Saturday, June 27, 2009

Little boy and his big feat

It has been fascinating to watch Craig grow from an unresponsive newborn to an infant with a fast emerging personality. While he is fondly known by many as the frowny baby, he is, on the contrary, a pretty happy boy. Nowadays he is hardly short on smiles, giggles and laughs. A little over two weeks ago, he also did not hesitate to make his displeasure known by turning all red in the face, screaming and kicking when we gave him his bath - this little boy has a temper already! (Typically bath time is his favorite but on days when he's over-tired, he gets impatient and cries).

Lately feeding time has also been a tug-of-war with him trying to either fight off or grab the bottle. The pictures below captured one of the episodes when he actually held on to the bottle on his own. We suspect that he will soon be able to bottle-feed himself!
This morning just before Brian left for a day-trip to Malaysia, the little boy gave daddy a little surprise - he finally rolled over! Unfortunately, his elated parents forgot to capture the moment on camera. Little C seemed very pleased with his achievement and kept trying to repeat the feat all morning but he only managed one other roll-over after the first one. Frustrated, he was fussy and nap time has been a challenge all morning until an hour ago when he finally gave in to Mister Sandman.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

On a sleepless night as this...

I thought I'd post a recent video clip of Craig chillaxin' on his swing to his baby jazz and Oball. Nana will be happy to know that he is increasingly fond of his swing. Note how he expresses his delight by kicking his legs - very cute! Meanwhile, I'm hoping this will be the last posting that is done in the middle of the night i.e. get over this darn jetlag already!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Solo across the Pacific and back

I, I'Ching, was supposed to arrive home by Saturday 11:55 pm. That meant I would get to spend half a day on Sunday with my mom and sister (who was visiting for a day) before they leave for Malaysia. But the plane I was scheduled to fly on had mechanical problems at O'Hare airport. So, the flight was delayed for five hours. That meant I would miss my connecting flight in Tokyo. By the time we were finally airborne, we were almost seven hours behind schedule! Needless to say, I missed my connecting flight in Narita and had to stay a night in Tokyo. I was so frustrated throughout. I finally arrived home to the big gummy smiles of Craig at 7 pm on Sunday. Took me almost two days to travel from Chicago to Singapore! Unbelievable! But, I am thankful that I'm finally home.

I cannot believe that the dreaded week is finally over. I had a very good week in Chicago, though. The conference where I spoke at went really well and I made a lot of new friends. Also managed to squeeze in some shopping time but mostly for baby stuff - like sippy cups, booster seat, etc. These items are twice the price if we were to buy them in Singapore.

Craig and daddy did really well with PohPoh as well. He was wonderfully easy throughout the week and I know that PohPoh will miss him dearly as he totally stole her heart! He is laughing and smiling so much nowadays. PohPoh insists that the pleasant disposition comes from his dad...hmm...
Craig looks like he's SO ready for bed:
With GrandAunt Karen:
I was planning to celebrate Brian's first Father's Day with a nice meal out but alas, United Airlines ruined my plan. We will try to make that up sometime this week.

Now that my major assignment in the US is over, I am counting down to my SAHM days which begins on July 1. It will be an interesting transition for me. Though I will not be on full-time employment with RZIM during the coming 12 months, I will nonetheless fulfill the local speaking invitations I received prior. I do look forward to being able to travel to Malaysia to see my parents with C more frequently. Meanwhile, I need to get over my jetlag...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Love in excess

As I, I'Ching, contemplate with dread my departure to the US for a week this Saturday, the impending Craig-blues is being sweetened by visits of family members - first, my sister over the weekend, and then my mom and her two sisters in a few days' time.

The last time YiYi (as C would call her) saw the little chap was almost two months ago and, boy, has he grown since! On Saturday when YiYi arrived, Brian was on a day-trip to Malaysia. So, C had all the attention from us two ladies. We took him to the mall after his late morning nap and did not get home till evening. It was wonderful to catch up with my sister while Craig had a great time showing off his new social skills to his YiYi. Needless to say, YiYi was duly impressed. Giggles, funny faces and baby-laughs were in excess over the last three days. In fact, the little boy played so much and got himself so over-stimulated that bedtime tonight was an unusually tearful affair.
All smiles in YiYi's embrace: 
Meanwhile,  little Mr. Spock has no idea what's in store for him the next two weeks - the care and pampering of PohPoh but the absence of mommy. Let's hope PohPoh and daddy will be distraction enough for him to not miss me too much. My suspicion is that I'll miss him more than him me.