Puzzling behavior

Sa'eed's behavior change is very puzzling. He's usually quite the independent one. I can leave him with his toys in the living room and go do chores or cook. Of course he would end up crawling to where I was, but he would just plop himself on the floor and do his thing.

But now, he would be crying whenever I leave him and he always wants me to carry him. Even when his dad wants to get him off of me, he'd have to literally pry the little guy away. And of course he would scream and cry. I hate to see him like that.

What is more puzzling is that it is getting harder to put him to sleep at night. One minute he would be cranky, indicating that he's sleepy and another minute he would be happily playing with toys and then he'd be cranky again. Usually I would just nurse him to sleep. Apparently that doesn't work right now. He would bite or turn away. Weird thing is, nursing him back to sleep still works if he gets up in the middle of the night. I've listed the various ways we used to get him to sleep.

Saturday: purely accidental...was watching AF Final and sitting on a 'rocking' office chair while holding Sa'eed. He fell asleep while I was rocking away on the chair.

Sunday: finished a bottle of cold fresh milk, rolled over and promptly when to sleep

Monday: a bottle of milk didn't work. Gave him some bread while sitting on the sofa, hugged and cuddled him and he fell asleep.

Tuesday: milk didn't work. Gave him fruits and bread. Went on to hug and cuddle, but that didn't work. He wanted me to stand and carry him in a nursing position (but not nursing).

Wednesday: nothing worked. Dad carried him outside the house, sat on the swing in the playground...swing, swing, swing and the little one fell asleep.

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Updated
Thursday: tried an experiment. Sa'eed usually has his dinner before we come back from the office. Thursday night I indulged him with one whole banana, our dinner and then biscuits with a drink of plain water, soya milk and fresh milk in between. He turned out to be less cranky. But before bedtime, he insisted that I stand up, carry him, sing to him and pat him on the back. This lasted for about 40 minutes. The song that finally put him to sleep was me just saying over and over again 'Sa'eed baik, Sa'eed pandai, Sa'eed bijak, Sa'eed tido'...hu boy...go figure.

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Each night I would try to nurse him first when he gets cranky. He would always bite or refuse to nurse. I wonder what will work tonight...any ideas?

Sleeping like a baby

Time: 3 am
Location: Bed

Whoever coined the phrase 'sleeping like a baby' obviously never had one. Yes, I agree, you can just keep staring at a sleeping baby and wonder how did this beautiful soul came to being. Then you cuddle up next to baby because it's the most logical thing to do :) and you feel like the best parent in the world.

Next thing you know, you get a kick in the tummy and an elbow to the nose. Oh yes baby, the nightly exercise of turning 360 degrees in bed and conquering half the parents' bed has begun.

The flipping over

The mini grunts

The whining

The rolling

Oh boy...you wait and see if you need to offer the secret weapon. Most of the time you do coz you can't wait any longer for the little one to settle down. And if he does, it'll be the most awkward position you've seen a baby sleep in. But you let him be that way since you don't want to ruin your sleep.

Tido tak ingat dunia...

Other sleeping poses

A while back in Melaka...too sleepy to wait for us to get to the room sampai tido terduduk...

Favorite position

I like this picture because the way he's sleeping matches his t-shirt

Project #1 - Baby Bib

Felt like starting a sewing project after reading various blogs of mommies making their own clothes/ baby clothes. This past weekend we headed over to my inlaws' in Bangi because my MIL has a sewing machine...yeah, like I know how to use one.

Turns out that it's not that hard. Just have to remember to lower the needle and lower the thing. You know that thing that clamps on your cloth so that it doesn't move around. Since my MIL wasn't around to show me how to use it and my sisters in law aren't really sewing machine savvy, it took a bit of time to figure the machine out. Some memorable conversations..heh.

Me: This looks complicated, where does the thread go?
SIL2: Oh look...there are numbers here...just follow it maybe
(there were numbers to mark where the thread had to turn and go in)

Me: So how do you end the stitch?
SIL2: Go front and go back again. Ibu does it like that.
Me: How do you go back?
SIL2: Ibu presses something maybe.
Me: oooh...is it this button that has a u-turn sign? *after trying* Yes! it works!

But to fix the bottom part of the thread was a tricky subject. I'm sure there's an easier way to do it. What I did was make sure the top thread was extended, lower the needle, loop the bottom thread onto the top thread and raise the needle up. Thus the bottom thread will follow the needle and walla! it's fixed. What is the real way to do it?

I decided for my first project was to sew a bib. Sa'eed drools a river and he needs a lot of bibs, otherwise his shirt would be drenched. I used nappy cloth just because I had some. The good thing with this is it shapes easily, but the downside is that it is rather rapuh (easily disintegrates). I used clasps because Sa'eed like to pull on it and velcro ones come of easily. I bought some felt material and used it for decoration. And buttons too. The end product is pictured below. Not that fancy...maybe future ones will be fancier.

Happy Birthday...

...to me. hmm...it's belated tho.

And I got the best present ever..



FOOD POISONING!



Yepp...the works. Vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, headache, fever, body aches and leg cramps. And the little one definitely wasn't a happy camper when he tried to latch on. Oh well, alhamdulillah it took me 4 days to recover (not fully, enough to keep me sane). And thank God for the long weekend, I only had to take MC for one day.

Phases

Below are some pictures of Sa'eed in different phases of his life.

The Stepping into the World Stage.

The day he was born. April 14 2007. Some say that he was a Shin Chan lookalike. Below is a photo of Shin Chan...Yes? No?


The Michelin Stage



Exact date of this picture is November 28 2007. So that makes Sa'eed around 7 months. Notice his yummy thighs and cheeks? My sister in law once commented how his thighs look like chicken drumstick...ayam kampung, to be exact. This boy grew and grew and grew...I was almost afraid that he would be obese. He was already 9.3 kg at 6 months.


The Beginning to be Mobile Stage

Sa'eed started to roll at around 5 months and creep or commando crawl at around 7 months. We thought that he would skip crawling before walking because his legs were quite sturdy (refer 'Michelin Stage'). But he did crawl at around 10 months. We were in Pontian, Johor and this boy suddenly just lifted his butt and started crawling. And his teeth buds started to show around that time too.


The I Love Food Stage

He definitely loves to eat (alhamdulillah). Preferably off of someone else's plate :) Just last night when we got back, maktok said that he just finished his dinner. I thought he would be full...but noooOoOOo...he had to lepas gian and breastfeed before I could do anything. Then while I was making dinner, his dad made a sandwich and shared it with Sa'eed. Right after that, maktok had a plate of food and the boy of course had some too. He was asleep when we had our dinner, but if he were awake, I'm sure he'd want some too. Later, for some odd reason he woke up at around 9.30pm and Mr Hubs and I were having yogurt. Of course he had a few spoonfuls.

I started to feed him solids when he was 7 months. But only a teeny amount. For the first 2 weeks, it was only a tablespoon of food per day. He only had 3 steady meals per day at 10 months or so. But I'm glad he loves his food, otherwise I know I'd be constantly worried.


The Shedding of Baby Fat Stage

The most current picture of Sa'eed that I have. He's 12 months ++ here. He has definitely slimmed down. Only gained 300 grams in 6 months. I think it started before the crawling stage. I guess it's because he needs to make sure his body is in proportion to enable him to be mobile. For sure he's getting more active by the day. Can't wait for him to walk tho.

Hmm...I wonder if I'll still have a blog for his Off to be Married Stage...hu hu, I'm already weeping.

Daily commute

Credits: unknown, received in forwarded email

And I thought the commute to and from work in KL is bad enough. It's even worse in China! Even the attendants help to stuff people into the train.

It takes me on average 45 minutes to get to work (door to door). And it's just 30 minutes to get there by car...but this is without parking. I guess when you add in the parking factor, it should be around 45 minutes. I seriously don't mind taking the public transportation, coz it's more environmentally friendly I suppose. What I do mind if it gets delayed.

And I DO have qualms about the state of our country's public transportation. Especially the trains. The map below looks fine and dandy, with interchanges and all that jazz. It's a given that you might have to change trains at some point depending on where you're headed to. Looks ok right?


WRONG! What it doesn't tell you is that you might need to get out of the station and purchase another ticket for another train line. That is just plain annoying. For example, if you need to go to Bukit Bintang from Kelana Jaya. You take the Rapid KL Kelana Jaya Line until KL Sentral. Then you'll have to get out of the KL Sentral station, walk through a parking lot, cross the street and buy another ticket for the Monorail to get to Bukit Bintang. Yes, you can use the Touch n Go card, which I think is God sent...only if it works EVERYWHERE! If you constantly get on or off some little station expecting your TnG card to work, I wish you Good Luck.

In my 'ol student days, I remembered one time I wanted to visit a friend in London from the States where I was currently residing. I booked a ticket on Virgin Airlines and the flight only leaves from an airport in Washington DC. So, while carrying a 15 kilo duffle bag, this was my journey:

Apartment, walk to -> Bus depot, bus to -> Baltimore Train Station, train to -> DC Train Station, shuttle bus to -> Metro line, train to -> Airport

Lots of transits and multiple buses and trains, but I didn't really mind because everything was on schedule and I could time my journey perfectly. Even in London, we took the Underground everywhere. But nevertheless, I took a cab on the way back from the airport to my apartment...hehe.

Oh well, can't have everything my way, right.

My Brother Is Awesome

My brother is so awesome, he's the most awesomest person in the whole world. One day, he saw Chuck Norris being beaten up by two bears, he simply walked up to them and kicked the bear's @ss! Chuck Norris of course begged for mercy, and my brother, the most awesomest guy in the whole world gave him that. Even untill today, Chuck Norris sents him thank you gifts every week! Last week he received a pair of Nike shoes - the expensive ones. I can't wait to see what my brother got this week!

My brother is so awesome, he's seven feet tall, and can shoot fire from his eyes! True story, once we were in 7-Eleven™ and the cashier short changed him, thanks to my brother's awesome mathematical skills, he immediately noticed that 57 cents were missing! He got angry and oh my god it was awesome! He burnt down the 7-Eleven with his FIERY EYES in 5 minutes! But nobody died, because since my brother is so awesome, he saved everyone in the area, including the Indian cleaning lady, because he's not a racist, and even if he was he'd still be awesome, but he's not.

I know he's not because once, an Indian Doctor slipped and almost fell off the 6th floor of a hospital, (which i can't remember now because my brother's awesomeness blurred everything else in my mind that day, but i'll ask him later and i know he'll remember because he has an awesome memory where he can remember everything, including the day he was born, which he tries to forget because he said it was kinda gross) and my brother who was eating raw meat (because he's a man's man and real men only eat raw meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner - they sometimes have scones for tea but that's because they are so secure of their manliness, much like my brother, who is MANLY ) in the courtyard saw the doctor falling off and jumped FIVE STORIES high to catch the doctor! The doctor was so thankful he gave my brother coupons for lifetime free medical checkups, which my brother doesn't need because he's also very healthy, and awesome.

It's really hard to describe how awesome my brother is because no matter how i describe it, he's way more awesome than that. Imagine the most awesomest person in the world, and you know he'll be twenty seven times more awesome than that person.

I'm really lucky to have my awesome brother around.