Lil Penguin | 5th Month

Lil Penguin | 5th Month

• 3.04.2019

Happy 5th Months my lil penguin!!! Just hang in there, abit more and you'll soon be able to eat the foods you have been drooling over for the past 1 month lol. Felt so mean for constantly teasing you with food because your reactions were just priceless!

But before i get into the details of your milestones during this stage, i just want to put it out there that i did not enjoy every moment of your teething episodes. It was literal hell. 

Pardon my language but that was the only word i could find to describe the agony of it. Yep your typical " Best Seller Baby Manual" books as usual purposely forget to include these not so angelic episodes so new moms would be caught off guard and frantically flipping through the book pages to see if this is normal or not.

Surprise! Surprise!

As much as we loathe the idea of it, too bad; it's part of their growing stage.

It's just that often people choose to forget the "horrible" part of it, but let's be real. You gotta embrace them both, acknowledge the fact that your kids will go through periods of monstrous tantrums before they can become full decent functional adults (Like 20 years later lol).

Embracing it can easily easier said than done, it includes moms breaking down and spiraling into episodes of questioning and self doubts, i'm still struggling with that part as well so we definitely have alot on our emotional plate right now. 

Newborn stage (1st month) seems much easier to take care now eh.      

1st Chinese New Year

Look at that face lol

During the first week of her 5th month while we were in Malaysia for Chinese New Year, i noticed her crankiness evolved to her making an angry pout and sucking her lower gums at the same time (cute & fierce sia like baby tiger). At first we didn't think too much about it assuming it could be the hot & humid Malaysian heat getting to her (we left Kyoto at 1 degrees and arrived at 35 degrees lol).

She spent almost 2 weeks sleeping like this

The time we realized she was actually going through the first part of her teething stage was when her aunt gave us a baby chew toy for her to munch on.
Hand chewing session increased like 100 times fold, every second she gets it will end up in there because she didn't like the chew toy her aunt gave (lol so picky). So again people NEVER touch a baby's face or cheeks unless you already washed & sanitized them. Or just don't touch at all, go have your own baby to coo over instead. I will keep on repeating this over and over again!

Her baby hakama looks abit big on her, should fit her well by summer this year!

The danna was bored

Everyone in the family was so happy to meet lil penguin for the 1st time and of course wear their new upgraded titled proudly haha, no longer just "aunty or uncle" now need to add in "grand" liao.

She did well for a baby, travelling long distance on both plane & car, we were so worried her sleeping schedule would be thrown off board but luckily Malaysia is just 1 hour slower than Japan. Not to mention was able to be her cheerful self despite frequent episodes of itchy gums that sent her wailing the roof down.

Look at her grabbing angpao lol

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Her mom crying because tak layak for angpao dy while this little girl here happy because receiving so many from her uncles & aunties lol

So many house visits, family and friends that everyday was almost a full schedule for us, poor penguin was definitely exhausted from all the excitement so that allowed her to sleep well at night . Most people would put their babies to sleep at 8pm but she always resists (we've tried everything) and plays till 12-1am before K.O-ing and wakes up 1 time around 6am for milk before sleeping up till 10am everyday, her sleep pattern didn't change much since end of 3rd month.

Again, her papa was bored lol

Her faithful travel companion

Overall i think she adapts very well to changes, should bring her travel more often!


Teething Toys

Oh and since her previous teething toy kinda "died" we got her some cute customized teething toys from TeetherJoy, so happened to come across their Instagram page while i was browsing for baby items online and i love their selection of teethers!

They have tons of unique teether shapes that can be made into clips or rings with your baby's name on it and choice of colors, not to forgetting their Mommy & Me set that consists of subtle designed teething jewelry that looks quite fashionable for both babies & moms to wear around, it doesn't look like your average bulky baby toys to be honest.

All of Teetherjoy products are free from nasty chemicals, It's made from food grade silicon, BPA Free, doesn't contain Phthalates, lead & PVCs. 

Personally think this would also make a great gift for friends with babies :)

I got her the pretzel shaped teether, it's easy for her small fingers to grip

She loves it so much that she doesn't even let it go during her sleep lol

Face & Voice Recognition

We noticed she also learned to recognize faces and voices during this stage as she would give a smile whenever she sees or hears them. Like how she would laugh and squeal every time she hears my mom (grandma) or grandaunt voices while we were back in KL. Both of them took care of lil penguin for a week during the 2nd month of her life while i was away for work, guess that's how it kinda stuck to her lol. Surprising though, despite being only 2 months and sleeping most of the time, somewhere in her subconsciousness she was able to remember it. 

Naturally my mom and grandaunt would spoil her by carrying her around 24/7, she now knows how to demand in baby language "Oi! Drop what you are doing & carry me now!" 

She likes picture books

Growth

Out grew most of her clothes, had to bring out the 12months old clothes already because she is actually rather tall for her age. At one glance most people would assume she's already 7-8 months old and if we were to compare her to average Japanese size babies, she is double their size despite being the same age. Good, she has the tall genes haha!

Was abit sad to keep awhile some of her cute clothes especially the ones with penguin prints on it, thank you for serving us well!

Sociable Maybe  

She likes people, end of story. Lil penguin is such a sociable baby that it scares us (the parents) that someone might walk away with her *choi touchwood*. She will give strangers who call her "Kawaii" a big smile and shy face side turn (i don't know where she learn that from sia, definitely not from me).

Super talkative and she even screams at people when she's over excited or annoyed, super loud angry screams ya. Beware this baby bites.

See how happy she is with someone she just met

When i saw her did that for the first time she reminded me very much of an angry red Jack Jack (The Incredibles).

One thing everyone has to watch out whenever you open your mouth in front of her while playing, she will shove her saliva coated fist into your mouth, so gross.

Motoring Skills

Her grabbing has definitely upgraded since she first discovered that she could reach out and grab things within her reach at 4 months old.  We know she likes flowers because she would have this mesmerized look on her face whenever we pass by one and her hands would automatically reach for it lol.

Poor flowers, we don't mind exposing her to nature but always have to keep an eye to make sure she doesn't eat the flowers.

Aside from grabbing plants, her next favorite thing to do is grabbing my hair really hard until she pulls off a fist full for it; now i understand why moms keep short hair or tie it up majority of the time. Dah lah i'm already balding thanks to postpartum hair-loss, and now i have lil penguin contributing to it as well.

Shown interest in foods we adult are eating, constantly mimicking chewing movements and wanting to grab the food from our hands & plates with every opportunity she gets. She also gets so angry whenever she sees us eating in front of her and not offering her any. Oh and don't do the food tease because she will bite and scream at you for cheating her feelings lol. Real snappy angry penguin.

See she's standing up because she wanted to get the fish infront of her.

Food as motivation lol

My Klebang Coconut shake is being hijacked!

Even my bag of chips aren't safe from her grasps 

When it comes to her appetite don't need say liao, my useless oppai can never fill her stomach enough so we replaced 1-2 feeds with formula especially at night so she can sleep better. As expected, formula fed babies poop more than fully breastfed ones so she's been happily creating explosive poop diapers that soils her entire back. The diaper we are currently using is also partially at fault, not a very good fit for active tall babies. Pampers brand absorbs and holds pee well but not tsunami poop.

She likes her cheeks being nibbled, for me i don't mind because hers are soft like fresh bouncy mochi!

I know it's still abit too early for her to be walking but she seems interested in it though she is still unable to sit up unassisted for long, she tries to walk when we hold her upwards, you can see her making the effort to do a few "air walk" steps forward.

She loves her new interactive musical toy given by her great grandma

Pretending to read a green tea packet 

She's rolling around like a pro now, especially when there are new toys in sight; she'll try her best to go for it (pfft..such motivation lol) and gets so frustrated that she can't sit up like the rest of us to play with her toys, need to teach her anger management sia. Chill girl~

Crocodile Tears

This one is her new weapon, when she knows she can't get something like we take away something dangerous and put it away, she'll wail until she gets a replacement. If her highness finds the replacement unworthy then good luck trying to sooth her before the neighbors sends social workers knocking on our doors (joking lol but really hope it doesn't come to that). She pretend to cry until her face turns so red and her throat hurts but still refuses to stop until she gets her way.
We tried to reason with her nicely without using the "No" word, doesn't seem to be effective because she feels as if you are scolding her lol, such a drama queen.

The key is to find a distraction for her, because once she's distracted she'll stop her act immediately (in 1 sec) and go back to all smiley cheeky baby.
It's so scary that a baby this young is able to manipulate an adult to submission. Yes lil penguin, i hope you will read this entry when you are older lol, i have video proof saved in my hard disk too.

Reading back her previous entries, it's amazing how much she has progressed over the months, everyday i learn more about this little human being whom i call daughter and i'm glad to have her despite all the surprises (& poops) she throws my way. Won't say she's an easy baby, then again when are babies ever easy?
Bet she's excited to start her food journey soon, but what i'm least excited about is her next diaper change after having solids. Wew. Any mommy want to share baby food recipes with me?

Yours Truly,