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My pride and joy of a little boy

March 24, 2010 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 2 comments

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He wants me to call him a “big boy” now, instead of “baby”. 😛

I have not been documenting all of Ethan’s achievements thus far, more so because there have been so many, that they have surpassed my ability to pen them down.  He amazes us every day with his vocal prowess and intelligence, and it is hard to believe that he was once a shy guy.

  • Ethan now knows all the months of the year, from January to December, in order, and he even knows the numerical equivalent of it; e.g. October = 10th month of the year, June  = 6th month of the year.
  • He knows the days of the week in order, and can even sing them!
  • He knows how old Daddy and Mommy are.  Sometimes he says my age out LOUD in public! 😛
  • He can say his name in Chinese (Mandarin), and he even knows Daddy’s name, Mommy’s name and Hannah’s name in Chinese.  Sometimes he calls us by our FULL Chinese name.
  • He can name some of his body parts in Mandarin: hair, ear, eyes, mouth, hands.
  • He can perform addition using his fingers.  Sometimes he asks to “borrow” our fingers and toes too! 🙂
  • When he is in a good mood, he will guide Hannah in playing with her toys. “Here Hannah…put this triangle here.  Yes!  Good job, Hannah!”
  • Spontaneously says, “I love you Mommy!” or “I miss you Daddy!”

He may be a big boy, but he still looks like an angel when he sleeps… 🙂

Walk-training: The Sequel

March 14, 2010 in Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 3 comments

Precious one-on-one walk-training sessions from big brother to little sister:

 

Hannah at 1 year old

March 12, 2010 in Hannah, Milestones | 2 comments

hannah_1_yearScrap Credits
I is for I Love You QP from Naturally Expressive by Cheryl
Grungy Stamped Alphas from Scraps by Fashiondeeva

Weight

10.1 kilos, weighed in at the doc’s during her one-year old well-child checkup.

Height/Length

76 cm, as measured at the doc’s too.

Teeth

4 incisors (2 top and 2 bottom).  Next 2 top incisors are becoming more prominent, and the next 2 bottom incisors are also making their appearance.

Motor Skills

  • Prefers to walk around, albeit in a quite a *scary* manner, because she does sometimes look like she will fall.  However, Hannah most of the time manages to balance herself quite well, and can move around rather quickly while walking now.
  • Can cross her fingers (middle finger on top of index finger).
  • Very inquisitive and curious and keeps exploring things.  Her pincer’s grip is very advanced and she can pick up even minute things from the floor.  It’s a good thing too, because it forces me to keep the floor as clean as possible.
  • Attempts to climb up the couch by lifting her legs.
  • Can stand on tip toe for a while.
  • Likes to climb out from her bath tub and stand up while I bathe her.  I have also started using the shower to bathe her.  Soon, I suppose we can do without the tub.
  • Can wriggle her arm out from under her seat belt a la Tarzan style, just like her brother did last time.  And she can even do it both arms!

Communication and Social Skills

  • Very consistently says “Mameh” or “Momma”, sometimes “Mommy”!  Says “Deh-deh” for Daddy, very consistently too.  Says “Yah”…and recently she said, “PAPAYA” 🙂
  • Can point to fish in the fish tank when asked “Where’s the fish?”
  • Can understand simple instructions like, “Give the block to Ethan”, or “Give Mommy the toy”.  I love the way she smiles as she extends her hand with the toy.  Sometimes though, she teases us by handing us the toy and then NOT giving it to us!
  • Throws and tantrum and screams out loud when somebody takes her toy away.
  • Has a really good sense of humor and laughs at almost anything, especially what her brother does. 

Food and Feeding

She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and is loving every bit of her porridge!  She can finish quite a lot now, and eats at an amazing pace!

New foods she has been introduced to include:

  • Cod fish
  • Pork
  • Watercress (I made watercress soup without the salt and fed her with it)
  • “Kai Lan”
  • Egg yolk
  • Wolfberries (“Kei Chi”)

Hannah LOVES to drink water.  When I ask her if she wants to drink water, her face will light up, and when she sees me getting her purple cup and pouring water into it, she will grin excitedly. 

She can also drink a little bit from a straw tumbler now.  When we bought her her first straw tumbler, she didn’t know how to drink from it, but then I tried putting a regular straw into a small cup and from then on, she figured out how to do it.  Besides, she has her big brother giving her all the encouragement.

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Hannah’s Birthday Celebration in KL

March 5, 2010 in Celebrations, Food & Feeding, Hannah, Milestones | 5 comments

During the 3-day weekend before Hannah’s actual birthday on March 2nd, we made a trip down south to have a birthday celebration for Hannah.  Our trip was also to celebrate the kid’s Pauline Kor-Kor’s housewarming.

Both of Hannah’s grandparents made the trip to KL for her first birthday celebration, and we are really happy and honored that they could come 🙂

We also ordered full moon gift packs for everyone, because during Hannah’s full moon last year in the US, we didn’t have those full moon delicacies then.  So we decided to have them for her first birthday instead. 

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The birthday lunch was at Italiannies The Gardens, and everyone arrived on time..good thing too, because we were all really hungry then.  Hannah also wasted no time in checking out the menu…

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Unfortunately though, she pulled the menu from the table too quickly and the porcelain plate that was on top of the menu went crashing to the floor!

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(Pssst….yes, that’s the Coach Resort I was carrying :))

We took the opportunity to take a few pictures with the birthday girl before our food came.  Here’s Hannah with her 2 grandmas.

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Hannah wasn’t really herself though, and felt a little listless and tired, because the poor dear was still coughing and had thrown up a couple of times the night before due to the forceful coughing.

Ethan, though, was not interested in taking photos at all.  Instead, he preferred to fill his rumbling tummy first….with BREAD!!!!

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Notice how he painstakingly peeled off the crusts…

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He almost finished our entire plate of bread slices, and then he still had space in his tummy for his spaghetti marinara.

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Meanwhile, Hannah enjoyed herself being carried by Ah Ma and Ah Kong…doesn’t she look comfy? 🙂

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She enjoyed herself till she fell asleep!  Look at her comfortably getting her beauty sleep in the stroller we rented from Midvalley.

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Meanwhile, the kids were all going hyper, running around and taking pictures everywhere…

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…and besides we needed to buy some time to get the birthday girl all woken up and fresh for the cake-cutting.

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I ordered this adorable birthday cake from Swee San.  I wanted the elephant at the top because Hannah really LOVES elephants.  When she takes her bath, she absolutely needs to hold and play with her elephant bath toy.  If I offer her something else, she would flatly refuse it.

Love the details on the side of the cake too.  It’s a marble cake with fondant all over.

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Ethan very willingly volunteered his services to *help* Hannah blow the candle on the cake, while Hannah looked on in confusion. 😛

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The cake was rich and absolutely delicious, but because Hannah had not been introduced to eggs, butter and other stuff in the cake yet, I baked her her own special cake, just like I did for Ethan’s first birthday last time.

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This one’s a carrot, banana and pumpkin cake, without milk, eggs, butter and sugar.  First, she hesitated when I fed her a slice…then she opened her mouth and took a bite…

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…and then she wanted to feed herself…

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Looks like it’s a HIT, baby! 🙂

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After a very fulfilling lunch, we headed back to Pauline Kor Kor’s condo to open the birthday presents.  Again, Ethan had volunteered to help Hannah open the presents.

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The initial plan was to allow Hannah to choose the present she wanted to open and then Ethan would help her open them.  But you know kids, there’s bound to be some grabbing involved.  And the birthday girl was also very determined to get her way!

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Hannah received lots of lovely gifts, among them a beautiful crocheted dress from her Ipoh Ah Ma and Ah Kong.  The dress is handmade with love from Ah Ma.  We asked Ethan to display the dress.

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…and Hannah to pose in it…

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Ethan himself also gave his little sister a present.  He knows she loves elephants, so he gave her this:

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Here are some of the PINK vehicles Hannah received too.  We got them in pink to deter the boys from playing with Hannah’s toys….errr…don’t think it worked…

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All in all, a very enjoyable and memorable birthday celebration.  Happy birthday little Hannah! 🙂

Happy Birthday darling Hannah!

March 2, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Milestones | 8 comments

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A year has passed since you came into our lives
A year since you, our bundle of joy, arrived
You gave us adorable smiles and cutesy giggles
Happy happy birthday, my sweet darling little girl!

On Hannah’s birthday, we decided to take the kids out for a treat.  Pete took the day off and after we picked Ethan up from school, we headed over to Gurney Plaza.  Incidentally, we also took Ethan to Gurney Plaza on his first birthday. 🙂

We ended up having lunch at Chili’s…it had a been a long while since we ate there and we wanted to check to see if they had improved since then. 

Ethan of course enjoyed himself tremendously.  He couldn’t decide between the spaghetti and the hot dog, so he ordered both…and also had free flow ice lemon tea…which prompted a few visits to the loo…haha.

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Hannah had some home-cooked porridge and was very well-behaved indeed.

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Hannah enjoyed her rusk while we dug in to our meal….

…and sometimes she did her upside-down stunt…

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…and at other times, the birthday girl was entertained by her brother’s funny antics…

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We walked around Gurney Plaza a bit after our hearty meal, stopping at some of our favorite stores, including Ethan’s favorite Toys R Us (which he noticed a mile away!).

Oh, and here’s another shot of Hannah doing her infamous upside-down pose again….this time, a close-up:

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Happy birthday Hannah!  Sure beats a day at the office anytime, eh Daddy?

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Walk-training

February 24, 2010 in Ethan, Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | 2 comments

Hannah has an excellent training regime to aid her in her walking.  Superb trainer and the sessions are fun for both the trainer AND the trainee.  Watch:

Hannah at 11 months

February 19, 2010 in Hannah, Milestones | 1 comment


Scrap Credits
Collaboration kit from Jennysscrapplace
Wonderland numbers from Jessi Calger
Netter’s Alphas from Scarlet Heels

Weight

Probably around 10 kilos, plus or minus.  We do notice that she has become less “round” since she started walking.

Height/Length

Getting taller and taller!

Teeth

4 incisors (2 top and 2 bottom).  Next 2 top incisors are appearing too.

Motor Skills

  • Can shake her head left and right.
  • Tries to crawl and walk into small tight spaces.
  • Able to manipulate an object to get it out of a tight space.
  • Can squat and the stand, and then squat again, whilst holding toys in both hands.
  • Can do the “wobble-walk”
  • Loves for us to hold her by the arms and lead her on walks around the house.
  • When she wants to get somewhere fast, she will either use the wall for support, or crawl.
  • Throw things and then closes her eyes in anticipation of the loud sound it makes.

Communication and Social Skills

  • Says “Mameh”, “Mamma”, Dadeh”, “Baba”, “Mamba”.
  • Imitates and responds in a smiliar fashion when we “blow” on her tummy.
  • Loves the remote, and will do whatever she can to get a hold of it.
  • Can make “pathetic”-looking faces just so we’ll feel sorry and carry her.
  • Can “manipulate” us by purposely knocking her head on the wall when she’s in the cot, and then crying so we’ll pick her up.

Food and Feeding

She’s on Mommy’s milk 100% and also LOVES drinking water from a regular cup.  Sometimes I have had to pry her hands from the cup!

New foods she has been introduced to include:

  • Heinz Teething rusks, which she absolutely LOVES.
  • Red dates (cooked with porridge)
  • Organic baby oats (mixed into porridge and sometimes served just on its own with water)
  • Regular fragrant rice
  • Fish (Jade perch)

When it’s time for her porrdige, she will smile and look very happy.  Then, if she has the mood to eat, she will open her mouth eagerly and wait for me to feed her.  Sometimes if I am a little slow in feeding her, she will pull my arm or shirt!

Ethan’s Birthday – The Home Celebration

February 7, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Hannah, Milestones | 9 comments

Ethan’s birthday culminated in a celebration amongst relatives.  We decided to have a buffet lunch at the E&O Hotel, and it goes without saying that Ethan was very much looking forward to this celebration.

See, he even willingly posed for a nice shot before we left for the hotel.

 

… and then, he started being his CHEEKY self again.

I think the part Ethan enjoyed most about the birthday lunch was the chocolate stuff: chocolate-covered marshmallows from the fondue station, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake….

..and the part that Hannah enjoyed the most was the teething rusk she was chewing on.  She even fell asleep while holding it!

…and woke up for a moment to give it a few more chomps, then she was off to dreamland again….Even after she awoke, and her Ah Ma was carrying her, she was still holding the rusk.

Such “devotion” can only be admired. 🙂

So anyway, after our very filling lunch, we all adjourned back to our home to cut the birthday cake and to open the presents.  After three days of preparation, I was very pleased to unveil the birthday cake Ethan had requested for.   On the 1st day I made the cream cheese frosting and chilled it, on the 2nd day I baked the cake, and the night before Ethan’s birthday, I relived my childhood playing with *edible play-doh* a.k.a. fondant.

After he had cut his Thomas cake in school a few days back, I had asked him if he liked the cake, and his reply was, “Yes…” and then after that he said, “Where’s my Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake, Mommy?”

I had told him the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake was gonna be for his home celebration.  Haha.

err….you see that small DENT on the lower left of the cake?  That was caused by Mickey having the first taste of it; you can see his nose is a little bit blue… 😛

I chose to make the nutritious and rich carrot cake with cream cheese frosting I had tried a few weeks back.

And his expression when he saw the cake was just priceless. 🙂

The birthday boy then continued opening all his presents, including the HUGE present from Daddy, Mommy and Hannah.  I had to enlist the help of one of my neighbors to help store it first lest Ethan sees it in our home and spoil the surprise.

He tore open the wrapper, and…..immediately got on it!

…and wouldn’t get down!  It was a tricycle in his favorite color: YELLOW.  He had wanted one since a few weeks before we left the US, so we figured it was high time we got him one now.

Look….all the pictures we took with him after that were of him on the trike.

Ain’t it weird that you can’t see the rest of  my body in the photo above?

…and one with both his grandmas…

Ethan definitely had a LOT of fun on his birthday.  He proudly announces he is FOUR years old now, and that he can play toys that are meant for “FOUR AND ABOVE”.

He even asked me for more presents to open… 🙂

Happy birthday, dearest Ethan Boy! 🙂

Ethan’s Birthday – The Impromptu Celebration

February 4, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Milestones | 1 comment

Two days before Ethan’s birthday, we ended up having dinner at Friday’s.  The birthday boy had requested for spaghetti…yes, he said “PLEASE…???” 🙂

 

While Ethan and Daddy went to the loo, I inquired on whether the folks at Friday’s could sing a birthday song for Ethan that night.  I knew he loves to blow out the candle, and he loves cake, so we agreed to have them sing for him.

After our dinner, a group of Friday servers came over and Ethan was asked to stand on the chair.  Of course, he willingly did it.

Ethan looked very overwhelmed but he was very happy when they started singing, not in the least bit perturbed by the loud voices.

And after blowing out the candle, he dug in to the slice of chocolate cake, finishing every single morsel.

It was the perfect end to a little family celebration.  And even though he wasn’t yet officially 4 years old then, Ethan proudly announced that he was! 🙂

Ethan’s Birthday – School Celebration

February 3, 2010 in Celebrations, Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 3 comments

A few months before his birthday, I had already discussed with Ethan that he was gonna have a small celebration in school with his friends and another one at home.  And when asked what birthday cake he would like for his birthday celebration in school, he had replied that he wanted a Thomas the Train birthday cake.  And because his favorite number is 2, he also wanted the train with the number 2 to be on the cake, i.e. Rheneas.

I could not find a picture of Thomas with Rheneas, so I managed to coax him into agreeing to have a cake with Thomas, James and Percy on it.  And that’s how I ended up ordering this cake:

 

I thought the bakery did a great job and the cake looked fantastic…well, as long as Ethan likes it 🙂

The celebration in school began around 10:10a.m. (because I was a little bit late arriving with the cake), and Ethan was given the honor of placing the FOUR birthday candles on his cake.

Then we all sang the birthday song, in English and Mandarin, and Ethan promptly did a great job in blowing out all the four candles.

He also cut the cake three times! LOL

I had also prepared party packs for Ethan to give out to his friends.  In line with the Thomas and Friends theme, I had wanted to get Thomas party bags, but alas, I had been unsuccessful.  I also enlisted the help of friends and relatives (you know who you are, thank you very much!) to help me look for them in KL and Ipoh, but they were all sold out.

In the end, I decided to make simple party packs myself in the form of Thomas paper bags.

In addition to being in *theme* with the event, paper bags were also environmentally friendly as opposed to plastic. 🙂

I also *converted* some Winnie the Pooh yoyos into Thomas yoyos, as one of the party favors.

It caused me several late nights, but it was well worth it.  Ethan had fun and so did I! 🙂

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