Tag Archives: baby

A boy first, or a girl first?

So we had Caitlin first before we had Caleb. It’s a 3 year 2 months gap between them.

Boys mature slower than girls. This is quite evident; individual personalities and characters aside.

When Hot Mummee was pregnant the first time, I had quietly wished that our first one would a boy. This isn’t a tightly-held preference, just thought it’d be good to have a big brother to the rest of the brood. Of course when Caitlin was born, I love her just the same.

And as she grew, we’ve been enjoying her growing years and all the usual toddler antics that you know comes with children. A lot of fun and treasured memories there :)

Now that we have Caleb with us too, and with the 3 year gap, I find myself quite often comparing the kids. Not in bad ways of why-cant’-you-be-like-Caitlin complaints, just the wonders-of-human and how everyone is different types of observations.

Most recent of these are how when Caitlin was Caleb’s age now, she was already very independent. I had modified her cot so that she was already getting in and out of her “bed” by herself- how I enjoyed watching her little cute toddler body climb limb over one another in her mini pyjamas with the bed. She was also toilet trained very early. I remember giving her praises in the mornings when I changed her to find her diapers dry. These days I am still reprimanding Caleb when he pees in his pants. I do sing praises too when he urgently tells me he needs to pee, and, while on the toilet seat he would exclaim “No piak-piak right dad?” (No spanking right dad?)

So with Caitlin- girls, generally growing faster, I find myself noting that even with the 3 year gap that it is beyond that “measure” in terms of the gap between these 2 monkeys: That they are more than 3 years apart in terms of intellect, skills, maturity, etc. Though I correct myself in that Caleb is a lot more advanced even for his own age with his motor skills in the sports department. He’s still a happy-go-lucky kid while his jie-jie has already entered the age of moodiness. She is also starting to enjoy older things, sometimes citing “so booriiing” statements typical of older kids on younger ones.

So then I started wondering what things would be like if indeed we had a boy first, and then a girl. Would the “gap” be smaller than 3 years, in terms of their maturity? Would they actually get along better than present differences, because they are possibly closer in maturity levels?

Caleb at 17 months

I have mentioned about his shifty eyes, looking at Daddee funny with an attitude, when he was only 6 months old.

Now he doesn’t look at me when I tell him off.

He’d sometimes take forever to finish his bottle of milk. 3/4 through and he’d stop, get off the sofa, wanders around for whatever / whoever. He’d look for HM, his jie-jie, or just because. He’d walk to walls and slap it. He’d come over and put his head on your lap and then rubs his face (nose) on it too, hands free.

Sometimes he’d stop the milk with “nn-more” accompanied by the “finished” hand gesture, as if you’d believe that the 3/4 bottle is empty; and proceed to get off the sofa.

Just because he can walk. At 17 months he is walking around, screaming demanding for stuff, stuff his jie-jie has just because she is holding it, screaming because his jie-jien snatches it back, screaming just because he has a voice. He’d also mumble. Sometimes imitating words he’d immediately heard uttered by the adults around him, sometimes it’s his own words that he’d used before, like that dah-den that seems to me to describe anything and everything in his universe.

I’d go over, carry him back to the sofa, sit him down and get down to his eye level, grunting “Finish your naan-naan!”

He’d look past me. At the tv behind me, at the wall behind me, at the shelf behind me. Just not at me. He’d move his head slightly, but it’s usually just the use of his eyes, no need wasting energy moving the head. No, don’t make eye-contact with Daddee, let’s drive him crazy a bit more. Ignore the bugger.

* Now I know what my mum went through, getting me to sit down and finish whatever it was I was supposed to do! And Caleb is not even 2 yet!

I was gonna say “It has begun”.. but you know it had already begun even before he turned 1! Ugh!

Spoke too soon…

Only a few days after that last post on how Caleb is starting to sleep through the night, he started (again) to not be so.

Why does he wake? Just because.

Just because I made a little noise.
Just because Caitlin needs to go pee.
Just because I shifted in my bed.
Just because he shifted in his bed.
Just because.

And he wails. Lucky for me HM is the one who wakes to sooth him back to sleep, with some effort too mind you.

So in that time, I am woken, Caitlin is woken. (HM’s work hours are a little flexible in that she doesn’t have to be in the office very early).

And we both suffer from lack of sleep the next day. I can cope with this with drug laced beverages, but feedback from Teacher Rachel is that Caitlin either dozes off in class, or is moody and thus teary I-wanna-go-home.

Thus, we (mainly I) have to decide for both of us what to trade-off in order to bring forward bedtime.


My time surfing the web and catching up on online reading
vs
Caitlin’s Playhouse Disney time
vs
My time reading with Caitlin
vs
Caitlin’s revision or practising Mandarin conversations with me
vs
Daddee’s recent thinking-about hitting the treadmill early in the mornings

Sigh…..

Rockstar Caleb

This gallery contains 1 photos.

Heh heh. Related to this incident

Baby sleeping through the night

For those who found this page thinking I have some clever tip on how to stop my baby(ies) from waking at nights, you kinda found the right place.

I say kinda because Caitlin, our first one, more or less “just decided” to sleep through the night when she was probably around 4 months old. Yes she was (and in lots of way, is) an easy baby. Our second one, Caleb, however, was already in his 13th month and still woke wanting milk; much to Hot Mummee and my dismay.

About a month ago, Caleb was down with a pretty bad fever and flu. The point here isn’t the flu but the lethargy that came with it. I recall there was a one particular day where he was seriously dead-tired. So worn was he that that night was the first in a long time where he just slept all the way through. I won’t even be surprised if he didn’t even shift in his sleep; though he’d likely have otherwise he’d have a serious dead arm (read somewhere that human brain automatically gets the body to move/shift in sleep, so as to, well, shift and re-orientate the body around).

Glad to say that since that night, he’s not woken anymore, almost. I say almost because he would still wake waaa waaaaaa but HM and I (more so HM while I pretend to still be asleep) would quickly lull him back to sleep before he gets too awake and starts making demands.

However now he does wake and make serious demands earlier in the morning than before. When we were feeding him at 3am-ish, by the morning when it was time to bring the whole posse to Grandma’s (and Caitlin off to school) the little man would still be asleep. These days he wakes around the same time as Caitlin, which is at around sunrise, 6:30-7:00.

So what’s the tip to making babies sleep through the night? Get them sick with flu!

Otherwise, try what we were planning on trying initially: To feed his last feed for the night later than before.

I reckon I can start getting good sleep now and wake early for work outs. Yay for Daddee! Cos it’s around the same time Caleb starts waking anyway, and HM can be the one handling him! YAY DADDEE!

His first words! And its not Daddee :(

“Caleb, Caleb…. 1.. 2.. 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9……… ?” “taaaaaaannnnnnn!”

How old before babies start to stand and walk?

Caleb turned 1 in Jan ’09.

Today he did these….

cal_almost_stood_tilt

And then, for the first time(s?) in his life, he stood!

The following pic was actually not the first time he managed to stand. That first time that he did manage to stand, we broke into cheers and applause that frightened him, and literally made him weak at the knees!

But it wasn’t long before he managed again!

cal_stood_tilt

Well done, son! Heh heh!

So, soon he will be a walking babbling little boy for the rest of us to chase!

DAh-DAH-DAH duh duh duh…nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn na-na-na….

Generally, do babies start walking first, or start talking first? I can’t remember this for Caitlin; I do remember that she started walking when she was still in her nappies with an external anti-wet shorts, similar to the ones Caleb is wearing above!