Dedication to the Lord

The year 2008 has been an eventful and blessed year for JS and myself. We baptised in the name of Holy Spirit in May, gave birth to baby Zach in June and shifted in to our new home in September. To mark the end of this significant year, baby Zach was dedicated to the Lord on 19th Dec. Indeed, God has been good and blessed our family abunduntly. I know that God's unfailing love will continue to follow, cover and protect our family in the days to come. All Glory to God!

On this significant day, JS and I made a commitment before the Lord to submit Zaccheus to God's will and to raise him according to God's Word and God's ways. Here, we are making a promise to the Lord to do everything within our power to raise Zaccheus in a godly way, prayerfully until he can make a decision on his own to follow God. We are required to raise him in the ways of God, and not according to our own ways. Some of the responsibilities include teaching and training Zaccheus in God's Word, demonstrating an example of godliness, disciplining according to God's ways, and praying earnestly him.

"As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there. 1 Samuel 1:26-28

Savings account and Library member

Having procrastinated for many months, on 09 Dec, I finally opened a savings account for Zach. Not only that, I also registered him to be a library member. This would allow me to use his card and mine to borrow more books for him. Hopefully, this would also force me to set a good example to baby Zach by saving more money and as well as to read more books. :)

Baby Zaccheus's first food

The introduction of solid food is another important stage in baby Zach's development. It is a challenging and exciting time for Zach and me. Despite being eager, I didn't want to start Zach on solid any earlier as I belived that breast milk has all the nutritional value that Zach needs before 6 months. Even my pediatrician recommended to wait till 6 months old.
Having done some research online, I decided to let Zach try out organic rice cereal, mainly from Bellamy and Healthy Times. Both prices are between $6.20 to $7.20, which is almost double the price of the non-organic rice cereal. It's not that I am an advocate of organic products nor do i think that its nutritional value is more than non-organic products. It's because I want baby Zach's first food to be pure and organic rice cereal offers the best choice as it is grown without chemicals.
Zach had his first food on 12th Dec 2008 at 9am. As of this date, he is 5 months 3 weeks ( I started 1 week earlier as I was simply too excited). I prepared 1 teaspoon of rice cereal with 2 teaspoons of breast milk till the mixture became runny consistency. Baby Zach loves the rice cereal. He ate it without any sign of displeased nor protest. I'm going to let him try the cereal for 3 days before introducing vegetables to his diet. I am simply so excited now. My mind is already full of food receipes for him. :)

Story of a swimming turned crying session...

The story goes like this...

Picture 1:
We arrived at Hua Xia store in Harbour Front at 2pm. While one lady was preparing the water, the other helped baby Zach to do warm up exercise. Zach was happily smiling and playing witht the lady. Told the lady that we ever brought Zach to public pool to dip in water before. The lady said public pool is too cold for baby and also it's best to do some light exercise before letting baby swim. Makes sense...


Picture 2:
At 2.15pm, the water was ready and I undressed baby Zach to get him ready to go for his swim. He looked happy and excited for his first ever formal swim. After which, the lady put the swimming float on his neck. He started to get stiff and uncomfortable not knowing the unknown...


Picture 3:
At 2.20pm, Zach started his first dip into the water. At this moment, he looked slightly apprehensive and scared. I thought it was only the warming up stage and started to take pictures of him in the tub.


Picture 4:
At 2.22pm, baby Zach started to look frightened and begin to look up to us for help. I still thought that he was alright except needed more time to warm up to the water and being naked in front of so many people...


Picture 5:
At 2.25pm, baby Zach cried and began to kick vigorously to display his unhappiness.The lady tried to soothe him and I also tried to play with him to distract his attention. He cried even louder and I was told to carry him up to calm him down before trying again. The lady commented that we must have traumatised him when we brought him to the public pool to dip and that it's why he is fearful of water now. Nonsense... (Baby Zach has always enjoyed bathing and never fails to kick the water whenever I bathed him)
At 2.28pm, we put Zach to the tub to try out the water again. Once again, he cried the moment we put him in the water. JS and I decided that we will call it a day for him and decided to dress him up in case he is really traumatised. Within 10 minutes, the swimming lesson has turned into a crying session.