Chinatown

Strolling at Chinatown after daddy's visit at China Square to meet Starscream.

Afternoon at Spinelli

Munching a biscuit while mommy finishes her mocha latte.

After a feed

After a feed of rice cereal and drinking water. Kate had some insect bites on the side of her face, as you can notice from the pics. Couple of bites on her arm as well. I'm still wondering if it's a landborne insect or a mosquito though we can't seem to detect any mosquito in our room, so the culprit is still at large. I woke up the other day with bites on my feet as well.

Back home from weekend KKH

Its been a while since my last update so i'll have to track back to Aug 13 when we just came back from KKH hospital after Kate got admitted the Saturday before.

AUG 10, Friday: We intended to go to the hospital to have Kate checked up for a different reason. She has a slight assymetry in her head shape which we were concerned about. It's one of those "flat head" condition which happens when the baby spends too much time lying in a single position and the pressure "flattens" a side of the baby's unfused skull. But before we can even book a schedule, we realised that she was having a fever. at 38.8C.

AUG 11, Saturday: The fever still remained and we got quite concerned, hence a trip to KKH got underway. Doctor checked her, ordered a urine test since he's suspecting a possible UTI. Tests came back with a non-conclusive result, yet he advised us to have Kate admitted. I voiced out my concern on the fact that he was recommending hospitalisation despite a non-conclusive report from a contaminated urine sample. He said he wouldn't take the risk of letting the baby off, with the findings he got from the test. So there begins our sleepless and uncomfortable, hospital weekend stay.

AUG 13, Monday: A second urine test and a blood test confirmed that she's negative for UTI. Fever came off but rashes appeared on Kate's torso. Attending doctor, a different one this time, said it may just be false measles from a viral infection. He said as long as the fever came down, this shouldn't be a concern.

AUG 14, Tuesday: Kate got her fever-free status for 24-hours. She got discharged the same day, after i expressed that we're keen to go home since all of us we're not getting enough sleep in the hospital.

We went back home and I finally had the time to do some research on the viral infection Kate may have gotten. I found one called Roseola. Apparently it's a common sickness that babies more than six months old get. And you know what? it doesn't require hospitalisation. I'm no doctor but i can say that the symptoms and duration were spot-on. Three days of fever and appearance of rash right after. Kate went back to her normal self by Friday, and we get our collective sigh of relief. We're all back to smiles..

Kate at Miel's

Went to meet a couple of artists in an impromptu lunch hosted by Dengcoy Miel in his newly bought and beautifully renovated flat last weekend. Kate tagged along to see the master and his lair, and mommy Kat was at hand to take a picture of us in his work desk.

(Semi) Solid food!

At 5 months 3 weeks, Kate already weighs more than 9kg. I'm not sure if she's heavier than the norm but she does look bigger than most kids her age that i've seen, which i'm not really surprised with since my wife is a tall woman at 5ft 10 inches (by asian standards). We started introducing rice cereals in her meal when she was 4 months old and she seem to have instinctively gave a liking for solid food. Feeding her cereals has been a delight so far since she has never refused any of the food we have given her. The only drawback though is she likes her food so much that we have to give it without delay, otherwise she'll show a tantrum. The water bottle is at hand to pacify her in the gaps between refilling her food bowl. Mark on her face was a result of a pacifier she was using before her feed. Feeding started few minutes after her lunchtime nap.

Grandma and Kate

Nanay Mely, Kuya Rico, Kate and Mommy at Changi airport

Last Sunday, Kat's mom, Nanay Mely, went back to Manila after a six-month stay with us.
During these months Nanay kept a watchful eye on our little Kate. From the time she was born, and the months to follow as my wife went back to work after her maternity leave. She also looked after how our new nanny was like in taking care of Kate, eventually giving her nod of approval.
She passed on here experience and maternal instincts to us on what to do with our little one. And for that we'll be eternally grateful. For myself, i'm grateful to her twice. For being the mother of my wife and the loving grandmother of my daughter. We send our love Nanay.

*Nanay is "mother" in our native language Tagalog