Picture day

I have a few flicks I was able to save on a floppy disk. Couldn't find my USB anywhere. I have a sneaky feeling that either Cheeku or Tino ate it.

"Hello. Is anyone out there?"

"Don't anybody disturb us. We are fat, bloated, and will be sleeping for the next 10 hours."

Not even a month old. Can you tell where she gets her height and COLOUR from. Haha.

The Malie kiddies Paleni & Junior. My boys.

Food for thought

As Tino has now turned 6 months, she's ready to eat. Yay! Not that she needs to eat any more. She's turning into one big fat baby. Hopefully that baby fat will fall away when she's older, and not remain forever fat like her parents. Har! Har!

A few days ago I bought her rice cereal as shown in the picture. I mixed it with some of her formula and fed it to her. She tasted the first teaspoon-full. She dribbled it down her chin. The second lot, she spat out. The third time, she pursed her lips tightly together and refused to open her mouth. Haha. Obviously she wasn't too taken with it.

Tonight I'm going to make chicken soup with potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and round cabbage. And taro, all mashed together. I hope we do better this time. I'm reading up on starting solids and hopefully we will get it right and be able to feed her something she likes. Heh.

A new addition to the household

Yesterday, May 18th at 3:30AM, my sister-in-law Nele gave birth to a baby boy. He weighed in at 8lbs 12oz.

Tino's newest cousin!

I came home yesterday afternoon to find the failele already at home. Wow. Quick recovery. I bought a mosquito net cocoon (like Tino's one) for the baby. He felt so light in my arms. So tiny. Another of God's miraculous creations. He looks like his eldest brother Paleni. Same features except fairer. Six year old Paleni is very proud of his little brother and of course, that he looks just like him.

Nele & Gordon were hoping fervently for a girl. Now they have four boys. As one of the uncles said, "o le koga kama le mea". Heh. Looks like Tino will end up a tomboy with all these boys surrounding her.

He's a funny looking little bubba. His face all screwed up and wrinkled, just like Tino who looked like a monkey when she was born, and now acts like one. Lol. He's a big eater and wants to feed all the time. He cries the moment he is put down. Attention getter, that one.

I'll post some pics up soon. Yes, my neverending promise.

Re-styling

I am slowly recreating and refurbishing this baby blog of mine in an attempt to make it look as Tino-friendly as possible. Heh.

I'm skipping a couple of months because there's just so much I want to recapture and I'm getting all muddled up. So, to the present we go.

Tino is now almost 6 months. She turns 6 months in 2 days. Then she is officially ready to eat!!! Yay!! We're gonna have a real celebration. We'll have fried chicken and faalifu taro and potato salad and Tino will have cereal. Haha.

How time flies. My little baby is now a big baby. She's about to crawl soon. She can turn around 360 degrees and can move a few inches from her original position, using her legs but still can't get her arms to support her. You can tell she gets really frustrated, and she starts to perspire and her brow is wrinkled in concentration. Then she lets out a big "WAAAAHHH!" which means "I'm tired! Pick me up now now now!"

New babysitter

Nora, Tino's first babysitter was causing us problems. She called me at work at around 11 in the morning and said her father called and wanted her to accompany him to the hospital. She wouldn't take long. Now this annoyed me greatly for several reasons. 1. Tino would be left in the clutches of my sister-in-law at Malie. She has 3 kids of her own and she's pregnant. How is she supposed to look after a baby as well? 2. This is her bloody job! She cannot just get up and leave whenever she feels like it. 3. She should have told me earlier so I could make arrangements to either go home and be with Tino or have my mother pick her up.

When we arrived home that afternoon, I was ready to blast her away. Before I could do that, she dropped a bomb on me. She told Cheeku and I that she was going back to Savaii because her son was sick and there was no one to look after her parents as her brother had been kicked out of the village. Okay fine. I was pissed, but her leaving would mean having to look for another babysitter and that's hard. She cried, said she was sorry for all her past mistakes etc etc. In the morning, she cried again and kissed me goodbye. One week later I discover she had not gone to Savaii. Her son wasn't sick. Her brother was still living in the village. She was living from house to house and telling people she had left because she didn't like her salary which was $100/week, and she was forced to do ALL the work, slaving day and night both at Malie and at Siusega. Omg I could strangle her, the ungrateful wretch!

So we found a new babysitter, also from Taga, courtesy of Apo again. Her name is Taele. She is 35 years old and has 3 children. She's separated from her husband. She and Tino get along like peas and carrots. Tino laughs at her every time, and sometimes I get jealous when she smiles at her and not me. Lol. She is a very good caregiver, and I am very happy to have found her, and so is Tino.

Five months & 4 weeks

You can read my other blog for the details of the baby deaths I heard about yesterday.

All I want to reiterate is how much I love my baby girl and how it would crush me if I ever lost her. She is my world. My heart breaks for all those mothers who have lost children by any means (except maybe those who murder their own children).

Tino is now 5 months and 4 weeks old.

Milestones for her so far. She:

• can roll over like she's been doing it for years. Sometimes she can roll over on both sides.
• amuses herself by playing with her hands and her feet. She loves chewing her toes.
• turns to new sounds. When the door opens, she looks straight away.
• recognizes her name and will turn to you if you call her name.
• immitates speech sounds like "ga-ga", "grrrr", "goooo" (lol)
• reaches out for objects and brings them to her mouth - hand to mouth reflex
• can bear weight on her legs and stand with little support for long periods.
• laughs and smiles
• does mini push-ups
• can sit momentarily without support
• blows bubbles (big ones)

They say each baby is unique and meets social milestones at her own pace. In some areas, Tino is slow to develop and it worries me at times. I have to keep reminding myself that she's growing at her own pace and nobody is going to force her to grow! Hehe.