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Post by v9733xa on Oct 21, 2019 17:16:05 GMT -5
Duly noted guys. It's amazing how much you can unnecessarily buy for a baby/children. My little lad is nearly out of his moses basket already - felt like a waste of £50 given he's lasted about 6 weeks in it. Welp, guess it's time you had another then huh? |
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Post by stuartoxlade on Oct 22, 2019 7:42:17 GMT -5
Duly noted guys. It's amazing how much you can unnecessarily buy for a baby/children. My little lad is nearly out of his moses basket already - felt like a waste of £50 given he's lasted about 6 weeks in it. Welp, guess it's time you had another then huh? Cost of a lifetime of a child at home vs cost of a moses basket  |
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Post by stringypoo on Nov 20, 2019 21:53:48 GMT -5
My son is approaching five months in 3 days. The time really does fly by. I only see him in person on Friday nights until Sunday evenings, and I don't really spend that much time with him on Sundays because I am teaching so much during the morning and afternoon. But anyway, he's a good one. He's quiet, but not so quiet that you have to wonder or worry that he's gonna be a weird child or anything...lol! He smiles a lot. He likes very much to touch, scratch, and hold things with his hands. He seems interested in the newspaper, as if you hold it up to him, his eyes and brows show signs of deep concentration, so it's a funny way to get a fun picture of him.
I always hope that he will have more of a Chinese face than a western face, because I don't hope that he will grow up in this country being treated like a foreigner who probably doesn't understand anything like I so frequently am treated. On the one hand, it's fun to show people I can speak and understand a lot, but in some ways the special or unique treatment isn't what I hope for.
I believe if he can figure it out, he is probably able to crawl, since he's incredibly strong, especially his legs, but he hasn't started doing that yet. Instead, he has this really bizarre move he does that shocks us. He does this thing where he lies on his back, spreads his legs a little, plants his feet flat on the surface of the bed/crib/whatever and uses his legs to push his whole body up into the air, also thrusting himself backwards an inch or so each time. It's hilarious, because if you see a video of him doing it, the video looks like it's in 2x speed playback, or that it doesn't look real, but actually it's just how fast he moves. It's crazy and hilarious to watch. haha
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Post by aquafina on Nov 27, 2019 10:25:09 GMT -5
My Wifes due date was last Friday so now we are just playing the waiting game. We are both growing pretty impatient, and especially her more so than myself for obvious reasons. I'll keep everyone posted, and he might even come on Thanksgiving so we will see.
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Post by v9733xa on Nov 27, 2019 18:10:50 GMT -5
My Wifes due date was last Friday so now we are just playing the waiting game. We are both growing pretty impatient, and especially her more so than myself for obvious reasons. I'll keep everyone posted, and he might even come on Thanksgiving so we will see. Don't wait too long! You don't want to overcook that turkey! |
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Post by stringypoo on Nov 27, 2019 20:31:09 GMT -5
Oh man, that's quite an experience, aquafina. I remember that my wife's due date was June 23rd. Her water broke around 11:45pm that day, and Ethan was born two hours later. Although I suppose it's not that amazing, but it kinda shocked me that our due date was so nearly accurate with the reality. I think it would drive me nuts if I waited nearly a whole week after the due date. However, I see that happening quite often around me with the women I work with in this school. That's really exciting though, keep us updated. |
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Post by stuartoxlade on Nov 28, 2019 4:33:35 GMT -5
My Wifes due date was last Friday so now we are just playing the waiting game. We are both growing pretty impatient, and especially her more so than myself for obvious reasons. I'll keep everyone posted, and he might even come on Thanksgiving so we will see. All the best dude. My wife was 12 days late in the end so I hope she has more luck than we did! |
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Post by stringypoo on Dec 27, 2019 0:01:55 GMT -5
My boy turned six months on Christmas Eve. He is now varying up his diet just a little, still mostly on breast milk, but now on whole grain rice meal or something like that. He has too much fun with being spoon fed because he is unfamiliar with it. We prep him up a spoonful and he tends to blow onto it and force it all over his face sometimes. Lol
Also, he is just way more responsive than before. Today I spent the most one on one time with him I’ve ever had this morning, and I introduced him to a few of my favorite symphonies, Mozart 41, Haydn 104, and Beethoven 1. It only scratches the surface of my symphonic tastes, but the general simplicity of classical era symphonies just felt more appropriate considering my audience. As we listened to it, I kept tapping the beat with my palm, and for a few moments here and there, he would finally join me in doing the same, sometimes with pretty steady beats. It kinda got me excited, you know? When you’re a musician, and you always tell people you don’t hope for your child to become a musician too, but then you see early signs of music understanding...well, it’s hard not to get a little hopeful. Fun times~
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Post by stuartoxlade on Jan 9, 2020 4:33:03 GMT -5
I'm trying to get my son into devil horns and headbanging by comparison haha. Had him air drumming last night.
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Post by zelio on Jan 9, 2020 5:42:56 GMT -5
my youngest son turned 5 yesterday so he's joining Jiu Jutsu class for the very first time this weekend. We're all excited. He's been waiting for this for so long ... things never get boring when you have kids
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 28, 2020 0:39:11 GMT -5
How are everyone's kids nowadays?
My boy Ethan turned 10 months last Friday. It wasn't until about two weeks ago that he got busy crawling, but he had been quite lazy about moving around until last week. He crawls awkwardly, and it's hilarious, because he will crawl with one side of his face basically rubbing against the bed while his butt is up in the air and his legs awkwardly propelling him forward with one arm reaching and the other dragging under his body. He's really good at backwards crawling though. And now he crawls backwards and manages to stand up on hands and feet for a few seconds before he either falls forwards or backwards.
He is developing funny habits, like this ritualistic thing he does where every time he grabs my wife's phone he will do a mouth fart before throwing it a short distance in front of himself, and then repeat for a while. He still hates eating anything, but the trick is to give him something to do with his hands while we feed him and he seems to forget we're feeding him ricemeal and noodles. While it sounds simple enough to trick him like that, it's much harder than it sounds because he is always super cautious about what we are potentially giving him and it prevents him from getting fully engaged in an activity that will distract him from knowing he's eating.
His sleep is hit or miss, but lately he tends to only wake up about two times on average per night, so not bad. My biggest problem is that I'm only a weekend dad, so some weekends I come home and it can feel like he and I are starting over in our relationship. I'm sure that will get better and better with him aging, and so far I even think that is showing to be true.
Also, he's a pro at saying mama, but the only time he said baba (Chinese for dad) was the first day I began work again once the schools reopened at the beginning of the month, and of course I missed it. It's almost as if he consciously knew I wasn't there that day and he called me. Oh well.
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Post by zelio on Apr 28, 2020 8:44:15 GMT -5
Well, because kindergardens and schools are closed I am home with the kids. I can because I work in IT and it does not really matter where I sit in front of the computer :-D - my wife is going to work. It is kind of exhausting because I work full time, watch the kids, cook, and home teach my older son. It seems we are progressing much faster than they would at school but it's a lot of work. I have to use the TV to keep them entertained during my working hours, there is no other way. In Germany we don't have total lockdown, we can walk around outside, but all playgrounds are closed. So when we get the time we go to the park instead which is nice, because the kids play like like might have done in the days of yore: climbing up and down hills, crawling through the undergrowth, running around. It's kinda nice because I don't like hanging out on the playground with other parents anyway, so we get to be in the park, sip a beer (alcohol free beer in my case XXX) and the kids get to play. Ah, stringypoo , my boy has started learning the violin. Currently via remote sessions of course. |
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Post by v9733xa on Apr 28, 2020 17:01:16 GMT -5
My cat's doing great.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 28, 2020 20:41:03 GMT -5
Well, because kindergardens and schools are closed I am home with the kids. I can because I work in IT and it does not really matter where I sit in front of the computer :-D - my wife is going to work. It is kind of exhausting because I work full time, watch the kids, cook, and home teach my older son. It seems we are progressing much faster than they would at school but it's a lot of work. I have to use the TV to keep them entertained during my working hours, there is no other way. In Germany we don't have total lockdown, we can walk around outside, but all playgrounds are closed. So when we get the time we go to the park instead which is nice, because the kids play like like might have done in the days of yore: climbing up and down hills, crawling through the undergrowth, running around. It's kinda nice because I don't like hanging out on the playground with other parents anyway, so we get to be in the park, sip a beer (alcohol free beer in my case XXX) and the kids get to play. Ah, stringypoo , my boy has started learning the violin. Currently via remote sessions of course. That sounds tiring, although nice at the same time. I can quite imagine, since during the time before we were asked to return to school, we were teaching from home for 8 weeks and I was taking care of my son during those days as well. But I didn't have to cook. And now I'm in school, but all Kindergarten-grade 3 students are still not allowed to come to campus yet, so those several students' parents are doing like what you're doing. As a result, some students get a lot of work done, and others are basically absent in a way. It's hit and miss. That's really fun news to hear your son started learning violin. Before I came to China, my work was performing and teaching over 60 private violin students a week for several years. I hope he is enjoying learning. All teachers can be so different. And many teachers have VERY DIFFERENT ideas about how the beginning of learning the violin should be. I find some people's philosophy on teaching beginning violin to be very frustrating, because I know from my experience that many kids find the violin fascinating until the moment that they realize it is a hard instrument that requires practice. And then they often experience a sharp decline in interest and stop practicing, fight with parents who try to encourage them to practice, etc. If you ever have any questions about the violin lessons or anything, feel free to ask. I have lots of opinions on violin learning which kept me a popular teacher in the last several years. I hope it all goes really smooth.  |
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Post by stuartoxlade on Apr 29, 2020 5:52:40 GMT -5
Mine is 7 months now, not crawling yet but certainly taking an interest in things a lot more. His latest obsession is the TV remote, never seems out to be out of his mouth whenever he sets his targets on it. He's also sleeping a hell of a lot better now and is eating solid food without any issues.
I made a total parenting fail yesterday but preparing some food for me and my wife, then going over to him to help him eat some rice, completely forgetting I'd just been chopping chillies which sent him into meltdown once the taste touched his lips. Be warned people, it's not ideal!
Loved being in isolation with him though, getting to see him at length daily is a joy.
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