the picture below was taken last June when she was 4 months old. She's such a poser!
for engagement
Clown Cake
Birthday give-aways
Quiet streets early morning before rush hour.
A ship came into view, about to dock in Dumaguete Port. I'm guessing its from Cagayan.
My frequent passenger every morning. Yeah, its my dog, sitting quietly while I'm having my coffee.
Photo by Walter... eyyy, thanks for this one big happy family photo!
Leila was deeply sleeping while I am busy with all-in-a-day's work and a pleasant view stopped me from my day errands and paused for a while, took my camera and enjoyed shooting her little feet that are peeking at me. Seven months ago, these feet are kicking inside me and oh how I loved that feeling since she first kicked. During the last trimester, she was kicking everytime DH (Dear Hubby) is around, every time he comes home from work and she hears his voice, she is greeting him with kicks. He then talked to her "where is my little foot?, How's my little foot?" Her right foot was just below my ribs and the form was very obvious. At times like this, makes me realize how fast she is growing. Now she loves biting her foot.
NOTE: EP:A; MM:PATTERN; SS 1/160; AV:F2.2
note: EP: A; MM:PATTERN; SS: 1/15; AV:F8; FLASH ON
I have lost my focus on photography for a while now. Nope I'm not leaving it behind, who would? Once you fall in love with photography you'll get hooked to it but I just had so many detours in my life recently...We've been moving a lot plus my pregnancy and now on baby stuffs, motherhood, etc. Did I mention we're nomads? We change home address from almost every year and hopefully we'll put here in KL for couple of years or even more.
Back in
My camera, (technically its not mine; its DH's) has some limitations and I don't have a powerful lens but before getting one, I have a lot of work to do to maximize its usage first and master the skills. Believe me, this camera has been around since for 4 years, but some functions are still unknown to me, so now, I am flipping through the pages of the users' manual and experiment more and more. Before, my shots are in AUTO mode which does everything for me. I guess I have to do some more tweaking jobs. I need some refinement of my work. I’m quite happy with it and I guess this cam will be sufficient for my experiments.
Now, I feel like getting back to basics using its manual mode, which is quite challenging. Back in my college days, I don't have digital camera, it wasn't a fad during the time and I have worked on manual SLR cameras where we have to develop our photos manually in black and white in a dark room. Gosh I miss those days back then. During that time, it was expensive for me because I have to spend much on photo paper and film plus developing charges in studios. Now, I don't have to spend anything on or at least at a very minimal expense with digital camera and PC.
Will be posting my experiments to keep track on my progress, if there's any. Sigh... I expect frustrations though... double sigh!
Jammed!
Raja Chulan - obviously not rush hour! easy traffic.
A view from KLCC park
I’m not an expert in the world of motherhood; in fact, I’m a first time mom and I can’t compare my daughter to others. Having said that, I am not in a position to tell you what a new mom should do when it comes to dealing with their infants. I know that every baby is unique. When somebody tells me “your baby is so quite” and usually this is followed by “you are lucky with your baby” and I don’t really know what to react. I just usually say “Thank you” with a little smile. At the same time, I don’t want to sound hypocrite to tell anybody that she is not used to crying. Literally, she is not used to crying and whining because I usually make sure that she doesn’t cry. As long as her needs are being met on time i.e. feed, nappy change etc. she is not complaining. She is sleeping well at night straight from 9:00 PM to 6:00 A.M, since she was 2 months. Am I lucky? Maybe. Or maybe I have done something just right. I don’t really know or maybe a combination of effort and a little bit of luck? But I’m quite confident it’s because more on effort.
Establishing sleeping Pattern
I started establishing her sleeping pattern when she was 5 weeks old. Technically, she is a newcomer to us couple and we would like her to adjust to our sleeping pattern not us adjusting to her sleeping pattern as much as we can. Infants don’t just do that automatically because they don’t know what is night and day. There is not much difference of day and night when she was still in my tummy. Logically I have to introduce the atmospheres at night like closing window shutters, dimming the lights in the room, no activities, no TV, no music, and only soft talks. We do the opposite during day time, open the window shutters, TV on, lively conversations and activities are as usual even if she’s napping during the day, business as usual around the house. Noisy. She got used to sleeping even if it’s noisy. I make sure she’s not napping on late afternoons. At 5 weeks , I keep her awake from 4 p.m., her last feed at 6 p.m. then a warm bath before bedroom time she sleeps at 7 wakes up around 9-10 p.m. for her feed, I feed her with dim lights to avoid her being stimulated and fully awake. She usually feeds with eyes half closed and go back to sleep right after. She will then sleep longer until 5am. Until it became a habit and her feeds are getting less and less. It became a routine for her and her system as well, she got used to it and since 3 months old, her sleeping pattern is just like ours. That means I'm no longer sleep deprived since then. teee heee! We sleep around 10pm wake up at 6am. But, she didn’t change overnight. It takes dedication to do it. It wasn’t an easy job, I should say.
Putting to Bed
Now at six months, she is sleeping on her own, with out dummy or pacifier. I didn’t introduce her to pacifier ever since. A little bit of but-tapping and lullabies would help her fall asleep. No swinging on the arms just lay her on the bed with her sleeping buddy then she will just fall asleep. In the beginning it was tough to leave her crying but then she later learned to comfort herself. But this didn’t just happen magically. Again it takes dedication and perseverance. She got certain cries that meant “just calling” or if you answer literally by carrying her and she shuts up, she is the one demanding you to come and pick me up and I would shut up. But then it has to stop otherwise she will get the idea that every time she cries, she gets carried so she will associate sleeping with carrying and swinging. Nope, I don’t want to do that. I would like her to sleep on her own on the bed. So I just leave her crying but if she really is very upset with tears, I pick her up. I guess it is really hard for a mother to watch her baby screaming to certain extent. Now, she can’t sleep on my arms or somebody else’s she needs to be laid down on her bed to go to sleep. This gives me freedom and more time to do other jobs as well.
It was really tough but I knew I had to do it from the very beginning and now is definitely a harvest of those sacrifices.
Yes she seldom cries and when she cries she really means it.
Having a baby and when you are on your own without help from family around, like in our case, it’s just the two of us; hubby and me. In times when you need some information on how to deal with baby’s issues, it is really handy to have internet access to do research on issues to focus on that needs urgent action. I found a forum where mums hang out and air out their concerns regarding parenting stuffs. When I had a hard time how to establish sleeping pattern, I had no idea what to do. Thankfully I came across this discussion which was really helpful. There I have read their concerns and solutions.
I am such a newbie to this whole perspective of motherhood and I still have a long way to go. My daughter is still 6 months and so far so good. I’m loving it and cherishing every moment. Despite the fact that it’s heavily multi-tasking job I’ve ever done, I feel fulfilled as a woman.
I had a really heart throbbing incident yesterday that left me feeling "hanged up" for few minutes. I left my wallet in Starbucks in Aquaria KLCC. I usually pass by there for my cup of coffee on the way back home as this route is a short cut for me, passing through Pavillion. My usual drink, a mug of low fat decaf latte. See why I like Starbucks more and more? They are the only one who has decaf and low fat coffee latte. Now I like Starbucks even more because their staffs are honest, or maybe one in a million cases, I got my wallet back! Thank goodness!
When I realized that my wallet wasn't in my bag, that was when I was about to pay some stuffs in Mercato - Pavillion, I run my hand unconsciously to the pocket in my bag where I used to place my wallet, and it was not there! I blushed in dismay and my thoughts are in panic. I lost my wallet? That is so unacceptable! How could it happen? I ran my memory recall to where my last stop was, when I used my wallet, and hurriedly said to the cashier, I’m sorry I had to rush back, I just lost my wallet and check it out. It was in Starbucks, where I paid my last bill, had coffee, read a magazine, made some phone calls and topped up my phone credit. Yes, it was definitely there in Starbucks, but I checked my table before I left and found nothing of my belonging left. It was just then I figured out that my wallet must be under the magazine and wasn’t able to see it. I rushed to the elevator and traced my footsteps on the way back to Aquaria KLCC. Doubled my steps but I can’t go faster than that pushing my baby’s pushchair. I’m becoming reckless, on my steps thinking that I just lost my wallet, I wished I haven’t withdrawn some cash, but I just did. I had everything in there, my ATM card and other cards. I am so dismayed with myself being careless. I reached the Convention Center building my heart was beating faster and almost breathless. From the escalator, I nervously peeked at my table and the magazine isn’t there anymore! My mug wasn’t there anymore! My table is empty! I almost lost hope, but thankfully, a miracle that I prayed for exist!
Luckily, Gee, the store manager, was smiling at me saying "I know what you want" Oh, what a relief to hear it from her. A staff came handing over me my wallet and I was more than glad to have it back. I had everything in my wallet and I can imagine the mess I will have to go through losing it. I was so thankful to the Starbucks staff. Actually they were searching for me around but couldn't find me anymore. According to Gee, she went through my wallet to search for my contact number but couldn't find any. Okay, I should put my contact number now, I usually don't but now I have to. It's my first time with this kind of incident.. leaving my wallet on the table! Actually I checked before I left. I had a look on the table if there's any of my belonging left and I just saw the magazine that I was reading. It was the magazine from Starbucks that I borrowed and I intend to leave it there. What I didn't see is my wallet under the magazine. There it was! Thanks to Gee and Starbucks staffs that became a fan of my daughter after.
Cheers to 4 years, Margarita for me, beer for him
KL TOWER at night, taken from our apartment
