curl_exec function is disabled in php.ini - Social Networks AutoPoster needs the CURL PHP extension. Please enable it or contact your hosting company to enable it.

Little Miracles · Hannah
Bible Verse of the Day

Hannah

All about Hannah

Pitter patter not-so-tiny feet

July 21, 2010 in Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

oldsandals

How quickly kids grow up…Hannah finally outgrew her first pair of sandals, and even though we can still put them on her, it’s very clear that they are beginning to get too tight on her feet.  They are too tight cuz we can see her little toes peeking out from the front of the sandals.

I do so like her first pair of sandals, because it feels so comfy, but I suppose we’ll have to let those go eventually.  We finally found another pair for Hannah last weekend in size 6 (her old pair was size 4.5).  Let’s see how long these will last.

In any case, I suddenly remembered we bought a pair of brown dress shoes, Mary Janes, if you will, from the US.  They were much too big for her feet then, but I thought we’d take them out now and try them on for size.

maryjanes

Gave me a shock when I discovered they fit her EXACTLY, as in “wait a few weeks and she would outgrow them”!  So looks like Hannah will be wearing these brown Mary Janes for the next few weeks then 🙂

Ah yes, girls and their shoes…She’ll have more shoes than Mommy soon, I’m sure.

mommyandme

Hannah at 16 months

July 13, 2010 in Hannah, Milestones | No comments

hannah_16_monthsScrap Credits
Happy Place QP from Fly Pixel Studio
Fresh Breeze Alphas from A work in progress

Weight

We haven’t weighed her lately, but she sure does feel at least 10.5 kilos!

Height/Length

We have not measured her height lately too, but she should be more than 77cm now, because she is able to reach higher and higher areas.

Teeth

8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with a few more teeth appearing at the back, possible pramolars. 

Motor Skills

  • Hannah can tip toe around.
  • She loves to climb on top of everything: the couch, the naughty stool, the bed, the toy train!

Communication and Social Skills

  • Consistently waves and says “Bye!” in a very cutesy high-pitched tone.  And when she is ready to sleep, she will toddle to the room, turn, wave and say, “Bye!” 🙂
  • Asks for things she wants by using the word “Give!”.  She says “Gheee!!!” and extends her hands, opening and closing her palm, or she will point to the item she wants.
  • Can tell me when she has “poopoo”-ed.  She will point to her diaper and go, “Poopoo”.  Sometimes I will be in time and place her on the toilet bowl before she poos but often times it will be too late.  Good start, though.
  • Can point up and say “AAh!!” (for Up) and “Down”.
  • Point to nose, hair, tummy and teeth when prompted.
  • Says “Ah-per” for Diaper.
  • *Sings* Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to the rhythm, but without the words, just “ba-ba-ba”.  She loves doing the actions though.
  • Hannah can say “boo” for “book”: she says it when she wants us to read a book to her or if she wants to flip through a book.
  • She can say “Mamak” for food, and ask for a piece of bun, by saying, “Bah!” and pointing to the bun on the table.  Her favorite is the wholemeal potato buns.
  • She can understand “go kai kai” (she will walk to her stroller and wait for us to load her in), “go and wash hands” (she will walk to the bathroom and extend her hands to be washed), go to sleep (she will walk to the room, even though the door is closed, she will wait patiently for someone to open it for her), go bathe/take a shower (she will know how to go to her room and wait to be undressed, and then walk to the bathroom for her shower).
  • She understands “Go give Daddy/Mommy a hug” – she will walk/run to us and give us a loving hug 🙂

Food and Feeding

Hannah eats almost everything we eat now.  When I cook at home, she will have homecooked food and when we eat out, she will sample the food we eat.  I do try to minimize her salt and sugar intake though.

She drinks a lot of water, and so far is very open and willing to try new foods.

As for milk, Hannah is still on 100% breast milk.  However, there were times when we were out for six hours plus straight, and she didn’t need any milk, so perhaps I will start her on Pediasure or fresh milk soon, just to supplement her milk intake.

She loves chicken rice, chicken, Milo, Cheerios, potato bread, koay teow, kiwi and banana, just to name a few 🙂

Mini Chomper

July 6, 2010 in Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

Don’t let this sweet adorable innocent face fool you…

hannahwithspoon

Look at what she did to the straw on her tumbler…

tumbler

It happened last week while we were out in the mall.  Suddenly Pete noticed the “condition” of the straw as Hannah was holding it.

Needless to say, I have been *checking her poopoo* from then on, but so far, nothing yet! SIGH.

Capturing Little Miracles

June 30, 2010 in Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | 5 comments

When Hannah turned one, we had been looking for a photographer to take nice portraiture shots of her.  We had gone to a kids photo studio when Ethan turned one the last time, but that photo studio had already moved.   

We were still hunting for a photographer, when our friend Linda, who’s a freelance photographer, very kindly offered to take the photos for us.  We also wanted some family shots and of course, of Mr Bulat (aka Ethan) himself.

Now, if you don’t already know, family and kids’ portraiture shots are quite difficult to take and need a lot of patience and time, both from the photographer and from the *objects being photographed*.  This is because kids lose their focus easily and might not be at their best behaviour at all times.  And knowing my kids and how active they can get, we were prepared for a *highly energized* session, … which was what we got.

It was a Saturday morning in late May, and we planned on taking some shots indoors in our home, just to allow the kids to relax and be themselves, and then adjourning downstairs to the pool area.  However, it started RAINING just as Linda walked in, so we had to make do with indoor shots for most part of the morning, with the earlier shots taken of Ethan and Hannah in their jammies 🙂

Ethan warmed up immediately (which was so unlike him) whilst Hannah took a little while to *get into the mood*.  And with whatever *props* we found at home, we tried to make the session as lively and as entertaining as possible. We only went downstairs to the pool around noon, and because it had been raining the whole morning, it wasn’t that hot.

And I’d like to add that Linda was such a sport and took so many many many photos, of everything we did, and of everything that happened.  It was a delightful (but Pete said *tiring*) session and I loved every second of it.

Linda recently passed us the photos and they are awesome!  I love all the shots she managed to capture, and they all looked simply amazing!

Here is a preview of our Family Portraiture shots … I’m experimenting with Windows Live Movie Maker and decided to compile some of the shots into a short movie-presentation… 🙂

  

You can see the rest of the filtered shots here.  For the entire collection on DVD, please make a viewing appointment and come view it at our house, okay? 🙂  Thanks again Linda, for creating these wonderful memories! 🙂

My Little Star

June 24, 2010 in Entertainment, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

For a few days now, Hannah has been singing out loud after dinner.  Yes, you heard me right.. 🙂 While we wash up, we would be entertained by her singsong “Ba ba ba ba ba…..” melody. Well, it didn’t take long for us to figure out she was actually singing her favorite song, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star“.  She will smile happily when I start singing it and do the actions too! 🙂

 littlestar

And she also likes us to play the song for her on the xylophone and mini piano.  She would ask us to play the song on one instrument first, followed by the other, indicating which instrument she wants by pointing to it.  We willingly oblige, because she would say, “Yay!” and clap after we finish playing it…and sometimes she would dance too! Now who could say no to that? 🙂 (p.s. Yes… that bruise on her forehead is the result of her “trip and fall” incident a couple of days ago)

Follow my Lead

June 24, 2010 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 3 comments

Hannah is VERY intuitive.

Ethan recently started playing a game where he would hide and scream “Surprise!!” when Daddy walks in the door in the evenings.

After about two times of doing this routine, Hannah has picked up this *game* too.

When we hide ourselves, Hannah would put a finger to her mouth, indicating “Shhhhhh…..!!!”  (see how she picked it up from her big brother?)

shhhhh1

shhhhh2

and when we yell “Surprise!!”, Hannah raises her arms in the air and screams out loud too!

surprise

What follows after that is the welcoming committee greeting of hugging their Daddy as he comes in the door…. (Awwwwww….)

A Train Shared

June 24, 2010 in Entertainment, Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah | No comments

hannahontrain

This ride-on train is one of the most popular toys in our house.  Ethan still rides on it, even though he is way too tall for it now, and Hannah can now climb on it on her own and move around in it with her feet.  Yeah, that’s how much our little girl has grown!

When once Hannah needed Ethan to take her for rides in the train, now she can give her brother rides too!

sharedtrain

Soon, I doubt the seat would be able to fit the two of them simultaneously! 🙂

Of course, sometimes there are squabbles as to who gets to ride on the train, and sometimes Hannah is forbidden to ride on it, but in the end, my two little ones do work things out… 🙂

Washing of Hands

June 24, 2010 in Growing Up, Hannah | 3 comments

washhands

Hannah loves washing her hands.  And now, she even understands instructions to wash hands.  Whenever I say, “Okay guys, it’s time to wash our hands.  Let’s go!”, Hannah will walk to the bathroom door and extend her hands out towards the door…yes, just like in the picture above.

After washing her hands, she even knows how to go to her brother’s room to wipe her hands dry on his towel!  Sometimes, if she forgets to dry her hands, I’ll remind her and she’ll rush to Ethan’s room.

She just loves washing her hands so much that just the other day, when I asked Ethan to wash his hands, Hannah heard the words “Wash hands” and promptly rushed to the bathroom, thinking that I had also asked her to wash her hands.  But she tripped and fell, knocking her forehead on the door frame!  Ouch!

There was a “big bungalow” on her forehead because of that and she cried ever so loudly.  We put some ice on it and it has subsided somewhat.

Now when I ask the kids to wash hands, Hannah will run to the bathroom, but she will stop short of the door mat, i.e. the spot where she had tripped.

Five days in Ipoh

June 21, 2010 in Entertainment, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Vacation | 2 comments

Nope, we didn’t just spend our Ipoh trip stuffing ourselves silly with food.  That would be BAD.

The kids were occupied with other interesting things too!

Pete’s recent business trip coincided with the first week of the school holidays, so I decided to take both Ethan and Hannah down to Ipoh for a short holiday.  So what were my kids up to?  Hmmm…let’s see…

We had a belated birthday celebration for Ah Ma 🙂  I ordered a delicious butter cake and had candles so that Ethan could provide his candle-blowing services.

 holidays1

Kinta City mall was having a mini clay-sculpting workshop for kids where they would guide the kids to make a clay statue of their fathers in conjunction with Father’s Day.

First, you roll the clay between your hands and press it firmly onto a cardboard:

holidays2

Make sure you press it hard so that the clay mould sticks to the cardboard:

holidays3

Make indentations for the eyes, and shape the nose and mouth:

holidays4

Next, roll the clay and mould the base:

 holidays5

Sculpt the hair on the head and create the entire face, neck and ears.  Then write a Happy Father’s Day message to Daddy:

holidays6

Attach a string to the card and tie it around the sculpture:

holidays7

Finally, pose cheekily with finished product 🙂

holidays8

Ethan was so excited about his sculpture, that he called his Daddy almost immediately and told him, “Daddy, I made a statue of you, Daddy!”

…On some days, I would allow Ethan to play some games on my laptop.  We found this cool baking game where he needs to *bake a cake* according to the picture provided.

holidays9

We also found time one morning to take both the kids to Polo Ground.  It’s a nice exercise area where lots of people come to do their runs or group exercises.  Now Polo Ground is also equipped with beautiful play structures for kids.  Ethan was thrilled!

 exercise1

exercise2

exercise3

exercise5

exercise4

exercise13

Hannah had her share of fun too!  Although she couldn’t quite explore the entire playground structure like her brother, she found other ways to have fun…

exercise6

exercise71

exercise8

exercise9

exercise10

exercise11

exercise12

hannah3 

I’m sure the kids had a good time in Ipoh, and especially spending that extra time with their maternal grandparents.  We drove back to Penang on Friday, tired but also just happy to be back home 🙂

Hannah at 15 months

June 18, 2010 in Hannah, Milestones | No comments

hannah-15monthsScrap Credits
Precious Moments QP from Fly Pixel Studio
Giving Thanks alphas  from Stacey’s Scraps

Weight

10.3 kilos +

Height/Length

About 76-77 cm…or maybe more.

Teeth

8 incisors (4 top and 4 bottom), with a few more teeth appearing at the back, possible pramolars. 

Motor Skills

  • Hannah is walking around very quickly now, and sometimes picks up her step and starts running a little.
  • She can climb up the couch and the bed, sits there unaided and then climb down again, feet and butt first.  I still want to monitor her when she does that because I’m still wary that sometimes she does stand up on the couch/bed and appears to want to *walk off*.
  • Likes to *walk around* in the bathroom when taking her shower.
  • Loves to *hang on* to my legs, even when I am walking.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Hannah can imitate sounds that are being made, eg. “lalalala..”, “eh…” etc
  • Says “Bar-bee” to almost anything, but more often than not, in reference to soft toys and pictures of animals.
  • She can *tell* us what she wants to do or where she wants to go.  For example, when she wants to sleep, she will walk to the room and point at the closed door.
  • Smiles cheekily when someone holds a camera.
  • Screams aloud when excited, frustrated or angry.
  • Shows affection by kissing my cheeks.  Also, when Daddy comes home, she screams delightedly and runs to give him a hug. awwww…..
  • Can point to nose, hair and tummy when asked.  Not 100% consistent but we are working on it.
  • Loves to flip through books.
  • Sometimes refers to herself by saying “Nana”.

Food and Feeding

She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is still loving every bit of her porridge!  She takes a bit of our every day foods, and is very willing to try new things.  I try to give her foods which are low in salt and sugar though, but I love it that her diet is more varied now.  In fact, our girl will *ask* to be fed new things even though she’s not allowed to have it yet, e.g. when I’m eating ice cream, she will come very close to me and open her mouth. 

New foods she has been introduced to include:

  • Wanton noodles (from Old Town coffee shop)
  • Chopped celery (in chicken soup)
  • Beef balls (from spaghetti in Italiannies)
  • Beef stew (from Du Viet)
  • Pasta with tomato pasta sauce
  • Steamed Fish balls (dim sum) – she had a slight rash on her chest after this, so I’ll probably retry this sometime later.
  • Jiu hoo char with lettuce leaves (from Hainan)
  • Tau-ewe-bak (little bit)
  • Hainanese chicken rice
  • Cheerios

We will probably stop cooking porridge for her during weekends now that she can take almost the same food as we do. 🙂

« Older entries § Newer entries »