Bible Verse of the Day

Ethan

All about Ethan

At the car wash, baby!

October 30, 2009 in Ethan, Funny Moments | No comments

When Ethan was much, much younger, we took him once through the automated car wash, and he cried his lungs out.  After that, we only ever washed the car the manual way.

But I recently discovered a couple of automated car wash coupons stashed away, and decided to use them.

So one fine day, I asked Ethan if he would like to accompany me to the car wash.  I explained the whole procedure to him and he was VERY excited about it.

And when we actually drove through it, I guess it did not disappoint him.

 

He was giggling away when the *uncles* sprayed water and soap on the car.

And he laughed when the bristles of the gigantic brush cleaned our car from top to bottom.

And after the entire process, he exclaimed, “That was so FUN, Mommy!  Our car is SO clean and shiny now!”

I bet he would LOVE washing the car next time! 🙂

It was Mommy’s birthday!

October 27, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 6 comments

…and no prizes for guessing who had the most fun! 🙂

I had an enjoyable little birthday lunch treat at McDonald’s with Ethan:

 

Then in the afternoon, I took Ethan to the playground for a few minutes:

 

 

We had dinner at home.  I cooked a simple dinner of conchiglie (Ethan calls it “shell pasta”) with pasta sauce and steamed sausages:

 

And Pete surprised me with a birthday cake, much to Ethan’s joy, of course!

It was a carrot, walnut and raisin brownie-like cake topped with cream cheese frosting.  A healthier option to the regular birthday cake, and it was also an ingenious idea to get some carrot into Ethan 🙂

Ethan told me specifically “I don’t want the raisins Mommy.  YOU eat the raisins!” (but he ate the walnut and carrot willingly!)

Hannah’s Baptism

October 23, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Milestones | 3 comments

Last Saturday, October 17 2009, little Hannah was baptized in church, in a simple meaningful ceremony.  She didn’t really put up a fuss at all, although at times it was hard to keep her hands away from everything; from grabbing the book, from grabbing my hair, my pendant, and from being ever-so-wriggly!

In fact, she was so active that I could not position her properly for the holy water to be poured over her head.  This here is my attempt…

 

Hannah was curious to see what was going on…

I had to pass her to Daddy, the expert…and that also, some of the water entered her eyes! 

Of course, there was the compulsory family photo after the end of the ceremony,…errr… positions all a bit out, but everyone was there nevertheless. (baby in front is NOT Hannah…that’s Phoebe, her cousin. LOL… Hannah too busy with *other* things at the back)

I also wanted a family photo of just the 4 of us.  We didn’t have many of those, but I discovered that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a proper shot.

Hannah’s baptism of course calls for a reason to fill our tummies…and fill them we did, at Mama’s… No photos of the food, sorry! 😛

With 2 kids to attend to, it’s rather impossible to whip out the camera, set the macro and focus…but trust me when I say the food was definitely scrumptious!  To quote Ethan, “Smells…..LEEECious!!!!” 🙂

Green fingers

October 21, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up | No comments

 

Last Friday, when I picked Ethan up from school, he greeted me with a big smile, holding a plastic vase filled with a piece of sponge with some stalks of flowers in it.  On the plastic vase was his very own name, and he was VERY proud of it, I could tell.

He told me he made it in school. (I just LOVE all these stuff he brings back from school!)

And when we reached home, he wanted to water it, so I assisted him in sprinkling some water on the flowers.

And then he wanted to give his plant some sunlight.  I asked him to put it near the sliding door.  He put it there for 1 second and said, “That’s too much sunlight…”

So we put it on our shelf instead.

Last weekend when all our relatives came over for a visit, Ethan was proudly showing off his plant to everyone.

I’m wondering if I should get him new flowers when these wilt away in a few days’ time….

This is the way he writes!

October 20, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 1 comment

We do not believe in forcing our child to write or forcing him to hold a pencil or pen, when he is not ready.  We would rather he take his time to play and learn and discover it on his own.  That being said, Ethan has always loved numbers and alphabets.  And he LOVES experimenting, especially on his doodle pad.

One fine evening, he surprised us by using the square-shaped mold from the doodle pad to *write*.  He calls it “draw numbers”.  At first he wrote 1 and 2, and he was mighty pleased when we applauded.  He then proceeded with other numbers.

And writing this was his own idea…watch… 

 

Ironically, that is also how Pete and I write the number 9.

But when I ask Ethan to write 6 after that, he looked at me with those sweet adorable eyes and shakes his head, “I don’t know how to write 6, Mommy!” LOL

Oh, how I love my little boy!

Of Monster Butts and Broken Heads

October 20, 2009 in Ethan, Funny Moments | No comments

 

Yesterday morning, Ethan ran up to me and told me he was scared of the *monster*. 

I asked him, “Where’s the monster, Ethan?”

He then pointed at my derriere and went, “There!  There’s the MONSTER BUTT!”

What??  Now he is calling my butt a monster butt…and he kept repeating it over and over again, until he was so tickled by my reaction.  (It didn’t help that Daddy thought it was funny too).

SIGH…maybe it’s time I really started on my exercise regime…

Anyway, later that day, Ethan was fiddling and messing with my hair during dinner (somehow he likes to do this), and suddenly he said, “Uh-oh, Mommy…your head’s breaking…look!”

SIGH…must be because of the very fine and thinning hair…

And even later that night, I asked him again, “Ethan, do you still see the monster butt?”

He took one look at my behind, and said, “No Mommy, it’s not there anymore.  Now you have shorts on!”

Maybe it’s time I put away that “monster butt” pair of pants forever, eh? LOL

A Handy Happy Birthday to Daddy!

October 13, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 2 comments

We had a very simple at-home celebration for Daddy’s birthday recently.  I had asked Ethan what cake he wanted to get Daddy, and he had consistently replied, “Handy Manny cake!”  Maybe he sees Daddy as being very handy in the house 😛

Anyway, much as I wanted to bake the cake myself, there was no way I could have done it as nicely as this ordered one:

 

Maybe someday when my kids are able to help me in the kitchen, I’ll be able to bake something nice like that… hehehe…

Anyway, Ethan surprised Daddy with a “Tadaaaaaa!!!!”  We sang the birthday song, blew out the candles and cut the cake.

And the person who enjoyed eating the cake the most?  The little boy in green in the photos above!  He donned a green shirt, just like Handy Manny did on the cake 🙂

The Power of Sibling Influence

October 7, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 2 comments

 

…or is it a form of (healthy) competition?

When Hannah was on medication a couple of weeks back, we asked Ethan to *witness* her taking the medicine using the syringe.  By the way, if you are not already aware, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to feed Ethan medicine.  He would kick and scream till the cows come home.

Anyway, Ethan was very intrigued watching us feed Hannah.  Hannah, on the other hand, was initially receptive of the medicine, but after a few rounds, she knew how to turn her head away when she saw the syringe.  Only Daddy knew how to administer the medicine in one swift motion 🙂

A few days later, Ethan started sneezing.  So I asked him, “Ethan, are you sneezing?”  He said, “Yes”.  I said, “Do you want to take some medicine?  You’ll feel better after taking it, and then when you are all better, Mommy will take you swimming.”  He paused and kept quiet.  I continued, “I’ll ask Daddy to shoot the medicine into your mouth like Hannah, okay?”  He said, “Okay.”

And I almost fainted.

I asked Daddy to get the medicine ready, and MIRACULOUSLY Ethan allowed his Daddy to give him the medicine without any fuss. After that he downed it all with some Milo.

Therefore, do not underestimate what Hannah can do or influence at her young and tender age. 🙂

Ethan made cookies!

October 4, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 2 comments

As a SAHM, I try very hard to think of activities that would be interesting and stimulating enough for both Ethan and me to enjoy together.  After all, he is in school for half a day, and the rest of the time, he needs something to while away his time (other than watching TV 😛 ).

So last week, I asked Ethan if he would like to help me make some cookies.  He was excited and said YES.  Ethan’s favorite cookies are chocolate chip cookies, and I figured it would definitely be a healthier option to eat homemade ones rather than commercially purchased ones. 

For the recipe, I again turned to Happy Home Baking for her Chocolate Chip Cookies (Drop Cookies, as she calls it), and made sure I had all the ingredients.   After all, I had achieved good results with the Horlicks Doggie Cookies recipe before, so I trusted the track record there 🙂

 

I taught Ethan how to stir the egg and vanila into the mixture, and then I showed him how to fold the flour into the cookie dough.  And fold he did…never mind that some of the flour fell on the table, chair and floor… hehe.  Then Ethan helped to bring me the chocolate chips and poured them into the mixture (I think that was his favorite part).  And he watched as I scooped tablespoon after tablespoon of cookie mixture on the cookie sheet to bake in the oven.  Okay, he couldn’t resist *testing* a bit of the mixture though…

He then excitedly watched the cookie bake in the oven and exclaimed “WOW” when I took them out to cool on the rack.

I told him we had to wait for a while for it to cool first, because he was impatient to eat them.  He counted the cookies on the rack while waiting.

The verdict?  The cookies tasted not-too-sweet and had a crumbly texture.  Ethan LOVED it!  And when Daddy came home, he told Daddy, “I made cookies!” 🙂

There are no more cookies now.  Should we bake some more next week, or should I devise a new project instead?

How to get orange juice into a picky eater

October 1, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding | 3 comments

Easy!  Get his help making Orange Juice popsicles! 

Even better…Ethan had his popsicle served in a YELLOW popsicle holder, his all-time favorite color!

 

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