Milestones

Scrap Credits
Poppy paper from Happy Go Lucky kit from Shabby Princess Designs
Photomask #10 from Kylie M Designs
Photo Mask Sampler from DigiLover’s Addiction
Elegant word art (unbelievable) & Worn Alpha from Bethany

Ethan has shown a remarkable improvement in his language skills since we relocated to the States.  His prowess in phonics has been especially exceptional, and even Aunty Van, his daycare provider, has reported that Ethan is getting very good at phonics.

In fact, I have no doubt in my mind that he can already read.  And here are some scenarios to prove my point:

• As Ethan was playing with his Leapfrog Word Whammer on the fridge one day, Pete guided him to spell the word “bus”, by asking him to put in the letters “b”, “u” and “s”.  Ethan immediately said “bus!” when he was done.  And that’s not all.  One day as I was cleaning up in the kitchen, he pointed out a word to me by saying, “Mommy, cold!”  I turned around and looked.  He had spelt “koh” and he proudly announced that it was “koh!”
• His Aunty Van told me that Ethan read off the word “pink” on her sweater, even though there wasn’t a hint of the color pink on her.
• Ethan was *accompanying* me in the kitchen and he wanted to spell the words on the dishwasher.  He went, “O-F-F”, and I would ask him, “What does that spell?”, and Ethan would say, “Off!”
  Then he went, “O-P-T-I-O-N-S”, and when I asked, “What does that spell?”, he happily exclaimed, “Octopus!”
  Why, of course!  He recognized that the word OCTOPUS has similar letters to the word OPTIONS!
• Lastly, he surprised us one day when he was about to play on his computer.  We’d created user profiles on our PC, and we had to click on the profile to enter.  Ethan knows he has to click on the “Ethan” profile, but that day, he suddenly said, “Jors!” and pointed to my name!  Nobody taught him to say that but for some reason he knew that was how it was pronounced!
  Now, he would say “I wanna click on ‘JOYCE”!” 
  Yep, he has already got the pronunciation down pat!

 
Scrap Credits
Vintage Valentine freebie  from Fanette
Cover Stories #4 Alphas from Kellie Mize
Sweet Love Sampler ring from Kristin Aagard Designs
Love Bug elements from Redju Designs

Ethan turned three on January 31st 2009.  Having survived the “terrible twos”, are we allowed to heave a sigh of relief now?

On the contrary…I think not!

Weight

He was weighed in at about 29.3lbs when he visited the doctor last month, and that converts to about 13.3kilos.

Height

36 inches.

Developmental Milestones

• He is becoming more assertive in his actions, and knows how to take his stand when he wants something.  Surely a sign of independence, but sometimes can lead to tempers too.  He even says, “NO! Don’t do that!” when it suits the situation.
• Can count from 1-40 now, but strangely he leaves out number 16.  He is learning really fast, and he knows the concept, i.e. I have heard him attempting, “Forty-ONE, Forty-TWO,…”
• Calls out endearingly to his Daddy, for example, he would say in a singsong way, “Oh Daddy…!”, and sometimes when I pick Ethan up before fetching Pete after work, upon seeing his Daddy, Ethan would smile and go, “Hallo Daddy!” and “Miss you Daddy!”
• Does not really like to reply in the affirmative YES, but he uses the term “okay” sparingly.  Lately, he has even started to reply “Okay, Mom!” (yes, that’s right, Mom and not Mommy!).  Oh by the way, his favorite word is “NO”
• Loves to show us what he has built or done, especially with his Lego set.  He’ll go, “Look! Look!” while proudly displaying his masterpiece.
• Learning to take turns by saying, “My turn!”
• Has a great sense of humor, and sometimes does things that makes himself laugh out loud.  He especially finds it funny when we accidentally drop things, and say “Oops!”, and he’ll laugh and say, “Funny!”

Food and Feeding

Depending on his mood, he will eat a lot or very little.  There have been times when he will finish 2 whole bowls of rice, and sometimes he would even take the chicken meat.  But sometimes, he would reject rice completely, choosing only to have bread or cheese or muffins or chocolate milk.

 
Scrap Credits
Fall Memories kit from A work in progress
Laugh Alphas from Cathy K Designs
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Love Word Art  from Jamie Lee Designs

Weight

Should be about 12.5kilos.

Height

36 inches.

Teeth

Loves to brush his teeth on his own, even carrying his step stool to the sink, asking for his toothbrush and toothpaste and imitating his Daddy brushing his teeth.  I have a feeling he swallows a little bit of the toothpaste though, but I am still using the fluoride-free toothpaste on him, so that’s perfectly fine.  Ethan allows me to brush his teeth for him too, when he is in the mood.  Of course, I am always happy to do so.

And oh yes, his teeth-brushing sessions always end with a good gurgling and spitting session.
Developmental Milestones

• Becoming more confident in the way he speaks, and can make short sentences like, “Look at that!”, “I wanna go outside!”, or “I don’t want it!” and my favorite: “Daddy, wake up!”
• Knows how to work his charm using magic words like “pees” (please) and “thank you”.  When I give him a Ritz Bits cracker, he will say ever so sweetly, “Thank you Mommy!” - melts my heart every time he does that.
• Loves to hop and jump around.  I guess it is just him practising and perfecting his skills.  In addition to jumping and hopping on level surfaces, he sometimes also jumps from a slightly higher level (like the bottom step of a flight of steps).
• He uses the term “Go Potty” when he wants to have a bowel movement.  Sometimes if he peepees in the potty, and we applaud him for doingso, he will say, “I pee pee in the potty!”
• Knows how to put away his toys.  I especially am pleased to see him detach his Lego pieces and put them away nicely in the box.  He’ll go “put it away”, and does the deed.
• Loves to share his toys, his food, his milk etc with one and sundry, … well especially his soft toys.  It’s so cute the way he goes, “Here, Mickey..”, and “Here, bear…” and then “Here, Daddy…”, and “Here, Mommy”, while he gives out the item he is sharing.
• Ethan is a very sensitive and affectionate boy, and is always asking for a HUG.  And he is very PASSIONATE about things.  Even when he is watching TV… he gets very engrossed when something bad is about to happen to Dora, for example, and says, “No, no, noooo!!!!” almost in a pleading tone.
• Has started to say numbers like “Twenty-ONE!”, “Twenty-TWO!”, etc…
• Wants to go swimming in the “swimming pool”, but we told him we would only take him when the weather is warmer.  It’s enticing to him because he sees the pool every time he steps out of our apartment.
• Becoming more sociable and he actually looks forward to meeting all his friends at daycare every day.  He knows all their names and sometimes during holidays or weekends, he would mention their names too.  And now, who wouldn’t smile when they see Ethan saying “Hi!” while waving, or “Hello Daddy!” first thing in the morning?
• Can tell us where we *should* go or where he *wants to go*, by saying, “This way!” and pointing to a particular direction.
• Demanding to be more independent and his favorite phrase now is, “I’ll do it!”  He wants to buckle up on his own, climb into the car seat on his own, take off his shoes on his own, etc.

Food and Feeding

Lately Ethan has started eating more, we noticed.  He has been asking for “more milk”, “more rice” and (yippee) “more chicken”.  His favorite food of course is still rice and he absolutely loves rice with “saw-soyce” (soy sauce).

I absolutely love the way he pronounces “milk”.  He used to say “nenno” but not any more.  Now it’s “merlk”…you know, the VERY precise pronunciation.

Scrap Credits
Kit Féérie from Cécile Design
Asphault Alphas from starwarsgirl06
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels

Weight

Did not weigh him recently, but he certainly looks more *bulat* now.

Height

36 inches

Teeth

We recently discovered that Ethan LOVES to brush his teeth together with his Daddy.  So whenever we get the opportunity, both of them will brush their teeth together.  After all, we have 2 bathroom sinks side by side to accomodate that
Developmental Milestones

• Can and chooses to unzip his jacket and remove it all by himself.  In fact, he wants to do most things by himself now, including buckling himself up in the car seat.
• Can recognize and verbalize most colors, for instance “yellow”, “red”, “blue”, “brown”, “purple”, “white” and “green”.  For some reason, though, “orange” is still “afoo” to him.
• Picking up words and expressions we use like a sponge.  His favorite one currently is, “Oh man!” (which I think he heard from watching Dora the Explorer).
• More 2-syllable words and 2-word phrases too are used by Ethan now, like “C’mon!”, “Color”, “pancake”, “masee” (for “muffin”), “forbee” (for “strawberry”), “jacket”, “water” (he *rolls* this word like the angmohs) and oh yes, of course “Mickey”, “Minnie”, “Goofy”, “Donald”, “Daisy” and “Barney”.  “Pluto” is still “dog” to him LOL.
• Has begun *singing*.  He loves it when I sing the ABC song, and sometimes he would join in too.  But he is rather self-conscious and if we look at him while he is *singing*, he’ll just stop.
• Pronunciation of numbers is getting more precise.  He says “seven” clearly now, instead of “fem”, and we also heard him distinctly say “thirteen”.
• Loves playing with a computer software game at daycare, and according to Van, Ethan can handle the mouse pretty well.  At home, we let him play around on the Playhouse Disney site.

He still needs us to click on the button that says “Oh, Toodles!” but he just simply loves holding the mouse and moving it around!

• Learning to love watching movies too.  We recently bought the Happy Feet DVD, and he totally adores the dancing penguin!  He sat through most of the movie though, although he fell asleep half way.

Food and Feeding

Rice is still his staple food, and he absolutely LOVES English muffins with butter.  From his daily daycare reports, we learnt that sometimes Ethan will request for rice if noodles are served.

Oh yeah, and he still loves to eat whatever Daddy eats, especially at breakfast.

 Weight

About 12.7 kilos. He was weighed in at 28lbs at a recent visit to the pediatrician here in California, but he was fully clothed then and not feeling too well either.

Height

Did not measure recently, but he can reached the door handles and open all the doors to our apartment now.  Surely that means he has grown lengthwise?

Teeth

18.  Refuses to allow me to wash his teeth with a washcloth now, and also refuses to let me brush his teeth with a toothbrush.  On occasion, he will brush his teeth himself with some fluoride-free toothpaste, and I heard from his daycare sitter, Van, that sometimes he will allow her to brush his teeth too, perhaps due to good examples shown by Venice, Van’s daughter.

And, oh yeah, lately he will bite us when he is “geram” or when he doesn’t get his way.  Both the daycare center and us back at home are trying to educate him that it is wrong to bite.

Developmental Milestones

• Ethan’s vocabulary has definitely increased in leaps and bounds since he came to the States.  He can express himself better and sometimes surprises us with words we didn’t know he knew.
  • His favorite word when he first arrived here was “open”.  He would use it whenever he wanted us to open the door, open the fridge, open the container for him.  So in the first 2 or 3 nights that he suffered from jet lag, I would constantly be awakened by Ethan climbing down from our bed, running to the door and saying, “Open! Open!”  Lately, he has started using the phrase, “Open door! Open door!”
  • Believe it or not, he says the phrase “Apa tu?” when he wants to know what something is.  For example, when we are eating at the table, he will point to one of the dishes laid out on the table and go, “Apa tu?” and we’ll go, “That’s soup.”  And he’ll say, “Soup?”  And then he’ll point to something else and say, “Apa tu?” and we’ll say, “Vege, Ethan.”  And he’ll follow by saying, “Vege”, “Carrot”, “Curry”, whatever… as you can see, he is beginning to sound more and more like a parrot nowadays.
  • He also learnt the word “cooking” when he came to the States.  Before we arrived, he only used the word “cook”, but after spending a few days at home with me here, he would go, “Cooking!  Cooking!” when he sees me in the kitchen.  Maybe it’s cuz I tell him, “Ethan, please don’t come into the kitchen, Mommy is cooking!”  And then sometimes he would want to see what I am cooking and when I show him, he’ll go, “Soup!”
  • Another one of his favorite words nowadays is “Dowan!” or “Don’t want!”.  He started by saying “Want!” or “Wanee!” when he didn’t want something, but a few days later, he picked up “Dowan!”.  So our normal conversation typically is like this:
    Me: Ethan, do you want to eat rice?
    Ethan: Dowan!
    Me: Come, let’s take a bath in the tub!
    Ethan: I dowan!
    Me: Do you wanna take a nap?
    Ethan: Dowan! Dowan!
  • There are many other words he has learnt, and I believe it is also because of his exposure to more kids at daycare.  In a way, his increasing vocabulary has made him more confident as he is growing up to be a big boy now
• Ethan can now address a few people quite accurately.  It started when we took him to that barbecue gathering in early October when we arrived in California.  I prepped him to address “Aunty”, “Uncle”, etc.  And now he can say, “Artee”, “Ah-kurl”, “Ko-ko”, “Cheh-cheh”, and of course before he learnt all this, he said, “Kong Kong” and “Ah Ma” :)  Of course, it is hilarious how he sometimes calls a particular person “Ah-kurl” and another “Ko-ko”.  I am also teaching him to address his actual uncles and aunties, e.g. “Ah Koo”, “Ah Kim”, “Ah Chek”, “Ah Cheem”, “Kor Kor”, “Ah Pek” and “Ah Mmm”.  Pronunciation still needs some work though, but he is getting there.
• He wants to do a lot of things by himself too.  He tries to pull down his “car” pullup pants on his own (which is good), he wants to play the DVD on his own, he wants to climb into the car seat by himself, he wants to walk on the street on his own (not so good)…
• Of course, as it is with two-year-olds, he has a rather bad temper at times too.  When he doesn’t get his way, he will kick and scream.  We would normally just let him be for a while till he cools down and he will then be okay.

Food and Feeding

• Ever since he started daycare, he has reverted to self-feeding, which is a good thing.  Sometimes he still wants me to feed him, but sometimes, he will want to do it himself, and he will say, “Hold!”, which indicates he wants to hold the spoon on his own.  He can drink milk on his own from the cup now, and just yesterday, he drank quite a lot of the chilled lactose-free milk I bought
• Ethan has still a long way to go to eating lots of different foods, but he is eating a more varied variety now.  I sometimes give him some minced turkey with his rice and also some brocolli florets.  I am so into minced turkey meat nowadays.  It’s leaner and taste so much better than pork.  However, we have to hide the food in his gravy rice though.  If he doesn’t see it, he’ll eat it.  Besides turkey and brocolli, Van has also succeeded in giving him a little bit of beef (hehe), and surprise, surprise, he can eat spaghetti with a fork now (woohoo!).  The good thing, though, is that I can tell Ethan is more curious about what food is being served on the table now.  Hopefully he will soon be curious enough to eat more.

Potty/toilet training

He has started on potty training at daycare, and Van will take him to the potty every hour or so.  Most of the time, Ethan can tell us when he wants to poo, either by signing or by saying “Baba”, or by using his facial expressions.  However, he still has not peed in the toilet yet, all he wants to do now is to flush!  We’ll keep trying though.

Scrap Credits
Beautifall add-on kit from Scrapmuss Designs
Sweet Dreams alphas from A work in progress
Alpha matching RAIC from Amy Sumrall
Doodle Me Big doodles from Mikkel Paige Original
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Elegant word art (illegal cute) from Bethany

Weight

About 12 kilos.

Height

88cm.  According to Dr Jessica, he is rather tall for his age.

Teeth

18.

Developmental Milestones

• Can finally JUMP.  It happened one day during one of his Learning Garden sessions.  He climbed on the trampoline and, while holding Pete’s hands, jumped up and down.  And now he is slowly but surely jumping around more confidently.  In fact, he can hop, skip and jump all over our apartment now!
• Becoming more and more sociable and less shy when meeting strangers.  Less time is needed for him to “warm up” now. 
• He has also developed many different new facial expressions, one of my favorites being his cheeky giggle, where he giggles when he is tickled by something funny and he purposely moves his jaw up and down.  Another priceless expression is when he scrunches up his face in a cheeky grin when we ask him to SMILE!
• He can finally address Daddy and Mommy CONSISTENTLY.  His “Daddy” is very very clear, but his “Mommy” is well…..slightly off-key.  Will reveal what he says later.
• Our boy is one tough little man.  At his recent 3rd and final jab for his JE vaccination, he didn’t cry one bit when Dr Jessica gave the injection.  He sat quietly and protested at first, but when we told him it would only be a little while, and asked him to be a good boy, he cooperated.

Food and Feeding

Ethan is eating more now, but he still prefers his favorite rice and gravy.  He has kinda lost interest in eating spaghetti and noodles though.  I hope that he will start to eat more meat and vegetables soon.

N.B. Due to my tardiness, I might have left out a few milestones, but I will add them into the upcoming 33 months’ update soon.

Scrap Credits
Spontaneous Delight kit from Carrie Stephens Designs
Basic chipboard alphas from Dani Mogstad

I’m gonna use the dependable adage here and say “Better late than never”. GASP! I am close to three weeks late in posting a monthly report on Ethan’s developmental milestones.  Been a really busy month for all of us, and you’ll soon know why, but I tell myself that I still need to do this update.
Weight

12 kilos, according to the weighing scale at home.

Height

Did not measure recently, but he does seem to have S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D.

Teeth

18 in total, and very sharp too, I might add.  According to his mood, Ethan will sometimes brush his teeth, but sometimes he will refuse.  He won’t want to put toothpaste in his mouth though.  My dentist told me that cleaning a toddler’s teeth is important, especially the molars, and she advised me that using a wash cloth wrapped around a finger would be effective enough.  So I have been using the sherpa backing of the cloth wipes I have to clean Ethan’s teeth.  Quite a struggle, sometimes, but it does result in more than satisfactory results (and not to mention, often a bruised finger or two).

Developmental Milestones

• Attempting to “read”, I think.  So far, Ethan knows almost all his alphabets (both lowercase and uppercase), but we have noticed that sometimes when he sees a combination of some letters, he will try to pronounce them like what he thinks they would sound like.  For example, when he sees the word “HBO”, he will say “bo”, referring to the last two letters, or he will say “wa” when he sees the letters “WA”.  “Star Movies” is “Star-vees” to him
• Faster as picking up words he hears.  He will say “phone, phone!” when he wants to play with my cellphone, or he will say “book!” when he wants his book.  When he wants to put toothpaste on his toothbrush, he will say “paste! paste!” and just this morning, after he saw Pete brushing his teeth, Ethan asked me for “brush, brush!”
• Beginning to show preference.  Besides voicing his opinions sometimes by firmly stating “Mai!” (”no” in Hokkien), while kicking and throwing a tantrum, he sometimes requests for who he wants to give him his shower.  There have been several times when I was ready to give him his nightly shower and he adamantly called out, “Daddy!  Daddy!  Daddy!”, and when Pete answered, Ethan pulled his Daddy into the shower stall
• Loves playing “horse” with Daddy.  Ethan will run towards Daddy, pull him to the ground, and saying “horse!”.  Ethan can now expertly climb onto Daddy’s back and well…ride the “horse”.  (Horsy has got impressive sound effects too, I might add).

Other Highlights

We’ve been preparing him to welcome his new sibling in a few months’ time, but in the recent weeks, we’ve noticed that he’s been acting rather “big brotherly” like.  There was a time when he pointed at my tummy and said “baby!”, and nowadays when I ask him to “sayang baby”, he will gently stroke my belly.  Sometimes la.

Food and Feeding

Ironically, he has been requesting for me to feed him instead of him eating on his own.  Could this dependence be caused by the “knowledge” that he will soon be a big brother?

Scrap Credits
Film Star kit from retrodiva {designs}™
Curl Page kit freebie filmstrip from Cen’s Stuff
Alpha Black from Digiscrap.ch
Little curly alphas from Amy Sumrall
HoldEmUps from Tara Dunstan
Doodle Me Big doodles from Mikkel Paige Original
Elegant word art (stay little always) from Bethany

Ethan boy is now two-and-a-half years old!

Weight

12 kilos, according to the weighing scale at home.

Height

About 88cm I think, measurement taken with measuring tape while Ethan was sleeping.

Teeth

I think 18 teeth. Bottom 2 canines are still not present though.

Motor Skills

• Can remove his own shoes and loves doing so.
• Still eagerly practising his jumping skills.
• Can do hand stand, by supporting his body with his arms, and using his legs to climb up the wall vertically. Ethan has rather strong arm muscles, I’d say. We’ve seen him supporting his weight with his arms while in his high chair too.
• Can climb up the playground slide unaided using railings, where he needs to hold on to the sides with his arms, and use his legs to grip the railings firmly. I have to admit he almost gave me a heart attack when he first attempted to do it, but now I am proud to say he’s a pro at it!
• Able to gurgle and spit. He will brush his teeth, but will not do it with toothpaste, although strangely enough, he requests for the toothpaste to be placed on his toothbrush. Then he takes some water from the cup, gurgle and then spit when I cue him, “Ptooi!”

Communication and Social Skills

More words … those I can remember. Mostly single words still, and I am in the process of helping him string two words together ( 1 verb + 1 noun).

Body Parts

• Ham (hand)

Animals

• Cat
• Eh-fer (elephant)

Nouns

• Beh (bell) - when he wants to ring the bell to our apartment.
• Tway (train)

Verbs

• Close
• Wa (flush) … the toilet la, what else?

Alphabets and Numbers
Can recognize most of his alphabets, and can even recite them in order. But we’ll need to “fill in the blanks” for those he is unsure of. When he notices letters on our attire, he will excitedly point them out and name them. Even when he is riding in the car, he never fails to surprise us with his observance. He will point out letters as he sees them and clearly say them out loud
He knows the order of numbers from 1-10, and when I first drafted this post about 4 days ago, he will only say “two” (2), “twee” (3), “eh” (8) and “nah” (9). Actually I heard him say “ten” a couple of times already, but it is still inconsistent. I know he knows the order of the numbers because he can correctly place the correct numbers in the right places when he is counting in ascending AND descending order. But my my, look what a difference few days made. Ethan can now say “wa” (1), “four” (4), “fai” (5) also and believe it or not “eighteeeen!!” (18).

Shapes and Colors
Has started to vocalize more shapes, like “har” (heart), “kurkurl” (circle) and “over” (oval).

Food and Feeding

After the deworming exercise, either by sheer coincidence or it really was due to the exercise, Ethan has started taking some chicken meat (willingly). He especially loves Nando’s lemon and herb flavored chicken … and especially so when I serve it to him using those cute flag toothpicks!

Yesterday, we took Ethan for his long-overdue haircut.  Daddy also needed a haircut so we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone.

Ethan had to wait for a while before his turn came, and he busied himself checking out what Daddy was getting done to his hair.  He was very intrigued watching Daddy get a haircut and when his turn came, Ethan yet again surprised me by how he has grown.  

Our boy asked to be helped into the salon’s chair and there, he sat down patiently waiting for the hairdresser to give his head a shave.  The hairdresser put on the little kiddy cape for Ethan and he sat still, allowing her to work her magic.  Of course, throughout the entire process, we heaped loads of praises and commented what a handsome boy he is.

When she was 80% done, however, Ethan got restless, so I took him down from the chair and allowed him to roam around.  Then we finished off the front part of his hair with Ethan on my lap.

Such a vast improvement from a year ago, I would say.  My boy is growing into a young man now. Awww…

Here he is requesting us to “ah-purn” the door when he was ready and all set to go home.

Scrap Credits
Kit Freebie June 2008 & “Funny Bubble Alpha” from Loloden designs
Doodle Me Big doodles from Mikkel Paige Original

Weight

During his recent Hepatitis A jab and checkup, his weight was around 11 kilos. SIGH…and I thought he would be heavier.

Height

Didn’t get to measure.

Teeth

I’m very sure he has 8 teeth at the bottom (4 incisors, 2 pramolars and 2 molars); that’s cuz I managed to look this morning. He’s missing the 2 canines at the bottom though, like Daddy. At the top, probably 8 or 10 teeth (still cannot see clearly, especially the back). I’m guessing 4 incisors, 2 canines, 2 pramolars and 2 molars. So 18 in total.

Motor Skills

• Attempted to hop on the trampoline. I was so tickled at the sight, I forgot to videotape it.
• Can pull open the fridge on his own. Note to self: need to get one more child-proof lock for the fridge.
• Can buckle himself up while in the high chair. Discovered this when we were dining in Friday’s. He can’t unbuckle though, which is a good thing.

Communication and Social Skills

• Still quite shy at times, but I’d say it’s selective. He wasn’t shy at all when the parish priest came a-visiting just 2 nights ago. In general, Ethan does not like it when adults give him TOO much attention, like if people stare at him and talk to him in a childish singsong manner. If he is left alone, he will approach you. After all, we too do not like people staring at us, right?
• More new words now, though not stringing into sentences yet. I am very pleased to be able to categorize Ethan’s new words into sections now. The way he says these new words is just so adorable, all of them with an intonation that goes higher in the end.
  Body Parts
  Ethan is able to name some of his body parts now, the rest he recognizes by pointing. He will respond when we ask him, “Where is your <insert body part here>?”
  • Noe (Nose) - He goes “Noe” while pointing to his nose. The other day he did something, and I reprimanded him by saying “No, Ethan!”. He paused for a moment, looked at me, then pointed to his nose and went, “No?” You just gotta laugh.
  • Ah! (Eyes) - He doesn’t point at his eyes (scared of poking them I guess), but he sometimes blinks.
  • Tee (teeth) - points and shows his pearly whites
  • Tub (tummy)
  • Feet - he’ll wriggle his feet
  • Toe/Toes - When we say “touch your toes”, he’ll do so

  And he can point to the following upon request:

  • Cheeks
  • Ear
  • Mouth
  • Tongue
  • Fingers
  • Hand

  Animals

  • Peeg (pig)
  • Cow
  • Go (goat)
  • Hor (horse)
  • Dog/daw-dawg (dog)
  • Bird
  • Baa (sheep)
  • kwuck-kwuck (chicken) - this one cos I tell him the chicken goes cluck-cluck
  • quack-quack (duck) - no prizes for guessing how he learnt this
  • Eh-papa (elephant)
  • Bear
  • But-tah (butterfly)

  Nouns

  • Bah (bus)
  • Car - very good pronunciation, this
  • Doll
  • Cup
  • Bottoo (button)
  • Air-purl/ah-purl (apple)
  • Wee (tree)
  • Book
  • Tahb-ta (truck)
  • Poon (spoon)
  • Key
  • Bowl
  • Wa (clock)
  • Tahb-tahb (drum)
  • Boat
  • Puh-ta (pizza)
  • Hau (house)
  • Botter (bottle)
  • Bank - said while signing “bank”

  Verbs

  • Ah-purn (Open) - he’ll run to the door and go “Ah-purn?”
  • Cook - When he sees me at the stove preparing some food, he’ll go “Cook?” and point that he wants to be carried up so he can see what’s for lunch/dinner.
  • Blow - this one complete with blowing action. He will imitate the blowing action when Barney tells the story of the Three Little Pigs too.
  • Eat
  • Thump (jump)
  • Smile - done with the sweetest smile ever!
  • Kah (cut)
  • Bay (bathe)
  • Ra (run)
  • Tack (stack)
  • Ride
  • Walk
  • Read
  • Play

Pssst….is it obvious that I have been jotting down each and every word as he says it?

Alphabets and Numbers
Still doing a lot of “two” and “two-ah?” but sometimes he will say “twee?”
Alphabet-wise, he is picking up here and there. I think he can pretty much recognize “O”, “T”, “M”, “B”, “P” ; sometimes “V”.

Shapes and Colors
He can recognize and vocalize the “star” and the “square” (single syllable) shapes.  The rest like “circle”, “triangle”, “heart” etc, he can point out upon request.  He says “gwee” (green) when we are stopping at the traffic lights and waiting for it to turn green.

Food and Feeding

• I’m still in the process of finding out ways and means to get him to eat more. Being the active toddler he is, Ethan needs to substantiate this with more nutritious food.

Here’s a darling video of Ethan naming some of his farm animals. They’re from a wooden puzzle I bought for him a while back. He does in fact understand the names of each of the animals, but now, he will only verbally say the names of a few, namely “hor” (horse), “peeeg” (pig) and “go” (goat). He calls the cow “moo” and the sheep “baa”, and although he doesn’t want to say the names of the rest of the animals, he will retrieve them when asked.

Notice how our boy takes the trouble to enunciate the words ever so clearly
And yes, if it ain’t obvious yet, I absolutely ADORE him in his Mr Independent peejays. Don’t you?

Scrap Credits
Mai chez digiscrapbook freebie from Monique Gascon
Dandelion dream alphas from A work in progress
Blue funny bubble alpha from Loloden Designs

Weight

Not much weight increase from last month (I think)…although lately he does appear to be “bigger-sized”.  Must get him officially weighed in at our next visit to the PD (maybe next week).

Height

Haven’t measured yet, but he seems to be able to reach more things now.

Teeth

Sixteen (or maybe eighteen): 8 incisors, 2 canines (upper), 4 pramolars (2 upper and 2 lower) and 2 molars (bottom); maybe 2 molars on the top too. Still salivating a lot.

Motor Skills

• Attempting to jump and hop, especially when watching the kids in the Barney DVDs hop and jump.  Ethan will climb onto the sofa and move his entire body up and down, but both his legs don’t come up at the same time (yet).

Communication and Social Skills

• Yay!  New words, and some old ones too:

  • Buh-bye! (done while waving goodbye) 
  • Daw-dawg
  • Two!!! (It’s happiness for all when he points to the number 2 and says that, but then we realize he refers to ALL numbers and alphabets as TWO. LOL.  Even now when we go to Queensbay Mall, he will run to the big 4 on the fourth floor where we park and say “TWO!!”.  Of course, we’ll say, “No Ethan, that’s FOUR!”  I believe he will catch on soon.)
  • Star (he does this with and without prompting.  Sometimes he would notice STARS we would not even see, and so these days, when we go out, Ethan would sometimes say “Star!” and we’ll start looking for it)
  • Snow (learnt from Baby Shakespeare)
  • Nenno (for milk)
  • Baby (all babies and children and kids are “baby” to him, even those older than him.  He constantly say “baby” now when he sees one of the above)
  • Wee!  (sometimes he will refer to the number 3 as “Wee” but it’s not very consistent)
  • Teevee teevee teevee! (while propping himself on the sofa waiting for the TV to be turned on)
  • Tatai (Baby Einstein)
• Can recognize more body parts and is able to point to them on request: nose, ear, mouth, teeth, toes, tummy, fingers.
• Can point out pictures in his book (flowers, banana, teddy bear and chair)
• Can give a particular animal block when requested. So far, he has mastered the cow, the pig, the horse and the goat.
• Can play “roll the ball” back and forth, but again, it depends on his mood.
• Skills at kicking a ball has improved tremendously. Very accurately done.
• Ethan is slowly engaging into the imitation mode where he copies what is being seen on TV, e.g. runs to the door and tries to knock and open it when he sees someone doing it on TV.

Food and Feeding

• More food going in and less food landing on the floor.

Scrap Credits
Spring Romantic bonus from Doreen Stolz
Feb 29th blog freebie paper and alphas from miss SCRAP
Handcut paper alphas from Grazieli Niclass
Joy word art from fei-fei’s stuff

Scrap Credits
Rustic freebit kit from Marianne Wåhlberg Designs
Numbers: Alpha Black from Digiscrap.ch
 

Weight

Feels like 11 kilos, though I believe he is only 10.5 or 10.6kilos.  Eats non-stop but cannot put on weight much.  Must have inherited Pete’s genes there.

Height

Haven’t measured him recently, but perhaps about 85cm, at least?

Teeth

Sixteen (I think): 8 incisors, 2 canines (upper) and 4 pramolars (2 upper and 2 lower) AND I recently noticed the whites of his bottom two molars.  No sign of his lower canines yet (another thing he must have inherited from Daddy).

Motor Skills

• Able to walk on tiptoe pretty well.  According to the baby guide book, a toddler is only expected to do this at 2.5 years.
• Running strides are much bigger now, and it is becoming harder to keep up with him.
• Loves to stand up on the high chair after he is *done* with his meal, making it very difficult for us to have a nice quiet meal outside.
• Sometimes he is able to stand on one foot without support.  Still unsteady but getting there. 
• Slowly but surely learning how to handle the fork and spoon without spilling.  Most of the time he makes a mess, but I have noticed a few times when he successfully fed himself.
• Loves to hold the apple and bite on it, just like an adult.

Communication and Social Skills

• Temper tantrums becoming more rampant.  When we are out and if he doesn’t get his way, he will kneel on the ground and start bawling.  At home, when we say “NO” to his demands, he will crouch on his belly and wail pitifully, sometimes to the extent of screaming.
• Knows the signs for the following new words:
  • Dog
  • Bird
  • Fish
  • Cat
  • Fence
  • Mailbox
  • Florist
• Words he has inconsistently said:
  • “Chi-toh” (”play” in Hokkien)
  • Okay
  • “bee” (change channel on TV)
  • Queensbay Mall …. (hehe…okay la, sometimes he says something that sounds like that when we are approaching the mall)
• Can point to at least three body parts when prompted, his favorites being his nose, his mouth and his eyes.  Still loves pointing a lot, as opposed to expressing himself verbally.
• Loves to look at toddlers and children who are older than he is, but is uncomfortable with younger babies.

Food and Feeding

• Ethan is completely weaned from the breast.  Even after I changed his diapers in the baby room in Jaya Jusco, he did not rush into the breastfeeding room like he used to.  Takes about 3 feeds of Pediasure daily, each feed about 5-6oz, eating other solid food too.  I’m so happy his favorite is my homecooked claypot chicken rice!
• Eating a lot lately, hopefully he’ll bulk up a little soon.

Toilet Training

Not toilet-trained yet, but I am starting to try and put him on the toilet seat when I see him straining.  I bought the Bruin padded toilet seat for him and he absolutely loves it!  I’ll be getting one for Mrs Tan to use too.  Yesterday, Ethan successfully did his business while sitting on the throne.  No mess!  And I praised him sky high.  Boy was he delighted!

Scrap Credits
Template 41 from Jill & Jack ScrapDesigns
Emma kit from retrodiva {designs}™
Basic chipboard alphas from Dani Mogstad
Flower glitter from Pineapple Plantation Designs
Raffia stitched heart from Kim B’s Designs

Although Ethan cannot really speak in proper words yet, his communication skills in terms of signing has improved tremendously due to frequent exposure to the Baby Einstein DVD that incorporates signing, My Favorite Places.  He will now eagerly await the part in the program where the instructor or kid makes the sign for the appropriate word and often, he will sign the word even before the word appears on the screen.

As a kiasu concerned mommy who only wants the best for her child, I must admit that I am a tad worried that Ethan is experiencing speech delay.  They are some friends of mine who offer some form of consolidation and reassurance in that their own sons also went through the exact same phase.  It truly appears though that Ethan has lots to say, but it’s just that we cannot yet make head or tail out of what he is saying.  He understands what we say and can respond correctly, but when he needs to say something, he prefers to point or to lead us to what he wants to do.  For example, he will *throw* our hand at the fridge when he wants us to open it, or he will *throw* my hand at the milk bottle when he wants a feed.

I’ve also contacted a speech therapist in KL who recommended that we visit a local speech therapist in Penang.  I am hesitant because I do not wish to subject Ethan to (maybe) weekly therapy sessions.  If I can help it, that is.  Another suggestion brought forward, also by our pediatrician, is to expose him to as many of his peers as much as possible.  So we are currently looking into options for this as well.

Nevertheless, his ability to imitate and sign has spurred me to purchase a baby signing book and DVD.  Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, Pete’s good friend’s sister contacted me (blogging has many advantages you know!) and told me about her unique site, Baby Signs Malaysia.  She assured me that allowing and teaching Ethan to sign will not impair his ability to acquire speech, but on the contrary it would probably pave the way for him.  Just like crawling comes before walking, signing will come naturally before talking.  So I purchased the I Can Sign! Animals book + DVD from her last week (it was on offer at RM40; regular retail price RM60).  It contains a board book and a 20-minute DVD which teaches the baby the signs used for 6 animals, namely dog, bird, fish, cat, monkey and turtle.  I was excited to share this with Ethan, and when I did that evening, he was glued to the TV for the entire duration.  I know he loves animals so this was the perfect DVD for him.  He didn’t take to the signs at first but when I showed him the DVD again the next evening, I was delighted that he could sign dog, cat, bird and monkey.  Sometimes he still needs to be prompted, but to me this was definitely an achievement in itself.

I also bought My First Spoken Words: Babies, which introduces six words too, by playing the word as the baby turns the page.  Ethan took one look at this book, flipped it open and did some fiddling with it, and after a minute, we discovered to our horror that there was no more sound coming out from it!  We had to purposely drop the book on the floor to trigger the sound mechanism again.  SIGH.

Anyway, I really hope that Ethan will complement his signing with his talking soon.  I can’t wait to engage in conversation with this chatterbox of mine!

At first I had planned to present it to Ethan’s grandparents for Grandparents’ Day last September, but I couldn’t get it ready then.  So I decided to try for Christmas instead.  Well, Christmas came and I was not even close to finishing it.  Then I adamantly targeted Ethan’s second birthday, but because of some hiccups with the file upload and ordering process, I rescheduled the targeted date to Chinese New Year.

Finally the photobooks are ready.  I received them three days before Chinese New Year, and got them wrapped up as presents for Ethan’s grandparents.  I had printed three copies of the photobook - no prizes for guessing who gets the third copy :)  The photobook contained pictures of Ethan which I had digitally scrapbooked with the used of Adobe Photoshop, no glue required.  All forty pages held memories which were dear to us, and I am sure Ethan’s grandparents would be thrilled with the book too.

We presented the photobook to both his Ah Mas and Ah Kongs for Chinese New Year, and I could see their faces light up with pride when they saw what the present contained.  May they enjoy hours and hours of flipping through the book and sharing Ethan’s photos with their friends and visitors :)  Someday Ethan boy will enjoy the book too… I just know it!

Scrap Credits
The Star kit from Digiscrap.ch
Basic chipboard alphas from Dani Mogstad

The inevitable Terrible Twos are upon us, and it certainly looks like Ethan has already taken the cue because he is fast exhibiting more prominence on being his own person and forming a cheeky, naughty personality of his own.

Weight

Feels like 11 kilos.

Height

82-85 cm

Teeth

Fourteen: 8 incisors, 2 canines (upper) and 4 pramolars (2 upper and 2 lower). There are signs that he may be teething soon, because he salivates a lot these days.

Motor Skills

• Can slide down a slide properly.
• Becoming quite the expert at climbing up the stairs and he had a lot of practice during Chinese New Year. He is rather cautious when he comes downstairs though, especially if the steps are steep ones.
• Loves to swing arms around, as if he is exercising or something.
• Can really throw a ball properly, sometimes way better than those footballers doing the throw-in during football matches.
• Can kick the ball really well. Pete will soon be taking him to the field for a one-on-one football match.
• Eagerly takes angpows when he is offered one.
• Can take a balloon and swing it to hit people’s heads. Yes, he is quite violent…

Communication and Social Skills

• We are seeing some progress in the communication aspect. New words he has learnt are
  • “Foo-bor” or “oo-bor” (football)
  • “two”
  • “ee”, “errr” (one and two in Mandarin)
  • “eat-eat” (eat - when we are driving out to dinner or lunch)

• Watching Baby Einstein’s Baby’s Favorite Places has also paid off. Yesterday he amazed me when he signed the following when I prompted him:
  • School - place one palm on top of the other, in the sign of a book.
  • Library - form the letter L with the thumb and index finger and wave it around. (Actually he did the “library” sign before but now it is more consistent).
  • Driveway/sidewalk - points both arms to the front
  • Playing field/playground - waves both arms in the air
  • Garden - clasps both hands together. Actually the actual sign is to make like a blooming flower, but he is still practising.

• Throws a mean tantrum whenever he doesn’t get what he want. For example, when we ask him to go somewhere and he still wants to play outside, he will bang both his hands on the wall or pillar or something in frustration. When we try to carry him, he will kneel down on the floor and protest. Or shake his head vigorously.

• Has developed a preference for certain channels on TV. When the TV is tuned to a channel he finds boring, he will grunt or scream in protest, so we have to change the channel. If the Astro remote is not within our reach, he will bring the remote to us to ask us to change the channel for him. Oh, he prefers Channel V to MTV… don’t ask why.

Food and Feeding

• In the words his Daddy uses, Ethan eats non-stop.

• Ethan is now ALMOST fully weaned from the breast. I no longer breastfeed him in the daytime and in the evenings before he hits the bed, even when I am with him the entire day. He hardly asks to be breastfed too, and sometimes when he does, it is at night, and when I tell him “No”, he will obey. He can also fall asleep without comfort suckling now, which to me, is a great achievement. Immediately after his 2nd birthday, he automatically decided that he could go to bed at night on his own, of course, with me by his side still. Now, the final obstacle is to fully wean him from the breast for the middle of the night comfort sucklings. There were a couple of nights where he slept through soundly too.

• Likes to feed himself. Sometimes he won’t even eat until I put the food on the plate in front of him so he can help himself to it.

• Favorite foods: chicken rice, chicken koay teow, spaghetti, plain white bread, char siew pau, siew mai, Yakult, yogurt, apples and bananas.

 
Scrap Credits
Kit “Happy New Year” from Sueli Colbert
Template 32 from Jill & Jack ScrapDesigns
Numbers - Terre de feu alphas from Digiscrap.ch
Winter Wonderland Brown alphas from Perfectly Imperfect

With the New Year 2008 upon us, I can hardly believe that Ethan is now one month shy of his 2nd birthday. How time has flown! Everyone is commenting how “not that bulat” he is now, but you know what? Deep down, he will always always be my adorable darling Mr Bulat.

Weight

10.5 kilos when we visited the pd on Dec 17th.

Height

82 cm.

Teeth

Fourteen: 8 incisors, 2 canines (upper) and 4 pramolars (2 upper and 2 lower).

Motor Skills

• Can climb up the stairs now one leg at a time. He likes to do it without the support of anyone, which scares me.
• Can step on and off the escalators on his own. We will hold his hand and lead him on and off, but sometimes he will insist on doing it solo. Scares me too.
• Can push himself over his cot side, just by using his arm strength and pushing his tummy on the side. Really really scary.
• Is able to complete his wooden jigsaw block puzzle on his own. He prefers the one with the safari animals to the sea creatures one though. Although he does seem to take a liking to the whale…

Communication and Social Skills

• Not speaking a whole lot yet, but not keeping mum either. Has tons of *stories* to tell. People have suggested that we enrol him in playschool to allow him to mingle with kids his age, because that will encourage him to communicate with us. Me? I’m reading Making Chatter Matter and trying the guidelines and methods suggested to prod him towards verbal diarrhoea.
• Can point to his nose when asked “Where is your nose?. But there is a flaw in this still. “Where is your ear/eyes/mouth?” produces the same results
• Can point out and identify where things are. For example, on the way to the sitter’s we will pass by an apartment with 3 aquariums and 1 bird cage. When asked “Where is the fish?”, Ethan will point to the fishes in the aquarium and “Where is the bird?” will prompt him to point to where the bird is.
• I noticed last night that he has learnt to whisper.

Food and Feeding

• More often than not, Ethan will insist on self-feeding. He loves to hold the fork and spoon and try to scoop the rice on his own. I have to admit he is getting pretty good at it too!
• On the weaning front, he will now happily finish 4-5oz of Pediasure immediately when he wakes up in the morning. And I couldn’t be happier. I guess it is just a matter of time before he is completely weaned off the breast.

Scrap Credits
Holiday Inn freebie from ScissorlessMedia
Moody Kit from SweetMade
Harvest Spice Numbers from Shabby Princess

Weight

Should be still around 11-11.5 kilos because he lost some weight during his Rotavirus infection last month. He does feel heavier now anyways.

Height

Not much change from the previous month, I would think, so around 83cm.

Teeth

Twelve in total. I know I mentioned earlier that he had 4 pramolars appearing, but it looks like I was wrong! He now has eight incisors, two HUGE pramolars on the bottom jaw and two canines on the upper!

Motor Skills

• When the music from the Barclay’s Premiership Show starts playing on the TV, Ethan will kick one foot in the air repeatedly.  We do not know if he is merely enjoying the music or if, in fact, he is simulating the act of kicking a football.
• Ethan has mastered the *art* of throwing blocks over his shoulder.
• He can place almost all his shapes correctly in his shape sorter.  He definitely can master the simple shapes like the circle, square, star, flower, triangle and cross.  The tricky shapes in his round shape-sorter like the heart, the “T” or the house-shaped block will sometimes make him frustrated.  Typically he will identify the color of the shape first and then try to fit them into the correct slot.
• He loves to play and pretend to draw and write with a pen or pencil.  Up till today, we still cannot tell for sure if he is a rightie or leftie.  Maybe he is ambidextrous?

Communication and Social Skills

• “Speaking” more with the use of gestures as well.  Ethan especially loves to use both his index fingers to accentuate his “speech”.  Luckily it is the index finger he is using
• Once, when he was watching the “Meet the Orchestra” Baby Einstein DVD, I heard him repeat the word “Bass” after the instructor.
• Consistently says “sssss…” when we drive along a particular stretch on Yeap Chor Ee road, when we drive up the ramp towards the coastal highway and sometimes when we approach Queensbay Mall.  We do not know yet if he is referring to “ssssslope”, “treesssssss” or “Queenssssssbay”. 
• Can understand simple instructions like “clap hands”, “come here”, “come” and also “kai kai”.  Will get upset when we raise our voice and say “NO” in a stern tone.

Food and Feeding

Also known as our very own bottomless pit, he can finish quite a lot of food now.  When we go out, we sometimes have to order enough to feed three.  Ethan can finish about one small bowlful of rice on his own.  He also loves to eat with his hands.

 
Scrap Credits
Slightly Rugged kit from Pam Lefors Designs
Stitched felt frame from Lindsay Jane Designs
Harvest Spice alphas & elements from Shabby Princess Designs

Weight

11-11.5 kilos. Weighed in during last visit to Dr Jessica, Oct 26 2007.

Height

Circa 83cm. Yesterday he was asleep on the bed in a rather straight position, so I took the opportunity to measure him with my measuring tape.

Teeth

Eight incisors, with 4 pramolars fast appearing, all at the same time!

Motor Skills

• He loves to stand on one foot, especially when taking his shower.
• He can sometimes climb up short steps on his own. Scary but true. And I have witnessed it before. In fact, he climbed up 3-4 steps last week all by himself!
• When he wants to climb down a step, and no one is around to help him, he will turn his body round, and go down backwards, i.e. holding the floor and stepping down backwards one step at a time.
• Ethan’s favorite spot in Queensbay Mall is the slope area right outside Fila, just a short walking distance away from Nando’s. He would run up the slope very quickly and then go down the stairs, reaching out for assistance from us. Or he would go up the stairs and then rush down the slope. He now knows the area like the back of his hand and would giggle loudly and run excitedly towards it whenever we are there. Just watching him play really makes our day.
• Ethan can make the symbol “6″ with his hands (i.e. one hand with all fingers open out and the other hand with just the index finger held up). Lately he has also started experimenting with “7″ (i.e. extending the index finger hand to show the thumb AND the index finger).
• Tries to take off his shoes on his own. When he is in his car seat, we always take off his shoes for him, to avoid him from touching his shoes and then his face or his mouth. Now, he wants to help by undoing the velcro on his shoes too.

Communication and Social Skills

• Says “Bah!” when he refuses something, or when he has had enough of something.
• Says “sssh” or “sssss” - for “fish”. Also says it when he sees the view of the sea, or when he realizes we are on our way to Queensbay Mall.
• To Ethan, “Whale” is “loliloliloliloli….”. It must be the “l” pronunciation.
• Keeps repeating some *words*, one of them is “chee-yap” or “chiap”.  We don’t know what that means yet.
• He is learning to say “Baby Einstein”, because every time he requests to watch the DVD, he would point and say something, but I have yet been able to catch what he says, although it is a 4-syllable word.
• Ethan pants excitedly when he is anticipating something he likes, like just before we drive down the ramp after exiting the Queensbay Mall car park.
• Able to give lip-smacking flying kisses to perfection.
• He has also recently learnt how to give me a hug.  When I ask him for a hug, he would reach out both his arms and then wrap them around me, while patting my back affectionately.
• It goes without saying that Ethan is now a very intuitive little boy. When he senses that we are ready to go out, he will run to the door and stand by it, waiting for us to open the door. When we reach the lift lobby, he will stand in front of the doors of the lift and run into the lift when it opens. He will also run out when the lift reaches our floor. We actually need to be very careful just in case he runs out at the wrong floor. Ah, but there was one time, the lift opened at the wrong floor and I asked him to go out (silly me!) and he stayed put. I guess he is observant too, eh?

Food and Feeding

• Ethan is now becoming very adamant about feeding himself. At times, I would start off feeding him and then he would try to grab the spoon and fork and insist on feeding himself. He will make a mess, yes. But I suppose that is the only way he will eventually learn. Some of the food does get in, though.
• We are in the process of weaning him from the breast, but there is not much significant success yet.  Although he can go without breast milk while I am at work (he will lead Mrs Tan into the kitchen to request her to make him a feed of formula), he rejects the bottle whilst he is at home.  When we offer him the bottle, he will take the bottle cap and attempt to close it.
• He loves drinking (especially ice lemon tea) from a straw. He would hold the straw and then imitate the stirring gesture we adults sometimes make, and the drink from it. But just the other day when I ordered carrot juice, I thought the fancy color and cup would entice him to drink it, but nope, I was wrong.  Feeding himself was more attractive then

Scrap credits: Another Boho Love Affair Kit from retrodiva {designs}™

Maybe it took Ethan a little bit longer to master the art of blowing kisses, better known as the “flying kiss”.  Well, maybe he thought it was considered not *macho* to do it then.  Heh.  Well, it takes a real MAN to be able to do it anyway.  And you know what, Ethan can do it amazingly well now.  The wait has certainly been well worth it.

Now he will constantly pepper his goodbyes with a lip-smacking kiss, putting his hand to his mouth, and giving a really loud kiss for added effect.  And when we say the magic word, i.e. “flying kiss”, he will give one in an equally adorable manner.

Even yesterday night, after Dr Jessica had given him his 2nd JE booster jab, and although he cried a little after that, when we were about to leave the clinic, he smiled at the doctor, waved buh-bye and blew her a kiss.  Ain’t that sweet?

Scrap Credits: Urban Kiwi Kit from Shabby Princess

Weight

At least 10 kilos. Cannot carry him for long periods because:

• it hurts
• he will struggle and attempt to break free because he wants to walk around on his own.

Height

Haven’t taken his height for some time now, but he is definitely growing taller. He can reach for stuff on our dining table already.  Sometimes I look at him fast asleep in his cot and am amazed at how much he has grown!

Teeth

Still eight. But he is VERY excited about brushing his eight teeth every day now :)  I taught him to hold the toothbrush under running tap water and thereafter, moving the bristles back and forth in his mouth.  However, I sometimes catch him biting the bristles instead of brushing with them.

Motor Skills

• Can lead us to wherever he wants to go.  For example, if he wants to eat yogurt, he will take us by the hand, and lead us to the refrigerator.  Sometimes, he will even take my hand and place it on the fridge handle. 
• He is able to correctly put in more shapes into his shape sorter.  I have noticed him putting in the red circle, green flower and yellow oval, to name a few.
• Loves running around in wide open spaces.  Ah Kongs and Ah Mas are advised to be cautious because he will outrun them. 

Communication and Social Skills

• Ethan has learnt how to associate certain actions with certain things, to the point of sometimes imitating what we do:
  • If he grabs hold of a key (house keys, car keys), he will walk towards a door and try to put the key into the keyhole.
  • If he grabs hold of a pen or pencil, he will imitate writing on a piece of paper.  Sometimes he will take my little red journal and pretend to write on it.
  • He will take the telephone receiver and put it to his ear, while blabbering away.  When we say “Hello..?” he will take whatever he is holding and place it to his ear. If his hands are empty, he will just put one hand to the ear.
  • He has learnt how to associate the couch and the bed with drinking milk.  When I sit on the couch, he will request for milk. Or he will take me by the hand and lead me to the room when he is ready to sleep.
• He has attained the stage of the Terrible Twos, albeit a few months early.  Some traits we have noticed are:
  • When he is riding in our car, he will start screaming in complaint when the car slows down or comes to a halt.  At times his screams are so high-pitched I have to cover my ears.
  • When we want to carry him when he does not want to be carried, he will try to run away. Other methods of escape he has employed are:
    • Screaming in protest
    • Crouching on his front commando style, so it is very difficult for us to carry
    • Struggling and kicking
• One of the things he is learning is animal sounds.  When I say “The cow goes?”, he will say “Mmmmm” (sounds like Moo).  But when I say “The dog goes?”, he will also say “Mmmmm”.  I need to work on this still
•  He can say a few *words* now.  He is not very consistent in saying them yet, but we are seeing some progress in this arena:
  • Mommy (yesterday morning, I woke up startled when I heard Ethan saying loudly and clearly “Mommy!”  He was still fast asleep and dreaming though)
  • Daddy (last week, he greeted Daddy at the door after Daddy’s futsal game with a cheerful, “Hi Daddy!”)
  • Lolilolilo… (we don’t know what this is yet, but we suspect it is Ethan’s attempt at imitating some singing on TV.  He says this when he hears the StarWorld theme song and also some Indian songs)
  • Pecah pecah pecah… (at first we thought he was saying Pete’s name, but we are still not sure now)
  • Ngam ngam ngam or yum yum yum (when eating something tasty.  Sometimes he smacks his lips too)
  • Buh buh (bye-bye) - said while waving buhye
  • Mai (”Don’t want” in Hokkien)
  • Zebra (of course any other four-legged animal is a Zebra to him too)

Food

Anything and everything except peanuts, shellfish and alcohol.  He loves ice lemon tea and vanilla ice cream, by the way.

Lately Ethan has added another milestone in his communication.  When he wants us to flip open his shape sorter toy, he will carry the entire ball-like toy to us, grab our hand and placed the ball in our hand.  Then he would whimper impatiently until we flipped open the cover for him.

Sometimes he would be able to open it himself though, I guess he learnt it when he observed how it is being done.