Partays 2012

Happy Birthday to me!!

Happy six months to Curtasee!!

Happy married life to Faye and Danny!!

What a whirlwind of events this weekend!  Well, at least for the last few days.  CLM turned six months on Saturday, which happened to be Faye's big day!  At her expense (hor hor hor), we threw Curtasee a big six-month birthday bash.  LOL, open bar and everything!  It was a super long day, since I went from Friday morning at 9am all the way until Saturday night (Sunday morning) after 1am without sleep!  So over 40 hours straight!  Well, for me it was really difficult, especially because I've been so sleep deprived for the last six months!  and I had to drive...it was bad (I dozed off numerous times driving home from the ceremony and almost rear-ended 文生).  Horrible!  I had a great time though.  Food was great, company was better.  So happy for Faye and Danny!  Better yet, Sandra came back to TO to attend the wedding!  I miss her so much!

LOL, the bride is MIA...

Family pic!

See?  Open bar!

Good thing Sunday was sleep catch up day...got a few hours in, whew!

Caught up still!!  Yatta!

Then today!  My birthday!  First, I had to take Curtasee to the pediatrician for his six month check up.  Weighed in at 17lbs 11ozs, back to 50th percentile.  Got jabbed twice and didn't even lift a brow.  Impressed the doctor BIG TIME!  I'm so proud!  Then Tinlop invited Cindy, Meishan and Karen up to my place for dinner.  OMG, too much food!  Kumamoto oysters, uni, cake, macarons, sushi, fruit trays... I feel loved!  Had some wine, great food, great company... can't ask for anything else!

Then I had a 細V moment

Poor Curtasee was so tired, LOL didn't get to sleep until close to midnight.  I should have gone to bed then, but decided to stay up and blog.  I know I'd regret it tomorrow... 3:30am...off to bed now!

Almost End of July La~!

It's almost the end of July (already!) and that means my dearest Curtasee is almost six months old!  Oh boy, time certainly flies!  The sleeping/napping situation is still not great though...

Oh, my Curtasee!  Love you to bits and bits and bits and bits!!!

I Know What I Want For My Birthday This Year!

Aaaahhhh, brings back high school memories!!!  The white one is soooooo sweet!!!

Avocado 好好味!

Curtasee's journey to solids is off to a pretty good start I suppose.  Just a week of spewing out his rice cereal, LOL, and we see progress!  Thanks to the second food we gave him: avocado!  He seems to like avocado quite a bit because his first serving was a good tablespoonful, all in his mouth and NOT his clothes!  This mammie is so impressed!  Coupling his rice cereal with avocado seems to work rather well too so he's eating more and more of the cereal and less and less end up on his clothes.  Tee hee!  Next up: sweet potato!  Let's hope I don't jinx it!

Sleep deprived Curtasee is so grouchy =(

Now if only I can get Curtasee to sleep...

Curtasee, 點解你唔瞓呢?

I thought what all babies did were eat, poop and sleep.  Not my CLM!  He eats, he poops (boy, he poops) but he does NOT sleep.  See, I don't mind waking up several times a night to feed IF he goes back to sleep.  What he does now is wake up for a feed and then stays up.  Sometimes it takes me two hours to get him back to sleep, only to have him wake up an hour later.  我就嚟癲啦!  For the last few days, I've noticed that he no longer falls asleep in the car, stroller, bouncy chair (though he rarely fell asleep in it), not with a pacifier (again, he rarely did anyway), not when rocked, and get this: sometimes not even when nursed.  O.M.G.  Hell breaks loose now.  I can't even feed the bad habit :( not even if I wanted to.  What have I done?!?

So that's nighttime.  Now daytime naps are another story.  In the last few days, CLM napped a maximum of 2 hours.  All day!  and when I say maximum, I mean maximum.  Like, at most.  Today, he napped for no more than an hour.  Ten minutes in the morning, forty minutes in the afternoon and ten minutes in the early evening.  So much for 5-month-olds needing 3 naps totaling 4-5 hours and 9-11 hours at night.  I'd be lucky if he sleeps 6 hours in an entire day.

With efforts to put poor sleep-deprived CLM on a better sleep/nap schedule, I've started a consistent bedtime routine this week.  Although I know I won't see immediate results, I didn't expect things to go downhill!  In attempts to get him in bed by 8:30pm, I start his bedtime routine roughly around 7:30pm.  First with a bath, then story, some songs, then nursing.  This boy just will not sleep!  He starts off all nice and relaxed, happy, giggly then all of a sudden, hell breaks loose and he starts wailing.  I can't keep him in his crib, my bed, anywhere!  Of course, I then give in and let him play (happily) until he starts crying again at around 10:30pm before I nurse him again, to sleep.  So people say, just try to put him down earlier, before he gets too tired and overstimulated.  Sigh...yes, I know...blah blah blah...easier said than done.

Contrary to freaking older generation beliefs, keeping babies up during the day DOES NOT lead to better sleep at night.  SO!  Since CLM napped for all of an hour today, slept crappily last night, had crappy naps the day before, I can pretty much predict that shit will hit the fan tonight.

Now, do I hear a little bitterness you ask?  You betcha.  I'm running on fumes, my poor CLM is not getting enough sleep and then I have people harping down my back telling me what I should be feeding my son?!? and this time it's water.  Like really?  Why not milk?  Because milk's 88% water anyway and that's not good enough?!?  What's so magical about water that you have to insist I give it despite me telling you over and over again it's not necessary?  Is there a nice way to um, say...FACK OFF?!?

/vent
/rant

Now I need some wine...

Chrysanthemum Tea Jelly 杞子桂圓菊花茶凍

I made chrysanthemum tea jelly the other day.  It was a perfect solution for the hot weather this week.  Really refreshing!  Not to mention 清熱、解毒、明目.

Chrysanthemum Tea Jelly
杞子桂圓菊花茶凍

5 cups brewed chrysanthemum tea
4 tsp unflavoured gelatin
90g rock sugar (冰糖)
small handful of dried longan (桂圓)
small handful of goji berries (杞子)

1. Grab a handful of dried white chrysanthemums (杭菊) and add 5 cups of boiling water.  Cover and let steep.
2. Strain tea. (to cheat, just buy some 菊花茶, then you can omit the rock sugar).  Set aside two cups of tea, divided.
3. Rinse longan and goji berries and let soak in one cup of the tea.  Set aside, reserving liquids.
4. Sprinkle gelatin over the other cup and let sit to soften, about 5 minutes.
5. Over medium heat, dissolve rock sugar in remaining 3 cups of tea.  Stir in gelatin/tea mixture and mix until gelatin is completely dissolved.  Add longan, goji berries (and the liquids).
6. Pour cooled mixture evenly into glasses and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight for best results.

Easy peasy and very yummy!

Not Much Luck

Lately, CLM has been munching on his fingers, fist, or rather, anything he can get his mouth into and drooling uncontrollably.  I'm guessing he's starting to teethe, which explains his crazy lack of a decent sleep schedule.  Unfortunately for me, he went from waking up once per night to feed to an average of three times (every 2-2.5 hours) and THEN he refuses to go back to sleep!  On a good night, he'd stay awake, wanting to play for two hours and on a bad one like last night, he cries on and off for at least two hours before falling asleep...at like 6am... like O.M.G.  Not talking, not making eye contact, keeping lights off, etc. obviously does not deter him...sigh.  So for the last few nights, I've had all of 1.5 - 3hours of sleep.  Crazy!  Not to mention he takes his sweet time nursing too!  From 20 minutes before to at least 45 minutes now.  It's like he's a newborn all over again.  Worst thing is, I'm so awake by the time he finally falls asleep that I can't go back to sleep myself and as soon as I do, he's awake again :(  I wonder if this is what people call the four month sleep regression (that lasts until when?).

Besides not sleeping, CLM now does the following things (aka developmental milestones):

• Drools a LOT
• Chews on Sophie, his fingers, his fist, my fingers 
• Still pulls his hair and ears when he's fussy and upset
• Reaches for his feet and occasionally sucks on his toes if he can get at them
• Rolls from side to side when we change him (making it quite the challenge)
• Still doesn't know to fall asleep by himself
• Pinches me in all the places that hurt, like the underside of my arm - ouch!
• Sticks out his pointy tongue and keeps it out, lol
• Sits up by himself for a little bit before falling head first forward, haha
• Starts to recognize people but will still allow himself to be carried by "strangers"
• Super nosy, especially during feeds.  Turns to look at everything.  I can't tell if he's more efficient at eating or if he's just so nosy that he shortens his feed time.  I guess since he's generally quite a happy camper after his feeds that he's probably just efficient.  I hope. 
• Kicks his feet when he's lying down
• Loves to stand
• Can keep himself occupied with certain stimuli until he gets "bored"
• Did I mention he's super nosy and drools a lot?

Pointy, just like daddy's

Solids
After poor CLM's oatmeal allergy the week before, we let him rest up a bit before starting him again on rice cereal.  Although he shows interest in our food (he keeps drooling and smacking his lips when he sees us eat) he definitely doesn't seem too interested in rice cereal!

• Day 1, July 3 - barely ate a few spoonfuls.  By 6pm, projectile vomited not twice but three times :(
• Day 2, July 4 - spat out more than he took in (diluted with his saliva)
• Day 3, July 5 - cried every time the spoon came within 2cm proximity to his mouth.  All smiles once spoon is taken away.  He probably ate 1 teaspoon worth
• Day 4-6, July 6-8 - clamped his mouth shut most of the time, but with someone holding his arms down and me being persistent, probably got a few more baby spoonfuls into his mouth (文生's mom blames it on CLM not being hungry enough - darn, doesn't this sound familiar?)  I swear, if one more person questions whether I have enough milk to feed CLM or even remotely suggests that I supplement with formula/solids, I am going to lose it.

Yeah, take that!

I have this weird feeling tonight's going to be another loooong one.  This post took three hours to write and CLM woke up four times already... I should really head to bed.

Week 27!  Still on track!

On the other hand, I've finally decided to retire CLM's 3-6M clothes as it's been a while since he's been snugly fitting in them.  Babies really do grow fast!

Twenty Twelve is Half Gone

This is it!  Week 26 is officially done.  Meaning 2012 is half over.  Where did the time go?  Good news is I'm still caught up with P365 despite lacking interesting photos to scrap (then again, CLM is interesting enough to dominate my pages).  On the contrary, my HK October 2011 is still stuck on day 2 :( poo.  Gotta get on it!

Yet another CLM dominated page.  Life as a mom is not too interesting for me is it?

So a heat wave hit us this week, bringing us HK-like summer temperatures.  Other than trying to stay cool, I pretty much had another uneventful week.  Wait, there was poor Curtasee's hospital visit and Sofia's BBQ yesterday.  Okay fine, not too uneventful.  LOL~

Yes, I'm still very Starbucks-hooked.  For the record, I just O-嘴'd at the fact that there are people who buy Starbucks gift cards (no monetary value on it) on ebay.  Four bucks a piece, plus shipping.  O-M-G.  Now I know why my local sbux ran out of the limited edition Canada Day gift cards so easily.  Maybe I should give this a shot and try and sell a few myself ;)  Sheesh.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Canada!