Going on ONE year

Sorry I have been silent for so long. I was up to my neck with work. Furthermore, we are also in the midst of renovating our new house.  Yes, finally we have to admit that our 1000 square feet apartment that used to be so spacious (once I really think this way!) can no longer accommodate three family members comfortably.  Anyway, I promised myself to write something tonight, just to make sure when Jaden grows up and read this blog, there will not be too many missing part of his life journey.

1. Happy Birthday! 
Jaden celebrated his first birthday on 10 Apr. We ordered a cake for Jaden and took some pictures.  With all our relatives staying in Kedah and Penang, it was just a simple yet intimate session with three of us.  There were no big party, no fancy balloon nor entertaining clown and magician as I believe at 12-month old, Jaden wouldn't understand the concept of 'celebration'. Another reason was my mother in law insisted that everyone's first birthday should be 'celebrated' on the exact day, not earlier or later, thus since Jaden's birthday fell on a Wednesday, we thought we should not trouble our friends who most of them are busy working class people, to attend a one-year-old toddler's birthday, and indirectly forcing people to spend money to buy presents for a baby who doesn't even know how to express gratitude.   

2. Walking at 13 months old
Jaden began to walk when he turned exactly 13 months. Prior to that, he would only take five careful little strides at most, then immediately continued to crawl every time he 'realized' that he was 'walking'. My mum was especially worried when she knew that her grandson still hasn't shown any sign of walking when he turned 12 months old, simply because I began to walk when I was 10 months old and my husband always claims that he started to walk when he was six months old (Nonsense!).  In fact, I was pretty relax in this matter. I always think that we should not waste too much energy to worry about our children. Instead, we should have faith in them. When they are ready, they will do it.

3. Photo Contest
For the first time, I purchased MomBaby 妈妈宝宝 magazine in February and found out that there were quite a number of baby photo contests organized by the publisher.  To test my luck and Jaden's charm, I sent one of his pictures to participate in The Mischievous/Funny Faces contest. After a few weeks, I received an email notification from the publisher that Jaden's photo was selected. The prize was a PIGEON hamper.  All right, hypothesis tested, mission completed, but this would probably be the last photo contest for him.

Pigeon products in the hamper: baby wipes, sippy mug, liquid cleanser, tooth brush, tooth paste and towel.

3. Styrofoam baby
It was just yesterday that Jaden quietly swallowed some Styrofoam.  He was left playing alone in his play yard  in the living room while my husband and I were having dinner at the dining table, merely one meter away from the play yard. We were chit chatting when my husband praised with great relief that the baby has grown up and can play by himself quietly. His words diverted my attention to the baby and I noticed that something was not quite right with Jaden. He was extremely quiet, paying 100 percent attention on a few piece of chipped Styrofoam around him, with the biggest piece in his hands. I rushed to him and took away the Styrofoam from him. I quickly matched the broken pieces together.  Too bad, a small portion of it was missing. Jaden looked at me and smiled, with his mouth closed. I suspected the remaining pieces must be in his tightly closed mouth. I knew that if I force opened his mouth he would panic and might accidentally swallow more dangerous stuffs. Without further a due, I opened my mouth and made the "Ah" sound. The baby imitated me and opened his mouth.   To my horror, what came into my view was a lot of  tiny Styrofoam fragments lodged in his little mouth. It took us a few attempts to gently scoop out all of them. The baby was very co-operative throughout the process but we did not know how much Styrofoam he had swallowed. Monitoring his stool for the next few days will be our priority task. The Styrofoam was part of the box of flash cards. This incident truly taught us a lesson to be extra careful about things that we put in the baby's play yard. I still feel very guilty whenever I recall the incident, it reminded me what a careless mother I was.  At the point of writing, 24 hours has passed, Jaden has no sign of discomfort. I believe those Styrofoam must have integrated harmoniously into his system or probably on their way out. I truly hope it would be the latter.

The incomplete jigsaw puzzle.