of letters and eight months...

Dear Sophie,

Actually this letter is a bit late :( but i guess it is better late than never. You turned 8 months old 2 weeks ago. I was going through some of the old photos and it just struck me of how much different you looked compared to the day you were born. I can still recall clearly the small groaning sound you made when you were just delivered and now you were already babbling.

I of course am loving you more and more as you grow. You seem to have that effect on me that makes me happy and calm. The past few weeks have been quite hectic for me to the point that some nights, i can't sleep well. But when I see you smile in the morning, I somehow knew that my day will be bearable and things will be alright. And in the evening, when i come back from work the stresses of the day seem to melt away the moment I hold you. I guess you just have that effect on me.

You are begining to get the habit of staying up later in the evenings. You used to fall asleep easily after your feeding in the evening, but lately you seem to be very active and still wanting to play and only sleep at around 8pm onwards. I guess it's still ok as long as it doesn't gets too late. And talking about sleeping, I find myself often go in to the room to check on you when you sleep. Just feel like wanting to see you and be close to you. There is a certain calmness that feel when I see you sleeping peacefuly and smelling your baby scent.

Development wise, you have been crawling as what Dr Hasanah calls it 'combat style' i.e., crawling with your stomach. But yesterday evening we notices that you can now crawl with your hands and feet. And quite fast too i might add. I guess we will have to keep a closer eye on you from now on.

You are also getting pretty good at reaching things and grabbing them, which of course without fail you will put into your mouth. We also noticed that you are also able to grab and throw away things that you dislike which sometimes annoys the heck out of us because we have to pick them up.

You have also begining to say 'ma ma' but then it sometimes sound like 'mum mum' which in any case makes mommy (and me of course) really happy. In terms of vocabulary, you seem to have picked up a new habit of making noises by breating air through your mouth and making that 'zzzzzzeeeee' like sound. We are not sure where you picked that from but you seem to be talking in that language a lot these days.

I guess the thing that i really want to say is that I'm really glad that you are around because although work can sometimes take a lot out of me, you seem to have that ability to put them back all in for me.

'Pheezeeeee.... (with saliva spraying ala Sophie)'

daddy

of blogging and one year...

Well well well.... what do we know. Time sure flies fast. If i hadn't know better it would have gotten a few million frequent flyer miles. I just realized that this blog is exactly 1 year old yesterday. Kind of surprising that I managed to sustain this for a year now. Anyway, I guess the reason i blogged was because i wanna document as much as possible my thoughts and experiences about life and especially about Sophie. Who knows, Sophie might grow up to be a famous opera singer or something and I will have ready material to publish an Authorized (or Unauthorized depending on how juicy it turn out) biography. but i guess most importantly is that I wanna document something for her to read when she is on the throne doung her daily business. I guess, life is fragile and sometimes we might miss out something we wanna say, so I guess this is one way to ensure that Sophie get to know what she meant to me.

Also, i guess this will be good material to lay out a guilt trip in case she get into that teenage angst years and hate her parents.