Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Whatever you can do, I can do too!!
THAT is the mantra of M nowadays. Despite being only 16 months and not even able to string two words yet, he behaves much like a 3-4 year old. He feeds himself during mealtimes, tries (unsucessfully) to dress himself and basically prefers to do things all on his own. He will let me know when he is hungry by pointing to the kitchen and pulling my hand in the direction of the kitchen and tell me he wants to sleep by pulling my hand in the direction of the bedroom. In short, taking care of him is a breeze coz he knows what he wants and he will let me know. No coaxing, no tears & hardly any raised voices.Recently, he has also added to his list, the inate interest at doing the "adult" things we do. Whenever he sees me starting dinner preparations, he will take the placemats and place them on the dining table. (albeit haphazardly as he cannot even see the top of the table) He so very much wants to be helpful so we usually let him do so and even praises him for his effort. His current favourite activity is cleaning up the house.
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Saturday, January 12, 2008
All by myself... ZZZZZ Part 2
After one year, one month and a week of sleeping on our bed, right smack between Umi and Abah night after night, Muhamad Mubarak is now putting himself to sleep all on his own in his own cot. That cot is supposed to also double up as a playpen but it has been grossly underused (currently it is a laundry hold-up area) as we do not believe in placing him there in the day and prefer to let him roam free.
It's not so much as kicking him out of our bed. It's more of getting him to learn to fall asleep on his own without me or his Abah next to him patting him to sleep or allowing him to breastfeed till he dozes off. We thought it was time to train him to sleep independently, to be able to put himself to sleep when he felt he was tired. We wanted to make sure he could do this before we ship him out to his own room hopefully by the middle of the year. (assuming by then we would have found the time to give the study a fresh coat of paint and hopefully get him a toddler sized bed)
It has been a week since he has slept in his own cot and since there has been no incidents whatsoever, I daresay we have successfully done it !! HE has done it! Bravo to my little prince for being so co-operative and making life such a breeze. The first night he kept whining to be taken out. With some distraction of his favourite books and finger games he was sleeping soundly.
The second night, he was still a little surprised when I placed him in his cot but he complied genially and didn't complain. The third night onwards, when his energy was all spent and he was sleepy, he pulled my hand to go with him into our room and pointed to his cot. I cannot describe the euphoria I felt when he did that. I guessed why it worked so well was because we were very gentle with him but firm, we kept assuring him we were nearby and that even though he was sleeping away from us both, we would be close enough should he needed us. We made it fun for him by playing games with him and tried not to make such a big deal out of it. (Even though it was a milestone for us!) But above and beyond that, whatever we did wouldn't have worked if Mubarak had been a cry-baby, fussy or the kind who is afraid of something new. This is probably the 20th million time I say this. But Syukur Alhamdulillah I have been blessed with such an easy to care for child. Hopefully the transition to his own room will be just as breezy
Next up.... potty training !!!!!! This one won't be so easy !!
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Saturday, January 05, 2008
All by myself... ZZZZZ
When we first had him, our intention was only to let him sleep with us for the first 6 months. After that we wanted to train him to sleep on his own and preferably in his own room. Needless to say my mother was totally against the idea. She cited various hadiths and studies to convince us in Islam it is not right to let your child sleep away from his parents at such an early age. We should allow him to sleep with us on the bed for at least the first 2 years (the permitted breastfeeding period) To be honest, The Don and I had our own misgivings about our original intentions. We absolutely did not agree with Gina "Cruella" Ford's way of sleeping. (you know, the let your child sleep in his room and let him cry to sleep method). The Don couldn't part with his son and I thought it will be very tiring for me to have to get up, take MM out from his cot and breastfeed him in the middle of the night and later put him back to sleep again. Needless to say we didn't follow through with it. Besides, apart from the fact that MM loves to push us off the King sized bed when he tosses and turns, he was no trouble at all. (Who would have thought a kid his size will need so much space!) He hardly woke up in the middle of the night and when he did, all I needed was to breastfeed him for a few minutes and he will fall back into slumber. He wasn't fussy and gave us no trouble falling asleep either although he hates the idea and will only consider sleeping when he can barely open his eyes and has zero energy left.
Still the idea of him in our bed wasn't something we relish. We both felt that if we continued with the practice, it will be even harder to make him leave our bed when he was older and could come up with a million excuses and tricks. Also, now that he was only on partial bottle feeding, we thought long and hard and felt the time was ripe to introduce some changes. However we believd in doing things the Jane Nelson way (kind yet firm), a method that doesnt work with all kids but has worked great with MM.
We compromised with him and placed him in his own grossly underused cot right next to our bed. He was quite tired but not very sleepy yet. I played peek a boo with him for a while, kissed him goodnight and gave him two of his favourite books to read on his own in his own cot. He was initially surprised why we put him in his cot but when he told him very very gently to lie down, he surprised us and did. He got a up a few times and whined for us to carry him out while pointing to our bed. But we persevered and coax him to lie down and flip through his favourite books. I played a few finger games with him (without talking or laughing) and soon he was too sleepy to protest. He laid down on his own, tossed and turned a little and before we knew it he was sleeping soundly.
We were both pleasantly surprised to see how well it went. No great bawl and dramatic crying, (I imagine my mother would have knocked on our door if it had happened ) very little resistance and yes he slept throughout the night. He semi-woked a while at 6.30, we carried him to our bed for his morning breastmilk session and put him back in his cot. We wanted him to wake up in the morning in his own cot so he can remember what happend last night and hopefully realises that this is the way to go from now on.
I'm glad the first night went without a hitch. Let's hope the same happens tonight!
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Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Who does he look like ?
MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Geneology
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Finally.. the question is answered....
Everywhere we go, one of the first questions people will always ask is "ikut muka siapa eh? Most people on my Umi's side of the family will say I have the "Arab" look. They will say I have a sharp nose and pipi labuh (chubby cheeks) that are common is most of my relatives on that side. When I go to the house of my Abah's relatives, they call me "Ismail Junior" because it seems I look like my Abah right down to the straight and standing hair. I can't begin to imagine what it will be if some of my Abah's relatives meet my Umi's relatives.
I notice my Abah and Umi always reserve their comments on this issue. They don't take sides and insist I just look handsome. (hehe)
Well, now when ppl make comments again, at least I can say I look equally like my Umi and Abah. If you don't believe me.... look here ...
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Itchy Itchy Fingers
As usual, this morning was a mad rush for time. While I was making milo for the hubs, I put in 2 pieces of bread in the toaster to make toast. A few mins later this came out ...
I thought the toaster was damaged as we very seldom use it anyway. I tried again to put a single piece of bread this time and again the same result. Then I realised the knob whioch adjusts the temp of the toaster was turned to the max. It must have been that little imp and his itchy fingers. My toaster is placed right at the corner of the kitchen table. And while Mubarak is not tall enough to see what is on the table he is definitely able to fiddle with the knob with a good reach. *sigh*
Nowadays we can't put anything on the tabletops that are within his reach. Yesterday afternoon, while Mubarak was at his grandparents' he snatched a cup of teh-o from the coffee table and poured it all over himself. Apparently he smiled when he realised he was all wet. Lucky the tea was not hot otherwise it won't be so funny.
His other favourite thing to do now is to hide things in odd places. He was going in and out of his Baba's room one afternoon and found his Baba's brand new stockings. He dragged one of the stockings here and there throughout the whole house like a train and then a few minutes later he didn't have it anymore and was playing with something else. When his Baba realised one stocking was missing she searched the whole house for it but couldn't find it anywhere. 2 days later, when she was looking for cds, she found her stockings in the drawer of the tv cabinet.
At this point you can imagine what a handful Mubarak is. He is forever running here and there and poking his nose in all things he is not supossed to. Like switching off the tv switch while we are watching tv and dragging the dining chair across the dining area. He also tries to put his finger between the fan grilles of the standing fan and tries to move the lesung batu (mortar and pestle) on the kitchen floor (And he actually can make it move!!) Once we even found him carrying the anak lesung (pestle) like he would a baby, craddling it in his arms. Needless to say the lesung has been removed from its usual place on the bottom kitchen cabinet to the kitchen sink so that he can't reach it. Every single day there will always be a scratch / bump / pinched finger etc on various part of his body. Good thing about him is that he hardly cries and as soon as he falls / knock himself he will cry a few seconds then get up and start his antics again. The only way I can get him to sit still for a few minutes is to hand him a book. That will make him sit for at least 10 mins (or longer if I sit and read it with him) while he turn the pages and look at the pictures. Or when he is sleeping. That will give me time to do other stuff like chores and surfing the net. But when I have finished my chores and he is still sleeping, I'd feel the house is too quiet and I will start raining kisses on him to wake him up.
It can be very tiring caring for him but looking at the bigger picture he is learning how things work and his curiosity is abundant. This is the best way for him to learn the ways of the world hard knocks bumps and all. After all, soon he will grow out of this stage and then I'd wish I could turn back time.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Appetite's gone away
Since the fever he had last week, he has lost appetite to eat. If he used to gamely sit down on his high chair and open his mouth widely when I asked him too, now he shakes his head and tries to wiggle out of the high chair. When I put him down he wil run around and refuse to even face me. When I finally managed to get a few spoonfuls in his mouth, he will gag and spit out the food in his mouth. So eventually his Baba and I only managed to make him eat not more than 5 spoonfuls in one sitting.
We don't believe in forcing him to eat and we absolutely do not belief in distracting him with TV so that we can get a few spoonfuls down his throat. So I had to resort to other means. Initially, I thought he was sick of the food we feed him, - variations of soup with soft rice. So I decided to bring forward his weekly weekend treat, penne pasta with chicken and peas. This is usually reserved for weekends when we stay home. I have no choice but to give him frozen porridge on weekdays so I try my darndest to give him fresh food on weekends. Still, it didn't do much to make him eat.
Next I tried to bake bread pudding for him. But to meet his nutritunal requirements I added small chunks of minced beef and peas in it. He liked it for the first 4 spoonfuls and then decided he didn't like it anymore. Next day I tried grilled chicken sandwich and some baked fries. This was also popular but only if I placed it on our usual dining plate used a stainless steel spoon and not his Sesame Street kiddy bowl and colourful spoons.
I kinda caught on his trick but since he still didn't eat as much as usual, I tried baked chix nuggets the next day. Again I had to put in a grown-up bowl and used grown up utensils to entice him. I guess its not so much the food but where it is that makes him want to eat. His appetite is back but very gradually and it takes quite a bit of effort to coax him to eat.
Oh the things I try to make his eat! But I suppose this is a phase every child goes through. Let's hope my boy with that voracious appetite will be back soon.
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Monday, October 30, 2006
33 and counting.....
I walked out of my gynae's office on Sat smiling from ear to ear and if not for that not-so-lil' bump on my tummy I might just have done a little skip and a dance. Hehe. Routine scanning shows Baby Muhammad has turned. His head is now at the right place just waiting for the time to be engaged (not-so-soon the doc says!) My placenta which was slighly low during the last month's scan has moved up and I'm in prime position for normal labour! Insya'allah!
For two weeks now I have been feeling what I thought was his head at my navel area, prodding and kicking and sometimes causing my belly to look lopsided when he chose to push his way up. With the scan we know now that what we had been feeling was his feet /knee. I told the doc it was huge and rounded and heavy like a head or a buttock so purely for our amusement the doc did a scanning measurement of the feet and guess what! His feet alone is 7cm already!!!! I do not have big feet and neither does The hubby ...I wonder where he got his Ronald McDonalds feet from?
Currently Baby Muhammad stands at 2.3kg. He is slightly above average weight-wise although the doc says my chances for normal are as good as anyone's. Insyallah. My iron level has improved tremendously, everything else is also a-ok although I have been suffering from severe heartburn and sleep is a luxury for me these days. I have had to resort to sleeping in a semi-upright position, with pillows all around me. I can't seem to eat rice since I will end up with excrutiating heartburn so its noodles n bread for me nowadays. Other than that I guess I'm alright. And super excited waiting for the arrival of Baby Muhammad.
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