Growth Milestone | Letters to Kyna

I’ve got a bad news for you: you’re turning orange!

Dear Kyna,
Last time i wrote about your explosive diarrhea. Turned out it was a fungal infections combined with a possible allergic reaction to cow’s milk derivatives. But that was not the highlight.

We went again to your pediatrician to consult. I started to tell her about your daily intake. I mentioned giving you two types of food on a daily basis – fruit (a combination of orange and papaya) and mashed steamed rice (combined with olive oil, pumpkin, meat or fish, zucchini, red pepper, carrot, cheese and butter – believe me, it smells like lasagna sometimes! )

Then your pediatrician made a remarks “oh that’s why she looks orange” like it’s something normal to say. Gosh! I don’t think you look orange!

Long story short, you have Hypervitaminosis, which is a condition when you have too many vitamins in your system. In this case, it’s the karotin. Supposedly it’s good for your eyesight, but it also gives you orangey pigmentation. She said it’s from papaya, pumpkin and carrot.

If i don’t want you to turn into a Garfield or a Tigger (look it up in Google hahah), i have to stop feeding you those things. I’m pretty much doomed because you love those 3! Now i have to find other ingredients that you’ll like but are not orange

Love,
Mommy

Fat mommy and healthy Kyna

Dear Kyna,
I had a conversation with one of my colleagues yesterday.
She has a body issue. She weighs less than 55kgs and still thinks she needs to lose 10 more kgs.
Apparently her mother has always told her that she has to be skinny, very pretty and appearance is the most important thing. Although when that means her daughter develops an eating disorder.

So I paused there..

Then I reflect at the way my mother – your grandma – raised me.
I was born a healthy normal baby. When I was 3 months old I weaned myself off from breastfeeding because your grandma was already pregnant again with your twin uncles. So she started to fed me other foods – lots of them – due to the fear that I wasn’t getting enough nutritions. I was on a constant vitamins until I turned into chubby, fat toddler.

This overfeeding comtinues until high school and I hit 85 kgs at my peak.
Then due to stress, I started to develop a combination of serious gastric problem and eating disorder. I threw up everytime I ate – that was when I stopped eating rice. During college years, I gradually lost my weight until I reached 53 kgs at my low. I was skinny back then – it’s very easy to feel my hipbone.

Then I dated your dad and started working for Accenture. I was happy – very happy, then I started to eat more and more and more. 5 years later I’m back to my 70 kgs weight. I didn’t look very fat because I still exercise.

During my pregnancy I gained 21 kgs and I’m now at 81 kgs, really fat and I need to cut down my food consumption as soon as I finished breastfeeding you.

Let me tell you this, girls will always have body issues, concerns for not appearing attractive. I know that at one point in your life, you will develop this kind of thinking. I won’t blame you, kid.. It is normal.

But what I want you to know that you don’t need to fuss about it.
I’ll work with you to find the healthy ways for you to maintain balanced body weight.

I promise you I won’t overfeed you. I promise you I will send you to swimming classes, basketball classes, football classes, martial arts, anything that makes you fit and active. I don’t want you to turn into an overweight toddler, just like me. I don’t want to instill unhealthy lifestyle and junk food regime that my parents put me through.

But I’m asking you for one thing, don’t look at magazine and assume you have to be as skinny as the supermodels. That’s my daughter, is not healthy. We’ll figure out your healthy weight based on your age and height, but I don’t want you to be stressed about it.

It’s okay to have a few fat tissues, afterall you need fats to function as a proper human being.

And never forget that I love you mp matter what, fat or skinny, short or tall, tan or fair, short hair or long hair, whatever.. Because you’re my daughter and I would give up my world just to make you happy.

See? You’re not fat at all 🙂

Mommy loves you very much Kyna!

Hugs,
Mommy

Oh Kyna, you’ve grown so fast!!

Dear Kyna,
It has been a real pleasure watching you grow.. You are fun to talk to, you seem to understand the things I’m saying and you’re always be the best part of my day..

It was kind of slow when you were a newborn, because you had limited activities and you don’t really pay attention to the world around you.
And the fact that I had a long extended leave made it seem like a long one.

When you hit the 6 months mark, everything becomes super fast. We’re talking speed of light here.. You’ve grown into a very active baby, very curious, very talkative, very adventurous!
These are the traits that I want you to retain as you grow up 🙂

Here are the things you constantly do now you’re 7 months plus..

Swimming
It started when your pediatrician told me you’re a bit short for baby your age. You were told to go swim at least on a fortnightly basis.
You see, your mom is a highly competitive person, so we bought you a pool, so you can swim twice a week. You love water, but you hated wearing neck ring. It took us a while so you can get used to it. Your firt session was a disaster, with you crying and screaming due to discomfort. But you really love to swim now – you don’t want us to fish you out of the water 🙂

There you are swimming happily in your pool 🙂

Nom-nom-monster
We fed you when you were 5.5 months. Eversince that, you like to put pretty much everything into your mouth.
The list includes my finger, your dad’s cheek, your grandma’s hair, my necklace, everyone’s phone, your high chair’s arm rest, remote control, my necklace, and even your own foot – pretty much anything handed over to you 🙂

You’re always very restless during your meal time 🙂

A copycat
You’re like a sponge, quickly absorbing information around you. You like to mimic people’s expressions and what they do. Latest addition includes bursting your own saliva – you were trying to mimic me blowing my lips – close enough!

Mommy and me time 🙂

Screaming and laughing genuinely
Nothing melts my heart more than the sound of your laughter when I come home. You laugh a lot – probably as much as you pout. You laughed when I interpreted the way you sneeze, you laughed when I pretended not to see you but ended up kissing you, you laughed when I make funny noises..
And you screamed a lot. You screamed when you want to get attention, when you’re happy, whem you’re sleepy, when you’re hungry or when you need to poop.. Hahah..

Keep rolling rolling rolling rolling
You roll know from side to side. It terrifies me because you can reach the edge of the bed in a split second.
It is VERY DANGEROUS, okay?! You’re giving me heart attack on a daily basis now.. They said it’s part of your journey towards crawling and walking.. Let’s hope it’s true 🙂

Sitting at the edge of the world
You can sit now – we have to help you, but you can sit now.
It helps us to take care of you, because it lessen the rolling – so that’s nice.
I really love it when you smile when you sit – such an angelic smile!

I love you Kyna.. I’m really enjoying this role as your mother.. You’re such a fun to hang out with. I can’t think of anything else more important than you – except for God heheh..

Please don’t grow up so fast.. I love it when you’re clingy to me 🙂

Love,
Mommy

Feast like a king..! Or a queen hahah..

Dear Kyna,
You’re always curious about everything, especially food. Your eyes will sparkle if you see the grown ups munching on all kind of stuffs. And you’d drool. And I pity you. And we have to hide those glorious foods from you.

So,, I took a decision. I let you taste a food 3 weeks before you turned 6 months.

At first, I let you lick fruits we eat. Mango, banana, apple and pear.

One day, your grandpa was eating a banana. You looked at him as if you really envy him. So I took a small cut, mashed it, and mixed it with my breast milk.

And I fed you.

You loved it 🙂 Eversince that day, you enjoyed all sorts of mashed fruits – banana, mango, dragonfruit.. You hated mashed papaya and apple seemed to be too sour for you.

When you officially turned 6 months, I started mixing various fruits for you.

One of the foods you really liked is the mixture of avocado and baby orange.

That’s you sitting with a bowl of mashed fruits 🙂 Cute!

It went well, so I started to introduce you to rice and broccoli. Not long after that, you had a constipation. You can’t push it out and I’m pretty sure it hurts like hell. We took you to pediatrician and apparently your intestines can’t take rice yet. We were told to wait until you turn 8 months.

It’s okay. You love fruits anyway 🙂 and it gives you a healthy digestive system!

That’s you eating with dad – two of mommy’s precious belongings 🙂

I hope you like eating as much as I do hahah.. I’ll cook you all sort of stuffs and I’ll take you to fancy restaurants when you get bigger! Mommy can’t wait! I hope you maintain steady healthy weight gain after swapping to solids.. Talk to you later, my sweet little bug!

Love,
Mommy