Poooooooooooot!

I am up real late cuz well, i dunno.

Ruth woke a little just now and i cuddled her back to bed. It's nice when she's feeling lovey and wants to cuddle up. Usually she'll just shrug u away cuz she wants her space (but not left alone, have to stay beside her).

Anyway i had just adjusted into a nice cuddly position. She was opening and closing her eyes, trying to get back to sleep. Then i felt (my arm was near her butt) and heard a very long (about 2-3 second) pooooooooooooooooooooooooooot! I giggled at her, and she grinned ever so widely and sniggered abit.

So funny. heh.

Decision?

As i've previously stated, have desperately been trying to segregate my personal blog from Ruth's developmental stages here.

In the past few months to a year (???), i think i've given up (with flailing hands and all) and struggled to even give an update. Also, as Karen had neatly pointed out, the involvement, influence and "amalgamation" of Ruth in my life is unmistakably overwhelming.

Oh you know all the cliches.....BEFORE you have a kid, that you'll maintain your own interests/hobbies/me-time/LIFE! etc. But wait till you have one and all that goes down the drain (at least for me). I dun think my life isn't important, but it's just that I've made the (unconscious?) choice to dive headlong into being with Ruth and all.

I think the crazy workload - and my crazy commitment - also 'stopped' me from executing all the fancy things I want in life, including NOT looking like I'm still pregnant. (double sighs)

So i think from now on, i will try once again to segregate the blogs. I'm just wondering if i should re-post the ruth-related posts here and backdate it - just so it's all more erm, chronologically coherent. :P

HOLD TIGHT!

Yesterday at Vivocity, my mum decided that she'd piggy-back Ruth. So I told Ruth "HOLD TIGHT!!"

She mimicked, "oh-tat"

Made my day. :)

Livejournal>

Intent

The original intent was for my personal blog at Livejournal to be continued as my own, while maintaining this blogger site for the family posts.

but keeping this up alone is seemingly quite an uphill task, and I've given in to just updating livejournal since well, family is my life now mostly. Which mother (full time working or stay-at-home) is able to clearly delineate her roles in life vs that of a mother? All our waking moments, are spent in one way or another with relation to the family.

I'm still wondering how to proceed with the blogs. Hmm....

Intently waiting for the (right) bus

Intently waiting for the (right) bus, originally uploaded by LezY.

Yes, Ruth can be very intense. She isn't a 100% super spirited child, but she exhibits quite a lot of qualities of one. i believe she's a very focused, determined and intent girl. Sometimes she only wants her way and she's still pretty young to be reasoned with actually. We try our best to be patient with her, to understand why she cries or goes into her arm-flailing, inconsolable rages but it seems there's nothing you can really do but to let them ride out their emotions. These emotions frustrate them so because it's not within their capability to deal with such intense and rich feelings yet, despite feeling them so strongly.

The audio books I've been listening to really help me to understand my baby better and hopefully, will improve my ability to deal with her and nurture her.

pancakes

pancakes, originally uploaded by LezY.

Ruth has pancakes for breakfast (and snacks if there's "extra"/"leftovers") on weekends.

I've been experimenting on the texture of the batter. Regretably, it's still 'instant' pancakes for now since we had bought a box of batter in a hurry.

I've experimented with water, more water, less water. (The instructions specify "just add water" though.) I've also tried with milk as well cuz i remember from a long time ago, I've made pancakes from scratch and they tasted jolly good. Either I was GOOD or I was easy-going. hah.

So far, the fluffiest has to be a thicker batter with just water, over medium heat.

Yes. At least she eats this.

Walking and Smiling

I was deleting SMSes in my phone and found this one from Daniel that reminded me.

Ruth started walking on her own more confidently at about 14 months. Prior to that, she was kinda lunging all over the place in spurts of energy. It was an incident at the playground that spurred her to walk. She was enchanted by a ball rolling on the floor - subsequently picked up by an older girl. So she followed that girl (holding the ball) for some time on her own - before realizing she was walking and i think promptly plomping her ass back down on the floor. Hilarious.

Recent 1-2 weeks, Ruth has been smiling very very broadly, and at about EVERYTHING. Thank you is a smile. Please is a smile. Yes is a smile. OK is a smile.

And it's one of those smile-till-u-can't-see-my-eyes kinda grin that she gives. WHen you ask her for a sweet sweet smile, she will cringe up one side of the face - looks more like monkey face than smiling.

She's also now able to understand what we say - though she's not very vocal and doesn't speak much. She'll point and give a holler if she wants something. WHen she wants to eat something, she'll point and go "AHM!".

I think communication-wise, we're getting there. THere are period of tension whereby she'll deliberately not listen and you can somehow see some sorta thought process going through her head - perhaps considering if she WANTS to comply.

ALso, she's takes the soft approach better. If you praise her and ask her to do something, there's a higher chance of that particular thing getting done. I think my girl is really quite a fun-loving soul. Give her a playground and she'll be so happy she'll forget everything.

TOmorrow, we'll bring her for her MMR - her 17th birthday. Really hope all will go well. I hate bringing her for jabs. My heart aches as much as it hurts her.

When Ruth gets difficult...

she can be extremely hard to appease.

In the last weekend, she displayed such a wide range of behaviours it was bizarre. But it must have been even weirder and stranger to her, than it should have been for us. It's possibly very new and scary when you have abilities but no control over them. How you can suddenly feel happy and sad, overwhelmed, loss of appetite, pain, frustration, tired, anguished, etc and not know what all these are, or how to deal with them - and if you need/should deal with them.

Repeatedly, i find myself rebuking myself for trying to find a reason for her behaviour...cuz somewhere in me, i find that there shouldn't have to be a reason for everything. Hell, sometimes i'm pure frustrated but just can't figure out why too.

So here's my little active girl, who needs to be continually engaged and perhaps just needs a break from it all. Perhaps she can't quite figure out all these emotions, decisions, etc that are bombarding her...thus refusing to be carried, refussing to walk and just plomping her butt down on the floor - no matter where she is - refusing to budge.

My girl.

But her newfound smile is awfully heart-warming and would melt away any frustration we feel. Ask for her sweet sweet smile/pretty smile and she'll flash you one so wide, with the smallest eyes possible. :P

Self-regulation

Today I learn about self-regulation. And I also observe that Ruth is learning bit by bit how to 'get along' with us. The dynamics between parents and grandparents and how this 2 sets of 'guardians' impact her life.

Watching Ruth is an amazing part of my life. I feel blessed when I look at her - even when I'm not one to go goo-goo ga-ga over children. Watching my own child grow is an immensely humbling experience - and one that makes me appreciate many things that I've taken for granted.

Ruth now will seek affirmation and i've read elsewhere before that it is important we give her the affirmation as it would help in her self-confidence. Spirited children like her need more verbal/physical assurance than quiet children apparently.

It is also really fun because when she does something "good" (in our eyes!), we will praise her and she will do it over and over again. This kinda tells her that it's a "do" and doing "dos" can be fun too.

She is WILDLY happy when we praise her in response to her requests for us to clap our hands. it's almost funny!

A small para from the article.

There is no magic moment when children become more likely to follow directions. But from around 12 months, something very important happens: they begin to develop the ability to control their urges, change their behaviour, and may start to do what mum or dad says. Not all of the time, of course. But as children grow, so does their ability to stop themselves from doing something they want to do (like writing on the walls) and perform tasks that they don't like (picking up their toys), even when parents or caregivers aren't around.

The name for this wonderful part of development is ‘self-regulation’ and it is one of the most important milestones of life. Without it, we would have a very hard time functioning, learning lessons in school, playing with friends, or getting along with people in general.

Even though just about every child develops some level of self-regulation, each person is different. Some kids will naturally develop this ability earlier than others. Just as some children show more shyness, some children show more ‘effortful control’ which is a personality trait that leads to self-regulation.

So instead of removing this blog....

I've decided (for now!) to convert it into things I've learnt about Ruth and toddler/child behaviour.

Should I?

I'm considering 'abandoning' this blog.

I started out this as a 'family blog', so that I could capture 'family stuff' here, while maintaining my own 'space' in Livejournal.

But it's become increasingly difficult to manage 2 spaces without any help. the hubs is never free to do any of this stuff. he's occupied enough with work and managing the pictures of ruth.

I'm also increasing busy at work and unable to spend time with the blogs. Am even struggling to take stock of my own life in my own blog.

I like Livejournal cuz of the 'friends' feature which allows me to filter my posts according to the 'desired viewership' of the entries. I also think I'm staying with Lj cuz of friends who blog there...though with feeds nowadays, I think it ain't much of a prob.

i dunno. We'll see when I have time to think about it more.

In the 'school bus' - and driving it too!

In the 'school bus' - and driving it too!, originally uploaded by LezY.

I wonder if she will be as happy in the real school bus in future!?

20-Mar-09: Chilling on the FATBOY

20-Mar-09: Chilling on the FATBOY, originally uploaded by LezY.

This was one of the days I took PM leave to finish up my Pilates class and Daniel was home early from school. The grandparents sent her back to us (daniel actually) and he looked after her till i came back.

By the time I was home, she was spaced out on the FATBOY, watching TV.

THIS IS A RARE SIGHT! SHe's normally standing or crawling all over or 'dancing' to the beat etc. If she's resting, she's mostly in our arms or on our legs etc. So it was nice to see her resting on her own - must be much more comfy than the contorted positions she has to be put into when on us!

19-Mar-09: Practicing walking on the noisy walker

19-Mar-09: Practicing walking on the noisy walker, originally uploaded by LezY.

Babies grow and learn so fast. Compared to them, i feel rotten and slow. I can't seem to catch up with all her interesting quirky moves.

Just 1 day she's ramming the walker into every possible thing and the next? Voila! She's learnt how to manoeuvre it pretty proficiently!



And now she's like a pro - sometimes just one hand while looking at other things. But when she gets stuck, she gets REALLY frustrated!

15-Mar-09: chilling out on the FATBOY

15-Mar-09: chilling out on the FATBOY, originally uploaded by LezY.

Sundays are great for chilling out at home - if the heat doesn't kill you! But we tend to end up finding places to go gallavanting normally. Ruth loves activities and running around - though she can't really quite walk yet! That's why she insists of holding our hands - cuz she only wants to run, not walk - and she still can't run at the moment without assistance.

THe FATBOY has been keeping her entertained in various manners - but of course, only with our supervision cuz she may get suffocated under it!

15-Mar: Ruth's 13 months old

15-Mar: Ruth's 13 months old, originally uploaded by LezY.

Time passes in a flash and baby Ruth is already 13 months. This was taken at the Vivocity playground. There isn't much for toddlers of her age...and since it's in the open, it can get really hot. She was actually wearing a nice denim dress overall, but we decided to remove it after getting out of the aircon!

RUth is really energetic and we have to plan how to expend her energy so that she will take naps and sleep. Even then, you don't get much of a breathing space since there's laundry to be done, milk bottles/dishes/etc to be washed, household chores to tackle and stuff to do. As I told my friend, after being a mother, there's no such thing as a public holiday anymore.

Sigh, took me long enough to realize that!

14-Mar: Figuring out the remote

14-Mar: Figuring out the remote, originally uploaded by LezY.

still trying to see which buttons to press! I'm so glad that it has been like a (damn long) phase and she's kinda 'over' these silly "non-working" remotes. WE had the batteries removed for some...and we even bought 'fake' remotes so she wouldn't spoil the real ones cuz she has a tendency to throw things she's lost interest in. That means most of our stuff (except our computers!) have had the honour of being tossed aorund the house by her!

11-Mar; Remote Controls & Ruth

11-Mar; Remote Controls & Ruth, originally uploaded by LezY.

I found out from my dad that while looking after Ruth on his bed, he'll hide the REAL remote behind and change channels whenever she plays with a 'fake' remote (either spoilt or no batts!)

So Ruth gets a real high from seeing the cause-n-effect of her pressing the control buttons. Of course at home, we never quite do that cuz she's playing with ALL REAL remotes and well, needless to say we end up with a huge variety of programmes whenever she gets going!

7-Mar: at OG

7-Mar: at OG, originally uploaded by LezY.

going to n fro n to n fro the cot - making us all giddy. never knew she loved cots that much!

I'll bet if i had one, she wouldn't want to be in it!

Walking and "signing"

Ruth has taken her first steps. We believe she has long been able to walk - but due to a couple of falls, she's been really cautious - as she always has been with all physical activities. She tends to observe and go through some thinking process before doing something. Once she gets the hang of it, she's all over like a monkey. :P

Last Sunday in the church children's room, she was walking to n fro the door and the bench opposite, with granny on one side and me at the other. She must have done it 20+ times at least. I think we were all so excited it was hard to concentrate on mass. Mass lasted for 1.5hours (compared to the normal 1 hour) so it was a blessing that she managed to just entertain herself in that manner (and some others).

TOday when I went back to get the car for a meeting outside, I got to spend about 10-15 minutes with her and my mum told me she could point to her nose, mouth and eyes when asked. So my mum asked her, "Ruth, point to your eyes?" and she did so, same with nose and mouth.

I was SO amazed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok la....i'm not quite the most hardworking mother when it comes to all this milestone recording and reading up on stuff. I mean, i try my best, given the time I have while juggling with other things all around la. Just quite impossible to be able to be involved in every single thing. even if i was a SAHM, I'm not sure if I'd be motivated.

Ok, so it's not about time but just not 'me' to do stuff like that. :)

I'm still amazed now. 8)

23-Feb-09: Wobbling all over & monkey face made

23-Feb-09: Wobbling all over & monkey face made, originally uploaded by LezY.

Still in pretty much the wobbling stage. Can't really walk well but raring to run!

7-mar-09: Holding the bottle well

7-mar-09: Holding the bottle well, originally uploaded by LezY.

I've been really 'backdated' with my posts for the past 1+ month so here i am, trying to catch up with little events here and there that I may have captured so here goes.

this picture reminds me of how Ruth can now not only HOLD the bottle herself, but also tilt the base UP and her head BACK all in one motion. Sometimes she does it with this lack of control - she looks like she's downing a shot in the pub.

:P

Sleeping in church...

Sleeping in church..., originally uploaded by LezY.

Dear Ruth,
Every week in church, you have a nice nap so that when you wake up, it's just in time for lunch.

Very soon things will change. We will be going for evening mass - where there is hopefully less people and more cooling.

This 'new dress' that you're wearing was bought quite some time back - almost more than half a year ago when your mummy was so crazy about sprees and online shopping. RIght now, your clothes are still overflowing (at both granny's place and your dear home).

We're soon going to Australia for a holiday and I hope you will enjoy yourself. We will shop for clothes for you again and hope there will be very nice stuff to buy for you!

So exciting! Now back to trip planning!

At home with mommy-2

At home with mommy-2, originally uploaded by LezY.

:)

Day 1 of my 3-day SAHM stint while the caregivers are abroad for holiday. :)

28-Feb-09: well-slept/fed baby = happy baby

28-Feb-09: well-slept/fed baby = happy baby, originally uploaded by LezY.

Picture speaks for itself.

My baby. :)

Feb Family Pic

Ruth(1)_21stFeb, originally uploaded by LezY.

I'm not very erm persistent and regular with this...but am really trying to get in one family pic per month...to see how Ruth grows (and how we age....hah).

She wasn't too smiley when we took this pic so well, heh, hopefully she will be smiling more in the March pic!

Happy Birthday to Ruth

Ruth_Bday(1), originally uploaded by LezY.

We had a cosy gathering of just our immediate family members at home on Sunday cuz....Ruth is ONE!

Time really flies eh?

This is one of her smilier daytime pics. She was pretty much a grump thereafter cuz i think it was time for some snoozies...but there were too many people around and that distracted her.

It was a really simple affair, nothing lavish like many other babies i know. We chose to have it cosy and at home cuz she's most comfortable here..where she can do whatever she want. At a restaurant or other location, she'd probably be confined to certain areas.

Also, well, too many people stresses her up..and i read that babies at this age wouldn't quite appreciate a mini-wedding affair and any celebration was really more for the parents than anybody else.

ALl that is of course not as important as the fact that I've been so darn busy at work, barely being able to breathe sometimes.

Anyway, Ruth is One, lovely, happy and really really funny. More pics to come.

Ruth Turns One!

midst of her mini birthday party, originally uploaded by LezY.

The rest of the pics are still in the other camera (read: Daddy's) and not yet processed. :P

So this will do for now.

Ruth's first birthday was a purely family affair...as in immediate family. Only had our immediately family members, as well as my uncle from KL making a trip down to see his beloved grand-niece.

Ruth got a lovely Zara Baby dress from Ty and 3 angpaos from Grandma (popo), Grandpa (kongkong) and Granduncle (kao-gong).

Grandpa even waxed lyrical in his message to his little princess (which he spelt as kun-choo..pardon his hanyu pinyin since he's not chinese-ed)..about how she lite up his life. I have never even received any comments like that! I can tell how much he loves her. (nope..i'm not jealous..cuz i love her that much too...maybe abit less since i didn't write that much to her...erm...i didn't wwrite anything at all! LOL!)

Which reminds me..that I will want to try to spend some time thinking about what I wanna 'say to her' and how far she's come, from one year ago till now.

But that will have to wait. I need to finish hanging up my last batch of laundry for this lunch time, finish up my hurried lunch and get my arse back to the mountain of work waiting for me.

8-Feb-09: totally at ease with karen..

8-Feb-09: totally at ease with karen.., originally uploaded by LezY.

Sorry for all the jumbled posts...am just posting whatever i can get my hands on for now...and what i can recall.

Last sunday, Karen came over and woah, I was so happy she did!!! Ruth really takes to her! it's a rare thing cuz ruth even allowed her to bottle-feed her, and hand-feed her (sweets) without me showing her that it's ok.

So far, Ruth has a habit of NOT accepting things from strangers - be it food or toys. It's quite a good thing that she's developed naturally and i'm happy about that.

Anyway, i didn't get much work done that day - Daniel being in-camp and well, I decided that I'd just spend the day doing what i want to do - I think i deserved the day off. While Karen was around, I managed to get a shower (!!!) while ruth played with her, and then ruth decided she wanted to nap so karen & I got to talk abit. I sent her home after dropping off Ruth at the grandparents' and picking up kevin for dinner. it was really good to catch up with Kevin and talk about life. We had MOS Burger at Jurong point and shopped around abit (for Ruth!). I had a lovely evening out and it was great being able to talk to friends. I miss my friends plenty.

Ruth is turning 1 soon...

...And we have nothing more exciting than an intimate family gathering - just dan's mum and bro/SIL, and my parents and bro.

We decided to have a home gathering because there's nothing more happy for Ruth, than the comfort of her home and the jingling of her toys. :)

I think we should bring her to the playground too definitely - cuz she loves the playground these days. People come down the slide, she climbs UP the slide. :)

I'm looking forward to the weekend - where I can hopefully catch my breathe abit.

almost 11 months

080114a, originally uploaded by LezY.

Daddy's favourite pic of Ruth throwing her little plush kitty around.

Not that little, but she's definitely throwing it around...as she has been with everything else. Just trying not to put a chair her near!! I got smacked in the eye by her flash cards. She strikes with great force - just need abit of refinement on the direction and she's there. I hope this is just a phase - of her learning a new skill and thus kinda overpracticing it. I really dun fancy having to pick everything up for her all the time, though we do let her pick some of the stuff up herself - just so she doesn't think we do it all the time.

Ruth turns 11 months tomorrow. Time just passes you by without you realizing it.

Ruth..with all her christmas presents!

Ruth..with all her christmas presents!, originally uploaded by LezY.

THis is kinda overdue but better late than never! I just realized we forgot one important present - from ME!!! Well, will take a pic of that another time.

Meanwhile, let's start clockwise from the Manna Biscuits (6 o'clock):

Manna Biscuits - My "godbro" Kevin
Pink Piggy Bank - My dad's Godsis Auntie Jeanie
Cube-shaped FUnky Toy from M&S - My cousin Vanessa
(I didn't believe it when I saw it! Thanks Nessa! You were listening!!)
MooMoo Stuff Toy - My mum's linedance & karaoke pal, Auntie Margaret
Musical "stool"/"Table" - The Liaws

Happy first christmas my little darling. :)

Celebrating Granny's birthday

Celebrating Granny's birthday, originally uploaded by LezY.

We celebrated Granny's birthday with lunch at Crystal Jade Holland Village, followed by karaoke at SILVER, one of the places granny and grandpa go to occasionally for karaoke with their friends. We were toying with more 'upmarket' karaoke places like KBOX, Partyworld, but eventually, i thought mum should be happy and comfy since it's her birthday...so we settled for this place.

It's pretty nice and not too loud, and has all the songs that the mum n dad can sing. Ruth had a good time too! Crawling all over the sofas and even screaming along sometimes. :) She also slept through part of it.

:) as usual, when you have a kiddo, she becomes part of everyone's birthday photos. :)