alan's new blocks

there has been some time since my last post - i had been too sick with my 1st trimester pregnancy to do anything other than vomiting and sleeping.  but i should record some progress of alan's growth and development as soon as i feel well enough.

so above is the block that alan built by himself a few weeks ago.  isn't that quite a step from his first block (see post here)?  i'm a proud mom!

here the smaller block is built by dad bryan.  em... i guess he has some catchup to do.  lol.

a few more milestones

it took 3 days to completely wean alan, and he slept through the night (from 10.30pm to 8am) on the 3rd night, and has been able to sleep through the whole night till 8 or 9 the next morning ever since;

a few more words added to his vocabulary: "lanyard", "作者" (pronounce "zuo zhe", meaning "author" or "writer" in mandarin), and i think there're more but i can't recall right now - will add to the list later.

unfortunately though, we have a fever today.  :.(  i'm not sure whether it's because of the weaning, or that he's growing a new teeth, or what else.

please get well, dear baby alan!

bald bald bald

we went to the hair salon yesterday, and have alan's head shaved!  how cute he looks!

it's a chinese tradition to shave newborn babies head several times - when they turned one month, one year, and any other time you want.  it is said that they will grow better hair after shavings.  true or not, i have no idea.

but alan no longer looks like a baby with a bald head.  he looks a toddler.

bryan missed alan's baby hair, though.  he kept going on and on about it last night.

15 months milestones

my dear boy has added a few more words to his vocabulary.

"a yi" - "aunt" in mandarin;
"duo xie" - "thanks" in cantonese;
"bye bye" - that's the same in all three languages, mandarin, cantonese and english.

and he's now growing his 9th teeth.

14 months milestones

time to record a few milestones of baby alan:

able to walk by himself by a bit over 14 months (and that's bryan in the background video taping him walking for the first time on the night of 28th of april)

added a few more words to his vocabulary

"ya" (which is "duck" in mandarin), and 

"wolf", which he can pronounce very well and enjoys saying very much.  he also learnt to say "lion", although pronunciation is still baby-like and he only says this word occasionally.  did i mention that he could say "tiger" as well in earlier posts?

blowing and climbing

this picture was taken on 28th march, showing alan blowing a whistle and successfully.  i really should have posted this picture earlier.

he's become a lot more agile since turning one year of age.

he climbed into this plastic washbowl and sat there to play.

and into this cardboard bucket.  tricky.

pasta with bolognese sauce

alan loves meat!  the small pasta helps babies use their jaw muscles to chew.  these are the same muscles that help them speak.  pasta is an ideal food for teething babies.

what you need:
1 tsp olive oil; 1/2 small onion; 1/2 carrot; a small pinch of ground parsley; 1 bay leaf; 125g minced beaf; 1 tomato; 1/2 celery stick; water; 1 tbsp pasta

let's cook:
1.  finely chop the onion, carrot and celery stick.  skin and finely chop the tomato;
2.  heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat.  fry the onion, carrot and celery for about 2 minutes, then add the minced beef and fry until brown;
3.  add the tomato, water, bay leaf and parsley.  cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes over low heat.  stir occasionally.
4.  puree and mash the sauce.  
5.  cook the pasta according to package instruction.
6.  mix the past and the sauce and enjoy.