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Little Miracles · Hannah
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Hannah

All about Hannah

Our Genting Highlands Getaway

November 1, 2010 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah, Vacation | 5 comments

Two weeks ago, we took a short and much-needed vacation and headed up to Genting Highlands.  It was our very first trip up there in a really long while, the last time we’d been up there being in late 2005, a few months before Ethan was born.  The kids were both totally psyched up about the whole idea of the holiday, so much so that they didn’t even sleep at all the entire journey!  Normally Hannah would fall asleep midway, but this time, she was very much awake, and Ethan was asking, “Why is it taking so long to get to Genting Highlands?” all the way there…

We took a little bit longer than usual to reach our destination because we had to make more stops than usual: Ethan had to go for very frequent toilet breaks.

And despite the fact that the kids had no sleep at all the entire journey, they were as excited as ever when we arrived!

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Besides being a chance for the kids to have fun, we also met up with Ah Ma and Ah Kong from Ipoh in Genting Highlands, and the kids were pleased as pie to see both their grandparents.

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Although the 3D2N stay in Genting Highlands left us all tired out, we all had a lot of fun… 🙂

I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

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Got the All Park day pass for us so that we could enjoy the rides in both the outdoor and indoor theme parks.  Hannah could still enter the parks for free for now, but there were some rides she was not allowed to ride on.

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“Daddy Daddy, can I please go ride on the airplane like Ethan Koko and Mommy?”

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Sorry baby, no can do…but we did take a family ride in the revolving teacups…and boy did that leave us incredibly dizzy!

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Hannah showing her “dizzy and confused” look.

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Feeding the koi in the koi pond. 

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Making sure the fish are well fed.

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All the fishes sure had a healthy appetite!

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Ethan..in deep thought…perhaps thinking about which ride to go on next!

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“What??!!!  You mean we need to go for lunch now??!!  So soon?!!!”

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…not before Ethan takes us for a drive in the antique car! 🙂

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Happy and contented passengers in the antique car ride.

 genting14 Lunch at Ming Ren “Lamb Specialty” Restaurant: Braised Lamb with Lotus Root (Yummy!)

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“No more pictures, please, Mommy!  I wanna go back to the Theme Park now!

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In Beryl’s Chocolate Wonderland.  Hannah is errr…making a getaway!

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In a land far far away…

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Spectacular view of Genting Highlands

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“Daddy, are you sure there are no dinosaurs around here?”

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Entrance to Dinosaurland

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Little Miss Pouty Lips

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What goes BUMP in the night?  Ethan having a go at the Junior Bumper Cars.

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All smiles as he got on the Ride de Paris in the Indoor Theme Park.

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And here’s one for the road!  Don’t we all look utterly satisfied with our buffet lunch at Coffee Terrace? 🙂

 

Hannah at 19 months

October 16, 2010 in Hannah, Milestones | No comments

hannah_19months Scrap Credits
Hot Pants for Wenches from Kim B’s Designs
Boys & Girls Corner Alphas from Nathan Design
It’s Only Natural Alphas from Scrappy Bug
Elegant word art (girl magic) from Bethany

Weight

More than 11.2 kilos, and when she struggles while we are carrying her, it feels MUCH heavier!

Height/Length

81cm, roughly a head shorter than Ethan.

Teeth

8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with 2 pramolars appearing on the right side (top and bottom), also 2 canines starting to appear at the top jaw.

Now Hannah wants to hold the toothbrush and brush her teeth herself.  Yeah, she’s in that phase now where she wants to do everything herself.  So I normally will put some toothpaste on my index finger and brush her teeth for her first before she brushes with her toothbrush.  Thankfully, she still allows me to do that 🙂

Motor Skills

  • Hannah can hold the spoon and fork and eat by herself, albeit not in a very tidy manner.  A good start, though.
  • She can run quite well, so it’s quite a task taking both Hannah and Ethan out now, since we have to chase after them. (Yep, she no longer wants to be in the stroller)
  • She’s beginning to learn how to jump.
  • Hannah loves to empty the contents of boxes and containers all over the floor.  Sometimes she would fill up containers with building blocks and just throw them out on the floor, making a really loud noise!

Communication and Social Skills

  • Hannah speaks mostly in mono-syllabic words now, but we can usually understand what she wants to relay to us.
  • She uses “UP!” when she wants us to carry her up, and when she sees me putting food on the table for dinner, she’ll say, “Rai! Rai!” (for rice)
  • Words she can say now:
    • “Milk”, pronounced correctly as “merlk”
    • “Bag”
    • “Chair”
    • “Park”
    • “Car”
    • “Ball”
    • “Door”
    • “Light”
    • “Two”, “three”, “eight”
    • “Bai!” (for “belly button”)
    • “Hair”
    • “My”, “Me!”
    • …and the start of terrible twos: “NO!”
  • She is able to complete the end syllable of some nursery rhymes, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep.
  • Claps her hands when she is pleased with herself or when someone does something nice for her.
  • If she hurts herself, she will come to us and make a pitiful face and point at the part of her body where it hurts, indicating that we should kiss and make it better. (Yeah, she learnt that from her brother)
  • Hannah can recognize faces in photographs.  When she sees our wedding photos on the wall, she will point and say, “Mommy!” and “De-deh!” 🙂
  • Hannah loves to help out when she can; when she’s ready to bathe, I let her throw her dirty clothes in the laundry bag
  • She can *answer* some simple questions using “Me!” e.g. when I ask, “Whose turn is it to bathe now?”, Hannah says, “Me!” 🙂

Food and Feeding

Hannah can eat most of our regular food, and she is very willing to try new things.  She’s still being breastfed, and sometimes she will also drink the boxed chocolate milk, fresh milk and Yakult. She can eat both rice and porridge, and even the pieces of chicken in her food. I’ve also tried giving her the porridge with some peanuts in it (which we thought caused her to break out in a rash last month) but this time round, she was all right.

The Power of Breast Milk

October 15, 2010 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

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I have not been writing a whole lot about my breastfeeding journey with Hannah, at least not as much as I did when I was breastfeeding Ethan.  The thing is, breastfeeding does get easier with the second kid onwards.

Hannah was and still is breastfed from birth till now (she’s 19 months now), and she’s showing no signs of stopping yet.  Several people have asked me when I would be weaning Hannah off the breast, but with all the perks and fringe benefits that come with breastfeeding, it’s difficult to make a conscious effort…especially since we recently discovered another PLUS point of breastfeeding.

When Hannah was down with herpangina, the only source of food she would take as she was recovering was breast milk.  I have no doubt in my mind that Mommy’s milk helped her tremendously as she was battling the virus.  Since herpangina was a highly contagious disease, the doc told us to try our best to ensure Ethan does not come near Hannah.

But we all know that is close to impossible.

Ethan visited Hannah once in the hospital, and a few hours after he went home with Daddy, my heart sank when Pete told me that Ethan was registering a high fever.  The next morning, his fever was still prevalent, and when I told the doctor, she advised me that I should give Ethan my freshly expressed breast milk, since I would possibly have developed the antibodies for the disease.

So when we got home from hospital, I expressed a little bit of breast milk for Ethan.  It wasn’t even an ounce, I think, for I had just fed Hannah.  When I told Ethan I was going to give him breast milk, he said, “I don’t want it, Mommy.  Breast milk is for babies!”

I told him I knew that, but since he was not feeling well, the doctor asked me to give him some of Mommy’s milk to help him recover.  I mixed the breast milk with his chocolate milk in a cup and he drank it all up. I did this about 3 times that day, and once the following day.  By the end of the first day, his fever had totally gone, and he was back to his normal self.  And when I was preparing the drink for him the following day, he said, “I don’t need breast milk anymore Mommy, I’m all better now!”

Well, I don’t know if it was coincidence or not, but I do think Mommy’s milk had something to do with healing him. Now wouldn’t you agree that Mommy’s milk the most wonderful thing in the world?

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Impromptu Soccer Training

October 14, 2010 in Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah | 2 comments

Last Sunday morning, we made it to Youth Park for some fun impromptu “soccer training”.   It was also the first time we used the 1 on 1 soccer set we bought for Ethan.  The kids had a lot of fun, as did the adults… I’ll let the photos speak for themselves 🙂

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

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Hannah doing some light stretching too…

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Run Ethan, run!!!

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

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Hannah, preparing to shoot for the goal!

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

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

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“It’s mine!!!”

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…and…err…honing his goalkeeping skills.

 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

October 12, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah | No comments

Last Wednesday, we celebrated Daddy’s birthday.  Pete took a day off from work, and we both went out for a nice lunch, just the two of us 🙂

Then we fetched Ethan from school and caught a movie in Queensbay Mall.  We saw Alpha & Omega, simply because it was the only *kid* show at that moment.  Ethan was so hyped up and excited about the whole thing.  He was bouncing around and couldn’t wait to get into the cinema.  We got some popcorn too, of course!

We picked up a nice football cake for Daddy before we left the mall, and I had a birthday voucher which entitled me to a discount on the cake PLUS a free ice cream.  So Ethan got to eat some yummy chocolate ice cream too.  Actually some time back, Ethan had wanted to get the football cake for Daddy and had told me that.  In addition, he had also spilled the beans and told his Daddy what cake we were getting…so no surprise there.  Bah.

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But he did have fun eating his ice cream …

Sure sounds a lot like Ethan’s birthday instead of Daddy’s huh?

We picked Hannah up and headed for home where we had a simple dinner and the cake-cutting (before the ice cream cake melted!)

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The shoes that fit

October 8, 2010 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Hannah | 2 comments

One of the hardest things to do in the mornings, when we are ready to leave the house for school, is to get both kids ready, wearing their sandals/shoes and out the door pronto.  I had been battling with this for a few weeks, with one kid or the other dilly-dallying, and short of tearing out my hair, I honestly didn’t know what to do.

Until I stumbled on the perfect solution!

I decided to make wearing sandals a competition.  Knowing my kids and their competitive streaks, I would ask, “Hmmm…let’s see who’s gonna win and finish wearing their sandals first today!”

Ethan will jump up and head straight for the door, and Hannah will scream, “Me!” and run out too, getting her sandals ready.

Ethan will then say, “Ready?….. Set?….” and Hannah will say, “GO!!!”

Ethan will wear his sandals and I will put on Hannah’s sandals.  Ethan wins most of the time, and will proclaim loudly, “I’m the winner!”

This *system* was foolproof…or so I thought.

Lately, Hannah has other ideas… When she says, “Go!”, she refuses to let me wear her sandals for her.  She would kick and scream and just sit there holding her sandals.  Took me a while to figure it out, but I soon found out that she wanted her BROTHER to wear them for her instead!

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Brave Brave Hannah

October 8, 2010 in Growing Up, Hannah | 2 comments

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I have no doubt in my mind that Hannah will grow up to be a very brave and determined young lady.  From the way she carries herself, to the way she puts her foot down (stubborn nonetheless) when she wants something, she’s certainly turning out to be one courageous girl.

A couple of months back, when she had completed her 3-month-long iron therapy, her doctor requested that Hannah had her blood test done again so that we could ensure her Serum Ferritin count was in the acceptable range.  I was worried when I was told that the blood to be tested would be drawn from the inner crook of Hannah’s elbow.  The could be traumatizing for a child as young as Hannah.

But we had to do it anyway.

I took her to the lab in the hospital, and sat her on my lap.  I told Hannah that it would only take a while and then it would all be over.  The lab person came over and strapped Hannah’s arm, and then tried to locate her vein.  After a few seconds, she asked me to switch to the other arm.  And she tried to find the vein again.  Again…nothing.

I was beginning to get irritated, because the delay would cause anxiety in a young child.  But I held my own and patiently waited while the first lab person asked a senior lab person (I think) to look for the vein in the first arm.

Thankfully, they found it!  The senior lab person applied some alcohol on the inner crook of Hannah’s elbow, then inserted a needle to draw the blood.  Hannah winced a little while the needle was inserted, but she didn’t cry AT ALL.  I kissed her head and comforted her.  It certainly helped that I didn’t get weak in the knees or anything, because I am a blood donor and I was used to seeing needles inserted into arms.

Anyway, the whole process was over in about a minute or so, and Hannah did not shed a single tear!  We were all so proud of her!  She was such a brave little girl, and she definitely won the hearts of everyone in the lab that day.

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Fast forward to a week later, Hannah fell sick and had to have another blood test done again.  This time she laid down on the bed and they took the blood from the other hand.  She only cried a little when the needle was inserted, and that was it.

Courage: nothing can beat that that is inherent in my little girl.  She might be little, but she’s a mighty brave girl with a heart of a lion 🙂

Driving Mr & Miss Bulat

October 7, 2010 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah | 2 comments

Many many moons ago, our visits to the malls were only for shopping, movie-watching and (sometimes) eating.  Now, with kids, our trips to malls are for (mostly) window-shopping, eating and, more often than not, include visits to certain *sections* in the malls where the kids can have a go at the rides.

Here are some shots this blogger-mommy managed to snap whilst my kids were having fun.

Hannah *driving* a red car next to Mr Bear:

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My kids LOVE the little merry-go-round.  Ethan loves to high-five us as he goes around and around…look how cheeky my boy looks!

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And Hannah’s favorite is the purple horsy.  I think it’s so adorable the way she hold’s the horsy’s ears, instead of the handles provided!

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There are also some rides where both Ethan and Hannah get to ride together, like in this red convertible.  Here’s a short video I managed to take:

 

Ethan and Hannah have also enjoyed driving their own kiddy cars…see how cool they look?

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Ethan had a go with the go-kart car, and Hannah got into a car that could be controlled remotely, by, who else but, Daddy! (by the way, the band-aid on Hannah’s forehead was because she had a small ouchie when she fell and hit her head on the cabinet earlier that day).

 

Dessert time = family time

September 23, 2010 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Funny Moments, Hannah | 1 comment

Who doesn’t like desserts, eh?  When we dine out, if the kids are behaving well at the dining table, we occasionally indulge in a serving of dessert at the end of our meal.  The dessert is shared, because the serving is often way too big for just one person, and also because we do not want the kids to be super-hyper-sugar-charged afterward.

This here is the delicious scrumptious Molten Chocolate Cake we ordered from Chilli’s.  It’s warm chocolate cake at the bottom, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with yummy chocolate sauce at the top.

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In any case, we’ve discovered that these special dessert time moments are awesome family time moments too.  Look how happy the kids are…

Ethan loves it…

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…and so does Hannah (see how she’s giving a “thumbs up”?)

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We also love the simple pleasures of the sundae cone from McDonald’s:

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My Glee-ful Kids

September 23, 2010 in Entertainment, Ethan, Funny Moments, Hannah | No comments

You know that distinctable starting sound of that Glee song “Don’t Stop Believing”?  Yes, the part at the beginning when the cast of Glee sings, “Da-da-da-da-da…..”?

Well, this is what Hannah does whenever she hears this song, be it on the radio, on the TV, or when we play the CD..

 

…and errr… the last bit of that video is just Ethan trying to get part of himself into the shot. LOL

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