A Horrendous Day for Ah Po!

This Monday papa and mama sent Junior to Ah Po's house again... not for long, mama received Ah Gong's phone call. He urged mama to come ASAP, same old story... he complaint Junior was fretting and crying hysterically!

When mama arrived at Ah Po's house with Juan Juan, mama saw Junior was drinking milk (Miraculously, there's only an oz left in the bottle) ! Then Ah Po started to explain, Ah Gong actually "mistakenly" thawed a milk that labeled 4th of Nov (Which's more than a month ago). When Ah po fed Junior with the milk, he refused and started to fret. She actually forced him to drink but later he nauseated and puked! Luckily she was alert and quickily thawed another milk that mama just expressed the day before. According to Ah Po, Junior struggled at the beginning, but once he tasted the milk he stopped crying and kept on sucking until mama showed up.

Ah Po also complaint Junior reluctant to take bath, he yelled once Ah Po put him into the bathtub. She didn't manage to bath him properly and even had a hard time to put on his clothing. He kept screaming and refused to sleep nor 'chat' (One of his favourite activity), he only settled when Ah Po brought him strolling around the neighbourhood!

Mama's intuition already sensed... the next thing Ah Po was going to say! She actually gave mama a hint that they don't want to babysit Junior anymore, she asked mama to send Juan Juan instead! Well, the idea for mama to send Junior over is to spare more personal time with Juan Juan. It doesn't make sense at all if mama sent Juan Juan to Ah Po's house, sigh~! Perhaps from now on, mama just has to take care both Little Sprouts on my own. It's actually a good news... atleast mama's expressed breast milk won't gone wasted if Junior didn't manage to consume in time! :p

Prodigy or Simply Conincidental?!

Sprout Junior- A boy that likes to redicule!

Sometimes parents would encounter certain ingenious acts from their cunning child, most of the time they perceive "it" as a coincident... here's what mama discovered from Junior!

Scenario 1:

Junior was easily mesmerized by lights, specially the one hanging on the study corner (The only white light at home)! It happened month ago, when he kept staring at the light (It was off)...

Mama: That's a "lamp", it's off... (Trying to describe)

Junior: (Looking at the light and suddently...) "MO~!"(means "No" or "Don't have" in Chinese)

Scenario 2:

Mama was hanging clothes at the front yard, suddently mama heard someone was calling "Ma~!! Ma~!!". Mama thought it was Juan Juan but when mama rushed into the house, it's actually Junior whining and Juan Juan was watching her favourite TV show- Mickey Mouse Club House!

But that was not the only time we caught Junior calling "Ma~!! Ma~!!", indeed papa had heard a few times when he babysat Junior.

Scenario 3:

It was a slumber Sunday morning, papa was googling and mama was cuddling Junior while observing papa online. Not for long, Junior started fretting...

Mama: Milk?! Milk?! (Looking at Junior while signing for "milk")

Junior: "MILK"!! ( All of a sudden)

Papa and mama were shocked and stunned!!

Scenario 4:

Early this morning, when mama was "chatting" with Junior...

Junior: I WANT...
(Mama took that as a coincident...)

Mama: What do you what?! (Sound like making fun of Junior)

Junior: Pa~

Little Sprouts' papa actually has travelled to Bintulu early yesterday morning, so he didn't see his papa more than a day already (Guess he missed his papa).

Mama reckons children are geniuses in their own way, they have their individual's potential... awaiting for the parents and society to discover!

"Fresh Milk Please!"

It started this early October when Junior was 1 month 1 week and 5 days old, he refused bottlefed! When mama googled and surfing the net for clues, mama found this issue is actually quite common among working mothers. Most claimed the baby is particular with the bottle feeder, environment and the quality of breast milk.

In Junior's case, mama would like to add on another factor- baby's mood during bottlefeed (On top of what suggested above)! When Junior was rude awaken from his slumber, he normally had problem with bottlefeed; when he had a jolly day out, he could finish the whole bottle of 5 oz milk without fuss. Definately no force feeding, he will puke and screech hyterically (Then we will have problem with the next feeding).

Mama agreed that bottle feeder and environment factors affect baby's consumption of bottle milk. Junior actually prefers papa to bottle feed him rather than anyone else, most probably he has get used to papa's body odour (Moreover papa practices co-sleeping with Junior). When the room is warm and stuffy, Junior actually refuses breastfed (So... don't need to mention about bottle feed!).

Mama doubts the fact that breast milk can store in the freezer for 3 months (Mama never keep the breastmilk more than a month). Junior actually rejects frozen milk, specially those longer than 2 weeks. It happened many times that Junior reluctant to take more than an oz of the frozen milk, when mama handed it to Juan Juan (who likes mama's breast milk)... she actually puked and complaint the milk was sour! So these days mama keeps sending Ah Po (Currently helping mama to babysit Junior 3 days a week)fresh breast milks that less than 3 days old, hopefully it would help Junior to drink more from the bottle!

Another issue is with the milk storage container. Initially mama was using those ordinally plastic containers with recycle code '5', then mama found the milks that stored in the plastic containers actually tasted different from the 'Breastflow'(Code '1') containers and the milk mama freshly expressed (Not sure whether it's psychology or chemical reaction of the code '5' container). Anyway mama already bought some proper milk storage containers for Junior, and mama could see these few days Junior showed less frustration during bottle fed.


These are mama's new milk storage collections: (Left)Breastflow set (Costs RM49.90); (Right)Bumble Bee/ PP breastmilk bottle, 8 pieces with additional 4 free bottles(Cost 38.90).

Oh Dear Mama's Boy!

It has became a routine for Ah Po to babysit Junior 3 days a week (Normally on Monday, Wednesday and Friday), so that:

i)Junior wouldn't be as clingy as Juan Juan, the idea is for Junior to compromise under another person's care besides mama.

ii)Mama and Juan Juan could spend some quality time together.

iii)To reduce mama's burden of babysitting 'double troubles'.

This Monday afternoon, when mama was skyping with papa the phone rang... it was Ah Gong, he complaint Junior was crying hysterically and refused to sleep nor drink milk! Without any hesitation, mama and Juan Juan rushed to Ah Po's house to find out what's the actual matter.

When we arrived, Junior was sleeping in the hammock. Ah Po kept rocking while started to recite what happened. Early this morning when papa bottlefed Junior, he actually finished the whole bottle of milk. Unfortunately when the next feeding due, he started to fret and whine. Then it ended up with tears and he didn't even manage to finish an oz from the bottle!

Ah Po thought he was sleepy, so she put Junior into a hammock but she failed to stop his fuss. She tried to chat with him (which was his favourite activity) but he kept whining and refused to talk. After a few hiccups, Ah Po finally managed to put him to sleep... but not for long, once Ah Gong took over the hammock he woke up and continue to whine again!

"The battle" kept going until Ah Po gave up and decided to give mama a call (It was around 2 O'clock in the afternoon). According to Ah Po, Junior cried louder when Ah Po told him she will call mama and ask mama to come over! It surprised Ah Po, when Junior behaved calmer and more settled after the call. Ah Po claimed Junior slept soundly after mama came, as he knew mama was there for him... (Mama guessed he was actually tired crying for the whole morning)!

Anyway, when he woke up from his slumber after 1 1/2 hour naps, he looked at mama and gave me a big smile... (His eyes were red and there was signs of tears on his cheeks)he smiled wider when Ah Po said " See I promised you mama will come!".

'C' for Cookies~!!

14 Nov, 09 (Saturday)

Today is "Cookie Monster Day"!! Mama decided to bake chocolate chips cookies with Juan Juan as Cookie Monster is Juan Juan's most favourite character of Sesame Street!

Early in the morning papa and Juan Juan went to Carrefour Hypermart for ingredients, Juan Juan helped papa to grab the groceries from the shelves while mama babysitted Junior at home.

The other day papa got jealous with mama and Juan Juan- spending time together making volcano, so this time he volunteered to play a major role in baking cookies! With the assistance of Juan Juan- the 'sous chef', papa shopped for the ingredients, set the oven, mixed the butter dough, moulded some of the cookies, and kept his eyes on the cookies when it's in the oven! So... good job papa and spledid job Juan Juan!!

Here are some snapshots of today's progress:

Juan Juan beating eggs (assisted by papa)

Juan Juan pouring beated eggs with vanilla essence into the butter dough

Juan Juan sieving flour into the cookies' dough

Tasting the cookies' dough

Juan Juan greasing the baking tray

Juan Juan tasting her favourite candy rice

Ummm... cookies in the making

Juan Juan stole a cookie and away she ran...

Juan Juan's words of the day are Chocolate chips, whisk, butter, flour, castor sugar, sieve and vanilla essence!

"I Love Volcanoes!"

Let mama recall... it was weeks ago that Juan Juan was amazed by the volcanic eruption on the National Geographic channel! Since then she kept looking for volcano pictures in her book, encyclopedia and magazine. She even borrowed a book with some volcano pictures from the national library, and knows some facts about volcanoes ( like lava origin from molten rocks, magma is liquid rock in the volcano).

This Wednesday, mama decided to make a volcano model with Juan Juan (which was actually a primary science project)! Mama reckons it's much better than entertain her with T.V programme!

Ingredients:

12oz bottle

tray

paint

Dough

1 kg flour

water

Lava Mixture

1 tbs Sodium Bicarb

1 tbs Dish washer

few drops of red dye

half cup of vinegar

Mama mixed the dough while Juan Juan added water into it, then mama moulded the volcano around the 12 oz bottle. After that, mama let Juan Juan picked her favourite paint for the volcano and made her own graffiti on it!

Mama mixed the ingredients for the lava and let Juan Juan pour it into the volcano's vent. Then mama added the vinegar into the hole and voila... our homemade volcanic eruption!! For a spectacular eruption, we can add 3 tablets of minty mentos but we forgot ours when we were shopping.

Juan moulding the vent of her volcano

Inspecting her volcano after the eruption

Go Go Sprout Junior!!

This evening when mama and Juan Juan were watching T.V, a sudden sight of Junior caught mama's attention... he was actually trying to flip his body to the right!!

Junior (2 months 2 weeks old) was placed on the couch while mama and Juan Juan were enjoying Pokoyo of Playhouse Disney. In order to keep Junior occupied, mama placed a Maybank coin box beside him so that he could "entertain" himself with it. Instead of "blank staring" at the coin box, Junior actually attemped to turn over towards it... perhaps he was trying to reach for his "new subject" (Just a wild guess, not sure why he suddently flip over)!

Although it took him quite some time to turn over, but mama reckons it's a marvellous job! This video was actually captured on his second attempts to flip over.