Keith's First Shoes

The other day I took Keith to the Parkson nearby our shop to get some baby wipes. As I was strolling along the aisle I happened to remember that Elaine have told me to keep an eye out for a pair of shoes for Keith. I tried to let him try those soft-soled shoes, size 1-2, but it wasn't that fitting, it is the same as those sock-shoes he have at home and they tend to comes off after a few minutes of wearing them.


A few days later I went back there in search of a better shoe for him and I let him try those hard-soled, size 3, it fitted him well because it doesn't come off as easily.

These two pictures above are taken with my phone cam, only intended for Elaine to see the shoes that I was trying on for Keith. This is also the reason why I didn't capture Keith as a whole but only his legs.

So I brought them back and nowadays whenever we go out we would let Keith wear them so that when we are tired of carrying him we could let him walk a bit by holding onto his arm or even let him stand at the display glasses.


Now what is missing is his socks. For the record, this is the picture of his first shoe :) a Pigeon Brown Khakis Shoes, size 3

Nicole's Birthday

Thanks for all the well wishers and prayers...... it is very much appreciated. I guess the adult's problem is better left for them to settle it themselves but it is the small ones that we are concerned here.

I have here a little update on Nicole from her mum. Quite back-dated too.

It was her 3 years old birthday on the 17th and her dad actually allowed my sis to meet up with them but not grandma because he felt that Nicole is too attached to grandma and meeting grandma would make Nicole's adapting much more tougher. He might allow them to visit her more often a couple months later.

According to her dad, Nicole have started going to attend nursery for close to a month now and is adapting rather well. While her mum is complaining that Nicole is now conversing in Mandarin and seems to have forgotten her English, probably because there is no one there to talk to her in English.

This is the picture my sis have taken when they brought her back to her dad's place.


And this is the picture taken when my sis meet her on her birthday.

Nicole now sports a much shorter hair. Elaine was the one who spotted the red marks on her legs, It reminds me of the same problem my sis have had when she was mall and stayed over at her paternal aunt's place.

Keith is 10 months old

Today Keith is 10 months old and

This picture is taken while he is busy playing with his anklet. We have had 2 anklet for him because these anklets are especially helpful in telling us that he has waken. The anklet is filled with some the small bells which will sound upon movement. It will also be a great thing to have when baby is starting to walk. The bells will tell you where they are too.


Statistics
Height - ??
Weight - ??
(We missed his last appointment and since tomorrow is Christmas and the following Tuesday in New Year, I guess we'll have to wait till next month for his check-up.

Diet
His milk intake is still the same at 5.5-6oz of BM in addition to his 3 meals of solid but recently with him following us to work his intake frequency has lessen.
Right now he is practically eating everything except banana and eggs (which Grandma told us not to give him until he is one) His favourite is tofu.

Sleep
We have got him to sleep without the spring cot and he is either sleeping on the adult bed or the cot. The funny thing is he will sleep as though he have the whole adult bed to himself, by moving practically everywhere in the bed, even in the cot. Once in a while he will whine for attention and take a peek to see if anyone is attending to him.

Teeth
He still has 8 teeth and would gnaw and lick on almost everything you give him, especially human fingers!!! but I am guessing that he is probably teething again because he couldn't sleep well at night and his body felt warm too.

Verbal
He still "baby babble sing" as he is about to fall asleep. He is beginning to say "mama" "ama" "papa" "apa" more clearly but only when he is whining :(

Mobility
Still the turning around when lying on the bed or sofa. He is beginning to show the signs to crawl and when he gets really excited when we hold his hands for us carry him (lazy) but we are letting him start to walk by himself with us holding on to his arms/hands. We have even bought him his first pair of shoes.

**Update**
When I got home I laid Keith on the bed and he kept trying to snatch our letters as Elaine and I were busy going thru our mails. He kept moving to the edge of our bed so we decided to try it out to see..... true enough.... he is starting crawling already and rather steadily too.

Others

• He have this attitude where new things would only keep him busy for less than half an hour.
• He is now much more better with whoever is carrying him, sometimes even strangers, but this also marks the beginning of the passing game until he is passed back to me.
• For some reason I dunno why, he likes the parking meter in front of the shop.
  
• He would get really excited as I walk him to the pet shop nearby and everyday he seems to have a different preference for a different dog.
  

Dangerous Mouth

Keith have always had this sudden urge to bite on something every now and then. Elaine was rather shock to see how many red marks Keith have left on my hands. Whenever I sit him on my lap to play toys with him he would gladly play with me and out of the sudden he would pull my hand, arm or even finger and happily sink his teeth in them and I tell you he really bite on very hard, it is so hard that it will really bruise you if you were to pull it out. Worse is sometimes he would grind his teeth on your flesh or even the one whom pull it out without letting go of the chomp!
This is how ugly things have gotten last night.


After his bite, the marks would turn red and as I am writing this post, 13 hours later, the red marks are still on my hands

He would put everything he can get his hands on into his mouth. The problem is he doesn't really have a favourite toy because he is very like his mum, easily get bored with something that is already his. He always want new things, especially things that we would not allow him to have, like our handphones.

We were rather worried because there was a very big gap between two of his upper front teeth, until we were told that the gap would not be as obvious when he gets older, perhap at 3 years old. Actually the gap really does seems to be closer now :P

Poor management

Just for the record I am writing this to remind myself of the occurrence and to let you know of how frequent the problem is.

Last night when I got back from work, I was greeted by 2 non-working elevator again. First thing I did was calling the service number, and was told that their technician is already there working on the lifts. Of course I was very angry and wanted to sell of the unit immediately but Elaine made me think otherwise because she really liked the place.

My nightmare started all over again because this morning, after 10 hours later, when we were ready to go to work, we were again faced with 2 non-funcioning elevators. I called the office to complain and inquire of the frequent breakdowns. I was only given the manager's handphone number to call. When I called him I was greeted by a man who sounded like he just woke up!!!!! He kept asking me if I have told the office of the problem. I really felt so stupid talking to him because with the lift breaking down at night, does he expect us to wait till the next morning to call the management office???

I guess I really have to write an official complaint letter to the board and the management. I might even want to get all the signatures of other tenants on my letter.

Dangerous Stunts

Since Elaine and I were taking care of Keith we managed to capture some of his recent dangerous stunts:

Catching the foam blade of the fan (He is also easily mesmerized with a turning ceiling or wall fan)


Beginning to stand up on the cot on his own and start to rummage thru mummy's table (Whenever he cries for attention, the sound of his mum drying her hair with the hair blower never fail to distract him)


He has always been very fond of mirrors.

My sister is moving down soon

My sister came to KL yesterday night because she needed to attend a job interview this morning. Grandma will be following her back to Penang on Sunday so that they can pack up their stuffs and transport it to KL. My sister will be moving down to KL and stay with us. We are planning of partitioning a room for my sister and I'm thinking of doing it by myself, if only I could find the time because I would not want to let some contractor do it and make a big mess.

The paed also just called me up to pick up Nicole's insurance claim form. Most of you must wonder why am I doing this when it is supposed to be done by her father. Well, I'm doing the claim so that I can be able to get hold of the cheque when it is ready, only then I can negotiate to get back the money I have paid for Nicole admission. (Sigh! This is really a big headache for me)

According to my sister's friend, whom happened to stumble upon Nicole in the wet market, Nicole is doing fine and she is being very well taken care of. We just hope that her father would continue on being a good dad, no matter what happens.

As for Keith, he will have to go for a few more days without grandma again. He is getting whinier as ever because he would forever wanted to go out. He is still unable to crawl but he is definitely getting cheekier by the day.

He did this all by himself, putting the spoon into his mouth and biting on it while letting go of his hands.


From the side


And from the front

PoPo's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Keith's po po's birthday. Keith and Yong Jin was the ones really enjoying themselves because we adults were the ones getting busy chasing Yong Jin or carrying Keith because they wouldn't sit still.

Before we went to the restaurant, we went to IKEA and I snapped this picture after the boys wrestled themselves on the sofa.


And this is the picture of Keith trying out the karaoke set, which he did a bit of baby babble and shouts before he tries to gobble the mic.

Grandma's back

I guessed I have rant a little too much so I might just wanna skip ranting on the other S-O ( @$$h013 ) so I'll just continue posting with what I created this blog for and forget about the KNNCCB person. Sorry for the foul words, least I want to vent it out and it does feel good. Furthermore since you all know that I am not a cursing person, you would have figured out how badly I have been offended by the S-O

Grandma came back to KL on Thursday evening and Keith was indeed very delighted to see her. He started jumping, while I was carrying him, as soon as he saw grandma who just got off from my uncle's car. (She got a free ride back from her brother)

When I told her that she looked rather tired, her repy was because of the travel, but I am thinking otherwise, she was very disappointed because she was not given the opportunity to see Nicole and she really missed her. From what I heard, Nicole is adapting very well at her father's place because all her cousins are having their school holidays now.

Look at Keith so busy fiddling with grandma's handphone and she goes around telling everyone that I am the one spoiling the boy.

My apologies because this picture is taken with my handphone and the image is a little blurred.

Keith was having some trouble adapting to the quietness back at home since he is so used to having so much attention from many people and carrying him around.

Bad management

I guess I have really been went "Missing In Action" for the past week. Since grandma has went to Penang, Elaine's and my hands have been very busy with taking care of Keith while we work. To make things even worse there are some people whom have added to our hardship. I have been on the edge of losing my cool now.

First of all I will talk about is my condo management. The other day I was just chatting with Chanel on MSN (it was the first time I chatted with her on MSN) and I even mentioned how bad the management was, especially with the lift breaking down often. A few days later the lifts really broke down and this time for an extended period. I am really wondering why this have to keep happening. Why the situation is always 2 lifts breaking down together? Why they don't repair it as soon as possible, especially when only one broke down?

This was what happened, on Saturday night after I got back from work, I was greeted by 2 of the yellow signs below.


Imagine walking up 16 floors, carrying Keith, baby bags, food and the laptop. The next day, Sunday, it was still not fixed, we had to take the stairs down as well as up again at night. I wonder what have they done for the whole 24 hours. We took the stairs down again on Monday because the lifts were only useable by 5pm on Monday. This is the second time I am ranting about this but between my first complaint post and this post, we have taken the stairs umpteen times already.

I would consider that we were very lucky that Grandma is not around during this period because with her health condition I don't think she can take the steep stairs even only to the second floor. Then we might have to stay at a hotel instead and burn a hole in my pocket for such poor management.

Grandma's back to Penang

Yesterday Grandma has safely arrived in Penang while Elaine and I will have to take care of Keith while we work for this 2 weeks. Hopefully he is much more behaving and less whiny.

Just before Grandma leave for Penang we have got news that Nicole's father hs changed his mind and not allow Grandma to take Nicole for the banquet. The reason is his SIL, whom is now babysitting Nicole doesn't want Nicole to see anyone of us because she says that it would make it easier for her to adapt to her new enviroment. Although Grandma wasn't too happy that she is not able to see Nicole but she understands of their need of doing so. We just hope that he might change his mind later on.

I guess Keith is not too interested in crawling because he is just as mobile on the walker. This is the picture of Keith with all look but no action!!!


He does move a little but if the item is too far he would just roll over

Keith is 9 months old

Early this morning Elaine had to remind me that Keith is 9 months old today but funny thing is she dare not tell it to me verbally while I was carrying Keith. She had to use both her hands and showed me nine while telling me, "Your son is..... today." How superstitious, huh? So I guess there is another quarter to go for his first year!

This is the picture I took today while grandma is feeding him mashed potato.


Statistics
Height - 67cm
Weight - 7.7kg

Diet
His milk intake is still the same at 5.5-6oz of BM in addition to his 3 meals of solid
So far he would take all that we have fed him with (Fish, Carrot, Potato, Tofu, Sweet Potato, Porridge and Rice Cereal) Whenever he sees us adults eating he would even call out for us to give him some. The funny thing is he is acts as though he is eating when we feed him an empty spoon!!!!! I guess he likes the process :P

Sleep
Recently he is less likely to wake up during the night to go out because I guess he is tired out with so many people carrying him around in the restaurant during the day. Even when he is really tired he would not settle down to sleep until we got out of the house with him, only then will he sleep on our chest or the stroller

Teeth
He now has 8 teeth and would gnaw and lick on almost everything you give him, especially human fingers!!! He would even lick the floor when we position him to crawl :P

Verbal
He still "baby babble sing" as he is about to fall asleep. He is beginning to say "mama" "ama" "papa" more clearly but only when he is whining :(

Mobility
Still the turning around when lying on the bed or sofa. He is still doesn't want to crawl and he gets really excited when we hold his hands for him to walk.

Others

• Likes to observe other older kids around him.
  
• Once grandma jokingly became stern with him, he ignored her for almost the whole day, until she tempted him with some cracker!!!!.
• He is now much more better with whoever is carrying him, sometimes even strangers.
• When we carry him, it has become more like a passing around game because he is so indecisive whom he really want.
  
• I guess he missed the pool. He kept pushing me to walk towards the pool when I took him out for a walk
  

Wedding & Baby season??!

I am really sorry that I have not been able to update my blog much because there is many things that I have to solve and things that needed my extra attention.

Recently we all know that Grandma wasn't happy after Nicole went to Penang but luckily she was willing to follow us to go to work and hang around for a few hours until I am able to take them back when business is a little slower after lunch hours. Keith have been much more sticky with Elaine and I too and he would surely want us to carry him whenever he sees us. He is also beginning to babble "mama" and "papa" occasionally too.

Grandma will be going back to Penang on this Sunday to attend my cousin, Kah Bee's wedding and Nicole's father have allowed Grandma to bring Nicole along too. Elaine and I will have to stay back because we still have to run the business and Elaine's brother is having his wedding a day after Kah Bee's!!! I guess everyone wanted to tie the knot before the "Year of the Pig" ends and some wanted to have a piggy baby. In fact now Keith have got 2 second cousin brothers born in the same year now!!! I dunno about you but most of the babies born this year that I have known were mostly baby boys.

This is the picture of Keith, whom was rather mesmerized by the light ball above him and seems to enjoy munching on his finger while the other hand was holding onto his leg. This picture was taken when he was less whiny in the restaurant.

Nicole has went home

On Saturday night we bought a cake to celebrate Nicole Birthday earlier since she will be going back to Penang the next day.

I wonder what was she wishing for!

As I was going thru the pictures I have taken, to choose the one to post up, I felt so guilty because she is just so playful and happy not knowing what is coming.

Her departure had caused Grandma, Elaine and my sis to cry. I was also sadden by it but I tried not to show it because I do not want to have Nicole disturbed by it and I have to be the one to console them. Grandma had cried the whole day and night because she is already missing her beloved grandchild as soon as she step out of the door. While on the trip back, Nicole has kept asking for Grandma and Keith.

Leaving soon!

** I have amended this post in order not to offend anyone's feeling, probably they might feel that I am revealing too much and are making their private life too public **

Today is indeed a very sad day for Grandma, Elaine and I because my sis have arrived this morning, not that we do not welcome my sis but rather Nicole will be returned to her father's custody and she'll be staying in Penang on a permanent basis.

This is really heart breaking for grandma because she has taken care of Nicole since she was born and Nicole has never slept without her grandma on her side. Nicole have been Grandma's pillar of support because she was born a few days after Grandpa's funeral. Grandma have been very protective of Nicole all the while (the same as my sis, I guess probably because my sis is so like Grandma in so many ways just as Nicole like my sis, so equals Nicole to Grandma too! Right up to their dimples too)

Many have thought that since Keith's arrival, I have neglected Nicole but in actual fact I have been trying to teach Nicole to act as a behaving sister that Keith would look up to. I have not neglected her in any way but in fact we have even sacrificed a lot for her since we have Keith.

This is not something that everybody want and Nicole is the victim in this circumstance. I might post up a letter to Nicole soon for her future reference, so that in the near future she can read it when is old enough to understand the whole thing from our point of view and not a distorted or a one-sided one.

Grandma, Nicole, Keith, Elaine and I were never given a choice to choose in this matter, as the decision is not upon us neither do we have the right to make it. We just hope that her father would take good care of her as well as honour the weekly/monthly visits that was agreed upon in the deed.

Bad, bad night

These few days many bad things have happened and I wanted to post it up but since I am not able to do protected posts then I guess I might just skip it for the time being. I do not think I want to make our private life so public. Some of you might have known what have happened, I hope that you can keep your comments to yourself first for now because we needed time to solve the problem and ease the pain, not needing someone to tell us what should have been done earlier. What is done is already done, we just need to do our best for the problems at present.

This matter have caused grandma, Elaine and I to have sleepless nights since Monday. The whole thing had happened in Penang on Monday night, we were all kept in suspense and unable to do anything at all. The matter that saddens us all even more is that Nicole will be going back to her father's place on this weekend.

I might talk about it later when things cools down, I might even not talk about it. All I can say is now the whole issue is still too sensitive to talk about. I could possibly not update as regular for now.

Nicole is discharged

Nicole is being discharged today after spending 3 days and 2 nights in TDMC with the bill coming up to RM1,378.70. Her fever is mainly caused by her swollen eye and her sore throat that had caused her the agony. We will have to be back for a check on Tuesday to make sure that everything is ok.

As for Nicole she is beginning to run around more actively. When we paid for her bill and completing her discharge, she was already in the car waiting for us to take her go "kai-kai" and for some reason she specifically mentioned "IKEA" this time!

My hospitalised niece, Nicole

Today is the second day Nicole is in the hospital. The paed didn't reveal much, he had just told gramdma that it is not dengue and there is nothing too serious about the sickness. The paed told grandma that Nicole's fever is probably due to her swollen eye coupled with her sore throat.

It really sadden me to see the doctor taking Nicole's blood for testing and her struggle really made things much more worse for all :( The A&E doctor couldn't take anything off her although there was 5 of us holding her down, three nurses, grandma and me. Later she decided to call in the paed because she wasn't able to find Nicole's vein.

So we checked Nicole in, to our surprise we were told that TDMC do not take the "yellow" ING Medical Card!!!! Although I am not a rich person but I am really lucky to have credit card with limits higher than what Nicole's ING card is covering her for. (The reason why I got Keith the same thing without the card because I am getting a higher limit for the same price as a lower limit with the card) Anyway I feel that TDMC's room is rather reasonable at RM100 per night for a cot and a bed on a twin sharing basis.

After a check with the paed, we were told to bring Nicole to another room for him to take some blood samples. This time it only took 2 nurse and me to hold Nicole down but the whole process took more than 1/2 hour because for some reason the thing that is used to pump the blood was leaking!!!!! Gosh!! I felt so guilty because Nicole kept wailing for me to carry her and all I can do is console her and assure her that I will take her out as soon as the whole thing is over. (So I bought her some Ribena pastilles and Smarties from the convenience store at the lobby)



In the evening when I went back with more clothing and necessities for Nicole and Grandma, Nicole was soundly sleeping and she even slept through Keith's yelling when he was excited to see his grandma.



Despite having fever, a swollen eye and a stopped I.V. (intravenous) Nicole can still be so active and still run around and enjoying herself in the "almost empty" playroom!!!


And of course Keith wanted to try the toy as well.


The paed wanted to keep the stopped I.V. so that it would be easier in case they needed to start the drip if Nicole's fever won't come down. Grandma is the one staying in the hospital with Nicole and Nicole's parents is coming to KL today and should be arriving by tonight.

Another fall sick

This time it is Nicole's turn to fall sick. Her situation seems to get worse and she have to go to the paed three times. She is down with a mild eye infection and stomach upset. The stomach upset have caused her to have a fever that kept coming back.



***Latest Update***
Today Nicole got admitted to the TDMC, with suspected dengue fever or stomach flu. Lately I have tried my best to try to post up on my blog but I just couldn't find the time as I have to help grandma to care for Nicole. I even have to be the one to carry Nicole when the doctor is attending to her. I will try to update more on this later.

Keith doesn't wanna crawl

Keith is getting rather whiny recently. He would be crying and screaming whenever we put him lying down. He also don't like to crawl either even when we tried to position him to crawl. He would rather stand up or walk with us holding both his hands. Not so easy to entertain this demanding and noisy boy, I guess he learns that from Nicole :P



Now he is really a runner on the walker!!! Yes, he pushes himself around rather fast and he likes to grab everything then throw it to the floor. Nowadays whenever he sees me or Elaine he would whine and cry a bit to see if we are going to pick him up, if there is no response he would move away and continue on with whatever he is scavenging!!! Look at the bottom 2 pics, he can still rummage through the plastic bag while standing on his own!!!

Another problem.

The good new is on Tuesday morning (just past midnight, after work) Elaine's clogged milk duct was cleared and she was really relieved and she was able to sleep thru the night.

Our next problem started as soon as we got back from our lunch yesterday. Keith felt rather warm and when I used the ear thermometer, it gave me a reading of 101.2. We decided to give him some medicine for his fever and he struggled with us when we tried to do so. He cried very loud and even tried to make himself vomit the medicine out by coughing. We only went out again as soon as his temp went back to normal and he was immediately calmer as soon as we leave home.

We went to get some spare part from the Avent Service Centre at Damas Plaza (next to Hartamas Shopping Centre). We were serviced by a very nice lady. When I told her of the pump problem, she suggested that changed all the silicon parts so that our piece would function as good as new, which was really true when we tried it. We were given 3 pieces but there is one that looked different from the piece that we had and I am really glad that it is. Well, Avent have finally changed the white valve and the new piece would still fit into our old ones. Spent RM57.80 for the petal cone (RM27.90), diaphragm (RM20.00) and the valve (RM9.90).
I took the picture down to better describe it. The one on the left is the new one while on the right is the old one.


Elaine and I spent the rest of the evening buying stuffs for our restaurant. We did make sure to monitor Keith's temp and he was rather okay through out the outing. In fact he was very excited to see so many things and he wanted to grab almost anything that he can hold on to. I do realise that he seems to be bored with his toys and always wants newer things to hold.

As soon as we reached home past 9pm, his temp went up again.(All the paed already closed at this time!!!) We gave him some paracetamol and added the cooling pad this time. But he can still be so kay poh when I took this pic of his.


Look at him manja his mommy but I guess this time he is the sick one.

His temperature went back to normal as soon as we put him on the swing. The reason for his fever is because he is teething again. I am able to tell because I saw the white stumps on his lower jaw when he was crying, this time it is his left lateral incisor and his right canine (cuspid) we call them "lou foo nga" but I am yet to check on his upper jaw because I don't want him to make a fuss about it.