finally!!

in case you are wondering what the title of the post is all about...
kienan has finally been weaned!!! praise God! :)
so, you must be wondering.. how did i wean him?

if you've read one of my earlier posts, i've been considering weaning kienan off the breast since a while ago.. just that it's been quite tough battling it out with him at night. and i decided that i had to take leave for a week in order to wean him, so that i wouldn't have to go to work looking zombi-fied...

so, this was the plan:
- mon to thurs: leave him at my MIL's place overnight. (this meant that he didn't come home for 3 consecutive nites..) it was really quite sad for me, cause kienan hasn't been away from me for more than a night since he was born. but oh wells... i had to make a sacrifice.. and it's time to learn how to release him, instead of insisting that he be with me all the time. (don't want him to grow up to be a mummy's boy even when he's 21 right?!)
- thurs nite onwards, he comes back home, and i continue to reinforce the fact that "mummy doesn't have anymore milk" and that he has to drink milk from a bottle.. and we will make the milk for him. :)

he came back on thurs, and he still asked to be nursed...
since we'd already decided that this was the time to wean him, i had to keep to my end of the bargain and tell him that "mummy as no more milk". he was so upset he cried and bawled... i felt so sad to see him like that. but i had to persevere.... after a good 20 mins of insisting that he wanted to nurse at my breast only to hear me say that i don't have any more milk for him.. he finally said, "mummy, make milk".

it's amazing to see how he really comprehends us now.. i confirmed with him that "mummy is going to make milk and put it in a bottle", and he echoed "mummy make milk in bottle". following which, i promptly made the milk in a bottle for me, and gave him his bottle to "shake shake", after which, he lay down and said, "mummy, open". and then proceeded to down the bottle of milk after i uncapped it for him.

my little boy has grown up! wow... it was a bitter-sweet sensation when i realised that he has reached a point where he's ok to not nurse.

it's monday today, and he's been home since last thursday night.
i'm really thankful that he's been alright to taking milk from a bottle now.. of course, he has been trying his luck at getting me to nurse him now and then. but he usually relents and takes the bottle after i firmly tell him that "mummy has no more milk for you".

lesson learnt here about weaning:
- consistency in saying "no" to nursing, and giving him lots of reassurance and love when he's not being nursed.

kienan now likes to tell me, "mummy, big hug", whenever he wants to nurse and i say no.
it's as though this is the other way i can show him how much i love him... it's like his "fall-back' whenever i say "no" to nursing him. and i make sure that i shower him with lots of big hugs and kisses in return for not nursing him anymore.

okies, this is it! a super long post about how kienan is finally off the breast! :)
thank You, Jesus! because it's really all in His time... and God made it such a smooth process...

fyi, the ticker-tape counter for how long i've breastfed kienan has finally been removed.
and i'm proud to say that i've been able to nurse him for 20 months!!!

i'm such a cow... moo....

back home after the fireworks

ok... i'm typing this just before i go to bed. it's been a great weekend. kev finished his reservist just before national day, and kienan's gong gong and grandma (my parents!) booked a room for us to view the fireworks.. it was really nice to be able to see the fireworks up close!
and, it was great fun to have some relatives over to enjoy the national day parade. it was a good way to feel patriotic. after all, not every day is national day.
stay tuned for pics that were taken over the weekend.. they are all in other ppl's cameras right now! will post as soon as i've got them! :)

the milk battle...

as you can tell from the ticker-tape thingy at the top of the blog, kienan's been breastfed ever since he was born. while i'm proud that i've been able to breastfeed kienan for such a long time, i feel that it's time for me to weane him.

i've learnt quite a bit about kienan's character from this - that this little guy's really persistent! he refuses to take the bottle when i'm feeding it to him. and his favourite words at night when he sees me at home after coming back from nai nai's place... "drink milk.. drink milk.. pls drink milk"!

the milk battle, or rather, the whole weaning battle will have to commence soon.. probably sometime in september, when i can afford to take leave from the office. keep both of us in prayer pls, that kienan will understand that it's time for him to stop nursing at mommy's breast, and that i will be patient through this whole episode!

one thing's for sure though... i don't regret having breastfed him for this long a period of time. the feeling of closeness when kienan is nursing is amazing, indescribable!
but he IS 18.5mths old now.. and it's high time he's weaned...

hope that i'll have good news to report in time to come!

marvel-lous comics?

i was really impressed with kevin (kienan's papa) for doing up this comic strip thingy...
and it's so nice to have something done by kevin put up on the blog.
these pics were taken during our melbourne/sydney trip last June (2007) when we were there for the hillsong conference.

you can see how much kienan has grown since then...
i can already see how i'll miss his baby-ness as he grows older...

kienan was really happy to see his papa home today, and spent some time making funny drum sounds... he loves looking at himself in the camera too. so you'll see him walking towards the camera now and then to try and see what's going on. he's such a cutie!!!
(pardon the formatting... i dunno how to rotate the clip!)

finally, a new post!

ok... i (meaning "mommy") have been reading a few friend's blogs set up specially for their tots, and realised that it's been yonks since i've last posted anything on kienan... even my sis has more stuff about kienan on her facebook profile compared to me!
so.. it's time to get back to work and do some updating on the blog that we set up more than 18mths ago to track kienan's development.. :)

look out for more posts in time to come.. yeah!

playdate with zach!

xiuling was bringing zach over to the playground downstairs and asked if i wanted to bring kienan down so that the two boys could try and "play together". of course i said, "yes!"
i think it's great that kienan has someone to try and learn to play with.. :)
here's a pic of them on the ever-popular yellow bus at the playground.. albeit not that great a photograph cause it's tough to get both boys to look at the camera at the same time!


i also managed to snap a few other pics of kienan on the rocking-thingy at the playground.. check out how much he's perspiring!

enjoying the ride!

this is kienan's fifth visit to the pediatrician i think...
kienan was going to have his 18mth jab that day. good thing there's toys at the clinic to keep him distracted. the last time we were at the ped, kienan didn't really know how to play with this rocker and didn't really enjoy it.
this time round, he got on it himself without any help... and he definitely enjoyed himself!

biting the window?

kienan's in uncle simon's car after church.. and his xiao yi is just behind him.
this is a short breather for me... before kienan looks for me later for his milk fix...

kienan - the stomptrooper??

i've never really thought about what kienan would do when he sees lots of ants..
lo and behold.. one afternoon in church, someone spilled something sweet on the floor and there was an army of ants around the ground..
he started to stomp on them! i wonder who taught him to do that... cause i didn't!
(maybe it's in him already... if you recall, there was an earlier post last year where he accidentally killed a baby cricket!)

lazy sunday afternoon at home

this is a sunday afternoon.. when kienan and i decided to stay at home and just enjoy each other's company! and the photo below was taken when kienan was insisting that he gets some biscuits from the container...
kienan: "mommy... biscuit..."

how do i look in papa's hat?

kienan doesn't usually like us to put hats on for him.
but we manage to coax him into leaving it on his head by asking him to go to the mirror to look at himself -- this, he likes! hahaha...
(ps: this hat was bought by caleb for kevin)

looking cool in a cap...

kienan has on uncle mervin's cap...

kienan's on the drums!

kienan tries his hand at the drums

kienan was put on a set of electronic drums recently (sometime in early june 2008), and he instinctively seemed to know what to do on the drums.. look how contented he is, hitting on the snare and cymbals! his legs are way too short, of course, to reach the bass drum pedal..
but what he's doing so far is good enough for me!

the wheels on the bus go...

this was the first time i brought kienan to play at the playground downstairs.
it's recently been re-furbished, and the playground is really quite nice. kienan particularly likes getting on the bus and turning the steering wheels on the bus!
see how happy he is... :)

me and aidan... :)

this is me (right) and aidan (left)... he's about 4mths old now, i'm about 8.5 months older than him i think?
papa, mama, uncle e-gene and auntie sarah are cooling themselves down with a creamy cold cup of ben & jerry's ice-cream!
wish i could have some.... *sigh*
this is me, 'sayanging' aidan...

fun at the zoo!

ooh.. what's that climbing precariously high up in the tree???
this is my first trip to, ahem, the singapore zoological gardens! let's call it the zoo for short!
i think mama is more excited than me. she was so happy last night, telling me that she and papa are going to bring me to the zoo...

seriously, i think mama enjoyed the zoo a lot more than me. think the main things i saw were...
a) white tigers (did you know that tigers are only found in Asia???)
b) giraffes
c) two enormous elephants! (they actually walked right past us!)
d) orangutans! (mama loves ah-meng... but we didn't see her...)
e) one huge polar bear (merrily taking a swim in her tank)
f) huge tortoises! (and i mean, huge!)

and lots of other animals.... but these were the ones that were obvious enough for me to notice, since i was in my stoller most of the time.