Step by step, oh baby

At 11 and a half months, Sophie has taken 8 continuous steps on her own. Just last week, she only managed to take 4 steps. So I reckon that she'll start walking when or even before she turns one! It's so exciting to see her lift her little tush off the ground and then start taking one step and then another step.

A sight that I really warms my heart is when she holds onto Daddy's hand and walk together. It's a scene that just says, "I've got you, walk on little one".

For now I'll just enjoy the moments that I don't have to chase after her ..YET! I know that those days are coming very soon and I may need double dosage of patience and energy to keep up with her.

How to keep a baby in her car seat?

Everyone knows the importance of have your child belted up while travelling. In Singapore, it's not only encouraged to have your baby in a car seat, it's compulsory, mandatory, necessary- the kind where you can get fined and be given demerit points if you don't have your child buckled up.

Ever since we changed Sophie's car seat to forward facing after she turned 10.5 months, she's been less cooperative to stay in her car seat. I can attribute it to various reasons.

1. Being forward facing now means she don't get to have any toys or books in front of her to keep her entertained. After all the space in front of her is just the gap between her child seat and the car seat in front.

2. Her view is blocked by the car seat in front of her. Though on that same note, she will have a different view now and is no longer just subjected to seeing headlights of the cars behind.

3. She is starting to have a stronger personality and has a mind of her own. And staying still in the car seat is just not going to go down with her as it used to.

So as the CEO- Chief Entertainment Officer, I had to resort to doing all kinds of things to keep Sophie happy in her child seat. There was the DIY net that I made out of a laundry bag and clothes peg to keep her toys and books within reach. But that didn't stop her from throwing her books and toys down the floor and getting frustrated that she has nothing to play with.

There was also the song singing, from "itsy bitsy spider" to "the Wheels on the bus" to "1 little Indian"...the silly games like me pretending to be "sleeping" and springing up to scare her, or giving her the cloths peg only to have it bitten by her.

But the one that works like a charm now is offering her a biscuit every time she's belted up. You know like a reward for good behavior. It works so well that I think I may have conditioned her to expect to be given a biscuit whenever she in her child seat that she'll call out "Mumm mumm". So much so that when I tried to ask her if she was calling me "Mama", she shook her head and went "Mumm Mumm" again!

Looks like my little girl already knows her priorities! Maybe I should try taking a video of her when she's in her child seat to show you her true greedy colors.

Stay tuned!

Sophie at 11 months

With just one more month to her big one, Sophie has mastered a few new skills

1. Learning how to point
She's recently learnt how to point when she wants something or when we ask her, "where is ..." As she turns into a toddler very soon she'll be pointing to us that she wants a new toy, her choice of food at MacDonalds...

2. She's learnt new words
Her babble no longer just sound like baby talk but more like proper words especially when she can repeat words back at you. She did that for words like "there", "duck", "mum mum (for food)". With more teeth on the way, she'll learnt to say her first word, and I mean saying it with understanding.

3. Standing unsupported
She does this quite easily for about 10 to 15 seconds already. Last Friday I even caught her holding on to a book and somehow getting up on her own. Hehe so daring to stand unsupported.

4. Taking her first steps

Alexis has witnessed her taking two tiny steps unsupported as she lunged towards her walker. And I only saw it yesterday, when she took a step and lunged towards me.

But so far she's been an ace walking supported mainly on her walker. And on days when she's active she'll keep walking around the house from one end of her play yard to the other. She knows how to squeeze herself in front of the walker when she's hit the end of the room and then push the walker in the opposite direction and then start walking again. I'm pretty sure my little baby's going to start walking before she turns one. Time to go shopping for shoes!

5. Knowing how to resist taking medicine
Fifi fell ill recently and we had to feed her 4 different type of medicine. 3 of which had to be administered by the syringe. Now she can even recognize the syringe after being fed medicine for a couple of times and will struggle to get out of our clutches. Today we had to trick her by alternating between feeding her medicine and water. Wonder what new tricks we need in future.

6. Learning how to say no with her hands

Like pushing her bottle when she's had enough. She used to just turn her head away from you if she's had enough. She'll also pushed my hands away when she didn't want me wiping the mucus off her nose.

Alexis was just commenting how amazing babies grow, from a little helpless babe who can only cry, drink milk, poo and sleep to now having emotions, learning new skills and showing signs of her own personality and a mind of her own. And before we know it, we're about to cross the one year mark as Sophie becomes a toddler in one month's time. And just when I thought that things will get easier, the dear baby whisperer just reassured me that it will not! *sigh* welcome to Toddlerhood!

Teething woes

With just 2 more days before Sophie turns 11 months, I have a feeling that her milk teeth are all trying to make their way out of her gums. And because of that Sophie transforms into another baby at night-wakeful, cranky and absolutely inconsolable!

Touching her sensitive gums

For every night since Saturday, she has woken from her sleep crying from the discomfort and pain. We tried the teething gel, teething tablets, giving her a teether and even tried to give her the pacifier, all fail! Only thing that brings comfort is when I nurse her. I hope I don't set myself up for night feedings when this teething episode is over. But already with one tooth, feeding her can be quite a pain painful. Cant imagine if she has more teeth out!

Can you spot her first tooth?

Finger in mouth again!

Today I tried giving her the Woodsward gripe water. Wondering if it was really effective or was it already way past her bed time (9:50pm!), she went down with much lesser fussing.

Just going to keep my finger crossed that she'll wake up only when it's time, 8am!

I can feel my teeth mummy

Its these times when our patience just gets so worn out and our tiredness just gets the worse of us. Got to remember that they don't go through this period forever.

Endure, endure!