Couplehood

David Hangs Out With Guimei and Gary

Check it out; David hanging out with his buddies, Gary and Guimei (since their official title is "jie jie" and "kor kor") on a sleepy afternoon last week. Apparently, he's chilling out to a news channel while Gary pats him to sleep and the two ladies bake cakes.

Wonderful afternoon for the lady. I'm glad she gets to go out and about sometimes, instead of being cooped up at home.

(I was going to mention the cakes, but the wife threatens to fracture my skull with it if I do.)

A Big Chair For A Little Boy

We've been having a lovely time going out and having fun with the Auyongs. This short vacation had a rough start, but this is turning out to be a great week.

Right. About that chair. We've been looking for a high chair for the little boy, and we found it.

It's a well reviewed chair from Fisher Price, the Rainforest Health Care High Chair (it's a clumsy name, no?) that the little boy took too pretty quickly.

It needed to be stable and easy to clean, and where possible, easy on the eyes. I'm not in love with the colour. I'm just glad he likes it.

Doc's update: we were at the clinic today, and the doctor gave us a good report. His skin's doing well and he's not in any visible discomfort, so I guess we're doing some thing right.

Relief, expressed in so many words. Still many hurdles to cross, but winning this means so much to us.

Monday Faithful: One Brave Baby

Gross Milk That Saves His Skin

He's braver than us, I'll admit. Though he struggled majorly with the new milk feed, he's taking to it rather well now. Considering how it tastes, it's a wonder he even finished half of what we gave him. Alfare, the new milk formula, tastes like rancid peanut juice - it's that bad. Apparently, it's a semi-elemental, hydrolysed, pre-digested, iron-fortified feed. How they prepare it entirely eludes me, but I won't be surprised if they extracted it from decomposing sewer rats. 

Break's Good For You

The lady and I rest ourselves well over the Christmas break. We didn't party, we didn't dance (all that much), we didn't stay up late to catch any movie or anything. We spent needed time with each other. That matters. We thought - and talked - a lot about where we were headed as a family. We furrowed our brows over 2009. 

We'll stand our ground, we said, but it'll take a lot of faith, and a whole lot of hope, and maybe, just maybe, 2009 will be the best year yet.  

Deck The Hols

I'm thankful for good friends, awesome relatives, caring buddies, worried brethren, and concerned grandparents. It's good to know that we're loved and remembered over the holidays. We remember, dear loved ones, your love to us this year. We won't forget it. It's the best present we'll ever receive. 

Say Hey-ho to Nicholas!

Cousins, 6 weeks and 3 kgs apart. "Not yet," said David. "We don't get to get off the mattress until they're not looking."

Milk Allergies

Yep. Like What It Says.

I love milk. 

It's hard to see the little boy be so reactive to it (find out more here - it's a PDF, by the way. Good read for you parents). Sometimes, it feels like we're feeding him poison. We've still not truly ascertained the cause of the allergies; the suspicious me thinks that it could be that blighted construction work that's going on outside.

I wonder if we'll be able to have ice cream when he's older. Hopefully MacDonald's wouldn't have increased their prices then, and we'll have, like, 20 each. The lady will just have 10, because she's on a diet. 

Monday Faithful: I'm Sure One Day He'll Ask Me About This

Yeah. 39 Inch (Almost) Snipe Shot

Our little champion shooter, as you can see here, has been spraying his mummy and daddy (that'll be us) with pee the whole week. He's got his stomach muscles trained for strength. Now, he's only waiting for his eyesight to clear up so he'll get his aiming down pat. I'll be wearing a mask from now on. 

Rather Sad News On Two Fronts, This Week

The first is David's skin condition. It could be the milk he's drinking, or the contruction site just outside the flat, but David has been having a really bad time with dry and peeling skin. Doctors told us initially that it was baby acne, then it was common rashes, but now, apparently, it's eczema. Bottom line, he's got to start taking icky meds to stem the spread, and switch to a new infant formula. I'm not going to lie, it's going to take a hit on the finances. The wife's a little less worried than I am (me being the worry wart of the two). It's going to be a really tough few months ahead.

Second

Well, if you've been here in the blog's earlier days, you might have heard of (1) my back condition and (2) my jogging. It seems that God had deemed the two incompatible, and I'm now quite unable to jog the distances I used to love. Looks like I won't be marathoning any time soon, if what my doctor says is accurate. Hmmm. Maybe I'll go perfect that front crawl in the pool. 

Hey, It's Not All Sad (You Should Know I Never End That Way)

My writing on Whakate and my other freelance gigs has given me some mileage in the writing world, and also some attention. I must say how much easier doors open when you have a reputation as well as a portfolio. I'm going to see what other writing gigs come up. I've been surprised before. With a keen eye, I might just be able to catch that gem popping out from the junk. You know what they say - the harder you work, the more blessed you are.

(Next post - Madam Chen Xinyun, ten years ago!)

David the Judge, Just For You

He Was Bald, But Soon Got A Perm.

Just for you. :)

It's His 2nd Month!

 

I'm 2 Months Old. And Heavy.

I'm Going To Go Home To Take Photos, Because I Didn't Get One This Morning
He's grown 6cm since his birth. At this rate, he'll be the lady's height by 3 years old, and he'll outstrip his old man by the time he's 6. He's already feeling heavier after we increased his feed to 120mls per feed. They grow so fast! Anyway, it was a good decision to bump up the milk volume, because he's sleeping longer. That means better moods and more active wake times (he cries LOUDER now). Though it's a little harder to put him to sleep, it'll all solve itself after some adapting. [Edit - Here's a photo!]

His Temperament, Personality, And Look Are Changing
And so startling is the change, that sometimes you wonder if he's the same guy you put to sleep the night before. This morning, the little guy was all sunshine and smiles, looking content with the increased feed we're giving him. Then we began to clean him up (which he absolutely hates) and it was back to the old days of thunderstorms and lightning. Still, it's wonderful to see him smile in the mornings. It just starts your day right, don't you know? :)

Financial Matters Are Shaping Up
It hard to find good news in an economic meltdown, but while everything is crashing, I'm looking at my financial best. I've managed to bring down my credit card bills to an awesome all time low, and it's not by pulling any belts tighter or anything. It came with selling the car and developing better money habits, which easily helped to shave off 2/3rds of my monthly bills. Of course, I've also taken over the household bills and charges, so the net decrease isn't that dramatic, but still rather significant. Really - it's a whole load off your shoulders once you release bad debts and rid yourself of poor money habits. I've got a load of links if you want to find out more, but I'll have to lead you to my new article on Whakate if you want to check those out.

All In All
The best part of him growing up, getting more independent (read: sleeping longer) and getting the house back in order is simply this: there's more time for the lady and me to spend time together, and catching up on some much needed couple time. I'll try to be home earlier, dear, and we can have that soup we saved for today. Velvety mushroom, slurp!

Monday Faithful: Such Happiness, Such Doom

I'm Missing A Picture Here, But We've Had Quite  A Few Recently, So That's Okay
It's awesome having friends who are going through the same phase in life as you are. There's the brethren at MBC - a mix of new parents and some experienced ones - and there are old friends who have just given birth. It's a great deal of change, and we all need as much help as we can get. Times like these, everyone bandies together, and starts to understand that we truly can't make it alone.

My Conversations With New Parents, And Experienced Ones
This is no one in particular, just some of my observations of the conversations that the wife and myself (and, some really new parents) had over the past two months. We've still a long way to go!

New parent: 'OH NO WHY IS BELLY BUTTON LIKE THAT DOES HE NEED SURGERY!!!" (This is because David's got a bit of a belly button hernia. It happen one out of every ten babies, and no, most probably he won't need any surgery)

Experienced Parent: "Nah, it's alright. It'll get better by itself."

New Parent: "GOODNESS HE CRIES SO LOUD! IS HE IN SERIOUS PAIN?" (David has powerful lungs, and he cries phenomenally loud when we do something torturous to him, like changing his diapers.)

Experienced Parent: "He's alright. Remember to burp him after he's done crying. In fact, we just got you a T-Shirt for David that says, 'Here comes Mr. Noisy!'. " (The T-shirt's really awesome, and we can't wait for him to grow big enough to wear it.)

New Parent: "Keep the whole house quiet, or he won't sleep!" (2 construction works at my place and a busy 4-lane road prevent us)

Experienced Parent: "Peace and Quiet? Just try it when you have 3 other kids running and dashing around. Get them used to noise fast. Try MBC's Cry room" (Which is, very, very noisy.)

New Parent: "Are you able to handle it? Looks like you're bungling something!"

Experienced Parent: "You'll do fine."

I really hope so.

The First Month Thing

I'm perplexed when it comes to things like that. I'm trying to figure out how to do it. There's cakes and eggs and food, and parties. I like parties, but I'm wondering if grouch will!

While it seems somewhat easier to do now that the my company only has 3 people (my previous work place had 200), we still have a number of relatives who want to celebrate the day with us, and Saturday's already packed.

Hey, if any of you would like to drop by for a visit to see our little grouch and his parents, let us know, we'll get pizza or something.

A Picture to Remind Me

Ours and David's, on the Foundation of God
Photo credit: Chris Moncus

I thought this was so nice. It's actually a picture of some Church's Kid's Ministry, which I thought was beautifully taken. It's so poignant, no?

I'd like to think that the woody surface in the picture as the horizontal beam of an old rugged cross.  That means much to me.