While checking through Ethan’s homework one evening, I came across this “solution” my boy wrote for one of his Math questions:
Now, don’t you wish you had written that when you were in school? 🙂
All about Ethan
Ever since Emma came into our lives, I can tell that in a way, it has brought Ethan and Hannah closer together. It’s not like they weren’t playing together before, but I kind of feel like they look happier together now. It’s as if they now have something special in common, i.e. a little sister they can call their own.
It’s truly a blessing Ethan and Hannah have each other because it sort of distracts Hannah (especially) from jealousy and inevitable sibling rivalry. On the contrary, both Ethan and Hannah adore their little sister Emma. They witnessed her being born and that in itself is the most precious thing in the world.
Hannah, especially is very fond of stroking Emma’s hair and head and has, on many occasions, asked to hold and carry Emma (under adult supervision, of course).
When Emma cries, Ethan and Hannah will ask that I check on the baby immediately to see if she’s all right. Hannah will sometimes say, “Mommy, I think Emma wants breast milk!”
So I think this sibling relationship between the three have gotten off to a good start. 🙂
Of course, we did give it a push in the right direction by doing a couple of things on our part too. When I had Hannah, I brought along a photo of Ethan with me to the hospital, and similarly, this time, I had with me photos of Ethan and Hannah.
They were certainly happy to see it when they visited me. 🙂
(The purple bag beside the picture frame is a gift bag from the hospital. It contains a lavender spray, a few bars of lavender oatmeal soap and some lavender cream. Heavenly!!)
We also did the gift gesture from Emma to Ethan and Hannah when we got home.
Hannah asked, “But Mommy, how did Emma buy the presents for us?”
And Ethan answered, “Of COURSE she didn’t! Mommy and Daddy bought them!”
They were happy with the gifts all the same though. 🙂
When I had to stay in hospital for 2 nights, Pete had to single-handedly manage both kids, and I was primarily concerned about Hannah. Ethan is quite independent and matured enough to understand most things, but Hannah would be away from me for the first time ever, so I expected a certain amount of insecurity. Pete said it was harder dropping her off at school (and still is, sometimes), so I really hope Hannah will overcome her insecurity soon. That being said, Pete did an excellent job in caring for them both in my absence, and for that I am truly thankful. 🙂
So yeah, both Ethan and Hannah adore little Emma and they can’t wait for her to grow up so they can play with her, especially Hannah, I think. Ethan’s gonna be a terrific big brother and Hannah’s gonna be an awesome big sister. 🙂
Hannah says, “Mommy, now there are THREE girls in our family!”
And Ethan continued, “Yes, and now there are also THREE kids!”
The girls outnumber the boys BUT now the KIDS outnumber the grown-ups. This is gonna be interesting. 😛
It has been a little more than a week now that we have been blessed with Little Baby Emma in our lives, and sometimes I still can’t believe that she’s here! 🙂
We had been waiting for her arrival since I hit the 38th week, and every day since then had been anxiety-filled and putting what-ifs into question. I had also gone for several rounds of prenatal fetal non-stress tests before Emma’s arrival, and every time I had been told, “Your baby looks perfect! This baby’s beautiful!”
Apart from the regular Braxton-Hicks contractions I had been feeling, there was no other indication that Emma was gonna come soon. Week 39 came and there was obvious stress on my bladder and pubic bone. I was finding it increasingly hard to move around, but I still did my regular stuff: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and even some yoga and light cardio on the elliptical. Her movements in my belly were more prominent at night. I tried to keep my mind off the waiting by doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, rewashing Emma’s crib linens, whatever I could think of, but nothing happened.
I drank a lot of labor prep tea (containing red raspberry leaf) and also had yogurt with pineapple in it, in the hope of starting off labor, but guess what, nothing happened.
Initially I had predicted Emma would be born on February 28th, but that day came and went without incident. Then Pete predicted she would be born on the same date as her sister Hannah’s birthday, but March 2nd came to pass too. Then we thought it would be March 5th, and I thought for sure it would be March 8th. But nothing happened.
Incidentally, we had a blizzard on March 8th, which lasted till March 9th, so had she decided to make her entrance that day, it would be hard for us to make our way to the hospital too. Clever girl. 🙂
On Saturday, March 9th, I felt stronger contractions, or rather they felt like the urge for a bowel movement. Nothing happened then though, except that I *thought* my mucus plug was dislodged that day. On Sunday March 10th, at about 11:00a.m. I definitely had “the show”, and I excitedly told Pete about it.
“This is it,” I said. “Emma will be here in a day or so.”
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
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!
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.
Last Friday evening, we attended the Winter Festival organized by Ethan’s school’s PTO. It was like a mini carnival, with games, food and activities for the kids. We were surprised by the turnout despite the freezing cold weather!
The festival was held in the school gym and the school cafeteria, and only Ethan needed a ticket (@$2). Adults and kids 3 and under enjoyed free admission.
Ethan started by playing some basketball in the gym.
Unfortunately, he met with a mishap when he scored a basket in one of his games. He’d jumped up and down in celebration and accidentally bumped his top incisors on a metal horizontal bar. 🙁
He was bleeding a little, but thankfully the bleeding stopped after a while. However, he just wasn’t himself the rest of the evening, and it took him some time before he was back to his cheerful self. Poor boy. 🙁
(At the time of writing, his teeth are okay. He was feeling a little bit of sensitivity for a couple of days after the incident, but he’s okay now.)
I had also volunteered to bring in a cake for the Cake Walk. Here’s a glimpse of some of the other cakes brought in by other volunteers.
The Cake Walk is a fun game open to all kids at $1 per dance. All the participants will start dancing when the music is played and when the music stops, every one chooses a number to stand on. A number will then be drawn from a can and the kid whose number is called will get to choose a cake of his/her choice! The rest of the kids will win a consolation prize of a lollipop each.
Hannah wanted a go at the Cake Walk:
…but then she got upset when someone stood on the number she wanted to choose…in the end, she won a lollipop anyway.
And then, just before we left for home, the kids wanted to get their faces painted.
Meet Batman…or Batboy… 🙂
…and say hello to Little Miss Cheetah!
By the way, if you’re wondering what I used to wash the face paint off, I started with damp hands and then lathering up some shower gel and then applying it all over the face, gently massaging the face as I went along. I rinsed off with some warm water, but only about 75% was rinsed off. After drying the face, I used regular baby lotion with cotton pads and gently wiped off the remaining stains. About 5% still remained after the first night, so I did the moisturizer thingy again the following day and managed to remove everything.
Yesterday morning, while I was in the midst of waking Hannah up, Ethan happily rushed into the room after brushing his teeth and washing up, and excitedly announced, “Mommy, Mommy!! One of my teeth is wobbling!!”
Yes, he had been anxiously awaiting the day when his first milk (baby) tooth would fall out, and he knew, as well as I did, that that day would be soon. Most of his friends already had a few teeth out, but so far, Ethan has managed to keep all his milk teeth.
He opened his mouth wide and I checked his teeth, and true enough, one of his bottom right incisors was wiggling. In the evening, I used a flashlight and saw the permanent incisor already sprouting, right behind the milk incisor!
It’s won’t be long now for the tooth fairy to visit us! 🙂
The elementary school that Ethan goes to assigns a special day each month called Spirit Day. The aim is to have the teachers and students come together as one to promote the school spirit and also usually they would have a community or charity drive too. The school Spirit Day for the month of January was held last Friday, and it was themed “Crazy Hat Day”. Everyone was to wear a crazy hat to school and also if possible, bring something (like canned food items or toiletries) to be donated to the community cupboard.
So I made this simple crazy hat for Ethan, by sewing on several playdough cutters around the rim of his cap. 🙂
…and he had a great time in school!
In fact, I can tell that Ethan is really enjoying his school life here. He brings back homework every Monday in a folder, and the homework is assigned for the whole week through Thursday. Friday is when the homework is due, and of course, weekends are rest days for the kids, which is how it is supposed to be. 🙂
School hours are from 9:05a.m. to 3:05p.m., which means Ethan has lunch in school. He makes his choice from a selection of 4 or 5 menu items each day, and I pack his lunch money is small ziploc bags for easy handling. Initially, I had wanted to write a check in advance to pass to the cafeteria, but Ethan says he prefers it this way. He feels more grown-up! 😀
It wasn’t easy finding a hair salon suitable for the kids over here. Personally we feel haircuts are overpriced, but in any case, the kids were long overdue for a haircut and we decided to just walk in to a nearby salon after lunch last weekend.
This salon charges $12 for a kid’s haircut, not including tips. And it was one of the cheapest we found too…
Anyway, the kids got their haircuts done at the same time, and they got to sit on these high cushions propped up on the regular salon chairs.
Ethan’s haircut took a little longer than Hannah’s because the hair stylist was not too adept at trimming his hair in the “slope-like” manner he was used to.
I forgot to mention that the $12 haircut also includes a hairwash, if you so desire. I asked Hannah, and she was game for the hairwash, so this is the one and only picture I took of her having her first salon hairwash.
She seemed to enjoy it though, and didn’t mind the experience. And now they both have brand new haircuts!! 😀