Exercise

Ethan has totally perfected his swan pose…look how flexible he is:

And if we have any visitors, Ethan would very willingly demonstrate this pose to them.

To refresh your memory, he was actually doing the downdog pose when he was much younger.  He learnt the swan pose from his music and movement class in school.  And guess what?  Hannah is actually doing the downdog pose now!

Last week, Ethan was literally counting down to the weekend, because we told him we would take him out to play football in the field.  You see, it’s quite hard to experience the Jabulani ball at its fullest potential by merely kicking it around the house, yes?

Even on Friday night, he was already telling me, “Mommy, tomorrow will be Saturday the 24th of July.  I’ll go and play FOOTBALL!”

Yes, he was THAT excited.

So on Saturday morning (well…actually it was quite LATE in the morning), we packed his ball, his boots and socks and we headed off to the Esplanade field, where Daddy and Ethan could kick some ball.  On the way there, while in the elevator, and in our apartment lobby, Ethan was eagerly telling every Tom, Dick and Harry that he was going to play football.  He even told the apartment cleaning lady!

We got him into his gear when we arrived and he went absolutely crazy!  He really had a lot of fun, running around and screaming GOAL!!!!  everywhere… even though there was no goal post.

A Dutch family, who was in Penang for a vacation, happened to be there too, and coincidentally, the twin boys in that family were Ethan’s age.  So Ethan had two new friends playing football with him.

Just look at the way he kicked the ball!

And here’s how you complain to the referee…”Hey ref!  That was a FOUL!” Ethan said.

We have GOT to get him that makeshift goal.

Here’s Ethan doing the downward-facing dog pose:

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!

Each week, like any normal human being, we count the days leading to the weekend, just so we can take a well-deserved break from work, and spend some nice family time with each other.  Ethan senses it is the weekend too, I’m sure.  He always seems happier when we pick him up on Friday evenings
And what’s better than the weekend?  Why, a 3-day weekend of course!  Which was what we had a couple of weeks back due to Merdeka Day falling on a Sunday.  Monday was automatically a holiday for us too, so in addition to our blissful afternoon naps together (which I look forward to each weekend, by the way), Sunday night didn’t seem so forlorn after all, since we also had Monday to look forward to.

That particular Monday morning, Pete and I planned to take Ethan for our long-procrastinated morning walk at The Botanical Gardens.  It had been ages since we took him there, so I was very determined to make our plan come into fruition.

So on Monday morning, I hauled myself out of bed, tired and weary, but the thought of Ethan’s happy face when he gets to go one on one with nature spurred and inspired me.  I dragged Pete out of bed too, and hurried to get ready.  By the time we reached Botanical Gardens, it was already 9:15a.m. but still not too hot, and there were still plenty of people around.

At first Ethan didn’t want to get down and asked to be carried instead, but as soon as he spotted people jogging past him, he made a lurch for the ground, and started running too, giggling happily and stopping now and then to point out, “Bird!”, “Tree!”, etc.

I managed to capture a video of our little runner too, but it was from the back.  See, he was running so fast, that I couldn’t get my phone out quick enough to run in front of him and get him running from the front. LOL.

All in all, we made two rounds round Botanical Gardens; one small round for starters, and a second larger round.  The larger round involved climbing up a steep incline, the one leading to the hiking trail Pete and I used to explore frequently many moons ago.

During the second round round the Botanical Gardens, Ethan would sometimes ask to be carried, and Pete said he heard him panting a little too.  So our little boy is also smart enough to save his energy and knows how to rest when he is tired too!

We made a few pit stops at some rest areas, to enjoy the scenery and surroundings too.

And at the end of our morning exercise, look at the little one replenishing his body with some thirst-quenching H20.

Scrap Credits
Kit Jules from Kawouette
Doodles: Doodle Me Big from Mikkel Paige Originals
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels

It all began one fine Sunday about two weeks ago. After a yummy homecooked dinner, Daddy decided to take Ethan downstairs for an evening walk round out apartment compound. It was a great idea because then Mommy could have some time to wash up and have a quick shower undisturbed.

The bonding session between Daddy and Ethan went really well indeed. When they got back, Daddy reported that Ethan happily ran two rounds round the swimming pool, giggled happily when he saw a doggie playing and had good fun during the evening walk.

Ever since that day, whenever we get back home to our apartment and reach our apartment lobby area, Ethan would eagerly run towards the poolside. He would lead me down the steps to the pool and joyfully run around the pool. He loves to walk on the drain gutter covers though, and he would sometimes stop and smile as he looked at the water in the pool. Last Sunday evening, he decided that in addition to walking around both the adult and children’s pool, he wanted to go across the little bridge too!

It sure appears that Ethan does not only love swimming in the pool, he loves walking round it too. And to think this all happened with a innocent evening walk

Finally, after an uncountable number of weekends of planned swimming sessions gone awry, last Saturday saw my plan to bring Ethan swimming in our apartment pool blossom into fruition. My parents came over to stay with us for the weekend so I had extra hands to help me with the over-eager Ethan.

The slight drizzle had just stopped and it was not scorching hot, the water was just cool and not freezing, so it was just the right temperature, perfect for swimming. I had huffed and puffed my way to produce a floatable float, worthy of use. This one, unlike the arm floats we used some time back, would ensure our boy was kept heads up in the water and at the same time, enable him to freely kick his way around the pool. It was the first time he was using this round float but it took him no time at all to grow accustomed to it. Thank goodness he could still fit into his *mega-cool* scuba-diving-like suit!
You be the judge as to whether he had a good time or not…