Weaning baby

Without realising it, I have actually started to wean my baby from breastfeeding. I was reading an article from babycenter this morning, and it was giving tips on how to start weaning, and I found that I already do 2 out 3 of the steps below:

1. Skip a feeding
2. Shorten nursing time
3. Postpone and distract

I've already started skipping feedings by giving her solid foods at meal times, and I've already started shortening her nursing time, even when it's time for bed. Instead of waiting for her to stop suckling on her own, I will stick my finger in her mouth to stop her nursing. I didn't realise that by doing these things I've actually started weaning my child! She doesn't seem to realise it either! Haha!

I'm starting to see the effects of the weaning on my body. Firstly, my body has started to produce milk on demand, instead of at all times of the day. I pump only when it starts to hurt. Or else there isn't much point anymore because I won't get even 2 oz. I think give it a couple of months more and Salma will be fully weaned. She's even started to drink from a big bottle at school. Although she doesn't want to take the bottle at home. I think it's mostly peer pressure, since all the other big kids are still drinking from the bottle at school. So she wants to also. But it's easier to give her the nutrition she needs now, since she can take the bottle on weekdays when I'm not around. And since I produce less milk, she'll be forced to eat more solids on weekends. Last night, Salma ate a whole bowl of penne with mince meat and tomato prego.

Now I'm just waiting for her to start feeding herself, then I'm all set. Can finally enjoy my dinner... hehehe (or so I think...)

Photo of Salma being naughty with someone else's birthday cake:

A walk in the park

Yesterday evening we brought Salma to the big park for the first time, and she got a chance to stretch her little legs! Boy can she run fast for a one year old! It's not really running, but more like speed walking. She got on the slide a few times too but I would have let her play on it more had she been wearing long pants (easier to slide down).

The grass was quite wet and a little muddy at places, but she enjoyed walking on the grass the most. She fell down only once. It was a windy day and several people flew kites. I don't think Salma is at that age where she can enjoy kite flying, but I sure love flying kites. Back when I was in 8th grade we all had to build our own kites. And I remember the entire class walked to the nearest park (Primrose Hill) to fly them, and after that (I'm pretty sure) we played softball. Some people's kites didn't fly well (we had to build them in groups). But when your kite can fly, you just have this exhilirating feeling. They were box kites. We had to run with it in order to get it lifted.

The park where we were at sold kites. And they were in various shapes of the same size, and had cartoon characters printed on them. There was a little boy and his father waiting to buy a kite. The father chose this "manly" Ultraman kite, but the little boy (he must have been under 5 years old) wanted to buy the Pooh Bear and Friends kite. And the father got quite mad at him and kept saying buy the Ultraman one. But the boy kept quiet, and didn't understand why his father was so mad, and still pointed at the Pooh Bear one. I mentioned it to my husband, who said if he had a son, he would be pretty surprised too if his son chose the Pooh kite over the Ultraman one. I asked, "what's wrong with the Pooh one?" and he said, "It's not manly enough." But he's just a boy. And maybe he likes the Winnie the Pooh and Friends cartoon on Disney Channel better than the Ultraman show.

Kids identify with that sort of thing. What's wrong with Pooh? Pooh is a boy bear. I guess I won't really understand these things if I'm not a man. I think it's silly for boys to play with G.I. Joe dolls. Cos they're still dolls... u know. But if they played with robot dolls, that's okay, cos they're not human dolls. Do you get what I mean? But when you're a small boy, like at toddler age, I think it's fine for him to have a Winne the Pooh teddy bear...

The way life goes

I walk into the office today and straight away I feel like I really shouldn't be here. I should be spending more time with my kid. Waking up late with her, and lounging around on the bed, reading books. I am really tired at the end of the day when I pick her up, and by the time I reach home, I just want to sleep. Because of fatigue, I think she is getting less attention from me, and it's causing her to act up, just to get my attention. She's even start to act up when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Grumbling and crying, which she never used to do unless she had a stomach ache. Now she does it to complain to me that I'm not hugging her enough. She will merajuk and push away my teat.

I really want this misbehavior to stop. She's starting to merajuk a lot in school also. I miss those days when she can play by herself without needing any attention from me. What am I doing wrong? I hope that soon I can spend more time with her than before. And do stuff that we love together, and also start doing some new things that we haven't done before. Like take walks at the park, just the two of us. And maybe go swimming. She has never went swimming in a big pool before. Maybe we can do some art activities like handpainting.

The separation anxiety is really taking a toll on my patience. I'm going through so much work stress that I am at risk of losing my temper with her at the end of the day when she starts crying each time I put her down. I don't understand why when she knows I am in the kitchen while she is in the living room, she still insists on crying and asking me to pick her up. I'm within her peripheral vision!

It just goes to show that being there is no such thing as not enough attention.

Salma's first birthday

I know this is so overdue, but Salma celebrated her first birthday on Sept 29. She didn't even know it was her birthday. Both her mummy and daddy took the day off (to let ourselves have a little celebration, too... one year of first time parenting) to celebrate it with her at school. I pre-ordered cupcakes for each student & teacher, the wife of a colleague of mine bakes them. They are really pretty check them out:

She has her own blogshop for her cakes. You can check her pretty lil cakes and order them here:

http://prettylilcakes.blogspot.com/

Salma's first birthday was characterized by her moodiness. She was so moody that day! She didn't blow out her candle like we taught her to. She wanted to go home. And then she got a fever that night and the next day. Growing pains, I guess... haha!