tuka update - turning 11 months

11 months! 1 more month and Tuka is a year old already! Where did my baby go???? They grow up so dang fast! (sigh)

Anyhoo, I thought it high time to post an update on Tuka since the last time I did that was probably 6 months ago, more on that here. Besides, H is on Tuka duty so I am hoping I can cram 3 entries today to update my blog. Hehehehe..  :)

So here it goes...

HEALTH and NUTRITION

Weight: 9.2 kilos as of January 8, 2014. Tuka was 9 months and 17 days.

Milk: We are currently drinking S26 HA Gold. We usually drink 24-30 ozs of milk everyday depending on our solid food intake.

Vitamins: We are still taking Poly Vi Flor Drops (0.6 ml daily) and Tropicee Drops (0.6 ml daily).

Suam: Yes, we started Tuka on suam a couple of weeks ago and my verdict: AWESOME! Now, a lot of folks here usually substitute the suam for milk so most people think suam is used if people want to save money on milk. Don't do that, use suam as a substitute for water. Don't dilute or lessen the milk. Good for appetite, great for weight gain and more nutritional value! Downside, you have to spend more and exert more effort. I cook suam everyday, I have to wake up early in the morning and cook so that the suam can cool down for Tuka's morning bottle. Also, we use organic brown rice for our suam, Php75 per kilo and a bit hard to find.

Solid food: I feed Tuka anything and everything under the sun. Hahaha!!  :D 3 meals a day, a small snack during mid-afternoons and small nibbles all through out the day.

Favorites: CHOCOLATES and ICE CREAM! Just like any regular kid. Pasta as well.. :)


VACCINES 

We have completed the following:
-OPV (3 shots)
-Measles (1 shot)
-BCG (1 shot)
-DPT (3 shots)
-Hepa B ( 3 shots)
-Rotavirus 1 ( 1 shot)

Upcoming:
-booster shots
-chicken pox
-invasive pneumonia
-(I have to check with my Pedia. Hehehe..)


TEETHING

We have 8 teeth so far. Yay!!  :)

I finally got to experience a teething meltdown. Hahaha! :)  Tuka did experience a mild fever and I figured a lot of pain since he did cry a lot.

I gave him Paracetamol by Tempra, orange flavor, Tuka hates it but it did help with the pain. And of course as I've said earlier, Poly Vi Flor Drops since it has flouride in it.

We are still using the teething materials that I mentioned in my 1st teething post, more on that here. But there were additions to our set of materials. The porcupine teether that he got last Christmas, the popsicle maker, (you can check out the pics here) a giraffe teether by Dr. Brown and a couple of toothbrushes by Pigeon. We are also using a toothpaste, strawberry flavor by Pigeon as well.

Tuka is currently using the Lesson 2 toothbrush but by mid February we will be switching to Lesson 3. :)

Here's a picture of the giraffe teether by Dr. Brown.

MOTOR SKILLS:

Basic motor skills:

-Can sit on his own without any problems.

-Can crawl on his own without any problems.

-Can transition from a crawl position to a sitting position and back again on his own without any problems.

-Can stand on his own but for a short period of time only. Can stand for long periods of time if he is holding on to something - in his crib, a chair, the bookshelf etc.

-Can transition from a sitting position to a standing position and back again without help (from grown-ups) as long as he is holding on to something - chair, a toy etc. Sometimes though, he can stand up on his without help at all but these instances are still rare. 

-Trying to take baby steps but usually falls down after a couple of steps.

Fine motor skills:

-Can clap his hands.

-Can use his fingers individually especially his thumbs to tinker his toys.

-Can hold on to things really well. Has a strong grip.

-Can do "close open" and "twinkle twinkle".

-Can hold his bottle but only if it is half full. Sadly he can't lift his bottle on his own if it is full.

HEALTH BUMPS:

Since November, we've had a series of health problems and it did drove me nuts. I am hoping that this February Tuka's luck on health will improve a little bit that way I can rest a little bit as well. (please please puhleeeeeez)

Cold - We had a cold during early November. My ammo for this bump were Vicks vapor rub, eucalyptus oil, Aciete chamomile oil and lots of water.

Teething pain and fever - We had a series of these since we grew 6 teeth for the past 2 and 1/2 months. My ammo - Paracetamol by Tempra (mainly for the pain), popsicle teethers and ice cold teething materials.

Flu - We also had the flu. So again, lots of water, menthol rubs that I mentioned earlier for the sniffles (nose congestion) and cool fever mats for comfort.

Bacterial infection + mild diarrhea - Yes! We got this as well because apparently I need to suffer some more. (sigh) My ammo list is a bit long. Drugs - e-zinc, antibiotics, erceflora and semiticone (anti flatulent). For hydration - Pedialyte and Gatorade. Dilluted milk for a week, no multivitamins for a week, and no solids for a week. Generous application of petroleum jelly every nappy change. 

Fungal rash on his buttocks - Do you guys feel sorry for me yet? Anyhoo, my ammo this time - mineral oil. Highly effective!

_________________________________

There. Tuka's most recent status update.

Starting February, I will be focusing more on his motor skills and intelligence since he will be turning 1 soon. I want him to start walking already since I think he is way behind compared to his peers on that front. Also, I have already bought a set of educational toys and will be doing more play/learn activities with him with chocolates as a positive reinforcement tool. (I know, I know. Cheating! Hahahaha!)

I will post more next time! xx

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THANK YOU halin kay Tuka

The fat guy in the red suit really delivered so I MUST post a THANK YOU entry for all the awesome presents Tuka got this year.

Also, I noticed when I went blog hopping a few weeks back that a lot of iloys made an entry of what their kids got for Christmas so I decided to be copycat. Hehehehe..  :)

A lot of iloys posted pictures in Facebook as well so I decided to join the craze because well.. I wanted to.

Some presents were given in advance, some were given late and some were opened on Christmas eve and all of them were ass-kicking awesome. So, THANK YOU soooo much!!  ^_______^

For shoes, Tuka got a pair of Converse sneakers, a green Pitter Pat rubber shoe/sock-ish type and a pair of winter boots from Hongkong. The winter boots I have yet to use for an upcoming pictorial this April 6 - WINTER IS COMING! :)

Tuka also got a porcupine teether, blue plates with dividers and a popsicle maker by Munchkin. The popsicle maker is also for teething. I have already tried it out. I used apple, melon, chocolate milk and watermelon. The melon popsicles were delish! Hahahaha!!  :D

And of course Tuka got toys. He got a smiley tambourine, musical car keys, animal puzzle, mini-dinosaurs, a stacking castle, a mini-taxi, a yellow bulldozer, a lap-pup (dog/laptop - a hybrid) and a baby chicken set of toys (I don't know the proper name). 

Here's a better look of the baby chicken set of toys. 

Here's a closer look of the dinosaurs.

Here's a better look of the bulldozer.

Tuka also got books. Baby friendly - round edges and thick pages (to protect the pages from nibbling).

And last but not the least, Tuka got clothes. Some clothes not in picture.

So, there you have it. Tuka's Christmas 2013 presents. I did not include the monetary presents. Hehehe..  :)

So a big shout out: THANK YOU, THANK YOU  to the following people:

Lola Nanay, Lolo Tatay, Lola Mama, Lolo Papa, Lola Mommy, Lolo Daddy, Tita Kalay, Ninong Gabay, Ninong AK, Ninang Althea, Ninang Tata, Auntie Ninang Ayek, Lola and Lolo from Tatay's side and of course Tatay H.

HO HO HO!!!!!!!!!!!!! xx

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late holiday post

CHRISTMAS

(sigh) The holidays go by so fast suddenly you have to wait another 11 months for next Christmas. (sad face)

I wanted to post an earlier entry about Tuka's 1st Christmas but sadly a series of unfortunate events got me tied up right after the holidays so here I am posting a really really reallllyyy late Christmas entry. Hehehehe.. Sorry!  :)

Christmas in my family is very low-key. We don't dress up, we don't do fine dining and we don't do church. We stay at home, eat food that are rich in carbs and sugar, drink alcohol, talk, play games, and open presents. And then after all the presents are opened and people are exhausted, full, sometimes drunk and most importantly happy, we go to sleep. The next day we eat food that are rich in carbs and sugar, talk, drink, play games and play with the presents that were opened the night before. Then we eat food that are rich in carbs and sugar some more. ^___________^

Anyhoo, Tuka's 1st Christmas turned out really well. We were able to put him to sleep around 7PM and he woke up around 11:30PM because of all the noise that we were making playing sack race. So it was very lucky really because we didn't have to wake him up anymore and since he saw everyone was up and laughing, he didn't cry even though he was disturbed in the middle of his sleep. We decided to let him stay awake until midnight and he did, without any fuss (very lucky!) and when midnight came he was still in a good mood that we were able to open all of his presents, and mine and Tatay's without any problems. Hoorah!  :)

We didn't stay up long though, after all the excitement died down, Tuka took a bottle and went back to sleep right away. Also, Tuka didn't eat much during Noche Buena. He nibbled on plain pasta (no sauce) but other than that he was pretty content just being held and cuddled by everyone.

We did the opening of presents and Noche Buena in our house. We were joined by my 2 Aunts, 2 Uncles, my cousins, and some close family friends.

Sadly, there were no decent pictures taken during Christmas. There were videos but I'm not allowed to post them since some of my family members are err.. very very private. Hahahaha! (wink wink)  ^_^

For food, every family chipped in a little. Lunch included grilled catfish, beef nilaga, chicken pinaupo and lumpia. Dinner consisted of leftovers + lechon. For noche buena, we had spaghetti, fruit salad, chicken salad, and chocolate cake. The next day we ate the ham. And that's it.

We did parlor games just like last year and this year I was able to participate. So did H (not working. yay!). Sadly that also meant Nanay Jo had to take the pictures and that resulted for this entry to be picture-less. Hahaha!  :D

All in all, Christmas was great. I hope you guys had a great Christmas as well.

P.S.

Next entry will be about Tuka's Christmas presents. This time, I took pictures. Hehehe..  :)

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