seventeenzeroeightzeroeight

Anson starts a crawling

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:04:00 +0000

At six months, Anson has started to make his first steps in crawling.

Though his first crawling steps are rather unstable and some can say it isn’t crawling, but I admire his determination to reach his targeted object at all cost.

We put a empty wet tissue plastic box which caught his eye and he kept crawling towards it.

He still didn’t know how hard the floor can be and as parents you know what might happen.

As Anson was about to fall to his left, hitting the ground hard, my hand instantly reach out to break the loud thud of his head onto floor.

Anson seem to like being in push-up position. Wait till he has to do that for National Service when he is 21..

I (HEART) ANSON

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:57:00 +0000

Chinese New Year 2009 1st day: Our bundle of joy

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Bringing Anson around to two relatives’ place was tiring, but seeing their happy faces made the journey all worth it.

We started the day taking to Anson with a grandaunts, which makes her a great-grandaunty with Anson.

Visits to this grandaunty place during Chinese New Year without her popular ham sandwiches doesn’t complete the trip.

Left: Grandaunty with daughter preparing ham sandwiches.
Right: Famous ham sandwiches.

Photo: Even Anson has started “eating” the famous ham sandwich.

Our next trip was to a another relative’s place from my father’s side. A popiah (spring rolls) lunch was at hand.

Left: Ingredients for the popiah session.
Right: Mother and aunty making their own popiah.

It was latter back to Anson’s great-grandparents place to greet them and entertain guests there.

Sorry for the lack of text for this blog post as I am extremely tired and we have another busy schedule for the second day.

Here’s some photos to fill the void.

Photo: Younger cousins preparing for a pillow fight!

Photo: Some tidbits at Grandma’s place.

Photo: Anson being the star of this year’s Chinese New Year!

Reunion dinner with four generations

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Chinese New Year this time round is very different for me as I am with son now.

The celebrations start usually at the eve of Chinese New Year itself, the reunion dinner. As it falls on a Sunday this time round and holidays for the next two days, the dinner this time round don’t seem like a rush.

For my non-Chinese visitors, reunion dinners on the eve usually means having the whole family together for one night and have a grand dinner.

The last time Anson’s great-grandparents saw him was in October last year. Neither did his grand-uncle or grand-auntie saw Anson before so I wouldn’t know what Anson’s reaction will be to first time meetings.

Left: Anson’s grandmother introducing him to the kitchen
Right: Great-grandmother giving Anson a welcome peck on the cheek.

Anson did well with the relatives, though he was only cranky as it was about sleep time when we reach the place. Anson slept during dinner time but came out later to meet his relations.

Left: Anson’s young uncles saying “Hello”
Right: Young uncle James says “Hee hee! I am the youngest uncle in the world!!!”

Reunion dinners are grand affairs. My grandmother is usually the cook, but this time round she made rather small portions. Maybe its time for me to continue the cooking tradition.

Photo: 14 seats this year, 15 next year and the table will be cramp! Its a Happy Problem for the family, bizspeak wise.

Left: Noodles – a must have as noodles means longevity
Right: Grandmother’s recipe dish – Bua Ku Lat (Can never find the English translation but its made of mince meat and chicken in thick curry.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day as we be visiting several relatives to start the Chinese New Year celebrations.

For readers of SocialPR, have a happy and prosperous Ox year ahead!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:48:00 +0000

Daddy yesterday went to a Christmas party and his friends from Vox Camerata dedicated a Christmas carol to me.

Thank you Vox Camerata!

Here’s wishing readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Visiting my great-grandparents for the first time

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:16:00 +0000

I had a very tiring weekend as I was in Singapore for the first time.

I am very sleepy now and getting ready to head back to Puchong.

I will miss Daddy much.

Daddy has made a short video of my visit to Singapore and me meeting my great-grandparents for the very first time...

My daddy so creative

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Daddy had to go back to Singapore to earn money. I have not seen him for weeks.

Lucky, my grandaunty wants to bring her family to Singapore for the weekend. So I get to see Daddy. Yipee..

Daddy is also very creative. He made a funny video of me..

A is not for air-conditioning

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Anson is two months old on Friday and as a father, I am getting to really understand my son.

Prior to Thursday, Anson kept crying when he was brought up to the room to sleep at night.

Anson is good boy and seldom scream or cry during for day, except when he is hungry, wets his nappy or is cranky due to the lack of sleep.

We fed him before bringing him up to the room so he should not be hungry.

We changed his pampers before sleep so he should be dry.

It could be that he was cranky as he did not have enough sleep. But no matter what we did, Anson continued to scream his head off.

It was on Thursday night that we found out what was causing him to scream: the air-conditioning.

Anson went for his first immunisation shot on Thursday and the doctor did warn of fever developing latter in the day. My mother-in-law also highlighted that one of her daughters had fever for three days after an immunisation shot.

As Anson was developing a slight fever of 37.2 degrees (37 is normal human temperature, Google if you don’t know).

So we decided it was best to leave the air-conditioning off and let the ceiling fan twirl.

It was to our surprise that Anson slept peacefully and quickly without his usual screaming before bed.

I thought it was the fever and the medicine that made Anson a little easier to sleep, but my paternal instinct told me it could be the fan.

On Friday night, we switched on the air-conditioning and Anson cried again. We decided to switch on the ceiling fan and Anson immediately kept quiet. Within minutes in his favourite rocking chair, he went into slumber land within minutes.

He only woke up once during the night for milk and slept a little longer in the morning.

We tried it on Saturday night to sleep with the fan on and Anson was sleeping within minutes.

Either the air-conditioning is too cold (though we set it to 26 degrees) or Anson doesn’t like the dry air from air-conditioning. Whatever the reasons, we are glad that Anson isn’t making too much of the noise at night.

Anson Koh on Youtube

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:29:00 +0000

The Anson Poser

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Have you ever played the PC game, You Don’t Know Jack! ?

I am now close to one and half a month old and he has develop quite fast. I loves to show off my various facial expression when big adult engages in conversation with me.

I love to smile for the camera..

How about a wink???

One “I (Heart) U” before I go sleep

If you can’t have enough of me, please visit Daddy’s facebook album here and here.

Mother and Son

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:55:00 +0000

My First Month Celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:22:00 +0000

Sorry Uncles Aunties Granduncles and Grandaunties..

Daddy have been busy at work recently and had to take care of me.

So that’s why there is a delay in posting.

Here are some photos of my first month celebrations..

Me getting ready for my first haircut

Grandma giving me my first hair cut

I look handsome or not?

Daddy says I am his PRINCE
Because that makes him KING!

First group came in the afternoon..
Chatter puts me to sleep..

Everybody enjoying their lunch,
especially Aussie Kai Ma

Kai-Ma from Perth loves her pig trotters.

Mommy dressed me up like Droopy

Counting down to party party!!!

Aust Tai-ma complaining to Daddy and Mommy for not giving her twins..

Here’s a quick mosaic capture of my celebrations..

Finally.. guests leaving.. time for me to wake up..

Father's Note: Anson's 1st month celebration

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:02:00 +0000

We are going to celebrate Anson's 1st month celebration this Saturday.

He is going to be very baby popular on Saturday.

On another note, here's a trailer of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Its about a man who grew old to young.

I heart U!

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:40:00 +0000

This photo is dedicated to all uncles, aunties, grand uncles, grand aunties, great grand uncles and aunties, grandparents and great-great parents.

Daddy's back and I'm loving it

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:56:00 +0000

Daddy had to go back to Singapore from Sunday to Wednesday. That's why this blog was not updated.

I remembered Daddy telling me he will be back on Wednesday before he left. I usually sleep by 10pm, but yesterday, I wanted to wait for Daddy.

I miss Daddy so much.

Daddy came home about 11.30pm and I was still await.

Daddy called me a naughty boy for sleeping so late, but I knew he also wanted to see me too.

I drank lots of milk last night. Daddy carried me and tried to pat me to sleep.

But I just enjoyed looking at Daddy.

Daddy thought his singing will put me to sleep, but I was still wide awake as I wanted Daddy to sing more.

After awhile, Daddy said he had to go sleep because he has work tomorrow and left me with the confinement nanny.

See you tomorrow Daddy!

14 days ago - How paternity helped me help wife and son

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Two weeks have since passed and I am grateful for the company to have given me the paternity leave to take care of both mother and child.

It all started on the morning of 16 August 2008. I was about to head for the airport for my trip back home to Singapore. My son decided it was time and burst the water bag.

So the trip back to Singapore transformed into a trip to the hospital.

When my wife told her mother about it, she was quite alright. I was in a state of excitement and nervousness. Luckily, my mother-in-law was there to calm things down.

We even had lunch before heading to the hospital.

Once we reached the hospital, I informed the reception that my wife's water bag has burst. The receptionist was more anxious than I was and arranged for her to be admitted to the delivery suite.

After my wife was well rested at the suite, then did they ask me to head down to handle the administration paperwork.

The genealogist came and checked on my wife.

Everything seemed normal but the genea was sort of worried that my wife was dilating accordingly and had a c-section could be possible.

The genea said to give my wife 24 hours to see how it progress with assistance from medication.

I chose the single ward so I could be with my wife through out the night. The hospital staff also provided a portable bed for me.

The night wasn't very peaceful though. Wife was going through her contractions and was in pain.

We called in the nurses and mid-wives a couple of times. Around 2am, the contractions got real bad and the mid-wife on duty suggested epidural, but my wife refused. The mid-wife then explained that this was normal and only did my wife calmed down.

Later in the morning, the genea came again and checked on my wife. He recommended a c-section and my wife was pushed into the operating theater in the early morning.

That one hour seem rather long though I had cable to entertain me. The doctor came in and congratulated me for being a father.

He said everything was fine and that the baby was quite heavy at 3.72kg.

He brought me outside the nursery and told me I could see my new born.

When I saw Anson then, he was fast asleep and showed a smile on his face. I couldn't resist taking a photo of Anson using my wife's mobile. I was both happy and excited to see my son, yet I was worried about my wife.

My wife was wheeled in and was still asleep.

We had to stay in hospital for another day as that was the norm for c-section. Wife had to stay off solid food and was very weak.

In between this period of time, Anson was brought in. He looked very fragile and I was quite afraid to carry him.

Most of the time, Anson was asleep.

Wife did try to breastfeed Anson, but was rather unsuccessful as Anson was still not used to it and was in a sleepy mood.

Wife went back home the next day but Anson had to stay one more day for treatment of Jaundice.

I went back to the hospital the next day and my mother-in-law was happy to carry him all the way home.

Wife was happy to see Anson home but she still was weak from the operation.

Luckily for us, mother-in-law found a good confinement nanny to take care of wife and child.

Both mother-in-law and confinement nanny showed me how to pick up Anson from the cot and carry him in my arms.

I started singing to Anson and he seemed to like it a lot. Rock-a-bye Baby is now his favourite lullaby.

On Friday, I had to bring Anson back to the hospital for his first preview.

Anson seemed yellowish and the doctor took some blood from him. We brought him home while waited for the results of the blood test.

When the blood test came back, Anson had to be readmitted into the hospital for treatment.

Wife was upset to see Anson leave for the hospital but she was too weak.

The next day, we decided to bring Anson back though the doctor suggested he should stay one more day.

Mother-in-law said to treat Anson with a little natural sun tanning.

I told the confinement nanny I wanted to carry Anson down and to wait for the car. She gave me the chance to carry Anson all the way home. I sang to Anson while he sleep nicely in my arms.

The next day, both Anson and I spend a few minutes in the morning sun. I took this opportunity to wish him Good Morning and sing as many lullabies as I could remember. I think it was up to four.

The post seven days were dedicated to running around KL for administration purpose. I had to go to the local govt agency to register Anson's BC and to the Singapore embassy to submit Anson's citizen application.

The two weeks paternity leave allowed me to do all this and at the same time bond with my son.

I am back in Singapore and will return to office tomorrow. There are lots of catching up to do but I am glad for the company to giving me this leave.

I will be returning to KL on Wednesday night and I can't wait to see Anson again.

The Daily Adventures of Anson Koh

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:05:00 +0000

He wakes up...

...............cry for milk

pose for Daddy..............

and goes back to sleep..

Daily Adventures of Anson Koh from aaronkoh on Comiqs

Like father like son - Turbanized

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Daddy took me to take a passport photo yesterday.

He tried to wake me during the photo shoot, but I refused to open my eyes.

I did try to give him a smile though.

Daddy then brought me home, and he and grandfather went to the Singapore embassy to apply for my Singapore's citizenship.

When Daddy came back, he called TMNet to activate the Internet that the promised to do so within 24 hours. 24 hours passed and still no Internet. Daddy called and complained. Internet was up within 1/2 hour.

Daddy then decide to make fun of my photo and turbanized me.

Tell me if I look like Daddy.

Daddy made me his favourite model

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:30:00 +0000

I am a morning baby.

This morning, Daddy brought me out for a little sun tanning to help me get better from Jaundice.

Daddy says I am getting tanner than him and he is getting jealous.

After a bottle of milk, I still could not sleep and Daddy sang to me.

He sang the "ABC" song and I liked it very much that I smiled and showed Daddy my tongue.

Daddy took out his DSLR and started to take close-up shots of of me.

I am a very good boy, when Daddy say smiled, I smiled.

To see more photos, click here.

I'm seven day old...

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Today, I am one week old.

Daddy took me home from the hospital yesterday though the doctor suggested I stay another day of treatment.

Mummy missed me and everybody decided I could do my tan the natural way.

Daddy carried me all the way home and I felt very comfortable in his arms. So comfortable that I slept the whole journey home.

Daddy told me he had a very busy day yesterday. He had to accompany Mummy to the doctor's for her first review check-up.

Daddy said Mummy was fine but misses me a lot.

Today, a lot of aunties and uncles will be visiting me.

I hope to see Daddy's Mummy soon during my one month celebration.

Anson's first medical review

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Daddy bought me back to Sunway Medical today for review.

Daddy told the doctor, Dr Tan, that my skin was a little yellow. Dr Tan said it could be another bout of Jaundice and had to draw some blood from me to check it.

Dr Tan put a needle in my small little hand and I cried!!!

Dr Tan said the test will take two hours and Daddy bought me home to sleep.

Anson @ Five Days Old

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:58:00 +0000

My eyes opened wide in the afternoon and Grandma gave Daddy the permission to take more photos of me.

It was under a bright afternoon sunlight so you can see ever details of me.

I saw Daddy carrying a big big camera pointing at me.

Daddy, please take nice photos of me, ok?

Father's Note: Paternity leave is more than just putting on diapers

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

It must be disappointing for some father-to-be in Singapore to learn that paternity leave was not on the cards during the Prime Minister Singapore National Day Rally.

I am luck and grateful for my employer to have given me two weeks paternity leave to be with my wife and my first newborn child.

It is not one month, but its better than one day.

Paternity leave isn't just about a holiday for the father too.

My current experience highlights why even a two week paternity leave is important for Fathers.
My wife was hoping for a normal birth but circumstances forced her to do a c-section.

Wife was weak after the operation and it was important for me to be by her side during this period.

Wife water bag burst on a Saturday, gave birth on Sunday and was only allowed to be discharged on Tuesday.

Anson had to stay an extra day because of Jaundice and I had to fetch him from the hospital on a Wednesday.

A total of five days were used up just to handle the birth process.

It doesn't stop there.

I have to bring Anson for a review check-up on Friday and wife for hers on Saturday.

Can you imagine if I only had one day paternity leave? I would have to use my annual leave for these important activities.

If analysts say its the economics that is preventing one month paternity leave, why not introduce two weeks instead?

Anson's favourite lullabye..

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:55:00 +0000

Father's Note: Anson coming home!!!

noreply@blogger.com (seventeenzeroeightzeroeight) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:30:00 +0000

The hospital called and said Anson's jaundice has been flushed out.

Enough sunbathing under UV light, babe! Time for you to come home.

If many of you are wondering why the lack of photos, that's because we are under strict orders from his grandmother in KL that we can't take photos when Anson is asleep.

Seem weird that we might adhere to this and many other grandmother's sayings, but it seems better to follow generations of advice to mothers.

For example, wife cannot take showers for one month, but her mother here has prepared some herb bath for wife to wipe herself. Smelt of lemon grass and ginger when I poured it into the tub.

However, the grandmother here is also open to listen to the parents' methods of taking care of their son.

Ok, preparing to bring Anson back..