Exploring small cute pumpkin

Halloween is coming so I bought her a personal small cute little pumpkin from Trader Joes for her to touch and mouth. I picked one that wasn't too big and had a long stalk so she could hold it. Too cute!

Yes to Bananas!

Yummy yummy bananas! Soph was very excited about them. Check out her signature one raised eyebrow look. She even lunged forward for next bites!

Asleep in stroller for the first time!

If we use the new stroller (forward facing), it's tough to get Soph to sleep. She usually gets too carried away trying to look at the stuff around her. And then I would have to end up taking her out of the stroller n plop her into a carrier.
But on Saturday, we were having our lunch in an open space near some food trucks. We turned her to face us in the stroller. And while the gluttony folks were munching away on their fries and tacos, she slowly dazed out and fell asleep. Maybe it was because she needed to face us. Then we transferred her to the car seat and she continued sleeping. Wow! If only everyday is like this.

Soph loves buggy rides at daycare

This is what her teacher Ms Laura told me. She said she squeals n giggles when she goes on her rides. When I picked her up today, she just came back from her ride with Ms Molly. An older boy was sitting in the front while she was in the backseat.

Daddy's version of the human cabbie

When I was pregnant, I called myself Soph's human cabbie. Now that she's out and about, I am still her human cabbie using the carrier. This is dd's version of being her human cabbie-the horse back ride

Our Beco Carrier

The carrier is my favourite baby gear purchase recently. It is much easier to put her in nowadays that she is more flexible and has good head control. Since we don't get to spend much time in the day, the carrier allows us to run around on weekends but stay close together. She also takes naps when she needs to without putting up a fight. Kudos to Jiejie for recommending me to get this instead of a bjorn.

No to Apple sauce

Homemade apple sauce is so easy. I bought two organic apples, peeled, de-cored, chopped into chunks and steamed them. The food processor then turns it into a really fragrant smooth paste. Who can refuse a yummy apple? But Soph did not seem overly excited about it. Her scrunched up face and knitted brows tells me it's a tad sourish for her although she was still willing to try more.

Cinderella's Glass Slippers

I did not really fancy the idea of S wearing shoes because I thought it might inhibit the growth of her feet. But when I give her socks they always seem to be sliding off. So I figure shoes will stopper the socks and provide protection against the cold then just socks. Wearing shoes for a short while when outside is fine right? I just have to make sure the shoes are not ultra tight. So I rummaged through my stash for hand-me-down shoes from G. They were mostly too big and meant for walking. Then I found this pair of crib shoes that the grans and yi-ma bought from Payless Shoe Source when they went on their walking expeditions from our place. It fitted perfectly with some room for her toes.

Food Exploration

I notice that most of my pictures of Soph nowadays revolve around mealtimes. By the time we get home together after work, all she does is sleep, eat, bathe, eat and sleep again. So here are more of her, where she's busily exploring her bowl, licking bits of the leftover morsel as she goes along. I also smeared mashed food on her tray so that she could feel the mashed bits and squish it with her fingers. Soph does not get to do these if dd feeds her because he does not like mess. I think she gets to learn from this mess!

A New Favourite

This seems to be Soph's latest favourite toy - Baby Einstein Bring-Along Tunes. It churns out a different melody when she punches the coloured button and has flashing lights. dd bought it as a deal even before she was born and initially I thought it was just an ok toy. That's the thing with babies - you never know what gets then intrigued, just have to keep offering. A couple of months back, she had difficulty holding up the toy because it was pretty big and heavy for her hands.
And there she is now, engrossed with the toy for twenty minutes, twirling it from hand to hand, flipping it from back to front to back. She can even hold it while doing a jet-plane pose on her tummy.She has cast aside her giraffe for now. Every time I offer it to her, she is not very keen on taking it or just tosses it aside quickly.

No to avocado

So I added sweet potatoes to peas and she loved the combo.
What else is good for solids starters? Avocados are packed with nutrients and good fats. So out we trooped to Wholefoods to get her an organic avocado. They cost $2.50 each! These markets sure know how to squeeze out of us organic suckers.
This morning we cut her a slice and mashed it up with breast milk. She made an eager swipe at it and some avocado landed on her brow. Haha. Eagerly, she took her first bite. She gave a really sour face. After that she was really unwilling to take more. Every time she opened her mouth to babble, I took the opportunity to shove in another mouthful. She made more unhappy faces. She even gagged a few times on the nasty stuff. After a few more tries, she grew smarter and closed her mouth to all my spoons. Well, even I thought the mashy stuff was pretty gross. It left a sickening after feeling that gave me a sore throat. I guess I would be adding sweet potatoes to this again.

Ms. Roller

On Thursday after daycare, I put S on the bed and noticed that she was finally willing to lay her uptight head on the bed and roll from front to back.
Hoorah!
This means she will no longer complain about being stuck on her front anymore. She has been waking up in the middle of the night crying sometimes because she rolled over to the front in her sleep and she did not like that. Hoorah to her new found mobility!
Ms Laura said she even rolled from the play mat all the way to the other end of the room. Wow. I wish I was the first one to see that.

No to peas

After having much success with cereal and sweet potatoes, I did not quite think there could be a simple food that S would not like. Well, today we tried peas and after much time boiling, blending, passing it through a strainer, she did not appreciate it at all. There was no eagerness to the next mouthful unlike the sweet potatoes. She was clearly discontent, closing her mouth to the spoon. But who could blame her? Even I did not really fancy that greenish taste in the squashed peas. Eating them like garden veg in fried rice is fine, but not straight up mashed peas, I added cereal to it, and that only earned a couple more unwilling mouthfuls from her. Needless to say, there was plenty of leftovers of peas. I think I'm going to add sweet potatoes into her peas for dinner tomorrow.

Bottles

First there was Dr. Brown.
Then came along Playtex and their stupid liners.
And then middle flow nipples.
Fast flow nipples.
Now there's Avent. Avent fast nipples.
We have a huge collection at home now. Call me the bottle man.

The many faces of eating

Yesterday we made sweet potato and cereal for her dinner. It was a big bowl and she lapped it all up! She's really interested in eating now, savouring and swallowing her food with ease. Look at her chewing away at the spoon with her toothless gums!

Back to Work!

It's Monday and the last day of my maternity leave. What I thought of six months as a long time is coming to an end. It's fast!

Thinking back, I seemed to have done a lot, yet it also seemed like not
much. I remember my struggles, taping myself six times a day with a tube to breastfeed S, carrying her and snoozing together on the sofa, going through her non-eating phase, going for walks with the carrier, bringing her to the breastfeeding group, gymboree class and many more... These are tough but sweet memories. From tomorrow onwards, we will not be able to do these things that stay-at-home moms get to do. For S, I have continued to wake up in the middle of the night to pump. Wonder if I can continue to do that. dd has been a great help feeding S so that I can concentrate on my pumping.

Tomorrow, I go back to the adult world. I need more energy!

Wrinkle Nose

S loves to wrinkle up her nose to laugh and smile.

Sweet potatoes

"What's for dinner tonight Mom?"
"Sweet Potatoes!"
"Oh."
"Organic sweet potatoes!"
"Mmmmm..."