Walking into the New Year!

Today (New Year's Day), Janelle managed to walk unaided for at least 1 metre! She had previously only been able to walk 2 to 3 steps unaided before grabbing onto some form of support. But today she decided to be bold and just continued walking

I guess as parents, we are excited about this new development, yet fearful of what the 'future' holds now that she can explore previously untouched grounds! It means that more supervision is needed. But I guess each stage is a step of faith!

Some of Janelle's new developments:
- wave hello and call out to each stranger she meets (actually this is not exactly a new development considering that she's always been trying to get others' attention since young!)
- point to the ceiling (especially when you ask her "where is the light/fan?")
- say "NO" and "duck" (see, I was right about "no" being one of the first words babies speak!)
- spit out her food
- bark when she sees a dog or a picture of a dog

No No NOO!

I don't think I have ever used the word "no" so many times in a day! I find myself saying "Janelle, no!" countless times each day. It is no wonder that one of the first few words children learn is the word "NO". Now, I am attempting to use variations of "no" - like "you cannot do that", or use the positive form like "sit down" instead of "don't stand up".

Last night I was reading a book on disciplining toddlers (ie. 14months onwards) and I was surprised to learn that the examples of naughty behaviour quoted in the book are already present in Janelle who's 11 months old! Each day is a battle of getting her not to stand or climb out of her high chair, to not spit out her food, to sit in her carseat (which she absolutely refuses), to not scream, etc etc. It doesn't help that other older mothers tell me that it will only get worse as the kid grows older! That sure doesn't sound encouraging at all.

This morning I had to leave Janelle to play with her toys while I went for a quick shower. Just 5 minutes later I came out and found my bag ransacked, with Janelle pulling out every card and note from my wallet! Decided to snap a picture of her caught in the act...

First Christmas!

Today Janelle celebrated her very first Christmas! She got a new drum set from her mama (maternal grandmother) as well as some fake fruits from her 'chor-chor' (maternal great-grandmother).

Janelle also had great fun walking in her new shoes and playing with bubbles. She loves to hold on to one hand while walking, and wave hello to everyone with the other hand - as though she's Miss Universe doing a catwalk! *faint*

 We had a delicious dinner with our families & friends, with Royston's baked turkey being the main highlight :) It turned out pretty impressive considering it was our first try at baking a turkey! Janelle enjoyed the turkey as well :)

Janelle - 11 months old

Terrible ONEs?!

It is interesting that we know of the term "Terrible Twos", but no one ever mentions or prepared us for the "Terrible ONEs". Janelle is 11 months old - not even one year old yet - and she has already started to show signs of being really really naughty. Her latest development is her screaming. She screams at everything and for every little reason. Not the pitiful-sounding screams, but really loud, shrill and piercing screams that bring utter embarrassment to us - her parents - especially in public.

How do you discipline an 11-month old child when she screams? How do we get her to stop screaming? We are at a loss after having tried scolding, beating, covering her mouth, giving her silent treatment. But all has failed thus far. Well, if anyone has any suggestions do let us know :)

On a lighter note, Janelle is now the proud owner of her first pair of "proper shoes"! All her older shoes have been the soft-sole type that is not too suitable for walking around in (more for cosmetic purpose!). This pair of shoes has a firmer and waterproof base so she can walk about in it. She loves walking around but still insists on holding on to at least one hand.

Back from Genting

We went to Genting Highlands 12th to 14th December. Janelle simply loved the cool weather up there and slept like a pig!! In fact, she slept more than she did back in Singapore :) Brought a slow-cooker up to cook her meals and as the name suggests, the slow-cooker really cooked food very slowly!
12 hours to cook the porridge! Not sure if it was the cold weather that caused the cooker to cook even more slowly?! But the porridge turned out mushy and yucky, with the potato pieces still hard after 12 hours of cooking. Thank God Janelle had no complaints on the yucky food and finished it up anyway

This picture is of her smiling away happily. She's generally a very cheerful and smiley girl. Growing up real fast and learning things (bad things!) fast too  She has recently learnt how to scream, which isn't very pleasant and highly difficult to correct. Oh well, can only pray that God will teach her (and us) patience!

Genting Trip 12-14 Dec 06

Mopping Floor

Janelle has learnt how to help me mop the floor with her clean hanky and T-shirt! She happily grabbed her hanky in one hand, her T-shirt in the other, and went crawling round the whole house - mopping the floor in the traditional way!

 

Time flies and she is now 10 months old! She now learns things real fast and is getting cheekier and naughtier by the day!

Janelle - 10 months old

Balding old man?

 "Boo - hoo! Some people have said that I look like a balding old man! *sob sob* I'm not an old man! I'm barely 10 months old!! I just have very little hair, especially on the top of my head. Will you pray for me that I'll have more hair?"

For more of Janelle's funny expressions, check out her 9-month-old photo album.

New Slippers!

Proudly presenting Janelle's first pair of slippers!

Still too big for her but we thought it looked really cute

Miscellaneous

Bye Bye Pacifier!

No more pacifier for Janelle! She has self-weaned from it after 9 months of depending on it to soothe herself to sleep. A good time to wean off pacifier considering her teeth are popping out, plus her current pacifiers are getting a little old and grubby - so  I don't have to buy new ones!

Time to throw all her pacifiers away! But perhaps I'll keep one - just in case!

Janelle's Developments

Janelle is learning things fast and thought I should keep a record of what she can do at 9.5 months old.

Motor skills:
- crawl
- cruise round furniture
- pull herself to stand, and ALMOST able to get into standing position from a sitting position without any support (my, she has strong legs!)
- walk with support
- stand without support
- pick up small little pieces of food to feed herself

Hand Signals:
- bye bye
- no more!
- Praise the Lord
- clap hands
- friend-kiss
- point at things

Language:
- Daddy (first word)
- daa-daa-daa (like a broken recorder)
- some other strange-sounding stuff that I can't quite make out

Other behaviour:
- Loves to kiss us! Her kiss is simply wet and yucky. She hasn't figured how to pucker her lips to kiss yet, so she opens her mouth wide with tongue sticking out and plants a big fat wet kiss on our cheeks/lips/anywhere!
- Will "sing" to herself just before she falls asleep. When she starts her "singing", it's a signal that she's sleepy and wants to sleep.
- An extremely loud voice for a baby. Highly embarrassing when we bring her out and she starts "daa-daa-ing" away at the top of her voice.
- Loves to kiss her reflection in the mirror (especially the mirror behind our main door of house). As a result, my mirrors are all smudged with her fingerprints and saliva!
- Ransacking all my drawers/cabinets within her reach. Her all-time favourite cabinet is my accessories-cabinet in our masterbedroom. It is very low - at her height when she crawls - and hence well within her reach. She'll slide open the cabinet and start ransacking all my boxes containing accessories. Once, she kept a ribbon in her mouth for goodness-knows-how-long before I discovered it. Thank God she did not attempt to swallow it!
- Laughs / smiles when we (adults) laugh! She sure knows how to appreciate jokes :)

Realised that our little girl is really growing up fast!

New Photos!

  

  We went for a free makeover/photoshoot today and got 2 free digital pictures. Of course the package came with the usual sales pitch urging us to sign on as customers and to buy more photos, etc, but we stood our ground and voila! - we got 2 free pictures!

But our parking fee came up to an exhorbitant $15 for 2.5hrs of parking in CBD! Oh well, guess that's the price we have to pay for a free makeover-photoshoot!

NB: My hair looks messy in this second picture but we like our little girl's expression in this photo so we chose it. Anyone knows how to photo-edit away my messy hair please let me know! Thanks!

 

WOW Worship & Tooth Fairy Revisits

Been getting really lazy and busy to update this blog but figured since I've got it started might as well get it going! :)

1) WOW Worship (3 Nov 2006)
Yesterday we had our WOW Worship Service for all our poly graduates and current students to come together to worship God. It was a great time not just meeting up with old friends, but also a great reminder that regardless of which poly or which year we were from, we are united in the bond of Christ! Hence we can worship our great God together

W - Worship; O - Obedience; W - Witness
May we all learn to Worship Him, Obey Him and be a Witness for Him!

Janelle thoroughly enjoyed the WOW Worship! Not only did she have her friend Hannah to play with (see picture), she was "singing" away with the music - though I must say her "singing" sounded more like some tribal shout and it was truly embarrassing for her voice to be heard above the voices of the other 70-over people!

2) Tooth Fairy Revisits
Janelle's upper right tooth is peeking through her gums! That explains why she has been constantly chewing on her fingers these days. After 2 crooked lower teeth, the first thing I prayed for when I saw her upper tooth was that she would have straight upper teeth with no gaps in between! Haha such a shallow prayer! But it sure looks like her upper teeth will have a gap in between. Oh well, can only take heart that this is the outward appearance that man looks at - but God looks at the heart!

"Yang-Oh"

Never knew or heard of this term "yang-oh" until Janelle came along. Well, for those of you who don't know, "yang-oh" is not Janelle's new babbling - It is actually a hokkien term that carries the same meaning as "manja", or affectionate.

At first, it is quite sweet to have a baby who's always wanting you to carry and cuddle her, etc. But now is the phase when Janelle will not even allow me to leave her sight without a loud pitiful wail! Think she is going through the common phase of having separation anxiety.

Sometimes, even being near her or beside her is simply not enough - she will want to be carried. And her 8kg frame is proving to be a bit of a strain on me. I somehow think that I can only tahan carrying a maximum weight of 8kg because I never really found Janelle heavy till now, when she hit the 8kg mark! Suddenly I find myself hoping that she will not put on too much weight until she learns to walk!

Yet, on the other hand, I also find myself hoping that she doesn't learn how to walk too soon! Already as of now, she's crawling all around the house exploring all my drawers and little corners. Often, when I leave her alone to play, I'll come back finding a pool of water on the floor (spilled from her water bottle), or the TV switched on, or my drawer being ransacked, or tissue paper all torn and littered over the floor, etc etc. Imagine the chaos when she learns how to walk!!

Such strange and mixed feelings....when she was younger, we hoped she would learn to flip, learn to grab a toy, etc. But now that she's slightly older, I wish she would just not develop too fast!

Wasting Time With God

On Thursday, we had staff training at a really lovely place at Tanah Merah and I brought Janelle along. The fresh sea breeze and peaceful environment really set the right mood for the purpose of this training - which was "Wasting Time With God".

Basically, we were given time on our own to just spend time reflecting and communing with God. The 1-hour time given was simply far too short! And surprisingly, Janelle who's usually so active and bouncy could sit quietly in her pram for a good 30 mins just admiring the waves and wind  It was her first mini-retreat at 9 months old! And I must say she was really well-behaved. Think the lovely and serene environment put her at ease!

I was really surprised that Singapore actually had such an "untainted" place with the sand and the sea. It sure didn't seem like we were in Singapore...felt more like we were in Bintan or something! And Janelle is so blessed to be able to go to such nice places all the time with me

Janelle - 9 months old

No more fever!

Thank God Janelle's fever has gone off today! It's definitely a viral fever because as predicted by doctors, her body broke out in a rash today after the fever went off. She looks really spotty and ugly now with the rash all over her face, head and body. But it will go off in 2 days' time!

Here are the "Fever Awards" for the past 4 days:
Most Popular Device - Braun Thermoscan
Most Soaked Cloth - face towel (for sponging Janelle)
Most Yummy Syrup - strawberry-flavoured fever medicine
Most Persistent Callers - Janelle's grandparents

Well, to all the "supporters" out there - thank you all for your concern and prayers! We have been really blessed by the numerous number of calls/smses/msgs asking about Janelle!  

Late Night Adventure

Last night, Janelle was fast asleep and Royston decided to take her temperature. The reading was 39.5 degrees! *panic*

We quickly got hold of a wet towel to sponge her and drove her down to Mt Alvernia's 24-hour outpatient centre at 10:30pm. On the way down, we had to make some phonecalls to find out "how high is considered high for fever?" to decide whether to send her to A&E or to a GP. 

Poor girl - she was woken up by the countless times we took her temperature and the touch of the wet cloth against her fiery-hot body. Her concerned grandparents also drove down all the way to Mt A just to see how she was.

By the time we reached Mt A, her temperature had dropped to 38.8 degrees - still high but at least not as high as earlier on. The doctor said it was probably a viral fever and if the fever persists for more than 3 days, it could be urinary tract infection. So, it is definitely not due to her teething!

Throughout the whole of last night, Royston dutifully woke up at every hour just to take her temperature. Thank God it did not soar to more than 39.1 degrees.

Till now, her temperature still rises and falls like the stock market. But on the average is about 38.5 degrees. Poor Janelle - for the first time since she was born, she looks kind of sick and is not her usual cheerful self. She is also really manja / "yang-oh" and super sticky to Angeline. Praying that God will heal her soon!

Hot Babe

Janelle is a really hot babe today...with fever that went up to 38.4 degrees. Poor thing!  Think it's because she's teething? But then again, I thought that when babies start teething they might have slight fever only. Hmm....But thank God she was perfectly happy with the cool patch on her forehead - it did not bother her one bit! And she happily lapped up her fever syrup medicine and was asking for more! Greedy babe  Besides, she smiled each time we took her ear temperature because she was tickled by the thermoscan in her ear! 

Clever Girl!

Nowadays, Janelle delights in clapping her hands and whenever she does so, we'll exclaim "clever girl!". I think she now thinks that clapping hands = clever girl, because whenever we say "clever girl", she will automatically clap her hands!

Today, she was standing up holding on to something, then suddenly she decided to let go of the support and stood there clapping her hands - as though applauding herself that she could stand without support! Haha it was such a funny sight and we were so proud of her. This is her latest milestone - at 8.5 months old, she has learnt to stand on her own

Attempts to whistle

Today, Royston was carrying Janelle and whistling to her "wheeeee". And guess what? Janelle started to do a little high-pitched scream "aaaahhhhh" in an attempt to imitate the whistling! It was hilarious! Such funny things babies do

Gone are the days...

With Janelle, gone are the days....
when we could watch a movie together,
when we could stay out late (because Janelle sleeps early),
when we could take long and shiok afternoon naps during weekends (unless she sleeps too),
when we could sleep in late (because she wakes up early!),
etc, etc.

Well, strange that it took us some 8 months to realise that gone are those days! It's as though the reality has finally sunk in (for Royston especially! Angeline had already "resigned" to the fact long ago!). I think the thing that is most difficult to give up is the luxury of undisturbed sleep and spontaneous naps! - Because we both are pigs and sleeping is our hobby. Oh well.

Still, we wouldn't trade our little girl for sleep beacuse she brings us so much joy!

Brought Janelle to the Mid-Autumn celebration by the poly students but she didn't manage to stay long because she was tired and cranky by 8pm. Such a pity if not she would have had a chance to hold her first real lantern! Check out her party hat!

               

Blessed beyond measure!

Yesterday, we were packing Janelle's toys and belongings so that we could transfer some over to my office for her to play with. And we realised how blessed we were! Janelle had sooo many toys and stuff that we did not even have to buy! They were all mostly given or handed down by others.

As of now, Janelle has enough toys and "equipment" for her to stay either 1) at home, 2) in office, 3) at Royston's parents' place, or 4) at Royston's mum's cafe! Which means she has like 2 playpens, 2 cots, 2 gym-mats, several quilts/pillows/bolsters, and countless toys! And we didn't even have to buy any of them.

So blessed

Janelle's new favourites....
1) Talking, or rather, babbling
2) Clapping hands

Life is getting noisier with her around!

Nice Dinner

Went to this lovely quaint restaurant for dinner on Thursday to celebrate Angeline's birthday. Nice cosy place and not too crowded or noisy. Janelle was the noisiest customer there with her babbling that almost amounted to shouting. And it sure looks as though we're celebrating Janelle's 1st birthday from the pictures! Haha :)

Janelle - 8 months old

Clap Hands

Janelle's first claps at 8 months 1 week old :)

Clap Hands!

Finally! Janelle has learnt to clap her hands today! We've been teaching her how to clap her hands since the day she was born but to no avail until today. Haha :) Check out the video of her clapping her hands :)

Janelle's 2nd Swim!

Brought our little girl for a dip in pool late this morning but she didn't enjoy herself!! Think she was scared of the water and kept clinging on to me so tightly. Tried putting her in the float but she didn't seem to like being confined to the float. We spent more time trying to reassure her and making her have fun, than really having fun itself! She was like the only baby/kid in the pool to look so unhappy...it was as though we tortured her by bringing her to the pool!

This is really strange because since she enjoys her bath times so much, a logical deduction would be that she would enjoy the pool too. But i guess babies defy logic! Ha

Managed to catch some pictures of her - all with eyes half-closed due to the brightness of the sun! And she sure doesn't look too happy in these photos! Haha

 

Wern & Lynn's Wedding

Yesterday we celebrated and helped coordinate Wern & Lynn's wedding! It was our great joy to be able to see them getting married because, after all, we were the ones who kind of like introduced them to each other

Was pleasantly surprised that we could still enjoy ourselves (especially for the morning part) because usually wedding coordinators have no time to really enjoy the whole thing. But the evening part was really hectic, i must say. Had to settle lots of last minute interesting crop-ups!

It was a beautiful wedding and the couple looked really fantastic together! So glad that we managed to take at least 1 nice picture with this beautiful couple!

Janelle at Camp (18 - 21 Sept 06)

Check out these pictures of Janelle being pampered by everyone at camp and see how she thoroughly enjoyed herself!

Janelle's First Camp!

At just 8 months old, Janelle must have been one of the youngest around to attend her very first camp! She did her 9am-5pm duty at camp from Monday to Thursday, and was so warmly welcomed by all the students. She was like the centre of attention during the camp, and so loved by all. So blessed

What a great privilege she had to attend a camp at this tender young age! I don't think many other babies have this opportunity or privilege to go for camps. She's so blessed to have so many other kor-kors and jie-jies playing with her! And it was a great camp we had - to see lives changed and challenged by God. Praise God!