Bible Verse of the Day

Ethan

All about Ethan

Share-A-Gift of Love

December 17, 2011 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 1 comment

About a month ago, while we were at MPH bookstore, Ethan noticed the Christmas tree at the bookstore had many many paper hearts hanging on its branches.  And he was curious as to what they were.

So I explained to him that it was a charity drive MPH bookstore did every year during Christmas where they would put up names of kids who were in orphanages or who were physically- or mentally-challenged, and the customers in MPH are invited to participate in this charity drive by choosing a child’s card from the Christmas tree and then purchasing a gift from MPH to present to the child.  MPH would then wrap the gift up and place it under the tree and present it to the child for Christmas.  I told him that it would make the kid(s) very happy indeed to get presents.

Ethan was very intrigued and decided immediately that he wanted to do it.  Pete and I choose a present each year for a child, but this year, we decided to give the honor to Ethan.

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So he chose a card from the tree, and we helped him decide on an appropriate gift for the child he chose.  Then he wrote a message to the child and signed off, “Love, Ethan”.

I thought that was very sweet of him and I am so proud of my big boy with an EXTRA BIG heart.

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Water Play and a Surprise in December

December 15, 2011 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Exercise, Hannah | 3 comments

We just got back from our family vacation in Singapore last week, and I am far far behind in my blog postings.  I’ve got so many drafts sitting and collecting digital dust, and other non-blogging things to do too, so while I gather my thoughts and (hopefully) publish alternate posts about our Singapore getaway really soon, here are some pictures taken at Pauline Kor Kor’s condo’s swimming pool, during our recent trip to KL for the Barney show…we had the whole pool to ourselves that day!!! 🙂

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Oh and by the way, check out this month’s issue of BabyTalk, where Hannah picture is featured in the Star Toddlers section. 🙂

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And if you like reading, you could also read one of my personal Christmas stories here, featured in that same magazine 🙂  Just click on the image to enlarge it.

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With a Great Big Hug and A Kiss From Me to You

December 1, 2011 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 3 comments

Mommy: Hannah, we’re going to KL this weekend.  Do you know who we’re going to see?
Hannah: Barney!!
Mommy: Yes..
Hannah: …and Baby Bop!  And BJ!
Mommy: Oh yeah…and..?
Hannah: And Riff…and Mother Goose…
Mommy: Hehe…oh yes..
Hannah:…Oh…and the kids.. 🙂

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Turns out we did see all of the above at the Barney’s Space Adventures show, held at Plenary Hall, KLCC last weekend…well, save for Mother Goose and the kids though.  Mother Goose did not make an appearance because I suppose she doesn’t take too kindly to anything “outer space”y, and as for the kids, well,…they were replaced by some singers and dancers who looked quite like adults to me.

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Hannah was in total awe when Barney and his friends appeared on stage, so awestruck was she that she could hardly sing and dance, and could only watch in amazement.  During the 20-minute intermission in the middle of the 90-minute performance, she was visibly upset for a while, asking me, “Where’s Barney, Mommy?”

And when I told her Barney and his friends had to make their way to the perfectly purple castle and the journey would take them 20 minutes, she wailed, “Nooo…:(”

Her brother Ethan, on the other hand, was having the time of his life, singing and dancing and clapping to almost every song during the performance.

In fact, Daddy looked more excited to watch Barney than he was when we went to watch Cats some years ago. 😛

It was an enjoyable show, and fun-packed with great songs the kids enjoyed.  I might add that the seats were really comfortable too, and the sound system was superb.  There were some people who showed their true Malaysian kiasu colors by moving from cheaper seats at the back to the front more expensive seats, since the hall wasn’t full…ah, but that’s a story for another day.

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We had a great family time together watching Barney, and if that wasn’t enough, later that night, we celebrated cousin Caitlynn’s birthday at Friday’s at Alamanda too!

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Saturday Evening at Straits Quay

November 19, 2011 in Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

When I heard that the Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival (PINKS) was coming back to Penang for the second time, I was undecided about bringing the kids there.  Last year, they had it at Youth Park and it was scorching hot, even under those tents equipped with strong-blowing fans.  But this year, they changed the venue to Straits Quay, and since my Mom expressed her interest in checking out the festival, we decided to bring the kids there.

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The kids had been looking forward to this event and were very excited when we finally arrived.  Got slightly delayed due to the heavy traffic.

We only managed to arrive in the evening, close to the end of the program, but we were still in time to witness Jeeva Ragunath (from India) entertaining the audience with storytelling, song and dance.

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The Christmas decorations at Straits Quay were already up, and my “models”, as usual, were ever ready to pose. 🙂

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We had a simple dinner at Secret Recipe and were just about to leave Straits Quay for home when we heard a very mesmerizing rhythmic beat coming from the foyer near the sea.  Turned out it was a group of talented performers from The Performing Arts Center of Penang (PenangPAC), making rhythm and sounds using drums, tambourines and other percussion instruments in a Drum Circle.  Ethan and Hannah started dancing to the beat, and some of the musicians started asking some of the kids to join in with the musical instruments.  Ethan and Hannah were not excluded. 🙂

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Ethan got to play with some rhythm sticks, and Hannah played a triangle.  They enjoyed themselves so much and could be seen shaking their booty along to the rhythm.  They even sat in the circle together with the rest of the players.

At the end of it all, it was all in great fun and the kids were tired but definitely happy.

No wonder they’re both knocked out now!

Wake Up Call

November 13, 2011 in Ethan, Funny Moments | No comments

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Ethan and Hannah love it when their “Ipoh Ah Ma” comes to visit.  She’s a fantastic storyteller, a great singer and sometimes even a budding *magician*!

But one of the rare highlights of her visits, at least for Ethan, would have to be Ah Ma’s cellphone.  It’s not a fancy-schmancy cellphone, but what intrigues Ethan about it is the fact that the alarm on Ah Ma’s cellphone TALKS!

Every night, Ethan would request that Ah Ma set the alarm on her cellphone to a certain time, say for example 7:17a.m. And the next morning, Ethan would be awoken by the alarm saying: “It’s time to wake up, it’s 7:17a.m.” repeatedly.  If he wakes up before the alarm goes off, he would stay in bed and eagerly wait for the alarm to *wake* him up.

Ain’t that cool?

Dancing and Exercise Go Hand in Hand

November 4, 2011 in Entertainment, Ethan, Exercise, Hannah | No comments

I’m always amazed at the amount of energy my kids have day in and day out, and even at home where space is kinda limited, they can find some activity to indulge in.  Whether it is building an imaginary house on the bed or running their own little restaurant, I love to watch their antics and know that they are having fun.

Recently Ethan asked me to bring their Veggie Tales audio CD from my car back to our home, because he and Hannah wanted to dance to it…oh, and did I mention that Hannah also tried singing to the songs?

We’ve Reclaimed Our Bedroom, but…

October 24, 2011 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones, Sleep | 3 comments

Ethan and Hannah have been sharing our bedroom space ever since they came into our lives.

Ethan, who started from the crib, and moved to the cot and then to our bed and then to the mattress on the floor, had been indicating that he is all ready to move out to his own room, on the condition that the bedsheet is a Cars bedsheet.  You see, he currently has a Cars bedsheet, but it’s on a single mattress.  We figured it’s time we moved our little big man to his own room with his own bed, and currently our only available option is our 2nd bedroom which has a queen-sized bed.  So we had to get a Cars Queen-sized bedsheet set.

Hannah, on the other hand, has been wanting to sleep on her brother’s single mattress for the longest time, and has requested for a Barney bedsheet.

Coincidentally, we finally found the Cars bedsheet (in Queen size) last weekend, so we got it for Ethan and he was very excited when I washed it clean and laid it out on the bed for him.  He happily said goodbye to our room and moved to his new room with his new bedsheet.

The plan was for Ethan to sleep in the other room and for Hannah to move to the single mattress in our room, as a form of gradual transition.  But what we hadn’t expected was when Hannah requested to sleep on the single mattress in Ethan’s room too.  She wanted to be with her brother, apparently.

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That’s not all.

She asked me to LEAVE the room and said that she could sleep by herself.

On the first night, I sat at the foot of her mattress till she fell asleep.  On the second night, she asked me to leave the room.  On the third night, she wanted to lie down with me.   But now most of the nights, she can fall asleep on her own.

I was still a little apprehensive if she would be able to sleep on her own, so since Ethan and Hannah moved out, we have left both the room doors open, and on almost every night, Hannah has either wandered back into our bed in our room, or she has cried and I’ve carried her into our bed.

I say “almost every night” because last night was the very FIRST night that she slept through in the room with Ethan.  I woke up in the early hours of the morning and discovered that she wasn’t by my side.  When I checked on her, she was fast asleep, albeit she had rotated 180º!! 🙂

That’s a HUGE improvement and we are so proud of both Ethan and Hannah for making this transition.  Shows that they are growing up in leaps and bounds…

…but why does our room feel kinda empty now? 🙁

Happiness Is…Just Having Fun in the School Concert

October 23, 2011 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up | 1 comment

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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.

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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! 🙂

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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.

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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.

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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 🙂

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Faith in God

October 20, 2011 in Christianity, Ethan, Growing Up | No comments

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In his young age, Ethan just *may* have grasp the difficult concept of faith in God.

While he was playing with Daddy a few days ago, I overheard this verbal exchange between them.

Daddy: Haha, I’m gonna tickle you!
Ethan: Noooooooo!!!! (climbs on top of Daddy and tries to wrestle him)
Daddy: Ethan, Daddy’s gonna get you soon!
Ethan: I’m not afraid!  God will help me! 🙂

Spoken confidently with true conviction.  Ain’t he a gem? 😀

Little Meaningful Messages

October 11, 2011 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 2 comments

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I was clearing up some of the kids’ stuff and books last weekend and I found this little notebook that belongs to Ethan.  In it, I found a message that Ethan wrote early this year.

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Just in case the message is hard to decipher, it says, “Dearest Mommy, Sorry Hannah accident(ally) drop(ped) 28 Super Dominoes.  Please do not bring me and Hannah to hospital.”

Actually, all I said was, “Uh-oh…Hannah, did you drop those dominoes?  Please be careful, okay?  If you drop those dominoes, you might slip on them and hurt yourself.  Then I’d have to bring you to the hospital.”

Hannah didn’t know how to apologize then, but Ethan took the initiative as a big brother to apologize on her behalf.  Doesn’t he have a BIG heart? 🙂

Lately, my two kids have sometimes been involved in sibling squabbles.  Most of the time, they will be playing happily together, but sometimes, the inevitable happens.  He would be playing with something and he wouldn’t allow her to *destroy* what he created.  She snatches from him.  Or sometimes Ethan asks Hannah to play with him, but she doesn’t want to.

Little things like that, ya know.  Small to us, but a big deal to kids.

Well, anyway, we try to get Hannah to apologize to Ethan, and she would say, “I’m sorry Ethan” or “I love you Ethan.”  And we’d ask her to add, “Please forgive me, Ethan.”

And then they’d hug.  (awwwwwww)

The other day, Ethan was engrossed in reading something and his sister wanted to show him something she had drawn.  He impulsively crumpled her paper, and she came running to report to me, “Mommy, Ethan crumpled my paper!” , while pouting.

And then later, Ethan asked me for a pencil and said he wanted to write a message to Hannah.  This is what he wrote:

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Makes me feel all emotional inside when I see such caring behavior from someone so young. 🙂

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