Mommy's Diary
Month 10 - First time sick - Playing games - Standing - Walking!
November 8, 1999
Tiger was sick this morning! This was his first time of really being sick. He woke up this morning vomiting. Fluid came out from his mouth and nose. For the entire hour, he vomited three times and kept gagging in between. His little face was white and his usually energized little body was soft. He rested his head on my shoulder and his eyes was watery. Oh poor little baby! In fact several days ago he has shown a little signs of sickness. He had a temperature of 100 degree last Friday, then he had a diarrhea on Saturday. However, he had been as active and happy as usual until this morning. Well, even this morning when he was really sick, he still tries to play. When I called the nurse 24 hour hotline, he tries to touch the telephone. My little good baby.Well, we didn't nurse in the morning, skipped the solid feeding and Tiger went to sleep with me for several hours. When he woke up around the noon time, he wanted to eat. I gave him half of his bottle but he wanted the other half. After swallow down his milk, little Tiger became his old happy and energized self again. He squealed and talked and crawled and cruised as if nothing happened this morning. Tiger is really a good baby. He has been fine since then. I know he has fighted the virus off.
Ok, as if to make up for the time he has lost in the morning, he tried even harder playing. Also, both his daddy and I didn't go to work or study because he was sick. Since everybody was around him, Tiger was so happy. And guess what? Tiger has taken his first step! He pulled up by our stereo cart and turned to his daddy and let go of his hands. Then he took off! He actually took three or four little steps before he collapsed in daddy's arms. We all squealed with joy. Like somebody who just made a goal in a soccer game who would run around the field to show his joy, Tiger give us a big smile and then jumped and crawled around the pathway. He was so proud of himself!
That was not the end of it yet. I was thinking those steps are not real since Tiger didn't really balance himself. Well, to show me that he can really do it, Tiger pulled up again by the sofa and then he stood by himself for a while, carefully balancing himself, then took one small step, then stood for half a minute, then took another small step, and stood for another minute. He finally fell down when he tried the third step. That's two real steps! I am so proud of him!
November 10, 1999
Today I took Tiger to his 9 mo checkup. He now weighs 19lbs12ozes, only on the 30th percentile. I think he must have been over 20 lbs but probably lost a little weight because of the stomach flu he got Monday. Plus, it was his feeding time and I didn't nurse him yet when we weighed him. Otherwise he would be 20lbs when we added the 4oz milk. :) I guess I'm just like every mommy, want to see her baby grow a little bigger. Tiger's length is 27 3/4 inches. Again, he was furious when we tried to measure him and he wiggled so much I wonder if he wasn't actually 28 inches. He is very healthy and solid, though. Think about he recovered from the sickness within half a day. He is a strong boy. So I'm not concerned about it at all. It's probably because we are Asian, the relatively smaller race. His Doc asked us a bunch of questions and was very pleased with his progress. She asked "Is he jabbering, saying words like mama?" Before I said yes, Tiger said "Mama" while jumping up and down at grandpa's knees happily. I was so proud of him!November 11, 1999
When Karen from the Parent as Teachers School came last week and did the screening for Tiger, she said that Tiger's biggest advance is in his motor skills. He is pulling up, standing and now started walking. She said his weak point (although not so weak compare to other children) might be his social skills because he didn't wave byebye and clap hands and so on, but it is right on the target. Well, even before she left, Tiger started clapping his hands. Yesterday I tried to play patacake with him and he clapped his hands together with me. He now plays how big is baby and doesn't have to have the rings in his hands. I like it so much when he raises his hands and face. He looks so funny and happy.One more thing, as for Tiger's fine motor skills, I think he has started to master the pincer pick. He is now constantly picking up the finest thing on the floor and sending them to his mouth. I'm very proud of the quickness of myself in catching him before that happens. It's kind of like a game between us.
Tiger still has immense interest in slippers and shoes. I read that 9 month is when you should teach your baby the concept of limit. So whenever I caught him trying to put a shoe in his mouth, I would grab the shoe from him, then try to hold on to his both hands, look straight into his eyes, and say in a very serious (or at least I try to be very serious) voice: "Didn't mommy tell you that you shouldn't chew on shoes? Do you know that what you did is wrong?" And that little Tiger would just keep wiggling and looking around with vicious smiles. He knows what he did is wrong, he just wouldn't look at me. So in the end, I can't look straight into his eyes, he got off my hands before I finish my reprimand, and I just couldn't keep my voice serious although I try hard. It is really a tough job to discipline your kid!
November 14, 1999
Tiger is sure to have a personality of his own now. If you try to take away something that he is playing with, he would grab it tightly while yelling angrily. You can see he has different moods. Happy, angry, satisfied, and funny. He loves to go to the dishwasher but I think it may not be safe for him. When I try to steer him away from it, he aways turns his head and arms and almost his entire body toward that direction and strive to go there against my forceful arms. Although he never succeeds, he never give up trying. I always couldn't help laughing seeing him trying so hard and being so persistent.Last night when Tiger was lying on the floor, I tried to pull him up but I was surprised because he pushed my hands away. Then he tried to sit up by himself from the lying position. He fell back down halfway and immediately roll to his tummy and sit up. He looked at me as if saying: "I don't need your help mom! I'm just trying something new!"
November 15, 1999
Today when I came home Tiger crawled to me and hugged my legs then sat in front of me. Sometimes he would stand up by my legs. Today he just gave me his hands. I thought he wanted me to pull him up so I took his hands and tried that. Well, you don't need to guess too far, he immediately got rid of my hands. He didn't want it. I was confused. What do you want Tiger? Then I suddenly understood. I gave him my hands but didn't try to pull him up. Sure enough, he hold on to them and pulled himself up. He just wants to do everything himself. I'm no different than a furniture to him in this matter.November 18, 1999
I'm feeling low today. We have been applying for immigration to the US for several years. For this reason Fan can't look for a job other than in the University until next year we get our green cards. Well, there was a position open at the univ and he had a pretty good interview. I was so excited about it because I have always been wanting to stay home more with Tiger and this made it possible. Unfortunetaly this morning they called and told us that the job was offered to somebody else. Apparently dh is overqualified and they didn't want to pay a higher salary. I was so disppointed. This is the first time I've ever come close to the dream of being a sahm. I mean my job is ok. It's interesting and pays well. But I leave every morning when Tiger is just waking up (or not wake up at all) and I come home at 6pm and Tiger will want to take his bath at 7:30 and sleep at 8:00. I feel I miss him so much!November 19, 1999
Tiger can walk four good steps now. And we are learning patacake. He doesn't claps his hands with me though. But when I finish the entire rhym, he would clap his hands happily as if to applaud that I've done a good job. How funny! I guess he learned that from us.Since Tiger has 4 teeth now, I start to brush his teeth. Tiger likes it so much! When I put down his toothbrush, he would grab it and put it into his mouth again. I tried to take it from him and he grasped it so tight and protested loud.
Ever since we started really giving Tiger stage two baby food, he has been pooping once every day. It seems he is doing better with his constipation although we are still using milk of magnesia.
November 21, 1999
We did patacake again today. Tiger now knows to clap hands with me, and he smiles big when we do this. He feels this is pretty funny. Only he will clap his hands four or five times and then he will throw his hands up to the air and look up even before I finish my second sentence.Another of Tiger's favorate game is to play with telephone. I let him use the less expensive one. He will take it down from the endtable, take the phone of the hook, then press the keys. I would put the phone besides his ear when the operator says "If you want to make a call, hang up and dial again." Tiger would listen for a second, then go back work on pressing keys. Then I told him, "we're done." and put the phone back to the end table and he will go away with me agreeably.
Some other times Tiger is not that agreeable. This morning he took a book and find a page to chew on. I said "You can read the book but not eat the book" and took the book away from his mouth. He pushed my hand away and find a page to bite on again. I said the same thing and did the same thing again. He again pushed my hand away angrily and attempted to bite on the book again. I said "ok, then you can't have this book now." and took the book away from him. He sat there, the corner of his mouth immediately dropped down, and his lower lip trembled. He seemed so piteous. My heart melted immediately. I hugged him and give him some other things and he started playing with them excitingly right away, with tears still hanging on his eyelids. I love him so!
November 25, 1999
Today is Tiger's first Thanksgiving. He didn't have any turkey, but he was very happy with lots of people around him. We don't have any family around here so we invited some friends over. When Tiger first saw Du's mom, he cried again. Poor woman, I really don't know why Tiger doesn't like her. I guess he must have been scared the first time he saw her when she was very assertive. Tiger was very suspicious toward everybody at first. He scrutinized everybody from a distance. After a while, he decided that they must be ok because mommy was talking with them so he approached them cautiously. Thirty minutes after, he was playing with our guests like they are longtime buddies when grandpa, daddy and mommy prepared dinner in the kitchen. We performed walking and patacake for our guests and received big cheers.November 26, 1999
We went to Crown center at KC to watch the lighting of mayer's Christmas tree today. The KC symphony quire performed Christmas carols for us. It was real nice when everybody lighted his candles and sung Silent night together. And the lighting moment was fantastic. Tiger, however, fell to sound sleep in the beautiful songs before the lighting. It is amazing how babies will fall asleep when it is so loud. Fan joked that when Tiger won't go to bed at home we should play Christmas carols real loud.November 28, 1999
Tiger has been more and more active these days. He likes to stand up by a piece of furniture (or mommy bending down) and then walk to us. He also likes to push a chair with wheels around. But when he tries to go somewhere, he still likes his tried and true method of crawling. He does that much faster than walking. He likes to imitate. When I read the book about animal sounds with him, he gets so exited. He would bark at a dog, no matter where he sees it, outside, in a book or in TV.We took him to the mall again tonight. He used to like riding (sitting, really) on the electric car, bus, train, or boat. But today he wasn't concentrating at all. He would steer the wheel a little, then look around, then steer the wheel a little more. We saw Santa today too. Santa offered Tiger a colorful Christmas cup. Tiger looked at it, considered for a while, then grabbed it. He even did a little dance when he had the cup. But he didn't paid any attention to Santa himself. Tiger chewed on the cup the entire trip back home. He just had two more teeth coming in.
November 29, 1999
I was preparing dinner at the kitchen today, and Tiger was playing with the pans. I turned around and found he stood up, walked toward a chair, then stood by the chair for a second, and walked toward his high chair. He is really walking by himself! He doesn't even need us to be there for him. I'm so proud of him!Tiger's hair is getting long. He had three haircuts before. The third time he really hated it so we decided not to give him a haircut for a while. Well, now his hair on the top is longer but it is pretty firm so it doesn't go down. He is looking more and more like a little punk.
November 4, 1999
These days Tiger has been having another cognition spurt. He suddenly talks much more. He would initiate talking and playing with you. He imitates what you do. I have been reading about other babies clapping and waving byebye but he hadn't been doing it. Well, these last two or three days he just loves clapping. The funniest thing is, he knows when I praise him. Last night he stood by himself for a long minute and when he finally sat down I said to him: "Wow! What a good job you did!" And he raised his little face to me, smiling big and clapped his hands! It seems that he is really happy with what he has accomplished.I have been teaching him "how big is the baby" game but he never got it. Monday night he was playing with the rings and raised both of his hands and I grabbed this opportunity and tried it again. I took two rings in each of my hands and said "How big is Tiger?" Then I raised my hands saying "so big!" Guess what? When I did it again, he raised both of his hands too! And he looked at me so happily! So now he plays this game with me, but only when he has two rings in each of his hands.
Tiger's newest accomplishment also include climbing the stairs and trying to walk from one furniture to another furniture. He wasn't very successful on that yet. But he's getting there.
He has been very active ever since the Halloween. He sleeps less. It's like he has so much to do so that he has to spend every minute to play but not to sleep. He's also got his third tooth, one of the front cutters. And the fourth tooth is about to come out. No wonder he likes to chew on things so much these days.
December 2, 1999
Tiger has always loved phones. Whenever the phone rings, no matter what he is doing, he will stop and dash to the phone. If he is nursing, he will stop. If he is napping, he will get up and not get back to sleep again. Sometimes when I answer the phone he would be jumping and shouting and trying to grab the phone. However if I gave him the phone to talk, he would stare at the phone as if he is so amazed but he wouldn't say a word. Well yesterday I called home and heard his exiting squeals and I asked to talk to him. Guess what, he talked! I'm so happy!And then when last night I came home from work, he greeted me by calling "Mama!" He says mama all the times but not specificly to me so I didn't think he really knows what this mean. Ever since last night, I can tell that he knows. He would call me while looking at me affactionetaly.
Oh, also, he can walk a good 10 steps now. Very stable. He is more and more getting the hang of it. He loves it too. You can tell that he is proud of himself by the smiles on his face when he walks. Another thing he likes to do is when we finish bath, he would turn off the bathroom light. Yesterday he wasn't very successful the first two attemps and he smirked to himself self-conciously. Then he tried again and succeed. When I tried to leave, he grab the door and didn't want to leave. I knew he wants to try again. I turned the light on and he tured it off again. This time he got it at the first attempt. He then was satisfied to leave.
This morning, when Fan and I drove off home, Grandpa and Tiger waved bye-bye to us beside the living room window. Wait! Tiger waved bye-bye! That's his first time to wave bye-bye by himself! I couldn't believe he fast he is developing!