Bible Verse of the Day

Ethan

All about Ethan

He speaks Hokkien!

February 9, 2009 in Ethan, Funny Moments | 7 comments

 

Scrap Credits
Sweet Shoppe Cookie Decorating Template from Sweet Shoppe Designs
Courage Kit  from Summertime Designs
Freebie Janvier  – Partie 4 kit from Scrapmalin
Cartoonish Alphas from Faith True
Scribble Alpha from Amy Sumrall

Ethan is constantly amazing us with his neverending ability to pick up new words.  And even more so, his smattering of Hokkien, which he speaks with an accent, …. well, sorta. LOL!

Most of the time, we speak to him in English, but we used to throw in a few Hokkien terms before, and while he did not repeat after us then, he says them now, much to our amusement.

One of his most-used Hokkien terms is, undoubtedly, “kakai”.  Sometimes he would wake up in the mornings, sit up in bed and go, “I want to go kakai”…except it’s funnier if you hear him say it.

And oh, of course he’ll ask to go potty when he is ready, but he will also say “I wanna pangsai” or just “pangsai”, while he is sitting on the throne.

He also recently picked up the term “geelee!” when I started tickling him one day, and he also loves to use the word “BULAT!” Well, okay, not exactly a Hokkien term, but I used to cup his face in my hands, rub our noses together and say, “Who’s Mr Bulat?” and he would giggle.  Now, *he* will be the one cupping my face and going, “Bulat!”  Oh, you’d be surprised at how precise his pronunciation of “BULAT” is!

…and it is just so ENDEARING when he does that! 🙂

Ethan is three years old!

February 6, 2009 in Ethan, Milestones | 6 comments

 
Scrap Credits
Vintage Valentine freebie  from Fanette
Cover Stories #4 Alphas from Kellie Mize
Sweet Love Sampler ring from Kristin Aagard Designs
Love Bug elements from Redju Designs

Ethan turned three on January 31st 2009.  Having survived the “terrible twos”, are we allowed to heave a sigh of relief now?

On the contrary…I think not! 😛

Weight

He was weighed in at about 29.3lbs when he visited the doctor last month, and that converts to about 13.3kilos.

Height

36 inches.

Developmental Milestones

  • He is becoming more assertive in his actions, and knows how to take his stand when he wants something.  Surely a sign of independence, but sometimes can lead to tempers too.  He even says, “NO! Don’t do that!” when it suits the situation.
  • Can count from 1-40 now, but strangely he leaves out number 16.  He is learning really fast, and he knows the concept, i.e. I have heard him attempting, “Forty-ONE, Forty-TWO,…”
  • Calls out endearingly to his Daddy, for example, he would say in a singsong way, “Oh Daddy…!”, and sometimes when I pick Ethan up before fetching Pete after work, upon seeing his Daddy, Ethan would smile and go, “Hallo Daddy!” and “Miss you Daddy!”
  • Does not really like to reply in the affirmative YES, but he uses the term “okay” sparingly.  Lately, he has even started to reply “Okay, Mom!” (yes, that’s right, Mom and not Mommy!).  Oh by the way, his favorite word is “NO” 😛
  • Loves to show us what he has built or done, especially with his Lego set.  He’ll go, “Look! Look!” while proudly displaying his masterpiece.
  • Learning to take turns by saying, “My turn!”
  • Has a great sense of humor, and sometimes does things that makes himself laugh out loud.  He especially finds it funny when we accidentally drop things, and say “Oops!”, and he’ll laugh and say, “Funny!”

Food and Feeding

Depending on his mood, he will eat a lot or very little.  There have been times when he will finish 2 whole bowls of rice, and sometimes he would even take the chicken meat.  But sometimes, he would reject rice completely, choosing only to have bread or cheese or muffins or chocolate milk.

Our boy is a chocolate lover!

February 4, 2009 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Funny Moments, Growing Up | 2 comments

Scrap Credits
Plum Pudding kit from Stacey Towers
Elegant word art (love chocolate) from Bethany

We have never known Ethan to have a sweet tooth.  Yes, he likes to play with candy canes and sweets, but they hardly ever enter his mouth. 

Lately however, our little boy has been showing a keen interest in all things CHOCOLATE.

It all started when Mommy began craving for come chocolate milk.  So off I scooted to get a gallon.  It sure did taste good, but was rather sweet too.  I didn’t give any to Ethan at first, but you know our boy…of course he was curious when he opened the fridge and saw that big container sitting there.

So I told him it was chocolate milk and asked if he would like to try some…and what happened after that, as they say, is history.  He simply LOVES chocolate milk now, and can down about three half cups at one go.  Sometimes he would even wake up in the middle of the night requesting for chocolate milk.  I sometimes mix a little bit of fresh milk to his chocolate milk, just so it is not too sweet for him. 

In fact, since he loves chocolate milk so much, we have stopped his night bottle feeds on Pediasure now.  He only has Pediasure with his bottle once a day, in the morning. 🙂

And guess what?  He is also incredibly addicted to chocolate cake…Ethan’s Mickey Mouse birthday cake was a chocolate cake, and he has been eating most of it.  He asks for chocolate cake and specifically wants ONLY the brown part!  He’s not a fan of the cake frosting, you see.  Well, he finished the last of the cake yesterday, but he is still asking me for more…perhaps I ought to bake a chocolate cake in the next few days.

Ethan’s very special day

February 3, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan | 5 comments

Last Saturday, January 31st 2009, was the 3rd anniversary of us celebrating the wondrous miracle that God had blessed us with three years ago.  I look back and wonder at how fast time had flown past us, and how amazingly Ethan has brought immense joy and happiness to us for the past three years.  And once again, as I have always done so, I say a silent prayer to the Lord, just thanking Him for everything…

Ethan woke up that morning in a most cheerful mood indeed.  Obviously memories of his birthday party the evening  before were still fresh in his mind and he spent his morning playing with his balloons and other toys.  We had a superb lunch at one of our favorite Korean-Chinese restaurants, Tong Soon Garden, and we were pleased to see that Ethan had a HUGE appetite!

After lunch, we took a drive up north to Pier 39 in San Francisco.  The weather was beautiful!  Sunny and warm and just nice for a nice stroll along the pier.

 

In fact, the weather was so amazing that we decided to go along with our plan to take the Bay Cruise on one of the ferry boats.

 

Ethan was overwhelmed with the excitement of getting onto a boat, and he certainly didn’t hide it.

 

The ferry boat ride from Pier 39 was also a first for Pete and me.  It was supposed to last 60 minutes, and included a ride around Alcatraz and also under the Golden Gate Bridge.  Of course, additional bonuses included breathtaking views of San Francisco…and seagulls trying their best to catch up with the moving boat!

 

Although the weather was nice and warm, it was VERY windy out in the open seas, but there was a certain sense of freedom that the wind brought.

 

Here’s one of my favorite photos which Pete candidly took…

 

Most of the time it was tough getting Ethan to pose and smile for a nice picture.  He was just too active and wanted to roam around the boat!

 

Then it was time for one of the highlights of the cruise…cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge.  The view was magnificent for we had never seen the bridge from that angle before.

 

Of course, apart from oohing and aahing at the spectacular sight, Ethan found other ways to entertain himself too…

 

…and he insisted that Pete and I imitate what he did! 🙂

Well, we didn’t go on the cruise that included the Alcatraz tour, but our boat went close enough around the famous island.

 

Ethan definitely enjoyed the entire cruise, and since the sun was out too, he had a chance to try on his new pair of sunnies, our birthday present to him! 🙂

 

Don’t you think he looks way cool? 🙂

After the cruise, we took a leisurely stroll to look at the sealions (Ethan imitated the noise they made to the tee!), and then we walked by the many shops and stalls.  But then suddenly Ethan caught sight of the merry-go-round!

 

He had to be accompanied by an adult because he was below the minimum height requirement, but I am sure he enjoyed himself nonetheless!  No more crying and whining, all we saw were smiles and looks of amazement, as he shouted, “Look!  Panda!”, and “Look! Horse!”

Our day out ended with the much craved-for clam chowder at Boudin.  Ethan ate a LOT of my share, and he was even dancing to the romantic jazzy tunes that were being played in Fisherman’s Wharf.  The birthday boy really had the time of his life, and was even reluctant to leave!

 

It was a special day for Ethan and of course, an equally special day for Daddy and Mommy too!  We love you loads, Ethan boy!

It’s Party Time!

January 31, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan, Milestones | 16 comments

For Ethan’s 3rd birthday, we decided to have a small do at his daycare on Friday, the day before his birthday.  After all, all his friends are there and we figured he would have so much more fun that way.

I prepared party favor packs for each of the kids at the daycare, and we chose the (what else?) Mickey Mouse theme.

Inside the party bag, there was a toy spring (Ethan goes “BoinggggkKKK!” when he plays with it), a mini spinning top, a kaleidoscope, an activity sheet and a big sticker for the kids.

I also baked Ethan’s favorite “featherberry muffins” for the party, and we ordered two pizzas too!

Of course we also had some balloons!  Ethan had been asking for “banoons” since early January, and I told him he would get some for his birthday.  And these did not disappoint…. 🙂

Driving with a dozen helium-filled balloons and a gigantic Mickey Mouse balloon in the back seat of the car was a scary experience, but it was worth the while.

And oh, we certainly didn’t forget the cake!  Here in the US, (surprisingly) it is so hard to find a bakery which does character cakes on the cake itself that was edible.  But we managed to get an adorable Mickey and Minnie cake for Ethan from Safeway.  Although the figurines aren’t edible, we were sure that Ethan would love it, simply because of Mickey and Minnie!

All the kids were excited when they saw the cake, and in order to prevent the cake from being *destroyed*, we decided to do the cake-cutting first.  When we lit the No. 3 candle on the cake, Ethan looked stunned, perhaps a little awestruck?

He looked all of seriousness, and it was as if he was deep in thought.  He still looked so serious when we sang the Happy Birthday song to him, and didn’t even smile when we asked him to….

Still serious when we blowed the candle out….

Still serious when we cut the cake…

…and still deep in thought when we posed for a picture…

Maybe he was just letting it all sink in…..still figuring out how to react to all this “birthday boy” attention he was getting…

And then…he decided to do something!

We all had a fun time at Ethan’s party (pizza was good!), and I am sure Ethan was thoroughly enjoying himself too!

I know for a fact that he was absolutely delighted with the balloons!

And that infectious laugh and happy face never fails to brighten up our day…. at the end of it all, it just makes it all the more worthwhile when he voluntarily exclaimed, “Thank you Daddy!” and “Thank you Mommy!”

Awwwww……..

The beauty of sleep

January 28, 2009 in Ethan, Growing Up, Sleep | 3 comments

Scrap Credits
Le petit prince a dit cluster frame from Elodie
Toy Store – Partie3 paper and ribbon from Digital-Crea
Elegant word art (sleep) from Bethany

It all started about 2 weeks or so ago. Ethan contracted high fever, up to 39.5°C. I had to stay home with him to monitor his condition and at times it was pretty scary, because the fever fluctuated up and down throughout the day. We then decided to take him in to Urgent Care, where we could just walk in and not have to make an appointment. But that meant waiting for quite a long while, and after the doctor’s checkup, and we had gotten the prescription filled at the pharmacy, there was the arduous task of force-feeding Ethan the antibiotics. Not a pleasant scene at all, I can assure you.

In addition to his fever, Ethan was also coughing and thus, he was finding it difficult to sleep and rest at night. He would kick and scream and refuse to sleep soundly, resulting in both Daddy and Mommy not sleeping well either.

But thankfully, he is better now. It is always a joy to see him back to his usual cheeky and perky self.

Being at home with Mommy for that extended period resulted in an uphill task in getting him ready for daycare after that. He would grumble and throw a big tantrum and became extremely whiny when we had to leave the house in the morning. And that’s not all…one day after we picked him up from daycare, he decided to make a big fuss about not wanting to leave the car, crying and screaming his lungs out in the car garage. And when we finally got him back home to our apartment, he started crying again. Although we put our foot down and warned him sternly that he was not to repeat it, it hurt our hearts to see him behave that way.

We were quite certain it was Ethan’s natural reaction to finally realising he was going to be a big brother soon, and we figured it was his way of trying to get our attention as much as possible.  And we were at our wits’ end as to how to overcome it.

Then the weekend came…and amazingly, Ethan slept through till way past 9:00a.m. both on Saturday and Sunday! When he awoke, he was cheerful, smiling and had happiness written all over his face. He also had his afternoon nap. And added plus was that he began to have a better appetite for food!

So it looks like Ethan has finally inherited Daddy’s and Mommy’s traits of loving to sleep. Well, a growing mind and body definitely needs more sleep, and it is obvious that sufficient sleep makes for a happy toddler. And certainly, no one is complaining! 🙂

“Keong Hee Huat Chye!”

January 26, 2009 in Celebrations, Ethan | 8 comments


Scrap Credits
Chinese New Year QP  from Armina Designs
Hearts as One alphas from Snowsmoon’s Designs
Beautiful Rage Floral paper from Scarlet Heels
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Polka dotted arrow from Dúnia
Kit Moka tag from MissVivi

We have been training Ethan to wish “Keong Hee Huat Chye!” since December last year, I think.  We are, after all, Hokkien, so might as well teach him how to say it in Hokkien.  Well, at one point, I *thought* he was attempting to say “Happy New Year”, when I heard him saying, “Happy… you…”, but then when he started adding the clapping, stamping, and shouting “Hooray!” actions, I discovered it was his version of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!” 🙂

Anyway, Ethan started by repeating just the “huat chye” portion enthusiastically.  He would usually complete what I say…when I say, “Keong Hee”, he would chime in and say “huat chye!”

Then he started saying the whole phrase, and the way he said it was just too cute!

But just a few weeks ago, when we prompted him to say it, he would smile and say, “No..!”  And no matter what we said or did, he won’t say even the “huat chye” part.

Then this morning, I asked him again, and he said, “huat chye!”  Hehe….

Happy New Year and Keong Hee Huat Chye to everyone!

**Updated at 11:11p.m.: When Daddy and Mommy gave Ethan his angpows this evening, he said “Keong Hee Huat Chye!” 🙂

The Journey Home (Christmas Vacation Day 7)

January 23, 2009 in Ethan, Vacation | 1 comment

After almost a week of endless fun, we were ready to head on for home.  We had initially planned on visiting the nearby Carlsbad Factory Outlets before hitting the road, but decided otherwise, given the fact that we had a rather long journey ahead of us.

So after we checked out of the hotel, we headed towards LA.  Ethan fell asleep in the car on the way there, but woke up in time for lunch at In n Out.  After lunch, he refused to go back to sleep and started chattering away till evening.  When we were approaching Gilroy (about an hour from home), he fell asleep again.  It was already pretty dark by then.

We had Vietnamese food for dinner before we drove back to the comfort of our home.

I am, in fact, extremely proud of Ethan for being so well-behaved the entire journey.  We were rather worried about the long haul but he proved that he was able to handle it.  I remember somewhere along the way back, he told us he wanted to “go potty” to “pangsai”, but since we could not immediately find a suitable rest area, he managed to hold it till we reached home!

His sense of direction is rather good too, for he could recognize the route we were on, even though it was dark.  As we were passing by the mountains and hills, he mentioned “horse”, “cows” and “many trees”, which was what he saw 6 days ago.

The memories we shared are like treasures in our heart that will live on forever. The phrase below just about summarizes our most memorable vacation as a family.

Credits
Elegant word art (together have it all) from Bethany
Kit Moment papers from Sueli Colbert
Pacific papers  from Lindsay Jane Designs
Grungy papers from Pillowgirl

Legoland and Sealife (Christmas Vacation Day 6)

January 22, 2009 in Ethan, Vacation | 4 comments

 

Check out the waffles we had at the hotel for breakfast!  These were the self-made ones (I’m getting pretty good at this, aren’t I?), and the rest of the breakfast spread was also rather good.  There were fruits, juice, milk, bagels and hot chocolate too!

Thanks to our 2-day park hopper tickets for Legoland and Sealife (which is a recently-opened section just next to the Legoland entrance), we started our adventure on Day 6 by visiting Sealife.

Here’s a picture of Ethan posing with an undersea background, simply because he saw some other kid doing the same. LOL

 

Ethan had a fun time running around the undersea exhibit areas, and even had the chance to touch a real starfish!

 

Here he is poking his head through one of the many viewing windows which was built in such a way so the viewers could view the fishes swimming all around them.

 

After Sealife, we entered Legoland, and continued our exploration, with the rides and viewing all the cool Lego exhibits.

 

The crowd on the second day was unbelievable and most of the rides had at least a 30-minute wait time.  So while waiting for the queue to shorten, we visited areas like Miniland USA, which had breathtaking Lego structures.

 

Some of the exhibits had buttons at the side, which allowed visitors to press them and watch as parts of the exhibits came to life, e.g. some of the figurines would move or light up or something.  And guess who was the one who went around looking for these PUSH ME buttons?

 

We also had fun at Explore Village, where kids and adults alike were all really intrigued with making music with the musical fountain.  Lots of people were reliving their childhood there, I tell ya!

 

See, when someone steps or hops on those yellow circles on the floor, water would shoot out from the corresponding musical instrument in the musical fountain!  Now, who could resist that?! 🙂

Ethan even had the opportunity to ride on several “thrilling” rides.  For every ride that Daddy took him on, the person manning the ride would ask that Ethan’s height be checked, and since most of the rides had a 36″ minimum height requirement, he managed to get on them, being exactly 36″ himself!

Here’s Ethan smiling happily before Captain Cranky’s Challenge started:

 

And here’s how the ride went… see if you can catch a glimpse of the two boys! 😛

Well, one of the food specialties in Legoland not to be missed is the famous Granny’s Apple Fries.  It’s a Legoland original creation, and looks just like the regular fries, except it’s made from Granny Smith apples, dusted with cinnamon and sugar, and THEN served with vanilla cream dipping sauce.  Sounds healthy, just cuz it’s made from apples, right? 🙂

Seriously…not to be missed!

 

Here’s Ethan posing again, because he just wanted to:

 

We could tell Ethan really loves playing with Lego (as do all kids!), and it was incredibly tough to get him to leave Legoland.

 

This is him playing at one of the play areas, refusing to leave, but instead arranging letters on the board (ironically enough) in a straight line.  Hmmm…I wonder who he learnt that from?

 

Well, we all definitely had the time of our lives at Legoland.  And I am also incredibly proud of Ethan because he was not in the least bit afraid even when Daddy took him on a mini roller coaster ride on the Coastersaurus!  Yup, he’s a little thrill-seeker, all right! 

You can’t see Pete and Ethan in the video (they were in the last carriage), but you know, these roller coasters have cameras ready to take pictures of the people riding it?  We checked out those pictures after the ride, and Ethan was literally grinning from ear to ear!

 

Not surprisingly, Ethan did not nap at all that afternoon, and when we reached the hotel after dinner, Ethan had a really quick bath and fell asleep soon after.

From San Diego to Carlsbad (Christmas Vacation Day 5)

January 16, 2009 in Ethan, Vacation | 9 comments

Nope, our Christmas vacation ain’t over yet… 😛

Remember the comfortable king-sized bed in our Ramada Limited hotel room?  Well, we all overslept because of that!  Still it was a good thing because it was raining in the morning and there was nothing we could do about it. 

Oh yes, we greeted Christmas Day in San Diego with a rainy morning!  And Ethan greeted us with a jolly, “Santa, ho ho ho!”  He learnt that phrase from watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We got up and went to the hotel lobby for breakfast.  Unfortunately the space was very small and only had 2 small tables.  We had to stand while we ate our breakfast.

 

Ethan had a leetle bit of waffles (I suspect it wasn’t too appetizing to him because it wasn’t the freshly-made kind, but the frozen-and-microwaved kind).  He had more fun pointing out the ribbons and baubles on the Christmas tree in the lobby…never mind that he accidentally spilled cranberry juice on the floor!

 

After breakfast, we quickly packed up and checked out, then drove to SeaWorld to continue our adventure there.  It was a considerably warm day, and absolutely excellent for photo-taking 🙂

 

We proceeded to view sealife exhibits which we had left out the day before, with Ethan demonstrating that he indeed had a good night’s rest!  Our boy was actively running all over the place!

 

Sometimes it was hard to make him leave a particular place he loved, and we had to use all sorts of tactics to convince him to.  And sometimes,…well…I just whipped out the camera and took random shots. LOL

 

The day before, while we were rushing to see one of the shows in SeaWorld, I caught a glimpse of the pink flamingos, but we didn’t have a chance to stop by till the second day.  Look what a pretty picture they make!

 

For a quarter, visitors could buy some grains (I think) to feed the flamingos and these were dispensed from a nearby machine.  I thought it would be a fun experience for Ethan, so we got some flamingo feed and started throwing the food at the flamingos.

 

Unfortunately, since the flamingos were too far away, and we could not throw that far, the ducks which were nearer to the bridge where we stood, walloped all the food!

We tried to view as many kinds of sealife as possible, including starfish, eels and sharks, but Ethan soon became rather restless and asked for “Elmo!  Elmo!”  Aaahhh…he remembered!

We headed back to the Sesame Street Bay of Play, where Ethan had loads of fun playing on the rides and running through the obstacle course.  And Daddy was with him all the way!

 

We bade a fond farewell to SeaWorld after that, but not before we got a polar bear soft toy as a souvenir for Ethan. 🙂

He loves it, and sometimes he would ask for his polar bear when he is ready to go to bed.

 

Most of the restaurants were closed for Christmas, but we finally found a nice Thai restaurant nearby, which served really authentic Thai food.  Ethan loved the food, and that was sufficient for me.

 

 

After lunch, our next stop was a good 30 minutes’ drive away up north to Legoland in Carlsbad, CA.  Meanwhile, Ethan had a nice nap in the car (after the SeaWorld adventure and the big lunch). 

 

Don’t ask me how he managed to remove his right shirt sleeve that way, with the seat belts buckled up!

 

When we arrived at Legoland, it was already about 3:00p.m., and although the park was to close at 5:00p.m. that day, we went in anyway.  Good thing we did too, cuz there weren’t many people queueing up for the rides then. 

 

Almost everything was built out of Lego, it was amazing.  Ethan requested for a few photos with some of his favorite characters too.

 

Actually he was the one who spotted Bob the Builder, and when we were done with the picture, he even said, “Buhbye Bob!” 🙂

 

Ethan definitely LOVES playing with Lego, and if we had left him in the children’s play area for the whole night, I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded!

 

We have no regrets visiting Legoland, albeit for only two hours.  Ethan had the opportunity to ride on several fun rides, and was hopping around happily and grinning from ear to ear after each ride.

 

Our boy is exactly 36″ tall, which was the minimum height allowed for most of the rides, although he had to ride with a chaperone.  He even went on some rides that had a good possibility of him getting wet (he didn’t but, Daddy did), and he was also happy to ride on one that included a speedy, slopy descend!  Pete said Ethan was not afraid at all!

 

He also got into some of the Lego-built toy cars and commanded them to “MOVE!”

 

There was a fireworks display that evening at Legoland, and we watched it before we left.  We also had to promise Ethan we would be back the next day, only then was he willing to leave.

We then checked into our “home” for the next 2 nights: La Quinta Inn (king-sized bed also, yippee!), and headed out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant not too far away.

That night, Ethan fell asleep before 9:00p.m.  Couldn’t really blame him though, cuz the bed was really really comfy 🙂

It was a really wonderful Christmas Day we had as a family and one we would never ever forget!

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