After every trip I have, I’ll come away with new experiences and feelings about the trip. This post is to record some feelings and summaries of how Darius behaved or what he did exactly during  the trip to Langkawi to celebrate my birthday. Read my other post on ‘Experiences in Langkawi’ too for tips about the things there.

Bond
We felt closer to each other more than ever after this second trip. After the first trip to Genting, we already felt some difference with Darius. After this second trip, it’s even more. He’s more affectionate with us, wanting to kiss me ever so often right on my mouth or put his head onto Daddy’s back. He just kept laughing and laughing… and laughing when he was with the two of us the whole 3 days. Even when we came back to the house, he was still the energetic toddler running around, playing hide-and-seek and climbing all over us, babbling non-stop and giggling. He just wants us… not toys.

Food & Water
Every food inhibitions I had for him in the past was all gone for the three days. He ate sugary pancakes, salty oily fried rice, salty saucy chicken bits, salty soup and drank orange juice with added sugar. This was the first time he ever ate so much salt and sugar in his lifetime. It has always been homecooked food with no salt or even sauce added. Even fruit juice is always squeezed and diluted. He also never ate veggies or only ate some fruit (papaya) cos they were not always accessible and I can’t grind them. He tried for the first time: Grilled chicken, chicken soup, Kway tiao soup, fried rice and beef. And the bad part was…. he actually likes them so much that he rejected eating the healthy fish with egg brown rice porridge I cooked for him the afternoon after we came back. Remember I blogged about how he’s not ‘eating’ at home lately? He had no such rejection during the trip! He’s preferring rice over porridge now. Uh oh…

The good part was, I was surprised that he actually CAN eat all those food! I mean he hasn’t liked rice or chewy hard stuff like chicken meat, couldn’t chew them or swallow but he ate them all easily when we fed him bites of our own meal. So having no premolars doesn’t make a difference? We were also surprised that he had an unfillable stomach. No matter how much we kept feeding him or what ever we fed him, he just opened his mouth and ate… and ate and ate! In the end, we had to determine for ourselves that he was full already because we couldn’t tell. Even after we ate a full dinner, he could still drink his milk when we went back to the chalet. I think he used a lot of energy in sight-seeing and walking and thus was always ravenous.

For Water, we boiled water with the kettle in our room and brought them along in waterbottles. Also, some restaurants provide bottled water (have to pay) and there were also some complimentary bottled water in our room provided by the resort.

Since he did not suffer diarrhoea and even managed to do his poo smoothly on Monday morning (we packed the toilet insert into the luggage), I guess the food went well with him.

Routine
His naptime, his mealtime did not go according to routine anymore. He ate dinner at 8plus, and 9pm one night when 9pm is his usual bedtime. He slept at 10-11pm. He took naps while traveling in the car in my arms. He ate lunch late too at around 2pm or 3pm sometimes.

Behaviour
He was incredibly well-behaved! He would sit quietly on my lap in the car while we travel, and on the plane, or just while waiting for Daddy to finish with paperwork. He only fussed when he wanted to nap in which case, he only wanted my arms and not Daddy’s, and whined a little if he wanted to walk but was being held. Most of the time, he walked beside us with no fuss while we held his hands or carried him in our arms. He is now more cautious of new unfamiliar places and would ask to be held by stretching out his arms instead of venturing forward and running without control.

For mealtimes, he sat in the high chair without fuss as long as he had something to play with. Like a straw or his ‘new’ toy — the fork, that were often placed on the table. We hadn’t let him play with a fork before but he was quite okay with it and only ‘stabbed’ the table or knocked his chair. When he grew bored with stabbing, he threw it on the floor. Poor Daddy had to keep picking up the fork or anything he thrown on the floor. Otherwise, he didn’t cry to be let down the high chair til we almost finished eating and it had been some time already.

Everywhere we went, he was happy or was just quiet most of the time, all his attention focused on seeing and touching. He did throw some tantrums when we did not allow him to walk certain places but no major screaming twisting or crying non-stop. I guess this is the benefit of being the main caregiver to him, 24/7. I know what he wants and he knows he has to obey me.

He was also rather sociable as he kept smiling and laughing at all the adults who fawned over him and even waved bye bye to them. He was the only chinese young toddler around so the adults kept touching his cheeks and said ‘Hi’ to him. The children around were all at least 3 years old. There was only one other Malay family with a young gal and an infant who played in the baby pool with us.

Babbling Non-Stop
He kept babbling and non-stop making noises, trying all sorts of sounds. His language suddenly exploded during the trip. Some not even heard of before. Now he’s still ‘talking’ all the time. Hopefully, he will speak some meaningful words soon.

Fear of Shower
I was surprised that he was very afraid of the shower pouring down from the tall, fixed shower head. He cried and cried even though Daddy bathed with him and held him. He just did not want to stand underneath it. It happened everytime he showered. He had never been afraid at home with the showering water before. Maybe it was a new environment and I didn’t prepare the water in advance to be warm enough before I put him to stand in the bathtub.

In Swimming Pool
I never thought he could be afraid of the swimming pool. We hadn’t brought him there for sometime. But this time, he was also afraid of the deep swimming pool once he separated from me in the float. He kept whining and wanting me to hold him that the float almost toppled several times. Only after a while when Daddy took over did he stop crying. He had a phobia of the swimming pool waterfall pouring over his head also.

Plus, he was drinking the swimming pool water in the baby pool. Argh… I turned him over face down to practise kicking the water and move his hands. But all he does is remain stationary and dipped his head into the swimming pool to drink the water! (by the way, the water wasn’t that chlorinated and tasted like drinking water) It’s a wonder that he didn’t have any tummy upset, never fall sick and is still healthy at this point.

Potty Training
We used disposables throughout the whole trip because we wanted to save washing cloth diapers. And he actually did better with them than cloth! Maybe it was due to the weather but he managed to stay dry most of the time and only wetted his diaper when we aren’t anywhere around a restroom. He stayed dry for the diaper he went to sleep with when we brought him for night-peeing once he fussed. When we were about to alight at Singapore after one & a half hour, he was fussing and we thought he was just bored of sitting on my lap. When hubby brought him to the toilet, he realised Darius was wanting to go and hadn’t wetted his diaper one bit so so long! So strange that he got better with potty training all of a sudden where he would held it in til he could bear it no longer. Maybe he wasn’t used to peeing in a disposable diaper. We went with around 12-16 disposables for the three days and came back with 3 (changed once it was wet).

His Ability to Walk and Our Arms
I was telling hubby why this trip seemed ‘easy’ for us. It was because he could walk very well for his age. He was semi-running here and there, walking fast beside us at places where stroller wasn’t easy to manoeuvre. In fact, most of the time he wasn’t in the stroller because we wanted him to see things and experience things, for example at the Underwater World. Still, we had to carry him sometimes due to places being too crowded to walk and our arms ached after a while with the 11.5kg or more. Can’t imagine ALL the time! Also, he walked well at the waterfall area over stones and platforms with me holding one of his hands because he’s so used to walking over stony, muddy paths in our daily walks.

I was also surprised at myself that I could carry Darius over long flight of stairs, up and down stony paths and still felt okay. No escalators in a resort! Probably due to the daily training where I carry him several times during the day for peeing over the toilet.

Being Hands-On
This is the second reason why we could just go for a trip with a 16month old without worrying. It’s because both hubby and me are hands-on with taking care of Darius. While I looked after Darius or was washing up, hubby did the packing of things we needed for the day into his backpack (milk powder, boil water, pack into waterbottles). While I was carrying Darius at a sight-seeing place, hubby made milk for him. When I was feeding Darius, hubby helped to take food for me and entertained him. Then, he took over feeding him so I could finished eating my food. During the nights, when I was super tired and he needed to pee, hubby brought him to the toilet. During the day, we took turns to bring him to the toilet to pee. When I looked at things while shopping, hubby brought him to walk around.

Thus, I realised this from this trip: That hubby being hands-on with Darius is SO important. It really helped that I did not have to be the only one to do everything for Darius. That, I could also enjoy my trip. That I could just say, “Time for milk”, “Time for cereal”, “Wet already, need to change diaper” and Hubby got into the activity to help me. He knew exactly how much cereal to put, the amount Darius is drinking so even when I did not have the time to prepare, he could help me. That we can save time when things are divided between the two of us instead of what my dad always did when I was young, sat there with his hands folded after he was ready, watching us and complaining, “Ready or not? Faster lah!”

Amazingly, going overseas is just like us going around Singapore. Without any hassle because we have been working as a great team, ‘well-trained’ for sixteen months.

Heatyness
We kept radiating heat at night from the hot weather we experienced during the days. After we came back, I had a sore throat for a day and kept sneezing non-stop. Then, hubby caught a bug from his colleague when he went back to the office with tiredness and heatyness. And thus fell sick with cold & fever now but recovering. Darius is still well for now and only show signs of tiredness. He had been taking long naps and fell into deep sleep these few days.

In Summary

It has been a wonderful trip where we immersed ourselves in beautiful nature, experienced for the first time the sand and the sea with Darius. After the trip, it felt like we can conquer anything tough now because our bond is strong. We didn’t quarrel during the trip when some things did not go well. We were accomodating to each other due to Darius, putting him as the priority and yet still enjoyed ourselves. Darius also became more obedient now after the trip and would hold onto my hand most of the time without struggling to go elsewhere. Very unlike him before the trip. He would pick up his shoes when he knows we are going out and added a new word, “奶奶” (milk milk) after the trip.

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