jules nora yati

February 2, 2010
by yati
0 comments

Little Yoga Loving Comedian

Nora doesn’t realize it yet but she is really funny! Hmmm… a stand up comic in the making?

When she was really little she made me laugh with the way she frowned at me. Every time I made silly faces at her she would frown as if to say ‘help me God, why do I have a weirdo as a parent?’

Now she loves my silly faces.

On the weekend, Jules was holding her and she was facing the TV. I stood in front of her trying to distract her from the TV. She looked up at me, rolled her eyes and pointed at the TV. I know all her movements were coincidental but I couldn’t help but laugh because it did seem like her trying to tell me ‘move away Mama, I’m watching TV’

She’s such a little character!

Oh… yesterday we did something different. Instead of playtime and sing songs, we went for baby yoga. Well… I have to do something physical if I want to be a yummy mommy. All the walks I’ve been doing doesn’t seem to work. Maybe it’s the coconut biscuits I keep munching.

Anyway… Nora loves it. It’s another opportunity for her to observe things around her. As I keep saying, she is very alert… so much so that I have to keep finding things for her to do so she won’t get bored. Pretty tiring I tell you. We have another five yoga sessions!

I think this Friday, if we’re meeting Jules for lunch, we might have a wander around Tate Modern. It’s never too early to teach your baby to appreciate a bit of art.

January 30, 2010
by yati
0 comments

Out for Lunch

We tried this once before the New Year… but unfortunately at that time, we left it a bit too late and most of the pubs’ kitchens were closed.

Yesterday, I decided to go to Borough Market. I haven’t been there for ages and was missing my expensive cheese, smoked duck, dolmades, artichoke and foccacia. The only thing is I’m not confident at holding the pushchair going up and down the escalator. There are lifts at London Bridge but not at my station.

So, my ever protective Jules suggested that he’d drive to work with the pushchair and I can take Nora on the tube using the carrier… and since we’d be there around lunch time, we could go to Wagamama as Denton had some vouchers that needed to be used up by the end of the month.

And we did… and Nora charmed everyone with her smiles. She was in her best behaviour… well… apart from when she wanted her feed. but even then it was just a small whimper.

Soon enough she’ll be able to sit in a highchair and won’t feel that she’s not part of the party as she was sitting in her pushchair as we were having our food.

Come to think of it… in a month’s time, I can start preparing her little portions of mashed up food.

I can’t believe that come Tuesday she’ll be five months! Last Wednesday, when we were at Faylands One O’clock Centre, Sasha (one of the people who worked there) asked me how old Nora is and I proudly say four and a half months… when she’s actually nearer to five months. I guess I can’t believe how fast she’s grown… and looking at some of her photos… I remember how small she was. The blankets that we use to swaddle her used to drown her… now… we can’t even cover her feet… which she’s happy about as she can keep on sucking on her toes. *sigh*

January 29, 2010
by yati
0 comments

It’s Timmy Time

Apart from Sesame Street and Muppet Show, Nora wasn’t exposed to too much TV… oh… and the odd BBC News. There are loads of things to keep her entertained, rather than sit like a zombie in front of a screen.

After months of limited TV, Jules has now introduced her to TImmy Time. According to Jules she loves it… but I’m not too sure. I think Jules likes it more than her!

But it’s a cute show. No words… just animal plasticine characters mucking around in nursery… so I don’t think it will do her much damage.

Oh… I’ve also received my Tiny Talk. I’m introducing some sign language to her… starting with Mama and milk. You need to sign and say the word at the same time… so I sign and say the word in Malay. Jules see me sign so he knows what I’m signing about even if I say it in Malay… Jules knows ‘susu’ is milk anyway.

January 28, 2010
by yati
0 comments

Elastic Girl

At the moment, apart from sucking her fingers, Nora seem to like to suck her little toes. I am amazed how flexible she is. But if she inherits my flexibility, that won’t last long!

Hmmmm… come to think of it, my grandma could still touch her knees with her forehead like 15 years back. I don’t know if she could do it now. Maybe I should call and ask.

January 26, 2010
by yati
2 Comments

Cry Yourself to Sleep

Is this the same as controlled crying? Some moms are so against not picking up your baby when she is crying but what if you’ve done everything and you can see that your baby is tired but refuses to sleep? Is it cruel after holding your baby for half an hour, and the baby is still grumbling to put her on the bed and let her be?

I’ve been doing that to Nora lately. After all else fails, I put her on our big bed, give her a kiss and tell her ‘Nora tidur’ (sleep Nora). She’ll shriek and scream. A few minutes later the shriek and scream will be less frequent. And a few minutes after that, she’s fast asleep.

I’m not  not attending to my child’s needs. I know her different cries. I know when she’s in pain, I know when she’s not well, I know when she wants my attention… and I know when she’s fighting her tiredness. When she does that, and I’m around she’ll fight it more as I’m a distraction to her sleep.

She’s sleeping now… which what she needs to do as in half hour I will have to wake her up for your Tuesday’s rhyme time session. It’s better for her to cry herself to sleep and have a bit of rest than a grumpy little Nora all the way through rhyme time.

January 20, 2010
by yati
0 comments

One Hand on the Ball…

and the other on the horsie’s hoof. That was her sleep position on her gym mat!

Nora has been awake since 5am. Usually she falls asleep after I fed her but this morning she just didn’t want to go back to bed.

So I sat her in her Bumbo seat and placed her on the kitchen table while I did some ironing. She was fine and played and shrieked. Then she played with her daddy for a while.

I could see her eyes are very tired and she started grumbling around 7:30am so I started her feed preparation and put her on her gym mat. A bit more grumbling from her and then sudden quietness. I looked at the gym mat and found her in that hilarious position. No, I didn’t take a photo unfortunately.

She’s up again and crying for her feed. Hopefully she’ll have a restful sleep on the bed after her feed.

January 17, 2010
by yati
0 comments

Sing Song

Nora and I have been busy last week. We went to the One O’clock Centre for the first time this year and after looking at the bubbles, Nora was loving the fiber optics light strands… grabbing and putting them in her mouth. Well… at the moment she grabs everything and put anything in her mouth…

Apart from my breast this morning. She totally rejected it. Maybe because of the hormones in my body as my menstrual cycle has started again. The thing is… I thought I’d be happy that at last I own my whole body again… but actually I felt really sad. It was nice having her attached to me… I guess all the talk about bonding and breast feeding is true.

I digress…

We’ve also been to two rhyme sessions… and Nora loved it. I think she likes to watch other children around her rather than the session… and of course she loves the maracas… something to hold and put in her mouth.

So, next week we’ll be going to more rhyming sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday… and will try to fit in the One O’clock Centre in somewhere as we need to put out name down for baby yoga starting in February.

January 6, 2010
by yati
0 comments

Two Little Ducks

I took Nora out for some fresh air.

After what seemed like forever we got to the little park. No, it’s not that far from home; it’s just that I’ve found that it is quite difficult to push a pushchair on snow.

There were two little ducks swimming at the edge of the… puddle… well, it’s a bit bigger than a puddle… shall we call it pond? Anyway… the ducks came over so I guess they were hungry. Silly me didn’t think to bring any bread.

So we went to Sainsbury’s as I needed to buy a few things and I bought a small piece of bread… only for Nora to fall asleep in the pram before we left Sainsbury’s which defeats the purpose as I wanted her to see the ducks.

I guess… tomorrow I will have to put on my wellies again and make way to the pond. Things I do to try to stimulate my little girl.

January 5, 2010
by yati
1 Comment

Bouncing Baby

I left Nora asleep in her hammock after we came back from seeing the Health Visitor.

(BTW Nora is following her weight chart to perfection! So I should really stop calling her budak (kid) gemuk (fat))

As I was trying to clean the kitchen (yet again), I could hear her grumbling through the monitor. I left it for a few minutes but she got louder. So I went to bounce her hammock and she was happy to see me.

But every time she closed her eyes and I try to tiptoe away, she’ll open her eyes again and gave me her ‘where do you think you’re going’ look. This went on for 30 minutes.

In the end, she gave me 10 minutes to make a cup of tea and then screamed. She’s now on her gym mat… I think demanding either my attention or milk… or maybe both.

January 4, 2010
by yati
0 comments

One Point to Me

… and 3,498 points to Nora! But that one point meant a lot to me!!

She had a long sleep last night. She woke me up around 4:45am for her nappy change and feed. And then she wanted to play for hours.

Whenever I leave the room for a second, she’ll start screaming.

No matter how many times I rocked her and sang to her, she was determine not to sleep. In the end I just put her in the hammock with her Fuzzy Bee and Friends book and went to the kitchen.

I could hear her fake crying but I ignored it and carried on folding the laundry.

Five minutes later it all went quiet.

I went to check on her. Her hammock had turned around facing the TV, which was on as I was watching BBC Breakfast when I was in the front room with her.

I switched the TV off and told her off for watching TV (even though it’s not her fault… plus it was the news channel so it’s not that bad). I went back to the kitchen and finished folding the laundry.

It was all quiet in the front room… as she fell asleep on her own!!

I must learn to be more firm!

But of course it didn’t last… half an hour later she woke up and cried… not her pretend cry… so I picked her up.

She’s now on the day bed with Laura the elephant… looking at me and giving me her wonderful smiles.