Solids

Raelynn seem to prefer solids to bm nowadays. I usually feed BF close to 9am so that I can pump and rest after RaeAnne goes to school. But nowadays she hardly wants to suckle (previous feed is usually 5-6am), but at 930am when the maid feeds her cereals, she can finish 4 small soup spoons (dry cereals before mixing with EBM). For porridge, she finishes almost 1 big FM scoop of uncooked rice every night. No extras for Cheh cheh. Haha. Oh well, I'm glad she has a good appetite. If she really prefers solids, it will be even easier for me to reduce my supply and go on holiday with hubby alone since MIL doesn't want to go.

Also, her lower gums are getting taller and I can see the shapes of her two lower teeth. Think they will be cutting through the gum soon. These days, she will keep sucking in her gums like an old lady. She screams a lot too. So much that she woke Cheh Cheh up yesterday when she was having her afternoon nap. Needless to say, cheh cheh was in a foul mood. She ended up peeling off the skin tag of her index finger and it bled quite a lot. She was having a meltdown when ILs came over to visit. MIL commented when she was leaving that "With these two, you will be kept very busy." I tried to make light of it and tell her I'm used to it. After all, this is what I signed up for when I decided to be a SAHM. :P They are probably relieved that they don't have to witness such chaos everyday. Haha.

Oh yes, today Raelynn stood in front of the FP piano for a long time. She was like in 'zhan ma' position cos her knees are slightly bent. She keeps turning behind to look at hubby. I thought she will fall but she didn't. Everytime, she was about to lose balance, she'll quickly grab the grand piano. Clever gal! :)

Standing unsupported

Last weekend, hubby told me excitedly that Raelynn was able to stand unsupported for 4-5 seconds. Yesterday, I put her near RaeAnne's FP grand piano so that she can pull herself up to stand. But I was surprised that she was standing without touching the piano. It lasted for almost 10 seconds though she was still a bit wobbly. :)

7 months - sit, 8 months - crawl, 9 months - sprout teeth. Hmm... our dear baby seems to be doing 5 months - crawl, 6 months - pull to stand, 7 months - sit unsupported, maybe by 8 months she can stand???

Music trial at Juzmusic

We first brought RaeAnne to music trial at Seimpi Music in Jan but MIL accompanied RaeAnne into the class and said she was too young and not ready. Timing was also not good and she was grouchy in her car ride back from Parkway. Since then I have been looking out for a morning weekend class for her. I waitlisted at Whitesands Seimpi branch for a long time but their class time is no good. Finally decided to go for trial at Juzmusic, which was recommended by my cousin. Trial is only $25 for 45mins for this promotion period.

RaeAnne joined this existing class of 5 kids. The teacher taught them to sing, then make sounds with musical instruments, throw a bean bag at the right beat, roll a ball while listening for music cues, recognise notes and play a few simple notes. But RaeAnne can't quite follow cos her attention span is not there and she does not listen. Decided to sign her for 1 term to try but hubby is not free on 24 Jul and we are going to Genting on 7 Aug. So decided to wait till we come back from Genting before enrolling her cos there is no make up lesson. :P

Raelynn's first taste of porridge

Raelynn tried porridge today at ILs house. FIL made very watery porridge with pork broth. Raelynn likes it but it was too little so she continued to make 'um' 'um' sounds after he fed her about 4 tablespoons. End up, I buay tahan and fed her a bit more after I finished my dinner. Got the ingredients from ILs so I can make porridge for Raelynn liao. :)

Amt of solids for Mei mei

I've been wondering how much to feed Raelynn. Last night for the first time in a long while, she slept through. Maybe we have not been feeding her enough in the day. Today, I find a useful link http://www.superbabyfood.com/chap7mon.htm. Looks like for a 7 month old baby, it should be 2 times solids at least and each time, 120ml ie. 2-4 dry tablespoons of cereal. Milk feeds at least 5 times. Duh, looks like I can't cut down on BF frequency yet. We can start adding meat, tofu, vegetables into the cereal and introduce fruit juices too. Oh well, good thing I asked MIL to help prepare pork broth porridge for Raelynn tomorrow. Too bad, I won't be able to capture it on camera, hope she likes it. :)

Disciplining

RaeAnne napped very late again at 3pm today despite taking cough syrup, cold med and phelgm med. I think the med are losing their magic effect. It was a lousy day for her as well as us. First, she bite the maid in the afternoon when she was trying to shower her, (I was in the room with Mei Mei but rushed out, I beat on her mouth when she does that). I locked her outside in the balcony at dinner time when she used the pair of nail scissors to 'cut' Filamie pants when she tried to take away her scissors(she had a red mark on the skin). She even got slapped by Daddy for first spitting water than pouring water out of her water bottle (when Daddy told her not to spit out the water). I was showering then and when I came out, I saw the red mark on her right cheek. Sigh, corporal punishment is wrong, all the parenting books say that. But what can we do? Reading the positive discipline book again. It said to remove the child from the situation firmly and gently and allow her to play again only when she is able to play nice.

If she loves to bite, hang an object on her body and let her bite that instead. So that she knows it is not ok to bite people, if she wants to bite, she can bite the object (teething ring perhaps?) Most kids bite according to the book cos they are not able to express themselves and they are testing the reaction of the bitee. Raeanne can talk very well but I noticed she always does that when she is frustrated. After saying no to something for 2 or 3 times but the person still keep asking her to shh shh or eat or go n shower etc, she will start beating or kicking. Told the maid to use distraction n pian her but she still have not learned the trick. An ex colleague smsed me today, her baby was born in early Jan and she told me her gal also beat and pull the maid's hair. Terrible how kids learn who they can bully. She has also tried both beating and scolding the child but it didn't work. Sigh.

Anyway, we'll try to solve one problem at a time. Asked hubby to draw a sleep chart of what RaeAnne must do before she sleeps eg. drink milk, use potty, mummy read 1 book and sing 1 song, mummy off the light and she sleeps alone on her bed. All went well until the last part as expected. Asked hubby to sit outside the door but she was not placated and he still had to go in until she fell asleep. First night, mission failed. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

We are all tired and frustrated today. Tomorrow, I've got a dental appt at NDC so will be leaving both kids at MIL's house. Glad to have a break. Don't want to keep losing my temper on RaeAnne too but she's not making it easy. Sigh.

On education...

Got a place for raeanne at pcf prenursery since April but really not happy with their curriculum. The teacher said pre nursery don't do worksheets or any writing cos they are too young. And she is not keen to show me the children's work (they have individual arch files). I just know that they have different themes every term. Raeanne had been attending playgroup since 18 mths so I do have higher expectations about her academic progression.

Went to visit Elfa CC with hubby on Monday again. The teacher showed me their worksheets and I quite like it. Besides the usual artwork, they have worksheet of a tree with flowers, fruits, roots, leave etc. Their theme for July is Nature. Besides the english descriptions, they also have it in Chinese. I even saw the K1 chinese teacher teaching the kids about Earth, moon and the sun and how the Earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the Earth.

So I prefer to put her at cc, at least half a day cos they got more worksheets n they teach Chinese whereas PCF, she will only be there for 2 hours everyday (830am - 1030am). Timing is not here not there so I can't even find ad hoc or part time job. Besides no worksheets, they don't start mandarin lessons until 4 years old (only when she enters Nursery). I am particular about Chinese lessons cos both Poi Ching and Ngee Ann Pri are SAP primary schools so Higher Chinese is compulsory from Pri 1.

But the cost is an issue. At $470 per month (after $150 subsidy for SAHM/part time mummies), Elfa is almost 3 times more exp than pcf so I am still deliberating. :p Actually if I remain as SAHM, I can bridge the gap that PCF misses by doing flashcards, activity books, reading chinese storybooks (which we already do). But as Raelynn grows up, I need to spend more time with her to stimulate her as well. I don't have the confidence that I have the energy to 'coach' both kids and look after them at the same time. So, it's better if I can outsource RaeAnne's learning for half a day to concentrate on Raelynn.

But if RaeAnne goes to CC, I'll definitely feel the pressure to re-enter workforce cos the CC fees are too exp for hubby to bear it alone on top of maid costs. We can use Raelynn's CDA account but the $12k (including our own $6k top up) will run out in 2 years. Plus CDA account's interest rate is 1% so it makes more sense to keep the money there to grow than to withdraw it to pay for CC. :P

On a brighter note, if RaeAnne adjusts well to CC and if I find a suitable job, I can convert RaeAnne to full day CC while getting ILs to watch over Raelynn while I work. By then CC will be cheaper cos I will be entitled to the full $300 subsidy. Also by then, Raelynn will be 18 mths so she will also qualify for CC and maybe if finances permit, she can start going to Cheh Cheh's school too. If not, then she can start CC when she is 2 years old ie. in year 2012. :) The catch is to find a job that pays well but with flexi hours so that should I decide to have no. 3 (yes, I have't given up hope yet), I'll get to enjoy 4 months of paid ML this time and can BF no. 3. Seems like a tall order? :P

Porridge

Raelynn has been waking up more often in the night since she turned 6 months old. Mostly to stand but she will cry when no one tends to her after a while. Last night, she woke up once at 3+am but I told Filamie that now that she is more than 6 months old, I am not going to feed until after 5am. So after BFing Raelynn at 5.15am this morning, I decided to check my blog to see when RaeAnne started porridge. Conclusion, Cheh cheh started porridge at 6 months plus. ILs just decided to feed her porridge when I was away at work. Maybe poor Raelynn is hungry and cereal cannot satisfy her, that's why she kept waking up at night when she used to sleep through. :P

Fed her scraped apple this afternoon around 3pm today and she likes it. Guess she is ready for it now. Previously when I tried, she didn't like steamed apple puree. This evening, Filamie fed her cereal at 530pm (2.5 small tablespoons mixed with EBM), I BF her at 6+pm, but she started crying pitifully at 7+pm. Asked Filamie to feed her cereal again and she finished everything so I gave her scraped apple again at 8pm. See her so kelian like always want to chew and bite so I went to buy teething biscuits at NTUC tonight. She loves that too. :)

Got dental appt on Fri so will need to put the kids at Ils place. Decided to shun bian ask ILs to help buy 'new rice, lean pork and other ingredients' and start cooking porridge for Raelynn that day. Will ask Filamie to observe and learn how to cook. I still remember how to cook porridge for RaeAnne using the small slow cooker. But I forgot how watery the porridge must be for 7 months plus baby. :P

Cooking... Thai basil minced meat & mentaiko spagetti

Keep forgetting to post but I bought some thai sweet basil during june hols when I was shopping at NTUC cos there were 3-4 packs of minced pork at home. Followed the recipe and ended up making a not very spicy version cos I had no thai chilli at home. I made do with chili oil from my bottle of spicy bean sauce (la dou ban jiang) instead. It was a good move cos RaeAnne liked it and ate it though she was it was 'a bit la'. I cooked it again at my mum's place on Sunday, this time with 5 cut thai chilli and pounded coriander roots. it was nicer, more fragant. But this time, RaeAnne refused to touch it cos she can see the chilli. I would make this dish again since it is easy to whip up but will just add a bit of Japanese 'la yu' for the benefit of RaeAnne. Cos the chilli oil from the spicy bean sauce took away some of the heady fragance of the basil. :)

Went to hokkaido fair at TM last Fri. Most women go to Hokkaido fair and go crazy over the Hokkaido ice cream and the Shiroi white chocolate (there was a super duper long queue at the 2nd floor stall). Me? I always eat their special eat-in ramen then spend a bomb buying chinmi (seasoned seafood) by weight and this time, I bought salmon roe and mentaiko (spicy cod roe) too. Spent $77 on that, no joke. What to do, I've got savoury taste buds, sweet stuff doesn't really excite me. :P

Anyway, was so tired tonight after putting Raeanne to sleep, she slept at 11pm even though we fed her drowsy formula cough syrup at 830pm. Hubby was equally tired and KO so I decided to cook mentaiko spagetti instead of getting him to buy supper though he offered.

I got the recipe from here http://foodmakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2008/01/mentaiko-spaghetti.html. It was really fast to cook. I don't have 'half and half sauce'. Don't even know what on earth is that so I substituted with 1 tablespoon of butter(or rather margarine). I cut down on the lemon, just 1 thick slice instead of half a lemon cos hubby doesn't like sour unless it's bolognaise (tomato) sauce. It was not bad, the home made cream sauce was quite 'si mo si yang' but wish I had added more lemon juice and some dried seaweed cos that will make it less 'jelat'. I debated whether to take a photo cos without the seaweed, the spagetti does not look appetising. But I don't know when I'll ever pay $6.95 for 100g of mentaiko and make mentaiko spagetti again. So here's a pic for the record. ;)

Raelynn is 7 months old!!!

She is 7.5 kg when I weighed her today and still only 63cm long. Sigh. :P

Sometimes, she can stand unsupported for a few seconds before swaying and falling down. She is learning to walk. When we hold her by her arms, she will move one foot forward followed by the other one. No teeth yet and no signs of teeth.