Our Darling Preston Kang Kang

Nursery 2

2010-01-04T11:02:00.002+08:00

This is his 3rd year of school and he has just started his Nursery (N2). We have suffered the crying-on-the-first-day-of-school phase 2 years ago when we have decided to enrol him in the childcare. It turned out to be disaster. He did not like it at all and refused to go to the school. We did not know what to do because he was too young to go to Nursery then.

Last year, he has reached the age for pre-nursery, a 2-hour play group in the neighbourhood school, so we enrolled him and hope things to turn out fine. Better than expected, he enjoys school since then.

Today, it is his first day of Nursery. He was so excited when we prepared for his stationaries, school bag, new shoes, new socks. He is actually looking forward to it.

But me, being a lousy mom, actually did not know that his class ended 1.5 hours earlier then usual until his teacher called. Arghh, I feel so bad about it. He just asked me inoocently if I have forgotten.

------------------------------------------

I always believe that there is no child who doesn't love their parents, but I do not agree otherwise. If you parents don't love you or abandon you, it is their fault. If your child(ren) don't love you, it is clearly your failure.

A child comes to this world, counting on you and living on your mercy until he/she is independant. If you don't feed him/her for few days, he/she will die. I feel really angry when I see news like a helpless child being tortured by parents.

It makes me think when I see news about how an old man is abandoned by all his children and leaving alone in a messy little flat or by the street. This old man has a whole life to decide how he wants to live, is it his children's fault that he is living like that now?

I don't know how will my own child treat me when I am old and helpless one day, but I hope to do my best as a parent because I still belive no child in this world will not love his/her parents if they are loved.

The terrible two

2008-03-06T16:59:00.002+08:00

Preston is turning 2 years old on the 25th. He will be going to the childcare tomorrow for the first time. This is a very difficult decision for me as I remember the first time we had to hand him over to the baby sitter when he was 3 months old. It was like you don't know what is going to happen to him, can he adjust well to the new environment? Will the caregiver/people around him be treating him well? I guess I just have to let go because it is part of life, and you can't be protecting him for life, and he won't want that too.

He has really good communication skills by now. He can form a complete sentence using multiple verbs and nouns, for instance, "公公，洗康的毛巾“（grandpa, wash kang's hanky) or ”姨姨弄妈妈的眼睛“（auntie is doing something on mama's eyes, when a friend was perming my eyelashes for me). However, he just refuses to speak in English.

He understands almost everything that is being told to him, therefore if you want him to do/not to do something, he will demand a valid reason. He will be unhappy and will not do it if the reason is some made up crap like our parents used to tell us, like the police is going to catch you for this or that. He just knows. He has very strong opinions about things now.

He will think of ways to escape from any punishment for the things he has done wrong. For example there was once, he was lying on the kitchen's floor, my mom told me about it, so I took the cane to threaten him to get up. He looked at me and laughed, like I wasn't serious, I told him if he didn't get up, I am going to whack him. He got up and fly kiss me for twice calmly like nothing has happened. What else can I do to him?

I just hope that he will be alright at the childcare centre tomorrow.

ka ka lai liao (ka ka 来了）

2007-12-03T16:37:00.000+08:00

This is so funny. We never taught him the word 'ka ka' and I asked the baby sitter, neither did she.

We didn't know what is 'ka ka' until one day he saw a cockroach and told his dad that was a 'ka ka'. Finally we have came into a conclusion that 'ka ka' is something that will bite because 'ka' means bite in hokkien (the baby sitter is a hokkien)

We went for dinner together in a restaurant. We ordered seafood platter where there are many different types of grilled seafood. He saw the prawns. I asked if he wanted it, he shook his head and said "eee.... ka ka". Then he saw his dad ate it, he told me 'ba ba chi ka ka'... (translated to pa pa eats ka ka)

Kids are so innocent... haha

Do you want to go to the school?

2007-11-27T13:46:00.000+08:00

I believe Preston is a sociable kid, because he will make friends whenever he sees kids who are around his age. He will go near to them, introduce himself, shake hands and even hug them. He will share his stuff with his potential new friends. However, not all people are as sociable, some are very shy and ignore him. Well, that is life, that is the real world. Although, it looks cruel in the eyes of parents, but that is what we are going through and we have to accept it as part of life.

Life is tough, but life is fun.

We were thinking to send him to the childcare center, on another hand, we are worried that he won't get as much attention as being with a dedicated baby sitter. We know he loves school. He likes to make friends, he like to learn and play.

I told him that if he can say his full name when people ask, we will send him to the childcare and he nodded :P

Some updates (20 months old):

> Weighs 13kg
> Able to construct simple sentence
> More understanding and more accommodating
> Still cute

Ｕｐｄａｔｅｓ　ｏｎ　ｓｐｅｅｃｈ　ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ

2007-09-11T16:52:00.000+08:00

18 months old

Flipping through the photos taken, Preston has grown so much.

Weighs almost 13kg now

Preston starts talking! He can say a few words already and he is picking them up fast. He starts recognizing different types of fruits. However, he is still having problems learning 3 syllabus word, for instances, he will relate 'papaya' to 'pa pa' and he pronounces coconut as 'cococo'...

....
19 months old

Today, he is more than 19 months old already. He is getting better and better each day. He can form a simple sentence with a noun and a verb with his limited vocabulary. Such as, 爸爸拿，妈妈拿，康康吃，airplane vroomm (take off). He is also able to express himself and let us know his needs.

The Sand and I

2007-08-21T17:10:00.000+08:00

He is a big big boy now as he should be categorized as toddler instead of baby. There were a few incidents happened recently, this is one of them that I think is worth sharing:

Weekends have always been breakfast and groceries shopping at IMM in Jurong East. The reason is because the place is more family-friendly. It is more spacious as compared to other shopping malls which are occupied with shops. Another more valid reason is that the journey from Bukit Batok to Jurong East is relatively short as compared to other places. Preston will sometimes get bored and grumpy being in the baby car seat for too long.

But being sick of the same place for countless weekends, we decided to make a change, not too adventurous, we decided to have breakfast at the Mac Donald's of the West Coast Park at West Coast (slightly further than IMM). After we had our Big Breakfast, we decided to take a walk in the park. We saw lots of kids playing in the sanded area (just like a tiny beach but sanded with coarser sand) so we thought Preston might like it. He freaked out when we told him "we are gonna take off our shoes and play in the sand"... his legs were curled up as tightly as a koala bear to whoever was carrying him and screaming for help... it is so funny!

He is naturally scared of things that tickle, like carpet, kiwi fruit, pineapple, cactus, even though they don't hurt. Being barefoot in the sand is worse anything to him. And, he doesn't like dirt. He was picking up every grain of sand from his hand and throwing it away.

Last week wasn't too bad. we bought him a set of beach toys. He seemed enjoying, but still looked tensed throughout the whole session. He barely moved from the location where he was put down.

Tomorrow we will go again and make sure this time he can overcome his whatever fear.

More photos

2007-07-16T15:08:00.000+08:00

Walking, running, talking

2007-07-10T18:22:00.000+08:00

Preston 15 months and 15 days today. Flipped through his photo album a year ago, he has transformed from a baby to a toddler.

Here are the things that he can do now:

>>Walking, from our home to the baby sitter's home, yeah, he can actually walk to a destination. It is not hard to imagine not far from now, he will be able to get away from home if he is unhappy with us, to his baby sitter's.

>> Running, he runs.

>> He talks, he can actually express himself through words, only three of us can understand right now, like ah-bao-er (Flower), ah-na-a (banana), ish (fish), ff (fan), bum-bum (balloon, or any ball-like stuff)... that is so funny, I am glad that he is able to call me "ah ma" accurately... he calls his dad "ah ma" too..

>> Still wakes up for night feed, with some exception nights.

>> Learning to eat with utensils, we are trying forgive the mess.

The pivot point

2007-06-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

Instead of writing about regular updates, I was thinking of something on my way back from work today. It is about religion. This has always been a sensitive topic and people are tend to be more tactful when discussing about this topic, especially in a group of friends who have different faiths.

As being mothers of 2 young kids, a colleague of mine told me her son asked her something which she found disturbing and have no idea how to tackle. Her six-year-old son asked her about re carnation, although she believes in , and she knows exactly what it means, but she doesn't think that she is in the position to explain to him, merely because they have different religious upbringing. Being a freethinker, I was quite stunned, as she mentioned that. I did not understand why would they have different religion upbringing being in the same family, and I am quite sure the son is definitely too young to choose a religion for himself. After her explanation, only did I know that her husband believes in , so their kids have to be brought up in the 's way.

Well, I am a freethinker, that does not mean that I do not believe in anything, in fact I believe in everything, everything that I choose to believe. I know, my point of view is controversial, especially, people who are staunch in his/her religion. I am not talking about a particular religion, I am talking in a general basis. Freethinker is always classified as "shallow" in their point of view. Again, I am not saying everyone who falls into this category.

As a mother, I just want my kid to have as much freedom and room for growing up, well, if only I can find the pivot point of his freedom, my principle, and my pre-conceive notions/beliefs towards certain things.

Preston is 13 months old

2007-05-03T11:45:00.000+08:00

Preston's and daddy's birthdays are exactly one month apart. Last week was daddy's birthday. So mommy bought a chocolate truffle cake for daddy from Hans. We didn't invite anyone nor having a birthday party. It is just a small family candles ad cake stuff. After we fetched him from the nanny back home, we lighted candles, sing birthday song, birthday wishes... He was so amazed, he kept laughing and giggling, I guess that is the best birthday present ever for a 33-year-old man.

13 months updates:

>> Able to walk without assistance

>> weighs between 10.5 to 10.8kg (yeah, I know he didn't grow a lot, tod aged 1-2 will only gain 1-3 kg throughout a year

>> Weird sleeping pattern. He doesn't like to sleep in the baby hammock (sarung) anymore. The toughest thing looking after him is to get him to bed at night. There were several ocassions that he cried until he vomitted because of the excessive air swallowed. The only way that works at the moment to get him to sleep is taking him out for a stroll (well, I know this is not a good habit to establish, but I also don't know for how long this will work, because his habit is changing consistently and unpredictably.) This is our biggest challenge at the moment.

>> Bought him a real tooth brush. He is now able to brush his teeth himself, with minimal assistance

>> Discipline is implemented, because he is old enough to understand do's and dont's. We have done it on extremely dangerous behaviour, i.e. playing with the standing fan. We had daddy as the 'bad' guy and mom as the 'good' guy. Daddy will tell him in a very stern voice where mommy will be there to pacify him. The real scenario was actually mommy was the director and keptasking daddy to be more fierce :P. After a few attempts, he sat down on the floor and cried. Now, he will not go near to the fan anymore. However, I don't believe in having strict rules implemented to a growing child. Good habits must be established at young age.

>> Insists on wearing shoes before going out and taking off shoes and put them back in the shoe cabinet when back home.

>> He has been darling enough to know your mood, he will be extremely nice to you when you are angry at him.

Love for reasons? A letter to Kang Kang

2007-03-31T12:38:00.000+08:00

Darling,

I know this will happen, but I just don’t know when that you will come to me and ask, “Mom, how do I become your son?” or something along that line. Well, I guess I will tell you, it is all about love. When mommy loves daddy so much and daddy loves mommy so much that we think we have lots more love to be “spared”, we decided to have you 

Let me tell you, mommy loves daddy and daddy loves mommy because we chosen each other. We both love you unconditionally, just because you are our son. When we talk, we talk about you, when we are at work, we think about you, when we text each other, we mention about you… You have become the centre of our lives.

We want you to believe that, only love will support us to grow to a better and loving person. However, this world is not about you, me and daddy, it is about everyone around you, be it your grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends, teacher, colleagues girl friend and wife. You know, there was once during mommy’s check up when you were in mommy’s tummy, I told dad that I can’t stand the idea of you growing up, studying abroad and getting married… Dad told me that he has prepared for all these, he said,” I want to have babies not because I want to keep them; I want to prepare them with wings that can fly higher, further.” Yes, that is so right.

Darling, when you grow up, you will have to face with lots of challenges in life, rejection, fear, dealing with misunderstandings. Although I hope to, but also know that I am not the only person who can give you all these, you must find a person that you trust, love to support each other to walk the path of your life. There is just so much more to learn and experience about live and you have just taken a baby step (not even steady yet).

Everyone is a mirror of yourself; how a person treats you shows what kind of person you are, or at least somewhat. Remember, there are no right/wrong (other than violating the laws) decisions, there are only decisions that lead you to the path you have chosen. Mommy is brought up in a family of trust and love and now I want to bring you up that way too. Mommy wants these values to be remained for our next generations as long as there is any.

I love you and daddy. Both of you have made me a proud mother and wife. Lao gong, thanks for all the support and love you have given me, let’s prepare kang kang with a pair of strong wings.

Love,
mama

Happy Birthday to you

2007-03-27T10:52:00.000+08:00

Two days ago was Preston's 1 year old birthday. We ordered him a 1kg Winnie the Pooh vanilla and mango birthday cake from Bengawan Solo. We were thinking to buy him a cake with the letter 1 but the minimum size of the cake is 3kg, which is too huge for 7 adults, so we decided to go for the conventional round one.

Some updates of him:

>> Didn't gain any weight since last months.

>> Still can't walk without any assistance, however, he is making progress.

>> We notice that he only wants to learn stuff from his grandpa and grandma, it is very difficult for us to teach him even a simple thing.

>> Getting more and more demanding, he will cry out loud if we do not give him what he wants. I don't know if this is human's nature, to demand for things, I can't wait for him to talk and understand me, so that I can teach him by telling him.

>> He likes to watch people work, especially sweeping the floor, it is terrible because he will "instruct" you to sweep the floor. By now, merely watching can no longer satisfy him, he wants hands on.

Preston is 11 months old

2007-03-15T17:03:00.000+08:00

This is a long due 11 months updates of Preston (really long because he is gonna be 1 yr old 10 days later).

A lot of things actually happened within this 1.5 months for Preston and us.

>> He stepped out of Singapore for the first time in his life.

>> He has experienced his first plane trip.

>> He has experienced his first Chinese New Year.

>> He was terribly sick right after we came back from Miri after our Chinese New Year holiday break. He vomited after he had his milk around 12:30 am and also fever. We were so worried and decided to send him to the KK hospital A&E. We waited there for more than 3 hours before we got attended by the doctor. The doctor suspected that he was infected with Urinary tract infection as no sign of infection was shown in his throat. So the doctor wanted to collect his urine for test. That was a nightmare, as we waited for another 3 hour for his urine. The result came out to be negative, so the doctor told us to make an appointment 2 days later for review. He was infected with throat infection, poor thing... we took 2 days leave to monitor his progress... However, the nightmare is over now, he has grown up to be a strong and naughty Preston again.

>> He picked up simple words and understand the meaning of it, like clapping, gong xi gong xi, brush teeth, raining (he will cover his head with his hand), fan (he will point to ceiling fan). The weird thing is, he picks up those very quickly from his grandpa and grandma (my parents) and he loves them more than us. Whenever they visit us or vice versa, Preston will start ignoring us.

>> Last night was the first night he slept from 9pm to 7 am in the morning! That is amazing.

>> He still weighs around 10.3 kg, but he has long legs now, the last measurement of his height was 79.9 cm so I presume he should have pass the 80cm mark by now.

Let's go to the zoo...

2007-02-02T16:28:00.000+08:00

Since Preston has becoming more and more curious about things around him, we finally brought him to the Singapore Zoo.

He was extremely unhappy in the car on our way to the zoo. I think it was because of the long journey.

We went on Monday, therefore it wasn't too crowded. He was amused only by huge animals like the White Tigers and Giraffe... I think part of the reason was that all the animals weren't too active, most of them were still sleeping... maybe too early? We reached there about 9:15 am and left at about 12:15 pm... The weather was nice, cool and breezy... We had our expensive and tasteless brunch in the "Restaurant in the Wild”. There weren't many choices as the KFC and other food stalls is still closed (around 10:30am) and we didn't have our breakfast, so we settled at the Restaurant in the Wild.

Preston had homemade porridge with pumpkin and fish... It is easier to feed him if we are all having meals together; I suggest if you have a kid who isn't keen on food, let him join in when the whole family is eating...

We left around 12:15 pm... I think he was tired because he didn't make much noise on our way back this time.
Should we get a yearly zoo membership for 150 bucks? Well, if we visit the zoo for more than 5 times a year, otherwise it is not worth it.

Next… Jurong Bird Park?

Preston is 10 months old

2007-01-25T10:34:00.000+08:00

=

It's been a while.

And today, Preston has come to this world for exactly 10 months. We hope he has been enjoying it :)

Just a quick update:

>> Weighs 10.2 kg, has been using size L diapers for a while
>> Loves shopping
>> Able to walk on his own, without any help from us, for a few steps, he's been practicing that on and off in his crib and falls down countless number of times. He loves hanging on to the edge of the crib to enjoy the ecstatic of standing up; he does it even in the middle of the night!
>> Loves animals, cats, dogs and even ants! Enjoy watching them a lot. We have planned to bring him to the zoo next Monday to amuse him with the real animals!

Hopefully he'll be able to walk on his own soon.

Yeah ... We heard that grunt ... We know it'll be really chaotic when he can walk and run at the later stage.

We had enough headaches seeing him crawl ... he resembles the Dash character in the “Incredibles” family. However, I think the feeling of seeing our own baby able to stand on his own and walk with his own feet will be indescribable.

Well done, Preston :)

-updated by papa & mama

My 6 Months Comparison

2007-01-13T19:16:00.000+08:00

Virgin swim

2007-01-12T10:27:00.000+08:00

I was told that it is never too early for you baby to swim as he is used to living in the water. But I am still a bit sceptical about it. One of the reasons being is that baby doesn't have a strong immune system and we do not have access to any pool that is specially designed for newborn.

Until last 2 weeks, we finally decided to bring Preston to the public pool near our residential area. We shopped for his swimming gear and ready set to go.

It was his first time in the swimming pool, so we did not expect much as we just wanted to see his reaction in the pool as well as his cute look in swim suit... haha (*evil grin*)

The water was a bit cold, colder than the water we use to bathe him. He was a bit scared in the pool, kept clinging on me by pulling my shorts. I wasn't in the water. Daddy accompanied him in the pool and he clang to daddy too. It was the first time we noticed he needs us so much.

I think the whole environment was a bit overwhelming. Although not too crowded, it was quite noisy and water was splashing all around.

The "swim" was a really short one. I think around 10 minutes. We didn't want to traumatise Preston in the first session.

We will definitely bring him back again! Swimming skill is a must for my baby :)

Preston is 9 months old

2007-01-03T21:03:00.000+08:00

Less than 3 more months and Preston will be one year old. Time flies. I remember during this time last year, I was about 7 months pregnant with Preston. That is simply amazing. A year ago, everything seemed so far away, we hadn't even given him a name yet. Doctor predicted his weight to be around 2kg, or less? I can vaguely remember now.

By 9 months, he can...
>> crawl
>> stand up with the support of furniture, like the edge of his crib
>> imitating adult's behaviour, like waving bye-bye, making funny faces and sounds
>> start to develop his own attitude - friendly, hot-tempered, super-active, eager, curious, out-going
>> say papa, mama, mum-mum... I guess papa, mama, mum-mum were invented after realizing those are the first words of babies
>> weighs 9.6 kg

I believe human are born to be successful when I see him learning to stand up and walk. No matter how many times he falls down, he will not give up because he knows no matter what, he is going to make it. No matter how tired he is, he will still stand up after every fall. It is really inspiring seeing a child growing up, it is amazing and the feeling is just undescribable.

I just got a good news from a friend that she is 35 weeks pregnant as of yesterday and expecting a baby boy. I have been through that stage, so I feel so excited about it. I wish you all the best in your pregnancy and delivery. In case you are wondering who she is, she is Siew Yan :) [hehe, think you won't mind me spreading the good news]

Merry X'mas!!

2006-12-23T17:14:00.000+08:00

Christmas wishes from Preston and family... May your Christmas this year be as blissful as mine :)

Our bond

2006-12-23T15:36:00.001+08:00

Since Preston has weaned off from breast feeding, I thought that I am just one of his care givers. I am a full time working mom; therefore he has a nanny who looks after him during the days. We only manage to spend at most 2 hours together at night after we have fetched him from the nanny. When he is at home during night time and weekends, husband and I both share the load of taking care of him. His daddy spends even more time with him. Therefore, I cannot imagine Preston will have "I want mommy" kind of thought at all.

But that is not the case, it is getting more and more obvious that Preston needs me, yes, he needs his mom :) He is a very active and do-not-want-to-sleep baby, therefore putting him to sleep is like slaughtering him, he will scream and try to escape from him sarong (vertical baby rocker with a sling and a set of springs). It is more obvious when his daddy is the one rocking him. Not withstand the screaming, I will normally takeover and sing him a song which I learned from primary school. Whenever I start singing, he will calm down, it is like magic spell and I am getting so pleased over this. Repeating the same boring song is indeed very tiring, but I have no choice because he will scream again when I stop. While on our way back from lunch today, he was so restless in the car and refused to sit in his baby car seat, so I thought of singing him the same old song. He stopped being restless immediately and lied on my chest while I patted and sang to him. It was so sweet.

We have accidentally invented a game together. Whenever he does something surprising, like almost drop a toy, I will make the surprising "heeekkk...." sound by inhaling in a long and loud manner. He thinks that is funny and he will laugh whenever I do that, never fails. I did not know that he will be able to pick up the skill until just now; he kept doing that to amuse me. Gosh! That was so scary (undeniably cute), how can I undo that?

More photos...

2006-12-16T13:01:00.000+08:00

New Clothes

2006-12-15T10:23:00.000+08:00

As Preston is growing, most of his clothes have become either too tight or too short or too baby-ish for him. Therefore I have decided to get him some cool new boy garments. Will upload the photos soon.

Compare this when he was less than 2 months old

2006-12-08T11:16:00.000+08:00

Preston crawling - video

2006-12-03T13:22:00.000+08:00

More photos...

2006-12-03T10:42:00.000+08:00

Preston is 8 months old

2006-11-27T17:03:00.000+08:00

All in one word - NAUGHTY, extremely NAUGHTY!

> Weighs 8.3 kg (weight loss due to the Rotarivus)

> Has 7 teeth

> Started on brush-teeth-routine

> Learning crawling, not too steady but getting the hang of it

> An outgoing baby, loves going out and socializing, no strangers in his world. He is so friendly to people, despite the age, colour, gender... he loves them ALL! As long as can keep him entertained.

> Only wants things that are not belong to him, or things we forbid him to have, like newspapers, tv/aircon remote control, fish swimming in the tank...

> Enjoys food, even bread crumb and white rice

> Screaming with either his highest or lowest pitch, I know it is irritating if we see other kids doing, but not with your own baby (trust me for those who have no kids will not believe this)... But I still show the "irritated" face if he does that... hrmmm... Maybe this is one of his way of conveying messages...

Thanks Kok sing (Tun) for the photos :)

Rotavirus

2006-11-24T18:19:00.000+08:00

He was so so so sick for the past few days. He got fever and diarrhea. Very.very.bad.diarrhea. He pooed once, almost every 5-10 mins, it was so bad that he developed diaper rash, I don't know if it is diaper rash, basically his his skin has become red and sore. He cried and scream like hell everytime we clean him. His butt was sooo bad that we decided to buy him a potty.

We brought him to the doctor and the doctor confirmed that he was infected with Rotavirus. We did not know how serious rotavirus was and decided not to let him have the vaccination, simply because I feel heart pain for him being jabbed.

The Doctor prescribed several kinds of med, but apparently it did not help much, we went back to the doctor the next day and we were told to increase the dosage of the medicine.

What a nightmare! Should I give him pneumococcal vaccine also?

When Usual thing turns Unusual

2006-11-17T11:56:00.000+08:00

Two days ago, as usual, after work and dinner, we went to pick Preston up from his nanny's place. To our dissapointment, he did not seem to be excited when he saw us as usual. Intead, he turned his head away from us and towards his nanny who was carrying him. Three of us were shocked by his reaction. Husband and I knew that this was the last thing we wish to happen, we cannot accept the fact that the bond between them are actually stronger than us. But we have no reasons to doubt the attachment between them, because the number of hours he stays with the nanny is much more longer than with us. 12 hours a day during daytime means most of his activities have nanny involved. We only bring him back at night and during weekends, so naturally the priority will go to the nanny.

I know we should not be too obsessed about this whole matter, but we just can't help it. My worry will be that we will eventually not hesitate to do things for him to compensate for what we 'think' we cannot provide him. That is definitely not what we wanted, We don't want him to be a spoilt brat. We want to build love, trust and bond with him.

Daddy and mommy loves you, Kang Kang, please leave a comment when you can read this one day. you will probably not believe what you have just read.

--posted by mama

More photos...

2006-11-07T11:42:00.000+08:00

Preston is 7 months old

2006-11-04T17:25:00.000+08:00

To be exact, Preston is 7 months and 2 weeks old as at today. Time flies, he has changed so much since he was born, from a vulnerable little baby to a strong and naughty little human. Yes, he is getting more and more independant now. He has his own 'needs' other than food and sleep. He needs more than that, he has learnt how to express himself through some behaviours, like 'calling' for help when he is stuck or making noise when he is bored.

He was down with fever yesterday (3rd November), still not recovered yet, his temperature his 38.5 degree celcius. Doctor said older babies(six months and above) are prone to virul infections because the immunity from the mother is gradually disappearing and he has to build up his own. Rashes was shown after he has recovered from the fever and doctor said that is normal for babies between the age of 6 to 12 months.

Here are some of the updates:
> weighs 8.6 kg
> started on follow-on infant formula (stage 2)
> started on more 'solid' food - not so pureed food

Preston is 6 months old

2006-10-04T11:34:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the late updates because Preston is keeping his mommy bz bz bz. Here are the updates.

> He is 6 months old and weighs around 8kg.

> His hair has been growing too long until he looks like a little girl, so I decided to shave him. We were thinking to bring him to the barber, but then I thought it was more economical to just buy a hair clipper to do the shaving myself. Tadah! He looks like a Shao Lin Baby now.

> He loves food, baby Rusk, porridge, cereal, banana... I am pretty sure he lives to eat, milk is just for survival. Gluten or Hungry?

> He doesn't like to be carried in the sitting position. He will struggle to straighten his torso and remain in that position so that you have no choice but to carry him at the standing position.

> We have started to bring him out more often because he doesn't like to stay at home... He seems to be enjoying himself when we bring him out in his pram. He sits in a 'da shao ye' (Big Boss) way... haha, so cute.

> His voice is the loudest when he cries.

> He says mum mum... when he is hungry, I wonder if that is his first word, but a bit too early.

> He still wakes up every night for feed. I wonder will he ever sleep through the night.

-Posted by mama

Flipping non-stop

2006-09-12T00:46:00.000+08:00

Since last week, Preston is able to flip non-stop until he rolls to the edge of the bed and we have to rescue him from falling off the bed.

He also likes to sleep side way at night when we take him out of his sarong and let him sleep on the bed. Sometimes when I wake up, he is already 90 degree from a straight position. I have absolutely no idea how he does it. The scary thing is that, he sometimes sleeps with his face down - thus covering his nose. How can I stop him from such a dangerous act???

Here's the videos showing how he flips non-stop.

One more thing that we noticed just this Saturday - Preston is moving backward after he flips over. Definitely a sign of his eagerness to move about. Imagine when he can walk ... hohoho.

Messy affair

2006-09-11T22:49:00.000+08:00

There's no doubt that Preston loves to eat. Lots of foods. Unstoppable at all.

So far, he has tried porridge, pumpkin, carrot, mesh potato, banana. He loves them all :)

And if we are too slow to give him the next spoon, here's what he'll do:

Look at how satisfied he is now.

It's truly a messy affair ... a satisfying one though.

Preston is 5 months old

2006-08-26T12:55:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was Preston's 5 month old birthday. He has grown from a tiny little new born to a big baby now. Some updates of Preston:

> He weighs 7.5 kg now, doesn't gain much weight since last month, but he looks healthy and chubby.

> I have started him on a bit of solid food, i.e. infant cereal, he seems to like it a lot. However, feeding him cereal is a really messy affair. All three of us smell like cereal after the meal.

> He is teething already since last 2 weeks. Two lower front teeth are sprouting out from his gum. Therefore he drools like a water tap, a fresh bib can only last him for five minutes. He bites every thing he can get hold of, even tissue paper.

> He knows how to flip from back to tummy, he will flip non-stop if he is on the bed. However, he cannot flip the other way round. He has more urge to start crawling than to flip back.

> He is counting his fingers! We have been teaching him to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with his fingers. We noticed that he is counting his fingers today... so cute, even though he still cannot control his fingers.

> He stretches like a yoga master, he loves biting his toes!

Happy 5 months old, Preston!

Some more pictures before the 5th month

2006-08-24T16:56:00.000+08:00

Flipping

2006-08-12T14:55:00.000+08:00

Preston demonstrate that he's able to flip on his own.

He loves it and keep flipping. However, he's having hard time - cos he can't flip back so he's very tired. But he still likes to flip and cry to signal us to help him flip back.

Just like turtle :)

Preston is 4 months old

2006-08-07T10:28:00.000+08:00

Preston is 4 months old now. Actually slightly older than that. He has been keeping his mama so busy that she has no time to upload his blog (yeah right ;) just an excuse, baby.)

Ok, here are some updates of him:

> He doesn't gain much weight since he hit the 6.5kg mark last month.

> He starts teething! Yes, he has got his first tooth already, it seems a bit early? The day is 5th Aug 2006.

> He is very naughty nowadays, I mean very very naughty. He will not stop moving when he is awake.

> He really has the sense of music and beats... He will "dance" whenever he hears music and tend to "sing".

> He doesn't ang goo so much nowadays, he uses all kind of self-invented vocab.

> He doesn't know how to flip yet, he can only do the half flip, not a full one... hrmmm...

The fall

2006-06-28T10:23:00.000+08:00

When I was on my way back home few days back, I saw a toddler at around the age of 2-3 fell down on the ground. He was crying very loudly. His mother was quite cool about it and told him "It's OK", she gave him a second before she tried to pull him up. There was an old man sitting on the bench nearby who immediately ran to him and helped him up. The incident really bothers me although Preston is merely a three-month-old baby. I started to think how I will react if I were the mother. I have always wanted Preston to learn something from his experience.

If I can control the whole incident, it would be this way.

- Preston falls down.

- Mommy asks "Are you OK, ni ni(that is his pet name)?"

- Preston climbs up on his own and says "Yes, mommy."

- Mommy says "You are such a brave boy."

- Mommy gives Preston a big hug.

Yeah, I just want him to be brave. I know it is not the fall that will hurt him, it is the way he will handle his fall.

posted by mama

Preston is 3 months old

2006-06-26T09:37:00.000+08:00

Here are some updates of Preston.

> He weighs 6.4kg and started on M size diapers.

> I have stopped breastfeeding as I will be going back to work soon. I am very glad that we don't have to go through the scary 'weaning off' phase as described by many breasftfeeding mothers, like babies refuse to take bottle or breast engorgement like other mommies suffer from. This is because we have started to supplement him with infant formula at the initial stage.

> My mom has gone back. She has been the main caregiver of Preston. I wasn't confident of taking care of him alone since he was born. My mom and mom in-law took turn to look after him since he was born, and now I have to be the MOM.

> He can now babble more words. He uses phrases like 'ang goo', 'ah goo' ,'ang grrrrrer', 'ang gu gu ang gu gu' at almost everything, either when he is happy, excited, sad or frustrated. He has extends his vocabulary to 'nan nan' when he is hungry and 'ging ging ging...' when he is hot. I don't know if the 'nan nan' part is random or he really knows what 'nan nan' means. I cannot reproduce other words that he says.

> We have sent him to the nanny's place since last Wednesday. I was so worried at first if he will be happy with the nanny or if the nanny knows what he wants. I was with him almost 24 by 7 since he was born. Mom was here to tell if the nanny is good enough for him. Surprisingly, it turns out to be much better than expected. The nanny is a very nice, well-organised person, and most importantly, she is experienced and she likes Preston and Preston seems to be comfortable with her.

> He is a gadget baby. We bought toys for him that supposed to be educational and fun for babies, but he doesn't show any interest at any of his toys. He will only be amused by handphone ringtone, camera and video cam. What an expensive baby.

> Overall, he is a healthy and happy baby.

posted by mama

Compare how different Preston is

2006-06-18T20:51:00.000+08:00

The Nanny

2006-06-18T20:38:00.000+08:00

We've found Preston a nanny a while ago through our friend. The nanny is his wife's auntie. Experience baby care giver ....

Tomorrow is the first day we will take Preston to the nanny. Sending him there earlier give us some time to make sure he's able to settle down with the nanny. Originally we were thinking of 3rd July, the first day when Preston's mom going back to work.

We also bought the necessary stuffs, including an extra sarong for the nanny. When we brought the stuffs there, Preston went together with us to meet her for the first time.

The nanny is taking care of her 2 grandchildren. The boy, 8 and the little girl, 2 plus.

When we went over, we let the nanny carry Preston. The moment she carried Preston, the little girl started screaming and crying for her grandmom's attention. We looked at each other ... don't really know what to do. Then the girl ran over to the next door, where her auntie is staying.

We found out from the nanny that her grandchildren will to go to school from 7am to 7pm. So it's not such a concern. We will have to make sure that we can fetch Preston back home before there's too much contention between our baby and the girl.

My MIL said it should be OK. Since the girl will also want to have a playmate. Furthermore, she's a girl, and will tend to treat some one younger better after a while.

It will be a brand new day for Preston soon ... hope he'll like it.

Ang gu gu ...

2006-06-14T20:34:00.000+08:00

Baby is able to communicate too ...

Just listen to his words ... ang gu gu ..

He keep repeating that to everyone that he meets. He also got a lot of variety too ...

When he's happy .. it's ang gggggeeeeerrrrr...

When he's not too happy ... it's ang ke ... or Eh ....

He may also laugh like we do ... some times ...

Amazing ....

No wonder we adults like to "ang ge ge" the babies ..

New Clothes

2006-06-09T19:35:00.000+08:00

Preston has been gaining weight healthily. He's 6.4kg now.

He has almost established his night feeding routine. He can sleep from 9pm to 12am, have 120ml milk and continue sleeping till 3 or 4am. Sometimes, he likes to continue sleeping after another feed. But sometimes, he only sleeps for a while, wakes up around 5+ in the morning ... and refuse to go back to sleep.

Further, when he wakes up in the wee hour, he wants to be entertained. My my ... that's really tough to play with him at 5, 6 am with the urge to go back to sleep.

With his growth rate, he's almost outgrowing all his shirt given by his grandmom. It used to be extra large ... and now just nice only. It's time to get him some more new clothes.

Fingers licking good ...

2006-06-05T18:36:00.000+08:00

Baby Preston don't like his pacifier no more ...

Now he only likes his own fingers ... One thing though, he still hasn't manage to find his thumb :)

Smiling Preston

2006-05-28T01:10:00.000+08:00

It's no doubt that Preston love to smile.

He smiles when I greet him ... "Good morning, baby" .... he will response with a charming smile without fail every morning.

He smiles when people around him look at him.

What happened today confirmed that he loves to smile at people. We brought him to the GP today for his first 6-in-1 vaccination.

He was sleeping soundly on the way, not knowing something painful for him happening soon.
It's heartache to see the long needle jabbed into his meaty thigh. He screamed loud and hard. My goodness ... he's the toughest baby that I've seen. He stopped crying the moment the needle was pulled out. He still mumbled a few times after that. But he went back to sleep almost immediately.

He was still a happy baby after coming home. We played with him the whole morning.

Scary thing happened in the evening. Grandmom was telling that Preston may have some mild fever.

The doc said fever may be one of the side effects that we can expect. Without thinking too much, we rushed to the GP again, in the hope to get some medicine just in case we might need it in the middle of the night.

And guess what Preston did .... he smiled at the doc after the doc took his temperature, and said nothing to be worried about.

Smiles my dear Preston. Some day, I'm sure you will make a lot of friends with your charm ... and smiles.

More photos

2006-05-28T00:51:00.000+08:00

Two months old

2006-05-23T14:47:00.000+08:00

Preston is two months old and is growing really really fast and well.

There were a few incidents that freaked me out how well he is developing,mentally and physically.

> He has almost outgrown all his clothes, booties and mittens. My husband and I has decided to get him some new clothes and booties, not getting him anymore mittens because we are trying to take off his mittens soon as he has to learn how to grip and hold things. We bought him 2 shirts last night with the label saying it is for 6 to 12 months old infant. Guess what! They are the same sizes as those shirts that he has almost outgrown, guess we gotta bring back to the shop and perhaps telling them, "Hey, these are too small for my two months old baby..."

> He can actually recognizes people... He will smile at me when i look at him pretending that I didn't see him. Anyone with kid will know how tiring it is to carry a baby all the time and will definitely take a break if there was a chance to. But his smile melts my heart and making me feel guilty for ignoring him. Gosh!

> He is only two months old and he already knows how to talk!!! I was teaching him to say 'ooo' last night, he was concentrating on my lips movement and imitated it. To my surpirse, he actually said it! not randomly but responded to my 'ooo'. His daddy tried it with him again later, and he did it again!! Oh, I hate to say that but I am so proud of it.

--posted by mama

一屎难求

2006-05-02T18:05:00.000+08:00

After his contipation problem, we realised that it is so so wonderful to have our baby moving his bowel regularly and predictably. It's really a joy to be able to clean his output.

Last week he didn't pass motion for more than 24 hours, since 12pm the previous day. Immediately, we brought him to a GP. The GP didn't do anything. He just wanted us to wait another 24 hours.

His grandmom kept massaging his tummy, and after many false alarms, the baby finally sh!t ...

The first piece was a bit hard. But what followed subsequently was soft and creamy ... good stuff :)

Now it's a daily event that we wait for him to clear his rectum ...

At the time of this writing, the baby passing motion again after another more-than-24-hours wait. We decided to use lexative to help him a bit, just to be sure that he didn't have the super hard stool again.

We waited a few minutes after applying the lex ... yeah, we knew we shouldn't have done so unless necessary ... but trust me, after witnessing his struggle the other time to squeeze out the hard stool .... it IS necessary.

To our relief, this time, it's soft and creamy ... just as seen previously.

Now we decided to wait for his time naturally ... without interfering his system again.

May be what the doc said is right - that he's adjusting his schedule as he grows ... we should just be more patient.

Poor baby ...

2006-04-18T21:50:00.000+08:00

Thanks to everyone that has been checking on Preston's status.

We found out why he's more difficult to take care on Monday morning - bad constipation.

We noticed he had no bowel movement since Sunday.

On Monday morning, after his routine 3AM feed, I notice there's a piece of stool at his anus when changing his diaper. I used the wet wipe to try and scoop it out. I couldn't. It was HARD!!! Preston was crying while he's trying to squeeze it out from his small little anus.

Without knowing what to do, I rested him in his play pan and quickly did a search on the internet.

As instructed on one of the web site, I massaged his tummy, and pumped his legs like cycling, which rightfully should help him.

Preston tried very very hard, and I swore he really spent all his "milk sucking" energy to move the stool. And like everyone when in pain, he screamed when he pushed.

It's really heart wrenching to see the little baby twist & turn and suffered from the pain. Luckily, within a few minutes, the hard stool was squeezed out by Preston. It felt like a year!!!

We noticed there are some blood stain and worried that he might have torn his anus in the process. But by this time, Preston has quiet down and didn't cry any more. Amazing for a baby who just went through such difficult and distressing moment.

The first thing we did on Monday morning was to bring Preston to GP.

The GP applied something like enima (for baby) and Preston responded by moving his bowel. It was again another heart wrenching session to watch our baby trying hard to squeeze the hard stool out. He was like a preggie in labour!! Imagine the pain ... :(

It was a big relief when we finally saw the soft stool ...

The GP suggested to dilute his formula milk.

So far, his bowel movement has gone back to normal. And it's soft :)

3 Weeks ...

2006-04-16T11:42:00.000+08:00

Baby Preston is now a little more difficult to take care of.

He would sometimes awake in the night and refuses to sleep after feed. He's so restless and keep playing "kung fu", stretching his hands and legs. After spending all his energy, he will cry for more milk. And also have to change his diaper before he's peaceful again. By the time, it's already 3 hours gone.

Preston is now 4.4kg. Like to exercise, doing kung fu.

2 Weeks Now

2006-04-08T10:38:00.000+08:00

He sure knows how to grip ...

See the dimple. He's got them at both side.

He's growing and looks happy ...

Jaundice

2006-04-06T20:44:00.000+08:00

When baby Preston discharged from the hospital, doctor said he's got no jaundice.

However, after a week when the baby was back for check up, doctor ordered a blood test. This time, it's 14.4. If it reaches 16 or 17, then the baby has to go for UV light treatment.

It was a scary experience for the baby to do the blood test. The hospital staff took the blood from his heel. He cried, only for a short while. After that, as if requesting for rewards, he became restless, like asking for milk.

We were asked to sun bathe him a few times in the morning from 8 to 9am. It helps, but he still looked yellowish.

We also gave him a lot of fluid, in milk especially.

Then, we were told that the red dates can help to reduce jaundice.

- Boil 7 pieces of red dates.

- Mix one tea spoon red date water into baby's milk and let him drink.

- The rest is for the baby to bathe.

He's quite alright now.

Hiccup

2006-04-03T22:20:00.000+08:00

Sometimes after feeding, baby Preston hiccup non-stop.

The record so far is 20 minutes until the hiccup stopped by itself. It's terrible for an adult to endure the whole hiccup experience, let alone a tiny baby.

It's really heartache when the parents can't do anything. We've tried to feed the baby some water when he hiccup. But it doens't help very much though.

7 Days already ...

2006-04-01T22:24:00.000+08:00

I can already do wonders when I'm 4 days in this world

My little fingers

My tiny feet

It's an amazing world. I'm enjoying it, so I only cry when my milk isn't given to me, or when everybody around me are too busy to give me a good hug.

The arrival of Preston

2006-03-25T20:56:00.000+08:00

The time was 25th March 2006, 8:45pm.

The venue was Thomson Medical Center, Singapore.

Baby Preston arrived after a 7 hour labour. Both baby and mother are doing well.

Baby Preston cried with a loud and clear voice, announcing his arrival into this wonderful world.

Within a few minutes, baby Preston tried hard to open his eyes, like can't wait to see the persons that brought him into this world.

Baby Preston weighed 3.22kg, measuring 50cm long. Perfectly sized healthy baby.

我的名字是李宇康，Preston.

第一篇

2005-10-16T23:11:00.000+08:00

以下是来自我的老爸：

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
我从来没有为自己计划过30岁以后的人生，一切总是随遇而安。

我在2004年尾结婚。我妻是一个很漂亮，很聪慧的女人。我常常觉得自己很幸运可以遇到我妻，更可以和她厮守以后的人生。她很会做菜，能吃到她做的菜是很幸福的哦。她现在已经怀有四个月身孕了。我很期待孩子的到来呢。

事业方面，自己算是比上不足，比下有余吧。以后，我得更上一层楼，更努力才行呢。我爸说过，做人做事，都要“眉精眼企”才行。这广东人说的话，意思就是要醒目。说的也是，做人懵懵懂懂，混混沌沌，很不行呢。
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

这时候的我，还在妈妈的肚子里呢！

Our Darling Preston Kang Kang

Nursery 2

The terrible two

ka ka lai liao (ka ka 来了）

Do you want to go to the school?

Ｕｐｄａｔｅｓ ｏｎ ｓｐｅｅｃｈ ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ

The Sand and I

More photos

Walking, running, talking

The pivot point

Preston is 13 months old

Love for reasons? A letter to Kang Kang

Happy Birthday to you

Preston is 11 months old

Let's go to the zoo...

Preston is 10 months old

My 6 Months Comparison

Virgin swim

Preston is 9 months old

Merry X'mas!!

Our bond

More photos...

New Clothes

Compare this when he was less than 2 months old

Preston crawling - video

More photos...

Preston is 8 months old

Rotavirus

When Usual thing turns Unusual

More photos...

Preston is 7 months old

Preston is 6 months old

Flipping non-stop

Messy affair

Preston is 5 months old

Some more pictures before the 5th month

Flipping

Preston is 4 months old

The fall

Preston is 3 months old

Compare how different Preston is

The Nanny

Ang gu gu ...

New Clothes

Fingers licking good ...

Smiling Preston

More photos

Two months old

一屎难求

Poor baby ...

3 Weeks ...

2 Weeks Now

Jaundice

Hiccup

7 Days already ...

The arrival of Preston

第一篇

Ｕｐｄａｔｅｓ　ｏｎ　ｓｐｅｅｃｈ　ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ