Fed up with Blogger!

Arrrgghhh...Don't know what is wrong with the Blogger site nowadays. First, I couldn't upload some of my photos. It took me few days just to get them uploaded. The silly message 'Document contains no data' always pops up. So frustrating!!! Secondly, all the formatting in the khongfamily site went haywire. The paragraphs in the editor window look fine but after publishing, they disappear. If it goes on like this, people will think I don't know how to use paragraphing. I am so fed up!!! Hubby is fed up as well. He kept on pestering me to switch over to Wordpress to give it a try. Always reminds me to switch each time I complain. He probably wants me to shut up. I've tried everything; seaching Google for solutions, removing cookies, etc....everything except ask God for help. Seeing my fine lines becoming a permanent fixture on my face, my grey hairs outgrowing my black ones, and the loud cracking noise everything I whack the keyboard silly, hubby took some time off to create a WP account for me. Not too bad since he doesn't even blog. I signed up for WP a long time ago but never had the time to try it out. My khongfamily name is gone since I did not activate it so hubby chose a new name. So, dear mummies and those who stumble across my blog, my new blog will be in Wordpress from now on. Please drop by at babykhong.wordpress.com. Hopefully, there will be no problems in WP.

7 months milestones

Weight : 9.5 kg

Height : ? cm Teeth : 2 lower teeth

Physical Development

• Still hasn't crawled yet. When we try to put his toys further away to tempt him to crawl, he ends up struggling with his head down or rolls over to get them. *rolling eyes*
• He prefers to stand or sit.
• He can sit unsupported most of the time.
• He doesn't like to lie down flat.

Language

• He babbles a lot.
• Usually says "wa..wa..wa...wa......".

Food

• Eats 2 meals + 2 serves of fruit and a snack in a day (refer to Brae's food) with 3 milk feeds.
• He is not a fussy eater. He will eat whatever food we give him.
• He is now starting to eat fruits without steaming.

Brae's new development

• He has just started his new Kindermusik Village and Sign & Sing classes. We find that the Kindermusik class is quite useful for Brae and informative for first-time parents like ourselves. Brae is more sociable and friendly towards people now. He used to cry when people carry him, but not anymore. He always tries to give his winning smile when people play with him. As for Sign & Sing classes, we have learnt some signs to communicate with Brae. Brae has not started signing back yet. However, I find that when we sing a song together with the action of signs, Brae is more receptive to the song.
• When we say, "Braedyn, bao-bao?" or "Braedyn, you want daddy to carry you?", he will get excited, extend both his hands and try to lift himself out of the car seat to be carried.
• He still doesn't like to drink plain water. I have tried using the teats and soft spout, but to no avail. His intake of plain water per day is only 30 ml.
• It is easier now when we eat dinner outside because he can sit on his own in the highchair. No more taking turns eating while the other carries Brae. Brae has his own rattles to play with (strung to a lanyard) when we eat outside.
• He is sleeping through the night now after I give him a milk feed just before he sleeps.
• When he wakes up in the morning, he will turn and toss around the bed, babbling and playing on his own until I pick him up.
• He likes to blow air through his lips, mimicking my attempts to cool his food down.
• Whenever I carry him, he will use his left hand to stroke my hair. My hair is short and he never does that to daddy.
• He likes to scratch his head nowadays. He looks so cute when he scratches his head. I am trying to get a snapshot of that action but no success so far,

Brae's first fall from the bed

Brae had his first fall from the bed yesterday night. I was in the bathroom and hubby was downstairs cleaning the house. Before that, I placed Brae in the middle of our bed surrounded by pillows (what we usually do when we leave him on the bed alone) and gave him some toys to play with. As it is with him these days, he started crying the instant I walked into the bathroom. Cry, cry, cry, followed by a loud "Thuudd", then cry, cry cry. I quickly rushed out of the bathroom and saw Brae lying prone on the floor crying his lungs out. "Oh sh*t!!!", was the first phrase that came out of my mouth. I nearly cried when I lifted him up from the floor. By that time, hubby also made it to the room (didn't know he could move so fast). I carried Brae and comforted him. "It's okay...it's okay", I whispered to Brae but he still kept crying. Oh no, deep trouble this time. Hubby took over to try to calm Brae down and after a short while, Brae stopped crying. We checked him over and fortunately, no blood, no blue black marks and no cracked bones. Brae seemed fine. Hubby played with Brae and he laughed. Ahhhh....we felt very relieved when we heard him laugh. I was wondering how he fell off the bed. He must have toppled down the sideof the bed after pushing his "pillow wall" out of the way with his famous rolling action. I'm a BAD mummy.....!!!! Makes me feel so BAD....!!!! So sorry, Braedyn!

MV Doulos

Hubby waved a newspaper cutting at me a couple of days back and asked if I read about the MV Doulos arriving in Port Klang for a month. Huh!! Had no clue and he gave me his famous blank look (the "how could you miss an article on a floating book fair that takes up an entire page" look) Anyway, we decided to drive to Port Klang on Saturday to look for the ship. We knew there are 3 ports at Port Klang and it should be relatively easy to locate a ship the size of the Titanic. Mistake No. 1 - Although the Doulos is almost as old as the Titanic, it is not the same size. Took us an hour and a half from KL to actually locating the ship. Mistake No. 2 - South Port, West Port, and North Port are very different entities, are not located very close to each other and are manned by people who know nuts about the MV Doulos. We arrived at South Port first and were greeted by lots of fishing boats. Nope, definitely not here. North Port was our next stop and the officer there told us that the Doulos is at West Port. He spoke with such authority that we were sure he was right. Drove all the way to West Port (20 minutes away) and was told that the Doulos is at the Star Cruises terminal. Bravo......Malaysia Boleh! Anyway, after the very taxing long drive, we trudged our way to the pier where the Doulos was berthed. "Er.....kinda small-ish", hubby commented. "Nevermind, still a ship nonetheless". Crowds were minimal with queues only at the on-board canteen and cashiers. Lots of books everywhere but it was very stuffy in the book area. Hubby decided to take Brae for a spot of ship exploration while I looked for books to buy. We spent about an hour on the ship and another half hour at the Star Cruises terminal. Well, it is not often that we have family excursions (this is probably the 1st one) so I thoroughly enjoyed it. We must do this more often instead of the usual shopping centre visits. It was just the lack of directions that spoiled the day. The very next day, an article on the Doulos was published in The Star which stated clearly that it was berthed at the Star Cruises terminal. Urrrggghhhh, the early bird gets the free Port Klang tour.

Brae's food

Food : He has been transitioning from having rice cereal with fruits or vegetables to chicken or fish porridge with three types of vegetables. Types of vegetables he has eaten : pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, french beans, long beans, asparagus, spinach, choy sum and siu bak choy. Fruits : After his meal, he will have fruits. He has eaten red apples & bananas (his favourites), mangoes, papayas and pears. Time : 1st meal at 11:00 am & 2nd meal at 6:00 pm Snack : Snack at 3:00 pm. He will have biscuits with milk or cheese cubes or yoghurt with raisins/fruits. After the snack, he will drink 4 oz of milk. Preparation of Brae's food Porridge is prepared the night before. 2 tbsp of Japanese rice grains with 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. Cook the porridge in a slow cooker for 3 hours in low setting ( I use a timer so that the porridge will be ready the next morning at 9:00 am). I steam the fish with ginger (to remove the fishy smell). After steaming, I remove the ginger, flake the fish and stir it into the cooked porridge. Chicken stock ingredients:- 3 pieces of chicken drumstick (remove the skin and chop the meat finely) 1 cup of anchovies (blended with water) 20 pieces of red dates (remove the seed) 9 cups of water Method:- Pour all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Boil the stock in low setting for six hours. After boiling, divide the chicken stock into 6 containers (1 1/2 cups each) to freeze for later use. I will buy three types of vegetables, cut them into pieces and store them in containers. Fish or chicken will be taken out from the freezer the night before to defrost. Few pieces of pumpkin, broccoli and choy sum were taken out from the containers to Chicco (steamer cum blender) for steaming. After steaming, I blend the vegetables into a puree. Photo of DSC01749 (food ready) *Problems uploading photo. Will upload soon...* I divide the vegetables into two portions (1st meal & 2nd meal) and combined them with the cooked porridge. 2nd meal is kept in the fridge which is taken out for reheating at 6:00 pm. Braedyn with his 1st meal and he finished his food. Photo of DSC01753 (apple) *Problems uploading photo. Will upload soon...* Dessert time! Apple was on the menu of the day. An apple was cut into pieces and blended. Braedyn finished his favourite dessert as well. p/s : I'm out of recipes for Braedyn. If anyone of you has any yummylicious food for babies, please do let me know. Thanks.

New shoes

Braedyn is wearing a set of new shoes, a full-moon gift from my ex-colleagues. I just took them out recently for Brae to try on. The shoes are actually meant for 12-18 months old toddler and to our surprise, the shoes were a bit tight for Brae already! Looks like this will be the one and only time he will be wearing this pair of cute shoes! No point buying shoes before he starts walking because he will outgrow them very fast.

My first card creation

Hubby has a friend whose wife delivered a baby girl last week. Hurray! I now have a reason to try out my card-making skills. I told hubby that I was going to make a personalised card for them. Popped into the bookshop to look for a card-making magazine. I found one which I liked and headed to Papier to buy the necessary papers to make the card. To my dismay, I couldn't get the exact cards, which were green pearl and green glitter cards, shown in the magazine so I ended up creating the card design on my own. This is the end result of my first card creation:-