Sitting up for the first time

The maid called me in a really excited voice and I immediately went to get the camera. Most babies can sit up on their own by 5 or 6 months. That's why I was so excited when she finally could balance her upper body over her hips. Yeah!

7 and a half months

Caitlin's 7 1/2 months now. It's amazing how time has just flown by and now she's such a big baby. I'm amazed at how much she already knows. She's able to pick up small objects with her thumb and index finger. She can sit up by herself for a couple of minutes. She's able to pull herself up holding on to my hands and push with her legs to a standing position. When I clap my hands and tell her "up" she'll reach up with her arms and lean forward. 

She's still not keen on solids and we have to coax her. Perhaps it's partly my fault. She's expecting me to feed her. Today however, I participated in getting her fed so she got the message that Mommy wants her to end solids rather than drink breastmilk. A friend of Kelvin gave her a sippy cup with a handle and we tried it out today. She was able to hold the handles with both hands and tilt the cup up and drink from it herself. Of course she only did it for a few seconds and there was water that dribbled out. I'm impressed because she's not supposed to be able to do that till she's a year old. 

I think she's said her first word too. It was "meow". There are lots of cats at the void deck of my block and every time we come home, I make it a point to show Catilin the cats and say the words "Cat" and "Meow". One night, she said "meow" twice after I said "meow". I was jumping up and down with excitement. Okay, technically "meow" isn't a word but at least she understood. Sometimes, Grandma Dolly will say "meow-meow" just to test her and Catilin will actually look down on the ground for a cat.

Today Caitlin is suddenly afraid of strangers. Usually she'll smile at everyone and she's okay with anybody carrying her. Today, she just started bawling when Grandma Dolly had visitors and she wouldn't calm down. It took her a good half hour to warm up to one of the strangers. At the same time, she's extremely curious about everything and everyone. If she feels safe because I'm carrying her, Caitlin will reach out and touch total strangers. Yesterday, she reached for a neighbour's cake in the lift. It was too late to stop her. The poor lady ended up with cream on her blouse.

Took these four pictures with my handphone. These two (on top and below) are recent. She's such a delightful child. Admittedly, I may be biased because she's my offspring but it's so great that she's happy and smiling most of the time.
Brings back such memories. This was when she was about 3 or 4 months old and she just refused to be put in the baby carrier. I think it was because she had to sit in a separate pouch thing that clips on to the harness. She didn't like it because by this time, she was used to being carried and liked the sensation of skin to skin contact. However, I've seen lot of babies being carried in these harnesses and even falling asleep in them. spent $120 on this thing too. In the end sold it off to a friend for half price. 

She was really upset with me for strapping her up in the baby carrier. This was only after 5 minutes.

Caitlin's first visit to the zoo

The zoo is an overwhelming place for a 7 month old baby. Caitlin found the animals interesting if they were big enough for her to see. Mostly, she just stared blankly at us when we pointed at stuff. It was too hot for her to enjoy herself very much and in the end, we left after about an hour because she fell asleep. Caitlin had fun with her Daddy who pretended to drop her into the stream at their feet.

The zoo looks totally different from what I remember as a kid. I wonder if the bird park has changed very much as well.

In the end, the best kind of animal is the "zebra" hugging Caitlin.

Aunty Mun Yee's booties

Caitlin's feet were finally big enough to fit into Aunty Mun Yee's booties. They're so sweet. They make her feet look like ballerina feet.

Sleep Training & Weaning

Caity's almost 7 months old now. How time flies. This is the second night that we're getting baby to stay asleep in her crib without the constant attachment to my breast. My hubby's a real trooper. Last night after Caity fell asleep (sigh...with help from me) we put her in her crib. Sure enough after about an hour, she realized that she was no longer comfortably by my side and let out what Vin described as a rusty old motorcycle growl-cry. "Waaa-wa-uhh-wauh"

Since Caity associates me with the breast, Vin had to keep picking her up, soothing her and putting her back down. It's supposed to be a tried and true method which doesn't traumatize the child by leaving him or her to cry it out all alone. It's a tedious method as some parents have been known to do this method up to 100 times in one night. However that's with older kids who are used to having their own way. Most babies develop a set sleep pattern by the time they're six months old and are pretty resistant to change. I was prepared to stay up the whole night picking up the baby, patting her and then putting her down again. Thank God, bless little Caity's soul, she only needed 5 rounds. In the 3rd round, she was really wailing and my heart was breaking. I was ready to give up. However, Vin stuck with it. As a result, last night Caity stayed in her own crib except for a 1am feed and 6am feed. Just now, Vin did about 3 rounds of cry-pick up-soothe-put down again. We'll see how it goes. 

 Perhaps she didn't inherit the stubborn gene from both sides of the family after all. I hope that she turns out to be the adaptable, happily-adjusted sort. It turns out that as afraid as I was about weaning her, Caity might not be as difficult as I had initially anticipated. This afternoon, we were in the mall and she got hungry. I refused to unbutton my blouse. In the end, she lapped up 4 ounces of formula. The catch was that she wanted me to hold her and do the feeding. With the maid, she kicked and fussed a lot. When I held her, she was much more relaxed. At night, to take some pressure off I started bottle feeding just before bedtime. Last night was the first time I did it. She was upset at first but then she managed to take in about 2 ounces. Tonight when I tried it, she happily finished all of 3 ounces in less than 5 minutes. It would have taken much longer to bfeed her the same amount. Also, less problems with dozing off in the middle of a feed. Maybe I'm the one who's hanging on to bfeeding. So ironic considering I struggled with it so much in the beginning. 

Well, at least we're getting somewhere. I mean, at least Caity now understands that it's okay to take milk from the bottle when I AM around. In the past she would have refused the bottle and cried for her "nan nan" instead. Maybe it's just that she wanted to be close to me. She's become a lot more "manja" towards me of late. It's not that she wants me to carry her all the time. In fact, I've begun leaving her to play on her own for 10 to 15 minute intervals. It's more like she just wants to be able to see me in the room or lay next to me and play. Of course she still wants me to hold her. I suppose it's a survival instinct thing. Nature's way of ensuring that babies always stick to the primary care-giver. Thankfully in my absence, she's good with the maid. Not totally happy though. She still prefers having me around but at least she doesn't melt down completely or becomes too moody. 

Lately,  Caity keeps smiling at me like she's in love with her Mommy. I just looked at her this morning and thought to myself that she's going to have a lot of suitors when she grows up. She just has this winning girly-flirty smile. It's not just me. I've seen how she wins over perfect strangers over and over again. 

Okay now, a side story. I left work today and was rushing to buy lunch back for Kelvin and the maid. On the way, a bus driver honked me. I looked over at the side mirror and didn't see anything wrong with the car. It wasn't until several hours later that I remembered I had some picture frames which I had painted while I was in school and had wanted to bring home. I was like, "where are the frames?" Then I remembered that I had placed them in a box on the top of the car and I must have just driven off with the frames still on top of the car. Later I drove by the exact spot that the bus driver had honked me and actually saw my picture frames smashed at the side of the road. Sigh. All that effort for nothing. Oh well, I'm meant to have better picture frames I suppose. Luckily, the frames were given to me FOC.