Weaning?

Yes, this is me, feeding Isaac in the car again. On this day, 8th November 2008, I was very sad. Coz hubbs had decided that I was to wean Isaac off. Was a very sad day for me. I spent the whole day whispering and talking to Isaac, telling him that I still loved him even if I didn't let him drink from me. Dunno if I am paranoid, but that's what I fear - that he thinks I don't love him anymore if I deny him my milk.
So, you see here, I got hubbs to take a picture of my sad face. And of me feeding Isaac in the car. See how he clutches my shirt? When he was younger, he used to always reach out with his hand to touch my face. Now? he doesn't, now, he knows how to pull my shirt up and away from his face - guess it's disturbing him - but then - my modesty!!! sighz!!! I'm always like going:"Isaac! Stop it! The uncle in the lorry/bus/motorcycle can see mummy's breast already lah!"
Oh, and now, he also know how to "choose side" already. Side? hehehe... which side to drink lor! hahahahhahaa... That's why he knows how to say "this side" - coz I always tease him by asking him:"Isaac, which side you want to drink?" Then he'd point to either side and say:"This side." Hey he's serious one okay, if he chooses one side, but (for whatever reason) I want to feed him the other side first - he will shake his head, point at the breast he wants first, and say:"THIS SIDE!". Luckily, he's quite even - will sometimes choose right side, sometimes choose left side. And after he drinks from his chosen side, he will always drink the other side as well. So no uneven breasts for mummy! kekeke...

pix taken on 8th November 2008
Isaac @ 15 months plus

So did we wean off? Well, obviously not. HAHHAHAHAA... Think at that time, I managed to wean him off night feeds, meaning that he slept through the night without drinking. But during our trip to usa, it was all messed up already. Coz firstly, on the plane, my boobies were the BEST weapon for keeping him quiet. Was especially useful for take-offs and landings, coz we were afraid his ears would hurt. But actually he was very well behaved on the flight. Think, was coz he wasn't eating well, coz it wasn't his usual porridge or rice, so I was inclined to let him drink when he wanted to.

Then just before CNY, we were like determined to wean him again, coz we thought we had better get down to making Baby #2. So hubbs said that after the 15 days CNY, we'd wean him off. kekeke... guess what? He's still drinking! hahahaha... we're kinda resigned to the fact that I may have to nurse through pregnancy.

Well, I'm hoping he weans himself off like Jeddy did. At least he's eating powder milk, right? Also, one morning, he didn't drink at all in the car, coz we gave him a piece of bread and he was happily eating that. So.... little victories, bit by bit... we hope, and pray... hahahaha... right now, we're just hoping to conceive!!! pray for us!!!

Isaac goes cycling!

We finally got around to installing a child seat on one of our mountain bikes, for Isaac to sit in. It comes with the seat belt, which we thought we'd have a problem having him agree with it being put on - but seems like our fears were unfounded - he didn't seem t mind it at all! Which was such a relief for us!
Here's hubbs having a go on the bike with Isaac first. I was kinda scared at first to get on the bike, coz I scared I'd not be able to balance with the additional weight at the back. Plus I had not ridden for a long time, so... wasn't confident of ferrying Isaac yet. Guess I was just afraid that we'd fall and Isaac'd get hurt.
Isaac had a blast! :) He was really enjoying himself, though it was kinda a subdued kinda expression he was carrying, not an 'ecstatic' one. But we could tell he really liked it. He kept asking to continue. Think he liked the motion of it, and the wind in his face.


We were taking the vids and pix, and was trying to get him to wave bye bye to whoever was behind the camera, and he did - belatedly! hahaha... if you see the wids, you'd see him waving, AFTER he passes... hilarious though! hahaha...
Here's me with Isaac. hehehee... I finally decided to give it a try. My fears were pretty much unfounded. I took to the bike pretty well, reminding me of my bike zipping past hahaha... I love cycling. When I was in primary school, I'd used to go cycling round the blocks with my primary school friend Shuwen. We used to cycle to JE Burger King to get a burger, and a Mr Softee at the 7-eleven after.

In secondary school, I managed to convince my dad to get me a mountain bike for my birthday. And boy did I go places on that! During the school holidays, I used to cycle all the way from my home in Upper Bt Timah, to my secondary school Crescent - which was in Tanglin Road. Quite a feat, eh?! :) I remember the time in JC too, when I went cycling with the Odac guys - Ruiwen, Junxiong, Huijie and Shaoyong, to Pasir Panjang, to meet Xiaofeng, who stays there! hahaha... At night too! What fun! :) ah... those were the days...

Here's me on the bike with Isaac! woooohoooo!!! :)

pix & vids taken on 8th November 2008
Isaac @ 15 months

At the paediatrician's clinic

It was time for Isaac's 15 month jab. So I took the afternoon off from work, and we brought Isaac to the clinic to see Dr Lee. Here's the fun Isaac was having before the needle... kekeke...

vids taken on 7th November 2008
Isaac @ 15 months and a day

Affectionate Isaac

Isaac is a very affectionate boy. He would hug us and interact with us in an affectionate way. Like in these pix, I can be sitting up, and Isaac would come and climb onto my lap and push my shoulders down so that I end up lying on the floor! He's a very strong boy!
Then he'd proceed to rub his face into mine. He also has pretty masochistic tendencies - he'd use his head to knock my head! hahaha... hubbs says he got these tendencies from me - I think he's right. hahahah coz I enjoy using my head to headbutt hubbs too! And now Isaac does that to me!

pix taken on 2nd November 2008
Isaac @ four days to 15 months

Hahaha... yeah, the interesting thing is that Isaac only headbutts me, my mum and my mother-in-law! Nobody else! Not even hubbs! So, think it's a special thing that he headbutts us :) when he did that to my mum, and she was telling me about it, I said:"Wah! It means he likes you! Do you know he only does this to my mother-in-law and me?! and now you! congrats!!! hahaha!!!"

But generally, Isaac is very affectionate and generous with his hugs with those close to him. Which is really nice :) hehehe...

Bouncing castle

It was my company's Family Day, at Fort Canning, and they hand a bouncing castle thingy. It was Isaac's first time in anything like that, so he was pretty amused by it. We couldn't go in with him, so we had to watch him from outside, and make sure he's alright, or that other kids don't bump into him.

Thankfully, only two other kids were in the castle with him when he was there - Fiona's Darius (you see him above, behind Isaac), and Eunice's girl :) So, it was a good thing that I knew Darius' name, coz I could tell him, "Darius, wait, wait for Isaac to move away first, before you jump down." And he did :) He's quite good boy, would patiently wait for Isaac to get out of the way, looked at me for confirmation, and when I nodded, then he would jump down the ramp (yes, he preferred to jump, than slide down the ramp). But partly, I think he was kinda 'scared' also, that's why he listened to me, coz "How come this Auntie know my name!?" hahahah...


pix & vid taken on 1st November 2008
Isaac @ five days to 15 months

Isaac, are you still a baby?!

See my Isaac, the toddler, sitting in Natalie's baby bouncer.
He enjoys looking at the display which has bubbles "blown" in the water, and some music and some plastic shapes turning within. He used love standing in front of it, watching it all the time.But now that he's bigger and more mobile, he'd climb into the seat by himself, and relax there, watching the 'display'.
He's obviously a bit too big for the bouncer already - see his feet sticking out. But I let him climb in, just need to watch him a bit to make sure he doesn't topple backward on the bouncer whilst climbing in.

pix taken on 1st November 2008
Isaac @ five days to 15 months

Shalom kor kor

Here's Isaac with Shalom kor kor :) Look how big Shalom has grown! He's a big boy now, think Sec 2 this year. Shalom, his brother Isaac, and his family, all hold special places in our hearts. pic above taken on 26th October 2008

Isaac @ 14 and a half months

Blast to the past! Here's us circa 2003! :) We've been friends with the Lims since the Malacca 2002 trip with HappyFriendsClub-MDAS - coz Pey Yng was Shalom's volunteer, and I was Isaac (kor kor)'s volunteer. The pix above shows us all with Shalom, and below us with Isaac.

We used to go to their place once a week during the weekends to play with the boys and have fun. When we started going to their place, hubbs wasn't even interested in me at that time (I think), and at that time, Jeff & PY weren't together as well. After weeks and months of spending weekends there at the Lims, hubbs started to discover what a wonderful being I was, and started to take an interest in me. Helped that I was much skinnier then :p and rebonded hair - yes, mustn't forget that ;p

Jeff too, slowly realised the innate beauty of PY, having already been mesmerised by her outter beauty kekeke... Junhui & Wenbin? kekeke... at that time, if I recall correctly, they were 'finding' each other all over again ;)

Fast forward to present day - we're ALL MARRIED!!! kekeke...

In addition to Chan Peng & Xiaofeng (with Chan Hay & Chan Yu) and Elgin & Ing Shan (with Ayden) - I'd say the HappyFriendsClub has a very good hit rate indeed! :)

Good hearts in good places - do volunteer work, and find your partner in life! GRINZ :D

Pianoboy

Here's our pianoboy, acting very SEH at the piano... like real like that! hahaha... Look at his face, full of concentration hahahhaa...
Well hubbs is really pleased that he seems to be showing some kinda aptitude for the piano... ah well, we'd see... I'm not gonna relent on getting a piano yet...

pix & vid taken on 2nd November 2008
Isaac @ four days to 15 months!

Big grin!

pic taken on 26th October 2008
Isaac @ 14 and a half months

Look at that goofy grin! kekekeke...

ya know, I've decided to stop updating the previous post on what Isaac can do now, he can do too many things and say too many things! hahahhaa... Well, lesson learnt, next time, I shall start a milestone post like that a month ahead and keep it in draft form, then by the time the milestone date arrives - it's ready! kekeke...

By the way, Isaac's hair is much longer now. For awhile, he was increasingly okay with haircuts, but then in the past 2 months, he's started to get terrified again. So, now, when we ask him if he wants to have his hair cut, he'd shake his head violently and say "mai! mai!" which is No! No! in Teochew.

Maybe it's time to leave his hair long, instead of having the crew cut look all the time. Hmmm... we'd see...

Professor Isaac Tan

This is Prof Tan - pictured here at 14 and a half months.
However, now at 18 months, Prof Tan can do quite a lot of things.

pix taken on 26th October 2008
Isaac @ 14 and a half months

For this post, let's document what our dear Professor Isaac Tan can do as of 18 months of age.

PHYSICALLY

1. Isaac can RUN!!! - really! or it's super fast walking - I literally have to speed walk or jog - to keep up with him.
2. Isaac can go up and down stairs on his own - supporting himself by holding the railings/wall. When at Stanford, with carpeted stairs - he literally slides down the steps! Learning that trick from Natalie who's got it down pat!
3. He climbs every low table, sofa, chair, stool - with ease. In fact, he's been doing this for quite some time already. A few months ago, he gave us all a scare, when we found him sitting atop a stool - ya know the $4.90 ikea kind - he actually climbed that and sat on it upright! What a feat!
4. Climb Every Human... (to hum that to the tune of "Climb Every Mountain" hahaha) One of Isaac's favourite activity is to have his Papa hold his hands to steady him while Isaac WALKS up hubbs' thigh... have a vid of that taken recently... you'd see it... eventually :p
5. Cross over obstacles and cross small drains - obtacles were never an issue, I guess. But one thing I got him to learn, was for him to stretch his stride to cross over small drains. So, I'd hold both his hands and tell him to position one foot near the edge, and to stretch the other foot across the drain. He learnt pretty fast more than a month ago.

SPEECH

1. Isaac can 'call' everyone of his immediate family in Teochew/Chinese: Papa & Mama, Ye Ye & Nai Nai (paternal grandpa & grandma), Gong Gong & Po Po (maternal grandpa & grandma), Gu Gu (hubbs' sis), Ee Ee & Tio Tio (my sis & bro-in-law), Cheh Cheh (for both Rebecca & Isabelle), Mei Mei (for Natalie), and Kor Kor - for himself! When I ask Isaac who's in the picture (of himself), he would reply "Kor Kor". Which means "older brother" which everyone says is a good omen since we wanna have more kids! :)
2. Isaac can even call Nek Nek (Malay for 'grandmother') and Kak Kak (Malay for 'sister'), which made our malay neighbours very very pleased! :)
3. Isaac is trilingual - he understands English, Chinese and Teochew. We know he understands coz he can take instruction in all three languages.
4. English words he can speak in full include: car, train, cat, eat, bye bye, away, milk, moon, ball, sit, bag, cup, see, hug, this side, car seat, you (thank you), wait, throw, tree, red, blue, green, purple...
5. Chinese words he can speak in full include: che1 (car), he1 shui3 (drink water), hua1 (flower), mao1 (cat), zai4 jian4 (bye, see you again), xie4 xie4 (thank you)...
6. Teochew words he can speak in full include: MAI!!! ("don't want" or "NO!")
7. Isaac's speech is developing very fast. Every other day we find that he can speak some new word. He now imitates every last syllable of every word we try to teach him to say. Like "cle" in uncle, "ter" in monster and water.
8. He is also able to complete the last word/syllable of songs familiar to him. Like when hubbs sings to him chinese children songs like Little White Boat.
9. actually there are many words he knows... just that I can't recall them all at the moment...

SIGNING - Did I tell you guys that we started Isaac on learning sign language when he was about 12 months old? Watched the Baby Signing Time dvds, and he picked up signs very quickly. Even now, he still enjoys watching the dvds, and he can sign the following words

1. Milk - this was the first sign I wanted him to learn as, at that time, he would always pat and stroke my breast if he wanted to drink milk. Which is well and fine in the privacy of our own homes, but very embarrassing outside. So I really wanted him to learn how to sign 'milk'. And this was the first sign he picked up!
2. Other words include: water, shoes, hat, sleep, eat...

OTHERS

1. Isaac can hug well. But he doesn't 'kiss'. He'd give you his cheek - that's the best we could get outta him for a 'kiss'.
2. He's now very good at holding you by the finger, and pulling you to where he wants you to be - to either, keep him company, or to help him get something, or switch on something - the tv or projector etc.
3. Oh and he's very goooood at shaking his head, and saying "mai!!!" (Teochew for NO!!!) at the same time.
4. Isaac can now sit and watch a tv programme - he only started watching tv when he was about 12 months old. Now, at 18 months, he can sit and concentrate quite long, for programmes he likes.
5. On weekday mornings, when I drop him off at my in laws' place before I go to work, Isaac still clings on to me, and I would have to sneak away, so that he wouldn't cry. My heart still breaks when I hear his panicky "Mama? Mama? Mama!!! Mama!!!" as I walk down the corridor to the lift.
6. Isaac can sit down and play boardgames. He started at about 16 months, when we were in Stanford in Dec 2008. His first game was Go Away, Monster! which he still plays :) More on games in later posts!
7. Isaac can hold his own cup and drink without spilling a single drop - unless he's walking and drinking at the same time, or if he did it on purpose.
8. He can also drink up a straw now!

Okay, that's all for the moment, will update if I think of anything else that he can do at this point in time...

UPDATE: Okay the reason why this is like the only post all week's coz I've been spending all week updating it with words and stuff he can do! hahhaaha... he can do so much now, that I just can't remember them all at one go!

Mummy bite you!!! :)

Mummy bite you, Mummy bite you, Mummy bite you!!! HAHAHAHAHA...

This is one of our favourite activities. We love to karcheow Isaac like that. hahaha think he loves it too! :) I'd always bite him lightly, on his feet, and heels and arms and body, and he thinks it's very funny. Occassionally, I bite too hard and he would look at me and 'complain' by making crying complain noises - but not crying. hahhaha then I would apologise profusely and rub the spot. Then the game continues!!! kekekeke...



Here's Papa having fun with Isaac too! :)

pix & vid taken on 26th October 2008
Isaac @ 14 months plus

Big boy Isaac!

Actually, Isaac doesn't look like this now. This is him in October, like 4 months ago. Hahaha... at first, I thought he didn't look that different. But then, when Lili saw some recent pix of Isaac in my camera yesterday and she asked me: "Who's that?" - then it struck me how much Isaac has grown! hahahhaa...

pix taken on 25th October 2008
Isaac @ 14 months plus

At the time when I took and uploaded the above pix, I thought Isaac looked like a big boy. But now, he looks even more like a big boy! :) But he does look very nice and sporty in the above pix, doesn't he? :D