Little Miracles · February 2013

Snow Play with My Little Miracles

February 21, 2013 in Entertainment, Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

We’re right smack in the middle of the School Winter Break now, and the kids are just enjoying the vacation. Today, I single-handedly brought both of them grocery shopping and told them that if I was pleased with their behavior at the store, I’d take them out for some snow play.

I kept my promise.

After lunch, the kids were garbed in their snow gear: snow pants, snow boots, hat and mittens and we took a quick stroll to the little playground area in our apartment. There was a slight breeze, but the kids were kept nice and toasty in their snow attire… and they had so much FUN!

Elegant word art (have some fun) from Bethany

A Visit from The Tooth Fairy

February 20, 2013 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | No comments

Last Sunday, as we were driving home from lunch and grocery shopping, Ethan suddenly announced, “Mommy, Mommy, my TOOTH just fell out!”

I turned around immediately and true enough, he was holding his tiny little incisor..yes, the one that had been wobbly for a little over 3 weeks now. He was just telling me a few minutes before the incident, that he felt his tooth was going to fall out any time that day. Apparently he had fiddled with it and it fell off!

I took the tooth from him and wrapped it in some tissue and then gave him some tissue to dab his gums of whatever blood that was there. It did not hurt him because he had waited for it to fall off on its own, and he was so excited after that. He didn’t have a toothless grin because his permanent tooth had already half-grown in the place of the baby tooth which had fallen out. And he says he can now chew properly again. 🙂

When we reached home, I washed his tooth and put it in his tooth pouch. Look how tiny the little tooth was! 🙂

Ethan wrote a short note for the tooth fairy and I put the pouch and the note under his pillow before he went to bed.

I had asked Ethan what he hoped the tooth fairy would give him in return for his tooth, and he said, “Ummm….maybe a little gift or a treat?” (I was pleasantly surprised and proud that he didn’t say “some money” :))

However, at close to 2a.m. Ethan awoke and excitedly told Daddy the Tooth Fairy had paid him a visit! He had woken up and checked under his pillow! LOL

But Daddy managed to ask him to go back to bed first and get a better look in the morning….so here’s his little Tooth Fairy treat! 🙂

Our boy is now looking forward to future Tooth Fairy visits. He’s wondering when his next tooth is going to wobble!

Hannah’s Early Birthday Celebration in School

February 15, 2013 in Celebrations, Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment

I’m already 36+ weeks along, so being paranoid that I would not be able to do a simple birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her friends (when she clearly wants to), I made arrangements for an early celebration on Valentine’s Day.

As was the case with Ethan’s school, we were not allowed to bring in any food items, so I managed to get a cute craft kit for the kids. Every kid in class would get a giraffe-shaped foam piece which they would then decorate to their liking using stickers and such, all provided in the kit. Cool or what? 🙂

Hannah was absolutely looking forward to the Giraffe craft and kept on talking about it right till the day I had planned for it. We did the craft with her friends in the morning, and all the kids had fun creating their own version of their giraffes.

It was the perfect way to spend Hannah’s birthday in school and also a kid’s Valentine’s Day and I was so thankful to be a part of it. Hannah’s teacher was also very thoughtful and had taken a few pictures of the activity and then compiled the pictures into a little ring booklet, which I thought was so cute! And of course, Hannah was beyond jubilation to take home her very own giraffe, which she named Sandy. 🙂

She’s now counting down the days to her actual birthday! 😀

Hannah Having Fun in Pre-K

February 13, 2013 in Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

It just dawned on me that I have not been updating the progress on Hannah’s days in school. She’s currently in pre-K now and she goes for the half-day sessions, which is around 5 hours every day. I normally drop her off at about 9:00a.m. after I drop Ethan off at school, and Hannah will be at school till about 2:30p.m. or so. She takes lunch in school and sometimes even has a short nap before I arrive.

Of course, for security and privacy reasons, parents aren’t allowed to take photos of the kids in school, but we do get pictures of our kids sent home, and I always welcome these because it just goes to show how much fun Hannah has in school! We’ve also enrolled her in the Phonics Adventures program which introduces and teaches phonics to early readers like Hannah. So far, we are pleased that she enjoys her 1:1 phonics sessions, which she has twice a week.

Here are some of the activities she has been up to in school…the photos aren’t very clear, because I had to take a photo of the photo printouts that were sent home.

Ethan Is Seven Years Old!

February 1, 2013 in Celebrations, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Milestones | 2 comments

Yesterday, my little Ethan turned seven. I still can’t believe how much he has grown. I told him that now when someone asks how old he is, he can say, “I’m seven years old!” instead of his usual “I’m six…but I’m gonna be seven soon!” 🙂

Here in Massachusetts, schools are very strict about food being brought into the classrooms in view of hygiene and food allergy. So instead of edible stuff for the kids, I prepared little birthday treats for every one of Ethan’s classmates, so that he could pass it round during snack time. His teacher(s) had suggested something practical and useful for the kids like a pencil or a fun eraser, so here’s what we prepared:

The kids helped me with the packing and arranging. The treats were just something very simple and useful: A mini memo pad and a cute little pencil. The memo pads came in 5 different colors and the pencils were just fun-looking and colorful. Ethan told me he had a great time passing these round to his friends, and they were thrilled to get them.

Back on the home front, we had a little celebration of our own. What would a birthday be without a birthday cake eh?

That’s right! I made him a Captain America shield cake! 🙂

He’d been consistently asking for it for a year and thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to make, but I ran into a few minor glitches when I realized that I had left my cake leveler, fondant smoother and offset spatula back in Penang. So I had to just make do with whatever I had here, which explains why some parts of the cake were a bit uneven.

Ethan didn’t seem to mind though, and was really looking forward to blowing out the candle and eating the cake.