Solid Food

Ever since Alyssa was 5 and a half month old, we let her try different solid food infrequently and mostly on the weekends when we have more time. Before this week, she ate very little each time, maybe just 2-3 table spoon per time.

Alyssa had tried uptil now the following food :-
1. Carrot
2. Zucchini
3. Potato
4. Peach
5. Apple
6. Pear
7. Chicken Puree
8. Pumpkin
9. Rice
10. Oat
11. Baby biscuit
12. Baby rice biscuit

Mami wondered why whenever she fed Alyssa rice cereal, it turned very watery in the middle of the feed. And after so many time that it turned watery, finally she (or Papi told her... ) realized that the rice cereal should be prepared with 50 degree c water instead of luke warm water or milk at about 30 degree c.

Since both Papi and Mami are working, they never prepared food from scratch for Alyssa. The above mentioned food were all those ready made food from shops.

This week, Papi made some congee to Alyssa and she could eat quite well suddenly as the texture seems just right for her (if it is too watery, it is very difficult to feed her and it is all over outside her mouth). She could now take 5-7 table spoons solid food. Well done baby and Papi, keep it up.

Move forward

Alyssa can move backward, roll (back to tummy, tummy to back), change direction (360 degree, actually no limit if she wants) while at tummy position.

And what's more today is she finally stop using her leg and simply rely on the arms to pull herself forward. That is not really efficient but at least she can move forward instead of backward and all the way under the sofa now.

She is practicing moving up her hip from the floor. We really look forward to the time when she can crawl properly.

Giving medicine

After 5 days giving medicine (most of the time, Mami gave it. The above video is the one of the few times Papi gave it, but indeed the reaction from Alyssa was similar, no matter it was from mami or papi), finally Alyssa is totally well again. Hurray !!!! No more struggling and cries !!!!!!

Although she had Bronchitis, she was happy and playing all the time, it seems that the Bronchitis did not bother her much.

支氣管炎

上星期天, Alyssa 開始咳嗽及發燒 (其實爸媽都也感冒,但我們沒發燒),第二天媽媽只好告假和她去看醫生。最初只是普通感冒,醫生開了下圖的藥, (由左起) 包括通鼻塞藥水,咳水及退燒丸, 針筒則是用來喂藥的。
當Alyssa生病發燒,我們便不可帶她到保母處,所以爸爸星期二請了假在家照顧Alyssa。Alyssa 病轉好,星期三又可到保母處,但晚上接她時,保母說她日間有發燒,呼吸時有呼呼的聲響。

媽媽並不以為這些呼呼聲很嚴重,可能是鼻塞造成的。但爸爸頗擔心是氣管引起的,最後決定帶Alyssa去看急症 (下午六時後便沒有普通兒科)。醫生用聽筒聽了她的呼吸聲，便給一些藥性噴霧給Alyssa聞。醫生說五分鐘後再檢查,若情況不好便要留醫。這時媽媽才知嚴重性。幸好最後不用留醫。 証實患上支氣管炎,希望回港前可以康復起來。加油呀,囡囡!!

P.S.: 喂藥實非易事!!

I love label

Alyssa has not so much interest in cuddling toy yet, but she definitely loves to study all the labels on them.

Sucking toe

Finally, Alyssa's toe found her mouth.

Crawling backward

Papi was at home alone with Alyssa and suddenly when he looked up from his computer, he saw only the head of Alyssa outside the bottom of the sofa. Alyssa is a little bit more mobile these days, but she has no clue how to move and she ends up moving backward most of the time. It must be very frustrating. Indeed growing up is not easy and involve a lot of frustration. Mami and Papi will try out best to support you. Grow up fast but not too fast, our little Angel.

P.S. Papi complained abut all the dust underneath the sofa. Mami should clean better next time.

Amazing little trains in PEKiP lesson

All babies in the PEKiP lesson were amazed by these little trains :-)
Better than watching TV.

Shake head

Alyssa starts to shake head. Mami wonders if she know what it means.

Rice cracker for baby

Mami found this goodie from the Korean shop in Düsseldorf. It is rice cracker for baby. Before this, Alyssa has tried another baby biscuit but she has choked a bit from the small pieces from it. Mami thought that may be rice cracker has less small pieces and will be better, so she bought the cracker and gave it to Alyssa to try. Alyssa seemed to like it quite well :-)


EURO 2.25 per package. Not cheap as the package is not big.
See how Alyssa ate it .. Yumyum.

好想趴

片段中, Alyssa 好想趴去拿前面的玩具,可見她的脚及屁股有所行動。 爸媽希望她快些學會趴，然後她便小些尖叫(因想要玩具但又拿不到)。

練坐

最近媽媽常要 Alyssa 練坐，似乎還要一段時間才會。

新床 !?

前幾天幫Alyssa 開水沖涼,見她越來越重(其實只有7kg, 相對比她大三天的表姐要輕1kG),單手抱她去開水便越來越辛苦。媽媽竟想到用洗手盆暫放 Alyssa。 她似乎也很喜歡，可以視作為新床了!

Teething Rubber

Since 2 weeks, Alyssa prefer teething rubber than pacifier. Even if Mami gave her a pacifier, she was not sucking but chewing it (both the soft part of the pacifier and the hard outside part of the pacifier. Don't know when the teeth will pop up......

Drink milk by herself

Alyssa could hold the bottle for 1 minute like that and drank by herself. Mami wonders when she can even warm her own milk or prepare her own formula :-), then Papi and Mami can go on vacation without Alyssa.

First visit to a Christmas Market + 2nd level stroller

Today, Papi transformed Alyssa's stroller from the 'bed' mood to the 'sit' mode. Early in the morning, the weather was not good, it was snowing (our first snow this year in Düsseldorf). It was so cold.



However, in the afternoon, the sky brightened up, so we decided to go out to the Christmas market.



We parked our car at Kaufhof next to 'Kö' and we saw the same bears as last year. They are moving and quite funny to look at for Alyssa.



Then, we continued our way to the Old town to the Christmas market.


Finally, it was so cold that we ccouldn't resist a sip of the Glühwein. Alyssa wanted to try too. She will have to wait for at least a decade first.
Other than the Glühwein, we had the yummy Crepe with Nutella and Bratwurst. Yummy. Let's get some Reibekuchen next time.

Breakthrough after 1.5 months

If you have read about the post 'Once upon a time', last Saturday, we had a breakthrough.

Mami tried to think why Alyssa drink so little (one of the record she had is that she was being last feed at 5am and then until 5pm the next day, she drank only 150ml. Gosh... so little milk, this baby girl must be on diet) during the day and wake up one/two times during the night (sometimes at 1am and then at 5am) to nurse. This is indeed very tough for a working Mum!!!

One of the thought was what if we bottle feed Alyssa solely (instead of breast feed) at home for 1-2 days during the weekend to see how much milk she drink. One amazing thing we found out last Saturday was that Alyssa drank indeed not so much during the day (may be also just 150ml during the day) but she could drink a lot in one go at night before sleep (she could consume 290ml in one go!!!!!!!!).




Several amazing things happened after this experiment:

1. Sleep through the night for one night since the last 1.5 months - Amazing thing that happened at Saturday night is that she could sleep through the night ever since Mami got back to work. However, even though Alyssa could sleep through the night, Papi and Mami was so used to get up twice at night, we woke up even Alyssa was sleeping.

2. Drink more than 200ml last week in the daycare centre (within 9 hours of her stay there).

3. Seems to gain a little bit better weight. Alyssa gained only 1 kg for the last 3 months. But she seems to gain more last few days.

However, this magic spell of sleeping through the night was not working continuously last week during the weekdays. But it gives us a new insight of how to tackle Alyssa's drinking and sleeping problem.

Mami thinks may be Alyssa finally realizes that she need to drink bottle at home too and there is no point to wait until getting home to drink from the breast. Therefore, then she drinks more during the day at the daycare.

Sling - Level 2

Alyssa turned 6-months old last week. Mami suddenly remember that now she can start to wear Alyssa with 'hip hold' with the sling. See how happy Alyssa in the sling is. We are now at level 2 of sling using!!



The picture below was the level 1 - "cradle hold".

Half year old

Happy 'half year' birthday to our dear baby Alyssa !!!!
Mami and Papi wish you a joyful and fun-filled childhood !!! Mami cannot wait to hold your hand and go walking and playing in parks.

Playing with Angelina

Here is Alyssa's little friend Angelina, she has beautiful HUGE eyes :-). Seems 3 times bigger than Alyssa's.

The two little ones could hold hands. Cute :-)

Alyssa: "Angelina, you are a good girl."


Alyssa: "Try my hand, it is sweet"




Angelina: "I guess your pacifier is sweeter, let me try"



Alyssa: "No, it is too personal to share."

First time in Switzerland

Last weekend, we went from Friday to Monday to Switzerland to visit our old friends. We drove there, Alyssa had good long naps in the car.



We arrived at the foggy "Black Mountain", GPS didn't show us to the correct address. Sonja had to come to pick us up and show us the way. German GPS....
Finally, we arrived at her place and meet the very first time little Angelina, she has HUGE eyes, she is so sweet.


Daddy and Alyssa posted in front of the famous Luzern wooden bridge. We have tons of these photos, but this is the first one with Alyssa (... actually with Alyssa's stroller)


This is the "black mountain" view when Mami and Sonja (plus the two baby girls in the strollers) went out for a walk. Lovely snow mountain view.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, a little baby girl called Alyssa could sleep for 10 hours straight without waking up during the night. That was when she was 3.5 - 4.5 months old. Ever since her Mami went back to work, she drank very little milk during the day (at the daycare) and decided to wake up during the night to see her Mami and to drink her milk then (sometimes even wake up twice to drink milk and may be another one time just wake up and need some help to get back to sleep).

Her Mami wonders when will the long missing 10-hour-sleep come back..

Cooing

Cooing Alyssa. When will she say Mama and Papa?

Giggling

It's nice to be able to capture how Alyssa giggles. It was a lot of exercises for Mami as she has to play "PEEKABOO" with sit-ups to make Alyssa giggle like that.

第一次吃紅蘿蔔蓉

似乎紅蘿蔔比米糊好吃,Alyssa也吃得較有衝勁。媽媽覺得Alyssa吃得極奇骯髒,未來的日子有排骯髒。





因不是吃很多,吃完後即再補吃奶，結果嘔奶時當然是嘔橙色的奶,又再次好骯髒。 在下圖的白T-shirt上便有嘔橙奶的証據,其實另一外套及床單亦有"中招"。

第一次食固體食物 - 米糊

五個月零一個星期大,終於嚐到第一口固體食物。為什麼和人奶沒多大分別？因為是用人奶"開"下圖的米粉而成。
似乎Alyssa不算太欣賞米糊,可能奶味的東西都是新鮮從媽媽身上喝最美味。

媽媽决定下個目標為紅蘿蔔蓉。

Roll from back to front (without help) - 自己反身

其實PEKiP Class 真不錯，原來嬰兒不穿衣時真的比較活躍及醒目。在前兩天的PEKiP堂,Alyssa便多次自己反身 (攝錄以上片段時她已反了很多次身並開始想吃奶所以在投訴地哭呢)



自始以後她便常常自己在家中反身了。不過她好像忘記了如何返回原形 (曾攝錄過她可以做到的)，太累時只懂哭着求救。

自己'揭'書

傻爸爸與開心小靖嵐

繼傻媽媽逗小靖嵐笑後，今次輪到爸爸出馬。

First roll - from back to tummy (not perfect though)

I did my first roll from back to tummy.. Not so perfect though (and with some encouragement from Papi). Very soon, I will master this skill and then I will learn how to crawl.

傻媽媽與開心小靖嵐

媽媽又施展渾身解數來引我笑,今次她發出傻瓜的do do 聲。

Tummy Times

Mami thinks of different ways to keep me entertained during tummy time. One of it is to let me look at my colorful playing mat (another way is to switch on the TV for me :-)).




One more way is to let me talk to my dinosaur friend.

第一個氫氣球

這是Alyssa的第一個氫氣球。

Baby Bald

My hair seems to stop growing (they are still really short and sparse). What is even worse is at the back of my head, one patch is without hair (actually not without hair but the hair is really very very short there). Mami worried about it at first but after she saw another baby of my age have the same bald spot, it seems normal :-)

It must be because I lie down too often and when I almost wake up, I like to turn my head from side to side.

I look more like Papi than Mami, at least from the hair style point of view.

這個星期

這個星期對我們一家不算很順利。
星期一早上當媽媽準備上班去，打開車門後看到坐椅上頗凌亂。















正奇怪及埋怨為什麼爸爸留下亂局, 視線被後座的景像攝住。後座滿是玻璃碎，原來有人'扑車'。我們的GPS,HIFI及進入停車場的遙控器也不翼而飛。整個停車場有七輛車被扑。































另外，Alyssa雖有母乳的抗體保護但也不敵保母那兒其他小朋友的病毒。Alyssa又發燒(101.6度 -- 幸好不算高),又沒胃口,又肚瀉。平時她的 poo poo 是Cookie/糖味,肚瀉時是臭蛋味的,真的很臭呢！ 幸好三天後終康復了。

媽媽上班了

十月一日, 剛好我四個半月大,媽媽上班去了，她其實不捨得將我托管在保母處，但她同時又渴望不用整天待在家中,真是難選擇。

話說這份工是我還在她肚子內時找到的。所以我也有份去面試,當時我大概只得一個乒乓球般大吧。
幸好她每期只工作三十小時 (上四天班),其餘時閒可和我一起, Yeah!

媽媽上班八小時要泵兩次奶,德國法例規定若女員工產後喂人奶,可每天有兩次半小時去泵奶 (多人道)!

所以其實她每星期只工作二十六小時。

新玩具 - Melanie (New Toy)

媽媽見到產後運動班的另一個媽媽帶着一個和我這新玩具差不多的另一個玩具。見到她在她BB哭時如何按一按玩具而BB神奇的收起哭聲,媽媽便四出找尋我這新玩具。雖然在我哭時它並沒有發揮神奇的作用,但我也頗喜歡她,而在拍照時她可幫忙引我笑和望向鏡頭。

我們叫她作Melanie. Yeah another Melanie.

特別做型照

做型一: 小浣熊



做型二: 出水芙蓉

又去公園

上星期天風和日麗，我們又出發到公園去。媽媽終於用得上前年初在日本買的格仔地墊。



你看爸爸的午睡有多甜!



爸爸興致勃勃地用我們新買的揹帶，揹半小時後, 他跟媽媽說：「你懐孕時辛苦你了! 負重6-7kg着實頗辛苦呢。」

這揹帶有一個大Fleece袋幫我保暖。我像了像一條蟲？

Passport Photo - retake !

Left:

• 1.5 months old.
• Taken by layman (Mami and Papi)
• Needed 1 hour plus with hundreds of photos to get an agreeable photo
• old story about that passport photo
• BTW, I still looked quite 'yellow' in that pic. Now the yellowness has gone.
  

Right:

• 4.5 months old.
  
• Taken by professional at photo shop. (Of course, they cut away Mami's red clothe from the pic before printing).
  
• Needed 1 min with three shots to get this photo. -- The photographer was so good in making me smile, just 1 mins, three shots, all three are nice. One of them even showed me with a big grin, but all of us don't think it is suitable as passport photo.

Little Alyssa the Tigger

Thank you Uncle Kan for the Tigger costume. Mami, Papi and Alyssa love it so much.

Huge Gym-ball

Huge Gym ball and I :-). With up-and-down movements, the gym ball is like a water-bed.



I am getting better and better with my grasping skill. I keep practicing even in the PEKiP class. See how I kept pulling Moritz's onesie in the video :-)



Moritz is the youngest in the class, when the photo was taken, he was about 8 weeks old and I was 4 months and 1 week.

'傻更更'地笑

最近我常'傻更更'地笑。以上片段就是我不小心被媽媽拍到的,你看我只是看着T-shirt上黑色的字便可以笑一餐。

Photos and Video from PEKiP class

We had PEKiP class today and Mami managed to get some photos and a video taken from the PEKiP class.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We did tummy time together :D. The lady in Red is the instructor, the puppet in front of her has a name too, she is Melanie.



We experienced the silky touch from silky cloth. (see the blue cloth and the green cloth in the photo).



Mami used that silky clothe to transform me into a naked Taliban member. She is bad.



Let's see PEKiP class in action. Surprisingly when this was filmed, most of the babies were neither crying nor feeding.