anZel/Arden

Archive for July, 2006

before and after

We had lunch with our friend Linda and her 27 month old daughter, April, on Sunday. There was a patron at the restaurant reminiscing her 8 year old son being as small as anZel (most parents marvel at how small their children once were after seeing anZel). The patron told me to enjoy my son. Linda whispered to me and said “it’s easy for her to say. Her son is eight. when will we ever get there?” While Linda’s will see April become 8 sooner, I have also come a long way compare 100 odd days ago. I have crossed the threshold…I am a mum-in-training…going thru one boot camp after another.

I am no longer the naive person or mum-to-be who is judgmental and gets annoyed at the sound of a screaming child in a restaurant or the sight of kids who only want to be held thru an entire meal. What REALLY qualified me to judge others when I didn’t have to operate with one hour of sleep and a screaming baby bewild me now.

I know I have crossed the threshold as a “mum” on Friday when I was at the pool. There I was absorbing the tranquil pool until I saw anxious parents filing in with their children. Most lap swimmers dread the kids’ swimming lessons. They are more like squeal lessons. You can hear the scream under the water. I was there to get a break; especially I get to hear babies cry every day now. Then it daunt on me that…soon I will be “one of those” who would have a child in toll to break the placid water. My child might damage your ear drums above and below water at the touch of the blue wave. It was a humbling realization.

Cousin S Visiting

Cousin S pushing anZel to the restauarant

Cousin S golfing at the range

Random photos…

anZel working on the computer…I love his facial expression on this one, it’s like he’s found something really interesting on the screen…

anZel ready to take a bath…

anZel doing tummy time…

anZel talking to the book… 07/28/06

anZel loves talking to the little babies in this book

random photos…

anZel loves to put his feet up…

fat anZel…

anZel talking… 07/23/06

anZel’s been a lot more interactive these days. Once you get him started talking, he will just talk non-stop!!

Here’s a video clip from today of him talking…

anZel’s play time 06/25/06

anZel’s tummy time

anZel playing with grandma

my late night therapy session

We had the good fortune of having Paul and Jackie visit us (us is a loose term as people don’t come to visit us but really are here for anzel) recently. It was great catching up with them.

Jackie was curious about how childrearing is going. Her few questions cracked open this dam of solicited and unsolicited information. She was much too kind to stop me from my babbling. Finally, Paul asked me why I am scaring his wife away from motherhood and why don’t I share my info with those who are expecting. I said…there is no point of sharing with those who are expecting as they are basking in the glow of pregnancy! People told me parenthood is hard or that sleep deprivation is tough. I would be thinking about “oops..he just kicked…my child is going to be different…he would be the perfect child you see in magazines and commercials.”

I believe it is important for women to share honest experience with each other and to help each other understand the process of childbirth and motherhood. And childbirth and childrearing aren’t peaches and cream all time like any relationships. I was compelled to tell Jackie the truth because I know she is smart and strong enough to know that she will be a great mother. In the mean time, she is kind enough to be my late night shrink.

I feel much better. Thank you, Jackie.

random photos

Happy anZel…

Sad anZel…

Signing to anZel

Being the over-achieving parents that we are, we started signing to anZel a couple of weeks ago.

According to some of the researchers, infants generally have no long term memory until they are five to six months old. That’s why at around 6 months it’s best time to start signing with babies. However, we’ve seen cases where infants starting signing back at four months!!

Not that we really expect anZel to sign back at 3-4 months, but the lil guy loves watching hand gestures. When I do the airplane sign to him, he watches very closely and follows my hand as it moves.

We bought a couple books from Amazon to give us an idea what to do..

We have also been using using these two sites to teach us signs that the books don’t teach us:

• ASL Pro
• ASL Browser

The only thing is that for some reason, some of the same words have different signs from these two sites. I have no idea why…maybe some ASL expert can explain that to me..