Julian at 4 Months

Julian turns 4 months old today. We were supposed to get him weighed this week but our work schedules didn't allow us to take him to the Taman Tun Sardon clinic. We will only know his weight when we take him there next week. [1 October 2007 Update: Julian weighs 6.8kg. He was 6.2kg at 3 months.]

We have been putting him to play on his tummy more often now and he can now lift his head whilst being on his tummy... some effort is required but he sometimes smiles in the process. So, we think he is happy with his progress.

Julian can now turn 90% from being on his back to his tummy. Presently, he likes to turn over on his left side and he still can't seem to free his left hand from under his tummy. In the process, he groans and wails... quite pitiful. Hopefully he'll free his "underhand" soon :o).


[Heads Up!]


[Julian happy with his legs crossed]

Carrot Crop

This is something I do once in a blue moon with what's left of the carrots used for cooking. I'll put the top part of the carrot in a little bit of water and leave it for a 2-3 days just to see new leaves grow.

Do they eventually grow roots and mature to become new carrots? Well, no... the bottom portion eventually rots. Haven't tried planting it in soil though... but my guess is that it'll rot too.

Perhaps, I can just harvest the leaves...


[My Carrot Crop]

Baby Bronchiolitis

No... it's neither a dinosaur nor a new vegetable. Julian has been sick for about a week now. He started coughing on his baptism day last Saturday (15 September 2007). He then started having fever on Sunday for about 2-3 days which was brought under control with paracetamol syrup. To help loosen phlegm, his paediatrician prescribed Berodual via nebuliser.

We learnt that babies tend to sweat more when they are sick. Also, since they don't know how to spit out phlegm, they swallow it and this may make them pass motion more often and the stool tends to be a little slimy.

He is much better now. Still coughing occasionally. Hope he recovers fully soon.


[Julian being "nebulised"]

Tuna Balls and Macaroni Cheese

We had tuna balls and macaroni cheese for dinner today. Very simple to prepare... a so-called lazy-man recipe.

The tuna balls were a simple mixture of a can of tuna, 4 chopped shallots, and 2 eggs.

The macaroni cheese was prepared using 150gm of macaroni (could have reduced to about 120gm since we're both not big eaters). After cooking in water, half a cup of milk, 2 slices of cheese, and a little sugar were added. It was left to simmer until it was sticky. We should have added more cheese slices because it tasted more milky than cheesy. Well... there's always a next time :o).


[Tuna Balls and Macaroni Cheese]

Julian the Catholic

Julian was baptised yesterday (15 September 2007). Niq and Chui Ying (Ah Sook & Sook Meh) are his godparents.

We were a little nervous during the 4.30pm rite because it was about Julian's feeding time. He fretted a little, and Fr. Henry Rajoo reassured Julian by saying, "It's going to be over soon... relax, relax..."

He behaved well throughout until it was time to take the family photo at the end. Overwhelmed with joy, he just let his tears flow and his cries heard... that's our Julian... the Catholic.


[Julian, I baptise you...]


[Splash!]


[Julian: Just so happy... or hungry... whichever]

Julian at 15 weeks

Julian is now 15 weeks (3 1/2 months) old. When in the mood, he smiles very easily and babbles a lot. With some help he can now grip and play with his rattle. He is also now more demanding when feeding... *cold sweat*.

Over the weeks, we have learned that in certain cradle positions, he falls asleep more easily and we have gotten the hang of letting him nap on his tummy... something we only started to do recently. However, when awake, he still struggles and frets when we put him on his tummy.


[Julian and His Rattle: Wanna play?]


[Daddy's Obsession: Baby Feet... the only time when the toes still fit your nostrils]


[Julian and Ah Goo]

Julian's First Laugh

We propped Julian at the corner of our sofa this afternoon and played with him... talking and making funny noises. One sound he particularly liked was a rough-sounding lion-like roar, and he was smiling broadly and making a happy mono-syllablic sound (something like "nghearhh") each time he heard it. This went on a few times when suddenly after another "roar", he laughed! Not just once but a few times... a hearty, repetitive, baby laugh!

This is definitely a laughing matter to us :o).

PhotoHunt: Music

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Music". This is a photo taken of a piece of sheet music for the responsorial psalm of the 23rd Sunday of the Year (Year 3), i.e. for tomorrow. It will be sung during the 10am mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Penang.


[Music for Psalm 89]

Julian at 3 months

Julian turned 3 months old on Tuesday (28 August 2007). He reveals something new to us everyday be it a cute or funny expression (which makes us laugh :o)) or something he can do. He seems to be able to turn over to his side now and we hope that he can turn completely from being on his back to his tummy soon :o).

We also made a trip to the clinic on Tuesday for his vaccination. He weighed in at 6.2kg (previously 5.5kg at 2 months), and is 60cm in length (previosuly 57cm).


[Busy Baby: Julian preoccupied with finger-sucking, bolster-legging and phone-answering]


[Julian jabbed again]

PhotoHunt: Happy

This is our first PhotoHunt post. This weeks theme is "Happy". Since Julian has been smiling quite a lot lately, we couldn't think of a better photo to post than yet another one of him smiling :o).


[Julian: Happy...]

Carpet Craze

On Thursday (23 August 2007), we got ourselves a new carpet for the living room. It's roughly 6 feet by 8 feet and cost RM275 (50% off). It was on sale at Jusco Queensbay.


[A Larger Carpet: More reasons to sit on the floor...]

Our former living room carpet is now at the dining area walkway.

Chempedak

On Wednesday (22 August 2007), we "slaughtered" a "stinking" small 1.5kg chempedak, one of our favourite fruits. It was sweet and succulent... delicious. Cost us RM2.90.


[The Sacrificial Chempedak]


[The slaughtered chempedak: Ready to be devoured...]

Julian at 12 weeks

Julian is now 12 weeks old (2 3/4 months). He is smiling very often now and loves to babble. He's saying lots of "ah-woh", "huh-huh", "goo" and anything in between. He seems to be telling us what he dreamt of the night before or how his day was at the baby sitter's.

His head is more steady now and when he is upright, he doesn't really require us to prop his head. He has also started drooling a bit and he loves to suck his finger-flavoured fingers.

On the feeding front, Julian is currently about 90% on breast milk. At the baby sitter's, he takes about 2 feeds of expressed breask milk and 1 feed of formula. At home, he is practically fully breast fed.

He is due for his next immunisation appointment next week.


[Julian on the Sofa: Huggy, Tricks and Terry look on]


[Julian on His Glider]


[A cheeky wink...]

Eighth Encounter

The 66th Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend was held from 10-12 August 2007 at the College General, Penang. 21 couples attended the weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Francis Andrew, and Patrick and Linette Hia. For Angie and I, this was our eight weekend presenting.

Patrick and Linette are from the Singapore Engaged Encounter Community. So, the Weekend was the first joint Singapore-Penang Weekend in recent history.


[Participants, presenters and supporting couples of EE66]

Ah Goo and Bunny

Julian has two favourite musical pull-string toys at the moment. Their names are Ah Goo the Colourful Cow (with the popular Brahms lullaby tune), and Bunny the Yellow Rabbit (with the "Rock-a-bye Baby" tune).


[Julian with Ah Goo and Bunny]

Julian's Jab

Julian had his second immunisation (after 2 months) on Monday (30 July 2007) at the Taman Tun Sardon government clinic. He weighed in at 5.5kg and was 57cm long. He is putting on a healthy amount of weight.


[Ouch!: Jabbed in the left thigh]

Julian at 2 months

Julian is now 2 months old! He now weighs roughly 5kg. The last 2 weeks saw Julian flashing more obvious and consistent social smiles when talked to or tickled on his cheeks :o). He also seems to be saying "ah-woh" ("hello"??) and "eh-ah" ("yes ah"??) quite often :o).

On Tuesday (24 July 2007), we were all back at Butterworth to celebrate Papa's birthday. We also made a quick visit to St. Anne's church in Bukit Mertajam. So, Julian has now been to 4 different churches (St. Joseph's in Batu Gajah, Holy Spirit Cathedral and Assumption in Penang, and St. Anne's) in just 2 months. That day also marked Julian's first shopping outing when we dropped by Carrefour in Seberang Jaya. Julian had a really busy week :o).


[Julian appreciating a funny story...]


[Hee hee hee...]


[The Three of Us]

Eighteen Wine and Dine

We had lunch at Eighteen Wine and Dine - a restaurant at Krystal Point, Bayan Baru last Saturday (21 July 2007).

We ordered 2 of their set lunches. First we had pumpkin soup, followed by the main dish (I ordered lamb stew and Angie ordered roast chicken). Then we had ice cream for dessert and coffee/tea to wash it all down. Prices were reasonable - under RM20 per set. Julian, as usual, had his milk :o).


[Roast chicken]


[Lamb stew served with rice]

Doughnut Peaches

We came across some doughnut peaches the other day at the supermarket. They were in a pack of about 12 fruits for RM9.99. They tasted okay - moderately sweet.


[Doughnut Peaches: Squished peaches at premium prices...]

Julian at 7 weeks

Julian is 7 weeks old tomorrow. It is not obvious whether he has grown any bigger except that he does seem heavier now when we lift him up :o). However, today we let him put on the same pair of red knitted booties he wore when we first brought him home from the hospital. The booties seemed too big for him then. But now, my my... he (well, at least his feet) has almost outgrown it!


[Julian and his red knitted booties]

This evening we took Julian out to a Tom Yam stall for dinner along Greenlane. Angie ordered nasi goreng ayam merah (fried chicken rice with red sauce), I ordered nasi goreng paprik (paprik fried rice) and teh tarik (tea with milk), while Julian ordered some bottled formula milk. It was a pleasant dinner for three :o).

Here are some photo updates from Julian:


[Julian's hand]


[Julian's feet]


[The Paficier: We let him try a pacifier the other day... must not make this a habit :o)]


[The Singlet: Julian's athletic look... boxing anyone?]

Julian's First Mini Outing

Julian is 6 weeks old this week.

Yesterday evening (12 July 2007), we took Julian out for his first "non-business" outing, i.e. not to see the doctor, full moon formalities, or for mass. We first dropped by his grandaunts' place just down the road. Then, we took him to a playing field just at the bend of Jalan Delima. This was where a group of ladies were doing line dancing, a father and son were throwing a frisbie, a few guys playing soccer, joggers jogged and people in the area sat around for a chat. All these happened... while he slept! Well, at least he had some freash air :o).

After almost 7 weeks, Julian has proven to be a strange suckler. I'm sure he's not alone but all the same we are quite amused (well, sometimes otherwise) by his antics. The popular book - What To Expect: The First Year, categorises Julian as a "rester"... so it is quite challenging for us :o). He regurgitates quite often too. While is is not uncommon, it's not fun either.

Up till now, he waves and kicks a lot while awake. He has also started smiling more frequently (sometimes quite comically), although he has yet to flash his first "social" smile. Looking forward to it.

Julian Full Moon

Julian is one month old as of yesterday (28 June 2007). Yay!

Julian had his full moon celebration on Tuesday (26 June 2007). In Penang, boxes of nasi kunyit (tumeric glutinous rice), chicken curry, ang koo (a kind of sweet red dumpling in the shape of a tortoise filled with bean paste) and red eggs were distributed. For boys, ang yee (similar to the ang koo but in the shape of a ball) were also included.


[Full Moon Set (clockwise from bottom-left): nasi kunyit, chicken curry, red eggs, ang koo and ang yee]

We celebrated Julian's full moon a little earlier in Ipoh last Saturday (23 June 2007) with an eight-course chinese luncheon.


[Julian fretting a little during his full moon luncheon while Mummy and grandaunts look on]

Last Saturday also saw Grandma giving Julian his first haircut in Ipoh.


[Living Room Barber Shop: Julian's first haircut]

Here are more photos of Julian.


[Julian sleeping soundly on Mummy's shoulder]


[Julian: Sleeping... again]


[Julian: Showing some interest... finally]

Baby Photos

Julian is 12 days old today. We are still adjusting to this new way of life. He is already showing signs of wanting more milk since he first came home.


[Aaaw!]


[Waaa!]


[Stretch!: Julian doing some aerobics...]


[Julian when awake]

Julian Comes Home

Julian finally came home yesterday (Friday, 1 June 2007) after staying an extra day due to jaundice. Mummy Angie was discharged on Thursday (31 May 2007).

Julian's first day at home gave us a whole new experience of being first-time parents. The routine of caring for a newborn - feeding and cleaning - is tiring and frustrating but absolutely priceless... nothing to guide you except for your faith and instinct, no one to help you except for your family and friends, and no one to journey with you except your spouse and God.


[Julian and Mummy leaving the nursery]


[Julian and Mummy arriving home]


[Julian and Daddy at home]