Week 25 : You Ain't The Boss Of Me

Sophia threw her first real tantrum. It was a no holds barred screaming jag. I discovered just how shrill her screams can be and how much lung capacity she has. And just how persistent she can be.

It started off after I picked her up from her walker. She'd been in it for a while, watching me prepare dinner. I picked her up to give her her milk feed for tea. I placed her on the mattress before preparing to lie down next to her but she would have none of it. Our little miss screwed up her face and let out a yell. When I didn't pick her up but tried to reason with her, she started belting it out. Oh-kaaaay. So she didn't want her milk, she didn't want to lie down and I as sure as hell wasn't going to pick her up. Naah, she was NOT going to dictate when I should pick her up. So I left her there on her mattress, clutching her security blanket, screaming her pretty little head off.

I went into the kitchen to cook. Luckily the sound of the ventilation hood somewhat drowned off her screams, but only a little. I could still hear her screaming high murder in the room. I peeked in a couple of times. She was just sitting there, tearing at her cloth and screaming for all the world to hear. It was hilarious really, seeing this little ... thing ... that was my daughter show her displeasure and screaming because she couldn't get her way. I was NOT going to raise a brat. So I went back into the kitchen, chuckling to myself at her little antics. After about 10 minutes, she sounded like she'd lost some steam and was calmer, so I went back into the room to console her and pick her up. No way!! Our little miss decided she did not want mommy to pick her up after she'd left her to cry by herself. She started pushing and kicking me away even as I held her up.

Fine, be that way. I left her alone on her mattress again. More screaming. Back to the kitchen to finish up the vegetable stir fry and then wash up the mess in the kitchen.

When I was done I realized all was quiet. I peeked around the corner into the room and found the little monster flat out. She was face down on the mattress, slumped over from her sitting position, dead to the world from the exhaustion. Twenty minutes of throwing a tantrum will do that to you, my dear. Let this be a lesson to you: Mommy will not be cowed into kowtowing by screaming and yelling.





This week we tried spinach, pear, peas and carrot after her introduction to and initial staple of baby rice cereal. When I went shopping for baby food some weeks earlier, I found out just how much junk baby food manufacturers 'fortify' their baby food with: all manner of important sounding initials such as DHAs, sugars disguised as sucrose, palm oil, and loads of vitamins which I'm not quite sure babies really need from their first foods. All they really need is iron and vitamin C for absorption. And hold the gluten, please. At least for a month or two even though the books say it's ok from six months. The safest option of baby rice cereal: Heinz. It was the only box which had five or less ingredients listed. Less IS more.

I am proud to say that Sophie is taking to eating solids like a fish to water. She loves her food (in general, the only food which she thrust out with her tongue was avocado) and eats so fast it's as if she's afraid that if she's too slow, mom will gobble up whatever's left in the bowl. That said, she can get quite distracted at times if the cats are about or the food's a bit bland.

All in all, solids has proven to be an enjoyable milestone. I can't wait to start her on her savouries.





Her crawling prowess has bumped up several notches; she's faster and stronger. And she'll grab onto almost anything that will help her come to a stand, including climbing all over mom, going to the extent of grabbing my hair. I feel like a human obstacle course.





We've now made a comfortable nest for ourselves on the bedroom floor. My ever doting parents went out and got us a couple of thin, foldable mattresses after they heard about Sophie's fall from the bed in the middle of the night (Rizal panicked but I couldn't find a single red spot or bruise on her body). She still has a habit of waking up at the ungodly hour of 4am or thereabouts to have a romp. She doesn't make a fuss or cry but having a playful baby crawling around or onto you guarantees that your sleep is somewhat interrupted if not totally dashed. And yet, there is the comfort of co-sleeping because it's just the two of us at home anyway. And my wrist doesn't seem to be getting any better now that she's getting heavier. Yup, excuses, excuses for not training her to sleep on her own in her own bed. We'll get her one soon. When we get to Singapore.





Where did the time disappear to? In a flash, six months has dawned upon us and she's babbling more and more each day now. Have I had her for so long? I can barely remember when she was a newborn. She's coming into her own now and I still call her 'baby'. But then again, she still is one. She's not even a toddler yet, even though her dad says she is. How fast this little one is growing. I wish she'd stay a baby like this for a little longer, if not forever. Adults are so difficult to deal with.

This coming March, my column and feature appear in Mother & Baby. Sophia's pictures are slated to appear. It's been a while since I've seen my byline in print. It will be interesting.

Running On A Full Load

Pant, pant. Huff, puff. Pppbbbtthhhhhh!

Work due and overdue, little monster keeping me on my toes, client meetings, running around on assignment, impending deadline coming up (yes! I'm back into writing and will have a byline soon).

And I still haven't the guts to finish the other two-thirds of Earthlings.

In the meantime, the little monster has started crawling and is using me as an obstacle course.

Phew!

Earthlings : III

I'm a coward, I'll admit. And no, I haven't watched this either but I will. I must.

Earthlings : II

Here's part two even though I haven't watched it yet. I hope to, soon...

Earthlings : I

A friend sent this to me via Facebook. This is a documentary titled 'Earthlings' and it's narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. The documentary is split into three parts. It's not an easy programme to watch. It is very, very painful. It's as bad, no, actually, worse than the time I watched the video of the Indonesians slaughtering turtles live and I hyperventilated and started bawling not even 5 minutes into the documentary. It was being shown at a SEATRU gathering a few years back at an art gallery in KL. They had to stop the video and I had to be taken outside for a breath of fresh air. They didn't show it again. Then I didn't have to watch the whole thing. This time I forced myself to watch it all, at least the first part.

I've only included that first part of this documentary here. There's only so much I can take in one sitting. It's slightly over 30 minutes long and by the time I got to the part where they were dumping the stray dog live into the garbage truck compactor, I was hyperventilating.

If you think that slaughtering animals the kosher way is really less painful to the animals, think again. Watch this. It's more kosher not to eat meat. We just aim to reassure ourselves that the animals feel the least pain; ultimately, if you need to kill an animal to eat it, there is no inhumane way to do it, especially not when industry, economics and the human nature are involved.

Anyone who enjoys their meat should at least get a good idea of how it gets to their table and where it comes from. You at least owe it to the animal who suffered and died to be your food.

Right and Wrong

I seem to be picking up on and agreeing with Malaysia Today, and by default RPK more and more often these days. So I might as well direct you to this link.

Note what he says about perceptions on food. How very sad and true.

Hungry

The little monster appeared to be hungry over dinner time today. It seemed more than a little unfair that everyone else was eating and she was not.





Here's proof that you can do damage even without teeth. Three hours later and my hand is still sore.

Week 23: Up Yours!

Mommy bowed down to pressure and started Sophia on solids: baby rice cereal. Here's what she thought of me.

Easily Swayed

Been following the debacle over the use of the word Allah.

Here's my two bits: Malaysian Muslims are not only an easily swayed bunch if they are to be so easily confused over the usage, they are also a bunch of elitist hypocrites. Or maybe it's just those who are in the throes of power. Either way, whatever the people in power say affects the grassroots. Hang on, and I mean the Malay Muslims. And then I get to thinking, wait a minute, being elitist probably is a cover for an inferiority complex. And that's the gist of it: in order to be better or seem better than everyone else in the country, the word Allah can only be used by the Muslims (read: Malay) in Malaysia.

"Only Muslims can use [the word] Allah. It's a Muslim word. It's from the Arabic language. We cannot let other religions use it because it will confuse people," deputy minister for internal security Johari Baharum told the press in explaining the rationale for the controversial decision. "We cannot allow this use of 'Allah' in non-Muslim publications; nobody except Muslims [can use it]. The word 'Allah' is published by the Catholics. It's not right," he said.

Someone obviously didn't school him in world history or religions of the world, nor does he know what's happening in other parts of the world because believers other than Muslims use the word Allah to refer to God as well. Hang on, he was probably locally educated so it doesn't make a difference anyway.

One wonders, if the Malaysian Muslims are so easily swayed or confused, isn't their belief in their religion nothing but a shallow facade? One would think that if your faith is true and you have a personal relationship with God, nothing is going to shake you of your belief.

Yes, we make the rules therefore we can claim Allah for ourselves, others be damned. Context be damned.

Remind me again why we keep insisting we are a developed nation?


Note: This entry of course doesn't apply to certain quarters of the population, also to those whom I know.

Loving Islam, Hating The Muslims

Intrigued? Check out this link to find out.