23 March 2006, Thu

Annette knows how to take off her own diapers! Sri said that she had left Annette in the playpen to use the bathroom. When she came back, Annette was holding the diaper up in her hand. Thankfully it was just after her bath, so it was still clean. And thankfully, she didn’t poop or pee in the playpen. :) I wonder when she’s going to learn how to put on her own diapers…

19 March 2006, Sun

Annette has caught the eye of a boy! :) Went with Annette to Sunday School today. And Kieran – who’s actually quite a handsome boy – took an interest in her. Although he walks well, he was happy to go down on his hands and knees and crawl everywhere with her. And he kept looking at her and trying to touch her. Sadly for him, Annette was not the least bit interested. She was more excited about being able to crawl everywhere and play with the various toys. Boys? Nah… :)

Annette can stand on her own and even sway for a good minute or so before tumbling. She’s really getting quite steady. :)

20 March 2006, Mon

Annette is trying hard to communicate with us… in her baby language. I had just gotten home from work today and asked Sri to cook pasta. So Annette sat next to me at the dining table while I waited for dinner to be ready. She got curious and tried to look at what Sri was doing. Then all of a sudden, she started speaking to me non-stop for a good 4-5 minutes and with a very serious look on her face too. Daddy said she must have been giving me a lecture about eating more nutritious food for Baby. :)

Annette also enjoys Shania Twain’s ‘Man, I Feel Like a Woman’. :) Whenever I sing this song to her, she’d start dancing.

She also enjoys bopping to the McDonald’s Fan-tastic TVC.

Sri has also started letting her watch Hi-5 and she dances to it too. So cute!

13 March 2006, Mon

Told Annette about Baby today. Hope she understood when I told her she was going to be a big sister. :)

11 March 2006, Sat

The early morning pee was a lot more potent. :) The ‘+’ was unmistakable. Yippee! Some mixed feelings especially when thinking of the post-natal difficulties, but generally happy and very pleasantly surprised since it wasn’t really expected. Went down to NUH and saw Dr Anna ‘cos Prof Wong wasn’t available. She said all the indications were there but it’s early days still. Will be seeing Prof on 24 March. Then we should be able to see Number Two a lot more clearly. :)

Went down to Maplewoods to meet Lily. Not sure if we should continue with her or appoint Jeff. Sigh. I hope the renovations can proceed smoothly ‘cos I don’t want to get too stressed out with Number Two on the way.

Dear God, thank you for blessing us with another baby. Please watch over our baby and keep baby safe and healthy. And bless us with a smooth pregnancy and bless me with good health and strength. Amen.

10 March 2006, Fri

My period is late 5 days. Could it be? :) Over the last few days, I was so sure otherwise, ‘cos the tummy cramps and breast tenderness felt like PMS. But it’s hardly ever this late. In the afternoon, I decided to buy a PTK. In the evening, I did a test but the vertical line was quite faint although Daddy thought it was clear enough. Ok, don’t pop the bubbly yet. Will test again tomorrow.

8 March 2006, Wed

Collected keys to Maplewoods today. We are going to have a more spacious home. So exciting!

5 March 2006, Sun

Annette is no longer a little baby. And this is reflected in her choice of music. No more baby songs like Old MacDonald. It’s hip hop and rap for this little girl. At Fish & Co over dinner, she was bopping and head banging to the music, and was quite fascinated with the MTV videos too. :)

Our little girl is now an individual, no more a clueless baby. :)

She’s also getting quite steady now. She’s able to stand alone for more than a minute. And she can walk just holding onto one hand.

7 March 2006, Tue

Sri said that in the morning, Annette crawled to our bedroom, picked up the phone and put it to her ear! So cute.

3 March 2006, Fri

As Daddy and I were heading out for work this morning and said “bye bye”, Baby waved and gave a flying kiss as usual… and was that “bye bye” she just said? Wow, Baby knows the word! :)

6 March 2006, Mon

I asked Sri to take the Barney phone out of the box, and she found another toy phone that’s lighter and won’t cause any bruises. :)

Annette was fascinated by the various sounds when I pushed all the different buttons. When I made the phone ring and asked her to pick up the phone, she put the handset to her ear! So cute. Only thing was it was the wrong way round, with the ear and mouth piece facing outwards. But really cute!

2 March 2006, Thu

At breakfast, Annette suddenly propped her chin up with her hand, much like how a model might pose for a watch ad. Sri said that her actions were like big people sometimes. :)

She is also very active. She enjoys being on the move so much it is really difficult to hold her still for any period. And she can out-crawl anybody I’m sure. She loves to race or being chased. Maybe I should register her for a crawling competition. :)

In the playpen, she enjoys it when I start swaying and singing to her. And she will then sway along with me, dancing to the music.

She also tries to follow my hand actions when I sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars. And sometimes she’s en engrossed in trying the hand actions she actually stands on her own without holding onto anything for a few minutes!

And she also delights in whooping like a little Red Indian with her cute little hand patting her mouth.

1 March 2006, Wed

Today is Annette’s 1 year check-up and MMR jab. She wasn’t afraid of Doc Joseph anymore and was in fact quite friendly. She only got scared when he put a measuring tape around her head.

But, boy was she upset with the jab. She screamed at the top of her lungs and continued crying and wailing in anger for several minutes after that.

She was happier when I took her shopping. At the Hour Glass sale, I left Annette and Sri at the reception while I went to look at watches. Sri later told me that she was very sociable and even allowed herself to be carried by different people.

At the baby room at Paragon, she took a good look at herself in the mirror and I guess she liked what she saw ‘cos she proceeded to give herself a kiss on the lips!

At Din Tai Fung, Sri gave Annette a bit of the dough from the black sesame seed bun. And she loved it! She kept wanting more and even tried to take it from Sri’s mouth! :) Sri said over the last few days she had given Baby small pieces of bread and she liked it.

28 February 2006, Tue

Annette is now trying to take steps without holding onto anything! She managed to take three steps on her bed last night before crashing into a giggling fit. And tonight, she managed to take two to three steps twice in her playpen before stumbling. And she was so proud and happy. :)

26 February 2006, Sun

Now that Annette is a toddler, we’ll let her join the Sunday School nursery class. Jacob is in the same class too. Since I wasn’t feeling well today, I left Sri with her in class. Sri said that she was very happy in the class and was crawling everywhere to explore. :)

Baby is remembering her hi-five’s, no more’s, bye bye’s and flying kiss now. Only question is whether she will humour you. :)

21 February 2006, Tue

Annette now loves her Elmo push toy. She would grab it, stand upright, and then start running as fast as she can only to tumble over. The first time she did it tonight, she had a rough tumble and was stunned for a few minutes. But she became very determined and kept running with it time after time, tumble after tumble. Until we had to take the toy away and tell her to stop.

She has also become very confident with coming down the bed, sofa or your lap. She almost always remembers to back up, put her legs and feet down on the floor first, then sit down before starting to crawl off. Only thing is, she doesn’t really know how to judge heights, so she would try to come down from our bed as well, which is too high for her.

19 February 2006, Sun

Annette is one today! Wow! It’s been a really fun first year. And look how she’s grown! As I always tell her, she’s a little girl now, no longer a little baby.

We gave her an ang pow to mark the start of an even more fruitful life and for good growth. :)
When Daddy came back with the cake, we were all thrilled. It was really cute! Annette was especially excited with the teddy bear cake. So when it came time to cut the cake, Sri took Annette aside so that she wouldn’t get to see teddy bear being chopped up.

12 February 2006, Sun

Took Baby to church today. Dear Lord, thank you for blessing us with such a beautiful and healthy baby. Please continue to watch over Annette and keep her safe and healthy. Please also continue to guide Jonas and me so that we can be good parents and provide the best we can for her. Amen.

As usual, Sri had difficulty giving her milk and getting her to nap. She only fell asleep at Kong Kong’s house just before lunch time.

11 February 2006, Sat

We took Baby to shop for party packs for her birthday party next week. We also bought a Happy 1st Birthday banner. We had earlier ordered a cute 3D teddy bear cake (very expensive at $180 for 3kg!) and I am getting really excited about her upcoming birthday party!

10 February 2006, Fri

My colleagues came over to play poker at night. As usual, Baby was very sociable and even planted a kiss on Bee Choo without any prompting! However, she couldn’t settle down at night and was up playing in her room until midnight! The good thing was that she slept until 7.30am. :)

4 February 2006, Sat

Baby is graduating to Gain IQ! Today was the first day we introduced her to the new milk, starting with just one scoop Gain to two scoops Similac. But it turned out that she didn’t like Gain. I asked to reduce Gain to just half a scoop and hope that she’d take to it.

25 January 2006, Wed

Baby is turning out to be quite a techie. :) She’s very into cellphones and remote controls especially those for the TV and SCV. Once she spies a cellphone or remote control within her reach, she’d ditch the teddy bear immediately and do all she can to grab her target. And she’d be very persistent too.

23 January 2006, Mon

Baby can speak French and Japanese… well, sort of. :)

She can say “au revoir” and “iye”, which are goodbye in French and no in Japanese. At least, that’s what Daddy claims she can do.

Daddy said that when he asked her if she wanted to be put in the playpen, she said “iye”. When he asked her if she wanted to sit in her high chair, she said “iye”. And when he asked her if she wanted to finish her milk milk, she said “iye”.

And when he waved goodbye to her, she would go “au revoir” or something that sounded like that. :)

20 January 2006, Fri

Baby now knows how to give a flying kiss! :) Whenever we leave the house or say good night to her, we would always give her a flying kiss. After just a few weeks, she has picked up on it and returns the kiss in her one cute little way.

Only thing is, she seems to have forgotten how to ‘gongxi gongxi’. With CNY just round the corner, we’re going to have to work quite hard to retrain her ang pow collecting skills. :)

14 January 2006, Sat

Daddy and I went to run bank errands in the morning. The plan was to come back to pick Baby and Sri up for lunch and some shopping. But the banks were so crowded, we only finished our errands after 12 and had to call off the lunch and shopping plans. Sri said that Baby was very angry when she changed Baby back to her home clothes. :)

Baby’s second upper tooth is emerging. Hope she’ll have pretty teeth!

I noticed lately that Baby is not mouthing everything as much as before. Looks like our little baby is growing up. :)

13 January 2006, Fri

The months of reading her the Jungle Animals picture book and making the appropriate animal sounds has finally reaped rewards. When I showed her ‘elephant’ and made the elephant sound, she went “errrmmph”. And when it came to tiger, she went “grrrrrrr”! That really made my day!

Baby is also getting steadier on her own two feet. When I asked her to stand up, she would pull herself up holding onto the higher bed, and then let go. This time she managed to remain standing for more than 5 seconds. When she finally plopped back down, she applauded herself. :)

12 January 2006, Thu

At lunch, Baby suddenly made a growling sound. I have been showing her animal pictures and making animal sounds. Was she pretending to be a tiger? :)

11 January 2006, Wed

Baby’s first upper tooth has emerged! So cute. But I hope she won’t have big teeth like Mummy’s.

At night, she was very active as usual, and kept climbing up to the upper bed. I tried to show her the right way to go down to the lower bed, and she seemed to understand, and was in fact all smiles when she managed to go down safely, with my help. Without me guiding her however, she simply lunged or crashed down to the lower bed. And she actually found it funny…

In the playpen, she kept lifting one leg up while standing on the other. What was she trying to imitate? A flamingo? A peeing puppy?

10 January 2006, Tue

What people say about periods becoming less heavy and painful after childbirth isn’t true; I’ve been duped. :) My first two cycles after giving birth were completely painless and quite light, and having endured a lifetime of painful heavy periods, I then kept raving about the miracle. But the joy was short-lived; my periods started getting heavier and more painful from the third month. :( Today was bad. I had to run to the loo every two hours or less. By the end of the day, I felt completely drained… in every sense of the word.

Today, Baby managed to propel herself over and actually climb up onto the upper bunk bed on her own – another milestone for our little girl and another headache for Daddy, Mummy and Auntie Sri. So at 8pm, we were busy re-arranging the mattresses, pillows and bolsters so that there would be enough “cushion” on the floor. We also cleared stuff away from the floor in case she found a way to get off the bed on her own. We now have to figure out how to lock the drawers…

Baby is also able to stand on her own for a few seconds without holding on to anything. As usual, she would pull herself up then let go, and today, instead of falling over right away, she actually managed to remain standing for a few seconds!

5 January 2006, Thu

Baby’s getting more and more mobile. Sri said that Baby was playing on her lower bunk bed when she tried to climb onto the higher bunk. She only managed to put one leg up and tip toe on the other, but it won’t be long before she discovers enough strength to propel her body forward.

Baby has also started cruising. Sri said that Baby woke up from her nap, crying as usual. When Sri went into the room, Baby was already standing holding onto the cupboard and had cruised to the edge of the cupboard and was trying to crane her neck to look out the door! Looks like we have to be extra careful now. I have also told Sri to ensure there is nothing potentially dangerous on the floor in case she discovers a way to come off the bed.

1 January 2006, Sun

It’s the New Year! This year is going to be even more exciting for Baby! She will be turning one soon. And she will be celebrating many more milestones this year! Can hardly wait. :) Dear Lord, please continue to watch over our Baby Annette, and keep her safe and healthy. Please continue to guide Jonas and me so that we can be good parents to her and provide the best we can for her. Amen.

31 December 2005, Sat

It’s New Year’s Eve. At Jill’s NYE dinner party, Baby was her usual sociable self, and had big smiles for everyone. We had earlier decided to bring her pyjamas to the party so we didn’t have to leave the party early. At 9pm, Sri changed her and gave her the milk bottle. But instead of falling asleep as she usually does, Baby was still wide awake after her milk.

After a while, we realised that she was not going to fall asleep at a party; she wanted to be the life of the party! :) And so, Daddy and Mummy had to bring Baby home so she could settle down to sleep, which meant that we were left to do the New Year countdown on our own – just the two of us – at home.

27 December 2005, Tue

Baby did a scary thing today. She managed to stand up on her high chair! I decided to tighten the seat belt and hopefully this will prevent her from doing any gymnastics on the high chair.

Baby now knows how to use her teeth to eat food… I think. I gave her a slice of apple to suck and she managed to scrape off some apple bits with her two cute teeth.

Baby loves to stand up. Sri said that whenever she wakes up, she would immediately stand up holding on to the higher bed. True enough, when Baby woke up crying at about 10pm, Daddy went to check on her and found her already standing up on the bed. Guess we’ll have to watch her even more closely now.

25 December 2005, Sun

It’s Xmas! Baby was up very early today. And Baby loved to listen to us sing Xmas songs and also delighted in dancing and swinging to the music.

We took turns to open our presents, starting with Baby. She was so excited, she was jumping up and down! First, she opened (or rather I opened) the box with the big teddy bear and she was very happy with it. Next, she opened the stack toy and promptly forgot about the teddy bear. :)

24 December 2005, Sat

It’s Xmas Eve! And Baby seemed to know that it was a special occasion. We went to Yong Peng’s house party at night and Baby was very happy and sociable. She enjoyed crawling around the house and had big smiles for everyone. Of course, she had the biggest smiles for those who gave her presents. :) She was very bright and active even up to 9pm, when I had to take her home to put her to bed.