Happy Birthday, A'ishah!

Today is A'ishah's birthday; my daughter is now two years old. Happy birthday, Honey Bun; I love you so much! :)

Painting by Michael Whelan: The Ultimate Sandbox

Children's TV

OK, I know, for those very few of my regular readers, this topic is perhaps the last one might ever expect to find on my blog. But with a very young daughter (currently 18 months), I am often reduced to watching hour after hour of - gasp - children's TV.

Actually, children's television is light years beyond what was shown on TV when I was a kid in the 60s. Some of this stuff is actually - wait for it - interesting! Three things have stood out while watching TV with my daughter:

1) Children's programming isn't an American monopoly. While there are many American productions on TV, other countries around the world are well represented. In fact, the only regions of the world I haven't seen childrens' programming from is Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and that is more due to a lack of English-language translations than from the actual production of the programs themselves. Unsurprisingly, Canada and Europe produce much of childrens' programming; for example, Canada (Igloo-gloo (one of A'ishah's favorites) and The Backyardigans), Britain (to be honest, there are too many programs to list here; Singapore broadcasts the BBC channel CBeebies, which plays, among other programs, two of A'ishah's favorites, Teletubbies and In the Night Garden...), France (Gazoon), Germany (Wildlife), Italy (MioMao), and Spain (Pocoyo). What's impressive, though, are the increasing number of Asian programs being broadcast, including: Malaysia (Upin & Ipin), South Korea (Pucca), and Taiwan (MumuHug). (I've also wondered if Little Fables is an Israeli production.) Two of these programs, Upin & Ipin and Pucca, have been picked up by Disney, which, insha'allah, will lead to greater coverage worldwide.

2) Some decent actors are involved with children's programming. Producers for childrens' programs have been using a lot of big-name narrators. The English-language version of Pocoyo is narrated by British actor and comedian Stephen Fry, while In the Night Garden... uses Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi. Fred Savage ("Kevin Arnold," The Wonder Years) does voiceover work for a number of different programs; the one A'ishah and I watch is Oswald. (Actually, Oswald uses quite a few actors who should be familiar to people 40 and over, including comedienne Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live), David Lander ("Squiggy" from Laverne & Shirley), and actress Kathy Najimy (the two Sister Act movies). Also, singer Tony Orlando of the 70s pop group Tony Orlando & Dawn has also worked on Oswald.) Another singer who worked as a narrator is the Beatles' Ringo Starr, who was the original narrator on Thomas & Friends back in the mid 80s. (This is another series that has used a number of "name" voices, including the late comedian George Carlin, and actors Alec Baldwin and Pierce Brosnan.)

3) The visual quality of some programming is excellent. While CGI is used by virtually everyone who doesn't do stop-motion claymation series, a few series have very creative visual styles that make for beautiful artwork. Series that I like the look of include Little Fables (which makes cartoons in the form of shadow theater, using various tones of black, white and grey, with one bright color (such as red, yellow, green, etc.)), Bonny, Banana & Mo (for its vibrant color scheme), and MioMao (a claymation series that's very creative in how the characters move).

A'ishah Walking

Two new videos of A'ishah and three new photos. This first video is of A'ishah walking unassisted last night (August 30th). (Obviously I held the hand phone wrong.) Still, it shows how much she's progressed in her motor skills. Remember, this kid is only 13 months old!



This second video is of A'ishah and Daddy playing around with the camera while relaxing on the bed. A few extreme close-ups (thank goodness her nose was clean ;) ).



These first two photos were taken about a week ago, when we had to go to KK Hospital to visit the gyne for a regularly scheduled appointment. The hospital is still taking precautions regarding the H1N1 virus, so the hospital staff checked our temperatures at the door and asked us to wear face masks while inside, even A'ishah. Of course that was next to impossible, and she wore it for maybe a total of five seconds. At least she was willing to pose with the face mask on her long enough for me to take her picture.





This last photo was taken last night; it was actually a mistake as I had thought I had put the hand phone camera on video mode. Still, despite the blurriness and red eye, who can resist a smile like this? :)

Getting A'ishah to Say "Bubbles"

Thursday night, I was pouring a drink of pop with my right hand while holding A'ishah in my left arm. As I poured my drink, A'ishah said the word "bubble." And that completely took me by surprise because I had never heard her say that word before, although apparently Milady has, while A'ishah has taken her bath. So I was thrilled that she could say this new word... And then A'ishah knocked my drink onto the floor! :)

Since then, Milady and I have tried to get A'ishah to say "bubbles" while recording her with our handphones. The following four videos are our best efforts.

Happy Birthday, A'ishah! :)

A certain someone is celebrating her first birthday today! :) We'll be off in a few minutes, insha'allah, to the grandparents' home to have cake and ice cream (and spring rolls :) ). So Happy Birthday, A'ishah! (More later.)

A'ishah and the Whale

A'ishah is almost one year old; she turns one in thirteen days. (On the 18th; be sure to send your presents now! ;) ) Of course she continues to grow like a weed, and there's never a dull moment. :) This particular picture is of one of her favorite toys: an Ikea "sperm whale" doll. A few weeks ago, she pointed to this just before going to bed, and it's been in her crib ever since. Milady's been a bit anxious about it being with her: "Every other child has a teddy bear in their crib; why does my daughter have to have a whaaaaaale?" :) But my thought is, maybe she'll become an oceanographer or veterinarian? After all, she also loves dearly a mommy and baby fox dolls. :)

The following videos were taken earlier this afternoon. The first three were all taken by Milady using my handphone camera in which A'ishah has been practicing some of her first baby steps unassisted. So far she's able to do two in a row before falling down.







This last video was taken by me a few minutes after the other three were taken. Of course, the camera being within reach was too much of a temptation for A'ishah to resist. As a result, most of the video is of her reaching for the camera while I try to keep it away from her while laughing my head off. :) There was a slight pause in the filming which is why there's the odd disconnect in the middle; however, the results were the same in the second half of the video as the first. :)

A'ishah and Her Toys

Most mornings, after A'ishah has gone to Nenek and Atuk's home (her maternal Grandmother and Grandfather) this is the scene that makes me a happy man:


These are some of A'ishah's toys that we play with after she wakes up. At top is "Alligator," with "Pink Hippo" to the left. In the center is "Julia" (which is what the doll's tag reads). To Julia's left is "Pink Bunny," along with two rubber duckies; the red toy is "Otter." Why does this scene make me happy? Because I waited so long to have kids, beginning to think I might never have any, and now here is the happy mess after "Abah" has had a few more minutes to bond with his child. (BTW, "Abah" is coming out now as either "Abb" or "Bababab." :) )

These next two photos are fairly recent. The first is a one-handed shot I'm rather happy with. A'ishah was balanced on my left thigh with my left hand, and I was trying to take her picture with my right hand. Considering she wasn't cooperative with a second photo I'm rather glad this one came out well.


This photo was taken by Milady, who briefly stopped dressing A'ishah to take it.


This last video was taken over the weekend. Milady had a potluck to go to, and I stopped by a shopping mall where I bought "Pink Bunny." A few weeks earlier we had presented "Julia" to A'ishah, and I regretted afterwards that we hadn't videotaped A'ishah's reaction to receiving the doll as she had gotten really excited. So, this time we were all prepared and, while A'ishah was happy to get this doll as well, the reaction was much more muted. I had a big laugh at the end of the video when A'ishah became more interested in the suction cup than the doll itself. :)

The Birthday Balloons

Not to be too cryptic this morning, but if The Birthday Balloons means anything to you, you'll know what Milady and I suffer through every evening at dinnertime. ;)

Here are two hints to the uninitiated:


Henri Rousseau's The Merry Jesters, and



Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacht Musik.

Three New Pics of A'ishah

The handphone yesterday was starting to look a little shaky, so I thought I'd download all my pictures of A'ishah to the computer before I lost any of them. Below are three of the better photos, all taken by Milady. The first is of A'ishah being held by "Atuk" (pronounced more like "Ah-toe"), her maternal grandfather. The dress was bought for Chinese New Year, which dates this photo back to around mid- to late-January.



I'm not quite sure when this photo was taken, but one thing about A'ishah is that she's a natural poser. She usually knows when Mommy or Daddy is taking her picture, and she'll turn on the charm when the camera's pointing her way, as she did in this photo while lying on our bed. (That's my hand rubbing her back.)



This last photo is of A'ishah in her walker with all of its brightly colored distractions. A'ishah's not feeling very well at the moment, having caught a head cold that's gone down to her lungs. We're planning on going to the pediatrician with her later this afternoon, insha'allah.

Baby Fu

As the father of a nine-month-old baby, I've learned that getting slapped and scratched in my face and having my hair pulled by the baby is par for the course. But I've also learned that baby has a black belt in Baby Fu! [Insert sound of gong here.]

I'll be feeding her milk and, with her left hand, she'll grasp my left thumb. Probing for the most sensitive area of muscle and nerve, she'll begin thrusting her thumb into mine. But it's not just her thumb that's digging; it's her sharp thumbnail that's going deeper and deeper. Add to the fact that she's flexing that thumb back and forth and back and forth, and Daddy begins to go "Aaaarrrrghhhh!" :)

Baby Fu. Man, even thinking about it hurts.

A'ishah @ Seven Months

I haven't done a post about A'ishah in some time, but the little darling keeps both Milady and I busy. The first photo is a scene the two of us woke up to on the morning of January 3rd; it's A'ishah's foot sticking out of the side of her crib in the bedroom. I just had to take the photo before we gently extracted her from her predicament. :)


And this other photo is of a brief rest A'ishah had on our bed one day. That's Daddy's manly thigh in the background. ;)


A'ishah turned seven months old a week ago last Tuesday. We discovered on that day that one of her teeth, her left bottom incisor, had broken through her gums; yesterday, I found that the right bottom incisor had also broken through. So she has two teeth already. (We can easily see the upper incisors underneath her gums, but they haven't come out yet.) A'ishah's also learned to crawl very well, and is starting to learn to stand, although she hasn't quite mastered the art of sitting up just yet. Insha'allah.

In recent weeks, Milady and I have discovered a "new" technique to get A'ishah to sleep in the evenings: the lullaby. ;) Except our lullabies are karaoke tunes we both sing to A'ishah off of Youtube. Surprisingly, the tunes that put A'ishah to sleep the fastest are by The Beatles. We've sung a number of songs by other bands (e.g., Abba, The Mamas and the Papas, etc.), but A'ishah stays awake when we sing them. The Beatles definitely put her to sleep the quickest; for example, tonight, we sang All You Need is Love several times and then it was off to bed.

BTW, if you're a "friend" of mine on Facebook, you can see four additional photos of A'ishah there.

A'ishah and Winnie the Pooh

A'ishah had been a bit cranky just before bed so Milady pulled out a large Winnie the Pooh doll that we had purchased some time ago (we've bought her several stuffed animals over the past few months, only one of which she currently plays with). This is Milady playing with A'ishah, also providing all the sound effects. ;)

One Last Kiss Goodnight

How often do I kiss A'ishah during the course of the day? Twenty times? Thirty? Fifty?

Milady was trying to get A'ishah to sleep tonight; however, the latter kept looking back over her shoulder at Daddy. Milady noticed this, and wondered if A'ishah wanted a kiss goodnight from me. So I kissed her head and told her once more that Daddy loves her. With that she stopped turning around and fell asleep within a few minutes.

A'ishah's Busy Weekend

This weekend was busy for the family due to Eid and an emergency visit to the hospital. Sunday afternoon, Milady was feeding A'ishah when the latter inexplicably reached for her left eye with her hand and cut the eye lid... somewhere. We never did find the cut, but her tears were coming out bloody so we made a run to the hospital. Fortunately, everything turned out OK. There was no damage to the eye itself, and the cut stopped bleeding rather quickly. The below picture shows the orange dye the hospital staff put on and around A'ishah's eye to see if the cornea had been damaged.



Yesterday, on our Eid visit to Milady's parent's home, we fed A'ishah for the very first time by spoon. The pureed mixed vegetables we've been feeding her weren't going through the bottle nipple very easily, and I had been suggesting for a few days that A'ishah be fed with a spoon. Milady and her mom finally broke down yesterday afternoon, much to A'ishah's delight (as you can see on the two videos).

"She is so boring!"

Yes, I said this about my daughter. ;) One of my sisters (EFva) and I talked a few weeks ago about how one of her daughters made a face when first tasting apple juice. Now that A'ishah is four months old, we've bought one jar each of apple juice, mixed vegetables and mixed fruits. While we haven't given her the mixed fruits yet, neither the apple juice nor the mixed vegetables caused A'ishah to make a face; rather, she's liked both quite a bit (she ate the entire jar of vegetables all in one go). In this regard, she's "boring," in that I had hoped she might make a face for the camera. ;)

Happy Baby

A'ishah giggling while Daddy gives her lots of little kisses on her cheek and prolly tickling her with his goatee in the process. A'ishah turned four months old four days ago.

A Little PhotoFunia with A'ishah

I discovered PhotoFunia, a website that takes pictures of people and places the face of the person into pre-made templates. It's been fun to experiment with; obviously, I've been using various photos of A'ishah to play with. This is a little less than half of all the photos I saved to the computer, some more of which I may put on the blog at a later date, insha'allah.

A'ishah's First Eid

I've three more pics of A'ishah to share; the first two were taken during Ramadan, while the last was taken on Eid (October 1st). I don't think I have any other pictures of A'ishah that are more current.

This first photo is a continuation of the last two pictures from my last post; here, A'ishah has been burped and is now resting comfortably on Daddy's chest while Mommy takes her picture. This turned out quite nice.


"Eskimo baby." A'ishah being dried with a towel after one of her morning baths.


Finally, A'ishah on Eid over at Grandma's place. We had bought a very nice Eid outfit during Ramadan over at Geylang Serai, but it turned out that the fabric was waaay too rough for her skin. She cried horribly until we took it off her; fortunately, we had another outfit (bought by one of my sisters) that we could use instead. (Yeah, that's me holding her, again.)


Last time, I wrote that A'ishah had started developing a sense of humor; we've also learned that she's developing a temper. ;) A couple nights ago, Milady and I were too late in picking A'ishah up from the crib... at least according to her. ;) And so she threw a temper tantrum (the second of the day). Milady started giving A'ishah her evening bath, but A'ishah screamed throughout. I walked up and said something to the effect of "Good luck on getting her to bed." It frequently takes Milady about 40 minutes to get A'ishah to sleep in the evening. But Milady was unperturbed. "Oh, she'll go right to sleep after all this crying." Sure enough, Milady had A'ishah asleep in only ten-fifteen minutes that night. I wish she would go to sleep that fast every night.

Special note to my parents: Your photo set (of 33 photos) should be in the mail by tomorrow, insha'allah. :)

A'ishah during Ramadan

Back in mid September, I had a post about A'ishah's BFF (Best Friend Forever), a bright, sunny cloth flower that we had bought from Toys "R" Us. A few days after I wrote that post, Milady took a picture of A'ishah smiling at the flower:


Since that time, we've also added a musical mobile and a small fan to the crib, the fan having several LED lights that makes colorful patterns as the blades spin. Those have attracted A'ishah's attention in recent weeks far better than the flower, which is more or less ignored now despite it still having a prominent space on the crib.

This next photo was taken by Milady with her brother Du@n holding A'ishah. The "glow" is due to the photo being taken in front of Arcadia doors on a bright day.


Finally, we have two more photos of A'ishah in all her "chipmunk cheek" glory. Both pictures were taken during Ramadan, very early in the morning, when everyone was eating breakfast before the start of fasting. The hand in both photos is mine. :)


"Daddy, I'm so tired!"

"Yeaah! Who keeps flashing that bright light in my face?"

I'm also pleased to say that A'ishah is developing a sense of humor. A couple of days ago, Milady was holding A'ishah in front of a mirror and making faces at her. Every few seconds A'ishah would then giggle ("ha ha"), which was really cute to watch. Later that day, we bought a small swing for A'ishah to sit in. As soon as she was placed in it and the swing began to rock, she giggled once more. Very cute!

Baby Tudungs and Other Pics

Milady had a bunch of photos that she had taken with her handphone camera (in addition to the video that we posted on the blog earlier tonight). These were taken over the past few weeks.

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly when she took these first three photos; in the first, A'ishah has a bit of a chapped upper lip. This has been quite common for her these past two months, and they come off on their own in time.







This photo was taken over at Grandma's house (you can see her toes to the right of the picture ;) ). That's me holding A'ishah's head up as I try to burp her while she sits on my thigh. Milady thinks Mibaby looks cute in a chipmunkish sort of way when I burp her like this. ;)



These last two photos are our "baby tudung" photos. We had been thinking that it might be cute for mommy and baby to wear matching tudungs (or at least color-coordinated tudungs). As we were walking through a shopping mall last night, I suggested that we buy some bandannas for A'ishah to wear. This is A'ishah wearing an American flag bandanna (with me holding her)...



...and this is A'ishah wearing a white with pink and black print bandanna after we got back home from the hospital this afternoon.



BTW, if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, there's one extra photo of yours truly holding the munchkin on my album of A'ishah pics; here's the link to my profile.