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Would you just look at how Hannah lovingly takes care of her little baby sister, by offering her a drink?
This certainly brings back memories…see? This was what Ethan did to Hannah some years back when she was just starting to learn how to drink from a straw.
Simply, amazingly PRECIOUS!
After a hiatus of about 3 months, Ethan’s soccer training finally resumed at a new location, nearer to where we live. Ethan was thrilled of course, and was looking forward to the commencement of the session. However Hannah also expressed an interest to participate in the training. The facilitator said she could come and try to see if she likes it, so yesterday was the first session.
Daddy was hesitant too, about Hannah’s participation…Hannah being a “princess” and all, but we decided to let her have a go at it, at least for the first time.
She seemed to enjoy the session yesterday because there weren’t many kids then. She “scored” a few goals herself too, and the senior coach commented that she was rather good.
We’ll see how it goes this Friday. There’s another session coming up and she says she wants to go again. 😀
(Sorry about the blurred photo – I took them using my phone from quite a distance away)
He did it with style just a couple of days ago, when we were at AdventureZone with some of the kids’ cousins. Years ago, when he first visited AdventureZone, Ethan would only get on the Rainbow Slide, the least intimidating of the three. Sometimes he would attempt the blue one, but most of the time he will only stick to the Rainbow Slide.
Then last month, when we were there, he went down the Blue Slide (Double Drop Slide), which leads straight into a pool of balls. He shied away from the (very scary) Demon Drop Slide (red one), which is a 24ft vertical drop! Very very scary…trust me.
This time though, he said he would go on the red Demon Drop Slide and he really did. He conquered his fears and even went on the higher of the two options for the Demon Drop Slide.
Bravo Ethan…I’m very proud of you!
My little girl Hannah is just about embarking on her next beautiful journey: learning to read. The fact that she cannot read as fluently as her brother Ethan did when he was her age last time does not bother me one bit.
Ethan was a fast reader and could already string words together before he was 3. Hannah on the other hand is doing a great job sounding the sounds alphabets make, but at one point, she was frustrated because she could not put these sounds together to form words.
I’m not concerned because as long as I know she is healthy and having fun learning stuff, I’m happy too. But lately I realized that Hannah could pick up reading more easily and readily when she reads a story repetitively, or when the story is read to her repeatedly.
Here, she is reading one of the books she borrowed from the library. With fun graphics and easy-to-read words, it’s an excellent start to boost her confidence and jumpstart her on the reading bandwagon.
I love her expressive words!
Hannah: Ethan, did Mommy peepee Emma out when she gave birth to her?
(Note: My kids were actually there in the delivery room when I gave birth to Emma)
Ethan: Hahaha…no Hannah.
Mommy (putting on Mommy-the-educator hat): No Hannah, when we peepee, the peepee comes out from the urethra. But the baby comes out from the vagina. Those are two different openings.
Hannah: Huh? Peepee in the winter?
Mommy: Haha…no sweetie. Not in the winter. Peepee from the urethra, NOT winter. Baby from the vagina.
Ethan: What? Baby from China?
Mommy: From the vagina, Ethan. NOT China.
Laughter all around.
*Another edition of Morning Funnies on our school run*
About a month ago, Ethan had asked if he could invite some friends over for his birthday party. We were hesitant, but since he rarely asks for anything, we obliged. Well, Pete was a little concerned about pulling off the party and all so soon after we had moved, but I decided to go ahead with it because Ethan was really looking forward to it. So last Saturday, we had a small do for Ethan with a few of his friends. We decided to have it about a week earlier than his actual birthdate because the actual birthday falls on the 1st day of Chinese New Year this year.
In deciding a theme for his party and after taking like 5 minutes to decide between a Diary of a Wimpy Kid party or a Lego party, Ethan decided on the latter. He left most of the party planning to me, but he was very specific about the cake.
He asked for a cake shaped like a Lego 4×2 brick, where he could put a candle in each of the studs,given that it is his 8th birthday and all. When asked for the color of the cake, he wanted red.
It was a good thing baby Emma decided to nap a couple of hours the day before the party, allowing me some time to bake and decorate the cake.
I prepared birthday invites in a Lego theme and tried to make everything as Lego-like as possible. If I could, I would have created a Lego minifigure costume for Ethan..haha.
On the day of the party, Daddy hung up the birthday banner I made. Had to tweak the Lego font a little but it was well worth it. Printed out the letters on white paper, cut them out carefully and glued them onto red colored paper, which was glued onto black paper to achieve the black-outlined effect.
When the guests arrived, they were treated to some Lego Star Wars movies on the telly. This was Ethan’s idea. Took me a while to get the little guests away from the TV and to start on the games.
Oh, and we also asked the guests to participate in the “Guess the Number of Lego Bricks” game. Some adults wanted to participate in this one too.
We had some “Lego” food, made with love of course, such as Lego sandwiches, Lego pizza and errr…fruits cut up to spell the word Lego 🙂 (Sorry, I had no idea how to shape fruits like Lego without making a mess of them all!)
I also made Lego chocolates and Lego ice cubes with a Lego mould I borrowed from a dear friend.
Lately I started to teach Hannah how to pray. I figured it’s about the right time now since Ethan learnt to pray roughly around the same age too.
She asked a lot of questions.
“Where is God?”
“Is God in our hearts all the time?”
“Why don’t we see God?”
“Do bad guys go to heaven?”
I told her that we can talk to God any time we want and wherever we are. For a start, I suggested a good time would be at bedtime. She could say a simple sentence every night to thank God for something..anything..she could think of. I told her to think of it as a “conversation with God”.
Initially she didn’t know what to say or how to do it but after some prompting, she started producing ideas of her own….every night, without fail.
“Dear God,” she would start,
“Thank you for my clothes.”
“Thank you for my teachers.”
“Thank you for my meals today.”
She ends each prayer with, “In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
Tonight she said: “Dear God, thank you for the best mommy in the world!”
My heart melted.
And then she said, “I love you, Mommy!”
“I love you too, sweetie!”
I must have done something really good to deserve such a loving and sweet miracle. 🙂
Elementary School Sports Day!!
… he orders the Grilled Salmon entrée and you get his kiddie meal instead.
I have “helpers” now to assist me in babysitting Emma. That’s Ethan’s hand right there moving the toy for her, and both Ethan and Hannah have no qualms about sharing their toys with Emma.
Here’s to more mobile days ahead!