ReNe: ottawa road trip

Ottawa, 16-19 Dec 2010

We've been in Canada for over three years and we even have a Canadian in the family, so we thought it was high time to visit the Canadian capital. I found a really good deal at Minto Suites Hotel: three nights for the price of two, which worked out to only $60 a night! As you can see from the photo below, that's a fantastic rate for a very good room. (This was a winter promotion and the usual rack rate is much higher, closer to $200.)  Even the crib and high chair were free upon request. Even as I type this, I'm once again struck by how good a deal it was and am raving about it to Mike.

The best part of the room was the kitchenette. With a picky eater for a toddler, this was extremely convenient.  Not to mention the amount we save by not having to eat out all the time.

Day 1 (16 Dec, Thursday)

We set off at almost 11am and reached Ottawa around 5pm. The distance wasn't far, about 450km, but we took a couple of longish breaks for Ryan to come down and run around. Those were quite time-consuming. The scenery was initially rather boring -- flat open lands, mostly -- but it got a little rockier and more interesting as we neared Ottawa. It also started snowing just as we left the boundaries of Toronto. In fact, it practically snowed the entire time we were there and only stopped when we re-entered Toronto.

As it was a Thursday, the Canadian Museum of Civilizations had free admission from 4-8pm, so after we checked into the hotel, we brought Ryan there to let out some energy after a day cooped up in a car seat. He loved the children's museum section.

Ryan was really into buses at this point in time and love this brightly decorated bus from Pakistan. 

Day 2 (17 Dec, Friday)

First stop, Parliament Hill. It was very difficult to find a parking spot. Eventually we gave up and drove to Byward market instead, which was beside Parliament Hill and the second stop on our itinerary. After parking at a multi-storey lot at Clarence Street, we realized that it was in fact quite close to Parliament Hill and walked over. The guided tour was 45mins long and we didn't think Ryan would stay quiet for that long, so we simply went up the Peace Tower.

The Canadian Parliament was quite welcoming towards visitors. There were security checks, of course, but the gates and grounds were open and the guards were friendly. The buildings are quite remarkable, and with a coat of glistening snow on the copper-green rooftops, overlooking the Ottawa River, made for a very picturesque scene.

From the Canadian Encyclopedia:

As the seat of Canada's federal government, the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa are a remarkable and visually striking complex of buildings located on a promontory overlooking the Ottawa River. ... the picturesque Gothic Revival style was chosen because it was thought to best represent parliamentary democracy. ... Officially opened on 6 June 1866, the original Centre Block and the two administrative blocks were exceptional examples of highly developed Victorian Gothic revivalism in Canada. ... Each of the Parliament Buildings was designed to incorporate Gothic elements, including pointed arches, lancet windows and tracery, spires with crockets and rubble-course stonework. 

Canadian Parliament Hill, Peace Tower. 

Canadian Parliament, Memorial Chamber.

Then it was onto Byward Market for lunch. It is a very famous tourist destination but I suppose we didn't quite know what to do once we were there. We found it quite touristy (in other words, a bit of a tourist trap like St Lawrence Market in Toronto), though still a pleasant place to wander around for a bit, but not as interesting as, say, Kensington Market (in Toronto).

 Day 3 (18 Dec, Sat)

A lazy morning. Also a wasted one. Ryan, for some unknown reason, woke up in a bad mood and was crying and crying. We finally left past 11am and reached the Canada Science and Technology Museum about half an hour later. By the time we parked (11:40pm), Ryan was fast asleep, and he remained asleep until 1:40pm. The museum was all right, a little small, though that makes it easy to navigate. When Ryan woke up, his eyes just popped open when he saw that he was in an interesting place and he demanded to let down to go play immediately.

A side note: Ryan kissed us for the first time today! We've been trying to teach him how to kiss and till now, all he's been doing is pressing wet open lips against our cheeks, but today, he managed a proper kiss!

Playing with the model cars at the Canadian Car exhibition.

Day 4 (19 Dec, Sun)

A quick visit to the Canada Agriculture Museum in the morning before we headed back to Toronto. I thought Ryan would love it since he's crazy about cows. He liked it well enough but he wasn't that impressed. I guess cows are more interesting in books and on screen? Or perhaps because they smell in real-life. Unfortunately the cows and other farm animals were all indoors so the smell was rather concentrated. Fortunately it was winter and the cool temperatures helped. 

In summary, an interesting, informative and easy trip. Not too expensive as it was low season and the only attraction we paid admission for was the science museum. Ottawa is, as someone put it, a 'government city'. Lots of important buildings, grand and meaningful, a little stuffy. Lots of traffic and workers during the day and quite quiet at night. We also got a taste of winter driving; the roads were very snowy and slushly and the ABS activated quite frequently.

ReNe: it would probably be funny sometime in the future

If you've learned driving or riding, you've probably heard of some funny horror stories about the tests. You know, the ones where someone did something amazingly stupid or is just plain unlucky, resulting in an immediate failure. In my case (my test was 20 Oct, last Wednesday), I 'failed' even before I left the parking lot; the car refused to start. For a minute I thought I forgot something stupendously simple and silly, but in the end, it turned out to be a serious problem (some fried electronics).

I called Mike after the test. "The good news is, I didn't fail. The bad news is, I didn't pass either."

My instructor was very apologetic and offered to pay for my lost deposit, and I really couldn't get angry at him or anything since this is really nobody's fault. Still, it was such a disappointment. Mike had passed the day before and we had big plans to rent and drive out to see the fall colors, etc. Plus, I had practice lessons on Monday and Tuesday, and so had a good momentum going. The next available test date is more than a month away! I definitely would need a refresher lesson or two by then. 

ReNe: learning words

Sometime in late August, just before we left Singapore, Ryan started to pick up words. It was slow at first. He started with a more definite and deliberate pronunciation of "daddy" (which he had been able to say for quite a while) and "mummy" (he was only able to say "mama", and not very reliably at that). Then he picked up more words while we were in Kyoto, words like "baby", "airplane" ("eh-pwane"), ice-cream ("ai-kim"). However, it was when we got back to Toronto that his vocabulary really increased. At last count, more than a week ago, he could say over 50 words and understand a lot more. That is to say, he learned over 50 words in a month. Well, he probably understood quite a lot before he started speaking. I read that it's around the 16-18 months mark that babies start to talk.

I noticed some interesting learning behavior:

(1) He roughly has mental groups of words, e.g. parts of the face, and a mental sequence of the words learned. "Nose" was the first he learned, followed by "eyes", "ear", "mouth". And when we attempt to teach him a new part, say "mouth" and he gets confused, he'd start over by going back to "nose", then "eyes", etc. If the new word does not appear to belong to a group, he'd retreat to the ultimate set of 'first words': "daddy", "mummy" and "baby". Those he can say very well and will not forget. I think going back to the words he already knows reassures him. 

(2) Either he cannot or will not pronounce his name. He know very well who Ryan is (we call him Ryan all the time and rarely use some pet name), but he always refers to himself as "baby". When asked, "Where's Ryan's nose?", he won't do anything. When asked, "Where's baby's nose?", he'd point to his own nose. We have no satisfactory explanation for this odd behavior.

(3) He also has his own words for objects. For example, he'd call a train "choo-choo", a cow "moo", or a monkey "na-na" (for banana). We know he does know the correct word because if we ask, "where's the train/cow?", he point to the correct object and go "choo-choo/moo". 

(4) He has learned "no" (very well in fact) but not "yes". When asked, "Do you want a bottle?" "Nooo no no nonono nooo~oo no no no nOOoNo~" and etctera. 

(5) He gets nouns quickly; no surprise there. Numbers and colors are much harder (he can only count to three and not too reliably at that, and the only color he really knows is yellow, maybe orange). Abstract stuff (like letters), he just looks blankly at me when I try to teach him. I guess it means he needs to understand what he's saying and not just repeat, which is a good thing.

ReNe: wasting my time

I absolutely hate the laundry machines here. I can't count the number of times I've gone down and the machine had simply turned itself off, or hung (displays an 'OFF' error) and I have to reload the machine again. With my eczema, I hate dealing with wet soapy laundry and I hate wasting my time; I had planned to leave right after I'm done with the laundry.What if I was rushing for something important?

When I saw the 'OFF' sign again, I slammed the lid and yelled 'FUCK'. Next to me, Ryan echoed, "fwuck!"

Right now the management is painting the building and corridor walls. Why? I look around and the paint looks fine to me. I would much rather they spend the money, and the rent increase, on things that really matter like LAUNDRY MACHINES THAT WORK. Painting probably cost thousands. You can replace all of the washing machines with the money spent on painting.

The rant about how lousy they are, even when they don't turn off, how much lint they leave behind, is another subject all together. ONE wash and ONE rinse cycle. Is that sufficient?! Our linens are getting dingier and dingier. I've had bedsheets that I've wanted to throw because they're linty and oily-looking. I've tried washing and re-washing, adding dish detergent to cut the oil, peroxide, vinegar, everything. Then I brought them to Singapore to use one last time before ditching -- and then they come out as good as new.

I used to love doing laundry, until I came here. Now it's becoming a chore.

Now off to pick up the laundry.

ReNe: back and jet-lagged

We were abroad for three and a half months -- but more about that later -- and came back a couple of days ago. With an eleven time zone difference, there is jet-lag.

But. The jet-lag would not have been so bad if it weren't for a certain boy. We know to keep awake during the day and sleep at night; try telling a baby that. The first night, that is Monday night, he woke up bright and alert at 3am, thinking it's Japan 4pm and wanting to play. It hadn't helped that we flew 12 hours from Japan time 5pm-5am and he slept nine of those 12 hours. We were not that fortunate as to be able to stretch out horizontally; in my case, he was on my lap most of the 12 hours. (I was quite the candidate for deep vein thrombosis.) Then during the day, he fell asleep around 1pm and when we woke him up at 3, he was literally red- and bleary-eyed.

The second day, we made the mistake of napping when he finally fell asleep for his afternoon nap, thinking that we should catch our rest when he does since he interrupted our nighttime sleep. That was at 1pm. Next thing we knew, it was 5pm and we had ALL slept through the afternoon. And then after dinner, he fell asleep again. That was about 9pm. Around midnight, when we were preparing to go to sleep, we heard a "Mummy! Mummy!" and the patter of little feet. The third night was actually the worst so far. We let him play for an hour, then after much screaming, he went to sleep around 1:45am. 2:30am and 3:40am, he woke again. And at 4:40am, he woke and absolutely refused to go back to sleep, crying and screaming until 5:50am when we gave up.

So even though last night was our third night dealing with his jet-lag, it was the worst, and I'm quite sure it was the long, uninterrupted nap through the afternoon that ruined his progress. Today we must make sure he keeps awake!

Monday night: slept from 1-3am.
Tuesday: napped from 1-3pm, 5-7pm. Both times he had to be woken up.
Tuesday night: slept from 10pm-5am, woke at 3am, then again at 5am where he refused to go back to sleep.
Wednesday: napped from 1-5pm.
Wednesday night: slept from 9am-12am, 1:45-4:40am, woke at 2:30, 3:40, 4:40am.

ReNe: 12 months -- walking

Just in time for his first birthday, Ryan learned to walk!


He could stumble a couple of steps for the past week or so, but last Friday (7th May), he took his first few steps. Then, he'd walk from me to Mike and back again, and he always lunges the last couple of steps in impatience.

His initial steps were wobbly and cute; we called him 'drunken baby'. He always threw himself the last few steps when he's walking towards me, expecting me to catch him or perhaps just impatient to get to me? It's just adorable, yet heartstopping too, to see his unsteadiness.

But he improved very quickly. He still stumbles, but now he's already walking from one end of the room to the other, or from room to room, usually even daring to carry a toy. Or a toy in each hand. Which makes his stumbles quite painful... (Yes, that's my cell phone in his hand in the photos above. I occasionally let him hold it, which delights him to no end.)

We were overjoyed and utterly focused on him when he started to walk. Now I wished we had a video of his first wobbly steps, but at least we have the photos.

ReNe: sick again

Ryan and me, that is.

For the longest time, since his third month, Ryan had a rash on his face (and body too, for a time). Then in January, when he was about nine months old, his rash started to improve and we were pretty happy. We thought that perhaps he would start to outgrow it.

Then he fell sick three times in the past three months. Right now, he's having a bad cold with runny nose and a hacking cough. I suppose such illnesses are normal and expected with kids, especially if they have opportunity to interact with other people, especially kids. Fortunately, compared to his rash, he would recover from his cold much more quickly.

But while he's sick, it's exhausting for me. He clings to me, is often whiny and reverts to a three-month old routine, which is to say he naps every three hours and he only wants breastmilk. That is perhaps the most worrying part; if he refuses solids for a day or two, that's fine, but often he'd only nibble a little solid food during the week while recovering as well. He doesn't have much by way of fat reserves so right now, after being sick for six days, he's looking a little skinny already. Well, I've heard of babies who are exclusively breastfed for a year or more without problems, so I shouldn't worry too much and just feed him every couple of hours.

Taking care of him is exhausting though, and I usually fall sick after. With the same bug he passed to me. Right now, I'm nursing a running nose. Arrrragh.

ReNe: pretend play

Ryan engaged in imaginary play yesterday. He probably had been doing it for a while, for example he'd stir a stick in a cup, but I wasn't sure if he was doing it just because he wanted to stir, or insert a stick into something, or because he was imagining something else. But yesterday morning, his actions were very definitive.

We (me, Ryan and Mike) were all lying in bed Sunday morning, and Ryan was nursing. When he was done, he grinned and sat up, and fingers closed in a pincer grip, pretended to feed me something carefully a few times. Then he turned around and pretended to feed Mike as well.

For a few weeks already, he has fed us food (usually food he doesn't want). For example, I was feeding him grapes a couple of days back (giving them to him to feed himself) and when he was full, he turned to Mike and gave Mike the grape instead. When I stopped handing him the grapes, knowing he was full, he opened his mouth instead. So I popped a grape in. And he promptly took that grape out and fed Mike again.

ReNe: 11.5 months -- regarding a growth spurt

It felt like Ryan underwent another growth spurt lately. (Checking 'The Wonder Weeks', a book about growth spurts, yeah, it was about time.)

When we got back from Philadelphia, he was extra cranky and clingy, and I was worried it was to do with the trip. Perhaps he was upset about all that traveling. Then we noticed he was cutting his upper front teeth and the gums were quite swollen, so we thought that might be the reason instead. Moreover, on top of his crankiness, he was on a solids strike. Definitely teething, we thought.

Now we know it was probably a combination of a growth spurt and teething. Once his upper right tooth came out, he started eating more. His mood improved as well. At the same time, I got him some new toys since he appeared to be bored with the current lot and he became very engrossed in them. More interestingly, he suddenly figured out old toys that he previously didn't quite know what to do with, such as the stacking rings.

Previously he used to only increase entropy (i.e. create a mess) but now he also became interested in stacking things together, or putting objects into a larger container. Oh, he still likes to go around pulling things from shelves or drawers or upturning containers, but he might put back a couple of objects before moving on. He'd hold a stick in one hand and try to slide a stacking ring or a block with a hole through it, or he'd try to slot one object into another. It so happened that after noticing all these, I read that after a growth spurt around this time (~46 weeks), the baby will start to exhibit all the aforementioned behaviors. A-ha.

When he was a newborn, we could see obvious physical growth after a growth spurt. Now, a growth spurt usually meant a mental developmental boost as well. It's weird, but he would almost seem smarter overnight; the mental growth is not linear. It's really fascinating.

Right now, I'm highly amused that he's concentrating very hard on pushing his stacking ring dowel into his sorting toy. Hah.

ReNe: one more month

One more month till we fly to Singapore.

We haven't been back since we left three years ago. And, unsurprisingly, we've been thinking more and more about Singapore. About people and places we'd like to visit, food to eat, things to do, food to eat. Yes, the food is a big part of our memories.

On the less material side of memories, we've been remembering how we felt when we left, and what changed. We had perceptions, preconceptions and a few misconceptions about what it meant to live in a different country. For myself, I'd say I've settled into living in a foreign country better than I expected.

We're very curious; will we feel like visitors to Singapore? Not tourists, but not locals as well? Or will Singapore slip back like an old, comfortable shoe?

What do I miss about Singapore? Food tops the list. Having our own place as well. Sometimes, usually in the depths of winter, I miss the blanketing humidity as well. I imagine my skin becoming dry and stretched and old when the humidity here drops to 15%. I've made some new friends but they tend to feel transient. I do miss the comfortableness of relating to people I grew up with. And, rather surprisingly, I miss the rain. I miss the pouring monsoons and thunderstorms that can go on for hours. Rainwater is never warm in Toronto. I miss the tropical evenings, the warm orangey haziness and the cool that finally settles after a buzzingly hot day. I also miss Orchard Road.

There are a lot of wonderful things about Singapore but these are the specific stuff I miss.

On the flip side, will there be anything we miss about Toronto? Perhaps that should be the subject of a post sometime in the future.

ReNe: easter monday

Some fun at Christie Pits park on Easter Monday. We initially had just planned to walk down to PAT for groceries, but as Ryan was asleep and the weather was fantastic (23C!), we bought a bit of snacks from PAT and went over the park instead.

Of course Mike whipped out his camera. I think I looked rather nice here.

Then Ryan woke up. Here he looks like he's standing by himself -- not really. He stood unassisted for just a few seconds, long enough for Mike to take a shot. And no, Ryan was not offering me a drink. He likes water bottles; he'd shake them and be very amused.

Some fun on the merry-go-round. This girl of about six or seven was pushing the structure round and round. I was amazed that not only was she not tired, she was also not dizzy. After many revolutions, I was pretty giddy but she kept on and on and on.

Ryan held on very well. He wasn't crying but he didn't seem terribly excited as well. I think he was just concentrating hard on holding on!

And some fun on the swings. Just last Saturday (two days prior), I placed him on a baby swing at Kensington Park and he was quite frightened. (The last time he was in such a swing was in fall, when he was about five months old. I'm sure he had forgotten.) He was not comforted even when I sat with him in a regular swing. So we're pleased to see him enjoying himself here. He's not squealing with delight but at least he's smiling.

This is an interesting swing. I'm quite sure it's for the disabled; the tan plastic harness comes down and clips in place to hold one in securely. We found it quite comfortable.

ReNe: easter sunday

The weather this Easter long weekend was fantastically sunny, with temperatures going as high as 22, 23C during the day. That's warmer than the average at this time of the year, apparently, with a warmer than average spring and summer on the cards as well. Also, because of the great weather, it was reported in the news that there were hordes of people going (or wanting to go) to the Toronto islands and at least a fight broke out. The voyeur in us missed that.

Last Sunday, we walked down to the Harborfront. We like going to the Harborfront, which is a little odd. It's a longish walk down (at least 40mins), and dusty and polluted at parts, and there isn't much to do once we're there except sit there and look out at the lake. Sometimes there are events or festivals, but then the Harborfront becomes uncomfortably crowded. Certainly we do not go there for the food; there are cheaper places elsewhere. (Bleh. The food court was closed when we got there so we bought takeaway salad from Sobeys, which was grossly salty.)

However, it is a very nice view from the boardwalk beside the Lake Ontario. And the breeze is bracing. (Actually, the wind's always effing cold year round, except at summer where it's merely refreshing.)

Perhaps that's enough.

Ryan doing his finger pointing thing he likes these days. And that Sith-like robe he's wearing is my sweater. It was a lot colder by the waterside that we had expected.

ReNe: he looks evil because he is

Two cute photos. Here we are, looking quite synchronized. Ryan was actually waving his index finger around and pointing, and I was copying him. Then he put his finger down. So I end up looking a bit silly.

And the back to his onesie, which I like very much. It reads "He Looks Evil Because He Is."

ReNe: fishy drool

The trouble with fish porridge is that Ryan will leave a mess and it's hard to clean. The highchair and tray will smell faintly fishy and soap's needed (for most other foods, I use a wet cloth or a wet wipe). Worse, after I put him down, he likes to hold my legs and go "muah muah", open-mouthed and with lots of fishy saliva, on my thighs. I can smell it. And I can only cringe at the thought of him drooling fishy saliva everywhere, on the floor, toys, furniture....

Auugghh....

ReNe: philadelphia 2010

Philadelphia, March 20-25

It was such a long time since I took a trip! Well, I did go Montreal with Mike and Dez last March but because it was local (4 hr drive, it's like driving to KL), it didn't feel like a huge deal. Though it was a lovely trip, the last I had as a free woman...

This year, Mike was attending the NARST conference in Philadelphia and of course I (and Ryan) must go! I was also eager to see how Ryan takes to traveling, and if we can handle traveling with him. This trip is really a practice run for summer. For example, we could have chosen a direct (more expensive) flight to Philly but we thought to try a stopover. Total flight time including stopover was about 4 hrs each way, not too bad right? After all, we'd be flying 24 hrs to S'pore....

It's Ryan's first trip!

Ryan is a restless flyer. On the first leg there (Toronto to Newark), he passed out because he was woken up too early (6am, for a 9am flight). Then he was awake and curious for the next flight from Newark to Philadelphia. On the way back, he was awake for both flights and very active, often cranky. (Turned out he had a Cheerio stuck on the waistband of his diaper the entire time!) He's an energetic, inquisitive kid and that's great; it's just very tiring for us too.

One problem I didn't foresee was with the hotel room; it's not very baby-proof and it's rather boring. The lack of a high-chair meant chasing him down, literally, during meals. One mistake I made was to take a day off on the third day to decompress in the hotel room. If I was by myself, great. But with a bored baby crawling about, it was anything but relaxing. We were both crawling the walls in frustration by the time Mike got back in the late afternoon. The next day, I brought down to the 'Love Park' a few blocks from the hotel and he loved it.

Ryan looks awfully cute in this outfit.

Yelling in the park.

In front of the famous LOVE statue in JFK Plaza (or Love Park, as it's more commonly called). A requisite tourist shot. We walk through here almost every day since it's so near our hotel (Sheraton) and it's on the way to the Marriott (where Mike's conference is held).

Sitting in Love park, Philadelphia City Hall in the background.

"Arrgh! Stop taking photos already!" Yes, Ryan's had enough.

Philadelphia City Hall. An imposing, majestic structure. Mike says it's ostentatious, vulgar and ginormous.

We didn't know that Philadelphia was the seat of the American Revolution but we do now. There's a lot of America's history in Philadelphia. We joined the tour of Independence Hall (it was free). Though it's short (30mins, plus an additional 10mins to screen your bags), Ryan was bored by the time the tour started. We liked the way the teacherish park ranger who was giving the talk emphasized the important dates and people. "And in seventeen-thirty-two," she'd paused and looked intently while the kids wrote in their Junior Ranger Workbooks. I don't think I learned anything though, with Ryan fussing in my lap.

Independence Hall at the Independence National Historic Park. Here's the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

The Liberty Bell with its crack. (Another place where our bags were checked. And between Ryan's stroller and Mike's camera bag, it was rather troublesome.)

One can't visit Philadelphia without trying their famous cheesesteaks. We dropped by Campo's Deli (located in the Old City) after visiting the Independence Park. The cheesesteaks here were great; we're fans now. The soft pretzels (something else Philly is famous for), not so much.

Traveling with a baby was quite a huge change for us (especially me, since Mike would be at a conference most of the time). This time, we traveled with a suitcase (!), we had way more stuff than we normally would pack, and I had to scale back on the sightseeing. I normally love to pack the days and see/do something unusual, if possible, but this time, I had to plan around his nap times and attention span. Transporting him was also a problem. I wasn't too sure if the subways and buses were stroller-friendly (some were, some weren't), but the stroller was a great way for him to nap and extend our trip out. Oh, and for the first time ever, I looked up (and went to) kid-friendly places to see (something I used to actively avoid).

Here we are at the Please Touch Museum (a kids' museum, great place, I highly recommend). Mike was at the conference and I didn't like the thought of wrestling the stroller up the bus so I used the carrier. Not the best idea in hindsight, and I was pretty tired by the end of the day. Ryan was initially a little quiet and hesitant when we got there but warmed up soon enough.

Of all the stuff on this activity wall for babies and toddlers, he liked the button that produces a cricket sound the most. You can't see it but his right hand is continually pressing it. The speaker is just in front of his face.


Most of the stuff at Please Touch is geared towards older kids though, such as the water feature below. Oh well. We'd definitely visit Please Touch if we're ever in Philly again.

All tuckered out after we came back.

Helping us to pack. Somehow he looks chunkier here.

Detroit airport, our stopover on the way back. It's surprisingly impressive. (Yes, for the cheapest flight, we ended up with two different airlines and hence stopovers each way.)

ReNe: evolution of play

It's extremely interesting to watch Ryan as he plays and learns to manipulate objects. When he initially learned to grab hold of a toy some months ago, he would look at it, and then put it in his mouth. He still explores everything that way, by first using his eyes and mouth. Then, because many baby toys rattle, Ryan soon learned to shake everything we give him to see if it makes a sound.

Then he learned to hit objects together. For example, he'd hold a wooden block in one hand and use that to hit the floor or table leg. Since the table legs are made of metal, a nice ringing sound is produced. Later, he learned to hold two hard objects in each hand and strike them together. It's not easy, when you think of it, to manipulate tools as an extension of each hand simultaneously.

He also learned to pull. He'd pull open drawers and doors. The only kind of drawers he can't open are those where you have to rotate your hand such that your fingers come up (palm up) and under the handle. He could pull a toy that has a string or ribbon attached, though hand over hand pulling is beyond him. When we played peek-a-boo, he knew how to hold the cloth/blanket himself to raise (pull up) and lower it.

Recently he started dragging objects along the floor. His favorite is a cookie tin; banging on it makes a satisfactorily loud sound and dragging it along the floor produces a wonderful racket.

Right now, Ryan's learning to drop things. While either seated or lying on the floor, he'd hold up a toy to the height of his head and drop it repeatedly. He does it with all sorts of objects but he especially likes the objects that make an interesting noise. I gave him an empty plastic ramekin, the kind was used to hold a mini lava cake, and the flexible plastic makes a vibrating sort of ringing sound when dropped. I guess he's learning about gravity. Interestingly, I think he's starting to understand the concept of 'falling'. He fell off the side of his crib once, and now he hovers at the edge, wanting to move forward but remembering that it hurts to fall.

When presented with a new object, his exploration sequence goes like this: examine first with eyes, then shake. Put into mouth, and finally drop it.

ReNe: nasal lube

You know the air in winter is really dry when you need nasal lube...

ReNe: 1st tooth

Last week (12 Jan), when Ryan was crying fussily and his mouth was wide open, we noticed something. "Hey! There's something whitish in his gum!"

We pried opened his mouth further, which of course made him cry all the harder, and sure enough, we could see the pair of lower front teeth still under the gum surface. The lower right looked closer to the surface, and by the weekend (17 Jan), it was out.


Funnily enough, we've always thought he drooled a lot, but last week, he was a veritable faucet! For the past five months, whenever people saw him drool, they'd exclaim, "oh, he must be teething!" If so, he must have been teething for the past five months!

And, I could be jinxing us by saying it, but it does seems like he's sleeping a little better through the nights! The past two nights, he slept through for seven hours without waking, though he still got up once around 12 or 1 to feed. Previously, he'd go to sleep anytime between 8 to 10, and get up hourly or every two hours! Of course he's not always hungry, so either the rash on his face was disturbing him, or his gums.

ReNe: ice skating at Harborfront

I went ice-skating last Saturday; the trip was organized by Charles Street Family Housing. Quite fortunately, last week was also the January thaw. Yes, oddly enough, there's always a week in January where the temperatures rise, giving people a false hope that winter's over and spring's here. So temperatures on Saturday was between 0 to 3C, and cloudy, which is also great because there was little glare from the ice.

There were quite a lot of people at the Harborfront outdoor skating rink (actually a frozen pond), including kids. Some were at the side, learning in an organized class, and some were being led by their parents at the rim of the pond. The older ones had kid-sized ice-skating boots, while the younger ones had plastic strap-on's, either one blade or two (I think these are called bob skates). The youngest were around two and a half!

teething pains

teething pains, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

You can't see it in this picture, but his lower front teeth are coming out. Little white things on his gums, barely there, just below the surface, and the part of the gums over the teeth a little raised.

Apparently, we've read that babies can be very irritable when their teeth come in. So far, so good — he's not been more irritable than usual, although we do notice that he likes to bite on things slightly more than usual.

What's really curious is friends who tell us their kids started to sleep through the night once their teeth have come in.

We are definitely waiting for his teeth to arrive then.

ReNe: 8 months -- crawling, cont.

Now that Ryan can crawl, he rarely wants to sit up (much less lie down) anymore. And with all the practice on his front, within a month, he has gotten pretty adept at moving around, turning, picking up toys and, recently, moving to a seated position from his front. He also shifts up on his hands and knees quite often, rocking back and forth, however he isn't sure what comes next. I suppose coordinating the hands and knees to move in an alternating manner is not easy.

Knocking down blocks

So, the latest toy he's been playing with are wooden blocks. Or rather, should I say that we set them up, and he knocks them down:

Baby can crawl

Baby can crawl, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Now that he can crawl, he does not like to stay seated for long. Seems like this boy is quite the adventurous one, refusing to lie down once he could sit up, and now, crawling. In the bathtub, he's been trying to hook his arms at the edge of the tub and pull himself to a standing position, clinging on to the edge like a shipwrecked sailor clings on to a floating piece of lumber.

And he's quite the cheeky, curious boy — there are some areas of the apartment which are out of bounds, for example, near the place where we park the stroller, as the floor there is quite dirty. Somehow, he is magnetically attracted to the stroller; not one day passes since he started crawling that he has not made an attempt at going close to it. He knows we forbid him from going near it. And once in a while, after a few minutes of us leaving him alone, we'd turn, see him with his head turned back at us trying to catch our eyes, then when he's satisfied we saw him, he'd chuckle, then cheekily make a break for it.

Fortunately, he's not too fast a crawler. Yet.

We wonder when he'd start running.

I expect we'd lose a bit of weight trying to run after him to stop his mischief.

ReNe: 7.5 months -- crawling

Early in December, Ryan started to exhibit an interest in some motion independence; while seated, he kept leaning forward on his hands, rocking back and forth slightly. However, unable to do anything further, he would then end up falling on his front. Clearly this was a precursor to crawling, but I thought that it would be quite some time before he would manage to actually crawl.

At the same time, he was starting to get more comfortable on his tummy. He used to hate lying on his front, much preferring to sit up, but rather suddenly last month, he was content to spend time on his tummy. And around the middle of December (18th), he started to pull himself forward. It involved a lot of flailing and any movement forward was quite accidental. Sometimes he'd end up pushing himself backwards.

Amazingly, within a week, his movements became more focused. He is now able to pull himself forward using his forearms, leopard crawling quite efficiently. It was really amazing how quickly he progressed. For months he had been content to sit and play, despite our attempts to put him on his front, then within a couple of weeks, he learned to crawl. Well, it's not the hands and knees type of crawling, but he gets around. Already he is trying to push himself up (he can do a push-up) and he can hold himself on his hands and knees; he just isn't sure what comes next.

Thus, we had to baby-proof the apartment. In addition to discovering the electric sockets, he also managed to open a drawer and catch his fingers on it. He shrieked of course. Fortunately, his fingers were all right, the flesh only slightly dented.

Just like the ones she used to know

IMG_3617, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Baby's first Christmas...

The sleeper reads:

MUM'S DREAMING OF A QUIET CHRISTMAS, JUST LIKE THE ONES SHE USED TO KNOW...!

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Carl's place for dinner on Christmas eve.

It was an interesting experience to get him to Carl's place and back. Carl lived slightly off the public transit, so we had to take the TTC subway, and then wait for a pickup by Carl's wife, Rachel, who would then drive us to their place. However, in order for him to be driven, he had to be in a baby car seat, which we did not have.

Hooray for living in student family housing, and having friends who do. We borrowed a car seat, but were surprised to find out just how heavy one of those things were. The cradle part was already fairly heavy, and then our friend emailed and told us we forgot the base which allowed the whole thing to be strapped down; the base was easily the same weight or more.

So, we had to lug baby, his toys and accessories so that he could play/fall asleep in a strange place, car seat and my photographic equipment all over the subway, and then struggle to secure the seat outdoors while the temperature hovered around 0ºC. The total load: seat—7kg; camera bag—5kg; camera accessory bag—3kg; gifts—2kg; baby—9kg; baby bag—3kg. Total load: 29 kg, and we were dressed in winter wear, which is not light. All of these were split amond the two of us...

Fortunately for us, setting up the seat was not difficult at all, and we managed to get to Carl's place not too exhausted, although I was somewhat confused why babies needed strapping down in cars but could be held in arms in public transit...

At Carl's place, he was fairly well behaved, not throwing any tantrums, and only panicking once when Rachel brought him into a room full of strangers while we took off our shoes at the door. Other than that, he shared food with us nicely.

Putting him to sleep when he eventually got tired was tough though. The place was obviously not home, and he initially refused to sleep; but after some encouragement, he decided that he could sleep after all, and amazingly, slept through for about 3 hours, something that he does not even do at home at that time of the night.

When it was eventually time to go home, at about 3am, we were fortunate that he woke about the same time, so we did not have to wake a sleeping baby. Sleepy boy could barely hold it together to make a notional protest at being strapped into the car seat before the car started to move, sending him into dreamland.

We even managed to carry him up in the car seat, place him in the living room, get changed ourselves, before putting him to bed.

All in all, a fairly interesting adventure for him, I guess.

Christmas 2009

IMG_3708, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

This last Christmas eve (2009), we visited our friend Carl and his family and friends. I met Carl as a classmate in one of the courses we took together in the winter of 2008. This was actually the second Christmas dinner we had with them; we had the first in 2008, where we were introduced to his aunts, G and M, who were in their late 70s, but still full of life, talking about how they were looking forward to skydiving on their 80th birthday. It was a fun evening, filled with conversation and laughter from the aunts which still possessed a wicked sense of humour.

The aunts left before we did; Carl and his wife, as hosts, ensured that we were all driven safely home; so the aunts departed on an earlier trip. Just as they were doing the goodbye hugs, I took this photo.