you are willing to accept and will immediately spit out whatever you don’t really enjoy immediately.

you love water and will play with it at every single opportunity. you still make a beeline for anything and everything with water, like the toilet bowl, a random cup of water left on the table where you’ll dunk your hands in, my mum’s buckets of recycled water for watering the plants where you splash everything and make yourself wet, your water bottle where you’ll drink and spit out the water merlion style all over the floor and then sit down to make tiny splashes of fun with it. you are pretty innovative with your thinking and gets round to getting what you want sometimes, especially when we deny you tools or access to it. 

I sometimes am very amazed by your problem solving skills. like how you’ll push your little car against the big chair so you can climb up from your car to the chair to the desk where something there catches your sight. you have also learnt to open all the drawers and use them as steps to get you higher to get the item of interest. we usually don’t stop you but observe with a watchful eye in case you fall or are in danger. we want to develop your skills naturally and I think you are doing a bit too well in that aspect that we sometimes are quite freaked out at how more attention we need to lavish on you to make sure you are not in danger. you also can climb from sofa to the window grills and up the window grills and that freaked me out a lot because you are so tiny, you could fall through some of the holes in there. we have since combat that with wire mesh over our grills on the window that is open daily and kept all other windows tightly shut to ensure your safety. you are also quite a killer litter throwing things out of the window. we have been very lucky not hitting anyone yet and the only casualty thus far is a dead cordless phone (others have survived) but its an act we definitely do not approve of. the smacks has been more frequent but I’m not sure if you understand the concept of being disciplined at this point in time. I am hoping classical conditioning will do us some good.

my little spider man.

your perception of things around you have improved greatly. you know and can relate that wearing shoes means heading out and you’ll bring us your shoes or attempt to wear them on your own to get out of the house. when we put you in your Ikea chair, you know its time for mum-mum.

you are a funny little person. when you do something to frustrate us, you wait for us to holler at you.. and then secretly repeat on the sly while we ain’t looking to irritate us while you stand aside and laugh (!!!) at our frustration. it exasperating and attention seeking at the same time. ok. I sometimes find it cute that you actually know to laugh and trigger our reactions but there is no way I am going to let you find that out (until you can read and discover this blog of mine). you really do have some wits there.

the bit that has some degeneration is bed time. we have been having quite a bit of bed time struggles these days where you refuse to sleep or go down for your naps and constantly want to play. at night, you struggle with a little tribal dance for a long while before tiredness consumes you and knock you out. before that, you’ll be bull dozing around the bed with your head, flip around non stop, attempt some cartwheels and tunnels under the pillows and blanklets non stop. its like your feeble attempt to stretch your bedtime later and wants more play. you have also stopped sleeping in your own bed much to my dismay because you are so mobile.. you’ll discover where you are and climb onto our bed in the middle of the night. I am still thinking of how to eradicate you because I want you to be able to sleep independently especially since we’ll be moving next year to our own place but for now, I’m actually quite enjoying the snuggles kicks and slaps from you in bed. the thing I enjoy most is opening my eyes every morning and seeing the angelic face inches away from mine. except that the angelic face changes minutes after you wake and dish me your first smiles of the day.

I am hoping to enroll you in some classes soon mainly to expel your excess energy levels so that its not that tough on grandma on a daily basis.

you took your inaugural flight last week to kuching and your daddy says you are not going anywhere with us after this. haha. he almost went mad being confined with you on the 2hrs flight with you being so hyper. but we are thankful you didn’t cry/scream at all through the flight and garnered some smiles and love from the passengers around us as well as the flight attendents. on the way back, you were an angel on my laps until you woke and I had to pass you over to daddy cos I was suffering from very bad motion sickness and was puking up a storm in my seat.

we ain’t sure when you’ll make the next trip. the original plans of travelling to US late this year/early next year needs to be shelved for now.

the one thing we know.. is that maybe you are ready for some kiddy rides soon because you grasped the concept of holding on tight to the handles in front of you while in a car ride!

I hope you stay the happy baby you are (minus the cries and the stickiness) in the coming months. I look at you these days with mixed feelings and try to enjoy the time we spend together before you grow out of your babyness. love you baby!