Bible Verse of the Day

Ethan

All about Ethan

A splashin’ bubblin’ good time!

April 14, 2009 in Ethan, Exercise | 4 comments

After promising Ethan for such a long time that I would take him swimming “when it gets warmer”, I decided to *take the plunge* last Sunday afternoon, when I saw that the sun was shining and the weather was warm.  I could see a few people sunbathing too, and the pool looked absolutely inviting.  The day before we managed to get Ethan a new swimsuit (shorts and shirt), so I was quite eager to see him in it too.

However, when we reached the pool, I put my finger in it to test the temperature and retracted it immediately!  It was freezing COLD!!  I asked Ethan to feel the water too, and he said, “It’s cold!”

So what to do?  We decided to try the heated jacuzzi nearby instead.  For months, we had seen people enjoying the bubbly jacuzzi, but we had not tried it ourselves yet.  Pete switched on the timer on the jacuzzi and Ethan and I stepped in.

 

He said excitedly, “Look at the bubbles!”, and man, was the jacuzzi relaxing!

 

It was a win:win situation for all: Ethan had fun splashing around, and Daddy and Mommy experienced some therapeutic water massage!

 

Irish tapdancing, anyone?

April 13, 2009 in Entertainment, Ethan | 1 comment

When most toddlers would request to watch Barney and other cartoon DVDs, Ethan is currently displaying a rather *mature* and musical taste in DVD selection.  What does he asks to watch almost every day?

The Riverdance DVD!

Riverdance is a concert performance comprising mostly of Irish tapdancing, with some great song performances as well as musical instruments.  Ethan would ask to watch Riverdance and even better, he would imitate the dancers in the show.  His favorite is Thunderstorm, a flawless tapdance performance that is performed without music.  This is Ethan’s version:

 

Sometimes Ethan would invite us to dance along with him and at other times, he would also *sing* along to the songs in Riverdance.  He also loves to dance to the music in the performance he refers to as the “instruments” track, a musical repertoire by all the musicians.  Ethan would identify all the instruments, such as the flute, accordion, violin, drums, bagpipe and so on.

Ethan has definitely improved on his dancing skills to date, and he has learned to move his arms to the rhythm too.  But the other day, when I was showing him his old videos, he still manages to dance in his back and forth manner!

The reader in him

April 9, 2009 in Ethan, Milestones | 2 comments


Scrap Credits
Poppy paper from Happy Go Lucky kit from Shabby Princess Designs
Photomask #10 from Kylie M Designs
Photo Mask Sampler from DigiLover’s Addiction
Elegant word art (unbelievable) & Worn Alpha from Bethany

Ethan has shown a remarkable improvement in his language skills since we relocated to the States.  His prowess in phonics has been especially exceptional, and even Aunty Van, his daycare provider, has reported that Ethan is getting very good at phonics.

In fact, I have no doubt in my mind that he can already read.  And here are some scenarios to prove my point:

  • As Ethan was playing with his Leapfrog Word Whammer on the fridge one day, Pete guided him to spell the word “bus”, by asking him to put in the letters “b”, “u” and “s”.  Ethan immediately said “bus!” when he was done.  And that’s not all.  One day as I was cleaning up in the kitchen, he pointed out a word to me by saying, “Mommy, cold!”  I turned around and looked.  He had spelt “koh” and he proudly announced that it was “koh!”
  • His Aunty Van told me that Ethan read off the word “pink” on her sweater, even though there wasn’t a hint of the color pink on her.
  • Ethan was *accompanying* me in the kitchen and he wanted to spell the words on the dishwasher.  He went, “O-F-F”, and I would ask him, “What does that spell?”, and Ethan would say, “Off!”
    Then he went, “O-P-T-I-O-N-S”, and when I asked, “What does that spell?”, he happily exclaimed, “Octopus!”
    Why, of course!  He recognized that the word OCTOPUS has similar letters to the word OPTIONS!
  • Lastly, he surprised us one day when he was about to play on his computer.  We’d created user profiles on our PC, and we had to click on the profile to enter.  Ethan knows he has to click on the “Ethan” profile, but that day, he suddenly said, “Jors!” and pointed to my name!  Nobody taught him to say that but for some reason he knew that was how it was pronounced!
    Now, he would say “I wanna click on ‘JOYCE”!”  🙂
    Yep, he has already got the pronunciation down pat!

The Full Moon Celebration

April 7, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | 7 comments

 

We celebrated Hannah’s full moon sans the traditional full moon set of the red chicken eggs, angkoo and turmeric rice.  We figured we would have those done during her first birthday instead, since we would be back in Penang then and we would also be able to distribute the full moon sets to relatives and friends.  So for her full moon celebration, we just had a simple lunch in our favorite Layang Layang restaurant.

 

The adults all enjoyed the food while little Hannah also enjoyed her meal when she decided it was feeding time during our lunch!

 

After lunch, we drove up to Pier 39 in San Francisco, where it was really springtime in full bloom!

 

Everyone was eager to take pictures with the pretty flowers and hoarding almost all the photo spots, it was almost impossible to find a good spot.

 

The weather was sunny but chilly and windy, and at times I had to just hold Hannah close to keep her warm and comfy.

Ethan had fun looking at the sealions and after that, he asked to go to the merry-go-round!  Wow…he remembered!

This time though, he could ride on his own…and daddy, who was accompanying him, even got to ride on a horse by himself! LOL

 

Ethan rode on the merry-go-round twice, and if we hadn’t stopped him, I bet he could be riding the whole day long too!

And while all this excitement was happening, Hannah was oblivious to her surroundings, being kept cozy in a snuggly warm baby sling.  I’m still quite the novice at baby-wearing though, having only worn the sling with Ethan when he was a wee babe, but Hannah seems to be enjoying it, no?  Look at how peacefully she’s sleeping! 🙂

 

Oh, and of course we didn’t forget to do our usual routine of Boudin clam chowder before we bade farewell to Pier 39 that day. 🙂

Now he really knows his ABCs

April 6, 2009 in Entertainment, Ethan, Milestones | 2 comments

Ethan’s favorite song right now has got to be the ABC song.  When he first started daycare, he would sit quietly and listen.  Then by and by, he picked up the song himself, and would be very happy when we sang it to him at home.  He would smile happily and clap when we were done.

And then one day, when they had the singing session at daycare, he suddenly stood up and sang the song all by himself.  His Aunty Van was the one who told me this, and I was so proud of him then 🙂

Sometimes when we start to sing the ABC song at home, Ethan would say, “No!  I’ll do it!” and he would start singing it on his own.  It started with a slightly off-key version, but now the song is beginning to take shape…well, he does it in a most adorable manner now.

Here’s his slow version, video taken right before bedtime:

… and a faster version of the song, sung after dinner:

Ain’t he a darling?

Last week he surprised me with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, full version.  I need to get a video of him singing that soon 🙂

Four Little Words

March 27, 2009 in Ethan, Parenting | 5 comments

 
Scrap Credits
Template XVI from In The Making Design
“don’t be blue” kit from Simply Sweet Designs
Newsprint Epoxy Alphas collaboration from Bon Scrapatit Designs & Snowsmoon’s Design
Word Art from Le digiscrap de Choukette

Yesterday evening, Ethan came home from daycare and greeted me at the door with these four precious little words:

“I missed you Mommy!”

… and he repeated himself many many times after that! 🙂

He then gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek!  How sweet is that? 🙂

Awww…. I missed you too, Ethan! 🙂

Doing the Math

March 26, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah | 6 comments

 

Just the other evening, while we were relaxing in front of the TV, Ethan suddenly brought his yellow Numbers book and said it was for Hannah.  You see, Ethan has four favorite board books: the red Animals book, the blue ABC book, the green Words book and the yellow Numbers book.  All this time, he has self-assigned the red book for himself, the blue book for Mommy and the green book for Daddy.  The yellow book was unassigned till that day.

Anyway, I then asked Ethan to read to Hannah.  And so he did.

 

He flipped to the addition and subtraction page in the board book, and started pointing and read aloud to his sister. 

He goes, “Five plus Five equals TEN!” and “Four plus Six equals TEN!”

He doesn’t say the word “minus” though, so he goes, “Three Two equals ONE!”  🙂

I’m gonna be a GREAT big brother!

March 24, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah | 5 comments

Credits
Word Art  from DigiDesigns by Denise

Ethan has been lovingly executing his brotherly duties, thus far, and these include:

  • Stroking Hannah’s head and hair in a loving manner…well, sometimes I need to remind him to be gentle, because he could get carried away and be a little rough.
  • Pulling the musical toy in the infant-to-toddler rocker that he once used and is now being used by Hannah.
  • Helping me change Hannah by passing me her diaper and clothes when I ask for them.
  • Imitating Hannah’s cries to the tee.  This started the first day Hannah and I came home.

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  • Climbing up on the side of Hannah’s cot and saying “Hi Hannah!” or “Hannah, good night!”, and sometimes when Hannah is crying, he would go over to her cot and say, “Hannah, it’s okay…”
  • Asking Daddy to carry Hannah whenever he wants Mommy to carry him…well okay, not very brotherly, but still at least he wants to make sure Hannah is carried.  Sometimes though, he just asks me to put Hannah in the cot when he wants me to carry him.
  • When Ethan sees someone else cuddling Hannah, he will come over to me and say, “Mommy carry”, asking me to carry him.
  • …and of course, not forgetting…”serenading” Hannah to sleep with his mega-decibel rendition of “ABC” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or some other new song he just learnt.

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    We went to the doctor’s

    March 23, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones, Parenting | 4 comments

    Last week, we brought Ethan and Hannah for a routine pediatrician checkup; Ethan had his 3-year-old checkup, while Hannah had her 2-week checkup done.

     

    Ethan was very cooperative.  He happily undressed and put on a very cute hospital gown, and stayed very still while his blood pressure was taken, his eyes, ears and throat was checked, and he was very well-behaved too as Hannah was being checked. 

    Ethan’s height: 3′ (0.914m)

    Ethan’s weight: 28lb (12.701kilos)

    The doctor assessed Ethan and we were VERY amazed that Ethan could draw a CIRCLE when the doctor asked him to!  Isn’t that spectacular? 🙂

    Anyway, the doctor required that Ethan take a Tuberculin skin test and an anemia test.  The anemia test is a simple finger prick test, and we were given the results immediately: Ethan is not anemic.  As for the Tuberculin skin test, we had to return 48-72 hours later to obtain the results.  The Tuberculin skin test (also known as the Mantoux test) involved injecting a little bit of Tuberculin into the skin layer of Ethan’s forearm and observing the reaction. 

    Our poor boy of course wailed and cried when both the Tuberculin test and anemia test was done.  Not even stickers would pacify him. 

    The doctor also prescribed fluoride tablets for Ethan, given that the tap water in the area we live in does not contain fluoride.  Ethan calls it his “circle” vitamins now, and thankfully, he happily takes one a day (they are grape flavored!)

    Anyway, back to the Tuberculin test…we returned to the hospital 2 days later for the reading, and it was positive.  Of course, Pete and I think it is possibly due to the fact that Ethan had his BCG vaccination at birth.  Kids born in the US do NOT have the BCG vaccination and they take the Tuberculin skin test to test if they had been exposed to the TB bacteria.  Now because Ethan tested positive for the skin test, as a routine protocol, we had to get a chest x-ray done on him to ensure he did not have the active TB bacteria in him.

    Two days after the chest x-ray, the doctor called to let me know that the x-ray was fine and Ethan did not have an active TB disease in him.  However, the doctors here are worried that the TB bacteria could lie dormant in the child’s body, as in latent tuberculosis,  and recommended Ethan go on a 9-month medication. 

    Pete and I are declining this because it is very certain that Ethan’s initial positive skin test result is due to his BCG vaccination.  Furthermore, Ethan will definitely NOT like to be on medication for such a long duration and also we would be headed for home in about 4 months’ time.

    In any case, we learnt a few new things from this experience, but what is confusing is…the BCG vaccine is not a 100% fullproof prevention of the TB disease.  If this is so, why are babies in Malaysia being vaccinated at birth?  Why can’t they do away with the vaccine and perform the skin test instead?

    Still very much Mommy’s Little Boy

    March 17, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 6 comments

    Credits
    Favorite Place wordart  from Kathy Winters Designs

    Ever since Ethan had been elevated to big brother status, he has wowed me with his maturity and sensitivity when it comes to caring for Hannah.  He would willingly help me bring stuff I need when Hannah needs a change or he would ask in his sweet little way, “Where did Hannah go?”, when he didn’t see Hannah anywhere around.

    But sometimes a little bit of jealousy does surface and lately we noticed Ethan will get a little bit possessive of me when he sees me nursing Hannah.

    He would request, “Mommy carry!” when he sees me feeding Hannah, and sometimes when I explain to him that I need to feed Hannah, he would say, “No!  Hannah – Daddy carry!”, indicating that he wants Daddy to carry Hannah instead.  It breaks my heart to say no to Ethan 🙁

    So sometimes, in fact most of the time…you will see me nursing Hannah on one side, and then hugging Ethan on the other!  His behaviour is understandable, of course, and I don’t blame him at all.  In fact, he is showing signs of being a terrific big brother!

    I do try to spend as much time with Ethan as I can, modifying my schedule to make it happen.  During the weekdays, I will take my shower earlier in the evening and if time and opportunity permits, give Hannah her bath before Pete brings Ethan back from daycare.  This is so that I can spend more time with Ethan after his dinner and bath.  I try to be there to tuck him into bed with his favorite book, but sometimes it gets a little bit tricky if Hannah needs me at the same time too.

    Nevertheless, we are trying our very best and hanging in there 🙂

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