Vai : 13 months
A few quick updates on our little guy.
He now walks a lot. Still sort of wobbles a bit. When he stumbles, he’s now more likely to stand and walk again too.
He starts to show that he understands quite a lot of what we say to him.
[Understanding what we ask him to do unfortunately doesn’t always mean obeying them though]
He observes and copies what his sister does.
This includes standing at the edge of our bed and throwing himself down onto his mattress below! (And just last week, his rather heavy body landed on my face while I was napping on his bed! Got myself a little cut on the lip from his acrobatic jump!)
He likes books. Flipping through the pages and observing the pictures. He can sit at one place with his kids’ books for a very long time.
He likes to once in a while stop his walk and just lie on the floor. At home. At shopping centres. At the library. By the poolside. Anywhere, really.
During mealtimes, he (nearly always) needs to be engaged in something. Like having a toy, a book, anything, for him to fiddle, open, fold, press and bang. And he’d ask for these ‘objects’ to be changed every so often when he loses interest in them.
He’s still breastfed about 2-4 times and he drinks a total of about 250ml of formula a day.
Getting him to drink formula milk (since the very beginning) continues to be challenging for me. He refuses to suck the bottle or keep still. So, until today I need to:
– ‘squirt’ (read: press the bottle’s teat) to get the milk into his mouth. And when he swallows, I’d then squirt some more. And so on.
– constantly engage him in something so he keeps still. I usually sling him on and walk around my home, getting him to see the light switch, door knob, cloth hangers, fridge magnets, basically anything that’s placed rather high, so that when he’s interested in them, I have a few precious seconds to feed him the milk.
And so just in case you’re wondering, … yes it’s been like that EVERY single time I give him the bottle. I’ve tried straw cups, those with spouts, etc.
Nothing works. This is the only approach that works quite well so far. And frankly, it’s physically and mentally tiring for me.
All and all I have to say, caring for Vai hasn’t been that easy.
And when I have no choice but sleep for less than 5 hours the night before, when there are deadlines to meet, an older sister’s tantrum to handle and a baby boy who’s just spit out his milk / food all over the floor, I really feel like I’m about to lose my mind.
Ah.
I’m thankful though that such a moment doesn’t happen all the time (read: 24 hours a day).
And I’m glad and relieved to see how God’s been giving me the much needed strength to go through each day, lifting me up when I’m feeling down and discouraged, reminding me of the special privilege and roles I have as a parent to my kids.
Yes. During these past thirteen months, I’ve been given real lessons on life, patience, perseverance and self-control (to name a few!)
And it hasn’t been easy for me.
It’s been quite tough. Yet rewarding and satisfying at the same time.
