The 13th month

Loooooves snuggling up with me!

Rayray caught her very first cold this month...from me! Poor baby, she coughed and coughed and had runny nose, temperature, sore throat etc, all the things you would expect from a cold and it was so heartbreaking to see her suffer!

Falling asleep right after breakfast on my bed!!! She hadn't done so since she was six months old! She was completely zonked out from the cold!

Height - 82cm

Weight - 10.5kg (lost a bit of weight due to the cold)

Eating - I have weaned her off breast milk! OMG! I never thought I would be able to this as I had been breastfeeding her exclusively for a year!!!!! Though it wasn't as hard as I imagined. In fact, she took it rather well and I am very very proud of her. So she now has goats milk twice a day - first thing in the morning and before bed. She has almond milk with her cereals or porridge or as a drink at breakfast. She doesn't eat as much as she used to but I think it is a phase all babies go through so I am not worried especially my little dumpling has enough reserve on her! lol

Sleeping - Rayray is back to her old herself! Sleeping through from 7pm to 7am. In fact, she now sleeps till 7.30am or 8am sometimes and I am soooo not complaining!!!

Development - 

• Tiptoeing when cruising around and it is just the cutest thing to see!

• Learnt to 'give' people things and loves doing that!

Taken right before she got ill. She still loves lunching with mummy!

• On the emotional front, Rayray has started showing her affectionate side i.e. she loooves hugging people and I have to say I can't get enough hugs from her, either! lol She has also started to squeal! Whether it is out of delight or frustration, she squeals or makes funny noises.

• She is also one stubborn baby, if she has her eyes fixed on something she does not give up till she gets it!

• Loves 'putting things in' and 'taking them out'! She can do this for a good 10 minutes!!!

Rayray' very first ride on horse carousel!

• She picks up small foods and I mean really small i.e. bread crumbs from the table or her bib and put it in her mouth! 

• Her favourite game is emptying cupboards or bags! Sometimes I let her crawl into the kitchen when I am preparing meals and she would be quite happily emptying all the cupboards and would insist on doing so till ALL the contents are out on the floor!

• She now really enjoys story time before going to bed. She always chooses her favourite books (The Tiger who came to tea, Hungry caterpillar and Where is baby's birthday cake) and passes them onto me so I read them to her. 

I love this shot!

I have also taken Rayray swimming a couple of times this month and she still loves being in the water!

Half an hour in the pool absolutely tired her out!

It's only 4 days away from Christmas and I can still remember this time last year vividly! I was out of the confinement centre and was panicking how I'd cope with a one month old at a restaurant whilst following a routine! This year, I am looking forward to seeing Rayray unwrapping all the pressies as she now loves tearing things and just spends her very first Christmas back in London!!!

11-12 months

10-11 months

9-10 months

8-9 months

7-8 months

6-7 months

5-6 months

4-5 months

3-4 months

2-3 months

1-2 months

0-1 month

Rayray's first hair cut

Rayray 'finally' had her first hair cut two days after her first birthday. I say 'finally' because traditionally, babies in Taiwan have ALL their hair and eyes brows shaved off, lashes cut short when they are a month old! WHY? I have no idea but apparently it stimulates the hair growth. Obviously I didn't do that to Rayray and the only reason I decided it was time to trim her hair was that the back of hair was becoming rather shaggy.

Back of her hair

We went to Tantrum on Kings Road. It is a lovely friendly hair salon designed for children.

A very happy bunny in their 'special' car chair

BEFORE

Engrossed by a little telly in front of her!

Jumping up and down

Hair cut in action

I have to say that I was very impressed with Rayray! She was just fascinated by it all and she even got her very first blow dry!!! The hair dresser was certainly very impressed too as she said that most children could not bear having a hair dryer near them!!

Ta da....AFTER

What do you think?

A very proud daddy

It turned out to be a bob and somehow makes her round facer rounder! lol They have put her hair in a little cute heart-shaped box and I shall keep it and treasure it so I will always remember how soft her hair is!

The 12th month

Rayray turns ONE today and I honestly cannot believe a year has gone by! That 3340grams of little pink baby was in my arms exactly a year ago and I struggle to remember how little she was!!!

Oh hey you!

and here she is on her first birthday!

I no longer have lie-ins in the morning, I have a routine too as I am a GF mummy! Though I do look forward to seeing Rayray's little face every morning as it just brightens up my day! Life is so different with a baby let alone being a full-time mum but I still enjoy it and would not have it any other way. 

Rayray has really started growing into her little face as well as her personality! She is generally an easy-going, happy and cheery baby but she could be a little madam sometimes too!!! She moves around like a little worm during the day and still loves her bath time. I have noticed that she is rather observant, especially we have been going to various classes in the last month and it amazes me to see how every baby differs from each other. Whenever we go to a new place, she would spend a good 5 minutes or so looking around before doing anything. We were at a music class last week and the teacher played the violin in the end of the class and she was the only baby that had her eyes glued on the teacher for the entire duration while she played. 

Height - 80cm

Weight - 10.8kg

Eating - Three solids meals plus one bf before bedtime. In the last two weeks, I replaced her morning bf to goats milk and things went pear shaped. She started really enjoying it and couldn't seem to get enough of it on the first day but by lunchtime she was a completely different baby to much of our horror! In hindsight, it could be any reason but it coincided with the fact that she started having goats milk. We were out at lunch and instead of sitting in her high chair, socialising to all the waiters and waitresses and people at next table as she always does, she was whiny, grumpy and would not eat her lunch at all! By that evening, she probably only ate a fifth of her usual dinner portion and started screaming.... The second day she had the worse wet nappy ever! And it went on for the whole day and boy, she was not a happy bunny. It must be her tummy upsetting her so I stopped giving her goats milk on the fourth day. She was tired, lethargic and just very grizzly. Three days ago, I tried giving her almond milk and her tummy so far has been fine but she doesn't seem to like the taste of it. I am also still debating the fact if almond milk is right for one year olds as the research I have done so far tells me not and I am thinking to give goats milk another go. Anyway, I have derailed and will have another post on weaning. 

So here is one variety of what Rayray has for breakkie: Scrambled egg with tomato and toast

BEFORE

and AFTER

so Yes this is how much she can eat! but it's not always the case and she likes variation at breakfast so I try giving her different food everyday!

Sleeping - Rayray started waking up in the middle of the night for two weeks and it really drove me nuts as I was so used to her sleeping through the night! I didn't know what caused it but as a mum I just had to suck it up and thankfully she has since slept better. She also seems to nap much better at lunchtime! 

Development - 

• Claps when I say 'clap clap'

Lunchdate after her first ballet class and just look at how she is sitting! lol

• Loooooves standing up and she can 'hold' the pose for a good 15-20 seconds now

• Knows who mama, dada are and says wawa and nana rather often on top of 'baba', 'gaga' and basically just loves 'talking'!

• Has mastered crawling even better as well as climbing stairs. She can climb up to coffee tables and her little rocking chair

• Understands when I say 'come here' as I hold my hands out and she would crawl towards me

Dressed in her PJ for Children In Need at ballet class. I was surprised to see how long her hair was!

We had a little gathering lunch on the Sunday before Rayray's birthday and it was lovely to see friends and G & J's little newborn, Weisin!!! 

                                     

This is half of the table ..... 

A little family portrait 

Oh and this is me - very happy as I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight:50kg! YAY

We also did 抓週 i.e. a Chinese custom of telling a child's fortune by placing various emblems before him and letting him choose one on his first birthday. 

Here are the 18 objects we prepared

It didn't turn out to be as eventful as I anticipated! She normally goes for things she has not seen but this time, she went for spring onion, chopsticks, hammer and a chicken drumstick! hahahaha We all thought it was hilarious that the things she chose were elongated and chopsticks and drumsticks symbolise she could be a foodie! Well, she does love her food!

A cute giant Lola cupcake, red velvet flavour of course! 

Happy 1st Birthday Rayray, you are my whole heart, whole world and we just want you to remain happy and healthy! 

10-11 months

9-10 months

8-9 months

7-8 months

6-7 months

5-6 months

4-5 months

3-4 months

2-3 months

1-2 months

0-1 month

Lucio

Lucio is another one of my favourite Italian in London. Friendly atmosphere and always guaranteed good food BUT again, I didn't enjoy my main this time! Is it my taste buds?

I liked my starter but strangely the roast pumpkin was overly seasoned!

My roasted pumpkin salad with chestnut and pomegranate

D's roasted tomato and rocket penne

N's salted beef salad - a winner

K's smoked salmon

T's seafood linguine

Beef ragu with tagliatelle - I should have gone for it!

Grilled sea bream

Rayray couldn't get enough of breadsticks!

My very boring grilled sea bass and it was so burnt at the back!

T's pork chop and fried squash strips - delicious!

Look at the amount of truffle compared to what we got at LL!!! And it wasn't more expensive!!

Grilled Octopus, i think...?

Heavenly scent!!!!

Locanda Locatelli

W was back to London and of course we had to go back to one of favourite hunts, Locanda Locatelli. 

Their delicious bread basket

Since it is now the truffle season, I had to have scrambled eggs with truffle! Though I regretted as should have gone for fried eggs instead! I found scrambled eggs too filling and rather sickening after a few mouthfuls!

My heavenly scrambled eggs with white truffle but wouldn't have it again!

W's burrata with roasted pumpkin salad...not that impressive

Nee's grilled octopus salad - got the thumbs-up from everyone! 

Chargrilled mackerel - very good

Homemade egg-free spaghetti, stewed octopus and chilli

Heavenly spaghetti with white truffle

This time round, we didn't seem to enjoy it as much as we used to...not sure if it was the food, or the fact that they weighed the truffle BEFORE and AFTER shaving it into our plates!!!! Oh well...

Photo Sess

We had a photo session before we left Taiwan in September and here are some of them:-

 Daddy is my best playing mate!

Kissy-Kissy 

 Poor sausage was completely zonked out after the photo shoot

But came alive again when we got home! 

Oh um daddy and mummy, why do you have to strip me naked? lol

Though it is so so so comfortable!