Entertainment

It has come the time for Ethan and his classmates to embark on an exciting adventure with Little Pooh Bear in a very interesting project called Little Pooh Bear’s Adventure.  In this group project, each child would bring home a soft toy, Little Pooh Bear, on Friday. The child concerned would then treat Little Pooh Bear as his/her guest in their homes and bring him around just like how we would treat a guest.  The child would write about Little Pooh Bear’s adventures when he is with him/her and record it in a journal, which will be returned to school together with Pooh Bear the following Wednesday.

So last Friday, Ethan had the honor of hosting Little Pooh Bear at our home, and he was ever so excited!  He took him everywhere he went, and asked me to snap pictures of whatever they were doing or eating, and then he would diligently write down what happened in the journal.  At the same time, he would keep on reminding me to go print the photos for him to stick in his journal.

Sound like blogging, much?  Perhaps I will have a chat with Ethan on whether he would like to have a blog of his own soon.

Here’s Ethan reading his story of his adventure with Pooh Bear:

If you’re like me, you would know Eric Carle as the famous author of that ever-so-popular children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  He also wrote many other entertaining books, but The Very Hungry Caterpillar would be the most well-known.

Well, if you’re like me too, you would have enjoyed looking at the simple yet captivating illustrations in all of his books.

However, little did I know that those illustrations were also done by Eric Carle himself!  Yep, Author AND Illustrator!

And it was this same collage illustrating technique that Ethan was emulating when he recently created what I like to call….a Masterpiece

Basically the collage method involves painting, sponging and decorating pieces of paper and then cutting out the relevant shapes, and then layering them on top of each other to create a picture with different textures and shapes.

In this piece of art, Ethan did a picture with reference to Eric Carle’s book “A House for Hermit Crab”.

Some close-up details of the work involved:

And the final product, which this beaming proud Mommy had framed up:

This would be added to Ethan’s art collection, including his Rainbow Sky painting, which he did last year to raise funds for the Japan Tsunami victims.

For weeks and months, Ethan had been telling me all about his concert practices in school.  Initially he would show me some of his dance steps, but as the date of the concert drew nearer, he told me he was not going to reveal anymore, because it is supposed to be a surprise.

His school’s annual concert has always been a grand affair, and this year the concert, which was entitled “The Broadway Kids – In Search of Happiness”, promised to be a truly enjoyable one, because I am a big fan of Broadway.  The school’s annual concert is performed by all the kids from K1 and K2, and is even grander than the wee concert.  Typically the K2 kids would play the main roles and the K1 kids will be supporting as dancers, but nevertheless, I was very excited.

Check out the one of the many lovely backdrops used as the concert props.

As the date drew nearer, Ethan would grow more and more excited.  I gave him extra vitamins every day to prepare for the concert.  They had concert camps and staybacks, full-dressed rehearsals complete with makeup and photo sessions too, and when the day finally came, we dropped Ethan off at Dewan Budaya in USM at 1:00p.m. and quickly went off for lunch before coming back at 2:00p.m. to get ready for the concert at 3:00p.m.

I’d extended invitations to our close relatives and family members, but only my Mom could make it.  Ethan was thrilled.  And his sister was equally excited to watch her brother perform live onstage!

Although we weren’t allowed to take any videos during the concert, I did see some parents ignoring the request.  I didn’t take any videos though, but the full video will be made available to us soon by the official videographer.

The show was very enjoyable and it was so much fun to see Ethan out there having fun (I’d have to say the makeup was a tad garish though, but that’s concert performance makeup for ya).  All the songs were taken from famous Broadway musicals, either in their original English forms, or translated to Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia, all with the kids voicing and singing the words.

Ethan’s item was a very lively and well-choreographed dance done to the song The Other Generation from The Flower Drum Song.  In addition, he also made an appearance in the Concert Finale, singing the theme song: Happiness.

Ethan was very happy and relieved when it all ended well, and that night, he slept ever so soundly!  (I’m not surprised!!)

I’m looking forward to next year’s concert excitedly when my boy will be contributing more

It’s hard to believe that a whole school year has already passed.  It feels like it was just yesterday when I took Ethan to his school on the first day of the school year in January, as he started his year in Nursery.  And now it’s the end of the year, and he is anxiously waiting for the coming year when he would be in K1.

Yes, my boy loves going to school.  And yes, he tells me that. All the time

I’m so thankful that with Ethan I don’t have to deal with tantrums and tears on why he doesn’t want to go to school, because he genuinely LOVES school.

He has made so many friends in school, and he has grown in leaps and bounds in all aspects: physically, emotionally, spiritually and socially.  He started school as quite a shy guy but now his teacher tells me he is quite *noisy* in school and will volunteer information and answers quite readily.  His confidence, too, has skyrocketed and he has mastered many useful skills.

In fact, I am not surprised that he looks forward to school.  During the final week of the school term alone, Ethan was out on a school field trip to Sushi King, where they learnt how to make sushi, ate the sushi they made and had plain clean fun.  On that day, his teacher had asked them to arrive at school before 9:00a.m. and although I was afraid we might not be able to make it on time, Ethan wasted no time in getting ready and we arrived at 15 minutes to 9:00a.m.!

And then on the last day of school, there was a school party, with water play, food and games for everyone.

How could Ethan not love school?

Well, much as he loves school, he is also enjoying his school holidays very much now.  During the 1st week of the school holidays, Ethan attended a Circus School Holiday program and next week, he’s looking forward to a Science Holiday Program.  Whatever it is, we’re trying to keep him occupied as much as we can, because we know he has tons of energy to expend!  Besides, we all know that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, yes?

A few weekends ago, Ethan’s preschool had a little concert.  The theme of the concert this year was “The Garden”.

Prior to the concert day, Ethan had been reporting to us as to what he would be doing.  Apparently he would be singing and dancing in a Chinese song performance.  Initially he was supposed to say something in Chinese onstage together with another girl, his classmate.  But the teachers then decided that the girl would say it on her own, and Ethan was instead tasked with introducing his performance number….yes, in Chinese

On the evening of the concert, we all drove to Ethan’s school and Ethan went off to the room to get into his costumes and do some *hair and makeup*. 

The concert was rather well-organized, and given the fact that the performers were all 2 to 4 year olds, it was superb.  Based on the concert’s theme, all the performances were centered around the garden theme: flowers, planting, the sun, farmers…etc.

Ethan’s performance was the very last one, and the truth is, both Pete and I were REALLY proud of our boy because he did a FANTASTIC job.  He danced, he sang and he thoroughly looked like he enjoyed himself.

Hannah unfortunately had fallen asleep before her brother’s performance, so we’ll have to show her the video some other day.

Here’s Ethan introducing his group’s performance.  What he said was,

“我们是地球的孩子 ( wǒ men shì dì qiú de hái zǐ  )” which means “We are the children of the Earth”, a very meaningful song indeed.

We actually practised saying what we *thought* he was supposed to say during the concert, but little did we know that what we practised was a different phrase.  It was the *earlier* one, but the teachers had changed it.  Anyway, Ethan still managed to say the right one when the time came.

And here are some of the *rather blurry* photos from the concert – these were the best we could get from where we were sitting.  We’re waiting to see the video

Ethan exuded confidence and showed us what a big boy he was becoming.  On stage, we could tell he was very HAPPY and he was looking out for Daddy and Mommy, perhaps to tell us, “Look Dad and Mom!  Here I am!”

And we are so very proud of him.

Photo credits

Ethan has taken a strong liking to the computer.  He frequently asks to use the “peter, peter, peter!” (Nope, he is NOT calling his Daddy by name; that’s how he calls the “computer” for short!)

Most of the time, we’ll tell him we’ll let him play on the computer AFTER he has had his dinner, or AFTER he has taken his shower.  Seems to work some of the time.

Previously when we allowed him to play, he would need our assistance to click on the mouse, but he has since mastered how to do that all by himself.  We normally allow him to surf the Playhouse Disney on Disney Online site, because most of the characters he loves are there.

Check out how he performs the left-click on the mouse in the snippet below.  In this video I took, he is doing some digital coloring on the My Friends Tigger & Pooh section of the site.  See how Ethan drags the numbered honey pots to the corresponding number on the picture and clicks the mouse to fill the picture with color.  And look at how jubilant he is when he finished the activity!

Last night, he asked for the computer again.  I told him he would get just 30 minutes before it was time for his bed. 

And he said, “Okay Mom!”

I extended the 30 minutes to 45 minutes because he was so well-behaved, and when it was time to shut down the PC, I told him that was all for the night, and he obediently helped me shut down.  He got his bedtime books ready (one for Ethan, one for Mommy and one for Daddy), scooted into the room, and before long he was in dreamland.

That’s my boy!

Last Saturday, after months of procrastination, we finally took Ethan for the free trial parent-toddler class at a nearby childcare center/school.  We attended the 11:00a.m. session and it lasted for about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  As an afterthought, it probably would have been better had we gone for the earlier class…you’ll see why later…

At first Ethan was quite shy when we first entered the playroom.  The teacher was very friendly and encouraged Ethan to make himself comfortable, and very soon, he was busying himself with the giant lego blocks.  He also found a wooden hammer which resembled the one he had back home, so I suppose he was happy.

The parent-toddler class is broken up into several sessions of activity, the first of which is a freestyle play with toys indoors.  After that, all the kids adjourned to a shaded play area with various activity stations, such as the artist area (complete with easels, paints and paintbrushes), sand pit (scoops, sand toys and lots of sand), a creative corner (with play-doh, glue and paper cutouts), mini-slides, mini houses and a water station.  Much to my surprise, Ethan enjoyed being an artist, complete with the artist apron.  He didn’t seem too keen on paints and brushes when we had the Little Artists playgroup before… When he moved to the sand pit, he was a little apprehensive at first, perhaps because he had not touched sand before.  But soon he was so engrossed with scooping up the sand that he had to forgo the water station, because the time had come for everyone to move on to the next activity.

After we washed his hands (by the way, I absolutely love the taps that were installed for the kids: just the right height!), all the kids moved to the outdoor playground.  I love the special soft padded rubberized surface the playground was built on.  Kids can play around barefooted without hurting their feet.  Ethan immediately grabbed the basketball and held on to it for dear life.  That’s why most of the photos have him holding on to the basketball.  He refused to let go of it even while he was sliding down the slide.  Oh by the way, he also enjoyed doing some slam dunks on the mini basketball net!  How cute is that!?  Future MVP, perhaps?

Next up, the kids were all given some biscuits and water, given that they would definitely be hungry and thirsty by then.  Ethan boy had TWO helpings of biscuits (that’s two bowls), and finished every bit of it.  He really eats a lot but I just don’t know where the food goes.

I could tell Ethan was pretty tired then.  Pete and I were also very hungry too (that’s why we ought to have gone for the earlier class), but there was still one last activity remaining.  Everyone gathered in the music room, sang some songs and watched a video about the very hungry caterpillar (which made us even hungrier).  While most of the kids remained in the story-telling area however, busybody Ethan chose to explore the area and ventured up the stairs.

After everything was over, we all sang the goodbye song and the kids were all given stickers.  Ethan, who had to wait for his turn, was rather impatient, so he ran away at first without his sticker.  We had to take him to the teacher in the end, and she very nicely gave him a special teddy bear sticker

We have yet to decide if we want to enrol for the class though.  The parent-toddler class was a very good experience for Ethan and we could tell he really enjoyed himself. He’s probably ready for some good fun and mingling around with kids too now.  So we’ll wait and see.

Anyway, we had expected Ethan to fall asleep in the afternoon after all the playing around, but instead, it was Daddy who fell asleep!  Ethan only drifted off to dreamland at 6:30p.m.!!!  We had to wake him up to go out for dinner at about 8:00p.m.

Two Saturdays ago, I received an SMS from Paik Ling who informed me that Ethan’s photo had appeared in the December issue of the Mother & Baby magazine.  Naturally I was filled with pride like any mother would and I was also anxious to get myself a copy, because I wanted to know which photo of his had been selected.  That weekend, I scoured every bookstore I came across in Penang, but unfortunately the December issue was not available yet.  The Klang Valley stores usually get their stock way faster than Penang’s, so I was resigned to wait a few more days because the magazine was still not available even on Monday.

Then on Friday, Jojo‘s mommy IMed me to congratulate me because she spotted Ethan’s picture in the mag.  Apparently she had just bought her copy that very same day from a bookstore in Queensbay Mall.  I was excited because I would finally be able to get a copy that evening too, since that’s where we normally will have dinner Friday nights.

So immediately after dinner, we stopped at Borders to get ourselves a copy.  This is the first time Ethan’s photo has appeared in a magazine although I have been dilligently submitting his photos off and on.  I am so very proud of him   Hopefully this will be the first of many many more to come!

Turns out that Jojo’s mommy had a good reason to buy this month’s magazine too, because one of Jojo’s picture had been chosen as well!  Congratulations Jojo!

Okay, don’t shoot me because this is going to be yet another post on Friday’s.  But I don’t care what you say because we LOVE the food there.  The service is excellent and the ambience is just awesome.  Last night will go down as one of the best Friday’s outing we ever experienced.

When we arrived at the restaurant, they had this set meal promotion going on where a set of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert costs RM39.90++.  I immediately decided on ordering this set when a quick check assured me that the mocha mud pie was one of the two dessert options available.  Well, we ended up ordering TWO sets and of course, the kid’s spaghetti for Ethan.

All I can say is the food was so good, I would literally make space in my stomach if I had to!  Hehe…I finally got a chance to taste that elusive and much-talked-about mocha mud pie!  By the time we were done, we could barely move!

Ethan, on the other hand, was very excited about the entire experience.  No sooner had he finished his meal, he began walking around and gestured for us to bring him to the washroom to wash his hands.  Over and over again.  Then he would giggle loudly when one of the servers in Friday’s played with him.  When a birthday song was sung in Friday’s, Ethan enthusiastically clapped his hands and smiled widely.  Sometimes he would shout “Aaaahhhhh….” as if he was singing too!  Sporting his new “2nd in Command After Dad” t-shirt, you could tell Ethan was very much at home there.  And when we were about to leave, he cheerfully waved buh-bye to all and sundry.  Oh, and of course we took home another balloon

So, you tell me, did Ethan enjoy himself?

Remember the studio photos Ethan took some time back? Yeah, the one that came with the beautifully framed photo…. Well, Mommy the procrastinator has been dilly dallying about making a short movie/presentation using all those adorable photos. Unfortunately nothing materialized thus far… up until last week! I requested Ethan’s Ah Koo (my brother Allan) to make a short movie from those photos in his spare time, because I had seen some of his work and I was impressed with them.

And would you know it, a few days later, he produced the following masterpiece. Awesome or not?

Just about a month ago, I reintroduced Baby Einstein to Ethan. I had played the DVDs for him before when he was a few months old, but all he was interested in then was the caterpillar that appeared on the screen before the show began. So last month when Charlotte‘s mummy came back from the States, I saw the opportunity it presented and asked her to get me one of the Baby Einstein DVDs. I got Baby Van Gogh, which was all about colors.

When I put the DVD on for Ethan, once again he was attracted to the caterpillar, and giggled as if in recognition. And when the show began, I could tell he was completely mesmerized by the vivid colors and beautiful music. He would sit down (or sometimes stand) transfixed, watching the program. The show lasted a good 30 minutes and I was amazed that he managed to sit through most of it.

Last Friday, I brought the Baby Van Gogh DVD to share with the rest of my Mommy friends in exchange for another one, and ended up with Baby Einstein Numbers Nursery and a Baby Neptune VCD. It turns out Ethan simply LURVES both of these! He especially likes the part where there are kids being shown, and even laughs out loud when the kids are pictured in close-up! Nowadays, in the mornings before we leave for work and when we get home after work, Ethan would point and gesture to the Baby Einstein DVDs and ask us to play it for him. We used to put the DVDs on the TV cabinet, within his reach, but since he began *helping* himself to it, we moved the DVDs up to our wall shelf. Still, amazingly, he knows where it is, and motions for us to get it for him.

Yesterday, even though he was feeling slightly under the weather, even though he was coughing and had a slight fever, he still requested to watch Baby Einstein. Over and over and over again. And you know what? I think the music in that DVD will play in my head for a long, long time.

I’m getting more Baby Einstein DVDs soon

When Ethan was hardly 2 months old, Pete went to the States for a short business trip and brought back, among others, a Fisher Price infant-to-toddler-rocker.  This little chair had a toy bar attached to it with 3 toys dangling from it: a pig, a lamb and a cow, which played Old McDonald’s when its tail was pulled.  That’s not all, it also came with a vibration mode which supposedly helps baby relax.  We loved the chair and so did Ethan… it helped him practise his batting and hitting skills (he would punch at the toys when he was lying down on the chair and excitedly play with the rattles) and I remember we were absolutely thrilled the very first time he pulled that cow’s tail and made music!  Well, this toy has certainly transcended time, and it is a really useful toy, because we still use it.  Yup….up till today….

At a few months’ old, Ethan used this chair just to relax and pass time looking and playing with the toys (this was before he learnt how to roll over):

Then when he could cruise, this was one of his favorite items to cruise around:

Sometimes (actually we still do) we put him in the chair to have a short nap:

Now, he has mastered the art of climbing on top of the chair all on his own and down again.  And finally he has also learnt how to enjoy the rocker function too!

Here’s to a toy that absolutely RAWKS!