Here’s a video of Hannah calling Mommy, Daddy (Deh-deh), Ethan (Nah), Hannah (Annah!) and Ah Ma (Mah).
It all started off when I decided to print some simple activity sheets for Ethan to occupy himself with. The internet has an endless resource of all sorts of activity sheets and Ethan loved them all. He loves using his pencils and color pencils and completing everything those activity sheets required.
Then Hannah got interested too. Of course, she can’t quite do the activities per se yet, but she just simply loved the idea of holding a pencil or color pencil and scribbling on a piece of paper.
She would pull up a stool and sit together with her brother and they would both go wild with their creativity. Yes, sometimes they snatch from each other and yes, sometimes it gets out of hand and they start scribbling on the tables, but still, it’s such a joy to watch them spending time together…and not pulling each other’s hair out! 
Scrap Credits
Where Dreams Come True QP from Fly Pixel Studio
Fathers Day Alphas from Stacey’s Scraps
Weight
Heavy!
Height/Length
Growing taller and taller by the day!
Teeth
8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with a few more teeth appearing at the back, possibly pramolars. I’m cleaning her teeth daily with a special tooth tissue, but when those run out, I will start her teeth brusing regiment.
Motor Skills
- Hannah can RUN around.
- She can do the down-dog (or downward facing dog) pose.
- She can cross her fingers (both fingers together).
Communication and Social Skills
- Hannah can point to several parts of her body when prompted, e.g. nose, hair, fingers (she’ll cross her fingers), tummy, cheeks.
- Says “Poopoo” quite consistently, though often it’s just a false alarm or she just wants to sit on the throne. But a few times when she said, “Poopoo” and gave that oh-so-familiar *straining* look, I’ve successfully taken her to the potty and she’d successfully poopoo-ed!
- Calls “Mommy!” very clearly, Daddy is still “deh-deh!” and Ethan is either “Anah!” or *points finger at Ethan*
- She knows her name is Hannah and can call herself “Hannah”.
- Can parrot everything rather well, which resulted in her calling “Mah!” for “Ah-Mah” when my Mom was here for a visit. Made Grandma pleased as pie.
- Hannah is very friendly and is a very sociable little girl. She will wave and say “Hi!” to anyone she meets, even strangers, especially so if the person is a child. And then she will also happily wave “Bye!” when we are leaving.
- Hannah can nod her head (for yes or affirmative answers) or shake her head vigorously (when she means no) and she does so meaningfully.
- Can say “daw” for “dog”, “bur” for “bird”, among others.
- She can scream her head off.
Food and Feeding
Hannah eats almost everything we eat now, with the exception of herbal stuff which we don’t know the contents of and food high in sugar and salt content. She eats porridge on weekdays and mostly rice and noodles during the weekends.
As for milk, Hannah is still on 100% breast milk, with a little sampling here and there of chocolate milk and fresh milk.
Ethan stayed home from school today, because he was still nursing a forceful dry cough. Didn’t want him spreading those germs around school.
Just so he doesn’t miss out too much, I called up his teacher and asked if I could homeschool him today. His teacher prepared some activity sheets and I stopped by his school to collect them just now.
After I had explained the first activity (writing and coloring) to Ethan, I left him alone and went about my house chores. When I came back to check on him a few minutes later, this is what I saw on his chair:
Now I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…he said he wrote his name on it because the chair belongs to him.
..oh by the way, the picture above shows him in the background busy doing some *painting*…
Is Hannah asking for a lullaby?
Well, Ethan certainly thinks so…for every time Hannah sweetly says, “Lullaby, lullaby..”, Ethan will say, “Mommy, Hannah is asking you to sing her a lullaby”, and when Mommy is busy, Ethan will take matters into his own hands and sing, “Lullaby, and goodnight…little Hannah go to sleep…”
Everybody say…”Awwwwwww…..”
Lately we’ve noticed that Hannah loves to walk around on tiptoe. Even if she wasn’t reaching up for anything, she would toddle around the house tip-toeing all the way.
Could it be that she’s practising to move around in heels? So soon??!!!
It’s difficult to imagine that Ethan was once a quiet boy, unable to express himself … but now, he’s all words and active as ever. He speaks like an adult, possibly because we have never used baby talk with him before.
I’m not allowed to call him “darling” or “sweetie” or “baby” anymore, because Ethan says he is not a small baby anymore. Now he is a “medium boy”.
He picks up after us like a sponge; whatever we say or do is repeated in a similar fashion, often in an endearing manner:
One morning, when his Daddy gave him a kiss on the forehead before he left for work, Ethan responded with, “Awwwww…” , maybe because he heard me say that before.
He’s also learning the “Copy me” game now, where he would cheekily follow what we say or do. And then when I start speaking to him in Hokkien, he would retort, “Mommy, why are you speaking in Spanish?”
Sometimes Ethan says logical things like:
“Mommy, I drink chocolate milk and fresh milk. I don’t drink low fat milk, because I’m not fat!”
We’ve had embarassing moments too, like last week in church during the sermon, Ethan proclaimed loudly, “Daddy, why is he taking so long?”
…and his questions just keep getting harder and harder:
Ethan: Mommy, where is God?
Mommy: God is everywhere, Ethan. He’s all around us, He is in our home, He is in school with you, and most importantly, He is in our hearts.
Ethan: Where is heaven?
Mommy: Heaven is where God lives. It’s a really beautiful place and someday we will all go and stay there together with God.
Ethan: Why doesn’t everybody know God?
Mommy: Well, maybe because not everyone has gotten the chance to know God yet, Ethan.
Ethan: Why doesn’t *** pray to God? (he makes this remark because he noticed that some homes do not have the cross hung outside the door)
Mommy: Oh, maybe *** DOES pray to God…it doesn’t mean he/she doesn’t pray to God if they don’t have a cross outside their house.
Some questions are simply too *HARD* to answer…
Ethan: Daddy, why are we parking on the 6th floor, Daddy…why why why?
He’s even got a plan for the future:
Ethan: Mommy, when I grow bigger, I’ll go to office with Daddy; and when Hannah grows bigger she will go to market with you, Mommy.
And he keeps surprising us every day…especially with his reading skills. A few nights ago, as we were tucking the kids in to bed, Hannah brought their goodnight story book, and Daddy said it’s Mommy’s turn to read. But Ethan interjected and said, “NO! I wanna read tonight!”
And he did.
The whole story…all by himself, save for a word or two, which he paused and asked us how to pronounce.
He did such a good job, really. And even ended the story with a dramatic “THE END”.
How can we not be beaming with pride?
Last week, Ethan was literally counting down to the weekend, because we told him we would take him out to play football in the field. You see, it’s quite hard to experience the Jabulani ball at its fullest potential by merely kicking it around the house, yes?
Even on Friday night, he was already telling me, “Mommy, tomorrow will be Saturday the 24th of July. I’ll go and play FOOTBALL!”
Yes, he was THAT excited.
So on Saturday morning (well…actually it was quite LATE in the morning), we packed his ball, his boots and socks and we headed off to the Esplanade field, where Daddy and Ethan could kick some ball. On the way there, while in the elevator, and in our apartment lobby, Ethan was eagerly telling every Tom, Dick and Harry that he was going to play football. He even told the apartment cleaning lady!
We got him into his gear when we arrived and he went absolutely crazy! He really had a lot of fun, running around and screaming GOAL!!!! everywhere… even though there was no goal post.
A Dutch family, who was in Penang for a vacation, happened to be there too, and coincidentally, the twin boys in that family were Ethan’s age. So Ethan had two new friends playing football with him.
Just look at the way he kicked the ball!
And here’s how you complain to the referee…”Hey ref! That was a FOUL!” Ethan said.
We have GOT to get him that makeshift goal.
Ethan experienced his first ever Sports Day last Sunday. He had been looking forward to it for many weeks now, and every day leading up to the Sports Day, he would report to us the preparations and pratices he did in school.
We arrived about 15 minutes before the events kicked off, so little Hannah had some time to roam around too…
First, they had a torch run and then the kids from all the classes did a march past. Look at my little boy, all grown up!
For the events, each class was split into two teams of different colors. For Ethan’s class, he was in the GREEN team, challenging his other classmates in the YELLOW team.
First they had to walk on a balance beam.
…and then weave in and out of the traffic cones.
Then, pick up a small coconut, aim and hit a row of 4 cans.
Pick up the coconut, arrange the cans back in order, and run back to the team to tag the next person.
Cheer as loudly as you can for your team!
It was a close fight, but at the end of it, Ethan’s green team won! … and parents of the kids in the green team cheered and high-fived each other!
Yay for team spirit!
The kids each got a medal and a goodie bag:
There were also events for the parents to participate in together with their kids.
I had not planned on taking part at first, because I had to care for Hannah, but one of Ethan’s teachers offered to carry Hannah for a few minutes, so I could participate.
And our team WON! Yay!!
All in all, Ethan really had fun during his Sports Day. In addition to winning his medal and prizes, he got to hang out with his friends after his event.
..and of course, he kept saying that he WON!
How quickly kids grow up…Hannah finally outgrew her first pair of sandals, and even though we can still put them on her, it’s very clear that they are beginning to get too tight on her feet. They are too tight cuz we can see her little toes peeking out from the front of the sandals.
I do so like her first pair of sandals, because it feels so comfy, but I suppose we’ll have to let those go eventually. We finally found another pair for Hannah last weekend in size 6 (her old pair was size 4.5). Let’s see how long these will last.
In any case, I suddenly remembered we bought a pair of brown dress shoes, Mary Janes, if you will, from the US. They were much too big for her feet then, but I thought we’d take them out now and try them on for size.
Gave me a shock when I discovered they fit her EXACTLY, as in “wait a few weeks and she would outgrow them”! So looks like Hannah will be wearing these brown Mary Janes for the next few weeks then
Ah yes, girls and their shoes…She’ll have more shoes than Mommy soon, I’m sure.
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