Keith is 15 Months

Today Keith is 15 months (1 year and 3 months). The good news is this time he is not bothered with sickness, which Elaine and I are rather happy about. In fact we have started to give him an occasional dose of liquid multivitamins, which he has been reluctant to take. We are yet to take him for his jab this month because he is due for his appointment on this Tuesday and probably would be his MMR jab.

What I can say is Keith has begin to show his stubbornness, if he wants something and he would surely throw tantrum and start to cry/shout at a very high pitch which I hope he is not training to be a soprano to get what he wants!!!!


Statistics from last month (will update this on Tuesday)
Height - 77cm
Weight -8.75kg

Diet
His milk intake is now about 5-6 bottles of 7oz, in addition to his 2 actual meals of solid, which is normally porridge. I would try to mash up/grind a small portion of my meal for him because most of the time whenever we adults take our meal he would be salivating to share with us. He seems to prefer meat better. Due to the rumour that Enfagrow would be maintaining their current price but will be downsizing the refill packs from 700g to 650g (According to the Chinese Medicine Shop that we buy from occasionally), we had to let Keith try the Honey Flavoured ones because they ran out of the Original. Surprisingly, Keith seems to like the Honey ones better because he tends to finish the whole bottle now.

Sleep
He is able to sleep through the night in his cot but lately he kept whining to come over to sleep with us, he see=ms to dislike to be left alone in the room. When he sleeps in his cot, he would sometimes cry out and would only fall back to sleep after Elaine or I pat him and let him know that we are there by his side.
On Tuesday, he gave us a shock. In the evening Elaine put him to sleep on our bed after that she joined me to watch TV in the living. After a few minutes, I heard a thud sound and as I turned around I saw Keith walking out of our room towards us already!!!! Till today we could not really figure out how he actually got down from our bed and if he really manage to come down correctly because he did not cry at all. We have actually to check for bruise and gently squeeze his hands and legs to see if he is hurt but there was no reaction at all..... I guess he was very lucky and found the right way down that time.

Teeth
He now has 12 teeth and 2 of his lower molars are beginning to show its shape but are yet to pierce through his gum. I fear that he might have to go through this more painful than his others.

Verbal
He would be calling me as "papa" "apa" "da" and even "dada". Funnily he seems to dislike calling "mama" or has he just simply forgotten. He would just ignore us when we repeatedly say "mama" in front of him without any response from him. He would spit out his pacifier and begin to call out "umm", "umm-mum or mumm-mumm" when he sees us taking food. He would even say "ah!" when he wants water..... Guess because I kept playfully gave him the expression of "ah!" after he takes his water, in hoping to encourage him to drink more water since he is now taking powdered milk. Whenever anyone tried to make him say some words which he is unable to utter, like "ku" - (paternal aunt) for my sister "grandma" or "mama", he would keep saying "da" or "dada" in return. I wonder if this "da" and "dada" is for me or everyone!
Although he is yet to greet people close to him, he is able to point to the person when we ask him where the person is.

Mobility
He is beginning to walk on his own more steadily now and he would turn around to face us when he wants us to carry him. Sometimes he would put both his hands in mine or would be pointing at me (with his index finger) and call out to me, sort of telling me to carry him. He seems to have the habit of picking up things from the floor and walk to the rubbish bin to throw. He is also able to sit down more properly now, when we tell him to sit especially if it is for food!

Others

• He is now more okay with people carrying him, just as long as the person is not a stranger. He is more picky when he is not in the mood or when he wants to go out.
  
• He would try to be cute by slanting his head to his side and look at me whenever I scold him or give him the stern look.
  
• He is still unable to board onto another person's car without his mommy and I carrying him. Nobody else can carry him into a car because he would start wailing as soon as he boards the car.
  
• Developed a liking to shout at a very high pitch, when he is unhappy, not given what he wanted, not carried or when I switch on the blender! He also likes to "quarrel" with my sister!!!!
  
• He likes to point at things with his index fingers, it is either to where he wanted to go to, something he wanted or when he sees a pretty girls.
  
• He is also able to respond very well to "tim choong-choong", "clap-clap hand", "friend kiss" and "habis". Still unable to learn his forgotten "gong xi, gong xi"
• Likes to put his hand into his mommy's shirt and torture her mole on her upper chest. Occasionally he would be putting his hand into random people's shirt too, in a way it looks like he is harassing the person too, especially if it is a woman carrying him!
  

The many expressions I got from him when we went to Seafood Baby Restaurant for our belated Mother's Day dinner.

Keith and Soft Toys

Compared to his cousin, Nicole, Keith is less attached to soft toys. He would not even cuddle them when he goes to sleep. The other night I gave him his Tigger and Eeyore to carry and he would walk around with them in his hands for a while and after a while he would either be passing it back to me, he would get all excited and run to pass it to me, or sometimes he would simply throw them onto the floor.


Actually Elaine and I are very glad that he is not attached to these soft toys, we felt that it is a good thing because we would not have to un-attach him later on. For some reasons for his non-interest in soft toys is very much to Grandma's dismay. She probably felt that he is missing some part of being a toddler because he is not being attached to soft toys.

Anyway since Elaine and I have never really been fancy of soft toys, I guess Keith is just getting it from us. Keith seems to be more attached to electronics though, like in the picture below, he is unsure of which to choose..... my laptop or to play catching with me.


Probably the one that is crazy of soft toys in my family would be my sister because she is still nuts about it till today. I felt that Keith is way more comfortable with his hands empty and he seems much more happier too.

Our lil' Key Man and Cleaner

Last night while waiting for everyone else to finish cleaning up, Grandma and I took care of Keith and as usual Keith would start demanding wanting this and that. In the end he had my house keys and car keys. He has been very amazed with keys. At home he had even imitated us by picking one of the key while trying to reach for the doorknob, as if he is trying to open it. Like all other kids, he also likes to play with remote too, it could be any kind of a remote control, like my car remote, car audio remote, TV remote, Air Cond remote and he even wanted my condominium pass card. He likes to point them to the ceiling while pressing on to the button.


Initially playing with the remote


Before switching to the keys


While taking this pictures I saw grandma's glass of iced water on the other end of the table has a lot of condensed water so I took a tissue to wipe it up. As soon as Keith saw me with the tissue he immediately throw away the keys. He took the tissue from my hand and immediately started to wipe the table.


He likes to imitate us doing our daily tasks. He also likes to throw away those used tissue into the waste basket by himself, if he is on the floor.

Impatient Keith

We realize that Keith has begin to show interest in many things but he could never do one thing for a long period. He would normally be doing something that interest him for a very short while only then turn his attention elsewhere.

Recently he has been starting to watch cartoon as well. He is all into those action ones whenever they go into the conversation part he would start to turn his attention to the remote control or would try to get out of the chair. Else he would be pointing at snacks, which is sure to make him sit for a much more longer period.

Whenever we sit him in the shopping cart, we have to give him something to gain his attention. If not he is sure won't want to sit in it. Normally I would carry him and push the cart at the same time until I enter the supermarket and get some him some toys or candy so that I can sit him on the cart. I would be lucky if there are promoters handing out sample food because he is sure to like to try them but he would make a mess of himself.

He had never liked any sample drinks that has been handed out. This would get him busy for a while, normally until I get to the check out where he would be struggling again. Luckily for now he seems to be mesmerized by plastic cards too. He fancy those membership cards as well as credit cards too.

He also likes to point at teddy bears but whenever we give it to him, he would almost immediately throw it to the floor and he would be pointing at another bear. He seems to also have a habit of throwing things to the floor too.

His impatience in concentrating even goes to those RM1 token rides in shopping complexes. Whenever we go to shopping complex he would only point to those bigger rides but the good thing is he never really sit in for too long so it is very rare that we have to slot in coins.


He is looking at his mum sideways while trying to switch on the ride with his right hand


His much more serious look with his chut-chut

Today would also mark the day that Elaine is going to stop expressing EBM as well

Elaine to stop breast feeding

Yesterday Elaine had pumped her last EBM for Keith consumption and so far she had been doing the EBM for 1 year, 2 months, 1 week and 1 day (or a total of 435 days) I took a snapshot of the lilypie marker so that I can keep a record of it for future reference since I will be taking it down from my header.


The reason for her to stop is because she needed to go on some medication and in taking that it is not recommended for her to BF. For a short while she will still be expressing to keep the supply coming but she will have to throw those EBM away. She agreed with me to do so after I explained to her that in doing so she could ensure that if Keith ever reacts to the milk powder, there is still her EBM to fall back to, instead of medication or adapting to another brand/type problem because all she needed to do is stop her medication for a day and her EBM is as good as before.

I know that most of you would think that I have been all talk about BM since I am a male and would never really know what all the great mums have to go through to give their little ones the best in life. Admittingly yes, I could never ever know how it is to BF but all I can say is it is really a very BIG sacrifice indeed, especially Elaine because Keith would not latch on. No matter how much I have done for her or him it is really nothing compared to her sacrifice. I am ever grateful because Elaine had been doing it for all the while without any complain nor even she mumble that it wasn't fair. She was all about giving the best for our little one.


The other reason why I was really thankful is because both Elaine and I was never BF when we were infants.

• In Elaine's case she was like Keith and would not want to latch on and there was no equipments and tools like present for EBM. Her parents have to give her S26 which she would only take minimal amount. I suspect her gastric could have started then Later on her parents found out that PoPo in fact have abundant of BM supply that she can have Aunt May, Uncle Jason and 2 more cousins latch on one after another.
  
• Whereas in my case, according to my kai-ma (godmother, whom also happen to be my eldest maternal aunt) I have had eczema because of allergy I am not sure if it was CMPA probably I have been taking milk powder since birth. By the way, my mother is a firm believer that BM is for the "Dumb and Dumber". In fact most of my relatives from my mother's side do not BF. She had even tried to discourage Elaine from giving Keith BM while my kai-ma has also told me that Keith is too underweight and suggested that we should switch to powder milk for him to gain more weight (to be more chubby and cuddly wor)