See how much Zac has grown

It has been exactly a year since I last posted. There were so many happenings around my life with Zac. Sometimes I wondered what will my life be without Zac?

March 2011 - A milestone that I cannot forget.

When Zac was 20 months old, he has called everyone in the household, including my helper, BUT not me. He refused to call Mummy. I was pretty upset and jealous when he called the rest of the family members. I waited patiently. 

On 30 March 2011, a milesotne that I cannot forget, the day Zac called me. Happily after work, I went back to my parents' place for dinner (my usual routine). While we were having dinner, Zac playfully said Mamee. It was soft, my parents and hubby said I heard wrongly.  "Fine!" I thought to myself. Later in the evening, when I put Zac to sleep (he usually likes to lie on my tummy or snuggle next to me), he was behaving as usual. Suddenly he turned around and got up, I said to him sternly that he should go to sleep. In the dark, he looked at me, and before I could continue to tell him to sleep, he said "Ma meeee" and came to kiss me on my lips. Awwwwww, I was so happy! I hugged him and kissed him and praised him good boy! I was grining from ear to ear throughout the whole session. After Zac slept, I dashed out and told my hubby what happened. So I was right, he did call me Mamee during dinner time! Anyway, it was a easy day to remember, he was 20 month old, he called me mommy at 11pm in the year of 2011. 2011-2011!

Let me arrange my photos and update again. Stay tune. 

Zac's photoshoot

Before Zac was born, I signed up with Sean Lau photography at one of the mothers and babies fair in 2009. I fell in love with those pictures that Sean showcased, I thought the photos looked pretty close to Anne Greddes ones.

The photography session was long overdue. My original plan was to have the photos taken 2-3 months before his 1st birthday. Due to Sean's packed schedule, we only managed to get a slot just 2 weeks before his birthday! I was so worried that I am not able to showcase this photos during the party. Adeline (Sean's wife) assured that they will try their best to give us the soft copies before the birthday party and so we took their words for it.

During my trip to Paris with hubby in June, I took the opportunity to buy some clothes for Zac. We got him a set of soccer jersey, printed France on it. It was the World Cup fever then, and so we thought it would be a good idea to buy a French jersey! We knew he is going to look very cute in them. We also got him a soccer ball printed France on it from Adidas. That made a complete set!

Fast forward to the photoshoot day.

I woke up early that morning to pack his barang barang, and made sure I did not miss out any items. Besides his 'costumes' with his matching accessories, I also packed his snacks (banana and baby biscuits), milk and water to keep him from getting hungry. Not forgetting, I also packed his favourite soft toys, Squirt from Finding Nemo which we bought from Euro Disney, giraffe and penguin.

When we arrived at Sean Lau's studio located at Bendemeer Road, I lined up all his costumes on the table for Sean to select, while daddy was busy warming up Zac to get used to the studio. Zac was doing well during the warm up shots.. soon we started changing him into the various costumes.

 

It was not easy to cajole him to smile, both daddy and myself had to use every possible means to get his precious smile. There were a few occassion where he was not cooperative and hence we had to forego some shots. Overall, he was ok and we enjoyed ourselves. He was not very pleased with the changing parade after a few rounds of it.We had frequent breaks to feed him his favorite snacks to keep him going.

After 2 hours of lights camera actions, we were all exhausted. After loading our stuff back into the car, I fed Zac some milk and before I know it, he fell into his deep sleep on our way home.

As promised by Adeline, we managed to view the photos on the same weekend. I was worried that it may not have turn out well. Guess not! Sean was able to capture all the great shots of Zac. We decided to purchase all the photos instead. We chose a few photos for touch up and prints. We were very happy with the photos and couldn't wait to showcase it to our relatives and friends on his birthday.

Thank you Sean and Adeline for capturing Zac beautiful pictures! You guys did a great job!

Flashback (again) from 12th month to 20th month

I couldn't help but admit I am a lazy mommy. After reading the last post, it was written and published on June 2010. I can remember clearly that I did a flashback of Zac from 4 months to 11 months during my trip to Paris/Geneva. So, this time I have to do another flashback of Zac from his 1 year old to 20 months. I will try my best to recall what happened during these 8 months...


Maybe I should not placed all the developments and special occassions in one post... Look forward to the following posts of Zac..

1. Zac's photoshoot
2. Zaczac's moomoo birthday party
3. Mooncakes & Lanterns
4. Zac's enrichment playgroup with GUG
5. Zac's first holiday
6. "Dad-deeee"
7. CNY 2011
8. Zac's first A&E experience
9. Zac refuse to call Mommy
10. Zac adventures
11. Zac and his allergy
12. 20-15, 2015hrs


I will add as we go along.. so much to write! :) Stay tune!

Flashback from 4th month till 11th Month

I felt so guilty for not keeping my words to blog Zac's growth regularly! The last post was back when he was 3 months old! What a useless mommy I am :P

So much happened during the past 8 months. I tried to remember as much milestones as I can, but I am sure I will miss out some :(

Seeing those little tricks from Zac really amazes me. On the very day when Zac turned 4 months old, we brought him for his 2nd haircut (the 1st haircut was during the 1st month). Due to the ugly patches on his head due to the shedding, I had no choice but to bring him for a shave. I brought him there reluctantly. Guess what? Apparently Zac could carry very well with his botak look. He did not fuss throughout the whole session. Everyone commented that Zac looked really good in his new hairstyle (what hairstyle? No hair at all!)

 Zac also attended his first wedding during the same month. It was my maternal cousin's wedding at Mariott.

My dad bought him a walker. His feet could hardly touch the floor when we put him in the walker. My innovative Mom actually placed thick telephone directories under his feet so that he could rest his both feet on them. He spent his days chewing on chewy toys. We were wondering if he was teething soon!

Zac could sit by himself during his 6th month. By then, he was able to "walk on his own" with his walker. He love to chase us when he is in the walker. Not to mention, all of us had bruises and cuts from his walker!

We brought him to Marriot High Tea one Sunday. He had fun with the high chair while grandma fed him porridge. Oh, did I miss out? He started his first solid food when he was 4 and half months. It was funny to see his reaction when he had his first spoon of puree. But he loves it! We then proceeded with cereal once a day for him.

Soon, when he was close to 6 mths (after I stopped breastfeeding him), he started porridge since. He started with pork to flavour the porridge and promoted to eating mince pork as he grew older. He has lots of vegies as well. He loves scallop flavoured porridge (just like his mommy).

Zac started to be vocal and imitate us. He will blabber and make noise. He is very sticky to grandma, coz she is his primary caregiver since I started working. He will always go to the kitchen to explore. His favourite kitchen toy was the basket. We will put the basket on his head and it does look like his hat.

He loved his ah yee's giraffe. And so ah yee bought another one just for him. That is his first stuff animal. He will put the giraffe in his mouth and "arum" it. That leaves lots of saliva on his giraffe. Now when we ask him "Where is giraffe?" He will point at it or run to his room in his walker to get the giraffe and "arum" it straightaway. It is really funny to see that reaction!

I gave him the teddy that I bought for him from Hokkaido back in 2008 and introduced that as bearbear. He loves the bearbear too. He will "arum" the bearbear. Maybe that is the way to show his love to his stuff animals. The teddy has a tiny pillow sewn on it. That is Zac's favourite too! He will bite the pillow till it is soaked with his saliva and then threw it away. My mom had to soak it with hot water and then hang it out to dry for few days. It was amazing to see how soaking wet that little pillow was! I love it! haha!!

Zac celebrated his first CNY. He had lots of ang pao from everyone. There were so many photos taken during those CNY celebrations. Let the photos speak the thousand words...

We brought Zac to Ion. He seems to enjoy this shopping trip. Check out those photos taken in Ion.

During March 2010 this year, we celebrated my mom's birthday at Oscar, in Conrad. Zac was 8 months old then. I love the baseball jersey I got from him. We gave him a baguette and he put it in his mouth! It was a funny scene!

Let me fast forward some of the milestones...
- he started crawling when he was 6 months
- he learnt to wave byebye, flying kisses, did the twinkle twinkle little stars action, ...
- he had his first tooth when he was close to 9 months old
- he had his first fever when he was 10 months old. It was quite tiring for me coz  Zac Daddy was not in Singapore. Lucky po po is there to take care of him as well. I had to camp po po place for 3 nights to take care of him.
- he always say "po", "air-pur" (apple), "mum mum", "da da da", "hug hug"... and others that I could not figure it out.
-  Now he has 3 teeth, two from the bottom, and 1 on top.
- he is able to stand on his own.
- he started taking small steps on his own!

There were so much more to write.. but my thoughts are not organised. I think I will stop here and continue each time I have inspiration to pen down again!

Flashback of Zaczac - 3rd Month

Second came and passed quickly.. It was time to move back to our Seng Kang home. I started going back to Seng Kang lovenest weekly to clean up the house and prepare for Zaczac's homecoming. As I was packing, I realised that there were not enough storage space to accomodate Zaczac's clothes and toys. It was quite frustrating as I packed. I decided to talk to my hubby about renovating the house instead.

We have always played with the idea of renovating our lovenest. Back in five years ago, when we bought this place, we did minimal renovation due to tight budget. But now that Zaczac is here, we need more storage and it was time to rewire all the electrical wires in the house. Our laminated wood in the walk-in wardrobe showed signs of wear and tear. Thoughts were also given that we will not be buying another house for the next few years because we are comfortable with where we are now. And also, since Zaczac has not officially moved back, we should consider renovating the lovenest.

There were more pros than cons to have the renovation. And so the renovation project started. I shall not elaborate about the house renovation in this blog :) Here is a picture of Zaczac back at his Sengkang home before the renovation.

In this month, Zaczac went to many places, after confined in the house for about 2 months? Here are some of the places he went..

Zaczac went for his first 5in1 jab on the 19 October 2009. We were expecting him to wail after his Hep B saga. But to our surprise, he was ok with the jab. Probably he was distracted by the toys lying in front of him. His PD said he was a good boy! I'm glad :)

Zaczac met his another great-grandfather, i.e. my maternal grandfather. My grandfather hardly smiles, but the moment he saw Zaczac, he smiled! Zaczac cooed at his great-grandfather and he complimented that Zaczac is a smart boy. *grin* This is a picture taken at the great-grandparents' place.

On one fine Monday in late September, both my mom and I brought Zaczac to Northpoint for a walk. We do not have a stroller then, so I put him in the Babyjorn sling. He was quite comfortable in there and was sleeping throughout our shopping at Northpoint. Here's a picture of him falling asleep before I ate my lunch.

Zaczac visited his great-uncle's family at Harbourview Tower. Everyone just love to get his attention, especially his great-aunty. Just some pictures of hubby and I feeding him milk.



Zaczac's first shopping trip at Orchard Road was to Paragon. We brought him there to test drive his stroller. It was a fun experience because Zaczac was so happy during the test drive. Some pictures to show you his happy experiences!

Hubby and I checked out the various nursing room in Orchard area. We have been to the nursing rooms in Paragon (5th Level), Ion, Takashimaya shopping centre and Isetan. In the suburb area, we been to IMM, AMK hub and Northpoint. They are a must especially we bring Zaczac out.

Zaczac's grandparents were away to Beijing for a week. And I had to take care of him by myself. It was not as bad as I thought. Hubby worked from home on one of the days to help me out. The time spent with Zaczac was so priceless. It was not as bad as I thought it was. I was coping well! :) After staying at home for a week, hubby brought us to AMK hub for dinner. We thought we should try having dinner at AMK hub's foodcourt. It was so crowded, and we waited for a good table for 20 minutes. Zaczac entertained us while we waited. Good boy!

Zaczac's motor skill is always improving. He loves to do his 'crawl'.  Everyone will entertain him by supporting him on his chest so that he can move.

What else? I have to recall as I go along.. till then... :)

Flashback of Zaczac - 2nd month

One month has passed, everything went well. Hubby and I were still staying at my parents' place because it was the lunar 7th month, also known as Hungry Ghost festival. Being superstitious, I was not keen to bring Zaczac out of the house, so decided to stay for one more month, moreover, I had extra pairs of hands when in need.

My mum worked permanent night shift, so she could only help me during the day and I took care of Zaczac throughout the night. Zaczac slowly adjusted his bioclock and woke up less during the night, except for his feeds. He can be really impatient when comes to feed, he will demand for milk immediately and poor hubby had to make Zac's milk in his fastest speed.

Zaczac went for his second Hep B injection on 14 August 2009. He was alright throughout the whole checkup until he was given the jab. He wailed. PD warned that it was going to be painful. Being an emotional mummy, my tears just rolled down my cheeks after seeing my son wailed so hard. PD quickly carried him up and cuddled him. He stopped crying straight away. Here's a pic of his battered scar! 

Shortly after his first month, my mom suggested that Zaczac should shave his hair (poor boy!). Hubby and I protested that Zaczac shall not go bald! He has such nice hair and it is a pity to see him go bald! To compromise, Zaczac trimmed the back of his hair for the usual chinese ritual. He had his eyebrows shaved as well, so that it will grow thicker, according to my mom. Well, I gave in because there were not much brow hair then. Guess what? Zaczac did not fuss through out the process, he was sleeping! *haha*

I could remember clearly Zaczac suffered slight colic for few days in his early 2nd month. He did not wail as described in those reference books, but he showed signs of discomfort every night. He would cry and we suspected he had lots of wind in his tummy. We would find ways to help him get rid of those nasty winds (by applying Ru-yi oil and burp him all the time). It was upsetting to see my dear bub going through that phase. I tried swaddling him and cradle him to sleep. My friends gave me some good advices to follow as well. I called Zaczac's PD and asked for her opinion. She said he would probably need some wind drops which can be bought in any pharmacy. Hubby bought it that very day and gave the drops to Zaczac. He did feel slightly better. Since then, we always put 0.5ml of Rid Wind in his milk before he goes to sleep. PD also prescribed him with Probiotics.

Another incident which I remembered clearly was Zaczac's naval. After the umbilical cord has fallen off, the naval never seems to dry off, there were some white sticky stuff in the naval. We tried cleaning with cord spirit, it didn't work. Being an anxious mummy, I called Zaczac's PD again. She suggested that I bring him down for consultation. PD prescribed that it was Granumola and needed Silver Nitrate to treat it. I was told it is not painful, just black stain around the naval and it will go away after a few weeks. However, after 1 week, Zaczac situation did not improve, and so I called PD again. She suggested another treatment was required. Indeed, the granoluma dried off after the second treatment. The naval now looks perfect!

Sometime during the second month, Zaczac had problem pooping regularly. That worried me. I did some research online and even post it in Facebook to ask for advices. Some suggested I change his milk formula and some advised I should massage his tummy and exercise his legs in bicycle movement to encourage bowel movements. I tried all ways, there was still no sign of Zaczac's poop. After 4 days, he pooped! It was a great family affair because everyone in the family will ask if Zaczac has pooped yet. So the moment Zaczac pooped, everyone was so happy for him. I was relieved!

I thought it was an one-off. I was wrong, he has decided that he should only poop after four days or more. It can be really worrying, but PD and GP told me that it is normal and I should not worry unless he is passing out hard stools (which he did not). I was told by PD that babies who are on breastmilk may encounter such problem, as long as it is not hard stool, that is ok! After awhile, I got used to his poo patterns. But Zaczac is a good boy, he will give prior warning that he will be pooping soon. How? He will show signs of "nnnnggggg" on his face the day before he poops! *ROFL*

I am trying to recall what other happenings during the 2nd month... ahhh... since he slept in the proning position all the time, that attributes to his strong neck muscle. He was able to lift up his head with minimal support required. He also like to 'crawl' even though he is still too young for it. We will always give him a push to help him moved forward when he tried to crawl. It is really funny to see him 'crawl' at times!

We stopped putting on mittens for him after 5th week. This was because the naughty boy always put the mittens in his mouth! Notti Notti!

I must say 2nd month was still a steep learning curve for a new mummy like me! 

Below are some pictures of Zaczac taken during the 2nd month: