Happy Halloween!

Yay! The day has finally arrived! Daddy took the day off work to join Sarah and I in the festivities. While we won't be venturing out in costume ourselves, we are bringing Sarah trick or treating at the mall. Yippee - bring on the Kit-Kat bars! :) Have a safe and happy Halloween y'all...

Update: So we only scored one Kit-Kat bar from our mall trick or treating session :( Oh well, at least we had fun and I think Sarah enjoyed herself too. Now if only people would stop setting off the firecrackers - we have a baby who is trying to sleep! Grrr.... :)

A Sign Of Things To Come Perhaps?

I think Sarah gave me a small taste of life with a two-year-old today. As you know, meal-time with Sarah can be a long drawn-out process - she eats like mommy - so in order to speed things up, I took away the toy that attaches to the high-chair. However, I did give her a spoon to play with while I was heating up her lunch (don't ask me why). Here is where the 'taste test' comes in. I take away the spoon that Sarah has in her hands and she immediately starts crying and fussing until I give it back to her! That was the first time that has ever happened. Anyway, I didn't give in and sang to her instead while she had her cereal. Hmmm...I wonder if that's worse? :)

My Contribution to Saving the Economy

To satisfy my love of window-shopping while at home, I have been scouring various retail websites for clothes, toys, and whatever else might come to mind at the time. One place that I recently re-introduced myself to is good old Craigslist. I can't believe the scores of deals that can be found there, especially for baby-related items and not to mention costumes for Halloween. Kiddies, especially those who are only several months old, are only in costumes for pictures so there are some really good bargains out there. Since Sarah still hasn't grown into her cow costume (and not wanting her to look the same as cousin Matthew), I decided to take a look at what is available and found a gently-used costume for Sarah that only set us back $10. YAY! I'll wait until Friday to spill the beans on what she's going to be :)

If that wasn't a bargain enough, I found another whopper of a deal yesterday on Craigslist. I had been eyeing the Laugh & Learn activity toys for Sarah but they are quite pricey for a made-in-China plastic toy, so when I found the Laugh & Learn Baby Grand Piano for a steal at $15, I just had to pick it up. Oh, the pleasure of finding a good deal...

With all these new finds and to reclaim some adult space in our humble home, we are now slowly converting the office into a playroom for Sarah. Hopefully she won't get as many Christmas presents as Matthew because we are running out of room fast! Here's what the interior decorator-wannabe in me is thinking (yes, even her room needs a TV)...

A Day in the Life

Aside from taking Sarah out for lunch at the mall (my current favorite kid-friendly eating spot), we spent a relatively quiet day indoors today. To pass the time while Sarah was awake and not eating, we continued to help her practice crawling, gently pulling her along the carpeted floor. It isn't nearly as brutal as it may sound and Sarah really enjoys these 'rides'. Speaking of rides, J took Sarah on a magic flying carpet ride. Okay, it is actually a laundry basket but it could double as one, can't it? I can't believe that I had never thought to use this ordinary household item as a play-thing but I think I will use it to help her practice sitting up :)

Also, as we do on a daily basis, the day included some story-time. Sarah has already built up quite the library for herself and her current favourites are by Sandra Boynton. We love them too - the characters are so cute and the stories are amusing to read. I would like to pick up some classics, like Dr. Seuss, however I am finding those hard to find. But that's okay. We have some new titles on order from Chapters - including a Mother Goose book - so we may find some new favourites soon :)

Finally, to end the day on a high note, we helped Sarah expend whatever crawling and rolling energy that was left so that she could sleep more soundly. Doing some of this helps too... ;)

An Incurable Disease

Help! I have a bad bad disease that can not be easily cured. Not only am I obsessed with researching and looking for all things baby-related, but 'baby-shopping syndrome' has got me making trips to Babies 'R' Us on a much too regular basis. My case of BSS is so severe that even one of the salesclerks there remembered what I bought before. Either she has a really good memory or I am at the store way too often - or both.

Anyway, I made two trips out there this week primarily out of necessity since Sarah is now taking solids - the second trip was only because they were having a sale that started today. What I had to get were some beginner sippy cups, a baby-food freezer tray (basically glorified ice-cube trays but with snap-on lids) and sleepers that were marked down. While I found all that I needed, Sarah also scored a few new items yet again. Yes, I know that I can (and probably should) get only the things on the list but it is so hard not to check out their other offerings - it is a large store after all :) What I ended up also getting were a new bathtub (this one is a necessity now that she is sitting up more), a teething bunny doll (okay, a splurge), a crawling helper thingy (another splurge), and a toy for the high-chair/booster seat (it was cheap!).

All these things for the low low price of....well, let's just say that it wasn't pennies :) But I will say in my defense that I find myself shopping continuously for Sarah because she is changing all the time and we forget about the little miscellaneous things as she continues to grow. And that's a good reason, no? ;)

Anyhow, here's Sarah going through a "dry" run of her new bathtub...

And playing with her new crawling helper thingy (it's supposed to help)...

The Grass Isn't Always Greener

With all these entries about Sarah's sleeping and eating issues, I thought it timely to remember and appreciate all the good things that come with that little package of ours. Now don't get me wrong - I absolutely adore my little girl and wouldn't change anything. It's just that it is so easy to dwell on the sacrifices/problems/etc. but I am making a conscious effort to take things in stride and enjoy the time with Sarah because she is after all only a baby once. Not to mention that this experience is a one-time deal anyway - guaranteed ;). I do sometimes long for the days when life was more spontaneous but looking back, it really isn't too vastly different. Okay, who am I kidding - it is different but it's a good different. Anyway, enough of this airy-fairy stuff - back to reality...

Nothing much has happened in Sarah-ville lately, save for the fact that she was still on her bottle strike this week up until today. Finally we have a baby who eats like a champ again!! :) (Hopefully I didn't jinx us because the day isn't over just yet.) Anyway, after having a full breakfast, Sarah scarfed down a Hungry-Man sized lunch of formula, followed by barley cereal mixed with carrot AND applesauce for dessert. She also tried "using" a sippy cup today too - still some practice required :)

Finally, as for sleep, we have an all-night snoozer again (sort of). Aside from the occasional cry out for a cuddle, Sarah has been waking consistently at 3:45am half-babbling and half-crying for about an hour before drifting off to sleep again. Assuming that it was hunger, I fed her one night but decided that would be reverting back to our old ways, so I reciprocated with a strike of my own and now I'm trying not to check in on her unless she's really persistent. I think it's slowly working ;)

Charades anyone?

I have never been very good at charades. Life with a baby, however, is like a never-ending game of it made tougher because the correct answer is never obviously revealed to the players. And so Sarah continues to keep us on our toes guessing with her current eating habits. She only took the minimum amount of formula yesterday but slept through the night so now I'm really uncertain what might be the cause of her eating strike.

But thank goodness for computers and the creators of Google :) I found another strategy. Yay! Learning that the excitement of the world might be a potential source of distraction, I fed Sarah in her room as soon as I got her out of bed this morning as suggested (I usually change her before bringing her downstairs). To my amazement it worked! Well, better anyway. She took half the bottle in one sitting, which is GREAT given our recent battles. Anyway, if you're interested, I found the post by Ask Moxie to be extremely helpful and most importantly reassuring that other kiddies are causing similar grief for their parents :) The lesson? Don't sweat the eating thing because baby will always let you know when she's hungry!

Now on to the next feed. Who is going to win this round? Stay tuned...

8:45PM - The final score for today: Baby 2 - Mommy 2. At least we're even. I still think teething is the culprit. Hopefully Sarah still sleeps through the night. Guess we will have to try again tomorrow - we will figure it out some day!

Anyway, here's Sarah doing something that is more enjoyable than eating. Food is clearly over-rated to some people ;)

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

A nice autumn day is hard to come by, especially where we live. So taking advantage of the good weather today, we started a new annual tradition and took Sarah to a local pumpkin patch this afternoon with Aunties Wendy & Pat and Uncle Rog. The farm itself was not very impressive (I had pictured hay-rides and the like) but since it was our first time going to a pumpkin patch ourselves, we had some good fun nonetheless.

The farm had a Tiny Tots Patch where Sarah got to pick out her very first pumpkin with Daddy's help. Daddy was a real trooper and got his hands dirty to search for the perfect one for Sarah. It was a stretch for him to do that so I was quite impressed. That's L-O-V-E I tell ya. Now let's see how he makes out with the carving part...we might just resort to our good friend Jiffy instead ;)

Unlike what I had imagined, there were no fields and fields of pumpkins but there were bunches of pre-picked ones so we still got in a few good pictures. Here are a couple shots of Sarah that I especially liked. The blue background is actually a wheelbarrow (I was having an 'artistic' moment)...

Anyway, I think we all enjoyed ourselves at the pumpkin patch. Now I can hardly wait until I can share my childhood holiday tradition with Sarah - Christmas light touring! :)

Sweet Potato Pie

As promised, I not only have photos but also a video clip of Sarah trying some more sweet potato today. Auntie Christina stopped by for a lunch visit so we were able to capture the footage - thanks Chris! This time, instead of only puckering her lips and giving a little shake, Sarah included some eye-blinking for added effect. What a drama queen! I will definitely have to sign her up for acting classes one day :)

Finally, this isn't food-related but I just had to share this photo with y'all because I think it's absolutely adorable. Here is Sarah's cousin Matthew planting a wet one on her before saying bye-bye. Matthew loves Sarah and even has a Sarah doll to play with when she's not around. Yes, boys are allowed to have dolls too. Isn't that just so cute? Sarah needs more cousins - hint hint...you know who you are! :)

Becoming a foodie...

Now that Sarah is familiar and doing well with baby rice cereal, I let her try some sweet potato for lunch today. The reaction to this strange new taste was priceless! Sarah would pucker her lips after taking each bite and give a little shake as the food went down. So funny! Too bad I didn't get the camera in time to take a photo of it. Maybe tomorrow...

I also let her try a Baby Mum-Mum cracker that Daisy Yee-Yee gave to Sarah. While she wasn't so sure about the sweet potato, she eagerly took the cracker. I'll bet that it was the novelty of holding something herself :)

Speaking of these crackers, I did some research on them since I wasn't sure when Sarah can actually have them. Apparently there have been some concerns around choking with this product so maybe I will wait until her solid-eating skills are well-established before giving them to her again. Also, I don't know where the Mum-Mums here are imported from, but the company issued a reassurance that the milk products are not of the tainted kind from China. I'll leave it to your discretion whether to continue offering them to your kiddies :)

On the developmental front, Sarah is still working at sitting up and constantly fights to sit upright while I'm bottle-feeding her, which makes for an even longer feeding session. It's alright though, she is beginning to get the hang of it and the novelty will wear off soon. We'll just have to continue practicing this more!

Family Get-Togethers

We went home to see Granny (and 'gong gong' if he's home in time) for our usual weekly visit tonight. Dinner at Granny's is almost always a crazy affair but I love it anyway. We have Sarah's cousin Matthew tearing up the house or chasing the dog, Toffee clamoring for any attention he can get other than from Matthew, and lively (read: "loud") conversation about the day's happenings from Daisy Yee-Yee and Carina Yee-Yee and others if they make it home for dinner. This environment is a sharp contrast to what Sarah is used to with just the 3 of us and makes for quite an overwhelming experience for her. However, the little trooper seems to be getting more comfortable now, even allowing people other than Daisy Yee-Yee to carry her (which is saying a lot if you know her well)! I think she thoroughly enjoyed herself tonight :)

Following a quick cat-nap during the ride home, we had an Energizer Bunny on our hands so we played with her for a short while before her bath. Sarah tried on a pair of new booties for Daddy, who was dying to see them on her after I came home with them last night. Here she is checking them out.

And...as if new colourful cow-themed booties weren't enough to keep her entertained, Sarah quickly found a new toy in the prized remote control. Hmmm, I see Mommy & Daddy use this gadget to change images on the big black screen. Maybe I can find Pocoyo, Kai-Lan or Dragon with this myself! ;)

Late-Night Rendevous

Little Reesie threw us for a loop last night, which has left me wondering if this is yet another one of her growth spurts or simply a call or test for some cuddle time. Here is a recap of what happened:

1:15am - Sarah wakes up half-crying, half-babbling. I leave her alone.
1:45am - She's still up. I go in to change her diaper.
[Silence]
2:15am - She's up again. Sigh. Whatever could it be?
2:20am - Check in on Sarah. Big par-tay going on in the crib with Pooh Bear & Gerry Giraffe tossed all over Sarah's digs. A big smile from Sarah. Hi Mommy! :)
2:25am - I feed her a small bottle. She finishes it within minutes and cries for more. I holler to J to make another bottle.
2:35am - After a quick cuddle, I return her to the crib but then notice that the sheets are wet from her drool. I holler to J again to change the bedding for us.
2:45am - Clean sheets (check), clean diaper (check), full tummy (check). Good night Sarah.

Weird! While we were groggy from waking to Sarah's babbling, we couldn't get over her cute little eyes staring at us when we were in her room. She looked so adorable that I almost wanted to take her into bed with us :)

On another note, I think I have found Sarah's favourite non-kiddie song!



Way to go Sarah - we have another Madonna fan in the making!!! :) Sorry daddy...

Knowing When To Keep Quiet

Took in some valuable 'me-time' and sat on the couch to veg and catch up on my shows this evening. Yippee. Caught a new episode of one of my current favorite guilty pleasures, Jon & Kate Plus 8.

That Kate can sure be snippy with Jon - it's almost like looking in the mirror for me ;). However, I can appreciate that with 8 kids, it can be pretty easy to get impatient at the littlest thing. Just thinking about it makes me shudder - eight (or nine including hubby) different temperaments to tend to, ten mouths to feed, the diaper changes, etc. etc. I only have one kiddie to deal with and here I am wondering about what to do with an extra 1/2 hour with Sarah now that she is awake longer. Wow - guess I can't really complain about all the work that is involved. But as they say, the grass is always greener. I can't wait for Sarah to be 'x' age, but I should live in the moment - like watching Sarah practice sitting up :)

Sigh...before we know it, Sarah will be a tween - hopefully nothing like Maddie! - and we will be longing for the days we have with her now. Being loved by a baby to no tomorrow feels great and does wonders for one's ego! ;)

Things You Didn't Need To Know

WARNING: The following blog entry may be offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Okay okay, it really isn't all that bad or even worth mentioning. But as the title suggests, it is something you don't need to know. That is, unless I have peaked your interest :)



Today, Sarah had her first solid poopy diaper! A vivid description of the event is by no means necessary but I still wanted to capture the milestone for memories sake. And besides, isn't that what blogs are for? ;P

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving y'all - hope your bellies are stuffed from eating all that turkey! :) Ta-ta for now...

Afternoon Play-Time

We are lucky to have several nice playgrounds in the neighborhood so seeing that it was a nice afternoon, we took Sarah to one a few blocks away. Here she is sitting on one of those wobble-wobble thingys:

Sarah also went down the slide several times. Although we didn't get any noticeable reaction from her, mommy and daddy had a grand ol' time nonetheless :)

And just for kicks, I am pleased to report that we are seeing improvement with Sarah's eating now. Maybe it was just another 'phase' that she was going through. She is feeding better and also catching on to using a spoon without too much dribble down the chin. Less mess means more food in the tummy, right Sarah? ;P

PS. Yes that is a new high-chair. We love the Rainforest collection and Sarah loves it even more :)

We've come a long way baby...

I thrive on routine and schedules. Surely having a baby made me realize how anal I am about it and that is why I often blog about this very subject. It's not so bad (is it?) and I certainly don't apologize for being this way :) While some schools of thought center around letting baby make the calls in this area, I much prefer helping Sarah develop a routine so that I can interpret her cries, fussiness, etc. (I also learned that babies happen to do better with routines.) Knowing this, I had developed somewhat of a schedule shortly after bringing Sarah home but the results were very erratic at best and it needed some tweaking. At 7 weeks, Sarah's days went something like this:

7:07am - wake up

7:20am - false alarm (back to sleep she goes)

9:15am - wake up & feed
10:50am - nap
11:35am - wake up
11:45am - false alarm again
12:35pm - wake up (this time for good) and feed
2:30pm - nap
3:15pm - wake up (already??)
4:35pm - feed
6:35pm - nap
7:45pm - feed
8:30pm - bed-time
10:40pm - feed
11:30pm - back to bed
2:30am - feed

Erratic, no? ;) Within 3 weeks after hiring Dawnn, Sarah's days finally became much more manageable and mommy had her hands free again. Ahhh...the luxury of eating in peace and actually getting to use the kitchen :) Sarah's schedule post-sleep consultant at 10 weeks:

7:30am - wake up & feed
9:00am - nap
11:00am - wake up & feed
12:30pm - nap
3:00pm - wake up & feed
4:30pm - nap
5:30pm - wake up & light feed
6:30pm - bath-time
7:00pm - feed & night-night
10:30pm - dream-feed

So not to be a free advert for Dawnn but as you can see, hiring a sleep consultant not only helped us with Sarah's sleep habits but also gave us some much-needed predictability. We've had to sacrifice spontaneity for the time-being but now we can time our activities around Sarah's schedule so that we don't have a cranky-pants on our hands. And while we know the schedule keeps changing throughout the first year and beyond, we can work from the current routine so the changes are not as big a deal for us :)

PS. If you are one of the lucky ones who has an easy sleeper, CONGRATS and count your blessings! It was a tough slog for us in the beginning with a 'hard-to-sleep' baby so we felt we had no choice but to go the consulting route :)

Oh, who are the people in your neighbourhood?

We took Sarah for a walk in her stroller tonight as we normally do on rain-free evenings. However, we did not bump into the other moms and dads on our usual route. Oh but of course - how silly of us. We must be the only crazies out there who would think to bring a baby out on a chilly evening. At least we had the sanity to bundle her up real good in her teddy bear jacket - thank you Auntie Theresa & Uncle Richard! I guess we will have to move our stroll in the mountains to the afternoon from now on :)

Speaking of mountains, we often encounter wildlife in our area, including a baby black bear that once walked right past our front door (Momma bear, fortunately, was nowhere to be seen). Anyway, tonight while we were on our way back home, we came face-to-face with a deer! How exciting. Given where we live, this isn't a rare occasion, but it was certainly the first time that we ever came so close to one :) He was standing so still that we first thought he was just a garden ornament until he started working on the plants :P

Tricks & Treats

It's October - time for turkey, falling leaves and of course trick or treating! I have such fond memories of making the rounds in our neighbourhood with a pillowcase, empty it out as soon as it got full, and return for a second or third round. What fun that was! As for costumes, I often had to be creative and drum up a quick idea for the night, often resorting to a few hand-drawn whiskers using Mom's eyeliner pencil. Sure I didn't have ears or a tail but I made a good cat (or mouse or anything with whiskers) :). For Sarah's first Halloween, we are dressing her up as a cute little cow (thank you Auntie Christina!). It still fits a little big on her so hopefully she will grow into it in a few weeks.

P.S. A quick sleep update. I think Sarah is sleeping through the night again despite not eating as much as usual. YAY - finally!

Counting down to nap-time...

We have officially reached close to two hours of wake-time. Yikes. What am I going to do with Sarah for an additional half hour? With her eating habits, it is hardly enough time for me to take Sarah out far and she also seems happiest within the safe environment of home sweet home. Sigh. It must be the fact that she would rather freely play on the floor than be confined to a stroller - I suppose I would feel the same too. Anyway, I managed to fill the time this morning by teaching her how to sit up and continue practicing crawling. With her eating going the way it is, at least some of her time awake will be spent fighting with her to take the bottle :)

As for eating, we tried some rice cereal yesterday! Sarah eagerly took about 5 itty-bitty spoonfuls of the food but I think she was more excited at the novelty of sitting in a high-chair. Here are some shots of our big girl sitting up - she clearly enjoyed sitting in a high-chair and getting a better view of her world...

Lastly, Sarah finally slept through the night again last night. YAY! Hopefully the previous several nights were just blips and that we have an all-night sleeper again. Here's hoping that I didn't just jinx myself :)

Kung "Food" Fighting

Changes are coming at us fast and furious now. Not only has Sarah changed her feeding schedule and is preparing to crawl, she has also started waking up again in the middle of the night. Sigh - we were doing so well right up until now too. I guess that is a sign to start solids! As much as I am excited - and sad - to see my little girl grow up so incredibly fast, I dread the additional time that it is going to take for her feedings. Like mommy, Sarah is a s-l-o-w eater and she is extremely picky about when she eats. Oh well, we will have to sacrifice play-time for our little rascal then!

And as if things could not get more complicated, we are getting ready for the dreaded fall time change. I am so not looking forward to midnight November 1st. But I have a plan, courtesy of Babywise Mom (thank God for blogs)! I am moving Sarah's schedule back 15 minutes each week leading up to the change so that we don't have an early riser by the time the change takes place. Hope it works out...wish us luck :)

Activities with Baby

I enjoy spending time with Sarah but it takes a lot of work - not to mention a lot of creativity! - to keep this little ball of energy entertained during the time she is awake. In addition to playing silly games and singing songs with her, we have armed ourselves with some much-needed 'assistance' through various play-gyms, activity centres and her current favourite, the Rainforest Jumperoo. She will happily jump and bounce for what seems like hours on end and is often still jumping as we pull her out. Here she is working out her little legs this afternoon. 'Lord of the Dance' anyone? :)

In the search for other activities to keep in our back pocket, I also came across a Fisher-Price kiddie games website some time ago and now that Sarah is more adept at sitting up assisted, we tried out some of those games today. She seems to be showing some interest in them but we'll see if it continues. If it does, I bet that she will be getting her own computer from Daddy soon!


Finally in other news, we are preparing to take our first-ever professional family photos with my friend Melissa! Sarah tends to be wary around strangers so I hope that it goes well and we will get some good shots of our little family :) Fingers crossed for good picture-taking weather...

A New Friend

Sarah has found a new playmate. A good friend of ours had given Sarah a large Olympics mascot doll a while back (thank you Uncle Min!) and you wouldn't believe the smiles we got when we showed Quatchi to her last night. Could it be that he is just the right size for her and incredibly soft and cuddly? Or is it a sign that she is looking for a little brother or sister? No way I say! We'll settle for getting her the Sumi and Miga plushies instead :)

We have a crawler (sort of)!!!

As Oprah would call it, I had an "a-ha moment" today. Sarah had been experiencing some sleeping issues lately and I think I know the reason for this sudden change in behaviour. In addition to dropping her late-night dream-feed and going down to 4 bottles a day (changes that took place within a day of each other), Sarah is well on her way to taking over and destroying the house. Two days ago, Sarah magically got herself onto all fours and into the crawling position! Watch out daddy - no more babying the TV soon! While she seems to have figured out the correct position for crawling, she hasn't quite understood that she also needs to move her arms and legs. The result? A lot of rocking back & forth and shuffling about with her head on the ground :)

And...as if the prospect of crawling wasn't enough to get us nervous and looking into baby gates, Sarah is now also grabbing at just about anything we will allow (other than phones and the prized remote control). I have been letting her practice grasping with her face-cloth and am quite impressed with her hand-eye coordination - she is usually able to grasp the cloth with one swipe of the hand. To help satisfy her interest in this new favourite activity, I put together a "treasure chest" filled with little goodies for Sarah to explore. It's amazing how interesting such simple things as a measuring spoon and hairbrush can be for her!

PS. Happy 5-month birthday to our little girl!

Welcome to my new site!

I heart change. Those who have known me for a long time have had to bear the burden of changing my contact info a gazillion times and who knows how many times I have re-arranged and redecorated my room back at home. Websites are no different.

With the additional time spent at home nowadays, I am on the computer lots and have developed a passion - okay, an obsession - for creating blogs. This new favourite past-time is helping me stay sane and keep in touch with the world, while helping me develop and advance the writing skills required for my life outside of the home. The site I have been using recently hasn't been working out as well as I had hoped, and since realizing that Blogger is a free service - we are, after all, living on one income right now :) - and much more reliable and user-friendly, I will be posting all future details on my adventures with Sarah here.

Anyway, welcome to the new site! Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride of life as a new mommy with me :)