Happy 1st Birthday, Euan!

Happy Birthday Euan! Thank you for bringing so much joy into our life. =) Becoming parents has changed our priorities in life and helped us become better people. And you have taught us how to love unconditionally and selflessly. Thank you, my dear son. Daddy and mummy love you!

At the Splash Park

Euan seems to enjoy himself more at the splash park as he is a little older now. =)

Sept 1, 2007

Euan was waiting impatiently in mummy's belly to see the beautiful world

Sometimes I wander...

... whether am I a good mum to my son. Today at around 11am, I put him to his bed for a morning nap and sure enough, he popped up 20 minutes later as usual. I waited for 10 minutes before I went into the room and reassure him that I am indeed still around and put him back to sleep again. But let me tell you, this little boy sure have his own little mind and decided to get up again and started yelling at top of his wee lung. Instead of going back into the room to pick him up from his crib like his daddy usually does (Yep! His daddy sure spoil him!). I decided to try the "cry it out" method once again. (Oh yes, this is not the first time I give it a try. I was just hoping this time it will work like I was told by the pediatrician.)

Oh well... guess what? My wee son was so determined and persistent that he was standing in his crib and crying as loud as he could for about one-and-a-half-hour before he actually passed out. I know, I know, you people might probably think, what kind of mum will do this to her child? I did. Yep! I am not particularly proud of it but I am just like many other mums out there trying to find a way that will work, not to mention hoping to find out a way that will works like MAGIC eventually! Yes, I am indeed needing a miracle formula to put my son to his bed!

He started sleeping through the night in his crib with no problem when we first came back from Scotland. We were thinking to ourself, "Yes! He finally did it!" Oh well...Before we even start celebrating this milestone, our little boy has changed his mind sometime during a couple of weeks ago. He started waking up in the middle of the night (preferably at 3 am!)standing up in his crib crying and refuse to go back to bed. It usually take us more than an hour to put him back to bed with trying different ways to soothe him.

Wee man doesn't like his bed no more...

At first, we thought it was just something that happen occasionally since he is still a baby and he is probably going through the "separation anxiety" phase. But it lasted for more than a few days and it turned into weeks... We were severely sleep-deprived for the past couple weeks. It's not surprising at all that the whole family couldn't functioned properly all this while, and not to mention we all are grumpy, short-tempered and impatience. Let me tell you, it's miserable for all of us! As for me, it's beyond miserable than any words could describe since I am the type of person who needs a good-night-sleep to be able to function during the day.

After suffering from sleep deprivation for weeks, we decided to let him sleep with us in our bed if he wakes up in the middle of the night. Not long ago, I read an article about sleep-problems and it mentioned the "crying out loud" method doesn't work on every baby, it will actually make it worse if you have a strong-minded and persistent child. Oh well... guess what, people? After many times of "crying out loud" with no success, we have no doubt that our little boy is strong-minded and persistent. I am just hoping he will put this personal trait of his into good use in the future. =)

Daddy's birthday

Happy Birthday, daddy!

Yummy cake, it's just a little too big for the three of us. :P

This is a late post about Scott's birthday. It's Scott's first birthday to be celebrated with wee man last Thursday. We had a great day staying at home as a family and mummy baked a lemon layer cake for daddy. Yummy! Euan got to taste a little and even Cookie got a slice of cake! I am sure they both enjoyed it as much as we did. =)

Are we raising a generation of spoiled brats?

No! Euan and mummy says No No!

We all strive to provide the best to our children and hoping they will be well-prepared for their life ahead of them. Most of us probably have a different parenting style compared to our parents. So what do we do differently than our parents? Well... We try to listen to our children as much as possible instead of solely giving instruction without expecting questions. We also tried to be our children's friend instead of parents by trying to put ourself in their show as much as possible. Oh... and of course we tend not to use the word "NO" nowadays, because we worry by hurting our children's feeling it will scar them for life. However, I think by not saying "NO" to our children is not helping them in any ways at all. On the contrary, it's indeed a foolproof formula to raise children with inadequate people skills.

By not setting clear limits, we are raising children who do not know how to deal with emotion turmoil, failure and disappointment in life. As today child-rearing trend, over-protecting parenting also prevent a child from experiencing failure of any kind. As a result, how could we expect our children to become high self-esteem individuals? If we as parents do not help our children learn to deal with "NO" in an early age, how could we expect them to hold down a job or sustain long-term relationship of any kind in their adulthood? I think it's time for us to express our love to our children by saying "NO". It will do them no harm but to let them get a taste of real life. No worries! No worries!

A great article to share. Check it out!

A step closer to independence

Euan is 11 month and a week old today and he took his very first few steps when Scott came home from work. =) It's a step closer to independence for wee man and soon enough I will have to chase him down all over the place and he will be dashing to the door when daddy is home from work. =)

My son is growing up like a weed lately. Sometimes I even wander where is the little bundle of joy that I gave birth to almost a year ago? Without even noticing, he has already grown into a little boy with a big character. One thing's for sure, he is a very determined and persistent little boy and I am just hoping he will not be as hard-headed as me. :(

Peng Che

My dear friend, Peng Che has passed away this morning after battling with Cancer for almost 3 years. My heart aches for losing such a great friend, but I am also happy at the same time as I know she is no longer suffering physically. My heart goes out to her family and love ones at this difficult moment. I am sure she is at a better place now where there is no pain and suffering.

Have a safe journey and I missed you my friend. You will always be in my heart.

Goodies from Moscow

Scott got home safe and sound on Saturday night. Other than the fact that he was knacker from the long flight, it's actually quite an interesting trip for him. Red square, the Kremlin and St. Basil's catheral are simply amazing and hopefully next time I will get to tag along to see them myself. =)

 

Scott in Red Square

Here are the goodies from Moscow that daddy brought back for us:

 

A Russian friend for wee man, Cheburashka

 

Matryoshka doll for mummy.

A year ago....

...I was 24 weeks into my pregnancy with you, my wee son.

Today, you have grown into this wee boy who demands all of my attention and energy. I still remember vividly the first time I laid my eyes on you, you were a precious little bundle and all I said was " It's a miracle! It's a miracle!" and broke into tears of joy. In fact, I feel like before I even have enough time to take it all in, you have already grown into a 9-month-old wee boy. And most likely before I even know it, the next thing that I will be doing is to help you pack and get ready for college. Gosh! I sure hope that day will not come so soon!

My wee son, mummy loves you lots and lots!

Alba, here I come again!

What a surprise! Aye. We are going home to Scotland with wee man next week. Scott's work sending him over to Aberdeen to help out with a training and we will be tagging along. =) He was informed last Thursday that he might need to go for the training right before he left for Moscow. Ever since, we have been praying and hoping that he will be chosen to go as we can tag along as well. The final decision wasn't made until yesterday by his boss and we have been busy looking for tickets since we got the green light.

We are thrill about the fact that we get to bring wee man back to Scotland when he is still a wee baby. He went home with me to Malaysia when he was 3-month-old and it was great to introduce him to my family. My parents were over the moon when they saw their grandson! =) I hope we can make a trip back next year to visit my family again in Malaysia. As wee man grows so fast and I am sure my parents will like to see him more often. What a lucky baby! At the age of 8-month-old and he already get to see so much of the world and start accumulating air miles already. Haha! Not bad at all! :P

From now on, we will be quite busy getting ready for the trip as there is only one week left before we leave for Scotland. I better come up with a list for things that we need to pack for wee man. At the mean time, his granny has already started thinking about getting him a baby cot, highchair, diapers that he can use while we are there. What a thoughtful granny, wee man is the most lucky baby in the world having so many people loves him! =)

Standing up

 

Moment like this made my day!

Wee man and his Tonka Dump Truck

 

Mummy bought wee man a Tonka truck today and he seems to be very happy with his new toy. He loves to be pushed around in his brand new toy and I am hoping this truck will keep him entertain for a while even beyond his infant year. =) I remember my own little brother grew up with tons of toy cars in various shape and size. I guess that explains why he likes to mess with his truck so much now!

Flowers from my wee garden/patio

 

 

 

 

 

When Scott's mum and granny were here, we spent quite some time doing gardening work and my job is to keep all the plants alive after they left. It has been almost a month since they went home and we have been watering the plants religiously on a daily basis. Here are the results and I am quite proud of what we had done so far for our wee garden/patio. I guess the secret of having a green thumb is not that complicated after all. You just need to remember to water and feed your plants! =)

First time on a slide

 

We went to the neighbourhood dog park to meet up with a couple of our friends from my old work this afternoon. While we were waiting for them, we went to the playground beside the dog park and mummy brought wee man sliding down on a slide and daddy caught this moment with his iphone. =)

I think it is an ergonomic slide and therefore, it's not as slippery compared to those metal slides that we used to have while I was a kid. Those modern ergonomic slides that's built for safety reasons definitely won't let you slide down as fast as those old metal slides, I think those old slides are way more fun! I missed my childhood quite a lot ever since I became a mum!

Splash Park again?

 

Aye! Aye! We brought wee man back to the splash park again and it was quite crowdedcompare to yesterday and I guess that's because a lot of people were off work due to Memorial long weekend. Kids were running around and wee man wasn't too comfortable especially when kids were screaming their heads off. But oh well.... it was still a good experience for him and I am sure he will get use to it eventually.

At the Splash Park

 

The playgroup went to the Splash Park today and Eunice tagged along with us. Most of the kids love it although wee man is not too crazy about the idea yet. But I think he enjoyed being on the swing and hang out with his aunt. It's a pleasant day and hopefully tomorrow is not going to be hot as we going to bring wee man there again before Scott goes to Moscow this Saturday.

Happy Mother's day!

A gift from Wee man for my first Mother's day and it makes my cup of tea taste much better! =)

I love my new mug. Apparently Wee man managed to call his dad on Thursday afternoon and asked him to swing by Starbucks to pick up the mug for mummy as a Mother's day gift. What else could you ask for when you have a thoughtful son and a helpful hubby? Thank you and I love you both very much!

Who says I am the milkman's son?

Can anybody see the resemblance in Euan and Scott when he was a bairn?

Wishies

"If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn." Andrew V. Mason

It has been a while...

We have been quite busy when granny and GG came to visit for 10 days. They went home about a week ago and Euan and mummy have not been feeling well for quite a while. It's the cold bug that's bothering us and hopefully we will be getting better soon!

Here are some of the pics I took while Scott was away in the Middle East. I will follow up with a recap of wee man 8-month-old and more pics in a bit. =)

I am still a happy baby while I am teething (the upper right central incisors was coming in). Look at those rosy cheeks!

Wee man loves sucking his tumb, but he decided to stop sucking it last week all of a sudden...

Drooling monster!!

I love my book!

I hope he will grow up loving reading.

Daddy is home and Granny and GG is coming to visit from Scotland

Scott arrived home from the Middle East on a business trip that lasted for 10 days on Tuesday. He got us us quite a lot of goodies which included a Aladdin lamp that I requested, a jewelry box, a wee camel for the wee man, a bracelet for mummy and lots of tea from the Middle East! =)
A couple goodies daddy brought home from the Middle East

Euan's Granny and GG (Great Granny) will be here to visit for the next 10 days. Scott is off to the airport to pick them up. We have been looking forward to their visit for a while now. It's always great to have family over! I can't wait to see them and I am sure wee man loves to have his granny and GG around. We wish to go back to Scotland with wee man sometime next year. Hopefully we will make it as planned as it's kind of tough to do a lot of travel plans with me being out of work now. But we will definitely make it our priority next year since wee man being half Scottish, we think he should visit the beautiful country of the Scottish people- Alba(Scotland in Gaelic)! And of course, to spend sometime with Granny and GG and to wander around Aberdeen to get to know the city where his daddy grew up.

Us in the modern art museum

Modern Art Museum by dumpr.net

Daddy's new glasses

We were celebrating daddy's glasses last night! :P

Flowers at the zoo

I ought to be...

... knitting, reading, cooking, and baking more! I've been spending hours online reading tons of blogs recently. They are mostly craft, knitting and food related. I got all the uhhs and ahhs on others' finish knitted garments and yummy looking baking goods! However, I have piles of WIP's lying around and heaps and heaps of cookbooks on the bookshelf waiting for me to read through. Oh... not to mention they are also emails that need to be replied waiting for me in my inbox.... Shame on me!

Well... this get to stop! I need to be more discipline when it comes to surfing on the Internet. Instead of merely getting inspiration from other knitters, I should at least finish my WIP's and get start on some new projects. Perhaps even start getting my Christmas presents list ready and start working on them. Oh yeah.... I still owe Scott a hat. Poor thing, he has been waiting patiently for a couple years now... :(

I would love to cook or bake more. I've collected tons of recipes and cookbooks and they are nicely displayed on my bookshelf. Oh well... it's my weakness when it comes to books, especially cookbooks. Most of them are nicely put together with beautiful food photographs and I just simply couldn't resist to bring them home with me. In fact, I just got a new cookbook, "Nigella Express" I ordered a couple weeks ago in the mail; I should sit down and read through it during the weekend and try out some new recipes next week!

Here are a few pictures from some of my cooking adventures lately:

Kumquat Marmalade made with Kumquats gather from next door neightbour's garden.





Lemon cream cupcakes! They are so delicious and even Cookie loves them! I will definitely make them again.

Wee man's first trip to the zoo

We brought wee man to the zoo on Sunday. It wasn't a planned trip and we just decided to go when I heard Scott singing a made-up song to Euan-"Mummy going to bring wee man to the zoo" on Saturday evening.

It was fun and I think wee man loved it. =) Well... at least that's what I like to believe. In reality, we know he probably didn't take it all in or even knew all the animals he saw in the zoo. Instead, mummy was the exited one when she saw the giraffe, tiger and zebra! :P