Tadaa!!!

:)

PS: It arrived a week later than expected so it missed an unvealing at our Eid Open House. Sappy, I wanted to surprise you but grrr...

Eid 08

My, my... looking at last year's Eid photos, its pretty obvious how Arissa has grown over the course of a year..

.. She looks so prim & proper here! How deceiving pictures are (it took me 5 takes and a lot of persuasion to get a decent solo photo with the hairclip on!)

And oh! the damage done to Mummy and Daddy- a year's worth of extra white hair and added wrinkles..




This year's standard line of questioning is "So when is No 2 coming?" to which my retort is "I'm skinny enough, one more and I'll disappear into thin air!"

Compared to last year where Arissa was a social butterfly and took to everybody instantly, this year she was at the other extreme- clinging onto me and burying her face in my dress until she warms up enough to the strange gathering of hot and sweaty aunties/ uncles/ cousins who make enough ruckus to wake up the dead.

We organised a mini open house the day after Arissa's Muslim birthday, 17 Syawal. Thanks all for popping in and hope you ate enough :)

Taking the bit between the teeth

I grew rather worried that Arissa had become so dependant on her NUK pacifier that we dared not leave home without it. So dependant was she that I had to stash 1 dummy at Mum's, 1 dummy at babysitter's, 1 dummy at home and 1 dummy in the car. I also put 1 in her Eeyore rucksack in case any one of the 4 got lost/misplaced/trashed somehow. And for long holidays, we brought along 2 pacifiers- 1 attached to my carry bag and 1 securely packed in the luggage. In case. Whatever the case may be in my paranoid mind.

Its totally a recipe for an overbite.

I never had a soother as a baby and neither did hubby so, in spite of my paranoia, I could not understand her need to suckle excessively. In many ways, I blamed myself for introducing her to the dummy during the breast-to-bottle transition and then for allowing her to get hooked. And I wanted so badly to undo the damage before she became a candidate for braces- not an easy task when most think I'm being an wicked witch for refusing a two-year old her beloved soother. Whenever I brought this up, Mum or babysitter would comment "..usually they give it up when they're ready" or "but she doesn't need it all day, only to fall asleep..."

But I wasn't taking any chances with an overbite. Taking the bit between the teeth is a mother's number 1 job, so I picked a 'calm' period- as experts recommend- to unleash my 'evil' plan, first in the cover of darkness then in broad daylight:

At night, I hid the damned soother from her. After the last feed, I simply turned off the lights and played dead. Some nights were easier than others, especially when she is exhausted from the day- she simply snuggled against me and fell asleep without fuss. Other nights, she would start crying and refused to settle down. When this happens, I'd give her a 10 minute grace period and would try to turn her attention to something else, and if that doesn't work, will raise the white flag and offer her the dummy. This I kept up for about 3 weeks and by the end of it, realised she does not even ask for her pacifier anymore at bedtime. Hurrah!

In the day, weaning proved lots harder. Without the cover of darkness (a natural sleep-inducer for her at bedtime), she would point to her lips after a full bottle, wide-eyed and alert, crying "teng teng! teng teng!" (short for puting aka pacifier). Drastic measures had to come into play- I kept her awake longer than usual so she's totally knackered and then manually rocked her to sleep. I also refused to replace any of the dummies when they tore. She hated sucking the sharp edges and eventually never asked for it at naptime. Yippee!

And now, a good month and abit later, she has officially completed the dummy weaning process. Some days she remembers the beloved soothers, and we allow her the occasional regresses but after barely a minute, she finds it a nuisance and pulls it out of her mouth in disgust. Success!!

BEFORE:

















AFTER- dummyless even in sleep:















Now, I'm left with the bottle weaning process and the toilet-training process.... looks like my scheming can't stop anytime soon.

'Tis a season to be jolly

Doting grandfather

deep in conversation too @ Nek Putih's house

The mafia convoy- all black

Arissa & baby Aliya- knackered after 4hours of visiting

Rushaidi, Arissa & Elisha

My fellow road-trippers in Perth- Tok Chu & Tok Brahim. We covered the whole south WA in 4 days and had to rough it out in a caravan- it still brings tears to my eyes talking about the good ole times! (She is at an advanced stage of colon cancer now.)

Blood is thicker than water :)