The New Brain

Its truly amazing to watch a baby's development. Each new skill learnt is so triumphant for both the baby and the parent. Today, I have been marvelling at his powers of observation.

We thought he had a good memory when:
- he could identify our house and lead us home from the park down the road.
- he could lead us to the pool a few doors away.

It was pretty cool when:
- he made a lot of noise and went crazy all of a sudden in the shopping center. He kept pointing backwards at something we passed. Then, we realised it was the corridor leading to the feeding room that we had been to a couple of times.
- he did the same thing in another shopping center for a different feeding room.

Today's mind blowing trick:
- We took him to Southbank Parklands for the first time today. There were hundreds of people about. The grounds are sprawling and we were meandering everywhere. We passed a girl holding a balloon in the shape of a green alien and Aaron went crazy with his 'Buh' sounds. We walked further for about another 15 mins and then turned back again. When we reached the same spot where the girl was, Aaron kept saying 'Buh' and pointing to where the girl was sitting even though she had left.

How did he remember? There was nothing outstanding about the location. It looked very similar to many other parts of the park. When did his brain develop to this stage? It makes me wonder about all the other developments that take place in the background that I just don't realise.

Here's a photo of the kids water area in Southbank. See the people? It was like that EVERYWHERE.

Summertime in Ipswich

Ipswich is a city to the west of Brisbane and is Queensland's oldest provincial city. It actually has 6000 heritage listed sites but, we weren't there for the history today. We were there to visit the Nature Center at Queens Park.

The Nature Center is a free mini zoo with a few of the Australian animals like the Wombat, Wallaby and Kangaroo. I thought it would be a good idea to take Aaron there since he is not quite ready for a full day at a real zoo. Unfortunately, it was an extremely hot day and all the animals were either in their burrows or dosing in the shade. We were all scorched! I think the temperature reached 30 degrees Celsius today.

Aaron did manage to get up close and personal with some of the farm animals he has been 'reading' about in the zoo's nursery though. He was snorting with the piglets and 'baa-ing' with the goat but he didn't recognise the calf. Have you ever noticed that the cows in children's books are almost always the black and white Frisian variety?

Somehow, I didn't get any good photos of the zoo to share here. I do have a couple of the playground though.

Here is the slide we only had to go down 100 times!

He got himself completely wet splashing about here. The little girl was joining in the fun too.

Night Terrors

I've always enjoyed dreaming and used to look forward to bedtime because there was a fantastic adventure to be experienced in my sleep. Unfortunately, Aaron's sleep doesn't seem to be as inviting.

He's always been a noisy sleeper and often makes crying and whimpering sounds in his sleep. These few weeks, he's had several nights of screaming while completely asleep. Sometimes his body is limp, his eyes closed but his mouth wide open and screaming louder than in the daytime. All attempts to feed, in order to calm him, fail. Sometimes he throws his body around if I try to carry him. Its incredibly disturbing to watch and I've found that he cannot be roused from this. It usually lasts about 5-10 mins. Sometimes he 'gets up' but other times, he manages to latch on and continues sleeping.

I thought these episodes were nightmares (bad dreams), but after doing a little bit of reading, they sound more like night terrors. Night terrors aren't dreams at all and happen during the non-REM (non-dream) phase of sleep. According to several websites, the child may cry, whimper or flail and the parent will be unable to soothe him/her. Sounds like whats happening to us.

I'm not too worried about it at this stage because they only last a short while and have not been happening in any particularly routine manner. Perhaps it is just his learning new skills with each new day, or maybe it was over-tireness, or maybe some other distressing episode like us not giving him something.

Not worried here but still heart breaking to watch my little baby be so scared of something and not be able to comfort him.

Stay in touch

I came to the realisation today that with more new technology available out there, the less in touch I am with my friends. This is strange because the 'technology' I'm referring to here are all communication tools - Instant Messaging, Text Messaging, Social Networking, Email from your phone/computer/blackberry. There are numerous ways for people to stay in touch but somehow, it also makes us more out of touch.

When the postman and the phone company were the only two ways to touch base with friends and family, I used them both. All the time. Long letters were mailed on a weekly basis. I was also great at making Telephone Porridge. (There's a Chinese saying about making telephone porridge when you're talking for hours on end) Back then, it didn't matter if the other person lived in the same city or on the other side of the world. I stayed in touch.

These days, I find that one of my excuses for not being in touch with somebody is that I don't know their IM contact name. If I can't chat with them instantly, I forget to touch base with them. Yes, I do have their email addresses, their home addresses and their phone numbers but ... the easiest and most instantly gratifying means of communication is instant messaging. Its INSTANT.

I'm not proud of this at all. In fact, I've started to reform by sending out emails to all my friends and giving some of the local ones a call. I even sent out a real birthday card (the type made from paper) to my friend Mr LB. It felt good going to the post office again but I was so out of practice that I actually got a paper cut from the envelope somehow.

Who is the teacher?

For the zillionth time today, I heard the words 'Its such a waste that she's staying home to look after the kids'. Bah!

Anyway, I am a stay at home person and with each passing day, I am learning about Aaron and more about myself than any other time in my life (except my own babyhood I guess).

Its all about communication now. Aaron tries so hard to communicate what he wants, what he's being playful about and how he feels. He uses plenty of words and sounds but we just don't understand them all yet. Nevertheless, we are communicating. I find that with 100% attention on him and a genuine interest in what he is saying, I eventually work out what he means. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, other times a few days. Patience definitely plays a big role here because until I get it, the sounds escalate to high pitched annoyances. Its easy to get frustrated and dismiss him but that doesn't solve anything. Sometimes I am guilty of it but, thats life - I get tired.

We have also been teaching him to sign and its starting to pay off. He has been using several signs that I taught him. His favourite is pointing his index finger to the palm of his other hand indicating 'more'. The real payoff is that he is starting to make up signs of his own and teaching them to me. Today, I learned the sign for glasses. He pats both his ears! I deserve an 'A' for picking that one up.

Bovril Risotto

I love it when I try something new. And I did just that today - Risotto.

It really was my very first time cooking AND eating it. I've always seen it on menus in restaurants but at first, I didn't know what it was and then when I did, I thought "I'm chinese. I eat rice almost every day. Why would I want to eat rice in an Italian restaurant?"

I've been on the hunt for menus that are suitable for the whole family, including Aaron. He loved this one. I really enjoyed it too. Very different from the usual types of rice that I'm used to. Although, I'm pretty sure my grandmother would say that it was too mushy, wet and not properly cooked through.

I tried the following a recipe but didn't have all the ingredients so here is my version of it in non-cook-book speak:

Feeds 2 adults and 1 baby:
2 cups Bovril stock (the original recipe was chicken stock)
1 slice lean bacon cut into tiny pieces.
12 stalks (i think) think asparagus halved and then cut into 3 cm lengths
5 white mushrooms sliced
1 onion chopped
1 cup arborio rice
Chedder cheese. You're supposed to use parmesan but I forgot to get that.

Step 1 : Fry up the bacon, asparagus and mushroom, then put aside.
Step 2 : Fry the onion until its soft, add rice and stir continuously for 1 minute.
Step 3 : Add stock to onion and rice a bit at a time. I covered the rice in it then waited until all the liquid was absorbed before adding the next bit. Do that until all the stock has been absorbed.
Step 4 : Stir in the bacon, asparagus, mushroom and cheese.
Step 5 : Serve it!

I'm pretty sure that this isn't how its traditionally made (especially the Bovril bit). I also have no idea what a real risotto meal tastes like so I have no comparison at this moment. However, I did have an extremely tasty dinner and thats what matters!

I'd rather...

This isn't a meme. Just some thoughts that have been popping in my head because of this wretched cold. I really hate colds but it seems to be the only 'illness' I get. I don't think you can even call it an 'illness', just an annoyance. Not that I like to be sick but sometimes I think I'd rather have a cough than a cold.

I'd also rather:
Do the dishes instead of hanging out the laundry.
Have fantastic rhythm for dance instead of a beautiful singing voice.
Eat bread instead of rice.
Go to the beach instead of a hike through the rainforest.
Take photos instead of being in the photos.
Catch the train instead of the bus.
Get a massage instead of a manicure/pedicure.
Sleep on something hard (like my porcelain pillow or a Bible) instead of a pillow.
Spend money on a great meal instead of clothes.
Lose my hair instead of my teeth.