Going to buy me a new bed

So, we had some extra hours on a car we rented and decided to have some dim sum at Plum - which turned out to be expensive but a great choice. Lots of room, good service and wonderful food. It probably was expensive because we ordered and ordered and ordered :)
We can be gluttons sometime. BabyCo was nearby and so we popped in. For a while now, we have been debating setting up his bed in the second bedroom and letting him sleep there. Wife though wants him nearby. His bed won't fit though in our bedroom. So, she spotted this travel cot which babies can sleep in till two. ``Should have got that in the beginning,'' she said. I couldn't agree more in hindsight, though I was just nervous since it does look flimsy.
Still, we're visiting family in June, so this could come in handy. Here's a pic of him in the car :) One of the better ones with natural sunlight and shadow.

Sleeping like an angel

Yeah, sometimes he's just like that after feeding :)

Belly time

After dinner one day, we turned back to Siyuan and found that he had rolled over onto his belly! That next great step has occured and it thrilled us to bits, and him as well. He kept rolling over that evening till he got tired and started crying. Since then he has shown a preference to be on his belly, and even when we put him in his pram, he would try to lift himself by the elbows to look at us. He's getting more curious about his surroundings. He's also now able to play by himself a lot more.
Wife reckons though he does want more attention now.

He is also able to stretch and touch his toes now. The only bad news, and actually the most important one, is that he seems to have broken out of his sleeping habits. He's been crying and waking up a lot more in the night. Nurse says we have to be careful or else Siyuan would unlearn how to sleep.

He Likes to Watch TV

Yes, everytime the tv is on, he would be glued to it. We try to stop him from watching it and have erected barricades with pillows and toys and such. We propped him up for his picture :)

Sunday Nite

Hard to want to go back to work having had such a wonderful weekend with Siyuan!
He now likes to roll onto his sides, and then to pacify himself, will suck on his fingers till he fall asleep.

The Hobbit and Superman

Siyuan attended his first church service today by first been totally curious about his surroundings, and then snoring through the sermon. And the best thing about attending a Welsh church? You get mentions of the Hobbit and Superman in a sermon :)
Siyuan gave us a absolutely great day yesterday, sleeping, feeding and playing well, and in general not been a bother. He was just a wonder :)

Smiley?

Siyuan smiles and laughs a lot when we play with him. Heck, sometimes he just smile and laugh when he notices us walking by and giving him a glance. Friends also noticed he's quite a smiley.
We wonder if all babies are like that, or is it just that this is part of his character formation? Nurses say the core character of a person is formed in his first three years, which is why some of them advocate not letting a baby cry too long on their own, least a part of that fear and anxiety creep into their character.
Others of course say we should let the baby cry some times so that they learn to be more independent, especially when sleeping is concerned.
Wife says she's soft-hearted to let Siyuan cry too long, so I don't think that's a parenting method we will use. Wife is a very nice softie :)

100 Days

We never got round to celebrating his 1 month birthday, which is a Chinese tradition, since we were exhausted at that stage. I recalled just sitting in a restaurant sipping soup with wife and mother-in-law then in a particular bad week. My Korean colleague tells me the tradition there is to celebrate at the 100th day, when the baby and mom are in better shape. So that's what we did. Got some friends over, catered some Thai food and had a day showing Siyuan around (and having other children get excited about him. One baby was all excited. They do look alike as babies, except Siyuan is quite a bit smaller)
Our friend had a hand in trying out been a parent, but declined our offer to stay the night and complete his experience, including changing nappies :)
Siyuan was held, tickled and talked to by friends, and he seemed to enjoy it, laughing and smiling. The next day, we realized Siyuan was suddenly making louder nosies, more variety of it, and more often. We wondered if perhaps the interaction had somehow stimulated his brain to another stage of development?

New noises

I took my recorder back home for the long easter break because I wanted to tape down his various utterances. Not having a video camera that has sound, this was probably the best option (we have an old digital camera with limited video recording). So i recorded sounds of him crying and me trying to pacify him, and also sounds of him and me playing (largely me making funny faces, sticking my tongue out at him, and rubbing his cheeks while he laughed at me.)
Then I tried an interesting experiment on a particularly grouchy moment he had. I played back his noises for him to hear. He became intrigued by the sound of him crying and stopped crying. It was almost mesmerizing, and of course the sounds of my trying to pacify him seems to sooth him a bit. Then get this, he started laughing and smiling at the recorder when it played back sounds of me laughing. :)
However it seems the recorder and noise has to be close to him for this to work. When I played those noises through my computer speakers, he seemed to ignore them as noises.
Interesting.

Blue Blue Sky

It's autumn, and there's suddenly bright sunshine and a warm day. Couldn't resist. I packed him into the pram, and out we went into the park. Must show him the blue sky, smell the greens and look at trees. So we went to a park just 10 minutes walk, and took a walk. On a Good Friday, the park was largely deserted save for a bunch of sadists running around in red T-shirts, or more accurately trying to run.
Siyuan was looking around, pacified by all the greens after an active early mornings (All mornings are active with him, and always early. If we're lucky, he wakes up at 6 a.m.)
On the second round, he fell asleep, and I took a break to read. When he woke again, I took him to the biggest tree in the centre of the park, and had him look at it. And sky so blue, you could grab a handful and stuff it like cotton wool into your pockets. Then he had a close look at the grass.
Now, if only I have a latte handy :) Unfortunately a 30 minutes search found just about everything closed up for the holiday, excluding Macdonalds.