Night Terrors

Last sunday, we finally brought Keston to The Polliwogs. HW had some errand to run in the east so we thought we'd drop by the indoor playground. Keston, as usual, loved the ballpit and the slides. It was abit tiring for us as we had to guide him through the play structure to get to the slides-- that means lots of crouching, crawling and climbing. HW kept complaining that it's damn tiring but he still got on with his fatherly duties.

That same night, I had the hardest time putting Keston to sleep. My normal 'routine' would be to dump him on my bed, off the lights while I continue surfing the net. He'd usually climb up and down, lie on my tummy, lick my knees, bang on the laptop..until he falls asleep happily. But that night, after just a couple of minutes of moving, he started sobbing. I gave him his pacifier and he kept spitting it out. I tried cuddling him and he'd calm down for abit and then start crying again. It went on and on for 2+hours until he fell asleep due to pure exhaustion. But shortly after he was asleep, he started stirring and crying in his sleep. He wasn't awake, just crying hysterically in his sleep. My ils keep saying "All babies are like that." But NO, Keston is usually a great great sleeper at night! When he sleeps at night, nothing can wake him up. Anyway, I digress. It was difficult to calm him down and it took awhile before he stopped crying and continued sleeping.....The whole saga lasted the whole night. I tried teething gel, ruyi oil, massage oils...

The next night, same thing happened.

On the 3rd night, he didn't cry too much before falling asleep so I thought it's all over. I went out to watch tv and he began crying hysterically shortly. I managed to pacify him in a short while and went back out. Again, he started crying. Upon suggestions from other mummies, I decided to wake him up. I turned on the lights and brought him out to the living room. Despite the light, he continued crying hysterically. Carry also cry, don't carry also cry. Sit down also cry, lie down also cry. Give pacifier also don't want. Give milk don't want. The only thing that calmed him down was his baby puffs. HW didn't want to give him too much to eat and kept trying to stop him, which induced more wails. It was a long long night. I had to carry him (in sitting up position) and walked around the house in the dark. He wouldn't let me sit down on the bed...he'd only permit me to sit down on a chair by the window--which is bloody eerie if you ask me!

And so this went on till I thought he was much calmer and went to lie down on the bed. He didn't really cry anymore, but was still v restless and somehow fell asleep around 4am.

The 4th night, I knew I couldn't take it anymore and went to EYS to buy this 八宝散. It's actually for cough, phlegm but the staff recommended it for night wakings. So wth, just try lah. That night, no problem at all! Keston fell asleep easily and slept peacefully all night. To add to that, we placed the bible by the bed and played a worship cd all night.

The next morning while I was watching tv with Keston, the tv channel started changing by itself! Not once, but 3 times!! I was so freaked that I went to off the main switch. I know there are perfectly scientific reasons for this (circuit failure and whatnots) but freaky nontheless.

On the 5th night, HW didn't want me to give K the powder anymore cos he says there's probably some alcohol or drug contents to make you drowsy. But I persisted as I was afraid he'll go hysterical again. As expected he slept very well. At one point in time, I actually moved the bible over his body and at that exact instant, Keston sat upright and raised both arms into the air, with his face tilted upwards!!! As suddenly as it happened, he collapsed and continued sleeping. WTF! Tell me what to think?

Yesterday was the 6th night and we went drug free. Everything was fine and I hope the night terrors stay away!

Christmas and beyond

Keston celebrated his 2nd Christmas. Cliche as it may sound, time doth fly! This time last year he could not even sit up and now he's a waddling toddler! Next year, I'm sure I'll be repeating something similar.

The boy turned 17mths yesterday. Still not talking, aside from calling Dada. Sigh~ Nevermind lah, shall not stress myself nor him.

When Keston was just born, he wasn't a pretty baby. His right eye had a red mark from where the forceps were used. His eyes were swollen and his face scrunched up. On the 2nd or 3rd day, HW asked me (and I'll never let him live this down) "Do you really think he's cute?" I was speechless. Part of me wanted to admit the truth, while the other part was in denial. So I simply said "He will become cute." Thank goodness, after the bruises disappeared and his eyes opened...he was indeed cute! (I'm bias, so what?) In the initial months, HW refused to kiss Keston....when I asked him why, he said it's very gay for guy to kiss guy!?!

Fast forward, now HW can't stop kissing Keston. He even tries to trick Keston into kissing him on the mouth (by pretending he's got a biscuit in his mouth). I supposed that's his warped version of Father love!

Terrible 2s

My 16mth old is hitting toddlerhood abit earlier than expected. For the past month or so, he's been throwing terrible tantrums whenever he does not get his way. If he wanted a particular toy (most of the time, it's actually a household appliance that he wants to turn into his toy) or wanted his biscuit , and we didn't want to give it to him...he'd arch his back , threaten to bang his head on the floor, whine, scream, cry. The full works.

He's also becoming increasingly dependent on his pacifier. I guess that's to be expected since his paternals stick it into his little mouth every chance they get. I only give it to him when it's time to nap. They give it to him everytime he makes a squeak. How to wean him off???

I try not to give in to his tantrums...but sometimes it's really so much easier to give him whatever he wants.

Terrible 2s, here we come. I'm reminded of something Sujia said : Terrible 2s doesn't mean it comes at 2 years old. It means that it lasts for 2 years!!

OMG!!

Here we go!

Just a day after I tricked Keston into walking, he started walking himself! In the morning, when I was getting him to nap, he kept standing up by himself on the bed. And he was so proud that he started bouncing around. In the afternoon, he was leaning by the sofa when he suddenly turned around and walked to his rocking horse. It was just 3-5 steps away. A short while later, he stood up from the floor himself and walked again. He did this a couple of times so I quickly took my camera, ready to video it for proof (cos HW will never believe me otherwise). But of course I sat there for half a day ready to video, and he never did stand up again.

When HW came home, I told him "Keston walked by himself today!". Ever the skeptic, he just went 'Yeah yeah yeah. Keston, Mummy always bluff me say you can do so many things!'.

To which, Keston promptly stood up and walked towards Dada. Haha! That shut him up!

Just for my record, Keston first started walking on 24 November 2009-- 4 days before he turns 16 mths.

We have now added on to the statistics of late walkers. So next time someone you know complains about his/her kid not walking at 12mths, you can say 'My friend's son didn't walk till he was 16mths!

!!'

Shall we walk?

At almost 16 mths, Keston is still not walking independently. He's been cruising everywhere for the past 6-7mths, but when we offer him our hands, he will sit down immediately. No matter, we thought. He'll walk when he wants to.

A couple of weeks back, we decided to be abit more pro-active in helping him start walking. This time we had him put on shoes and walk on carpeted flooring while holding our hands. Amazingly, he was thrilled and walked ALOT! We tried again on our marble floor and he refused to walk again. Then we brought him to the tennis court and again, he was pulling our hands and waddling up and down the court! Our precious is so particular about the ground he's on. If it's too hard, he doesn't want to walk!

Within 1-2 days, he progressed to walking while holding only 1 of our finger! He'd use one of his hands to balance himself...and the other hand to grasp one finger. He wasn't using the finger as a support but more as a confidence/comfort object. I kept joking about rolling up a piece of paper and letting him grab on to it while walking.

Side track abit... This idea came about cos I keep remembering this joke I heard in my uni days. A friend bought a roll of book wrapper (you know, the transparent plastic roll that we all used to wrap our textbooks in) and was riding in the bus on an aisle seat. Suddenly the bus jerked and the person standing in front of her grabbed on to the roll, thinking it's one of the support poles in the bus!!! Haha

So anyway, tonight after brushing Keston's teeth, I decided to let him grab the toothbrush... he held one end, while I held the head of the toothbrush. He took 1 step and I let go....he continued walking another 3-5 steps thinking he was still grabbing on to me!!! It was freaking hilarious! After he realised mummy wasn't beside him, he was stunned and promptly sat down.

So there you go, his first few unassisted steps! He was tricked, but still....

Photography

In my earlier years, I used to attend so many concerts that my camera was practically surgically attached. The outcome of my photography would depend on how close I was to the stage and how energetic the performer was. I remember gawking at the people using the 'professional' cameras and then admiring how awesome their shots came out. But I'd never once entertain the thought of owning a 'professional' camera. It wasn't the price (I'd never bothered to find out the price, but I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it on my jc allowance anyway.), I'd just associated the big cameras with the professionals. If you're not a professional, you shouldn't be using such a bigass camera.

Fast forward a few years. Like any new parents, I was thrown into the frenzy of photography with the birth of my child. My cam was once again surgically attached to one hip while my baby was on my other. I'd spend all day snapping away, not really satisfied with the outcome and yet, relentlessly trying to get that perfect shot.

It was at K's 1st photoshoot that I first entertained the thought of getting a dslr. It was an Easter promo shoot that lasted only 15 mins, and yet the photographer was able to capture many nice shots of the squirmy boy. I would have gotten 15mins worth of blurred shots. That was when I started researching about dslrs and how they're so wonderful! HW wasn't supportive of me getting a dslr, he was sure I wouldn't know how to utilise it fully and would lose interest after a week or 2.

I was abit hesitant myself. Anyway, I started reading photography books in my leisure time. Read about composition and the basic stuff and I started trying to compose my pictures better. After awhile, there was all that mess with K in the hospital and other stuff, so I stopped thinking of the dslr.

We went for a few more photoshoots and I started thinking "Hey! I could take these myself! I just don't have the right camera!" (Yes I'm very thick skinned and ambitious). So I started my research on dslrs again. This time I was reading up on apperture, shutter speed, depth of field, exposure, metering, cs4, etc. There was so much to learn and the more I read, the more intrigued I was.

Right about the time K turned 1, a friend of HW's lent us his spare dslr-- a D70. This was probably the turning point for me. I tried to put to use what I've learned and started on a very gradual learning curve. I must admit, my first few attempts were atrocious and I ended up using the preset modes. But as time passed, and with more trial and errors, I grew to love seeing things through the lens. You get a different perspective to things that are happening around you. I did see an improvement in my photography. HW must have seen it too cos he then gave me the go-ahead to get my own to play with. (HW is my worst critic cos he usually just comments everything I do is laoya). Besides, I have a ready and willing model-- what's stopping me?

I decided on the D5000 cos I'm such a sucker for advertisements! I liked the ads and they keep appearing on the buses on the road, so it's a no brainer for me. The competition was really between the 500D and the D5000 but since I've handled a Nikon before, I just went the Nikon way.

Shortly after getting the camera, I decided the kit lens wasn't giving me satisfactory results and got another prime lens. Previously, when people tell me that lens are expensive, I'd always thought they meant a hundred bucks or something. But now I truly understand how expensive lens can get. They can range from a couple of hundreds to over a thousand. The better ones are usually over $500. And then there's the external flash, tripod, dry box...the buy list is endless, and everything seems like a must-have!

Do you automatically start taking nicer photos with an expensive camera? I thought so at first, but not necessarily! HW can attest to that! Whenever I pass him my camera, using my settings, he always ends up with blurred out of focus shots, so he eventually changes it to auto mode, which basically makes the dslr function like a high end digicam. The photo results he gets are pretty similar to what he gets on the Lumix.

Right now, while I'm happy enough with my photos, I'm not quite satisfied with them, even on an amateur level. Every time I take a photo, I'm happy with it for like 5 minutes. Then I start picking flaws and making mental notes on what I should (not) have done. And then I decide I have an awful photo! Come to think of it, I'm probably my worst critic. HW comes in a v close 2nd place.

Keston turns 15mths

Oops, just realised my last post was more than a month ago? Man, I should really do this more regularly. I know I already missed out on a few happenings that I wanted to pen down.

The little one turns 15mths today. WHAT? Where did the 15mths go? How did Keston morph from the wrinkly, scrawny, pinkish, little peanut to this active (and still scrawny) baby? When did his limbs lengthen? Must be when I was sleeping cos I sure don't remember it happening!

Sometime just after he turned 14mths, his 3rd lower tooth and 2 lower molars started sprouting. Right now @ 15mths, he's got his 4 upper teeth, 3 lower teeth and 1 molar fully emerged. Abit buey balance!

At 15mths, he is STILL NOT walking. I've already come to accept that K's a late developer so it doesn't really bother me. Sujia says he doesn't wanna walk because he's so good at crawling. And he sure proved it by leaping everywhere when we met up at Botanic Gardens.Keston's hair is still growing at a snail's pace. It's growing alright, just taking its own sweet time! His vocab is not growing much either. He still hasn't started calling me, much to my utter dismay. Especially since he's such a mummy's boy!
He's become quite a pro at climbing up and down the sofa and chuckles everytime I turn around to find him on the sofa. When he wakes up in the morning (and I refuse to be awakened), he will climb down the bed and crawl to the living room to look for his daddy. So independent!!!

Keston still loves his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. However, I've come to realise that he actually likes Donald more than Mickey, cos he will actually laugh out when Donald does something silly. He also likes Hi-5 (so gay!), Caillou, Diego and Sesame Street. Uh-oh, my boy is a tv addict!!!

All in all, I'm really thankful for the past 15mths of pure bliss!