and so we embarked on yet another new, unfamiliar territory.

starting the little one on solids.

we, ok, *i* have been pretty iffy, and not to mention anal, about this whole starting-on-solids issue.

i’ve put off giving him anything other than breastmilk despite certain parties goading me into starting at four months.

yet, i was adamant to subscribe to ‘the six-months rule’. however, seeing how he’d been grabbing at our plates and chewing his gums while staring intently at us eating, i relented a few weeks shy of that sixth-month mark.

i didn’t want to mess up his digestive system too early in life, so i compromised with only homemade foods and scoffed at those off-the-shelf heinzs and gerbers.

so this little piggy went to the market…

i must say, i was lucky to have O to help in this whole baby food thing, coz i was clueless as a baby myself.

first up, japanese sweet potatoes.

washed, skinned, diced, and steamed…

pureed to a smooth mushiness…

dolloped into freezer trays…

foiled and date-marked. voila!

next up, apple cinnamon puree…

chopped, boiled, and a dash of cinnamon for that extra zing.

as and when it’s feeding time, one or two of the frozen goodies will be popped out and heated up.

for today though, the menu was brown rice. VERY watery brown rice, that is. and i may have gone a little overboard and overzealous – i bought organic. lol!

washed, and pan-dried over fire…

blended into fine powder…

simmer in water over low heat…

we propped the little one on my lap and he was clamouring noisily, thinking well, FINALLY i get to taste what the heck these adults have been stuffing into their mouths all these while!

and he devoured not one, nor two, but four servings of it in all at one go! woahh nelly, i thought we were supposed to give ONE spoon for a start?? looks like this one’s gonna be an eater, like his daddy… :D

i had some leftover EBM in the bottle (coz they said to give some milk prior to their meal, to whet their appetite), so he finished it up and it must’ve been a satisfying meal coz he dozed off soon after. REALLY like his daddy lah!

we had naufal’s mummy over as well for the live kitchen demo, and he too got to sample the ‘dish’. and maybe there was something ‘extra’ in the rice coz he too conked out right after… :)

we reminded ourselves to use up the free studio photo voucher before the six-month validity expired.

and it’s (almost) six months!

we were altogether quite pleased with the smiley one flashing his gums to the ahpek photographer. well done! nevermind the weird blue background.

this free voucher thingy, well, maybe it wasn’t free after all. we, or rather *i*, was “conned” into the baby photo package at the hospital the day or two after he was born. i say “conned” because i was too tired to protest when the lady came up to me and showed me the package and went yadda yadda yadda. i was pooped from the lack of sleep from the previous night and shell-shocked from the sudden barrage of crying coming out of a seemingly tiny harmless baby. so i said yes, just so she would roll him out of my room to wherever it was they went to take the baby photo. heh.

funny how ALL the babies in these ‘peter pan’ photos i’ve seen have the SAME look. slitty eyed, puffy cheeked, and looking nothing like how we remembered him. i was in doubt when they delivered the photos to our house a week later. did they get the right baby??

but after a loooong deliberation, we decided it had to be him.

the penyek nose gave him away. :D

we dressed him up for his first birthday party.

theme: animals!

sit, aniq, sit!

he’s been practising his sitting position lately, slowly sliding forward after a few seconds.

get ready to giddy up!

you wouldn’t know from looking at that smile that he’s feeling under the weather.

but that’s how he’s like. upbeat despite discomforts.

he came down with fever, the first i believe, since he was born.

brought him to the doctor and gave him his medication. and not to forget, a lot of that good ol’ booby milk.

slept on me for an hour… and VOILA. fever was gone.

“cepat eh dia baik?”
“breastmilk mahhh…”
“macam wolverine. i pon nak minum ah…”
“minum lah… dalam fridge banyak.”

maybe next time we’ll just bring him to see Doctor Dadam instead.

it’ll definitely be cheaper.

’singing’ himself to sleep.

it’s no use.

he’s simply out of control. literally.

dum dee dum… just enjoying the view here, mum!

his limbs have a mind of their own, it seems. life IS about hard knocks, eh? hard knocks on the head against the floor! not that he cares. as long as it gets him somewhere… ANYWHERE.

sometimes too, life is about getting stuck in a moment you can’t get out of.

or rather, that darned coffee table.

just getting myself comfy here, mum! don’t worry about me!