seat upgrade
to sorta welcome in the new year, our family took another trip to Melaka (our 3rd in 2012!!) , opting to drive in again.
All this while, Ollie had been using the infant car seat up till Christmas. He still can in fit in there, it is jut that it is a weee bit too snug for him, and he doesn’t get the leg room he probably needs. My mom had previously used some petrol points to exchange for a front-facing car seat, so we thought we’d trial it out a day before the trip. He looked so much more comfortable in the car seat! View’s different, the air’s different (it gets a little hot in the rear-facing one) and there’s more room to stretch his feet. The question was how he was going to “survive” the almost 3-hour drive up north.
Aaaand he did pretty well. Only because he was too zonked out from either being woken up early (drive there) and he was too zonked out from being sick (drive back). Hey, works fine. His grandma was happy to entertain a semi-happy Ollie (“as long as he is not fussing”.) I think the box of toys that we brought along for the trip saved her sanity as well as ours during drives and dinner time. Mobile baby = need lotsa hands!!
It was a pretty relaxing trip. With a sick Donald, a semi-sick me, and a soon-to-be-sick Ollie, we weren’t doing or eating much. We checked out new places for food (awesome Teochew food at Teo Soon Liong Chan, nyona fare at Restoran Aunty Lee) and grocery shopping at Giant for Ollie’s birthday party. Hahah..I know, we are such cheapskates. Oo..and our massages. Mine probably lasted for a day before it got all knotted up again haha. Better than nothing lah. And I reckon grandma had a novel time eating durian at a road by the beach between two cars!
durian picnic
Our new year was fairly quiet. Donald was still feeling crummy and went to bed early. Ollie was so tired he slept through the fireworks. Me? I heard the fireworks..but was too lazy and couldn’t be half-arsed about it haha. The only thing that made it different and special was having the little one sleeping between the both of us.
We’ve been busy planning Ollie’s birthday. Some of the invites have gone out, and the goodie bags are half done. Sometimes I try reminding myself that it’s not about the details, but about the time spent with Ollie. Is he going to remember what happened for his first birthday? I don’t know, but as much time it may take me, I just feel that I want to make it special for him. Baking him the cake/ cupcakes, doing the invite myself, doing the goodie bags, printing photos, and decorating the place. All fully hands on. Donald and I had been fully hands on with the wedding preps, from the invites, to table decorations, to menus. They had been extra special memories for us in a lead up to our wedding, and I wanted it to be the same for Ollie’s. Just at least for his first.
Ollie’s been doing some growing lately too. Firstly in height! Donald realized yesterday when Ollie couldn’t walk under the table at his grandparents without having to bend his head. Hahah. Previously, he could walk under with a couple of mms to spare. We’ll know how much he has grown in height later this month. He’s also grown teeth. Gah. All 8 are out and the amount of drool is insane. He has been chewing on his thumb and fingers to sooth his gums. The chewing has caused some of the skin on his thumb to flake. Thankfully he is not a chronic thumbsucker, and we’ll have to just wait for the skin to grow back.
He is still trying very hard speech wise, and there has been some successful signing, for sleep, singing “twinkle twinkle little star”. But his way of communicating is still predominantly via gesturing, pointing at the items he wants, the direction he wants to go to, or just gesturing to ask a question. He does understand when we ask him to pick up a toy, or give, locate..etc.
Last month, we have been trying to wean Ollie off one of his midnight feeds as we suspected that it was more comforting nursing to sleep than being hungry. Ollie’s bedtime is at 8.30pm, and we have gone from a feed at 12mdn, 3am, 5am, to feeds at 2am, 6am. And last night!! He slept right through till 6am! I had heard him coughing over the baby monitor and thought he would have woken up then, but it seems that he went back to sleep. Well, the thing is I don’t know if it was the meds that knocked him out or if he really slept through on his own. Hahah. But at least I know that he doesn’t really need a feed throughout the night, and I might wean him off the 2am feed if he goes back to waking for feeds after he recovers.
Waaaahhh..I can’t believe he is growing up so quickly! ='(
On another note, this would be another huge year of change for us, as we plan to try for another kid. I consider myself fortunate to have quite a fair bit of time to do some cooking, baking, sewing and still have time for blogging (except that I procrastinate ALOT). It will be interesting to see how I will handle a future 2nd pregnancy and a child. Hah.
Wish me luck.