cruising along

My baby boy is now 9 month-old. Gee.. time flies. Nine is a big number, when things are switch around again. Diet, routines, timetable, attitude, habits, you name it. Feels like I start all over again. I found out that the thoughts about getting older means getting easier to take care of is truly wrong. Well, in some ways are easier but most of the other ways are more complicated and tiring! Especially for me who have to watch him 24/7 alone - most of the time.

Anyhoo, last month was fun and hectic. It was when Evan turned 8 month-old and when he had his first Christmas and new year, when we had first holiday together, and most importantly, it's when he started to cruise along the floor and furniture.

From all the skills and improvement he had last month, the highlight was that he was finally out of our room and sleep in his own room night and day. :)

He started to eat fruits mix with cereal which he loves and started to eat biscuits as snacks about late last month. It calm him down for a few minutes, which give me time to do things peacefully.

As he mastered sitting on the 7th month, last month he mastered crawling. He also started to pull himself up to a standing position while holding onto furniture as support. At the end of last month he could stand up easily with support of things surround him. However didn't know how to get back down. He would tumble his butt down. Thanks to pampers, his butt is fine even though he bumped it to the hard stone floor. This newfound mobility means that he was entering the land of bumps and falls, which forced me to watch him very closely every minute when he was awake. Though he bumped his head to the wall and floor couple of times. However, I enjoyed watching him explore his surroundings and pull him up if he was getting too far, such as reach my sandals and start to chew them. :)

He had one tooth emerged from his top gum and started to make babbly sound, likes "bababa", "mamama", and "bububu". A new show on TV made him sit quietly, it called Danny and Daddy. Baby is such a strange creature. I don't know what he sees in that show, but he will sit and watch with serious look, just for 10 minutes, that's how long the show is. I wish it goes longer. :)

The holiday to aqaba was new to Evan, and challenging for us. We planned to have another holiday in April, it will be more challenging as we might need to fly, and Evan would be almost 1 year old by then.

Teary Playtime Day

Yesterday was a playgroup day. Not many of us, only 4 mothers including me. All of other mothers have 2 year old boy, and so make my baby boy the youngest. The idea is to get together so the kids can play and learn to socialise (as they were too young to be at school and too energetic to be just stay at home), while the mums can have a break from their routine and enjoy the chat and food.

My baby boy is actually can’t play and interact with the other kids much, as he is way too young than the others. However it’s good for him to get out the house once a while and see other people. He doesn’t like stranger, but it gets better since our new year holiday. Today he had lots of smile and enjoy playing with new toys.

One of us is actually new. I met the mother first at lunch with the ladies few months ago, and invited her to join us as soon as I know that she has 2 year old boy at home. We have the playgroup at her house this time. What I didn’t know is that the boy is super hyperactive. In contrary with the other boys who were quite timid. They could scream, laugh and play in a normal way. But I found the new boy is outrageously aggressive and active beyond control. He would grab toys that other boy holds. He wouldn’t let other boys play with his toys. Then suddenly he could change into a good boy when he asked other boys to play with him. But not long after the other boys would cried, and I saw the new boy hit the other boy or forcedly grabbed toys from his friends. Once I saw the new boy hit the other boy’s head with a toy-car. Then hit again with a big spoon. The other time hit with his hands many times when the other boys cornered on the sofa! Not that his mum did anything. She gave a strong voice to him to behave and once put him at the corner and smack him. But seemed he didn’t listen. The only time he cried was when his mum punished him and put him at the corner for ‘time-out’.

I’m glad he left my baby boy alone, and quite surprise that he let Evan played with his toys. He only disturb Evan when he was sleeping in his stroller, so Evan only have 45 minutes morning nap. Anyway, it was a bit scary to see a boy like that. I just only hope that I can raise Evan well so he can behave, not violent, but also can defense himself when needed. Aah.. what a hard task...!

Update:
Heard that the other boy were crying when he sleep the night after playgroup day. Seemed it was a bit traumatic for him. However his mum is willing to meet the boys again with hope that her son will learn to defense himself, and the naughty boy will learn to behave. We'll see what's going to happen. (10 Jan)

A Year Has Gone

What did we do on new year eve? We got exhausted and fell asleep at 10! I was hoping to wake up from the sound of fireworks as we stayed in a hotel near the marina. But nope, we were all fast asleep and year 2008 gone just like that. It was of course year 2009 when I woke up to feed Evan at 3am. And apparently there were no fireworks or other event whatsoever. Everything's cancelled due to security reason, they said.

But at least we were out the house, and out of town this time. After all of the countries and places we planned to go we finally only manage to go down south of Jordan, Aqaba. It's a city at the seaside where the weather is good throughout the year, and where all the water activity is available. It's a small and touristic town about 4 hours drive from Amman.

The temperature around 17 degree, enough for us to wear coat while strolling outdoor. Still, warmer than Amman. The private beach at the hotel we stayed in was quite nice. But the water quite cold. Evan didn't like it, so we didn't play in the beach much. But it's nice to finally see real beach and sea. Other than that we enjoyed strolling along the town. Bit strange to see some couples walking hand in hand (as it wasn't allowed in the town we live in), or girls with short pants, or girls with bikinis.

Anyway, year 2008 was great. I have a baby boy, my sister got married - then pregnant, my little sister graduated and got a job, my mum visiting us in la la land, and we went to new and amazing places. What a busy year.

Year 2009 is here. This year will be another busy and exciting year with new things going on. Hope everything will goes as smooth as planned.

Happy New Year everyone.

Note: our holiday photos are available on the 'images'.