Ethan turns 16 months

Here are some highlights from the month of May as our Ethan Boy turns 16 months:

• Since we started giving him showers instead of baths, Ethan is enjoying himself tremendously.  So much so that he has even mastered the art of turning on the faucet!  You see, right below our shower there is a faucet which is positioned just above Ethan’s height.  He now can reach up to it and turn it on.  In fact, he likes to have the faucet turned way up, resulting in Pete and I getting thoroughly wet!
• Ethan likes to be involved in whatever we do now, especially when it comes to food.  Whenever we are in a restaurant eating, he will demand for the food that we are eating.  Just the other day, while we were out grocery shopping in Jusco, Pete and I stopped by one of those sample stations which was promoting a special type of instant noodles.  We each took a small cup to sample.  Ethan, who was in the stroller, started banging on the stroller tray and called out to us.  It didn’t take Pete long to figure out that our boy also wanted a taste of the noodles…which is exactly what he got.  And that kept him contented all right…

• Ethan has learnt how to imitate us.  A funny game which has been going on between Daddy and Ethan is when Daddy goes to the washroom to wash his feet.  As soon as Ethan spots Pete switching on the bathroom lights, he would get all excited and run over to the bathroom doorway.  As Pete washes his feet, he exaggerates by stomping on the bathroom floor, and guess what…Ethan will do the same.  Add in the giggle factor and you have a scene you will never forget.
• Ethan is participating in our singalong sessions now, albeit in true Mr Bulat manner:

Daddy/Mommy (singing): If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands….
Ethan grins widely, grabs either Daddy or Mommy’s hands, one in each of his hands, and *makes* US clap our hands together…and this continues till the end of the song.

• Lately, we’ve noticed that Ethan sometimes turns himself round and round in circles.  One minute he would be walking normally, and then he would suddenly just turn round and round.  Then he would stop, pause for a moment as if to recover his balance, then start walking normally again.
• (I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed here) Ethan is *quite* regularly able to go without a drink of milk from his bedtime (which is usually 9:30-10:00p.m., and unusually 11:00p.m.) right up till about 4:30a.m.  He would wake up around midnight, and we would just comfort him back to sleep and put him back in the cot.  He is also now quite okay with Pete carrying him at night when he wakes up, and doesn’t necessarily need to rely solely on me.  On several occasions, when he is up at 11pm or around midnight, Pete will go into the room first and carry Ethan to our bed.  Initially Ethan will cry for Mommy, whilst sitting up on the bed facing the room door.  But after a short while, he will crawl towards Daddy and snuggle to sleep in Daddy’s arms.
• Sometime in May, when it was just Pete, Ethan and me in the car, I started sitting in the co-driver seat in front (before this, I was always sitting in the back seat with Ethan).  Now Ethan will be comfortably strapped into his car seat at the back while Daddy and Mommy can be in front.  I am proud to say that we have no problems at all putting Ethan into his car seat, because we have trained him well since birth.  He had been sitting in the infant seat carrier till he was about a year old and then graduated to the convertible front-facing car seat.  Now, every time we “kai kai“, he will eagerly sit in the car seat and allow us to buckle him up.  At times, he would even hold the buckle ready for us to strap him in!  Then he would blabber and talk to us the whole of the journey.  Sometimes, when we turn back to look at him, we’d find him deep in thought… sometimes he would be smiling, and sometimes he would clap his hands in glee when he hears a tune he likes on the radio.  When we reach our destination, Ethan will patiently sit and wait till we have unbuckled him, and then he will reach his hands out and try to get out of the seat himself.
• Random words that Ethan has picked up, (these are not confirmed to be what he says, since he is still mostly blabbering):
  • Ai chiak bek (Want to eat Oats)
  • Ter (Water)
  • Deh-dah, Di-deh, deh-deh, Daddy
  • Yah… (for almost everything)
• Foodwise, Ethan is on 1 full feed of breast milk while I am at work now (he’s recently upgraded his feed quantity to 6oz at one go).  His second EBM feed in the afternoon is now replaced with approximately 2 oz of Isomil mixed with cereal (Rice Crispies of Snap, Crackle & Pop fame, oats or rusks).
• Lastly Ethan continues to be enthralled by the mall, especially the escalators.  He has now added climbing stairs to his list of favorite things to do.  He loves to run around in the mall, especially in wide open spaces.