You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
Scrap Credits
Fall Memories kit from A work in progress
Laugh Alphas from Cathy K Designs
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Love Word Art from Jamie Lee Designs
Weight
Should be about 12.5kilos.
Height
36 inches.
Teeth
Loves to brush his teeth on his own, even carrying his step stool to the sink, asking for his toothbrush and toothpaste and imitating his Daddy brushing his teeth. I have a feeling he swallows a little bit of the toothpaste though, but I am still using the fluoride-free toothpaste on him, so that’s perfectly fine. Ethan allows me to brush his teeth for him too, when he is in the mood. Of course, I am always happy to do so.
And oh yes, his teeth-brushing sessions always end with a good gurgling and spitting session. 🙂
Developmental Milestones
- Becoming more confident in the way he speaks, and can make short sentences like, “Look at that!”, “I wanna go outside!”, or “I don’t want it!” and my favorite: “Daddy, wake up!”
- Knows how to work his charm using magic words like “pees” (please) and “thank you”. When I give him a Ritz Bits cracker, he will say ever so sweetly, “Thank you Mommy!” – melts my heart every time he does that.
- Loves to hop and jump around. I guess it is just him practising and perfecting his skills. In addition to jumping and hopping on level surfaces, he sometimes also jumps from a slightly higher level (like the bottom step of a flight of steps).
- He uses the term “Go Potty” when he wants to have a bowel movement. Sometimes if he peepees in the potty, and we applaud him for doingso, he will say, “I pee pee in the potty!”
- Knows how to put away his toys. I especially am pleased to see him detach his Lego pieces and put them away nicely in the box. He’ll go “put it away”, and does the deed.
- Loves to share his toys, his food, his milk etc with one and sundry, … well especially his soft toys. It’s so cute the way he goes, “Here, Mickey..”, and “Here, bear…” and then “Here, Daddy…”, and “Here, Mommy”, while he gives out the item he is sharing.
- Ethan is a very sensitive and affectionate boy, and is always asking for a HUG. And he is very PASSIONATE about things. Even when he is watching TV… he gets very engrossed when something bad is about to happen to Dora, for example, and says, “No, no, noooo!!!!” almost in a pleading tone.
- Has started to say numbers like “Twenty-ONE!”, “Twenty-TWO!”, etc…
- Wants to go swimming in the “swimming pool”, but we told him we would only take him when the weather is warmer. It’s enticing to him because he sees the pool every time he steps out of our apartment.
- Becoming more sociable and he actually looks forward to meeting all his friends at daycare every day. He knows all their names and sometimes during holidays or weekends, he would mention their names too. And now, who wouldn’t smile when they see Ethan saying “Hi!” while waving, or “Hello Daddy!” first thing in the morning? 🙂
- Can tell us where we *should* go or where he *wants to go*, by saying, “This way!” and pointing to a particular direction.
- Demanding to be more independent and his favorite phrase now is, “I’ll do it!” He wants to buckle up on his own, climb into the car seat on his own, take off his shoes on his own, etc.
Food and Feeding
Lately Ethan has started eating more, we noticed. He has been asking for “more milk”, “more rice” and (yippee) “more chicken”. His favorite food of course is still rice and he absolutely loves rice with “saw-soyce” (soy sauce).
I absolutely love the way he pronounces “milk”. He used to say “nenno” but not any more. Now it’s “merlk”…you know, the VERY precise pronunciation.
On Day 3 of our vacation, woohoo….a bright sunshiny day greeted us in the morning! We got ready right away and had breakfast at the hotel. Initially we wanted to walk to Disneyland, because our primary reason for booking that hotel was its close proximity to Disneyland. But in the end we decided against walking because although we definitely had the energy to walk in the morning, the walk back to the hotel at night could be tiring as Ethan might want us to carry him all the way, … or it might rain at night…
So we drove again, paying the $12 for parking, which I must say is $12 well spent!
As soon as we had parked the car (there were more cars today – must be the good weather), and alighted, Ethan ran happily towards the pickup point for the tram to Disneyland, shouting “castle”, “Mickey” and “Goofy” all the way. But since there were more people today, we had to wait a bit for the tram to arrive.
We headed straight for California Adventure Park, and coincidentally saw that Pluto was having a “meet the fans” session, so Ethan had a picture taken with Pluto, all on his own.
We then decided to rent a stroller for the day (cost us $12), because for some reason, Ethan appeared to be more clingy. It certainly appeared as if he was *conserving energy* for the day ahead, having experienced the previous day which was filled with so many activities. He would walk a bit and ask us to carry him around. At times, he would only want “Mommy carry!”
We managed to catch a few shows in California Adventure Park, including Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage, and then we moved on to “a bug’s land”. There were a few kiddie rides there which we could enjoy, in fact, Ethan also enjoyed the queue in line, I’m sure!
Here we are taking the ride in Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, where I had to ride in the carriage in front and snap pictures.
We also soared through the air in *flying boxes* known as Flik’s Flyers and guess what…Ethan wasn’t in the least bit afraid. On the contrary, he was smiling all the way! Well, he ain’t afraid of heights and he also ain’t afraid of getting dizzy, cuz when we rode in the spinning ladybirds in Francis’ Ladybug Boogie, Ethan was thoroughly enjoying himself! I think the adults were the ones who got dizzy!
Next, Ethan wanted to take a ride in the bumper cars, Tuck and Roll’s Drive’Em Buggies. Our boy was exactly 36″ tall, so he met the minimum height requirement, but he would also need a chaperone to ride with him. Since pregnant mommas were not allowed on this, Pete took Ethan, and that went really well. Look at how much those two enjoyed themselves!
The bumper car ride was really a breakthrough for Ethan because it proved that he did not need both Mommy and Daddy to be with him on the ride. We are so proud of him!
On the way out from “a bug’s land”, we stopped by Princess Dot Puddle Park, where Ethan had a field day splashing around a gigantic faucet. Actually it’s like a water fountain maze, and believe you me, it was really tough coaxing him to leave that place!
Wanna see how it is done? Check out the video…
California Adventure Park has a lot of rides for bigger kids and adults, and I remember having the time of my life on the California Screamin’ roller coaster and the Maliboomer (vertical launcher), but since (obviously) I can’t do any of that right now, and neither can Ethan, we just took a nice walk round Paradise Pier and checked out the sights.
Yep, our boy decided it was not really fun to spend the day in the stroller, and preferred to be riding the “Daddy horse”. We made use of the stroller to cart Ethan’s bag instead. Hah.
We also stopped by the “Brother Bear” area where we had wanted to watch “The Magic of Brother Bear” Totem Ceremony, but little did we know that the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail was situated at that same area. So no….we didn’t find the ceremony we wanted to watch, but instead Ethan had fun on the rock slides, the rope bridges, the hollow logs … you get the idea…. of course, Daddy was the designated person to follow him all around!
Here’s a photo of Ethan with the Brother Bear figure right outside the Challenge Trail. Yeah, he asked for a photo… and he wanted to *touch* the bear paw.
At this point, Ethan was already getting restless and kept asking over and over again for “castle” and “Mickey!”, so we hopped over to Disneyland Park. On the way to the park, we decided to snap a few photos with the giant CALIFORNIA alphabets outside California Adventure Park. It wasn’t dark yet, so we could get quite good pictures. And also the letters had been festively decorated in the Christmas mood, with Christmas colors.
Ethan immediately ran towards the letter O, for what reason, I do not know… then he noticed that A had a Goofy figurine on it, so he went, “Goofy! Goofy!”, pointed and ran towards A. There was a short queue of people waiting to take photos, so we had to wait. And then….Ethan suddenly noticed C had Mickey… so he ran to the other end to have a picture taken with Mickey too.
Trust me when I tell you we have countless photos of those alphabets in our memory card 😛
Well Disneyland was immensely crowded that day, and we hardly wanted to get in line for any of those rides. It was a good thing we rode on It’s a Small World twice the day before, because the queue now was unbelievable! We stopped by Toontown for a bit, but left after a while because it got so crowded!
Then we walked back to California Adventure Park for the Pixar Play Parade, which was really very interesting and wonderful to watch. In the middle of it, I turned to check on Ethan’s response on one of the floats, and realized that he had fallen asleep! He had literally drifted off to dreamland in Daddy’s arms!
So after the parade, we carried Ethan into the stroller and walked back out to Downtown Disney to that same souvenir shop for some souvenir shopping. It was much easier to shop when Ethan’s asleep anyway. Unfortunately we were not allowed to bring the stroller out, so we had to park it somewhere first and strong Daddy had to carry Ethan. 😛
He slept for quite a bit and when he woke up, he seemed to have renewed energy. We bought a few souvenir items, namely 2 snug-fitting pajamas for Ethan and some squeezey toys, just because they were Mickey Mouse related! Hehe…
By the way, you see those toys in the round plastic packaging? Those are Ethan’s latest bath toys now…
Well, anyway, after the souvenir shopping, we walked back to California Adventure Park for a superb clam chowder dinner, which Ethan really enjoyed!
We had one more parade to watch and that was the Disney’s Electrical Parade, which saw Ethan clapping and waving his hands happily.
Then our final stop for the day was back at Disneyland to witness the awe-inspiring “Believe…In Holiday Magic” Fireworks. The crowd was HUGE, and Ethan sat atop Pete’s shoulders watching intently, going “Wow!” as the spectacular display unfolded before his eyes.
It was definitely another tiring day for our boy and once again he fell asleep right away after his sponge bath and warm milk when we reached the hotel.
Naturally we were all very excited when we woke up the next morning after the long journey from San Jose. After all, we were headed for the happiest place on earth! 🙂
We had purchased 2-day park hopper tickets which allowed us 2-day unlimited access to both Disneyland and California Adventure Park. It was Pete’s and my second visit there, and we were very anxious to share the *happiness* with our boy. We did not need to pay for Ethan’s admission ticket though, because kids under 3 can enjoy free admission!
But this is what greeted us when we were about to go out of the room:
We had already kinda expected it as the weather forecast for the day showed that it would be pouring that day. SIGH.
Ethan had some boxed apple juice in our room before we went for breakfast. I could tell he was getting hungry, and somehow he discovered how to open the fridge on his own.
So we had breakfast at the hotel, and after that, since it was still raining heavily, we decided that we would drive to Disneyland instead of our original plan of walking there. Despite our hotel being about 15 minutes’ walking distance to Disneyland, we decided not to get drenched in the rain, and besides it was definitely getting heavier. The parking fee was $12, but thankfully it was a sheltered parking lot.
Ethan was very excited as soon as we parked the car, and kept saying, “Mickey” or “Mickey Mouse”. Coincidentally, we parked at the Mickey Mouse level.
We then took a tram to Downtown Disney, and visited one of the biggest souvenir shops there. We had to buy rain ponchos for ourselves because it was still pouring when we arrived. Too bad there weren’t any ponchos in Ethan’s size, so he had to make do with his hooded jacket. We did manage to get a few quick shots of Ethan wearing that ever-popular Mickey Mouse hat though, but it looked like he was too eager to enter the park!
Since it was still drizzling, we could only enjoy the rides that were somewhat sheltered, and the first one we saw was the Disneyland railroad train at Main Street!
And running and skipping as fast as he could to board the train was Ethan, all the while screaming, “choo choo train!” He would also get impatient when the train stopped at certain stations to pick up passengers and took a long time to get going.
The rain certainly did not dampen our spirits, and when we finished a complete ride round Disneyland, we spotted Mickey and some of his friends entering a nearby building. So we rushed into the building, and I tell you, I will never forget that priceless look of admiration and joy on Ethan’s face as he met Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. He was really star-struck! So much so that I think he really could not believe he was seeing the onscreen characters he loves in real life! Look at some of the pictures, it’s as if he was checking to see if they were real!
We then continued our adventure round Disneyland, snapping photos whenever we could, and trying to do as many things as possible in spite of the rain. As you can see, it was not easy getting our boy to pose for photos because he became easily distracted by all the sights and sounds around him!
See how wet Ethan’s pants got after a while of hopping around in the puddles? 😛
The crowds weren’t that humunguous and the queues for the rides weren’t that long, probably because of the rain, and we managed to squeeze in a few rides before lunchtime. From past experience with Ethan, we purposely went for rides where the three of us could go on, and that included the Storybook Land canal boat ride and the ever-popular It’s a Small World. Although Pete and I were apprehensive that the It’s a Small World ride would result in the song sticking to our heads for days to come (it did the last time we went on it!), we knew it was going to be an enjoyable experience for Ethan. Here’s Daddy and Ethan all ready for the ride…
We were actually very happy with the It’s a Small World ride. Because it was the Christmas season, the music they played was a mixture of Christmas carols interspersed with It’s a Small World, and so the experience was truly truly amazing. Throw in all the colors and wonderful sights and you have a very happy toddler (and Mommy and Daddy too)!
Lunch was, of course, burgers and chips….well, cuz most of the restaurants in Disneyland serve that. Ethan thoroughly enjoyed his chips, but still would not take our burgers…A rather funny incident happened though. Ethan was drinking water from a plastic cup, and when he was done, he began playing with the cup, and suddenly he tore it! Instinctively, I said, “Oh no! You tore the cup?! Quick, say sorry to the cup, Ethan!” and he went, “Sorry, cup…” 😛
The rain stopped around lunch time, so after we had eaten, we were able to roam around without our rain ponchos. Took a few other train rides (yep, there are several here in Disney), and even had the chance to do a boat ride!
Here are two precious shots of Ethan enjoying a casual male-bonding moment with Daddy. My hands had nothing else better to do while we were waiting in line for one of the rides…. heh.
We headed for Mickey’s Toontown next, and I remembered it being one of the most colorful places in Disney.
And as soon as Ethan caught sight of the slide in Goofy’s playhouse, he ran towards it and had the time of his life! Ah, the simple pleasures that makes a boy happy huh?
Some of the Disney characters were available for photo sessions too, and Ethan managed to get one with Goofy. After queuing up for a bit, I tested Ethan to see if he would go take a photo with Goofy on his own, and he did! 🙂
Well, he looks a little confused there, but still, it’s a priceless photo!
Here’s one of Ethan and Pete in one of the Toontown buses. Ethan loves climbing up to the driver’s seat, rotating the wheel, and shouting, “Move!”
It was certainly difficult to pry Ethan away from Toontown, but we managed, somehow. And after all that excitement, Ethan finally fell asleep, all tired out, on Pete’s shoulders, at about 3:30p.m. So Pete and I took the opportunity to sit down at a nearby cafe and had clam chowder instead.
Ethan woke up shortly after that, and we headed for the “castle”, since he demanded for it. He really really loves the castle, I can tell, cuz even today, he still remembers the “castle”. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle really is a breathtaking view, especially during Christmastime.
Oh yeah, we also managed to enjoy It’s a Small World for the second time that night. And the night decorations make the place look so much like fairyland. Plus, on the way there, there was a *snow* experience for us too, as soap bubbles were released making it look and feel like snow. It was magical…
Before we called it a day, we witnessed the special “A Christmas Fantasy” parade. Ethan was very happy when he caught a glimpse of Mickey and his friends, Buzz Lightyear and Woody (whom he refers to as the “cowboy”).
It was a long, tiring but very fulfilling day for all of us, and after Ethan had his warm nightly bath, we could tell he was exhausted because he “asked” me to sleep with him. Normally he would play around first and then sleep a little bit later, but immediately after he had his milk, he wanted to sleep. He even hugged his Mickey Mouse soft toy to sleep, but not before looking at Mickey with a look of wonderment, not really believing that he had met Mickey in the flesh.
