The things new parents do!

1. We say we won't compare, we act like we don't compare ( but we secretly do).
I swear I'm not going to become one of those parents who constantly compare school grades. But you know what, the pressure to do so starts this early man. How heavy is your baby? Is she crawling yet? Ally hangs out almost every week with two "super achievers".




Miri (top, looking through curtain), also 8 months, has been creeping about since six odd months and eats very solid food for her age. And David (bottom), who's been walking since 10 months and cruising (walking by holding on to things) even earlier!

Ally's still not crawling ( although she scoots about fairly well on her backside) and eats her food very pureed! Oops. Was I comparing? Stop it Deb. Anyway, they all even out in the end right? And Ally can say "Marm marm". Ok guys, stop me when I compare. Sher and Julyn, I love you guys!

2. We develop cute (actually not cute at all) squeaky voices for our baby.
Well, Ally can't talk yet right, so what do we do? We talk for her and of course, it can't be in our usual grown up voice, it has to be in a high pitched "elmo" kind of voice. It' a real useful skill to be able to make Ally talk! Whenever Mark and I quarrel and we want to pass snide remaks about each other, we put on the baby voice and talk through Ally. Been doing that since she was in my tummy. You know, like:

Me: Daddy's such a big idiot!
Ally (actually me in high pitched voice): Ya! Pui Daddy!

3. We take photos like there's no tomorrow.
How many photos do you really need to take? My brother takes many many photos of his kid Rachel. And whenever he does, I feel this overwhelming need to whip out my camera too, even though there are already a ga zillion similar photos of Ally. We also take all kinds of photos of our baby ( It's for next time to show to their future spouses and embarrass them!) Here's Ally with her impersonation of Justin Hawkins from The Darkness:



4. We buy the best of everything, sometimes ridiculous things, at the expense of our own well being.
She's got a $1000 Aprica pram, two car seats (which she hates) and a $150 mat to play on. She's also got a nasal pump to remove snort from the nose ( even though tissue paper does the job fine too) and a handheld soap dispenser for bathing (My hands are much more efficient!) We use the excuse that we'll use all this for our future children so getting the best now is important! Ha, let's wait and see.

5. We start a blog for the baby
This is called "xiao ON" loh, and only new parents do it. Come on, I trawled through this blog website and there's no blog for the second child. Of course, it's a real nice thing for Ally to look back on. But, I think this will only be for her. My poor other children.