Religious Education

P: (with Arielle perched on his lap, reading a Baby Bible story book) Jesus loves the little children! (pointing) Black, white, brown, yellow, and green!

S: (from the next room) GREEN??!!??

P: Yeah... the plants...

S: (buries her face in her hands)

Overheard: Combi Stroller discussion

S: I'd like to buy a Combi Stroller.

P: Why can't we stick to our existing one?

S: Well, the Combi Urban Stroller is very light and easy to manage... it has a one-touch folding and opening function!

P: Why don't you touch me, and I'll fold and open it for you!

* end of discussion*

Arielle's First Meal!

I'm so excited! We fed Arielle her first meal yesterday at 3pm! She's been looking less-than-contented after her feeds lately, and has been gazing longingly at our food for long enough, so we decided it was time.

We mixed a bit of NuPlus Cereal into breastmilk.. and she ate 6 teaspoons of it! 6 WHOLE teaspoons! That's a lot for a first meal... especially when you're only 7kg. We needn't have worried about her not taking to solids, because she cried for more when we paused for too long in between spoons, and she would lunge forward for each mouthful!

She had her second meal today, sitting in her new Ikea high chair. I never thought that feeding a baby could be so thrilling. It's just amazing to ladle the food in, and to see her try to get it to the back of her mouth and avoid pushing it out with her tongue, and then have her lunge forward excitedly with her mouth wide open! There's a certain infectious joy in watching her get so excited about food and about life. I'm looking forward to her next meal already!

Arielle's First Passport Photo

Taking Arielle's first passport photo was one of the most challenging things we had to do!

It involved three adults: one to hold her, one to dance, sing and squeak, and one to take photos!

The requirements were daunting:

1. Her eyes should be wide open
2. Her face should be facing front and not tilted
3. There should not be anything (no hands or feet!) obstructing her face
4. (And ideally!) she should be smiling too!

And we couldn't use flash so that made everything more exciting.

Half an hour and more than 50 exhausting shots later, we finally succeeded!

Farm Visit to Bollywood Veggies

Fresh and Nice after lunch

A new way of looking at bananas

I am NOT a Lizard

The lovely deserted lake in the sanctuary

Sun-kissed, tired, and full of banana muffins

Fun at East Coast

Minnie Mouse Sighted Outside United Square Foodcourt

Athena

Firemen

Overheard

P: What do you think of firemen? Do you think they're hot?

S: Yeah.. they're hot!

P: How come?

S: (with a distant, far away look) Because... because they can climb things...

P: (incredulously) Because they can CLIMB THINGS? That's probably the most bimbotic thing I've ever heard you say!

S: (thoughtfully) ...and they can burst out of buildings...

P: Climb what? Ladders?

S: (with a glazed, happy expression) ...yeah... They can burst in and out of buildings!

P: Ok. Where do you think I could buy a fireman uniform?


While looking for a fireman picture to post online, I found this really sweet article. Heroic, sweaty fireman + nice, pregnant doggy. Isn't that a sweet combination?

Fireman and a Doberman

This photograph shows a red Doberman Pinscher kissing an exhausted fireman. He had just saved her from a fire in her house, rescuing her by carrying her out of the house into her front yard, while he continued to fight the fire. She is pregnant. The firefighter was afraid of her at first, because he had never been around a Doberman before. When he finally got done putting the fire out, he sat down to catch his breath and rest.

A photographer from the Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper, "The Observer," noticed this red Doberman Pinscher in the distance looking at the fireman. He saw her walking straight toward the fireman and wondered what she was going to do. As he raised his camera, she came up to the tired man who had saved her life and the lives of her babies, and kissed him, when the photographer snapped this photograph.

Doberman Pinschers do know the difference between friends and "the enemy". God Bless this fireman for taking the risk and saving her life.

Source: http://www.bigdobermans.com/doberman_and_fireman.htm

Fun with baby!

Baby Arielle is growing so well. It amazes me when she starts to chat with us, though we do not really understand what she's saying. She is always very chatty after a feed and we thoroughly enjoy the times she starts chatting with us.

We love the musical mobile that we got from Serene's sister, Theresa. It's a life-saver when we need to leave baby for a few minutes. She stares in wonder at the different animals and starts talking to them :) Her favourite is Mr Octopus! That's it! We will bring her scuba- diving.

Baby's smile lights up Mom's brain

Science may have confirmed what most moms already know: When a woman sees her baby smile, certain areas of her brain activate, stimulating happy feelings.

"There's a definite biological origin to these feelings that mothers have," said study author Dr. Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "The contrast that showed the most response in the dopaminergic system of the brain was when a mother's own baby smiled compared to an unknown baby face."

"A baby's smile is a very powerful stimulus," noted Strathearn. "It makes sense biologically. Babies are completely and utterly dependent on their caregivers. It makes sense that nature would build in a system that would reinforce that relationship."

Then the researchers met with the mothers and the babies when the babies were about 6 months old. At that time, they videotaped them and captured smiling, crying and neutral pictures of the babies. When the babies were about 10 months old, they asked the mothers to come back in for a functional MRI (fMRI) scan that shows which areas of the brain are activated.

When the mother's saw photos of their own baby's face, an extensive brain network was activated, according to the study. But, it was when mothers saw their own infant's happy face that the dopaminergic reward system in particular was activated. This system was not activated when mothers saw their own children looking either sad or neutral.

"This study is fascinating. It's a step towards unraveling the chemistry of emotion, and it begins to show the complex chemistry of the mother-child relationship," said Dr. Michael Wasserman, a pediatrician at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.

Strathearn explained that for some mothers, there may be a problem in this natural reward system, and that may help to explain why some women never bond with their children or even abuse their children.

Source: babycentre.com

I can identify with this. Sometimes when I'm carrying her and I'm exhausted, frustrated, hungry, thirsty, hot, desperately needing to pee, and basically on the verge of freaking out, all Baby needs to do is smile and suddenly everything's ok again...

Survival of the Cutest

I never thought looking after a baby would be more tiring than a full-time job! I have come to accept eye bags as inevitable, and in company, if I can keep my eyes open without effort, I consider myself well-rested!  

My freedom can be divided into 3 categories:

1) Both hands free 

When Arielle is sleeping in her cot or someone else is tending to her, I grab the chance to satisfy my lowest physiological needs on Maslow's hierarchy: Eat, Sleep, Shower, Pee, Poo. This is very precious time!

2) One Hand Free

When I'm nursing Arielle or rocking her to sleep, my one available hand is just about able to turn a page, toggle a mouse briefly or type a text message!

3) No Hands free

When Arielle demands to be cuddled or bounced with BOTH hands, there's nothing much else I can do other than walk around the house with her and ponder the meaning of life!

Not surprisingly, this entry took four days to complete - during my lunch breaks and in between nursing baby - one day to copy the photos from my camera, another day to shortlist the nice ones, and two days to type in text (typing requires both hands and such time slots are hard to come by)!

Last night was really hard. I nursed Arielle from 11.30pm to 12.10am, burped her, changed her diapers, rocked her to sleep, and finally put her in bed at 12.30am. I was quite pleased with myself and naively thought I could get some rest after that. 

A few minutes later, she regurgitated some milk and it leaked onto the bed. Not wanting her to sleep on a damp patch of not-so-fresh milk, I tried to wipe it up and shift her to a dryer patch. That was my own undoing - she woke up and it took another 20 minutes of bouncing and cuddling till she slept again. 

She then slept for a grand total of 10 minutes. 

This time, Panliang woke up and tried to soothe her. Many songs, diaper changes and frazzled nerves later, she was still fretful and her little eyes were wide open. By this time it was 2am, sort of time for her next feed. I was thinking very unchristian (and unmotherly!) thoughts, but I took many deep breaths and attempted what I thought would be the final lap.

Feeling somewhat like a cow, I nursed her again. She fell asleep after drinking from SIDE A , so I attempted to tuck her into bed, when to my dismay, I found that her diapers had come loose, probably during the diaper checking / changing frenzy earlier, and her pee had leaked everywhere - onto her clothes, her blanket, the bed sheets... My wails awoke Panliang and our confinement helper and they cleaned her up and changed her clothes while I collapsed in bed.

By then, little Arielle had woken up again.. so not knowing what else to do, I gave her SIDE B, and mercifully, she fell asleep mid-meal (a habit that I hope will not continue into adulthood) and allowed herself to be tucked in.  My clothes were soaked (I had received several unscheduled and unwanted milk baths) and I had to change before going to bed. It was 3am.

It's strange, but despite having been up all night, when I looked at her little bright eyes and cute little stretches while nursing her at 8am the next morning, (babies' body clocks can be quite unmerciful!) my tiredness and frustrations melted away, and I just wanted to cuddle and kiss her all over. I am typing this while having lunch and after this, I shall head off to bed - for as long as she will let me!

I suppose that is why babies are cute - it is an evolutionary survival mechanism to ensure that frustrated and sleep-deprived parents still look after of their offspring. It is the Survival of the Cutest.