One time, no more!

Oh you know what??? We finally managed to successfully, more or less, wean Isaac off the breast. Hehehe... yeah, it's "more or less" coz he's sorta still suckling... but wait! let me explain!!! It's much better now, ok!?

You see, only a few weeks ago, he was still drinking about 3 to 5 times a day
1) immediately after I come home from work, he'd need his fix.
2) just before he sleeps - or rather, yes, he nurses to sleep - I'm his pacifier.
3) during the night, he wakes up to drink at least once...
4) sometimes twice!?!?
5) occassionally, before I go to work, in the car, he'd drink.

So, kinda minimum 3 times.

But tell you... his "1 time" is like horrible, coz he'd suckle one side for awhile then ask for "other side", then suckle awhile, then ask for "other side" again! and again! and again! *faint* Hubbs ask me why he does that, I said: "I don't know. Maybe he likes the kou2 gan3"

Anywayz, we really wanted to try to wean him off. So, like a week before his 6th July (22 month 'birthday'), I kept telling him that he was going to be 22 months old soon, and that made him a "big boy". So, big boys don't need to drink from Mummy anymore, right?

Thus, from 6th July onwards, whenever he asked to drink. I would tease him, "You big boy already, right? So no need to drink lah..." I would say it in a teasing voice, tickling and poking him at the same time. He would get all tickled, and actually not drink! Hurray! This way, we actually managed to cut out the fix after I come back from work.

Then, I started to drive all the time, instead of hubbs. Coz we found that Isaac would only quietly sit in his car seat (which is in the front seat, next to the driver - no we don't have airbag), while I am driving! If hubbs is the one driving, he would want to "Sit with Mama! 'hind! 'hind!" (behind). So, I would drive, and so, he stopped drinking in the car.

Now, it was left with the feeds just before he sleeps, and those at night.

We found that it was quite tough to do away with the nursing to sleep, so I tackled the night feeds first. When he wakes up, I would give him the "No, you big boy already... no need to drink lah..." Sometimes he accepts it, when he's sleepy enough, and goes back to sleep. Sometimes, he is tired and cranky and throws a tantrum - which, I either let him burn himself out with the tantrum, or if I am particularly tired myself that night, I'd just surrender and let him suckle.

But most of the time, my Isaac boy is very rational and a bargain boy, he'd say "One time? please Mama. One time?" on and on and on, no tantrum! hahahha how'd you say no to that?! He was asking nicely, with a reasonable request, and he said 'please'!

But remember what I said earlier about his "one time" being "other side" and "other side" and umpteen numbers of "other sides"?!?! I didn't want that to happen! So, I told him, "One time, and no more! Okay?"

Of course, he said "okay." he's learnt to say okay to most things, even though he doesn't really understand what we're saying sometimes. So, I'd let him suckle. Then, naturally, he asked for the many "other sides" after he's had a go at both sides once. That's when I'd say "No, Isaac, Mummy told you already, one time for each side and no more, right?" This, he couldn't argue with, so he'd go back to sleep.

So now he knows. At night, when he wants to drink, he'd say "One time, no more?" And I'd say... "huh... one time, no more ah!?" and he'd nod eagerly and say "One time, no more!!!" And I let him suckle lor... :p

Hey, but I made some progress on the nursing to sleep the past few nights. We'd read before bed, you see. Isaac loves books, so we'd usually have to read to him till he's tired and wants to sleep. The past few nights, I noticed this pattern:
- we'd read till he's tired, and he agrees to sleep
- close book, lie down, he starts suckling
- but shortly, he'd disengage himself (stop suckling), and ask for another book!
- I'd read to him, and he goes to sleep while I am still reading (long book lah, I'm a very interesting reader/story-teller okay ;p)

hurrah!!! even though he nursed a bit, I still feel this is a marked improvement that he didn't nurse to sleep! yay!!!

kekeke ;) not bad progress lah, huh hehehe...

To Perth and back!

Hey, some of you must have been thinking where I've disappeared to kekeke... well afterall, I usually try to have a post a week at minimum, right? Well, guess what? We went to Perth! yeah!!!

Whole of last week we were in Perth, Australia. Hubbs, Isaac and I, and 3 of my cousins: Yew Hui, Yew Ling & Yew Yi, another cousin Yew Jin & his gf Sharon, and Yew Jin's mum, my 2nd aunt. We all went to Perth, and there, we met up with my cousin Joel, his wife Andrea and their 3 lovely kids: Jarrod, Zachary & Caitlin! :)

We had a blast!!! It's been more than 10 years since we cousins went on an overseas trip together, sans (most) parents this time too kekeke...

We drove down South from Perth, stayed 2 nights in Denmark (yes, we DROVE to Denmark! hahahha sounds like we drove halfway round the world, huh), and another 2 night just outside Margaret River, and another 2 nights in Perth city.

We climbed rocks & trees, visited a chocolate factory and winery and some nice jam place, oh and we ate lotsa lotsa good food!!! yum yum yum, was amazed that I didn't put on any weight this trip though. hahaha... good, otherwise will kenna scolding... hahaha...

Isaac had a fantastic time playing with his Kor Kor Jarrod and Kor Kor Zachary. He jumped when they jumped, skipped when they skipped, and imitated any action they did or sound they made. Yes, he's in the 'parrot stage' ! hahaha...

The boys were very nice kor kors to Isaac, and gave in to him almost all of the time. We only had to stop Zach when he tried to sit on Isaac - coz Isaac tried to sit on him first. hahaha... Well, on this trip, Isaac learnt to jump on the bed, and on each other too.

On this trip, Isaac had his first taste of a hotdog sausage, lamb steak (ate a whole piece with his rice), beef steak, burger (had almost a whole burger for lunch). And I think he ate more bread in this one week than he has ever eaten in a month during normal days.

It's also the first time that we gave him biscuits to snack on, in between meals. We did this coz we didn't often get to have our dinner on time. But Isaac's tummy's on clockwork, once it's time, he's hungry! As a result, he ate quite a bit of snacks in between his meals.

:) well, you'd see the pix in a few months time. HAHAHAHA... okay okay, will try to hurry it up... :p

Dinosaur Vally State Park & Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

So, there we were in Texas, with nary a clue as to what we were going to be doing there. Hahaha... as mentioned, we were there to visit Zhenguo, so he was the main reason why we were there. Everything else was secondary.

He racked his brains thinking of where he could possibly bring us to. So, it so happened that a few hours drive away, was a Dinosaur Valley State Park. Sounded good to us, so off we went!
It was a roadtrip, so hubbs sat up front with Zhenguo, and I was at the back, with Isaac in the child seat. It was a pleasant drive, and Isaac and I both had a nap on the way there. Drifting in and out of sleep, I could hear hubbs and Zhenguo chatting, talking about their secondary school days, reminiscing of their younger days... hahhaa...
Here we are at the park. Wasn't much, we just went there and took pix with the two dinosaurs, walked around a bit. Didn't go see the fossils, deeper in the park. But we had a blast. Look at the wonderful pix we took there! :)
Isaac, Mummy & T-Rex!!! :p

Hehehe... thought Isaac looked so cute in all the pictures that they all deserved to be uploaded! kekekkee...
A "yeah!!!" for the T-rex! wooo-hoooo!!!!
The green one's the Apatosaurus! :) Isaac is not exactly INTO dinosaurs, though he is relatively familiar with them by now coz he has some books on dinosaurs.
The open grounds are amazing though. We hardly get to feel this sort of space in Singapore, if you know what I mean. I was kinda glad I dressed Isaac in red that day - he certainly stood out against the background of the park!
This in the car that Zhenguo rented for us. He says it's the kinda car that a old, rich uncle and his wife would drive. hahahhaa... It was pretty luxurious -in a very 'uncle' way! hahaha... Here's Uncle Tan posing with the car.
After the dinosaur park, we had lunch, then went to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. We basically paid entrance fees, then drove through the park in our own car. The animals actually ran free in the park, so we got to get right close to them coz they'd come right up to the car!
So it was kinda cool, coz the animals really came very close. It helped that our entrance fees also bought us 2 packets of animal feed that we could feed to most of the animals.
Look at the zebras! :p
Isaac was pretty amused with the animals, but frankly, so were we all. That's us urbanites for you!
Here's our driver! kekeke...
Ooooh the ostriches are quite scary. They are pretty aggressive and wanted to stick their heads into the car.
Its eyes were also quite big and scary. yikes!
See!!! freaky!!!
These were some kind of deer/antelope... some animals would be quite aggressive and very insistent, and kept asking us for food.
Oh the giraffes were great!!! so pretty! and tall and elegant!
The people said that the giraffes were the only animals that we could feed out of our hands.
hehehe I chickened and didn't want to do it. well largely coz hubbs did and he said that the giraffe slobbered a whole gook of saliva in his hand!!! hahahahhahaa...
Oh look! Zhenguo getting up close and personal with the Zebra!!! woooooohoooo!!! I said I'd blackmail him with this picture.
Now he'd have to bring back boardgames for me for the next 10 years! hahahahhaaha... here's the lovely lady he smooched above :p
We had a lovely dinner at the Red Lobster on our way back, and then headed back to the hotel.
And look what's Isaac doing?!!? sighz...
pictures above taken on 6th December 2009

Isaac @ 16 months exactly!