Norelle is 9 months old...

My baby girl is 9 months old today. Time flies. And I am glad to announce that she is all well now. No more fever, blocked nose, cough, or what-so-ever. She is now one-happy-active baby. She is getting more and more mobile for now and we all have the same belief that she will walk before she's 1. She had her 2nd dose pneumococcal jab today (what a pressie!) and she weighs 7.75kg (I know, I know...she's a light baby)

She did her first sign the other day. Well, apart from the usual 'bye-bye' and 'fly-kiss', Norelle did her first real Baby Sign. One morning she woke up being very cheerful and she was just 'talking' to herself and playing with her toes on the bed. We had the fan on and suddenly she looked up towards the fan and did the 'fan' sign - hand up in the air 'swirling' gesturing the movement of the fan. I was estatic and couldn't believe my eyes and asked her to do it again. True enough, this time it's real. She's responding to what I say - FAN! Hahahhaa...so all the hard work paid off after all.

I began signing' with her when she was around 4 months old. Having read about Baby Signs when I was still pregnant, I was interested in trying this method with my own baby. I went and bought a book titled 'Baby Signs: How to Talk to Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk' . When Norelle was about 4 months, I started some simple signs with her like 'milk, fan (as she's very much amazed with it) and 'bath'.

I am still doing the signs with her and have been adding on some new signs whenever the needs/situations arise. But she more or less getting the 'idea' of it when I do the 'milk' sign, she knows that it's time for her milk feed. And she will show me her widest grin when I show the 'bath' sign. Which means, she gets to play woth the water.

I am thankful to Jamie from Baby Signs for bringing in the program into Malaysia and would definitely encourage mothers to take up the signs. But I do know that many people will be hesistant or having doubts in 'signing' with their babies. Most often associate signing to people with hearing diabilities or mute. But we are teaching our babies about signs everyday without us knowing/realising it. For instance, we will 'shake' our head when we say 'No' or 'nod' our head when we say 'Yes'. Those are signs. Or, we teach our baby to wave their hands when we say 'Bye-bye' . That is a sign too. So, signing is actually a very natural way of us trying to communicate with our babies. And babies are way smarter than we think. They actually understand what we are trying to tell them and by seeing them 'communicating' with us using signs, it's the most rewarding feeling.

Mummy, faster take my picture, I don't know how long I can hold on to this post.

First time sitting in a swing - and loving it!

A bunny in a sack

Sleeping time is one of Norelle's many 'work-out' rountines. She does the rolls-turns-tosses-flips routine in her sleep. We practice co-sleeping which means she sleeps with us in the same room and is sharing the bed (not exactly - she practically owns the whole King-sized bed by herself) with me. HY has been kicked out from the bed and he has been sleeping on the floor since then. We have the air-con on most of the time, and with Norelle's acrobatic moves in the bed, it's very hard for the blanket to stay in place. She was kicking off her covers every night and we were going bonkers with sleep deprivation.

Then I read about 'sleeping bag' for babies. The sleeping bag is not like what we use in camping trips. Sleeping bag for the babies is soft, mostly made out of cotton and which, as it turns out, was the norm for babies in many parts of Europe. So I decided to try it on Norelle. Now, at least I can rest assured that she is properly covered and the sleeping bag also tends to minimized her 'acrobatic moves'. All these equal to longer and better sleep for all of us.

Norelle in her sleeping bag - do you like her just-out-of-bed look?

Christmas comes early?

Last Saturday, I received a nice surprise. Crystal came over in the afternoon and I went out to open the door gate for her. Then I saw it. In the postbox, I saw the handle of a paper bag sticking out from it. So, I opened the post box and a small paper bag was in it. I took it out from the post box and inside there's white cloth being rolled up and tied with a nice golden ribbon.

I imediately untied the ribbon and the cloth unfolded to a white Ralph Lauren Polo shirt. It's very obviously that the shirt is for Norelle as the size indicated for 18months. And I searched around in the paper bag but couldn't find a single card, paper or a note. So I do not know who sent it. I phoned HY and asked him but he was as puzzled as I am. HY went out in the morning and he said he didnt noticed the paper bag in the post box. So 'the sender' must have put the pressie in the post box after he left.

I felt suspicious and at the same time intrigued by this mysterious 'sender'. It's like Santa just delivered a Christmas pressie down the chimney but left unnoticed. I did asked around but to no avail. It was a nice surprise but on another note, this whole incident is a bit creepy. Hahaha...I don't mean it in the bad way, just that I only thought this will only happens in the movie.

So, whoever the 'Santa' is.....THANK YOU....

An early Christmas pressie

A stroll in the park

HY suggested that we should expose Norelle to other things instead of shopping malls (hehe...:P). So a few months ago, we started taking her to the park at TTDI. We usually go on a Sunday morning as the weather is still cooling and the air is fresher. The first time, we brought Norelle to the park, she didnt quite warmed up to the idea (too many greens..hahahha) and she started crying after a while.

We tried again the following Sunday, and it was better. Now she is getting used to the idea. She started paying attention to the trees, greens, people running around, etc. We let her touched the tree leaves and even dipped her legs into the stream (man-made stream). The TTDI park is nicely landscaped. And it provides good jogging/walking tracks so that you can get a good workout surrounded by litterally trees and the sounds of the birds chirping.

It's a good idea after all to take a stroll in the park once in a while. As cliche as it sounds, try to go back to nature and take a step back and enjoy those beauty that GOD has created. It definitely will do you and the world some good.

It's obvious that I'm not a morning person

Mummy and daddy, stop dancing around the tress. You two sure cheered me up with your 'Bolloywood' act.

Updates...

OK. A little updates on Norelle. Seems like she is (really) on her way to recovery this time. She had diarrhoea for about a week. Brought her to Paed and was sent home with some ORS (Oral Rehydration Salt). Her appetite was low (again) and she couldn't held any food in her. Once she had cereal/milk it came right out again. Despite this, amazingly, she was still her usual self - actively crawling, climbing up and down. And all my hard work of training her to sleep through is haywired. Since she only took smaller amount of milk each feed, she started crying for milk in the middle of the night.

When her diarrhoea persist, we changed her milk powder to lactose-free milk powder (advised by Paed). YUCCKKKSS!!! when I first smell the lactose-free milk. It smells like soya sauce. How on earth Norelle going to take that???? True enough, she rejected it. She rather go hungry than drinking the milk. In the end, we have no choice but to gave her the usual milk powder.

Thankfully, the diarrhoea has stop (fingers crossed) and she is getting better and eating more. HY and I on the other end, were totally shacked from all the endless nights. I can just collapse anytime soon (hopefully I won't).

Anyway, I know all these will only make her stronger and bring us closer as we understand and realised that we all need each other so much especially when one of us is sick. That's what FAMILY is all about. Without one or the other, it will never be WHOLE.

Good night and GOD bless.

Hmmm...is mummy going to make me drink the yucky milk again??