Bible Verse of the Day

April 2011

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A Pleasant Surprise

April 27, 2011 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

hannah-numbers

Last Sunday, we were all hanging out in our home, and Pete was playing with the kids.  He was holding a numbered flash card and he asked Hannah if she wanted the card.  Hannah was going about her *work*, moving blocks and stacking toys, walking around here and there, seemingly ignoring her Daddy.

Pete asked a few times if she wanted the card, but she didn’t respond.  He asked, “Hannah, do you want this?” and “Come Hannah, Daddy will give this card to you…”

Then all of a sudden, Hannah ran towards her Daddy, swiped the card from his hand and said, “I dowan FOUR!”

Pete was dumbfounded, because he was indeed holding the card with the number 4 on it.

You see, up till then, we hadn’t realized that Hannah could recognize numbers.  We only know that she could count 1-10 by rote.

Pleasantly surprised, we tested her newfound skill further by holding up a few other numbered cards, and she could tell us most of the numbers 1-9.  Sometimes she would confuse 9 and 7 because of their similar shapes, but it’s a great start.  Of course, Ethan tried to get Hannah to say the numbers 11-20 too.. LOL

The wonderful thing is that we didn’t even teach her how to say those numbers, because we don’t believe in forcing a young toddler to learn numbers or alphabets.  She just picked it up on her own, probably through observation. 🙂 … or probably it’s just in her genes. 😛 … or perhaps because she is a breastfed baby! 🙂

Cheeky Bulats

April 26, 2011 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

cheekybulats

I call him Mr Bulat and I call her Miss Bulat.

She absolutely adores him, and obeys his every word.

He loves her to bits, although sometimes he claims she makes him SO angry.

She copies whatever he does and follows whatever he says.

He holds her hand as they walk across the road, and he supervises her when she washes her hands.

They have their fun times, and their *naughty stool* times…but at the end of it all, they still hug each other and say sorry.

They are both generous with their kisses and hugs, tickles and giggles…and they light up each others’ lives as they lit mine up each and every day.

I love them so…

They are God’s miracles.  And I am so thankful to be blessed with them.

She gets away with anything!

April 25, 2011 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

…I mean *Fashion-wise*.

The other day, Hannah INSISTED she wanted to wear her sneakers and socks.  No issues with that, except she was wearing a pretty little demure dress.  She complained that her sandals were too tight, so I suggested she put on her Mary Janes instead, but she held firm to her decision on wearing sneakers….so…

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But then, come to think of it, no fashion police would arrest her, don’t you agree?  She still looks sweet and cute, despite the clash of fashion items….kids!  They get away with just about anything!

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Hannah at 25 months

April 24, 2011 in Hannah, Milestones | No comments

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Scrap Credits
Kit “Child Love” at DMS from Lilas
Color Felt Stitching Alphas from Jada Collectibles

 

Weight

12.3 kilos as weighed in at doc’s about 4 weeks ago.

Height

Around 83cm

Teeth

She still wouldn’t open up her mouth long enough for me to count accurately, but from what I could see/estimate, Hannah now has 16 teeth: 8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with 4 pramolars appearing on the right side (top and bottom) and left side (top and bottom); also 2 canines starting to appear at the top jaw, and 2 canines on the bottom jaw.  Her 4 other pramolars might have already started growing, but as mentioned, she wouldn’t open up wide enough for me to see.

Motor Skills

  • Hannah is a handful when we dine out.  She will sit and eat when she is hungry, but she she is full and restless, she’ll announce, “I’m full.  I wanna walk.”  And then attempt to climb out of her high chair.
  • She can put on her sandals by herself (bravo Hannah!), although sometimes it is on the wrong side.
  • Hopping and jumping skills have improved.  She can also manage jumping on the trampoline!  Since March, I’ve started taking her to the parent-toddler class once a week, and it has certainly helped to hone her social skills, as well as her motor and creativity skills.  She looks forward to each session and cheerfully participates in all the activities, especially the music and movement ones.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Beginning to show more and more of a stubborn personality, no thanks to genes from both Mommy and Daddy.  Uses the words “No!” and “No want!” (don’t want) when she wants to tell us what she wants.  But she also uses “Yeah” and “Yes”, so it’s a healthy balance.
  • Can carry on simple conversations with Ethan.  It’s really enlightening to see them communicate.  Of course, they also fight sometimes, but that’s a whole other story.
  • Hannah’s vocabulary continues to increase exponentially as she mimics and parrots almost everything Ethan says (especially).  Interesting words and phrases she says are, “Mother Goose!”, “Queensbay Mall!”, “Gurney Plaza!”, “Fatty Loh!” and “I no-no” (I dunno).
  • Some of her pronunciation is not that clear and accurate yet, but it’s good enough for us to understand what she means.
  • Hannah is also polishing up on her manipulation skills.  Sometimes when we want to lead her away from something, and we hold her hand and guide her away, she will scream at the top of her lungs and say, “Uhhh….my HAND!!!”, as though we are hurting her!

Food and Feeding

  • Hannah is more or less weaned off the breast during the daytime.  She will only ask to be breastfed after I have taken my bath at night and when she is ready for bed. 
  • She is able to feed herself rice, porridge or pasta with a spoon, and is able to use her fingers to eat breads and buns.
  • She can drink quite independently with a regular cup or with a straw.
  • Loves oranges and papayas, and all kinds of soup.
  • Loves experimenting on new foods.  Once, she saw a small bowl of chilli on the table while we were having dinner, and asked for some.  Hannah said, “Try some, please?”, while pointing to the chilli.  “No, baby,” I said, “That’s spicy.  Maybe next time when you’re older, okay?”  She looked at me and said, “Drink water…” (meaning if it’s spicy, she can always drink water)

Potty Training

  • Potty training is still ongoing, and I am not really pushing her.  She understands that poopoo should go into the toilet and she says things like “Icky!” when she poopoos.
  • She likes to *pretend* to wipe herself clean, but insists that I wash her butt with water after every poopoo.

A Rainbow Sky

April 15, 2011 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 2 comments

Recently, Ethan’s school had a fund raising campaign to raise funds for the people in Japan in the wake of the natural disasters that had affected the country.  The children were exposed to what happened in Japan and the teachers explained how and why it was important for us to help in whatever way we can.

Apart from organizing a donation and food fair, the K1 and K2 kids in the school were also given the chance to paint a picture to express themselves.  These pictures would then be displayed in a silent auction whereby proceeds would be channeled to the Japan fund. 

I attended the food fair, where all these paintings were displayed.  Ethan told me, “Mommy, I used REALLY strong paint to paint this picture!”

It was a very colorful and I would say abstract piece of art, and I was very proud of him.

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Bidding starts at RM20, but I don’t know why I put down RM50.  Anyway, I was incredibly impressed with Ethan’s work of art and also of what he felt and expressed in words.  You see, the kids were asked to express and explain their painting in their own words and the teachers would then note them down with a little piece of paper next to the painting.

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It was a very sincere message, straight from the heart of a 5-year old.  Ethan told me he hopes the funds collected from his painting can be used to help the Japan people build their homes back, “because Japan is broken”, he said.

As a mother, I couldn’t be prouder.  It was RM50 well spent. 🙂

However, the framing was not done very well, and because I was afraid the splinters would hurt the kids, I did what any mother would do: I took it to an art shop and had the painting reframed.

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…all ready to be hung in Ethan’s room! 🙂

Samba in Rio!

April 15, 2011 in Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah, Milestones, Parenting | 1 comment

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Last Friday, on a whim, we decided to take BOTH kids to watch Rio.  We knew Ethan could sit through the entire movie, but for Hannah, it was a first.  True, she was only 2, but at home, she had displayed tremendous concentration when she watches videos and TV, we figured why not try it?  The worst that could happen was if she made a fuss, I would just take her out of the cinema.

We used one of those free child movie passes that came with a Happy Meal purchase.  We had to buy 2 adult movie tickets though, to get the free child movie pass, and it was only valid at TGV.  The only TGV in Penang is at 1st Avenue, so it was a first time watching a movie there for all of us too.  Hannah did not need a ticket, so she just sat on my lap.

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The kids went wild with excitement and waited eagerly for our cinema number to flash, so that we could go in.

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Inside the cinema, Hannah was kept busy eating popcorn, so she was very well behaved for about 45 minutes or so.  Once the popcorn was exhausted, she started playing with my mineral water, and fidgeting in her seat.  Note to self: in future, make sure the popcorn lasts the entire movie. 😛

She began to wander up and down the aisles and wanted to try out the couple seats at the back row, the other seats beside us as well as the stairs.  The suddenly she wanted to go potty (for a big one).  So I had to take her out to the toilet.  Thankfully the toilet was very clean, and just a few steps away from our cinema 🙂

When we got back, Hannah was still restless.  Good thing though, that the cinema was very empty that day.  She snuggled up and tried to get some shuteye, but couldn’t.  In the end, we managed to sit through the entire movie, without too much of a fuss.

Would we do it again?  Sure, if it’s a suitable movie, and this time, I’ll make sure there’s plenty of popcorn to go round!

Oh, and I’m still perplexed as to why Rio has already been released in Malaysia, whereas the release date in US is only on April 15th!  Ethan LOVES the show though…when he wanted to go toilet somewhere near the end, he said, “Mommy I need to go to the toilet.  Can you please pause the show?”

Haha…yeah, we’re currently on a collecting spree for all the Rio toys from McDonald’s…(see first picture at the top)

Little Miss Choosy Fashionista

April 12, 2011 in Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

hannah-adorablysmiling

Hannah is beginning to turn into very much the fashionista.  Nowadays she loves to choose her own clothes to wear, be it her clothes for the day or her jammies.  If the clothes I have laid out for her aren’t the ones she likes, she’ll take them and tell me, “Dowan this one…” and head to her room to choose some other clothes.

The problem, of course, is that she cannot decide what clothes she wants to wear…sometimes.  At other times though, she can be very specific about what she wants.  She’d ask for her “Rock Princess” jammies, or she’d want her jeans or tights.

And then there is also the matter of her diapers.  As if it weren’t enough that she chooses her clothes, she has also taken the liberty to choose her own diapers.  I’m referring to cloth diapers, of course. 🙂

She’ll ask for her “sheep diaper”, or “animals diaper”, or “turtle diaper” or sometimes by color.  Of course, some of the *diapers* she’d requested are not available.  Sometimes I have to cajole her into accepting the diaper of my choice.

Some of the diapers she gets to choose from (some are *boyish* colors, because they are passed down from Ethan):

diapers

Hannah confirms her role as a little fashionista by showing a keen interest on my jewelry.  Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings…you name it, she’d want to get her little fingers on them pronto.  When she examines my earrings, she’ll pretend to pinch her earlobes and say, “Ouch!” because she knows that it will hurt a little when it is time for her to get her ears pierced.  And when I ask her if she wants Mommy to make her a nice bracelet or anklet, she’ll nod her head and say, “Yes.”

SIGH…is it true that girls are wired that way?  I’m beginning to believe it.