hives it is

for days, i tot it was a vicious attack of d bed bugs. so there was a lot of sleuthing around in search for the bed bugs nest, or even the bed bug itself. Ive been told that bedbugs r an elusive lot. But i never thought they were so elusive they were invisible. I could be lying down with BB, nursing her to sleep, and next i knew, she was rubbing her feet together, itching away, n i saw red angry bites on them. N no culprits to be seen. D deed was done, n the doer left without a trace. Mattresses were thrown away, bedsheets n covers were soaked in boiling water. Meanwhile BB was collecting more than thirty marks all over her body. There was as least 10 on each arm, some as big as twenty cent coins. After an entire nite of wakefulness, we brought BB to d hospital. It was hives.

What excites Balqis?

At 10.5 mths old now, many maanyy things excite BB. Apparently BB is a very excitable baby. Here's a list of the things which can get her kicking vigorously (if she's being carried), flapping her arms wildly, chuckling, grinning, clapping...

• when she goes out. she starts getting excited the moment she steps outta the door
• when she sees the handphone/digicam focused on her and the cameraman going "1....2....3!"
• when shes on the escalator, and there happens to be another escalator above her, and there's a mirror so when she looks up, she can see her own reflection
• when she's on the escalator, she will chuckle for no apparent reason
• when strangers talk to her or play with her
• when she sees babies her age or toddlers or small kids
• when she sees food or drinks
• when she sees people clapping and/or laughing
• when she is tickled
• when her mom sprays water on her (hahah)

There are probably other things which I can't remember now.

At 10.5 mths old, she has 6 sharp teeth (ughhh..), and can easily tear her way into plastic covers. She can be pretty quick at tearing small pieces of paper with her teeeth n umm, swallowing them. She loves phones, especially cordless phones, mobiles. She is beginning to lose interest in remotes. She loves receiving guests at home, even strangers like the karung guni man. Probably her stranger anxiety isnt fully developed yet. And she just loves playing with strangers (but they can't carry her).

She is sensitive to sounds since birth, but she isn't frightened by loud noises like dogs barking or the vacuum cleaner. Most of the time, she will chase after the vacuum cleaner. She likes books, probably because she likes to see the different pictures as she turns the pages. And more often that not, she "reads" them upside down.

She can clap, doa, hand over toys, and assist in undressing. Currently her mom is trying to teach her how to put things in a box because her mom is getting tired of cleaning up after her mess.

Oh and she is still crazy over climbing stairs.

Happy 8th Month Birthday

Happy 8th month birthday, Balqis. Alhamdulillah for the past healthy 8 months. May Allah bless you with many more months of blessings, good health and happiness, Amin.

Balqis had her KFC treat today. She simply lapped up the whipped potato minus the sauce. Strange though, because she didn't seem very eager with her mom's mashed potato :p Her mom struggled a bit with Balqis as she sat on the bench. And then one staff came over and offered to bring a high chair over. So as she sat strapped in the high chair, things got more manageable as her mom could feed her and eat at the same time too :) Balqis then got bored and started to look around and soon made friends with a bunch of teenage girls at the table behind her. She was soon chuckling through mouthfuls of whippe potato. Not sure if some made its way into her nostrils. oops..

She had some quiet time at the library, simply crawling about and observing and taking in the new environment. Her mom actually had enough peace to read a few pages from a book. She then read a book or two at the children's section, borrowed 2 DVDs and then registered as a member to get a free goodie bag :D She can now borrow up to 6 books for her to chomp.

Balqis still has only 2 teeth. Not that her mom is complaining as her bites are painful enough. She is crazy about standing, be it supported by others, or supporting herself on furniture. She roams around the house, from room to room. She is also able to stretch her waking hours up to 3 hours without being cranky. But the moment she hits 4 continuous waking hours, she gets reaaalll cranky.

Balqis is still using her parents as an obstacle course nightly. sigh...

and more updates!

Balqis loves to growl. sometimes it's because she's cranky, sometimes it because she's tired, n sometimes she just wants to amuse herself. However, doing that in a crowded train at peak hour, with arms and legs flailing wildly, may just cause a big enough commotion to get everyone backing off from her and making way for her mommy to get off the train quick enough. yes, balqis growling loudly and flailing her arms and kicking around is a sight startling enough for strangers to see. And right at that moment, I wish i could dig a hold in the ground and hide from all the eyes staring at her (and her mom).

she has a particular habit when sleeping in the spring swing. she likes to turn her face to the sarong. and her lashes can end up sticking out of the sarong like wierd pricks on a hedgehog. and when she trashes around in the sarong, sometimes she ends up being on all fours in it. she must hv felt disoriented being in that position with the swing springing up and down.

she is obsessed with handphones and remote controls. the definite allure to get her to speed crawl. she usually bashes her mom up at bedtime every night, right before sleeping. And she usually struggles against her mom and tries hard not to nurse for whatever unknown reasons, something which can make her pant and breathe heavily by the end of it, and exhaust her mom too.

she is now able to scratch a particular spot on her body, like a mosquito bite. being older now, she is also able to go to sleep without being nursed right to deep sleep. she will just turn away and go to sleep.

7 and a half

BB is achieving every milestone a bit on the fast track it seems these days, especially in the mobility section.

BB first got to a sitting position from tummy when she just turned 7 months old. One moment, she was on her tummy, next moment saw her sitting up straight on her play mat. And from then onwards, she just started crawling all over the place. And after that, she is now climbing stairs, hoisting herself up by hanging on to furniture for dear life, or hanging on to her mom's telekung when mommy is praying.

She is more capable of sleeping on her own without nursing right to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, soon the day will come when she goes to sleep completely on her own.

Physically, she weighs approximately 8.5kg, a very small increase as she is moving much more these days. She is still using 6 months old clothes. A relief on the wallet.

Not much stranger anxiety yet. She still smiles at strangers when they talk to her.

Although she has started on solids, she can do perfectly fine without solids for two days in a row, ie, relying totally in breastmilk. She doesn't like plums but likes chilled pureed pears, and seems to enjoy fish too.

Balqis is turning 7 months on Saturday.

She loves to say 'heyyyy' now. She usually saves the 'mamamam' rambling when she's cranky or crying.

Once she flips over, she usually balances herself on her hands and knees and starts rocking forward and backwards. She is still trying to figure out how to crawl forward. But she is going all over the place with her backwards crawling. One can't just leave her at a spot and expect her to still be at the same spot 1 minute later. She can no longer sit still on her own, always lurching forward to grab or munch or lick something. Pictures taken usually end up in a blur.

One second later... (fell face first)

Her first pearly white showed itself when she was 6 mths old, plus a week or so. Her daddy felt it when she bit him and saw a shimmery whitish tooth sprouting through. BB now has two lower teeth.

She started solids when she turned 6 mths one day old. She had breastmilk mixed with nestle cereal. It probably tasted the same to her with no difference in texture. She lapped every single spoonful and ended drinking it up with a cup as she just had no patience for the spoon. Then she started on mashed bananas, which she grimaced at, potatoes mixed with breastmilk which was good for her as the texture was similar to porridge, and chopped pears which she liked. Her mom is trying to be more diligent to prepare sweet potatoes and yam sometime next week.

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah, Balqis has not come down with any fever or flu since she was born. Her mom had the occasional flu and cold now and then but Balqis didn't get it. Maybe she did but the antibodies in the breastmilk helped probably. She came down with a runny nose a few days ago which was gone in a few hours, so her mom put it down to a case of allergy to dust or some other allergen. Alhamdulillah. Allah is the best Caregiver and Protector.

She just broke her own record when it comes to sleeping too. For the first time in her life, she slept for four hours through without waking up even once. Shocking, yes.

She has started to display emotions in other ways other than crying. Once, she scolded her toy because it sprang back on her.

It is also getting harder to give her a diaper change now. And to change her clothes too. She lies down like a spring board, always flipping over.

And because she is very easily distracted and wants to play all the time, she no longer wants to nurse for the sake of a feed. She only drinks when she wants to nurse to sleep. There is no such thing as a feeding time for her anymore. She feeds when she wants to go to sleep. Sometimes her mom tries to nurse her while she is awake and not sleepy. She can nurse and drink, for like a minute at most, before she tries to wriggle away.

She readily smiles for the camera these days. Explains why most of the pictures always have her grinning and smiling.

Balqis at 6 months

Balqis is shy of 2 days turning 6 months. She has also celebrated her first raya and had an easy time with the jalan raya part, so far. Considering we went to two houses only on the first day, another two on the second day. Alhamdulillah, she's been cranky only in the car. As long as she got people talking n gooing and aah-ing at her, she's fine. However, her 1st raya was spent without her maternal grandparents, her maternal aunty and uncle.

She seems to develop a knack for getting duit raya. Managed to get $2 from this kind makcik at Ikea just now. BB smiled at her, she got smitten and dug out one money envelope from her handbag and gave it to BB. BB of coz grabbed it and started chomping on it.

Her mom has ditched the changing table and has resorted to a changing mat bcoz BB can flip over in just a second. The coffee table at the livnig room has been shoved aside to make way for BB's rolling attempts on the carpetted floor.

BB now cries with sounds like 'MAmamamam..'. And yes, she still screams sometimes. Usually when she;s over tired.

BB may start on cereal next week, or this weekend. we will take a look at Mummy's schedule and see if there's enough time or energy to look into that. Her mom's very very thankful that BB hasn't lost weight at all despite her Mom fasting.