Hello Rubber Ducky!

This is a huge moment for us. Chubbs is 6-months old and a hefty 8.1kg! To celebrate this major milestone, we bought him his first rubber ducky. I've named this little fella Sunshine. It's the first time Chubbs has had company in the bath.

 "Who dat?!"

 "Gotcha!"

We brought Chubbs to Dr. Chan (our paediatrician) for his routine check and jab, and decided to do a scan today because she still hears the heart murmur (noticed it 3-months back). Chubbs had 10 cables (6 on the chest and 1 on each limb) attached to him and we had to pin him down for about 15-min as they did the EKG and the echo. It was a challenge.

Bad news. Dr. Chan detected 2 holes in Chubbs' heart, measuring 4.3mm in total. When she showed them to me on the screen, I almost cried. It is diagnosed as Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). However, she doesn't suggest any treatment just yet. Chubbs will be doing yearly scans to see if they close up on their own. Otherwise, we might be looking at surgery at age 5. Please keep little Chubbs in your prayers.

Despite this set-back, I can't believe how far we've come with Chubbs (I'm tearing up). If you had told me when I first brought him home, that I will have such a happy, healthy, playful, good-natured baby in a few months' time, I would have thought: "What are the chances!?" I look at Chubbs and know that it is God's grace that has carried him through. It's a miracle that this is the same baby Chubbs who had 12-hour bouts of colic crying, who had to sleep upright in our arms every night because of bad reflux (he has a milder case of it now), who had so much wind in his tummy that I could feel the air bubbles coursing through his body (it caused him agonising pain) when I put my hand on him, who we sometimes held for 36-hours straight just to comfort him, etc. Those tough months have indeed paid off many times over.

 "I'm a big boy now, Mommy!"

I count my blessings everyday with Chubbs. He is perfection to us, because we know that so many things could have gone much worse (we have read and heard too many horror stories) when he was forming inside me, at delivery, or even now. He is (super) active, strong (he can get into push-up position... I can't) and growing up well despite the congenital heart disease. The ASD doesn't seem to have slowed him down.

Chubbs, you are our pride, our love and our joy. Daddy and Mommy love you very much.

 My precious little bundle.

 Big kisses for Chubbs!

Food... Finally!

The long-awaited day is here. Chubbs got his first taste of semi-solids today. Hurrah! Good on you, buddy! We waited until he's 6-months old because that is the recommended age by WHO now, to minimise the risk of allergies. Also, Chubbs' paediatrician says it's ok to wait since he is gaining good weight on milk alone.

Chubbs is being fed Organic Brown Rice Cereal from HealthyTimes. I'm a firm believer of organic food (although Fuzzy isn't quite). Having said that, I'm not going to be psychotic about only feeding him organic forever, I just don't want him to be injesting pesticides and chemical fertilisers as his first meals.

I was initally going to prepare food from scratch for Chubbs daily. I've bought the organic brown rice, grinder, pot, whisk, storage containers, chopping boards, blender, ceramic peeler etc. But I decided to go with commercial rice cereal (even though I generally dislike food out of a packet) because it is fortified with iron, which is crucial for brain development (he needs 11mg daily!!!). Brown rice on its own is simply lacking in iron. Having said that, I'll still be feeding home-made cereal to Chubbs, but only when I start introducing other iron-rich foods to him.

It's all very exciting. Sitting Chubbs in his high-chair, putting his new bib on, getting his mini utensils ready, etc.

"Feed me!"

He loved the cereal, and did not make as big a mess as we envisioned. The whole time I fed him, Chubbs craned his neck towards his spoon, took a mouthful and smacked his lips (super cute) after gulping it down. He even demanded for seconds (and finished it)!

Judging by his squeals of delight, laughter, and beaming smile, I'm guessing he was one very satisfied customer.

He was so proud of himself.

If Chubbs is anything like me (greedy/ food-lover), we're gonna be in for a swell time in the months to come. Yeehaa!

A Simple Dinner

Here's one for the foodies out there. Fuzzy and I made ourselves dinner tonight- first time in a long, long while. The rest of the house went for Marutama ramen. Chubbs napped while we cooked but decided to grace us with his company half-way through the meal.

"Hello Mommy!"

We made our favourite Pasta Aglio Olio (we could eat variations of this everyday and not tire of it). Something special tonight though, we cracked open the bottle of white truffle oil that Fuzzy gave me for Christmas. Here's the menu:

Tasmanian double cream brie with Lavosh crackers

Vermicelli with garlic and rosemary, drizzled with white truffle oil.

Chocolates from Switzerland and home-baked choc-chip cupcakes.

We washed it all down with a bottle of 2004 Carmenere.

Simple yet scrumptious.

p.s. Fuzzy doesn't know this. But I also had quarter of a jar of Nutella together with my nightly mug of Milo after putting Chubbs down to sleep. Heh.

Baby Massage part deux

We finally went for the 2nd part of the massage series. We missed it last time around because Chubbs came down with a fever from his 5th-month jab. Today, we focussed on massaging baby's back and shoulders, and recapped what we've learnt overall.

The course administrators do not recommend massage classes for babies older than 6-months. And we found out why the hard way today. Chubbs is starting to crawl, and can flip over on his tummy before you can even blink, so he's not content just lying there for 90-minutes anymore. Fuzzy had a rather interesting job of lasso-ing Chubbs back everytime he attempts to escape the mat.

But the best part of the session came when all the babies were put on their bellies on the same mat. Chubbs LURVED it! He was babbling to his friends, touching their hands, and could not get enough.

 baby conference

Babies who didn't like this were taken by their parents, leaving Chubbs with a sweet little girl and a REALLY roly-poly boy (plus an on-looker).

 Chubbs holding her hand

It was adorable watching them interact with each other (they like to mimic each other's actions). Chubbs thoroughly enjoyed himself and was a little gloomy when we had to go.

Chubbs: "Want to come over to my place for some milk? But BYO."

Squishy Face

Chubbs debuts a new expression almost everyday. His most recent funny face is squinting his eyes while baring his gums, with his cheeks scrunched up (about 30 times today already). Cracks us up big time.

p.s. Chubbs is modelling some of my hand-painted designs.

New Job and @

I love March! I am officially full-time mom to my almost 6-month old son. This is the happiest I have ever been, though I never thought I'd opt to be a domestic administrator. I tendered early February and have been serving my notice through garden leave. For those who don't know, I was slave to a bank for the past two and a half years. Working 12-hour days, weekends, and clinching that extra deal was top priority. Life revolved around customers, numbers, revenue, etc. It was never enough. I always needed more.

I started slowing down once pregnant with Chubbs. Sure, I still took the train to work every morning, travelled to meet Fuzzy for lunch, ran all over the island to sign deals... But I cut down on weekend hours, and did not meet customers after 7pm, to let my body rest (meaning- eat) and spend quality time with Fuzzy.

Since Chubbs came along, life became simplier. Fuzzy and I figured that there was no point getting paid to work in a job that wasn't gratifying, to pay someone else to do a job that I love and want to do.

So here I am... stay home mom. Fuzzy is pleased, because I promise him lovely packed lunches like we used to have (we brought lunch from home to work everyday- they were delicious). Over the past month, I have been able to deliver 50% of the time. Usually, his lunch bag consists of a sandwich/ noodle salad, a sweet treat (usually a home-baked muffin or cupcake), a snack (veggie and dip), and maybe some fruit/ juice. His current favourite lunch is grilled spicy pork sausages with lemon-scented mash.

More importantly, he can have peace of mind when at work and focus on his job, knowing that Chubbs is well taken care of. I am excited about my new designation... I fear it's going to be the toughest one yet.

 "Go Mommy!"

p.s. I've decided to change my alias to Greedy Mommy. Since I'm no longer Little (thanks to Chubbs), or Miss (thanks to Fuzzy). But I am still, and forever will be... Greedy. So, there!

 my daily jar of cookies :)

 swimming and coffee-ing!

p.s. These are photos of me when I was 4-months preggers :)

Great Start to March!

Chubbs slept through the night (11pm to 7am)! First time in months! He woke up for a feed and change, then fell back asleep till 10am. Good job, buddy! Which also means that Fuzzy and I got to sleep-in. A very rare luxury.

 snoozy...

After a relaxing breakfast- large mug of Italian coffee and home-made vanilla bean shortbread (I tried a new recipe, turned out excellent!), we settled down for some play time with Chubbs. He showed off his mad crawling skills by worming his way around his crib, all the time sucking his hand.

 This boy can multi-task!

We brought him out after his nap for some Daiso shopping, then visited his grandaunt (aka Yee) for tea. Been wanting to go over for weeks now, but couldn't find the time to. Yee just returned from Dubai so we had copious anounts of baclava to boost our blood sugar levels (braving the crowd at Daiso takes a lot).

Rest of the day was (happily) uneventful with the same old... Chubbs napped, had dinner, took a splashy bath, terrorized Slimey, and went off to bed.

 "Juicy ears!"

 Sorry Slimey :(

Oh, forgot to mention. It was an especially good day because we didn't get called for the baby show finals at the Expo. Heh :) Happy March-ing everyone!