**********

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

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.

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 had to be in Ethan’s school by 8:30a.m. and we only reached home at 2:00a.m.  I was also worried for Ethan, because he was still coughing a little, but after he’d woken up and brushed his teeth, he said he wanted to go for his Sports Day.

Here’s Daddy and Hannah waiting for the events to start, with Daddy cleverly donning a pair of shades to hide sleepy and tired eyes

Ethan in the march-past, where all the kids assembled on the field and presented their class cheers in unison.  Look how happy and handsome he is…makes it all worthwhile to make the rush back from KL the night before

Hannah, cheering her brother on, and happily joining in the clapping.

Ethan’s event was the penultimate event of the day, but thankfully, it was not too hot.  Here are Ethan and his classmates, waiting for their turn.

The event saw two teams (BLUE and RED), each with its members taking turns to hop on paper-shaped lilypads, whilst holding a ball with both their hands.  Ethan had briefed us on what he was supposed to do for Sports Day.  He said, “I’m supposed to hop on the lilypads like a frog, Mommy.  NOT like a kangaroo.  I have to keep my body low, like a frog.”

He did very well, I would say, and it was a very close fight between the two teams, however, Ethan’s BLUE team came in a close second after the RED team.  His team still got a medal though…a silver medal, and everyone was given a goodie bag.

Awwww…don’t look so sad, baby.  Daddy and Mommy are SO proud of you!  And you know, the important thing is that you tried your best!  *hugssss*

]]> http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2011/07/23/we-made-it-for-ethans-sports-day/feed/ http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2011/06/17/our-saturday-routine/ http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/2011/06/17/our-saturday-routine/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:08:23 +0000 joyce http://duhbulats.giddytigers.com/?p=4265 The weekend is here, oh how we have missed it.  Our Saturdays are more or less routinely planned out each week.  In the mornings, we’ll all go out together and Hannah and I will be dropped off at her parent-toddler class.  While we are at the class, Daddy will take Ethan for a *bonding session*.  They’ll either go for a quick exercise session, some football in the park, or lately, sometimes they’ll just take the car for a wash.

Anyway, I’ve come to realize that I have not been posting any pictures of Hannah enjoying her parent-toddler class, because the fact is she really does!  She looks forward to her class every week and would cheerfully wave goodbye as Daddy drives away.  She’s always asking to go to “Teacher Puva’s class” and will happily participate in all the activities.  Sometimes she will even volunteer to “go first” in some of the group activities.

Hannah intently cutting up some pretend fruits and vegetables with her pretend knife…

Fun with arts and crafts…

Water play can be methodical too.  High level of concentration needed here.

Hannah loves a good story, and the pretty stickers she gets afterward.

And here are a couple of pictures of when Ethan and Daddy went for a short visit to the Botanical Gardens during the recent Floral Festival.

Isn’t it marvelous to see the kids happy that way?

Our Saturday lunches are almost certainly our favorite chicken rice at Fatty Loh.  Even the kids know that by now.  Then again, kids thrive on routines..

I told him that if he wanted to go to the beach, he would have to wake up very early, and he would also be responsible to wake everyone up, so that we could reach the beach early.  The previous weekend, cousin Jonathan (from KL) went to the beach too, but Ethan declined because he said it was TOO HOT.

Anyway, on Saturday morning, at approximately 6:30a.m., I was awakened by Ethan at the foot of my bed, saying, “Mommy, wake up!  Time to go to the beach!”  At 6:30a.m. I tell you!

Well, despite waking up so early, we got ready and arrived at the beach at about 9:45a.m.  That’s considered very early for our standards.  The sun was still warm (not baking hot), and the sea was inviting.  We chose a rather secluded beach that was not too rocky, and that was not too popular with tourists.  Slapped on copious amounts of sunblock on top of the layer I put on them at home and we were all set!

The kids got to play with the Rio beach ball Ethan had won in a magazine contest.

Ethan and Hannah immediately wanted to go and play with the waves.  But as soon as the waves licked their feet, Hannah was screaming, “Carry me, Mommy!” and she wanted to return to our umbrella.  (see that pout?)

Ethan, meanwhile, had a LOT of fun with the waves, showing totally no fear whatsoever.

Hannah preferred to steer clear from the water’s edge, and play with her plastic cup, scooping up the sand and pouring it out.

We definitely need to get more sand-castle building tools for them the next time we visit the beach.

Ethan said, “Daddy and Mommy, thank you for bringing us to the beach today!  I had a LOT of fun!! Please, can we go again?  Please please?”

Of course we can, darling…and hopefully soon!  Can you believe that it was the FIRST time Ethan and Hannah had been to the beach in Penang?

Anyway, I digress.

I was gonna talk about our recent family exercise session at The Botanical Gardens.

It was the long Labor Day weekend, so Monday was a holiday too.  I remember years back I used to arrive at The Botanical Gardens before 7:30a.m. for a hike up Penang Hill.  But now, I’d be happy to reach there by 10:30a.m. 

Anyways, we decided against riding the tram and decided instead to take a walk around the park.

Ethan, who was brimming with boundless energy, kept on asking us to “Hurry up!”

His stamina was quite good, and he could run for a long while before he got tired.  When it was obvious it was a shorter distance to walk on the pavement, Ethan decided he wanted to make a detour and climb up and down a mini hill by the road instead.

Every time either one of us caught up to him, Ethan would quicken his step and try to outrun us.

…and every time that happens, little Hannah would ask us to “Catch Ethan!”  Not a problem at first, but when she started to get tired, and whoever was in *charge* of her had to carry her AND run after Ethan…well, let’s just say it’s a combo of cardio and strength training at the same time.  Try carrying 13 kilos and sprinting!

After the workout, the kids were all rosy-cheeked and exhausted (we thought).

Well actually, the adults were also rather tired out themselves…but that is certainly not a deterrent.  We’ll definitely do this again.

I’d very much like to take the kids along to the gym too…that is, IF I can find a gym in Penang that has a section/classes specially catered for the kids.

My little boy turned FIVE on January 31st recently.  And I still can’t believe how much he has grown!  I look at pictures of him from a year ago, and the difference is so vast!  He has grown physically, mentally and spiritually, and I can’t even begin to express how proud I am of him.

I could tell he was really looking forward to turning five.  Before, he refers to himself as a “medium boy” but he tells us that once he turns five, he is a “BIG boy”

So where did we take our big boy for his birthday?  After we picked him up from school, we went to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants for lunch as a family.  Then we headed to Golden Sands Hotel in Batu Ferringhi, where there was a kids activity center called AdventureZone.  Admission was only RM20++ per child (since it was a weekday), and adults need not pay if accompanying the kids.

AdventureZone had something like an obstacle course for the kids, and gigantic slides that were NOT for the faint-hearted.  See how scary those slides looked?  We only went on the colorful one and the blue one.

For Hannah, there was a little play area specially designed for kids aged 4 and below.

But of course, she wanted to do whatever her brother did…

Actually we were allowed a duration of 2 hours in AdventureZone, but the kids were very reluctant to leave…in the end, we left after spending about 2.5 hours there.

AdventureZone certainly tired us all out, for not only were the kids exhausted, we adults also had a good workout chasing after the kids.  Errr…. well maybe it was just the adults who were exhausted…

One thing’s for sure though, we sure worked up a HUGE appetite and we headed for dinner at Chili’s in Gurney Plaza.

Birthday boy making like a “moose” when I asked him to pose for a picture…

And how old are you now, Ethan?

Because it was his birthday, Ethan was given a complimentary chocolate brownie sundae, complete with a candle, and the crew sang him a birthday song too!

And then later that night, he opened up his presents from us.

This one’s from Hannah…

…and this one’s from Daddy and Mommy.  We gave him something he had been hinting he wanted for the past month.  Ethan is very interested in all things planets, outer space, solar system, and the Earth.  And his expression was simply priceless when he unwrapped the gift from us.

“Wow!!!  It’s the PLANET thing!!!”

Happy Birthday Ethan!  You’re a BIG boy at 5 now!

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!

Ethan doing some warm-up exercises before *training*.

Hannah doing some light stretching too…

Run Ethan, run!!!

Ethan doing a mental calculation of the angle he should curve the ball before taking a free kick…

Hannah, preparing to shoot for the goal!

 …and Ethan scores…from an EXTREMELY close range! (he could even do the celebratory hugs and whatnot!)

Ethan and Daddy, perfecting a *pass and score* sequence.

“It’s mine!!!”

…and…err…honing his goalkeeping skills.

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.