My Ma Ma's Xmas Gift

This is my Ma Ma's Xmas Gift for 2007! :) Ain't Me a Darling?

Getting Ready - Ricco's 1st Xmas & 1st BD

Christmas spells a time to outwardly express lotsof love, care and concern. A time to tell our family how much they mean to us, a time to let good friends who are always in touch know that they are special and a time to let good friends who are seldom in touch know that they will always be thought of. As usual, I started collecting (with monies out) xmas gift right from the onset of Dec. A time that I can officially shop without thinking twice :) A time to plan for the huge xmas eve dinner, little gifts for all present.. Oh Yes, I am indeed looking forward though it can be quite a bit of planning :)

This is Ricco's 1st Xmas. The 1st Xmas gift from his parents ought to be something special, something which he can look back and hold in his hands and say "This is a gift so dear for my 1st Xmas from my parents". I thought hard and long.. It came to me as I was walking through watsons. Yes, I will buy Ricco his 1st Xmas Sock! This is a gift that I can use yr after yr - placing it by his bedside after he's gone to bed and filling it with small gifts and candies. Before long, this will be a familiar gift which he can unwrap to see what fillings he's got inside yr after yr. This is a gift which he can keep for a long long time to come. This is a gift which he can say "My mummy does this yr after yr without fail". And this is a gift that reminds everyone that its xmas! I am happy with my decision.

Ricco's BD is just round the corner and planning has got to start NOW as it falls during the CNY Day 4. Getting the cake and the caterer can be quite a challenge during this festive season with many bakeries closed for a good 1 week and caterers serving only chinese new yr menu. I cant possibly have a 1st BD without a BD cake? I cant possibly serve yu sheng for my boy's 1st BD! Thus, planning gotta start NOW!

The Theme : Jungle Fun Bash
The Cake : Jungle 2-tier from eCreative (at this pt in time)
The Place : Function Room Domain (yes, i MUST call 1st thing 9am on 29th Dec)
The Buffet : Purple Sage (at this pt in time)
The Guests : All Ricco's friends and relatives (if you are reading this, you too!)
The Gift : Oh, I gotta crack my brains to think of yet another meaningful gift! Need more time on this

Extremely Looking forward!

Ricco is 9mths Old!

mummy's been lazy and not been updating Ricco's blog. OK OK, mummy promise not to be lazy again. Here's some fast updates :

1) Ricco had his 1st fever running as high as 39.4 deg. This really scares mummy and daddy out of our wits. Nonetheless, Ricco recovered after a 3days. Mild rashes follows this fever. Good thing Ricco is up and about in less than a week :)

2) Ricco's Feeding Adventure. Ricco's food variety had expanded to : brown rice, barley, oatmeal and mix grain for cereal, brown rice, white rice and millet for grains. rolled oats, spinich, brocolli, asparugus, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes and peas for vege, chicken and pork for meats, cheese and yoghurt for meats and apples, bananas, pears, apricots, peaches, melons, prunes, plums and papayas for fruits and biscuits for snacks! wow thats quite an achievement! Mummy and Daddy have not even tasted how fresh apricots tastes like! Ricco had given mummy and daddy the chance to taste fresh apricots. Thank you to Ricco :) In the pipeline, mummy has plans for egg yolks and avacodos soon!

3) Riccos' attended kindermusik, Gymboree and JG classes. Kindermusik mummy feels is a waste of time and monies. Gymboree gets boring after 2-3 lessons of repeated stuff. Mummy is happy with JG. Meaning Ricco's gotta attend class 2 times per week soon! This also means Ricco will have new friends! Maybe a galfriend too.....

Ricco's Virgin Swim

Seafolly's SPF 50 Swim Suit, Mushroom Float, Swim Diapers.....and Ricco's all ready to SWIM!

Ricco changed into his bright red swimming suit and together with the matching mushroom float, we headed towards the pool. With no wade pool, we settled for the spa pool. Ricco was initially overwhelmed by the vastness of the pool. This is nothing compared to the teeny weeny bathtub at home. He threatened to cry when we dip him in. He persevere and we persevere too. With some coaxing, we have Ricco baby slowly settling down in the waters with a tense look. Babies being babies, they get used to the waters at fast speed and in less than 5mins, we have Ricco baby relaxing, and engaging in his favourite activity - putting the float into his mouth, than his long sleeves swim suit.

This being a virgin swim, we do not want to expose him for too long in the cool waters, a good 20 minutes and he is pulled up from the pool. His face shows such sign of relieve, maybe thinking "ha, ha no more"...but he did not know... we are heading to the pool again tmr!

Poo Poo Ricco

Ricco finally poop this morning after 6 long days of wait. Everyday I tell myself and Ricco to poop the next day and after 6days of disappointment, he finally pooped this morning! I see remains of papaya, cereal and his poop smells of papaya! Zac and myself declare that we are going to celebrate!

How it happens : Poop Part 1 :

Zac as usual wake up early as 6am to take care of Ricco. After feeding him water, he was massaging his tummy and lifting his legs at the same time. Nnnng...Nnnng all the way... Before long, Ricco is also following his Daddy in making Nnnng Nnnng noises. Ms Gemok (our blur maid) was mopping the floor and caught sight of Ricco making Nnnng Nnnng noises with a highly concentrated look... she immediately calls out "Ricco poo poo huh". Zac almost immediately stopped her from disturbing him and continues with the Nnnng Nnnng noise... and out comes ALOT of poop...!! Zac was smiling from ear to ear as he clears his poop (so you see! poop clearing can be an enjoyable task!) and me on hearing that Ricco poop jumps out from bed in excitment! This is not the end of the story....

Poop Part 2 :

On the way to MIL house, me and Ricco were hyming along to "Thomas the Train". Than I realised that he goes Nnnng Nnnngg... and than I hear plop plop plop coming out from his backside followed by a super pungent smell...YES, he pooped again! 6 days of poop all done in 1 morning

Lesson learnt on Ricco's Diet :

1) No more ceereal

2) Loads of plain water, barley water

3) Change to Nan2 HA Formula

4) Lots of pureed fruits and vege (provided this naughty boy takes it)

5) Granulated sugar mixed with water (this could be the solution! not sure though...)

Looking on the Bright Side :

My MIL in her desperation to make Ricco poop had went ahead to buy a traditional, no-nonsense potty (nothing like the ducky, 3-1 or other fanciful potties we see at fanciful kids place). She is hoping that sitting on the potty will make Ricco poop. This Ricco did not achieve. However, he pee whenever he is on the potty! So, in a way, we are toilet training him at this tender age! Ricco follows us when we make Nnnng Nnnng sounds. Thus, Ms Gemok is tasked with the task of sitting him on the potty each morning after milk and goes Nnnng Nnnng with him. We hope to establish a routined poo time for him. Also, to bring him to the potty 3times a day for pee-ing.

Reading - A New Discovery

Having introduced books to Ricco and judging from his response to books, I had earlier come to the conclusion that he enjoys listening to stories. It has never occured to me that he will be bored of the same stories in just a while! And thats exactly what happened! The few stories were initially well received with Ricco hyming along as I read to him... however, day before, I again tried reading the same few books to him. I realised that he no longer hymes along! I was puzzled and was wondering why he is no longer interested. I try reading again and again and again...he sometimes will make some slight noise...but never long enough to tell me that he is enjoying the reads...

Questions pop into my mind. "Is he bored of the stories"? "Is he not feeling well"? "Is he simply not interested?" I am not sure.... To find out the cause, I begin to read new stuff to him. The Jack and Jill Rhyme, "If you are happy" song etc etc..AND amazingly, he hymes to all these new reads/songs! The other amazing thing is, once i start reading the old stuff, he stops hyming! Hence, this simply shows that he is bored of the old reads! WOW... another thing i find out about babies... they actually know and can comprehend what we are reading! They also know how to communicate! Their little ways of communications :)

So I guess I will have to be more pro-active in visiting the library to get new reads for Ricco! Need to research on DVDs and VCDs for him to sing along too!

Ricco's 1st Read

Baby Ricco's 1st story book entitled "Thomas and Friends" was presented to him about 2 weeks ago. It is a hardback red colored touch and feel story book which was meant for Baby Ricco to touch and feel, introducing him to textures and words. This is a story of Thomas, the train who has friends harrold the aeroplane and james the truck. It describes the work they do in lighthearted nursery rhymes. The story goes "Thomas loves to drive through the countryside, he toots at the cows as he passes by...".

Ricco on 1st hearing this story read by myself was impatient. With a short attention span and not being exposed to story telling as yet, he was his usual self, not being able to sit still to listen to this story, wanting to grab the book to put into his mouth. However, after a couple of reads, he shows interest and enjoyment whenever this story was read to him. He hymes along, make cute little noises like "eeehhhh, aahhhh, hmmmm..." and sometimes high sharp screams in between as the story was being read to him.

As he responded to the story, it brought a smile onto my face and this gives me much encouragement to visit the library in order to introduce more stories to him. From here onwards, the next few books are entitled "The Boy on the Bus", "Clip Clop" and "Its Monkeys Bedtime". Ricco especially loves "Clip Clop". He often squeals with delight as the book was read to him.