Thoughts on parenting from decades ago....

Before this, I have never heard of Khalil Gibran but one of his text on parenting and children caught my eye.

"Our children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
 
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable."

The last paragraph borders on being more religious themed.

Khalil (1883-1931) was a poet and writer and much of his works deal with Christianity especially on spiritual love.

Just for the record, I am more of a free thinker and do not side with any of the numerous religions out there and I give my respect to all faiths.

But this extract from his works is very very meaningful.

Don't you think so?

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Do you dare to eat alone?

Hey, I am back.

For those that know me, I was on my reservist stint serving the nation, so to speak, thus the lack of updates in my blog.

I shall not go into the details but I do have free time to spare during my reservist to go to various places to have breakfast/lunch or even dinner.

Coincidentally, NUS just held a student run campaign of eating alone. It was quite a subdued affair done by students of National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I just so happened to chance upon this article and thought that I should write something about it.

Frankly, I also have this notion that eating alone sucks. It seems like you do not have friends and it is boring, etc. And so, you will think that eating alone sucks and it is a big no no. I have almost NEVER ever eaten alone all my life, even in JC/NS/uni days, I will make sure that someone eats with me. My thoughts was that it is better to either ta bao or not eat than to dine alone. I guess it is because we were brought up to be quite self conscious about it.

Back to my reservist, I was in a team but most of the time, we were in various parts of Singapore completing our tasks and it was a solo one man show. Naturally, I had to eat and was kinda forced into eating alone.

It started off being rather weird. My first meal was a breakfast at Ya Kun Toast in Toa Payoh.



So there I was sitting alone, with my iPad, reading facebook, emails, news, etc. It was quite relaxing actually. I didn't have to entertain whoever I am dining with and could either just look around or concentrate on my iPad. And I could take some time to play my game on the iPad.

Then I got more ambitious after that. Over the next few days, I walked into various places, places that I either drove past or want to try and I was bent on getting my perfect set of toast bread, soft boiled eggs and coffee.



And so, this is a coffee shop called Nanyang Toast at Kim Keat Road. Yups, breakfast alone.



And another place I went for my toast bread breakfast at Killiney in Selegie Center.

Then I got more adventurous. I thought that since it has been ages since I went into cinemas to catch a show, why not do it alone?



Gulliver's travels was the first show I tried watch alone FIRST TIME in my entire life. I have never ever walked into a cinema all by myself. It is a bigger taboo to me than eating alone. After experiencing it, it was really not too bad. Ultimately, watching a movie is not really a very sociable thing since you are not supposed to be talking in the cinemas!

And I also caught the premiere of the new Shaolin at Filmgarde illuma @ Bugis.

Do you dare to eat alone? Yes, now I do. It is not a bad thing to do!

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Drooling....Droooooling....Drooling = teething??

The frequent understanding of the reason why babies drool is because of teething. But is it true?



Apparently not from what we are facing now.

Jayden has stated to drool much more than usual about a week ago. And there is still zero signs of new teeth!

So drooling not equals to teething. It is just part and parcel of being a baby! He is probably producing much more saliva than he is used to and thus, the excess saliva just flows out. At this age, Jayden likes to grasp things and try to stick them into his mouth. Everything. Blankets, pillows, my finger, toys...he is simply just exploring the little things he can lift up!

One thing though, he seems a little more cranky these two days...Hmmm...need to check on his gum more often!

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In Search for a New Chair.....

When we shifted to this current place about 2 years + ago, we did not renovate much for the study room. We just bought a study desk, a shelf + desk extension and 2 chairs from IKEA. Honestly speaking, IKEA items looks nice but the quality of their product sometimes makes me wonder.

It is the one product here that I am very very disappointed in.



The above photo was my chair which is was used frequently. I sit at my study desk almost everyday 7 days a week for a minimum of 3 hours. This is the condition of the chair after 1 year + of frequent usage. The PVC material has already torn off on one side due to wear and tear. In fact, I am okay with this chair. But it is the other that is kinda crap.



This is the condition of the chair that I am sitting down on now at just four months of frequent usage. It used to be at my wife's table which she hardly sits on, perhaps just once or twice a month. And after I shifted it to my desk and started using it, the "skin" almost started peeling immediately, leaving black pieces of material all over my place as it sticks to my skin on the underside of my thighs. It is just FOUR MONTHS!!!

NEVER will I buy another set of IKEA chair again.

So, please recommend any good brand of chair that you have used or know that is reliable!

Sure, I can walk into any COURTS or V.Hive to grab one but I am worried about the quality of the chair and I cannot see myself spending thousands of dollars on one chair. Else, I would have probably get grabbed one from ergoworks where they sell these DUOREST ergonomic chairs. At $1,400+ a chair, I say no thanks.

For $1,400, I rather get myself a 11" Apple Macbook Air!!!

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Jayden @ Four Months Old

Our little darling boy is at his fourth month today! Hooray!!!!

And it seems like our efforts at trying to get him to support his mega brain is working.



Notice that he seems to be able to support his head more evenly without slouching to one side. I think it's so damn cute. Haha.



More cuteness on his fourth month today!



Just for comparision, check out his photo exactly one month earlier. I think hair really does makes him even cuter. Jayden, faster grow MORE HAIR.

And nope, I am not rubbing XO, Martell or any other silly alcohol myths on his head.

Because if I do that, I think Jayden will do this to me.



STARE!!!!!!!

Hahaha.

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Getting Jayden to sit up

Being impatient parents, we are eager to see our little boy sit up as soon as possible. The first most important milestone that he has to cross is to be able to hold his head without any support.

Jayden is almost four months old now and we think that his neck has reasonably strengthen over the weeks and is more capable of trying to hold his own head up. In order to encourage Jayden to learn to control and hold his own mega brain above, we have been giving Jayden more tummy time.



But, he will only allow us to let him be in this tummy position for approximately 10 minutes. Mostly, he will start to complain and cry to get us to put him back on his back. Nevertheless, I still try to give him more tummy time when he is feeling happy!

Another way of playing with him to exercise his neck muscles is to gently pull him up from his lying position to a sitting position.



As you can see, I think he is starting to control quite ok...but still not completely strong enough to hold his own intelligent brain. You will know that your baby is starting to get stronger when his head is at 45 deg, aligned with his body when you pull him up.

What's next?



We recently got this little thing to assist Jayden into real sitting. It costed us $49.90 from NTUC. Not too expensive IMO. The material is also a soft one. It looks hard in the photos but it is definitely very baby friendly.

Of course, I tried to put Jayden inside.



Here's a shot of him in his new seat! We also started to notice that when we prop him up into a sitting position, his head tends to lean towards one side, the right side. Hopefully, this will get straighten out in the next few weeks as his ability and strength increases.

I can't wait for him to be able to control his head properly so that there is much more things that we can play with him!

For reference, this is the poll from Babycenter.

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Jayden gets sick again.....

Child care or infant care might not be that good after all. Jayden seems to get sick quite often after going into infant care and he is sick again.



Our little darling boy felt warm when I carried him back from the infant care. I was also sick but of a different type (food poisoning). After checking that he is 37.8 deg C, we administrated him a dose of fever medicine. It was not even a month after he came back from the KKH!

The next day, my wife brought him to the nearby GP and came back with lots of medicine.



His fever is back because of his nose problem again. He has been coughing and we can clearly hear his mucus inside his nose. The doctor also mentioned that there is a slight wheezing inside his upper airways. :(

I think babies are smart. Jayden knows when he is going to receive medicine and will SCREAM even before I push the medicine into his mouth using a syringe. And I think to him, handkerchief under neck = milk OR medicine. He always decided that it is the latter one and SCREAMS!!!

On hindsight, my wife and I were talking that Jayden will grow up to be a strong boy since he has all this immunity against so many virus at such a young age! Our doctor also commented the same.

He will grow up to be a "terrorist", terrorizing mummy and daddy!



Heh Heh Heh..........

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2011: A Brand New Year, A Fresh Start...

Another year has passed, a new year has began.

Here's my list of things that I want to get done in 2011.

• To complete my thesis for my Masters Degree - I think I have procrastinated for MONTHS. I need to get it done!
• To continue to learn more about being a good parent and to help in relieving my wife's stress.
• To bring my both darlings out more often to play!
  
• To lose weight! My BMI is at 27! I need to lose about 12kg to fall into the ideal weight range!
  
• To exercise more than 3 times a week
• To update this blog more frequently! Say...min of once every 2 days.
• To continue my Baby Jayden 1 year project.
  

And the list goes on...but I think I have summarized the most important aspects of my personal life that I need to get it sorted out.

Have you thought of yours?




Here's our latest family shot that we were "forced" to take! Hehe. But I am glad that we took it!

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